One in Ten Ch. 11

In a final indignity, thirty-eight years ago, two years after the last gasp of the first Gender Plague, a major earthquake hit Indonesia causing serious destruction and the worse tsunami on record. By that time, only the northern islands of the Philippines had started rebuilding. Indonesia and Malaysia existed as separate, multiple, mutually-hostile, competing city-states and they were the 'good news' of Southeast Asia. All too often, the recovery of the various former nations threatened to bring China and India into conflict, so such efforts were shelved.

Move the clock forward to the present day and there was no political entity north of Australia remotely strong enough to retard the upcoming Global landslide into oblivion. Collectively those Asians knew Death was radiating out of China and they had to do 'something' and all too often, something meant getting on a boat, or a plane, heading south ... to Australia, or, if you had the capability, to New Zealand.

Unlike the disorderly mobs of two generations ago, some of those 'refugees' had the firepower to 'fight' their way to freedom/safety. A UN taskforce had been in the area suppressing piracy days earlier (it was now racing toward Shanghai) and every major metropolis had its own marine paramilitary. They were all island-nation-states after all. Australia was about to be in the fight for its life. Even then, it was too late. The first confirmed case of Plague was to be rolled into a Canberra Emergency Room with 24 hours. Could Tasmania and New Zealand carry on alone?

{SOUTH AMERICA & THE CARIBBEAN}

Finally, in South America it was more tough choices time, but not in the way most people were thinking. During the Gender Plague Old Brazil hadn't been the only country to go under though she'd been one of the most extreme cases. As nations, Columbia, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname and Uruguay vanished.

Ecuador, Chile and Bolivia inherited portions of Peru with Chile evolving into the Andes Republic. Venezuela was able to survive and cobbled together much of the northern coast of South America into the Caribbean Federation of States (CFS). In the Central part of the continent, Bolivia absorbed all of Paraguay and Uruguay plus portions of Peru and southwestern Brazil as well. It was supposed to return the Brazilian territory, but never did.

The Caribbean was largely depopulated by the Plague ~ tourism dwindled to nothing in the plague-years and supplying essentials to those island nations was asking too much of too few serviceable merchant vessels. The surviving majority had been evacuated to the mainland. Those in the north eventually joined the Federation. The ones in the south joined the CFS and it was those islands and the CFS itself which was about to cause the most problems.

Forty years had not truly settled South America's border issues and though she didn't possess one of the five economic powerhouses on the planet, they did consolidated power down to six (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, CFS, Ecuador, Andes Republic) from 13 nations ~ not counting the now-extinct Caribbean island-states.

Strongest both economically and militarily was Bolivia. She was also surrounded by hostile neighbors. Argentina resented her invasion and occupation of Uruguay during the Plague. Brazil wanted their western territory back. The Andes Republic, per her claims as the Peruvian successor state, insisted Bolivia 'return' possessions in the northwest of the country ... which Ecuador also claimed.

Bolivia's biggest trading partner was India -- basically gone now. Argentina's was the Republic of South Africa -- still in the fight. Brazil was pro-Federation, the Andes Republic was pro-China (useless) and Ecuador was pro-Japan (nearly useless). Finally, the CFS was pro-Russia with an 'ancient' history of disagreements with the Federation.

Militarily, none of the nations of South America were up to challenging the Federation armed forces, even during the current crisis ~ had the Federation been united. Sadly, one country was being given critical intelligence about a fragile hope for the survival of the Human Species. The CFS was getting up to date information about what I was and their benefactor, Dr. Delilah Fremont, wanted the CFS military to go rescue me. She was 'doubling down' on my retrieval.

Well ... such an activity would basically be an Act of War. There was no way around it. If the CFS did manage to kidnap me, a Federation citizen, from Federation sovereign territory, they still had to keep hold of me and for that, they needed an ally who was unlikely to knuckle under to the Federation and the United Nations.

The best one handy was Bolivia. The CFS would share 'me' with the Bolivians. Their prayer was their combined might could hold off the Federation, Ecuadorans, Brazilians as well as whatever Europeans and Africans the UN could scare up. Response would be swift, but all they had to do was keep me hidden long enough for the Plague to take hold of their enemies and then let nature take its course.

In the cool, clean halls of academia they called it Military-political Darwinism ~ the political systems capable of making the tough yet correct political and military decisions would be the ones who survived. Those who made the proper alliances and who had invested correctly in their national armies got to write the history books while the failures would cease to matter within a month -- two at the outside.

By dawn, two score of armed naval vessels had set sail heading north. At over a dozen air bases, flight crews were working overtime getting their prizes prepared for upcoming combat. Bolivian pilots didn't have the highest opinion of the Caribbean counterparts, but such things couldn't be helped. Both armies went to the highest level of readiness as they traveled toward the borders of their neighbors.

It wouldn't have done my struggling psyche any good to know bands of elite female warriors were being shown stills and videos of me -- their target. English was common among the Caribbean -- not so much the Bolivians. That was okay. They were informed I spoke Spanish.

In a bizarre circumstances of bizarre circumstances, an HUMINT (Human Intelligence) officer for the Bolivian Army had a) gone to my alma mater -- Bowdoin b) during two of the four years I'd been there and c) had actually had sex with me (once) while attending 'said' college. To the Bolivians, putting someone on the ground who I might recognize as a 'friendly' was a definite 'plus' (they were unaware of my psychological history at the moment). She'd dreamed about being a member of the elite Condors Guard regiment. This was her big chance to do so and become reacquainted with an old (male) friend in the process.

{PLACES TWO AND THREE ...}

... were the City and the Capitol and they were intertwined on both a political and personal level. Personally it involved the Treyvon family -- mother and daughter -- who were unwittingly both working to stymie the workings of the Federation government. The actions of the daughter had inadvertently set her mother's career into a fatal spin which, in turn, would impact the lives around her daughter.

{THE CAPITOL}

After 'mother' Treyvon hung up the phone with her daughter (right before I went on GNN to confront the Federation President), she initiated her final actions as a Vanisher conspirator. Unlike the National Security Advisor, she was one of the original people who had been 'in the room' when the 'Vanisher' Contingency was worked out and submitted to the secret Federation Discrete Committee on the Study of Human Extinction twenty years ago.

At the time she was assigned to the project, she thought it was a waste of time. She was a junior Ministry of Security operative between assignments and was given the task because the Ministry didn't want to 'divert' another analyst to the working groups (4 analysts worked on other contingency plans which were also created and rejected). By the time her group submitted their report, the others had convinced her of the necessity of doing something about the situation and in turn, she'd convinced them she could recruit the women capable of pulling off the initiative they were constructing.

Another member of the project team had come to her after their proposal had been shelved. (The government had decided to do nothing at all, aka they were going with The Big Lie.) The two members agreed to work in secret to implement some version of their proposal and then agreed to invite select members of the original group, plus a tiny number of others such as the future National Security Advisor, to participate in the effort.

That other 'member' was about to provide her last service to the project as well. There was some slight chance the civilian government could recover from the President's very public removal and in the Vanisher Plan, they had to remove the possibility. At this juncture, they needed only three people dead.

The original conspirator within the Ministry of Justice strode purposefully into the Attorney General's office which fortunately (for her) was flooded with activity and then detonated the bomb in her briefcase. The force of the explosion collapsed the floor above them as well as sending the wreckage into the floor beneath and the street below. In the subsequent analysis, the explosives were determined to be military-grade.

The National Security Advisor went to the presently vacant office of the Vice President, wrote out her own suicide note on that woman's computer, mailed it to a few impeccable news sources, took a stiff shot of the Vice President's personal stock of Kentucky bourbon ... along with a lethal dose of muscle relaxants, sat down on an available sofa and went to sleep.

They would find her dead body within fifteen minutes, but it would be beyond their ability to resuscitate, leaving the VP incapable of defending herself from the deceased woman's accusations that she, the Vice President, had conspired with the Ministers of Defense and Security to overthrow the legitimate government. According to the confession, the National Security Advisor had helped, yet been overcome with guilt and thus taken her own life.

At the same time, Flora Treyvon, Deputy Director of Operations for the Ministry of Security, met with three trusted operatives (shortly after the time I made it to Jethro's dwelling) and gave them their last assignments. She gave them the entire picture along with each a 'bundle' which would help in their escape. She related she didn't know where I was, yet figured her daughter might be on my trail. If they wished to survive the upcoming pandemic, they might go look her up ... after this final chore.

They shook her hand, then departed. Two didn't have far to go at all. One went up one floor to Flora's boss's office, killed the woman's assistant, then the woman (the Director of Operations) in such a smooth, ruthless, and efficient manner no alarms were set off. Five minutes later she was out of the building and fifteen minutes after that, she had assumed an alternate ID and was exiting the Capital ... right before Martial Law was declared.

The second woman went over to a good patriotic friend (a serving military officer) in the Ministry of Defense and unloaded a 'dirty little secret' on her. It was evidence the Vice President and the Minister of Security were conspiring with the Minister of Defense against the Military Command Authority ~ resplendent with plenty of proof ... including 'their' plan to kill the Attorney General. The officer rushed to meet her superiors. The agent then swiftly did her own 'vanishing' act.

The third agent casually waited fifteen minutes in the Security Ministry's canteen before using her security clearance to access the Ministry of Security's Signal's Department. The agent presented the Chief Signals Officer with Flora Treyvon's coded orders ... which normally had to be verified by the Head of Operations. The CSO had by this time been informed by the Ministry of Security's own Internal Security staff the Head of Operations had been murdered at which point Flora's agent suggested time really was of the essence.

The CSO commanded her unit to send the coded message out to every embassy and consulate of the Federation worldwide. When decoded, it informed the various Foreign Intelligence Chief's that the civilian government had been overthrown by a military coup and they were to behave accordingly -- aka passive resistance. With the Capital in chaos, they would be advising the ambassadors and consuls to NOT help the current military masters, effectively isolating the Federation government for the duration of the crisis.

The Military Command Authority, headed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, found out about the conspiracy of the Vice President, National Security Advisor, and the Ministers of Defense and Security close to the same time they found out about the explosion at the Ministry of Justice and the suspected death of the Attorney General. And then the National Security Advisor turned up dead. Not wanting to end up like the Attorney General, they ordered the Military Police units to arrest the three civilian leaders in question ... which amounted to a military coup.

The Joint Chiefs had a slight problem. The Capitol was rife with armed, civilian law enforcement while they had only two battalions of Military Police at their disposal. Of greater tactical importance, the largest armed law enforcement groups were the Ministry of Justice's branches -- now leaderless, the civilian Defense Intelligence Agency (in theory, you didn't want military officers investigating the military) and the Ministry of Security 'Special Agents' who usually only went about armed in other people's countries, but were fully authorized to be armed inside the Federation (they simply had no law enforcement powers within the Fed).

With the death of the Attorney General (they were still looking for her body parts; her phone was registering as 'inactive'), the Ministry of Justice command devolved to the Vice President as the senior Chief Executive -- aka the woman suspected of killing the Attorney General and engineering the overthrow of the former President.

The Joint Chiefs had three advantages.

First off, the former President, at the urging of the National Security Advisor, had activated the Armed Forces Reserves (retired military personnel trained for active duty) and National Guard (much like the Reserves except trained for 'at home' duties), so those generals and admirals had several thousand new troops at their disposal and most of those troops specialized in 'rear echelon' administrative duties such as maintaining law and order as well as several additional companies of actual Military Police.

Secondly, while not actual policewomen, the Headquarters for the military's Judge Advocate General's Office was in the Capitol, so they had access to a large body of military personnel familiar with the law and law enforcement.

Thirdly, there was on active duty brigade within 4 hours already on high alert. The elements which could turn that brigade into a fully-functioning division were 72 hours out, yet the core of the brigade would do for now. Also, they could move Special Forces units into the area within 10 hours and another three brigades in 18 hours ... and these troops had armored fighting vehicles plus air support.

Chaos and discord were everywhere. The military leaders began calling in the reinforcements, then sent their available MP's out to arrest the Vice President, Minister of Defense and Minister of Security. They found the Vice President in FBI custody ... they had already arrested her for conspiring with the former President on charges of Treason (concealing the outbreak of the new Plague on the West Coast). A polite, if tense, tug of war developed.

The FBI couldn't simply hand her over to the military. They had no legal justification for such an action. They -- the FBI -- were the legitimate law enforcement agency, not the Ministry of Defense.

'Oh ... you are arresting the Minister of Defense too? Who is in charge over there? The Generals and Admirals ... Under whose authority? You CAN'T do that.'

And then all the fine young ladies began putting their hands on their guns. Very messy.

The Minister of Defense? She'd already fled the Capitol. After the fiasco where she'd tried to grab me by sending the Rangers in for an extra-legal kidnapping, she'd been planning an exit strategy of her own. She had political allies in Old Mexico, so there was where she was heading. She requisitioned a VIP Army transport (think small luxury jet) and was winging her way south when both the FBI and Joint Chiefs figured out she'd bolted.

By then it was too late. The Regional Military Commander in the Southern District (Southern Mexico down to the Panama Canal before the Federation) was an old friend of the Defense Minister. She had nurtured the RMC's career and now was time for some reciprocity.

Of greater importance was perhaps that by sunrise the next day, the Defense Minister was the SENIOR-MOST member of the civilian government NOT in military custody ~ so the legitimate center of any resistance to the Joint Chief's takeover of the Federation. The Southern District wasn't the most powerful military command, but it was too strong to be quickly knocked out ... and it wasn't like the Joint Chiefs didn't have a host of other issues to deal with ... like the Plague AND the collapse of the Global Economy.

Back at the Capital as darkness fell, the lead investigators into the Vanisher Conspiracy case began realizing they had a short list of dead women, two 'fugitives from Justice' and one live one -- Flora Treyvon. Why were those investigators still working on the case? Men were missing. By then, over 2200, and that was something important enough not to ignore, even with the government in turmoil.

The investigators weren't stupid. Flora was a trained operative and still at her place of employment. Walking in and trying to interrogate her was a good way to end up dead, or with a dead end. It took them time to find someone in the traumatized Ministry of Justice who could be sent to a Federal Judge to secure the warrant and then some more time to round up the FBI Hostage Rescue Teams. The HRT were the Special Forces of law enforcement. They brought three 12-women teams.

Why hadn't Flora fled? She needed to fixate the investigators on her for as long as possible. That and she wanted to kill as many as she could in her final act of defiance against the government she felt had betrayed her gender and her race. The women coming for her were merely tools, yet they were the only objects making themselves available to her long-concealed wrath.

"Deputy Director of Operations Flora Treyvon," the first of five women coming through her door spoke in a clear, commanding voice, "you are under arrest for Conspiracy to Undermine the Gender Inequality Act. Don't reach for the gun we know you have in your desk. Stand up, nice and slowly now."

Flora had already done the math. Inside the spacious room were two of the nine special investigators assigned to unwinding the Vanisher Conspiracy. Cameras linked to her monitor showed three more were in the hallway with a four-woman forensic team. Three of the intruders in her face were HRT as were the two just outside, theoretically beyond her sight. There were five HRT with the follow-up team, five in front of the elevators and five on the ground floor. The only Security personnel close by was Flora's personal assistant, Sarah.

'Oh well'.

"Facta -- est verbis," Flora grinned. In front of her desk were three high-backed chairs. Carefully, shortly after she's assumed the office of Deputy Director, she'd personally painstakingly replaced the backing of each with explosives and chrome-alloy, octahedron-shaped, sharp-edged objects. 147 little killers in each one. Carnage radiated out from her in a trio of giant cones. Flora even had the walls between her office and that of her assistant and the one between her assistant's office and the adjoining hallway rebuilt to be hollow so both barriers provided no real shelter.