The setting sun created a painting of bright orange and deep purples over the water. However, none of them knew exactly which body of water it was. David thought it had to be the South Pacific based on the time of flight and climate. But if that were true, why take them here, so far away?
The room was filled with curious men and women from a variety of places. Some wore power suits. Some had crew cuts and wore military fatigues. Still others had on skinny jeans with fitted tees. David gathered from several informal introductions that their backgrounds were as diverse as their looks suggested. There were computer programmers and scientists, engineers and psychologists, military officers and policy analysts. All were well educated and incredibly bright. David counted twenty of them in all. Like Henry and Bill, each had been told that their purpose there had something to do with a very important national security project. But that was all they had been told before flying to the island. It seemed that Tom was the one recruiter who had spilled the beans. David’s friends from his plane had already started to spread the word that this was about China, creating quite a bit of excitement.
The chatter hushed as a tall and very attractive Asian woman walked to the center of the classroom’s lowered stage. She wore black slacks and a sleeveless silk shirt. She looked out at the members of the classroom and they looked back at her, silenced.
She said, “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Red Cell. There are two reasons that you are here. First, to piece together our collective knowledge so we better understand what we now know to be true about a future Chinese attack on the United States.”
The statement drew a mix of shock and disbelief. A few shouted questions but the woman held out her hands for silence.
She continued, “I know this is hard to believe for most of you. But I assure you it is real. I ask that you hold all of your questions until the end. I believe I will cover a lot of them right now, and we will be providing a lot of amplifying details into the night. But I say again, we have reason to believe that China is planning to attack the United States in some type of large-scale military operation within the next 12 to 18 months.”
Shouts erupted from the room and, again, the woman held out her palms until people quieted down. David found her calm and confidence remarkable. “We’ll answer all questions in due time. The second reason you are all here is to actually develop plans for China to attack the United States. I know this sounds ludicrous at first, but hear me out. That is the main objective of a Red Cell. Because we don’t know exactly what the enemy will do, we want to be prepared for what they could do. Over the next three weeks, you will have no communication with the outside world. You will work from early in the morning until late at night. And it will be crucially important work.”
She walked off the stage as she spoke. She stepped up the tiered levels of the classroom, careful to make eye contact with everyone in the room.
“We want you to collaborate and innovate. Do what you do best — find solutions to challenging problems. Each of you has been chosen because you are one of the top minds in your field. This was a highly selective program. You each have been handpicked for a certain relevant skill set. You should be proud of the service that you will perform for your country, although it will not be something that you can ever put on a resume.”
David watched as she marched back down the stairs and stood on the lower stage. She had perfect posture, tanned skin, and great muscle tone. She was very tall. He figured she must be five foot eleven. And she spoke with a captivating charisma that made it hard to take his eyes off her.
“Many of you have top secret clearances with our government or the military prior to arriving. Those of you that did not have been rushed an interim clearance. Normally that can take a year or more. But this was an exceptional case… and we’ve done our homework. Everyone has been quickly and fully vetted. When I’m done here, you will all file in to the next room to sign some admin papers, including a non-disclosure agreement. Nothing that goes on here will ever be made public. These sessions are classified at the highest level.”
She stood completely still. Every pause seemed to signify the importance of what she was saying.
“Secrecy is not our only priority. We want the work here to be the very best quality. It must be. You have authority from the highest levels of our government to share any and all knowledge of your prior work experience in order to ensure that we take every possible consideration into account on this project. You will all be free to discuss anything with each other, regardless of classification level, to achieve our ultimate goal of protecting the United States.”
David noticed some of the people sitting in the seats around the classroom raise their heads a little higher. They were proud to be chosen for something that was deemed so important. A few squirmed at the idea of sharing classified information in an unfamiliar setting.
“My name,” the woman said, “is Lena Chou. I am normally one of the CIA’s clandestine operations officers. Here on this island, however, I represent a joint task force that includes, among others, the NSA, CIA, FBI, Homeland Security, all branches of the military, and several other agencies… even DARPA. That’s right, the geeks that invented the Internet.”
Lena gave a bright smile that lit up the room. There were nervous chuckles in the audience.
“I will be the supervisor of this Red Cell for the next three weeks. I’ve done this twice before. In past Red Cells, we’ve used people like you from very creative and diverse fields to help build mock attack scenarios. We have even used authors of techno thrillers to help us create fictional terrorist attack plots. While we don’t have any authors here this time, we are trying something new. Natesh Chaudry is the CEO of a consulting firm located in Silicon Valley. Natesh would you like to say anything?”
A young man that couldn’t have been past his late twenties stood up from his seat in the back row. He wore stylish jeans and a collared Lacoste shirt. David thought he looked like he was from India or Pakistan.
He said, “Hello guys, I’m Natesh. I am glad to meet all of you. I just arrived here today like you. Also like you, I didn’t know where I was going or what this exactly was about. Lena gave me a little bit of a preview about 30 minutes ago. Needless to say, I’m still in shock. Probably like a lot of you. But I’m glad that I’m getting the opportunity to contribute to something so important.”
David thought this young man looked like he was out of his league. He seemed nervous. David didn’t blame him. Still, he spoke with an easy-going tone that made him instantly trustworthy.
Natesh continued, “Like Lena said, my team and I work in California with a variety of companies. We help some of the top firms in the world increase their level of innovation in new products and services. Normally I bring members of my team with me. Due to the sensitive nature of this project, it’s just me here this time. To put it simply, I’m an idea guy. I’ve built my company by helping other companies create winning ideas. I have been brought in to act as a moderator during the sessions. I plan to break us up into teams for much of the time, and I’ll float between stations. Sometimes, if the conversation goes to one of my areas of expertise, I’ll offer insights. Honestly, while I don’t have much expertise in the invasion department… ” Natesh was half-laughing in disbelief as he said that. “… I’m a strategist at my core. I think you’ll find that I can help connect some of your insights in ways that will make our overarching ideas more powerful.” The classroom smiled with a tense politeness. David could tell that from the expressions that people were just beginning to wrap their minds around what was going on.