Covert Ops: A Short Story
A soldier goes undercover, “dark” as they say – a covert operation that no one, not even his own government can track.  His mission is dire and will impact the livelihood of the entire planet.  He makes strategic engagements with the locals, interacting delicately, and coaxing those he helps not to tell anyone about him – “this never  happened,” “you didn’t see anything…”
This undercover agent is smuggled into the capital city – where his mission is to take place. Â A few have noticed his handiwork, and think they know what is about to go down. Â But they have no idea. Â No one has access to him now. Â He has gone dark. Â He is alone in his mission. Â And the higher-ups are hoping against hope that this works.
He is discovered. Â A rat points him out. Â He is accused of treason by his own government, his own people. Â The misunderstandings and threats are unbelievable, and yet they continue. Â He is beaten, tortured – they demand to know who he is working for. Â They want to know his mission – they want him to talk. Â Yet he keeps his cool, he remains silent. Â So they put him to further agony, sensing now that he is hiding something…something big. Â Could this be an insurrectionist on our hands? Â Might there be others? Â Was he planning an attack against our people, our leaders, our security? Â Working on him by any means necessary to extract this information now becomes the central concern.
More people are beginning to hear about the national security threat posed by this exposed terrorist. Â The media is getting involved. Â It was becoming too much for the leaders to handle. Â They had to stop this man from carrying out his aims. Â And so they killed him, like the criminal he was… he died a traitors death, even as his mission was to remain loyal to the end to the people he worked for…all of us.
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What they didn’t calculate for was that his death was a part of the plan.  It was the sneak attack they never saw coming.  And that’s exactly what happened.  They played right into his  hand, even as they believed they had finally squelched the rebellion, his subversion was only beginning!  It remained quiet for sometime.  His name left the headlines, people went back to work.  But rumors persisted.  People were claiming to have seen him moving about the city unnoticed by local authorities – some others began falling off the grid, entering into their own covert ops…it seems this rebel starfish-organization could not be squashed, it only multiplied.
Little pockets of a new society flashed onto the scene and like Whack-a-Mole the leaders sent strike teams out to dismantle the communes. Â But even as they neutralized one, two more popped up across town. Â It was as if they were themselves stoking the flames of revolution.
And then strange things began to happen.  It  happened slowly at first.  A rank-and-file officer went missing.  His family too.  They simply were not heard from again.  Then another, and another.  Before long white-collars were turning coat too.  This virus was spreading beyond a few fringe-groups – it was impacting the entire society.  It was unbelievable.  The plan had worked.  What was once misunderstood by all was now finding complete saturation – and the plan of the once-misunderstood soldier was now taking over the world…and folks couldn’t be happier about it!
