6/6/66

by JN Lenz

  For the deep clean after a murder I suspect, what had not been burned would be pressure washed down the drain.

  Closing the washroom door behind me, I walked back over to the small fridge and grabbed another Dr. Pepper. With all innovation around beverage containers, there was still something great about that “pisst sound” on a can, all that escaping carbon dioxide. This time, the “pisst” was followed by a small spray of soda, splashing small beads of the Dr. over the stainless steel drawers.

  Looking to both sides of the counter for a cloth to wipe off the spilt soda, but there was nothing visibly here. I started to check the drawers with the pop spray, opening the top drawer; I instantly knew there would be no spare rag in this drawer. The entire space was completely lined in some special high density foam, molded to hold a series of finely crafted scalpels and surgical medical tools of varying sizes and shapes. I did not have a clue what the hell they were for, but they scared the fuck out of me, so I closed that door quickly.

  A chill had manifested on the back of my neck and ran down the length of my spine, the creepiest thing I had ever felt. I spun around because of it, resulting in the drawer slamming shut. The loud thud from the closing drawer made me jump as my eyes scouring the empty walls of the bunker, my nerves finally racked.

  This file, this place, was starting to freak me out more and more, the longer I stayed here the harder it was becoming to keep my shit together.

  Fuck it, I said to myself, trying to dismiss that growing section of my brain that screaming

  “Get the fuck out of here.”

  Instead I chilled myself out and opened the next drawer down the cabinet; it too was filled with the same shinny bright orange foam. The molds shaped around several clamp like devices, and an area with several syringes of various sizes. The sides neatly held six plastic bobbins with varying diameter high tension string. Closing the second drawer, I reached down to open the third and last drawer, again the same high density orange foam jumped out against the silver of the stainless steel that surrounded it.

  The last drawer had only three molds, each pushed deep into the foam. The three cradled unique looking electric saws and drills. All three of the electrical tools had been cast in stainless steel; they shone brightly against the bright orange foam. The equipment in each drawer consisted of high quality professional tools, from the scalpels and clamps to the power tools.

  “What the fuck else have you been up too that I have not read yet?”

  I muttered out loud, as I closed the drawer that same chill forced me to spin around quickly. I repeated the same sequence of events including jumping at the sound of the closing drawer.

  Again it was if Clyde was waiting there in silence behind me.

  The room was still barren, there was no one there of course, but my nerves were starting to get the better of me.

  After grabbing a handful of toilet paper from the washroom to wipe off the soda, I made my way back over to the desk and the files. I wish I would have thought of that before opening those fucking drawers.

  Before sitting I completed a quick walk around the entire perimeter, stopping to check into each room to ensure I was indeed still alone in the bunker, I was.

  There was still that small voice in the back of my head yelling,

  “Get the fuck out of here.”

  But I would not listen, there was little more I could learn here that I did not already know, other than more victims’ names. Yet I could not find it in myself to leave, not yet.

  There was no question that my best friend, the same person that gave me my name for Christ sake, is a psychopathic serial murderer.

  The fact he was with my son at this very minute made it more and more impossible to subdue that screaming little voice. Pushing the fear back as best I could, focusing on tangibles, like the call I was expecting from Sid at midnight. That would keep me from full blown panic, freak-out.

  Focusing on Sid helped in keeping my actions logical and my mind from hysteria. I loved that kid so much, he really did mean the world to me, Lilly and him, that was all there was really, besides Clyde.

  Sid had always just been such an easy child to raise, when he was a baby it would be seldom that you would hear him cry, always carrying a big smile on his face or laughing at something silly. From the baby stage he transitioned into toddler and early school phases of his life with the same big smile, what Lilly and I could not provide to him, Clyde would be there to pick up the slack.

  Sid had always been an easy kid to love, happy and mature; his scholastic achievements meant we respected his intelligence as well. Lilly was the only one of us with a college degree, the one she had achieved for nursing, there was no post-secondary schools for Clyde and I. The marks had not been the issue, the cash from the pot was getting good and we hated school

  The boy must have got his love of education from his mother; I know he did not get it from me. Once it came time for university, he more or less could have gone anywhere he wanted to attend. That is what this whole climbing in the Andes trip was all about, this was Clyde’s gift to Sid for his post-secondary success. Wanting to instill the realities of success by showing him that any summit can be reached, throughout Sid’s life, be it a mountain or a career. The trip to South America came as a reward from Clyde; this after Sid achieved his bachelor’s degree, and acceptance into medical school.

  There was no way Sid could never know about any of our criminal past, certainly these murders must always remain from him. I know Lilly and Sid would never look at me the same way again if they discovered my involvement in these murders. Just thinking about the kid, relaxed the hand was on the panic button in the back of my mind.

  Sid was always a welcome diversion at the best of times, let alone the worst, like right now. I needed to prevent myself from freaking out, the minute I let that genie out, no good could come of the decisions made in the middle of hysteria.

  He will be fine; Clyde would kill for that kid that I know.

  I looked to the clock, nine fifty six.

  “Thank you” I confirmed aloud to the six.

  I had all the reassurance I needed, it was moments like this that seeing that six made me know Sid was going to be fine.

  Six had not let me down yet.

  I had another couple hours before I had to be on the road, to be back home for Sid’s call. This is probably the first time in my life I wish I had not left my Blackberry behind, or had driven the Audi A6 with the wireless and Satellite on board. Instead I had the Porsche three fifty six, whose technical highlight was the AM radio that I never turned on.

  I always preferred the babble and farting exhaust of the old German sports car. Nothing I can do about that now I guess, provided I am on the road by eleven I’ll be fine. The roads will be empty by then, and the drive back north should be quick.

  Having time before I needed to depart, I could not control the urge to continue delving into the unread pile of files. Who else had Clyde murdered?

  Had I known any of the yet unread victims?

  How had the events around Lance’s murder changed his murderous rampage? Had he resorted to tranquilizers on his human prey, just as he had switched to tranquilizing the wild big game animals that he had pursued for years?

  What would he do with a tranquilized human? The surgical instruments, had he used them to disfigure them in some hideous way before disposing of them in the blast furnace?

  There was a full operating room set up down here, here I go again. This fucking place is creeping me out.

  “Fuck off Jack, start reading”

  I finished the last of the Dr. Pepper, setting the can beside the first one I had consumed hours earlier. Walking back to the desk, I would have a seat.. After splashing the drawers of surgical instruments with the Dr. Pepper, I thought better than to bring the open can around all the papers. I was planning on leaving the place the way I arrived, taking the empty soda cans with me. Make sure all the files were returned to their original location i
n the cabinet, like I was never here.

  I would need to put some thought before confronting Clyde with my knowledge of all of this, at a time when I can think clearly again.

  Sliding the top few files to the side, I pulled one from beneath the stack.

  The same plane cover sheet with the simple font displayed the number sixty. Turning the cover page I began to read through the initial entries of file number sixty, the date being the year two thousand and twenty, six years ago.

  The year the queen died, I thought to myself. How our business and the number of services had climbed since the last massive Royal burial, that of Princess Diana, our business had barely just begun. The world was a much different place now, and then it was back thirty years ago when Diana was laid to rest.

  It was the age before personnel robots and artificial intelligence dominated everyone’s lives for one thing. The Koreans and Japanese manufacturers, who had created and manufactured the majority of the world’s supply of robots, used the new technology to drive their export driven economies even further. For Japan it would turn around a thirty year decline in GDP, reinvigorating their stagnant economy while providing care for their aging population.

  The energy power houses of the world like Israel, the United States and Brazil’s oil output exceed the old pillars of oil production in the Middle East, whose oil wells had begun to dry up. China too had become a large scale producer, their lack of environmental regulations around their fracturing in the rock opened vast resources. The unfortunate byproduct of severely contaminating underground water reservoirs did not hinder the oil developments progress. The hap hazard fraking also caused severe drought in key rice production areas, turning thousands of acres of fertile farm land into a desert dust bowl.

  The oil boom in both America and Israel had pulled America back from the brink of financial disaster, the boom followed the lost decade after the financial crisis in the year two thousand and eight. Combined with a steady decline in demand, America now produced as much oil as they consumed a first in almost a hundred years. Even the multinational corporations which had abandoned their American factories decades earlier, migrated back to the States, opening new highly automated production facilities.

  Nearly every maid, gardener and laborer, had been replaced by an artificial intelligence robot. America led the world in production of combat ready artificial intelligence soldiers, maintaining a slim lead over China who maintained the world’s second largest artificial intelligence soldier army. By selling vast quantities of the AIS to countries like fellow oil producer Israel and allied nations it allowed the Americans to maintain technological and numerical supremacy over the Chinese.

  The rock bottom interest rates, which had persisted for over a decade were now replaced by the eight to nine per cent rates. The decade of record low rates, empowered the already wealthy corporations and the rich and powerful individuals to an even greater degree. A small fraction of conglomerates and individuals had cornered and consolidated the key industries and commodities across the planet. The spread between the ultra-rich, and the poor masses had continued to grow unabated and continued to this very day.

  The middle class of the Western Worlds had practically ceased to exist, continuing its decline as the deaths of baby boomers accelerated. The generations that followed, earned less, had less, and owed more. Pension entitlements were nearly a thing of the past, government pensions could no longer be drawn upon earlier than the age of seventy six.

  Six years ago would mark the date of increased tensions between America and China, the souring of relations a combination of human rights violations, proliferation of artificial intelligence robots, both military and commercial, ongoing trade and currency skirmishes also soiled relations.

  With South Korea being the leading nation in world in the development and production of Artificial Intelligence laborers, or AIL, their close ties with the American military angered Chinese rulers. A joint force between the South Korea and America produced highly effective combat artificial intelligence soldiers or CAIS, with superior capabilities and control over the Chinese CAIS. The joint development of Combat CAIS between the two countries had been announced in the year two thousand and twenty, in the six years since then they have produced sixteen million of the CAIS.

  Sold to American Allies across the world in increasing numbers over the past six years, there are currently two million CAIS on the Korean Peninsula alone. Borders across the world would be patrolled by drones in the sky and CAIS on the round, unlike their human counterparts they required no sleep, and only a one hour charge each day.

  The new found energy independence and manufacturing resurrection in America, allowed then to reassert their military supremacy around the world, much to China and Russia’s displeasure. The decade long transformation to conservative governments around the world had those nations looking closer to their own security, as they too ratcheted up their military spending budgets.

  China, eager not to be over shadowed by the American CAIS’s, produced and marketed several models and versions of their own. To date there had only been a handful of small skirmishes between CAIS, all in remote regions of the world. The outcome confirmed the Korean/American CAIS, held the upper hand, having won all but one of the known combats involving only CAIS units.

  Five of the seven known combats between CAIS had been from those produced by the Americans, against those produced in China. The American units defeated the Chinese CAIS’s on each of the five meetings. The American unit had also defeated the one unit it had fought in the desert streets of a Sudanese city, which had been constructed in Russia. Their only defeat coming on the streets of Lebanon between and American designed CAS and a contingent of CAIS that had been purchased from a German manufacturer. Since the Germans remained allies of the Americans, the fight constituted more so bragging rights than a security issue to the Americans.

  The defeat the Chinese suffered in each CAIS battle would not prevent them from beginning to manufacture record numbers of CAIS in the past two years, setting a target of twenty six million by the end of the decade. Behind those two CAIS powerhouses, Israel thru the aggressive purchasing of CAIS made with the royalties from billions in oil sales had turned their army into the third largest CAIS army in the world at over three million.

  That same year the CAIS became front page news, it was two thousand and twenty, the year Sid started high school. He would finish that first year and the three that followed with honor roll marks. That same year, all six of us would spend the two weeks over Christmas and New Year’s Eve in the Grand Caymans.

  Oliver and Fitch had been there for years, so we all flew down together to spend the time there with them. I remember Clyde being the big shot, paying for a private jet just to fly the four of us down. At the time I thought it was a real nice touch that added to the excitement of the trip, especially for Sid, he loved the private jet thing. Now of course, I realize he was doing that because of the scanners in the airports, to keep his ass out of prison. Not that I blame him, but it’s funny how the truth takes the shine off a long held happy memory.

  Lilly, Sid and I rented a great house just down the beach from both Oliver and Fitch’s houses, Clyde ended up staying with Oliver for the two weeks. Fitch lived just a little past Oliver’s, on the same stretch of ocean front. This would be the first time we would see Oliver and Fitch for some time, we had all been down two and a half years earlier for Fitch’s wedding to Maria, but had not made it back since.

  The twins had little reason to visit Canada, having not been back here for a few years. Oliver remained the single beach slut, even now as he approached the age of sixty. Clyde told me on the flight home that year he couldn’t keep up with Oliver every night after the rest of us had long gone to bed.

  “It nearly killed me, the man’s an animal” He quipped.

  The year two thousand and twenty had been another strong financial year for us as well; there had been a couple of opportunities from over indebte
d owners that we capitalized on. The revenue and value of our properties had now far exceeded our monetary requirements to live the remainder of our lives in luxury. The entire business structure remained intact for Sid to take over, if he wanted it. Clyde had already told both Lilly and I that he had given Sid the bulk of his wealth in his will.

  By that same year, both Clyde and I had turned over the day to day operations of all our facilities to a handful of trusted staff. On occasion Clyde would visit the office that sat almost directly above me right now, maybe a couple times a week. It had been six years since Clyde had removed himself from the day to day operations side of the business. For me, I still make daily checks of top line results; margin and total volume was really all I cared about at this point. For the both of us, this was the ultimate reward, having achieved all our monetary requirements for life, twenty six years of nothing but enjoying life was what I was hoping for.

  Lilly continued to involve herself in a handful of local charities and causes, philanthropy suited her well. She focused on directing funds to organizations that provided the greatest results. Life would be good indeed for all of us, especially over the last twenty years. By all measures be the happiest years of our lives, even if the world around us had continued to deteriorate physically through global warming and pollution, and socially with extreme politics and uncertain economics. All of us, part of the lucky few, wealthy enough to live above the mediocrity and depression filled lives of the disillusioned masses.