The Lesser Evil

by Jim Magwood

  Westman replied, “Personally, I don’t think they will. So far, they’ve been playing an “innocent and honest” game.

  We’re against the bad guys and we’re really wearing the white hats. They did, from what I’m hearing, find ways to give invested money back to all those that lost their funds from that Hammershed debacle, so I’m hoping they’ll stay on the so-called up-and-up. But, does anyone have, at this time, any words of wisdom on catching these people before things get totally out of hand? Or of stopping the apparent uprising of regular citizens taking after them with their own vigilante actions?”

  “All I can say to that, George, is that I’ve told all our authorities to be totally aware, moment-by-moment, of everything taking place at any financial institutions.” Jeff went on,

  “And, between us, I’ve told them to bend some rules where necessary to be sure they do know what’s going on. We don’t want something to start happening and to lose all control just because a bank didn’t want to raise flags about a break-in or loss. We’re not stepping too far over any lines, but we firmly believe we have to have full disclosure on this thing or we’ll be in big trouble before we have any idea of it happening.”

  “We are doing the same, Jeffery,” said Komatsu. “Very carefully, but I feel the same as you. We must know what is happening before anything can get out of hand.”

  The discussion went on for another hour, but without anyone knowing how to find the people responsible for the vigilante actions, the most any of them could suggest was to be watching carefully for any signs so they could stop reactions before they could get started. As far as regular citizens taking their own vigilante actions, all the group could hope was that the major vigilante group could be found before local actions got out of hand. All law enforcement agencies were working diligently to suppress local actions, but the men knew things could escalate quickly if the locals were unable to be found and stopped.

  CHAPTER 41

  “This is Rene Trudeau broadcasting again from Geneva and we have some late news from the catastrophe in Iran. As you know, there were apparently three rockets fired from out in the Persian Gulf a week ago that exploded at the locations of Esfahan, Natanz, and near Qom, located in approximately the center of Iran. The three manufacturing facilities were apparently completely destroyed by what has been said were nuclear weapons that were supposedly scrapped many years ago.

  Because the weapons were apparently what are called “dirty”, perhaps because of their age, they contaminated large parts of the surrounding areas with radiation and the sites will likely not be able to be reclaimed in the foreseeable future, if ever.

  “The three locations were about 200 miles or so from the capital, Tehran, and about 75 miles from Qom, depending on which one of the three explosion sites we are discussing. Neither of the two major cities received any direct damage from the explosions, but we have heard that the weather is possibly turning to come from the Indian Ocean to the north-west and, if so, it could very possibly push the radiation toward the two cities. Tehran is, of course, the capital of the country and has a population in the immediate area of almost eight million. Qom is considered to be a major holy city of Islam, and is also the largest center of Islamic scholarship in the world. Qom has a population of just over one million.

  “The population in the three areas that were attacked is estimated at between one and one-half to three million, depending on just where you calculate the possibility of damage, but there are a lot of so-called desert dwellers that are hard to count, so the number is uncertain. No one knows the fate of the people very near the facilities, but it’s believed that they have all perished. The facilities at Esfahan and Fardo, though, were very close to the city of Qom, and we don’t know how that area has been, or is going to be, affected.

  “The Supreme Leader of Islam in Iran, the Ayatollah Khamenei, immediately following the attacks issued a fatwa, or holy ruling, calling for jihad, or holy war, against the United States, or the ‘Great Satan’ as she has been labeled. His statement declared that “only the arrogant and imperialist Great Satan would have done this terrible thing” to the Muslim world, and he called on all the faithful to avenge themselves.

  “Iran’s President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, speaking on television yesterday from an undisclosed location, also accused the ‘Great Satan’ and the ‘Little Satan’, a euphemism for Israel, of conducting war against the Iranian people by destroying what he claimed were facilities to produce power for the country. ‘If they think,’ he said, ‘that they can be victori-ous in this vicious attack and not have to face the rage of the Iranian people and the Islamic world, they are the greatest of fools. We will hunt down all the Zionist and American aggres-sors and deliver their carcasses to the vultures. They are doomed to disappear from the face of the earth. It is a divine promise.’

  “This kind of rhetoric from the Iranian government is not new. There doesn’t appear, though, to be any evidence that either the United States or Israel had any part in this nuclear attack. Satellites that monitor those parts of the world show no indications of any rocket liftoffs from either country during the time frames of the attacks, and neither country has ever had any stockpiles of the type of weapons that were apparently used. No other country would appear to have the capability of transporting rockets of this size into the Persian Gulf and launching them, so the actual attackers are unknown. However, the leaders of Iran are insisting that the United States and Israel are the only countries that would carry out an attack like this. Iran has made various threats against the United States and Israel for years, but has not been able to carry them out.

  Now, despite their apparent lack of involvement, the Americans, and perhaps the Israelis, may have a new threat to be concerned with, one that could have been greatly magnified in the past few years with the possible development of much more powerful weapons by Iran.

  “On another note, as you likely know, there are rumors that the so-called vigilante group, supposedly responsible for so many attacks around the world, may have had something to do with this attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. However, many world leaders are disclaiming this idea because of what they say are the impossibilities of any independent group being able to gather nuclear weapons of this type and rockets capable of transporting them. The weapons were apparently from the old Soviet Union, but were supposed to have been scrapped in the late 1980’s weapons reduction programs. One of our sources, speaking anonymously, said, ‘If any group of independents has been able to acquire nuclear weapons that the world has long thought scrapped, and has managed the technology to refurbish the weapons and launch them, the world is in serious trouble.’”

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  Henry’s mind was reeling as he listened to the report.

  Banks emptied. Drug terrorists destroyed. Now nuclear rockets? This can’t be. Nobody can have this kind of power. But Johns had told him the group really did have the resources.

  They had gathered assets for years and did have the ability to gather information and put together materials to do what they had been doing. So far, nothing had been unworldly, he thought . Just almost unbelievable. But the events had happened.

  CHAPTER 42

  “I’d like to know—really know—why you’re doing this?

  What made you and your group decide to take on a project like this? I mean, clean up the world. Get rid of evil influences. Make everybody happy. Those are very large items in a very large agenda. Why? What brought it about?”

  “Let me ask, Mr. Baxter, why you are asking that question?”

  “Because I want to know whether I should be supporting your efforts, or reporting on your activities, or—whether I should just walk away from all this.”

  There was quiet on the phone for several moments before Randall Johns spoke again.

  “Mr. Baxter, I feel you are really asking the question of whether we have stepped over our boundaries. Whether what we are doing has support in any legal or moral traditions or doc
umentation—and I understand your confusion. Nothing like this has ever happened before. No one has ever tried to take on the job of ridding the world of evil influences—at least, on this scale. So, what can I tell you?

  “Let me start with this. If you saw a government being manipulated by an outside force; being turned from its stated purposes to even consume itself, what would you think, or do?

  I think the answer is simple. If you had the ability, you would fight that force, that influence. Otherwise that government, that country, would be in a very serious position and would be paying a huge price for a long time—perhaps forever. And, Mr. Baxter, you would likely be going down with it. You would suffer right alongside that government. That, sir, is what is happening right now, around the world.

  “There are people in almost every country—no, I’ll say every country—who are suffering the pains of the evil running rampant because their governments—their law enforcement agencies—have been torn apart from both the outside and the inside and can no longer do the jobs they have been sworn to do: protect their citizenry from the various forces arrayed against them. Outside forces such as bombs can be dealt with.

  We can fight them, as we have for hundreds of years. Hitler, for instance, was finally squashed when the majority of the world rose up against him. The same for the Japanese attempt to force their perceived destiny on the world. However, today we have outside influences on our governments that quickly become inside influences.

  “We have a country that wants to control petroleum, for instance; wants to get rich at the expense of everyone else’s discomfort. So that country purchases the votes of politicians within certain other countries, who then help push agendas through the legislative circles so those controls come to frui-tion. And, ultimately, Why? Not for the presumed betterment of their countries, but to fatten their own purses. You have in your own country, from the level of cities and counties all the way to the highest offices in the land, people who have no real thoughts of what is the best for all of the people, but simply what is their own personal agenda. Perhaps a national health care plan would be a wonderful thing for many of the people, but if you put it to a vote of every person legally entitled to vote, what would they say? And, along with those politicians, from bottom to top, come the influencers—the kingmakers, the vote collectors, the people bought and paid to gather votes for the people who have bought them. They are not out for the betterment of anyone. Their only purpose is to do the job they were paid for—get that vote going the way of their employer.”

  “Okay. But wait. So they influence politicians and so on to allow for certain medicines to be approved and sold. Is that wrong? Those medicines can and do help people. A new bridge over a river to replace an old one is good for people.

  And what about…”

  “Mr. Baxter, you’re doing the exact thing so many of the influencers use for their justifications. Citing a few things that may be good to cover all the things that are not. We won’t even discuss the things you’ve just mentioned, Mr. Baxter, because yes, they can be good. However, what about all the things you haven’t mentioned? What about a giant meat company buying the inspections of their government inspectors so slightly less than good meat gets passed through the system?

  So, a few people get sick. But, how much profit is pocketed?

  What about the drugs that are bought and sold and killed for in the streets? Drugs that are so prevalent they are paralyzing parts of our populations? Why are we not allowed to turn our law enforcement agencies—even our militaries—loose against these invasions?

  “And, yes, I hear the rights word coming to the surface.

  ‘You can’t curtail the rights of the many in order to control the actions of the few.’ Isn’t that what comes to mind? What do you think you would hear if you questioned everyone—not just the loud ones or the ones paid to talk—and asked their opinion? The mothers afraid to let their children out to play?

  The people afraid to go to the park for a picnic? Business people who just want to make a good profit by selling a good product? People who want to influence others toward their religion without killing to do it? Would you hear the word rights coming out over the word freedom? Everyone with a right mind, Mr. Baxter, knows the difference between good and bad, right and wrong. Everyone can give a definition of evil, even if they differ to a degree. Why, then, are those people forced to submit to the dark side of life when they all, for the most part, simply want good things—nice, safe lives?”

  “I understand exactly what you’re saying, but the question still remains, How are we supposed to justify one group of people deciding what is right for the rest—without their input, their vote, their participation? Why are you right and everyone else wrong? What if you decide to demand that we all do things we don’t agree with—that we don’t want? How do we control you, if we want to?”

  “I do hear what you are saying, Mr. Baxter, and how can I answer? What can I tell you? You join a group that is doing something, then find that in order to continue doing that good thing, you must change, or circumvent, certain rules that would curtail those plans and actions. If not, you can’t get the job done. If you are truly dedicated to making those good things happen, you are either going to go against the rules that would stop them or you are going to end as a frustrated, broken person that gets nothing done. You see the good that can be done, or the evil that can be stopped, and you have to make a decision. Will you give a little, bend a little, find the best in the list of choices and go with that, or will you give in to the rule makers, the ones who would stop progress and, worse, promote the evil, and simply accept whatever they force on you?”

  “But, isn’t that what we’re accepting from you? We have no ability to stop your actions. You’ve decided what is right and are forcing it on the world. Aren’t you doing—being—

  what you just talked about? And all we can do is accept what you force on us?”

  “Mr. Baxter, perhaps you fail to see there is one difference. What have we done that is wrong, other than to go against some rules that would control our actions and allow the evil to continue? We have not touched any innocent people. We have not kept any ill-gotten gains. We have caused certain leaches of the world to cease their bloodletting and let go their strangle hold on innocent people. We have stopped some of what almost everyone would define as evil and have enabled some people to begin stepping up to control their own destinies, instead of being controlled by everything around them. What have we done wrong, sir?”

  Henry was silent for a moment, then Johns spoke again.

  “You know, of course, of the Kwik ‘n Ready Market chain spread through much of your country, do you not?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “What would you say if I told you they were the largest, controlled, corporate-owned source of receiving and moving stolen goods and pornography in your country? And also the single largest mover of drugs as payment for most of those stolen goods? If you believed me, and had the ability to do anything you wanted, what would you do about that situation?”

  After a pause, Henry replied, “I don’t know. I don’t really know much about them. Are you saying that’s true? They really are what you said?”

  “Yes, they are, Mr. Baxter. I will be sending a package to you tonight by courier with details for you. Invoices, check copies, pictures. Granted, it is not a lot for someone just coming into the picture, but we have known of them and have followed their activities for quite a while now, and we know it is true.”

  “So, what are you saying—asking? What would I do?”

  “Just that, sir. What would you do? I’m going to send you this information and will get back with you in, say, forty-eight hours. Will that be all right?”

  “Yes, but what…”

  “We’ll talk then, Mr. Baxter.”

  CHAPTER 43

  Almost exactly forty-eight hours later, Henry’s phone rang and it was Johns.

  “So, Mr. Baxter, what do you th
ink of the material?”

  “From what I’ve seen, it appears they are what you described. I can’t tell their size from this, but it all looks as you said.”

  “So, what is your answer to my question, sir? If this is as it looks, they are one of the largest peddlers of evil in your West. They don’t discriminate between young and old, as the pictures you’ve seen show. In ethnic neighborhoods that are in bad enough shape on their own, with many trying so hard to reclaim their neighborhoods, these people are peddling more filth and destruction than you can imagine. They are evil people, Mr. Baxter, truly evil. What would you do with people like that?”

  There was a long silence, then, “I don’t know, but I guess I’d have to try and stop them somehow. But, I don’t know how.”

  “We do know how, Mr. Baxter.”

  A longer silence hung in the air. Then, Henry, replied,