The Controller had overcome many difficulties in life.
Life’s events that shaped him as a man began when he was three years old living in a broken down rental home in Wingate, NC. His mother Lucy made her living working in a cotton mill. His cousin Rachael looked after him while his mother worked. Rachael called him Little Ben. He was the second of two children. His older brother Samuel died of crib death when he was nine months old.
Lucy was devastated and immediately tried to replace Sam. She was dating a shift supervisor at the mill named Rob Simmons. Sam was Rob’s kid and within six months of the baby’s death, Lucy was pregnant again. Little Ben was told that Rob was his father but he knew better. Lucy also had a long-term secret affair with a guy named Junior Wilson. Junior was jobless and a drunkard.
It was Junior who introduced Lucy to bourbon and drugs. Finally having no where else to live, Junior moved in with them three days after Little Ben’s forth birthday. The affair with Lucy was now in the open. Rob quit Lucy shortly after that, but felt sorry for his former girlfriend and allowed her to continue working at the mill.
Rachael’s mother did not allow her to be around a man like Junior. Matter of fact, one day while Rachael was still babysitting little Ben, it was determined that Junior shared a weed with her and violated the sixteen year old.
After Rachael left, Junior watched Little Ben while Lucy worked. The truth was that Junior was high the majority of the time and slept most of the day. Little Ben was left on his own. Within six months after Junior moved in, Lucy progressed from weed and alcohol to Cocaine. She regularly missed work and when she went to the mill, she was high. After three warnings, Rob fired her.
Things went downhill from there for Little Ben. Rachael’s mother finally reported Junior to Union County child services. They went to the home and found the door unlocked with Junior and Lucy passed out on the floor. Little Ben was sitting in squalor on the floor eating a carrot. At five years old, he only weighed sixty pounds and had a rash covering his body. The Child Services’ lady reported to the Judge that Little Ben hadn’t been washed in weeks, and was malnourished to the point of near death. They immediately removed him from the home and placed him in an orphanage, St. Joseph Children’s Home.
At the orphanage Little Ben thrived. He loved the attention of the Sisters there, and showed early a high degree of intelligence. Five years later Little Ben was placed in a foster home at age ten.
Judge Raymond Alford and his young wife Cindy were childless. The Judge’s sperm didn’t swim well was the way he put it. Cindy and the fifty-five year old Judge married when she was seventeen. She was getting restless after five years of marriage to the “Old Man” as she called him. The Judge took in Little Ben on the foster care program to help placate Cindy.
For six months Cindy cared for Little Ben and treated him to anything he wanted. He was like a little doll to her. However after that, she tired of her toy and neglected him.
On the day after Little Ben’s eleventh birthday, Cindy ran off with Elbert Johnson, the mailman who delivered their mail. Little Ben had watched for months as Cindy cavorted with Elbert while the Judge was at work.
For whatever reason, the Judge blamed Little Ben for his young wife’s departure and regularly whipped him with a belt for usually no reason at all. One night while drunk, he violated Little Ben. Little Ben ran away the next day, and was later picked up by the police when he was searching a garbage can for food behind an Olive Garden Restaurant. The authorities noticed the scars on his back from the beatings, and asked Little Ben what happened to him.
“The Judge beat me when I couldn’t go to sleep,” was all he said.
The Judge was charged with child abuse and got ninety days probation. Little Ben was returned to the orphanage. At age twelve, the sisters stopped calling him Little Ben.
Ben was tall for his age and continued to exhibit a high level of intelligence, especially in Mathematics and English. He was placed in a special education program and skipped several grades. On a few occasions people offered to take him in on the foster home program, but Ben always was disrespectful and angry during the trial visits, and was rejected. He was happy in the orphanage and didn’t want to leave.
Ben graduated high school at age sixteen and was the Valedictorian. After his seventeenth birthday, Ben left the Sisters and made his way to Washington DC. He was able to secure a job at Restaurant Nora as a bus boy. Within six months, he was a Server earning more than six hundred dollars a week.
After his eighteenth birthday, he withdrew his savings, bought a laptop and a Gerber 22-41966 Pocketknife.
The next morning he took a bus to Union County, NC under an assumed name. Hate was burning in his soul and he was determined to put out the fire.
It took him about two weeks to locate Junior and his mother Lucy. They were living in a run down apartment on the outskirts of Monroe, NC. After watching the place for about a week, he determined that his mother was supporting Junior by prostitution. He watched as she came home with men of all ages. They would stay for about an hour and leave.
On one occasion Ben knocked on the door of the apartment. Junior answered the door. He didn’t recognize Ben, and was drunk and spaced out on drugs. Ben pretended that he had the wrong place and left.
Three days later at two in the morning, Ben picked the lock and quietly entered the apartment. Lucy and Junior were sleeping soundly. Ben slammed both of them in the head with a baseball bat. Then he stabbed Junior twenty-two times with a butcher knife. He only stabbed Lucy nine times. He sliced off Junior’s penis and crammed it in Lucy’s mouth.
After assuring that he left no evidence of his entry, he left. Ben tossed the butcher knife in Richardson Creek and returned to his room at the Quality Inn on highway 74 where he paid cash and registered under an assumed name.
For the first time in years, Ben slept soundly.
The next morning he googled Judge Raymond Alford. Alford had moved to Charlotte and remarried to a woman named Lily Thompson. They lived in the exclusive South Park area of Charlotte. He noted the address.
Ben checked out of the Quality Inn and took a bus to Charlotte. He rented a room at the Charlotte Marriott South Park, again prepaying cash for one night. He remained in the room till four am in the morning.
Ben left the hotel by the back entrance and began checking car doors in the parking lot. There were at least thirty cars on the lot. Finally he located a gray Toyota Camry with the door unlocked. It was probably a 1994 or 1995 model.
One of the things Ben studied prior to coming to North Carolina was the hot wiring of a car. He took out his pocketknife and got into the car.
Ben broke the locking pins in the ignition by hammering the end of his pocketknife blade into the keyhole and turning it over. Underneath he found the wires leading to the battery, ignition, and starter going straight up the steering column. He looked at the brown ignition wires and the yellow starter wires, knowing that the battery wires are red.
Ben stripped about one inch of insulation from the battery wires and twisted them together. He was careful not to allow them to short against metal vehicle components. He connected these wires to provide electricity for the ignition components, so the engine is able to run when the starter is turned.
He then connected the ignition on/off wire to the battery wire. The dash lights and other electrical components came on. Being extremely careful, he stripped the starter wire about 1⁄2 inch. He then touched the end of this to the connected battery wires. The engine roared to life.
Ben put the car in gear and drove out of the parking lot. He turned the lights on when he entered the highway. Ben proceeded to the Judge’s address and rode by the home. It was a beautiful white brick and beige stucco home. He slowed down and noticed a sign in the landscape bed beside the front door of the home. It read, “Protected by ADT.” With the home protected by a burglar protection system, Ben decided to go to plan B.
He parked the Toyota at the end of the cul-de-s
ac and made his way to the home. The landscaping on the front of the home was lush and dense. On both sides of the front door were Ligustrum shrubs about five feet tall. He crouched behind the shrubs and waited. He knew that when the Judge or his wife awoke to get ready for the day that they would turn off the alarm. When this occurred he would kill them both.
He looked at his watch. It was five-thirty am. He was alarmed by a pickup truck driving on the street in front of the homes. He ducked down as the truck slowed in front of the Judge’s home and threw out a morning paper.
Minutes later, lights were turned on in the home. After another fifteen minutes, he heard a noise at the front door. The door opened and standing there was the man he hated, and who had molested him, Judge Raymond Alford.
Alford was wearing a black terrycloth bathrobe. He stepped outside and bent to pick up the paper. Ben leaped out of the shrubs behind him, grabbed his hair and jerked his head back. With his other hand he sliced the Judge’s throat with one deep cut just below his Adam’s apple. Ben jerked his hands away as blood squirted from the man’s neck. The Judge made a sickening gurgle and fell dead on the sidewalk.
Ben wiped the knife blade on the Judge’s robe to remove the blood and calmly walked to the Camry and drove away. He decided to let Lily Thompson live.
He returned the car to the parking lot, wiped it clean of fingerprints and went back to his room. He showered and thoroughly cleaned his Gerber 22-41966 Pocketknife. At eight am he had breakfast at the hotel restaurant. He enjoyed his omelet, cheese grits, and country ham with two cups of black coffee. Ben then took a cab to the bus station and purchased a ticket to Washington, DC.
Arriving in Washington, he returned to his apartment. The next morning he went to a government website, downloaded the appropriate forms, and filled them out for a name change. The questions on the forms were straightforward, and included his old name, new name, social security number, reason for the name change, and a promise that he was not changing the name to escape debt or criminal liability. Later in the day he filled the papers with the appropriate authorities. In the next days, Ben had a new drivers license issued in his new name, and had his social security number assigned to the new name.
When these undertakings were completed, he went to the Marine recruiting office and joined the Marines. His new life was beginning.
After the initial testing, Ben was offered the opportunity to attend Officers Training School, which he accepted. When all his training was complete, he requested and was deployed to Iraq. He rose in the ranks and by the end of his third year, after three tours in Iraq, he was commissioned as a Captain. A Captain is a commissioned Marine Corps Officer at company level, and Ben served as a Company Commander in control of 190 soldiers.
On a hot July day during his forth year of service, his company came under a four man suicide attack by Al Qaeda. Ben single handily tackled the terrorist with the bomb strapped to his chest, killed him and defused the bomb. He shot two of the other three, with his men killing the forth. He saved many lives and was awarded the Bronze Star.
The Bronze Star Medal, unofficially the Bronze Star, is a United States decoration awarded to members of the United States Armed Forces for either heroic achievement, heroic service, meritorious achievement, or meritorious service in a combat zone.
Ben left the core at the end of his four-year commitment. Being a war hero, he was hired to work for Congressman Albert Stennis from the state of New York. He worked for Congressman for three years, when the Congressman died of a stroke. The circumstances were a little strange considering that Stennis was in good health, but nothing ever materialized to merit an investigation.
Ben, now being twenty-five and of age to serve in Congress, ran for the vacated seat and won easily. America loves war heroes.
The Congressman never felt like he belonged in any group. After years of serving in public service, he began studying the Muslim Religion. The Religion made sense to him as it fit his basic distrust and hate of mankind. He converted and had a Mentor in Imam Ali Telibh. The primary responsibility of an Imam is to lead Islamic worship services. In fact, the word “Imam” itself means, “to stand in front of” in Arabic, referring to placement of the Imam in front of the worshippers during prayer. The Imam recites the verses and words of prayer, and the people follow his movements. During the service, he stands facing away from the worshipers, toward the direction of Mecca.
Imam Telibh understood that if it was revealed to the public that Ben had converted, he would not be reelected to his position and would loose his political power. He conducted private services for Ben and kept his secret.
Now Ben was in the position of making the United States of America a Caliphate.
A Caliphate is an Islamic state. It’s led by a Caliph, who is a political and religious leader, who is a successor (caliph) to the Islamic Prophet Muhammad. His power and authority is absolute.
The Controller salivated at the thought of being the Caliph.
He finally enjoyed peace in his soul.
Chapter 48
Alex asked me to go to the cabin. He said Maria was waiting there. As I was getting up he said, “Michael, I need to make arrangements for my private jet to take you to the location where your daughter is being kept. John can handle that for me, and I want him to accompany you as your personal bodyguard. My plane is safer than any the Director might arrange.”
“You may be right and it would be quicker. When can we leave for the Pecos, Texas airport?”
“I can have you in the air within four hours,” he replied. “The flight time is about five and a half hours. I’ll arrange for a car to be waiting. Now go talk to Maria.”
I walked down the stairs and back to the cabin. Maria was sitting at the desk in front of a laptop computer. She smiled and beckoned me over to the chair in front of the desk. She had changed into a black silk pantsuit. She was wearing black-rimmed glasses and looked studious.
“Mr. Roberts, sit down and I want to hear your entire story from the beginning.”
I repeated everything in detail including the conversations with Director Stancil and his belief that I was framed. I repeated what he told me about the Russian Mafia and ISIS.
“The Director said that as soon as it’s revealed that I’m alive, I will be arrested or killed.”
“Okay Michael, this is what we are going to do. My father will have you flown to anywhere you want to go. No one will be aware of your location. Don’t talk to anyone except Director Stancil.”
“My daughter is alive and presently in a safe location. I have reason to believe that her life may also be in danger. I’ll be going to her location first.”
She nodded, gave me her cell number and her father’s, and I added the numbers to my contact list.
“I’m going to fly to Houston and go to the Regional FBI offices and inform them that I will be representing you. I’ll need to inform the press that you are alive in order to build a defense. You should be aware that the police will be looking for you and so will the people who set you up. When I develop enough evidence to clear you, you can surrender to Director Stancil personally. Is that strategy acceptable?”
“Maria do not implement this strategy until I call you and give you the go ahead. I don’t want to interfere with my reunion with Lisa.”
She nodded and continued, “I’ll demand all the evidence they have against you. You get all the details you can from Director Stancil that can help me prove your innocence. I’ll inform them that you hired me by phone and that I don’t know your present whereabouts. I will refuse to answer any more of their questions. Call me when you are ready.”
“May I express to you again how much I appreciate your and Alex’s help. I need to get my life back and help uncover the plot for a major terror attack on my country.”
“I’ve got all I need from you. I’ll be flying to Houston late this evening. Go take care of your daughter and stay in touch.”
Maria stood up and walked around the
desk to where I was standing. She smiled and hugged me. “I’m good at what I do,” she said.
I felt confident that she was, left and went back upstairs where Alex was waiting.
John was sitting beside him at the table.
“Michael, I want to formerly introduce you to John Abbott. He has been operating as one of my bodyguards and personal assistant for three years. Prior to that John was a member of the British Special Air Service for ten years. The roles of the British Army’s Special Forces unit, the 22nd Special Air Service, include counter-terrorism and reconnaissance. The SAS is one of the world’s most renowned and respected Special Forces Regiments. As soon as it’s discovered that you did not perish at sea, it’s probable that the men who planned the event on the cruise ship will attempt to assassinate you. John will not allow that to happen. Maria will need time to clear your name, John will accompany you until she’s ready for you to surrender to the authorities.”
I looked over at John as he stood and extended his hand to me. His coal black hair was cut short. He stood at least six feet three inches tall and had piercing light blue eyes. I could see that he was a no nonsense man who worked out a lot with weights. There was a small scar just above his left eyebrow. He made no attempt to smile.
“I will protect you,” he said in a deep voice.
“Thank you John,” I replied and shook his hand. While I was standing, my cell phone rang. “Excuse me,” I said, and walked to the side.
“Hello.”
“Michael, this is Harold Stancil. I’ve talked with Agent Stewart and he has delivered Lisa to Hamilton and Ana Burris. Ham is retired Special Forces and his wife is a former FBI Agent. Hamilton and Ana Burris have a ranch south of Pecos Texas. He’s a crusty eighty-four-year-old and Ana is seventy-six and served as a physiologist for the FBI. Lisa will need a professional to deal with all that’s happened to her. I can arrange for my brother to pick you up there and fly you to Pecos.”
Lost in the Maze Page 24