Heroes Proved by Oliver North

Author:Oliver North
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Threshold Editions

CHAPTER TEN

LOYALTY TEST

OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF STAFF

THE WHITE HOUSE

1600 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE

WASHINGTON, DC

FRIDAY, 17 SEPTEMBER 2032

0625 HOURS, LOCAL

Muneer Murad was proud of being described as “the most tech-savvy White House chief of staff in history.” He was secretly pleased when his detractors labeled him a “techno-geek.” His office, on the southwest corner of the West Wing, was crammed with the latest electronic gadgets, courtesy of WHCA—the White House Communications Agency.

Along the wall where predecessors in the chief of staff’s office once had a bookcase, Murad mounted a four-foot-high, six-foot-long, quarter-inch-thick sheet of flat ceramic plastic serving as his “A-Viz”—the audiovisual device that replaced televisions a decade before. Powered by magnetic-coil resonators, it had no visible power supply, wires, or speakers. The device could be switched on and off and the volume adjusted using a PID, voice commands, or a card-sized remote. Sound was produced by invisible ceramic piezo-actuators that caused the plastic panel to act as a diaphragm.

No paintings on loan from the Smithsonian or the Corcoran Gallery graced his walls. Instead, a half-dozen black ceramic-plastic sheets—digital image panels—displayed a constantly changing series of landscapes, photo portraits, and modern art. Many of the “digi-pix” images showed Murad with the president and her deceased husband-predecessor.

Murad’s telephone—the latest voice-activated, wireless “telecube,” five inches high, wide, and deep—had no handset. The plastic box served as a speakerphone or allowed him to speak and listen through an earpiece. When he wanted to place a call, he simply said “call-clear” or “call-secure” and the name of the person he wanted to contact, and the six-sided device connected him—glowing red for an encrypted call and green for an unclassified conversation. If the party he was calling had the capability, Murad could activate the tele-cube’s embedded cameras, and with a wave of his hand, the device would display the person with whom he was speaking.

* * * *

At 0615 Murad turned to the tele-cube and said, “Call-secure, Jon Keker.” He listened as the phone he was calling rang once and a voice said, “Acting Director Keker is unavailable. If this is an emergency, please contact the FBI switchboard. Please leave a message.”

In reply, he said to the box, “Jon, Muneer Murad, call me immediately.”

The chief of staff stood behind his desk, impatiently waiting for the return call. Through the windows of his office facing the Washington Monument, he watched the streetlights around the Ellipse turn off as the first hint of dawn tripped a photo-cell somewhere on Constitution Avenue.

Shaking his head to clear away fatigue and cobwebs, he sat down at his desk and scrolled again through the brief message from the Acting Director of the FBI displayed on his wireless, flat-panel computer screen:

TOP SECRET/NOFORN/SIGINT

EYES ONLY FOR POTUS & WHCOS

DTG:

171120ZSEP32

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