I Am American.

By Hani Al Hadidi

The man whimpered against the shadow, laying deep in thought. No one could tell what was running through his troubled mind, but he finally gave up, reached into his handbag and took out a set of printed-out pages. He sled them towards the shadow.
Thank you. Im sorry it had to come to this, but it is for the greater good, you should know that. Now if you dont mind, I have work to do. The shadow took out a silenced gun.
A gun? How the hell are you going to cover this up? The man asked in surprise.
Dont worry. We have ways of covering things up. Goodbye.
The man straightened up, expecting the final blow. They stared at each other a good long while, when the Shadow pulled the trigger, letting out a bullet right between the mans eyes. Blood splattered everywhere and as sudden as the first drop of rain, the world ended for him.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Oct 12, 2012
• ISBN: 9781477231326

Hani Al Hadidi

Hani Al Hadidi has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, an MBA in marketing and a Ph.D. in thesis-marketing. He is a professional author, having written several political articles on American policy in the Middle East. Al Hadidi founded the Arabs Post newspaper in 2004 and wrote his first book on marketing systems in 2007. He is also founder and developer of several business companies such as G-TECH and Progold Egypt. He is also a member of International e-marketer society.

Book preview

I Am American

Hani Al Hadidi

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© 2012 Hani Al Hadidi. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 3/18/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4772-3131-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4772-3130-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4772-3132-6 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Foreword and Acknowledgement

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Epilogue

Foreword and Acknowledgement

I spent hours and hours writing the introduction for this book and finally I found out that it is better for the reader to get my idea between the lines.

Americans are good people, I know a lot of them personally, but unknown to me there are some who enjoy others fight among themselves. This book is for them to come to the main stream.

This book is message of Rapprochement and transferring the Point of view that the others believe in.

We all agree that America is the strongest country in the world but how do the Americans want their country to be?

The strongest country everyone respects or the strongest country everyone fears?

The greatest country everyone wants his country to look like or the country everybody wants to get hurt with?

The civilized country of science, technology, freedom and prosperity, or the country that spreads wars and destruction?

These are all in Americans hands and what really they want for AMERICA.

Though the book starts at an unhurried pace, the first couple of chapters straining hard and deep to link the readers to the present state of America and its policies with the Protagonist John Madison, the rest of the pages would race them to a heartbreaking finish.

Special thanks to my friend Tom Faithstar without whom this book would have never seen the light.

Prologue

The man entered the apartment, only to discover that everything lay in pitch-black darkness. Not even thinking of turning on the lights, he tried to peer through the darkness. Someone had been rummaging through everything, searching for something. The shutters on the windows were down, giving out a nocturnal feeling to the whole place.

He stepped into the living room and saw someone on the couch opposite to him. But, he could only make out a shadow.

Smart of you to come alone, spoke the shadow. But you were more stupid than I thought. No one bites the hand that feeds you. Give me the manuscript if you want to protect her.

The man whimpered against the shadow, laying deep in thought. No one could tell what was running through his troubled mind, but he finally gave up, reached into his handbag and took out a set of printed-out pages. He sled them towards the shadow, across the glass-topped solid wood cocktail table.

Thank you! said the shadow. I’m sorry it had to come to this, but it’s for the greater good, and you should know that. Now, if you don’t mind, I have work to do.

The shadow took out a silenced gun.

"A gun? How the hell are you going to cover this up?" The man asked in surprise.

Don’t worry. We always have plenty of good ways for covering things up. Goodbye.

The man straightened up, expecting the blow. They stared through the dark, at each other, a good long while. The Shadow pulled the trigger, letting out a bullet that went right between the man’s eyes. Blood splattered everywhere.

As sudden as the first drop of rain, the world ended for him.

Chapter 1

John Madison was handling the wheel of his Volvo XC70 4x4 Sport with all his patience, which was nil at the moment.

It was a pleasant August Monday morning, as all Monday mornings could be, and the day started off with nothing much to offer in the 9 AM Houston traffic. He was somewhere between Reliant Stadium and the Texas Medical Center. Halt and go… Halt and go.

He turned on the radio and just caught some breaking news being broadcast over the radio station.

…This is Kay Yoo Hecsh Ef… the voice was reassuringly his hometown buddy’s accent, mistook as Scottish by others. …Thish jusht in, there hash been yet another bombing in the Middle Easht… American forcshes have been required to take actshion after sheveral terrorisht threatsh and bombingsh were attempted in Aden, Yemen…

Wow, thought Madison, What my Dad said is true really! We are always ready and shooting at the drop of a hat, be it anywhere in the world. I wonder if the Martians had some petty brawls we would send our Space Corps! There really are more attacks made by American forces on behalf of other countries than talks and negotiations by our diplomats. It was true that Madison had been taught early on by his father that war was wrong.

What we are doing is not right, John, his father said a long time ago, as he was sent home, less an arm and a leg, from Nam. Anywhere, any fight, and we’re the first to get there, and start throwing the punches. Our allies may sit, watch, and take stock of the situation. But we always shoot first and watch later.

We’re a superpower and we must act like one. But we must have responsibility with the might we got. Interfere in others’ fights, bully the weak, and this is what America will get in return. He would nod at his invisible arm and leg.

His buddies at the local bar would not agree, but Big Madison would not care either. They talked at his vast back, called him chicken when he was not around, and young John was in total confusion. He adored his Dad, more so with his heroics and the personal loss, but why is he talking peace now, when all he got to do is give his son a gun and let him go kill the VeeCees, like they all say?

Your Uncle Sam wanted me to lend a hand there, Lucy dolly! Too bad the commies wanted a leg as well! Dad would tell Mom, who might have been sent from her heavenly abode to spend some time on earth as the limbs that he lost. She would agree with him whenever he remarked that there would have been no greater disappointment for him as a parent than if John himself were to join the army or any other branch of the American military.

Suddenly Madison screeched to a halt at a red. Since he had been absorbed so completely on the radio story and had drifted back to moments of his childhood, he had not been focusing enough on his driving.

The stuck and stranded truck seemed to be blocking the entire road, creating a thicker traffic jam at the intersection.

Damn! This is going to take a while! He murmured.

Again he let his mind wander to what happened last night and what to happen today. He had a big presentation to give at the office, and had quite the wild evening out the night before. But right now he was running late. It’s all because of what happened last night. He wondered what the hell has happened, really. It was supposed to be a plain as hell, Boys’ Night-out, which it would have been, and it was impossible for him to refuse, when the guys suggested it after a rain checked-overworked Saturday evening.

It had started off like any other casual Sunday night at The Slurry, the Houston refinery equipment engineers’ nighttime pasture. There had been a few drinks and he was enjoying the time with his friends. Somehow the sailing had ended in a brawl. It had started with him becoming irritated by the way that a finger had been pointed at his friends accusingly by one of the club’s top customers. He had confronted the man asking him why he was pointing a finger at his friend to which the man had laughed.

Not too many people handle things well when they were getting laughed at. Madison was one of these people. He did not handle it well and what had meant to be a friendly debate quickly turned into a heated argument. It had started cruising with the usual yelling and pushing and had ended with punches, of the solid kind, being thrown on both sides. The club had erupted into a giant bowl of brawl when the fight broke out with multiple people joining in, throwing a myriad of punches, both liquid and solid kinds.

Madison had made it out without any problems because he got lucky. One of the waitresses had taken a liking to him and had helped him to hide even as the police were called in. When the officers arrived, she already helped tugging him in one of the storage closets. The officers arrested the others that were involved. Of course the club owner had hoped that the law would not be alerted. However, instead of respecting his wishes within his club, someone had called the police almost immediately, it was learnt later.

When the waitress, Celina, came back, she looked at Madison and told him, You owe me a date. She then helped him escape completely by escorting him out the backdoor of the club. Madison responded by giving her a long tight hug and then a very passionate tighter kiss. Before she was able to recover, the man disappeared into the night without even taking her phone number with him.

After he left the club, he went straight to a small drink-house where he was able to quietly get some drinks and reflect on the night. He sat there thinking about how he was disappointed that he had broken his own promise not to fight. The Houston refinery equipment engineers are a known group of people within a group, and all he wanted was to be a part of the inner circle. He wanted nothing more than just be successful in his profession, in his life, and he knew that fighting with people was not going to win him any brownie points in any industry.

After having a few drinks and then deciding that he had beat himself up enough he ended up back home. Although he did not really know where he was going at the time, it always seemed to work out for him.

This morning, Madison was trying hard to put the events of the evening before, well behind him, at least temporarily for the moment. He did not have time to think about Celina at 9 AM when his mind had to be focused on more serious issues. There were too many things on his plate and he knew that he needed to keep himself in check so that all the priority matters could be addressed.

Plus there were all of these events taking place in the world around him that were sure to make any man wonder what his future was going to hold. He worried that over time there was going to be a war waged on the United States since so many of its choices were causing violent harm to others. Not only the innocents of USA are affected, even the USA was responsible for the deaths of the innocents when they were bombing and attacking other countries.

Somehow the truck was removed and the clogging had cleared.

Madison was supposed to be giving a big presentation he had been assigned with. This was one day when he could not be bothered with insane traffic and the chance of being late. He had been the one who was awarded the task and he needed to impress and not mess up something this big. He did not want to disappoint anyone, and he hoped to have many more projects in his desired future.

He thought of Jake Collins, his neighbor and friend, who should be in Iraq now, fighting for his country.

The military of course put out those same statements that they always did. It was impossible to know if a woman or child was going to be behind the next attack and therefore we took the precautions and actions necessary to defend the freedom of the United States.

Madison had never been able to agree with these statements but for now he had to stop thinking about all of that and bring himself back to the current moment there in the office lobby where he was standing, waiting for the elevator. It was true that normally Madison would have taken the stairs but with his project materials and all the hangover-coffee this morning, it just did not seem like a good idea.

Nathan had discussed the project with him at length. He had instructed Madison with very clear and exhaustive instructions that there were specific details that the client was interested in hearing in this presentation. The clients had specifically asked for those important details to be included. Failure was not a word in Madison’s vocabulary so he was always at the top of the game. Impossible was another word that Madison did not allow to hinder his lifestyle. Both of these words were for losers, and as far as Madison was concerned, he thought of himself as a clear winner. Every time, anytime.

This morning he could not believe that he was running late. The traffic had really screwed him and now he was freaking out because he was worried about what was going to happen when he got there at the table, as the meeting was supposed to be in progress. He could only hope that something would happen so it would not be obvious to the client that he was coming in late.

By the time Madison arrived at the boardroom, it was a minute past for the presentation to start. He noticed that all of the others who were involved in the presentation were already gathered and were looking at him anxiously on his way to the boardroom, and did he miss a look with a hint of jealousy?

Luckily for Madison the clients had still not arrived so they had not seen that he was almost late. If they were on time, this was something that could have potentially damaged his reputation and ability to gain respect from them. Madison breathed a big sigh of relief as he waved to his boss.

Hi, boss!

John, why… you’re getting in just now? I specifically told you that you needed to be early this morning! said Nathan, his voice having an edge to it.

Madison stammered as he said, I know, I know, but the boys went out for some fun and I had to keep them company to see to it that no one gets hurt. This was his initial attempt and the thing that he had hoped to do best. However he had honestly failed miserably at it the previous evening, but he did not want to let Nathan know anything about what had happened.

Nathan was very close to Madison. The feeling was mutual. While Madison had a father figure out of Nathan, Nathan always thought of Madison as his own son.

And he noticed the small bruised area on Madison’s face. What the hell…you were fighting again? I thought I had told you to stop all of that already. Enough is enough and at some point you are going to have to stop playing big brother to your friends and their problems. If you do not then you will be the one that ends up in the hospital, or worse, in the morgue.

Madison tried to defend his own honor and his own choice of getting into a fight the night before. It is not really something that I should just let happen. Last night it was needed and I had to interfere. Besides they were the ones to start things, it was not me this time. Look at me; I am talking to you now and where are they? It is not my fault that they ended up in the positions that they ended up in.

Nathan looked at him and said nothing. He was just recollecting what another mutual friend has once told him about the handsome MIT top-of-the-class graduate engineer who was standing in front of him, like a streaked-out street kid, albeit in an Armani.

In all probabilities John Madison was a lucky man. His features were perfect and girls were instantly attracted to him. Once they were drawn to him his charm was there and he was able to prove to them that he was more than just a handsome face. He had the brains that went with the looks. In all honesty, he was the type of man that had everything that a woman could