Terrorist Chatter--Twisted Messiah, political rock concert. In The Grail Conspiracies

My time in London was short. I didn’t feel like fighting the Circle Line all
the way round to South Kensington, so caught a cab from the stand in
front.

A man jumped in with me. I started to protest, but he smiled and said,
“My treat, we’re headed the same place.”

He passed the driver a £5 note. “Let’s hear some music.”

“What kind of music, gov?”

“Loud music. My friend and I want to have a private chat.”

He flipped a wallet open and showed me a photo ID. I looked at it
closely. It did seem to be genuine CIA identification, and he was the guy
in the photo: mid-30's, prematurely white hair.

But an infectious smile.

“How do I know your ID is real?” I asked. ‟It’s not hard to ake IDs these
days.”

“You’ll just have to take it on faith, then. Just so long as you understand
that I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.”

Even he laughed at that. “What is it you want to help me with?,” I asked.

“We want to help you do the right thing.”

“Which means?”

We know what you’re looking for, and I can tell you this much. The
name has come up several times recently in the chatter—
communications intercepts—we’ve been picking up from a certain
NGPF, and—”

“ NGPF? What’s that?”

“Non-Governmental Political Force.”

“Which means?”

“NGO’s are Non-Governmental Organizations, like the UN or the World
Bank—organizations that have a world-wide reach, even though they’re
not governments. That’s supranational, not supernatural. Now the Big-
Thinkers have come up with a related term, NGPF— Non-Governmental
Political Forces. Meaning they’re not governments, they don’t control
territory or a country or anything like that. But they have political impact
on a scale wider than any one country or region. Again, supranational.”

“I’m still not clear what you’re talking about? Like a terrorist
organization?”

He nodded. “Yeah, like that. Not all NGPFs are necessarily terrorist in
nature, but they have that potential. We need to keep an eye on them,
just in case. We can’t risk another 9-11.”

We were passing Hyde Park now, the traffic moving surprisingly quickly.
It seemed surreal to be here in a cab, having this conversation. “You’re
telling me that the name links with some potential terrorist group? I don’t
believe it—any more than we believe anything else you people have
ever told us.”

He smiled disarmingly. “I can understand why you feel that way. But this
no BS, this is fact. On a number of occasions—I’m not permitted to be
more specific than that—on a number of occasions we’ve picked up
chatter that refers not just to the family name but to the individual.”

“It’s a big world. There are probably a hundred people with that name
around the world.”

“Again, I can’t be more specific, but the context of this chatter tells us it’s
him. You do know what we mean by ‘chatter?’ Intercepts of various
types, could be e-mail, phone, whatever.”

“And you want me to just take your word, pack it in, go home, and leave
it to the professionals like you? No deal. Your agency has been playing
games with us all these years. I’llshare with you, maybe. But I won’t back
off.”

“It doesn’t bother you to be interfering in a matter of national security?”

“What’s the group?”

“It’d probably surprise the hell out of you if I told you, but I’m not
authorized to do that at this point in time. I can tell you this much, that
the group in question is not linked to the Middle-east. Even so, it has
world-wide connections. Bottom line, this is potentially very serious stuff,
and we can’t afford to have you get in the way, complicating things. That’
s why we’re offering the deal. Go home, stay out of this, and we’ll tell
you what we can.”

“What could a terrorist group possibly find of interest about him?” I
responded.

“I’m being absolutely straight with you. We don’t know what the hell
about him interests them. That’s not coming through in the chatter, just
his name. We’re hoping maybe you can help us.”

“I can’t help you if I’m back in the USA.”

“You can’t help anybody if you’re dead.”

“‘If I’m dead?’ Is that supposed to be a threat?”

“Of course not, for God’s sake! What doesn’t seem to be getting
through to you is that now it’s not just him they’re interested in. You’re
an amateur, and you don’t have a clue. You’re being followed—you didn’
t know that, did you?”

“Of course I did. You followed me and caught up with me at the cab
stand.” Would he take the bait and tell me more?

“I’m not talking about us, I’m talking about them. Yeah, we followed you
to France, and now here. But so did somebody else. Correct that. It’s
‘somebodies’—plural. The fact is, it’s not just the NGPF that’s following
you, but also another team, from another group, as well.”

“Two groups following me? I don’t believe that,” I fibbed, hoping he’d
say more. Maybe I could have probed differently by telling about the two
men who had followed me to that bookstore yesterday in La Rochelle.
But then he’d want to know more, and more.

“If you’re smart you’ll believe me. You’re the swimmer, and you don’t
even see there’s a school of sharks circling around you. Better get out
of the water while you can.”