Chapter 46

Despite the fact that Mike had not wanted Cathy to be involved in work that was this sensitive, she spent an entire Saturday helping Mike with his report. Mike dictated while she typed up the report that explicitly identified ten of the upper level leaders of the Jihad movement. There was a shadowy figure referred to as Mr. X who was the eleventh leader. It was an amazing document in that it laid out exactly the structure and operations of the leadership. Even as she typed, it was hard for her to believe that Mike had been able to acquire so much information about the true leadership of what he had started referring to as the Jihad Façade.

The eleven men were worth a combined eighty trillion dollars in legitimate assets. They had influence in enough countries to be able to utilize many trillions more, as they desired. Those were the assets that were directly traceable to the eleven men. There was another three or four trillion in assets that resided in criminal organizations around the world. Those were the assets brought to the war against the West.

It wasn’t just their assets that made them powerful men. The gross revenue that passed through the companies they controlled made them the equivalent of several European countries. The gross revenue was just a few trillion short of a quadrillion dollars. It was a staggering amount of money. They were able to control a lot of people by deciding who received a dip out of that money stream.

Although not directly involved in the day to day operations of their companies, these men were basically captains of oil, industry, and construction. Two were members of the former royal family of Saudi Arabia. One was a royal in the United Arab Emirates. Another one of the men owned refineries and chemical plants throughout the world. One owned one of the largest fleets of ships in the world. Another owned a construction company that had built some of the largest projects in the world including underground facilities in Iran, Iraq, and Syria. One of them had manufacturing capabilities distributed around the world making everything from toys to missiles. One of them was a weapons dealer and had brokered deals between China and just about every one of the Third World countries. It was hard to say what one of the men did since he had interests in just about every high-tech industry under the sun. The source of wealth belonging to Mr. X was not identified.

The document described how the men used their power and influence to weaken Western countries while building up the military capabilities of the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and South America. A ten million dollar bribe could get a major political leader in just about any country to provide anything that they wanted. This included billion dollar arms deals to countries that weren’t quite overtly hostile to the west. These were very smart men who didn’t waste one dollar more than that which was necessary to achieve their goal.

Although Mike had labeled the level of people below the leaders as aides, the fact was that all of those men were very wealthy as well. None of them were worth less than a hundred million dollars. They were also much more visible than the leaders. They were often living decadent lifestyles in full view of the press.

The individuals that Mike had called messengers were usually members of the entourages of the aides. Some were well connected with leaders of criminal organizations that provided prostitutes, drugs, and other forms of entertainment upon demand. A good percentage of their business was supported by the aides and leaders. The excesses that were described were truly sickening.

Throughout the report, there was reference to the eleventh leader as Mr. X. His aides and their messengers were unnamed as well. Very few details that would allow anyone to identify the mystery man appeared in the document. It was obvious that he was a very key player in the entire war.

Cathy finished typing the last paragraph and turned to Mike. She asked, “Are you going to wait to distribute this until you know who Mr. X is?”

“I know who Mr. X is,” Mike replied.

Frowning, Cathy asked, “Should I replace the references to Mr. X with the man’s name?”

“No. Mr. X has been identified in another document,” Mike answered looking over at Cathy. He knew that she would identify the man as soon as the news covered his death, but felt that she was better off not knowing until after the fact.

Puzzled, she asked, “Shouldn’t it all be in one report?”

“No. Only eighty people have clearances high enough to know who Mr. X is and this report has to go to a lot more people than that,” Mike answered.

“Oh,” Cathy said. She looked over the report for several minutes checking it for any errors that she might have introduced in typing it. There weren’t any obvious mistakes in the section she had just finished typing. She looked over at Mike and asked, “Everyone in this report is going to die, aren’t they?”

“Yes,” Mike answered.

Having read about the kinds of things the men had done, Cathy said, “Good. These men are very evil.”

“Yes, they are,” Mike said nodding his head in agreement.

He hadn’t wanted to expose Cathy to the contents of the report, but she had argued that her role was to support him. He knew that rather than taking most of a Saturday, that it would have taken him more than a week to type it up by himself. Since time was of the essence, he let her help.

“I still don’t get it. Why are they doing this? They don’t believe in Jihad. They don’t seem to believe in anything except gratifying their every desire regardless of how sick and perverted it is,” Cathy said.

Mike said, “I think it was Tony who suggested that they were bored. A high school kid will go out and play a video war game to pass the time. These guys are so rich that they go out and buy a real army. They are playing war games.”

“You’re not serious, are you?”

Sighing, Mike said, “I don’t know. The more I look at it, the more I believe that. Only seven of them are even pretending to support Jihad. Why would anyone worth trillions of dollars declare war against the society that allowed them to collect that much wealth?”

Cathy looked at the report for a minute and then said, “Let’s send it out and then go home. I feel dirty. All I want to do is to take a long hot shower.”

Understanding what she was feeling, Mike asked, “You do know what happens once we send out this report, don’t you?”

“Not really,” Cathy replied. It was obvious that the men were going to die, but she hadn’t thought beyond that.

Mike said, “The first battle that can actually end the war will begin. All of the armies that have been working together will get isolated from each other. They won’t have the ability to replace the resources necessary to continue the fight. The terrorist organizations will collapse before long.”

Cathy said, “That does make me feel a little better, but I still want to go home.”

“I do too,” Mike said.

Cathy saved the document and then submitted it for distribution according to the list that Mike had given her. When it was sent out, she shut down the machine and said, “It’s done.”

“Let’s round up the Marines and go home,” Mike said.

Cathy had been so involved in typing the report that she had completely forgotten about the Marines guarding them. Feeling a little guilty, she said, “I can’t believe that I forgot about them. They’ve been sitting outside guarding the building all this time. I should have taken them some coffee.”

The real estate agent sat at the table looking at Mike and Cathy with a large smile on her face. She said, “We’ve had an offer on the house.”

“Judging by the smile on your face, I’d guess it’s a pretty good one,” Mike said.

“That’s right. I got forty thousand more than your asking price. I got three people in a bidding war for the house,” the woman said.

Frowning at the idea that she had been holding a bidding war for the house without telling him, Mike said, “Let me see the offers.”

The woman handed him a stack of papers with the offers from three different people. He could see where the people had increased the amount of their offer several times. He looked through the stack of papers and selected the bottom one. He scratched off the price on the offer and replaced it with the asking price. He showed it to Cathy and asked, “Is this okay?”

“Yes,” Cathy answered thinking it was one of the nicest things she had ever seen anyone do.

Handing the marked up offer back to the real estate agent, he said, “This is the offer we’ll accept.”

The real estate agent looked at what Mike had done and frowned. Mike had set the amount back to the asking price. With more than a little irritation in her voice, she said, “You can’t do that.”

“I can and I did,” Mike answered.

The price difference meant a loss of more than two thousand dollars in commission. Getting angry, the woman said, “I got you a good price for your home.”

Looking the woman in the eye, Mike said, “You negotiated that price without consulting me. In the process, you have hurt the feelings of a friend of mine. That is the offer that we accept.”

“They are going to be so happy when they learn that we’ve accepted their offer,” Cathy said looking over at Mike with a smile.

“But, I got you a better price than that. You have to take the best price that was offered,” the agent said.

Mike leaned forward and asked, “Did you notice all of those Marines outside?”

“Yes,” the woman answered irritated.

Those Marines had made showing the house a whole lot more difficult. Very few people wanted to see the house when it required that they get searched before going into it. She felt that she could have gotten even more for the house if the Marines hadn’t shown up.

“They are there for a reason. My name is on a terrorist death list,” Mike said making reference to what they had discovered when searching the house of the man who had tried to kill him. There was a low growl to his voice when he relayed that fact.

“Oh, my,” the real estate agent said with a frown.

“A guy tried twice to kill him. He shot the wrong person the first time and was killed during the second attempt,” Cathy said. She was still rather upset over that little episode.

Mike looked the real estate agent in the eye and said, “One day Bob noticed a strange car circling the block and slowing down in front of my house each pass. At the time, he knew that someone was trying to kill me. Despite that, he stood out in his front yard to warn me when I arrived home from work. He put his life at risk for me. You don’t fuck friends like that because your broker is a greedy bitch. Do I make my self clear?”

“Crystal clear,” the woman answered shocked at the anger in his voice. She didn’t appreciate being called a greedy bitch, but she wasn’t going to make an issue of it.

Mike sat back in his chair thinking about how Bob must have felt to have his offers rejected over and over. His jaws clenched and unclenched as he tried to control his anger. In a tight voice, he said, “Now, you will go next door and let Bob and Ellen know that we accepted their offer. You will tell them the price that I wrote down on that piece of paper. You will then help him sell his house for the price that he wants. I want him treated like a king.”

“Yes, Sir,” the woman said turning pale.

In a dismissive voice, Mike said, “You may go now.”

The woman packed up her papers and left the house on shaky legs. His anger was one thing, but the thought that terrorists wanted him dead terrified her. She hadn’t wondered why there had been Marines stationed at the house. After glancing over at the Marines, she stopped by her car and removed her top. The idea that a terrorist might have gotten his hands on her was the stuff of nightmares, but she wasn’t going to let them know that.

Cathy went over to Mike and rubbed his shoulders. His muscles were hard as rocks. She said, “Let me get Kim.”

“Why?” Mike asked.

“You’re a little tense,” Cathy said with a smile. She thought what he had done for Bob and Ellen was very nice. It was also very honorable. That kind of loyalty to friends made her love him even more.

“I’d rather just stay here and hold you,” Mike said looking up at her over his shoulder.

“After Kim is done with you, you’ll do more than just hold me,” Cathy replied running a hand down his chest and to his crotch.

“Oh my,” Mike said with a smile.

The massage that afternoon did not end with Kim giving Mike a happy ending. It ended with Cathy giving Mike a much more intimate happy ending. He liked it a lot.

Hands behind his head, Mike sat back in his chair watching everyone work with a smile on his face. Winking at him, Cathy set a cup of coffee in front of him and said, “Here you go.”

“Thank you, Cathy,” Mike said.

He picked up the cup and took a sip. He sighed in satisfaction and watched the cable news channel on the situation board.

Charlie glanced over at Mike wondering why he was sitting there doing nothing. For the past few weeks, Mike had been working almost non-stop. Mike and Cathy had stayed late after work every night. It didn’t seem right that Mike would just suddenly kick back in his chair that way. He shrugged his shoulders and turned back to his computer.

Charlie wasn’t the only one who had noticed that Mike was doing nothing. Tony watched Mike thinking about the translations that he had done. He had a feeling that Mike had just finished something very significant, but he wasn’t sure just how big it was. He would ask, but he knew that Mike wouldn’t answer any questions. He was pretty sure that whatever it was that Mike had done would become clear with time.