Fall of Adam

by Rusty Ellis

  Chase followed Frank in and closed the door behind him. The residence looked like a close relative to Henry’s home. Same style of furniture. Same two chairs in the living room, one for Frank and one for Alice, both facing an older model television.

  There were pictures grouped on the walls, each group an arm’s reach from the other. The wall was a canvas and the artist, presumably Alice, used up every inch to display their memories.

  Frank continued through the living room and into the kitchen. A kitchen table with four chairs sat in the middle of the room between the doorway and kitchen counter. Frank pointed to the left of the table to where a built-in desk was cut out of the kitchen wall. An older computer sat on top of the desktop, surrounded by stacks of papers.

  “Stocking shelves is the easy part,” Frank commented while looking at the cubby. “The grueling part is the paperwork and taxes.”

  Frank reached for the computer monitor and punched a button on the bottom of the plastic enclosure. The screen flickered and a series of colors flashed. Chase watched as the colors settled in and a login screen appeared. Frank leaned over and tapped on the keyboard with his index finger and hit enter. The screen switched to a browser window and a video review of a newer model pickup truck.

  Chase looked at the screen and then at Frank.

  Frank shrugged, “A man’s gotta dream, right?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “The printer is under the counter on the floor. It should be ready to go and prints in color.”

  “I really appreciate your help with this,” Chase offered and sat down.

  “Can you tell me what’s going on? What you’re up to?”

  Chase tapped on the keyboard and opened a new browser window. He typed the web address to get to his email and logged into his account.

  “It just seemed easier to join them and have access to the whole compound instead of trying to sneak in and not get caught.”

  “Invisible in plain sight,” Franks smiled.

  “Exactly.”

  Chase searched his email for “DD-214” and three emails popped up. He had downloaded the document some time ago and sent a copy to his own email address in case he needed it in the future. This turned out to be one of those times.

  He pulled up the document and printed it. The inkjet printer on the floor whirred and spit out a copy. Chase pulled the document from the tray and gave it a once over for good measure.

  “That’s it,” he said.

  Frank looked at the screen and the document in Chase’s hand, “Your DD-214.”

  Chase stood, “You serve?”

  “Vietnam,” Frank said.

  Chase nodded, “I appreciate your service, Frank.”

  “You, too.”

  “It was a long time ago. Just not long enough. Let’s just say Alice is a good woman. She was able to put some of my broken parts back together after I got home.”

  Chase listened, his own experience in the Middle East a reminder of a few of his own broken parts. Frank remained silent a few more seconds, reflecting on exactly what Chase wasn’t sure. The things seen in battle can’t be unseen. Frank’s generation did their best to keep the demons pushed down below the surface. It was like trying to keep tennis balls pushed down in a bucket full of water. No matter how many you kept down, an occasional ball would slip to the surface and bob there in front of your face.

  “It was a long time ago,” Frank repeated. He caught himself in the silence and looked up at Chase, “Sorry about that. Alice calls it ‘the drift’.”

  “At least you put a reasonable name to it. My naming structure isn’t for the faint of heart,” Chase laughed.

  Frank patted Chase on the shoulder, “Is that it?”

  “Yeah. It’s all they really wanted. Said they could run my background internally somehow. Either through a service or calling in a favor somewhere I suppose.”

  “And then you’re in? You’re hired?”

  “I believe so. All it took was a clean DD-214 and about a hundred dollars in beer last night.”

  Frank laughed and shook his head, “I hope it turns out to be a good investment.”

  “I’m optimistic it was.”

  27

  Herding the women to the Enlightenment Circle to hear Adam speak was not on Viktor’s list of ‘things to do’ today. In fact, he had to catch himself not popping off to Adam about the change in routine.

  He who has the gold runs the kingdom. Simple as that.

  Some of the girls had expressed to Adam that they missed being able to hear him speak at the Enlightenment Circle. Adam was the last one to deny one of his followers—especially those of the young and beautiful female persuasion—the opportunity to learn at his feet. The flattery by one girl grew to two, then four, then seven, then all the girls chiming in and clapping their hands like schoolgirls going to a pop concert.

  Adam notified Viktor about the change an hour before his sermon, stressing that the girls needed to be in their seats well before the rest of the Community arrived. He expected them to all be sitting in the innermost circle, closest to him, making sure they could hear every word he had to say.

  Viktor had to reassign two of his men to take care of the extra escort duty. He was with Adam—always. He would have preferred to turn it over to James but he wanted James one-on-one with Megan King. But even that plan had hit the fan and needed some tweaking.

  Viktor received a report of someone monitoring the cabin just north of the property, tucked into the trees. One of his men was on routine patrol of the perimeter and had noticed the sun catching the glass of a spotting scope or a pair of binoculars.

  Viktor wasn’t too concerned the person in the trees was a current threat, but he preferred to be proactive and make sure the person wouldn’t turn into a threat or an issue. It wasn’t uncommon to have an occasional person gawking and trying to get a peek at the Community, its grounds and its residents. Everything from reporters to people trying to locate missing family members.

  The reporters were easy to handle. They were usually skittish and ran at the first sign of real trouble. Something about being at a remote location and having no witnesses took the fight and bravado from trying to hide behind press credentials.

  People looking for family members were a different story. They came with a passion. That passion could spark anger, frustration, and a series of other emotions and behaviors. If the people actually caught a glimpse of their family member, the situation could and would escalate exponentially.

  Viktor wanted to make sure and identify the individual in the tree line without being seen. To get an overall feeling of their intent or reason for their curiosity and willingness to travel all the way into the sticks above the HLC. The obvious answer was to assign James to take care of it.

  Viktor looked down at his watch—7:50 a.m.

  He reached up to his mic and said, “Operator.”

  “Operator here, go ahead.”

  “Is James on duty?” Viktor asked.

  “James here,” he answered and interrupted the operator.

  “Disregard assignment. Rendezvous at Garden.”

  “Roger that, in-route.”

  James appeared from the trees and bushes on the path leading to the circle. Viktor made eye contact with him from the porch and walked down the steps to meet him.

  “Anything to report on the assignment?”

  “Nothing, so far. For the most part she’s staying in line, performing her chores, not isolating herself from the others too much, and is where she’s supposed to be. But…”

  “Yes?”

  “She’s got that thousand-yard stare when she has moments on her own. Her mind seems to race, but she hasn’t acted on it. I’m not sure if she’s considering bolting or just wrestling with her religious demons,” James said.

  Viktor nodded and considered the implications and behaviors associated with both.

  “She hasn’t made any effort to come back to the Garden, though,” James added.
>
  “Good, good. It was a brazen act to come here in the first place. Her story would make more sense if she would have simply taken the path.”

  “True. Is that what you needed?” James asked.

  “No. We have someone a quarter-mile north of the Garden with a spotting scope or binoculars. The scope lens caught the sun and Phillips caught the flash. I need you to get close enough to assess the threat,” Viktor said.

  “Roger that. What about King? You want me to put someone else on her?”

  Viktor grimaced and said, “No. We’re already thin this morning. Adam wants the twelve to watch him at the circle this morning. I have two escorting the group.”

  “Seriously?” James shook his head.

  “I can keep an eye on Adam and monitor the woman. I’m not so worried when she is with everyone, just when she has time to think clearly and be alone. Check in with Phillips to update you on the location. Don’t make contact, just gather intel.”

  “Roger that, and good luck with the twelve and Adam.”

  Viktor stepped around James to return to the Garden. He wished he could have James switch places with him and watch Adam and the twelve. No such luck. Adam was too paranoid and demanded his primary attention. He’d made it clear during Viktor’s initial interview and punctuated it by adding enough extra zeros to Viktor’s pay.

  For now he would take the pay—as much as he could leverage—and ride out the Community’s shelf-life. He knew this gig would eventually peter out. He came into it with two goals: one, make as much money as possible, and two, walk away unscathed and un-indicted no matter what Adam was doing.

  Viktor returned to the porch and grabbed the mic, “Operator.”

  “Go ahead.”

  “Twelve ready for movement,” he said.

  A voice responded, “Roger that.”

  A second voice responded, “Roger that.”

  Viktor stepped into the cabin and walked around counting the girls. They pranced about, giddy over their trip to the circle. Viktor had to stop and start over more than once. It tempted him to yell at them to line up but knew better. He avoided any real contact with the girls. Adam preferred no one talk to them but him. Ironically, he especially didn’t want security having contact with the girls. Adam’s view of the security was as a necessary evil.

  “To protect my flock from the world, I’m pressed to surround myself with wolves,” Adam had explained to Viktor in the beginning. “But I do understand, Mr. Popov, that these men are still wolves. You are their Alpha.” He finished by saying, “Keep your wolves at the edge of my flock, Mr. Popov, away from my lambs.”

  Viktor got it. No matter how good the mutton looked, his men were to save their appetites for outside the Community.

  Viktor finished counting and came up with 11 girls. Not the 12 he needed. He counted one more time to verify before walking to Adam’s bedroom door. He listened for a second and then knocked loudly on the wooden door frame.

  He waited patiently for Adam to answer the door.

  “Yes, Mr. Popov?”

  “I need to move the women down to the Enlightenment Circle in order for them to get the seats you require for them.”

  Adam nodded and turned back to the inside of his bedroom. He kept his hand on the door, controlling how wide it opened. A girl appeared and lowered her eyes as she shyly passed through the door.

  “Make sure and find a special place for this one, Mr. Popov?”

  The girl hesitated and smiled back at Adam.

  “Yes, sir.”

  Viktor had no intentions of having his men do more than move the twelve down the trail and plop them on the inner row of logs at the circle.

  Adam smiled and flipped the bedroom door shut. A knocking at the front door drew Viktor’s attention. Viktor opened the door and saw two of his men standing side by side at attention. Each man painfully acting disinterested in the selection of girls inside the living room.

  “You have your orders,” he said.

  The shorter man spoke up, “Yes, sir.”

  The two men walked back to the bottom of the porch stairs and waited. Viktor rounded up the girls and herded them out the front door. The shorter man took the lead and the girls followed, with the taller man last, like a row of ducklings heading to a pond.

  Viktor shut the front door after he was satisfied they were on the move. Adam’s bedroom door opened and Viktor turned to see Adam standing in the doorway.

  “The last girl that came out of my room,” he said.

  “Yes, sir,” Viktor responded.

  “At the end of the Enlightenment Circle, she is to stay with the Community. I’ve been inspired to choose another follower to join the twelve.”

  Viktor nodded and watched Adam disappear again into the room.

  Make as much money as possible. Walk away unscathed and un-indicted.

  28

  Megan hurriedly finished the morning dishes alongside Anna. Anna begged her to hurry this morning in order to get a better seat, closer to the center of the Enlightenment Circle and closer to Adam.

  Megan would have preferred to sit in the middle section of the logs, as far as possible from both edges of the circle, hidden in the Community surrounding her. But she’d agreed to Anna’s request. Seeing Adam pass over Anna the previous day, Megan felt confident Anna was simply not the type of girl Adam was looking for. So she conceded to hurry to secure a prime spot at the circle.

  Several others had the same clear plan and were briskly walking in the same direction. As they walked up to the circle, Anna took to looking for the perfect seat while Megan began looking over the girls who had arrived early. She noticed the inner-most circle was full, hip-to-hip, by girls with the same general look and height. There were no men, which wasn’t shocking, but certainly odd as even the men attempted to get good seats to hear Adam’s sermons.

  The rows began to fill. Anna tugged on Megan’s arm and directed her to the row about four back from the center of the circle. As Megan followed her and did her best to keep a smile on her face, she noticed the side of one of the girl’s faces in the inner-circle. She froze in her tracks, prompting Anna to grab her arm again and continue to tug her to their seats.

  Megan followed Anna, it was that or have Anna drag her on the ground behind her. When they reached their seats, Megan looked again at the girl. She was facing directly away. Megan stayed standing and stared, waiting for the girl to turn her head.

  “Are you going to sit?” Anna asked and laughed.

  Megan nodded and continued to watch as she slowly lowered onto her seat. She looked and saw the girl’s head tilted back slightly, as if laughing. The girl then turned her head to say something to the girl next to her.

  Haley!

  Megan’s gaze was trained firmly on the back of Haley’s head, ignoring Adam’s sermon and the Community’s responses to his words. She watched as Haley sat motionless and stared at Adam.

  “Hide not from the glory of the Almighty. Show your weaknesses that I may make them strengths,” Adam said and stretched his arms from his sides. “When will you cast off the last scraps of the world and join me at my table? When will you choose to cast the scraps to the swine and dine with me?”

  Utters of willingness to join him echoed in the air, offering to join him, begging to be chosen to join him at his table.

  The circle of girls closest to Adam sat quiet. Megan saw no need for them to join in the revelry. They had already been chosen and were at Adam’s proverbial table.

  Adam began to look over his followers. His eyes ran about and then slowed on certain individuals in the crowd, connecting with them. He controlled their movements and caused them to stir and strain to catch his gaze.

  “Who, who among you will join me at my table?” Adam questioned and pointed. “You? What about you? And you?”

  The group stirred into a frenzy. Several stood to answer his call—including Anna. Megan caught another glimpse of the side of Haley’s face. She battled the pull to run to
her, to put her arms around her, to scoop her up and escape. Megan turned back to see Adam, closing in on where she and Anna were sitting. Adam had locked eyes with Anna and was slowly making his way toward her.

  A slap of panic struck Megan. Adam was heading straight for Anna. Megan was trapped on the other side of Anna, unable to block Adam’s gaze and advances. He stepped closer and began to reach out his hand toward her.

  You took my daughter, you’re not taking Anna, too!

  Megan stood and stepped around Anna, almost knocking Anna back onto her seat. She shot out her hand toward Adam and stepped forward.

  “Adam, choose me! I would eat at your table. I need to eat at your table. Please, choose me!” Megan dropped to her knees in front of Adam and the group went silent.

  Megan knelt there, looking at the ground and Adam’s feet. She expected to see Adam’s feet step around her and continue to Anna. Megan was nothing like the younger girls. Her hair shorter. Thicker and more muscular build. She waited. His silence rang in her ears.

  The fingers of Adam’s hand slid under her chin and raised her head until she was looking directly up at Adam’s face. He smiled at her and cradled her chin in his hands. He then looked away and toward his followers.

  “The repentant and valiant will find a way to my table. It is not a table of faith alone. It is a table of works.”

  Adam released Megan’s face and reached down to grab her hands and lift her up. She stood and glanced at Anna. The look on her friend’s face was a mixture of sadness and betrayal. Megan looked back toward Adam and then the ground.

  Adam led Megan away from Anna. She obediently held his hand and followed. Looking up to the where the path met the woods, Megan saw the large man in the black polo. She locked eyes with the man. He raised an eyebrow and watched as she passed by him on the path, in the cabin's direction.

  A rush of relief flooded over Megan as she was pulled down the path, closer and closer to the cabin, toward the Holy Garden. She’d done it. She saved Anna and found a way into the cabin where Haley was being held.