(WHNWC) Sometimes We Eat Our Own

Sometimes We Eat Our Own

by Justin Oldham

The following is transcribed from an audio recording taken from a classified microscopic eavesdropping device. Metafiles have been attached as necessary to provide the committee members with instant briefing.

I’d like to thank the committee for this opportunity to address what you all must regard as a terrible breach in our security. Before I go any further, I must remind everyone in this room that [redacted] and the rules that govern classified information handling are still in effect. All recordings systems must be stopped or paused at this time.

The 'incident' that brought us all here took place after my team successfully re-introduced the edited JFK film tootage. I'd also like to remind the committee that, under my supervision, we successfully released an original copy of the Declaration of Independence without any complications. I'm not making any excuses for what happened, I'm just telling you that we've done good work in the past and we'll do more if you can get past this anger of the moment.

This isn't the first time that one of our operations has been compromised by agencies or individuals unknown to us. We've all made mistakes. I wasn't told about the new RFID action plan. Under different circumstances, I'd say that I was sabotaged. Now that I've been briefed, I'm enclined to think that we may have been infiltrated. Hold on. Give me a moment. I’m prepared to explain.

As per
directive 43 the special branch activated my team just five days ago. We were tasked with running down a routine COINTELPRO hoax that had some degree of truth to it. It was a light-weight mission, and I was looking forward to giving my people something easy to do for a change. I’m sure all of you can remember what it was like to be in the field.

The specialists traveling with me were taken under surveillance as our plane landed in [redacted]. The committee would be wrong to assume that we'd let our guard down because this was supposed to be a milk run. The rest of my team converged on the designated rally point by different routes and means of transportation. As we assembled, we all thought we were being watched. As you know, our teams routinely work under the noses of the CIA, NSA, and Homeland Security. It's not unusual to be tailed by somebody from National Intelligence, or even some of the more ambitious conspiracy theorists who sometimes write about us on various web sites.

As per published procedure, we attempted to evade our observers. Within six minutes of movement, we lost our flankers to plain-clothes intercept. There was a problem with communications, so we didn't get their last transmissions. If we had, things might have turned out differently. As it was, we had to assume that we'd been made. On my orders, the team scattered to begin the normal escape-and-evade process.

It's clear to me now that the operators who crossed our paths had a lot of experience dealing with class-five infiltrators. Our use of advanced tactics didn’t slow them down. They were just as unmarked as we were. They were just as careful. In spite of the problems we were having, I chose to complete my mission. I don't think there's anyone in this room who would've backed off. Hiding is one thing. Running away is something else. It was ,after all, supposed to be a simple sneak-and-peek.

Two of my analysts got nailed while driving out of town in a rental car by a hinky road block. They had more than enough time to describe it to me before they were taken in to custody by what appeared to be State Troopers. As you know, we haven’t seen them since. The remote location and ambush-convenience of the check point lead me to believe at that time that we were being hunted. As you might expect, I gave the appropriate orders.

I closed on the suspect location with my best people, and we staked it out. Within two hours, the rest of my active roaming personnel had been neutralized by what were at that time forces unknown. Based on some of the random radio chatter, we knew that gunfire was involved. As you'll see from the after-action reports filed by the survivors, there was in fact a sniper-on-sniper incident near [redacted]. My man got two of theirs, for which I'm not at all sorry.

We chose to enter the suspect location after dark, using the local rainy conditions as additional cover. That's when we were engaged. They had three snipers set up to take us in cross-fire. That fact alone told us that we might be dealing with one of our our field groups, or somebody like us. We dropped smoke and flashed counter-signs as per published procedures. There was no lulll in the action.

Yes, we broke with procedure. We had automatic weapons. I'm not going to make any apologies for that. Some times, these little errands you send us on aren’t hoaxes. Sometimes, they’re very real. The opposition outnumbered us, and they were clearly trying to take us alive. I don't have to remind any of you what happened the last time one of us got taken as a hostage. It was our six against their fifteen, and we didn't hold anything back. Their comms were open, like they expected us to say something, but we never heard a peep from them.

The hard drives we found at the target location were easy enough to decrypt and read. Contents were uploaded to the specified devices that you can see listed in my report. I don't know why those archives are now missing, but I’m prepared to turn over backups which we made in the field...assuming that the committee needs to be bargained with.

Time wasn’t on our side. Even if the aggressors didn’t know why we were there ,they had to know that we’d been on site long enough to accomplish our mission. I tripped the silent alarm operated by that business. I had my people turn their guns on the local P.D. when they arrived. There’s nothing quite like putting two dozen rounds in to a cop car to stir the pot. We used the chaos to escape. It’s altogether possible that the aggressors slipped away at the same time.

By the looks on your faces, I can see that some of you are skeptical. You’re asking yourselves, why didn’t he go online or tap regional communications to send a distress call? I didn’t do it because I’m not stupid. The bad guys had our local comms, so why couldn’t they just as easily have access to more? If I had called for help, somebody on this end would’ve wanted a sitrep, and I would’ve given my opponents all the intell they neeed to finish what they started.

Besides, everybody knows that kind of thing is a career ender. Anyone who has to call for the black helicopters to come and save them gets cancelled, and I know it. Everybody who works for me knows it, too. The operators who nailed us probably didn’t plan on such a rough night. If you’re going to judge me, take that in to account. They didn’t take anyone from my team who could compromise this organization.

We put the torch to the business we’d penetrated, with all the usual signs of arson. As you can see from a newspaper search, they’re calling a burglary gone bad. We did get away, but only because they let us get away. I want all of you to understand that. We didn’t have much gear, and we moved fast. Even so, we kept getting sighted by their skirmishers. Please. I’m almost done. Save your questions.

We left [redacted] and stole a car. We headed south, trading vehicles two more times that night. Conservative recon let us get the drop on another very convenient State Trooper checkpoint that just happened to be out in the middle of nowhere. That’s when I made the decision to forage. We back-tracked. Because I thought we were bugged, I had my people lose all their gear. We broke in to several homes along the way to get fresh clothes and other things we might’ve needed.

I’m well aware of the fact that many of you think I’m lying about the data backups from the mission. You think that I can’t lay may my hands on it because I ditched my equipment in the field. I’m sure you’ve wasted your time questioning the other members of my team. I can’t keep you from disposing of them for what you see as failure, but I can discourage you from doing anything rash to me.

We didn’t fail. I don’t know who made your hard drives disappear, but I can tell you that the data on them was recovered under less than ideal conditions. .The people responsible for the COINTELPRO hoax I was sent to verify were guessing. They’re right, but they don’t know it. My suspicion is that the people sent to stop me had some other goal in mind. We lose field teams all the time. Whenever that happens, it means that somebody with a high security rating has something to hide.

I’m just going to come out and say it. Somebody in this room has something to hide, and its not me. I’ve probably gotten too close to some truth that’s “inconvenient.” Who knows? I may have even stumbled on to a plot to do away with this committee. You’ve got my complete report. You know what I did to get away and to get back here. If I was guiltly, you’d be talking to an empty chair. So? What’s it going to be? Are we going to get to the bottom of this? Or, will we eat one of our own?

This transcript is derived from an unauthorized source. Circulation is prohibited. Committee members are directed to disregard its contents. This executive decision requires your immediate attention. Please vote now. Press [1] for yes. Press [2] for no.

Justin Oldham perhaps in a future story you could give some background story on the mystery's conspiracy organization.
Hmm they must have known algorithm(SP?) used to encrypt the data on the hard drives in order to obtain the data in any reasonable amount of time.

That's very true. I did sacrifice that piece of information for the sake of story mechanics. You are very perceptive.

Originally posted by Justin Oldham
That's very true. I did sacrifice that piece of information for the sake of story mechanics. You are very perceptive.

And to your credit the usual incorrect technical talk didn't appear.
There were no Mainframes and people hacking networks in 30 seconds with three touches of the keyboard. Us Computer Geeks appreciate such things.

There's a time and a place for tech talk. What you read here is one man's monologue, and he clearly had more important things on his mind. Superior conspiracy fiction can benefit from correct technical jargon when its used in its appropriate context.

Sci fi writers in particular are known for their use of techno-babble. Words that sound cool but don't really mean anything. People who read conspiracy fiction often hail from a wife variety of career fields. This means they can be some of the spies you write about. When you're full of baloney, your most ardent fans will know it.

Why? Because today's conspiracy readers will google what you wrote just to see now much of it is "real." That's why you need to be careful about what you put in to your conspiracy fiction.

I am being asked for another "installment." Do you guys want to see what happens next, or would you rather see something else? Poor Jessica may have gotten in over her head. I'm surprised to see that so many of you are sympathetic towards her.

Go for the gusto, Justin. Another installment would be much appreciated, if you have the time.

DE

Roge that, DE. I've got strike teams in the field and we're looped in to enough satellite coverage to make that happen. Let's wait and see what sort of fiendish fun awaits us in the next contest.

Several of my advisors have suggested that I develop this as a novel. We are looking in to it.