CHAPTER 1: LELAND. Storm’s brewin’
Jack Saffell was looking forward to
catching some perch that afternoon. He had not been out on Lake Leelanau for
nearly 10 years and he had an incredible desire for some fresh perch filets red
skin potatoes and sweet corn. Of course any of the above in late august in northern
Michigan would qualify as a gourmet meal on its own. The difference in gastric
adventures among his particular crowd between summer and mid winter was
profound with summer offering up a plethora of every edible delight imaginable
and winter often reducing one to cream of mushroom soup on toast.
Perch was far and away his favorite fish. Tuna, dolphin, grouper, even sword fish, in fact any saltwater marine species just could not hold a toothpick to fresh perch fillets fried in oil and butter, dusted with drakes. His friend Jimmy in Key West always claimed that raw tuna was god’s gift to the taste buds but then Jimmy was once rumored to have served fried cat fool patties with Margaritas to guests and claimed they were his famous crab cakes.
After 5 years of dealing with the meat headed shit bags in Washington D.C. He was totally ready to spend a little time fishing, eating, drinking and sleeping, the latter of which he had found sorely lacking in the last five years.
Sleep came a bit hard as one learned the intricacies of the so called Potomac colonoscopy. The most important thing a government need do is maintain the appearance of upholding the law, especially when they're breaking it. After a year or so in his job as an environmental lobbyist his naiveté had given way to recognition of reality, which in turn gave way to apathy, which in turn gave way to downright anger, which in turn lead to his being asked to leave in a manner of speaking. Being a hero just because it is the right thing to do was not really his gig so he was willing to take his leave of the city well before the shit storm blew in from the Atlantic.
And so, here he was, back in northern Michigan. The year was 2032 and Jack was just 32 years old. In fact he was born on January first of 2000 at 12:00. 01.01 AM. Of the 4,100,000 people born in the US in 2000, 7.8 were born in the first minute of the new millennium. Considering that 1.3 of those were born in the first ten seconds, it would appear that Jack was the first child born in the United States in the third millennium AD. There's really no way of knowing but people had always assumed Jack was actually the first child born to the new millennium in the entire universe. Of course that was before we had realized we were not alone in the universe. Best anyone had ever calculated the "eggheads", as they were derogatorily known, numbered over 2300 trillion on at least 16 different planets. Compared to our mere 7 billion at the turn of the century, it was fair to guess that quite a few eggheads came into existence before Jack had in those first few seconds of the new millennium, but of course, at the time we were clueless of their existence. Since 2016 when earth had first experienced a visit from the eggheads, our technology development had taken an exponential leap forward. By this point most every new baby was enhanced. Several chips in the old Frontal lobe and a manipulation of the first thirty or so embryonic stem cells in the blastocist to reverse the human aging process could do wonders. A few injections of preprogrammed nanobots to fight infection, transform malignant and mutant cells into productive ones, and totally enhance muscle growth could do the rest.
He found it amazing that in his sweet short life humans had gone from mostly sick, rather weak, intellectually challenged creatures with a life span of about eighty years to quite the opposite with a lifespan that although yet untested, may prove to be two, maybe three hundred years.
While Jack was a "natural" as unenhanced humans were called he was born with certain “special powers". His intellect was equal to that of the enhanced with an approximately 200 million calculations per millisecond speed and a memory of over 400 thousand gigabytes. This although was not his real gift. His real gift was a spot-on telepathic ability to know exactly what people were thinking and were going to do. It was not that he could read their minds per say, but he could just sense their intentions and reactions. Also his physical condition was superior and physical activity kept him in excellent shape.
Perch was far and away his favorite fish. Tuna, dolphin, grouper, even sword fish, in fact any saltwater marine species just could not hold a toothpick to fresh perch fillets fried in oil and butter, dusted with drakes. His friend Jimmy in Key West always claimed that raw tuna was god’s gift to the taste buds but then Jimmy was once rumored to have served fried cat fool patties with Margaritas to guests and claimed they were his famous crab cakes.
After 5 years of dealing with the meat headed shit bags in Washington D.C. He was totally ready to spend a little time fishing, eating, drinking and sleeping, the latter of which he had found sorely lacking in the last five years.
Sleep came a bit hard as one learned the intricacies of the so called Potomac colonoscopy. The most important thing a government need do is maintain the appearance of upholding the law, especially when they're breaking it. After a year or so in his job as an environmental lobbyist his naiveté had given way to recognition of reality, which in turn gave way to apathy, which in turn gave way to downright anger, which in turn lead to his being asked to leave in a manner of speaking. Being a hero just because it is the right thing to do was not really his gig so he was willing to take his leave of the city well before the shit storm blew in from the Atlantic.
And so, here he was, back in northern Michigan. The year was 2032 and Jack was just 32 years old. In fact he was born on January first of 2000 at 12:00. 01.01 AM. Of the 4,100,000 people born in the US in 2000, 7.8 were born in the first minute of the new millennium. Considering that 1.3 of those were born in the first ten seconds, it would appear that Jack was the first child born in the United States in the third millennium AD. There's really no way of knowing but people had always assumed Jack was actually the first child born to the new millennium in the entire universe. Of course that was before we had realized we were not alone in the universe. Best anyone had ever calculated the "eggheads", as they were derogatorily known, numbered over 2300 trillion on at least 16 different planets. Compared to our mere 7 billion at the turn of the century, it was fair to guess that quite a few eggheads came into existence before Jack had in those first few seconds of the new millennium, but of course, at the time we were clueless of their existence. Since 2016 when earth had first experienced a visit from the eggheads, our technology development had taken an exponential leap forward. By this point most every new baby was enhanced. Several chips in the old Frontal lobe and a manipulation of the first thirty or so embryonic stem cells in the blastocist to reverse the human aging process could do wonders. A few injections of preprogrammed nanobots to fight infection, transform malignant and mutant cells into productive ones, and totally enhance muscle growth could do the rest.
He found it amazing that in his sweet short life humans had gone from mostly sick, rather weak, intellectually challenged creatures with a life span of about eighty years to quite the opposite with a lifespan that although yet untested, may prove to be two, maybe three hundred years.
While Jack was a "natural" as unenhanced humans were called he was born with certain “special powers". His intellect was equal to that of the enhanced with an approximately 200 million calculations per millisecond speed and a memory of over 400 thousand gigabytes. This although was not his real gift. His real gift was a spot-on telepathic ability to know exactly what people were thinking and were going to do. It was not that he could read their minds per say, but he could just sense their intentions and reactions. Also his physical condition was superior and physical activity kept him in excellent shape.
Jack's talents proved quite useful during his somewhat idealistic youth, but now things had changed and he was just looking forward to some peaceful fishing and a bit of his second love which was drinking. Of course a butt load of "safe" alternative drugs had made their way through the proverbial FDA pipeline, but Jack had rather preferred the good old booze.
Jack reached for his Zebco in the
shed of the old family cottage on Lake Leelanau. He had had this rod and reel
since his sixth birthday and it remained his favorite rig for Perch fishing.
Next, his tackle box, also an oldie passed on from his father and grandfather.
Then, he strolled down to the dock and into his 1929 Old town dingy with the
three HP Johnson Seahorse outboard. The 1959 Johnson was just for show. It was
still perfectly operable however the gasoline needed to operate it was
unobtainable. Jack had mounted a small electric which although rather low-tech
at the time still managed to run on a three inch by 6 inch battery which
remained charged simply by the molecular movement within the water. He only had
to motor a few hundred yards to "the snags", two cedar trees in 16
feet of water which had been there since the first damn was built in 1869.
Amazing how a Cedar tree won't rot after one hundred and sixty three years
underwater. The tops were about 4 feet under the surface and were hard to pick
out if you didn't know exactly where to look, however he could probably have
made it there asleep. He had actually pondered if the old dingy could just
gravitate to this spot, what with the several thousand times it had been there,
and the cells in wood having a sort of memory and the molecules in white cedar
having a certain attraction to one another.
With his three hook rig and minnows for bait it was only a matter of minutes till he had a bucket of twelve to fourteen inch Perch. The Perch population was one of the few species that the department of natural resources had not totally messed with, and it is entirely possible that that was the reason for their success as a species. Recent human history had proven that basically every bright idea some bureaucrat biologist came up with, and convinced the government to act on, had a dozen or more unintended consequences, mostly bad. Of course, trying to mitigate the negative consequences just produced more of them, and on down the vicious cycle of human natural intervention and blundering we go.
It was clear to him after his years of frustration in D.C. That the eggheads had it right when they planted the seeds of life on earth six hundred million years ago, as they had done on thousands of planets through the universe, and just left it alone. Let evolution do its thing, and let the higher evolved spices learn from their mistakes. Perch had made their niche in the evolutionary food chain being relatively little guys, and were doing just find in spite of man's help and now he intended to consume as many as he could eat along with the aforementioned redskins and sweet corn. He had pulled out a bottle of forty fifth parallel wine he had stashed under the cottage ten years ago. The wine industry had been one of the agricultural and environmental success stories in his home county of Leelanau. The soil and climate becoming better and better as a result of climate change which in northern Michigan was becoming generally warmer with the appropriate precipitation. The French pretty much shot their own foot off when they started the genetic modification of certain grape species to combat the climate chance in their neighborhood. The result of this exercise being a disaster and pretty much eliminating the wine industry in France in a matter of a few years. Similar results were experienced in Brazil, Chili, Italy, and California to one degree or another and these days only the Aussies and Michiganders could grow a decent grape and make a decent wine. As always, Kentucky and Tennessee remained on top with respect to making "brown wine" which was his default favorite.
Climate change had become a non-issue what with the energy technology that the eggheads had bestowed on our civilization in the nick of time. In fact, that, along with the renewed interest by humans in nuclear weapons and their increasing willingness to deploy them was the main reason for the visit, and ultimate intervention by the eggheads. He could barely blame them for wanting to preserve what had taken six hundred million years to evolve. It seemed like long time to him however the eggheads had a totally different concept of time having been around for trillions of years and having life spans that nobody really understood but were a least ten thousand years. The only way we understood this is that the same guys that came around to visit in ancient Egypt and Mesoamerica were here again. Even though we were now utilizing Co2 free technology, it was still going to take quite a few decades for our atmosphere to straighten out and we were stuck with the present weather patterns for quite some time to come.
He heard a car coming down the long drive back to the cottage and figured it must be Annie G. Her real name was Annie Jean Gallagher but he had always called her Annie G. They had grown up together and had spent a lot of time together till he took the job in D.C. and she took an internship with Robert Ballard through the Institute for Archaeological Oceanography. This was kind of a dream come true gig for a budding, young, highly intelligent, highly motivated marine biologist. It had been five years since they had seen each other and he was excited as hell. They had stayed in touch, emailed, skyped or talked on the phone every couple weeks, but for a time they had been soul mates, and he harbored a pretty deep seeded desire to rekindle the ol' flame as it were.
She still drove the battery powered 2020 Subaru she had bought used eight years ago when the both finished Grad school at U of M. The car had definitely seen some better days, but Annie looked outstanding. “Holy shit…. Does she look good” Jack thought to himself. The Kayak, mountain bike, and kite board on top of the Subi were more than a subtle hint as to her lifestyle and her body was all the proof one needed to see that see stayed in great shape. She had always had a beautiful face with a sort of impish smile that turned up a bit more on the right side than the left and gave her a look of mischief, at least in his mind.
Dark hair pulled back, dark eyes, and a medium to dark complexion. Of course she had spent most of her life outside and the sun had given her a permanent-tan. Most people these days tended to avoid sun exposure at all cost since medical technology hadn't quite figured out how to make our skin last as long as the rest of our human bodies were expected to last. Turns out that reverse engineering the human brain was not the last hurdle in our quest for immortality; keeping the skin from getting thin, brittle, withered and deteriorated was. Jack and Annie both figured, "what the hell" the sun just felt to damn good on the skin to deprive one of this simple pleasure. They both knew that our biological evolution had been combined with and overtaken by our technological evolution back when man first used fire and that at this rate the need for an actual biological body would be obsolete before their skin gave out (or so they hoped). The eggheads had evolved past the need for any physical constraint such as a biological body billions of years ago. Of course they could, and did, present themselves as physical beings. They could also enjoy any physical stimulus or pleasure; however their concept of such things as pleasure was way beyond our comprehension. On the brief encounters with humans they preferred to present themselves as a mostly human form in something of a hologram and utilizing the same sound wave/ language communication system we humans use. Even though a tremendous amount of knowledge, information, and technological advancement had been experienced at an incredible and exponential rate due to the eggheads, and people were due to live two or three times longer as a result, they still hadn't taught us how to exist without our biological bodies yet. Jack assumed they probably intended to save that one till we got a bit more advanced....... like maybe a few hundred million more years.
He had just poured wine, brought the water to a boil and had the perch dusted with Drakes seasoning and ready to toss in the pan. He met her at the back screen door with glass in hand. "Whaooo baby..... Do you look great" were his first words. "You’re not looking too bad yourself Jackie boy". "By the way, I have been living on a boat for the past twenty two months and have not gotten laid in as long, so if you haven't put that fish on yet.....DONT".
The perch turned out to delicious as he had expected and the last sweet corn cob was tossed into the fire around midnight. "Wow, I really didn't expect that" Jack said, with his best convincing lobbyist voice. "Yea, maybe not, but I could sure as hell tell that's just exactly what you were hoping for. Maybe not till after the fish, which were incredible by the way, but still just what you were hoping for". "You know, even though I'm the one with the supposed telepathic connection, you always seem to know just what the hell I'm thinking. I'm telling you, I could get hit by a beer truck this minute and die a happy man. Ten hours of sleep and I'll consider it the perfect day". Ten minutes later, they were both asleep like spoons on the sleeping porch and didn't move for ten hours.
The term frustration could barley describe his overall experience in our nation’s Capitol. So much shit was changing so fast and basic laws of physics were no longer laws and if there is one thing that Washington has natural resistance to...its change. So, at 12:00.01.01 AM, January 1, 2016 when the eggheads first made their presents known, everything changed....everything changed a lot! Exactly one year later every drop of oil in the world, every lump of coal, and every cubic centimeter of natural gas was rendered useless in a matter of seconds. In their first overt intervention in nearly ten thousand years, the eggheads apparently figured we were worthy of a little figurative kick in the ass so along with giving humanity a few tips like cold fusion, and the ability to convert a two second UV ray exposure into two hundred thousand megawatts of electric power, they also changed the molecular structure of every combustible fossil fuel by a couple particles we didn't even know existed and made it all about as worthless a fart in an outhouse. Nice trade, however the dip sticks in D.C. that owed their souls to the major energy interests were quite literally pooping in their pants. This overall atmosphere was a total heyday for the environmental interests, but all the positive results and requisite drastic change for the better, still didn't make working in that environment any easier. What you had was a bunch of scared shitless, unscrupulous politicians because they realized that the intellectually enhanced youth were going to outsmart them all out of their phony baloney jobs in a few short years and being suddenly shown up by aliens made them look like a bunch of monkeys fucking a football. With ten years into it, things were still a total clusterfuck, not to mention the evangelical shit bomb. Every organized religion in the world was freaking out because their God actually turned out to be a highly evolved species that had planted seeds of life around the universe six hundred million years ago. One no longer needed the middle man. The guys in Rome with the funny hats that had held the monopoly on communication with "the big guy" for three thousand years had just lost their corner on the market. Same thing with the Muslims, the Protestants, the Lutherans, the Jews, the Hindus, and all the various cults that professed to have the exclusive pipeline to the higher power in the universe and extracted money from it's followers to gain access to that pipeline. When the eggheads showed up and saved our proverbial asses, they pretty much explained how things went down over the last six hundred million years, and rendered the practice of organized religion rather obsolete not to mention, stupid.
The only real active roll the eggheads took in the natural evolution of earth was when they had to take out the dinosaurs. Mammals were always intended to evolve to a higher status, but before they could take hold and develop a larger brain and finally the neocortex which was the exclusive development of the Homo sapiens spices a few molecules of DNA sort of went haywire and the next thing you know dinosaurs are taking over everything. A well directed asteroid gave us a sort of reboot and the mammals’ ultimately took their place in the evolutionary line and the rest as they say is history.
They woke up refreshed and after a little morning delight and a pot of dark French roast hit the road for a little cruse around the county. Jack just wanted to take a drive on some back roads and let his mind wander. The last few months in D.C. had put his brain into such knots that he felt the only way to untie it was to relax and let it untie itself. He wondered if the kids that had enhancement procedures could get an algorithm that taught itself how to relax the same way a couple shots of tequila could relax him. He was glad to be out of the tornado that was brewing. He had been sucked up into this shit before and it was only by his unique power to see what was coming that he got out. In less than three months was the presidential election. President Kelly was expected to earn reelection but the house and senate were anyone's guess and a lot of incumbents were looking at the unemployment line. Twelve year old kids had a better grasp of global economic conditions, not to mention physics, science, and mathematics which had progressed rapidly since1/1/16.
With his three hook rig and minnows for bait it was only a matter of minutes till he had a bucket of twelve to fourteen inch Perch. The Perch population was one of the few species that the department of natural resources had not totally messed with, and it is entirely possible that that was the reason for their success as a species. Recent human history had proven that basically every bright idea some bureaucrat biologist came up with, and convinced the government to act on, had a dozen or more unintended consequences, mostly bad. Of course, trying to mitigate the negative consequences just produced more of them, and on down the vicious cycle of human natural intervention and blundering we go.
It was clear to him after his years of frustration in D.C. That the eggheads had it right when they planted the seeds of life on earth six hundred million years ago, as they had done on thousands of planets through the universe, and just left it alone. Let evolution do its thing, and let the higher evolved spices learn from their mistakes. Perch had made their niche in the evolutionary food chain being relatively little guys, and were doing just find in spite of man's help and now he intended to consume as many as he could eat along with the aforementioned redskins and sweet corn. He had pulled out a bottle of forty fifth parallel wine he had stashed under the cottage ten years ago. The wine industry had been one of the agricultural and environmental success stories in his home county of Leelanau. The soil and climate becoming better and better as a result of climate change which in northern Michigan was becoming generally warmer with the appropriate precipitation. The French pretty much shot their own foot off when they started the genetic modification of certain grape species to combat the climate chance in their neighborhood. The result of this exercise being a disaster and pretty much eliminating the wine industry in France in a matter of a few years. Similar results were experienced in Brazil, Chili, Italy, and California to one degree or another and these days only the Aussies and Michiganders could grow a decent grape and make a decent wine. As always, Kentucky and Tennessee remained on top with respect to making "brown wine" which was his default favorite.
Climate change had become a non-issue what with the energy technology that the eggheads had bestowed on our civilization in the nick of time. In fact, that, along with the renewed interest by humans in nuclear weapons and their increasing willingness to deploy them was the main reason for the visit, and ultimate intervention by the eggheads. He could barely blame them for wanting to preserve what had taken six hundred million years to evolve. It seemed like long time to him however the eggheads had a totally different concept of time having been around for trillions of years and having life spans that nobody really understood but were a least ten thousand years. The only way we understood this is that the same guys that came around to visit in ancient Egypt and Mesoamerica were here again. Even though we were now utilizing Co2 free technology, it was still going to take quite a few decades for our atmosphere to straighten out and we were stuck with the present weather patterns for quite some time to come.
He heard a car coming down the long drive back to the cottage and figured it must be Annie G. Her real name was Annie Jean Gallagher but he had always called her Annie G. They had grown up together and had spent a lot of time together till he took the job in D.C. and she took an internship with Robert Ballard through the Institute for Archaeological Oceanography. This was kind of a dream come true gig for a budding, young, highly intelligent, highly motivated marine biologist. It had been five years since they had seen each other and he was excited as hell. They had stayed in touch, emailed, skyped or talked on the phone every couple weeks, but for a time they had been soul mates, and he harbored a pretty deep seeded desire to rekindle the ol' flame as it were.
She still drove the battery powered 2020 Subaru she had bought used eight years ago when the both finished Grad school at U of M. The car had definitely seen some better days, but Annie looked outstanding. “Holy shit…. Does she look good” Jack thought to himself. The Kayak, mountain bike, and kite board on top of the Subi were more than a subtle hint as to her lifestyle and her body was all the proof one needed to see that see stayed in great shape. She had always had a beautiful face with a sort of impish smile that turned up a bit more on the right side than the left and gave her a look of mischief, at least in his mind.
Dark hair pulled back, dark eyes, and a medium to dark complexion. Of course she had spent most of her life outside and the sun had given her a permanent-tan. Most people these days tended to avoid sun exposure at all cost since medical technology hadn't quite figured out how to make our skin last as long as the rest of our human bodies were expected to last. Turns out that reverse engineering the human brain was not the last hurdle in our quest for immortality; keeping the skin from getting thin, brittle, withered and deteriorated was. Jack and Annie both figured, "what the hell" the sun just felt to damn good on the skin to deprive one of this simple pleasure. They both knew that our biological evolution had been combined with and overtaken by our technological evolution back when man first used fire and that at this rate the need for an actual biological body would be obsolete before their skin gave out (or so they hoped). The eggheads had evolved past the need for any physical constraint such as a biological body billions of years ago. Of course they could, and did, present themselves as physical beings. They could also enjoy any physical stimulus or pleasure; however their concept of such things as pleasure was way beyond our comprehension. On the brief encounters with humans they preferred to present themselves as a mostly human form in something of a hologram and utilizing the same sound wave/ language communication system we humans use. Even though a tremendous amount of knowledge, information, and technological advancement had been experienced at an incredible and exponential rate due to the eggheads, and people were due to live two or three times longer as a result, they still hadn't taught us how to exist without our biological bodies yet. Jack assumed they probably intended to save that one till we got a bit more advanced....... like maybe a few hundred million more years.
He had just poured wine, brought the water to a boil and had the perch dusted with Drakes seasoning and ready to toss in the pan. He met her at the back screen door with glass in hand. "Whaooo baby..... Do you look great" were his first words. "You’re not looking too bad yourself Jackie boy". "By the way, I have been living on a boat for the past twenty two months and have not gotten laid in as long, so if you haven't put that fish on yet.....DONT".
The perch turned out to delicious as he had expected and the last sweet corn cob was tossed into the fire around midnight. "Wow, I really didn't expect that" Jack said, with his best convincing lobbyist voice. "Yea, maybe not, but I could sure as hell tell that's just exactly what you were hoping for. Maybe not till after the fish, which were incredible by the way, but still just what you were hoping for". "You know, even though I'm the one with the supposed telepathic connection, you always seem to know just what the hell I'm thinking. I'm telling you, I could get hit by a beer truck this minute and die a happy man. Ten hours of sleep and I'll consider it the perfect day". Ten minutes later, they were both asleep like spoons on the sleeping porch and didn't move for ten hours.
The term frustration could barley describe his overall experience in our nation’s Capitol. So much shit was changing so fast and basic laws of physics were no longer laws and if there is one thing that Washington has natural resistance to...its change. So, at 12:00.01.01 AM, January 1, 2016 when the eggheads first made their presents known, everything changed....everything changed a lot! Exactly one year later every drop of oil in the world, every lump of coal, and every cubic centimeter of natural gas was rendered useless in a matter of seconds. In their first overt intervention in nearly ten thousand years, the eggheads apparently figured we were worthy of a little figurative kick in the ass so along with giving humanity a few tips like cold fusion, and the ability to convert a two second UV ray exposure into two hundred thousand megawatts of electric power, they also changed the molecular structure of every combustible fossil fuel by a couple particles we didn't even know existed and made it all about as worthless a fart in an outhouse. Nice trade, however the dip sticks in D.C. that owed their souls to the major energy interests were quite literally pooping in their pants. This overall atmosphere was a total heyday for the environmental interests, but all the positive results and requisite drastic change for the better, still didn't make working in that environment any easier. What you had was a bunch of scared shitless, unscrupulous politicians because they realized that the intellectually enhanced youth were going to outsmart them all out of their phony baloney jobs in a few short years and being suddenly shown up by aliens made them look like a bunch of monkeys fucking a football. With ten years into it, things were still a total clusterfuck, not to mention the evangelical shit bomb. Every organized religion in the world was freaking out because their God actually turned out to be a highly evolved species that had planted seeds of life around the universe six hundred million years ago. One no longer needed the middle man. The guys in Rome with the funny hats that had held the monopoly on communication with "the big guy" for three thousand years had just lost their corner on the market. Same thing with the Muslims, the Protestants, the Lutherans, the Jews, the Hindus, and all the various cults that professed to have the exclusive pipeline to the higher power in the universe and extracted money from it's followers to gain access to that pipeline. When the eggheads showed up and saved our proverbial asses, they pretty much explained how things went down over the last six hundred million years, and rendered the practice of organized religion rather obsolete not to mention, stupid.
The only real active roll the eggheads took in the natural evolution of earth was when they had to take out the dinosaurs. Mammals were always intended to evolve to a higher status, but before they could take hold and develop a larger brain and finally the neocortex which was the exclusive development of the Homo sapiens spices a few molecules of DNA sort of went haywire and the next thing you know dinosaurs are taking over everything. A well directed asteroid gave us a sort of reboot and the mammals’ ultimately took their place in the evolutionary line and the rest as they say is history.
They woke up refreshed and after a little morning delight and a pot of dark French roast hit the road for a little cruse around the county. Jack just wanted to take a drive on some back roads and let his mind wander. The last few months in D.C. had put his brain into such knots that he felt the only way to untie it was to relax and let it untie itself. He wondered if the kids that had enhancement procedures could get an algorithm that taught itself how to relax the same way a couple shots of tequila could relax him. He was glad to be out of the tornado that was brewing. He had been sucked up into this shit before and it was only by his unique power to see what was coming that he got out. In less than three months was the presidential election. President Kelly was expected to earn reelection but the house and senate were anyone's guess and a lot of incumbents were looking at the unemployment line. Twelve year old kids had a better grasp of global economic conditions, not to mention physics, science, and mathematics which had progressed rapidly since1/1/16.
Even though by almost every measure
life was better for every human on earth since 2016, the world still had no
shortage of luddites who would deny technology beneficial to humanity in favor
of their own personal interests or bizarre personal beliefs. The same zealots
and extremists who were never satisfied with simply maintaining religious
freedom for themselves, but insisted that the rest of humanity agree with their
way of thinking were still alive and kicking even though an overwhelming
preponderance of evidence to the contrary had been dumped in their laps. The
apparent separation of church and state that the United States had grappled
with for all its two hundred and fifty six years had been put to the test in
the extreme back in 2016. A mere ten months after our first contact with the
eggheads and after the historic second term of America's first African American
President Barak Obama the Unites States did an abrupt one hundred and eighty
degree turn and elected the most religious, social conservative , evangelical
administration in history. President Santorum and Vice President Bachman had
spent the better part of their term denying the very existence of the eggheads
and attempting to stifle every shred of benevolent technology they were willing
to grant us. This finally became the overwhelming reason for the egghead’s
manipulation of the molecular structure of all carbon dioxide emitting,
combustible carbon based fossil fuels, thus rendering them all non combustible.
It was clear to Jack that the eggheads were far to advanced to bother arguing
the benefits of technology which was several million years outdated to them but
was advanced enough to put humanity a hundred years ahead and basically save
our planet. Santorum and his administration were idiotic enough to present an
argument so the eggheads simply eliminated any other options. Jack also
realized that the eggheads had no interest whatsoever in micromanaging the
planet earth and had probably just made their existence known in order to keep
humanity from destroying its own home. Jack figured folks should be a bit
grateful for still having a planet and getting a huge boost in health,
lifespan, quality of life and happiness as a nice byproduct, but his life as an
environmentalist and lobbyist had lead him to regard mankind as basically akin
to the Coco bird and willing to shit in its own nest.
The next twelve years had produced a
bit more cooperation and positive movement in the direction of new technology
which was producing a better environment and healthy, longer, and generally
happier lives for most of humanity. The positive results of reworking the
world’s infrastructure on the global economy had most developed economies
embracing change. Another little trick the eggheads taught us was instantaneous
water desalination at no cost and producing clean energy as a byproduct, thus
providing almost instant agricultural turnaround for many developing and under
developed countries. President Dr. Sarah Jane Kelly had been progressive with
regard to taking full advantage of all the technology gleaned from the
eggheads, and implemented a full court press on all levels of research which
was producing almost daily innovation. Unfortunately, the United States
government, as well as many others, still harbored those who would attempt to
reverse much of this advancement. Dr. Kelly was a hands down favored candidate
for reelection, but she was not without enemies.
After a drive "around the horn" as a drive around the north point of Leelanau County was called, Jack and Annie stopped at a bar in the town of Omena called “Knot just a Bar". He ordered a Dos Eques and a shot of Patron tequila with a lime and a walleye sandwich. She ordered a glass of Pinot Grie from a local vineyard and an order of fried cauliflower. They had spent the better part of the morning just reminiscing old times and catching up on each other’s adventures over the last six years. Annie knew Jack well enough to sense his tension and could not help but notice what many would refer to as burn out. "So, what do you think the bone heads are going to come up with this time" she asked him referring to the upcoming election. "You know, it's getting harder and harder to figure that shit out......even for me". "The best I can figure, the trad's are going to lose some seats, and that will probably be a positive, but the signals are getting pretty muddy, so really, I just can't tell". The "Trad's" or Traditionalists as the social conservative / tea party segment of the former Republican Party had come to be known were still in resistance to full implementation of new technology and were still in support of research trying to reverse the molecular manipulation of fossil fuels so we could use up remaining reserves. Tremendous amounts of money were at stake since we still had huge reserves of oil, coal, and natural gas and a whole bunch of machinery and technology that could still run on the stuff which was otherwise useless.
As they sat on the deck overlooking Omena Bay they could see half a dozen boats moored just off the public beach. "You know, I haven't been sailing in over five years" Jack said "we should call Geno and see if we can take the Leading Lady out tomorrow". Geno was an old friend of Jacks who owned an old C&C 39 sailboat. She had been Geno's dads’ boat and Jack and Geno had grown up sailing her all over the Great Lakes. She was a thirty nine footer built in 1972 right about the time all boat manufactures were making the switch from wood construction to fiberglass. At the time they really didn't know how much fiberglass to use in the hull construction, what with it being a rather new technology so they just used a lot. The result in this case being a really stout boat that could take a beating, sail fast, and last a long time. She had come with a Universal Atomic Four, 30 horse power, gas engine, but in 2017 Geno replaced it with an electric power plant that utilized deep cycle hydrogen technology and was constantly charged with a solar panel the size of a postage stamp. It had cost him a couple grand at the time but he could now cruse anywhere in the world without having to fill up the tank. Nowadays you could get a much more efficient setup for next to nothing. Egghead energy technology was so efficient it had effectively taken all the profit out of the energy industry. Jack saw this as a good thing, however quite a few douche bag energy industry executives probably thought differently.
After a drive "around the horn" as a drive around the north point of Leelanau County was called, Jack and Annie stopped at a bar in the town of Omena called “Knot just a Bar". He ordered a Dos Eques and a shot of Patron tequila with a lime and a walleye sandwich. She ordered a glass of Pinot Grie from a local vineyard and an order of fried cauliflower. They had spent the better part of the morning just reminiscing old times and catching up on each other’s adventures over the last six years. Annie knew Jack well enough to sense his tension and could not help but notice what many would refer to as burn out. "So, what do you think the bone heads are going to come up with this time" she asked him referring to the upcoming election. "You know, it's getting harder and harder to figure that shit out......even for me". "The best I can figure, the trad's are going to lose some seats, and that will probably be a positive, but the signals are getting pretty muddy, so really, I just can't tell". The "Trad's" or Traditionalists as the social conservative / tea party segment of the former Republican Party had come to be known were still in resistance to full implementation of new technology and were still in support of research trying to reverse the molecular manipulation of fossil fuels so we could use up remaining reserves. Tremendous amounts of money were at stake since we still had huge reserves of oil, coal, and natural gas and a whole bunch of machinery and technology that could still run on the stuff which was otherwise useless.
As they sat on the deck overlooking Omena Bay they could see half a dozen boats moored just off the public beach. "You know, I haven't been sailing in over five years" Jack said "we should call Geno and see if we can take the Leading Lady out tomorrow". Geno was an old friend of Jacks who owned an old C&C 39 sailboat. She had been Geno's dads’ boat and Jack and Geno had grown up sailing her all over the Great Lakes. She was a thirty nine footer built in 1972 right about the time all boat manufactures were making the switch from wood construction to fiberglass. At the time they really didn't know how much fiberglass to use in the hull construction, what with it being a rather new technology so they just used a lot. The result in this case being a really stout boat that could take a beating, sail fast, and last a long time. She had come with a Universal Atomic Four, 30 horse power, gas engine, but in 2017 Geno replaced it with an electric power plant that utilized deep cycle hydrogen technology and was constantly charged with a solar panel the size of a postage stamp. It had cost him a couple grand at the time but he could now cruse anywhere in the world without having to fill up the tank. Nowadays you could get a much more efficient setup for next to nothing. Egghead energy technology was so efficient it had effectively taken all the profit out of the energy industry. Jack saw this as a good thing, however quite a few douche bag energy industry executives probably thought differently.
“Well call him” Annie said “looks
like the breeze is filling in a bit from the North West, and I haven’t seen
Geno in years”. “I bet he’s out on the big lake on a day like today anyway”.
Jack touched his right temple and said “dial Geno” a second later Geno picked
up “what the fuck man where the hell are you”. “Annie and I are just sitting
here in the Omena bar sippin a cold one”. “You are fucking kidding me! You’re
here”? “Yea, just got in yesterday. Already went out to the cottage, caught
some perchies, had a dozen for din with redskins and some of sonny’s sweet corn
from the old veggie stand and Annie came over to join me. And dude…guess what”.
“I Don’t know….what”.. “She just logged an eleven week gig on a NASA research
vessel and was horny as hell”. “Oh, you fucking dog…..you didn’t”..”Sure did
pal. All night bone-a-thon. Finally had to eat the perch around midnight”. “Oh,
you are a total dog…so, how’s she looking”? “Beautiful as ever my man”. “So, I
am here, working my ass off, and you call to tell me that you are back in the
county for the first time in 6 years, got laid all night long, and now you guys
are sitting in the Omena Bar getting fucked up…..is that about it”? “Yea,
that’s about it. Oh, and yea, we want to go sailing”….” Fuck off loser”…”Come
on man; we really want to see your ugly mug”. “Ok, I’ll get done here around
three and meet you guys at the boat. Tell Annie she’s lowering her standards by
sleeping with a bum like you”. “Awesome man, see you there”.
Jack took a swig and said “He’s
gonna meet us at three. Oh..And he said you must have raised your standards.
Not sure what he’s talking about”. “I’m sure you don’t you butt head” she
replied. “No idea sweetheart” he said as he downed the Patron and took a bite
of lime. After lunch and a few more rounds they headed south through
Peshawbestown to Suttons Bay. Peshawbestown was the home of the Grant Traverse
band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. It was an official reservation albeit a
pretty small one. Nevertheless, it dated back to sometime between 1860 when the
first white guys established communities in North Port and Omena and 1880 when
most all the Civil War angst had cleared (in the north anyway) and the
wholesale screwing of the native Americans resumed in earnest. Geno’s dad, who
was affectionately known as “The Geeze” had said that Peshawbestown use to be a
total dump and all the Native Americans were in total poverty. They use to go
buy smoked chub, whitefish and trout fillets from the Indians because back in
the 1970s the Federal Government outlawed the use of large mesh gill nets in commercial
fishing. This action seriously reduced the catch, which was probably the idea,
but the Indians got pissed cause they claimed fishing rights had been bestowed
them in Treaty of Washington, signed in 1836. The whole deal went to the
Michigan Supreme Court and the Native Americans won their fishing rights back
in 1979. Since they were the only guys who could use gill nets they were raking
in the fish and selling it way cheaper than the other commercial fishing
operations run by whites in Leland, Frankfort and Charlevoix. The non Indian
fishermen were always pretty pissed about the whole thing, but Geeze had told
them that the Peshawbestown population had been so screwed for so long they
deserved a break. By the time Jack was born, the native America fortune had
changed dramatically. In the 1980, they figured out that the reservation status
qualified as a sovereign entity and as such was not subject to state gambling
laws so they built a bingo palace. Then they built a casino. Of course this got
tested in the courts as well but ultimately the Native Americans won and Indian
gambling was off and running. Next was a really, really big casino, which was
still in operation and had the usual hundred or so cars in the parking lot at
one in the afternoon as Jack and Annie drove by. “You want to stop in and see
if Susan’s working today” Jack asked. “To fucking depressing for me” was the
reply. He had to admit; it was a pretty fucking depressing sight watching the
diehard gamblers at the tables drinking and playing black jack at one in the
afternoon on a beautiful summer day. “I just want to run in and see if she
there” he said as he pulled in. Susan was an old friend of his dads who had got
him involved in politics. She had always been involved in some issue or serving
in some local political position. She was an environmentalist and a total
activist in that regard. It was pretty clear that Jack was interested in
environmental studies early on and Susan had recognized his extraordinary
abilities just as early. As is the case for anyone with a passionate cause,
Susan was acutely aware of the need for secession planning and she saw Jack as
the “chosen one” perfectly suited to carry the torch. It had not quite dawned
on him that she might be a bit disappointed to hear that he had bailed from
D.C. His eyes took a while to adjust from the bright afternoon sun to the super
dark interior of the black jack room and he bumped into table number one on his
way around the corner. “Breaking in a new set of feet” he recognized Susan’s
voice. “Shit, I can’t see a fucking thing” he said. “lovely to see you too
Sweetie” she said. “Come here and give me a hug my sweet boy…what the hell are
you doing here”? “I figured I better come back from D.C. and check to see if
you’re still alive you old hose bag”. “I love you too sweetie”. His eyes had
started to adjust so that at least he could see and outline. He gave Susan a
big bear hug. She had been a black jack dealer at the casino for as long as he
had been alive, but now she was the pit boss. “So, what’s up with all the
Washington dick heads” she asked. “They ever gonna get their heads out of their
asses and realize that the Global Energy Cooperation Act (GECA) is a fucking
no-brainer”? “Usual shit, the pres is pushing hard. I had two dozen meeting in
three days before I left just to get the guys in Ways and Means from killing
the fucker”. “Oh Jackie boy, you are still my hero. Can’t you use your voodoo
shit on then and determine how it’s gonna go”? “Yea, that’s the problem, I DID,
and what I got scared the shit out of me. I got a vibe from the chair of the
People for Proper and Peaceful Energy Production (PPPEP) and I didn’t like what
I felt. This numb nut actually claims to have a formula to reverse the fossil
fuel non combustion conversion and might have the support in the house to start
production. What an unbelievable shortsighted ignoramus”. “That’s what I love
about you Jack…no need to sugarcoat…so, what are you going to do”? “Well I’m
sure as fuck not going to hang around here in the dark and play black jack,
Annie’s in the car”. “What the hell you still doing here talking to a bag like
me. Get you ass back out with that young lady. How is she anyway”. “Looking
good as ever” Jack said with a somewhat evil grin. “Are you too back together”?
“Since last night” Jack smiled. “Better treat her right this time Jackie boy”.
“Yea, Yea, I hear ya….Hey I gotta run, I just wanted see if you were here and
say hi. I hope I'll be around for a while, kinda feel like I got to chill for a
while. Let’s get together this week and I’ll fill you in on the whole bizarre
story. It’s totally fucking unbelievable.” You got it Jackie Boy. Thanks for
stopping by, good to see you”.
“How’s she doing” Annie asked as
Jack got in the Subi. “She looks pretty good for and eighty year old”. Susan
had once had MS which had been cured ten years ago through embryonic stem cell
research, but had done some nerve damage that was probably going to take a few
more years of research to figure out. Even when research had a breakthrough it
usually took a while for the biotech industry to bring things to scale not to
mention the FDA process which in the Santorum era proved to be the worst
impediment to progress and caused the death and suffering of millions that
might have otherwise been cured. This was the kind of shit that drove Jack nuts
and it was the same kind of shit that he feared was happening again. Since
President Dr. Sarah Jane Kelly had won election in ’28 the NIH had been granted
permission to continue research involving somatic cell nuclear transfer. Due to
the conservative push back by the “trads” this potential life saving research
went largely unexplored; at least to the extent that there were no deliverable
results until we got another little gem from the eggheads. When they showed us
how to enucleate a human egg and fertilize it with a somatic cell from someone
else; the rest was easy. We just let that egg grow in the petri dish for five
days then extract the embryonic stem cells from the inner cell mass and create
an embryonic stem cell line by putting them in the right nutrient and letting
them divide. After six months, if they had not differenceated or mutated in any
way, the stem cell line was good to go. The cool thing is that the embryonic
stem cells in the line have the same DNA as the person who donated the somatic
(skin) cell. Since scientists had long since learned how to prompt stem cells
into any of the two hundreds and forty different cells in the human body, they
would have an infinite supply of replacement cells for anything that went
wrong. Since the replacement cells would have the same DNA as the donor there
was no rejection. The only real reason this had been resisted is that all the
super conservative bone headed trads were afraid simply because this is also
called cloning. Jack often found it hard to believe some of the backward
superstitious bullshit that people used to believe in and actually passed as
religious faith.
Susan had gotten new undamaged mylam
cells injected. Mylem is basically the nerve lining that gets damaged in MS and
causes the nervous system to short circuit, so with a new supply of nerve
lining cells with her own DNA marker her whole nervous system was able to
repair itself and if anything decided to go haywire again, she had a supply of
more cells to do more repair. The only bummer in her case was that entire
sections of nerve had died as a result of having no lining for so long and we
didn’t quite have the technology to do the complete rebuild yet. Still, she
probably had an extra twenty years of pretty healthy, happy living that would
not have happened otherwise. As Jacks old mentor, thinking of her had often
kept him “in the fight” as they say. Although he did his lobbying for the
environmental interests, and didn’t have the expertise in biotech, he did work
hand in hand with a lot of guys who had a lot of genetic, nanotech, and biotech
expertise and they were usually on the same page.
“Let’s get some supplies and head
down to the boat. Geno will be there in about an hour so we should be prefect”.
Then pulled into the Merc to buy beer ice and munchies, and headed down to the
Leland Harbor where the Leading Lady was moored in Slip number 21. “Holy shit,
I can’t believe you guys are actually here. How the hell are you”? Geno had
already untied dock lines, had the main sail half raised and was pushing “the
Lady” out of the slip. “Throw the shit in the cooler and give me a hand here”
he yelled. “Aren’t you going to start her up and motor out of the harbor” Annie
G asked, although it was apparent that was not what Geno had in mind. “Na, I
try and just sail her out if it’s not blowing stink”……”saves on gas” he said
with the deep infectious laugh Geno had when he told an old joke that only
amused him. Like Jack, Geno was a bit on the nostalgic side. They both embraced
change and new technology especially when it was designed and used to save and
improve lives. They also realized that the eggheads had granted us
technological advancements that would have otherwise taken decades or even
centuries to come up with and we were defiantly getting a snowball effect.
Jack, with his higher than usual intellect was able to rather easily master new
technologies and use them to his benefit; even so, he and Geno liked to pretend
like they were old fashion, shunning modern conveniences in lieu of “the old
way of doing things” as the Geeze use to say. Thus, the old Johnson outboard
just for show on Jacks dingy, and Geno’s propensity for pushing his sailboat
out of the slip and sailing out of the harbor when he had a perfectly good,
electric, clean, engine to motor out of the harbor with if he wanted to.
Besides, Geno liked to be a show off some times, and sailing a thirty nine foot
sail boat out of that harbor in any kind of wind was impressive. “Hey, hop on
quick brother”. Geno already had the main raised the rest of the way, and the
north west wind was catching the sail as Geno turned the helm to port and they
picked up speed. “Hey Annie G roll that jib out , will ya”. As she undid the
furling line, Jack tugged hard on the port jib sheet and out she rolled. Jack
gave a half dozen wraps on the port primary winch, clicked in a winch handle
and started to grind as he handed the sheet to Annie G to tail for him. Within
thirty seconds they were trimmed in and sailing on starboard tack at full speed
right toward the breakwall. “I guess we better gibe before we smash into the
rocks”. “Gibe Ho” he yelled and swung the helm hard to port. The boom came
across, Jack undid the port jib sheet, Annie G took up on the Starboard jib
sheet, the sails filled again and wham, back up to eight knots and heading
right for the mouth of the harbor. “Well, just like riding a bike, I always
say”. “Yea,…. not to fucking bad, considering we haven’t sailed together in 5
years”. “Hand me a beer” They all cracked a beer and had about thirty five
seconds to slam them before they were at the harbor mouth and had to gibe back
to starboard before going on the beach. “Where are we going? South Manitou
anyone”? Geno asked. “Let’s go to the south end of North Manitou” said Jack.
“It’s a perfect beam reach with twenty knots of breeze and I want to feel The
Lady stretch her legs and run for a while”. “North Manitou it is” said Geno.
Jack loved to feel the helm of a sailboat in his hand, especially the Leading
Lady and especially in a good stiff breeze. Within seconds he was in what Annie
G called a “magic moment” kind of like a trance with a smile on his face and a
freeing of any anxiety from his mind. Jack and Geno had grown up seeing that
“magic moment” face on Geno’s dad, the Geeze. They had spent 4 months a year
sailing all over lakes Michigan, Huron, and Superior and no matter what the
weather or how many miles they had in front or behind them, Geeze always had a
look of total serenity on his face as soon as he took the helm. Geno had always
said it was because that’s when he felt closest to God. Of course a lot of
people’s concept of God had changed since we learned about the eggheads, but
Geno had always thought of god as simply some collective form of higher power
in the universe and that recognition, of it and gratitude toward it along with
kindness and tolerance toward other humans was the extent of a spiritual life.
As it turns out, he had it figured just about right. His dad, the Geeze,
probably followed a bit more of a Christian belief but had taught Geno and Jack
to practice tolerance above all else. Jack really didn’t understand all the
hubbub since it seemed to him that the eggheads were in fact a benevolent,
omnipotent, superior being (actually, a whole lot of superior beings, but there
did seem to be some network or connectivity between all 2300 trillion of them)
that did plant the seeds of life on earth, and even though they didn’t seem to
micro manage our planet, they did seem to love us and care enough to save our
asses from extinction. To Jack, this seemed to be more or less the definition
of God he had heard over and over. He figured people should be happy to have a
God that was pretty much as people had imagined for ten thousand years finally
make an appearance and validate everybody’s beliefs, instead of being freaked
out because they couldn’t claim exclusive ownership anymore. Basically, he
thought religious zealots were ignorant douche bags.
Jack fell into his “magic moment” at
the helm. Geno and Annie G sat on the high side catching up on what had been
happening in their lives in the last five years. “I can’t believe Ballard is
really an asshole” Geno said. “He always seemed like such a cool guy on those
discovery channel things. Remember watching that thing about how he found the
Titanic… like, twenty years before we were born. Man I thought that guy was
cool…how old is he anyway…like ninety”? “More like a hundred by now” Annie G
said “He’s been getting treatments for a long time now, so the fucker will
probably live another fifty years”. “And yea, he’s a real fuckwad, always
hitting on the twenty year old interns…of which I was one…a knee to the fucking
nads put a quick kibosh on his tit feeling routine, but still…what a low life.”
“wow, I never figured him for a lecher…So how was your last gig on that NOAA
research vessel”? “oh that gig was awesome; two hundred foot steel trawler,
just tricked out, every toy in the book… for an MB that is”. “MB” Geno asked”.
“Sorry sweetie, marine biologist ….we’re all MBs for short” ´”Yea, so what do
you call the enviro guys like Jack before he got the lobby gig”? “We call um
GTs for Green Turds”. “So, what in the world is Jack doing back here anyway”?
“Beats me, I just got back a couple days ago. I was staying with some friends
in Traverse City and was about to call you and come on out to the county when I
got a call from Jack yesterday”. “Yea, so you came right out and screwed his
brains out”. “What can I say, I was horney and he bribed me with perch. I always
was a sucker for fresh fish”. “Hey, I had some awesome whitefish on the grill
last night”. “Well, if you would have called me first...……it could have been
you”. The thought gave Geno a bit of a twinge; Annie G was looking good as ever
and they had been lovers off and on in the past. “That’s the story of my life,
a day too late”.
"You know we could just harden
up a few degrees and head over to Fayette". Fayette was a ghost town on
the west side of Lake Michigan in Big Bay De Noc. It was a tiny crescent shaped
natural harbor about three quarters of the way down the west side of the Garden
Peninsula of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It was settled as an iron smelting
station in 1867. It was in close sailing distance from the port of Escanaba
where the iron ore from the Upper Peninsula's mines was loaded. It held the
required hardwood forest for charcoal and had plenty of the required limestone.
It was a perfect natural harbor which offered protection for the many sailing
and early steam vessels which hauled in the ore and left with the smelted pig
iron on its way to the steel mills in Gary Indiana. There was no overland
access to Fayette, however the community had grown in short order with smelting
plant workers and families, shop keepers, saloon keepers, blacksmiths, doctors,
and all the different people that make up a community. The community grew and
thrived for twenty years when technology changed and the mills in Gary were
suddenly able to process the ore from scratch and rendered the smelting process
unnecessary. Within two years, Fayette was a ghost town. Even today the Garden
Peninsula is sparsely populated and basically has about a twenty lineal miles
of paved road in an area of around twenty four hundred square miles.
Geno and Jack had sailed to Fayette
numerous times, usually in September or October when it was empty and desolate.
It was almost eerie sailing into a desolate empty ghost town in early autumn
and they both loved it. There was nothing within twenty miles except Shirley’s
Port Bar about three miles down the road. Geeze had first taken Geno and Jack
there when they were weathered in by a massive storm out of the south that blew
forty knots plus, rained sideways, and had fifteen foot waves rolling up Green
Bay. They walked to Shirley’s in the rain and got totally shit faced. They
considered it totally cool since they were just sixteen and Geeze had to sweet
talk Shirley into serving them by convincing her that after two days stuck in a
boat in Fayette with these boys he was going ape shit and needed to get trashed
and he really didn't see any harm in the boys joining him; otherwise they might
get board and ditch him. Shirley said that she hadn't seen a law man except for
the Game Warden in years. It was commonly understood that being the Game Warden
in the Garden Peninsula was by far the most dangerous job in law enforcement.
You just don't tell a "Yopper" when, where, what or whether he can
hunt. Shirley figured as long as they didn't have a car to crash, there wasn't
much harm in letting the boys get hosed. They spent the day
drinking beer, and tequila, eating burgers, watching football and playing pool.
The next day jack and Geno couldn't move because they were so fucking
hung-over. Geeze told them to drink a beer."Liquid wheat germ....better than
orange juice" was one of his favorite sayings. They felt pretty darn lucky
since the weather was still shitty and Geeze wasn't going to made then head
out. Sailing south in those conditions would have been a barf-o-Rama, and
instead they got to stay in their bunks all day and nurse their massive
hangovers. Geeze let them do just about whatever they wanted most of the time,
but he was totally unsympathetic when it came to the effects of the day after.
“Hey Jack, you still alive back
there? Annie G and I want to go to Fayette". "That'll take all night
and we don't have our stuff". “What the hell do you need, I got a butt
load of food and booze on board, I got blankets and pillows, and I got a bunch
of extra cloths and rain gear". "What about ice? We got enough
ice"? “Yea, we got plenty of ice, besides, I put in a new fridge/ freezer
unit that runs on solar....we're all set". "What about drugs...got
any drugs". "Does a bear shit in the woods and use small fury animals
as toilet paper"? "You boys are sick" Annie G said.
"Ok" said Jack” we're in"........"Right, Annie G"?
"Right you are Jackie boy".
Jack turned the wheel to starboard
by about twenty degrees and leveled out at a compass course of 290 degrees WNW.
They had sailed across the Big Lake enough times that he didn’t need to look at
the charts. Most pleasure vessels these days had a GPS system that was fully
integrated into all the boat systems and had a projected readout that could be
viewed anywhere on the boat. Geno had intentionally not upgraded his navigation
systems preferring to rely on the dead reckoning the Geeze had taught him and
Jack, and taking an occasional glance at the old 1990s GPS map below at the Nav
Station. Just another one of those “old fashion” things he liked to do even
though technology had make it unnecessary.
The paradox of the fact that Jack
was a crusader against those who obstinately resisted the life improving
technologies granted us by the eggheads, while shunning many technologies in
favor of doing things “the old fashion way” did not go unnoticed by Geno. It is
likely that it did not go unnoticed by Jack ether. Of course they both saw the
difference between trashing the planet or depriving humans of life saving
advancements and denying oneself of simple time and labor saving conveniences.
“So you guys wanna go to Fayette
hun?” Jack asked. “You know, it’s still a bit early in the season; probably be
some other boats there”. “I don’t care, I want to go see if Shirley is still
there” said Geno. “I think after that, we should head to Beaver Island……What da
ya think”? “Absofuckinglootly” said Jack. “Since we are going to be sailing for
the next twelve hours, I guess I’ll take a little snooze and rest up for the
night watch. What time you want me back up to relieve you” Jack asked. “I’ll
take her till twenty two hundred hours, then we’ll do 2 hour shifts”…..”Sound
good”? “Yup, see ya then”. Jack went below to crash up in the V berth. Geno
felt a bit of disappointment when Annie G followed him below, But sucked it up
and said “hey, you guys better set me up with a sandwich, and my evening
bourbon totty". Geno did like his bourbon. Annie G made him a ham and
swiss sandwich and a bourbon on the rocks with a lemon twist. “Here you go
honey” she said as she set the drink down and gave him a kiss of the cheek.
“Don’t get too lonely”.
Autopilot was a convenience that
latterly every other boat had and that Geno had refused to install. He said
that getting a machine to drive your sailboat defeated the whole purpose of
sailing in the first place. In his mind, sailing really was not about getting
to any particular destination as much as it was about the journey. He said the
same thing about life, and that was why he loved sailing so much. The downside
of this attitude was that someone had to be at the helm all the time and right
now it was him as Jack and Annie G were below snuggling together. He considered
getting the sails trimmed perfectly and tying the helm off which allowed The
Lady to sail herself as long as the wind didn’t go berserk, but then he figured
three was always a crowd so he just enjoyed the sunset and sipped his bourbon.
CHAPTER 2: D.C. A visit from afar,
Ron Smith
was in the office of The Environmental Alliance Group (EAG) at the corner of K
street and Capitol in Washington D.C. "Where the hell is Saffell" he
yelled at ear piercing volume. "Sir, I believe he has taken a leave of
absents and headed to someplace in Michigan" answered a twenty two year
old intern named Sam Marley. “what the fuck, everybody around here just takes
off whenever they feel like it? Gee, did it ever occur to anybody that we have
a fucking emergency going on around here? I'm really, really not in the mood to
singlehandedly save the whole fucking world at the moment..... Like, maybe I
could use a little bit of help....would that be TOO much to ask........would
it"?.." Michigan, what the hell is he doing in Michigan? I thought we
were through clearing up after those shit head auto industry guys ten years
ago? Don't we have all that UAW bull shit out of the way? I thought We finally
got Ford, GM, and all the rust belt Japs and Korians on board with new tech
years ago. I thought they were all retooled and in full swing with the no Co2
thing"? "I believe you are correct with all that sir, however, I
believe Jack is nowhere near the Detroit area", Answered Marley. It had
long been assumed by anyone that was not from the mid west that the term
"Michigan" meant "Detroit" or at least that south east
corner of the state that made up the old industrial rust belt corridor that had
churned out millions of cars and trucks during the last one hundred and thirty
years. It was beyond the imagination of an east or west coaster that only five
percent of Michigan was an industrial waist land and that the rest of the state
was really quite nice. In fact, few people realized that the northern half of
the state was quite possibly one of the most beautiful places on earth.
“Well, I
don't give a shit where he is....get his fucking lazy ass back here! We’ve got
a disaster brewing here". "On it sir" Marley barked.
Sam Marley
had actually been frantically trying to contact Jack for two days now and he
had absolutely no idea how to get in touch with him. Since the turn of the
century, the world had become much smaller and flatter and these days if a
person wanted to, he could stay in communication just about anywhere. The
problem was if someone didn't want to stay in communication they could still go
incognito. A lot of the current PE (post egghead) generation as they were
known, had location devices implanted as part of a total brain-nerve system
enhancement along with nano sized chips for increased data storage, faster
computation speed and so on. In the sixteen years since egghead technology
introduction, this and other enhancement procedures had become the rage and
there were big bucks to be made from the guys who got in on the ground floor.
The "location feature" was a big money maker since it was old
technology, dirt cheap stuff and an easy sell to parents who were getting their
kids enhanced because they would always know where their kids were, and the
poor kids couldn't turn it off.
Sam was glad
to have avoided that particular unpleasant embarrassment of youth but figured
that at the present rate of achievement by the first PE generation kids who
were just turning 14, fooling one's parents was going to be child's play.....
He chuckled at his own pun and pondered what things would be like in a few
short years when everyone under 25 would twice as smart as everyone over 25.
He swung
into the office of Jane Keen who was the office manager and always pretended to
be just a receptionist and secretary, but who in reality knew more about
everything that was going on in their office (and D.C. in general) than almost
anyone else. "Hi Jane, know how I can get a hold of Jack". "Not
unless he wants you to....boss blowing a gasket?" Jane replied.
"What's that mean anyway....blowing a gasket". It occurred to Jane
that at twenty two years old, he had been only six years old when the last gas
powered internal combustion engine was in general commercial use and that not
knowing what a gasket was did not seem that odd. "Oh, just an old fashion
way of saying he's throwing a shit fit ".”We'll, if I don't get Jack
Saffell back to this office, I'm going to be buried in it".
Sam caught
the Metro over to Jack's D.C. Apartment. Jack had a couple of handprints
programmed into the security system in case of emergency and Sam's was one of
them. Sam had only been with the organization for eight months as an intern but
Jack, gifted with super acute perception, found that he could trust Sam, and
trust was a rare commodity in the world of politics. Sam had no sooner turned
on jacks residential data systems when he sensed a message. It was personalized
to Sam's brain frequency and coded so Sam touching his temple made a copy to
decipher later. Neuroscience and recent reverse engineering of the human brain
had reviled a certain brain wave frequency that was as unique as a human
fingerprint. A nano sized microchip had been developed which was implantable
into ones temple and could utilize their personal frequency as somewhat of a
phone number or email address. This procedure was basically like getting ones
ear pierced and was FDA approved at any AT&T, Apple or Verizon retail
outlet. Also while not anything like the surgically enhanced, it did add a
couple thousand gig memory and boost the regular calculations per second brain
capacity by about ten times. It was possible to personalize digital messages as
well as communications to someone's personal brain frequency. Basically, people
now had everything a smart phone did plus a hundred times more data and storage
plus a unique access code in a microscopic chip emplaned in their scull.
Sam entered
his apartment and imminently went for his data control station and downloaded
Jack's message. "Hey Sammy here is the deal. I had to get outta dodge
...like now man! Sorry I couldn't fill you guys in but there was not much
opportunity before I needed to vaminous. I got a visit from some PPPEP types
who were not intending to take me dancing if you catch my drift. Anyway, I
guess the intention was to make me nervous, but I didn't need my ESP to realize
that these guys would just as soon put me in the big sleep as look at me. I
figured I had better chill for a while and figure out our next move instead of
ending up dead. If you are actually listening to this than the shit must be
hitting the fan. Not many people know where I am but if you really have a
meltdown going on than you can contact me by using my personal frequency
response code and leaving a message, I'll know it's you and I will get a hold
of you ASAP". Sam immediately followed Jack's instructions. "Hey
Jack, it's Sam, I really need you to call me. Ron is freaking out and the shit
is really hitting the fan. I'm not totally up on what's going on, above my pay
grade I guess, but Ron wants you here big time."
Ron Smith
was Jacks boss at The Environmental Alliance Group which was basically a
Washington D.C. think tank that did environmental research and represented
various environmental and scientific interests. They had always maintained a
strong Government relations department and Jack with his high intelligence and
keen instincts had long since proven to be their most valuable asset. Ron was a
totally animated over the top kind of guy who pretty much exaggerated
everything out of proportion. He also happened to be very smart and extremely
good at his job, which basically consisted of making people agree with him.
Jack was the antithesis of Ron being of somewhat calm demeanor and they made a
killer team. They could play "good cop bad cop" on most any legislator
and usually get their way......Or at least walk away with some sort of
compromise situation, which was a victory in D.C. terms. Ron was seventy seven
years old and had been in the political game in one form or another since he
graduated from Harvard law school in 1982. Along the way he had gotten degrees
in economics, political science (which he always considered oxymoronic)
environmental engineering and an MBA. He had lived in D.C. Since Ronald Reagan
was President and knew every single soul in the entire city. Ron was known as a
straight shooter and generally played by the rules, however it was universally
accepted that you did not want Ron Smith pissed off at you. Jack had accepted a
job offer from EAG right out of U of M grad school mostly because of Ron. He
had worked in the Reagan administration as an environmental advisor, spent four
years on president Clinton's counsel of economic advisors, worked as a
political lobbyist for major oil interests and started several major heavy
weight D.C. Consulting firms. At the start of the new millennium Ron spent
several years involved in research studying the effects of climate change.
Considering that Ron's expertise included macro economic and political behavior
including environmental impact, this research defiantly got his attention. The
more he learned the more concerned he became until finally all his effort and
resource became concentrated on the single cause of mitigating the damage he
knew was happening as a result of vast carbon dioxide emission. It's not like
he cared to play the blame game he just wanted to do whatever was possible to
reverse, or at least lesson, the adverse consequences whether environmental,
economical, or social. Up until the point that science began to recognize that
a combination of burning fossil fuels, industrial scale agriculture, and global
deforestation was causing a massive increase in Co2 in the atmosphere there
really was no one to blame. After all, mankind had benefitted beyond
imagination from the industrial revolution, and large scale agriculture. It is
hard to blame a country or regional society for clearing land to produce lumber
to sell and promote agriculture. The short term benefits to society in
bolstering the economy and feeding it's citizens is hard to argue with, especially
when weighted against some -might happen-in the future-supposed disaster- that
may or may not happen due to global warming. Ron certainly understood that the
blame, if you could call it that, was universal as well as immaterial. The
important thing was that what was occurring now, be universal accepted, and
that every measure be taken to reverse the process and mitigate the effects.
This was where Ron saw plenty of blame and a vast assortment of villains. At
the turn of the millennium trillions of dollars were at stake since just about
every aspect of the economy of the developed world evolved around fossil fuels.
Basically all our energy, transportation, industrial capacity, food production,
and construction industries involved humongous consumption (burning) of fossil
fuels in the form of coal, natural gas, or one of the various distillates of
petroleum. Ron hardly expected these extremely powerful, very rich, and
influential interests to just fold up shop and go away in the interest of
averting environmental disaster sometime in the future. The irony that he once
lobbied for and promoted the interests of the petroleum industry did not go
unnoticed to Ron. In the next decade most conservative Republican lawmakers
denied the validity of climate change and its disastrous consequences. Even in
the beginning of the second decade of twenty first century the political will
in the United States to effect any meaningful measures to ward off the eventual
disastrous effects of continued Co2 emissions were pretty much nonexistent. In
two thousand and ten Ron had formed the Environmental Alliance Group, a think
tank for the research, study, and desimination of data involving all aspects of
climate change. He started by funding a host of research projects and collecting
data on the effects of climate change as well as exploring various alternative
energy initiatives. Dr. Charles Watson PHD, a leading scientist and highly
recognized expert in the field of climatology and environmental physics at MIT
had been trying to increase awareness of the dangers to politicians, media, and
the general public for at least ten years. He had followed the work of Ron
Smith and when he learned of Ron's new organization he knew he had to be part
of it. He had brought a half dozen researchers, scientists, and experts with
him and in short order the EAG had become a formidable organization. Along with
research and data accumulation they established a strong grass roots advocacy
network and lobbying effort for climate change mitigation and other
environmental interests. By 2032, The EAG was a global organization with
several hundred of the absolute brightest minds in the world on its payroll.
Jack had taken the job in late 2025 as a D.C. lobbyist and due to his
extraordinary abilities he quickly became very close to Ron and Ron loved him
like a son.
By the year
2016 most of the worlds scientific community accepted the fact that Co2
molecules per cubic centimeter in the atmosphere had doubled in the last
hundred years and that it was causing a very real green house effect. They also
realized that this global green house effect was heating up the planet. Most of
the world population, including a preponderance of leaders and politicians from
the developed nations agreed on these two things, but that was where the
agreement ended. Most scientists believed that the increase in Co2 was man made
the overwhelming evidence being polar ice core samples showing that atmospheric
Co2 levels had been relatively constant for the past ten thousand years till a hundred
years ago when the industrial revolution went into full swing and we burned
everything in the ground to keep it going. They also seemed to agree that while
no one could predict the ultimate outcome, the overall effect was going to be
negative in every respect. The problem was that many political leaders were not
on board with these two most important points. The reason of course, was money
and lots of it. It was simply not in the U.S. industrial corporate interest to
move away from the status quo and most politicians are loth to buck the system
when money is involved.
Two thousand
and sixteen was a monumental turning point in the history of the human race. On
January 1, 2016 the entire world was shocked to learn that an alien
intelligence had made its presents known to the leaders of the one hundred and
ninety six independent countries in the world. This "first encounter"
was was also experienced by the United Nations during its first ever Global
Climate Change Conference. The one hundred and ninety three members of the
United Nations in 2016 were all in attendance along with over a thousand of the
worlds top scientists.
This
encounter, while understandably making quite a global splash and pretty much
occupying all news media for several weeks, still was not the kind of thing
that had been portrayed in science fiction books and movies for years. There
had not been the appearance of some "space ship", no big hub-bub over
aliens landing, in fact there was very little disruption and the whole thing
seemed rather anticlimactic. The "Eggheads" actually referred to
themselves as ecohedanosphearic entities. They had literally outgrown their
biological surroundings Trillions of years ago and were comprised of
information and energy, at least that was the basic explanation within the
constricts of our human understanding at the time. Their chosen method of
communication with humanity was through human looking holographic entities that
behaved and communicated exactly like humans but could materialize or dematerialize
as needed. This in it self was an impressive trick and went a great distance in
adding to the legitimacy of their message as well as validating that they were
what they said they were. Hard to argue with a guy who can disappear and
reappear at will. The first contact with them was experienced simultaneously
throughout the world by world leaders, scientists, and all the ambassadors,
staff and research teams attending the afore mentioned Global Climate Chance
Conference and the message was clear.......stop burning fossil fuels! Earth had
finally reached a turning point, which if passed, would be catastrophic and
irreversible. Humanity had now been discussing climate change and fossil fuel
consumption for twenty six years with no real substantive solution or change in
behavior. The earths atmosphere simply could not withstand the continued Co2
build up and the negative consequences were creating a feed back loop that was
ultamitly going to render earth uninhabitable.
Ron, Dr
Watson, and half a dozen representatives from the EAG were attending the Global
Climate Change Conference durning the first encounter. Unbeknownst to Ron and
his team there was already a world wide freak out going on since at 0:00 GMT
before the conference, the eggheads had momentarily interrupted all global
government communications with a brief message announcing their intention to
make contact with humanity at the afore mentioned conference and with the
majority of world leaders at 12:00 GMT which was 08:00 EST in New York City, right
when the GCCC was scheduled to commence. Needless to say, the pervious twelve
hours had been a mixture of panic, confusion, fear, and anticipation among
governments, militaries, and scientific communities around the world. Of course
the major world powers, the U.S. included, were having a total, secret, massive
melt down because something, somehow had hacked their most secured
communication and information systems. Regardless of the message, government
agencies, and especially the military, are predisposed to panic when they
suspect they are under attack, so at this moment it was fair to say that the
world powers were a bit on edge.
No sooner
had Ron and his team taken their seats and the conference called to order than
a group of three men were introduced at the protium. In hindsight Ron was
surprised at how casual it all seemed. It was almost surreal that all the
worlds leading diplomats and scientists were sitting and listening to
aliens.....no panicking crowds running around screaming.....no utter calamities......just
entities beyond our comprehension explaining the solutions to our carbon
emissions problems in a calm nonchalant manner at the United Nations Global
Climate Change Conference. Ron was equally surprised at his own reaction. The
two major thoughts that ran through his head were ....."This is so fucking
cool" ....and..."This changes EVERYTHING". The men addressed the
conference for less than an hour; the message amounting to a list of bullet
points that basically went like this:
* They are
ecohedanosphearic entities; a highly evolved spices who's basic evolution
started in a manner similar to that of Earth's. They have evolved over a time
frame that in earth metrics would be around one hundred and twenty six trillion
years.
* They had
conducted a "project" six hundreds million years ago. Seeds of
biological life as we understand it had been planted on thousands of planets
throughout the universe and the resulting evolution of life on earth was one of
the outcomes.
* Their
intention, and hope was for the evolution of intelligent beings, however they
did not intend to micro manage the evolutionary environment, but rather let
life evolve and observe the results. , Humans had evolved to a point at which
our technological evolution was becoming exponential and we were on the
"fast track" to becoming one of the advanced spices and as such, we
were being offered the technology required to keep from destroying ourselves.
* They had
compiled the information necessary to provide humanity a vast variety of energy
technologies and alternatives. Among these were, the abilities to harvest
limitless energy from solar, natural molecular movement and spontaneous nuclear
fusion with out radiation.
* All of
this information which also included hundreds of "gifts" in the form
of advancements in biotech, nano tech, chemistry, engineering, physics,
biology...both terrestrial and marine (humanity still didn't know anythingabout
what was below the surface of the oceans) was available to everyone in the
world and was already uploaded on the World Wide Web.
* The final,
yet extremely important, point of their message was that in one year, all
fossil fuels would become non combustable and thus useless! They had used
technology which was simple to them to put into effect a molecular chain
reaction that would result in a molecular, irreversible change in the
composition of all combustable fossil fuels. Basically, mankind had a year to
get it's collective shit together, and scale up the technology that had been
gifted to us.
"Holy
shit, this is unbelievable" said Ron grasping what an understatement he
had just made. "Looks as if we might have some serious work ahead of us.
Charlie, what do you think"? "Well, I suppose we should start
downloading this tech data and see if anything these guys have for us is in
anyway compadable with stuff we have been working on. Might give us a bit of a
head start if there's even the least bit of synergy with any of our
concepts". Dr Linh Chang followed Dr Watson's comment. "It's
possible, of course that these aliens would utilize concepts that are at least
within our ability to understand and actually produce. I mean, what's the use
of granting us technology that's way to far advanced for us to ever
realize". "Good point Linh, sure would be cool if those alien types
perfected one of the ideas we've come up with but couldn't make work". Dr
Watson was drooling at the thought. Nothing gave him greater joy than
validation of one of his theories. "Boy would I love to get to scale up one
of our rejected ideas and shove it down the throat of that numb nuts Senator
Bates and his ignorant, research wannabe minions". "I'm with you
there Chuck, lets get back to the lab and see what we got". Ron was at the
wheel of their battery operated suburban and turned to Dan Stout, his head
government relations guy at the time and asked. "So Dan, lets suppose for
a moment that what we just saw and heard was for real....and let's suppose that
this technology there're giving us is the real deal ....and maybe, we can help
make it all happen....right...and, well.....any chance we can crack the social
conservative hard line and get some support for any of this stuff"."
Yea about the time that pigs can fly outta my ass" was Dan's reply. "
Well, I guess we'd best get them flying then". Ron had no illusion about
the kind of negative repercussions that were about to start reverberating
through the global power structure. "Of course you guys realize what the
hell is going on here..I mean, this is the biggest god dam game changer in the
history of humanity....and even though we all know that we might have just been
given the chance to save our planet and help humanity in every conceivable
way....a lot of the guys in power are not going to be happy. Lets face it...if
there is a way to fuck this up....they'll find it". Dan agreed whole
heartily; " Unfortunately Ron, I suspect you are right on the money. I've
been working D.C., Moscow, Beijing, London, Berlin, Tel Aviv, Aiyadh, Dubai,
and Mexico City for twenty years now, and at least half of the Senators,
Congressmen, Administration officials, PMs, Monarchs, Princes, Diplomats,
Ambassadors, and Dictators have their hand deep in the proverbial oil cookie
jar. It's going to be darn near impossible pull them off that fossil fuel
umbilical cord until disaster sets in.....and from what I heard today from
those aliens, or whatever the fuck they are, that's just what's gonna happen if
every country in the whole dam world doesn't get their shit together......now
that is one scary fucking proposition". " let's just see where things
are when we get back to the office.. I'm guessing its a shit storm
already".
That was
2016, and now sixteen years later there was still a lot of shit brewing. Most
of the speculation by Ron, Dan, Dr.s Watson and Chang had proven to be
accurate. The Environmental Alliance Group had been useful in the research and
product development arena . They also played a role in advocating for the
requisite changes in Government policy. Dan Stout had been killed in a plane
crash in 2022. Aviation without fossil fuel proved to be a challenge and the
era of new technology did witness some negative effects. "Change ain't
easy. If it was, we'd be out of a job" was what Ron always said, but
losing Dan was pretty hard on him. It turned out that some of the ideas Dr.
Watson had conceived in the field of solar energy capture had been amazingly
close to the technology that the eggheads had given us. Had they been a bit
more lucky and been able to get past proof of concept, they might have made a
butt load of money just getting patients on the technology. There was no money
to be made on patients since the eggheads had made all their technology
universally available, but there was most assuredly money to be made by
producing and selling alternative energy sources through the world.
Unfortunately, everyone involved in producing energy the old way had less
motive to make any change to the status quo; no matter that it be for the
better.
Some
countries faired better than others. At first the U.S. didn't prove to be too
receptive and was slow to embrace the changes required....not only to
thrive....but to survive. A vast number of Americans were simply scared.
Suddenly realizing that we are not alone in the universe. Suddenly realizing
that the higher power in the universe that people referred to as God, had just
shown up and granted us a miracle. Suddenly realizing that we had to actually
change our behavior and our beliefs. If there is one thing that people are
afraid of...its change. It is funny how people of every different religious
faith had spent three thousand years trying to convince others of the existence
of a universal higher power, based on various books and stories, yet refused to
accept that very higher power now that it had made an appearance. As history
has shown, U.S. citizens have always been a bit fickle and the progressive
majority that had elected the first African American president to his second
term were no where to be found in the 2016 elections; replaced it seemed by an extreme
social conservative faction who's agenda included a total and unequivocal
denile of the appearance and very existence of the alien life form that had
visited earth and bestowed upon us the tremendous gifts of clean renewable
energy, food production, advancements in every sector of science and medicine,
in fact the gift of life itself. Why a society would reject something that was
clearly so beneficial is mysterious but then hindsight is twenty twenty.
Politicians at every level were beholden to special interest of every kind, all
of which had everything to gain from the status quo and everything to lose from
progressive change. The lobbying influence of these special interest
(especially energy) was overwhelming as was the influence exerted by the Catholic
Church, the Evangelical Christian right and every other religious group who
stood to lose power.
Congressman
Rick Santorum and his running mate Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann had narrowly
defeated Secretary Hillary Clinton and running mate Senator Al Franken.
Supported by narrow majorities in both House and Senate, President Santorum and
Vice President Bachmann were able to pursue their hyper conservative agenda and
put the U.S. squarely behind most developed nations in the race to prefect and
fully adopt the new energy technologies. At the very least, the U.S. fell four
years behind and spent the insuring twelve years playing catch up. One of the
eventual results of the four year debacle that best described President
Santorum's term was the split of the Republican Party. The American political
landscape had become even more divisive, which was hard to imagine after the
dysfunctional behavior of the legislative branch of Government over the
preceding dozen years. Moderate, centrist republicans and democrats were
becoming more and more disenchanted with the extreme, and ideological positions
of the far right and left fringes of their respective political parties. This
all finally came to a head during the 2020 election when for the first time
since 1854, a new viable political party was formed. Actually, it was not so
much a "new party" as a division of the two parties that had shared
power for one hundred and sixty six years into three parties. The new line up
basically went like this: The Party of Traditional American Values (PTAV) was
comprised of the neo-con, super social conservative, tea party, religious,
types that had no interest in compromise or cooperation with moderate pragmatic
republicans much less liberals. The New Democratic Republican Party (DRP) was
comprised of members form both parties. Mostly those who thought in practical,
pragmatic ways and had been thought of as centrists, which was regarded as a
dirty word....like "compromise"... In the "divisive
decade". The New Democratic Socialist Party (DSP) was comprised of more
left wing Democrats, socialists, and even certain fringes of the Green Party.
Of course the Libertarian Party, Communist, Socialist, and Green Parties still
existed, but as Mark Twain once stated " there is no truly criminal class
in America other than Congress" so even though there were more groups
involved, they were still mostly crooks.
CHAPTER 3: GARDEN
PENINSULIA. Hiding out
The wind had
remained constant out of the North and built to twenty knots during the night.
By zero six hundred hours the Leading Lady had cleared Poverty Island Passage
(appropriately named for the Garden Peninsula in Michigan's U.P). Jack was at
the helm and had to harden up to 315 degrees which was as hard on the wind as
she could sail. " Hey guys, we are coming into Green Bay, why doesn't
somebody start some coffee. We are gonna have to start tacking up Big Bay De
Noc in an hour or so". Annie G stuck her head through the companion way,
"hi ya there big boy" she said " you doing ok"? "I'm driving
a sail boats so what do you think". "Guess that answers my
question". "You still love me"? "I worship the ground you
walk on baby". "Yea, would you eat the forbidden fruit for me".
"As long as its fermented..... Speaking of which, why don't you throw a
shot of Baileys in that coffee". "coming right up sweetheart".
Annie G poured a couple cups of coffee, both with a hefty shot of Baileys Irish
Cream and went up to the cockpit to join Jack. "Here's your coffee
sweetie, how long you been up". "I came up and relieved Geno at about
o three hundred, it was an awesome night sail". "Any northern
lights" she asked. "No, but I would love see them again, it's been at
least six years. Remember that night we were anchored on South Manitou Island
and they were dancing across the horizon in those huge waves"? "Sure
do, I remember the awesome colors too. The usual green and blue, but I remember
yellow and red....more like pink.....and violet, I'd sure as hell never seen
pink and violet northern lights before....haven't since ether".
"Maybe we'll get lucky and get a good show on this trip". "Hope
so, I did see a pretty cool meteor shower. At least a dozen in two hours, a
couple tailers that hung for several seconds". Jack was relaxed and feeling
the first bit of serenity in years. Annie G could sense the difference in just
two days. His tension was starting to unwind and his night watch on the boat
had been the first three hour stretch that his thoughts hadn't drifted to the
storm clouds that were brewing around our nations Capitol. "Should I wake
Geno up"? Annie G asked. "Na, let him sleep, he was on watch from
sunset till o three hundred. Besides, I know him, he'll be awake automatically
when we need him". "I'll take another Baileys and coffee
please". "Got it babe".
Just as Jack
predicted, Geno popped out of the forward hatch to rig the anchor gear as they
came about on the final approach to Fayette harbor. After that, he ran back to
the cockpit to furl the jib. Jack continued to turn the helm to starboard as
they rounded down to a broad reach with just the main sail alone. They were
still cruising at seven knots and had a few hundred yards to their favorite
spot to drop anchor. At twenty yards out Geno dropped the main and coasted down
wind till they passed their spot at which Jack swung the helm hard to
starboard, pulling a upturn into the wind. Geno ran forward and dropped the
anchor. The boat drifted back, Geno payed out the anchor road, the anchor set
and Geno cleated off the line when they had reached the proper scope. "All
set Bubba" Geno yelled " The Eagle has landed" yelled Jack,
which was their tradition whenever they came to a dock or anchorage. It was o
nine hundred hours (9:00 AM, on the boat they always used military time just
because that was what Geeze had taught them). "Must be noon
somewhere" Geno said "let's have a cocktail". "How about a
bloody"? The booze was certainly having a soothing effect on Jack's nerves
along with the natural soothing effects of being on a sailboat. Of course he
recognized this and had no problem with it, in fact he was totally willing to
get and remain somewhat shit faced for as long as he could. "Remember to
use lots of lime and lots of Tabasco".
After the
third bloody, bacon, eggs, toast, and grapefruit Jack was climbing into the
dingy with his gear to head out to the drop off north of the harbor entrance.
"Think I'll see if I can go get us some lake trout for dinner".
"Hang on for a second" Geno yelled "I'll go with you". Geno
grabbed his gear, put nine Coronas in a cooler and climbed in the dingy. "
let's go". "Remember when we caught those Brownies up north with the
Geeze". " yea, that was awesome". As kids they use to catch
brown trout in September in Fayette all the time. Geeze would make "trout
fingers" which were simply filets cut into strips, dipped in a mixture of
condensed milk and beer, breaded with drakes, breadcrumbs and cayenne pepper
and fried in peanut oil. "Let's make trout fingers for dinner"
suggested Jack "you got all the necessities"? "Actually...I
believe I do. I'm sure I have the Drakes, and canned mike, don't go anywhere
with out that stuff......gotta check on the breadcrumbs, don't have the peanut
oil but I'm sure we have some chipotle olive oil that will do the
trick......might not have enough beer though" he threw in just to remain
the smart ass that he so enjoyed being. They trolled along the drop off where
the depth went from about forty feet to two hundred. Most years it took a few
weeks more for the trout and salmon to come into shallower water but it had
been an extremely cold summer and autumn type weather was occurring a full
month early. For the past twenty years, climate change had really made the
weather patterns fickle; sometimes warmer, sometimes cooler, sometimes dry,
sometimes extremely wet. The problem, it seemed, was that it was usually to an
extreme one way or the other, and rarely constant. Geno said that the weather
patterns these days made sailing "a real bitch" because it changed
all the time and was ether ninety five degrees and no wind or fifty five and
blowing stink. "Of course if it was easy, we'd have the women do it"
he use to say.....because he was not yet married and could occasionally get
away with being a chauvinist red neck. Of course he realized that Annie G had
spent her adult life living aboard research vessels in some of the most
treacherous waters in the world and could kick any mans ass on a boat of any
kind........and he totally loved that about her. "So what he heck is going
on in your so called professional life"? Geno finally asked when they had
gotten everything set and were just coasting along the lime stone bluffs of
Garden Peninsula.
"To
tell you the truth buddy, I'm not exactly sure the hell is going on at the
moment". "You gotta be kidding me? I mean what the fuck, you always
know what's going on.....I'm the one who never knew what was going on....you're
the one that always KNEW exactly what was going on". "We'll not this
time buddy boy. I had a pretty good handle on things for quite a while; always a
step ahead of of most of the members of Congress and most of their aids who are
arguably smarter and more agile than their bosses. But for the past three
months, I can't seem to get a feel on things". Geno could sense Jack's
confusion and he knew it was real. For thirty two years Geno had never seen
Jack be puzzled about anything. He knew that Jack was endowed with intuition
that was unsurpassed and it had simply, never let him down. "So paint me
the big picture, are the Trad's up to some clandestine BS again"? The Party
of Traditional American Values or Trad's as they were known, had not been
successful in putting a person in the White house since their inception in
2020, never the less they still held one hundred and twenty one seats in the
house (28%)and seventeen seats in the senate (17%). Most of their districts
were evangelical Bible Belt areas in the south, Midwest, plains states, and big
coal mining states like West Virginia. The New Democratic Republican Party
(DRP) or Drips as they were known held two hundred and one house seats (46%)
and fifty two senate. The Democratic Socialist's held the remaining one hundred
and thirteen house seats and thirty seven senate. The Drips held the obvious
majority but since they were comprised of members of both formor political
parties and they could swing ether way depending on the issue at hand and
whether on not there was a little something in it for them. Also the President,
Dr. Sarah Jane Kelly, was a socialist and the progressive liberal agenda could
be pursued because enough house and and senate drips were happy to join arms
with the President.
"As far
as I'm concerned the Trad's are always up to some clandestine BS, but I can't
seem to get a vibe out of anybody I talk to, I mean its weird....it's like
anybody that has anything to do with the People for Peaceful and Proper Energy
Production, which is a total fucking joke by the way, just doesn't even send me
a clue. I ALWAYS use to be able to sense what those assholes were thinking..and
even if I couldn't get a grasp on exactly what was going down at least I could
sense when one of um was lying. Now I get zip, ziltch, nada, nothing....there's
just nothing fucking there". "Wow man, are you losing your MoJo or
something". "I don't know......maybe, but it seems to me like its
just those guys...like they're blocking any kind of brain wave
transmission....it's like they're god damn robots or something".
"Maybe they are" Geno said jokingly "they're the Stepford wives
of politics". "No kidding man, they're all like clones of Doug
Netermyre from Animal House". "Yea....and you are John Baluchi".
"Well, I guarandambdoubletee you that I totally plan to drink like
John". "Dude...he's dead". "Exactly". " here have
a Corona....oh, first, better take a hit off this bottle of Patron.....here's
the lime". "That's what I love about you Geno, just like a fucking
boy scout ...always prepared" Jack took a healthy swig of tequila and
chased it down with a Corona and a bit of salty lime. "Do you think they
are actually hiding something big" asked Geno. " Yes I do, I just
don't know what the heck it is". "Holy shit I got one on" Jack
announced as he pulled his rod upward and back with a swift motion setting the
hook. It was a nice eight pound brown trout that Jack had inside the dingy
within about three minutes. "Ah ha....dinner"!!! "Yea, for
me...what are you guys having"? Was Geno's comment as he casted back out.
"Guess we best be catching some more.....and I feel a ten pounder just
dying to take my bait". "Ok, buddy boy, he who catches the biggest
brown, get his rounds bought at Shirley's .......ALL Night". "Pretty
bold bet for a dude with no money......and if I remember correctly, you still
have an outstanding tab at Shirley's". "Hey...not fair to assign my
poor dead old man's debt to me!! Besides.....as I recall, you were responsible
for quite a bit of that tab yourself". "No way dude....you inherit
his assets and his liabilities....for example, you got his boat, sooooooo you
get his bar tab as well". They both laughed their asses off thinking about
Geno's dad "The Geeze" and his rather uncanny ability to walk into a
bar miles away from his home, without a dime in his pocket, with two teenaged
boys and still get served liquor all night long and leave totally blasted.
"I guess you got me there, you think Shirley remembers that"?
"Are you kiddin me" Jack was shouting. "This is the Garden
Peninsula ....land of game poachers, lumber jacks, and outlaws......nobody EVER
forgets a bar tab". "Ok., that's it then...we're going to Shirley's
.......to pay off Geeze's ten year old bar tab and catch a humongous
stupor". "Sounds like a beautiful plan my man".
After
catching two more nice brown trout, consuming three more Corona's each,
accompanied by the requisite tequila shot they headed back to the Lady for a swim
and dinner. "Hey fellas...looking for a good time" Annie G yelled as
they approached in the dingy. "You got some more girls in there" Geno
replied. "What...you think I'm not enough woman for the both of you sailor
boys". "I'd never say that". "How about performing some
sexual favors for two drunken sailors while we filet these fish".
"How bout I just filet the fish and you two bozos go for a swim".
"I don't know...do you think you're woman enough to clean these big ol
fish"! "My dear, you seem to have forgotten that I have spent the
last six years on a marine research vessel. I have seen, cleaned, cut open,
eaten and dissected more creatures from the sea than you two boys will ever
even imagine". "I suppose you boys want them cut in strips to make
trout fingers"? "How did you ever guess". "I'll clean them,
you cook them". "You got a deal baby". Annie G went to work
filleting the trout as Jack and Geno started to climb the mast in order to dive
off the second spreader which was about forty feet off the water. This had
become somewhat of a ritual and usually involved a back flip at the very least.
Jack pulled off a prefect backflip compelling Geno to try a one and a half
which he accomplished with less than prefect precision. He got a bit of a sting
from not getting around fully in the second flip. "Ouch, that really
fucking hurt". "Losing you touch". "Oh, you are such a
douch bag". Even though it had been a chilly summer and Fayette was well
north of the forty fifth parallel, the water was still relatively warm. After
their swim and a dinner of trout fingers and French bread with olive oil and
crushed garlic washed down with a healthy dose of Makers Mark, they all loaded
into the dingy for their planned sojourn to Shirley's. "I hope you brought
that stash of cash, I know you always keep taped under the nav table for
emergencies". Said Jack as they started the three mile hike to Shirley's.
"So, you qualify paying off the Geeze's ten year old bar tab as an
emergency". "No.....but if you can't buy me a dozen rounds, that's an
emergency". "Yea, yea I brought the cash, so let's just hope Shirley
doesn't charge us interest". "I suspect she'll let us slide
considering the circumstances.... I'm guessing she'll be pretty bummed to hear
about the Geeze". Geeze had died during the winter of 2022-23 just three
and a half months after his last visit to Shirley's. He had promised to come
back in May to repay his tab, but had died in an avalanche skiing the back
country in British Columba ten years ago. Geno and Jack both missed him so much
it hurt but they were happy that he had died doing something he loved. He was
getting a bit slower in the backcountry but he was not the type to live in a
retirement community and give up doing the things he loved.
Geeze had
been traveling to the tiny town of Blue River B.C. In the North Thompson River
valley at the confluence of the Blue and North Thompson Rivers smack between
the Caribou and the Monashee mountain ranges, since he was twenty years old. He
had done some river guide work taking rafting and fly fishing trips out of Blue
River, Kamloops and Jasper. In the winter he had worked for various back
country skiing outfits as a guide and eventually as a guide for a fairly large
Heli- ski outfit called Mike Wiggle. When he died, he had been skiing an area
called the Mud Drainage in the Monashees about twenty kilometers north east of
Blue River. In spite of its rather ignominious name the Mud Drainage was an
area of vast summits and breath taking beauty. He and his favorite long time ski
partner Freddy had bummed a ride on one of Mike's new Bell Lab Solar Turbine
Mark IV helicopters to Base Camp six otherwise known as Augerhorn Cabin. The
cabin was at twenty four hundred meters on a small relatively flat area know as
a bench at the bottom of the Augerhorn glacier. It was perched on a rock
outcrop, ten meters above the surrounding landscape and stood a full twelve
meters high with three levels of living space. It was constructed entirely out
of Douglas Fur logs harvested from the surrounding area and flown to the
construction site by Helicopter back in the nineteen seventies. The term
"cabin" felt somewhat misleading to Geeze and Freddy since they had
both logged many a night in various cabins and yurts in Utah, Montana, and the U.P.
of Michigan during their lives and considered the Augerhorn Cabin akin to the
Ritz. As long as you had the right selection and quantity of supply's, a stay
at the Augerhorn was far from ruffling it. The foundation was poured a meter
thick on solid bedrock and at four meters high had tons of room for storage of
supply's, ski, climbing , and safety gear, two battery powered snowmobiles, a
vault with an assortment of hunting rifles, and a nineteen sixties U.S. Army
Howitzer used for avalanche control. The outer dimensions at nine by nine
meters, giving slightly less than a thousand square feet per floor with three
floors of living space was like a palace to Geeze. Heat was provided by a
Norwegian style wood burning soapstone stove that had a radiant stone duct
assemble to the upper floors and doubled as a cook stove. A solar powered heat
plant had been added after 2016, as had a "smoke scrubber" which was
a simple solar powered device that removed any residual Co2 molecules from the
wood burning exhaust. Water was diverted from a spring fed stream that
essentially ran through the cabin and was heated by the soapstone stove and
pumped through the kitchen and bath rooms by hand pumps. The lower level
contained the kitchen, bath rooms, and soaker tub, the second level was living
and sleeping space, the third level was all bunk room with sleeping
arrangements for over a dozen guests.
In the month
of February 2023, Geeze and Freddy had intended to spend at least a month
hiking, camping, and skiing in the Augerhorn Glacier and surrounding area. They
had planned to take the four day ski in from Blue River, but then, Mike offered
them a lift, thus saving them gallons of sweat from days of climbing with their
Telemark gear and climbing skins. Geeze, unlike many of his peers, regarded the
climb as a necessary evil with the decent being the reward. He just didn't see
the wisdom of climbing to the top of a mountain unless you got to ski down.
They had enjoyed four weeks of awesome skiing with a couple three to five day
trips to some nearby peaks and three major dumps of over one and a half meters
each. One of the storms was so severe that they just had to hunker down in the
cabin for two days. When it finally cleared, Mike showed up in a Heli and said
"I thought you guys might like to take some steep, deep, and long runs
after being cooped up for two days". They spent the day making fresh
tracks down some of the most extreme faces in the Monashees in the best
conditions they had ever seen. Geeze had actually said "that was simply
the most awesome day of skiing I have ever had.......I could die tomorrow, and
be one completely satisfied and happy dude"!! It turned out to be a
prophetic statement considering that he lost his life in an avalanche less than
a week later.
It was a
warm evening with the smell of "summer woods" mixed with Lake
Michigan in the air as Jack, Annie G and Geno hiked to Shirley's along "
11 Lane" which was still one of the few payed roads in the bottom half of
the Garden Peninsula; paved road being a relative term since the asphalt from
the nineteen eighties had mostly deteriorated to what could be referred to as
gravel and was only about twelve feet wide to begin with. Needless to say, it
wasn't exactly on the beaten track. Jack suddenly felt a Pavlovian response when
he spotted the lights of Shirley's in the distance. It was a mixed feeling
combining the Oder of tequila, the warm and soothing effect that came on
quickly, with the less than enjoyable effects the day after his first visit to
Shirley's. There were a total of three trucks parked outside, all dating back
to pre two thousand and with homemade, jury rigged conversion kits. Most
"Youppers" were adamantly opposed to buying anything, much less new
vehicles, so most had converted their old trucks and snowmobiles to alternate
energy sources in their own garages. Geeze use to say that if there were three
things you didn't need to worry over about people in the U.P. it was taking
care of their trucks, snowmobiles, and guns. Shirley was a stout woman, of
Scandinavian decent who took shit from no one and was typical of the area. She
was in her mid seventies and had seen her share of roughness. She had been
married four or five times (no one really knew) and lived by herself in a cabin
about a quarter mile down a two track from the Bar surrounded by hardwoods and
on the shore on Big Bay De Noc. Although she was no longer married, she did
enjoy the company of gentlemen and certainly was not shy about taking home
whatever straggler happened to by left at closing time, which was completely
variable depending on her disposition at the time.
"Well
I'll be dipped in batter and fried in bacon fat" she exclaimed as Jack,
Annie G and Geno came in the door. "Just look at da too of you boys...ell
you look all growed up and like da big shots from da city dar". "No
need to worry about that Shirley, we're just the same scruffy boys you always
thought of us as". "Except now, we can drink more" Geno added.
"Well, dars nobody gonna be drinking nudin widoud dat od man off yours
paying me dat hundred he owes me......where is da Geeze anyway"?
"That's the bad news Shirley, he died in an avalanche ten years ago".
"Oh shit, I'm sorry to hear dat boys, you know how I loved your od
man". "Yea, and he loved you too, I'm pretty sure coming to visit you
was the main reason we sailed in here all those times when we were kids".
"Well, lets drink to da man, I say......what ll it be den, da legal stuff
or da special stuff". It had long been the practice to distill ones own
alcohol in the Garden Peninsula and Shirley had perfected the process beyond
measure. She made what Geeze had referred to as "the sweetest, smoothest,
strongest, sour mash whiskey in the entire fucking universe". "Oh, I
am pretty sure this calls for the special stuff" Jack confirmed. "You
know, I tink, I got some stuff dats over twelve years od down in da cellar
dare.....I'm gonna go grab it". When Shirley returned with two dusty
bottles and poured hefty shots all around, she finally said "and who's dis
pretty young ding, yous two boys got wid you"? "Shirley, this is
Annie G, Annie G, this is the world famous Shirley. "So what's a girl like
you doing wid da likes of dees two anyway"? "Just a sucker for
drunken sailors I guess" Annie G replyed. "Ohh..dat I hear loud and
clear...you are a woman after my own heart. If dees guys weren't charity cases,
we would even care bout dem. Day tink days smart boys but day don't know fuck
all when it comes right down to it". "Shirley, you are a woman of
wisdom" Annie G said as she quickly sipped down her snifter of Shirley's
excellent whiskey. They sat at the bar, talking and drinking for hours. They
reminisced past adventures, and Geno and Jack told Shirley what they had both
been up to for the past ten years. Shirley couldn't help but detect the slight
bit of tension in Jack's demeanor when at last she asked "so Jack, what da
fuck is going on wid you anyway"? Jack explained that the shit had been
hitting the fan back in D.C. And that somehow he felt mixed up in some sort of
clandestine conspiracy. He allowed as how this was far from the first time he
had been caught up in a political shit bomb, but that this time he got the
feeling that somthing big was happening and whatever it was, it was defiantly
not good. The real difference was that with past disasters he had pretty much
been able to figure what the heck was going to happen or at least what people
had in mind just from talking to them. This time, the ability to "get a
feel" of the situation and let his natural instinct figure things out had
eluded him. It had gotten to a point at which Jack got scared, so he had
bolted, and here he was. "You know, for the first time in six years, I got
freaked out and actually had the feeling that someone was after me. I had a
meeting with these PPPEP reps, or at least that's who they were supposed to be,
and I got this totally scary vibe...like they were defiantly not who they said
they were, and that they intended to do me no good. We have been lobbying for
the Global Energy Cooperation Act (GECA) for over a year now and it's had it's
share of resistance and the Trad's from the PTAV have been pushing hard for an
act to finish a formula they think will actually reverse the non combustability
of oil and reconstitute it for use. Depending on who you talk to, they claim to
ether have the formula already....or be really close. For a while, this all
just seemed like the same old political/ corporate bull shit, but after that
meeting, I got the distinct impression that something larger and more sinister
was going on. I figured it was better for me to hide out for a while and try to
enjoy myself than to end up missing, or dead, over something that I really
don't understand yet. So, I leave D.C. By car so nobody can locate a record of
where I'm going, I don't tell anyone that I'm leaving or anyone that I'm coming
here. I contact Annie G when I get back to our old cottage on Lake Leelanau and
she happens to be home and comes over, then we call Geno the next day and hop
on the Leading Lady and sail across the lake and anchor in Fayette harbor early
this morning.....that's about the extent of it". "Oh shit" said
Shirley, bouncing the palm of her hand off her forehead. "What" said
Jack. "I don't know, but da odher day, dees two guys come in..... And day
don't exactly look local, if ya know what I mean....well, I don't tink any ting
about dis cause I figure days just tourists or some ting. Day was drivin dis
new truck which I notice when day pulls up, and days dressed a bit too fancy
for dees parts ya know. Days making small talk ya know and days askin bout
visitors and such. Like I says, I don't tink too much bout it, but den, I'm
sure I seen dar truck cruse by again da next day or so....seemed kinna funny at
da time ahh, but den I just figure days city boys looking for some solitude".
"You gotta be fucking kidding me" blurted Geno as he set down his
glass..."you actually have spooks tailing you"? "Let's not jump
to conclusions quite yet" Jack replied "Shirley, any chance these
guys were just hunters, scoping out deer hunting spots"? "Could be
Jacky boy, but I seen plenty of dem guys and dees guy .........I don know......
Der was somthing different bout dem ahh". "Oh, that is just way too
far fetched" announced Jack "if these guys were actually after
me....how in the hell would they know to come here? I mean, I have left no
trail whatsoever; I have no tracking or location info out there; my personal
frequency wave is disabled; Sam and Ron are the only ones who have access to my
data and there is no location data......I didn't even mention what direction I
was going....for all they know I could br in Timfuckingtoo"!!!!!
"Still" said Geno. "Still what? There is no fucking way some
spooks could find me here". "Ok, just suppose that your feelings are
accurate, and that some big thing is going to go down. Then suppose that
whoever has a vested interest would naturally have substantial power, money,
resources, and connections. You with me so far? Good, then, it's not much of a
stretch to assume that whoever it is could do some basic research and make some
educated guesses regarding where they might find you. I'm guessing that your
old cottage on Lake Leelanau would be at the top of the list.....now, this
place here might be a bit farther down the list but ill bet it's on there. It's
fair to assume that the more motivated someone is about finding you, the
farther down the list they would be willing to go.......right"? "Yea,
maybe, but it still seems like a pretty big stretch to me". "I
know....right? It is a big stretch, but in light of what you have just told me,
it's also hard to believe these guys showing up right here right now is just
total circumstance". "You boys got a gun" Shirley asked as
nonchalantly as if she was asking if they wanted another round. "No"
replied Geno. “We’ll have to take care of dat" she said as she poured
another round of whiskey.
After the
bar closed down and the bottle of Shirley” most excellent whiskey was fully
consumed the four of them walked down the two track to Shirley’s cabin. The
term “walk” being used loosely in that it was more like a stager. “You kids
should probably spend da night here” Shirley announced with authority. “If
those bozos really are spooks after Jack, than chances are day have spotted da
boat and…….well….it’s best if you just stay here…aahh. “No argument here” Geno
slurred “I gotta fine a place to land this drunken body of mine before it
crashes”.
CHAPTER 4:
D.C. Shit hits the fan
“Any luck”
Ron asked Sam the instant he appeared at the office door. “Afraid not..He did
leave an encrypted message that he had to bolt. It seems that his last meeting
with some PPPEP guys really freaked him out. I don’t know if he is being
paranoid, or if he’s losing it, or if someone is actually meaning to do him
harm”. “Shit, this is no fucking good…No fucking good at all”. Unlike Sam who
had only known Jack for eight months, Ron had known Jack for six years. They
had tackled some of the hardest and at times hairiest assignments Ron had ever
known, together, and Ron had unmitigated confidence in Jacks abilities. “If
something has got Jack freaked out, then it’s defiantly not good”! “How do we
find him” Ron asked. “Not sure, I left him a message, but so far, no response.
He has his personal brain wave frequency disabled, and we have absolutely no
location data on him”. “That’s probably a plus…..If somebody is after Jack and
we have location data, than, they will most likely have location data and if
he’s in trouble, it’s best that no one have location data. Dam, I wonder what
the fuck he’s gotten into”. “Must have something to do with the GECA, I mean
what else could it be…..right”. Ron picked up the phone and got Dr Watson, Dr
Chang, Doug Matthies, who was one of Jack’s closest partners on the Hill, and
Dr J. Laura Jones who was taking lead on the GECA. The Global Energy
Cooperation Act was an international treaty proposed by a dozen of the most
developed (and advanced, as far as new energy technology integration and
effectiveness was concerned) Nations in the U.N. The gist of the treaty was
that it would outlaw all burning of fossil fuels once and for all. It would
also serve to provide a global commission for the monitoring of any Co2
emission and empower said commission with the authority to implement sanctions
and other punitive action against violators. Those opposing this treaty (including
certain elements of the U.S. Government) were mostly motivated by a desire to
reconstitute various fossil fuels and use them for various nefarious purposes.
Primary among these were of a military nature.
The immediate
impact of the 2016 visit from the eggheads that bestowed the most incredibility
advanced energy technology that saved our atmosphere and later rendered fossil
fuels noncombustible from a National Government Defense perspective was disaster.
All the most powerful, most sophisticated, largest militaries in the world were
extremely concerned due to the fact that a large percentage of their weapons of
war relied on fossil fuel consumption. While it was not a complete start over
(many weapons such as basic infantry, artillery, nuclear powered naval vessels
were still perfectly operable) it did serve to level the playing field for a
moment and give nations with a lesser military foot print the opportunity to
expand that footprint substantially if they harbored a desire to do so. A new
style of arms race had become one of the unintended consequences of the
benevolent actions taken on humanities behalf by the eggheads. Part of this
arms race, particularly with under developed countries, was the desire and
continued attempt to reconfigure the molecular structure and reconstitute
Carbon based fossil fuels in order to utilize decommissioned military hardware.
This global race to reboot militaries and reconstitute oil had been going on in
one way or another for the past sixteen years and was certainly not new news,
however the GECA which served to increase greatly the negative consequences of
engaging in this race had put a new light on an old situation.
“Charlie,
Linh, Laura grab Doug and anybody else you see who’s been working with Jack on
this GECA thing and get to the conference ASAP”. Ron hung up and turned to Sam
“what do you think”? “well sir, I have been working pretty close with Jack
recently” Sam started “and as far as I know the GECA has to pass through the
legislature and get approval to proceed to the United States Ambassador to the
United Nations for our support of the measure in the U.N. Security council. If
we can get support in the Security Council, which is expected to exist, then we
can move to the General Assembly for ultimate approval. If this all goes
through, it will most assuredly be a net positive and every interest we
represent is hoping that we can pull it off. Now, that being said, it’s not
like we don’t have any head winds. First, the People for Proper and Peaceful
Energy Production or PPPEP, which is basically just a bull shit front for a
bunch of old petroleum industry types, and a coalition of extreme conservative
Trads, have mounted an extensive opposition to the passage of this legislation.
While Jack has expressed some frustration with regard to these folks, I don’t
think he has ever really regarded them as a viable threat. President Kelly has
been pushing hard for passage and a majority of the Democratic Republicans, and
the Democratic Socialists are on board. Before he left, Jack had a bunch of
meetings with various committee chairs to garner support”. Sam went on to
explain that Congressman Derrick Bahley, who had won in Michigan’s 1st
district in 2014 and had worked his way to Chairmanship of Ways and Means and
was a staunch ally, had assured Jack of passage in the House. Senator Evin Bayh
of Indiana who had left the Senate in 2008 in total frustration and come out of
retirement in 2020 and was now majority leader in the Senate had basically
promised the same. “So, I don’t see any real danger coming from any of those
angles. I mean, Jack saw a lot of those guys as a pain in the ass, but
defiantly not dangerous”. “So, who has the most to gain from this Legislation
getting killed” Ron asked. “It’s probably not an interest in the U.S…..unless
it’s some kind of clandestine undercover shit. I mean it could be a conspiracy
of some kind but I can’t really see who stands to benefit….at least not enough
to justify the risk and certainly not enough to kill people. Of course it could
be an international thing; there are quite a few nations that could benefit
from a military and/or economical point of view from the ability to burn a
little oil and be able to use any weaponry or machinery that’s just sitting
around collecting dust”. “Did Jack ever mention anything like that….anything
that indicated he was aware of some kind of dirty work going on” Ron quizzed.
“He might not have even realized it was a clue” he added, suddenly realizing he
was talking about Jack Saffell who with his superior intuition, never let a
clue go by unrealized. “I don’t think so sir. Let’s face it, this is Jack we’re
talking about”. “Yea, Yea I know…..forget that last question. Come on, you’re
coming with me to the conference room. We are meeting with the wiz team and
trying to get to the bottom of this”.
By the time
Ron and Sam got to the conference room of the Environmental Alliance Group the
rest of the team had already assembled and were busy discussing exactly what
was bugging Ron enough to call this meeting. “Ok guys, here is what’s going on.
Sam is going to bring everyone up to speed then we are going to develop an
action plan and see if we can get to the bottom of this shit. Sam, you’re up”.
Sam went through the same details he had spelled out for Ron, answered several
dozen questions to the best of his ability and turned the floor back over to
Ron. For a guy just out of grad school who was just serving as an intern for
the past eight months, Sam was really surprised at the fact that he was being
included in an upper level meeting at EAG with guys who were arguably some of
the smartest guys in the world. “What countries do you think might be involved”
asked Dr Watson. Holy shit thought Sam; these guys are taking this seriously.
“I have a hot list on file; here I’ll pull it up for you”. A projected data
screen with various lists and spread sheets appeared in the middle of the
conference table. Sam reached over and moved some of the data groups around,
added another screen and organized while mumbling to himself for a minute. When
he was finished he turned back to face the group and said “this list here, are
the most likely to be involved in any energy conversion activities for a
variety of reasons; this list represents priorities from a military stand
point; this list is of outward or known hostiles and this final list is
comprised of any known groups, state sponsored or not, that have economic or
idealistic interest in ether energy conversion or “new tech” disruption.” “Good
work Sam” said Dr Watson, “hey Doug, you see any patterns here”? “Laura, what
about you, anything jump out at you”? “OK” Laura said “let’s try this”. She
quickly wrote an algorithm and plugged in the data. As images on the midair
transparent data screen flashed across she said “I just asked for a probability
study based on the info we have plus a probable hierarchy of priorities. I used
a bit of speculation and placed Power and/or enormous financial gain as top
priority. After that we have Religious ideology, Nationalism, and so on down
the line”. “Also I interfaced every entity, organization, or country that anyone
who met with Jack in the last two months is associated with”. What filtered out
on the data screen was a list of possible culprits and when cross referenced
with those who had contact with Jack, it made for a decent starting point for
investigation. “Good start guys” Ron said, “now, let’s figure out who or what
is after Jack and why.
Then we
figure out what their overriding agenda is and everyone who is involved. Than
we figure out just how to proceed to stop it without causing a shit storm or
getting anybody killed; not to mention trying to avoid an atmospheric melt down
and/or world war three”. “Ok, here is the action plan for now: Sam, you track
down everybody who Jack had contact with in the last two weeks. Cross reference
with Laura’s probability schedule and report back at our next meeting at 7:30
AM tomorrow. Charley, can you get the exact status of this GECA legislation
from a House, Senate, Special interest, and Executive point of view. I want to
know the name of every ass hole that ever even uttered the phrase Global Energy
cooperation Act. Call in every favor that’s owed you, or me for that matter and
find out just exactly who stands to gain and who stands to lose from this
shit”…..”Got it”? “Yes, I got it Ron” Dr Watson said. “Linh, you take the
international front. Do a total comb of our global data access and cross
reference with Laura’s data. I want the data to be fluid with Laura taking
command central and interning the data and adjusting the algorithms as we
filter the information. In twenty four hours I want to know just what the fuck
is going on. Dougy, you go find Jack, take a couple guys from security and
don’t take chances. If Jack contacts anybody patch him to me right fucking now.
If you can’t patch him to me, you tell him to stay secure and wait for Doug to
provide backup”. Ron finished up be asking “Anybody got anything to add”? Doug
requested an update of Jacks meeting schedule from Sam and they planned to do a
brief strategy session in Doug’s office. Doug also asked Jane Keen if she could
contact Max Cunningham and Tom Rum in the EAG security division. Dr.s Watson,
Chang and Jones spent a few minutes hashing out a few details and after
everybody was ready Ron said “Ok let’s hit it”.
“Jane, get
me the president’s chief of staff ASAP” Ron shouted to Jane Keen, his personal
assistant. “Ms Meng is on the line Ron” Jane said with the mix of respect,
sarcasm, affection, and wise assness that so totally became her. Grace Meng was
President Dr. Sarah Jane Kelly’s chief of staff. Ron thought of her as one
smart, shrewd, babe. She was fifty seven years old, had been elected to the
House in 2012 representing the 6th district of New York. She was a
Chinese American from Queens Y.N. and landed a seat of the foreign affairs
committee in her first term. After a third term she lost a bid for the NY
senate seat vacated by Senator Kristen Gillibrand. This was in 2018 and the
midterm election during President Santorum’s single term. The general trend had
been toward the right and several long held democratic seats were lost in the
transition. Of course this was two years before the Party break up and
rearrangement to the new three party statuses.
“Hey Grace its
Ron, you got a minute”. “Sure Ron, what’s on your mind”? “You know how we’ve
been lobbying for this GECA that your boss is all hot on”. “Yes Ron, you know
how happy we are to have your guys support”. “Well, my main guy on the hill
Jack Saffell seems to have run into some mysterious goings on”. Oh yea, I know
Jack, what’s he say is the problem”? “That’s the problem, he can’t say because
he seems to be missing. His aid Sam Marky says he got spooked by ether
something he found out while pushing for GECA support or somebody that may have
paid him a visit for the intended purpose of scaring him into bolting. We both
suspect the latter and I’m just wondering if you can shed any light on this for
me”? “I can talk to the boys at National security, and check with CIA. Let me
do some digging and get back with you. Do you have any suspicions yet”? “Not really,
we just developed and action plan and have the data bases filtering stuff right
now. We have run a couple algorithms but so far we are just guessing that
somebody has a big reason to kill the GECA and Jack must have stumbled on to
something they would rather he not know”. “So Ron, you want us in at this point”?
“Yea, I think so. We don’t have anything at all concrete, but, you know, if
there is something going on, at least the NSA should poke around. What do you
think Grace”? “I agree, when is your next briefing”? “7:30 AM tomorrow morning,
here, at the EAG conference room”. “I’ll send Peter Miller over to attend; will
you bring him up to speed”? We’ll do”. In the mean time I will see what’s up on
our end, CIA might have some info, let’s coordinate tomorrow”. Sounds good,
Thanks Grace”. Ron said. “Jane, get me Dougy will ya”? “Yes boss, he’s on”.
“Hey Doug what’s up”? “I got Max and Tom meeting me in an hour at the airport.
I have the pilots ready; we are taking the Bombardier 260 and should be in
Traverse City two and a half hours from now. We ran a few software samples and
his old cottage on Lake Leelanau is a high probability for where he’s gone. We
are getting continuous data updates from Laura and are feeding back anything we
find. Hopefully he’s there and we can scoop him up. Then all we’ll have to
worry about is if there is monkey business going on, Which is a hell of a lot
better than worrying about the safety of one of our own”. “I hear you there
Dougy, good luck and be careful”.
Dr
J. Laura Jones was a genius with a 200 plus IQ as well as being a drop dead
beauty. She was not the kind of Alpha female that needed to be in charge. In
fact she possessed the kind of inner confidence and utter serenity that she
could solve the most complex of problem without anyone noticing and not give it
a second thought. She liked Jack and was impressed with his intellect and his
dry and quite sense of humor. She was seated in her office at EAG headquarters
and had five different screens projected in the air. She was using voice
activation and typing at the same time. With her IQ and super connected
Neocortex Laura was actually able to perform up to five activities at a single
time…at least from a brain activity stand point. She was also communicating
with Dr Watson, Sam, Doug, Ron, Jane and Dr Chang along with at least a dozen
others on a pretty much continual basis. She could do this just by thinking
about the proper connection protocol and talking; conferencing in as many
people as she wanted was no problem. She chuckled when she thought about the
days when one needed to hold a box to ones ear to communicate. As she was
speeding through screen after screen of data and information she suddenly
froze. Humm....this is interesting she said to herself.
Since
2016 the nations of the world engaged in a lot of jockeying for position on the
world stage. Some countries were much quicker to embrace new technology as it
became available.
Others,
slower to switch from traditional petroleum based industry, energy, transportation
and military, had to play catch up in order to maintain their status in the
world economic order. Pre 2016 saw the U.S. as the world's largest economy
followed by China, Japan, Germany, France, Brazil, Italy, India, Russia,
Canada, Australia, Spain, Mexico, South Korea, Indonesia, Netherlands, and
Turkey. As a result of the rapid building of new infrastructure and adoption of
new and advanced technologies, the world economic ladder had changed a lot. The
U.S. and China remained the largest since the U.S. was just so much larger than
the rest of the world to begin with and China by nature of its raw size of
population and strong upward trend for the previous two decades. Turkey moved
into third, India forth, Canada and Australia, fifth and sixth. Japan, once the
second largest economy in the world, moved to seventh.
Turkey
was on the cutting edge of the new technology implementation right out of the
gate. The Turks had way more motivation to establish new energy technologies
than just about any other country on the planet. The Turkish government being
the only secular, free, parliamentary democracy in the area, had always been a
bit nervous about being surrounded by mostly wacked out dictators, monarchy's,
tribal war lords, war torn fragile states, and out and out anarchy. Since Mustafa
Kemal Ataturk founded the modern secular Republic of Turkey in 1923, It had
found itself smack in the middle of some of the most bizarre and deadly
regional conflicts in history. Turkey had once been the cradle of civilization
and the Fertile Crescent where by most every measure civilization had begun. It
was the first society to grow crops and domesticate beasts of burden to perform
tasks, and provide dairy, eggs, and meat. The first society to be free from the
all consuming hunt for food and have time to develop government, artisans, and
philosophy. The Ottoman empire of Turkey lasted for 623 years, from July 27,
1299 to
November 1, 1922 and influenced much of the western world; longer than the
Roman Empire; longer than the British Empire; longer by far than the U.S. had
been the predominate influence in world power and economics. By far the most
overriding reason for Turkey's immediate and fully fledged adoption of all the
new advancements and technology was that for sixty six years they had been the
only Middle East country without substantial oil reserves. For sixty six years
Turkey had been surrounded by oil rich, hostile neighbors, who they depended on
for their energy needs, but who generally ran completely counter to Turkey's
philosophy of secular democracy. The government and people of Turkey had grown
tired of being both nervous and pissed off about living next to countries like
Syria, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and a bunch of other ass hole countries
that wanted to fry there asses. Since all the surrounding Petro- Dictators had
little more going for them than an abundance of oil and a really bad attitude,
Turkey was just itching to tell its neighbors where they could stick their oil
and exercise a little ass kicking.
Within
the first year following the Alien visit which promised to advance human
civilization beyond measure, the Turks went into full production of all readily
available new- tech energy production facilities. They geared up research and
devoted every resource they could muster toward furthering all the
technological advancements that the eggheads had granted to humanity. Along
with total revamping of their energy infrastructure - and selling this
perfected technology to other nations- re-powering their military, implementing
nationwide healthcare using new technology and greatly enhancing their
artificial intelligence capabilities and Internet, they also utilized new-tech
desalination and turned what had become an arid desert back into the Fertile Crescent
it had once been. By the year 2032 Turkey had become a net exporter of food,
computers (which were now implantable into just about anything due to nano
tech) automobiles, and assorted other forms of transportation. A dozen
companies in five different countries had experimented with and produced a
variety of "flying cars" that could hover to at least a hundred
meters and travel at one hundred miles an hour without terrestrial constraints;
however they posed a whole additional problem of infrastructure and regulating
traffic flows. The biggest problem was the development of integrated computer
software so people didn't fly around crashing into each other. Besides this was
just in its infancy and not legalized for personal use.
Most
of the area known as the Middle East had fallen into utter chaos in the decade
following 2016. After a decade of anarchy and confusion most of the former
countries of the Middle East had been annexed to ether Turkey, Israel, or
India. Both Israel and India, along with neighboring Pakistan had followed the
path of Turkey. India and Pakistan, once arch enemies had signed a treaty of
cooperation sharing technology and military to establish order and end the
conflict between tribal war-lords which erupted and continued throughout the
decade following 2016. It turns out, that the ideological hatred between
citizens of India and Pakistan had little basis after humanity had learned that
all of their individual ideas of religion were mistaken. While differences in
religious ideology had been taken out of the picture as a reason for conflict; it’s
not to say that self interest no longer existed....because it did at every
level of society just as it always had. The global balance of power had indeed
shifted, but there remained no lack of national interest around the globe.
Russia, being an oil rich nation and having once provided over one third of
Europe's natural gas was now a waste land. Their corrupt government that was
still controlled by Vladimir Putin in 2016 was simply to ineffective to
implement any kind of efficient sweeping change. Once fossil fuels became
non-computable, Russia started down the tubes and after only a few years they
had become the vagrant, homeless, crack-head, drunken, bum of countries. The
fact that the United States had managed to finally get its collective shit
together and maintain its position as a global economic and military leader was
nothing short of miraculous. After four years of social bickering and political
blundering under President Santorum, it found itself playing catch up. Were it
not for its previous power and economic strength, along with lots of tech help
from its ally's Australia, Great Britain, the E.U. and Canada the U.S. might
well have found itself in Russia's shoes and been the beggars of the world.
Brazil had lost some traction, but regained its status due largely to its
generous mineral deposits. Eggheads had given humanity the ability to
synthesize whatever was necessary to achieve energy without fossil fuels,
however it was discovered that many of the requisite materials could be
extracted from the earth thus saving the time and expense of synthesizing.
Brazil and the lower half of the African continent were found to be rich in
such minerals. Of course no one bothered to recognize that we had previously
behaved in exactly the same way regarding oil and should have learned a lesson
after aliens showed how to get along without it. Ah but such was the nature of
human behavior and even though the eggheads had granted mankind a few tricks on
how to survive, they probably didn't intend to force humanity to save itself.
Dr.
Nisen Berfin Hamarat was in her lab at the Istanbul headquarters of the EAG.
She had been with the organization for sixteen years now and was responsible
for much of the data they had banked regarding human migration since 2016.
There had been a sizable refugee migration overland in search for food early
on, but irrigation technology combined with desalination had food production in
places like sub Saharan Africa possable, and global famine was quickly becoming
a thing of the past. The U.S. along with a host of developed countries had
eventually adopted open immigration policies that prompted large movements of
humanity in a rather short person of time. This sort of modern migration had
obvious environmental and economic impact and the EAG was keen to study and
record the effects.
Dr.
Hamarat or Fin as she was known by her friends and associates was a profession
of Human Geography. She had studied human migration from the time humans first
started to migrate out of central Africa and populate the globe. She was
intrigued by the movement of people; where they moved, when they moved and why.
She had once explained to Ron Smith and Dr Watson that if you take a model of
the earth or any part of it and pour a fluid, say water, over it; the water
will simply follow the laws of physics so if you know these laws than the flow
of the water will be easy to predict. Now, if on the other hand you were to
replace the water with people.....well then you have an infinite number of
variables to weigh and consider. In some instances the people may simply follow
the flow of the water, that is to say "follow the path of least
resistance" just as every molecule will do according to the laws of
physics, however it is equally possible that they take a different path; one
with more resistance thus defying the laws of physics. "People are funny
that way" was a favorite saying of hers. "What motivates a people to
take the path of more resistance" she asked? "Is it food, water,
shelter or more comfortable climate...sure...is it chance, luck, human
curiosity, or something more....who knows". One thing that Dr Watson and
Ron Smith knew for sure was that Fin knew more about this stuff than anybody
else on the planet and that this information was useful stuff to have. Fin had
every major human migration (major meaning over one hundred thousand people moving
in five years or less) committed to memory and what she didn't have in her
head, she had in a data base that had taken her ten years to compile.
“Hey Fin, This is Laura”. “Hi Laura…here let me pull
you up on visual”. “Oh god no” said Laura “whoever thought it was a good idea
to actually see each other while talking from miles away was a dick head”.
Laura had been working nonstop in her office for the last sixteen hours and
felt like shit. She was convinced that she looked like shit too, even though it
would take a lot more than a sixteen hour work bee to make her look anything
less than stunning. “I hear ya sister” fin replied “I use to work from home all
day long in my cozy pajamas and goofy animal slippers and talk with people all
over the world until we started using visual calling. I once had an emergency
conversation with the Prime Minister of Sweden and his staff for two hours in
my PJs and the hoody I use to paint in….now I have to get all dressed up for a
freaking phone call”. “Technology… got to love it”. “Ok Laura, I guess I
wouldn’t want to trade getting dressed for a business call, for say Polio or
Small Pox or any of those stupid diseases that we have cured and people use to
die from.”….”but I still like to conduct business in my cozy PJs”. “Now that we
have solved the world’s most pressing problems like video conferencing and
proper at home business attire, what else is there for us to conquer”. “I want
you to run some analysis on some migration that’s going on in all the countries
north of a line from Turkey running east to China including the north coast of
the Caspian Sea”. “So, you are talking about Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan right”? “That’s right”.
“Well you know Laura that there has been a fourteen year general migration to
the south in all those areas due largely to the continually degenerating
conditions in Russia. Lots of folks out in the boonies got cut off when the
fossil fuel stopped working. I’ve tracked this stuff for a while and it appears
mostly like folks moving south in search of food, shelter and a warmer
climate”. “Yea, I’m with you on that, but I noticed a more recent and much
larger move and that’s what I’m interested in. Of course I have got nowhere
near the kind of data that you have and that’s why I’m wondering if you can
check it out for me. I want to know if it’s real, and if it is….why”. “Hey Laura,
that’s no problem but……..what the heck is going on”? “It’s kind of need-to-know
stuff but I can tell you that Jack Saffell is missing and I think the GECA has
something to do with it”. “Missing?? What the fuck do you mean missing”? “I
mean that nobody has been able to get in contact with him for three days and he
left Sam a message that something or somebody had spooked him so he was going
to bolt and hide out for a while. I’m pretty sure he’s ok, but we want to make
sure and Ron wants to know just what the heck is happening. It could just be
that Jack is just being paranoid and silly, but then it could be some kind of
covert shit that had something to do with the GECA. We’re not unaware of the
fact that if that treaty goes into effect that some people stand to lose. Now I
would argue that they are generally the bad guys and we want them to lost, but
I’m sure that if there is something to all this that those guys will feel
differently than me”. “What do you think the area we’re talking about has to do
with this”. “I really have no clue, just following up on any little thing I
notice that’s different”. “Well, you got it sister, I sure hope Jacks ok. Maybe
he’s just hanging out fishing and drinking, you know he’s been known to do that
from time to time”. “I hope so to Fin, I’ll keep you posted. Send me that data
as soon as you can, Ok”. “Right, talk to you soon”.
“Humm, I wonder what’s going on” Fin uttered to
herself….”let me see”….She moved a few screens around, sent a few more commands
with the keyboard, made a few more adjustments with voice command that said
“Ok, run this one” After a few minutes of filtering she found herself staring
at a screen of data that surprised the shit out of her. In the last one and a
half years eight million, seven hundred and sixty two thousand and five
hundred, plus or minus two hundred people had migrated south to an area within
one hundred kilometers of the southern borders of all the countries of the list
Laura had given her. This was an area about fifteen hundred kilometers long, so
and area of about one hundred and fifty thousand sq. kilometers. “What the
hell” she thought “what the hell are a eight million people doing moving into
an area of only a hundred and fifty thousand sq. kliks”? “Hey missy (her name
for her artificial intelligence or computer as people use to call them) better
get a hold of Laura again”.
That
was quick". "I just ran a preliminary algorithm and it looks like a
lot of people are moving south. It's sure a lot more than you average refugee
migration......and I really don't think that's what it is". "Any
military"? "Don't know.....but I doubt it". "Ok, can you
get demographics"? "Maybe...at least an overview". "Good,
if we got a bunch of twenty something's that could spell trouble".
"Let's just see, if it's propagated by need, we'll see a pretty diverse
age range, but I can't imagine anything that the area north of Georgia,
Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan has to offer in the way of relief".
"I don't see it as offering much in the way of anything"."I
gotta agree with ya there Laura.....I'll get on it now". "Start with
Sat images". "Just what are we looking for" Fin asked. "Im
not sure, but when half the number of people that moved into the U.S. last year,
move into an area that's basically inhospitable for no perticular reason.....it
makes me wonder". "It's got my curiosity working, that's for
sure". "Thanks Fin, I'll talk to you in a few".
CHAPTER
5: BEAVER ISLAND. Singing the Blues
"Ok
you lazy bums, time to get up" Shirley yelled into the bunk room of her
cabin where Jack and Geno had crashed. Annie had laid up a fire in the wood
stove and slept next to it on a couple fur rugs. She and Shirley had let the
boys sleep for a couple hours after they had gotten up. They sat in the kitchen
and drank coffee ate bacon, and some biscuits with Shirley's homemade honey.
They talked about what had been going on lately and shared their own
perspectives on how life had changed dramatically in the last sixteen years.
Shirley allowed as how she had not really been affected by all the new
technology that much one way or the other. Most folks on Garden Peninsula had
precious little use for high technology unless it involved a better way to
distill booze, poach a deer, or maybe build a better meth lab. She did however
recall a kid that got thrown off his four wheeler and was paralyzed from the
waist down over near Garden. His family took him to U of M medical center for a
stem cell transplant and had his own DNA marked nerve/ stem cell precursors
injected. The procedure was a sucess and now the kid is back riding his four
wheeler in a drunken stupor every night......such were the social achievements
in the modern Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Drinking and driving- whether cars,
ORVs, dirt bikes, or snowmobiles- was regarded as proper sport, in the U.P. so
was drinking and shooting. Shirley considered it as humorous that riding around
on a quad runner shooting holes in abandoned refrigerators was held in such
high regard by most of her costumes. She had once tried using an old discarded
walk-in freezer as a smoke house. She made good money selling smoked fish,
beef, and venison jerky until it was too full of bullet holes to hold the
smoke. None of the locals actually intended any financial harm to Shirley, it's
just that they all understood that any appliance placed out of doors for a week
or more was simply intended to have holes shot into it. In a matter of weeks
Shirley had realized the folly of her action and built a cement block smoke
house instead. She also dragged the bullet hole ridden freezer out into the
field next door for further pot shots until it was more bullet hole air than
metal. One of the unintended consequences of owning a bar in Garden Peninsula
was amassing a huge collection of firearms. As Shirley explained to Annie G as
they stepped into her gun room. "Ya see dar sweetie, da only thing most of
dees boy got dats worth a darn is dar guns, and da only thing day likes more
den dar guns is dar booze". "So.....if they got no money
left......" Annie said...."dats right sweetie I gets da only ting
dats worth a shit......dar guns". "Holy shit, and you do have some
guns don't you" Annie G announced as she stepped in the room. "So, I
just start to collecting dem, now let's see here, you'll be needin one a dees,
and one a dees.........".... By the time Jack and Geno had poured their
first cup of coffee Annie G had a duffel with a 5" Glock 9mm with two, 17
shot quick change clips (Glocks were a favorite in the U.P. due to the fact
they could shoot in sub zero temps, and underwater) a Colt model 1911 .45 ACP
(45s were another favorite due to the fact that they left the biggest holes in
refrigerators and road signs) two Savage sawed off 12 gauge shotguns, a
Browning BAR .308 Win. With 14x Nikon scope, and a U.S. Marine issue M4 full
auto with 8x night scope and grenade launcher. "Jesus fucking Christ, Shirley,
we're not going to invade North Korea ya know". North Korea had been a
running joke for the past twenty years. Former NBA star Dennis Rodman had made
several visits to North Korea during the early rule of Kim jun Un. People in
the U.S. thought he was just a nut case- which he was- and figured he was just
going for weird publicity, but as it turned out he was nuttier that anyone
thought. On his final visit he had somehow smuggled in a bunch of weapons and
explosives. He had also found accomplices and managed to assassinate Kim and at
least two dozen of his closest Generals. Of course, this spelled the end of the
Rod, but the ultimate result was a total breakdown of the totalitarian
government and reunification of the Korean Peninsula under the democratic
government of the south.
"We'll
ya never know when ya gonna need a friend...dats what I always say. Jump in da
land Cruiser and I'll give ya a lift to da boat". They all climbed into
Shirley's Toyota Land Cruiser and Shirley drove them down to where their dingy
was tied. "You boys take care of dat lady now" and sent them on their
way with a duffel full of fire arms and a couple bottles of Shirley's best
whiskey. "Excellent combination" thought Jack "welcome to the
U.P." . As they climbed on board, Jack pulled the Colt out of the duffel
and tucked it in his belt, then pulled the cork from one of the bottles and
took a long swig. He handed it to Geno who followed with a healthy swig of his
own and proceeded to tuck the Glock in his belt. "You guys think you're
Butch fucking Cassidy and the Sundance Kid or something"? Asked Annie G as
she grabbed the bottle, not to be outdone by Jack or Geno, and took her five
second gulp. "More like the three Musketeers I guess.... And what piece do
I get"? "Here you take the Glock, it's more of a chick gun anyway,
I'm more of a sawed off savage kind of guy" said Geno as he handed her the
9mm and took the sawed off twelve gauge out of the duffel, popped a couple 00
buck, three and a half inch nitro shells in the chamber. He thought to himself
about how hard a double aught, three and a half inch load had kicked in his
Benellie Super Back Label when Goose hunting and shuttered at the thought of
what would happen if he had to pull the trigger on this gun with the same load
but with the barrel and stock sawed off. "Holy shit, I hope I don't have
to shoot anybody with this thing" he said out loud. "And you got one
for each hand" Annie laughed. Geno had dropped greater Canadian geese from
fifty yards with the same load and a modified choke and was sure about one
thing; anyone within a twenty yard circumference even in the general vicinity
of a shot from this thing was toast.
"So
now that we are equipped like seal team six, where the heck do you guys wanna
go"? "Beaver Island" Jack and Annie said together. "So,
what the heck are we still doing here, let's get the main up and pull this anchor".
"On it boss" they both yelled as Jack went forward to the windless
and Annie started to hoist the mainsail. Geno went to the helm and turned to
port as the half raised main filled and Jack quickly took in the anchor road.
As soon as the boat had passed over the anchor, it broke free and Jack yelled
"FREE" as he brought up the anchor and secured it on the anchor
roller. Geno swung the helm to starboard into the wind and Annie G hoisted the
mainsail the rest of the way. Geno turned back off the wind, sheeted in the
main, and unfurled the jib as Jack arrived back in the cockpit to put some
wraps on the primary winch and grind in the jib sheet till it was trimmed out
perfectly. "Next stop...Saint James Harbor..... Now, lets have some beer
on deck please".
Saint
James was named after King James Jesse Strang, the self professed Mormon king
of Beaver Island from 1848 till his assignation in 1856. Strang had been party
to the struggle for power in the Mormon Church after the assignation of its
founder Joseph Smith, between him, Bringham Young and Sidney Rigdon in Nauvoo
Illinois. King James had twelve thousand followers and over the course of the
next three years had found his way to Beaver Island where he founded his Mormon
Kingdom and reigned for eight years. To say that Strang was a nut case would be
an understatement, however he seemed to possess the kind of charisma and
eloquent oratory skills that allowed him to not only act as king of his own
island but actually get elected to and serve for a term and a half in the
Michigan State House of Representatives. As it turns out, he probably should
have counted his blessings and enjoyed his success, rather than helping himself
to the wives of his followers, which turned out to be a very bad idea. His
kingdom came to an abrupt end when two of his disgruntled followers shot him
down in broad daylight on the pier in Saint James Harbor. Since the villages on
the mainland had suffered pilfering at the hands of the Mormons for eight
years, after the word of King James’s death, they mounted an assault on the
island and routed all the remaining Mormon "subjects". Since then,
the population has consisted of a mixture of Irish, and Scandinavian,
immigrants and Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. Beaver has been the only island with
a full time population in the Great Lakes since 1856, and it's history has been
sorted to say the least.
To
say that Beaver Island was an island of misfits would be an understatement and
Geeze fit in perfectly. He had sailed to Saint James many times with Geno and
Jack. The Island had a large population of what we now call “little
people" but Geeze called midgets. They sailed miniature twelve meter
sailboats in competition around Saint James harbor and often Geeze had sailed
through the fleet when coming into Saint James. He was always amazed at their
sailing skill and loved it when they brought the Leading Lady in while a race
was going on. The Shamrock was Geeze's favorite watering hole and the boys had
seen their fair share of drunks and bar fights between inebriated Native
Americans and the hot blooded Irish immigrant descendants. One hundred years of
inbreeding did produce a few character traits like eyes being a bit too close
together and a somewhat nasty disposition. Jack seemed to think it could be a
perfect place to hide out, at the very least it would be entertaining.
They
had sailed out from Poverty Island Passage around noon and set a course for the
south end of Beaver, rounding the south end by seventeen hundred hours. The
wind was gusting to twenty knots out of the southwest so they popped the kite
when they turned north at the south end of the Island. It only took a couple
hours to sail the length of the island and turn back west into St. James
Harbor. They gibed to port and flew the spinnaker to within thirty feet of the
township dock. They doused the kite, Annie and Jack ran forward to collect it
on deck and Geno guided the Lady into a slip with the main sheeted out and
dropped it just before turning to enter the slip. Geno tossed a line on the
spring pile as they coasted by and Jack jumped to the dock and caught lines as
Annie tossed them to him. Within a minute they were fast and safe at the dock.
"The Eagle Has Landed" Jack shouted! "Cocktails anyone"?
"Thought you'd never ask" was the reply in perfect unison.
After
a few drinks and finishing all the required tidying up they all found
themselves in the cockpit sipping their Rum "pain killers" and
chatting with each other and several friends that had passed by to welcome them
back. "So Jack, aren’t you a bit freaked about Shirley spotting some
strange dudes in the neighborhood"? "Yea does seem a bit strange,
doesn't it"? "You actually think there is a connection"?
"Shit....I don't know....I mean, one the one hand it's kind of farfetched
to think there is actually someone tailing me, but on the other hand, strangers
in Fayette that would get Shirley's attention......I don't know. Anyway it
really doesn't matter since we bolted and even if they were keeping an eye on
me...they're not any more..right"? "Right"! "So, I say we
go to the Shamrock, get a fat greasy burger, see if Denny and Beans are
playing, and get totally baked again.... What da ya say"? "I'm
in" said Geno "I think the last time I was here with the Geeze and
Denny and Beans were playing at the Shamrock was the most bakedest I have ever
been". "Is that even a word, or did you just make that up" Annie
G said as she came out of the companion way, catching the tail end of the
conversation". Geno did have a propensity for making up his own words.
"Hey...it's a word...look it up... You got baked...them more
bakeder...than most bakedest". "Easy for you to say, he who speaks
fluent Beaver Islandish" Annie retorted in her best smart assed
inflection.
Sure enough,
as if time had stood still, when they approached The Shamrock, they heard the
familiar sound of Denny Kline on the Drums and singing "Shot Gun" by
Jr. Walker and The All Stars. "Dam, it's as if nothing ever changes round here"
Jack said as they reached the door. Beans was playing guitar and singing,
Johnny Bag-a-doughnuts on keyboards, brother Dick Rutherford on the bass, and
of course Denny on drums. This had been the same weekend line up at the
Shamrock for the last twenty years more or less. There had been a few changes
in the line up over the years and of course lots of different guys “sitting
in" on various occasions but these four guys had been the mainstay and
they were one tight, hard rockin, badass band. They had gone by several band
names over the years; the Shiners, The Drunks, Phil Dirt and the Dozers, but
most folks just knew them as the shamrock band. They did gigs over on the
mainland on occasion in various towns in the northern lower peninsula. Every so
often they would take a three day gig down state, ether in Annarbor or East
Lansing at one of the collage clubs. It was real good money and they always
packed the house. In the summer though, they preferred to stay on Beaver and
play weekends at the Shamrock. Shawn Conner who owned the Shamrock had vast
empirical data that he could bring in three times as many people with good
music and more importantly that everybody regardless of sex, age, race, or
color.... drank three times more booze when they were dancing and listening to
rock and roll.
"Well
you going to get your ass up here and play some music or what" Denny said
through the PA just as they ordered drinks. "Good to see you boys"
said Shawn as he served up three shots of Patron and Dos Equis beers. "So
geno you up for a few tunes, sounds like the gang's not going to let you off
the hook". Geno was a top notch guitar player and a darn good singer who
had played for a living on and off since middle school. He had also been in a
band with Denny four three years and sat in with the shamrock band many times.
"What do ya say Annie G , should I play some music with these
losers"? "That all depends on what you intend to sing for us"
she replied. "A little Wilson Picket perhaps"....."Stones
maybe" she said. He replied with
a rather
snide " ah yes, the Stones, I can't believe their still doing it after all
these years, wow, you know........Fred...Barney...Wilma... Dino. "HEY
Denny, how bout we start with a little Gimmie Shelter, boys". "You
got it man, then let's break into some Midnight Hour" Denny said as he
handed Geno a Fender Telecaster. Geno toasted jack and Annie, slammed his
patron, took a swig of his Dos Eques and jumped on stage. One, two, three,
four.........
"What
you been up to anyway" Shawn asked Jack. "Oh, just sailing, fishing,
drinking, eating, and ummmmm........". "Fucking?? Is that what you
were going to say" interrupted Annie G. "Yea, that's it, that's the
ticket" Geno finished. "Well alrighty then, same shit you always been
doing". "Actually Shawn, I've been in D.C for six years now and doing
an environmental lobbyist gig. Seemed pretty cool till just a few days ago. We
are kind of on the lamb, so to speak, and tiring to hide out from these guys
who I figure are out to get me". "Shit man, who are they? Want me to
put the Gillespie boy on um". "I would pity the fuckers then, that's
for sure, but I'm not so sure that'll be necessary just yet". "Thanks
though, I might have to take you up on that one"
"Going
to wait till the midnight hour"... "He hasn't lost a thing has
he"? Shawn said to Annie G as Geno broke into his second song. "Oh,
he's still got it going on that's for sure". "Jackie boy, better take
me to that dance floor". "Let's do da boogaloo baby".
The bar was
full, as was the the dance floor. By the end of the night the Shamrock dance
floor resembled something more along the lines of a demolition derby or at
least bumper cars than a dance floor. Twelve years before, Geno was driving a
van to the back door with Denny and Beans when it broke through a sink hole and
dropped right to the rear axle. A dozen drunks came out of the bar and lifted
it right out of the hole and carried the van right to the back door. Later that
same night, as Geno was ripping an incredible solo he heard the applause and looked
up to see an inebriated Native American dancing on a table top with his pants
down. By one thirty the place was so wild that Shawn had o pull the power cord
and shut the bar own early. After he had packed up his gear, Geno had gone
outside where at least twenty five people were sitting around drinking and
getting stoned; the local Cop had pulled up and gotten out of his car. He had
suggested that the party break up and everyone head home. Geno who had learned
that it was best to do what a police man asks, was standing up to move along
when a girl in the crowd yelled "fuck you Fred". The next thing he
knew he was at Bean's house at a party that lasted till dawn, drinking and
eating hash brownies.
Beans' great
grandfather had invented the locking ratchet wrench and held the patient. His
original company had become Snap-on-tools which went public back in the mid
seventies and made his whole family billionaires. Beans had inherited a bundle
when he turned eighteen, and after half a dozen years of school and various
adventures he wound up on Beaver Island. He purchased a large portion of
property along the west shore, built a very cool house on the beach, built a
state of the art recording studio, and a couple of green houses in which he
grew all the vegetables he and all his friends could possibly consume and
several varieties of the most potent, high grade, dube in the world. His
recording studio was equipped with state of the art digital ability as well as
an original Ampex ART-124 twenty four track, two inch tape recorder, built in
1977, a year before it's commercial production. He had purchased the Ampex from
a private collector who had bought the machine from Don Henley of the Eagles.
It had been built as a proto-type to replace the sixteen track machines being
used in most L.A. Studies at the time. The Eagles were the first band to record
on this new machine and the result was the album Hotel California. Henley had
bought the machine from the Record Plant Studios in L.A. In 1995 when they went
belly up and had it completely and meticulously restored. A billionaire private
collector had bought the machine when Henley died to use in his private studio
and had kept it in prefect working order. When it was installed in Beans'
studio it was as if it was brand spanking new. Over the years several top notch
bands had recorded at “Saint James Sound Studio" as it was known including
Glen Frye who was originally a Detroit boy before moving to L.A. and forming
The Eagles. Also Bob Segar who was a sailer and had visited Beaver Island for
years. Ted Nugent had wanted to record a solo album in November of 2015 and do
some deer hunting with his bow, but Beans told him to stick it because everyone
on Beaver thought Ted was a dick head. Not that folks on Beaver were opposed to
taking a few deer whether in season or not, because they did it all the time,
it was just that Ted was such a blow hard about it. Geno had jammed at Beans
studio numerous times; he cut two CDs of his own material, playing all the
instruments himself except drums and some background vocals. He had also joined
in on a couple CDs of the Shamrock Band and played guitar and mandolin on a
dozen or so other projects by bands from all over the world that came to Saint
James to record. Before his untimely death Geeze had even sat in with the boys
and laid down a few tracks. Geeze was a hell of a harmonica player. He
preferred the country and folk stuff but could blow a mean blues harp and was
usually amenable to rocking out if plied with a few bourbons.
"So, you
guys want the guest house" beans asked? "That would be awesome"
answered Annie G. "How long are you hanging out"? "Not exactly
sure yet, we are kind of in limbo for the moment". "Lets jump in the
jeep, we can go get your stuff at the boat tomorrow. Is everything all battened
down"? "Yup, let's go". "Hey, you drunk bags, I scored us a
pad, you ready to go?" "Shawn just set us up with a patron and a Dos
Equies". "Oh, so two minutes then". "That will just about
do it". They all hopped in Beans' Jeep and headed south down the King's
Highway. About eight miles down they took a right heading west down Beans' six
mile long drive. Beans' was a bit on the eccentric side and did enjoy his
privacy so he had a bunch of surveillance and security installed. A bunch of
residential grade security probably couldn't do squat to stop any real
professional spook from unfettered and unnoticed access to whatever he might
want, however Beans' four Great Danes would probably draw attention to anything
that moved.......and like everyone on the Island....Beans has firearms.....lots
of firearms.
Upon
arriving at the compound Beans called home Annie G climbed out of the jeep and
declared "I'm pretty darn beat, this has been a crazy couple of days. I'm
hitting the hay" she turned to jack "going to join me, or are you
boys going to drink till dawn"? "Hey baby, I love my friends and I
love to drink but I just love you more". "Your sincerity is wanting
Jackie boy, but I'll take you anyway". "Night guys" Beans said,
than turned to Geno “nightcap"? " Whatdaya got" Geno answered.
"Whatdaya want". "How's about a snifter of 1959 Sandmen Tauney
Port". "Coming up, meet you on the back deck". "You are my
hero". Geno headed to the deck and had a seat in one of the Adirondack
rockers. There was a slight warm breeze out of the west with six inch waves
lapping on the beach which was only about thirty feet from the back deck. The
sky was spectacular with a crescent new moon, super bright stars and the Milky
Way running diagonal across the sky. The combination of warn summer breeze
smell, the sound of waves lapping the shore and the visual splendor overhead
created a sense of total serenity. " "Dude, I completely get why you
live here. This is almost perfection". "Ok buddy boy maybe this will
take out the almost" Beans said as he handed Geno his glass of Port.
“Umm…that is delicious man. I am sorry I am so buzzed already, because the
warm, fuzzy glow that only a fine Port or a find brandy gives is one of life’s
true pleasures, and I am totally wasting it by pouring it on top of this
tequila, rum and beer buzz”. “Stop with the negative vibes man. Just enjoy the
moment, oh and fill me in on what’s going on.” “Well……..I don’t even see Jack
for two years, I mean we talk and email or skype every couple weeks or so but
he had been super busy for the last six years in D.C. and hasn’t been back to
Michigan for the whole time. The only reason I saw him two years ago was that I
was in D.C. delivering a boat up from Key West to Willington Delaware and
stopped to see him for a couple days. Annie G, I had not even talked to for a
year or so since her last stint on that NOAA research vessel. Anyway a few days
ago, I am logging a few hours of work and I get a call from Jack; he and Annie
G are in Omena having lunch and say “let’s go sailing”. How of course, I am not
surprised because we are all rather spontaneous nut cases…..and we know it…. So
I don’t miss a beat and say “sure, meet me there in an hour”. Next thing you
know we are heading for Fayette”. “Did you go see Shirley” Beans asked. “Oh
yea, that’s why we are armed to the teeth. We get to Fayette, catch up on some
sleep, which Jack claims he has not been able to do for years learning the
Potomac two step, as he puts it, and catch a few trout for dinner. Well, we get
to talking and Jack is starting to expound on his sudden return. It seems that
he stumbled on to some information that somebody doesn’t appreciate him
knowing. Funny thing is that he has no idea what it is. Let me rephrase, I
think he knows the general idea of what might be going on, but doesn’t know
exactly what it is he is supposed to knows……. if that make sense”. Oh
Yea….clear as mud…..what the fuck are you talking about man”? Beans yelled “You
sound like Donald fucking Rumsfeld”. “I know, right..doesnt make a lot of
sense. So anyway, it has to do with the Global Climate Treaty which has to go
through the dick brains in the House and Senate before going to the UN. The money
is on President Kelly getting her way and the legislation getting the thumbs up
and landing on her desk which she will readily sign. The smart money is on the
treaty getting enacted in short order if the U.S. is backing it and having the
enforcement element up and running in six months”. “So what’s the problem? This
all sounds like great stuff” Beans questioned. “I guess that there are certain
interests that are not excited about actually outlawing the reconversion and/or
burning of fossil fuels on a global basis with actual accountable enforcement
to back up the treaty. Even though no one has been able to reconvert oil back
to a combustible state so far, Jack is pretty sure some groups are ether real
close or already there”. “But I don’t get it; why does somebody want to use fossil
fuel when we have so many other alternatives around that are better in like
most every way? Seems stupid to me”. Beans interjected. “Ya well it seems
stupid to me as well but you got to understand, there is an awfully large
amount of left over macheriney for every imaginable purpose lying around that
could be obtained for a penny on the dollar that could suddenly be worth a
dollar again if we suddenly had Gasoline again. This possible economic
incentive is probably enough for some greedy unscrupulous bastards to act on
alone but the real clincher is that there is even more currently useless
military hardware that could be worth gazillions in the world of developing and
under developed nations. Now if we suppose, as Jack does, that some entity has
already been working on a reconversion formula, and has been buying or
otherwise obtaining masses of machinery and military hardware secretly for
years, it is easy to imagine that whoever that might be would be a very well
connected, powerful, well financed and far reaching organization. It’s also easy
to imagine that certain elements within the U.S. and even the U.S. Government
could be involved. It is no secret that the Trad’s and the PPPEPs along with
half a dozen other left over super neo-conservative type organizations and the
war hawks all would love nothing more that to relight the fires, so to speak,
in more ways than one. Add to that the religious zealots that still refuse to
believe that the eggheads actually created life on earth even though they have
certainly provided mountains of proof, which is ninety nine point nine percent more
proof than any religion ever provided. Anyway these guys would rather cling to
a verity of thousand year old books and if reconverting oil into a combustible
substance again even though we don’t need it can somehow help them believe more
strongly in their silly superstitions, that they probably don’t give a shit
about the consequences……or the means”. “Ok, I get that there are still a lot of
twisted fuckers out there who would screw the rest of us to serve their own
interests, but what has that got to do with Jack”? Beans was starting to see
the big picture but was asking questions now as more of a drunken brain
storming session. Hey, it worked when it came to recording cool spontaneous
Jams he thought. “Jack was working closely with all the proponents of the
climate treaty. After all, he is an environmental lobbyist. Our guess is that
he just accidently discovered some shit that someone within this supposed
organization took the wrong way. That or Jack hasn’t figured it out yet. So you
know Jacks ability to do his mind-read thing. He told me that some guys came to
see him that were supposedly with the PPPEP and Jack got a weird vibe from them
but he said it was like they knew how to block his telepathy. Anyway, that threw
him for a loop and he figured it might be better for him to step out of the
picture and assess the situation. He says his boss Ron is probably freaking
because Jack was taking the lead on this and Ron had made some promises and
assumptions, which were pretty safe under normal conditions, but quite another
thing now that things were getting weird. The icing on the cake came night
before last when we were at Shirley’s and she told us about a truck with two
guys that looked totally out of place and were asking questions. Now we all
know the propensity for suspicion in Garden, but Shirley didn’t think anything
about it till we started talking about how somebody might be after Jack. We
spent the night at her cabin and she set us up with some firearms just in
case”. “whatdaya got” Beans asked. “Glock 9, Colt 1911, Browning 308 win., M4
auto w/ GL and two sawed offs”. “Wow, I guess she didn’t want anybody to mess
with you”. “YOU THINK???” So we pulled anchor ASAP because we figured it best
not to take chances with whoever those strangers were even if they were
dentists on vacation from Madison or whatever…Twelve hours later we find
ourselves in St James. Six hours after that we are sitting here drinking your
really expensive port and enjoying this night, which is an example of Mother
Nature at her finest by the way". "You know, before we knew about the
eggheads I always thought of our supreme being, or god if you will as a
woman....you know Mother Nature" Beans added. "Maybe you're right Beans,
I mean the eggheads could be female, we don't know....I kind of always liked
the Mother Nature idea myself".
"So
just to recap the situation" started Beans "we would all be naive not
to realize that some nefarious types could make a humongous bundle of money,
and gain the accompanying power through the afore mentioned activities, and it
is most likely happening as we speak......right"? "Right" Geno
answered. Geno was well aware of Beans' propensity for conspiracy theories.
Beans had actually held a conspiracy theory that former Vice President Michelle
Bachmann was actually an alien from a different universe that were the ancient
adversaries of the eggheads and were bent on destruction of the human race.
Geno could still envision his rants; "just fucking look at her man......just
fucking listen to that shit she says....she simply can't be a human
being". While Jack and Geno granted Beans and his theory total
plausibility, they both considered Ms Bachmann as just a highly misguided woman
with an incredibly uncanny ability to look you in the eye and say stuff that
totally ignored reality without the slightest hesitation. Jack had spoken with
her before and with his intuition and telepathic abilities, was simply blown
away. "I have experienced people who take deception and lying to the
highest level imaginable, but she actually BELIEVES all of the outlandish shit
she says. It's fucking phenomenal, I have never met anybody else quite like
that". "And therefore" Beans continued "not only would
there be gazillions involved in machinery, there would also be mega-gazillions
involved in sales and distribution of gasoline and other petroleum distillates.
Right"? "Right". "And therefore, if someone or some group
were to have spent the last ten or fifteen years accumulating distillates for nothing
or even get paid to take it (there were hundreds of operations that charged for
the collection and safe disposal of petroleum products) and suddenly the stuff could burn
again......well, suffice to say, they would be in an advantageous position right"?
"Right". And therefor, if the GECA goes into effect, whoever might be
in said position would suddenly be in a significantly LESS advantageous
position. Right"? "Right you are again Beans". "We'll there
you go then, that is plenty of reason to lie, cheat, break laws and murder
people. Shit man, many a group has done much worse for much less than what we
are talking about here. I know you guys always think I'm a nut case conspiracy
theory type at times, but you have to realize that if the treaty doesn't pass,
and a formula to reconvert oil could be developed and someone had actually
taken even some of the steps we just talked about and did not have benevolent
intentions....... Well, they could stand to gain an incredible amount of power.
They might not be in the world domination league but they would sure as hell be
a pretty big fish in the developing nations pond if you know what I mean".
"Know what I mean Geno"? Beans realized that Geno was snoring fast
asleep in his chair. At that same moment Beans noticed the lights of an
aircraft off to the west southwest flying very low. "Hey Geno wake up and
check this out". "Hun....what". "Check this out, looks like
a chopper coming in hot, right on the deck". By this point the heard the
hydrogen battery powered jet turbine, Bell A Star Plus helicopter approaching
at close to top speed and only about twenty five feet off the lake. "Holy shit, that's a forty million dollar machine
man!! Not a lot of folks around here could afford one of those. Hell, not a lot
of folks anywhere that can afford one of those". "You ever seen that
before"? Asked Geno. "No, afraid not" answered Beans as he
bolted into the house to grab his Bushnell 2.5x42 night vision binoculars. He
focused them on the incoming craft. "Yea, it's a fucking hi tech machine.
Three hundred knots top speed, twelve hundred knot range, they don't hand those
fuckers out in a Cracker Jack box.....what the hell are they doing here"?
As they watched, the chopper made the south west corner of the Island, increased
altitude slightly to just above treetop level, slowed to about sixty five knots
and descended from their line of sight. They listened, as the engines
maintained the same level for another thirty seconds or so and then backed off
in power in what sounded like a landing with engines idling and ready. After
exactly two minutes the engines increased in volume and they could tell it was
taking off again. Within another thirty seconds the chopper came back into view
and increased speed heading due west and staying less than fifty feet off the
lake again. Beans disappeared inside and Geno kept his eye glued to that
chopper till it had completely disappeared to the west and the engines could no
longer be heard. Beans was coming back out as he was talking to somone on the
phone, "yup, that's right, yup, right by Rodger's old place, yea go check
it out." "Who's that"? Asked Geno. "That was Danny
Gillespie, he and his brothers are going out to the place that chopper set down
and check it out". "Why". "Because numb nuts, that was a
pretty strange thing having a forty million dollar chopper fly into Beaver
Island at breakneck speed and ground level in the middle of the night and land
for two minutes just to take off again. Considering that Jack seems to be
warped up in some clandestine shit and you said somebody might be after you
guys don't you think we might just want to take a peek up there and see what
the heck is going on"? "Yea, good idea. I am just too tired and
waisted to think clearly right now". "You go get some sleep. The
Gillespie boys will check things out and I'll wake you guys up if anythings
up". "Cool man thanks".
CHAPTER
6: The Beans Ranch, Bringing a rocket launcher to a gun fight.
"Did
anybody get a hold of Doug" yelled Ron Smith. "Yes Ron, he's waiting
to speak with you" said Jane Keen. "Dougy, where are you, what the
fuck, where is Jack, what have you found out". "Hi boss, we are in
Garden Peninsula, Jack was here with his friends Annie G and Geno. They left
and sailed to Beaver island, there are defiantly some spooks on their trail,
they picked up some firepower and we are on our way there now".
"Good, call me when you find them". "Should we come back to D.C."?
"I don't know yet. I would
really like to get a handle on who is behind this shit. We are getting some
information and I have a pretty good idea of what's going on, but I really want
to get Jack's piece of the puzzle". "Ok boss, we'll find him and make
sure he's ok". "Yea, that too".
Doug
Matthies was a six foot seven inch, two hundred and sixty five blond hair, blue
eyed redneck. He had been a world cup down hill ski racer, competitive monster
truck driver, snowmobile racer, elk and mule deer hunting guide, salmon and
trout fishing guide and competed in the unlimited hydroplane circuit for three
seasons until he survived a six flip roll over at one hundred and eighty miles
pre hour disintegrating his hydro and giving him five broken bones, a ruptured
kidney, a couple holes in the lung and a broken nose. After a month and a half
in the hospital he checked himself out and proceeded to immerse himself in his
personally designed rehabilitation routine which mostly consisted of three
hours a day on the shooting range, two hours a day in the gym, driving a
monster truck to Sam's Club and back every day, and a diet of venison, Canadian
beer and Leelanau county wine. Doug had been an outdoor sportsman all his life
and had developed a deep resentment of all the powers that continued to pump
CO2 into the atmosphere despite all the evidence of extreme damage it was
doing. His love of speed, and machines that help one to achieve it had led him
to develop alternative fuels long before the first egghead visit. Doug had
degrees in physics and chemistry which came in handy when it came to developing
alternative fuels, however the best fuel supply turned out to be rather
unsophisticated. A highly refined, distilled alcohol made from corn turned out
to be the most efficient clean burning, easy to produce fuel with the added
side bonus of being great to drink and producing a great buzz. "The
Juice" as Doug's fuel was known, obviously became extremely popular among
the redneck monster truck crowd. It was a total trifecta; race winning power,
clean burning with minimal CO2 emission and a great drunk.....a real redneck
dream come true. The only real downside was that it was illegal, which placed
Doug in somewhat of an outlaw, renegade, hero status. Ron Smith had followed
Doug's antics for several years and figured this was a guy he needed on his
team, so when the ATF guys finally busted Doug for distilling and distributing
"moonshine" he posted his bail, arranged for his defense and offered
him a job. Doug was a great "man in the field", and occasionally
worked with Jack in DC but Ron tended to keep him out of Congressional offices
due to what Ron referred to as an extreme case of voluntary turrets syndrome.
Doug liked to swear ....a lot.
Doug
knew Jack pretty well and was no stranger to the woods and waters of northern
Michigan which made him well suited for the job of locating Jack.
Ron
and company knew that any sort of illegal conspiracy with billions of dollars
at stake wouldn't hesitate to kill whoever might get in their way. With that in
mind, Doug had selected a couple of EAG security guys to accompany him. EAG was
certainly not in the business of security or any kind of clandestine operations but did find the need for in house security
and had hired some badass dudes to fit the bill. Doug had asked for Max
Cunningham and Tom Rum.
Max
Cunningham was a total gun ho, all American, John Wane type. He was ex- Special
Forces and ex secret service. Max had been on the presidential detail during
the Santorum administration and tendered his resignation after the third year
of his term. He loved the service and had been a loyal agent for nine years but
his ability to muster the kind of unquestioning loyalty required to protect the
guy who he regarded as the biggest closed minded, moronic, dick head he had ever
known was disintegrating rapidly. Max simply found it untenable to continue to
put his life on the line for a guy he had absolutely no respect for, so he
quit. The problem with Max was that he had principals, and it is simply
difficult to be a mercenary with principals. It had been easy during his ten
years as a Navy SEAL; train, follow orders, and carry on comfortable in the
knowledge that the United States military is on the side of God. Of course
things had changed and now it was up to Max to figure out who the good (and
bad) guys were. Max was as straight laced as they come. He didn't smoke, drink
or do drugs and at forty two years old, he was in perfect physical condition. Max was not big on conversation and
totally lacked anything near what you would call a sense of humor. When he was
not on the job, his time was spent doing yoga, various marshal arts exercises,
lifting weights, practicing marksmanship with every conceivable kind of weapon,
reading and studying counter terrorism tactics, pyrotechnics, strategies of
warfare and every other possible subject pertaining to his profession. Jack,
Doug, and Tom blew Max an incredible amount of shit on a daily basis, and just
teased him relentlessly, which did little more than evoke an occasional look of
disapproval. They figured that somewhere inside him there must be some sense of
humor, but he never showed it. One thing was for certain; Max was the right guy
to have in your corner when the shit hit the fan!
The
other member of the EAG security team or "gun for hire" as Ron
referred to his security guys was Tom Rum. Tom was quite the opposite of Max
and generally made up for Max's lack of bad habits and them some. Tom was born
and raised in New Zealand and had been involved in just about every high adrenalin
adventure sport imaginable. He had started rock and ice climbing at age seven,
high alpine skiing with his dad at age five. He had graduated from hang
gliding, to para sailing, to BASE jumping, to suit flying and was regarded at
one time as one of the best in all fields thar involved or defied gravity. Tom
was also an accomplished river kayaker, and a world class solo sailer. He had
sailed in four BOAC around the world alone Races and had come in first place
twice. To say Tom was a bit of a nut case and an adrenalin junky was a gross
understatement. Of course his perticular skill set would normally not lend
itself to being part of a security detail what with the propensity to be a
"loose cannon", but Tom also possessed a very high intelligence and
incredible self discipline. He was skilled in mixed Marshall arts, had been in
the top of his class in marksman ship during his requisite four year stint in
the NZ military. Max was rather disapproving of Tom's attitude and lack of
professionalism when he first started working for EAG, however his opinion had
changed dramatically after a scrape they had while providing security for a
meeting of top level scientists and diplomats in Istanbul. Some radical Islamic
types from Saudi Arabia (who's disenfranchisement after petroleum became
useless had caused a really shitty and despite attitude) were basically lobbing
"hail Mary's" and planned a sloppy suicide attack on this high level
meeting. There had been no intelligence breach, and no indication what so ever
that any knowledge of this meeting had leaked. Max and Tom, were not taking
lead on security (that was the job of Turkish intelligence) but they were
assigned to keep an eye on things and provide back up security for the members
of the EAG in attendance. In the overall picture, Max might as well ware a sign
"I Am Security". He stood out like a hooker at a Bible convention,
Tom on the other hand could blend into his surroundings like a chameleon. He
spoke seven different languages and had an uncanny ability to nail whatever
dialect he was speaking just by listening to a few sentences. He also just had
that look of not being out of place no matter where it was. So when Max would
criticize Tom for going out drinking, and carousing, Tom would retort that he
was gathering necessary information in the line of duty
and that he had to get "the lay of the land" if he were to be
effective to which Max would retort "that is just a bullshit excuse for
going out and getting hammered and getting laid".
On
this the first evening of this assignment and after the hotel had been secured
and Turkish agents were in place (both Max and Tom had long since learned to
trust the Turkish security apparatus, recognizing their excellent organization
and general badassness) Tom and one of the senior Turkish intel guys named Ned,
which was not his real name, went out "on a little recon" as Tom put
it. After just one evening of going to the right places, doing the right
things, engaging in the right behavior, talking to the right people, asking the
right questions, and reacting with the right responses, Tom and Ned were able
to gather enough info to suspect a suicide attack in the works. This was along
with eating ossobuco, drinking mass quantities of a fine Turkish liqueur
distilled from opium poppies combining the pleasant effects of both highly
refined alcohol and opiates, smoking the finest Turkish hashish, and partaking
the pleasures of one of Istanbul's finest ladies of the night. "Funny what
you can uncover when you just go the the seedy part of town and pursue some of
life's finer pleasures" was Tom's suggestion, of which Max would have no
part. The ultimate result of Tom's night of debauchery and intel gathering was
another two days of investigation and enough verifiable intelligence to place
Max, Tom, Nate, and two Turkish sharpshooters on rooftops with a secured kill
zone in a plaza which had been cleared of bystanders. At the appointed time
three young men appeared from the subway entrance wearing overcoats on a
particularly warm day. Infrared scamming, and super targeted electron impulse
explosive detection devices immediately indicated that all three men wore vests
with the equivalent explosive yield of fifty pounds of C4 each. "Shooters
Left"
whispered Tom, "shooters right" whispered Max, "middle man"
whispered Nate, follower by a command to his two back up shooters "you two
take out anything left standing.....got it"? "Got it" came the
reply back through his ear set. "Ok guys, on three...one...two...three
shots silenced by advanced grade silencers on their .308 caliber sniper rifles,
three holes in the center of each forehead, exiting out the rear of their
skulls and literally disintegrating the back half of each head. All three men
dropped to the ground simultaneously and other than a few pidgins taking
flight, the plaza was silent. "Good job Tom" Max said into his mic.
Tom knew that Max was a man of few words, and even fewer compliments, and
accepted this kudos as just about the highest complement Max could give. After
this event, Max took to trusting Tom and while still disapproving of his
methods, he did hold a high regard for his results.
If
there were ever a time when someone were in some trouble and needed protection,
short of being in the White House Anti Nuk bunker, Doug, Max , and Tom Rum
would be just about the best situation possible.
They
were on their way back to Escanoba to climb in the new "nitro king"
as the current nitrogen cell, ultra violet, rechargeable, Turbo assist, twin
engine, six passenger, Beechcraft King Air was called, and fly to Jame's field
on Beaver Island. Within thirty five minutes they had touched down and taxied
the the pole barn which was used as a terminal. It was just after dawn and
waiting was Leo Gillespie who owned the only car rental on the island with a
twenty year old GMC Blazer. Doug had called and arranged for the car, "you
Leo" Doug asked. "That's me, you must be Doug" Leo answered.
"Here's your car". "Real piece of shit" Doug said.
"That it is, but it runs, and actually qualifies as one of the finer
automobiles on this island". "It is a thing of beauty" Doug
replied. "So Leo, here is the deal, we are looking for three people who we
think are on the Island; two guys and a chick, Jack Saffell and Geno Miller are
the guys, Annie Gallagher is the chick. Now I know you are not going to tell my
anything cause you don't know me from fucking Adam, but if you can tell Jack
that Dougy is here with Max and Tom and describe us to him, he will want to see
us right fucking now! Just tell him to call me, he knows how...we are at the
Beaver Island Lodge...got it"? "I'm not sure I know what you are
talking about" Leo said. "Right" said Doug. "Let's get this
gear loaded and head to the harbor" Doug said to Max and Tom. "And I
thought Garden Peninsula was my kind of place....this could take the fuckin
cake". "Yea if you like eating possum and boning your sister"
was Tom's comment. They loaded four black duffel bags into the Blazer and
headed north to St. James Harbor.
As
Jack and Annie G came into the kitchen Beans was on the phone. "Yea...yea
I'll tell him. You going to keep an eye on those guys? Have you heard from
Danny? Ok...good". "Who was that" Jack asked. "Leo, he said
he just dropped off a car to some guys at the Air Strip and they asked about
you. He said the guys name was Doug and to tell you he was here. He asked Leo
to describe him and his buddy's to you and that you would know who they were.
They are staying at the Beaver Island Lodge and want you to to contact
him". "Well...describe them". "The guy doing the
talking...Doug...is a big guy, about six, seven, two hundred and fifty maybe
three hundred pounds. Blond hair, blue eyes and says fuck every other word.
There's a guy in a suit who looks like secret service or something, and a wiry
guy who talks like he's from Australia or something". "That's New
Zealand" Jack said. "What" said Beans. "New Zealand, he's
from New Zealand, and that's them, our EAG security dudes, total wackos, you'll
love um". "So you gonna contact them"? "Can't, I disabled
all my communication networks. I figured somebody might be able to hack my
system and use it to locate my position. That's why the boys back at EAG
headquarters are probably freaking out and haven't been able to find
me.....till now, I knew that Dougy was good, but I must say, I am
impressed". "Ok, I'll call Linda over at the lodge and tell her to
bring those guys over here". "Sounds good, now you got any coffee
brewing"? "Right here buddy boy, you want cream....Baileys perhaps"?
Don't mind if I do, where's Geno"? "Still. Crashed" answered
Beans. "You guys get into that Port stash you got in your wine
cellar"? "As a matter of fact we did. We were having a nightcap and
Geno was bringing me up to speed on your somewhat precarious situation. We had
just finished speculating on all the possibilities and what the cause and
effect might be when we spot a chopper coming in from the south, southwest. It
was a real sleek hi tech job the likes of which on one around here has ever
seen much less owned. Anyway, this chopper touches down way south near Rodger's
old cabin best I can figure and takes off again in about two minutes.
Definitely not your every night occurrence. I called Danny Gillespie and asked
if he and his brothers could go down there and check it out. Why would a chopper
touch down in the middle of the night unless to drop somebody
off.....right"? "Right" replied Jack "might be my buddy's
showed up right in the nick of time. Better call Linda". "On
it".
As
Doug and company pulled into Beaver Island Lodge they had already been to the
Harbor and noted the Leading Lady moored at the north end. She was all locked
up and it certainly appeared as though no one had been on board for
awhile, however Doug knew that Jack was stll on the Island or at least close
by. He also knew that his message would get to Jack in short order and all he
would have to do was wait. He was actually looking forward to hanging out on
the deck at the BI Lodge and savoring a couple Bloody Marys, but alas, he knew
there was no time for that when he saw Linda out in front to meet them.
"Follow me" she said as she claimed in her truck and pulled back out
of the drive and onto the gravel road that led to the Kings Highway. Twenty
five minutes later they were pulling up at Beans compound. At just about the
same moment Danny Gillespie and Brothers Raul and Flying Bear pulled in. Jack,
Annie, and Beans came out to greet them. "Fuckin...ah...we been looking
all over the fuckin place for you asshole" were Doug's first words.
"Don't have to sugar coat it for me Dougy, just tell me how you really
feel". "Ok, dip shit, I'll rephrase. Jack, good to see you man, is
everything ok"? "Well, I gotta tell ya, it is really good to see you
guys right now. What started out as a little get away for me to go fishing,
sailing, drinking, and catching up on some sleep has turned into a bit of an
adventure. I mean, I really just thought I was just being paranoid, and then
thought, what the hell; I might as well use it as an excuse for a much needed
getaway. Then it turns out I'm being followed. Now it turns out that whoever is
doing the following has a Bell A Star Plus helicopter, they don't give those
away with a happy meal if you know what I mean. Beans and Geno spotted it coming in last night; land
for a couple minutes and fly away". Max was listening intensely and
surveying the surrounding land scape. Tom had stepped away and was doing the
same with his Nikon 12x 50 w/ infrared and GPS pin point sighting guidance
system. "I suggest you all head inside, we are all kind of like fish in a
barrel standing out here. Beautiful place you got here, by the way".
"Thanks" said Beans "let’s move this party inside". Max had
done all the preliminary set up, lay out and different defense strategies in
his head. He did not have to communicate them to Tom; they had been in the
buissness long enough together to just know what the other was thinking. Of
course Jack picked up on the vibe as well and felt a bit of adrenalin shoot
through his veins. As they moved toward the house Max said "The maximum
capacity for that machine is one thousand four hundred and fifty pounds, so we
could be looking at five guys with two hundred and fifty pounds of gear. It's
probably more like four with seventy five pounds of gear each, at least that's
how we would have deployed. I sure hope they're hacks but they could be well
trained. What's the surrounding landscape like"? "Pretty flat, the
ten acres you see cleared with occasional white pine, Doug fir and maple trees.
To the north is twenty five acres of ag with surrounding hardwood. South is
hard wood that turns into dunes to the west" answered Beans. "How
about the shore line"? "Pretty straight, a bit of a point to the
south about four miles down". "Any security". "Some survalence
left over from the pot growing days when it was illegal. Haven’t had any of
those babies on in years". "Ok, good" Max looked at Tom.
"Got it" said Tom. Just as they were turning to head into the main
house they heard a truck make the last turn on the drive way. The drive was
full of "s curves" and surrounded by thick pine trees for its full
length of three miles. Beans had designed it that way to hide its presents,
discourage usage by curious tourists, and eliminate noise. The design worked as
intended since one could not hear (or see) an approaching car until it was
right in front of the house. "It's cool" beans yelled as Tom, and Max
were about to blow the approaching vehicle away. "It's Danny
Gillespie". The truck was only thirty feet away when it came into view
from a straight on angle. Trees continued to line the drive right up to a turn
around area only twenty feet between the main house, guest house and studio,
which was right where Jack, Annie G, Beans and Doug were standing. Just as
Danny's old Suburban pulled up in front of them and he slammed on the brakes,
they all heard a thump....more like a hammer pounding on metal. Tom who was
over in the pines turned around to see the driver side of the Suburban which
was now between him and the group. "Holy shit, we got incoming" he
shouted as he noticed three bullet holes in the side of the Suburban that
otherwise would have been right through the chests of Jack, Annie G , and Doug.
"Down, down, down" Max yelled. Danny rolled out of the passenger side
of the Suburban and scurried over to the group which had crawled over behind a
bolder by the edge of the walkway. Max had already made it to the back of their
rented Blazer, grabbed two duffles thrown one to Doug and pulled out an M4. Tom
already had his gear and was working his way east in the pine cover. Doug and
Max both sighted their weapons toward the general direction of the shots only to receive two more incoming shots
which sent them back behind their respective cover. Max called up Tom and
Doug's personal communication frequency, "Hey Tom, you got um"? “Yep,
I got um" said Tom. "Do you think they know you're there" Doug
asked. "Don't think so, those three shots were for you guys and they would
have hit the mark if it weren't for that crazy fucker who pulled in in that
Suburban". "They just let two more go at Max and me" Doug said
"we are both pinned; I'm behind the bolder with Jack, Annie, and Beans.
Max is pinned behind our Blazer with Danny". "Just keep them shooting
at you for a second and let me get set up" said Tom. "What you got in
mind". "I think I'll teach those fuckers not to bring a gun to a
missile fight..... Ask beans if there is any chance of friendlies or anything
else I should know about over on that ridge line where the shots are coming
from". "Beans says go for it dude" Doug replied. No sooner has
Doug spoken than a mini laser guided sidewinder missile came whistling from the
pines and struck the area where the shots had come from. The blast encompassed
an area about one hundred feet in diameter with an incendiary explosion that
pretty much melted everything in the bast zone and was over in less than two
seconds. "That outta teach those mother fuckers" announced Doug. Max
was in position with his M4 trained on the target area and surveying the area
with his 14x scope. "I think you melted them" he said to Tom.
"Yea looks like they didn't get outta there quick enough". They both
knew that standard protocol would dictate evacuation your position in pretty
short order if your target was dug in and not likely to expose himself again.
Long evolved shoot outs were the stuff of movies but not real life assignation
attempts. "They were probably packing up to beg out, that's why I didn't
want to waist any time melting the fuck sticks". "You did ok"
was Max's only comment. "You know, if you're right about there being four
or five then, than there are still one or two out there, cuse I pretty sure I
only smoked three". "Ok, here is the call, Dougy, you get everybody
inside and get your gear ready, Tom and I will go on a recon. I will take right
flank to the west, Tom you take left and stay in the pines. Does Beans have any
weapons"? Jack had left the small arsenal that Shirley had given them on
board the boat except for the two sawed off shotguns Geno had stacked in his
duffle, but Beans was a hunter and possessed a gun room with every conceivable
make of sporting rifle. "Yea, I think we're set on guns" Answered
Doug. Beans looked at Doug and said "tell Max to take Danny with
him". Doug was about to ask why, but immediately realized that Danny, even
though not formally trained in this sort of thing probably knew every inch of
the surrounding terrain and that alone would make him an invaluable asset in a
manhunt. It also dawned on him that Danny was a full blood Algonquin Indian and
he was astute enough to recognize that Native Americans generally possessed a
far higher level of awareness when it came to the natural world. It was
entirely possible that Max and Tom, as good as they were could walk right clues
that Danny would spot. "Hey Max, I want you to take Danny with you".
"Roger that, I'm only a hundred yards south along the pine row".
"Danny, which was will they go"? "If they are heading back to
that drop off site, they'll go the same way they came". "How do you
know which way they came"? asked Beans. "Because I tracked them, I
was just hauling ass here to tell you guys when the shit started flying. Looks
like I got here just in time. And by the way...there are two more of the
fuckers". "Ok"said Doug "Danny, you mind going with Max and
finding these assholes"? "Not at all man, give me a gun". Beans
had already grabbed his AR15 and a 1911 45 auto. "It's ok with me if you
want to shoot those dick heads" Beans said as he handed Danny the guns.
Danny bolted and worked his was up to where Max was waiting. Max called Tom
"hey Tom Danny is coming with us. Dougy, filled me in and Danny knows
where these guys are heading". "Who the fuck is Danny and how the
fuck does he know where they are going"? "He's the guy who pulled up
and has three bullets in his truck that would otherwise be in my chest, and he
knows the lay of the land". "We'll, why didn't you say so, hey I'm at
the shooters position, looks like I melted three of them. Also looks like they
were well equipped and we were lucky to smoke them before they had a chance to
use any of this stuff". "Ok, just keep on your toes because Danny
says there were five of um, so we got two left and they might just have some
toys left". As they moved south along the tree line, Danny filled Max in on
what he had figured out so far. "So, how do we play this". "I
think I can get us to a good ambush spot on their route back to the drop off
spot....if that's where they are going". "Sounds like a good plan to
me, what about Tom"? "Let's meet up with him about a mile south, here
are the GPS coordinance. "Hey Tom, meet up with us at this point, got
it"? "Yea, I got it".
Within
an hour they were positioned on a small ridge south of the drop site. The
waited for an hour totally camouflaged without making a sound or moving a muscle.
They were set in a picture prefect triple crossfire position that would have
spelt toast for anyone or anything that ventured within five hundred yards no
matter not well trained or equipped. "I get the feeling these guys had a
different evac strategy than we figured" Tom finally spoke into his
headset. "It's possible we have understood these guys" replied Max,
then asked Danny " any chance they had a boat, you know an inflatable or
something they could have unloaded during their drop and stashed somewhere"?
"When I survived the area I was looking for how many, how much gear and
which way they were heading. I would have noticed if they had an inflatable big
enough for five and with enough HP not to be stuck in the middle of Lake Mich...,
unless that chopper made a beach drop on his way out". "No fucking
way" Tom said as he came to the realization that his adversary's had
probably just flown the coop. "You and Danny take the beach back and I'll
hang out here a bit longer just in case". "Roger that"
"Yea
Ron that right 45 degrees 00 minutes 04 seconds north, 085 degrees 36
minutes406 seconds west. That's right military style Bell a-star
plus/super, black. No, no reg numbers, no, no pictures.....because it was the
middle of the fucking night, we were on our way here and they spotted it by
chance from 4 and a half miles away. Five of them, that's right we smoked
three. Sorry boss, it was us or them. No, no cops so far....well there is not
much in the way of law enforcement out here... No, a local constable that's
it..State boys on the mainland and Charlevoix county sheriff. No, no bodies,
have to use a fucking magnifying glass just to find a piece of bone....yea,
sidewinder at 300 yes. No, all private property, no, no ancillary damage at
all, just torched them their equipment and a hundred feet of brush land. Should
we come back to DC? Ok well stay put for 12 hours but I would just as soon get
outta here. No, I actually rather like it here, my kinda place, but considering
somebody sent five well trained mercenaries to do us in. Yea well they have the
same latitude and longitude I just gave you and if they are safistacated enough
to have solders and high tech weapons and a chopper, they might just have a
cruse missile to send our way and finish their job. Ok boss will do". Doug
turned to everyone "ok you guys heard the gist of that, Ron suggests we
keep a lid on smoking those guys and let him take care of it from the top down-
and that sounds like an awfully good idea to me-that is if we can. Now, he also
suggests we sit tight for 12 hours, for him to arrange a level three
security detail and them for us to come in to DC via private jet to Reagan and
proceed from there under the L3 detail. Personally, I think that idea
sucks". "Me too said Jack". "So, what do you want to
do"? "BVI"? said Geno. "BVI" asked Tom Rum.
"British Virgin Islands" said Geno "Well alrighty now" said
Jack. "Now you're talking" said Tom. "I'm in" said Doug.
"What the hell, I've come this far with you bozos" said Annie G.
Everyone was looking at Max who had just been through a fire fight, hiked five
miles through the woods and back with fifty pounds of gear, and had not even
loosened his heck tie. He was brushing some dust off his standard black sport
coat, and just finished combing his hair. "What" he said as he
noticed everyone looking at him. "Are you in" asked Jack? "That
is Doug's call, I will do my job". "What was your assessment of the
exit site" he asked Tom and Danny. "15 ft nautilus with a super
compact outboard, probably around a hundred and twenty horse power capable of
doing at least fifty knots. They could be anywhere on the mainland with that
boat packed up and in the trunk of a car and heading south on I 75 by now. It
was two guys with five fairly heavy duffles of gear". "Ok, I get
it" Max answered "Douglas, I completely agree with your assessment of
our current situation as untenable and completely unsecured, what sort of
security apparatus do you have recon ordered in the vicinity ". Doug just
looked at Jack and Geno as if to say, hey he might be a nerd but he can keep
you from getting shot and Jack with his simi-telepathy sensed a vision from all
five of them and Max in this leather loafers, tie and suit coat standing on
deck of a catamaran sail boat in the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean.
Jack said "yea Dougy, I read your mind".
Jack's
friend James (Jimmy) Klise who had been living in Key West had recently moved
back to the BVI where he had spent ten years of his life as a charter captain,
bartender and general jack of all trades. Jack and Geno had met him at
Lobblolly bay on the island of Anegada. He was now living on a custom built 60
foot Catamaran in Road Town Tortola and making great money in the charter
business. He had acquired a nice charter business along with the boat when an
elderly couple named Hank and Marla Green he had worked for as a captain passed
away and left him the boat. They had lived abroad for half the year and let it
out for charter the other half. Jimmy had started working for them in '24 and
immediately developed a close relationship with Hank and Marla. They were
both ninety two years old and in great shape ..., when he had started working
them and Jimmy became like a son to both of them. They spent the first two
seasons together cruising the Caribbean from Puerto Rico to Tobago. During the
summer and fall Hank and Marla would move to their cabin in Montana and Jimmy
would work on the boat and maintain a charter schedule. Over the next several
years he would deliver the boat to Jamestown Road Island for two months in the
summer. By '28 Hank and Marla were starting to slow down and show the effects
of ninety six years of live on earth. It was only by Jimmy's care that they
were able to spend the next two years on the boat. Jimmy had become pretty
attached to them both and he pretty much served as Captain, cook, caretaker, nurse
and manager for the charter business. In '30 Hank's health took a turn for the
worse and both of them mover to a long term care facility. One of their sons
moved to Tortola and took over the charter business and Jimmy moved to Key West
to work as a bone fishing guide. He stayed in touch with Hank and Marla, and
made the trip to Montana twice a year to visit. In January of 2032 they both
passed away within two week of one another. A week later Jimmy got a message
from their attorney that he had inherited the boat, the charter business and
seven hundred and fifty thousand in cash. Needless to say, this was a good time
in Jimmy's life.
"We
have a Super King Air sitting at the air strip, and three of us can fly
it" said Doug. “Make that four" said Annie G. "Make that
five" said Geno. “What, am I the only fucker around here that hasn't
learned how to fly an airplane" said Jack. “Let’s hit it". "We
can head due south and refuel in Atlanta, we’ll be in Tortola by seven this
evening".
CHAPTER
7: D.C. The World’s largest Private Arms Dealer
"So
what do we have so far"? Ron asked to the group gathered around the
conference table at the EAG headquarters. Sitting at the table was, Ron, Laura,
Pete Miller from the NSA, Art Dutton from the Secretary of Defense office,
Doctors Chang, Watson, and Sam Markey. "I think there is some kind of
major conspiracy going on that is directly related to the GECA" Laura
started. "As you are all well aware there have been numerous efforts in
the past to reconstitute any number of various fossil fuels for any number of various reasons. Some well meaning,
some not, some large scale, some small, however none that have proven
successful as far as we know. Now, all of these past efforts no matter how
large the scale has never represented anything more than what we would call-
rather isolated attempts ether by a rogue nation for military purposes or
corporate interest for the purpose of profit. None of this being illegal, just
hard to do and as such, hardly worth doing. Well, Gentlemen and Ladies, it
would seem that from the pieces of evidence-that while coincidental and antidotal on their own- seen to add up to
something on a much larger and substantially more sinister scale".
"What the hell are you talking about here Doctor Jones" asked Pete
Miller. Pete was a chief officer at the NSA and was the NSA lesion to the White
House. "We don't have any such intel that I'm aware of". “Like I
said" continued Dr. Jones”
The
clues are small and seemingly unrelated until you start to piece them together
and develop a theory". "So this is strictly theoretical stuff we are
talking about.....right? Asked Pete. "Right.... And frankly I hope it's
wrong.....but at this point I don't think so". Ron jumped in at this point
"Laura has just spent the past seventy two hours compiling, filtering, and
piecing together every shred of information available from our own sources and
co-oping with you guys (looking at Pete and Art) as well as the CIA, Turkish,
and Israeli intelligence and the Chinese". Ron was absolutely correct,
Laura had been piecing bits and pieces of data together and running hundreds of
different programs, filters and algorithms trying to find common denominators
and make sense of otherwise insignificant actions all over the world. Dr Laura
Jones was quite simply the best at this sort of thing and had often assisted
various Government security agencies, so when she suggested a conspiracy, it
was not taken lightly. "So, let's hear your opinion" said Ron.
Well
first, I believe that somebody has already developed a formula to reconfigure
petroleum and refine it back into high grade combustible fuel. I'm talking
gasoline, aviation fuel, you name it. I think that it is being scaled up and is
being refined at secret locations all over the world. Second, I believe that
there is an international conspiracy behind this that is much more far reaching
than we can imagine. It's likely that entire developing nations are involved,
and a number of international banking interests. Quite possibly a few radical
religious groups and I'm guessing some higher ups in various governments and
militaries of many developed countries including ours. I think that whoever
this is, they have been secretly stock piling left over oil reserves, and
fossil fuel powered machinery and military
equipment for years. I also get the impression that they are gearing up
reemployment of disserted oil extraction facilities along the east coast and
central corridor of Africa".
In
the last few years before the first visit from the eggheads, geological research had turned up vast and previously unknown reserves in
the areas of Nigeria, Congo, and Somalia where there were already known
reserves but the political climate and civil unrest had made further
exploitation to risky. Increasing demand from the thirsty nations of Western
Europe, the U.S. and China had finally overcome the risk factors and vast
reserves all along the central corridor of Africa just below the equator and
along the eastern coast from Somalia to South Africa. These reserves that dwarfed
the Middle East reserves were just beginning to be exploited when the eggheads visit rendered them
useless. The discovery of vast oil reserves in a particular country or region
does not necessarily spell property for the indigenous people as we have learned from the Middle East and
other " oil rich" countries' the insuring political upheaval, the
civil war and general unrest seemed to prove that this was no different.
Africa, which was mostly a political mess and the tribal nature of African
culture, made for a lot of competing interests for control over the new found
treasure.
When
suddenly the new found treasure which everyone is fighting over is found to be
useless the underlying animosity continues and conflict just intensifies rather
than diminishes. The past sixteen years had done little to improve conditions
in Africa. While desalination and irrigation had done much to alleviate wide
spread famine, most attempted democratic central governments had failed to take
hold and overall economic conditions had remained dismal for a majority of the
population.
"Third,
I believe that this conspiracy has malevolent intentions that are nothing short
of an upset in the world’s balance of power. I also believe that the pending
Global Energy Cooperation Act, which we believe every world power is in favor
of, proposes a serious thorn in the side of this conspiracy, and I think that
is why they are willing to take more overt action at this moment. If I'm right,
they obviously would be highly motivated to see that the GECA dies a quick
death, and they certainly possess the resources to eliminate any obstacle
standing in the way of their objectives. In our case, that obstacle is Jack. He
obviously stumbled onto something that was regarded by these guys as a serious
impediment to their goals; enough to try and take him out. Doug was lucky
enough to locate him just as a highly trained and equipped team of unidentified
assets were about to take him and his friends out. Our guys had to fry three of
them and two got away. The bottom line is that this conspiracy could easily
reach way up into any of the cabinets. We could be talking about staff,
advisors and even Senators and Members of Congress. We could be talking about
Generals, Admirals, Assistant secretaries, and senior staff in the militaries.
We could even be talking about the NSA, Department of Defense, CIA, Homeland
Security, and the FBI...........any questions"?
"Ok
this actually makes sense and your theory is plausible" said Art Dutton
“but, other than your intuition, what kind of proof do you have that can help
substantiate any of this"? "First of all somebody and I'm not talking
amateurs here, tried to kill Jack Saffell. Now why in the world would somebody
with professional assassins on the payroll want to kill an environmental
lobbyist? And what has Jack been working on? Only the most significant, global
changing, international cooperation treaty EVER! And what's the most important
thing that this treaty will accomplish? Actually outlaw any type of CO2 emissions,
and construct a mechanism to monitor and enforce it on a complete and global
scale. Since every single person on earth will benefit from this treaty, and it
will be the single biggest event since our first visit from the eggheads to
actually save humanity from extinction, there would need to be a pretty
compelling reason to try and fuck it up. And what could that reason possibly be
but the usual lust for wealth and power.....on a huge scale! If this treaty
goes through, and I'm right about this, someone will stand to lose
gazillions". "Once again" said Art "I get it, but I'm still
hearing speculation. Maybe Jack just pissed off the wrong group of people years
ago, and this attempt to waist him has nothing to do with the GECA".
"What else do you have" asked Ron. "I have had Fin over in
Istanbul working on human migration trends over the past six years and she has
come up with some things that stand with my theory that are otherwise
inexplicable. Next, we have tracked fifty six different petroleum disposal
sites and it looks like all have been stockpiling and shipping to hidden
storage facilities in Somalia, Libya, and probably all over north, central and
the west coast of Africa. A compilation of satellite data that I ran through a
dozen different algorithms tends to show the
same kind of thing happening with a bunch of machinery. I'm sure you guys
realize that security involved in the storage, dismantling, and destruction of
a whole butt load of military hardware and equipment has been sloppy at best.
More like nonexistent. I don't blame then since everybody figured the stuff was
unusable junk and why waist resources guarding junk, but I think we have
located several storage sites and I'm guessing there are hundreds more."
Plus, after comparing notes with my guys at Langley, it looks like some actions
and movement by key assets could be explained by my theory".
After
2016 when the eggheads granted humanity the gifts of various emissions free,
renewable, energy technologies and a year later when fossil fuels became non
combustible, a lot of the world's oil reserves just sat around in storage.
Industry still had use for oil rather than burning it for energy and many of
those uses were still viable even with the slight molecular changes made by the
eggheads. Even with the making of plastics, non combustible solvents, waxes,
and all the other uses of crude oil, it still only amounted to less than two
percent of the total annual use. Considering that the world had ninety eight
prevent more oil than it would ever need and that it tended to be otherwise
nasty stuff (large oil spills were never fun) the eggheads gave humanity
another gift; a chemical process to turn crude oil into a harmless benign
liquid that could be absorbed into seawater or evaporated into the atmosphere.
Thousands of facilities throughout the developed nations were set up to serve
this purpose and the vast majority were of course privately held and operated.
Everyone listening to Dr. Jones elaborate on her theory knew that if some
motivated, well organized group wanted to amass billions and billions of
barrels of oil and billions of tons of military machinery, it would have been
relatively easy to do over the past ten years.
"Ok
tell me about the suspicions migrations Dr. Hamerat is charting" Dr.
Watson asked. "We have a recent move of over two million people into the
area just north of the border of the new Turkish-Pakistani border".
"So, that's not new, they have been moving south for a while since things
turned sour in Russia". "No, this is different. That's why I got Fin
working on it. Looks like the demographics are way younger; predominately male
17 to 25. We show the same kind of thing moving west to east in Dar for, south
Sudan, Kenya, and Somalia". "So what do you think that means"
asked Art. "Not sure, but that kind of movement with those demographics is
usually a prelude to conflict, and if I were a conspiracy bent on shifting the
balance of power and amassing vast wealth through selling weaponry, machinery
and the fuel to power it. I would love to have a few large scale conflicts
going on just to shake shit up and province the requisite distraction”.”Good
point" said Ron. At this point Dr. Watson chinned in "we have all
been feeding Laura data, and Sat. Image we studied, kind of backs this up. We
don't have anything obvious and no change day to day, but if we track say, a
two hundred day log, then we show possibly underground storage, refining
facilities, warehouses, you name it. All in the same basic geographic locations
Laura has alluded to. Oh and also west central Russia".
At
just about the same time Art and Pete both asked "what's their
objective" and "what's their plan of action". ""Start
with thousands of F 35s and Abrams a1a tanks and you can get the picture. At
bare minimum you become the world’s largest private arms dealer, at worse you
start wars and take over small countries like dominos. I have no idea regarding
potential game plans, but my opinion is that they have actually been sitting on
the re-combustion formula for a while.....years maybe.... and planned to
produce a mass quantity of fuel before exposing anything. Then along comes the
Global Energy Cooperation Act Treaty and throws a big old humongous horsefly
into their bowl of oatmeal". "You don't happen to have a reasonable
strategy for proceeding on this do you" asked Pete Miller.....
"And..... What the fuck
am I supposed to tell the President"? "No action plan Pete" said
Ron "like Laura said, anybody could be involved......anybody! Could even
be you two...or me, but then why would I have My team telling you this
stuff....and I kind of doubt ether of you are involved because I've know you
both for over thirty years and I trust my own intuition. But the NSA, CIA,
Military, even administration staff are all suspect....... Basically the plan
is for you two along with whatever key people you can trust, to come up with a
plan. We found our boy, and that was our first concern. Oh, and Pete, I'll need
you to cover us on that bit of handy work on Beaver Island, unless of course
you want me to explain to the local authorities why guys were shooting at each
other with sniper rifles and some got cooked with a shoulder launched
sidewinder". “Yea", said Pete "I'll see what I can
do".
"I
am convinced and I will defiantly implement an investigation, but if as you
suggest, this thing has tentacles in our own Government, I will have to tread
lightly and chose my allies carefully" said Pete. "I suggest you do
the same Art. Who do you trust in the upper echelon of the CIA and the Joint
Chiefs of Staff"? "I got a few here and there that I'm pretty sure I
can trust, how about you"? "Yea, same here. One thing for sure; I
don't trust any of those PPPEP types or those fucking Party of Traditional
American Values bastards. That bone head Santorum just about fucked over this
whole country just because he was arrogant enough to believe his image of god had to be embraced by all of humanity. I still can't
quite believe the hubris of a man that commands we believe in the writings of
men with undeniable personal vested interest over thousands of years just
because it is his Bible, and continues to desperately cling to his fable after
the entire world actually witnesses a superior race of beings with undeniable
proof that they created life on earth. I would not be completely surprised if
some of those PTAV bastards are at the heart of this shit". "Yea, I
agree that guy's a dip shit.... So Pete, how we'll do you know General Lukas"?
"Meet with him twice a week, top notch guy, most pragmatic mind in there
since Powell retired....why"?
"I know him pretty well myself" said Art "we actually graduated
West Point a year apart, and I agree with your assessment. I think I will head
over to the Pentagon and have a little pow-wow with him". General Alfred
Jacob Lukas was a five star general and current head of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff. His friends knew him as A.J. and Pete, Art, and Ron all agreed that he
was the least likely guy in the world to be corrupt. "The bottom line is
that if A.J. is in on this shit....we are all fucked" was the way Ron had
put it as they adjourned the meeting. "Art, take Sam with you when you
brief AJ. He has been riding shotgun with Laura and might be able to fill in
the blanks when AJ and his staff question you; if not, he can do the telepathy
thing with Laura and she can connect the dots". "Good idea Ron,
thanks. My assistant has already contacted his office; we are heading there
right now.....Sam, you ready to roll"? Sam looked at Ron and Laura.
"Go ahead, I'll connect everything we've got to your personal data
frequency, usual security protocol and it’s only going to be up loaded for an
hour then it will self disintegrate from the system. Let me know if you get
delayed and I can reload, but SOP dictates sixty minutes maximum per shared
upload. Got it"? "Yea, got it Laura, I know what to do, thanks".
"Let's roll” said Art "our driver and detail are waiting".
Waiting
in the secure parking area, right at the exit of the direct elevator to EAG
offices were two vehicles; a black Suburban and a D.C. Police car escort. In
the Suburban was a driver and secret service officer. In the Police car were
two Washington D.C. Cops. Art and Sam jumped into the back seat and within
thirty seconds they were heading south on K street toward the Pentagon. Sam
suddenly felt queasy and his peripheral vision was blurry. He felt an intense
heat and overwhelming dizziness. He turned to his left to see that Art was
unconscious. That was the last thing he saw.
CHAPTER
8: B.V.I. A conversation with the Big Man.
"Hey
Jimmy, We're over Turks and Caicos right now, be on Beef island in one hour. We
can dodge customs with some diplomatic shit Rod pulled via the state
department". "Ok Jack, I'm in Trellis Bay, like two minutes from the
airport. Do you want me to send a van"? "Can you that would be
awesome". "Can I? What the fuck, I own a charter service. Josh will
be there, are you going to the terminal"? "No, we are going to the
west hanger, like I said we get a waive through with the customs routine and
taxi right to the U.S. diplomatic hanger. That’s probably a good thing because
we have some major firepower that might be hard to explain to your average
customs agent". Within the hour they were at the "Nanny Lu" as
Jimmy! Boat was named. Hank and Marla had named the boat, Jimmy said it was
"after their great grandmother or some shit". Jimmy was never very
keen on the name, but he regarded it as bad luck to ever change a boats name,
so the Nanny Lu it was. She was equipped with four staterooms and three
additional crew quarters. She was sixty two feet overall with a twenty five
foot beam. She had a cruising speed under full sail of fourteen knots at
anything over ten knots of wind speed. She could motor at twelve with a top
speed of eighteen under power and she could surf at twenty two knots downwind
with an asymmetrical spinnaker. She was extremely maneuverable in the harbor
with twin screws she could do a three hundred and sixty degree circle in one
spot. She was loaded with the latest in electronics, had a 300 KW solar
generator, and a 200 GPH water maker. She could cruise for three months without
resupply, and easily complete a transatlantic in sixteen days. She was a
totally self-sufficient world cruiser and she could be sailed by two people.
"Jack,
Geno......and my sweet, sweet Annie G." Jimmy yelled as they were hauling
gear down the pier. "You two fuck sticks look like a couple dog du snow
cones but Annie, you look fabulous". "Thanks honey, when did you
start featuring the Captain Jack Sparrow look"? "Just
started..Whattdaya think"? "The braided goatee's a bit much,
otherwise not bad". "So Jackie, where you guys want to go"?
"I'll tell you Jimmy, this is fucking paradise, man I could go anywhere,
just get a cold Heineken in my hand and I'll be in heaven". "Hey
Jimmy, these are the guys who saved my life, Dougy, Max, Tom, meet Jimmy. Doug
and Tom know their way around a boat. Tom has done a couple BOAC around alone
races". “I’m not worthy" Jimmy said bowing down in honor and jest
"you are my hero....and I don't even know you". Jack continued
"Max is not a sailor but he is a badass Special Forces guy who can handle
anything. If we can get his tie and sport coat off him....maybe even a beer in
his hand we'll be doing good". "Let's shoot over to Anegada for the
night". "This is a nice boat mate" Tom Rum said as he was untied
a stern line". "We'll, it would be my honor for you to take the helm
and take her out". "My pleasure there captain".
Within
ninety minutes they were at anchor at a small anchorage just west of the main
harbor on the Island of Anegada. Jack had taken one of the Avon tenders to a
lone beach on the west side of the island. It had been a pretty crazy week for
Jack and he really needed to sit on the beach for a couple hours and just try
to figure some things out. Other than the deadly nature of their situation and
being shot at, the past week had been pretty darn fun. He was thinking that it
seemed like a long time since he had left Washington D.C. He kind of wondered
if he was ever going to go back. He thought about what had transpired in the
weeks leading up to his departure and the odd circumstances that led to the
disconcerted feeling he could not shake. Jack had been born with his uncanny
ability to read people and he was well aware of the nefarious nature of things
that were brewing. After a few hours, he was starting to piece together the
chain of events and people involved who he had seen or talked to and start to
make sense of what was going on. He was just pondering on the fact that a lot
of humanity was shit heads and really didn't care about each other. Why the
neck were they like that, weren't the eggheads a force of good, weren't they
benevolent and loving, weren't
we supposed to be like them. Why would people deny the advantages and true
gifts from a truly higher power in the Universe? Had they not been writing
about and praying to this power for centuries in attempts to understand and
explained things beyond our comprehension. Had they not literally created us
and let us evolve and develop a higher intellect and develop technology and had
not technology evolved along with our biological evolution. Had not our
technological evolution long since overtaken our biological evolution? Unlike
every other spices on earth; humans highly evolved technology had allowed then
to adapt the world around them to suite their own needs and wants, rather than
having to rely on biological evolution to adapt themselves to survive in their
surroundings. Pretty amazing stuff Jack thought. He was just wondering why the
eggheads would allow humanity to fuck up all the technological gifts they had
given us, but then he realized the history of man was fraught with inexplicable
events of crudity and selfishness. I guess we are a fucking bunch of pigs he
thought to himself.......And I am just running away, maybe I'm just another one
of the fucking pigs myself.......
"No
you're not" a voice came from behind him. Jack turned around to see a
pleasant looking middle aged man sitting in the sand behind him. "Who the
hell are you" Jack asked? "You can call me Bob" said the
gentleman. "Where the hell did you come from man, I didn't hear a
thing". Bob just smiled and rolled his eyes upward toward the sky.
"Holy shit, are you an egghead". "You realize that we never
really cared for that particular name". “Well you guys could have given us
something easier than ecohedanosphearic entities". Bob replied that Echos
or something along those lines could have been a bit better, but you have to
admit, eggheads are a bit derogatory, especially since we did actually create
you people, and suggested that a little respect would not be too much to ask
for. "Good point Bob, so what brings you to Anegada"? "It seems
like things are getting a little out of hand these days, and we thought you
might want a hand". "Me.....Me...I need a hand? What about other
people. .....like maybe someone a bit more qualified to save the world".
"Nope...it's you". "Why". "Just your lucky day I
guess". "So, are you going to fill me in on who is trying to kill me,
and maybe who is trying to get gas to burn again and start some wars and sell
weapons and cause extreme suffering, death, destruction and possible
atmospheric deterioration all for selfish personal gain"? "Yup".
"Ok...who"? "Lots of people". “Can you be a bit more
specific". "Senate minority leader Justin Amash". "Oh
that's just great Justin Amash .Why don't I just call the cops and tell them
that Senator Justin Amash is trying to kill me, and by the way, he is also the
mastermind behind a clandestine, sinister, worldwide conspiracy bent on world
collapse.....that should work just wonderfully". "Yes, of course, you
could be more delicate. That approach might work well with....say....Ted
Nugent; he has been part of the
conspiracy for years. Of course everyone already knows he's a wacko".
"That's funny; I always figured he was an alien". "Hhhooo...That
hurt, you have a good sense of humor Mr. Saffell, and you are pretty
sharp". "Jack, please, call me Jack. After all I'm the one that's
been referring to you guys as eggheads for sixteen years.....and sorry by the
way, I mean o disrespect. I was only sixteen years old when you guy showed up.
I really am a big fan...you guys are awesome". "Thanks, you know, we
do try, but it's been this rule where we really don't want to micromanage things
here, that was never the idea". "You realize you’re not alone, there are thousands of different civilizations all over the
universe that are at different stages of evolution". "Where do we
place"? "You guy rank pretty high. All in all you are doing a decent
job for yourselves. I mean, you do have your share of assholes, but the majorities
are kind, loving people who really do care for each other". "Thanks,
that's refreshing to hear. So.....are you God"? "I guess you could
say that. Most of your major religions these days seem to be monotheistic, but
our whole civilization is interconnected, so it could actually be thought of as
one single power or force within the universe. It's actually many universes in
many different dimensions, you just happen to inhabit one of them at the
moment. We are responsible for life on earth if that's what you mean. As you
have already figured out, all the information needed to create a human being
can be found in a single DNA molecule. Rather basic stuff really. So, I suppose...Yes...
We are what most humans refer to as God. As I said Jack, we have planted seed
of life, if you will, all over the many universes for billions of years. Your
spices, is but one among thousands and every civilization that has evolved as
far as yours has developed some form of religion. Often, as in your case, many
different religions, this is equally as often very problematic. You see Jack;
it is only natural and intuitive for a spices that has advanced to a stage of your
technology to start to wonder about things outside themselves. To wonder where
they came from, and what their purpose is. You certainly need to have reached
the level of evolution where survival is not predicated upon your biological
evolution keeping up with the needs of your surroundings, but rather, your
technological evolution keeping up with your need to adapt your surroundings to
your specific needs. For you guys that happened a couple hundred thousand years
ago. Fire, stone tools, sharp sticks, that sort of thing. Anyway, as the brain
developers and the neocortex develops a network to link it all together on the
different levels and humans started to recognize their different thought
patterns, that is to say, understand abstract thought and imagination. At this
point in evolution it seems necessary to develop some sort of spirituality or
religion just as a way of explaining things that are otherwise unexplainable at
the time.......so most civilizations just make it up. Make sense to you
Jack"? "Yea, sort of. Let me get this straight. So, basically
religion is correct, that there is a God, or higher power, and that's you guys...right"?
"Right". "And, even though most religions think in terms of one
God, that is not totally wrong because you guys are interconnected, so it's
kind of just a matter of semantics...right"? "Right". "But,
what about all the different prophets and rituals and scriptures and
stuff"? "We'll jack, I am afraid that you people pretty much made all
that stuff up. Like I said, it is only natural to wonder and try to make sense
of things, but when one group claims to have it all figured out and possess
exclusive access to The ANSWERS......well that's when the shit hits the fan.
For some reason at this stage of your development, you people seen to be
willing to fight each other over abstract believes. It is somewhat
understandable to fight for say, food, or shelter, of something having to do
with your survival, but this insistence on killing to defend your ideology is
baffling to us". "So we are like the lovable yet dysfunctional
family" asked Jack. "Something like that" answered Bob.
Jack
was not really surprised at how exhilarated he felt at the moment. His head was
so full of questions, with different thoughts racing so fast in his
brain......he thought to himself "calm down Jack.....keep it cool".
Never the less he felt kind of like a groupie at a rock concert. "Ok, how
long do I have" Jack asked. "Do you mean, to live" asked Bob.
"No, no...Sorry... I mean...right now, to talk to you. How long do I get
to talk to you? As you might imagine I have a few more questions, and it's not
every day you get to talk to God.....or an alien.....or both". "I'm
not in any hurry. I've been around since the first great human migration started;
I might as well spend a few more minutes answering questions for you Jack. Or
maybe you just want to email me a list of bullet point questions".
"Can I do that” asked Jack. "Jesus No" said Bob "I was just
kidding, but actually, we do like your Internet thing. I tap in on occasion to
check things out. You guys really made it easy with that Facebook invention
back in the first decade of this millennium. I especially liked the "God
Facebook" page, that guy was hysterical". "Bob, you’re a pretty funny guy yourself, are all
the eggheads like you"? "Yes, I think you would find us similar in
that respect, and we do adapt ourselves to our surroundings, mostly to extend
comfort to whoever we are communicating with. However we do have individual personalities; as you would you put it. There are some definite
ironies in the universe and recognition of them can be entertaining. I believe
that is what you would consider humor. I must say though, humans really do take
this humor thing to a higher level. That seems to be one of the ironies of your
race; you have the capacity for incredible kindness and selflessness, yet also
have the capacity for incredible cruelness and inhumanity. We have long
speculated that your sense of humor developed as a sort of coping mechanism for
this paradox. What else would you like to know".
"Just
how much influence have you guys had on our development"? "Do you
mean like actively”. "Yes, exactly like sixteen years ago when you showed
up and gave us the gifts of technology and saved us from destroying our
atmosphere". "We have been keeping an eye on your world since the
beginning if that's what you’re referring to. We have made a few visits at key
times. We did introduce technology to the first humanoids. After several
hundred thousand years your technology was stagnating and you guys were kind of
stuck in the hunter gatherer thing so we introduced agriculture and beasts of
burden. Some of the early advanced civilizations took to it well....you know,
Mesoamerica, Egypt, China, the Fertile Crescent". "What about all the
Christianity stuff, what about Jesus Christ" asked Jack. "Not
us" answered Bob. "Awesome guy totally had the right idea... But not
us". We pretty much stayed out of the picture until sixteen years ago
when, as you stated, we figured out that your atmosphere was at a tipping
point. It just so happens that you guys had just recently figured out how to
digitize information and your ability to store more and more of it in less
space has increased rapidly. What humanity has yet to recognize is that this
ability to digitize information is the tipping point for all civilizations to
become advanced. Quite truthfully, we probably would have let you guys go ahead
and just trash your own planet but for the fact that you passed this tipping
point. We just couldn't see letting you parish and we realized you were ready
for a technology boost. Humanity would have figured out everything we taught
you eventually. That's just how it works, so we simply sped things up a bit,
and probably saved your planet. The general consensus was that it would be a
shame to have you guys come all this way and survive to join the ranks of the
advanced spices only to destroy your habitat in the misguided attempt to adapt
your environment to your needs. So, that is the reason behind our intervention
of 2016".
"Ok,
next question" said Jack. "How have we preformed as a spices, since
your intervention? I mean, it seems to me as if we as a spices are loath to
accept any kind of productive change. I have witnessed it in my work for the
past six years. Men can look you in the face and lye about things that
literally affect the entire human race, and quite often I can sense that they
truly don't care. I can actually feel their indifference toward their fellow
man. I can actually look into their minds........or soul.....if you will, and
see a void. How can it be that, in the wake of all the gifts of life and
technology you have bestowed on us that people can be so......so......fucked
up"? "That's kind of a tuff one Jack" answered Bob. "On the
whole, your race has behaved admirably, but you are correct, there are still
problems and still problemed people. I don't
think I possess an adequate answer for you on that one Jack. What I can say is
that there has always existed a struggle within the cosmos between positive and
negative energy. Many of your Religions explain it as the struggle between God
and The Devil, which is not a bad analogy but really kind of misses the point.
The struggle is within each and every one of us, not between two actual
entities. We seem to have advanced to a point to which negative energy is
simply not tolerated, and as such, has not really influenced our progress and
development for trillions of years. That is not to say however that negative
energy does not still exist......it does. In the case of humanity, it will
suffice to say that you guys are still working on it, and all in all you are
moving in the right direction".
"Ok
next question, if you created us- and apparently a lot of other spices too- who
the hell created you"? "Hummm, you have interesting questions Jack. I
was not mistaken in gauging your capacity for understanding at a high level. We
come from a previous spices like ourselves. Your human understanding of time is
limited, but for the purpose of this explanation, just consider a length of
time that your current understanding of math has not reached. The only
definition you have for it so far is INFINITY. So, in other words, a really long time ago, we were
once like you. We had evolved from one cell organisms in a bio-metophisicological
fashion. Our seeds had been planted and nurtured in a fashion similar to what
we did with you and many others over the last several trillion years. Anyway,
as we evolved, and employed technology, just as you have, we eventually were
able to exist as information and energy, without the need of a biological
support system. It is actually a bit more completed that just energy and
information, but that is the best I can come up with as far as an explanation
within you human realm of understanding. Maybe the best way to explain is to
use a human concept that helps you to define the indefinable. I guess you could
say that we have a soul. Do you understand Jack"?
"Yea, actually I think I do". "Good, I realize this is heavy
shit, but I'm the one that is calling on you, so you do have the right to
understand as much as is humanly possible. So basically, we continued to evolve
and be nurtured by our creators as did other spices and over what you would
again consider infinity, we all assimilated into one. We achieved a total
singularity and became one with our creators, our technology, and each other.
Since then we have been able to transcend dimensions-at least as you understand
them- create many universes, plant new life throughout those universes, and
pretty much carry on as we are supposed to.....do you have more
questions"?
"Well
yesssss..... How long do you guys live? What happens when you die, and how do
you reproduce???? Or do you even reproduce"? "Ok, ok, one at a time.
I'm not sure I can adequately answer those ones ether but I'll try. First, to
use your preferred English vernacular, We live a really fucking Long time! I've
been around since you guys started migrating out of the African continent,
which was beautiful by the way. It was a complete joy to watch your curiosity
and unquenchable spirit of adventure......but I digress....so, yes we basically
live forever and that; my dear Jack answers your next question. We don't die,
not by you concept anyway. We eventually do what you might consider a sort of
recycle thing, but that is simply beyond your ability to understand, and, quite
frankly, my ability to explain. The last one is difficult to answer as well.
The process I explained to you regarding where we came from....our
evolution....our singularity.....well, let's just say, that's still going on.
It is a continuum, of time, space, and energy.....or, let's call it life.....It
is A life continuum, and we are all part of it. Fact is Jack that you are A
part of it too.....do you get what I am saying to you"? "I think so,
and if I am on the right page, you may have answered my next and far most
important question". "That's right Jack, you are defiantly on the
right page, and you intuition serves you well. I will ask you to keep that one
under your hat if you will, for many obvious reasons". "Oh but Bob,
that's the big one! What da ya mean I gotta keep that one under my hat? That is
like the single biggest unanswered question in the history of mankind and you
just insinuated the answer and I have to KEEP IT UNDER MY HAT....is that about
it"? "Yup, that's about it Jack. I didn't say our conversation, or my
answers to your questions, or what I am going to ask would be easy for you. Do
you have more questions"?
"Just
a couple hundred" said Jack with a somewhat snarky tone. "Might have
to keep it to an even hundred" Bob retorted in kind. "What about
physics, what about atoms, molecules, particles, relativity, the speed of
light, quantum physics, parallel dimensions, black holes. Universal expansion
and how the hell does carbon based life fit in the picture? Oh, and how small
do things really get? Is it like a whole other universe could exist in the
space of what we know as a particle? Oh and how long does a star usually have?
I mean, specifically how long before our sun burns out"? "You know
Jack, sooner or later we are going to have to get around to why I am here right
now, and if you line of questioning gets any more generic, I will have to
rethink my original high opinion of you and your capacity for knowledge and
pragmatism. So, here we go. Your understanding of basic physics is sound;
Quantum physics is just like religion, a way to explain inexplicable things.
The speed of light is what it is, but by no means does that establish any sort
of limit to the travel and transfer of energy, or matter in any form. Black
holes, another thing like religion, made up to explain stuff you don't
understand. They don't exist as you understand them. Let's just say they are
gateways to other dimensions and universes. Parallel universes, yes, and by the
way, you can get to them through black holes".
Bob
was getting rather sarcastic at this point, but Jack was absorbing every bit of
information, and was actually able to tap into a telepathic connection with Bob
just as he was able to do with most humans. He harbored an intuition that Bob
was something along the lines of "pure wisdom" or "pure
good". Not in some formal, ritualistic way, but in some simple, serene,
peaceful way. Jack even felt a very real sense of euphoria and total
contentment that he had never experienced before. Oh a conscious level Jack
thought "this is one cool benevolent dude" and "I am going to do
whatever this guy asks me to do....no problem".
Bob
continued; "there are many things smaller than a particle, and no, an
entire universe is not inside one of them. Carbon based life is a pretty small
part of the whole picture, but a very important part. It is not the exclusive domain
of consciousness as you know it. In other words, there are many things you
would consider as intelligent life forms, like me for example, that are not, or
at least no longer, carbon based life forms. However carbon based life is a
pretty efficient way to nurture evolution of an advanced species. You
understand Jack"? "Yes, I do. Please continue". "Ok then,
as far as your sun is concerned, I have no idea. We can put things in play and
maybe manipulate the outcome, but we by no means control everything".
"Then who does" asked Jack? "Why, no one" answered Bob
"it just IS". "So, there is stuff that you actually don't
understand" asked Jack. "Yes, there is stuff that we don't
understand.....not much....but some things that we don't know.....you feel
better"? "Yea, I guess I do. I'm not sure why...maybe it's just a
little refreshing, knowing that even God doesn't have ALL the answers"
said Jack after he had thought about it for a minute or so. "I tend to
agree" said Bob. "So, you ready to hear a few more details about what
is happening in your world today"? "Yea, I'm not at all sure I
actually want to hear it, but I have this distinct feeling you are going to lay
it on me anyway so....you have my undivided attention".
"A
lot of this I really don't have to go over considering you are already in the
thick of it. The main reason you are in the deep shit right now is that you
insinuated to a group of PPPEP guys that certain interests had quite a bit too
lose with the passage of the GECA treaty. They have planted spies with
telepathic powers all over the place and one of them that reports directly to
Senator Amash, was present at the time. It probably wasn't what you said as
much as what you thought, and no, you wouldn't have been able to detect his
telepathy because they knew of your powers but you didn't suspect theirs, so
they just blocked your abilities without you even knowing. If you were
expecting this shit it might have been different but these guys are total pros
so it’s no wonder they caught you off guard. Anyway, these guys obviously
caught the vibe that you really suspected that there was a humongous conspiracy
even if you didn't grasp it at a conscious level. Furthermore, at this stage of
the game with them being able to block this legislation in the House
-unbeknownst to you, the White House, and just about everybody else involved-
they were hardly willing to risk losing the vote because of one lame ass,
telepathic, environmental lobbyist.....namely you! You with me so far"?
Yea, I'm with you". "So, they put out the hit on you, which to them
is no big deal, they have already assassinated over two hundred people in the
past ten years so what’s another lobbyist...right? They would have gotten away
with but they underestimated your intuition and willingness to act on it. Most
folks get feelings, vibes, intuition, whatever you want to call it, and it's
real, however they rarely trust them and even more rarely act on them, you, on
the other hand do. In fact you have learned the rather unique skill and ability
to interpret your intuitions and act accordingly. You know full well that you
were born with this skill, but what you don't know is that everybody is, they
just don't know it, or they don't know how to use it, or maybe they did at one
time in their evolution and have forgotten because of external factors like too
much reliance on technology. The whole idea of a species having technology is
that it evolves along with their biological growth and their mental growth and
that they learn to incorporate it all into a unified healthy evolution. Anyway,
sometimes one thing will get ahead of the other and it takes a while for things
to assimilate and even out. You just got the gift of better incorporation of
all your senses and the ability to understand, interpret and act upon
them".
"Wow,
these fuckers are willing to blow me away for something as simple as world
power, domination, and extreme wealth and privilege" asked Jack.
"Yes... I know right" answered Bob. "Hard to believe they would
waist you for such a meager pittance. So, here we are with the GECA legislation
passing out of committee and heading to the House floor for debate and all
those in favor thinking it’s a lock when in actuality, the Trad's and PPPEP's
and others in the conspiracy have secretly ether bribed or threatened enough
Members to kill the Legislation before it even gets out of the House and to the
Senate or The President much less to the U.N. And, I am sure you are aware that
if the U.S. balks at this treaty, it is not going to happen and one more
possible roadblock will have been lifted on their quest to create Global chaos.
By the way, they have had the formula to reformulate petroleum and distill it
for combustion for many years now, they have just been waiting for a time at
which their interests are fully aliened and they can maximize the effect of
this discovery and the fact that they have almost every piece of Petrol powered
machinery and/or military hardware needing fossil fuel already in their
collective possession".
"So
what you're saying is that if the GECA treaty goes through, it might at least
buy some time and put a speed bump in their way, because every country on earth
will be behind it and there will be a global across the board restriction on
any fossil fuel consumption or combustion, and we will have global watch dogs
with sharp teeth to see to it that such restrictions are enforced".
"That
is exactly what I am saying, which is not to say that they can't pull off a
pretty major disruption in economic, and political stability anyway.....but it
will sure be harder for them if that GECA treaty get signed and goes into
effect". "I am beginning to see the big picture here, and it sure is
a lot bigger than I originally thought" said Jack shaking his head in
disappointment in himself. “Hey” said Bob “don’t be hard on yourself.
You already had a much better idea of what was happening than ninety nine
percent of the population. That is why you had a price on your head”.
“What
happens now” asked Jack. “Well, ether you and your friends throw a big ol’
wrench in the works of these inconsiderate, clandestine, selfish, power hungry,
greedy bastards, or they get away with it and disrupt the world’s balance of
power and push your still fragile atmospheric condition into an irreversible
feedback loop creating climate change of epic proportion that will probably spell
the end of the human race”. “You know Bob; you really don’t need to pull any
punches with me. I mean, I’m a big boy, you don’t have to sugar coat
anything…….Soooo…..basically it’s up to my friends and me to save the planet?
Could you give me something with a little more pressure, something a little
more important? How about this…maybe something that I might at least have the
slightest, outside chance of accomplishing”? “Now Jack don’t sell yourself
short. I think you’ll be fine. Besides you do have some kick ass friends, I’ve
noticed”. “Ok Bob, you already know that I’m in. The fact is that you knew
before you even talked to me that I was going to do whatever you asked, didn’t
you”? “Yes, I sure did” said Bob smiling. Jack was smiling too. It seemed to dawn
on both of them simultaneously that even though Humans had searched their soul
for contact with their “Higher Power” for thousands of years, and that the
“Eggheads” had helped them evolve and nurtured their growth for thousands of
years, this was the first actual bond between father and son and they were both
feeling an incredible sense of joy at that very fact. “Hey Bob, I have to tell
you, I am really incredibly happy that you came to seem”. “Me too” said Bob.
“Will I be able to see you again”? “You never know” said Bob “you never know.
So here is what I need you to do”.
Chapter
9: Anegada: Smoking some Cubans.
It
was well after midnight when Jack returned to the boat and he had been gone for
over six hours. While Dougy and Geno were confident that he was alright, Annie
G was starting to get a bit antsy. “I’m glad you’re back Baby” she said as he
climbed aboard “I was starting to get worried”. Everyone was back in the
cockpit, having eaten dinner and having a few cocktails…except of course for
Max who never drank. He had however taken off his tie, jacket, and leather
dress shoes which Jack noticed immediately, and then commented. “Ok guys I know
that we have had a rather surreal week and that nothing should surprise me at
this point, but I have just witnessed the two most incredible things ever.
First: I have actually seen Max Cunningham without a tie and sport coat,
wearing flip flops no less. Second: I just had a five and a half hour
conversation with the creator of our universe”. “No fucking way’!!!! Was the
response in unison from five guys and one girl? “Yes way” said Jack. ” I am not
kidding you, if was fucking incredible. Unfuckingbeleaveable, I can’t even
begin to describe how ultimately awesome it was”. Jack proceeded to spend the
next eight hours straight explaining every minute detail of his conversation
with Bob while his friends sat in total amazement. He shared every question he
had asked and every answer Bob had given. He shared the incredible feeling of
peace and serenity that had come over him. He shared the incredible bond that
made materialized between them. He shared all the secrets that had been
reveled….except one, and that had been the one answer that Bob had not actually
spoken, but Jack had felt it, and Bob had let him feel it, and had confirmed
that his feeling was correct. Jack knew that he had the answer to the very
question which all mankind desperately yearned to know, and he had promised not
to reveal the answer to anyone. “I can live with that” he thought to himself.
He shared to his friends that he had never in his life felt the feeling of raw,
unmitigated, unequivocal love as he had just felt during his five and a half
hour meeting with this strange being from somewhere he could never comprehend.
They had all asked a million questions, and listened as they never had before.
The sun had risen and it was now Zero eight thirty hours and no one was even
tired. In fact they all seemed to be on adrenalin high, just completely amazed
at what had happened and what Jack was sharing with them. Finally someone
suggested that they all get some shut eye of they would all be wasted by
evening. Max volunteered to stand watch while everyone else tried to get a few
hours sleep. Jack had also explained at least some of the details surrounding
the current situation and what he had committed to do about it. He was very
clear that this was his commitment and that he was not expecting the others to
automatically follow him in his plan of action, but everyone including him knew
that was just bullshit and that there was no way in hell that any of them was
not in this thing one hundred percent. Max set up his laptop and customized M4
assault weapon in the helm station. He checked his Glock 9mm and half dozen
loaded quick change back up clips and he started to develop an action plan.
Everyone else except Geno who was too wound up to sleep had crashed. Geno took
the forward watch and settled into his routine of scanning the horizon for any
and all approaching vessels. Geno had always had extremely accurate vision and
his Celestron Marine 16 x 60 binoculars allowed him to identify a vessel at
over five nautical miles. Of course the Nanny Lu had great radar, but it took a
trained eye to sniff out a suspicious vessel and Geno was gifted with that
uncanny ability. “Let me know if anything looks goofy to you. I’m going to
start running some hypothetical scenarios and see if we can actually pull off
this save the world thing”. “You got it Max, I got the eye out and you will be
the first to know if I don’t like what I see. By the way, if anybody can effect
a plan from God to save the world…..it’s you brother”. Max’s usually
expressionless face actually reveled what might have actually passed as a smile…just
for a millisecond…then he went to work.
Bob
had let Jack know that there was simply no way he was going to be able to bring
down the entire conspiracy and that it would be fallacy to even try. The
objective was to get the GECA legislation through the U.S. Congress and on to
the White House and United Nations. Bob had also let Jack in on the fact that
he was kind of going out on a limb because there had not been a decision among
the powers-at-be regarding any kind of intervention. Bob has been assigned the
task of looking after earth in a manner of speaking and was acting on mankind’s
behalf on his own. Therefore he was not going to be able to enact a grand
gesture as had been done sixteen years ago when they let their presents be
known and passed on tons of information and change the composition of oil. That
was pretty overt stuff and there was to be none of that this time around. The
odds seemed pretty lopsided to Max being the pragmatic warrior that he was.
What the hell were the chances of six men and one woman going to have against a
highly financed international ring of highly sophisticated crime with leaders
at the height of power in every country including the United States Senate and
House and Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines and who knows where else. “This is
freaking impossible, not to mention suicidal” he had said earlier. But then “I
always preferred to be the underdog” he had added later. He was assessing their
assets and liabilities as he had always done and had suddenly realized that
this was going to have to be done on faith. This was a foreigner concept to
Max. He had taken on long odds without hesitation before, but he always knew
and accepted exactly what the odds were and what was required of him to beat
those odds. This was a new game; one in which the rules he had relied on for so
long no longer applied. He basically had to bet his life, the lives of his
friends and the success of an entire mission to save the world on intelligence
against all odds because it came from a supreme being. This was just something
that he was going to have difficulty getting his head around.
Max
had established a secure communication channel with Ron and had already
apprised him of the situation. He was actually concerned about a security
breach within the EAG. The thought of any corruption within his own
organization made his shudder, but he had totally failed to recognize the size,
scope and utter unscrupulous nature of the forces he was up against. Ron had
assured him that they had uncovered some of the very same evidence, and were
rapidly coming to similar conclusions however his reaction led Max to believe
that they had not really grasped the size and scope of what was happening
ether. His commentary was filled with expletives like, “you have got to be
shitting me” and “holy shit” and “no fucking way”. Ron usually spoke in such
expletives, but the tone of his voice betrayed his usual confidence and Max got
the distinct feeling that Ron was actually blown away by what he was hearing.
Ron had immediately scheduled a meeting with everyone who was in attendance at
the previous day’s conference. He was a bit surprised when he was unable to
raise Sam, and also that Art Dutton had been unavailable, but had dismissed it
at the time. Now he was freaking out. “Jane, I want somebody to contact Sam
Markey now. I can’t get him and I have a direct communication frequency.
Something screwing is going on. Also, I need you to get a hold of Art Dutton’s
office. He and Sam had an appointment with General A.J. Lukas. I want you to
find out what in the fuck is going on”. “On it chief” Jane had replied.
By
fourteen hundred hours Jack had woken up and met Tom and Jimmy in the galley.
“Wow that felt good to catch a few zees. I was mentally exhausted” said Jack.
“Is Max still of watch”. Yea” Jimmy answered “and Geno is on visual as well. I
was just going up to relieve them after getting some grub going”. “So, what’s
our agenda today”? Jack allowed as how he really was not sure. “I guess we
should all have a confab and see what Max has learned from the boys in D.C. I
really hate to leave here…..I mean I really, really hate to leave here, but I
suspect that we probably will have to head back to D.C. and throw ourselves
into the lion’s den. Fuckin-A do I hate the thought of that”. “Especially since
I heard on the radio from Earl that he caught a dozen nice Tuna and two really
nice Mahi- Mahi in the passage just four nautical miles from right here, and I
know it’s been six years since you have tasted Jimmy’s famous Tuna sushi rolls”
Jimmy added just to twist the knife. “This crowd never gets any easer does it”
Jack asked to no one in particular.
Suddenly,
Geno was yelling up a storm and Max was running into the cabin heading for the
firepower stash. “What the fuck is going on” Jimmy shouted. “Geno spotted a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk coming in hot from the east”. “Fuck” yelled Tom as he
followed Max. “Doug, get your ass up, there’s a party brewing up here and you
don’t want to miss it”. Geno had a SAW set up already on the forward tramp and
Max and Tom emerged with an assortment of rifles, RPG launchers and the
Shoulder launched laser guided sidewinder that had already proven its
effectiveness on Beaver Island. Tom had stabilized himself at the edge of the
aft cockpit and had braced the sidewinder missile launcher against the cockpit
cover. He already had a clean sight on the approaching chopper and was ready to
blow it out of the sky on Max’s order. “Max, I got Missile lock any time you
give the nod”. “Roger that” Max replied. “Geno, you ready with the SAW”?
“Ready” Geno replied. “Dougy where are you” Max yelled. “If I were up your ass
you’d know where I was” Doug yelled as he came flying out of the amidships
hatch in his boxers and his favorite .308 auto in his hand. “I was just about
to seal the deal with Angelia Jolie in my dream and you fuck sticks show your
ugly………I’m going to blow your ass out of the sky you dick wad”. “Wake up grumpy
did we” Geno said as he held his sights on the approaching chopper. “Geno, you
sure that’s a Black Hawk”? Max yelled. “Absofuckinglutely” was his reply. “Max,
do we blow um away or wait to see if he fires on us”? Tom yelled from his ready
position. “Because if he lets one of those 2.75 inch M4 rockets go or opens up
on us with that 30 MM cannon it might just be too fucking late”. “Radar says he’s four point six miles and
closing fast at one ten” Jimmy yelled. “Jack better make sure
Annie
G is under some cover, we might take a hit”. Suddenly before he heard a thing,
Tom saw the mussel flash on the forward mounted 30 MM cannon and squeezed off
the trigger on his missile launcher. Within one point three seconds a small
explosion stopped the approaching chopper in its tracks. As the forward
momentum stopped, and the rotor slowed the chopper started a rapid descent as
fire ravaged the cockpit. In the time it took Dougy to say “Asta la Vista
motherfucker” the chopper was in the water and sinking fast. “What’s the depth
over there” Max asked Jimmy. “Around one twenty. Easy dive if that’s what you
want to know” “Yep, let’s head over there and see what we got”. “Who wants to
go diving” Dougy yelled “Now that I’m up, I guess I might as well…or I can
pound a few beers if any of you guys want to go…I hate to hog all the fun you
know”. “Yea, a real fun hog, that’s you all the way Dougy” Jack said. “Actually,
you stay and pound those beers; I want to take a look at who these buttholes
are”. “Done deal Jackie boy, Annie said she wants a little time with me when
you’re not around anyway”. “Dream on liver lips” Annie G said as she came up
from below. “You boys sure do know how to keep a girl entertained…what’s for
lunch”? Jack said "I can take the
spear gun and see if I can spear us a nice grouper for lunch....or, you can fry
up some spam". "Yummy, you know I just love spam and eggs. Maybe I'll
just make up some conk salad in case you miss". "That's what I love
about you baby, such confidence". Max and Tom had loaded all the diving
gear into the tender, Jack hopped in and they sped off to the site where the
chopper had plunged into the sea. "We had better see if we can ID these
guys" Max said. "I suspect they won't exactly be carrying driver’s
licenses". "Who do you think they are Max" asked Jack.
"Mercenaries, hired guns, probably from Cuba, maybe Columbia. Let's take a
look see". They geared up and hit the water. Things were still pretty
cloudy considering that a burning helicopter had just fallen out of the sky and
sank leaking hydrogen battery fluid, synthetic lubricant, hydraulic fluid, and
quite possibly a large quantity of blood. "Just before getting in the
water Tom had turned to Max to say "you don't think that there is blood in
the water do you".”Why... You getting squeamish on me now". "No,
I just hate sharks, they are mean motherfuckers". "Jesus Tom just get
in the God Dam water, you are such a pussy sometimes".
The
sharks had indeed been lured in by the irresistible draw of blood in the water.
At least a dozen good sized tiger's were visible through the still cloudy
water. The chopper had fallen just south of a significant drop off that rose
from well over four hundred feet to about fifty. It was about two miles off
shore and the depth gently tapered all the way to the beach with mostly sand
bottom and occasional coral head. A coral reef protruded off a point several
miles to the east blocking the prevailing east winds and providing one of
Jimmy's favorite anchorages. Even during "the season" Jimmy's bay was
usually empty. This time of year it was guaranteed to be deserted. Considering
that the entire population of the island was less than a hundred and no one
lived west of the main harbor, Jimmy's bay was as isolated as it gets.
They
descended to one hundred and twenty feet when they came to the chopper hung up
on a small ledge in the drop off. There were two bodies which had obviously
died upon impact. "Teach you to mess with guys who pack a sidewinder"
was the thought going through Tom Rum's head. Tom had a tendency to take it
personally when people tried to kill him, unlike Max who always kept emotion
completely out of the situation. Max had always thought that was why Tom
preferred to carry and operate the superior weaponry; and the miniaturized,
guided, shoulder launched sidewinder with the plethora of different available
warheads for all different situations was far and away his favorite. Max
realized that Tom was usually able to use his skills and advanced weaponry to
defuse a deadly situation before it became deadly for them, and he took it as a
personal insult that anyone would try to do his friends or associates harm. He
also got visible satisfaction out of doing away with such threats which all in
all made him an amusing companion and incredibly effective bodyguard. He used
to kid Max about his secret service days saying "you should have gotten
the Sarah Palin detail back in '07-08 mate. I would have been giving her the
high hard one. She was hot"! "You are so fucking juvenile you.” was
always Max's standard response. "Come on Max; don't tell me you would not
have tapped that action. I would have been hailing her from behind while she's
looking over at Russia..... Out her back window".
"They
searched the bodies and as suspected no ID was not forth coming.
The chopper was devoid of any form of identification, no serial numbers were
left and it was clear that the chopper was black market. It was heavily armed
and under normal conditions and against any foe other than Jack and friends
would have been deadly. In this particular situation, deadly only to them. Two
30 MM cannons and two .50 Caliber forward mounted Gatling guns along with four
wing mounted 2.75 inch missiles. Max disassembled some of the machinery and
weaponry to take back to the boat and attempt to determine some place of
origin. He also removed some of the personal gear. He knew that there would be
no evidence- because he knew these guys were professional- and like him would
not have made any mistake that would reveal their identity. In the world of
spooks not revealing ones identity was the most important thing. As Tom Rum and
Max completely surveyed the chopper recharge, jack had followed a couple twenty
pound grouper up a canyon and was moving in for the kill. He was clearly
torn between his desire for more information about those who were
trying to kill him and his desire for the ultimate lunch of fresh fried grouper
and conk salad. He was swimming ten feet above and twenty feet behind the fat
and delicious looking grouper when a six foot tiger shark came around the bend
in the canyon fifty feet ahead and was swimming fast right toward them. The
grouper did an abrupt about face and started swimming right toward Jack. Within
a second he had let two spears go nailing both grouper and shooting a healthy
dose of highly potent shark repellent dead ahead. In another second he had
collected the grouper, turned, and joined Max and Tom as they finished up at
the wreckage. Max gave the signal to ascend and they headed back toward the
surface. After a short decompression stop they were back in the tender heading
back to the Nanny Lu. "Who were they" Jack asked as they sped toward
the Cat. "Cuban mercenaries, defiantly Cuban. Real badass fuckers".
Max answered. "Yea well they don't look so badass as cooked, soggy, dead
motherfucking corpuses now do they" Tom added. "Any clues who they
work for" asked Jack. "They will work for anybody; equal opportunity
killers I guess. Undoubtedly your buddies in the wacko conspiracy world. Those
crazy Cuban mercs don't give two shits who is writing the paycheck as long as
it cashes and you really don't want to be on the other end if it doesn't. Fuck
um, they're dead now and I doubt this stuff is going to tell us anymore. Let’s
get back to the boat, eat those grouper, call Ron, and develop our next
step". "And have a couple big ass Rum drinks" added Tom.
Chapter
10: Middle East: The Turkey’s cooked
Art
Dutton's official title was Assistant Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic
Affairs, which in the official hierarchical structure put him at about number
twelve on the totem pole. In reality he was the right hand man of Secretary of
Defense Sivalingam Sivananthan. Sri Lanka–born, Sivalingam Sivananthan was
a physicist and entrepreneur. He had been director of the microphysics
laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He was the founder of
Sivananthan Laboratories Inc. in Bolingbrook, Illinois, and created advanced
military infrared night vision technology, a platform for next-generation solar
cells. He also helped found the nonprofit Institute for Solar Photovoltaic
Innovation, Research, and Edu-training, or INSPIRE, to prepare the Illinois
workforce and interested students to build a renewable energy and solar
ecosystem for the state. He had been taped for increasingly sensitive military
innovations and was instrumental in several post fossil fuel military break-
troughs. He had always had an admiration for Ron Smith and the EAG and since he
had a combined expertise in advanced military innovation and technology and
alternative energy and environmental preservation, he was popular with
conservatives, liberals, hawks, doves, tree huggers, land raiders, Greenpeace and
the joint chiefs. When Dr Sarah Jane Kelly had chosen him for Secretary of
Defense, he acquiesced only if allowed to bring in most of his staff and Art
Dutton who was a genius and whose uncanny ability to organize the best talent,
harvesting the best results had made him and Sivalingam billionaires.
Of
course Ron's ability to spot huge potential talent especially talent that
shared his ideology had caused him to notice and follow Sivalingam and Art
years ago. They had long since become friends and had worked together to
achieve many positive results for many years. Right now Ron was in touch with
the SOD office and was starting to freak out about his friend Art and his
assistant Sam. They had now been missing for 32 hours. Ron and company had been
the last group to see them at the meeting at EAG headquarters early the
previous day. "I don't give a shit if he is at the bottom of the fucking
Atlantic......connect me to his com frequency right fucking now or I will climb
through this fibro-optic cable and strangle your fucking ass" Ron was
yelling to some poor assistant who's only violation was to suggest that
Secretary Sivananthan was busy. "I will get him right away for you
sir" was the reply. "Ron what's up, where the hell is Art".
"Don't know buddy, last we saw him, he and Sammy were heading to A.J.s
office to ask for some help on this thing we are uncovering. They left the
office and never showed at A.J.s. I had Laura send you everything in the level
six code. I'm guessing there's a security breach in your detail. Your driver,
secret service security guy the D.C. Cops or all three were probably on the
take and I suspect they gassed Art and Sam the second they got in the car.
Now....Sam is a newbie and they could have pulled anything on him, but Art
knows his shit and they would have had a hard time getting the drop on him.
This is why I suspect they used gas. They are probably dead by now, but you
guys should put some energy on it. NSA and CIA already have....thus my
pessimistic outlook, but you and Art were close so you should handle an
investigation yourself and even if they're dead you might want to go the extra
yard and find out who pulled the plug and exercise some Sivananthan justice if
you catch my drift". "Yea I do Ron, thanks. I reviewed your stuff....wow
pretty wild accusations. I am totally on this with you and I believe your boy
Jack's story, but you know we need a hell of a lot more provable evidence to do
anything". "Of course you do buddy boy, so find it. You don't have to
deal with shit like warrants or probable cause; you have spooks....so fucking
use them"! "Ok, ok I'll find them, don't worry. Is this everything
you have". "Yep, that's it so far, but I'll let you know ASAP when we
turn up anything. I'm also going to follow up face to face with A.J. If you
think that's a good idea". "I don't see why not. He is about as
straight as they come". "That's what I think too. Thanks Sivalingam,
talk to you soon".
Truth
was that the SOD office really didn't have mush "police power" as it
were. In the years following 9/11 and even with Barack Obama following George
W. Bush the true power to intimidate and actually spy on American citizens lay
in the NSA. Several different events and unconnected policies had played a
serendipitous roll in letting the National Security Administration amass
tremendous power to spy and intimidate within the U.S. The former "BIG
BULLY" in America had been the IRS. Everybody was scared of the IRS and
certain administrations in history had used them as their personal pit bull. In
2013 a huge IRS scandal had disrupted the IRS. IRS agents had targeted
conservative political groups which created conservative/ republican outrage.
Then it was discovered that the IRS offices were wasting large sums of money
making mock videos and having
extravagant parities. It eventually resulted in a total melt down of the IRS, a
sweeping investigation that actually uncovered a mass conservative conspiracy
led by Senator Lindsey Graham who had originally bribed IRS officials to target
conservative groups only to try
and expose it and get the Obama Administration into deep shit. The plan ultimately
back fired on them and they were the ones who ended in a shit faced condition.
The positive result being the complete dismantle of the IRS and a long awaited,
much needed complete re-do of the Federal Tax Code. From six thousand four
hundred and twenty pages to one hundred and twenty five. A flat tax of fifteen
percent was enacted and an extra five percent for couples making over five
hundred thousand. Corporate tax was also fifteen percent. No tax on capital
gain. No tax on dividends. No personal deductions except for charitable
contributions.
Now
that the IRS had been dismantled, and reassembled in a toothless, nurtured
form, the already robust, and eager to abuse NSA was chomping at the bit to
jump in and provide the malicious tool of corruption that every political
organization drools over. The NSA had already used (and abused) PRYSEM as a way
to subvert laws and excised data-mining and spying so it was only a natural
evolution to grow into a political tool that if wanted, could be used for an
administrations personal objectives. Ron, who had studied man's evolution of technology,
had a theory about the evolution of organizations. Especially bureaucracies
which he often said had a life and growth of their own.
Since
the administration of President Kelly and the appointment of Pete Miller to
head up the NSA, the abuse of power and use of intimidation had been mostly
mitigated. Pete was thought of by Ron as a man of integrity and not one likely
to use the data within the NSA for inappropriate measures. The one thing for
sure; nothing could compare with the abuse of power and corruption under Chief
Arie Fletcher during the Santorum administration.
"Pete
can you find out what happened to Sam and Art......strike that, I know what
happened to them......can you find out who killed them and kill them
back"? "Ron, I'm not sure we can work it exactly like that but I will
find out who is behind this. We have been looking into the intel you passed to
us this morning from your boy Jack. Pretty hard to move on this without
substantiation". Yea, I just heard that same thing" Ron replied.
"What's your plan Pete". "I have a few ideas and different plans
of action; I can come over and fill in you Laura and Charlie if you want".
"That would be great. Thanks Pete". "Jane....can you get me Fin
Hameratt"?. "Yes boss. She's on...ouopps never mind, I got her
message system....hum that's funny". "What...what the hell are you talking
about". Ron yelled. Jane was still wondering what was going on. "I
would normally get a digital location signal and an auto patch through with her
level four security communication frequency, but it's not happening. It's like
she is.......not.....around.....Orr....".. "Jane, what the fuck are
you mumbling about"? "I think something's wrong boss".
"Get
me Ahbeene Farhteen, he's Turkish NIO" Ron replied immediately to Jane's
concerns. The National Intelligence Organization of Turkey was an organization
which commanded global respect. They were extremely capable, well run and as
transparent as one can be considering their duties and directive. Since the
replacement of Former Prime
Minister Recep Tiyyan Erdogan in 2013 and the implantation of democratic and
sectarian reforms the NIO and most other Central Government organizations were
largely supported by the citizens of Turkey.
Prime
Minister Erdogan saw the end of his political career in June of 2013 when protests against
the perceived authoritarianism of Erdogan and his policies, starting from a small sit-in
in Istanbul in
defense of a city park. After
the police's intense
reaction with tear gas, the protests
grew each day for the next seven days. Faced by the largest mass protest in a
decade, Erdogan made this controversial remark in a televised speech: "The
police were there yesterday, they are there today, and they will be there
tomorrow. Taksim
Square cannot be allowed to be a place where marginal groups
can freely roam". Shortly after the growing protests, he left the country
for a visit to Morocco, but he received a cold welcome and did not meet Mohammed VI of Morocco.[81] Erdoğan
claimed: "social media is the worst menace to society". As it turns
out, his remarks and general attitude toward a "big brother society"
proved to be a big mistake.
Ahbeene
Farhteen was the DIRECTORATE OF ELECTRONIC AND TECHNICAL INTELLIGENCE for the
NIO. The main duties of this directorate were ELINT (Electronic intelligence)
and SIGINT (signal intelligence). Ahbeene's primary mission was counteracting
all electronic and technical attacks against Turkey and its allies and his
division was the best there was. He and Dr. Hammeratt had worked together on
many issues and Ron had come to respect Ahbeene's abilities and integrity.
"Nasıl
arkadaşım yapıyoruz hey ron". Spoke Ahbeene as their communication line
was secured". Greetings to you too my old friend" Ron returned the
greeting. "What can I do for you old friend"? "I have a feeling
that Fin Hammertt has been murdered or kidnapped. Can you look into things for
me"? "I got agents on the way to her office as we speak. What the
heck is happening? We have been gathering a large quantity of data regarding
some crazy shit. Major oil and nat. gas reserves that were supposed to be
disposed of being stockpiled, and a hell of a lot of military hardware. We also
see a lot of nasty, unfriendly people moving into places they really have no
business being. Does any of this sound familiar? Does any of this have anything
to do with Fin missing". "Bingo on both accounts" said Ron.
"I am transmitting you everything we have. We suspect Senator Justin Amash
is at the top or close to it. You are going to have to deduce who's involved
over in your neighborhood. I would guess some top dogs are part of this thing.
In fact I'm sure of it, no international conspiracy bent on reconstituting
petroleum distillates as an energy source, selling it, selling the machinery and
weaponry that uses it, and starting a few wars to gain power in the African
Continent could possibly succeed without some assets within the
Turkish/Pakistani/ Israeli Government cooperative". "Ok, I'm feeding
your stuff into our computers now. I will run some programs and figure out
exactly who's involved. Now that I know the broad strokes, I can bore down to
the details no problem. While we've been talking I've put seven people and six
thousand terabytes to work on it. We've already run half a dozen different
algorithms and I have sixteen suspects. Give me another half hour to get some
human intel and....... Oh shit!!!!!" "What is it Ahbeene"? Ron
asked. "Sorry my friend, Fin is dead. My men just reported, she was in her
office poisoned". "God dammit, those fucking shit heads are going to
pay.....Fuck....fuck...” Ron was just melting down. This was the third friend
of Ron's to fall victim to this clandestine operation and he was getting very
very angry. "Ahbeene, can you please find whoever did this and kill
them". "Consider it done Ron. What else do you have as far as
operations in Istanbul"? "As you know, Fin had her own office, but we
maintain a research facility over on the north side of the Bosporus. Pretty
light on security so if you could check it out....I'll copy you the
coordinates, and Ahbeene"..."Yea Ron"....."Remember to kill
those fuckers". "Yea Ron, I'll get back to you soon".
"Laura, did you plug in everything from Max"? "Yea boss, pretty
interesting shit. There are probably twenty big wigs within the federal
government involved not including military or private sector so far. This thing
is going to be big". "Ok, keep working on the federal government
level for now, especially the legislative branch. Our first objective is to
expose whoever we can before they have a chance to kill the GECA
legislation". "I am going to try and get Dougy, Max, and Tom back
because if we can find out for sure the top six and
NSA,
CIA or FBI can't get them; I am prepared to let Max take them out".
"Ok boss, I agree with you, if we don't it’s going to be dooms day".
"These dick heads are really pissing me off". "Jane, get me
Grace Meng at the White House". "She's ready boss". "Grace,
did you have your people analyze all the stuff I sent? Did you look into
Amash"? "I have Pete miller's crew on it". "Good, I just
talked to him a minute ago". "CIA is on it too....and I peeled off
two of my best Secret Service guys to do some undercover".
"Who". "Joe Boswell and Bruce Lockwood". "Can we just
go arrest Amash". "Not yet Ron, but we're working on it".
"Can I just go kill him". "Not yet Ron but I'll let you
know". "Anything on Art Dutton and Sam Markey yet".
"Officially missing persons, no leads as to whereabouts, but we got a full
court press going". "Thanks Grace". Ron concluded. "Get me
A.J. will ya". "Got him Boss.....your welcome". Jane knew that courtesy
and good manners would always remain foreign concepts to Ron. "A.J. We've
got a serious situation here". "I can see that Ron, can you come over
here and bring me up to speed". "Yea, I'll be right there. See you in
a few". "Laura, Charlie, we're going to the Pentagon. Be ready in
five minutes, General A.J. Lukas is expecting us". Within twenty minutes
they were all sitting in the Generals office. "We are pretty sure it goes
as far as the Senate". Ron was beginning. General Lukas cut him off.
"Oh, fuck that, I know at least two of the joint chiefs and the Chair of
the armed forces committee.....maybe a few in President Kelly's staff......
Maybe her"! "You gotta be kidding me"? "No, I have been
following this shit for a month now, ever since the GECA got close to passing.
Everything you guys have gathered is spot on. Even the stuff your boy Jack says
he got from an egghead visit makes perfect sense. All the shit going down in
Turkey and West Africa. All the sudden disappearances of various GECA
proponents.......everything is making sense in the context of what you are
telling me. Now we have to devise a game plan of how to deal with it......and
that's not going to be easy.....not easy at all". "Any ideas off the
top of your head A.J." asked Ron "After all you are the five star
General". "Nope...... How about you guys"? Was the reply.
"Yes Rachel" the General said in response to a call from his
assistant. "Oh shit no...When....where? Ok...ok...I'll let him know".
"What's happening" Ron asked. "I'm afraid to tell you that they
found Art and Sam's bodies. Sorry Ron, I know you liked that kid and we both
thought the most of Art. You were right gas then poison injected between the
toes". "Any sign of the driver and security detail"? Asked Ron.
"Yes the body of Art's regular driver and secret service agent along with
an additional SS guy all killed the same way." "What about the D.C.
Cops". Ron asked. "Must have been phonies, no sign of them".
"So ether somebody killed the driver and SS guys first and had doubles in
the car......or, they were on the take, and got killed along with Art and
Sam". "Or the bad guys had something on the driver and SS guys but
didn't want any loose ends". "We're already following up with any
family, friends that sort of thing". "So you know Ron, DCPD is going
to lead the investigation, but we can pull rank with Sivalingam, and he is
pretty bummed. You know how tight he and Art were. He can say we suspect an
international terror organization, which is actually just what we do suspect so
NSA and CIA can step in". I can throw a couple of my best guys in with
them if you want". "That would make me feel a bit better" said
Ron. "Done" said A.J. "Man, I bet Siva is just pissed".
"Yea, he and Art went back a long way. Art was one smart capable fucking
dude. I kind of figured that Art would get the nod for Secretary of Defense and
Siva would get the V.P. spot". " I hear you Ron....loud and clear.
Siva sure would have made a better V.P. than that douch bag Jim Stanley".
"Well A.J. That's politics for ya. I know the game is played with a
different set of rules in the military but it's a similar game of
thrones". "Right you are son.....right you are".
Even
though there had been a plethora of extremely competent running mates in the
2028 elections including Sivalingam who like Dr. Sarah Jane Kelly had a science
background. Unfortunately for her the political climate at the time required
her to select a running mate from somewhere to the right of her. The previous
eight years had been under a New Democratic Republican Party (DRP)
administration and the populous had gotten use to centrist positions. While Dr.
Sarah Jane Kelly was mostly a centrist and was certainly pragmatic, she was a
member of the New Democratic Socialist Party (DSP) which was considered kind of
left by the general electorate. In order to seal the deal they needed a right
leaning DRP that could muster support from the middle of the road
conservatives. Several smart capable choices were vetted, but everyone seemed
to Dr. Kelly to harbor a pre conceived agenda or an element of swagger or
sometimes both and neither of which she liked. After too long she had told her
champagne managers to: "get me somebody who doesn't ware his balls on his
chest and have his head in his ass...... Every guy you bring me has an ego
problem, wants to alter my agenda and is a chauvinist asshole and I'm tired of
it. Ether get me a smart DRP who will play ball or get me a brain dead fucker,
who will do what we tell him and shut the fuck up. As things worked out, it was
the latter. Jim Stanley was the moderate two- term Governor of Arkansas. As her
campaign manager described "he is as plain Vanilla as they come". As
it turned out, he was prefect in that respect in that he really did not seem to
possess his own opinion and was quite amenable to simply defer to the judgment
of his superiors. He also was the Governor of Arkansas which was regarded as a Podunk,
hick state but none the less produced Bill and Hillary Clinton and Mike
Huckabee. He could bring the right leaning middle and do it without saying a
thing which was exactly what they wanted. There was no need for him to inspire
anyone, it was sufficient simply not piss anyone off or stir up any shit. The
only real problem as they all saw it was that he really was not so smart and it
would really suck if something happened to Dr Kelly and Jim Stanley actually
has to serve as president. "We will cross that bridge if we get to
it" .......let's just NOT get to it...and if we do.....we jump" was
what Keith Jones, Dr. Kelly's favorite political advisor said.
"Still,
I just can't handle that idiot Stanley. I mean its not as if he a bad guy, it's
just that he's........he's......such a stupid fuck". Don't worry A.J. He
at least knows enough to know what side his bread is buttered on and he will go
along with whatever President Kelly says".
"I
suppose you right Ron, but you go try and hold a joint chiefs of staff meeting
with the Commander in Chief and give an intelligence report on Somalia with
that dildo sitting in and you know that he does not even know what anybody is
talking about and he is making suggestions that are ludicrous and.........Jesus
.....drives me nuts. If I had to report to him I'd shoot myself".
"Christ A.J. Calm down. What do you want me to do now about the GECA and this
entire shit storm? Should I go bust heads"? "No, just keep gathering
data, you are not in the head busting business, but I am. I got an army
remember, and I do have at least a hundred really good men I know I can trust.
But you, my friend, are way better at gathering data. We have way too many
levels of BS to filter through. By the time I learn something from my guys it's
already been on CNN, NBC, CBS, in the Washington Post, the New York Times, the
National inquiries, and been commented on by that Hungarian bitch Arianna
Huffington. What I would really like is some hard evidence on Amash, Bates,
Franks, and all those dickless TRADs. I bet that Hockey Bitch Palin is in on
this shit too. Jesus, talk about wasted years, it's been sixteen fucking years
since oil could burn and she is still trying to get drilling in the ANNWR. I
can understand how the Alaskan public screwed up and elected her Governor.
Nobody knew her, but to turn around and elect het Senator eight years later
after she had been McCain's running mate and people actually herd her
speak......My god...those people must be as stupid as she is. So Ron I know you
are more of a statistics kind of organization and I really don't want to ask
you to get your hands dirty". "Don't insult me AJ, I came to you, and
I lost two people and have a three more being shot at. Besides this is an
environmental issue and that's what I do. If I wanted to keep my hands clean,
it's just way too late for that". "Right, ok Ron get me some fucking
dirt on all those guys. I can take them down but they won't stay down with some
really hard evidence connecting them to this conspiracy thing". Keep your
boys safe and out of harm’s way and get me the data"!! Siva, has equal
resources and we are connecting with some key folks we think we can trust all
over the world. Who do you trust in Turkey"? "Ahbeene Farhteen, he's
the head geek in NIO". Ron Answered. "Yep, I know him, good man. Ok
I'm going to roll. Where are you going? You need a security detail"?
"Laura and I are heading back to EAG headquarters and keep working".
Laura had let Ron and AJ chat while she ran through all the relive not data AJ
had granted her access to. She agreed that EAG was better at data mining but
the Military didn't have to be as good because they had billions of dollars and
had been at it for hundreds of years. "Quantity beats Quality
sometimes" Laura said to AJ when he insinuated that their intel sucked.
Besides no one in her position would ever pass up the opportunity have
unfettered access to computer data at the Pentagon. She told Ron "the
problem is they have so much data that they can't see anything. They need
analysis to analyze the analysis". "Well download as much of that
stuff as you can and work your magic when we get back to the office".
"I really want to sit down at my deck and think with a double Stoli in my
hand". "Ron, I'm going to give you six of my guys. They are top notch;
I trust them with my life, so should you. I want you to take them back to your
offices, and whoever needs to be covered coming or going just let Ned here know
and he'll take care of it". "Thanks AJ that's great. We will get as
much stuff as quick as we can. Do I funnel everything through you"?
"Yes, I was going to say Siva and Pete Miller but I guess we should assume
that everything could be infiltrated. Even thought they are both
trustworthy they might handoff something to the wrong person. Of course I might
do that too so what the fuck. Before you go I want to say something, where's
Laura"? "Right here General" Laura said as she came in. "
Ron, we go way back and you know we are on the same side on this one even
though that may not always have been the case. Now, I'm an army guy, but we have
the ear of national law enforcement, U.S. intelligence and at least some
international intelligence. Now Ron, I know you have spent your life saving the
world but as a General you learn to win a war one battle at a time. Do you get
what I'm saying"? "Yea AJ I believe I do". "So" AJ
continued "this battle is to stop whoever is illegally bribing,
blackmailing, coercing, threatening, or whatever they are doing to block the
GECA. If we can get it passed, that will be a successfully battle".
"I couldn't agree more AJ. See ya soon".
Back
at EAG headquarters Rob poured a stiff one, Laura went to work, and Dr Charles
Watson came in and said "Jesus
Ron, I heard about Art Dutton and Sam. What a tragedy. Who did it happen".
"Someone got to their driver and maybe their security. They gassed them
when they got in the car. Probably took all of twenty seconds. Then they
injected Rican between their toes. Total professional job, they never woke up,
they also killed the driver and two security guys".
"This
thing is getting big, isn't it". "Yea Charlie…. that it is. Have you
detected any emissions...anywhere"? "The usual hotspots, why"?
"Maybe someone just wants everyone to think its usual". "What do
you mean"? "Well, if I had a formula to change petroleum back to a combustible
substance, I would want to text it, and make sure it works, maybe even tweak it
and make it better. As we know, it's pretty easy to detect if someone is
burning fossil fuel in any quantity. So, I you wanted no one to know I would
test it in a usual hotspot where there is natural Co2 emission so no one would
notice. Are you with me Chuck". "Sure am, you want to know if there
is a way to determine if the usual hotspot is acting unusual.. Right"?
""Bingo" said Ron. "Well boss I don't think it's been done,
but I imagine I can figure it out".
"So
what are you doing still here". "I am joining you with one of those
Stolis, you Bogart. Then I am going to do the impossible just like I always
do".
Chapter
11: Trellis Bay, A Fortunate Detour.
"Jack,
I just talked to Ron" Dougy said as he came onto the back deck and caught
the bow line of the tender "got some serious bad news man".
"What is it now" Jack said as he started handing Dougy diving tanks,
BCs and weapons. "Sam Markey is dead man". "No.....no....oh fuck
no....why...how, he wasn't involved in this stuff. He was just a kid. Jesus I
can't believe it ". Jack was visibly upset. He and Sam had become close
since Sam had started as an interim less than a year before. Jack was hitting
his fist against the fiberglass, alternately swearing and crying. "Jesus I
just can't believe it". "He was with Art Dutton, did you know
him" Dougy asked. "Yes, of course I know who he is. Assistant
Secretary of Defense for Secretary Sivananthan". "They were just
leaving our offices after a meeting, heading to General A.J. Lukas's office.
Looks like someone got to Art's driver and security detail. Ron thinks they
hailed them with gas as soon as they got in the car, and then injected them
with Risen". "Oh man, I just can't believe it.....fuck.... I just
can't believe it. Sam was such a good guy. I mean we have been on the run for a
week and twice had attempts on our lives but it all seems sort of surreal. I
just recognize that it was way more then somebody after us. This sounds bad but
it almost seemed like a game. Obviously a serious fucking game but still a
game. Quite frankly when I split D.C. I figured I might be in danger but it
also was a good excuse to take some time back home and catch up on fishing,
sleeping, drinking and as it turned out some sex. Even when Shirley told us
somebody might be following us, it really didn't sink in as deadly. We got a
bunch of guns from Shirley and with Geno I felt pretty safe. Then you guys show
up and I feel really safe then the shit really hits the fan but with you, Max
and Tom, I'm like ....bring it on mother fucker....I just didn't really grasp
that others were in eminent danger. I'm feeling kind of guilty here Dougy. Even
after meeting Bob the egghead and learning how far reaching this stuff is, it
really didn't sink in. I must be some selfish son of a bitch...... Fuck man, I
got a rush when Tom took that chopper out of the sky and now Sam's dead. Let’s
face it, I know what I'm in for, you, and Max know what you’re in for, shit
even Geno and Jimmy are realistic bad asses and they know the score, but
Sam....man, Sam was just a smart, cool good natured kid. He didn't deserve to
be a victim in this whole god dam conspiracy. I'm going to stop these assholes
man. What's Ron want us to do"?
"Well"
Dougy started "right now the priority is to get a smoking gun in the hands
of Senators Bate, Amash, and half a dozen others in the Senate and House. Maybe
a dozen in military and administration. If we get even some dirt and can arrest
a few of them....hopefully gets a house of cards effect going. We
simultaneously neutralize as many of the hired guns.....well not we....we don't
do the offensive action thing, we just provide protection for the good guys,
but AJ, SOD Sivananthan,
Pete Miller, and CIA they have plenty of assassins. Anyway if we can take down
enough of both, then we maybe remove whatever it is they have on the Members
that's keeping them from supporting the GECA....right? So this by no means puts
the kibosh on this whole world wide conspiracy, but it would sure put a cramp
on their style if we can expose some of them here in the U.S. and get the GECA
to the United Nations. We should head back to D.C. And collect more
data.....which is what we do ......and what AJ wants us to do. Or we go to
Turkmenistan and shoot at twenty year old idiots with AK 47s. Should I ask the group for a vote"? "Ok
Dougy you're right, let’s head back to Trellis Bay, jump on the plane and fly
back to D.C." "Well alrighty then, no need to take a poll. I'll tell Ron
that we are coming back".
"Hey
Jimmy" Jack yelled "can we head back to Trellis Bay? We have to go
back to D.C." Yea man, no problemo amigo. Tom!! Can you take the helm?
Geno, let’s go weigh the anchor. Dougy, can you and Annie get the main
up....we'll be back on Beef Island in a few hours".
After
an hour Max received a top level secure communication from EAG headquarters. It
was now 24:00 hours, 23:00 EDT and Jack, Dougy, and Tom all wondered what the
hell a communication with the highest level of security from headquarters as
all about. Particularly when Ron and Dougy had communicated just hours before.
"Max Cunningham 0425153"? "Yes 49654dx". "Max, Charley
Watson here. President Kelly has been assassinated. Happened at 20:26.45 in the
White House. Fast acting poison, we don't know the exact compound yet but
completely lethal in one hundred and sixty seconds also complete water
solubility within seconds. It was in her water pitcher for a JCS meeting. Word
is not going the public till 6:00 tomorrow as per Secret Service SOP protocol.
V.P. Jim Stanley will be sworn in by noon 12:00 tomorrow. Entire White House
Staff is under suspicion. Situation very unstable. Headquarters is secure. In house security and six Special
Forces unit Pentagon detail via JCS General A.J. Lukas. Proceed home with
caution. Will have team pick up at hanger six alpha Andrews A.F.B. sorry to be
the one to report this to you...stay safe Max". "Roger that Dr
Watson. We are one hour thirsty five minutes ÊTR to our aircraft. 01:35 ETA to
take off. 06:45 ETA to Andrews". "Ok Max, see you here".
"What's
up" Geno asked as he came in. "President Kelly is Dead man". Max
said. "We are going to head back to D.C. You and Annie G. should come;
Jimmy too, might be safest". "I'm not so convinced buddy, if the Pres
is dead and that lame brain Stanley is going to be calling the shots, D.C. Is
going to be a venerable three foot diameter hornets nest that just dropped into
a ten foot high pile of pig poop. I might rather not be anywhere around there
during any of that. I might rather just be out on the water". "I
gotta agree with Geno" Jimmy said. "You boys head on to D.C. Ron is
going to need you. We will stay on the boat. Leave me the sidewinder if you
please".
An
hour and a half later they were back at the dock in Trellis Bay. "I'll go
check out the plane and call in our flight plan. You guys handle the gear and
we'll be wheels up in twenty" Max said. As the others packed personal gear
and hardware, jimmy ran to get one of his vans. By the time he returned Max was
back at the boat. "What's going on" Jimmy asked. "The plane is
wired to blow". "Oh, you have got to be shitting me" Dougy
replayed. "What did they use"? I'm not sure, sophisticated stuff,
probably an altitude detonator with some sort of plastic. Some C4 hybrid in
numerous locations. I could disarm it...maybe...I don't know, my explosives
training was a long time ago. Tom, you're a bit more up to date with the
explosives program, you want to take a look"? "Yea, let’s go, the
rest of you stay put and keep an eye out, Dougy why don't you grab a friend and
keep us covered in case the guys who planted this surprise for us are not the
same guys we shot down earlier". "Yup, got ya covered”. They jogged
the quarter mile or so to the hanger. "How did you know she was hot"
Tom asked. "I could just tell something was different so I snooped around
and found a charge under the port engine compartment. Like I said plastic of
some kind well hidden, only about the size of an egg. I assume they have a lot
of them hidden all over this thing". Tom surveyed the charge and found
another on the starboard side in the same location. "Man, I wish we had a
dog right now. Without a dog or an infrared detector, we can't be sure we can
find all the charges. We can't fly man. Not without a bomb squad and I don't think
we have one of those right around the corner. I doubt that those guys in the
chopper planted these charges. I also have a distinct feeling that we should
get the fuck out of here". "Agreed. Let's go now". "Dougy
change in plans, we are out of here". "Roger that" Dougy
answered " I am in a good covering position so you two head back to the
Boat and cover the surrounding area with a couple night scopes. Let me know
when you think it's good and I'll follow". "Got it man". "Jack
its Max; we are coming back to the boat. Change in the game plan. Grab a sniper
rifle and keep a cover on the area....but try not to shoot us. We'll be there
in five. Ask Jimmy if we can extend our stay". "Ok Max, see you in
five". "Hey Jimmy, mind if we hang around for a while longer"?
"Mi casa es tu casa. Actually make that mi barco es un barco". Was
Jimmy's reply. "Muy bueno, now grab a sniper rifle and cover Max and Tom.
Geno and I will get all the gear back onboard. Anything we need for an extended
cruse"? "Nope, all provisioned and ready to rock". "Ok
let's roll".
"We
are just off the north end of Great Camano guys" Jimmy started
"heading NNW340 degrees. We can drop off to 315 and be in Turks and Cacaos
in 356 nautical miles; just less than twenty four hours sailing time. Wind and
current will be constant. The trades low east to west at ten to twenty. We can
set the code zero spinnakers and fly. On the other hand we can head due north
and not hit land for twenty three hundred nautical miles when we hit Halifax
Nova Scotia which would put us there in seven days. Sooo....what’ll it
be". Dougy was the first to chin in "I vote Turks and
Cacaos"......"what" he added as everyone looked at him. "Ok
Jimmy set your course for 315 WNW, and let’s have a meeting in the salon.
"Ok
guys, here is the bottom line. In my talk with God, or Bob or whatever you want
to call him, he basically said that we, meaning humanity, were most likely done
for when they showed us how to survive and save our atmosphere. They were
taking odds that we would not make it. The odds were pretty well stacked
against us.....still are. Obviously they have the technology and ability to
tell when our atmosphere hit the tipping point. So, he told me that even though
they figured we would parish, they really hoped we didn't because they actually
cared for us. I guess you could say they love us; just what you would expect
from God...right? Anyway the other thing we had going for us was that we had
figured out how to digitize information which is the major tipping point of any
civilization. You see, it's only a matter of time now before we start to
digitize our own minds, and as he told me, it will take a lot less time than we
might think. We were already close to reverse engineering the human brain and
downloading most of the data into chips. Now we enhance most kids at birth,
with nano chips of additional information and calculation capacity. The main
reason that they decided to help us out was because only one out of around a
hundred of the life forms they have created over the last six hundred million
years make it to this stage and apparently we got there quicker than any other
species. We, that is homo sapiens originated in Africa, where we reached anatomical modernity about 200,000 years ago which is when our
biological evolution mostly stopped and began to exhibit full behavioral modernity around 50,000 years ago which is when our
technological evolution really took off. So this kind of rapid evolution just
didn't happen every day and our creators kind of took a special interest in us.
Problem with us though is that this rapid evolution in technology and
increasing mastery over our environment has generally tended to give us a bit
of hubris. In other words, we can be selfish jerks, and that's why the odds are
against us. They love us and really do think of us as their favorite children,
but you know we are kind of like the kid that grew up to fast or maybe more
like the spoiled kid. We got the toys but most of us don't tend to be satisfied
with what we have. Anyway, enough with the analogies, we had a fighting chance
since they gave us all the technology we needed and rendered all our fossil
fuels noncombustible, but as is incredibly crystal clear at the moment we are
still uniquely able to trash ourselves none the less. So, as I said, they
didn't give us very good odds even sixteen years ago when they visited and
their prime directive from then on was complete hands off". "But
dude, hands off wouldn't seem to include sending Bob here to fill you in on
things" interrupted Geno. "Correct you are my intellectual friend.
You see, Bob was out on a bit of a winger. In fact he flat out told me we were
probably toasted. He did however give me the exact locations of every secret
storage location, every clandestine distal action facility, every piece of
machinery and military equipment, every personal training and staging area, and
the big Lebowski .......every single person involved. Ok, not actually every
person, but at least the four thousand five hundred and thirty five high level
bastards that are in control of this totally out of control, fucked up
conspiracy. Bob was not supposed to visit me, nor was he supposed to give me
enough information to stop these fuck heads before they fulfill their mission
and gain power, wealth, and control at the cost of millions of lives in the
short run and our entire atmosphere in the long run. Seems like such an irony
to me that someone would doom our planet for the purpose of controlling it
while it slowly suffocates and dies. Pretty fucking stupid if you ask
me. Now they have killed our President.....clearly the best one we have
had in a hundred years. And we have a Meat head to succeed her who is bound to
take us down a road of disaster. So, Max, Dougy, what should we do? Actually,
Annie G, I really need to hear what you are thinking. What should we do
now"? "Sweetheart, whatever you think is ok with me, it's all been a
pretty surreal deal and I have spent my life trying to study and save creatures
that live under the ocean. I know as well as anybody what greenhouse effect can
do to the ecosystem. I really think we should do whatever we can to stop these
fucksticks.....even if it means we don't make it. I really love you Jack, I
love all you guys, and I think at this point we are all in this together. I
mean if the GECA doesn't pass, and these guys actually get gas burning and the
world goes down that road, than life as we know it is fucked
anyway....right"?
"As
my friend Geno likes to say Absofuckingloutly! Everybody in"? "All in
Jack, what's the next move". "Ok I'm the only person alive who knows
EVERYTHING and people are trying hard to kill me. Is there any way we can
download all this info in my head"? "No Jack, I mean if you had ever
had enhancement procedures we could pull a chip, or if we had a lad with
sensors, not here though". "Ok, we do it the old fashion way, I feed
it all into our computers, and we hope we don't get blown out of the water
before we can transmit the data to the Calvary". "How long do you
need"? Jimmy asked. "It's a lot of info. I figure 24 to 30 hours, and
we can't send any signal from here. Not even the secure frequency Max has to
Ron.....nothing. We can't take any chance" Jack answered.
""Everything is off, implanted devices, cell devices, GPS, radar, old
fashion radio, everything..... Fucking lights...everything. We are total silent
running baby….total old school, just a sixty two foot catamaran, Mylar hi-tech
fabric sails, a twenty five knot trade wind from the east, and we skate along
on a broad reach at fourteen knots with three hundred miles of open water in
front of us”. Jimmy said as he headed to the helm station. Unlike Geno, Jimmy
had installed and auto helm years ago. It was something he needed in the
charter business, but like Geno, he did prefer to handle the helm of his vessel
in a good blow. This was just such a night with a new moon, clear skies, and
fantastic stars.
“I’ll
start downloading all the information. Jimmy can you ask Max to come back
down’? “Sure man, see ya in six hours”.
Max
came down to the salon. “What do you have in mind Jack”? Jack spoke as he typed
information into his computer. “We are traveling silent, no problem with
navigation, we are totally cool with dead reckoning and we can always grab a
sight with the sexton if needed but I think we should keep on a heading for
Turks and Cayucos. He will be there in 30 hours at this speed. I am going to
get all this data down so it can be transmitted as needed. There are thousands
of different locations, but I have all the coordinates, logistics, topography,
geography, and security memorized…..oh and all the people involved. So when I
get this all logged in the computers and backed up, how do we want to play it?
We will only have a short period of time before we get tracked, located and
attacked by some douche bags again. We probably want to have a good plan to
make the most of what we got”. “Well Jacky boy, if you just happen to know
anyone in the Bahamas that has a good old fashion short wave HAMM radio, then I
think I have a pretty good plan”. “Hey Geno, Jimmy” Jack yelled as he continued
to type at his keyboard “is Chauncey still have his place on the west side
Grand Turk in Hawks Nest Bay”. Yea answered Jimmy “Last I heard, I haven’t been
there for a few years”. “Did he still have his gig at the JAGS McCarthy Air
Field”? “Last time I talked to him he did. I don’t think he would ever leave
besides he owns most of that field”. “Cool” said Jack “Chauncey has every piece
of radio equipment ever built, and he happens to live in a prefect anchorage
that just happens to be right on our present heading, and he just happens to
still owe me twenty bucks”. “Ok then” said Max “I will spend the next ten hours
putting together a hit list of top priority agents, agencies’, assets, and
private contractors we can count on. Now as you identify places and all the
associated data, I can match them up with whatever asset we can call on in the
same proximity. If we can get enough of the fucking traitors in our own
government arrested at the same time, and hit enough of the installations at
once…..we might….might just have a chance to save the fucking world”…..” well”
replied Jack “It would be pretty cool if we could just pull it off”. “And it
would just totally suck if we don’t” Annie G. added as she headed below to go
to sleep
I
believe if your friend has the short wave HAM radio set up you think he does
then I can use a little trick we used in the service. We learned how to find
the right frequency with the right set up and hook our processors and hard
drives up to the radio and actually shoot bits of data out on the airwaves.
This is somewhat like broadband or wi-fi, but using short waves bounced off the
stratosphere So we could send um anywhere, and probably not be detected because
shortwave and single side band radio communications are so antiquated as an
intelligence gathering medium, that nobody bothers to monitor them anymore. We
got a couple messages through to HQ that went undetected that saved our asses.
Just maybe we can get one through that will not only save our asses but the
rest of the god damn world too".
"So"
Jack replied to Max's idea "it sounds as if the key will be in who we
tell"..... "Right? I mean we need to get all this information into
the correct hands. If we land on somebody who is in on this then we are dead.
If we land on somebody who's not in on it but doesn't have the clout and
horsepower to do squat about it then we are still dead. Does Ron alone have the
JU- JU to pull off thwarting this big and deep a plot"? "No...Probably
not" answered Max. "Ron would sure try, and he has connections, and
he's not afraid of anything or anybody, but we really need somebody at the top
.......the very top. President Kelly would have been top of the list but she's
dead and I don't trust that dickwad Stanley". "Ok then Max, along
with agents, we need heads of state, past heads of state, top senate and house
guys, top military guys, and all of them have to be trustworthy because if we
send all this evidence to just one dickhead that's involved, then forget it, we
are all toast and the earth is fucked".
As
they sailed along at an average speed of fourteen knots, on a broad reach, in a
twenty knot trade wind blowing from ninety degrees, due east, a trail of
glowing phospheresance was left in their wake. Jimmy was steering by compass
and stars with a clear view of the Corona Borealis ahead and slightly north.
The moon was half full; enough to light up the waves, but not to much to drown
out the stars. Jimmy was smiling ear to ear since this was
the absolute prefect condition for the Nanny Lou and he just loved sailing his
vessel at night under prefect conditions. With their heading of three hundred
and fifteen degrees and a due east wind, she had a true wind angle of one
hundred and thirty five degrees. At a speed of fourteen to sixteen knots, the
apparent wind angle would be pushed forward to about one fifteen to one twenty,
which was the fastest point of sail for a long cat, and the most comfortable.
Jimmy had made this particular passage many times before in his life, and
though he had logged millions of hours at the helm of a sail boat he was still
just like a kid on Christmas when the conditions were good and he got to sail
his boat at high speed in the open water. A school of porpoises decided to have
some fun in their bow wake, which was rather common in these waters, and swam
along side of them jumping, and playing tag with the bows of both sponsons. Two
of them would cris-cross, one over one under, between sponsons and jump inside
to out over the bows, and land in the water outside the hulls just as the next
two would start the same routine. This went on for hours in various forms,
porpoises like to play and they really like to show off to humans. Jimmy swore
that once when they were playing, that one porpoise would watch him from a foot
or so under the water and not do a trick or jump unless Jimmy was looking right
at him. Once the porpoise was sure Jimmy was watching he would launch out of
the water, over the bow, land between the hulls, dive under the next hull only
to breach the surface again with a backwards arc that reached an apex of at
least twelve feet. Jimmy said that during the whole arc, the
porpoise was looking right at him making sure that his acrobatics were being
watched and appreciated. "Just a bunch of playful, good natured show
offs" Jimmy use to say and he claimed it was always good luck when they
came around to play and show off.
Annie
G. came on deck and climbed up into the helm station after getting a few hours
shut eye. "Hi ya honey" she said to Jimmy in her usual sweet and
somewhat maternal sounding voice. "How are you feeling"? "Well,
I got a tell ya, dream boat, it doesn't get any better" Jimmy answered as
a puff brought the Nanny Lou's speed to over sixteen knots. "Wow, she is
really humming along nicely isn't she"? Annie asked. "Yep, this is
her favorite point of sail, that's for sure, and we couldn't ask for better
wind". "I'm going to get something to drink, you want anything"?
"You going to brew some coffee"? "Yes, but then I was going to
make Spanish"... "Hummm, count me in, but don't let me drink more
than two or I'll be baked". Annie disappeared below and returned twenty
minutes later with two Spanish coffees complete with sugar melted to the rim of
the glass by flaming 151 proof Rum. Spanish coffees where regarded by everyone
aboard as one of the best tasting, fastest acting, dangerous, alcoholic beverages ever
concocted. "Ok, now I'm in heaven" Jimmy said. "You know, that's
one thing I've been wondering about since jack talked with our alien higher
power friend Bob". "What's that" Annie G asked. "If there
is a heaven......or at least what happens when we die..... I mean that would
have been my first question if I got a one on one conversation with the big
guy". "Did Jack mention anything to you about it"? "No, I
guess he didn't" Annie said. "Well, it is kind of like the biggest
mystery of mankind you know. I think the major purpose of every religion is to
assure us that things will be cool when we die". "But Jimmy, aren't you the one with the total live in the moment
philosophy" Annie asked. "Why yes I am, but it would be less
disconcerting to rest assured that one’s post death experience will be pleasant
and rewarding". Jimmy said but them added. "Then again, post death
could involve having your body sent to a morgue where the mortician happens to
be a gay necrofeleack". "Nice thought Jimmy..... Only a mind as sick
as yours........."
"When
we going to be in Hawks Nest Bay" Annie asked Jimmy. "At this rate we
should be there in about twenty two hours. That is if the wind stays with us.
It should but will probably lighten up some during the daylight when things
heat up. If the trades stay over twelve knots, which they should, we will be
all set and in by just after midnight tomorrow". Jimmy's prediction proved
true and the Nanny Lu got a visual on the tower lights at McCarthy Air Field in
Hawks Nest Bay on the south east corner of Grand Turk Island.
CHAPTER
12: Turks and Cayucos Islands, Old Technology saves the World.
At
approximately zero six hundred hours the Nanny Lu rounded the northern point of
Hawks Nest Bay, headed a half mile northwest, and dropped sails. She coasted to
a mooring ball fifty yards off the one hundred year old lighthouse Chauncey
called home. As Geno ran a bowline through the mooring and secured the Nanny Lu.
Chauncey came cruising out in a twenty foot Boston Whaler. "What the hell
boys, why didn't you call or something, tell me you were coming so I could have
arranged a proper reception". "Radio silence buddy boy, I will tell
you all about it over two dozen margaritas, but first we have to make some
calls on your dime. Do you still have your HAM radio set up"? "Yea,
jump in". Chauncey led Max, Dougy, Jack, and Geno through his house and
into the light tower where his communications equipment was located right next
to the original 1893 Fresnel lens. Chauncey had grown up in the mountains of
Montana near the Canadian border. His father was a National Park Ranger at
Glacier National Park and for nine months a year they lived in a lodge built in
1930, way above the tree-line at eleven thousand feet. "Granite Park
Chalet" was a CCC (civilian conservation corp.) project during the Great
Depression. It was a six hour back pack, or four hours on horseback with pack
mule from road end to the lodge. In recent times quad runners and custom built
ATVs for gear transport were used, but only in the winter before they shut down
and only out of necessity. Short Wave Radio had once been the only form of
communication at Granite Park, and Chauncey's Dad developed a pretty serious
HAM radio hobby. Chauncey followed in his Dad's footsteps and would spend hours
every night communicating with people from all over the world; broadcasting
from high atop Granite Park Peak.
Ever
since the adoption of the Internet in the 1990's HAM radio enthusiasm had
waned, however for some hard core enthusiasts the digital age only made things
more interesting and opened up new modes of communication. Also, the digital
age allowed for digitized information to be sent through the airwaves and
presumably out into infinity. Long before earth was visited by the eggheads
Chauncey and his father had dreamed of making "first contact".
Chauncey
was now seventy six years old, retired, and pursuing his passions which were in
no particular order: flying, sailing, scuba diving, cooking, astrophysics,
interplanetary communications, drinking, and historic lighthouse restoration.
Chauncey was a genius who, inspired by his dad's hobby had helped developed the
original TCIP/IP Internet protocol and had continued to work with Vinton Cerf
to develop advanced space communication technology including distance-tolerant
networking (DTN). He had worked directly with NASA and Ball Aerospace to
develop and test the DTN protocol with their Deep Impact Networking (DINET)
experiment on board the Deep impact spacecraft in October, 2008. This research
which was the first to send a spacecraft to impact with a comet and actually
study its nucleus. This research eventually led to a reliable standard
communication system to control most all unmanned spacecraft for the next
several decades. Needless to say, having the various patens on some of this
stuff yielded a hefty sum over time and Chauncey was now a billionaire
essentially able to pursue whatever the heck he wanted.
Chauncey
had retired from so called professional life back in 2015, one year before the
first egghead visit. He had a deep interest in old lighthouses. He thought of
them as one of the first technologically advanced communications systems and he
hated to see them disappear. To date, he had purchased and restored eighteen
lighthouses all over the world. Interestingly enough, this also played into his
passion for global (and interplanetary) communications since lighthouses by
design happen to be in prefect locations for
communications relay and network. Chauncey had taken full advantage of this
"doubly bonus" as it were to fully implement what was quite possibly
the world’s largest, most sophisticated private communications network.
As the five of them sat down in Chauncey's
communication room, Jack explained what had been going on and the necessity of
getting perhaps a thousand different messages to a thousand different people
without any of them being intercepted. "That shouldn't be a problem"
said Chauncey, confident in the fact that encoded data transmission was rather
a specialty of his. "Yes but...." started Jack "this might be a
bit tricky since this conspiracy we are dealing with goes all the way to the
top and they have mega-resources.....I mean mega fucking resources. We have
been tracked by spooks from Beaver Island to Anagoda. We sailed here with no
electronics what so ever. Total silent running. That's why I didn't call you
and tell you we were coming. Any technology that exists, they have it......and
they are not shy about killing anybody who might rain on their proverbial
paradise". "So what you are saying is that you are sitting in a room
with quite possibly the most advanced privately owned communications equipment
and network in the world and you can't use it"? "Exactly"
replayed Jack. "But Max has an idea". "I'm all ears" said
Chauncey. Max spoke up "I figure these guys are pretty sophisticated, so
they just might overlook monitoring good old fashion short wave radio
transmissions". "Probably correct in your assumption there Max, but
one primary reason they would not bother is that the days of someone on the
other end monitoring a certain radio frequency and waiting for a transmission
are gone.....unless you happen to have made arrangements for a radio link up
already". "No such luck" said Max, "however, we created a
little trick at the secret service. The boys in the lab came up with a black
box device that could digitize a voice signal sent via Short Wave or SSB and
link up with a computer provided you had the requisite IP address and pass code
connect info......which I happen to have for several dozen key personal. If we
can get an unintercepted message to these key players than, my guess is
that we can lock in on the NSA network and start transmitting the remaining
thousand messages. The important thing is that all the information is
distributed, and the resulting action taken, is done swiftly.....like within
say...twelve hours. The other important thing is that none of it is
intercepted. If it is....we are probably fucked". "We'll alrighty
than" said Chauncey "where is the black box". "We'll,
that's the thing...I don't have one on me". Chauncey's grin was
diminishing rapidly "and I suppose you would like me to recreate the same
trick that your Secret Service Lab boys came up with......right"?
"That would be nice" was Max's response. "Good thing for you
guys that I came up with that one decades ago.....remember....you are sitting
with the dude who invented the fucking Internet". "Ah yes..Well
pardon fucking me your highness, but if we don't get to sending out this stuff
we are going to be dead burnt toast".
Chauncey
and Max went to work sending digitized messages out on short wave radio waves,
bouncing off the stratosphere and downloading into the Computers, pads and
implanted devices of Ron Smith, Secretary Sivananthan, General A.J. Lukas, Pete
Miller, Senator Derek Bailey, Ahbeene Farhteen, Laura, Dr. Watson, Jason Williams
(head of MI6), We Chang Wong (China security) and a few dozen other senators,
admirals, generals, cabinet secretaries and agents of various security
organizations. These were all highly vetted, highly respected, highly
trustworthy individuals that jack and Max felt could get things
accomplished.......at least they hoped. Jack was feeding information to Max and
Chauncey who were doing the transmitting. Even though English had been long
since adopted as the universal language of the Internet, sending data on short
wave radio frequency still required using Morse code. Chauncey commented
that they probably didn't need to encode the messages because proficiently in
Morse had been removed from the international communications commission (ICC)
and the (FCC) test for a HAM license back in 2007 and nobody knew it anymore.
"As Bart Mancuso said in Tom Clancy's book Hunt for Red October
"hell, my Morse is so rusty I might be sending him the measurements of the
Playmate of the Month".......I loved that movie...Sean Connery played
Admiral Rameious" Chauncey said. "Yea, well I might be telling my
friend at Chinese intelligence to go eat a goat head" Max replied.
"Hey guys, not to add any pressure to you but...the future of the earth
might just rest on your ability to remember Morse code. All I remember is SOS,
dot dot dot, dash dash dash" Jack added. Chauncey noted that it was
interesting that Samuel Morse used dots and dashes, just two symbols, to create
a language and that when we learned to digitize information one hundred years
later, we used the same formula with ones and twos or X'x and O's. "Seems
like Sam was ahead of his time". " most innovators are.....just like
you there buddy boy" Geno said. " And since you guys are going to be
busy here for the next five hours, I think I will go make mad passionate love
to your girlfriend.....ok with you Jacky boy"? "Sure, go for it"
Jack responded without really hearing the comment.
Geno
and Dougy left Jack, Max, and Chauncey in the comm room and headed down to join
the others and have a cocktail. "Might as well let those three save the
world, and go get drunk. I guess I trust them more than anybody else to save
our asses.....right"? "Right.....I saw a blender when we went through
the kitchen" Dougy answered. "Margaritas"? "Wow, you are a
fucking mind reader..... Make mine a Grand Gold". Annie, Tom Rum, and
Jimmy were sitting in the living room having already opened the bar. Actually,
Tom and Jimmy were sleeping in a couple cozy big overstuffed chairs. Annie was
reading a marine Bio. mag that was on the coffee table. "Hey Annie, wanna
go have some wonderful, noncommittal sex"? Geno asked "show me the
way big boy' she answered. As they headed toward the stairs Dougy said " great,
leave me with these two worthless sleeping beauties....I thought we were going
to drink copious amounts of tequila". "Yes, my friend, but I hadn't
counted on a positive response from sweet dream boat Annie here, so how bout a
rain check on those Grand Gold Margaritas" was Geno's response. Annie
added "And if you want to keep jawing with the boys, I can probably find
another willing victim". "No, need for that baby.....I'm on my
way".
The
next twelve hours were intense. Messages were successfully sent to several
thousand key individuals at the top (or near it) of dozens of the most powerful
agencies and governments throughout the world. These messages contained a
complete and comprehensive report on all the illegal activities and goals of the world wide conspiracy and unequivocal
proof of all the wrong doing. All the information that Bob had reviled to Jack, all the evidence, all the crimes, were
currently being send around the globe and the shit was defiantly hitting the
fan. "I'm guessing that within the next ten hours or so, enough bad guys
will be rounded up so as to break down their network. If we don't get killed in
the next ten hours, we are probably home free". Max was saying as a coded
message came from Ron. "Good job boys, shit is flying" was all it
said, and Jack knew that in "Ron-Speak" that was as positive as it
gets. "Now we wait for the floor crumbs to get swept up and start
broadcasting our data and evidence to the rest of the global government
community and hope that good judgment and justice prevails". "What
are the odds" Chauncey asked. "I give it fifty fifty" Max
answered "Jack, what do you think"? "I'll tell you what, if
it was up to us, humanity that is, I would only give us about a one percent
chance. My personal faith in humanity seems to have declined somewhat in the
past few weeks. But, you know, its not just up to us, you see, it seems we have
a guardian angel or two watching over us and that probably gives us a far
better chance. So maybe Max is about right, fifty fifty could be about where we
stand, but I believe the human race has stood at that fifty fifty spot
before.....lots of times.....I mean, look at the years of the Cold War, look at
World War Two, look at all the natural disasters that could have taken out the
human race, or at least most of it, and every time we seem to still come out
the other side. Is that due to our cleverness, our good judgement, our forward,
logical, pragmatic thinking? I think not. I think it is because we have had a
higher power looking over us all along, and while I don't know just how many of
these guardian angles there are out there, I do know that I met one and if
we....humanity that is....can actually stop this selfish, stupid, greedy
conspiracy to reconstitute fossil fuels and gain power and wealth at the expense
of others and our very existence, that we owe it to them and not ourselves. You
know, I never though much for religion, and I still think the idea that
"my god is better than your god" that lots of religions have is
totally bogus, but I have to admit, after meeting with Bob and just feeling his
wisdom and his love.....well it kind of blew me away, and it left me feeling a
sense of serenity and comfort I never had. I guess what Im trying to say is
that it feels like all of the world religions were all correct in one sense or
another in that there is a power greater than us that created us and loves us
and is a force of good and really wants us to be happy, joyous and free, but
really wants us to find it for ourselves. It's just that we are a bunch of
spoiled brat kids and keep fucking things up, so they keep sending us an angle
or two to give us a push in the right direction. So, I guess that's the long
way for me to say, I think things are going to be alright, but it's definitely
not because of us". "Well said my friend...well said" Chauncey
said as he finally lifted his hands from the controls and lit a fine Cuban
cigar.
After
several hours another message came in from Ron. "Our secure line is
safe...make contact ASAP". "Ok them, let's talk to the boss". Jack
said as Max entered the proper protocol. "Hey Ron" Jack yelled
"how do you like us so far". "Holy shit boys, we have not seen a
shit storm like this in D.C. since Nixon" Ron said with just a bit more
animation in his voice that usual. "What da ya mean Ron. Some bad guys
getting rounded up and marched off to the big house" Jack countered.
"Yea, I guess you could say that. It's a fucking white collar prison
overload day. They even busted Vice President Stanley.....well actually I guess
he was actually president for two and a half days. The evidence you sent
connected him to Senator Amash and all his lackeys. Speaker of the House Rep.
Derek Bailey has been sworn in as President, and the TRADS are dropping like
flies. The meat wagon has been runnin all day haulin in asshole
politicians...... It's fucking great"!!! "Well Ron, Glad we
could make you happy". Jack said. “Make me happy, MAKE ME HAPPY, you have
just made the event of my whole, fucking, long assed LIFE! How the hell did you
get that Intelligence? It was unbelievable. We are rounding up bad guys all
over the globe. I have been in nonstop communications with officials from
fucking everywhere. There must be at least six thousand arrests so far and not
one is in question. Also we have discovered at least sixty five depositories of
machinery and weapons and a couple hundred fuel storage facilities. This thing
is just massive. How the hell did you do it Jacky boy"? Jack paused for a
moment, thinking of how to respond and finally said "Ron...would you believe
a guy named Bob, sitting on the beach in Anagoda told me"? "Yea sure,
you can tell me all about it when you get back here which is about six hours
from now. I just sent a jet down to McCarthy Air Field to get you guys".
"Hey Ron, if it’s all the same to you, I would just as soon hang here for
a few more days, do a little decompression if you catch my drift".
"That's fine with me Jacky boy, but the boys from CIA, NSA, and the Joint
Chiefs all want to debrief you, not to mention every other security agency in
the world, not to mention the congressional ethics and defense committees.....
Plus I would not mind picking your brain just a bit myself. Anyway, nobody
knows it yet, but you are a national fucking hero Jacky boy. I'll just tell all
the authorities here that you are still laying low for oblivious security
reasons and send the jet down for you when you are ready". "Sounds
good Ron thanks".
An
hour later Jack found himself and Chauncey sitting on his patio in a couple
deck chairs with a bottle of Patron and a lime, smoking Cuban cigars leaning
back with their feet up on the seawall just a few feet from the water of Hawks
Nest Bay listening to the small waves lapping against the seawall. as they
looked out at the Nanny Lu at the mooring and the few lights at the other side
of the bay, Jack was reflecting on the last few weeks and what had occurred. He
happened to cast a look up at the stars which were bright with a new moon and
no ambient light from the house or surrounding area. Chauncey noticed him starring
at the starlit sky and said “you know Jack, I have dreamed about making contact
with an alien life form since I was a boy of seven. Broadcasting all over the
world and talking to people from such exotic places like Mongolia or Antarctica
or Siberia was so cool but then the earth got so small and I dreamed of some
intelligent life form returning the signal I have been sending out into space
for fifty years, but alas, no return signal. Then the eggheads make an
appearance, which of course makes me happy because I knew that they-or at least
something like them-had always existed. But even though I'm happy, I am kind of
bummed because I was always hoping to make contact myself. So now, you tell me
you actually got to sit and talk with one for like three hours.....Wow.....what
was it like.....I mean what did you ask him....what did he tell you....what the
fuck man...tell me everything"! "Chauncey man, I think I am really
just plain too tired to tell you all about it. I did ask some stuff and I have
to tell you it was pretty interesting, and I really felt like I just had
unequivocal love and confidence and comfort. I don't know it's really strange
and I can't really explain it, but suffice to say, my life will never be the
same". "Ok, I'll let you off the hook for now" Chauncey said
"but I just have one question". "Yea, what's that" Jack
answered. Chauncey took a breath like he was pondering exactly what he was
going to say and finally said "So, what happens after we die".
"Sorry Chauncey old buddy" Jack said reluctantly "I had to
promise I wouldn't tell anybody". "Oh, you are such a dick
head". Right then the rest of the gang all came out onto the patio and sat
along the seawall with their feet up. "So, what has everyone been up to
while we were saving the world" Jack asked. Geno spoke up first.
"Well, I was making mad passionate love to your girlfriend. Can I keep her
or do you want her back". "I'll just keep both of you. I am way too
much woman for ether one of you alone" Annie chined in. "Gotta admit,
she has a point there" Jack said " you know guys, we did good and it
looks like most of the bad guys are going to jail and the GECA will pass and
all will be right with the world". "Well aren't you Mary fucking
Poppins" said Dougy “What are we going to do now. I hate to admit it, but
I'm starting to get kind of fond of you dip sticks". "Another
adventure perhaps" said Annie G. "We do have a big, fast sailboat at
our disposal, sitting about fifty feet away" said Jimmy. "Where do we
want to go" asked Tom Rum. Jack, Geno and Annie G all smiled and all spoke
in unison "where ever the wind takes us".
CHAPTER 1: LELAND. Storm’s brewin’
Jack Saffell was looking forward to
catching some perch that afternoon. He had not been out on Lake Leelanau for
nearly 10 years and he had an incredible desire for some fresh perch filets red
skin potatoes and sweet corn. Of course any of the above in late august in northern
Michigan would qualify as a gourmet meal on its own. The difference in gastric
adventures among his particular crowd between summer and mid winter was
profound with summer offering up a plethora of every edible delight imaginable
and winter often reducing one to cream of mushroom soup on toast.
Perch was far and away his favorite fish. Tuna, dolphin, grouper, even sword fish, in fact any saltwater marine species just could not hold a toothpick to fresh perch fillets fried in oil and butter, dusted with drakes. His friend Jimmy in Key West always claimed that raw tuna was god’s gift to the taste buds but then Jimmy was once rumored to have served fried cat fool patties with Margaritas to guests and claimed they were his famous crab cakes.
After 5 years of dealing with the meat headed shit bags in Washington D.C. He was totally ready to spend a little time fishing, eating, drinking and sleeping, the latter of which he had found sorely lacking in the last five years.
Sleep came a bit hard as one learned the intricacies of the so called Potomac colonoscopy. The most important thing a government need do is maintain the appearance of upholding the law, especially when they're breaking it. After a year or so in his job as an environmental lobbyist his naiveté had given way to recognition of reality, which in turn gave way to apathy, which in turn gave way to downright anger, which in turn lead to his being asked to leave in a manner of speaking. Being a hero just because it is the right thing to do was not really his gig so he was willing to take his leave of the city well before the shit storm blew in from the Atlantic.
And so, here he was, back in northern Michigan. The year was 2032 and Jack was just 32 years old. In fact he was born on January first of 2000 at 12:00. 01.01 AM. Of the 4,100,000 people born in the US in 2000, 7.8 were born in the first minute of the new millennium. Considering that 1.3 of those were born in the first ten seconds, it would appear that Jack was the first child born in the United States in the third millennium AD. There's really no way of knowing but people had always assumed Jack was actually the first child born to the new millennium in the entire universe. Of course that was before we had realized we were not alone in the universe. Best anyone had ever calculated the "eggheads", as they were derogatorily known, numbered over 2300 trillion on at least 16 different planets. Compared to our mere 7 billion at the turn of the century, it was fair to guess that quite a few eggheads came into existence before Jack had in those first few seconds of the new millennium, but of course, at the time we were clueless of their existence. Since 2016 when earth had first experienced a visit from the eggheads, our technology development had taken an exponential leap forward. By this point most every new baby was enhanced. Several chips in the old Frontal lobe and a manipulation of the first thirty or so embryonic stem cells in the blastocist to reverse the human aging process could do wonders. A few injections of preprogrammed nanobots to fight infection, transform malignant and mutant cells into productive ones, and totally enhance muscle growth could do the rest.
He found it amazing that in his sweet short life humans had gone from mostly sick, rather weak, intellectually challenged creatures with a life span of about eighty years to quite the opposite with a lifespan that although yet untested, may prove to be two, maybe three hundred years.
While Jack was a "natural" as unenhanced humans were called he was born with certain “special powers". His intellect was equal to that of the enhanced with an approximately 200 million calculations per millisecond speed and a memory of over 400 thousand gigabytes. This although was not his real gift. His real gift was a spot-on telepathic ability to know exactly what people were thinking and were going to do. It was not that he could read their minds per say, but he could just sense their intentions and reactions. Also his physical condition was superior and physical activity kept him in excellent shape.
Perch was far and away his favorite fish. Tuna, dolphin, grouper, even sword fish, in fact any saltwater marine species just could not hold a toothpick to fresh perch fillets fried in oil and butter, dusted with drakes. His friend Jimmy in Key West always claimed that raw tuna was god’s gift to the taste buds but then Jimmy was once rumored to have served fried cat fool patties with Margaritas to guests and claimed they were his famous crab cakes.
After 5 years of dealing with the meat headed shit bags in Washington D.C. He was totally ready to spend a little time fishing, eating, drinking and sleeping, the latter of which he had found sorely lacking in the last five years.
Sleep came a bit hard as one learned the intricacies of the so called Potomac colonoscopy. The most important thing a government need do is maintain the appearance of upholding the law, especially when they're breaking it. After a year or so in his job as an environmental lobbyist his naiveté had given way to recognition of reality, which in turn gave way to apathy, which in turn gave way to downright anger, which in turn lead to his being asked to leave in a manner of speaking. Being a hero just because it is the right thing to do was not really his gig so he was willing to take his leave of the city well before the shit storm blew in from the Atlantic.
And so, here he was, back in northern Michigan. The year was 2032 and Jack was just 32 years old. In fact he was born on January first of 2000 at 12:00. 01.01 AM. Of the 4,100,000 people born in the US in 2000, 7.8 were born in the first minute of the new millennium. Considering that 1.3 of those were born in the first ten seconds, it would appear that Jack was the first child born in the United States in the third millennium AD. There's really no way of knowing but people had always assumed Jack was actually the first child born to the new millennium in the entire universe. Of course that was before we had realized we were not alone in the universe. Best anyone had ever calculated the "eggheads", as they were derogatorily known, numbered over 2300 trillion on at least 16 different planets. Compared to our mere 7 billion at the turn of the century, it was fair to guess that quite a few eggheads came into existence before Jack had in those first few seconds of the new millennium, but of course, at the time we were clueless of their existence. Since 2016 when earth had first experienced a visit from the eggheads, our technology development had taken an exponential leap forward. By this point most every new baby was enhanced. Several chips in the old Frontal lobe and a manipulation of the first thirty or so embryonic stem cells in the blastocist to reverse the human aging process could do wonders. A few injections of preprogrammed nanobots to fight infection, transform malignant and mutant cells into productive ones, and totally enhance muscle growth could do the rest.
He found it amazing that in his sweet short life humans had gone from mostly sick, rather weak, intellectually challenged creatures with a life span of about eighty years to quite the opposite with a lifespan that although yet untested, may prove to be two, maybe three hundred years.
While Jack was a "natural" as unenhanced humans were called he was born with certain “special powers". His intellect was equal to that of the enhanced with an approximately 200 million calculations per millisecond speed and a memory of over 400 thousand gigabytes. This although was not his real gift. His real gift was a spot-on telepathic ability to know exactly what people were thinking and were going to do. It was not that he could read their minds per say, but he could just sense their intentions and reactions. Also his physical condition was superior and physical activity kept him in excellent shape.
Jack's talents proved quite useful during his somewhat idealistic youth, but now things had changed and he was just looking forward to some peaceful fishing and a bit of his second love which was drinking. Of course a butt load of "safe" alternative drugs had made their way through the proverbial FDA pipeline, but Jack had rather preferred the good old booze.
Jack reached for his Zebco in the
shed of the old family cottage on Lake Leelanau. He had had this rod and reel
since his sixth birthday and it remained his favorite rig for Perch fishing.
Next, his tackle box, also an oldie passed on from his father and grandfather.
Then, he strolled down to the dock and into his 1929 Old town dingy with the
three HP Johnson Seahorse outboard. The 1959 Johnson was just for show. It was
still perfectly operable however the gasoline needed to operate it was
unobtainable. Jack had mounted a small electric which although rather low-tech
at the time still managed to run on a three inch by 6 inch battery which
remained charged simply by the molecular movement within the water. He only had
to motor a few hundred yards to "the snags", two cedar trees in 16
feet of water which had been there since the first damn was built in 1869.
Amazing how a Cedar tree won't rot after one hundred and sixty three years
underwater. The tops were about 4 feet under the surface and were hard to pick
out if you didn't know exactly where to look, however he could probably have
made it there asleep. He had actually pondered if the old dingy could just
gravitate to this spot, what with the several thousand times it had been there,
and the cells in wood having a sort of memory and the molecules in white cedar
having a certain attraction to one another.
With his three hook rig and minnows for bait it was only a matter of minutes till he had a bucket of twelve to fourteen inch Perch. The Perch population was one of the few species that the department of natural resources had not totally messed with, and it is entirely possible that that was the reason for their success as a species. Recent human history had proven that basically every bright idea some bureaucrat biologist came up with, and convinced the government to act on, had a dozen or more unintended consequences, mostly bad. Of course, trying to mitigate the negative consequences just produced more of them, and on down the vicious cycle of human natural intervention and blundering we go.
It was clear to him after his years of frustration in D.C. That the eggheads had it right when they planted the seeds of life on earth six hundred million years ago, as they had done on thousands of planets through the universe, and just left it alone. Let evolution do its thing, and let the higher evolved spices learn from their mistakes. Perch had made their niche in the evolutionary food chain being relatively little guys, and were doing just find in spite of man's help and now he intended to consume as many as he could eat along with the aforementioned redskins and sweet corn. He had pulled out a bottle of forty fifth parallel wine he had stashed under the cottage ten years ago. The wine industry had been one of the agricultural and environmental success stories in his home county of Leelanau. The soil and climate becoming better and better as a result of climate change which in northern Michigan was becoming generally warmer with the appropriate precipitation. The French pretty much shot their own foot off when they started the genetic modification of certain grape species to combat the climate chance in their neighborhood. The result of this exercise being a disaster and pretty much eliminating the wine industry in France in a matter of a few years. Similar results were experienced in Brazil, Chili, Italy, and California to one degree or another and these days only the Aussies and Michiganders could grow a decent grape and make a decent wine. As always, Kentucky and Tennessee remained on top with respect to making "brown wine" which was his default favorite.
Climate change had become a non-issue what with the energy technology that the eggheads had bestowed on our civilization in the nick of time. In fact, that, along with the renewed interest by humans in nuclear weapons and their increasing willingness to deploy them was the main reason for the visit, and ultimate intervention by the eggheads. He could barely blame them for wanting to preserve what had taken six hundred million years to evolve. It seemed like long time to him however the eggheads had a totally different concept of time having been around for trillions of years and having life spans that nobody really understood but were a least ten thousand years. The only way we understood this is that the same guys that came around to visit in ancient Egypt and Mesoamerica were here again. Even though we were now utilizing Co2 free technology, it was still going to take quite a few decades for our atmosphere to straighten out and we were stuck with the present weather patterns for quite some time to come.
He heard a car coming down the long drive back to the cottage and figured it must be Annie G. Her real name was Annie Jean Gallagher but he had always called her Annie G. They had grown up together and had spent a lot of time together till he took the job in D.C. and she took an internship with Robert Ballard through the Institute for Archaeological Oceanography. This was kind of a dream come true gig for a budding, young, highly intelligent, highly motivated marine biologist. It had been five years since they had seen each other and he was excited as hell. They had stayed in touch, emailed, skyped or talked on the phone every couple weeks, but for a time they had been soul mates, and he harbored a pretty deep seeded desire to rekindle the ol' flame as it were.
She still drove the battery powered 2020 Subaru she had bought used eight years ago when the both finished Grad school at U of M. The car had definitely seen some better days, but Annie looked outstanding. “Holy shit…. Does she look good” Jack thought to himself. The Kayak, mountain bike, and kite board on top of the Subi were more than a subtle hint as to her lifestyle and her body was all the proof one needed to see that see stayed in great shape. She had always had a beautiful face with a sort of impish smile that turned up a bit more on the right side than the left and gave her a look of mischief, at least in his mind.
Dark hair pulled back, dark eyes, and a medium to dark complexion. Of course she had spent most of her life outside and the sun had given her a permanent-tan. Most people these days tended to avoid sun exposure at all cost since medical technology hadn't quite figured out how to make our skin last as long as the rest of our human bodies were expected to last. Turns out that reverse engineering the human brain was not the last hurdle in our quest for immortality; keeping the skin from getting thin, brittle, withered and deteriorated was. Jack and Annie both figured, "what the hell" the sun just felt to damn good on the skin to deprive one of this simple pleasure. They both knew that our biological evolution had been combined with and overtaken by our technological evolution back when man first used fire and that at this rate the need for an actual biological body would be obsolete before their skin gave out (or so they hoped). The eggheads had evolved past the need for any physical constraint such as a biological body billions of years ago. Of course they could, and did, present themselves as physical beings. They could also enjoy any physical stimulus or pleasure; however their concept of such things as pleasure was way beyond our comprehension. On the brief encounters with humans they preferred to present themselves as a mostly human form in something of a hologram and utilizing the same sound wave/ language communication system we humans use. Even though a tremendous amount of knowledge, information, and technological advancement had been experienced at an incredible and exponential rate due to the eggheads, and people were due to live two or three times longer as a result, they still hadn't taught us how to exist without our biological bodies yet. Jack assumed they probably intended to save that one till we got a bit more advanced....... like maybe a few hundred million more years.
He had just poured wine, brought the water to a boil and had the perch dusted with Drakes seasoning and ready to toss in the pan. He met her at the back screen door with glass in hand. "Whaooo baby..... Do you look great" were his first words. "You’re not looking too bad yourself Jackie boy". "By the way, I have been living on a boat for the past twenty two months and have not gotten laid in as long, so if you haven't put that fish on yet.....DONT".
The perch turned out to delicious as he had expected and the last sweet corn cob was tossed into the fire around midnight. "Wow, I really didn't expect that" Jack said, with his best convincing lobbyist voice. "Yea, maybe not, but I could sure as hell tell that's just exactly what you were hoping for. Maybe not till after the fish, which were incredible by the way, but still just what you were hoping for". "You know, even though I'm the one with the supposed telepathic connection, you always seem to know just what the hell I'm thinking. I'm telling you, I could get hit by a beer truck this minute and die a happy man. Ten hours of sleep and I'll consider it the perfect day". Ten minutes later, they were both asleep like spoons on the sleeping porch and didn't move for ten hours.
The term frustration could barley describe his overall experience in our nation’s Capitol. So much shit was changing so fast and basic laws of physics were no longer laws and if there is one thing that Washington has natural resistance to...its change. So, at 12:00.01.01 AM, January 1, 2016 when the eggheads first made their presents known, everything changed....everything changed a lot! Exactly one year later every drop of oil in the world, every lump of coal, and every cubic centimeter of natural gas was rendered useless in a matter of seconds. In their first overt intervention in nearly ten thousand years, the eggheads apparently figured we were worthy of a little figurative kick in the ass so along with giving humanity a few tips like cold fusion, and the ability to convert a two second UV ray exposure into two hundred thousand megawatts of electric power, they also changed the molecular structure of every combustible fossil fuel by a couple particles we didn't even know existed and made it all about as worthless a fart in an outhouse. Nice trade, however the dip sticks in D.C. that owed their souls to the major energy interests were quite literally pooping in their pants. This overall atmosphere was a total heyday for the environmental interests, but all the positive results and requisite drastic change for the better, still didn't make working in that environment any easier. What you had was a bunch of scared shitless, unscrupulous politicians because they realized that the intellectually enhanced youth were going to outsmart them all out of their phony baloney jobs in a few short years and being suddenly shown up by aliens made them look like a bunch of monkeys fucking a football. With ten years into it, things were still a total clusterfuck, not to mention the evangelical shit bomb. Every organized religion in the world was freaking out because their God actually turned out to be a highly evolved species that had planted seeds of life around the universe six hundred million years ago. One no longer needed the middle man. The guys in Rome with the funny hats that had held the monopoly on communication with "the big guy" for three thousand years had just lost their corner on the market. Same thing with the Muslims, the Protestants, the Lutherans, the Jews, the Hindus, and all the various cults that professed to have the exclusive pipeline to the higher power in the universe and extracted money from it's followers to gain access to that pipeline. When the eggheads showed up and saved our proverbial asses, they pretty much explained how things went down over the last six hundred million years, and rendered the practice of organized religion rather obsolete not to mention, stupid.
The only real active roll the eggheads took in the natural evolution of earth was when they had to take out the dinosaurs. Mammals were always intended to evolve to a higher status, but before they could take hold and develop a larger brain and finally the neocortex which was the exclusive development of the Homo sapiens spices a few molecules of DNA sort of went haywire and the next thing you know dinosaurs are taking over everything. A well directed asteroid gave us a sort of reboot and the mammals’ ultimately took their place in the evolutionary line and the rest as they say is history.
They woke up refreshed and after a little morning delight and a pot of dark French roast hit the road for a little cruse around the county. Jack just wanted to take a drive on some back roads and let his mind wander. The last few months in D.C. had put his brain into such knots that he felt the only way to untie it was to relax and let it untie itself. He wondered if the kids that had enhancement procedures could get an algorithm that taught itself how to relax the same way a couple shots of tequila could relax him. He was glad to be out of the tornado that was brewing. He had been sucked up into this shit before and it was only by his unique power to see what was coming that he got out. In less than three months was the presidential election. President Kelly was expected to earn reelection but the house and senate were anyone's guess and a lot of incumbents were looking at the unemployment line. Twelve year old kids had a better grasp of global economic conditions, not to mention physics, science, and mathematics which had progressed rapidly since1/1/16.
With his three hook rig and minnows for bait it was only a matter of minutes till he had a bucket of twelve to fourteen inch Perch. The Perch population was one of the few species that the department of natural resources had not totally messed with, and it is entirely possible that that was the reason for their success as a species. Recent human history had proven that basically every bright idea some bureaucrat biologist came up with, and convinced the government to act on, had a dozen or more unintended consequences, mostly bad. Of course, trying to mitigate the negative consequences just produced more of them, and on down the vicious cycle of human natural intervention and blundering we go.
It was clear to him after his years of frustration in D.C. That the eggheads had it right when they planted the seeds of life on earth six hundred million years ago, as they had done on thousands of planets through the universe, and just left it alone. Let evolution do its thing, and let the higher evolved spices learn from their mistakes. Perch had made their niche in the evolutionary food chain being relatively little guys, and were doing just find in spite of man's help and now he intended to consume as many as he could eat along with the aforementioned redskins and sweet corn. He had pulled out a bottle of forty fifth parallel wine he had stashed under the cottage ten years ago. The wine industry had been one of the agricultural and environmental success stories in his home county of Leelanau. The soil and climate becoming better and better as a result of climate change which in northern Michigan was becoming generally warmer with the appropriate precipitation. The French pretty much shot their own foot off when they started the genetic modification of certain grape species to combat the climate chance in their neighborhood. The result of this exercise being a disaster and pretty much eliminating the wine industry in France in a matter of a few years. Similar results were experienced in Brazil, Chili, Italy, and California to one degree or another and these days only the Aussies and Michiganders could grow a decent grape and make a decent wine. As always, Kentucky and Tennessee remained on top with respect to making "brown wine" which was his default favorite.
Climate change had become a non-issue what with the energy technology that the eggheads had bestowed on our civilization in the nick of time. In fact, that, along with the renewed interest by humans in nuclear weapons and their increasing willingness to deploy them was the main reason for the visit, and ultimate intervention by the eggheads. He could barely blame them for wanting to preserve what had taken six hundred million years to evolve. It seemed like long time to him however the eggheads had a totally different concept of time having been around for trillions of years and having life spans that nobody really understood but were a least ten thousand years. The only way we understood this is that the same guys that came around to visit in ancient Egypt and Mesoamerica were here again. Even though we were now utilizing Co2 free technology, it was still going to take quite a few decades for our atmosphere to straighten out and we were stuck with the present weather patterns for quite some time to come.
He heard a car coming down the long drive back to the cottage and figured it must be Annie G. Her real name was Annie Jean Gallagher but he had always called her Annie G. They had grown up together and had spent a lot of time together till he took the job in D.C. and she took an internship with Robert Ballard through the Institute for Archaeological Oceanography. This was kind of a dream come true gig for a budding, young, highly intelligent, highly motivated marine biologist. It had been five years since they had seen each other and he was excited as hell. They had stayed in touch, emailed, skyped or talked on the phone every couple weeks, but for a time they had been soul mates, and he harbored a pretty deep seeded desire to rekindle the ol' flame as it were.
She still drove the battery powered 2020 Subaru she had bought used eight years ago when the both finished Grad school at U of M. The car had definitely seen some better days, but Annie looked outstanding. “Holy shit…. Does she look good” Jack thought to himself. The Kayak, mountain bike, and kite board on top of the Subi were more than a subtle hint as to her lifestyle and her body was all the proof one needed to see that see stayed in great shape. She had always had a beautiful face with a sort of impish smile that turned up a bit more on the right side than the left and gave her a look of mischief, at least in his mind.
Dark hair pulled back, dark eyes, and a medium to dark complexion. Of course she had spent most of her life outside and the sun had given her a permanent-tan. Most people these days tended to avoid sun exposure at all cost since medical technology hadn't quite figured out how to make our skin last as long as the rest of our human bodies were expected to last. Turns out that reverse engineering the human brain was not the last hurdle in our quest for immortality; keeping the skin from getting thin, brittle, withered and deteriorated was. Jack and Annie both figured, "what the hell" the sun just felt to damn good on the skin to deprive one of this simple pleasure. They both knew that our biological evolution had been combined with and overtaken by our technological evolution back when man first used fire and that at this rate the need for an actual biological body would be obsolete before their skin gave out (or so they hoped). The eggheads had evolved past the need for any physical constraint such as a biological body billions of years ago. Of course they could, and did, present themselves as physical beings. They could also enjoy any physical stimulus or pleasure; however their concept of such things as pleasure was way beyond our comprehension. On the brief encounters with humans they preferred to present themselves as a mostly human form in something of a hologram and utilizing the same sound wave/ language communication system we humans use. Even though a tremendous amount of knowledge, information, and technological advancement had been experienced at an incredible and exponential rate due to the eggheads, and people were due to live two or three times longer as a result, they still hadn't taught us how to exist without our biological bodies yet. Jack assumed they probably intended to save that one till we got a bit more advanced....... like maybe a few hundred million more years.
He had just poured wine, brought the water to a boil and had the perch dusted with Drakes seasoning and ready to toss in the pan. He met her at the back screen door with glass in hand. "Whaooo baby..... Do you look great" were his first words. "You’re not looking too bad yourself Jackie boy". "By the way, I have been living on a boat for the past twenty two months and have not gotten laid in as long, so if you haven't put that fish on yet.....DONT".
The perch turned out to delicious as he had expected and the last sweet corn cob was tossed into the fire around midnight. "Wow, I really didn't expect that" Jack said, with his best convincing lobbyist voice. "Yea, maybe not, but I could sure as hell tell that's just exactly what you were hoping for. Maybe not till after the fish, which were incredible by the way, but still just what you were hoping for". "You know, even though I'm the one with the supposed telepathic connection, you always seem to know just what the hell I'm thinking. I'm telling you, I could get hit by a beer truck this minute and die a happy man. Ten hours of sleep and I'll consider it the perfect day". Ten minutes later, they were both asleep like spoons on the sleeping porch and didn't move for ten hours.
The term frustration could barley describe his overall experience in our nation’s Capitol. So much shit was changing so fast and basic laws of physics were no longer laws and if there is one thing that Washington has natural resistance to...its change. So, at 12:00.01.01 AM, January 1, 2016 when the eggheads first made their presents known, everything changed....everything changed a lot! Exactly one year later every drop of oil in the world, every lump of coal, and every cubic centimeter of natural gas was rendered useless in a matter of seconds. In their first overt intervention in nearly ten thousand years, the eggheads apparently figured we were worthy of a little figurative kick in the ass so along with giving humanity a few tips like cold fusion, and the ability to convert a two second UV ray exposure into two hundred thousand megawatts of electric power, they also changed the molecular structure of every combustible fossil fuel by a couple particles we didn't even know existed and made it all about as worthless a fart in an outhouse. Nice trade, however the dip sticks in D.C. that owed their souls to the major energy interests were quite literally pooping in their pants. This overall atmosphere was a total heyday for the environmental interests, but all the positive results and requisite drastic change for the better, still didn't make working in that environment any easier. What you had was a bunch of scared shitless, unscrupulous politicians because they realized that the intellectually enhanced youth were going to outsmart them all out of their phony baloney jobs in a few short years and being suddenly shown up by aliens made them look like a bunch of monkeys fucking a football. With ten years into it, things were still a total clusterfuck, not to mention the evangelical shit bomb. Every organized religion in the world was freaking out because their God actually turned out to be a highly evolved species that had planted seeds of life around the universe six hundred million years ago. One no longer needed the middle man. The guys in Rome with the funny hats that had held the monopoly on communication with "the big guy" for three thousand years had just lost their corner on the market. Same thing with the Muslims, the Protestants, the Lutherans, the Jews, the Hindus, and all the various cults that professed to have the exclusive pipeline to the higher power in the universe and extracted money from it's followers to gain access to that pipeline. When the eggheads showed up and saved our proverbial asses, they pretty much explained how things went down over the last six hundred million years, and rendered the practice of organized religion rather obsolete not to mention, stupid.
The only real active roll the eggheads took in the natural evolution of earth was when they had to take out the dinosaurs. Mammals were always intended to evolve to a higher status, but before they could take hold and develop a larger brain and finally the neocortex which was the exclusive development of the Homo sapiens spices a few molecules of DNA sort of went haywire and the next thing you know dinosaurs are taking over everything. A well directed asteroid gave us a sort of reboot and the mammals’ ultimately took their place in the evolutionary line and the rest as they say is history.
They woke up refreshed and after a little morning delight and a pot of dark French roast hit the road for a little cruse around the county. Jack just wanted to take a drive on some back roads and let his mind wander. The last few months in D.C. had put his brain into such knots that he felt the only way to untie it was to relax and let it untie itself. He wondered if the kids that had enhancement procedures could get an algorithm that taught itself how to relax the same way a couple shots of tequila could relax him. He was glad to be out of the tornado that was brewing. He had been sucked up into this shit before and it was only by his unique power to see what was coming that he got out. In less than three months was the presidential election. President Kelly was expected to earn reelection but the house and senate were anyone's guess and a lot of incumbents were looking at the unemployment line. Twelve year old kids had a better grasp of global economic conditions, not to mention physics, science, and mathematics which had progressed rapidly since1/1/16.
Even though by almost every measure
life was better for every human on earth since 2016, the world still had no
shortage of luddites who would deny technology beneficial to humanity in favor
of their own personal interests or bizarre personal beliefs. The same zealots
and extremists who were never satisfied with simply maintaining religious
freedom for themselves, but insisted that the rest of humanity agree with their
way of thinking were still alive and kicking even though an overwhelming
preponderance of evidence to the contrary had been dumped in their laps. The
apparent separation of church and state that the United States had grappled
with for all its two hundred and fifty six years had been put to the test in
the extreme back in 2016. A mere ten months after our first contact with the
eggheads and after the historic second term of America's first African American
President Barak Obama the Unites States did an abrupt one hundred and eighty
degree turn and elected the most religious, social conservative , evangelical
administration in history. President Santorum and Vice President Bachman had
spent the better part of their term denying the very existence of the eggheads
and attempting to stifle every shred of benevolent technology they were willing
to grant us. This finally became the overwhelming reason for the egghead’s
manipulation of the molecular structure of all carbon dioxide emitting,
combustible carbon based fossil fuels, thus rendering them all non combustible.
It was clear to Jack that the eggheads were far to advanced to bother arguing
the benefits of technology which was several million years outdated to them but
was advanced enough to put humanity a hundred years ahead and basically save
our planet. Santorum and his administration were idiotic enough to present an
argument so the eggheads simply eliminated any other options. Jack also
realized that the eggheads had no interest whatsoever in micromanaging the
planet earth and had probably just made their existence known in order to keep
humanity from destroying its own home. Jack figured folks should be a bit
grateful for still having a planet and getting a huge boost in health,
lifespan, quality of life and happiness as a nice byproduct, but his life as an
environmentalist and lobbyist had lead him to regard mankind as basically akin
to the Coco bird and willing to shit in its own nest.
The next twelve years had produced a
bit more cooperation and positive movement in the direction of new technology
which was producing a better environment and healthy, longer, and generally
happier lives for most of humanity. The positive results of reworking the
world’s infrastructure on the global economy had most developed economies
embracing change. Another little trick the eggheads taught us was instantaneous
water desalination at no cost and producing clean energy as a byproduct, thus
providing almost instant agricultural turnaround for many developing and under
developed countries. President Dr. Sarah Jane Kelly had been progressive with
regard to taking full advantage of all the technology gleaned from the
eggheads, and implemented a full court press on all levels of research which
was producing almost daily innovation. Unfortunately, the United States
government, as well as many others, still harbored those who would attempt to
reverse much of this advancement. Dr. Kelly was a hands down favored candidate
for reelection, but she was not without enemies.
After a drive "around the horn" as a drive around the north point of Leelanau County was called, Jack and Annie stopped at a bar in the town of Omena called “Knot just a Bar". He ordered a Dos Eques and a shot of Patron tequila with a lime and a walleye sandwich. She ordered a glass of Pinot Grie from a local vineyard and an order of fried cauliflower. They had spent the better part of the morning just reminiscing old times and catching up on each other’s adventures over the last six years. Annie knew Jack well enough to sense his tension and could not help but notice what many would refer to as burn out. "So, what do you think the bone heads are going to come up with this time" she asked him referring to the upcoming election. "You know, it's getting harder and harder to figure that shit out......even for me". "The best I can figure, the trad's are going to lose some seats, and that will probably be a positive, but the signals are getting pretty muddy, so really, I just can't tell". The "Trad's" or Traditionalists as the social conservative / tea party segment of the former Republican Party had come to be known were still in resistance to full implementation of new technology and were still in support of research trying to reverse the molecular manipulation of fossil fuels so we could use up remaining reserves. Tremendous amounts of money were at stake since we still had huge reserves of oil, coal, and natural gas and a whole bunch of machinery and technology that could still run on the stuff which was otherwise useless.
As they sat on the deck overlooking Omena Bay they could see half a dozen boats moored just off the public beach. "You know, I haven't been sailing in over five years" Jack said "we should call Geno and see if we can take the Leading Lady out tomorrow". Geno was an old friend of Jacks who owned an old C&C 39 sailboat. She had been Geno's dads’ boat and Jack and Geno had grown up sailing her all over the Great Lakes. She was a thirty nine footer built in 1972 right about the time all boat manufactures were making the switch from wood construction to fiberglass. At the time they really didn't know how much fiberglass to use in the hull construction, what with it being a rather new technology so they just used a lot. The result in this case being a really stout boat that could take a beating, sail fast, and last a long time. She had come with a Universal Atomic Four, 30 horse power, gas engine, but in 2017 Geno replaced it with an electric power plant that utilized deep cycle hydrogen technology and was constantly charged with a solar panel the size of a postage stamp. It had cost him a couple grand at the time but he could now cruse anywhere in the world without having to fill up the tank. Nowadays you could get a much more efficient setup for next to nothing. Egghead energy technology was so efficient it had effectively taken all the profit out of the energy industry. Jack saw this as a good thing, however quite a few douche bag energy industry executives probably thought differently.
After a drive "around the horn" as a drive around the north point of Leelanau County was called, Jack and Annie stopped at a bar in the town of Omena called “Knot just a Bar". He ordered a Dos Eques and a shot of Patron tequila with a lime and a walleye sandwich. She ordered a glass of Pinot Grie from a local vineyard and an order of fried cauliflower. They had spent the better part of the morning just reminiscing old times and catching up on each other’s adventures over the last six years. Annie knew Jack well enough to sense his tension and could not help but notice what many would refer to as burn out. "So, what do you think the bone heads are going to come up with this time" she asked him referring to the upcoming election. "You know, it's getting harder and harder to figure that shit out......even for me". "The best I can figure, the trad's are going to lose some seats, and that will probably be a positive, but the signals are getting pretty muddy, so really, I just can't tell". The "Trad's" or Traditionalists as the social conservative / tea party segment of the former Republican Party had come to be known were still in resistance to full implementation of new technology and were still in support of research trying to reverse the molecular manipulation of fossil fuels so we could use up remaining reserves. Tremendous amounts of money were at stake since we still had huge reserves of oil, coal, and natural gas and a whole bunch of machinery and technology that could still run on the stuff which was otherwise useless.
As they sat on the deck overlooking Omena Bay they could see half a dozen boats moored just off the public beach. "You know, I haven't been sailing in over five years" Jack said "we should call Geno and see if we can take the Leading Lady out tomorrow". Geno was an old friend of Jacks who owned an old C&C 39 sailboat. She had been Geno's dads’ boat and Jack and Geno had grown up sailing her all over the Great Lakes. She was a thirty nine footer built in 1972 right about the time all boat manufactures were making the switch from wood construction to fiberglass. At the time they really didn't know how much fiberglass to use in the hull construction, what with it being a rather new technology so they just used a lot. The result in this case being a really stout boat that could take a beating, sail fast, and last a long time. She had come with a Universal Atomic Four, 30 horse power, gas engine, but in 2017 Geno replaced it with an electric power plant that utilized deep cycle hydrogen technology and was constantly charged with a solar panel the size of a postage stamp. It had cost him a couple grand at the time but he could now cruse anywhere in the world without having to fill up the tank. Nowadays you could get a much more efficient setup for next to nothing. Egghead energy technology was so efficient it had effectively taken all the profit out of the energy industry. Jack saw this as a good thing, however quite a few douche bag energy industry executives probably thought differently.
“Well call him” Annie said “looks
like the breeze is filling in a bit from the North West, and I haven’t seen
Geno in years”. “I bet he’s out on the big lake on a day like today anyway”.
Jack touched his right temple and said “dial Geno” a second later Geno picked
up “what the fuck man where the hell are you”. “Annie and I are just sitting
here in the Omena bar sippin a cold one”. “You are fucking kidding me! You’re
here”? “Yea, just got in yesterday. Already went out to the cottage, caught
some perchies, had a dozen for din with redskins and some of sonny’s sweet corn
from the old veggie stand and Annie came over to join me. And dude…guess what”.
“I Don’t know….what”.. “She just logged an eleven week gig on a NASA research
vessel and was horny as hell”. “Oh, you fucking dog…..you didn’t”..”Sure did
pal. All night bone-a-thon. Finally had to eat the perch around midnight”. “Oh,
you are a total dog…so, how’s she looking”? “Beautiful as ever my man”. “So, I
am here, working my ass off, and you call to tell me that you are back in the
county for the first time in 6 years, got laid all night long, and now you guys
are sitting in the Omena Bar getting fucked up…..is that about it”? “Yea,
that’s about it. Oh, and yea, we want to go sailing”….” Fuck off loser”…”Come
on man; we really want to see your ugly mug”. “Ok, I’ll get done here around
three and meet you guys at the boat. Tell Annie she’s lowering her standards by
sleeping with a bum like you”. “Awesome man, see you there”.
Jack took a swig and said “He’s
gonna meet us at three. Oh..And he said you must have raised your standards.
Not sure what he’s talking about”. “I’m sure you don’t you butt head” she
replied. “No idea sweetheart” he said as he downed the Patron and took a bite
of lime. After lunch and a few more rounds they headed south through
Peshawbestown to Suttons Bay. Peshawbestown was the home of the Grant Traverse
band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. It was an official reservation albeit a
pretty small one. Nevertheless, it dated back to sometime between 1860 when the
first white guys established communities in North Port and Omena and 1880 when
most all the Civil War angst had cleared (in the north anyway) and the
wholesale screwing of the native Americans resumed in earnest. Geno’s dad, who
was affectionately known as “The Geeze” had said that Peshawbestown use to be a
total dump and all the Native Americans were in total poverty. They use to go
buy smoked chub, whitefish and trout fillets from the Indians because back in
the 1970s the Federal Government outlawed the use of large mesh gill nets in commercial
fishing. This action seriously reduced the catch, which was probably the idea,
but the Indians got pissed cause they claimed fishing rights had been bestowed
them in Treaty of Washington, signed in 1836. The whole deal went to the
Michigan Supreme Court and the Native Americans won their fishing rights back
in 1979. Since they were the only guys who could use gill nets they were raking
in the fish and selling it way cheaper than the other commercial fishing
operations run by whites in Leland, Frankfort and Charlevoix. The non Indian
fishermen were always pretty pissed about the whole thing, but Geeze had told
them that the Peshawbestown population had been so screwed for so long they
deserved a break. By the time Jack was born, the native America fortune had
changed dramatically. In the 1980, they figured out that the reservation status
qualified as a sovereign entity and as such was not subject to state gambling
laws so they built a bingo palace. Then they built a casino. Of course this got
tested in the courts as well but ultimately the Native Americans won and Indian
gambling was off and running. Next was a really, really big casino, which was
still in operation and had the usual hundred or so cars in the parking lot at
one in the afternoon as Jack and Annie drove by. “You want to stop in and see
if Susan’s working today” Jack asked. “To fucking depressing for me” was the
reply. He had to admit; it was a pretty fucking depressing sight watching the
diehard gamblers at the tables drinking and playing black jack at one in the
afternoon on a beautiful summer day. “I just want to run in and see if she
there” he said as he pulled in. Susan was an old friend of his dads who had got
him involved in politics. She had always been involved in some issue or serving
in some local political position. She was an environmentalist and a total
activist in that regard. It was pretty clear that Jack was interested in
environmental studies early on and Susan had recognized his extraordinary
abilities just as early. As is the case for anyone with a passionate cause,
Susan was acutely aware of the need for secession planning and she saw Jack as
the “chosen one” perfectly suited to carry the torch. It had not quite dawned
on him that she might be a bit disappointed to hear that he had bailed from
D.C. His eyes took a while to adjust from the bright afternoon sun to the super
dark interior of the black jack room and he bumped into table number one on his
way around the corner. “Breaking in a new set of feet” he recognized Susan’s
voice. “Shit, I can’t see a fucking thing” he said. “lovely to see you too
Sweetie” she said. “Come here and give me a hug my sweet boy…what the hell are
you doing here”? “I figured I better come back from D.C. and check to see if
you’re still alive you old hose bag”. “I love you too sweetie”. His eyes had
started to adjust so that at least he could see and outline. He gave Susan a
big bear hug. She had been a black jack dealer at the casino for as long as he
had been alive, but now she was the pit boss. “So, what’s up with all the
Washington dick heads” she asked. “They ever gonna get their heads out of their
asses and realize that the Global Energy Cooperation Act (GECA) is a fucking
no-brainer”? “Usual shit, the pres is pushing hard. I had two dozen meeting in
three days before I left just to get the guys in Ways and Means from killing
the fucker”. “Oh Jackie boy, you are still my hero. Can’t you use your voodoo
shit on then and determine how it’s gonna go”? “Yea, that’s the problem, I DID,
and what I got scared the shit out of me. I got a vibe from the chair of the
People for Proper and Peaceful Energy Production (PPPEP) and I didn’t like what
I felt. This numb nut actually claims to have a formula to reverse the fossil
fuel non combustion conversion and might have the support in the house to start
production. What an unbelievable shortsighted ignoramus”. “That’s what I love
about you Jack…no need to sugarcoat…so, what are you going to do”? “Well I’m
sure as fuck not going to hang around here in the dark and play black jack,
Annie’s in the car”. “What the hell you still doing here talking to a bag like
me. Get you ass back out with that young lady. How is she anyway”. “Looking
good as ever” Jack said with a somewhat evil grin. “Are you too back together”?
“Since last night” Jack smiled. “Better treat her right this time Jackie boy”.
“Yea, Yea, I hear ya….Hey I gotta run, I just wanted see if you were here and
say hi. I hope I'll be around for a while, kinda feel like I got to chill for a
while. Let’s get together this week and I’ll fill you in on the whole bizarre
story. It’s totally fucking unbelievable.” You got it Jackie Boy. Thanks for
stopping by, good to see you”.
“How’s she doing” Annie asked as
Jack got in the Subi. “She looks pretty good for and eighty year old”. Susan
had once had MS which had been cured ten years ago through embryonic stem cell
research, but had done some nerve damage that was probably going to take a few
more years of research to figure out. Even when research had a breakthrough it
usually took a while for the biotech industry to bring things to scale not to
mention the FDA process which in the Santorum era proved to be the worst
impediment to progress and caused the death and suffering of millions that
might have otherwise been cured. This was the kind of shit that drove Jack nuts
and it was the same kind of shit that he feared was happening again. Since
President Dr. Sarah Jane Kelly had won election in ’28 the NIH had been granted
permission to continue research involving somatic cell nuclear transfer. Due to
the conservative push back by the “trads” this potential life saving research
went largely unexplored; at least to the extent that there were no deliverable
results until we got another little gem from the eggheads. When they showed us
how to enucleate a human egg and fertilize it with a somatic cell from someone
else; the rest was easy. We just let that egg grow in the petri dish for five
days then extract the embryonic stem cells from the inner cell mass and create
an embryonic stem cell line by putting them in the right nutrient and letting
them divide. After six months, if they had not differenceated or mutated in any
way, the stem cell line was good to go. The cool thing is that the embryonic
stem cells in the line have the same DNA as the person who donated the somatic
(skin) cell. Since scientists had long since learned how to prompt stem cells
into any of the two hundreds and forty different cells in the human body, they
would have an infinite supply of replacement cells for anything that went
wrong. Since the replacement cells would have the same DNA as the donor there
was no rejection. The only real reason this had been resisted is that all the
super conservative bone headed trads were afraid simply because this is also
called cloning. Jack often found it hard to believe some of the backward
superstitious bullshit that people used to believe in and actually passed as
religious faith.
Susan had gotten new undamaged mylam
cells injected. Mylem is basically the nerve lining that gets damaged in MS and
causes the nervous system to short circuit, so with a new supply of nerve
lining cells with her own DNA marker her whole nervous system was able to
repair itself and if anything decided to go haywire again, she had a supply of
more cells to do more repair. The only bummer in her case was that entire
sections of nerve had died as a result of having no lining for so long and we
didn’t quite have the technology to do the complete rebuild yet. Still, she
probably had an extra twenty years of pretty healthy, happy living that would
not have happened otherwise. As Jacks old mentor, thinking of her had often
kept him “in the fight” as they say. Although he did his lobbying for the
environmental interests, and didn’t have the expertise in biotech, he did work
hand in hand with a lot of guys who had a lot of genetic, nanotech, and biotech
expertise and they were usually on the same page.
“Let’s get some supplies and head
down to the boat. Geno will be there in about an hour so we should be prefect”.
Then pulled into the Merc to buy beer ice and munchies, and headed down to the
Leland Harbor where the Leading Lady was moored in Slip number 21. “Holy shit,
I can’t believe you guys are actually here. How the hell are you”? Geno had
already untied dock lines, had the main sail half raised and was pushing “the
Lady” out of the slip. “Throw the shit in the cooler and give me a hand here”
he yelled. “Aren’t you going to start her up and motor out of the harbor” Annie
G asked, although it was apparent that was not what Geno had in mind. “Na, I
try and just sail her out if it’s not blowing stink”……”saves on gas” he said
with the deep infectious laugh Geno had when he told an old joke that only
amused him. Like Jack, Geno was a bit on the nostalgic side. They both embraced
change and new technology especially when it was designed and used to save and
improve lives. They also realized that the eggheads had granted us
technological advancements that would have otherwise taken decades or even
centuries to come up with and we were defiantly getting a snowball effect.
Jack, with his higher than usual intellect was able to rather easily master new
technologies and use them to his benefit; even so, he and Geno liked to pretend
like they were old fashion, shunning modern conveniences in lieu of “the old
way of doing things” as the Geeze use to say. Thus, the old Johnson outboard
just for show on Jacks dingy, and Geno’s propensity for pushing his sailboat
out of the slip and sailing out of the harbor when he had a perfectly good,
electric, clean, engine to motor out of the harbor with if he wanted to.
Besides, Geno liked to be a show off some times, and sailing a thirty nine foot
sail boat out of that harbor in any kind of wind was impressive. “Hey, hop on
quick brother”. Geno already had the main raised the rest of the way, and the
north west wind was catching the sail as Geno turned the helm to port and they
picked up speed. “Hey Annie G roll that jib out , will ya”. As she undid the
furling line, Jack tugged hard on the port jib sheet and out she rolled. Jack
gave a half dozen wraps on the port primary winch, clicked in a winch handle
and started to grind as he handed the sheet to Annie G to tail for him. Within
thirty seconds they were trimmed in and sailing on starboard tack at full speed
right toward the breakwall. “I guess we better gibe before we smash into the
rocks”. “Gibe Ho” he yelled and swung the helm hard to port. The boom came
across, Jack undid the port jib sheet, Annie G took up on the Starboard jib
sheet, the sails filled again and wham, back up to eight knots and heading
right for the mouth of the harbor. “Well, just like riding a bike, I always
say”. “Yea,…. not to fucking bad, considering we haven’t sailed together in 5
years”. “Hand me a beer” They all cracked a beer and had about thirty five
seconds to slam them before they were at the harbor mouth and had to gibe back
to starboard before going on the beach. “Where are we going? South Manitou
anyone”? Geno asked. “Let’s go to the south end of North Manitou” said Jack.
“It’s a perfect beam reach with twenty knots of breeze and I want to feel The
Lady stretch her legs and run for a while”. “North Manitou it is” said Geno.
Jack loved to feel the helm of a sailboat in his hand, especially the Leading
Lady and especially in a good stiff breeze. Within seconds he was in what Annie
G called a “magic moment” kind of like a trance with a smile on his face and a
freeing of any anxiety from his mind. Jack and Geno had grown up seeing that
“magic moment” face on Geno’s dad, the Geeze. They had spent 4 months a year
sailing all over lakes Michigan, Huron, and Superior and no matter what the
weather or how many miles they had in front or behind them, Geeze always had a
look of total serenity on his face as soon as he took the helm. Geno had always
said it was because that’s when he felt closest to God. Of course a lot of
people’s concept of God had changed since we learned about the eggheads, but
Geno had always thought of god as simply some collective form of higher power
in the universe and that recognition, of it and gratitude toward it along with
kindness and tolerance toward other humans was the extent of a spiritual life.
As it turns out, he had it figured just about right. His dad, the Geeze,
probably followed a bit more of a Christian belief but had taught Geno and Jack
to practice tolerance above all else. Jack really didn’t understand all the
hubbub since it seemed to him that the eggheads were in fact a benevolent,
omnipotent, superior being (actually, a whole lot of superior beings, but there
did seem to be some network or connectivity between all 2300 trillion of them)
that did plant the seeds of life on earth, and even though they didn’t seem to
micro manage our planet, they did seem to love us and care enough to save our
asses from extinction. To Jack, this seemed to be more or less the definition
of God he had heard over and over. He figured people should be happy to have a
God that was pretty much as people had imagined for ten thousand years finally
make an appearance and validate everybody’s beliefs, instead of being freaked
out because they couldn’t claim exclusive ownership anymore. Basically, he
thought religious zealots were ignorant douche bags.
Jack fell into his “magic moment” at
the helm. Geno and Annie G sat on the high side catching up on what had been
happening in their lives in the last five years. “I can’t believe Ballard is
really an asshole” Geno said. “He always seemed like such a cool guy on those
discovery channel things. Remember watching that thing about how he found the
Titanic… like, twenty years before we were born. Man I thought that guy was
cool…how old is he anyway…like ninety”? “More like a hundred by now” Annie G
said “He’s been getting treatments for a long time now, so the fucker will
probably live another fifty years”. “And yea, he’s a real fuckwad, always
hitting on the twenty year old interns…of which I was one…a knee to the fucking
nads put a quick kibosh on his tit feeling routine, but still…what a low life.”
“wow, I never figured him for a lecher…So how was your last gig on that NOAA
research vessel”? “oh that gig was awesome; two hundred foot steel trawler,
just tricked out, every toy in the book… for an MB that is”. “MB” Geno asked”.
“Sorry sweetie, marine biologist ….we’re all MBs for short” ´”Yea, so what do
you call the enviro guys like Jack before he got the lobby gig”? “We call um
GTs for Green Turds”. “So, what in the world is Jack doing back here anyway”?
“Beats me, I just got back a couple days ago. I was staying with some friends
in Traverse City and was about to call you and come on out to the county when I
got a call from Jack yesterday”. “Yea, so you came right out and screwed his
brains out”. “What can I say, I was horney and he bribed me with perch. I always
was a sucker for fresh fish”. “Hey, I had some awesome whitefish on the grill
last night”. “Well, if you would have called me first...……it could have been
you”. The thought gave Geno a bit of a twinge; Annie G was looking good as ever
and they had been lovers off and on in the past. “That’s the story of my life,
a day too late”.
"You know we could just harden
up a few degrees and head over to Fayette". Fayette was a ghost town on
the west side of Lake Michigan in Big Bay De Noc. It was a tiny crescent shaped
natural harbor about three quarters of the way down the west side of the Garden
Peninsula of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It was settled as an iron smelting
station in 1867. It was in close sailing distance from the port of Escanaba
where the iron ore from the Upper Peninsula's mines was loaded. It held the
required hardwood forest for charcoal and had plenty of the required limestone.
It was a perfect natural harbor which offered protection for the many sailing
and early steam vessels which hauled in the ore and left with the smelted pig
iron on its way to the steel mills in Gary Indiana. There was no overland
access to Fayette, however the community had grown in short order with smelting
plant workers and families, shop keepers, saloon keepers, blacksmiths, doctors,
and all the different people that make up a community. The community grew and
thrived for twenty years when technology changed and the mills in Gary were
suddenly able to process the ore from scratch and rendered the smelting process
unnecessary. Within two years, Fayette was a ghost town. Even today the Garden
Peninsula is sparsely populated and basically has about a twenty lineal miles
of paved road in an area of around twenty four hundred square miles.
Geno and Jack had sailed to Fayette
numerous times, usually in September or October when it was empty and desolate.
It was almost eerie sailing into a desolate empty ghost town in early autumn
and they both loved it. There was nothing within twenty miles except Shirley’s
Port Bar about three miles down the road. Geeze had first taken Geno and Jack
there when they were weathered in by a massive storm out of the south that blew
forty knots plus, rained sideways, and had fifteen foot waves rolling up Green
Bay. They walked to Shirley’s in the rain and got totally shit faced. They
considered it totally cool since they were just sixteen and Geeze had to sweet
talk Shirley into serving them by convincing her that after two days stuck in a
boat in Fayette with these boys he was going ape shit and needed to get trashed
and he really didn't see any harm in the boys joining him; otherwise they might
get board and ditch him. Shirley said that she hadn't seen a law man except for
the Game Warden in years. It was commonly understood that being the Game Warden
in the Garden Peninsula was by far the most dangerous job in law enforcement.
You just don't tell a "Yopper" when, where, what or whether he can
hunt. Shirley figured as long as they didn't have a car to crash, there wasn't
much harm in letting the boys get hosed. They spent the day
drinking beer, and tequila, eating burgers, watching football and playing pool.
The next day jack and Geno couldn't move because they were so fucking
hung-over. Geeze told them to drink a beer."Liquid wheat germ....better than
orange juice" was one of his favorite sayings. They felt pretty darn lucky
since the weather was still shitty and Geeze wasn't going to made then head
out. Sailing south in those conditions would have been a barf-o-Rama, and
instead they got to stay in their bunks all day and nurse their massive
hangovers. Geeze let them do just about whatever they wanted most of the time,
but he was totally unsympathetic when it came to the effects of the day after.
“Hey Jack, you still alive back
there? Annie G and I want to go to Fayette". "That'll take all night
and we don't have our stuff". “What the hell do you need, I got a butt
load of food and booze on board, I got blankets and pillows, and I got a bunch
of extra cloths and rain gear". "What about ice? We got enough
ice"? “Yea, we got plenty of ice, besides, I put in a new fridge/ freezer
unit that runs on solar....we're all set". "What about drugs...got
any drugs". "Does a bear shit in the woods and use small fury animals
as toilet paper"? "You boys are sick" Annie G said.
"Ok" said Jack” we're in"........"Right, Annie G"?
"Right you are Jackie boy".
Jack turned the wheel to starboard
by about twenty degrees and leveled out at a compass course of 290 degrees WNW.
They had sailed across the Big Lake enough times that he didn’t need to look at
the charts. Most pleasure vessels these days had a GPS system that was fully
integrated into all the boat systems and had a projected readout that could be
viewed anywhere on the boat. Geno had intentionally not upgraded his navigation
systems preferring to rely on the dead reckoning the Geeze had taught him and
Jack, and taking an occasional glance at the old 1990s GPS map below at the Nav
Station. Just another one of those “old fashion” things he liked to do even
though technology had make it unnecessary.
The paradox of the fact that Jack
was a crusader against those who obstinately resisted the life improving
technologies granted us by the eggheads, while shunning many technologies in
favor of doing things “the old fashion way” did not go unnoticed by Geno. It is
likely that it did not go unnoticed by Jack ether. Of course they both saw the
difference between trashing the planet or depriving humans of life saving
advancements and denying oneself of simple time and labor saving conveniences.
“So you guys wanna go to Fayette
hun?” Jack asked. “You know, it’s still a bit early in the season; probably be
some other boats there”. “I don’t care, I want to go see if Shirley is still
there” said Geno. “I think after that, we should head to Beaver Island……What da
ya think”? “Absofuckinglootly” said Jack. “Since we are going to be sailing for
the next twelve hours, I guess I’ll take a little snooze and rest up for the
night watch. What time you want me back up to relieve you” Jack asked. “I’ll
take her till twenty two hundred hours, then we’ll do 2 hour shifts”…..”Sound
good”? “Yup, see ya then”. Jack went below to crash up in the V berth. Geno
felt a bit of disappointment when Annie G followed him below, But sucked it up
and said “hey, you guys better set me up with a sandwich, and my evening
bourbon totty". Geno did like his bourbon. Annie G made him a ham and
swiss sandwich and a bourbon on the rocks with a lemon twist. “Here you go
honey” she said as she set the drink down and gave him a kiss of the cheek.
“Don’t get too lonely”.
Autopilot was a convenience that
latterly every other boat had and that Geno had refused to install. He said
that getting a machine to drive your sailboat defeated the whole purpose of
sailing in the first place. In his mind, sailing really was not about getting
to any particular destination as much as it was about the journey. He said the
same thing about life, and that was why he loved sailing so much. The downside
of this attitude was that someone had to be at the helm all the time and right
now it was him as Jack and Annie G were below snuggling together. He considered
getting the sails trimmed perfectly and tying the helm off which allowed The
Lady to sail herself as long as the wind didn’t go berserk, but then he figured
three was always a crowd so he just enjoyed the sunset and sipped his bourbon.
CHAPTER 2: D.C. A visit from afar,
Ron Smith
was in the office of The Environmental Alliance Group (EAG) at the corner of K
street and Capitol in Washington D.C. "Where the hell is Saffell" he
yelled at ear piercing volume. "Sir, I believe he has taken a leave of
absents and headed to someplace in Michigan" answered a twenty two year
old intern named Sam Marley. “what the fuck, everybody around here just takes
off whenever they feel like it? Gee, did it ever occur to anybody that we have
a fucking emergency going on around here? I'm really, really not in the mood to
singlehandedly save the whole fucking world at the moment..... Like, maybe I
could use a little bit of help....would that be TOO much to ask........would
it"?.." Michigan, what the hell is he doing in Michigan? I thought we
were through clearing up after those shit head auto industry guys ten years
ago? Don't we have all that UAW bull shit out of the way? I thought We finally
got Ford, GM, and all the rust belt Japs and Korians on board with new tech
years ago. I thought they were all retooled and in full swing with the no Co2
thing"? "I believe you are correct with all that sir, however, I
believe Jack is nowhere near the Detroit area", Answered Marley. It had
long been assumed by anyone that was not from the mid west that the term
"Michigan" meant "Detroit" or at least that south east
corner of the state that made up the old industrial rust belt corridor that had
churned out millions of cars and trucks during the last one hundred and thirty
years. It was beyond the imagination of an east or west coaster that only five
percent of Michigan was an industrial waist land and that the rest of the state
was really quite nice. In fact, few people realized that the northern half of
the state was quite possibly one of the most beautiful places on earth.
“Well, I
don't give a shit where he is....get his fucking lazy ass back here! We’ve got
a disaster brewing here". "On it sir" Marley barked.
Sam Marley
had actually been frantically trying to contact Jack for two days now and he
had absolutely no idea how to get in touch with him. Since the turn of the
century, the world had become much smaller and flatter and these days if a
person wanted to, he could stay in communication just about anywhere. The
problem was if someone didn't want to stay in communication they could still go
incognito. A lot of the current PE (post egghead) generation as they were
known, had location devices implanted as part of a total brain-nerve system
enhancement along with nano sized chips for increased data storage, faster
computation speed and so on. In the sixteen years since egghead technology
introduction, this and other enhancement procedures had become the rage and
there were big bucks to be made from the guys who got in on the ground floor.
The "location feature" was a big money maker since it was old
technology, dirt cheap stuff and an easy sell to parents who were getting their
kids enhanced because they would always know where their kids were, and the
poor kids couldn't turn it off.
Sam was glad
to have avoided that particular unpleasant embarrassment of youth but figured
that at the present rate of achievement by the first PE generation kids who
were just turning 14, fooling one's parents was going to be child's play.....
He chuckled at his own pun and pondered what things would be like in a few
short years when everyone under 25 would twice as smart as everyone over 25.
He swung
into the office of Jane Keen who was the office manager and always pretended to
be just a receptionist and secretary, but who in reality knew more about
everything that was going on in their office (and D.C. in general) than almost
anyone else. "Hi Jane, know how I can get a hold of Jack". "Not
unless he wants you to....boss blowing a gasket?" Jane replied.
"What's that mean anyway....blowing a gasket". It occurred to Jane
that at twenty two years old, he had been only six years old when the last gas
powered internal combustion engine was in general commercial use and that not
knowing what a gasket was did not seem that odd. "Oh, just an old fashion
way of saying he's throwing a shit fit ".”We'll, if I don't get Jack
Saffell back to this office, I'm going to be buried in it".
Sam caught
the Metro over to Jack's D.C. Apartment. Jack had a couple of handprints
programmed into the security system in case of emergency and Sam's was one of
them. Sam had only been with the organization for eight months as an intern but
Jack, gifted with super acute perception, found that he could trust Sam, and
trust was a rare commodity in the world of politics. Sam had no sooner turned
on jacks residential data systems when he sensed a message. It was personalized
to Sam's brain frequency and coded so Sam touching his temple made a copy to
decipher later. Neuroscience and recent reverse engineering of the human brain
had reviled a certain brain wave frequency that was as unique as a human
fingerprint. A nano sized microchip had been developed which was implantable
into ones temple and could utilize their personal frequency as somewhat of a
phone number or email address. This procedure was basically like getting ones
ear pierced and was FDA approved at any AT&T, Apple or Verizon retail
outlet. Also while not anything like the surgically enhanced, it did add a
couple thousand gig memory and boost the regular calculations per second brain
capacity by about ten times. It was possible to personalize digital messages as
well as communications to someone's personal brain frequency. Basically, people
now had everything a smart phone did plus a hundred times more data and storage
plus a unique access code in a microscopic chip emplaned in their scull.
Sam entered
his apartment and imminently went for his data control station and downloaded
Jack's message. "Hey Sammy here is the deal. I had to get outta dodge
...like now man! Sorry I couldn't fill you guys in but there was not much
opportunity before I needed to vaminous. I got a visit from some PPPEP types
who were not intending to take me dancing if you catch my drift. Anyway, I
guess the intention was to make me nervous, but I didn't need my ESP to realize
that these guys would just as soon put me in the big sleep as look at me. I
figured I had better chill for a while and figure out our next move instead of
ending up dead. If you are actually listening to this than the shit must be
hitting the fan. Not many people know where I am but if you really have a
meltdown going on than you can contact me by using my personal frequency
response code and leaving a message, I'll know it's you and I will get a hold
of you ASAP". Sam immediately followed Jack's instructions. "Hey
Jack, it's Sam, I really need you to call me. Ron is freaking out and the shit
is really hitting the fan. I'm not totally up on what's going on, above my pay
grade I guess, but Ron wants you here big time."
Ron Smith
was Jacks boss at The Environmental Alliance Group which was basically a
Washington D.C. think tank that did environmental research and represented
various environmental and scientific interests. They had always maintained a
strong Government relations department and Jack with his high intelligence and
keen instincts had long since proven to be their most valuable asset. Ron was a
totally animated over the top kind of guy who pretty much exaggerated
everything out of proportion. He also happened to be very smart and extremely
good at his job, which basically consisted of making people agree with him.
Jack was the antithesis of Ron being of somewhat calm demeanor and they made a
killer team. They could play "good cop bad cop" on most any legislator
and usually get their way......Or at least walk away with some sort of
compromise situation, which was a victory in D.C. terms. Ron was seventy seven
years old and had been in the political game in one form or another since he
graduated from Harvard law school in 1982. Along the way he had gotten degrees
in economics, political science (which he always considered oxymoronic)
environmental engineering and an MBA. He had lived in D.C. Since Ronald Reagan
was President and knew every single soul in the entire city. Ron was known as a
straight shooter and generally played by the rules, however it was universally
accepted that you did not want Ron Smith pissed off at you. Jack had accepted a
job offer from EAG right out of U of M grad school mostly because of Ron. He
had worked in the Reagan administration as an environmental advisor, spent four
years on president Clinton's counsel of economic advisors, worked as a
political lobbyist for major oil interests and started several major heavy
weight D.C. Consulting firms. At the start of the new millennium Ron spent
several years involved in research studying the effects of climate change.
Considering that Ron's expertise included macro economic and political behavior
including environmental impact, this research defiantly got his attention. The
more he learned the more concerned he became until finally all his effort and
resource became concentrated on the single cause of mitigating the damage he
knew was happening as a result of vast carbon dioxide emission. It's not like
he cared to play the blame game he just wanted to do whatever was possible to
reverse, or at least lesson, the adverse consequences whether environmental,
economical, or social. Up until the point that science began to recognize that
a combination of burning fossil fuels, industrial scale agriculture, and global
deforestation was causing a massive increase in Co2 in the atmosphere there
really was no one to blame. After all, mankind had benefitted beyond
imagination from the industrial revolution, and large scale agriculture. It is
hard to blame a country or regional society for clearing land to produce lumber
to sell and promote agriculture. The short term benefits to society in
bolstering the economy and feeding it's citizens is hard to argue with, especially
when weighted against some -might happen-in the future-supposed disaster- that
may or may not happen due to global warming. Ron certainly understood that the
blame, if you could call it that, was universal as well as immaterial. The
important thing was that what was occurring now, be universal accepted, and
that every measure be taken to reverse the process and mitigate the effects.
This was where Ron saw plenty of blame and a vast assortment of villains. At
the turn of the millennium trillions of dollars were at stake since just about
every aspect of the economy of the developed world evolved around fossil fuels.
Basically all our energy, transportation, industrial capacity, food production,
and construction industries involved humongous consumption (burning) of fossil
fuels in the form of coal, natural gas, or one of the various distillates of
petroleum. Ron hardly expected these extremely powerful, very rich, and
influential interests to just fold up shop and go away in the interest of
averting environmental disaster sometime in the future. The irony that he once
lobbied for and promoted the interests of the petroleum industry did not go
unnoticed to Ron. In the next decade most conservative Republican lawmakers
denied the validity of climate change and its disastrous consequences. Even in
the beginning of the second decade of twenty first century the political will
in the United States to effect any meaningful measures to ward off the eventual
disastrous effects of continued Co2 emissions were pretty much nonexistent. In
two thousand and ten Ron had formed the Environmental Alliance Group, a think
tank for the research, study, and desimination of data involving all aspects of
climate change. He started by funding a host of research projects and collecting
data on the effects of climate change as well as exploring various alternative
energy initiatives. Dr. Charles Watson PHD, a leading scientist and highly
recognized expert in the field of climatology and environmental physics at MIT
had been trying to increase awareness of the dangers to politicians, media, and
the general public for at least ten years. He had followed the work of Ron
Smith and when he learned of Ron's new organization he knew he had to be part
of it. He had brought a half dozen researchers, scientists, and experts with
him and in short order the EAG had become a formidable organization. Along with
research and data accumulation they established a strong grass roots advocacy
network and lobbying effort for climate change mitigation and other
environmental interests. By 2032, The EAG was a global organization with
several hundred of the absolute brightest minds in the world on its payroll.
Jack had taken the job in late 2025 as a D.C. lobbyist and due to his
extraordinary abilities he quickly became very close to Ron and Ron loved him
like a son.
By the year
2016 most of the worlds scientific community accepted the fact that Co2
molecules per cubic centimeter in the atmosphere had doubled in the last
hundred years and that it was causing a very real green house effect. They also
realized that this global green house effect was heating up the planet. Most of
the world population, including a preponderance of leaders and politicians from
the developed nations agreed on these two things, but that was where the
agreement ended. Most scientists believed that the increase in Co2 was man made
the overwhelming evidence being polar ice core samples showing that atmospheric
Co2 levels had been relatively constant for the past ten thousand years till a hundred
years ago when the industrial revolution went into full swing and we burned
everything in the ground to keep it going. They also seemed to agree that while
no one could predict the ultimate outcome, the overall effect was going to be
negative in every respect. The problem was that many political leaders were not
on board with these two most important points. The reason of course, was money
and lots of it. It was simply not in the U.S. industrial corporate interest to
move away from the status quo and most politicians are loth to buck the system
when money is involved.
Two thousand
and sixteen was a monumental turning point in the history of the human race. On
January 1, 2016 the entire world was shocked to learn that an alien
intelligence had made its presents known to the leaders of the one hundred and
ninety six independent countries in the world. This "first encounter"
was was also experienced by the United Nations during its first ever Global
Climate Change Conference. The one hundred and ninety three members of the
United Nations in 2016 were all in attendance along with over a thousand of the
worlds top scientists.
This
encounter, while understandably making quite a global splash and pretty much
occupying all news media for several weeks, still was not the kind of thing
that had been portrayed in science fiction books and movies for years. There
had not been the appearance of some "space ship", no big hub-bub over
aliens landing, in fact there was very little disruption and the whole thing
seemed rather anticlimactic. The "Eggheads" actually referred to
themselves as ecohedanosphearic entities. They had literally outgrown their
biological surroundings Trillions of years ago and were comprised of
information and energy, at least that was the basic explanation within the
constricts of our human understanding at the time. Their chosen method of
communication with humanity was through human looking holographic entities that
behaved and communicated exactly like humans but could materialize or dematerialize
as needed. This in it self was an impressive trick and went a great distance in
adding to the legitimacy of their message as well as validating that they were
what they said they were. Hard to argue with a guy who can disappear and
reappear at will. The first contact with them was experienced simultaneously
throughout the world by world leaders, scientists, and all the ambassadors,
staff and research teams attending the afore mentioned Global Climate Chance
Conference and the message was clear.......stop burning fossil fuels! Earth had
finally reached a turning point, which if passed, would be catastrophic and
irreversible. Humanity had now been discussing climate change and fossil fuel
consumption for twenty six years with no real substantive solution or change in
behavior. The earths atmosphere simply could not withstand the continued Co2
build up and the negative consequences were creating a feed back loop that was
ultamitly going to render earth uninhabitable.
Ron, Dr
Watson, and half a dozen representatives from the EAG were attending the Global
Climate Change Conference durning the first encounter. Unbeknownst to Ron and
his team there was already a world wide freak out going on since at 0:00 GMT
before the conference, the eggheads had momentarily interrupted all global
government communications with a brief message announcing their intention to
make contact with humanity at the afore mentioned conference and with the
majority of world leaders at 12:00 GMT which was 08:00 EST in New York City, right
when the GCCC was scheduled to commence. Needless to say, the pervious twelve
hours had been a mixture of panic, confusion, fear, and anticipation among
governments, militaries, and scientific communities around the world. Of course
the major world powers, the U.S. included, were having a total, secret, massive
melt down because something, somehow had hacked their most secured
communication and information systems. Regardless of the message, government
agencies, and especially the military, are predisposed to panic when they
suspect they are under attack, so at this moment it was fair to say that the
world powers were a bit on edge.
No sooner
had Ron and his team taken their seats and the conference called to order than
a group of three men were introduced at the protium. In hindsight Ron was
surprised at how casual it all seemed. It was almost surreal that all the
worlds leading diplomats and scientists were sitting and listening to
aliens.....no panicking crowds running around screaming.....no utter calamities......just
entities beyond our comprehension explaining the solutions to our carbon
emissions problems in a calm nonchalant manner at the United Nations Global
Climate Change Conference. Ron was equally surprised at his own reaction. The
two major thoughts that ran through his head were ....."This is so fucking
cool" ....and..."This changes EVERYTHING". The men addressed the
conference for less than an hour; the message amounting to a list of bullet
points that basically went like this:
* They are
ecohedanosphearic entities; a highly evolved spices who's basic evolution
started in a manner similar to that of Earth's. They have evolved over a time
frame that in earth metrics would be around one hundred and twenty six trillion
years.
* They had
conducted a "project" six hundreds million years ago. Seeds of
biological life as we understand it had been planted on thousands of planets
throughout the universe and the resulting evolution of life on earth was one of
the outcomes.
* Their
intention, and hope was for the evolution of intelligent beings, however they
did not intend to micro manage the evolutionary environment, but rather let
life evolve and observe the results. , Humans had evolved to a point at which
our technological evolution was becoming exponential and we were on the
"fast track" to becoming one of the advanced spices and as such, we
were being offered the technology required to keep from destroying ourselves.
* They had
compiled the information necessary to provide humanity a vast variety of energy
technologies and alternatives. Among these were, the abilities to harvest
limitless energy from solar, natural molecular movement and spontaneous nuclear
fusion with out radiation.
* All of
this information which also included hundreds of "gifts" in the form
of advancements in biotech, nano tech, chemistry, engineering, physics,
biology...both terrestrial and marine (humanity still didn't know anythingabout
what was below the surface of the oceans) was available to everyone in the
world and was already uploaded on the World Wide Web.
* The final,
yet extremely important, point of their message was that in one year, all
fossil fuels would become non combustable and thus useless! They had used
technology which was simple to them to put into effect a molecular chain
reaction that would result in a molecular, irreversible change in the
composition of all combustable fossil fuels. Basically, mankind had a year to
get it's collective shit together, and scale up the technology that had been
gifted to us.
"Holy
shit, this is unbelievable" said Ron grasping what an understatement he
had just made. "Looks as if we might have some serious work ahead of us.
Charlie, what do you think"? "Well, I suppose we should start
downloading this tech data and see if anything these guys have for us is in
anyway compadable with stuff we have been working on. Might give us a bit of a
head start if there's even the least bit of synergy with any of our
concepts". Dr Linh Chang followed Dr Watson's comment. "It's
possible, of course that these aliens would utilize concepts that are at least
within our ability to understand and actually produce. I mean, what's the use
of granting us technology that's way to far advanced for us to ever
realize". "Good point Linh, sure would be cool if those alien types
perfected one of the ideas we've come up with but couldn't make work". Dr
Watson was drooling at the thought. Nothing gave him greater joy than
validation of one of his theories. "Boy would I love to get to scale up one
of our rejected ideas and shove it down the throat of that numb nuts Senator
Bates and his ignorant, research wannabe minions". "I'm with you
there Chuck, lets get back to the lab and see what we got". Ron was at the
wheel of their battery operated suburban and turned to Dan Stout, his head
government relations guy at the time and asked. "So Dan, lets suppose for
a moment that what we just saw and heard was for real....and let's suppose that
this technology there're giving us is the real deal ....and maybe, we can help
make it all happen....right...and, well.....any chance we can crack the social
conservative hard line and get some support for any of this stuff"."
Yea about the time that pigs can fly outta my ass" was Dan's reply. "
Well, I guess we'd best get them flying then". Ron had no illusion about
the kind of negative repercussions that were about to start reverberating
through the global power structure. "Of course you guys realize what the
hell is going on here..I mean, this is the biggest god dam game changer in the
history of humanity....and even though we all know that we might have just been
given the chance to save our planet and help humanity in every conceivable
way....a lot of the guys in power are not going to be happy. Lets face it...if
there is a way to fuck this up....they'll find it". Dan agreed whole
heartily; " Unfortunately Ron, I suspect you are right on the money. I've
been working D.C., Moscow, Beijing, London, Berlin, Tel Aviv, Aiyadh, Dubai,
and Mexico City for twenty years now, and at least half of the Senators,
Congressmen, Administration officials, PMs, Monarchs, Princes, Diplomats,
Ambassadors, and Dictators have their hand deep in the proverbial oil cookie
jar. It's going to be darn near impossible pull them off that fossil fuel
umbilical cord until disaster sets in.....and from what I heard today from
those aliens, or whatever the fuck they are, that's just what's gonna happen if
every country in the whole dam world doesn't get their shit together......now
that is one scary fucking proposition". " let's just see where things
are when we get back to the office.. I'm guessing its a shit storm
already".
That was
2016, and now sixteen years later there was still a lot of shit brewing. Most
of the speculation by Ron, Dan, Dr.s Watson and Chang had proven to be
accurate. The Environmental Alliance Group had been useful in the research and
product development arena . They also played a role in advocating for the
requisite changes in Government policy. Dan Stout had been killed in a plane
crash in 2022. Aviation without fossil fuel proved to be a challenge and the
era of new technology did witness some negative effects. "Change ain't
easy. If it was, we'd be out of a job" was what Ron always said, but
losing Dan was pretty hard on him. It turned out that some of the ideas Dr.
Watson had conceived in the field of solar energy capture had been amazingly
close to the technology that the eggheads had given us. Had they been a bit
more lucky and been able to get past proof of concept, they might have made a
butt load of money just getting patients on the technology. There was no money
to be made on patients since the eggheads had made all their technology
universally available, but there was most assuredly money to be made by
producing and selling alternative energy sources through the world.
Unfortunately, everyone involved in producing energy the old way had less
motive to make any change to the status quo; no matter that it be for the
better.
Some
countries faired better than others. At first the U.S. didn't prove to be too
receptive and was slow to embrace the changes required....not only to
thrive....but to survive. A vast number of Americans were simply scared.
Suddenly realizing that we are not alone in the universe. Suddenly realizing
that the higher power in the universe that people referred to as God, had just
shown up and granted us a miracle. Suddenly realizing that we had to actually
change our behavior and our beliefs. If there is one thing that people are
afraid of...its change. It is funny how people of every different religious
faith had spent three thousand years trying to convince others of the existence
of a universal higher power, based on various books and stories, yet refused to
accept that very higher power now that it had made an appearance. As history
has shown, U.S. citizens have always been a bit fickle and the progressive
majority that had elected the first African American president to his second
term were no where to be found in the 2016 elections; replaced it seemed by an extreme
social conservative faction who's agenda included a total and unequivocal
denile of the appearance and very existence of the alien life form that had
visited earth and bestowed upon us the tremendous gifts of clean renewable
energy, food production, advancements in every sector of science and medicine,
in fact the gift of life itself. Why a society would reject something that was
clearly so beneficial is mysterious but then hindsight is twenty twenty.
Politicians at every level were beholden to special interest of every kind, all
of which had everything to gain from the status quo and everything to lose from
progressive change. The lobbying influence of these special interest
(especially energy) was overwhelming as was the influence exerted by the Catholic
Church, the Evangelical Christian right and every other religious group who
stood to lose power.
Congressman
Rick Santorum and his running mate Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann had narrowly
defeated Secretary Hillary Clinton and running mate Senator Al Franken.
Supported by narrow majorities in both House and Senate, President Santorum and
Vice President Bachmann were able to pursue their hyper conservative agenda and
put the U.S. squarely behind most developed nations in the race to prefect and
fully adopt the new energy technologies. At the very least, the U.S. fell four
years behind and spent the insuring twelve years playing catch up. One of the
eventual results of the four year debacle that best described President
Santorum's term was the split of the Republican Party. The American political
landscape had become even more divisive, which was hard to imagine after the
dysfunctional behavior of the legislative branch of Government over the
preceding dozen years. Moderate, centrist republicans and democrats were
becoming more and more disenchanted with the extreme, and ideological positions
of the far right and left fringes of their respective political parties. This
all finally came to a head during the 2020 election when for the first time
since 1854, a new viable political party was formed. Actually, it was not so
much a "new party" as a division of the two parties that had shared
power for one hundred and sixty six years into three parties. The new line up
basically went like this: The Party of Traditional American Values (PTAV) was
comprised of the neo-con, super social conservative, tea party, religious,
types that had no interest in compromise or cooperation with moderate pragmatic
republicans much less liberals. The New Democratic Republican Party (DRP) was
comprised of members form both parties. Mostly those who thought in practical,
pragmatic ways and had been thought of as centrists, which was regarded as a
dirty word....like "compromise"... In the "divisive
decade". The New Democratic Socialist Party (DSP) was comprised of more
left wing Democrats, socialists, and even certain fringes of the Green Party.
Of course the Libertarian Party, Communist, Socialist, and Green Parties still
existed, but as Mark Twain once stated " there is no truly criminal class
in America other than Congress" so even though there were more groups
involved, they were still mostly crooks.
CHAPTER 3: GARDEN
PENINSULIA. Hiding out
The wind had
remained constant out of the North and built to twenty knots during the night.
By zero six hundred hours the Leading Lady had cleared Poverty Island Passage
(appropriately named for the Garden Peninsula in Michigan's U.P). Jack was at
the helm and had to harden up to 315 degrees which was as hard on the wind as
she could sail. " Hey guys, we are coming into Green Bay, why doesn't
somebody start some coffee. We are gonna have to start tacking up Big Bay De
Noc in an hour or so". Annie G stuck her head through the companion way,
"hi ya there big boy" she said " you doing ok"? "I'm driving
a sail boats so what do you think". "Guess that answers my
question". "You still love me"? "I worship the ground you
walk on baby". "Yea, would you eat the forbidden fruit for me".
"As long as its fermented..... Speaking of which, why don't you throw a
shot of Baileys in that coffee". "coming right up sweetheart".
Annie G poured a couple cups of coffee, both with a hefty shot of Baileys Irish
Cream and went up to the cockpit to join Jack. "Here's your coffee
sweetie, how long you been up". "I came up and relieved Geno at about
o three hundred, it was an awesome night sail". "Any northern
lights" she asked. "No, but I would love see them again, it's been at
least six years. Remember that night we were anchored on South Manitou Island
and they were dancing across the horizon in those huge waves"? "Sure
do, I remember the awesome colors too. The usual green and blue, but I remember
yellow and red....more like pink.....and violet, I'd sure as hell never seen
pink and violet northern lights before....haven't since ether".
"Maybe we'll get lucky and get a good show on this trip". "Hope
so, I did see a pretty cool meteor shower. At least a dozen in two hours, a
couple tailers that hung for several seconds". Jack was relaxed and feeling
the first bit of serenity in years. Annie G could sense the difference in just
two days. His tension was starting to unwind and his night watch on the boat
had been the first three hour stretch that his thoughts hadn't drifted to the
storm clouds that were brewing around our nations Capitol. "Should I wake
Geno up"? Annie G asked. "Na, let him sleep, he was on watch from
sunset till o three hundred. Besides, I know him, he'll be awake automatically
when we need him". "I'll take another Baileys and coffee
please". "Got it babe".
Just as Jack
predicted, Geno popped out of the forward hatch to rig the anchor gear as they
came about on the final approach to Fayette harbor. After that, he ran back to
the cockpit to furl the jib. Jack continued to turn the helm to starboard as
they rounded down to a broad reach with just the main sail alone. They were
still cruising at seven knots and had a few hundred yards to their favorite
spot to drop anchor. At twenty yards out Geno dropped the main and coasted down
wind till they passed their spot at which Jack swung the helm hard to
starboard, pulling a upturn into the wind. Geno ran forward and dropped the
anchor. The boat drifted back, Geno payed out the anchor road, the anchor set
and Geno cleated off the line when they had reached the proper scope. "All
set Bubba" Geno yelled " The Eagle has landed" yelled Jack,
which was their tradition whenever they came to a dock or anchorage. It was o
nine hundred hours (9:00 AM, on the boat they always used military time just
because that was what Geeze had taught them). "Must be noon
somewhere" Geno said "let's have a cocktail". "How about a
bloody"? The booze was certainly having a soothing effect on Jack's nerves
along with the natural soothing effects of being on a sailboat. Of course he
recognized this and had no problem with it, in fact he was totally willing to
get and remain somewhat shit faced for as long as he could. "Remember to
use lots of lime and lots of Tabasco".
After the
third bloody, bacon, eggs, toast, and grapefruit Jack was climbing into the
dingy with his gear to head out to the drop off north of the harbor entrance.
"Think I'll see if I can go get us some lake trout for dinner".
"Hang on for a second" Geno yelled "I'll go with you". Geno
grabbed his gear, put nine Coronas in a cooler and climbed in the dingy. "
let's go". "Remember when we caught those Brownies up north with the
Geeze". " yea, that was awesome". As kids they use to catch
brown trout in September in Fayette all the time. Geeze would make "trout
fingers" which were simply filets cut into strips, dipped in a mixture of
condensed milk and beer, breaded with drakes, breadcrumbs and cayenne pepper
and fried in peanut oil. "Let's make trout fingers for dinner"
suggested Jack "you got all the necessities"? "Actually...I
believe I do. I'm sure I have the Drakes, and canned mike, don't go anywhere
with out that stuff......gotta check on the breadcrumbs, don't have the peanut
oil but I'm sure we have some chipotle olive oil that will do the
trick......might not have enough beer though" he threw in just to remain
the smart ass that he so enjoyed being. They trolled along the drop off where
the depth went from about forty feet to two hundred. Most years it took a few
weeks more for the trout and salmon to come into shallower water but it had
been an extremely cold summer and autumn type weather was occurring a full
month early. For the past twenty years, climate change had really made the
weather patterns fickle; sometimes warmer, sometimes cooler, sometimes dry,
sometimes extremely wet. The problem, it seemed, was that it was usually to an
extreme one way or the other, and rarely constant. Geno said that the weather
patterns these days made sailing "a real bitch" because it changed
all the time and was ether ninety five degrees and no wind or fifty five and
blowing stink. "Of course if it was easy, we'd have the women do it"
he use to say.....because he was not yet married and could occasionally get
away with being a chauvinist red neck. Of course he realized that Annie G had
spent her adult life living aboard research vessels in some of the most
treacherous waters in the world and could kick any mans ass on a boat of any
kind........and he totally loved that about her. "So what he heck is going
on in your so called professional life"? Geno finally asked when they had
gotten everything set and were just coasting along the lime stone bluffs of
Garden Peninsula.
"To
tell you the truth buddy, I'm not exactly sure the hell is going on at the
moment". "You gotta be kidding me? I mean what the fuck, you always
know what's going on.....I'm the one who never knew what was going on....you're
the one that always KNEW exactly what was going on". "We'll not this
time buddy boy. I had a pretty good handle on things for quite a while; always a
step ahead of of most of the members of Congress and most of their aids who are
arguably smarter and more agile than their bosses. But for the past three
months, I can't seem to get a feel on things". Geno could sense Jack's
confusion and he knew it was real. For thirty two years Geno had never seen
Jack be puzzled about anything. He knew that Jack was endowed with intuition
that was unsurpassed and it had simply, never let him down. "So paint me
the big picture, are the Trad's up to some clandestine BS again"? The Party
of Traditional American Values or Trad's as they were known, had not been
successful in putting a person in the White house since their inception in
2020, never the less they still held one hundred and twenty one seats in the
house (28%)and seventeen seats in the senate (17%). Most of their districts
were evangelical Bible Belt areas in the south, Midwest, plains states, and big
coal mining states like West Virginia. The New Democratic Republican Party
(DRP) or Drips as they were known held two hundred and one house seats (46%)
and fifty two senate. The Democratic Socialist's held the remaining one hundred
and thirteen house seats and thirty seven senate. The Drips held the obvious
majority but since they were comprised of members of both formor political
parties and they could swing ether way depending on the issue at hand and
whether on not there was a little something in it for them. Also the President,
Dr. Sarah Jane Kelly, was a socialist and the progressive liberal agenda could
be pursued because enough house and and senate drips were happy to join arms
with the President.
"As far
as I'm concerned the Trad's are always up to some clandestine BS, but I can't
seem to get a vibe out of anybody I talk to, I mean its weird....it's like
anybody that has anything to do with the People for Peaceful and Proper Energy
Production, which is a total fucking joke by the way, just doesn't even send me
a clue. I ALWAYS use to be able to sense what those assholes were thinking..and
even if I couldn't get a grasp on exactly what was going down at least I could
sense when one of um was lying. Now I get zip, ziltch, nada, nothing....there's
just nothing fucking there". "Wow man, are you losing your MoJo or
something". "I don't know......maybe, but it seems to me like its
just those guys...like they're blocking any kind of brain wave
transmission....it's like they're god damn robots or something".
"Maybe they are" Geno said jokingly "they're the Stepford wives
of politics". "No kidding man, they're all like clones of Doug
Netermyre from Animal House". "Yea....and you are John Baluchi".
"Well, I guarandambdoubletee you that I totally plan to drink like
John". "Dude...he's dead". "Exactly". " here have
a Corona....oh, first, better take a hit off this bottle of Patron.....here's
the lime". "That's what I love about you Geno, just like a fucking
boy scout ...always prepared" Jack took a healthy swig of tequila and
chased it down with a Corona and a bit of salty lime. "Do you think they
are actually hiding something big" asked Geno. " Yes I do, I just
don't know what the heck it is". "Holy shit I got one on" Jack
announced as he pulled his rod upward and back with a swift motion setting the
hook. It was a nice eight pound brown trout that Jack had inside the dingy
within about three minutes. "Ah ha....dinner"!!! "Yea, for
me...what are you guys having"? Was Geno's comment as he casted back out.
"Guess we best be catching some more.....and I feel a ten pounder just
dying to take my bait". "Ok, buddy boy, he who catches the biggest
brown, get his rounds bought at Shirley's .......ALL Night". "Pretty
bold bet for a dude with no money......and if I remember correctly, you still
have an outstanding tab at Shirley's". "Hey...not fair to assign my
poor dead old man's debt to me!! Besides.....as I recall, you were responsible
for quite a bit of that tab yourself". "No way dude....you inherit
his assets and his liabilities....for example, you got his boat, sooooooo you
get his bar tab as well". They both laughed their asses off thinking about
Geno's dad "The Geeze" and his rather uncanny ability to walk into a
bar miles away from his home, without a dime in his pocket, with two teenaged
boys and still get served liquor all night long and leave totally blasted.
"I guess you got me there, you think Shirley remembers that"?
"Are you kiddin me" Jack was shouting. "This is the Garden
Peninsula ....land of game poachers, lumber jacks, and outlaws......nobody EVER
forgets a bar tab". "Ok., that's it then...we're going to Shirley's
.......to pay off Geeze's ten year old bar tab and catch a humongous
stupor". "Sounds like a beautiful plan my man".
After
catching two more nice brown trout, consuming three more Corona's each,
accompanied by the requisite tequila shot they headed back to the Lady for a swim
and dinner. "Hey fellas...looking for a good time" Annie G yelled as
they approached in the dingy. "You got some more girls in there" Geno
replied. "What...you think I'm not enough woman for the both of you sailor
boys". "I'd never say that". "How about performing some
sexual favors for two drunken sailors while we filet these fish".
"How bout I just filet the fish and you two bozos go for a swim".
"I don't know...do you think you're woman enough to clean these big ol
fish"! "My dear, you seem to have forgotten that I have spent the
last six years on a marine research vessel. I have seen, cleaned, cut open,
eaten and dissected more creatures from the sea than you two boys will ever
even imagine". "I suppose you boys want them cut in strips to make
trout fingers"? "How did you ever guess". "I'll clean them,
you cook them". "You got a deal baby". Annie G went to work
filleting the trout as Jack and Geno started to climb the mast in order to dive
off the second spreader which was about forty feet off the water. This had
become somewhat of a ritual and usually involved a back flip at the very least.
Jack pulled off a prefect backflip compelling Geno to try a one and a half
which he accomplished with less than prefect precision. He got a bit of a sting
from not getting around fully in the second flip. "Ouch, that really
fucking hurt". "Losing you touch". "Oh, you are such a
douch bag". Even though it had been a chilly summer and Fayette was well
north of the forty fifth parallel, the water was still relatively warm. After
their swim and a dinner of trout fingers and French bread with olive oil and
crushed garlic washed down with a healthy dose of Makers Mark, they all loaded
into the dingy for their planned sojourn to Shirley's. "I hope you brought
that stash of cash, I know you always keep taped under the nav table for
emergencies". Said Jack as they started the three mile hike to Shirley's.
"So, you qualify paying off the Geeze's ten year old bar tab as an
emergency". "No.....but if you can't buy me a dozen rounds, that's an
emergency". "Yea, yea I brought the cash, so let's just hope Shirley
doesn't charge us interest". "I suspect she'll let us slide
considering the circumstances.... I'm guessing she'll be pretty bummed to hear
about the Geeze". Geeze had died during the winter of 2022-23 just three
and a half months after his last visit to Shirley's. He had promised to come
back in May to repay his tab, but had died in an avalanche skiing the back
country in British Columba ten years ago. Geno and Jack both missed him so much
it hurt but they were happy that he had died doing something he loved. He was
getting a bit slower in the backcountry but he was not the type to live in a
retirement community and give up doing the things he loved.
Geeze had
been traveling to the tiny town of Blue River B.C. In the North Thompson River
valley at the confluence of the Blue and North Thompson Rivers smack between
the Caribou and the Monashee mountain ranges, since he was twenty years old. He
had done some river guide work taking rafting and fly fishing trips out of Blue
River, Kamloops and Jasper. In the winter he had worked for various back
country skiing outfits as a guide and eventually as a guide for a fairly large
Heli- ski outfit called Mike Wiggle. When he died, he had been skiing an area
called the Mud Drainage in the Monashees about twenty kilometers north east of
Blue River. In spite of its rather ignominious name the Mud Drainage was an
area of vast summits and breath taking beauty. He and his favorite long time ski
partner Freddy had bummed a ride on one of Mike's new Bell Lab Solar Turbine
Mark IV helicopters to Base Camp six otherwise known as Augerhorn Cabin. The
cabin was at twenty four hundred meters on a small relatively flat area know as
a bench at the bottom of the Augerhorn glacier. It was perched on a rock
outcrop, ten meters above the surrounding landscape and stood a full twelve
meters high with three levels of living space. It was constructed entirely out
of Douglas Fur logs harvested from the surrounding area and flown to the
construction site by Helicopter back in the nineteen seventies. The term
"cabin" felt somewhat misleading to Geeze and Freddy since they had
both logged many a night in various cabins and yurts in Utah, Montana, and the U.P.
of Michigan during their lives and considered the Augerhorn Cabin akin to the
Ritz. As long as you had the right selection and quantity of supply's, a stay
at the Augerhorn was far from ruffling it. The foundation was poured a meter
thick on solid bedrock and at four meters high had tons of room for storage of
supply's, ski, climbing , and safety gear, two battery powered snowmobiles, a
vault with an assortment of hunting rifles, and a nineteen sixties U.S. Army
Howitzer used for avalanche control. The outer dimensions at nine by nine
meters, giving slightly less than a thousand square feet per floor with three
floors of living space was like a palace to Geeze. Heat was provided by a
Norwegian style wood burning soapstone stove that had a radiant stone duct
assemble to the upper floors and doubled as a cook stove. A solar powered heat
plant had been added after 2016, as had a "smoke scrubber" which was
a simple solar powered device that removed any residual Co2 molecules from the
wood burning exhaust. Water was diverted from a spring fed stream that
essentially ran through the cabin and was heated by the soapstone stove and
pumped through the kitchen and bath rooms by hand pumps. The lower level
contained the kitchen, bath rooms, and soaker tub, the second level was living
and sleeping space, the third level was all bunk room with sleeping
arrangements for over a dozen guests.
In the month
of February 2023, Geeze and Freddy had intended to spend at least a month
hiking, camping, and skiing in the Augerhorn Glacier and surrounding area. They
had planned to take the four day ski in from Blue River, but then, Mike offered
them a lift, thus saving them gallons of sweat from days of climbing with their
Telemark gear and climbing skins. Geeze, unlike many of his peers, regarded the
climb as a necessary evil with the decent being the reward. He just didn't see
the wisdom of climbing to the top of a mountain unless you got to ski down.
They had enjoyed four weeks of awesome skiing with a couple three to five day
trips to some nearby peaks and three major dumps of over one and a half meters
each. One of the storms was so severe that they just had to hunker down in the
cabin for two days. When it finally cleared, Mike showed up in a Heli and said
"I thought you guys might like to take some steep, deep, and long runs
after being cooped up for two days". They spent the day making fresh
tracks down some of the most extreme faces in the Monashees in the best
conditions they had ever seen. Geeze had actually said "that was simply
the most awesome day of skiing I have ever had.......I could die tomorrow, and
be one completely satisfied and happy dude"!! It turned out to be a
prophetic statement considering that he lost his life in an avalanche less than
a week later.
It was a
warm evening with the smell of "summer woods" mixed with Lake
Michigan in the air as Jack, Annie G and Geno hiked to Shirley's along "
11 Lane" which was still one of the few payed roads in the bottom half of
the Garden Peninsula; paved road being a relative term since the asphalt from
the nineteen eighties had mostly deteriorated to what could be referred to as
gravel and was only about twelve feet wide to begin with. Needless to say, it
wasn't exactly on the beaten track. Jack suddenly felt a Pavlovian response when
he spotted the lights of Shirley's in the distance. It was a mixed feeling
combining the Oder of tequila, the warm and soothing effect that came on
quickly, with the less than enjoyable effects the day after his first visit to
Shirley's. There were a total of three trucks parked outside, all dating back
to pre two thousand and with homemade, jury rigged conversion kits. Most
"Youppers" were adamantly opposed to buying anything, much less new
vehicles, so most had converted their old trucks and snowmobiles to alternate
energy sources in their own garages. Geeze use to say that if there were three
things you didn't need to worry over about people in the U.P. it was taking
care of their trucks, snowmobiles, and guns. Shirley was a stout woman, of
Scandinavian decent who took shit from no one and was typical of the area. She
was in her mid seventies and had seen her share of roughness. She had been
married four or five times (no one really knew) and lived by herself in a cabin
about a quarter mile down a two track from the Bar surrounded by hardwoods and
on the shore on Big Bay De Noc. Although she was no longer married, she did
enjoy the company of gentlemen and certainly was not shy about taking home
whatever straggler happened to by left at closing time, which was completely
variable depending on her disposition at the time.
"Well
I'll be dipped in batter and fried in bacon fat" she exclaimed as Jack,
Annie G and Geno came in the door. "Just look at da too of you boys...ell
you look all growed up and like da big shots from da city dar". "No
need to worry about that Shirley, we're just the same scruffy boys you always
thought of us as". "Except now, we can drink more" Geno added.
"Well, dars nobody gonna be drinking nudin widoud dat od man off yours
paying me dat hundred he owes me......where is da Geeze anyway"?
"That's the bad news Shirley, he died in an avalanche ten years ago".
"Oh shit, I'm sorry to hear dat boys, you know how I loved your od
man". "Yea, and he loved you too, I'm pretty sure coming to visit you
was the main reason we sailed in here all those times when we were kids".
"Well, lets drink to da man, I say......what ll it be den, da legal stuff
or da special stuff". It had long been the practice to distill ones own
alcohol in the Garden Peninsula and Shirley had perfected the process beyond
measure. She made what Geeze had referred to as "the sweetest, smoothest,
strongest, sour mash whiskey in the entire fucking universe". "Oh, I
am pretty sure this calls for the special stuff" Jack confirmed. "You
know, I tink, I got some stuff dats over twelve years od down in da cellar
dare.....I'm gonna go grab it". When Shirley returned with two dusty
bottles and poured hefty shots all around, she finally said "and who's dis
pretty young ding, yous two boys got wid you"? "Shirley, this is
Annie G, Annie G, this is the world famous Shirley. "So what's a girl like
you doing wid da likes of dees two anyway"? "Just a sucker for
drunken sailors I guess" Annie G replyed. "Ohh..dat I hear loud and
clear...you are a woman after my own heart. If dees guys weren't charity cases,
we would even care bout dem. Day tink days smart boys but day don't know fuck
all when it comes right down to it". "Shirley, you are a woman of
wisdom" Annie G said as she quickly sipped down her snifter of Shirley's
excellent whiskey. They sat at the bar, talking and drinking for hours. They
reminisced past adventures, and Geno and Jack told Shirley what they had both
been up to for the past ten years. Shirley couldn't help but detect the slight
bit of tension in Jack's demeanor when at last she asked "so Jack, what da
fuck is going on wid you anyway"? Jack explained that the shit had been
hitting the fan back in D.C. And that somehow he felt mixed up in some sort of
clandestine conspiracy. He allowed as how this was far from the first time he
had been caught up in a political shit bomb, but that this time he got the
feeling that somthing big was happening and whatever it was, it was defiantly
not good. The real difference was that with past disasters he had pretty much
been able to figure what the heck was going to happen or at least what people
had in mind just from talking to them. This time, the ability to "get a
feel" of the situation and let his natural instinct figure things out had
eluded him. It had gotten to a point at which Jack got scared, so he had
bolted, and here he was. "You know, for the first time in six years, I got
freaked out and actually had the feeling that someone was after me. I had a
meeting with these PPPEP reps, or at least that's who they were supposed to be,
and I got this totally scary vibe...like they were defiantly not who they said
they were, and that they intended to do me no good. We have been lobbying for
the Global Energy Cooperation Act (GECA) for over a year now and it's had it's
share of resistance and the Trad's from the PTAV have been pushing hard for an
act to finish a formula they think will actually reverse the non combustability
of oil and reconstitute it for use. Depending on who you talk to, they claim to
ether have the formula already....or be really close. For a while, this all
just seemed like the same old political/ corporate bull shit, but after that
meeting, I got the distinct impression that something larger and more sinister
was going on. I figured it was better for me to hide out for a while and try to
enjoy myself than to end up missing, or dead, over something that I really
don't understand yet. So, I leave D.C. By car so nobody can locate a record of
where I'm going, I don't tell anyone that I'm leaving or anyone that I'm coming
here. I contact Annie G when I get back to our old cottage on Lake Leelanau and
she happens to be home and comes over, then we call Geno the next day and hop
on the Leading Lady and sail across the lake and anchor in Fayette harbor early
this morning.....that's about the extent of it". "Oh shit" said
Shirley, bouncing the palm of her hand off her forehead. "What" said
Jack. "I don't know, but da odher day, dees two guys come in..... And day
don't exactly look local, if ya know what I mean....well, I don't tink any ting
about dis cause I figure days just tourists or some ting. Day was drivin dis
new truck which I notice when day pulls up, and days dressed a bit too fancy
for dees parts ya know. Days making small talk ya know and days askin bout
visitors and such. Like I says, I don't tink too much bout it, but den, I'm
sure I seen dar truck cruse by again da next day or so....seemed kinna funny at
da time ahh, but den I just figure days city boys looking for some solitude".
"You gotta be fucking kidding me" blurted Geno as he set down his
glass..."you actually have spooks tailing you"? "Let's not jump
to conclusions quite yet" Jack replied "Shirley, any chance these
guys were just hunters, scoping out deer hunting spots"? "Could be
Jacky boy, but I seen plenty of dem guys and dees guy .........I don know......
Der was somthing different bout dem ahh". "Oh, that is just way too
far fetched" announced Jack "if these guys were actually after
me....how in the hell would they know to come here? I mean, I have left no
trail whatsoever; I have no tracking or location info out there; my personal
frequency wave is disabled; Sam and Ron are the only ones who have access to my
data and there is no location data......I didn't even mention what direction I
was going....for all they know I could br in Timfuckingtoo"!!!!!
"Still" said Geno. "Still what? There is no fucking way some
spooks could find me here". "Ok, just suppose that your feelings are
accurate, and that some big thing is going to go down. Then suppose that
whoever has a vested interest would naturally have substantial power, money,
resources, and connections. You with me so far? Good, then, it's not much of a
stretch to assume that whoever it is could do some basic research and make some
educated guesses regarding where they might find you. I'm guessing that your
old cottage on Lake Leelanau would be at the top of the list.....now, this
place here might be a bit farther down the list but ill bet it's on there. It's
fair to assume that the more motivated someone is about finding you, the
farther down the list they would be willing to go.......right"? "Yea,
maybe, but it still seems like a pretty big stretch to me". "I
know....right? It is a big stretch, but in light of what you have just told me,
it's also hard to believe these guys showing up right here right now is just
total circumstance". "You boys got a gun" Shirley asked as
nonchalantly as if she was asking if they wanted another round. "No"
replied Geno. “We’ll have to take care of dat" she said as she poured
another round of whiskey.
After the
bar closed down and the bottle of Shirley” most excellent whiskey was fully
consumed the four of them walked down the two track to Shirley’s cabin. The
term “walk” being used loosely in that it was more like a stager. “You kids
should probably spend da night here” Shirley announced with authority. “If
those bozos really are spooks after Jack, than chances are day have spotted da
boat and…….well….it’s best if you just stay here…aahh. “No argument here” Geno
slurred “I gotta fine a place to land this drunken body of mine before it
crashes”.
CHAPTER 4:
D.C. Shit hits the fan
“Any luck”
Ron asked Sam the instant he appeared at the office door. “Afraid not..He did
leave an encrypted message that he had to bolt. It seems that his last meeting
with some PPPEP guys really freaked him out. I don’t know if he is being
paranoid, or if he’s losing it, or if someone is actually meaning to do him
harm”. “Shit, this is no fucking good…No fucking good at all”. Unlike Sam who
had only known Jack for eight months, Ron had known Jack for six years. They
had tackled some of the hardest and at times hairiest assignments Ron had ever
known, together, and Ron had unmitigated confidence in Jacks abilities. “If
something has got Jack freaked out, then it’s defiantly not good”! “How do we
find him” Ron asked. “Not sure, I left him a message, but so far, no response.
He has his personal brain wave frequency disabled, and we have absolutely no
location data on him”. “That’s probably a plus…..If somebody is after Jack and
we have location data, than, they will most likely have location data and if
he’s in trouble, it’s best that no one have location data. Dam, I wonder what
the fuck he’s gotten into”. “Must have something to do with the GECA, I mean
what else could it be…..right”. Ron picked up the phone and got Dr Watson, Dr
Chang, Doug Matthies, who was one of Jack’s closest partners on the Hill, and
Dr J. Laura Jones who was taking lead on the GECA. The Global Energy
Cooperation Act was an international treaty proposed by a dozen of the most
developed (and advanced, as far as new energy technology integration and
effectiveness was concerned) Nations in the U.N. The gist of the treaty was
that it would outlaw all burning of fossil fuels once and for all. It would
also serve to provide a global commission for the monitoring of any Co2
emission and empower said commission with the authority to implement sanctions
and other punitive action against violators. Those opposing this treaty (including
certain elements of the U.S. Government) were mostly motivated by a desire to
reconstitute various fossil fuels and use them for various nefarious purposes.
Primary among these were of a military nature.
The immediate
impact of the 2016 visit from the eggheads that bestowed the most incredibility
advanced energy technology that saved our atmosphere and later rendered fossil
fuels noncombustible from a National Government Defense perspective was disaster.
All the most powerful, most sophisticated, largest militaries in the world were
extremely concerned due to the fact that a large percentage of their weapons of
war relied on fossil fuel consumption. While it was not a complete start over
(many weapons such as basic infantry, artillery, nuclear powered naval vessels
were still perfectly operable) it did serve to level the playing field for a
moment and give nations with a lesser military foot print the opportunity to
expand that footprint substantially if they harbored a desire to do so. A new
style of arms race had become one of the unintended consequences of the
benevolent actions taken on humanities behalf by the eggheads. Part of this
arms race, particularly with under developed countries, was the desire and
continued attempt to reconfigure the molecular structure and reconstitute
Carbon based fossil fuels in order to utilize decommissioned military hardware.
This global race to reboot militaries and reconstitute oil had been going on in
one way or another for the past sixteen years and was certainly not new news,
however the GECA which served to increase greatly the negative consequences of
engaging in this race had put a new light on an old situation.
“Charlie,
Linh, Laura grab Doug and anybody else you see who’s been working with Jack on
this GECA thing and get to the conference ASAP”. Ron hung up and turned to Sam
“what do you think”? “well sir, I have been working pretty close with Jack
recently” Sam started “and as far as I know the GECA has to pass through the
legislature and get approval to proceed to the United States Ambassador to the
United Nations for our support of the measure in the U.N. Security council. If
we can get support in the Security Council, which is expected to exist, then we
can move to the General Assembly for ultimate approval. If this all goes
through, it will most assuredly be a net positive and every interest we
represent is hoping that we can pull it off. Now, that being said, it’s not
like we don’t have any head winds. First, the People for Proper and Peaceful
Energy Production or PPPEP, which is basically just a bull shit front for a
bunch of old petroleum industry types, and a coalition of extreme conservative
Trads, have mounted an extensive opposition to the passage of this legislation.
While Jack has expressed some frustration with regard to these folks, I don’t
think he has ever really regarded them as a viable threat. President Kelly has
been pushing hard for passage and a majority of the Democratic Republicans, and
the Democratic Socialists are on board. Before he left, Jack had a bunch of
meetings with various committee chairs to garner support”. Sam went on to
explain that Congressman Derrick Bahley, who had won in Michigan’s 1st
district in 2014 and had worked his way to Chairmanship of Ways and Means and
was a staunch ally, had assured Jack of passage in the House. Senator Evin Bayh
of Indiana who had left the Senate in 2008 in total frustration and come out of
retirement in 2020 and was now majority leader in the Senate had basically
promised the same. “So, I don’t see any real danger coming from any of those
angles. I mean, Jack saw a lot of those guys as a pain in the ass, but
defiantly not dangerous”. “So, who has the most to gain from this Legislation
getting killed” Ron asked. “It’s probably not an interest in the U.S…..unless
it’s some kind of clandestine undercover shit. I mean it could be a conspiracy
of some kind but I can’t really see who stands to benefit….at least not enough
to justify the risk and certainly not enough to kill people. Of course it could
be an international thing; there are quite a few nations that could benefit
from a military and/or economical point of view from the ability to burn a
little oil and be able to use any weaponry or machinery that’s just sitting
around collecting dust”. “Did Jack ever mention anything like that….anything
that indicated he was aware of some kind of dirty work going on” Ron quizzed.
“He might not have even realized it was a clue” he added, suddenly realizing he
was talking about Jack Saffell who with his superior intuition, never let a
clue go by unrealized. “I don’t think so sir. Let’s face it, this is Jack we’re
talking about”. “Yea, Yea I know…..forget that last question. Come on, you’re
coming with me to the conference room. We are meeting with the wiz team and
trying to get to the bottom of this”.
By the time
Ron and Sam got to the conference room of the Environmental Alliance Group the
rest of the team had already assembled and were busy discussing exactly what
was bugging Ron enough to call this meeting. “Ok guys, here is what’s going on.
Sam is going to bring everyone up to speed then we are going to develop an
action plan and see if we can get to the bottom of this shit. Sam, you’re up”.
Sam went through the same details he had spelled out for Ron, answered several
dozen questions to the best of his ability and turned the floor back over to
Ron. For a guy just out of grad school who was just serving as an intern for
the past eight months, Sam was really surprised at the fact that he was being
included in an upper level meeting at EAG with guys who were arguably some of
the smartest guys in the world. “What countries do you think might be involved”
asked Dr Watson. Holy shit thought Sam; these guys are taking this seriously.
“I have a hot list on file; here I’ll pull it up for you”. A projected data
screen with various lists and spread sheets appeared in the middle of the
conference table. Sam reached over and moved some of the data groups around,
added another screen and organized while mumbling to himself for a minute. When
he was finished he turned back to face the group and said “this list here, are
the most likely to be involved in any energy conversion activities for a
variety of reasons; this list represents priorities from a military stand
point; this list is of outward or known hostiles and this final list is
comprised of any known groups, state sponsored or not, that have economic or
idealistic interest in ether energy conversion or “new tech” disruption.” “Good
work Sam” said Dr Watson, “hey Doug, you see any patterns here”? “Laura, what
about you, anything jump out at you”? “OK” Laura said “let’s try this”. She
quickly wrote an algorithm and plugged in the data. As images on the midair
transparent data screen flashed across she said “I just asked for a probability
study based on the info we have plus a probable hierarchy of priorities. I used
a bit of speculation and placed Power and/or enormous financial gain as top
priority. After that we have Religious ideology, Nationalism, and so on down
the line”. “Also I interfaced every entity, organization, or country that anyone
who met with Jack in the last two months is associated with”. What filtered out
on the data screen was a list of possible culprits and when cross referenced
with those who had contact with Jack, it made for a decent starting point for
investigation. “Good start guys” Ron said, “now, let’s figure out who or what
is after Jack and why.
Then we
figure out what their overriding agenda is and everyone who is involved. Than
we figure out just how to proceed to stop it without causing a shit storm or
getting anybody killed; not to mention trying to avoid an atmospheric melt down
and/or world war three”. “Ok, here is the action plan for now: Sam, you track
down everybody who Jack had contact with in the last two weeks. Cross reference
with Laura’s probability schedule and report back at our next meeting at 7:30
AM tomorrow. Charley, can you get the exact status of this GECA legislation
from a House, Senate, Special interest, and Executive point of view. I want to
know the name of every ass hole that ever even uttered the phrase Global Energy
cooperation Act. Call in every favor that’s owed you, or me for that matter and
find out just exactly who stands to gain and who stands to lose from this
shit”…..”Got it”? “Yes, I got it Ron” Dr Watson said. “Linh, you take the
international front. Do a total comb of our global data access and cross
reference with Laura’s data. I want the data to be fluid with Laura taking
command central and interning the data and adjusting the algorithms as we
filter the information. In twenty four hours I want to know just what the fuck
is going on. Dougy, you go find Jack, take a couple guys from security and
don’t take chances. If Jack contacts anybody patch him to me right fucking now.
If you can’t patch him to me, you tell him to stay secure and wait for Doug to
provide backup”. Ron finished up be asking “Anybody got anything to add”? Doug
requested an update of Jacks meeting schedule from Sam and they planned to do a
brief strategy session in Doug’s office. Doug also asked Jane Keen if she could
contact Max Cunningham and Tom Rum in the EAG security division. Dr.s Watson,
Chang and Jones spent a few minutes hashing out a few details and after
everybody was ready Ron said “Ok let’s hit it”.
“Jane, get
me the president’s chief of staff ASAP” Ron shouted to Jane Keen, his personal
assistant. “Ms Meng is on the line Ron” Jane said with the mix of respect,
sarcasm, affection, and wise assness that so totally became her. Grace Meng was
President Dr. Sarah Jane Kelly’s chief of staff. Ron thought of her as one
smart, shrewd, babe. She was fifty seven years old, had been elected to the
House in 2012 representing the 6th district of New York. She was a
Chinese American from Queens Y.N. and landed a seat of the foreign affairs
committee in her first term. After a third term she lost a bid for the NY
senate seat vacated by Senator Kristen Gillibrand. This was in 2018 and the
midterm election during President Santorum’s single term. The general trend had
been toward the right and several long held democratic seats were lost in the
transition. Of course this was two years before the Party break up and
rearrangement to the new three party statuses.
“Hey Grace its
Ron, you got a minute”. “Sure Ron, what’s on your mind”? “You know how we’ve
been lobbying for this GECA that your boss is all hot on”. “Yes Ron, you know
how happy we are to have your guys support”. “Well, my main guy on the hill
Jack Saffell seems to have run into some mysterious goings on”. Oh yea, I know
Jack, what’s he say is the problem”? “That’s the problem, he can’t say because
he seems to be missing. His aid Sam Marky says he got spooked by ether
something he found out while pushing for GECA support or somebody that may have
paid him a visit for the intended purpose of scaring him into bolting. We both
suspect the latter and I’m just wondering if you can shed any light on this for
me”? “I can talk to the boys at National security, and check with CIA. Let me
do some digging and get back with you. Do you have any suspicions yet”? “Not really,
we just developed and action plan and have the data bases filtering stuff right
now. We have run a couple algorithms but so far we are just guessing that
somebody has a big reason to kill the GECA and Jack must have stumbled on to
something they would rather he not know”. “So Ron, you want us in at this point”?
“Yea, I think so. We don’t have anything at all concrete, but, you know, if
there is something going on, at least the NSA should poke around. What do you
think Grace”? “I agree, when is your next briefing”? “7:30 AM tomorrow morning,
here, at the EAG conference room”. “I’ll send Peter Miller over to attend; will
you bring him up to speed”? We’ll do”. In the mean time I will see what’s up on
our end, CIA might have some info, let’s coordinate tomorrow”. Sounds good,
Thanks Grace”. Ron said. “Jane, get me Dougy will ya”? “Yes boss, he’s on”.
“Hey Doug what’s up”? “I got Max and Tom meeting me in an hour at the airport.
I have the pilots ready; we are taking the Bombardier 260 and should be in
Traverse City two and a half hours from now. We ran a few software samples and
his old cottage on Lake Leelanau is a high probability for where he’s gone. We
are getting continuous data updates from Laura and are feeding back anything we
find. Hopefully he’s there and we can scoop him up. Then all we’ll have to
worry about is if there is monkey business going on, Which is a hell of a lot
better than worrying about the safety of one of our own”. “I hear you there
Dougy, good luck and be careful”.
Dr
J. Laura Jones was a genius with a 200 plus IQ as well as being a drop dead
beauty. She was not the kind of Alpha female that needed to be in charge. In
fact she possessed the kind of inner confidence and utter serenity that she
could solve the most complex of problem without anyone noticing and not give it
a second thought. She liked Jack and was impressed with his intellect and his
dry and quite sense of humor. She was seated in her office at EAG headquarters
and had five different screens projected in the air. She was using voice
activation and typing at the same time. With her IQ and super connected
Neocortex Laura was actually able to perform up to five activities at a single
time…at least from a brain activity stand point. She was also communicating
with Dr Watson, Sam, Doug, Ron, Jane and Dr Chang along with at least a dozen
others on a pretty much continual basis. She could do this just by thinking
about the proper connection protocol and talking; conferencing in as many
people as she wanted was no problem. She chuckled when she thought about the
days when one needed to hold a box to ones ear to communicate. As she was
speeding through screen after screen of data and information she suddenly
froze. Humm....this is interesting she said to herself.
Since
2016 the nations of the world engaged in a lot of jockeying for position on the
world stage. Some countries were much quicker to embrace new technology as it
became available.
Others,
slower to switch from traditional petroleum based industry, energy, transportation
and military, had to play catch up in order to maintain their status in the
world economic order. Pre 2016 saw the U.S. as the world's largest economy
followed by China, Japan, Germany, France, Brazil, Italy, India, Russia,
Canada, Australia, Spain, Mexico, South Korea, Indonesia, Netherlands, and
Turkey. As a result of the rapid building of new infrastructure and adoption of
new and advanced technologies, the world economic ladder had changed a lot. The
U.S. and China remained the largest since the U.S. was just so much larger than
the rest of the world to begin with and China by nature of its raw size of
population and strong upward trend for the previous two decades. Turkey moved
into third, India forth, Canada and Australia, fifth and sixth. Japan, once the
second largest economy in the world, moved to seventh.
Turkey
was on the cutting edge of the new technology implementation right out of the
gate. The Turks had way more motivation to establish new energy technologies
than just about any other country on the planet. The Turkish government being
the only secular, free, parliamentary democracy in the area, had always been a
bit nervous about being surrounded by mostly wacked out dictators, monarchy's,
tribal war lords, war torn fragile states, and out and out anarchy. Since Mustafa
Kemal Ataturk founded the modern secular Republic of Turkey in 1923, It had
found itself smack in the middle of some of the most bizarre and deadly
regional conflicts in history. Turkey had once been the cradle of civilization
and the Fertile Crescent where by most every measure civilization had begun. It
was the first society to grow crops and domesticate beasts of burden to perform
tasks, and provide dairy, eggs, and meat. The first society to be free from the
all consuming hunt for food and have time to develop government, artisans, and
philosophy. The Ottoman empire of Turkey lasted for 623 years, from July 27,
1299 to
November 1, 1922 and influenced much of the western world; longer than the
Roman Empire; longer than the British Empire; longer by far than the U.S. had
been the predominate influence in world power and economics. By far the most
overriding reason for Turkey's immediate and fully fledged adoption of all the
new advancements and technology was that for sixty six years they had been the
only Middle East country without substantial oil reserves. For sixty six years
Turkey had been surrounded by oil rich, hostile neighbors, who they depended on
for their energy needs, but who generally ran completely counter to Turkey's
philosophy of secular democracy. The government and people of Turkey had grown
tired of being both nervous and pissed off about living next to countries like
Syria, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and a bunch of other ass hole countries
that wanted to fry there asses. Since all the surrounding Petro- Dictators had
little more going for them than an abundance of oil and a really bad attitude,
Turkey was just itching to tell its neighbors where they could stick their oil
and exercise a little ass kicking.
Within
the first year following the Alien visit which promised to advance human
civilization beyond measure, the Turks went into full production of all readily
available new- tech energy production facilities. They geared up research and
devoted every resource they could muster toward furthering all the
technological advancements that the eggheads had granted to humanity. Along
with total revamping of their energy infrastructure - and selling this
perfected technology to other nations- re-powering their military, implementing
nationwide healthcare using new technology and greatly enhancing their
artificial intelligence capabilities and Internet, they also utilized new-tech
desalination and turned what had become an arid desert back into the Fertile Crescent
it had once been. By the year 2032 Turkey had become a net exporter of food,
computers (which were now implantable into just about anything due to nano
tech) automobiles, and assorted other forms of transportation. A dozen
companies in five different countries had experimented with and produced a
variety of "flying cars" that could hover to at least a hundred
meters and travel at one hundred miles an hour without terrestrial constraints;
however they posed a whole additional problem of infrastructure and regulating
traffic flows. The biggest problem was the development of integrated computer
software so people didn't fly around crashing into each other. Besides this was
just in its infancy and not legalized for personal use.
Most
of the area known as the Middle East had fallen into utter chaos in the decade
following 2016. After a decade of anarchy and confusion most of the former
countries of the Middle East had been annexed to ether Turkey, Israel, or
India. Both Israel and India, along with neighboring Pakistan had followed the
path of Turkey. India and Pakistan, once arch enemies had signed a treaty of
cooperation sharing technology and military to establish order and end the
conflict between tribal war-lords which erupted and continued throughout the
decade following 2016. It turns out, that the ideological hatred between
citizens of India and Pakistan had little basis after humanity had learned that
all of their individual ideas of religion were mistaken. While differences in
religious ideology had been taken out of the picture as a reason for conflict; it’s
not to say that self interest no longer existed....because it did at every
level of society just as it always had. The global balance of power had indeed
shifted, but there remained no lack of national interest around the globe.
Russia, being an oil rich nation and having once provided over one third of
Europe's natural gas was now a waste land. Their corrupt government that was
still controlled by Vladimir Putin in 2016 was simply to ineffective to
implement any kind of efficient sweeping change. Once fossil fuels became
non-computable, Russia started down the tubes and after only a few years they
had become the vagrant, homeless, crack-head, drunken, bum of countries. The
fact that the United States had managed to finally get its collective shit
together and maintain its position as a global economic and military leader was
nothing short of miraculous. After four years of social bickering and political
blundering under President Santorum, it found itself playing catch up. Were it
not for its previous power and economic strength, along with lots of tech help
from its ally's Australia, Great Britain, the E.U. and Canada the U.S. might
well have found itself in Russia's shoes and been the beggars of the world.
Brazil had lost some traction, but regained its status due largely to its
generous mineral deposits. Eggheads had given humanity the ability to
synthesize whatever was necessary to achieve energy without fossil fuels,
however it was discovered that many of the requisite materials could be
extracted from the earth thus saving the time and expense of synthesizing.
Brazil and the lower half of the African continent were found to be rich in
such minerals. Of course no one bothered to recognize that we had previously
behaved in exactly the same way regarding oil and should have learned a lesson
after aliens showed how to get along without it. Ah but such was the nature of
human behavior and even though the eggheads had granted mankind a few tricks on
how to survive, they probably didn't intend to force humanity to save itself.
Dr.
Nisen Berfin Hamarat was in her lab at the Istanbul headquarters of the EAG.
She had been with the organization for sixteen years now and was responsible
for much of the data they had banked regarding human migration since 2016.
There had been a sizable refugee migration overland in search for food early
on, but irrigation technology combined with desalination had food production in
places like sub Saharan Africa possable, and global famine was quickly becoming
a thing of the past. The U.S. along with a host of developed countries had
eventually adopted open immigration policies that prompted large movements of
humanity in a rather short person of time. This sort of modern migration had
obvious environmental and economic impact and the EAG was keen to study and
record the effects.
Dr.
Hamarat or Fin as she was known by her friends and associates was a profession
of Human Geography. She had studied human migration from the time humans first
started to migrate out of central Africa and populate the globe. She was
intrigued by the movement of people; where they moved, when they moved and why.
She had once explained to Ron Smith and Dr Watson that if you take a model of
the earth or any part of it and pour a fluid, say water, over it; the water
will simply follow the laws of physics so if you know these laws than the flow
of the water will be easy to predict. Now, if on the other hand you were to
replace the water with people.....well then you have an infinite number of
variables to weigh and consider. In some instances the people may simply follow
the flow of the water, that is to say "follow the path of least
resistance" just as every molecule will do according to the laws of
physics, however it is equally possible that they take a different path; one
with more resistance thus defying the laws of physics. "People are funny
that way" was a favorite saying of hers. "What motivates a people to
take the path of more resistance" she asked? "Is it food, water,
shelter or more comfortable climate...sure...is it chance, luck, human
curiosity, or something more....who knows". One thing that Dr Watson and
Ron Smith knew for sure was that Fin knew more about this stuff than anybody
else on the planet and that this information was useful stuff to have. Fin had
every major human migration (major meaning over one hundred thousand people moving
in five years or less) committed to memory and what she didn't have in her
head, she had in a data base that had taken her ten years to compile.
“Hey Fin, This is Laura”. “Hi Laura…here let me pull
you up on visual”. “Oh god no” said Laura “whoever thought it was a good idea
to actually see each other while talking from miles away was a dick head”.
Laura had been working nonstop in her office for the last sixteen hours and
felt like shit. She was convinced that she looked like shit too, even though it
would take a lot more than a sixteen hour work bee to make her look anything
less than stunning. “I hear ya sister” fin replied “I use to work from home all
day long in my cozy pajamas and goofy animal slippers and talk with people all
over the world until we started using visual calling. I once had an emergency
conversation with the Prime Minister of Sweden and his staff for two hours in
my PJs and the hoody I use to paint in….now I have to get all dressed up for a
freaking phone call”. “Technology… got to love it”. “Ok Laura, I guess I
wouldn’t want to trade getting dressed for a business call, for say Polio or
Small Pox or any of those stupid diseases that we have cured and people use to
die from.”….”but I still like to conduct business in my cozy PJs”. “Now that we
have solved the world’s most pressing problems like video conferencing and
proper at home business attire, what else is there for us to conquer”. “I want
you to run some analysis on some migration that’s going on in all the countries
north of a line from Turkey running east to China including the north coast of
the Caspian Sea”. “So, you are talking about Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan right”? “That’s right”.
“Well you know Laura that there has been a fourteen year general migration to
the south in all those areas due largely to the continually degenerating
conditions in Russia. Lots of folks out in the boonies got cut off when the
fossil fuel stopped working. I’ve tracked this stuff for a while and it appears
mostly like folks moving south in search of food, shelter and a warmer
climate”. “Yea, I’m with you on that, but I noticed a more recent and much
larger move and that’s what I’m interested in. Of course I have got nowhere
near the kind of data that you have and that’s why I’m wondering if you can
check it out for me. I want to know if it’s real, and if it is….why”. “Hey Laura,
that’s no problem but……..what the heck is going on”? “It’s kind of need-to-know
stuff but I can tell you that Jack Saffell is missing and I think the GECA has
something to do with it”. “Missing?? What the fuck do you mean missing”? “I
mean that nobody has been able to get in contact with him for three days and he
left Sam a message that something or somebody had spooked him so he was going
to bolt and hide out for a while. I’m pretty sure he’s ok, but we want to make
sure and Ron wants to know just what the heck is happening. It could just be
that Jack is just being paranoid and silly, but then it could be some kind of
covert shit that had something to do with the GECA. We’re not unaware of the
fact that if that treaty goes into effect that some people stand to lose. Now I
would argue that they are generally the bad guys and we want them to lost, but
I’m sure that if there is something to all this that those guys will feel
differently than me”. “What do you think the area we’re talking about has to do
with this”. “I really have no clue, just following up on any little thing I
notice that’s different”. “Well, you got it sister, I sure hope Jacks ok. Maybe
he’s just hanging out fishing and drinking, you know he’s been known to do that
from time to time”. “I hope so to Fin, I’ll keep you posted. Send me that data
as soon as you can, Ok”. “Right, talk to you soon”.
“Humm, I wonder what’s going on” Fin uttered to
herself….”let me see”….She moved a few screens around, sent a few more commands
with the keyboard, made a few more adjustments with voice command that said
“Ok, run this one” After a few minutes of filtering she found herself staring
at a screen of data that surprised the shit out of her. In the last one and a
half years eight million, seven hundred and sixty two thousand and five
hundred, plus or minus two hundred people had migrated south to an area within
one hundred kilometers of the southern borders of all the countries of the list
Laura had given her. This was an area about fifteen hundred kilometers long, so
and area of about one hundred and fifty thousand sq. kilometers. “What the
hell” she thought “what the hell are a eight million people doing moving into
an area of only a hundred and fifty thousand sq. kliks”? “Hey missy (her name
for her artificial intelligence or computer as people use to call them) better
get a hold of Laura again”.
That
was quick". "I just ran a preliminary algorithm and it looks like a
lot of people are moving south. It's sure a lot more than you average refugee
migration......and I really don't think that's what it is". "Any
military"? "Don't know.....but I doubt it". "Ok, can you
get demographics"? "Maybe...at least an overview". "Good,
if we got a bunch of twenty something's that could spell trouble".
"Let's just see, if it's propagated by need, we'll see a pretty diverse
age range, but I can't imagine anything that the area north of Georgia,
Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan has to offer in the way of relief".
"I don't see it as offering much in the way of anything"."I
gotta agree with ya there Laura.....I'll get on it now". "Start with
Sat images". "Just what are we looking for" Fin asked. "Im
not sure, but when half the number of people that moved into the U.S. last year,
move into an area that's basically inhospitable for no perticular reason.....it
makes me wonder". "It's got my curiosity working, that's for
sure". "Thanks Fin, I'll talk to you in a few".
CHAPTER
5: BEAVER ISLAND. Singing the Blues
"Ok
you lazy bums, time to get up" Shirley yelled into the bunk room of her
cabin where Jack and Geno had crashed. Annie had laid up a fire in the wood
stove and slept next to it on a couple fur rugs. She and Shirley had let the
boys sleep for a couple hours after they had gotten up. They sat in the kitchen
and drank coffee ate bacon, and some biscuits with Shirley's homemade honey.
They talked about what had been going on lately and shared their own
perspectives on how life had changed dramatically in the last sixteen years.
Shirley allowed as how she had not really been affected by all the new
technology that much one way or the other. Most folks on Garden Peninsula had
precious little use for high technology unless it involved a better way to
distill booze, poach a deer, or maybe build a better meth lab. She did however
recall a kid that got thrown off his four wheeler and was paralyzed from the
waist down over near Garden. His family took him to U of M medical center for a
stem cell transplant and had his own DNA marked nerve/ stem cell precursors
injected. The procedure was a sucess and now the kid is back riding his four
wheeler in a drunken stupor every night......such were the social achievements
in the modern Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Drinking and driving- whether cars,
ORVs, dirt bikes, or snowmobiles- was regarded as proper sport, in the U.P. so
was drinking and shooting. Shirley considered it as humorous that riding around
on a quad runner shooting holes in abandoned refrigerators was held in such
high regard by most of her costumes. She had once tried using an old discarded
walk-in freezer as a smoke house. She made good money selling smoked fish,
beef, and venison jerky until it was too full of bullet holes to hold the
smoke. None of the locals actually intended any financial harm to Shirley, it's
just that they all understood that any appliance placed out of doors for a week
or more was simply intended to have holes shot into it. In a matter of weeks
Shirley had realized the folly of her action and built a cement block smoke
house instead. She also dragged the bullet hole ridden freezer out into the
field next door for further pot shots until it was more bullet hole air than
metal. One of the unintended consequences of owning a bar in Garden Peninsula
was amassing a huge collection of firearms. As Shirley explained to Annie G as
they stepped into her gun room. "Ya see dar sweetie, da only thing most of
dees boy got dats worth a darn is dar guns, and da only thing day likes more
den dar guns is dar booze". "So.....if they got no money
left......" Annie said...."dats right sweetie I gets da only ting
dats worth a shit......dar guns". "Holy shit, and you do have some
guns don't you" Annie G announced as she stepped in the room. "So, I
just start to collecting dem, now let's see here, you'll be needin one a dees,
and one a dees.........".... By the time Jack and Geno had poured their
first cup of coffee Annie G had a duffel with a 5" Glock 9mm with two, 17
shot quick change clips (Glocks were a favorite in the U.P. due to the fact
they could shoot in sub zero temps, and underwater) a Colt model 1911 .45 ACP
(45s were another favorite due to the fact that they left the biggest holes in
refrigerators and road signs) two Savage sawed off 12 gauge shotguns, a
Browning BAR .308 Win. With 14x Nikon scope, and a U.S. Marine issue M4 full
auto with 8x night scope and grenade launcher. "Jesus fucking Christ, Shirley,
we're not going to invade North Korea ya know". North Korea had been a
running joke for the past twenty years. Former NBA star Dennis Rodman had made
several visits to North Korea during the early rule of Kim jun Un. People in
the U.S. thought he was just a nut case- which he was- and figured he was just
going for weird publicity, but as it turned out he was nuttier that anyone
thought. On his final visit he had somehow smuggled in a bunch of weapons and
explosives. He had also found accomplices and managed to assassinate Kim and at
least two dozen of his closest Generals. Of course, this spelled the end of the
Rod, but the ultimate result was a total breakdown of the totalitarian
government and reunification of the Korean Peninsula under the democratic
government of the south.
"We'll
ya never know when ya gonna need a friend...dats what I always say. Jump in da
land Cruiser and I'll give ya a lift to da boat". They all climbed into
Shirley's Toyota Land Cruiser and Shirley drove them down to where their dingy
was tied. "You boys take care of dat lady now" and sent them on their
way with a duffel full of fire arms and a couple bottles of Shirley's best
whiskey. "Excellent combination" thought Jack "welcome to the
U.P." . As they climbed on board, Jack pulled the Colt out of the duffel
and tucked it in his belt, then pulled the cork from one of the bottles and
took a long swig. He handed it to Geno who followed with a healthy swig of his
own and proceeded to tuck the Glock in his belt. "You guys think you're
Butch fucking Cassidy and the Sundance Kid or something"? Asked Annie G as
she grabbed the bottle, not to be outdone by Jack or Geno, and took her five
second gulp. "More like the three Musketeers I guess.... And what piece do
I get"? "Here you take the Glock, it's more of a chick gun anyway,
I'm more of a sawed off savage kind of guy" said Geno as he handed her the
9mm and took the sawed off twelve gauge out of the duffel, popped a couple 00
buck, three and a half inch nitro shells in the chamber. He thought to himself
about how hard a double aught, three and a half inch load had kicked in his
Benellie Super Back Label when Goose hunting and shuttered at the thought of
what would happen if he had to pull the trigger on this gun with the same load
but with the barrel and stock sawed off. "Holy shit, I hope I don't have
to shoot anybody with this thing" he said out loud. "And you got one
for each hand" Annie laughed. Geno had dropped greater Canadian geese from
fifty yards with the same load and a modified choke and was sure about one
thing; anyone within a twenty yard circumference even in the general vicinity
of a shot from this thing was toast.
"So
now that we are equipped like seal team six, where the heck do you guys wanna
go"? "Beaver Island" Jack and Annie said together. "So,
what the heck are we still doing here, let's get the main up and pull this anchor".
"On it boss" they both yelled as Jack went forward to the windless
and Annie started to hoist the mainsail. Geno went to the helm and turned to
port as the half raised main filled and Jack quickly took in the anchor road.
As soon as the boat had passed over the anchor, it broke free and Jack yelled
"FREE" as he brought up the anchor and secured it on the anchor
roller. Geno swung the helm to starboard into the wind and Annie G hoisted the
mainsail the rest of the way. Geno turned back off the wind, sheeted in the
main, and unfurled the jib as Jack arrived back in the cockpit to put some
wraps on the primary winch and grind in the jib sheet till it was trimmed out
perfectly. "Next stop...Saint James Harbor..... Now, lets have some beer
on deck please".
Saint
James was named after King James Jesse Strang, the self professed Mormon king
of Beaver Island from 1848 till his assignation in 1856. Strang had been party
to the struggle for power in the Mormon Church after the assignation of its
founder Joseph Smith, between him, Bringham Young and Sidney Rigdon in Nauvoo
Illinois. King James had twelve thousand followers and over the course of the
next three years had found his way to Beaver Island where he founded his Mormon
Kingdom and reigned for eight years. To say that Strang was a nut case would be
an understatement, however he seemed to possess the kind of charisma and
eloquent oratory skills that allowed him to not only act as king of his own
island but actually get elected to and serve for a term and a half in the
Michigan State House of Representatives. As it turns out, he probably should
have counted his blessings and enjoyed his success, rather than helping himself
to the wives of his followers, which turned out to be a very bad idea. His
kingdom came to an abrupt end when two of his disgruntled followers shot him
down in broad daylight on the pier in Saint James Harbor. Since the villages on
the mainland had suffered pilfering at the hands of the Mormons for eight
years, after the word of King James’s death, they mounted an assault on the
island and routed all the remaining Mormon "subjects". Since then,
the population has consisted of a mixture of Irish, and Scandinavian,
immigrants and Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. Beaver has been the only island with
a full time population in the Great Lakes since 1856, and it's history has been
sorted to say the least.
To
say that Beaver Island was an island of misfits would be an understatement and
Geeze fit in perfectly. He had sailed to Saint James many times with Geno and
Jack. The Island had a large population of what we now call “little
people" but Geeze called midgets. They sailed miniature twelve meter
sailboats in competition around Saint James harbor and often Geeze had sailed
through the fleet when coming into Saint James. He was always amazed at their
sailing skill and loved it when they brought the Leading Lady in while a race
was going on. The Shamrock was Geeze's favorite watering hole and the boys had
seen their fair share of drunks and bar fights between inebriated Native
Americans and the hot blooded Irish immigrant descendants. One hundred years of
inbreeding did produce a few character traits like eyes being a bit too close
together and a somewhat nasty disposition. Jack seemed to think it could be a
perfect place to hide out, at the very least it would be entertaining.
They
had sailed out from Poverty Island Passage around noon and set a course for the
south end of Beaver, rounding the south end by seventeen hundred hours. The
wind was gusting to twenty knots out of the southwest so they popped the kite
when they turned north at the south end of the Island. It only took a couple
hours to sail the length of the island and turn back west into St. James
Harbor. They gibed to port and flew the spinnaker to within thirty feet of the
township dock. They doused the kite, Annie and Jack ran forward to collect it
on deck and Geno guided the Lady into a slip with the main sheeted out and
dropped it just before turning to enter the slip. Geno tossed a line on the
spring pile as they coasted by and Jack jumped to the dock and caught lines as
Annie tossed them to him. Within a minute they were fast and safe at the dock.
"The Eagle Has Landed" Jack shouted! "Cocktails anyone"?
"Thought you'd never ask" was the reply in perfect unison.
After
a few drinks and finishing all the required tidying up they all found
themselves in the cockpit sipping their Rum "pain killers" and
chatting with each other and several friends that had passed by to welcome them
back. "So Jack, aren’t you a bit freaked about Shirley spotting some
strange dudes in the neighborhood"? "Yea does seem a bit strange,
doesn't it"? "You actually think there is a connection"?
"Shit....I don't know....I mean, one the one hand it's kind of farfetched
to think there is actually someone tailing me, but on the other hand, strangers
in Fayette that would get Shirley's attention......I don't know. Anyway it
really doesn't matter since we bolted and even if they were keeping an eye on
me...they're not any more..right"? "Right"! "So, I say we
go to the Shamrock, get a fat greasy burger, see if Denny and Beans are
playing, and get totally baked again.... What da ya say"? "I'm
in" said Geno "I think the last time I was here with the Geeze and
Denny and Beans were playing at the Shamrock was the most bakedest I have ever
been". "Is that even a word, or did you just make that up" Annie
G said as she came out of the companion way, catching the tail end of the
conversation". Geno did have a propensity for making up his own words.
"Hey...it's a word...look it up... You got baked...them more
bakeder...than most bakedest". "Easy for you to say, he who speaks
fluent Beaver Islandish" Annie retorted in her best smart assed
inflection.
Sure enough,
as if time had stood still, when they approached The Shamrock, they heard the
familiar sound of Denny Kline on the Drums and singing "Shot Gun" by
Jr. Walker and The All Stars. "Dam, it's as if nothing ever changes round here"
Jack said as they reached the door. Beans was playing guitar and singing,
Johnny Bag-a-doughnuts on keyboards, brother Dick Rutherford on the bass, and
of course Denny on drums. This had been the same weekend line up at the
Shamrock for the last twenty years more or less. There had been a few changes
in the line up over the years and of course lots of different guys “sitting
in" on various occasions but these four guys had been the mainstay and
they were one tight, hard rockin, badass band. They had gone by several band
names over the years; the Shiners, The Drunks, Phil Dirt and the Dozers, but
most folks just knew them as the shamrock band. They did gigs over on the
mainland on occasion in various towns in the northern lower peninsula. Every so
often they would take a three day gig down state, ether in Annarbor or East
Lansing at one of the collage clubs. It was real good money and they always
packed the house. In the summer though, they preferred to stay on Beaver and
play weekends at the Shamrock. Shawn Conner who owned the Shamrock had vast
empirical data that he could bring in three times as many people with good
music and more importantly that everybody regardless of sex, age, race, or
color.... drank three times more booze when they were dancing and listening to
rock and roll.
"Well
you going to get your ass up here and play some music or what" Denny said
through the PA just as they ordered drinks. "Good to see you boys"
said Shawn as he served up three shots of Patron and Dos Equis beers. "So
geno you up for a few tunes, sounds like the gang's not going to let you off
the hook". Geno was a top notch guitar player and a darn good singer who
had played for a living on and off since middle school. He had also been in a
band with Denny four three years and sat in with the shamrock band many times.
"What do ya say Annie G , should I play some music with these
losers"? "That all depends on what you intend to sing for us"
she replied. "A little Wilson Picket perhaps"....."Stones
maybe" she said. He replied with
a rather
snide " ah yes, the Stones, I can't believe their still doing it after all
these years, wow, you know........Fred...Barney...Wilma... Dino. "HEY
Denny, how bout we start with a little Gimmie Shelter, boys". "You
got it man, then let's break into some Midnight Hour" Denny said as he
handed Geno a Fender Telecaster. Geno toasted jack and Annie, slammed his
patron, took a swig of his Dos Eques and jumped on stage. One, two, three,
four.........
"What
you been up to anyway" Shawn asked Jack. "Oh, just sailing, fishing,
drinking, eating, and ummmmm........". "Fucking?? Is that what you
were going to say" interrupted Annie G. "Yea, that's it, that's the
ticket" Geno finished. "Well alrighty then, same shit you always been
doing". "Actually Shawn, I've been in D.C for six years now and doing
an environmental lobbyist gig. Seemed pretty cool till just a few days ago. We
are kind of on the lamb, so to speak, and tiring to hide out from these guys
who I figure are out to get me". "Shit man, who are they? Want me to
put the Gillespie boy on um". "I would pity the fuckers then, that's
for sure, but I'm not so sure that'll be necessary just yet". "Thanks
though, I might have to take you up on that one"
"Going
to wait till the midnight hour"... "He hasn't lost a thing has
he"? Shawn said to Annie G as Geno broke into his second song. "Oh,
he's still got it going on that's for sure". "Jackie boy, better take
me to that dance floor". "Let's do da boogaloo baby".
The bar was
full, as was the the dance floor. By the end of the night the Shamrock dance
floor resembled something more along the lines of a demolition derby or at
least bumper cars than a dance floor. Twelve years before, Geno was driving a
van to the back door with Denny and Beans when it broke through a sink hole and
dropped right to the rear axle. A dozen drunks came out of the bar and lifted
it right out of the hole and carried the van right to the back door. Later that
same night, as Geno was ripping an incredible solo he heard the applause and looked
up to see an inebriated Native American dancing on a table top with his pants
down. By one thirty the place was so wild that Shawn had o pull the power cord
and shut the bar own early. After he had packed up his gear, Geno had gone
outside where at least twenty five people were sitting around drinking and
getting stoned; the local Cop had pulled up and gotten out of his car. He had
suggested that the party break up and everyone head home. Geno who had learned
that it was best to do what a police man asks, was standing up to move along
when a girl in the crowd yelled "fuck you Fred". The next thing he
knew he was at Bean's house at a party that lasted till dawn, drinking and
eating hash brownies.
Beans' great
grandfather had invented the locking ratchet wrench and held the patient. His
original company had become Snap-on-tools which went public back in the mid
seventies and made his whole family billionaires. Beans had inherited a bundle
when he turned eighteen, and after half a dozen years of school and various
adventures he wound up on Beaver Island. He purchased a large portion of
property along the west shore, built a very cool house on the beach, built a
state of the art recording studio, and a couple of green houses in which he
grew all the vegetables he and all his friends could possibly consume and
several varieties of the most potent, high grade, dube in the world. His
recording studio was equipped with state of the art digital ability as well as
an original Ampex ART-124 twenty four track, two inch tape recorder, built in
1977, a year before it's commercial production. He had purchased the Ampex from
a private collector who had bought the machine from Don Henley of the Eagles.
It had been built as a proto-type to replace the sixteen track machines being
used in most L.A. Studies at the time. The Eagles were the first band to record
on this new machine and the result was the album Hotel California. Henley had
bought the machine from the Record Plant Studios in L.A. In 1995 when they went
belly up and had it completely and meticulously restored. A billionaire private
collector had bought the machine when Henley died to use in his private studio
and had kept it in prefect working order. When it was installed in Beans'
studio it was as if it was brand spanking new. Over the years several top notch
bands had recorded at “Saint James Sound Studio" as it was known including
Glen Frye who was originally a Detroit boy before moving to L.A. and forming
The Eagles. Also Bob Segar who was a sailer and had visited Beaver Island for
years. Ted Nugent had wanted to record a solo album in November of 2015 and do
some deer hunting with his bow, but Beans told him to stick it because everyone
on Beaver thought Ted was a dick head. Not that folks on Beaver were opposed to
taking a few deer whether in season or not, because they did it all the time,
it was just that Ted was such a blow hard about it. Geno had jammed at Beans
studio numerous times; he cut two CDs of his own material, playing all the
instruments himself except drums and some background vocals. He had also joined
in on a couple CDs of the Shamrock Band and played guitar and mandolin on a
dozen or so other projects by bands from all over the world that came to Saint
James to record. Before his untimely death Geeze had even sat in with the boys
and laid down a few tracks. Geeze was a hell of a harmonica player. He
preferred the country and folk stuff but could blow a mean blues harp and was
usually amenable to rocking out if plied with a few bourbons.
"So, you
guys want the guest house" beans asked? "That would be awesome"
answered Annie G. "How long are you hanging out"? "Not exactly
sure yet, we are kind of in limbo for the moment". "Lets jump in the
jeep, we can go get your stuff at the boat tomorrow. Is everything all battened
down"? "Yup, let's go". "Hey, you drunk bags, I scored us a
pad, you ready to go?" "Shawn just set us up with a patron and a Dos
Equies". "Oh, so two minutes then". "That will just about
do it". They all hopped in Beans' Jeep and headed south down the King's
Highway. About eight miles down they took a right heading west down Beans' six
mile long drive. Beans' was a bit on the eccentric side and did enjoy his
privacy so he had a bunch of surveillance and security installed. A bunch of
residential grade security probably couldn't do squat to stop any real
professional spook from unfettered and unnoticed access to whatever he might
want, however Beans' four Great Danes would probably draw attention to anything
that moved.......and like everyone on the Island....Beans has firearms.....lots
of firearms.
Upon
arriving at the compound Beans called home Annie G climbed out of the jeep and
declared "I'm pretty darn beat, this has been a crazy couple of days. I'm
hitting the hay" she turned to jack "going to join me, or are you
boys going to drink till dawn"? "Hey baby, I love my friends and I
love to drink but I just love you more". "Your sincerity is wanting
Jackie boy, but I'll take you anyway". "Night guys" Beans said,
than turned to Geno “nightcap"? " Whatdaya got" Geno answered.
"Whatdaya want". "How's about a snifter of 1959 Sandmen Tauney
Port". "Coming up, meet you on the back deck". "You are my
hero". Geno headed to the deck and had a seat in one of the Adirondack
rockers. There was a slight warm breeze out of the west with six inch waves
lapping on the beach which was only about thirty feet from the back deck. The
sky was spectacular with a crescent new moon, super bright stars and the Milky
Way running diagonal across the sky. The combination of warn summer breeze
smell, the sound of waves lapping the shore and the visual splendor overhead
created a sense of total serenity. " "Dude, I completely get why you
live here. This is almost perfection". "Ok buddy boy maybe this will
take out the almost" Beans said as he handed Geno his glass of Port.
“Umm…that is delicious man. I am sorry I am so buzzed already, because the
warm, fuzzy glow that only a fine Port or a find brandy gives is one of life’s
true pleasures, and I am totally wasting it by pouring it on top of this
tequila, rum and beer buzz”. “Stop with the negative vibes man. Just enjoy the
moment, oh and fill me in on what’s going on.” “Well……..I don’t even see Jack
for two years, I mean we talk and email or skype every couple weeks or so but
he had been super busy for the last six years in D.C. and hasn’t been back to
Michigan for the whole time. The only reason I saw him two years ago was that I
was in D.C. delivering a boat up from Key West to Willington Delaware and
stopped to see him for a couple days. Annie G, I had not even talked to for a
year or so since her last stint on that NOAA research vessel. Anyway a few days
ago, I am logging a few hours of work and I get a call from Jack; he and Annie
G are in Omena having lunch and say “let’s go sailing”. How of course, I am not
surprised because we are all rather spontaneous nut cases…..and we know it…. So
I don’t miss a beat and say “sure, meet me there in an hour”. Next thing you
know we are heading for Fayette”. “Did you go see Shirley” Beans asked. “Oh
yea, that’s why we are armed to the teeth. We get to Fayette, catch up on some
sleep, which Jack claims he has not been able to do for years learning the
Potomac two step, as he puts it, and catch a few trout for dinner. Well, we get
to talking and Jack is starting to expound on his sudden return. It seems that
he stumbled on to some information that somebody doesn’t appreciate him
knowing. Funny thing is that he has no idea what it is. Let me rephrase, I
think he knows the general idea of what might be going on, but doesn’t know
exactly what it is he is supposed to knows……. if that make sense”. Oh
Yea….clear as mud…..what the fuck are you talking about man”? Beans yelled “You
sound like Donald fucking Rumsfeld”. “I know, right..doesnt make a lot of
sense. So anyway, it has to do with the Global Climate Treaty which has to go
through the dick brains in the House and Senate before going to the UN. The money
is on President Kelly getting her way and the legislation getting the thumbs up
and landing on her desk which she will readily sign. The smart money is on the
treaty getting enacted in short order if the U.S. is backing it and having the
enforcement element up and running in six months”. “So what’s the problem? This
all sounds like great stuff” Beans questioned. “I guess that there are certain
interests that are not excited about actually outlawing the reconversion and/or
burning of fossil fuels on a global basis with actual accountable enforcement
to back up the treaty. Even though no one has been able to reconvert oil back
to a combustible state so far, Jack is pretty sure some groups are ether real
close or already there”. “But I don’t get it; why does somebody want to use fossil
fuel when we have so many other alternatives around that are better in like
most every way? Seems stupid to me”. Beans interjected. “Ya well it seems
stupid to me as well but you got to understand, there is an awfully large
amount of left over macheriney for every imaginable purpose lying around that
could be obtained for a penny on the dollar that could suddenly be worth a
dollar again if we suddenly had Gasoline again. This possible economic
incentive is probably enough for some greedy unscrupulous bastards to act on
alone but the real clincher is that there is even more currently useless
military hardware that could be worth gazillions in the world of developing and
under developed nations. Now if we suppose, as Jack does, that some entity has
already been working on a reconversion formula, and has been buying or
otherwise obtaining masses of machinery and military hardware secretly for
years, it is easy to imagine that whoever that might be would be a very well
connected, powerful, well financed and far reaching organization. It’s also easy
to imagine that certain elements within the U.S. and even the U.S. Government
could be involved. It is no secret that the Trad’s and the PPPEPs along with
half a dozen other left over super neo-conservative type organizations and the
war hawks all would love nothing more that to relight the fires, so to speak,
in more ways than one. Add to that the religious zealots that still refuse to
believe that the eggheads actually created life on earth even though they have
certainly provided mountains of proof, which is ninety nine point nine percent more
proof than any religion ever provided. Anyway these guys would rather cling to
a verity of thousand year old books and if reconverting oil into a combustible
substance again even though we don’t need it can somehow help them believe more
strongly in their silly superstitions, that they probably don’t give a shit
about the consequences……or the means”. “Ok, I get that there are still a lot of
twisted fuckers out there who would screw the rest of us to serve their own
interests, but what has that got to do with Jack”? Beans was starting to see
the big picture but was asking questions now as more of a drunken brain
storming session. Hey, it worked when it came to recording cool spontaneous
Jams he thought. “Jack was working closely with all the proponents of the
climate treaty. After all, he is an environmental lobbyist. Our guess is that
he just accidently discovered some shit that someone within this supposed
organization took the wrong way. That or Jack hasn’t figured it out yet. So you
know Jacks ability to do his mind-read thing. He told me that some guys came to
see him that were supposedly with the PPPEP and Jack got a weird vibe from them
but he said it was like they knew how to block his telepathy. Anyway, that threw
him for a loop and he figured it might be better for him to step out of the
picture and assess the situation. He says his boss Ron is probably freaking
because Jack was taking the lead on this and Ron had made some promises and
assumptions, which were pretty safe under normal conditions, but quite another
thing now that things were getting weird. The icing on the cake came night
before last when we were at Shirley’s and she told us about a truck with two
guys that looked totally out of place and were asking questions. Now we all
know the propensity for suspicion in Garden, but Shirley didn’t think anything
about it till we started talking about how somebody might be after Jack. We
spent the night at her cabin and she set us up with some firearms just in
case”. “whatdaya got” Beans asked. “Glock 9, Colt 1911, Browning 308 win., M4
auto w/ GL and two sawed offs”. “Wow, I guess she didn’t want anybody to mess
with you”. “YOU THINK???” So we pulled anchor ASAP because we figured it best
not to take chances with whoever those strangers were even if they were
dentists on vacation from Madison or whatever…Twelve hours later we find
ourselves in St James. Six hours after that we are sitting here drinking your
really expensive port and enjoying this night, which is an example of Mother
Nature at her finest by the way". "You know, before we knew about the
eggheads I always thought of our supreme being, or god if you will as a
woman....you know Mother Nature" Beans added. "Maybe you're right Beans,
I mean the eggheads could be female, we don't know....I kind of always liked
the Mother Nature idea myself".
"So
just to recap the situation" started Beans "we would all be naive not
to realize that some nefarious types could make a humongous bundle of money,
and gain the accompanying power through the afore mentioned activities, and it
is most likely happening as we speak......right"? "Right" Geno
answered. Geno was well aware of Beans' propensity for conspiracy theories.
Beans had actually held a conspiracy theory that former Vice President Michelle
Bachmann was actually an alien from a different universe that were the ancient
adversaries of the eggheads and were bent on destruction of the human race.
Geno could still envision his rants; "just fucking look at her man......just
fucking listen to that shit she says....she simply can't be a human
being". While Jack and Geno granted Beans and his theory total
plausibility, they both considered Ms Bachmann as just a highly misguided woman
with an incredibly uncanny ability to look you in the eye and say stuff that
totally ignored reality without the slightest hesitation. Jack had spoken with
her before and with his intuition and telepathic abilities, was simply blown
away. "I have experienced people who take deception and lying to the
highest level imaginable, but she actually BELIEVES all of the outlandish shit
she says. It's fucking phenomenal, I have never met anybody else quite like
that". "And therefore" Beans continued "not only would
there be gazillions involved in machinery, there would also be mega-gazillions
involved in sales and distribution of gasoline and other petroleum distillates.
Right"? "Right". "And therefore, if someone or some group
were to have spent the last ten or fifteen years accumulating distillates for nothing
or even get paid to take it (there were hundreds of operations that charged for
the collection and safe disposal of petroleum products) and suddenly the stuff could burn
again......well, suffice to say, they would be in an advantageous position right"?
"Right". And therefor, if the GECA goes into effect, whoever might be
in said position would suddenly be in a significantly LESS advantageous
position. Right"? "Right you are again Beans". "We'll there
you go then, that is plenty of reason to lie, cheat, break laws and murder
people. Shit man, many a group has done much worse for much less than what we
are talking about here. I know you guys always think I'm a nut case conspiracy
theory type at times, but you have to realize that if the treaty doesn't pass,
and a formula to reconvert oil could be developed and someone had actually
taken even some of the steps we just talked about and did not have benevolent
intentions....... Well, they could stand to gain an incredible amount of power.
They might not be in the world domination league but they would sure as hell be
a pretty big fish in the developing nations pond if you know what I mean".
"Know what I mean Geno"? Beans realized that Geno was snoring fast
asleep in his chair. At that same moment Beans noticed the lights of an
aircraft off to the west southwest flying very low. "Hey Geno wake up and
check this out". "Hun....what". "Check this out, looks like
a chopper coming in hot, right on the deck". By this point the heard the
hydrogen battery powered jet turbine, Bell A Star Plus helicopter approaching
at close to top speed and only about twenty five feet off the lake. "Holy shit, that's a forty million dollar machine
man!! Not a lot of folks around here could afford one of those. Hell, not a lot
of folks anywhere that can afford one of those". "You ever seen that
before"? Asked Geno. "No, afraid not" answered Beans as he
bolted into the house to grab his Bushnell 2.5x42 night vision binoculars. He
focused them on the incoming craft. "Yea, it's a fucking hi tech machine.
Three hundred knots top speed, twelve hundred knot range, they don't hand those
fuckers out in a Cracker Jack box.....what the hell are they doing here"?
As they watched, the chopper made the south west corner of the Island, increased
altitude slightly to just above treetop level, slowed to about sixty five knots
and descended from their line of sight. They listened, as the engines
maintained the same level for another thirty seconds or so and then backed off
in power in what sounded like a landing with engines idling and ready. After
exactly two minutes the engines increased in volume and they could tell it was
taking off again. Within another thirty seconds the chopper came back into view
and increased speed heading due west and staying less than fifty feet off the
lake again. Beans disappeared inside and Geno kept his eye glued to that
chopper till it had completely disappeared to the west and the engines could no
longer be heard. Beans was coming back out as he was talking to somone on the
phone, "yup, that's right, yup, right by Rodger's old place, yea go check
it out." "Who's that"? Asked Geno. "That was Danny
Gillespie, he and his brothers are going out to the place that chopper set down
and check it out". "Why". "Because numb nuts, that was a
pretty strange thing having a forty million dollar chopper fly into Beaver
Island at breakneck speed and ground level in the middle of the night and land
for two minutes just to take off again. Considering that Jack seems to be
warped up in some clandestine shit and you said somebody might be after you
guys don't you think we might just want to take a peek up there and see what
the heck is going on"? "Yea, good idea. I am just too tired and
waisted to think clearly right now". "You go get some sleep. The
Gillespie boys will check things out and I'll wake you guys up if anythings
up". "Cool man thanks".
CHAPTER
6: The Beans Ranch, Bringing a rocket launcher to a gun fight.
"Did
anybody get a hold of Doug" yelled Ron Smith. "Yes Ron, he's waiting
to speak with you" said Jane Keen. "Dougy, where are you, what the
fuck, where is Jack, what have you found out". "Hi boss, we are in
Garden Peninsula, Jack was here with his friends Annie G and Geno. They left
and sailed to Beaver island, there are defiantly some spooks on their trail,
they picked up some firepower and we are on our way there now".
"Good, call me when you find them". "Should we come back to D.C."?
"I don't know yet. I would
really like to get a handle on who is behind this shit. We are getting some
information and I have a pretty good idea of what's going on, but I really want
to get Jack's piece of the puzzle". "Ok boss, we'll find him and make
sure he's ok". "Yea, that too".
Doug
Matthies was a six foot seven inch, two hundred and sixty five blond hair, blue
eyed redneck. He had been a world cup down hill ski racer, competitive monster
truck driver, snowmobile racer, elk and mule deer hunting guide, salmon and
trout fishing guide and competed in the unlimited hydroplane circuit for three
seasons until he survived a six flip roll over at one hundred and eighty miles
pre hour disintegrating his hydro and giving him five broken bones, a ruptured
kidney, a couple holes in the lung and a broken nose. After a month and a half
in the hospital he checked himself out and proceeded to immerse himself in his
personally designed rehabilitation routine which mostly consisted of three
hours a day on the shooting range, two hours a day in the gym, driving a
monster truck to Sam's Club and back every day, and a diet of venison, Canadian
beer and Leelanau county wine. Doug had been an outdoor sportsman all his life
and had developed a deep resentment of all the powers that continued to pump
CO2 into the atmosphere despite all the evidence of extreme damage it was
doing. His love of speed, and machines that help one to achieve it had led him
to develop alternative fuels long before the first egghead visit. Doug had
degrees in physics and chemistry which came in handy when it came to developing
alternative fuels, however the best fuel supply turned out to be rather
unsophisticated. A highly refined, distilled alcohol made from corn turned out
to be the most efficient clean burning, easy to produce fuel with the added
side bonus of being great to drink and producing a great buzz. "The
Juice" as Doug's fuel was known, obviously became extremely popular among
the redneck monster truck crowd. It was a total trifecta; race winning power,
clean burning with minimal CO2 emission and a great drunk.....a real redneck
dream come true. The only real downside was that it was illegal, which placed
Doug in somewhat of an outlaw, renegade, hero status. Ron Smith had followed
Doug's antics for several years and figured this was a guy he needed on his
team, so when the ATF guys finally busted Doug for distilling and distributing
"moonshine" he posted his bail, arranged for his defense and offered
him a job. Doug was a great "man in the field", and occasionally
worked with Jack in DC but Ron tended to keep him out of Congressional offices
due to what Ron referred to as an extreme case of voluntary turrets syndrome.
Doug liked to swear ....a lot.
Doug
knew Jack pretty well and was no stranger to the woods and waters of northern
Michigan which made him well suited for the job of locating Jack.
Ron
and company knew that any sort of illegal conspiracy with billions of dollars
at stake wouldn't hesitate to kill whoever might get in their way. With that in
mind, Doug had selected a couple of EAG security guys to accompany him. EAG was
certainly not in the business of security or any kind of clandestine operations but did find the need for in house security
and had hired some badass dudes to fit the bill. Doug had asked for Max
Cunningham and Tom Rum.
Max
Cunningham was a total gun ho, all American, John Wane type. He was ex- Special
Forces and ex secret service. Max had been on the presidential detail during
the Santorum administration and tendered his resignation after the third year
of his term. He loved the service and had been a loyal agent for nine years but
his ability to muster the kind of unquestioning loyalty required to protect the
guy who he regarded as the biggest closed minded, moronic, dick head he had ever
known was disintegrating rapidly. Max simply found it untenable to continue to
put his life on the line for a guy he had absolutely no respect for, so he
quit. The problem with Max was that he had principals, and it is simply
difficult to be a mercenary with principals. It had been easy during his ten
years as a Navy SEAL; train, follow orders, and carry on comfortable in the
knowledge that the United States military is on the side of God. Of course
things had changed and now it was up to Max to figure out who the good (and
bad) guys were. Max was as straight laced as they come. He didn't smoke, drink
or do drugs and at forty two years old, he was in perfect physical condition. Max was not big on conversation and
totally lacked anything near what you would call a sense of humor. When he was
not on the job, his time was spent doing yoga, various marshal arts exercises,
lifting weights, practicing marksmanship with every conceivable kind of weapon,
reading and studying counter terrorism tactics, pyrotechnics, strategies of
warfare and every other possible subject pertaining to his profession. Jack,
Doug, and Tom blew Max an incredible amount of shit on a daily basis, and just
teased him relentlessly, which did little more than evoke an occasional look of
disapproval. They figured that somewhere inside him there must be some sense of
humor, but he never showed it. One thing was for certain; Max was the right guy
to have in your corner when the shit hit the fan!
The
other member of the EAG security team or "gun for hire" as Ron
referred to his security guys was Tom Rum. Tom was quite the opposite of Max
and generally made up for Max's lack of bad habits and them some. Tom was born
and raised in New Zealand and had been involved in just about every high adrenalin
adventure sport imaginable. He had started rock and ice climbing at age seven,
high alpine skiing with his dad at age five. He had graduated from hang
gliding, to para sailing, to BASE jumping, to suit flying and was regarded at
one time as one of the best in all fields thar involved or defied gravity. Tom
was also an accomplished river kayaker, and a world class solo sailer. He had
sailed in four BOAC around the world alone Races and had come in first place
twice. To say Tom was a bit of a nut case and an adrenalin junky was a gross
understatement. Of course his perticular skill set would normally not lend
itself to being part of a security detail what with the propensity to be a
"loose cannon", but Tom also possessed a very high intelligence and
incredible self discipline. He was skilled in mixed Marshall arts, had been in
the top of his class in marksman ship during his requisite four year stint in
the NZ military. Max was rather disapproving of Tom's attitude and lack of
professionalism when he first started working for EAG, however his opinion had
changed dramatically after a scrape they had while providing security for a
meeting of top level scientists and diplomats in Istanbul. Some radical Islamic
types from Saudi Arabia (who's disenfranchisement after petroleum became
useless had caused a really shitty and despite attitude) were basically lobbing
"hail Mary's" and planned a sloppy suicide attack on this high level
meeting. There had been no intelligence breach, and no indication what so ever
that any knowledge of this meeting had leaked. Max and Tom, were not taking
lead on security (that was the job of Turkish intelligence) but they were
assigned to keep an eye on things and provide back up security for the members
of the EAG in attendance. In the overall picture, Max might as well ware a sign
"I Am Security". He stood out like a hooker at a Bible convention,
Tom on the other hand could blend into his surroundings like a chameleon. He
spoke seven different languages and had an uncanny ability to nail whatever
dialect he was speaking just by listening to a few sentences. He also just had
that look of not being out of place no matter where it was. So when Max would
criticize Tom for going out drinking, and carousing, Tom would retort that he
was gathering necessary information in the line of duty
and that he had to get "the lay of the land" if he were to be
effective to which Max would retort "that is just a bullshit excuse for
going out and getting hammered and getting laid".
On
this the first evening of this assignment and after the hotel had been secured
and Turkish agents were in place (both Max and Tom had long since learned to
trust the Turkish security apparatus, recognizing their excellent organization
and general badassness) Tom and one of the senior Turkish intel guys named Ned,
which was not his real name, went out "on a little recon" as Tom put
it. After just one evening of going to the right places, doing the right
things, engaging in the right behavior, talking to the right people, asking the
right questions, and reacting with the right responses, Tom and Ned were able
to gather enough info to suspect a suicide attack in the works. This was along
with eating ossobuco, drinking mass quantities of a fine Turkish liqueur
distilled from opium poppies combining the pleasant effects of both highly
refined alcohol and opiates, smoking the finest Turkish hashish, and partaking
the pleasures of one of Istanbul's finest ladies of the night. "Funny what
you can uncover when you just go the the seedy part of town and pursue some of
life's finer pleasures" was Tom's suggestion, of which Max would have no
part. The ultimate result of Tom's night of debauchery and intel gathering was
another two days of investigation and enough verifiable intelligence to place
Max, Tom, Nate, and two Turkish sharpshooters on rooftops with a secured kill
zone in a plaza which had been cleared of bystanders. At the appointed time
three young men appeared from the subway entrance wearing overcoats on a
particularly warm day. Infrared scamming, and super targeted electron impulse
explosive detection devices immediately indicated that all three men wore vests
with the equivalent explosive yield of fifty pounds of C4 each. "Shooters
Left"
whispered Tom, "shooters right" whispered Max, "middle man"
whispered Nate, follower by a command to his two back up shooters "you two
take out anything left standing.....got it"? "Got it" came the
reply back through his ear set. "Ok guys, on three...one...two...three
shots silenced by advanced grade silencers on their .308 caliber sniper rifles,
three holes in the center of each forehead, exiting out the rear of their
skulls and literally disintegrating the back half of each head. All three men
dropped to the ground simultaneously and other than a few pidgins taking
flight, the plaza was silent. "Good job Tom" Max said into his mic.
Tom knew that Max was a man of few words, and even fewer compliments, and
accepted this kudos as just about the highest complement Max could give. After
this event, Max took to trusting Tom and while still disapproving of his
methods, he did hold a high regard for his results.
If
there were ever a time when someone were in some trouble and needed protection,
short of being in the White House Anti Nuk bunker, Doug, Max , and Tom Rum
would be just about the best situation possible.
They
were on their way back to Escanoba to climb in the new "nitro king"
as the current nitrogen cell, ultra violet, rechargeable, Turbo assist, twin
engine, six passenger, Beechcraft King Air was called, and fly to Jame's field
on Beaver Island. Within thirty five minutes they had touched down and taxied
the the pole barn which was used as a terminal. It was just after dawn and
waiting was Leo Gillespie who owned the only car rental on the island with a
twenty year old GMC Blazer. Doug had called and arranged for the car, "you
Leo" Doug asked. "That's me, you must be Doug" Leo answered.
"Here's your car". "Real piece of shit" Doug said.
"That it is, but it runs, and actually qualifies as one of the finer
automobiles on this island". "It is a thing of beauty" Doug
replied. "So Leo, here is the deal, we are looking for three people who we
think are on the Island; two guys and a chick, Jack Saffell and Geno Miller are
the guys, Annie Gallagher is the chick. Now I know you are not going to tell my
anything cause you don't know me from fucking Adam, but if you can tell Jack
that Dougy is here with Max and Tom and describe us to him, he will want to see
us right fucking now! Just tell him to call me, he knows how...we are at the
Beaver Island Lodge...got it"? "I'm not sure I know what you are
talking about" Leo said. "Right" said Doug. "Let's get this
gear loaded and head to the harbor" Doug said to Max and Tom. "And I
thought Garden Peninsula was my kind of place....this could take the fuckin
cake". "Yea if you like eating possum and boning your sister"
was Tom's comment. They loaded four black duffel bags into the Blazer and
headed north to St. James Harbor.
As
Jack and Annie G came into the kitchen Beans was on the phone. "Yea...yea
I'll tell him. You going to keep an eye on those guys? Have you heard from
Danny? Ok...good". "Who was that" Jack asked. "Leo, he said
he just dropped off a car to some guys at the Air Strip and they asked about
you. He said the guys name was Doug and to tell you he was here. He asked Leo
to describe him and his buddy's to you and that you would know who they were.
They are staying at the Beaver Island Lodge and want you to to contact
him". "Well...describe them". "The guy doing the
talking...Doug...is a big guy, about six, seven, two hundred and fifty maybe
three hundred pounds. Blond hair, blue eyes and says fuck every other word.
There's a guy in a suit who looks like secret service or something, and a wiry
guy who talks like he's from Australia or something". "That's New
Zealand" Jack said. "What" said Beans. "New Zealand, he's
from New Zealand, and that's them, our EAG security dudes, total wackos, you'll
love um". "So you gonna contact them"? "Can't, I disabled
all my communication networks. I figured somebody might be able to hack my
system and use it to locate my position. That's why the boys back at EAG
headquarters are probably freaking out and haven't been able to find
me.....till now, I knew that Dougy was good, but I must say, I am
impressed". "Ok, I'll call Linda over at the lodge and tell her to
bring those guys over here". "Sounds good, now you got any coffee
brewing"? "Right here buddy boy, you want cream....Baileys perhaps"?
Don't mind if I do, where's Geno"? "Still. Crashed" answered
Beans. "You guys get into that Port stash you got in your wine
cellar"? "As a matter of fact we did. We were having a nightcap and
Geno was bringing me up to speed on your somewhat precarious situation. We had
just finished speculating on all the possibilities and what the cause and
effect might be when we spot a chopper coming in from the south, southwest. It
was a real sleek hi tech job the likes of which on one around here has ever
seen much less owned. Anyway, this chopper touches down way south near Rodger's
old cabin best I can figure and takes off again in about two minutes.
Definitely not your every night occurrence. I called Danny Gillespie and asked
if he and his brothers could go down there and check it out. Why would a chopper
touch down in the middle of the night unless to drop somebody
off.....right"? "Right" replied Jack "might be my buddy's
showed up right in the nick of time. Better call Linda". "On
it".
As
Doug and company pulled into Beaver Island Lodge they had already been to the
Harbor and noted the Leading Lady moored at the north end. She was all locked
up and it certainly appeared as though no one had been on board for
awhile, however Doug knew that Jack was stll on the Island or at least close
by. He also knew that his message would get to Jack in short order and all he
would have to do was wait. He was actually looking forward to hanging out on
the deck at the BI Lodge and savoring a couple Bloody Marys, but alas, he knew
there was no time for that when he saw Linda out in front to meet them.
"Follow me" she said as she claimed in her truck and pulled back out
of the drive and onto the gravel road that led to the Kings Highway. Twenty
five minutes later they were pulling up at Beans compound. At just about the
same moment Danny Gillespie and Brothers Raul and Flying Bear pulled in. Jack,
Annie, and Beans came out to greet them. "Fuckin...ah...we been looking
all over the fuckin place for you asshole" were Doug's first words.
"Don't have to sugar coat it for me Dougy, just tell me how you really
feel". "Ok, dip shit, I'll rephrase. Jack, good to see you man, is
everything ok"? "Well, I gotta tell ya, it is really good to see you
guys right now. What started out as a little get away for me to go fishing,
sailing, drinking, and catching up on some sleep has turned into a bit of an
adventure. I mean, I really just thought I was just being paranoid, and then
thought, what the hell; I might as well use it as an excuse for a much needed
getaway. Then it turns out I'm being followed. Now it turns out that whoever is
doing the following has a Bell A Star Plus helicopter, they don't give those
away with a happy meal if you know what I mean. Beans and Geno spotted it coming in last night; land
for a couple minutes and fly away". Max was listening intensely and
surveying the surrounding land scape. Tom had stepped away and was doing the
same with his Nikon 12x 50 w/ infrared and GPS pin point sighting guidance
system. "I suggest you all head inside, we are all kind of like fish in a
barrel standing out here. Beautiful place you got here, by the way".
"Thanks" said Beans "let’s move this party inside". Max had
done all the preliminary set up, lay out and different defense strategies in
his head. He did not have to communicate them to Tom; they had been in the
buissness long enough together to just know what the other was thinking. Of
course Jack picked up on the vibe as well and felt a bit of adrenalin shoot
through his veins. As they moved toward the house Max said "The maximum
capacity for that machine is one thousand four hundred and fifty pounds, so we
could be looking at five guys with two hundred and fifty pounds of gear. It's
probably more like four with seventy five pounds of gear each, at least that's
how we would have deployed. I sure hope they're hacks but they could be well
trained. What's the surrounding landscape like"? "Pretty flat, the
ten acres you see cleared with occasional white pine, Doug fir and maple trees.
To the north is twenty five acres of ag with surrounding hardwood. South is
hard wood that turns into dunes to the west" answered Beans. "How
about the shore line"? "Pretty straight, a bit of a point to the
south about four miles down". "Any security". "Some survalence
left over from the pot growing days when it was illegal. Haven’t had any of
those babies on in years". "Ok, good" Max looked at Tom.
"Got it" said Tom. Just as they were turning to head into the main
house they heard a truck make the last turn on the drive way. The drive was
full of "s curves" and surrounded by thick pine trees for its full
length of three miles. Beans had designed it that way to hide its presents,
discourage usage by curious tourists, and eliminate noise. The design worked as
intended since one could not hear (or see) an approaching car until it was
right in front of the house. "It's cool" beans yelled as Tom, and Max
were about to blow the approaching vehicle away. "It's Danny
Gillespie". The truck was only thirty feet away when it came into view
from a straight on angle. Trees continued to line the drive right up to a turn
around area only twenty feet between the main house, guest house and studio,
which was right where Jack, Annie G, Beans and Doug were standing. Just as
Danny's old Suburban pulled up in front of them and he slammed on the brakes,
they all heard a thump....more like a hammer pounding on metal. Tom who was
over in the pines turned around to see the driver side of the Suburban which
was now between him and the group. "Holy shit, we got incoming" he
shouted as he noticed three bullet holes in the side of the Suburban that
otherwise would have been right through the chests of Jack, Annie G , and Doug.
"Down, down, down" Max yelled. Danny rolled out of the passenger side
of the Suburban and scurried over to the group which had crawled over behind a
bolder by the edge of the walkway. Max had already made it to the back of their
rented Blazer, grabbed two duffles thrown one to Doug and pulled out an M4. Tom
already had his gear and was working his way east in the pine cover. Doug and
Max both sighted their weapons toward the general direction of the shots only to receive two more incoming shots
which sent them back behind their respective cover. Max called up Tom and
Doug's personal communication frequency, "Hey Tom, you got um"? “Yep,
I got um" said Tom. "Do you think they know you're there" Doug
asked. "Don't think so, those three shots were for you guys and they would
have hit the mark if it weren't for that crazy fucker who pulled in in that
Suburban". "They just let two more go at Max and me" Doug said
"we are both pinned; I'm behind the bolder with Jack, Annie, and Beans.
Max is pinned behind our Blazer with Danny". "Just keep them shooting
at you for a second and let me get set up" said Tom. "What you got in
mind". "I think I'll teach those fuckers not to bring a gun to a
missile fight..... Ask beans if there is any chance of friendlies or anything
else I should know about over on that ridge line where the shots are coming
from". "Beans says go for it dude" Doug replied. No sooner has
Doug spoken than a mini laser guided sidewinder missile came whistling from the
pines and struck the area where the shots had come from. The blast encompassed
an area about one hundred feet in diameter with an incendiary explosion that
pretty much melted everything in the bast zone and was over in less than two
seconds. "That outta teach those mother fuckers" announced Doug. Max
was in position with his M4 trained on the target area and surveying the area
with his 14x scope. "I think you melted them" he said to Tom.
"Yea looks like they didn't get outta there quick enough". They both
knew that standard protocol would dictate evacuation your position in pretty
short order if your target was dug in and not likely to expose himself again.
Long evolved shoot outs were the stuff of movies but not real life assignation
attempts. "They were probably packing up to beg out, that's why I didn't
want to waist any time melting the fuck sticks". "You did ok"
was Max's only comment. "You know, if you're right about there being four
or five then, than there are still one or two out there, cuse I pretty sure I
only smoked three". "Ok, here is the call, Dougy, you get everybody
inside and get your gear ready, Tom and I will go on a recon. I will take right
flank to the west, Tom you take left and stay in the pines. Does Beans have any
weapons"? Jack had left the small arsenal that Shirley had given them on
board the boat except for the two sawed off shotguns Geno had stacked in his
duffle, but Beans was a hunter and possessed a gun room with every conceivable
make of sporting rifle. "Yea, I think we're set on guns" Answered
Doug. Beans looked at Doug and said "tell Max to take Danny with
him". Doug was about to ask why, but immediately realized that Danny, even
though not formally trained in this sort of thing probably knew every inch of
the surrounding terrain and that alone would make him an invaluable asset in a
manhunt. It also dawned on him that Danny was a full blood Algonquin Indian and
he was astute enough to recognize that Native Americans generally possessed a
far higher level of awareness when it came to the natural world. It was
entirely possible that Max and Tom, as good as they were could walk right clues
that Danny would spot. "Hey Max, I want you to take Danny with you".
"Roger that, I'm only a hundred yards south along the pine row".
"Danny, which was will they go"? "If they are heading back to
that drop off site, they'll go the same way they came". "How do you
know which way they came"? asked Beans. "Because I tracked them, I
was just hauling ass here to tell you guys when the shit started flying. Looks
like I got here just in time. And by the way...there are two more of the
fuckers". "Ok"said Doug "Danny, you mind going with Max and
finding these assholes"? "Not at all man, give me a gun". Beans
had already grabbed his AR15 and a 1911 45 auto. "It's ok with me if you
want to shoot those dick heads" Beans said as he handed Danny the guns.
Danny bolted and worked his was up to where Max was waiting. Max called Tom
"hey Tom Danny is coming with us. Dougy, filled me in and Danny knows
where these guys are heading". "Who the fuck is Danny and how the
fuck does he know where they are going"? "He's the guy who pulled up
and has three bullets in his truck that would otherwise be in my chest, and he
knows the lay of the land". "We'll, why didn't you say so, hey I'm at
the shooters position, looks like I melted three of them. Also looks like they
were well equipped and we were lucky to smoke them before they had a chance to
use any of this stuff". "Ok, just keep on your toes because Danny
says there were five of um, so we got two left and they might just have some
toys left". As they moved south along the tree line, Danny filled Max in on
what he had figured out so far. "So, how do we play this". "I
think I can get us to a good ambush spot on their route back to the drop off
spot....if that's where they are going". "Sounds like a good plan to
me, what about Tom"? "Let's meet up with him about a mile south, here
are the GPS coordinance. "Hey Tom, meet up with us at this point, got
it"? "Yea, I got it".
Within
an hour they were positioned on a small ridge south of the drop site. The
waited for an hour totally camouflaged without making a sound or moving a muscle.
They were set in a picture prefect triple crossfire position that would have
spelt toast for anyone or anything that ventured within five hundred yards no
matter not well trained or equipped. "I get the feeling these guys had a
different evac strategy than we figured" Tom finally spoke into his
headset. "It's possible we have understood these guys" replied Max,
then asked Danny " any chance they had a boat, you know an inflatable or
something they could have unloaded during their drop and stashed somewhere"?
"When I survived the area I was looking for how many, how much gear and
which way they were heading. I would have noticed if they had an inflatable big
enough for five and with enough HP not to be stuck in the middle of Lake Mich...,
unless that chopper made a beach drop on his way out". "No fucking
way" Tom said as he came to the realization that his adversary's had
probably just flown the coop. "You and Danny take the beach back and I'll
hang out here a bit longer just in case". "Roger that"
"Yea
Ron that right 45 degrees 00 minutes 04 seconds north, 085 degrees 36
minutes406 seconds west. That's right military style Bell a-star
plus/super, black. No, no reg numbers, no, no pictures.....because it was the
middle of the fucking night, we were on our way here and they spotted it by
chance from 4 and a half miles away. Five of them, that's right we smoked
three. Sorry boss, it was us or them. No, no cops so far....well there is not
much in the way of law enforcement out here... No, a local constable that's
it..State boys on the mainland and Charlevoix county sheriff. No, no bodies,
have to use a fucking magnifying glass just to find a piece of bone....yea,
sidewinder at 300 yes. No, all private property, no, no ancillary damage at
all, just torched them their equipment and a hundred feet of brush land. Should
we come back to DC? Ok well stay put for 12 hours but I would just as soon get
outta here. No, I actually rather like it here, my kinda place, but considering
somebody sent five well trained mercenaries to do us in. Yea well they have the
same latitude and longitude I just gave you and if they are safistacated enough
to have solders and high tech weapons and a chopper, they might just have a
cruse missile to send our way and finish their job. Ok boss will do". Doug
turned to everyone "ok you guys heard the gist of that, Ron suggests we
keep a lid on smoking those guys and let him take care of it from the top down-
and that sounds like an awfully good idea to me-that is if we can. Now, he also
suggests we sit tight for 12 hours, for him to arrange a level three
security detail and them for us to come in to DC via private jet to Reagan and
proceed from there under the L3 detail. Personally, I think that idea
sucks". "Me too said Jack". "So, what do you want to
do"? "BVI"? said Geno. "BVI" asked Tom Rum.
"British Virgin Islands" said Geno "Well alrighty now" said
Jack. "Now you're talking" said Tom. "I'm in" said Doug.
"What the hell, I've come this far with you bozos" said Annie G.
Everyone was looking at Max who had just been through a fire fight, hiked five
miles through the woods and back with fifty pounds of gear, and had not even
loosened his heck tie. He was brushing some dust off his standard black sport
coat, and just finished combing his hair. "What" he said as he
noticed everyone looking at him. "Are you in" asked Jack? "That
is Doug's call, I will do my job". "What was your assessment of the
exit site" he asked Tom and Danny. "15 ft nautilus with a super
compact outboard, probably around a hundred and twenty horse power capable of
doing at least fifty knots. They could be anywhere on the mainland with that
boat packed up and in the trunk of a car and heading south on I 75 by now. It
was two guys with five fairly heavy duffles of gear". "Ok, I get
it" Max answered "Douglas, I completely agree with your assessment of
our current situation as untenable and completely unsecured, what sort of
security apparatus do you have recon ordered in the vicinity ". Doug just
looked at Jack and Geno as if to say, hey he might be a nerd but he can keep
you from getting shot and Jack with his simi-telepathy sensed a vision from all
five of them and Max in this leather loafers, tie and suit coat standing on
deck of a catamaran sail boat in the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean.
Jack said "yea Dougy, I read your mind".
Jack's
friend James (Jimmy) Klise who had been living in Key West had recently moved
back to the BVI where he had spent ten years of his life as a charter captain,
bartender and general jack of all trades. Jack and Geno had met him at
Lobblolly bay on the island of Anegada. He was now living on a custom built 60
foot Catamaran in Road Town Tortola and making great money in the charter
business. He had acquired a nice charter business along with the boat when an
elderly couple named Hank and Marla Green he had worked for as a captain passed
away and left him the boat. They had lived abroad for half the year and let it
out for charter the other half. Jimmy had started working for them in '24 and
immediately developed a close relationship with Hank and Marla. They were
both ninety two years old and in great shape ..., when he had started working
them and Jimmy became like a son to both of them. They spent the first two
seasons together cruising the Caribbean from Puerto Rico to Tobago. During the
summer and fall Hank and Marla would move to their cabin in Montana and Jimmy
would work on the boat and maintain a charter schedule. Over the next several
years he would deliver the boat to Jamestown Road Island for two months in the
summer. By '28 Hank and Marla were starting to slow down and show the effects
of ninety six years of live on earth. It was only by Jimmy's care that they
were able to spend the next two years on the boat. Jimmy had become pretty
attached to them both and he pretty much served as Captain, cook, caretaker, nurse
and manager for the charter business. In '30 Hank's health took a turn for the
worse and both of them mover to a long term care facility. One of their sons
moved to Tortola and took over the charter business and Jimmy moved to Key West
to work as a bone fishing guide. He stayed in touch with Hank and Marla, and
made the trip to Montana twice a year to visit. In January of 2032 they both
passed away within two week of one another. A week later Jimmy got a message
from their attorney that he had inherited the boat, the charter business and
seven hundred and fifty thousand in cash. Needless to say, this was a good time
in Jimmy's life.
"We
have a Super King Air sitting at the air strip, and three of us can fly
it" said Doug. “Make that four" said Annie G. "Make that
five" said Geno. “What, am I the only fucker around here that hasn't
learned how to fly an airplane" said Jack. “Let’s hit it". "We
can head due south and refuel in Atlanta, we’ll be in Tortola by seven this
evening".
CHAPTER
7: D.C. The World’s largest Private Arms Dealer
"So
what do we have so far"? Ron asked to the group gathered around the
conference table at the EAG headquarters. Sitting at the table was, Ron, Laura,
Pete Miller from the NSA, Art Dutton from the Secretary of Defense office,
Doctors Chang, Watson, and Sam Markey. "I think there is some kind of
major conspiracy going on that is directly related to the GECA" Laura
started. "As you are all well aware there have been numerous efforts in
the past to reconstitute any number of various fossil fuels for any number of various reasons. Some well meaning,
some not, some large scale, some small, however none that have proven
successful as far as we know. Now, all of these past efforts no matter how
large the scale has never represented anything more than what we would call-
rather isolated attempts ether by a rogue nation for military purposes or
corporate interest for the purpose of profit. None of this being illegal, just
hard to do and as such, hardly worth doing. Well, Gentlemen and Ladies, it
would seem that from the pieces of evidence-that while coincidental and antidotal on their own- seen to add up to
something on a much larger and substantially more sinister scale".
"What the hell are you talking about here Doctor Jones" asked Pete
Miller. Pete was a chief officer at the NSA and was the NSA lesion to the White
House. "We don't have any such intel that I'm aware of". “Like I
said" continued Dr. Jones”
The
clues are small and seemingly unrelated until you start to piece them together
and develop a theory". "So this is strictly theoretical stuff we are
talking about.....right? Asked Pete. "Right.... And frankly I hope it's
wrong.....but at this point I don't think so". Ron jumped in at this point
"Laura has just spent the past seventy two hours compiling, filtering, and
piecing together every shred of information available from our own sources and
co-oping with you guys (looking at Pete and Art) as well as the CIA, Turkish,
and Israeli intelligence and the Chinese". Ron was absolutely correct,
Laura had been piecing bits and pieces of data together and running hundreds of
different programs, filters and algorithms trying to find common denominators
and make sense of otherwise insignificant actions all over the world. Dr Laura
Jones was quite simply the best at this sort of thing and had often assisted
various Government security agencies, so when she suggested a conspiracy, it
was not taken lightly. "So, let's hear your opinion" said Ron.
Well
first, I believe that somebody has already developed a formula to reconfigure
petroleum and refine it back into high grade combustible fuel. I'm talking
gasoline, aviation fuel, you name it. I think that it is being scaled up and is
being refined at secret locations all over the world. Second, I believe that
there is an international conspiracy behind this that is much more far reaching
than we can imagine. It's likely that entire developing nations are involved,
and a number of international banking interests. Quite possibly a few radical
religious groups and I'm guessing some higher ups in various governments and
militaries of many developed countries including ours. I think that whoever
this is, they have been secretly stock piling left over oil reserves, and
fossil fuel powered machinery and military
equipment for years. I also get the impression that they are gearing up
reemployment of disserted oil extraction facilities along the east coast and
central corridor of Africa".
In
the last few years before the first visit from the eggheads, geological research had turned up vast and previously unknown reserves in
the areas of Nigeria, Congo, and Somalia where there were already known
reserves but the political climate and civil unrest had made further
exploitation to risky. Increasing demand from the thirsty nations of Western
Europe, the U.S. and China had finally overcome the risk factors and vast
reserves all along the central corridor of Africa just below the equator and
along the eastern coast from Somalia to South Africa. These reserves that dwarfed
the Middle East reserves were just beginning to be exploited when the eggheads visit rendered them
useless. The discovery of vast oil reserves in a particular country or region
does not necessarily spell property for the indigenous people as we have learned from the Middle East and
other " oil rich" countries' the insuring political upheaval, the
civil war and general unrest seemed to prove that this was no different.
Africa, which was mostly a political mess and the tribal nature of African
culture, made for a lot of competing interests for control over the new found
treasure.
When
suddenly the new found treasure which everyone is fighting over is found to be
useless the underlying animosity continues and conflict just intensifies rather
than diminishes. The past sixteen years had done little to improve conditions
in Africa. While desalination and irrigation had done much to alleviate wide
spread famine, most attempted democratic central governments had failed to take
hold and overall economic conditions had remained dismal for a majority of the
population.
"Third,
I believe that this conspiracy has malevolent intentions that are nothing short
of an upset in the world’s balance of power. I also believe that the pending
Global Energy Cooperation Act, which we believe every world power is in favor
of, proposes a serious thorn in the side of this conspiracy, and I think that
is why they are willing to take more overt action at this moment. If I'm right,
they obviously would be highly motivated to see that the GECA dies a quick
death, and they certainly possess the resources to eliminate any obstacle
standing in the way of their objectives. In our case, that obstacle is Jack. He
obviously stumbled onto something that was regarded by these guys as a serious
impediment to their goals; enough to try and take him out. Doug was lucky
enough to locate him just as a highly trained and equipped team of unidentified
assets were about to take him and his friends out. Our guys had to fry three of
them and two got away. The bottom line is that this conspiracy could easily
reach way up into any of the cabinets. We could be talking about staff,
advisors and even Senators and Members of Congress. We could be talking about
Generals, Admirals, Assistant secretaries, and senior staff in the militaries.
We could even be talking about the NSA, Department of Defense, CIA, Homeland
Security, and the FBI...........any questions"?
"Ok
this actually makes sense and your theory is plausible" said Art Dutton
“but, other than your intuition, what kind of proof do you have that can help
substantiate any of this"? "First of all somebody and I'm not talking
amateurs here, tried to kill Jack Saffell. Now why in the world would somebody
with professional assassins on the payroll want to kill an environmental
lobbyist? And what has Jack been working on? Only the most significant, global
changing, international cooperation treaty EVER! And what's the most important
thing that this treaty will accomplish? Actually outlaw any type of CO2 emissions,
and construct a mechanism to monitor and enforce it on a complete and global
scale. Since every single person on earth will benefit from this treaty, and it
will be the single biggest event since our first visit from the eggheads to
actually save humanity from extinction, there would need to be a pretty
compelling reason to try and fuck it up. And what could that reason possibly be
but the usual lust for wealth and power.....on a huge scale! If this treaty
goes through, and I'm right about this, someone will stand to lose
gazillions". "Once again" said Art "I get it, but I'm still
hearing speculation. Maybe Jack just pissed off the wrong group of people years
ago, and this attempt to waist him has nothing to do with the GECA".
"What else do you have" asked Ron. "I have had Fin over in
Istanbul working on human migration trends over the past six years and she has
come up with some things that stand with my theory that are otherwise
inexplicable. Next, we have tracked fifty six different petroleum disposal
sites and it looks like all have been stockpiling and shipping to hidden
storage facilities in Somalia, Libya, and probably all over north, central and
the west coast of Africa. A compilation of satellite data that I ran through a
dozen different algorithms tends to show the
same kind of thing happening with a bunch of machinery. I'm sure you guys
realize that security involved in the storage, dismantling, and destruction of
a whole butt load of military hardware and equipment has been sloppy at best.
More like nonexistent. I don't blame then since everybody figured the stuff was
unusable junk and why waist resources guarding junk, but I think we have
located several storage sites and I'm guessing there are hundreds more."
Plus, after comparing notes with my guys at Langley, it looks like some actions
and movement by key assets could be explained by my theory".
After
2016 when the eggheads granted humanity the gifts of various emissions free,
renewable, energy technologies and a year later when fossil fuels became non
combustible, a lot of the world's oil reserves just sat around in storage.
Industry still had use for oil rather than burning it for energy and many of
those uses were still viable even with the slight molecular changes made by the
eggheads. Even with the making of plastics, non combustible solvents, waxes,
and all the other uses of crude oil, it still only amounted to less than two
percent of the total annual use. Considering that the world had ninety eight
prevent more oil than it would ever need and that it tended to be otherwise
nasty stuff (large oil spills were never fun) the eggheads gave humanity
another gift; a chemical process to turn crude oil into a harmless benign
liquid that could be absorbed into seawater or evaporated into the atmosphere.
Thousands of facilities throughout the developed nations were set up to serve
this purpose and the vast majority were of course privately held and operated.
Everyone listening to Dr. Jones elaborate on her theory knew that if some
motivated, well organized group wanted to amass billions and billions of
barrels of oil and billions of tons of military machinery, it would have been
relatively easy to do over the past ten years.
"Ok
tell me about the suspicions migrations Dr. Hamerat is charting" Dr.
Watson asked. "We have a recent move of over two million people into the
area just north of the border of the new Turkish-Pakistani border".
"So, that's not new, they have been moving south for a while since things
turned sour in Russia". "No, this is different. That's why I got Fin
working on it. Looks like the demographics are way younger; predominately male
17 to 25. We show the same kind of thing moving west to east in Dar for, south
Sudan, Kenya, and Somalia". "So what do you think that means"
asked Art. "Not sure, but that kind of movement with those demographics is
usually a prelude to conflict, and if I were a conspiracy bent on shifting the
balance of power and amassing vast wealth through selling weaponry, machinery
and the fuel to power it. I would love to have a few large scale conflicts
going on just to shake shit up and province the requisite distraction”.”Good
point" said Ron. At this point Dr. Watson chinned in "we have all
been feeding Laura data, and Sat. Image we studied, kind of backs this up. We
don't have anything obvious and no change day to day, but if we track say, a
two hundred day log, then we show possibly underground storage, refining
facilities, warehouses, you name it. All in the same basic geographic locations
Laura has alluded to. Oh and also west central Russia".
At
just about the same time Art and Pete both asked "what's their
objective" and "what's their plan of action". ""Start
with thousands of F 35s and Abrams a1a tanks and you can get the picture. At
bare minimum you become the world’s largest private arms dealer, at worse you
start wars and take over small countries like dominos. I have no idea regarding
potential game plans, but my opinion is that they have actually been sitting on
the re-combustion formula for a while.....years maybe.... and planned to
produce a mass quantity of fuel before exposing anything. Then along comes the
Global Energy Cooperation Act Treaty and throws a big old humongous horsefly
into their bowl of oatmeal". "You don't happen to have a reasonable
strategy for proceeding on this do you" asked Pete Miller.....
"And..... What the fuck
am I supposed to tell the President"? "No action plan Pete" said
Ron "like Laura said, anybody could be involved......anybody! Could even
be you two...or me, but then why would I have My team telling you this
stuff....and I kind of doubt ether of you are involved because I've know you
both for over thirty years and I trust my own intuition. But the NSA, CIA,
Military, even administration staff are all suspect....... Basically the plan
is for you two along with whatever key people you can trust, to come up with a
plan. We found our boy, and that was our first concern. Oh, and Pete, I'll need
you to cover us on that bit of handy work on Beaver Island, unless of course
you want me to explain to the local authorities why guys were shooting at each
other with sniper rifles and some got cooked with a shoulder launched
sidewinder". “Yea", said Pete "I'll see what I can
do".
"I
am convinced and I will defiantly implement an investigation, but if as you
suggest, this thing has tentacles in our own Government, I will have to tread
lightly and chose my allies carefully" said Pete. "I suggest you do
the same Art. Who do you trust in the upper echelon of the CIA and the Joint
Chiefs of Staff"? "I got a few here and there that I'm pretty sure I
can trust, how about you"? "Yea, same here. One thing for sure; I
don't trust any of those PPPEP types or those fucking Party of Traditional
American Values bastards. That bone head Santorum just about fucked over this
whole country just because he was arrogant enough to believe his image of god had to be embraced by all of humanity. I still can't
quite believe the hubris of a man that commands we believe in the writings of
men with undeniable personal vested interest over thousands of years just
because it is his Bible, and continues to desperately cling to his fable after
the entire world actually witnesses a superior race of beings with undeniable
proof that they created life on earth. I would not be completely surprised if
some of those PTAV bastards are at the heart of this shit". "Yea, I
agree that guy's a dip shit.... So Pete, how we'll do you know General Lukas"?
"Meet with him twice a week, top notch guy, most pragmatic mind in there
since Powell retired....why"?
"I know him pretty well myself" said Art "we actually graduated
West Point a year apart, and I agree with your assessment. I think I will head
over to the Pentagon and have a little pow-wow with him". General Alfred
Jacob Lukas was a five star general and current head of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff. His friends knew him as A.J. and Pete, Art, and Ron all agreed that he
was the least likely guy in the world to be corrupt. "The bottom line is
that if A.J. is in on this shit....we are all fucked" was the way Ron had
put it as they adjourned the meeting. "Art, take Sam with you when you
brief AJ. He has been riding shotgun with Laura and might be able to fill in
the blanks when AJ and his staff question you; if not, he can do the telepathy
thing with Laura and she can connect the dots". "Good idea Ron,
thanks. My assistant has already contacted his office; we are heading there
right now.....Sam, you ready to roll"? Sam looked at Ron and Laura.
"Go ahead, I'll connect everything we've got to your personal data
frequency, usual security protocol and it’s only going to be up loaded for an
hour then it will self disintegrate from the system. Let me know if you get
delayed and I can reload, but SOP dictates sixty minutes maximum per shared
upload. Got it"? "Yea, got it Laura, I know what to do, thanks".
"Let's roll” said Art "our driver and detail are waiting".
Waiting
in the secure parking area, right at the exit of the direct elevator to EAG
offices were two vehicles; a black Suburban and a D.C. Police car escort. In
the Suburban was a driver and secret service officer. In the Police car were
two Washington D.C. Cops. Art and Sam jumped into the back seat and within
thirty seconds they were heading south on K street toward the Pentagon. Sam
suddenly felt queasy and his peripheral vision was blurry. He felt an intense
heat and overwhelming dizziness. He turned to his left to see that Art was
unconscious. That was the last thing he saw.
CHAPTER
8: B.V.I. A conversation with the Big Man.
"Hey
Jimmy, We're over Turks and Caicos right now, be on Beef island in one hour. We
can dodge customs with some diplomatic shit Rod pulled via the state
department". "Ok Jack, I'm in Trellis Bay, like two minutes from the
airport. Do you want me to send a van"? "Can you that would be
awesome". "Can I? What the fuck, I own a charter service. Josh will
be there, are you going to the terminal"? "No, we are going to the
west hanger, like I said we get a waive through with the customs routine and
taxi right to the U.S. diplomatic hanger. That’s probably a good thing because
we have some major firepower that might be hard to explain to your average
customs agent". Within the hour they were at the "Nanny Lu" as
Jimmy! Boat was named. Hank and Marla had named the boat, Jimmy said it was
"after their great grandmother or some shit". Jimmy was never very
keen on the name, but he regarded it as bad luck to ever change a boats name,
so the Nanny Lu it was. She was equipped with four staterooms and three
additional crew quarters. She was sixty two feet overall with a twenty five
foot beam. She had a cruising speed under full sail of fourteen knots at
anything over ten knots of wind speed. She could motor at twelve with a top
speed of eighteen under power and she could surf at twenty two knots downwind
with an asymmetrical spinnaker. She was extremely maneuverable in the harbor
with twin screws she could do a three hundred and sixty degree circle in one
spot. She was loaded with the latest in electronics, had a 300 KW solar
generator, and a 200 GPH water maker. She could cruise for three months without
resupply, and easily complete a transatlantic in sixteen days. She was a
totally self-sufficient world cruiser and she could be sailed by two people.
"Jack,
Geno......and my sweet, sweet Annie G." Jimmy yelled as they were hauling
gear down the pier. "You two fuck sticks look like a couple dog du snow
cones but Annie, you look fabulous". "Thanks honey, when did you
start featuring the Captain Jack Sparrow look"? "Just
started..Whattdaya think"? "The braided goatee's a bit much,
otherwise not bad". "So Jackie, where you guys want to go"?
"I'll tell you Jimmy, this is fucking paradise, man I could go anywhere,
just get a cold Heineken in my hand and I'll be in heaven". "Hey
Jimmy, these are the guys who saved my life, Dougy, Max, Tom, meet Jimmy. Doug
and Tom know their way around a boat. Tom has done a couple BOAC around alone
races". “I’m not worthy" Jimmy said bowing down in honor and jest
"you are my hero....and I don't even know you". Jack continued
"Max is not a sailor but he is a badass Special Forces guy who can handle
anything. If we can get his tie and sport coat off him....maybe even a beer in
his hand we'll be doing good". "Let's shoot over to Anegada for the
night". "This is a nice boat mate" Tom Rum said as he was untied
a stern line". "We'll, it would be my honor for you to take the helm
and take her out". "My pleasure there captain".
Within
ninety minutes they were at anchor at a small anchorage just west of the main
harbor on the Island of Anegada. Jack had taken one of the Avon tenders to a
lone beach on the west side of the island. It had been a pretty crazy week for
Jack and he really needed to sit on the beach for a couple hours and just try
to figure some things out. Other than the deadly nature of their situation and
being shot at, the past week had been pretty darn fun. He was thinking that it
seemed like a long time since he had left Washington D.C. He kind of wondered
if he was ever going to go back. He thought about what had transpired in the
weeks leading up to his departure and the odd circumstances that led to the
disconcerted feeling he could not shake. Jack had been born with his uncanny
ability to read people and he was well aware of the nefarious nature of things
that were brewing. After a few hours, he was starting to piece together the
chain of events and people involved who he had seen or talked to and start to
make sense of what was going on. He was just pondering on the fact that a lot
of humanity was shit heads and really didn't care about each other. Why the
neck were they like that, weren't the eggheads a force of good, weren't they
benevolent and loving, weren't
we supposed to be like them. Why would people deny the advantages and true
gifts from a truly higher power in the Universe? Had they not been writing
about and praying to this power for centuries in attempts to understand and
explained things beyond our comprehension. Had they not literally created us
and let us evolve and develop a higher intellect and develop technology and had
not technology evolved along with our biological evolution. Had not our
technological evolution long since overtaken our biological evolution? Unlike
every other spices on earth; humans highly evolved technology had allowed then
to adapt the world around them to suite their own needs and wants, rather than
having to rely on biological evolution to adapt themselves to survive in their
surroundings. Pretty amazing stuff Jack thought. He was just wondering why the
eggheads would allow humanity to fuck up all the technological gifts they had
given us, but then he realized the history of man was fraught with inexplicable
events of crudity and selfishness. I guess we are a fucking bunch of pigs he
thought to himself.......And I am just running away, maybe I'm just another one
of the fucking pigs myself.......
"No
you're not" a voice came from behind him. Jack turned around to see a
pleasant looking middle aged man sitting in the sand behind him. "Who the
hell are you" Jack asked? "You can call me Bob" said the
gentleman. "Where the hell did you come from man, I didn't hear a
thing". Bob just smiled and rolled his eyes upward toward the sky.
"Holy shit, are you an egghead". "You realize that we never
really cared for that particular name". “Well you guys could have given us
something easier than ecohedanosphearic entities". Bob replied that Echos
or something along those lines could have been a bit better, but you have to
admit, eggheads are a bit derogatory, especially since we did actually create
you people, and suggested that a little respect would not be too much to ask
for. "Good point Bob, so what brings you to Anegada"? "It seems
like things are getting a little out of hand these days, and we thought you
might want a hand". "Me.....Me...I need a hand? What about other
people. .....like maybe someone a bit more qualified to save the world".
"Nope...it's you". "Why". "Just your lucky day I
guess". "So, are you going to fill me in on who is trying to kill me,
and maybe who is trying to get gas to burn again and start some wars and sell
weapons and cause extreme suffering, death, destruction and possible
atmospheric deterioration all for selfish personal gain"? "Yup".
"Ok...who"? "Lots of people". “Can you be a bit more
specific". "Senate minority leader Justin Amash". "Oh
that's just great Justin Amash .Why don't I just call the cops and tell them
that Senator Justin Amash is trying to kill me, and by the way, he is also the
mastermind behind a clandestine, sinister, worldwide conspiracy bent on world
collapse.....that should work just wonderfully". "Yes, of course, you
could be more delicate. That approach might work well with....say....Ted
Nugent; he has been part of the
conspiracy for years. Of course everyone already knows he's a wacko".
"That's funny; I always figured he was an alien". "Hhhooo...That
hurt, you have a good sense of humor Mr. Saffell, and you are pretty
sharp". "Jack, please, call me Jack. After all I'm the one that's
been referring to you guys as eggheads for sixteen years.....and sorry by the
way, I mean o disrespect. I was only sixteen years old when you guy showed up.
I really am a big fan...you guys are awesome". "Thanks, you know, we
do try, but it's been this rule where we really don't want to micromanage things
here, that was never the idea". "You realize you’re not alone, there are thousands of different civilizations all over the
universe that are at different stages of evolution". "Where do we
place"? "You guy rank pretty high. All in all you are doing a decent
job for yourselves. I mean, you do have your share of assholes, but the majorities
are kind, loving people who really do care for each other". "Thanks,
that's refreshing to hear. So.....are you God"? "I guess you could
say that. Most of your major religions these days seem to be monotheistic, but
our whole civilization is interconnected, so it could actually be thought of as
one single power or force within the universe. It's actually many universes in
many different dimensions, you just happen to inhabit one of them at the
moment. We are responsible for life on earth if that's what you mean. As you
have already figured out, all the information needed to create a human being
can be found in a single DNA molecule. Rather basic stuff really. So, I suppose...Yes...
We are what most humans refer to as God. As I said Jack, we have planted seed
of life, if you will, all over the many universes for billions of years. Your
spices, is but one among thousands and every civilization that has evolved as
far as yours has developed some form of religion. Often, as in your case, many
different religions, this is equally as often very problematic. You see Jack;
it is only natural and intuitive for a spices that has advanced to a stage of your
technology to start to wonder about things outside themselves. To wonder where
they came from, and what their purpose is. You certainly need to have reached
the level of evolution where survival is not predicated upon your biological
evolution keeping up with the needs of your surroundings, but rather, your
technological evolution keeping up with your need to adapt your surroundings to
your specific needs. For you guys that happened a couple hundred thousand years
ago. Fire, stone tools, sharp sticks, that sort of thing. Anyway, as the brain
developers and the neocortex develops a network to link it all together on the
different levels and humans started to recognize their different thought
patterns, that is to say, understand abstract thought and imagination. At this
point in evolution it seems necessary to develop some sort of spirituality or
religion just as a way of explaining things that are otherwise unexplainable at
the time.......so most civilizations just make it up. Make sense to you
Jack"? "Yea, sort of. Let me get this straight. So, basically
religion is correct, that there is a God, or higher power, and that's you guys...right"?
"Right". "And, even though most religions think in terms of one
God, that is not totally wrong because you guys are interconnected, so it's
kind of just a matter of semantics...right"? "Right". "But,
what about all the different prophets and rituals and scriptures and
stuff"? "We'll jack, I am afraid that you people pretty much made all
that stuff up. Like I said, it is only natural to wonder and try to make sense
of things, but when one group claims to have it all figured out and possess
exclusive access to The ANSWERS......well that's when the shit hits the fan.
For some reason at this stage of your development, you people seen to be
willing to fight each other over abstract believes. It is somewhat
understandable to fight for say, food, or shelter, of something having to do
with your survival, but this insistence on killing to defend your ideology is
baffling to us". "So we are like the lovable yet dysfunctional
family" asked Jack. "Something like that" answered Bob.
Jack
was not really surprised at how exhilarated he felt at the moment. His head was
so full of questions, with different thoughts racing so fast in his
brain......he thought to himself "calm down Jack.....keep it cool".
Never the less he felt kind of like a groupie at a rock concert. "Ok, how
long do I have" Jack asked. "Do you mean, to live" asked Bob.
"No, no...Sorry... I mean...right now, to talk to you. How long do I get
to talk to you? As you might imagine I have a few more questions, and it's not
every day you get to talk to God.....or an alien.....or both". "I'm
not in any hurry. I've been around since the first great human migration started;
I might as well spend a few more minutes answering questions for you Jack. Or
maybe you just want to email me a list of bullet point questions".
"Can I do that” asked Jack. "Jesus No" said Bob "I was just
kidding, but actually, we do like your Internet thing. I tap in on occasion to
check things out. You guys really made it easy with that Facebook invention
back in the first decade of this millennium. I especially liked the "God
Facebook" page, that guy was hysterical". "Bob, you’re a pretty funny guy yourself, are all
the eggheads like you"? "Yes, I think you would find us similar in
that respect, and we do adapt ourselves to our surroundings, mostly to extend
comfort to whoever we are communicating with. However we do have individual personalities; as you would you put it. There are some definite
ironies in the universe and recognition of them can be entertaining. I believe
that is what you would consider humor. I must say though, humans really do take
this humor thing to a higher level. That seems to be one of the ironies of your
race; you have the capacity for incredible kindness and selflessness, yet also
have the capacity for incredible cruelness and inhumanity. We have long
speculated that your sense of humor developed as a sort of coping mechanism for
this paradox. What else would you like to know".
"Just
how much influence have you guys had on our development"? "Do you
mean like actively”. "Yes, exactly like sixteen years ago when you showed
up and gave us the gifts of technology and saved us from destroying our
atmosphere". "We have been keeping an eye on your world since the
beginning if that's what you’re referring to. We have made a few visits at key
times. We did introduce technology to the first humanoids. After several
hundred thousand years your technology was stagnating and you guys were kind of
stuck in the hunter gatherer thing so we introduced agriculture and beasts of
burden. Some of the early advanced civilizations took to it well....you know,
Mesoamerica, Egypt, China, the Fertile Crescent". "What about all the
Christianity stuff, what about Jesus Christ" asked Jack. "Not
us" answered Bob. "Awesome guy totally had the right idea... But not
us". We pretty much stayed out of the picture until sixteen years ago
when, as you stated, we figured out that your atmosphere was at a tipping
point. It just so happens that you guys had just recently figured out how to
digitize information and your ability to store more and more of it in less
space has increased rapidly. What humanity has yet to recognize is that this
ability to digitize information is the tipping point for all civilizations to
become advanced. Quite truthfully, we probably would have let you guys go ahead
and just trash your own planet but for the fact that you passed this tipping
point. We just couldn't see letting you parish and we realized you were ready
for a technology boost. Humanity would have figured out everything we taught
you eventually. That's just how it works, so we simply sped things up a bit,
and probably saved your planet. The general consensus was that it would be a
shame to have you guys come all this way and survive to join the ranks of the
advanced spices only to destroy your habitat in the misguided attempt to adapt
your environment to your needs. So, that is the reason behind our intervention
of 2016".
"Ok,
next question" said Jack. "How have we preformed as a spices, since
your intervention? I mean, it seems to me as if we as a spices are loath to
accept any kind of productive change. I have witnessed it in my work for the
past six years. Men can look you in the face and lye about things that
literally affect the entire human race, and quite often I can sense that they
truly don't care. I can actually feel their indifference toward their fellow
man. I can actually look into their minds........or soul.....if you will, and
see a void. How can it be that, in the wake of all the gifts of life and
technology you have bestowed on us that people can be so......so......fucked
up"? "That's kind of a tuff one Jack" answered Bob. "On the
whole, your race has behaved admirably, but you are correct, there are still
problems and still problemed people. I don't
think I possess an adequate answer for you on that one Jack. What I can say is
that there has always existed a struggle within the cosmos between positive and
negative energy. Many of your Religions explain it as the struggle between God
and The Devil, which is not a bad analogy but really kind of misses the point.
The struggle is within each and every one of us, not between two actual
entities. We seem to have advanced to a point to which negative energy is
simply not tolerated, and as such, has not really influenced our progress and
development for trillions of years. That is not to say however that negative
energy does not still exist......it does. In the case of humanity, it will
suffice to say that you guys are still working on it, and all in all you are
moving in the right direction".
"Ok
next question, if you created us- and apparently a lot of other spices too- who
the hell created you"? "Hummm, you have interesting questions Jack. I
was not mistaken in gauging your capacity for understanding at a high level. We
come from a previous spices like ourselves. Your human understanding of time is
limited, but for the purpose of this explanation, just consider a length of
time that your current understanding of math has not reached. The only
definition you have for it so far is INFINITY. So, in other words, a really long time ago, we were
once like you. We had evolved from one cell organisms in a bio-metophisicological
fashion. Our seeds had been planted and nurtured in a fashion similar to what
we did with you and many others over the last several trillion years. Anyway,
as we evolved, and employed technology, just as you have, we eventually were
able to exist as information and energy, without the need of a biological
support system. It is actually a bit more completed that just energy and
information, but that is the best I can come up with as far as an explanation
within you human realm of understanding. Maybe the best way to explain is to
use a human concept that helps you to define the indefinable. I guess you could
say that we have a soul. Do you understand Jack"?
"Yea, actually I think I do". "Good, I realize this is heavy
shit, but I'm the one that is calling on you, so you do have the right to
understand as much as is humanly possible. So basically, we continued to evolve
and be nurtured by our creators as did other spices and over what you would
again consider infinity, we all assimilated into one. We achieved a total
singularity and became one with our creators, our technology, and each other.
Since then we have been able to transcend dimensions-at least as you understand
them- create many universes, plant new life throughout those universes, and
pretty much carry on as we are supposed to.....do you have more
questions"?
"Well
yesssss..... How long do you guys live? What happens when you die, and how do
you reproduce???? Or do you even reproduce"? "Ok, ok, one at a time.
I'm not sure I can adequately answer those ones ether but I'll try. First, to
use your preferred English vernacular, We live a really fucking Long time! I've
been around since you guys started migrating out of the African continent,
which was beautiful by the way. It was a complete joy to watch your curiosity
and unquenchable spirit of adventure......but I digress....so, yes we basically
live forever and that; my dear Jack answers your next question. We don't die,
not by you concept anyway. We eventually do what you might consider a sort of
recycle thing, but that is simply beyond your ability to understand, and, quite
frankly, my ability to explain. The last one is difficult to answer as well.
The process I explained to you regarding where we came from....our
evolution....our singularity.....well, let's just say, that's still going on.
It is a continuum, of time, space, and energy.....or, let's call it life.....It
is A life continuum, and we are all part of it. Fact is Jack that you are A
part of it too.....do you get what I am saying to you"? "I think so,
and if I am on the right page, you may have answered my next and far most
important question". "That's right Jack, you are defiantly on the
right page, and you intuition serves you well. I will ask you to keep that one
under your hat if you will, for many obvious reasons". "Oh but Bob,
that's the big one! What da ya mean I gotta keep that one under my hat? That is
like the single biggest unanswered question in the history of mankind and you
just insinuated the answer and I have to KEEP IT UNDER MY HAT....is that about
it"? "Yup, that's about it Jack. I didn't say our conversation, or my
answers to your questions, or what I am going to ask would be easy for you. Do
you have more questions"?
"Just
a couple hundred" said Jack with a somewhat snarky tone. "Might have
to keep it to an even hundred" Bob retorted in kind. "What about
physics, what about atoms, molecules, particles, relativity, the speed of
light, quantum physics, parallel dimensions, black holes. Universal expansion
and how the hell does carbon based life fit in the picture? Oh, and how small
do things really get? Is it like a whole other universe could exist in the
space of what we know as a particle? Oh and how long does a star usually have?
I mean, specifically how long before our sun burns out"? "You know
Jack, sooner or later we are going to have to get around to why I am here right
now, and if you line of questioning gets any more generic, I will have to
rethink my original high opinion of you and your capacity for knowledge and
pragmatism. So, here we go. Your understanding of basic physics is sound;
Quantum physics is just like religion, a way to explain inexplicable things.
The speed of light is what it is, but by no means does that establish any sort
of limit to the travel and transfer of energy, or matter in any form. Black
holes, another thing like religion, made up to explain stuff you don't
understand. They don't exist as you understand them. Let's just say they are
gateways to other dimensions and universes. Parallel universes, yes, and by the
way, you can get to them through black holes".
Bob
was getting rather sarcastic at this point, but Jack was absorbing every bit of
information, and was actually able to tap into a telepathic connection with Bob
just as he was able to do with most humans. He harbored an intuition that Bob
was something along the lines of "pure wisdom" or "pure
good". Not in some formal, ritualistic way, but in some simple, serene,
peaceful way. Jack even felt a very real sense of euphoria and total
contentment that he had never experienced before. Oh a conscious level Jack
thought "this is one cool benevolent dude" and "I am going to do
whatever this guy asks me to do....no problem".
Bob
continued; "there are many things smaller than a particle, and no, an
entire universe is not inside one of them. Carbon based life is a pretty small
part of the whole picture, but a very important part. It is not the exclusive domain
of consciousness as you know it. In other words, there are many things you
would consider as intelligent life forms, like me for example, that are not, or
at least no longer, carbon based life forms. However carbon based life is a
pretty efficient way to nurture evolution of an advanced species. You
understand Jack"? "Yes, I do. Please continue". "Ok then,
as far as your sun is concerned, I have no idea. We can put things in play and
maybe manipulate the outcome, but we by no means control everything".
"Then who does" asked Jack? "Why, no one" answered Bob
"it just IS". "So, there is stuff that you actually don't
understand" asked Jack. "Yes, there is stuff that we don't
understand.....not much....but some things that we don't know.....you feel
better"? "Yea, I guess I do. I'm not sure why...maybe it's just a
little refreshing, knowing that even God doesn't have ALL the answers"
said Jack after he had thought about it for a minute or so. "I tend to
agree" said Bob. "So, you ready to hear a few more details about what
is happening in your world today"? "Yea, I'm not at all sure I
actually want to hear it, but I have this distinct feeling you are going to lay
it on me anyway so....you have my undivided attention".
"A
lot of this I really don't have to go over considering you are already in the
thick of it. The main reason you are in the deep shit right now is that you
insinuated to a group of PPPEP guys that certain interests had quite a bit too
lose with the passage of the GECA treaty. They have planted spies with
telepathic powers all over the place and one of them that reports directly to
Senator Amash, was present at the time. It probably wasn't what you said as
much as what you thought, and no, you wouldn't have been able to detect his
telepathy because they knew of your powers but you didn't suspect theirs, so
they just blocked your abilities without you even knowing. If you were
expecting this shit it might have been different but these guys are total pros
so it’s no wonder they caught you off guard. Anyway, these guys obviously
caught the vibe that you really suspected that there was a humongous conspiracy
even if you didn't grasp it at a conscious level. Furthermore, at this stage of
the game with them being able to block this legislation in the House
-unbeknownst to you, the White House, and just about everybody else involved-
they were hardly willing to risk losing the vote because of one lame ass,
telepathic, environmental lobbyist.....namely you! You with me so far"?
Yea, I'm with you". "So, they put out the hit on you, which to them
is no big deal, they have already assassinated over two hundred people in the
past ten years so what’s another lobbyist...right? They would have gotten away
with but they underestimated your intuition and willingness to act on it. Most
folks get feelings, vibes, intuition, whatever you want to call it, and it's
real, however they rarely trust them and even more rarely act on them, you, on
the other hand do. In fact you have learned the rather unique skill and ability
to interpret your intuitions and act accordingly. You know full well that you
were born with this skill, but what you don't know is that everybody is, they
just don't know it, or they don't know how to use it, or maybe they did at one
time in their evolution and have forgotten because of external factors like too
much reliance on technology. The whole idea of a species having technology is
that it evolves along with their biological growth and their mental growth and
that they learn to incorporate it all into a unified healthy evolution. Anyway,
sometimes one thing will get ahead of the other and it takes a while for things
to assimilate and even out. You just got the gift of better incorporation of
all your senses and the ability to understand, interpret and act upon
them".
"Wow,
these fuckers are willing to blow me away for something as simple as world
power, domination, and extreme wealth and privilege" asked Jack.
"Yes... I know right" answered Bob. "Hard to believe they would
waist you for such a meager pittance. So, here we are with the GECA legislation
passing out of committee and heading to the House floor for debate and all
those in favor thinking it’s a lock when in actuality, the Trad's and PPPEP's
and others in the conspiracy have secretly ether bribed or threatened enough
Members to kill the Legislation before it even gets out of the House and to the
Senate or The President much less to the U.N. And, I am sure you are aware that
if the U.S. balks at this treaty, it is not going to happen and one more
possible roadblock will have been lifted on their quest to create Global chaos.
By the way, they have had the formula to reformulate petroleum and distill it
for combustion for many years now, they have just been waiting for a time at
which their interests are fully aliened and they can maximize the effect of
this discovery and the fact that they have almost every piece of Petrol powered
machinery and/or military hardware needing fossil fuel already in their
collective possession".
"So
what you're saying is that if the GECA treaty goes through, it might at least
buy some time and put a speed bump in their way, because every country on earth
will be behind it and there will be a global across the board restriction on
any fossil fuel consumption or combustion, and we will have global watch dogs
with sharp teeth to see to it that such restrictions are enforced".
"That
is exactly what I am saying, which is not to say that they can't pull off a
pretty major disruption in economic, and political stability anyway.....but it
will sure be harder for them if that GECA treaty get signed and goes into
effect". "I am beginning to see the big picture here, and it sure is
a lot bigger than I originally thought" said Jack shaking his head in
disappointment in himself. “Hey” said Bob “don’t be hard on yourself.
You already had a much better idea of what was happening than ninety nine
percent of the population. That is why you had a price on your head”.
“What
happens now” asked Jack. “Well, ether you and your friends throw a big ol’
wrench in the works of these inconsiderate, clandestine, selfish, power hungry,
greedy bastards, or they get away with it and disrupt the world’s balance of
power and push your still fragile atmospheric condition into an irreversible
feedback loop creating climate change of epic proportion that will probably spell
the end of the human race”. “You know Bob; you really don’t need to pull any
punches with me. I mean, I’m a big boy, you don’t have to sugar coat
anything…….Soooo…..basically it’s up to my friends and me to save the planet?
Could you give me something with a little more pressure, something a little
more important? How about this…maybe something that I might at least have the
slightest, outside chance of accomplishing”? “Now Jack don’t sell yourself
short. I think you’ll be fine. Besides you do have some kick ass friends, I’ve
noticed”. “Ok Bob, you already know that I’m in. The fact is that you knew
before you even talked to me that I was going to do whatever you asked, didn’t
you”? “Yes, I sure did” said Bob smiling. Jack was smiling too. It seemed to dawn
on both of them simultaneously that even though Humans had searched their soul
for contact with their “Higher Power” for thousands of years, and that the
“Eggheads” had helped them evolve and nurtured their growth for thousands of
years, this was the first actual bond between father and son and they were both
feeling an incredible sense of joy at that very fact. “Hey Bob, I have to tell
you, I am really incredibly happy that you came to seem”. “Me too” said Bob.
“Will I be able to see you again”? “You never know” said Bob “you never know.
So here is what I need you to do”.
Chapter
9: Anegada: Smoking some Cubans.
It
was well after midnight when Jack returned to the boat and he had been gone for
over six hours. While Dougy and Geno were confident that he was alright, Annie
G was starting to get a bit antsy. “I’m glad you’re back Baby” she said as he
climbed aboard “I was starting to get worried”. Everyone was back in the
cockpit, having eaten dinner and having a few cocktails…except of course for
Max who never drank. He had however taken off his tie, jacket, and leather
dress shoes which Jack noticed immediately, and then commented. “Ok guys I know
that we have had a rather surreal week and that nothing should surprise me at
this point, but I have just witnessed the two most incredible things ever.
First: I have actually seen Max Cunningham without a tie and sport coat,
wearing flip flops no less. Second: I just had a five and a half hour
conversation with the creator of our universe”. “No fucking way’!!!! Was the
response in unison from five guys and one girl? “Yes way” said Jack. ” I am not
kidding you, if was fucking incredible. Unfuckingbeleaveable, I can’t even
begin to describe how ultimately awesome it was”. Jack proceeded to spend the
next eight hours straight explaining every minute detail of his conversation
with Bob while his friends sat in total amazement. He shared every question he
had asked and every answer Bob had given. He shared the incredible feeling of
peace and serenity that had come over him. He shared the incredible bond that
made materialized between them. He shared all the secrets that had been
reveled….except one, and that had been the one answer that Bob had not actually
spoken, but Jack had felt it, and Bob had let him feel it, and had confirmed
that his feeling was correct. Jack knew that he had the answer to the very
question which all mankind desperately yearned to know, and he had promised not
to reveal the answer to anyone. “I can live with that” he thought to himself.
He shared to his friends that he had never in his life felt the feeling of raw,
unmitigated, unequivocal love as he had just felt during his five and a half
hour meeting with this strange being from somewhere he could never comprehend.
They had all asked a million questions, and listened as they never had before.
The sun had risen and it was now Zero eight thirty hours and no one was even
tired. In fact they all seemed to be on adrenalin high, just completely amazed
at what had happened and what Jack was sharing with them. Finally someone
suggested that they all get some shut eye of they would all be wasted by
evening. Max volunteered to stand watch while everyone else tried to get a few
hours sleep. Jack had also explained at least some of the details surrounding
the current situation and what he had committed to do about it. He was very
clear that this was his commitment and that he was not expecting the others to
automatically follow him in his plan of action, but everyone including him knew
that was just bullshit and that there was no way in hell that any of them was
not in this thing one hundred percent. Max set up his laptop and customized M4
assault weapon in the helm station. He checked his Glock 9mm and half dozen
loaded quick change back up clips and he started to develop an action plan.
Everyone else except Geno who was too wound up to sleep had crashed. Geno took
the forward watch and settled into his routine of scanning the horizon for any
and all approaching vessels. Geno had always had extremely accurate vision and
his Celestron Marine 16 x 60 binoculars allowed him to identify a vessel at
over five nautical miles. Of course the Nanny Lu had great radar, but it took a
trained eye to sniff out a suspicious vessel and Geno was gifted with that
uncanny ability. “Let me know if anything looks goofy to you. I’m going to
start running some hypothetical scenarios and see if we can actually pull off
this save the world thing”. “You got it Max, I got the eye out and you will be
the first to know if I don’t like what I see. By the way, if anybody can effect
a plan from God to save the world…..it’s you brother”. Max’s usually
expressionless face actually reveled what might have actually passed as a smile…just
for a millisecond…then he went to work.
Bob
had let Jack know that there was simply no way he was going to be able to bring
down the entire conspiracy and that it would be fallacy to even try. The
objective was to get the GECA legislation through the U.S. Congress and on to
the White House and United Nations. Bob had also let Jack in on the fact that
he was kind of going out on a limb because there had not been a decision among
the powers-at-be regarding any kind of intervention. Bob has been assigned the
task of looking after earth in a manner of speaking and was acting on mankind’s
behalf on his own. Therefore he was not going to be able to enact a grand
gesture as had been done sixteen years ago when they let their presents be
known and passed on tons of information and change the composition of oil. That
was pretty overt stuff and there was to be none of that this time around. The
odds seemed pretty lopsided to Max being the pragmatic warrior that he was.
What the hell were the chances of six men and one woman going to have against a
highly financed international ring of highly sophisticated crime with leaders
at the height of power in every country including the United States Senate and
House and Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines and who knows where else. “This is
freaking impossible, not to mention suicidal” he had said earlier. But then “I
always preferred to be the underdog” he had added later. He was assessing their
assets and liabilities as he had always done and had suddenly realized that
this was going to have to be done on faith. This was a foreigner concept to
Max. He had taken on long odds without hesitation before, but he always knew
and accepted exactly what the odds were and what was required of him to beat
those odds. This was a new game; one in which the rules he had relied on for so
long no longer applied. He basically had to bet his life, the lives of his
friends and the success of an entire mission to save the world on intelligence
against all odds because it came from a supreme being. This was just something
that he was going to have difficulty getting his head around.
Max
had established a secure communication channel with Ron and had already
apprised him of the situation. He was actually concerned about a security
breach within the EAG. The thought of any corruption within his own
organization made his shudder, but he had totally failed to recognize the size,
scope and utter unscrupulous nature of the forces he was up against. Ron had
assured him that they had uncovered some of the very same evidence, and were
rapidly coming to similar conclusions however his reaction led Max to believe
that they had not really grasped the size and scope of what was happening
ether. His commentary was filled with expletives like, “you have got to be
shitting me” and “holy shit” and “no fucking way”. Ron usually spoke in such
expletives, but the tone of his voice betrayed his usual confidence and Max got
the distinct feeling that Ron was actually blown away by what he was hearing.
Ron had immediately scheduled a meeting with everyone who was in attendance at
the previous day’s conference. He was a bit surprised when he was unable to
raise Sam, and also that Art Dutton had been unavailable, but had dismissed it
at the time. Now he was freaking out. “Jane, I want somebody to contact Sam
Markey now. I can’t get him and I have a direct communication frequency.
Something screwing is going on. Also, I need you to get a hold of Art Dutton’s
office. He and Sam had an appointment with General A.J. Lukas. I want you to
find out what in the fuck is going on”. “On it chief” Jane had replied.
By
fourteen hundred hours Jack had woken up and met Tom and Jimmy in the galley.
“Wow that felt good to catch a few zees. I was mentally exhausted” said Jack.
“Is Max still of watch”. Yea” Jimmy answered “and Geno is on visual as well. I
was just going up to relieve them after getting some grub going”. “So, what’s
our agenda today”? Jack allowed as how he really was not sure. “I guess we
should all have a confab and see what Max has learned from the boys in D.C. I
really hate to leave here…..I mean I really, really hate to leave here, but I
suspect that we probably will have to head back to D.C. and throw ourselves
into the lion’s den. Fuckin-A do I hate the thought of that”. “Especially since
I heard on the radio from Earl that he caught a dozen nice Tuna and two really
nice Mahi- Mahi in the passage just four nautical miles from right here, and I
know it’s been six years since you have tasted Jimmy’s famous Tuna sushi rolls”
Jimmy added just to twist the knife. “This crowd never gets any easer does it”
Jack asked to no one in particular.
Suddenly,
Geno was yelling up a storm and Max was running into the cabin heading for the
firepower stash. “What the fuck is going on” Jimmy shouted. “Geno spotted a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk coming in hot from the east”. “Fuck” yelled Tom as he
followed Max. “Doug, get your ass up, there’s a party brewing up here and you
don’t want to miss it”. Geno had a SAW set up already on the forward tramp and
Max and Tom emerged with an assortment of rifles, RPG launchers and the
Shoulder launched laser guided sidewinder that had already proven its
effectiveness on Beaver Island. Tom had stabilized himself at the edge of the
aft cockpit and had braced the sidewinder missile launcher against the cockpit
cover. He already had a clean sight on the approaching chopper and was ready to
blow it out of the sky on Max’s order. “Max, I got Missile lock any time you
give the nod”. “Roger that” Max replied. “Geno, you ready with the SAW”?
“Ready” Geno replied. “Dougy where are you” Max yelled. “If I were up your ass
you’d know where I was” Doug yelled as he came flying out of the amidships
hatch in his boxers and his favorite .308 auto in his hand. “I was just about
to seal the deal with Angelia Jolie in my dream and you fuck sticks show your
ugly………I’m going to blow your ass out of the sky you dick wad”. “Wake up grumpy
did we” Geno said as he held his sights on the approaching chopper. “Geno, you
sure that’s a Black Hawk”? Max yelled. “Absofuckinglutely” was his reply. “Max,
do we blow um away or wait to see if he fires on us”? Tom yelled from his ready
position. “Because if he lets one of those 2.75 inch M4 rockets go or opens up
on us with that 30 MM cannon it might just be too fucking late”. “Radar says he’s four point six miles and
closing fast at one ten” Jimmy yelled. “Jack better make sure
Annie
G is under some cover, we might take a hit”. Suddenly before he heard a thing,
Tom saw the mussel flash on the forward mounted 30 MM cannon and squeezed off
the trigger on his missile launcher. Within one point three seconds a small
explosion stopped the approaching chopper in its tracks. As the forward
momentum stopped, and the rotor slowed the chopper started a rapid descent as
fire ravaged the cockpit. In the time it took Dougy to say “Asta la Vista
motherfucker” the chopper was in the water and sinking fast. “What’s the depth
over there” Max asked Jimmy. “Around one twenty. Easy dive if that’s what you
want to know” “Yep, let’s head over there and see what we got”. “Who wants to
go diving” Dougy yelled “Now that I’m up, I guess I might as well…or I can
pound a few beers if any of you guys want to go…I hate to hog all the fun you
know”. “Yea, a real fun hog, that’s you all the way Dougy” Jack said. “Actually,
you stay and pound those beers; I want to take a look at who these buttholes
are”. “Done deal Jackie boy, Annie said she wants a little time with me when
you’re not around anyway”. “Dream on liver lips” Annie G said as she came up
from below. “You boys sure do know how to keep a girl entertained…what’s for
lunch”? Jack said "I can take the
spear gun and see if I can spear us a nice grouper for lunch....or, you can fry
up some spam". "Yummy, you know I just love spam and eggs. Maybe I'll
just make up some conk salad in case you miss". "That's what I love
about you baby, such confidence". Max and Tom had loaded all the diving
gear into the tender, Jack hopped in and they sped off to the site where the
chopper had plunged into the sea. "We had better see if we can ID these
guys" Max said. "I suspect they won't exactly be carrying driver’s
licenses". "Who do you think they are Max" asked Jack.
"Mercenaries, hired guns, probably from Cuba, maybe Columbia. Let's take a
look see". They geared up and hit the water. Things were still pretty
cloudy considering that a burning helicopter had just fallen out of the sky and
sank leaking hydrogen battery fluid, synthetic lubricant, hydraulic fluid, and
quite possibly a large quantity of blood. "Just before getting in the
water Tom had turned to Max to say "you don't think that there is blood in
the water do you".”Why... You getting squeamish on me now". "No,
I just hate sharks, they are mean motherfuckers". "Jesus Tom just get
in the God Dam water, you are such a pussy sometimes".
The
sharks had indeed been lured in by the irresistible draw of blood in the water.
At least a dozen good sized tiger's were visible through the still cloudy
water. The chopper had fallen just south of a significant drop off that rose
from well over four hundred feet to about fifty. It was about two miles off
shore and the depth gently tapered all the way to the beach with mostly sand
bottom and occasional coral head. A coral reef protruded off a point several
miles to the east blocking the prevailing east winds and providing one of
Jimmy's favorite anchorages. Even during "the season" Jimmy's bay was
usually empty. This time of year it was guaranteed to be deserted. Considering
that the entire population of the island was less than a hundred and no one
lived west of the main harbor, Jimmy's bay was as isolated as it gets.
They
descended to one hundred and twenty feet when they came to the chopper hung up
on a small ledge in the drop off. There were two bodies which had obviously
died upon impact. "Teach you to mess with guys who pack a sidewinder"
was the thought going through Tom Rum's head. Tom had a tendency to take it
personally when people tried to kill him, unlike Max who always kept emotion
completely out of the situation. Max had always thought that was why Tom
preferred to carry and operate the superior weaponry; and the miniaturized,
guided, shoulder launched sidewinder with the plethora of different available
warheads for all different situations was far and away his favorite. Max
realized that Tom was usually able to use his skills and advanced weaponry to
defuse a deadly situation before it became deadly for them, and he took it as a
personal insult that anyone would try to do his friends or associates harm. He
also got visible satisfaction out of doing away with such threats which all in
all made him an amusing companion and incredibly effective bodyguard. He used
to kid Max about his secret service days saying "you should have gotten
the Sarah Palin detail back in '07-08 mate. I would have been giving her the
high hard one. She was hot"! "You are so fucking juvenile you.” was
always Max's standard response. "Come on Max; don't tell me you would not
have tapped that action. I would have been hailing her from behind while she's
looking over at Russia..... Out her back window".
"They
searched the bodies and as suspected no ID was not forth coming.
The chopper was devoid of any form of identification, no serial numbers were
left and it was clear that the chopper was black market. It was heavily armed
and under normal conditions and against any foe other than Jack and friends
would have been deadly. In this particular situation, deadly only to them. Two
30 MM cannons and two .50 Caliber forward mounted Gatling guns along with four
wing mounted 2.75 inch missiles. Max disassembled some of the machinery and
weaponry to take back to the boat and attempt to determine some place of
origin. He also removed some of the personal gear. He knew that there would be
no evidence- because he knew these guys were professional- and like him would
not have made any mistake that would reveal their identity. In the world of
spooks not revealing ones identity was the most important thing. As Tom Rum and
Max completely surveyed the chopper recharge, jack had followed a couple twenty
pound grouper up a canyon and was moving in for the kill. He was clearly
torn between his desire for more information about those who were
trying to kill him and his desire for the ultimate lunch of fresh fried grouper
and conk salad. He was swimming ten feet above and twenty feet behind the fat
and delicious looking grouper when a six foot tiger shark came around the bend
in the canyon fifty feet ahead and was swimming fast right toward them. The
grouper did an abrupt about face and started swimming right toward Jack. Within
a second he had let two spears go nailing both grouper and shooting a healthy
dose of highly potent shark repellent dead ahead. In another second he had
collected the grouper, turned, and joined Max and Tom as they finished up at
the wreckage. Max gave the signal to ascend and they headed back toward the
surface. After a short decompression stop they were back in the tender heading
back to the Nanny Lu. "Who were they" Jack asked as they sped toward
the Cat. "Cuban mercenaries, defiantly Cuban. Real badass fuckers".
Max answered. "Yea well they don't look so badass as cooked, soggy, dead
motherfucking corpuses now do they" Tom added. "Any clues who they
work for" asked Jack. "They will work for anybody; equal opportunity
killers I guess. Undoubtedly your buddies in the wacko conspiracy world. Those
crazy Cuban mercs don't give two shits who is writing the paycheck as long as
it cashes and you really don't want to be on the other end if it doesn't. Fuck
um, they're dead now and I doubt this stuff is going to tell us anymore. Let’s
get back to the boat, eat those grouper, call Ron, and develop our next
step". "And have a couple big ass Rum drinks" added Tom.
Chapter
10: Middle East: The Turkey’s cooked
Art
Dutton's official title was Assistant Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic
Affairs, which in the official hierarchical structure put him at about number
twelve on the totem pole. In reality he was the right hand man of Secretary of
Defense Sivalingam Sivananthan. Sri Lanka–born, Sivalingam Sivananthan was
a physicist and entrepreneur. He had been director of the microphysics
laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He was the founder of
Sivananthan Laboratories Inc. in Bolingbrook, Illinois, and created advanced
military infrared night vision technology, a platform for next-generation solar
cells. He also helped found the nonprofit Institute for Solar Photovoltaic
Innovation, Research, and Edu-training, or INSPIRE, to prepare the Illinois
workforce and interested students to build a renewable energy and solar
ecosystem for the state. He had been taped for increasingly sensitive military
innovations and was instrumental in several post fossil fuel military break-
troughs. He had always had an admiration for Ron Smith and the EAG and since he
had a combined expertise in advanced military innovation and technology and
alternative energy and environmental preservation, he was popular with
conservatives, liberals, hawks, doves, tree huggers, land raiders, Greenpeace and
the joint chiefs. When Dr Sarah Jane Kelly had chosen him for Secretary of
Defense, he acquiesced only if allowed to bring in most of his staff and Art
Dutton who was a genius and whose uncanny ability to organize the best talent,
harvesting the best results had made him and Sivalingam billionaires.
Of
course Ron's ability to spot huge potential talent especially talent that
shared his ideology had caused him to notice and follow Sivalingam and Art
years ago. They had long since become friends and had worked together to
achieve many positive results for many years. Right now Ron was in touch with
the SOD office and was starting to freak out about his friend Art and his
assistant Sam. They had now been missing for 32 hours. Ron and company had been
the last group to see them at the meeting at EAG headquarters early the
previous day. "I don't give a shit if he is at the bottom of the fucking
Atlantic......connect me to his com frequency right fucking now or I will climb
through this fibro-optic cable and strangle your fucking ass" Ron was
yelling to some poor assistant who's only violation was to suggest that
Secretary Sivananthan was busy. "I will get him right away for you
sir" was the reply. "Ron what's up, where the hell is Art".
"Don't know buddy, last we saw him, he and Sammy were heading to A.J.s
office to ask for some help on this thing we are uncovering. They left the
office and never showed at A.J.s. I had Laura send you everything in the level
six code. I'm guessing there's a security breach in your detail. Your driver,
secret service security guy the D.C. Cops or all three were probably on the
take and I suspect they gassed Art and Sam the second they got in the car.
Now....Sam is a newbie and they could have pulled anything on him, but Art
knows his shit and they would have had a hard time getting the drop on him.
This is why I suspect they used gas. They are probably dead by now, but you
guys should put some energy on it. NSA and CIA already have....thus my
pessimistic outlook, but you and Art were close so you should handle an
investigation yourself and even if they're dead you might want to go the extra
yard and find out who pulled the plug and exercise some Sivananthan justice if
you catch my drift". "Yea I do Ron, thanks. I reviewed your stuff....wow
pretty wild accusations. I am totally on this with you and I believe your boy
Jack's story, but you know we need a hell of a lot more provable evidence to do
anything". "Of course you do buddy boy, so find it. You don't have to
deal with shit like warrants or probable cause; you have spooks....so fucking
use them"! "Ok, ok I'll find them, don't worry. Is this everything
you have". "Yep, that's it so far, but I'll let you know ASAP when we
turn up anything. I'm also going to follow up face to face with A.J. If you
think that's a good idea". "I don't see why not. He is about as
straight as they come". "That's what I think too. Thanks Sivalingam,
talk to you soon".
Truth
was that the SOD office really didn't have mush "police power" as it
were. In the years following 9/11 and even with Barack Obama following George
W. Bush the true power to intimidate and actually spy on American citizens lay
in the NSA. Several different events and unconnected policies had played a
serendipitous roll in letting the National Security Administration amass
tremendous power to spy and intimidate within the U.S. The former "BIG
BULLY" in America had been the IRS. Everybody was scared of the IRS and
certain administrations in history had used them as their personal pit bull. In
2013 a huge IRS scandal had disrupted the IRS. IRS agents had targeted
conservative political groups which created conservative/ republican outrage.
Then it was discovered that the IRS offices were wasting large sums of money
making mock videos and having
extravagant parities. It eventually resulted in a total melt down of the IRS, a
sweeping investigation that actually uncovered a mass conservative conspiracy
led by Senator Lindsey Graham who had originally bribed IRS officials to target
conservative groups only to try
and expose it and get the Obama Administration into deep shit. The plan ultimately
back fired on them and they were the ones who ended in a shit faced condition.
The positive result being the complete dismantle of the IRS and a long awaited,
much needed complete re-do of the Federal Tax Code. From six thousand four
hundred and twenty pages to one hundred and twenty five. A flat tax of fifteen
percent was enacted and an extra five percent for couples making over five
hundred thousand. Corporate tax was also fifteen percent. No tax on capital
gain. No tax on dividends. No personal deductions except for charitable
contributions.
Now
that the IRS had been dismantled, and reassembled in a toothless, nurtured
form, the already robust, and eager to abuse NSA was chomping at the bit to
jump in and provide the malicious tool of corruption that every political
organization drools over. The NSA had already used (and abused) PRYSEM as a way
to subvert laws and excised data-mining and spying so it was only a natural
evolution to grow into a political tool that if wanted, could be used for an
administrations personal objectives. Ron, who had studied man's evolution of technology,
had a theory about the evolution of organizations. Especially bureaucracies
which he often said had a life and growth of their own.
Since
the administration of President Kelly and the appointment of Pete Miller to
head up the NSA, the abuse of power and use of intimidation had been mostly
mitigated. Pete was thought of by Ron as a man of integrity and not one likely
to use the data within the NSA for inappropriate measures. The one thing for
sure; nothing could compare with the abuse of power and corruption under Chief
Arie Fletcher during the Santorum administration.
"Pete
can you find out what happened to Sam and Art......strike that, I know what
happened to them......can you find out who killed them and kill them
back"? "Ron, I'm not sure we can work it exactly like that but I will
find out who is behind this. We have been looking into the intel you passed to
us this morning from your boy Jack. Pretty hard to move on this without
substantiation". Yea, I just heard that same thing" Ron replied.
"What's your plan Pete". "I have a few ideas and different plans
of action; I can come over and fill in you Laura and Charlie if you want".
"That would be great. Thanks Pete". "Jane....can you get me Fin
Hameratt"?. "Yes boss. She's on...ouopps never mind, I got her
message system....hum that's funny". "What...what the hell are you talking
about". Ron yelled. Jane was still wondering what was going on. "I
would normally get a digital location signal and an auto patch through with her
level four security communication frequency, but it's not happening. It's like
she is.......not.....around.....Orr....".. "Jane, what the fuck are
you mumbling about"? "I think something's wrong boss".
"Get
me Ahbeene Farhteen, he's Turkish NIO" Ron replied immediately to Jane's
concerns. The National Intelligence Organization of Turkey was an organization
which commanded global respect. They were extremely capable, well run and as
transparent as one can be considering their duties and directive. Since the
replacement of Former Prime
Minister Recep Tiyyan Erdogan in 2013 and the implantation of democratic and
sectarian reforms the NIO and most other Central Government organizations were
largely supported by the citizens of Turkey.
Prime
Minister Erdogan saw the end of his political career in June of 2013 when protests against
the perceived authoritarianism of Erdogan and his policies, starting from a small sit-in
in Istanbul in
defense of a city park. After
the police's intense
reaction with tear gas, the protests
grew each day for the next seven days. Faced by the largest mass protest in a
decade, Erdogan made this controversial remark in a televised speech: "The
police were there yesterday, they are there today, and they will be there
tomorrow. Taksim
Square cannot be allowed to be a place where marginal groups
can freely roam". Shortly after the growing protests, he left the country
for a visit to Morocco, but he received a cold welcome and did not meet Mohammed VI of Morocco.[81] Erdoğan
claimed: "social media is the worst menace to society". As it turns
out, his remarks and general attitude toward a "big brother society"
proved to be a big mistake.
Ahbeene
Farhteen was the DIRECTORATE OF ELECTRONIC AND TECHNICAL INTELLIGENCE for the
NIO. The main duties of this directorate were ELINT (Electronic intelligence)
and SIGINT (signal intelligence). Ahbeene's primary mission was counteracting
all electronic and technical attacks against Turkey and its allies and his
division was the best there was. He and Dr. Hammeratt had worked together on
many issues and Ron had come to respect Ahbeene's abilities and integrity.
"Nasıl
arkadaşım yapıyoruz hey ron". Spoke Ahbeene as their communication line
was secured". Greetings to you too my old friend" Ron returned the
greeting. "What can I do for you old friend"? "I have a feeling
that Fin Hammertt has been murdered or kidnapped. Can you look into things for
me"? "I got agents on the way to her office as we speak. What the
heck is happening? We have been gathering a large quantity of data regarding
some crazy shit. Major oil and nat. gas reserves that were supposed to be
disposed of being stockpiled, and a hell of a lot of military hardware. We also
see a lot of nasty, unfriendly people moving into places they really have no
business being. Does any of this sound familiar? Does any of this have anything
to do with Fin missing". "Bingo on both accounts" said Ron.
"I am transmitting you everything we have. We suspect Senator Justin Amash
is at the top or close to it. You are going to have to deduce who's involved
over in your neighborhood. I would guess some top dogs are part of this thing.
In fact I'm sure of it, no international conspiracy bent on reconstituting
petroleum distillates as an energy source, selling it, selling the machinery and
weaponry that uses it, and starting a few wars to gain power in the African
Continent could possibly succeed without some assets within the
Turkish/Pakistani/ Israeli Government cooperative". "Ok, I'm feeding
your stuff into our computers now. I will run some programs and figure out
exactly who's involved. Now that I know the broad strokes, I can bore down to
the details no problem. While we've been talking I've put seven people and six
thousand terabytes to work on it. We've already run half a dozen different
algorithms and I have sixteen suspects. Give me another half hour to get some
human intel and....... Oh shit!!!!!" "What is it Ahbeene"? Ron
asked. "Sorry my friend, Fin is dead. My men just reported, she was in her
office poisoned". "God dammit, those fucking shit heads are going to
pay.....Fuck....fuck...” Ron was just melting down. This was the third friend
of Ron's to fall victim to this clandestine operation and he was getting very
very angry. "Ahbeene, can you please find whoever did this and kill
them". "Consider it done Ron. What else do you have as far as
operations in Istanbul"? "As you know, Fin had her own office, but we
maintain a research facility over on the north side of the Bosporus. Pretty
light on security so if you could check it out....I'll copy you the
coordinates, and Ahbeene"..."Yea Ron"....."Remember to kill
those fuckers". "Yea Ron, I'll get back to you soon".
"Laura, did you plug in everything from Max"? "Yea boss, pretty
interesting shit. There are probably twenty big wigs within the federal
government involved not including military or private sector so far. This thing
is going to be big". "Ok, keep working on the federal government
level for now, especially the legislative branch. Our first objective is to
expose whoever we can before they have a chance to kill the GECA
legislation". "I am going to try and get Dougy, Max, and Tom back
because if we can find out for sure the top six and
NSA,
CIA or FBI can't get them; I am prepared to let Max take them out".
"Ok boss, I agree with you, if we don't it’s going to be dooms day".
"These dick heads are really pissing me off". "Jane, get me
Grace Meng at the White House". "She's ready boss". "Grace,
did you have your people analyze all the stuff I sent? Did you look into
Amash"? "I have Pete miller's crew on it". "Good, I just
talked to him a minute ago". "CIA is on it too....and I peeled off
two of my best Secret Service guys to do some undercover".
"Who". "Joe Boswell and Bruce Lockwood". "Can we just
go arrest Amash". "Not yet Ron, but we're working on it".
"Can I just go kill him". "Not yet Ron but I'll let you
know". "Anything on Art Dutton and Sam Markey yet".
"Officially missing persons, no leads as to whereabouts, but we got a full
court press going". "Thanks Grace". Ron concluded. "Get me
A.J. will ya". "Got him Boss.....your welcome". Jane knew that courtesy
and good manners would always remain foreign concepts to Ron. "A.J. We've
got a serious situation here". "I can see that Ron, can you come over
here and bring me up to speed". "Yea, I'll be right there. See you in
a few". "Laura, Charlie, we're going to the Pentagon. Be ready in
five minutes, General A.J. Lukas is expecting us". Within twenty minutes
they were all sitting in the Generals office. "We are pretty sure it goes
as far as the Senate". Ron was beginning. General Lukas cut him off.
"Oh, fuck that, I know at least two of the joint chiefs and the Chair of
the armed forces committee.....maybe a few in President Kelly's staff......
Maybe her"! "You gotta be kidding me"? "No, I have been
following this shit for a month now, ever since the GECA got close to passing.
Everything you guys have gathered is spot on. Even the stuff your boy Jack says
he got from an egghead visit makes perfect sense. All the shit going down in
Turkey and West Africa. All the sudden disappearances of various GECA
proponents.......everything is making sense in the context of what you are
telling me. Now we have to devise a game plan of how to deal with it......and
that's not going to be easy.....not easy at all". "Any ideas off the
top of your head A.J." asked Ron "After all you are the five star
General". "Nope...... How about you guys"? Was the reply.
"Yes Rachel" the General said in response to a call from his
assistant. "Oh shit no...When....where? Ok...ok...I'll let him know".
"What's happening" Ron asked. "I'm afraid to tell you that they
found Art and Sam's bodies. Sorry Ron, I know you liked that kid and we both
thought the most of Art. You were right gas then poison injected between the
toes". "Any sign of the driver and security detail"? Asked Ron.
"Yes the body of Art's regular driver and secret service agent along with
an additional SS guy all killed the same way." "What about the D.C.
Cops". Ron asked. "Must have been phonies, no sign of them".
"So ether somebody killed the driver and SS guys first and had doubles in
the car......or, they were on the take, and got killed along with Art and
Sam". "Or the bad guys had something on the driver and SS guys but
didn't want any loose ends". "We're already following up with any
family, friends that sort of thing". "So you know Ron, DCPD is going
to lead the investigation, but we can pull rank with Sivalingam, and he is
pretty bummed. You know how tight he and Art were. He can say we suspect an
international terror organization, which is actually just what we do suspect so
NSA and CIA can step in". I can throw a couple of my best guys in with
them if you want". "That would make me feel a bit better" said
Ron. "Done" said A.J. "Man, I bet Siva is just pissed".
"Yea, he and Art went back a long way. Art was one smart capable fucking
dude. I kind of figured that Art would get the nod for Secretary of Defense and
Siva would get the V.P. spot". " I hear you Ron....loud and clear.
Siva sure would have made a better V.P. than that douch bag Jim Stanley".
"Well A.J. That's politics for ya. I know the game is played with a
different set of rules in the military but it's a similar game of
thrones". "Right you are son.....right you are".
Even
though there had been a plethora of extremely competent running mates in the
2028 elections including Sivalingam who like Dr. Sarah Jane Kelly had a science
background. Unfortunately for her the political climate at the time required
her to select a running mate from somewhere to the right of her. The previous
eight years had been under a New Democratic Republican Party (DRP)
administration and the populous had gotten use to centrist positions. While Dr.
Sarah Jane Kelly was mostly a centrist and was certainly pragmatic, she was a
member of the New Democratic Socialist Party (DSP) which was considered kind of
left by the general electorate. In order to seal the deal they needed a right
leaning DRP that could muster support from the middle of the road
conservatives. Several smart capable choices were vetted, but everyone seemed
to Dr. Kelly to harbor a pre conceived agenda or an element of swagger or
sometimes both and neither of which she liked. After too long she had told her
champagne managers to: "get me somebody who doesn't ware his balls on his
chest and have his head in his ass...... Every guy you bring me has an ego
problem, wants to alter my agenda and is a chauvinist asshole and I'm tired of
it. Ether get me a smart DRP who will play ball or get me a brain dead fucker,
who will do what we tell him and shut the fuck up. As things worked out, it was
the latter. Jim Stanley was the moderate two- term Governor of Arkansas. As her
campaign manager described "he is as plain Vanilla as they come". As
it turned out, he was prefect in that respect in that he really did not seem to
possess his own opinion and was quite amenable to simply defer to the judgment
of his superiors. He also was the Governor of Arkansas which was regarded as a Podunk,
hick state but none the less produced Bill and Hillary Clinton and Mike
Huckabee. He could bring the right leaning middle and do it without saying a
thing which was exactly what they wanted. There was no need for him to inspire
anyone, it was sufficient simply not piss anyone off or stir up any shit. The
only real problem as they all saw it was that he really was not so smart and it
would really suck if something happened to Dr Kelly and Jim Stanley actually
has to serve as president. "We will cross that bridge if we get to
it" .......let's just NOT get to it...and if we do.....we jump" was
what Keith Jones, Dr. Kelly's favorite political advisor said.
"Still,
I just can't handle that idiot Stanley. I mean its not as if he a bad guy, it's
just that he's........he's......such a stupid fuck". Don't worry A.J. He
at least knows enough to know what side his bread is buttered on and he will go
along with whatever President Kelly says".
"I
suppose you right Ron, but you go try and hold a joint chiefs of staff meeting
with the Commander in Chief and give an intelligence report on Somalia with
that dildo sitting in and you know that he does not even know what anybody is
talking about and he is making suggestions that are ludicrous and.........Jesus
.....drives me nuts. If I had to report to him I'd shoot myself".
"Christ A.J. Calm down. What do you want me to do now about the GECA and this
entire shit storm? Should I go bust heads"? "No, just keep gathering
data, you are not in the head busting business, but I am. I got an army
remember, and I do have at least a hundred really good men I know I can trust.
But you, my friend, are way better at gathering data. We have way too many
levels of BS to filter through. By the time I learn something from my guys it's
already been on CNN, NBC, CBS, in the Washington Post, the New York Times, the
National inquiries, and been commented on by that Hungarian bitch Arianna
Huffington. What I would really like is some hard evidence on Amash, Bates,
Franks, and all those dickless TRADs. I bet that Hockey Bitch Palin is in on
this shit too. Jesus, talk about wasted years, it's been sixteen fucking years
since oil could burn and she is still trying to get drilling in the ANNWR. I
can understand how the Alaskan public screwed up and elected her Governor.
Nobody knew her, but to turn around and elect het Senator eight years later
after she had been McCain's running mate and people actually herd her
speak......My god...those people must be as stupid as she is. So Ron I know you
are more of a statistics kind of organization and I really don't want to ask
you to get your hands dirty". "Don't insult me AJ, I came to you, and
I lost two people and have a three more being shot at. Besides this is an
environmental issue and that's what I do. If I wanted to keep my hands clean,
it's just way too late for that". "Right, ok Ron get me some fucking
dirt on all those guys. I can take them down but they won't stay down with some
really hard evidence connecting them to this conspiracy thing". Keep your
boys safe and out of harm’s way and get me the data"!! Siva, has equal
resources and we are connecting with some key folks we think we can trust all
over the world. Who do you trust in Turkey"? "Ahbeene Farhteen, he's
the head geek in NIO". Ron Answered. "Yep, I know him, good man. Ok
I'm going to roll. Where are you going? You need a security detail"?
"Laura and I are heading back to EAG headquarters and keep working".
Laura had let Ron and AJ chat while she ran through all the relive not data AJ
had granted her access to. She agreed that EAG was better at data mining but
the Military didn't have to be as good because they had billions of dollars and
had been at it for hundreds of years. "Quantity beats Quality
sometimes" Laura said to AJ when he insinuated that their intel sucked.
Besides no one in her position would ever pass up the opportunity have
unfettered access to computer data at the Pentagon. She told Ron "the
problem is they have so much data that they can't see anything. They need
analysis to analyze the analysis". "Well download as much of that
stuff as you can and work your magic when we get back to the office".
"I really want to sit down at my deck and think with a double Stoli in my
hand". "Ron, I'm going to give you six of my guys. They are top notch;
I trust them with my life, so should you. I want you to take them back to your
offices, and whoever needs to be covered coming or going just let Ned here know
and he'll take care of it". "Thanks AJ that's great. We will get as
much stuff as quick as we can. Do I funnel everything through you"?
"Yes, I was going to say Siva and Pete Miller but I guess we should assume
that everything could be infiltrated. Even thought they are both
trustworthy they might handoff something to the wrong person. Of course I might
do that too so what the fuck. Before you go I want to say something, where's
Laura"? "Right here General" Laura said as she came in. "
Ron, we go way back and you know we are on the same side on this one even
though that may not always have been the case. Now, I'm an army guy, but we have
the ear of national law enforcement, U.S. intelligence and at least some
international intelligence. Now Ron, I know you have spent your life saving the
world but as a General you learn to win a war one battle at a time. Do you get
what I'm saying"? "Yea AJ I believe I do". "So" AJ
continued "this battle is to stop whoever is illegally bribing,
blackmailing, coercing, threatening, or whatever they are doing to block the
GECA. If we can get it passed, that will be a successfully battle".
"I couldn't agree more AJ. See ya soon".
Back
at EAG headquarters Rob poured a stiff one, Laura went to work, and Dr Charles
Watson came in and said "Jesus
Ron, I heard about Art Dutton and Sam. What a tragedy. Who did it happen".
"Someone got to their driver and maybe their security. They gassed them
when they got in the car. Probably took all of twenty seconds. Then they
injected Rican between their toes. Total professional job, they never woke up,
they also killed the driver and two security guys".
"This
thing is getting big, isn't it". "Yea Charlie…. that it is. Have you
detected any emissions...anywhere"? "The usual hotspots, why"?
"Maybe someone just wants everyone to think its usual". "What do
you mean"? "Well, if I had a formula to change petroleum back to a combustible
substance, I would want to text it, and make sure it works, maybe even tweak it
and make it better. As we know, it's pretty easy to detect if someone is
burning fossil fuel in any quantity. So, I you wanted no one to know I would
test it in a usual hotspot where there is natural Co2 emission so no one would
notice. Are you with me Chuck". "Sure am, you want to know if there
is a way to determine if the usual hotspot is acting unusual.. Right"?
""Bingo" said Ron. "Well boss I don't think it's been done,
but I imagine I can figure it out".
"So
what are you doing still here". "I am joining you with one of those
Stolis, you Bogart. Then I am going to do the impossible just like I always
do".
Chapter
11: Trellis Bay, A Fortunate Detour.
"Jack,
I just talked to Ron" Dougy said as he came onto the back deck and caught
the bow line of the tender "got some serious bad news man".
"What is it now" Jack said as he started handing Dougy diving tanks,
BCs and weapons. "Sam Markey is dead man". "No.....no....oh fuck
no....why...how, he wasn't involved in this stuff. He was just a kid. Jesus I
can't believe it ". Jack was visibly upset. He and Sam had become close
since Sam had started as an interim less than a year before. Jack was hitting
his fist against the fiberglass, alternately swearing and crying. "Jesus I
just can't believe it". "He was with Art Dutton, did you know
him" Dougy asked. "Yes, of course I know who he is. Assistant
Secretary of Defense for Secretary Sivananthan". "They were just
leaving our offices after a meeting, heading to General A.J. Lukas's office.
Looks like someone got to Art's driver and security detail. Ron thinks they
hailed them with gas as soon as they got in the car, and then injected them
with Risen". "Oh man, I just can't believe it.....fuck.... I just
can't believe it. Sam was such a good guy. I mean we have been on the run for a
week and twice had attempts on our lives but it all seems sort of surreal. I
just recognize that it was way more then somebody after us. This sounds bad but
it almost seemed like a game. Obviously a serious fucking game but still a
game. Quite frankly when I split D.C. I figured I might be in danger but it
also was a good excuse to take some time back home and catch up on fishing,
sleeping, drinking and as it turned out some sex. Even when Shirley told us
somebody might be following us, it really didn't sink in as deadly. We got a
bunch of guns from Shirley and with Geno I felt pretty safe. Then you guys show
up and I feel really safe then the shit really hits the fan but with you, Max
and Tom, I'm like ....bring it on mother fucker....I just didn't really grasp
that others were in eminent danger. I'm feeling kind of guilty here Dougy. Even
after meeting Bob the egghead and learning how far reaching this stuff is, it
really didn't sink in. I must be some selfish son of a bitch...... Fuck man, I
got a rush when Tom took that chopper out of the sky and now Sam's dead. Let’s
face it, I know what I'm in for, you, and Max know what you’re in for, shit
even Geno and Jimmy are realistic bad asses and they know the score, but
Sam....man, Sam was just a smart, cool good natured kid. He didn't deserve to
be a victim in this whole god dam conspiracy. I'm going to stop these assholes
man. What's Ron want us to do"?
"Well"
Dougy started "right now the priority is to get a smoking gun in the hands
of Senators Bate, Amash, and half a dozen others in the Senate and House. Maybe
a dozen in military and administration. If we get even some dirt and can arrest
a few of them....hopefully gets a house of cards effect going. We
simultaneously neutralize as many of the hired guns.....well not we....we don't
do the offensive action thing, we just provide protection for the good guys,
but AJ, SOD Sivananthan,
Pete Miller, and CIA they have plenty of assassins. Anyway if we can take down
enough of both, then we maybe remove whatever it is they have on the Members
that's keeping them from supporting the GECA....right? So this by no means puts
the kibosh on this whole world wide conspiracy, but it would sure put a cramp
on their style if we can expose some of them here in the U.S. and get the GECA
to the United Nations. We should head back to D.C. And collect more
data.....which is what we do ......and what AJ wants us to do. Or we go to
Turkmenistan and shoot at twenty year old idiots with AK 47s. Should I ask the group for a vote"? "Ok
Dougy you're right, let’s head back to Trellis Bay, jump on the plane and fly
back to D.C." "Well alrighty then, no need to take a poll. I'll tell Ron
that we are coming back".
"Hey
Jimmy" Jack yelled "can we head back to Trellis Bay? We have to go
back to D.C." Yea man, no problemo amigo. Tom!! Can you take the helm?
Geno, let’s go weigh the anchor. Dougy, can you and Annie get the main
up....we'll be back on Beef Island in a few hours".
After
an hour Max received a top level secure communication from EAG headquarters. It
was now 24:00 hours, 23:00 EDT and Jack, Dougy, and Tom all wondered what the
hell a communication with the highest level of security from headquarters as
all about. Particularly when Ron and Dougy had communicated just hours before.
"Max Cunningham 0425153"? "Yes 49654dx". "Max, Charley
Watson here. President Kelly has been assassinated. Happened at 20:26.45 in the
White House. Fast acting poison, we don't know the exact compound yet but
completely lethal in one hundred and sixty seconds also complete water
solubility within seconds. It was in her water pitcher for a JCS meeting. Word
is not going the public till 6:00 tomorrow as per Secret Service SOP protocol.
V.P. Jim Stanley will be sworn in by noon 12:00 tomorrow. Entire White House
Staff is under suspicion. Situation very unstable. Headquarters is secure. In house security and six Special
Forces unit Pentagon detail via JCS General A.J. Lukas. Proceed home with
caution. Will have team pick up at hanger six alpha Andrews A.F.B. sorry to be
the one to report this to you...stay safe Max". "Roger that Dr
Watson. We are one hour thirsty five minutes ÊTR to our aircraft. 01:35 ETA to
take off. 06:45 ETA to Andrews". "Ok Max, see you here".
"What's
up" Geno asked as he came in. "President Kelly is Dead man". Max
said. "We are going to head back to D.C. You and Annie G. should come;
Jimmy too, might be safest". "I'm not so convinced buddy, if the Pres
is dead and that lame brain Stanley is going to be calling the shots, D.C. Is
going to be a venerable three foot diameter hornets nest that just dropped into
a ten foot high pile of pig poop. I might rather not be anywhere around there
during any of that. I might rather just be out on the water". "I
gotta agree with Geno" Jimmy said. "You boys head on to D.C. Ron is
going to need you. We will stay on the boat. Leave me the sidewinder if you
please".
An
hour and a half later they were back at the dock in Trellis Bay. "I'll go
check out the plane and call in our flight plan. You guys handle the gear and
we'll be wheels up in twenty" Max said. As the others packed personal gear
and hardware, jimmy ran to get one of his vans. By the time he returned Max was
back at the boat. "What's going on" Jimmy asked. "The plane is
wired to blow". "Oh, you have got to be shitting me" Dougy
replayed. "What did they use"? I'm not sure, sophisticated stuff,
probably an altitude detonator with some sort of plastic. Some C4 hybrid in
numerous locations. I could disarm it...maybe...I don't know, my explosives
training was a long time ago. Tom, you're a bit more up to date with the
explosives program, you want to take a look"? "Yea, let’s go, the
rest of you stay put and keep an eye out, Dougy why don't you grab a friend and
keep us covered in case the guys who planted this surprise for us are not the
same guys we shot down earlier". "Yup, got ya covered”. They jogged
the quarter mile or so to the hanger. "How did you know she was hot"
Tom asked. "I could just tell something was different so I snooped around
and found a charge under the port engine compartment. Like I said plastic of
some kind well hidden, only about the size of an egg. I assume they have a lot
of them hidden all over this thing". Tom surveyed the charge and found
another on the starboard side in the same location. "Man, I wish we had a
dog right now. Without a dog or an infrared detector, we can't be sure we can
find all the charges. We can't fly man. Not without a bomb squad and I don't think
we have one of those right around the corner. I doubt that those guys in the
chopper planted these charges. I also have a distinct feeling that we should
get the fuck out of here". "Agreed. Let's go now". "Dougy
change in plans, we are out of here". "Roger that" Dougy
answered " I am in a good covering position so you two head back to the
Boat and cover the surrounding area with a couple night scopes. Let me know
when you think it's good and I'll follow". "Got it man". "Jack
its Max; we are coming back to the boat. Change in the game plan. Grab a sniper
rifle and keep a cover on the area....but try not to shoot us. We'll be there
in five. Ask Jimmy if we can extend our stay". "Ok Max, see you in
five". "Hey Jimmy, mind if we hang around for a while longer"?
"Mi casa es tu casa. Actually make that mi barco es un barco". Was
Jimmy's reply. "Muy bueno, now grab a sniper rifle and cover Max and Tom.
Geno and I will get all the gear back onboard. Anything we need for an extended
cruse"? "Nope, all provisioned and ready to rock". "Ok
let's roll".
"We
are just off the north end of Great Camano guys" Jimmy started
"heading NNW340 degrees. We can drop off to 315 and be in Turks and Cacaos
in 356 nautical miles; just less than twenty four hours sailing time. Wind and
current will be constant. The trades low east to west at ten to twenty. We can
set the code zero spinnakers and fly. On the other hand we can head due north
and not hit land for twenty three hundred nautical miles when we hit Halifax
Nova Scotia which would put us there in seven days. Sooo....what’ll it
be". Dougy was the first to chin in "I vote Turks and
Cacaos"......"what" he added as everyone looked at him. "Ok
Jimmy set your course for 315 WNW, and let’s have a meeting in the salon.
"Ok
guys, here is the bottom line. In my talk with God, or Bob or whatever you want
to call him, he basically said that we, meaning humanity, were most likely done
for when they showed us how to survive and save our atmosphere. They were
taking odds that we would not make it. The odds were pretty well stacked
against us.....still are. Obviously they have the technology and ability to
tell when our atmosphere hit the tipping point. So, he told me that even though
they figured we would parish, they really hoped we didn't because they actually
cared for us. I guess you could say they love us; just what you would expect
from God...right? Anyway the other thing we had going for us was that we had
figured out how to digitize information which is the major tipping point of any
civilization. You see, it's only a matter of time now before we start to
digitize our own minds, and as he told me, it will take a lot less time than we
might think. We were already close to reverse engineering the human brain and
downloading most of the data into chips. Now we enhance most kids at birth,
with nano chips of additional information and calculation capacity. The main
reason that they decided to help us out was because only one out of around a
hundred of the life forms they have created over the last six hundred million
years make it to this stage and apparently we got there quicker than any other
species. We, that is homo sapiens originated in Africa, where we reached anatomical modernity about 200,000 years ago which is when our
biological evolution mostly stopped and began to exhibit full behavioral modernity around 50,000 years ago which is when our
technological evolution really took off. So this kind of rapid evolution just
didn't happen every day and our creators kind of took a special interest in us.
Problem with us though is that this rapid evolution in technology and
increasing mastery over our environment has generally tended to give us a bit
of hubris. In other words, we can be selfish jerks, and that's why the odds are
against us. They love us and really do think of us as their favorite children,
but you know we are kind of like the kid that grew up to fast or maybe more
like the spoiled kid. We got the toys but most of us don't tend to be satisfied
with what we have. Anyway, enough with the analogies, we had a fighting chance
since they gave us all the technology we needed and rendered all our fossil
fuels noncombustible, but as is incredibly crystal clear at the moment we are
still uniquely able to trash ourselves none the less. So, as I said, they
didn't give us very good odds even sixteen years ago when they visited and
their prime directive from then on was complete hands off". "But
dude, hands off wouldn't seem to include sending Bob here to fill you in on
things" interrupted Geno. "Correct you are my intellectual friend.
You see, Bob was out on a bit of a winger. In fact he flat out told me we were
probably toasted. He did however give me the exact locations of every secret
storage location, every clandestine distal action facility, every piece of
machinery and military equipment, every personal training and staging area, and
the big Lebowski .......every single person involved. Ok, not actually every
person, but at least the four thousand five hundred and thirty five high level
bastards that are in control of this totally out of control, fucked up
conspiracy. Bob was not supposed to visit me, nor was he supposed to give me
enough information to stop these fuck heads before they fulfill their mission
and gain power, wealth, and control at the cost of millions of lives in the
short run and our entire atmosphere in the long run. Seems like such an irony
to me that someone would doom our planet for the purpose of controlling it
while it slowly suffocates and dies. Pretty fucking stupid if you ask
me. Now they have killed our President.....clearly the best one we have
had in a hundred years. And we have a Meat head to succeed her who is bound to
take us down a road of disaster. So, Max, Dougy, what should we do? Actually,
Annie G, I really need to hear what you are thinking. What should we do
now"? "Sweetheart, whatever you think is ok with me, it's all been a
pretty surreal deal and I have spent my life trying to study and save creatures
that live under the ocean. I know as well as anybody what greenhouse effect can
do to the ecosystem. I really think we should do whatever we can to stop these
fucksticks.....even if it means we don't make it. I really love you Jack, I
love all you guys, and I think at this point we are all in this together. I
mean if the GECA doesn't pass, and these guys actually get gas burning and the
world goes down that road, than life as we know it is fucked
anyway....right"?
"As
my friend Geno likes to say Absofuckingloutly! Everybody in"? "All in
Jack, what's the next move". "Ok I'm the only person alive who knows
EVERYTHING and people are trying hard to kill me. Is there any way we can
download all this info in my head"? "No Jack, I mean if you had ever
had enhancement procedures we could pull a chip, or if we had a lad with
sensors, not here though". "Ok, we do it the old fashion way, I feed
it all into our computers, and we hope we don't get blown out of the water
before we can transmit the data to the Calvary". "How long do you
need"? Jimmy asked. "It's a lot of info. I figure 24 to 30 hours, and
we can't send any signal from here. Not even the secure frequency Max has to
Ron.....nothing. We can't take any chance" Jack answered.
""Everything is off, implanted devices, cell devices, GPS, radar, old
fashion radio, everything..... Fucking lights...everything. We are total silent
running baby….total old school, just a sixty two foot catamaran, Mylar hi-tech
fabric sails, a twenty five knot trade wind from the east, and we skate along
on a broad reach at fourteen knots with three hundred miles of open water in
front of us”. Jimmy said as he headed to the helm station. Unlike Geno, Jimmy
had installed and auto helm years ago. It was something he needed in the
charter business, but like Geno, he did prefer to handle the helm of his vessel
in a good blow. This was just such a night with a new moon, clear skies, and
fantastic stars.
“I’ll
start downloading all the information. Jimmy can you ask Max to come back
down’? “Sure man, see ya in six hours”.
Max
came down to the salon. “What do you have in mind Jack”? Jack spoke as he typed
information into his computer. “We are traveling silent, no problem with
navigation, we are totally cool with dead reckoning and we can always grab a
sight with the sexton if needed but I think we should keep on a heading for
Turks and Cayucos. He will be there in 30 hours at this speed. I am going to
get all this data down so it can be transmitted as needed. There are thousands
of different locations, but I have all the coordinates, logistics, topography,
geography, and security memorized…..oh and all the people involved. So when I
get this all logged in the computers and backed up, how do we want to play it?
We will only have a short period of time before we get tracked, located and
attacked by some douche bags again. We probably want to have a good plan to
make the most of what we got”. “Well Jacky boy, if you just happen to know
anyone in the Bahamas that has a good old fashion short wave HAMM radio, then I
think I have a pretty good plan”. “Hey Geno, Jimmy” Jack yelled as he continued
to type at his keyboard “is Chauncey still have his place on the west side
Grand Turk in Hawks Nest Bay”. Yea answered Jimmy “Last I heard, I haven’t been
there for a few years”. “Did he still have his gig at the JAGS McCarthy Air
Field”? “Last time I talked to him he did. I don’t think he would ever leave
besides he owns most of that field”. “Cool” said Jack “Chauncey has every piece
of radio equipment ever built, and he happens to live in a prefect anchorage
that just happens to be right on our present heading, and he just happens to
still owe me twenty bucks”. “Ok then” said Max “I will spend the next ten hours
putting together a hit list of top priority agents, agencies’, assets, and
private contractors we can count on. Now as you identify places and all the
associated data, I can match them up with whatever asset we can call on in the
same proximity. If we can get enough of the fucking traitors in our own
government arrested at the same time, and hit enough of the installations at
once…..we might….might just have a chance to save the fucking world”…..” well”
replied Jack “It would be pretty cool if we could just pull it off”. “And it
would just totally suck if we don’t” Annie G. added as she headed below to go
to sleep
I
believe if your friend has the short wave HAM radio set up you think he does
then I can use a little trick we used in the service. We learned how to find
the right frequency with the right set up and hook our processors and hard
drives up to the radio and actually shoot bits of data out on the airwaves.
This is somewhat like broadband or wi-fi, but using short waves bounced off the
stratosphere So we could send um anywhere, and probably not be detected because
shortwave and single side band radio communications are so antiquated as an
intelligence gathering medium, that nobody bothers to monitor them anymore. We
got a couple messages through to HQ that went undetected that saved our asses.
Just maybe we can get one through that will not only save our asses but the
rest of the god damn world too".
"So"
Jack replied to Max's idea "it sounds as if the key will be in who we
tell"..... "Right? I mean we need to get all this information into
the correct hands. If we land on somebody who is in on this then we are dead.
If we land on somebody who's not in on it but doesn't have the clout and
horsepower to do squat about it then we are still dead. Does Ron alone have the
JU- JU to pull off thwarting this big and deep a plot"? "No...Probably
not" answered Max. "Ron would sure try, and he has connections, and
he's not afraid of anything or anybody, but we really need somebody at the top
.......the very top. President Kelly would have been top of the list but she's
dead and I don't trust that dickwad Stanley". "Ok then Max, along
with agents, we need heads of state, past heads of state, top senate and house
guys, top military guys, and all of them have to be trustworthy because if we
send all this evidence to just one dickhead that's involved, then forget it, we
are all toast and the earth is fucked".
As
they sailed along at an average speed of fourteen knots, on a broad reach, in a
twenty knot trade wind blowing from ninety degrees, due east, a trail of
glowing phospheresance was left in their wake. Jimmy was steering by compass
and stars with a clear view of the Corona Borealis ahead and slightly north.
The moon was half full; enough to light up the waves, but not to much to drown
out the stars. Jimmy was smiling ear to ear since this was
the absolute prefect condition for the Nanny Lou and he just loved sailing his
vessel at night under prefect conditions. With their heading of three hundred
and fifteen degrees and a due east wind, she had a true wind angle of one
hundred and thirty five degrees. At a speed of fourteen to sixteen knots, the
apparent wind angle would be pushed forward to about one fifteen to one twenty,
which was the fastest point of sail for a long cat, and the most comfortable.
Jimmy had made this particular passage many times before in his life, and
though he had logged millions of hours at the helm of a sail boat he was still
just like a kid on Christmas when the conditions were good and he got to sail
his boat at high speed in the open water. A school of porpoises decided to have
some fun in their bow wake, which was rather common in these waters, and swam
along side of them jumping, and playing tag with the bows of both sponsons. Two
of them would cris-cross, one over one under, between sponsons and jump inside
to out over the bows, and land in the water outside the hulls just as the next
two would start the same routine. This went on for hours in various forms,
porpoises like to play and they really like to show off to humans. Jimmy swore
that once when they were playing, that one porpoise would watch him from a foot
or so under the water and not do a trick or jump unless Jimmy was looking right
at him. Once the porpoise was sure Jimmy was watching he would launch out of
the water, over the bow, land between the hulls, dive under the next hull only
to breach the surface again with a backwards arc that reached an apex of at
least twelve feet. Jimmy said that during the whole arc, the
porpoise was looking right at him making sure that his acrobatics were being
watched and appreciated. "Just a bunch of playful, good natured show
offs" Jimmy use to say and he claimed it was always good luck when they
came around to play and show off.
Annie
G. came on deck and climbed up into the helm station after getting a few hours
shut eye. "Hi ya honey" she said to Jimmy in her usual sweet and
somewhat maternal sounding voice. "How are you feeling"? "Well,
I got a tell ya, dream boat, it doesn't get any better" Jimmy answered as
a puff brought the Nanny Lou's speed to over sixteen knots. "Wow, she is
really humming along nicely isn't she"? Annie asked. "Yep, this is
her favorite point of sail, that's for sure, and we couldn't ask for better
wind". "I'm going to get something to drink, you want anything"?
"You going to brew some coffee"? "Yes, but then I was going to
make Spanish"... "Hummm, count me in, but don't let me drink more
than two or I'll be baked". Annie disappeared below and returned twenty
minutes later with two Spanish coffees complete with sugar melted to the rim of
the glass by flaming 151 proof Rum. Spanish coffees where regarded by everyone
aboard as one of the best tasting, fastest acting, dangerous, alcoholic beverages ever
concocted. "Ok, now I'm in heaven" Jimmy said. "You know, that's
one thing I've been wondering about since jack talked with our alien higher
power friend Bob". "What's that" Annie G asked. "If there
is a heaven......or at least what happens when we die..... I mean that would
have been my first question if I got a one on one conversation with the big
guy". "Did Jack mention anything to you about it"? "No, I
guess he didn't" Annie said. "Well, it is kind of like the biggest
mystery of mankind you know. I think the major purpose of every religion is to
assure us that things will be cool when we die". "But Jimmy, aren't you the one with the total live in the moment
philosophy" Annie asked. "Why yes I am, but it would be less
disconcerting to rest assured that one’s post death experience will be pleasant
and rewarding". Jimmy said but them added. "Then again, post death
could involve having your body sent to a morgue where the mortician happens to
be a gay necrofeleack". "Nice thought Jimmy..... Only a mind as sick
as yours........."
"When
we going to be in Hawks Nest Bay" Annie asked Jimmy. "At this rate we
should be there in about twenty two hours. That is if the wind stays with us.
It should but will probably lighten up some during the daylight when things
heat up. If the trades stay over twelve knots, which they should, we will be
all set and in by just after midnight tomorrow". Jimmy's prediction proved
true and the Nanny Lu got a visual on the tower lights at McCarthy Air Field in
Hawks Nest Bay on the south east corner of Grand Turk Island.
CHAPTER
12: Turks and Cayucos Islands, Old Technology saves the World.
At
approximately zero six hundred hours the Nanny Lu rounded the northern point of
Hawks Nest Bay, headed a half mile northwest, and dropped sails. She coasted to
a mooring ball fifty yards off the one hundred year old lighthouse Chauncey
called home. As Geno ran a bowline through the mooring and secured the Nanny Lu.
Chauncey came cruising out in a twenty foot Boston Whaler. "What the hell
boys, why didn't you call or something, tell me you were coming so I could have
arranged a proper reception". "Radio silence buddy boy, I will tell
you all about it over two dozen margaritas, but first we have to make some
calls on your dime. Do you still have your HAM radio set up"? "Yea,
jump in". Chauncey led Max, Dougy, Jack, and Geno through his house and
into the light tower where his communications equipment was located right next
to the original 1893 Fresnel lens. Chauncey had grown up in the mountains of
Montana near the Canadian border. His father was a National Park Ranger at
Glacier National Park and for nine months a year they lived in a lodge built in
1930, way above the tree-line at eleven thousand feet. "Granite Park
Chalet" was a CCC (civilian conservation corp.) project during the Great
Depression. It was a six hour back pack, or four hours on horseback with pack
mule from road end to the lodge. In recent times quad runners and custom built
ATVs for gear transport were used, but only in the winter before they shut down
and only out of necessity. Short Wave Radio had once been the only form of
communication at Granite Park, and Chauncey's Dad developed a pretty serious
HAM radio hobby. Chauncey followed in his Dad's footsteps and would spend hours
every night communicating with people from all over the world; broadcasting
from high atop Granite Park Peak.
Ever
since the adoption of the Internet in the 1990's HAM radio enthusiasm had
waned, however for some hard core enthusiasts the digital age only made things
more interesting and opened up new modes of communication. Also, the digital
age allowed for digitized information to be sent through the airwaves and
presumably out into infinity. Long before earth was visited by the eggheads
Chauncey and his father had dreamed of making "first contact".
Chauncey
was now seventy six years old, retired, and pursuing his passions which were in
no particular order: flying, sailing, scuba diving, cooking, astrophysics,
interplanetary communications, drinking, and historic lighthouse restoration.
Chauncey was a genius who, inspired by his dad's hobby had helped developed the
original TCIP/IP Internet protocol and had continued to work with Vinton Cerf
to develop advanced space communication technology including distance-tolerant
networking (DTN). He had worked directly with NASA and Ball Aerospace to
develop and test the DTN protocol with their Deep Impact Networking (DINET)
experiment on board the Deep impact spacecraft in October, 2008. This research
which was the first to send a spacecraft to impact with a comet and actually
study its nucleus. This research eventually led to a reliable standard
communication system to control most all unmanned spacecraft for the next
several decades. Needless to say, having the various patens on some of this
stuff yielded a hefty sum over time and Chauncey was now a billionaire
essentially able to pursue whatever the heck he wanted.
Chauncey
had retired from so called professional life back in 2015, one year before the
first egghead visit. He had a deep interest in old lighthouses. He thought of
them as one of the first technologically advanced communications systems and he
hated to see them disappear. To date, he had purchased and restored eighteen
lighthouses all over the world. Interestingly enough, this also played into his
passion for global (and interplanetary) communications since lighthouses by
design happen to be in prefect locations for
communications relay and network. Chauncey had taken full advantage of this
"doubly bonus" as it were to fully implement what was quite possibly
the world’s largest, most sophisticated private communications network.
As the five of them sat down in Chauncey's
communication room, Jack explained what had been going on and the necessity of
getting perhaps a thousand different messages to a thousand different people
without any of them being intercepted. "That shouldn't be a problem"
said Chauncey, confident in the fact that encoded data transmission was rather
a specialty of his. "Yes but...." started Jack "this might be a
bit tricky since this conspiracy we are dealing with goes all the way to the
top and they have mega-resources.....I mean mega fucking resources. We have
been tracked by spooks from Beaver Island to Anagoda. We sailed here with no
electronics what so ever. Total silent running. That's why I didn't call you
and tell you we were coming. Any technology that exists, they have it......and
they are not shy about killing anybody who might rain on their proverbial
paradise". "So what you are saying is that you are sitting in a room
with quite possibly the most advanced privately owned communications equipment
and network in the world and you can't use it"? "Exactly"
replayed Jack. "But Max has an idea". "I'm all ears" said
Chauncey. Max spoke up "I figure these guys are pretty sophisticated, so
they just might overlook monitoring good old fashion short wave radio
transmissions". "Probably correct in your assumption there Max, but
one primary reason they would not bother is that the days of someone on the
other end monitoring a certain radio frequency and waiting for a transmission
are gone.....unless you happen to have made arrangements for a radio link up
already". "No such luck" said Max, "however, we created a
little trick at the secret service. The boys in the lab came up with a black
box device that could digitize a voice signal sent via Short Wave or SSB and
link up with a computer provided you had the requisite IP address and pass code
connect info......which I happen to have for several dozen key personal. If we
can get an unintercepted message to these key players than, my guess is
that we can lock in on the NSA network and start transmitting the remaining
thousand messages. The important thing is that all the information is
distributed, and the resulting action taken, is done swiftly.....like within
say...twelve hours. The other important thing is that none of it is
intercepted. If it is....we are probably fucked". "We'll alrighty
than" said Chauncey "where is the black box". "We'll,
that's the thing...I don't have one on me". Chauncey's grin was
diminishing rapidly "and I suppose you would like me to recreate the same
trick that your Secret Service Lab boys came up with......right"?
"That would be nice" was Max's response. "Good thing for you
guys that I came up with that one decades ago.....remember....you are sitting
with the dude who invented the fucking Internet". "Ah yes..Well
pardon fucking me your highness, but if we don't get to sending out this stuff
we are going to be dead burnt toast".
Chauncey
and Max went to work sending digitized messages out on short wave radio waves,
bouncing off the stratosphere and downloading into the Computers, pads and
implanted devices of Ron Smith, Secretary Sivananthan, General A.J. Lukas, Pete
Miller, Senator Derek Bailey, Ahbeene Farhteen, Laura, Dr. Watson, Jason Williams
(head of MI6), We Chang Wong (China security) and a few dozen other senators,
admirals, generals, cabinet secretaries and agents of various security
organizations. These were all highly vetted, highly respected, highly
trustworthy individuals that jack and Max felt could get things
accomplished.......at least they hoped. Jack was feeding information to Max and
Chauncey who were doing the transmitting. Even though English had been long
since adopted as the universal language of the Internet, sending data on short
wave radio frequency still required using Morse code. Chauncey commented
that they probably didn't need to encode the messages because proficiently in
Morse had been removed from the international communications commission (ICC)
and the (FCC) test for a HAM license back in 2007 and nobody knew it anymore.
"As Bart Mancuso said in Tom Clancy's book Hunt for Red October
"hell, my Morse is so rusty I might be sending him the measurements of the
Playmate of the Month".......I loved that movie...Sean Connery played
Admiral Rameious" Chauncey said. "Yea, well I might be telling my
friend at Chinese intelligence to go eat a goat head" Max replied.
"Hey guys, not to add any pressure to you but...the future of the earth
might just rest on your ability to remember Morse code. All I remember is SOS,
dot dot dot, dash dash dash" Jack added. Chauncey noted that it was
interesting that Samuel Morse used dots and dashes, just two symbols, to create
a language and that when we learned to digitize information one hundred years
later, we used the same formula with ones and twos or X'x and O's. "Seems
like Sam was ahead of his time". " most innovators are.....just like
you there buddy boy" Geno said. " And since you guys are going to be
busy here for the next five hours, I think I will go make mad passionate love
to your girlfriend.....ok with you Jacky boy"? "Sure, go for it"
Jack responded without really hearing the comment.
Geno
and Dougy left Jack, Max, and Chauncey in the comm room and headed down to join
the others and have a cocktail. "Might as well let those three save the
world, and go get drunk. I guess I trust them more than anybody else to save
our asses.....right"? "Right.....I saw a blender when we went through
the kitchen" Dougy answered. "Margaritas"? "Wow, you are a
fucking mind reader..... Make mine a Grand Gold". Annie, Tom Rum, and
Jimmy were sitting in the living room having already opened the bar. Actually,
Tom and Jimmy were sleeping in a couple cozy big overstuffed chairs. Annie was
reading a marine Bio. mag that was on the coffee table. "Hey Annie, wanna
go have some wonderful, noncommittal sex"? Geno asked "show me the
way big boy' she answered. As they headed toward the stairs Dougy said " great,
leave me with these two worthless sleeping beauties....I thought we were going
to drink copious amounts of tequila". "Yes, my friend, but I hadn't
counted on a positive response from sweet dream boat Annie here, so how bout a
rain check on those Grand Gold Margaritas" was Geno's response. Annie
added "And if you want to keep jawing with the boys, I can probably find
another willing victim". "No, need for that baby.....I'm on my
way".
The
next twelve hours were intense. Messages were successfully sent to several
thousand key individuals at the top (or near it) of dozens of the most powerful
agencies and governments throughout the world. These messages contained a
complete and comprehensive report on all the illegal activities and goals of the world wide conspiracy and unequivocal
proof of all the wrong doing. All the information that Bob had reviled to Jack, all the evidence, all the crimes, were
currently being send around the globe and the shit was defiantly hitting the
fan. "I'm guessing that within the next ten hours or so, enough bad guys
will be rounded up so as to break down their network. If we don't get killed in
the next ten hours, we are probably home free". Max was saying as a coded
message came from Ron. "Good job boys, shit is flying" was all it
said, and Jack knew that in "Ron-Speak" that was as positive as it
gets. "Now we wait for the floor crumbs to get swept up and start
broadcasting our data and evidence to the rest of the global government
community and hope that good judgment and justice prevails". "What
are the odds" Chauncey asked. "I give it fifty fifty" Max
answered "Jack, what do you think"? "I'll tell you what, if
it was up to us, humanity that is, I would only give us about a one percent
chance. My personal faith in humanity seems to have declined somewhat in the
past few weeks. But, you know, its not just up to us, you see, it seems we have
a guardian angel or two watching over us and that probably gives us a far
better chance. So maybe Max is about right, fifty fifty could be about where we
stand, but I believe the human race has stood at that fifty fifty spot
before.....lots of times.....I mean, look at the years of the Cold War, look at
World War Two, look at all the natural disasters that could have taken out the
human race, or at least most of it, and every time we seem to still come out
the other side. Is that due to our cleverness, our good judgement, our forward,
logical, pragmatic thinking? I think not. I think it is because we have had a
higher power looking over us all along, and while I don't know just how many of
these guardian angles there are out there, I do know that I met one and if
we....humanity that is....can actually stop this selfish, stupid, greedy
conspiracy to reconstitute fossil fuels and gain power and wealth at the expense
of others and our very existence, that we owe it to them and not ourselves. You
know, I never though much for religion, and I still think the idea that
"my god is better than your god" that lots of religions have is
totally bogus, but I have to admit, after meeting with Bob and just feeling his
wisdom and his love.....well it kind of blew me away, and it left me feeling a
sense of serenity and comfort I never had. I guess what Im trying to say is
that it feels like all of the world religions were all correct in one sense or
another in that there is a power greater than us that created us and loves us
and is a force of good and really wants us to be happy, joyous and free, but
really wants us to find it for ourselves. It's just that we are a bunch of
spoiled brat kids and keep fucking things up, so they keep sending us an angle
or two to give us a push in the right direction. So, I guess that's the long
way for me to say, I think things are going to be alright, but it's definitely
not because of us". "Well said my friend...well said" Chauncey
said as he finally lifted his hands from the controls and lit a fine Cuban
cigar.
After
several hours another message came in from Ron. "Our secure line is
safe...make contact ASAP". "Ok them, let's talk to the boss". Jack
said as Max entered the proper protocol. "Hey Ron" Jack yelled
"how do you like us so far". "Holy shit boys, we have not seen a
shit storm like this in D.C. since Nixon" Ron said with just a bit more
animation in his voice that usual. "What da ya mean Ron. Some bad guys
getting rounded up and marched off to the big house" Jack countered.
"Yea, I guess you could say that. It's a fucking white collar prison
overload day. They even busted Vice President Stanley.....well actually I guess
he was actually president for two and a half days. The evidence you sent
connected him to Senator Amash and all his lackeys. Speaker of the House Rep.
Derek Bailey has been sworn in as President, and the TRADS are dropping like
flies. The meat wagon has been runnin all day haulin in asshole
politicians...... It's fucking great"!!! "Well Ron, Glad we
could make you happy". Jack said. “Make me happy, MAKE ME HAPPY, you have
just made the event of my whole, fucking, long assed LIFE! How the hell did you
get that Intelligence? It was unbelievable. We are rounding up bad guys all
over the globe. I have been in nonstop communications with officials from
fucking everywhere. There must be at least six thousand arrests so far and not
one is in question. Also we have discovered at least sixty five depositories of
machinery and weapons and a couple hundred fuel storage facilities. This thing
is just massive. How the hell did you do it Jacky boy"? Jack paused for a
moment, thinking of how to respond and finally said "Ron...would you believe
a guy named Bob, sitting on the beach in Anagoda told me"? "Yea sure,
you can tell me all about it when you get back here which is about six hours
from now. I just sent a jet down to McCarthy Air Field to get you guys".
"Hey Ron, if it’s all the same to you, I would just as soon hang here for
a few more days, do a little decompression if you catch my drift".
"That's fine with me Jacky boy, but the boys from CIA, NSA, and the Joint
Chiefs all want to debrief you, not to mention every other security agency in
the world, not to mention the congressional ethics and defense committees.....
Plus I would not mind picking your brain just a bit myself. Anyway, nobody
knows it yet, but you are a national fucking hero Jacky boy. I'll just tell all
the authorities here that you are still laying low for oblivious security
reasons and send the jet down for you when you are ready". "Sounds
good Ron thanks".
An
hour later Jack found himself and Chauncey sitting on his patio in a couple
deck chairs with a bottle of Patron and a lime, smoking Cuban cigars leaning
back with their feet up on the seawall just a few feet from the water of Hawks
Nest Bay listening to the small waves lapping against the seawall. as they
looked out at the Nanny Lu at the mooring and the few lights at the other side
of the bay, Jack was reflecting on the last few weeks and what had occurred. He
happened to cast a look up at the stars which were bright with a new moon and
no ambient light from the house or surrounding area. Chauncey noticed him starring
at the starlit sky and said “you know Jack, I have dreamed about making contact
with an alien life form since I was a boy of seven. Broadcasting all over the
world and talking to people from such exotic places like Mongolia or Antarctica
or Siberia was so cool but then the earth got so small and I dreamed of some
intelligent life form returning the signal I have been sending out into space
for fifty years, but alas, no return signal. Then the eggheads make an
appearance, which of course makes me happy because I knew that they-or at least
something like them-had always existed. But even though I'm happy, I am kind of
bummed because I was always hoping to make contact myself. So now, you tell me
you actually got to sit and talk with one for like three hours.....Wow.....what
was it like.....I mean what did you ask him....what did he tell you....what the
fuck man...tell me everything"! "Chauncey man, I think I am really
just plain too tired to tell you all about it. I did ask some stuff and I have
to tell you it was pretty interesting, and I really felt like I just had
unequivocal love and confidence and comfort. I don't know it's really strange
and I can't really explain it, but suffice to say, my life will never be the
same". "Ok, I'll let you off the hook for now" Chauncey said
"but I just have one question". "Yea, what's that" Jack
answered. Chauncey took a breath like he was pondering exactly what he was
going to say and finally said "So, what happens after we die".
"Sorry Chauncey old buddy" Jack said reluctantly "I had to
promise I wouldn't tell anybody". "Oh, you are such a dick
head". Right then the rest of the gang all came out onto the patio and sat
along the seawall with their feet up. "So, what has everyone been up to
while we were saving the world" Jack asked. Geno spoke up first.
"Well, I was making mad passionate love to your girlfriend. Can I keep her
or do you want her back". "I'll just keep both of you. I am way too
much woman for ether one of you alone" Annie chined in. "Gotta admit,
she has a point there" Jack said " you know guys, we did good and it
looks like most of the bad guys are going to jail and the GECA will pass and
all will be right with the world". "Well aren't you Mary fucking
Poppins" said Dougy “What are we going to do now. I hate to admit it, but
I'm starting to get kind of fond of you dip sticks". "Another
adventure perhaps" said Annie G. "We do have a big, fast sailboat at
our disposal, sitting about fifty feet away" said Jimmy. "Where do we
want to go" asked Tom Rum. Jack, Geno and Annie G all smiled and all spoke
in unison "where ever the wind takes us".
