By all accounts Joe is ‘a good man’.

He was born the only child to Joe and Joanne Wish. His parents loved each other and raised him well. Unfortunately they also gave him their unremarkable genes, and the last name Wish.

His mother was short. His father was wide. Joe was short and wide.

***

Learning was easy for Joe. He was smart. Very smart. School was hard! Kids made fun of the way he looked. ‘Joe Wish he was taller!’ was a frequent elementary school taunt. High school was more cruel, and true. ‘Joe Wish he can get laid!’

Joe got laid in college and married the girl after graduation. Jane was an engineering student, and she and Joe met in chemistry class. Six years later Jane left Joe for her golf coach. Geoff was a taller and more athletic man.

***

Joe, always ‘a good man’, accepted this development, putting Jane’s happiness before his.

He withdrew from friends and family. His friends were mostly Jane’s, and his parents’ relationship has been distant ever since he got married. They did not like Jane, and he did not want them to tell him, ‘We told you so.’

He devoted himself to his work. He loved his job and was brilliant at it. He innately understood how elements interacted and filed several patent applications in his own name. The research for these patents were done in his garage, and were unrelated to the work he did for Raython, a very large defense contractor.

***

At work, Joe was developing a new version of C4 that was both lighter and more powerful.

His private work involved a new type of fertilizer with boosted nutrients and the ability to adjust its release over time as the plants require more help. This ability removes the danger to the environment when fields are over-fertilized.

His personal work soothed his conscience.

As a ‘good man,’ he struggled with the knowledge that he was improving an explosive used to kill and maim, and he felt that giving the world this safe fertilizer offsets his culpability.

When Raython’s lawyers learned about his private work, they sued him. They argued that his patent applications stemmed from intellectual property owned by Raytheon, and the court agreed. Joe was fired, and his patent applications were denied. Raython took possession of his notes and data and filed a cease and desist injunction against him.

***

Joe had enough.

He dedicated himself to being ‘a good man’ his whole life, putting the needs of others before his own. This earned him ridicule, disrespect, and loss. It was time to get even.

The news often refers to ‘worldwide jihad’. The media do this because a scared and fearful population is much easier to manipulate, and bad news sells better than good news.

Its time for a ‘Joehad’.

***

Joe focused his attention on combining his professional and private research.

He quadrupled the energy release of the explosives, which was already three times that of C4. He then introduced the delayed response from his fertilizer, allowing parts of the explosive not to detonate but to harden and become shrapnel. This shrapnel, in turn, explodes and creates more shrapnel as it cools down. The result is a chain reaction that expands the initial explosion over and over until the explosive is completely consumed.

It was 100% efficient.

***

Raython’s greed did not disappoint.

Their lawyers found a legal way to seize Joe’s equipment.

He expected this and packed his computers, monitors, and printers with fifty pounds of the new explosive. They even took the trash cans, all four, which added forty more pounds.

Joe equipped one of the charges with an Apple tag and a rigged detonator linked to a cell phone.

***

The explosion lasted ten seconds and grew to cover most of Raython’s campus. It completely destroyed five buildings and collapsed the parking lot, burying the lower levels. Secondary explorations in those lower levels caused more destruction.

Joe detonated his Trojan bomb on a Monday afternoon to maximize casualties.

Raython was held responsible, and subsequent lawsuits bankrupted the company.

***

Joe was never suspected of foul play.

As long as he does not use the explosive again, Raython’s destruction will always be considered a terrible accident.

He started a new job at Moansanto, part of their fertilizer research team.

He will give this company all the time and dedication they deserve.

He was ‘a good man‘ after all.