Cathy brought over a coffee and set it on Mike's workstation. She turned away without saying a word to him. Mike watched her go and wondered what the matter with her was. She was normally very cheerful. He watched her go about her work in a rather listless manner. When she went to make the lunch run, Mike called Joe over and asked, "What's the matter with Cathy?"
Looking at Mike as if he was a dimwit, Joe answered, "She's rather fond of this idiot and he's not paying her any attention."
"Oh, I guess there's nothing I can do about that," Mike said with a shrug of his shoulders. He turned back to his desk to read more of a report.
Joe looked down at Mike's left hand. The bandage had been off for a while. The little finger and the ring finger didn't work. The stumpy middle finger wasn't of much use. There was only the forefinger and the thumb that worked. Smiling, he reached down and grabbed the one good finger. Bending it back far enough to be painful, Joe said, "If you don't ask her out, I'm going to break this finger right off."
"What are you talking about?" Mike asked looking down at his one good finger. All he needed now was to lose the last good finger and all he would be able to do with that hand would be to hitchhike.
"You're the idiot she's rather fond of," Joe said shaking his head. He released the finger and said, "Ask her out and show her a good time. Maybe she'll like you afterwards; maybe not. At least give her a chance."
"Okay," Mike said looking up at Joe as if he was crazy.
Joe walked off muttering, "It's always up to the Gunny Sergeant to show these wet behind the ears Lieutenants the ropes. He's just as bad as his..."
Mike knew that the people he worked with were capable of keeping secrets; that was their job. He didn't realize that they could gossip like a bunch of old hens about things that weren't secret. Within hours the news that Mike had asked Cathy out on a date had spread far and wide.
Stepping into the house, Mike found Kim Sung waiting for him by the massage table. Her oils were in a bath of warm water. She greeted him, "Welcome home. I have had your clothes pressed for your date tonight."
Mike stared blankly at Kim wondering how she knew about the date. Less than three hours had passed since he had asked Cathy to have dinner with him. He asked, "How did you know about the date?"
"Teva told me," Kim answered with a smile.
"How did she know?" Mike asked knowing the answer.
"Sanjay told her," Kim answered.
Mike had no idea how Sanjay knew, but he was pretty sure that asking Kim wouldn't produce an answer. He asked, "You pressed my clothes?"
"Yes. I want you to look your best," Kim said with a slight bow. Pointing to the massage table, she said, "Your date is at seven. You have time for a massage before you go."
Thinking about how Kim usually ended the massage, Mike wasn't sure that it was such a good idea. He was about to object when Kim used the voice on him. Pointing to the table, she commanded, "Strip and get on the table."
Mike was not about to disobey. He stripped and positioned himself on the table. An hour later a much more relaxed man left the table. Like all of the massages that Kim gave, this one had ended with a hand job. Nodding to herself with satisfaction, Kim said, "Now you will be able to focus on her needs. Shower, shave, and dress for your date. Your clothes are on the bed."
"Thank you," Mike said thinking that perhaps she was right about being able to focus on Cathy's needs. That hand job had definitely taken the edge off his sexual frustrations.
Unfamiliar with the dating scene in the Washington area, Mike had asked for advice on where to take Cathy for a nice drink and a meal. His request had sparked a long hour of discussion and the result was that he had reservations for eight o'clock at the Two Quail. Thus it was that a few minutes after eight he pulled into the parking lot of the unpretentious historic row house. Cathy, wearing the finest dress that she owned, looked at the building and asked, "Are you sure this is the right place?"
"Yes," Mike answered wondering if the guys at work had known what they were doing. Shirley had insisted that Cathy would be suitably impressed.
All doubts were dispelled when they entered the restaurant. They were taken to a nice semi-secluded nook where they could talk without having to shout. There was no rush in getting through the meal. They started with drinks and then moved on to appetizers. The main course was outstanding and the service impeccable.
It was the best dining experience of Mike's life. The fanciest place at which Cathy had ever dined was a high-end chain restaurant. Needless to say, she was overwhelmed. The quality wine had gone to her head; the service had made her feel like a queen; and the food had left her appetite sated. All of that paled in comparison to the conversation.
Rather than talk about himself, Mike had asked Cathy about her life. She talked about her childhood, her family, and her job. She talked about her dreams and desires. She talked of hopes for a college education that were dashed when her family couldn't afford it and was now being pursued after work. By the end of the evening, she was convinced that Mike was one of the finest conversationalists that she had ever met.
For Mike, it was a pleasant evening in which he managed to forget his problems for a few hours. Listening to Cathy talk about her family gave him insights into a totally different lifestyle. She had lived her entire life in the same house whereas he had grown up moving from military base to military base as his father's commands changed. She had gone to the same school with the same group of kids while he had attended a different school every other year.
It was well after eleven when Mike parked his car in front of Cathy's house. This was the moment that he had been dreading. He didn't know if he was to kiss her in the car, escort her to the door, or wait to see if she invited him into the house.
Looking at the lights of the house, Cathy said, "I'd invite you in, but my parents are still awake."
"Oh," Mike said.
Cathy licked her lips and looked at him expectantly. When he didn't pick up the hint, she moved closer to him and said, "I want to thank you for a wonderful evening."
"I had a very good time," Mike said feeling the palms of his hands sweat.
She leaned in and kissed him. After a quick flash of the first time he had kissed Karen, Mike returned the kiss finding that his passion flared into desire for her. By the time the kiss ended, they were both breathless. Feeling out of her depth, Cathy said, "I better get in the house now."
"Sure," Mike said wondering what he was supposed to say.
"I'll see you tomorrow," Cathy said hesitating in opening the car door.
Mike pulled himself together and said, "Let me escort you to the door."
"That would be nice," Cathy said. She had never had a young man escort her to the door of her house.
Mike got out of the car and went around to her side. Together they walked up to the door; both nervous about what to say next. When they reached the door, Mike stopped and licked his lips nervously. He said, "Maybe we can do this again sometime."
"That would be wonderful," Kim said very pleased that the fabulous evening was coming to a perfect end.
Mike leaned over and kissed her again. Free from the awkward constraints of the car, Cathy was able to mold her body against his. They were both weak in the knees before ending the kiss. Cathy opened the door and slipped into the house before she lost total control. Once the door had closed, Mike made his way to the car. He turned back and saw that she was watching him from the window.
Mike had just finished his morning jog and was about to have a small breakfast when his telephone rang. He listened as Kim Sung answered it and then accepted the phone from her when she brought it to the table. With a very satisfied expression on her face, she announced, "It is your mother."
"Hello, mom," Mike said into the handset.
"How was your date last night?" she asked.
"How did you know that I had a date last night?" he asked surprised by the call.
"A mother has her ways," Louise answered with a laugh. It was the one line she had used on Mike whenever he had done something without telling her.
Mike looked over Kim who was watching him with innocence written all over her face. He said, "I think I found out your source."
"So how was it?"
"It went well, I think," Mike answered.
"Are you seeing her again?"
Mike chuckled at the grilling and knew that she would dig out one fact at time until she knew the whole story. He answered, "She said that she would like to go out with me again."
"That's good. Cathy is such a nice girl," Louise said. Stunned, Mike didn't know what to say. He didn't have a chance to say anything. His mother said, "I better let you go. You've got to get to work."
Before he knew it, his mother had hung up the phone. He was left staring at the handset in shock. The telephone rang again. He hit the talk button and said, "Hello."
"Hello, Mike. This is Sally. How was your date with Cathy last night?"
Deciding that the rumor mill was running full steam ahead, he answered, "It went well. She said that she'd be interested in going out with me again sometime."
"You didn't set a date?" Sally asked.
"Uh, no," Mike answered.
"Ask her to go out with you Saturday night. I have some extra tickets to a performance at the Kennedy Center," Sally said.
"I'll think about it," Mike said wondering if there was some sort of conspiracy at work here.
"There's nothing to think about. Just say yes," Sally said.
"I'm supposed to go fishing with Sanjay and Tim," Mike said.
Sally laughed and said, "I'm sure that Sanjay is not going to be able to go."
"Huh?" Mike said rather surprised by her comment. He had talked to Sanjay and Tim the previous day about going fishing. They were both looking forward to another day on the river.
"I've got to go now. I'll drop the tickets by your house this afternoon," Sally said just before hanging up. She didn't want to give him a chance to decline.
Mike stared at the telephone handset. He had just put it down on the table when it rang again. Looking over at Kim, he said, "This is ridiculous. How am I supposed to eat breakfast?"
"Answer the phone," Kim said smiling at him.
Mike picked up the phone and, after pressing the talk button, said, "Hello."
"Hello Mike. This is Sanjay. I have to tell you that I can't go fishing this weekend."
Mike looked around convinced that there was a very large conspiracy at work. The only question that remained in his mind was who the conspirators were. He asked, "Did she use the voice?"
"Yes. You understand perfectly," Sanjay answered trying to sound serious.
"Maybe we can go the next weekend," Mike said.
"I'll have to check with the boss," Sanjay said. One could feel that he was looking around to see if Teva was anywhere in the area.
Mike managed to eat breakfast without any further interruptions by telephone calls. The eggs were limp and the toast was cold, but he managed to swallow it down. When he raised his cup of tepid coffee to get a refill, Kim Sung said, "Wait until you get to the office. I'm sure that Cathy will be very attentive to your needs."
Frowning, Mike asked, "Are you jealous?"
Kim laughed at the suggestion and said, "No. If she had a good time last night she's going to want to thank you. It will be a wasted effort if you don't appreciate what she's doing for you."
"Oh," Mike said.
Kim Sung said, "I am your housekeeper. It is my job to take care of you. I work to keep you happy and healthy. When Cathy comes to live here, I will take care of her. I take great pride in my work."
Historically, a basic characteristic of the American worker was their hard working nature, cleverness in approaching problems, and dedication to purpose. It was a legacy of the Puritan beginnings of the country where sloth was actually a crime. Years of political correctness had undermined that basic nature, but it wasn't dead. Free from the tyranny of political correctness that had kept them back, the American work ethic returned with a vengeance.
Since many of the middle level managers had been foreign workers; their flight from the country had nearly crippled companies. Companies responded by reducing administration in favor of production. Productivity shot up to incredible levels as businesses reorganized to be leaner meaner machines.
Incompetence again became a reason to fire someone regardless of the race, religion, or gender of the incompetent individual. Consensus based engineering, which had been used to mask ineffective contributors, was replaced by engineering processes in which roles and responsibilities were clearly identified with work allocated on a one task-one person basis. The size of development teams shrank yet the speed at which products were developed rose.
The biggest beneficiary of this was the military-industrial complex. Much of the reason for that was that weapons development was no longer hindered by foreign agents blocking programs. Although it was unfair, foreign born employees were either let go or transitioned to unclassified projects. Everyone accepted a role in assuring security and didn't look the other way for even minor infractions. The net result was that new weapons and security systems were developed without the rest of the world knowing about them. America was at war and the old phrase about loose lips sinking battleships was ressurrected.
The promise of nanotechnology was finally realized. One of the inventions was the miniature radio controlled sensor system that was the size and shape of a cockroach. It could explore an environment and radio the data back to a centralized control site. With its small size, it could infiltrate urban dwellings and follow targets through individual rooms. It was only one of many new sensors that had been developed.
The field of artificial intelligence made a giant leap forward as well. An entirely new class of smart bomb, the Pigeon, was developed. They were called Pigeons because they could be launched in flocks that could number a thousand bombs and had a tendency to wheel about in the air like a flock of pigeons. The flock would make its way to the target area using GPS technology and terrain following algorithms. The flock would seek out targets and, through a negotiation process, one and only one bomb would attack a target with the rest searching for the next target. The bombs could be programmed to seek out vehicles, buildings, and even specific humans as targets.
Cleaner manufacturing processes were developed although it was going to be years before large-sale factories were operational. Independence from imported goods had a very good chance of becoming a reality. This was significant because it looked like the United States was going to be at war with the world.
For the first half of the day, Mike put up with the winks and nods from everyone in the office. Cathy was a little more attentive than usual, but it wasn't over the top. She had been warned by Joe not to make a big deal out of her new relationship with Mike. Although it had already become habit, she made sure that his coffee was always filled. The only thing special that she did was to bring in blueberry muffins for a morning snack and even that wasn't too much out of the ordinary. Consistent with Kim's suggestion, Mike appreciated the Muffins after his rather poor breakfast.
When Cathy finally left to make the lunch run, he turned to everyone and said, "As I'm sure that you've surmised, Cathy and I had a great time last night."
Shirley said, "We know that. Are you going to ask her out again?"
"Yes," Mike answered wondering how his social life had become the center of speculation. He looked around the room and said, "Now, let's get to work."
"We want details," Charlie said turning around in his chair to face Mike.
"You're not going to get them from me. Now get back to work," Mike said. This time they did as he asked.
The news that night had an interesting little report from a little town in Tennessee that would never have been aired except that it was an exceptionally slow news night. A reporter was on the front yard of a middle class house interviewing a middle aged woman along with her husband and two teenage children. The woman and her daughter were topless, but the broadcast image had the naughty bits pixilated out.
Clearly ill at ease in interviewing a topless woman, the reporter said, "I understand that you were arrested earlier this week for going to the mall without wearing a top. Last night there was a vote at the city council meeting and the entire town has become clothing optional from the waist up."
"I was detained, but not arrested," the woman corrected. She added, "When I explained to the police chief why I was not wearing a top, he released me and suggested that I bring the matter up at the city council meeting. I presented my case to the city council last night and they agreed with me that this was the perfect way for me to exercise my free speech rights. They passed a resolution making this a topless town."
"What are you protesting by going topless?"
The woman answered, "We aren't protesting; we're making a political statement."
"How is baring your breasts to the world a political statement?"
"Last week a suicide bomber struck at a mall that I was visiting. It got me to thinking about how those terrorist bastards want to take over this country. I remembered how Muhammad bin Laden declared war on American Women giving those terrorists orders to rape and kill us. If they are successful, they would force every woman in this country to convert to Islam and cover our bodies from head to toe. I don't want that. I am an American Woman and I can wear as much or as little as I want."
"So you've removed your tops?" the reporter asked.
The woman answered, "That's right. Wearing a t-shirt saying that I'm not afraid of them just isn't all that convincing. I watched a woman on television... she was a stripper in New York... she was going topless to show those terrorists that we're not afraid of them. I thought to myself, 'if she can do it, why can't I?' I'm going topless to let them know that I am not afraid of them. So are my neighbors."
The camera panned around the neighborhood. Other families were standing around outside. All of the women were topless and watching the interview in progress. The reporter said, "It looks like your neighbors agree with you."
"Every woman that I've talked with likes the idea of showing the terrorists that they haven't beaten us. They like the idea that we are insulting them in a very direct and obvious manner," the woman answered.
Mike watched the news item wondering if it was a joke or a sign of things to come. Tennessee wasn't a hotbed of nudists, but there had been a lot of women baring their breasts in that broadcast. He wondered how many women believed the terrorists were waging war against women rather than against democracy.
He was reminded of when a yellow ribbon first became an American institution back in the 1980s. Although there had been a few instances of using a yellow ribbon as a welcome home before then and a song about it, it hadn't become common until it was used to welcome back the hostages held in Iran. Since then, ribbons of all kinds had burst upon the American landscape. As far as he knew, no one really understood how that phenomenon had taken hold.
When President Anthony Archer had declared the borders of the United States closed, a number of countries hadn't quite believed that it applied to their citizens. No country thought that more than Mexico. From the perspective of Mexico, having its citizens earn money in the United States and send some of their wages back to Mexico was a significant contribution to the national economy. Although no one would say it, so was the drug trade. The President of Mexico recognized that having the American border closed to his country was going to have a major economic impact that could topple his government.
Mexican citizens continued to cross the border in the dark of night thinking that they were taking the same risk of arrest and return to Mexico that had held in the past. The problem was that some terrorists were coming across the border with them. After months of trying to negotiate with the Mexican government to halt that practice from the other side of the border, President Anthony Archer got tired of it all. He moved the Army to the border and gave it shoot to kill orders.
The first night of that new policy more than six hundred people were killed crossing the border. While the public reaction from Mexico was swift and very vocal, the political reaction was in the form of a very powerful economic threat. Mexico threatened to cut off oil exports to the United States. Although few people realized it, Mexico was the second largest provider of oil to the United States. Even fewer people realized that the weak actions taken in the past by the American government to slow the flow of undocumented workers across the border were a direct consequence of that dependency.
President Archer called Mexico's bluff and the shoot to kill orders
remained in effect. Fortunately for the United States, Mexico had no
facilities for the delivery of oil to other major oil importing
countries. President Archer recognized that the Mexican government
wouldn't stand if the revenue from oil was lost even for a few months.
Mexico backed down although citizens, desperate for work, continued to
get killed in the dark of night. As the body count rose, Mexico's
frustration increased.