King of All I Survey
Chapter 87: Sit Down and Shut Up

Chapter 87: Sit Down and Shut Up

"We have to lodge a protest with the UN! What’s your evidence?" Hernandez interrupted.

Maribel remained calm, "Please Mr. Hernandez, let me finish. I will present files with our information after I conclude my remarks. But the story is complicated, so I ask you to please hold your questions until the end." She looked him in the eye.

After a brief pause, he nodded, "Go on, then."

"Thank you," she continued, "We know they are CIA linked mercenaries, but we also found two men inside the meeting who were actively sending a live stream of the meeting to several CIA and NSA linked sites." She noted the furrowed brow on Hernandez’s face as he thought of the obvious question. "Why would they send attackers and have people inside the building to be killed? It doesn’t make sense."

As I watched on the monitor, I saw Hernandez and Morales nodding in agreement.

"Certainly, the two men inside wouldn’t have knowingly placed themselves in what could only be described as a kill zone about to be hit with multiple rounds from no fewer than six grenade launchers, and rifle fire for any who made it out the door. It only makes sense if they didn’t know about the attack. It only makes sense if the people who sent them to record the meeting for the CIA, didn’t know about the CIA mercenaries planning to blow up the building. How could that be?"

Maribel paused, she took a sip from a glass tumbler on her desk. She had requested that Joe have the food synthesizer prepare her a glass of Peruvian Pisco and have it on her desk for the meeting. I guess her Maribel persona had developed a taste for it while undercover.

She carefully placed the glass back down and continued, "That could only happen if the two different groups were sent by different people within the CIA who each had no knowledge of the actions being taken by the others, OR if the attacking group knew about the men inside, but either didn’t care or hoped the Guatemalan government would get blamed for their deaths as well."

"Insidious!" Hernandez declared.

"Just so," Maribel agreed. "We know that the original call to activate the terrorist mercenary group came from Colombia, from a drug cartel compound. Could it be that a CIA agent working undercover in the cartel decided to do this on his own? Unlikely. We followed the trail of communications and contacts. We accessed documentary evidence on servers thought to be secure. Our deduction is that there is a rogue group in the CIA. This rogue group had people inside the cartels and ordered the attackers into Guatemala to sow destruction and chaos, eventually resulting in the downfall of your government."

Hernandez slammed a fist down on the table as Maribel paused and took another sip of pisco.

"So, who’s who? We know that one of the men in the room was sending his feed back to the US Embassy in Guatemala City. We know that Pablo Rodriguez, there as an Assistant to the Ambassador, is a CIA agent with extensive experience. We believe, therefor, that he did not know about the attack and sent a man in to record the meeting, either on his own or in conjunction with a larger operation from CIA headquarters in the USA. As it happens, President Arroyo had lunch with Pable Rodriguez just recently, so we wanted to prevail upon their new friendship to arrange a second lunch meeting.

"The other man was sending his stream to Washington, DC and a few other locations, we have traced his contacts as well. We are closely monitoring CIA communications in each of the locations where the stream was sent. We will follow the communication lines for any discussions regarding Guatemala, the cartels, or any aspect of the drug trade from the Americas. When we find those responsible for ordering mass murders and inciting a revolution in Guatemala, we will see they get justice."

Hernandez couldn’t hold back any longer, "You’re listening in on the CIA? From Guatemala? They’re going to destroy us for that alone! We should alert them and tell them the government has nothing to do with this." He stood up.

"Sit down, Alejandro," President Arroyo ordered. He met Hernandez’s gaze and stared him back into his seat. "Do you remember the 1980’s? The advisors and agitators who came to help Guatemala root out the evil of socialism by convincing our government to use our soldiers against the villagers who were just trying to stop the wealthy from taking their land, only to replace it with drug trafficking and corruption? Did you lose any family members Alejandro? Guatemala will not be pawns to any outsiders at the cost of our souls."

"Isn’t that what you’re doing by listening to her?" Hernandez jerked his head toward the screen. "She is convincing you to fight the CIA and the Americans. You know we can’t win that fight."

I watched the argument, Mom or Maribel was letting them argue without jumping in. Instead, she took another sip of Pisco and watched the ice cubes swirling around the glass.

"Who would have thought the cartels could be defeated, the gangs turned to building roads and sewers? But we are not fighting the CIA. Let’s be very clear about that. We have reason to believe that the cartels have compromised some individuals within the CIA. We are sharing that information with our good friends and partners in the USA, including those within the CIA who we believe are not compromised. As for listening in on the CIA’s private communications, I personally do not believe it can be done. That must be a joke, and we should not take it seriously, certainly not to the point of ruining our credibility by repeating what was obviously meant in jest as if it were a serious claim. Is that clear, Alejandro?"

"Furthermore, I remind you that this conference and everything said here is considered classified at the highest level. No one outside this room is to hear of it. I have included the two of you to represent the Congress and the Courts. You are free to offer your opinions in this room. If the two of you disagree with my direction, I will yield to your discretion. But if just one of you disagrees, you are outvoted and will abide by, and work to support, the decisions made here. That is not optional. Are we all clear?"

The other two looked at him, nodding reluctantly. "I need to hear that you agree to this," Arroyo said.

"I agree to the conditions, but I vote against this policy with the CIA," Hernandez said.

Arroyo nodded at him, "Good enough. And you, Gabriel?"

Gabriel Morales, the current President of the Supreme Court, cleared his throat. "I do remember the 1980’s. I toured villages after our own soldiers routed and killed the residents. I agree to the conditions of this meeting. I agree to stand up and fight against anyone who would turn us against our own people... this time, as I should have then."

Arroyo smiled. "Good, then it is settled. Miss Flores, would you continue with the plan we have discussed, please."

"Of course, Mr. President," Maribel said.

I looked at Dad. "He’s a good President, but Mom’s right, he has to go. He’d never let Guatemala be assimilated into a World Government."

Dad looked back at me, his brow furrowed. "Should he? Why should he trust you to look after his people? I think you should be able to answer and believe your own answer before you start toppling governments, even if you do it peacefully, through democratic elections."

I raised my eyebrows, caught completely off guard by what Dad was saying. Was he saying he didn’t think I should be The Supreme Ruler of the Entire Earth Solar System and Nearby Space? I didn’t think that was his point... Did I need countries to fall in line and just do what I said, yielding their authority to me as king of the world? Yes, and no. I could not allow wars between Earth nations, but did I need to mess with a country’s internal government? Yes, I did. There were brutal dictatorial regimes who used the people they ruled to further their own personal wealth or ideological ideals. People deserved freedom, and a chance at prosperity and happiness. ’Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness’ as someone once wrote... Maybe I just needed to establish a framework of governance which individual countries agreed to, and abided by... Maybe individual countries shouldn’t exist at all... I was literally lost in thought until the meeting with Maribel and the Guatemalan leaders ended. I missed whatever else was said. I mean, I knew what she was going to say, but I had wanted to see and hear the reactions from the Guatemalans. Oh, well, I could always ask Joe to pop it into my active memory when we had the chance.

The plan had been for Mom and Joe to take a few minutes after the meeting to remove her Maribel persona, even though it was just a shallow overlay and didn’t suppress her Susan Bailey memories and thoughts. Instead, she left the simulation room immediately when the video call ended, her nearly empty glass of pisco in hand and walked over to us in the Status Room.

"That went well, I think," She declared finishing off the pisco and placing the empty glass on a serving tray that had floated in at her mental summons. "We’ll have to watch that shit Hernandez, though. I don’t think he can be trusted to keep his mouth shut and let the big boys and girls handle things." She had a strange look on her face that reminded me a little of Rafael. I glanced at Dad. He was frowning.

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