Backchannel: rabt

By Dan Robinson

Imagine a world where not just teenagers, but governments use secret social media channels to communicate – and to target. Meet Doug McKenzie, a charismatic Black Irish investigative reporter for the New York Daily, a man whose fearless journalism has attracted international enemies with the resources to neutralize him. In response to his incendiary reports, a clandestine ‘Backchannel’ is activated, manipulating the U.S. government itself to take him down.

But Doug isn’t alone. His fiery daughter Rachel, an emerging journalist in her own right, stands by his side, as do allies from the global stage. Journey with Doug from the power corridors of Washington, DC to the bustling streets of Osaka, Japan; from the political heart of Ankara, Turkey to the fraught border crossing of Bazargan, Iran.

Caught in a web of international intrigue is Doug’s tumultuous personal life – his marriage to Turkish-born Nukhet hangs by a thread, complicated by their one-year-old daughter Sirin, and the reemergence of his enigmatic lover, Dr. Laurie Reynolds.

Get ready to dive into a world of political suspense, international espionage, and intricate relationships. Welcome to Backchannel. Trust us, you won’t want to put it down.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Dec 8, 2023
• ISBN: 9781035818167

Dan Robinson

Dan Robinson is a ‘Cold War’ veteran having served in the armed forces of the United States, gathering information on the then Soviet Union, currently attempting a comeback. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Dearborn campus, Dan worked for the General Motors principal advertising agency in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, then on to the NBC research department in New York City, on to KCBS radio in San Francisco, then to CBS Viacom Enterprises in New York City where he rose to become the Director of Research. Thereafter, he formed a television syndication company, Dan Robinson broadcasting-shotmakres.org, distributing In Search Of…with Leonard Nimoy for the Bristol-Myers company, doing cables sales for the New York Islanders hockey team, employing Wescam aerial photography of Atlanta (Atlanta Aerials) and New York City; and finally as a licensed real estate agent since the 1980s in the states of New York and New Jersey. Backchannel: rabt is the third in a trilogy of books; Suffer the Children the first and then Nuevo Laredo: A Prelude to War, continuing with the same characters in different situations.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Will This Never End?

New York City

February, 2019

The cyclist rested at the corner of 45th Street and 7th Avenue even though the traffic light signalled green. Prompting a look from the brown-shirted traffic enforcement officer whose responsibilities were to keep traffic flowing and to look for violations, a daily quota to meet. But the rider had the proper headgear and the bike licence was displayed correctly, and since he wasn’t blocking traffic making the right hand turn onto 45th Street, she ignored him, for the moment.

The light turned red, but ahead in the middle of the block, a tall, good-looking man exited a building, in turn prompting the rider to dart through the cross traffic and bear down on him. Approaching, the bike jumped the curb and standing on the pedals, head bent far forward, rider and bike slammed into the man, the handlebars and the helmet acting as battering rams, causing him wordlessly to crumple to the pavement, the sound of the impact punctuating the movement, rising ever so slightly above the din of the street noise. The rider quickly dismounted, looked over the now prone figure as if to offer assistance but instead walked quickly away, discarding his helmet in a trash receptacle on 44th Street and then turning a light-weight jacket inside out and finally blending into the heavy pedestrian traffic, happening in a little more than a minute.

The injured man had been aided to a sitting position by passers-by, more than one had called 911. He tried to raise his left arm but could not, the motion restricted and now the arm painful. The left side of his face stinging from the impact of the pavement, his tailbone hurting from sitting in a straight position. He had felt the impact but had not seen the rider or the bike. Initially, more surprised than in pain that he found himself lying face down on the sidewalk. Briefly, the thought passed his mind that this was how men in combat experienced being wounded or even being killed, the impact and the cognition coming later on if at all.

Within minutes after an ambulance arrived, he was transported to Roosevelt Hospital on the west side of Midtown Manhattan. The receptionist in the ER waiting to see his insurance card before treatment began. After x-rays, he was shuttled to an attending orthopaedist who announced to Mr. Doug McKenzie, investigative reporter for the ‘Gotham Times’, yes, he now had a name, that he had an ‘un-displaced fracture on the surgical neck of the humerus’. Translation: a clear break in the upper arm, no chips or bone fragments penetrating the outer skin. The orthopaedist further told him that he was fortunate, ‘lucky’, that he might only suffer some loss of lateral motion in his left arm, follow-up visits would be scheduled at the orthopaedist’s clinic on West 57th Street. Given all that had happened Doug McKenzie thought, remembering a line from a mystery novel, ‘Luck is something that happens to someone else.’ His left arm wrapped to his body in a spandex bandage and an arm sling, Doug McKenzie with daughter Rachel from his first marriage and NYPD police escort left the hospital at a little after 8:30 PM. Followed by a convoy of the media, others waiting in front of his apartment building on 77th Street between First and Second Avenues on the upper east side of Manhattan. The Department of Homeland Security and the NYPD would shortly and jointly conclude that given the current and prior history of the victim, this was a deliberate act, not a random hit and run and coincidentally a finding not covered by the insurance policy.

Doug McKenzie and Rachel received a chilly reception at the front door of their apartment, Nukhet Akad McKenzie clutching one-year-old Sirin McKenzie to her breast. Sirin reached out for her father but was abruptly pulled back into the safety of her mother’s arms.

Will this never end? asked a woman of Turkish-Iranian descent, her mother Turkish, her father and former husband, Iranians residing in Tabriz, a sizeable commercial and industrial city in central Iran. Years before, her teenage daughter, April, had disappeared. One day, the religious police closed down the school where April had attended. The parents looked everywhere, but April was nowhere to be found. It was then a newly divorced Nukhet decided to leave Iran, the daughter being the glue that held the marriage together. But she chose a place, Van, a city in easternmost Turkey, close enough so that if April could be found, they would be reunited. Now less than two weeks ago, April after four years had been found but in the custody of religious authorities set to go on trial in a religious court, a Sharia Court, on trial for committing adultery; the penalty on conviction, death by stoning. Nukhet had immediately drawn the conclusion that the trial was merely a diversion to get them to return to Iran where both were wanted in connection with the deaths of Ms. El Said, a wanted terrorist and a local policeman who had been sent to arrest the pair in the fishing village of Asalem on the Caspian Sea. A Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) team had been sent into Iran to monitor the testing of a new weapons system on the Caspian Sea by a coalition of Middle East nations. Doug McKenzie had been allowed on the mission so that he might as an investigative reporter for the ‘Gotham Times’ give a credible accounting of the event. Nukhet with local knowledge, volunteering to be his guide into Iran. After a perilous journey out of the country, the two had married when Nukhet arrived separately with refugee status in the United States, their intense experiences in Iran binding them together for what they thought would be forever.

Nukhet’s first thought had been to fly to Van and thereafter bargain her way into Iran, a trade for her daughter’s freedom. Reflecting it was Doug McKenzie the Iranians were after and simply he refused to go. There was Rachel, now seventeen, from a first McKenzie marriage, and one-year-old Sirin McKenzie who he dearly loved. Nukhet had railed at him, telling him that she was going to take Sirin with her, to no effect, but he had been in contact with Herold Frey, the director of Special Ops, at the DIA. He already knew: the United States had no diplomatic relations with Iran; April was legally within their court system, like or not, the DIA nor any other government agency was going to commit mayhem or murder to get her out, and finally, there was himself and even this was not an option. Because he still carried classified information from the prior DIA operation that had not been released by the government. Nevertheless, Nukhet had now made the connection with today’s attack to April’s situation in Iran, putting Sirin into jeopardy as part of the mix. She was almost hysterical at the thought of losing Sirin, but separation from her child was not an option.

It was the next day and Doug McKenzie was in the office of Richard Gruber, managing editor of the ‘Gotham Times’, looking somewhat pained but getting looks of sympathy from a bright-blue arm sling and a spandex bandage visible under a sport jacket. I was fortunate. I always check my pockets for my cell, my elevator pass and my keys and so I was leaning sideways to the right digging into my pants pocket when the cyclist hit me low on the left side causing to me to tumble and fall on my left side. If he had hit me straight on in the chest, it might have been worse. I— At that moment, the company nurse entered the office and asked if she could examine his shoulder here in the office or down in the small infirmary. Removing his shirt and the bandage, she saw a black and blue bruise beginning at just below his clavicle to his elbow. Of course, the area was tender, but the patient did not wince with the gentle probing. Satisfied she helped him with the bandage and the sling. Letting out a sigh, no, not him, her because Doug McKenzie, Black Irish, was one of the most beautiful men she had ever seen. She was rewarded with a buss on the cheek.

Richard Gruber said, It must be nice.

Doug McKenzie replied, It will even get better with all of the attention. The downside is the family, the amount of protection they are going to require. Rachel already has a police escort since she works as a special assistant to ‘S’. In the morning, from the apartment to CCNY and then to the mayor’s office and then home. This morning, there was a police officer in the lobby of the building. And you know who is coming over to check on security.

Lieutenant Carmine Venezia, Jersey City Police Department, the stone killer from New Jersey. Does Nukhet know how many people he has already shot in your building, notwithstanding his tally on the other side of the river?

She’s met him, more curious than anything else.

Richard Gruber said, The authorities are already describing this as a ‘hit’. The bike has an All Mountain/Downhill frame and weighs forty pounds, and when combined with the speed and the weight of the rider, you absorbed one hell of a blow. There’s a physicist on our staff and she is right now computing the actual force (looking at his notes) as Mass x Acceleration = Force to put an actual number on it.

Richard Gruber continued, The building has ordered extra security, but we are a newspaper where ideas are supposed to thrive. Armed guards patrolling the corridors with shotguns and automatic weapons doesn’t exactly make for a conducive work atmosphere.

Doug McKenzie said, You and I have spoken of this before. The world is under siege, the beginning of World War III, in a different format, isolated and continuous terror attacks. But new news, it appears the PRC (People’s Republic of China-Mainland China) is going to make a move in the disputed South China Sea. I have a highly placed informant in The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea-North Korea telling me that preparations are underway to launch a massive amphibious assault on Taiwan by North Korean Army regulars acting in the stead of the People’s Liberation Army. Fighting a proxy war to reclaim the province for the PRC, knowing that the PRC does not recognise Taiwan as other than a breakaway province. Richard…

…What does your informant want? If the informant wants asylum, the authorities are the ones to begin with. Editor Richard Gruber leaned forward. What separates such an assertion from pure speculation? Many of our reporters work hard to come up with a printable news story, you on the other hand are a magnet for them.

Doug McKenzie said, Because I am the message!

Chapter 2

Thucydides Trap

‘Is war inevitable; or, are we already at war, the terms of which are not conventional and remain hidden from us?’*

New York City

February, 2019

It was the next evening and the Group of Five was gathering in the McKenzie apartment. This was the same group responsible for preventing a nuclear detonation in Lower Manhattan, four years back, two nuclear devices had been secreted in the Nuclear Medicine Section of the Radiology Department of the Lower Manhattan Hospital on Beekman Street. Rachel McKenzie, then fourteen years old, it was her theory, Rachel’s Theory, that had led to the discovery of the devices, she hypothesising that the radioactive U-235 emissions from the devices in nuclear medicine would be shielded by the emissions coming from the radioactive isotopes used to treat cancer patients. There was now not a school kid in America who had not heard of Rachel’s theory, her celebrity was from coast-to-coast.

Then there was Doug McKenzie, investigative reporter for the Gotham Times and a published author. His family life complicated by a previous marriage to a lady from Italy, Gilda Sardella, and subsequent divorce, Rachel, resembling her closely. His second wife, Nukhet Akad McKenzie, of less than two years had barricaded herself with one-year-old Sirin McKenzie in the master bedroom suite only emerging for brief trips to the kitchen. Not speaking to her husband except to vow that Sirin would not be exposed to this kind of violence. Between the two marriages was the blond and beautiful fiancé, Dr. Laurie Reynolds, a failed relationship but still on speaking terms.

Then there was the Imam Ali Ali, a criminologist by day in the Jersey City Police Department, and at night, an imam administering to the poor, running a soup kitchen in a second-floor mosque on one of the darkest streets in Jersey City. It was Ali Ali who convinced authorities that a nuclear device was in play. He had officiated at the wedding ceremony of the reporter and Nukhet, now offering to mediate with Nukhet after he found out the reporter had spent the night in his den.

Then there was Lieutenant Carmine Venezia known as a member of the Group of Five, celebrated by some for his version of vigilante justice in New York City; for shooting a still unidentified man disguised as a doorman in the McKenzie apartment building; for discharging a weapon in the hallway adjacent to the McKenzie apartment as a terrorist was forcing the front door; for participating in a street assault at 79th Street and 3rd Avenue; for removing evidence from a crime scene; for etc.

Then there was the blond and beautiful Dr. Laurie Reynolds, child psychiatrist, the in-between fiancé of Doug McKenzie. Their relationship full of tension and sex. It was only after a suggestion for a more complicated sexual relationship that didn’t fit with his image as a parent that he had become distant. Subsequently, she learned their lovemaking had been eavesdropped on and recorded, her suggestion for a threesome constituting, in some quarters, deviant sexual behaviour, devastating to a practising child psychiatrist. Professionally, intuiting the release of the audiotapes would mark her; then ending it, sleeping pills with wine, a failed suicide attempt, the notoriety and negative publicity. Hurtful, devastating to Rachel for in body and mind Dr. Laurie Reynolds was everything Rachel aspired to be. The two had bonded even more closely after this event.

Not present were Nukhet Akad McKenzie and Sirin, behind closed doors. Trading perilous situations in Iran and Turkey for one in New York City was not what Nukhet had bargained for. An unimaginable horror now facing her lost daughter, April, death by stoning, sentence to be imposed by an Iranian Sharia Court, to the prospect of losing Sirin was more than she could bear. Her options were limited, returning to Van, Turkey, was one of them and thereafter, with help, making her way across the border into Iran. She had friends there, good friends, political friends, but she also knew that Iranian agents in Van would do whatever it took to get her back across the border into Iran on their