by Mark Donovan
“As you can imagine, like many other companies doing research in the field of nanotechnology, we are conducting material research studies for creating such things as cloaking fabrics, RFID barcodes, and trace chemical sensors.”
“You’re not doing anything in the area of nano-drones or nano-cameras and audio sensors?” pressed the general.
Looking the general straight in the eye with a perfect poker face Dave responded simply with, “no sir”.
The general paused with his questioning and stared intently at Dave for what seemed an eternity, but in reality was only a few seconds. The general could sense he was being lied to, but Dave had played his hand exceptionally well and kept his cards close to his vest. It was obvious that any additional questioning was going to be fruitless.
“Well I won’t take any more of your time Mr. Henson,” said the general as he stood up to leave.
“Would you like me to give you a quick tour of NSurv before you leave?” asked Dave, knowing that he’d limit the tour to just the commercial product manufacturing wing of the building.
“Sure, I’d love to see a bit more of NSurv.”
“Okay, I’ll give you a brief tour of our facilities before walking you out,” said Dave as he got up from his chair.
Dave and General Jarod left his office and headed off in a direction opposite NSurv’s research offices and labs, and instead to the manufacturing area where they built standard commercial products. It was obvious during the tour that the general was less than impressed with what he saw. Dave could also see the general was somewhat aggravated for being duped and stiff armed during the entire meeting and tour, by observing the veins bulging out on his thick neck.
As Dave and General Jarod were standing in the company lobby and saying their goodbyes the general had one final comment for Dave.
“Mr. Henson, thank you for spending time with me today and showing me around NSurv. Clearly the crack team you’ve assembled here is doing much more development in the field of nanotechnology than what you were comfortable sharing with me. I understand your reasons for being tight lipped, however, I want you to understand something.”
“Yes?” responded Dave coolly.
“Throughout the history of this country, when the nation needed its citizens’ help, the government asked them for it, such as in the numerous wars our country has fought in over the centuries.”
The general paused for effect.
“And in the situations where an insufficient amount of the country’s citizens did not respond to the nation’s needs, the government conscripted their help and services.”
“I’m not sure I follow where you are going in your story,” responded Dave icily.
“Simply stated, sometimes our country, or its government, may need to require compulsory support of its citizens and their businesses for the good of the nation. I will leave you with that thought.”
The general smartly shook Dave’s hand and then walked out of the lobby towards his car. Dave just stood there silently and watched him get into his car and drive away. General Russell Jarod’s report back to Washington would surely not be kind to NSurv.
Chapter 45 (March 20, Wednesday 7:00pm Mountain Daylight Savings Time)
It was the first night of Men’s NCAA March Madness college basketball and the President was relaxing in the first family’s living area of the White House watching basketball. Duke was playing Lehigh and it was two minutes before half time. The network was estimating four million viewers were tuned in watching the game. On another television network five million people were estimated watching a reality show on a teenager pregnancy pack in New Jersey. And on the third major network, three million viewers were watching a singing competition featuring twenty-five year old boys and girls. Similarly, on the cable networks an estimated ten million viewers combined, were watching television programs that ran the gambit from tattoo artist shows to advocacy political party news shows.
In McCall, Idaho, Dave, Dana and a handful of other NSurv employees were preparing another television broadcast interruption. They had also added tonight a number of top websites to their list of interrupted services. Websites that in particular, had large daily viewership and promoted political agendas.
Tonight’s interruption to the world was going to be a cameo performance featuring billionaire Dimitris Barbas and Secretary of Commerce Nancy Devins at the San Francisco business leaders meeting a couple of weeks ago. Dave had scheduled the interruption to occur at the start of halftime between the Duke and Lehigh basketball game.
The buzzer sounded as the second quarter ended in the game. As the Duke and Lehigh basketball players ran to their respective locker rooms for halftime, a television sports announcer began to excitedly talk about the action in the first half of play. He was only ten seconds into his recap of the game when the television image switched over to a still image of the faces of Dimitris Barbas and Nancy Devins. Similarly, the same image was displayed on the other broadcasting and cable television networks, as well as on several popular websites.
Again a synthesized version of Dana’s voice began to speak and describe who the two people were on their television screens, where they were standing, and the topic and purpose of their discussion. As before, over twenty million people who had been watching their particular television show that evening were now listening to the same voice that had spoken to them a week ago regarding the Vice President’s action. Actions that had already caused the Vice President to announce his resignation earlier in the week. This time, however, the viewers watching and listening to the voice were not so surprised and confused about the purpose of the interruption. As a matter of fact, most were less concerned about their shows being interrupted and more interested in learning what was about to be told and showed to them.
After the narrator completed her initial remarks the video of Barbas and Secretary of Commerce Nancy Devins began to play out in front of the American public.
“Dimitris, thank you so much for coming today,” said Secretary Devins. “The President is so thankful for your support and help over the years. I hope today we didn’t take you fully by surprise and that you will again support us in getting the TMA approved.”
As the viewers and website visitors around the country listened and watched intently to the video recording, occasionally the film would be paused and the narrator would provide additional context on the background of the two individuals they were watching and the purpose of their discussion.
“I believe the President has really got a winner here for the country and the planet,” responded Barbas in a fawning tone. “I just hope that Barbas Holdings, Inc. will have the opportunity to participate in some of the new business ventures that spawn out of the administration’s new plans.”
The video briefly paused with the completion of Barbas’s last statement so that the narrator could reiterate that Mr. Barbas was referring to the President’s “Transportation Movement Act” that he had outlined to the nation a couple of weeks ago. The video continued with the Secretary of Commerce responding to Mr. Barbas.
“Oh absolutely,” replied the Secretary in a whispered tone, as she reached out and held one of Barbas’s hands with both of hers. “The administration views you and your company as one of the family, and we take good care of our family members.”
When the video ended, the narrator summarized what the viewers had just witnessed. She explained that what the viewers has just watched was yet another example of the machinations and corruption inside the President’s administration, and how it worked in conjunction with its friends and special interest groups to achieve each other’s goals. Dana ended by asking the viewers a final question. “What did you see in this video that convinces you that the “Transportation Movement Act” is going to really help you?”
After a five second additional pause normal television broadcasts were restored and the websites returned to their previously displayed content.
“Well that should stir up th
e pot a little bit more in the White House,” Dana said.
“Yes, I’m sure they’re coming unglued at this minute,” responded Dave. “The Vice President incident was a misfortunate and tangential situation for them that they had to deal with. However, forcing the Vice President to resign was a pretty easy solution for them, and quite frankly a blessing for the President. He had been wishing to get rid of him for years.”
“We just gave him a good excuse,” commented Dana.
“True, but tonight’s video hit much closer to home. The President isn’t going to scrap his “Transportation Movement Act” without a fight, and he really can’t ask for the Secretary of Commerce’s resignation. He needs her too much, and as we again watched unfold on the tape tonight, the President needs Barbas too.”
“And Barbas seems to have a special interest in Secretary Devins as well,” interjected Dana.
“They’ll surely try to argue that this was a fake tape too,” said Dave. “But with the effective admission of the Vice President’s guilt with the other tape, it will be hard for that argument to stick.”
“They’ll obviously come harder now at NSurv,” commented Dana in a concerned voice. “The general’s visit yesterday and the incident with my attempted kidnapping were only the first two salvos in their plans to shut down NSurv.”
“Yes, I am sure we will be under additional scrutiny,” said Dave. “General Jarod walked away from here fuming and frustrated. Though he held his cool, I am sure he will report back to the administration that we are hiding information.”
“Oh, it will be more than scrutiny that we have to contend with Dave,” said Dana. “They will be coming after us by hook or by crook. You can count on it.”
“Yes, you’re right, but again we’ll just make sure to stay one step ahead of them, just like we’ve been doing so far. Ron and Dan should be arriving about now into Washington D.C. I’ll give Ron a call later on tonight to update him on tonight’s progress.”
With that said Dave got up from his chair and suggested they call it a night. Joe Stevens was starting the next day and each had some last minute preparations to do before departing on their trip to the Caribbean. Dave took Dana back to her hotel before heading off to his home.
Chapter 46 (March 20, Wednesday 9:15pm Eastern Daylight Savings Time)
President Coleman was still in shock from what he had just watched on his television. He couldn’t believe that his Secretary of State and Dimitris Barbas were filmed having a private conversation, and then that same conversation was broadcast out over the airways. This was going to make his job of getting the “Transportation Movement Act” passed in Congress now much harder. He could already hear the opposition congressional members screaming about a corrupt administration that has no real interest in the American public. He was sure the talking head’s on one particular cable news network were already calling for his impeachment. He needed to find out who was doing this, and shut them down fast. He needed Joe Q. public to help him convince the fence sitting congressional members to support the TMA. This type of stuff would have Joe Q. public backing his impeachment if it got much more out of control.
As he sat fuming about the video, Ken Hardy sat across from him in the room calling a half a dozen people, including the Secretary of Commerce, General Russell Jarod and Dimitris Barbas. Barbas had already left him a terse voice mail that basically suggested he was looking for blood. The Chief of Staff turned off his phone and looked over at the President who was still deep in thought.
“Jesse, I would suggest you get dressed and head down to the Oval Office. I have Nancy and General Jarod coming over to meet with us in 15 minutes. General Jarod has a report from his visit to NSurv yesterday that I think you might find interesting. We’ll also conference call in Dimitris Barbas. He also has some information that he is anxious to share with us relating to the business leaders conference. Suffice it to say we may be getting closer to who’s behind this covert surveillance and videos.”
“Okay, give me a few minutes to change and I will be down there,” responded the President.
The President left the recreation room heading to his bedroom, and the Chief of Staff followed enroute to the Oval Office. Fifteen minutes later the President walked into the Oval Office with Ken Hardy and Nancy Devins in tow. Hardy then dialed up Barbas and put him on speaker phone. As Barbas was brought on line, General Jarod was brought into the room by an aide. After welcoming the general and offering him a seat the President looking dire serious addressed the four of them.
“We’ve got a major problem here and we need to get it fixed now,” said the President. “I initially thought, or hoped, that the first video this group aired was solely for the purpose of having Houlton removed from office. I was wrong. Whoever was behind tonight’s act is clearly out to sink the TMA and my presidency. The video they ran tonight will certainly make getting the TMA passed through Congress tougher, but I am still optimistic that we will eventually get it passed. However, if additional videos like what we saw tonight come out, this group may indeed accomplish their apparent objectives.”
“We’re not going to let that happen,” belted out Barbas over the speaker phone. “I have information provided by Christos Grivas over at ABO that leads me to believe that a small company in Idaho called NSurv is behind these acts of terrorism. Furthermore, I was told by Grivas that Dave Henson was observed in attendance at the San Francisco business leaders meeting.”
The President looked over at Nancy Devins. “Was this Mr. Henson on the invitee list for the meeting?”
“No, I personally knew the names of everyone attending the meeting and he was not one of them.”
“Did everyone that you invite attend the meeting?” asked Ken Hardy.
“No, there were a few people that I invited who were unable to attend,” responded the Secretary.
“Well it apparently sounds like either Mr. Henson snuck into the meeting without security detecting him or that he misrepresented himself as one of your invitees that didn’t actually attend the meeting,” commented Hardy. “If the latter is the case, we may have a business leader friend who is not necessarily as friendly with us as we thought.”
“I will have some additional background checks done on the individuals we invited that declined attending,” responded the Secretary.
“President Coleman,” interjected Hardy. “Barbas had already made me aware that NSurv may be a company of interest related to these video incidents, so I sent General Jarod here out to visit them earlier this week. I’d like him to give you a full briefing on his meeting with Mr. Henson at NSurv.”
“Yes, General Jarod, please explain to us what you learned at NSurv,” responded the President.
“Thank you President Coleman,” replied the general. “I spent a couple of hours meeting with Mr. Henson and touring a portion of his facilities. Prior to my visit I had also done a complete background check on NSurv, Mr. Henson, and some of his colleagues. In a nutshell, Mr. Henson and his top staff are very successful engineers and scientists with an illustrious history of commercial success in semiconductor, computer and internet technology startup enterprises. Moreover, Mr. Henson and some of his colleagues are also considered experts in the field of nanotechnology. Combined they have over two dozen patents filed in this field with more pending. Most of the pending patents that were filed by Mr. Henson and his colleagues were filed in the past three years while at NSurv.”
The general paused for effect and to allow the President to absorb where he was going in his report.
“While speaking to Mr. Henson at NSurv the other day, he was very candid about the company’s released aerial mini drone products. As a matter of fact, he showed me their production facilities where they manufactured them. However, when I pressed him on NSurv’s nanotechnology research and the possibility of using the technology for surveillance applications, he was very vague with me. He admitted that NSurv was doing research work in this field, however, he stated that they were
still years away from having any commercially viable nano-based surveillance products.”
As the general explained his meeting at NSurv, the computers back at NSurv headquarters continued to auto-record the transmissions that were being uplinked by the nano-sensor video cameras and microphones operating inside Mr. Barbas and Ms. Devins.
“Well what’s your assessment general on whether or not they have active nano-based sensor products?” asked the President.
“Mr. Henson and his staff of engineers and scientists are very accomplished both educationally and professionally,” responded the general before pausing. “Based upon Mr. Henson’s previous successes and his concise and limited responses during our meeting, I am hard pressed not to believe that NSurv does indeed have operational nano surveillance technology.”
“What types of nano surveillance technology?” asked Barbas gruffly over the speaker phone.
“Based upon their current product line of miniaturized drones, I would have to surmise that at a minimum they have micro or nano drone level devices,” responded the general. “The drones could vary in size from as large as a pencil eraser head, to so small that you couldn’t see them with the naked eye. They could truly be nanoscopic in size.”
“I would also think, that with their semiconductor and communications backgrounds, any nano-sensor based products that they could conceivably be working on would also include transmitter and receiver devices as well as video and audio sensors. Most likely it was these types of technologies that were used in the filming of the Vice President, the Secretary and Mr. Barbas.”
“Jesus,” gasped Barbas again over the phone. “From what you’re telling us, these nano sensors could be placed anywhere around us filming and recording everything we say and do.”
“Yes, it is possible,” responded the general. “Quite frankly, I thought we were still a decade or so away from having to worry about this concern. However, based upon my research of NSurv and meeting with Mr. Henson over the past several days, I think it is highly plausible that NSurv has dramatically sped up the timetable for this type of technology deployment.”
