“When you questioned the orders you were given at the time,” Schultz continued, “you pissed off your bosses at Langley, and they gave a member of your team authorization to take you out — which he effectively did.”
Jericho stared blankly at the surface of the table, his right eye glazing over as the words hung ominously in the silence. He clenched his fists again, thinking back to what happened in Colombia. Schultz’s revelation had prompted even more repressed memories to surge forward from obscurity.
He remembered talking to Adrian Hell, and receiving the kill order from Director Matthews himself. He then saw a glimpse of a muzzle flash in his mind; the last image he could recall before his world turned…
“Black,” he said, through gritted teeth. “Chris Black did this to me, didn’t he?”
It was a statement, not a question, aimed at no one in particular. And no one answered.
He looked up at Schultz. “Why?” he asked.
It was Josh who answered. “Jericho, listen to me,” he began. “What I’m about to tell you isn’t going to be easy to hear, but it’s the absolute truth… The world is in chaos. Two days ago, there was a terrorist attack. It was… the terrorist attack.”
Jericho looked over at him, his anger quickly giving way to the instinctual concern of a lifelong soldier. “What? Why didn’t you say something earlier?”
Josh shrugged. “I wanted to ease you into it all.”
“Well, next time, lead with the terrorist attack thing, okay? What the fuck happened?”
“You remember me saying about Project: Cerberus?”
Jericho nodded, but said nothing.
“The satellite was hacked by a terrorist organization calling themselves the Armageddon Initiative. Using hidden capabilities built into the satellite, they were able to hack into the world’s nuclear arsenals and use our own technology to launch them.”
“That’s… impossible!” Jericho exclaimed.
“I wish it were,” replied Josh, calmly, but with a notable weariness to his voice, “I really do. To the rest of the world, it looked like everyone had suddenly decided to nuke everyone else. China launched against Russia… Russia launched against Iran… Iran launched against Afghanistan…”
“Jesus Christ…”
“Close to a hundred million people have died, that we know of… And that number’s gone up with every hour that’s passed since the attack. GlobaTech’s been working tirelessly ever since, providing military support, healthcare, food, temporary housing — you name it, to all the affected nations.”
“That’s just… I can’t believe it. How the fuck did this happen? I thought Cerberus was designed to detect potential threats?”
“It was,” replied Schultz. “But the problem was our own satellite was being used against us from the very beginning. You see, in reality, there was no Armageddon Initiative.”
Jericho frowned and shook his head. “I don’t understand. You just said—”
Josh smiled sympathetically, cutting him off. “A terrorist called Hamaad El-Zurak was recruited by the CIA to act as the front man for all of this. He handled all the recruiting and planning, and his propaganda diverted attention away from the people really responsible for it all.”
“You can’t mean…”
Schultz nodded. “The goddamn CIA.”
“That’s just not possible. No way… No fucking way!”
Schultz sighed. “The CIA director is at the center of a terrorist plot,” he said, matter-of-factly. “You might not want to hear this, but your D.E.A.D. unit was, and probably still is, being used to cover his tracks, so the world doesn’t find out about his involvement in what happened.”
Jericho’s adrenaline kicked in again, increasing his heart rate as he forced his mind to deal with things he couldn’t, and didn’t want to understand.
“I’m sorry, but it’s true,” added Josh. “I know this is difficult to hear, but we have evidence to prove that not only did the CIA manufacture intelligence reports, so that it looked like both GlobaTech Industries and Adrian Hell were responsible for the attacks, but Director Matthews himself pushed the button that launched the missiles.”
Jericho sat, dumbfounded and silent; his aching head reaching the point where it simply refused to comprehend any more words.
“These bogus reports were then distributed to other agencies,” continued Josh, “like the FBI and the NSA, so they would pursue us in their investigations. You can’t trust anyone anymore, Jericho.”
“But… none of this makes any sense! Why would the CIA want to cause a war?”
Schultz shook his head. “They didn’t cause a war, son,” he said. “They wiped out practically every corrupt and broken nation east of Italy. There was no fight, no drawn-out conflict — this was someone pushing a great big reset button.”
Jericho stood and walked slowly back over to the window. He clasped his hands behind his back and stood at ease, looking out at the compound before him. It really was an immense facility. There were hangars, barracks, factories, a hospital, and even an airstrip… all contained within the borders of what was essentially a small town.
He looked over his shoulder at Schultz, turning his body toward the table when his vision blurred, because of his covered left eye.
“What would be the point of such an attack?” he asked.
“You tell me,” Schultz said to him. “Who would benefit from it?”
Jericho shook his head. “I can’t see how anyone could benefit from something like that…”
“That’s because you’re still thinking like a company man,” said Josh. “You can’t see the bigger picture, because you’ve still not accepted the fact you can’t trust the people who used to sign your paychecks.”
Jericho moved to the end of the table opposite Schultz, standing with his back to the TV screen, facing the room.
“So, tell me — who would want any of this?” he said.
“When in doubt, follow the money,” said Schultz. “Matthews was behind the terrorist façade. He orchestrated it all. He physically launched the missiles. Who signs his paychecks?”
Jericho frowned as he realized there’s only one answer to that question, and it was too far-fetched to possibly be true. Nevertheless, he replied.
“The president…” he said.
“We have a winner!” said Josh, clapping sarcastically.
“Are you saying President Cunningham masterminded this?”
“We are,” said Schultz. “All that money he made this country, with his radical reforms on drugs and prostitution… he used it to fund his own bat-shit crazy plan to reshape the world to his own design.”
Jericho shook his head in disbelief, pacing slowly around the room for a moment before re-taking his seat. “And you can prove this, I assume?”
“We have the evidence to prove every word, yeah.”
“Show me.”
“We… can’t. Not right now, anyway,” said Josh. “Adrian has it all on a flash drive.”
“Why does he have it?” Jericho asked, finding it impossible to hide his dislike for the former professional killer, despite what Josh had said about him.
“Because the CIA is concentrating a large proportion of their resources on hunting him down and killing him, and the fact he has the evidence that can bury them all is the only thing keeping him alive.”
“And you trust him?”
Josh nodded. “With my life. And you should too — he kept you safe and alive in Colombia until medical assistance arrived on the scene. He told me about it afterward and I tracked you down, made sure you got transferred here to get the help you needed.”