{"id":1835,"date":"2026-09-05T05:38:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T05:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?p=1835"},"modified":"2026-09-05T05:38:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T05:38:15","slug":"scott-mckays-the-necessary-men-episode-8-angles-and-shots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?p=1835","title":{"rendered":"Scott McKay\u2019s The Necessary Men<\/i> \u2014 Episode 8: Angles and Shots"},"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 Disembodied Autonomy<\/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: As the Cuban regime teeters and the TODO Corporation begins expanding its impact, investors begin considering their next moves, and so do the tyrants in Havana.<\/em><\/p>

Here are Chapters Fifteen and Sixteen of <\/em>The Necessary Men.<\/em><\/p>

\n

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

Chapter Fifteen<\/h2>

Nueva Gerona, Isla de la Juventud, Cuba \u2014 September 18, 2026<\/em><\/p>

Cabrillo arrived by speedboat at the dock in town just before dusk, and he was met at the wharf by a lieutenant in an old Soviet jeep.<\/p>

The lieutenant was known to Cabrillo.<\/p>

\u201cHow goes your wife, Eusebio?\u201d Cabrillo asked him.<\/p>

\u201cShe survives,\u201d said the lieutenant. \u201cThough this is not the time for diabetes in Cuba.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThis is quite true,\u201d said Cabrillo, as he deposited his briefcase in the back and climbed in the passenger seat. \u201cYou have my prayers. Where is the meeting with the major?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAt the Presidio Modelo,\u201d said Eusebio, throwing the jeep in drive and heading south to the Calle 32 bridge over the Arroyo Ocuje. \u201cWe will be there in just a few minutes.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThe Presidio Modelo? Where Fidel was imprisoned? This is a bit dramatic, no?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cHe thought you would enjoy the symbolism. The prison is now a museum, as it appears the Republic has become.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThis kind of defeatism, Eusebio! I am surprised at you!\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThese are not the days of Fidel, or of Chavismo,\u201d said the lieutenant. \u201cWe are no longer ascendant. The power on the island is on just six hours a day. The Isle of Youth had the most reliable power in the Republic. Now our food spoils and we sweat in our sleep.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cBetter times are ahead,\u201d said Cabrillo.<\/p>

\u201cSo you say,\u201d said the lieutenant. \u201cI hope you are right.\u201d<\/p>

Just as Eusebio took the left turn to go over the bridge, a rock hit the hood of the jeep and bounced into the windshield, cracking it. Cabrillo turned to watch two young men running and ducking into the trees. Eusebio let out a string of curses and hit the gas as the jeep hurtled over the bridge.<\/p>

\u201cWhat was that?\u201d asked Cabrillo, his heart descending from his throat.<\/p>

\u201cThat was the voice of the people,\u201d said the lieutenant. \u201cThis island is near to a revolt. The townsfolk took a vote yesterday to issue a formal request that TODO set up shop here.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThey can\u2019t. Isla de la Juventud is administered directly by Havana.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cManuel, they don\u2019t care. They know what the people have in La Coloma, and they want it. This is why the major wants your help.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAy dios mio,\u201d<\/em> Cabrillo muttered as the jeep navigated the pockmarked road to the Presidio Modelo.<\/p>

In Fidel\u2019s glory days, some 20,000 communist warriors had been trained at a camp south of town to spread the revolution across Latin America. Now the revolution was having rocks thrown at it by the people of the Isle of Youth.<\/p>

\n

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

\u201cColonel Cabrillo,\u201d said Major Espero Schoffner, the man in charge of the small garrison on the Isle of Youth. \u201cIt is very good to see you, though I am surprised that you came all this way.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cNonsense, Espero,\u201d said Cabrillo. \u201cIt is good to see an old friend. It has been some time since Maracaibo, s\u00ed<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cS\u00ed,<\/em>\u201d said Schoffner. \u201cPlease, come and sit down.\u201d<\/p>

Schoffner led Cabrillo to a card table set up in one of the four main prison buildings, under the observation tower. The Presidio Modelo was set up in a panopticon design; the cells were open for viewing by the guards in the tower placed in the middle, giving the guards a 360-degree view into each cell.<\/p>

But there were no cells anymore. The concrete shells of the cells remained, but the metal for the bars had long since been stripped away after the Castros closed the prison and turned it into a monument in 1967.<\/p>

The Presidio Modelo was itself a hollow shell. As was the regime<\/em>, Cabrillo thought.<\/p>

\u201cSo,\u201d he said to Schoffner as the two sat down. \u201cAs we were driving from the dock to the bridge, two punks threw a rock at the jeep. It hit the hood and caromed into the windshield. Eusebio worried he would be fined for the damage.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cEusebio doesn\u2019t get paid enough to fine him,\u201d said Schoffner. \u201cAnd the locals would do worse if they could. Things are not satisfactory, Manuel. I suppose Eusebio told you about the TODO vote?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cHow does this happen? They just held a meeting? No one stopped them?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThe townsfolk met at the baseball diamond at El Palmar. Initially, it was thought this was to be a youth sports event. Instead, it was an unlawful public assembly. By the time we got there, it had broken up, but the vote had been taken, and the demand was in the air. That\u2019s when I called you.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAnd you want me to bring TODO to Nueva Gerona,\u201d said Cabrillo.<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s in 20 other places,\u201d said Schoffner.<\/p>

\u201cTwenty-five, actually. Unfortunately, I can\u2019t do this. I have been sidelined. TODO is now Diego Maceo\u2019s, along with his American friends.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWell, can you connect me with them?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWould you give up Cuban sovereignty so easily, Espero?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cSovereignty is a very large word,\u201d said Schoffner. \u201cThe lives of the people here revolve around smaller words, like electricity, running water, food, jobs. Without those things, sovereignty means much less to the people. They know exactly what TODO means, and they want it anyway.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWhat if I could offer something similar to TODO but still within the revolution? What if we created state capitalism with a Cuban face?\u201d<\/p>

Schoffner looked around wistfully.<\/p>

\u201cYou know, in 1955 Fidel and Raul were prisoners here,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause the Presidio Modelo was overcrowded, they were housed in the hospital wing, where conditions were more humane. The Castros were not violent criminals like the other inmates.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYes,\u201d said Cabrillo. \u201cI knew this.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThe political prisoners in the hospital wing turned the Presidio Modelo into a finishing school for the revolution. Fidel wrote in a letter the words\u2026\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWhat a fantastic school this prison is!\u201d Cabrillo finished Schoffner\u2019s sentence. \u201cFrom here I\u2019m able to finish forging my vision of the world\u2026\u201d<\/p>

\u201cFrom here we cannot see Fidel\u2019s vision,\u201d said Schoffner. \u201cThe people on this island want to be Salvadorans or Argentines. They want nothing further of the revolution. My men don\u2019t go into town in uniform anymore.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYou still control the airport.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAnd the ferry terminal, on the one day a week the ferry runs from La Coloma.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cSomething better is coming,\u201d said Cabrillo. \u201cBut I want your word that you will deliver la isla de la Juventud<\/em> when I have it in hand to show you.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cIf it is not TODO, then\u2026\u201d Schoffner stopped himself.<\/p>

Cabrillo just stared at him.<\/p>

\u201cThen this is\u2026\u201d Schoffner stopped again.<\/p>

\u201cI have meetings scheduled. But I must be able to claim alliances.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWhich cities are pledged to the cause?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI will not say as yet. Only that you are not the first.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAnd your meetings are with\u2026 military men?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThe military holds the key to the future of Cuba. Not negrata<\/em> ballplayers or American running-dog capitalists.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI should like to hear more. But for me to help my men will need weapons, vehicles, cash. What you would ask, I would have to order. And I will not do so without the resources to control this island.\u201d<\/p>

Cabrillo scowled. This meeting should have gone considerably more smoothly.<\/p>

Espero Schoffner had idolized Manuel Cabrillo. But for Schoffner\u2019s loyalty, he would have never made such a long trip to such an insignificant place. Cabrillo needed allies for what he had planned, and while Schoffner wasn\u2019t first on the list, he wasn\u2019t far from the top.<\/p>

He couldn\u2019t afford to hear a \u201cno\u201d from Schoffner.<\/p>

So he determined to do what was necessary to hear a \u201cyes.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAs I said, I have meetings scheduled,\u201d he said, a brighter tone to his voice. \u201cBe of good cheer. We are the ones we\u2019ve been waiting for.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cTODO would be easier, Colonel Cabrillo.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThose things which are easy are easy for a reason. They are usually not worth what little effort they require. Would you have our people become fat and decadent like the Americans?\u201d<\/p>

Schoffner made no response other than a sigh.<\/p>

\u201cI will deliver your resources,\u201d said Cabrillo.<\/p>

That elicited a nod from the major.<\/p>

\u201cWill you stay for dinner?\u201d he asked.<\/p>

\u201cNo,\u201d said Cabrillo. \u201cI apologize, but I am in and out on this trip. I have to be back to Havana in the morning.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cA grueling amount of travel. Where do you get the fuel?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAlliances, Espero,\u201d Cabrillo said with a smile, holding out his hand.<\/p>

Schoffner shook it.<\/p>

\u201cI welcome further news of your exploits,\u201d he said.<\/p>

\n

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

Three hours later, Cabrillo docked the speedboat at the brightly-lit pier at La Coloma. A large TODO sign in blue neon was visible above the shipyard. Cabrillo climbed out of the boat as the shipyard attendant climbed on to pilot it to its space in the boathouse east of downtown, and he hustled to the curb next to the wharf.<\/p>

Lido was waiting for him in the Mercedes SUV. Cabrillo climbed into the back seat and immediately smelled something greasy.<\/p>

\u201cWhat is that?\u201d he asked.<\/p>

\u201cFrita,\u201d Lido said, not taking his eyes off the road as he pulled away from the dock. \u201cFrom that place by the shipyard. I figured you hadn\u2019t eaten.\u201d<\/p>

Cabrillo opened the paper bag and made a face. The bun was already going soft from the grease. The patty looked dry around the edges, and the shoestring fries on top had gone limp. He picked it up anyway and took a bite, then immediately regretted it.<\/p>

\u201cThis tastes like shit,\u201d he said, chewing with obvious distaste.<\/p>

\u201cSorry, boss,\u201d Lido said. \u201cIt was the best thing open this late. Even in La Coloma, after nine o\u2019clock the options are limited.\u201d<\/p>

Cabrillo took another bite and scowled. \u201cThis is what TODO has done for the food here? Even the fritas are terrible now?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThey\u2019re better than they were six months ago,\u201d Lido offered. \u201cAt least there\u2019s meat in it.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cBarely.\u201d Cabrillo wrapped the rest of the sandwich and dropped it back in the bag. \u201cThis is an insult to the name of a frita. I\u2019ve had better ones in the jungle.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYou want me to throw it out the window?\u201d Lido said.<\/p>

\u201cNo,\u201d Cabrillo muttered. \u201cLeave it. Maybe it will improve with age.\u201d<\/p>

Lido shrugged and looked at him from the rear-view mirror.<\/p>

\u201cHow did it go at Nueva Gerona?\u201d he asked, a few moments later.<\/p>

\u201cWell enough,\u201d said Cabrillo. \u201cDrive fast. If we get to Havana by midnight, I\u2019ll be ecstatic. Big day tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>

Lido nodded and rocketed the Mercedes onto the road. It was empty. Even in a suddenly prosperous TODO town like La Coloma, few people had cars in Cuba.<\/p>

\u201cWhen will you see Candela, boss?\u201d said Lido.<\/p>

\u201cIn the morning. Why?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cBecause the crisis is growing and the moment is passing.\u201d<\/p>

Lido explained that across Cuba, things were turning. Especially in the TODO towns.<\/p>

The TODO app had a citizen participation feature which had just debuted, and it was being used for lots of subversive purposes. In Moa, people with the TODO app had voted to create a citizens\u2019 police force that they funded with a tax on TODO transactions. Half the city\u2019s police force had defected to the new organization; the local police commander was powerless to stop it.<\/p>

In Gibara, someone had defaced the mural of Fidel saying that \u201cThe achievements of our times and the hope of all times depends on us.\u201d Spray-painted over that was a line from a Shelley poem: \u201cLook upon my works, ye mighty, and despair.\u201d<\/p>

In Cayo Cruz, which was a TODO resort town on a barrier island off the north coast of Cuba, the locals had dynamited the bridge to the mainland, declared themselves an independent city-state, and proclaimed a trade alliance with Exuma.<\/p>

In the non-TODO towns, things were worse. Pots and pans were banging together all over the country as marchers yelled \u201cDanos todo<\/em>!\u201d<\/p>

Or maybe it was \u201cDanos<\/em> TODO!\u201d<\/p>

The marchers were demanding either everything or The Everything Company.<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s coming apart,\u201d Lido said after recounting the news. \u201cAnd the eastern side of the country is\u2026 gone.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYou\u2019re talking about Maceo.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cHe\u2019s begun touring the east in a bus convoy. People are coming out by the thousands to line the roads. Massive crowds have come out. The Army was setting up roadblocks to stop it initially, but those have gone away.\u201d<\/p>

That, Cabrillo knew. The day before, he had called Mendoza, the general in charge of the Ejercito Oriental<\/em> in Holgu\u00edn, and received no answer.<\/p>

\u201cIf Mendoza has flipped to Maceo,\u201d Cabrillo said, \u201cthen time is growing short indeed.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cCandela can\u2019t hold this, can he?\u201d Lido asked.<\/p>

\u201cCandela is not the answer to a question worth asking,\u201d Cabrillo sighed. \u201cWho is this man, after all? He is not the revolution. He isn\u2019t a revolutionary. He\u2019s a bureaucrat. He rose because he was the most adept ass-kisser in Raul\u2019s stable. Yes, he\u2019s a brutal hijo de puta<\/em>, but does that keep the lights on or food on the table?\u00a0 No.\u201d<\/p>

Lido didn\u2019t say anything. He just eyed Cabrillo from the rear-view mirror as he drove.<\/p>

\u201cThink about it, Lido. I went from selling him on giving up the submarine base at Cienfuegos to our Colombian friends to selling him the Chinese investment, which turned out not to be Chinese. And now chaos reigns in two dozen cities the regime does not control.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cBut that was your influence, jefe<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThat\u2019s right, it was. And why is he listening to me? You know why. He fears me. And he should. The American, Jack Gray, whom he arrested\u2026\u201d<\/p>

\u201cGray Jackson. Of Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada,\u201d Lido said sarcastically.<\/p>

\u201cGray Jackson. A CIA spy and electronics specialist. Candela let him into the country on the thinnest of disguises, and now who knows what horrors he\u2019s already inflicted on Cuba.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cBecause you vouched for him.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s not my place to vet the employees of LCTC, Lido. That\u2019s for Candela\u2019s people to do. And they let Mike Holman, the journalist, into the country and made him the Prince of Gibara. That didn\u2019t make a fool out of me<\/em>. Candela\u2019s the one.\u201d<\/p>

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

\u201cYou\u2019re not convinced. Remember, it\u2019s Mike Holman and Pierce Polk, los Americanos<\/em>, who are paying us. We are not the ones making mistakes here. We are the ones seeing the angles and setting up the next shots.\u201d<\/p>

Lido nodded.<\/p>

\u201cCandela\u2019s not stupid in the way that makes him incompetent at everything,\u201d Cabrillo said. \u201cHe survived in Havana politics for years, and this requires a certain animal cunning. But Candela is a poor leader. He mistakes stubbornness for strength and confuses loyalty to the revolution\u2019s aesthetics with actual governing ability. He believes what he wants to believe, and that is why I can move him in the direction I wish.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cIf he is so different from the Castros, then why is he in control?\u201d Lido asked.<\/p>

\u201cHe is not in control.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cFair enough.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cBut to answer your question, there is a long tradition of this in Cuban political history. Fidel is the spirit of the revolution, but even I must admit that the regime has survived for decades partly by telling ourselves stories about imminent rescue that has never come. First it was Soviet support. Then it was Venezuelan oil, bought by the sweat and toil of those of us in the military and intelligence who lived and worked there to prop up Chavez and Madeira. Then it was Putin. And the Chinese.<\/p>

\u201cEvery generation of Cuban leadership from Fidel on down has been waiting for the cavalry that would let them stop having to actually govern.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cSo your plan is to sell Candela a new version of that same story.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cOur plan, Lido.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYes, jefe<\/em>. Our plan.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s already worked once. And that time it was a lie. This time it might actually be true.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m with you, jefe<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cGood boy, Lido.\u201d<\/p>

Cabrillo stretched out in the back seat of the SUV. It would be a late-night ride into Havana, and he had little time available for sleep \u2013 especially with the phone call to Beijing he\u2019d be making long before sunrise in advance of his meeting with Candela in the morning.<\/p>

\n

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

Cabrillo\u2019s phone call was at three in the morning, and it went reasonably well, he thought.<\/p>

But he was scheduled to meet Candela at nine. At six, Cabrillo got a call summoning him to the presidential palace at seven. That meant he was driving himself in the Mercedes \u2013 something he would normally not have cared about, but making a show of having a driver when arriving to see Candela was more the image he wanted to present.<\/p>

It turned out that Cabrillo wasn\u2019t going to be in control of his image that morning. Not at any level he would have been comfortable with.<\/p>

\u201cYou fucking cabron<\/em>!\u201d Candela shouted at him when he was shown in to see the president. \u201cI should never have listened to you! You\u2019ve bent me over and had your way with me, haven\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI must protest,\u201d said Cabrillo. \u201cI have no idea what you\u2019re talking about.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThe fucking internet!\u201d Candela screamed. \u201cIt\u2019s your company, isn\u2019t it? You don\u2019t even know what they\u2019re doing!\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYou know that it isn\u2019t my company anymore,\u201d said Cabrillo. \u201cPeter Chang betrayed me as well as you.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cOh, and you\u2019re blameless. Of course!\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWhat is this about the internet, Se\u00f1or Presidente<\/em>? I hadn\u2019t even had my coffee this morning, and I was on the road until all hours last night, so I\u2019m at a loss\u2026\u201d<\/p>

\u201cTODO turned on the fucking internet at midnight last night. It\u2019s wide open. Wi-fi connections on every block of every town they control.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cJust jam the signal. It isn\u2019t\u2026\u201d<\/p>

\u201cNo,\u201d Candela said. \u201cThey tell me it doesn\u2019t work that way. They have a satellite downlink, and it broadcasts to wi-fi nodes set up everywhere in these towns. Taking it down can\u2019t be done without physically doing it street by street.\u201d<\/p>

Cabrillo rubbed his eyes.<\/p>

This was a problem.<\/p>

Candela was ranting. He said that all over Cuba, in the TODO towns, people were calling relatives in the diaspora and having open, unmonitored conversations. Speaking freely.<\/p>

\u201cThey\u2019re singing Manolo Pendejo!\u201d he said. \u201cDo you think that\u2019s funny?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI don\u2019t, jefe<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThis is catastrophic. The roads are jammed with people trying to get to the TODO towns so they can make calls, upload videos, surf the internet. We are wide open. No control. Now you tell me what to do about this now that you have fucked me with a gorilla dick.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019ll tell you what you do about this. Arrest Diego Maceo. Hold him, negotiate with Pierce Polk and Mike Holman that when they turn off their internet, Maceo will be released and put on a plane back to Miami. Then nationalize everything TODO has built.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThat is a wonderful dream,\u201d said Candela. \u201cI would love to do that. You know as well as I do that if I tried, I would be hung from a light pole on the Malec\u00f3n.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAqu\u00ed mandan los cojones,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Cabrillo said with a shrug.<\/p>

\u201cOh, don\u2019t you fucking dare say that to me!\u201d Candela screamed. \u201cIf you were in my position, you would do no such thing. This is not about cojones<\/em>; it\u2019s about strategy.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cFine,\u201d said Cabrillo. \u201cTake this Jack Gray, this CIA spy who caused this problem, and put him against a wall. Today. Before noon.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAre you mad<\/em>, Cabrillo?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cNo,\u201d said Cabrillo, an idea germinating rapidly in his head. \u201cWhat has Gray confessed to?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cNothing.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cNaturally. Well, I\u2019ll tell you what he did and why the internet is turned on in the TODO towns. Streetlights.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWhat does that mean?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThey installed solar-powered streetlights in all those towns. The batteries on those streetlights are abnormally large. Why? Because the battery rigs double as wi-fi relays.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAy dios mio,\u201d <\/em>Candela groaned. \u201cAnd no one knew anything. Even you, Manuel. How do you know this now but not before?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t included in the corporate literature, jefe<\/em>. But I have been to every TODO town, and I have seen the streetlights. It\u2019s the only thing that makes sense, and it explains the perfect wi-fi coverage. And you cannot take those streetlights down. Ay caramba<\/em>, these Americans are cunning.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cIf I send the Army after streetlights, I will be seen as a fool, Manuel.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cNo, you cannot do it. Block the roads leading into the TODO towns. Let no one in or out.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWhat if the Army will not follow that order? Ej\u00e9rcito Oriental<\/em> is now incommunicado. We don\u2019t know if they are with us or with TODO. And what of Maceo? He\u2019s touring the East? What are his intentions?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI already told you what to do to Maceo, jefe<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cCabrillo, I cannot arrest him. Not when the arrest will be filmed and livestreamed to the world over the internet.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThis was Jack Gray\u2019s doing. Put him against the wall and shoot him. Now.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI already have the Canadians and the Mexicans and the Spanish telling me to let Gray go.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWhich is the last thing you can do. Manolo, you have to show that your regime still has teeth. Gray has already served his purpose for los Americanos<\/em>. Now he can serve our purpose. Shoot him and deliver his casket to the Canadian embassy. He claimed to be Canadian, correct? Deposit the body with them and let them explain how they were used.\u201d<\/p>

He could see Candela softening. The president was considering Cabrillo\u2019s advice. He didn\u2019t think the man would actually take the idea of executing Gray seriously, but then again, Manolo Candela was nothing if not brutal.<\/p>

\u201cIf I shoot this man Gray, it will bring the U.S. Marines. The Americans invaded Cuba over a boiler explosion on a ship moored in the harbor, Manuel. Would they not invade over a CIA man\u2019s execution?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYou tell me, Se\u00f1or Presidente<\/em>. Do you not have their politicians in your pocket?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI have some, yes.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWill those politicians not create trouble if Trumbull moves against us?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYes, and with their elections coming up in November\u2026\u201d<\/p>

\u201cExecuting Gray and Trumbull, doing nothing, will show the Americans as weak. Their media has been touting an invasion of Cuba since the spring, and it has not come.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cIt did come! It came under the guise of a Chinese from San Francisco, that mentiroso<\/em> Chang and Pierce Polk.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAnd the antidote, Se\u00f1or Presidente,<\/em> is to bring the real Chinese. Which I can do. And with real Chinese backing you can take back Cuba, complete with all of the improvements that Pierce Polk made.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI don\u2019t need you for the Chinese, Cabrillo. I can make that call myself.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAnd if you make it, you will get a polite declaration of their policy of non-intervention.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThat policy is bullshit, Cabrillo.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYes, it is. But that\u2019s why this must be negotiated unofficially. Which is why you need me.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAnd you think if I execute this man Gray, the Chinese will come.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cBy executing him, you will prove that you have the cojones<\/em> to rule. This is what the Chinese respect. They didn\u2019t roll over and die like the Russians, you know. In Tiananmen Square, they brought the tanks. Execute Gray, and they will realize you are cut from the same cloth.\u201d<\/p>

Candela paused.<\/p>

And then he began nodding. First subtly, then demonstrably.<\/p>

\u201cIt will be as you say,\u201d he said. \u201cBut you had better be right about the Chinese.\u201d<\/p>

By noon, \u201cGray Jackson\u201d was dead.<\/p>

By sundown, his body had been delivered to the Canadian embassy in Havana.<\/p>

That night, several hundred protesters holding printed signs which read \u201cHands Off Cuba!\u201d on one side and \u201c\u00a1Manos fuera de Cuba!<\/em>\u201d on the other descended on the U.S. embassy in Havana.<\/p>

But shortly thereafter, several thousand people surrounded the protesters. A street melee began which turned into a rout, and before the police and Army could be summoned from their beds to break up the riot, the pro-regime protesters had scattered, littering the streets around the embassy with their signs.<\/p>

And when one young woman who had filmed everything from a rooftop across Avenue Calzada from the embassy made her way to Bahia Honda late that night, stood under a street light, and uploaded the footage to Instagram, the images of the \u201cHands Off Cuba!\u201d signs dropped in the streets went viral all over the world.<\/p>

\n

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

The Chinese safe house wasn\u2019t actually a house. It was a penthouse apartment in a skyscraper on the Punta Pacifica in Panama City, and it was ostentatious on an obnoxious scale.<\/p>

Cabrillo expected no less of his Chinese contact. He knew the man only as Xing, but Cabrillo had his measure far beyond names.<\/p>

Xing had been the Chinese operative \u2013 military, intelligence, something \u2013 who had embedded with Cabrillo\u2019s unit in advance of the Venezuelan invasion of Guyana. When that had gone wrong, Xing had vanished into the ether. But he had sent Cabrillo occasional messages, telling him \u201ckeep me apprised of what you\u2019re doing; if there\u2019s an opportunity to work together, let me know and maybe I\u2019ll put it up the line.\u201d<\/p>

Xing knew Cabrillo was working with the cartels. He was interested in that aspect of Cabrillo\u2019s work. But he\u2019d never responded when Cabrillo messaged him about LCTC.<\/p>

And after the meeting between the two began, Cabrillo asked him about that.<\/p>

\u201cThat was a sticky situation,\u201d said Xing. \u201cLCTC was\u2026 off the books. Simon Lim took that thing on as a personal project, and it wasn\u2019t sanctioned by the bosses.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThen why didn\u2019t you warn me off?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cBecause we didn\u2019t know what was going on. We had no reason to think Lim was a traitor. Not after what he\u2019d done for the People\u2019s Republic all those years.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cSo you hung me out to dry and just executed him.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYou certainly don\u2019t have a problem with executions, Cabrillo. You think it\u2019s a secret to anybody what you did to that American in Havana?\u201d<\/p>

Cabrillo chuckled.<\/p>

Xing was an asshole. But he did have his amusing moments.<\/p>

\u201cYou told Candela that killing the American would make him look like a boss. You didn\u2019t mean that, did you?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cOf course not. It was bait; he took it, and now we\u2019re sitting here.\u201d<\/p>

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

\u201cI want to be the next leader of Cuba. I have a chunk of the military backing me, and if your government will agree to support my move, I\u2019ll run a coup and have the country under control in two weeks.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThat would mean a lot of blood,\u201d said Xing.<\/p>

\u201cYou certainly don\u2019t have a problem with blood, Xing.\u201d<\/p>

Now it was Xing\u2019s turn to chuckle.<\/p>

\u201cWhat\u2019s this going to cost?\u201d was his response instead.<\/p>

\u201cI don\u2019t really need cash. My Mexican and Colombian friends can supply that. What I need more than that are weapons and ammunition. And I know you have stashes of those all over the Caribbean. And elsewhere in North America.\u201d<\/p>

Xing laughed. \u201cHow would you know this?\u201d he said.<\/p>

\u201cBecause I\u2019m not stupid, Xing. I was in Venezuela for 20 years. You don\u2019t think I saw the rat lines your people established? You probably have enough hardware here in Panama to take out every dissident in Cuba.\u201d<\/p>

Xing shrugged.<\/p>

\u201cAnd you think the Americans will just let you walk right in and take Cuba. After everything.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cTrumbull can\u2019t do a thing. He\u2019s tied up with Iran. He subcontracted Cuba to Pierce Polk, and they think they can just stage a color revolution in Cuba with no blood spilled. When the voters in America find out that\u2019s a debacle, it\u2019ll destroy Trumbull and our friends will take the Congress. That will destroy his presidency. And then when our friends succeed him in two years, I\u2019ll welcome the new American president with open arms. We\u2019ll have friendly relations with America, and lots of trade with them\u2026\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYou mean more trade like you\u2019re having with them now,\u201d Xing said.<\/p>

\u201cFor certain. You should come and see the submarine factory at Cienfuegos. It\u2019s a marvel of Cuban manufacturing.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cIt would play well with Beijing to hand Polk a dose of humiliation,\u201d said Xing. \u201cAfter Guyana, then Venezuela, then the Panama Canal, then Dragon Harvest and now LCTC\u2026 if it was possible, they would want him floating like Lim.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYou can\u2019t get to Polk.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cNo. Beating him in Cuba, though, is\u2026 something.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cSo do we have a deal?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cMaybe,\u201d said Xing. \u201cNo guarantees. But I\u2019ll take it to my people.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWe\u2019re going to have to move fast if we want this to happen, though,\u201d said Cabrillo. \u201cThat negrata <\/em>ballplayer touring the East\u2026 when his aspirations turn political, if they do, the window may close.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAll right,\u201d said Xing. \u201cWell, I\u2019m for the Jacuzzi. I trust you can show yourself out.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cJinga tu madre<\/em>, Xing,\u201d Cabrillo said, chuckling as he stood.<\/p>

He had a room waiting at Le M\u00e9ridien Panama, and he had arranged companionship of a far more delightful sort than Xing would offer. And he was looking forward to that reward, even if it was a bit premature.<\/p>

The wheels had begun spinning in a slightly different way. Cabrillo could feel them. And he silently congratulated himself on an expertly played strategy as he rode the elevator to the ground floor of the condominium overlooking the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>

\u201cEl Presidente Cabrillo,\u201d he said to himself as he climbed into the limousine. \u201cMaceo. Marti. Castro. Cabrillo. H\u00e9roe de la Revoluci\u00f3n<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>

His statue in Havana would be glorious. It would be bronze, and taller than the Statue of the Republic inside El Capitolio.<\/p>

Or perhaps taller than El Capitolio itself. After all, it would be Cabrillo who would preserve Cuban independence against los Yanquis<\/em>.<\/p>

\n

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

\u201cSo that\u2019s the news, gentlemen,\u201d Roman Jefferson said on the Zoom.<\/p>

Roman was in Panama City. He\u2019d been tracking Cabrillo with geolocation from his phone, and that had placed him with Candela on the morning Jack Gray was murdered by the regime. When Cabrillo boarded that plane for Panama City, Roman had beaten him there by flying on Pierce\u2019s Gulfstream from Liberty Point.<\/p>

And that penthouse the Chinese thought they\u2019d secured was anything but a safe house. Sentinel Security had penetrated it months earlier. Liberty Point had listened to the entire conversation between Cabrillo and Xing in real time.<\/p>

\u201cThat greasy sonofabitch,\u201d said Pierce from the command center. \u201cDirty motherfucker. He\u2019s gonna run a military coup with Chinese arms and kill\u2026\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThousands,\u201d I said, from my kitchen in Jupiter.<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019ll be like Tiananmen Square all over Cuba,\u201d said Hal, from Ragged Island.<\/p>

\u201cThat would be a disaster of\u2026\u201d Pierce started to say.<\/p>

\u201cLet\u2019s just cut through the shit,\u201d said Roman. \u201cY\u2019all know what\u2019s gotta happen now, right?\u201d<\/p>

Read more In China You Go to Prison for \u2018Slandering\u2019 History\u2019s Greatest Killer<\/a><\/p>

Nobody had anything to say to that. The room went quiet.<\/p>

\n

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

Chapter Sixteen<\/h2>

Jupiter, Florida, October 4, 2026<\/em><\/p>

Danny Fuentes was 16 years old. He was a junior at Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando, Florida.<\/p>

Nothing about Danny or his family was exceptional or unusual, at least from outward appearances. Danny\u2019s dad, a second-generation immigrant from Honduras, was an electrician. His mom, a legal secretary, had immigrated from Cuba in a tiny boat when she was only two years old.<\/p>

So nobody really believed that Danny was the one who took down Cuba\u2019s entire telecommunications system with a retrofitted derivative of the Stuxnet virus two days after the Candela regime murdered Jack Gray. But he was.<\/p>

ETECSA, the state-owned corporation which controlled everything having to do with phones and the internet \u2013 at least before TODO showed up in Cuba \u2013 rode on a Chinese-built tech infrastructure. It was really more of a surveillance company that also had a phone system than anything else. And because it was so focused on internal security, ETECSA\u2019s external protections were pretty soft.<\/p>

Danny was a reasonably decent high school tennis player, but his real passion was that he could hack just about anything from the comfort of his bedroom. He proved that when he knocked out the Cuban regime\u2019s telecommunications.<\/p>

And when he did, he called Colby Igboizwe at Holman Media and left him a voicemail.<\/p>

\u201cYeah, ummm, hi,\u201d the message said. \u201cIf you can call me back, I think I might have a story for you.\u201d<\/p>

It turned out that Colby wasn\u2019t his first call. Danny had also called the Orlando Sentinel<\/em>, Vox<\/em>, CNN, and Wired<\/em>, but nobody gave him the time of day.<\/p>

Colby was just the first one to answer, and while Candela was screeching about the evil deeds of Pierce Polk and Mike Holman, from a press conference in Havana with Dolores Gramsci-Ramos and Naomi Yanko-Munsch flanking him, all three blaming Pierce and me for robbing the Cuban people of their connectivity, there was Danny Fuentes on Colby\u2019s podcast explaining exactly how he managed the hack.<\/p>

\u201cSo, are you a fan of Pierce Polk and PGFI?\u201d asked Colby. \u201cAre you an activist of any kind?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cNaw,\u201d said Danny. \u201cI mean, not really. I\u2019m actually more of a reggaeton fan, though. The Manolo Pendejo song\u2026 I can\u2019t get that beat out of my head. And, y\u2019know, I agree with the song, and all, and then they killed that guy for turning on the internet in their country? For real? That\u2019s crazy, bro. So I just, like, did my thing and there you go.\u201d<\/p>

That interview went extremely viral. There were protesters blocking the street leading into Danny\u2019s neighborhood a day later, holding \u201cHands Off Cuba!\u201d signs. The Orlando cops got rid of the protesters after some pushing and shoving. A couple of arrests followed, including an illegal-alien Syrian woman in a hijab who found herself deported by the end of the week.<\/p>

The FBI got involved in the ETECSA hack case, and after a couple of days the special agent in charge of the Orlando office said their investigation confirmed Danny Fuentes had done what he said he\u2019d done. Asked what charges would be filed against him, the special agent deferred the question to the U.S. Attorney.<\/p>

And the U.S. Attorney said, \u201cThat matter is under consideration.\u201d<\/p>

And Hank Chang offered Danny a job with his app company and wrote a check to cover all of his legal costs. I called Hank and told him he beat me to it.<\/p>

Back in New York, Gramsci-Ramos called it a \u201ctravesty\u201d that Danny Fuentes wasn\u2019t behind bars.<\/p>

But by then, the Cubans had phone and internet service back online.<\/p>

Not from ETECSA. From Shining Star, the cellular and web provider that Pierce owned.<\/p>

Pierce and the Sentinel Telecommunications people rigged up an onboarding protocol which allowed all ETECSA customers to access Shining Star\u2019s satellite phone and internet service through the Conduit app, and in one fell swoop there was pretty universal phone service and the World Wide Web that the regime had no control over.<\/p>

Candela\u2019s response was to put the country under martial law. And that was\u2026 less than successful in its implementation.<\/p>

We\u2019ll get to that in a second.<\/p>

Back home in Jupiter, I was amid significant domestic bliss. Little Mike had progressed beyond his first steps and was now spending most of his time in a baby walker that Grandma Mary had bought him. And that kid was pumping his little legs for all the world, roaming all over the house with the three dogs following him.<\/p>

He hadn\u2019t quite gotten the hang of not bumping into the furniture, though. Little Mike seemed to enjoy crashing into things.<\/p>

And when he knocked over a TV tray PJ had set up in the living room while she was watching \u2013 thankfully \u2013 a new series of telenovelas (she said she was addicted and it was totally Essie\u2019s fault), spilling grapes and cottage cheese all over the Persian rug, I suggested that Little Mike\u2019s professional future was coming into focus.<\/p>

\u201cThat kid likes contact,\u201d I said. \u201cHe\u2019s gonna make one hell of a linebacker.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYou\u2019re probably right,\u201d she groused.<\/p>

Little Mike just laughed. It was hard to get mad at him. The tray was there and it was in his way, so he asked it to move. That was all.<\/p>

We\u2019d gotten a package from Singapore. It was a large flat wooden crate. I knew instantly what it was.<\/p>

PJ was in her spinning studio when DHL delivered it. I\u2019d brought it into the utility room and laid it out on the floor, prying open the crate with a crowbar and revealing Simon\u2019s cross. It had been wrapped in bubble wrap and encased in foam to boot, which made a colossal mess when I opened the box.<\/p>

Inside was an envelope. There was a letter from Simon.<\/p>

\u201cMike,\u201d it read\u2026<\/p>

If you\u2019re getting this, the news is probably both good and bad. I\u2019m assuming that the switch has been flipped and my friends in Beijing didn\u2019t take it well. So, greetings from heaven, I hope.<\/em><\/p>

I\u2019ve known from the beginning how this would end. There was no world in which I could facilitate the ruse we managed to pull off and not pay the ultimate price for it. And I have no illusions but that the regime back home is going to call me a traitor.<\/em><\/p>

So be it. My answer is St. Thomas Aquinas\u2019 answer: \u201cto a tyrant no obedience is owed.\u201d<\/em><\/p>

I never wanted to be one of those dissidents who turns out to be a grifter, giving speeches at foreign colleges badmouthing my country\u2019s government. That was never my style. Instead, I picked my moment, shot my shot, and I accept the consequences.<\/em><\/p>

I\u2019m enclosing three things along with this letter. The first, and it\u2019s the most boring but you\u2019ll find this helpful, is a copy of my will. You\u2019ll find that I\u2019m leaving all of the assets of LCTC, including its bank accounts and other financial properties, to PGFI. There\u2019s about $5.8 billion left of the $10 billion I originally staked it with, so while I know Pierce is funding your operation going forward, this is my continuing contribution to the cause.<\/em><\/p>

Second is the cross. Pierce tells me you have a beautiful house with your backyard facing the water, and that seems to afford you a good opportunity to make this item your own, if that\u2019s what you choose, in the same way I did. I hope that you find it helpful in growing your faith. I\u2019m astounded that you\u2019ve managed to do the things you\u2019ve done without having your Catholicism as a bedrock; I do think your next step might be embracing it more fully.<\/em><\/p>

And I think you ought to. <\/em><\/p>

Also enclosed is a set of rosary beads I think you\u2019ll agree will feel heavier than they should. There\u2019s a reason for this.<\/em><\/p>

That rosary belonged to Father Rafael Soto. He was a priest in the town of Sancti Sp\u00edritus in central Cuba, which, as you know, is one of our locations. Father Soto was never political, but he became notorious nonetheless. His sin? He refused to stop ministering to people the government considered enemies of the revolution \u2014 dissidents, former landowners, families of political prisoners, and anyone who still practiced their faith openly. <\/em><\/p>

People came to him broken by arrests, beatings, or the loss of their homes, and Father Soto told them that their suffering was not invisible to God. The regime called this \u201charboring counter-revolutionaries\u201d and warned him repeatedly to stop.<\/em><\/p>

He would not. <\/em><\/p>

In 1983, Father Soto was arrested on fabricated charges of \u201cconspiring against the state.\u201d He spent the next four years in prison, much of it in solitary confinement. Even there, he continued to pray the rosary \u2013 the very rosary I\u2019m giving you \u2013 every day and ministered to other prisoners when he could. Other inmates later said that the sound of his rosary beads clicking was sometimes the only thing that kept them from giving up.<\/em><\/p>

Fidel Castro ordered Father Soto executed by firing squad in 1987. <\/em><\/p>

The official story was that he had been trying to escape. The real reason was that he had become too well-known among the political prisoners and too stubborn to break.<\/em><\/p>

Before his execution, Father Soto gave his rosary to another prisoner \u2013 a young man who was eventually released during one of the periodic amnesties. That young man kept the beads for years, eventually passing them to a contact in the Cuban exile community in Miami. And they were given to me in consideration for a favor I did for someone years ago.<\/em><\/p>

These belonged to a man who understood that evil does not die with one regime. He paid for that understanding with his life. I carried them for years, hoping they would remind me what real courage looks like. Now I\u2019m giving them to you, because I suspect you may need them more than I do.<\/em><\/p>

Because our success, and I believe it is inevitable, in bringing down Candela will not eliminate the evil that created him and the tyrants who came before him. Beware of that evil and guard against it coming to you. <\/em><\/p>

Be well, Mike. It\u2019s been a pleasure knowing you. Vaya con Dios.<\/em><\/p>

Simon<\/em><\/p>

\u201cWhat is this mess?\u201d PJ fussed as she came in, seeing the pieces of foam scattered on the utility room floor.<\/p>

\u201cHere,\u201d I said, passing her the letter and watching her face as she read it.<\/p>

\u201cOh, wow,\u201d she said after a long pause. \u201cLike\u2026 I don\u2019t know what to say.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cFirst, say yes to letting me build something to house this thing in the backyard,\u201d I said.<\/p>

\u201cYou don\u2019t think it should maybe go to a church? Or even a museum. I mean, this cross has to be priceless, right?\u201d<\/p>

So I unpacked it and stood it up against the corner.<\/p>

\u201cNever mind,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s beautiful.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cSimon didn\u2019t give it to a church,\u201d I said. \u201cHe gave it to us for a reason.\u201d<\/p>

She opened the plastic bag containing Father Soto\u2019s rosary beads. They were simple wooden beads on a string. Nothing fancy. Exactly what one would expect a Cuban country priest to have.<\/p>

And there were tears in her eyes.<\/p>

\u201cI only met him once,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I miss him. A lot.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI do, too, PJ.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYou and I are both, like, bad Catholics,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is a pretty obvious sign that has to change, right?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any way around that, babe.\u201d<\/p>

\n

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

A few days later I got a phone call from Gibara.<\/p>

\u201cMr. Holman?\u201d the caller said when I answered. \u201cMy name is Theodore Ontiveros. I\u2019m a retired cop from Miami, but I was just recently hired as the police chief in Gibara. I\u2019m calling to invite you back here, and to tell you I can guarantee your safety.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cDo I still have a warrant out for my arrest in Cuba, Chief Ontiveros?\u201d I asked him after thanking him for his offer.<\/p>

\u201cAs I said,\u201d came the response, \u201cI can guarantee your safety. We have made arrangements to that effect. In fact, the whole of eastern Cuba is pretty safe territory for you.\u201d<\/p>

That wasn\u2019t a surprise based on what I\u2019d been hearing.<\/p>

Diego\u2019s bus tour had started very, very low-key. He\u2019d been going around to all the little towns around Gibara, bringing people supplies and humanitarian aid, passing out TODO de Cuba t-shirts, and trailing a beer truck behind his convoy to dole out little cups of La Bala on draft. Initially, the regime didn\u2019t take him all that seriously. They took his tour as a promotional stunt for his beer company.<\/p>

And while Diego was serious about selling his beer, he was also crafty as hell about how he did it.<\/p>

\u201cI want them to dismiss me as a beer salesman,\u201d he said on a Zoom with Stan, Trent, Pierce, and me. \u201cThey\u2019ll look stupid calling me a threat to the revolution if I\u2019m signing baseballs and giving away free beer. I\u2019m not gonna say a word about politics, at least not publicly. I\u2019m just gonna talk about how much I\u2019ve missed Cuba, how much I love these people, how I want the country to get access to TODO.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cTODO de Cuba,\u201d said Stan. \u201cI absolutely freaking love that.\u201d<\/p>

In all of the towns of the \u201ctodosphere,\u201d which was a word I coined to encompass the places where the company was doing business \u2013 and on his tour, Diego was signing up the little villages and hamlets in Holgu\u00edn Province one by one \u2013 they were putting up \u201cTODO de Cuba\u201d signs. Diego had suggested, and because it was his suggestion we immediately executed it, that each town in the todosphere come up with its own design for a \u201cTODO de Cuba\u201d representation. The local project managers were setting prize money aside and running competitions for local artists to render it. Some of the resulting manifestations were absolutely gorgeous.<\/p>

The thing was, there were multiple meanings to TODO de Cuba.<\/p>

The straightforward one was that the TODO Corporation was The Everything Company for Cuba, in that it was built to provide all manner of goods and services the country needed.<\/p>

On another level, it was a promise. Everything to Cuba. Born from hurricane recovery, TODO was a helping hand. Not just for washing machines and Nike sneakers. Everything.<\/p>

But the third meaning was the one the regime couldn\u2019t stand but had no ability to defend against. Namely, that TODO de Cuba meant \u201cAll of Cuba.\u201d That the whole country should have what the TODO Corporation offered, which was something very different from what the regime could provide.<\/p>

And TODO de Cuba signs, painted murals, graffiti art, and all kinds of other representations were popping up all over the country.<\/p>

That and the Diego La Bala song, which was the anthem of his bus tour. Absolutely everybody recognized that the beat and the melody were identical to the Manolo Pendejo song, but the regime couldn\u2019t stop it. How do you make a dembow beat illegal?<\/p>

Candela gave a speech at the University of Havana denouncing the \u201cencroachment of Yanqui <\/em>consumerism\u201d and its \u201cvulgar effects on the Cuban people.\u201d Asked about that in San Felipe de U\u00f1as, Diego said, \u201cI get it. He drinks Bucanero.\u201d<\/p>

Bucanero being the state-owned beer company in Cuba.<\/p>

Ontiveros suggested a specific day that I come back to Gibara. I understood the time frame, so I took him up on it.<\/p>

PJ was pissed because she wanted to come as well. But PJ was way too pregnant to travel, and this pregnancy was turning into a little more difficult one than the first time around.<\/p>

So I kissed her and left her with the three dogs and the kid who liked to play bumper cars with the furniture all day, and I boarded the King Air 350 with Stan and Ferdinand, Trent, and Sam Uribe, heading to Gibara.<\/p>

And we landed at Diego Maceo International Airport. It seemed that the locals didn\u2019t find PCIA to be all that amusing anymore. They\u2019d used the TODO app on their phones to vote on a proposal somebody had made to officially name the airfield for Diego. He\u2019d done the ribbon-cutting while I was in my exile back home in Florida.<\/p>

And they\u2019d made a very large concrete and stone mural for the airport entrance sign, which had Diego\u2019s face and the lettering made of little pieces of colored stone embedded into the concrete. It was an extraordinary piece of art.<\/p>

We were greeted with a little Cuban band playing in the terminal building. They were playing Guantanamera.<\/p>

\u201cIsn\u2019t that, like, a left-wing song?\u201d asked Stan.<\/p>

\u201cNah,\u201d Sam said. \u201cIt\u2019s a song for regular folks. The commies stole it from Jose Marti, but they don\u2019t own it.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cLike Bono said about Helter Skelter,\u201d said Trent. \u201cCharlie Manson stole it from the Beatles. We\u2019re stealin\u2019 it back.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYeah,\u201d I said. \u201cSomething like that.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cMr. Mike!\u201d said a voice in a very fetching white-and-tan police uniform. \u201cWelcome to Gibara. I\u2019m Ted Ontiveros. I don\u2019t think you met my cousin Luis Contreras. He\u2019s the mayor.\u201d<\/p>

\u201c\u00bfEl alcalde?\u201d<\/em> I asked, shaking his hand and hoping my Spanish had progressed beyond kindergarten level. \u201cEso es nuevo. Yo no sab\u00eda que Gibara tiene alcalde.\u201d<\/em><\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s all right, Mr. Mike,\u201d said Contreras, in a thick accent. \u201cI speak OK English. I make it easy on you.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cGracias,\u201d I said. \u201cWhen did you guys set up a mayor?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWe had to,\u201d said Contreras. \u201cSe\u00f1or<\/em> Pupo left, and then so did you, so there was really nobody in charge but Mr. Belcher and we don\u2019t want to get in his way. So we have an election and Mr. Diego endorse me. I win.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI see,\u201d I said. \u201cWhat did you do before you were mayor?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWell, I used to be\u2026 el jefe de obras<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThat\u2019s the\u2026 public works director, right?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYeah,\u201d said Ted. \u201cBut now he\u2019s got a plumbing business, and he\u2019s doing great, right, Jose?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cS\u00ed,\u201d<\/em> said the mayor proudly.<\/p>

\u201cI imagine so. And you hired Ted as the police chief?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cMr. Diego hired him. But I endorse him.\u201d<\/p>

We laughed at that, and then Ted asked me if I wanted to ride with him. The others got in a big Ford Expedition that looked like it might have come off a used car lot in Miami recently.<\/p>

But my ride \u2013 Ted\u2019s ride \u2013 was familiar.<\/p>

\u201cI wondered who inherited my F-250,\u201d I said. \u201cNice paint job.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYeah, there\u2019s a guy who skins vehicles here in Gibara and TODO set him up with the equipment. So he does all our trucks and vehicles at cost and he makes a nice little chunk on the rest of the vehicles in town.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAre there many of those?\u201d I asked.<\/p>

Ted laughed as he turned off the airport access road onto the Caraterra Gibara, where traffic reminded me of all those years I lived in Atlanta.<\/p>

\u201cWhat the\u2026\u201d I said.<\/p>

\u201cWe\u2019re gonna get your guy Belcher to build a ring road up the hill west of town,\u201d said Ted, \u201cbecause this little two-lane thing as the only artery in and out might work in a communist dictatorship, but it definitely won\u2019t work now.\u201d<\/p>

As we inched into the city, I noticed that the Tanner\u2019s Outpost Tower had been completely refurbished and they were building something connected to it. On the water side of the street, Belcher\u2019s receiving yard had been turned into a boardwalk with a large parking lot. They\u2019d built a pedestrian bridge over the roadway connecting the two.<\/p>

\u201cI missed all of this,\u201d I said. \u201cWhat\u2019s going on here?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThe tower and the building around it are going to be the new TODO Supercenter,\u201d he said, \u201cand the boardwalk is going to be an open-air seaside market.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThat\u2019s very cool. But where\u2019s the receiving yard?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cIn Vita. They moved all of the freight over there.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI need to check on Belcher\u2019s road,\u201d I said. \u201cHow\u2019s that going?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cLike two weeks ahead of schedule. He got more equipment in and they\u2019re hiring pretty much everybody who shows up looking for work. It\u2019s a hell of an operation they\u2019re running down there.\u201d<\/p>

We were inching toward downtown Gibara, and I could see that building after building had a new roof, a fresh coat of paint; there were plants everywhere, freshly-planted trees in every open space. People were riding around on bikes; there were smiles everywhere. People waved to Ted and me as we drove past.<\/p>

\u201cGood grief,\u201d I said.<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s a whole different place, Mike. And you know, you\u2019re the guy who set all this in motion.\u201d<\/p>

I didn\u2019t have anything to say to that. Then I noticed that the piers into the bay, which had stood when we first arrived, were all gone. Not just the big pier that Belcher had jackhammered; the little walking pier in the middle and the long eastern pier, too.<\/p>

In their place was a full-fledged marina. It didn\u2019t have many boats docked there, but I counted more than a dozen. And a couple of them were decent-sized.<\/p>

\u201cWhoa,\u201d I said.<\/p>

\u201cYeah. That\u2019s also new. Next year we\u2019re gonna have a regatta. Here to Exuma and back.\u201d<\/p>

The traffic snarled again, right in front of the mural with Fidel\u2019s old quote. I\u2019d seen the picture of somebody defacing it with the Ozymandias poem. All of that was gone. The mural had been completely repainted with a very decorative TODO de Cuba sign.<\/p>

\u201cThis is cool,\u201d I said.<\/p>

\u201cJose\u2019s daughter did it. She\u2019s 16.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYeah. Very talented girl. People love that mural.\u201d<\/p>

The closer we got to the Hotel Ordo\u00f1o, the more complete the transformation was. Many of the houses along Calle Donato Marmol, the street the hotel was on, had added a second story with a terrace. People were having siestas on their terraces and waving at us.<\/p>

The parking space in front of the Hotel still said \u201cRESERVADO EXCLUSIVAMENTE PARA MIKE HOLMAN.\u201d Ted parked the truck in it.<\/p>

\u201cThey won\u2019t mind,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s still your ride. Your room is how you left it. It\u2019s basically a shrine to you at this point.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThanks, Ted,\u201d I told him and grabbed my bag out of the bed.<\/p>

\u201cSee you tonight,\u201d he said.<\/p>

\u201cWhat\u2019s tonight?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cIn the ballroom,\u201d said Ted, smiling before heading off to make his rounds.<\/p>

So I walked through the open door, and\u2026<\/p>

\u201c\u00a1Se\u00f1or<\/em> Mike! You\u2019re back!\u201d<\/p>

\u201cHey, Claudio,\u201d I said to my old friend, the concierge. \u201cI understand you saved my room for me.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s had no guests since you left, Se\u00f1or<\/em> Mike. We thought it would be wrong.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWell, you have my permission to book it from here on in. Wouldn\u2019t want you guys to lose money on my account.\u201d<\/p>

Claudio smiled. Then I got mobbed by the rest of the hotel staff as the word got out that I was back.<\/p>

\n

\"Vintage-style<\/figure>\n<\/p>

That night there was a big \u201cWelcome Back\u201d party for me in the Hotel Ordo\u00f1o ballroom, and there were tons of locals there; most were early adopters of the TODO card and people who had begun transitioning from TODO employees to small business owners as the company was spinning them off and essentially taking a role as a minority silent partner in their businesses. So it felt a little like a Chamber of Commerce mixer. Maybe I was the excuse for these guys to do that. If so, I didn\u2019t mind. And it was nice to see these folks, with whom I\u2019d spent a big chunk of that year living and working, once again.<\/p>

Especially as happy and optimistic as they were.<\/p>

Diego put in an appearance as well. He\u2019d taken over a house on the hill north of downtown that had been a rooms-for-rent place, and they\u2019d gutted it and retrofitted it to Essie\u2019s standards. That was where Diego was staying most nights. He\u2019d make forays into the towns all around Holgu\u00edn every other day, and the days he was home he\u2019d receive visitors from all over. It was very low-key, and he was extremely security-conscious, as he should have been, and he had a helicopter parked in the side yard of the house just in case things got heavy and he needed to bug out.<\/p>

But at the afterparty, which was on the rooftop terrace of the hotel, Diego sat me down and gave me a serious look.<\/p>

\u201cTomorrow morning,\u201d he said, \u201cwill be the first real test of this next stage of the project.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cHey,\u201d I told him. \u201cThis is your show now. We built the infrastructure, and we gave it to you, and we\u2019re here with money and logistics and whatever, but you lead it. So where you go, I follow. This is about Holgu\u00edn?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWe\u2019re going into the city,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I expect good things to happen. But there\u2019s a chance it could go very wrong.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI suppose you\u2019re right,\u201d I said, \u201cbut my guess is you\u2019re gonna get the palm frond treatment like you\u2019ve never seen.\u201d<\/p>

Diego smiled. \u201cI hope so,\u201d he said.<\/p>

Palm fronds.<\/p>

When Diego had first arrived in Gibara, the people laid down palm fronds on the pier sort of as a way to mark his path into town. And then he started his tour around the little towns of Holgu\u00edn Province, and everywhere he went they were doing the same thing. Either they were decorating the stage where he\u2019d speak, or they\u2019d line the road waving them, or they\u2019d drop them alongside his path from the bus to where he would speak or meet people.<\/p>

It was a Palm Sunday kind of thing. That much was for sure. But when I asked Marisol about it \u2013 she was shuttling back and forth from Miami to Gibara and didn\u2019t make this trip because her uncle came down with a bad case of gallstones and she wanted to be with him \u2013 she told me there was something else going on.<\/p>

\u201cThese people have nothing, Mike. They love Diego, but they can\u2019t give him anything. What they can do is cut palm fronds from out in the country. They\u2019re available and they\u2019re everywhere, and a royal palm is quintessentially Cuban. So that\u2019s what they offer him.\u201d<\/p>

Going into Holgu\u00edn was something of a roll of the dice. Which, admittedly, were loaded in our favor, but they hadn\u2019t been fully tested yet.<\/p>

On one hand, Holgu\u00edn was where Diego\u2019s legend was born. He might have been born and raised in Gibara, but Diego\u2019s baseball career had launched as a pitcher with the Holgu\u00edn Sabuesos \u2014 the Holgu\u00edn Hounds \u2014 before defecting and making it to the Red Sox.<\/p>

The Sabuesos, I found out, are an historically terrible team in the Cuban Serie Nacional, which is the top amateur league in the country and has been since Fidel banned pro baseball in 1961. But when Diego played for them, wielding that 100 mph heat and his devastating slider, it was different. He carried them to a league title in 2002 at 23 years old, going 16-1 with a 1.64 earned run average and posting 210 strikeouts in 125 innings. Not to mention his no-hitter in the final game of the championship series against the Santiago de Cuba Avispas, who were the dominant team of that era.<\/p>

That city embraced Diego as its own, because he gave them the greatest moment Holgu\u00edn ever had. But when he defected and made his way to the Red Sox, it was a terrible blow to their morale. And the statue the city commissioned was demolished by the local party boss in retaliation.<\/p>

Nobody ever took a poll of the folks in Holgu\u00edn as to whether they wanted the statue done away with.<\/p>

Diego had sent some scouts into Holgu\u00edn to check the place out and see if it was safe to go in. And he\u2019d invited Hamza, the provincial party boss, to Gibara for dinner at the house on the hill.<\/p>

Hamza had played the hardass with Diego. And Diego\u2019s response was to invite him to the TV room, where he played the video of me bribing him with a microwave oven that might or might not have shared a box with five grand Canadian. After that, he said Hamza was more cooperative.<\/p>

But we didn\u2019t assume we could trust anything Hamza said.<\/p>

\u201cI trust the people of Holgu\u00edn more than the mierda<\/em> in charge,\u201d he said.<\/p>

And then there was the Army.<\/p>

Alejandro Mendoza, the general in charge of the Ej\u00e9rcito Oriental<\/em>, the Eastern Army, which was based in Holgu\u00edn, was known as a pro-regime hardass. Best we could tell, he was still in charge. But Diego was doing his tour all over the province, and the Army wasn\u2019t stopping those buses. Nor was the Army stopping people from traveling to Gibara or the other towns where Diego had pushed TODO into place.<\/p>

We just didn\u2019t have intel sufficient to know what was happening.<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m a little worried,\u201d Hal had said on the last Zoom call before I\u2019d come back down to Gibara, \u201cthat they\u2019re lying in wait in Holgu\u00edn and the minute Diego goes onto their turf they\u2019ll pounce.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s a concern,\u201d said Diego. \u201cBut on the other hand, I can\u2019t just go to every little town in Cuba and not press the population centers. We have to do this now or the momentum will fall off.\u201d<\/p>

Hal ultimately agreed, though he did say it infuriated him that he couldn\u2019t send a little army of guys with M4s and an armored vehicle or two, just in case. Going in heavy like that was a guarantee that the regime would go kinetic on us, though.<\/p>

So when we loaded the buses, there was an element of risk inherent in the trip to Holgu\u00edn.<\/p>

I sat with Stan and Sam for the ride into Holgu\u00edn. It was only an 18-mile distance between the two towns, though on the NR 221 that ride took us nearly an hour. We were setting up on a sports field in the middle of town, a big open area more or less next door to Calixto Garcia Stadium, the baseball park where Diego\u2019s La Bala legend was born and just down the street from the provincial communist party headquarters.<\/p>

We had no firm idea what was waiting for us. But Stan and Sam were talking excitedly anyway.<\/p>

\u201cWait, hang on,\u201d I said. \u201cI thought you guys weren\u2019t going to get a deal done on the sugar mill and the rum distillery.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWell,\u201d said Sam, \u201cit\u2019s still all theoretical, because you\u2019ve got to have a government in place first, but we think we have something that\u2019s gonna work.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cTwo distilleries,\u201d said Stan. \u201cTwo brands. Actually, five brands under two labels. One is Cuba Rica, the other is Santa Cruz. We\u2019ll do three brands of the agricole and two of the Santa Cruz.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWell, that\u2019s all right,\u201d I said.<\/p>

\u201cAnd I got my Dad to set up a deal with Pierce,\u201d said Sam. \u201cHe gets the Vita port, and we just take a piece of it. It\u2019s a lot more valuable if you\u2019ve got Sentinel Ports Management running it.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWe just need to have somebody in charge that we can get to stamp the deal, and we\u2019re rolling,\u201d said Stan.<\/p>

The terrain along the NR 221 changed from hillsides and scrub brush to farmlands and then what passed for suburbs in Cuba, and then we came into the city of Holguin itself.<\/p>

And there were smiles all around.<\/p>

People were lining up on the street waving palm fronds and cheering.<\/p>

\u201cOh, there we go,\u201d said Sam. \u201cExactly the way we planned it.\u201d<\/p>

People had painted \u201cTODO de Cuba\u201d on half the walls in town. I noticed that Holgu\u00edn, which had a population of around 350,000, looked as beat-up as Gibara had when we arrived. Buildings had descended into rubble, the streets were pockmarked, power lines were down where people had cut the conductor for scrap metal \u2013 there wasn\u2019t much danger of getting electrocuted, seeing as though the power was out 22 hours a day.<\/p>

We kept waiting for the police or the army to stop the convoy. They didn\u2019t. And when we got off the buses at the poorly-kept sports field where a stage had been set up, and big TVs connected to generators were playing highlights from Diego\u2019s baseball career, I looked out across the field, and there had to be\u2026<\/p>

Fifty thousand people? Eighty?<\/p>

I\u2019m not good with crowd counts.<\/p>

All I know is they went through 976 kegs of La Bala beer that day. Diego had made sure there were a thousand on hand. They almost drank it all.<\/p>

And he gave a speech which didn\u2019t have a word of politics in it but was so subversive I could hear heads exploding all the way in Havana. Diego talked about family, about home, about the joy of life, about the adventure that his career had been, and how his heart had never left Cuba and never would, but how grateful he was that the Lord had let him follow his dreams.<\/p>

None of it was political. Everybody there could see it was all a full-frontal attack on the regime and the shitty quality of life it afforded to the Cuban people.<\/p>

There weren\u2019t a lot of dry eyes on that field. And it wasn\u2019t that the crowd was drunk on Diego\u2019s beer.<\/p>

After his speech, he walked through the throng, shaking everybody\u2019s hand that he could, on the way to the baseball stadium. They let him go in, alone, in silence.<\/p>

At least at first.<\/p>

And as he stood on the pitcher\u2019s mound, people began filtering in. That\u2019s when you could hear it.<\/p>

\u201cBoom-badaba, Boom-badaba, Boom-Di-E-Go, Boom-La-Ba-La.\u201d<\/em><\/p>

It started quietly. Then it built. As people filtered in, overcrowding the stadium and singing his song, I could see the tears in his eyes.<\/p>

He was home. And nothing about the love affair Holgu\u00edn had with Diego Maceo had changed.<\/p>

\n

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

Coming Wednesday, September 9: Episode 9 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 September Vacation Tribes<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A most wonderful article<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1835","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 8: Angles and Shots - 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=1835\" \/>\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 8: Angles and Shots - National Logistics Post\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A most wonderful article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?p=1835\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"National Logistics Post\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-09-05T05:38:15+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=\"57 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/?p=1835#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/?p=1835\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/af6e6ad9b3cf5bfe495dc5541ee6a5cc\"},\"headline\":\"Scott McKay\u2019s The Necessary Men \u2014 Episode 8: Angles and Shots\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-09-05T05:38:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/?p=1835\"},\"wordCount\":11366,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/?p=1835#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/9679464390ba68550b625f9abfeb80ba.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"The Necessary Men\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/?p=1835#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/?p=1835\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nationallogisticspost.com\\\/?p=1835\",\"name\":\"Scott McKay\u2019s The Necessary Men \u2014 Episode 8: Angles and Shots - 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