COVERT WRITERS TAKEDOWN, Joe Bergeron [epub e ink reader .txt] 📗

but held her at
arms length, something she didn’t enjoy.
In this business she’d learned to live with
reservation.
He had another agenda, maybe several - she’d
never know.
“Liz - get over to the hotel and take charge over
there. I’ll speak to you later.”
His call to the President found the Chief
Executive at breakfast.
“Yes, Scotty?”
“Sir, Michael Courtney’s escaped out
surveillance.”
“Is that so?”
“Were almost certain he’ll resurface in Miami.
Wirtham’s told us he and St. Croix are going into Cuba
with Navy Zero armaments , and either a full or partial
Zero team. If they run into problems on the island, they
could, and I’m certain they would, cause some extensive
physical damage. I think we should alert President
Santiago that they’re coming.”
281
“Can you find out where Courtney will connect
with the Zero team?”
“Probably, but only on your directive. They
keep their secrets better than we do.”
He thought for a moment.
“No, let them go. I’ll speak with Juan
Santiago. They’ll be invading a free nation with
American military personnel, but it won’t be under any
Executive Order. If they’re caught, it will appear to be
just be a rogue operation, but I’d still like to keep it out
of the Press if that occurs, and if we can. If they fail,
you and your people can go in and secure Pat McKenzie.
At all costs, we need him back on American soil. Try to
keep up with them in Miami”
“Yes, Sir. I understand.”
“Scotty, I know what are Navy Zeros are
trained to do…but can Courtney be dangerous?”
Orefice drew a breath, his voice deep, serious.
“Mister President, I’ve worked with
metaphysicians in Singapore, Lisbon, and Jakarta.
These people have an intuitive sense of the most basic
laws of the universe. When they use these laws in
practical applications, they can manipulate and control
you - and you don’t even know they’re doing it.
Wirtham’s told me Courtney’s one of the best. He’s a
TAO XIA Master…it makes him extremely capable, and
if he requires it…dangerous.”
Executive thoughts filled the silence on the
line.
“Do what you have to do. We may have no
choice but to wait it out and pick them up when, and if,
they get back.”
“If we can control Courtney, then we’ll have the
biggest piece.”
“Then let’s keep tabs on him, but don’t let any
of this get near the Press.”
“If it gets to the Press, we’ll be able to control
it, Sir.”
282
“Maybe the situation, but not necessarily
Courtney - stay in touch.”
“Yes, Sir.”
Truth and Realism
A philosophical definition of truth would
encapsulate the Common Sense Theory Of Factuality,
sometimes also known as the Correspondence Theory,
which claims that something is true if it corresponds to
the facts of its being.
Within the science and art of TAO-XIA, an
absolute idealist like Michael Courtney would put
forward a coherent theory of truth, in which he would
define absolute truths as only ‘The Whole’, and
anything less than that merely aspiring to degrees of
truth; therefore, he’d always establish a relationship
between truth and reality as it related to any entity.
‘The Whole’, as it would exist for him in Law
Fourteen, would have to be the same as that between a
picture and what it represents, even if ‘The Whole’
seemed to represent itself in paradox.
Courtney’s truth of an entity would actually be
relative to the awareness, instincts, and intuitive
responses of himself as an individual. He understood
through observation, tempered with instincts and
experience, and additionally through ultimate realities.
An analogy he used in teaching TAO XIA to his
students was that if something looks like a duck,
waddles like a duck, and quacks like a duck, there is a
strong possibility it will be a duck, but this is also only
true for those who want it to be a duck. If someone
wanted the entity to be a chicken, then it would be a
chicken, even though the damn thing went around
quacking like a duck.
283
For years, Courtney had prepared the
philosophical game plan for what he believed to be six
hundred writers placed strategically throughout the
United States in the nation’s daily newspapers.
The reality of Yankee Echo was three thousand
writers, news directors, bureau chiefs, trade, union
publication, and lobby journal editors, and even fifty
publishers of children’s school weeklies. The
organization was actually five times larger than he
thought it was, and ten times more powerful.
Fifty corporations, including McKenzie
Industries, controlled enormous information
capabilities through the clandestine use of United
States print media.
The thought patterns of dozens of millions of
people were regularly channeled into directions thought
to be most advantageous to their agendas.
Through the always-available, and expeditious
use of the organization, and further through the
application of The Universal Laws as interpreted and
applied by Courtney, the system, with its tremendous
power, needed only minor, albeit judicious adjustments
to accomplish its philosophical objectives.
But there was more, it was greater than just a
multiple corporate issue.
By controlling a great majority of the delivery
system affecting the American conscience, and by
creating perceived needs in the minds of both the U.S.
public and union memberships, lobbyists would be
geared toward influencing the development of
legislation that satisfied those needs, spurred by the
corporate giants who needed to keep control of their
own interests.
The insurance policy keeping that support in
place was The Central Intelligence Agency. The
American public, and its elected officials were
controlled without overt malice. The question of the
CIA’s domestic survival was answered, quite simply, by
payoff. 284
Saturday, May 27, 9:55 a.m.
Approaching Miami International, the pilot
worked the trim tabs on the airliner, his air speed
reducing dramatically as they approached runway sixsix.
Seven minutes later, a perfect landing was
history.
Courtney had unfastened his seat belt before
the light went on behind the screened display telling
him it was OK to do so. St. Croix would be waiting, and
probably the CIA also.
He was right about both. One man, besides
Andy St. Croix would be watching for his arrival, a
faxed photo held in a folded newspaper would assist the
agent in identifying him.
St. Croix maneuvered as close to the gate ramp
as he could.
Courtney, his bag slung over his left shoulder,
reviewed the man he had come to trust, but also
assessed everyone behind him in the waiting area.
There were men, women and children paired
off in twos, threes, and fours. Additionally, there were
four solitary women, and seven solitary men.
Two of the men wore jackets and ties. Five of them had
on casual attire, one reading a newspaper with no sign
of baggage or of intent to purposely receive anyone
departing Delta flight 412.
He approached his friend with a smile and an
extended right hand.
“Good to see you, Andy.”
“You too, Mick.”
“We need to talk - I need some tactical advice.”
“What’s the problem?”
“I’m sure we’re being watched, and we’re going
to be followed. I have some stories to tell you, and I
want to do some of that here.”
285
The Southerner motioned to two seats at a
vacant high-top table outside of a twenty-four hour
snack bar.
“Let’s go over there, Mick.”
Twenty minutes later, Courtney had finished
detailing as best he could, the events that had taken
place since they last saw one another. Kay had gone
home to Connecticut, Pat McKenzie had lied to both of
them about Yankee Echo and who controlled it, the
encounter with Elizabeth Hendrecks, the meeting that
had been set up with the President, the assumed
urgency, and finally, the ‘writes’ that would be
published next Friday.
“This thing gets more interesting by the hour,
Mick…sit tight for a minute.
The Zero produced a portable telephone from
his jacket.
Pushing two digits on its keypad, he received
an almost immediate response.
“Snake here.
“Ah got m’ah friend Mick with me here in the
Delta terminal. We need a safe route outta here. Looks
like we got trackers.”
Six seconds of silence - it was anticipated.
“Meet me at the Oceanscape Tours heliport
office. It’s just North of the Delta terminal outside.”
“How long?”
“Ten minutes.”
“Got it.”
Pocketing the phone, he slapped his friend’s
arm.
“Let’s go, Mick. Y’all gonna get your first
lesson in cowboys.”
It took twelve minutes on foot to reach the
office of Oceanscape Tours.
286
It’s owner, a former Vietnam Huey Jock, and a
former All-American half back out of Michigan State
who’d turned down a pro contract to do what he loved,
stood chatting with a smaller man, but of equal stature,
who also was doing what he loved. Both men, friends
for years, had each other’s total confidence and respect.
St. Croix and Courtney approached the two as
the Snake was handing the former running back, now
chopper pilot, fifteen one-hundred dollar bills.
St. Croix made the first introduction.
“Mick, this here’s Anthony Snake Coverty.
Snake - meet Michael Courtney.”
While shaking hands with Courtney, the active
Zero made further introductions.
“Chuck Redding, meet Andy St. Croix and
Michael Courtney, Chuck owns Oceanscape, we‘re
taking one of his birds for a short ride.”
The Snake now spoke directly to St. Croix
“I gave Chuck a flight plan for the Keys, Andy,
but we’re going out to an off island. My jockey’s
meeting us there in our Huey. We’ll switch aircraft.
He’ll fly Oceanscape’s twenty miles north of here, park
it at a private airport, and take a cab back. Chuck will
take a cab up to the airport and retrieve his property.
I’ll fly us back from the island.”
St. Croix turned to Courtney.
“How’s that sound to y’all, Mick?”
“Sounds great - where’s the Huey take us?”
The Snake and St. Croix exchanged smiles. It
was the active Zero who answered the question.
“About one mile from where we stand - just
down the East-West runway - let’s get moving.”
Coverty reved Oceanscape’s four-seat Bell
Ranger to 3000 RPM’s over its takeoff minimum with
its current load, gently lifting off the heliport’s concrete
as the man from the terminal with the newspaper, and
photograph of an analyst, spoke into his CIA-issued
radio.
287
“They’re leaving in a helicopter from
Oceanscape Tours. I’ll check out the flight plan and call
you back.”
It would be an exercise in futility.
One hour and thirty six minutes later,
Courtney, St. Croix and Coverty stepped off the reworked
Huey.
A military helicopter is a functional flying
instrument that is either specifically built, or converted
for use by military forces. A military helicopter's
mission is a function of its design or conversion.
A Vietnam relic, this specific bird had been
retrofitted specifically for Zero use with a souped-up
Lycoming engine, radar-jamming electronics, laser
target designators, Hellfire anti-tank missiles, a 30mm
Gatling cannon, and Hydra rockets. It had the
capability to lock on to, and destroy, multiple targets
from two to four miles above and away from designated
goals.
Walking to the Zero-secured hangar, St. Croix
excused both himself and Courtney from Coverty, the
latter understanding their need to exchange critical
information.
Both would brief the active Zero later.
Coverty knew St. Croix trusted Courtney.
He also knew he’d have to trust him with the
plan, time for implementation, retreat, reunion, and
disposition of resources. In his gut - he also had a
feeling there would be force involved.
Zero’s, by nature, are exceptionally insightful.
288
Chapter 11
Syllogism and Opposition
Aristotle, the founder of traditional formal logic
defined syllogism as a discourse in which, certain things
being stated, something other than what is stated
follows of necessity from their being so.
Although a syllogism relates to every kind of
valid deduction, Aristotle, and almost all of his
successors usually, if not always, dealt with syllogisms
that linked propositions which could be expressed in
subject-predicate