Public Republic

by Mario Kronenberg

Dedicated to my mother

Photo: CubaGallery

“We think, that we live and think, that we die. There is no life or death – everything in this world is just an illusion ”
Buddha

“The events described in this book, with the exception of places and historical facts, are fiction and any resemblance to actual persons and events is fully coincidental! ”
The Author

October 1 – Saturday, New York

“Everything flows, everything changes”

On the day when in 1967 the legendary rock band “Pink Floyd” began its first U.S. tour, Michael woke up slowly. He wandered into no man’s land for about a minute – between dream and reality. The image of his son slowly faded away, and he opened his eyes. His body tightened in seconds, and in less than a minute he did the mandatory every morning 60 crunches. He cranked himself with a few yoga poses, dressed up and left.

He resided in Manhattan – in a lane near “Broadway”, almost halfway between Central Park and Riverside State Park. Today, he decided to run along river flows. He crossed the park and hit the “Hudson River Greenway. ” The sun danced on the water and was reflected by the metal surfaces of the boats anchored to the shore. Above the water rose a slight haze, but went with the wind to the north.

While running, who knows why, he remembered the speech of the mayor of New York on the occasion of Tenth anniversary of 9/11. It was only three weeks ago, but it seemed more like three years. He had promised to himself, that he would grieve for John and Rebecca just ten years. And somehow he managed to keep that promise. On 9/12/2011 he woke up as another person. Only in his dreams he saw them every night, thankfully he did not remember exactly what he had dreamed, but their images were always there.

After 35 minutes he came home refreshed, took a hot shower, played his favorite “Camel” CD (Among others on October 1 is the International Day of Music, and Michael couldn’t live without music), shaved and as was doing the obligatory fruit salad, his mobile phone rang. He had received a coded message: “Caliph is in motion. The “Bravo” Protocol is activated“
– Nothing new under the sun – he said to himself. He had begun talking to himself after the death of his wife and son on 9/11. This did not worry him – he had read on the Internet that most people do, and that listening to your inner voice was even useful. He dressed and started his Ford Mustang.

About ten minutes later he got to the agency building near Bennett Park in the Washington Heights. He smiled at the camera, the thick metal door rolled aside and he got inside. Jimmy at checkpoint grinned. He greeted him, put his service card in the slot, typed the code, then the second more massive metal door opened and let him in the cool hallway, brightly illuminated by fluorescent light coming from all sides. He entered the elevator, again put the card in the slot, said the code words and after the button turned green, pressed on it.

After 20 m descent, the elevator stopped smoothly and the door opened. Here, in contrast to the brightly lit corridor, twilight reigned. He opened the glass door and entered the operational Center. In the great hall were over 20 tables with two or three monitors on it and near all were occupied. He put his Bluetooth headset and sat behind his desk.
Pierce welcomed him and unraveled the situation succinctly. “Caliph” – the head of the Iranian secret services – had arrived in Geneva. He was staying in the cottage of a wealthy Iranian businessman near the Geneva Lake, in whose courtyard there were four big satellite dishes and apparently was not only used for recreation. The villa was perfectly shielded, but the satellite pictures in depth revealed, that under the wine cellar at least one more accomodation existed. This man was constantly monitored for quite some time – there was evidence for preparing something similar to 9/11.

October 1 – Saturday, Geneva

“To speak properly, is much easier than to think properly”

– Thank you, Mahmoud! Take up the spit-hookah!
Caliph went down to the cellar, walked to the last rack of bottles and pressed in a certain order three of them. The stillage smoothly rolled away, he descended 15 steps and entered the richly furnished room. If there were not the giant monitors, you might decide that you are in the “1001 Nights” palace. Thick Persian carpets covered the floors, the walls and ceilings had beautiful carvings, and in the middle were beautiful oriental leather furniture. On the wall behind the drawn curtains were magnificent perfect copy of the window – on a huge LED screen in natural colors a beautiful waterfall was to be seen. The illusion was almost complete, adding Lake Geneva fresh air, flowing from the air conditioner.

In one of the fauteuils a muscular middle-aged man with cropped blond hair and cold gray eyes had stretched out. He bowed slightly and said:
– Salaam aaleikum!
– Aaleikum Salaam!
– Did you get what I promised you?
– Yes, Yib*! – Caliph looked at the gold “Rolex” – it is loaded right now on a container ship to New York! (* Revenge in Arabic)
– Tell me where and when?
– The Big Apple on Halloween – grinned Caliph.
– Insh Allah!* (* If God said so)
– We got exactly 30 days! And not one day more! Do you know what happened on this day – it was not accidentally chosen for our meeting?
– I’m not sure, Aga … I think, that on this day in 1910 terrorists blew up the “Los Angeles Times” building in downtown Los Angeles? And in 2005 there was a bombing in Bali?
– Yes – three years after the largest attack against the infidels! Bravo – you’ve done your homework! But I had something else in mind – in 331 BC the Macedonian king Alexander the Great defeated in battle of Gavgamela the army of the Persian ruler Darius III and conquered the Persian Empire. And besides, on this day in 1949 Mao Zedong declared the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.
– I did not know that you are interested in ancient history.
– Who does not know history, is condemned to repeat the mistakes of their ancestors! Whoever looks in the past, sees the future as the high sky is visible in the reflection of the deep water.
They discussed the details drinking an Iranian tea, traditionally served in small cups with a sugar cube (“gand”), which is placed under the tongue, Yib dressed the black burqa and left, as it came. For all outside observers, he was one of the Caliph’s wifes. Only the head of Iranian intelligence had seen his face.

A little later Calips’s wifes went shoping in a large shop downtown – there, without anyone noticing, the exchange was made – a woman with his height and build took his place. Two hours later, a blond Scandinavian businessman with cold gray eyes, impeccably dressed in “Armani” suit departed from the Geneva International Airport “Cointrin” with a Swedish passport to London.

October 1 – Saturday, Dubai

“Nothing is what it seems”

54 years after the first appearance of “In God We Trust” on U.S. paper currency, on the huge container ship “Argento” sailing under the Liberian flag, along with other containers of Korean, Chinese and Japanese goods, in port of Dubai one more was loaded, obtained at the last moment from Iran, of course, with false documents. “Argento” resumed on the same day his travel directly to New York.

October 1 – Saturday, London

“The road is no less important than the goal”

69 years after the first manned flight on a jet in the USA in 1942, and 42 years after “Concorde” broke the sound barrier for the first time, the “British Airways” flight from Geneva landed as scheduled at 17:30 on “Heathrow” airport. The blond Swedish businessman passed the passport control and sent a text message from his mobile phone. He got an answer, found the car – black “Mercedes”, and hit east along the M4 highway downtown central London.
There was no traffic like in the hectic rush hour – it was Saturday. It was already getting dark, everything laid in twilight. Yib loved this transition between day and night, when shadows prolongate and you can merge with them.

When he approached Hyde Park, he turned left into “Gloucester Road” and parked in front of “Kensington Park Apartments.” About 150 meters to the north Hyde Park begins – one of his favorite places in London. He walked in the first alley and sat on the third bench. Ten minutes later he got company – a young lady with a dog. They made some small talk and in the end, when she handed him her hand, which he galantly kissed, dropped in his a small plastic box – about 2×1 cm, which was actually a computer flash memory stick.

Yib returned to the car, drove around Hyde Park and headed northeast to Islington. After ensuring that no one followed him, he put the car into a garage and entered a neat house near “Upper Street”.
He turned on his laptop and put the stick in. Three files were on it, and all three were encrypted. Out of his suitcasee he took the book Caliph had given him in Geneva, began to count pages, lines and words and few minutes later entered the password successfully.

The first file was a map of a part of Manhattan with a schematic diagram, the second – electronic schematic diagrams, drawings, specifications and technical data, and the third – names, addresses, telephone numbers, biographical data and pictures of people. The first two files would probably be needed after two or three weeks, but the third was the most important right now. He studied all six names, addresses, telephone numbers, biographical data, types and plates of their cars, for about an hour and saved in his memory their pictures perfectly. Then he deleted this file with a specialized program, which completely destroyed the information and put the flash drive in his specially adapted for this lighter.

He decided to honor the World Vegetarian Day, moreover, it was established in 1977 right here – in London, and ate for dinner just a salad. He took a bath, drank a glass of scotch, watched “Sky News” TV for a while, and lay down to bed. The next day should be very busy day.

October 2 – Sunday, London

“It doesn’t matter where you come from, it is important to know where you’re going”

Exactly ten years after NATO formally announced its support for U.S. military strikes after the attack of 9/11,Yib got up shortly before 6 a.m., did 50 push-ups as always, took an icy shower, shaved and had an English breakfast in a nearby bistro. In his car there were a ticket to New York, U.S. passport, a California driving licence, a cell key of the storage station and a new mobile phone left. At 8:55 as scheduled, he took off from the “Heathrow” by “British Airways” plane for New York.

It was a little ironic – to fly over the ocean at the day of the first plane crash – occurred 101 years ago – on October 2, 1910 between two planes in the sky over Milan, Italy.