Beyond Top Secret: A Zach Taylor Adventure

by Brian Anderson

  “Sounds reasonable to me, let’s get them hooked up,” Clay replied. He appreciated Chris’s honesty in assessing what he was capable of doing. So there was no point in arguing, even if he felt that with anyone else he could do it in two trips.

  Then Chris added, “Since it will take multiple trips, let’s try for forty gallons on the first trip, that way the second and third trips can be thirty gallons making them a little easier to carry after taxing ourselves with the first load.”

  They attached the jugs, and after some finagling finally had the shoulder pad’s in place, and the two men tethered together attempted to head for the river. It was no different from prisoners on a chain gang. They needed to learn how to walk in-step. At first, Chris felt he was being dragged around like a horse. Pulled forward with Clay’s long stride he struggled to keep from becoming a face implant on the jungle floor. Eventually, they had coordinated their gait and were walking in unison down the little trail to the river.

  In front Clay pounded away at the vegetation, clearing the path, which seemed untraveled for months. Thankful they were here in the ‘cold’ season; the heat was not oppressive. However, humidity engulfed their bodies and caused the excess perspiration flowing from their pores to drip onto the jungle canvas. They could handle the humidity. The constant barrage of what felt like straight pins being hurled at them mercilessly had become almost intolerable. The only thing differentiating the pricks, from what a straight pin would accomplish, was the buzzing that accompanied the stings. Marching on, they just hoped the assault would not bring some horrible disease along with the mosquito's bite.

  Meanwhile, back at the camp, Zach got instructions on the calisthenics routine. Basic exercises were the extent of the regiment. What was expected seemed somewhat lame to Zach as he rapidly completed the first set; fifty jumping jacks, twenty-five push-ups, and lifting twenty pounds from the ground to over his head. By the time he had finished his fifth repetition the burning in his arms and legs had become slightly noticeable, and his thoughts went from lame exercises to wondering when Clay and Chris would be back with the water.

  Finally returning from the river, and seeing the expressions on the men’s faces, Clay said, “Sorry y’all, it was a bit of a struggle making it back up. The next two trips should be quicker.”

  Calculating that it took over half an hour for them to make the trip, Zach, dejectedly, said, “Two more trips, you’ve got to be kidding.”

  “Hey water is heavy, give us a break,” Clay responded.

  Clay and Chris headed behind the mess hall with the first batch of water. In a matter of moments, they managed with significant effort to get the water into the tank and began the hike back to the river for their next batch. The rest of the men resumed their calisthenic program but moved much slower. Muscles strained to keep going. The burn had gone from slight to almost unbearable. The rate at which Zach completed a cycle had slowed to a crawl, he thought a snail could even beat him in a foot race right now. Zach chastised himself, he should have realized multiple trips would be involved and paced himself from the start, but there was nothing he could do about that now.

  When he saw Clay and Chris enter the camp again, he realized water duty was the cushy job, neither of those two looked the worst for wear, and Zach felt like he was going to die. Too chipper for Zach’s liking, Clay said, “How’s it going? One more trip and we’ll be done.”

  Tom approached from his quarters and said “Water duty is taking longer than expected. The rest of you can rest until Clay and Chris finish getting the water. When they're done, you can all do three more sets and consider calisthenics completed for the day. Meet me in the mess hall when you’re finished."

  Without any prodding the men collapsed on the ground, looking like a herd of sea lions basking on the rocks under a morning sun. Depositing the water in the tank, Clay and Chris hustled down the trail for the last batch. When they returned, the other men were still on the ground spent from the exercises. Pouring the water into the tank, Chris pushed the button mounted under a sign that read ‘Push to start sterilization.’ A hissing sound came from the tank unit as the lid sealed and instantly an intense heat came from the tank. After five minutes, a bell rang, and the tank began to expel steam into what could best be described as a distillers coil that ended in a length of tubing that passed through the back wall of the mess hall. Chris looked at Clay and said, “That’s one hell of a water purification system.”

  Nodding. Clay replied, “We did our part, let’s go join the others.”

  The group of men groaned in unison as the two approached. They all struggled to their feet and began the final three sets of exercises. A considerable difference in exhaustion between the water carriers and the rest of the team was evident. With Clay and Chris’s calisthenics complete, they watched for a good ten minutes while everyone else continued to struggle. Quivering muscles strained to lift their body mass. Each clap of their hands weaker than the last. Bodies under siege with pain from the weight that had become more than one hundred pounds, at least in the minds of the men that lifted them. What Clay and Chris witnessed left nothing but a sense of dread. Then they noticed something that seemed odd. Ray seemed to be having the least problems. Both men agreed they needed to talk with Ray before tomorrow morning. Finally completed, everyone headed for the mess hall, what the men discovered was a room wholly reconfigured to resemble a classroom.

  Joe and Tom were both in the mess hall, standing at what would be considered the head of the class. At each desk, there was a low profile thirty two inch touchscreen slanted up from the desktop and reached a height of only eight inches at its tallest point. A large display, on a cart, was rolled into the room. Without any fiddling with cords and cables, the screen came to life and displayed Jake’s face.

  “Hello men, I hope you all survived your introduction to our training program. Don’t worry. It gets easier over time since we never increase the expectations of the calisthenics program. That can’t be said for the rest of your training. Joe will cover the training syllabus in a moment, but first I want to remind you of one thing. Whether it’s mental or physical, remember you can opt out at any time, but please sit down with Joe to discuss the situation before you commit to a decision. I will leave you in the competent hands of Joe and Tom, good luck men.” The screen went blank. Two men showed up and quickly wheeled the display out of the classroom.

  Joe took up a position where the display had been, “Today is what every morning while in camp, will be like. So you may as well accept that fact. Breaking down the rest of your day; you will start with two hours focused on communications, followed by two hours of logistics training. Then you get an hour lunch break, please don’t eat at your desks, there is a table next to the serving line for eating. In the afternoon you start with our version of Krav Maga/self-defense training, which lasts about four hours; after that, you will do a two-mile run and end your day with dinner. Your evenings are free for you to do whatever makes sense. I’ll turn it over to Tom for communications training, and I’ll be back for logistics. Tom.”

  “Thanks, Joe. We’ll start with a review of our communication structure and then get into some of the technologies we depend on. I promise to avoid technical jargon that doesn’t add to the discussion,” then speaking in the air Tom added, “Network.”

  “Network displayed,” came an animated voice that closely resembled a human’s voice. Each man’s monitor lit up to a map of the world with lines running every which way, the haphazard nature of the lines mimicked a small child’s scribbles on a piece of paper.

  Explaining what was on their display’s, Tom began, “Each of you will find a computer phone on your desk. Unless it’s a critical situation, your computer phone is the only way you should contact other agents or the agency itself. Standard communication protocols are easily traced, and exact locations of those initiating and receiving the communique can jeopardize our entire organization. Our phones bounce signals all over the world with no endpoi
nts. The lines you are looking at are what an unwanted intruder would see if they tried to intercept a call and find the locations of the participants.

  “With no beginning or ending point, our algorithms keep every location unknown, and a sophisticated encryption technology makes all communications the most secure on this planet. Noise, in the form of sitcoms and cartoons from the sixties and seventies, are constantly bombarding the airwaves across the world. Our communication system acts like a train surfer, we hop on and off the noise line inserting and extracting small packets of data of an undetectable length; this all happens at microsecond speeds, so there are no delays on either end for; audio, video, and all other types of transmissions.”

  Ray interrupted Tom to ask, “What happens if you have to use something other than the computer phone?”

  “It could expose your location and possibly the contents of the transmission if the interceptor was good enough, but we will get into what would justify that later, and what precautions we have at our disposal. So that completes an overview of how we can communicate undetected. Let’s take a five-minute break. Then we will talk about your computer phones.”

  The men got up to stretch, the agony of their sore muscles was excruciating. A small table with a pitcher of water and some glasses sat off to the side. Zach went over to get a drink. Next to the pitcher was a small container that held several vials of an unknown liquid. The box had the word “Energy” printed on it. Being the adventurous type, Zach took a vial and added it to a glass of water. Whatever it was didn’t taste bad at all, and the results were almost immediate. Sore muscles melted away, and a new sense of energy and strength took hold of this body. Bouncing back to the rest of the men he exclaimed, “Make sure and take an energy vial with a glass of water, you won’t have any regrets.”

  They all noticed the vigor Zach exhibited and made a beeline for the special elixir. Everyone felt rejuvenated and didn’t care what it was, just grateful for the magic potion. Returning to their seats, they all started examining the computer phone that sat on the desks. An unimpressive looking unit, about four by six inches and not much thicker than a chocolate bar, it showed no sign of life. There were no visible buttons on the device, and Zach had no clue how it worked.

  Tom took Zach’s phone and said, “Wake up.” The entire top side of the unit turned into an illuminated display, “Start secure setup,” Tom said and handed the phone back to Zach. The screen prompted, ‘Say: wake up.’ Zach complied and repeated the process three times. Next, it displayed ‘Place your right eye in front of the display.’ Holding the phone in front of him a circle expanded and contracted until it finally blinked. Finally, it displayed ‘Place your left thumb on the screen.’ The phone announced, ‘Security setup complete.’

  Tom said, “I’ll come around and get each of you set up, so you know; you need to say ‘wake-up,’ complete a retinal scan, and your thumbprint scan, in less than fifteen seconds to activate your phone. When you aren’t actively using the phone, it shuts off in thirty seconds. Besides the rightful owner, it’s a useless piece of polycarbonate.” Once everyone was activated, Tom said, “That’s it for me this morning, Joe will cover logistics.”

  Chapter 10

  Amazon Rain Forest

  When Joe walked into the mess hall, the men were playing with their computer phone’s, like a child on his birthday exploring the versatility of his new toy. The men quickly set their phone’s down. “Good morning again. Are you all ready to discover the exciting world of logistics and tactics?” There was an empathetic tone to Joe’s question.

  Their body language telegraphed the mutual lack of enthusiasm for a two-hour lecture. Being the outspoken one, and with a sarcastic inflection, Zach said, “Couldn’t think of a better way to spend the next couple of hours.”

  “Look, I know you would all rather be playing with your new toy than listen to me, but this training is critical to the team’s success in the field. First, so we are all on the same page, let me give you my definitions of logistics and tactics as they apply to us. Logistics is the acquisition of all items needed for a positive mission outcome. You will need to be resourceful in acquiring what you need in the time frame allocated. There’s not a hardware store on every corner where you can go shopping. On your phone, you will find a list of suppliers worldwide you can tap into. For training purposes, you also have a list of potential local resources. In real life, you would need to identify and work with local’s on your own. Any questions?”

  No one said a word, so Joe continued, “Now let’s talk about tactical. Tactical is where the rubber meets the road. You need to assess the situation, determine what you need to facilitate the mission’s goal, and most importantly prevent casualties. Sounds simple right? Well, we’ll see how you do over the months ahead. For tomorrow I want the team to rescue me from at least four armed hostage takers. Your phones have a file that provides details on your target’s abilities to help you devise a plan of rescue. Any questions?”

  “You want all of us to come up with a single report?” Zach inquired.

  “No, I want you to rescue me, or at least a facsimile of me. Handguns will be issued to each of you that shoot marker bullets. You will also receive dots that you can place on a foe if you resort to hand to hand combat and ‘kill’ or ‘incapacitate’ them. Remember stealth beats brute force any day and noise can be both your ally and your enemy. Take these exercises seriously; this is how your tactical training will be taught. One last thing, these exercises start once your dinner meal is over and must be completed before my training session the following day. Okay take five then we will get back to logistics.”

  They all expected the rest of the morning to be spent listening to Joe talk about logistical operations. Instead, they were given a list of needed supplies and were given the rest of the morning to secure their arrival within twenty-four hours. The only instruction they were given was to identify themselves as ‘Zebra Two’ when contacting a supplier. The suppliers had all been informed calls from ‘Zebra Two’ were a training exercise and not to ship anything. The suppliers were also instructed to not be overly helpful in sharing information that could impact the shipment schedule.

  Having looked over the list, Zach thought, a piece of cake, and reviewed the list of suppliers. After he had contacted a slew of suppliers, Zach was satisfied that everything was scheduled, except for a single item. A knockout concoction made from indigenous plant life could only be acquired from a local supplier. Picking a name from his list of local resources, he had received a commitment for delivery of the drug. Elated with how swiftly he had solved the exercise he acted flamboyantly in the manner he presented the solution to Joe. Like cold water thrown in one’s face, his demeanor instantly changed when Joe looked at the results and proclaimed, “You failed.”

  Zach stood there; in front of his snickering peers, under a spotlight, and wearing a dunce cap; or so it felt to him. In an almost defiant tone, he said, “What’s wrong with my solution?”

  “Let’s review. I’m sure the rest of the team will find this helpful. Here is your conversation with the Demolition Supply Co.” Joe held up his phone for the entire team to hear:

  “Hi, this is Zach with Zebra Two.”

  “Yes, your phone’s signature is confirmed, what can I do for you?”

  “I need ten pounds of C-4, and I need it in the next twenty-four hours.”

  “We have it available, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

  “Thanks.”

  Joe asked the rest of the team, “Did any of you hear anything wrong?”

  Shawn spoke up, “He didn’t fuckin’ tell them where to send it.”

  “No, they would have that information from the phone signature. Two specific words are the problem here. When the supplier said ‘shouldn’t be’ that should have raised a red flag. In this scenario, there is a major storm brewing at the supplier’s location, and all flights are grounded. When Zach heard ‘shouldn’t be’ he should have asked the person on the
other end to confirm the delivery time-frame. That person would have learned nothing was shipping out that day and would have told Zach there was a problem.

  “The second problem was your choice of a local resource. Remember I said potential resources, it just so happens you picked an unreliable source. What the local would have delivered to you is an inert powder. I want you all to take a look at your phone’s. There’s a little icon with a Bigfoot image. They are your lifeline. Rely on them for answers when you have a question. Zach, you should have had them check into your chosen resource. Ninety percent of the time they will have a response almost immediately, the other ten percent may take hours to days depending on the situation. I wasn’t trying to humiliate you, Zach, every mistake any of you make is a learning experience for all of you going forward.”

  Dejected, Zach returned to his seat. The entire team got busy making additional phone calls to correct potential mistakes they may have overlooked. At around the same time they all felt they were done, Joe said, “That’s it for this morning, lunch is in ten minutes.” No one else showed Joe their solution. He was satisfied they had all learned today’s lesson.

  Heading for the service line, Clay and Chris corralled Ray to get some answers. “How is it you weren’t spent like the rest of the men during calisthenics?” Chris asked.

  “Simple, I estimated how long it would take you two to finish getting water and just paced myself. Remember, Tom didn’t say how many sets to do. All he said was to do calisthenics until we had all the water for the day delivered. Go slow, stretch out between sets, and you will be a lot better off than all these macho team members.”

  “Good advice,” Clay said, thinking macho and calisthenics don’t seem to go well together.

  Lunch was their fourth iteration of the same concoction. A more substantial portion and this time they got some bread like object to go with it. Ignoring the taste every man ate everything in front of them. They all knew the energy from food outweighed whatever strange taste it left. This time the small table next to the serving line had a pitcher of water but a different container full of vials. The label on the box no longer said energy now it said, ‘Rejuvenation.’ Without hesitation, every man took a vial, poured a glass of water and drank the elixir. Unlike the morning vial, there was no perceptible reaction to the potion. They asked the cook, who said, “It’s for your muscles and organs.” They had all heard of the medicinal value of thousands of tropical plants and accepted the cook’s answer at face value.