Twilight Earth

by Ben Winston

  Ben still thought his head was going to explode from stress. Deirdre and the rest of the girls tried to help as much as they could but Mr. Gilly had dumped a large bombshell on the entire family, mostly on Ben. Mr. Robert Gilly, Tom’s personal attorney, wasn’t actually to blame, but it is difficult to separate the message from the messenger.

  Tom had warned the family about their money. The fact that he’d created a corporation and hinted at a conglomeration hadn't helped. No one suspected how big it actually was. How Tom had managed to keep it secret was anyone’s guess, but he had.

  When Bob Gilly arrived at the Bedouin home, he looked much older than Ben remembered and it was obvious he’d been grieving as well. Deirdre, who was the only person in the room that was familiar with him, gave him a hug and guided him to a chair in the living room.

  As he sat down, he smiled up at Deirdre. “Thank you, I know this is very unprofessional of me, but Tom was probably my closest friend.”

  Deirdre sat beside me on the couch while Jorga and Kaitlin brought in coffee and soda.

  “Besides Jorga, Kaitlin and Deirdre, he was mine too,” Ben replied.

  Bob smiled at Ben sadly and nodded. “He was a good man that will be sorely missed.” Setting his briefcase on the coffee table, he opened it and took out a file folder. He pulled a document out of it, sat it on top of the folder and leaned back.

  “Before I begin, I must stress the importance of keeping the majority of this information just between us. Before tonight, only two people knew of the relative extent, intent, and purpose of what Tom has built.” He paused to take another sip of coffee.

  “He wanted me to tell all of you that he believed that a secret known by two people is already compromised. The only reason he didn’t tell any of you about this was only to control knowledge of it. So, in order for you all to understand what I'm going to be talking about in the will, you need to know part of it.

  “Tom was the sole owner of a small investment corporation. That small corporation owned a few other corporations that, in turn, owned other corporations, and so on. Though it’s well hidden by multiple layers of smoke and mirrors, Tom owned one of, if not the biggest, corporate conglomerates on the planet.”

  “Not that I doubt your word or anything Bob, but if that were true, why were we like this? Although I like our lives and I think the others do too, wouldn’t he have had us in a bigger house, sent Ben and Kaitlin to private school, things like that?" Deirdre asked.

  Bob smiled. “Can you image Tom wanting to live in a mansion, or sending his kids to a private school so they can learn to be the spoiled, rich, snobs he hated?”

  Deirdre nodded. “You’re right; he wouldn’t do that. He did make sure we had everything we needed, and he didn’t spoil any of us too much. But I can’t ever remember him worrying about a bill. He did worry about work things, but he wouldn’t talk about those.”

  “Dad left us a letter in his safe. In it he told us that I would be replacing him as owner of the company. He did mention subsidiaries, but it sure as hell didn’t sound like what you’re describing,” Ben replied. “I have no idea what to do, or how to run this. He didn’t teach me any of this!”

  “He didn’t need to. Other than special projects the whole mess runs itself. Tom set very strict guidelines for every aspect that has a bearing on the primary objective. For now, all you really need to do is deal with Tom’s passing. Tom wanted me to wait until the end of the year before I gave you the master file. If you want to take a more active role, then that would be a good time to get a feel for the business.”

  He looked at the file in his lap and sighed in sadness. “Tom’s Will says pretty much what we’ve been talking about. It just has all the legalese the courts like to see. After the January briefing, my duties as Executor will be completed. At that time, if you would like to get a new attorney, I would be happy to assist him in...”

  “I don’t think that’ll be happening. If Dad liked you, we like you. Even if for some reason we don’t get along, I still wouldn’t replace you. You know more about all of this than I’ll probably ever learn,” Ben said with the rest of the family either nodding or otherwise indicating agreement. “Unless, of course, you don’t want to continue as the family attorney?”

  Bob smiled tiredly at Ben and the girls. “I would very much like to continue. The truth is I’ve been a personal attorney for so long, I’d probably have a hard time changing my focus.”

  “Tom was your only client?” Deirdre asked.

  Bob nodded. “It really is a full time job and it seems like it’s growing every month. I was going to ask Tom if I could bring in an intern or assistant after the first of the year.”

  “I’ll have to talk it over with the ladies, but I think you can probably plan on it. We’re gonna need some time to get our collective heads around this," Ben said. “This is getting to be too much in too short a time.”

  Bob nodded understanding. “Well, you don’t really need to worry about anything too much. Tom did state in his will that he wanted to be cremated and have his ashes ‘returned to the Earth’. Tom had a great many friends, so I would recommend two separate ceremonies; one for the public and one for family.” He pulled a business card out of the folder, and handed it to Ben. “Just have the bills sent here and they’ll be taken care of.”

  “What about the household bills?” Ben asked.

  Deirdre sniffed. “Tom had them all set up to be automatically paid through our checking account. Although I am curious why we had a mortgage if we have that much money.”

  “Tom wanted to make sure you were all set up. One of the things you’ll need is good credit. So, in order to create that, he had the corporation guarantee certain loans in all of your names. He then set up accounts to automatically make your payments on time, every month. So, you don't have to worry about any of that,” Bob explained.

  “What happens if we want to buy a new big-ticket item; for example, a new house?” Ben asked. “We were discussing having one built."

  “Those are actually two different things. However, in either case, just call me and I’ll get it handled. I do need to get signatures from all of you before I leave so we can have credit cards issued for you.”

  Bob asked to see Tom’s computer in the study. Ben took him to it and he typed in a few commands. Satisfied that he had done what he needed to do, he left shortly after that. Ben checked the computer and saw that Bob had triggered a secure erasure program; destroying all the data Tom had on the computer, reformatting it, and restoring it to the original factory set-up.

  Ben and the girls planned and held Tom’s memorial services and were amazed by the number of people that came to the public service. There were so many Government, Military, Corporate and Celebrity VIPs, the Secret Service and UN Marines that it all but closed down the entire town. Ben overheard Jorga asking Deirdre if she thought the President would show up.

  The fact of the matter was that they had to plan an additional service just for the local townsfolk. There had been so many other VIPs at the first public service that none of the local people had been allowed to attend. The degree of mourning for Tom frightened the small family. They’d had no idea of the scale of his professional life; he'd managed to keep all of it hidden from his family. They were shocked when they began receiving notes of condolence from several world leaders, some of them from ‘hostile’ nations.

  The biggest surprise came when several men in black suits showed up the day after the local public memorial service with a federal warrant to seize all of Tom’s business related items. As if psychically summoned, Bob arrived with a platoon of armed Marines wearing the armbands of UN troops.

  “Mr. Gilly, I’m afraid you cannot interfere here; we are executing a federal seizure warrant. We’ve already frozen Mr. Bedouin's assets. He and his family are suspected of espionage and...”

  “Agent Thoms, since when does the NSA handle domestic investigations? Isn’t that the FBI’s purview? By the way, you better
check with your bosses; you haven’t seized or frozen anything. You also have no jurisdiction here,” Bob said smiling softly. He really disliked this particular agent ever since the man had started trying to investigate the private side of Operation Bedouin’s Hope.

  “Really? I don’t see how I don’t have jurisdiction; I’m a federal agent serving a federal warrant on United States soil,” Thoms replied eying the Marines that now surrounded his agents.

  “There! Proof that you have no idea what you’re talking about! But that’s to be expected since you don’t have clearance to know. But before you say another word to either myself or my clients I suggest you check in with your boss,” Bob said.

  As Agent Thoms snarled at Bob and pulled out his cellphone. Bob decided to ‘hit him’ one more time. “Oh! By ‘your boss’, I meant your boss at the NSA, not the venerable Senator Carlyle. This little stunt is going to cost him this time.”

  Thoms made the call and snarled at the person that answered and waited to be transferred.

  “Director, this is Agent John Thoms, I’m sorry to bother you, Sir, I was supposed to be transferred to my supervisor, SSA Clements.”

  Thoms paled as he listened to the Director of the NSA. Bob couldn’t hear the conversation, but he could hear the yelling. John slowly shrank in upon himself as if someone were letting all the air out of a tire. With a final ‘yes Sir' he hung up the phone.

  He turned to the closest agent and handed her his phone. He unclipped his gun and holster and handed that to her as well, closely followed by his agency credentials. “Agent Sempis, by the order of the Director of the NSA, acting on behalf of the President of the United States of America, you are to immediately take me into custody pending a full investigation of my actions and relationship to former United States Senator Gustav Carlyle. Further, you are to issue an official apology on behalf of the NSA and the nation of the United States for our unsanctioned invasion of their sovereign territory to the Bedouin family.”

  The shocked and confused junior agent looked at her former superior. “Agent Thoms?”

  “It’s just Mr. Thoms, Agent Sempis. I’ve been declassified. I am also to inform you that, once the apology is made, you are to immediately return to United States soil," Thoms said resignedly.

  Bob approached Thoms. “For what it’s worth John, I did try to warn you. I’m sorry it came to this.”

  Thoms looked at Bob closely and nodded. “Yeah, you did. I was way too cocky, and I thought I was untouchable because of the Senator. My first warning should have been the fact that I had to get special permission to even find out the operational name.”

  Bob nodded agreement. “Any idea what they’re going to do to you?”

  “Since my actions constitute treason as defined under a special invocation of the war powers act, I can be executed if found guilty. The Director said they would commute the death penalty if I provided testimony against the Senator. I can only hope I know enough for them to do that.” He frowned.

  “Mr. Gilly... Uh, Robert, I want you to know I honestly thought I was on the side of the angels in this. I smelled a huge conspiracy, and when the Senator showed up with more info and told me it had no congressional oversight at all......” He shrugged. “From that point on, no matter what proof I found to the contrary, I knew I was right. I am guilty of the charges being leveled against me. Just because I believed I was acting in the best interests of the United States doesn’t absolve me of it. I had plenty of evidence showing me I was wrong and the Senator was the bad guy. My fucking ego wouldn’t let me admit it. Now it’s time to pay for that.”

  Bob nodded. “Have your counsel call me. I can’t make any promises John, but I’ll try to help.”

  “I will, thank you. I, uh... I’m sorry, Robert,” John replied.

  Bob shook his head. “You’re a rat-catcher, John. You don’t need to apologize for thinking you smelled a rat.”

  After getting the rest of the agents back to the sidewalk, Agent Sempis and another agent walked up to take John into custody. As John was led away, the young woman offered her hand to Bob. “Mr. Gilly, I’m Agent Sandra Sempis, National Security Agency. May I impose on you to introduce me to your clients?”

  Ben never did get a good explanation from Bob as to why the NSA was trying to confiscate Tom’s stuff or how they were stopped. However, Ben forgot all about it until two weeks later when the doorbell rang shortly after lunch. Kaitlin answered the door to a very serious looking, large gentleman in a black suit.

  “Good afternoon, Miss Bedouin. Is the rest of your family here?” The strange man asked.

  "Yes they are; may I help you?”

  The man nodded. “Yes Miss, you and your family need to come with me; stage one is now active.”

  Location Unknown

  Fulton's Prairie, Missouri

  United States

  The gentleman introduced himself as Ed and waited while they packed some clothes for the ‘trip’. Ben tried to get some answers out of him, but found out that the man was under orders not to say anything until they got to where they were going; the location of which he couldn’t say either.

  Once the family was loaded into the big SUV, Ed drove them downtown to an out-of-business gas station that had been empty for as long as Ben could remember. As they approached, Ed touched a garage door opener and one of two bay doors began opening for them.

  Once inside and the big door was once again closed, the whole SUV began to lower on what must have been a huge elevator. There were no points of reference, but based on the speed of the elevator and the distance traveled, Ben guessed they had gone down at least a hundred feet before they stopped. Ed drove the truck to a parking space, and shut it off. The elevator began rising as soon as the SUV was clear of it.

  "Please follow me," Ed instructed once the family got out of the truck.

  "Can you tell us where we are yet?" Ben asked.

  "Other than the obvious, no," the big man replied. "I will tell you everything I can as soon as I can Sir. Until then, please continue to follow instructions."

  "It's not like we can run away at this point, so we don't have much of a choice," Kaitlin said, sarcastically.

  "You always have a choice Miss Bedouin. If you do not wish our help, we will return you to the surface and never bother you again," Ed replied.

  "Tom asked us to trust him, Kait," Deirdre said. "Because he is 'trying to save our lives'. Although I'm not too crazy with the situation either, I think we should trust Tom."

  Kaitlin nodded agreement and the family continued to follow their guide toward a heavy, vault style door at one end of the 'garage'.

  Ed remained as stoic as a statue. "We’ll enter a short stairway that goes down to another security door. Once past the door, we will follow a short hallway around a guard station enclosed in bulletproof glass. At each corner there is a secure door that, like this door, can only be opened from inside the guard station. Our immediate destination is an elevator on the far side."

  Ed led the family through the door and down the stairs.

  Ben looked at Deirdre. “I don’t know what thought is scarier; the way we were brought here or what this high-tech bomb shelter was built for.”

  “I’m just wondering what Tom was involved in. The fact that he never told us about any of this kind of hurts. I mean, didn’t he trust us?" She asked.

  They worked through security hallways and made it to the elevator. As soon as the last security door was closed, the doors to the lift slid open. It struck Ben as odd that the lift car was so big; it resembled a large cargo elevator that had a set of doors on both ends. Ed didn’t offer an explanation either; he just made sure everyone was in before pressing and holding the down button until the beeping became a solid tone.

  "This is not your normal cargo elevator. Where the hell are we going?" Jorga asked.

  "Still classified, Ma'am. I'm sorry," Ed replied.

  "I understand, Ed," Jorga replied. "It was a rhetorical question."

 
; "If it is any consolation, I would be nervous as well. However, I can assure all of you is that no harm will come to you and we are indeed attempting to save your lives," Ed replied.

  "Can you tell us from what threat?" Marcy asked.

  "I honestly do not know Miss Carmichael. We are discouraged from speculation and rumor at this point," Ed replied. "Perhaps you will be able to ascertain that information once we arrive at our destination."

  Since the elevator was still going down and was not moving slowly, Ben asked. "Can I ask how deep we are going?"

  "About two thousand feet. The reason for the size of the elevator is because it has multiple uses," Ed explained.

  Stepping out of the over-sized elevator, the family entered a huge cavern that was hundreds of yards wide. The walls and ceiling were covered in some strange-looking gray stuff that didn't feel like concrete. The floor of the enormous cavern bore a striking resemblance to a building roof, except for its size, this building would have covered several city blocks.

  Looking around, Ben asked. “What is this place?”

  “As it was explained to me it’s kind of like an ark, or a life boat if you will. The Corporation has been working on this project, in secret, for years,” Ed answered.

  “This project? Tom never even hinted at something like this,” Deirdre said looking around her.

  Ed guided the family over to the stairs leading down. “What we are about to enter is called a pod. It’s a self-contained living environment for about three-dozen families. Scattered around all over the world are thousands of these pods, of varying sizes. They've been prepared as insurance against a mass extinction event. These units represent long-term survival and will be completely unknown to anyone that will be remaining on the surface. Not even the governments know of these pods.

  “Further preparations, with the assistance of the countries in which they reside, have also been undertaken. What could only be called huge underground military bases have been built in the event of circumstances requiring military protection,” Ed explained. "There is one being completed that is near here."