“I was thinking, Bates,” said Planner while he secured the documents on his desk, “Can you get me some business cards?”
“Sure. I’ll get Turq onto it,” said Bates.
“Spare Turq, I’m sure someone more junior can do it,” said Planner mindful of the stress he had already caused her. “I need them to give out to Muggles.”
“I thought we weren’t supposed to mix with the non-magical?” said Bates with amusement. “So what title do you want? Chief Wizard, perhaps?”
“Cute. Chief… Planner,” Planner said as they walked out the office. “For an aerospace company. Make it TSAC. I know some people there that might be useful. The name should read Robert Smith.”
“Smith. Original. Ok,” said Bates sarcastically.
“I like to keep it simple,” said Planner.
As they walked down the corridor, Planner said, “Perhaps I should have a color name. Everyone here has a color code name except you and me.”
“We were running short of snappy code names so I volunteered an alternative. Bates is a nickname I had when I was young, so I’m comfortable with it. I didn’t want Puce. I toyed with Wheat, which were a couple of the rejects. You could have a color code name if you want,” said Bates, as they stood outside a featureless door.
“I wonder which ones have already been used?” asked Planner.
That’s easy!” Bates recalled from memory, very fast, “Amber, Auburn, Beige, Blue, Burgundy, Charcoal, Chestnut, Copper, Crimson, Cyan, Green, Indigo, Ivory, Lavender, Lemon, Lilac, Lime, Magenta, Mahogany, Maroon, Mint, Ochre, Olive, Orange, Pearl, Pink, Purple, Ruby, Scarlet, Sienna, Silver, Tangerine, Taupe, Teal, Turquoise, of course, Vanilla, Vermilion, Violet and Yellow. Black, Brown, Gold and Gray were already used in Operation Eagle. They started before us. Hey, we don’t have a White. How about that?”
“That was some magic! You have some sort of photographic memory going on there?”
“Eidetic, yes,” said Bates. “It saves on the note taking. It’s liked by the agency, of course; I get some plum jobs because of it.”
“Like this one? Not what I call plum,” said Planner.
“It pays well,” said Bates with a lop-sided smile. Bates knocked on the door.
“Did you mention Plum on your list?” asked Planner.
“No. Not used. It could have been a rejected color name,” sighed Bates. “Either that or I’m slipping. So do you want to change the name on the business card?”
“No, has to be Smith. I like White as a code name though: the sum of all colors. Basic Physics.”
“Phah. Physics! Such trickery will never be useful in Hogwarts,” mocked Bates as the door opened.
* * * *
Planner and Bates were introduced to two lawyers who called themselves Mr Black and Mr Brown. They both looked in their late sixties, gray haired, creased and wrinkly skin. They both wore immaculate charcoal suits and ties, matching color to their names, with an eagle motif. Planner and Bates also looked like brothers, being the same height, hair color, wearing similar dark blue suits. Bates, however, was noticeably slimmer than Planner.
They entered a large office with clear views of Manhattan to the north, looking over to the Empire State Building and Deco-style Chrysler Building. In the foreground was the famously uncontrollable Devil’s Kitchen area now favoured by artists and fashion stores.
“People would pay to see this view,” observed Planner.
“Oh, yes,” replied Black blandly. “I haven’t really had the time to look at it much, though.”
They sat around a desk with two large folders in the middle.
“We’re behind schedule,” Black sighed. “This move from Washington hasn’t helped.”
“I presume most of your stakeholders are in DC?” said Bates sympathetically.
“Right. This is really most inconvenient for us. But I stopped my complaining when I was woken up at midnight from someone-I-can’tmention, telling me: sort it out. He mentioned in no uncertain terms, the JFDI methodology.”
“JFDI?” asked Bates.
“Just Fucking Do It”, said Black with a tinge of a smile.
“So can you outline your brief?” asked Planner to the lawyers, with a knowing sideways glance to Bates.
“We’ve been working with Ashcroft, Chertoff41 and Viet42 for the passed year on the legal response. But you have to realise, this is not, and will not be, a complete bill,” said Black
Brown interrupted with his first contribution, “We’re working on bits of legislation that will er… come together, organically, after BE2.”
“We have ten different sections,” continued Black as he opened one of the folders on the table to show Planner and Bates. “Covering everything from surveillance to banking, border controls to computer security. Worked on by separate teams — all specialists in their respective fields and not all indoctrinated into the wider objectives. This is a major undertaking and there is only a close knit group that can review the whole amount.”
“So,” Planner backtracked. “This is one of the desired outcomes from BE2? To enable new legislation?”
“Oh, yes,” stated Black calmly. “This is one of the BE2’s main goals. It is so difficult to change the law. We need the catalysing event that you will be providing. We need it for the Programme for the New American Century43.”
“Yes, I see,” Planner stated.
Brown seemed slightly irritated, “But we found we had a problem.”
Black added, “We workshopped the scenarios. We brought politicians and psychologists together and walked them through the art of the possible.”
Brown continued, “We identified a couple of months ago that there would just too many open-ended aspects to the program. None of us can know everything about these subjects — after all, law is our field. Not the seven layer model inside TCP-IP and other technical details. The whole thing has to be passed by the senate, hold together and not be picked apart piecemeal by liberals and libertarians. At least, not too quickly.”
“So your problem is just managing to get these legislative parts together?” asked Planner.
“No. Our problem started when we began to realise that we’d never be able to make our bill watertight. There’ll always be controversy, bound to be, and loose ends. It’s inevitable with something this large,” said Black.
“We concluded that we needed an Operation Phase B, it’s own Shock and Awe program44 following on from BE2,” said Brown.
“It was the psychologist team’s idea,” added Black.
“From Operation Carrot, right?” said Bates.
“Sorry, I get lost with all the code names,” said Brown irritably.
“Why doesn’t that surprise me,” muttered Bates.
“So the purpose of this phase would be to drive the acceptance of the new laws. To continue for as long as required to get it signed. Everyone would be clamouring for the politicians to act,” said Brown forcibly.
“This is sounding like complication. I don’t like complication,” said Planner with a frown.
“I understand,” said Black. “We’ve taken this up to the COG. We needed to anyway, for logistical reasons.”
“Ok let’s hear it,” said Planner, leaning back.
“We agreed a scare tactic. Put the senators on edge until the bill is passed,” said Brown.
“And this is done… how?” asked Planner.
Black looked uncomfortable and after an exchange of glances, Brown stated, “Anthrax powder mailed through the post.”
“Anthrax!?” stated Planner with restrained alarm.
Black cradled his fingers, “I had the same reaction. The workshops, though, as I mentioned… we ran some scenarios and plotted out pros and cons for various options. In short, what we propose is the following… that the first intervention would use inert material; a dummy sent to selected journalists to hype the news; thereafter, further deliveries in easily identifiable packets in an escalation process… until we achieve our objective.”
“You’re planning on sending Anthrax to senators?” stated Planner in as even a tone as he could manage.
Brown replied, “You might be interested to note, there’s an inoculation drug called Cipro to protect high value assets4546. We’ve been told to expect very low collateral damage.”