The Final Warning

Chapter 5

Chapter 5The President and his Chief of Staff walked side by side down the long fourth fairway of the Congressional golf course.

‘Tell me, Jeff – have you ever thought how weird it is that this world of ours even exists?’ They walked on. Jeff waited for him to continue. ‘I read in some English magazine, this woman said how strange it is that whoever created the universe with its millions of heavenly bodies should have chosen just this one little speck of a planet as a home for living things.’

Another pause, then Sukova halted and turned to Jeff. ‘There are billions of stars and planets in space. When we look at the night sky, we’re seeing the minutest fraction of what’s out there. Hell, we talk about “the universe” as though ours is the only one – but there are umpteen more that we know about, and God knows how many more beyond that. So how come our little globe was chosen as the one to have us lot on it? We can’t be alone, Jeff. So where are the other ones?’

The two men walked on again, the older one skinny and a little stooped, the younger tall, strong-shouldered.

The President halted again. ‘I mean, how the hell did anyone, even God, design life on this planet? And when he’d finished, do you think he just hung up his boots and said, Phew, that was a good few days’ work, creating all that life and stuff. I’m proud of that. But I think I’ll just stick to one little pinprick of a planet to show it all off. These other squillion trillion planets I’ll just leave as lumps of rock and fire. C’mon, Jeff – our world is a bloody miracle. And you’re telling me that it’s only on this tiny globe of ours that life and love exist? Never!’

They had reached Sukova’s golf ball and he got himself organised to hit it, then he pulled back to finish his thought. ‘You know what I love, Jeff? That with all our research and technology, there’s still stuff we don’t know. I just hope it stays that way.’ He took a swing at his ball and watched it vanish into a bush.

‘Go, Bling!’

The Jack Russell disappeared into the bushes and returned with the ball which he dropped at the President’s feet. By arrangement with the club’s chairman, Bling had been made an honorary member along with his owner, on the understanding that any of the dog’s mistakes would only be found in the deep rough. The task was delegated to the President’s security department. They named it the SSR – short straw roster – taking it in turns to monitor any disobedient results and remove them to the rough with a trowel from the White House works department.

‘Did you hear about the two guys who were held up by a couple of women back on the thirteenth hole last week?’

Jeff thought, This is Adam’s final throw. If he can’t win by outplaying me, he’s going to bugger me up with a joke.

‘These guys got so fed up that one of them walked forward to tell the women to let them through. He got to about thirty yards away then he stopped and walked back. “It’s a bit tricky,” he said. “You see, one of those women is my wife and the other’s my mistress.”

‘ “Fair enough,” said his partner, “I’ll go instead.” So off he goes, gets to within about thirty yards of them and walks back. “It’s a small world,” he says.’