Madness

by Bill Wetterman

  “Is this why other forms of government failed, because they failed to advance all humanity?”

  “Put simply, yes.” Pendleton inhaled a long breath of air and leaned toward Duarte. “Capitalism advanced industrial growth in its infancy, but soon gave way to blatant greed. Socialism created a near welfare condition where the vast number of the populace settled for average to below average performance and demanded the government provide for them.”

  “A little harsh.”

  “Not at all—and communism and military dictatorships proved disastrous.” Pendleton grasped Duarte’s hand. “Democracy doesn’t work. Factions with individual interests divide nations and create stalemates. The individual citizen is clueless about what is good for their nation, because they haven’t received the proper education on the Global facts. But this will change. This in fact has changed tonight.”

  The bell rang at the front of the plane.

  “The captain is calling you,” Pendleton sighed, reluctant to lose a willing listener.

  Duarte rose. “Good luck, Arthur.”

  “One question,” Pendleton said. “Where did you receive your degree?”

  “The University de San Palo.”

  “Outstanding, I shall watch your progress.”

  “But I am content, Arthur, content to serve those who charter this plane.”

  “Consider this plane a part of the Global Realm’s fleet.” Pendleton smiled. “In essence, you work for me, and I will watch your progress.”

  Chapter 22

  Anne Pendleton stepped out of her limousine. A valet drove the vehicle away from the Widder Hotel in Zurich. She almost tripped on the series of cords the video equipment crews were setting up. Milton Rogers steadied her.

  “What’s all the fuss?” she asked, carrying little George and negotiating her way into the hotel lobby.

  “Your son will arrive here shortly. He’ll speak to the world from the Widder Saal.” Rogers put his finger to his lips. “Don’t mention that to anyone. The media is expecting the President of the Swiss Federal Council to address the nation on the world situation.”

  “Mum’s the word.” Anne rode the elevator up to her room to find four female attendants, handpicked by Rogers in advance, there to help with George and assist with settling her in. The room greeted her with warm autumn colors of burnt orange and rust. The comfortable king-size bed with a rose placed across the flowered bedspread looked larger than any bed she’d ever slept in. The room smelled of fresh cut flowers, small red roses and yellow tulips.

  She took a startled look out at the beautiful City of Zurich and realized she could get used to opulence. However, when she turned the television on and tuned in the BBC, the shock of the scenes flashing across the screen dropped her into the nearest chair.

  “At latest count,” a reporter said. “Fifty regimes around the world have been crippled by direct strikes against their government buildings, military complexes, and the residences of the leaders themselves. Besides Iran, Iraq, and Turkmenistan already engulfed in war, Israel, Myanmar, Malawi, Venezuela, Indonesia, and most devastatingly, North Korea and Pakistan have been hit with precise strikes.”

  My God, the world’s gone mad.

  Her son created this massive conflict, and knowing him, he had no regrets. Her only hope as a mother was that he was right, and he would prove he was right. Nonetheless, he’d played God here, and he wasn’t God.

  She tried other channels, but only the BBC broadcast came through.

  The pictures coming in showed surgical type attacks. Five blocks of a major city lay in rubble, while the rest of the city remained untouched.

  “Eighteen heads of state have been reported dead,” the reporter said. “In North Korea, over forty missiles leveled key targets in Pyongyang and four major nuclear missile facilities. An unverified report from Beijing said three North Korean nuclear missiles had been fired before their locations were destroyed, but those missiles were shot down by the Chinese.”

  Anne hugged little George in her arms as he cried from the fatigue of travel and hunger. “Go ahead and cry, little one,” she said. “You have the right, considering the family into which you were born.”

  #

  While awaiting the results of Kolb’s surgery, Ursa grabbed the television controls and increased the volume. Then the door to the family waiting room burst open. Four armed men wearing black uniforms with an insignia of an olive branch in the mouth of a dove on their shoulders cornered him. One intruder shouted, “Follow us, please.”

  “I’m waiting for a friend who is in surgery.”

  “Doctor Kolb’s surgery is aborted. You will come with us.”

  The Sons of Tiw were now recognizable as part of the Global Realm armed forces. Their symbol next to the Global Realm insignia said they undoubtedly had targeted him. “So Pendleton sent you.”

  “Actually, General Giamo has an aircraft waiting. The United States military is now following the orders of President Edmunds and the new head of the Global Realm. Please come peaceably.”

  As Ursa left the hospital with his escort, he noticed the presence of military personnel on every corner in Washington all wearing the new uniforms. As the Hummer he rode in approached Andrews Air Force base, military aircraft were lined up to be painted with the emblem of the olive branch and the dove on the pilot’s side right below the windshield.

  Pendleton’s people worked fast, and their numbers astounded Ursa. He boarded an E-3 Sentry, Command and Control aircraft, already painted with Pendleton’s symbol. Several familiar associates, all comfortably seated, greeted him. Surrounding them all were Pendleton’s military personnel.

  “Please feel free to check out the accommodations after we’ve reached cruising altitude,” their group leader said.

  Around him in a large lounge area were, Magnus, who was nursing a sore neck, Felicia Lange, Carna, and Polaris, all belted into their seats. Polaris’s wheelchair was stowed and strapped against the wall.

  “You’ll find they have Kolb being treated by a nurse behind the far curtained off area in the back,” Magnus said. “I believe they will serve cocktails in flight.”

  “Please keep your seatbelts fasten for your trip to Zurich,” a stewardess said. “Our flying time will be approximately six hours and four minutes.”

  Zurich? Why are we going to Zurich?

  A small, dark-haired man with a well-trimmed moustache stepped into Ursa’s compartment after their craft reached cruising altitude. “I’m the former head of Kuwait’s Ministry of Justice, Farouk Abdullah. I will head up the criminal justice section for the new government.”

  Ursa sized this man up. Physically unimposing, soft-spoken, his hands had no calluses. Magnus could easily overpower him. However, what was the point? He couldn’t overpower the thirty or so Global Realm military on the aircraft.

  “Arthur Pendleton, First Citizen of the Global Realm, welcomes you aboard.”

  “Why does a welcome include so many armed guards?”

  “Would you have come otherwise?”

  “You have a point.”

  Abdullah waved two military men out of his section of the cabin. “You can be friends of the Global Realm or enemies. Pendleton hopes you will become friends. Before you react negatively, consider this. You’ve used everything at your disposal to stop him and failed.”

  “He’s right on that point,” Polaris said. “Peacock performed with skill.”

  “More than you know. Even with the implant, she broke free long enough to keep almost five hundred missiles from firing at targets we’d preselected. Still, the missiles that did fire were sufficient.”

  The heaviness of defeat struck Ursa. Yet he also felt pride in that, for whatever reason, Peacock again disrupted the enemy’s plans. He worried about her even though she’d broken his nose, which had been easily reset. Peacock’s implant had long-term effects impossible to predict.

  Abdullah slid into a seat as the flight hit some turbulence. “We have the skills
to help your Doctor Kolb. In a few more hours, the major conflicts will have ended and only the minor skirmishes will remain.”

  “Why didn’t Pendleton have us arrested and executed?”

  Abdullah smiled, not a warm smile, one that held an unseen smirk. “He considered doing that very thing. Converting your enemy into your friend, if possible, is a wiser approach. I’ll allow him to go into the details.”

  “The devastation being shown on television doesn’t represent an olive branch and a dove.”

  A softening of Abdullah’s face told Ursa the man had a soul. “I regret the necessity of so much destruction,” Abdullah said. “I regretted the loss of innocent lives in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, and Chechnya. I regretted the loss of innocent lives in Bosnia, Kosovo, Libya, Syria and in the riots by misguided people looking for a freedom that could never be achieved.”

  He wiped his brow. “I’ve suffered personal loss from these conflicts. Nonetheless, our goal has a higher purpose. Greed must stop. The eroding of our planet must stop. Religious fanaticism must cease. Only then will mankind reach its potential.”

  He pointed a finger at Ursa. “The Golden Temple of Amritsar in Punjab gone. The Fatima Masumeh Shrine destroyed. The Mosque of the Prophet in Medina and the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron blown into oblivion, other intended strikes at religious targets never fired.”

  “The whole world will riot against him,” Ursa sighed.

  “Not for long when they realize money is worthless, and everything they need to survive and prosper will be provided by us.”

  “That’s not possible.”

  “Oh yes. It is possible. Pendleton and our teams have been preparing for over a decade for today.”

  Polaris raised his hand. “Mind if I summarize and ask a question?”

  “No,” both Abdullah and Ursa answered simultaneously.

  “We’ve been rounded up, put on a plane, and are being flown to Zurich because Pendleton wants to make nice? At least that’s what I’m hearing.”

  Ursa cringed at his bluntness, but he wanted that question answered as well.

  Abdullah cocked his head. “Pendleton wants to make nice? No, he wants to make you useful in the Global Realm. You’ve proven yourselves more than capable, better than any Son of Tiw sent against you, save Hans Van Meer. Until you’ve taken your skills qualification exam, I can’t promise anything. But your performance says you’ll ace it.”

  Chapter 23

  “Are you sure we’ll land in Zurich before noon in New York?”

  Van Meer was ready to smack the cocky Professor Cline, but held back his hand. Maybe he’d slip nicotine into his Diet Cola, as Pendleton had done to his former boss at the WFC, Eric Throgmorton.

  “For the thousandth time, Thad. Yes.”

  “I’m sorry to be a pest, but it’s important to our mission. Edmunds should be in the middle of his speech by now.”

  “So?”

  Cline looked like a kid who hid the last piece of pizza under his bed and didn’t want anyone to find it. He knows something I don’t.

  A nurse stuck her head out of the area where they held Peacock and whispered, “She’s waking up.”

  Van Meer hesitated. Should he push Cline to tell him what was going on, or check on Pendleton’s gorilla-warrior wife. He carefully headed down the aisle to the curtain, pushed it aside, and followed the nurse to where Peacock fought the restraints that held her down.

  “Who am I?” he asked her.

  She yanked at the straps and ignored the question. One of the straps popped loose.

  “Sedate her,” Van Meer said.

  The nurse who’d called for him attempted to inject her. But Peacock grabbed her wrist with the hand she’d just freed, slammed the nurse’s arm down against the cart Peacock lay on, throwing her to the floor, her wrist dangling loosely from her arm.

  Van Meer restrained Peacock with a chokehold while a second nurse injected her, and Peacock relaxed and went limp.

  Van Meer mused aloud. “Where in the world is the soil rich enough to produce a woman like this?”

  If she was awake, she was a threat. Even if whoever was going to operate on her brain succeeded, Van Meer didn’t want to be in the room when she woke up.

  “Keep her comfortable. We’ll be landing in an hour.”

  “I’ll get some ice on her wrist,” she said, pointing at her friend who was on the floor groaning and unable to stand.

  “Knock her out and secure her in her seat for landing. An ambulance will be at the airport to take her to University Hospital in Zurich.” Van Meer examined the woman’s wrist. “I doubt she’ll ever use her hand again.”

  He stepped back through the curtain and approached Cline. “Why are you so concerned with the time, Thad?”

  “I can’t tell you. It’s a secret between Arthur Pendleton and me.”

  Van Meer lowered his eyebrows and put on his meanest glare.

  “Sorry,” Cline said. “I simply can’t tell you.”

  Van Meer didn’t like to be the one without the information, but he knew Pendleton. If Pendleton instructed Cline not to tell, he wouldn’t. Van Meer dropped the issue.

  “Latovsky’s up in five minutes.” Van Meer turned on the BBC as President Edmunds was wrapping up his speech.

  “So I urge everyone here to give the concept of a one-world government a decade to form, and let us evaluate its benefits.” Edmunds sounded as though he was running for political office. “I will speak to First Citizen Pendleton about placing checks and balances on the Global Realm’s decisions by veto power in the United Nations. In ten years, we will eliminate nations altogether. Thank you.”

  Hum, Pendleton wouldn’t like Edmunds’ statement at all. Pendleton did not intend to phase in Global Realm control over ten years, and he certainly wasn’t giving anybody veto power. Van Meer sat down and refastened his seatbelt. Latovsky sounded even more pompous than Edmunds had when he stepped up to speak. Pendleton couldn’t be happy with these speeches, not happy at all.

  #

  Pendleton rushed to the elevator of the Widder Hotel to check on the wellbeing of his mum and his son before addressing the nations. He exited and found his family’s suite. “Knock, knock, Daddy’s here.”

  The door swung open and Anne Pendleton embraced her son. “Truly Arthur, I hope it’s finally over.”

  “Almost Mum, only a few loose ends.”

  “You’ve destroyed millions, Arthur. I’d hate to be one of those few loose ends.”

  “It’s for the greater good, Mum. The fossil fuel age ends with the formation of the Global Realm. We’ll reduce air traffic by eighty-five percent. Our target goal is two percent of pre-Global Realm usage.” The smirk on her face sent chills down his spine. “I know you’re skeptical, Mum, But our scientists will make wonderful advances in technology. So grand, I can predict the following with confidence. In five years, both a tunnel and a three-span bridge will connect Siberia and Alaska. We will remove the need for massive ocean transportation further reducing the pollution of the seas.”

  “I’ve been watching the telly.” She huffed up to him. “All those windbags are talking about a window of ten years to convert to your plan. That fellow, Latovsky, is still threatening Israel. He claims you are with him in that endeavor. But he acts as if he’s the one in charge. How do you suppose to rule these idiots?”

  He loved his mother, but he’d become frustrated trying to explain his plans to her. “In less than an hour, all will be settled. Now where’s my baby boy?”

  Anne pointed to a bedroom door and said, “Knock first. Milton sent help in the form of two capable nannies. They’re in the bedroom with George.”

  The way she said the name, Milton, caused Pendleton to cock his head. Hum, a possible attraction between the two? Well, good for them if there was. He knocked at the door of his son’s room and a matronly woman escorted him in with a broad, toothy smile.

  “He’s a bit fussy, Sir,” she said. “I’ll bet a little time wit
h his daddy will change that.”

  Pendleton pulled his son gently up and out of his crib and rocked him in his arms. He could see his wife’s features in his heir. The boy inherited the best traits from both of them. George fell straight to sleep as Pendleton held him.

  “You’re a potion, like sleepy dust,” the woman said.

  Lovey’s plane should be landing about now. Van Meer had instructions to deliver her to University Hospital where Doctor Levi and his team were waiting. Kolb’s plane would follow. Doctor Levi would tend to Kolb as well. Ursa and Lovey’s former partners would be his guests later.

  He had no more time to spend with George. Today would bring to a climax his crowning achievement to date. He handed his son back to the nanny and left the bedroom.

  “Sorry Mum. I have to run. To be sure you catch my speech, stay tuned to the BBC.”

  “Pray tell where else could I go?”

  Pendleton headed out into the hall and dialed his cell as he waited for the elevator.

  “Yes,” Sir Jarvis Franks said.

  “Are you ready for the final stage?”

  “If the missile bank will fire, we’re ready from our end. But who’s on the other side?”

  “Never mind, did your team get the appropriate rest?”

  “Most caught four to five hours sleep. I dozed off for three, and then catnapped a bit.”

  “Sir Jarvis, I compliment you in advance. This will be the last day I’ll call you Sir.”

  #

  President Edmunds basked in the attention of the media and the spotlight of the moment, as Russian President Latovsky finished his speech and descended the steps on the right side of the main platform to join Edmunds. Both Hui Ming and Li Ziyang rose as Latovsky sat. Then Ming sat back down, and Ziyang strode to the platform to speak.

  “How soon before Pendleton is to arrive?” Edmunds asked his aide, who was waiting outside the building by the East River.

  “I’ve been told within the next ten minutes.”