Читать книгу New Earth: The Search for Justice - R.D. Ph.D. Pittman - Страница 7

Alex was up at his usual early hour, and the cook was in the kitchen preparing coffee and toast for his customary breakfast. Ted Jeffers came into the dining room and sat down next to Alex.

“I was hoping I would wake up and find all this was just a bad dream,” Jeffers said.

“Unfortunately, this is all too real. We have to put an end to it,” Alex commented.

The two began discussing strategy over breakfast. How would the FBI be able to control the CIA? The agency was under the obvious influence of Don Cray, the Director, and Admiral Torrance. Alex suggested as he’d said before, to keep the most senior and loyal agents in DC. Those agents needed to be covert in their actions. Keep them transparent to Cray and Torrance.

“So, in essence our FBI guys need to be undercover for our team here?”

“Exactly.”

They needed a network of agents who could get close to the people involved and report on their activities. Jeffers added he knew his people would relish the chance to go undercover, but more importantly they would remain loyal to the U.S. and not to Torrance. Jeffers told Alex he would start immediately calling the key agents in DC. Afterwards he would call his field offices in all the major cities and setup a network of agents nationwide. Jeffers asked Alex about communications for the agents, did they have a secure way to contact him here at the base?

Alex mentioned Curt said he could setup a wireless network that could utilize the relay system through satellites. It would be hard to trace, since the calls would bounce from hub to hub throughout the U.S. In addition, Alex informed Jeffers Curt could also setup an online secured chat line with anyone that had a PC or a laptop, all he had to do was give them the download information and the passwords and they could talk freely with anyone on the system. Alex told Jeffers to get with Curt first thing and tell him how the agents perform their duties. What kind of access to telecommunications equipment they had available; Curt would come up with something for his agents.

Everybody was up and ready to go by eight a.m. and Alex mentioned it was ten on the east coast, and the people that had their country were already ahead of them by two hours. He wanted everyone in the residence up and ready to work by seven each morning. Elena and Andrade had arrived at seven and were eager and ready to take on any task Alex laid before them. Alex also mentioned to all in attendance that Admiral Torrance was giving a nationwide speech at eight Eastern Standard Time that evening, which was six Mountain Standard Time, and he wanted everyone present to witness the address.

Alex said he needed to make a call to Professor Kumar at Cal Tech, and afterwards at ten, he wanted a brainstorming session with Ted, Elena, Andrade, and Curt in his private office.

Alex dialed Professor Kumar’s number at Cal Tech.

“Professor Kumar speaking.”

“Professor Kumar, General Hanken.”

“General, thank you for returning my call, I don’t know where you stand in all of this—

“Professor Kumar, I am directly opposed to Admiral Torrance. I am personally leading the movement to unseat him and his conspirators from power, and restore democracy to this country.”

“I am so relieved to hear this. I hesitated to contact Admiral Torrance with this information.”

“What information?”

Professor Kumar explained that on the day of the takeover, there appeared a blip on their computer system and the screens went blank for a few seconds. When the system returned to normal, the space anomaly had disappeared. There was no trace of the asteroids they had been tracking for six months. It was like nothing ever happened.

It all hit Alex full force, the cover-up Torrance used. Why go to these extreme measures with all the survival facilities? He could understand the redeployment for control purposes. The Russians continuing their investigations, even after discovering the cover-up. The mysterious C-17 order coinciding with the operational test. There were so many signs that he had missed. My God, the President, the cabinet, the Congress, they were in essence hostages of the conspirators. Those facilities were not liberated by Alex, how could he have overlooked it? A hollow feeling hit the pit of his stomach, a glaring oversight on his part. All the praise that had been heaped upon him in the last two days seemed for naught.

“Professor Kumar did your mainframe keep a copy of all that happened the day of the takeover? In other words, can your people reconstruct the computer memory just before the blip and during the downtime?”

“Yes, we have a redundant system that kicks in and monitors the mainframe processing from a remote site in Utah. It’s part of our disaster recovery plan implemented years ago, and it has a nearly impenetrable firewall.”

“Where is the data recovery center located?”

“It is located at Brigham Young University, in their computer science building.”

“Okay, I will be sending an FBI agent and a Navy Seal to that location within the hour to retrieve those tapes. How do they get in?”

“I will call the center right now and alert them, what are their names?”

“FBI Agent William Evans and Lt. Commander Michael Morris of the Navy Seals.”

“Thank you General, I will call right now.”

Alex called Evans and Morris into his private office. He told them what he wanted them to do. They hurriedly left for the base airfield, while in route Morris alerted the air control center to have one of the jets prepped and ready to go with a pilot on board for immediate take off. Thirty minutes later they were in the air headed toward Provo. Alex called Curt into his office and told him of his conversation with Professor Kumar.

“Well, we may be able to find out what kind of sub routine program was running, and if we can do that, then we can narrow down who would have the sophistication to put this together,” Curt said.

“Wouldn’t it take a super hacker to get this into the Cal Tech mainframe and past all the firewalls they have?” Alex asked.

“Yeah, it would Dad, but I know most of the names of the best hackers in the world, and for that matter, Ted Jeffers has a list of those people I’m sure…for national security reasons alone.”

Jeffers, along with Elena and Andrade, arrived for the ten o’clock meeting.

Alex recounted his conversation with Professor Kumar and that agent Evans and Commander Morris were on their way to retrieve the tapes. Jeffers corroborated what Curt said about the FBI having an extensive list of known hackers worldwide. Elena offered that she had run into several well-known hackers in Europe during her various assignments, and most of them had huge ego’s they always signed their handiwork in some fashion. Curt jumped in and said she was right; they may be able to nail the guy or gal that way. Jeffers relayed a case several years earlier of just that fact. And the FBI had three guys on staff who did nothing but analyze invasive viruses and programs. Alex told Jeffers to get one or two of them, not all three, on a plane here as soon as possible. But be discreet about it, he didn’t want to alert Cray. It could tip them off as to what they were doing.

Alex asked Elena and Andrade if they had their passports and enough false identification with them to get them into Europe if necessary. Elena indicated that the suitcase with all their intelligence gear was still in custody of the Seals. Alex sent a message to the Seal team second in command, to bring that suitcase to the residence, and give it to Elena.

Alex excused everyone, but told Elena and Andrade to go to the annex and buy some clothes. Jeffers said he was going down to the base command center to start calling his satellite offices so he could set up the covert network.

Alex asked Curt to go with him to help him with the communications network he had discussed earlier with Jeffers.

“Oh, and Ted, set up a permanent office for yourself at the command center. Curt get Jeffers a staff car, and credit card for the base as well.”

“Okay Dad.”

Before Elena and Andrade left she asked if she could talk privately with Alex.

“Have a seat, what’s on your mind Elena?”

“General Hanken, in such a short time I have come to admire you for so many reasons I can’t list them all. But Andrade and I have a big favor to ask. We want to know if we could be married before we begin our assignments?”

“Andrade, you are in agreement with this?” Alex asked.

“Yes General, I love her. If we are to give our lives in the line of duty, we want it to be as husband and wife.”

Alex asked them to excuse him for just a minute or two. When he returned, Sandi was right behind him as he reentered his office.

“So, you two want to get married?”

“Yes, but Sandi, just a simple ceremony, two witnesses, and a minister,” Elena tried to downplay.

“You know what, with everything that has been going on, the terror, the tension, the uncertainty; I think we need a party. This is the perfect excuse to have one. I will handle all of the arrangements, Alex how soon?” Sandi asked.

“I would say we should plan on no more than two weeks out.”

“There, it’s all set, two weeks from this Saturday. I will arrange for the base chapel to be set aside,” Sandi said.

“How can I ever repay you for your kindness?”

“Elena, remember, we have a deal, that’s all I ask.”

“General, we will live up to that agreement, and thank you,” Andrade said shaking Alex’s hand.

Alex had logistics on his mind. He needed to find out who was in control of treasury operations, if there was continuity to it? Had Torrance interrupted the flow of cash to the armed services in any way that would inhibit payroll activities or general operations? Staff, he needed to add staff to his headquarters, the tempo was definitely going to pick up.

He decided he would first call the Army, Navy, and Air Force personnel headquarters to check on payroll processing and whether or not Torrance or his representatives had contacted their offices. The Army and Air Force personnel center directors indicated that there had been no disruption to date and they already inquired at Treasury and were told there would be no interruption in funding military payroll. The Navy’s director said that the Asst. Secretary of the Treasury contacted him. They were considering cutting the payroll allowance to account for the Pacific fleet being transferred to General Hanken’s control. Alex asked for the man’s name, and was told his name was Albert Martin. Alex urged all of the personnel directors to remain loyal to him, and do their jobs as always, if any problems arise to call him immediately.

Alex placed a call to Albert Martin. Over a thirty minute discussion Alex convinced him that normal treasury operations should be maintained, otherwise he would consider him as part of the conspirator group. Alex contacted the US mints in Denver and San Francisco and spoke with the directors of each facility. He inquired as to their printing capacity, if the need should arise, and was assured they had the ability to print as much paper money as he would direct them to print. Alex warned them under no circumstances were they to transfer any bullion out of the mints unless the order came directly from him. Both directors were relieved to hear that and suggested they get on a conference call with the Federal Reserve Districts to bring them on board as well. Alex went one step further; why not call the Board of Governors?

They all agreed. The call was made and the Board of Governors scrambled to get everyone in on the call. Alex stated to all on the call that he was in opposition to Admiral Torrance, but they couldn’t allow an internal dispute to bring the country to its knees financially. All Treasury and Federal Reserve activities must be maintained at a business as usual pace, unless circumstances warranted otherwise. All the Governors of the twelve districts of the Federal Reserve agreed they were opposed to Admiral Torrance and would seek to stabilize the financial system of the U.S. to avoid a panic. The Chairman of the Federal Reserve was in the Mount Weather shelter and unable to speak to the banks and general public on this topic. Alex said he wanted each of them to get in touch with the news media, and arrange immediate interviews across the nation. They all agreed and it eventually set off a flurry of appearances by the Governors of the Fed pledging to the American people that their money was safe, the economy is sound, industry was working, and that General Hanken had assured them the country was safe from outside harm. Over the coming weeks the American people would come to know more and more about Alex, and how important he was to the nation’s future, and it would start that very night with Admiral Torrance’s state of the union speech.

Ted Jeffers came into Alex’s office and sat down.

“Alex, I now have Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle regional offices under my control. That’s the west, in the Midwest; I have Denver, Kansas City, St. Louis, Chicago, and Minneapolis/St. Paul, in the southwest; I have Oklahoma City, Dallas, Houston, Austin, Shreveport, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans. I spoke with several of my senior people at DC headquarters about thirty minutes ago, Cray has already come in and announced my replacement, and Torrance will verify that tonight in his speech. Every agent said they will work undercover to get these bastards and see them all hang. They said to tell you that they can be counted on to give their lives if necessary. Curt is fantastic, he’s setting up an incredible network for me and my people to communicate with each other on a worldwide network. Elena and Andrade can use it wherever they are in the world.”

“Ted, you must be very proud of your people.”

“You know what Alex, I am, and you should know there was no hesitation on anybody’s part.”