Alan Cook - Run into Trouble

On their walk back to the motel, they passed a girl sitting on the sidewalk, wrapped in a blanket. She had long, blond, straight hair and a young, pretty face with tears running down her cheeks. She looked at them but didn’t say anything.

Drake made a move to go back to her, but Melody grabbed his hand and pulled him away.

“Don’t get involved. I say this for your own good. I know you want to help her, and I’m not going to question the purity of your motives, even though it’s possible she might offer to thank you in a particularly pleasant way, but she can only bring you trouble. Besides, we’re on a mission tonight.”

The mission being to listen to Casey’s speech. They went to Drake’s room to listen to it together, so they could compare notes. Drake ran a cold bath for himself and even obtained a container of ice cubes from the motel dispenser and poured them into the tub. He had learned to almost tolerate the freezing water. He left the door to the bathroom open, which enabled him to hear the speech. Melody didn’t object, but she also didn’t volunteer to wash his back.

First they listened to news reports about the submarine. These were delivered with an urgency approaching hysteria. It was probably a good thing that no mention was made of the Russian writing found in it.

Somehow, Casey had wangled time on a national network, even though he was running for senator from California. When it was time for him to speak, a network anchor introduced him as the CEO of the company that was instrumental in the nation’s military preparedness.

It was obvious from the start that Casey wasn’t going to waste his time on California issues now that he had a national pulpit. He immediately started talking about the submarine. He said that the participants in Running California had gone past the spot where the boat was found on the same day, something that had not been mentioned in the news reports. He expanded on that.

“What if that submarine had still been manned? With its armament, it could easily have destroyed some of the cream of California citizenry, just as it killed one of our runners at Malibu, as well as destroying several houses. This is just the tip of the iceberg. There’s more-information that has been suppressed by the administration, because it doesn’t want to worry you unduly, but, ladies and gentlemen, this is information you need to know because it’s a threat to national security.”

Casey then told about the Russian writing in the sub. Melody wondered how he knew about that. Of course. His military connection. He was getting feedback on everything the military did. She had originally gripped the arms of her chair to keep herself from running into the bathroom and jumping into the tub with Drake, ice water and all. Now she gripped them harder.

She called to Drake. “Did you hear that?”

“Loud and clear. I think we know who our warmonger is.”

Casey was just getting warmed up. He came close to saying that a president who didn’t defend the country ought to be impeached. Then he talked about creating a buffer zone along the coast-land that would be owned by the government for security, with anti-missile batteries, but would also be a continuous beach during peacetime. Everyone would have complete access to the water everywhere. He was vague about the details.

Drake remembered that Casey had talked about this before. He must be serious about it since he was bringing it up again. Drake ran the water out of the tub and vigorously toweled himself off, trying to bring some circulation back into his frozen limbs. In spite of the discomfort, he had to admit that these baths were helping to keep him going. He threw on some clothes and came back into the main room just as Casey finished speaking.

Melody turned off the television set. “Apparently, he doesn’t know that you were the one who spotted the sub. I’m sure he would have mentioned it if he did. That means what you tell Blade isn’t getting through to him.”

“Blade may be the only person in government who’s not in his pocket. But I’m glad our spymaster isn’t in cahoots with the person we’re supposed to be spying on.”

“His bringing up the Russian business when the president tried to suppress it is going to cause an uproar, or my name isn’t Miss Marple. That’s why I turned off the telly. Flying accusations give me a headache.”

“How about that proposed land grab-taking the beach houses of the rich and famous, as well as the rich and not so famous? He’s definitely trying to appeal to the masses-telling them they’ll have full beach access. They really do now. They just have to work at it in some places.”

“Your masses had better start connecting the dots and realize that if the government can take property from people along the coast, they can take property from people inland, as well. One of the reasons I like the U.S. is your strong private property laws, since property rights are mandatory for a free country.”

“Unfortunately, we’ve also got something called eminent domain, which weakens the laws. If Casey can convince us that we’re being attacked and land grabs are necessary for our defense, he might get away with it.”

Today’s run goes from San Simeon to Gorda on Route 1. You’ll leave San Luis Obispo County and enter Monterey County. The hardest part of the run is two hills after the county line that rise to over 700 feet. Then you’ll dip down close to sea level before climbing to Gorda at 300 feet. Traffic gets lighter as you head north, but be careful, especially since it’s Sunday.

“Did you listen to Casey’s speech last night?” Melody addressed the question to Tom.

They were running in a pack again, at least for the moment. She suspected this would come to an abrupt halt later in the day when they started climbing the hills. The hills would separate, as she liked to think, the men from the women-or at least most of the men from one woman. The men would not fare well.

“Speech?” Tom was drawing a blank.

Drake raised his voice to include all the runners within earshot. “Did anyone listen to Casey’s speech last night or read about it in this morning’s paper?”

Apparently not, judging from the lack of response. Drake gave up and turned to Melody. “What we have here is a bunch of political apathetics.”

“Unfortunately, what they don’t know can hurt them.”

Melody and Drake had obtained a San Francisco newspaper that spoke about the controversy Casey had caused by divulging information the president had repressed. The article mentioned that people in the administration were calling for Casey’s scalp, saying that he had released classified information, but there was no proof given that it was actually classified.

The other side said that when America’s security was at stake, people had a right to know everything. Some members of Congress praised Casey for making the information public. There were calls for an attack on the USSR. An editorial seemed generally favorable to Casey’s idea for the creation of a buffer of land between the people and the ocean but said exceptions should be made for populated areas like San Francisco.

“What have we learned about our target?” Drake meant Casey, and kept his voice down so that the other runners wouldn’t hear their conversation.

“He is ambitious, like Caesar was supposed to be-only I don’t hear a Marc Antony taking his side and denying it.”

“He isn’t afraid of infringing on the rights of the populace, using national security as an excuse.”

“Ever the excuse of those who would wield the power.”

“You and I risked our lives fighting against this kind of tyranny. It looks like we’re back in the business again.”