Russell Moran - A Climate of Doubt

“Please call me Buster, everyone else does.”

“President Blake told me quite a bit about you, Buster. He’s quite a fan of yours. And please call me Hank.”

“He also told me quite a bit about you, Hank. We don’t have too many Iranian friends, and you may be the best.”

“Are you ready to visit Bartholomew Martin, Buster?” Rashadi said. “Your knowledge of this bastard will help us to prosecute him. He won’t say a word to me.”

“He’s the most miserable scumbag ever to inhabit my country, pardon my Arabic. That one man came close to turning America into a dictatorship. With him as president we came close to earning the title Great Satan.”

“Does he know you well, Buster?”

“Very well. When he was in the White House he tried to recruit me to spy on American politicians. He liked my background in intelligence with the CIA and wanted to use me to help him roll up our democracy.”

“From what I heard about him, I’m surprised that he didn’t arrest you when you refused to cooperate.”

“The only reason I’m alive is that I didn’t refuse. I made him think that I was his spy, but it was a big act. I spied on him and fed information to the growing opposition. I thank God that Matt Blake, President Blake, beat him in the election. Make no doubt about it, Hank, President Blake is a great man, and just what we needed after Martin’s presidency.”

“So, let’s go to see the Reformer himself,” Rashadi said.

Three jail guards led them down a long corridor to Martin’s cell. One of the guards unlocked the door with his keys, as the other two stood by with their guns drawn, facing toward the cell.

“Buster, I think you know our guest,” Rashadi said as he gestured toward the back of the cell. “I’ll wait outside while you talk to him.”

“Hank,” Buster yelled as he stepped back into the corridor. “This cell is empty. Where’s Martin?”

The guards rushed into the cell, guns drawn. They flipped the bed upside down and looked into every corner of the room. Bartholomew Martin was gone.

“Honey, your secretary just gave me this envelope addressed to me,” Dee said. “Inside is another one addressed to you. I think somebody’s playing games.”

President Blake read the letter silently, and then looked at Dee. He was about to read it aloud when the intercom sounded.

“Mr. President, it’s Buster on the line for you. He says it’s urgent.”

“Mr. President, Martin has escaped,” Buster said. He was speaking from his cell phone in the corridor outside of Martin’s cell. “This is the most secure prison in a land of secure prisons. Obviously, he had some help. The bastard is simply not here.”

“His timing,” the President said, “is typical of him. I just received a letter from him that was delivered to Dee. I was about to read it when you called. I’ll read it now to you and Dee.”

So, Mr. President, you persist in thinking that you can defeat me. You have spent millions of dollars bombing our compound in Kurdistan, and then you were naïve enough to believe that the Iranians would do your bidding. You are all fools to think that you can achieve victory over me. I thought you would have learned the last time, but you don’t know when I’ve beaten you, which I have. The winter that I inflicted on you is only the beginning of my wrath. You will soon wish that you never ran against me for office. Enjoy the weather, Mr. President. You now live in a climate of doubt.

Abbassi, Ramin – American spy in Iran

Adams, Bill – Mayor of New York City

Arnold, Jake – White House Chief of Staff

Bellamy, Ellen – TV Talk Show Host and Rick’s wife

Bellamy, Rick – Secretary of Homeland Security and Ellen’s Husband

Boynton, Sally – FBI Agent and Secretary Bellamy’s assistant

Buster – CIA Agent

Carlini, William –Director, CIA

Collins, Gregory – Admiral, Chief of Naval Operations

Columbo, Bob – CIA agent and voice impersonator

Cranston, Bill – Astronaut

Crawford, Michael – Aeronautical engineer

Deming, Nigel – English meteorologist

Dolan, Roger – Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

Drake, Walter – Senior FBI agent at Rosetta Corporation

Duncan, Phil – Operations VP, the Rosetta Corporation

Foreman, Jack – Interim CEO of Rosetta

Hardy, David – Moonwalker astronaut

Jackson, Mark – Astronaut for The Reformers

Jordan, Michael – Moonwalker astronaut

Khamenei, Ali – Supreme Leader of Iran

Langdon, Jerome – Secretary of State

Laub, Jerome – Astronaut for The Reformers

Martin, Bartholomew – 46th President of the United States

McCallum, Martha – Reporter for Fox News

Merriman, Douglas – Assistant to Bartholomew Martin

Morgan, Frank – CEO Rosetta Corporation

Mullin, Nancy – Astronaut

O’Keefe, Elliott – TV Producer

Patterson, Mike – Colonel, USAF, Commander of Ranger

Peterson, Dwight – Climate expert

Rashadi, Hamid – Deputy Foreigh Minister of Iran

Roker, Al – Meteorologist and TV personality

Sproule, Jack – Meteorologist

Tomkins, James – Climate expert

Watson, Mike – Novelist and Sarah’s husband

Watson, Sarah – Director of the FBI

Whalen, Jack – Major, USAF, Astronaut

Thank you for reading A Climate of Doubt. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

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Russ Moran is the author of 12 novels. The Gray Ship , Book One of The Time Magnet series, is a story of time travel, alternate history, romance, and a nuclear warship that finds itself in the Civil War. The Thanksgiving Gang is the sequel, A Time of Fear is Book Three, The Skies of Time is Book Four, and The Keepers of Time is Book Five.

The Shadows of Terror is Book One of The Patterns series, followed by The Scent of Revenge.

A Reunion in Time is a time travel novel, but not in the Time Magnet series.

Sideswiped, a legal thriller, is Book One of the Matt Blake Series .

The Reformers is Book Two of the Matt Blake Series, and The President is Missing is Book Three. Matt Blake, as you just read, is a major character in A Climate of Doubt.

Robot Depot , is a novel about our automated future.

Moran also published five nonfiction books: Justice in America: How it Works—How it Fails; The APT Principle: The Business Plan That You Carry in Your Head; Boating Basics: The Boattalk Book of Boating Tips; If You’re Injured: A Consumer Guide to Personal Injury Law ; How to Create More Time . He’s a lawyer and a veteran of the United States Navy. He lives on Long Island, New York, with his wife, Lynda and their two dogs, Maggie the Golden Retriever and Sammy the Shitzu.

“This provocative, intensely powerful novel is a must-read for sci-fi fans and Civil War aficionados, though mainstream fiction readers will find it heart-rending and inspiring as well. A rare read that’s not only wildly entertaining, but also profoundly moving.”