Life as a New Hire Ch. 37

Our protection consisted of eight Amazons from the SD and eight agents of the FBI plus a four Amazon group of rotating House Guard and four fine men from JSOC. It was decided that there would be 2 two-member SD/FBI teams operating at all times. The Army group and the HGs alternated who was the rapid response team.

To reinforce Riki Martin, I 'allowed' Supervisory Program Analyst Mehmet Ali-Sharif of the US State Department, National Intelligence and Research -Watch (they had decided I could magically conjure elite fighters in whatever country I showed up in, so they gave me a brainy person instead) Age 41, married, four kids.

He had instant access to all the other US intelligence agencies, which promised to cut through the inter-agency bullshit. He brought along a wonk from the NSA and a 'signals' Air Force Senior Master Sergeant Nicholas Billings from the DIA to make sure our networks were constantly monitored and our communications were encrypted.

The NSA guy gave us a patently false name, so Pamela began calling him Agent-86 (not sure why) and the name stuck. Riki gained a co-worker/subordinate named Beatrice Ya Konan, from the US State Department Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. Javiera gained an assistant from Homeland Security named Anastasia Sandusky, who doubled very credibly as Javiera's bodyguard.

Javiera vetted all the people on her side. From my side of the aisle, I gained Daphne Pile (my fellow intern) and Yasmin Palhavã, my Brazilian top criminal investigator, proto-Amazon and all-around hottie. Bea and Nicholas covered the night shift. Except for Pamela and I, the rest of the group worked ate and slept on those two floors. Room service at the place rocked.

Pamela and I went home to our families every night, even if it was only for a few hours. Odette wanted to become an official member of Unit L. I burst her bubble. I respected her mind and courage, but I knew I didn't belong in this league and I was tons more prepared for this crap than she was. Odette relented - just barely. As for the crisis at hand...

All I could do was fall down on my knees and thank Riki, my US State Department Angel. I could also thank my latest arrival; the woman who got off the plane at JFK International with Captain Delilah Faircloth. She too had volunteered to be in the vanguard of the New/Old World Order.

Her 'Alphabet-Army' was Special Delivery Manager (SPD), Lady Fathom Worthington-Burke of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service (aka MI-6), Age 35 and unmarried. Riki, Addison, Fathom and I were working long hours together, late into the night and under incredible pressure. We WERE going to have a four-way - no doubt.

Riki had in depth knowledge concerning the geographic and historical aspects of the three issues (freeing Tibet and the two territories in dispute). She established a rapid-fire dialogue with the politically effective and sympathetic voices inside the Tibetan government in exile. Lady Yum-Yum...I mean Lady Fathom knew how to talk to the Pakistani and Indian intelligence agency types.

Addison found herself forging an operational network of Thuggee, Amazons, CIA and MI-6 (the last two mostly from Afghanistan) to provide HUMINT for a transition of power from Khanate military control over to Tibetan civil authorities. (In case there was any confusion that meant talking to people and killing those who might rock the boat.)

First, we had to deal with the legitimate power players. Lady Fathom knew that the Pakistani ISI (Inter-Service Intelligence) guy in New York thought he was a bad-ass Mo-Fo. He was currently preparing to 'turn' Fathom - remold her into conduit for Pakistan...by making her his bitch. This 'James Bond with a permanent tan' was under the impression that she was going to give him intimate information on the Khanate via MI-6.

He was going to use the threat of exposure to wrangle future favors and use it to politically blackmail the UK - Fathom in particular. Bwahaha! My role in her plan was to be me - a deceitful, charismatic stud (her words ~ as I said: 4-way!) This joker, Ishmael "something", was slowly drawing privileged data from Lady Fathom when Pamela, Riki and I opened the exterior door to that apartment and waltzed into the room.

He knew who I was. Far too many people familiar with multiple IDs with different names on them were getting to know who I was. I consoled myself that at least a few of them were smooth-lethal-sexy. The door opened, Pamela went in first, looking through Ishmael as if he didn't matter. I came in next, with Riki close behind, chatting with me as she shut the door.

"Lady Worthington-Burke, which one is this?" I nodded to the guy before addressing MI-6 lass.

"Sir," Lady Fathom, stood and stifled a groan. The poor girl was working with a rank amateur who didn't know which agency was represented by who. "This is..."

"One of your people?" I interrupted. "I've got Mongal's guy coming by in an hour."

[Farsi] "Mangal, Cáel," Riki elbow-bumped me. "Mangal."

[Farsi] "Got it - Mangal," I muttered. See, this was all a convoluted plan on Lady Fathom's part. Mangal could be anyone and there weren't many standouts with the last name of Mangal in Farsi (aka Persian/Iran). Except, here is where it got wicked. There is another language mutually intelligible with Farsi. It is called Dali and it is the lingua franca of Afghanistan.

In Afghanistan there was a 'Mangal' of note. He was Major General Mohammad Mangal of the Afghan National Army's 201st Corp. The 201st was stationed in Kabul, the capital, and one of its brigades guarded the Presidential palace. Here was the Khanate's main man - incompetent ole me - bringing up his name.

I could see the SIS agent taking into account the lighting-quick coup d'états with which the Khanate had seized the old Central Asian Republics one week ago. The rest blossomed in his snake-like, devious mind. We could see his imagination take hold. After all, he was talking to a British secret agent type in the presence of a US State Department type and the topic of the Major General had slipped out.

The best part was, it wasn't a complete lie. Earth & Sky agents were meeting with Afghani officials to lay down the groundwork for just such an action. Given her knowledge of the area in general, and of the ISI pricks involved in particular, Lady Fathom was convinced that ISI was going to 'aggressively' investigate.

In Afghanistan there were two major groups - the Pashtun and everyone else. The majority of the Afghan Taliban was Pashtun. Before 9/11, the Pashtun Taliban with legions of Al Qaeda Arabic fighters came damn close to wiping out the military resistance of those non-Pashtun. In Afghanistan, the Pashtun made up of 40% of the population and controlled most of the government.

Pashtun were also a large minority (13%) in Pakistan. The Khanate's problem was that only a tiny percent of the population was Turkish (no Mongols). The two major factions? Eastern and Western Iranians. To get Afghanistan on board, Temujin needed the Tajiks, the largest of the Western Iranian groups. To get the Tajiks, he was subverting the nation of Tajikistan to his side.

According to OT, that was almost a done deal. Temujin wasn't thinking small, not by a long shot. He was ready to fight the world on his terms, or embrace it. The westernmost point of the Mongol-Turkish expansion was...Turkey. Between Turkey and their Central Asian brethren was Russia to the north, the Caspian Sea - Azerbaijan - Armenia - Georgia in the middle and Iran to the south.

The Russian Federation...their time would come. There were millions of Mongols, Turks and Tartars in the Russian Federation, many of them in semi-autonomous states (thus 'federation'). In the middle, a linkup was already in the process of happening, I was assured. Temujin had reasons to be confident. Azerbaijan was about to flip, yet we all knew the Christian nations of Armenia and Georgia were going to be a problem.

That left Iran. Proud, populous, ancient, Shia Islamic Iran. The Khanate was mostly Sunni Muslims. For far longer than they despised the West, the Iranian clerics had hated the Sunni. According to their take on things, their religious leaders (Imams) were divinely inspired and thus infallible.

Sunni believed that the Message was the important point, not the Messenger (and his bloodline). The Shia...disagreed. They were also waiting for the 'Mahdi'; a descendent of Mohammed, the Prophet chosen by Allah and the founder of Islam, to appear (not be reborn like Temujin). This Mahdi had lived long ago (872 CE), vanished and was prophesized to make his presence known during the End Times.

The key to the plan was in the above description - proud. Temujin was gambling that he could first unite all the other western Iranians under his banner, then offer Iran the opportunity to join in a 'union' where they would exert shared influence in all other Western Iranian segments of the Greater Khanate, plus Tehran would exert religious control over the other Shia splinter groups living within the 'Union'.

How we'd protect the Hashashin, who were Shia Nizārī Ismā'īlī (one of those splinter sects) was already in the works. Once Ester Abed had one of my offspring, Temujin would recognize them as being under my protection in the same way Hana was. Being a bastard was a difficulty the Great Khan could easily over-come. He would become my offspring's godfather. No one told the Great Khan what to do with his kinfolk - twice.

The moment I decided that I could trust Lady Fathom (which occurred when I realized she had on a transparent bra ~ because that meant she'd read the real reports about me and was smart enough to play to my weaknesses on our very first meeting), I explained my plans to her, Addison and Riki. The pause that followed was deafening.

Then Lady Fathom stood up from her lounge chair, strode my way, leaned over me and then kissed me so hard my toes curled. I repeat - 4 Way! Why had she kissed me? She had offered me up her ample cleavage, I'd sensed the lure and trusted her anyway. I was seeing the brain as part of her total package. Considering her natural sensuality, I could see how other men got confused.

"I can't believe they think this is going to work," she chuckled. "I will endorse this madness anyway because I think it will put Her Majesty's government in a global position superior to that which we currently enjoy." This from a woman who projected herself as someone who possessed the secret decoder ring that granted her access to No. 10 Downing Street, if needed.

So, we played that Pakistani guy, but we compensated him somewhat by preparing the immediate handover of Aksai Chin. We let him claim credit for that. We needed a 'bad' Pakistan to get the 'good' Afghani's on our/Khanate's side, yet a 'good' Pakistan to make the PRC jittery about retaking Tibet. Ta-da.

Getting one over on India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) (India's CIA) was even easier. We hinted we were going to bone Pakistan, which is apparently the natural pastime of the World's largest democracy. If the 'Tumens' handed over Arunachal Pradesh, the Indian Army would be there to receive it.

When the exchange was made, the Indian government would recognize the Tibetan government in exile's return as being legitimate. With a sizeable force on the southern borders, the Dali Lama could affect his return to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. Recognizing the Khanate would come later once a ceasefire was in place.

Khanate foreign policy wasn't based on good intentions alone. All that part about huge troop movements, fleets launching and a good deal of panic equaled ballooning oil prices. That helped Russia. It really helped the Khanate. Temujin had another gift to go along with the Tibetan public relations ploy.

While the intelligence team was working the Tibet angle, Javiera was talking to a group of international financial consortiums and national banking institutions. The Khanate was NOT going to repudiate the debt of their component countries. Even as the meetings were taking place, the Khanate was restarting the loan payments and tacking on the interest incurred by a week's inactivity.

Not only did that give the hysterical financial markets the first bit of good news in days, it stymied PRC efforts to freeze Khanate international assets while making the US and UK look 'responsive' to their national economic needs. Had the US and UK put pressure on the Khanate to cough up the dough?

No, but the public didn't need to know that and the politicians would take credit for accomplishments they had nothing to do with. On a personal note, that important event helped convince our two patron governments that Javiera's taskforce was the right way to approach this crisis. She had proved our worthiness by a simple act of putting her trust in me and personal trust was the glue that kept our team together.

(Where madness reigns)

Recall the six elders' private meeting with the Japanese Prime Minister? They were more than asking for help. They were also warning him of the shit storm that was about to land on his head. The 9 Clans had initiated World War I at Sarajevo. They had taken full advantage of their homelands' trials in World War II. World War III would be no different.

For the Ninja, North Korea was nothing but good news. The only way Kim could go wrong would be if he did nothing. That was a remote possibility, but the Ninja wanted to exterminate even that small hope and it all came down to oil once again. Boy, I was never so happy to be a cycling enthusiast. My sole expense was compressed air for my tires and those prices remained steady.

North Korea had a large strategic fuel reserve - not oil - fuel. Oil burns. Fuel can be downright explosive as anyone who works with diesel, gasoline and aviation fuel can attest. Cousin Kim guarded his fuel depots zealously with all manner of troops and heavy weaponry. That makes sense until you realize that you've put heavy weapons next to your explosives.

Sneaking in and out of places is what ninja did. Amazons operating in South Asia had long been knowledgeable of Soviet (aka N.Korean) equipment as that was the easiest available to steal. Taking out these relatively isolated outpost was sinfully easy for the duos. Once the guards had been suitably dealt with, the equipment to destroy the storage facilities was already in place.

N.Korea depots were dispersed to avoid a small number of missile/air-strikes from crippling their military. That meant that eventually the N.Koreans would kill/capture some of the saboteurs and sure enough, some dead (and a wounded) Chinese guys showed up at one of those destroyed sites.

When he regained consciousness (and realized he had passed out in Japan and was now in N.Korea), what exactly was the Seven Pillars of Heaven operative supposed to tell his N.Korean interrogators? 'It wasn't me! It was the Ninja and the Amazons. I know this because I'm part of secret society too and I was fighting them in Japan and... (sigh)...just shoot me.'

Congrats, Kim Jong-un, you have Han Chinese running around your country, blowing up your stuff while the PRC vehemently denied everything. The Seven Pillars were still gaining ground in Japan, despite the help of the Amazons and the upcoming aid by the Okinawans. They were whittling away at the Black Lotus, now that they'd exposed themselves in southern China.

Even the Thuggee were coming under pressure in India and Indonesia. Of all the underworld combatants, the Seven Pillars was by far the largest. Sure, the Condottieri could muster the numbers, but most of those didn't know the score, or share the 7P's enthusiasm for their work. The Illuminati and the Egyptian Rite were smaller and use to operating through proxies.

In a war of attrition, the 9 clans and Amazons would lose ... except for our old protagonist, 'except'. The Seven Pillars had one glaring weakness that really hadn't seemed like a weakness to anyone when I insulted their representatives at my Father's funeral. The Seven Pillars power was tied to the fate of the PRC. Who could possibly stop the Colossus of Asia?

Temujin's Earth & Sky were giving it their best shot. The Ninja/Amazon pairing were gambling that the loses they would take in N.Korea would be worth the risks they were taking by sending so many resources away from fighting the 7P in Japan itself. If you thought all of this was about North Korea's Glorious Leader, you would be wrong.

It was about economics and positioning. If possibly belligerent warships began to actively roam the seas between the Korean Peninsula and the Formosan Straits, no merchant captain in his/her right mind would expose their vessel and crew to such risk. This effectively blockaded the majority of Chinese ports. What trade that remained would have to come in and go out through the few remaining southern ports.

Remember, the biggest port in the south had been wrecked by the LNG tanker explosion and it would take weeks to return to operation. The remaining southern ports couldn't handle all the traffic that the entirety of China needed in order to stay afloat financially. Compounding that, the Black Lotus was strongest in the south. By increasing the rate at which ships docked, unloaded, loaded and departed to dangerous levels, the PRC virtually assured accidents would happen. Yes, it was all about the Benjamins.

Less we forget, all the involved navies had submarine fleets to go along with their surface assets. Every sub skipper knew the extreme peril the whole 'Danger Zone' represented. Everyone and their mother would be running hair-trigger Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) drills. Cousin Kim was plenty pissed off and he was about to think the Chinese were fucking with him and the Chinese fleets were sortieing in his direction. (They actually were moving to stop the Russians).

The Chinese, North Koreans, South Koreans, Japanese, Russians and Americans all had subs in the area. It wasn't like you could call up a submarine you considered threatening and ask them to honestly tell you who they were, so what was an ASW operator supposed to do? There could be as many as 122 submarines plus numerous KPN midget subs and how many of the 23 US submarines in the Pacific could be in the vicinity.

[The political strategy of hydrocarbons - two days earlier]

There was a process for getting oil and natural gas from under the ground/sea floor to your gas pump. The petrochemicals didn't go straight from the ground to the refinery to the service station. Offshore oil fields fed all their production to the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSOs) platforms who sent it along an undersea pipeline to an onshore pumping facility and on via surface pipelines to the refineries.

There are several vulnerabilities in the system. The thing is, you can repair pipelines and put out the fires and rebuild your pumping stations. You could put ground-based air defense around them too. FPSOs...well, they floated...like really big, immobile, highly complicated ships that handled explosives (the hydrocarbons). Worse, there were a limited supply of them all over the globe and they required large tugboats to move them into place.

Then there was the time and expense of hooking up all the oil and natural gas wells, and the undersea pipeline to the new FPSO. The PRC and the PLAN weren't stupid. They could read a flow chart too, so they assigned one destroyer and two frigates, all with excellent surface to air and Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) capabilities, to protect these gems.

Four hours before the real attack, a frigate reported a suspected submarine to the southeast. The flotilla commander tasked that frigate to drive off the intruder. For the Japanese submarine commander who was the target of that search, it was a case of him following orders. He was to sneak within twenty kilometers of the FPSO, 'get detected' then zigzag away to the south, so that's what he did.