M-Mtek made a lame effort to fulfill Bernie’s dying wish. It stayed open for a few months before selling-off the entire company to Global Medical Holdings, a Chinese-owned American-based enterprise in San Jose, CA. By then, most of its employees had taken severance packages offered to them for their resignation. Some accepted unemployment, workman’s comp, disability, independent consultancy work or lower paying jobs that provided some degree of health care benefits.
M-Mtek’s corporate executives took handsome buyouts for getting out of Global Medical’s way where there was no room for them in the transition. Ishaan Gilbert took an assistant professor position at a local university teaching Human Resource Management in a Global Economy. His first semester was a sell-out. Many aspiring millennials longed to know what faced them in the new world order that lurked outside the classroom.
Agent Dean Ramos was reassigned to Washington, DC where he was promoted to managing officer of a new intergovernmental agency task force charged with overseeing hostage policies and practices in the United States and its territories. Within the F.B.I. there was stiff competition for the job. Benefits included mandatory fitness regimens like mid-day jogs around DC parklands. Attendance at Congressional committee briefings and hearings proved long and tedious making him feel like he was being held hostage.
TechCall staff involved in the hostage ordeal continued to provide services to corporations who were selling-out their employees “to maximize profits and increase capital by reducing labor costs.” Their hostage experience gave them much to take about at sports bars and Frisbee golf meet-ups.
Captain Mahoney and Chief Russo took 20 year buyouts offered to them by town council. It was part of a cost-cutting effort. Devaluations of industrial and commercial properties lowered tax revenue in their jurisdictions. They both found good paying jobs in the brisk corporate security consultancy business around New England. The recognition they received from Bernie’s legacy helped them immensely in the corporate security marketplace. It also provided many rapt luncheon conversations wooing and feeding clients.
Jimmie’s diner fell on hard times. A combination of M-Mtek’s shutdown with a reluctance of nearby businesses to look kindly at employees taking lunch outside their workplace began to reflect at the cash register. Jimmie sold the diner to a newly arrived Pakistani immigrant who paid him cash. He decided to move to Florida where he opened another diner on the outskirts of Orlando midway between Disney World and Cape Canaveral.
As a final tribute to Bernie, Mimi, Sam and Peg paid a visit to their golf club. At 1 AM one night they raked Bernie’s ashes into the damp white sand trap adjoining the 18th hole. Sam reflected: Ladies, I think Bernie would have wanted it this way.
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American Shutdown by Benjamin F. Campanelli
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