Punishment

by Guerin Zand

  We arrived late in the evening and Maria was already fast asleep from her long day of adventure. Her Uncle Steve carried her into her bedroom and tucked her in. That little five-year-old really knew how to turn men into slaves. I shuddered. I don’t know if I was more scared by the coming apocalypse or my own daughter. When we got done unpacking, Roger went off to meet with the security teams. We were trying to keep them out of view of my family so, as I said earlier, this would appear to be a normal family vacation. The rest of us had gathered on the porch of the main house to enjoy the beautiful night and a few cervezas.

  As we sat there we observed a truck coming up the dirt road towards our house with their flashers on. This was a common signal we all used when driving up to a friend’s house in this remote area. Crime wasn’t common out here but people who lived off the beaten path tended to live there for the privacy. The law couldn’t help you out here, so everyone was armed.

  Steve and Katie reacted to the site of the approaching car. They stood up and started to head towards the road, their sidearms at their side.

  I stood up and motioned to them both, slowly lowering my right arm. “Relax, it’s someone from the Cerda home.”

  It was Ela. I had told the Cerdas never approach any strangers that might be on the land. We had friends who would use the property for a vacation and they shouldn’t bother them. If they were concerned they could simply call us and we would handle the situation if needed. I didn’t want them to put themselves at risk. I had called ahead, before we left Japan, and told them we would be arriving in a few days. Obviously, they had seen it was us or Ela wouldn’t have come.

  Ela approached the porch. “Hello, Guerin, Anna.”

  “Hi, Ela. Want to join us?” I was just being friendly, but Anna saw it differently.

  Ela walked over and stepped up onto the porch with the rest of us. “Thank you.”

  Steve handed her a beer out of the cooler. They both seemed to look at each other a little longer than was needed to simply pass her the drink. Anna seemed pleased with this. “I just wanted to let you know that some men and women arrived the other night, we did not see them drive up, and they are using the bunkhouses. Were you expecting company?”

  “Yes, Ela. It’s alright. They’re some friends of ours. They’ll be staying for a while, enjoying the lake and maybe doing some hunting and fishing. Tell the family not to worry about them.”

  “Ok. Are you going to be staying for a while as well?”

  “Yes. We may be staying here for quite a long time.”

  We started catching up with Ela. We asked how her sister’s family was doing. Everything was going well. They had not had any issues on the ranch that I needed to be concerned with. She said Cristopher was excited to have Maria here and I looked at her with that disapproving father look. This look said to remind Cristopher Maria’s father has a gun. Anna started to laugh and then everyone joined in but me.

  “Sophia wants to know if you would like to join us for a, what do you call it, a barbeque, this Saturday?”

  “Well, thank your sister but we have our friends here and…” I motioned to indicate Steve and Katie. I was going to mention Roger, but Ela interrupted.

  “Oh,” Ela started as she and Steve exchanged looks. “Please bring your friends as well. They are most welcome to join us.” Roger had told the security teams to not bother the caretaker’s family, but maybe he should have mentioned that to Steve as well. I was thinking I should say something and then thought not. I’d let Ela’s father handle that. I was sure he would be at the barbeque as well.

  “Ok, we’ll see you Saturday for the barbeque. Thank your sister for the invitation.”

  We talked some more and Ela finished her beer. She started to look around for a place to dispose of the empty Escudo bottle. Steve stood up, grabbed the empty from her, giving them a chance to exchange even more looks, and he disposed of the bottle. Seriously, I just wanted to throw up!

  “Oh, Christ! Steve Holmes this is Ela Leiva, Ela this is Steve.” They shook hands politely, yet their hands remained together a little longer than I thought necessary. “Ok, ok, you two. You’ll get to see her on Saturday, Steve. You can let go now. I’ll introduce you to her father and mother then as well.” That seemed to take a little wind out of Steve’s sails. Katie and Anna giggled while Steve and Ela turned a lovely shade of red. I was a bit jealous, I mean I wasn’t allowed to flirt like that anymore and therefore no other man should be able to.

  Roger returned, and after another beer, Anna, Steve, and Katie retired for the night. Leaving Roger and me to talk.

  “So, what now Guerin?”

  “Roger, you’re obviously better equipped to plan out our next move. I’m obviously not the right person to understand the political and security implications of this situation. I have some ideas, but I will defer to you in the end.”

  “What do you have in mind?”

  “I put in a request for Bart to be sent out here. I sent him a private message suggesting he and his crew bring along their best combat armor and most impressive ray guns.”

  “Ok, I’m lost. I thought they were all pacifists?”

  “Well, I’m not sure, but the IOET security council doesn’t know that. Bart and his people enjoy role-playing and he’s going to love what I have in mind.”

  “And that is?”

  “We’ll assemble the council and Bart and a few of his troopers will drop in wearing their fiercest looking outfits. If we put on a display of force it might backfire, but if the aliens do…”

  “But I asked if the Collective would send someone to address the council and they flatly refused.”

  “That’s because it was you and you asked. I won’t be asking them to do this. I’ll demand they do it. They told me I would have the resources I needed at my disposal, so I’m going to throw that in their face. Even if the Collective or Council refuse me, Bart will probably ignore them. He’s backed me up before.”

  “And what will Bart say to them?”

  “Exactly what we were going to say. I’m the Collective’s emissary and that decision is final. If they won’t work with me then the Collective assistance will end. Then we’ll let Bart put on his own little show and basically threaten them. He’ll make it clear that should anything happen to any of us, me, my family or my team, exactly what will happen.”

  “Ok, let’s say that works. The Trogan agents are still out there and they won’t be stopped by Bart’s threat.”

  “You need to find those agents, Roger. Bart and his crew can help. I think they’re in China. If we can find them, then you need to come up with a plan to grab them. I would still suggest you get with Bart when he arrives and start training a few teams using portal transits. You’re the military planner, so start figuring out tactics to use with the portal teams.”

  “Ok, but what about the move to nationalize some of the NFT offices?”

  “We let them. What use are those offices if they don’t have access to our servers? All of NFT’s research and data is contained on our alien cloud servers and we can cut them off with a mere thought. Sure, they can take the buildings, most are rented anyways, and the employees, whose salaries we’ll stop paying. We’ll lose some capital assets but that’s a small loss. Those offices are next to worthless without us backing them.”

  “I don’t like the idea of simply abandoning our employees in those countries, Guerin.”

  “Then we can assist them with relocating to our other offices and expand those offices as needed. Some of the nations won’t let these people go but we can’t do anything about that openly.”

  “Openly?”

  “Yea. That being said, we’ll have to be careful about the ones we let move to our other facilities. Undoubtedly some of those countries are going to try and plant spies to get access to our servers.”

  “What about China? I think if they’re working with the Trogans then they’re going to want the Collective to leave as well. Excuse me for being blunt, but takin
g you out of the picture is the easiest way to do that.”

  “I know.”

  “If they can’t get you we may end up with a confrontation that could cause the Collective to pull out. The military platform we talked about could be used to threaten any nation, including America.”

  “At that point, we shut down China’s access to Collective technology and we take that battery back. They’ll never get to use it.”

  “But that could just escalate the situation, Guerin.”

  “Then what do you suggest? Should we simply ignore their aggression, or do we respond?”

  “I don’t know. They may see our response as an aggression by us and our allies. We could end up on the brink of a World War.”

  “I know, but I think that is going to happen no matter what. Let’s say we find the Trogan agents and remove them from the equation. Won’t that just be seen as an escalation as well? The only thing we can do is delay the inevitable as long as possible.”

  “Guerin, what we’re talking about is insanity.”

  “The alternative is we go to the Collective now and we shut everything down. We let them remove the Trogan problem and remove any tech they may have provided. I leave with them and we leave the Earth to whatever the future holds. My family, the team, and a few others may also have to leave with me to prevent our knowledge from getting out. Or, you could just kill me now and give them everything they want. It may still lead to a World War. It may be too late to avoid that no matter what we do. I’m open to suggestions, Roger.”

  “Ok, let’s say that’s the last resort.”

  “You’re talking about the killing me right now part, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good.” I gave Roger a smile and then took a sip of my beer.

  “In your scenario, when we do reach that brink, what happens? If war breaks out won’t the Trogans have won, and won’t the Collective withdraw? Aren’t we just putting off the inevitable?”

  “We need to make sure America and our other allies do nothing aggressive. That would be your job to convince them to hold back.”

  “How am I going to convince them to do that?”

  “You’ll have to explain what is happening and convince them the Collective will step in and stop it.”

  “You want me to lie to them? The Collective wouldn’t send a representative when I asked. What makes you think they would step in?”

  “Ok, this could be the five-star stupid part of my plan, or I might be right. First, I believe without a doubt that the Collective is so much more powerful than we could possibly imagine. They could stop this from happening without breaking a sweat. They have isolated the Trogans by limiting their travels to within their own empire. They aren’t using roadblocks. If they could prevent an entire race from leaving a specific area of space, how powerful do you think they really are? I believe they could shut down the entire Earth and render every weapon impotent without much effort.”

  “Perhaps they are that powerful, but what makes you think they would step in?”

  “Because I’m going to force them to.”

  “Guerin, I don’t think they are going to give you this power just because they promised you whatever resources you need. I think they may draw a line at this.”

  “Like I said, Roger, this may appear to be the stupid part of my plan, but I’m not just going to throw that promise in their face. I will make it clear that the whole situation is their fault and that they need to help fix it. They started this with my abduction. If they’re so smart they had to see this coming before they even contacted me. They knew about the Trogan agents and left them here for us to handle. They could have removed them for us, but they didn’t. Like I said, we’re in the middle of a cold war, Roger. The other superpower is actively involved now, so we need our benefactor to step up and help us. Perhaps they’re testing us to see if we can show some self-control.”

  “So, let me see if I got this, Guerin. Your plan is to let things get so far out of hand that it will force the Collective to act?”

  “Well it doesn’t sound as good when you say it like that, but yes. You’ve met our friends. Do you think they would let billions of humans die and just write this little experiment off as a failure? I’m sure it may cost me, I’m not sure what, but I’m sure it will. But I’ll take the punishment. I have before. I believe if we and our allies hold back, they’ll see this as nothing more than a Trogan aggression and they will step in.”

  “Guerin, if I could be sure, without a doubt, that the Collective would step in then I’d say you’re right. But that’s one big if. I also agree that if the Trogan agents are responsible for this that there is no way to avoid this conflict. I just don’t see any good options.”

  “We’re not going to solve it tonight. Think about it, and what I’ve said. We’ll talk more later. Bart should be here tomorrow, and we can talk to him. Perhaps he might have some advice. I will defer to you on this. I know I’m not a political or military savant.”

  “You can’t hang this all on me, Guerin.”

  “I’m not, but I can’t fix this without your help. Sorry, but were both fucked.”

  Roger headed out to the guest cabin and I went inside. I cleaned up a few things in the kitchen and had a drink of water. I was looking for anything to keep me busy. I couldn’t stop thinking about how badly I had screwed everything up and what that actually meant. I entered into all of this thinking it would be fun when I first met Milly in the woods. When they asked me to take this little job I believed in what I was asked to do. After Milly left, I was even more determined to make it work just to throw it in the Council’s face. I was an idiot to think I could actually make a difference.

  I walked into the bedroom and Anna was waiting for me there. She was pretending to read a book on her iPad. I undressed and hopped into bed. Anna put the iPad on the nightstand and looked over at me. I could tell the look was not the one that said, how shall I say it, um, “I’m in the mood.” My hand was lying on my chest and she rolled over and put her hand on top of mine.

  “Guerin, Are we still in danger?”

  “I think so, Anna. We should be safe for now, but this is not the end of it. I want to get you and Maria somewhere safe.”

  “If we're not safe here, Guerin, then where?”

  “My friends are coming tomorrow. I think I can convince them to take you someplace where I can guarantee you’ll both be safe.”

  “And what about you, Guerin?”

  “I have to stay here and see this thing through with my team.”

  “Is that because you made some bullshit promise to Milly over a decade ago?”

  “No! I mean, maybe a bit, but it’s a lot more complicated than that. That was the reason I started all of this, but now there are a lot of people involved, friends, and I can’t run out on them. This is all my fault.”

  “I bet you think that’s noble, the thing a “real” man would do, or some other macho crap, don’t you?” I started to say something, but Anna stopped me. “That was more of a rhetorical question, Guerin. Did you ever consider that it might actually be the selfish thing to do?” Again, I started to answer her, and she put her hand over my mouth to stop me. “You think your special, sure you may live longer, but you’re still just a man and all of this is not your fault. I overheard your conversation with Roger. I don’t know how much of this wild story I believe. If it’s true, your friends are the ones who are responsible for starting all of this, or perhaps this all would have happened anyways. You can’t save the world from itself.”

  “But I can save you and Maria.”

  “We’ll leave with your friends if you come with us.”

  “If you heard our conversation, you know that’s not an option for me.”

  “No, not Guerin. The savior of Earth! You need to put your ego aside for a few minutes and realize you’re just a man with a wife and daughter. Nothing more.”

  “Don’t you think I realize that, especially now? I am the only one w
ho has a chance of convincing our friends to help. If I run away, they won’t. If I don’t care what happens why should they? We need to convince them that we’re doing everything we can. The only way is by actually doing just that. I have to believe that this is just another test and it’s one we can’t fail or run away from. I believe that they’ll be there when we really need them.”

  “You’re putting a lot of faith in these friends, and you need to ask yourself why. These are the same friends that set up your confrontation with the Trogans and had you thrown into Gitmo. The truth is, Guerin, it’s your feelings for Milly that makes you want to believe in them.” I opened my mouth only to have her hands cover it again and silence me. “I’m not upset that you still have feelings for Milly, I accepted that a long time ago, but maybe she was just using you, Guerin. Maybe they’re all just using you and they’re really not your friends. You need to at least consider that option.”

  “You have to know that I care about you and Maria more than anything. No matter what feelings I may have had for Milly, it’s the two of you that are my life.”

  “I know that, Guerin, and I’ve never doubted it. You can be so stupid at times. I’m just saying that you need to stop lying to yourself about your feelings for Milly. It does influence your thinking and by denying that, you may not be able to see the truth.”

  “But even if they’re using me, I can’t abandon my friends. No matter what you say, the truth is it’s my fault they are involved in this. It’s my fault you’re involved. It was selfish of me to think I could lead a somewhat normal life, a happy life, with the woman I loved and a family.”

  “Bullshit, Guerin! Loving your wife and child is not selfish. Regardless, if you decide to stay, I’m not going to abandon my husband when he needs me. Maria and I can take care of ourselves. Roger has security here and I’m not helpless, so don’t treat me that way. My family is going to stay together no matter what.”

  “What if they really are our friends, Anna? What if this is all true? Should we stay or leave?”