Matthew Reilly - Area 7

vaccine to an ethnic bullet."

The President bowed his head, and nodded.

area 7 369

Then he said, "Technically, Caesar Russell is no longer

a lieutenant general in the Air Force. Technically, he is dead. On the twentieth of January this year, the day of my inauguration,

Charles Samson Russell was executed by lethal injection

at Terre Haute Federal Penitentiary for the crime of

high treason.

"What he wants," the President said, "is what he wanted

before he was executed. To radically change the face of this

country. Forever. And the two things he needs to do to effect

that are: one, kill me, in a highly visible, highly embarrassing

way. And two, retain control of the Sinovirus vaccine.

"To understand why he's doing this, however, you have

to understand Russell's history, in particular his links with a

clandestine Air Force society known as the Brotherhood."

"Yes ..." Schofield said cautiously.

The President leaned forward. "Over the past thirty

years, various Congressional Armed Services Committees

have heard about the existence of certain undesirable societies

within the branches of our armed forces; informal underground

organizations with less-than-acceptable common

interests. Hate societies."

"For example?"

"In the eighties there was a secret group of men in the

Army known as the Bitch Killers. They opposed the presence

of women in the Army, so they engaged in activities to

drive them out of the service. More than eighteen sexual assaults

in the Army were attributed to members of this group,

even if actual proof was difficult to establish. The extent of

its membership was never fully ascertained, but then, that's

the problem with these sorts of societies: there is never any

physical proof of their existence. They're like ghosts, existing

in non-tangible ways--a knowing look during a salute, a

nod in a hallway, a subtle promotion over a non-member."

Schofield was silent.

While he had never been approached by anyone linked

with such a group in his career, he had heard of them. They

were like hardcore college fraternities, small groups with

their own secret handshakes, their own "codes," their own

370

Matthew Reilly

disgusting initiation ceremonies. For officers, they started at

places like West Point and Annapolis; for enlisted men, at

training camps around the country.

The President said, "They form for various reasons:

some have religious skews--for example, anti-Semitic

groups like the old 'Jewboy League' in the Navy. Or the sexist

ones, like the Bitch Killers. The formation of groups like

this in high-risk occupations is well documented--even police

forces like the L.A.P.D. are known to have secret hate

societies within their ranks.

"But in terms of sheer violence, the worst groups were

always the racist societies. There used to be one in every

service. In the Navy, it was the Order of White America. In

the Army, the Black Death. In the Air Force, it was a group

known only as the Brotherhood. All three displayed a particular

hostility toward black Americans in their ranks.

"But the thing is," the President said, "they were all

thought to have been wiped out during a Department of Defense-initiated purge in the late 1980's. Now while we

haven't heard about a resurgence of racist elements in either

the Army or the Navy, it was discovered recently that the

Brotherhood is indeed alive and well, and one of its key figures

was none other than General Charles 'Caesar' Russell."

Schofield said nothing.

The President shifted in his seat. "Charles Russell was

tried and convicted for ordering the murder of two Navy admirals,

advisers to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Turned out, Russell

had approached them shortly after my announcement to

run for President and asked them to join him in some kind of

treasonable endeavour that would change America forever.

The only details he told them were that the plan would involve

the removal of the President, and that it would rid

America of its 'human waste products. The two admirals refused

his offer, so Caesar had them eliminated. What he

didn't know was that one of those admirals had secretly

taped his offer and tipped off the FBI and the Secret Service.

"Russell was arrested and tried for murder and treason.

Since it was a military proceeding, the trial was held

area 7 377

immediately, albeit in closed session. During the case the question

was, to what America's 'human waste products' actually were

was debated at length. Equivocal evidence was brought that

Russell was a member of the Brotherhood--a secret cabal of

high-ranking USAF officers, mainly from the Southern belt,

who intentionally hinder the rise of black Americans

through the ranks of the Air Force. It didn't help that the military

prosecutor was black, but in any case the issue was

never resolved. On the basis of the taped evidence, Russell

was found guilty and sentenced to death. When he decided

not to lodge any appeals whatsoever, his execution was fast

tracked--and he was 'executed' in January of this year. And

that was that. Or so we thought."

Schofield said, "I get the feeling that you knew what

Caesar was planning, even if it didn't come out in the court

case."

The President nodded.

"Over the past ten years, Caesar Russell has been in

charge of every major United States Air Force base between

Florida and Nevada. The 20th at Warren in Wyoming, which

looks after our ICBM stockpile. Space Warfare at Falcon,

Colorado, which controls defense satellites and space missions.

Area 7, of course. Hell, he even spent a year at AFSOC at Hurlbut Field in Florida, supervising the Air Force's

crack special ops teams, including the 7th Squadron. He has

loyal followers at each of those bases, senior officers who

owe their positions to him, a small but powerful clique of

base commanders who we now suspect are also members of

the Brotherhood.

"What Russell also knows, however, is what's inside

every one of our most secret bases. He knew of the Sinovirus

from its earliest development phases, knew of its potential

uses, and he knew of our response to it--a genetically constructed

virus-resistant human being--right from the very

beginning.

"The thing is, Charles Russell is smart, very smart. He

thought of other possibilities for the one person in the world

in possession of the ultimate ethnic bullet and its vaccine.

372

Matthew Reilly

Judging by this transmitter attached to my heart, it looks like

he's been planning a revolution for some time now, but it's

only the advent of the Sinovirus that makes it totally perfect

for him."

"How so?"

"Because Caesar Russell wants to take America back to

its pre-Civil War state," the President said simply.

There was a silence.

"Did you hear the names of the cities he's put his

plasma bombs in? Fourteen devices, in fourteen airports, all

around the country. Not true. They're not placed all around

the country. They're only placed in northern cities. New

York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, LA, San Francisco, Seattle.

The furthest south those bombs get is St. Louis. No

Atlanta, no Houston, no Miami even. Nothing below the

Tennessee-Kentucky state line."

"Why those cities, then?" Schofield asked slowly.

The President said, "Because they represent the North,