The Planner

Chapter Nine: Las Vegas

Planner and Bates walked to Operation Las Vegas Office. As for other offices, nothing on the outside revealed what was inside. Just as they were about to go inside, following on from their previous conversation, Bates added another information channel, “And the internet. Don’t forget the internet!”

Planner’s eyes widen with realisation; the internet formed an uncontrolled medium of information dispersal especially compared to newspapers, television and radio where partisan gatekeepers “managed” the news. Planner had not kept with changes in technology; he had toyed with the internet at home over slow dial up lines but the internet was not available at Langley or other CIA offices due to the threat of hacking by foreign intelligence services.

Before Planner thought through the issue, he was being introduced to a stream of new people, all smartly dressed men that headed up the Las Vegas Team. They were code named, Paris, Venice, Sinatra, Casino and Cowboy.

Planner’s mind wandered while Sinatra set up a powerpoint presentation on the construction of the World Trade Center Towers, thinking about the internet and whether that had been factored into the information dispersal parameters of the Change Management Readiness model. So when Sinatra, a good looking, man in his late forties started talking about the towers’ deconstruction, it startled Planner.

Sinatra was saying, “…Dual redundant, fibre optic and wireless controlled detonators attached to the core columns installed during the elevator upgrade⁷⁷…” when Planner interrupted.

“Can I just stop you there, a moment!” Planner said, attempting to reconstruct the discussion from his distracted short-term memory. “Let me get this straight… we’re planning to blow up the whole of the world trade center?”

Paris replied with a slight French accent, “Naturally. It is the quickest way to clear the site and start regeneration.”

Casino added directly, “The management are in a hurry.”

“For the insurance to pay out, there must be complete destruction,” said Venice with an Italian lilt.

“Insurance? Really!” Bates said unconvinced.

“Two billion dollars⁷⁸,” Venice explained with understatement. “Some people consider that to be a lot of money.”

“Don’t you think that blowing up the towers might look a bit… odd?” Planner mused.

“No, no, no. This isn’t just any old Las Vegas Hotel destruction; it has been carefully thought out,” Sinatra explained.

“…By experts,” noted Paris.

Sinatra continued smoothly, “We have 3D computer models of how it would look. Advanced models. We can show you… how the aircraft would destroy key columns, the inferno, collapse initiation, everything. Run the video.⁷⁹⁸⁰”

A few minutes later, Sinatra ran rough computer model projections of aircraft flying into towers cutting columns and the building collapsing. Sinatra then pointed to a schematic of the North Tower. “When we finally bring the tower down, the floors will be weakened by cutter charges all activated by computer and signalled to cell-phone detonators. Then the top floor will fall. Starting from close to the point of impact. Then the rest of the building will be blown out, straight down. It’ll look like a hammer knocking a nail, all the way to the ground.” Sinatra replayed the video showing the top section falling through the floors.

When the lights came back on, Planner asked, “And both towers will do this?”

“Yes, both towers,” replied Venice. “And the towers fall on the smaller buildings. We need WTC 3, 4, 5 and 6, all destroyed. There is a lot of value there that needs to be lost or destroyed.”

“What needs to be destroyed?” asked Bates

“The Eldorado Task Force for a start!” said Venice.

“And they are?” Bates asked again.

“Their offices are in Building 6. They monitor international bank transfers. We have a lot of money to move, starting September 12th. It would be inconvenient to have it traced,” explained Venice with a sigh. “Now I know what you’re thinking… Collateral Damage. We’re on the case.”

“Go on,” said Planner.

“The towers will stand for one hour,” said Venice. “In which time the majority of the occupants, unfortunately not all, will be able to escape. It has to be just one hour, our fire simulations indicate that the fires will be burning out soon after that, even with the sprinkler system disarmed.”

“So how many people work in the World Trade Center?” said Planner pursing his lips.

“Fifty thousand,” said Vencie, adding quickly, “but… we expect less than 5 % casualties.”

“So how many is that?” asked Planner.

“Two and half thousand. The same number as Pearl Harbor,” said Venice.

Bates whistled in disbelief.

Casino added, “That’s an estimate, obviously. And much lower than the estimate for 1993, with the FBI’s failed attempt on the towers.⁸¹”

“So is that with or without the advanced warning of the attack?” said Planner.

“We could not find a satisfactory scenario”, said Casino slowly and deliberately, “working with the COG, that would support the warning and pre-evacuation of the World Trade Center complex.”

Sinatra nodded, “We have promised the politicians a catalysing event with real er… motivational value; a critical mass…”

Paris shrugged, “The psychologists say we need a New Pearl Harbor⁸²⁸³. To trigger an unforgettable memory, flashbulb memory, as it is known. More than just an air crash. There’s an air crash every month⁸⁴.”

Planner almost said something but thought better of it. Bates took up the questioning. “I suspect that… the Emergency Services… may be over-represented in that figure,” pondered Bates.

Casino said bluntly, “The building will be shaking for an hour. People will be expecting the building to fall. We’ll radio the emergency crew to pull out.”

“What about flashes? Bangs?” Planner mused. “Explosives are rather different from a natural collapse. Wouldn’t that cause a lot of… er… questions? It’s bound to be caught on camera.”

Cowboy shifted forward in his seat, smiled broadly and said in western-style accent, “Caught on camera. Yes, exactly that’s what we’re planning. But that’s a good point you’re making. Very good. This is my area of concern and I can assure you, we have the very best people working on the tower collapses.” Cowboy transfixed Planner with his gaze, “Let me ask you something. What do you know about nanotechnology?”

“Nothing,” said Planner rather taken aback, “Er… well… it’s like micro technology, maybe, but smaller?”

“Yeah, probably,” said Cowboy smugly. “But no. It’s all about molecular scale materials being able to build up complex structures thinner than paint…”

Planner involuntarily made a move to look at his watch.

Cowboy noted and responded, “I realise we’re all short on time. I’ll make it quick. Let’s just say we have developed munitions that are more powerful than anything we had, even 5 years ago, using nanotechnology⁸⁵. It’s works in the same way as thermite, ultra-hot demolition material used for years to slice through steel bridges. But updated for the 21st century. It’s called nanothermite and not commercially available anywhere. Only available to the military and rocket scientists. And it doesn’t flash, it doesn’t go bang. Just a swish. And burns up completely leaving no evidence behind.”

“Nothing behind?” said Bates in disbelief.

“There’s always tags, or some sort of chemical trace, to be found,” noted Planner.

“Why, yes. Yes, it does,” said Cowboy with a smile. “I’m just saying in comparison to traditional RDX explosive or even traditional thermite. Nanothermite explosive residue just breaks down into iron and aluminium dust. There would be nano-scopic traces of catalysing chemicals, if you were looking hard for it. And I mean, real hard.⁸⁶”

“And if you were looking real hard?” pressed Planner.

Paris interrupted, “This is why we are not using US-made nano-materials. We are using explosives from France. It would be as good as untraceable.”

“France?” asked Bates amazed.

“Yes, the French,” said Paris with some Gallic pride, “through their space programme, the Arianne Five, have become the world leaders in nano-material technology since nano-materials are also used for solid rocket propellants.”

“So the material can be traced back to the French? Won’t that be a bit awkward? Diplomatically?” asked Planner.

Venice made a balancing gesture, “This is part of Operation Stage C. We appreciate that each nano-material is unique and can be traced back to its factory of origin, so we will be destroying the factory.”

“What? Isn’t that even worse? Diplomatically!” spluttered Bates.

Paris shrugged. “Already covered. And in any case, they needed a new fabrication plant… it had constrained capacity. The site is shared with a fertiliser company, the explosion will look like it originated there and will be blamed on the Middle East.⁸⁷”

Cowboy added, “The point I’d like to make is… that we have considered Stage C and Stage C has affected our methods. We are leaving no stone unturned.”

Casino also added, “And we have contingency plans, as you’d expect for any Psychological Operation.”

Sinatra tapped on the white board, “I can show you the scripts of the TV newscasts we’re proposing both for BE2 and the documentary follow-ups. We have the drafts of the academic papers just here. We’re very serious about selling the story.”

“I don’t doubt the effort you’ve expended. I just think the objectives are… dubious.”

Casino had repressed some irritation in his voice, “A good point and while we could spend some time assuring you the objectives are worthy, we’re not here to discuss that aspect, ok? Just overlaps and clashes. Now… have we briefed you sufficiently, Mr Planner?”

Planner leant back and considered his response. “I need to analyse the timelines… and get back to you. I may have further questions.” Planner paused and Las Vegas team sat back, almost as-one with self satisfaction, waiting for a further response.

After what seemed like a long span, but was in fact, only a few seconds, Planner asked “Who’s organising the demolitions itself? Can I talk to whoever it is?”

Cowboy said, “Of course. That would be Mr Digger; a very diligent man. I’ll get him to call you.”

“That’ll be great. Thanks,” said Planner.

“When you can, please send the documentary and news scripts over to me,” added Bates.

“No problem,” beamed Sinatra.

* * * *

Planner and Bates were in the Hotel Bar discussing baseball; Bates was a Yankees fan and Planner preferred the Red Sox. They both agreed that the schedules that year was unbalanced, and the two teams were playing each other far too many times.

Planner received a text message from Katherine, it read “Sorry can’t make tonight either. Next week, perhaps?”

The conversation went quiet and Bates noting Planner’s grimace, decided to raise the subject of the previous meeting. “You appear to be remarkably quiet about the Las Vegas meeting. There’s a lot of issues there. Yet you seemed to be in such a rebellious mood beforehand too.”

“Hmm, I don’t really want to think about it,” sighed Planner. “Another case where they are not exactly Keeping It Simple. They were prepared for us. Too prepared. It seems they were expecting some push-back. Very slick. Did you notice how quickly they mentioned their top level cover in their pitch. I think we were being managed.”

“You may be right,” said Bates.

“Fucking dirty job we have. I’m not up to talking about it at the moment,” Planner finished his drink and glanced at the TV on the bar.

“Ok” said Bates.

“Anyway I have a phone call to make,” said Planner and rose from his seat.

“Planner, before you go,” said Bates gently, “I was thinking. It might be best, for the team, if we continue to include within the schedule, the advanced warning plan.” Bates was referring to the advanced warning of the attack on the twin towers discussed within the team to reduce collateral damage.

“But do something different on the day?” queried Planner.

“No, I’ll have the warning call directed to one of our own guys,” suggested Bates.

“A fake call to a fake recipient?” said Planner with half a smile.

“Well if you have a better idea,” shrugged Bates. “If we change the plan the team will find out soon enough. It may dampen morale.”

“You’ll sort that out?” asked Planner.

“Sure.”

“Ok. Thanks. I’ll see you tomorrow,” said Planner and left.

* * * *

Inside his hotel room, Planner inserted a new Sim-Card into his cell phone and dialled a number.

“It’s Robert.”

“Ah, Robert. I hear you’ve been having some productive meetings,” said the Lodge Master smoothly.

Planner wondered how he knew that. “I’ve reviewed all the operations except one,” said Planner. “Planning is well advanced in each one I’ve reviewed, although I feel that collectively there may be an issue.”

“Hmm. This is more of your Loose Ends, Robert?”

“I feel we are pushing into new territory in the complexity of the story we are weaving. We may be pushing various credibility barriers. It might generate resistance and discontent.”

“I understand, Robert,” soothed the Lodge Master. “We have identified a range of scenarios for the aftermath and have contingency plans for each. Take, for example, your point about the story not being believed leading to a backlash, a revolution even. Who do we really have to persuade? Everybody? No, that’s not going to happen. You know, and I know, that many people will see through the magic trick we have arranged. No, the only people we have to persuade are the Police and the Military and they get their opinions from the papers and TV and we control those channels.”

“Indeed, Most Worshipful Master, but information is not controlled solely by these channels anymore,” said Planner humbly.

“We’ve never relied just on the Press. I presume you appreciate our COINTELPRO⁸⁸ will ensure that we seed opposition groups with our men. To tackle the inevitable Conspiracy Theories,” he chuckled, “that will arise, we will flood channels with obviously our opinions and outlandish fake stories.”

“Disinformation⁸⁹?” suggest Planner.

“Indeed. If they reject our version of events then we’ll say that aliens did it.”

“Right,” replied Planner with half a laugh, realising the remark was a joke, but it was not very funny considering the number of times covert aircraft projects had been deliberately linked by the CIA to aliens from outer space. “So in other words, leave it to Stage C operations.”

“Indeed. I’m surprised, Robert, that I have to go over such matters with you.”

“I beg your worshipful master’s pardon. In my previous operations I had full control of the means and investigative control.”

“I do understand, Robert. However, our mission is clear. And we can manage the loose ends. We plan to manage those loose ends nicely… we’d all much prefer that way… but we can lose the kid-gloves, a much more unpleasant societal outcome. But it has to happen, otherwise a far more terrible future awaits America, you have to trust me on that. I presume you realise there are reasons why it has to happen this way and no other? Each objective for each mission leads to a higher-level goal set out by the COG. These goals can only be achieved using the plan enacted as it has been laid out.”

“Yes, Most Worshipful Master. I… realise,” said Planner chagrined.

“Good. You’ve been doing an excellent job especially the effort in keeping our narrative unsullied. We know it is unfair on the good and blameless Americans caught up in the maelstrom. That is unfortunate; the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. In any case, for every martyr we create, I believe we will be creating ten heroes; that is the nature of crisis. We can discuss this further in the face-to-face meeting next week in Washington; the End Stage Review.”

“Indeed,” said Planner subdued.

“Now I can announce the proposed date of the event, weather permitting, that is. Since all operations are now reporting green, we have brought the date forward, to the date originally proposed by PNAC last year…”

Planner finished the sentence, “September the Eleventh!”

* * * *

Planner dreamed of a plane crashing into World Trade Center south tower; with plane parts raining down onto the streets below, aluminium foil fluttering down like a street parade; there was an open top presidential limousine driving down the road with crowds cheering. It was JFK! Planner woke up with a start.

An hour and half later, at 8.35am, Planner was back in WTC7. Unlike the offices with vistas of New York, the area he found himself in what felt like a warehouse even though it was just a room in the interior of the building. It was located just above the floor that housed the Mayor’s Emergency Management Office — a specially constructed bunker designed, apparently without irony, to manage crisis events in New York.

Planner was meeting a short and casually dressed man in his sixties with deeply tanned, crinkly skin, possessing a strong Irish accent. He greeted Planner and led him deeper into the room. “Pleased to meet you, Mr Planner, I’m sure. Call me Digger.”

“Hi, thanks for calling,” Planner said. “I appreciate we haven’t much time.”

“What would you like to see?” said Digger waving his arm at the surrounding shelves, which went from floor to ceiling, each loaded with small oblong boxes.

“Not too sure,” said Planner. “Perhaps you could tell me about those color-coded packets?”

“They’re the detonators. We need to label each one and then send them to our subcontractor to load the appropriate payload and then place them in the towers.”

“There must be thousands,” observed Planner.

“There probably about a thousand. Let me show how it’ll be done. It’s all in the planning for big jobs like this. And for that you’ll need a computer.” Digger walked to a bank of computer terminals.

“This is our 3D model of the world trade centre complex,” he said pointing to a workstation displaying a 3D wireframe model.

“Nastran software⁹⁰. Know it well,” said Planner.

“You do? That’s splendid. It’s been the devil’s own job to get it work,” confessed Digger.

“It’s quirky,” said Planner. “But pretty good Finite Element Analysis. I’ve used it for aircraft structure stress analysis but not for buildings.”

Planner bent down to look more closely at the screen. It showed the framework of an otherwise transparent twin tower 3D model.

“Well, you and me both,” said Digger. “I used to do planning for these sort of things on the back of an envelope. This is new fangled to me. Perhaps you can give us some tips then?”

“Sure, no problem. I’ll give it a review. So what have you modelled?”

“We had a contractor to build the model. I can run it though and show a simulation of what we expect. Let’s start with the buildings: bomb-proof⁹¹, hurricane proof, earthquake-proof⁹². And yet we have to knock these buildings down and make it look natural. So Stage 1,” said Digger, pressing a button, showed an aircraft entering the twin towers, similar to the presentation Planner had seen the previous day. “The aircraft damages the exterior columns and a few interior columns. There’ll be a fireball. So Stage 2 will be fires. We can control the extent of the fires by, oh, you’ll like this, by the extent of the fire-proofing that has been applied to the WTC in recent years. For the North Tower, it is nicely bunched together, the South tower, hmm, not so much! But as you know, the fire won’t damage the steel core but we have to start the deformation, cutting the outer walls from the floors and so forth. So finally, we need, Stage 3, progressive weakening with explosives, to bring the buildings down.”

“Wireless detonation⁹³?” asked Planner.

“Wireless throughout and fibre optic cabling where we can, for redundancy. Belt and braces. It’s kind of expensive,” joked Digger.

“I hope you don’t get a wrong number to any of the cell phones,” mused Planner.

“We have a way around that. It’s quite secure. The red blobs, here,” he said, pointing to the computer screen, “indicate the locations of the explosive charges; actually, sol-gel⁹⁴ nanothermite charges, they’re new; which we release progressively to mimic a collapse process. First we weaken internally…” The computer screen showed animated explosions around the floors attached to tower core columns. “This is the stage 2, removing the lateral strength of the building but that won’t bring it down. We’re just cutting the outer edge sections. We have to cut and not explode this bit to keep the process hidden.” The computer showed cutting around the tower external columns. “Then soon after that, we blow the main columns from the impact point downwards to mimic a pile driver collapse.” The computer showed the blowing out the main internal columns and the 3D graphic structure tumbling down.

“That looks very convincing. What’s the time difference between the wall cutting and the column cutting?” asked Planner.

“Not long, we have to watch carefully and make sure the building does not start to warp. As soon as it loses shape, we lose control,” said Digger.

“Right. That’s great. But there’s a lot of new technology in there. Will it work?” said Planner.

Digger smiled. “We’ve tried it all out separately and together. It’ll work. The main problem we have… is the minimum amount of explosive to do the job. We have too much at the moment; the explosions could send debris over to New Jersey! But, of course too little explosives and the building may not come down at all.”

* * * *

Sometime later in his hotel room, Planner sat tinkering with the Nastran software on his laptop computer. He took a bite of a sandwich while running the simulation again. He had reduced the amount of explosives and only half of the building fell according to the simulation. Planner pulled an unhappy face.