Читать книгу Female Snipers - Greg Pius - Страница 3

President Phillip James Dent was relishing the prospect of being a big celebrity on the world media stage. He had bribed many people to get the vote to go in favor of Australia at the meeting of sporting nation delegates. Now he was the head of state of the next great world sporting event. It had cost billions to build new stadiums up to world's best practice level. These state of the art stadiums, velodromes and water sports facilities had been built in record time but at excessive cost to the Treasury. President Dent had to sack one Federal Treasurer because she objected to the blow out in Australia's National Debt. But the Australian president rammed through all the necessary approvals. Of course the construction contracts were awarded to his cronies who paid him secretly for the privilege of ripping off Australian taxpayers. But by making sure that all the rich and powerful , well those that supported him politically anyway, were included President Dent got what he wanted. Australia had a harbor city brimming with new sporting facilities that were the envy of the world.

Calling in Nova Kaufman to check up on last minute minor hitches, President Dent was in no mood for anything less than perfection. He said in a firm strong tone of voice,

"Have we settled that demarcation dispute about the unloading of cargo for the big event?'

Knowing that her boss hated any opposition to his will Kaufman replied in a nervous tone of voice,

"The large unions at loggerheads are still holding out for their members to get the overtime up for grabs."

As Kaufman expected he would, President Dent exploded using a very angry tone of voice as he commanded,

"Get those union leaders here today. I will not put up with their games of wounded pride. They will make a settlement of that dispute today or they will all feel the inside of a federal prison. They will learn the hard way who is running this country. If I have to I will deregister both their unions. Lets see how they cope without all those members fees flowing in regularly. How are we with the special guest list?"

Swallowing hard to hide her surprise at this display of raw power, Kaufman replied to the last question in a more positive tone of voice,

"All confirmed except the French President. His aides are still holding out for preference in ranking ahead of the British Prime Minister. They also want all announcements to be in English and French."

The reaction this time was less violent but no less angry. President Dent did not like being dictated to and he certainly resented the use of political blackmail by the French. Still his tone of voice was only mildly irritable when he said,

"Damn them. I suppose we will have to bump the British Prime Minister. Serves her right for what she said about me in that Security Council meeting. 'Tin pot dictator' am I? Well she is now seated at the end seat on the podium. As for the language thing we will just have to concede with good grace. After all it is the custom in that other great sporting event. So lets agree to their terms but get our own back by giving them some traditional Aussie food for their first lunch. That will be damper, iced cold cheese, a pie floater and some Australian sparkling wine. Can't wait to see their diplomatic faces when they have to sit through that lunch. Ha! Ha! Old baguette face will be seething but have to politely eat it all up. Make sure she gets a double helping of everything and have the wine waiter top up her glass all the time. No one gets the better of me without paying a high price."

Not for the first time Nova Kaufman was impressed with her boss's ability to turn any diplomatic defeat into a secret victory. Australia may be a small country way out in the powerless Pacific region but it was punching above its weight thanks largely to Dent's political cunning.

Trying to take personal advantage of the President's current good mood Nova Kaufman now played her card against a political opponent. She said in a worried tone of voice,

"The Finance Minister is objecting to the high level of the security budget requested by the National Security Director. In particular she objects to the high number of commando snipers being deployed on unlimited overtime. It seems a valid objection. Particularly as Leopold absolutely refuses to compromise by reducing the size of her security team."

President Dent was aware of the animosity that existed between his aide and his National Security Director. Usually he manipulated this to his own advantage. But this time he was not going to let their personal squabbles upset his big day. Still he did not want to antagonize either woman. Both were central to his plans to completely reorganize the military senior ranks. As a former Major-General and armed forces chief ,Dent was a perfectionist where military performances were involved. Too many of the senior officers in his armed forces were not pulling their weight . Some thought the civil war was over. Dent knew otherwise. He had selected the senior officers that were to be forced into retirement. But some had powerful friends and loyal troops. Dent needed Leopold's cyber team to dig up enough dirt to justify his purge. As for Nova Kaufman she had a detailed knowledge of the military partners of his possible replacements. There could be no mistakes arising after Dent installed his cronies. No scandals that would only surface when Dent's own reputation for picking winners was on the line.

Having kept Kaufman waiting for his response, President Dent spokes in a measured tone of voice,

"I have not been happy for a while with the performance of the Finance Minister. He may think that his powerful friends protect him from dismissal but in that he is sadly mistaken. His Assistant Finance Minister impresses me greatly with her attention to detail. I have already spoken to her about taking the top job. Reluctant as she is to push her boss out of the way I can tell that she thinks she can do a better job than him. I will therefore offer her the post of our new Finance Minister. Find some ambassador post to shift our present minister sideways. Do that after you contact those union officials. That remains your number one priority but I want the current Finance Minister out today."

Realizing that she had once more being relegated to political novice by this remarkably devious man, Kaufman tried to win back some personal pride by answering quickly in a falsely eager tone of voice,

"The post of ambassador to Germany is up for renewal. You could send the Finance Minister there and retire old Sir Henry Proudsheer. Is that a possibility?'

President Dent allowed his aide to gain this small vestige of self respect. Henry Prodsheer had been asking him to let him retire to his southern highlands estate for the last year. Now he could appear magnanimous whilst getting rid of a political nuisance plus winning back his aide's unquestionable loyalty. So he nodded his head before saying in his official tone of voice,

"Draw up the appropriate papers today. We will have the swearing in of the new Finance Minister at six o'clock this afternoon. Its still the middle of the night in Berlin so leave my person to person encrypted call to Henry until say about ten o'clock tonight. Our finance minister can put up with being told by you that he is sacked. If he is fool enough to demand to speak to me tell him the German post is not set in concrete. There are a lot of backwater countries that also have vacancies. That will shut him up. Oh, you better get Leopold to come see me this afternoon. I am not happy about her performance of late. Time she too got a kick when it hurts."

Beaming at this latest statement, Kaufman raced out to begin what was going to be a long and busy day. Another dawn to midnight session faced this ambitious woman but her political enemy was going to be told off by her boss. Even her call to a one time ally to inform him of his immediate dismissal did not dampen her mood. Political allies came and went. Kaufman never got attached emotionally to anyone in politics. Her secret lover was a simple teacher. This modest teacher was her life time partner. Being both female they had got married then planned to have children when her partner could get maternity leave. They had already agreed that their first child would be a girl. Kaufman could not wait to enjoy being a working Mum. Of course her partner's pathetically low salary as a teacher meant that she would be the home Mum.

Hera Feelgood was losing her fight against ignorance and prejudice. Mothers of refugee children were still refusing to have their children immunized. Being so far away from their city homes these mothers had developed a siege mentality. Even though Hera was admired and respected by all these mothers they were still suspicious because the vaccines were coming from Australian Government laboratories. The United Nations did not have the funds to import these vaccines from external sources. So the United Nations had pressured the Australian Government to supply the necessary vaccine doses. This was then the sticking point with hardened rebel wives and mothers. Some asked the obvious question,

"What else has the government added to the vaccine? Will it affect the future of our children?"

Whilst she understood the reservations of these much oppressed women, Hera also knew that without these immunization programmes many children would die unnecessarily. But she still could not convince the camp mothers of the need to get full immunization.

Then an answer appeared in the unlikely form of Hera's eleven year old daughter Mossy. One of her best friends was sick. When she challenged her mother to save this young girl's life, Hera had told her that it was a a preventable disease. Asked to explain what this meant Hera had told Mossy the whole truth. Mossy sat there staring at her Mum's face. Finally she said,

"If they have to have the medicine to stop getting sick why don't they just do it Mummy?'

Not sparing her daughter any of the real problems facing such a simple solution Hera said in an exasperated tone of voice

"Because they don't trust our government. They imagine that some bad things have been added to this medicine that can hurt their children."

Mossy was not a child anymore she knew that there were evil people out there. So she asked in a penetratingly sharp tone of voice,

"And did they? Is there anything bad in that medicine?"

Hera was stunned at how adult her daughter sounded. But she answered honestly in a firm tone of voice,

"In my opinion those doses have not been tampered with but all immunizations come with some side effects. Still that is better than dying from a disease that a child did not have to get if they were immunized."

Her daughter had one clarification question left. She said in a annoyed tone of voice,

"If Herman had been immunized he would not be so sick today. Is that what you mean by 'preventable'?"

Knowing how close Mossy was to her best friend Herman, her mother answered candidly in a sad tone of voice,

"All Herman's suffering and pain would not have occurred if his Mum had only had him immunized."

Mossy nodded her head to show she accepted her mother's statement as fact. She now used her most determined tone of voice to say,

"Am I immunized?'

Hera answered truthfully in a caring tone of voice,

"Yes Mossy darling. I will never knowingly risk your life!"

Now Mossy was shaking her head as she said in a firm tone of voice,

"You may have to Mummy. Because I want you to Immunize me again so all my friends can see that this dose of medicine is safe. If they see I am okay then the mothers will rush to immunize their little children"

Shocked Hera said in a worried tone of voice,

"I could not ask you to do that Mossy. We will find another way I'm sure."

Mossy's head was now shaking violently. This was a sure sign that she had made up her mind. She said to her mother in a forceful tone of voice,

"You are not asking me to do this I am telling you that I will do this. If you wont give me the medicine then I will get one of the doctors to do it. I have to do this to save the little children. Herman is my oldest camp friend! If he dies and I did nothing to stop this madness then every death after that would kill me a little bit. Mum its the only way and you know it."

Hera tried desperately to think of another way that did not put her child in danger. But she could not think of even a remote chance alternative. Very reluctantly she agreed to give Mossy the immunization publicly at the next camp medical clinic. Many mother's would be there to witness Mossy's self sacrifice. Hera was almost sure that the dose of vaccines would not harm Mossy in any serious way. But there was always a slight chance of an adverse reaction. With Mossy's chronic asthma any respiratory side effect could even prove fatal. Concentrating hard Hera asked whatever God was out there listening to protect her daughter. Then Hera went home with Mossy to spend an awful sleepness night of worry. She noticed that Mossy somehow slept the sleep of angels with her loyal dog beside her bed on its sleeping mat.