King of All I Survey-Chapter 154: Taking our Case to The People

OK, Joe, start the show, I sent a mental command as the three of us took up places behind the three podiums we had set up at the front of the auditorium. The room lights dimmed and the murmuring of the journalists talking among themselves as they waited died down to an expectant silence. Behind us a movie theater-sized viewscreen showed formal portraits of Maribel and Mom side by side with their titles.

Maria Isabel Flores, Chief Executive Officer of Health First and Food First.

Susana Bailey, Chief Executive Officer of Connection First and Community First freewёbnoνel-com

Above both of them was my adult form portrait.

Timothy Bailey, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of Universal Earth Concord.

They were connected like a very small org-chart, showing them both reporting to me. There were also lines off to either side of them indicating that there were more CEO level positions in different subsidiary organizations that had been left unidentified for this presentation.

The three of us stood at individual podiums on the stage looking up at the rows of seats in the hospital’s lecture hall. They were mostly empty with about forty journalists scattered in small groupings throughout the stands. Joe had all three of us bathed in individual spotlights. As I was to be the first to speak, my spotlight was brightest at the moment. Mom and Maribel, although still illuminated, had softer lighting that left them slightly shadowed, while allowing them and their facial reactions to be seen clearly. Mom was positioned to my right and Maribel was on my left.

I glanced down at the podium in front of me. The top was video screen hidden from the view of the audience by low walls around it. Joe could use these screens to supply us with information as we spoke. It might be a picture of the person asking a question with his name and the organization she or he represented, a table of data showing how many people in a specific country or city had been treated in our medical clinics, or whatever data we needed at any given moment. If we had written out specific scripts for our remarks, it could have acted as a teleprompter either with the full text or just bullet points of the key topics. At the moment, mine showed, Live feed begins in 5 seconds, allow eight seconds after that for titles to display on the feed. There were three small red lights at the top representing the three of us. Each would turn green when to show when any of us was being shown on the live feed. If I place a finger on my indicator light, Joe would switch the feed to me within five seconds, allowing whichever of the other two was speaking, if any, to quickly finish their sentence first.

The timer counted down, the feed was live to whichever of the television news organizations had wanted to broadcast it live, the others were taping for later edit and broadcast. It showed the org chart display and an overall title:

Press Conference

Universal Earth Concord Awaiting Mexican Government Response

As my timer clicked down to one second, I looked up at the crowd with a pleasant, welcoming smile, as if I were happy to see close friends in the crowd. I let my gaze sweep through the audience, trying to make very small pauses here and there as I did so, trying to show a flash of recognition as if seeing either a person of particular importance or a good friend. I tried to catch as much of the audience as I could with the very brief pauses, to give each person that they were the one special person who had caught my gaze. Joe had implanted a treasure trove of information about making good first impressions, and making every listener feel important and respected, both in situations like this and in individual interactions. Once he had filled my brain with all these techniques, I recognized them from having watched politicians working a room without even saying a word.

My gaze went back to the center as I began to speak, then swept across the audience again as I delivered my opening lines. "First, I want to thank you all for being here. I recognize many of you from your news programs on television, or from the photos attached to your bylines in the newspapers. I am humbled to have so many highly esteemed and well-respected voices of the Mexican press here with us, today.

"Of the three of us here in front of you today, I am perhaps the least well-known. I have had the easy job, of working behind the scenes doing what I can to help make the real work easier for my two trusted and very capable subordinates, Maira Isabel Flores and Susana Bailey. They have been the ones who I have called upon to lead our efforts to establish a network of medical services, food distribution, infrastructure modernization, community outreach, and a host of other important missions on what we used to jokingly call the front lines. Today, with the confrontation that occurred with the Mexican Army, perhaps that term has become too accurate." I paused and let my smile grow a little to try to indicate that I was being facetious.

"I’m sure many of you have seen and heard about their efforts here in Mexico, especially in the Chiapas region, as well as in Guatemala and Colombia. They have done tremendous work, bringing aid to many hundreds of thousands of people, or perhaps millions by now. They have worked tirelessly to help the people of Mexico, Guatemala, and Colombia, at times, as you may have seen today, for example, putting themselves at great personal risk. I am proud and humbled to have such brave and dedicated leaders spearheading these efforts for me." I took a moment to exchange looks with each of them, nodding my thanks to them as I did so.

There was a scattering of applause, not much, because the auditorium was mostly empty, and because, well, journalists like to think of themselves as observers rather than participants. There were a few of our people in the back, both local medical support staff we had hired as well as some of our highly trained paramilitaries and newly trained Advanced Medical Care Specialists. They applauded heartily when I introduced and acknowledged my two companions.

"While they have been doing al the hard work, I have been working largely behind the scenes, overseeing not only their efforts, but also those of our organizations involved in the dismantling of the powerful drug cartels and trafficking organizations in the aforementioned regions and working closely with the government leaders of the countries where we have established a presence. It’s also my responsibility to make sure that our finances are in order so we can pay for all this work.

"As you can see from the screen behind me, I am the Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of Universal Earth Concord, the parent organization encompassing a broad range of charitable enterprises including Health First, Food First, Community First, Peace First, and Connection First, among others. The heads of all of those individual groups report to me directly. The information packets we have provided to you include more details about the specific missions and work of those charitable organizations, so I won’t go further into the details here today.

"Instead, let me get straight to the purpose of this press conference which is to address the cause and resolution of the unfortunate confrontation that you witnessed here today as the Mexican Armed Forces conducted an attempted a forcible take-over of this very hospital." The view screen behind me showed some still images of the day’s events, The army lined up in front of the hospital, heavy, jeep mounted guns aimed at the building, soldiers with shoulder-fired rocket launchers also taking aim at the clearly marked hospital. Children and parents blocked from the hospital by lines of armed soldiers, and my favorite, an action shot of Mom being tackled, with the soldier in the air after having launched himself at her, her back bowed backwards under the impact, a look of pain and shock on her face.

I heard the journalists and our staff murmuring as the images were displayed. "I have personally spoken to President De La Huerta, even as events here unfolded, and I am pleased to tell you that as soon as he understood the situation here, he ordered and immediate halt and withdrawal of the Army. He has assured me that the entire actions was the result of misinformation and an unfortunate misunderstanding. Fortunately, no one on either side was injured. I looked over toward Mom pointedly, Susana is much tougher than she looks." I smiled in her direction. She put on her best look of embarrassment at being singled out for this, letting her eyes fall to the podium in front of her. Our staff applauded her enthusiastically. Some of the journalists joined in.

"President De La Huerta, it seems, had received information that there may still be holdouts among the violent gangs that until recently plagued this very city. His information said they may even be hiding within this hospital, regrouping and waiting for an opportunity to strike back. Given that information, he did the right thing. He sent the army here in force to ensure the safety of the people and to take care of the situation. The information, as you have seen for yourselves, was false, there are no criminals hiding out in this or any of our facilities.

"Had any such group attempted to take-over or force their way into our facilities, I assured him, we have the capability to immediately deal with the situation regardless of the size or capability of such an attempted incursion. In fact, when a squadron of two dozen elite Mexican Special Forces entered the building, we quickly contained and disarmed them, without harming them. We are now in the process of returning them safely to their base of operations."

"However, during the course of my discussion with President De La Huerta, he expressed his concerns that our organizations are establishing a very large presence in Mexico. While we had explicit Mexican government approval to act in Chiapas, to remove drug-trafficking operations and work with local officials to establish community services, he felt that perhaps we had over-reached our permissions when we did the same her along the coastal regions, despite the well-known problem of ultra-violent cartel-related gangs, as evidenced by the unfortunate history of events, especially here in Chilpancingo."

I paused to let them digest this. "Of course, we do not want to oppose the direct wishes of the Mexican Government. I assured him that we acted in good faith, assuming the permissions from Chiapas extended throughout the country. He did not have the same understanding. So, where does that leave us? I have made a formal proposal to President De la Huerta. If he accepts, we will have complete authority to continue our efforts here throughout the entirety of Mexico, providing security, advanced medical care, assistance with food and basic necessities, the rebuilding, expansion and modernization of Mexico’s infrastructure, restoration of the tourism industry in the coastal regions, the building of new factories providing solid, high-wage jobs, and many other benefits, including providing real order and a focus on rehabilitation to all of Mexico’s chaotic prison system."

"On the other hand, if he does not want to accept this offer, we will begin to phase out our efforts here, returning control of drug-trafficking and violent gangs to the Mexican government, and ceasing the expansion of our charitable endeavors here. We will continue to operate small community medical centers as the government permits, along with food distribution services in regions where such assistance is needed to replace the income formerly provided by working with the gangs, but over time, we will be forced to immediate cease expanding those operations and turn our focus to aiding those countries where we are fully welcomed. The choice is his. We have provided him with complete contract detailing the terms of our proposal and formalizing our relationship with the government of Mexico and are awaiting his response. We will, of course, respect his decision. I know that he takes great pride in keeping the will and welfare of the people of Mexico as his highest priority, so I encourage the people of Mexico to let him know whether they support the work we have done here to eliminate organized crime and rampant violence and want our efforts to improve the quality of life for everyone in Mexico to continue or end."

"As of this very moment, the ball is in his court. His army still surrounds our hospital here, although I have been assured that they are simply preparing to withdraw. At his moment, Mexican military forces have also has surrounded many of our facilities throughout western Mexico, preventing anyone from entering or leaving while he considers whether to kick us out or accept our aid."

"That is the end of my prepared remarks, but Maribel, Susana, and I will be happy to answer any questions you may have for as long as you ’d like us to remain."

The spotlights on the three of us equalized in intensity, and the house lights came up.

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