Chapter 12
Evan Helmsley chuckled as he watched the news. The news anchors theorized that the explosion at the electric power plant was due to interference from Uftar, the country north of Lativa. It was a ridiculous thought since there was no reason for Uftar to attack Lativa. The two countries had been…not friendly, but peaceful for several years now. There were no official peace treaties in place at the moment. At least, none that Evan knew about. Granted, his political knowledge about the two countries was pretty minimal, but as far as he knew, there weren’t any obvious tensions.
Until now, he thought as he put his booted feet up on the coffee table in front of him. He lifted the beer to his lips and took a long swallow. Evan never allowed himself to get drunk, but a beer every once in a while was an enjoyable break. His lifestyle was necessarily nomadic. He owned a condo back in the US, but he was rarely there. It was a nice place to visit, but his work required him to constantly be on the move.
Officially, he was a land surveyor for a corporate company in the United Kingdom. He had a website and even an address. The address was fake, but no one looked too deeply into his cover story. And it allowed him to travel all over the world. Every country was eager to let a land surveyor into their borders in the hopes of luring foreign investments. And since a land surveyor was the first step any company took before committing to a project, Evan was basically invisible. No one paid much attention to a land surveyor. There was no financial commitment yet, so no need to care one way or another what actions he took within a country’s borders.
Oh, there was the occasional town or village official who realized what Evan’s presence could mean for their area. And yeah, bribes were offered and happily accepted. Evan vowed to every official who offered a bribe that he would write the “report” in that official’s preferred direction. Evan didn’t even consider those bribes to be illegal since he never solicited the bribes. He considered those bribes to be his bonus money.
But watching the chaos he’d created with a simple mechanical switch connected to whatever available electrical circuits were available…this was even better! The idiot talking heads were theorizing, without any evidence, that the explosion at the electric power plant earlier this morning was an attack from Uftar! He shook his head and took another long sip of his beer. “You’re all idiots!” he yelled at the television.
He lifted his beer bottle, still smiling as he whispered conspiratorially, “It was me !”