Siberian Treasure

37

This time, Colin had less than fifteen minutes warning before Helen snagged him for a meeting, on her way back to Chicago from a briefing in DC. She’d made a detour to his second office at the Pentagon, where he’d been for another tedious budget meeting.

“We received this today,” she told him without preamble, walking behind his desk as she dug in her briefcase. “We’ve got two days to figure this out, Colin. I hope your team’s made some progress.”

Pulling out a round, silver disk, she reached behind him and slipped it into the DVD drive on his computer, fumbled through a few buttons, and suddenly the screen opened up to show a man, vaguely recognizable to Colin, sitting casually in an armchair. He was holding something in his hands that was not completely visible on-screen.

“I am Roman,” the man said. And Colin stared. He’d thought never to see that man’s face again; yet he’d longed for the opportunity. There had been a time when he’d wanted to destroy it with his bare hands.

He still did.

“I am a representative of Gaia, the Earth on which we all live. The earth which we are all a part of. The decisions made by your people have damaged her beyond repair, and continue to eat away at her resources while the capitalists continue to consume more, dirty her more, and waste more.

“This is not acceptable to us, or to Gaia. This must stop. In an effort to persuade your government to take this warning seriously, we will be conducting Phase Two of our … public relations program on Friday, July 14, at noon.

“You have already been exposed to Phase One of our program in the areas of Allentown, Pennsylvania; Terre Haute, Indiana and Hays, Kansas. It was an elementary decision to turn our attention onto a company such as AvaChem that has no respect for our earth.

“Please be advised that Phase Two will be much more convincing and will have three big targets with more extensive damage. After we have executed our program, we will be in touch for discussions before Phase Three will be scheduled. Perhaps, depending upon our discussions and their results, there will be no need to move forward with Phase Three. But that will be up to you and your government.” The screen went blank.

The holy war had begun.

The man was mad; yet as brilliant and in control as ever.

Helen was speaking to him; he dragged himself out of the past and turned to face her as she spoke. “One of the networks received it this morning via email, and they passed it on to me,” she said.

“What was he holding? I couldn’t see.”

“I’ve got Tech working on a clip of the video to see if we can enlarge it. Far as I can tell, it’s a small metal object — but it could just as easily be a pen. So what does your officer have, Colin? He was due to report in four hours ago.”

“He hasn’t. I have been trying to raise him on his sat phone since you and I met yesterday, but I can’t get him. I did leave a voice mail to update him and Dr. Alexander on the status. He’ll contact me as soon as he can.”

“Let’s hope the delay is because they’re making progress and have found a way into the Skaladeska camp.”

“Gabe’s the best, and Dr. Alexander is no slouch.”

“Gabe?” She looked sharply at him.

“MacNeil.”

“Gabe MacNeil is your officer on this?”

“Yes. Is there a problem?” He didn’t have time for female sensibilities.

“No. I was merely surprised. I know him.”

“Yes, he mentioned that. Now…three big targets.”

Helen began pacing again, her blonde hair, loose today, swinging. Her face looked tired, and the gloss of her lipstick faded. “They’re going to target another industry that is damaging the earth. But which one?”

“There are so many.”

She reached over to push a button on the computer. The disk slid out. “Yes. There are. But which one? Oil? Air pollution? Manufacturing?”

“Noise? Light? Deforestation?”

They stared at each other. The potential target industries were endless.

Not to mention possible sites.

Colin had to shake his head, his stomach tight. “If Gabe doesn’t contact us in time, we’re on our own.”

“We’ve got two days — I’d say we already are.”