Chapter 43

The American war machine moved into Saudi Arabia. It laid waste to every site of resistance that it encountered. Rather than moving in a long linear front, the flocks of Pigeons were sent out in pincher movements that surrounded an area and then moved in towards the center. This tactic contained the battle inside the urban areas while protecting areas that had surrendered from escaping terrorists. Rail guns pounded the urban areas to great effect. Saudi Arabia fell in three days.

Mike’s teams were not involved in monitoring the Saudi campaign, but Mike was monitoring the flights out of the country the week before the war arrived. Two private jets flew out and headed towards Caracas, Venezuela. He suspected that the jets contained two of the people that were on his private watch list. He typed in a request to identify the occupants when the jets landed at their destinations. They might not be able to get a person there, but someone in the South American Section would task a mini-drone with getting an image of the people when they left the airplane.

He pulled up the reports on the cockroach sensors that he had requested be placed on his list of suspects. Automated speech recognition software had flagged several sections of tape.

Mike looked around for a second and then said, “Tony, could you come over here for a minute?”

Tony looked up from his monitor wondering what Mike could possibly want with him. Shrugging his shoulders, he rose and walked over to Mike’s workstation.

Once there, he asked, “What’s up?”

“Could you listen to these files and tell me what they are saying?” Mike asked flagging two dozen recordings. They represented almost six hours of conversation.

“What are they?” Tony asked.

“I’d rather have you listen to them with an open mind,” Mike answered.

The voice recognition software had identified one of the voices as belonging to Dhul Figar, one of Mohammad bin Laden’s men, with a certainty of sixty percent. The confidence level wasn’t high enough to trigger any action, but Mike suspected that it wasn’t really Dhul Figar, but one of his brothers or cousins.

“Okay, it would help if I knew what I was listening for,” Tony said returning to his workstation. He pulled up the files and started listening to the first recording. He frowned and rewound the recording to listen to it again.

The alarm signaling the arrival of an alert went off. Everyone looked up at the situation board to read the message. Reading it, Mike shouted, “Yes! It’s about time.”

“Great Britain is entering the war,” Shirley said after reading the message. The message had been that Great Britain had decided to start a new front on the war on terror with an invasion of Libya. They expected to face tough opposition and were calling upon the Australians to support them. The British fleet was leaving within a month for the Middle East.

“That’s good news. It’s no longer us against the whole world,” Charlie said. It felt like a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

Cathy read the news and wondered if that would have any impact on the wedding. She asked, “What does that mean for us?”

“It looks like we’ll be providing some intelligence to the Brits,” Shirley said.

Looking around the room, Mike said, “Let’s see what Canada does.”

“They aren’t going to do anything. They’re still pissed about us bombing them,” Charlie said.

“I agree with you. They are still angry at us, but I think you’re wrong about them not joining in the war,” Mike said. He predicted that Great Britain would get the Australians, the Canadians, the New Zealanders, and India into the war. He leaned forward and said, “The old alliances will be forged anew. Maybe this time we can do it right.”

“What makes you say that?” Tony asked.

“I think that the recent fights within their borders have shown the Canadians that President Archer wasn’t quite as insane as they thought. Our support allowed them to survive despite the fact that they rejected our offers to help,” Mike said making reference to the battles in the streets of Montreal that occurred after the fighting broke out in Europe.

The Muslims in Canada had thought they were better positioned to take over the country than their brethren in Europe. The result had been two days of heavy fighting. Missiles fired from American planes had taken out the major concentrations of Muslims thereby ending the fight.

Dismissing Mike’s assumption, Tony said, “They still complained that we violated their airspace.”

“Yes, they complained. We did violate their airspace. They didn’t protest our action like they did when we took out the terrorists in Montreal the first time,” Mike replied.

Cathy said, “That’s true. They complained that we didn’t warn them first; not that we blew up the terrorists.”

“What about the rest of Europe?” Charlie asked.

Mike said, “I think that France, Germany, Italy, and Spain might join in. That’s a big might, though. The Scandinavian countries are still reeling from the fighting. Belgium is still trying to resurrect a government. Their King is playing a major role in that. The countries that were once members of the Eastern Bloc will definitely fight, but it will be token forces.”

Charlie looked around the room at the head nods that followed Mike’s estimate. He said, “You didn’t mention Russia, China, or Japan.”

“Russia has returned to its isolationist roots. Besides, it’s busy with Chechnya. China is taking care of North Korea and the Mongolian uprising. Japan has a very large Navy, but it isn’t really a military power and won’t contribute,” Mike said. The economy of Japan had really taken a beating as a result of the international situation.

Mike stopped by his parent’s house to check up on his father. Robert greeted him at the door and led him into the house. Once there, the man poured drinks for both of them and asked, “How are you doing?”

Surprised at how upbeat his father was acting, Mike answered, “I’m doing well. How are you doing?”

“I’m doing a lot better. I made arrangements to go down to your place in Texas. After thinking about your suggestion, I decided that watching them build your house would be a good idea. We’ll stay in that Bed and Breakfast you recommended,” Robert answered.

Mike was pleased to hear that his father sounded a lot more like his old self. He said, “They said that it will take them a couple of months to build the house.”

“A couple of months or a year, it doesn’t matter to me. I’m retired now,” Robert said. It felt strange not to have days filled with meetings. It felt good to know that lives didn’t hang in the balance for every decision that he made.

“Maybe you can see about getting a dock built. I’m going to buy one of those bass boats,” Mike said.

“Sounds good. I’ll have it finished before they get started on the house,” Robert said.

He hadn’t really done that much fishing, but the idea of spending hours on a lake with nothing better to do than match wits with a fish sounded pretty good to him.

“No rush,” Mike said.

“I might buy a boat while I’m there,” Robert said.

“Better build a big dock because I figure we might have to park three boats at it,” Mike said.

“Okay,” Robert said. He was quiet for a moment and then said, “I’m really looking forward to this. War has always been hard on the men who fought it. In the First World War we discovered Shell Shock. Since then, it seems like each war has had a different price the men involved had to pay. Agent Orange for Vietnam and Gulf War Syndrome for the time spent in Iraq. This war is going to be brutal on the psyches of our soldiers.”

“I think you are right,” Mike said.

“I’ve asked that the VA put into place a counseling program for our returning soldiers,” Robert said.

“It sounds to me like you’ve been doing a little more than just sitting around the house,” Mike commented.

“I’ve been doing a little of this and that for the past couple of days. I’ve even thought about starting to write a book about my experiences over there. I’m not going to do it yet, though. It’s still too fresh and painful,” Robert said.

He had sat down one night to write about it. Four hours later, he realized that he had been crying the entire time.

“I wouldn’t push it. You have plenty of time to get around to that,” Mike said.

“You know that I have a first edition copy of President Grant’s Memoirs of the Civil War. I think I’ll take a copy with me and read it while I’m in Texas,” Robert said rubbing his chin.

The Civil War had been one of the bloodiest wars of American History. He thought it would be interesting to read it after his most recent experiences. He wondered if he’d come away with a totally different interpretation of it.

“Maybe you ought to take a modern reprint,” Mike suggested.

“I didn’t mean that I’d take the first edition with me,” Robert replied. He gave Mike one of those looks that only fathers can give their sons when they have just said something particularly stupid.

Mike entered his therapist’s office and looked around at the tastefully decorated room. Lisa was seated in her chair with her legs crossed watching him. Normally when he took his time going to the chair he wasn’t going to be very communicative that session. When he seated himself in the chair, she said, “This will be our last session before you’re married.”

“Right,” Mike answered.

He looked over at the print of a flower that hung on the wall. It was one of those rather bland pictures that were chosen for its colors rather than its subject. So much of the room was color coordinated, but designed to be emotionally neutral.