The First Seal is Broken – part IV

An Isolated Incident I, II and III The First Seal is Broken I, II, III

By the time Frank parked at the Hoover building, there were seven incidents known, the latest having been reported moments before he had turned off the engine. Nor were the attacks simply against police that had engaged in asset forfeiture. Right now social media was outpacing mass media, but that wouldn’t last – this was big news. With that would come a whole new round of political scrutiny – neither the Administration nor Congress was going to be satisfied with a lack of rapid progress in ending this.

The scene was one of barely controlled chaos – the nerve center of the federal effort a bundle or raw nerves. Frank sat down at his computer and started sorting through the internal communications and the primary source streams off of social media. Another window contained a scrolling headline feed as local and national media picked up the stories. He focused for a moment on the apparently CNO-sourced online accounts of the incidents. There was something there, but he couldn’t figure it out. There was a burst of activity – as he watched, another incident was being reported.

This one was a little different, it didn’t target active LE, but a private company that taught agencies how to conduct asset forfeiture operations. The business was called The Golden Road – the offices had been burned to the ground. It wasn’t known if there was anyone inside at this point, but Frank assumed that to be likely. Even before he finished reading the official communications, a post had popped on the social media feed – with a link to a CNO statement. That statement confirmed Frank’s assumption – the founders of the business were dead, along with the destroyed office and records. At the end of the statement, the CNO had repeated the line that was becoming common:

There are none who are not accountable for what they do.

By the end of the day, two more incidents had come in, with accompanying CNO statements. Frank finally found the thing he had been seeing but couldn’t identify – the timing. The CNO statements ran on a time-line independent of news or other social media. Some had actually preceded media accounts and others had slightly lagged, but the timing was consistent based on when the attack was completed. They were clearly operating on their own tempo, and information dissemination was as precise as the physical attacks. That might create a window that the FBI could exploit by releasing an official statement, even a false one, before the CNO could make their own. Frank summarized this in a brief report for leadership.

At the end of a very long day, Frank rolled out of the office, stepping out into the evening the air was fresh, and noticeably less pressurized then it had felt inside. He drifted off down the street, not ready to drive home, but somewhat in need of a beer or two. Almost aimlessly he walked into a semi-authentic Irish pub and found an empty stool at the bar. He ordered a pint of Guinness. While he waited and focused on the TV above the bar (it was on news reporting about some of the violence), a man sat down next to him. The fellow asked the barkeep for two shots of Jameson. Those of course were poured more quickly than a proper pint, and one was slid by the man to in front of Frank. He looked up quizzically.

The man extended his hand and said “my name is Conor, have a drink with me”.