A New Faith: Part 3: Chapter 42
Hundreds of Christian and Hindu men - yes, all of them men - started pouring out in the streets of Sequoia soon after noon. All morning they had congregated in smaller groups in the common areas of the various buildings they lived in. Clear instructions had been given that large groups were not to be formed in parks and other public spaces until it was time to march on the mosque. The Christians were wearing white and the Hindus were wearing saffron, specifically, to broadcast that this was a holy war.
Both the Christian and Hindu men were claiming that they had no choice but to go to war. That they were the victims who were now bravely defending their faith from the barbarian Muslims. That they were sick and tired of the violence being committed on them over centuries. No longer would they take it quietly. They were going to fight back and end the source of the problem. After today, no Muslim was going to be able to raise his head, ever again. Anywhere in the world. They were the vanguard of the final confrontation that was about to play out all over the world. They would become the heroes who would be hailed for eternity.
Over the last few weeks, the attendance for the Friday namaz at the main mosque - also the largest in Sequoia - had grown exponentially. Several hundred men and a few women were about to pray in the mosque on that fateful Friday. The namaz would start soon after the sun had reached the zenith. It usually took about 10-12 minutes to finish the prayer.
After the Namaz ended, the gathered Muslim men were going to finalize the plans for their attacks on the Christians and Hindus. The vivid emotions in their hearts and minds were remarkably similar to those of the Christians and Hindus that were about to descend upon them. There had been a few rumors about the Muslims getting preempted. But those rumors had been laughed off. Those weaklings didn’t have the guts, the Muslim men had crowed. And so the stage was set for bloodshed.
The rumors had been flying thick over the last couple of days about something big that was about to happen soon. The city council had been exhorting all the citizens to keep calm and to not resort to any violence. The arrival of the armed forces on the borders of Sequoia had been hinted at. The city council had decided to not confirm that news in the hope that panic could be avoided in the city.
The most common reaction was to hunker down behind closed doors of their flats and to hope for the best. The second most common reaction was to barricade the buildings and then commiserate in the common areas of each building. Some prepared to defend with whatever weapons that could be improvised from mundane things such as kitchen knives, scissors, gardening tools, and mechanical equipment.
The roads were empty. So were the parks. No one left their buildings, unless they had to. All the people who worked at the city had been asked to - maybe begged would be more accurate - come to work. Keeping the infrastructure humming along was supposed to help in conveying a sense of order and peace. At least that was the theory.
Both the Christian and Hindu mobs were mostly unaware of each other. Each mob was coalescing into an ever larger procession in totally different parts of Sequoia. They just happened to be moving toward the same destination - the largest mosque in the city where they would find the largest group of Muslims in one place on that day at that hour.
The bloodlust pulsed through the mobs as someone would start shouting some wild slogan and others would pick it up. It was like two angry pythons were alternately coiling up and then uncoiling as they made their way through the city. The lack of anyone else on the streets and in the parks had been unnerving to some of the would-be rioters. It made them pause and think about what they had embarked upon. But such was the energy of a violent group of men that these doubts got squashed almost as soon as they emerged. The shouting became sporadic as the two mobs neared the mosque from two different directions. And as if on cue, the walls of the buildings lining up the streets on which the men were hurtling along lit up with videos and loudspeakers crackled to life in the air. The drones had come alive.
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Sonia sat next to Maria grimly watching her broadcast the video messages via the drone-based projectors on the sides of the buildings along the routes the two mobs were advancing on. The police force that Sonia had at her command was too meager to take on crowds of the size that she was seeing on the screens. There was no way in hell she was going to put that small force in harm’s way without a well thought out plan for success. One element of her plan included this mass appeal to the rioters that was conveyed by Maria’s crew and the equipment they used for their immersive concerts.
Sonia had allowed Maria to tap into and use the emergency address system that had been installed all across Sequoia. The video came from the drones and the synchronized sound came from the emergency address system. For those who were hunkered down in their flats and buildings, the video feed was available through their connected devices. The effect was quite startling. The audio was like an omnipotent voice that reverberated throughout the city even though the video could only be viewed on the sides of select buildings or on small screens. Sonia hoped that this effect could help in knocking some sense into many of the people who had showed up for needless violence.
Maria was expertly running the scrolled messages along with the audio that urged the mob to not resort to any violence. The messages begged them to work with the negotiators in getting their concerns addressed. These were straightforward requests that made some of the would-be rioters pause and think about what they were doing. But their leaders had also brought their own megaphones and they now dialed up the volume of their own slogans to get the blood of their followers boiling all over again. The text messages and clipped audio announcements were no match to the animal force of the marching mobs.
So Maria went to the next level of appeals. Over the last couple of days, she had worked closely with both Kaija and Rachel in rounding up important people from around the world and especially, from the countries that had been the homes of many of Sequoia’s citizens, to record video statements about maintaining peace. They echoed those text messages in their own words and languages. The selected group ranged from scientists to community organizers and they all had one thing in common - they were empathetic to the concerns of the angry crowd. But they also exhorted them to calm down and resolve those concerns through nonviolent means.
Again, the appearance of those faces on the videos forced the mob to stop and listen to what was being said. The words they were hearing were in their own languages and were being said by someone they probably knew well and even trusted. A few people stayed behind as the mob’s speed slowed down. Sonia was nodding her head and patting Maria’s back with hope. Maybe this could work, after all. As they watched the footage captured by the drones spread out across the two mobs, they saw several people attempting to stop the march and engage in heated discussions with others. The leaders knew that this form of dissent could not be allowed to grow. They quickly sent some of the core members to isolate the dissenters and separate them from the main mob. Their megaphones continued to crackle with vicious slogans. They started vilifying the people in the videos. That was sufficient to keep most of the mob intact and resume the procession. The mosque was now very close and the leaders knew that once they could get the attack going, then there would be no stopping. They started shouting the slogans at a constant beat that forced the marching people to fall in step. Then they raised the tempo and the mob surged forward again.
Time to go for the jugular, so-to-speak, Maria thought. Her team had been lining up the live-streaming videos of mothers and fathers of some of the people in the mobs. She started projecting them one-by-one and then later stitching them into collages. This helped in stopping several dozen more men in their tracks as they recognized their families. As hoped, the message did break through and they started moving away from the main mob. Unfortunately, this was a bit too late as the two mobs had now reached the mosque and were now staring at each other in surprise. Initially, they thought the other one was the Muslim mob. But that mistaken idea dissipated quickly as they realized from the slogans that they were both there to attack the Muslims. There was no attempt to merge together as neither mob wanted to share their moment of glory with anyone else. The leaders of both mobs realized that they needed to be wary of the other mob as the last thing they wanted was a three-way riot. A few quiet messages were exchanged between the leaders of the two mobs and a temporary truce was affirmed.
Maria looked at Sonia despairingly. She had hoped that these appeals would have a major impact on the size of the mobs. Unfortunately, it was too little too late. Now she helplessly watched the mobs starting to chant things like “death to the Muslims!” as everyone waited for the signal from the leaders to commence the attack.
The doors of the mosque opened and a small group of Muslim men came out shouting loudly. By then, they had realized that their plans had been upended by this preemptive attack. Whether the Christians and the Hindus had coordinated or not, was now irrelevant. They were now faced with a crowd numbering in several thousands and it was baying for their blood. There was going to be no idiocy of using crude bombs to throw at the mosque or light things up in fire. Everyone had learnt their lesson from Shahid’s idiotic but tragic self-immolation. This was going to be an old-fashioned hand-to-hand combat with whatever weapons the people had. One could see lots of wooden and metallic clubs festooned with nails. Many were brandishing knives as viciously as they could. The group promptly ran back in to the mosque.
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Yusuf and Farhan panicked when they got a glimpse of the sea of white crosses and saffron flags from the mosque’s windows. How could this happen? They were the ones who were supposed to vanquish these infidels. They had patiently prepared their followers for the martyrdom. In fact, today was the day when they were going to spell out the details of how the two attacks were supposed to be executed. Instead, they were now trying to first calm themselves down and then come up with a plan to defend themselves. The size of the mob that was now screaming for their blood was far greater than the devotees that had assembled inside the mosque.
The first thing to do was to summon up more people from their side. Pulling aside a small group of their followers they issued the order to flood the social media with a call for arms against the infidels. It was not going to be any new material. The craziness had been playing out for weeks on social media around the world. All this group had to do was to copy and paste it in messages to their fellow Muslims in Sequoia. Of course, some of them who were not in the mosque had already been rallying the devout followers when they heard about the Christian and Hindu mobs gathering for an assault.
By design, the number of men in Sequoia was half that of women. Barely a quarter of those men had claimed to be Muslims when they had arrived in Sequoia five years ago. Over that time, maybe less than five percent of that number had continued to show any signs of being a devout Muslims. How many of them would actually show up to defend their religion was an open question. Farhan and Yusuf had never really paid attention to the total number of their followers, anyway. They had always known that a small number of dedicated fanatics was going to be sufficient to cause whatever impact that they had in mind. It had always been the case and there was no reason for it to be any different now. The problem, now, was that the other side had managed to organize itself, albeit in two distinct tribes. Together, those tribes easily outnumbered the small band of militant Islamists that Yusuf and Farhan had assembled. When it comes to hand-to-hand combat, unfortunately, numbers were all that mattered. All the weapons were just too crude and ineffective to make up for the imbalance in the forces that were about to clash.
The number of Muslim women in Sequoia, though, was enormous. Again, this was by design. Whether it was from Africa or the Middle East or South Asia, Muslim women were among the most oppressed people on the entire planet. They had been made the top priority for rescue. If only the Muslim women would join in the holy war, the tide could be turned against the infidels, thought Yusuf. Of course, there was the small problem of all those women being extremely poorly treated by the men for centuries. Sure, every now and then, the Islamist militants had callously brainwashed a few women to join their holy wars. But they were always a tiny minority. The vast majority of the women were thoroughly oppressed and ruthlessly exploited throughout the history of Islam. Not that this was particularly different in Christianity and Hinduism or for that matter most other religions anywhere in the world at any point in time. But at that moment, this was going to make a big difference for the survival of Yusuf and all his followers who were cowering in the mosque with fear.
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First came the rocks. Then came other hard projectiles. The two mobs had brought too many of those kinds of weapons to be left unused for long. Since, not a single Muslim devotee had shown the courage to step out and fight, the crowd had decided to goad them by throwing things at the mosque and defiling it. Farhan debated whether to call Sonia and seek help from the police. Then decided that that was not really up for debate any more. He had behaved extremely harshly with Sonia when she had called him to urge him to stop the violence. He had told her - a Muslim woman from Bangladesh - in no uncertain terms that she was a traitor because she was protecting the infidels who had been killing fellow Muslims around the world. She was highly unlikely to lift her pinky finger to help him.
The windows and doors of the mosque had been locked up and the building was quite air-tight. Yet, the ominous din had seeped in. That is when fear turned into reckless anger. How dare the infidels defile their holy mosque in such a revolting manner. They must be punished at all costs. What would the world say about them if they didn’t retaliate. Their god was with them and would ensure their victory. Armed with next to nothing except pieces of furniture that they had cobbled together, every single one of the devotees in the mosque screamed the war cry and burst through the main door to launch their counter-attack on the vast enemy. An enemy that had merely been baiting them to come out in the open.
Projectiles flew from all sides. Screams emanated from every part of the crowd as the blood lust grew and grew. The inferno of hatred was blazing fiercely. Yet, something kept the people from engaging with each other. Maybe it was the fear that once that threshold was crossed, there would be no turning back from the wanton massacre that would inevitably take place. No one - it seemed - wanted to be the first one to cross that threshold.
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The US President was in the Oval Office watching the live broadcast of the riot that was about the begin at the mosque in Sequoia. The video was being made available by the courtesy of the Johnson Group’s drones that had been surreptitiously monitoring the situation on the ground for the past couple of days. They had meticulously tracked the two mobs, watched them assemble, and then proceed through the empty streets.
The plutocrats had chosen to not show up at the White House even though they were in constant touch with the President’s senior staff. The plutocrats were, of course, also in direct contact with the Johnson Group’s on-field commander even though the Johnson Group was formally contracted by the UN and was officially referred to as the UN Peace-keeping Force.
All the plutocrats were now waiting for was the mayhem in Sequoia to start. The instructions to the Johnson Group had been crystal clear - they had to put on a show as if they were reluctantly entering Sequoia and that this was the last resort for stopping the ongoing violence from escalating to horrific proportions. So it was imperative that the violence had to start before they intervened in any way. The pretense of being patient had to be maintained as much as possible. The footage was being captured to ensure that no one would later question their on-field decisions. None of this footage was going to be publicly aired unless it was necessary to do so at a later date to justify their actions.
The Johnson Group’s on-field commander was a former Russian colonel named Yuri. No last name. He preferred it that way. Even that was a fake name as he really didn’t want his actual name to show up anywhere. He was excellent at his job and his employers at the Johnson Group had been very happy with his exploits so far. He had absolutely no doubt in his mind about the success of his mission. By the end of the day, he would be fully in charge of Sequoia. He got a call from the plutocrats telling him to go on red alert as the Muslim devotees started streaming out the mosque. He was told to wait for at least a few people to die before he initiated the first phase of the operation.
Yuri waited with his crew in the control room that had been set up not too far from the Sequoia border. All his equipment and troops had been dropped off by the giant helicopters from the two ships that were now anchored just off the coast of Norway, carefully staying in the international waters.
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Sonia was visibly sickened by the growing intensity of the skirmishes launched by each side. She, along with Maria, had tried their best to try and dissuade the mobs from committing violence. It had not worked at all. The three mobs were now restlessly heaving in front of the mosque. Many vile things had been flung at each other. Several people had been bloodied because of them. Rocks and knives and broken glass bottles now littered the whole area. The reluctance of the mobs in getting down to business was ebbing. The leaders were steadily egging on the people standing right at the front of each mob to take matters in the hands. Filthy language was filtering through the drone cameras that Maria had now trained at the heart of the conflict.
In the blink of an eye, the status quo shifted from throwing things at each other to showering blows on each other. A small group from the Muslim contingent broke away and decided that it was time to do or die. It was like a tiny green spear lancing into the sea of saffron. That initial foray of the green flags was so forceful that the saffron flags gave way. But then the people at the back stood their ground and the frontline enveloped that tiny green smudge and smashed it into the ground. The Muslim group had been pummeled by the Hindus with both fists and clubs. Knives were stuck in torsos and blood started flowing easily and abundantly in that moment. The appearance of so much blood snapped many out of the haze of hatred as they were mesmerized by the screams - both hateful and arising out of pain - mingled together. And just like that, the skirmish stopped. The bodies of the Muslims - battered and bruised and bloodied - were pushed back toward their people and the mobs resumed their shouting.
Maria couldn’t bear to see this anymore. She turned to Sonia with pleading eyes. She knew that there wasn’t much left to be done. Their future was getting butchered right in front of their eyes. As has been the case throughout the history of humanity, a small number of vile men had decided to yet again destroy the peaceful and beautiful lives of women in order to satiate their egos.
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Yuri’s headset crackled as he got the word from the plutocrats to launch phase one. They had seen the blood being spilled. They had made sure that the high resolution videos of the killing of that Muslim band were recorded. They had their excuse to launch their bid to take control of Sequoia.
Yuri didn’t even bother to look around at this team. They were all professionals and knew what they were expected to do. He merely raised the index finger of his left hand as the signal, “Go! Go! Go!”
Yuri’s team’s fingers flew on their keyboards, their hands gripped the joysticks, and instantly, several drones carrying the necessary ammunition swept up into the air and headed rapidly toward that mosque in Sequoia. They reached the target without any incident and stayed up at the designated altitude waiting for the next set of instructions. The actual targeting of the smoke bombs and the shock-and-awe ammunition was going to be done manually.
Yuri’s second-in-command, Vincent, had already lined up several spots as targets on his pad. He sent a bunch of them to different members of the team controlling each group of drones. They copied them and looked up at Vincent for the signal to initiate the launch sequence. Their faces - all expression-less - were those of hardened killers. They knew that later in the day, they were going to drive into Sequoia and take physical control of the city. This was merely laying the groundwork to suppress the population of the city.
Vincent snapped his fingers and the drones dropped the first round of smoke bombs. None of these were supposed to actually hit the ground or anyone. They were all programmed to explode a few hundred feet above the ground and create a pall of smoke that settled down as the people below watched it come down.
Another snap of fingers and the lightning bombs were dropped. Again, they exploded well above the heads of the crowd with thunderous sound and flashes to maximize the effect of mayhem. The idea was to scare the crowd but ensure that they didn’t feel physically threatened enough to disperse. Rather the goal was to get them even more riled up. Then the so-called voice of calm would announce that the crowd better shut up or the armed forces will intervene with actual weapons. It was all nicely choreographed. Yuri was confident that it would play out exactly as he had planned it.
He nodded at Vincent to start prepping for the next phase.