by Jim Magwood
“Would you do that? Stop them?”
“Are you asking us to do that, Mr. Baxter? Are you asking us to do that—for you?”
“Uhmm—I guess—maybe. Yes, maybe I am.” Pause.
“Could you?”
“Is that a request, sir? Do you want them stopped?”
This time, Henry actually couldn’t speak for quite a while, and Johns just waited. Finally, the simple word, “Yes,”
came out, in a hoarse whisper.
“Thank you, sir. I know that was a difficult decision.
Your request has been received. I will call you back in a week or so. Good night, Mr. Baxter.”
Henry Baxter sat back in his chair, shivering, while sweat ran down his face and body like rain. His face was blank. His mind couldn’t shuffle his thoughts into proper categories. And a question was floating in front of his eyes, as if a hand had written it on the wall of his office— What have you just done, Baxter? What have you done?
CHAPTER 44
“Gentlemen, thank you for dropping what I know are many important things to be here. As you know, we have a very serious subject to discuss and, possibly, some very serious plans to make. With the nuclear attack on the Iranian nuclear system, we have to recognize someone out there has that capability, and we have no knowledge of who it is. That is most disturbing.
“So, let us begin with two simple questions that will likely have some very non-simple answers: 1. Obviously, who are these people that seem to have the ability to attack anywhere in the world with weapons there is no way they should have, and 2. Where did they get the weapons? And, perhaps a third question, What is the ultimate goal of this group?” He paused. “Does anyone want to take the floor?”
When the nuclear attack on Iran was still a mushroom cloud on the horizon, this group of the world’s most influential leaders, The Nine, had been called and a meeting put together for only two days later. The shock of a nuclear attack had caused each of them to drop matters of state and gather to discuss what could be the most important subject on the face of the earth: Nuclear attacks by an unknown group on countries of their own choosing without warning. As usual, British Prime Minister Donald Everett was chairing the meeting.
“I’ll begin with a question of my own, Donald.” This from Rudolph Heidrich, the Chancellor of Germany. “Do we know for certain that these rockets were the Raduga RK-55s as first reported? They were supposed to have been scrapped years ago, and I’m wondering if they are still in existence, whether we need to be looking for more.”
“Jeffery, your people were watching this as it happened.
Do you have any more on this?”
Jeff King, the United States President, replied, “Yes, Don, and Rudy, the information we had at the time still stands.
From everything we can pull up, these were RK-55s. There were three of them, apparently towed up the Gulf on barges so nondescript that nobody checked on them. The barges sank in about one hundred feet of water and from what we can tell at this time, are destroyed. We might be able to identify something if we can get divers there, but Iran and the surrounding countries are being too touchy right now and we haven’t been able to get on the scene. The tugboat that brought the barges to the scene was sunk about fifty miles away and also has not been recovered.
“What we do have is a match with rocket signatures from some thirty years ago that say these were actually the RK-55s which were supposedly scrapped in the disarmament programs of the late ‘80’s. Where they ultimately came from, and where someone got the nuclear warheads to fit on them, we have no idea at this time. And, we don’t know if there are more out there. These weren’t supposed to be out there.”
“Eli, this was, I know, a terrible shock to you, seeing this happen, and we respect so much your ability to have kept the lid on any action. Can you add anything to our thoughts here?
Perhaps some idea of who could have done this?”
Eli Yatom, the Prime Minister of Israel, thought for a moment to choose his words carefully. With no one knowing that he had been warned of the attack and purposely had kept his nation out of any semblance of participation, there were things he simply couldn’t say to these, his closest friends in the world.
“All I can add right now is that we saw the rockets as soon as they lifted off and were so close to becoming involved that I was shaking when it ended. All we could do was be prepared to launch a full-scale retaliatory attack and then prepare ourselves to die. However, I did not, and still do not, know who planned and carried out the attack. As you know, the vigilantes did not specifically take credit for the event and, as far as I am aware, none of us knows who did this.”
As Prime Minister Everett polled each of the leaders, they all stated that their government investigative agencies were looking at any and all evidence and were tapping into all the sources they had to get some information on the people who had carried out the attack. So far, no one had any clues. The vigilantes, if it was them, hadn’t left any tracks and there were no hints to their whereabouts. What everyone did realize, though, was that these people could turn out to be a major factor in everyone’s lives if they were able to get hold of nuclear weapons and use them with impunity.
John Coleman, the Prime Minister of Canada, spoke up.
“Have you checked out this newsman that’s reporting on the activities, Jeffery? Is there anything there?”
“Yes, and no. We have checked him thoroughly and we think he’s completely clean. He’s been willing to give us all the information he’s been given, and there’s nothing there we can trace. The amount of information is truly amazing. He’s only reported a quarter of what he’s actually received. He’d have to write a book on each event to hold it all. But, there’s nothing in any of the material we can trace. How they got hold of personal notes, company documents, e-mail copies, and even recordings of meetings we have no idea, but they did. In one instance, they were apparently taking pictures of an event from directly behind where this reporter was sitting in his car, and he never knew they were there. I have our three agencies, FBI, CIA and NSA all working on this from various angles, and I know they’ve shared a lot of the data with most of your agencies. Right now, all we can do is keep looking.”
“Do you think they might have bought people in all these companies to get access?” Coleman added.
“We’ve looked at that and don’t think so. There are simply too many companies, people and even countries involved now. To get someone in every one of these places would be too complex to consider. They could have—we haven’t counted that out. But, again, we don’t think it’s really possible. However, could they have tapped into all the computer systems of all these places and people? It’s possible, but what a project that would be. With that Hammershed company, for instance, they’d have to have been in the corporate accounts, the individual owners and managers, the banks they used, the shipping companies they worked with… It would have been a huge operation. And then switch to that drug guy in South America. They had to get into a single individual’s accounts and all the banks he used.
“Consider then all the physical events they had to control.
They stole or destroyed all the drug guy’s planes, from what we’re told, and we haven’t found them anywhere. They caused those train wrecks of the Hammershed shipments and planted explosives in that German plant. Now, they’ve stolen some old rockets that were supposed to have been junked, got them working, got nuclear warheads for them, and flew them into Iran—with perfect accuracy. They blew up that city, which meant stealing about a dozen tourist buses, loading them with explosives and driving them through the security into perfect placement. They raided those banks in the Caymans. How could they possibly break all that bank security? Believe me, what these people have been able to do, both physically and through computers and so on, has my people admiring them and their abilities and wishing we had the same. Right now, we’re outgunned and my people know it. They’re hoping this never comes to an out and out showdown a
t the corral with these guys.”
George Westman from Australia said, “At least these people don’t seem to have the same agenda as those people, that Group, from Corvalle from a couple of years ago. They were trying to take over the world and their attacks were mainly against innocent people. These people seem to be saying they want to get the criminals out of the play and restore some good. For that, I almost want to vote for them.” With a straight face, he added, “Do you think we might be able to hire them?”
Everett replied, “Might not be a bad idea, George. Anyone want to put a few pounds on the table for bidding for their services?”
There were a few chuckles, but also several serious faces at the thought. Whatever each individual thought about the lawlessness running rampant and the inability of their own agencies to bring down the crime rates, they each knew the potential of something like these vigilante actions getting turned around and affecting the law and order side of the equation. If these people suddenly decided to empty the honest banks of countries around the world, or to sink good governments or businesses, the world would be in real trouble. This group apparently did have assets that were able to be brought to bear against any targets they decided, and to date no one was even able to find out who they were, much less stop them.
Coleman said, “Have we been able to come up with any leads at all? Do any of our agencies have any thoughts yet?”
Prime Minister Everett replied, “From our side, there is basically nothing. My people are pulling every string they have to get information, but so far nothing. There do not appear to be any signals that were sent prior to the event, so we haven’t found anything yet to latch onto. We have jointly, of course, already activated ECHELON to do whatever it can to trace these people, but so far, nothing. From what your people have reported, Jeffery, and what we all saw, the rockets were suddenly in the air. No warning and no planning that we know of. I believe that Eli and his people were caught off guard like the rest of us, and that must have been terrifying.”
Eli had been quiet for the meeting and most of the others thought it was because of having been shaken by the attack.
The rockets could have easily turned to the west and landed in Israel within almost the same time frame. They would have had no time but to launch an all-out counter-attack and then, as he had said earlier, simply prepare to die. The three rockets would have virtually destroyed Israel. No one knew that Eli had been told of the exact day the attack was planned and, although his nerves, and those of his military experts, had been strained to the breaking point watching the rockets take off and tracking them every second of their flight, they had kept their finger off the button. In a speech to his Knesset earlier, he had obliquely warned the world that the last thing he would do if attacked would be sure that the attacker would disappear from the face of the earth. The event had not come to that, but everyone thought, What if…?
“What would you do if this group contacted you, as a country leader, and said they were going to end the evil, or the violence or something, in your country, and all you had to do was sit back and let it happen? How do you personally feel about what they are doing?”
The men all looked at Eli and were quiet for a long moment as they thought the question through.
“Seeing as how most of us are terribly hampered by our lack of control over the evil influences in our countries, by how our courts and so on have tied the hands of our law enforcement agencies, what would you do? You said a few minutes ago, Donald, would we each want to put a bit of money on the table to hire these people. What if you could?”
“What are you suggesting, Eli? I don’t believe you are seriously suggesting such a thing.”
“I don’t know that I am, Rudolph. But, I am saying, what if? If you thought you could control a group such as this; if it was arms distance from you; if all you had to do was suggest possible targets and let them do what they thought best—what if? Someone who was above the law, if you will. Who didn’t report to anyone or have to ask anyone’s permission. Would you consider it?”
“A Star Chamber?”
“Something along that line, Jeffery, but international.
Able to function anywhere.”
“Eli, I personally would love to clean up the world.
Eliminate evil. Give all the people a chance to live without fear and to only have good things around. But, that’s Pollyan-naish. It’s unrealistic. And my What if? would be, What if it got out of my control? Or what if I got out of control? Who would control the controllers?”
“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?”
“I believe that’s right, Eli. ‘Who will guard the guardians?’ From the poet Juvenal, I believe? And you’re right. If we were all free to do whatever we wanted to make things right, who would ensure we were doing the right things? It’s too easy for things like this to get out of control. Look at what’s going on now with so many private citizens taking up the action started by this group—and some of it is getting out of hand, becoming unnecessarily violent or affecting innocent parties. Yes, I would love to be able to send out our troops to control all the evil, but am I right? Does everyone want what I want? Who will guard the guardians?”
CHAPTER 45
Six days after Henry’s talk with Mr. Johns, and his “request” to have the Kwik ‘n Ready Markets stopped, he heard a shocking broadcast on the radio as he was driving to his office.
“We have a report just coming in about some kind of attacks against a chain of mini-markets in the Western states, the Kwik ‘n Ready Markets; that’s spelled k-w-i-k. Apparently there have been a series of fires in several of the stores that began early this morning, about 4 a.m. California time, and the fire incidences seem to be spreading. The first fires were reported in the San Diego area, then they moved up to Los Angeles, and are now apparently popping up throughout the state and into neighboring Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico. So far, there have been more than sixty fires reported.
“We don’t have any reports of injuries from the fires. Our reporter in Los Angeles, Bob Martine, did send in a report he received from an employee in a store there that said, and I quote, ‘I heard a window break in the back or somethin’ and run back there to check it out, man. Somebody had stuck a hose or somethin’ through the window and was pumping somethin’ that smelled like gas into the storage room. Man, I got out of there so fast and went out the front door, man. ‘Bout the time I got to the sidewalk, I heard a kind of whooshin’
noise and I seen the whole inside of the store just bust into fire. Man, I could feel the heat from the sidewalk.” We’ll have a live tape of that report for you in a short while.
“No one has any idea who is behind this yet, but it seems to be a coordinated effort covering a very large area.
“Uh, excuse me—I’ve just been handed a follow-up report that says there are apparently now more than eighty stores that have been attacked, and the list has expanded into Utah and Colorado. It also appears that in each case, the employees in the stores did receive some kind of a warning before the fires burst out and were able to get out of the stores. Fire departments in each area responded, of course, but it is said that the fires in most of the locations were so intense, perhaps because of an accelerant sprayed into the buildings such as was reported by the one employee in Los Angeles, that the stores were engulfed before the fire personnel could get there and there was no stopping the fires before the stores were destroyed.
“We’ll have more for you as we get information, so stay tuned. Turning to the weather…”
Henry had pulled to the side of the road and sat there stunned. He couldn’t speak the words out loud, but his mind kept forcing the thought, Did I do this? But, he conned me into saying yes. I didn’t really cause this to happen, did I? He had earlier looked though the Internet and had found there were close to 1,000 stores reported nationwide. Are they all in trouble? he thought. Who should I…? Then he stopped. But, I did this. I can’t tell anyone because it was me . Oh, my god.
What if they all get torched? What can I…? Again, he stopped, and realized he could do nothing unless he was willing to admit to his part in the situation.
He suddenly felt what he thought might be an earthquake and started to turn his head quickly to see what was happening. Then he realized it was him causing the motion. His hands were shaking so hard, and he was gripping the steering wheel so tight, that the car was shaking. He yanked his hands off the wheel and dropped them to his sides, tried to will them to stop shaking, but couldn’t quiet them. He heard noises screaming from outside the car and realized it was car horns blaring—at him. He wasn’t stopped in a parking zone, just on the side of the road, and people were trying to get the idiot out of the way.
Slowly, he worked at clearing his mind and relaxing his body. His clothes were soaked from the sweat rolling off him, but he gradually calmed down. He knew he would have to go back home and change. He put the car back in gear and slowly drove a few yards further on until he could pull off into a wider spot, then shut the car off and just put his head back and closed his eyes. He sat like that for quite some time, until he suddenly heard the whoop of a siren behind him. He jerked up and saw the patrol car, then the officer getting out and approaching him on the passenger side. Henry pushed the button to roll down the passenger window and the officer carefully moved up and looked into the car.