"You'll have to excuse us if we have a bit of a problem with your word."
"Captain, I understand your sarcasm, and that's why I will ignore it for now. It was not my desire to harm one of your crew, but you forced my hand. I had no time to spend negotiating with you about our plans, so I had to demonstrate just how serious I was...and am."
"Gentlemen. We will give you more details once we are fully underway, but here is what you need to know for now. We have taken control of your boat, and by default, of you. We have a mission to carry out that involves many people, some of whom have been preparing for many years. You will meet more of our team as we move forward, while others will remain invisible to you. You need to know that not all of those involved in our mission will tell you so; some will appear to be completely unaware of what is happening, and will fulfill their roles by simply watching and listening; going about their days just doing their jobs...wherever they may be."
The leader paused.
"Now, we are adults here, and I realize there is simply no way we can follow you around all of the time and monitor everything you say and do while we are on this boat. But, before anyone gets the idea that they might do something to try and stop us, or to try and get a message to someone, remember that if you do that, the person you are communicating with may well be one of our friends. And the result of that action would be something I truly would hate to see happen."
"I have one other little gift to give you."
One of the leader's men handed each man a small piece of plastic.
"I need you to put these little things on your wrists. I'm sure you've seen things like this before; they're just like the bracelets you get in the hospital. Only ours are a little fancier. You see that thin little wire inside your bracelet? It becomes active as soon as you fasten the ends together."
The group mumbled and squirmed.
"Oh, there is nothing to worry about, they won't harm you. They just work as a small antenna. Every few minutes each bracelet sends a signal to announce that it is still here. As long as you are onboard the boat, your signals will keep everything running smoothly. However, if anyone chooses to leave the boat, or to do something foolish like removing your bracelet, your signal will not be received; and, well, that would be an unfortunate thing."
"If it helps, you will also notice that my friends and I each wear a bracelet. This is a little insurance to see that, if anyone had an idea to do something brave, like throw one of us overboard, it would not be the best path to take. Does everyone understand?"
After a pause and a glance around the room, the Captain sighed audibly, "Ok, we get it, you've made your point. So just what the hell are we supposed to do now?"
"Well Captain, you do whatever you would be doing if I was not here. As I understand things, you will be picking up some barges to move up the river; so I suggest you have everyone focus on their jobs to get that done. Those of you we so rudely woke from your off watch sleep, please just go back to bed. And why don't you all take your little photographs with you as my gift, a little memento of some of the truly important things in our lives."
"And oh, one last thing, to stress something that your Captain hasn't told you yet. From this point on, no one is to go aft of the boat beyond this room; no one. This is for your own safety, so I must insist that you comply."
A deckhand looked up, "So just how are we supposed to work the barges we have to pull?"
"You will push your loads upriver this trip, so there is no need to worry about that."
The Captain turned to the leader, "What you may not understand is that whether we pull or push a load depends on how many barges we have and what's inside them, and we never know that until we get our orders, and those are always changing. Unless you are also in charge of giving us our tow orders now too."
The leader smiled, "Captain, I do understand. You can trust me. You and your crew will not need to go aft of this room during our mission. Now, let's all get back to work."
Chapter 4
Frank Maddox, the Pilot and second in command, was in his chair in the pilothouse, staring at the river. The Captain was sitting on the bench behind him, looking back and forth from the window to the photo in his hand. Over the past half hour, they had several ideas for retaking control of their boat, but each one fell apart as they thought it through. They had received new orders to pick up loads below New Orleans. It wasn't a normal trip, but not much else had been normal that night.
The pilothouse door opened, and the leader walked in as if he did it every day.
"Hello gentlemen, I'm glad to find you together. I want to tell you a bit more about our mission before the doctor arrives; I'm sure you have questions."
He paused and smiled, "And I'm sure you've had time to come up with several great ideas for throwing me off of this boat too, haven't you? But since we're still here, I'm guessing we've done a good job of avoiding that outcome? I don't blame you at all, really. But, I am hoping that after I explain things, you will understand that what we are doing is really a good thing. I don't expect you to fully buy-in, but perhaps it will make the next several days move more smoothly."
The Captain turned from the window, "If you're expecting to come in here and have us..."
"Captain, all that I expect is for you to follow instructions and drive your boat. But, please give me the courtesy to explain why we are here. How you respond to that information is completely up to you." He smiled, "Within reason, of course."
"Gentlemen, what would you say was the number one problem facing our nation today? I mean if you could identify one thing that has done more to harm the people of our nation, and perhaps the entire world, what would that one thing be?"
The Captain and Pilot exchanged glances, "Oh hell,” Frank said, “I don't know. You want me to say something like illegal aliens or terrorists, or gays, or liberals, or something like that, is that it? Is that what this is all about? Another protest of some kind?"
"Frank, please, give us more credit than that. Those things are the issues of people who want to fight about things they can never really change. They enjoy the process of protesting; it makes them feel they are doing something, but it will never really change anything."
"Let me ask this instead; have either of you ever lost something? I mean something of real value to you; something that was so important to you, you didn't know if you could survive that loss? Captain, I know that you understand what I am saying."
After a moment of silence, the Captain said, "Ok, yeah, I lost a man on a boat once; Frank was there. He tripped over a line, fell into the water and was caught between the barge and the lock wall; it all happened so fast, there was nothing we could do," the Captain's voice drifted off.
"Yes, Captain, that was a tragic accident. But what if it was not an accident?"
"But it was..."
"Yes, of course, it was, absolutely; and you feel terrible about it almost twenty-five years later. But what if, just imagine, what if that man's death was not an accident, but happened because someone did something that caused it to happen? How would you feel then?"
"You mean what if someone pushed him?"
"Or what if, and this is just an example, what if your man fell from the barge because someone in the home office made the decision that if you didn't take the time to collect all of the lines each time you entered or left a lock, you could get through the lock fifteen percent faster and save the company money? So, he tripped on a line left out because of a rule created by someone sitting at a desk, not on a boat. In fact, that person had never set foot on a boat but was focused on making more money for the company. How would you feel?"
"Well, honestly, I'd probably feel a hell of a lot better, because I would have found that son of a bitch and killed him myself."
"Exactly! If someone was doing something that was risking the lives of your crew, you would do something; because you are the Captain, and because you are a good man."
The Captain stared at the floor.
All eyes were locked on the floor; the only sound was that hum from the engines.
"So while that company’s leaders sat in their offices receiving their paychecks and living lives that were untouched by their actions and decisions, my...my...world, like those of thousands of others, died."
"Captain, there is a boat approaching port side," the radio announced.
The leader opened the door and said, "Ah, yes. Right on time. This will be one of our supply boats coming out now. I need to go see that everything is going smoothly. But, there is nothing to concern yourself with gentlemen, it is just business as usual."
As the leader closed the pilothouse door behind him, Charlie said, "Business as usual. Right."
Chapter 5
"Frank, what do you make of all this?"
"Hell Charlie, I was just sitting here thinking about that night up near Beardstown when we almost took out the old railroad bridge. With the high water, I still don't know how you got through there. But I remember we both said it was probably the wildest ride either of us would ever take. I'm beginning to think we might have been wrong."
"Hah, yeah, that was a hell of a night. To be honest with you, I don't know how I got through there either; sometimes you just have to stop thinking and do what you do. That time it worked. This time, I'm not so sure."
Frank nodded his head. "This guy just seems to be pissed off and probably has good reasons to be. But I just don't see how it fits here; on a towboat. What the hell is going on."
They heard him whistling before the pilothouse door opened, "All is going just fine down there. You have a good crew on this boat."
Neither man responded.
"Gentlemen, my friends and I believe that we are living in a nation, and a world, that is controlled by people who have so much wealth that they have no understanding of what life is like for the rest of us. They run organizations that decide how we will live, and how and when we will die. Our politicians make grand gestures like publicly accepting salaries of one dollar a year, and then go on to enjoy the luxuries of their family's investment savings, million dollar homes and hidden accounts. These so-called leaders care more about the risk to their dollars than about the risks to their people. And don't tell me that we have rich politicians because we chose them; they have created a system that is open to only the rich; they control that as well."
The Captain and Pilot were silent.
"Gentlemen, these people need to be stopped. We must remove their ability to control the decisions that impact our lives. And we can't focus on individual issues or individual people. The problem is far larger than that. Remove one person, one issue or one company, and another takes its place. That, gentlemen, is why we are on your boat."
Silence.
"What if, just what if, they were to experience what we experience every day? What if their families and safe offices were faced with the things we have faced? What if they had to spend their day focusing on their losses, rather than their gains? That is what our mission is about. To see that those who have enjoyed their safe lives in control of the world, lose that control."
"On a towboat in the middle of the Mississippi River?" The Captain blurted it out as if he had just been told that pigs could fly.
"Yes Captain, on this boat. Exactly. We are going to use this boat to change how this nation operates. We are going to break the connections the wealthy and powerful use to keep their wealth and power and retake control of our own lives. And we start that here by splitting the country in half."
There was a brief pause.
"Wait," the Captain was out of his chair, "splitting the country in half?
"It is exactly what it sounds like. Have either of you heard of something called an RDD?"
No response.
"RDD stands for radiological dispersion device; in simple terms, an explosive device that contains materials that are highly radioactive that are spread around when the bomb explodes, making that area unsafe for humans for a very long time. It’s sometimes called a dirty bomb."
"You're planning to launch a nuke from this boat?" Charlie surprised himself with the volume of that question.
"No, no Captain, nothing like that. We don't want to do that kind of damage. All we want to do is disrupt things; we don't want to harm people; that's what we are trying to stop."
Silence.
"Our devices use traditional explosives, things like C4. Don't ask me for much more about that because I don't understand that stuff at all; that's all being handled by the doctor. But, those elements create the explosion that will spread the other materials. And wherever the radioactive materials land, those places will be dirty for fifteen to twenty years, maybe longer."
The Captain's face was tight, "So just how is that not going to harm people? This makes no sense at all."
"No one needs to be harmed, trust me. I would not be here if that was a part of our mission. Let me explain. As we move upriver, we will be placing our devices beneath each highway and railway bridge along the river. When all are in place, they will be detonated."
"So your plan is to blow up bridges," came from the Pilot, "they'll just rebuild them."
"You’re forgetting the dirty part, Frank. We don't need to damage them. All we need to do is make the bridges dirty, and to create a dirty space around them that will take a huge amount of time and money to clean up."
A new look came onto the Captain's face.
"No gentlemen, it’s not about blowing things up, it’s about splitting this nation in half by creating a dead space right through the middle of it. Transportation will be stopped. Cities and industries will be uninhabitable. It is about disrupting a system that serves the wealthy and uses the rest of us as it chooses."
"But to do that,” Charlie said, “you'll need dozens of these devices."
"Twenty-seven will do the job. We will target the highway and railway bridges along the river. Just twenty-seven."
The Captain shook his head, and the sharpness returned to his voice, "But I don't see how you can say that you aren't going to harm anyone. You're placing these things right where people..."
"Yes, we are placing them where they could do the most damage. However, no one needs to be hurt. You see, when all of our devices are in place, we will then notify the media of our plan. We will give twelve hours, notice before the devices are used. That will allow time for anyone in the areas to move safely away."
The Pilot joined in, "So, it’s basically extortion; you give the country twelve hours to meet your demands, or you will explode the bombs!"
"Oh no Frank, not at all. There are no demands, that does not work. Our devices will explode and will create the dead zone; that is the purpose of our mission. We want to give everyone time to safely move from the area before the devices are used, but the devices will be used."
The leader opened the door and stepped out onto the gangway. The two men looked up from the floor, "Well shit Frank,” Charlie said, “I gues
s this makes that night at Beardstown look pretty damn tame now, doesn't it?"
The leader stuck his head back into the room, "Captain, may I see you downstairs, please? I need to update you on some details.”
"Sure, I was ready for a refill anyway." The Captain drained the cold coffee from his cup and walked out the door into the morning breeze.
Chapter 6
Someone new was standing in the galley. At first glance, the Captain thought he looked rather nerdy, and nervous. But what struck him most were the man's eyes. They had the look of someone who wasn’t seeing the things in the galley but was looking at things that were someplace else. He thought they were crazy eyes, and he had to admit that the guy made him really nervous.
"Let me guess; this must be the doctor you've been telling us about."
"Very good, Captain, please allow me to introduce you; this is indeed the doctor. His associates are setting up their equipment now so he can begin his work."
The doctor seemed to slowly become aware of them and stepped toward the Captain with an outstretched hand. But the eyes were still not here. As he looked toward the Captain, he was looking through him, not at bones and arteries, but someplace about seven miles behind him.
"I am very happy to meet you, Captain," the doctor said as he shook the captain’s hand.
The words came out just as you would expect if you saw the eyes.
“I do trust that our presence will not inconvenience you and your crew too greatly."
The Captain wanted to reach out his free hand and tap the doctor on the head just to see if it would echo. As calm and together as the leader seemed to be, this doctor-guy was the direct opposite; the kind of guy who might shake your hand and then turn around and piss on your leg, and then offer you a towel with the picture of a puppy on it to clean up the floor.
"I am sure we will find a way to do our jobs," Captain Charlie Graff said, in place of, "Holy shit, we're screwed!"
Disruption: A River Of Secrets And Betrayal Page 2