The Awakening - Ordo Tribus XI by Ethan Santiago

by Ethan Santiago

  Chapter 11 – Changing of the Guards

  Washington, DC

  It has been a tumultuous campaign. In the heat of the campaign, the conglomerate approached the president to get his support for invading Bolivia. The president deferred making any decisions until after the election. Morris thought to himself that such a time would never come since the president’s ratings are falling. The new rising star is a Latina named Eva Garcia.

  Ray initially thinks she is being over-hyped. But as he watches her speak and talks about her vision, he is impressed and she wins him over. She has campaigned promising Open Government. She promises to offer unprecedented transparency and public involvement. Her slogan is “Hope for the future.” Gracy is a bit more sceptical. She is not going to vote for her simply because she has a Spanish background.

  As one star rises, another falls. Darius Davis, the son of the president who was assassinated in 2011, has been proclaimed as a promising politician. But he is staying at a hotel during the campaign and meets a lady at the bar. He is struck by her beauty and slips her a secret note of how to get in touch with him. He slips out to meet her and he thinks it would be a good break from campaigning to sleep at her place. The next day’s news report of a lady claiming to have been sexually assaulted spreads. She has bruises on her face. She identifies the senator as the perpetrator. The senator is baffled. She is very friendly and perfectly fine when he left her place. They obtain DNA samples from the condom left at her place. His popularity sinks. A honey trap has been sprung and Darius Davis falls for it, costing him his political career.

  The election is held and the U.S. have its first woman and Latina president. The crowd is ecstatic and there are celebrations and hopefulness that a new era of open government has began. She is inaugurated today and has officially moved into the White House.

  Manitoba, Canada

  Barb Stanton has been travelling in Manitoba, Canada with not a care in the world. She has e-mailed her 8 friends and thinks she can now wash her hands of the affair. She convinces herself she did her part and there is no need to get herself in harm's way again. She has not seen much reporting about the cancer cure though. Maybe because she has been avoiding cities and staying in secluded places. She keeps north as much as she can. She is enjoying her new found freedom and had left her computer unit at her friend's cottage. Upon arriving at Manitoba, she heads to various beaches and lakes in the central and northern part of the province, enjoying the water and just relaxing. She then flies to Churchill and is lucky to have caught sight of the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) and lots of polar bears. She also gets up close and personal with several friendly Beluga whales in the oceans, along with other wildlife. After a month, she decides to move onto Saskatchewan and then Alberta and stays at Jasper enjoying the scenery and the glaciers.

  Barb is rudely awaken by a nightmare while camping at Jasper one night. In her dream, her professor friend is laughing and seems very relaxed. But she tries talking to him and he cannot hear her. She starts yelling and he just keeps smiling and walks away. She decides she has to find out how he is doing. She makes up her mind that she would head out west as planned but leave sooner rather than later.

  Vancouver, Canada

  Cedric and his friends go hiking in the pacific coast of Vancouver. After a week of hiking they check in to a hostel in the city of Vancouver and go for a day trip diving at Horseshoe Bay. Bobby even brought his own scuba gear. As the night sets in, they head out to watch Jake participate in some drag racing. But Jake is not here for ordinary drag racing. He is competing with other racers who have hacked their car to do reverse drive at high speed. All this is done using manual driving with self-drive disabled before the race in their private drag racing lot. The car's windshield rearview display is enabled. Cedric thinks it is silly but has tried it himself and did pretty well.

  When they get back to the hostel, a lady at the portable phone unit looks distressed. She hangs up the phone and starts crying. Cedric approaches her and asks if everything is OK.

  “My friend has just been murdered,” Barb says crying with hands covering her mouth.

  Cedric and his friends are shocked. “By whom?” Cedric asks while his friend is tagging his sleeve wanting to leave.

  “By someone powerful. I am not quite sure who, but his name is Morris Stark.”

  “Why don't you call the police?” Cedric askes.

  “I think it was the police who tried to kill me in Algonquin. I don't know, maybe they just dressed up like a police.”

  “Is there anything we can do to help?” Cedric asks. Bobby drops his arm to the side forcefully with an expression that is equivalent to him saying “unbelievable.” Barb hesitates. Cedric asks his friend to go ahead and he will catch up with them later. They leave with Bobby asking Cedric not to take too long.

  “There is one thing,” Barb says, pulling out a pendant. “This is a memory chip, it contains proof of people trying to conceal the cure for cancer.”

  Cedric can't believe his ears. Barb is shaking as she hands him the pendant. She quickly runs away to her room.

  “Why are you encouraging that crazy lady?” the guy at the reception asks.

  “What makes you think she is crazy?” Cedric asks.

  “Well she has been blabbering nonsense since she arrived. About seeing ghosts or something. I think she is schizophrenic.”

  “That's too bad.” Cedric wondered if he should return the pendant to her but decides to keep it.

  The next day, Cedric and his friends prepare to drive back to San Francisco. Jake decides to stay and visit his relatives. He asks Cedric to drive his car home and keep it with him for now.

  “I don't need a car that could drive high speed in reverse.” Cedric jokes.

  “You never know,” Jake laughed.

  The group of friends check out of the hostel. But there is one person who would not be checking herself out that day. Barb Stanton’s cold body would be found later that day by the house cleaning crew.

  Saudi Arabia

  Jabaar was happily filming the protest when suddenly gun shots are heard. The crowd panics and confusion ensues. They don't know where the gun fire is coming from. People in the crowd suddenly start bleeding from knife wounds. Someone is stabbing people randomly and moving away casually among the crowd. Jabaar's video catches one of the stabbers. The crowd is determined to stay but more shots are fired and the crowd disperses.

  Jabaar rushes home in tears relating what had happened to his parents.

  The next day there was uneasy calm in the kingdom. Jabaar decided to mail the video from last night to his friend who should now be in the United Arab Emirates. He drops off the mail and is about to head home when two plain clothes policemen grab him and push him into the van.

  The White House

  Eva Garcia is sitting at the oval office proud of herself. She is now the most powerful woman in the world. At least that is how it is supposed to be. But she quickly comes back to reality when she is informed that Morris Stark and the chief have arrived. The people who put her in power is here. Whoever said she is now the most powerful woman in the world has no idea.

  As Morris and the chief march into the oval office, she offers to seat down with them on the oval office couch.

  “Congratulations on your win,” the chief said.

  “All thanks to you. You were right when you said it is due for a Republican win and put me in as the Republican candidate.” Eva says.

  “It's not hard to predict. That is just how the American political cycle goes.”

  “I was pretty impressed with the open government and hope for the future theme.”

  “Yes, you just tell the people what they want to hear. Very well, there is one piece of business that we would like to get started on soon. I'll let Morris explain.”

  “It is about Bolivia. Their actions are causing so much pain to our conglomerate's partners. The sooner we usurp their president from power the better,” Morris
explains.

  “How are we going to do that?” Eva wonders.

  “By declaring that their president has been supporting drug smuggling into U.S.”

  “Enough to go to war with?”

  “Yes, if there has been an outbreak of violence in the U.S.”

  Eva has a look of shock on her face. A meditated violence so soon after her win?

  “Buckle up and get used to it. We have lots of business to do. You have nothing to fear. We will be using mostly our drones with the new Lucifer's Fork missile. You don't have to worry about public opposition for this or any future war. Large protests usually result from fear that large number of Americans will die. All casualties of war from now on would mostly be on the other side. Our media will make sure no graphic pictures or videos of civilian casualties are broadcasted to prevent the weak minded from protesting.” Morris says without missing a beat.

  It would almost seem prophetic for those who don't know what Morris is capable of. But sure enough within days, violence blamed on gangs broke out in Detroit. Reports from the media controlled by the conglomerate expose the link to close relative of Bolivia's president. Americans are outraged. Eva goes on T.V. to demand the president hand over his brother and other relatives or face the consequences. Bolivia's president is furious and accuses President Garcia of making things up.