Wrath & Righteousnes Episodes 01 to 05 (80 page)

The German ambassador stood next to his European brother. Together, they proposed a joint resolution. The time had come for the world to move beyond the postwar perceptions and recognize things for what they were. The United States, once a great and benevolent nation, was no longer a force for good. Instead, the Americans and their allies had become the greatest threat to peace in the world. Always arrogant and self-serving, they had grown far too powerful. And their few allies had grown evil as well, the puppet state of Israel having proven that beyond any doubt.

But if they could neuter the Americans, her allies would be neutered as well. Without the United States, her puppets wouldn’t have the power to wreak such havoc in the world.

Therefore, the two ambassadors proposed a drastic resolution.

Two hours later, after a nearly unanimous vote, the United States was kicked off the Security Council. It seemed the best way to indicate the world’s disdain.

As the second most populous nation in the world, India would be given the old U.S. seat. And yes, the U.N. charter would have to be either amended or ignored to accommodate the resolution, but no one seemed particularly concerned with the governing rules right now.

The proposal was put before the General Council, where it passed overwhelmingly.

And while the United States protested angrily, the rest of the world seemed to cheer.

* * *

On the evening of the third day after the attack, King al-Rahman of the House of Saud was given time to address the General Assembly. Before doing so, he informed the U.N. leadership that he had been asked to speak for the entire Muslim world and all Arab-speaking peoples. It would be his task, he told them, to provide their formal response to the nuclear attack.

The world breathlessly waited to hear what he said.

King al-Rahman stood at the enormous podium, looking down on the representatives from virtually every nation on earth. His comments were being broadcast throughout the entire world. Almost five billion people watched him as he stood tall and proud before the cameras. He was a handsome man. Well mannered. Well manicured. He certainly looked reasonable. A man the world could work with. Not a man to fear. He even
looked
like a king! Strong. Compassionate and yet defiant. Confident and still kind.

“I stand here before you,” the king started to say, “because I have been asked to speak for my people, to speak for my fallen kin.

“Now, I understand what you expect. You want me to stand and condemn the state of Israel. I should. And I will. But this is not where I want to begin. You see, we have been hacking at the leaves of this new evil for far too long now. We hack at the leaves, and they keep growing because we ignore the root.

“So I stand here, my brothers, my fellow human beings, to declare the need to let the leaves blow, for they will fall in the wind if we can destroy the root!”

A silence fell over the assembly. The cameras rolled. All sat grim-faced. A deadly hush filled the air.

“My oldest brother has been killed recently,” the dark-haired king continued in a solemn tone. “My own father, the beloved king, killed as well. Enemies of the state of Israel, I wonder now who had them killed?

“So I stand here as an Arab and a Muslim, one who has felt the harsh sting of death. I stand here as a brother to one hundred and fifty thousand Palestinians—and the number is still growing—who have been mercilessly killed, as the son of a dead father and a dead brother, my prince. I stand here to cry out for justice and vengeance as well.

“We can talk all we want about Israel. We scream and condemn. We can point fingers and plan retaliations. We can pound our fists on our desks. We can do this and more, but we would be wasting our time. You see, my fellow world citizens, I know now, we all know, where the real problem lies.”

The king paused and lifted a large photograph and held it for the cameras to see. “U.S. combat soldiers operating inside Iran,” he explained. “A clear and warlike violation of this nation’s borders and integrity. Now, how would the United States react were an Arab nation to secretly send its combat troops to operate within U.S. borders? You don’t have to think very long. The answer is clear.”

The king dropped the picture and lifted another. “Muslim men being tortured in a U.S. military prison,” he explained. “This is only one of many U.S. gulags in the world; it just happens to be the most famous one: Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. But there are many more: Abu Ghraib in Iraq, Saud el-Amin in Pakistan, and Bagram prison in Afghanistan, Ishmet in Indonesia, to name just a few. From one hemisphere to another, there are military prisons everywhere. Most are secret. None are open. The International Red Cross cannot get in. These torture chambers have become such a scourge that Hitler and Stalin would be proud. Tens of thousands of innocent victims sit and rot in these prisons where they are tortured, starved, and beaten every day. And why are they held? What crime have they done? Even according to many U.S. courts, they have committed no crime. Their only crime, their only sin, is that they are Muslim men. From this evidence, and more, it has become clear that the United States is waging a war against my religion and my people, against a culture and ethnicity that is different from theirs.

“Who will speak for these prisoners?
Who?

“That is why I stand here. I speak for them today!”

The king stopped and looked out on the delegates, their eyes all fixed on him. They smelled blood now, and they wanted to get in on the kill. The king’s black-and-white headdress fell perfectly down his neck, and his dark eyes stared out as he brought his hand to his chin. “And now I must tell you, fellow delegates, that I have further devastating news.

“I have been informed that we have evidence, even proof, that Israel coordinated its attack on Gaza with the U.S. president. In addition, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has informed me that the nuclear bomb that was dropped over Gaza was supplied by the United States. Every nuclear detonation leaves a particular fingerprint, one that is traceable, and this warhead was almost certainly produced by the U.S. weapons facility in Tennessee. The head of the IAEA has assured me that they will know for certain very soon. But either way, the United States
must
have known what was coming. How could they not know? Israel would never have taken such a step without the express approval of its master. In fact, it is my opinion that the United States not only approved the attack on Gaza, they commanded it. Think about it, fellow delegates. Haven’t we seen this before? Think of what the Americans consider an appropriate response. A few thousand Americans are killed in this very city in an attack—an attack, I might add, that was roundly condemned by virtually every Arab state. Yet how does the United States respond? They invade
a sovereign nation
, causing an untold number of civilian deaths. They destroy an
entire
government. An
entire
country is taken down.

“But does the United States stop there? No, they are merely getting started. Iraq was to follow, a nation that had virtually
nothing
to do with the World Trade Center attack. Who was to follow after that? Iran has been living under threat of invasion for more than a generation! Is North Korea next? How do we know when they’ll stop? Is this the American’s idea of proportion? Is this the American’s idea of a fair and appropriate response? Something nips at their heels and they crush their heads. ‘Be our slaves or we destroy you. Do our bidding or you die. You are either with us or against us.’ How do you reason with that?

“But that, my fellow citizens, is the great lesson they have taught us today. That is the lesson of this new century.

“And now we have seen that Israel has learned the lesson from its master very well.

“But I reject it. I reject it! And we must stop them now.

“The blood of a hundred thousand Palestinians cries out from the ground. Ten thousand tortured Muslim prisoners cry for vengeance as well. Israel must be punished, but so must its master, for the slave does not do but what the master bids it to do.

“So I come to you, my brothers, and beg you to act. And if you will not act, then don’t condemn me. If you will not act, if you don’t have the courage to finally make a stand, if you don’t have the courage to defend those who are defenseless, then at least stand out of the way. If you have no courage, then don’t try to stop me from what I am then forced to do.”

The king stopped and looked out into the audience of world leaders who immediately burst into applause.

The Chinese general was escorted across the dry airfield by a Saudi aide holding an umbrella over the colonel’s head, not so much to block the sun as to hide the rank on his shoulders from the American satellites or reconnaissance aircraft that might be prying overhead. Yes, the Saudis thought they had a handle on most of the U.S. intelligence satellites, but they often varied their flyover schedule, and the high-flying drones might be overhead at any time.

As the Chinese general walked, he glanced around the remote airfield. A few trucks had been parked at the opposite end of the runway, while a pair of French Mirages and two early version American F-16s sat on the far tarmac. A herd of white goats grazed in the center of the field, their shaggy coats attracting gnats and black flies. The few men present were dressed in military attire. There had to be more guards than he could see, the general suspected, but they remained hidden from his view.

The general hacked and spit nervously. The king of Saudi Arabia had agreed to his demands for a personal meeting, which was very important in order for him to save face. But with the kind of money they were talking about, he would have agreed either way.

The Chinese general was escorted down a long ramp that led under the desert sand, through a set of steel double doors, along a long hallway, down a winding staircase, and through more steel doors. He ended up in a small conference room. No windows. One door. A single table. Nothing else.

The Saudi king was waiting. He stood when the general appeared.

The conversation was fairly short. It was a simple request.

“Do you understand what I am asking?” the king finally queried.

The general had a few questions. What was in the crate? Was it drugs? Heroin? Counterfeit American bills? No. Obviously not. Had to be much more important, much more valuable than that for the king to be involved. Where was it going? What was the hurry? Why must it have an escort? All this, he needed to know.

The Arab king frowned as he raised his hand. “Too many questions,” he answered bitterly. “Too many things, I cannot tell you right now. But what I ask is very simple. Only one crate. That is all. One crate to be shipped across your country. That is all I ask. If you can assure me of its safe arrival in Shanghai, then my people will take it from there.”

The general smiled, mentally counting the money. Five million U.S. dollars. Twenty- and fifty-dollar bills. All for assuring safe passage of a single crate for the king. When he considered the money, his questions didn’t seem so important somehow.

The two men talked a few minutes. Then the Chinese general agreed.

He would allow a single crate to transit his country. But only one. And only once. And, not knowing its contents, he insisted on measures that would guarantee deniability for both him as an individual and his government. No records would be kept anywhere along the way. A Chinese military transport would pick up the crate at a small airport on the border and carry it to Beijing. The transfer to the civilian freight carriers in the city had to be under the general’s direct control. One of the Chinese intelligence organizations at the port facilities in Shanghai would see that the crate was cleared through customs without leaving a trail. Nothing would be documented or written down.

“And there will be no inspections,” the king insisted again. “The crate will never be opened or inspected. You will see to this!”

The Chinese general nodded. For five million dollars he would.

“And you will get it across your country in twenty-four hours?”

The general bowed and nodded. He certainly would.

The Arab king smiled. Half the money would be presented up front, half when the crate was safe in Shanghai. The two men stood and shook hands, and the deal was done.

“Soon. Soon,” the king emphasized as the general walked away.

The general left immediately to make the arrangements. Six hours later, he called the king with good news. He had taken care of everything.

That night, in the underground bunker beneath the expansive airfield, a Saudi technician went to work attaching the barometric trigger to the firing device. His work was monitored at all times by three highly motivated Saudi military officers. The nuclear warhead was then carefully extracted from its box and put on a metal stand. A blanket of composite material, impossible to purchase on the open market, secretly built in a Malaysian factory outside of Kuala Lumpur, was wrapped around the warhead and heat-sealed with electric blowers. The composite material would absorb any leaking radiation from the warhead, making it impossible to detect for at least a few days.

The warhead was sealed, and then carefully packed into a nondescript, reinforced wooden crate. Under cover of darkness, the crate was carefully put onto the back of a small military truck, carried across the airfield, and loaded on a Saudi military transport, which took off immediately.

Ten armed guards, all of them dressed as civilians, accompanied the crate, never letting it out of their sight. They were some of the great king’s most trusted agents, but they worked under the clear threat of death.

The Saudi transport flew across all of southern Asia, eventually landing in a busy airport on China’s western border

From there, the crate was loaded into a Chinese civilian transport, one of the nondescript and undercover aircraft the general’s organization used every day. The steel and aluminum aircraft took off a little after noon and made its way east toward the glimmering city on the coast. En route, the aircraft stopped to refuel and change crews. After it had taken off again, the original crew members were driven to a deserted spot on the airfield and shot.