Nothing Cuts Like Tension

If war had always had me on edge, the promise of one was even worse. The mood of the calm before the storm was never calm. Sometimes it was worse than the storm.

A friend in the army then used to tell me that waiting was the devil's job and action was a damn stress relief.

I could not help but agree then, now I agree even more.

That frustration of waiting, that mistermed calm before the storm, was so tangible in the Pentagon that one could cut it with a knife.

It was a day to D-Day and I had yet to come up with a plan of how to stop Stiff’s desired war. The Power of Magnitude had revealed to me where the nuclear weapons were made and I had M following their trail, but she lost it several times before finally losing it the tenth time.

Stiff was being extremely careful. And my visions could not show me where the weapons would end up, so I could not go bursting into some cartel bosses’ warehouse to remove them.

It was frustrating, and was what had led me into infiltrating the Pentagon. Apparently I'd been misusing M. She was an AI and I'd forgotten that, using her like she was a common machine for hacking and computer operation.

I'd been stressing myself over how I was going to get into the Pentagon and observe how they reacted to a news I was about to drop on them like a bomb, when M reminded me that she'd once been Varganna’ Matrix and thus had all their tech databases stored in her servers.

Between herself and Mindy, it had taken two days to build something the Vargannas called He'll'ok, which roughly translated to shade or cover.

It was a device worn around the neck that made you not only invisible but also intangible that you would be able to phase through walls. It also hides your thermal signature, and motion detectors and sonic receptors would be unable to discover you, along with a whole lot of other detection systems I didn't know existed before M explained them to me.

After the He'll'ok was created, I had M hack into the Pentagon. It was easy peasy for her, which made me wonder why it had been so difficult to do the same to Stiff. Why did the man have an AI? M did a lot of research and found out that there was no expert on Earth capable of creating an Artificial Intelligence as good as Cerberus. In fact, most of the tech needed to make such an AI, extreme quantum computing networks and nanotech processors, did not exist here on Earth and might not exist even in the next thirty years.

So that still left the question; how had Stiff come to acquire the AI?

That was a puzzle for later though. Right now there was a more pressing issue. M had, of course, succeeded in hacking the Pentagon and dropped the biggest whistleblown information of the year.

There was a problem now, though, and it was not that I'd been caught sneaking into the Pentagon. In fact, that may have been preferable to this.

No, the problem was that, it was two days ago M hacked them, and now I was here, in a conference room, unnoticed, watching as generals contemplated on whether this was a prank.

The actual problem was that my warning had set them on alert, resulting in the air of disquieting wait I could feel even now, and they had started an investigation to validate the information they received.

They hadn't stopped looking but even now they looked doubtful, they didn't want to believe it. They wanted the rumour of a Panamerican Nuclear War to be just that, a rumour. So even after just two days of investigation they were thinking of giving up.

He didn't like this. If his old friend from the army was here he'd say that it was the wait getting to them, and he'd be right.

The men in the War Room, the Pentagon's secure conference room, nicknamed “World Watch," looked ready to accept the truth but not ready to believe it.

Generals and senior officials gathered around a polished mahogany and metal digital table, sipping coffee and exchanging hushed conversations as the war room bustled with activity.

The projector displayed a 3D map of South Americas on the LCD screen of the table.

The briefing began when the DEA Liaison started talking about how his people hadn't noticed anything strange with the American cartels and mafias aside the usual. There were no talks of nuclear weapons, not even their moles inside had heard anything like that.

Once he was done, the liaison sat down while a bald General stood up.

General Colin “Viper" Reed, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, stood at the head of the table, surveying the room. "Gentlemen, let's begin. Our intelligence suggests a heightened threat from rogue forces in the region. We received a tip and are acting on it but we don't have substantial data to get conclusive confirmation that this was not just a prank from some hacktivist."

To his right, General Jenny Chaplin, Deputy Commander of U.S. Central Command, took the floor to talk about Stiff. "Satellite imagery indicates the suspect, though retired, managed a private military group, which at this moment are mobilizing near key strategic locations in several South American countries. We'd assess this as a potential preemptive strike, if the tip we got can be confirmed."

I moved closer to the table to see what they had found so far. It was all compiled as a digital file which all of them had gone through.

No confirmation had been found to lend credence to the tip, but they were still planning a covert ops to find out for themselves.

They had found a few drug lords and mafia bosses with connections to Stiff. I read the names with not a little worry.

There was Mario Moriarty a.k.a La Pantera Negra, Aldo Gustavo “Volcàn” Sanchez, Carlos “Mordida” Romano, and Gavy “Sanguinario” Fernandez amongst others.

The file of key Intelligence was compiled by a junior officer, Lieutenant Cooper Kenning, presenting all key findings so far.

Other key findings included: Enemy troop movements, which stated increased covert activity near border crossings; Communications intercepts which highlighted encrypted messages hinting at a coordinated attack. And Human intelligence which explained that though local sources had no news on any nuclear weapon they reported a rush of suspicious activities.

Just as I was done going over their gathered intelligence, they began a strategic discussion.

General Reed leaned forward. "We can't make heads or tails of this. Neither can we dismiss it as a mere prank as other signs shows that Stiff is up to something, but the only thing we are not sure about is the rumour of him selling nuclear weapons. How did he even get nuclear weapons in the first place if that's true? So options?"

Another general officer, General Bradley, splayed and his hands on the edge of the table and outlined three scenarios, “We need to go ahead with our own covert ops first to determine the veracity of the tip and before Stiff carries out what operation he's planning so we'd have the time and Intelligence to counter him. But that does not mean we shouldn't start preparing to counter him now. We have three options. The first is a preemptive strike to target enemy command centers, the second is to take a Defensive posture and reinforce border defenses and the last is a diplomatic engagement. I don't think the big wigs bureaucrats would like it that we committed without attempting to de-escalate tensions.”

The officers murmured and shuffled with discontent as they were reminded of the bureaucratic branch of the government and their lack of understanding in regards to military affairs.

The debate and decisions continued flowing after then. The Generals engaged in heated discussion, weighing risks and benefits. General Hank Yong, U.S. Pacific Command Commander, advocated for a strong response.

"Regardless of if there's a nuclear weapon involved or not, we know something is going on between the cartelists and Stiff, we must make sure to put paid to that. We can't show weakness," he insisted.

General Harold Khan, U.S. Special Operations Command Commander, countered, "At this moment, a precision strike could provoke further escalation."

After further deliberation, General Reed made the decision. "When it's time for a counter attack, after we have concluded the covert ops to determine the truth of the tip and gather more intelligence on Stiff and the Cartelists, we'll proceed with a targeted operation, focusing on enemy command structures. Prepare a comprehensive plan for review within 48 hours."