It was then the United Arab Emirates’ turn. To the surprise of the audience, it was Tarek and not the military who stood up and turned on his microphone.
“Dear Gentlemen,” he spoke softly, glancing towards the Crown Prince, “I do appreciate all the good analysis heard so far, nonetheless we have a somewhat different assessment of the threat. We believe the danger is coming from Pakistan and India, and I will show you why.”
He then showed a graph of social media patterns from the last several months on Indian and Pakistani websites. Anti-Arabic themes were constantly on the rise, sparked by immigrant labor exploitation episodes that were still too common. The problem was, many of the episodes were made up and most of them came from servers based in South Asia.
“You see, the hate machine has always been running for the last five years, but it became more aggravated after the Rome events. Then, we have a huge increase in spying activity,” he said, waving through the slide holograms with his hands. “The scheme is rather simple, and based on several low-skilled informants, like janitors or truck drivers. These people are equipped with inexpensive smartphones and cameras and simply take pictures of whatever they find around them. Last year, we uncovered a plot that was basically feeding the content of the rooms of the Abu Dhabi power utility company back to India. Because of this, similar activities were uncovered in Oman and Bahrain.” Tarek paused, sipped some water and continued, “Finally, we have the military intelligence. It also shows a change of pattern, with the Pakistanis slowly but consistently relocating troops from the Indian border to the Iranian one, in order to gain better control of the troublesome tribal areas of Waziristan. India, which is public domain keep in mind, has tripled her fleet over the last twelve years and can land two divisions on the Strait of Hormuz, with little opposition. This is all thanks to the fact that now the US Navy is reducing its Indian Ocean force to a couple of destroyers and repositioning them to Diego Garcia, in the southern part of the Indian Ocean.”
Tarek could hear the increasing volume of chatter, until the Crown Prince switched on his microphone, showing he wanted to speak. Everyone fell silent immediately. He then motioned to Nayef bin Bandar, the head of the Saudi secret service sitting next to him, who took the word,
“It is an interesting picture you are drawing, Mr. Tantawy,” Nayef said, “I wonder how much of it is true, and how much is a favor you are doing for your good friend Alireza, in Teheran.”
Tarek was expecting criticism, but this was very close to accusing him of being an outright Iran ally. He kept calm, let some time pass after the end of the sentence, and replied.
“You know that the information is accurate, it has been shared and validated by your teams at the working group level. We are ready to restart the process anyway, if this helps. As for our connection with Iran, we made no secret of it to hide from you. We are cooperating to help them against the Israeli biodrones program, that is, against a common, hostile enemy. If the information we are showing to you today is correct, it just means we will soon have a bigger, more dangerous, mutual enemy in the region.”
The Crown Prince turned his eyes toward his Chief of Staff, who promptly turned his microphone on.
“Assuming we buy this story, what exactly would you need us to do?”
This time it was up to the Arab Emirates Chief of Staff to answer. Tarek sat back.
“We need you to redeploy half of the Eastern Province forces from the Dammam area, where they are based right now, to the Qatar border. We are talking about seventy-five thousands troops, including the Saudi National Guard. This way, in case of invasion from the Arabic Sea, the force could be readily used to quickly fight any landing bridgehead. If we let Indians establish a solid presence on the Arabian Peninsula, we will be taken over.”
“This would, however, drastically undermine Saudi control over the Eastern region,” the Kuwaiti military delegate spoke without waiting for his colleague to finish his reasoning. “Not to mention to support their allies in the area.”
“That is,” Tarek thought, “you and the Bahrainis.” He looked to the Bahraini delegation, who were all nodding in agreement with the Kuwaitis. Tarek looked at his colleague, then took the word again.
“Dear colleagues, this is the bet we are making. We have to leave enough forces on the Eastern Province just to ensure protection of the oil wells infrastructure; momentarily withdrawing surveillance on some cities, to then be ready prevent a much worse risk.
“The fact is,” the Bahraini delegate intervened, “the risk already materialized on our side, way back in 1990 when Saddam invaded Kuwait, while this Indian invasion is included only in your slides.”
Tarek was getting impatient.
“Saddam is no longer there. This time, there will be no American cavalry coming to the rescue, like in 1990. That’s why we have to take a well thought out risk based on our strengths. Iraq no longer has the military capability to challenge us, and Iran will be busy with Pakistan.”
The delegations started to discuss between each other, so Tarek stood up and moved his eyes back to the Crown Prince Mohammed. He was the one to make the final decision. Mohammed gave Tarek a long look, then switched on his microphone. The chatter subsided, but Mohammed did not speak and turned to Nayef again.
“You seem to really believe in this scenario, Mr. Tantawy. Allow me to ask just one last question; is this the reason why you also send some of your weapons of mass destruction to the Iranians? Something your country always refused to do with us and any other one present at this table?”
The chatter erupted again, filling the vast room with noise. He was scrambling for an answer when the Crown Prince finally spoke, bringing the room back under control.
“The mission of the Saudi Defense Forces is to protect all Saudi people and support all their allies of the Gulf Cooperation Council. I believe that the current setup still fulfills this mandate in the best possible way, however, we will revise as needed. So far, I have not seen enough reasons to change anything.”
He then stood up, made a slight bow toward the audience, and walked away.
As he disappeared out of the doorway, Tarek thought to himself, “The only certain thing is that I won’t be attending the next meeting.”
Chapter 18
Yaakov was driving north along the coast, to one of the secured houses used by the Mossad for highly reserved meetings.
He was surprised by the choice. Every time Eyal and he had to talk, they usually met in quiet coffee shops in downtown Tel Aviv.
To ease the tension, he turned the radio on and found a talk show hosting half a dozen politicians from the main parties. Just like in many other countries, they were arguing about the overhaul of the welfare system. As Telomerax usage was spreading among Israelis, the center-right Likud was calling for the State to reduce its commitment to pay pensions if people stayed young and fit longer. The left-side was arguing massively against the contribution system and calling just for a higher retirement age value, possibly around 120 years, while yet another politician from the religious right asserted that the real solution was banning Telomerax altogether, and let people die the old way.
Yaakov realized he had never asked Eyal if he had been taking the drug, even though this was no guarantee to stay forever the boss of the Mossad. He quickly got bored by the discussion topics, so he turned the radio off and started looking for a parking space.
When he entered the small studio in a beach condo, Eyal was sitting on the table, with his back turned toward the sea.
"How are you doing, my friend?" Yaakov started the conversation while shaking his hand, "I was a bit surprised by your request. Usually I am the one who asks for meetings, but it's okay. I do have some interesting news."
Eyal sat back and told Yaakov calmly,
"Well, then maybe we can start with your new bits of information. My stuff is not so urgent."
"It's from Dr. Picard, you know he recently moved to Sardinia, under the pretext he was no longer fe
eling safe in Brazil and needed to move away from big cities," Yaakov said, slightly hurrying to get to the point.
"Are you sure he didn't move to get out of our reach?" Eyal abruptly interrupted him, "We have less control there than we had back in Brazil. We had a deal, after all."
Yaakov was surprised. They had already been discussing this for few months.
"Um, no, I told you already. He keeps talking to us and helping from time to time. Indeed, he's just sent me the final findings about our biodrone and he wants to make sure we know, in case we have not yet realized it.."
"Ah, thanks for reminding me," Eyal interrupted him again. "Incidentally the guy also has access to our electronic fly technology. Are you sure he is not giving his research away to other countries? Maybe hostile countries?"
Yaakov was becoming more and more puzzled.
"Well, since the time we started using the fly, more than fifteen years ago, you do not need Dr.Picard if you want to get your hands on them," Yaakov spoke up, as if he started pleading his defense.
"You just need to be on good terms either with the Lebanese or Iran. You also told me we decided to share our know-how with the CIA, right before the Rome attacks."
"You do not need to remind me, Yaakov. There were reasons behind the agreement with the CIA. We anticipated that the world was falling apart even before the death of the Pope, and so we struck a deal with them. By the way, we still do not know who really killed the Pope or why, since all the countless videos taken at the time have been altered. Anyway, what does Dr. Picard want us to know?"
"It's very simple. He has studied how we use Telomerax to increase the fly’s natural lifespan, and he has told me our researchers have been doing a very good job. The flies are immortal. Have our team in the secret labs of Dimona realized this, Eyal? I never heard about this when I was involved in the program, but several years have gone by since then."
Eyal did not answer and looked at Yaakov. He was clearly aging, albeit at a slower pace than one would have expected.
"I couldn’t tell you, even if I knew, so why are you asking? Anyway, thanks for the information”, Eyal said, swiftly grabbing the memory pill that Yaakov had put on the table. "You seem genuinely worried."
"Louis was very convincing, I assure you," Yaakov continued, "the problem is that the flies can transmit immortality to their offspring, if they mate. You can imagine the scenario. Infinite swarms of immortal flies."
"Has Dr. Picard also calculated the chances that this happens? We have been using them in fairly limited numbers, I think they all die before being able to replicate meaningfully."
"He did not give me precise data," Yaakov replied, "a lot obviously depends on environmental conditions. He thinks however that we are talking about a critical mass of about a million biodrones. When I heard that, I felt relieved. We were nowhere close to those figures with our program."
Eyal kept silent for a second too long, moving his eyes away from Yaakov and on to the memory pill.
"Eyal, are you planning to produce the biodrones on such a scale? Or is it just a move to create a deterrent beside nuclear weapons, given the turmoil that is happening in the Middle East again, with the new Iran-Pakistan crisis?"
Eyal could see that the fear of Yaakov was genuine, so he decided to get back to the reason of the meeting.
"Yaakov, I am the one asking questions here. It's about Plan Lot. Have you ever talked or hinted about it to anyone outside of our circle? For some reason, the Russians know something about it. We have done all the checks, there has been no mole inside the Mossad nor in the Prime Minister office. You are one of the very few we could not fully verify. The only one, I would say."
Yaakov looked surprised. Eyal wondered if his old friend was now simulating. No, he could not believe that Yaakov, one of the few to have full knowledge about the Plan, revealed it to the Russians or any other foreign power. But a leak, a momentary lapse, could not be ruled out.
"I never told anything to outside powers, not even when I was kidnapped by the drug cartels. I know how sensitive this information is." Yaakov was now feeling resented.
"Are you absolutely sure? Maybe you just did not realize, while you were under drugs. Those gangsters have nothing to envy us, when it comes to making people talk.."
"Shit, Eyal, you know I went through all the drug checks when I was back in Israel. I was simply anesthetized. I told you all about it." Yaakov suddenly remembered the remarks of Helena about the mysterious deaths in the US.
"Eyal, back to my topic, is anyone thinking about a large scale deployment of the biodrones? Maybe our friends in Langley?"
Eyal did not answer, looked at his smartwatch, and whispered "live news now" towards it.
The smartwatch found the first available newsfeed, it was the BBC World Service first afternoon edition, and then passed the information on to the TV set of the room. The skyline of Chicago appeared on the screen.
From behind the anchorwoman, it was possible to see fires rising from the area around McCormick Place, on the Southern lakeside.
Yaakov realized what was about to happen and asked Eyal, desperately hoping he denied it.
"Please tell me that the Americans are not going to use the flies to stop the revolution."
"Unfortunately I cannot tell you anything, Yaakov. As we have no evidence, we won't take any action against you. Yet we can no longer cooperate. I am very sorry."
Eyal stood up and walked towards the door. Before opening it, he turned back to Yaakov.
"You can keep watching the news, if you want. Just close the door behind when you go. I must leave now."
Chapter 19
Captain Carl Levine of the Illinois National Guard was exhausted. He had been fighting with his company in South Chicago for more than three weeks, claiming block after block of the heavily armed Afro-American and Latino gangs who had started the revolution and wreaked havoc on half of the Chicago metropolitan area.
Being an African-American himself, he had led his men in the battle across the streets, seeing five of them die by machine guns or booby traps.
He was now resting on the half-burnt kitchen floor of the McDonald's located in South Ashland Avenue, where his company had set up camp. The rebels were just seven hundred yards away. He turned towards Lieutenant Wade Dunn, his second in command, a young white man from Naperville, Illinois.
"Wade, is the brigade command going to send exoskeletons again? We cannot get past this street with losses, too many snipers."
"I frankly hope they don't, Carl," Wade answered, "otherwise we have to go after them to cover their ass again."
Carl nodded his head in agreement. The first attempts at using the weapons in the urban battlefield had been a disaster. The command had hoped that the armored exoskeletons, armed with heavy machine guns and grenade launchers, would get rid of the lightly armed rebels without too much collateral damage.
"Yeah, those assholes at headquarters did not realize they had so many infrared antitank grenades," Carl recalled. "It was enough for the rebels to let them get past their first lines, and then shoot at the gas turbine exhaust to torch them all. The only option the poor guys in the exoskeleton had, was to fire on everything that moved, causing more damage than a Bradley tank."
"How the hell did those guys have so much ammunition?" Wade wondered.
"Come on, man, don't forget that starting two years ago, back in 2032, all the gangs were swimming in cash from the Telomerax illegal trade, and could afford to build small arsenals for their own turf wars. Then President Strickland did away with federal prohibition, and you know what happened. No more business, no more cash. Don’t you agree that we must find a way to use the weaponry to make ends meet?"
"Yeah," Wade continued, "end of prohibition basically meant transfer of revenue and profits from gangsters to big pharma companies. The funny thing is, the cost to get Telomerax did not go down too much, even though it looks like it is quite cheap to manufacture."
"Is it?" Carl a
sked, "Then how come the drug companies charge you nearly ten thousand dollars per year for the treatment? If I wanted to get it for my family, I would have to choose between this, sending my two daughters to college, or having better medical insurance, just in case anything happens."
"No, I assure you that it’s affordable. Look at this," Wade handed over to his tablet. It was playing a video shot from the campus of an Indian company. "The guy you see there is called Dinesh Kheradpir, he is the tycoon who made billions by manufacturing the drug in India."
Carl watched the video. It was a plea to the governments and the pharmaceutical industry to make Telomerax affordable for all, and remove the market barriers that prevented prices to adjust on a global basis. It ended with a set of hyperlinks where it was possible to download all the pill manufacturing process.
"Wow, that looks awesome. Can you really set up your own lab?" Carl asked, "I must admit I got some pills for me and my wife when the drug was still illegal. It was enough to stop aging for about one year, that's what my dealer told me. But if more people manufacture the pills, prices will drop."
"Hold on," Wade countered, "it's not as simple as that. Legalized does not mean free, it means regulated. All those who can setup a Telomerax lab have done it, and then bumped into a number of bureaucratic obstacles that make production expensive. You have to feed the FDA, the lobbyists, scores of government agencies, and pay taxes on it. If you want to make it affordable for all, you have sell an illegal version. Some decided to do so and..."
"...and the illegal trade reappeared, this time mixed with other nasty drugs that give dependency...so that those who could afford the higher prices went to the legal market...and the illegal one lost its richest customers."
"Exactly, I see you understand economics even if you are an engineer," Wade grinned. "The result, well, it's where we are right now; inner cities becoming poorer, riots and unbelievable levels of violence that we have to fix the hard way."
The Last Enemy - A history of the present future - 1934-2084 Page 30
