by Wick Welker
Atash walked up to her and touched the side of her cheek. “Madame Ambassador, I sincerely hope you’re right.”
Chapter Fourteen: Washington D.C.
“One hundred percent natural flavors,” Mayberry said loudly, laughing to himself. He looked to the woman who was seated next to him at the coffee shop. “Can you believe it?” he asked her. He continued looking at her until she felt uncomfortable enough to respond.
“Uh, excuse me?” she said, squinting at him.
“This drink I have here, it says right on the label that there is one hundred percent natural flavors.” He held the jar up for her to see.
“Yeah, that’s pretty funny.” She smiled vacantly, and turned from him, staring intently at her bowl of soup.
“No, you don’t get it.” He got up from his chair and pulled out a seat next to her. “Would you mind explaining to me what a ‘natural flavor’ is?” he asked, using quotation marks with his fingers.
“Sir, I don’t really… what do you mean?” She looked over his shoulder for any bystanders.
“Well, what would you describe as a natural flavor? I mean, what does that phrase even mean?” He smiled at her.
“I don’t know, I guess that the drink has only… real fruit juice?”
“No, see? No, no that’s exactly what that phrase implies, but if you look at the ingredients, high fructose corn syrup is the very first thing you see,” Mayberry said.
“Oh…” She backed her chair away from him and started collecting her things.
“It’s a phrase sufficiently vague, but just suggestive enough to make the consumer believe that it is something genuine, when it is in fact the complete opposite. It’s just a sugar water drink, nothing else. There’s nothing natural about it, but it’s a magical use of the word ‘flavor.’ Such a word is so open to interpretation that the company that sells this drink can simply just claim innocence with the defense that the word ‘flavor’ is in the eye of the consumer.”
“That’s very interesting, but I do need to go now,” the woman said in a condescending tone, and walked away from the table, leaving Mayberry alone.
Mayberry continued talking to the empty table. “It’s become the symbol of our expectations. We expect the authentic, and ignorantly accept the fraudulent, simply because it’s presented to us with such blurred lines that we see what we want to see without realizing what it is. Arrogant of the trivial, ignorant of the critical…” he looked up as the woman walked away. “And it just goes on and on.”
He stood and collected his briefcase and jacket from where he was sitting, tossed the bottle of juice into a trashcan, and walked out. The air outside was too humid for August. Mayberry sighed in frustration as he made his way over to his car. As he crossed the street he finally decided that almost all traffic had ceased over the past two weeks. He couldn’t remember the last time that he had to wait in rush hour to get home or even just to go out for lunch. My morning commute was as light as three a.m. traffic today, he thought. The sidewalks, however, were full of people scurrying about. The foot traffic is up because people are staying close to their homes, he thought. They only go out for groceries and quickly get back home to watch their streaming movies and forget about how scared they are of the sky—the sky that can burst with bodies at any minute or flash with bombs.
Stepping over an overturned garbage can next to his car, he got in, and saw that he had a missed call on his phone from a blocked number. He dialed back and heard the phone pick up. “Hello? This is Chuck Mayberry, someone called me from this number, and you should know that it is illegal to contact this number unsolicited.”
“Director Mayberry?” the voice was quiet.
“Malik! You’re… you’re alive.” Mayberry coughed on the coffee he was sipping.
“Yes, and I have something important to tell you,” he said calmly.
“Go ahead.” He bowed his head over his legs and plugged one ear.
“I’m in Merida, Mexico. It’s right at the southern edge of the Gulf of Mexico.”
“Mexico? How the hell did you get to Mexico from Tokyo?”
“We came across the Pacific by boat, and then took a small plane to Merida from the coast,” he explained.
“Are you with Atash Yekta?”
“Yes, yes, the crazy son of a bitch shot our boat captain in the head as we approached the Mexican coast. We crashed into a gigantic rock face and all nearly died.”
“Was it some sort of terrorist attempt?”
“No, no he was trying to prove to us that God, or the Buddha, or whoever in the hell these people believe in was guiding us to our fate. A few soldiers died in the crash, but we managed to get out before it sunk, and met with some operatives at a small airport in Manzanillo on the Atlantic coast, and flew out from there to Merida.”
“What is Yekta telling you?”
“They’re planning an attack inside the U.S. in two weeks.”
“Where?”
“D.C. with a nuclear weapon,” Malik said dryly.
“They have a nuclear weapon?” Mayberry yelled.
“No, but they plan on stealing one from inside the U.S.”
“And just how in fuck’s sake do they plan on doing that?” He snorted into the phone.
“Atash says they know exactly where the weapons are kept, and that they have several men from the brotherhood that are very high up at one of the facilities.”
“Do you know which facility?”
“No, he hasn’t told me. He won’t tell me.”
“There are nine places in nine different states that hold warheads. It’s going to be hard to figure out where the brotherhood members are if you can’t tell me.”
“They’re going to tell me eventually once we get into the States. I think I’ll be able to say soon.”
“How well is this thing planned? Do they have a date and time that it’s going to happen?”
“They’ve only told me that it will be in the next two weeks. I don’t have a date yet, but the problem is I don’t know if I’ll be able to tell you when I know.”
“You’re entire mission depends on you telling me where and when the seizure will happen. You must do everything you can to stop any nuclear warhead from falling into their hands, do you understand?”
“Of course.”
“What can you tell me about the Sirr?”
“He’s not here in Merida, and I still have never met him. He was at first thought of as just a higher up in the organization, but now all the soldiers revere him as some sort of prophet. It’s like he just transforms into whatever figurehead the organization needs.”
“If that’s true, then who is the leadership?”
“Atash controls everything we do here, but I know he has been communicating with someone outside who is also giving him all sorts of information.”
“You don’t know who it is?”
“Of course not. The good thing is that I think he fully trusts me now. He doesn’t do anything without first consulting with me, and I think I’ve become the second in command out of about thirty five of us stationed here.”
“And as far as you can tell, Atash Yekta remains totally loyal to the Sirr?”
“Atash? Of course, the man worships him.”
“Tell me about Venezuela,” Mayberry said.
“They are trying, at all costs, to get the United States to stay out of the Gulf of Paria.”
“Why?”
“Because all of the brotherhood from South America is meeting there.”
“Dammit. Well, what is your location exactly? I need the address and global positioning.”
“I’d rather not divulge that information at this time, sir.”
“And why the hell not?”
“I don’t think it’s imperative that you know that for the moment, and I believe it could also compromise all of the intel that I’ve collected up until this point.”
“It is not your choice what information you want to give me. When I say I wa
nt to know something, you tell me. I think it is very imperative I know these details in the event that you die, so we’re not left with our thumbs up our asses. I thought I made that perfectly clear to you before you went out on this mission, that you will do everything I say, and exactly when I say it.”
“Yes, you did.”
“Good, now where exactly is this base of men where you’ve been hiding out?”
“I’ll tell you in a few days.”
“No, you’ll tell me now.”
“No, I won’t, sir. I will not give you that piece of information right now.”
“But we could just come there now and stop them from ever getting into the States to seize our warheads.”
“I will tell you soon. I can’t explain right now why I can’t tell you, but you’ll have to trust me.”
“Do I need to remind you that I won’t delete your civilian files until after you have served this mission?”
“Why don’t you go fuck yourself?” Malik responded, calmly.
“Oh, you don’t want me to fuck myself, because if I do that, I will also be fucking you over, you little shit,” Mayberry yelled at the windshield.
“Go ahead, release the files. I’m going to die out here anyway. I don’t care what anybody knows about what I did anymore.”
“You’re sounding a little too fatalistic out there. Are you sure those religious psychopaths aren’t rubbing off on you?”
“No, no, I’ve just been out here doing this so long that I’m not even myself anymore.”
“I can’t believe I decided to put you out there. You better start getting your shit together and step up, or we could possibly have a nuclear attack inside the U.S., and it will mostly be your fault.”
Malik let out a long breath. “You wouldn’t even know about the nuclear threat if it weren’t for me. I’ll call you when I know more.”
“You call me tomorrow,” Mayberry shouted.
“Fine.” Malik hung up.
Mayberry looked down at his phone and sent out a text message to a phone number fifteen digits long and waited, putting his head down on the steering wheel. He looked back at the empty screen on his phone and breathed deep, thinking about nine warehouses in nine cities, and exactly twenty five hundred government employees per warehouse. He also momentarily dwelled on the five thousand nuclear warheads that could set the world on fire, until his phone finally rang.
“Chuck it’s me.” Rambert cleared his throat.
“Thanks for getting back to me so quick, Mr. President. What’s your location?”
“Eau Claire,” he said quietly.
“Oh good, you finally made it out there. Our headquarters there are the absolute best place for you to be. It’s the single best place in the world to know every global event that is happening. I practically live there.”
“Yes, well, unfortunately having good eyes here has only let me truly see the kind of god awful situation that we really are in. I need solutions, and I need them now.”
“Yes, I know… I’ve been talking to Secretary Raff this morning, and I understand that you’ve sent a naval fleet to the Gulf of Mexico,” Mayberry said.
“Just outside of Corpus Cristi. We’ve already started some targeted bombings in northern Mexico, at the horde.”
“It’s already to that point? What kind of infantry are you sending down there?”
Rambert paused for a moment. “Four hundred thousand.”
“Four hundred thousand!” Mayberry blurted out. “That’s almost our entire Army active duty personnel.”
“Of course, I know this Chuck.”
“What kind of numbers are we seeing in Juárez of infected people?”
“We don’t really know, but Secretary Raff tells me satellite images are estimating between ten and fifteen million infected individuals, who will bottleneck at Juárez within the next seventy two hours. The entire top half of Mexico is moving north like ah, ah, herd of animals.”
“I can’t believe the Mexicans couldn’t even touch the outbreak. Are we attacking Juárez?
“Not yet, we’re still mobilizing troops, which is going fine so far, except four Apache and two cargo choppers just vanished off the face of the planet in route to El Paso. Know anything about it?”
“No. That’s weird.”
“Look, look this isn’t why I called, and I don’t have a lot of time here. I just need to know about Venezuela.”
“You need to know if we should send our Navy down there?”
“Yes! Dammit, of course. Within the last forty eight hours all of China’s and Venezuela’s Navies has assembled in the Gulf of Paria, in Venezuela.”
“What? Why didn’t anyone tell me about this?”
“Because we didn’t need you to know then.”
“Tell me numbers, Mr. President.”
“Five aircraft carriers, twenty one Destroyers, nineteen Frigates… undoubtedly many submarines.”
“This is bad,” Mayberry whispered.
“It’s the worst case scenario. We have blatant mobilization and assembly of their navy with obvious attempts at aggression on the United States, while most of our Army and Marines are being sent to El Paso. Both Venezuela and China have cut off communication with us, making us assume an imminent attack.”
“What’s happening to us?”
“We’re being trampled on by everyone, that’s what’s happening. China just expects to walk right in, and every one of our allies is trying to fight off their own outbreaks. It’s as if—”
“As if this was all planned?” Mayberry said.
“Yes. It’s all been… orchestrated to get our defenses down and our allies occupied. There’s something else you should know, we just received a video from the brotherhood of the Sirr.”
“What? With all due respect, Mr. President, as director of the CIA, I need to know all of these events immediately.”
“Relax, this video just came in within the last hour. It’s still being authenticated but they think it’s legitimate.”
“What’s in it?”
“It’s the American ambassador to Mexico, Elise Whitten. They’ve captured her and made her release a statement.”
“What now?”
“It was forty two second video of the ambassador in front of the camera warning that the brotherhood would kill her and the secret serviceman that is with her if we don’t stay out of Venezuela.”
“Hmm.”
“What?”
“My agent again confirmed that all South American members are heading to Venezuela.”
“They obviously don’t want us meddling with China and whatever else the brotherhood has their hands in down there.” Rambert let out a long breath. “There is an entire storm of global conspiracy going on out there, and it looks like we are the absolute last ones to find out. There only seems to be one person who could possibly know something three seconds ahead of us, and it’s your agent. What else is he saying? Did he say anything else about… Dr. Stark?”
“No, nothing else about him. That really was just his own suspicion about Stark. He hasn’t offered any real evidence that Stark is involved with the brotherhood.”
“I guess, that’s good to hear. What do you think?”
“About Dr. Stark?”
“Yes. He’s been so remote lately. I can barely get a hold of him. I hardly know what he’s doing anymore. I think it was the right move sending him down to Mexico.”
“You think his plan is going to work?”
“Not really. I just like knowing exactly where he is at all times,” Rambert said. “Plus, I will do anything to avoid dropping nuclear weapons. I don’t know if we can recover again from that.”
“Mr. President, I admit that Dr. Stark is in a position of great knowledge about our government, as well as expertise over the virus. He does, hypothetically, make a very tempting person to think of as a double agent. But you could say the same thing about any high-ranking government official. If we start pointing fingers at him,
we could easily point them at anyone else. Anyone of us, including yourself, can look suspicious under the right light. Having said that, yes, I think we should keep an eye on him.”
“Yeah, yeah I guess you’re right… What else is your agent telling you? You should know that our major military strategies are going to be largely based on what he says.”
“I have bad news.”
Rambert sighed. “What is it?”
“He is in Merida, Mexico, which is just at the south end of the Gulf of Mexico. He says that there are an unknown number of brotherhood operatives, in an unknown American nuclear warhead facility, and that they plan on seizing the weapons in two weeks for an attack inside the United States. Now before you ask, I don’t have any more specifics than that for the moment.”
Rambert didn’t say anything for a few seconds. “Do you think it’s true?”
“Do I think what’s true?”
“Are there really operatives inside our nuclear facilities?”
“It’s possible. I’m beginning to think we might have brotherhood of the Sirr people all over the place. Everything has been going so smoothly, not only against us, but against our allies as well. Israel is a crater, South Korea is about to get invaded from the North, and now there’s news of an outbreak in Berlin, with Russia mobilizing its Army?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Mr. President, it’s been a set up from the start,” Mayberry said.
“Did your agent tell you anything about the video we just got from the ambassador of Mexico?”
“No, no, it must not have been from his group.”
“Our analysts say it was definitely filmed in Mexico.”
“Maybe they’re keeping him blind of it. I’m not sure.”
“Or maybe he’s become a double agent, Chuck.”
“Believe me, I’ve thought about that possibility.”
“Keep thinking about it. In the meantime, I’m shutting down, and shipping out every nuclear warhead that we have. No one is getting their hands on them. I want you in Eau Claire with me as soon as possible.”
“I’ll fly out today.” Mayberry hung up the phone and watched across the street as a group of people threw a brick through a grocery store window.
