by Brad Thor
After the rough details were hammered out, they said good-bye and Ashford hung up the phone. Walking to his study, he removed the encrypted phone he used to contact James Standing and dialed his number. Despite the very late hour back in the States, the billionaire was wide awake.
“I have good news,” said Ashford.
“It can only improve your situation. What is it?”
Standing was still very upset that not only had the LAX attack been nearly completely foiled, none of the other airport attacks had succeeded either. Upon hearing the news, he had called Ashford and chewed him out.
“Reed Carlton has asked me to come over and assist with the investigation in the attacks.”
“Well, you can pack light. He’ll soon learn how useless you are and send you home.”
Ashford fought to keep his anger under control. “For your information, I just learned that it was the Carlton Group who took down the rabbit hutch.”
Standing was silent for a moment. “Finally, you’ve produced something useful. A little bit late, but still useful.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Don’t be a smartass with me, Ashford. If you want attaboys, join a cricket team. I’m paying you for results. So Carlton is dumb enough to think you can somehow help with their investigations. Was there anything else you wanted to waste my time with?”
“They have Oxford’s nephew in custody.”
“Why should we care?”
“Because according to Carlton, Oxford put his nephew in charge of his IT operations.”
“Who the fuck told that hook-handed simpleton that he could do that?” Standing demanded.
Aazim’s handicap should have concerned them from the beginning. In hindsight it wasn’t unthinkable that he would take someone into his confidence to help him with computer-related things, especially a young family member. Believing that the terrorist leader, with nothing but time on his proverbial hands, gladly sat around typing out messages, hunting and pecking on his keyboard with the steel tips of his prosthetic hooks, had been a mistake.
“The good news is that so far, they haven’t been able to get any information out of the nephew. Apparently, he had some sort of heart attack shortly after they took him into custody.”
“And how the hell did they pull that off? I’m assuming the nephew was a Brit. Or was he some backwards-ass relation living in a mud hut in some Arab country?” said Standing.
“He’s British,” replied Ashford, “but to quote Carlton, they grabbed him someplace blond.”
“Uppsala.”
“I think maybe now we know who was seen being laid down in the back of that car and driven away.”
“You’d better make sure the nephew has another heart attack. Do you understand me? I want him silenced.”
“I’ll take care of it,” said Ashford. “Don’t worry.”
“Fuck you, don’t worry. I am worried. Do you have any idea how close we are?”
Ashford had no idea if the question was rhetorical, but knowing Standing, it probably was, so he didn’t bother to reply.
“We’re buying oranges tomorrow,” said the billionaire.
Ashford couldn’t believe it. “So soon?”
“I’m not waiting any longer. I have everything I need in place and that’s all that matters.”
The MI5 man knew that the orange attacks were paired with another color-coded attack, and it reminded him of a nursery rhyme from his youth:
Oranges and lemons,
Say the bells of St. Clement’s.
Bull’s eyes and targets,
Say the bells of St. Marg’ret’s.
Here comes a candle to light you to bed,
And here comes a chopper to chop off your head.
“We’ll need lemons,” said Ashford, pausing. “According to the recipe, that’s the next ingredient. Should I contact our grocer?”
“No,” replied Standing. “I’ll contact him. You go handle things with the Carlton people.”
“I will. I’ll make sure everything is taken care of.”
“You’d better,” said the billionaire. “And one other thing, Robert.”
“What’s that?”
“When the next wedge of black swans sails into their pond, try to look surprised.”
Before Ashford could say anything in return, Standing had once again hung up on him.
CHAPTER 62
NEW YORK CITY
Technology amazed James Standing. Setting his laptop on his living-room table, he marveled at what an incredible instrument it was. With it, he could move markets. He could fund startup companies. He could create political organizations. He could change public perception. He could sow peace. He could bring war. All of it could be done from anywhere he found himself on the planet and it all could be done clandestinely. It was indeed a tool fit for a god.
Yet what did most people do with their computers? They played video games, wasted themselves on so-called social media, or consumed pornography. His contempt for the intellectual lethargy of mankind ran as deep as his belief in mankind’s boundless potential. The planet and its inhabitants could be so much more than they were, but they would never even come close if left to their own devices. They would always choose their narrow self-interest over everything else.
They would never realize how miserable they truly were and how they could transcend that misery. You could paint the most glorious picture of what awaited, but they wouldn’t grasp it. Some might, but the majority, the masses, truly were asses. The only way they would become better people and society would be improved was through force. They couldn’t be led to a better life, they had to be dragged there by the state like the dumb beasts they were.
There would be those whom even force would not be able to persuade. There was only one solution for that problem. The world would be a better place without people who wanted to cling to the status quo. For mankind to survive, for mankind to reach its brilliant potential, not only must there be progress, but all resistance to that progress must be stripped away and destroyed.
What awaited mankind was an earthly paradise of gleaming, golden cities; a perfect socio-politico-legal system in harmony with nature.
What Julia Winston, the young Financial Times reporter, called socialism was actually opportunity. Though it was beaten back repeatedly by small minds, it continued to outstretch its warm and generous hand, waiting to take mankind and civilization forward. Attempts to take mankind into this land of promise had indeed failed in the past, but now it would be different, for one very specific reason. This time, those leading the world forward had an advantage those before them did not-they had technology. Technology was what would allow the enlightened to shift the paradigm and move human beings to the next stage in their evolution.
Powering up his laptop, Standing engaged two more pieces of technology that amazed him, Skype and an absolutely fluid translation platform that made him appear the perfect Arabic speaker.
As salam Alaikum, Mustafa Karami typed when he saw his benefactor had logged on to speak with him. Peace be upon you.
Wa ‘alaykumu s-sal•mu wa rahmatu l-l•hi wa barak•tuh, Standing replied, using the formal response he thought befitting his Sheikh from Qatar persona, May Allah’s blessings be upon you.
Karami was quick to accentuate the positive of the past two days. Allahu Akbar. We rejoice for the brothers who have gone to paradise.
Allahu Akbar, Standing typed. Inna Lillaahi Wa Inna Ilayhi Rajiun. God is great. To Allah we belong and to Allah we return.
Robert Ashford didn’t like it that Karami got his marching orders from two different sources. Standing didn’t care what he thought. Sometimes, he liked to delegate the job to Ashford, sometimes he liked to pull the figurative trigger himself. He also liked to convey the impression to Karami and the others that they were part of a very large organization, which they were.
We stand ready to serve in Allah’s great and just cause, wrote Karami.
I bet you
do, thought Standing. Why was I not told about the Mufti’s nephew? The Mufti of Jihad was the pen name Aazim Aleem had been known by throughout the Muslim world for his sermons on jihad.
It took Karami a moment to type his response. To his credit, he didn’t lie. You should have been told.
You’re damn right I should have been, was what Standing wanted to say, but instead he wrote, Where is the nephew now?
We do not know.
If the authorities have him, how much of a danger will he be to our operation?
That we also do not know.
Standing was further tempted to ask what the hell they did know, but then Karami added to his last transmission saying, We must assume he knows everything the Mufti himself knew.
So, Karami wasn’t a complete fool after all. I agree, typed Standing.
We stand ready, the terrorist stated again.
Standing typed the words Orange and Yellow, then hit Send.
When?
Orange is to happen Monday, replied Standing, who had been wrestling with the timing for the follow-up. He needed the orange attacks to get extensive, deep coverage before the next attack. It was a gamble, though. If Aazim’s nephew knew everything the uncle did and the Carlton Group broke him, he’d be lucky to see any more attacks.
And yellow? Karami asked.
Wait forty-eight hours after the orange events have been reported. Then you may launch yellow.
Insha’Allah, we will be much more successful this time.
Insha’Allah, Standing agreed before ending the conversation and exiting Skype.
The Chinese seemed almost to have designed this next wave of attacks with him in mind. Not only would it help further push the United States into a state of incredibly disruptive chaos, but he had even found a way to profit by it. America was indeed an incredible country.
CHAPTER 63
NORTHERN VIRGINIA
After leaving the Carlton Group offices, Harvath had driven straight home, taken a quick shower, shaved, and fallen into bed. He wasn’t going to be any good to anyone if he didn’t get some rest.
When his phone rang, it drew him out of a very deep sleep. Fumbling blindly over the nightstand, he felt around until he found his BlackBerry. Without opening his eyes, he activated the call and brought the device to his ear.
“Scot, it’s Nicholas,” said the little man from up in Reston. “I think I found something.”
“Have you been to sleep at all?”
“No. Listen, you asked me to look into connections between Standing, Ashford, and the attacks.”
“What did you find?” asked Harvath.
“Remember the bomber in Chicago, the one who blew himself up several weeks ago before he could take down that building above the Amtrak tracks?”
“One hundred North Riverside Plaza. Yeah, I remember.”
“Well, I was looking at all of the dots on the map again, trying to figure out what they all meant. Then I threw Standing into the mix and that’s where I think I found something.”
Harvath continued to lie there with his eyes closed. “Keep going.”
“The unrestricted warfare plan calls for terrorist attacks that not only sow fear and cause massive loss of life and property damage, but also do dramatic economic damage, right?”
“Right.”
“James Standing has also called for economic damage to the United States. In fact, he has been quite vocal about it. That got me thinking. If he’s the driving force behind all of this, the guy who put up the money to finance hijacking the blueprint from the Chinese, would he be bold enough to try to turn a profit from all of this?”
“I don’t think Standing got rich by being stupid.”
“You obviously haven’t had much exposure to bankers,” said Nicholas. “I have.”
“You’re saying they’re stupid?”
“No, not stupid, they’re aggressive; very aggressive, and they’re smart as hell. They’re risk-takers to the nth degree, and James Standing is no different. It’s well-informed gambling in most cases, and in some it’s counting cards and dealing from the bottom of the deck.”
“Cheating,” mumbled Harvath.
“Yes.”
“So what did you find?”
“I looked at all the color-coded dots on our map again, but this time from a financial perspective. I asked myself how I would try to make money out of these attacks, and that’s when it hit.
“I don’t think the failed bomber in Chicago was targeting 100 North Riverside Plaza because it was built above the train tracks. That might have been part of it, but if so, it was secondary.”
“What was the primary reason, then?”
“It was home to Boeing’s corporate headquarters,” said Nicholas.
“You think the bomber wanted to bring down the entire building just to get to Boeing?”
“I do,” replied the little man, “and it’s not just Boeing. I think this is what the orange dots are all about. The one thing they have in common is that they’re in cities from Fairfield, Connecticut, to Palo Alto, California, that are home to the corporate headquarters of all the companies that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Can you imagine taking out all thirty headquarters at once? Do you have any idea the economic chaos that would cause, especially if you timed it so that most, if not all, of the senior management was present when the buildings came down?”
Harvath’s eyes were wide open now and he propped himself up in bed. “That would be huge.”
“It wouldn’t just be huge, it would be game over. Let’s set aside for a moment that the Dow is basically a BS indicator-”
“What do you mean? The Dow is the financial indicator everyone looks at.”
“No,” Nicholas clarified, “it’s the indicator that retail investors look at. Since 1910 it has been on an upward trajectory. The funny thing is that only one of the thirty companies that make up the Dow has been there over the last hundred years and that’s GE. It’s a massive psychological operation. If a company does poorly, it gets yanked, so the Dow can keep climbing.”
“So if it’s all BS, what difference does it make if it takes a hit?”
“Regardless of what you think of the index, the companies on it are currently some of the best-performing in the United States. A massive, coordinated terrorist attack, wiping out just the top twenty-five people in each company, in effect their intellectual horsepower, could absolutely devastate their stock and, in turn, the financial markets.”
“If your goal was to collapse the United States,” said Harvath, “why not go right for the Dow attack then?”
“To soften the battlefield. I’d want to sow as much chaos and panic as possible. I think it’s brilliant. Make people across the country feel that they aren’t physically safe anywhere and then take all their money away in a financial crisis, and they’ll beg for a return to normalcy. Start throwing in more attacks after that, and they’ll give up anything and stand behind anyone who promises to return things to the way they were. At that point, America, as its citizens know it, is over and is never coming back.”
Having studied history, Harvath knew that once people gave up their freedom in order to restore order, that freedom was never returned. He didn’t even want to consider that this was possible, but he knew that it was and he knew that they had to figure out a way to prevent it from happening. “You’re sure that’s what the orange dots represent?”
“As sure as I can be,” he replied. “But it’s not just because of the locations. I found something else, and it’s exactly what I would do if I were James Standing and thought I was smarter than everyone else and wouldn’t get caught.”
“What is it?”
“Beginning six weeks ago, significant bets were placed that all thirty companies making up the Dow were going to drastically lose value over the subsequent three months.”
“You mean someone is shorting them?”
“That’s the way it looks,” said Nicholas. “Very much in the
same way options were purchased against United and American Airlines stocks right before 9/11.”
“Is it Standing?” Harvath asked.
“I said people like Standing were aggressive, not stupid. The shorts lead back to a series of holding companies, most of them offshore. I’m trying to use the TIP to pierce them. In the meantime, though, what should we do about my hypothesis?”
“If you were going to try to take out the senior management of all these companies, when would you do it?”
Nicholas thought about it for a moment. “Maybe at a corporate retreat or a shareholders’ or board of directors’ meeting.”
“I’m talking about all thirty companies at once and at a time when as many of those people would likely be at their corporate headquarters.”
“If you’re speaking Monday through Friday, then I would say definitely do it on a Monday.”
Harvath looked at his watch. It was technically already Monday. “DuPont Chemical is up in Wilmington, Delaware. They’re still part of the Dow, right?”
“Yes. Why? What are you thinking?”
“I think we need to check out your hypothesis.”
“You only want to check out DuPont?” asked Nicholas. “Why not warn all of them?”
“Because, in light of the attacks we’ve just suffered, everything is already on edge. If word got out that we thought these companies were targets, it would create a panic that could be just as bad as if they were attacked.”
Harvath had a good point. “You’re right,” agreed Nicholas. “What do you want to do?”
“Have you called the Old Man yet?”
“No, I wanted to talk to you first.”
“Anything out of Iceland?”
“Nothing yet.”
Harvath had already gotten out of bed. “Okay,” he stated. “I’ll call Reed. You keep working on things there.”
“You’re going up to DuPont, aren’t you?”
“I am.”
“Well, you’re going to need help,” said Nicholas. “I’m looking at pictures of the building their headquarters is in right now. It takes up an entire city block and is thirteen stories tall. You can’t possibly search the entire thing by yourself.”