{"id":291,"date":"2013-07-29T15:39:02","date_gmt":"2013-07-29T15:39:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.LenCamarda.com\/?p=291"},"modified":"2020-11-19T06:55:44","modified_gmt":"2020-11-19T06:55:44","slug":"the-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lencamarda.com\/seventh_treasure\/2013\/07\/29\/the-call\/","title":{"rendered":"The Call"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n

\"\"<\/a>The next morning, Cerone was in the conference room with Josh Bigelow and the full staff of AOP project leaders and direct-reports. They had convened right after the incident and had been going through debriefings and minute-by-minute, step-by-step analyses of yesterday\u2019s simulation ever since. Gene had already met with both Deputy Director Danny Boggs and Service Director Ed Barnes\u2014 colleagues from the Reagan protection team\u2014and alerted them to the events of yesterday. While troubled by the seriousness of the situation and the failure of a group of veteran agents, no one was shocked. The suicide bomber had yet to surface on our shores, but everyone believed it was only a matter of time. The same could be said for a large-scale attack on a civilian population either with chemical or biological agents. The question was always \u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n

Cerone\u2019s administrative assistant, Nancy Tanaka, entered the conference room. Apologizing for the interruption and well aware of what had happened in the training exercise, she said Gene had a call from Granada, Spain. A captain from the National Police Corps needed to speak with him. \u201cIt sounds urgent,\u201d she whispered.<\/p>\n

Cerone knew that his sister Gina had moved to Spain some months ago. He rose and quickly left the room, his brow furrowed with concern. He went to his office, a short distance down the hall, and picked up the receiver of the phone. \u201cEugene Cerone here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

A woman\u2019s voice responded, \u201cUn momento, Se\u00f1or.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was a click, and then he heard a deep and heavily accented voice say, \u201cSe\u00f1or Cerone, this is Capit\u00e0n Julian Balmaseda of the Policia Nacional, in Granada, Espa\u00f1a. Are you related to a Se\u00f1orita Gina Cerone?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d Cerone replied, \u201cI am her brother. Is Gina all right?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am sorry to bring you such noticias,\u201d Balmaseda said, \u201cbut I have to inform you that your sister has been killed in a traffic accident.\u201d<\/p>\n

The world went into slow motion for Cerone. He heard the words Captain Balmaseda was saying, but they seemed distorted, echoing as if coming from a deep cavern. The events of yesterday and the concerns about \u201cwhat must never happen\u201d suddenly moved to a whole other intensity. Yesterday was just an exercise, another scene crafted by the Digital Light Brigade. Yesterday, nobody died\u2014not really. But what did he just hear? Your sister was killed? He asked the voice on the other end of the line to repeat what he said. Gene went through the \u201cWhat? Are you sure? When? How? But are you certain?\u201d routine.<\/p>\n

The result was the same, \u201cYour sister was killed …\u201d<\/p>\n

He took down all the pertinent information from Captain Balmaseda and gently returned the phone to its cradle. Nancy Tanaka stood at the open doorway and could see the lost expression on Gene Cerone\u2019s face. His glazed eyes then focused on Nancy. \u201cThey said my sister is dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

The years of investigative experience then took over, and he began to give directions to Nancy. \u201cHere.\u201d He handed her the notes he had written. \u201cThis guy is supposed to be a captain in Spain\u2019s National Police Force. He said the American embassy in Madrid has been notified of an accident involving my sister. Call them and check up on this Balmaseda and confirm what he has said.\u201d Cerone stayed seated at his desk, staring blankly at the open doorway. Only a few minutes passed before Nancy returned to Gene\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have the same information, Gene. I\u2019m so sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The next morning, Cerone was in the conference room with Josh Bigelow and the full staff of AOP project leaders and direct-reports. They had convened right after the incident and had been going through debriefings and minute-by-minute, step-by-step analyses of yesterday\u2019s simulation ever since. Gene had already met with both Deputy Director Danny Boggs and<\/p>\n

Continue Reading “The Call”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lencamarda.com\/seventh_treasure\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lencamarda.com\/seventh_treasure\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lencamarda.com\/seventh_treasure\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lencamarda.com\/seventh_treasure\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lencamarda.com\/seventh_treasure\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lencamarda.com\/seventh_treasure\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":499,"href":"https:\/\/lencamarda.com\/seventh_treasure\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291\/revisions\/499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lencamarda.com\/seventh_treasure\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lencamarda.com\/seventh_treasure\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lencamarda.com\/seventh_treasure\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}