Call Me Joe

by Martin Van Es

  The President’s colour was rising. “People say that guy is a potential future president of this country. That would make him the first Muslim president. These people are all a threat. Why are they meeting? Why aren’t the New Zealand authorities clamping down? Find out more about this hippy healer guy. He must have come from somewhere. Do something, for God’s sake!”

  Slamming his fists on the desk he pulled himself from his seat and left the room, muttering angrily, still clutching the crumpled one-page briefing.

  *****

  In a similar room in Moscow things were altogether quieter.

  “What are the Americans doing?” the Russian President asked.

  “The Americans are putting their forces on high alert,” the Head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence and Security Service advised him.

  “Are they?” the President smiled. “They must be feeling threatened.”

  “It seems so. They don’t know who this man is that is getting all the attention online. They don’t like not knowing things.”

  “No one likes not knowing things,” the President purred. “Do we know anything about him?”

  “We are looking into it,” the Security Chief responded, avoiding the President’s snake-like stare.

  “And what are we hearing from inside the Chinese woman’s house?”

  “At the moment there is an information blackout. Our informant will not be able to report until after their meeting is over. They are locked inside this house for a week with limited access to their phones.”

  “And this healer is now in the house too?”

  “He has left now, with the teacher and the boy. They have arrived back at the school but there are huge crowds there, blocking their progress.”

  “What is his connection to the Chinese woman?”

  “We don’t know yet, sir.”

  “It seems there are a lot of things we don’t know.” The purr had changed to a low growl, making the other men in the room shift uncomfortably in their seats.

  “We are working on it, sir.”

  “What do the Chinese know?”

  “The Chinese may know more because they still have Liang Zhang in custody, unless he is already dead.”

  “We should have more than one source inside that house,” the President said after a few moments’ thought. “I can’t believe they are all so incorruptible. What about the security forces around the house; do we own any of them?”

  “We are working on it, sir.”

  “We seem to be ‘working’ on rather a lot of things,” he hissed. “I think we need to work a little harder, and I think we need to put the army on high alert.” With that he left the room, making barely a sound.

  *****

  “The suspect sweeps her electronic equipment regularly,” the Technical Chief informed the President of China, “which is interrupting our reception from time to time, but we are still able to hear most of what is happening inside the house.”

  “And what are we hearing?”

  “Zhang’s co-conspirators seem to be interested in the new man, the one with no past. Some of them appear to think that he is some sort of god in human form.”

  Something close to a smile flickered for a second across the President’s face.

  “This is a religious movement then?” he asked. “Zhang is leading a religious movement? That is very surprising. She is a woman of great intelligence.”

  “All the people in this group appear to be of great intelligence,” an advisor murmured, “but they also seem to believe that this man can perform miracles.”

  “That could be very dangerous,” the President said. “How far is Christchurch from here?”

  “About 10,000 kilometres, sir,” a voice in the crowd of advisors replied.

  “We do not want this contagion to spread. If the Americans are putting their military on high alert then we must do the same. Someone like this can build a following of millions very quickly on social media if he is not discredited. We don’t want him to get inside the heads of our great people. We need to be ready to nip this in the bud.”

  “We believe the Russians are already drawing up a plan for that contingency, sir. Some senior Russian military figures have been making contact secretly with senior American military figures.”

  “Secretly?”

  “Neither of their presidents seem to know that they are talking. They appear to be considering the need to raise private finance to help with the military reaction.”

  “Then we need to be raising our own military capabilities in line with them,” the President said and the whole room rumbled with the sound of agreement. “We cannot have this man put on a pedestal and handed a power base which could cause discontent with the way things must develop in China.”

  *****

  The viral videos of Joe’s healing abilities had rattled the financial markets just as they were rattling the politicians. Nothing worried the money men as much as uncertainty, and the fact that no one could work out what was happening in New Zealand was making them feel very uncertain. The recent anti-capitalist and climate-change marches and protests which had been taking place all over the world had already taken their toll on share prices; the bankers were willing to do anything to stop the rot from spreading any further or deeper. The idea that all the discontent simmering below the surface in different countries could be brought together by one charismatic leader was focusing their minds and making them nervous.

  Having already had the confidence of the markets rocked by the unexplained extinguishing of the sun, the bankers had a lot of questions which they wanted the politicians and the consultants to answer. Was there about to be a worldwide eruption of protest and discontent which would alter the power structure for ever? Were all the world’s governments going to have to clamp down on dissent, and if so how would that affect the markets? Was there any chance that the sun would be extinguished again, maybe even permanently? Were there opportunities for profit to be found amidst the impending changes? No one seemed able to give any convincing answers, no matter how highly paid they were for their advice.

  The nervous reactions of the political leaders suggested that they believed there was something disruptive brewing and that meant that a lot of big financial players were already liquidising large swathes of their assets in order to be ready to take advantage of changes. All the senior bankers and fund managers were spending the weekend in emergency meetings with rolling news services flickering silently on television screens in the background. They were anxious to restore calm and encourage everyone to get on with their normal lives before global productivity became affected and too much value had been wiped off their balance sheets for a full recovery to be possible, but it felt like circumstances were now running way beyond their control. Several of them had made informal contact with senior military figures to discuss ways in which unrest on the streets could be kept to a minimum if too many of the world’s governments failed to act decisively.

  “What we will have to get used to is that the economy and the financial system can no longer continue as they have in the past,” the leader of the International Monetary Fund had informed a select group of central and private bankers at an emergency meeting. “They are changing because increasing numbers of people want a different ‘scoring system’. They want a ‘better game’.

  “The current feeling seems to be that our capitalist system encourages people to compete and to grow, which results in a larger part of the resources of the Earth being used and more waste products being left behind. In addition, the system creates injustice worldwide and that will only increase in the future if nothing changes. You always have winners and losers in a system that works on the basis of a market mechanism and maybe we have all been too hard on the losers, allowing the winners to take all.

  “It is quite possible
that the concept of nation states is now outdated because as the problems get bigger there is much more that binds us than separates us. Is it therefore reasonable to assume that we could become a ‘one world community’?”

  Her audience knew that the question was rhetorical and waited for her to continue. She was a highly respected figure in their world since the IMF’s primary role was to maintain global financial stability, which they believed to be in everyone’s interests. Many believed that there was a case to be made for using “justifiable force” to slow down or even suppress completely the changes she was talking about.

  “I believe we can assume that there will soon be a much more powerful market master who will ensure that the interests of all parties involved, including the environment, are sufficiently reflected in the market. That means more far-reaching regulation and even more transparency and responsibility.

  “Here at the IMF, however, we see a number of very significant risks if these major changes come about too soon or too fast. Chaos is always dangerous. The public’s trust must remain intact. Not only are the global stock markets based on trust, our total financial system stands or falls with it. We have a money system in which the citizen, the public, has had remarkable confidence for a long time. That is why we can respond to threats of depression and often prevent it. The system gives us, as policymakers, quite a few degrees of freedom.

  “Take the huge debt level that we have created together, for example. Did we do wrong? Are there too many debts in the world? If so, what should the cap on debts be? We really cannot determine this, because that too is purely based on trust. We do know that it is probably not wise to find out where that point is, because if you invent it, it will be too late.

  “And if one world community were to emerge, could they not make a lot of new debts for their policies, as long as they enjoy the trust of the public? Does that not provide endless possibilities for creating a ‘better game’, as long as we could also eliminate many existing debts? In many countries, part of the government debt is on the central bank’s balance sheet, which means it is government institutions that have claims on the governments themselves. So setting these debts and claims against one another is a perfectly viable option. It is like robbing Peter to pay Paul.

  “This ‘better game’ that so many people now seem to want cannot be achieved without great sacrifices. And that will have many detrimental consequences for the dividends and bonuses that we receive, also for our incomes, our assets and our liberties because people will want to block the experts whom they see as being responsible for the current financial system.

  “I would say that in a worst-case scenario it is quite possible that all the currencies will collapse simultaneously. These people would see that as an opportunity to impose a single currency across the globe, ending the opportunities for currency speculation in the future. Do I have to continue?”

  None of the people in the room, many of whom sat at the helm of the capitalist system, wanted to allow all that to happen. It now seemed likely that they were going to need the help of the military to keep people calm and to eradicate the troublemakers, but would the politicians have the will to take the necessary steps? Believing that they needed to take things into their own hands, a group of central bankers decided to reach out formally to the highest military leaders in several countries to explore the possibility of co-operation between former enemies. If enough finance could be raised could the armies be persuaded to act in unison to restore global order, regardless of what their political masters might tell them?

  Twenty-Two

  After several hours’ working their way through the crowd outside the school, Joe finally noticed that Sophie and Hugo were exhausted.

  “Come on,” he said, “enough for today.”

  Taking them by the hand he walked slowly and steadily through the school gates, which the nervous-looking security guards inside opened for just long enough to let them in while the police held everyone else back. There was a lot of angry shouting from both sides, which Joe seemed not to hear.

  “Wow,” Hugo said once they were safely inside the slammed gates and heading for the buildings, “that was intense.”

  “Do you have a spare pair of glasses back in the dorm?” Sophie asked.

  “Yes.”

  “You run along and find them.”

  As Hugo ran off, Sophie and Joe walked quickly towards her apartment, neither wanting to have to stop and talk to anyone else.

  “I need a cup of tea and you will need a rest after that ordeal,” Sophie said. “Our bags must still be with that poor driver. I guess he’ll get them to us eventually.”

  As they climbed the stairs of the staff block they became aware of men’s voices on the landing above them. The door to the apartment was open and several security men were inside, packing Sophie’s belongings into bin-sacks.

  “What’s going on?” Sophie asked. “What the hell are you doing?”

  “We are going to have to move both of you off school premises,” the senior officer informed her.

  “What do you mean?”

  “It’s for the safety of the children. We can’t have that many people congregating outside the gates and it will only be a matter of time before they break through, especially the media. We’ve already had to evict several incomers. We need to move them all on but that will never happen as long as you two are here.”

  “I can go,” Joe said. “You don’t need to move Sophie. It is me they are here for.”

  “I disagree.” The voice of the headmaster made them both turn. “Sophie is also now part of this ridiculous circus. You have made her so. She won’t be able to carry out her duties as a teacher while the media are showing this much interest in her love life.”

  “No one is interested in my love life!” Sophie protested. “There is no love life.” She blushed at having inadvertently blurted such an uncomfortable piece of personal information.

  “Again, I disagree,” the headmaster said, unable to stop a small smirk from tilting the corners of his mouth. “An extraordinary number of people seem to be interested in everything about you. I have been receiving a number of calls from concerned parents who are worried about the effect this level of publicity will have on their children’s education, not to mention their safety. Personally, I am also worried about the effect it will have on the school’s long-term reputation for discretion. I have worked very hard to make it a place where the children of high-profile people can be safe from the prying eyes of the public. I do not want it to forever be identified as the location for whatever this publicity stunt is all about.”

  “How am I going to teach effectively, and provide pastoral care, if I am living off campus?” Sophie protested.

  “That will not be a problem. You are suspended from all your teaching and pastoral duties. I have already reallocated all your classes. I do not want you back on these premises until this entire fiasco is over.”

  “You can’t do that!”

  “It’s already done, Sophie,” he said. “You’ve totally brought this on yourself.”

  Joe put a restraining hand on her arm. “Don’t worry about the past,” he whispered in her ear, “think only of the future.”

  “Where am I supposed to go?” Sophie asked the room in general.

  “It seems that you made some very useful friends over the weekend,” the headmaster said turning to face Joe, cutting Sophie out of the conversation, “and arrangements have been made for accommodation to be booked for you at a hotel. Since it is your appearance here that has caused all this trouble, I am assuming that you will insist they look after Sophie as well as yourself. I’m hoping you won’t just throw her to the wolves.” He gestured towards the gates where the crowds could be heard chanting for Joe to come back out.

  “Of course,” Joe smiled benignly, refusing to allow the headmaster to
anger him. “Sophie and I are a team, isn’t that right?” He put his arm around her shoulders and gave her a reassuring hug.

  “How are you going to get us out past the gates?” Sophie asked.

  “We thought it would be an idea for you to go out the back entrance in the van that has been delivering the vegetables to the kitchen,” the headmaster said. “A little undignified for the Son of God, no doubt, but probably a wise precaution.”

  Joe laughed. “I don’t think our dignity is dependant on our mode of transport. It is kind of you to make the arrangements, Headmaster, thank you.”

  Joe stepped forward towards the headmaster and opened his arms wide. The headmaster flinched but did not jump back quickly enough to avoid being enveloped in a bear hug.

  “God bless you,” Joe said, “and all the good work you do here.”

  The headmaster wriggled free and gave a curt nod. Joe returned to Sophie and gave her arm another warning squeeze as he saw her open her mouth to say something else in anger.

  “It’ll be an adventure,” Joe said.

  The headmaster strode away without looking back and the security men escorted Joe and Sophie through a back door and into the waiting van, throwing the bin sacks containing her life’s possessions in after them.

  “I should have stood up to him,” Sophie said once the doors were shut and they could feel the van moving. “If I spoke out to the media about the way he just sacked me I could destroy his career.”

  “You could do that,” Joe agreed, “but do you want to? What about the harm to the school and the children? He is obviously in love with you and he is evidently a weak man.”

  “In love?” She was startled by the suggestion. “I doubt it.”

  “You are much stronger than him,” Joe said. “So should you destroy him or help him to do better?”

  “That’s an annoying argument,” Sophie said. “I’m going to have to think about it and get back to you.”