Disruption: A River Of Secrets And Betrayal

by J. B. Jamison

  The leader walked out one pilothouse door as Charlie stepped out the other to allow the nausea to do its thing. As he eased back into his chair, he felt a moment of relief as he thinks how lucky it was to find all this out before they got to the sandbar. But another thought came into his mind. What if this hadn't been luck? What if it was the leader's warped way of saying he knew what was being planned, and was giving Charlie the opportunity to stop it? But how did he know? Was the pilothouse bugged? Or, what if, God help them, someone in his little group of crew members talked? And if so, who might it have been?

  As Frank came in to relieve Charlie for his midnight watch, Charlie looked at him, told him to let everyone know the plan was off, and walked to his cabin. He picked up one of the navigational maps from his table and threw it against the wall.

  Chapter 58

  "Don't worry, it’s just coffee." He saw the question in his grandson's eyes.

  "Ok, yeah. I have to admit I was wondering", the younger man grinned as he took his first sip.

  "You can relax. There will be no more surprises; not like that anyway."

  "So no more risk of having my brain fried or something like that?"

  The older man looked down at the table as he took a drink.

  "What?", his grandson asked.

  "Ronnie, there are no more tests like I said. But, you do need to understand something about the compound in that first drink. The antidote neutralized it, as I told you, so there is nothing to be concerned about. However, that compound is also designed to have a very specific impact on the human immune system."

  "What?"

  "That compound causes the immune system to develop a sensitivity to a second substance; a specifically designed compound that has very little chance of being introduced into the body through any normal activities."

  "Ok."

  "But if a learner or role keeper were to take any steps that might be a threat..."

  The sentence finished itself as the two men looked at each other.

  "But how? I mean, does that mean someone is going to be following me around listening to everything I say, and reading what I write? What about in my own home? Have I given up privacy completely?"

  "Ronnie, what people don't understand is that there is no such thing as privacy; not here, not at home, not anywhere. Like we said before, everything is connected to everything else; the only thing that truly separates them is time."

  "Because of technology."

  "It has always been true, technology has simply reduced the amount of time involved. Something that once might have been safely secreted for decades now becomes revealed in hours or minutes. But it’s not about technology, it’s about the fact that if you are willing to wait, to allow time to create the connections needed, you can accomplish things that, in the short-term, appear impossible."

  "Ok, so the idea is that if I were to change my mind about what we are doing, and say something to someone about our work, somebody would eventually find out and give me the stuff that would trigger my immune system to stop me. Is that the idea?"

  "Well, there's more to it than that, but yes, that would be one way to describe it. But again, there is absolutely nothing to be concerned about as long as we fulfill our role. "

  "Ok, and about that; our role, I still don't understand what it is that we actually do. You said we create disruptions and distractions; but what does that mean, really?"

  "It means that sometimes we need to take steps to influence how things go in the world. We see things unfolding in a way that could be dangerous if allowed to continue, so we take steps to somehow distract people, disrupt the process and stop the dangerous thing."

  "Like by starting a war? Or killing someone? Is that part of it? Something like a World War, or Kennedy, or the Trade Center? That wasn't because of our group, was it?"

  "No, no, nothing that direct. Doing something like that would put us at too great of risk of being discovered. Besides, wars and things like assassinations and random terrorist attacks are short-term attempts at solving problems. They are carried out by people who are seeking immediate results and aren't willing to do the things necessary to bring about real change. They are usually people who are serving some personal agenda; attempting to establish some narrow religious or political philosophy, or get revenge on some other group. They're short-term acts, and most always have short-term results. We always think long-term."

  Grandpa stopped to sip from his cup.

  "Now, it is true that sometimes the distractions we create can result in someone attempting to carry out a direct act somewhere in the world. That's why it might appear that we are involved in those types of horrible things. And sometimes, we must end up creating distractions for those as well. In fact, tomorrow I'll tell you about something we are dealing with like that right now. But right now I need to go and take care of something."

  "Something about the group?"

  "What group Ronnie?" He smiled at his grandson as he walked toward the door.

  Chapter 59

  "Good morning Agent Graham," the caller ID was blank, "I hope you had a good night's rest?"

  Emily connected the voice.

  "Just fine thanks, now, just who are you?"

  "It’s Steve. You remember; we met yesterday. Did things work out with Alex?"

  "Work out? Well, we found him at the address you gave me, but I guess you already know that. What is this all about and..."

  "Good, yes, I'm glad I was able to help you with that. You have a lot to do yet, and I'll do my best to help you out when I can."

  "Look, Steve, you need to..."

  "Agent Graham, please, you're just going to have to be patient with me here. As I said, we are on the same team. And for now, we need to do things carefully, and right now that means keeping it simple. I just wanted to call this morning to talk about Alma."

  "Alma Hendricks? What about her?"

  "I wanted to assure you that Alma had nothing to do with anything more than she told you; helping Alex by changing those traffic reports."

  "How do you know what she told us?"

  "She is a dear lady, and has been through so much with her husband, and now her own health issues; I would hate to see her be put through any more difficulty. She knows nothing more."

  "That's very nice of you, uh, Steve. But why should I believe what you say? How do I know you're not just trying to protect her for some reason?"

  "Yes, that is exactly what you should be asking; very good. I'm glad to see you are keeping your head in all this; it’s going to be important over the next few days."

  "The next few days? What is..."

  "Agent Graham, Emily, you can trust what I have told you about Alma. Alex was the key in the Arbel office; no one else there had any idea of what was going on. And at this point, there's nothing anyone there can do about what is happening."

  "Then who...?

  "I must go now. But before I do, I want to say two more things. First, as I told you yesterday at the hotel, we need more time to take care of this situation; at least another few of days. It is important that you make sure that no one does anything to try and stop that boat, or even interfere with its movement up the river."

  "I can't..."

  "Agent Graham, trust me on this. If anything is done to that boat, the results may be immediate, and profound. You must see to it that the boat is not interfered with until I let you know we are ready."

  "You're asking...?

  "No. I'm not asking; I'm telling. You cannot let anyone do anything to the boat. And the other thing; it is no use for you to try and trace our calls, or try something like grabbing a voiceprint to find me. We have seen to it that such things would be a waste of time, and you do not have time to waste."

  "So, let me get this straight. I'm supposed to leave Alma alone, and everyone else at the Arbel office. And I'm supposed to tell everyone to leave the boat alone too. So what do you expect us to do here; just sit back and let them keep putting those things in the w
ater? You know I can't do that."

  "What you need to do is focus on what is important right now. You have names: Shallenger and his grad students, the members of the boat crew, and now Alex. How are they connected? Why those people, on this boat? And I'll tell you what; I'll add one more name to your list: Dennis Bowers. I'll leave it to you to figure out where he fits."

  "Bowers? Who is..."

  "Enjoy your day, Agent Graham. We'll talk again soon."

  Click.

  Chapter 60

  "When are you coming back to New Orleans?" Lennie asked as Emily connected to the nine o'clock conference call. The call replaced the usual morning briefing and included just the two of them, Commander Reyes, Colonel Goodwin from the NRC, and Carrie Williamson from Behavioral.

  "It looks like I may be able to finish up here this morning. Why? What's up?"

  "There's a lot going on right now. We'll fill you in."

  "Ok, sure. I've got a couple of meetings and will head to the airport around noon."

  "The plane will be waiting. We looked at the update you sent this morning Em, so unless anyone has any questions about that, Commander Reyes, why don't you begin."

  "Sure thing. I have a couple of pieces of new information about the devices. First, the teams are still developing a temporary solution for securing the devices we've located, and any we find upriver. As we saw with the Grammercy device, these people have taken some pretty extreme measures to protect the devices, so we're cutting new ground here. We know the devices are sensitive to X-ray; that's what happened at Grammercy. We're also concerned that they react to movement. One thing we hadn't revealed yet was that we had a submersible drone in the water at Vicksburg as the boat passed there."

  "You mean the drone that sent the video?" Lennie asked.

  "No, that was in the air. We had a second one following the boat underwater; something we kept as our little secret until now. Since the water is so murky, it was listening rather than using visuals. When the device was dropped, the submersible stayed with it as it buried itself into the mud. And after a few minutes, there was a sound from the device."

  "What kind of sound?" Emily asked.

  "We were able to separate that sound from the other ambient noises in the water. It sounded like glass breaking."

  "Glass?" Lennie said, "What the heck?"

  "We believe it was the sound of a small glass container breaking, like something you would keep a liquid in. Like an acid."

  "I don't like where this is going," Emily said.

  "We believe it’s possible that when the device sinks into the mud and stops moving, a vial releases an acid to eat through some insulating material to activate a movement sensor. We’ve seen it done before, and if it is true, any movement of the devices could set them off."

  A moment of quiet on the line.

  "So, what do we do?" Lennie asked.

  "Ideally, we find a way to get our hands on one of these things before it gets put in the water, so we can look inside and really find out what's going on in there. But until then, we look for ways to secure the devices without moving them. Its not an approach we like to take, we would rather get them out of there, but it may be our only option for now."

  "How would you do that?" Lennie asked.

  "The goal would be to somehow see to it that, even if the devices blow, they can't do the kind of damage they can do right now. One option might be to do like the Soviets did at Chernobyl and build some kind of cover to drop over the devices, something strong enough to contain most or all of a detonation."

  "We agree that is the best option at this point" Colonel Goodwin added. "Based on what we saw at Grammercy, a reinforced concrete container might do it. But we don't know the true potential of the explosion since the Grammercy device had been damaged. And as for how quickly we can do it; we have to build the things, transport them to the devices, and then be very careful to make sure that putting them in place doesn't cause the mud to shift. Our people are bringing in a prototype container now, and we're working with Commander Reyes and the ARG to setup a test site just below Grammercy. We hope to see how much space we need to leave to avoid creating any kind of movement for the device. We should have some results by tonight."

  "You said you had a couple of things?" Lennie said.

  "We have reports back on that third canister we found. It is, in fact, a bioweapon."

  "Christ!" someone said.

  "The reason it is designed to resist heat is that it contains Bacillus anthracis."

  "Anthrax?" Emily asked?

  "Yes. It’s a Tier 1 agent and adds an entirely new dimension to what we are dealing with here. The CDC is sending in a team to deal with that side of things."

  "So this is some kind of double attack then," Emily said, "both radiation and anthrax. Who are these people and what the hell are they trying to do?"

  A brief silence before Reyes spoke, "Well, I guess that's what we're counting on you finding out for us Agent Graham, while we do our best to take their devices out of action."

  "Thinking about that," Emily said, "who all knows about these two new pieces of information so far; the movement trigger and anthrax?"

  "I guess just us right now." Lennie said, "I mean, some of our people know the bits they've been working on of course, but we're the only ones with all the pieces."

  "I recommend we keep it that way for a while," Emily said,

  "I've not even had time to brief Dasilva on this yet," Lennie said.

  "Don't," Emily said, "not Dasilva, not anyone. There have been too many strange things going on over the past two days, which leads me to think we have a leak in here somewhere. And I don't think this is information we want to get out there yet."

  "Ok then," Lennie said, "that's how we handle it for now. Everyone agree?"

  "Yes," Goodwin said.

  "Absolutely," Reyes said. "Any idea where this leak may be living?"

  "Not yet, but it seems to be high enough to know things most people don't know. Everyone keep your eyes and ears open."

  "Ok Em," Lennie said, "your gut is usually worth listening too."

  "Where is Agent Dasilva anyway?" Emily asked. "Why isn't he here?"

  "He left last night," Lennie said. "Told me he was called back to D.C. for some reason; wouldn't say why. That's why we're having this call instead of the full group meeting this morning. He said everyone should update him when he gets back."

  "When does he get back?" Emily asked

  "Don't know," Lennie said. "Haven't heard from him since last night. I'm not surprised, though. Things are getting pretty crazy with the media here, and the people in the big offices are starting to pay attention. My guess is that right now; Agent Dasilva is getting chewed on a bit."

  "Pity," Emily said.

  Chapter 61

  The rivers up north could get pretty narrow and crowded which forced a pilot to stay focused. While the lower river has its surprises, it was wide enough to also give you time to sit back, enjoy the view, and daydream about what you might be doing if you weren't stuck on a boat for half of your life. Charlie was taking one of those moments when two crew members stepped into the pilot house: Clovis Landry and Virgil Amadee, the Mississippi boys.

  "Cap'n can we talk with you a minute?"

  "Sure, what's on your mind?"

  "Well Cap'n," Clovis began, "we all been talkin', about last night ya' know?"

  He glanced at Virgil.

  "Yeah, Cap,” Virgil said, “the guys wanted me and Clovis to come and find out what happened? Why we didn't go ahead and stop these assholes when we had the chance?"

  "The guys sent you up here?"

  "Well, yeah Cap'n, everyone's kinda upset, ya know, wonderin' why you let these people keep doing the stuff n' all."

  Charlie looked at the two men as they shifted from leg to leg, glancing from the floor to the window and occasionally at him. He realized it is a fair question, but also didn’t know if one of the group was a snitch.

  "Well,
I'll tell ya. You can go down and tell them that we didn't do it because I decided we weren't going to do it, ok? Last time I checked, I was still captain of this damn boat, and if I decide to not to do something that's the way it’s going to be and I don't have to explain myself. Is that clear?"

  "Yessir Cap'n," Clovis eked out, "we don't mean nothing here. It’s just that some of the guys, well..."

  "Some of the guys what?" Charlie asked in his captain's voice.

  Clovis didn’t have the nerve to continue and looked at Virgil, "Well, Cap, some of the guys wonder if maybe you might maybe kinda agree with these people a little bit, and you know, maybe are..."

  The look on Charlie's face caused Virgil's vocal cords to stop functioning.

  "Boys, let me tell you something, and let me make it goddamn clear so you both can understand it, ok?"

  "Yessir." was barely heard.

  "This is my goddamn boat. And nobody comes on my boat and tells me what I'm going to do and gets away with it. And nobody comes on my boat and uses it to put anything under no goddamn bridges and gets away with that either. I don't agree with those people, and I'm not letting them get away with anything. But as long as I'm captain here we'll do things the way I say they're going to be done, and I decided last night's plan was not the way to do things. End of story. Is that clear enough for you?"

  "Yessir Cap'n, clear as shit," Clovis said. "We'll tell the guys to..."

  "You tell them to get their asses back to work and do their jobs, and I'll keep doing mine. Got it?"

  "Yessir Cap," Virgil said, "we'll tellum' just like you said."

  The two men left the pilothouse faster than anyone had in months, as Frank walked in the other door.

  "What was that all about?" Frank asked.