Stealth Terror: More Frightening, More Profitable
Why would stealth terror be more frightening and more profitable?
From Chapter Fifty of Die By Wire
A dense gauze of cigarette smoke packed the windowless room so tightly the naked white walls seemed to recede toward an unseen horizon.
An unornamented round table barely a meter in diameter rested on gray institutional carpeting, its epicenter hovering precisely over the spot where the absolutely square room’s diagonals intersected.
Khan Nasiri sat at the table in a bare, straight-backed chair, facing the door, facing Mecca.
Years ago, he had scoured the conference room of all distractions and furnished it in a minimally comfortable manner to eliminate every possible thought save those necessary to solve the problems discussed at the table.
Three other men occupied the remaining chairs, all precisely 90 degrees apart aligned with the subtle compass scribes on the table. His council of elders, responsible for Transportation, Finance, and Operations. All shared his blood, and all pledged to him their undying allegiance. Nasiri compensated them well for their unceasing work.
All knew from Nasiri’s previous actions that disloyalty led quickly to death.
Transportation, Finance, and Operations believed in Nasiri’s vision that global domination by a unified worldwide nation of Islam would be brought about by a “Chinese model.”
The Chinese didn’t preach, they didn’t launch violent attacks and yet their exploitation of American lust for material things, corporate greed and criminal mismanagement of public debt by politicians had brought the United States to its knees swifter and more surely than flying a thousand airliners into a thousand buildings ever could.
“The Chinese government owns enough of America’s national debt bonds to instantly ruin them should Washington choose a global course of which Beijing does not approve,” Nasiri said often.
China owned America and they did it without firing a shot or dropping a bomb.
Stealth devastation meant the war was over before the losers ever knew it had started.
Invisible enemies initiated rash, unfocused, counterproductive actions. The unknown assailant invited internal distrust, strengthened the attacker’s position, preserved the assets needed to push on to victory. And the terror of the unknown.
Nasiri gave Finance a nod.
“We’ve had short positions for months now in all relevant stocks,” said Finance. “Our direct hand does not show in the obvious areas — airline and insurance company stocks.
“Such as?” Nasiri said.
“Currency trading positions, bonds, secondary stocks like targeted manufacturing companies and, of course, military contractors and security firms whose business will prosper. So too our closest allies and supporters.”
Nasiri rewarded him with a nod of sage approval.
“The financial rewards will reap billions upon billions of Euros that will help us further our Chinese strategy.”
Nasiri nodded. “Our hawala operation will allow us to buy substantial portions of the U.S. bond portfolio held by the Chinese. Anonymously.”
……
And from Chapter Fifty-Seven
“Why?” Theo asked. “Why worse than 9/11?”
“Because in 9/11, we had something to see,” Mira said. “An enemy to visualize, an adversary to rivet our focus and preventable acts to guard against. But with this? No explosion. No warning. No cause. Just effect.”
Much much more in Die By Wire
