150.
With frequency bias, or more specifically the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon in full play, I read her proposal with special interest, as a surgeon might read a technical paper on revolutionary ER techniques. I amazed at the similarity between her concise vision of the plan, and my own. They may not be great minds but they are thinking alike, and there is often great power in that alone.
The major obstacle will obviously be in springing Big. Housed along with a who’s who of International criminals and terrorists at the ADX Super Max site in Florence, Colorado, the facility smugly boasting of having a perfect ‘non-escape’ record, any scheme to break that streak would take skill, cunning, bravado a little luck and a damn good reason.
It serendipitously strikes me as something so impossibly ludicrous, so unthinkable, borderline insane that it might be feasible simply because it has never been successfully done. Until now? We have the skill, the cunning is current, bravado is in our DNA, we believe that luck is the residue of design and our reason is pure poetic justice.
The encoded document sent by Her Majesty is brilliant. Flawless and concise, it is a timeline of an opportunistic covert counter-terror operation, equal in parts of espionage, intelligence, tactical acumen and modern technological expertise. As I re-read and make notations with my red extra-fine Sharpie, I am amazed at how similar her finished product is to my rough outline. There are a few minor issues that need subtle editing for a more ‘mature’ application, but for the most part, it is ninety-percent ready to roll.
But I am standing in the middle of the road over her plan to create a tactical diversion as I continue to feel that our best chance of success comes from a united effort and not, as she suggests, from an internal game of intelligence keep-away. It has long been my experience that if a company, team, business or branch of government is to be successful the slightest hint of an executive level hidden agenda will disrupt, decay and destroy any long-term benefit. History has a funny way of reminding us the validity of this reality — but — in our line of work there is compensation made to the end justifying the means, or as The Phoenix was fond of saying, “I don’t care how you do it, just do it, and don’t implicate me in the process.” Any politician that says he is not a crook, a racist, a homophobe or a misyoginist, usually is.
All begging the question, do we include TOM in the blatant illegality of the operation’s finer points?
After a hot shower, a frozen peach protein smoothie and a ten minute sit on the zafu, the answer arrives in the solidly affirmative. Still I have built in a few options that will only be initiated under a preselected set of circumstances. I call this the TMC protocol and see it as a ready for use fail safe. The titular initials lifted from an eerily similar plot-twist in the famous spy novel The Manchurian Candidate.
Almost satisfied with the shaping of the five-page document, I decide to re-read from the top and then take a nap to rest and recover. That will leave me with about eight hours before the meeting. I check in with Harlan and Julie for their comments. As expected Julie wants TOM involved in everything, and Harlan wants him to have nothing to do with it, tossing the plausible deniability card on the table.
I remind them that I am the tie-breaker, thank them for their tireless efforts and advise the same course of action as I am immediately initiating, asking also for a 0800 burners-only conference call with ourselves and the QoH.
They agree and sign off, leaving us with three precious hours of restorative down time.
Frequency bias tells me that a push is coming to a high-speed confrontation with shove.
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