Chapter 3  Attack Preparation

 Halick Abdul looked at the ten brand-new Mack trucks parked in his garage in Kansas City. The trucks were beautiful machines. It seemed a shame they would only be making one trip across the country.

He watched as each of the ten drivers worked to finish the modifications on each truck. Some were working on the special weather stripping around the doors and windows making the trucks airtight. Other drivers were working on the bio-filters they’d attached to the air-conditioning systems on the Mack’s.

The men had already finished the rerouting of each truck’s exhaust system. Each cab had twin exhaust stacks; the men had disconnected one of the stacks on the passenger’s side from the exhaust system and hooked it up to the specially designed dispersion device. The same air compressors controlling the trucks air brakes would now power the dust-sprayers distributing the virus. The disconnected stack would disperse the virus dust in increments of one eighth of an ounce. The carefully tested device started by a button in the truck's cab. Once the button was pressed, the dust was deposited on top of the air valve positioned in the stack. Whenever the truck's speed increased five mph, the air compressor would release a blast of air sounding just like the normal valve release. The air pressure blast disbursing the contaminated dust measured one hundred twenty pounds per square inch. Testing showed this would send the dust forty feet into the air above the stack. Since the dust dispersed when the trucks were accelerating, no one could see it, as the other working stack was emitting the black diesel exhaust simultaneously.

Perhaps the main concern for the drivers was to make sure not to disperse the dust into an environment with temperatures below forty degrees Fahrenheit. This one factor determined distribution during the week of May 15, 2015. Weather conditions across the United States were ideal for a successful attack.

Each dispersion device carried a two pound dust load. This meant each truck would be able to disperse two hundred fifty-six shots of the virus dust. With the ten prepared trucks there would be 2560 different points of attack in the United States.

Determining the route for the trucks took Halick and his drivers considerable time. First, there was the problem of finding the right job enabling them to haul merchandise all over the country. Then came the negotiations to obtain the contract. Fortunately Halick wasn’t interested in making money and tantalized the auto part’s company with an incredibly low bid. The company hadn’t taken long to cancel their contracts with the other trucking companies, giving Halick nationwide distribution.

Halick chuckled to himself when he thought back to how eagerly the shipping manager at the factory which produced air and oil filters, accepted his bid. The manager thought he was really making the deal of the century, and would be rewarded for saving his company thousands of dollars. The only difficulty in negotiations came when Halick requested all ten trucks leave the factory on the same day. Eventually; the shipping manager worked to accommodate Halick’s request with the plant manager. The plant manger hadn’t wanted to let his warehouse get so full as to be able to load up ten trucks in one day. However, Halick smoothed it over by saying this would be a one-time situation. As the truckers returned from their routes and took a couple days off, then Halick would arrange a staggered schedule from then on. So the loading schedule was confirmed.

What the factory manager did not know was that the trucks would not be returning to pick up another load. Of course by the time the ninth day rolled around not seeing any trucks would probably be the least of the factory manager’s problems. When the last truck pulled out from the dock on Monday, it would be releasing its first shot of the virus at the loading dock and a second at the factory’s front entrance.

Hell, if what they’d told Halick was true, then there shouldn’t be anyone left in the factory by day nine. All of the employees would be out sick; within days of dying.

Not that Halick was going to be around to find out first hand. The day the trucks picked up the loads at the factory he would be boarding a plane for New York City’s JFK Airport. At JFK he would then board a plane for London, followed by flights to Paris, Madrid, and Saudi Arabia. Once in Saudi Arabia, Halick would rent a car and drive to Iraq. By this time five days would have passed and the trucks should have completed their routes.   

Once Halick arrived in Iraq, Mohammed had assured him the borders would be sealed shut. No one would be allowed into Iraq for ninety days. There would be some inconveniences like the fact that no aid would come into the country, not even the much needed humanitarian aid of food and medical supplies. However, after ninety days the world would be at Mohammed’s feet.

Halick switched the T.V. from the Weather Channel to C-Span. He’d seen the weeks forecast and found himself pleased with weather projections for this third week of May. The United States showed no storms in the forecast with the exception of thunderstorms springing up in the Rockies and plains at the week’s end. Temperatures across the nation ranged from the lowest in Montana in the mid fifties, to the highest in Arizona in the mid nineties.

C-Span was an equally pleasant viewing experience for Halick. Every member of Congress was in Washington, D.C. for the big tax reform debate. Also, the Senators were all in town debating a course of action to be taken with India and Pakistan. Halick was aware Mohammed had been very worried about the Eastern situation, hoping the two countries would control themselves for the time being. He wondered what occurred in Iraq when those two countries entered the nuclear club. Halick was sure it must have upset the now long dead leader of Iraq, Saddam Hussain on several levels, first because the United States had destroyed his nuclear program. Secondly, Saddam probably felt if anyone in Asia got nuked, then it should be Israel in the cross hairs. Third, Halick was sure that at the time Saddam had been scared. It’s always different when someone else brings the nuclear nightmare to your doorstep. It would have been fine if it’d been Iraq with the destructive power, but instead it belonged to India and Pakistan.

Halick continued his examination of the different conditions with regard to his mission and it looked to him like everything was as perfect as his highest expectations. After the last driver finished modifying his truck, Halick gathered all ten of the drivers around him. They knelt, facing toward Mecca, saying the evening prayers. Halick then took them all out to dinner at the finest steak house in the Kansas City area.

The waitress at the restaurant felt surprised to find this group of eleven men did not drink alcoholic beverages of any kind. Still, the apparent leader of the group did leave her a seventy-five-dollar tip. This non-drinking group could come back anytime.

Halick saw the men back to the two houses they had been living in for the past six months. They were all asleep by 10:00 that night. The war Iraq was going to wage against the great Satan and the rest of the world would begin at 6:00 a.m. central time tomorrow.