Chapter 11

Elroy shook his head. “I’m not going to give you advice one way or the other. You already figured out that Washington is a swamp. Anything I would say to you would be tarnished by my own, personal views.”

“I appreciate that, Elroy. I think all three of the girls will take Wednesday off from school, as will I, so there’s nothing for anyone to note when the Messenger and his apprentice show up in Washington during the day. Beth has enough power that she can fly at night like I can.”

From the table, she said, “I’ve also figured out what was going on with the vision, too. It’s just like muscles that you’ve not used for a while. To use them in the first place, I had to train them, which hurt and took a lot of reserves that I didn’t have that day in Cancun. Since then, I’ve spent time refining all of them. I don’t think my heat is as strong as yours, but I’ve also not tried. I can engrave on wood and metal like you did, and I can also cut the metal from your ship. And, of course, I can see through things, like you can.”

I had a thought. “Unrelated, you’ve all said that you’re now constantly in touch with each other, right?” Beth nodded. “If you haven’t already thought of it, since Marcia is right there, have her pick up all of our textbooks from Stanford, and bring them home with her. That’ll give us something to do for the next couple of weeks.”

Jennifer said, “Actually, that’s a good idea, and I know none of us have thought of it yet. I do plan on getting some more education now. My mind is ... I don’t know, sharper and more alert, I guess ... than it’s been for quite a while.”

“Marcia agrees. She says they’re almost done with all of the site work, as far as security, the driveways, and everything goes. The two simple triple-wide homes have been delivered. There’s an environmental group that’s protesting at the gates, arguing that they need access to the property to make sure some snake or snake food isn’t being harmed. The minor detail that there are signs already posted that lethal force is authorized there, like we have here, is so far scaring everyone off,” Beth said.

Elroy frowned. “So, you’re all now continuously in contact with each other? I knew you said you could see what Cal saw when he was awake and you were asleep, and you mentioned talking before, but not to this extent. When did that change?”

“When Beth was upgraded,” Margie said. “Cal’s been training her to use her powers, and to not have issues like they did after the trip to Cancun, where she over-extended herself.”

Even though I knew I couldn’t ‘hear’ a reply, I thought to everyone to not mention Helen to Elroy or anyone. I wanted our meeting in Disney to be a surprise for him. Margie reached over and smacked me on the head, gently. “Don’t worry about us, Lover. We’ve got things under control.”

Elroy chuckled, not knowing why she’d done that. “Speaking of being under control, I’ll be meeting with the State Board of Hospital Administrators tomorrow. It seems that the local board hasn’t bothered to seek a replacement for Stephen. Which is why there was such ... confusion ... when you showed up with Ramona. I’ll be conducting interviews, unless you’d like to do that.”

“No, that’s something that I think would confuse anyone you’d plan on hiring. I’m about guessing, though, that you’re going to have to get someone in from out of state,” I said.

“Good guess. I understand there’s a few policy issues you want changed.”

“Let’s call them modifications. For a regular admission ... someone coming in for a routine treatment or scheduled surgery ... having someone verify insurance is perfectly fine. Collecting co-pays, and such, not an issue. Someone comes into the emergency room ... the person at the counter that greets them shouldn’t be a clerk, it needs to be a triage trained professional. I’m not saying they don’t need clerks. Far from it. But the professional can immediately get them into the ER, put them in a room, and get some basic treatment going, whether it’s telling the staff inside to stabilize the patient for the doctor, or it’s simply having them sit on the bed.”

I shook my head. “Not, please go sit down and fill out these forms, while I verify your insurance. The clerk can follow the patient with a clipboard and get the information, while they’re being treated. I started to say with a tablet to record everything, but those haven’t been invented here yet.” At his look, I said, “Thin computer, with a screen and linked to the main computer, you carry it in your hand. About the size of a small book, with virtual screens that can be expanded as needed for a full keyboard, or to take pictures, or for video conferencing.”

“Like in ‘2001’?”, he asked.

“I haven’t seen that. Just imagine the Star Trek communicator, except you can chat while seeing who you’re talking to, while sending pictures to the other person as well.”

“Okay, I can visualize that. But getting the insurance information is important in figuring out who to bill for the visit, as well as making payment arrangements when they can’t pay,” he said.

“If someone legitimately can’t pay their medical bills, then we will. Just consider that a part of our charity to the community,” I said.

Elroy raised a finger, then dropped it. “Never mind. Sorry, that was one of the things that always bugged me. We have people in the community who can’t afford decent treatment, and they have medical and dental issues.”

“Congratulations, Elroy. You’re now out of retirement, and you haven’t even actually quit being a judge yet. You’re now in charge of the CEDEM Medical and Dental Clinic for Reno County. I want the word spread, especially to the Amish and Mennonites. They’re a proud people, and won’t take charity if they can’t afford it. I know they don’t believe in insurance, because they consider it a form of gambling. This isn’t charity. This is simply community, just like they practice with their own. Let them also know that they don’t have to join up to the REMC or Westar to get electricity. I’ll have the factory make available specially sized, single family turbines.”

He blinked. “I will be dipped in shit. You’ve figured them out, haven’t you?”

“Of course. I told Hiram I’d take care of his people. All of them. Heck, the factory will probably have to set up another line, just for the really small turbines. I can see those as being popular for people that want to live off the grid, or out in rural communities. Or where you need to generate a small amount of electricity, simply to run a well. That’s the original size we used in the scouts; barely weighs 200 pounds, 400 pounds with the blades.”

He laughed. “I’ll call Allen tomorrow, to tell him to triple the original size of the factory. You’ll probably sell 10,000 of those small ones every year, to ranchers, or really small communities that only need a little power. Speaking of a little power, how much?”

“Supposed to be 50 kilowatts, but if they’re like everything else, it’ll probably be 60.” I paused. “Of course. I just figured out why the turbines are more efficient here than I’d calculated. Gravity here is less than it was at home.”

“And speaking of gravity ... Mike, have you figured out or found in any of your files, a gravity generator? I want some kind of safety device for our airplanes.”

“No, yes, and I’m working on converting it. There are two concepts that local science simply hasn’t discovered yet, and finding material equivalents that exist today for some of the components isn’t easy. Not everything transfers across easily or neatly, when you’re dealing with this level of technology.”

“I understand. Keep working at it. What are your thoughts on the way NBC reported on the Messenger tonight?”

“I’m monitoring all networks around the planet for comments regarding you or the Messenger now. I’m finding a shift in the way certain things are reported here in the United States that are at variance with the way the same events are reported in other countries.”

“Please expound upon that,” I said.

“Of course. Initially, the media here reported fairly and evenly, even approvingly, regarding the events of the Messenger. An example was the report from Vladivostok. Now that the Messenger is shown to be affecting things here in the United States, there has been a subtle shift in their reporting and editorials, as it appears that other nations around the world are actively cooperating with the words of the Messenger.”

I frowned. “Subtle, indeed. I remember an editorial from the New York Times, by their editorial board, from several weeks ago, talking about how the Messenger could unify the world with his actions. Then one just after the election, decrying the Messenger for interfering in the election here. Just a second ... yes, they complained that the balance of power in the House was nearly upset from his actions. Why would they complain about that unless there was something else going on that they knew about?”

Elroy blinked. “Hang on. That almost sounds like the conspiracy nuts are right, and there really is a New World Order group of some kind working in the background for a unified world government ... run by themselves!”

Mike calmly said. “There is. Elroy, you of all people should know this, based upon the investigation that is not up for discussion.”

I got to see Elroy’s temper then. “FUCK! I knew there was something fishy about the whole thing, but it was supposed to be for the good of the nation is what I was told!” He hopped up from his seat and was pacing then. “Sons of bitches told me that with the main witness dead, there was no reason to drag things out, and not to bother with it any further! God DAMMIT!”

Beth got Elroy a glass with two fingers of whiskey in it while he was yelling. He took it and slammed it back, then paused. “Damn! I apologize to you, Elizabeth, and to that bottle. That’s very smooth.”

Jennifer said, “You’re welcome. While no one here over 21 can drink due to pregnancy, I know what makes a good sipping whiskey. That’s a 12 year old single malt Irish whiskey.”

“If I weren’t driving home, I’d have more. Anyway, where was I in my rant?”

“It’s not important, Elroy,” I said. “What is important is that the Messenger and his apprentice go to Washington next Wednesday and ... irritate a few people. Mike, what can you tell us about this group that’s influencing things?”

“Not much. I’m only able to infer from some file headings and content descriptions on electronic catalogs of microfilm or data that various intelligence agencies around the world have in their files. An example is a file header reading, ‘Assassination attempts’, with content descriptions of ‘Hitler – internal attempts’ and ‘Hitler – globalist attempts’. A different file header says, ‘UN Bribery scandals’, then has both confirmed and unconfirmed descriptions, with subheadings of ‘National’, ‘Private’, and ‘globalist’.”

Elroy frowned. “Regarding the investigation I won’t talk about ... now you have my own curiosity aroused.”

I asked, “Elroy, are you sure you want to open that can of worms?”

He shook his head. “No, but then again, I’M not the one being specific. Which means I haven’t said anything, or asked anything specific, have I?”

I smiled. “Yep, you’re a lawyer. You’ve parsed that well, and you haven’t named anyone or anything specifically. Anything else would simply be supposition on our part. So, Mike, apropos of nothing in particular, did you find anything in any of the files regarding assassination attempts on a United States President?”

“Yes. The first is that of Abraham Lincoln. There are references to filed diaries containing notes regarding the failed attempt to destabilize the United States during the Civil War. In addition, there is a reference to a payment receipt to a Union soldier named Corbett, for services rendered in silencing the co-conspirator to avoid a trial.”

“The second is that of William McKinley. There is a file reference showing payments to one James Parker for the assassination.

“The third is that of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. There is a file reference of payment to Alphonse Capone for elimination of multiple targets.

“The fourth is that of Harry Truman. A file header indicates that letter bombs were sent to the White House and other officials in an attempt to blame Zionists.”

“The fifth is that of John Kennedy. There are file headers stating assassin locations, plural, and disposition of assassins, plural. That would be consistent with there being more than one assassin.

“The sixth is that of Ronald Reagan. There are file headers regarding the efficacy of the types of drugs used to manipulate John Hinckley, along with the direct psychological manipulation done. An additional file header under Hinckley is the Jimmy Carter failure.”

He stopped then. Everyone started talking and asking questions at once, due to what Mike had just told all of us. Beth did her whistle thing. “Okay, we can’t all talk at once. Well, we can, but nothing’s going to come from it.”

I said, “Why don’t I just state the obvious? This sounds like something from one of those James Bond movies that you girls had me watch.”

Mike said, “There are also file headers regarding approved and denied Fleming stories.”

Margie held up her hand. “Hang on. You’re telling me ... all of us ... that there really is some kind of secret group like SPECTRE out there, working for global domination? If it were anyone but you, I’d call bullshit. But you’re a computer, and I’m guessing you don’t have a reason to make this stuff up.”

Elroy was frowning. “Mike, you said those are all file headers. Where, exactly, are the actual computers located that have those file references, and where are the actual files?”

“As electronic data, they can exist anywhere. While I do not know where all of the actual physical files and evidence are specifically located, I’ve found multiple copies of these file headers in data files of the United States National Security Agency, the British Secret Intelligence Service, the Soviet Committee for State Security, the Israeli Mossad, the Vatican Santa Aleanza, the French General Directorate for External Security, and there were files also in the Central Intelligence Agency computers as well. Other security organizations around the world also have some similar file headings or electronic catalog entries, but they are not as advanced as those I mentioned.”

“That begs the question, are the intelligence agencies working for, or against?”

“Jennifer, I truly do not know. Note that not every agency has every file header, nor are there specific references to an external organization, per se. I’m making that conclusion due to other files regarding historical globalism.”

Dora had been quiet so far. I noticed that. “What are you thinking, mi chica?”

“Just this. What makes us think that our people are the only ones who are descended from Shiva that still exist today? The Romany had the stones to help guide them, to keep them safe. Others may know of them, perhaps even been the cause of why some of them were lost for so long. I’ve been studying more on modern genetics. Interbreeding and trying to manipulate favorable characteristics doesn’t just work only for plants and animals. I can think of certain families that have been doing the same for centuries.”

Elroy sat back down, a thoughtful look on his face. Margie noticed that. “I’ve seen that look on your face before. What are you thinking?”

“I may have to think about this a bit more, but ... consider this. The more the Messenger has shown that he’s just like us in appearance, the more the negative press has come out. I think that Dora may be correct. The Messenger has said he’s from another planet. These people know for a fact that’s happened in the past. They even already knew that it was Shiva. They know, or at least they seriously believe, the Messenger is making stuff up.” He turned and looked at me. “Mike, I’m guessing that you have found a tremendous number of files regarding the Messenger from Above. Do you find any that link Cal to the Messenger?”

“One moment. One of the first commands that Cal gave me was to monitor things about himself, in the media, so I have been checking that.” A few seconds passed. “You are correct in that there are numerous electronic records on the Messenger. There are a few files on Cal Lewis, but in reading them, he is simply regarded as a fluke, a boy genius.”

“Good. Let’s keep it that way, as long as possible,” I said.

We continued discussions for another hour without reaching any kind of conclusion or resolution on what needed to happen, other than a trip to Washington next Wednesday, to literally knock some sense into the House of Representatives.

It was getting late, almost 10:30, by the time Elroy left. Jennifer picked up the phone as soon as he did, dialing her old house number. I saw her eyes open wide.

“Oh ... hello. Wrong mother, this is Jennifer. I was just calling, because we hadn’t heard how you were doing. Not hardly. Yes, Stephen and Cal are close like that. Stephen would have done the same as Cal, though perhaps not quite as effectively. I’ll let the girls know. That’s not my place to comment, one way or the other. You’re both over eighteen, even if you’re not over twenty-one yet. All right. Talk to you later, good night.”

She hung the phone back up, an amused smile on her face. “Apparently her knight wears Marine Dress Blue, instead of shining armor. Ramona had Stephen take her home, she had a short and apparently not very hostile discussion with her parents, and at least for the remainder of this week, she’ll be staying with Stephen. Oh, and don’t look for her in class for the next couple of days, girls. She also had a sprained ankle that the doctor told her to ice and elevate for a couple of days.”

Eve snickered. “I’ll bet her legs are elevated for a couple of days.”

That helped break the serious mood we’d been in, so our time spent in bed was more physical than it otherwise would have been. The girls also made sure that Jennifer was the main recipient of me every time, so she could catch up with them.

The word had gotten around at high school about what had happened. The consensus was that Derick got off lucky. The same was felt by the students in my college classes. After the last class, I was walking back to my truck with the girls when four very large guys got up from where they’d been sitting, blocking our path.

“Can I help you guys?” I asked.

“Not really. You’re Cal Lewis. I’m Vic, this is Jeff, Wally, and Bart. We’re all either on the wrestling team or the football team, or both, for HCC. We’ve got something to say to you.”

I nodded. “Go ahead.”

“We’re ... we can’t make it right, what Derick did. He’s an asshole. On behalf of both the football and wrestling team, we apologize for his actions.”

My eyes widened in surprise. Vic laughed when he saw that. “Ha! I bet when you saw us, you were thinking to yourself, well, crap, here’s four more dumbasses I’m going to have to put in the hospital. Thank you, but no thank you. If we get hurt on the field or on the mat, that’s on us. Getting hurt because we’re stupid? Nope, not going to happen. We just wanted to let you know that we all know you’re not going to be around for the second semester. One of us ... and it may not be one of the four of us, but it’ll be someone who can back it up ... will always make sure that Ramona is never bothered by anyone on this campus, ever. And we’re going to make sure the attitude that Derick had goes away.”

That made me feel better when I got to football practice. I felt even better when I got home afterwards and Marcia was home. There were more than a dozen large boxes in the living room. “Bring home more souvenirs?”

She laughed. “No, that’s the first two years’ worth of text books for all of the classes at Stanford. The rest of them are in the garage. It’s a good thing there were only three of us in the plane. We had to balance things, because those boxes weigh about a hundred pounds each. That’ll give us all some light reading between now and the end of the year.”

“Sounds reasonable. I take it you also heard some of what we were talking to Elroy and Mike about, regarding the Messenger.”

“Yes. Hollywood has always been rather liberal and libertine. A lot of this makes way too much sense. I’m not sure if it’s specifically the royal families of Europe that are the only ones involved, either. Neither is Helen. One thing we are all sure about is that we need to get Dora and Eve enhanced as quickly as possible,” Marcia said.

“Let’s wait until after tomorrow, maybe plan on Saturday? Those things are just dangerous, and scare me,” I said.

Mike said, “They should. I suspect that if a human that hadn’t already been enhanced by you tried to use all six of them, it would kill them.”

“That’s it! Mike, you’re a genius.”

“I know that, Cal, but I’m not sure to what you were referencing.”

“Simple. The stones can’t help someone who isn’t already enhanced a little. Once the folks that Shiva had enhanced were dead, the stones were simply sources of power for the Romany women. They couldn’t be used to upgrade someone on their own. I’m sure they’ve found that out over the centuries. That’s why the Romany women only had four of them, not all six. But ... that begs the question, what about the other seven, and why are they in Halley’s Comet?”

Beth said, “Well, do you want to go find out?”

I opened my mouth a couple of times, wanting to answer. Finally, I shook my head. “I do, but I don’t think that’s a good idea, not yet. The orbit for it goes all the way past Pluto. I know that it’s only a little over a year from being close again, but that still puts it further from Earth than I’m comfortable taking you right now. We get our powers from converting solar radiation, and storing it somehow or other in our cells. It wasn’t that long ago that a simple night’s worth of darkness screwed us both up.”

Marcia shook her head as well. “He’s right. I’d almost say wait until we get to California, but that may not give these two enough time to learn your powers. We’ll have to see about enhancing Helen.”

Mike sounded puzzled. “I’ve heard you mention that name before. Who, exactly, are you talking about? I don’t believe I’ve met or studied someone named Helen.”

Beth calmly said, “That’s because she’s native Australian and still lives there. She’s a nice girl, a year younger than Marcia. Beautiful, too.”

“Excuse me for sounding puzzled here, but I’ve heard comments made that she’s already linked with the six of you. How is this possible?”

The girls spent some time talking to both of us about Uluru, the natives known as Aborigines, their heritage, as well as Star-Home. Mike was fascinated.

Marcia said, “And that’s one of the reasons I went to California. I used a computer here to print off a list of things that we’re going to need for the house there. I gave the list to one of your cousins, Dora. They’re going to gather things for us before hand, have them stored so that when we get there, it’ll be easy to put them in the house, and we won’t have to deal with shopping, unpacking, and such. The concertina wire was delivered to the security company in shipping containers, so they’ve kept those and we’ll use them for storage.”

I blinked. “Concertina wire?”

“Yes. The exterior fence has three strands of barbed wire around the top. They’ve also added concertina wire to it. It’s also called razor wire, it’s pretty flexible, and between that and the signs that lethal force is authorized, ought to act like a pretty good barrier against even not so casual intruders,” she said. “The military equipment isn’t going to hurt, either.”

“I’m almost afraid to ask.”

“Well, the good news is, they don’t have any of the armored cars there. Apparently, the two we have here are all that they could get, so they’re not going to have any more for a while.” She laughed. “Of course, with the troops and equipment coming home, and the minor detail that someone out there may have let slip that they were looking for gear, to a military surplus officer...” She had to stop, she was laughing so hard.

After several minutes, she calmed enough to say, “Sorry. We’re not going to have to worry about transportation when we’re out there. The supply officer said he wasn’t sure, but he’d run it through to the higher ups. Mike Douglas made a phone call, mentioned that it was for you. Something went up and then down the chain of command pretty damned fast. The day I was there, they were unloading some of the Jeeps. More properly, M151A2 Fast Attack Vehicles. We’re each going to have one, and some spares, plus we get another dozen for security. Our personal ones, they took the machine gun mounts off. They left those ... and the machine guns ... on the ones for security. The Marine base down in Barstow is their West Coast Logistics base, and they do repairs there, too. By the time we get there in January, they’ll have the rest of the equipment delivered. We barely avoided having two Cobra attack helicopters out there. Those, and the six Huey’s, and two KC-130s, whatever those are, will be delivered here, instead. We are getting two LVTP-7s there that were lightly damaged in Beirut and have been repaired, and four LAV-25s, like are here.

She smiled. “It was serendipity that I was there when the Jeeps were dropped off. I got to meet the supply officer. It seems that the 1^st Combat Engineer Battalion, based at Pendleton, is getting some new equipment, and a lot of their gear is now surplus. The 2^nd Combat Engineer Battalion, out of Lejeune just got home from Beirut, with some of their equipment having combat damage. They’re not allowed to do military missions in the United States, but they can do training here. The Logistics bases in Georgia and California don’t want to deal with old construction equipment. So, we called the office of the Assistant Commandant, and everything is being delivered here.”

“You’re still laughing, so what else is happening?” I asked.

“Yeah. The gear is all being delivered by both battalions, and they’re going to get to do about a month of winter construction training, before leaving all of their now surplus equipment here for civilian use. Technically, they’re selling it to us. And by us, I mean CEDEM, so we can do with it whatever we want. They didn’t want to screw up the holidays, so they’re going to pack everything up on rail cars for shipment, for delivery here just after the New Year.”

I picked up the phone and dialed a number I hadn’t had to call in a while. When it was answered, I said, “Hi, Jim. Cal Lewis. I’ve got a question for you, since you’re being the general contractor for things, and doing all the scheduling.”

“Sure, Cal, what can I help with?”

“Since you were in the Marines, you’re familiar with Marine Combat Engineers, right?”

“Of course. If you’re under fire and need something done, they’re the best.”

“Good. Now, what if you’re not under fire?”

“They’re Marines. They’ll improvise, adapt, and overcome. You have my curiosity piqued. What’s going on?”

“It’s quite obvious that we’ve pretty much hired every possible contractor that’s around, and by that, I mean within the Kansas and Oklahoma area that’s willing to temporarily live and work here, to get the job done. I’m guessing you’d still like to have a few more bodies and equipment, right?”

He snorted. “I wouldn’t turn down an extra hundred men and gear.”

“Good. How about the 1^st and 2^nd Marine Combat Engineer Battalions, with all of their gear, starting the week after New Year? Think if you had them for an entire month, that it might help? Oh, and when they leave, their gear stays?”

The phone was quiet for several long moments. “You’re not messing with me, are you?”

“Jim ... think about who you just asked that.”

“Sorry, Cal. You did say they’re bringing all their gear, right?”

“It’s my understanding that all of their bulldozers, cranes, semi-trucks, backhoes, and regular vehicles are being carefully loaded onto rail cars, so they can be delivered here just after the start of the year, so they don’t screw up their holidays. That’s the word from the Assistant Commandant of the Corps. And we ... meaning CEDEM ... are going to buy all of their equipment, because it’s been declared surplus to the mission, once they’re done working here.”

He laughed. “The only question I have right now, and it’s one we can’t answer, is how many of them will decide that it’s time to get out, and will want to come here to live and work. This is a master stroke worthy of Elroy. Congratulations, Cal.”

“I can’t take the credit for this one. Marcia came up with this idea.”

“You and your ladies are all one unit, Cal. Everyone knows that. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some work to do tonight, changing some priorities for who’s doing what and where, so we can best utilize the additional manpower and ... shit. Sorry, I just realized how much heavy earth moving gear they’re going to be bringing. This’ll be fun.”

“Oh, one last thing. Coordinate with SJ tomorrow. We’re going to need even more hangers built at the airport. It seems we’re getting a few surplus aircraft, too. We’ll be getting eight helicopters and two transport planes.”