Chapter 12 – Power Play
Tortured Souls
(Warning: Graphic content)
Jabaar's hood is removed after they tie him up to a chair.
Izz-al Din Qamar is one of the most feared man in Saudi. And Jabaar is about to find out why. Izz-al Din learned a lot from Morris Stark. Izz-al Din thinks Morris's brain is like a torture manual. He is a master of the art.
“Jabaar, you are being charged under the Motherland Defence Initiative for serious crimes of treason against your country, I would suggest that you co-operate and tell me who your accomplices are.”
“What? I have no accomplice,” Jabaar told the truth. “I was just there to join the rally.”
“I see you want to play hard ball. People who play hard ball leave here with soft ball,” Izz-al Din starts laughing.
Izz-al Din then faces his companion and says, “Whoever is squeamish better leave now and skip this one.”
The guards just smirk and laugh. They've done this countless of times and none of this faze them.
“Let's tickle him first.”
The guards immediately hold up both Jabaar's palms and feet, hitting both the palms and soles of his feet with hard plastic. Jabaar screams in pain.
Izz-al Din laughs and says, “You have seen nothing yet. Co-operate now and be spared from what has yet to come.”
“I swear I was just there by myself. I just wanted to check out what is going on,” Jabaar says almost in tears.
Izz-al Din sighs. “Are you thirsty?”
“I just want to go home,” Jabaar pleads.
Izz-al Din signals to his man, who removes the rope from the chair and starts removing Jabaar's clothes. They then lay him down in a slanted wooden board and ties his hand and feet onto the board. His face is covered with a dark cloth and water is poured down the cloth. Jabaar starts choking as if he is drowning. He can feel water going up his nose. At first it was like drinking water and have it going the wrong way. But it gets worse and the pain in his nose between his eyes is unbearable. His lungs burn and felt like they are going to explode. Jabaar has heard about water boarding before and they say it just feels like drowning and is not really torture. He now knows firsthand that is a lie. He feels pain he has never felt before. At least with drowning it doesn’t take long before you lose consciousness. But this pain just keeps repeating and it just gets worse as the time goes on. He is suffocating but he can't do anything about it nor can he swim up to the surface. It went on for what feels like eternity. They would stop to let him rest, perhaps to keep him conscious before resuming again. He is so afraid but he has nothing that they are asking for. After several times of going through the horrible pain over and over again, Jabaar faints.
They pour water on his face to wake him up. Now he finds himself back in the chair tied up with his underwear gone.
“So you did not like the water? Perhaps you would like some electricity.”
“Please let me go. I did nothing wrong,” Jabaar says in a weak voice.
“What were you doing at the rally? And you want to claim you did nothing wrong?” Izz-al Din sounds agitated.
One wire is attached to his foot and another to his testicle. The electric shock brings so much pain that Jabaar's body writhes in pain. The pain from having a ball hit his balls is nothing compared to this. There is no scream this time. It was so painful that his body just shakes and his eyeballs roll to the top. The succeeding shock gets increasingly painful. Jabaar starts hoping that he would just die.
After a few hours, the torturers are frustrated that they are not able to get anything out of him. They then tie him up in a standing position with no clothes on and leave him in that dark dingy cell.
On the other side of the cell, the scene is repeated against Okba, one of Jabaar's friends. But after the electric shock, he gives in. Not that he knows any accomplice but he just wants it to end. So he names Gamali, their friend who is currently in United Arab Emirates. He just remembers Gamali making fun of him when he was a kid. Okba is then released.
Gamali is apprehended by the United Arab Emirates and deported to Saudi where he too faces similar torture.
Okba is remorseful for naming Gamali and is filled with so much guilt that he commits suicide.
Jabaar remains naked in the standing position with constant loud music blaring. He is also constantly roused to keep him from sleeping. Sleep deprivation is one of the effective torture tools that Morris had taught Izz-al Din and his men. While Jabaar's body remains in jail, his mind is no longer with him.
Satellite TV from across the world
Ray's Crowd-Sourced Net receives the videos from overnight express mail and starts broadcasting the content immediately. At first it was a video of a rally at Saudi that no one has heard about nor reported by the multinational media. Not even the supposed hard hitting Middle East network “Middle East Voice” says anything about this. The second video shows a horrifying scene of plain clothes police firing at protesters. There are random stabbing and people are just falling down on the floor from what looks like sniper fire.
The world is outraged and demand a response. But no such response is forthcoming from the newly elected president Eva Garcia.
Courtroom in Italy
The closing argument is fast approaching. Cristobal, Jacinto, Diego and Paulina have attended all of Angelino's court dates. The case is quickly coming to an end and things are not looking good for Angelino. The prosecutor's witness who is an expert at fingerprint forensics dismisses the possibility of a forged fingerprint using a mold/cast. There are several prints found and each overlay is not the same. A mold/cast imprint would have similar overlay each time. That is how they tell if a fingerprint is forged. There are certain this is not a forgery. The appearance is also consistent with an actual fingerprint with smooth outline rather than sharp line. All examination reveals inconsistencies that are characteristic of presence of actual human finger, that of the suspect.
Cristobal prays for miracle because that is the only thing that can help Angelino at this point. During a recess, Jacinto gets a call from Gracy telling them about something that they might be interested in. “I have good news and bad news,” she says. They arrange to meet her that night and hope the good news can overwhelm the bad news and lead to Angelino's acquittal.
The court resumes its session the next day. There is a bit of commotion in front as the lawyers argue off the the record in front of the judge. The judge does not seem pleased but asks Angelino's lawyer to proceed. Angelino's lawyer, Branden Boyce, asks for a fingerprint forensic expert as a witness. Branden offers his finger for the expert to get a fingerprint. His fingerprints are then displayed on a big screen.
The lawyer then picks up a glass that has been wiped clean. He picks it up to drink from then asks the forensic expert to investigate that fingerprint. It matches as expected. A machine is then brought in. The murmurs in the crowd grow at the sight of this unusual machine that looks like a big printer. The judge pounds on the gavel to silence the audience.
“This is a glass that I have touched at various points. I was in a bar and left this there the night of the alleged crime. Whoever knows that I had altercation with the victim would know that I was at that bar drinking,” the lawyer explains as he tries to role play what happened with Angelino at the bar that night.
He then takes a scanner attached to the printer and starts scanning the glass. He then clicks on the touch screen of the printer to display the various fingerprints. He then merges all of them to create a more complete fingerprint that almost covers the bottom of a whole finger.
The lawyer hits a few buttons and the machine starts making some noise. The machine is a replicator, similar to a 3D printer but not quite. This is unlike a 3D printer of the early 2000s that printed onto a hard surface. This one prints to a flexible cultured skin graft of a human. It can print up to microscopic level details. The lawyer then opens the cabinet enclosure revealing a tablet that looks
like a thick block of wood the colour, flexibility and texture of a skin. He puts on a glove and reaches in pulling out what looks like a severed finger. The audience gasps. He then opened a toy gun that still had factory seals on it. He quickly pushes the finger on several parts of the gun. The lawyer then returns the gun to the forensic expert to examine. The expert uses the new technology for rapid analysis of a fingerprint and is flabbergasted. “How could this be?” It is an exact match.
The prosecutor starts questioning the witness but the expert explains that all procedures used to identify a forgery have failed, meaning they would have considered this legitimate and prosecute the defence lawyer as a result. “I know this is a never before seen technology. Who would have this technology?” asked the prosecutor.
Jacinto and friends think, “Oh oh, now onto what Gracy said is the bad news part.”
Prosecutor then replies to his own question, “No one. So what are the chances that the accused is framed by who is probably just one person, the new inventor who just came up with this?”
Jacinto is glad he did not pursue the who. Since Gracy has said she won't be able to help them identify who among her clients has this even if the court ordered it.
The court recesses and the next day the closing statements are delivered. The court then resumes again for the verdict. “All rise” the clerk declares.
“Has the jury reached its verdict?” The judge asks.
“Yes we have your honour,” replied the leader of the jury.
Angelino's heart is pounding so hard. Then the jury reads out the verdict.
“Not guilty!” Angelino's friends erupt in cheers while other charges are also declared not guilty.
Hordes of media chase Angelino as he comes out of the courtroom.
“Do you know who framed you?” the media asks.
“Ask our Prime Minister Romeo Vitale,” Angelino feels like saying but decides to keep quiet and let the lawyer do the talking.
Somewhere in Italy
“It is time to let that bastard pay,” Angelino says.
“Are you taking revenge?” Diego wonders.
“Not an eye for an eye type. But just to finish what I have started. The reason they tried to put me away.”
“What do you have in mind?” Cristobal asks.
“I know who the administrator or secretary for the head of the media is. The media that is partly owned by our Prime Minister.”
“And...?” Diego asks.
“They could have the best security money can buy but there is always one weak link in the system.” Angelino says.
“Human.” Jacinto adds.
“Yes. We can break into the system by social engineering,” Angelino explains.
“I guess we'll get to witness how good you are.” Cristobal said.
“Just hope she did not watch the news and see me today. Or maybe that would actually help.”
The friends then decided to head to a bar that the administrator is said to frequent. And sure enough she is there. Angelino approaches her and starts flirting with her. She seems impressed and they start talking. Angelino keeps pouring her drinks and soon she is evidently drunk.
“You are so pretty. I'll bet your boss can't keep his hands off you,” Angelino says.
“What do you know?” She replies in garbled talk and starts laughing. She then starts telling them about their affair and where they usually do it.
With that information on hand Angelino fabricates a photo of them together and put it on a memory chip with hidden GPS and mailed it to the head of the media marked as “Personal and confidential.” He also assembles speeches of the Prime Minister and records them onto his computer unit. He uses the automated robot speaker to process and learn the Prime Minister's voice.
The next day they track where the memory chip is. Upon seeing it has reached the office of the media boss Beppe Beniamino, they sit down in front of their computer, ready for an assault.
Beppe has small hands but a big stomach. He used to be a political news magazine host and has always done big favours for the current Italian Prime Minister Romeo Vitale. He became good friends with the PM behind the camera. He would always ask the PM soft questions while giving his opponent hard questions and taking them out of context. He is known for his smirk and shifty eye especially when trying to manoeuvre his questioning to trap the PM opponent. He has been promised a lucrative appointment in government position for life for his contribution to TV arts.
Beppe opens the package on his desk and sees a letter saying “Video of you and your assistant. Especially like the shot of you and her in your favourite position on your mahogany desk. Mail us a cheque and we will get rid of our copy.” He panics and inserts the media into his computer to see what they have. Unknown to him, the chip automatically installs a system level virus and spyware that would turn ON his video and mic without turning on the ON indicator light. But all his mind could think of right now is what sort of compromising video could be in the chip. He quickly searches for the video and it shows his assistant walking. He forwards and sees a video of a shot of a still picture of him and the assistant that is obviously doctored. “Punk!” he says angrily, knowing he has been duped and they have nothing on him. Then his phone that is connected to his computer unit starts to ring.
“Hello,” he answers with an angry voice which quickly turns friendly upon hearing the voice on the other end. “Oh hi Romeo.”
“I just need to talk,” says the man on the other line who the media boss recognizes as Italy's Prime Minister.
“About what?”
“Just want to thank you for helping me cover up that godfather file that the punk kid stole. Did you like my performance?”
“Oh yeah, that was excellent,” the media boss says. “I am very disappointed with the people that I trusted. No stone will be left unturned. I was unaware that there were outside forces involved.” Beppe repeats word for word of the Prime Minister's speech following the revelation, complete with imitation of his serious and angry voice that time.
“Haha. I did not know you could imitate my voice like that. Almost like those new robot speaker simulators.”
“Yeah I heard about those. Aren't those scary? You can be talking to a robot impersonator and not know it.”
“True. How times has change.”
“Yeah. But I thought your looking serious and upset convinced people you are sincere. Your rating stopped falling after that.”
“Thanks to you of course,” the man on the phone replies.
“Everything is set for that media campaign to help Cardinal Kojo Thulani.”
“Good. Why don't you detail our plan again to make sure you got it down to the detail?”
“Yeah. We'll run a biography painting a positive picture of the cardinal and that he is a charitable person. et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Like you said, once we hype him up he will probably get elected as pope then we will do better than Mussolini, who was only able to get the Vatican's silence and neutrality in World War II after having given them their own country. We could have a pope as our spokesperson.” Beppe started laughing until he started choking and his face turned all red.
“Yeah thanks for doing your part.”
“I am here for you any time Mr. Prime Minister. Let me know what you want to sell to those clueless Italian next time.” the boss said and started laughing again.
“Why don't you ask them directly?”
“What do you mean?” the boss is puzzled.
“This is a robot speaker simulator of the Prime Minister talking and you are live online right now.”
A screen pops-up on the computer showing a reflection of Beppe's face on his own video with mouth wide open.
The news spreads like wildfire and the Prime Minister's office phone won't stop ringing. Protesters start gathering outside the Prime Minister's office and the disgraced media's boss office.
Angelino and his friend then pack up their things and leave the motel t
hat was their command centre.
Bolivia
Adolfo is heading home after working the night shift. His watch has just hit midnight. Just a few more steps and he'll be home. Suddenly the noise of several low flying machines can be heard, followed by loud explosions. He runs to duck. But soon, the entire block is on fire. He can't see his hom from here, but it is hard to imagine his home escaped the huge balls of fire that seem to engulf the whole neighbourhood.
He tries to run toward his home, but the heat from the fire proves to be too much. He is screaming and in tears. The bombing goes on for the whole night. The presidential residence is also on fire. A group of marine commandos lands right in the president's bedroom with a hole punched through the roof. Gunfire is exchanged, but the presidential security proves to be no match against the U.S. Marines. Soon they have the the president and the fighting intensifies. They have retrieved the president and brought him up through the helicopter. Talon Gladwell is among the elite marines. He and a few others are left to hold off fire and allow the retrieval of the president to be completed. Talon Gladwell’s talent were evident as soon as he joined the marine. He has practised different types of martial arts and can easily beat off his opponent. He can confidently take out even the best of his enemies. But there is something he did not foresee tonight.
The retrieval has been completed and they are commanded to leave the compound. Talon Gladwell is doing a good job holding the presidential guards back when a drone drops a Lucifer's Fork missile close to where he is, engulfing the place on fire. As he climbs up the rope to go back up, a rollover fire on the ceiling catches his face. Talon screams in pain as the fire burns his face. His companion quickly pulls him out. Another marine who is trying to help Talon is then shot by one of the presidential guards and dies. His body is quickly pulled up as they move out of the area. The rest of the marines escape and the mission ends. At least for them. The drone continues its attack until dawn sending civilians running in panic. No police station is left standing. Houses that were unfortunate enough to be located beside them are destroyed as well.
A new president is sworn in the next day. The conglomerate has groomed him for the job. He is opposed by their police force but supported by a corrupt Bolivian army general.
Saudi Arabia
A van pulls up in a quiet street of Saudi Arabia and dumps a man into the street. The man tumbles to the ground and slowly gets up. He starts walking, but his face looks blank like a zombie. A few days ago, Jabaar was an energetic young man so full of life and hope. Now he is just another crazy man walking the streets of Saudi Arabia. Passersby give him food and he gobbles it up like an animal that has not been fed in years.
Jabaar spends the next few days walking aimlessly, unaware that his videos have sparked outrage. Large numbers of people keep pouring in from different parts of Saudi to protest the government's corruption and brutality. Jabaar inadvertently gets caught in one large group and he starts screaming. Everybody turns toward him and one of his neighbour recognizes him and takes him home. His parents are in tears and hug him and won't let him go.
They try to give him shower but Jabaar panics and starts crying and pleading, “Please don't torture me anymore. I did nothing wrong.” His mother is in tears, holding Jabaar's face. She hugs him again as Jabaar starts crying out loud. Jabaar falls asleep and his father helps him to his bed.
He has slowly recovered as the week go on. He goes from being catatonic to making slow careful movements as if he is walking on a tight rope. His parents try to tell him stories about the good old times. After a week, he seems to be back to himself but it is still impossible to get a smile out of him.
One morning he wakes up to see his father watching Crowd-Sourced Net live broadcast of the rally through a live feed from the people's portable satellite video camera smuggled in by Ray's company. Jabaar stands there watching. Upon realizing Jabaar's presence, his mother tries to turn off the TV and scolds Jabaar's dad for turning to that channel.
“It's ok mama. I have to join them.”
“No. You are not well.” His mom pleads.
“I won't get well by staying at home. We have unfinished business.” Jabaar for the first time has a sense of purpose on his face.
“Please don't get involved in this anymore. Let other people take care of it. You've seen what they are capable of. They will murder people without hesitation.”
“It is better to die fighting than to be enslaved and see grave injustice done to your fellow men and stay silent,” Jabaar says as he grabs his unit with a built-in camera and heads out the door.