Robert Smith - The Planner

He unpacked his laptop and booted up the Windows 2000 operating system. Slipping in the CD-ROM disk that Digger had given him after the Snow White meeting, Planner accessed new data within his Nastran software; a 3D model of WTC7. Like many New York Buildings, its design is highly constrained by the city environment in which it exits; for example, WTC7 had a trapezoidal cross section, a very strange shape for any building, to fit within the haphazard lower Manhattan street plan. It was 47 stories high and would have stood out in most cities in the USA, it would have been the tallest building in 32 states. However, in New York, it was dwarfed by its proximity to the 110 story twin towers. The North Tower, WTC1, was 355 feet away and WTC2 was 600 feet. In between WTC7 and WTC1 was one eight storied building, WTC6, which, he realised also needed to be destroyed. What team was going to be doing that?

Planner searched for more information on WTC7 using the state-of-the-art, Lycos internet search engine and discovered some interesting facts: Massive building works were undertaken two years after WTC7 was built, to withstand the load of heavy computer equipment. These new areas, built at a cost $200million, were regarded as a “building within a building”. And there were other expensive changes in the following years: the CIA office facilities and its secret entrance via the Defense Department and Mayor’s Emergency Command Center. A name cropped up “Larry Silverstien”: his company had not only built the original tower but also undertook all the renovation and improvement work. 104

Planner drummed his chin. Where had he heard that name before? It finally came to him; Silverstien was in the process of bidding for the 99 year lease on the rest of the World Trade Center. He was the winner of the contest despite offering less, but won when his ex-brother-in-law, Bernard Mendik, pulled out of the competition. And then Mendik died of a heart attack; 105unlucky Mendik, lucky Silverstien. Planner was reminded of the CIA Heart Attack Gun that was developed in the 1960s: another murder-without-consequences 106weapon in a similar vain as the Boston-Brakes devices. Considering his own job, Planner could not be too self-righteous about the morality of such action; just suspicion and a reminder of his own pledge of allegation, until death, to his lodge and brother Masons.

Planner extracted large paper blueprints from his brief case. He decided to compare the Nastram model with Blue Prints of the building he had come across in the Rainbow Office. He printed out a report describing the structural strength of the components within the model and compared them with the blueprints. He yawned. He decided to finish the analysis in the morning but he dashed off an email before going to bed.

He wrote: “Digger. Looks like the model does not fully account for the extra strengthening undertaken in 1989 when 350 tons of steel was added to WTC7. Can I suggest some further changes to the model? Regards Planner”

He pressed a button to encrypt the message and then another to send it.

* * * *

Planner was asleep. In his dream he imagined the mechanism under his wife’s car activating and turning the wheel sharply, plunging it over a cliff. Falling… He heard the Lodge Master saying, “Tragic. Your wife was such a caring and intelligent lady”. Caring? Intelligent? Why those words? How did he know?

He imagined a bomb explosion destroying four levels in the basement of the North Towers, and the building slowly toppling, falling into the second tower, the floors locking together, and drawing out a huge gash down the side of the other tower, with thousands of people sliding out the building, hanging onto the columns on the outer wall until they no longer were able to hold on any longer. 107He dreamt he was in the Plaza and witnessing the building as it toppled, whole, down towards him.

Planner woke up with a start. He turned and saw his wife in bed with him asleep surrounded by dappled sunlight. This startled him again and he awoke again. He was alone at home. This time, he was certain he really was wake. He rolled over looked at a picture of his wife and young daughter. The emotional dam burst; he held his head and wept.

He recovered his composure in the shower. Returning back to the bedroom in his dressing gown, Planner looked at the clock and sighed. It was already mid-morning. Sitting on his bed, he arranged his cell phone next to his landline phone and sighed again. He took out a new sim-card, inserted it into his cell-phone and made a call.

“Hello?” answered an uncertain female voice.

“Hi, Katherine. It’s Robert. I hope you don’t mind me calling you… er, at home,” said Planner, grabbing a tissue to mop his nose.

“No, hey. This is a… surprise,” stammered Katherine on the phone. “Er… no problem. I’m glad you called. In fact, I was hoping you would. We’ve both been kind of busy, haven’t we?”

“It’s been real crazy. Crazy bad. Can you talk?”

“A short while. What’s up? You sound tense,” she said.

“I’ve just had some bad… er… feelings. About my job. About your job too,” confided Planner.

“Oh? Can you explain?”

“I’m almost lost for words on this, you know, without my powerpoint slides,” he tried to joke.

“Well, ok. We’re on-the-phone. Give it a try,” she said patiently.

“Perhaps it’s because it is on the phone. All those potential ears on the air waves. At the exchange. Along the line,” Planner said with a cringe.

“Ok. I think you can talk to the main bullet points,” she suggested.

“Ok. I just wanted to make sure that you have copies of all your files. From work.”

“About… the Jerks?”

“Yeah. The Texan Jerks. You know who I mean?” he said.

“I do have them backed up. Stored very securely,” she said.

“Where?”

“At work,” she stated.

“You may need them elsewhere,” Planner suggested helpfully.

“Elsewhere? At home?”

“Or mail them to friends or family. Someone you can trust.”

“Like you?”

“I mean really trust.”

“Still you.”

Planner smiled. “Well, thanks. But, probably not me.”

“I’ve got to go. But we need to talk. How are you with ten year olds? Can you meet me at Rock Creek Park after lunch?”

They agreed to meet later. Planner walked over to an antique desk in his living room and opened the roll top shutter. His Amish desk had many individual storage compartments and drawers including a secret compartment. By sliding a block of wood, a drawer popped open on the side of the desk, which held a set of keys. He took the keys back to his workroom where he had his laptop, books and other assorted clutter, poorly arranged on shelves. Planner opened a filing cabinet and extracted a metal box. Within the box was his bug detection kit. This was standard issue equipment for the CIA operatives in covert missions. It was old equipment, surplus to requirements. Planner inherited the equipment when more sophisticated equipment was issued. Planner replaced the 9 volt battery and switched it on. He adjusted the sensitivity button and patrolled the house. It does not take long to scan for active bugs.

Planner found no active bugs. He was about to put the detector back when he decided to do another scan using the non-linear junction detector function 108. By making it actively sweep at particular radio frequencies, the device can detect inactive bugging devices as well as active ones: those devices that are currently transmitting signals. Since this generates a lot of “false positives”, that is, alerts generated from ordinary pieces of equipment, it takes longer to perform the sweep. He checked out the TV, the laptop computer, the cell phone, the microwave cooker, the landline phone… Planner paused. That reading was not quite right. He checked the landline telephone again. The detector bleeped urgently when moved close to the receiver. Planner took a pocketknife from his desk and carefully prised the plastic handset apart. It popped open quite easily revealing the components and wires expected in such a device. But beside the receiver loudspeaker was a small, disconnected component no bigger than a quarter. It consisted of a hearing-aid-style, flat battery, an integrated circuit and a plastic blob, probably a microphone. This was a state-of-the-art, professionally made listening device, obviously left in the room some time ago. Planner knew from his own experience that the batteries could operate for between one month and three. So in all probability, Planner reckoned, the bug must have been installed around the time of his wife’s death. Planner used tweezers to pick up the item and placed it in a plastic bag. He reassembled his phone and wrote a note of date and time and stapled the note to the bag.