“A steak I think we can do. We don’t have turkey products like that, though.”
“And this is a five star hotel? You have GOT to be kidding me! You can believe that before I check out, I’m going to be launching a complaint.” He sighed with disgust. “It’s not your fault, but this is nonsense. I’m sure I’m not the only Jew that’s stayed in your establishment here that’s ordered room service. Now, put a steak, medium well, on that order and tell me how much it is, please.”
The young man added the steak to the order in place of the bacon that came with the meal. “It’s to be charged to your room, Dr. Draiman. And your room is being compt.”
Jake shrugged. “That’s fine. Just get me my food, please. I just got out of the gym and my blood sugar is starting to fall. I need to eat as soon as you guys can get it made.”
“We’ll have your food up to you shortly, Dr. Draiman.”
“Thank you.” He hung up the phone and laid down on the bed for a moment before going down the hall to use an old trick of his mother’s. He decided to buy a Mountain Dew from the vending machine. After opening the bottle and taking a sip of the cool liquid, he walked back down to his room and relaxed until his breakfast arrived. He watched the news to see what was going on in the nation’s capitol. He remembered watching the news with his father as a child. He was the only of his siblings that WOULD actually watch the news with his father. The hearing with the Cabinet was one of the top headlines on the broadcast that morning. He shook his head and rolled his eyes in disgust. As he watched for the weather his food arrived. He ate his breakfast and turned on his computer to start getting pumped for the meeting. Every time he prepared for something big where he knew he was in for a fight, he played his father’s band’s first album; ‘The Sickness’. He added a couple of songs from the others of the first five albums before the Occupation. ‘Warrior’, ‘Indestructible’, ‘Prayer’, ‘Liberate’, ‘Sons of Plunder’, and ‘Ten Thousand Fists’ also made the playlist. He wouldn’t start the music until he got into the shower.
After he finished his breakfast and put the cart outside his room, he started his music and started getting ready for the war. And that’s precisely what it was. He was at war with the members of the Cabinet. He was fighting for his research. He knew that there were different kinds of battles. He learned that from his parents. But, they were battles nonetheless. He thought of this as he listened to the music that had inspired millions for over thirty years. ‘Voices’ played as he stepped into the hot shower. He needed to warm his bones before stepping out into the snow covered streets of Washington D.C. He was glad that he wore his trench coat, but he would have preferred a leather jacket for the weather he was experiencing.
He was finally clean so he wrapped a towel around his waist and started getting ready. He’d borrowed his wife’s hand mirror that she used to put in her make up to that he could touch up his hair. He didn’t bother paying for a barber to do it when he could just take a razor and a pair of clippers and do it himself. He shaved his face carefully, making sure he didn’t cut himself and made himself smell good. Then, he slipped into his boxers and started ironing his suit. He wanted to look sharp and so he would. His suit was black with thin silver pin stripes. He would wear a grey shirt underneath with a simple black silk tie. In place of buttons, he had cuff links that looked like ‘The Face’, Disturbed’s mascot. They were a gag gift from one of his cousins, but he still wore them.
As each article of clothing came off of the ironing board, it went onto his body. He loved the way freshly ironed clothes felt against his skin. After he had his shirt on and buttoned, he added the custom made cuff links with a chuckle. Johnny, you’re a dick, but I still love these cuff links, he thought.
He checked his watch after putting it on. He had enough time to polish his shoes before he had to grab his things to leave. He would still take his laptop in case he needed to give the PowerPoint presentation for the members, but he had a feeling that he wasn’t going to need it.
With his suit pressed, his shoes polished and not a single thing out of place, he packed up his laptop and started to head out the door when his room phone rang. He answered it quickly. “Dr. Draiman, there’s a limo here to take you to the White House”, the receptionist said.
“Thank you, I’m on my way.” He hung up and walked out.
---------------
Getting INTO the White House was no problem. It was getting through the security at the White House to get to his escort to the West Wing that was the bitch. But, he knew it was a necessary evil. Every precaution had to be taken to protect the leader of the free world and Jake understood of that. He knew that the President was important because he was the leader of the nation and at the point in history, the most powerful man in the world.
Finally, he was through the bullshit security and being lead into the chamber where the meeting would be held. He sat at the table and popped his neck as he waited. He was amped and ready to tell each of the stupid fuckers involved in the Anti- TBI treatment charge what life outside the nation’s capitol. He was going to give each of the members of the Cabinet a piece of his mind after the news he received from the President the night before.
As the members of the Cabinet filed in, they all eyed Jake. He looked sharp. Better than most of them did, as a matter of fact. There was no way anyone could accuse him of showing up unprepared for the meeting. He sat with his hand politely folded on top of the table and looked straight ahead.
Finally, the President and Vice President came in and everyone in the room stood out of respect. “This meeting of the Cabinet is now called to order. The Honorable President Robert J. McAllister presiding. Let the record show that Dr. Jacob Micah Draiman is present as well”, one of the members said.
“Let’s proceed, gentlemen”, the President said.
And the arguing began.
---------------
Jake had answered all of the questions that he’d been asked in regard to his research. He then had to sit and listen to the bitter bickering of the men that sat on the Cabinet. He sat and rubbed his temples with his thumb and middle finger as he listened to the sheer bull shit coming from the mouths of the Secretaries of the Cabinet. “We can’t expect the tax payers to continue to pay for such nonsense”, the Defense Secretary said.
That was the final straw for Jake. He slapped his palms flat on the table and stood in one fluid movement. He’d seen his mother do it a few times to get people’s attention. “EXCUSE ME!” he shouted above the arguing. “NONSENSE, MR. SECRETARY?” He took a deep breath and spoke in a normal voice as he continued. “You bastards at the DOD don’t have to deal with the aftermath of that your weapons can do. I do. You don’t have to see a 24 year old woman who thinks she’s 13 and has strokes and seizures because a mortar shell exploded a little too close to her head. You don’t have to deal with a 35 year old Marine who can’t walk because his nerves are, in essence, scrambled. I do. So, before you stupid mother fuckers at the DOD attempt to ruin something that’s going to SAVE the lives of the you BASTARDS are trying to END, think really good and hard about the plug you’re trying to pull and tell me those people have to suffer because you can’t allow someone to develop the single most revolutionary treatment in the HISTORY of modern medicine.” He looked at the shocked faces of the Cabinet members and continued with his ass chewing. “You fuckers at Homeland Security are no better. I’m sure you assholes have something to do with my blocked funding too. And you, Mr. Treasury Secretary, are the one pulling the purse strings. I’m not an idiot. I’ve been sitting here this entire time watching and listening to this bull shit the entire session. Now, I might not understand WHY we have to send our troops to the Republic of the CONGO to deal with their Civil War, or why we’re back in North Korea and North Vietnam after the conflicts there have been over for DECADES, or even why we’re still fucking with the Middle East, but I do know that the men and women you pompous bureaucrats send over to those hostile zones come back with serious shit wrong with them. They will never live a normal life again unless you mother fuckers UNASS my funding. Stop being the arrogant bastards everyone else THINKS YOU ARE, and be the caring men that go you elected to the offices that got you started in politics to begin with. So, here’s what NEEDS to happen here. You, Mr. Defense Secretary, are going to get out of my way so that I can help the men and women that need it. You, Mr. Secretary of Homeland Security are going to do that same thing. And YOU, Mr. Treasury Secretary are going to open up that coin purse and give me my fucking money and ONLY pull it if the PRESIDENT HIMSELF says to pull it and NOT UNTIL!” He sat down and watched the stunned men in the room stare at him.
The President spoke. “Gentlemen, the good Doctor is right”, he drawled. “You gentlemen that have been named WILL do as he asked. It is so ordered.” He picked up the gavel and pounded it on the table, then stood. “Secretary Ingerhardt, my office, NOW.” He looked at Jacob. “Doctor, join me in my office in five minutes? I’ll have a glass of bourbon and you can have a soda or something?”
Jake smiled. “Of course Mr. President, I’ll be there. I needed to ask you something anyway.”
“I’ll see you in about five minutes, then, Doctor.” He said as he walked away with the Secretary of Defense hot on his heels.
---------------
“Secretary Ingerhardt, how DARE you cut that man’s funding without passing it be me first!” the President shouted. The Cherokee Indian in him was rearing its ugly head.
“I’m sorry, Mr. President. I thought that I was doing the right thing.”
“Don’t give me that bull shit, Simon. You know damn good and well that one of the platforms that got me elected was the furthering of stem cell research and that I JUMPED at the chance to fund the good doctor’s research.”
“I can only apologize again, Mr. President.”
“And you can shove that apology up your ass, Simon. You have the rest of the afternoon to clean out your desk and give me your letter of resignation. You will have your desk cleaned out by tomorrow morning, 8:30 AM. I’m going to start looking for another Secretary of Defense after Dr. Draiman has gotten on his flight home. Hell, I might just flu him home myself just like I flew him here, myself. Now, Mr. Ingerhardt, you can get the hell out of my sight.” And the President turned his back to the man in his office. After the former Secretary of Defense had left his office, he buzzed his personal secretary. “Send in Dr. Draiman, please, Stephanie.”
“Right away, Mr. President.”
A few moments later there was a knock on the door. “Enter.” The door opened to Dr. Draiman. “Welcome to Oval Office, Dr. Draiman”, President McAllister said as he extended his hand to shake the doctors.
“Thank you Mr. President. Wow, the Oval Office. I wish MY office were this nice.”
“I asked you in here for a reason, Dr. Draiman. I was wondering if you might possibly be interested in serving your country as the Surgeon General.” He poured himself a glass of bourbon and Jake a glass of Coke.
“Wow. That’s certainly an honor, Mr. President, but I’m afraid I’d have to decline. I have no interest in politics and fighting with bureaucrats. I’ll leave the politics to the politicians.” He took the glass of Coke went to sit with the President.
“Just thought I’d offer. You seem like you’re a young man with his head screwed on straight. Your parents are to be congratulated on that. And, I thank you, as a son of the south to the son of a daughter of the south, for saying what my office would not have let me say in that meeting.”
“Not a problem. I actually asked my father what I should do when I came out here for this meeting and he told me to just speak my mind.”
“Sound advice. I wish I could listen to my Pappy and do just that. But, in this office, you have to have tact like a stiletto rather than like a sledge hammer.”
“I couldn’t have said THAT better myself.”
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