Early in the morning on Tuesday, many super military transport aircrafts took off from several airbases across the nation. They were heading to the island country of the Republic of New People in the middle of the Indo-Pacific region. The aerospace control alert system was notified that they would come back after around 30 hours.
At the mean time, all military bases and some potentially sensitive stations across the nation received orders to transfer all commanding powers to the special military police squad. In the previous afternoon, military servicemen who were on vacation across the nation had been called back to their bases immediately.
Later in the morning, in federal and local legislature meeting places, representatives started two intense debates. One was whether the expansion of BHA in the country should be stopped, and the other one was whether a nationwide full investigation to find out all possible AHs should be conducted and have them arrested. But the debates were so heated up and none of them was concluded with a clear resolution, not in any legislature meeting place, no matter federal or local.
In the evening of the same day, which was early in the morning of Wednesday across the ocean, those super military transport aircrafts landed in the largest military airport of the Republic of New People. Many thousands of armed AH soldiers already lined up in several blocks waiting in the airport. Each block was of about one thousand soldiers, and their human officers were standing in front of each block. All of them, including human officers and AH soldiers, were wearing Red Hats that Tom and Dick from K Corp sold to them, which were delivered by express shipment to that island country two days ago. They were the newest version of the Red Hats, specifically designed for military uses. The computer servers that received the signals emitted from the transmitters of the Red Hats were portable. They could be moved around, on land, at sea, or in the air. Those servers could communicate with military satellites anywhere on Earth.
If any civilian from that country could have seen the uniforms of those military people, he would be very surprised to find that all of them were in foreign military uniforms instead of the uniforms of their own country.
Ahead of the lining blocks was General X, the former Colonel X, who was standing straight like all others in the blocks. All of them were listening to the speech given by General K, in his military uniform and accompanied by Sam, the representative from BMA, as well as a gray hair General and a team of military officers who came with those aircrafts. When his speech ended, as a very important gesture of voluntarily transfer of the commanding power over the AH army, General K humbly and respectfully invited that gray hair General to give a speech, who was obviously the one who would command that army of AHs.
A few hours after those giant aircrafts landed in the military airport of the Republic of New People, they took off again flying back to the airbases where they were from. Every aircraft was full of AH soldiers led by their human officers. Although the highest ranking officer among those military men of the Republic of New People was General X, General K announced in front of the whole army that the real commander would be that gray hair general, and even Colonel X would follow his orders. As a matter of fact, beside the gray hair general, on every aircraft, there was one officer who came with the gray hair general, and all from the Republic of New People would be subordinated to that officer on the same aircraft.
~.~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On Tuesday, instead of practicing Taekwondo, Jessica went out with John and Mimi for jogging. When passing a military station, they noticed an armed soldier wearing the helmet and armband with the eye-catching white “MP” printed was guarding that usually unguarded station. When they were wondering what was going on, Jessica received a text from the intelligence team of BHA notifying her that the previous evening all military servicemen who were on vacation received notices calling them back to their bases immediately.
Jessica showed the message to John.
“Why is it today?” John said. “I think it might have something to do with our big action tomorrow.”
“You’re right. We need to be very careful,” Jessica responded. “Let’s go back now. We need to go to the office right away to get ready for any unexpected incidents.”
They went back to Jessica’s house and quickly changed clothes. Before they left the house, they grabbed the twenty hats in red color that they bought in the previous afternoon.
Jessica let John drive because she needed to contact others to get some updates about what was going on. After a round of phone calls, Jessica felt a bit relieved because according to the information she gathered, there seemed no sign of any pressing threat to BHA around the country yet.
“So far it doesn’t seem that we are facing some immediate danger yet,” Jessica told John.
“What did George say?” John asked.
“He wants us all keep calm and vigilance,” Jessica responded. “According to our intel, the biggest threat to us at this moment is that BMA would organize a round of attack against us in the federal and local legislature through their representatives today. But they won’t have the chance to pass anything before our big action tomorrow because our friends in the federal and local legislature would defend us today.”
“You think tomorrow’s action would help us to defeat BMA?” John asked.
“I am not sure,” Jessica replied. “Very honestly, I am not sure. It might even give them an excuse against us among those powerful…But what matters most is to have the greatest population to be aware of what is going on in this country and around the world because of what BMA is doing. That’s what we are fighting for right now and that’s going to be the main theme of tomorrow’s big action.”
“I completely agree,” John said. “Right now, we cannot think too much what the power games might be going on. We have to focus on how to let the public know the truth.”
“Absolutely,” Jessica responded.
……
When they arrived at the headquarters, Doug, Jack, Linda, and some others were already there. Jessica had a quick meeting with them and made several contingency plans, including to set up temporary beds on the office floor in case some members need to stay overnight in the building.
John went to draft for the speeches and catchphrases, as well as the banners and flags, to be used during the protest. Later in the morning, Jessica assigned another five members to work with John and they were supposed to be in the same group during the protest, a special group led by John for exposing the Red Hat system and the operation of AH-producing factory to the public. John and his group members painted with gold color “BMA”, “K Corp”, and “F Corp” on some of the red hats he brought to the headquarters.
Near the lunchtime, Jessica called everyone on the floor to the front of her office. She announced that the mayor of B City called her while conferencing the chief police officer of the city, they expressed their support for BHA.
“The chief police officer assured me that the police department would do the best to maintain the order during the protest against any sabotage from potential adversaries,” Jessica told the team.
“Hooray!” There was a burst of exclamation on the floor for that good news.
Right after the moment of excitement, someone’s mobile phone started to ring loudly. John did not realize that it was his phone until people around him all turned to look at him.
He took out the phone and answered right away without checking the caller. “Hello.”
“John, they just came here and we are all in danger now.” John heard the nervous voice of Bob from the phone.
~.~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bob arrived home on Sunday evening. After the dinner, when their two high school kids went back to their own rooms, Bob told his wife Elizabeth what he saw and heard in B City.
“Are you sure that AHs have been deployed into this country?” Elizabeth asked.
“That’s what Jessica said,” Bob responded. “John seemed buying into that very much based on his own experience.”
“Oh my, how could it become like that?” Elizabeth’s tone was full of worry. “What might happen on Wednesday in our city?”
“I don’t know,” Bob responded. “There could be anything and anytime, even from today. From what Jessica and John described, BMA is very powerful. They have great influence in our government. But BHA is determined to fight to the end because they consider this as a war for the survival of the human species.”
“Then what about them?” Elizabeth pointed to the Kids’ rooms. “Next week is the teachers’ conference week and they don’t have class.”
“Why don’t you send them to my parents’ house tomorrow morning?” Bob looked at Elizabeth with expectation in his eyes. “You also stay there with them during the week.”
Bob’s wife was a writer plus housewife. She was from another coast of the country so that they visited Bob’s parents more often than her parents.
“Are you sure that you are going to be okay by yourself?” Elizabeth asked with hesitation even though she knew Bob’s suggestion was right.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
“I am okay. Don’t worry,” Bob responded. “Maybe you should let them to pack their stuff now and leave early tomorrow. It’s better to leave the city asap now. I don’t believe that BMA does not have any idea about what BHA is going to do. Anything could happen between now and Wednesday.”
“Okay, I am going to ask them to pack for one week’s trip now,” Elizabeth replied.
“Hey, don’t mention anything to them……just tell them that we are going to have a pest control in our house next week so that there might be some poisonous spray in the house. Besides, tell them that their grandparents are missing them very much,” Bob murmured to Elizabeth before she left.
“Sure.”
……
Monday morning, after seeing off Elizabeth and the kids, Bob went to his clinic as usual. Everything went normally and nothing special happened all the day.
Bob went back to his house after a day of work. When looking at the quiet and empty house, he started to wonder whether he had overreacted. “Maybe nothing bad will happen. Maybe it’s going to be another usual protest, just as what have happened in the past for many many times. Everything would go back to normal after Wednesday, and life would go back as usual.”
Then he questioned himself, “What about AHs? Are they real? What if John was wrong? What if BHA was just trying to promote their own political agenda? What if Jessica only learned of AHs from me when I told her the story of John?”
But as a medical professional, Bob was very soon alerted of his own illusory anxiety symptom due to the deep fear in his heart. He realized that he was trying to use an oversimplified assumption of the negative impact of human weakness to explain the logically explainable complicated situation. He nipped on his own arm to make himself sober so that he wouldn’t be obsessed with the fake pleasure of irrational fancies.
On Tuesday, after a busy morning with several patients, Bob made himself a cup of coffee and went to his computer room trying to take a short break. No sooner had he sat down to enjoy his favorite Columbian Coffee, Dorothy, the receptionist hastily ran into the computer room.
“Do…Doctor, some people in black came in asking for you.” She said to Bob with a trembling voice.
“Who are they?” Bob asked.
“Special Agent Arthur,” A man’s voice came into the room before Dorothy had the chance to answer Bob’s question. When the sound of that voice died away, a man in black already appeared at the door of the computer room. All his dress, from the hat, to suit and shoes, even the tie, was in black, except for the mercury-like lenses of the reflective sunglasses.
“You might go back to your work, Miss,” That man in black gave an order to Dorothy before Bob could react to what was happening.
Dorothy did not move, but looked at Bob, aghast and confused. Bob waved his hand to her, letting her leave.
Special Agent Arthur showed Bob his ID that he was from a government intelligence agency.
“What can I do for you?” Bob asked.
“I and my colleagues come to give you an advice that you’d better stay away from the protest tomorrow,” Agent Arthur said in a cold voice without taking off his shining sunglasses. Meantime, another man in black came to close the door of the computer from outside.
“Who gave you the right of coming to my office without invitation to tell me what to do?” Bob questioned angrily.
“Well, we know you are connected to the organizer of tomorrow’s protest, which is BHA. We also know that you just came back from their headquarters in B City on Sunday evening. Do you want me to tell you something more that we know about you and your friends?” Agent Arthur threatened Bob.
“Excuse me,” Bob rose up from his chair and raised his voice. “Do you want to go with me to repeat what you just said again in front of all my patients?”
“Calm down,” Agent Arthur pressed Bob back to his chair with his left hand on Bob’s right shoulder.
“Get your dirty hand off me,” Bob yelled.
“Calm down,” Agent Arthur increased the pressure of his hand on Bob’s shoulder, and Bob felt difficult to breathe. Obviously, that guy was a specially trained killing expert. Bob realized that his life was in danger.
“We come in peace,” Agent Arthur said to Bob in a cold tone. “We don’t want to hurt anyone. I wish that you won’t force us to hurt you. If anything happened in this room, no one would know what you did and we could provide all kinds of evidence to show that you were trying to hurt me.”
“Shame on you,” Bob uttered.
“No need to get angry,” Agent Arthur sneered. “It seems that you are assuming that we came here without any hard evidence against you and your BHA friends, right?”
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Bob responded.
“I believe you … that you don’t know what I am talking about,” Agent Arthur said and moved his hand from the shoulder of Bob. “That’s why we came to provide some suggestion to you for your own good. We are not coming to arrest or harm you. If we do want to arrest or harm you, you would not still sit here talking to me.”
“What do you want to tell me?” Bob questioned.
“I want to tell you that we have evidence of illegal invasion into some private physical and cyber facility of others by your BHA friends, which could be defined by our law as terrorist action against lawful civilians of this country. We have reasons to suspect that you were also an accomplice in their plot,” Agent Arthur said while leaned toward Bob with the brim of his hat almost touched Bob’s face.
“You are making all this up without any proof,” Bob protested.
“Believe me, you don’t want us to show you the proof,” Agent Arthur threatened. “We come to give you an advice in good will because we know that so far you have not been involved deeply in their criminal activity and you have been a good tax contributor to this city.”
“I have no idea what you are trying to say,” Bob responded.
“I don’t need you to understand me,” Agent Arthur said arrogantly. “I just suggest that you stay away from tomorrow’s protest. Otherwise, it would not be good for you. Don’t assume that we don’t know anything about you. I guess you don’t want a tough audit on your tax, am I right?”
“You don’t have any right to come in my clinic to bluff me like this,” Bob protested.
“I seriously wish that you won’t take this as a bluff.” Agent Arthur stood up straight. He walked to the door, and then turned his face toward Bob when one of his hands held the knob of the door. “I have told you all I need to say to you. I wish you could be smart and make a smart decision for yourself as well as your wife and two kids. I don’t want to see you tomorrow in the protest.”
He opened the door and stepped out the room, leaving Bob faintly sitting in the chair with perspiration all over his head and body.
Sandy, the nurse, and Dorothy, the receptionist came in after those men in black left the clinic.
“Doctor, what happened?” Sandy asked.
“Something horrible is happening in this country.” Bob shook his head and then asked, “Are the patients alright?”
“They are all waiting for you,” Dorothy replied. “They were all shocked when those men in black came in like secret police.”
“They are secret police.” Bob rose from his chair. “But don’t worry. Right now, please go to take care of the patients, and I will tell you more about this later. Give me five minutes and I will come with you guys after I make an important phone call.”
“But what should we tell the patients? They seemed very concerned about this,” Sandy said.
“Uh…” Bob mused for a couple second. “Just tell them the truth. Those people were secret government agents and they came to warn me not to join tomorrow’s protest.”
“Are you sure that you want us to tell them this?” Sandy questioned with concern.
“Yes,” Bob said firmly. “You just tell them that it was I who told you so since you were not in the room when they were here.”
“Sure.”
Sandy and Dorothy left the computer room to talk to the patients.
~.~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Please slow down,” John attempted to calm down Bob over the phone. He noticed that some team members were looking at him, so he quickly walked toward the other side of the floor to keep a distance from the crowd. “What happened?”
Bob briefed the intrusion of those secret police into his clinic.
“It’s very strange,” John said. “Why did they do that when they knew there were many patients as witnesses?”
“I think they don’t really care. They just want to show their muscles,” Bob reasoned. “Based on what I have heard from you and Jessica, I think it has come to a turning point, and they know that better than us.”
“You mean they are ready to have the final showdown with the whole nation?” John asked.
“I don’t think they would even call it as the final showdown because in their pompous eyes the public is no match for them at all,” Bob responded.
“Don’t they want the support from the public as well?” John asked.
“You still don’t get it?” Bob raised his voice. “They don’t care if the public would like them or not because they know that they would not put anything real into their magic box to please the public.”
“What do you mean?” John asked.
“Do you still remember the people behind that wall in that island country you mentioned to me?” Bob asked.
“Sure,” John replied.
“Then you should know what I mean,” Bob said. “If they know that they don’t really have much to offer the public indeed, then they really don’t care if you would love them or not. The only thing they care about is that you are scared of them and you don’t dare to rise against them.”
“That’s horrible,” John shrieked.
“It’s called state terror,” Bob remarked.
“I guess they probably knew that you might call me and they would like to see it happen,” John said.
“Could be,” Bob responded. “How is your office in B City?”
“We have not experienced what happened to you,” John replied.
“They could’ve just walked into your office instead of getting me pass the message to you,” Bob said.
“I was just guessing,” John responded. “As a matter of fact, Jessica just announced that the city government expressed their support for us…that might be why we are not disturbed by the secret police.”
“That’s great news,” Bob sounded excitedly. “That means even within the government there is fighting.”
“Yes,” John echoed.
“You see, BMA is making another big mistake again, just as I said last time,” Bob commented.
“You mean…”
“I mean they underestimated the strength of humanity again. They are gambling to fight humanity with their arrogance and brutality, and they will lose.” Bob sounded confidently.
“Yes, I think so,” John agreed and then asked, “What do you think we should do?”
“You just tell Jessica what happened here, and I am going to take care of the patients,” Bob responded. “Take care, buddy.”
“You take a great care of yourself as well!”
Bob hung up the phone.
John walked to talk to Jessica, who had already gone back to her office.
“Who was that?” Jessica asked when she saw John walking into her office. “You seemed nervous when you walked away.”
“It was Bob,” John replied, and right at that moment the landline phone on Jessica’s desk rang.
“Hello, this is Jessica.” Jessica answered the phone and it was from George.
……
Ten minutes later, Jessica walked out of her office with John and called all members to the front of her office again.
“Right after we celebrated the support from our local government, we got some bad news from our brothers and sisters across the country.” Jessica paused for a couple of seconds and then continued, “Since this morning, there have been more than a hundred incidents of harassing our BHA members by local cops or secret agents in an attempt to scare them off tomorrow’s protests.”
“What?”... “How dare those minions of BMA?” … “They are violating the constitution!”…
The members were all enraged. The floor was filled with anger. Some were shouting, “Let’s go to the street right now.”
“Please calm down,” Jessica said to the team. “This is a very critical moment that we not only need courage but also wisdom and unity. We will not change our plan for tomorrow’s big action, but we need to have some more contingency plans for tonight. All group leaders please come to my office right now. Others please continue with your preparation for tomorrow’s action.”
The members all went back to their own positions except for the leaders who all entered the office of Jessica.
“John,” Jessica drew John aside before she entered her office with others. She handed her key chain to John. “Could you please go back to my house to pick up some daily use articles and changes for me and yourself. We need to spend the night in this place with those who would not go back home tonight.”
“Sure.” John took over the key chain and turned, walking toward the exit.
But Jessica grabbed his sleeve. “Please let Mimi to play about 10 minutes in the backyard, and leave some food ready for her to eat.”
“I will definitely do it,” John replied.
“Be careful on your way,” Jessica said.
John cast a smile at her and then left.
…….