King of All I Survey
Chapter 148: Preparing for the Army’s Arrival

Chapter 148: Preparing for the Army’s Arrival

We finished our drinks and brought our cups back inside. Joe told the woman who had come out to check on us, that the drinks were among the best we had found yet in Guatemala. She beamed with pride and told him we were welcome back any time, then glanced at me with a questioning look. "Even with him," she said.

"Next time we visit," Joe promised her in a deadpan voice, "I will do my best to be less funny."

She laughed lightly, and gave me another side-eye glance, "Maybe it wasn’t his fault after all."

"Until next time," Joe said, and we headed off to find a secluded place to disappear without being seen doing it.

We used Local Interdimensional Transport to return to the Welcome Hall in the Super Secret Planetary Leadership Headquarters Treehouse Fortress. We had added a designated arrival zone marked with yellow and black stripes in a rectangular shape measuring five feet by eight feet. Any of us using LITV transport to return to the headquarters would arrive there and quickly move off the designated zone so as to minimize the possibility of an arrival being blocked by someone or something already occupying the space specified for the arrival.

We went straight for the Status Room and found Dad there, watching the screens and directing actions in Mexico. He glanced up as we entered and held a finder up toward us to indicate that he was currently busy and we should wait instead of interrupting whatever he was doing.

I looked at Joe and shrugged. I watched the screens Dad was using and saw a large convoy of military vehicles from an overhead view, I called up an internal display, so as not to distract Dad’s views of what he was working on, to locate it on a map. It was headed to the Northwest coastal region of Mexico. Exactly where we had just cleaned up another drug-trafficking stronghold. Joe, what’s going on here? I asked with a silent mental query.

Mexico has decided it does not want an outside force effectively taking control over a significant region fo the country. They were willing to let it slide in Chiapas, because they had limited influence and control there anyway, but the northern region has historically been an important economic area for tourism and even some manufacturing centers prior to the relatively recent growth of the violent gangs there. They want it clear that it is under Mexican government control and that it is they who will take charge of restoring order. Joe explained, saving me hours of reviewing surveillance video to figure out what was going on.

Now that we’ve done all the heavy lifting. I commented. What’s Dad doing about it?

He is giving instructions to the paramilitaries you have stationed there, preparing to withdraw. We have some facilities there with advanced technology fabrication mechs, shielded buildings and rooms, advanced medical diagnosis and treatment equipment, communications hubs, and so forth. He is ensuring that it is all dismantled and removed before the Army arrives in force to effectively reoccupy the area. The drones, of course, can remain undetected or self-evacuate as desired.

I pondered that for a moment. That made sense, we didn’t want any of that falling into their hands. On the other hand, I hated to just let the Mexican government walk in and take credit for restoring order. It was under their watch that the gangs formed and grew after all. If they wanted to move in with military action in force a couple of decades ago, they could have saved countless lives. Corruption and lack of will, however, had prevented a full engagement. Now, with the violent gangs simply removed, though they didn’t know how or to where they had been removed, they would make a show of sending the military.

Even with that, it seemed unlikely that they would be sending truckloads of humanitarian aid for those who had suffered most under the lawlessness. Instead, they would probably focus on re-establishing the once-lucrative tourism centers that had once provided may millions of dollars to the Mexican economy here. The corporations and rich owners would receive whatever help they needed to start the money trains rolling again. Sure, that would provide decent jobs for hundreds or thousands of common people in the region and allow small shops to thrive. But only a small fraction of the billions of pesos generated would directly benefit the people. Many would remain marginalized. Some would even recall the money they earned by working with the gangs, transporting, growing, or processing drugs for them.

"Dad, hold on for a minute. I’m not sure we should withdraw." I said aloud. "Joe, how much time do we have before the army gets near any of our facilities?"

"We have liaisons to the local people, overseeing food distribution, medical clinics, and infrastructure repair throughout the region. Primarily centered in the former strongholds of the trafficking gangs that we removed to our Blue Island implant therapy holding facilities. First analysis, by the way, shows that we will not likely succeed with full rehabilitation of a significantly higher percentage of those taken from these areas as compared to most of our other actions. They regular exposure to and participation in extreme violence causes very deep disturbances in the human psyche. It is not a natural behavior pattern and in order to protect the individual from breaking under the internal conflict, the human brain tends to significantly rewires itself in ways that help it cope. Unfortunately, this rewiring tends to reinforce and reward the violent disregard for the suffering of others. Not just a disregard, but often a preference for it, convincing themselves that continued violence, even that pushing the level of violence higher and higher, is how they prove their worth. It’s perverse feedback loop replacing any sense of community and altruism, with the desire to be feared, the desire for notoriety, and to recover some sense of self-worth through the victimization of others. It’s difficult to break in the best of cases. In most who have been working that way for any amount of time... there’s no full recovery that would make a reintegration to society with the level of safety that you have mandated possible."

That was going to mean some hard decisions for me later, but we had limited time right now to focus on the matters at hand. "Are all of our medical clinics shielded?" I asked.

"Yes," Dad replied. "Each is overseen by at least one of our paramilitaries. I have expanded the paramilitary training to include specialists in non-military fields such as medicine since we tend to very little actual combat missions these days, and much more community building and civilian support. Each clinic has one highly trained in advanced medical technique using alien tech diagnostic and treatment equipment. They are supported by local staffs of various sizes, who are already experienced doctors or health care professionals or are being trained for conventional, basic medical care. Access to the advanced equipment is restricted to our personnel. In some of the larger cities, we have a larger contingent of our people running full hospital-sized installations. All of theses facilities are shielded at the outer walls with the field-enhanced carbon nanotube matrices. Each facility has a dark-energy generator capable of running all of its systems, including shields without external power. Similarly, Facilities housing fabrication mechs or food synthesizers are staffed by one or more of our paramilitaries and are fully shielded. Additionally, we have a central public access office in most places where local residents can come to make requests for our assistance. Requests like road repair, powerline maintenance or build-out, food assistance, basic law-enforcement and dispute resolution. We work with whatever honest law-enforcement was left in former gang-controlled territories. Many of these local police forces have been equipped with our Interdimensional Communication Devices which we are in the process of collecting."

"Wow, Dad, you’ve really done a lot there in a short amount of time. That’s really excellent work." I really was impressed, in just days after we completed our mass removal by local Interdimensional Transport of the gang-members and drug-traffickers we had identified through our intensive surveillance efforts, he had set up not just basic emergency aid, but entire functioning hospitals, community centers, and everything else he had described. While I’m sure Joe played a large part in handling the details, Dad’s initiative and direction of the effort was remarkable. "I don’t want to throw away your work, just because the Mexican government is re-establishing their authority. Yes, continue collecting any non-Earth tech devices that are in the hands of anyone who is not one of our fully vetted paramilitary operatives. Absolutely none of that can fall into government hands. If they do get one, Joe, either retrieve it through LITV when it won’t be directly observed, or melt-down the internal components so they can’t be identified as alien tech. ideally, though, we just get them all back. I want every clinic and aid station to remain open and functioning. Joe, actively monitor every single one, no Mexican military access is to be allowed, used the shielding to simply keep the doors from being opened for them, while allowing staff and patients access. If the military tries to prevent access or detain people as they enter or exit, tell me immediately. We’ll deal with it case by case. Our paramilitaries all stay inside shielded facilities until further notice."

"Hold on," Dad interrupted, "Let me relay those orders and get our people working on it. Joe, keep the countdown until army arrivals by targeted location active on the tactical map. Give our local paramilitaries ETA updates so they know when they have to be inside secured locations. I’ll want time for them to brief staff on what’s coming as well. I assume we will provide 100 percent protection for all staff?"

"Yes, but if the army tries to detain them, tell them to cooperate peacefully. Get on it." I shifted my focus to Joe, who was standing there with us, still in his Diego Flores android form. "Joe, keep surveillance on all staff whenever they are outside of our facilities. I want immediate alerts to myself and Dad for anyone detained or confronted by Mexican authorities. You can act to prevent harm to them without our direct intervention, but nothing more. We will handle such incidents diplomatically through negotiation. I’ll be talking with the Mexican Government directly. Hopefully before the army arrives at our first facility. Dad, are all our facilities branded?"

"Yes, everything is identified as funded and operated either Health First, Food First, or Community First charitable organizations, as we discussed."

"Good, where’s Mom? I want her to be in on the discussions with with the Mexican authorities as the face of the Charitable efforts. I’ll use my adult android as the CEO of global operations or whatever. Joe, what’s the right title?"

"Perhaps, Chairman of the Board of Directors as well as CEO would be appropriate," Joe responded.

"Great, I’ll go as that. Where’s Mom?"

"She’s overseeing efforts in Colombia, using a similar set-up to what we have going on here in Mexico. A lot of the organization of the community efforts were from her planning," Dad explained, sharing the credit I had given him with Mom.

"Ok, Joe, get her back here and fill her in on the current status and my plans so far by direct memory implant, then we’ll discuss the details in person."

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