14
October 25th.
Lawrence Henderson:
I have either participated in shaping a better future or been complacent in an atrocity. Which one will be the story of my life will be up to history (and who’s writing it).
In the immediate aftermath of October 23rd 2020, it at least appears to be the former:
The President, recovering from only minor dart wounds (no one will publicly admit exactly where he was hit), has made his emergency address to a) reassure the public that he is indeed fine, b) recite the usual mantra about the need to remain vigilant and united in the face of global terror, c) express his heartfelt sorrow for the two brave agents that lost their lives in the line of duty protecting him, as well as his deep, personal regrets for the three civilians killed and the dozens more injured in the attack, and d) to express “this nation’s undying gratitude to Major Michael Ram, for his timely and decisive actions that prevented further loss of life and very likely spared this country the heartbreak of another national tragedy” (the tragedy being the possibility of himself being shot in somewhere more vital than his Presidential left buttock).
His approval ratings have hit record highs. I don’t really need to have Datascan calculate his odds of winning re-election next week. (I expect he’d agree that not being able to sit comfortably for awhile is a small price to pay.)
The United Nations General Assembly immediately sequestered for an emergency session to review and vote on the proposed UNACT Charter Agreement—technically only an amendment to the UN Charter, but in effect a re-invention of the entire organization, freshly committed to take a much more aggressive role in shaping world events.
The incident on their own doorstep was convincing enough in itself to push through the vote, but when it was determined that the assassin was both recruited and obtained his weapon through an extensive underground Internet contact system, the need to get Datascan fully online and integrated with the various national intelligence organizations appeared all the more urgent.
Twenty-four hours later, only a dozen nations voted against the measure, and its ratification by majority poetically coincided with the ratification of the original October 24th 1945 Charter.
As for the shooter: his brief, tragic life has been thoroughly dissected in the Media (to the intensified pain of his family).
Anthony Michael Haffner: Age sixteen. Expelled from public high school last month for making internet threats in the form of “creative literary expression” detailing his fantasies for killing everyone in his school. (The FBI was found particularly lax in failing to ensure that he didn’t have any further access to cyberspace, where he apparently proved how easy it is to recruit and supply the “spontaneous terrorist.”)
Beyond the eternal stigma of being labeled an attempted Presidential assassin, and having slaughtered five people (and injured dozens more, four critically) on live television, I expect the worst part for his family will be that they will not be able to avoid the bloody spectacle of his death replayed endlessly in the Media in all its formats for time indefinite. (That gun Ram is so fond of really does make a hell of a mess.)
The investigation into the source of the weapon used and the identity of the recruiting organization ran cold—whoever was involved had more than adequate understanding of the level of stealth needed to operate in cyberspace. A suddenly impassioned Becker (backed up by the McCain spokespeople) was quick to argue that Datascan could have intercepted such a plot “easily,” if only it could be allowed freer access to areas otherwise “protected” because the public’s concerns for invasion of privacy.
The President himself is already pushing a resolution through Congress to relax privacy protections—an addendum to Patriot IV—and is strongly encouraging other nations participating in the new UNACT Accord to take similar steps.
But perhaps more urgently (and kept classified) was the discovery that all ID traces—which should have been built into the very nanostructure of the weapon’s components by the manufacturer—were absent. The resulting investigation has so far indicated the possibility that the manufacturing technology had been pirated from one of the DARPA contractors developing these guns (including our own SENTAR), and that someone may have set up shop to begin mass underground production of undetectable weaponry.
Worldwide, the ebb-and-flow of the Net continues to reflect an overall positive reception to the new hope that UNACT has promised to bring to otherwise dark times. There’s still opposition, but those voices have been somewhat shamed into lowering their tone, since Haffner’s actions (detailed in a rambling blog he dropped from his cell-link just before he started firing) were apparently an extreme and paranoid expression of some of the popular backlash that immediately followed the leak of the Security Council session.
In every participating nation, recruiting has tripled overnight—every boot with a hero’s dream is rushing to sign up for a suit of armor and a slot on a Tactical Team, even though it means forswearing allegiance to country in favor of an oath to the UN.
And as for the hero…
I’ve already seen t-shirts and posters for sale on the Net and on street corners, with pirated high-rez stills of him drawing his big silly gun down on a slavering, blood-spattered child-terrorist. (It’s also apparently a popular wallpaper download for all manner of consumer tech.) The best ones are the pricier FOLED sheets that rerun the actual headshot in slow-motion.
In somewhat more tactful mediums, he’s topped every headline program for thirty-six straight hours now, and they don’t seem to be tiring of him yet. His name pops up on no fewer than three hundred million sites on the most popular search engines. And while he never got to go to his “coming out” party at the White House that afternoon, he’s been given a very public open invitation to “drop by anytime—my door’s always open for you” from the President himself.
I’d expect him to make Lieutenant Colonel over this before the end of the year.
The man himself hasn’t made any appearances since the event—I suppose this will actually increase his longevity in the popular media, feeding the sense of mystery, making him all the more desirable by his very avoidance of the camera. (Though this will change soon enough—we’ve got him booked on every major newsnet and chat show for the next two months—right up until we start active operations, and then I expect he’ll be in even higher demand.)
As soon as the onsite medics patched his face, he promptly got himself a car and left quietly, with his lovely Lieutenant Ava to tend to him. According to their RFID tags, they’ve been shut up in her apartment ever since. Clear violation of conduct, but then, I expect quite a number of very old rules are about to be rewritten.
“Progress assessment?” I ask the glowing blue UNACT ready-graphic that now lives permanently on my desktop.
“WITHIN PARAMETERS.”
I wonder if Becker programmed it for understatement.
Grayman Book One: Acts of War Page 61
