“Mr. President, I have Albrick Hunter for you.” The male aide stood, without making eye contact, awaiting a response from President Rennet. The office in the Executive Residence was decorated to resemble the historic Oval Office of the President of the United States. The Executive residence was built as a modern steel and stone structure, a far removed building from the White House of old, but the office of the President was kept relatively similar. Still oval in shape, the office was decorated in the same provincial style that it had been for centuries of the old nation.
Without looking up from his desk, Zeke Rennet replied, “Well, send him in then.”
The aide signaled to the side of the door as he exited, and Albrick Hunter shuffled in, walking to the front of President Rennet’s desk, awaiting acknowledgement from the unsettlingly tall man sitting at the desk. Albrick was visibly agitated, and seemed to be itching to get something off his chest. After allowing him to stand several minutes, the president motioned with his left hand at a chair behind Albrick, and without looking up, “Are you planning to stand the whole time? Take a seat.”
Albrick sat down in a lush yellow chair. The cushion of the high backed chair absorbed Albrick’s small frame. It was deep enough and tall enough that his stocky legs were not quite long enough for his feet to touch the ground as he sat. It made him feel insignificant and small. He had a feeling that these chairs were chosen for that very effect on their occupants. One of the president’s aides, a young, pretty, slender woman with elf-like features brought Albrick a tray with a tall, thin steel cup and a small plexi-crystal pitcher filled with water. She set the tray on the table next to the chair, and filled the glass with water from the pitcher. Albrick smiled politely at the aide, “Thank you”
The president leafed through a few sheets of plasti-paper, signed his name at the bottom of one, closed the folder on his desk, and handed it to the aide, who took the paper out the door behind the president’s desk. He looked up from his desk at Albrick, and removed the mahogany-framed glasses from his face, laying them gently on the edge of his desk. He grabbed a pecan from a bowl at the front of the desk, and gestured at the bowl, “Help yourself Albrick.”
“No thank you, Mr. President.” Albrick was getting impatient, but did not want to break protocol by pushing the meeting faster than the President chose to lead.
Rennet tossed the pecan into his mouth, and spoke, his words muffled by the chewing of the nut. “So, Mr. Hunter, to what do I owe the pleasure of this surprise meeting?” He leaned back in his chair, hands behind his head, and crossed his right ankle over his left knee, his re-conditioned patent leather shoes reflecting the light coming through the window behind Albrick. He licked a finger, and rubbed at a scuff on the side of the wooden sole.
“I received your note, and I wanted to encourage you to reconsider your decision.” Albrick did everything he could to contain his emotion, knowing it would not help his argument.
“I respect that you disagree with me, Albrick, but I made my decision, and it’s final.”
“He needs to be told, Mr. President, once they leave the Moon Base, contact with the team will be difficult, then it will be several months before we have the opportunity. I don’t wish that sort of delay, sir.”
“I understand your concern, Albrick, but what do we do when he wants to return for the funeral? The team can’t leave the base without him. The return trip would be too costly, and would result in an unnecessary delay in the mission timeline.”
Albrick sat forward in his chair, gazing intently at Rennet, “Sir, no such delay would happen, I just want Elliot to know that his father has died, we owe him that dignity, for all that he is doing for us.”
The president uncrossed his legs, sat forward, grabbing a folder from the top of the stack on his desk. His tone flat, “We can let him know once he returns to the Moon Base after the Mars leg of the mission, Albrick, it’s only a few months, and it doesn’t make that much difference, the man is already dead, there’s nothing he could do to change that now, it’s not worth compromising the mission.”
Albrick leapt from his chair, and raised his voice in anger, “The mission? Are you so dense to think that telling the man about his father will cause him to leave the mission? Do you have no faith in my training program? Or his devotion to the program?”
The president got out of his chair, stood up, towering head and shoulders above Albrick. He leaned forward, hands on the desk, furrowing his brow, he looked down at Albrick. “Dense? I think you are forgetting who you are talking to, Hunter. Would you care to revise that last statement?”
“You’re right, I shouldn’t have called you dense.” Albrick was in a haze, not fully aware of everything around him, his mind was spinning in anger, his vision shaky as the room appeared to revolve around him. “Heartless would be more appropriate.”
The president sat down, and in his unaffected voice, “Yes, well, sometimes it’s necessary for the greater good.” He picked up his glasses from the desk and placed them on his nose, opening the folder he had grabbed.
“Spoken like a man who made his billions selling defective machines that pump disease through the cities of the world.” Albrick stared at the massive man sitting behind the desk, amazed at how he could be so disaffected by any kind of human emotion.
“Albrick, get some rest, you seem tired.” He pushed a button on the desk, and the male aide opened the door through which Albrick had entered. Albrick glared at the President, who had already moved on to his folder, and refused to look up.
“Sir, the president is very busy, please follow me.” The male aid held out his hand, inviting Albrick to exit the room.
Albrick turned on his heel, bumped into the small table with the water pitcher, causing the cup to fall off the tray to the floor. He continued to the door, taking no notice of what he just did. He walked past the aide, who put a hand on his back as he stormed out of the office and closed the door behind.
The president sighed without looking up from his folder, pushed a second button, “Dania, would you come in here please, Mr. Hunter spilled his water.” He continued reading as the door behind him opened, and the pretty, young aide walked in with a towel.
The president looked up over the top of his glasses as she wiped up the spilled water, unable to miss the way her black skirt tightened around her hips as she bent down. He remembered at that moment exactly why he had hired her. She replaced the glass on the tray, piled the towel next to it, and picked the tray up to carry it out of the room.
“Thank you, Dania.” The president smiled. “You should know how much I appreciate the work you do for me, Dania. I look forward to seeing your career develop.”
Dania smiled, flattered at the compliment. “Thank you sir, It’s an honor to work with you.”
The President’s eyes followed Dania as she left the room. He grinned and shook his head slightly as he grabbed a walnut from the bowl, and returned to his document.
1 comment:
Zeke, you sleaze!
Post a Comment