Ahmed was pleased to see a small amount of consternation come over Cho’s face.
“That is why I trust no one, my friend. Why would they want to kill you, too? They came in and removed all of the bodies before the Afghans and their devil patrons, the Americans, could get there. They were prepared to haul away the bodies, including special bags for them, wrapped in carpets. What have you done to deserve this?” Ahmed did not try to hide his genuine curiosity.
After a long pause, Cho said, “This thing you have done for them, it will change the world.” Cho then nodded to himself before continuing, “It is extremely important that when people of the world begin to die, it is someone like you that is to blame, with no possible link to China. From China it is an act of war. From you it is an act of terrorism.”
Ahmed scoffed at the comment. “We have been at war with the Infidel for many centuries. Everything about this land is war.”
“You will kill me now, in retribution for what my government intended to do to you?” Cho asked the question matter-of-factly.
Ahmed smiled and said with humor, “They do nothing more than I would do myself. No, if you behave yourself, I will not kill you now. When my martyrs have left to wipe out the Infidel, maybe I’ll even let you go, to survive if you can. Now, tell me what I don’t know about how the Infidels are destroying the world.”
For the next two hours, and for at least an hour each day, in the days to come, Cho told Ahmed what was happening in the world outside of Afghanistan.
Chapter 43
The New Year - Plus Thirty-Four Days
FBI Headquarters Building
Washington, D.C.
0900 Hours EST
W. Allen Kidd sat at his desk looking out the window of his corner office at the Hoover Building, but did not see the nearby buildings or the Washington Mall. Instead he was wrestling with the dilemma of what, in this most critical national security situation, was the right thing to do. Six days earlier the CIA Director had come to his office to demand to know why the FBI was not represented at the White House any longer. Allen had looked the man directly in the eye and had told him the President had made some demands of him that he could not do, in good conscience. When pressed, Allen refused to elaborate. When Pittson described the President’s behavior and reactions to the destroyer incident and intelligence of an impending invasion, Allen had become particularly troubled.
“Listen, Brad. I’m trying to keep confidences made to the President here. You understand, I’m sure.” A quick look showed Pittson did not understand nor did he think she was worthy of receiving any confidence. “Let me ask a favor of you, though. Please let me know if there are any other indications she may be influenced by the Chinese.” Merely making the statement could be viewed by some to border on treason and both men knew it. Normally little love is lost between the FBI and CIA, however in this instance, both men literally felt the fate of the world on their shoulders. Allen did not say what he would do if such information became available.
“Brad, my analysts briefed me this morning on the assassination attempt against General Secretary Song, his moves toward an invasion of Taiwan, and their assessment he would probably pull the trigger within the next few weeks. They also tell me the President has pulled back virtually all naval forces from the area that might support the Nationalist Chinese in the event of an attack. Has she really thrown in the towel toward the PRC and given up on Taiwan, or does she have something up her sleeve?”
Following a deep breath with eyes closed, Pittson had told him, “Everything I know indicates she has decided to give up on Taiwan. Worse, she mentioned she was focused on addressing a brewing civil war here at home.” After a pause, Pittson said, “If you know anything or can do anything to inspire her to change directions, you better consider it quickly.”
Pittson left Allen’s office without the customary handshake in parting. While Allen had stewed over the issue for the past six days, he kept thinking divine guidance would show him the correct path. He knew that any attempt to schedule a public, or even private statement to Congress could be met with violence. He could simply call a press conference at the small auditorium on the first floor and inform the press and the American people that the President had been compromised by Chinese intelligence, through her husband Walter. This would have to be followed by calling for her to immediately step down for the good of the country. Thinking this through, he could anticipate she would order his immediate arrest for treason that would likely throw the country into a real civil war, bordering on anarchy. Doing nothing would probably avoid having the country immediately falling apart, but would mean abandoning not just Taiwan, but most of the rest of the foreign interests of the U.S., along with the country’s place as leader of the free world.
. . .
The Mountains of Southeastern Afghanistan
2300 Hours Local Time
Hadi gently called to Ahmed, who was sleeping in the alcove in the cave where second wife Jasmine kept her blankets. He had only been asleep a short time, but he was used to going from sleep to full wakefulness at need.
“Great leader,” Hadi said softly, “Ali has news that you will want to hear.”
Ahmed rose immediately, quickly dressed and walked beside Hadi toward the main entrance to the cave complex. It was very dangerous for anyone to walk outside, especially during the hours of darkness, due to the Great Satan’s Predator Drones tendency to rain down missiles. Standing just inside of the cave entrance, next to a single candle, was Ali.
After making the appropriate greeting, Ali said, “Ahmed, our work has gone more quickly even than I had hoped. I won’t bore you with the science details, but we initially took samples of the virus and separated them into twelve different groups. Each group was subjected to changes at their most basic level, using a different nanotechnology technique, for each of the twelve samples. I had planned to work through several thousand samples before finding the best one, a process that should take weeks or months. Instead, two days ago, I found that two of the first twelve had appeared to do what we want them to do.” Ali fought the temptation to use the large, scientific description that would demonstrate his high level of ability and accomplishment. Instead, he dumbed down the description, for Ahmed’s benefit.
“Ahmed, I took a sample of the virus from each of the promising test viruses, and injected two of the Infidels you had captured. They are each strapped to a table, with access to nutrient fluid tubes, in a cave with a controlled environment. I mean the infected air in the cave cannot escape. One of the Infidels began showing fever and skin blister symptoms within thirty-six hours. The other showed symptoms two hours later. Both worked!” Ali nearly shouted his excitement! “I even tested the breath coming out of their mouths and found the virus to be present. This means we have two strains of an airborne virus that will spread quickly. When I added the virus to the blood taken from the two Chinese medical people, the virus attacked their blood on the molecular level, so if they had antibodies created by a vaccine, those antibodies won’t work against the newly created virus strains!”
Ahmed was not fully awake, nor did he understand much of what Ali was saying, but he was quickly caught up in Ali’s excitement. “What do you need to do now?” Ali paused only for a moment, before saying, “I need at least three, and up to six more test subjects to place in the room with the two infected men strapped to the tables. In fact, they can take care of the two men and refill their water tubes. My assistants are reluctant to enter that cave again.”
Ahmed thought for a moment, and then said, “We have four Afghan soldiers and the Infidel aid girl. She’s no good to me anymore, especially since I allowed our martyrs to have their way with her.
Ahmed then turned to his assistant. “Hadi? See that all are taken to Ali�
��s laboratory cave in the morning.”
What Ahmed did not know was that when Ali had started with a weapons-grade virus, his changes through nanotechnology made the virus even more virulent. Ali had created the most devastating weapon ever created by man. In truth, Ahmed would not have cared.
. . .
SOCOM Headquarters
1600 Hours EST
The Colonel in charge of the Intelligence Section read over the report from Kabul concerning the attack at the airport. It was instantly clear that it had been a diversionary attack, with the most likely true target being in a neighborhood just over a kilometer away. The reaction team made up of Afghan soldiers and several Special Forces advisors had moved quickly from the airport to the other location, only to find a real puzzle. In the primary hotel room a significant amount of blood was found indicating the deaths of from four to five people, however all of the bodies had been removed just before the team’s arrival. A quick search of the area near the hotel found the body of one Chinese male with the tattoo of a Chinese Special Forces operator. The tattoo its self was probably against PLA rules, but like many rules had simply been ignored. Blood stains found around the area showed where two other individuals had been killed. Their bodies had been removed. The best guess was that the remaining body’s removal had been interrupted by the arrival of the reaction team.
The holes in the hotel room walls and floor, as well as the tunnel, told an even stranger story. Because of the odd nature of the whole scene, elements of an A-Team were dispatched to the area to discover what had happened. The preliminary report could only pinpoint involvement by the group JOTP or Jihadists of the Prophet. This was the same group that had taken two female Special Forces operators several months earlier, only to have them, or at least one of them, rescued and the kidnappers killed by a team which national hero Sean Callahan had commanded. Since then, no work had been done on the JOTP.
Sitting back in his chair, the Colonel called the SOCOM’s chief analyst to his office. “Son,” the Colonel said, “I want you to write up a request and begin broad aerial satellite and drone surveillance in this area here.” He had circled a 700 kilometer square area making up the extension of the route being taken by the JOTP people that had taken the operators, months earlier. “I’m looking for this terrorist group called JOTP, who are probably hiding out in the mountains, somewhere in here. Let me know when you have something.”
“Yes Sir,” the analyst said, before turning to go back to his desk for the write-up.
. . .
The White House
2315 Hours EST
Susan held the most powerful woman in the world in her arms like a small child, stroking her hair. Katherine had asked her to come by the bedroom suite earlier in the evening, using a tone of voice that was unnatural for the President. It held sadness and a lack of confidence. The President was wearing only a silk robe. Susan was still fully clothed. Apparently it was not going to be one of those kinds of nights, Susan thought. Instead, Katherine had patted the couch in the sitting room beside her when Susan had arrived. When she was seated, Katherine had said only, “Hold me, please.”
Although Susan was surprised by this first sign of vulnerability, she was shocked by the quaking tears being shed, by the older woman in her arms. After a few minutes, Katherine caught her breath and began to softly speak. “You know why I chose to declare the emergency and take charge of the country, don’t you? Everything that I just know needs to be done in this country keeps getting stopped by Congress. Hell, those bastards on conservative talk radio, the NRA, you know they’ve driven their foolish sheep to violence just to stop me in doing what needs to be done!” Katherine was breathing deeply and emotionally.
“If they won’t let me protect the American People and those cretins won’t do what they should to protect everyone, then, for their own good, I just had to take charge.”
Katherine rambled on until she managed to convince herself that all of her actions were not only reasonable, but that almost all of her problems were due to traitorous actions by her enemies. “Then, of all things, the FBI Director came to the White House to tell me Walter had been fucking a Chinese girl. Of course I laughed at him – like I didn’t know Walter was a hound dog. Then the asshole told me the girl worked for Chinese intelligence and those fuckers had video tapes, in living color!”
Katherine’s breathing had turned into panting. Although her mind continued to jump around, she seemed to calm down.
“God, but I did enjoy the look on Walter’s face when I told him who his latest whore was and how pathetic he sounded begging for punishment from his mistress. The blood had drained from his face and probably, for the first time in his life, even from his penis!”
Susan couldn’t help herself when she asked, “Katherine, what did you do?”
“That was the easy part. I ordered him home to California and called in the Secret Service Director to have his protection detail changed and their orders modified to prevent him from even whacking-off without me knowing about it. Had to write another TOP SECRET order to violate his so-called Constitutional Rights, but it’s kind of nice to have that ability now.”
Katherine lay in bed talking to herself aloud. “I don’t think Director Kidd will blab about it, but I may have to take steps if that changes.”
In just a few minutes the doubtful school girl was gone and back was the arrogant, driven Commander in Chief.
“Dear, thank you for helping me through that. Now, I can trust you, can’t I?” Katherine bore deeply into her eyes.
Susan fought the temptation to look down into her lap and instead looked into Katherine’s eyes and said, “Yes, Madam President. You can. Always.” It was said simply and sincerely.
“Good,” Katherine said. “In the morning, have the Director of Homeland Security come to the office. I want to push for complete confiscation of firearms as soon as possible. It’s for the security of us all.”
“Yes, Madam President.” It took all of Susan’s will to keep the determined and expectant expression on her face.
Chapter 44
The New Year - Plus Thirty-Six Days
Temporary Offices Regional Governor
Frankfort, Kentucky
1015 Hours EST
Kerry sat in Coyote’s Kentucky headquarters conference room, along with Tank, Coyote’s Kentucky Chief of Staff and four of Tanks contractor team leaders. Coyote wasn’t in the state, however since his area of responsibility had been expanded by three states, he had hired a Chief of Staff in each of the states. The Chief of Staff was going through a simplistic PowerPoint presentation showing a map of Kentucky and the food distribution points located in the state.
“As you can see, we’re okay in the Louisville, Lexington and Covington/Cincinnati areas, but the kitchens in Frankfort, Ashland, London, Bowling Green, Versailles, and smaller towns throughout the state are running low, fast.”
Kerry couldn’t help himself, when he corrected the man’s pronunciation of “Versailles”. Going into his thick, Kentucky accent, he said, “You ain’t from around here, now is ‘ya boy? ‘Round here we say “Versailles,” just like it’s spelled, not the Frenchie “Versii,” rhyming with high.”
The man had been sent to Coyote by Fontaine administration people in Washington and he was from Northern Virginia. He looked directly at Kerry and said, “I don’t give a shit if you call it Timbucktu. Fact is, you aren’t collecting enough food to keep people fed. What the hell are you gonna’ do about it?”
Tank spoke up, “I think that’s where my contractors come in, isn’t it?” The man gave Tank an appraising look, before saying, “Yeah, that’s just what they’re for. The boss has hired an administrator for each one of those towns, but loca
l grocery stores and even gas stations don’t seem to want to sell to them. Something about not trusting the vouchers they have for payment. How long would it take you to get a team to meet up with each administrator and help educate the local vendors?”
Tank looked at his four team leaders and said, “Boys, are your teams ready to saddle up?”
The largest of the four men said, “Sure, Tank. Only we’re gonna need some kinda voucher or paper saying we got priority for gas for our new vehicles.” He was smiling as he thought about the SUVs that had been essentially seized from dealerships by Coyote’s people for use “during the duration” of the emergency. Vouchers had been given to the dealers, but the only paperwork provided was a handwritten notice, with the vehicle description and vehicle identification number or VIN. The normal government contracting and acquisition documentation had been “waived” by Coyote. For some reason, they seem to have favored black SUVs.
The Chief of Staff reluctantly nodded his head before saying, “All right. I’ve been passing out way too many of those certificates, but I can see where you’re going to need them. See my Secretary. And only one for each team. You’ll have to fill all of your team’s vehicles up at one time.”
The four team leaders rose and left the room. Kerry cleared his throat before mentioning, “I know where there’s quite a bit of privately held stuff we might use. Only thing is, the folks storing it might take offense at anyone from the government coming around to get it.” He waited for someone else to follow up on this line of thought.
Tank said, “You talking about the neighborhood where you live, Kerry? Aren’t you kinda shooting your own-self in the foot?”
“Those asshole hoarders think they’re too good to help out other folks. I don’t know exactly what they have, but they’re bragging about having over a year’s worth of food for each family, and maybe more. Hell, their garages are loaded with cases and cases of food.” As he said this, he imagined the fearful looks on their faces when Tank’s armed security team rolled into the neighborhood. His wife had gone to her mother’s house in West Virginia and he hadn’t been home himself in over two weeks. His status with Coyote allowed him to stay at a luxury apartment in Frankfort, where he was closer to the money and power.
The Final Proclamation (An America Reborn Thriller Book 2) Page 23