Peg and Mimi were biding their time by gazing at the cluster of flat screens assembled before them in the command center when a few of them switched to flagship broadcast and cable news channels. They looked at one another with both relieved and worried looks on their faces.
Sam was walking toward them to inform Peg that he had been told to return to the negotiating wall. He explained to her he thought it would be better for her and Mimi to stay where they were because it was below freezing outside. They agreed. Peg got up, gave him a kiss, said “luv ya” and wished him good luck. Sam gave her a long hug, then hugged Mimi, left the trailer skipping down the short set of steps and walked briskly through the wall of flood lights. He could still smell the propane salamanders. He arrived back to his designated battle station at the negotiating wall. In readiness, he lifted his headset over his cold ears. It was ten minutes to eleven.
“Bernie, you there?,” Sam spoke through his headset.
Bernie replied, “Where the hell do you think I’d be. I know what you’re going to ask. Yeah, I just got M-Mtek’s statement. It was on corporate letterhead, to boot. Signed by the top dog with cc’s to the feds and various media outlets. I just scan read it and it looks like it’s all together. Of course, like any other agreement, it’s only worth the paper it’s written on.”
“Right there, Bernie, but so is the Declaration of Independence,” Sam replied. “Although, there’s a world of difference between a corporate statement and the Declaration, I guess.”
“I’m not sure if there is, today,” Sam,” Bernie countered. “Oops, I have CNN pasting a breaking special report on my laptop feed. The show must go on. Let’s see how it will screw up this one.”
The news feed emanated from the town hall auditorium. It had about the same cast of characters as the earlier one did. Chip Harrison, M-Mtek’s VP spokesperson from its corporation counsel office, was introduced by Police Chief Russo to lead off the meeting.
After a slow and careful reading of the prepared statement, M-Mtek’s lawyer told the media and national audiences that he hoped M-Mtek’s revised plan would result in the safe release of the hostages as well as a peaceful resolution of the shutdown situation. He continued to assure that M-Mtek wanted the plant be made operable, again, so that employees could be called back to work under the agreement outlined in the corporation’s released position statement.
Chip Harrison stepped aside and handed the podium back to Chief Russo who was immediately faced with an onslaught of raised hands and shouts for questions from the media representatives. He told them he would only take a few because they all had to get back to work on negotiating the release of the hostages and peaceful surrender of Mr. Soloff.
Like rabid dogs begging for a biscuit, a cluster of hands went up from the floor with shouts for attention by media reps in attendance. Chief Russo called out, “Yes Molly.”
“Chief Russo, this is directed to Mr. Harrison…,” she started to say.
Mr. Harrison cut in on her question asking Chief Russo if he could respond. The Chief said to go ahead and Harrison made the statement, “I’m sorry folks, but I’m unable to comment further beyond our prepared statement due to potential interference with the negotiating process and potential legal liabilities resulting from the situation we find ourselves in.”
When Sam heard Chip’s interjection on his headset it confirmed why he thought all lawyers were dog’s breath.
Chief Russo called on another reporter from a Boston CBS affiliate who asked him, “This is directed to both the F.B.I. and the Police Department. Do you think M-Mtek made a big mistake giving less than a day to its employees to shut down the plant? And, do you believe maybe that was the reason for the dangerous hostage situation caused by one of its employees?”
Agent Ramos stepped next to Chief Russo and spoke into the microphone, “I’ll take that, Chief. It’s hard to make a direct correlation on something like that. We see incidences like these happening when plant closings are executed over many weeks or when implemented with mandatory or voluntary retirements. We see it also when adequate severance agreements and layoff announcements are phased in over a period of time. You never know what reaction you’ll get when layoffs are announced.”
The reporter was persistent, “Agent Ramos, does your agency think it’s getting worse, especially in the aftermath of the Great Recession?”
“I don’t really have the answer to that,” Agent Ramos said. “You need to check with our public information office for that.”
Chief Russo tried to end that line of questioning with a quick interjection, “OK, one more. We have to get back to our negotiations, here. Yes, Tim.”
Tim was the local roaming reporter at the town weekly newspaper known for his stories about local economic conditions in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. “Chief, do you think the M-Mtek situation will give anyone else faced with plant shutdowns the same ideas?”
“Come on, Tim,” admonished Chief Russo. “First, no one can predict that. And, it’s not responsible to even ask the question at this point. We’re living in tough times. It’s not like the old days when you kept the same job for most of your adult life. Think of your own business, the newspaper business, and what you’re going through. It is what it is.”
Before a continued clamor of raised hands, Chief Russo turned away from the podium and helped direct the others in clearing the stage in a walk-off to the side wings.
Once out of earshot of the media reps he said, “OK, folks. That’s over. Now let’s get this deal done.”
Back stage, Agent Ramos collared Captain Jim and told him to get back to the negotiating wall and get moving on the release of the hostages. He said he would follow as soon as he could but would be listening in and be available to Sam, if needed.
Captain Jim jogged back to the wall where Sam had positioned himself. Sam had heard what Agent Ramos said. He hand-gestured to Jim by pointing to his headset that he was prepared to talk to Bernie about the release of the hostages.
“Bernie, you still, there?” Sam asked. “Was the M-Mtek statement what you expected?”
“Hey, bud. You take what you can get. Isn’t that right?” Bernie propositioned.
“Bernie, we need to get the hostages out of there. You made your point and now the whole world knows about it. What do you say?” Sam implored.
“Well, Agent Sam, now that you put it that way. What was my point?” Bernie sarcastically replied. “And, I told all you idiots to not use the word “hostage.”
Sam played Bernie’s game with, “Pardon me, Bernie. All this time I thought you were trying to make a point. Sorry about that. Come on. What do you say? Let’s make it right for the sake of old times.”
“Easy for you to say. You don’t have to give these guys a safe path out of here. OK, here’s the drill,” Bernie said with a stern voice.
“Right now I’m only going to let the two boys go. Ishaan stays here with me. I’ve devised a way out of here that uses the back door out of the first floor equipment room,” informed Bernie. “I’ve given them a mandatory route to follow to get there and how to use the panic bars in the stairwells and at the door when they get there. I told them not to touch the walls and to walk in the center of both the stairs and hallways. And they’re not to touch anything in the equipment room, either. I even marked the route out on a floor plan of the plant. When do you want to do this? It’s important that we synch our watches when we do it. And, this is also very important. Tell the troops not to try barging into the equipment room when the door is opened by the boys. I can light up the traps instantaneously if the door isn‘t immediately closed.”
“Bernie, you’ve been a busy bee. Why not Ishaan?, Sam asked.
Bernie impishly replied, “I’m not through questioning him.”
Sam saw Agent Ramos jogging to the wall while signaling to Jim and him that the feed to Bernie was being cut. At the wall he told them they were willing to go with the boys only, first. He also said he wanted to speak directly to Bernie to coordinated the start time for delivering the boys to the equipment room back door.
Agent Ramos notified the command center that he was connecting with Bernie. When he opened the circuit to him he heard Bernie answer him with, “Agent Ramos, como estat?”
“Oh, you’ve just made my day around here, Bernie,” Agent Dean answered in English. “Look, we need to pin down an exact release time for the boys so we can pick them up at the side door. The sooner, the better, for us. It’s 11:30 PM now. What’s best for you?”
“11:45. 11:45 is good. Let’s do it,” Bernie demanded. “What’s your watch say?”
Agent Ramos: “11:36. Give me yours and I’ll set mine to you. OK?”
Bernie: “OK. 5,4,3,2,1,0, set 11:37. Let‘s get this show on the road. I don‘t want any surprises.”
Agent Ramos: “That’s a deal. We’ll be waiting by the back door to pick them up.”
Bernie looked at the two young men who appeared tired but were strictly paying attention to his side of the conversation with the F.B.I. agent. He told them, “Listen carefully. It’s going to take about 5 minutes for you to make your way to the equipment room’s outside door. You need to make sure you know the map I gave you, cold. Get over by the door right now and wait for my go ahead. Don’t run and don’t do anything but walk in the center of the halls to get there. And take your piss can with you. Got that?”
Mikal and Chang looked at each other and in unison said they understood. Mikal picked up the coffee can and they both went over by the door. Ishaan broke his silence by wishing them luck.
Bernie looked over at them by the door and said, “Just think, you’ll always be able to tell this story to you kids. And, it should make for a great pick-up line at the bars. On my count, get out of here. 5,4,3,2,1 - now get out of here!”
Bernie tapped a few keys on his open laptop as the two hostages scooted out the door on their pathway to freedom.
There was stone silence in the third floor conference room of the M-Mtek plant office. It seemed to Ishaan it was taking forever for five minutes to pass when he noticed Bernie poised over his laptop with fingers ready.
“Berrnie, we got them,” announced Agent Ramos.
Bernie immediately rearmed the booby traps along the boys pathway to freedom. Looking at his remaining hostage, he said, ”Well, it looks like it’s down to you and me, Ishaan.”
Ishaan looked Bernie in the eye and said, “So, what do you need me for? I never learned how to golf.”
“Let’s just say I need you to be my messenger,” Bernie hit back. “Starting with why companies like M-Mtek crap on workers the way they do. Is it that the profit motive is so great, so overwhelming, that we’re all like chattel to them? Am I missing something? It’s like a sophisticated game of chess and we’re the pawns. Human resource departments do nothing more than figure out how to flick the pawns off the board when the time comes.”
Before Ishaan could answer, Bernie was interrupted by Agent Dean on his open line who said, “That went well, Bernie. Where are we going from here? How are we going to close this deal?”
“Hey, Dean. You don’t mind if I call you, ‘Dean,’ do you? I feel like we’re old friends. Just before you broke in, Ishaan and I were in the midst of having a discussion about how to save the world from the evil forces of rampant capitalism and the sizing-own of America. Want to join in?” invited Bernie.
“Sorry, Bernie, economics isn’t my strong suit,” Dean said. “Look, what is it you really want? We did the statement in good faith and you let the kids go. That shows we can work together. Give me an idea of how we can bring this to a close. You want to talk to Sam about this?”
“Yeah, put him on,” agreed Bernie.
“Bernie, this is the last time I’m standing around in the cold waiting for you to make up your mind about something,” Sam chuckled. “This is worse than waiting for you to make your club selection on an approach shot at the club. So, it has to be 25 degrees out here. I‘m freezing. You going to put an end this?”
“Oh, cool your jets. The night is young,” Bernie said, again with a slight levity to his voice. “First we’re going to get Ishaan to give us his views on why outfits like M-Mtek have to shut down plants and move them to Timbuktu. Ishaan, you’re on.”
In staid fashion Ishaan grabbed his cell phone back from Bernie and began to answer Bernie’s question, “The truth is, Bernie, that what I’m going to tell you will probably get me fired. But, here it goes, anyway. For the most part, American workers have become so entitled they have grown accustomed to expecting high salaries and wages for what they do. They know they need them to live at a high level of material surroundings and economic status. The workers in other countries don’t yet possess these same values as strongly as American workers do. Nor do they initially expect the same pay when they come to America to live.”
Ishaan continued, “Almost everyone in the corporate board rooms knows this about the American worker. The temptation to trade off the inconveniences of moving work to other countries or to immigrants brought into ours outweighs the elimination of the entitlement factor within the ranks of a company’s work force. If you don’t do this, ultimately your products, and sometimes services, will be co-opted by countries who do not yet have the entitlement factor embedded in their workplaces. If you don’t do something about it you will die on the vine.”
Bernie calmly said to Ishaan and Sam, who was listening in, “Sam, this guy sounds like me at lunch over at Jimmie’s.”
“So, Ishaan,” Bernie continued, “How do you go in every day and deal with this? Why not just take up Zen and live on a mountain top in California?”
“Bernie, there are market forces at work that actually can’t be controlled. You just have to go with the flow and have an action plan in case you get caught up in it,” Ishaan offered.
“Sam, do you have an action plan?,” Bernie asked.
“Not really. But I see you did,” Sam shot back. “You done? We need to bring this deal to a close. What’s the final act in your action plan, Bernie?”
“Well, Sam,” Bernie cautiously disclosed, “Since we’ve been having our little talk I noticed on my laptop that I’ve been bombarded with a military-grade signal jamming device. Apparently your F.B.I. buddies are trying to knock out my communications and they look like they’ve done a good job at it so far. When the coast is clear I fully expect they’ll be charging up here to pay us a visit. That would be one way to close the deal, no? What do you think of that?”
Sam looked over at Dean with dagger eyes. Dean responded with a nod of yes with his head. A shudder not caused by the frigid night went through Sam’s spine. He went over to Dean, took off his head set and told him he was done playing games with his fucking negotiation team. He told him he was on his own with Captain Jim and Mack and that he would take Mimi and Peg to the command center to wait out his deal with Bernie.
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American Shutdown by Benjamin F. Campanelli
Copyright © 2018 All rights reserved
