In the over ornate office of the Minister of Defence for Iraq, Hooshy Ar Karimi, the overhead fans and the air- conditioning units were running at full capacity. In the office, sat around the giant marble and glass conference table were MehrzAd Behzadi, head of the 'Sazeman-e Ettela'at va Amniyat-e Keshvar', the Iranian secret service, General Uday Bani Lam, head of Iraqi military intelligence unit, and Dirar Abu Sitta, Palestinian, and the leader of the PLO, now a wanted terrorist.
Minister Karimi gave a forced cough, and the general talk stopped, as if a radio had been switched off, “Thank you for coming gentlemen, and a special welcome to Abu Sitta, we have not seen exactly eye-to-eye in the past but, as they say, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” The others nodded their heads and muttered greetings to Sitta.
“Thank you my friends, it is good to find allies in these times,” replied Sitta.
“It seems that we have a new problem in the shape of Mr. Richard Pickles, I am sure you have all heard and seen the events of ten days ago,” everyone nodded again. “The fact is gentlemen, that the tricks that Mr. Pickles has performed has given our eternal enemies renewed hope and patriotism. Out sources inform us that recruitment to the Israeli military had more than doubled in the past week, we need to discuss what can be done to eliminate this threat.”
“I am nor sure what we can do Hooshy,” said Behzadi, “this man seems to be invincible, I have studied the video of all the events of seven-thirty-one, he can walk through this beam, whatever it is, walk through volcanic magma, throw energy bursts at will, throw himself off of buildings without harm and is impervious to bullets.”
“MehrzAd, my friend, do not be fooled by these infidel tricks, these things you speak of are not possible,” said Karimi, “I have seen similar things in the westerners movies.”
“With the greatest respect Minister,” started Sitta, “my people were there and were witnesses to these things. I am convinced that the powers are connected to the Tabut Sakina, the artefact they call he Ark of the Covenant. We also had people present when the Tabut was discovered; none of our weapons would operate in the cavern.”
“That is interesting, my friend,” said Karimi.
“Minister, we seem to have forgotten what history teaches us,” interjected General Uday Bani Lam, “this artefact is a Heavenly treasure chest, which was used as a weapon of war by the Prophets, including Moses, Aaron, David, Solomon, and even by the Holy Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu alaihi wa aalihi wa sallam). The Holy Quran states:
'And their Prophet said to them: “A Sign of his authority is that there shall come to you the Ark (Tabut), and in it Sakina with (a Covenant) therein of security from your Lord, and the relics left by the family of Moses and the family of Aaron, carried by angels. In this is a symbol for you if ye indeed have faith”
All this is in al Baqara, v.248, for all to read”
“You should have been a Mullah General,” commented Minister Karimi, with a touch of sarcasm.
“My father was, and I was supposed to enter the priesthood,” answered the General, “This Ark was the assurance of help in ancient times, from the unseen and victory over enemies, in the form of Prophetic relics. These relics contained in the Ark were connected to prophetic authority, which represented the Vicegerency of God on earth by His Prophets and Messengers, and as such, assured victory over disbelief to the possessor of the Ark. We ignore these things at our cost Minister.”
“Hmm,” said the Minister, “is that the feeling of you all?” All three visitors nodded. “Then we have two objectives; regain this 'Tabut' and eliminating Mr. Pickles.”
“Minister, could we not utilise one of our Qaher-317's again,” asked Behzadi, “with good intelligence we can take him out easily.”
“That seems to be like using a pneumatic drill to open a walnut.” said Sitta.
“Then what do you suggest Mr. Sitta,” asked the Minister.
“If you have another of those implosion devices, I think I can deal with Mr. Pickles,” suggested Sitta, “I have people who are willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good.”
“A suicide bomber?”
“If you wish to call them that” admitted Sitta, “we prefer 'sacrificial freedom fighter' in Palestine.”
“That still leaves us with the problem of the 'Tabut',” stated the General, “Mr. Sitta mentioning the implosion device gave me an idea. If we can get reliable information on the location of the Tabut, and if the traditions are true, the detonation of the device in its vicinity would leave the Tabut untouched, if it is destroyed then our enemy does not have it either.”
“And if the thing is untouched,” asked the Minister. “Then we take control of the area, and walk off with the Tabut.”
“But this Ark may protect a sizeable area around the Tabut, what then,” asked Behzadi.
“If we have the very best commandos, they should still be able to take the Tabut,” the General replied.
“Just walk off with it? You don't think the Israelis would not have other ideas,” asked Behzadi.
“Not if we have a crack commando team there quickly, dressed in Israeli uniforms,” answered General Bani Lam, “I am sure Mr. Sitta here has access to some uniforms.”
“I can furnish uniforms General, no problems.”
“Well, we seem to have a plan, thank you gentlemen, I will leave the planning details to you,” said Minister Karimi with some finality, “thank you all for attending.”
Abe Marks had been to ten Downing Street once before, and this occasion was just as disconcerting as the previous occasion had been. This certainly was not the sumptuous surroundings that the US president lived in; the British Prime Minister's residence had not changed extensively since the days of Sir Robert Walpole, way back in the mid eighteenth century. It certainly had not been redecorated since David Cameron in the twenty- teens, and the walls were now looking quite dated. Abe was sat in the anti-room between the private secretary's office and the Cabinet Room, his chief, Sir James, was already in the Cabinet Room with the PM and other high ranking officials. It was like sitting outside of the headmaster's office, Abe thought.
Things were really coming to a head in the middle-east, with the latest attack on Jerusalem by Iran, the continued high recruitment rate for the combined Islamic Jihad Army, and now this farce with Rick Pickles; it was just getting more complicated. The question was, why would Iran attack Jerusalem with a stealth aircraft that everyone thought was a joke, and reveal their hand, Abe thought. What has Iran gained? He was deep in thought when the door to the Cabinet Room opened and Sir James placed his hand on Abe's shoulder, “Can you come in now Abe,” he said quietly.
Sir James Hennessey led Abe into the Cabinet Room where he found the Prime Minister, Fredrick Matthews, Home Secretary Henry Harden and Field Marshal Sir Alan Robinson.
“Hello Abe, nice to see you again,” said the PM by way of greeting, “please take a seat.” Abe took the chair opposite the Home Secretary, and said, “Thank you Prime Minister, how can I help?”
“You are our expert on the Middle-east,” the PM told Abe, “Sir James thought that your knowledge would be better than having a report to go by, we just need your expertise and gut-feelings about what's going on out there. Firstly this Army of the Islamic Jihad, that is our main concern, can you fill us in on this?”
“I know that recruitment is off the scale, their strength already makes it the largest army in history, latest intel’ places it at around twelve million.” Abe reported, “However that does not include the two million or so sleepers that we received intel’ about a few months ago.”
“Ah yes,” the Prime minister started, “we have been screening for possible placements, how is that going Alan?”
“Slowly, Sir. We have been screening by polygraph and by background. The background research is time consuming and we need a legitimate reason for putting someone on a polygraph, and that is not easy if this remains a covert operation,” said the Field Marshal. “How effective is the background screening,” asked Harden.
“About ninety-two percent, we've detected around two-hundred people across the armed forces that on further investigation have proved to have connections to Islamic paramilitary units.”
“Abe, is there any indication that our investigations have been picked up by the Islamic authorities,” asked Matthews.
“No Sir, not yet at least,” answered Abe, “none of our contacts has reported anything suspicions, and they have been briefed.”
“Once we have identified these sleepers, what are we going to do with them,” asked Henry Harden.
“We need to single them out and restrict where they go and what they do,” suggested the Field Marshal, “I'm just not comfortable with leaving them where they are without some control.”
“Point taken, Alan,” said the PM, “does anyone have any ideas?”
“As a matter of fact, Prime Minister, I had a feeling we would come to this point,” said Harden. “I've had an idea, can we introduce sub-dermal implants of some kind for the military and government employees. We could implant covert codes to restrict where they can access or include tracking, to monitor their movement, I'm not an expert on this, but I believe that there is one commercial bank that operates something of the like for their employees.”
“Good thinking, Henry,” commended Matthews, “who is our current security contractor?”
“I believe it's Anglo Security Electronics p.l.c, Sir,” offered Abe.
“That's also a part of the Pickles Corporation,” stated Harden, ”I'm not sure I'm happy, under the current circumstances, with Pickles' involvement with this Messiah business.”
“Don't be alarmed, Henry,” said the PM, “I have spoken to Prime Minister Goldbloom, and she assures me it's a subterfuge to help control some of what is going on out there. We all know your views on organised religion,” the PM laughed.
“We'll see, Sir, we will see.”
“Alan can you liaise with ASE to get something going, fast.” asked Matthews.
“I'll get onto it Sir,” answered the Field Martial.
“What are your impressions about the Messiah issue, Abe” asked Sir James.
“There are several schools of thought in the Middle- east, Sir. The mainstream Israelis seem convinced that Pickles is the Messiah and they are prepared, so far, to follow him. The Jewish Orthodox Church has grave reservations about him as do most Christians, who are basing their opinion of Biblical prophesy. The Islamic block thinks it's a stunt to frighten them into submission. Finally the general ‘non-religious’ public in Europe and the USA are starting to regard Pickles as some sort of saviour of the world, and that seems to be the opinion of the Israeli government. In a way the Muslims are correct, although they think that the July thirty-first events were Hollywood illusions. In a way, we need to take some of the blame for this situation, Sir.”
“How so,” asked the PM.
“We classified the device, Sir, so we cannot tell the world that it's just an electronic gizmo, we can’t stop him using it, he and that Professor Gwilliam own the patent.”
“Dam!”
“My feeling is that whatever happens, there will be a great deal of conflict,” added Abe.
“And I bet it will be these bloody Christians at the centre of the conflict,” interjected Home Secretary Harden.
“What of these stealth fighters that Iran seems to have built,” asked Matthews, “do we have anything on that.”
“Yes Sir,” answered Abe, “the intelligence informs us that so far they have built three, with one more due to be finished by the end of the year. I believe the attack on Jerusalem's Temple Mount, was a system's test in real circumstances, the Iranians were certainly celebrating after the attack. We are trying to locate the factory where the planes are made and we have a joint operation in place with the CIA. We assume that the factory is somewhere in the desert, so we will need a lot of luck to find it from satellite, but then we did find the missile and training base. What I do not understand, is what Iran gained from making the attack, their secret fighter is out of the bag.”
“Hmm, interesting,” said Sir James, “maybe it was intended as intimidation.”
“If it was for intimidation, it didn't work, from what I hear Israel is furious and seems to be gearing up for war, but I can't think that is what they want,” added Abe.
“Maybe that's what Iran wants,” mused the PM.
“In which case, we'd best get our security issues sorted quickly.” stated Home Secretary, Harden.
Field Martial Sir Alan Robinson sat at his desk waiting for the com to chime; he had booked the call the previous day for eight sharp. Like most military people the Field Martial was a stickler for punctuality and Rick Pickles was already ten minutes late, which did not enhance his reputation in the Field Martial's mind. At twelve minutes past the hour the com-unit chimed and his adjutant told him that Mr. Pickles was calling. Robinson tapped the soft button and Rick Pickles appeared on the desk screen.
“Good morning Mr. Pickles, thank you for agreeing to speak to me at this early hour,” Robinson said with a touch of sarcasm in his voice.
“No problem, Sir, sorry for the delay, demands of business you know,” retorted Pickles, “so what can I do for you?”
“Firstly I must warn you that the content of this call and everything we discuss is covered by the Official Secrets Act, which you have already signed up to as a MOD supplier.”
“Of course,” agree Pickles.
“We have a security situation to which we need a covert answer, in that we have, and are, identifying certain people who are a security risk, and need to be excluded from certain operations and positions in the military service, or in government service,” explained the Field Martial. “The problem is that we dare not give these individuals any idea that we are on to them.”
“Hmm!” remarked Pickles, “that could be tricky.”
“Indeed Mr. Pickles, however, it has been suggested that you may have a solution in the use your sub-dermal implant you use within your organisation, which replaces access cards. We wondered if this could be adapted to our purpose.”
“Well you have certainly done your homework Sir,” said Rick, “yes, I am sure we could set up a system along those lines. We already have the technology, but won't that cause issues with personal rights?”
“It may well do so, but we would bring the system in across the board, no exceptions, if they refuse, then they are terminated from their jobs or the service.”
“We can give an alternative to the SDI, that's a sort of tattoo, but it has to be renewed on a yearly basis, some of our staff opted for that, it comes as a company logo, but it can come in any design, regimental badge, ship's badge, or any decorative design for the civil service.”
“I think we would stick to the SDI for the forces, but that is certainly a good idea for our civilian people,” agreed the Field Martial. “One more thing, this is urgent Mr. Pickles, how quickly can you get it up and running?”
“We won’t have the development run-up, so it's just a matter of getting your people to give me the programming, I'll send over the matrix later this morning, and then we can get into production,” explained Rick. “You will need the programmers so that you can personalise each implant. As an estimate I would say you will be processing the first personnel at the end of September.”
“That will do nicely Mr. Pickles; I will send you the contact names and secure addresses within the hour. Thank you, we will speak again no doubt.”
“No problems, pleasure to help, Field Martial,” and the line went dead.