Chapter 19
834 Words
TEN TEACHERS WERE waiting by his door when Fritz arrived. He invited them all inside.
TEN TEACHERS WERE“Wow. So, you all want to be pitchers?”
“Fritz, I"ve heard about your classroom games for years,” said Liz Chambers. “My kids haven"t stopped hounding me to try it.”
“I may not be much on history,” Joe Rosenberg said. He was excited to have a new tool for chemistry. “I"m going to try it.”
The door opened and Ashley and four more teachers came in and sat. Fritz could tell from Ashley"s frown that something had happened, but it would have to wait. “Ash and I prepared the list from the textbooks and related readings, and we found some great sources on the internet.” Fritz explained how he chose questions, and Liz suggested letting them try. She offered to pitch the three games the following day. Fritz said he would show them all what to do after the first round ended.
Ashley waited for the teachers to leave. “Jane flew to Washington early. There"s a money link. She said it doesn"t make sense. It ties the Korean to Eledoria. She said it"s a wild goose chase. The president disagrees.”
The afternoon games pitted Jaffrey"s “Gyroscopes” against O"Malley"s “Ordeal” and Ben Cumber"s “Batch” against Oaks" “Blokes.” Tom Jaffrey"s team won the first game, 7-3, and Ben Cumber"s kids eked out a win.
As he was leaving, a man came up and introduced himself as the proprietor of Barking Tees. “Mr. Russell, my name is Mark Witcannon. I dropped by to see the tournament in action.”
“Nice to meet you, and thank you so much for our uniforms. The ninth graders were ecstatic when you offered.”
“I was glad to. This is so cool. I"ve been telling the Chamber of Commerce and the Riverboro Business Council how much you"ve done to get all our businesses involved.”
“It wasn"t me. Really. It was the kids. You can see from the turnout that they"ve been very busy.”
“I saw the cafeteria when I came in. Jay Bennett let me in the auditorium, but he said it was standing room only. Some showing!”
“I hope it met your expectations.”
“It sure did. Nice meeting you, Mr. Russell.”
“Name"s Fritz. I can"t thank you enough. See you again.”
Ashley waited until Fritz"s conversation ended. “Let"s get out of here. I just spoke to Jane. She and the president have been going at it all day.”
* * *
AS SOON AS he got home, Linda told him the president had called and sounded upset. “You left your phone on the counter this morning.”
When he called back, the president asked him to set the portal so Jane could come back to New Jersey.
Jane related her argument with the president between bites. An Eledorian bank had been the source of funds for the terror attacks through an account in the name of Caitlin Morgan. The Eledorian government continued to disavow knowledge or involvement. She said that one point of contention was that the Eledorians always denied involvement. The argument had peaked when Jane reminded the president that Colonel Mitchell didn"t think the soldiers at the settlement were Eledorian. She pointed out that Eledoria gained nothing from the bombing. Neither did Naria. The United States had no grounds for an attack, and a misdirected attack hurt us as much as its targets. He still thought the straight line from the bank to the terrorists was evidence enough.
She asked him where the money had come from. “Is it like God, it always has been there? Was it in the Garden of Eden?” He didn"t like the sarcasm. “All due respect, sir, are you forgetting Geneva? The assassination attempt? Are you forgetting Koppler? He was tied to this. He"s dead, but it"s still happening. So he wasn"t alone.”
“Jane, WE DON"T KNOW THAT. We have no evidence of it.”
“THEN LET"S GET SOME.”
General Beech brought them back to basics. “What can or will we do? Are you suggesting an attack, sanctions? Turning the Israelis loose? We don"t have good options. If we do something that starts new warfare, what happens to the summit?”
“Jim, what do you suggest?” the president asked.
“Keep looking for evidence. Activate our naval forces in the Mediterranean. Announce maneuvers with NATO so they are not surprised. And call the Eledorians and Narians first and let them know we"re not on a war footing.”
“Did he mention what he"s going to Israel for?” Fritz asked.
“Yeah. To hold them back and make sure the Prime Minister remembers we can just show up.”
“Why does he need me?”
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