The Fresno Incident
by
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Rasheed handed him an ordinary cell phone, and said, “Dial 1-468-643-2836 or ‘1-g-o-t-o-h-e-a-v-e-n’ for heaven. After one or two rings, you should not hear anything at all, because by the time the signal goes out, you will already be in heaven with Allah’s blessing. There is a loaded gun under the seat with a box of extra ammunition, just in case you encounter unforeseen difficulties. Allah Akbar!” Khalid closed the cell phone and put it in his shirt pocket to make sure he did not inadvertently press any buttons from the pressure of putting it in his blue jeans pocket. He climbed up into the cab of the big U-Haul truck, as Rasheed walked over to the motorcycle trailer. He checked the fuel level in the gas tank and satisfied himself that he had enough to ride far away from Wheeler Ridge without stopping for more fuel. Then he released the tension ratchets on each of the two dirty heavy canvas straps securing the Kawasaki motorcycle to the small slightly rusted metal trailer bed and carefully steered it off the trailer. Khalid waited to be sure Rasheed started the bike, and then watched him ride out of the parking lot with his favorite toy, leaving the small trailer behind, further ratcheting up his commitment to their sacred plan. More than ever, he knew he could not change his mind and turn back now. Rasheed accelerated down the road away from the truck stop as the big engine whined through the gears into the distance and disappeared into the peaceful silence of the late afternoon California warmth. Khalid was completely alone, burdened only with the purpose of his life at the threshold of its predetermined ending. He mounted the step to the cab of the truck, and pulled himself up behind the steering wheel and closed the door. He heaved a sigh of determination as he started the big truck engine with almost automatic habit, adjusted his mirrors and checked the fuel level. Rasheed had apparently just recently topped off the tank, as the fuel gage indicator was just slightly below ‘Full.’ He had more than enough fuel for the rest of his life. Someone would eventually see the abandoned motorcycle trailer in the parking lot and innocently or ‘justifiably’ take it, not knowing its relatively minor but sinister role in Rasheed’s meticulous evil plan. Some unknown trucker or biker, perhaps someone who flunked out of society, or maybe even a businessman who took advantage of dumb luck would pick up a cheap bike trailer, a ‘bargain’, and would live with this apparently innocent automotive accessory – ‘someone else’s trash’ – without knowing its evil role in history. The conspirators moved in opposite directions. Rasheed proceeded to Interstate 5 South on the motorcycle, and would follow it all the way through Los Angeles, and farther south into Mexico. Khalid drove back onto Route 99 North, toward Fresno. From Tulare north, Route 99 was called ‘Pearl Harbor Survivors Memorial Highway.’ Somewhere north of McFarland, Route 99 was known as ‘Veterans of Foreign Wars Memorial Highway.’ Khalid would soil those memorials with his very presence on that road. He would be in Fresno in about three hours. He would take his time, and stay within the posted speed limits and obey all of the rules of the road. He had come too far to risk being stopped even for a minor traffic violation. The plan was almost complete. He would not take any chance of ruining its final execution. He checked his running lights and his headlights one more time to make sure they were in proper working order. If the police stopped him even for the most trivial traffic reason, they would most certainly also search a U-Haul truck towing a U-Haul trailer and a van. In that event, he would plead his story of moving all the way across the country to start a new life. If the policeman were to discover the cargo, he would have no choice but to make his one legally permitted phone call, and dial ‘1-g-o-t-o-h-e-a-v-e-n’ on his cell phone. It would not be his ideal plan, but the traffic inconvenience and damage would be quite severe on a major highway. He wondered with a jolt of fear whether the phone would actually work, but he did not dare to test it. Nevertheless, he had to consider the possibility that he would not survive a traffic stop by a police officer. He had told his wife he needed to pick up a shipment of special leather in Fresno. He said it was a bargain that he could not afford to pass up. The mountains of Sequoia National Park stood gracefully in the slightly hazy distance to the east. The twelve cartons of ‘boots’ were securely fastened to the bed and walls of the van with ropes and bungee cords. He did not know that the truck and trailer were each loaded beyond their stated weight capacity. Khalid breathed in the warm summer air, much warmer than it was in San Diego when he left, enjoying his final day of freedom from the burden of his wife and her petty earthly needs and desires. He glanced to his right to admire the mountains for the last time, as he continued to count almost obsessively through his memorized checklist. As one unknown man drove his hidden deadly cargo north on Route 99, life around the world continued with its myriad normal characteristic rhythms and periodicity of small human events as the earth rotated through space around the sun. That single star was only a miniscule spot in the Milky Way, which in turn was hurtling through the outer limits of human imagination and beyond in the infinite universe. From that distant perspective and at any one moment, the entire human life experience on earth could appear to be evident simultaneously in its many stages at different locations all around the globe. Khalid’s mission was, from that infinite perspective, so incredibly insignificant as if the entire earth were on the scale of a single neutron within a universe represented by the size of the sun. The explosive force he would unleash was insignificant compared to the energy elsewhere in Allah’s infinite universe. However, Khalid fully believed that his current role was part of Allah’s grand plan. It was obviously self-evident to him. No one other than Rasheed knew where he was going or what he intended to do, and nobody cared. That was, in part, why he would succeed.
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About the Book
The Chancellor Organization is a world-wide secret ‘information enterprise’ owned by the reclusive multi-billionaire Duke Chancellor, whose colorful executive Joe Czarzhynensky orchestrates its influence to benefit or punish people where the law has proven inadequate. Denver psychologist Jake Lewis stops at Eddie’s Place for entertainment and food after a day of counseling veterans at the Denver VA Hospital. There he falls hopelessly in love with Sasha, a gorgeous and uniquely talented vocalist, and only niece of Duke Chancellor. Jake and Sasha agree to meet again at Eddie’s Place after she returns from her next performance in Fresno, but she never arrives because she is among the missing after Khalid Kayani executes the most devastating terrorist attack since 9/11. Jake is suspended in emotional limbo, unaware of her fate, fearing she stood him up, or is dead. After a professional conference at NYU, he joins friends at Club 46 in Manhattan, where he is shocked to hear her distinctive voice from the stage. However, when his friends try to reunite them after the show, Sasha does not recognize him because she suffers from amnesia. Join the rich and compelling suspense, running the entire gamut of human emotion, as The Chancellor Organization arranges creative psychotherapy for Sasha and then assists General Murray of the CIA in their search for Rasheed Shirani, the planner of the Fresno incident. Delight in their creative persuasion techniques, as Joe and General Murray manipulate influential people to capture Rasheed and bring him to justice in an unusual exercise of ‘the law of the jungle,’ where the jury expresses the true conscience of the people.
Rettew, Philip L.
THE FRESNO INCIDENT
A terrorist attack shakes Fresno, and Jake Lewis is left to mourn the woman of his dreams — or is he?
When Jake meets beautiful singer Sasha, his life changes irrevocably. But then the city of Fresno suffers a mysterious and tragic terrorist
attack, dubbed “The Fresno Incident,” and Sasha is nowhere to be found. Jake is left adrift,
wondering if his lover was killed in the attack or merely disappeared in its aftermath, and sets out to find the answers. Meanwhile, a fellowship of wealthy, well-connected men, led
by reclusive billionaire Duke Chancellor, gets involved in the search and the stakes are raised. The story, told in action-packed bursts as it speeds through different characters and cities, weaves together the search for those responsible for the Fresno Incident with Jake’s search for resolution. The reader will hang on through more than 400 pages waiting for the
outcome to unfold. With such an extensive cast of characters and plot, Rettew breaks the action into more than 80 short chapters, which effectively organize the novel’s myriad characters and conflicts. Each chapter begins by marking the date and location of the current action, helping readers keep track of the book’s various subplots that traverse the globe. The structure of the novel itself reflects its sprawling storyline, echoing the effects terrorist incidents can have all over the world. In the midst of all the threads that hold together Rettew’s novel, the author is sure to provide frequent updates on the lives of its two central characters. This serves to keep readers not only intellectually engaged in the clever plotting, but emotionally engaged in its characters as well.
A plot-heavy, action-filled read that thrills with international intrigue.
About the Author
Philip L. Rettew, Jr. was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on June 28, 1945. He graduated from the Reading Senior High School in Reading, Pennsylvania in 1963, and Yale College in New haven, Connecticut in 1967, after which he spent four years of active duty in the Army Security Agency learning about cryptography and telemetry, including tours of duty in Turkey and Japan where he was engaged in electronic intercept operations before being honorably discharged in 1971. He then enrolled in the Temple University Graduate School in Philadelphia, supporting himself with the GI bill and a graduate assistantship, eventually earning a Master’s Degree in Psychology in 1973. After working in a local mental health program in Pottsville, Pennsylvania as an emergency services and referral officer for about a year, he moved to Columbus, Ohio, where he counseled drug addicts at a methadone rehabilitation clinic while conducting research with methods of measuring treatment success for substance addiction. He started his career in the securities industry as a financial consultant for Merrill Lynch in January of 1976. In July of 1979, he took advantage of an opportunity to join the Merrill Lynch Market Analysis department at the World Financial Center in southern Manhattan, where he started to develop computerized technical analysis of financial markets while advising the firm’s world-wide sales force about trading and investment opportunities until the 9/11 attacks in 2001, which he witnessed first-hand. Later he took a position writing technical research reports and providing trading advice to institutional clients of a small regional brokerage firm in New Jersey until early 2010 when economic conditions forced his employer to close. Within a month he started writing The Fresno Incident, satisfying a latent life-long desire to write a full-length novel. He and his wife live in Branchburg, New Jersey.