{"id":1466,"date":"2026-08-15T05:08:35","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T05:08:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?p=1466"},"modified":"2026-08-15T05:08:35","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T05:08:35","slug":"scott-mckays-the-necessary-men-episode-2-the-faraway-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?p=1466","title":{"rendered":"Scott McKay\u2019s The Necessary Men<\/i> \u2014 Episode 2: The Faraway Plans"},"content":{"rendered":"

W<\/span>elcome back to the world of Mike Holman.<\/em><\/p>

If this is your first stop, here\u2019s what you need to know: Mike Holman is the independent journalist, podcaster, and inveterate maker-of-enemies at the center of Scott McKay\u2019s bitingly satirical thriller series \u2014 four novels (so far) chronicling one man\u2019s habit of ending up in the middle of the very stories the rest of the media is too scared, too compromised, or too incurious to tell. Catch up on the whole series, read past episodes, and find links to every book at \u201cThe Mike Holman Novels at\u00a0<\/em>The American Spectator\u201d<\/i> and soon, see the video-novel version of this and the previous books at MikeHolman.com.<\/em><\/p>

Read more Hollywood Won\u2019t Show Radical Islam. Run Hide Fight: Infidels Will<\/a><\/p>

We\u2019re now serializing the fourth Mike Holman novel, <\/em>The Necessary Men, right here at The American Spectator \u2014 new episodes dropping every Thursday and Saturday. The full book goes on sale September 26th at Amazon and the new\u00a0MikeHolman.com\u00a0site, and you can\u00a0pre-order a signed copy right now.<\/em><\/p>

Where we left off: Mike\u2019s post-Blockbusters ennui is broken by a massive new challenge from his best friend, mega-billionaire industrialist Pierce Polk, who enlists him in a plan for a friendly invasion of Cuba, destroying a communist dictatorship without firing a shot. He\u2019s flying across the world to hear the specifics of this uber-ambitious plan.<\/em><\/p>

Here are Chapters Three and Four of <\/em>The Necessary Men.<\/em><\/p>

\n

\"Black<\/figure>\n<\/p>

Chapter Three<\/h1>

Lazarus Island, Singapore \u2014 March 5, 2026<\/p>

It is not an easy thing to see Simon Lim in person. The four of us \u2013 Stan, Trent, Melissa and I \u2013 were joking that we were on an odyssey, like from Greek times.<\/p>

Our flight on Pierce\u2019s Gulfstream left Palm Beach International Airport at just after 9:00 a.m. At a little after 10 p.m. Eastern Time, we touched down in Dubai for refueling. An hour later, the four of us had stretched our legs a bit, eaten a quick meal in the FBO lounge at the airport, and we were waiting for clearance to take off.<\/p>

And when we were in the air at around 9:30 a.m. local time, which was about 11:30 p.m. by our clocks, Melissa got the bed in the stateroom, Stan called dibs on the divan that converted to a little bed, and Trent and I rode it out on the red-eye plane for the seven-hour haul to Singapore.<\/p>

That was an interesting conversation.<\/p>

\u201cSeriously, Mike,\u201d Trent asked me. \u201cWhat do you think about this idea? A week ago we were basically resting on our laurels, with what we built with Blockbusters and Movie King. Our conversations were about giving grants to churches for community outreach and trash pickup, and now we\u2019re talking about taking down a government. It\u2019s\u2026\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWell, let me ask it to you,\u201d I said. \u201cYou tell me. Is this nuts?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cDude, nuts is OK by me. We took out Hollywood<\/em> a year ago. Kicking communists out of power seems like child\u2019s play. I\u2019m all in. But I notice that Stan is nervous.\u201d<\/p>

I tilted my head in the direction of the divan where Stan was lightly snoring.<\/p>

\u201cI dunno. He doesn\u2019t seem nervous right this second.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYou aren\u2019t answering my question,\u201d said Trent. \u201cI\u2019m on board with this thing, but I\u2019m gonna feel a lot better if I know that you\u2019re fully committed.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m on a 20-hour flight to Singapore,\u201d I said. \u201cIf I\u2019m not committed, I\u2019m a freakin\u2019 moron.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cVery funny.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cFine, I\u2019ll be honest with you,\u201d I said. \u201cI have a couple of big concerns I\u2019m working through. First, you and Stan are finance guys. I\u2019m a talking head. None of us are intel, none of us are logistics. We aren\u2019t operators. How are we qualified to take this on?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWe weren\u2019t qualified to run Big Five media companies, either,\u201d said Trent, \u201cor at least Stan and I weren\u2019t. But we just figured it out.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThat\u2019s how I resolve this, too,\u201d I said. \u201cPlus, I know Pierce, and Pierce isn\u2019t going to put us in a situation where we\u2019re doomed to fail.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cRight.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cBut the other thing is, not whether we\u2019re qualified to run an op like this but who in the hell do we think we are conducting U.S. foreign policy? We ain\u2019t the government.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s the governments who fucked it all up in the first place, though,\u201d said Trent.<\/p>

\u201cThat\u2019s not much of a defense when you get indicted under the Logan Act.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cExcept nobody ever has been indicted under the Logan Act,\u201d said Trent.<\/p>

I shrugged.<\/p>

\u201cSo tell Pierce no, then. We\u2019ll do the homeschooling, or we\u2019ll put up monuments to Thomas Edison and Blackjack Pershing and William McKinley and Booker T. Washington all over the country. We don\u2019t have to do this.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYes we do,\u201d I sighed.<\/p>

\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019ll tell you. My people came from Cincinnati, because my grandfather worked 30 years for Procter & Gamble. But before he caught on with them, he worked for United Fruit in the 50s, out of Miami. The job took him around Latin America, but the place he\u2019d go again and again was Havana.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYeah? I bet he said it was cool.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cHe never stopped talking about that city. How lavish and high-energy it was. The architecture, the Malec\u00f3n, the beaches, the nightlife. He talked about it like it was Las Vegas, before Las Vegas.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cBecause it was,\u201d said Trent.<\/p>

\u201cAnd I know Batista was a shithead and a dictator, and outside of Havana the place was terrible. I get all of that. It\u2019s not like Cuba didn\u2019t have problems; if they didn\u2019t, the Castros wouldn\u2019t have gotten it.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cBut it\u2019s immeasurably worse now.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWhat if Cuba could actually be a well-run, free country?\u201d I said. \u201cYou\u2019re a finance guy, you tell me.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWell, the agriculture alone should make them middle-class. Bring modern tech to that farmland and you\u2019re gonna generate some wealth. There\u2019s nickel and cobalt, though they\u2019ve done a shit job of exploiting it. Havana\u2019s port ought to be a Hong Kong or Singapore as a gateway between North and South America, and that should be a big driver. There\u2019s a lot to work with. It just depends on the people. The infrastructure is shit, but you can build infrastructure. And nobody\u2019s better at that than Pierce\u2019s people.\u201d<\/p>

I nodded.<\/p>

\u201cI mean, the opportunity is huge. The question is, is it so corrupt there that the first investors get robbed blind and that just dries up the next round of money.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWell, I guess that\u2019s Pierce\u2019s problem,\u201d I said.<\/p>

\u201cOPM, baby,\u201d said Trent, downing the last of his coffee.<\/p>

Other People\u2019s Money, he meant.<\/p>

By the time we landed at Changi Airport in Singapore, it was around 8:00 p.m. local time on Wednesday. Back home it was\u2026 seven in the morning? I was dead on my feet.<\/p>

But we got off the plane in a hangar, watched the attendants fish our bags out of the cargo hold and put them in the back of a limo bus, and twenty minutes later we were in an executive helicopter flying over the Singapore Strait.<\/p>

Twenty minutes after that, we landed on what looked like a deserted island until we were over the top of Simon Lim\u2019s compound.<\/p>

The chopper put us down on a well-manicured lawn in front of what looked like an old British fortress. Pierce was there waiting for us. A team of guys in white seersucker uniforms rushed out to grab our bags and put them onto golf carts.<\/p>

\u201cHow\u2019s it going, buddy?\u201d he said, shaking my hand.<\/p>

\u201cI need eight hours of absolutely uninterrupted sleep,\u201d I said. \u201cIn fact, I absolutely insist on it.\u201d<\/p>

Pierce laughed.<\/p>

\u201cYou\u2019re on. Everything is all set for tomorrow at eight anyway, and Simon had to go into town tonight on some business. So you and the gang are good to go. I\u2019ll see y\u2019all in the morning.\u201d<\/p>

Just then, a little guy showed up and, in passable English, told me he would be delighted to take Stan and me to our cottage. So we hopped in the golf cart, and he gave us a ride down the little hill from the fortress to a very fetching set of bungalows lined up along the water. He stopped the cart and carried our bags in, and then without so much as a word, I stumbled into one of the bedrooms \u2013 Stan, who\u2019d had a full night of sleep on that divan, was checking out the fridge and the bar \u2013 and I barely got my clothes off before I crashed on the bed.<\/p>

The next morning, though, I was all right. I expected to be jet-lagged even with having had my eight hours \u2013 nine hours, actually \u2013 but nope. And Stan and I shared a great pot of coffee looking out over the Singapore Strait from the deck of that cottage.<\/p>

Then Trent and Melissa showed up, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.<\/p>

Then the two golf carts showed up to bring us to the great house.\n

\"Line<\/figure>\n<\/p>

Simon Lim\u2019s British fortress-inspired mansion on Lazarus Island, Singapore<\/em><\/span><\/p>

Pierce made the introductions, and we sat around a large oval table in a third-story room with a pair of giant plate-glass windows covering two of its walls, which together offered a panoramic view of Singapore from across the strait. Stan, Trent, Melissa, and I were joined by Pierce, Hal Gibson, who had shown up after I\u2019d gone to sleep, Rebecca Hilton, who was Pierce\u2019s new-ish personal assistant, Simon, and a Mr. Wang, who was introduced as Simon\u2019s head of security.<\/p>

Wang said one word the entire time we were there. He merely nodded politely. Wang wasn\u2019t all that physically imposing, but I nevertheless got the impression that if those nods ever ceased, there would be dead bodies everywhere.<\/p>

I gave Simon a firm handshake, which he returned. That was a little surprising. The file on him that I\u2019d read on the plane said he was 74, and he looked it, though not in a sickly or decrepit way. He clearly took care of himself. But he was no taller than 5\u20197\u201d or 5\u20198\u201d, if he was more than 150 pounds, I\u2019d be surprised, and he carried himself in a way which suggested his was far more a life of the mind than of physical activity. I could see a deep intelligence behind his eyes and a gravitas which didn\u2019t register in a way I could immediately mark.<\/p>

The image that filled my head was that this guy was the personification of an old dragon. He was polite, but at the slightest provocation he would cover you in flames from his breath. Together with the Bond-villain compound providing our lodgings and the fact that from the time we\u2019d gotten off the plane in Singapore we\u2019d been under the control of this man, I found him unnerving.<\/p>

And I sensed that he clocked my discomfort. He held that handshake a bit longer than normal and gave me a grandfatherly smile, which made it even worse.<\/p>

The tea was served and the meeting began.<\/p>

\u201cListen, I appreciate that most of you have come a very long way to be here,\u201d said Pierce, as he got things started, \u201cand I\u2019m not just talking about geographical distance. Let me start off by saying that what we\u2019re proposing to do might seem radical and destructive but it\u2019s actually the opposite.<\/p>

\u201cWhat we want to achieve in Cuba is a transformation of its politics, culture and economics by 100 percent peaceful means. We want to set the Cuban people free without unleashing chaos, we want to topple Cuba\u2019s government without killing or maiming anybody, and we want to rebuild their economy and infrastructure without creating an oligarchy. Cuba needs a middle class, and the aim here is to stand one up and have it drive the country\u2019s future going forward.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cSpeaking for the skeptics in the room,\u201d said Stan, quickly interrupting Pierce, \u201cwhat you\u2019re talking about doing is amazingly laudable. But you recognize this can and will go wrong in about 11 million ways, right?\u201d<\/p>

I gathered that by mentioning the number of 11 million, Stan was talking about the estimated population of Cuba.<\/p>

\u201cMore like nine and a half million,\u201d said Pierce. \u201cThey don\u2019t have 11 million people living there anymore.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAll right,\u201d said Stan. \u201cFair enough.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cSo the plan we\u2019ve built is flexible enough to handle most of the likely items of adversity,\u201d said Pierce. \u201cShould we perhaps start by asking whether everybody here is on board philosophically with the idea that Cuba should flip over and become a free country and that it\u2019s worth doing to create that result?\u201d<\/p>

There were nods around the table, including from Simon and Mr. Wang. Although Mr. Wang was always nodding, so I didn\u2019t take that as dispositive.<\/p>

\u201cI take that to mean you\u2019re a skeptic as to method, rather than mission,\u201d Pierce was saying to Stan.<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m just saying we shouldn\u2019t go into this thinking it\u2019s something that\u2019s going to happen without a mess,\u201d Stan said. \u201cThe plan document we read on the plane is a little\u2026 storybook-y, if that\u2019s a word.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cDo we have the people to pull this off?\u201d asked Trent, probably as more of a defense of Stan than as a reflection of his own concerns. After all, I was the one who\u2019d raised that one on the plane.<\/p>

\u201cWe do,\u201d said Simon, in a voice which was polite but seemed final.<\/p>

\u201cSo the theory here,\u201d said Pierce, \u201cand I\u2019m thinking y\u2019all have not bought into it, is that if we simply drop into Cuba and say \u2018hey, folks, we\u2019re here to turn the power back on, build houses and factories and shopping malls, hire everybody to do real work for real pay and rebuild the civil society,\u2019 what it\u2019ll do is just make the government irrelevant. We won\u2019t need a revolution in the classic sense, and we won\u2019t need guns. And because we\u2019re doing these things, which the Castro and now Candela regimes have been complaining that nobody is helping them do, which is their never-ending bitching about the U.S. trade embargo, they won\u2019t act to stop it until it\u2019s simply too late.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cCan we process that for a while?\u201d I asked Pierce. \u201cBecause I think this is the fundamental piece that some of us aren\u2019t fully convinced of.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cSure. We\u2019ve got all day. Let\u2019s game it out.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWhat makes you think that the Cubans are just going to lie on their backs and let a bunch of Americans \u2013 I\u2019m assuming this is a bunch of Americans \u2013 come in and take over their country?\u201d said Stan. \u201cThat flies in the face of like 70 years of their rhetoric, doesn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThe temptation,\u201d I said, echoing Stan, \u201cis to believe that we get shot as soon as we get off the boat. The document we read on the plane is a little thin on how we\u2019re addressing this.\u201d<\/p>

Pierce smiled.<\/p>

\u201cSimon?\u201d he said.<\/p>

\u201cIt won\u2019t be an American takeover of Cuba. It\u2019ll be a Chinese takeover of Cuba. With lots of Canadian subcontractors. And some Americans.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cBaizuo,\u201d said Mr. Wang. That was his one word.<\/p>

I knew that word. It was a Chinese word for Useful Idiots, as in stupid white leftists who gave away the store. That kind of thing.<\/p>

Wang was talking about something that was in the plan document, which was that the enterprise we were forming would stand up a non-profit that would recruit leftist kids on college campuses to form work brigades to protect the revolution. I initially thought it was a joke \u2013 to recruit commie kids from the universities to dig ditches in Cuba and build, ultimately, capitalist infrastructure, was a classic Pierce Polk prank, or at least the kind of thing he\u2019d theorize about and we\u2019d have a good laugh.<\/p>

But the Cubans had been bringing Useful Idiot, American leftists in for decades, through the Venceremos Brigades and the Nuestra America pilgrimage trips, along with a number of other organized asset-recruitment efforts.<\/p>

And apparently we were going to do a fresh version of this. For our own purposes, potentially as a cover for the main objective.<\/p>

That was a distraction, though, and I quickly stopped Simon.<\/p>

\u201cHang on,\u201d I said. \u201cA Chinese takeover? Pierce, why would we want that?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cIt isn\u2019t really a Chinese takeover,\u201d said Simon. \u201cIt\u2019s a Chinese front for your Polk Global Freedom Initiative to operate within Cuban space.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWell, that wasn\u2019t in the plan document,\u201d said Trent.<\/p>

\u201cOperational security,\u201d said Hal. \u201cThe real structure of this thing is going to be off the books until we control the ground.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cSo,\u201d I said, looking at Simon, \u201cthis is going to be your operation, and then it\u2019s going to be mine?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI am the face of this to Beijing.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAnd why?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cBecause I am a face Beijing trusts.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cBut apparently they shouldn\u2019t, based on what we\u2019re discussing.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cTrust, Mr. Holman, is earned. Which I have done with them.\u201d<\/p>

I nodded, after a beat. Then I did my best to sum up the premise of the operation.<\/p>

\u201cSo this gets presented to Beijing and Havana as a Chinese state-capitalist enterprise, the Cubans believe it\u2019s their salvation protecting them from the Cuban exiles in Miami and the U.S. Marines sweeping out from Guantanamo Bay to invade the country, and the ChiComs believe this is a way to get Cuba without triggering an American response? Is that it?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cFundamentally, yes.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAnd because Burro gave you that cryptic statement about how it would be great if somebody other than the U.S. government would take down Candela, we\u2019re going to have carte blanche to essentially run covert American foreign policy in Cuba.\u201d<\/p>

That just earned me a smile from Pierce.<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s\u2026 fundamentally more optimistic than I thought it was before,\u201d said Stan.<\/p>

\u201cThe best part of this is we\u2019ll stage it as something the Left in the States will be all for,\u201d said Pierce. \u201cThat\u2019s the point of the Omobba Brigades.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYou are NOT calling them that,\u201d said Melissa.<\/p>

\u201cIf that dude puts his name on this program, it would be the funniest thing ever to happen in world politics,\u201d I said.<\/p>

\u201cHe doesn\u2019t have to. It won\u2019t be a formal name. But yeah \u2013 we\u2019re going to get the DSA kids and the Dolores Gramsci-Ramoses and all the rest of the loons to throw in behind this deal while it\u2019s officially a Chinese operation with Canadian sub-contractors.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI have a construction firm based in Vancouver,\u201d Simon offered. \u201cThere is the corporate infrastructure we will use.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cSo we form an American non-profit and staff it up to go on college campuses and hire these kids to come down, sleep on cots in warehouses and gyms and so on, and do the grunt work while we hire Cubans to put an economy together,\u201d said Trent, \u201cand the whole thing is your operation, Simon?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m the silent partner,\u201d Simon said. \u201cI have someone who is uncommonly well-suited to be the American face of the venture.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThis is Peter Chang,\u201d I said. \u201cYou\u2019ve already locked him in, haven\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>

Simon nodded.<\/p>

\u201cAnd he knows nothing about the true nature of this?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cHe does not,\u201d said Pierce.<\/p>

\u201cHoly shit,\u201d Stan laughed. \u201cThat\u2019s perfect.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cOK,\u201d I said, \u201cso Candela\u2019s people are going to accept this because they think it\u2019s China fully coming in and taking over the patronage that the Soviets used to. The Trumbull administration is going to let it happen because they\u2019re going to understand that this is the long game they\u2019ve asked for. Beijing is going to accept it because they think you and Peter are a cutout, which insulates them from blowback and the U.S. Marines showing up, plus it\u2019s your money being put at risk rather than theirs. Is that all correct?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThat\u2019s the structure,\u201d Pierce said. \u201cThe fact that we\u2019re going to present this in the hinterlands first, to local honchos not well served by Havana in the first place and likely to think more independently, is going to give us an easier way in.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAnd getting the Left to buy in makes for a massive smokescreen that pushes away any suspicious media coverage,\u201d said Stan. \u201cThis becomes the new activist meme they all pay homage to and anybody who criticizes it gets canceled.\u201d<\/p>

Nobody said anything. All the Americans were smiling, though.<\/p>

\u201cWhat we haven\u2019t really run through,\u201d I said, \u201cis the most important part. Namely, how does this play among the Cuban people? It seems like there might be a specific danger here, which is that these are going to be pretty cynical folks by now, and when they hear the Chinese are coming it might not be well-received. As in, here\u2019s one more set of foreign colonizers.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cLike I said, we\u2019re going to start this in out-of-the-way places first,\u201d said Pierce. \u201cInitially this is going to go in front of people who are desperate to be colonized.\u201d<\/p>

That was when Simon took over the conversation. And that was when I understood why Pierce had hooked him into the operation.<\/p>

And Simon had a way of talking about suffering that made it sound like a weather report.<\/p>

\u201cThe average Cuban worker,\u201d he said, setting his tea down carefully \u2013 I got the impression that everything he did was done carefully \u2013 \u201cearns the equivalent of sixteen American dollars per month. This is after the regime\u2019s most recent salary increase, which they announced with considerable fanfare.\u201d He paused. \u201cSixteen dollars.\u201d<\/p>

He let that sit there for a moment. Nobody said anything.<\/p>

\u201cLa Compa\u00f1\u00eda Todo de Cuba will pay its workers \u2014 entry-level, unskilled labor \u2014 the equivalent of four hundred dollars per month, in Canadian currency. Because our contractors are Canadian, naturally.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cNaturally,\u201d I said.<\/p>

\u201cAt that wage,\u201d Simon continued, \u201cLCTC will be paying its workers twenty-five times the prevailing rate. In a currency that is actually worth something. In a country where the national currency has lost ninety-five percent of its value in six years.\u201d<\/p>

He looked at me with an expression that was almost, but not quite, a smile. \u201cMr. Holman, do you know what happens when you offer a man twenty-five times his current wage in a currency he can actually spend?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cHe shows up on time,\u201d I said.<\/p>

\u201cHe shows up early,\u201d said Simon. \u201cAnd he brings his brother.\u201d<\/p>

Pierce, who had been watching this exchange from his end of the table the way a tennis fan watches a rally he already knows the outcome of, smiled into his tea.<\/p>

\u201cThe peso situation also means,\u201d Simon went on, \u201cthat Mr. Polk\u2019s capital investment goes considerably further in Cuba than it would anywhere else on earth. Infrastructure that would cost three hundred million dollars to build in, say, Brazil, can be built in Cuba for a fraction of that, because Cuban labor costs, even at twenty-five times the prevailing rate, remain extraordinarily low by any regional standard.\u201d<\/p>

He picked up his tea again.<\/p>

\u201cCommunist regimes are very efficient at one thing, Mr. Holman. They are very efficient at making labor cheap.\u201d<\/p>

I looked at Pierce.<\/p>

\u201cHe\u2019s been saying things like that since Tuesday,\u201d Pierce said.<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s a gift,\u201d I said.<\/p>

Simon didn\u2019t react to that. Which in itself told me something.<\/p>

\u201cThe Canadian dollar denomination serves two purposes,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is consistent with the contractor cover \u2013 Canadian firms pay in Canadian dollars, this is unremarkable \u2013 and it avoids the technical complications of American currency under the embargo, which would create paper problems we don\u2019t need.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cOK, this is better than I thought,\u201d said Stan. Trent nodded in agreement.<\/p>

Simon set his tea down again.<\/p>

\u201cThe MLC we use for retail and smaller transactions. The locals know MLC. They have a relationship with it. Canadian dollars they will take to the informal exchange market and convert, which is fine. The point is that they are holding something worth holding.\u201d<\/p>

MLC was Cuba\u2019s quasi-foreign-facing currency that replaced the worthless peso in exchanges between Cubans and the government stores. It was one more way that the Candela regime was screwing over the Cuban people.<\/p>

\u201cAnd the regime?\u201d I said. \u201cWhat happens when Candela\u2019s people figure out that the Canadian contractors are paying forty times the government wage?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cFifty-two times, at current rates,\u201d said Simon.<\/p>

\u201cFine. Fifty-two.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThe regime\u2019s local officials will be among the first to notice,\u201d said Simon. \u201cWhich is why they will also be among the first to be \u2013 compensated \u2013 for their discretion.\u201d<\/p>

He said the word \u201ccompensated\u201d the way a surgeon says \u201cincision\u201d \u2014 precise, clinical, no particular feeling about it either way.<\/p>

\u201cThis has already been arranged in a few localities.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cSo we\u2019re not talking about something which has been proposed. We\u2019re talking about a current project we\u2019re going to take ownership of at some point in the future.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cNot really,\u201d said Pierce.<\/p>

\u201cShould you reject this plan altogether,\u201d said Simon, \u201cthe work that has already been done will simply melt away as one more project in Cuba which is proposed but doesn\u2019t actually come true. Bribes have been paid, confederates have been identified, but in the end, nothing happens.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWhich is Cuba for the last 60 years for the most part,\u201d said Pierce.<\/p>

\u201cOK, and once this thing reaches critical mass,\u201d said Stan, \u201cthen what? We flip a light switch and tell everybody, \u2018Haha, this was us all along?\u2019\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI imagine it\u2019ll have to be more elegant than that,\u201d said Pierce.<\/p>

\u201cWe\u2019ll need a Cuban face for it,\u201d I said. \u201cI have an idea I can explore on that front.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI really only have one question at this point,\u201d said Trent. \u201cMr. Lim, what are you doing here with this? It\u2019s, if you\u2019ll permit me, a bit off-brand for you to be participating in a scheme which essentially defrauds China out of having Cuba within its sphere of influence.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI have my reasons,\u201d said Simon.<\/p>

I gave him a look which said that I wasn\u2019t buying that, but it was obvious Simon didn\u2019t have a further explanation on offer.<\/p>

From there the conversation devolved into finances, details, geography, division of labor among the various entities involved. And finally, we were hustled into the dining room for a feast of\u2026 chili crab.<\/p>

It\u2019s the signature dish they eat in Singapore \u2014 mud crab in a rich, slightly spicy tomato and egg-based sauce. You eat it with mantou, which are fried buns, for soaking up the sauce. It was messy, communal and completely delicious. Chili crab is the kind of dish that requires you to use your hands and get involved with it. And Simon, who came off as so careful he was almost robotic, dropped his guard and dug in right along with the rest of us.<\/p>

There was more planning and scheming in the afternoon. And in the evening the helicopter took us into the city.<\/p>

Singapore\u2019s nightlife is, if anything, underrated. Particularly when you have a key to unlock the city the way Simon does.<\/p>

Still, I wasn\u2019t convinced it was wise to depend on him for his part in this.<\/p>

\n

\"Line<\/figure>\n<\/p>

A minimalist line art sketch capturing the iconic modern skyline of Singapore\u2019s Marina Bay.<\/em><\/span><\/p>

Read more Camping as a Voluntary Renunciation of Civilization<\/a><\/p>

The next morning, there was a knock on the door of the cottage. I was up; Stan was still in bed nursing a hangover he earned putting away too many Singapore Slings at the long bar in the Raffles Hotel.<\/p>

And when I answered the knock, it was Simon.<\/p>

\u201cI am of the impression that you and I should spend some time alone,\u201d he said. \u201cI have something I\u2019d like to show you.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAll right,\u201d I said, and I let Simon lead me to the golf cart he\u2019d parked in front of the cottage.<\/p>

He drove us to the north tip of the island, to a structure which had been mostly obscured from that panoramic view afforded by the conference-room windows by the tall trees between the great house and the shore.<\/p>

It was a pagoda, built in a Chinese style, open to the air. I fully expected to see a bronze or stone buddha placed in the middle.<\/p>

Instead, it was a cross. About four feet high, installed on a marble pedestal.<\/p>

\u201cThis is beautiful,\u201d I said, as Simon and I approached it. \u201cThat metalwork is really ornate. How old is this thing?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAbout 500 years,\u201d he said. \u201cThis sat atop the first Portuguese Catholic mission in Malaysia in the 16th century. It was destroyed by Japanese invaders during the Second World War; I bought the pieces and had it restored.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cBut why a Catholic cross?\u201d I asked him.<\/p>

\u201cI come here every morning,\u201d said Simon, \u201cand I pray the rosary.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYou\u2019re Catholic?\u201d<\/p>

He nodded. I stood there dumbfounded.<\/p>

\u201cI converted to Catholicism four decades ago, when I was still deeply embedded within the Communist Party,\u201d he said. \u201cMy faith saved me from the utter emptiness the regime inflicts on the Chinese people.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAnd here I thought you were part of the regime.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI do the things the regime needs done.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThe shadow fleet,\u201d I said. \u201cYou\u2019re the guy facilitating the Iranians and the other bad guys selling oil to China. If you\u2019re a dissident, why would you do that?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cBecause there is no prospect of there being a revolution in China in my lifetime,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause China has very little oil of its own. And because the Chinese people would suffer, while the regime would not, if there was no fuel.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cHmmmph,\u201d I said, not really buying that.<\/p>

\u201cAnd because in performing that task for the regime I have made myself indispensable. You are talking to the man who can cut off China\u2019s oil supply with a stroke of a pen. Why do I do this? That\u2019s why.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cSo you\u2019ve been a silent dissident for 40 years? Inside the tent, so to speak?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cLonger.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThat has to be maddening. I don\u2019t know how you could stand it.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI made one mistake. I spoke out against the waste of the ghost cities the regime was building in the hinterlands. For that I was sent to\u2026 re-education.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThis is the six-month psychiatric treatment thing they do? It\u2019s like a time-out for people who say things the Powers That Be don\u2019t like?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s a bit more than that, but yes.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWell, you were certainly right about the ghost cities and the real estate market in China as a whole, I imagine.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI learned the value of silence of words. And loudness of action. I\u2019ve profited from the regime\u2019s losses.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAnd you live in Singapore now rather than China.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI am out of the sight of my enemies within the regime, but available to my friends. And when I ask, I am granted my requests. In return, when I am asked, I deliver.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThat probably comes to a screeching halt when the true nature of our plan becomes known,\u201d I said.<\/p>

\u201cIf the plan succeeds, that will be a small price to pay.\u201d<\/p>

I looked past the cross toward the gleaming Singapore skyline in the distance and stopped to appreciate the understated, serene beauty of what Simon had built on this island, and it struck me that my initial impression, that this was a Bond-villain lair, was shallow. Insulting.<\/p>

This man was a titan. I assumed because he was Chinese that his views on power and morality would be reflective of the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s views. But the house and the grounds were nothing like a CCP apparatchik would choose. And the cross, well..<\/p>

\u201cLast night, I told Pierce that I\u2019m going to write a book about what we\u2019re going to do,\u201d I said. \u201cIf I do that and it\u2019s truthful, that book won\u2019t be good for you.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cNo,\u201d he said. \u201cIt will not.\u201d<\/p>

I paused. Simon was looking at me dispassionately.<\/p>

\u201cWhat did Pierce say when you told him you were writing a book?\u201d he asked me.<\/p>

\u201cHis exact words were, \u2018Fuck yeah, you are.\u2019\u201d<\/p>

Simon smiled and looked at the water.<\/p>

\u201cYou say it\u2019ll be bad for you, and yet I don\u2019t hear you objecting to my writing the book,\u201d I said<\/p>

\u201cYou should write the book,\u201d he said.<\/p>

\u201cYou aren\u2019t worried about the consequences?\u201d<\/p>

He just put his hand gently on my arm, and then he reached in his shirt pocket and produced his rosary beads.<\/p>

Then Simon knelt in front of the cross and began to pray.<\/p>

I\u2019m a Catholic. All the Holmans have been Catholics as far back as any of us can remember. But I stink at it.<\/p>

Simon, who had no background as a Catholic and nothing to gain \u2013 with an awful lot to lose \u2013 did not stink at Catholicism.<\/p>

And my objections and misgivings about the man we were depending on for this project just melted away on that beautiful morning amid that magnificent view.<\/p>

\n

\"Intricate<\/figure>\n<\/p>

This beautifully crafted ornate cross stood over the first Portuguese Catholic mission in Malaysia; now the property of Simon Lim.<\/em><\/span><\/p>

Chapter Four<\/h1>

Jupiter, Florida \u2013 March 8, 2026<\/p>

I was home, and I had struggled through jet lag so terrible that I wondered when I\u2019d come back to life, and I\u2019d put Pierce off for a day and a half despite his text messages becoming more and more urgent.<\/p>

And finally, I began to regain something like full consciousness.<\/p>

So PJ made us that amazing Trumbull family meatloaf that she\u2019d wrangled the recipe for out of Melanie Trumbull, the president\u2019s wife, and I ate like a pig.<\/p>

PJ noticed that, because it wasn\u2019t my usual manner. But the jet lag had made me absolutely ravenous. Normal Mike went out the window, and he still wasn\u2019t fully back.<\/p>

The other thing she noticed was that I was in the 10-day itching phase with the beard I was growing. I couldn\u2019t stop scratching my face, even at the table.<\/p>

\u201cWhat\u2019s up with that thing?\u201d she asked. \u201cI mean, it looks terrible. Makes you look homeless. And old. You\u2019ve got this big, handsome, famous face and you want to look like some guy who lives on a desert island or something? Why?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cOh, I don\u2019t know,\u201d I said, trying not to scratch at it again. \u201cI think it suits me. I mean, it\u2019ll look a lot different when it completely comes in. And I\u2019ve had a beard before.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYeah, right,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen was that?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cRight out of college. Before I got the job at ANN.\u201d<\/p>

That had been my first big break in media. I got hired by that cable news network as a reporter \u2013 before that I\u2019d worked for newspapers and magazines \u2013 and then I anchored my own show for them for a few years until I got fired for getting into an ugly confrontation with the dickhead son of the network\u2019s owner. But you probably know that story.<\/p>

PJ was giving me a suspicious look. She could tell that I was bullshitting her.<\/p>

Then the phone rang and it was Pierce and there was just no way I could say no to the call. I was grateful for that, and I think PJ could tell that, too.<\/p>

\u201cGo ahead,\u201d she smiled. \u201cBut do it on the deck, OK? I\u2019m gonna go walk the dogs after I clean up here.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYeah, Pierce,\u201d I said, answering the phone and kissing PJ \u2013 who gave me an \u201cOooh. Scratchy!\u201d objection \u2013 as I got up to take the call out by the pool.<\/p>

I looked back at her and she gave me a smile.<\/p>

I don\u2019t know. That was a smile I think I\u2019m going to remember. It was sort of a late-summer smile, even though it was early spring.<\/p>

And it was almost three hours later, and I could see from the deck that PJ had cleaned the table, done the dishes, changed Little Mike\u2019s diapers, walked the dogs, gone to the bedroom, drawn the curtains, turned out the bedroom light and left only the light on the nightstand to light the room. The dogs whined to come outside, and I let them hang out on the deck with me, and then they demanded I let them go inside so they could go to sleep.<\/p>

And Pierce was still talking about the plan.<\/p>

\u201cAnd forget about this Logan Act shit, will you?\u201d he was saying. \u201cNobody\u2019s ever been prosecuted under the Logan Act. You aren\u2019t gonna be the first.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cOK, look,\u201d I said. \u201cCome up for air for a minute, because I have two things.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cOh, yeah,\u201d he said. \u201cIf it\u2019s about the book, you don\u2019t even need to tell me. Whatever you need, I\u2019m in. The book is gonna be so freakin\u2019 amazing.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m not talking about the book. When I need your help with the book, I\u2019ll ask you.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cJeez. OK. What, then?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cFirst, stop with all this about the Cubans. These people you\u2019re talking about, these politicians and wannabe Batistas comin\u2019 home to Havana, I don\u2019t care about them. I already have an appointment with the guy we need, and Stan and I are going to see him tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYou said you had a guy,\u201d said Pierce, \u201cbut you didn\u2019t say who it is.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWell, I don\u2019t have him yet; we\u2019ll find that out tomorrow. But it\u2019s Diego Maceo.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cMaceo? He\u2019s political?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cNot publicly, which is one reason he works for this.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI mean\u2026 sure, he\u2019s probably the most famous Cuban there is, but he\u2019s\u2026\u201d<\/p>

\u201cPerfect. The word you\u2019re looking for is perfect. To front this The Everything Company of yours\u2026\u201d<\/p>

\u201cLa Compa\u00f1\u00eda Todo de Cuba, you mean,\u201d said Pierce, even though my limited Spanish told me it probably should have been La Compa\u00f1\u00eda de Todo Cuba instead. \u201cLCTC.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cRight. LCTC. When we flip that over and it\u2019s not a Chinese thing anymore, we need the most powerful, dominant brand there is. And Diego is basically the Shaquille O\u2019Neal of baseball. He\u2019s a media star, he\u2019s got a business empire with tens of thousands of employees, he\u2019s got charisma, he\u2019s basically a god among the Cubans.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m not gonna lie,\u201d said Pierce. \u201cHim going back to Fenway where he\u2019d made his career, pitching for the Marlins when he was all but washed up in his last year, and then throwing a perfect game against his old team with the Boston crowd cheering him on, La Bala, La Bala, I mean that was just an incredible moment. One of the best.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThat\u2019s the kind of social power you need. It will sweep away all these problems you\u2019re trying to solve on the phone with me.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cSo what? You\u2019re just going to ask him to be a pitch man for this?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI dunno, Pierce. I\u2019m going to tell him what we\u2019re doing, I\u2019m going to ask him what he thinks we need to properly brand it so the Cuban government doesn\u2019t roll in the armored vehicles to arrest us and steal all our stuff, and then I\u2019m going to see what his reaction is. And we\u2019ll go as far with him as he wants to go.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWhat if he says no?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWon\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cMike, he could very easily say no. When he defected, Castro put his dad in prison for 12 years.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAnd that was almost 25 years ago, Pierce. The guy lives in Coral Gables, his businesses are all based in Hialeah, he leans into his Cuban heritage, his wife is as Cuban as you can be without having been born there\u2026\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYeah, what\u2019s her name?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cEsmerelda Fernandez. Or I guess she\u2019s Esmerelda Fernandez Maceo. When I met her, she told me to call her Essie.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cShe\u2019d help this too. She\u2019s an\u2026 actress?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cShe was. She\u2019s got like a lifestyle brand now. Cosmetics and whatnot.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWell, that\u2019s a hell of a life he\u2019s built. You think he\u2019s gonna throw it all away to go back to Cuba and play politician for us?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI don\u2019t know what he\u2019s gonna agree to, Pierce. All I know is he\u2019s not going to turn us down totally. It\u2019s just a question of how big the yes is, and the bigger it is, the more problems it solves.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cOK,\u201d I could hear him sigh. \u201cFine. Go see La Bala tomorrow and then we\u2019ll plan around what he wants to do. It is a good idea; I\u2019m not gonna fight you on that.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAll right, good.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWhat\u2019s the second thing, Mike?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThe second thing? Oh, yeah. The second thing is this business with Peter Chang. I have a very bad feeling all around where that\u2019s concerned.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cOh, come on. The Peter Chang thing is awesome. It\u2019s a masterstroke. You know that.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAs a cosmic-level \u2018Fuck You, I Win,\u2019 catfishing Peter Chang into thinking he\u2019s shilling for China on MS NOW and the Jennifer Welch podcast when he\u2019s actually working to install a market economy backed by Pierce Polk is one of the all-time greatest long cons in the history of the world,\u201d I said. \u201cAfter all the shit he\u2019s pulled, he deserves every stitch he\u2019ll get. But that isn\u2019t the whole story, and you know it.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWhat are you worried about?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYou\u2019re building that comms app with his son, Pierce.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cSo?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAnd I\u2019m married to his daughter.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWho he has fucked over more than once, by the way.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cNevertheless, Pierce, she is not going to be pleased that you\u2019re using her dad like this.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cHave you talked to her? She said something?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI haven\u2019t told her anything. I don\u2019t think I can hold out on her much longer, though.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI mean, you might want to try. If you think PJ is going to lose her shit and call her dad to warn him, we\u2019re pretty much dead in the water before we get started.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m not gonna lie to my wife. This affects her; she\u2019s gotta know about it. And besides, she\u2019s onto this. The beard I\u2019m growing, the Singapore trip, the sudden nonstop phone calls\u2026 she isn\u2019t stupid.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWell, do you want me to call her?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThat,\u201d I said, \u201cis the worst possible idea.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cFine. You need to take care of it.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI intend to. I\u2019m just saying, this was problematic and it should have been addressed.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAnd I would have won the argument anyway, because there is literally nobody on earth who\u2019s a better and more deserving shill and mark for this than Peter Chang. Don\u2019t even try to argue that point with me.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m not arguing that point with you.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThen Mike, and you\u2019re gonna get all fussy with me and act like a little bitch when I say this, but it\u2019s your job to control your household, get your wife on board with the plan so she doesn\u2019t blow it up, and put us in alignment.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cOh, yes SIR<\/em> then.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cHey, don\u2019t give me that shit. What we\u2019re doing here? It\u2019s fuckin\u2019 important<\/em>. This could make millions of people get to live exponentially better lives. It\u2019s a game-changer for America\u2019s place in the world. It puts the whole Western Hemisphere in a position to thrive like never before, and it discredits the fuckin\u2019 commies maybe once and for all. Pardon me for saying it, but I\u2019m not all that concerned if the price for it is a little domestic turbulence at Mike Holman\u2019s idyllic mansion on the water.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cOh, fuck you<\/em>,\u201d I said, knowing he was right and hating him for it. \u201cThis is the shit that got you divorced twice.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYeah, and thank God for that. Hey Mike?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cBest of luck to ya!\u201d<\/p>

And then he hung up.<\/p>

It was all I could do not to throw my phone into Lake Worth Creek.<\/p>

I looked at the master bedroom through the plate-glass window. I couldn\u2019t see much with the curtains drawn, but I could tell she\u2019d left one of the nightstand lights on.<\/p>

She was waiting up for me.<\/p>

PJ didn\u2019t watch a lot of TV in bed. Though interestingly enough, she had started streaming the subtitled version of Coraz\u00f3n de Ca\u00f1a<\/em>, the old telenovela series Essie was in before she married Diego. She denied she was addicted but I\u2019d caught her watching it while she was pedaling away on her Peloton.<\/p>

I knew the nightstand light being on meant she was neither watching TV nor sleeping. PJ wanted to have a conversation, and the extreme length of the call with Pierce had assuredly ramped the pressure gauge up into the red.<\/p>

So I took a deep breath and made my way into the bedroom.<\/p>

Where I found PJ sitting up in bed, wearing an absolutely stunning pink babydoll negligee. With an enticing smile on her face that I read as a very good sign.<\/p>

\u201cOh my God,\u201d I said.<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m finally back to the weight I was before I got pregnant,\u201d she said. \u201cI look good<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYes, you do.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYou, on the other hand? Not so much.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI know you don\u2019t like the beard,\u201d I said. \u201cAnd I need to talk to you about that, because\u2026\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYeah, I think you should. Because something is going on and it\u2019s big, and usually you\u2019re trying to tell me about what you\u2019re doing and I\u2019m like \u2018Mike, leave me alone about that.\u2019 But this time, mum\u2019s the word.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI did invite you to go on the Singapore trip,\u201d I said, sitting down at the foot of the bed and latching on to one of her ankles to give it a massage. \u201cHad you come with us, you\u2019d know everything.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAnd I didn\u2019t want to, but now it\u2019s worse, so yeah \u2013 you should probably tell me because I can tell it\u2019s going to affect me. And probably in larger ways than the Blockbusters stuff did. I\u2019m right, aren\u2019t I?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYou are,\u201d I said, \u201cand I guess I should tell you.\u201d<\/p>

So I did.<\/p>

And she was dead silent the entire time. She had this blank, inscrutable look on her face.<\/p>

And finally, I was done.<\/p>

The room fell quiet.<\/p>

\u201cPJ?\u201d I said. \u201cNow is when you say something.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cUmmm, I have a really hard time with the idea that my dad is just gonna up and go work for Pierce,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s not really\u2026\u201d<\/p>

\u201cHe\u2019s not,\u201d I said. \u201cAt least, not so far as he knows.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cSo what? He\u2019s getting conned? You guys are catfishing<\/em> him?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cPretty much, yeah.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cOh my God.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThis was not my idea,\u201d I said. \u201cIt was already in place before I even got brought into it.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cMichael!\u201d she said, getting out of bed and standing over me. \u201cYou\u2019re just gonna go along with this<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cIt isn\u2019t my preference, and I voiced a concern, but on the other hand\u2026\u201d<\/p>

\u201cMike, it\u2019s not safe for him to be in that position. You put him\u2026\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWait,\u201d I said. \u201cStop. I didn\u2019t do anything where he\u2019s concerned. Nobody forced him into this. In fact, what he thinks he\u2019s doing is actually a whole lot worse than what he\u2019s actually doing. What he volunteered for was essentially to help China colonize Cuba.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cOh, and instead he\u2019s helping America do it.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWhich, even if I agreed was the correct way to characterize this plan, is still a hell of a lot better than subjecting the Cubans to another kind of tyranny.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cOK, let\u2019s get something straight,\u201d she said. \u201cI have nothing against the Cubans, but I\u2019ll be damned if I\u2019m gonna sacrifice my family for them.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWe\u2019re not\u2026\u201d<\/p>

\u201cNo, Mike, it\u2019s my turn to talk. Those people down there, they had 60-something years to get out. Or to fix their country. Have they done it? No. And now you and Pierce think you\u2019re gonna be the Great White Hope, or whatever, and go fix their problems for them \u2013 and in doing that you\u2019re gonna defraud the Chinese, and the Cuban commies, and screw over a bunch of killers and gangsters in the process? How\u2019s that<\/em> gonna work out? For us, I mean. Your wife. Your infant son.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s gonna work out pretty freakin\u2019 well, I think. Big picture\u2026\u201d<\/p>

\u201cNo. I\u2019m done caring about the big picture. My picture is in this house<\/em>. It\u2019s my family. It\u2019s the people I love. It\u2019s my husband. And what you\u2019re telling me is you care about this big picture of yours more than you care about us.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThat is absolutely unfair,\u201d I said. \u201cYou should 100 percent take that back.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAnd yet, I will not,\u201d said PJ. \u201cBecause it\u2019s the truth.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cOK, fine,\u201d I said. \u201cYou want the truth? The truth is that this picture you want to protect so much, and it pisses me off that now you think I don\u2019t want to protect it, came from a very specific place. You know where it came from?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYou\u2019re gonna say Pierce, aren\u2019t you?\u201d she said.<\/p>

\u201cYes! Pierce! My whole adult life I resisted, I said no, I don\u2019t want to be in Pierce\u2019s orbit because I won\u2019t have independence if I do. Right or wrong, I gave that up. And when I did, I didn\u2019t have the ability to just tell him \u2018No, Pierce, I don\u2019t like this.\u2019 Not for important shit. It\u2019s the golden rule \u2013 he has the gold, so he makes the rules. And I made my peace with that.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI see,\u201d she said sarcastically. \u201cJust following orders.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cOh, and somehow you\u2019re completely separate from all this, huh? It wasn\u2019t your idea to have our wedding in Liberty Point? You sure weren\u2019t shitting on Pierce when he sent Roman and the guys to bust me out of Belmarsh Prison, you know.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cOhhhho,\u201d she said, with a pissed-off laugh. \u201cNow I know what you spent all that time out there on. Pierce coached you up and sent you in here to sing his praises.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThat\u2019s a cheap shot,\u201d I said.<\/p>

\u201cIs it?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWhat I also resent,\u201d I said, \u201cis the idea that after all the bullshit he\u2019s pulled, on each of us individually and both of us together, you would blow up about this over your father willingly getting himself into it. You remember what that man did. Hell, he had something to do with putting me in Belmarsh. And you told me what he told you when you asked him for help. What did he say? Come on, PJ, you remember. He said you should get an annulment<\/em>. Now you\u2019re worried about him<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m not worried about him<\/em>, you knucklehead. I\u2019m worried about YOU!\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAnd I\u2019m telling you that it\u2019s going to be fine.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWell, I don\u2019t believe you. How about that?\u201d<\/p>

I took a deep breath.<\/p>

\u201cNo, PJ, it\u2019s not that you don\u2019t believe me, it\u2019s that you don\u2019t trust<\/em> me.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cOK, now it\u2019s your turn to take something back.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWhy? It\u2019s true.\u201d<\/p>

I shouldn\u2019t have said it. I instantly regretted it. But it was too late, and that was too much.<\/p>

She was shaking her head at me the way she does when she\u2019s too angry to speak.<\/p>

\u201cOK, let\u2019s turn this down,\u201d I said. \u201cI\u2019m sorry this has\u2026\u201d<\/p>

\u201cNo,\u201d she said. \u201cNo, we\u2019re not gonna just paper this over. You\u2019re gonna call Pierce and you\u2019re gonna shut this down. Let somebody else do it.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m way too far in for that, PJ.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWell, this stupid plan of yours puts my household in danger. So if you\u2019re gonna do this shit, then you can do it from someplace else.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWhat the\u2026\u201d<\/p>

\u201cOhhh, you heard me, Mike. Pack a bag and go. Come back when you haven\u2019t lost your goddamned mind.\u201d<\/p>

I looked at her, and I realized the fight was either going to resolve itself on her terms as stated, or it was going to escalate into something neither of us could control.<\/p>

So I did it. I packed a bag, went to the nursery and kissed Little Mike, grabbed my laptop and a phone charger, hopped in the car and drove to the club where I got a room for the night.<\/p>

Read more Five Quick Things: Yes, Enes Kanter and Royce White, That Is the Way<\/a><\/p>

\n

\"Black<\/figure>\n<\/p>

Mike packed his life into one bag, the domestic price of the Cuban adventure.<\/em><\/span><\/p>

Coming Wednesday, August 19: Episode 3 of Scott McKay\u2019s <\/em>The Necessary Men.<\/em><\/p><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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