Chapter XXXIV: Be thou, my vision.

1020hrs, 15 December 2013, East Point Library, Atlanta, Georgia, United States

"There's a wonderful phrase: 'the fog of war.' What "the fog of war" means is: war is so complex it's beyond the ability of the human mind to comprehend all the variables. Our judgment, our understanding, are not adequate. And we kill people unnecessarily." Robert McNamara

"Representative Clemens, thank you for coming out here to our annual Christmas book drive!"

The head librarian of the East Point Library in, well, East Point, Georgia had kindly asked Georgia to come and give a small speech to the children and their families prior to Christmas. And with election season rolling around again (you could never think too early for election season, O'Conner had advised her), this would score major brownie points with the voters. Or she thought anyway.

"Thank you Ms. Roberts," Georgia said politely. There was a moderate crowd of people inside the auditorium, with their kids braving the cold weather to get here. "As your representative, I support educational endeavors such as these, and encourage others to do so as well. I have personally lobbied for thousands of dollars in educational funds to be directed here…"

There were some boos and hisses in the crowd. Georgia smiled and carried on, but inside she was deeply saddened by the reactions she was getting.

"…and for the betterment of this community. I will not tolerate any cuts in the budget for education here, nor will I allow any…"

"Tell that to my kid!" a heckler roared out in the crowd. "Our school got closed down because you allowed that Japanese company to come in here and take over everything!"

"Yeah!" another added. "You're a sellout to them!"

More boos and jeers followed. Georgia continued her speech, but at this point, it was hopeless. Most of the crowd left in disgust, and there were only a couple of dozen people of supporters left after it was all said and done. Most of them were old as well. Of course, the elderly citizens' vote was critical because…well, they actually voted.

"Thank you…" she said to one elderly lady who had come up to her and shook her hand. The room was nearly empty at this point, except for two young women who had been waiting patiently in the back for their turn to speak with her. They were wearing glasses, jeans and hoodies, but with the hoods down at the moment.

"Hi, Representative Clemens?" one of them asked. She was a gorgeous blonde, a slim figure, and with warm, friendly eyes. "We'd like to have a word with you."

"Well, that's why I'm here," Georgia replied. They didn't seem from her constituency though; it was a mostly African-American district around here. Perhaps she was wrong though. Whoever she was, her English was impeccable, with a slight Received Pronunciation accent.

"Is there someplace else we can talk?" the blonde asked.

Red flags started popping up all over Georgia's head. "Okay, I've been through this, and I don't want your Nakanishi folks around here anymore, just…just leave me alone for a couple of weeks, alright?"

"Ma'am…" The second woman spoke up now, but she was softer in tone than the blonde…and had blue hair.

"Is your hair actually like that?" Georgia asked before realizing that was probably not the best question to be asking right at this moment.

"Uh, heh," the blue-haired woman replied. "Long story. But we're not with the Nakanishi Group. We're with the Japanese government."

Georgia looked at them suspiciously. "The Japanese government, hmm?"

Mina, sensing some indecision, decided to bluff her way into getting her to talk.

"We know of the incidents that you've had with the Nakanishi Group," she said, trying to stay calm on the inside.

Georgia's eyes widened at that.

"You mean…you know about the shooting? And the computers?"

Mina nodded, even though she had no idea what the hell she was talking about. "We have something else…that proof that Nakanishi is up to something."

"Well, what is it?"

Amy and Mina looked at her. "Oh right, somewhere else. Come to my car."

She walked out to her vehicle in the parking lot, a Dodge Durango, a choice she was quickly regretting due to the high gas prices.

"Hold up." The blue haired one touched something on the glasses she was wearing, and looked at the vehicle for a second. "It's bugged."

"Yeah, what else is new?" She'd known that for months, but every time she had the bugs removed, they somehow popped back up.

"I'm going to disable them, hold on." She stood there for a couple more seconds, then nodded to Georgia. "We're all clear here."

"Okay...whatever you say." These two were some of the weirder people that she had dealt with, but then again, it was so much better than those three lobbyists she had to deal with all the time. Georgia unlocked the doors to her SUV and climbed into the driver's seat, but not before the blonde lady had stood in front of the door.

"Uh…what are doing? Are you planning on driving or something?"

"Oh. No, of course. Sorry, I got confused."

"Right…" It was official, these two were nuts. Then why was she spending time talking to them?

"So, what do you have?" Georgia said, after they were inside the car.

"I have this," the blue-haired one said. She pulled out a tablet computer and powered it up. After a couple of seconds, she played a video file for her.

"Um, no offense," she said to them after a couple of seconds had passed. "But I don't speak whatever their speaking on that video."

"Oh…sorry," the blonde said. "They're speaking in Japanese."

"What are they saying then?"

"They're quite simply, talking about how they are going to take over the world."

Georgia looked at them. Then she started laughing.

"Okay, now this has reached levels of crazy I haven't seen in years," she laughed.

"But you must know something is up with Nakanishi," the blue-haired person replied, quite stoically. "This video was taken at their HQ in Tokyo, and these are all the officers in charge of Nakanishi's overseas operations."

"Who's the woman then?" Georgia said, still unbelieving of their story.

"She's Beryl, the assistant to Ichigo Yamada, the CEO of the Nakanishi Group," blue-hair said to her.

"So, why is a personal assistant running the show then?"

Blue-haired kept explaining. "Yamada is a cokehead, and it's a well-known fact that all he cares about is getting paid. So if he leaves the business up to Beryl, then the entire better. But she's been using her power to mastermind a series of terrorist attacks that will occur tomorrow at 1730…"

"Seventeen what?"

"Five-thirty," the blonde one said.

"What's going on tomorrow in D.C?" blue hair asked her.

"There's going to be a session of Congress and the president is going to address the nation at…" Georgia trailed off on that one.

"Five-thirty?" the blonde one asked.

"Yeah…yeah, that's correct. So, where are these 'terrorist' attacks going to occur?" Georgia asked. She turned the heat up a little bit to make it warmer.

"There's going to be major terrorist attacks all over the United States, and I'm afraid that there's nothing we can do about those. The one we should be worried about it that they're going to detonate two nuclear weapons in Washington D.C and New York City."

That got her attention.

"Wait, there's nukes in the country?!" Georgia felt her heart in her throat now.

"Yeah, but the thing is…"

Georgia looked at the blue-haired one, but let her continue. This was certainly getting very interesting.

"…I can't figure out where they would store such a weapon without drawing too much attention."

Her eyes widened some more.

"I think I know where they're keeping that nuke then."

"Where?!" The two of them said at the same time.

Georgia was slowly coming around to the information that the two had given her. And with WMDs in play, the stakes had increased significantly.

"It's where we got shot at…wait at second, aren't you supposed to know that already?"

The blonde one shrugged sheepishly. "Sorry…we're aware of the incidents…but not what they were. So can you tell us about where you got shot at?"

Georgia glared at her, annoyed by her lie but saw no other choice than to go on. "Me and Charles…you do know who Charles is…right?"

Blue-hair nodded. "Representative Charles O'Conner, from Illinois." She butchered the Illinois part, pronouncing it "Eee-rah-noise."

That satisfied her curiosity for now. "Me and Charles went to this meat processing plant in Orange, Virginia. We were shot at by some people there, and then some representatives from the Nakanishi Group were at our offices to greet us, and basically blackmailed us into silence."

"So, they had something to hide there then," blue haired said to her, poking at her tablet computer some more in the backseat. "And whatever they wanted, they wanted you out of it. But killing two US Representatives would have attracted too much attention, so they used…what was it they used against you?"

"Long story. But then, it gets even better. A couple months later, I get an email from this guy who works tech support…"

"A tech support guy?" Blonde asked. "Did you get his name?"

"No, but he sent me an email telling me that Nakanishi was tracking my movements, and that he wanted to let me know because he thought it was wrong for them to do so. He sent some information over, and Charles got in contact with some of his higher up friends, but they got to them first, and destroyed my computer remotely."

"Damn." Blue-haired looked at Blonde. "That corroborates what Sudhir told us in Bangalore."

"Wait, you met the guy?"

"And then some," Blonde replied. "We got into a massive firefight in Bangalore trying to get to the proof that you have here."

"Alright, then," Blonde told Georgia. "Do you believe us now?"

Georgia looked at both of them, still very skeptical, but she wasn't going to pass up an opportunity like this. This was the third and last chance they had to get back at the plague that was Nakanishi, but also to prevent a massive nationwide tragedy as well.

"One last thing," Georgia asked them.

"Yeah?"

"What's yall's names?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," blonde said apologetically. "I'm Mina. This is Amy."

"Thank you for listening to our story," Amy said, bowing politely (well, as much as could be done in a SUV seat).

"No problem. So what's your plan?" This was starting to come together, and even if she had only known these two women for a couple of minutes, she finally trusted them.

"We need to get to Orange," Mina said. "But we also need to alert the authorities about this as well. Since you have the influence, perhaps you should fly up to Washington, get your compatriots together and tell the president."

"What about the nuke in New York?" Losing either city would be disastrous, but if they could only save one…

"We don't know where that it. Maybe we if we raid the meat processing plant, we can find something about the data there."

"Okay, I'll fly up to D.C, with a copy of that information you have there," Georgia said, getting a flash drive from out of her purse. Ironically, it was from one of the Nakanishi lobbyists, who had given it to her randomly after some "meeting" they had with her.

"Got it." Amy copied it over, and handed it back to her. "We'll try to meet you in D.C, after we take out the nuclear weapon threat. Are you going to be okay, or do you want one of us to go with you, you know, as an escort?"
Georgia wondered what division of the Japanese government that these two operated under, but after all of what she had seen and been through, she thought it best not to ask too many questions.

"No, I'll be fine. Just watch out when you get into D.C, Nakanishi replaced part of the Capitol Police there a couple of months ago, and so they might have it in for you."
"Thanks for that," Mina said, fiddling with her hair. "Also…do you know where a gun store is?"

That was something, for some reason, did not surprise Georgia. "Yeah…there's one right by the airport over there."

"Do you mind if we take your car?" Amy asked her. "For the mission? We'll be careful with it."

"Ah…" Now Georgia was really reluctant on that one. But with high gas prices…if it got "accidentally" destroyed, which it more than likely would, she could collect the insurance money and get a better car.

"Yeah, sure, why not? Can you give me some money for the flight in return? You know, with all that government connections you have?"

"Sure." Mina handed her a wad of $100s.

"Wow. You sure you're not a drug dealer or something?" Georgia joked, but that was an all too common sight around here, especially when she was growing up.

"I'm quite sure, yes." Mina smiled at her, reassuringly.

"Okay then," Amy said, tapping the directions to Orange, VA on her computer. "It'll take us about nine hours to get there, so we're cutting it real close."

"Not if I'm driving," Mina said. She was eager to try out driving here in America.

"I can't wait," Amy replied sarcastically. "Ms. Georgia?"

"It's Representative Clemens, actually, but you can call be Georgia." It was a common mistake, but having those Nakanishi folks around and constantly make that one simple mistake had her a bit on edge.

"Of course. Georgia, can you take us to that gun store?" Amy tapped on her computer to make sure what weapons they might need for the upcoming mission.

At Ranger Gun Store, on the intersection of Highway 75 and 285, Joe Hitchens was reading some…gentleman's literature, and in general, enjoying his day. It hadn't been a busy one, but he had gotten some sweet sales already when some of those militia people came in and bought some more assault rifles and ammo.

The store itself wasn't too interesting, lined with guns on all sides, decorated with American flags, a "Don't Tread on Me," flag, and a Dixie flag (the battle one, not the stars and bars). And of course, there was the sarcastic sign on the cash register that said "We don't call 911."

The bell on the door rang, and he looked up to see three women come into the store, one black, two kind of pasty looking ones with blonde hair and…blue hair? The two other women were wearing hoodies and sunglasses as well, partially disguising their identities but Joe didn't really care all that much. Just don't rob his store, and everything would be fine.

"Morning Representative," he said to the black lady. He was very up to date on politics, especially gun politics in the United States; he approved of his Rep's stance on the issue of gun ownership. "What can I do you for?"

"Well…" she began, but Mina cut her off.

"What kind of assault rifles do you carry?"

Joe pointed to the back shelf behind him. There were shotguns, hunting rifles, assault rifles, large-caliber rifles, .22 rimfire rifles…

"How about this Bushmaster AR-15 here?" He took the M16 derivative off of the shelf. "It's their Superlight ones, weighs only seven pounds, thirty round magazine, with .223 rounds." It was without rails or any other accessories, but it would get the job done fair enough.

"Sounds good," she replied, taking the rifle from him and pointing it up into the air. The iron sight was a little bit off, but she could adjust that on the way there. Hopefully.

"What else do you have?" Amy asked him. He looked like a hick, complete with mullet, stubble, a slight pot-belly, and some crooked teeth to boot. But far from being the stereotypical redneck, he was probably very well educated and smart; you had to know your stuff when dealing with guns. Otherwise, you didn't live very long.

"I've got this Ruger Mini-14," Joe replied. Pulling the gun off of the shelf, it had a passing resemblance to the old M14 rifle that the Army used during Vietnam before they switched to the M16A1. It had a wooden buttstock and furniture, along with a thirty round magazine, with semi-auto fire.

"Eh, I don't like that one," she said, feeling the weight of the gun and the bulkiness in her small hands. "Got something lighter than that?"

"Yeah, I've got this Beretta Cx4 Storm here." It looked like an assault rifle, but it wasn't, only chambered to fire pistol bullets and the like. It was actually used on Battlestar Galactica, in fact due to its futuristic look.

"Looks good. I'll take it." Amy picked up that weapon and again, looked through the sight and felt its weight. Perfect.

"I've got a special going on," Joe piped in, always the consummate businessman. "You buy those two rifles, I'll give you half off on ammunition and two pistols to go along with it."

"Sure." Mina looked along the display cases at the assortment of pistols there. They already had pistols, but you never know…

"What about this revolver here?" She pointed to a rather large revolver on the bottom shelf of the display case.

"That monstrosity?" Joe scoffed at the people who were always were interested in it. "That Smith and Wesson Model 500 fires a massive .500 caliber round. You won't want that thing unless you're fighting baldricks or something like that, heh. And even if you were, it would knock you flat on your ass."

"Baldricks?" Mina looked at him curiously.

"Nevermind. Perhaps this weapon would be better for y'all." He pulled out a couple of Colt Pythons, chambered for the self-defense standard, the .38 Special round. Amy felt the revolver in her hand, opening the chamber and inspecting the cylinder. Mina did the same with a similar revolver. She nodded her approval.

"Yeah, that'll do," she said confidently. "I'll take two of those, with 120 rounds each of .38 Special, 500 rounds of .223, and…what does the Cx4 Storm take?"

"This one? .40 S&W."

"300 rounds of .40 S&W. Oh, and as many magazines that you have for each of those guns."

"Okay…I'm going to have to call in a background check, and some ID as well." It was standard procedure for this type of purchase; actually for any type of gun purchase. He was also slightly suspicious of the amount of ammunition they were buying as well, but hey, it was actually a common occurrence down here in the South. "Just to let y'all know, these weapons have all be tested and a ready to go," he stated proudly. "You folks seem like you know what you're doing, so a little bit of maintenance and elbow grease, and these guns will be ready to go."

"Thanks for that."

Georgia looked nervously at those two, but of course, they had Georgia driver's licenses that could be confirmed by the ATF check, due to Amy cracking the system and putting themselves in there (under an alias, of course). The ATF and the FBI would later "overlook" these transgressions due to the nature of their operation.

The background check took a little bit, but they were cleared and they paid for the weapons, which cost about $6000 in total. In addition, she paid for some winter boots, some heavy duty coats, two KA-Bar knives, two tactical vests and some jerky, which came to another $1000. Mina paid with a credit card that would lead to a proxy account in the Caymans, and they left the store both happy with their purchase. Joe was also pretty psyched as well; more money for him. Perhaps he would close up early today and go to the bar.

Georgia was still confused at how that happened, and made a note to have a talk with some of the state legislators about the gun laws down here.

"We'll drop you off at the airport, okay?" Mina was now driving the Durango, with Amy in the front seat and Georgia in the back, uncomfortably sitting with all of the weapons that the two had purchased.

"That'll be nice," she said.

The airport was a scant five minutes away, and they dropped Georgia in front of the departures area.

"Good luck you two," she said, getting out of the car. "I'll get this information to my friends, and hopefully, we can stop this."

"Where should we meet you?" Mina asked her.

"Meet me at my apartment in Alexandria, Virginia. We can work out a plan there." She scribbled down an address and handed it to Amy.

"Thanks," Amy said. Georgia nodded in reply.

With that, she exited the car, rushing off to the nearest airline booth that had any available flights. Mina stepped on the accelerator and pulled out of the departures lane, and sped toward the highway, following Amy's directions toward Orange, Virginia.

Nephrite was on his cell phone in the Dulles Airport, waiting for his baggage to come around on the carousel.

"Pick up…please, pick up." The phone continued to ring as he watched the baggage come of onto the carousel.

"Hello?" A female's voice on the other line answered.

"Molly, Molly, is that you?" Nephrite felt relieved when she picked up the phone.

"Yeah, of course it's me, how are you Maxfield?" She was very excited to hear from him; perhaps they would go for a nice night on the town, see the sights and all the Christmas decorations up.

"Molly, I don't have a lot of time, but there is something that you need to do for me."

"Of course, Max, anything for you."

Nephrite took a deep breath, knowing what he was about to do was completely against what he had prepared himself for.

"I need you to get out of D.C today."

"What…?" Molly didn't like the tone that Nephrite said that in. She gripped the phone tighter.

"Go to our special place out in the country. You know, by Gettysburg?"

"Yeah…but why? It's really cold out there at this time." That cabin was scary sometimes, even with Nephrite. But now? When it was dark and cold? No offense to Gettysburg, but it was only a small town, nothing like the big city and not quant at all like Alexandria.

"Just…there's going to be a lot of bad stuff happening tomorrow," he said, trying to wipe off his sweaty hands. He saw his bag come down the carousel, and he picked it up, grunting as he did so.

"You okay there, Max?" Molly asked. Why was he sounding so anxious? This was completely not like him.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, just getting my luggage. But please, there's something really bad going down tomorrow, and you shouldn't be anywhere near D.C, okay?"

"Uh…okay, Max. I believe you."

"I'll meet you there on the 19th, and we can have a good holiday there, alright?"

"That sounds good then," Molly replied, even though it didn't. "I'll see you then."

"Bye…"

"Bye."

Nephrite hung up the phone, and hoped to God that she would heed his advice. If not, he had just condemned his girlfriend to death. He pushed those thoughts to the side for now though, and walked out to the arrivals area, where there was a company van waiting for him.