by Sue Knott
On Monday, I got up feeling relieved. I knew I couldn’t let that lead to complacency, but it was so nice to shake off so much of the stress I’d been carrying around. After taking in a Zumba class at the Y, I went to my parents’ house to dig the stealth computer out from where I’d hidden it. Then, I took a long drive out toward UB. On the way, I stopped at a car dealership. I needed a more fuel efficient and reliable car if I was going to be driving all over tarnation to make myself hard to pinpoint.
While I was at the car dealership I discovered that Rachel’s First Law of Peril could easily be expanded to be my First Law of Life. I wasn’t eligible for a car loan! Rachel Shannon didn’t have a job…Rachel Shandling did.
This scenario had never occurred to me. It made me wonder what other ramifications there might be. Would I have trouble getting a job after this? How much would I be losing in social security benefits? (My fake name had its own fake social security number.) I definitely wouldn’t be eligible for Workmen’s Compensation or unemployment benefits if anything were to happen. And who knew how high my health insurance costs might be after my COBRA ran out?
Maybe Amir was thinking about all these complications when he gave me my signing bonus. Either way, I figured I’d better put the majority of the bonus into my savings account. I couldn’t predict what kind of financial crises I might come across. So much for feeling rich.
Once I got near UB, I found a coffee shop with a Wi-Fi signal and logged onto CussedEmOuterwear.com for the first time in a couple weeks. Zowie! Traffic on both sides of the site had sky rocketed.
There wasn’t all that much “news” on the Glyphs side of the site. One of the latest symbols that had been added to the formula was in hot contention. It looked like half the Glyphs community thought it was wrong, with the other half thinking it was right.
Independent discussions were springing up all over. Browsing through those, it looked like a big portion of the community still had the same feelings I did about the origin and meaning of the Glyphs. I posed the question of whether a person’s intuition level had anything to do with their Glyphs assumptions. It would be interesting to see what the community had to say. I personally believed the two were connected.
I almost didn’t notice a request for a personal meeting. It was short, but specific. “Seer” had information too sensitive to post. He (or she?) wanted to meet with me ASAP to discuss it. There was a number for me to call to make the arrangements.
I thought it was odd that someone would leave a phone number on the site. I assumed an obsession for security was part of the Glyphs package. Maybe I’d gotten that part wrong. I figured I’d wait to call “Seer” until after discussing it with Amir.
It wasn’t until I took a close look at the public side of the site that I started getting worried. Deeply worried. Nauseous worried.
We were closing in on 2 million unique visitors. The jackets were selling so fast, the web-based fulfillment service I was using couldn’t keep up. All orders were already going automatically to backorder. We’d sold over 2,000 jackets…and the sales trend was sharply increasing. Our Google Ad Words revenues were running $800 a week – also with a steep growth trend.
We’d become a sensation! Would the media start paying attention? What if they wanted to do a story? Would they get even more interested when they couldn’t find an office or an owner or anyone involved with the site?
I’d never thought about it. Success created its own problems. I guess I’d never assumed we’d have such huge success. I thought we’d be lucky to get several hundred people to visit our site.
That night when I checked Amir’s batphone (we were on the #3 batphone now), he had left an urgent message for me to call him the next day. I barely slept.
Chapter 35
The next day I drove out to Chestnut Ridge Park. I’d call Amir from the casino at the assigned time. Next to no one would be there in the middle of a weekday afternoon. I could talk in relative privacy without freezing my butt off outside.
Again, Amir answered on the first ring. But, this was a different Amir than I’d come to know. His voice was controlled, but I could detect the underlying rage.
“Rachel, what the hell is going on?”
I’d never heard Amir swear before. I was pretty sure “hell” was a big curse word as far as he was concerned.
“Ummm…unexpected success? I’m guessing that people who aren’t consciously aware of the Glyphs are somehow unconsciously drawn to them. That’s the only way I can explain how we’ve gotten so much traffic on so little promotion.”
“And how is it that there is now money going in to the company bank account?” It sounded like he was spitting out the words between clenched teeth.
“I set the public side up to act more like a commercial site. I contracted for Google Ads thinking we could generate a little income. And, as you’ve probably noticed, I’m selling jackets. I figured that would also be a really cost effective way to get our message out…every jacket is like a walking billboard. I didn’t think it would explode like this. I never in a million years thought we’d be able to generate this much interest.” My voice was cracking.
There was silence on the other end of the line.
“I’m sorry, Amir.”
“Is there anything else I should know?”
“I’m pretty sure I got the FBI off my tail.”
“Anything else?”
“I think you should drop out of all this. I can manage the website with the income it’s generating. I don’t need your paycheck.”
“Perhaps that might be best. Rachel, it is difficult enough to disguise money going out. But, money coming in attracts so much more attention. I cannot afford that attention. It is best I am not associated with this any longer.”
“Great. Then. Thanks. I obviously couldn’t have gotten this far without you.”
“Will you do me a favor?”
“Sure.”
“Keep the next batphone on and with you at all times…in case there are any unforeseen complications I need to clear up with you. I will dispose of the phones on this end, so you will have no way to contact me.”
“Fine. Sure. No problem.”
“And could you please send back the necklace?”
“Certainly.” I made a little squeaking sound choking back the tears. I hoped Amir didn’t pick it up on his end.
His voice softened ever so slightly. “It is not that I do not wish you to have the necklace. But, it is one of a kind. It could be traced back to me.”
“I understand. No need to explain.”
“Goodbye, Rachel.”
“Goodbye.”
And that was it. I was on my own. I went home and went to bed. For three days.
Chapter 36
Once I’d finally pulled myself out of my funk I had a lot of catching up to do. I sent the necklace to the P.O. Box as Amir had requested. Then, I researched additional service providers for even more Glyphs merchandise. If I was going to be on my own, I’d have to maximize my income stream to afford advertising and other promotional costs.
Then, I returned Seer’s call. I didn’t find him to be nice. He sounded like a creep trying to pretend he was nice. I didn’t think he was a Seer at all. From the comments left on the website, it seemed like only nice people got the Glyphs visions. Or did the visions somehow make people nice? Did it matter?
In any event, when I tried to enter into a bit of a Glyphs philosophical conversation with him, it was obvious he didn’t get the Glyphs. He said he had information he could only give me in person. I told him he’d need to post it to the website. He argued, offered to come to my city, offered to fly me to his city. I cut him off politely and threw away the phone.
That guy had me worried. He talked like he was well funded…maybe a government or some kind of fringe group (I’m assuming a mainstream group wouldn’t be so sneaky)? Since Seer was trying to arrange a meeting, I was guessing he didn’t know who I was or how to find me. I hoped it would s
tay that way.
Since I was all alone in this whole Glyphs thing now, I felt more vulnerable. I considered fessing up to Bill and trying to get some protection from the FBI. But, I really didn’t trust the government to do the right thing when it came to the Glyphs. Big oil had so many politicians in their pockets. Heck, they had owned the White House the preceding eight years. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they tried to suppress whatever info came from the Glyphs if it turned out to be for some sort of clean energy. And then how would they go about suppressing me? I could end up being in greater danger than I was on my own.
Besides, the stated plan on the website was to make the Glyphs available to everyone, everywhere. That kind of sharing was the feeling that came with the vision. If the FBI higher ups didn’t have the vision, they might not be so generous.
So, the only thing I could do was be careful. Being careful was nerve-wracking. Fortunately, it was snowing a lot this winter. I was always studying the footprints in the snow around the house, making sure I could account for all of them.
I noticed that the website had been infiltrated by some users with an agenda of their own. Certain usernames were consistently disagreeing about the correctness of parts of the Glyphs formula. It looked like they were deliberately trying to cause the wrong Glyphs to be posted (I had set up the site so that every part of the formula could be challenged and voted on, with the majority ruling what remained posted.)
I went through the history of our postings. It was easy to spot the visitors who had insightful comments and what I would consider an accurate eye. These users all agreed on the same Glyphs before the troublemakers came in and tried to vote them down.
We were getting so much traffic on the website that it was hard for the infiltrators to keep voting down parts of the formula. Still, I needed an uncontaminated arena. I created a second, private, invitation-only site. I asked all the users I invited to continue to participate in the other site as they always had so the infiltrators wouldn’t get suspicious.
It didn’t look like there was any infiltration on the invitation-only site. I was hoping that meant my email hadn’t been hacked. Still, I was really careful about what I sent out…and I posted a warning letting users know they should be extremely cautious about all Glyphs interactions.
We were making progress, but it was going very slowly. We’d input maybe one new Glyphs symbol a week. That wouldn’t be so bad, except that there were over ten pages of formula with about 1,000 Glyphs per page and 25% of those were blanks. With a major ice shelf having unexpectedly broken off not long ago, I was worried we needed to fill the blanks in a lot faster. (In case you’re as bad at math as me, we’re talking about 50 years to fill in the formula at our present rate.)
Even though it was really expensive, I went forward with production on a Glyphs video. I figured that was our best shot at really getting the message to the widest possible audience.
I was pretty happy with the way I had been able to keep up my regular routine…morning exercise, followed by several solid hours of work at my parents’ house or “at large.” (Though, when I was “at large,” I was careful not to have any regularity to where I went.) The routine allowed me to maintain my sanity.
Working alone, without any human contact, was a bit weirdifying. (Especially since my “job” was bizarre to begin with.) I didn’t want to turn into a total nutcase, so I joined a couple organizations. My favorite was a committee planning a section of bike trail that would hopefully stretch from Buffalo to Colden one day. It was probably my favorite because there were a lot of people my age on the committee. Plus, I had to do a lot of coordinating with local government and homeowners’ groups. That kept up my people skills. (Mostly negotiating, sucking up, and groveling…all important job skills I had to keep sharp for when I needed a real job again.)
All in all, except for filling in the Glyphs blanks so slowly, things were going pretty well. And the video would be done in a couple weeks, so I had great hopes things would be moving faster soon. My love life was another story.
Even though I previously had a total lack of romantic involvement, it was easier to take before. In the past, I wasn’t involved with anyone because I hadn’t found a guy who measured up. Now, after having spent some quality time with two guys that measured up, I felt lonelier. I knew exactly what I was missing.
I was feeling particularly depressed about my total lack of a relationship since this was Valentine’s Day weekend. Everyone I knew had a date Saturday night. Even my book club meeting was cancelled. And it just seemed to emphasize the fact that I was so alone…there weren’t even any “possibles” in the running.
I worked out extra long Friday morning to try to sweat away my blues. It didn’t exactly have the effect I was hoping for. Sweating away with my brain largely unoccupied, I kept thinking of Jim and Amir. I quit working on my Glyphs stuff earlier than usual since I was having such a hard time concentrating. I just wanted to go home and wallow in self pity.
Jim and Amir might not be interested in keeping me company, but I knew two guys who were always there for me. I stopped by the store on my way home and picked up Ben & Jerry. Since it was a special date, I got Wegmans Triple Chocolate Dessert Sauce (like, the most amazing chocolate sauce ever…once you’ve had the Trip, mere hot fudge will never again suffice) and whipped cream. It was sheer decadence, even if I did resist the chopped nuts.
I flipped through my mail on the way up the stairs to my apartment. It looked like I got a couple of Valentine’s Day cards –from my parents, from Kim…and from a couple others. Probably no one interesting. Still, I rushed to the kitchen so I could put down my groceries and open my mail. I stopped dead in my tracks.
Chapter 37
The kitchen was at the back of the house. The back entrance to the apartment was at the far end of the kitchen. Since we didn’t have driveway access, we never used that door. My roommates and I always came in through the front. I don’t even think any of us had a key to the outside back door.
But, when I entered the kitchen, the door dog had been pushed practically against the wall. (The door dog was a long, stuffed tube that my roommate’s grandmother had knitted in the shape of a dog. We put it at the foot of the door to block the draft from the back hall.) Someone had opened the door, shoving the door dog up by the wall.
I tried to act nonchalant (difficult to do after stopping dead in my tracks). I mumbled, “Oh, damn, I forgot.” Then I turned and walked out of the apartment. (Okay, I walked through the apartment, but I ran down the stairs as fast as I could.) I ran to my car and locked myself in. Fortunately, from my parking spot on the street I could keep an eye on the front door. (Unfortunately, I couldn’t see the back door.)
It looked like my landlords were still at work, so I doubted they had been in the apartment. I speed-dialed my roommates. Both were still at work and said they would have had nothing to do with opening the back door. I knew the door dog was up against the door this morning. I would have noticed the draft during breakfast if it weren’t. (The back hall opened up to a big, enclosed porch with fourteen, 100-year-old windows, “draft” would have been an understatement.)
As far as I knew, whoever came in the apartment could still be there. I called 911. The police arrived in under ten minutes.
When they heard that my only evidence of a breakin was the door dog, they seemed to calm down quite considerably. Still, they went up and searched the apartment with their guns drawn. They also searched the attic and the basement. My landlords’ doors were still locked, so they didn’t feel the need to search his apartment.
They checked the basement windows, finding one had been forced open. Someone had simply pushed on it hard enough that the screws on the latch had popped right out of the 100-year-old wood. The officer told me there was a rash of breakins exactly like this in the area. They suspected it was teens.
The police asked me to check around the apartment to see if anything was missing. The only things I noticed that were g
one were my roommates and my PCs. (Thankfully, I had my “stealth” computer with me.) That apparently was somewhat consistent with the other breakins: PCs were a big target as were cameras and jewelry. (Far as I could tell, no cameras or jewelry were missing…but, there was a good chance no one would find any of my stuff worth stealing.)
The cops showed me how easy it was to jimmy open our apartment’s back door with a credit card and advised we get deadbolts. Then, they left. Two seconds later, I left.
Home Depot had all kinds of deadbolts. Trouble was, you needed special equipment like hole saws to install them. And I was too paranoid to call a locksmith to install my locks. Locksmiths can be bribed. Or infiltrated. It was exasperating to be so alone and not able to trust anyone. I sure as heck didn’t want to worry my parents by telling them about the break in.
I’d just have to ask my landlord to help install the locks. He was handy and had lots of tools. But, he was incredibly lazy – not really a very good landlord. His wife hated him fixing things in our apartment when so many things needed fixed in their own. He was home when I got back from the store. I pressured him into helping me install the locks right away. (One for the front door, too. You can’t be too careful.). He already had deadbolts on his doors, so it wasn’t too hard to make him feel guilty. He sawed all the holes and I did the rest.
Chapter 38
Ben & Jerry weren’t able to cheer me up that night. Not only was I alone, I didn’t know if I was a victim of a random robbery or if a Glyphs-related incident.
Kim had a date with Bill that night, but she spent Saturday afternoon trying to cheer me up. She did put me in a much better mood and probably kept me from finishing off the entire pint of B&J.