THE CARROT

Ch.3 - Revelation

July 10, 2007 (1030hours)
Seventy years after Truman's legacy
Office of the President
Washington, D.C.

George W. (Dubya) Bush leaned back in the plush leather executive chair to get a better look at who was entering the room. A form appeared from behind the desk lamp. He had failed to hear the knock.

"Sorry to disturb you, Mr. President, but you have something important to do. Today is the deadline for opening the sealed file on the Roswell incident. President Truman left you a present."

Surprised, Dubya pondered this news for a moment letting it sink in before taking the offered folder. The wax embossed seal of the president from seventy years previous looked every bit of seventy.

"What is this about?" asked the President.

"According to the listed instructions this file is to be opened by the sitting president in two thousand seven on July tenth. It is an eyes only folder and requires you to be alone when you review it. Do you want to do it now?"

Dubya did a full body stretch to relieve the morning's tension and took the offered folder.

"Let me take a look-see and I'll get back to you in a minute."

"Of course, sir" replied the personal secretary, who exited softy from the room.

Dubya looked at the tan folder and smelled the musty nature of the item. It seemed heavy and ominous. Could it be the answers he had wondered about as a kid? Roswell?

He broke the seal and slid the contents onto his desktop. A cover letter penned by Truman himself offered the prospect of some immediate information.

"Hello, Mr. President:

I am sure this folder might peak your curiosity and it should. The material inside this package is one of mankind's most sought after insights into our existence. The answer to the question of are we alone in the universe is provided herein. Grab a cup of coffee and tell your secretary to cancel the rest of your appointments for the day, maybe two days. Yes, it is that important."

Dubya stood up and adjusted his pants feeling a chill slide up between his shoulder blades and end somewhere around the middle of the top of his head. He picked up the phone and dialed the proper extension.

"Cancel and reschedule all of my appointments for the day and I will let you know about tomorrow."

The pleasant voice on the end of the line responded, but he had already begun placing the handset back onto the cradle.

Removing the cover letter he observed the report cover with the title name project Cloverhill. He mused the designated selection for a moment before returning to the cover sheet and began reading again.

"Like myself, you will be faced with the decision to return this to the filing cabinet or disseminate all or part of this information. I trust prudent judgment will be used and hope that your generation has some process in place to handle this kind of elucidation. As you read you will no doubt become aware that my generation would not have been able to untangle and manage the information without imploding at a time of such rising global instability.

The implications and possibilities this folder suggests can be overwhelming, for obvious reasons. I encourage you to consider them all. You may want to reflect on presidential options for plausible deniability, as I did. We are human too and subjects of this magnitude are over our human pay grade. On the other hand, it is our sworn duty to make the hard decisions too. That is about all I have as words of wisdom on this somber and troublesome topic.

Good luck and may God be with you."

The document was signed Harry S. Truman, President of the United States of America.