Chapter 25

Io

October 24, 2012

Shortly after Master Chief Martinez made his cataclysmic announcement that his daughter was still subject to a death threat, we formulated a plan. At a moment's notice we were prepared to drop everything, and go to San Diego.

Additionally, the replacement for her cell phone (a Galaxy Android with the newest features) was supplied by the airline from which she had been abducted. The airline was so conciliatory, that the girls' families didn't even have to threaten a lawsuit. They now had unlimited free personal flights, a fully paid scholarship at any university the girls wanted to attend, plus a large cash settlement.

Maria wasted no time downloading several apps into her new mobile device. One of the apps had a small modification, supplied by me. When it wasn't in use as a phone, the device became a passive, voice-activated listening device. When it was in use as a phone, of course, I eavesdropped as well. I devoted a small amount of processing power to listening all the time.

Listening to all the conversations of a fourteen year old girl is mind numbing, or would have been if I'd had a physical mind. She seemed to be either talking on the phone, texting a friend, or on Facebook all the time. I could not imagine a more sterile life.

"Carol, you have to hear what I just heard from Aiesha..."

Via text: Ai ... u wdnt bliv what Carol just said about u..."

"Carol. Aiesha says that..."

Via text: Tommy just fcbkd that he's going 2 party with Sondra ths wkend.

Via text SCREAMS

Screams via phone seem endemic, as well.

It went on and on and on. I offered to let the Master Chief listen to some, but after two minutes, he couldn't take it any more.

All that was going on while the rest of our world continued apace.

President Wentworth decided that his reelection was a very close thing. He quietly bought himself a large measure of goodwill with the Navajo people of New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado, by ceding all control of the BIA Land Trusts to the Navajo Nation. He could do that by executive order. The Navajo decided to merge all the land trusts into one, to be administered by the duly elected officials of the Navajo Nation. Just like that, one hundred forty-seven years of robbery and misappropriations of funds of the Navajo Nation, at the hands of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, came to a quiet end.

That, in turn, virtually guaranteed that Wentworth would win in New Mexico and Colorado. Arizona was probably going to remain a conservative state, and anti-Wentworth.

Wentworth also sent me an inquiry about the drone's missing missiles. Did I know anything about that?

I answered that my defense of the U.S. Government installations against electronic incursions did not authorize me to listen to military frequencies, so I did not do so. That much was true. I did not listen. I took one over, but I did not listen ... at least, not much. I further told him that it looked like the Chinese or the North Koreans were up to some more electronic mischief, to be activated by them in the months immediately after the election. Should I take preemptive defensive measures?

No, he said. We were the white hats. We'd absorb their first volley. But this time we'd take countermeasures. He wanted to hear my suggestions on that.

No more was said about missiles or an errant drone flight. I monitored the FBI investigation, also. They were not connecting the admittedly disparate dots concerning the flight into El Paso, the missing drone, the attack on J. J. Reodondo's home, and the girls' treatment at the Army Medical Center.

The salt mine site was becoming more and more a fully functioning network node, as the prototype computers were being delivered by Dell and Intel. I was due to 'move in' during the first part of November.

The first wind turbine electricity generators were coming online and some customers actually cut over to Navajo Power, instead of the commercial company that handled Northern Arizona and New Mexico. There was the inevitable wrangling with the commercial companies, who were losing customers. We suggested that we would buy all their power lines on the reservation. Alternatively, when the leases ran out, the Navajo could just condemn the lines, and they would have no income from the facilities. They decided to sell to us at reasonable rates. We agreed that any excess power we generated would be sold to them at market rates. We were now their friends-at-knife-point instead of their enemies ... a fine distinction, that.

Ramon and Midnight were scheduled to move into their new, and quite expansive, home on Halloween. They had invited all their friends from Scottsdale for a party. Sorry to say, I would not be in attendance except, of course, as a passive listener.

The workers would all be transferring over to Arti's and Zeus' home thereafter. The relationship between the two seemed to have settled into normalcy, but without all the loving warmth that had characterized things before the Mexico trip. There was just a chill in the air, and most of it seemed to come from Artemis.

I called a meeting on the morning of October 24 to discuss one item. The four of us 'met' in the camper, though there were only two human bodies in attendance.

"I have some news about Mr. Worth," I said, "He is, as you know, out on bail in New York State, and under Federal and State indictment relating to the sex slaves he kept in his home. The Feds brought separate charges regarding the sale of firearms to the cartels in Mexico, and his gun company has been shut down. They are looking into sale of firearms to organized crime in the U.S. as well. Greed seems to be a built-in weakness in humans.

"Mr. Worth's attorneys have, as of this morning, given him a confidential memo that outlines the steps they have taken to liquidate his offshore holdings, and to concentrate all the money from the Worth Family Trust and Mr. Worth personal holdings in two accounts. Those funds have been moved from their various banks to Bermuda, to the Camayans, to the Republic of Tuva (which is a banking privacy 'independent country' under Russian control) and, finally, on to Belize. Without the kind of reach available to me, it would not be possible for another agency – for example the FBI – to trace the money.

"He has been quietly sending supplies to a yacht owned by his son, which eluded the Feds' seizure," I went on. "The supplies include a fully provisioned emergency life raft for ten, and three explosive devices. He has made arrangements to be picked up off the Turks and Caicos, north of Haiti, on the 10th of November, by a freighter from Belize.

"I think he is planning to sail from Providence, Rhode Island, under cover of the threatening Hurricane Sandy. Logic dictates that he avoid the dangers of the hurricane, and so I assume he will sail out into the Atlantic, coming by a round-about way to the rendezvous point. At that point, he will scuttle his yacht, appear to be dead, and go live in comfort in Belize.

"It seems to me that these series of acts, and the natural deductions that they lead to, justify our decision to take action, as we previously said."

"That sonofabitch," said Zeus. "We need to take that bastard out."