Your Worst Nightmare

[unknown]

Hi Rachel

I liked the way you developed the characters of the staff, I have heard some of that about the terrorist's.

[Rachel Dearth]

Thanks, Unknown!  Where did you hear that from?  I thought I came up with an entirely original idea.

[Rachel Dearth]

Jeff wandered the corridors of the Oval Office in a daze.  He had always admired President Bush.  Even when Bush had failed to act duiring Hurricane Katrina, pardoned Scooter Libby and gave up on finding Bin Laden, he had always been his most vocal supporter.
   Bin Laden's fate had always puzzled him, though.  Why stop looking for someone who had masterminded the killing of 3,000 people?  What benefit could there be for the Republicans?  There wasn't even anyway to blame that on the Democrats, which Jeff could understand.
   Jeff still had a picture of George Bush, autographed,  in his bedroom, often even practiced the Bush swagger and smirk in the mirror.  Sometimes he even wished he was from Texas.  His license plate read:  IFORW41 and had been the subject of much egging for the last year.  He couldn't believe the President was responsible for such crimes, he just couldn't.
   The door was unguarded, not even a secretary was present.  Jeff was sure that the President's people were all gone on an outing someplace, only a lone Secret Service agent was in the corridor before the Oval Office.  The man simply looked up from his copy of the Star Magazine and nodded that he could go past. Hesitantly, Jeff knocked on the Oval Office door.
   "Come in," came the sound of an all too familiar Texas twang.  Jeff walked in and found Bush sitting on his desk, playing a handheld video game. "Jeff!"  Bush said, flashing his trademark smirk.  "What are you doing around here, shouldn't you be out doing work of some sort?"
   "Hello, sir," Jeff told him. "I just came from the Defense Department to go gather some records for Defense Secretary Gates, and..."
   Bush now stood up, putting the game down.  "Well, spit out it, Jeff, don't pull a Harry Reid on me."
    "I..."  Jeff began again, unable to look at the President.  "Linda and I found some files..."
   "What files?"  Bush asked, still grinning wildly.
    "Sir, did the Rendition program start in 2001, even before Sepetember 11th?  Sir, were the 9/11 hijackers ever in that program, any of them??  I want to believe, sir, just tell me whatever explanation you have and I will definitely believe you."
    Bush's smile now finally dropped.  "I'm sorry you had to find that, Jeff, I don't know what kind of people we have in the Pentagon anymore,  but that sort of security is uncalled for. I'm also sorry for your parents. I always liked them, and they were great contributors to all my campaigns.  They'll understand, though, they are good soldiers in the cause." 
   Bush then picked up the phone and stated to someone on the other end.  "Yep, me...we have a problem here, maybe two, some nosy kids nosing around.  Get over here with a security detail and be prepared to take out some trash." And then, he hung up and stared at Jeff.
   "Sir..?" Jeff said, startled. 
   Bush just smiled and told him.  "The world has changed since 9/11."  And then, he grew almost giddy with laughter. 
   

[HereForNow]

Wow, heavy stuff! 

On the other hand, unless everything was completely irradiated, you'd have a bunch of free stuff!!

That would be the problem. What good would it all be then?

[unknown]

I saw some stuff on utube about some of the terrosists that the accused of doing the nine/eleven attacks being dead or in custody.

[Rachel Dearth]

Wow, heavy stuff! 

On the other hand, unless everything was completely irradiated, you'd have a bunch of free stuff!!

That would be the problem. What good would it all be then?

Well, it depends on how big of a social animal you are, I guess!  Some are, some aren't!

[Rachel Dearth]

I saw some stuff on utube about some of the terrosists that the accused of doing the nine/eleven attacks being dead or in custody.

Dead like, before 9/11 happened? Cause that would be really interesting, I'll have to look into that! 

[unknown]

yep before, I don't know if it is true or not.

[HereForNow]

In the case of being socialable. I am a people person. Material things just don't suit me like having people to share my wealth(s) with.

Humans are so much more stimulating then a room full of toys and no one to play with.
On the evil side, there are lots of people out there that I would love to see disappear.

[Rachel Dearth]

Nice GIFS!  I especially like this one:

[Rachel Dearth]

Gates sat in his office, thumbing through the file that Linda had just brought him.  In it were pictures of Mohammed Atta and the other 9/11 hijackers being questioned, tortured in a manner similar to the ways so graphically displayed in the Abu Gharib scandal, three years later - electrical chords, hoods, nudity.  All that was missing was a private laughing and pointing at these various humiliations, a'la Lindsey England. Sick as the Abu Gharib photos were, these ones had an even daker tone. 
    "What does it all mean?"  Linda asked.  ""Did the government plan 9/11 with these guys or were Atta and company even involved at all?"
    Gates closed the file, not even wanting to see the rest at this point right now, he simply couldn't stomach it.  He had been involved with some sady dealings himself back during the Iran-Contra affair, but nothing like this. Today's Republican Party was a more virulent animal, sometimes he couldn't even fathom the depths it would sink to at all.  He kept telling himself that it was a disease brought on by Karl Rove, that once Rove left, things would be back to normal, but others had to have been involved with this from the start, too - Cheney, Gonzales, Rumsfeld, Bush, maybe even Rice.  If they hadn't said no at any point themselves, then they were just as much to blame.
   Then, there was the pattern, too, that many of the administration senior partners - Rove, Gonzales, Rumsfeld - had all resigned over a year ago but, unbeknownst to the public, were still here, running things.
   "I don't know, Linda," Gates told her, looking out the window.  "Honestly, there are days when I don't think I know about anything going on here anymore.  The world was different the last time I was here, under Ronald Reagan."
    Yes, different, Gates told himself.  They may have bent the rules sometimes, but they didn't break them, at least not to this extent.  And then, he thought, wasn't that partly to blame?  Once you start to see what you can get away with, you begin to believe you can get away with even more.  Many of the people in the Bush Administration, among them Cheney and Rumsfeld, had actually gotten their start under Nixon.  They had learned the wrong lessons, and, in Bush, a man who apparently had no moral center, they had found a willing enabler for their fondest dreams of power.
    "What is going to happen with any of this?  Will you turn it over to the Attorney General? The Washington Post?  The New York Times, who?"  Linda asked him.
    Gates thought to himself, the Attorney General, yes, right, another Bush crony.  And even the Post was not the same paper that had exposed Watergate, both the Post and the Times had been compromised by their corporate masters, hadn't even gone near the 9/11 story in years. He smiled wryly at her.  "I'll turn it over to someone, Linda.  This will all be settled, one way or another.  Trust me.  The fate of the country is at stake."
    "I'm glad that I got it to you, Secretary Gates, my dad always said that you are the only straight shooter in this whole administration," Linda told him.  "He is a lifelong Republican, too!"  And then, she calmed down a little.  "Please don't tell anyone I said that!  I wouldn't want to get into any trouble with the White House staff."
   "I won't, Linda," Gates told her, then grew subdued himself.  "Linda, you might want to watch your step from here on out.  We are dealing with some apparently very unscrupulous people here and who knows how a far they will go, or what Jeff has said to anyone."
   "You think I'm in danger?"  This was news to her.
    "I don't know," Gates told her.  "But these days, you never know,  Just take care of yourself."
    "I'll watch my step," Linda said, and then he escorted her to the door...

[unknown]

Give Hell Rachel... they deserve it.

[Rachel Dearth]

Well, you know, as one old politician (who's name I don't remember once said): "I'm not giving them hell, just telling them the truth, and they think it's hell!" 

[Rachel Dearth]

Linda stepped out of the Pentagon and her first impression was that there were sirens - moving in the direction of the White House. She felt a brief tinge of panic in her throat, had someone tried to attack the President?? In full sprint, she ran across the streets of the Capital, past a flurry of police cars and the sounds of ambulances coming down the road, blaring their sirens.  When she got to the White House, her sense of fear increased all the more.  A body was being laid out on a stretcher, and a tremor fled up and down her body - it was Jeff, an expression of horror frozen on her face, she couldn't tell if he was alive or dead. Her mind reeled, the last she heard, Jeff was going to talk to the President about the rendering program and the supposed 9/11 attackers.  Had Bush done something to have him silenced?
    There were Secret Service agents all around her and one of them looked her in the eyes, then alerted one of his companions to her.  Linda backed up, then went into a full sprint away from the scene.  The Secret Service agents fled after her, but luckily there was so much congestion between them and her that she manged to get a decent head start. 
    Her heart in her throat, Linda thought, 'where can I go?  Where can I be safe?' 
    And then, the only option came into her mind - Congress!  She would find a Democratic Congressman to protect her and try and they would save her from Bush and his heavies.  Linda ran into the Capital Building and, once she got past the sparse security with a flirty smile, she kept running, not intending to stop until she got to the Speaker's office itself.  Once she explained to Pelosi what was going on, she was certain that the Speaker would make everything public, bring the Bush people to justice. 
    Linda burst into the Speaker's office and told Pelosi's secretary. "I have to see the Speaker, it is a matter of life and death!"
    "Do you have an appointment?"  The secretary asked.  "Speaker Pelosi won't see anyone without an appointment, she's in a meeting right now anyway."
     "Screw an appointment!"  Linda shouted, then raced past the secretary and flung the door to Pelosi's suites open.  The Speaker was standing there, back to her, dressed in her usual red suit, looking out the window at the mounting commotion.
     "Speaker Pelosi, you have to help me!"  Linda yelled to her.  "I just found evidence that the Bush Administration has lied about 9/11 and may have even been responsible!  Now, their thugs are after me, they may have already killed one of my co-workers who knew about this, too!"
    Pelosi turned around, a pained, saddened look on her face.  "We already know about all that.  What do you expect me to do?"
    Linda was floored, it seemed like such a dumb question.  "Call the police!  The army!  The press!"
    Pelosi told her.  "The press won't do anything, they have been in the administration's pocket for years.  And the army is run by Bush cronies, they won't do anything. We can't stand up to the administration without risking a confrontation and an end to the government as we know it.  It wouldn't be politically viable.  All we can do is hope that Bush leaves office once his term runs out in a few months. If we make a big deal about this, he may not do that…"
     Linda screamed at him.  "You have to do something!! These people committed crimes, they have to be held accountable!  I'm the one in danger here, what is the worst thing that could happen to you??"
    Pelosi looked up, her eyes filling with tears.  "What if George Bush calls a press conference and…and says bad things about me..? I don't think I could bear that…"  And her eyes searched Linda's face, as if looking for sympathetic understanding.
     And Linda was just floored, she wanted to slap her but was in such a state of shock she couldn't quite manage to move herself. 
     Outside, the secretary, who hadn't left her chair for the whole time, buzzed Pelosi's office.  "They're here."
     "Let them in," Pelosi said, without able to look up at Linda now.
     And then, a flurry of Secret Service and police officers burst into the office and seized Linda's arms.  "There's the traitor!"  One of them shouted.
     Another yelled.  "Betray the President, will you?  We have a nice spot in Guantonomo for you! Traitor!!!"
     "You betrayed me!!"  Linda yelled at Pelosi.  "You ****!  You f***n ****!"
     "Shut up, traitor!"  Another Secret Service agent said, then sprayed pepper spray in her eyes.  Yet another one took out his taser gun and began jolting her with electricity, Linda screaming her distress.  "We'll teach you to turn on this great country!" 
      And, as they pulled the now shocked, limp form of Linda out of the office, Pelosi, unable to look up, just sat at her desk, crying like a child.  "Please try and understand…impeachment would be bad for the company, impeachment is off the table…I'm sorry, I'm so sorry…"

[Rachel Dearth]

Gates watched grimly as FOX News opened with it's breaking news.  Bill O'Reilly got the pleasure of being the one to break the scoop: 
     "Tonight, the left wing radicals are crying tonight as once again the Bush Administration has produced proof of just how dangerous the world is..much to their grief!  It seems that two Al Queada agents had infiltrated the Washington intern program and managed to get two of it's own - Americans, nonetheless - in positions close to the President!  Jeff Ramon was shot and killed by Secret Service agents after an attempt on the President's life, an attempt that happened in the White House, nonetheless!  His partner, Linda Brown, meanwhile, was apprehended in the Speaker of the House's office a short time later.  It seems that credit has to go to President Bush in part, for helping to apprehend his attacker."
       Cut to an exclusive interview with President Bush, outside the Oval Office, being interviewd by Britt Hume:
       "Well, this Jeff fella just pulled out a gun and I ended up wrestling him to the ground," Bush told the haggard lookingTV anchor.  "Instinct took over, I said, 'Jeff, whatcha doin' with that gun?  Then, when he pointed it at me, I lunged for him before he pulled the trigger and managed to knock him down.  Then the Secret Service came in and filled the guy with holes."
       "That is quite a feat on your part, Mr. President," Hume told him, with a broad smile.  "I hope you're aware that this makes you a hero in the war on terror and that America was lucky not to lose you."
       Bush smirked with his trademark crooked smile, obviously liking that.  "Well, I don't know about any of that hero stuff, Britt, I am just a guy who has always reacted good uner pressure.  I walk it like I talk it."
      "And there we have it," Hume then turned back to face the camera.  "Surely, one of the most heroic examples in the war on terror and from our own Commander-in-Chief. On a personal note, Senators Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards have been hinting lately that the war on terror is more hype than reality.  Thank God that they are not in charge of the government, or else Al Queada might be in all our houses.  This is Britt Hume, signing off."
       And, back in the studios, O'Reilly stated.  "Wellllllll..!  The left wing looneybin was proven wrong again. Here is a prediction, straight from the factor:  Bush polling numbers will be on the rise after this attack as people will realize what a hero he actually is.  Yes, hero!  You hear that, secular progressives??  And remember, you heard it  here first, on the Factor.  And though this Linda person's parents are saying she couldn't be involved with any of this, I say, we have heard it all before."
      Gates sighed wearily and then turned off the TV.  It never ceased to amaze him just how quick Karl Rove was at spinning events to his advantage. Picking up the folders he had on his desk, he stuffed them into his briefcase.  He had a meeting with other cabinet officials concerning national defense, but had an unscheduled stop to make before then. 
      Getting into his limousine awaiting outside the Pentagon, his driver asked him.  "The White House, sir?"
      "The Washington Monument first," Gates told him.
      After a short drive, the car pulled up outside the Washington Monument and Gates exited the car, there was Dennis Kucinich sitting on a park bench beside the monument.  "Glad that you could make it." Gates told him.
      "Why here?"  Kucinich asked.  "Why not in your office, in the light of day? Why didn't you want to talk on the phone?"
       "All the phones and my office are wiretapped, yours, too," Gates told him, then took out the folders and handed them to the Ohio representative.  "You get this to anyone in the government and the press that you think you can trust, anyone who is not a corporatist."
      "Hard to find anyone here that fits the bill," Kucinich told him.  "But I think I know one person who does. What is it?" 
      "It's self explanatory," Gates told him.  "From the secret files of the Pentagon, don't contact me again."
      "Gates - that assasination attempt on the President today," Kucinich asked him.  "Bogus, right?"
      Gates told him.  "Jeff Ramon was as clean as they come, from one of the richest donors in the Republican Party.  The sad thing is that his parents won't even make any waves about what happened, they are good soldiers in the cause, whatever the cause is anymore…"  And then he turned to go.
      Kucinich began thumbing through the filed and asked him. "Why me?"
      Gates looked back at him. "Who else?"  And then, he walked back to his car, just as, overhead, the crows began cawing and circling.