Laura 02 The God Code

by Anton Swanepoel

  “Who is this?” Jack snaps his fingers in the air as he answers the call. A technician immediately starts tracing the call, understanding that it is a breach of security, and an unauthorized call to the number. The call can also not be a wrong number, as the phone number is part of a special list of numbers that contains one extra digit than normal cell phone numbers.

  “Put your boss on the phone.”

  “Which boss?” Jack is stalling, giving the operator a chance to complete the trace. In the back of his mind, something tells him he knows the voice, he has heard it before.

  “The President, Jack, put him on the phone, he is not answering his.”

  “Who is this and how did you come by this number?”

  “Quit stalling, I know you are tracing the call. You can still do that while I speak to the President.”

  “Do you know who you are speaking to?”

  “An asshole.”

  “I am the Secretary of Homeland Security.”

  “As I said, an asshole, now put your boss on the line.”

  Jack is about to reply when the technician doing the trace snaps his fingers in the air, indicating that he has completed the trace. Immediately he punches some keys on his computer and the main monitor the President looked at earlier, displays the location that the call is originating from. Jack’s jaw drops.

  “You are in Columbia, at the airport. What is going on there? Who are you?”

  “Name’s Victor, Jack. Remember me?”

  A cold chill runs down Jack’s back. He wished Victor to be dead by now.

  “Victor, I thought-” Jack’s words get drowned out by the sound of a siren unexpectedly activating in the room, emitting a sharp high-pitched sound. All the monitors’ backgrounds in the room immediately turn from a soft green to red. On the main monitor, big lettering in black flashes “Warning”.

  “What the hell is going on! Turn off that noise!” President Abraham covers his ears as he screams. A technician deactivates the alarm, causing the President to give a sigh of relief.

  “Do I have your attention now Jack?”

  “Jack, what the hell is going on and who are you talking to?” Abraham is now standing, scanning the room, trying to make out what tripped the security alarms.

  “It is Victor, Sir. He wants to talk to you. He is in Columbia, at the airport that got attacked.” Jack holds out the phone to Abraham as he speaks.

  Just as Abraham takes the phone, head security technician Matthew speaks. “Sir, all our nuclear missiles just went active! We have lost total control of all our nuclear missiles! We are locked out!” Matthew’s face is white from shock.

  “What? You must be mistaken!” Abraham puts the phone to his ear then continues. “Victor, I hear you are in Columbia. I know about the army, but I cannot help you, you are a wanted man, and we have a problem of our own.”

  “I know. You lost control of your nukes. Quite a large bunch, much more than you should have, you know.”

  “What, how the hell do you know this, are you involved in this?”

  “Actually, I am the one controlling your nukes now. Remember the myth of a program that can remotely control all your nukes? Well, it is no myth. I have it, wanna trade?”

  Abraham slowly sits down in his chair before answering. “Are you insane, launching nukes? You know we do not make deals with terrorists.”

  “Good thing I am not a terrorist, else I would not have saved your life last time we met. This is a business deal, a trade.”

  “What do you want Victor?”

  “There are a number of young women held prisoner as sex slaves in America. I want you to send the Seals and rescue them. They have only hours before they are killed.”

  “You threaten me with a nuclear holocaust to go rescue some women? You could have asked normally. I would have done it for you.”

  “The women I believe are held in Sector X.”

  Victor waits for the gravity of the situation to sink in, before continuing. “These are women from some of the men in Columbia. Marcos has taken them and sent them to America with the promise that they will have good jobs. However, he lied and intends to put them in the sex market underground.”

  “Marcos who has amassed an army and is now getting ready to take over Columbia?”

  “Yes Sir, the same one. Now you understand why I need a little more persuasion than a simple please.”

  “Victor, I am grateful for you saving my life. However, Sector X is totally controlled by the drug traffickers. I will need to send in air support and tanks just to get in. Then searching for the women in 20 city blocks, you know how long that will take? They will kill the women before we get to them.”

  “They will not kill them unless Marcos instructs them to.”

  “The moment we attack they will call him for instructions.”

  “Not if he is dead.”

  Abraham is about to reply when suddenly Matthew yells, “We have a launch! We have a missile launch!” Everyone in the room looks in panic at the main monitor that shows a map of the United States of America. All over the map are red dots, indicating active nuclear missiles. One dot is flickering, indicating a launch.

  “Victor, what the hell are you doing?”

  “Making a statement, and solving a problem at the same time. Are you going to rescue the women?”

  “We have no way of knowing where they are Victor.”

  “Trace all calls coming from America to this number in Columbia, 555-9834. It is Marcos’s personal cell and the men who have the women called him.”

  A technician enters the phone number in the system and within seconds a phone number is displayed on his monitor. Quickly he activates a trace and within 10 seconds he has a lock.

  “I have a lock on the number Sir. They are in an old abandoned factory.”

  “Victor, you cannot nuke someone just to make a point. Think of all the innocent people and the radiation.”

  “You are very ill-informed about your arsenal, and they are not innocent people.”

  “Jack, where is that nuke headed?” Abraham is clearly frustrated.

  “Sir, the coordinates given to the missile are the exact coordinates in Columbia where the rebel army is currently at. And Sir, it is not a nuke. It is a tactical neutron bomb. It leaves no radiation fallout, and will not destroy equipment, only the men Sir.” Jack stands up and walks to the technician who traced the cell phone’s location as he speaks.

  “How long before impact?”

  “Sir, that is a new mark10-5 missile. It will reach its target in under half an hour.”

  “Jack, get me back control of my nukes.” Abraham takes a deep breath and then puts the cell phone back to his ear before continuing. “Victor, stop this, you cannot kill all those people.”

  “Actually, it is you. You declared war on drugs and women traffickers. You are just making a statement to the world.”

  “I did not launch that missile! You did.”

  “Yeah, and you are going to tell the world you lost control of your nukes and did not fire the missile; I think not. Finding and rescuing the women will go very nicely with sorting out that bunch of killers, showing the world that you care and have the backbone to protect the innocent. I mean, is it not what America the big brother is there for. Protecting the small countries whose people are overpowered by drug-and warlords?” Victor is smiling as he speaks.

  “Sir, 20 seconds and I will have control back of the system.” Chris, head of cyber security and in command of protecting the Situation Room’s internet system, continues to rapidly type commands on his terminal as he speaks. He has been actively working on re-establishing control of the system since Victor activated the nuclear missiles.

  “It seems your plan is not going as you thought it would Victor, you lose. And now you are a wanted man and have used up any favors from me.” Abraham gives a sigh of relief after speaking.

  “Five seconds Sir, almost got-aargh” Suddenly Chris’s terminal short circuits and
the monitor blows up in his face, sending pieces of glass flying across the room. The shock topples him from his chair and he comes to land hard on the ground. Suddenly an alarm sounds again.

  “What the hell happened now, and turn that alarm off!” Abraham looks from one person to the next. No one seems to know what happened.

  “It is the system Sir.” Jack nods to another member of staff, who deactivates the alarm before continuing. “The system thinks that Victor is you. Thus, any attempt to take over control is seen as an attempt at taking control from you. The system protected itself by sending a massive electrical charge to the terminal, destroying it.”

  “Then switch the system off.” Abraham stands up as he speaks.

  “Sir, that will mean we will lose all defense capabilities, all communications to all our forces, and all video feeds and advanced warning systems. We would be blind.”

  “I do not care, do it, stop that missile!”

  “No Sir, you cannot.” Chris is slowly getting up from the floor with the help of two other staff. One already took the first aid box from a drawer, neatly stowed in a cabinet near the exit. Chris has multiple shallow cuts on his face and his colleague is busy cleaning the wounds.

  “And why can we not do it?” Abraham is now getting very frustrated.

  “Sir, the system has a failsafe. If the nukes are activated by you, as the system thinks in this case, if it loses connection with you, it will automatically launch all the missiles. Each missile silo is also independently controlled, thus if it loses connection with the system, it will automatically launch. It was put in place in the unlikely situation that your guard is overpowered and you killed, or the White House is totally destroyed or compromised. It was supposed to guarantee that no one would ever attack the White House.”

  “Victor, will you stop the missile if I send men to rescue the women?” Abraham’s voice sounds tired.

  “No, but I will not launch another missile. You have three hours, call me back when you have the women.” Victor hangs up the call.

  President Abraham slowly looks up at the large monitor showing the progress of the missile.

  “Jack, can we shoot it down?”

  “We have nothing that can track or even catch it, it is actually a prototype Sir.”

  “How many of those do we have?”

  “Ninety nine more Sir, they are all active.”

  “What is the blast radius of those missiles?”

  “They are what we call dial a nuke Sir. You can change the detonation power in flight. From the data it is sending to my monitor it is currently set to a blast area of about two miles.”

  “Get me a Seal team and go save those women.”

  “Sir?”

  “You heard me. Matthew, get me my Head of Public Relations, we need to prepare a speech to explain this situation.” Both men nod then pick up their phones and start making calls.

  ***

  Laura looks curiously at Victor as he places his phone on the table. Patrick just shakes his head, then comments, “You are truly something.”

  “What now Victor?” Jose is busy calling his father to inform him of the developments as he speaks.

  “I am going to have a word with the Pope. I will need the runway cleared and access to your father’s airplane. Laura, I will need you to help me with this.”

  “Are you going to kill him?” Laura has a concerned look on her face as she looks at Victor.

  “If I have to, to have this kill order off our heads, it is him or us.”

  “I cannot help you kill the Pope.” Laura is looking down as she comments.

  Slowly Victor walks up to her, then softly replies, “Laura, I will not harm him in any way unless I deem it absolutely necessary. If he wants us dead, then he is involved in something that will hurt a lot more people, for why else would he want to silence us? In that case, he has broken the trust of the people he is supposed to serve, and cannot be Pope anymore. I will first just talk to him, and if it is a case of miscommunication, then we can come to an agreement and he can have the scrolls.”

  “I really hope he will listen, and that it is just a big misunderstanding.”

  “Me too, it will be sad to kill a man whose life I have saved on more than one occasion.”

  The comment stuns all in the room, and before anyone can reply, Victor walks toward the door and exits the room. Just as he exits the room, the building starts shaking slightly. The distant sound of a massive explosion follows seconds later. All know that the tactical neutron bomb struck its target, obliterating Marcos’s entire force. The top men in the drug trade and women trafficking now vaporized.

  ***

  Seal Commander Ernest looks at his men, twelve in total. Some from his command, Seal team seven, and some from other seal teams. The team was put together in a rush from anyone they could scramble in short notice. He has been a seal commander for three years now, and has served as a navy seal for seven years; he knows a clusterfuck when he sees one. Ernest has no orders save to get on this airplane immediately, and that worries him. He was not even allowed to get his gear.

  Ernest is still dressed in civilian clothes, sporting blue denim pants, a white t-shirt, and brown boots. He had been in town when he got the call to immediately return to base, where on his return, he was taken directly to the airplane, 10 men already waiting in it. The other two men arrived not long after him. As soon as they were aboard, the airplane took off, for where, he had no idea.

  Slowly, he takes out his wallet and removes a picture of his wife and two little girls. He loves them dearly. The thought of Shayna waiting for him with the kids got him through many hard missions, got him to keep going and get back home. She has short dark blond hair and light blue eyes. Just over 5 feet and medium build. Although she has a light scar running over her left cheek where her 6 month old dog accidentally bit her when she was 16, she is beautiful. Ernest runs his fingers over the picture, touching her face, running his finger gently over the place he knows the scar is at.

  She had been playing in the back yard with the dog, a Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy, brought in from Africa by one of her dad’s friends. Whilst playing, she accidentally tripped and fell on top of the puppy, hurting it. The puppy instinctively tried to get out from under her, and while wriggling its head from side to side, one of his razor-sharp teeth cut into Shayna’s cheek, causing the scar. Her dad immediately wanted to shoot the dog, but she saw the sadness in the puppy’s eyes, as if it knew it had hurt her and was sorry. She begged her dad not to hurt the dog, and he eventually agreed, but kept the dog tied up to a tree for two years. Shayna visited the dog daily, and named it “Lionheart, due to the dog’s soft nature around her and reputation as a lion killer. The two of them became very good friends, and when her dad finally let Lionheart loose, now fully grown, Lionheart did not want to let Shayna out of his sight for a moment.

  Her dad was at first skeptical, knowing the ferocity and the legend of Rhodesian Ridgebacks, also known as The Lion Hound. Some African farmers used them to hunt lions. They are known to be capable of taking down a lion when there are two or more dogs together, but even one dog will take on a lion if its master is threatened. Exactly what the two muggers found out one evening when Shayna was walking back from her work at the local Wal-Mart. The dog went directly for each of their throats, ripping them out with one bite with such speed that Shayna could not stop him. Luckily for her, both men were armed with guns and had a history of rape, and were also wanted for murder, and Lionheart came out a hero.

  “What is the mission Sir?”

  The voice next to Ernest shocks him, and he almost drops the picture he is holding. Ernest replaces the picture before replying, “I do not know Sam. We will have to wait and see.”

  Suddenly the airplane starts to lose altitude, and the pilot’s voice comes over the intercom. “Prepare for landing in 10 minutes.”

  Ernest fastens his seat belt and makes sure that there are no loose objects on the floor around him. The res
t of the men do the same. No idea where they are, all they know is that a mission is never put together in such a hurry unless it is very important.

  The airplane taxies to a hangar where the pilot announces that they can exit. Each man gets out of his seat and exits the airplane in the order they sat in.

  Ernest is the last to exit the airplane, and as he walks down the steps, he realizes that they are on a military base. He does not recognize the base. However, he does recognize the airplane parked 200 feet from him, being fueled and readied for takeoff, a C130, modified for troop deployment in populated areas. The other men are already standing in line in front of a General, and Ernest takes his position at the end. He is about to salute when the General turns on his heels and walks away, barking an order over his shoulder. “Follow me.”

  The men look at each other, and then follow the General to a door leading to a hangar.

  “Wow, look at that boys, now that is pure beauty.” Sam whistles loudly.

  A variety of weapons and ammunition are displayed on the tables, including a number of other tactical gear, such as field radios, night-vision devices, body armor, parachutes, and combat clothing. Sam quickly rushes over and strokes a Beretta XM500 .50-caliber sniper rifle before returning and taking a seat.

  “Have a seat.” The General points to a row of seats, situated in front of a number of tables and waits until they are all seated before continuing.

  “Gentlemen, I am General Byron Franklin. I know you are wondering why you are here, so let’s cut straight to it. There are an unknown number of women being held in an abandoned hotel in Sector X. Your mission is to sneak in and secure the women, then extract them.” General Franklin points to a monitor standing on a table that shows a map of the area and a red dot indicating the position of the building.

  “Sir, you mean for us to enter downtown X, you know that area is totally controlled by the drug trade and mafia, no one goes in there. What support do we have?” Ernest looks directly at the General as he speaks.