by Paul Phipps
So with that in mind, they recognize they require outside assistance. So my opinion is that we give it to them.” Admiral Crane stated candidly.
“And on a different topic, we need them too. We and most of the other nations have citizens behind that Force Shield in the IUR. And the TSN is the only way out. And that special that FOX/CNN ran this evening showed the base they have built on the moon to hold the Expatriates.
They are even going to pay these people a huge sum for their inconvenience! Let alone the fact that we have a place now that we can take our Garbage and Hazardous materials and get oil in return. So yes, we need to help them.” The Secretary of State said emphatically.
“But on the other hand the Congress has not even taken up your bill to authorize a ‘working relationship’ with the TSN.” The National Security Advisor reminded them.
“If we don’t show that we are worthy of being a partner now then what good will it be if we do so later.” Captain Keppler pointed out. “And as I am becoming more and more familiar with their technology, I can say forthrightly, if we blow this… We might as well admit that we will be nothing more than a third rate nation in a generation. What they have shown us so far is beyond amazing.
Commander Webster was NOT blowing smoke when he said the Epiphany was entirely self-supporting. And that is in every way possible. You blow this chance to help then you just might find that we lose access to everything.”
“Leaving aside all of that stuff, “General Duval the commanding General of Fort Detrick told the people attending the Video Conference, “I believe that my staff here at Fort Detrick need to be on the scene to help in the evaluation and clean-up of this Bio-War Agent. You people really have no idea how fucking deadly some of the stuff we have here is. And yes I’ve heard some of you talk about the TSN being alarmist over doomsday weapons that will wipe out the entire Human Race.
I’m telling you right now, that they were not making it up. This is beyond top-secret stuff here. During the President-for-life’s reign an agent was developed that had that very characteristic. It was to be held over the heads of the people opposing him and his regime. If they didn’t stop and surrender, then nobody would win because we would all be dead.
And when we did a complete item by item inventory… There were two vials missing, I’m not saying the IUR has them, but it is a possibility. It’s a definite possibility that we need to make sure is or isn’t true. Because that agent has no cure, and has no vaccine, so yes, we NEED to help them out.”
TSN Companion, 0915L, Sunday, November 15, 2026
Ansel, Evan and Gunnar are sharing a late breakfast together. Ariadne has been watching the FOX/CNN News channels looking for any mention of the TSN and the IUR.
“As they agreed to when we authorized the interview both the FOX/CNN network and the Oman Channel 5 have broadcast your entire three and half hour briefing. The network has even made the entire briefing available for download on their INSTA News Portal.
The various Pundit shows are mostly just re-hashing what we’ve told them and the President’s Address. I am of the belief that they are being ‘easy’ on us. I’m not sure of their internal reasoning, I’m just glad that they are.
Approval/Disapproval polls on the INSTA News show we currently have a 71% Approval 14% disapproval and the rest are undecided. I read that as it’s up to us to lose that approval by our actions.”
“Thank you Ariadne, that’s good to know.” Ansel commented, “Evana, I need you to do some boring stuff today.”
“And what’s that?” She asked curiously.
“I need you to take Rover and the ISO-Tube carriers and scan our two new hot zones around the bunker. Tube all of the humans first and then all of the mammals you can find. Hopefully we can save most of them.”
“Sure, I’ll handle that. “She replied.
“Gunnar, you and I are taking Comanche and Shoshone up to Tehran and we are going Embassy hopping. We need to coordinate evacuation points for the foreigners here.” Ansel continued, “That should take us most of the day to get set-up.”
“Ariadne, Please line me up as many scouts as possible. I want to start scanning all of the Donkey trails and known smuggling routes, both inside and outside of the IUR. Concentrate on the ones for Mongolia and to Montenegro.
We need to find those two vials ASAP.”
“I’ll get right on it.” She said
“On a different note, any indications from the IUR military on their instructions toward us?” Ansel asked.
“At the moment, no… They appear to be doing mostly civil deployments. And that is mostly around infrastructure points like the Oil Refineries and Food Warehouse locations.” Ariadne told them.
“Preparing for civil unrest, I imagine that they have a lot of experience at that.” Gunnar said.
“Excellent then, if you are done eating, it’s time to get back to work.” Ansel led by example as he put the remains of his large breakfast into the return slot of the table and then headed off to the hanger deck.
Tehran, U.S. Consulate, 1010L, Sunday, November 15, 2026
Ansel and Gunnar have flown their two ‘Scalp-Hunters’ to Tehran. After Locating the U.S. Consulate on the outskirts of the City, Ansel has cautiously landed his vessel in the courtyard. Gunnar has remained hovering overhead as ‘Top Cover’.
“Good morning, Captain,” Ansel told the Marine Captain who had come out of the main building as Ansel had maneuvered Comanche down to the courtyard. They were currently standing in the shade under Comanche as she hovered a mere ten feet off of the ground.
“Good Morning Commander.” The Marine Captain answered back cautiously. “How may I help you?”
“I’m stopping at all of the Embassy and consulates here in the IUR. I have a simple message. If you wish to evacuate out of the IUR the Terran Space Navy will provide transportation and housing for all evacuees.” Ansel told him.
‘Thank you Sir, for the offer, we did see your briefing and news interview on TV. And it did make us all feel better knowing that we can get the hell out of here.” The Captain told him with some feeling.
“If the head of the Consulate is here, I can spend a few minutes answering his questions. If not, here are the instructions for contacting us and what frequencies we will be monitoring.” Ansel told him while holding out a sealed portfolio.
“Mr. Sloan is the head of the mission here Sir, and all of the dependents are on site right now. Can you take them today?” The Captain asked.
“Certainly we can,” Ansel told him warmly, “who do I coordinate with? You or Mr. Sloan?”
“I’ll get tasked to do it. But we should let Mr. Sloan give the order, just so he feels like he’s in control still.” The Captain said with a slight grin.
“No problem from me there. This is your show; I’m just trying to save your lives.” Ansel told him.
The two of them headed inside the consulate to go meet Mr. Sloan. Twenty uneventful minutes later, one of Susannah’s Carried Vessels was overhead and the dependents were getting a thrill ride up a Lift Beam. They stood together as the families walked in groups into the Yellow-Gold Lift Beam. And then ‘swoosh’ up they would go. It took close to 40 minutes before all that were going were up and then they watched the TSN vessel move swiftly straight up into the morning sky.
“On behalf of the U.S. Government and ourselves, thank you Commander Webster. The skeleton staff and the Marine guard force here will work to gather up the rest of our people for evacuation. Knowing our loved ones are safe will take a heavy load off of our minds as we go about that task.” Mr. Sloan told Ansel warmly as he shook hands.
“You are welcome sir. Now I need to get to the next embassy. If you could, please notify all of them that you can so that they have their own dependents ready to evacuate. That will make things move along much quicker. Also we can do daily pick-ups until all foreign nationals are evacuated.”
“What if Iranian Nationals also want to be evacuated?”
; “We will take them too, but they will be placed in a different location from the foreign nationals.” Ansel told him. “Each one will have to be evaluated on an individual basis thereafter as to what their status and disposition will eventually be.
That reminds me, we, the TSN, that is could use a bit of assistance.”
“Oh, doing what?” Mr. Sloan asked warily.
“We are currently trying to track down two vials of the Bio-Weapon. One was reportedly being shipped to Montenegro near Bosnia; the other is heading to Uighurs in Mongolia. If you have any people that have knowledge of the smuggling routes used it would assist us in stopping this thing. Otherwise a lot of people are going to end up dead and more countries are going to be blockaded the same as this one.” Ansel told him in a very grim tone of voice.
Sloan suddenly turned very pale as the blood rushed from his face. He turned to look at another gentleman who had been present most of the time but had not spoken or been introduced to Ansel. Ansel in turned looked at him quizzically, and then gave a slight smile.
“I’m guessing that you might be the resident spook?”
“I suppose so,” He said slowly, “I prefer resident agent. It sounds so much more… Professional.” Then he chuckled. “Just call me Smith, it’s not my name but it works for me.”
“I just bet that you are a Matrix fan, aren’t you?” Ansel said smiling broadly.
“Damn! Not too many people remember those movies.” Agent ‘Smith’ said as he put on his sun glasses. “Got me there… As for your question about the smuggling routes. I can help you out a little there. Do you have a map handy?
“Certainly, …come into my parlor, said the spider to the fly.” Ansel said as he shook the agents hand and touched the lower hull of Comanche, and then ‘Agent Smith’ was gawping with his mouth open as Ansel and he were suddenly in the Entry-room behind the piloting chamber.
“Please have a seat,” Ansel said as he pointed to the two forward chairs, “Comanche please display the Middle East map including Central Europe, Political Map with Road Network overlay first.”
The walls of the pilot chamber cleared then displayed the requested maps. Ansel pulled a small laser pointer/pen out of sleeve pocket and gave it to “Agent Smith’.
“Is this adequate ‘Agent Smith’ or do you think a different set of maps is called for?” Ansel Inquired.
“Well… Let’s see… As long as we can drill down these will be a good start.” He then began a very detailed briefing of the known smuggling routes to Montenegro. The normal conveyances and times required to move cargo depending upon the sensitivity of the cargo being shipped. Drugs and Prostitutes were the most common items. There was an occasional illegal immigration run. The poor immigrants would end up as slaves in Central and Eastern Europe if they hadn’t paid their mules the required upfront fees.
“What do you know of ‘The Donkey Method’?” Ansel asked.
“The Donkey Method? That was the traditional means of moving raw opium base into Europe for processing. Today it isn’t in use much because the various nations have tuned their Infra-Red Scanners for a donkeys’ characteristic one. But it could be a translation error, could they have been talking about ‘mules’ that is a human smuggler carrying the drugs either on their back or in an internal cavity?”
Ansel thought about it for a few minutes. Then he asked ‘Agent Smith’ ”Would you like to hear the original phrase we recorded?”
“If you have it available,” ‘Agent Smith’ said in surprise, “I might be able to figure it out.”
“Comanche please play for the ‘agent’ here our recordings where the phrase was used” Ansel directed his vessel. After hearing the three times that it had been said by different people, ‘Smith’ sat back in confusion.
“I can see why you translated it as the ‘Donkey Method’, I would too, but I think that they are talking the literal animal, as though it was part of an auction or sale. And if that’s so you might be lucky. The Animal Auctions here are usually conducted on Monday’s and Wednesday’s, for some reason lost in antiquity those days are propitious for the dealing in animals.
Ansel/Comm Mode: “Ariadne, Maude, have we analyzed any of the deep interrogation Engrams we’ve made for the possible transportation route and methods for ‘Shaitan’s Breath’? I’m particularly interested in the Colonel Al-Quds’s and that Head Scientist’s whatever his name was. I’m talking to an ‘Agent Smith’ from the American Consulate and he thinks that the method may be via an Animal Auction of Donkeys with the Vial or Vials’ concealed within the Donkeys.”
Maude/Comm Mode: “I had a Sub-AI do the recording and analyzing of the Engrams. And we did it on all of them since they are still contained within the ISO-Tubes.
And for your information only the Head Scientist, whose name by the way is Abdullah Mohammed Mousawi, and one of the other scientists have tested positive for ‘Shaitan’s Breath. All of the others are clean although one of them had some spores on his uniform. I think he got into an ISO-tube in time.
All of them will be kept in the ISO-Tubes for some time to come. Ahhh, now I can answer your initial question. Colonel Al-Quds took the two vials to a Donkey Trader named Faisal in Esfandaran, a town north of Ramsheh where the initial R&D Laboratory was located at an ‘Agricultural Research Station’.
There were to be two Donkeys equipped for smuggling, one was to go to ‘One-ear Hermod’ and the other was for someone called the ‘The Emir of Smugglers’. I hope that’s helpful to you.” She finished up.
Ansel/Comm Mode: “Ariadne, I need you to get a Blockade Shield set up around that ‘Agricultural Research Station’ and another around Ramsheh and Esfandaran. Please have Evana start tubing everyone inside those two areas too. Maude, it appears you are going to have to expand your ‘little Iran’ even more to handle all of the people I’m going to be sending you.”
Ariadne/Comm Mode: “I’m on it Ansel, It’ll be up in ten minutes. I’m assigning Daniel Boone and Sacajawea to deploy their on-board IGD’s to search for those men and the donkeys. Maybe we will get lucky?”
“’Agent Smith’ the information you have given us has been of great use. Before I return you to the Consulate I do have a couple more questions you might be able to help me out with. Have you ever heard of the ‘The Emir of Smugglers’ or ‘One-ear Hermod’?” Ansel inquired.
“The Emir? Oh yeah, we have a huge file on him. His organization smuggles everything. He’s like the UPS of the Mid-East. He guarantees delivery or your money is cheerfully refunded. And he isn’t inexpensive either. But on the other hand he is worth it.
Now One-Ear Hermod, He’s a pretty non-descript sort other than the missing ear. He got that in a knife fight when he was a young and foolish Shaheed in Afghanistan. He managed to live through that and became wise and cynical, which in this part of the world is pretty much the same thing. He only does routes through the Pakistan Province into Afghanistan and the Tribal zones.
He’ll be the guy getting the animal to the Uighurs. He’ll usually have four strings of twenty five Donkeys at a time. Most of them will be used as bribes to get him through with his primary string staying intact until the ultimate destination is reached. A donkey can do about 30 miles a day in the lowlands and hills and 10 to 15 in the mountains. Depending on the weather conditions and the amount of forage available at any one time.”
“And the Emir? How will he do it? And how long has he been operating his smuggling enterprise?” Ansel asked.
“A good question… I’m not sure how he will do it, there are so many ways nowadays including the regular live animal ferry from Latakia in Syria that takes goats and sheep to market in Bulgaria.” Agent Smith said as he thought aloud. “As for how long he’s been in the business? Maybe two or three years, his organization sort of came out of nowhere and bought up or ‘acquired’ some of the already existing smuggling groups and organizations.
The Gypsies were huge at one point but they have mostly cleared out and then the Muslim
Brotherhood took over their routes, Oh… maybe twenty five or thirty years ago. They in turn were eliminated when they overplayed their hands in Libya, Egypt and Bahrain.
The various Monarchies here sent out their ‘wet-work’ people and the Brotherhood pulled in their horns, once they lost a number of ‘leaders’ that is. And especially so once Iran acquired Pakistan and Iraq. This whole place is a mess you know… Fascinating in one way but horribly convoluted especially for an Intelligence operative.”
Ansel nodded with him and then told him, “We’ve confirmed under our ‘deep interrogation’ method that these two men are to be the initial recipient’s and are to smuggle the vials to those two locations. We don’t know who the final deliverer or receivers are though.