Major Combs looked up from his notes. He continued, looking at the members of the classroom, “The buildings that we are working and staying in are all high enough up and secure enough that this shouldn’t be a major safety concern. But we ask that you all stay inside unless you are conducting official business — so that means just going to eat or to the classroom. No horsing around here. Beginning at zero nine hundred today, the weather is really supposed to pick up. The bad stuff should all be over within about twelve hours. But it’s going to get a bit hairy during the day today. Because of this, there won’t be as much external support. No incoming plane today. We also may lose external satellite communication, so get any external information search requests in to Natesh and me by noon today. There is a small chance that we could lose communications for a bit longer. The computer link that we use has been known to go down in these storms. The wind might dislodge our satellite radar dishes. That is all.”
Lena nodded thanks to the Major and walked back in front of the stage. The Major sat back down.
She said, “With that information, we want to take some precautions. Because you all have overdelivered on the speed and quality of your plans, we have decided to pause on the individual teamwork and send a summary of where the combined group plan is today. I have spoken with Natesh and he has agreed to modify our schedule. Today you will all be in this classroom working on bringing together your individual group plans into one congealed script. We will then transmit that out by lunch at the latest. What we don’t want to happen is a scenario where we lose communications for a prolonged period of time and can’t get any of the great work that you all have completed to those that need it. We are on a tight timeline as is.”
Henry thought this didn’t really make sense, considering the unknowns of the supposed timeline, but he didn’t object. He also wasn’t sold on some satellite communication disruption causing them to totally change Natesh’s schedule. David’s concerns seemed more valid by the minute.
Lena said, “Alright, I would like to thank you once again. I’ll step aside so that you may all get to work. Natesh?”
Natesh stepped up on stage and Lena walked up to the back of the classroom. She stood in front of the large glass panoramic window, jotting notes down in her black leather book.
Natesh said, “Good morning, folks. Lena has asked us to make a change in our schedule. The weather is indeed moving in. Instead of breaking up into teams, today we’ll stay in one big group and create the integrated first draft outline for the Chinese attack.”
The door opened and David stumbled into the class. Ten minutes late. His hair was damp and he looked even more anxious than normal. Henry thought that he saw glistening on his forehead, like he had been running again. He looked upset. He wondered if he’d seen anything new that had spooked him this morning.
About half the eyes in the classroom shot over to him. He didn’t say anything. He just walked to the nearest seat and sat down. Henry tried to act casual as he peered behind to where Lena was standing. She was looking right at David. Then her eyes darted over to Henry and he looked away.
Natesh called up the team leaders for a quick huddle in the front of the class. Everyone else continued talking. Lena walked down the stairs and out the door. Once she left, David looked over at Henry. David was mouthing something to him, but he couldn’t make it out. Henry finally got what he was trying to say: we need to talk. Henry just nodded back and pointed at his watch, made a circle gesture, and then pointed to his notepad. Unofficial sign language was one of his specialties.
David looked back at him, confused. Class was starting. Henry would have to talk to him during the next break.
There were no official breaks given. People trickled out by themselves for the occasional trip to the bathroom, but Natesh was a slave driver this morning. He plowed the members of the Red Cell through plans, and wasn’t taking any shit from the usual argumentative characters. Henry wondered why Natesh was so hell-bent on speeding through this. Natesh had heard David’s story last night. Lena might not really be CIA. Natesh even had his own concerns about the Major. But he sure was doing a good job for Lena right now. Henry could see why he made the big bucks from all of these companies. Natesh was a thinker. He made connections and processed information faster than anyone Henry had ever met.
By a little after 11 a.m., the class had a comprehensive invasion outline written up. They’d worked for three hours straight. Major Combs captured it all in a presentation which was projected in front of the class. Henry had listened with growing alarm as the time dragged on. These were scary good invasion plans. If a country with China’s capability and resources really wanted to follow through, he didn’t want to think of what might happen. Every once in a while he looked over at David, whose face looked pale.
Tess asked, “So is this supposed to be a final version? This is our actual recommendation?”
Natesh shook his head and said, “No, Tess. Think of this as a first draft. But it will be a first draft with all of our plans integrated together. I realize it got a little messy today as we prioritized, but I appreciate everyone’s patience as we went. Today we have created the integrated holistic plans. Now we’ll go over them briefly and make sure they match up with the original objectives that we were given. Sorry for the pace. We will break for lunch in a few minutes. I will submit this to Lena now and we can split back up into teams this afternoon.”
It was a funny thing. While the twenty or so members of their group were probably horrified at the thought of any of these plans actually occurring, they were all so proud of the work they had done. Henry could see it in their eyes. Everyone was listening to Natesh speak so carefully, happy to hear that their contributions had created the optimized blueprint that could potentially destroy their country. They think they are helping to improve their country’s defenses, Henry reminded himself.
Their inner circle of David, Brooke, and Norman were quiet. None of them said a word in contribution during the morning session. They each stole nervous glances at each other but none of them had done anything to stop it. Why was that? Groupthink? Fear? David had seen something today, Henry could tell. Maybe the others were following his lead. And if what he had seen was enough for him to keep his mouth shut, then it was probably a good idea for Henry to do the same.
Henry wondered how Natesh did it, knowing what David had said about Bill. Natesh didn’t look nearly as comfortable as he had when speaking to everyone the day before. His voice carried well, but he spoke like he was under a lot of stress.
The Major was clicking through slides as they lined up the different pieces of the war plan. Henry read through the outline on the screen. The slide they were on showed some of the high-level initial activities by geography.
Phase 1
1. Iran
1. Assassination — incite anti-US fervor
2. Arabian Gulf City attack — destabilize region via Iranian military attack on Western targets and provide immediate demand for large-scale US presence in Arabian Gulf