2012 NaNo day 2

Paragon: 2012 NaNoWriMo Entry By Larry Bernard People think of space as liberating, but instead of being liberated by the silence your liberated by the activity. One small step for man one giant leap for mankind. For Cassie Stryker all this was in a round about way was one Giant Leap. Small pieces of debris both natural and unnatural wiz by your head. But when you can take a shotgun shell to the face with a smile you would be surprised how little space debris concerns a person. All sorts of radiation and energy flows in the space above our world. For Cassandra she is able to channel and redirect this energy toward the project she is working on. Cassandra Stryker used to think of space in such a sense of a calm emptiness until she became the Incredible Dynamic Woman. But then truth be told she had a problem with emptiness in her life before her change. Now her life is full of energy and adventure. She has a fullness that is apt to overflow even here in the cold void of space. Her costume comprised of a golden cape and a deep rich evergreen body. Trimmed with a white Belt, glove, and boots. On her Chest is a golden D. The D was not native to the costume but she added it once her new name stuck. Her long Auburn hair floated in the zero gravity she was experiencing in earth orbit. Her face is concealed behind a mask but her piercing gray eyes were focused on her task. The mask also covers most of her face but leaves a place for her hair to flow. Like the D it wasn't something the costume first did but she taught the costume how to make the mask. The costume is tied to the source of her powers and it reacts to her wishes at an almost instinctive and subconscious level. She started out small as a hero. Back then she was just known as “The Blur” but 10 years ago terrorists took out the twin towers and Dynamic Woman burst onto the stage and her life stopped being easy to manage. Other people in costumes came out. Most of them were people pushing the upper end of Olympic athleticism but a few of them have powers. Sadly more then a few were pudgy nerds and neck-bearded geeks who ended up getting beaten senseless. Police departments around the world took an eye to hassle the pousers and take a serious hands off approach to the ones who could handle it. This approach to the empowered and the costumed community always bothered cassie a little. Though those with powers all came a few years after Cassie hit the scene and many of them were attempts by Governments to make super powers with genetic engineering. Then came the Nationwide tv show which made life almost impossible to manage. Some how cutting back from doing a Radio Show and a TV show didn't help. She decided to do a national political movement and do conferences around the country to call people to be heroes in their own lives, and heroes without the costumes. She kept putting the chaos on top of chaos in her own life and really didn't have anyone to blame.Which makes the peace of the chaos of space and doing advanced electronics work much more satisfying. The debris that on earth exists deep underground as a mark of our civilization. But our civilization is touching the sky and as such here lie our artifacts. She didn't even pay attention as her cape bumped smaller debris away from her work. Taking the smaller bits of debris and breaking them up into a finer field of debris. The cape expands and undulates as an organic being. Why the Depatment of Defense trusted some one with a B.A in music theory to do advanced electronics work she will never know. She ponders to herself 'I wonder if this would make a good show topic.' She smiled as the notion came in her imagination. You can die, or you can make something explode. There was something peaceful in that simplicity. No trying to balance human drama or politics, not trying to fend off or balance corporate contracts, just do or explode. But the truth be told she wasn't sure if she could die anymore. And she truly wasn't in a hurry to find out if she could or couldn't. And she was even less willing to find out while blowing up a multimillion dollar communications satellite either. Her eyes were able to see circuits better then the eyes of most men and her powers allowed her to connect micro-circuitry in a way most people or even machines wouldn't be able to do even if they had a space shuttle to take them up here. 'Thankfully we have superheros who can do the job and not hold our national security hostage to russia.' she placed the idea on the back burner for later. If this mission was ever declassified. Her two jobs were more and more feeling at cross purposes even though their was a high degree of synergy with them. She also had an even more important job as a wife and mother that put in a third layer of conflict. But all of that is for after connecting the circuits and terminals to their new home. She is floating in space attached to a Satellite for the Sirius Satellite network. While working on the satellite she uses her power of cyberlink to attach herself to a voip teleconference at her office. “So where are we on verifying everything for the Show on Stalo?” She voices over to her production staff. The show on Billionare Alexi Stalo had been in the works for years. It was the White Whale that the production team has had meeting and meetings about meetings over. The team worked like demons to get the story ready to go to Cassie's legal team. Cassies legal team cleared the story to go to the network. After the network news end signed off then it went to the networks legal team. The Networks legal team had kicked it back 3 or 4 times now. Cassandra Stryker isn't gifted with being just famous in one world, but hosts the #1 rated 6-7pm News show in the country on the Veritax network. That combined with her loving husband and children put her in the Trifecta. She did have it all and she probably had to flip a coin over her heroic life and her tv show as to which rea ched more people. She was not just blessed with a triple role but with being so fulfilled in all three of those roles. In that respect the hard work it took to balance the three and do the three was always something that made it worth it. In her capacity of a Television Show host she would find herself crossing swords like men of the type as Alexi Stalo. Alexi Stalo is a billionaire, and would likely be one of the richest men in the world if not for his charitable and political philanthropy. “Cassie “ Lou, her Executive producer spoke up “ We are still fighting with Veritax Legal over this. And the front office is still not so sure about this show.” Lou held a special place in Cassie's heart. She was his best friend and he hers. They both got started in the music end of Radio around the same time. They both ended up ruining everything with addiction around the same time, and when she got her powers he was the first person she told. Because she knew she couldn't keep this a secret from the people closest from her. She understood it would be best to keep it a secret from the world but she couldn't lie to the people closest to her anymore. He has ever since that point tried to keep Cassie grounded. Something thats hard to do when he is in their New york City office and she is busy in earth orbit. The very thought of that always made her smile. His efforts to ground her have become more and more difficult for him. The show moving to Cable took her from being a marginal pop culture figure to being one that clashed swords with the President. The fact that the President set up not one but several staffers to deal with her role as a media figure was something he took with even helpings of alarm and pride. They got a senior staffer to the President to resign under the heat of the relentless questioning they provided. Lou loved the good news and journalism she provided to the cause but more and more he wondered if his Friend had made enemies she wasn't able to deal with. People talked about Cassie on late night tv and hardly with the same favorable light they spoke about Dynamic Woman in the same show. She sighed in space. Trying to deal with complex legal and broadcast journalism efforts proved more distracting then she had initially imagined it would be. Worse then that in the process of her career in Radio and then later TV went up Cassie did books and other things. She was now a millionaire several times over. She could buy the station that fired her from her last job in FM music radio and run it anyway she wanted to now. She had that kind of money in her bank account. But she still was frugal with her money and had to become more and more inventive with lawyers to protect it. More and more the legal protections took into account the risk of potential exposure of her second job. Or at a minimum it was more distracting then it would be if she wasn't busy being Dynamic Woman and trying to wire something into new circuits of the satellite. The risk of blowing up millions of dollars of vital space infrastructure does a great job of focusing ones mind. She closes her eyes for a split second. A AIM window pops up on her home computer. “Are you at home, or do I want to know where you are?” Lou sends a message to her. She smiles wickedly and sends a response back. “I am floating above Tbilisi right about now I think.....I am in outer space, how cool is that?” Lou see's the ping come back before she responds to the teleconfrence. “Lou I get we need to get absent of malice and all that other stuff nailed down. And I know at the end of the year we are going into contract negotiation but can you and Hiram subtly suggest to them that if we are going to extend our contract, we might not be so motivated if we have to much of a heavy hand of editorial interference from the network. Baron promised me we wouldn't have any of that.” Lou quickly cut in with an IM “Oh I see, your going into outer space to skip out on a meeting. I see what you did there.” Baron Michael Fitzwallace, another of the worlds richest men and the owner of the Veritax group of broadcast and media entities. Baron grew up in Rhodesia but then relocated to South Africa. After that he relocated to Hong Kong and finally Australia where he began to assemble his global media empire. There were few corners of the world where Veritax had no reach. His shaved head and eye-patch made him look like a pirate or a James bond Villain. He even was a fan of white persian cats as well. Though his latest was a Siamese mix. “Baron” as he liked to be called personally recruited Cassie to bring her show onto his network. He decided to challenge the perception in the states of a 'Left Wing Media Complex' which proved to make him a public figure of notable scorn. Of course this challenge made him a ton of money, as most of the challenge he always took on did. Especially with his quirky desire to call himself Baron all the time. But Baron and the rest of the staff of the network have become touchy of late. He endorsed one of the Democrats in the election. The wife of former president Blythe who was Senator from California. Diane Blythe didn't win but Senator Craver decided to make her the first female Defense Secretary. Which makes Cassie's work more amusing in context. The conflicts with President Craver and his staff have lead to a lot of push back with the advertisers. The boycotts were of disputable effectiveness. Cassie's team talked with the networks marketing team about alternative modes of financing. This was part of the tensions that have been growing between Cassie and Veritax.Which made it somewhat amusing that because of Craver's cutting off the space program and scaling back the capacities of Nasa she now had an opportunity to Nerd out while working on a satellite. Cassie liked Veritax and liked the freedom it gave her but she and her staff have been exploring other options. The problems of course were deeper as the attempts of Dynamic Woman to have a larger footprint on the broader world were boxed in by the 6-7 slot. More often then not Cassie had to use some kind of shenanigans to participate in the show prep meetings. And the shenanigans were becoming more and more elaborate. Cassie had a power which allowed her to access data on computers. She was even able to take in data input from computers. This was the first time she was able to use it to manipulate data inside the computer. She wasn't going to give Lou the satisfaction of knowing she was nerding out at the ability to log into her home computer with Go-To-Meeting. Lou's AIM popped up again. “I am working on a satellite for the DoD. How funny is that.” Lou looked at the words cockeyed. “DoD? But your on a private satellite?” The words typed by no hands came back “Isn't crony capitalism grand? And best of all this has a public service as well as military application.” Lou made a mental note that he needed to talk to Cassie about this some more when she came back down to earth. But he was going to be in meetings about meetings to plan how to have a pre meeting about meetings. Lou scribbled on the note pad “please god shoot me now.” Cassie popped up on the screen on AIM again. “I have an idea for a new go-to-meeting commercial. “Dynamic Woman uses Go-To-Meeting to log into computers from outer space. What o you think?” Lou rubbed the bridge of his nose, never hating his best friend in the world more then this moment right now. Cassie broadcast over to her staff again. “The Rally location, have we nailed down where we want to do it? I think we should shoot to do it in Poland. I think we should do that to show what happens when people are steadfast and stand their ground for freedom. I think we can also contrast that with what happened when people in Poland didn't in their past. “ Matt piped in. “I think if we try to do that kind of branding and messaging we need to find a way to do it that’s more pro-poland. If we focus on that as part of the broader theme.” Charlotte seconded Matt's idea. “Well this will be our second promo so we need to make sure we can get that kind of work together. Put that to Daniel and lets see what we can make happen.” As Cassie was finishing up the last connection and testing it on the computer the image of Alexi Stalo comes onto the screen. His vibrant white hair was deceptive. And from seeing his older pictures she knows he had white hair before it went naturally white. He was a consummate showman when it came to his image. He was a master of body language and between the two he found his way into the bank accounts of Kings, Dictators, Potentates, and the noble houses of the nations of the world. He was given Billions by some of the worst people or people born into untold privilege. He used that money to join their club and become one of the most powerful men on earth. She recognized the pictures, and she knew where he was broadcasting from. She knew he was in his office. It was usually the place he took his pictures on his book jackets. The hair hid a man in his later 70s and early 80s and provided him with a sense of vitality beyond his years. He also was a man who had always been in the peak of physical health. He invested in the best health care companies and solicited the best doctors the world had to offer. He also practiced Yoga and Tai Chi like a fanatic. Cassie sighed mentally to herself wishing she could use that photo she got of him going to the finest hospitals for communist party members in Cuba. She wishes she could also prove the other members of the Castro family were some of his first investors. “Hello Dynamic Woman. It took me a moment to find you.” She furrowed her brow. “I wish to personally apologize for the unpleasantness that happened earlier. In exchange for 30 minutes of your time I will turn over my complete dossier on you. I will even provide you with the proprietary information on how I assembled it. I want nothing more then to be able to have an amicable and equitable relationship with you.” Cassie thought to take a breath but remembered their was no oxygen so she counted to ten trying to calm down. Alexi spoke again breaking her attempt to get calm. “I did not order my man to do what he did. He has been in my service a very long time and his actions are most regrettable. He is dead now and I give you my word none of my people or people my people hire will ever lay a hand upon you ever again...or your husband. You defended yourself and his death was entirely justifiable.” She tempers her anger because the last thing she needs is to destroy this satellite, especially now. “I am in the middle of something but I think I can get a guest host in if I need to. Would my normal time-slot be satisfactory to you?” Alexi nods affirmatively “We can resolve this as two civilized human beings. And may our humanity unite us all.” Stalo's image goes off the Satellite. She concentrates again and a phone call goes over to Lou. “Lou we have a change of plans I need a guest host for tonight’s show. I also need you to get Vaughn on the show. I don't care how just get it done.” Lou pauses for a moment. “Vaughn? The most Liberal yet some how Conservative member of the senate? The guy we ran brutal satires of back when we were still on Radio?” Cassie rolls her eyes. “Yes, that same Vaughn. Also tell Hiram you and he need to meet with Vaughn. And tell Hiram he needs to bring the Red Envelope.” Lou stops his procession down the hallway. “The RED envelope? Are you sure of this Cassie? And also doesn't Craver kind of hate you? Like a lot?” she shakes her head and the simulated voice continues. “I am not sure of anything right now. But we need to put that bullet into the gun. And if anyone can convince the President of doing the right thing if we need him to, its Vaughn. As for the rest...I know what we know about what the President thinks about us and our show, but I also know right now if I am right I am going to need the President to have my back on this.” Lou popped a couple of altoids. A habit he started in N.A. Whenever he was wanting to go for his addiction. “What if I can't get Vaughn?” She smiled “Then you better hope I don't need to get Vaughn. Sorry I have to go we have a problem right now in Afghanistan and I am just 10 minutes away if I can do calculus right.” Lou Laughs “so, more like 30?” She rolled her eyes. Some times she wondered if having people who don't know her on staff would be a much better way to go. Alexi Stalo is sitting in his office feeding his Bombay cat some organic chicken based treats as his daughter sits up. “Father I think this project is foolish, as is your quest to try to check Dynamic Woman.” Stephanie Stalo has long black hair and a dark skin. He remembers her mother fondly. She was his first love and they met again in London when she was at Cambridge and he was at the London School of economics. Stephanie showcases the finest features of her Romany and Jewish ancestry. That and a few subtle works of a plastic surgeon. Her long black hair in contrast to her white dress and in contrast still to the earthy tones of her fathers office. She went to the best prep schools her fathers money could buy. She got a degree from Harvard, another from Yale, and another still from Todai. She was part of the old vision of the trilateral world. Alexi abandoned that as he saw the decline of Trilateralism and begun to see a larger picture. As much as he would conflict with her vision Stephanie gave him an insight he would have 20-30 years earlier. Her youth is invaluable to him as is the purity of her soul. Alexi is wearing a charcoal gray suit and a blue shirt. He is working today without a tie. “Stephanie you have not looked over her record I have. She was small time before September 11 and was as most Empowered individuals a “local phenomena.” Most of them were nothing more then urban legends till she came around. She changed everything and has become a broader inspiration. Her inspiration isn't focused on some higher purpose but on a short term transaction of right and wrong. We need her, she is an exemplar of something greater then herself that people need. We need people like her to be front in center in our great work.” She remained skeptical but trusted in her father's wisdom. Stephanie however moved her response back to her father. “While all of this is true, do you remember when people tried to put you under their paw? Do you remember how you chaffed and looked for the ability to make your move to free yourself from them? I think you underestimate how much this woman is like you in very fundamental ways.” He smiled at his daughter and indulged her opinions while he prepared for his power meeting. Alexi's secretary buzzes him. “Its Salvatore, he has some work product for you sir.” Alexi smiled like a child on Christmas day “Send him in, send him in.” Alexi loved Salvatore like a son he never had, which is more amusing because he had two sons. But salvatore more then anyone he had ever met saw the economies and systems of the power the way he did. He understood how the numbers worked at an instinctual and fundamental level. Salvatore came in with a bunch of printed numbers. For any other person these printed materials would seem laughably absurd but not for Sal. Sal had a love for the tactile sense of printer paper. The paper coming off an old feed printer that was like it came from the computers of the 1980s. Strung togther as a long ribbon of numbers and graphs. Sal was running numbers and books on the street when he was 7. He kept scraps of paper handy and would communicate the numbers. He kept the numbers on his scrap in a code. The police busted him as a kid but were never able to figure it out. The police did arrest him later but in those early days the paper gave him a sense of triumph over the police. His genius for numbers and the psychological factors of the economic forces that drive peoples lives is unparalleled. This made him a good bookie and a better broker. But the truth is he is no longer shaving points off of sports games, but is shaving points off of GDPs of countries big and small. “Ok Mr. Stalo, I crunched the numbers. France has to be it. This is going to be bigger when you crashed the Pound but it has to be France, the Status Quo can deal with anything else.” Alexi starts riffling through the papers. “What about taking out Italy and Spain?” Salvatore shook his head. “At this point the market is baked into the cake that they are going to go soon. France at least has an illusion that its safe. They will fall down the stairs anyway, but if we push them down the stairs early that will change the game. There aren't enough German Bankers to march down the Champs Elysee to fix this mess if we can take France down now. Now if we do this your going to nuke the Socialist Party, does that work with the political agenda? And quite frankly the Gaulists aren't going to be able to cope with what you will do.” Alexi thought for a moment “Maybe I can provide resources to the Green party. Though we may have to create some new party organizations.” Stephanie was confused for a moment and spoke up “To what end are we crashing the French?” Alexi nodded attentively to his daughter. Her work on this would be critical and she does need to be read in. “The EU will keep kicking the can down the road. We need the EU to be less an alliance of states and become a true federal superstate. To do this we will have to destroy the Euro. Once the Euro is destroyed they will take any step necessary to rebuild it. Then we will have a European Republic which will be the first proof in concept that our vision will work and that we can achieve our goals of a united world. We must destroy the sovereignty of all of the European states so we can achieve true human sovereignty and rule. ” Stephanie frowns a bit as she takes a deeper thought of the suffering that will come from all of this. “How long will it take to achieve all of this?” Salvatore looks at his numbers. “Assuming we don't cook up any more pressure with the Piigs....maybe 4 years or 5.” Alexi read over the numbers. “Could we perhaps do a cascade? Starting with Greece, then Portugal, then Spain, then Italy, and then France?” He was thinking about the financial crisis of the 90s when he made so much wealth. That crisis made the war chest he uses today. “ The problem is each country you do that with your going to increase the difficulty exponentially. Thats part of why the Asian Financial flu was so radical and hard to control. We can make the traders into vigilantes on France but that might be doable faster if we lubricate enough people in the global media.” Alexi nodded and began to write up a list of names. “These are some people we can start with when we are ready to prime the press. But I have a important meeting, perhaps the most important meeting of my life. I need some time to be alone with my thoughts.” Stephanie took a longer pause. “Papa just remember, when men broke Germany we ended up with Hitler. You have had a great deal of success breaking countries, but one of these days it may backfire quite horribly.” Alexi smiled at his daughter again. He does not want to break people and leave them broken, he wants to break them and rebuild them. He understands her concern but he must press on with the work and with the change he needs to move forward. When they left Alexi took to pouring out a single malt scotch. He thought about it and decided to pull out one of his investment grade bottles. The cost of this was now going for around 1000 dollars a shot and he took a slow draw from his drink. 'Some times extravagance is a reward that is worth taking.' His father told them this when they went to the work camps. Young Alexi wondered how it was right some should go to the death camps and they should survive. He often reflected on that wisdom of his father's. The extravagance his father had in the war moved his family to safety. The extravagance he had when he left the soviet bloc gave Alexi the gateway to remaking the world. Treasure for the sake of treasure is a fools game. Treasure for the purpose of true freedom is fundamental when you do such a noble and important work. He started to play some Chopin and reflect on the Dossier. The truth of the matter he wishes he could pursue those who produced it and got his money back. Most of what they produced was trivial and uninformative. She lived both of her lives with little secrecy in her personality. He was struck by this honesty she had deep in her person, and how she had to hide herself behind a series of masks. They were all honest masks but all reflected a partial truth. He spent much of his life building masks. He often thought if that was how God truly was. He put himself in masks and different phenomena so that man would see the truth they needed to move forward to something greater. He wondered this even though he was pretty certain their was no god at all. He crucially needed to be ready for this meeting with Dynamic Woman. Their first meeting had promise but it has begun to spin wildly out of his control. She was a variable that could undermine his great work and that was not something he would allow. He read the words out loud. “Dynamic Woman has a desire to showcase herself. This means her personality in her private life must be more reserved.” He laughed. This psychological profile was entirely useless. Though in fairness the people who wrote it did not have a true sense of what they needed to bring togther to come up with the proper picture. He was going to bluff and tell her this dossier had the information he used to find her but the truth of it was he wasted a 15 million making it. The cost of finding her was a man's life and his intuition. And both of those were of a value that was beyond money to Alexi. The truth of the matter was he had to cut back on his donations to the Democratic Party which helped fuel the rise of Cassie Stryker. Her canidates did better then his. He often wondered if he didn't spend so much time trying to pierce the veil of her secrets if that would have happened. The ironies of this amuse him. He pauses to reflect back on the first time he saw her. To see if he could use his own mind to find the deeper truths he seeks. Cassie begins her return from space. She begins to drop from the sky and crack the sound barrier. Her cape shrinks in size as she makes her descent. It seems like only yesterday she didn't know who Alexi Stalo was, and yesterday was a simpler day. The truth was she had began her game of cat and mouse with Alexi Stalo for about 3 years. Alexi was there representing Humanitus Socius at a conference of NGOs trying to develop a strategy to work to resolve the situation of Food and other vital supply aid coming in to areas of Mynmar that were struck by a Tsunami. Cassie took the problem with a different approach. It took a while for her to work the logistics of stuffing a few semi trucks worth of supplies into something she could easily carry. And she simply brought the food to the people. The first few villiages the solution worked well. But when she went to Bogalay she was confronted with the forces of the military. The Junta did not want outsiders providing aid, they wanted control of who lived and who died. This was one of Dynamic Woman's first pushes onto the International Stage. Members of the Mynmar opposition made sure the video hit the internet and every news service. She made short work of the counter insurgency force of infantry soldiers. The government of Mynmar very quickly bent itself to allow her to supervise the distribution of aid. They realized very quickly she wasn't going to be stopped and the weapons systems they had that were of a higher value were far more crucial to securing their control of the country. She derailed the purpose of the conference. For Alexi this was a most serious situation. He was planning to use the conference to influence a broader normalization of relations for Mynmar. So while she saved the poor people she allowed the dictatorship to remain isolated from most of the world. She arrived at the conference as it was about to end. Alexi was first to line up to shake your hand. “That was most riveting, how you were able to put that aid in there and help those people. I was wondering however if perhaps you would be interested in following up on some deeper problems with their regime?” Cassie didn't know him then as she knows him now. So she was receptive to his overtures. He snapped his fingers and a staffer brought some information into a folder. It was about some dealings with some firms from China, Iran, and Venezuela in Mynmar. Cassie quickly scanned the papers. “You can find a rouge regime with weapons of mass destruction when your President cannot.” He smiled knowingly he had his doubts that Dynamic woman had the ability to follow his breadcrumbs and would get lost in the process. Underestimating Dynamic Woman he would later come to see as a grave error. The problem in finding this wasn't looking for the big picture. It wasn't finding the next piece of evidence. It would require simply finding the places on the map where the information was most incomplete. In this case it was the Chinese companies. It was very simple to find the company that was supervising the operation and its ownership by the People's Liberation Army. Getting to the general in question was less then an easy task for Cassie. He was commander of a special weapons research base in china. Their security was likely going to be high but how high she really didn't know.When the rest of the world dealt with the empowered as an amusing street level vigilante, The Chinese government held a much more pragmatic concern how to deal with it. They wanted to put money into research. The truth of the matter was a lot of governments worried about the consequence of these weaponized beings. Antiaircraft missiles first greeted Cassie. The general in Kumming was either prepared for her arrival or was very paranoid. Cassie lead the missiles outside the city to try and depose of them with safety. She tried to see if she could work them into crashing instead of making a quick acute angle turn. But she wasn't able to pull off that maneuver. She had to settle with dumping them into the side of the mountain near by. For her courtesy for the people in this village she was greeted with a squad of tanks. Cassie gritted her teeth. This was her first time committing an act of war against another country. 'Maybe I should turn myself in for violating the Logan act.' She chuckled at the internal joke in her own head.She wasn't even really committing an act of war to fight for truth, justice, or the American way. She was doing it to try to find out about a scheme to create and spread weapons of mass destruction in a rouge regime. “Hey, do any of you speak English? I am not sure I can translate my words into your language.”The Tanks responded with a barrage of machine gun fire. A voice broadcasts over a speaker system “Surrender now!”. Cassie dusted off the shredded remains of the bullets that attacked her. “Well I guess some one speaks English.” She soon found she was able to make a short work of the tanks. She braced herself for the first shot of the shell. She threw her left hand and used it to deflect a second shell that was hitting her. The explosion pushed her back but left no other effect of notice. The machine gun fire was something she already knew how to handle. She quickly shred the barrels of the tank with her bare hands in quick order. She proceeded to pop the first turret off the top of the tank. She ripped it open like a clam. The soldiers on the inside drew their service weapons at her and proceeded to fire. A bluish energy beam broadcast from dynamic woman's eyes and an electrical shock traveled from the gun to the hands of the tank crew. Her cape flew at the men and wrapped around them like a tentacle of some kind of sea monster as she flung them from the Tank. The men however needed no further prompting as they proceeded to run as far away as they could. As she went to the next tank the soldiers fell back to their positions. The next shots that came from a power armor were unexpected. And then they discharged a rail gun at her. She made a quick run run for the Rail gun. The second shot hit her and that shot hurt, her costume shredded a little and it began to weave itself back into order. The rail gun was the real threat to her. It was put on a smaller station built into the mountain. That would be easy enough to deal with. She discharged a burst of her energy blast ripping the command complex for the Rail gun apart with a series of explosions. The scientists, engineers and soldiers all scatter from the explosions but the man in the armor attacks her from behind knocking her into the ground. “You sure you wouldn't like to talk” She spoke as he pushed back at her with a small flame thrower system built into the Armor. “I guess we have to do this the hard way.” She says as she slowly pulled the helmet from the armor. The servos and systems in the armor made it a little harder for her to rip apart like the tank but her fingers and strength eventually made the metal succumb. She then removed the soldier from his exo skeleton. “Run, and run fast.” She yelled at him. He understood much more english then he spoke. Her game was a bit of a bluff. She didn't have the ability to hold them. And while she is able to tear this small squad apart a larger military force could cause her problems. The General and his soldiers made haste to escape after their experimental weapons system failed them. She pondered if the general made her way through the base to neutralize any incriminating files. She didn't have much time to take any incriminating information. She made her way through a quick inspection of the base that the soldiers abandoned quickly. They had deleted most of the computer files but they didn't delete them all. They had also made short work of the paper copies and files they had on the base. She found a camera system in the generals office and it was there she saw Gregory Lawson the first time. The second time she would see him is during the unfortunate incident that lead to her taking his life. “Are you comfortable with these negotiations in English?” he says in an awkward pace. Gregory was a stocky man with a light blonde hair and a deep brown eyes. He had a weathering and tanning on his skin that did not take away from his rugged good looks. He was wearing a old khaki uniform of some sort and Cassie is not sure where it is from. “That would be fine, I rarely get the chance to practice my English.” The general is drinking a whiskey of some kind but its hard to see which in the old video image. His uniform is finely pressed and in top form. “What if we could lobby some friends here to get the ******** moved here? This would be the command of a lifetime.” The burst of static killed the sound. “And to what honor do I owe some one lobbying on behalf of my career?” he looked skeptically at the stranger. “You know who I work for. And I know you have ties to our friends in Venezuala, Iran, Mynmar, and other places of note. My employer has need of the People's Liberation Army to provide us with some influence there. In addition I can provide you with ********* so when you turn it over to your superiors of course you are the only person who can do *****. Really you would be the only person who could.” All else Cassie was able to find was some documents in Russian. So she went on the next leg of the trail. The Russian documents showcased the power armor and the rail gun were both based off of old soviet era research. The soviet research wasn't as current as what the Russians now but it probably gave the Chinese a decade or two of research in making their prototypes. She also had a few detailed reports on experiments with empowered individuals. What was more interesting is most of them were moved to another command. That might have made this fight more difficult for Cassie. She smiled gladly before leaving the base. Alexi gets a call from his lawyer and fixer Nikolai Tremayne. Nikolai was one of the loyal members of Alexi's inner circle. Alexi was a few months from when he sent this Dynamic Woman on her wild goose chase. Nikolai was working on a project with their investing house in Singapore. “Really Alexi, I am not sure this project is worth the cost.” Alexi looked at his current investments from his personal account. “If we reduce our holdings in Brazilian Oil and gas we might be able to finance this on the difference.” Nikolai looked over the numbers. “Your security protocols are more what concerns me. Your focusing on making sure no part of the team has all the data means it will be much more costly then it needs to be. And far less efficient as well.” He laughs at his lawyer. “This is very important information, Its well worth the cost.” Nikolai takes a tense response. “Very well sir. I will put the paperwork together.” He hired a team that took all the publicly available data on Dynamic Woman on the internet and in public news services. A lot of it was interesting but hardly informative. He had to get a few forensic teams together to try to take the data and develop it more efficiently. Gregory Lawson brought him a report of Dynamic Woman hitting their contact in the Chinese Military. He smiled. He took a small general who worked on some outreach by the PLA and made him a golden child of Chinese Military research. He wanted to make sure this man did not become to much of a rising star. He would have been an uncontrollable resource if he rose to quickly. And now he has to explain why his base and billions of dollars in research have now been laid into ruins. He took a few moments to think perhaps he might need to change his long term strategic investments in China.And hopefully the chaos destroyed any unnecessary evidence. He pondered if he should call the people in Russia who provided him with the research information he needed. The truth be told he had a personal animus against former KGB agents who profit as looters from their own regime. He also never trusted a man he paid to betray his country either. He also had clashed swords with the Russian government on more then one occasions geopolitically so he was not confident they didn't have a revenge file on him that they could drop if anyone traced this back to the Russians. They lacked introspection and an ability to regain control over their humanity. But these Russians were more then a tad crafty. He did not want to know if they were prepared with a double cross for this situation. “Yuri, this is Alexi. I just want to warn you that you may have an unwelcome guest.” Yuri the Hammer was much different from his Chinese counterpart. He lived a double life in the light and in the dark in Volgograd. He is a man who was able to lubricate paperwork for the right money. He is a man who can deal with the disappearance of various artifacts from government warehouses. So he was a valuable friend to people who wanted imports and exports to go under the table from Russia. While his Chinese counterpart had a trap set up he made sure the breadcrumbs lead Dynamic Woman to him in a peaceful situation. In large part because of his extra side business. To many people would be upset if to many stones were unturned. And it always helps to make a good impression with some one who can toss a public bus around.Yuri had his hair in a tight crew cut. He was a young agent when the KGB fell. He moved into other aspects of the Russian Bureaucracy and became a consummate rent seeker. He was in the public archives office and was able to move some defunct research through a third party to the Chinese. “They were comrades once” he the thought, so this was not really treason. He had fun listening to old comrades in the intelligence agencies spitting blood about how the Chinese advanced weapons research had jumped ahead by over 20 years. When Stalo called him he was thinking about how to play his next move. He didn't trust him because of his family ties. His father was able to play Hitler and Tito. Yuri's father taught him that a man's family says a great deal about him and his father even more so. A billionaire who styles himself a citizen of the world becomes even lest trustworthy to Yuri. But at the same point in time a cowboy American with superpowers was coming for him. A cowboy American he could trust more then Stalo. Still it was better to be safe then sorry. It was an experimental weapon with a small torpedo on it. He wasn't sure if it would work but it was best to have an insurance policy in case anything went wrong. Dynagirl arrived on the Penthouse and Yuri is sitting there with a cigar and some fine vodka. “You are late young lady. I would have expected you sooner after you dealt with our Chinese friend.” Cassie was caught off guard. “I am sorry I didn't know I had an appointment.” Yuri laughed at came up to grasp her hand. “So I take it since I was not as foolish as launching an assault with an entire military base at you we might be able to be civil?” Cassie nodded as Yuri called down to his kitchen staff. “I also figured at the moment as I have nothing to hide from you there is no reason to fight with you. I might even be able to help you.” She waved off any offer of food. The food was heavy with a cabbage smell. The cabbage was not fresh nor was it well cooked. The sausage gave of a metallic aroma. She wasn't sure if he did this on purpose or he was trying to see if he could poison her. “So what is it you want to know from me?” He folds his hands on the table. “I've been following some investments in companies I think that are helping the government of Mynmar develop weapons of mass destruction. Our Chinese friend was the link of the chain that was supposed to tie it togther.” Yuri smiled again. “Well you really don't need to search for more information. It is all absolutely true your suspicion. 100% true and factual, and I am pretty sure you could bust them. As for people up the food chain we are very clear that this is not for 'Weapons Program Purposes' we even put a gold star on the contract to show we are serious. Is that why you blew up large areas of rural china?” She paused for a moment but Yuri spoke up. “And it goes further. Your government is well aware of these actions. But these actions are not worth World War III. Most of them aren't worth a federal case.” He disposed of his plates in a dumbwaiter. “You suspected their was something more, something larger at work? Its good I am glad you are not just a pretty face behind a mask. In governments where the rule of law means less then the laws of rulers and rules people turn a blind eye of actions of myself and others if it puts a mote in the eye of the American government. If we have you Americans putting out fires on the periphery we can push our agenda deeper into more serious and important areas. The reality is the callous disregard for the life of the people of Mynmar by their own government show they hold them in such low value that their opinion of them matches the rest of the world. Their suffering only matters in our larger political context.” his food came out and he began to eat. “Your guided by your moral compass. You don't care what happens you just want to cut out the evil of their regime. Its quite admirable but hardly efficent. If you tried to yolk yourself to hunt down all this evil you would have no time for anything resembling a life. And I doubt you are some kind of robot.” She paused for a moment “Then who payed you off to give the Chinese the technology they used to attack me?” Yuri smiled and was quite happy that he could place a dagger. “Pardon me as an American I will have to parse my languge with you. Stalo had me provide the technology to the Chinese. It was going nowhere here in Russia but in China it would work to further a political balance of power. Fat lot of good it did them. Blowing their wad on you like that.”She eyed him up and down “With his long term problem with the Russian Government. Why did you trust him.” Yuri smiled again “I didn't trust him, but I did trust the fact his money cleared my bank account. Thats always the finest trust to apply to a situation such as this.” She stood up less certain then she was when she came. “what proof do I have of your accusation?” he poored a drink of Vodka and watched her reaction. “And why would I give you information that useful. While most of the time his political interests disagree with my governments more often then not he provides me a way to serve my paymaster secretly and be richly rewarded. Why would I give you a way to stop that?” She got up and thought about confronting him but restrained herself. “You are a smart woman, I am very pleased by this. Perhaps some day you will have something worthy of me betraying the man I betrayed my country for. That way you could hall him off in irons and give him the criminal sentence he deserves. But you have taken a glimpse bellow the surface. I promise you there is more to seek out.” Cassandra listened to his heartbeat. He wasn't calm but he wasn't panicing either. He had a plan b if this all went wrong. “I hope I don't have to see you again.” Yuri got up to shake her hand. “Young lady, I certainly hope I get to see you many more times.” Her meeting with Yuri alarmed Cassandra. So Cassie began to follow the money. This was a case of the TV show host being more capable of getting the job done then the cape. Because since she went into the world of Journalism she always stuck to following the money. It was the Edward and Bernstein rule of thumb. The way he came to power in the financial world is quite insidious. Did he topple the bank of england, or was the bank of england ready to get a shove down the stairs. Did he front for more sinsister figures or did mearly go from being a small sinister figure to a larger one. Does he support political movements which create extreme political and social instability so he can profit from the natural coincidence of it. What was more insidious was on occasions Autocratic regimes would get help inexplicably in a similar pattern to how the Junta in Mynmar got their influx of capital and deadly weapons technology. Occasionally a rebel group would get some help that doesn't fit into the larger geopolitical picture. And there are financial movements from the web of companies and foundations under the Aegis of Stalo that seem to be involved. However its unprovable in the court of law or the court of public opinion. Cassie herself wondered if the connections were real or were part of the fevered imaginings that came as she stared at computer screens for to to long. But the question of how to flush out the missing pieces kept bothering Cassie. But she looked at some of the groups funding the push back in support of the President against her critique. Once she saw that the answer was amazingly simple. Max came up behind her in their home office and put his hands on her shoulders. “You know the kids asked me to come in here to see if they have a mother. It turns out they do.” She smiled weakly and gave her husband a strong firm kiss. “I'm sorry, I just found something on an investigation and its taken me deeper then I thought it would.” he smiled and clasped her hand. “I love you cassie. You spent so much of your old life in addiction. I know that makes you intense and in the middle of every moment. You just have to remember the kids don't know who you were. The kids don't even know who you really are.” She turned off the computer and looked at him. “Do you really think its time?” Her oldest child was 14 and her youngest was 8 born very shortly after she became Dynamic Woman. “I mean can we realistically expect the kids to keep this kind of secret?” He looked her in the eyes. “Keeping a secret life hurts you every day. The fact your able to balance a secret life, a private life, and a public life all togther is hard on you hun. I can totally see it.” She smiled and kissed him again. “Thank you for reminding me why I keep you around in my life.” She casually grabbed her husband with one arm and with a full alacrity went up the stairs. The love of her husband and her friends were one of the things that kept cassie sane. Max asked her to give up one of her lives but she always told him no. She kept these lives because there was so much she felt called to do in her life to help the people of her nation and her world live a freer and richer life. But Max's love gave her the strength to go forward with her clash against the excentric billionaire. This was an amazingly short production meeting Cassie held. It was Lou, Matt and Charlie. In addition to being three key figures in the on air they were all in on Cassie's other life. Charlotte “Charlie” was the youngest and most recent of the crew. She was assigned by Veritax to work for their inaugural broadcast. When the second broadcast was disturbed by Cassie missing work for a Prison riot she had to ask a series of difficult questions which only brought more. The decision to let her into the circle of trust came quickly. She had a curly long dark hair and a rich olive base tan on her skin. She tend to be Casual business casual for most meetings. Charlie was the first to ask the most obvious question in the world “Shouldn't this be an answer solve by 'Bamf'.” Matt and Lou both concurred with the analysis. “The problem isn't one that can be solved by directed force. If I have the right thing to cut out at the right time I can weaken his position. But I don't even know what questions I have to ask. By pushing him on the media end we have an opportunity to find those places and expose him where we can go at him. Matt was the next one to speak with the painfully obvious question. “We just spent a lot of time goring the President's bull. We got a lot of heat from the President of the network on down. Are you willing to go after one of the richest men in America who actually has the luxury of suing the pants off us?” Cassie looked back at his staff. “So your telling me that this is the craziest idea I have ever come to you with?” They all nodded. “What if we start small and we try to find stories that connect to him?” Lou looked pensively at her. “Cassie, I will say this is a bad idea but I think that’s the best way we can do this bad idea.” Cassie also had a stray thought enter her head. “I think we should use Charlie from now on when we need a new guest host or back up. Make her our double secret permanent guest host.” Lou and Matt both agreed with her. She made a call to Veritax corporate to change Charlie's pay. She put a note in a blue envelope and put it in her desk. “Welcome to the Strike Zone. I am sure you have seen some of the austerity protests going on across Eastern Europe today.” On the blue screen behind Cassie an image of a farm protest in Romania, Hungary, and Poland are showcased. “But have you ever wondered is this, connected to this?” Testimony is showcased on congress by people talking about how the debt and deficit don't matter, and how the deficit in social security and medicare don't matter. “Its time we connect the dots. Lets go into the strike zone.” Alexi Stalo turned off the TV in his office. “Nikolai, what can we do about this?” His lawyer scanned through some files on his I-Pad. “Well we can of course put a press release out on how we have funded organizations that funded these organizations and how...” Alexi cut him off abruptly. “Don't bullshit me. I have talked to the Baron and this is just a taste. This is what they can go to air with today. This insignificant little bitch came after the President. She came after good people in the White House, the bitch came after our people. Don't you think this is to convinent that she is coming after us now?” Nikolai put down his I-Pad “And you went after her. I hardly think escalating this further will benefit you.” He slammed his fisk on the desk. “Bullshit, I have worked to hard and to long to have to deal with this nonsense at the final years of my life. I need to prep the table for the end game.” Nikolai had looked at Alexi as a mentor and a father figure in his own life. He know see's this crisis for what it is. “I know who to go to bat for you with in this case. But orthodox methods of dealing with this are running dry unless she stumbles.” Alexi went to the bar to poor himself another stiff drink. “This little bitch is cunning and cagey. We need to swat her like a bug if we have to.” Nikolai took a long deep breath. “We haven't swatted anyone like a bug here....” Alexi cuts him off and places his hands firmly on Nikolai's shoulders. “Nikolai, I don't pay you to incriminate me. I pay you to make sure that if there is any risk in my organization or in my company that any blame falls on another. Rid me of this petulant woman. For got sake don't get stupid on me and tell me how your going to do it.” He then began to review tape of the riots in Poland being broken up by Dynamic woman. “And this petulant doo-gooder. She is also becoming more and more of an annoyance. Our operations in pushing the EU powers to the table and building political pressure to eliminate national sovereignty is at a crucial period. What we don't need is this woman breaking up the pressure and letting out steam. She is messing with my plans on two continents now. I don't have the patience for her to mess with me on a third or fourth. Get on our people, we need to have this dossier put together. I need to know who she is.” He stood their fuming at the screen and Nikolai left the office. He took his phone and made a quick call to Stephanie. “Steph darling this is Niko.” Stephanie took a some what sunny perk in her voice at his calling. “How is King Richard? Does he still have the boys in the tower?” She could make these flippant jokes with Nikolai. They both had a great deal of uncertainty about his drive to achieve his large goals in his great work. “Your father is on a tear. I need to talk to you about it. Can I come by your place?” She smiled again. “You are a cheeky knight errant. I suppose we can meet at my place. I don't have any meetings I can't blow off.” Truth be told when the estate of Alexi Stalo was broken up he would have a son take over the management and running of his fund. So far as any trades made through New York is concerned Alexi's son Reuben already was in-charge. But Nikolai wanted more then to be the trusted chancellor to the dark king. He wanted to romance the daughter of the dark king and be on her good side. For Stephanie things were much more pragmatic. She was using him. She was using him for sex at a most basic level, but she was also using him to try to make him a better influence on the angels of her fathers nature. More and more the two of them conspired to take the darker impulses her father had and turn them at the worst into morally gray propositions. As they rested on pillows after the seduction he told her his burden from her father and she told him how to make it work. Her father underestimated her, and underestimated her growing influence over his larger empire. “So here is how I think you should handle it. Get Greg to follow her. If there is something blackmailable going on Greg will be able to find it. Meanwhile you go to her production team. I think they can be reasoned with better then the network.” Nikolai pushes the pillows so he can sit up. He looks into her eyes. “why do you say that? Shouldn't the network have the power?” She laughs at him. “You obviously didn't pay enough attention in Contract law. She has a very broad latitude and at this point she is dangerously close to contract renegotiation. They push her to hard and they lose all that money she makes them. And even with our driving off the low to mid hanging fruit advertisers she still brings them in money. They even stuck their neck out over the White House's ham handed attempts to go after her. They won't bring the hammer down unless she messes up. And Cassie Stryker's team won't let her. She hired a team to keep her grounded and focused and they are very good at their job. That is who you need to divide and conquer and not another Billionaire. You need to play on their loyalty to her.” She smiled amusingly at the closeness of this woman and her father. She smiled with a certain knowing satisfaction that neither of the two of them would get it either. Nikolai started to gather his clothes. “I need to go to DC to begin to set things up. If I am going to make this work I need to arrange this like a mafia styled sit down. I know just the person I need to go to to make this happen.” She however had another thing in mind. “Hello can I speak to some one in our Poland office?” She switched from English to German. “Yes you know that Rally that Cassie Stryker is looking at putting on in Poland? I know what my father may send down from the head office. I want you to put your ears to the ground quietly. If we can, I want us to get behind it. Yes I know what my father says about the crazy American. I also know dad worked with the American Government to help liberate people in the former Soviet States when he was younger. If we can yolk our enemies to our work we have a chance to make our enemy into an ally and we have a chance to do the work. Yes, if any backlash comes from Dad you tell him I gave you a direct order. And you remind him he set up the organization so my Orders can trump his.” She put on her robe and begin to feed her Canary. She began to whistle an old folk song that she doesn't even remember the words to. “So my songbird, are we ready to fly away from all this?” Alexi looked over the poll numbers. He wadded them up and threw them across the room. Salvatore brought these poll numbers in but they did not please him. “Look sir, its not like this is a country. Its easier to hate a group then to hate a person. Especially a person that has so far only been focusing on cases where the line between right and wrong is very clear.” He laughs. “Its hardly clear at all thats the point. The Korean War was not a success at the time of the border being finalized. Its a success today as we have one of the beacons of the free market system and one of the greatest tragedies in the world. They were a military dictatorship at one point and now its a democratic and relatively just society. They will have a set back when the north collapses that will push them to the eventual global hegemony for support. So the human suffering in North Korea while a failure today brings us one step closer to having the vision of a one world government of man. We cannot live in the judgment of today.” Salvatore set back in the chair. “There is a reason people like cops and firemen. And there is a reason people like firemen more then cops. The problem is Dynamic woman hasn't been put into the situation where she has to be the cop. Where she has to play against the power of the mob. She hasn't had to do as the fireman and play against the entitlement instinct of others. That will happen in time if you want to put a check on her power.” Stalo took his hands through his hair. “If we had that sort of time on the table we would play it that way. More and more I see co-opting her truly is the only way to go.” Sal looked him in the eyes. “Sir, are you dying?” Alexi laughed at this. “I have destroyed human lives in the millions, maybe even in the billions. I have destroyed pensions and dreams of people. I have molded nations and their destines as some men mold clay. The more and more I look at my work I will not see my dream until I die. What good is it to be a man and know that history will build statues in your honor? Or even worse I could be like Benjamin Franklin. Old and enfeebled looking at my great work being completed by younger men in the twilight of my years. I do not want justification or pardon for my deeds when I am gone or when I can't enjoy them. I want them now.” Salvatore smiled for a moment. “I know that feeling well sir. I made a lot of money in both of my other lives playing that feeling. You've made more fortunes then I could imagine playing that feeling. The problem isn't that we are finite in this world sir. The problem is what we choose to do with our life is so wasteful. Your doing with words, ideas, and money what people with armies haven't been able to do. If your daughter achieves the dream of Alexander the Great so what? Can't you be satisfied with being the father of Alexander?” Salvatore picked up his stuff and left. He unfortunately knew that answer. Before he left he turned back and looked at Alexi. “Boss you washed my sins clean. You gave me a life I can never repay you for even if I gave you every moment of my day. But if you bring down your empire I am not sure I will last as you made me now. I am sure I will have to go back to my old life. Just remember boss that you are the great man, but your generals need you to not destroy our armies.” 2010 was turning into a challenging year for Alexi. Nikolai was at the Veritax studios in Washington D.C the Veritax meeting was a formality to set up a dinner meeting. The President of Veritax news was a penultimate Washington insider. He was a senior campaign staffer in more Presidential campaigns then most people have ever seen and been a deputy or a congressional chief of staff to a host of republican officals. He set up the deal for Cassie with the Baron. When Nikolai was trying to set up the meeting he wanted to make sure that Sherman Walker was behind him to buy Lou into the meeting. Sherman had the same ears of Prince charles but hair like Donald Trump. He was a comical looking short man who commanded a great deal of political and economic power. Lou walked into the back room of the restaurant and his first thought was did tessio hide the gun in the bathroom like he was supposed to.