INGRID DOWS - AN ALTERNATE STORY PART 2 - THE JET AGE by Michel Poulin - HTML preview

U.S.A.

Ingrid felt contentment as she watched with Hedy and Katharine the swearing in of Thomas Dewey as the 34th President of the United States. All three had been invited to attend the ceremony as part of the very select crowd of guests invited to sit on seats set at the East Portico of the Capitol Building, something that the numerous media crews reporting on the swearing-in ceremony had not missed. However, Ingrid couldn’t care less about the media attention focused on her: the important thing was that Harry Truman was now out of the picture and unable to hurt further the American armed forces with his irresponsible policies. Out were also the sycophants and incompetents who had blindly implemented those policies, like Louis Johnson, who was probably going to end up in History as one of the worst Secretary of Defense to have ever served. The generals who had meekly or voluntarily followed those same failed policies in order to preserve their position while their armed services were being cut to the bone were also going to feel the heat, now that the Dewey’s defense team was in. Dwight D.

Eisenhower, Dewey’s Secretary of Defense, had already told Ingrid that there was going to be a serious cleanup among the top management at the Pentagon in the coming days, helped in this by Chester Nimitz, George Kenney and Lawton Collins, who were respectively the new Secretaries for the Navy, the Air Force and the Army. However, all that would have to be preceded by a serious, in-depth session at the White House in order to discuss how to repair as quickly as possible the damage done to the American armed forces by Truman. Ingrid had in fact been expressly invited by Dewey to attend that defense policy discussion in the quality of part-time special presidential advisor.

At the end of the swearing-in ceremony, as President Dewey and Vice-President Warren were being escorted out to their respective motorcades, Ingrid spoke in a low

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voice to Hedy and Katharine while walking with them back to their rented car, parked behind the Capitol Building.

‘’Let’s go back to our hotel: I would like to see the televised news about Dewey’s swearing-in ceremony, to check if someone will be making conjectures or suppositions about our presence as invited guests of the President.’

‘’Right!’ replied Hedy, who was wearing a fur coat over her gown to combat the cold of January. ‘’In politics, perception is too often nine tenths of reality.’

‘’Hey, maybe they wil call you ‘the Assistant Navy Secretary’, Hedy.’ joked Katharine. ‘’After all, you now own about half as many aircraft carriers as Chester Nimitz does.’’

All three chuckled at that joke before becoming serious again and checking who was around them. Since the attempts again Ingrid, one of which had cost the life of the unfortunate Howard Hughes, all three were now very conscious about their personal security situation. All three were also packing handguns for self-defense, with the carrying permits to go with them. Despite not being what you would call a gun-addict, Hedy had been trained by Ingrid in how to use her revolver, which she carried in her purse, and was now reasonably good at shooting it in terms of accuracy. As for the sports-oriented Katharine, she had already been an expert rifle and shotgun shooter and an accomplished hunter, so she was no beginner with firearms and was actually wearing a Browning HP-35 9mm pistol in a shoulder rig hidden by the vest of her female business suit. On Ingrid’s advice, they walked slowly towards the parking lot, so that most people would have time to leave before they approached their rented car, a big Cadillac sedan. That also allowed Ingrid to be able to scan more easily the minds around them, using her power of telepathy, which her two friends now knew about. As the trio was approaching the dark blue Cadillac, Ingrid discreetly eyed a beige sedan parked some twenty meters away to their right, in which three men were sitting, apparently waiting for something or someone.

‘’Don’t react to my warning, girls, and don’t look around you while getting to our car: there is possibly three bad guys in a beige four-door Buick parked twenty meters to our right. Be ready to grab your guns when I will say so. I am going to go challenge them.’

Thankfully, her two friends reacted as she had told them to and continued to their car, while Ingrid suddenly split with them and veered towards the beige Buick, walking around the parked cars still present in the lot. Her action had its intended effect: the

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three men in that car, seeing her approaching them, got agitated, with the driver starting his engine while his two passengers, both sitting on the right-side front and rear seats, started rolling down their windows. Ingrid then decided to trigger them into unmasking themselves and extracted her Glock 19L 9mm pistol from her purse.

‘Bingo!’ she thought when the passenger in the back seat shouted a warning in Russian to his two companions and started to level a submachine gun through his opened car window. Ingrid didn’t give him time to fire his weapon before opening fire herself, using the HoloSight unit mounted on her pistol to quickly aim her weapon and then pepper the Buick with over ten bullets distributed equally between the front and rear seats. The driver, hit with two bullets, including one to the head, never had a chance to drive off, while his two passengers also died without being able to fire a shot, crumbling in their seats while letting go their submachine guns. The other people in the parking lot then dispersed in panic while screaming or drove away as quickly as possible. A paparazzo who had been following Ingrid’s trio from a distance with the hope of taking good pictures of them was able to photograph multiple times Ingrid as she approached the Buick, her pistol still pointed. Once next to the Buick and with her pistol still at the ready, she checked the three men for a pulse. Finding all of them dead, she put back her pistol in her purse, then shouted to her two friends.

‘’ALL CLEAR, GIRLS!’

She then looked at the paparazzo, who was still taking pictures while using a car as cover, and signaled him to approach. The young man did so cautiously, surprised to be asked by her to come closer. Ingrid then eyed him with utter seriousness: she normally disliked those kind of opportunity photographers but that young man could prove useful to her...this time.

‘’You may approach this car, mister. If you take close pictures of the inside, you will see that both passengers were armed with submachine guns. You better make it quick, before the Capitol Police shows up.’’

‘’Thank you, ma’am!’ said the smiling paparazzo, not believing his luck, before starting to click away, making sure to take many pictures of the two THOMPSON .45

caliber submachine guns lying on the lap of the two passengers. Ingrid helped him further by going on the driver’s side and opening the vest of the dead driver, allowing the young man to photograph the revolver the driver was wearing in a shoulder rig. Ingrid then spoke further to him.

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‘’If you were wondering why I fired at that car, you can tell your editor that I found it suspicious and that these men produced submachine guns when I started approaching their car. You better leave now: I see two Capitol policemen coming at a run.’

‘’Thank you again, miss!’ replied the photographer before walking quickly away.

The two incoming policemen, who had still been a good hundred meters away, arrived with guns drawn half a minute later and shouted at her.

‘’FREEZE! KEEP YOUR HANDS UP!’

Ingrid, who already had raised her hands and harbored a calm attitude, then replied to the senior policeman.

‘’I am a presidential advisor and I acted in self-defense when those men pointed submachine guns at me, Officers.’

‘’WHERE IS YOUR GUN?’’

‘’In my purse and it will stay there, Officer. As I said, I am a presidential advisor and I have a legal gun carrying permit. I am not the bad guy: these men were. Now, could you please lower your guns and stop threatening me, or do you want to see the President have you fired before the end of the day?’’

That and her calm attitude made the senior policemen hesitate and partly lower his revolver.

‘’Who are you, miss?’’

‘’I am ex-Major General Ingrid Dows, military advisor to President Dewey and co-owner of the Hughes Enterprises. If you will approach this car, you will see that all three of these men were armed. I also heard one of them shout a warning in Russian to his two companions when I started approaching their car. By the way, this is the third attempt against me by Soviet agents. Now, how about you holster your revolvers?’’

The senior policeman hesitated for another few seconds before nodding to his comrade while holstering his handgun. Approaching the Buick and looking inside it, he saw the submachine guns, plus the revolver rig worn by the dead driver. Next, he gave a cautious look to Ingrid.

‘’You say that this is the third attempt against you, miss?’’

‘’Yes! The two previous ones happened in Los Angeles and the first one cost the life of Howard Hughes.’

‘’I now remember that story, along with your face, miss. Can you show me both your gun and your carrying permit?’’

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‘’No problem, Officer. Just don’t get nervous when you wil see my pistol and do not attempt to confiscate it: I can’t be certain that there are no other Soviet agents present around right now.’

‘’Very well, miss. Fred, call this in while I check her permit.’

Taking out first her carrying permit and showing it to the Capitol policeman, she then showed him her Glock 19L, holding it in a non-threatening way with two fingers. The policeman’s eyes grew wide on seeing the futuristic-looking pistol.

‘’Wow! That’s some serious pistol you have there, miss. What caliber is it and what is its bullet capacity?’’

‘’It is a 9mm pistol and it can hold up to eighteen bul ets. I just fired ten bul ets, for your information.’

The policeman nodded, then looked again at the submachine guns in the lap of the dead passengers: they had 45-round drum magazines on them.

‘’You may now put your gun and your permit back in your purse, miss. I wil however have to ask you to come with us to the Capitol’s security center, to make a deposition, once other officers will arrive.’’

‘’Then, be advised that I was with two friends, who also attended the swearing-in ceremony with me. They are presently waiting in our car nearby, a rented dark blue Cadil ac. Can they leave or will they also need to be interviewed?’’

The senior policeman thought over that for a second, then looked at his partner.

‘’Fred, go note down the names of her friends, then tell them that they can go.’

‘’Got it!’

The junior policeman returned after a few minutes, looking a bit overwhelmed.

‘’Geez! Her friends are Hedy Lamarr and Katharine Hepburn, the actresses, Bil .’

‘’Ex-actresses!’ corrected Ingrid. ‘’They are now co-owners with me of the Hughes Enterprises.’

‘’Say, miss: I am hearing a lot of senators praising the service they got with your Air Fifinella company. They especially love the way they could fly to and from small places in the Midwest and the South.’

‘’That’s always nice to know, mister.’ said Ingrid, pleased. ‘’The whole idea about creating Air Fifinella was to connect people all around the United States to others in our country. Aah, I believe that your reinforcements are arriving now.’

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Seconds later, no less than three patrol cars screeched to a halt next to the car of the Soviet agents and to Ingrid, disgorging eight Capitol police officers, including a senior officer. Ingrid gave that man a cynical smile.

‘’No need to run in like this, mister: they’re already dead.’

Taken a bit aback by her remark, the police lieutenant stopped in front of her and looked at her with some reserve.

‘’Could you show me some identity papers, miss?’’

‘’Certainly, mister. Here is my White House security access pass.’

The police lieutenant raised an eyebrow at her answer but stayed silent while examining her security pass, then handed it back to her.

‘’Could you describe to me what happened here, Miss Dows?’’

Nodding once, Ingrid then spoke for less than a minute, finishing by telling the man about the two previous attempts against her in California. The lieutenant then went to look at the three dead men, taking good note of their weapons and of the number of bullets that had impacted their car. He also sniffed the two submachine guns before looking crossly at her.

‘’Those weapons were not fired, miss. And you say that you managed to outshoot both of these men?’’

‘’That is precisely what I did, mister. It was either them or me.’

‘’I understand that, miss, but you will still need to come to our security center to fil a declaration.’

‘’That is alright with me, mister.’

‘’Then I wil drive you in my command car, miss.’

13:52 (Washington Time)

Suite 33, Hay-Adams Hotel

In view of the White House, Washington, D.C.

When Ingrid returned to the suite of the Hay-Adams Hotel she and her two friends were staying in, she found Hedy and Katharine watching the latest news on the black and white screen of their suite’s television set.

‘’So, girls, what are they saying?’’

‘’About the President’s swearing-in or about you?’’ shot back Katharine.

‘’About me first.’

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‘’Then, you are officially one tough, dangerous woman. That’s the words used by the newscaster. You also just caused the first foreign policy pronouncement by President Dewey: he vowed to suspend all diplomatic relations with the U.S.S.R. if the Soviets are shown to be behind this latest assassination attempt against you.’

‘’Oh! It’s nice to hear that you are a person of consequence.’ replied Ingrid, a big grin on her face.

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CHAPTER 22 – CRUCIAL DECISIONS

08:23 (Washington Time)

Tuesday, April 05, 1949 ‘C’

Office of the Secretary of Defense

The Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia