Anita said “Hello.” Henry answered, “Hi, Anita. It’s Henry. We need to meet, I have something important to discuss relative to our last discussion.” Henry was being circumspect in case anyone was eavesdropping or wiretapping. “Anita figured it out. “Why, of course Henry. But aren’t you sick?” “I’m fine now, Anita. Could we have dinner at 6:00 PM?” “Umm, OK Henry, but where are we going?” Henry noticed her hesitation. “How about Café Imogene, my treat?” “Wow, OK Henry. Are you sure you can afford that place? It is very expensive.” “Sure, Anita; No problem, money comes out my nose.” Having said it, Henry felt like an idiot. “OK, Henry, pick me up at my condo at 5:30. I’m at 3500 Wilshire Boulevard, condo number 54.” “See you then,” said Henry as he hung up. Henry already knew where Anita lived. He had hacked the personnel system at work long ago. He knew her birthday and many other things. He called the café and made reservations.
He didn’t have much time. He showered and shaved. He found his best suit and dressed. A little later he flew out the door and drove off. Picking up Anita went smoothly and there was small talk. He had indicated that their serious discussion was best done in the restaurant where background noise would make it hard to eavesdrop. Henry knew he was being overcautious, but that was HG’s rule. “Better overly cautious, then caught” was their motto. They walked into the café and the maître d’ led then toward the center of the room. Henry noticed a table in the corner in a dimly lit area. It appealed to his sense of conspiracy and perhaps his romantic vision. “Could we have the corner table?” “Sorry, no, that is reserved for special customers.” Henry responded, “Could we step aside for a moment. Excuse us, Anita.” Henry reached into his wallet and extracted a fifty dollar bill and discretely passed it to the maitre d’. “Does that make me special enough?” “Come with me.” Henry signaled Anita to come with them. Once seated, Anita asked, “How much did that cost?” “Fifty dollars: we needed the privacy.” Henry almost added the romantic angle, but decided against it. Too soon, he thought. Anita looked at him and smiled. “I think it’s romantic, too.” Henry couldn’t believe his ears. Now he felt even worse about what he had to do.
Henry explained the duplicity of RGen. That case was airtight with the emails between the CEO and the CFO. By inference, it looked like President Chung bought into the greed, but there was enough wiggle room that she could make the case she wasn’t involved. Anita gasped, “Why those greedy bastards! Maybe even the President is part of this. I can’t believe that people would sell their souls for money. How could they let all those people die unnecessarily? Don’t they care about children? My child?” Henry knew he had her now, but he felt rotten about it.
“Henry, we have to expose RGen.” “Not we, Anita, just you. I never wanted anyone to know, but I got caught by the FBI for hacking when I attended college. I got off easy, but I am constantly monitored. If I get caught again, I will go away for a long time. I can’t take the chance. But you can. Nobody is watching you on their radar. I can encrypt things so that it is nearly impossible to trace anything back to you. Even if you got caught, which is highly unlikely, you would get off easy. No jury would convict you for exposing the RGen conspiracy because you didn’t want children to die.” Henry lied well. He had never been caught. If he had, he wouldn’t have HG membership. The rest he felt was true. He would do his damnedest to protect Anita. He wondered what his chances for romance might be down the road, given what he had done.
Henry drove Anita home after dinner. He had convinced her to start her You Tube video right away, as each minute might save another life. Once at her computer, he showed her how to do the video with the small camera and mike he added to her computer system. He printed out the emails and other damning information currently on his USB key. He explained that whenever she filmed or downloaded to make sure the second USB key was plugged into the USB port. “This USB key contains software that will encrypt everything you do so that it goes out encrypted. The program will piggyback a subroutine on the transmitted data and will de-code your video when it arrives at the You Tube site. Then the attached mini-program will self- destruct. No one will be able to track it back to your computer when it goes over the internet. It will also make the phony email that you provide acceptable and untraceable. If the FBI tracks it, it will go through several hundred machines around the globe and then spontaneously disappear. It is foolproof. I think you should call yourself “Telltale Rose.” “Don’t worry about facial identity either. Just wear this mask. The mask looked like a white ceramic mask from an opera. “Gosh, Henry, you’ve thought of everything!” She reached over and gave him a kiss on his cheek. Henry took his leave, feeling guilty about what he had done. He was confident Anita wouldn’t get caught, but not absolutely certain. He would have HG monitor her computer activities around the clock.
Anita spent the next few hours reading the material that had been printed. She wore latex gloves as Henry had told her to do. The next morning Anita called in sick to work. She spent much of the day rehearsing her dialogue. Finally she was ready. Anita, aka, Telltale Rose, performed her expose with the passion that only a mother trying to protect her children could do. After it was done, she pressed the download button and immediately dialed Henry’s cell phone. When he answered, she simply said, “It’s done,” and hung up. Then wearing the latex gloves, she packed the email copies into the brown manila envelope that Henry had provided. It was preaddressed to a reporter that was friendly to previous HG exposés. The preprinted letter that Henry provided explained everything and gave the title of the You Tube video from “Telltale Rose.” The video was entitled “RGen, Murderer of my Child and Yours.” Anita slid regular gloves over her hands and walked out the door to a mailbox some blocks away rather than using the one near her. She did everything as Henry had specified.
Henry notified HG of the video and then went to the You Tube site to watch it. The video opened with Anita wearing the white ceramic mask. She had painted a pink rose on one cheek. Nice touch thought Henry. The white background created by the hanging sheet behind Anita gave no discernable clue to where the video was filmed. Henry listened. RGen, Murderer of my Children and Yours flashed on the screen and rolled out of the speakers. Henry hit the play button.
“Hi, this is Telltale Rose. I’m speaking for the children especially, but also for you and me. A vaccine and cure for the Blue Flu virus was announced by Dr. John Cabrot, but where is it? Surely, our technology level in the United States is not the problem. So what is? Many of us suspected corporate greed and politics as usual, but there is no proof. Well, I have the proof that the RGen Corporation, specifically the CEO and the CFO, are playing with the lives of my child, your children, your grandchildren, and our lives as parents and grandparents. President Chung might or might not be part of the problem. The evidence suggests she is holding out for corporate donations when she runs for election. If President Chung isn’t part of this greed, then why isn’t she using the Emergency Powers Act to take over the corporation and produce vaccines and DRACO at reasonable prices?”
“My proof consists of leaked emails between the CEO and the CFO, Donald Janes and Scot Scofield. These emails were provided by the group called HG. I’m sure you know that their past leaks have proven true and very damning to those from whence they came. I have sent copies of all these emails to the NY Times. Check their website, read their paper. It’s all there. However, I will take a moment to read a few excerpts to show you the astounding lack of concern for the ordinary people below the 1%. Here’s an email exchange between Mr. Donald Janes and Mr. Scot Scofield.”
Email 1. “Scot, you have to put your feelings behind you. This is the opportunity of a lifetime. Both of us will be rich beyond our wildest dreams. All we have to do is set up an offshore Caribbean account that only you and I have the password for. The convoluted paper trail will make it impossible to trace us as the owners. Bribes will keep the island bankers and politicians quiet. Each of us will own 50%. I’m sure you can use creative boo
kkeeping to skim funds into the account. No one will notice, given the huge profits we’ll make on the vaccine and DRACO. People will be too worried about saving their sorry asses to notice at all. So, are you with me, Scot?”
Email 2. “OK, Don, but I am a little troubled by the fact that our production delay while we negotiate the final price will result in some people dying. However, a bigger question for me is the Emergency Powers Act. President Chung could just have the government seize our corporation and make the vaccine and DRACO at the cheapest possible price. What’s to stop her from doing it?”
Email 3. “Leave that to me, Scot. Chung might be falling for my bait of huge corporate donations for her campaign after her term as the fill-in President ends. I won’t push her too much harder. I am within one more discussion of broaching a donation deal. We’re almost there, Scot. So a few more lives are lost. It won’t matter in the long run.”
“So, people are you outraged? In their greed these two men, already part of the 1%, are willing to murder our children so that they can next be part of the 0.1%. Is President Chung playing the game, too? If you’re not, President Chung, use your power to shut these two sad excuses for people down. Are you a corporate president, or a peoples’ president, President Chung? We will be watching.”
“Anyone listening to me should email or call their Senator, their Representative, and the White House to express your outrage, your disbelief that this travesty could happen in your country. Take America back from the global corporations and the politicians.”
“Thank you for listening. I am Telltale Rose and I speak for the children and all others who think life is too precious to leave in the hands of those with greed in their hearts and blood on their hands.”
Wow, what a show, thought Henry. He typed into his keyboard. The HG group set into motion their various software programs that would boost Anita’s You Tube video to the top of search lists for anything to do with the virus, vaccine, DRACO, or the aliens. While HG was convinced the video would go viral, this action would speed up the process. They also set into motion many hijacked machines, unbeknownst to their owners, to begin emailing the White House simply saying “I am outraged!” It wasn’t long after that action that the White House internet site crashed from the barrage of anger.
President Chung called an emergency meeting of her advisors the very next morning in the White House. Because she was the President, she and all the White House staff received the very first batches of vaccine and had left their secret bunker. “How do we handle this assault on my credibility?” Looking around at her team, she could see that they all believed she was guilty of holding out for campaign funds. Still, they didn’t hold it against her, knowing that these things were just part of politics and how the party stayed in power. A very spirited discussion ensued. Toward the end of the meeting, President Chung summarized the course of action. “First, I will show plausible deniability to the people. Then I will have the military seize RGen corporate headquarters and all their U.S. manufacturing facilities. Next I will fire the CEO and CFO and replace them with our trusted replacements. I will have the Justice Department investigate, but not too deeply. We’ll arrange some type of plea bargain to keep them quiet or throw them into prison if they don’t cooperate. I think that threat will keep them quiet, as they won’t last long in prison given what they did. I will also release as much of the vaccine and DRACO as possible right away. That should buy some quiet from the public. Finally, for those most definite congressional inquiries, I will refuse to appear, citing Executive Privilege. In time, this fiasco will die down. Your last recommendation, however, I do not accept. While you counsel that I should leave Telltale Rose alone and HG, I can’t. They broke the law. Thank you, this meeting is over.”
A few of her advisors had the decency to consider her rejection hypocritical, given her twisting of the law on her behalf. However, they kept these thoughts to themselves. President Chung lingered for a few minutes before leaving the room. She was livid. Thinking everyone was gone, she spoke aloud to herself. “That bitch, I’ll get her. She’s a powerless nobody. No one can do this to a sitting President. I’ll squash her like a bug.” Picking up her tablet, she said, “Note to self. Get the FBI cyber-agents on this case immediately.” Jason Ingels stopped abruptly at the room’s door. He had come back to pick up his briefcase which he had left under the chair. When he heard her comments, he turned quietly away. He would come back later for the briefcase. Jason Ingels was a man of conscience, but also protected his ass at every chance. He was highly conflicted, but what could he do?
That same evening, President Chung went on television. ‘My fellow Americans, I am shocked and every bit outraged as you about this alleged price fixing scandal at RGen. I negotiated with RGen in good faith, believing that they were doing everything possible to price the vaccine and DRACO at a fair market price that would result in fast production and give them a minimal profit. If I am guilty of anything, it is for taking them at face value. In retrospect, I should have involved others in the negotiations that had knowledge of production costs. For that failure, I take full responsibility. I never discussed campaign contributions. (In her mind, she said, Not a lie, I let them discuss those areas.) As I speak, the army under the direction of General of the Armed Forces Tyler Straub has seized control of RGen corporate headquarters and manufacturing facilities in the United States. The CEO, Donald Janes, and the CFO, Scot Scofield, have been fired and placed into protective custody, pending the outcome of the Justice Department’s investigation. They have been replaced with two trusted knowledgeable men, whose vast experience in pharmaceuticals will result in speedy production of vaccine and DRACO. Their credentials are available at www.gov/new CEO and CFO. The new CEO, Logan White, has assured me that production will ramp up immediately and that all existing vaccine and DRACO recently manufactured will be released immediately to the public. Please continue to check scheduling at www. Gov/vaccine/schedule. God bless and good night.”
The voice-over video narrator cut in at this point in the video. With much arm twisting, huge supplies of the vaccine and DRACO were finally produced by the pharmaceutical corporations. Later payments came from the U.S. government, but at a much lower profit than those companies were accustomed to. Still, it was all profit, as the Emergency Powers Act prohibited any and all lawsuits over the usage of the vaccine or DRACO. While lawyers protested, they didn’t push too hard, fearing the backlash from a very grateful civilian population. Unfortunately, deaths continued before DRACO could reach all the early infected cases. Third world countries were particularly hard hit, as were major global cities with dense populations. Still, it would have been much worse without the activities of people like Dr. John Cabrot, Dr. Ralph Miller, Dr. Ahmed Gupta, and General Straub. The United States, indeed the world, owes these individuals a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid. While it would be nice to say Anita and Henry were appreciated by all for their efforts to speed up vaccine and DRACO, it wasn’t to be.
President Chung did turn out to be vindictive. She pressured the FBI’s cyber-agents to use every resource to identify the hackers who comprised HG and especially, Telltale Rose. They were to be arrested and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. While the FBI Director, Clark Montauk was not happy with this demand, he knew that it had to be done. The FBI was never able to penetrate the HG group, but they did finally get to Telltale Rose. The cyber group monitored all telephone communications across the United States on land lines and cell phones constantly with a computer program called VERA, Voice Enhanced Recognition Analysis. This program compared the recording of Telltale Rose’s voice to every ongoing conversation. In one week the program found a cell phone number that yielded a voice pattern that approached a 99% probability of being Telltale Rose.
Clark Montauk called the President with the news. President Chung was in her office going over some campaign future planning with Jason Ingels, one of her trusted political advisors. President Chung picked up her desk pho
ne. “President Chung, you have a call from FBI Director Montauk. He says it is very important. Should I transfer it?” “Yes, now.” She pressed the speaker phone button and gave a hand signal to Jason to stay as he was getting up. “Madame President, I have some good news. We have identified Telltale Rose using voice recognition technology with almost absolute confidence through her cell phone, 315 724-9999. When I hang up, I will contact the New York office and send the agents there. They have to drive to upstate New York; I anticipate we’ll have her in about four hours more or less.” Jason sat there horrified. The President’s vindictive words he had overheard just last week rose again in his head. Without thinking he wrote the number down on his pad while the President was preoccupied. President Chung turned to him and said, “One loose end tied up. Maybe this will give them a lead to the HG people. Now, where were we, Jason?”
After the meeting was over, Jason left the White House and retrieved his car. He drove toward his townhouse. He made up his mind and decided to act before he lost his nerve. “It just isn’t right,” he muttered to himself. He walked into the convenience store and purchased a cheap throw away cell phone with 100 prepaid minutes. Next he went to a greeting card store and purchased a large helium balloon. He walked to a nearby park and entered the restroom. No one was around. He put on gloves and undid the phone packaging. He looked at his watch. Dialing the phone number for Telltale Rose, he breathed in a lungful of helium. A female voice answered. In a squeaky voice, Jason said, “If this is Telltale Rose, you have three hours before the FBI shows up with their arrest warrant.” He hung up immediately and discarded the phone into the toilet bowl and flushed. He drove home shaking, but felt that there was no way it could be traced to him given the helium altered voice.
Anita hung up in a great panic. What should she do? She immediately called Henry and sobbed the news. Shit, thought Henry. “OK, Anita, trust me. I have a plan to make all of this go away. I’m coming to get you and Jolene. No, do not drive here. The traffic surveillance cameras will spot your plate and track you. You can be sure the FBI is watching electronically right now. Pack a bag of essentials and go out the back door in exactly 30 minutes to the underground parking garage of your condo. Wear something with a hood over a baseball cap and dark glasses. Make sure you have Jolene’s car seat, I’ll be there. This will be OK. Don’t worry.”
The Manhattan Incident Page 23