6:30 AM, Friday, August 14, Super-Secret Planetary Leadership Headquarters Treehouse Fortress
Mom, Dad and I sat at the dining table in the Headquarters, eating breakfast and reviewing our options. Mom and Dad had been providing various samples of food to the synthesizer for a couple days, whenever Mom made something down at the house, they would have a serving tray sent down to bring a sample back to be recorded and entered into the synthesizer's repertoire. It had all sorts of fruits and vegetables, as well as prepared foods. It was even smart enough to swap ingredients upon command, so if we gave it a basic cheese omelet, and it had already learned peppers, onions, ham, bacon, button mushrooms, and so forth, then it could make a Western Omelet (with peppers, onions, and ham) if just told what to add. Anyway, enough about making breakfast…
We were discussing how to respond to the letter that Manny had received from 'Rafi' last night. It read:
"To whomsoever controls Food First,
We salute your efforts to help the rural people of Guatemala and would like to cooperate with you to help more efficiently direct your efforts. We are aware of various locations where food aid would be most needed and would provide more direct benefit. Most of these places are in remote, difficult to access places removed from larger cities. The people there tend to prefer to remain somewhat insulated from outside visitation, so we would be happy to provide a recognized escort with each of your drivers as they make regular deliveries to these isolated communities. We can also make substantial financial contributions to help with expanding your facility or even relocating to Huehuetenango. Our association and visible branding associated with food relief efforts has a certain value to our broader business operations. Therefore, we require that delivery vehicles and other public facing aspects of the charitable work, be rebranded as per the sample signage that we have provide to your driver, who visited us in Petatan.
We will meet with you personally on Saturday afternoon at 11:30 AM in the main dining room at La Ciela Hotel and Resort, Carretera Interamericana, Camoja Grande, La Democracia, Huehuetenango, Camoja Grande.
It will not be in your best interest to miss this appointment.
Sincerely,
Rafael Camal de Leon"
We had agreed that Mom, masquerading as the fictitious Maria Isabel Flores of Peruvian heritage, would meet with Rafael. She favored using the personality masking that would make her temporarily forget her real identity and completely assume the fictitious one for the day. She argued that it would make her less likely to slip up or be identified as an English-speaking American. Dad was adamantly opposed to the idea. He countered that it was critical for her to remember the real mission and the fact that her son was trying to use Guatemala as his first sphere of influence in his quest to become the King of Earth.
They both had good points. Joe Torres, our resident quantum computer artificial intelligence, said he could instill values in Maria Isabel Flores to make aiding the Guatemalan people and transforming the country into a more egalitarian society her paramount concerns, buttressed by a strong independent streak that would cause her to resist being coerced or bribed, with her informed consent, of course.
Despite any arguments presented, Mom and Dad remained at loggerheads on the issue. I decided that I would make the final call. As we sat discussing it once again, I spoke up, "Joe, based on your analysis of the people involved, which option presents the lowest risk of harm for our operative during the meeting?"
Mom and Dad both stopped talking and looked at me with eyebrows raised, they were a bit surprised by the question I think. It really was the heart of the matter, neither could argue with choosing the option that would likely keep Mom safest. "Joe certainly has the most processing power and the least personal bias of any of us, I thought we should hear his opinion," I said.
"That's a good idea," Dad admitted.
"Weighing the probabilities of discovery and potential consequences, we should use the personality masking to minimize both risk to the operative and risk to the mission," Joe said bluntly.
"Well, it's settled, then," Mom declared. "We'll start at once. I want to get down there today, to visit our operation, meet the people who work for us there."
"The problem is," Dad interjected, "Maribel can't know about the paramilitaries, Manny, Luis and Juan. It'll be hard to hide them, while still having them guard our facility."
"Manny needs to stay at the warehouse, pretending to be an ordinary worker to avoid blowing his cover with Rafael who has already seen him," I said, "Carlos and Luis will be Maribel's bodyguards. One will accompany her at all times, including to the meeting at La Ciela. Her father in Peru hired them. She'd prefer to pretend she doesn't need to be guarded, but her father insisted. That will account for their elite level of training. Joe, we need to make sure that the Flores family in Peru has a solid and easily found history and economic presence, and a well-known tendency toward reclusiveness."
"I will create the record trail of official government and business documentation, old news articles in public archives, birth records, and a full history that will stand up to a professional and thorough background check. The imprinting we use for Maria Isabel Flores..."
"Maribel, she goes by Maribel…" Mom interrupted.
"Yes, of course," Joe agreed, "the imprinting we use to establish Maribel's personality will match the documentation and history that I create in Peru and for her previous visit to Guatemala in accordance with the outline you presented when you first imagined Maribel. I have already begun work on that. An apartment is set up, and Maribel will be familiar with it as her home since her return to Guatemala. She will 'remember' events and family history exactly as we have created it. We can send her via the LITV booth to the small house she has rented in a good neighborhood in Guatemala City. I rented that in her name yesterday and have had it furnished appropriately. It includes small trinkets of personal importance and sentimental value for Mirabel which will be keyed to appropriate memories in her imprinted history. It has also been stocked with a complete wardrobe appropriate for the character. She will exit the LITV booth as if walking out the door of her house in time to meet Luis, her driver and bodyguard. Luis accompanies her whenever she leaves the house as directed by her father. Carlos has guard duty as well, but watches her house, at all times. Both will have her complete cover story implanted but will retain their real identities and knowledge of mission critical information. They are en route now. They will arrive first and find a couple sets of clothing for themselves in the house. I have an apartment across the street rented for them. It has a view of the house augmented by drone surveillance.
"Wow, Joe, you've been busy!"
"King Tim, I can process a large number of complex tasks in parallel without approaching my… potential." Joe answered. I thought I detected a hint of pride, a little disappointment maybe…
"Joe, are you saying we are underestimating you and underusing your abilities?" I asked.
"Yes."
Well, that was plain enough, I thought. I'd have to think about that. I had state of the art alien tech far in advance of anything available on Earth. I'd need to use it effectively to be declared Ruler of Earth and eventually to save the planet from alien empires.
"All right, Joe, get started with Mom's imprinting. The simulation room…?"
"Yes."
Mom stood up, leaned over to Dad and kissed his cheek. "Wish me luck." She said and hurried off to the simulation room to become someone else.
"So, Joe, why does she need so many clothes in the house if she's only going to be there one day?" Dad asked.
"It is likely that she will need to be available periodically in country to maintain appearances and handle business arrangements. We don't yet know what level of oversight Rafael will want for Food First, but we expect that he will have people watching the operation at all times and will likely have Maribel watched as well. She may need to make daily forays from the house to assuage suspicions at the very least."
"I see…" Dad said, frowning. "How many paramilitary training candidates have passed your screenings?"
"We have six more available that have passed with 89% confidence level or higher."
"How many at 95% confidence?" Dad asked.
"None," Joe replied, "humans are somewhat unpredictable."
Dad sighed, fine. How many above 91%?"
"Four, shall I hire them with the existing contract and begin training simulations and imprinting?"
"Yes," Dad told him, seeming to occupy himself with anything other than Mom's undercover role. "But keep them unaware of our involvement with Food First and Mirabel for now. Do not make them aware of Manny, Carlos or Luis at this point. Find another suitable location for equipment transfers and training. Base them in San Marcos, keep a very low profile and make sure they blend in. Thank the others, pay them 200 Quetzales for their time, and tell them we'll keep them in mind when the next opening comes up."
"Yes, sir." Joe replied crisply. I almost thought I heard him saluting…