Waste Not, Want Not Chapter I

January 8, 2001

“Ring! Ring!”
The telephone began to ring in this luxury bedroom suite in the Reagan Arms International Hotel, Washington.
Emerging from the bathroom quickly, and wiping his face with a towel, a trim man, fit for his mid seventies, wearing a silk brocade bath robe with his monogram embroidered over his chest, tripped over the Persian footstool as he hurried to answer the phone.
"Damn!" he cursed, and kicked the offending furniture out of his way as he hurriedly rushed toward the phone.
Suddenly the door from the adjoining room was flung ajar and in rushed a large, athletic man, causally dressed but clutching the handle of his automatic pistol still in its exposed shoulder holster.
"Is everything OK Mr. Hewlett? I heard the racket in here." "Fine Conrad. Leave me alone right now, I think this is the important phone call I have been expecting."
"Yes sir." Said Conrad as he backed out the door.
He picked up the phone and said "Yes?"
A soft female voice with a strong Texas accent asked "Is this Mr. Paul Hewlett? It is? Wonderful. I'm Senator Grimm’s secretary, please go ahead Senator."
"Hello Paul." Said the voice on the other end of the phone. "How in the world are you doing?"
The Senator continued. "Happy New Year by the way, I’m a little bit late. It's always good to hear from you. Listen Paul, I'm calling about that matter we discussed. The timing could not be better. Since the President elect’s victory in the election has been confirmed I think we will be able to move ahead on that project. Of course the President elect knows nothing about this but I have it
on solid background that we will have some of our people well placed in the new administration. This little program of yours might slip through totally unnoticed."
Paul asked "How about EPA clearance?"
'That's no problem for now." The senator replied. "The EPA director designate will be someone on our side. Of course this is a 'black project' and no one in EPA knows what this is really about. Once you have your clearance it is likely no one will ever look into it. In any case I would suggest you get your groundwork started as soon as possible. I still believe in the project and I believe that it is important for national security."
"Good. That's good." Said Paul. "Your help in this matter is really appreciated Bill. And give the President my congratulations. I've known him since he was a boy, you know. His dad and I go way back. And, as always, you can count on my support when you're up for re-election I am sure we can put together some successful fund raisers."
Paul continued. "I'm going down to Texas tomorrow. I'll be going out to that property we purchased and I'll be looking it over and checking into the local details. I'll officially be on vacation and I'm just going out in the boonies. We're keeping a tight lid on this thing. I'll call you if I have any big problems but it looks like everything is all set up for the moment. Thanks again."
"Glad to be of help Paul, 'bye now." Responded the senator as he hung up.
Paul Hewlett sat there for a reflective moment. He was a self assured man, disciplined, correct. He brought a high level of intensity into all of his activities. He enjoys the game and he likes to win. He was used to winning. He was a star athlete at Annapolis, a decorated naval officer in the war and Korea. He resigned his commission in 1955 and threw himself into his family's businesses, oil, gas, chemicals, and later, nuclear energy. The family company, HEWCO, was now a world wide conglomerate whose subsidiaries had subsidiaries. Paul had for some time been the firebrand in the company and had held the chairmanship for twenty years.
Paul sat down at the large oaken desk and opened his laptop computer and flipped on the switch. His computer was a limited edition designed to accommodate high security protection against hackers, viruses and eaves dropping. He inserted a special safe-secure program. A DOD security clearance is necessary to possess or use these programs. This system supposedly offers bug proof communications and transmissions systems.
He punched in some ID numbers and immediately raised a screen prompt that flashed "Warning" on the screen. The screen then displayed this message. "Use of this program without proper authorization is a felony. Enter proper entrance code sequence within 15 seconds or alarm signals will activate in F.B.I. and D.O.D. computer banks."
Paul entered the correct sequence.
The screen then displayed "Enter code words."
He typed the words "Waste Not, Want Not."
The screen responded "Access granted. Have a nice day."
He then keyed the transmission sending program which put him direct contact with his private office computer. Only his private secretary, who has a high security clearance, has access to this computer. She also knows his computer codes, or some of his computer codes.
He typed "Green light on project. I'm going on vacation tomorrow. Unless something comes up I'll contact the office again sometime next week."
He transmitted the message and a reply came up on the screen. “Message received, have a good trip."
He got up and walked over to the window and looked out over Washington. His room gave a view of The Mall, full of hustling, bustling people seemingly oblivious to the many webs of intrigue and influence being spun over the city. He was satisfied things were going well. He liked how it felt.