Jo-el

Chapter 29 THE MILITARY PROBLEM

I stood still for a moment to think, the warmth of the outside air a striking contrast to the air-conditioned lobby.

“Shut down the feed, Sally.”

“Done.”

“Who’s in on it?”

“It’s just the General. He’s acting alone.”

“Show me the hangar.”

My heads-up came alive and the scene in the hangar appeared. Marines in combat uniforms were standing around the conference table, near to where the monitor had been showing the scenes from Dallas. The General was standing at attention, on the opposite side of the table to the monitor, the Colonel by his side. Everyone else was still sitting at the table, glancing back and forth, fiddling with their phones. I saw Pippa at the end of the table, she was agitated and obviously frightened.

Georgina was speaking. “He came here in good faith; you can’t do this?”

The General didn’t answer.

The head of the Homeland Security team, a tall man with thick, silver hair swept back neatly over his head said, “General, we don’t agree with your actions, this man, Jo-el, hasn’t done anything wrong.”

The General ignored him.

Alberton was on the phone.

We had stopped on the steps of the FBI building. The Major, standing next to me began to fidget.

“What’s the hold-up?” he said.

I looked at him unsure what to tell him. “Just getting things set.” I could see by the expression on his face he didn’t believe me.”

“Sally, what would a Taser do to me?”

“Nothing much, you might feel it, but it won’t knock you out.”

“So I could go back and confront them? Or just leave, but that wouldn’t assist my cause. It the Taser doesn’t work they might try something else?”

“You could return out of sight and I’ll project a holographic image of you.” Sally advised.

“What about the Major, here? He’d know where the real me was hiding.”

“Leave him.”

I needed to decide, quickly. Or did I?

“Is there a problem?” the Major again.

I decided to tell him what was happening. “Your bloody General decided, unilaterally, to bring in the Marines. Tasers.”

“How do you know that?”

“I know everything.” My voice exposed my annoyance.

He looked at me confused. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m trying to figure that out,” I replied. Then I continued, “I’m sorry Major, but I’m going to have to leave you here for the minute, I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“Are you coming back?”

“Maybe.”

“Do what you have to do, I’ll be fine.”

Stand-up guy. I liked him.

“Thanks for your understanding.”

I left him on the steps and walked around the side of the building. “Find me a spot out of sight and bounce me there, Sally.”

Seconds later I was in a dark room, surrounded by shelve and stacked with books and manuals. A store room of some sort.

“Where’s the hangar?”

“Fifty feet, along a corridor.”

“Show me the scene.” It appeared on my display. Not much change from a few moments ago.

“Okay, how do I control the hologram image?”

“Just use your mind.”

“Okay, project the image.”

I watched the display as my image suddenly appeared where I’d previously been standing, but this time surrounded by Marines. They formed a semi-circle, their backs to the table. Well trained, no personnel behind the target. As soon as I was visible two of them came forward and fired Tasers at my body. The dart like electrodes shot right through the holographic image and struck the wall. I stood still unharmed. The two Marines spun around searching the room for instructions.

“Shoot him!” screamed the General.

Pippa screamed and covered her face.

Two of the other Marines pointed M9 Berettas and fired two shots. The bullets disappeared through my body and embedded into the wood wall. As the sound of the gunfire dissipated the room fell into an eerie silence. The Marines close to me still had their weapons pointed in my direction, the remaining men were all staring at the General.

“Enough.” I said and all eyes turned to my image. I looked at the General. “I am truly disappointed with these actions. I came here to help you and this is how I’m greeted. Tell your men to leave, General.”

“Who are you?” he said and stormed out of the hangar.

The Colonel instructed the men to stand down. They formed a group at the entry door to the room where he told them that what had happened didn’t go any further. Then he stood still at the back as if waiting for me to give him instructions.

The remaining people around the table gaped at my image. Trepidation reflecting in their eyes.

“I’m going to bring back the Major and then continue.”

The image disappeared and I bounced back to the FBI building in Dallas. The Major was still standing outside the front of the building using his cell phone. He quickly put it away when I approached.

“Everything, okay?” he asked.

“For now,” I said. “I’ll let the Colonel fill you in. Are you ready to return?”

He nodded. We found a suitable place and bounced back to the hangar less than three minutes from when I’d left. The Major confirmed to the group that he’d been to Dallas. He said he’d checked his cell phone GPS and that too had confirmed his location. He explained that the bounce had no effect on him, it was so quick that he wasn’t sure what had happened. He had felt disorientated initially but only for a minute. I thanked him and told him to join the Colonel, still standing at the back of the room.

I held sway now, there wasn’t going to be any further skepticism about my abilities. Anything I said would be taken as gospel. They were in the palm of my hand for now. No one asked me why the Tasers and bullets had passed right through my body. They were aghast.

It was midnight in Syria, another hour and my window to rescue the hostages would open. I had to broch the subject.

“I said earlier that there was a time sensitive issue that I wish to solve. At this moment, there are seven captives, or hostages, being held by ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Two of them are slated to be executed at dawn tomorrow, their time. It’s currently midnight over there. I plan to rescue those two people, an American man and a Dutch girl. That rescue will set off alarms within the ISIS leadership and may well result in the decision to execute the other five captives. I plan to extricate them in darkness and bounce them somewhere, probably a hospital. They need care, especially the Dutch girl who has been raped repeatedly.” There was genuine concern around the room, even though they all new exactly what happened to hostages in ISIS controlled Syria and Iraq. “I don’t know where to take them and I don’t know how to handle the psychological effect they will experience by suddenly being in another place. I need your help on both matters.”

This was a CIA matter, outside the briefs of either Homeland Security or the FBI. Everyone looked at Alberton. He pulled out his phone and spoke for a while. When he put his phone down, he looked pleased.

“There’s a naval hospital in Portsmouth; they will take all seven. They won’t ask questions, we send CIA operatives there, it’s set up. They have a psychologist on staff, I suggest he’s briefed about all this.” He waved his arms in a circle. “Miss Moran can do that when she arrives.”

I nodded. “Good, I’m monitoring the situation in Syria for the most opportune time, which will be when there are the fewest guards. How long will it take for Miss Moran to get to Portsmouth?”

“Maybe two hours.”

“I’ll take her,” I said, I turned to Pippa, “If you would like?”

She smiled and her eyes lit up.

“What are you now? a chauffeur service. It must be love?”

“Shut-up, Sally.”

Alberton, Pippa and the other CIA agent left the table to talk in private.

“Now terrorists, here in the US.” I continued. The Homeland group piqued up. I addressed them directly. “There are three terror groups in the US that I believe you are not yet aware of. One of these groups are planning to detonate several devises they’ve placed inside a Ballistic Missile Destroyer undergoing a refit in Norfolk.” I summarized the situation and said that I thought HS could deal with this issue without my assistance, but if they wanted me to help they should contact Pippa Moran. They were amazed but skeptical.

“How do you know this?” The tall man with the silver hair, asked.

“I’m sorry, but for the time being I’m going to keep that information to myself.”

He didn’t push it, which I appreciated. Then I told them about the guy in Los Angeles and the couple in Tucson. I produced pictures of the weapons cache of both groups and where to find them. I vowed that there would be no more terrorist attacks on American soil while I was around.

Next I turned to Georgina Lambert and her team. “I think this is your responsibility. Serial killers. I have seven in the US right now.” She said they were working on five. “Georgina, this is going to take some time, I think it would be beneficial if I came to your office after you’ve had time to call in the appropriate staff.”

“When?” she asked.

“At your convenience, email or text Pippa.”

“What! She’s now your secretary? I can deal with more than one email address, Jo-el?” Sally. My quick brain picked up a tad of annoyance.

“I also want to go through with you, or whoever you designate, a list of all children and women currently held captive for sex in the US. There’s sixty-three children and ninety-two women.” She looked at me and frowned, but didn’t say anything.

There was grim silence in the hangar building. They were wrestling with whether to believe me or not. I completely understood, I’d been through this for a week now and I kept doubting myself. There was fear in the eyes that couldn’t leave me. Who was this man? How could he know all these things? What was really happening? What did he want? I felt sure that once they saw the results they would accept me, but I’m not sure they would ever trust me.