The Drill

THE DRILL
As the news clips of the near disaster flashed on the screens, the Drillmaster slipped into his seat. He was one of the geniuses of the first Notification section, in charge of planning and executing the Drills. For days he had studied the wiring on the huge airplane, searching for the weak spot, the frayed wires in the worn metal. Once he had the plan worked out, the team was recruited and the Drill was carried out flawlessly, as always.

The deputy Drillmaster began his report, “We chose to Drill Oriental Airways flight 918 bound from Hong Kong to Seattle. 0 hour was at 90 minutes into the flight, with the craft at cruising speed, over the ocean, in darkness. With the team in position, the hydraulic linkage was stressed. The captain lost both control of and data from the tail – the Drill was on. Samuel Observed and taped the cockpit crew, Patricia the cabin crew, and the rest of the team Observed the passengers. As we know, the purpose of a Drill is to serve the First Notification, “there comes to every man death and then the Judgment”, although, of course, those undergoing the Drill don’t know if it is just a Drill or the Final Call. Notifications were served on all 280 of the passengers and crew.

The Drillmaster accepted and initialed the deputy’s computer files of those who had been Notified. Really, even with computers is was tedious to keep track of the Notifications, but all the defendants were legally entitled to them. The deputy Drillmaster continued, “during the 14 minutes of the Drill we noted the reactions of those being Notified, as required. The majority began to plea bargain; the 7 who abandoned their self-sufficiency and cried for mercy to the Judge will be reached by a defender to help prepare their cases. There were 20 on the pardoned list, of those, 15 had no current charges. The remaining 5 settled accounts immediately. They were actually sorry that it was a Drill and not the Final Call, and were able to speak to some of the defendants about pleading guilty and being pardoned. We found a few skeptical people who have been through Drills before, we need to work out a Super Drill for them.”

The head of the Second Notification section sniffed to herself, “What do they expect with all this newfangled ‘technology’? I’ll take an old-fashioned wake or funeral any day. For a Second Notification ‘these are the charges against you’ I need at least an hour with the defendant, where he can’t get away from thinking about his or her case.”

The section head took the 280 files from the Drillmaster and sorted them according to how soon the Final Call would arrive. Several came due in a month, so she handed those to members of her team for immediate action. The last file was a man who had suffered severe chest pain during the Drill. The head saw that he had already has his First Notification months before, so the Drill had served as the Second Notification. She passed his file to the Final Warning section.

The head of this section was the oldest of them all. He had been a compassionate field worker for scores of years before he began becoming section head. The Judge required someone to be with defendant constantly from the Final Warning, "this is it" , until the Call to the Judge’s chambers came.
The section head handled all of the tough cases, leaving his younger workers to keep vigil with children and those on the pardoned list. It took special firmness and grace to wait out the last hours of defiant defendants; sometimes they tried to bluff their way clear up the final Call. One unseasoned prosecutor almost made a deal on the defendant’s terms – as if she doubted that the Judge of all the earth Judges justly!

As the meeting was about to break up, the head of the Final Call section, AKA Angel of Death, walked in with his section chiefs who carried stacks of files. He was unusually somber as he announced, “the Judge has planned a massive Call for next month and you are all needed for Notifications. A tanker carrying liquid natural gas will explode while filling a depot in a major harbor. Tens of thousands will be Called instantly, these are their files.”
He handed a stack of printouts to the head of Second Notification. “They have been sorted by the continents where they are now, and these,” as he handed over a smaller stack, “are on ships on the seas. You will note that all have had First Notifications from past Drills. You have two weeks to give Second Notifications and pass the files to the Final Warning section.”

As he handed over another two stacks of printouts he spoke to the head of Final Warning, “30,000 people will be injured, and trapped for days in the debris. These,“ he said as he handed over a small stack,“ will be rescued, the rest will be Called. You are to have someone with each person or groups of people, to counsel, encourage and prepare defenses as necessary.”

As each section head began to plan how to bring their workers in from the entire world, angel of Death spoke to them. “All the Drills are canceled for the next month, the Judge wants his workers to help with the Notifications. And if you think you will be busy, remember that you only have to Notify, we have to prepare charges against each defendant and prepare the case for the Judge.”

The Drillmaster asked what they all had been wondering, “Why such a massive Call?”
Angel half smiled and replied, “Why, you yourself suggested it. People hear about wars and earthquakes and flooding so much that they ignore the Notifications. This is the Super Drill.”

Now, gentle reader, for you is this a First Notification, a Second, or the Final Warning?

Gerry Gutierrez, Oaxaca, Mexico, May 2001