For the greater good…
“Ladies and gentlemen,” his powerful voice reverberated across the conference room, “it seems our problem just grew a tad worse.” He paused for dramatic effect as he finished pumping another set of an impossibly heavy pair of dumbells. “Fucking understatement of the year,” he remarked to no one in particular.
The use of the F-word in a formal meeting certainly grabbed everyones attention. People sat a little straighter, a little closer to their screens, trying to get a glimpse of this maverick who had been handed the keys to the world. There was no one in the meeting who didn’t know him or at least know of him. Those who admired him, smiled, as they recalled his potent cuss-induced dressing down given to many self-important twits across the world. Those who hated him, shuddered, as they recalled the confidence-shaking verbal lashings received in the past.
For a man who literally held the fate of the world in his hands, Richard Mason’s attire of gym shorts and a sweat-drenched cotton tee seemed a bit out of place for such an august gathering. Other participants of the meeting, stalwarts in their respective fields looked, analyzed, and judged the man staring at them out of the screen.
“Now that I have your attention,” Richard addressed the meeting, “let us begin our, tete-a-tete. For those of you who don’t know of me, my name is Richard Mason, principal troubleshooter for governments around the world. I am the ultimate weapon. When governments fail, whether it is due to lack of courage, competency, or will, they call me,” he said without any hint of modesty in his mannerisms. If confidence were human, it would undoubtedly take the form of Richard Mason, without the gym shorts of course.
“Now, before we get into the why of we’ve gathered here today I’d like to make one thing clear. You may have heard rumors about me. I’ve been called a maverick, an asshole, a destroyer of souls, the grim reaper, and much more. I really don’t care. I don’t care for you, your feelings, or your thoughts. I care for your recommendations to the extent that they serve my purpose and nothing more. Mind you, this is not a democracy. This committee is a dictatorship led by me. Some of you are here to provide support, where needed. Most of you are here because of politics and its endless desire for optics. Your politicians need a scapegoat in case things go tits up – you are it,” he paused for breath. “I’ll give you a minute to process this. You may run home to mommy and complain about me in the meanwhile. Not that it’ll help much.”
There was pin-drop silence in the conference room as people contemplated what they’d just walked into. The Global Vaccine Task Force, known as G-Vat was composed of powerful men and women from across the world, tasked with a single objective: vaccinate the entire world against what people were calling the Doomsday virus.
The Doomsday virus, a media-generated moniker for the Novel Ebolavirus had spread like wildfire across the world. With a mortality rate of more than 20%, more than 50 million had already died. Another 300 million were infected, every single one of them envied the dead. The N-ebola caused pain at levels that would send shivers down Prometheus’ spine. Health systems had all but broken down. Governments had fallen and chaos reigned. Politicians, bureaucrats, and businessmen, terrified of the approaching anarchy, had finally given in to the temptation of hiring Richard Mason. They empowered with a blank cheque and unconditional support for whatever means he may deploy to control the virus. Order had to be achieved at all costs.
Richard Mason. Administrator par excellence. Spawn of the devil. Savior of mankind. The man was universally loathed, yet, his brilliance and usefulness were acknowledged even by his harshest critics. Infamous for his unconventional and often aggressive but effective approaches to intractable problems, He did what needed to be done to sort the problem at hand. No half-measures, no regrets.
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Over the next few months, Richard set up the G-vat as a group of well known, influential pawns with representation from scientists, generals, and other public figures from around the world. They existed to give inputs when asked and more importantly, provided legitimacy to his decisions. He commandeered vaccine laboratories around the world. He bypassed time tested checks and balances and dodged safety and ethical guidelines. Accelerated clinical trials were authorised on criminals worldwide. After six months of state sanctioned murder, a vaccine was developed. He promptly named it Ambrosia.
Meanwhile, the global civilian population, reeling under harsh lockdowns, N-ebola induced death, unemployment, inflation, and complete erosion of civil rights had grown restive. People demanded the disbanding of the G-vat and charging them with crimes against humanity. Politicians shrugged their way out of responsibility by surfacing the iron tight agreements signed between them and Mason. Make no mistake, there were more than a few ambitious ministers who attempted to ride the Anti-Mason wave. They rapidly found themselves deprived of power, money, favor, liberty, and occasionally, life.
While control was absolute at the surface, strong undercurrents of resistance continued to exist. Despots around the world have time and again realised that nothing spurs the rebel spirit more than oppression. Social media channels erupted with dissent. Seemingly spontaneous protests continued to emerge in pockets around the world. They would be crushed ruthlessly, only to emerge again, at a different spot at a different time. The only saving grace was that these protests were often uncoordinated and local in nature. All that changed when Ambrosia was launched.
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“Despite overwhelming evidence about the benefits of the vaccine, the anti-vaxxers movement has gathered strength with a rapidity that has caught most governments, and surprisingly the G-vat, by surprise. Experts are calling this, excuse the pun, the most virulent example of the power of misinformation, amplified by social media,” the news anchor continued even as her voice faded away. Her image was abruptly replaced by a video of the man hosting the meeting.
“Idiots. The bunch of them,” Mason barked. “Finally, when the end is nigh, these…these drones gather the courage to launch a coordinated movement against us? This is clearly a conspiracy against me,” he thundered. “Andy, who is behind this?” Mason asked his intelligence chief.
Andrey Bigelow, a man almost as intimidating and ruthless as Mason smelled blood, a chink in Mason’s armor. Literally the whole world was up in arms against G-vat. Even Mason’s famously unshakeable confidence had to be bruised right now. Time to strike, he thought to himself.
“No one is Richard,” he replied with a calm that belied his nervousness. “All intelligence indicates that the people are finally fed-up of our extreme measures. They hate us. They hate you.”
“Bah, they’ve hated me for 20 years. What changed?”
“You pushed them too hard.”
“So what? Look at the results. The vaccine is ready for deployment. All our problems are at an end. I have done what was asked of me.”
Andy took a deep breath as he considered his reply. The next few statements would seal his fate. If he had calculated wrongly, Mason would hunt him to the ends of the world.
“They want nothing to do with it. Our vaccine….your vaccine has blood on its hands. Your premature human trials condemned hundreds to painful death. Your lockdowns and warped sense of justice killed millions more. They do not want to be saved by you Mason,” Andy paused for a minute and reveled in the silence that enveloped the meeting. “Humanity has awoken and decided it would rather die than be saved by you.”
A pregnant silence enveloped the meeting as the participants looked at the showdown between these two powerful men.
Big deal,” Mason replied after a moment of confidence regaining contemplation. “I was contracted to deliver the vaccine, and get rid of the N-ebola and nothing can stop me from achieving that.” He continued. “Dr. Utrecht, anybody, tell me. How can we deliver the vaccine to a population that refuses to accept it?”
“Aircraft. We spray the vaccine into the crowds,” the voice of Air Marshall Randhawa of the Indian Air Force emerged strong and clear amongst the commotion that had enveloped the meeting.
“Will that work Dr. Utrecht?”
“I am afraid it won’t. The vaccine needs to be injected into the body, not inhaled into the lungs,” Dr. Utrecht replied. The brains behind Ambrosia. The architect of 10,000 murders in the name of science.
“What if it’s ingested? Mixed with water? or food?” The heavily accented voice of the Emir of Kuwait pitched in.
“Nope. Won’t work. It has to be injected into the blood.”
A few suggestions later the commotion died down as they all ran out of ideas.
“I know what to do,” Mason whispered. He had a strange look on his face. The look of a man who knew and accepted the horrors fate had in store for him. “It’ll be the end of me, but I know what to do.”
*****************************************12 months later**********************************************************************
“Today we bring to you live, the funeral of a man who’s legacy will challenge the intellects of moral philosophers for centuries to come. A man, who time and again ruthlessly ordered the murder of millions of men and women. And yet, with the same ruthlessness, saved humanity from the brink of extinction. Was it madness that drove Richard Mason to order soldiers to corner and shoot 1000s of protestors around the world? For the inside scoop, we bring to you Andrey Bigelow, former intelligence chief of the KGB and current chairman of the G-Vat. Andy, welcome to the show,” the hostess said shining a bright fake smile at Andrew.
“Thank you for having me April,” Andy replied.
“Tell us what happened that fateful day? What forced G-vat, what forced Richard Mason to take such dramatic measures?”
“I’d like to start by making a confession,” Andy said in a serious voice. ” I hated Mason’s guts. We all did. He was a mad, mad man, full of malice, full of himself. I had full plans to replace him as head of the G-vat, possibly imprison him too. Yet, he had the guts to do what it takes to end the crisis. “
“Oh we all hated Mason, Andrew. But I sense a but coming,” April interjected. “What was the plan?”
“Oh he never let us in on the plan at that time. It was only ex post-facto that we deduced what was on his mind. It was brilliant. It was brutal. It was Masonic to the core. You see the challenge we faced was that a significant chunk of the population had decided not to endorse the vaccine. Their reasons were many – religious, political, ethical. But most of all they despised Mason. They refused to allow humanity to be saved by a monster. It shook Mason’s confidence to the core,” Andy said, clearly enjoying himself.
“Are you saying the legendary Richard Mason suffered from self doubt?”
” Yes. Only that one time though! Anyways, after long hours of deliberation he hit upon a plan that only someone as demented as he could plot. He ordered soldiers around the world to fill their hollowpoint bullets with Ambrosia and shoot at the legs of the protestors. Oh sure, a few 1000 would die of bleeding, overdose, shock etc. But the vast majority of the protestors would survive, and be immunised.”
“Gruesome calculations. But why force immunisation on the anti-vaxers when there millions more lining up to take the vaccine?”
“Oh and therein lies his genius. You see the anti-vaxers were not only not taking the vaccine themselves, they were actively sabotaging efforts to vaccinate the people who desperately wanted the vaccine. They flooded social media and other channels with their messages and turned public opinion against us. Not that we didn’t deserve it.”
“But, how did that help him?” the anchor interjected.
“Well. If the anti-vaxers were vaccinated, they had no moral basis left to preach their sermons and stop others from getting vaccinated. Sure a few 1000 died. More were dying everyday we delayed the roll out. The movement died down in less than 72 hours and the results are for all to see.”
The news anchor, who had been hoping to rip into Andy was rendered speechless for a second as she sought to reorient her tactics.
“Why did he commit suicide then? It was suicide right? What do you think his legacy is going to be?”
“Well, I know I’ll lose my head for saying this, but we got hold of the contract that the UN signed with him when they handed him unlimited power. It stated and I quote
‘Once the signatory is deemed to have achieved his objectives or by his own admittance, has exhausted all that is humanly possible to end the said pandemic, in the interests of continued human peace and prosperity, shall end his life with his own hands.’ Unquote.” Andy paused to let that sink in. “So, who was Mason? How will we remember him in the future? Saint? Devil? You tell me?”