COVERT WRITERS TAKEDOWN by Joe Bergeron (best beach reads txt) 📕

carrying a mobile
phone. I’ll call him while Courtney’s talking to her and
the rock will go through the window.”
Again, his timing would be perfect.
“Is your rock thrower secure?”
“Same thing - I’ve used him before - he’ll be
gone tomorrow.”
“I think you’re right about Courtney, he’ll run
to McKenzie when her phone goes dead.”
“Courtney’s not suspecting anything - this is
going to shake him up. Right now he’s just sitting in
his office reading. Are you sure you don’t want them
followed if they clear out?”
“I’m sure.”
“This guy’s just a philosopher and a writer.”
The comment implied a lack of understanding.
“He’s a Master of Laws, there’s a big difference.
He analyzes situations for a living - don’t underestimate
him. - Courtney and his girlfriend have to meet up with
Wirtham at JGM. You can make contact again after
they arrive, I wouldn’t be surprised if it were tomorrow
- you have the message.”
“Whatever you say.”
Tollman glanced at his Rolex thinking to
himself as he hung up the phone.
‘Risks seem alright, we’re on schedule.’
Collecting the JOURNAL from the floor, he
quickly glanced again at the article on the front page
and thinking to himself, ‘Griffin, if you write for them,
then next week, you write for me.’
He had one more conversation before leaving
the office.
52
A speed dial allowed him to circumvent any
local or overseas operators - a perquisite of his position.
Two rings on a phone ninety miles off the Florida coast
were all that was necessary to alert the new Vice
President of Cuba, and an old Harvard acquaintance, to
personally answer his phone.
His Administrative Assistant would normally
have stayed late and have answered, however, a final
meeting with a U.S. newspaper Editor in Miami had
caused her to leave the island yesterday.
“Miguel Belize.”
“My good friend.”
“Yes, Mister Secretary.”
“Our plan is secure. Are you prepared to deal
with Mister Bellcamp?”
“Tonight, as we speak, he is with Catalina. She
knows what must be done. If the plan does not work,
she has a back up.”
“Will she return to the island?”
“Of course. I will soon give you some of my
assets, Mister Secretary, but not that one.”
“Are you sure he has no additional information
on this organization?”
“I’m certain of that. Once she has the final
codes, she will have taken from him all he knows.”
“What about McKenzie?”
“He’s comfortable. When you tell me, I will allow him to
speak with his daughter.”
“That’s fine, I’ll call you over the weekend.”
“Good night, Mister Secretary.”
Tollman left his office, taking a private elevator
to a secure garage.
It was 9:10 p.m.. Michael Courtney would soon
be on his office floor bleeding, and Daniel Bellcamp
would soon be terminated.
53
The MIAMI HERALD ranks about nineteenth
in circulation among the nation’s top one hundred
newspapers. A morning print media, it publishes
approximately 435,000 copies a day.
Daniel William Bellcamp had become The
Managing Editor of THE HERALD at the young age of
thirty-six. His ability to write prolifically, and with
great presence had captured the attention of Robert
Wirtham eleven years before his promotion to M.E..
Bellcamp had joined Yankee Echo while a staff writer
for the same publication. A Physical Laws candidate
from Arizona State, he’d won many awards for
journalism, all of which helped him rise through the
ranks of Staff Reporter, Editor, Suburban Editor, City
Editor, and finally to the position of Managing Editor.
Heavy set and balding, he was a fast track,
smooth communicator with the written word. However,
his egocentric bearing, and two hundred fifty pound
waddly frame caused him the thing he wanted most -
attention from the opposite sex. His erudite manners
and conversation were simply not enough to attract the
type of female companionship he desired. The M.E.
couldn’t put into his personal life what he longed for,
and frequently purchased.
Subsequently, and consequently, he allocated a
portion of his weekly pay to subsidize his addiction to
women. Behind closed doors in fourth floor walk ups,
and in some of Miami’s finer hotels, his whores created
for him a life he craved.
It was on an exceptionally warm February
morning in Miami when his dream of associating with a
beautiful woman who needed him for more than one
night’s pay began to materialize.
54
Tuesday, February 14, 10:50 a.m.
Fidel Castro, Prime Minister of Cuba since
1959, and President since 1976, had died in September,
a massive stroke claiming his life. Degreed on Law
from The University of Havana in 1950, Castro had
become leader of an underground organization known
as the July 26th Movement which eventually overthrew
the Cuban government of Fulgencio Batista in 1959.
Castro proceeded to nationalize Cuban
industry, collectivize agriculture, and establish a oneparty
socialist state, moves that drove thousands of
middle and upper class Cubans into exile. His seizure
of American-owned companies was one of the reasons
for the unsuccessful Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. His
sudden death opened the door for a CIA contingency
plan code named ETHAN’S ENTRY that would place
Juan Ramos Santiago, a Cuban exile and banker living
in Miami, into the position of President.
A democratic idealist, Santiago and his Vice
President, Miguel Carlos Belize, a government official,
were elected in a landslide victory. Although their
country’s economy was in shambles, both Santiago and
Belize were determined to rebuild their Latin American
nation through the democratic process - at least that
was Santiago’s belief. Belize’s acceptance of democracy
was dissembled - his love of power was not.
For five months, Belize, and his Administrative
Assistant, had been planning with George Tollman, The
United States Secretary of Commerce, a method of
utilizing U.S. media to dismantle support for the U.S.
President’s proposed trade program with Cuba.
Belize, as Vice President, was directly
responsible for the Cuban treasury which, even though
it was decimated, still contained a few hundred million
dollars in American currency and liquid securities.
55
With Russia now attending its own economic
problems at home, Belize figured to create his own
brand of Communism, not only for Cuba, but for all of
Latin America. With his old friend’s assistance,
American industrial and financial investment in the
island nation would be dissuaded long enough to move
Santiago out of office. For George Tollman’s efforts,
Belize would deposit from his treasury thirty million
dollars into two of the Commerce Secretary’s three
Swiss bank accounts.
Tollman would pay his NSA associate two million
dollars for his assistance in the plan, and Miguel Belize
would take care of his Administrative Aid.
But the dissuasion would not be easy, and
presently neither Belize and his assistant, nor Tollman
and his associate had been able to conceive through
their planning a significant use of the media that would
cause the President’s program to fail. The Cuban
people wanted American support, both houses of
Congress were backing Santiago and the U.S.
President, and corporate America saw opportunity
waiting ninety miles off the Florida Keys.
The only way the rebuilding of Cuba could fail
was if the American voting populace did not support the
plan. In the U.S. politicians lend patronage to their
constituencies.
A grass roots media effort that would destroy
public support in the United States would be an
incredible task, and the question of how to devastate
this support through the media was one which neither
Belize nr Tollman could answer - until Daniel Bellcamp,
writer for Yankee Echo, betrayed a trust, and gave them
part of the answer they needed.
Bellcamp had been tied up in budget and
management meetings for six weeks, and, as a writer
was itching to get his pen in hand again.
Standing at the easterly window in his sixth
floor office, he silently reviewed potentials for an
editorial. 56
Local politics, education, municipal solid waste,
corruption in collegiate sports - nothing moved him.
Returning to his desk, he noticed a cryptic
facsimile message sitting on top of his latest personnel
budget. It was a fax he’d received on a specially
retrofitted fax machine in his home - a message that
should have been committed to memory, and then
destroyed.
D.B. 2/13 9:03 A.M.
ROBERT, ROBERT
PREP
CBA
CPTUS
SUPTUS
NOOP - USEDL
FLWC’SLYBS
2CME - POSSIBLE - STNDBY
ROBERT, ROBERT
It would have appeared as a nonsensical
message to anyone reading it without knowing its point
or origination, or its reason for existence.
Translated, this particular message regarded
support of the President’s Cuban economic initiative.
To: Dan Bellcamp
From: ROBERT WIRTHAM
Prepare for writing
On Cuba
Corporate United States involvement
Support President’s program
No personal opinions - use deductive logic
Follow Courtney’s lead - you’ll be sent
Possibility it will come - Stand by
ROBERT WIRTHAM
Bellcamp, and every other Yankee Echo
reporter and Editor or writer across the country had
received the same fax.
57
Neither he, nor any of the other writers or
Managing Agents knew the exact size of the
organization - a decision to keep size confidential was
made many years ago by Wirtham, McKenzie, and the
then sitting Director of The Central Intelligence Agency.
The writers only knew their recruiter, Wirtham, their
geographic Managing Agent, and Courtney - the guy
who wrote their leads. Their extra paychecks came
from subsidiary companies of JGM Exports with local
bank affiliations in each state.
All had received the message on fax machines
in their homes, and alal were prepared to follow
Courtney’s lead, should it come.
Any wavering of public support for the
President’s Cuban economic reform package could be
met immediately by a blitz of organization-written
articles and editorials published throughout the
country. If necessary, several articles would follow the
first. The fax was simply an alert.
BE AWARE - WE MAY ACT
Bellcamp understood, having received both by
Federal Express, and by fax, several hundred of these
messages I his eleven years with the covert group.
The idea of the Cuban initiative piqued the
robust editor’s interest. The Latin population in THE
HERALD’s primary market had increased dramatically
over the last five years. He wondered how many Cuban
exiles would be returning, or had already returned to
their homeland.
How would this egress from America onto the
beaches of Cuba affect both economies? There were
considerable monies in the greater Miami area
controlled by Cuban exiles. How would the potential
exodus of these funds affect the local economy? Would
the sudden impact of democracy rumble through the
entire infrastructure of Cuba, or would it spurt and
decline, and ebb and swell like most other start-up
democracies?
58
Bellcamp picked up his phone to speak to his
Business Editor, a man sitting only thirty-five feet
beyond his own office. Marshall Chamberlain was past
his first deadline, waiting for the results of the initial
blocks of trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
Nonchalantly taking the call, he could tell the boss was
excited.
“Marshall, who in the new Cuban government
will be handling the day-to-day logistical effort on their
economy?”
A blank, yellow legal pad sat ready to accept
his notes.
The Business Editor, not expecting the
question, thought silently for a moment.
“That’s probably going to be Belize, Dan. I
know he’s got all the money under his control - why?”
“I’m thinking of interviewing him.”
He wrote the name.
“Good idea. There’s been a lot of talk and
speculation but I don’t think anyone has a real handle
on how the whole thing’s going to shake out over there.
I can get you a phone number from downstairs.”
“Do that for me, please, Marsh.”
His mind was already formatting headlines.
Twelve minutes later, THE HERALD’s
receptionist, a former AT&T overseas operator, had the
private number of Miguel Belize, Vice President of
Cuba. It was passed on to the M.E.
He dialed, not knowing what he would say, but
feeling a rush of adrenalin from the possibilities that
could emerge from the story.