by Len Marshall
“So much art here to enjoy and still people get lost. Isn’t it unfortunate?” he heard a female voice say.
In an instant, Jacob was back in the room conscious of his presence in the gallery and listening to that soft voice. He looked to his right from where the voice had come from and there she was; a beautiful blonde girl in black attire smiling and looking back at Jacob who remained perplexed by the whole situation.
“You weren’t here. Were you?” she asked before Jacob could say anything.
“Excuse me?” Jacob said with eyes wide open.
The pretty girl blushed for a moment or so “What’s the point of coming here if you’re still someplace else in your thoughts?” she asked.
“How long had she been watching me thinking about Dad?” he thought.
“I think you saw something which made you think and smile,” the girl said looking at Jacob.
“Yes, you’re right I guess,” Jacob said.
“So who were you thinking about, must be someone very special,” the girl asked whilst gazing intently at Jacob’s face.
“Yeah, my Dad,” he said smiling again and then he noticed that the girl clearly was not expecting that answer.
“Unusual and unexpected,” she said. “Must be a special dad,” she added.
“He’s very special,” Jacob replied, with the warm glow in his eyes clearly indicating the close bond he felt with his father.
“That’s great. Not everyone’s fond of their fathers or perhaps not all people are born to great dads,” she said with a slight hint at an unhappy time in her past remembered. Jacob was intrigued by her strange answer. “So you enjoy art exhibitions regularly?” she asked as she continued the small talk.
“No, just trying to disconnect myself from the daily cycle of normal life.” he replied. He continued “I was just passing the museums when I stumbled upon this place. And you?” he added quickly.
“I try to enjoy the efforts of artistic minds whenever I can find free time,” she told him. “Work keeps me busy but we all need food for our aesthetic minds,” she added.
“I don’t know how abstract art like this can help with that?!” Jacob said.
“Well, in my opinion, art is much more than what first meets the eye. It’s a reflection of the thoughts of the artist. First he dreams his painting and then paints his dream,” she said while looking at a small piece of art on the wall in front of them. Jacob had started to find her interesting.
Now they were looking at a bigger painting in which the artist had used long strokes in darker colours. “Intensity; this is what the artist was feeling in his mind when he was painting it,” she commented.
“How do you know what was in his mind?” he asked.
“His thoughts are there in the art,” she said laughing.
“There is a famous proverb that art should disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed. That’s exactly what the artist achieved here,” she commented on another piece where dark shaded colours were used in the middle while the outer region of the painting had a lighter tone. The internal colours were stroked in such a way that each colour collided with the other while lighter colours on the edges spread outwards as if they were trying to escape the canvas.
Jacob was impressed by her comments as he was finding that exact feeling of discomfort looking at the painting. It was too late, Jacob was fascinated by her.
“You know art also plays a big role in creating whatever mankind invents, it was developed once as a piece of art. That’s why any sophisticated invention in science is known as state of art technology,” she explained
Jacob had never imagined art like this. He did not know he was speaking to Jenifer.
“Thoughts become things,” said Jenifer, quoting a proverb from the deity Buddha. “Your thoughts become reality, just by thinking about them,” Jenifer said even louder this time.
“How can they?” he asked.
“It’s simple. Whenever our mind has a thought that it would like to become reality, it visualizes it as real then and, most importantly, only then, your mind believes it can make manifest by bringing about the creation of those thoughts,” Jenifer said with a smile on her face.
“That contradicts all the amazing achievements in science, culture and the arts. Their creation demanded much more than that.” Jacob’s subconscious had taken control. Just thinking about something and wishing it would happen was never going to get any results in practical life. His reality thought process had taken over his conscious mind and was dictating this conversation.
“I’m Jenifer,” the girl introduced herself with her hand extended towards him.
“Pleased to meet you, I’m Jacob,” he replied, shaking hands with her. Both looked into each other’s eyes. They chatted away and Jacob found it amazing that Jenifer had similar preferences in music, food, movies and travel, almost identical to his. They chatted a little longer and on departure exchanged numbers and promised to catch up with each other some other time soon.
***
Neil focused on the word impossible to associate with his dismal circumstances and then he visualized ways to negate those circumstances. Neil was practically attracting his freedom or at least that was what he was trying to do. “Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing,” he recalled the words of great Muhammad Ali.
“My detention is temporary...” Ali stated, “And the Truth shall be revealed and I shall be out soon.” He was so confident that he went on to assure his friends that, “This is my will.” Mysteriously, history records the fact that the great Muhammad Ali would only serve half of his draft violation sentence of two years.
Being jailed for draft evasion at that time in the 1960s in a white dominated judicial system in America meant his chances of overturning a court’s decision were virtually nil. The Law of Attraction proved to be present in this instance. Because no legal decision was made, Mohammed Ali never knew or understood how he won his case except for a compromise proposed by Justice Stewart, the trail judge, stating that “Ali’s conviction would be reversed citing a technical error by the Justice Department.” Ali gradually won unanimous assent from the eight voting justices. Still, this case remains a complete mystery today. Neil had visualized walking out of custody suite with his head held high and with the FBI agents apologizing for his detention. “I must act now to make this happen sooner rather than later,” he thought. He started to recall the events of the previous few weeks. He began to remember his days at Waverley Davis and the memories occupied his time. He pictured his daily routine in the office, speaking to Ajay, time spent with Jacob his friends, colleagues and work mates. Then one particular face popped up into his memory. It was Clarke, he really remembered her the most.
“She must be really worried about me and my sudden disappearance,” Neil thought.
Recalling their last date, he put the memories into slow motion in order to pick up anything suspicious that he could have missed. As soon as he imagined Clarke taking her photo, his eyes opened wide. His rational mind tried to process the scenario to draw a final conclusion.
Then he recalled the moment when he left his mobile in her hands. But that was to take some fun pictures so what possible motive could she have had to do something like this to me? Yet she could have infected the phone, she had the opportunity. Neil was perplexed.
He processed the facts about Clarke once again but again failed to find a motive. “What if she was working with the hacking group all that time?” he thought. “No. She can’t be,” he answered himself. “Let’s face it,” he mumbled, “she didn’t mention any knowledge of
computers or anything technical in all the time we went out.” Then he thought, “Really, he had no information about Clarke at all.”
She had never given him clear answers to any of his questions about her life. She would always change the topic in such a way that Neil had to keep talking. Sometimes she would talk about philosophical things in life, such as the subconscious mind, human behavior and karma, other spiritual things. She never told him anything about her personal life other than that she was born into a middle class white family. When she was younger her father had passed away and the sad fact was that now her mother was confined to a wheelchair. Neil had no idea where she lived or what she actually did or who her friends were. On the other hand, Neil was like an open book to her. She knew almost everything about him other than the details of his work life. However this did not make her guilty and responsible for his detention.
Neil had to force this train of thought about Clarke out of his head because there was just no proof. He was again suffering with depression and this time it was really bad.
Chapter Ten
The starting point of all achievement is DESIRE. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desire brings weak results, just as a small fire makes a small amount of heat.
Napoleon Hill
It was a tough period in time for Ping May, the senior Chinese chief intelligence officer because his operation to secure or destroy the secret US Navy cyber weapon had failed miserably. Not only had he failed to achieve the mission’s objective, he had also lost one of his finest hit man. He was enraged but that day he was in a meeting convened to undertake a critical appraisal of Ping May’s plan and execution strategy. The meeting was taking place in the Chinese intelligence headquarters where senior leaders of the country’s Pollitt Bureau members including Li Jingling and the top military leadership or their representatives were attending.
Firstly, I would like to brief all the honorable members of the meeting about our primary mission in the US. It was learned by Chinese Naval intelligence eight months ago that one of the leading US military contractors had been awarded a top secret project for the US Navy. Waverley Davis, the military contractor, is one of a kind within the American military industrial complex. We couldn’t find out what this weapon actually was. Was it new hardware, or a new cyber weapon? Nothing was sure except the fact that this new system or weapon was somehow related to the latest generation of military satellites on which all seven fleets of the US Navy depend for their navigation and operations. Our cyber dark army launched a two stage exploitation and attack after successfully hacking into the mobile phone of one of the Waverley Davis employees. We were able to partially see their internal network without being detected.
Somehow, Waverley Davis was able to thwart our cyber efforts. Their defense strategy strengthened after our successive failures. The person responsible for Waverley Davis’ security was abducted by our assets in the US. Our asset was working undercover as a North Korean tourist. The plan was to extract information about various authentication credentials from him. However, the FBI became aware of our plan in advance and raided the warehouse where the captive and his family were being kept hostage. Subsequently, we lost one our biggest assets along with all his local team of agents. The result was that the hostage and his family were recovered by the FBI. This created a serious crisis for China because the same warehouse was being used by our dark army team who had left many of the mission’s secret devices behind before moving to another safe house out of town.
As soon as we knew that the FBI was closing in on our dark operations team it was eliminated by our permanent agents working in the USA with diplomatic immunity as there was no time for their safe exfiltration. Basically, we cleansed our own operation by sabotage. This act was compulsory, not from choice. To prevent the FBI from recovering the data from the devices and items left in the warehouse, our team implanted fictitious hardware drives on the units. These contained loaded Nano-scale Electronic Magnetic Plate weapons. These should cripple the electronic circuitry of any US system apart from them then begin to self-destruct. We may have lost a battle in the US but we are not going to lose the war.
“I consider myself responsible for the failure of our project and the loss of the lives of Chinese dark army members and present my resignation as Chief of Intelligence. I will accept every decision of the Chinese government, Communist party and Pollitt Bureau,” said Ping May describing the details of Chinese operation in the US and accepting his failure as the Chinese spy chief. His resignation was accepted by the Chinese leadership. A new spy chief was appointed who was tasked to devise a new strategy to complete the main goal.
***
After a long time, Victor and Farrell began to relax, the cyber threats had vanished. Victor kept thinking about his abduction while Farrell’s mind was occupied by the thought of Neil and his role in the cyber-attacks and his eventual arrest.
“Do you believe Neil was involved?” Farrell asked.
“Not for one second,” Victor replied.
“Why?”
“Because that’s what my instinct tells me and, he’s not been charged so far. I’m certain the FBI couldn’t find any further connection to him in these attacks,” Victor explained.
“Then what about his bugged mobile, how would you explain that?” Farrell asked.
“Well, that’s because smart phones are like computers. They work online a lot and as such are prone to hacking just like computers. That’s their Achilles heel or down side. I’m certain his mobile was hacked,” Victor said.
“Hey! Have you seen Jacob lately?” he asked Farrell.
“No, I haven’t seen him since yesterday.”
Jacob was with Jenifer at that exact moment. Now the cyber issues were resolved, Jacob had found free time to be with this girl who he found really interesting. He remained unable to describe his feelings when he was with her but whatever they were, he wanted the feelings to continue. After a few more dates he would find excuses to meet Jenifer who sometimes said she was unable to meet for a variety of reasons.
That day they were meeting after a week and Jacob was really excited to see Jenifer who was in same black dress she had worn on their first encounter at the art gallery many weeks ago. “You look really great in that dress,” Jacob said as soon as his gaze fell on Jenifer’s slim curved figure.
“That’s exactly why I’m in this dress.” Jenifer’s spontaneous response left Jacob speechless with a smile on his face. Jenifer laughed looking directly into Jacob’s face. They had a beautiful meal together that evening in a candle lit restaurant. All evening Jacob wanted to tell Jenifer the strange feelings he felt when he was with her. But unfortunately he couldn’t find the right words at the right moment. He would never have imagined he would have trouble expressing himself to Jenifer.
“The food was delicious but I think I enjoyed your company even more.” Yes, Finally Jacob had mustered up the courage to express his feelings. Jenifer just smiled and that gave Jacob a little more courage.
“Do you know what I like most about you?” Jacob asked. Jenifer waited. “Your eyes,” he continued, “I love the way the light shines off those beautiful blue eyes.” Jenifer listened to his compliment and waited to hear more but no more came.
“Thanks for those lovely words,” she replied as her bright smile lit her eyes after hearing Jacob’s remarks. “Time goes so quickly, in fact it seems to fly whenever we’re together,” Jenifer said checking her watch.
“Yes, it sure does,” he answered and with that, Jacob understood that the date was now nearly over and they would soon have to leave. He felt somehow that Jenifer was trying to return his feelings but for some reason was unable to do so. In reality he was actually right. Jenifer was fighting an internal battle between her heart and her thoughts and it was tearing her apart.
Jacob was thinking of telling Ajay about his feelings for Jenifer but
was not sure exactly when to say anything because he had not yet sensed a clear signal from Jenifer that made that communication possible. He was aware that he had not yet spoken those three magical words to her either. “Probably that’s what she’s waiting for me to say,” he hoped. She had, in fact, said nothing in that respect either.
Ajay sat alone in his office at Waverley Davis thinking about his son’s behavior. He had noticed that his son’s demeanor and distracted attitude was obvious from the way Jacob conducted himself. Many times recently he had noticed that Jacob was not attentive to the moment as if he was not consciously there. In the beginning, Ajay ignored this but Jacob’s change of behavior was becoming more and more apparent with each passing day. Ajay realized it was time to talk to his son man to man.
Ajay summoned Jacob into his office. “What’s going on with you?” he asked.
“With me? Well, nothing, Dad, I’m just fine.” Jacob replied, confused, yet he had pretty good idea what Ajay actually wanted to know. He also wanted to discuss this matter with his father but he was not expecting to have the conversation in the office like this.
“Funnily enough, Dad, there is something I want to talk about with you as well. I think home would be a better place for such discussions, don’t you?” Jacob said after thinking for few moments.
Later that evening they continued their conversation. “What’s her name?” Ajay asked.
“How do you know it’s a girl?” he replied.
“Well you’ve not been paying much attention since Victor’s return. I’ve noticed recently you’re someplace else in your head when we’re in in meetings. It’s so obvious that you’re hanging between some certainty and something totally uncertain. You, my son, are waiting for an answer. So I ask again, what’s her name?”
“Jenifer. Her name is Jenifer,” Jacob uttered the name of girl who now had his heart.
“Tell me more about her,” Ajay added.
“Well, she’s attractive, highly intelligent and amazingly beautiful...” Jacob said.