NEVER-ENDING WAR

We were in Delaware, heading to Philadelphia. We exited off Interstate 95 turning into Interstate 295 heading north, crossed Delaware Memorial Bridge, the one that was toll-free, and then continued on a smaller New Jersey Turnpike, crossed Salem Canal and now we were back on I295, passing through the suburbs of Philadelphia that weren't clearly visible from the obstructing trees on the side of the road. It was already past six in the morning.

"Can we still make it on time?" Daniel asked me.

"If nothing unplanned happens, we could," I replied. "So, you are trying to say that CIA killed Lady Di?"

"Not the CIA, but MI6, using the recycled plan they created for the assassination of Milosevic in Geneva."

"Are you serious?"

"I have my reasons to believe it." Daniel sipped some more of his whisky. "So, Paris is not a good place for hiding."

Assassinations, conspiracies… That wasn't what I wanted to talk about. But Daniel continued.

"Where were the others in your story?" Daniel asked unexpectedly.

"What do you mean?"

"OK, I understand what Microsoft wanted to achieve, but what was Murdochs' objective in the whole game?" Daniel needed more pieces to complete the mosaic.

"Well, there it gets tricky." I knew I had a tendency to make long introductions, so I tried to be concise and give only the most important facts. "You know that last year NATO was bombing Yugoslavia, and although it lasted seven weeks instead of four days, whole thing didn't go according to CNN's media plan."

"Well, it didn't go according to plan for many people." Daniel's cut-in comments were de rigueur on this trip, but this time I didn't let him.

"CNN's ratings didn't go as expected. It lasted longer than Desert Storm, yet people didn't watch it as much. Fox News saw this as a great opportunity to cut across CNN by using their ratings downfall. However, Rupert needed something bigger. Much bigger. Something closer to home or something that would create infinite war or series of smaller wars that could be marketed as new reality version of M.A.S.H. or something along those lines."

"All that for ratings?" Daniel was probing me.

"Oh, it's much more than that. Firstly, there were huge egos. Ted Turner compared Rupert Murdoch to Adolf Hitler. There was apparently much more at stake."

"Did they have anything specific in mind? What did Linda tell you?" As he asked the questions, I could feel uneasiness in his voice.

"Honestly, I don't know. She didn't tell me. But Rupert and his pals were worried that 'Mini-Me', what he calls George W, would continue father's business in Iraq, and we all know that sequels are not very popular."

"Can I just stop you for a second?"

"Sure."

"I don't want to spoil the fun, but can you tell me what happened in the end? Did she make the deal?"

"Come on, Daniel. I am telling you whole story just because I don't know if we made it. Actually, I should say if she made it. Obviously, I didn't."

"I see." Daniel sounded disappointed, but then became interested again. "So, there were two main requests: Fox's and Microsoft's."

"Oh, there were more. Linda kept adding them. It was whole bunch of VIP's."

"Democrats, that wanted to destroy Bush?"

"No, not just democrats. Even Mayor Rudy Giuliani was involved. Many people with broad interests and actually many of them being Bush's supporters. It wasn't that political. It was mainly people from the so-called new technologies and media that were afraid that Bush would turn back to old-fashioned Reagan-Bush philosophy that favored industries like defense, resources, farmers, car manufacturers and all those industries that were really without a future and were threatening to pull the entire American economy, including healthy businesses, down with them. Although Murdoch generally prefers liberal economy and traditional values, he generally enjoyed a good run during Clinton and the guys around him wanted Clinton's kind of virtual world instead of full-fledged invasion that will be money burner."

"But how was the new war supposed to help them?"

"I don't know. It wouldn't be real war. Just something that would make everybody scared. A war that would be fought with computers and get USAF investing more in IT than in jet fighters."

"Well, it sounds to me like a war like any other, just with different weapons. Still, it's created for the same reason - to help somebody become wealthier. That is the real reason behind any war."

"There is Serbian saying: 'first come priests, then come cannons, lastly there are thieves'."

Daniel smiled. "Very much true. I probably work as one of those priests. Quite frankly, it is so easy with our leaders. Sometimes I think that the only way to make this world a more peaceful place might be to put women in power, or at least somebody gay."

"Margaret Thatcher is not good example of 'peaceful lady'. She got UK in their first proper war after decades of peace."

"I have some news for you. Margaret isn't exactly someone who you would consider feminine. And I wouldn't hold my hopes to Hillary being more feminine and peaceful if she ever becomes America's first Madam President." Daniel smiled and then continued. "Going back to what I wanted to tell you before... If there were only those two conditions, I think she made it. I mean, Microsoft got what they were asking for."

"I didn't know about that until today, but yes."

"And if we get some new, ultra-turbo, super-realistic war, then it means she got what she was looking for."

"Probably," I agreed.

"Hmmm." Daniel was thinking, while I was desperately looking for some answers. The silence made me even more anxious.

Daniel continued. "Then all you can do is to wait and see what will happen. I'm sure you'll be able to recognize it when it happens."

"Probably. If it happens. But there is much more to this story than I told you. Believe me."

***

"Do you know what annoys me most about my current situation?"

"What, Linda?" I said half-interestedly while packing a portable Hoover to take downstairs to clean the cab and Porsches as a potential buyer had called.

"I'm losing a lot of opportunity to make money on the stock market. I was involved in some pretty promising start-ups and now when they are ripe, I am forced to stay out of the game."

"Come on, Linda, you have much higher stakes in other places, and the dot-com balloon seems to be bursting."

"There are still opportunities for money to be made. Trust me. I used to do some work for Sequoia Joint Venture firm from Sand Hill Road."

"Where is that road? Never heard of it after driving the cab here for years."

"It's in Silicon Valley, near Stanford University, San Francisco. Michael Moritz told me that search-engine companies will be the new hot stock as they become the new Yellow Pages. He mentioned something about them reinventing their business model and how they'll be making a pile of money. So, if you have some savings, I suggest you put it in GoTo.com or Inktomi, but his best bet lies in his very own Google. However, I have an even better investment proposition. These guys are gonna have their IPO in about three months and I bet it'll be huge."

"Which guys?"

"eGrave."

"eGrave? Is this some kind of sick joke?" I asked.

"No, it isn't. That's a real business. Not just some funny digital-virtual stuff. It's the real thing."

"I don't understand."

"It's simple. The world is globalized now. You may be living 20,000 miles from your family. Well, why am I telling you anyway? You are a prime example. Imagine your parents are buried, let say in Bosnia. There is no chance that you can maintain their grave and visit it frequently. eGrave will make a deal with the local funeral directors to bring flowers on special occasions and take a photo that would be posted on the website. There will also be virtual obituaries, condolence books and everything else related to funerals."

"You are crazy."

"Crazy I may be, but morticians are the only profession with a secured market. This is a business that can't fail. And soon it'll be the baby-boomers' time to rest in peace, so the growth is almost guaranteed. It could also work for pets. You'll see. It's going to be big. Huge even."

"I still cannot see it that way."

"Well, I'm afraid if you wait to see it, it'll all be too late. Unfortunately, it looks like it'll be too late for me as well. I don't know if I'll sort things out in time."

"Any news about the grand plan?"

"Well, you know that my communication to the outside world is limited."

"Obviously."

"The main problem is that I can't contact anyone, not Paul, not Rupert, if I don't want to blow my cover."

"How did you get that Ferrari from Paul then?"

"He gave me the key a long time ago. But now, I can no longer contact him in any way that can be electronically monitored, so I have to get close to him. And as you know, that's pretty hard as I am now out of the loop, and I don't know where I would find him or the others."

"So, what will you do?" I asked.

"There will be one occasion, though, where they'd all come, at least the Microsoft family."

"And that is…?"

"The 20th anniversary of IBM PC that will take place in the Waldorf Astoria in New York City."

"When is that happening?"

"On the 12th of August."

"Not long to go now." I was relieved. "Only one month."

***

"Well, did you go there?" Daniel asked me.

"Yes, I did."

"On 12th of August?"

"Yes, I was there a few days early."

"Oh, it wasn't long ago."

"Yes, it's still fresh and that was quite a journey. Although, that was exactly what I needed."

"What do you mean?"

"This whole thing with Linda just kept going and getting worse. It almost looked like that never-ending war Rupert Murdoch was talking about with Linda. I felt I was under constant pressure with no ending in sight."

"Did you know at the time how the negotiations were going with the Bush folks?"

"That's what I am saying. I don't know. We were completely cut off from talks, if there were any. She was hiding and she was making plans, but she couldn't have known what was going on in reality, behind her back."

"That reminds me of the tales of Jews hiding in basements during the Second World War and they didn't know what was going on and couldn't do much, even though their skin was on the line." Daniel paused for a moment. "That must have been devastating for her.

"Probably was, if that was really everything she knew. I am just afraid that she knew slightly more than what she was telling me."

"What makes you think that?"

"Some things that happened later on. Anyway, that trip to New York was sort of possible ending. We would get there, she would meet secretly with Paul Allen and possibly with Lachlan Murdoch, who was living in New York, and then they would smuggle us secretly in a private jet to safe French soil."

"If everything went according to plan…"

"Yes."

"Obviously, it didn't quite work out that way, did it?"

"Of course it didn't! Otherwise, I wouldn't be driving you from Washington to New York right now."

"I know. That's what I'm saying."

"But things started slipping much earlier. We were forced to leave New York earlier. On first of August. Going this very same route."

***