When all were seated, Hannah proceeded to show Cynthia all the data she had collected. Cynthia was amazed because it actually looked like she was watching everything again from her own eyes to the screens!
“But how can it, I mean never mind. Just wow!” Cynthia stated as she watched the video feed of the events unfold from the day before.
“Is it possible you can stay away from your people long enough to see this mission through?” Hannah asked.
“See it through? There is no way I’ll start something and not finish it. You can count me in all the way!” Cynthia went on to say, “I’ve already temporary shut all my companies down and did all I could for all employees.
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. I wasn’t aware it had gotten that bad for you,” Hannah said.
“It’s worse now; big business is gone as far as I can tell. I’ve been relocating employees that worked for many years to wherever they wanted to go,” Cynthia answered softly as she looked to the side remembering days now gone.
Cynthia explained that she was left with many warehouses full of supplies that could not be sold because most stores had now closed. The only folks that sold merchandise were those who were price-gouging everyone. That, she would not stand for!
Hannah whispered into Charles' ear and they left the room momentarily to discuss an idea Hannah had. If it worked, they could save thousands of more people that were left nearly homeless from the stock market crash, the civil war that still lingered on and the breakdown in government and even all those folks that gave to the megachurch!
The three settlements of freedom could not accept any more refugees. But if they could confiscate the reverend’s compound, move Cynthia’s semi loads of supplies to that property and transport those that were fighting to survive it just might work.
Hannah’s idea was to transport the church members who had already donated in order to live on the property, and as was possible, move others there too. But the reverend would have to be exposed to all his people in order to remove him from his self-appointed throne.
When they went back into the room that is when Hannah explained to Cynthia what was needed of her. She would need to infiltrate the church, have a meeting with all the heads of the church that had been stealing from its members and expose their plans for all to see.
Once the reverend and his crowd were exposed, they could then confiscate the property and start moving all those people to safety.
But they would still have to figure out what on Earth to do with a total of 125 staffers of the church!
Hannah ran the plan by everyone including Cynthia, and it was a done deal. Cynthia would need to put off a visit to the church for a least two weeks so she could get her supplies on the road moving toward the Appalachian Mountains.
None could travel close to each other as this would be a dead giveaway of a convoy and no one did convoy’s these days unless it was somebody hoarding supplies. That is exactly how many robberies had been going on.
Cynthia had tankers of petroleum, fuel oil and warehouses full of non-perishables ready to move somewhere because many warehouses had been robbed and burned to the ground. She would have given it all to the church to keep it from getting destroyed like the rest of them had.
It was the very reason she thought donating her supplies to the church was a good idea until she discovered the truth.
But everything would have to be timed perfectly! Cynthia needed to bust the reverend and his staff that were in on it.
For the next two weeks, Cynthia ordered all her truck drivers to get ready for the move. Hannah sent Ellead and Ohtron to arm each truck with the shroud, so they would not be noticed, and the bitrons were eager to work for Ohtron once again.
Meanwhile, the plan was well underway to nail the reverend and open the eyes of his churchgoers. His members needed to see that he never intended for many of them to reside in the compound.
But time had gone by so fast, Cynthia could hardly believe she was getting back into that Second Skin suit already! It had been two weeks, and the reverend was anxious to see Cynthia again.
The church was about to have their annual meeting. They would be covering the books on monies collected over the year and also donations of non-perishables. They would be planning the big move to the compound and deciding who would get to move there and who would not.
Cynthia was ready, and she boarded Ellead fully suited for the job. Ohtron and his bitrons were still very busy outfitting all semi’s with shrouds, tracking devices, and a lot of other technologies the drivers had no idea about.
The trucks were now on the road and some had already left days earlier depending on how far away they were. Ellead dropped Cynthia off on the designated spot and she drove her car out of the cargo bay and was on her way.
Cynthia had no idea what the reverend had actually planned, no one did. But all everyone could do was go along with what was happening and be prepared at a moment’s notice to move in for the rescue if needed.
She arrived at the church just before services and the valet took her small bag and escorted Cynthia in the back door of the church.
This was a bit unusual since no one has ever taken her personal things from her car before, much less escort her through the back door of the church.
Cynthia’s heart was racing but there was no way she was going to show any fear, not now, not this close to busting that bastard!
She was led up some stairs behind the pulpit area and her escort told her she was at the reverend’s private area and to wait there. He also dropped off her bag and left without answering any questions. She had been there before just two weeks ago, but this was strange.
Noon services were less than an hour away, so it was a bit confusing why she needed to wait there for the reverend. Why not wait for him in the staff lounge, she thought to herself. But she could see security cameras in every corner, so someone was no doubt watching her.
Since Cynthia had the freedom to walk around, she took a stroll and was amazed at the luxury the private area in the back of the church actually had. Top of the line furniture, some rare items that must have been worth a small fortune!
That’s when Cynthia heard a voice in her ear say, go shroud now and we’ll tell you which direction to go!
She was so dreading the moment she would be asked to do that since she was still very uncomfortable using that part of the second skin suit. She had practiced, but it never got any easier.
Then the voice coming from her suit told her where to stand that she would not be seen by any cameras and so she gave the command to go shroud.
Cynthia literally had to check for a reflection in a portrait hanging on the wall in order to be assured she was actually in shroud mode and could not be seen by anyone!
As she roamed the hallways, she couldn’t help but wonder who was who? She knew there were at least six undercover agents from the FBI in on this mission, but it was kept from her for safety reasons.
She was led down the hall and told to turn right. Stop and wait for the door to open and slip inside. Witness the secret meeting and when it was over, to slip out when the door first opens again, and she did.
With no time to even think about what those people said at that secret meeting, she did as she was told. Gasping for breath, she was still in shock at what she had learned.
Each turn was correct, and she sure was glad someone knew their way around that place, or she would never have made it back to the private quarters.
Just before entering the hallways she had first left, she heard the voice say, “Turn shroud off now!”
“Shroud off!” Cynthia thought as strongly as she could and then she saw her reflection in the photograph hanging on the wall.
Once inside the private quarters, Cynthia found a bar, of all things! A bar in a church? Well to make it look like she had never wandered off, she helped herself to a martini.
Just about that time, the reverend rushed in, practically out of breath. He had realized t
hey were not supposed to seat her in his private quarters, of all days, not today!
He wanted her in the staff lounge, and he thought of firing whoever it was that put her there!
But when he saw the martini in her hand, he laughed and said, “Well I’m glad you found the bar at least!”
He made a drink for himself, guzzled it down and said, “It’s time for service, so please allow Chuck to lead you to your seat.”
The reverend said, “After services, we have a special announcement, and I want you to have the front-row seat for it,” the reverend said.
Cynthia said nothing, she just gave him a slight nod and a sweet smile and proceeded to the front row seating and waited for the reverend to appear in his finest robe and proceed with the services.
The lights were turned down low, music began playing in the background and a spotlight landed precisely where the reverend was backstage and followed him all the way up to the pulpit.
The choir sang so beautifully it almost brought tears to her eyes. Then the congregational prayer led by the reverend was whispered by everyone in the room.
The reverend had preached his sermon and announced he was about to give his congregation the biggest news since the megachurch was built over 12 years ago.
The large screen was lowered from the ceiling of the megachurch. The music played and everyone in the room was holding their breath and not making a sound.
A soft-spoken woman’s voice began narrating a flyover video of the compound the reverend had spent everyone’s money on.
Then the video’s played of the drones that did the lower flyovers of the underground storage areas of the compound, log cabin homes and barracks for recreation, a mess hall, a smaller church much humbler that seemed to become part of the setting of the beautiful nature that surrounded it.
Gasping, many whispered it was like a sneak-peak into heaven! Some whispered it looked like the Garden of Eden. It was everything and more than anyone in the room ever expected as a waiting place until the rapture.
Then all of a sudden, the video flickered a few times, went offline for 10 seconds and back on again. Everyone held their breath for fear the video had ended; they were hungry and wanted more!
The video started again but from somewhere inside the church. Then everyone questioned if it was the staff meeting room of the church?
But the low music continued to play, and everyone watched. The reverend turned around and looked at the screen and fainted immediately.
A few men rushed to his side but no one else did. They were transfixed by the screen as the voices from those men were saying things that did not make any sense to anyone!
They spoke, argued and cursed at trying to figure out where to house so many members that meant nothing to them in the first place.
One said, “Let them live in this megachurch; they can have it for all we care. Let them camp in it or maybe God will pick them up first,” he said as hateful as he could.
The reverend stated in the video, “I’ve already picked who I have chosen to live there! Do as you will!”
Another argued, “Well they paid their tithes, now what?” Another spoke-up and said, “Who cares! They are too poor, stupid and blind to do anything about this,” he said.
Then the reverend demanded, “It is time to start the evacuation to the compound tomorrow!”
This was Cynthia’s cue to use the dreaded EST or emergency safety transport and she pressed the correct combination with fear so deep in her heart, she feared for her life!
There were sounds of people screaming and yelling and trampling over each other to get to the stage and the reverend screaming, “Turn it off, turn it off, turn it off god-damn it or I’ll personally kill every staff member that works for me!”
The was the last thing Cynthia could remember hearing or seeing was the reverend in a total panic!
The next morning at the Caldiron Ranch, Cynthia continued to sleep. Hannah knew it could be days before she awakened.
She had transported to the unit inside Ellead and he had rushed back to the ranch in minutes. Cynthia was placed in the care of one of Dr. Trexien’s medical bots and Hannah, Charles and their crew never left her side until she woke up three days later.
Cynthia woke that morning, stretching and yawning and ask for coffee. That was the moment everyone relaxed for the first time since the breakup of the megachurch.
She was completely confused and thought most of what she remembered was just a bad dream. Hannah replayed much of what was on the news the last few days so Cynthia could get caught up on everything.
Few channels had survived long through all the fighting on the streets, but CNN worked tirelessly through warehouses and any place they could set up a studio to continue broadcasting the truth and squashing propaganda as fast as they possibly could with truth and facts.
Cynthia was so happy the talking heads were no longer arguing over this or that, but each simply telling the news as straight up as they could and combating the lies that had now become the everyday norm.
The video came in of the rioting in the church and no one had heard or seen the reverend or his staff. They had disappeared as far as anyone could tell.
Some said they may still be held inside the megachurch but there were simply not enough police or any law enforcement available to force their way inside and search.
Thousands had started tearing out the seating in the megachurch and cordoning off sections they would now call home. In just three short days, it appeared to have become a refugee camp of a very angry crowd.
The megachurch was self-sufficient with its own generator powered by diesel and enough on the grounds to last for years.
But Cynthia had so many questions, Hannah had to explain that very little was known right now. Their FBI agents were still inside and reporting back only when the opportunity presented itself.
As far as anyone could tell, the back of the church was locked up solid. No one could get in or out. Security was heavy, but there was no way the reverend or his people could leave the church without one of its members knowing about it.
Every window or door had a guard placed at it of one of the members of the church who had acquired guns. Some members had discovered the semi loads of supplies located at the back of the church’s wooded area and had already opened those trucks to feed the hungry now living inside the megachurch.
Two of the FBI agents now had control of several of the trucks out back and was working with the members of the church to organize a survival camp on the inside.
The rest of the few agents who worked in security and on rewiring the security cameras were still active since they had received from Hannah the direct feed from Cynthia’s suit!
It was expected that Hannah would have visuals any day now of inside the reverends private section of the building. It would be critical to know what he was up to in order to be ready for his next move.
Cynthia was still weak from using the transport system and ask Hannah to remind her to never drink a martini before jumping like that!
It had given her the hangover of a lifetime no doubt, one that Cynthia would remember for a very long time. But she had recovered from many in the past and she would be just fine, she kept reminding herself.
It had now been five days since the uprising and the visual feed went live from inside the private area of the megachurch!
That was the first time Cynthia had moved like a spring chicken in many years, but she had invested a lot in this mission, and she wanted to be first in line to see what was going on.
Every monitor lit up that covered a different area of the church, especially the private section! When there was no sound, you could hear a pin drop at the ranch.
Everyone waited with bated breath, then the sound came on and the cheers in that room drowned out the words coming in on the monitor.
The first thing that came through was the reverend pacing the floor demanding his people tell him how such a disaster could have occ
urred.
They were playing the tape over and over again trying to figure out what might have occurred when someone asked about a shadow around the corner just down the hall from the reverend’s private quarters?
It wasn’t long before they had figured out that the only stranger there was Cynthia. She was seen coming out of the private quarters, walking down the hall and looking at an oil painting on the wall.
Then around the corner, a small shadow appeared but then disappeared in an instant and no one is seen between that place and the meeting.
The door to the private meeting was only opened twice, once at the beginning when they checked to make sure the hallway was all clear and then they closed the door. It was not opened again until the meeting was over.
Every head was accounted for and there were no extras in the room nor shadows on the wall or hall or anything else. Everyone in the room was baffled.
“Well if it wasn’t the invisible man recording us, then who sent our meeting out there to the church members?” the reverend demanded again and again until he was about to turn blue in the face.
“It’s impossible, sir, to reroute the wiring unless that person or persons would have to have been working here since the beginning of opening up the church for Christ’s sake!” one man said.
“Perhaps as long as when we were under construction?” another questioned.
“Well if that’s the case, that would mean someone out there knows everything we know and more!” the reverend screamed to the top of his lungs and his voice echoed in the room!
Another one suggested they do a head count. Then whoever is missing was who did it!
When the head count was done, little did any of them know or suspect, but most of the staff was missing! It would be impossible to tell who did it, and when.
Then the panic set in. The mistrust. They began to question each other and before long, no one trusted the other and they were all in lockdown!
All televisions were tuned to the world outside them, but all they could see was helicopters flying over the megachurch and newscasters trying to figure out what was going on.
The Chronicles of Syra Omnibus Page 35