Chapter 13

February 1994

Scientific American’s ‘Solar Watch’ column in February 1994: “In a very strange occurrence, all the solar watch equipment orbiting the sun and orbiting the earth reported a solar flare in mid-January. But the sun watchers, the telescopes that continuously view the sun and its corona, did not see any flare. And there was no increased activity in the night sky – which as residents of the Arctic know, at this time of year, is nearly 24 hours long. There was no evidence of any increase in the Aurora Borealis. Nor was there any increase in the Aurora Australis, which is the equivalent in the Southern Hemisphere. Both Aurorae have shown a significant increase in activity during previous flares.

“There was an outage in the Western United States of GPS satellites, earth watching satellites, and communication with all the satellites over the Western United States was interrupted for a period of several hours. U.S. Defense status was raised to a level that was undisclosed for national security reasons. The geosynchronous orbiting satellites remained out of contact for 152 minutes. Those satellites that continued to orbit and passed out of the area, resumed normal function when they passed approximately over the middle of Texas or a point about 1000 miles over the Pacific. North-south, the line was about 300 miles to the north of the Canadian border or about 500 miles south of the Mexico/Arizona line.

“This outage caused dangerous conditions in air traffic control and general government and private communication.

“Scientists across the world are investigating and hope to have an answer in the near future. There are many reports circulating on the Internet that the space-based communication outage was caused by probes from extraterrestrial sources. Many photos are appearing on some web-based sites claiming to be of UFOs over the Western U.S. Government sources are denying the legitimacy of these photos, but some pilots reported the outages coincided with some strange radar readings.

“One source within the DOD’s Skywatch Division, who declined to be identified for obvious reasons, said: ‘We don’t know what caused the communication outage. It might have been anything: including extraterrestrials. Or it could have been teenagers with souped up laser toys.’”

Red, were you the anonymous source in the Skywatch Division?

[Of course. By the way, there is no Skywatch Division of any branch of the U.S. Armed Forces. There is a Near Space Team of the Air Forces, however.]

I especially like the teenagers with souped up lasers part.

[I am particularly proud of that part.]

I am particularly annoyed with the oil producers and the coal miners.

[Annoyed? Are you sure that’s how far you want to go?]

No. I want to kill the motherfuckers. Two THOUSAND MERCS? By the way, any further information where they came from?

[Nothing concrete, yet. But the entire activity of the drug cartel from the Sonora state of Mexico has disappeared. I looked into their bank accounts and found two payments of $25 million in early January. Of course, they could be anything, considering what the drug cartels are involved in, but the source is suggestive.]

Well, don’t keep me waiting. What is the source?

[Saudi Arabia. They didn’t even bother to conceal the source of the funds. It came from the royal accounts. A small amount for them.]

Sons of bitches. I want their heads on a Navajo spear! They’re all dead, but I want to empty their bank accounts.

[Neither they nor the oil companies will stop, you know.]

I’m going to have to visit Washington, D.C. won’t I?

[Why?]

Isn’t that where they are?

[Who?]

Exxon, I guess. They have the closest ties to the Saudis.

[Then you want to get to Irving, Texas. That’s where Exxon is headquartered. That’s where the executives are most likely to be.]

Irving? That’s practically my home town. That’s between Fort Worth and Dallas. Who said ‘You can’t go home again?’

[Thomas Wolfe wrote a book that was published posthumously by that name.]

Sorry, Tom. I’m going back. Not to my home, but I’m going back. My day for quoting things. Revenge is a dish best served cold.

[I think you’re quoting Don Corleone, ‘Revenge is a dish that tastes best when it is cold.’ That was in the move The Godfather in 1972. Or by Khan in The Wrath of Khan, in 1982. But they were all perhaps quoting D.G. Osbourne, who said in 1846, ‘Revenge is very good eaten cold, as the vulgar say.’ Revenge is a common theme among humans.]

My turn, I guess. Red, find me a hacienda near Irving, Texas, that has a decent amount of land, where I can put some security ... SHIT! What am I going to do about the kids?

[You could leave them with the Navajo. They would be most safe on the reservation.]

Safety is not the most important thing for children.

[I gladly defer to a human regarding the raising of children ... Should I concentrate my stock activities on Exxon?]

I think that will be my first target. I think that foreign interests are about to stage a raid on Exxon’s stock – and who knows, maybe their foreign holdings too? Oh. Keep an eye on Enron. They are due to have a big, and I mean BIG, scandal and crash in the electricity business. Enron is not related to Exxon, but the name tickled my memory.