Corporate Complicity
The New Terror
by
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A middle-aged father and his two young sons made their way through the suburbs of Beirut early one summer morning. Every week for the past year, he’d made this uneventful trip alone. However, this particular morning, over his wife’s objections, he had finally given in to his sons’ begging to ride with him. It was his older son’s remark, that he never saw his father anymore, that had ultimately persuaded him. The roads were dry and his Renault pickup raced through the barren terrain, leaving a trail of swirling dust as it made its way across the hard dirt surfaces. When asked where they were going, he had told his sons that he was delivering top soil to some friends in the small town of Bint Jubayl, three miles north of the Israeli border. Actually, resting securely under the thin layer of top soil which covered the bed of his truck were carefully sealed wooden crates containing parts to a dismantled Katyusha rocket launcher. The boys’ father was a smuggler, who made his living delivering special orders to clients in certain southern border towns. Two hours into the trip, his youngest son asked, "Can we stop and buy some food, Papa? I’m hungry." "We’re almost there," his father replied, looking at his son and patting him on the head. Then he leaned over, smiled, and rubbed his hand through his older son’s hair as well. "I will buy you both a big lunch very soon." In that brief moment of distraction, the father had failed to pick up on two Israeli jets approaching his truck from the driver’s side. When the first jet swooped in and flew approximately a hundred feet above the truck, the sound was deafening. Dirt and dust blew furiously into the windows. Both boys screamed and fell to the floor. The father slammed on his brakes and skidded to the edge of the road. "What was that?" the younger son asked. "Israeli jets," the older brother responded. "Pigs!" The father hastily turned and scanned the bed of his truck. To his horror he noticed that the turbulence from the first jet had blown away the top soil and exposed the crates. He scanned the sky quickly. He knew he had been discovered. He couldn’t see the first jet but saw the second jet banking in a movement that he was sure would return it to the direction of his truck. He knew what was coming. "Get out!" he shouted at his sons repeatedly. "Get out! Get out! Get out!" The two boys were in shock but instinctively obeyed their father’s command. When they jumped out, their father pushed the gas pedal to the floorboard. The grey Renault’s tires spun rapidly before they began getting any traction. The passenger door slammed shut on its own as the truck leapt down the road fishtailing as it went. The father struggled to keep it on the road. He knew his only chance would be to make it to a nearby dense stand of trees where he could hide. The race was on. The two boys stared as they watched their father’s truck streak away from them and toward the nearby crest in the road. They turned as they heard the ominous roar of jet engines approaching. In the same instant the lead jet launched a missile which they followed as the white smoke streaked across the sky. It struck the ground only a few yards to the right of their father’s truck. The ground shook with its explosion and a plume of black smoke filled with sand rose into the sky. They stared anxiously as their father’s truck exited the smoke and continued on its way. Although gripped with terror at what was happening, the younger brother screamed, "Leave him alone!" They watched as the second jet launched its first rocket. It too raced across the sky ahead of a white plume of smoke. But unlike the first jet, its rocket did not miss its target. Right before their eyes they watched their father’s truck exploded into a thousand pieces. The oldest son instantly started sprinting toward the orange and black explosion. The younger son stood paralyzed for a few seconds and then began walking. Within a few steps he too began running. As the two Israeli jets circled for thirty minutes and then flew south, the two boys stood together watching their father’s truck disintegrate into a hollow burned out shell. The younger son was sobbing uncontrollably and clinging to his older brother. The older, wiping tears from his own eyes, was filling his soul with hate and revenge.
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About the Book
Paul Jennings, a Director of Employment at Memory Systems, a large international computer hardware corporation, works for a Lebanese-born Chief Executive Officer whom he admires. However, when the CEO hires his brother to manage an intern program filled with Middle Eastern candidates, he becomes uncomfortable with the secretive way it is allowed to operate. As more and more candidates arrive to the company’s headquarters in Denver, Paul becomes suspicious that the program has ulterior motives.
When he learns that someone has recently tampered with trade secret files and sees a trend of other disturbing business practices, all pointing to the CEO’s newly hired brother, he calls on colleagues within the company as well as friends outside to help him explore his suspicions. They quickly find themselves searching a variety of international locations, where they not only uncover the evidence they seek but also discover a plot to commit the most horrific act of terror the world has seen since 9/11.
Needing someone who has connections with Homeland Security, Paul reconnects with former love interest, Hannah Caitlyn Campbell, who not only helps him coordinate his efforts, but also forces him to reexamine some of his basic tenets for living by using a line from a famous poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, concerning “plucking blackberries.”
Will Paul and his friends’ efforts be in time or will they watch the face of world history change in one cataclysmic moment?
About the Author
Although a native of
He has spent most of his career in the field of Human Resources serving as a Human Resource executive for companies in the computer and pharmaceutical industries. He currently manages his own consulting firm and works closely with the oil and gas, and public service related industries. Throughout his career, he has interviewed thousands of people all over the world and even today continues to spend much of his time listening to the stories which bind people to a course of life or to the ambitions they hope to achieve.
In addition to his vocation, he and his wife spend time each year leading mission teams to Ecuador, helping churches with repair and new construction. Recently they have also pursued an additional ministry, working with an orphanage in Quito.
A love for storytelling, a desire to express emotions and a delight in creating word pictures continue to serve as a driving force for his writing.