Yesterda's War 8 - Untimely Warriors, page 11
If we feel that there needs to be a change in government or even a need for one country to attack its neighbor, we can find a way to encourage the necessary actions and make a profit while doing so. But if the Cavills either find a solution through trade or deter an armed conflict by ensuring that the country that they are supporting is adequately armed, our influence hits a roadblock.
This is an unacceptable situation. This is especially the case since we still do not know how the Cavills manage to maintain such a technical advantage over our various nations, even the Germans.” ‘A’ fiercely asserted.
“We have tried before using direct measures. Our earlier attempt to obtain information from Beatrice Cavill on her family’s operations failed miserably in all aspects. In fact, we lost a great many useful operatives from the punitive operation that the Cavills mounted afterward. Those losses set us back more than a decade as a result.” ‘C’, a fifty-year-old man wearing local Turkish attire. He had a black eyepatch over his right eye and several scars on his face as well as missing a pair of fingers on his right hand. He was one of the few survivors of the punitive assault by commandos loyal to the Cavill family.
“So we have left the Cavill family alone?” ‘E’ asked.
“Yes, we have in terms of direct action against the Cavill family. Obviously, they are much more capable with their paramilitary assets than we had anticipated. Our original assessment was that the strike force was little more than the Cavill woman’s romantic partner and a few other personnel who had been trained in commando operations. But we have since learned that the Cavills also had a very robust intelligence and counterintelligence capability that has only gotten more capable during the past two decades.
We were very lucky that they had not learned a great deal more about our organization during that operation.” ‘C’ bitterly replied.
“But we must do something. The Cavills are a threat to our power the longer that they exist. We must find a way to obtain their secrets so that we can take advantage of that information to destroy their organization and influence.” ‘B’ interjected.
“We have launched several operations to gain access to their secure computer networks. We thought that we had managed to crack their security a few months ago. But that has turned out to be a failure apparently.” ‘D’, a slender, chain-smoking dark-haired man in his mid-forties added in a very distinctive French accent.
“We need to find some way of gaining access to Cavill Industries’ computer network. It’s the only real way of learning their secrets.” ‘A’ demanded while taking another puff from his cigar.
“But we haven’t been able to tap into their computers at all. Cavill Industries appear to employ a completely independent communications network for all of the computer systems that they use for engineering and all other sensitive information.” ‘D’ replied.
“They don’t communicate at all over the InterWeb? We should be able to find a way to read their messages on it. After, the Cavills are the ones who essentially invented the whole thing and dominate its use.” ‘B’ asked.
“Oh, they communicate using it. But they don’t send anything useful to us over it. It’s all mundane stuff like notes from meetings, innocent electronic messages between employees, and crap like that. They don’t talk about their military, aviation, or space stuff at all using any sort of public communication lines. I’ve recruited a few people from inside of their organization. But they say that the Cavills ensure that absolutely nothing is copied over from their corporate private network to any computers connected to the InterWeb.
My assets have even said that the data inside of their corporate private network is all encrypted with some sort of sophisticated code so that even if it is intercepted somehow, no one would be able to read it. No one is allowed to take any documents out of their work locations at all either.” ‘D’ explained.
“It sounds like the Cavills are all quite paranoid about their secrets.” ‘C’ interjected.
“Yes, it does. Of course, their paranoia seems to have served them very well over the years. The attack on one of the Cavill women certainly has ramped up their overall security. It was a hell of a difficult task for us to find anyone willing to work for us in the first place. The Cavills have cultivated a very strong sense of loyalty among the people who work for them, especially among the aborigines who have an almost religious zealotry concerning the Cavills.” ‘A’ explained.
“How were you able to recruit anyone in that event?” ‘B’ asked the Frenchman.
“First, we focused on workers that had moved from elsewhere to work for Cavill Industries, especially people that had nothing to do with the indigenous tribes. Then we used the most effective means at our disposal to get them to work for us, money.” ‘D’ explained.
“What has that money bought us so far?” ‘B’ asked.
“We have learned about a new highly advanced computer system that was being built for the exclusive use of the Cavill family. We spent several million dollars to have special components added to some of the computer’s modules. Those components were designed to be able to bypass any security measures that the Cavills could employ.” ‘D’ pointed out.
“This is the plan that you told us about earlier that didn’t succeed either?” ‘A’ asked.
“Yes. But we don’t know why our attempt to tap their computer networks failed. Similar operations against other major corporate computing systems have worked spectacularly in the past. It just didn’t work this time for some unknown reason.”
“The Cavills were just too powerful and too proactive at the time. We also did not count on anyone directly hunting us down and attacking us directly.” The Frenchman replied after forcefully exhaling a cloud of cigarette smoke in a symbol of his frustration.
“To be honest, we didn’t count on the Cavill woman’s partner being so willing to go to extremes to strike back at us after we attempted to obtain information directly from her. The reports from his attack indicate he was like a berserker. He sacrificed his own life to deal a devastating blow to our organization. He killed so many of our leaders and destroyed decades of work in a single day that we were barely able to recover.” ‘C’ admitted.
“We have learned from that experience that we cannot attack the Cavills overtly. What we must do is to act through proxies so that our role in the destruction of the Cavill family’s wealth, influence, and industry cannot be detected by them.” ‘A’ asserted.
“What do you propose that we do to accomplish this?” ‘B’ then inquired.
“We use our adversary’s own overreach to cause their destruction. We know that the Cavills are responsible for the annexation of New Guinea by Australia. We also know that this has caused considerable animus within Indonesia towards Australia. So we create a situation where Indonesia begins military operations against Australia that will lead to Cavill Industries being directly targeted and destroyed.” ‘A’ explained.
“Indonesia simply doesn’t have the means to invade New Guinea, much less attack Australia and Cavill Industries facilities there.” ‘E’ interjected.
“That is true today. But Indonesia has a pair of assets that can easily be exploited to permit them to achieve their goals along with ours. First, Indonesia has the largest population in all of Southeast Asia. Their population is largely Muslim as well, though they are not as strident as their co-religionists in places like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, or Egypt.
Secondly, Indonesia remains a major exporter of petroleum from the Java oil fields. That means that they have substantial funds potentially available to them.” ‘A’ pointed out.
“But will even that be enough to pay for the necessary military modernization program? President Suharto may be a very well-entrenched military strongman. But even he could be overthrown if his popular support is lost for some reason like a charge of corruption and fiscal mismanagement.” ‘B asked.
“Yes, they would have enough funding as long as they receive a little assistance in procuring the items that they want at a ‘discounted’ price. But even so, if Indonesia directly attacked the Australian holdings in New Guinea as well as the Australian mainland, the rest of the Commonwealth would surely intervene in support of Australia. Together, the Commonwealth would be able to defeat Indonesia regardless of how many new weapons the latter would purchase. In addition, if Indonesia was too obvious in their rearmament program, that activity would alert the Commonwealth as to their intentions and capability.” ‘A’ explained as he picked up his cigar again to puff it and bring its glowing end back to life.
“So what are you proposing?” ‘E’ asked.
“We will have to assist both the Indonesian program to rearm in a manner that doesn’t appear to be quite so threatening. At the same time, we will have to contribute some funding of our own to this operation. It will need to be channeled through Indonesia to a third country who also has a territorial issue with another Commonwealth nation that is far enough away to divert Commonwealth military forces away from New Guinea and Australia.” ‘A’ explained after exhaling another cloud of cigar smoke
“What is this third nation? I gather that it also needs to rearm as well, but their fiscal situation is far more tenuous than that of Indonesia.” ‘C’ asked.
“My agents believe that Argentina would be the perfect candidate for this operation. Argentina has had a territorial dispute with England over the Falkland Islands since the late nineteenth century. But up to this point, the Argentinians have been in no position to threaten the Falklands, which they still refer to as the Malvinas. The Argentinians will also need access to more advanced weapons, like Indonesia.” ‘A’ told the others.
“How much more funding are you proposing that we spend to provide Argentina with the ability to invade the Malvinas? This invasion is intended to force the English military at a minimum to divert a significant part of their mobile forces to the South Atlantic and far away from Southeast Asia, correct?” ‘B’ asked. He already knew that the Germans would be expected to contribute the majority of the funds and hardware to this endeavor.
“I believe that this would require the expenditure of ten to twelve billion American dollars. Causing the English some political distress from this invasion will also serve to weaken Cavill Industries since they are heavily invested in the British military-industrial complex and the current Conservative government. Notably, we have already started providing funding and other support to both Argentina and Indonesia.” ‘A’ blandly explained.
“The Conservatives have caused us some problems in their own right also. I like this proposal. That is still a lot of money that you are asking us all to contribute though.” ‘B’ acknowledged with a groan of annoyance.
“Think of it as an investment. Besides, some of the industries that will be involved in providing these weapons are companies that we already have a financial interest in. So in the long run, there is a very good chance that you will profit handily from our operation. In fact, some of you have already benefitted from this operation since it had actually been underway for several years at a relatively small scale.” ‘A’ promised.
“So what about the rest of us? What are we doing here? I know many of us have a major grievance against both the British Commonwealth and the Cavill family for the assistance that they have given to our ancient enemies.” ‘G’, a middle-aged man who was clearly from the Middle East.
“Trust me when I tell you that all of us will be playing a role in this endeavor. We must ensure that both Indonesia and Argentina receive what they need to play their parts. I will be working on obtaining certain items that will be much more difficult to obtain, but may be necessary to ensure that the Cavill family and their primary operations are truly neutralized for the foreseeable future.” ‘A’ told the others, though not even trusting them with the full extent of the daring move he planned to make.
‘A’ still believed in taking direct action against the Cavill family itself. To that end, he was already making arrangements to attempt such an operation at the same time.
The others in the room silently nodded their heads in agreement with the general details of the planned operation as they knew them.
“Very good. We still need to continue to try to obtain access to the Cavill Industries secure computer database. If we can find out what’s on it, perhaps we can finally determine why they keep leapfrogging ahead of us at every step technologically, not to mention their constant discovery of new mineral deposits that continue to add to their wealth and influence over so much of the world.
It is our destiny to rule over humanity, whether they know it or not. If we cannot control the Cavills, we will destroy them by any means necessary, including the use of ‘special weapons’.” ‘A’ replied.
“We have a source for those special weapons?” ‘C’ asked.
“Possibly. But they want to ensure that once the weapons are used they cannot be traced back to their country of origin first.” ‘B’ interjected.
“I think that we can arrange that. But we must also combine this with a direct attack on the Cavill family members who run the company at the same time. The confusion coming from a decapitation strike at the same time that our proxies launch a military attack will substantially increase the likelihood of success.” ‘A’ concluded.
What this group did not yet know was that the Cavills had defeated the organization’s efforts to spy upon their greatest secrets by the simple expedient of not having any electronic connections to their new mainframe computer. It continues to be upgraded, year by year, until is sophisticated enough for an unexpected breakthrough to occur that no one has suspected.
But the group’s planned operation still posed a very real threat to the Cavills. This is especially true if the Cavills do not detect it in time to take measures against this grave threat.
Chapter Eleven:
Mars Colony One Command Center
Valles Marineris, Mars
May 14, 1996
Beatrice Cavill-Kenniman was waiting at the secure video communications console in the middle of the Martian night and watching at the clock for the scheduled call from her sister Judith back at Derby. The secure video-communications terminal was located in a small separate room that Beatrice would keep locked when discussing sensitive subjects with Cavill’s headquarters in Derby.
While there was a daily exchange of data back and forth between Earth and the Mars Colony, Beatrice and Judith set aside a night every couple of weeks where they would chat just between the two of them. This was as much for Beatrice’s benefit as anything since she had chosen to essentially exile herself on Mars after a horrific incident nearly took her life.
There was a regular schedule that Judith and Beatrice kept just like clockwork. Just as the second hand reached the appointed time, the video monitor lit up with a control panel image indicating an incoming message was about to begin. The video and audio feeds were all highly encrypted to prevent eavesdropping.
A couple of seconds later, Judith’s face appeared on the screen.
“Hello, Beatrice. How have you been doing out there? We all miss you very much, especially Peter and Mary. James and Sarah along with all of your nieces and nephews are doing well, though Benjamin is still proving to be a bit of a problem child. We are looking for something that he can occupy himself with while not causing problems for our primary business interests.
Our various business activities are still doing well, though we still wish that our bottom line had improved more so that we could devote more resources to send out to you. Unfortunately, the Americans have still not resumed the previous level of support to the colony out on Mars. So we are still being forced to make up the difference.”
Judith continued talking about the various activities of the Cavill family and the highlights of all of the various corporate entities for about twenty minutes. Finally, the image on the screen froze for a moment with a caption being displayed at the bottom of the image stating that the transmission was complete.
Now it was Beatrice’s time to speak, knowing that it would take more than ten minutes for her transmission to reach Earth. Depending on the positions of Earth and Mars, the communications lag ranged between four and twenty minutes.
“Hello, Judith. I am very happy to hear that everyone is doing well back on Earth. Everyone here appears to be healthy and is staying occupied with all of the various tasks that we have to do around here. Our power supplies are still a little tight here. But between our solar panel arrays and the nuclear batteries that we have very gratefully received, we have a reliable supply for all of our systems including life support. We are still unable to run our tunneling machine except during the daytime when we have the additional power from the solar panels though.”
Beatrice continued to talk about the station for another ten minutes before stopping to wait for Judith’s reply. The long wait for the transmission to travel from Mars to Earth and then for Judith’s next message to arrive seemed to last for an eternity. Then the familiar alert symbol appeared on the video screen a few seconds before Judith’s face reappeared.
“I’m glad that you are doing alright, Beatrice. We all worry about you out there. We are pushing materiel out to you as quickly as we can. We are working on a pair of new reusable space launch vehicles to supplement the Sea Dragons presently. Once they are fully operational, we will be able to push a lot more people and things out to you at a significantly lower cost. We can even produce our own methane fuel for the rockets from one of our underground coal gasification projects. This additional vertical integration for the project will reduce costs further and give us more control over the fuel procurement process. The larger rockets will also give us the ability to simply drop off payloads to be landed separately rather than attempting to land the entire rocket in all cases. You will not need to produce fuel for the rocket’s return journey in this case. We would simply put it on a free trajectory back to Earth for reuse.
