Authors: Terence Kuch
Try Try Again (29 page)
“A,” said Hub, “I don’t know; and B, I don’t know that
either.”
“We have to do something!” Jill blurted.
“Why?” Hub asked. “Look, we’ve pretty much solved the
mystery, and my show is safe for as many or as few more seasons it runs. Jill
has money – some left, anyway, right, Jill?”
“I’m going spend my days at Dill-Tech,” said Jill, sounding
none too happy.
“And Liv – well, I don’t know what you got out of this
Agonist adventure.”
“Frustration,” she said. “Knowing there’s probably some
monstrous crime going on and we can’t do anything about it – we don’t even know
what it is.”
“We could go to the media,” said Jill.
“Not solid enough,” Hub said. “Maybe about Netherton, whom
the media wouldn’t give a damn about anyway, but certainly not about the
President or who may be behind this scheme, if he isn’t.”
“There’s Brent Nielsen,” Liv said, “but as a freshman in
Congress he has no clout at all. And knowing Brent, I’m sure he’d refuse to get
involved in this, even if we believed in the President’s guilt and could
convince him of it.”
“Wait a minute,” said Jill, “are you assuming Conning knew
what Netherton was up to? That he approved or ordered Barnes’ killing?”
“Dunno,” said Hub. “OK, no. He’s probably innocent of all
this, and he’s just being played. – I think we should assume that.”
“I guess I’ll have to stop being so trusting of the people
in power,” said Jill, “not asking any questions or anything. And as I asked
some time ago now, where are we and what do we do?”
No one answered her.
The following Tuesday, President Conning announced a new
Mid-East peace initiative. “That part of the world has not known peace for the
past hundred years and more,” he said, “since the European powers divided up
the region arbitrarily, dividing peoples and families and religions.
“Today I am sending a package of bills to Congress that will
promote stability in that region. We will encourage, support, and rely on our
friends in the area, from Morocco to Pakistan, but we will not ourselves send
troops or major infusions of materiel. We will of course continue foreign aid
at our current level or perhaps more, although not necessarily targeted to the
same beneficiaries.
“I will continue to regard the independence and safety of
Israel as our primary goal in this part of the world. And I believe greater
coordination among the Muslim states of that region will contribute to Israel’s
safety. It will certainly reduce the number of states to be negotiated with or
dealt with in other ways.”
The press waited eagerly for details.
As the months went by, the implications of the Conning Mideast
Peace Policy became clear. Many members of Congress were alarmed. The Russian
government complained that the U.S. seemed to be supporting unrest in the North
Caucasus. The Chinese complained that the U.S. policy was interfering with its plans
in Xinjiang and farther west.
On the ground, Al-Ma‘raka, a previously unknown force in the
Islamic world, had swallowed up Al-Qaeda and ISIL and several similar
organizations. Its affiliates were on the verge of taking over the governments
of Libya and Oman. Still the President did not alter his policy. He frequently
pointed out, no Americans had been harmed, and the oil was still flowing.
There were rumors of impeachment. Leaders of both parties
met secretly with the President and urged him to reverse his Mid-East policy,
as the few friendly governments in the region were submerged in the new,
fast-growing, and nuclear-armed Islamic Caliphate. He refused.
Meetings of important people with the Vice President
increased in number and frequency. One of his guests was a tall, severe-looking
woman dressed in black.
“Are you ready to pick up with our initiative where we left
off?” she asked.
The Vice President told her he was ready. He had no choice.
It was now seven years since the assassination, four since
the Agonauts disbanded. Hub Landon was now producing his third webV series,
hiring his own directors. His second series had won several awards but had not
become popular. His first had achieved some level of fame, however, and he was
much sought after in the business. He liked to be called “Mr. Landon,” now, or
“sir,” not “Hub.” He grew a beard and started acting as he thought a producer
should act – like Frankie Dickstein, that is. He built an even bigger tub and
invited his special friends to join him there, one or more at a time. A few of
them wished Hub were younger.
Judge Harriet DuCasse was passed over for the State Supreme
Court bench and became old and bitter.
JTJ finally got her big break and went to work for a webV
network station in New York, even though it was only for the weather segment.
She became very good at weather, and highly popular; so popular in that role
that she was never given a chance to do any real news reporting. The NFL tried again
to hire her as an on-field commentator; she told them to stuff it up their
tight ends.
Sybille Haskin went on to other intrigues, on behalf of
other clients. Usually, she was richly rewarded. One final time, she died.
Olivia Saunders became a partner at Fogle Harsh Weaver, but
not a named partner, which disappointed her. She began to get over memories of what
had happened fourteen years before, with her father. A year after the Agonauts
broke up, she had thrown a bottle of whiskey through her bedroom window,
slightly injuring a pedestrian on the sidewalk below. She never bought another
bottle.
Brent Nielsen joined the Congressional opposition to
President Conning’s Mid-East policy. But that policy was confirmed and then expanded
by President Milton Vandivere, the former Vice President, who succeeded Conning
in office after Conning’s first term. Conning hadn’t run for re-election.
Jillian Hall got back with Roger for a few months, but then
threw him out one final time. She used the last of her fortune, and borrowed
much more, to buy out Horace Dillman and become Chairman, President, and principal
owner of Dill-Tech, which she renamed Jill-Tech. Ellie Mason came over to
Jill’s for dinner occasionally. Together they had watched the final episode of
the final season of “Try Try Again.”
END
End Notes
1. This novel is dedicated to the real Frank Dickstein, the
author’s late father in law, who would have enjoyed it.
2. In honor of George Romero’s Pennsylvania, this book
includes two hard-to-miss references to his films. The first ten readers who
identify both will win an autographed copy of
Try Try Again
.
3. Grantwood, Pennsylvania is a fictional place. There is a
location in Pennsylvania that can be found by retracing the route Liv Saunders
drives home from Washington, D.C. one evening, but there’s nothing much there
but pasture and a few trees. Pimmit Hills, Virginia, however, is real, rumors
to the contrary notwithstanding. Google Maps for Windows knows where it is and
will help you get there, if you need to.
4. The full epigraph quotation from S
t
a
n
i
s
ł
aw
Lem is: “We do not imitate the mechanics
of bird flight even if we do fly ourselves. It is not imitation that is at
stake here but understanding.” (
S
umm
a
Technologiae
,
University of Minnesota Press, 2013, page 19 - original publication in Polish,
2010).
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