The Oracle Philon

by Gerald J Kubicki

  The quake caused damage and death in the city of Karachi and several minor cities nearby. Hundreds of buildings collapsed and many fires started from broken gas pipelines. The death toll was in the thousands. But the damage paled in comparison to what came next.

  The opening of the fissure allowed millions of gallons of water to be sucked into the opening. When the fissure was filled, the backlash of water formed a Tsunami.

  It only took three minutes for the thirty foot wave to reach the city of Karachi. Alarms sounded all over the city, but few had time to escape.

  It hit the Sandspit and Manora Islands at the same time. The islands formed a protective barrier between the sea and the city. The huge wave completely obliterated the narrow flat islands and continued up the inner bay and straight towards downtown Karachi.

  The huge city was a mere twenty-six feet above sea level. The Tsunami had only been slowed down by a small fraction when it had hit the outer islands. It plowed into the unprepared population center causing havoc and chaos everywhere. The number of people who died was in the hundreds of thousands.

  Part Eight

  The Supremacists

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Several hours had passed since the bloody shootout in Pakistan. The MAD team and the TACP team were jubilant. They had accomplished all their goals and no one was injured badly. They packed their equipment, patched up the general and stowed away the Switch that they had captured. Malcolm took the wheel of the vehicle for his team.

  They headed back to the same Air Force Base where they had started in India. They were finally going home. They had been on the road for three and a half days and had visited four totally different countries. Everyone was exhausted and needed a recharge of their batteries.

  As soon as they settled in the van, General Stone called Dr. Darby to tell her their mission was complete.

  “So did you get the Switch?” She immediately asked with trepidation.

  “Yes, but it was destroyed when we were fighting over it,” the general responded with a big lie. “The Imam who was holding it activated it before we could stop him. Lisa managed to send the beam out to sea.”

  “I guess that explains the alarms and red light going off about an hour ago.”

  “Are you saying that the beam did some damage somewhere? What do you know?”

  “A 7.0 earthquake was recorded in the Arabian Sea. It produced a Tsunami wave that has annihilated most of downtown Karachi,” the doctor replied.

  “It was that powerful?” The general stammered with alarm as shock filled his face.

  “Well you at least have all the meteorites don’t you?” Dr. Darby inquired.

  “Yes,” the general told her. “And we even collected Dr. Raja’s diary. It covers all his experiments and one thing more,” he said to bait her.

  “What else did you find?” she inquired with curiosity.

  “We found the name of the mole in your organization.”

  “What? Who is it?” She gasped.

  “It’s the technician who helped us when we were there at the Pit. His name is Wes Robertson I believe,” General Stone responded.

  “I’ll have the colonel arrest him immediately,” Dr. Darby said indignantly after she gasped again.

  “Don’t do that just yet.” General Stone said as an order.

  “Why not, he’s a traitor and a terrorist,” she said with vengeance.

  “Because there may be others involved.”

  “Could that be true?”

  “We’re not sure that we have found the complete terrorist cell. Give me a day to work on that,” the general explained. “Meanwhile, have someone besides the colonel put four men to watch him at all times of the day until we are sure that he is working alone or has a confederate.”

  “I see,” she replied as she was thinking.

  “Also, don’t tell anyone that we found the Switch. You also need to take his life apart — bank records, phone, email, everything. From the diary we collected, it looks like he met Dr. Raja years ago when he was studying at Princeton University.”

  “I’ll get people on it right away, she announced. “Are you heading home or to Area 51?”

  “We are actually going back to Georgia for a few days to rest up. Then we are heading to Chicago to grab the Switch that is in the hands of the supremacists.”

  “Call me if you have anything else to report,” the doctor said and hung up.

  As soon as the general pushed the button to end the call, Kaley asked him why he didn’t tell Dr. Darby that they had a working Switch.

  He put up his hand to stop her and addressed Malcolm.

  “Malcolm, can you ask your spirit to research Dr. Raja’s past and see if we can connect him to anyone else?”

  “I’ll do it,” he promised. “But it may take a day or two to do all that research.”

  Malcolm immediately spoke to his eye in the sky. He asked the same question out loud.

  “Now can you answer my question?” Kaley persisted.

  “Yes, I will. There are actually three reasons for not telling Dr. Darby that we have a working Switch, my dear,” the old man stated slowly.

  “And they are?” Kaley asked in an impatient tone.

  “I don’t trust our government with any weapon this powerful and second, in case there are more conspirators, we don’t want them to know that they have lost their Switch.”

  “What’s the third reason?” Kaley asked.

  “Dr. Darby was a little too excited about us collecting all the meteorites. I suspect that she has something up her sleeve,” the general explained.

  “I’ll do some checking on her,” Malcolm offered.

  “That would be a good idea,” Simon responded

  “Okay, I get it,” Kaley butted in. “You want to make anyone left in the terrorist cell think that their Switch caused all the damage in Pakistan.”

  “You forgot the people in our government too, Kaley,” the general answered sagely. “If someone pinned the damage on us, we’d surely be sent to prison for a long time.”

  “I’ve been there,” she responded hotly. “I never want to go back.”

  Chapter Fifty

  The team reached the army/air force base where their plane was already refueled and ready to go. They all walked up the back loading ramp like zombies. Lisa joked that a nylon mesh bed never looked so good.

  General Stone stopped to talk to the base commander who was standing at attention by the ramp.

  They saluted and the Indian spoke. “My name is Colonel Patel. I trust your trip was successful,” he said suspiciously as he eyed the bandage on the general’s leg.

  “It was more of an exercise than anything else,” the general replied sincerely.

  “But, if I’m not mistaken, that’s a bullet wound to your leg, General,” the Indian Air Force colonel said suspiciously.

  “I’m getting too old to be out in the field,” the general replied with a laugh. “Actually, I did it to myself,” he once again lied.

  “Well you better not have left any bodies in my country to clean up,” the Indian warned in perfect English. “This could lead to severe diplomatic problems.”

  “No, we don’t want any diplomatic problems,” the general laughed. “We didn’t leave you any bodies for you to clean up in your country.”

  “Good,” the colonel responded and rocked back and forth on his feet. His hand went to his handlebar mustache and stroked it like you would a kitten.

  “Did something happen here?” the general asked as he looked around. “There seems to be a lot of activity on the base.”

  “We are mobilizing all available personal. We are leaving immediately for the Pakistan border,” Colonel Patel said.

  “Oh, what’s happened?” General Stone asked curiously.

  “Karachi has been hit by a huge Tsunami. There may be millions dead. Our assignment is to protect our border with Pakistan. We have no facilities or money to accept refugees. Especially since Muslims
and Hindus don’t get along very well. There is sure to be trouble between us and them. This has happened before.”

  “A Tsunami you say,” the general cried out in disbelief. Did we do that?

  “I’m afraid we are in for some difficulties for a long time, my friend.” The colonel said solemnly. “These Muslim refugees are not very flexible when they want something.”

  “Yes, I understand,” the general remarked. “Many European countries are finding out the same thing currently. Their reputation precedes them.”

  “The fact is that Muslims only mix well with other Muslims. And they still kill each other anyway,” the Indian military commander explained with a wave of his hand. “We just don’t want them to do it in our country — like they used to do.”

  “I don’t understand. What do you mean?”

  “You see, we actually gave them part of India to form their own country of Pakistan way back in 1947 because they demanded it through terrorism. Imagine that? We have one point three billion people in India and their country is under two hundred million, yet we had to give them their own space. Bangladesh in the East was also part of the deal.”

  “That must have been hard for you to swallow,” the general said sincerely.

  “Well we did at least get our own independence from the British. But I have no love for Islam. I have lost too many friends fighting against them.”

  “But they say they are a peaceful religion,” the general said sarcastically.

  “There is no place on earth where they live in mass that is peaceful,” the Indian officer replied. “Once they establish a foot hold, then problems and greater demands happen.”

  The general could see that the Indian colonel was getting pretty worked up. He was not looking forward to his new assignment. He expected hostilities at the border.

  “But it’s just a few extremists that cause all the trouble,” the general said to sooth him.

  “We had an extremist here in India too. His name was Mahatma Gandhi. How many people did he kill?” the colonel replied vehemently.

  “I get your point,” General Stone responded.

  “I must go now,” Colonel Patel said and saluted. “If you ever need my help again, let me know.” He handed General Stone a card with his number on it.

  “Good luck,” General Stone expressed as the colonel saluted and walked away.

  Chapter Fifty-One

  The MAD team was both elated and sad on the trip back to the states. They were happy that they had stopped a potentially huge terrorist group, but very upset that maybe millions of people died because of the confrontation. They didn’t really take solace in the fact that if Dr. Raja had shot the beam where he wanted, many more millions of people would have died.

  “So what’s the plan?” Kaley asked impatiently as she rubbed her hands together. “What do we do next?”

  “We need to get to Chicago and stop the supremacists. But we need a couple of days to put together a plan and recharge our batteries, don’t you think?”

  “Sounds reasonable,” Malcolm offered. “The supremacists only have one working Switch and they aren’t getting the meteorites they were after in The Eye of the Sahara. But we can’t wait too long or they will realize that someone is after them. Then I don’t know what will happen.”

  “Okay, let’s agree to take two days off in Atlanta and then head to Chicago,” the old man said.

  “What will we do with the meteorites?” Malcolm quickly asked.

  “I have a big safe in my house,” the general said. “I’ll put them in there until we finish with the Effort.”

  “But I’ll need a place to stay,” Lisa suddenly spit out.

  “Lisa, you can stay with me,” Kaley quickly declared.

  “Or you can stay with me,” Malcolm uttered half-joking.

  “You are my responsibility,” Simon Stone managed to say. “You should stay with me.”

  “Oh my! So many choices,” she said provocatively and smiled. “I’ll let you know who I’m staying with at the end of the flight. But I’m telling you right now, I am planning to spend most of my time reading this diary.” She held up Dr. Raja’s diary to show everyone.

  “I can help you read it by turning the pages for you,” Kaley offered with a purr.

  ***

  A little later during the flight, General Stone called over Captain Kane.

  After they saluted, the general asked him to sit. “You did an exemplary job in completing your mission captain,” he told the TACP officer.

  “Thank you sir,” Captain Kane replied.

  “My team needs a few days off, so we are going to Atlanta,” the general announced. “I will have the plane return you to your base and I will notify your commander of your successful performance.”

  “But aren’t you heading to Chicago?” the officer inquired.

  “Yes we are, but not for two days.”

  “Why don’t you let us go to Chicago and scope out our next target?”

  “We’ll pick up another team in the Mid-West. Your men deserve a rest.”

  “You don’t understand, general. We go on missions that sometimes last for weeks and even months. We’ve trained to handle the workload.”

  “I see,” replied the general thoughtfully.

  “It would be a slap in our face to dismiss us with the mission half over,” the captain argued. “Besides, we could get everything ready for you to swoop in. And if we need more men, I’d be happy to bring in other teams,” the captain argued.

  Simon Stone had worked with people long enough to understand that the TACP officer was literally begging to stay involved in their mission. He liked loyalty and dedication and he already knew that the TACP team was an efficient and deadly unit that could think on their feet.

  “This part of the mission may involve killing Americans,” the general explained. “Can you deal with that?”

  “A terrorist is a terrorist, no matter what race, color, or religion,” the captain replied.

  “Alright,” the wise old man replied. “I’ll arrange for you to be the advance team in Chicago. You can relieve the men already watching the supremacists and decide if we need them to complete our quest. You can also bring the men we captured in the desert there and find a place to keep them where they can’t communicate with anyone until this is over.”

  “We wouldn’t want it any other way,” Captain Kane replied with a smile.

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  Once the MAD team landed in Atlanta, they said their goodbyes and went home. To no one’s surprise, Lisa decided to stay with Kaley.

  Malcolm slept for most of the next day. He finally got up when his stomach told him that it needed food. He ate a good meal and had just started doing laundry when his cellphone rang. He knew from the ring tone that it was Kaley.

  “Hello,” he said cautiously.

  “Malcolm,” Kaley said with a generous amount of satisfied happiness in her voice. “You need to come over to the general’s house immediately.”

  “What’s up?” he questioned.

  “Lisa has been reading Dr. Raja’s diary and has found some very interesting information. You need to hear about it.”

  “Are you at his house already?” Malcolm asked.

  “Yes, he suggested I call you,” she gushed.

  “It sounds like what Lisa found is important,” he replied.

  “Yes, what we found could change everything.”

  “I’ll be there in a half hour,” he told her.

  “Good. We’ll start the barbecue and grill some steaks while we discuss what we found,” Kaley offered.

  “I could use some more food,” he answered happily. “I’ll see you then.”

  “Oh,” she quickly added. “We’ll be by the pool out back. Bring your bathing suit.”

  “We’re going into the pool?” Malcolm asked in a shaky voice as a fantasy played out in his head. They’ll both be in bikinis.

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  Captain Kane an
d his TACP team arrived in Chicago a few hours after they had dropped off the MAD team in Atlanta. Their first order of business was to bring the six captured Effort men to a secure facility. The captain’s superiors arranged for the men to be placed in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago. The large downtown prison was where alleged criminals were usually held before trials. Also those criminals who were serving brief sentences were sent there.

  The facility had a large maximum security area. The TACP officer left the Effort men there to be sequestered. But when the prison administrator checked, he discovered that the maximum security area was completely full. The correction facility had so many criminals coming and going on a daily basis that sometimes they had to make accommodations. As a result, the men were placed in the next lower level of security. That level gave them access to the roof top exercise yard where they could mingle for a short time with other inmates.

  Prisons work on a highly regimented routine. Because of that, one of the Effort men was allowed onto the exercise area almost immediately. When he was released onto the rooftop he quickly spied another Effort member who was serving a short incarceration for a drug bust. He walked over to the man and identified himself as an Effort member.

  “Can you get a message out to Hans Keidel?” he asked.

  “Well, I actually get out tomorrow morning,” the smiled happily.

  “Good, here is what I want you to tell him.”

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  At about the same time that Malcolm left his house for the general’s party the next day, the Effort man from prison was standing in Hans Keidel’s large living room waiting for the big man to see him.

  Keidel swept into the room wearing a thousand dollar suit and carrying a brandy in an expensive crystal-glass sniffer. Before speaking he slowly strolled over to a large sofa and reclined, crossing his legs and straightening the crease on his pant leg. He wanted to make sure the man knew how important he was and how intimidating he could be.