The other issue was developing leaders. Once someone established himself as an inspirational leader or tactical genius, the U.S. had an uncanny ability to find him and strike, either through a drone or the feared U.S. Navy SEALs.
This new alliance with Russia, no matter how distasteful, would draw U.S. resources away from the Middle East and ultimately help their cause. That was all that mattered to Fannie.
She also realized the importance of Estonia to a country like Russia. Not only did they share a border, but Estonia was technologically advanced, at least as far as Internet infrastructure and computers. Far more so than Russia. Anyone with common sense recognized the next phase of global conflict would include serious cyberattacks. Already it was viewed as the only recourse for countries like North Korea. They couldn’t hit the U.S. with missiles yet, so they harassed major U.S. corporations with sophisticated cyberattacks and disrupted credit and banking by stealing credit card numbers from retailers.
Estonia could be the piece of the puzzle Russia needed. Fannie didn’t care what Russia did, as long as its first act was to hurt the United States. That would start the Islamic revolution she was praying for in Europe. If the U.S. couldn’t help, Europe was as defenseless as a baby.
Derek Walsh was startled by hearing his name and feeling someone bump into him. He almost darted back onto his own street but remembered the young man in the Dodge waiting for him. He turned quickly and released a breath of relief when he realized it was his friend Charlie, the Vietnam vet.
Charlie said, “What are you doing home in the middle of the day? You didn’t get fired, did you?”
Walsh regained his senses, blinked hard, and said, “No, no, nothing like that.” He paused for a moment, staring at Charlie and recognizing one of his old shirts. It looked good on the older man. He had trimmed his gray beard and smelled like he had taken a shower recently. Walsh thought for a moment and said, “Charlie, can you help me out?”
“Anything for a fellow vet. What do you need?”
“I’d like to get into my apartment, but there’s someone watching it. It’s a young guy in the Dodge across the street.”
Charlie took a moment to do some recon like the former Ranger he was. He stepped back from around the corner and said, “Have you checked all sides of the building?”
Walsh shook his head. He liked that Charlie asked no questions. He was just ready to help.
Charlie said, “Give me a few minutes. I’ll meet you in the corner grocery store. They don’t mind me coming in there, and they won’t notice you.”
Walsh followed the instructions and hustled down the street to the store owned by a young Korean couple. He used it sometimes to buy fresh fruit and milk. They greeted him like always, with a pleasant smile. He felt awkward lingering as long as he did, but no one seemed to notice, and finally, after nearly ten minutes, Charlie stepped into the store and greeted the young couple by name. Then he stepped directly back to Walsh and wasted no time. “There’s no one in back of your apartment. The guy in the front is definitely watching your building. He must not expect you to be sneaky. But I guess with no way to get in the back, he’d only watch your front door. Just follow my lead and we’ll get you in there, no problem.”
Major Bill Shepherd had seen protests before. Many of the marine officers in Europe had commanded embassy security details and seen how people could get stirred up about events halfway across the world. Even if they weren’t targeting the United States, he had studied crowds of protesters in front of other embassies. He had once seen a protest in front of the Israeli embassy in London that taught him how ugly these things could get. It was the typical, uninformed protest against so-called Israeli violence against Palestinians, which was actually self-defense. The London police had allowed a number of people to hide their faces, not just in traditional Muslim headgear but with ski masks and Guy Fawkes masks as well. Walsh had seen how that emboldened people, and soon there were a number of bottles of urine and red paint slung over the wall at the Israeli soldiers guarding the embassy. When the London police tried to stop this, the crowd turned on them and other bystanders. Before it was over, two little girls had been seriously injured by the protesters, and the London police had been forced to use tear gas to disperse the crowd.
Here in Germany it was a more complex situation. It was clear to the protesters, as well as the soldiers guarding the front of the base, that no one was going to get on the property. Any idiot could see that the soldiers with their rifles and ballistic shields could withstand just about anything the protesters threw at them. The responsibility really fell at the feet of the German police, and there were not nearly enough on the fringes of the crowd to control them if things got ugly. That would mean U.S. military personnel would have to take action, and that was the sort of thing that drew media attention.
Shepherd didn’t want to undercut the army commander, but his marines had had more experience with this at the embassy. It didn’t take much to convince the young army captain to let the marines step to the front of the defenders. Shepherd was right there with them, scanning the crowd. It was a mix of people, but most of them appeared to be under thirty. The crowd was close to two hundred and growing as cars came down the main road. He was shocked so many people would be out in the middle of the night. But the news covering the financial meltdown in Europe and the U.S., as well as pointing the finger toward one specific U.S. firm, Thomas Brothers Financial, had stirred the public up, and young people with nothing to do could easily enough find trouble.
Most of his marines were behind shields, and everyone had a helmet on. A bottle sailed out of the crowd and shattered harmlessly twenty feet in front of them. Shepherd looked to each side of the crowd to see if the police would react in any way. They looked nervous and ready to flee rather than prepared to keep the peace.
A blond man shouting in English with a German accent edged away from the crowd and closer to Shepherd. “We’re not going to let the U.S. ruin our economy. We’re not going to let the U.S. continue to occupy our country,” he yelled. “You must go. You must go.” The last part was chanted and immediately picked up by the rest of the protesters. A crushingly loud “You must go” pounded in Shepherd’s ears.
Shepherd looked along the line and could see that his marines were getting anxious and itching to point their rifles. He said in an even voice, “Stay calm, they’re just blowing off some steam.”
He could tell there was more behind this protest. He just didn’t want his marines to make it worse. They stayed in line right at the gate. The crowd surged forward, and the blond guy who was leading the chant came face-to-face with Shepherd.
The younger man smirked and said, “America is done. You will see your world burn.”
11
Walsh had found it comforting to talk with the homeless vet. It made him feel like he was doing something proactive. He had to look at Charlie with a sideways glance. This was all beyond him. He had never been involved in any sort of cloak-and-dagger activity. He had always been a financial guy, even in the marines. And now a homeless Vietnam vet was telling him how he would distract the man watching in front of Walsh’s apartment, giving Walsh time to slip into the building. All it required was Walsh sneaking behind the first building on the block and coming up between that building and his own. Then, when Charlie distracted the man in the car, Walsh could slide into his apartment unnoticed.