Peregrinus Orior

by Robertson, John

  In fact, it was more than an hour later, after many turns and twists, before the motorcycle idled to a stop. Brook heard the man tell someone to “radio the farm and have the gate opened.” Had she been able to see, she would have seen that they were on a small gravel lane beside a shed manned by two mean-looking men. Both were well armed, including a twelve-gauge shotgun and a CAR-15 with a thirty-round clip, though the weapons would have been out of sight in any case. They weren’t usually necessary to persuade unwelcome visitors to turn around and go back to the farm road the lane led off of.

  The bike was immediately throttled back up and they continued for another ten minutes at a moderate speed before pulling up to a noisy gathering. Stef said, “We’re here, let’s get that blindfold off and get you a beer.”

  As she got her bearings, Brook could see several houses and what looked like a large barn. There were thirty or forty people in view, mostly gathered around a fire, drinking. A large iron spit was suspended over the fire by two iron posts, each with a V-shaped bracket on the top to hold the spit. The spit held a good-sized pig and was being gradually turned by a handle at one end. In the distance she could see the ground sloping away from the buildings down to what looked like a large pond or a small lake. She couldn’t see enough to know she was looking out at a bay on the northwestern shoreline of the American Falls Reservoir, and she didn’t see a large gate being closed one hundred yards behind her, restoring the razor wire perimeter fence line that surrounded the club on all four sides.

  Peter wasn’t under any illusion that his security arrangements would stand off any organized state or federal police force. His primary defense was a low profile. The location of the club house, or “the farm,” was a closely kept secret that was not to be divulged to anyone outside the club, literally on pain of death. The nearest farmhouse was ten miles away, the nearest village was further. Club members were not to travel to or from the clubhouse in groups of more than three and were to use a variety of routes. There was no post box, no address, no phone line and no power. The place had an effective modern solar and battery system and a backup diesel generator. Propane and diesel fuel were trucked in using the club’s half-ton truck.

  Peter’s secondary line of defense, if ever required, would be flight. The back side of the farm yard, toward the reservoir, had another gate that accessed myriad trails through the wooded flanks of the reservoir. The outpost and gate security were only to warn of and delay any incursion by law enforcement while the rest of the club rolled their bikes out the rear gate and down the hillside into the woods, before starting up and scattering. The security team were to shoot only to keep heads down, and to surrender after a few minutes. They would do time but would be looked after. Most of the rest would escape.

  As Peter kicked his bike up onto its stand, the group around the pig roast quieted down and one of them, Peter’s lieutenant Ruddy, called out, “How’d the pick-up go, boss?”

  “It went just fine. Call me Stef, not boss. You can stash it in the house for now, and I’ll want three teams of two to handle the drop off runs in the morning,” replied Peter. “This is Brook. She is partying with us, just for the evening, so someone fetch us both a beer. By the way, where did the pig come from?”

  Ruddy chuckled, “Sure Stef, we’ll have to see some ID for Brook though, she sure doesn’t look twenty-one! The pig was donated to our party by a farmer. Don’t worry, it came from well outside your hands-off zone.”

  Peter insisted that his members not hassle or intimidate anyone within a distance of at least fifty miles in all directions to avoid drawing attention to their locality. In point of fact, there was no need for any extracurricular violence or robbery. The club had ample income from its activities; and bank accounts and mutual fund portfolios, spread among many locations, that would rival even the wealthiest landowners in Idaho. They could afford to buy anything they needed or wanted.

  Brook remained uneasy. There seemed to be an undercurrent to the conversations around her, and from the number of motorcycles parked behind the main house it was clear that she was the guest at a motorcycle club. That wasn’t what she had expected when she accepted Stef’s invitation, but as she thought back through their conversation, she couldn’t say that he had done anything to deceive her. She decided she had no choice but to make the best of it, sipping tentatively at her beer, and nibbling on a bun filled with barbecued pork. Her host stuck close by and soon took her toward the main house saying, “Come on, I’ll show you around a bit.”

  Once inside, she was briefly toured around an unremarkable main floor before being led upstairs and into a room off the main corridor. As he closed the door behind them, the man said, “This is my room. It’s completely private in here. You are a stunningly beautiful girl and I want you very badly.” He took both of her shoulders, bent over and kissed her hungrily on the lips.

  She tried to twist out of his grip and said, “No, please, I don’t want this. I hardly know you. I want to go home. You said you would take me home.”

  The man replied in a husky voice, “Relax, I will take you home, or one of the boys will, after we’ve had our fun together, and it will be a lot more fun than flashing your tits around a gas station lot.” He kissed her again, forced her over to the bed and snapped a plastic handcuff on one wrist, the other end of which was fastened to a sturdy pine bedpost. He then stripped her T-shirt over her head and along the cuffed arm, leaving her naked from the waist up. Her breasts were small, slightly pointed as the tips merged into the nipples, but standing out firmly from her chest without a trace of a sag, and only just fully developed. His need seized him in its own irresistible grip.

  She was now bawling her eyes out and struggling ineffectually to get her T-shirt back over her head and to cover her breasts at the same time. Through her sobs she cried, “No, I’m not like that. I don’t do this. I have never done anything like this. I don’t want you to kiss me or touch me. Please, please, let me go and take me home.”

  He drew her free arm away from her chest and locked a second cuff on it, pulling a strap tight to force both arms slightly away from her body. He said, “Listen to me and listen carefully. I would prefer that we did this together, and that you enjoyed it as much as I am going to, but if not, that’s okay. It will still be good for me. You can relax and enjoy it, or scream and fight, but it won’t change anything. They will barely hear you outside the house, and none of them will mess with our fun. After that, there is no one to hear anything for miles and miles.

  “After we are through, one of my boys will drive you home, again with a blindfold for most of the way. He will drop you a few blocks from your house, but remember, I know exactly where you live. So, keep our fun here tonight between you and me for two reasons. First, if I hear anything about it in the news or in the police reports I have access to, I will visit you and your family. I will hurt you all. I will hurt you very badly, so badly that this evening will seem like a picnic. Second reason, if you keep our little bit of fun completely secret, it will be over and will have no effect on the rest of your life. If you blab, not only will your family suffer horribly, but everyone will treat you differently from then on — the girl who ran with a motorcycle gang. Think about it carefully.”

  By that point she had stopped struggling, partly from physical exhaustion, partly from the exhaustion of fear. He reached over and unbuttoned her jean shorts and tugged the zipper down, peeling off the shorts and blue panties in one quick motion. She began to kick and scream but he captured one leg at a time into ankle cuffs attached to the foot of the bed.

  She lay there spread-eagled on the bed, still bucking and writhing but with diminishing strength. Caught up now irrevocably in his own animal passion, he barely heard her futile pleas.

  Chapter 6

  September 2, 2027

  Washington, DC

  “Hello Eli,” greeted President Rushton, “I am glad you can join me for a sandwich today so we can continue my education on global warming.” The p
resident ushered Dr. Eli Wayman along a short interior corridor to the private dining room where sandwiches and a choice of beverages awaited. “I got a lot out of our last briefing, but we ran out of time before you could tell me whether we are winning or losing in the war against global warming. Can you please pick the story up from there?”

  “Certainly, Mr. President,” Eli responded. “There’s good news and bad news. Here in the U.S. we have made a good start and so has our neighbor to the north, Canada, and in fact, so have most of the G7 advanced industrialized nations. The Paris Agreement, which we all signed in 2016, committed us collectively to cut greenhouse gas emissions with the objective of limiting temperature increases to at most 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit and preferable only 2.7 degrees. That’s a pretty ambitious objective given that we were already up by something like 2 degrees at that time. However, the likelihood of achieving even the higher limit is questionable given that each signatory was left to voluntarily set their own nationally determined contribution or NDC.

  “We set our own NDC at a net emissions reduction of 26 percent to 28 percent below the 2005 baseline, to be achieved by 2025. We also set a longer-term goal of an 83 percent reduction by 2050. Back then we were producing about 18 percent of the world’s emissions with only 4 percent of the population. So, in fairness, we have more of the burden to shoulder.

  “In comparison, China accounted for about 20 percent of global emissions back in 2016, with about 18 percent of the population. Its NDC actually involves increasing greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 35 percent by 2030 relative to a 2010 benchmark, before peaking at that level. In 2016 India was the fourth largest emitter, producing 4 percent of emissions but with 18 percent of the population and a seemingly not very ambitious NDC, which would result in a 100 percent increase in emissions by 2030 from a 2010 benchmark. Then there’s Russia, the third largest emitter with 8 percent of the total with only 2 percent of the world’s population. Russia’s NDC has been described as one of the weakest put forward by any signatory to the Paris Agreement, with a 2030 emission level of about 35 percent above 2010.

  “Back to our own objectives — unfortunately we missed our own 2025 target. The Clean Power Plan instituted by the Obama administration, and the even broader Climate Action Plan, would have got us there but were largely suspended or dismantled by the Trump administration. Those elements that were subsequently reinstated, and then later even reinforced by you and President Mahally, were just too late to have had enough impact by 2025.”

  “Just a minute, Eli,” the president interjected, “I’m not really hearing much of the good news you mentioned, only the bad. Of the world’s four largest emitters of greenhouse gases, three of the four are planning to continue to increase emissions through 2030. We are the only one that is targeting to decrease and even we missed our 2025 target. So, help me find the good news in all this!”

  “I am sorry, Mr. President,” Eli replied, “if my choice of words painted too rosy a picture to start with. Certainly, if we measure our progress against a target of limiting the temperature gain to 2.7 degrees, or even 3.6 degrees, the overall picture is not good. However, let me comment on China and India, and put their increasing emission targets in context.

  “Mr. President, as I am sure you already know, greenhouse gas emissions are primarily a result of consumption of energy by people in the form of fossil fuels; either directly, as when we burn fuel to power our automobiles and airplanes and warm our homes, or indirectly, as when we use electricity to light our homes or run our air conditioners and appliances, if that electricity is generated by burning coal or natural gas as most is. Also, our consumption of most other things, from food to disposable baby diapers, requires the use of energy to produce these things and transport them to where we live. Consumption of energy is essential to the standard of living of the developed countries. We here in the U.S. have the highest standard of living in the world, which means we each use a great deal of energy and we generate proportionally more than four times the greenhouse gases than our share of the world’s population. That four to one relationship between greenhouse gas emissions and population is much the same for most of the developed nations and, of course, the rest of the world aspires to our standard of living, or at least something closer to it than what they have at present.

  “So, Mr. President, if China were to develop its economy to achieve just half of the standard of living we enjoy, but using the energy sources and efficiencies of 2016, they would actually have to double their emissions of greenhouse gases compared to 2016. Instead they have committed to a much tougher target of only a 35 percent increase above their 2010 benchmark — which is actually just a 16 percent increase from their 2016 level — and capping at no higher than that level thereafter. The picture for India is similar but coming from even further behind us in terms of standard of living, compounded by the most rapidly growing population in the world. So, a 100 percent increase in emissions is a pretty reasonable target after all.”

  “Okay Eli, I get that China and India are actually doing their bit now that you lay it out that way. I suppose that there’s an explanation for Russia too is there?” asked President Rushton.

  Eli paused and chose his words carefully, “Mr. President, I believe you are aware that I have been a vocal advocate of American support for Israel, and therefore I am not a fan of Russia, which has aided some of Israel’s strongest opponents. So, I am perhaps not totally objective when it comes to Russia. That said, no, I don’t see a benign explanation for Russia’s 35 percent increase target. Russia’s 2016 emissions per capita were similar to ours and the rest of the developed world. So, like us, they should have been targeting a reduction as their fair share of contribution to achieving the Paris Agreement objective. Russia certainly has its own challenges. It’s a northern country so must use more energy for heating, and solar energy is much less effective at those latitudes. They are also a very large, spread-out country so must use more energy for transportation. But other developed countries, like Canada, face similar challenges.

  “Mr. President, I think what it comes down to in Russia’s case is that, although they were signatories to the Paris Agreement, their political leadership at that time and still today has little interest in climate change mitigation compared with their other priorities. Frankly, although their feeble efforts to limit greenhouse gases are a problem, that’s not their biggest threat to global well-being by a long shot! I am sorry, Mr. President, I have strayed from the subject.”

  “Eli, I appreciate it when a spade is called a spade,” the president said, “and I share your concerns about the true priorities of the Russian bear. So, please continue.”

  “Yes, Mr. President. I will try to finish on a little more positive note, now that I have laid the groundwork. I think you have gotten the point that, although curtailing global greenhouse gas emissions is the prudent thing to do, it’s also a very difficult thing to do on the required scale given the linkages between standard of living, energy use and emissions. No nation is going to accept a cut in its standard of living and some of the most populous are compelled to significantly improve theirs, along with continued growth in their populations. With that in mind, here’s where I think there is some good news. First, as the Paris Agreement demonstrates, there is now a global focus on curtailing emissions, with a few notable exceptions. The emission reduction targets we have each voluntarily adopted may not be sufficient to limit temperature increases below the 2.7 to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit Paris Agreement objective, and some may not be doing enough to achieve their targets, but nearly every signatory to the Paris Agreement is working seriously on curtailing emissions. Something is being done. The nations of the world have been mobilized, and that’s no small achievement.

  “Second, I’d like to come back to our own track record. It is true that we missed our 2025 target, but we didn’t miss it by much and our actions are now accelerating, so we could well be back on track by 2030. There are basically four broad po
ints of attack on emissions. One is conservation, simply adopting a less wasteful and less energy-intensive lifestyle, or even a less consumption-oriented lifestyle. Our culture has actually shifted a fair bit in this direction over the last decade. I think that was reflected in the success of the election campaign that you and President Mahally recently won on a moderate but pro-environment platform. This culture shift is especially pronounced among the younger generations, but that will make an increasing difference if new generations follow in their footsteps. And that is another important piece of good news.”

  “Okay, Eli,” said the president. “As usual, I jumped the gun before hearing the whole story. I am really glad to hear that our people, especially our young people, are changing the way that they think about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. You are right, that really is good news.”

  “Another point of attack is energy efficiency — accomplishing the same result in a better way, using less energy. This applies to all energy using activities, both by people directly and within industry. In contrast to conservation, this is a matter of technology improvements rather than culture change. Again, we are making good progress on this front.

  “Then there’s the third point of attack, shifting the energy mix to less emission-intensive sources. The worst offender here has been coal plants and ours will eventually all be shut down. There are some replacement energy sources that are emissions free, like hydro, geothermal, solar, wind and nuclear power. Hydro and geothermal are great in the locations where they are available, but those are limited. Solar and wind have tended to be expensive, though technological and manufacturing advances have improved their affordability. They also are not practical in locations that have limited sunshine or lack steady winds. Even in relatively good locations they need to be backed up by a secondary source of power for periods when sunshine or wind is lacking, at least until we can make further progress with low-cost power storage technology. Wind and solar power infrastructure also have their own aesthetic and environmental issues to contend with, especially as they become more ubiquitous.