Terry Neale - Jo-el

It was midnight in Syria, another hour and my window to rescue the hostages would open. I had to broch the subject.

“I said earlier that there was a time sensitive issue that I wish to solve. At this moment, there are seven captives, or hostages, being held by ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Two of them are slated to be executed at dawn tomorrow, their time. It’s currently midnight over there. I plan to rescue those two people, an American man and a Dutch girl. That rescue will set off alarms within the ISIS leadership and may well result in the decision to execute the other five captives. I plan to extricate them in darkness and bounce them somewhere, probably a hospital. They need care, especially the Dutch girl who has been raped repeatedly.” There was genuine concern around the room, even though they all new exactly what happened to hostages in ISIS controlled Syria and Iraq. “I don’t know where to take them and I don’t know how to handle the psychological effect they will experience by suddenly being in another place. I need your help on both matters.”

This was a CIA matter, outside the briefs of either Homeland Security or the FBI. Everyone looked at Alberton. He pulled out his phone and spoke for a while. When he put his phone down, he looked pleased.

“There’s a naval hospital in Portsmouth; they will take all seven. They won’t ask questions, we send CIA operatives there, it’s set up. They have a psychologist on staff, I suggest he’s briefed about all this.” He waved his arms in a circle. “Miss Moran can do that when she arrives.”

I nodded. “Good, I’m monitoring the situation in Syria for the most opportune time, which will be when there are the fewest guards. How long will it take for Miss Moran to get to Portsmouth?”

“Maybe two hours.”

“I’ll take her,” I said, I turned to Pippa, “If you would like?”

She smiled and her eyes lit up.

“What are you now? a chauffeur service. It must be love?”

“Shut-up, Sally.”

Alberton, Pippa and the other CIA agent left the table to talk in private.

“Now terrorists, here in the US.” I continued. The Homeland group piqued up. I addressed them directly. “There are three terror groups in the US that I believe you are not yet aware of. One of these groups are planning to detonate several devises they’ve placed inside a Ballistic Missile Destroyer undergoing a refit in Norfolk.” I summarized the situation and said that I thought HS could deal with this issue without my assistance, but if they wanted me to help they should contact Pippa Moran. They were amazed but skeptical.

“How do you know this?” The tall man with the silver hair, asked.

“I’m sorry, but for the time being I’m going to keep that information to myself.”

He didn’t push it, which I appreciated. Then I told them about the guy in Los Angeles and the couple in Tucson. I produced pictures of the weapons cache of both groups and where to find them. I vowed that there would be no more terrorist attacks on American soil while I was around.

Next I turned to Georgina Lambert and her team. “I think this is your responsibility. Serial killers. I have seven in the US right now.” She said they were working on five. “Georgina, this is going to take some time, I think it would be beneficial if I came to your office after you’ve had time to call in the appropriate staff.”

“When?” she asked.

“At your convenience, email or text Pippa.”

“What! She’s now your secretary? I can deal with more than one email address, Jo-el?” Sally. My quick brain picked up a tad of annoyance.

“I also want to go through with you, or whoever you designate, a list of all children and women currently held captive for sex in the US. There’s sixty-three children and ninety-two women.” She looked at me and frowned, but didn’t say anything.

There was grim silence in the hangar building. They were wrestling with whether to believe me or not. I completely understood, I’d been through this for a week now and I kept doubting myself. There was fear in the eyes that couldn’t leave me. Who was this man? How could he know all these things? What was really happening? What did he want? I felt sure that once they saw the results they would accept me, but I’m not sure they would ever trust me.

The Homeland Security and FBI teams left the hangar, leaving just the two Marines, still watching from the sidelines at the back of the room and the three members of the CIA team.

“Come and sit down, I might need your advice.” I gestured at the Major and Colonel at the back of the building. They looked at each other and then took seats at the table alongside the CIA team who had now finished their briefing. For the first time, I also sat down at the table, I wanted them to accept me as on their side.

“Please understand that this situation is new to me. I’m struggling with what I should and shouldn’t tell you. You are probably wondering how I manage what is shown on the monitor.”

“Among other things, yes,” said Alberton.

“You met me for the first time yesterday. What you’ve seen and what I’ve told you must be right on the edge of your belief system. I realize that because I have only had this technology for one week and I’ve struggled with it every single day. I need you to accept what I say as the truth, even though in the world we live in, it’s ridiculous. Imagine if you were to show a smart phone or computer to a man in say the 1920’s, or the fifteenth century. If I tell you everything now, you simply wouldn’t believe me. So, I’m trying to educate you slowly and prove out each of my statements. Does that make sense?”

The group nodded.

“So there’s a lot more about you, even more incredulous than you’ve already shown us?” asked Alberton.

“Yes.”

“When are you going to tell us?”

I looked at the group, who were still trying to work out if I was human or not.

“When I feel you will accept it.” What I didn’t tell them was I wasn’t sure this was the right group to tell.

“So, I’ve shown you the belt computer around my waist and you probably wonder how I communicate with it? If you remember Colin, I was adamant, yesterday that I wouldn’t remove it. Well, it’s connected to me by tendons, directly to my spine, or that’s what I was told. It won’t work with anyone else. If I removed it, and I haven’t even tried since I first put it on, I would be severely limited in what I can do. But, assuming I took it off and you wrapped it around your waist it wouldn’t work. It was set up to only work for me.”

“ Not strictly true, Jo-el,” I heard Sally say.

“ Now you tell me, let’s talk about it later.”

“Why are you telling us this?” It was the other CIA agent, a bald, black guy with kind features. I remembered him from yesterday. “Doesn’t that compromise your safety?”

“Because I can’t tell you the next bit without explaining something of how it works. I also think that you’ve seen some of my defense mechanisms and realize it would be almost impossible to take it from me. I need you on my side and I don’t want to be continually on my guard.”

“The General tried to kill you.” It was the Major.

“Not an easy task, as he found out. Yes, I was disappointed by his actions but I also understand. Fear of the unknown. Plus, he could see that the technology I have in American hands would make this country unassailable. That’s his job and I accept that. But it’s not going to happen, it can’t, trust me it would be dangerous for the world. Can you imagine what would happen if your enemies had the ‘bounce’ technology? Your President wouldn’t last five seconds.”