by T I WADE
“Tell me one,” requested Preston.
“Ever hear of the Colombian Necktie?” Carlos replied. Preston stated that he hadn’t. “It is believed to have been introduced by Escobar in the fifties. In this method of killing someone, especially someone you don’t like, the victim’s throat is slit with a knife or a sharp object, and the tongue is drawn through the open wound.” Carlos imitated the act, showing Preston how and where. “The tongue is pulled towards the sternum rendering the name necktie. The victim dies of blood loss or of asphyxiation. The killing method is very disturbing and is meant to warn others, such as informers of illegal activities. I had heard of it, but never saw it myself, and don’t know anyone else who ever witnessed a victim.”
Preston wanted to be sick and looked at Carlos with his face whiter than usual.
“Unfortunately, my uncles and most of the government ministers still alive thought it necessary to bring back state executions in this new world for as long as necessary; they passed a new law the same day the Calderóns were found guilty of treason. The senator had a smile on his face up to this point, knowing that he would be looked after in prison. Everyone was sure that half of the men in the prison system, inmates and guards, would certainly see that he got everything he wished for, hence the need to bring back executions. Preston, you should have seen the senator’s smile disappear when the judge was approached by the rest of the government ministers with a Decree stating that Death by Firing Squad was now available to him as a sentence.”
“They announced this new law in court in front of everybody?” Preston asked and Carlos nodded.
“The smile left Calderón’s face and was suddenly on most of the faces in the gallery. Then he went berserk, shouting obscenities at the judge and everybody, and he was then gagged so that he couldn’t speak. The judge passed sentence, stating that five days later the four men would be shot at dawn in public by military firing squad. That happened two days before I returned.”
“Didn’t anybody try to rescue him?” was Preston’s next question.
“My uncle, the Air Force General, had 50,000 loyal troops brought into Bogotá, and nobody was allowed in or out until the executions were over. The senator was shot writhing and screaming for mercy. He was worse than a rabid dog. His sons, Manuel, Alberto and Pedro were much braver. They stood there, refusing blindfolds, smoking their last cigarettes and even tried to ignore the screaming senator, now bound to a post next to them.”
The next morning the usual flights brought in the president and several military brass, including General Patterson and Admiral Rogers.
Preston was surprised that it was to be such a small meeting, less than a dozen people, in the president’s log cabin lounge.
Only he and Carlos were asked for, and everyone else continued to enjoy the swimming and preparing the church for the Saturday weddings. Preston and Carlos had decided to get married in one ceremony, and the girls had agreed.
Preston walked in helping Carlos; Carlos’ bodyguards, ever close behind, stayed out as the doors were closed. He looked around and saw a couple of guys he did not see land earlier, Lieutenants Charlie Meyers and Joe Paul, both in their Seal uniforms. As expected, Mo and Lee Wang were there, as well as Patterson, Rogers and Mike Mallory. Three other military guards were in attendance.
Everyone sat down around the long dining room table, and the president began the session.
“I had a very strange meeting with several men yesterday after the meeting in the Capitol,” he began. The room was quiet and everyone looked at the man speaking. “This meeting had been pre-arranged through one of my staff working at the White House. Peter Westbrook, whom many of you know, ran the agricultural company MonteDiablo up to last year. He called the White House on a satellite phone and wanted to speak to me. I was actually here, in North Carolina, at the time and he was surprised to find out I was not available; he wanted to know where I was, but was not told. Three days later I received a call from Bill Bowers, head of the pharmaceutical group Brűche, who many of you know was the biggest drug company in the U.S. and, I believe the world, up to last year. He wanted a meeting to discuss matters of extreme urgency and I asked him to come to Washington the following day, if it was that urgent. I was informed by the Air Force that he arrived at Andrews in a fully-operational ten years old Gulfstream jet,. The engineers at Andrews wanted to go over it, but the pilots and an armed guard refused them entry; however, they found the exterior of the aircraft to be original and fully operational.”
“How could that be?” Carlos asked. “General Allen’s private aircraft was about the same age, and it had less than ten percent of its electrical equipment working.”
“I was told afterwards that Bowers was pretty upset that air force personnel had inspected his aircraft. It was the same lousy attitude he had when he and a couple of his cronies talked to me—Mark Weinstein and Paul Proker, the CEOs from the drug companies, Hearst and Decibel. They were emphatic that since their three drug companies, and MonteDiablo, the agricultural company, had lost nearly a trillion dollars each in assets and business since New Year’s Eve, that they should receive the help of the entire country’s infrastructure to rebuild so they can supply the United States with their products.”
“Why?” asked Mike Mallory. “Look around this airfield. Look at all the healthy people around here. We know the U.S. population is not as well off as the people who are living here at Preston’s airfield, but I’ve seen hundreds of thousands of average civilians and military personnel over the last couple of months. I have always personally handed out food, and I always noticed that the survivors, the people who are still out there, are very strong and healthy; far healthier than the people I used to fly around for Southwest Airlines. I can’t remember when I last noticed an overweight person. Remember the trouble Southwest got into when they used to ask extremely overweight people to leave our aircraft?” The Americans in the room nodded.
“Who still needs the drugs from these companies?” asked Preston. “I’m sure most of the people dependent on those drugs are no longer alive.”
“That’s exactly what I told them,” continued the president. “I informed them that even the First Family hadn’t taken so much as an aspirin since New Year’s Eve.”
“What about MonteDiablo? What did they have to do with the meeting?” asked Mike Mallory.
“We had been in the meeting for less than thirty minutes, and in walks Peter Westbrook. He had just landed at Andrews in the exact same type of Gulfstream as the three drug CEOs. I was told the only difference was the numbers on the tails.”
“Very odd!” commented General Patterson. “Where did they fly in from? Did you ask, Mr. President?”
“I did and they weren’t very forthcoming… what range do those Gulfstreams have, General?” the president asked Patterson. The general got on his satellite phone to Andrews and it took only a couple of minutes to get the answer he needed.
“They were Gulfstream Vs, range over 6,000 miles. They could have flown in from anywhere in North America, even Europe or parts of Asia non-stop,” the general replied. “But, they should be pieces of junk with at least 90 percent of their electronics non-operational.” He thought for a few seconds. “Mo Wang, could you enlighten us from Zedong’s perspective on why these two jets are still flying?” The room was silent.
“General, I don’t know any more than you. I also cannot understand how these aircraft did not get produced with parts from Zedong electronics, but we could look at similar parts in the Z-10 helicopters. Some parts could be fitted to both aircraft; directional systems, radar, communications, and if we get a second chance, have a few of the Chinese engineers inspect the aircraft when they are available.”
“Good idea,” added Carlos, and Preston raised his eyebrows at Carlos’ remark. “They must have had Chinese parts fitted into their flight systems at some time, especially if they were made by Raytheon or Bendix King and especially Garmin. We know they used these defunct parts in
everything they fitted into all modern aircraft worldwide. These jets began flying between 1997 and 1998 I believe, and if they are even the oldest Gulfstream Vs flying, they would have had Zedong parts in them.”
“Or the parts were changed before New Year’s Eve?” Preston offered, and everybody suddenly looked at him. There was again silence in the room.
“Could these companies be in cahoots with Zedong Electronics?” asked Admiral Rogers.
“And why would they flaunt their fancy jets right in front of our noses?” General Patterson asked.
“Unless they have more power and security than we know, and want us to realize they are a force to be reckoned with?” suggested Preston.
“What did they actually want from you, Mr. President?” Carlos asked.
“Very simple,” he replied. “To halt all future production across the United States and go to their aid to rebuild their factories and supply them with labor. Also, re-introduce the dollar immediately, and get Wall Street and the banks up and running. Peter Westbrook simply wanted every farmer in the country to be forced to purchase his products, stocks of which, he declared were enough to feed this country and most of the western world.”
“And Westbrook and MonteDiablo have enough stockpiled to do this?” Admiral Rogers asked.
“It seems so, with the world’s reduced population,” the president responded.
“Isn’t that good?” the admiral asked.
“I don’t actually know,” the president replied. “In the last several years they had invited, or persuaded farmers to purchase their GMO, genetically modified products. I’ve had so many conflicting reports from the USDA, farming groups and other interested parties in my term of office that I stayed away from the discussions. I had enough problems trying to get our troops home; even closing Guantanamo was a never ending fight with the Pentagon.”
“There was a lot of controversy, I remember,” General Patterson added. “It wasn’t my line of interest. But, I think we are getting away from our immediate problem, which is, did they threaten you, Mr. President?”
“Not directly; they just made it clear that the U.S. would be far better off if medications were made Number One on the priority list and Westbrook’s products Number Two. They were certainly very polite and direct and to the point. I felt much like a lamb being sized up for dinner by a tiger or a lion; which part to bite first. You know what I mean?”
“What was the final outcome of the meeting yesterday?” General Patterson asked.
“They want me to immediately send groups of electricians and engineers to seven of their main production plants around the country and get them up and running again. Then they want troops to guard these production plants, reintroduce the dollar into the economy and, Westbrook wanted every farmer to purchase his products from locations he is supposed to be setting up across the country, on credit.”
“Yes, I heard of one of these new locations, twenty miles north of Kansas City, where the farmers are being told to get their agricultural products on account and that they would not be charged for them until the economy gets going again,” added Mike Mallory. “There was a report of a farmer who refused to accept their help, and he hasn’t been seen since. This was only a week ago.”
“Sounds bad to me,” suggested Preston.
“I would like to have these new locations inspected by the new police force,” stated General Patterson, and the others around the table nodded.
“I will get as much ground information as I can,” added Mike.
“I think we should get these guys back for a meeting with you, Mr. President,” suggested Carlos. “Say, in a week’s time. I could search for any transponder use from the Gulfstreams as they fly towards Washington by bringing the Navistar satellite closer towards the atmosphere. That will take about 72 hours. General Patterson, maybe the gunships could be put out in a spider’s web to monitor radio signals from unknown traffic heading towards Washington? Admiral Rogers, you have those two Hurricane Hunters; may I assume their weather instruments could source out unidentified flying aircraft up to a reasonable distance?”
“A good 500 to 600 miles,” replied Admiral Rogers.
“If these guys have Gulfstreams flying, and they were in cahoots with Zedong Electronics, they could have an army of Chinese troops protecting them, a base of operations and modern weapons as protection… hold on,” and Carlos thought for a couple of seconds. “General Patterson, the 747 transporter couldn’t fly from Harbin, China to JFK nonstop. It doesn’t have the range. We used Hawaii to refuel, they didn’t. Where would they have refueled the transporter to get it into New York at the very beginning?”
Everybody thought this one out and General Patterson pulled a map of the United States and a map of the world out of his briefcase. Then he phoned Major Wong, who happened to be flying the 747 transporter towards Colombia. The general switched the phone on to speaker, so that everybody in the room could hear.
“Maximum range, fully loaded 4,970 miles, Sir. That is the absolute limit and I wouldn’t fly it further than 4,800 miles with the loads we are carrying today. We have this baby full of very heavy electrical parts and motors, Miniguns and ammo, and I think we have exchanged at least a hundred miles of range for cargo weight.”
“How heavy do you believe the aircraft was when we watched her fly into JFK for the first time in January?” The general asked.
“I would say at normal load, 4,900 mile range minus head winds and other weather problems; since her end-station was only New York City, they must have allowed for problematic weather patterns, I would say a maximum range of 4,500 miles.”
“Thank you Wong, fly safe. Out,” replied the general ending the phone conversation “So, gentlemen, the Chinese pilots flying a heavy load into JFK with no alternate landing possibilities would have taken off from a base within 4,500 miles of New York. That’s about a quarter of the globe.”
“Didn’t the transporter fly in with the other 747s, which could fly non-stop from Harbin, and possibly Shanghai?” asked Carlos.
“Your point, Carlos?” asked the general.
“Somewhere they joined into formation, so the transporter would have had to fly in a direction to join them, which needed a second leg, and a shorter range. The aircraft could not have flown a straight leg into New York and the airfield it took off from must have been close to the polar route the 747s took.”
“Good point!” replied the general. “Which means, they must have another air base in Western Russia, Canada, or even Alaska? The 747 transporter must have taken off somewhere closer to the Arctic.”
“Can we check its black box, or flight-recording data on board,” asked Preston?
“We tried months ago and found that the black box, transponder, and all recording devices were missing,” replied General Patterson. “There was absolutely no recorded flight data at all anywhere on all the captured Chinese Airlines aircraft.” There was silence as the general looked over the map.
“Canada would have been too cold. They would have headed pretty far north though, to get away from prying eyes, setting up their base,” suggested Admiral Rogers.
“Russia, or Alaska, or its outlying islands sound like a good places?” suggested the president, and General Patterson worked out distances westwards from JFK.
“JFK to Anchorage is 3,336 miles; Japan and Vladivostok are too far, and they didn’t go into Hawaii, so I think Alaska is in a good position for a refueling point, but where? Do you know how big Alaska is?” General Patterson asked.
“Yes, it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack,” agreed Carlos. “But, if we can catch their incoming flight direction into Andrews, we could backtrack the direction, and if we just so happen to have one of Admiral Rogers’ Hurricane Hunters flying high out of Elmendorf Air Force Base, it might even see the aircraft’s direction closer to its departure point. The second Hurricane Hunter could be directly north of Andrews, say over northern Canada if the Gulfstream flies in on a polar r
oute.”
“Great idea, Carlos,” commended General Patterson. “We could, as you say, have a spider’s web of outer aircraft, say 3,000 miles out over Anchorage and Canada, a middle sweep of AC-130 gunships, say, 2,000 miles out, and our radar capabilities will pick them up at 700 to 900 miles distance. They will have good pilots, and I’m sure will not fly in directly, but rather come in from different directions; when our radar picks them up, it will make us think they are arriving from Europe or somewhere. They have enough range to fly in circles around the U.S. if they want to, and I‘m sure they will pick up our radar as soon as it finds them.”
“I’ll bet a Yuengling on Alaska,” smiled the president.
“And what happens if you are wrong?” asked Preston.
“I’ll give you my job, the Oval Office… and my comfortable bed at the White House,” stated the president.
“Mo Wang, what can you tell us about this new information that you haven’t told us already? Anything you can remember, something small that might be relevant to this discussion,” General Patterson asked.
“I have been going over many things in my mind while you were discussing the problem,” answered Mo. “The private jet aircraft of the Chairman was also a Gulfstream. I remember seeing it in Harbin, a white one and I thought it a very expensive aircraft. Once, I saw two of the same aircraft together, in December 2011, I think; I wondered why the Chairman needed two aircraft. Both aircraft were only there for a matter of hours.
“I did have a conversation with my friend Colonel Rhu, who was the base commander at Harbin. I met with him in Hawaii a few days after we left China to attack the South Americans. He was quite surprised about the nuclear missiles at the second base.”
“He didn’t know about them?” General Patterson asked.
“No, he was surprised we only found the big one. He remembered the smaller nuclear missiles which came into his airfield beginning in 2010. I told him three of the Pakistani missiles had been fired on China, and he was surprised that we didn’t find more at the location.”