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Chapter 1 - The Flat Earth SocietyHeathrow was a sea of grounded airplanes. The captain announced over the intercom that he suspected a terrorist threat had shut the airport down. For a moment it seemed to me that the world-financial system had crashed. Either way, we wouldn't be landing. No movement was discernible on the ground. The baggage carts and service vehicles were all parked in neat rows. This didn't look like a typical response to a terrorist threat. Not a soul was in sight. It seemed as if air traffic had come to a halt in the two weeks we had been away in Russia. Obviously it hadn't. A single wing of the main terminal looked like it was still in operation. It had Air Force planes parked near its gates. This part seemed to support the captain's terrorist suspicion. What a shocking return this turned out be to the Western World! If this was a terrorist threat, I found it amazing that we were allowed to come so close to the airport. Perhaps the control tower had been shut down as well. If so, perhaps it was more likely shut down for the lack of money or for a fungible currency. Fred suggested that if the reason was economic, Russia would be in a worse mess that it had tried to hide in the usual way with propaganda and 'chewing gum' that they so often used to hold their fragile system together. We all knew that Russia's economy had been collapsing more rapidly than ours had. It merely came to light with different and less visible consequences in Russia. Like the West, Russia too had refused to take the required actions to save its economy. Perhaps it was fortunate for Russia that it had isolated itself from the West and reversed course at virtually the last moment, by which it had somehow muddled through. We didn't land in London that day. No official reason was given as to why. The only thing that the captain was "allowed" to tell us, as he put it, was that the plane had been diverted to Frankfurt, Germany. Everything else, he said, was classified. He told us that he found it rather amusing that the West was so secretive about such a "little thing," as he called it, for which our plans had been altered, whatever the 'thing' was. I personally didn't mind the diversion, nor was I surprised by the secrecy. Secrecy, deception, and dishonesty had become the hallmark of the West. What we were experiencing was consistent with the usual games that were being played, the secret games like the Iran/Contra affair that had been kept secret for a long time, and the CIA's secret terror offensive against the Third World that had become rich in death squads and lean in humanity. "Did I tell you that I nearly got robbed twice in a single day at Heathrow airport?" I said to Ushi as our plane climbed away and turned sharply. "No!" Ushi answered in a serious tone. I told Ushi that I had gone into one of the washrooms on the way to the baggage office. Travelers rarely use these out of the way washrooms unless their luggage is lost. I told her that I was barely through the door when I sensed a man standing behind me. Before the door was fully closed he had pushed me hard against the wall. "Welcome to the home office" the man had said to me in a joking manner. "Please give me everything you've got on you. Be smart! No tricks!" I told Ushi that I heard some groaning in the background. I told her that I twisted myself right out of his lock and rammed the chap into the opposite wall. "And," said Ushi. "I guess he got a surprise he didn't expect, and me too, especially me. The man was in uniform," I said to Ushi. "He was one of the airport security people that had been hired to protect the public. He had nearly robbed me." I began to laugh. "Can you imagine the two of us. I just stood there in disbelief and stared at the man and shook my head. 'You're disgusting,' I said to him as I let go of his arm. 'It's even more disgusting that you want to steal from a fellow officer. I am an officer of the diplomatic service,' I said to him. 'We are struggling like hell to keep the world from blowing up, and there, you're turning against your own family as it were. With creeps like you providing security, what chance does humanity have?' With this said, I left him standing where he was and did what I came for." || - page index - || - chapter index - || - Exit - ||
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