Infinite Exposure

by Roland Hughes

  Of course, the leaders at major IT vendors all subscribed to the service. This allowed them to write articles for the analysts that would be featured in the newsletter and magazine. These vendors also paid big consulting firms to train a few of their account people as experts for marketing purposes and a few more as technical experts. For a fee, and a cut of the sale, the big consulting firms would then pitch the product as the be-all and end-all to their clients' needs. This had been going on so long in the industry it was now considered an accepted practice.

  The weekly trade press was at the mercy of the “industry analysts.” Whenever advertising revenue fell off they would run an article or three questioning the credibility of the firms, but never actually do anything close to investigative journalism. They relied too heavily on the money the “industry analysts” spent promoting service subscribers in their magazines. Of course, they couldn't grumble too loudly or report too accurately. If that happened, the “industry analysts” would contact all of their subscribers and the entire stream of advertising revenue would cease to flow. Weekly trade rags went out of business when they went up against the “industry analysts.”

  Kathryn had to hand it to the Langston Group. They had turned fraud into an art. Most of the analysts drove really nice rides that were leased for them by the IT vendors, so there was never a money trail showing on the books. They could open up their books and show clear lines of demarcation between marketing and analyst efforts. The analysts themselves took their perks in leased cars, information junkets, and outright paid vacations, all on the sly. How they could stand there and claim “Holier Than Thou” to the “sex for sale” marketing tactic of big consulting companies Kathryn would never understand. Maybe they were really born without a soul, she thought.

  Once the presentation was over, Kathryn and the Langston Group analysts were offered lunch. The restaurant was four-star so Kathryn accepted. She had no illusion as to why she was being given the full treatment. She held the account of First Global Bank. This vendor needed to land that account and get the bank to announce a glowing report on the software. The “industry analysts” had a better lunch engagement, so they had to bow out.

  At the restaurant there was the usual small talk about the product and how game changing it was. When the vendor was buying, their product was always game changing. Kathryn decided to twist the knife just a little, stating that the presentation didn't seem to cover much on the international flavor of the product. She was quickly assured that Pytho had spared no expense in making the product multi-lingual. From what Kathryn saw in the presentation this product was about as multi-lingual as Microsoft's operating system was multi-platform. You could use this product in any country you wanted as long as you spoke English. You could run Microsoft's operating system on any computer you wanted, so long as it was a x86 clone and not a real computer.

  Since they didn't understand the gist of Kathryn's dig, she expanded on it by saying, “I was thinking more along the lines of international mortgage and banking laws. If I'm going to pitch this product to my client it must be certified to conform to all of the mortgage and banking laws in all of the countries where they do business. To start with, that would be Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, and Germany. I assume you've already had a team of auditors verify it conforms to the banking laws for passbook savings and mortgages in the United States.”

  There was a lot of smiles and silence at the table as Kathryn took another drink of wine. Pytho Software hadn't bothered with testing for any countries other than Canada and the United States. At the time of development they were figuring on gradually handling the other countries. Then again, the Asian financial crisis hadn't happened until the middle of development and it was too late to change course. Now the one client they wanted had operations in many countries. Kathryn had them by the nads and everybody at the table knew it.

  An awkward silence continued for quite a few minutes as Kathryn continued eating her meal. Always drop a bomb like that after food is served, Kathryn thought. It gives you something to do while they squirm. Damn I'm good at this!

  Just prior to the check arriving, the leader of the pack stated, “We would like to retain your services for a globalization project.”

  Kathryn responded, “I will have to talk it over with my boss. I'm supposed to remain completely dedicated to the First Global Bank account until we complete our work there. What you really need me to do for you is to assemble the team that will provide you the banking rules for each country you target and provide testers to ensure those rules are met. If you complete such a project inside of a year, I can present your product to my client. Such an effort will not be cheap and my client would be expecting an amazing deal if they are going to be the first company to use this product out of the gate. You would in no way recoup your development costs on the first sale, it would probably take 10 sales just to recover this new effort before you could start recovering your prior investment.”

  “Understood,” replied the leader.

  Kathryn couldn't remember any of their names and hadn't bothered to write on their cards so she had to make one last gesture before owning this account. “If you have the authority to sign or present such a deal to your board, please give me another one of your cards so I may pass it onto my boss. He will then contact you when we have a number and a plan for you.” Without any hesitation Kathryn was handed a card.

  “Well, this lunch has been quite productive I think,” said Kathryn. “I had planned to spend my lunch hour at the Mercedes dealer down the street from the office pricing out a new car, but I think my time was better spent here.” Yes, it was an evil knife to twist, but Kathryn decided she should have the same perks as the industry analysts. A look from the leader to one of the others at the table brought the response Kathryn had intended to get.

  “If you don't have plans after work I would be happy to go there with you. Our company has a leasing arrangement with Mercedes Corporate so I'm sure we can get a very special deal for you.”

  Kathryn could already smell the new leather of her convertible Mercedes.

  Back at the office Kathryn quickly informed her boss about the details of the lunch, sans the new Mercedes detail. He called in a few account reps who had clients doing auditing work in the countries in question. A task list of phone calls to make and numbers to obtain was passed out. True to her word, Kathryn handed over the business card. When the others had left the room Kathryn's boss said: “Another whale like this and you will be in line for senior partner.” Kathryn smiled and went back to her desk, waiting for the phone to ring. The man buying her a new car was supposed to call at 4:30.

  ***

  A panel van arrived at the second camp late in the afternoon. Both the special security team and the lab technician team had arrived earlier. Special security escorted the van to a special pilot plant building at the back of the campus. There were no windows in this building and it had special sound-absorbing insulation inside.

  The two occupants in the back had recently been released from the interrogation camp and now were to be disposed of. The foreign interrogators believed the subjects were going to be sent to an isolated prison where no records would be kept. What they thought didn't really matter. In a few hours, there would be no evidence these men ever existed.

  Nikolaus was somewhat saddened that both were men. He had hoped to get the place fully operational, but they needed female subjects for that to happen. There would be little profit in the disposal of these two, but he would see how the team functioned. As a trial run, two was an adequate number. The security team would remain outside of the building making sure nobody entered until the products were created and the bodies taken to the incinerator; he was not worried about them. He was worried about the lab technicians. They had the dirty work and might not be up for it.

  In the 1960s researchers first discovered that bone marrow contains at least two kinds of stem cells. One population, called hematopoietic stem cells, form a
ll types of blood cells in the body. Years later they also discovered bone marrow stromal cells, which generate bone, cartilage, fat, and fibrous connective tissue. While the press was all blushing with news about stem-cell research, most were focusing on embryonic stem cells. There was a thriving black market for the other stem cells, and complete bone marrow itself. Some diseases could only be cured with a bone marrow transplant.

  The blood type and DNA of these two had been documented when they were received at the interrogation camp. There had been plenty of time to find very wealthy people who needed both, and could use what these two had to offer. Tonight two of them would have donor material air lifted to their hospitals. All of the bone marrow would be removed from these two men, once the saline pump had replaced all of their blood with saline solution. Their blood was to be harvested and sold on the blood market as well. At some point the men would expire. Once everything had been harvested, they would be incinerated. It was a shame no wealthy customers could use the other internal organs. Black market hearts were worth twice their weight in gold. Liver and kidneys sold well normally, but the blood tests had to match.

  Nikolaus needed to see how the lab techs handled this. If any of them wavered, the special security unit would have to put them down and incinerate their bodies. The team was too new to be asked to harvest one of their own. Many of the techs were loyal party members who had been groomed for exactly this task since birth. They were taught the party philosophy before they even went to school. Once they were in high school and interested in medicine, they were all made an offer. College would be a free ride, but you had to pass and work for the party. Technically, they didn't have to graduate. They had to know their way around a body, but they didn't need any skill at saving lives.

  Two separate options were available to women prisoners if their ovaries were still working. They would be allowed to live in the special, highly secured dorm, fertilized every other month and have an abortion on the following month, until they stopped producing eggs. This option was only available to the ones who cooperated. Those who didn't cooperate would simply have their ovaries harvested while blood and bone marrow were being harvested. The lab techs would fertilize as many eggs as they could from the ovaries, then harvest the stem cells. Nikolaus left it up to the technicians as to how the fertilization was to occur. Parentage didn't matter in this endeavor.

  One thing was still nagging at Nikolaus. These two men had been found as a result of the post-September 11 investigations. Their email had led to Nedim. Reporters had been sniffing around in various countries trying to get leads on investigations or clandestine efforts to hunt down al-Qaeda. They lost the scent of these two long ago. All records of them having been followed, arrested, or questioned had been purged completely. So completely it was no longer even on off-site backup media. What was bothering Nikolaus was an email from Hans telling him reporters were sniffing around in Pakistan and seemed to believe some clandestine operation had a mole handling email for al-Qaeda. Nikolaus had left the handling of it up to Hans and the man in the suit; they could kill the reporters or let it play out. If they killed the reporters, it needed to look like al-Qaeda did it.

  ***

  Heidi donned her nursing fatigues and set about to start the saline exchange. The pump they were using was the same pump funeral homes used to embalm bodies. During her nurse's training she actually had to work in the morgue for a while. The only thing different about this was the body strapped to the table was still alive. Oddly, it was that training which made her most suited for this job.

  She looked over and saw Nikolaus looking through the room's observation window. A smile shown from behind her surgical mask. He recognized her and smiled back. Nikolaus and her father had been friends forever. They were both loyal party members and she had been raised to be a loyal party member. Her nurse's training had been paid for by the party. As part of her payback and continued training, she had worked as a nurse in various military medical units and served as a med tech for some clandestine ones. She had seen first-hand the carnage caused by explosives, and had no problem with what they were doing.

  Heidi knew the history of al-Qaeda on her soil. Germans had been hunting them long before the Americans started killing them wholesale. The Americans really didn't get into it until after 9/11. Yes, they had done some monitoring, and even launched a botched attempt to kill bin Laden prior to 9/11, but they got involved too late. Had the American's shared their information with the people in her party, bin Laden wouldn't still be walking around. Her party had some of the best trained assassins in the world.

  From the history Heidi knew, al-Qaeda began operating in her country some time in 1992. They had a cell in Hamburg that had defied being rooted out by normal criminal means, and turned out to be the source for most of the 9/11 hijackers or at least selected and educated them. In 1994 al-Qaeda had killed two German intelligence agents because they were trying to dismantle the operations al-Qaeda had in Germany. After that event, the Reformed Nazi Party started getting a lot more influential members.

  In 1995 German intelligence identified a suspected leader of a Hamburg cell and found the Twaik Group was a front company for Saudi intelligence. Several members of Saudi intelligence were suspected of being in the pocket of al-Qaeda and funneling millions through this front into the hands of al-Qaeda. The Hamburg cell leader was accused of not only financing 9/11, but of helping to select the hijackers.

  In 1996 the Germans began going after the Hamburg cell in earnest after receiving a tip from Turkey. They began monitoring the mosque where the 9/11 hijackers attended and the radical Moroccan imam Nedim Fazazi preached.

  In 1998 the Germans arrested Mamdouh Mahmud Salim (a.k.a. Abu Hajer) in connection with the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Africa. He was later called “head of bin Laden's computer operations and weapons procurement.” Shortly thereafter, the CIA and German police foiled an airplane bomb plot where al-Qaeda had penetrated airport security in Amsterdam and planned to smuggle bombs into the cargo holds of American passenger planes.

  After 9/11, the world found out about the Hamburg cell. Heidi's party got a lot more funding and a lot fewer inquiries from government officials about their activities. Everyone knew what had to be done, and they were willing to keep their distance in case the world didn't quite understand.

  Heidi had no illusions about what was going to happen here. They were going to kill these two men, and harvest salable components for market. As more subjects came through here, the cash influx would allow them to launch larger initiatives. Covert operations funding had been good enough to get them this far, but you needed serious funding to carry out work of the magnitude which had to happen.

  This train of thought was interrupted by Lisa touching her arm. “They're still alive,” Lisa whispered.

  “Not for long,” responded Heidi.

  “I wasn't told about this,” Lisa whispered nervously. “I'm a surgical nurse, not a murderer.”

  Lisa, this girl was a real piece of work. Heidi had told Nikolaus not to bring her into this operation. When people heard Heidi's name they instantly conjured up an image of a blue-eyed, blond sex toy. Heidi's hair was somewhat blond and her eyes a shade of blue, but she was a long way from a sex toy. Lisa was the complete image of a sex toy. She was doing a senior party member and claimed to be a loyal party member herself, but she really just wanted to sleep her way to a better station in life. If she kept up talking like this she would be tossed into the incinerator tonight.

  “Just continue your work and keep your mouth shut,” responded Heidi. “With power comes the responsibility of doing what has to be done.”

  Lisa nervously went over to begin prepping her tray. While Nikolaus could not hear the exchange he had noticed it and Lisa's reaction. One look in Heidi's eyes told him what he needed to know. The first wash out was in the room.

  There were times when Heidi wished she looked like Lisa, but only times. She had her share of lovers in life. Better to call th
em sex partners, for they were never really in love, nor was she. They exchanged laughs and orgasms when circumstances allowed, but rarely kept in touch. One notable exception had been during an operation involving some Americans. She had heard one of the Americans refer to her as a “closing time gal.” Another had joked the other could always “go ugly early and get a good night's sleep.” Beauty was not her forte. She could look good, but never be beautiful and she had come to terms with that.

  Still, one of the Americans had chosen to take the advice. They kept in touch for quite a few years after that. He was kind and funny. She laughed a lot with him and was all too willing to sleep with him. Sex with him had really caused Heidi to call into question that whole “Aryan Supremacy” thing. He was dark skinned, not black. More of a Hispanic or American Indian descent that had been intermingled with whites for many generations. In bed, he was a ride on the multi-orgasm express. Had the party ordered her to have as many babies as she could with him she would have done it with gusto!

  Life gives and life takes away. One day the letters to Heidi simply stopped. She had written a time or two after that, but received no reply. Oddly enough, it was the guy who had called her a “closing time gal” who wrote her back some months later to say her lover had been killed in a fire fight. He was very sorry to be the one to tell her because his squad buddy seemed very happy with her. He gave her some contact information and told her the squad would always look out for her. If she was ever in trouble, they would come and get her because the squad takes care of its own. The last line had been the one which ripped her heart out. She had only been with her lover three weeks, but on the second night they all treated her like a lady. Now, when they had no further obligation to her, they made the largest commitment anyone in clandestine service can make. They claimed her as one of their own.