Incarna

14 - Episode 4 Private Protocols

George and his entourage walked out onto the helideck. “Aubrey, glad you could make it!” George walked up to the head of CIA liaison who was standing next to his new AVX Stealth Wolf. It looked like a flying caravan that theThunderbirds boys had built. And yes, it was fast, what with its coaxial twin rotors above and ducted fans on the tail. “Well I couldn’t really refuse could I?” George smiled and held Aubrey’s right shoulder with his left hand as the shook hands. “The curse of interesting times my friend!” “Indeed George, yes indeed!”

The two men climbed aboard and the security men signed over to the airborne boys. They went through the inner security door of the cabin which placed the two of them in an explosion proof escape capsule.

“I like what you’ve done with the decor George!” Aubrey commented as they took their seats and the door sealed shut and the door indicator lights shifted to green shortly after. “Well, an office is and office even if it does have it’s own parachute!”

The Wolf lifted off and george waited for Aubrey to begin his play. “How’s Susan?”

“Good, very good,” frowned George taken off guard. “Look after her George, the way this is all going she may well end up in the thick of it!” “How so old friend?” asked George, completely at a loss to see what Aub was getting at.

“These so called interventions aren’t all there is!” “Ahh, yes. I’m up to speed on the deaths of the bankers. The assassinations of crime bosses in China, Russia, Europe and here. Oh come on Aub don’t labour the point my friend. What have you got now?”

Aubrey looked out the window. There is now an obvious shift in the stock markets of all the top trading zones. Small subtle but distinct. Buying and selling, quite skillful, but all leading to downward standing of several large multi nationals but not yours!”

“Ah yes I can see how that wouldn’t look good!” “Get out of it now! Don’t use this international instability to cover your companies take over activities, even,” and Aub paused meaningfully. “Even if it is to all of our advantage!”

George allowed a moments pause to show he wasn’t impatient. “speaking of taking advantage of situations, can you guarantee that these interventions are not CIA tests of the DARPA Stealth Drone?”

Aubrey looked up reflexively, and spluttered nervously. “No, absolutely not!” He turned to George and sat forward in his seat the harness tight across his chest. “Fuck it George, we’re pissed as an ant heap on fire over this. Our Drones are not invisible to our allies scanners, especially that new Aussie Wandjina system. No, not ours. The closest we’ve got is the sub-orbital system but that requires a fix on a target for an eight to ten minute reaction time. Even at hypersonic, the penetrator weapons take six to eight minutes from orbit to target.”

“… and these took two and half!” “Yep, so calculate back at the speed to produce that intensity of shock wave and …” “You have ten to fifteen thousand feet!” “So it ain’t ours, but fuck it we wish it was!”

“Alright Aub, what’s your best guess then?” “It ain’t Chinese or Russian. The russkies aren’t tech savvy enough anymore, and the chinks? Well, it could be, they’re stealing everything they can from everybody they can to get ahead, but it’s too clever and the targets …”

George nodded, “yeah, they wouldn’t intrude in the internal affairs of another state in case it brings attention to their rape of Tibet and Xinjiang!” Aubrey frowned at him. George smiled, “for your ears only Aub!”

“Yeah huh, better keep that way. If this present administration looses the next election there will be more holes to plug in our security networks than a good ol’boy with a shotgun!”

“So who then Aub?” George asked earnestly enough for Aub to frown at him. “You’ve got no idea either?”

“Our best guess is that we may have few players all using the collapse of Syria and Ukraine to test new equipment. What we dont get is all this mysticism bullshit. Genies and Succubis and Fox Faeries and god knows what else! It’s either a fuck’n good screen or we’ve some deeply weird shit goin’ on that is out of our control!”

Aubrey frowned again and chewed his bottom lip. A habit that George knew meant he somethings but was too unsure to speak. He spoke the unspeakable. “So it’s private then,” he said matter of factly and Aub nodded in reluctant agreement.

“It’s either Deepwater or Jager. Cosmolets and Zhenghe don’t have anything like this and Fuji and BAe are too public. Lockheed Martin and Boeing are both complaining about DARPA keeping them out of the loop so it’s not them!”

George nodded at his old friends summary. Through school and college together they had planned to be a dynamic duo and always cover each others backs. Now they were both in the dark.

“If it’s Deepwater,” continued Aub, “then you better watch your step with any take over moves or they get you instead.” George nodded fully comprehending the implications. “If it’s Jager, then they are so far ahead of everybody that they can just call us when they want to!”