by Jim Magwood
“No, and it’s really beginning to stir up the nest here.”
“How serious do you see this, Ron?”
“Jacob, there’s everybody from presidents and prime ministers to street people involved in this thing now. We’re seeing a real swell in citizens getting involved in taking care of business themselves, and that’s causing some real problems. A lot of innocent people are beginning to get hurt in some of these things and, world wide, the authorities are getting a lot of pressure to get this stopped.”
“Well, I’ll get hold of Roger as soon as I can to see if anything has surfaced, but he hasn’t called me, so I don’t think he’s gotten anywhere yet. I’ll let you know right away if we have anything.”
“Okay, Jacob. Thanks. Keep in touch, my friend.”
“I will, Ron. Goodbye.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“Roger, This is to let you know there is more concern now regarding these actions we are looking at. I’ve spoken with a couple of friends and they are saying there are more and more investigations opening up.
“If you have any information yet, message me back, but keep the topic and message simple. People may be watching. I will have some time off within about a week and am antici-pating coming out there, so if there is anything you want to do together, let me know.
“Best regards, Jacob.”
CHAPTER 48
TOKYO (September 15) Prime Minister Hiditaki Komatsu today announced a major program has been put in place throughout the country to stop the actions of the group being called the vigilantes. Following the attack last month against the Asakusa Trading Company of Tokyo and it’s partner, Umeda Worldwide, Ltd. of Osaka, both of which were destroyed by early morning fires, the Komatsu government came under attack for it’s lack of rapid response in caring for the employees of the companies.
Both companies have been accused of conspiring to
‘launder’ funds received from criminal sources through their own banking facilities. The Mitsui Bank, located in Tokyo, was reportedly owned by Umeda Worldwide, and had been the depository for both companies. Within days of the companies being attacked, stories began to be filed around the world that contained copies of documents that detailed illegal activities of both companies. The documents appeared to be irrefu-table. Corporate executives at both companies were unavailable for comment.
Three days after the news reports about the attacks on the Umeda Company, an incident occurred at the bank that also brought it to its knees. Between the closing of the bank on Tuesday, April 1st, and the opening the next morning, what is being called an apparent “electrical surge” ripped through the bank and destroyed everything connected to electric circuits.
In addition, an apparent “magnetic surge” also hit the bank and destroyed all data that had been stored on magnetic recording media—tapes, disks, and so on. It appeared that all data the bank had collected and stored from any and all sources was wiped out. All accounts, trading activities, stored records, and so forth were gone.
The banks cash deposits and some hand written records and ledgers remained intact. However, it took a group of special locksmiths to open the vault and storage doors due to the surges having apparently wiped out the electrical combina-tions.
It was determined that the bank had been used for corporate activities almost exclusively. There were no accounts held for any citizens and no business had been transacted for anyone outside the bank. The only activity transacted for anyone other than the corporate inter-dealings between the bank and the two companies was by and for upper management of the bank and the companies. All records for their activities were also destroyed.
Prime Minister Komatsu said the new security measures would eliminate the possibility of this type of action taking place again, but no details have been released describing the measures or how extensively they have been circulated. None of our attempts to contact officials of other banks or companies, or executives in the government, were able to give any explanations or information. One bank executive was recorded as saying, “This is the first I have heard of this.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
MUNICH (September 22) In our ongoing coverage of the apparent vigilante attacks against local people and businesses throughout the city, we have reports of several bands of young men who traveled the city causing havoc and several injuries last night. At least twenty-two people required hospitalization, and nine businesses were severely damaged or destroyed.
There were reportedly more than one hundred men involved in the attacks.
Three people were found dead in the aftermath, but authorities have not yet confirmed they were victims of the attacks.
According to police files, complaints by citizens had been received against five of the businesses for conducting illegal drug and alcohol sales, and for being involved in “other illicit activities.” Two of the businesses had been involved in long-standing battles for having located in the neighborhoods against the wishes of the residents. One business housed “disadvantaged” young people and had been the target of many attempts to have it closed. Luckily, none of the residents of the young people’s home were injured. Some kind of warning had been received a few minutes before the attack and the residents had all been removed.
Authorities say they have no leads as to the vigilantes at this time.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
TORONTO (October 14) In a series of mystifying early morning fires, three city bookstores were burned. The first fire apparently broke out about 2 a.m. and was followed at about 2:50 and 3:45 by the two others. No one was injured in the early morning fires.
The three stores, Hightower Books, City of Lights, and His Blessings Books and Supplies, all sold religious supplies, books and music items. The stores and all the inventories were complete losses.
Police and fire investigators have not released any details or information yet, and will only say the fires were “definitely arsons” and that “investigations are under way.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
As Henry looked back over the stories in his files, he reflected again on the surge of vigilante actions apparently being conducted by regular citizens. Had the main vigilante group started something—inspired something—that was now getting out of control? Were the people being moved toward creating more problems than they were eliminating?
He didn’t have good answers, just questions, but the trends around the world were becoming alarming. He knew Johns and the group weren’t actually making these events happen, but were they inspiring them? Where would all this go if it continued? If no one was going to be able to control the people, help them be sensible in all this, what would happen?
CHAPTER 49
“Jacob. I wanted to get back with you regarding your last message. Sorry it took me a couple of days. I was traveling.
“I’ve been involved in our project and may have a couple of interesting thoughts. I don’t really think they’re actual leads yet, but interesting, anyway. I’ve linked all of the events, places, names, dates, and so on, and have had the system spin them against anything possible that might touch any of them. I did the whole world, so the database is huge, but there are a few possible links beginning to show.
“I do think we should get together when you’re out here.
You have more experience with this than I do. Just let me know. Your place or mine—either is fine.
“Regards, Roger.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
As Roger sat watching the computer do it’s thing, he thought about the amount of data piling up in storage and wondered if there would be anything at all come from it. He knew a lot of data would be bypassed because it didn’t link with the other search items, but still he knew the amount of it all would be horrendous. Would his system even be able to cross-reference it without bursting at the seams? He wondered for a while what he could ask for to begin a trial, to see if anything at all was coming in that might help.
Hamburg? No, that would link to every piece of news that had been wri
tten in months. Okay, how about that guy in South America that had been killed. He had to look through some earlier reports to find the name—Alberto Escobedo .
Okay, let’s try Escobedo and see what comes out. He plugged in the name and was surprised to see the relatively small amount of material that came up.
News article on his death. Earlier articles looking into his activities. Several pages of phone records with numbers going back and forth between Columbia and the U.S. He stopped for a moment and keyed in a sub-search of all the phone numbers.
If he could get some names of the contacts, maybe… He ran another sort of the phone numbers to order them by number.
See how many of the same numbers were called. Then back to the downloaded material.
A random e-mail caught his attention. From an unknown sender to Escobedo. “Señor Escobedo. Planes found. Crashed at jungle location. If you want them, wire the money. Not yet received. Will hold for short time.” It wasn’t signed.
Roger looked quickly through several news reports and found the one he remembered. It had been filed by that Washington reporter and said something about Escobedo having been found dead, but all his planes were missing.
Authorities said there should likely have been forty to fifty of them, but they were nowhere to be found. Escobedo’s business had shut down immediately after his death, and nobody had picked it up. So, where were the planes?
Roger started another sub-search on the unknown e-mail name to see if it would take him anywhere. Not very likely, but… He went to the kitchen to make a quick sandwich, and when he returned was surprised to see the screen had scrolled a list of messages from that account. He noted that there weren’t many messages at any one time; probably the sender just didn’t use the Internet much. But, every once in a while there were several messages grouped around a few close dates and times and going to other unknown addresses. Okay, he thought. Who might this be? He plugged in the new addresses for a further search and went to get some more coffee.
When he came back about fifteen minutes later, he was again surprised to see several pages of hits on the addresses.
And after he had sorted the list again, he was more than a little shocked to see names of people high in governments and businesses worldwide. People who surely wouldn’t want their names attached to someone who was apparently attached to drug terrorists and the like. Are they actually involved in all this, he thought? I wonder if any of them might be persuaded to give some information if they were quietly approached?
CHAPTER 50
“Good morning, Mr. Baxter. It’s a beautiful day here.
How are you today?”
“Good morning, Mr. Johns. I’m alright.” He paused.
“No…maybe I’m not so all right. I guess I’m more than a little concerned about the actions against those markets—my part in that.”
“Your part?”
“Yes, well, I’m the one who okayed your going after them, right? And I don’t know if that’s right, what I did.”
“I understand your thoughts, Mr. Baxter, but let me ask you something. If that group of criminals was allowed to simply continue to conduct their illegal activities, and the authorities remained unable, or perhaps uninterested, in stopping them, what value would they have been to anyone? Good people, I mean? Or, more precisely, what evil would they continue to support or perpetrate? Is there anyone who is a non-criminal that actually gained anything good from those stores?”
“Yeah, I know what you’re saying, but there are legitimate responses to what you say. There are decent people all over who bought supplies from those stores, in their own neighborhoods. And now they don’t have the stores close to them. Are they not worthy of consideration?”
“You are correct. However, if those stores were so much higher priced than regular stores—supermarkets and so on all over the cities—what real service were they doing for their customers? Just charging them higher prices for, usually, lower quality goods. Or, not giving them any choice in the goods they purchased . Here are our food shelves. Take it or leave it. And because the stores were close to the neighborhoods, the people got used to shopping there and didn’t even try to get to stores with lower prices and better values.”
Henry was quiet for several moments before replying,
“But don’t they have the right to make that choice?”
“Of course, they do. I believe we had a discussion like this in one of our first times together. We do not have any intention of telling people what they can or cannot do. Do you remember? If people want to degrade or injure themselves, they do have that right. What we are working against are the people or companies that are deliberately preying on citizens—deliberately promoting their evil, leaving citizens little or no choice, and putting things in front of people that are so enticing that they have little ability to say no.
“If people want to go out and destroy themselves, as I said long ago, they must be allowed to do that. If, however, things are purposely put in front of them that are specifically designed to appeal to their weaknesses and to draw them to pursuing things that are not good, those manufacturers and/or sellers need to be stopped. If, as is the case in some parts of the world, the governments and people allow purveyors of filth to set up tables on the sidewalks and peddle their garbage, and the citizens choose to purchase those products, we agree they have that right. They must, however, have the right to freely choose, without coercion, threat or false marketing claims. If someone markets a false drug, for instance, and people are falsely told it will cure their ills, then that is wrong and must not be allowed. However, if the people choose to find a purveyor and purchase a drug that will ultimately destroy them, they have that right. We agree with that, Mr. Baxter. We just demand the people must have complete knowledge and freedom of choice.”
“Okay, so if I accept that premise, then what about someone I personally know is evil and should be stopped? If only you have the ability to prevent, or stop, the evil things, aren’t you setting yourselves up as gods—gods who do for us but aren’t allowing the people to get involved in bettering their own selves?”
“We are perfectly willing to allow, or help, people get involved, Mr. Baxter. I believe I said that earlier, also. We would be more than happy for the people to take back control of their lives and to cause their governments and authorities to do the jobs they were designed for.”
Frustration could be heard pouring from Henry as he replied, “But, how do we get involved? If these vigilante actions have been made illegal—if we’re not allowed to do these things on our own—and it would take a hundred or a thousand years to legislate our way back to controlling our own lives, how do we get involved today? How can we make changes now?”
Randall Johns softly replied, “We are here, Mr. Baxter, and could serve you in that function. We do have the ability to act now. Do you have a suggestion as to something that should be removed from its source of power or control?”
At first, Henry didn’t catch the message. Then, as he realized what Johns was saying, he shot back, “No! No, no.
That’s not what I was saying. I…”
“But, why not, Mr. Baxter. Why should you and others not get involved? You’ve seen the increase in what you call vigilante actions springing up around the world. Why should you and others not have the right and ability given you to step out and make the changes you want? Especially if someone else was to serve somewhat as a controlling factor for you? If people asked for something that was within our power to do, but we determined it in itself was not a good thing, we would say no. However, if we had no reason to say no, why should you not be enabled to have your will carried out?”
“But…but, that would be enabling me…us…to carry out our own purposes, against the laws of the land. That wouldn’t be right…”
“But, Mr. Baxter, you are talking about laws of the land that have become perverted, or powerless. You are talking about people who generally want good, but have had the ability to
make that happen taken away from them. Should people not have the right to make good things happen, or to prevent evil? We can help bring back that ability, Mr. Baxter. We can help make that happen.”
Both men were silent for a long time. Henry knew Johns was still on the line, but he couldn’t bring himself to continue in the direction this was heading. His mind was whirling with possibilities, with dreams, with fears—and he didn’t know where to go with all this.
Finally, he said, “If I…someone…was to suggest something to you, how would they know it would be handled in the right manner? In the way they thought best? How would I…they…be able to control it?”
“You wouldn’t, Mr. Baxter. We would. You’ve seen the things we have done over the last months. Has anything been done in a wrong manner? Have any innocent people been hurt? If someone was to suggest an action, and we did not agree with it, it would simply not be done. If we agreed that it should be done, but not in the way the person suggested, we could make that action happen in a correct manner. We have that ability, Mr. Baxter, and would be willing to take on that responsibility for you.”