Probe

by Douglas E Roff

  Edward said, somewhat shaken by this news, “OK then. Alana, please continue.”

  The group settled in and braced to hear the story that Alana was about to tell. Everyone was nervous; Alana’s introduction to her presentation was a real grabber. All minds present were focused like a laser beam on the slide show that was about to begin.

  ***

  “Before we get to the really bad news, let’s spend some time on the preliminaries. So, what happened in London, who was responsible for the Incident, and how did it come about? This will necessarily involve who’s in charge of the Gens Collective, and how they could’ve been infiltrated at the highest levels of leadership by the Black Shirts. And no one should be fooled; the Black Shirts did in fact infiltrate the Gens Collective both in Princeton, which we now know is their real global headquarters, and in the other research Labs across the country. If you are at all wondering if our retaliation against the Gens for the Incident was justified or even smart, let’s just say without those events taking place, we would’ve no idea about anything else we now know.”

  “Saldana Ri wanted to light a fuse leading directly to war; it’s now unlikely they will be successful. They most certainly caused the propaganda event they were looking for, but they failed in their attempt to fuel the conflagration that they hoped would follow. But time is short. They think we don’t know who they’re or what they have. They think we don’t know where they are. They think we’re oblivious to their scientific advances.”

  Alana paused. “They are wrong. Dead wrong.”

  Chapter 30

  Alana began, “What we now know for sure is the Gens Collective is an ancient and well-organized society of beings that number somewhere around three hundred million individuals worldwide. They’re divided into six large political mega regions, which are each, in turn, divided into fifty or so governing regions. Each governing region has its own Governing Council, which in turn has representation on the two global councils, the Great Council, headed by Paulo Fortizi, and the Council of Elders, on which Enzo Fortizi is a member. There is also a Military Council, a Council of Trackers and a Council of Captains. The latter two groups act as a kind of combination police force and mob enforcer.

  “Each mega region has a Lesser Library, which together with the Great Library, contains the collective wisdom, and history of the Gens dating back millennia. Each contains a record of all Gens within that region and identifies who they are, where they are, and whether they are transformed. If transformed it identifies the location and work assignment of each.

  “It’s clear that the governing hierarchy of the Gens Collective at every level has been infiltrated by rogue elements of the Black Shirt Movement. This not only includes the Councils themselves, but their research Laboratories as well as their military, Tracker and Captains classes. In Princeton, they had successfully recruited senior managers in key positions to report on progress of their various research projects, providing additional information about leadership strategy, personnel movement, decisions, and financial resources. Through a subtle process of suggestion and influence, key personnel were moved around to various research locations, and funding for Black shirt activities was siphoned off from various global resources into bogus projects. In this way, the Black Shirt Movement was wholly funded, and staffed by the Gens Collective itself. And without its knowledge.

  “The Black Shirts were then able to divert research resources to their own projects while using the Gens Collective Labs to carry out the basic, and advanced research they needed. They then reported no or slow progress to the Great Council and sent Gens Collective loyalists off researching new or dead-end projects while further developing the most promising research at their own secret Labs.”

  “Do we know where those Labs are?”

  “Yes, I’m pretty sure I have found them all. There are four Labs that process results from the Gens Collective Labs. I have their specific locations. Then there is one central Lab which collates the work of the four Labs and conducts the experimental research to confirm computer generated results.”

  “What experimental results?” asked Pops.

  “They conduct experiments on humans, and on unsuspecting Gens recruited for that task to test the efficacy of the E-5 virus. They also test the drugs developed as part of the Serum Project on Black Shirt volunteers.”

  “Do we know the location of that Lab?”

  “Maybe. At least the general location which I have narrowed down to somewhere in Northern California. The exact location has been difficult to pin down. But I think I have the exact locations of the four feeder Labs. And we have some idea where their military installations are, though that is rather sketchy at this point too.”

  Maria asked, “What about the Incident? What do we know of that?”

  “It appears that the emails sent to recruit and assign responsibility for the undertaking came from Princeton but were sent from a remote server somewhere else in New Jersey. I would wager that the Princeton email server was hacked, or access simply given to a third party, and phony emails were sent out from the email accounts of senior Gens Collective leadership. I’m betting this was an inside job. They were sent to the guy we now know to be Derek Nobilus and Vincent Romano, who apparently is a relation of Enzo and Paulo Fortizi. But those emails stressed secrecy, and that the assignments had come from the Fortizi’s directly and carried with it the authority of the Great Council, and the Council of Elders. Travel was arranged through Princeton and funding came from various bank accounts held by the Collective, and countersigned by Charles Hanley, the CFO of BioGen in Princeton.”

  Alana paused.

  “The way this was arranged and structured was consistent with the procedures used every day at BioGen, and there would’ve been no reason to question the instructions received or any other aspect of the assignment. Besides, the time frames for the assignment were short, and the urgency, and secrecy of the undertaking stressed clearly. These folks simply did what they were told and never questioned or verified the assignment directly. This behavior is characteristic of the traditional Gens hierarchy and has been so for millennia. This insight comes from Hannah and her team; the Gens Collective command structure, bureaucratic and highly authoritarian in nature, appeared to have sown the seeds of its own destruction. No one would dare question an order coming from above one’s own rank.”

  Adam said, “This Saldana Ri is cagey and really understands the Gens internal procedures to use against them. Very smart.”

  Alana continued, “Skipping ahead for a moment, in the time immediately following the Incident, the Black Shirts were on Gens Collective social media and took control of all means of communication.”

  “How?”

  “The websites are Tor, on the dark web. Can’t google them, can’t even find them really unless you know where to look.”

  “Which you do?”

  “Indeed. Once these websites were in Black Shirt control, they began sending out information, and disinformation to the general transformed Gens populace, then after a few weeks, shut them down saying that rogue elements had compromised the sites. They then shifted to direct email communication using a secure server. They blast propaganda every day and have identifiable Tor sites of the Black Shirt Movement, though not identified as such, for transformed Gens to visit and obtain ‘accurate information about the state of the Collective’. By and large, the leadership of the Collective has been slow in responding and has essentially been out of contact with the general populace for many weeks now. They have lost control of the email server and have no lists of transformed Gens or means to communicate with them. Slick, I must say.”

  “Slick in indeed,” said Adam. “If we were to help, could we reverse this? Get control back?”

  Alana smiled. “Yes, absolutely. They were clever and thorough, but it mostly suggests excellent Black Shirt planning coupled with the element of surprise and compounded by Collective leadership incompetence in social
media and technology. We can fix this.”

  Adam said, “In light of this, we need to decide whether it’s wise for us to intervene in this civil war and, if so, who we should help. Not up for discussion now, but please consider this as Alana tells us the remainder of her story.”

  Edward said, “You mean intervene to help the Gens Collective leadership? Not the Black Shirt Movement?”

  “Yes. I believe the Black Shirts represent the only real Gens capacity to harm us. The Collective thinks it is capable, but there are still massive divisions within the transformed Gens populace for war. I believe that the Collective’s leadership was engaged in research to prepare for war, but I don’t think many in the Collective favored it. At least not as a first option. And, it was as much politics to sound tough as it was to do anything dramatic. It was the loss of the Library that really ginned up the drumbeat for war. That was unfortunate.”

  Alana paused, looking for questions, “The Black Shirts are an entirely different matter.”

  “How so?”

  “They are a smaller, single minded and cohesive minority group with a skilled leader, and a single purpose: to destroy humanity and gain dominance over the planet. They want to go back to the good old days which, in this case, is ancient Rome. Except this time, Saldana Ri is Caesar and humanity is the slave class.”

  “I see.” Edward turned to Alana and said, “Well, continue then.”

  Alana waited for the whispers to abate as the assembled team members were having hushed conversations among themselves.

  “The night before the Incident in London, Saldana Ri sent coded emails out to her rogue associates at all the US Labs we were about to attack telling them the day of reckoning had come. They were to immediately cease work, all other activities, gather their families and head directly to their predetermined collection points. They traveled by car to their pre-set destinations, if nearby, and by air if not. They then further convened at collection points in the four cities with satellite research Labs. A few, only a handful, traveled to San Francisco. These however, were all top research scientists. They undoubtedly are now at Black Shirt ‘head office’ somewhere in or near San Francisco.

  “We have, or at least had, the capability to track the movements of the entire Black Shirt Movement, including Saldana Ri. But it looks like the Movement is swapping out cell phones, so future tracking may take time to re-establish. And, for the time being, we don’t know where their ‘head office’ is. But I’m working on that. Should we desire it, we can attack, and neutralize the four existing Black Shirt Labs. This doesn’t mean, however, that we have everything we can possibly need on the Black Shirts. My research to date has been solely focused on Saldana Ri, and the Movement in the US. I am still working on Movement leadership elsewhere on the planet, plus getting some idea of how they’re organized globally.

  “That brings us to the final topic, except for what to do, of course. That’s the state of the E-5 virus and Serum Project programs. This will take a few minutes, and I’ll ask Edward and Pops to help me out with the biology and logistics of what I will present to you today. Then I will explain the situation with Saldana Ri, and what that might mean for all of us. And I should advise you, the news isn’t good.”

  Alana paused.

  “Then I have some bombshell news about Saldana Ri that I’m not sure what to do with.”

  Edward laughed. “And I have some bombshell news for us all too. I recently visited our detention camp in North Dakota. Surprises abound. Genetic surprises.”

  Chapter 31

  “We, and by ‘we’ I mean Adam, Pops, Edward and I, had been intercepting data transmitted from and to Princeton, as well as the six other BioGen Lab sites. We have obtained the documentation on what they were attempting to research and accomplish. The summaries we have originate in Princeton but are confirmed multiple times over in the US Labs, and in Collective Labs around the world. We have accessed their Collective computer systems and digital electronics worldwide. I think we are well past wondering about what they’re doing and deeply into how far along they’ve gotten.

  “But first let’s lay the groundwork about what these projects are. There are certainly other research projects that have been undertaken by the Gens Collective in addition to the two that’re most prominent, but many of those have either been abandoned, reduced in scope or have yet to produce any tangible results. We know this because the Black Shirts have only focused on these two projects writ large and have devoted all their time and attention to them.”

  Alana looked around the room seeing only serious and attentive faces. They were all were now leaning forward, as if moving closer to the speaker would impart greater knowledge.

  “The first and most dangerous program that is of immediate concern is the so-called E-5 virus project. I have no idea what the ‘E’ stands for, but the ‘5 virus part is pretty self-explanatory. The basic research began about twenty years ago and had to do with evaluating all deadly infectious diseases, whether bacteria or virus, together with mortality rates, rates of mutation, method of delivery, incubation periods and a whole host of related issues. This was what you could call their feasibility or exploratory phase of research.

  “The Gens at that point were looking for a silver bullet; a single disease that could be manipulated or enhanced, genetically altered or otherwise managed to kill as many humans as possible. They eventually settled on twenty or, so candidates they thought could do the trick, largely because, unchecked, these diseases had, in the past, killed off large swaths of humanity. One by one, due to one adverse factor or another, the list was narrowed to about ten good candidates. By ‘adverse factor’ in this context we mean were there natural immunities in the world, vaccines or treatments readily available, or immunizations that could prevent widespread chaos, and death once these diseases were introduced to the general populace? In some cases, incubation periods were too fast, or virulence wasn’t high enough or the ability to spread disease fast, and efficiently wasn’t optimal. This led to the reduction of the ‘off the shelf’ diseases to just a few and most of those had systemic defects too.

  “They subsequently decided to pursue a course of research to introduce multiple diseases with multiple characteristics for various parts of the world. That research, too, had its drawbacks. The next line of inquiry involved synthesizing one or more viruses or bacteria to come up with a ‘designer disease’; one whose characteristics could be managed and modified to accomplish any number of benefits. The science was evolving rapidly in this area of biology, so they pursued it aggressively.

  “The Collective scientists back in the day were also concerned with how they would deliver the virus/bacteria to the general population of humans; which methodology would infect the greatest number of humans in the shortest space of time. They decided that water born, or air born organisms would be the two best options; if the disease could be carried in a water system, or aerosolized for rapid deployment, they could get a high rate of general dispersal in urban areas and in airports spreading the disease quickly around the world. There are a sufficient number of Gens in the world, and pretty much everywhere, so ‘manpower’ was no issue; rather it was production, packaging and logistics, together with efficient deployment, that would have to be surmounted. These, they thought, were mere details.

  “Well before that, the project became beset by new problems they hadn’t contemplated. They concluded that they needed to have an incubation period that was long enough, and a disease that was infectious enough for the disease to spread far and wide without initial detection. In other words, the disease would infect a large part of humanity with a fatal disease that wouldn’t be discovered until it was too late. And if it was a designer disease, it might take a long time before humanity knew what the pathogen was, or the size, and scope of the pandemic.

  “One of the final pieces to study and understand was the rate of mutation of the E-5 virus once unleashed in the general populace of humanity wor
ldwide. The last thing they wanted to see was the pathogen mutating to become virulent, and lethal for the Gens Collective, either in natural state or human form.

  “This finally led them to consider the potential for lethality of the E-5 to Gens in human form and the Gens in natural state. Their scientists initially concluded they would be safe due to variation in the genetic codes of homo sapiens and the Gens.”

  Rod asked, “How did they do?”

  “Well for a great long while, they got nowhere on all fronts. But slowly over time, and then accelerating into the new millennia, they began making progress. They solved some problems only to fail or regress at others. Truthfully, they were doing exceedingly complex research with scientists who were skilled but not exceptional in any way. I think the general conclusion reached by Pops was his surprise at how far they got with the resources and talent they had. But the actual results they have now attained suggests that they have overcome a lot to get to where they want to be. And, as Edward recently discovered, the CDC agrees.

  “The last thing I want to mention is that we have discovered that the Black Shirts ran a parallel program over the past eight, maybe ten years. They, through a combination of better equipment, more highly skilled scientists and technicians, and better analysis of the relevant data, were able to derail the efforts of the Gens Collective while simultaneously accelerating their own. Where the Gens Collective failed, the Black Shirts succeeded.

  “Now we turn from an analysis of what the Collective sought to achieve to what the Black Shirts actually have achieved. For our purposes today, we can ignore what the Gens Collective was working on. Their research program is dead, their Labs destroyed by Adam and their research data fouled and compromised by me. Unless they have a secret Lab somewhere with the unspoiled data, the efforts of the Gens Collective are simply finished for now and probably for a good long while into the future.