This is my novel in progress; if you’re just starting, chapter 1 is here… https://okrahead.wordpress.com/2023/01/23/nobodys-heroes-1/
Chapter Thirteen
From Ruth Smith’s Diary (Date Redacted)
This job has been nothing like I expected, but that’s been a good thing. I really didn’t know what this office would be like, but apparently neither did anyone else. Mr. McCulloch seems nice enough, but I’m not sure he always knows what’s going on. He seems to spend a lot of time in his office with the door shut. Usually if one of us knocks and he calls us in he’s on the computer, but he always keeps the monitor turned in such a way as to be sure we can’t see what he’s up to, which I suppose is to be expected from someone working in counter-intelligence.
Since we didn’t really have hard and fast job descriptions I decided to try and make the job into what I wanted to do with my life. I talked to David, Loren and Jack and they all had great input, so I put the ideas together and even came up with a training program we could all attend. I was blown away when Mr. McCulloch accepted all of my proposals and signed off on them. He must really believe I have great potential in this field.
Loren says it’s really that he just doesn’t know what he’s doing and that he’s got a crush on me. I told her to grow up, and that we should consider ourselves lucky to be in a new office where we can be part of the “first generation.” I also told her we’re lucky to have a boss that gives us so much lee way. It’s great to have someone who listens to our ideas and doesn’t micromanage us. Loren just rolled her eyes and said I could have proposed a walk on the moon and he would have signed off on it if I were wearing a low-cut blouse. I swear that girl is such a cynic. Besides which, he’s our boss and he’s way too old for me. It’s not like were congressional pages or white house interns.
The training sessions at Darkwater were awesome. I don’t think I’ve ever had so much fun in my life! Sure, it was really tough physically, but it helped me get in better shape anyway, and now I feel like I could take on a whole army of terrorists, although in reality I know we’ll probably just spend most of our time pushing paper.
I was really amazed at how well most of my teammates took to the training. Of course Jack and Loren already had a ton of training, and David is all into that martial arts stuff, so I guess it was no big deal to them. Those two weird Korean brothers even stuck it out, although I don’t think they really need to worry about anyone stereotyping them as Tae Kwon Do masters, even if they do complain about it all the time. I’ve never seen a champion kick boxer wearing horn-rimmed glasses and a pocket protector.
I was very impressed by Mr. McCulloch’s agreeing to come along with us. Even though he seems pretty old he stuck out the whole six weeks with us. I thought that was actually quite brave of him. After all, at his age he might have had a hear attack. I think someone said he has to be at least forty. It’s great that we have the kind of boss who isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty right alongside the people he’s managing. That all by itself gives me a lot more confidence in his decisions.
I’ve been working with the Cho brothers on my algorithm. We think between the three of us we can come up with a program that will plot the historical objectives and actions of various terror groups and then predict their most likely point of attack in the future. This will be especially helpful in fighting groups like Al-Qaida and Hezbollah. What most Americans don’t understand is that for these groups, and especially their leaders, this fight is all about history. They believe they have a historical mandate, based on their own religious teachings, for their actions. The interesting thing is that they make no secret of this belief, yet most people, even the politicians overseeing counter-terrorism and intelligence agencies, remain unaware of it. Of course, most of the American people refused to believe what Hitler was up to in the early 1930’s, even though he’d written down all of his plans and published them in advance. I guess it really is true that the more things change, the more they stay the same. I suppose that falls in line with the sad fact that most Americans are completely disinterested in history. It’s too bad, really, because when you’re enemy is obsessed with repeating history it actually becomes quite simple to predict his actions.
Since David has a Masters in Middle Eastern studies I’ve asked him to help out with some of the historical data we’re using to construct the program, and he’s been really enthusiastic about it. He really seems to know all there is to know about the different terrorist organizations working out of that part of the world. In fact some of the things he knows go beyond what I can find in published materials. David says that’s because he spent so much time studying in Tel Aviv and talking with local soldiers. He also said that most of his professors had military experience, and thus a great deal of firsthand knowledge that never got published. I suppose that’s possible, but sometimes I wonder if he pretends to know more than he really does.
Jack seems pretty suspicious of my whole project, but he did admit that he’s usually suspicious of “intelligence people” in general, and especially those who rely on “computer-generated intelligence.” He said if I had spent as much time on the ground in Iraq as he had I would understand the reasons he feels that way, and I suppose he does have a point. David seemed to agree with Jack somewhat on this, and said all of our computer models do need to be backed up by actual “human assets”, by which he means spies. I agree that would be great, but I don’t know that we have anything like that in our budget, besides which I don’t think we have any spies all that close to Osama bin Laden, or else he’d already be dead.
So in all likelihood I’ll spend almost all of my time working with the Cho brothers on tweaking the program, then just forward the information we develop on up the ladder to someone else, and eventually it will get filed away and ignored. But at least this job can be a stepping stone for me to get to a position where I really can do some good, so for now I’ll do the best job I can here to burnish my resume.
Next chapter here… https://okrahead.wordpress.com/2023/02/03/nobodys-heroes-14/
Too much is never enough… https://theothermccain.com/2023/02/02/a-very-minuscule-number/
Logistical issues, as always…. https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2023/02/are-russian-tanks-in-ukraine-wearing.html
Join the pirate crew…. https://spawnyspace.wordpress.com/2023/02/02/the-roaring-twenties-stumblin-in/
Detective work in progress… https://sylg1.wordpress.com/2023/02/02/hunter-biden-is-a-sexual-predator/
Still no…. https://sigmaframe.wordpress.com/2023/02/01/are-men-responsible-for-womens-behavior/
The only proper response is…. https://winteryknight.com/2023/02/02/responding-to-a-pro-abortion-argument-that-concedes-the-humanity-of-the-unborn/
Tell me what you think…. https://pushingrubberdownhill.com/2023/02/02/comments-update/
okrahead 
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