by Don Koch
Barbara said, "That sounds like a plan. Let's get more of these creeps where they belong." Everyone was ready to get back to work.
Aston said to Jim,
"What, who is there, where are you?"
"Paulo, please relax and be seated. I will sit down across from you." As he said this he took on a transparent form. "Paulo, do you know what I am?"
"I think you must be one of those Solarans we have been hearing about."
"That is true."
With a downtrodden expression, he asked, "Are you here to take me back to Mexico?"
"I hope not."
"What, but I thought that was what you do."
"We try to put bad people where they belong. Are you bad people?"
"I do not believe that I am, but there are people in my home town that think so."
"Tell me about what happened to cause that."
"Very well. There was a local official in my home town and his name was Diego Garcia. He was corrupt and was getting greedier and greedier. Finally the local Capo decided that enough was enough and sent an assassin to kill him. Unfortunately I was nearby and the assassin ambushed me and put the murder weapon in my hand. He then left. When I woke up, I could hear the sirens coming. I panicked and ran leaving the gun there. I knew what justice was like there and for me there would be none. I managed to get across the border into Arizona and made my way to Los Angeles taking odd jobs, mostly harvesting seasonal crops. One of the seasonal workers there was Paulo Mendez who was an American citizen. He and I became good friends and eventually I told him my story. We looked enough alike to be twin brothers. Then one day a bunch of bikers shot him in a drive-by shooting. He was severely injured and was dying from the wounds. He gave me his papers and asked me to take his name. He asked me to give him my name. I had an old Mexican ID card that I gave him and he told me where to find all his papers. He said he had never been fingerprinted. He asked me to honor his name by bringing honor to it. I have tried to do this. If you must send me back, please do it under my old name."
Jim completed the sentence, <…for the Solarans.>
Aston continued
"Well Paulo, you can relax. You are not going back to Mexico as a criminal. In fact we will reinforce your adopted identity and make it as airtight as we can and trust me, we can do a masterful job of that. When is your tour in the Marines up?"
"My six year enlistment is up next month and I have not yet decided whether to reenlist. In another two months I will have completed three years of college."
"What course of study are you pursuing?"
"You will laugh, but I am studying criminal justice."
He did laugh and said, "That is just too perfect. Ok, here is what will happen. In a few days you will receive a scholarship to complete that degree in criminal justice as well as the means to acquire a masters degree along with a stipend so you can support your family while you are going to school. Meanwhile, I will need the name of that assassin in your home-town. I think we may be able to clear your name. Are your parents still alive? Do they have relatives in the states?"
"The assassin was Mateo Rodriguez and I suspect that he still lives in my old home-town. My parents still live there but they do not know that I am alive or where I am. It would be too dangerous for them. I have a cousin in Oregon and he worries about them and me. He does not know for sure where I am. It is better that way." There were tears in his eyes.
"Wait a minute, what unit did you say you were with?
"I'm in 3/1, uh, Third Battalion, First Marines, why?"
"Well that's a complication, That unit goes on standby tomorrow. Hang on a moment, I need to check in."
"That is our car coming in the driveway now. Is something wrong?"
"No, something is really right but your wife needs to be part of a decision we will ask you to consider." Andy and Pat arrived and all switched to full visibility so as to not frighten Paulo's wife Rosa when she came in a few seconds later.
Her first reaction was a fearful, "Madre de Dios, Solarans." Their little girl immediately ran over to Pat and climbed up into her lap where she made herself at home.
Rosa's reaction to that was one of relief. She explained that the little girl, Estela, seemed to know who to trust and they had come to rely on her curious sense. She would never have done what they just witnessed if the Solarans intended them harm.
Andy said, "Now this is a rather pleasant surprise. We started a short while ago continuing a round up of some pretty bad customers, so to find someone at the opposite end of the spectrum is very much unexpected. What I have to say to you both is beyond secret. I would ask that you never tell anyone what we have discussed here." Both nodded agreement. Andy went on to describe what they were and how they became that way. "Our ship can read people like a book and has advised us that you are both the kind of candidates that we would like to have as Solarans. He explained their mission and the impact of the implants. He also explained the duty imposed by acceptance of the invitation. He noted that their little girl would be too young to go out and meet the invasion and they would need some of their group to stay on Earth to meet demands there. "In a few days, your battalion will deploy to a site south of the border to support an operation in which the Mexican Army is engaged. Essentially we are stopping an invasion by a terrorist army and the Marines are part of the group doing the containment support. We believe that we have this fully contained but you know the old sayings about the best laid plans. Since you are in the Marines you also know what SNAFU means. If you accept we will immediately teleport up to the ship and install the implants. Those become fully effective in 24 to 36 hours, however the armor component takes only about an hour. You will have to be very careful to disguise the talents you will have. I know that this sounds like something out of fiction but it is all true. What do you think?"
Rosa said, "I will do as my husband would do."
Paulo replied, "Today has been very strange. At first, I feared that things were falling apart and that my life had been destroyed. Now it is as though the door to all worlds has opened before me. To be able to address the kind of thing that made me a fugitive would be a dream come true. We wish to accept this offer."
Andy said, "Outstanding, lets go up to the ship and get you started. Then we can return you here. You will be able to contact us or the ship
at any time. Aston never sleeps. He will guide you through the training of your talents. You can go up to the ship at anytime."
# A few minutes later #
"Paulo and Rosa, it turns out that there is something more you need to know. Since both of you are past the age where the primary implant can normally be applied, we had anticipated that you would be receiving the adult implants. It turns out that you two are unusual in that you can safely receive the primary implant. We are not sure where that will take you, but your gene structure appears to be much more robust than is normal for most humans. This means that some of the talents you will have may be unique to you. The only others with similar structures are Gus, Barb, Pat and me. Aston also recommends that Estela also be implanted even though many of the features will not be active for another eight years. The upside to this is that she will be the healthiest child on the planet and will be impervious to harm. We also believe that it will enhance some talents that she has unique to her such as the friend recognition talent she has. You need to know this before we proceed because it is slightly different than what you were told. Are we still a go with this?"
Paulo and Rosa discussed the implications of what they had been told and agreed that it did not change their view. "We would like to proceed and are delighted that Estela can be included."
"Outstanding. You know that anytime you feel the need to discuss where this is taking you, we are ready to discuss it and so is Aston. I was not previously aware that Aston recognized something different in each of us but now we will need to be watchful of those differences so they can be properly trained and utilized."
The Mendez family was returned to their home and Andy recapped the progress with the roundup. "We have teleported 4,920 criminals to their new home at Isla Maria Madre. We have twelve more crime families on this list from the General. We are not getting as much time at the lake as we expected but it is kind of fun putting these criminals away. I'd like to take two more families out of business today. Who feels up to it?" He was surprised by their reaction. To call it enthusiastic would be understatement.
Finally, his father commented, "Andy you sound like you feel you are overworking us. I don't think you appreciate how much all of us want to do this and do a very good job of it. If we approach the point where it is becoming too much for us, I promise that Jim or I will discuss it with you. Personally I want to finish off all these cartels before we deal with the terrorist army in a few days. I say, lets do this with panache."
The rest were cheering and chanting goofy slogans to show that they really on board. Finally, Andy caught on and grinned. Pat gave him a hug and a peck on the cheek. "Ok gang lets do this. Aston who is next on our clean up list." Aston told him, assignments were made.
Jeff said, "Barb and I would like to do the melting this time, just the two of us. We are ready."
Nikolay said, "Anya and I would like to do the next. I think that after we have all had a shot at a double, we will be ready for a solo."
"I agree. OK lets do this. I am particularly interested in the records. I want to see who else is involved in the terrorist army scheme." They completed the next cartel on the list in an hour. The records indicated that this group too was involved in the terrorist plot. Surprisingly the cash for even these smaller operations was huge. Almost as large as the haul from the initial cartel. The equipment gathered was not as large but arms and drugs were more than expected. They immediately went on to the next on the list. Aston had been busily tagging anyone associated with the cartels so finding individuals was considerably more efficient.
# Later that afternoon #
By dinnertime, they had destroyed five compounds and had moved nearly a trillion dollars from the vaults of the compounds with nearly half of that in gold coinage. The offshore accounts were slightly over 600 billion and this was again transferred to the Treasury of the Republic of Mexico. They took a break from 5 pm to 9 pm, and then continued. By midnight there were three more compounds eliminated. In the course of this they located the remaining missing rail guns and alerted the General Clark at Twentynine Palms that the recovered guns would be there in five minutes. He was waiting in the tent when the delivery was made. In one corner of the tent, there was a barracks style bed set up. Clearly he was hoping for an early delivery. "Ah, somehow I thought I might see you sooner than later. I have been hearing interesting reports about your activities and I must say that I am a fan. From time to time I run across situations that I cannot address because my position and the governments position on that situation. This is often driven by politics and the result is that a lot of innocents are hurt. That can be intolerable. If you have a way that I can let you know when I observe such a situation, so that you can consider it for attention, I would appreciate it."
Andy said, "Well sir, I do not presently have a way to do that, but when I do, I will get back to you. I am happy that we were able to locate these things, this should allow all of us to breathe a bit easier. We have evidence to show who the perpetrators were and expect to deliver them to you in the morning with that evidence. They will be restrained and disarmed. Their weapons will be in a combination lock box with the evidence. You might want to alert your legal people. Prints on the weapons have not been disturbed. Ballistics should give you what you need. Mañana."
Chapter 8 - Home Stretch
# Day Ten at Turner Lake – 1 am #
# Monday, June 20 #
"Ok, we have four left to do. I think we can finish the remaining compounds tonight. Aston wants to add a comment."
"Ok, lets go finish this up so we can be ready for the ships. We need to be sure that the ships do not get any signals that cause them to change their plans."
The takedown of the remaining compounds was almost anticlimactic. No resistance was encountered. The sweeps were relatively complete. The new tagging methodology was exceptionally effective. Almost all of the remaining crime organizations were decimated. A few minor operations remained but local police were already rounding them up as well. It helpe
d that so many public officials and police who were corrupt had been very visibly removed from their posts. A number of them were resigning their positions in hopes that their crimes would not be reviewed if they were no longer in a position to commit them. The landscape had totally changed and the best was yet to come. By morning the job was done. All of the crime families were incarcerated and the criminal justice system was about to finally do its job.
< Josè, are you available for a chat on the ship.>
Andy started the meeting when everyone was there including the Mendezes. Their little one was still asleep in her mothers arms. “The records we recovered from the cartels has been a gold mine. There is information there that is going to be invaluable, but even with that there are too many gaps that need to be closed. Our biggest surprise so far has been to learn that there is much that we still do not know about our own capabilities. I have asked Aston to update us on all of the functions of the tags we have available. I think we may be able to close a lot of gaps if we have a better understanding of what those things can do. Aston, it's all yours.”