{"id":1663,"date":"2026-08-26T06:11:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T06:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?p=1663"},"modified":"2026-08-26T06:11:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T06:11:12","slug":"scott-mckays-the-necessary-men-episode-5-the-job-fair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?p=1663","title":{"rendered":"Scott McKay\u2019s The Necessary Men<\/i> \u2014 Episode 5: The Job Fair"},"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\u00a0and soon, see the video-novel version of this and the previous books at\u00a0MikeHolman.com.<\/em><\/p>

Read more Turkey\u2019s Syrian Gambit Puts Israel on a Collision Course<\/a><\/p>

We\u2019re now serializing the fourth Mike Holman novel,\u00a0<\/em>The Necessary Men, right here at\u00a0<\/em>The American Spectator\u00a0\u2014 new episodes dropping every Wednesday 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: Col. Cabrillo has paved the way for the friendly invasion of Cuba after some profoundly idiotic negotiations. And Mike and the Sino Solutions crew have landed in Gibara, earning immediate positive reviews for some very basic actions. The game has begun.<\/em><\/p>

Here are Chapters Nine and Ten of <\/em>The Necessary Men.<\/em><\/p>

\n

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

Chapter Nine<\/h2>

Carretera Gibara, Holguin Province, Cuba \u2014 April 18, 2026<\/em><\/p>

\u201cWhat is this?\u201d Cabrillo said from the back seat, as the SUV slowed along the pockmarked road into Gibara.<\/p>

\u201cIt looks like a roadblock, jefe<\/em>,\u201d said Lido, the Havana street kid Cabrillo had hired as his driver.<\/p>

Lido did more than drive the new Mercedes SUV Cabrillo had shipped in from Cancun; he was one of several minions Cabrillo was grooming to fulfill his mission to build a political machine.<\/p>

Vicious. Intimidating. Ruthless. Lido had what Peter Chang had called a \u201clizard brain\u201d in suggesting the kind of men Cabrillo should surround himself with.<\/p>

Lido was the most vicious of the bunch, and that was why Cabrillo made him his right-hand man. For example, Lido had found the kid who was now handling the cocaine run out of Gibara, which was one reason they were taking this trip.<\/p>

The other was Pupo, the local party boss who wouldn\u2019t leave Cabrillo alone with demands for a face-to-face meeting.<\/p>

Plus Chang had told Cabrillo he needed to get to Gibara and take credit for what was happening there.<\/p>

They waited a while, not moving. Cabrillo was surfing the internet on his phone. He was on the website of Granma<\/em>, the Communist Party\u2019s house organ, and looking at two stories.<\/p>

One quoted his boss, who had done an interview with the American news outlet Mother Jones<\/em>, raising the alarm about the army of Salvadoran and Argentinian troops Trumbull was massing in the Florida Keys.<\/p>

The other was a more standard Granma<\/em> piece praising the heroic Chinese investment in Cuban infrastructure as proof that socialist solidarity defeats Yanqui<\/em> aggression. And it also quoted Peter Chang, this time in a direct interview.<\/p>

\u201cNobody from Granma<\/em> has called me for an interview,\u201d he muttered. \u201cThey call the American who attacks America.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWhat\u2019s that, jefe?<\/em>\u201d asked Lido, from the driver\u2019s seat.<\/p>

\u201cNothing. Find out what the holdup is.\u201d<\/p>

Lido rolled the window down and asked one of the people walking the other way what was causing the traffic jam. What came back was a rather vigorous string of profanity that Cabrillo couldn\u2019t fully make out.<\/p>

\u201cWhat is it?\u201d he asked impatiently when the man walked away.<\/p>

\u201cThe Army has set up the roadblock. These people are all going to Gibara. They say it\u2019s a job fair, because LCTC is hiring for all positions, and they\u2019re coming from all over Holguin Province looking for work. But the Army is turning them away.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWhose stupid fucking idea was that?\u201d asked Cabrillo. Lido shrugged.<\/p>

\u201cEnough. Get us to the front of the line, for fuck\u2019s sake.\u201d<\/p>

Lido leaned on the horn, and the crowd of people ducked out of the way. He weaved the Mercedes rudely through the throng, finally reaching the roadblock.<\/p>

A burly sergeant held his hand up to stop the SUV, then appeared at the front driver\u2019s side window. Lido pointed his thumb backward, and Cabrillo opened the back-seat window.<\/p>

\u201cWhat the fuck are you people doing?\u201d Cabrillo asked the sergeant.<\/p>

\u201cExcuse me, but who are you?\u201d the sergeant shot back.<\/p>

Cabrillo showed him his LCTC ID card.<\/p>

\u201cDios mio!\u201d<\/em> said the sergeant. \u201cCoronel<\/em> Cabrillo! I didn\u2019t know you\u2019d be coming\u2026\u201d<\/p>

\u201cFine, fine. Answer my question. What is this bullshit that you are doing?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cOrdered by Ej\u00e9rcito Oriental<\/em> headquarters.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cHolguin? This was Mendoza?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYes, Coronel.\u201d<\/em><\/p>

\u201cMaricon,\u201d<\/em> Cabrillo muttered, and got on his phone.<\/p>

He had the number for Alejandro Mendoza, General de Cuerpo de Ej\u00e9rcito<\/em>, in charge of Cuba\u2019s Eastern Army based in Holguin to the south, in his contacts. Mendoza picked up the phone on the second ring.<\/p>

\u201cManuel,\u201d he said. \u201cHow good of you to call.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWhat the fuck are you doing?\u201d Cabrillo barked.<\/p>

He could see the sergeant flinch at the idea that a colonel would dress down a general. Well, he\u2019s going to get a hell of a show<\/em>, Cabrillo thought.<\/p>

\u201cExcuse me?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThis roadblock going into Gibara. There\u2019s a job fair today.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m aware. We have to put a stop to it\u2026\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWhat the fuck for? These people are coming to work for me, you retard. Lift the fucking roadblock. Now. Or do you want our Chinese brothers to remember you? I\u2019ll make sure they do.\u201d<\/p>

That was all the sergeant needed to see. He was jogging back to the roadblock, shouting orders, and Cabrillo saw the Army trucks blocking the road being moved off, as well as the construction barrels and sawhorses they\u2019d laid down.<\/p>

\u201cManuel,\u201d said Mendoza, \u201cthere\u2019s no need to be rude.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cDon\u2019t lay down any more fucking roadblocks,\u201d said Cabrillo. \u201cThe future of Cuba does not put roadblocks in front of Manuel Cabrillo. You get me?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI do, Manuel. I\u2019ll make the call.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cDon\u2019t bother,\u201d he said. \u201cI already did.\u201d<\/p>

The mass of people in front of the SUV was dividing, and the road was now clear in front of them.<\/p>

\u201cPunch it,\u201d said Cabrillo. Lido did, and Cabrillo could see the people being left in their dust, cheering and running after them toward the job fair as they sped away.<\/p>

\n

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

The first thing Cabrillo noted as they drove into town along the Carretera Gibara was the airfield on the left, southwest of town. A Cessna Caravan cargo plane was landing on a freshly paved runway where an unusable grass airstrip had been on his last trip here. Trucks were everywhere, and a construction crew was erecting a large metal hangar next to a brand-new two-story Spanish colonial building that appeared to be a terminal.<\/p>

And then, as the Carretera Gibara became the Ronda de la Marina as the Mercedes came into town, Cabrillo saw a forest of shipping containers stacked up on a strip of waterfront which had been a beachy wasteland. A very large, wide pier was jutting out into the bay; two mobile cranes on treads were parked on the pier.<\/p>

LCTC had fast-built a small airport and a commercial port where there had been nothing, and they had done it in less than three weeks.<\/p>

He saw that all of the streetlights had been replaced with new models which looked like they were made of brass, in an ornate Spanish design. Hung along with the lights on the light-poles were solar panels, and built into each unit was a box that looked like an oversized battery.<\/p>

Cabrillo wasn\u2019t sure what to make of that.<\/p>

Traffic on the Ronda de la Marina was heavier than he had seen it, but Cabrillo noted that the usual roster of ancient cars and leftover trucks was supplemented by something else.<\/p>

Tractors. A convoy of them making their way north along the coast road toward downtown Gibara.<\/p>

\u201cAy, mierda,\u201d<\/em> Cabrillo muttered, as they crept along the Ronda de la Marina behind the Chinese-made YTO and Dongfeng behemoths. \u201cGet off this road. We\u2019re going to be late.\u201d<\/p>

So Lido took a left on Calle Justo Aguilera and then a right on Calle Cuba, taking them past something Cabrillo was stunned by.<\/p>

\u201cStop the car,\u201d he barked. Lido pulled over just past the corner of Calle Cuba and Calle Narciso Lopez.<\/p>

A crew of locals was stacking bricks on what had been the lot of an abandoned building, clearly recently demolished, which was unremarkable \u2013 though evidence of economic activity Gibara had seen little of. But what was notable was the large piece of equipment parked on the building\u2019s foundation.<\/p>

It looked a bit like a shipping container on wheels, and it had two arms extending from its main body, with rollers covering the surface of the two arms.<\/p>

Emerging onto those rollers was what seemed to be an endless procession of terra cotta roof tiles. Men were grabbing them and stacking them on wheelbarrows and pushing them east on Narciso Lopez toward the water.<\/p>

\u201cWhat is this?\u201d asked Lido.<\/p>

\u201cI wonder if that\u2019s a 3D printer,\u201d said Cabrillo, rolling down his window.<\/p>

\u201cHey, muchacho,\u201d<\/em> he asked a burly local man who seemed to be the supervisor. \u201c\u00bfQu\u00e9 pasa?\u201d<\/em><\/p>

The man told him they had set up a tile factory here because they were re-roofing all the buildings in the downtown and making them uniform.<\/p>

\u201cWe\u2019re staging the tiles block by block,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is a good central location for south of downtown. When we\u2019re done today, we\u2019ll move the printer north, and then west. It makes a thousand of these every 15 minutes.\u201d<\/p>

Cabrillo nodded and thanked the man, and then Lido deposited them at Party headquarters, which sat on Calle Independencia, between Calle Cuba and Calle Maceo.<\/p>

\n

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

As he and Lido got out of the car, a pretty young woman in a pair of overalls and work boots walked by, a shovel in her hand.<\/p>

\u201cNice ride,\u201d she said as she passed, and then began humming.<\/p>

That song. Boom-badaba-boom-badaba. He knew what it was. The song was a direct insult to Candela, and here this girl was, humming it in front of Party headquarters.<\/p>

As they made it through the door, Cabrillo was glad he was wearing his suit jacket. Pupo kept the building absolutely frigid. He left Lido at the front desk and found Pupo in his Miami Vice suit \u2013 but this time instead of a t-shirt he had a red golf shirt under his jacket.<\/p>

\u201cSomething new to wear?\u201d he asked the man.<\/p>

\u201cS\u00ed,<\/em> Senior Cabrillo!\u201d said Pupo, pulling his jacket aside to show off the gold-star logo on his breast. \u201cIt\u2019s a Sino Solutions polo! In just my size. Se\u00f1or<\/em> Thibaud is very generous, no? Come, sit! I can offer you cerveza, but I fear it is not cold.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cNo?\u201d said Cabrillo. \u201cI thought cold drinks were your specialty, Se\u00f1or<\/em> Pupo.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAlas, my icemaker\u2026 la se\u00f1ora est\u00e1 muerta<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>

Pupo explained that his Russian-made Biryusa model, which had made its way to Cuban shores after its assembly in 1987, had survived numerous repairs but would no longer blow cold air.<\/p>

\u201cAnd there is no one who can fix it,\u201d said Pupo. \u201cThe parts are not available.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cA tragedy,\u201d said Cabrillo, attempting to sound sincere.<\/p>

He turned to look behind him, because on the giant television mounted on the wall an American cable TV news show was on and a woman \u2013 the chyron said her name was Naomi Yanko-Munsch, and she was a congresswoman from New York \u2013 was screeching angrily about the mustering horde of Argentine and Salvadoran mercenaries in the Florida Keys that the American president, Trumbull, had assembled.<\/p>

\u201cDo you think we\u2019ll be invaded?\u201d Pupo asked him.<\/p>

Cabrillo laughed.<\/p>

\u201cSurely you understand propaganda, Se\u00f1or<\/em> Pupo,\u201d he said.<\/p>

\u201cYes, but this is MS NOW.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAnd? Your point is?\u201d<\/p>

Pupo brushed off the question. He leaned in, as if telling a secret.<\/p>

\u201cShe is lovers with Dolores,\u201d he said.<\/p>

\u201cWho is lovers with\u2026 oh, do you mean Gramsci-Ramos?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYes!\u201d said Pupo. \u201cDolores left her husband and recruited this one to run in her seat when she ran for president. And then she moved to the next district over and won that seat, so the two of them could make love whenever they wanted.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cEsas tortilleras mariconas de mierda,\u201d<\/em> Cabrillo spat.<\/p>

Pupo looked flustered. Then he returned to more important matters.<\/p>

\u201cYou have connections, Se\u00f1or<\/em> Cabrillo. Perhaps you can secure me a replacement for my appliance? Perhaps a Mabe? I hear that\u2019s quite a good Mexican brand.\u201d<\/p>

Cabrillo began to realize that Pupo\u2019s urgent business that required the long trip from Havana wasn\u2019t very urgent at all.<\/p>

\u201cI think I will have one of your cervezas,\u201d he said. Anything to get Pupo to stop talking, if only for a moment.<\/p>

\u201cOf course,\u201d the man said, pulling his wispy hair across his scalp once again. \u201cI\u2019ll be right back.\u201d<\/p>

And he was, holding two bottles of La Bala which had been resting in tepid water in a cooler.<\/p>

\u201cLa Bala?\u201d said Cabrillo, as Pupo handed him one. \u201cEsa mierda de los negratas? <\/em>Why wouldn\u2019t you drink Bucanero like a real Cuban?\u201d<\/em><\/p>

Pupo gave him a hurt look.<\/p>

\u201cBecause the La Bala is free, Se\u00f1or<\/em> Cabrillo. It comes off the boat courtesy of our Canadian friends. And when la cerveza is a gift of your people, I drink it. Not all heroes of the Revolution drive a Mercedes-Benz, after all.\u201d<\/p>

Cabrillo just rolled his eyes and took a sip.<\/p>

It wasn\u2019t bad.<\/p>

\u201cThere is a lot of activity in town,\u201d he said. \u201cI saw tractors, there are planes landing on a new airfield, someone built a port, the buildings are getting new roofs\u2026\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYes, yes, se\u00f1or<\/em>. Your man Mr. Thibaud, the Canadian. He is very efficient. When he is asked for things, he is good with delivering them. It is strange that the Canadians are proving socialism can work, yes?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cS\u00ed,\u201d<\/em> said Cabrillo, already tired of hearing about Thibaud and taking another sip of his beer. \u201cWhy hasn\u2019t your Canadian delivered you a new icemaker?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI haven\u2019t asked him.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cNo? But you\u2019ll ask me?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI have\u2026 something else I would also like to discuss with you,\u201d said Pupo.<\/p>

\u201cWhich is?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cMarco, the young man who has the go-fast boat now. I\u2019ve told him that when he makes his run to Exuma on Wednesday he needs to pick up two tanks of propane. He told me something terrible. You need to straighten him out.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWhat did he tell you?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cHe said jinga tu madre<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>

Cabrillo laughed. \u201cThat was rude of him, to be sure. He said that to the Party Secretary?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThese young men. No respeto<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cIndeed.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYou must tell him. Two tanks. And an icemaker. After all, I make all of this happen in Gibara. For you.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cQu\u00e9?\u201d<\/em> said Cabrillo, gulping his beer.<\/p>

\u201cYou heard me.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cJinga tu madre, cabron!\u201d<\/em> said Cabrillo. He stood up and left.<\/p>

\u201cLido,\u201d he said as the engine roared to life, \u201cit\u2019s time to seek out this Douglas Thibaud Pupo speaks so highly of. Find him.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cSino Solutions\u2019 headquarters is at the Hotel Ordo\u00f1o,\u201d said Lido. \u201cWe should start there.\u201d<\/p>

He didn\u2019t wait for Cabrillo\u2019s assent. Lido turned the SUV to the right and drove the three blocks along Calle Independencia, turning right on Calle Peralta and parking in front of the hotel.<\/p>

The sidewalk in front of the Hotel Ordo\u00f1o was a beehive of activity; street vendors were selling consumer items to the small crowd milling around by the front door. Cabrillo pushed back the throng into the busy lobby and buttonholed the young lady working the concierge desk.<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m looking for Douglas Thibaud,\u201d he said.<\/p>

\u201cHe would still be at the job fair, se\u00f1or<\/em>,<\/em>\u201d she said.<\/p>

\u201cHe\u2019s the project manager. Why is he at a job fair? That\u2019s for underlings to do.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cNot Mr. Douglas, se\u00f1or<\/em>. He is everywhere there is work happening. When he isn\u2019t having office hours in the ballroom, he is seldom here until very late at night.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cA busy man,\u201d sniffed Cabrillo.<\/p>

\u201cA great man,\u201d she answered. \u201cMr. Douglas? Lo queremos<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cHmmph,\u201d Cabrillo snorted. \u201cThe job fair is?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cEr, it\u2019s outdoors. Three blocks east, Plaza Da Silva, right on the water.\u201d<\/p>

Cabrillo knocked on the concierge desk and turned for the door, nearly knocking over a tall bearded man in a tan utility shirt with the Sino Solutions logo and blue jeans. He looked up, and the man looked at him, then looked away as he walked past.<\/p>

\u201c\u2018Scuse me,\u201d the man said.<\/p>

Cabrillo had a strange feeling he\u2019d met the man before. But there was no time to chase forgotten faces. At the car he summoned Lido with a knock on the window.<\/p>

\u201cLet\u2019s walk it,\u201d he said. \u201cWon\u2019t find a parking space in this manicomio<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>

Lido got out and the two of them walked the three blocks to the job fair, where hundreds of people were gathered at tables all over the plaza, sorted by various general job descriptions: Medical, Industrial, Financial, Computers, Drivers, etc.<\/p>

A woman was on a microphone giving instructions to the job-hunters, directing them to begin at the signup tables where Sino Solutions employees, who looked to be mostly Cubans \u2013 per LCTC\u2018s custom, these were generally delegates of the Asamblea Municipal del Poder Popular, <\/em>or Municipal Assembly of People\u2019s Power \u2013 were registering and photographing them and then giving them picture ID cards with a QR code and a magnetic strip for a card reader, and once they were in the system, their cards opened access to a host of services the company was providing free of charge. LCTC had simply rolled in and co-opted the local Communist party structure, creating a membership organization which reminded Cabrillo of nature shows he\u2019d seen as a child, where various insects and other creatures had climbed inside a host and eaten it from the inside, eventually turning the host into a zombie.<\/p>

These people were Cuban communists who were working to sell the country\u2019s sovereignty to Chinese state capitalism administered by\u2026<\/p>

\u2026Canadians?<\/p>

A sizable, happy crowd was standing around a table with a large sign reading \u201cTim Hortons.\u201d There were large canisters of coffee and boxes piled up on the table.<\/p>

Donuts, the round pastries the Americans and Canadians loved so much.<\/p>

This was pure capitalism on display. At a Chinese socialist job fair.<\/p>

In the corner, a group of pasty-white young people was huddled close to each other. Most were female, most had pieces of metal sticking out of their noses or lips, some had unnatural-colored hair. Cabrillo knew these were the Americans Peter Chang had recruited; the Omobba Brigades, they called them. Socialists from college campuses around the United States, who were coming to Cuba as human shields against the invasion and to help perfect the Marxist experiment.<\/p>

They weren\u2019t perfecting anything in the corner of that plaza.<\/p>

Finally, a large man in a black t-shirt with the Sino Solutions logo on its back and camouflage pants, a snake tattoo making its way up his neck, stormed over to them, barking orders. They hurriedly made their way to a series of ice coolers set up along the northern edge of the plaza, grabbing bottles of water and circulating through the crowd to distribute them. The man with the snake tattoo walked away, eventually standing along the far edge of the plaza.<\/p>

Near where he stopped, a tall man with a dark beard was greeting locals as they lined up to say hello. Old women were hugging him and giving him kisses on the cheek. Children were giving him high-fives. And the woman with the microphone had set it down and went over to ask him something. He nodded, and she went back to the microphone, making another announcement about the job fair.<\/p>

\u201cThat must be Thibaud,\u201d said Cabrillo.<\/p>

\u201cSeems so,\u201d said Lido.<\/p>

They made their way to him. Cabrillo introduced himself, and Thibaud gave him a polite but curt, \u201cNice to meet you, colonel,\u201d greeting in response.<\/p>

\u201cI must say,\u201d said Cabrillo, \u201cthat of the places where our enterprise has made entry, this seems to be the happiest one.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWell, we caught a lucky break. They\u2019d had a busted water main and for four or five days before we pulled up there was no running water. The public works guy quit in a dispute with the party secretary\u2026\u201d<\/p>

\u201cPupo?\u201d Cabrillo chuckled.<\/p>

\u201cThat\u2019s right. Anyway, we had the equipment, so we fixed the break for them, and a couple of hours later they had water. Once word got around, we just had instant momentum.\u201d<\/p>

Just then, Cabrillo heard it. That humming. Boom-badaba, boom-badaba. A host of young women filling out forms at the Computers table were laughing and dancing to it. They weren\u2019t singing the insulting lyrics to the song. But the melody\u2026 it was practically everywhere in that plaza.<\/p>

\u201cDo you hear that?\u201d he hissed at Lido. \u201cThere is no discipline at all here!\u201d<\/p>

\u201cIt is a disgrace, coronel,<\/em>\u201d Lido answered.<\/p>

\u201cThey must not hum that song,\u201d Cabrillo said to Thibaud.<\/p>

\u201cA song?\u201d he said noncommittally. \u201cI\u2019ve got\u2026 I don\u2019t know anything about Cuban music. What song is it?\u201d<\/p>

He turned and saw that Pupo was walking up, but at the sight of Cabrillo, the little man turned around and walked in the other direction.<\/p>

\u201cPupo!\u201d Cabrillo yelled, chasing him down.<\/p>

\u201cWhat do you want?\u201d the party boss snapped.<\/p>

\u201cWhy aren\u2019t you doing something about that song these people are all singing?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI hear no singing, Se\u00f1or<\/span><\/em>\u00a0Cabrillo.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cBoom-badaba, boom-badaba. That is the melody to the song calling Presidente Candela a pendejo!<\/em> And you allow it in the public square?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI know nothing about this,\u201d said Pupo. \u201cPoint me to someone who has called El Presidente a pendejo,<\/em> and I will deal harshly with them.\u201d<\/p>

And then he turned and walked toward Thibaud, shaking his hand as he reached him.<\/p>

Cabrillo wanted to slap him. Pupo was openly defying the regime, without actually doing it.<\/p>

And what he realized was that he had created this monster.<\/p>

This corrupt apparatchik had shaken him down for a bribe in their first meeting, and he had then shaken him down again earlier in the day, absurdly enough for a refrigerator and two tanks of propane, while sporting a free golf shirt and offering free beer, clearly from Thibaud.<\/p>

He watched Pupo interact with the Canadian. He was asking the man for something, and Thibaud nodded. Cabrillo thought he could make out a response along the lines of \u201cI\u2019ll see what I can do\u201d in reading his lips.<\/p>

\u201cGiving him a fucking refrigerator,\u201d he said.<\/p>

\u201cWhat\u2019s that, jefe<\/em>?\u201d said Lido.<\/p>

\u201cNever mind. Let\u2019s get out of here. To hell with this place.\u201d<\/p>

They walked back up the street to the front of the Hotel Ordo\u00f1o, a growing mass of people coming the other way.<\/p>

Three large young men walking the other way were clapping rhythmically and laughing as a fourth was loudly singing.<\/p>

\u201cNo hay luz, no hay luz, d\u00edmelo otra vez,\u201d<\/em> he bellowed. His friends were clapping along, producing a dembow beat as he sang.<\/p>

\u201c\u2019Patria o Muerte\u2019 \u2014 \u00bfpero qu\u00e9 nos das?<\/em><\/p>

\u201cNi una vela, ni un ventilador<\/em><\/p>

\u201cManolo grita pero apaga el sol.\u201d<\/em><\/p>

Cabrillo had heard the lyrics. \u201cNo power, no power, say it again \/ \u2018Country or Death\u2019 \u2014 but what do you give us? \/ Not a candle, not a fan \/ Manolo shouts but he turns off the sun.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cHey!\u201d he said to the singer. \u201cJust what the fuck do you think you\u2019re singing?\u201d<\/p>

The kid looked at him like he was crazy.<\/p>

\u201cYou got a problem, old man?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYou can\u2019t sing that song. It\u2019s illegal!<\/em>\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYou gonna arrest me?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cIs that your Mercedes?\u201d said one of his clapping friends.<\/p>

\u201cThat\u2019s a nice fucking ride,\u201d said another one.<\/p>

\u201cI bet he\u2019s a communist,\u201d said the singer. \u201cHey old man, how about we come to your house and take all your shit? Bet you won\u2019t mind. You\u2019re a communist. You don\u2019t believe in private property, right?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cLet\u2019s get his car keys,\u201d said the third, and largest of the four. He looked at Lido.<\/p>

\u201cBack away,\u201d said Lido.<\/p>

\u201cWhat the fuck are you gonna do about it, punk?\u201d<\/p>

Lido pulled his knife, and the four of them let out a large \u201cWhoooooa!\u201d and laughed again.<\/p>

Cabrillo saw the second of the group pull out his own knife. It looked like a nice steak knife from one of the better restaurants in Venezuela.<\/p>

\u201cYou want to go, maricon<\/em>? I\u2019ll stick this so far up your ass it\u2019ll come out of your mouth.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cLet\u2019s go, Lido,\u201d Cabrillo said.<\/p>

\u201cYeah, that\u2019s right,\u201d said the singer. \u201cGet the fuck out of here, pendejo<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cPendejo!\u201d<\/em> said the second kid, putting his knife away. \u201cBoom-badaba, boom-badaba, boom-badaba-Ma-No-Lo!\u201d<\/p>

And the rest of them followed him toward the plaza, joining him in singing the rest of the chorus. \u201cBoom-badaba, boom-badaba, boom-badaba-Pen-De-Jo!\u201d<\/p>

The rest of the people walking along the street were either laughing or giving Cabrillo and Lido looks which ranged from curious to highly unfriendly.<\/p>

And when they reached the car, someone had smeared \u201cCuba Libre!\u201d in\u2026 some substance, on the driver\u2019s side door.<\/p>

\n

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

Cabrillo made Lido stop at a CUPET Servicentro on the way out of town.<\/p>

\u201cGet that shit off the car,\u201d he said, referring to the smeared \u201cCUBA LIBRE\u201d on the driver\u2019s side door panels.<\/p>

And while the old station attendant held the trigger on the gas pump, Lido worked the windshield squeegee on the door panels in what looked like a losing battle against the\u2026 blood? Chicken grease? Motor oil? Goose shit? That whoever had decided to tag a big shot\u2019s vehicle with a rebel slogan had used.<\/p>

And at the next island, the LCTC trucks were lined up to refuel. From tanks it was certain had been topped off by a LCTC tanker truck that had brought gasoline or diesel from an LCTC boat from the Bahamas.<\/p>

Cabrillo, meanwhile, was putting a call to a contact at DSE, the Direcci\u00f3n de la Seguridad del Estado<\/em>.<\/p>

About this Douglas Thibaud.<\/p>

Cabrillo wasn\u2019t just angry about the open anti-regime chaos among the people in Gibara. He\u2019d seen some of that in Moa, in Macabi, in Ciego de \u00c1vila, and even in Santa Clara. But in Gibara, the rebellion was coupled with an almost cultlike allegiance to a foreigner whose role was supposed to be that of a mere functionary.<\/p>

And Gibara crystallized a pattern Cabrillo began to recognize \u2013 LCTC was an operation that didn\u2019t move like Chinese state investment. Chinese state investment moved slowly, bureaucratically, with enormous overhead and constant political friction. What was happening, especially in Gibara, moved like someone who had done this before and had his own systems.<\/p>

They had a 3D printer, and they were re-roofing every house in downtown Gibara. That wasn\u2019t just stormproofing; it was refurbishing the aesthetic of the town.<\/p>

Chinese state capitalism didn\u2019t do this.<\/p>

It certainly didn\u2019t build personal relationships with the people it was colonizing. These Canadians \u2013 were they actually Canadians? Thibaud\u2019s accent wasn\u2019t very strong \u2013 were very warm with the locals in Gibara. And while it was more noticeable there, Cabrillo had to admit that was a pattern as well.<\/p>

Thibaud had told him they had repaired a water main on the first night they landed in Gibara. That was certainly not the type of activity a Chinese state capitalist enterprise would take on right off the boat.<\/p>

And his boss Peter Chang, and the few office workers around him, were the only Chinese in the entire operation that Cabrillo could see. It was laden with Canadians, with Mexicans, Venezuelans, Dominicans, Bahamians and others.<\/p>

Plus Chang\u2019s American college students. Cabrillo knew they were window dressing and a middle finger pointed at the Trumbull administration. Nothing more.<\/p>

\u201cCoronel<\/em>,\u201d came the voice on the other end of the line. \u201cDouglas Thibaud? I have his file.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cTell me, Rafael.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cHe\u2019s clean.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cHis accent is not Winnipeg. I confess I am not an expert. But his English sounds almost like a broadcast TV\u2026\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThe file says he spent much of his childhood in Ohio. That would explain a faint accent, or none, among the Norte Americanos<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cHmmph. Where did he go to college?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cMcGill University. Worked for the Ontario government as a highway engineer, then a project manager for several non-governmental organizations, in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean, before getting hired by Sino Solutions.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cFamily? Friends?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cNothing has come up.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI want him watched. Something is off with this man.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cJefe,\u201d<\/em> said Rafael, \u201cthere is nothing in the file\u2026\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI don\u2019t care. There is an irregularity. I smell it.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAs you say, jefe<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>

So Cabrillo hung up.<\/p>

Lido had paid the attendant and gotten back behind the wheel.<\/p>

\u201cYou can still see it,\u201d he said, \u201cbut you have to look close. I will get it detailed when we\u2019re back in Havana.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cFine,\u201d said Cabrillo. \u201cLet\u2019s go.\u201d<\/p>

Then he called his boss.<\/p>

\u201cHi there, Manuel!\u201d said Chang. \u201cHow is Gibara?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s better than I expected,\u201d said Cabrillo, \u201cbut something about this operation is unusual.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWell, I\u2019ve heard very good things.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYes, and there are good things. They\u2019ve built an airport and a seaport, and it appears they\u2019ve hired hundreds, if not thousands, of people for all manner of projects. Very impressive.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWonderful! I hope you pressed the flesh. This is the kind of success story that plays very well in the media. We should call Granma<\/em> and have them send someone down.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYes, but I\u2019m not sure this is the right thing. What do you know of Douglas Thibaud, the project manager in Gibara?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cNothing. He\u2019s a Sino Solutions guy. They did say he\u2019s been with them a while and he\u2019s a star. Why?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cNothing,\u201d Cabrillo sighed.<\/p>

\u201cWell, did you meet him?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI did. He\u2019s\u2026 quite charismatic.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cGood. Maybe we\u2019ll have Granma<\/em> interview him. It\u2019s a good story, don\u2019t you think? China and Cuba working together, and the spirit of socialist cooperation attracts Canada\u2019s best and brightest? Honestly, I should call Rachel Maddow and my friend at the San Francisco Chronicle<\/em>. I\u2019ll bet they\u2019d love that story.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYour American friends certainly seem to have bought into your story about Salvadorans and Argentines in the Keys.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYeah. That? Genius, don\u2019t you think? Do you know that the Omobba Brigade recruitment is nearing twenty thousand? Every time the hype about an invasion grows, it\u2019s worth another thousand signups!\u201d<\/p>

\u201cPeter, from what I can see, these children have nothing whatsoever to offer to the Revolution.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cOh, come on. They\u2019re being recruited from the best colleges!\u201d<\/p>

Cabrillo rolled his eyes, exchanged a few pleasantries with Chang, and hung up.<\/p>

\u201cGet me home, Lido,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve had enough of Holguin Province.\u201d<\/p>

\n

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

Chapter Ten<\/h2>

Nassau, Bahamas \u2014 April 24, 2026<\/em><\/p>

We\u2019d held a giant job fair at the Plaza da Silva, which is the big open-air area close to the fishing piers at the head of the Bahia de Gibara, next to the Bateria Fernando VII, which is the old Spanish fort guarding the bay. We needed to do that because the list of projects that LCTC was touching off had greatly exceeded the \u201cCanadian\u201d and other foreign workforce we\u2019d recruited.<\/p>

Which included the Omobba Brigade.<\/p>

That was really sort of a red herring, and it was something Simon, who understood communist propaganda, and Pierce, who just had a mean sense of humor, had cooked up.<\/p>

Initially it was a joke. But Simon thought there was some actual value to it \u2013 and specifically attaching Omobba\u2019s name was something he said must be done.<\/p>

\u201cThis is bait for the American Left, if part of the project is to discredit them,\u201d he said. \u201cHanging them on their own propaganda by dragging thousands of them to Cuba to see first-hand how capitalism outperforms socialism, and then to attach Omobba\u2019s name, when he lifted the Cuba embargo, and it did little to change Cuba\u2019s fortunes, will discredit him as well.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI just think it\u2019s a funny turn on the Lincoln Brigades in the Spanish Civil War,\u201d said Pierce. \u201cDumb Americans inserting themselves into somebody else\u2019s problems with zero plan and the wrong ideas to fix things? Omobba Brigades. Has to be.\u201d<\/p>

And then Simon gave it to Peter, and wouldn\u2019t you know it, but there was Peter, making a call to Omobba and getting him to do a video supporting those kids joining the LCTC program. Peter stood up an NGO called Helping Hands Cuba, which was officially the organization recruiting and deploying these kids.<\/p>

Which made it even funnier that Peter and the Hyphens and everybody else on the American Left were skinning their Facebook and X profiles with \u201cHands Off Cuba.\u201d Matt Walsh did a five-minute video that went viral calling them a bunch of Lee Harvey Oswald wannabe idiots who didn\u2019t even know their own organization was explicitly calling for hands ON Cuba. But that didn\u2019t stop the slogans.<\/p>

And everybody was calling the Helping Hands Cuba kids the Omobba Brigades.<\/p>

The foreman of the little Omobba Brigade which showed up in Gibara was a guy named Pat Stensland. He was going by Trevor Pullman-Luker as part of the Omobba Brigade ruse. Pat had been with Pierce at Liberty Point during the fight with the Venezuelans; he\u2019d been a drone operator and had brought holy hell down on the poor bastards who got sent to invade Guyana. But with this, he\u2019d grown out his hair and styled it in a man-bun, and he\u2019d set himself up with a Fu Manchu moustache and goatee situation, and he no longer looked like a guy who\u2019d ever been to Liberty Point.<\/p>

And when he got off the Cessna Caravan at PCIA \u2013 yes, we were still calling it Peter Chang International Airport \u2013 with his 12 kids, Pat \u2013 er, Trevor \u2013 made sure to tamp down expectations.<\/p>

Read more From \u2018All In\u2019 to Tap the Brakes: Josh Shapiro Redefines Pennsylvania\u2019s Tech Boom<\/a><\/p>

\u201cI have two good ones and ten utterly useless babies,\u201d he said when he visited my office on the ground floor of the Hotel Ordono.<\/p>

Seven of his kids were from Oberlin, which wasn\u2019t a surprise; what was a surprise was that Trevor told me one of them was legitimately helpful. Three of them had come from Reed College in Portland, and none of those were any good. One was from Bethune-Cookman, and Trevor said that kid was the best of the bunch, and one was from Harvard.<\/p>

\u201cThe Harvard kid is so freakin\u2019 dumb I\u2019m shocked she can tie her shoes.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWe\u2019ll get her some slip-ons,\u201d I said.<\/p>

\u201cWe already did.\u201d<\/p>

I told him I was surprised the Reed kids weren\u2019t any good. \u201cIsn\u2019t that where Steve Jobs went?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYeah. For a semester. These brats ain\u2019t Steve Jobs.\u201d<\/p>

Trevor also said it would be a very good idea for me to stay away from the Omobba Brigade kids, at least while this was still supposed to be a Chinese organization.<\/p>

\u201cWhy is that?\u201d I asked.<\/p>

\u201cBecause the one thing these kids are all aware of? Politics. They don\u2019t know anything about that, either, but they absolutely know who Mike Holman is, and Doug, I hate to tell you, but you\u2019re a dead ringer for him.\u201d<\/p>

I wasn\u2019t all that surprised. Nobody really thought my disguise was very convincing. So far, though, that hadn\u2019t really seemed to matter.<\/p>

But I decided to take Trevor\u2019s advice. So when the Omobba Brigade kids showed up, they basically got the stiffarm from the big shots working for Sino Solutions \u2013 specifically, me, Hal Gibson, Jason Belcher and Jack Gray (or Gray Jackson, officially). Selena interviewed them and found out that the Bethune-Cookman kid, who was a black half-Cuban sophomore named Felipe Rogers, and one of the Oberlin kids spoke Spanish.<\/p>

So they got put to work signing people in at the job fair. The rest of them were told to make themselves useful, which of course ended in them standing in the corner and whining that their phones didn\u2019t work in Cuba.<\/p>

Which was of a piece with pretty much everything we got out of these kids. They were getting course credit for working for us, per some stupid deal Peter Chang had cut with some left-wing college-oriented non-profit, and so far all they\u2019d learned is that it\u2019s really hot when you\u2019re in the tropics with no AC and in the Third World, they actually want you to do physical labor.<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m glad this is your problem and not mine,\u201d I told Trevor.<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m just here for the flip,\u201d he said. \u201cI have a speech all ready for that payoff.\u201d<\/p>

We ended up signing up 1,367 people at that job fair. They were literally walking in from all over the place. I\u2019d heard we might have had a lot more, but the Cuban Army had set up a roadblock on the 221, the Carretera Gibara, coming into town.<\/p>

Why they\u2019d do that I had no idea, but my guess was that the regime was starting to get very nervous about the fact that our operation, and the two dozen others like it across Cuba, was beginning to get quite a bit larger than Candela\u2019s people expected. It was one thing to fix the water and bring in a bunch of cereal boxes and paving equipment. It was something else entirely when we started taking over the power grid and rebuilding the houses around town.<\/p>

And we hadn\u2019t even gotten started yet with the real stuff we had planned. We were really just staging for the flip.<\/p>

Jack had come up with the idea of signing in all the folks coming into the job fair to apply for work and getting them biometric ID cards with QR codes and EMV chips. He\u2019d put that together right from the very beginning, and it was the work-through of a great idea Stan and Trent \u2013 the two financial guys who understood this stuff a whole lot better than I did.<\/p>

More about that later.<\/p>

And I stood there watching people roll on in and get processed \u2013 every applicant got a card \u2013 and then find their way to tables where they could see job openings we\u2019d posted for just about everything, because the mission encompassed all of the functions of commerce and industry in Gibara, and put themselves on a list to get called in for training, assessment, and hiring as we stood up operations.<\/p>

Perhaps the most interesting of the new signups was a young guy, maybe 30 years old, who said his name was Osvaldo Reyes. He was from Baracoa, he said, and he was a doctor. Osvaldo had done his signup, and then he marched up to Selena and asked who was in charge, and she brought him to me.<\/p>

He said he was a doctor, and that I needed to put him to work.<\/p>

\u201cI thought the regime had healthcare all taken care of,\u201d I said. Osvaldo laughed.<\/p>

\u201cThe regime makes slaves of the healthcare people,\u201d he said, as Selena translated. \u201cI had to go on a medical mission to Nicaragua. There are thousands of us there. Candela bills the Nicaraguans first-world prices for us. We get to live in a barracks, and we have DI minders watching us. I deserted and went to Panama and got Panamanian papers through a friend, and now I\u2019m here.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYou were in Panama and could have practiced medicine there, and you chose to come back to Cuba?\u201d I asked him. \u201cAre you crazy?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s my country,\u201d he said. \u201cI heard about La Compa\u00f1\u00eda Todo de Cuba, which is grammatically wrong by the way, and I was hoping that you would hire doctors. Are you really paying $400 Canadian per month?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWe\u2019re paying five times that for doctors around the country,\u201d I said, \u201cbut I don\u2019t think we planned on staffing a medical clinic here in Gibara.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWell, you should,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m told the doctor at the state clinic here is a complete incompetent.\u201d<\/p>

I didn\u2019t doubt that, but I also didn\u2019t know anything about medicine. I got Osvaldo\u2019s information and passed it on to Gloria Gonzales, who was the head of LCTC\u2019s medical division. Three weeks later, we\u2019d set up a medical clinic in Gibara and Osvaldo \u2013 that wasn\u2019t his real name; he just went by what was on his fake Panamanian papers \u2013 was running it.<\/p>

I noticed that the Tim Hortons table at the job fair was a win. We\u2019d flown in a thousand boxes of Tim Hortons donuts from Toronto, and we set up coffee and donuts for the folks. That was a Pierce move; he thought it was a great convincer that all of us working in Gibara really were Canadians.<\/p>

Cubans knew diddly squat about donuts. They have their own stuff, which, to be honest, is a little better when it\u2019s executed correctly. But they ate every last one of those donuts, and they drank all the coffee.<\/p>

These people knew not to let anything go to waste. Enforced poverty will do that to folks.<\/p>

All day the Gibarans, and their neighbors, came rolling in. One old lady who came over and hugged me said this was the biggest deal she\u2019d ever seen in town and she\u2019d lived there her whole life.<\/p>

I told her she hadn\u2019t seen anything yet.<\/p>

And then I saw him.<\/p>

Manuel Cabrillo. He was not exactly Douglas Thibaud\u2019s boss, though he was up the food chain at LCTC from the project managers. Cabrillo was the recruiter; he was who Peter Chang had hired to grease all the local bosses, the Aldo Pupos of the world, so that we could get a foothold into these towns all over Cuba.<\/p>

I don\u2019t know if Peter was just being a massive prick in giving us Cabrillo, or what, but it didn\u2019t sit well with anybody in our organization.<\/p>

Because Cabrillo was the Cuban who\u2019d been in command of the Venezuelan Army\u2019s attack on Liberty Point. And Cabrillo\u2019s people, when they landed in Mahdia, the Guyanese town more or less next door to Liberty Point, had not behaved themselves well at all.<\/p>

Not to mention Pierce\u2019s team lost guys in that fight. Of course they were salty about it.<\/p>

They all knew Cabrillo was working for LCTC. They were all talking each other down as to their reactions if they\u2019d meet him. Belcher had said \u201cit\u2019ll be a miracle if I\u2019m not slitting that sonofabitch\u2019s throat the minute he comes around,\u201d for example.<\/p>

What I was hoping was that since he had 25 different LCTC sites going, plus some others that were about to come online, that doing the other part of his job \u2013 namely that he would also be a field liaison between the home office in Havana and the sites themselves \u2013 would go by the boards.<\/p>

No such luck, though, because here he was. And he was walking right up to me with a skinny, sinister-looking young guy in tow.<\/p>

\u201cYou must be Douglas Thibaud,\u201d he said. \u201cI am Manuel Cabrillo, LCTC.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cNice to meet you, colonel,\u201d I said, in as friendly a voice as I could manage, and I shook his hand in as friendly a manner as I could manage.<\/p>

\u201cI must say,\u201d he said, \u201cthat of the places where our enterprise has made entry, this seems to be the happiest one.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWell, we caught a lucky break,\u201d I told him. \u201cThey\u2019d had a busted water main and for four or five days before we pulled up there was no running water. The public works guy quit in a dispute with the party secretary\u2026\u201d<\/p>

\u201cPupo?\u201d Cabrillo said, laughing dismissively.<\/p>

\u201cThat\u2019s right. Anyway, we had the equipment, so we fixed the break for them, and a couple of hours later they had water. Once word got around, we just had instant momentum.\u201d<\/p>

As I was talking, I could see that he was getting distracted. I knew why. From the time the first folks started showing up at the job fair, there had been a persistent vibe going.<\/p>

Selena picked up on it first.<\/p>

\u201cThey\u2019re all humming Omar\u2019s song,\u201d she said. \u201cYou\u2019ll hear it.\u201d<\/p>

It was actually her doing. She had the Conduit app on her phone, and she\u2019d been spreading it by vouching in the app for all the locals she came in contact with and giving them the signup code. Conduit started spreading like wildfire all over Cuba \u2013 and Selena swore she had nothing to do with it, but immediately after these people started getting the app, that song was being shared around.<\/p>

She blazed the trail. Con Fuego and their Manolo Pendejo song were setting the woods on fire.<\/p>

And a group of teenage girls who were standing next to the table where people were signing up to do office work started dancing and humming the Manolo Pendejo song, right there practically in front of Cabrillo. I didn\u2019t get the impression that he was a regime guy per se; they said he was retired from the Cuban army, but he was certainly at least regime-adjacent.<\/p>

And Cabrillo knew exactly what the song was.<\/p>

He turned three different colors. I thought he was going to wade into that crowd of girls and\u2026 do something. I don\u2019t know.<\/p>

Instead, he turned to that skinny thug he had with him, and he barked at him in Spanish. The thug said something in agreement.<\/p>

Then he turned to me.<\/p>

\u201cThey must not hum that song,\u201d Cabrillo said.<\/p>

I had no idea what he wanted me to say.<\/p>

\u201cA song? I\u2019ve got\u2026 I don\u2019t know anything about Cuban music. What song is it?\u201d<\/p>

That wasn\u2019t exactly Nathan Hale, but on the other hand Douglas Thibaud wasn\u2019t in Gibara to police the humming of the people.<\/p>

Douglas Thibaud also wasn\u2019t in Gibara to tell Manuel Cabrillo to eat shit and die, as much as Mike Holman might have wanted him to.<\/p>

But apparently it was enough, because Cabrillo found another victim. Poor Aldo Pupo, who was walking up to see me and then immediately tried to run off when he saw Cabrillo.<\/p>

That didn\u2019t work. Cabrillo ran over and jumped poor Pupo\u2019s shit, and I thought the little commie apparatchik was going to wet himself. But instead, he smarted off to Cabrillo and walked over toward me.<\/p>

Cabrillo and the skinny thug were staring laser beams through him. And when Pupo got to me, those laser beams were going through me as well. I didn\u2019t think that was a particularly awesome development, but on the other hand it wasn\u2019t like Cabrillo could fire me.<\/p>

Send the army to arrest me? That he could do. And yes, it did occur to me that was something which could happen. But it wouldn\u2019t happen today, and it also wouldn\u2019t happen without Cabrillo getting to revisit his previous experiences with my friends.<\/p>

\u201cMr. Douglas,\u201d said Pupo, \u201cyou are doing such wonderful things here. I come to congratulate you.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWell, thanks, Secretary Pupo,\u201d I said.<\/p>

\u201cPlease, do call me Aldo. We know each other well enough, yes?\u201d<\/p>

Now I knew he was going to ask me for something. He was even wearing the Sino Solutions shirt I\u2019d given him under his Miami Vice suit.<\/p>

\u201cOK, Aldo,\u201d I said, as I watched him lick his fingers and pull a few of his hairs across his scalp. \u201cWhat can I do you for?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI hate to ask,\u201d he said, and I knew immediately that was a lie, \u201cbut it seems that my icemaker has finally breathed its last. And as it happens, the connection I was using for propane seems to be drying up. I was wondering if you might help with either or both.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019ll tell you what,\u201d I said. \u201cLet me see what I can do.\u201d<\/p>

And then I saw Cabrillo, who was watching me talk to Pupo, storm away, his skinny thug minion hustling after him.<\/p>

Hal Gibson walked up just then.<\/p>

\u201cI see you met Cabrillo,\u201d he said.<\/p>

\u201cI don\u2019t think he recognized me. You guys think this disguise is no good, but you\u2019re wrong.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYeah, well\u2026 he almost ran me over at the hotel. I thought sure I\u2019d get made.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cSeems like we survived first contact with the enemy,\u201d I said. \u201cHopefully we won\u2019t see that asshole again.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAnd how,\u201d said Hal.<\/p>

\n

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

The morning after the job fair, I left Gibara.<\/p>

I insisted on getting out of there for a long weekend. The next morning at the crack of dawn I caught a ride from the hotel to PCIA \u2013 everybody knew that Peter Chang International Airport was not what we were going to call the place, but the name stuck anyway, and what was more, that smart-ass logo had actually gone up on a sign along the access road, tacked up on one of the palm trees Belcher\u2019s guys lined the road with \u2013 to a waiting Cessna Caravan bound for Nassau.<\/p>

\n

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

I had people to meet in Nassau.<\/p>

I had my wife to meet in Nassau.<\/p>

It\u2019s not that I\u2019d had no contact with PJ since I left. Conduit, the crypto-comms app her brother had built which she\u2019d had an only very passing interest in, had provided us with a secure link that we could use to keep up. But at the end of the day, that wasn\u2019t enough for each of us.<\/p>

It certainly wasn\u2019t enough for me.<\/p>

The flight from Gibara on that Caravan \u2013 loaded as it was with a few crates of the local tobacco, as Trent, who was big into cigars and had a friend in Miami who was a very high-end cigarmaker, wanted to give his guy a sample of the local resource to see what he thought \u2013 took three hours. And I stank of tobacco leaves by the time I got off the plane, and the car took me to Lyford Cay.<\/p>

You don\u2019t know what Lyford Cay is? Well, it ain\u2019t the Holiday Inn.<\/p>

Lyford Cay is a gated private estate community, members-only club for James Bond villains. It\u2019s been the ultra-wealthy enclave in the Bahamas since the 1950s. Sean Connery had a house there.<\/p>

This was the kind of place where Pierce Polk either owns a villa outright \u2013 he doesn\u2019t \u2013 or he can get one through a phone call \u2013 which he did for us. You can\u2019t get through the gate without a member vouching for you, so it\u2019s naturally secure without looking like it\u2019s trying to be.<\/p>

Private beach, private marina, full staff at the villa. No lobby, no other guests, no one who\u2019d recognize Mike or PJ Holman \u2013 or Douglas Thibaud, for that matter, or notice Pierce Polk and Simon Lim arriving for dinner.<\/p>

I got in mid-morning. It would be afternoon before PJ got in. So I had time for a shower, a change of clothes, and a quick lunch \u2013 the chef did a little lobster bisque and crab salad thing which was a considerably better meal than anything I\u2019d had in two months.<\/p>

And then, like an idiot, I laid down on the couch and crashed. I\u2019d had maybe three hours of sleep the night before, and that couch was more comfortable than the bed I\u2019d been in at the Hotel Ordo\u00f1o. By a lot.<\/p>

I pulled out my phone \u2013 I was Mike Holman again, and I\u2019d picked up my Mike Holman ID, phone and everything else in Nassau \u2013 and went on Amazon and ordered a king-sized Purple mattress and bed frame. We had one of those in the guest bedroom at the house, and I wasn\u2019t going to suffer one more night on that bed back in Gibara.<\/p>

And a Samsung fridge with an icemaker.<\/p>

Amazon\u2019s delivery information promised both could be delivered to Sino Solutions\u2019 Nassau address in 48 hours, which I found to be a very promising schedule. That transaction completed, I decided to take a nap.<\/p>

PJ was leaning over me when I woke up. I think she\u2019d kissed me awake.<\/p>

\u201cWow, you\u2019re here!\u201d I said. \u201cI was dreaming about you!\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYou were? What was I doing?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cOh, running through a field.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cHow very unusual,\u201d she deadpanned.<\/p>

\u201cWell, you were naked.\u201d<\/p>

PJ laughed.<\/p>

\u201cOK, sit up,\u201d she said. \u201cI want to get a look at what Cuba has done to you.\u201d<\/p>

And when I did, she gave me a very persnickety inspection.<\/p>

\u201cYou are\u2026 thin as a reed,\u201d she said. \u201cI mean, I would almost say you\u2019re sickly, but if I\u2019m being honest you probably could have lost some weight when you left.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWell, isn\u2019t that the sweetest thing!\u201d I said, and the next thing I knew I was being attacked by a horny half-Chinese bombshell. I at least managed to get her into the bedroom before the show started.<\/p>

A little while later, she\u2019d opened her laptop and put it in my lap.<\/p>

\u201cOK, here\u2019s what you missed,\u201d she said.<\/p>

And it was a video, 11 minutes long. A highlight video, actually, from Little Mike\u2019s baby-cam that PJ kept on him 24\/7.<\/p>

Most of it was the kid making funny faces. At five months old, you don\u2019t really have the highest of expectations. But then, about two-thirds of the way through, PJ said, \u201cOh, here it comes.\u201d<\/p>

And Little Mike was lying on the floor surrounded by the dogs. And PJ, who was spending her time training Robby the goldendoodle and Thor and Sancho, the two Dogo Argentinos, to roll over.<\/p>

All of a sudden, on the video, the kid rolled over.<\/p>

\u201cWait, what?\u201d I said, and I replayed that part.<\/p>

I looked at her.<\/p>

\u201cYou taught my kid to roll over?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cUh huh.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWhat\u2019s next? Is he gonna beg, shake hands and bark on command?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI mean, you\u2019d better come home soon, because all of that stuff is on the table.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI think my marriage is actually going to the dogs right now.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI know, right?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cListen, and I didn\u2019t want to do this\u2026\u201d<\/p>

\u201cMike, you don\u2019t have to do the whole thing with apologies and whatever. I get it, because I want to do it, too. But we don\u2019t need to. We had a fight at the worst possible time, and I was terrible, and I threw you out of the house having no idea that you\u2019d be leaving. And you left because you had a job to do, and ever since it\u2019s just been\u2026\u201d<\/p>

\u201cTerrible,\u201d I said.<\/p>

\u201cOh my God. I\u2019m actually rewatching Corazon de Cana<\/em> now. I\u2019m so bored without my husband.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWell, I can\u2019t say that I\u2019m bored. My problem is something else. But I\u2019ve never missed anybody as much as I\u2019ve missed you.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cBut you\u2019ve had Marisol to hang out with,\u201d she said.<\/p>

\u201cYou mean Selena. And she turned out to be a really good assistant. But the poor girl is not the company that my wife is.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYou did that well,\u201d she said, and then she came in close for another one of her inspections.<\/p>

\u201cWould you stop?\u201d I said.<\/p>

\u201cYou aren\u2019t actually fooling anybody with this beard and that hair, are you?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAs a matter of fact, I am. I fooled Manuel Cabrillo.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cCabrillo\u2026 from Guyana? That Cabrillo? You saw him?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI didn\u2019t tell you this, but your dad hired him to be the recruiter who signed up all the local bosses for our deal. He was in Gibara two days ago and I shook his hand.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m\u2026 Jesus, Mike.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s\u2026 something. I\u2019ll give it that.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThat\u2019s scary.\u201d<\/p>

And I told her about Pupo and Cabrillo, and Claudio, and 3D construction printers. And Peter Chang International Airport. And all of the things she wasn\u2019t getting from our short little Conduit conversations. I pulled out my laptop and showed her the hundreds of pictures I\u2019d taken of the place and the people.<\/p>

The stories lasted until dinner, which was a giant filet mignon per a demand I\u2019d sent up the line before arriving, with all the most fattening sides I could imagine. And then the stories continued until PJ fell asleep in my arms.<\/p>

I had her laughing, mostly, but when I told her how deprived and abused were the people of Gibara, most of whom barely had three hours of electricity per day and couldn\u2019t even eat once a month at a Five Guys on what they made before we got there, her mood changed, and she grew somber.<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m sorry for what I said,\u201d she said.<\/p>

\u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThat those people had 60 years to get out, and that I don\u2019t want to sacrifice my family for them. That was so wrong.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI don\u2019t think it was,\u201d I said. \u201cIt was how you felt, and honestly, you have a right to feel that way.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cBut it\u2019s sooo selfish,\u201d she said. \u201cDo you think that makes me a bad person that I felt that way?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cNothing could make me think that, PJ.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI don\u2019t feel that way anymore. But I do want you home. I\u2019m coming apart without you.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYou have three dogs, a kid, and a Peloton, and a standing dinner invitation at Stan and Trina\u2019s. I appreciate the sentiment, but you\u2019re gonna be all right. And this isn\u2019t going to last forever. When the flip comes, I\u2019ll be able to fly back and forth. And actually, you\u2019ll have a chance to come down.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cOh, I don\u2019t know about that.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cBy the time I invite you, it will be safe and not actually awful. And honestly, the hotel has potential.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI looked it up online. It does have some charm.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThe interior d\u00e9cor in the rooms is not to your standards. And I ordered a new bed for my room. It\u2019s a Purple, like the guest bedroom has.\u201d<\/p>

She didn\u2019t respond. I\u2019d talked her to sleep. I couldn\u2019t have asked for a better outcome.<\/p>

And in the morning, PJ had a declaration.<\/p>

\u201cHere\u2019s what we\u2019re gonna do,\u201d she said. \u201cYou\u2019re gonna give me all of your pictures, your videos, and your notes and those reports you were telling me about, and I\u2019ll start putting it all together for you.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cMeaning?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cFor your book! Are you even writing it?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI\u2026 plan to, but honestly, PJ, I\u2019m so busy with doing the thing that I\u2019ve really only got time one day a week to write about it, and that\u2019s more like a corporate reporting thing.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cLet me see one,\u201d she said, so I opened my laptop and found one for her.<\/p>

\u201cMike! This is super-detailed! This is basically book notes right here.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI guess it is.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cOK, so\u2026 I have everything you\u2019ve sent me on Conduit, you give me the pics and the reports, and I\u2019ll just be your book assistant. Or editor, or whatever. I\u2019ll assemble it for you, so when you have time, you can just make it your own and add the Mike Holman flourishes.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cSomething tells me I\u2019m not going to get to say no to this.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWhy would you? Besides, you need to give me a project. And this is the one I want, because this way I can stay connected to you without getting involved in the\u2026 thing.\u201d<\/p>

I gave her a funny look.<\/p>

\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThe book is all you really care about. The rest of this stuff you\u2019re almost hostile to, but the book gets you going.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s always been that way, you know.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cIt has. You\u2019re right. I never realized it until now. You got all jazzed up when we first met over me interviewing you for the podcast, and then you got into doing the photojournalism thing during the war in Guyana, and we really fell in love while we were staying at Lake Lanier and I was doing Pierce\u2019s biography\u2026\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAnd I made you do podcast interviews on our honeymoon, which got you put in jail,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s when I stopped. But yeah. I like Mike Holman to be Mike Holman. And the book is you being you. That\u2019s what I want to be involved in.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cHmmmph,\u201d I said.<\/p>

\u201cOK, come on. I\u2019ve never been on a private beach before. Do you think they\u2019ll let us do the nude sunbathing thing?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cPJ Holman! What has gotten into you? And pregnant on top of that!\u201d<\/p>

\u201cHah! I don\u2019t even have a baby bump yet. I still look good<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>

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

\n

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

Late that afternoon, Pierce came in. PJ pretended that she was angry at him for taking me away from her, but she couldn\u2019t hold that act for long.<\/p>

\u201cYou did somewhat make up for it,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m assuming you\u2019re the one responsible for getting us this James Bond villa to stay in.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s a James Bond villa? Because Sean Connery had the next one over?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cShut up! He did?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cUh huh. I\u2019d have gotten us that one, except Randi Weingarten has it now.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cBesides, this one is nicer. Seriously.\u201d<\/p>

She couldn\u2019t tell if he was kidding. He wasn\u2019t.<\/p>

I let them catch up. Pierce was a little bit like PJ\u2019s brothers. He picked on her relentlessly, and she gave as good as she got. Since she was reduced to drinking Sprite on account of the new arrival to come, Pierce and I were splitting the bottle of Pappy Van Winkle that he\u2019d brought \u2013 which made her really jealous; PJ wasn\u2019t a big bourbon drinker, but she did think the Pappy was some delicious stuff.<\/p>

\u201cYou know that you massively fucked this thing up, right?\u201d I said.<\/p>

\u201cI did? How?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cLa Compa\u00f1\u00eda Todo de Cuba. You know that\u2019s grammatically wrong, right?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cIt is? It\u2019s The Everything Company of Cuba.\u00a0 I mean\u2026\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThey haven\u2019t stopped telling me it should be La Compa\u00f1\u00eda de Todo Cuba. It\u2019s pretty freaking embarrassing.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWell, shit.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cSo from now on\u2026 or at the flip, we\u2019re just going to call it Todo. Or Todo de Cuba.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI mean,\u201d PJ cut in, \u201cthat actually works better because everything you\u2019re doing is basically one giant to-do list.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThat\u2019s not a bad point,\u201d said Pierce. \u201cHey, Mike, you\u2019re the one there. Call it what you want. But I\u2019d capitalize TODO. It\u2019ll look cooler on the signs.\u201d<\/p>

And a little before sundown, Simon made his way in.<\/p>

I introduced PJ to him.<\/p>

\u201cYou do favor your father, to an extent,\u201d he said to her. \u201cBut I can tell that you\u2019re your mother\u2019s daughter. She must be exquisite.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThank you,\u201d said PJ. \u201cThat\u2019s very kind.\u201d<\/p>

We all retired for a while, because Pierce had suggested that we all get dressed up for dinner. Given the surroundings, and the fact that we were going to sit down on the covered dock over the water, it was a really good idea.<\/p>

\u201cSimon Lim is the guy who hired my dad to be the face of this escapade,\u201d she said, thinking out loud while I zipped up her dress for her. \u201cI\u2019m trying to decide if I hate him.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cHe might be the most interesting man in the world,\u201d I said, pulling her hair aside and fastening the clasp on her necklace.<\/p>

\u201cOh, haha. And he doesn\u2019t drink often, but when he does, he drinks Dos Equis?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cJust\u2026 talk to him. I don\u2019t know that I\u2019ve ever been more impressed by somebody I\u2019ve met. The courage and discipline this guy has is\u2026 I feel like my life changed a bit when I met him. Noticeably so.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cBecause he was born into the Politburo elite in Beijing and he rejected everything they believe in, when it was 100 percent not in his interest to do so, and yet he played the game long enough to put himself in a position to do exactly what he\u2019s doing.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cHuh,\u201d PJ shrugged, stepping into her pumps. \u201cWell? Am I suitable for dinner with billionaires?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI think you\u2019ll do.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cOK, this won\u2019t,\u201d she said, turning her nose up at my interpretation of a proper bowtie and making me stand there while she re-tied it.<\/p>

At dinner, PJ took my advice. But she did more than talk to Simon. She interrogated him.<\/p>

\u201cI don\u2019t understand how you\u2019re involved in this,\u201d she said. \u201cLike, Cuba. Why do you care?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cBecause Beijing wants to have a cat\u2019s-paw just off America\u2019s shore just as they see Taipei is for America. Though Canada is a much more significant vassal for China than Taipei is for the United States.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAnd helping Pierce and Mike turn Cuba over will, what? Embarrass the regime in China?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cMore than that. After the way they\u2019ve been rebuffed in Venezuela, and in Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, Panama\u2026 it\u2019s a full retreat. Canada will be next for them. Trumbull will see to that. And when Beijing is no longer expanding its reach, it will have no choice but to face its internal house. Which is not in order.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cMeaning?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI will not live to see a free China. I don\u2019t think Mike or Pierce will see it. But you, PJ. You might. What we do now helps to lay the groundwork for that day, just as the small victories for freedom won in the 1950s and 1960s laid the groundwork for the Berlin Wall to fall.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t hurt that if we\u2019re successful, and we will be, nine million people will get to live free by the end of the year,\u201d said Pierce.<\/p>

\u201cThat is very true,\u201d said Simon. \u201cI cannot free my people. But what we do in Cuba will free them, and that is the Lord\u2019s work.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cMike said that you converted to Catholicism and nobody knew. How did that happen?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI was on a trade mission to Korea, and I met a Catholic priest there who changed my life. I began reading St. Augustine, Aquinas, and some of the others, and from there I scoured all of the great Western texts. I found truth there that I never saw in Mao\u2019s writings.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cBut you stayed in that system.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI had seen the dissidents. Pitiful men living on the charity of the West, despised by their own people as traitors. I didn\u2019t hate them for their choices, but it seemed to me that if one is to reject his country for a higher purpose, then that rejection should carry far more weight than a simple cry for attention.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cSo you played the game, earned your wealth and power, and now you\u2019ll turn it against the regime for maximum effect. Is that it?\u201d<\/p>

Simon nodded.<\/p>

\u201cBut what\u2019s going to happen when they know this is actually Pierce\u2019s project? They won\u2019t be happy. That\u2019s going to hurt your business, right?\u201d<\/p>

Simon shrugged.<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s of no consequence. I can\u2019t spend all the money I have, and I have no heirs. What legacy I will leave will be in the things I\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cHow do you\u2026\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI lost my first wife to ovarian cancer. My second was killed in a train derailment. I learned that all the riches in the world guarantee nothing.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAnd here I\u2019ve been whining because I haven\u2019t seen Mike in two months,\u201d she said.<\/p>

\u201cBelieve me,\u201d said Simon, \u201cI understand how you feel more than you can know. But let me say this to you \u2013 savor the time you have together. Everything in this world is finite. It will end. Whether it ends now or 50 years from now is not what matters. What you make of the time you have is everything.\u201d<\/p>

She looked at me. I smiled at her.<\/p>

\u201cYour husband is doing\u2026 a great thing,\u201d said Simon. \u201cHe has become a great man.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI already knew he was a great man,\u201d said PJ. \u201cI knew that when I met him.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYeah, but there\u2019s being a great man, and there\u2019s being a necessary man,\u201d said Pierce. \u201cRight, Simon?\u201d<\/p>

Simon nodded.<\/p>

\u201cWhat\u2019s that mean?\u201d PJ asked Simon. \u201cA necessary man?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s a theory of mine. God uses the best of us to do his most important work, and the very best, the necessary men, are the ones who save the world.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cInteresting,\u201d she said.<\/p>

\u201cJesus. Peter, the rock on which the Church was built. Charles Martel. George Washington. Lincoln. Wellington. Eisenhower. Lech Walesa. Pierce here. The names are plentiful. Without them? The darkness. The abyss. My country is what it is because of the absence of necessary men. Yours is not. And your husband is without question one of the necessary men. The world is better for his exploits.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cMaybe,\u201d she said. \u201cBut he\u2019s necessary to me, too.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAwwwwww,\u201d said Pierce, and the next thing I knew he\u2019d pulled me over and had me in a headlock.<\/p>

Pierce was laughing. I was laughing. PJ was laughing.<\/p>

Simon smiled. That was the happiest I think I ever saw him.<\/p>

\u201cI know, I know,\u201d PJ said. \u201cIt\u2019s corny.\u201d<\/p>

It wasn\u2019t.<\/p>

I\u2019ll always remember that dinner.<\/p>

\n

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

Coming Saturday, August 29: Episode 6 of Scott McKay\u2019s <\/em>The Necessary Men.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>

Catch up and follow along at \u201cThe Mike Holman Novels at\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>The American Spectator<\/strong>.\u201d Signed copies are available for pre-order at\u00a0MikeHolman.com!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>

Read more The $40 Trillion National Debt and the \u2018Budget Hawk\u2019 Ruse That Led to MAGA<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A most wonderful article<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1654,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-necessary-men"],"yoast_head":"\nScott McKay\u2019s The Necessary Men \u2014 Episode 5: The Job Fair - National Logistics Post<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?p=1663\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Scott McKay\u2019s The Necessary Men \u2014 Episode 5: The Job Fair - National Logistics Post\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A most wonderful article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?p=1663\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"National Logistics Post\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-26T06:11:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/c26e98d6fd9a038e8d4a788b6742c2e4.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"198\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"59 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/?p=1663#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/?p=1663\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/af6e6ad9b3cf5bfe495dc5541ee6a5cc\"},\"headline\":\"Scott McKay\u2019s The Necessary Men \u2014 Episode 5: The Job Fair\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-26T06:11:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/?p=1663\"},\"wordCount\":11846,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/?p=1663#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/f3b3f7af128e9ee3e3789588c30215f7.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"The Necessary Men\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/?p=1663#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/?p=1663\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/?p=1663\",\"name\":\"Scott McKay\u2019s The Necessary Men \u2014 Episode 5: The Job Fair - 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