The Lowest Moral Denominator.
In 16 parts, By FinalStand. Listen to the ►Podcast at Connected.
Those who declare war are willing to kill as many as it takes to reach their goal.
(The Lowest Moral Denominator)
My first week at Havenstone, I'd biked to work alone on most days and I'd enjoyed that. I'd have treasure it more if I had glimpsed my future. I loved people, not crowds. I knew about violence, yet I had no affection for it. I was a confirmed bachelor. Now I was staring down both barrels of marriage. I had had also become a walking arsenal with a lethal omnipresent entourage.
This situation was so fucked up that I had to stop by Caitlin's place just to see Aya. My favorite sprite gave me a hug and reminded me that I had to do what I could, not worry about what I couldn't do. She was my 9 year old Svengali. She was my little Valkyrie. In truth, she was the only woman knew I loved and that was the love of a father for his daughter.
On the elevator ride up to the penthouse suite of the Midtown Hilton, I thought about Dad. What would Ferko Nyilas do in my shoes? It would be easy for someone who didn't know him to imagine my dad getting up on his high moral horse and telling me to just do the right thing, except that wasn't him. What he'd tell me was to not pass the buck. I had to deal with this, unless I knew someone else who could and would do it better.
It wasn't about 'being a man'; it was being a member of the Human Race. We all pitched in and got the job done, or it didn't get done, and millions died because we refused to accept any responsibility for what was going on. That was my Dad, 'do what you can' and 'never be afraid to ask for help if you need it'. After the age of ten, he never told me I had to do anything. He'd tell me what needed to be done and leave it at that.
So I wouldn't forget the pictures I knew I'd be seeing before too long, the innocent dead. If the sorrow broke me, it broke me. Until it did, I could not turn away. I had to 'do what I could'. That put me heading to a meeting at three o'clock in the afternoon in the penthouse suite.
After my non-breakfast with Iskender, we had driven straight to Havenstone, where I demanded an immediate, private meeting with Katrina. This wasn't an info-dump and then out the door. No, I was part of the process now, one of those fools who were responsible for the lives of others. Katrina and I had argued about compartmentalizing my terrifying news.
Her reasoning was clear. We were at war with the Seven Pillars. The basis of the 7P strength was China, so anything bad that happened to China was good for the Amazon Host. I nixed that. It was Katrina's job to think about our security. It was mine to juggle how we related to the rest of the planet. Absent the Golden Mare's opposition, Katrina couldn't stop me from doing my job as I saw fit.
The Golden Mare was out of immediate contact, so we moved forward on my proposal. Katrina called Javiera, validated Vincent's call, and then suggested she bring in someone from the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) at Ft. Detrick. Katrina wouldn't tell her why.
I dispatched Delilah to talk to her MI-6 guy while I made my way to Nicole Lawless's law offices. I need to talk to my Aunts. An hour later, I dismissed a somewhat piqued Nicole from the room, then laid out the upcoming crisis to my Mom's clones. I hesitated a minute before dropping the other bomb, Grandpa Cáel was back.
Was I sure? I countered with, "Do you know who Shammuramat was?"
Why, yes they did; Grandpa had a bust of her in his main office.
"Well, she's back, in the flesh and that spells all kinds of problems".
The six aunts present agreed. They invited me to fly to Europe with five of them. Much to their surprise and joy, I agreed. I told them I would be a party of twelve with plenty of firepower. They were less pleased about that.
I exited that scene, only to engage in another, somewhat unrelated, bit of diplomacy. I met with Brooke and Libra for lunch. They brought Casper, who was seeing a specialist in New York and had expressed an interest in seeing me again. Into that volatile mix, I placed my request: 'Could Brooke put up a friend for a couple of weeks while I made other arrangements?'
Yes, this was a 'bizarre' friend. Yes, this was a violently bizarre friend. Yes, she walked around with enough weaponry to scare a seasoned SWAT officer. And yes, she was a mass murderer. Cool,, if I agreed to stop by and see how this 'friend' was doing, and gave Libra advance notice too, then they were fine with it.
Thus Shammuramat, Sakuniyas, Saku became Brooke's roommate. Insane? Not really. Putting Saku inside Havenstone on a regular basis was going to result in a blood bath. Saku was abrasive and she was a criminal in the minds of her 'sisters'. This gave her an 'out', some space and time with a civilized person who she couldn't emotionally bowl over.
If Saku got physical with Brooke, we both understood that House Ishara was going to cancel her return performance. Amazons could defend themselves, so we were fair game for her rude behavior. Brooke couldn't, so she was hopefully out of bounds. Saku had agreed to the arrangement without comment.
She'd already figured out that no other Amazons wanted her around and there simply wasn't room at my place. With that chore done, I was able to see Miyako off before her flight to Tokyo by way of Seattle. Selena was with her, but not going. Miyako did have three Amazons in case things got rough.
The Marda House guard woman looked mature and humorless. Her age wasn't a problem. She was a grandmother, yet if she thought she couldn't keep up, she'd have taken herself to the cliffs before now. It turned out she had been in Executive Services before returning to House Marda. My diplomat, I didn't know her, but she seemed eager enough. The member of House Ishara was a brand new recruit named Jenna.
She was from Acquisitions and spoke seven Asian languages, including Japanese. She looked absolutely thrilled to be heading off into danger. I instructed the younger two to obey the Mardan. In private, I 'advised' the Mardan that our main mission was to be of aid to the ninja. Information gathering would be secondary. More Amazons were on the way. She gave me a nod.
For this critical mid-afternoon meeting at the Midtown Hilton, Wiesława lead the way off the elevator. Buffy went next, then me and finally Saku. Delilah and Vincent had already arrived with their appropriate factions. Katrina took a separate elevator, with Elsa and Desiree. Pamela was, somewhere. After she'd pointed out a half-dozen people from four different agencies in the lobby, she told me to not wait while she went to the bathroom.
At the door of the Penthouse were two familiar faces from the NYPD, Nikita Kutuzov and her partner, Skylar Montero. When Javiera's investigation followed me to New York, they had been drafted into the taskforce.
"Hey ladies," I smiled. My last meeting with Nikita hadn't gone well.
"Cáel," Nikita smiled back. "How have you been?"
"More trouble than normal," I shook her hand.
"We can tell," Skylar relaxed somewhat. As Nikita's partner, she had to know that our relationship had soured when she started investigating me. Katrina's group came up.
"I think you are the last to arrive," Nikita informed us. This time, Desiree was the first one through the door. I could hear the conversation trail off. Wiesława went next, then Katrina, me, Buffy, Saku and finally Elsa. I decided to toss 'civilized' behavior out the window seconds after entering. Virginia Maddox of the FBI, the initiator of the Amazon children's airlift, was here.
I hugged her and after a moment, she hugged me back.
"Priya says hey and," she blushed slightly, "she's counting the days, all forty-five of them."
"Don't forget, I owe you," I grinned then patted her shoulder. Javiera was next.
"Cáel," she headed my familiarity off. She was a Federal Prosecutor after all.
"This is the head of this taskforce, Jonas Baker (deep breath) Associate Deputy Undersecretary of Analysis for Homeland Security {ADUAHS} (deep breath)." I extended my hand, so he shook it. He looked somewhat annoyed by this whole encounter. Javiera was duly nervous because of his poor initial attitude. The introductions went around.
Half way through it, Pamela showed up, from where, I didn't know. Delilah, her MI-6 boss and the British professional killer Chaz were there, much to the chagrin of the Americans. Vincent was there with Javiera. Cresky was representing the CIA plus there was ATF, ICE, Riki Martin (?) from the State Department and a man in a civil servant's salary suit and a military demeanor, Captain Moe Mistriano.
"Fine," Mr. Baker began. "I hope you aren't wasting our time." His gaze flicked between Katrina and me.
"May the Blessed Isis bring understanding to our meeting," I intoned, in old Egyptian.
"What was that?" Baker turned on me.
"Praying for guidance," I replied. Isis wasn't in the Amazon pantheon, but I could sure use her help at this point. Baker was going from put-out to pissed-off. If that is how they wanted to play it, their choice. "Are you the specialist from Ft. Detrick?" I asked the Captain.
"Yes, I am and I hope this is worth my time as well," he gave me a steady gaze. Oh, I really needed that.
"Anthrax, China," I stated and weighed his response. Oh yeah, I had his attention now, which meant his bio-warfare unit had some idea about what was happening in China.
"Care to enlighten me?" Baker inquired. He had gauged his medical expert's reactions as well and he didn't like what the biological warfare specialist was not saying.
"Mr. Baker," the Captain decided to go first. "Roughly fifty-five hours ago, we got wind that there was a massive Anthrax outbreak in Western China. Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia and Nei Mongol administrative regions have all reported outbreaks.
"Holy Shit!" Riki Martin gasped. Her dark, whip-like, Hispanic features noticeably paled.
"That sounds suspiciously like bio-terrorism," Jonas Baker turned on me.
"You'd be right about that," I refused to evade. "It is and it is about to get a whole lot worse."
"The PRC has a robust vaccine program," the Captain stated. "That is why they aren't making a public stink about it. They have the problem well under control."
"Damn, " I closed my eyes and lowered my head. In some deep section of my mind, I had fanned the feeble flames of hope that somehow, the Earth & Sky program had derailed. "That is the 'whole lot worse' I was talking about. The terrorists aren't terrorists. They, "
"What do you mean they are not terrorists," Baker snapped. "They, "
"Shut up and let the man speak," Katrina said calmly.
"Who are you again?" he glared at Katrina. "If you aren't part of the solution, you are part of the problem and I'm here to make sure this problem is dealt with. I am not here to play footsie with you. I am going to be asking some tough questions and you had better answer them."
"I'm Cáel's boss," Katrina smiled. "Since we came here to help you and you don't want to let us speak, we are leaving. Cáel."
The Amazons didn't turn and leave. No, we backed up toward the door.
"You can't start talking about an ongoing terrorist threat and then walk out the door," Baker argued.
"Javiera, I apologize," I looked her way. "Mr. Baker, Javiera's a smart cookie. I'm sure she's given you every bit of information that has come across her desk. That means you know we consider ourselves an independent nation-state without borders. You can't intimidate us. We feel no obligation to obey your legal system and we operate internationally," I kept going.
"Now, as we are trying to repay Javiera's kindness in our time of need, you are treating us like criminals currying favors. Blow it out your ass, you pompous bureaucrat" I concluded. "We aren't the problem here."
"If that's the way you want it," he shrugged. "Javiera, arrest them." Pause.
"Sir, you do realize that if I give that order, there is a good likelihood they will resist with force?" Javiera replied calmly. Baker looked around the room.
"We outnumber them and these are law enforcement officers," he insisted. "Now, "
"I wouldn't count on that 'outnumbered' thing," Delilah chimed in.
Chaz and MI-6 dude didn't seem to be onboard with his plan. "I have reason to believe Cáel has information on a highly virulent weaponized Anthrax program. If our US allies aren't interested, Her Majesty's government certainly will be." That did interest the MI-6 senior officer.
"That is all the more reason to put these people into federal custody," Baker stated.
"Then what, Mr. Associate Deputy?" Chaz said. "Are you going to torture them for time sensitive data? In my military service, I've met some truly hard characters. Some people you can put a gun to their child's head and they'll tell you what you want to know. Not this group. They'll memorize your face and wait for a chance to make you pay, whether you kill the kid, or not."
"That's my read on them as well," Agent Vincent Loire added.
"Mr. Baker, I worked under you when we were both in Counter-terrorism," Virginia spoke up. "I think you are mishandling this. Invoke the Patriot Act and all we get is a roomful of statues. I've fought beside these, Amazons and I'm reaffirming my report to Ms. Castello (Javiera), they do not believe their behavior is wrong.
At some point in their fifties, they commit ritual suicide. They make their twelve year old daughters fight for their lives. They murder their male infants. Sir, they are an alien society, indoctrinated at birth to believe they are spiritual inheritors of the ancient Amazons mentioned by Homer during the time of the Iliad.
They fanatically believe in a pantheon of goddesses and possess very little inclination for integration. They think they are superior to everyone in this room, except for Cáel, he's an oddity," Virginia pleaded.
"That legion of crimes is yet another reason to arrest them," Baker just wouldn't give up.
"What you have described, Agent Maddox is a right wing nut cult, like the Branch-Davidians at Waco. Arrest them."
"What are the charges?" Javiera's face blanked out.
"Conspiracy to commit terrorist acts; aiding and abetting an international terrorist organization," Baker snapped.
"Everyone, put down your firearms and blades," Katrina ordered. I didn't have the status to give that order except to my own. For that matter,
"Team, disarm," Elsa commanded her Security Detail people. Technically, Katrina couldn't order those girls to forego their primary mission, defend the Host. Out came the guns.
The group of us went over to one wall, put our backs to it and sat down. Pro forma, Virginia, Vincent and the ATF guy drew their firearms. By this time, both Riki and the Captain looked ready to explode.
"Tell us what you know about this terrorist conspiracy and, " Baker said.
"We invoke our Right to Council," I raised my hand.
"You are being charged under the Patriot Act, smart-ass," Baker sneered. "We can hold you indefinitely if we can show a risk to National Security, such as a terrorist attack in China."
"I apologize for dragging you into this," I turned to Katrina. "You too, Saku." Saku shrugged.
"I told you there is no benefit in helping 'these people'," Katrina comforted me. She meant non-Amazons and it was rather sad that it was looking like she was right and I was wrong.
"Unless you want to grow old and grey in Guantanamo, I suggest you start talking now," Baker threatened.
There was no bravado on our part. We didn't zone out, or ignore him. We looked at him the same way we would a yappy dog while continuing to scan the room. Being disarmed didn't make us defenseless. It merely limited our options.
"Sir," Riki tapped Baker.
"If the People's Republic of China finds out we withheld details of a terrorist attack on their soil, that would be BAD, with a capital 'B'."
"I have to call this in," the Captain shook his head.
"Wait until we have active intelligence," Baker said. The Captain completed his call.
"I don't work for you, Sir. I work for the Department of Defense and that man," the Captain pointed at me, "strung two words together he shouldn't have. Now, I don't know any of you people. I was told to come here, so here I am. I do know, Sir, that you are ignoring the advice from your experts about the expected results of standard interrogation techniques.
You are acting on two assumptions which I find to be fictitious," the Captain was clearly furious. "First, you seem to think this won't get out, and you are wrong. Why? We have no idea who these people have talked with. We can only believe that any person outside of their organization can use that revelation for their own ends. Secondly, you haven't grasped the extent of the emergency.
Chinese citizens are already starting to drop dead as we speak. This variant of Anthrax is highly contagious, fast-acting, and appears to be incredibly fatal. No nation on Earth has enough Anthrax vaccine on hand to protect their entire population, and that still implies that the vaccines we currently have will work on this new bacteria. Need I go on?"
Then Captain Mistriano went back to talking softly with his companions back at Ft. Detrick. The MI-6 chief made his own call. This was his job after all. Before Baker could even start to threaten the Brit, Delilah and Chaz had their guns out, though pointed down. The US law enforcement operatives were far more leery of challenging agents of a friendly foreign power.
"I will make sure to tack on charges for all those deaths you are facilitating," Baker piled it on. "The US government might find it necessary to send you to the People's Republic of China to face charges there. After all, you claim to not be US citizens." None of us responded verbally. We looked at him. We certainly heard him speak, but his 'words' now meant nothing.
Highly annoyed, Baker started the handcuffing process. Nikita and Skylar came in with four more NYPD. The bracelets went on behind our back. Javiera made one more stab at it.
"Katrina, Cáel, please help us," she pleaded. She knew far more than Baker about the cost of this meeting.
The Amazons would withdraw and this war would play out with the US government blind to the key players. Hell, we had been repaying her favor and were ending up in chains. Virginia shared that distress. All the headway she'd made in helping the camp whisk their young to safety was being undone. Both ladies had come to appreciate the risks I had taken to bring our two sides together.
I looked to Katrina for approval before speaking.
"We still respect you, Javiera," I grinned. "You know that once we exit this place, Havenstone is going to implode. I wish it wasn't so, but now we have to look out for ourselves."
"We will see about that as well," Baker grumbled. We had nothing to say.
"Have you lost your FUCKING MIND?" Javiera turned and screamed at him. "I brought these people to you because they said they had vital intelligence to share. They didn't have to, they volunteered because this taskforce has been trying to cultivate them as a source of information on other underground groups."
"Have you lost your mind?" Baker countered.
"No sir," Javiera sneered. "I do know that I'm going to go on the six o'clock news tonight and tell them that you, by name, are concealing a major outbreak of Anthrax in China. I'll let the political vultures do the rest, Mr. Baker."
"Blabbing about an on-going federal investigation carries stiff penalties, Ms. Castello," he fought back.
"I'll be practicing law long before, you son of a bitch," she suddenly snapped. "You are embarrassed because Havenstone swam beneath your radar until now," she put some pieces together.
"You seem to think that is a reason to cut them some slack, Ms. Castello," Baker reposted.
"Yes, I do," Javiera defended her position. "They reached out to us. We had no case, 15 dead bodies in Chicago and no motive for the crime. We had professional mercenaries on US soil killing US citizens. Mr. Nyilas and Ms. Love gave us multiple leads and they didn't have to."
"They were attacked. Of course they came crawling to us," Baker said. Javiera shook her head.
"Sir, as I put in my report, they are a vengeance-based society. They were more than happy to hunt down those gunmen: BY-THEM-SELVES," the federal prosecutor drilled her point home. "You can't accept that there is a war on the horizon and we need each other as allies.
As insane as their background sounds, the current global situation is bearing out their warnings. You are not only showing them egregious disrespect, Mr. Baker, you are insulting everyone on the team that has interacted with Havenstone. This is something you are going to have to answer for," she finished.
"Umm," Captain Moe spoke up. "Mr. Nyilas, do you have any technical data on this Anthrax outbreak?" I looked at him yet held silent.
"He can't answer you," Virginia spoke for me. "But I can tell you that thirty-six hours ago, that man charged eleven well-trained Special Forces operators with only one young woman at his side.
Then, after those enemies were killed, he and another combatant charged the end of the attacking column and destroyed the end three vehicles (the two Hummer-types and the last truck), trapping al the rest. I don't think any of you get it. These people are born warriors, every last one of them. They've only surrendered now because they have already planned out their escape.
That's how they think. The security at their outdoor summer camp rivaled that of the NSA. There, kids as young as seven are trained in hand-to-hand combat, archery and knife-fighting. I saw a fifteen year old girl kill a man at thirty yards with a bow by moonlight. They burned over a hundred men alive in pre-prepared traps, and in the middle of all that, I've never felt safer in all my life.
And that's because of how these people think. They're not here for the U.S.!" She was turning red in the face as she yelled at Baker. "I was safe because Cáel vouched for me. Cáel vouched for me because Javiera told him I could be trusted. Their word is their bond. Their code of conduct is that basic. You've just broken Javiera's word and the consequences of the betrayal will be quite severe, I have no doubt."
"Consequences?" Baker mocked.
"Oh yeah, ya Douche," Delilah counter-mocked. "Give 'em time. They are going to kill everyone on your, eh, Katrina and Cáel, please note we Brits are not part of this fiasco." Katrina and I nodded. "Everyone on your taskforce and your families too. You are all dead. Virginia?"
"Pretty much," Virginia agreed.
"Where is Ms. Pile?" Chaz looked around. "Bloody Hell." Pamela was nowhere in sight.
"Don't sweat it," I looked to the two martial Brits. "She likes you both."
While this had been going on, Riki had been busy with her own phone games. "Mr. Baker," she finally spoke up. "Secretary of State Kerry would like to talk to you." Blink. Baker took the phone rather reluctantly. That Cabinet member wanted the information he was supposed to be getting immediately. Once Jonas blithely informed Mr. Kerry that he had placed those individuals under arrest, the conversation took a turn for the worse, for Jonas.
Three quarters through his ass-reaming, his own phone rang.
"Pardon me, Mr. Secretary," Baker looked at his own device and paled even more. That was his boss's boss's boss, the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security. That guy seemed pretty livid as well.
What none of us knew then was that there had been a massive shootout in downtown London a little more than an hour before our meeting began. It was a sanguinary catastrophe of startling proportions, in and around "All Hallows by the Tower", one of the oldest churches in England. At the moment, the US intelligence apparatus was dealing with some really bad mojo.
Six factions had shot it out in one of the most famous sites in London in the late afternoon. Among the dead were a senior British Member of Parliament (MP) from the Labor Party and one of Russia's biggest arms dealers. The Deputy Director of Intelligence for the DGSE (the French external intelligence service) was still in surgery, fighting for his life.
He wasn't the only one. There were also nineteen dead and seventeen wounded at the church. The London Metropolitan Police were running around, highly incensed. One of their female constables was dead at the scene. Five more were in serious condition.
For reasons still unknown, former Russian Spetsnaz, active duty French paratroopers, former British Special Forces operatives, personnel of a Dutch security firm, and a large group of professional killers masquerading as Ukrainian immigrant laborers opened fire on one another in the abbey of All Hallows by the Tower.
The Metropolitan Police (the sixth faction), responding to the automatic gunfire and explosions, became involved in the firefight. The Ukrainians fled the scene and the police gave chase. Three more civilians were killed and forty-two wounded during the pursuit and the resulting car crashes as well as the THREE firings of an RPG at police cruisers, which caused two more constable deaths and left seven more officers wounded.
How had that managed to salvage my diplomatic mission? Before passing on, a Ukrainian uttered one small sentence: 'Did we kill the Illuminati Factor?' Through NSA intercepts and cross-Atlantic intelligence exchanges, the US intelligence network revved up into high gear; they punched in the key words, and all fingers pointed to the taskforce. As Homeland Security analysts tossed it upstairs, the State department began to fidget nervously.
What were they nervous about? A crucial individual at Foggy Bottom just happened to know where Riki was, who she was meeting with (the sources that had given the US current information on the Illuminati) and they wanted any information she could pry out of us concerning the goings-on in London. Instead, Riki had just called them first and sent up warning flags about bio-terrorism in China,
Oh, and she informed her boss that the Taskforce head had just shut down that information conduit on the Chinese AND the Illuminati by arresting the individuals that this independent group had sent to discuss security issues with the United States government.
- Charges: Terrorist threats.
-Complications: The FBI and Federal Prosecutor working the case were siding with the assets, codename: Penthasilea.
The authorities were getting two conflicting accounts of our current circumstance. Baker swore he would have us singing in half an hour. Riki Martin claimed Baker had his head up his ass, and there were three British Intelligence operatives watching all of this go down.
All of this DC bullshit was making our NYPD cops antsy. Baker came up with an action plan.
"The first one of you to talk gets blanket immunity," he addressed me and my fellow captives. No one said anything. Delilah responded by laughing richly and loud.
"You wanker," Delilah derided the Fed. "Clean out your damn ears. The Amazons ain't telling you shit. I thought that would be obvious to you by now."
"Ms. Castello, do something," Baker turned on the orchestrator of this meeting.
"I am," she gave him an evil grin. "I'm thinking of what descriptives I'm going to use when I tender my resignation, you presumptuous buffoon."
Baker turned back to us, alternating between threats and promised leniency, to no avail. I was the one to crack, not because of him though. Time meant lives right now, innocent lives.
"May I talk to the Captain in private?" I requested.
"No," Baker barked.
"Fine, can I go to the bathroom?" I asked. Another 'no'. "Can I apply for asylum?" I inquired of Delilah's 'other' boss. He seemed to be mulling that over, not that he could pull that off this very moment.
"Mr. Baker," the Captain stepped up. "I really think I should talk to this man."
"If he has something to say, he can tell both of us," Dirt-bag Baker grumbled.
"Your information could be saving lives, couldn't it?" the Captain looked at me. I looked away which was its own kind of confirmation. "You have got to tell me if lives are at stake," he appealed to my better nature. Good try.
"Agent Maddox made our position perfectly clear," Katrina answer for me. "Cáel cannot answer you because your actions, or lack of action, has revealed your word to be worthless and your motives suspect. He has no guarantee that giving you any knowledge he may possess will be used to save any lives. Personally, I was opposed to this meeting, but Cáel thought you deserved a chance.
You can thank Mr. Baker for proving me right and Cael wrong." Katrina sternly stated.
"Mr. Nyilas," the Captain made one more end run around Katrina.
"He won't answer you," Katrina said after allowing me a chance to not answer. "He is the only one here with Havenstone that feels one iota of guilt for any part of this disaster.
I attribute that to him being a kind-hearted and forgiving individual. He is alone in feeling that way, believe me," she added.
"How bad is this information?" Virginia's eyes welled up.
"I wish I had never come out of that coma," I replied.
If I hadn't, maybe Temujin would have been killed by the Seven Pillars and this wouldn't be happening, except the Earth & Sky had this in place way before Temujin was on the scene. This calamity was inevitable.
"The van for their transport has arrived," Skylar informed Baker.
"Ms. Love and Mr. Nyilas, every single person who expires due to your intransience will be added to your charges and the Federal Government does enforce a death penalty," Jonas pushed it. "Your cohorts will be charged under Federal Firearms statutes. That is a long time in a Federal Maximum security complex for all of you.
And I can still honor a Chinese request for extradition," he tacked on. "They have their own standards of interrogation."
"I can't believe what is coming out of you pie-hole," Delilah snorted. "The only one the Reds will break is Cáel and I bet he doesn't know 'word one' about the technical aspects of this outbreak.
The three people he does know, well, you can't catch the main player and the other two probably don't know jack-all either. I wouldn't worry about the number of murder charges you are going to foist on this group. I'd worry about the number of Homeland agents whose bodies are going to start piling up on your doorstep," Delilah sneered.
"Ms. Faircloth, all your insinuations are doing is digging these so-called Amazons a deeper hole," Baker countered. "Personally, I'm not all that worried about a cult of delusional man-haters."
"You are impossible," Riki grumbled at Baker. "Mr. Nyilas, what do you know about the Illuminati?"
Long gone were the days when I was an open book when confronted with feminine charms. Riki was looking for some sort of reaction. She got something she didn't expect.
"Why don't we talk it over in that bedroom over there?" I propositioned her. What the hell, this was turning out to be a lousy day. I might as well reach for something good.
Nikita twisted my handcuffs tightly.
"Ouch," I complained.
"Behave," Nikita whispered.
"Are you trying to trade sex for information?" Jonas sneered.
"What exactly are you implying, Mr. Nyilas?" Riki kept studying me. "I'm engaged."
"Baker, no. I'm trying to gleam something positive from this moronic encounter. Ms. Martin, Rikki, please call me Cáel and what I am asking you for is a chance to break through this bureaucratic brick wall and establish a personal rapport. As for you being engaged, I don't care.
I've been sleeping with officer Nikita here, and while she's been loads of fun, I'm addicted to beautiful, intelligent and confident women, which you definitely are."
"You've had intercourse with a member of my taskforce?" Baker gobbled.
"None of your damn business," I grinned his way.
"If I go back to that bedroom, will you tell me what I want to know about the Illuminati?" Riki inquired. She had this steamy, sultry look to her. The political crisis had obscured her view of me until now. My body was projecting sex, sex, sex and her body was going yes, yes, yes.
"If we go back there for thirty minutes, I'll definitely consider it," I countered.
"The only place you are going is to an ICE holding facility," Baker seethed.
"Christmas Eve, Empire State Building, Bitch," Desiree looked my way. Oh yeah, if I made it to Christmas we'd go out on a date together. To prevent that abominable date from transpiring, I was taking a header off the top of that building the night before, or so the gag ran.
"Was that some kind of code?" Baker barked. No one said anything. "Take them away," he motioned to the cops. They led us to the elevators, split us up and down we went. The Brits would have to wait a while as there wasn't enough room to squeeze them in safely. This was starting to become the new, worst day in my life, until we hit the lobby.
There was a wall of people waiting for the cops, and us. Eight of them were SD, the other twenty were with, Deidre, I believed. That sucked big time. I wasn't sure how they'd figured I was in trouble and responded so quickly. It was London again.
"Clear a path," Officer Montero commanded in her best authoritarian tone.
"Who the hell are you people?" Baker demanded. "You are impeding a Federal Investigation."
"Give us Cáel Nyilas and you can pass," Deidre replied calmly.
"Like Hell," Baker grumbled. Deidre handed a packet to one of her security types. In turn, the man walked over and handed the paperwork to the closest Fed, Virginia.
"This documentation affirms Mr. Nyilas' status as a diplomat with the Republic of Ireland's Mission to the United Nations," Deidre informed us. Fuck a Duck, now Ireland owned a piece of me as well as the Host, the US of A and the Khanate. One of these days I was going to emigrate to a political entity I actually wanted to belong to, someplace like Fiji.
Virginia handed the papers to Baker.
"Are you serious?" he looked from the papers to Deidre.
"Very. Give us our envoy and we will depart," she insisted. This was ten kinds of strange. The paperwork must have taken at least a day if they would pass diplomatic muster.
It was a backup plan to wrangle me if things turned ugly, which they had. That didn't explain the muscle in, Illuminati.
"Deidre, what has happened?" I called out. Nikita unlocked my handcuffs.
"You know this woman?" Baker addressed me bitterly.
"If you had read my reports or looked over our video evidence you would know that woman is, I think, Deidre O'Shea. She is Cáel Nyilas' maternal aunt, one of many," Javiera growled.
"How can I accept these papers as authentic?" Baker cast about for an explanation. Riki stepped up, snatched them out of Baker's stunned fingers and reviewed them herself.
"They look legitimate. I'll call one of our European liaisons anyway," she mumbled. All the while, I kept exchanging glances with the rest of the Amazon contingent. This was a solo exit invitation. Aunt Deidre didn't have a way to bring them out with me and wasn't inclined to be helpful to the point of breaking the law at this time. Showing sisterly solidarity was pointless.
In jail, I was actually a detriment to Katrina. I was the one with the information and the big mouth.
"Mr. Nyilas checks out," Riki announced. "He has the proper credentials."
"Mr. Nyilas, you could have mentioned your diplomatic status when this all began," Baker got pissy with me. I ignored him.
"Guns and axes," I demanded. "I want my weaponry back."
"Mr. Nyilas," Baker got in my face. I kept ignoring him. "Fine, I will file a formal protest with our State department and have you expelled from the United States." Captain Moe blanched.
"Do you abuse prescription drugs?" Riki really was becoming more succinct in her approach to Jonas. "Or, are you some crack-whore, meth-head, or someone who shoots up black tar heroin into their tear ducts?"
"Watch yourself, Ms. Martin," he glared at her.
"Blow it out your ass, you half-wit," Riki seethed back. "Does it occur to you the ONLY person you could pin any criminal charges on is about to walk out the door? Even better, knowing he has some level of knowledge of both the Illuminati and the Anthrax outbreak, you are going to have our government put him well beyond our reach," she shook her head.
"Thank you Ms. Martin," Katrina finally spoke. "What exactly are the rest of us being charged with? Our firearms are licensed and I don't recall anyone besides the diplomat from Ireland saying anything remotely like a terrorist threat."
"Release them," Javiera stated. "I'm not going to file any charges I know are unsupportable."
"What about the Arizona fiasco?" Baker was looking flustered. Summer Camp.
"The only people we can tie to that camp are Mr. Nyilas, Ms. Faircloth, a British citizen, and Agent Maddox. Ms. Faircloth was an avowed foreign intelligence operative operating on US soil with our permission. Agent Maddox was sent by us into that camp and didn't break any laws we are aware of," Javiera made her case.
"So, who are you going to call first? The Deputy Secretary (of HS), or the Secretary of State?" Javiera was pushing Baker into a corner. Despite Javiera's order, no one was un-cuffing the Amazons. Baker was still in charge.
"Mr. Nyilas, perhaps we got off on the wrong foot," Baker suggested.
"Mr. Baker, do you love your country?" I asked.
"Yes, of course. Sure, I do," he hesitated, looking for the pitfall.
"Then quit the task force. There is no way my side can work with you anymore. This demand is not a point of negotiation," I told him.
"You had your chance and blew it. We Amazons are not much into forgiveness. Worse, you disrespected your underlings in my presence, refused to own up to your mistakes and failed to put your duty before your personal advancement. You have repudiated all the hallmarks of a good and honest leader. You've failed. Good-bye," I related.
"You don't get to dictate the shape of a US federal investigation, Mr. Nyilas," Baker retorted. My immediate counter was cut off by the arrival of the Brits and the NYPD with our weapons on a cart.
"Delilah, Ms. Martin and Captain Mistriano, would you care to come along with me?" I was back to ignoring Jonas.
I began to re-arm myself, which the NYPD didn't love.
"Hold on now," Baker violently pulled on my arm. Hallelujah! My fist crashed into his face, breaking his nose and dropping him to the ground. I went back to my business.
"Mumma-fuffa! Awwess hmm," he squawked. That was 'Mother-fucker. Arrest him.'
"Sir, you physically assaulted a diplomat," Vincent responded, "in front of dozens of witnesses. He wasn't doing anything illegal and you had no right to restrain him in an official capacity."
"Really?" I looked at Vincent. He nodded. "I'm filing charges," I chuckled.
"Really?" it was Javiera's turn. My nod. "Mr. Jonas Baker, you are under arrest for battery and the unlawful detention of a member of the diplomatic corps by an on-duty government employee acting in an official capacity pursuant to Article 29 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961."
"Yumm cam dunn dat," Baker insisted as Virginia pulled him to his feet.
"She can and I am," Virginia confirmed by putting on the steel bracelets.
"Her Majesty's government will testify to this outrageous behavior on the part of Mr. Baker as well as filing our own complaint with your State Department and the United Nations General Assembly Sixth Committee," Mr. MI-6 Section Chief added.
"Ms. Love and Mr. Nyilas, can we have a 'do-over'?" Riki pleaded. I looked to Katrina. She gifted me with a sliver of a smile and a nod. Damn it! That was how Deidre knew where I was and what I was doing. Katrina had sold me out, kinda/sorta.
"Sure thing," I sighed. "I need to talk to my Aunt first."
In hindsight, the two back up squads (one for Katrina/ one for me) working with the Illuminati should have alerted me to Katrina's deviousness. Those eight women were vacating the premises after Elsa signaled them to fall back. It was my job to deal with Deidre and her "super-security" force.
"Come with me, Cáel," she purred as she swept into my arms. She was tilting my head down for a deep, tonsil-tinging French Kiss before I could grapple with the internal conflict of sexy, hot red-head versus 'she's my kin, dang it!'.
"That's his aunt?" Riki muttered.
"It is complicated," Katrina answered. "Very complicated."
"There are nine more, just like her," Javiera compounded the confusion. "I mean that, exactly like her."
"They seem rather, close," Virginia groused. Ah, jealousy from someone I had yet to take to bed.
"Is his entire family like that?" Riki asked.
"Oh no," Buffy grumbled. "A month ago, they didn't know each other existed. Now those genetic freakazoids think they own him. That's not going to happen."
"Yes, he does present himself as a very strong-willed, free-thinking individual," Nikita noted.
"No," Buffy corrected her. "I mean they can't have him because he's mine. I own him."
"For love of the Goddess, cut me some slack," I griped after breaking Deidre's lip lock. "I can hear everything you ladies are saying."
"You were supposed to," Katrina smirked. "We have work to do."
After a brief plea on my part, Deidre accepted my invitation to join the round table. My first order of business was having Buffy cough up a copy of the data Iskender had sent. Next came the reveal about the Chinese poisoned vaccines which sent Captain Moe and Riki into deep, hushed and desperate conversations with their associate apparatuses.
The really, really hard part was trying to sell the Earth & Sky as a non-terrorist organization. I went with the old philosophical argument of 'what is it to kill a person?' Basically, from the mid-18th century, the Han Chinese had been culturally marginalizing and exterminating the cultures of the Turkish and Mongolian Peoples living within in their borders, genocide had been institutionalized as part of the struggle.
The process was called sinicization, and it encouraged the assimilation of Han Chinese ways and the migration of Han Chinese into the historically Turkish and Mongolian areas. Worse, the economic opportunities the PRC created in the course of exploiting the various regions' natural resources had benefited the Han colonists far more than the native populations.
The ugly truth was the Khanate could not trust the Han populations in the areas they wanted to seize and they couldn't simply push them out. Starting in the 1930's, various Chinese regimes had declared the 'age of the barbarian' was over. The 'barbarians' were proving them wrong. CIA officer Cresky was now making his own furtive phone calls. The NSA was also getting involved.
By herculean efforts, the Earth & Sky had managed to assemble 80% of their forces when Zero Hour came. Circumstances had forced Temujin to push the attack forward by 24 hours. Still, he was confident. In the halls of power in Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia, coups were taking place. Khanate propaganda efforts were rolling into high gear.
Temujin was graduating from an Osama bin Laden-level terrorist chief to the Master of a fragile, yet massive, Asian belligerent state. Without knowing the precise time table of events, that was the angle I was spinning. The Earth & Sky wasn't Al Qaeda, or a terrorist state like Iran, Libya, or Syria. It was more akin to the old Soviet Union. Oh yeah, and some of the largest fields of oil, natural gas and shale lay beneath his feet.
At 2:50 a.m. Almaty Time (Eastern Kazakhstan), the United Central Asian Khanate declared war on the People's Republic of China. At 3:00 am, coordinated attacks against China began with medium-range missile and drone strikes that devastated PLA air bases and supply facilities in Xinjiang and Nei Mongol. The Chinese news brown-out that Beijing had implemented in order to control information about the Anthrax outbreak now came back to haunt them.
If a network was on the air, it was governmental and the E&S pounded it, or jammed it. Next came small scale actions along the border. A few strategic frontier outposts were overwhelmed. The majority held out, yet were in serious trouble. They were screaming for help over the already over-taxed communication web that remained.
As my Amazons were trying to score points with the United Kingdom and United States, Pakistan was asking for a UN commission to discuss the Aksai Chin situation. That measure was heading to the UN Security Council where the PRC, as a permanent member with 'veto power', was going to squash it.
Against their case was the posting of the video of the PLA 'relief' column to Aksai Chin being cut to pieces. Mid-afternoon yesterday, a brigade-sized force belonging to the 6th Motorized Division, backed with significant air assets, assaulted their former stronghold that now was in 'rebel' hands. The defenders used European-built MILAN anti-tank missiles and RPG's to beat off the first Chinese rush.
The Chinese deployed, blasted away at the fixed fortification and then closed in to finish off the few holdouts. That was when the 'rebels' launched their counter-attack. The Chinese anti-air defenses disappeared first. When the PLAAF swarmed back in, the 'rebel' anti-air defenses revealed themselves. Of the eighteen engaged aircraft, fourteen crashed and burned, two limped away and the last two fled.
The Chinese helicopter support assets suffered the same fate. When the 'rebels' produced their own Russian-built combat helicopters, the Chinese brigade fell apart. The 'rebel's blocked the northern, mountainous retreat route so the armored assets were forced to race across the barren Aksai Chin valley where dozens of 'rebel' groups ambushed the dazed Chinese survivors.
As the Sun set, the video showed hundreds of Chinese troops surrendering. No one on planet Earth still believed Aksai Chin was in the hands of a rag-tag group of Turkish separatists, or jihadists. China was ready and willing to blame Pakistan for this blatant act of aggression. Pakistan's statement at the UN certainly didn't dissuade that belief.
That tripled the effectiveness and importance of FD Javiera Castello, Riki Martin at State, Cresky with the CIA and Captain Moe Mistriano. I doubted this was hurting the career of Delilah either. Much to my disgust, Katrina's prediction had been right. We gave the US government this crucial information and their superiors decided to, analyze it.
The Department of Defense, over the objections of the USAMRIID, didn't want the Anthrax data to go over the internet, or any wireless service. A military courier was coming to retrieve the flash drive then a jet on standby would whisk the data to Maryland and Ft. Detrick. The Justice Department, Javiera was bounced around between Homeland Security, the FBI (separately from HS) and the State Department.
The CIA and NSA were doing a threat assessment, even as they watched seven armored Tumens crossing the PRC's borders from Kazakhstan, Russia and Mongolia. How bad was it? Khanate Tu-95 and Tu-22M bombers, both relics of the Cold War, were penetrating deep into Chinese airspace, plastering supply depots, railroad marshalling centers and key bridges.
Temujin's 'Falcons' had temporarily established air superiority over the Lanzhou and Beijing Military Districts, that's western and northern China. Not only had the surprise attack by the Earth & Sky devastated a huge portion of the PLAAF on the ground, small teams were taking out anti-air assets. As a final indignity, the Chinese pilots and crews were starting to get sick, really sick.
Captain Moe enlightened the room with a fact I already knew, but hadn't referenced. How do you prioritize what people you vaccinate when you have an outbreak? Answer: Your First Responders. In the PRC, that meant the military, militia, police and the staff of medical centers. That's right. The people designated to battle this terrible affliction were succumbing to this sickness before the attack's full force engulfed the populace.
The Chinese transportation network was in shambled. Civilian aircraft did not dare fly supplies into contaminated zones because the Khanate contested those skies. As this act of genocide took shape, I found watching the three disparate groups with morbid fascination.
The Amazons were acting like nothing was wrong. Our people were already prepared for the Earth & Sky to send us their vaccines. Earth & Sky were our allies, the Seven Pillars were our enemies, end of discussion. Every dead Chinaman was a good thing in their book. How they died was irrelevant and yes, they had killed and would kill women and children. Non-combatant wasn't a word in common usage for Amazons.
The British contingent were grim, yet calm. What else could they do? All three had some level of military service, though murder on this scale was not in their catalog of previously experienced woes.
Finally, the Americans were in varying degrees of panic. They were not running around like chickens with their heads cut off. This flavor of panic was different and far more insidious. It was the creeping realization that they worked for political masters who placed a greater premium on how this would play out with the American public than on the death toll in another country.
Due to Javiera's pleas for cooperation, the British were being quiet for now, but eventually someone higher up at MI-6 in London inevitably would pass this on to a political appointee. Then all bets were off.
I was the bringer of bad tiding and the herald of the upcoming apocalypse. Perversely, the people I was causing anguish to were the people I wanted to help. I was deeply depressed, yet I had one more duty to perform, paying it forward.
"Deidre, can I talk to you in private?" I walked over to my Aunt and took her hand.
Her security detail had shrunk down to two. The rest were waiting in the lobby.
"Of course," she gave me a barracuda smile. I was angling for the closest bathroom. She was dragging me toward the nearest bedroom. We both had what the other wanted. Her drive was the stronger, we ended up in the bedroom.
I was thankful she didn't throw me down on the floor, or the bed. She slipped her hands around my waist, pushing her lower stomach against my crotch then tilted back so we could make eye contact. She inhaled deeply of my scent, trembled, and then addressed me.
"You want to know about the 'All Hallows' shootout," she turned serious, yet comforting.
"Are you in danger?" I asked. Of course I wanted to know about the firefight. My question did manage to make her happy. She brought up a hand to stroke my jaw from ear to chin.
"We really do care about you, Cáel," she insisted passionately. "With Father back, things will get worse, not better. In time, he will come for you and you need to be ready."
"You have no idea," I held her gaze. "He's been several steps ahead of you the entire time. He planned his death, succeeded in the purpose of dying and even engineered your murder of your brother, at your hands."
Deidre was torn between being older and wiser than me and the deep, ingrained suspicion of her creator's fearsome intellect.
"What do you think he's doing right now?" she hedged her bets.
"Reasserting his control over the Illuminati," I went with my gut instinct, "Shit!"
Buffy tumbled into the room, pistol out and pointed down, with two Illuminati goons piling up behind her.
"Cáel?" Buffy shot hate Deidre's way.
"Give me a sec," I kept my eyes on Deidre. I waited for the door to shut.
"Who were the people attacked in London?" I questioned her intently.
"If I tell you, you must agree to come with us," she proposed. "We can't keep you safe if you keep wandering about and I don't think you came back from wherever the Amazons took you because the weather was foul. Let us protect you."
"No, and that's because it wouldn't do either of us any good Deidre," I reasoned. "Assume he knows what has been going on the past thirty years and has taken the appropriate measures. The worst thing for you and my other aunts' survival is for me to seek shelter."
"Why? He's not going to kill us, he's going to enslave us again," she persisted.
"Nope. I think the Old Bastard may have found a way to procreate. And that means he doesn't need you around anymore, because you are a reminder of his failings," I lied.
It was a lie built on the foundation that this possibility was precisely what they feared worse than enslavement, obsolescence. Grandpa Cáel was a 'user'. He used people up, then moved on, alone in his immortality. "What happened in London?"
"It was a meeting between a Factor of the Illuminati Council and several key second-tier members. It was in complete secrecy. None of us were informed of the meeting, so we are still piecing details together even now," Deidre finally broke down and informed me. She also unintentionally informed me of something else: I was starting to look more and more like Grandpa in her eyes, and not in a good, 'sex me up' way.
"It sounds like Grandpa had them killed, or more correctly, had the Condotteiri kill them for him," I guessed. How would he, Mom? Mom sent Delilah to me. Was she her Father's agent?
"I'll work with you because you are my Mother's sisters, Deidre," I asserted. "Like it or not, we are family and my betraying you at this juncture makes me more like your father and less like mine. So that ain't happening. Exactly how I'm going to stop Grandpa, I don't know yet," I sighed. "I hope you accept my reasoning that none of us are safe in the Illuminati."
"We won't give up our hold," Deidre grew fierce.
"Don't," I kissed her on her forehead. "Stay and fight for the O'Shea position. Keep your power and wait."
"Are we waiting on you?" she seemed less than thrilled.
"No. You are waiting for your father to come back and then you are going to make yourselves damn useful to him," I stated. "If you are useful to him, he'll let you live. Staying alive is priority one."
"What's to stop him from destroying you when he wishes?" she questioned.
"Let me deal with him when the time comes," I grinned. We both knew that was a near-hopeless struggle. "Don't look so despondent," I chuckled. "I'm going to bring a freaking army for that final showdown, a big, no, a huge, massive freaking army. That way I'll actually stand a chance."
"You seem surprising optimistic," she noted with a reluctant grin. "Do we have time?" she looked to the bed then back to me.
"Not at this moment. Maybe on the plane. Right now I've got to get ready to eat dinner with my fiancée," I dropped my own little bomb.
"Really?" Deidre regarded me, looking for the joke.
"Not joking," I confounded her. "This is the real deal. We are going to become Magyarorszag es Erdely Herceg es Hercegnoje." Deidre exposed a hint of confusion. She didn't know Magyar, woot,
"What is that?" she grudgingly inquired.
"Proof that I'm an idiot, Deidre," I sighed. "Let's go embrace the crowd. Still a lot of work to do."
We did have a lot of work to do and it wasn't finished when I had to leave. Buffy was distracted. Having spent years admiring Katrina, she was now in a position similar to her mentor's. She had heavy responsibilities that interfered with her strong desire to spend some personal time with me. She was also the right Amazon for the job.
The Golden Mare had finally gotten in touch with Katrina. Together with Buffy, they wrangled a forty woman combat team of SD plus fighters from Houses Ishara and Durga (from Indonesia) together to send as aid to the ninja. It sounded like a tear-drop in the ocean. Katrina insisted it wasn't. The ninja wanted to keep their war as secret as possible.
The Amazons were trained killers and their loyalty was assured, they were loyal to the Amazons. They could be relied on to kill the people they were told to kill. That kind of 'direct action' wasn't the normal operating procedure for ninja. Unfortunately, the corruption of one of the seven families and a severe disruption of the Yakuza meant people had to die and die quickly to reset the balance.
Captain Moe had torn reluctant permission from his direct superior at Fr. Detrick to contact the World Health Organization about the vaccine scam. They would have to contact the PRC. It was late Thursday afternoon and the UN was about to call it a weekend. The UN was only in session currently because of another crisis.
To be continued.
By FinalStand, for Literotica