Returned

Call for Action

Seven

Call for Action

“What do we have on these guys?” President Hillock asked, pointing to the screen.

Brannon cleared his throat.

“Mr. President, this is the most interesting part,” he said. “Mr. Tile Atu is a Nigerian national. He went missing thirty years ago. Nothing has been heard of him since then. Before his sudden disappearance, he was a freelancer with no particular occupational engagement or allegiance to any institution. Seemingly, he worked from home. However, our resources suggest that before his disappearance, he had unclear connections with billionaire Nigerian businesswoman, Jennifer Koko.”

Brannon pulled Jennifer’s picture to the top right corner of the screen.

“Previously known as Jennifer Koko-Atir,” the Administrator continued. “She was married to billionaire drug kingpin, Alex Atir, who died in Singapore, twenty-three years ago from an overdose. Apparently, she inherited Mr. Atir’s wealth and grew from there. Soon after Chinese incorporation in Nigeria, she dropped the surname of Atir, and is now known as Jennifer Koko. She has undefined connections with Chinese trillionaire investor, and Chinese-Nigerian synergy contact person, Jon Cho Tung. The two are known to meet secretly at unspecified intervals and also exchange encrypted messages and calls.”

“Mr. President, the man James Charlatan, is a professional wizard,” Brannon paused to allow the effect to sink. “He is an Australian national who teaches at the Redhome School of Magic and Wizardry, where he spends most of his time. The other two are students at the same institution. Rita Baxter, an American citizen, emigrated with her Australian mother back to Sydney, since age six. She is now twenty. 21-year-old Carina Goodblood is a British citizen. Resources pulled on the three reveal that they had disappeared from the institution more than a year ago, during an international witching schools competition.”

“I thought such schools existed only in imagination. I remember watching the Harry Potter films while I grew up,” President Hillock said and laughed briefly.

The other chiefs too laughed, except Axwood, who concentrated on what was unfolding before him with undivided attention.

“Mr. President, it was gathered that Hogwarts of the Harry Potter films was also in the competition,” Brannon said as-a-matter-of-factly, grinning widely.

The laughter went quiet.

“Wow. I always thought they were fantasy stories to entertain children,” President Hillock remarked. “What else do we know?”

“Our best guess is that these four escaped from Eris back to earth, and this orb, a surveillance camera of sorts, has been deployed to trace them,” Brannon said, pointing to the crusted metal ball perched delicately in the case.

“But if this is a camera, don’t you think those guys are watching us now?” It was Chief of Staff Craig Bethany.

“We had worked on modalities for trying to disable transmission, but the procedures would rather render the gadget useless, and we will be left with nothing. The only measure is to lock it safely in the case to curtail transmission. And we also pray that if they can see us, they should not understand us.”

“That’s not good enough!” Gen. Axwood snapped, to the surprise of even the president. He soon realized he had overreacted, and quickly asked the one question that had been on his mind all along. “What does Beijing and Moscow know about all this?”

“For now, information has been contained and classified, and we hope to keep it so,” Brannon replied.

“And how long has this camera thing been in our possession?” Axwood pressed.

“Nearly ten hours.”

“That’s too long a time for us to have been exposed,” Axwood said gently.

“The orb has been kept under wraps most of the time. We are still trying to understand how it works sir.

“What is the latest information on these guys that just returned?” the president asked.

“Remote CIA surveillance verifies that Jennifer Koko received three visitors at her Mansion in Makurdi, Nigeria, about 8:00am West African time today,” Brannon replied without hesitation. “The verified images confirm Mr. Atu, Charlatan, and Baxter, Goodblood is missing.”

“I want everything you have on this Jennifer Koko and all her cohorts on my table by morning, including her dealings with Cho,” the president said. “Gen. Axwood Sir, what do you think should be our next line of action? I think we are looking at a cataclysmic extraterrestrial event here, and we need to be ready.”

“Administrator Brannon,” Axwood called. “Pull all necessary resources and have the transmission of that thing disconnected early morning tomorrow latest, but make sure to keep it useful. Mr. President, we need to dispatch a team to bring in that Nigerian with his returned colleagues. We have to know what they know, and we need to move fast. We do not want the Russians to have this information and make the first move. We should make the move immediately.”

“But that territory belongs to the Chinese, how do we move in without their notice?” Chief of Staff Bethany asked. “All our CIA bases there have been shut down due to strained diplomatic relations with China,” he added.

There was a debate amongst the service chiefs, but nobody seemed to have a satisfactory suggestion. The President sat listening quietly. Someone suggested calling in the Director of the CIA to mobilize the operation, but Brannon raised his objection.

“This is top classified intelligence, Mr. President,” he said. “NASA found this orb, let NASA handle the operation on the ground covertly while the Military mobilize defenses in the event of war. This is beyond the CIA. In the hands of the CIA, this intelligence may end up in the hands of the Russians or Chinese or anybody out there.”

Axwood seemed to swallow Brannon’s logic. He nodded gently.

“So what do you propose?” he asked Brannon. The president only looked on.

“There is a CIA base in neighboring Chad, close to the border of Northern Nigeria,” Brannon replied sharply. He seemed to have thought out his plan carefully. “I shall send in my man, Captain Prescott, to go in with his partner Bruno. They will find a way from there to central Nigeria and try to locate this Tile Atu and his friends. Mr. President, if I have your affirmative, I shall dispatch them immediately before daybreak. Prescott and Bruno are very resourceful.”

The president thought for a while. Then he asked, “Gen. Axwood, what say you sir?”

Axwood nodded gently. The president turned to his Chief of Staff and received a similar affirmative.

“Alright then, send them in,” he said at last.

“One more thing, Mr. President,” Axwood said. “I would like the Intel on this operation to be reported to me directly.” Then he turned to Brannon and said, “Your man has two primary objectives, to debrief the Nigerian and his friends on ground and report, and to use all his negotiation savvy to bring them in quietly. He is at discretion to use covert force where the need arise. Call the Chadian CIA Base and mobilize resources to stand-by. The CIA, however, are not to know about the mission yet.”

*************

As Axwood left for his office, he had an unusual spring in his step. He had thought this to be some regular terrorist attack which, the engagement in studies on Combat Estimate with the troops, down to the infantry divisions, had prepped the US armed forces for a major defense in history against terrorism. But it turned out to be something even more than he could have imagined. An extraterrestrial attack? That was something else entirely. This was indeed his time.

He was yet to settle in his seat to contemplate his ensuing actions when his door automatically hissed open. Even as he did not turn, he knew it was the president, as only he had the override palm code to the most important offices in the nation.

“You are not surprised I am here,” the president said, more as a remark than a question.

“Yes Mr. President, I was expecting you at least,” Axwood replied.

“How ready are we, in the event of an extraterrestrial attack?” the president asked.

“It is good that we have this Intel in time,” the General sounded a little casual. “It will give us time to prepare.”

“What time are we looking at? What if they hit us in the next hour?” it was Bethany.

“They will not hit us now. We intercepted their equipment, and they will have to be sure of their attack before they engage,” Axwood said flatly.

Bethany sighed. He wanted to say something but preferred to keep it under wraps at the moment.

“Do we assume that your line of thought is a usual rule of engagement to these guys?” the President asked, perplexed. “I mean, General, with all due respect, you have been doing battle with fellow humans and not aliens.”

“That’s correct Mr. President, they are aliens to us as much as we are to them,” Axwood said. He waited for a while but the president didn’t say anything, then he added, “It is better to keep that orb of theirs under proper wraps in order not to expose our defenses. Brannon had better hurry his boy too. We need Intel on these guys before noon tomorrow. In the meantime, Mr. President, I think I have to meet with my Chiefs now to organize defenses on standby and to prepare for counter-attack.”

The message sounded to Bethany as if Axwood was already dismissing the President and Commander-in-Chief from his office. But he didn’t want to press the matter. Everybody knew Axwood’s style. He was a soldier who believed in taking action and letting the civilians do the explanations later.

“I believe you will pull this off for the good of us in the event of a war,” the President said getting up. “Let’s just hope it never gets to that for the sake of human life. But I never doubted you.”

The president adjusted his tie, perhaps out of habit, and led the way. Bethany followed him closely as the door slid shot behind them.

Axwood went straight to his seat and sat down. He placed his palm in a place where a hand image appeared to the right corner of his sleek glass desk. A blue light scanned his palm upwards and downwards and the desk came on with lights and a keypad directly to his front on the glass top. He tapped a few keys and a small monitor materialized out of the glassy table in front of him.

All the Chiefs had been present at the Situation Room, but now was the time to contact them with particular orders and to activate the command chain. He checked all the boxes on the monitor that matched the various chiefs and sent the Red code. He tapped on the Chief of Signal and typed out a direct order for a coordinated signal at Fort Eisenhower. All Intel was to follow a specific chain of command. The civilian population was to be kept in the dark until action could not be contained.

Having given the order to the Chief of Signal, the General decided to contact Pearl Harbour. There was a particular role for the US Pacific Fleet.