by Alan Ross
Chapter 17
An Evil Plan is Born
The wakeup call was a shock to Steve and he woke up wondering where he was and then wondered how he’d slept all the way through the night. There was plenty of time before his meeting with Robert so he brewed coffee in the room’s miniature pot and splashed water on his face. He looked ok, didn’t look like a man approaching sixty and felt like he was deciding whether to go to college or into the service. This was similar to that decision in the fact that it was a major fork in the road.
Last night seemed surreal. Steve went to the window and pulled back the heavy drapes, revealing a grey and misty morning in the capital city trying to sense if the world had changed in any way since he came back to the hotel last night. He remembered the wall, the touch of the cold black granite and the flood of emotions as he saw the names. Today he’d go back and see if he could find names of others, maybe take some pictures. It was unbelievable that Robert was quietstorm, someone that he had shared all of his thoughts and memories with over the past few years on the message boards and in private chat rooms.
The coffee helped bring Steve back to the moment. He showered and shaved, thankful he’d brought the raincoat and umbrella as he glanced outside again and saw that the skies had opened up. Today’s weather was turning into a good metaphor for his life, cleansing what was and hopefully bringing sunshine behind it. The bellhop offered to call a cab and Steve took him up on it then remembered he wasn’t sure where he was going. He called Robert’s cell phone and the bird man gave him an address and said he’d be there in thirty minutes. The cab took a few minutes to get there and the driver had to make a phone call to see where the address was, he’d never heard of it. Turned out to be about fifteen miles outside the city in a semi-rural area of Virginia. Steve wondered if this was Robert’s house, had at first expected to meet in his office but apparently people don’t discuss treason against the United States government in the offices of the CIA.
The house was isolated and Robert’s car was parked in the driveway. Steve paid the cab driver and walked to the front door. He knocked out of habit and the bird man annoyingly said “come in, you think the butler is going to answer the door?”
“Sorry, habit. How are you today?”
“Let’s skip the bullshit and get down to business. Have you had a chance to think about last night? I mean really think about it? This isn’t some child’s game, this is our chance to really stick it to the American government and to the people who treated us and those who followed like shit.”
“I understand how serious this is and yes, I’m committed.”
“Before I tell you anything else you need to be positive. You know some things but I’ve got plausible deniability on my side at the moment and we could cut ties and walk away from each other. You’re at the line right now my friend and if you cross that line there will be no going back. Failure to commit will result in you vanishing from the face of the earth and if we think there are others who are aware we’ll make sure to take care of them too.”
Steve’s face became hard and didn’t give any indication as to which direction he was going to choose. His face changed shape as he worked through the implications in his head. It wasn’t easy to make such a decision with limited information, what if he was expected to blow himself up in some terrorist plot? He wasn’t foolish enough to believe in the promise of seventy two virgins or anything after his life here was done. The things he’d seen in his life had taught him that this was the only chance he had, that God was a crutch for those without the intelligence and the constitution to believe in the truth. One thing he knew from his dealings with Robert until now was that it was going to be something big, quietstorm wouldn’t spend years working on a plan that would be a letdown, this had to be something big and since he’d recruited Steve for his bioresorbable polymer sphere work there must be a key role for him here. He deliberated some more, the bird man watching with his beady, black eyes and furrowed brow, imploring him to give an answer.
“I’ll do it Robert, it doesn’t matter what it is. I have confidence that if you’ve been working on a plan it’s going to be a good one and there will be an impact to the government. The visit to the wall last night cemented any doubts I would have had previously and though I suspect this was intentional on your part I’m on board.”
“I’m glad you’ve joined the cause, this is the crowning achievement of twenty years of planning, networking and seeking the perfect opportunity. I know I told you most of this last night but I want to make sure you know that the pieces are lined up and you’re joining at the right time, the time of action. Now I want to give you one more chance to back out before I tell you the plan, if you want to walk away this is the time, I’ll drive you back to the city and you can sightsee for the next few days and then fly back to Cleveland and your work at Foundation. Take your time Steve, don’t underestimate the importance of your decision.”
Steve didn’t hesitate “I’m in, let’s get to work.”
Robert looked into his eyes, seeking any wavering or doubt and not finding any, walked Steve over to the dining room table, where his briefcase sat. He took a deep breath, trying to decide where to begin and how much to give the chemist in his first dose. There had been a couple of recruits who decided they didn’t want to participate after Robert gave them the overview and their bodies were never recovered. Robert had access to locations and means of disposal that weren’t pleasant but were very effective. He hates using them because he understood what each of these people had been through and didn’t want to be the one to take a survivor of so much and turn them into a victim but they’d all known too much and there was too much at stake.
“I’m going to start at the beginning. In the mid eighties I started thinking about revenge on the government but I couldn’t make the right plan. Over the years in the CIA my specialty was working at an ugly job called cleaner, which is about what it sounds like. I was the best in the government at cleaning up messes and as I did I kept evidence and collected favors. Some forgot about what I’d done for them and many people that I’d helped have risen to very high places in the government. During the early nineties I became a bit desperate and even tried to reach out to bin Laden to forge a partnership but he completely nuts, which forced me to go in a different direction.”
Steve was listening, finding it hard to believe that anyone would want to partner with bin Laden, in the wake of the 9/11, but back then it might have seemed like a good idea. He found himself working his way to the edge of his seat, the anticipation and details of the story capturing his undivided attention.
“Once the World Wide Web started taking off in the late nineties, I found the method to recruit likeminded individuals who would be willing to join a plot with me and might have some ideas on which direction to plot. Most of the people who joined the effort were small minded, thinking of foreign U.S. targets or local destruction that could cause some panic. There was one idea posed that would have been very destructive to the government, which was a Wall Street financial attack that would have crashed the stock market and created so much fear it would have imploded the economy. This would have been ideal in the wake of 9/11 but since I had not partnered with bin Laden I had no way to put this kind of plan in place. Missing this opportunity was a mistake but I was determined to continue to build the team and wait for the right chance to present itself.”
“That’s a long time Robert, I can’t imagine being able to stay so focused for over two decades. How many people are aware of the plan you’re going to talk to me about?”
“There are four of us who know the entire plot and another dozen or so in key support roles. When you extend my network to those who owe me favors and will have no choice but to help us, the number goes over two dozen total. Let me get back to the plan, we can discuss logistics of the team in a while. During our initial meetings I talked about the chatter around a bioterrorism threat. It is something that we’ve worked very hard to creat
e over the past year, starting with some vague discussions from Asia and ramping up to include some specific information that I can use as needed. Truth be told, I don’t answer to anyone at the CIA and have been working this on my own. There is no awareness but it does make for a compelling story when I have to talk to company men like your vice president Mr. Wall.”
Robert nodded, wanting to hear more.
“The crux of the plot is to release a new strain of smallpox in America that will decimate a large percentage of the population, especially on the West Coast. The blame for this attack will fall on the North Korean government and knowing how loony Kim Jong-Il is, they will deny or not say anything about the matter. Some question the rationale for attacking the West Coast. I don’t know about you but the West Coast has always been full of tree hugging, military hating assholes who would rather save an owl than an American soldier. The epicenter of the attack will be San Francisco, the bastion of liberalism. Some have argued that they also tend to be anti-government, but if you look at the common leftist ideology they are only anti-government from a military perspective, they prefer to have government involved in every aspect of life. By creating an attack and exposing a plot to attack a major city on the west coast, we’ll be able to start the infection where it will hit the hippies hard.”
Steve hadn’t thought this was going to be a target against Americans but rather the United States government and was wondering what the hell he’d gotten himself into. He’d read ‘The Stand’ and remembered King’s eerie description of the country after Captain Trips took hold.
The bird man watched the chemist take this in, knowing that the magnitude of the plan was going to hit him like a ton of bricks. He stood up and went to the bathroom and then came from the kitchen with some coffee for both of them.
Steve’s mind was racing when Robert got up and left the room. What should he do here? Does he really want to be part of the cause of the death of millions of Americans? What about Claire? They would have to disappear together and start over, would she ever understand? Steve was cold and his skin was white and clammy at the thought of being part of a plot that would make 9/11 pale in comparison. Robert brought back coffee, as calm as if they were discussing the weather or making plans for a golf outing.
“If you need the bathroom, it’s at the end of the hallway. Let’s get back to the plan. When the news comes out that there is a new strain of smallpox that has broken out in Korea Americans will start to perk up. When the news leaks that there is information that the West Coast of the U.S. is being targeted, America will panic and the CDC will prepare to vaccinate millions of Americans using your technology as the delivery vehicle because the virility of the new strain means that we have to have a new method to deliver the vaccination in stages. The only problem for America will be that the vaccine will be the old one so symptoms of being vaccinated will still show up and the last time released dose of the spheres will be the real strain of smallpox. By the time the government realizes what has happened we’ll be long gone and hundreds of thousands of Americans will be infected, providing a launching pad for the vaccine that will cause panic and the collapse of the government, especially in the face of the current economy and lack of faith.”
“Wow, this is going to take a while to set in. The plan seems brilliant, though I would have thought we’d go after the government and not the general American public. Have you thought about targeting government workers instead, creating a cave-in of the existing government and having the vaccination plan be hushed so that when the public finds out they would have further hate and distrust of the government, essentially causing chaos or even full anarchy?
“That’s been a topic of debate but in the end the team thought it would be best to take America out and start over, creating a new set of values for society that weren’t so material based and more toward protection of our own, not shunning.”
“If this strain of smallpox is as strong as you’ve indicated, starting with the government might still have the same impact but would squarely put the blame on them. People will assume cover up and will be calling for the heads of any survivors, provided they’re not scrambling to isolate and protect themselves and their families from infection.”
“It’s much harder to get things certified for the government and the odds that we’d be able to keep it quiet are slim. Once we obtain a copy of the virulent strain and the vaccine for it we can start work on production of the fake vaccine, after our team is safe from infection.”
“We have someone in the CDC?”
“We have one person on the team and someone who has a lot of responsibility that owes me a couple of favors from my cleaning days. He’ll be reluctant but have no choice, unless he would prefer to spend the rest of his days in Leavenworth.”
Steve thought about this for a minute. There were a lot of dependencies. “How will we launch the virus in Korea without pointing suspicion back to us?”
“That’s another fun part of the program. One of our team members is a specialist at getting in and out of places he’s not supposed to. We’ve already done a dry run and he’s been in and out of Korea three times, twice for surveillance and a third time for a dry run of the plan, which worked very well. He was able to release a canister in a busy part of Seoul without detection. The world will be quite busy quarantining Korea and trying to determine the cause, which will provide great cover for us.”
Now it wasn’t only Americans who will perish, this would likely turn into worldwide epidemic and millions or even billions would likely perish, especially if there wasn’t mass production of the vaccine in quantities that would slow the spread of the virus. Steve excused himself and went to the bathroom, half out of need and half to think about everything that Robert was telling him. This was like living in a horror movie plot, not at all what he’d expected when he signed up. The only thought that buoyed him was that there was no way in hell the United States government would survive this type of incident in tact or even as a shadow of what it had grown into over the past few decades. He went back to the table scared shitless about what he was doing but nonetheless committed to success of this plan.
“Is everything ok Steve?” Robert had been watching to see if the chemist was using the cell phone, wanted to make sure he didn’t squawk about the plan. He thought he could trust him based on what he’d learned from him over the past few years online and after what he saw last night but this was different. Steve nodded that he was ok and Robert continued.
“We will produce our vaccine in the facility back in Ohio, I have a couple of others who are going to join us. Before you go back to Cleveland I need you to put together a list of all the equipment you’ll need to ramp up production, we need to make enough spheres to support delivery of one hundred thousand vaccines. Having a short supply will insure that people will be fighting for access, which will cause people to travel to the West Coast cities and buy their way into line before returning to their lives around the country. This will provide us several infection zones without the work. Once we’ve overseen the administration of the first hundred thousand vaccinations we can leave the rest to the CDC. They’ll be too busy getting real vaccines created and doing damage control to come look for us.”
“Where will we go? We’re going to be above bin Laden in terms of most wanted. There aren’t many places in the world where you can hide from the United States government, even if you go where they don’t have extradition treaties.”
“This is where having favors to call in comes in very handy. We will skip from country to country, shedding identities and leaving false leads as we go. I spent a number of years in Africa and that’s where we’re going. Places where technology hasn’t caught up and the trail will be full of dead ends. We have sufficient funds and resources to last a long time and the odds that these areas will be hit by the virus are slim. We will be vaccinated but I sure as hell don’t want to end up surrounded by a bunch of suffering and dying people. I hope you like the mountain
s, we’re going to end up living in a small encampment in Western Africa on a river.”
Steve thought about Claire and his old life, wondering how he’s going to walk away from her and knowing that they’d better have a memorable time on their upcoming trip because it might be the last memory he’ll have of her. Robert was done talking and they were silent on the way back to the city. Steve thought about going back to the wall but needed some time to let all of this sink in and he also needed to get the equipment and supply list created. They were going down in history as the revolutionaries that caused the next age in the world, the preservation era.
