The Chosen (14 page)

“Jess
ie
and I had an idea while we were doing
The Wall
.  It would work—we could use the pictures there. The thing is, are you totally sure that these are real pictures?  I mean, they’re not doctored or any
thing? Cause if we put up
P
hoto
shopped
pictures of some lady who
’
s supposed to be in custody and then the Feds can prove she took her kid for ice cream in the park yesterday you’re gonna be worse off than you are now.”

“The pictures are genuine—absolutely authentic,” David assured them.

Jessie and Kyle both looked at Keith
,
“I
already
told you he’s good. I’ll vouch for him.”

“Okay, I’m gonna need to get the pictures, along with the descriptions.”

“How do you want me to get them to you?” David leaned forward.

“Not to me—no direct contact.
You email everything to Keith,” Jessie looked at Keith, “I’ll set you up with a secure email account tonight and then you give it to
David
.  Don’t use it for anything else. I’ll tell you how to get the stuff to me.  Not too many at a time.  No more than three in one email, no more than two emails an hour.  I don’t want anybody to get suspicious about large volume emails.  When can we get the first ones?”

“As soon as you get me Keith’s new address.”

“Do you two want to tell us your idea, or do you want us
to
try to guess?” Keith looked at Jessie, but Kyle responded.

“Can’t really tell. Just have to show you.
We had actually written it up before; all it needed was p
hotos
. You send us the p
hoto
s
,
and Jessie will tell you when and where you can see them.”

This time David looked at Keith, “You need to do a lot better than that.  I’m supposed to turn over photos that technically don’t exist of people who barely exist, and you don’t want to tell me what you’re going to do with them because you have to show me?....”

“Trust them, David,” Keith encouraged his new friend. “These guys are the best at this. Kyle wouldn’t say he could do it unless he really can.”

“Enough with the love fest,” Jessie rose to his feet and Kyle followed, still keeping one eye on David. “We gotta get outta here.  I don’t want
to run into
your sister.  Send me the pictu
res, and I’ll be back in touch.
And Keith,” he wa
ved a hairy arm in David’s direction, “
don’t
e
ver sandbag me like this again.
I’m serious, man.”  Huffing and puffing he climbed the basement stairs with Kyle in close pursuit.

David and Keith watched them go. “I have to get back too. As soon as he sets up the email account, text me on the phone I gave you.” David moved the desk and the artificial wall which had been placed in front of the basement wall opening and stepped into the tunnel.

“Do you think this will work?” Keith asked.

“It has to work; it’s all we have,” and David disappeared into the darkness.  Keith moved all of the furniture back into place and was sitting upstairs in front of the television when Kris finally returned from doing her interview.

Later that night, Keith received a coded text message from Jessie that
rea
d
,
“The dog was hit by an oncoming car.” Using the cipher he and Jessie had set up years before, he was able to decode the email address, and then he texted it to David. Within two hours the first photos were received into the email account, and after Kris had left the following morning, Kyle went to the basement and copied them onto a flash drive.

Within three hours Keith received a second text from Jessie that said simply. “Turn on your computer. Gone viral.” 

Chapter
20

K
yle’s new concept was designed to invade the homepages of internet users all over the U.S. He had designed it to circumvent virus protection programs and pop-up blockers and tied it directly to the engines of the major internet service providers and entertainment pages. Therefore, when people logged onto their homepages, they were immediately confronted by Kyle’s pop-up, but since it was coming directly from their internet service provider
s
, none of their blockers worked.

Photos of three detainees simultaneously appeared on the screen, along with a brief description of each detained person—name, age, occupation, and religious affiliation, or lack of religious affiliation, if known.  Jessie had insisted on this last piece of information, and he made certain that each set of photos displayed people of varied ages, races, ethnicities and faith persuasions. He wanted to show Americans the diversity of the people being detained so that every person watching, regardless of his age, social status, ethnicity, or religious persuasion would eventually find a person with whom he could closely identify.

As Jessie explained to Keith, “It’s real important that people don’t look at these pictures and think—NDAA is just
the Feds against those other people—just one group.  I want them to look at this say, ‘Oh my God! They’re after everybody!’”

As the pictures scrolled by, each was captioned at the top with one of the following phrases:

This could be your mother

This could be your father

This could be your sister

This could be your brother

This could be your husband

This could be your wife

This could be your child

This could be your best friend

This could be YOU.

After a series of pictures
had scrolled by
the following phrases appeared:

Beca
use of the NDAA, since 201
5
,
more than
100,000 Ameri
cans have been detained by the f
ederal government without formal charges or trials. More than 1000 Americans have been executed.

The United States Constitution guarantees Americans the right to a speedy trial by a jury of their peers:

“No person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law; in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and pub
lic trial by an impartial jury…”

Tell the Government to stop enforcing section 1021 of the
NDAA.
Every American Deserves a Trial.

The entire message took about 30 seconds to cycle across the screen, and Kyle made certain that it appeared with alternating photos 24 hours a day. It was a profoundly moving campa
ign as hundreds of millions of i
nternet users were confronted with the reality of what was happening in their own neighborhoods and communities to people just like them.

Within hours of the initial set of photos circling the internet, Kyle’s project and David’s photos were the topic of conversation in millions of households nationwide as people speculated as to whether the information was authentic or merely an elaborate
hoax
by a hacker.  Mainstream media outlets tried to ignore
i
t, but as the photos continued to circulate and public interest and questions continued to grow, soon the talking heads were discussing
T
he Line Up
.

Keith had not breathed a word of this new project to Kris
because h
e wanted her to have deniability if asked.  More importantly, he wanted her to be able to express genuine surprise if questioned. For her part, she was so absorbed with her wor
k on behalf of
Michael and Jeff that she did not see the campaign during its first few days.  She was very surprised, therefore, when a few mornings later she received an 8:00 A.M. phone call from Julian. “
Be
in my office by 9:30 this morning,” was his abrupt greeting.

Kris was very startled. Julian never called personally—he always had Anne call her, so for him to pick up the phone himself was significant. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Just get over here. Don’t be late.” 

Keith did not say much when she told him that Julian had called her in for a meeting. She told him that she was
taking the Jeep, and she left him standing silently in the center of their tiny living room.

When Kris arrived at Julian’s office, he was pacing up and down with his laptop open on his desk.

“Do you know anything about this?” he pointed
toward
the screen.
Kyle’s campaign was completely random, but someone had managed to capture some of the images with the messages and put them on a video website. Julian had brought up the video to question his client about it.

Kris watched the images scroll by. This was her first viewing, and she was both moved and horrified.  Julian was watching her reaction. 

“No, I don’t know anything about this.  How could I?” She turned to face Julian squarely. She was almost being truthful; she had never seen the images until that moment in Julian’s office. However, as soon as she saw the images with the phrases and heard the description of how they were being hacked into all major internet service providers, she knew immediately that this must be the work of Jessie and Kyle. Who else would have
both
the skills
and the desire
to orchestrate something like this?  But she did not let on to Julian.

“You’re sure, Kris?  Because this looks an awful lot like the work of whoever did
The Wall
. You said that Michael and Jeff put that together.”

“Michael and Jeff did put
The Wall
together.  However, as you know, they are in prison at the moment, without access to the internet. Anyway, I don’t really see a connection between these two;
The Wall
was a website while this is—I don’t know. The world’s most aggressive pop-up?” She looked back at the screen. “It’s good
,
though.”

“It’s better than good—it’s genius. It’s completely brilliant.  And it’s rattling cages.  That’s why I needed you to get over here. The White House Press Secretary has called a press conference at 10:00 to address this situation,” he pointed again at the computer screen, “and also Michael
’s
and Jeff’s petition before the Supreme Court.  I wanted you to be here to watch it with me so that we can go over the major points.”

He had opened an enclosed area in his bookcase to reveal a large flat screen television, and he clicked the remote to the “on” position just as Press Secretary John Null walked into the White House Press Room to meet
with
the reporters. 

“Good
morning, everyone
. I have just come from meeting with President Quincy.
The President wants everyone to know that the allegations made by an unknown group of hackers claiming that the NDAA is responsible for the arrests and detentions of
more than
100,000 U.S. citizens are simply untrue. The indefinite detention provisions of the NDAA were put into place by Congress and the President to give the President necessary flexibility in cases of
domestic and foreign terrorism. Thanks to
these provisions, this
Administration
has been able to move swiftly to detain dangerous
individuals
with an agenda to harm our nation. The dangerous and violent nature of the crimes that have been attempted by the perpetrators make them an imminent threat to the national security of our nation, and for that reason, we stand behind the NDAA’s indefinite detention provisions.  But I want to assure you that this law is used only to detain high value targets.

“Second, I want to address the issue of the case currently headed to the Supreme Court which was brought by Kris
tina
Mitchell
Linton
on behalf of Michael Linton and Jeff
Conners
. The plaintiffs in this case are alleging that Linton
and
Conners
were detained illegally and are being held without charges because they disagree politically with the
Administration
. Nothing could be further from the truth. The facts of this case will show that these men are, indeed, terrorists. Michael Linton has ties to the state of Israel, which the U
.
N
.
Security Council and the U.S. State Department have both recently named a terrorist state and a threat to our national interests. We have also determined that Linton’s brother is a known member of the Mossad. We believe that the state of Israel and the Mossad, working in connection with a domestic terrorist organization, may be responsible for the content of this internet material.”

“We are presently waiting for a decision from the
J
ustices as to whether they will agree to hear this case.  In the meantime, we are working to stop this invasive propaganda from disturbing citizens in their homes, on their jobs, and in their schools.  We consider
The
Line U
p
,
as the media has dubbed it, to be in and of itself an act of terrorism, and we are prepared to treat it accordingly.”

Press Secretary Null was now ready to take questions.  The press corps had only a couple of questions about the likelihood of the Court agreeing to hear the case, and none about Michael or Jeff, but they did have questions about the faces and names appearing on
The
Line Up
.

One senior reporter asked the question that was on everyone’s mind
,
“You say that the indefinite detention provisions of the NDAA are being used to detain only ‘high value targets.’  Can you give u
s an idea of how many Americans
are
currently being detained without trial under these provisions?”

Null fumbled around for minute, “I don’t have that exact information
,
b
ut I can tell you that it’s nowhere near what you are seeing on
The
Line Up
.” He tried to move on, but
other reporters brought him back to the subject.  Finally, after a number of waffling attempts to deflect the question completely, he stammered into the microphone, “I don’t have an exact number.  It’s less than a hundred.”

Julian clicked the remote to turn off the television. “The Mossad?  You didn’t think that was important?”

“No,” Kris answered without a trace of testiness. “My husband is not a terrorist. He has given money to Israel, but Israel was an ally until a couple of weeks ago.  His brother was in the Mossad; that doesn’t make Michael a threat to the U.S. And Jeff, they can’t even make up something on him. He’s the nicest guy you’ll ever meet.”

“Good,” Julian clapped his hands together, “That’s what I wanted to hear. Now you are going to go out and repeat those words to the rest of the country.”

“What?” Kris looked puzzled.

“The White House press secretary just referenced our case and you, Michael
,
and Jeff by name in a national press conference. That means that we
’
re going to be able to get you on every major news show and talk show in America. This isn’t just local shows anymore—this is national. Everywhere you go, I want you to tell their story—who they are as people
—and
I want you to hit hard on the fact that they are not and never have been terrorists.  And no matter what happens, I don’t want you to ever mention
T
he Line Up
. If anyone asks, you don’t know anything about it.”

“That’ll be easy, since I don’t know anything about it.  But national shows—I don’t know whether I can do that.  I don’t know whether I’m the right person…”

“Kris, what did you do for a living when you met Michael?” Julian was now seated across from her.

“I was working for the federal government; I was a Planner for the Federal Municipal Planning Division.”

“Before that?”

“Before that I sold residential real estate in Phoenix for 19 years.”

“Good.  Then you know how to close. Think of this as the most important sales job you will ever have. You’re going to go out there and sell people on the idea that your husband and brother
-
in
-
law are innocent.  You are going to try to ‘close’ with every viewer by making them want you to get this hearing
before
the
C
ourt.  And when you
’
re finished, if it works, you’ll have your family back. 

“When we started, I told you that all it takes to defeat tyranny is for average people to stand up. Well, average Americans are beginning to stand up. This is the time for you to stand up and tell your story.”