Conspiracy

All Good Plans

She had a lot of success within the Israeli special operations which led to her being integrated into the Mossad. Gav felt her abilities were underutilized within the Sayeret, so she jumped at the chance to move. Once her training was complete, she never looked back as the missions she conducted were more in line with what she wanted and where she felt her skills were put to the best use. Plus, she enjoyed the challenge.

Over time, Gav made a name for herself as someone who could be successful even in the trickiest situations. That eventually led to a very strange meeting with a small group of people that evolved into her current status. She was given several missions which tested her resolve, loyalty, skills, and morals. With regards to morals, she had them and detested bullying, but accomplishing the mission was the more important aspect. She prided herself on her ability to meticulously plan and carry out any assignment given her.

Eventually, she was given the opportunity to become a full-fledged group member. Her death was faked and there were only a very few within the Israeli intelligence community who knew that she was still alive. Those were the ones who introduced her to this new group and were themselves involved. Over time, and after being tested further, she learned of the group’s mission, eventually leading to her current position as the operations director of the command facility. And what a scheme it was.

The overall plan was for the group to emerge from the ashes of civilization to control the resources and, in essence, become the de-facto leaders. They would control the resources and distribution. To do this, they had established thirty-two sites across the world; each one built in secret and close to various resources. Each site would house petroleum specialists, nuclear physicists, and other experts in differing arenas of production, along with the staff and workers necessary to bring infrastructure systems back online and continue output. This was especially important with the nuclear power plants. Those needed to be shut down in a timely manner or they’d have a disaster on their hands. Each site was to deploy its resources after the world died to enact Phase Two of the plan.

Phase One was implementing a vast decrease in the world’s population. It was a bold plan waiting for world events to bring it about. They had the nanotechnology and were just waiting for the right time and event to implement it. The nanotechnology would be spread in a short period of time and distributed worldwide. Phase Two was for personnel to deploy out of the sites and take control of the resources.

Pandemics, or rather the fear of it, were increasingly commonplace events. The group just needed one to come around so they could administer their plan via a vaccine to a populace that would welcome it. Of course, no one would know what else was being administered. The nanobots would infiltrate the body and attach themselves to the cerebral cortex. These could then be activated by satellite, setting off a small charge which would instantly kill the individual. Arrangements were already in place to add these nanobots to two-thirds of the vaccines which would be sent out. In the meantime, they would build their infrastructure and wait.

The Cape Town Flu virus provided the opportunity. Gav and her staff were already ensconced in their underground command facility. Other groups were alerted to move into their facilities. These would house the experts, military personnel, and equipment that would later emerge and begin Phase Two. There was even an entire division of military personnel in Namibia that were to sweep south into South Africa to take control of the infrastructure and precious resources there. Timing was crucial. The vaccine would be administered, and ninety-six hours later, everyone would move into the facilities and prepare. Twenty-four hours after everyone was in place, the nanobots would be triggered, effectively reducing the world’s population by over sixty percent. Their deaths would be blamed on the flu; the group would take control of the resources and rise from the ashes. That’s when everything went to shit.

They could never have anticipated that the vaccine itself would alter the DNA and bring about the ruin of their plans. Since the initiation of the first phase, there had been no communication from any of the other sites. Gav believed that no other personnel made it due to the short span of incubation the vaccine had — the deaths and DNA alterations that created the infected ones happened too quickly. Although none of the personnel took the vaccine, she believes that they succumbed to the madness that followed and never had a chance to make it.

She sent parties to some of the nearest sites only to find them sealed up with no one home. Even the military vehicles in storage were of no use as she didn’t have the proper forces to utilize them. She had her own contingent of vehicles, mostly Humvees and Strykers, but the others were useless without the personnel. She had no pilots or any other specialized personnel. Her facility was intended to function as a support compound. They were, in essence, stuck. The leaders of this fiasco were housed in the command facility, but they were still searching for a way to rise from the ashes.

There would still have been a chance if it weren’t for a single failure. They couldn’t communicate with the satellite controlling the nanobot’s signals. They were receiving information from it, but, from all appearances, the receiver aboard wasn’t functioning. They checked all of their equipment to find it working perfectly. Still, the satellite couldn’t receive a signal. Integral checks of the satellite revealed it was working perfectly except for this one, not so minor, glitch. Gav kept technicians working on it night and day, but so far, they haven’t found a solution.

If she could get control of the satellite, she could hopefully eradicate the infected ones, or at least thin them out a little; and then Gav and her group could come out of their facility to implement a modified version of Phase Two. As it is, there is no way they can implement the plan they had gone to bed with, but perhaps there is still a chance. With an exaggerated sigh, she rises, rinses her mug in a small sink, and departs the room to grab something to eat.

The next afternoon, she meets with the control room shift supervisors once again. The one going off shift slides a folder across to the table. Gav opens it as the supervisor begins the brief.

“Nahmer, we did a flyby of camp C-US-4 as you requested. The camp has established their main encampment around a large sporting goods warehouse just to the north of Olympia, Washington. It sits astride Interstate 5 with access to JBLM and Seattle to the north and Portland, Oregon to the south. As you can see in the pictures,” he says as Gav pulls out one of the high definition photographs, “they have erected a concrete wall around the entire facility…at least it appears to be concrete from our analysis. It measures approximately four miles on the long side by one mile wide. The land between the walls is mostly cleared and construction of outer buildings is apparent, with most either completed or nearing completion.”

The supervisor points out several closer shots with only the camp showing. “You can see here,” he points to some of the buildings to the south, “these appear to be barn-type enclosures and we can only speculate that is what they’re being used for. The others are storage and, from their size, they may be for vehicles. There is a large greenhouse along with shipping containers that we can only guess are used for supply storage.”

“Anything on the occupants themselves?” Gav asks, looking at more photographs and the annotations on each.

“We can’t really tell too much from a single pass over, it appears they are branching out. We took video as long as we were able. It looks like they may be searching for other survivors, but they are definitely gathering supplies. They travel in armed convoys whenever they send parties, those armed escorts being Humvees. They have a ready supply of arms and equipment from Fort Lewis to the north. The work groups we identified also have a guard of armed people. We can’t be sure with the one day observation, but there could be up to one hundred and fifty within the camp. Of those, it appears that approximately thirty of them are carrying arms. We also observed military-style training in progress. I’m not hazarding a guess at this point, that’s above my expertise, but if I were to lay money on it, I would say a good majority of those who are armed are, or were, either currently or prior military. This is only my opinion based on the footage we captured,” the supervisor briefs.

Gav only listens. She learned long ago that other’s opinions and thoughts were important. She has already reached the same conclusions merely by looking at the photographs. There is a definite military precision to the camp and in the way they conduct business. It’s what she would be doing.

“Very well. Good job. I want a satellite keyed to that camp. Can we do that?” she asks.

“We can, Nahmer. It will cost some fuel burn, but we can put one of the satellites we aren’t currently using to the task. It’s an older Keyhole satellite. The resolution of the pictures and video won’t be as sharp, but we won’t use up the fuel reserves in our newer ones. With your approval of course,” the supervisor answers.

“Do it. And I want that aircraft kept under constant surveillance as well. I want to know what they’re up to. Any news?”

“They took off early this morning and set down at Cannon AFB. They offloaded two Humvees and set out for the town of Clovis. I might add that they left the D-camp in place at Albuquerque. They met with another group we hadn’t identified and returned to the aircraft. They are still there,” he responds.

“Keep an eye on them. I want to know their every move.” Gav rises to leave.

Walking down the hall to her quarters, she ponders this new group. They have all of the intentions of gathering survivors, or at least meeting with them. She wonders whether these meetings are coincidental or if they have been communicating in some fashion. The airwaves have remained clear, so she isn’t sure. A part of her knows this is what her group should be doing, gathering others, but the secretive nature of her employers has made them overly cautious and paranoid.

However, she does have command of a battalion, complete with armored vehicles, and they aren’t limited to the diesel fuel sources, having been converted to bio-fuels. The vehicles may not have the power they once did, but they’ll function for as long as they have replacement parts and can manufacture the bio-fuel. There is no one who can challenge them, but this camp, C-US-4, has her worried. They have a range and ability she can’t match with regards to aircraft. And, they are at Cannon AFB which houses the fearsome AC-130 aircraft. If they can fly a C-130, they can fly those.