The End of the Beginning

“…so that tomorrow we can finally begin talking about solitary waves in Greenland. Now, you’re dismissed. See you tomorrow.”

William packed up his things and walked out the door, Seong close behind.

“Captain!” a voice called out.

William spun around. To his surprise, Hernandez had been waiting for him after class in the hallway, leaning casually against the wall. “Yes, Chief?” “Lieutenant Jeon, do you mind?” Hernandez politely asked. Seong bowed and left for lunch. Once alone, Hernandez grabbed William’s shoulder and looked into his eyes searchingly.

“That question you asked. You know something. What is it?”

“Sir, I don’t know if - ”

“Captain,” Hernandez said sternly, “if you know something, you need to tell me, for everyone’s safety. What is wrong?”

“I’d like to take that invitation to your office now if that’s okay?”

Deep in the domed ISAF headquarters, Hernandez took William through their central control room on the way to his office. It wasn’t nearly as large as UNIRO’s. William and Hernandez entered through the back of the rectangular room. To the men’s left were four stepped rows of monitoring stations, each row having one long singular white desk with continuous computer displays. ISAF personnel sat in black rolling chairs answering calls and scanning the displays. A ramp was behind each stepped row that led up to its level. Each ramp was bordered by black handrails up the sides and continued around the elevated seating areas. In front of the rows was a large OLED display the size of the room’s front wall.

To the men’s right was a large 3D model of the base that was overlaid with a holographic projection of real time data. Vehicles, maglev trains, aircraft, drones; even individual people were shown walking around the model as dots, their location being given by their glass tags. It was incredible. Hernandez radiated with satisfaction of his operation.

Shortly after walking through the control room, they reached the chief’s office. It looked out over Umoja Tower to the west. Unlike Hammond’s office, it wasn’t filled with collectables. There were no pictures of friends or family, no potted plants, or antiques. It was bare bones modern design, white and black, like the rest of ISAF’s facilities and gear. A small clear plastic pyramid that served as an ant farm was the only exciting piece of anything in the office. The ants moved about inside minding their own business, digging tunnels and collecting food.

William sat in the guest chair in front of Hernandez’s desk. Hernandez never sat down; he just looked out the curving windowpanes of the dome.

“Now, Captain, what is wrong?”

“Sir, I don’t know if I’m looking into this too much…”

“Captain, please.”

“Three weeks ago, I saw Hammond in one of the warehouses.”

Hernandez looked at William feverishly, squinting his eyes.

“Colonel John Morrison was giving me a tour. He left to take a phone call so I was alone. I heard her speaking from somewhere inside the shelves - in an area that no one was supposed to be. I was curious…” “As you should have been,” Hernandez encouraged.

“So, I went inside the shelving units to find her. When I did, I saw her talking on a landline hooked up to a shipping container. She sounded angry and was trying to get information from someone. She never said a name for the person on the other end, in fact she didn’t even know their name I think, but… she said people were starting to get suspicious in UNIRO and that she could only hold off their suspicions for so long. She said she needed to finish something.” “Suspicions of what?”

“I don’t know. But she said the attack in India was just the start. Then she said… Toronto.”

“In what context?”

“The person on the other end told her something about Toronto. And now that the city was attacked last night. It only leads me to believe that she - ” “Knew,” Hernandez finished.

“Yes.”

“Did she ever see you?”

“No.”

“Did anyone else see her?”

“Not that I know of, no. When Colonel Morrison returned from his call, I told him about what I saw and how weird it was. He called ISAF and asked for her current position and her glass tag showed her in her office no less than five minutes after I saw her. She couldn’t have gotten back to her office that quickly.” Hernandez laughed. “That’s not the first time Morrison has done that. Always breaking my security rules.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. It was a heat of the moment thing.”

“You made the right decision to check, Captain. This is something I will have to look in to. And no, you’re right, it would have been impossible for her to make it back to her office from any of the warehouses in under five minutes, even with a car. Did Colonel Morrison not believe you?” “Well, after seeing her supposedly in her office I didn’t really believe myself.”

“You witnessed the exchange firsthand. Always trust yourself, especially when you have facts to back you. Too often, emotion and belief override any factual bases. Logic should always supersede ones feelings, especially in our work. We are a team, one unit, a system. You should have come to me sooner about this, Captain. Colonel Morrison too.” William knew Hernandez was right. He now felt partly responsible for what happened last night, thinking he maybe could have stopped it somehow by talking. Even if Hammond’s conversation had been a misunderstanding, he should have brought it up sooner.

“I’m sorry, Chief.”

“It is okay, amigo. We’ll learn from this, hmm.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Muy bueno. This information will be very useful.”

“Is this all because something is different about this latest attack, sir?” William ventured.

Hernandez looked confused. “Excuse me?”

“With all due respect,” William said with a smirk, “you aren’t the only one who can tell when something is wrong behind the scenes, sir. I talked to others. You never gave that speech to classes after the India refinery attack, asking to be vigilant. Why did you this time?” Hernandez knew he was busted and didn’t try and hide it. He sat down and put both hands on his desk and leaned over it.

“Things are different this time, Captain. This attack came with something else, a warning.”

“A warning?”

“Yes. Less than an hour after the attack in Toronto Terra Nova not only claimed responsibility but also released the names of every base commander and the director-general as targets for assassinations within the next two weeks… All except one, that is.” “Hammond…”

“Sí, amigo,” sighed Hernandez. “She was not on the list. This is why the information you just gave me could be extremely valuable.”

“Has this been made public yet? I haven’t heard anything about this yet in the news.”

“It has not. The message seems to only have been sent to UNIRO. The secretary general of the UN was going to announce the threat later today.” “Chief,” said William with a grave look, “how bad is Terra Nova? Really. What kind of threat do they pose? What are their goals?”

“They are what are known as ‘ecoterrorists’,” explained Hernandez, “terrorists that commit acts of violence in defense of so-called ecological and social justices. Which, truthfully, scares me even more than some senseless zealot fighting for some skewed religious cause like ISIS or Al-Qaeda.” “Why is that?” asked William, moving his chair closer to the desk.

“Because, on a human level day after day, we can’t see ourselves destroying God, but we can see ourselves destroying the planet, giving them and their followers renewable justification every single day. What they destroy causes visible change to the world instantly. They have immediate satisfaction of cause. Blowing up some mosque or random office building just for casualties doesn’t send the world economy spiraling. Blowing up our energy systems does. Just look how much gas jumped after their attack in India. The destruction of the Jamnagar Refinery has resulted in a near global oil panic. Fires are still burning at the refinery. Another such attack could be devastating for the fossil fuel industry, and the world economy.” “Whoa,” William breathed. “Explains why they blew up an oil train last night then. I heard the train was carrying tar sands.”

Hernandez nodded. “Their anger and dissidence stem from years of government and business greed, where the elite in our society have written and pushed their own selfish agendas, ruining the truly needy below them. They believe the world is run for the few, not the many. As such, masses of people are left in darkness, hunger, and environmental poverty. They believe that if they can stop civilizations current leadership, leadership that has neglected climate change, disease, and even basic science for so long, they can create a more perfect society that runs for the many and not the few.” “UNIRO is meant to fix all those concerns though. Wouldn’t they like UNIRO, instead of threatening and attacking it?”

“One would think, but UNIRO was still designed by the old world.”

“Old world?”

“The elite, who they believe have brought us to our current predicaments. Under current global leadership, Terra Nova believes UNIRO will never succeed in saving this planet and its people. Under them though, they think it will. As one, they believe UNIRO and Terra Nova can make real change… At least, that’s what the analysts all believe. This is all theory, of course, derived from persistent social media posts, back chatter, and the few Terra Novans taken prisoner.” “When did they arise? Because before I left for Canada, I had never heard of them.”

“Many believe they arose because of the war. It was the final straw. They have been hitting targets all over the world for about the last five years, especially in the Middle East and Canada. Pipelines. Company headquarters. Tankers. Railways. Gas fields. Mines. Some reports claim they originated from somewhere in North America. Some Africa. And others Asia. Regardless of where they originated they now have active cells all over the world. There rapid expansion into the world has been, disturbing, outpacing all previous terror groups before them. Surveillance indicates a large uptick in their recruitment over the last two years, mostly in people between the ages of twenty and forty, those who feel they are losing their future to the old and out of touch.” “I guess I can see where an appeal could come from for a group like them.”

“Bastardos. They are mysterious as a ghost and as traceable as evaporating fog. No one even knows who their leader is or how they are being financed.” “Crap.”

“As the young man in class pointed out, Terra Nova is increasingly becoming a real pain in UNIRO’s side. A few weeks before you came to the base, Will, a UNIRO vessel, the UNS Kofi Annan, had an attempted hijacking by Terra Novan terrorist in the Caribbean while on sea trials. They failed to take the ship but they had never tried something so bold before with UNIRO.” “Have they ever killed UNIRO personnel?” William asked, certain of the answer before he even finished speaking.

Hernandez tucked his lips in and looked down.

“Yes,” he admitted. “Eighteen total. Six ISAF guardsmen as well, trying to protect them. It happened during their first attack on UNIRO. They bombed the opening of a water filtration project in Ghana because it was in cooperation with Shell, an oil giant.” William clenched his fist. “What’s being done to stop them?”

“Not much. They fight from no focal point such as ISIS. They appear, attack, then disappear. We are two steps behind all the time. Government agencies have been data mining, combing through surveillance footage. Security checkpoints have been established around all UNIRO projects and facilities, and threat levels have been raised. That’s it.” “We won’t let those cowards stop us, Chief. Too much is at stake for them too.”

“Cowards they may be, Captain, but they have purpose in a world that is still trying to find its own. We can’t underestimate that. If we do, they won’t just terrorize, they will conquer.”