Seattle. Monday Evening.
The private G3 jumped off the SeaTac Airport runway and raced for the sky. Punching a hole in the clouds, it banked left around Mt. Rainier then reached its cruising altitude before leveling off. Alan Bradley Sr. sipped the drink the stewardess had given him, as the flight crew of his private plane settled in for its five hour flight.
From the window beside him, he could see the orange-yellow brilliance of sunset fade behind the plane as they sped off into the darkness ahead. They were headed east, back to DC, where Senior could continue to labor on his son’s behalf.
Alan was a man driven by ambition. Struggling most of his young life, he worked sixteen hour days as a salesman in the plastics industry. Reinvesting everything he made, he quickly put together a small fortune and started his own company.
Now, it took more than just hard work and dedication to make it. When you started playing with the big boys, you had to learn the new rules to the game of success. Connections needed to be made and loyalties had to be declared. Golf games and fancy parties with other CEOs and big investors became weekly events.
Politics also became a fruitful field of influence that he cultivated. The right contribution to the right election campaign got you the right government contracts and Alan Bradley Sr. played this game better than anyone. It didn’t take him long before he completely dominated his competitors. He soon had more money than he thought he could possibly spend, and wealth suddenly lost meaning to him.
It was then that he realized power was the only useful yard stick to measure true success. He decided to make a change and set his sights on the most powerful position in the world. Someday, he vowed, he would be President of the United States of America.
Suddenly, political ties became more important. He became the election fund raising chairman for several Senators and Representatives. Working for Richard Nixon, he not only made a sizable contribution of his own, but called in every IOU and favor ever made to him to help in the election. For his help, Alan was given the title of Personal Advisor on Economics to the President of the United States.
His loyalties were clearly established. There was nothing he hadn’t done to help this administration and he fully intended to reap the rewards. He had one hand on a rung of the ladder to power and the other was on Nixon’s coat tails. Using both, he was determined to eventually reach the Oval Office.
Alan Sr. worked on his public image. He donated large sums of money to good causes and married into a politically powerful family. He only spent enough time with his new bride to have a son, Alan Bradley Jr. After which, he only came in contact with his wife and son for special events and holiday parties.
This completed the picture he wanted to show the public. Here was a man who was generous, good at business, and a loving husband and father. Who wouldn’t want him as the next leader of the Free World? The facts didn’t matter, it was how the public perceived those facts that did.
Along with the rewards, political ties have their costs. Alan Sr. soon found himself caught up in the Watergate scandal. Not just a little bit, but neck deep in it. While trying to keep Watergate out of the press, he was caught red handed attempting to destroy evidence and committing perjury to a Grand Jury.
It took every political favor and bribe he could come up with to keep himself out of prison. He was now politically in ruins. Deciding to cut his loses, Alan Sr. left Washington DC with the hope that one day he could rekindle his political career. Like a football team who no longer has a use for certain players, he put the wife and child that he never loved on permanent waivers.
He entered the computer software business and quickly accelerated his wealth. Several times he tried to use that wealth to push his way back into politics. Every campaign and administration was very happy to take his money, but he himself was just too hot of a potato. Some things you just can’t bounce back from and he resigned himself to the realization that he would never hold the highest office in the land.
However, he still was determined his thirst for power was not to go unsatisfied. If he couldn’t get there himself, then he must resort to plan B- The Kennedy solution.
Alan Sr. considered himself to be very similar to Joseph Kennedy. They were both among the mega-rich of their time. They both had a desire for power and both wanted to be President. They had both used their money to secure influential political positions. And both had been cast out of political favor.
He recalled that Joe Kennedy had been appointed Ambassador to England, under the Roosevelt administration. While there he was of the opinion that the United States should not enter the war against Hitler. Instead, he preached that Europe should take care of their own problems. This isolationist view was unpopular with the people and proved to be his downfall. His unyielding stance and outspoken manner sealed his political tomb—he would never be accepted as a leader by the American people.
Joe Kennedy’s lust for power found new life in his son John. John F. Kennedy had just returned from the Pacific as a war hero. Joe arranged for John to marry into a politically influential family. Every advantage Joe could get was used to accelerate John’s political career. What resulted was the creation of one of the most popular presidents in history. Also, the Kennedys became one of the most powerful and influential families in the world. Alan Bradley Sr. intended to do the same thing for his son, and share in the powerful dynasty that resulted.
Alan Sr. restarted a relationship with his son immediately. When Alan Jr. was only ten, Alan Sr. began to mold him into his own image. They were very much alike, so it wasn’t hard to do. When the time was right, Senior told Junior of his secret plan. Alan Jr. loved the idea and couldn’t wait to get started.
Started? Alan Sr.’s plan was suddenly dead in its tracks. He had planned for everything else except how to launch his son into the limelight. John Kennedy had been in the military, fought in a war and came back a hero. Everyone loves a hero.
Should Alan Jr. join the military? That idea wasn’t popular with Junior. There were just too many rules and too much discipline and Alan Jr. was not one who took orders well. Besides, in order to become a hero, there had to be a war first and wars were just too unpredictable to be reliable. While Senior pondered the different ways that he could start one, Junior came up with the solution.
Why not law enforcement? Wasn’t there already a war against drugs? You had an enemy to fight, battles to wage and it all could be done without digging a ditch or eating sea rations. Besides, it was politically popular because you didn’t have to win. All you had to do was show that you put a serious dent in the situation and everyone will love you for it.
Senior thought it ironic that his connection to Richard Nixon had been his political undoing. However, it was President Nixon that declared a global war on drugs, and by executive order, created the Drug Enforcement Agency, or DEA. Without knowing it, Nixon created the means by which Junior would continue on Senior’s ambitious path to power.
It was brilliant. His son was a chip off the old block. For every potential problem, they’d come up with an answer. Senior would continue to make connections in both the political and social arenas, greasing the political skids, so that Junior could quickly and easily slide from the west coast into the DC beltway.
When Junior finished college, Senior’s connections would ensure a position in the Drug Enforcement Agency. He’d be assigned to a branch on the west coast, preferably in Seattle, so that his progress could be closely monitored by his father.
For his part, Junior had to work hard as well. He had to finish college with high marks, make influential contacts of his own, and nurture the relationships that Senior had established for him. But most of all, he had to make a name for himself. Junior needed to solve high profile cases to establish a record of distinguished service.
Senior had just started the process of interviewing politically influential families who had daughters old enough for marriage. Arran
ged marriages were nothing new, and he was determined to find the absolute best match for his son’s career. Once the initial inquiries were made, he knew, the other families would start the process of investigating Alan Jr. They’d want to know what they were getting, so Senior decided that he had to know what they would find. He launched an investigation of his own, and the results had surprised and disturbed him.
At first, everything looked fairly normal. Junior’s grades were exceptional and he graduated at the top of his class with honors. After checking into a few inconsistencies, however, a small group of people had been uncovered who had information that was unsettling.
It seems that Alan Jr.’s record wasn’t entirely clear of blemishes. A few campus security guards, one police officer and even the dean of students had dirt on Junior. During Alan’s college days, he had received a large number of parking tickets and one DUI, all of which mysteriously disappeared. Junior had bribed the guards and the cop to have it all just go away.
Unfortunately, the dean of students caught wind of what was going on and eventually found out the truth and wanted to expel Alan Jr. The dean believed that a person as unethical as Junior had no business being in the criminal justice field. However, Junior was able to find the dean’s price tag as well. It was expensive, but not unreasonable and the whole matter was swept under the rug.
Even though the paper trail was destroyed, the word of mouth evidence was still out there. Alan Sr. had his investigators secretly video tape the people involved confessing to the bribes. He also checked into their pasts to find other incriminating facts. Using both, Senior was able to use the information to silence them forever. If they ever spoke of the situation again, then the incriminating information now in Senior’s safe would be released and their lives would be destroyed.
Although Senior was shocked to find out what Junior had done, he couldn’t help but be proud of him. Junior had learned to take care of his own problems without running to daddy for help. Still, he was very surprised at Junior’s actions. Senior had used bribery and blackmail like an art form, but he never tried to teach these tactics to Junior. Was he so blind and foolish to think that his own son wasn’t watching his father and learning? Junior was a very smart person, with an exceptional IQ, and he always got strait A’s without bringing home a single book.
For all their similarities, there were a few areas in which father and son were complete opposites. Senior knew what it was like to be poor, working hard long hours struggling to get to the top. Junior had not experienced these things, and Senior believed that the life of privilege had made Junior somewhat lazy and sloppy.
A few hours ago they had argued about the situation. Senior wanted Junior to stay out of trouble, and avoid situations that could come back to haunt them. Junior had always resisted any attempts by his father to control him but this time yielded to his wishes. Senior didn’t want to smother Junior’s young instinctive energy, just temper it a little.
Senior had a business to run. A few years ago, he had started Titan Industries, a telecommunications company, which he’d since driven to the top of the industry. This month they would be launching the first of hundreds of communications satellites into orbit, and Senior was needed at the helm of the company. He didn’t have time to be mopping up after his son.
Senior looked out the window. It was completely dark now. The only thing he saw was a twisted ghostly reflection of himself staring back at him from the glass. Senior pondered that in sad frustration. Knowing his son well, he wondered if Junior could ever be counted on to control himself.
But he couldn’t worry about that now, he decided. A bride had to be found, and the sooner the better. Alan Sr. put down his drink and opened the file in front of him. It was a list of prospective candidates. Each young woman was listed and ranked according to family wealth and political influence. Senior had a team of investigators looking into the pasts of all of them. Sadly, he had already been forced to cross off two of the most promising candidates for various reasons.
“Kids, these days,” he said in frustration. “They just don’t know how to be discrete.” He flipped open the file of the next candidate in line and began to study it.