The Third Ten

by Jacqueline Druga

  The house was a zoo when Joe arrived. Kids jumping, screaming, Billy trying to study or read.

  “Can you tell Uncle Frank, I need to use the office,” Billy said to Joe when Joe walked in.

  “Go on. Use it.”

  “But Frank said I wasn’t allowed.”

  “I overrule Frank, go.”

  “Thanks.” Billy darted into the office, shut the door and blasted out, “Thank God.”

  After stepping over Alex, Joe lifted Joey from the floor. “Where is your dad?”

  “What’s up?” Frank came from the hall, a basket of laundry in hand.

  “This place is a zoo. Ellen will have a fit.”

  “Ellen’s not here.”

  “I heard from Robbie.”

  Frank lowered the basket. “And ….” He noticed the grin creep upon Joe’s face. “What? It’s good.”

  “We sat back for years and wondered what the hell it is that George wants so bad from Beginnings.”

  “We know?” Frank asked.

  “We know what it is.”

  “And?”

  “You wanted to take a trip to Cheyenne Mountain, get it up and running, No need.”

  Frank’s eyes widened. “No?”

  “Oh, yes.” Joe nodded. “All those maps. The Board, its all part of it. Beginnings is a communications hub. We’ve only tapped the surface of its capabilities. There is nothing NORAD can do that we can’t. Plus.” Joe said. “We just need to get it up and running.”

  With a snap clap of his hands and a ‘yes’, Frank grinned.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  March 20th

  The last thing Elliott Ryder expected was to be summoned at the crack of dawn by the border guards to be told the final Lodi pilgrimage had arrived. He knew the captain had been exhausting himself, going back and forth to Beginnings with the newest ‘hub’ stuff. Plus, preparing for Robbie, Ellen and Dean’s return. Not to mention... The wedding, which was the next day.

  Elliott decided to take care of it.

  He contacted Creed, and Creed had his people get the final housing ready. Then Elliott escorted the Lodi men to town.

  A few looked shady, and he gave instructions to Creeds guards to keep an eye on them.

  “Buzz.” He extended his hand. “Heard a lot about you from Ellen.”

  “I hope all good,” Elliott said.

  “Yeah. Sure.”

  Elliott laughed,

  “Where’s Tigger?”

  “I would assume sleeping,” Elliott looked at his watch. ‘It’s still very early. He parties quite late.”

  “Sounds like our Tigger.” Buzz snickered as he walked through the town with Elliott. “Anything on Johnny Slagel?”

  “More than likely he’s sleeping, too. He’s in this town. Doesn’t leave. You can find him.”

  “Thanks. I’m sure you heard that the chief isn’t with us.”

  “Are you aware of anything that concerns Chief Manis?” Elliott asked.

  “No, we haven’t heard or seen him in weeks since he left.”

  “Manis made it to Quantico. He is detained there now after attempting to assassinate Hadley. He shot Robbie and Callahan.”

  Buzz swallowed. “That doesn’t sound like the chief. He had one mission.”

  “Well, we don’t believe he meant to kill Robbie. He hit him in the leg, problem was, he hit the artery.”

  “So, what happens now?” Buzz asked. “Do you know?”

  “You’re it.”

  “Excuse me.”

  “You are the representation of your town. You got it together, you held the battle, you are now the leader of your province.”

  Buzz snickered a tired laugh. “I’m no leader.”

  “I beg to differ,” Elliott spoke politely. ‘You’ve led well.”

  “Lars, what about Lars as …”

  Elliot shook his head. “You. Already decided.” He placed a leading hand on Buzz’s back. “Allow me to show you your housing.”

  “I would like very much to see Beginnings soon. Is that possible.”

  “Absolutely. I’m taking a ride there later in the day, you’re welcome to come.”

  “I’d like that. I’m looking forward to the … excuse the pun buzz of it.”

  Elliott smiled. “And since the emergence of email and the wedding, you couldn’t pick a busier buzzier time.”

  ****

  Ben from Fabrics was the flakiest, most eccentric man Joe had ever met. And in his life time he had met some flakes. But Ben and Todd had a talent, one Joe wasn’t aware of, perhaps psychically he was and that was why he was placed them in charge of Fabrics. When Andrea told him he had to be at Fabrics early for the fitting of his suit, Joe had a fit. He envisioned a purple satin thing unfitting for him not only as leader, but father of the groom. But when Joe stopped at Fabrics and they pulled out the suit, Joe smiled. He was impressed.

  It needed a few adjustments, Ben and Todd guessed correctly, and the suit would be ready for the next day event. Joe told both of them how great of a job they did, and it would have been a truly un-annoying experience had Ben and Todd not been so consumed about the chain letter.

  “But, Joe, I didn’t send it to five people.” Ben said. “At least not right away.”

  “Neither did I,” Joe said. “Don’t worry about it.”

  “I did,” Todd said. “I’m not taking a chance. I heard Gemma nearly got killed by a vat of grease because she ignored the chain letter.”

  Joe rolled his eye.

  Todd continued, “She immediately sent it out.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Joe said. “It was generated by Frank, it wasn’t generated by some dark, mystical, powerful being.”

  Ben folded his arms, and raised an eyebrow. “Contrary to popular belief, some of us view Frank like that.”

  “Then you’re as ridiculous as his chain letter.” Joe tried to pass off the chain email thing and enjoy the feel of the new suit. He actually couldn’t wait to wear it.

  Fabrics was short stop and Joe had other rounds to make. He also had to get to communications and would have made it there a bit faster had he not been stopped four times on the way there to be asked about that Chain letter. So to stop the hassle, he stopped at history, and borrowed some paper.

  “Looks important, Joe," Trish said,

  “Just a quick post for the Joe Board.”

  “Oh!” Trish perked with excitement. “I love those memos.”

  “I know.” Joe wrote. He hovered the paper out of her way when she tried to peek, He scribbled a few words null and voiding the chain letter, returned her pen, smiled and walked out. On his exit he heard her pick up the phone and call out, “He’s posting, get ready.”

  Joe chuckled at that. He walked to the Joe Park and to the Joe Board. He felt all eyes upon him and as he gazed over his shoulder, he saw that they truly were upon him. After posting, he shut the case, placed his hands in his pockets and hurried away.

  Sure enough, like clockwork the masses flew to that board.

  The communications room door wasn’t locked and Joe found it odd. He stepped inside, checked out the lock, and spoke out. “Can I ask our Asian community why we’re not locking this door?” at that second Frank stood up from behind a counter. “And my son,” Joe added.

  “Morning Joe,” Danny said. “Simple. It’s a time saver.”

  “Time saver?” Joe asked.

  Henry answered, “Yes. And paper saver, it takes five seconds to use the security code. We each go through twenty times a day each. That’s sixty times a day, that’s 300 seconds, that’s five minutes day, in a month, that two and a half hours, not to mention for sixty entries that’s four sheets of paper times …”

  “That’s anal,” Joe said. “Anyhow, how is it going?”

  Frank leaned over the console. “Henry doesn’t think it’s here.”

  “Why?” Joe asked.

  “I can’t find the uplink Joe.” Henry said. “Not that I’m a computer whiz, but Danny is,
and he can’t find them either.”

  “Plus, once we get the uplink, we have to do all the decodes.” Danny said.

  “Which Robbie is bringing,” Joe said.

  Danny sighed out. “That’s great, but if it was here, surely, after all this probing and prodding we’ve done, you’d think we would have found it by now.”

  Joe shrugged. “You’d think. Frank?”

  Frank shrugged as well. “It has to be here. A NORAD style system.” He fluttered his lips. “Makes sense why George wanted Beginnings so badly. But it’s possible even George was duped.”

  Joe gave a single nod. “That’s possible. Okay, Robbie should be arriving shortly. Why don’t we reserve final judgment for when he brings the manuals and codes? Then you do will at least have direction to go with.” He saw the look on Danny’s face, it screamed smug. “What? Danny.”

  “Joe, I’m good.” Danny said. “I don’t think it’s here. If it was, I would have found it. I may not have had the codes to connect to the satellites, but I would have found the uplinks. Like I said. I’m good.”

  “Maybe you aren’t this good. Sorry.”

  Danny gave a half shrug. “Possible not probable.”

  “You know,” Henry said. “Jimmy did this shit when he was in the service. Why isn’t he helping out? He should. It may be easier for him.”

  “Come to think of it,” Joe said. “Why is that, Frank?”

  “Have you seen Jimmy lately?” Frank asked.

  “Yeah I saw him …” Joe paused. “Not lately.”

  “Not for three weeks.”

  “Get the hell out of here, I saw him within three weeks.”

  “Dad, I’m telling you, you haven’t. I know for a fact not in the last two.”

  “Bullshit.”

  Danny added. “It’s not.”

  Frank said. “Hal is the only one who has seen him.”

  “Where is he?” Joe asked.

  “Hal’s.” Frank replied. “He’s addicted to cracking the message from Jason. He’s on a mission. He said there’s a code that underlies it that’s breaking up the message. Jason said it is quite possible that even further in the future did it. Who knows? In any case, fuckin Jimmy is a computer hermit.”

  Joe chuckled. “You’re over reacting. No way.”

  “Dad, he’s bound and determined and in the midst of it is going psycho.”

  Joe shook his head. “No way. Jimmy is just working hard in Bowman. I’m sure he’s not a hermit. And I’m sure he’s not submersed in the computer message. Plus, of all my boys he’s the most level headed and rational, I just can’t see him consumed to insanity over this.” He laughed thinking everyone was pulling his leg or again, at the least, exaggerating, until he saw their serious looks. With an ‘up’ nod to his head, Joe reached out his hand. “Give me the phone, I’m calling Hal.”

  ****

  Jimmy had curly hair? Hal never noticed how curly Jimmy’s hair was. It was so much like Frank’s, but Jimmy had kept it so short for so long, that it never got a chance to curl up.

  Hal freshened his coffee, after taking the call from his father. “No, no,” he told Joe. “Jimmy is fine. Working hard, not obsessed at all. Frank is nuts.”

  But Hal didn’t believe that. Not as he stood there, sipping his coffee, looking at his brother who hadn’t shaved in weeks and whose hair was growing out.

  At least he paused to shower and didn’t smell.

  Most of the time he wore Hal’s clothes, which were baggie on him, but Jimmy didn’t leave. He hadn’t been outside of the apartment in weeks. Not even to eat. Hal supposed either he or Elliott helped that, they brought Jimmy food.

  It all came into perspective and Hal felt that perhaps it was time to intervene.

  He cleared his throat. “How is it going?”

  “Fine,” Jimmy mumbled as he stared at the screen. “Learning the code. See.”

  Ready to passively nod, Hal didn’t. He jerked forward, laying his hand on the back of the chair. “How in God’s name did you find that?”

  Across the bottom of the screen, like a ticker tape, ran a sequence of numbers.

  “I told you about it the other day,” Jimmy said, then paused the screen.

  “How did you find it?”

  “It was always there. We just thought it was stick and interference at the bottom. When I changed my screen properties, there it was.”

  “What is it?”

  “It’s a code placed in the message and damn Hal if it doesn’t seem as if a puzzle wasn’t created on purpose. Watch.” Jimmy hit play. “See.” He paused. A break had occurred in the sequence of numbers. “Now when I go through the source file, I can add and change the numbers.”

  “Did you try deleting the sequence?”

  “Yep.”

  “And.”

  “No sound. This is embedded over the audio. So I figure, if I watch the sequence enough, I learn the sequence, and be able to figure out which numbers are missing.”

  “Unbelievable.” Hal laid a hand on his shoulder. “Good work. I hope you crack it soon.”

  “I feel it.”

  “You do know that Frank and Dad both feel that it doesn’t need to be worked on so much. You don’t need to put this much effort into this.”

  “Yeah, I do, Hal,” Jimmy said. “I thought I lost my father once. I’m gonna do everything in my power not to lose him again.”

  ****

  “Thank you for taking the ride with me, Jenny,” Lars spoke, driving the road from Bowman to Beginnings.

  “It was my pleasure Lars. I don’t get to see our neighboring towns very often.”

  “This is wonderful.”

  “It’s Danny Hoi. He’s brought back civilization.”

  “I also appreciate your attitude when it came to Johnny.”

  Jenny giggled and shrugged. “I know how manipulative George can be, and with that brain tumor, Johnny didn’t stand a chance. Although he did shoot his father.”

  “Twice mind you.’

  “I forgot about that.” Jenny turned some in her seat. “Thank you, Lars for helping with those flowers.”

  “The church looks divine.”

  “We worked very hard. I have been talking to Ellen, but there’s no way she can even get an idea until she sees how hard Frank worked to give her the perfect wedding.”

  “You, Frank, and all the women. Good thing they’re making it back today.”

  “I was nervous about that. But I had faith in Robbie. Oh! Lars! Wait until Ellen hears you’re performing the ceremony.”

  “I am an ordained minister.”

  “When Frank told me you were writing special vows.” Jenny gasped and grabbed her chest. “I cried.”

  “I hope that effects spreads across the church.”

  “It will.” Jenny sighed out. “Good thing I have a busy day tomorrow, or I’d be on pins and needles waiting for four o’clock to roll around.”

  “Really? I would think a Saturday wouldn’t be so busy.”

  Jenny shook her head. “I’m taking the kids on a tour of Beginnings. I do it every spring.”

  Lars chuckled.

  “What? What’s so funny?”

  “A tour of Beginnings. One should think they would know their town.”

  “They do, but every year they get older, Lars, and so that means, every year they may hear the same thing, but they hear it differently.”

  “Humbled.”

  “I want them to have a sense of pride in Beginnings. It’s our colony, you know. Plus, doing the tour on Saturday allows it to be less busy and those who do work will be more relaxed.”

  “With this big wedding tomorrow, I highly doubt anyone will be relaxed.”

  Jenny nodded a ‘true’, and sat back some in the truck. She enjoyed her time with Lars, and as they approached the gate of Beginnings she enjoyed even more the thought of Dean and Lars finally meeting face to face.

  ****

  Fridays were always the best in Containment. Not only wa
s it dress down day, but also Movie day and Jess never minded working all day Friday. The calendar for appointments and counseling was empty, except for one slot. One name was etched in there.

  Jess had pulled the form to be filled out, and his chart, both waited on Ellen’s desk. After watching the digital clock switch over to two pm, Jess sighed out and stood.

  The phone rang. Jess smiled.

  “Containment,” He answered. “Jess speaking.” Another grin hit him. “Excellent, glad you’re back! See you in a few.” He hung up, walked around the desk and opened the door. “Next.”

  From a chair in the hall, Fort stood up. He paused.

  “Problem?” Jess asked.

  “No one came out.”

  “Okay.”

  “You said ‘next’.”

  “I did. Come in.” Jess stepped into the office. He returned to the desk and when Fort entered he told him to have a seat. “What’s up?”

  “Eighteen days.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “I have been here, eighteen days,” Ford said. “Now, I understood the rules and law of Beginnings. Newcomers must go through processing and Containment to show they can live in civility. I am an officer in the service, I have my faculties. Enough is enough. When do I get out of here?”

  Jess stared for a second. “Hmm.” He flipped open the folder. “You haven’t even been placed for a job. I don’t even see a job interview sheet here for skills.”

  “I would think security.”

  Jess chuckled. “Not always easy. Maybe a soldier with Doyle. Not Beginnings.”

  “Does that little folder say why I’m here? Chester said most people are in and out of here in ten days.”

  “Chester has been here nineteen months,” Jess said. “He’s not all there. And … it has here it stated until you stop being in a delusional state …”

  “Delusional state. How can you say that?’

  “You claim you’re from the future.”

  “I am.”

  “And you offered what proof?” Jess lifted his hand. “Really none. You won’t give up information …”

  “Ah,” Fort nodded. “I see. You’re keeping me here until I give up information. I can’t. The people here know the repercussions of ripples. I can’t.”