[War] Canada: "Waking Nightmare."

[Iain]

“Waking Nightmare.”

Prime Minister Chloe Taylor and others.

Canada

20th January 2013

 

<0200, 24 Sussex Drive>

 

The telephone at Sussex Drive, a cheerful trill in the brightness of day
always sounded shriller in the darkness of the Prime Minister's suite at
night. Having begun adapting to late night calls and the rapid transition
required from a deep and satisfying state of sleep to the upright and alert
state required to take in critical information when she had served as Health
Minister; Chloe Taylor was all but a master these days. That did not,
however, mean she had to like it.

 

The piercing ring stopped, and as the cordless handset that had been by the
side of the bed reached her ear the familiar voice of her security advisor
began without hesitation.

 

"Prime Minister, there's been an incident."

 

The words 'no shit' came very close to escaping her mouth and in an
uncharacteristic lapse in control, but Taylor managing to choke them back in
time. Clearing her throat, she sought for something more diplomatic.

 

"Indeed. So, Mister Dupont, what have you for me tonight?"

 

"Another racial homicide, Prime Minister, or rather seven to be specific."

 

"Related?"

 

"Yes," She hadn't expected such a definite response and felt her heart take
it up a notch as she brought her legs to the edge of the bed while the voice
continued. "The seven bodies were found together. All Muslims, all in
cultural dress. It seems they had been dead for some hours."

 

When the attacks on Muslims had began, Taylor had insisted she be notified
on each occasion immediately and had took control of handling the press
herself. The attacks had continued on a similar vane for weeks and she had
decided to keep her briefings on them to within normal briefing hours after
a while. Then the first murder had come two weeks ago and she had reversed
that decision.

 

Now a multiple homicide.

 

To make things worse, their investigation had yielded very little in the way
of results. No-one had claimed responsibility, which made it look more and
more as though this was not necessarily the work of a terrorist or radical
group. This was perhaps not even the act of one organisation or individual.
And that scared her, and what scared her generally scared the Canadian
people ten times more.

 

"Can you have a briefing set up within the hour?"

 

"There's more. The bodies were...mutilated."

 

"Mutilated? How?" Taylor wasn't sure whether to be confused or horrified.

 

"Some sort of genital mutilation, the coroner has yet to report."

 

A wave of nausea threatened to overwhelm her, and she leant forward to abate
it. Now was not the time to become squeamish, and she never ceased to be
amazed at how calm her security advisor always sounded, regardless of the
situation. She supposed that was why he was so good at his job.

 

"Ok, Mr. Dupont. Be here in 45 minutes and bring in whomever we need for a
briefing in one hour."

 

<One hour later>

 

James Dupont, unlike his elected master, was rather more used to absurdly
late-night work hours; 20 years in the CSIS bureaucracy did that.

 

Well, that plus coffee.

 

"Madam Prime Minister," he greeted as he strode through the front door of 24
Sussex Drive, after being let in by one of the PM's night security detail.

 

"Mr. Dupont," Taylor gave him a curt nod as she sipped at her second coffee
in the past half hour which looked to have done little to mask her tired
appearance. She began to lead the way through to the reception room where
she preferred to take these late night meetings in more comfort that the
more formal ones during the day. "So, what have we got on this...incident so
far." Recalling the details brought a faint twinge of the earlier nausea
back.

 

"Well, the previous information holds up, Ma'am. I strongly suggest setting
the coffee down before we continue." Dupont paused to allow this. "Comms is
setting up a telecon with RCMP and CSIS for 10 minutes from now, plus
relevant members of the Cabinet. They may have more, but this is what we
know as of 10 minutes ago: No claims of responsibility as of yet, no likely
suspects. The only way we figured out the victims were Muslim was because
they're seven males, all South Asian in background, all in cultural dress,
all circumcised according to the coroner. They're doing their best to do
autopsies at this hour, but on-scene determination is that cause of death
was exsanguination...Caused by a cut to the carotid artery. The genital
mutilation is, effectively, the removal of the testicles. No ID or other
possessions were found. These were not surgical killings, Prime Minister,
they were executions. The killers were, to be frank, smart not to use a gun
- you cannot nearly as effectively trace blade wounds.

 

"It is, Madam Prime Minister, premature in my evaluation to call this a hate
crime. It could be; it could also be organized crime, or a robbery gone
horribly wrong, or a serial killer. It could be a Muslim seeking to inspire
a backlash from his community. RCMP is working all angles at the moment. The
fact is that we have no idea - our very identification of them as Muslims is
based upon the common factors of dress and male circumcision."

 

The Prime Minister was glad that she had been advised to put her coffee
down, it saved the embarrassment associated with either having dropped the
mug or choked on the beverage. She was pretty sure she had paled even
further than before but did not let it show in her demeanor as she leant
forward in her chair. "You mean this could have been someone of their own
religion, killing simply to incite their community against others?" She
shook her head as she thought of it and swallowed. She picked up her coffee
again; screw the sick-feeling, if she ever needed a caffeine hit it was now.
She didn't mind looking shocked or disheveled in front of her closer
advisors but not in front of cabinet ministers. "I guess we don't have
idents on them yet?"

 

"Not yet. We'll be canvassing Muslim areas nearby with headshots trying to
get idents. RCMP Public Affairs so far wants to handle this as a normal
investigation."

 

"Understood." A quick glance at her watch and a swig of the dregs of her mug
and she was ready for the conference. "Shall we?"

 

With a nod, the telecon began - coordinated by the PMO, the participants
were the Prime Minister, the Security Advisor, the Minister of Public
Safety, the Minister of Justice, RCMP's ops centre, and CSIS's ops centre.

 

"Go secure." With those two words, the secure telephone units were activated
at each location simultaneously.

 

"Conference is secure," Dupont announced. "The Prime Minister has been
advised of the details of the case as of 20 minutes ago. Are there any
updates?"

 

A graying gent, with rough stubble and a nose that looked like it had seen
several fights or several years of contact sports, cleared his throat in the
CSIS office. “No further hard facts, but we have begun profiling for both
our murderer and murder weapon. The wounds indicate a blade of substantial
size with a curved sharp edge, lending credence to either a ritual blade or
perhaps a large culinary tool. Furthermore, the method the perpetrator used
to dispatch the victims resembles butchery, and specifically halaal
practices of the Islamic community.”

 

An un-uniformed officer, clearly of high ranking, pushed a lock of
mousey-brown hair behind her ear from RCMP operations before agreeing. “I
think that would be a good place to center our preliminary investigations.
In addition, there is no evidence the bodies were move posthumously, and
given the small nature of the building in which they were found it is
unlikely they would be unaware of each others deaths. We believe there was a
group involved in at least detaining these people prior to their deaths if
not in the deaths themselves.”

 

“Indeed, and we have begun to canvass the local area for suspicious group
activity or vehicles carrying several occupants that may have stopped at or
near the building in question.” The CSIS agent added.

 

Taylor did not like this one bit, clearly there was much more evidence here
for premeditation implication of an organisation rather than individual.
Whilst that increased the chances of someone claiming responsibility it did
not ease her mind at all. “Any evidence of links between these murders and
other recent homicides or attacks?”

 

CSIS fielded that one. “We have someone looking into patterns now, madam
Prime Minister, but so far we see no reason to treat this as anything other
than an isolated case.”

 

Looking to her Ministers, Taylor stifled a sigh before it escaped her.
“Gentlemen, what are your views on media involvement in this?”

 

Jacques Holloway, the Minister of Public Safety looked much more overtly
troubled than anyone else on the conference. “Prime Minister, we should get
the media involved in the search for possible suspects. That could only
serve to expedite the RCMP’s work in the area. Additionally, I believe
controlling the story by releasing the basic details of the crime would
serve to control any damage by withholding information at that time.”

 

The formidable-looking RCMP officer interjected immediately. “It is not the
policy of this organisation to release details of a criminal investigation
to the press.”

 

“Nor was that suggested,” Taylor played the intermediatory role quite well
for someone of her limited experience in the political field until recent
years. “The investigation details need not be included in the press-release.
However, I believe we should confirm there has been a multiple homicide and
any information on suspicious activity in the area is sought. I think the
details of the homicide should remain undisclosed for now, at least
certainly until families can be found and informed.” There was a pause as
she felt a shiver up her spine, those poor fuckers.

 

“There are protocols that can be followed,” A younger-looking man from the
RCMP end spoke up form behind what must have been his boss. He was in a
suit, clearly not-long-wakened (rather like Taylor herself) and clearly
civilian. “We have guidelines for preliminary and follow up press-releases
in cases involving one or multiple deaths. I’m Giles Pontiac, the media
officer here, ma’am.”

 

Taylor nodded; she was more than glad to relinquish the matter to someone
with a bit more know-how. “Liaise with the Prime Minister’s office press
secretary and ensure that those guidelines are followed and we are reading
from the same page. Ladies and gentlemen, if there’s nothing further for now
I shall let you get on with your jobs uninterrupted.”

 

“Thank you, madam Prime Minister.” Echoed throughout the connection. She
hated how that was the last thing anyone said to her anymore. 

 

“Keep me updated, Giles, David,” She addressed her cabinet ministers. “Speak
with Callum and arrange something for first thing. Good morning.” Callum was
her PA and all round diary-guru with whom she had a love-hate relationship,
no-one could have done his job as well as him but he often took the brunt of
the Prime Ministers dissatisfaction at her busy schedule.

 

With a nod to Dupont the conference was terminated and Taylor looked at him
expectantly.

 

“I have nothing more to brief you about at this time, madam Prime Minister.
You shall have my usual briefing at 9am.”

 

Taylor couldn’t help but smirk a little; it was a very irregular thing to
receive neither further bad news form this man once she thought things had
been dealt with nor to receive poorly-disguised or outright criticism of her
handling of a matter. “Thank you, Mr. Dupont. Try and get some sleep.”

 

Dupont rather doubted that he would get any until later tonight, and thought
it naïve of the Prime Minister to believe otherwise, but he held his tongue.
“Thank you, Madam Prime Minister.” He stood and took his leave.

 

Taylor sat for a moment in the softly-lit room and let a long sigh that
seemed to come from the bottom of her soul leave her feeling somewhat
hollow. This was going to turn into another PR fiasco, she could sense it,
and the last thing this government needed was another drop in popularity.
She would have to remember to fit in some baby-kissing or other form of
molly-coddling the public before the day was out.

 

Actions:

1)    Release to press that:

a)    Multiple homicide has taken place

b)    Any information on suspicious activity in area should be reported to
local law enforcement officers

c)    Families yet to be informed, further details to follow

2)    Prime Ministers Office to release same statements as RCMP.

3)    Continue investigation

4)    Locate and inform families before any further information released.

5)    Reassure public that panic is not warranted.







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