Games of the Powerful
Page 58
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President Jackson rearranged his anteroom to meet the needs of an old-fashioned war room. No one used these rooms anymore especially with the advancement of holographic communications but the old saying, desperate times calls for desperate measures so a war room it will be. He had his desk and easy chairs removed to make room for three large situation tables and a couple straight back chairs. Many questioned his actions including his wife and kids but he was secretively evasive. He had to admit he was more than a little concerned about the breach in security. Firstly, he needed to find out who is involved, and then how far it has progressed into his government. With the recent events of the mall massacre fresh in the minds of many thanks to the incessant coverage by the holographic news media and their characterization of it, he knew the how, but the question of whom, is one of the many questions that he desperately needed an answers to. How far does it go and how does he know whom to trust beside himself? Now I am getting paranoid he thought to himself looking at the giant map of the Western Hemisphere. Breaking his chain of thought, Scott walked in with a large box in his arms.
“Mr. President I have some of the information you requested. It appears bodies have been found by the authorities from all over fitting the description we have from the ones found in postwar New York,” Scott said setting the box on a small table. The president peered down in the box and found stacks of printouts of the victim’s identity. “Walker you asked me to get this information the old-fashion way so I did some detective work and went to see an old college classmate of mine and asked him to do a news media search of victims matching ours and here is some of it and I think there will be more. I had him start with the most influential countries first and work his way down. This way we can mark the maps to show what countries have been infiltrated.”
“Good work Scott I knew you could do it. Why don’t we get started mapping it so we can get a picture of how bad it really is?”
Reaching in the box, he took out one of the printouts quickly perusing the first page. They are standard dossier type showing a color picture of the victim in the top right hand corner and the basic name and address information in the top center section of the form. The next section lists school information from kindergarten on with not much listed there beyond high school. The next section down in the document is the criminal history portion filled with a long list of minor charges and convictions. Turning to the second page, Walker looked at the section for employment that would normally read like a résumé but this one lacked much of a job history. Scanning the document, he noticed the “Other” section where any other activities, hobbies, volunteer work, and sports played is noted and again the section is blank. The last section is for retinal scan data and an entire right handprint of the victim. On this form, the section is complete because the person had a criminal history listed in the previous section of this document. Turning back to the first page, he read the name at the top, Engelbert Kennard Payne sighing disheartened.
“Who is that one about?” Scott asked quizzically.
“It is Mrs. Payne’s son. It is a shame he died so young and in such a brutal way.”
“Mr. President we will catch this creature and somehow destroy it,” Scott said with more confidence than he truly felt.
They spent most of the tedious morning marking the locations on the giant maps, ultimately showing a concerted effort by the enemy to methodically place as many of its agents in key positions in government all over Earth. It looked like an invasion plan unfolding before their eyes. Sitting next to each other in the straight back chairs too stunned to move trying to grasp the enormity of the situation, the looks of concern on their faces told the entire story.
“Scott a word of this can’t get out to the public. No one is to know about this, is that understood?” the president asked in a no-nonsense tone that Scott knew all too well.
“Yes sir Mr. President what is here stays here. I will see my friend and get the rest of the data from him as quickly as possible,” Scott replied hurriedly.
“Scott, please stay away from the normal systems on this. We will need to find other ways to get information. I wish I knew where my best agents are and at the least what has happened to them. If anybody could help, it would be them.”