Thirty Four Minutes DEAD

by Kaye, Steve Hammond

  As Tavini paused for breath, his eyes became very excited. His athletic frame moved closer to Vain and Tavini's voice became hushed in comparison to the volume that accompanied his utterances thus far.

  "The best news as far as we're concerned surrounds three of the ten speaking nations. We would have been mad to turn the potential gun on ourselves here, and so the Brits and us will have a 'no show' as far as speaking is concerned, but we reckon some of the big guns speaking have ulterior motives surrounding their supposed cradle based assistance. What these guys say could be a fucking mile away from what they would really like to do with the countries they have offered to help! The French are on show. After all the conference is their fucking idea, but we reckon their good guy image could be a bluff.

  “The French are supposedly going to help Guyana with their depressed economy and raw material management, but our research has indicated that a 'clean sweep' take-over plan may lie behind their offer. Think about it, Greg. They already have control of French Guyana, and only the Dutch owned Surinam lies between what they already control and Guyana itself! A territorial clean sweep would give the frogs one hell of a presence in South America. Sure they could milk the metal processing and timber raw materials of these countries, but we reckon their interest in Guyana is more closely linked to the testing ground potential of the tropical environment prevalent in this region of the world. The French have been stepping up their production of organic germ warfare compounds - living weapons that contaminate through parasitic regeneration. One of their latest efforts ‘Guerre Ex 20’ is a real fucker, breaking down tropical vegetation through an injection of mutant spores that essentially pollute localised oxygen in a region. If people come in contact with the stuff, they're dead in seconds if they're in close proximity, and thus the French need a paradise to play around with as far as testing goes".

  Vain begged a question of Tavini.

  "Why do the French need Guyana as a test base though, Dave? Can't they get a control programme working in their own back yard?”

  "Only through simulation, Greg. You see the nature of Guerre Ex 20 essentially means that it needs a 'living' environment to breakdown. Yeah, a simulated environment would give them a good effect idea, but they are looking for grand scale living landscapes to wreck for want of a better phrase. They have got things off to a fine art here. Guerre Ex 20 only fucks up a location in tropical environments, and another creation ‘Zed 29’ only devastates in high altitude 'thin air' locales. The French have been under scrutiny since they fucked up in Fiji with their atomic testing a few years back, and although Gericault promised a radical reduction to their military programmes when he got elected last year, we know that they've intensified their germ warfare capabilities to an awesome level!"

  Vain was intrigued by the possibility of a hidden agenda being the reason for France initiating the peace conference. His love of French style and art had always been tempered by his distrust of their approaches concerning military research, and he was also suspicious of the far right political leanings that Gericault had demonstrated on occasions. Tavini turned his attention to the second of the three nations that the MC project ranks doubted as far as integrity was concerned.

  "We've also got strong suspicions with regard to Germany's offer of support to Burundi. The unstable nature of the military coup-determined Government in this country has meant that the country is a mere shell of the potentially flourishing nation it could be. The Krauts have offered to help stabilise it politically by offering their services as an arbitration type mediator. They have also designed a regenerative tourism programme, and a landmine clearance scheme is apparently ready to implement now! The Germans have already promised that they wish to nurture the autonomy of Burundi as opposed to transplanting their national culture on the place but the package seems too fucking good to be true doesn't it, Greg? You see, back in the late eighties we had some of our research guys out there bluffing on the archaeology front. Their real role was to ascertain whether 'heavy metal' deposits existed in three key regions. They drew a blank, but four years later we know an undercover German party scored a hit, finding quite a rich vein of uranium and slivers of caesium as well. Things went quiet after that because different tribal factions started to use the area as a fucking battleground, but we think that in the light of our findings, the German support offer could be a serpent's kiss rather than a moral blessing!”

  Vain put a question to his team members.

  "The territorial French case seems very legitimate fellas, but this one is a bit lacking in terms of validity. I mean Germany are an affluent nation - if they wanted substantial heavy metal reserves, they could import South African supplies without skirmishing for them in a war torn outpost! I mean a fourth Reich isn't exactly around the corner, is it? Why would the Germans want to stockpile stuff like uranium nowadays? They're businessmen, not warmongers! The South American Neo-Nazi strongholds make Germany passive in comparison".

  Vain's Korean team member offered a wry smile before answering his front line leader.

  "How right you are, Gregory. The Germans are indeed businessmen and that is exactly why Burundi appeals to them. They don't have any master race sentiments motivating their offer of support here and they would indeed provide the forms of assistance they have offered, but when Burundi starts to recover economically they would offer the country a bargain it would find hard to refuse".

  "A bargain?”

  "Yes my leader, a bargain. You see, Burundi would flourish over time if all goes to plan, and Germany would be seen as a pivotal force in the new prosperity. When Germany prepares to pull their support forces out of Burundi, once prosperity starts to arrive, the alarm bells would sound amongst the Burundian people. The Germans would have a whiter than white image after the decade we feel it would take to turn the country's economic fortunes around, and the home country would extend retention offers to their European mentors. Burundi would realise that ten years of growth wouldn't kill a vendetta culture outright, and they would fear that the old civil war evils would return to haunt them. Germany would be seen as the key to the maintenance of a new peaceful equilibrium, and a retention of their support services would be of paramount importance. Then the Germans would ask the Burundians if they could have the trading rights to any heavy metal reserves they could locate in certain sections of the country. It would now be the right time for the Germans to farm the fields of Uranium, which they had kept secret from the Burundian people back in the eighties. The bargain would be struck and Germany would have a lethal chemical trading post in the process! They would sell the metals through to the highest bidder - without risking fatherland contamination! Oh yes Gregory, the Germans are good businessmen!”

  Vain was taken aback by the intricacies his two-team members knew about the nations speaking at the forthcoming conference. He started to realise that whilst he and Levene had been lusting around Washington, his team had been briefed on the gameplan for the conference. He felt guilty initially, although this feeling soon turned to fear. Denison had made Vain realise that both he and Levene had been bait to corner the Vanguard press section, and now in his absence both his front line colleagues had been party to information that would have been conveyed to him first in the past. Vain felt uncomfortable, even expendable to a degree. None of his team had mentioned his liaisons with Marcia, but the rather distanced tone from Ko-Chai and the curious intensity in Tavini's eyes made Vain anxious to return to the ranks of the front-line team fold. The quantity of decent background information that the pair had fired at him in a matter of minutes accompanied the inquisitor-type eye contact, and Vain felt on the rack by their combined effect. The flood of information had rendered him silent, and Tavini saw his chance to enlighten Vain with regard to the final speaking nation that had aroused the suspicions of the MC project research unit.

  "China is the other nation that could well be double-talking on the podium, Greg. They have initially offered to assist Laos with agricultural regene
ration. Laos is supposedly a Left Wing Republic at this moment in time, but exist under satellite government control really, with their Chinese neighbours effectively making political decisions for them. In this form of mock autonomy Laos are just a puppet for the Chinese, and the offer to help with agricultural policy was no great surprise. The statement that followed it sure as hell was, though! China is going to call for a 'Western' alliance to help consolidate the economic future of Laos. The alliance would be based in Laos, with all the support nations being actively involved. The Chinese say that their role would be equal to the support of Western nations, not overriding in its capacity.

  “Mishimo and I have been surprised to say the least, at the Chinese calling for a Western aid presence so close to Chinese territory. The economical research and planning that the Western alliance would undertake would inevitably mean uncovering flaws in some of the Chinese-regulated decisions taken for Laos in the past. This form of global exposure would bite China hard. I mean, the economic hardship in Laos is really their work - their dirty fucking laundry! China is up to something, pal. Calling for Western assistance isn't exactly in their nature, is it? Would you want a dozen ideologically-oppositional neighbours sitting on your garden fence, examining your errors and offering corrections - would you fuck!”

  After Tavini had finished detailing the suspicions surrounding the Chinese conference support offer, Vain took his leave of his two front line team members and headed for his own hotel quarters. Ko-Chai had given him some diagrams to survey concerning the conference layout, and he had been given the listing order of the ten 'speaking' nations. These countries would initially make a concise twenty-minute speech that would succinctly detail the offer of support that they were intending to make. They would also establish why they had sought to offer help to the third world country, which they had selected.

  All mentor pairings had been suggested and agreed upon some months back, and thus the chief function of the world peace conference was concerned with the illumination of mentor-based help to the widest possible audience. In effect the WPC was hopefully going to be an event with a seminal capacity. It would set mentor support in motion and it would act as a catalyst for other similar conferences to ensue. The hidden agenda of the MC project ranks would radically alter perceptions surrounding the event, if their suspicions were given visual credence on the wrap-around laser screens, once they were activated.

  Denison had decided to record the 'heightened visuals' of the speaking countries as soon as the first nation began their twenty minute verbal address, but the images were to be withheld from screening until halfway through the final speaking nation's address. The Spanish were subsequently the chosen nation who were going to be interrupted by the laser screen HV playbacks. At a sign from Denison, the screens behind the respective speaking podiums would be activated, and the mental imagery of those who had spoken would be displayed for everyone to see. Denison initially expected a brief confusion to reign but when speakers were confronted with images from their own 'mindsight', a partial realisation of the mind probing that had taken place would follow.

  Tavini and Ko-Chai had been briefed by Denison with regard to the organisational details surrounding the conference, but Vain had been shut out to a level, as the MC project leader wanted to make him feel the pinch that ignorance generated. He still realised that Vain was one of his projects' most prized human assets, but the affair that he and Levene had fallen into had slightly tarnished Vain's image in Denison's eyes. The affair had ironically helped Denison and the MC project as a whole, because the pair's good looks and powerful positions had helped flush out the 'chasing clique' at The Washington Vanguard. Lassiter's greed-motivated secrecy had been uncovered by her pursuit of the illicit project lovers, and subsequently her discreet press-unit was expunged quite easily.

  * * * * *

  Vain was still feeling less informed than his front-line colleagues when he waited for the conference to commence, two days later. Although the event had been a French initiative, the United States had effectively put the idea into motion, and subsequently the American President - Mr C. M. Delavoy, was the individual who was going to open the proceedings. This Western figurehead was clad in ignorance as far as the operations of the MC project were concerned, and as he began his opening address, his quest for Global peace moved the ranks of those who were similarly ignorant to the hidden conference agenda.

  Vain surveyed the Presidential speech from the confines of the MC project accommodation on the third floor. The tiered structure of the floors gave the venue a quality that was similar to a huge operatic venue, and as the President closed his introduction, a crescendo of applause rose upward to the press annexes where the MC project cohort lay in readiness.

  The applause continued to a consistent level as the speaking nations took their respective turns on the podium and their mindsight imagery was logged in line with Denison's instructions. No one pre-empted the recorded HVs by recalling material before Denison's signal, and although Leif was elsewhere in the building, Mr Fray was there to outlaw any contravention of his leader's wishes. Some of the project ranks had wanted to check their findings as things progressed, but Denison had been adamant in his refusal, claiming that the MC project would win either way. If all the images endorsed the verbal promises, then at least mindsight capture could be illuminated, and if some images were at odds with verbal intentions, as they suspected with France, Germany and China, then 'forked tongue' treachery could be exposed.

  Vain glanced down at Delavoy while the crowd heartily applauded the Italian offer concerning third world support. As the presidential hands entered into the ovation, Vain inwardly marvelled at the ultimate power that the MC project commanded. He was looking at a naive figurehead who was ignorant of the hidden intensity of the occasion, and although other American Presidents had been shunned by security power organisations before, Delavoy had never been approached by either the CIA or FBI with regard to MC project work. His name would not be seen as a pivotal presence when the history books told the story of the Washington peace conference, and he would be relegated as a discarded entity.

  The nations under suspicion came to the podium in their allotted order, and the bevy of interpreters translated their respective intent. The French representative made a passionate speech with regard to the raw material expertise his country could offer Guyana, and the German speaker detailed the arbitrary strengths his country could offer Burundi. The Chinese delegation involved a triad of speakers who slightly overran their designated duration; such was their apparent enthusiasm for seeking Western collusion with regard to the future of Laos. After nine nations had made their speeches, the Spanish made their way from the back of the conference hall toward the podium, and Leif Denison entered the hive of expectancy that contained his MC project cohort. All eyes looked toward the powerfully built project leader, and after formal greetings were briefly exchanged a pregnant silence pervaded the control room.

  The Spanish delegate began her speech and everyone waited for Denison to fire through the 'all-important command'. A droplet of sweat trickled down Mr Voight's temple but the man remained undeterred, his eyes looking into the oblivion favoured by those in deep thought.

  Ko-Chai eyed the clock, willing it and Denison to find a mutual time to set the laser screens in motion. He then started to tap out a discordant rhythm with a pencil on a table edge situated in close proximity to him. This act incurred a piercing stare from Tavini and Mishimo subsequently ceased the nervous affliction. Gregory Vain's eyes fixed on the spectacle-taking place beneath him. His palms were moist, and as he willed Denison to act, thoughts of his children briefly raced through his mind. Vain looked toward Denison's direction, just in time to see his leader deliver a blow to the ‘Vation’ unit that activated all the laser screens. As he did so, Denison let forth one of his lines of immortality.

  " With this act I thee wed. Nations - here's the future!”

  As the screens started to render the stor
ed mindsight images, the crowd was initially confused with regard to the interruption. The Spanish delegate stopped in mid-sentence, and as she surveyed the screen behind her interpretation entourage she became pale; seeing her words of support converted into the imagery she had envisaged. This delegate was the only speaking individual who could witness her own mindsight from the outset because she spoke on the master podium and could thus take in all the delegate screens in unison.

  The other speakers could see imagery on the screens behind their fellow speakers straight away, but their screen was situated behind them and thus the visual side-show on offer initially distracted them from looking behind their own section. This uneasy equilibrium did not last for long, and a staccato cry of outrage uttered by the German speaker set chaos into motion.

  The images that caused the German delegation to get upset didn't tally with their definition of support for Burundi. The HVs collected from the German speaker endorsed the suspicions of the MC project, showing convoys of articulated military vehicles with German insignia adorned on their livery. The vehicles displayed the identity of the various 'heavy metals' that the Germans had discovered in Burundi. The screen then cut to goods trains with the same type of cargo, and shortly after the trains came a series of images which caused the German delegation to stand up and point accusing fingers in the direction of Delavoy. By screaming abuse in their native tongue, they generated a frenzied pandemonium in the space around their section. The images which caused such fury concerned portraits of extreme depravation. Whilst the German speaker had preached his words of support, his mind had logged the real agenda Germany had with Burundi, and his subconscious had supplemented this vision. Rows of wasted maltreated Burundians watched the export trains speed through stations, and these images were the symptom of Germany's real mission in this African country.