by E L Russell
Granger looked at each person in the group as he spoke. “One of the keywords we picked up from the chatter is ‘Janus.’ It has spent a few days on a short list with other words of interest until this came in last night.” He reached the button in the center of the table and pushed a on a triangular remote. “The first image you'll see is an entertainment room in an upscale Hong Kong apartment. We think it most likely belonging to a person of deep interest, Katya Kornilova.” The glass surface of the table in front of each chair lit up revealing a recessed flat screen monitor angled toward the viewer.
An Agent arrived with the promised folders and deposited them in front of Director Davies who passed them around the table while Granger continued.
“As you see, Katya has installed a large flat-screen almost covering one wall of the room facing a bank of leather recliners. I draw your attention to ten windows on the screen now”
Director Doe, a new name for Meret, raised a hand and commented about the slowly rotating screen saver. “So, of what significance is the logo?”
Meret spoke as though responding to a graduate student in one of her lectures. “What you see is an ancient Roman composite of a two-faced god who represented the duality of the future and the past. He is Janus, the god of beginnings and also the god of transitions and endings.”
“Correct,” Davies said. “This means something to the people behind the plot and we are still discussing the significance of that choice. This video was taken by one of our new surveillance bots currently hiding in a Hong Kong penthouse with our special person of interest, Katya Kornilova.”
Davies raised his chin and spoke to everyone. “You’ll find small earphones hanging from a hook by your right knee. There's some interesting audio in this recording. Roll it Granger.”
Davies narrated. “Remember, all you will see has been recorded by our hidden bot. First we see Katya enter wearing a white robe. She sits at one end of a two-person leather couches and remotely mutes the ten screens and then aims the control at her front door. Enter Henri Baudin. Yup. He’s that Black Hat hacker for hire some of you have heard of. He carries a tray of coffee and a stack of small triangle-shaped tea sandwiches. After he serves them, he sits at the far end of the two-person couch. Henri folds his arms and crosses his legs at the ankle. He knows she wants something and it appears as though he is trying to avoid any contact with her.”
Davies cleared his throat. “She has to persuade him several times to sit closer to her and he resists until it appears he can’t. I found this part interesting, I believe we are seeing examples of her conditioning protocol. They talk for a few minutes without touching.”
Davies looks at the others Directors for any questions and then continues. “Here is where we see Katya in motion. Notice, she has all the sandwiches on her side table. She takes two and offers them to Henri, and he carefully uses his thumb and forefinger to take them. There! See?” He taps his screen in excitement. “Granger, loop this part so we can see it again. Does her move remind anyone of an experience you might have had growing up?”
Without raising her arm, Meret offers, “Yeah. My grandfather was teaching me how to catch a garden snake. I avoided the teeth, which I thought was the technique he was teaching me, but I grabbed it too far down his back. When my hand closed on it, his head whipped around and bit me.” She snorted. “I haven't been near a snake since.”
“That’s exactly what Katya did,” Granger said. When Henri committed his fingers to take the sandwiches, she rotated her hand on top of his. Did you catch his reaction?”
Davies said, “No. Let’s see it again, Granger. One more time,” He sat forward in anticipation.
Meret focused on the wider picture, making sure she saw all of Henri. “Hah, did you see that? His shoulders slouched the instant she struck.”
Davies smiled. “Good choice of words, Dr. Meret. When she struck, he must have reacted to a preconditioned stimulus she’d placed in him.” She had previously turned Henri into her asset and he is under her control. Her touch must have initiated a response. Smith Patrick, the FBI Director asked, “ How many others are under her thumb?”
Davies said, “Unknown.”
“People can be therapeutically de-conditioned,” Meret said.
“Isn’t that right?”
Director Davies held up one hand to stop an agent who was about to respond.
“Let’s just say that over the years we’ve had limited success in that department.”
Meret nodded. “Understand.” Meaning he didn’t believe they could undo what Katya had done. The bitch was pure evil. They had to nail her down. A new thought assailed her. How many people had she programed? Yes, that was the word. How man has she programed to do her dirty tricks?. Suppose they stopped her, but not the puppets under her control. Suppose they didn’t know who they were and they finished her mission? How did Henri get to Katya’s apartment? How did she get there?
“We have learned a great deal from the drone’s surveillance,” Davies said. “Unfortunately, not everything. There is still an unsettling aspect we don’t understand. Katya tells Henri that he is about to see a recorded meeting, but she never mentions when the meeting took place, and as you are about to witness, that missing piece of INTEL is critical.” Davies closed one folder and opened another. “Granger, show us the entire meeting she has with the oligarchs. Anyone with a question is welcome to raise a hand.”
At the end of the video, Granger reset the Spy bot’s recording to the beginning of the video showing the endless loop of the rotating Janus.
“That tells me we’ve missed a few of Katya’s meetings,” Granger said, rubbing his temple.
Meret knew for sure he had a monster headache and she was relieved when he finally fished in his pocket for the bottle of pain pills she had given him. She landed a bottle of water in his lap, which he acknowledged with a raised eyebrow.
“Before we tackle what we don’t know about what Director Davies said, let’s discuss what we learned.”
“Her clients appear to be four Chinese and four Russian oligarchs.” Director Smith Patrick offered the statement they’d all heard in Katya’s comments to Henri.
What wasn’t clear to Meret was why Katya shared knowledge of the oligarch’s relationship with Henri. She and he were not a partnership as far as they knew. Perhaps they were mistaken. In fact she had be quite condescending in her interaction with him. Why was he even there?
Another agent across speculated. “Katya refers to the Socotra Genecaust as Operation Part Two.” Does that give us any clues to what she is calling Operation Part Two and another event intended to provide some kind of diversion. Partner or not, are we to assume Henri is involved in all this?”
Meret stood. “This recording only establishes the nature of our adversaries, not their identities. Who are the eight oligarchs? When will the Genecaust take place and where? We don’t even a definitive list of targets other than her claiming the President, Vice President, and the members of the leading hawks in the House and Senate.”
Director Jones stepped on the last word. “Is that a total of 210 plus POTUS and the VP or 210 in total?”
Another suggested, “I say we assume they want to kill everyone. The entire administration.”
Several agents made suggestions cross the table. The question of ‘Why’ began to take hold.
Director Davies knuckled the table for silence. “Are you hearing the same thing I am? Their goal is to politically and economically destabilize the West’s influence over the Middle East and Southeast Asia. So we don't get lost in tactical interpretations, we'll go around the table until we run out of contributions, starting with me.” He paused and looked at each one. “I believe the video also tells us Katya had an initial budget for Operation Rapture Part Two in Socotra of five million US dollars with an expectation it would generate 50 billions of Euros. Meret?”
She picked up the thread of the discussion without skipping a beat. “That reinforces my thinking that t
he Genecaust in Socotra was a proof of concept and the 50 billion euros is payment from some third party that wants to purchase the technology.”
“Technology. A funny thing to call a killer virus.” Director Davies waved a hand in dismissal. “But who is willing and able to pay that much money? This threat is smelling more like someone’s perverted business plan.”
Meret thought that was the driving question as well. What was the money buying? “In a different meeting, one the oligarchs did not attend, Katya spoke with the political leadership of the Arabs and the Jews. In a meeting that behaved more like an auction, she wanted them to buy the weapon she used in in Socotra’s Genecaust.”
Davies said, “That agrees with your previous statement that Socotra was a proof of concept designed to leverage a better outcome of your session with the Arabs and the Jews.”
Meret pushed her forefinger against her lips and scowled. “Yes, but I’m betting Katya engineered a stalemate and offered the technology to each party for mutual deterrence. The real reason she expected each party to pay twenty-five billion euros.”
DNI Director Bob Watson said “Let’s assume the meeting with the two political leaders had nothing to do with the proposed attack on the Homeland other than to fund it.”
Director Davies sighed, “ah, sounds like the cold war all over again.”
Meret immediately understood that this could only mean Katya’s Genecaust on Socotra, an attack that killed more than 1500 women and girls, was a fundraiser for the next Genecaust, one designed for the Homeland.”
Director Richard Roe, Homeland Security said, “So what do the four Chinese and four Russian oligarchs hope to gain? Anybody? Steve?”
The agent didn’t waste a second. “If they can destabilize us politically and economically, the West’s influence over the Middle East and Southeast Asia loses any punch we previously had. And that is important How?”
Davies looked at his agents. “The Homeland Genecaust is about business and politics. President Eisenhower warned against the establishment of a military-industrial complex in this farewell address. I've always regretted he didn't include Congress.” He pointed to Meret. “Did Katya say how much time it would take to implement their plan once the Arabs and the Jews transfer the money?”
She said, “The virus needs to be viable and requires some lead time to prepare for insertion or delivery. I’d say close to thirty-six days after payment.”
Flipping a page in his small notebook Director Roe asked, “That’s when we can expect the next attack?”
Davies said, “If we knew the date of the payment for the poison, we’d know the date of the attack better.”
Thinking she had an answer, Meret half-raised her arm. “But the CIA track large money transfers, right?”
“Good thought,” Granger said. “Although more than likely, the transfers will be broken into many smaller amounts, there should be something we can work with.”
Davies cleared his throat. We’ll put people on it. “Even in small bits, the money transfers should be the clue we need to pinpoint the date of the attack on the Homeland, or Operation Rapture Part Two or whatever the hell we decide to call it.”
Meret slapped her hands and exclaimed, “We only need to work as fast possible to establish the antidote and distribute to everyone in congress, of all levels and that includes all security personnel connect to the event, she glanced around the table, . . . in any event.” And then sat.
SA Steve Hawkins said, “Do we have the capacity to tag everyone connected with all future known Genecausts?”
His time Meret tapped her forehead. “Sorry I haven’t made this point. The space taken by any CRISPR-like CAS9 protein molecule editing tool editing is very small considering the relatively huge size for the strand of DNA hosting it. We all could quickly become huge databases of genetic intrusion, one that can be shared, if not inherited. Our real challenge comes from the physical acts of identifying a new attack’s location, time of delivery, and being able to distribute the antidote.”
Davies exhaled, “A huge number of antidotes?”
Meret said, “Multiple-thousands.”
Frank Jones, Director, NSA said, “I thought I heard someone mention that the people behind the first Genecaust would most likely use the same virus.”
Meret leaned to see Franks’ face. “I believe you refer to concerns about the actual size of the protein virus. To protect potential victims we only need to develop a response to the poison itself and not about the size of the part that delivers it. Those who wish to kill the host by which disease they have chosen make that decision. In the Socotra Genecaust they elected to use a modified version of Ebola for their virus to inject into the host’s cell. Their goal was to create a horrible, long incurable death, one that qualified as perfect propaganda and for spreading fear and chaos. Once they perfected their version of Ebola, they only had to use a known virus large enough to carry and inject their protein. It is that protein that looks for the chemical tag and decodes its information enough to know if has the correct host. Women, adults and children, of a specific historical blood line were the targets in the Socotra Genecaust.” She waited for the question, but decided to answer it for them.
“The specific historical blood line, found nowhere else on Earth, represented the daughters of Hagar, second daughter of Abraham and mothers for many Middle Eastern Muslims. Socotra, its geography as an isolated island and the home for 1500 female Muslims fulfilled their need. They only killed close to1,500 because two of their drones crashed before reaching densely populations. I believe the attack on the Homeland will be more controlled in that they plan to chemically tag their victims first and then deploy their poison at a specific location and time when they cannot miss.”
Davies looked at his watch and rubbed his chin. “Excellent, Doctor Mather.” He glanced over the table. Any more information to be gleaned from this video?”
Davis lowered his chin and peered over his glasses. “Very good. Bob and I have a meeting with POTUS. We’ll be informing him that we have a working start to make this new collaborative effort a highly functional team. So, let’s get on it. “Congratulations all.” He and Bob stood.
* * *
While Directors returned to their offices and Agents to their data collection and analysis, Meret and Steve departed with Granger for lunch in his office.
After they assembled, Meret commented on the meeting. “Davies didn’t seem too happy to be conferencing with the Director of National INTELligence. Did I read that right?”
Granger, with elbows on the table, held his coffee cup in both hands and glanced over the cup at Steve. “You tell her, you know them better than I do.”
Steve shook his head. “There’s not much to tell. Davies and the Bob go back to their Groton days and have had enjoyed a continued history of friendly competition.”
Granger put his cup down and folded his arms, resting on the table. “They'd love nothing more than to resume their golfing days as buddies. Unfortunately, competition within the INTELligence community doesn't always support such affability. Still, I think the Director made a smart move with this new team. It's the future of INTELligence survival in a global community. Besides, the DNI has access to several dark super computers and may be best suited to detect and report on the pending money transfers you mentioned.”
Filtered by a slight frown, Meret said, “I can’t believe the CIA has put their resources on this and didn’t detect the transfer of 50 billion euros.”
Steve jumped on it. “Actually, it is not our job. It is difficult for civilians to appreciate the level of bureaucratic red tape and bullshit politicians on the hill have heaped on the INTELligence community. That’s why we all should appreciate this effort to collaborate and cross budget. Davies and Bob are good friends. I believe the reaction you witnessed for shadows their culture breaking jobs ahead. In’s my opinion, Davies and Bob are the only two members of our INTELligence community that can pull this off.”
> Granger said. “Are we looking at nationals entangled with foreign plots, or foreigners entangled with national plots, or what? Davies went to the DNI because in his opinion they have the tools we don’t. He doesn’t care so much about turf or procedure as he does outcome.”
Her head lowered slightly. “Sorry guys, I'm frustrated. My brain's in overdrive, and we've exhausted all the INTEL collected to date, and I hate being forced on hold until more arrives.”
Steve toasted her with his coffee mug. “No problemo, we’ve all stood on that high wire.”
“Sorry to say, Meret, but you’re wrong about one thing.” Granger tapped the back of her hand. “There is one piece of INTEL we haven’t discussed and it was the screen saver on every monitor.”
“You mean the Janus statue,” Granger said.
“Holy shit” Steve said, sitting up taller in his chair. “The most famous Janus statue of is in the Vatican. Maybe we’re wrong about the Capitol. Meret, that bad-ass hacker squad. The one you worked with in Rome. Wasn’t Henri part of one of it?”
What the hell happened to the D.C. site with the president and congress?. This terror attack keeps changing focus. Are you saying those videos of the congressman’s coffee getting dosed fake news? Were we being distracted, delayed?”
“Steve added, “Well, the Vatican sounds like a plausible location to me.”
“No, it's not the Vatican,” Meret said. “Yes, the Janus statue is there and I might have come to the same conclusion until I remembered we caught the good congressman from South Carolina getting dosed and, we’ve picked several dozen more. This is way beyond an easy distract-and-delay tactic. Someone’s already spent millions on the D.C. site for the next Genecaust. There's no way the President, his cabinet, and 200-plus members of congress are going to visit the Vatican.” She folded her arms and rocked in her seat. “Think of this, this way. the Group of Eight, four Russian and four Chinese Oligarchs, must have adopted Janus as their totem and see themselves as Janus. They have become powerful god-like entities, who are going to launch something new. A ‘beginning.’ See? A beginning where they are the ones in control. They are also going to put an end to the American dominance in the world. See? An ending.” She tapped her chin, thinking out loud. “It has occurred to me Janus is also where we get the name for the month of January, so, . . .” she held out her hands and waited.