A Rambling Wreck: Book 2 of The Hidden Truth

by Hans G. Schantz

  I left the toxic bottle in the trash and joined the sheriff at the door. “We need to distract that badge guy to give the professor a chance to slip to the restroom and give the decoy bottle to Amit,” I said, affixing the “Closed for Maintenance” sign to the door to deter anyone from walking in on Amit.

  “Figured as much. Come on.” He marched me back down the hall to badge man at the entrance to the reception room. “You…” the Sheriff continued ominously, “how is it that your establishment is allowing underage drinking?” I heard the man stammering something as I looked past him. It took a minute to find Professor Graf. I caught her eye, and she gave me a modest nod of her head, the decoy bottle held in a red cocktail napkin in her hand. I saw her disengage and move toward the restroom. Badge man never saw her. The sheriff continued to give badge man an ear-blistering dressing down. A moment later, Amit walked right past us, carrying Professor Graf’s decoy bottle.

  “This is your lucky day,” Sheriff Gunn was telling the hapless badge man. “I’m supposed to be focused on the security of this establishment from terror threats, so unfortunately, I don’t have time to run you all in. You tell your boss to see to it that nothing like this ever happens again.”

  “Yes, sir,” badge man replied.

  “And you,” he said turning his stern attention my way, “get out of here and don’t try a damn fool stunt like that again.”

  I exited the station and walked through the Glenn Miller Gardens, past the old Pullman Cars, and into the hotel building at the far end. Somehow your nose is always itchier when you don’t want to touch it. Technically, my right hand was clean and it ought to be OK, but I really didn’t want to take chances with something so radioactive a tiny grain could strike you dead.

  Amit was waiting for me at the door and escorted me back up to the room. He helped me remove and bag my gloves and then my clothes, just in case. I kept my wallet, keys, and pocket knife figuring the risk they’d been contaminated wasn’t worth the hassle in replacing them. Naturally I kept my pair of burner phones, too. I stripped, naked. Everything else including my underwear went into the trash. Next, I hopped in the shower. I was just finishing up when I heard the door open. I threw on my change of clothes, thoughtfully provided by Amit, and came out.

  The gang was all there: Sheriff Gunn, Amit, and… I saw Rob dressed in a sheriff’s-deputy uniform.

  “Deputy Rob,” I said dryly. “Thanks for joining us.”

  “Damn good thing, too,” he added sternly, gesturing at my face. “Go running off without a word to me, get the hell beat out of you and then, for want of a fake ID, your mastermind plan goes down in flames, and you need the grown-ups to rescue you. Kids these days don’t show near the initiative my friends and I did in our youth.”

  “In the kid’s defense,” the sheriff pointed out, “it’s much harder to fake an ID now than it was in our day.”

  “Thanks for the save sheriff,” I said extending my hand to him. “How’ve you been?”

  He clasped my hand firmly. “Why, I’m finer than a toad hair split four ways,” he proclaimed, “now that you’ve arranged this here opportunity to twist the Civic Circle’s tail some. Wish you’d called me in sooner, son.”

  “Events moved quickly,” I apologized.

  “Piss poor planning, and then you run off without a word of coordination…,” Rob began.

  “You made clear your decision not to help,” I interrupted him. “We were too busy executing… and accomplishing the mission to…”

  “A mission which would have failed without…”

  “Gentlemen!” the sheriff silenced us both. “I’m a traditional sort, in case you haven’t noticed, Deputy, and we’ll be holding the after-action review in the time-honored place. That is to say, after the action is over.” I liked the way he was emphasizing their relative rank in the current hierarchy and putting Rob in his place. I was still angry with Rob for forcing us to act alone and even angrier that he didn’t seem to care I’d saved...

  The sheriff interrupted my thoughts. “We got us a genuine level-red terror attack imminent alert right here in Chattanooga,” he continued. “I got the word from Amit this morning, explaining what was really going on, and an earful from Dr. Krueger. The governor was mighty pissed with this Special Agent Wilson running roughshod over the state troopers’ investigation of your parents’ ‘accident,’ last year. I made sure the governor knew that Wilson’s buddies were up to something here. He called up lots of us locals to provide extra security for the “terror alert” until he could get the National Guard rousted and turned out. Knowin’ how sleepy things always are up in Lee County,” he said without a trace of irony, “I figured I could call up a few of my reserve deputies,” he gestured at Rob, “and lend ‘em a hand. I got put on security for the Choo Choo and the transit center here.”

  “Another of their phony cover stories,” Rob added. “They don’t want to look inept when Professor Graf dies from this spooky radiological poison, so they’re running another terror-theater production. It’ll look like they’re proactive and doing something. It’s a two-fer. Need to be careful they aren’t planning another false-flag operation while they’re at it.”

  “I haven’t picked up any chatter,” Amit said. “The Circle’s agents here seemed to be focused on Professor Graf. Not that they couldn’t have farmed some other operation out to other players.”

  “Where is she, by the way?” I asked.

  “Showering,” Amit said with a satisfied grin gesturing to a second trash bag next to the one with my clothes. What!?! Did she? No…. Amit gets the girl, again? “By the way, where did you get that extra phone?” he asked me.

  Damn. I forgot about that. Were they listening in on the phone? “Where is it?”

  “In the microwave with the rest,” Amit explained.

  Just then there was a knock on the door from the adjoining room. Professor Graf entered wearing a bathrobe and a towel over her head. There was a subtle motion throughout the room as suddenly everyone was standing just a bit straighter. “Oh my,” she said at the sight of the law enforcement officers.

  “These are the friends I was telling you about,” Amit said.

  “Oh,” she said, relaxing with obvious relief. “Then if you’ll excuse me, I’ll finish getting dressed and be back in a minute.”

  Rob gave me a questioning look with a raised eyebrow. I returned his gaze levelly. “Let’s wait for the professor to rejoin us. This concerns her most of all. I’ll give you a sneak preview, though. You know how I stopped looking for the mysterious conspirators who burned down the Tolliver Library once I realized who was really responsible.” I looked at Rob.

  “Tarnation...” Sheriff Gunn looked at me and at Rob, his eyes widening in surprise. “I got me an honest-to-goodness firebug among my reserve deputies? I knew that fire was hinky, but…” he clearly suppressed a curse with some effort, shaking his head in amazement.

  “All unsupported hearsay, of course,” Rob replied levelly.

  “Of course,” the sheriff added, “and my hearing just ain’t what it used to be, so I maybe missed what the kid was saying.” He kept shaking his head in disbelief. “Still… you did that all by your lonesome? Hypothetically, of course. To save the kid and keep the Civic Circle goons from getting the books?”

  Rob gave him a subtle nod.

  “I declare. That’s slicker than greased lightning,” he added in obvious respect. “You were saying, kid?”

  “I was saying I stopped looking for mysterious counter-Circle conspiracies who could have burned down the Tolliver Library to keep it from falling into the Circle’s hands. Apparently, I was a bit premature in closing down that investigation. In the last day, I’ve found not one, but two of them.

  Just as I had captured everyone’s attention, I immediately lost it as Professor Graf reentered the room.

  “Professor Graf,” I took the lead at making introductions. “This here is Sheriff Gunn.”

  “Ma’am,” he said poli
tely, gently shaking her hand.

  “And over there is my uncle, ‘Deputy’ Rob Burdell.”

  He grasped her hand as if he were about to kiss it. “A pleasure to meet you, Professor.” His eyes remained fixed on hers.

  “I was just explaining that matters have become much more complicated than we anticipated.” I could see I hadn’t yet recovered everyone’s attention – all eyes were on the professor. “In addition to the Civic Circle, there are two other groups seeking the same secrets. One of them wants to extend you a job offer, Professor.”

  That got everyone’s attention back.

  This,” I said pointing at my face, “was the consequence of a little misunderstanding I had with Professor Chen’s Brotherhood. The Brotherhood is a secret Chinese society that apparently broke from whoever – or whatever – is really behind the Civic Circle back in the 1600s.”

  “You’ve established this?” Professor Graf asked.

  “I believe them. Their stories align with what we found in another book by Angus MacGuffin. He was murdered, probably by the Circle, so the Circle certainly took his stories seriously. Professor Chen’s gamma ray results hinted at a three-hundred-fifty-year-old reactor meltdown in China. That was the aftermath of the fight. I don’t think the Circle knows that we know about that. They seem to be keying on the fact that they caught Professor Chen communicating with his Brotherhood, and after your… vigorous defense of him, they’re convinced you’re his partner and ally. Professor Chen is safe with the Brotherhood, now. They’ve agreed, in principle, to help us in certain ways, but I need to work through the details with them.”

  “This Brotherhood is some kind of Chinese Tong or Triad? You’ve been making deals with organized crime?” Rob was clearly skeptical.

  “Anyone firing in the direction of the enemy is an ally, by my book,” the sheriff offered.

  “I’m still trying to figure it all out,” I confessed. “If the Brotherhood’s stories are to be believed, there’s a Chinese deity or some kind of immortal being behind the Brotherhood’s origin. They claim our mysterious book dealer, Xueshu Quan, is that very same entity. Quan, or whatever he was calling himself back then, taught The Brotherhood his secrets and tried to use them to overthrow the Emperor. The Brotherhood refused, so Quan betrayed them, and tried to take over China directly. It’s hard to tell what happened next. Maybe Quan succeeded, at least in part, maybe not. The Brotherhood believes that Quan realized Europe was on a path to overtake China. He moved to England to better control events, and eventually settled on Jekyll Island for a base of operations.”

  “Right where the Circle meets,” Rob nodded, “and near where the G-8 Summit will be held this summer.”

  “Exactly,” I agreed. “The Brotherhood thwarted Xueshu Quan once, but they were nearly wiped out in return. They appear to be the friends of our friend, Professor Chen. And apparently they’re the enemy of our enemy, the Civic Circle. There’s a basis for us to work together.”

  “Professor Chen wants me to work with him and this Brotherhood?” Professor Graf asked.

  “No. The reason I was late is on my way back here, I was kidnapped by the Albertians. They wanted me to warn you about the danger from the Civic Circle and arrange for you to go into sanctuary with them.”

  “Holy shit,” Amit said. “The Ordo Alberti? They’re here, too?”

  I nodded. “They knew all the details about what the Circle was up to and how they were going to attempt to poison Professor Graf. They even knew the details of Professor Chen’s research, so they probably have sources in the Brotherhood, too.”

  “We might be able to ID them,” Amit suggested. “You could pick them out through surveillance video or maybe mug shots.”

  “No,” I acknowledged. “They kept me hooded. Couldn’t see anything. There was an older man who called himself Brother Francis. There were also a younger man, and a younger woman. I’d recognize their voices. I didn’t see any of them, although the woman had a distinctive perfume.”

  “We can work with that,” Amit said enthusiastically. “Those would be the base notes of the fragrance, unless she’d put it on just before kidnapping you, which doesn’t seem likely. There are only seven principal olfactive families in traditional perfumery. We’ll figure out which one, then we ought to be able to narrow it down from there to identify the precise scent…” Amit paused as he noticed us all staring in amazement at his impromptu lecture.

  “How do you know so much about perfume?” I asked.

  “The girls who work at department store perfume counters tend to be really hot, and if you’re buying perfume, that prequalifies you as having attracted the interest of a girlfriend. You return the order a few days later saying that your girlfriend got too serious and started talking about wanting your babies or something, so you broke it off with her, and then you ask out the perfume girl on the rebound.”

  I should have known it would be something like that. “This actually works?” Professor Graf asked, skeptically.

  “I’m two for five, which is a great success rate for a cold approach, and once I started being more careful to pre-qualify…”

  “Not to interrupt this fascinating lecture on the creative use of applied perfumology in dating,” Sheriff Gunn drawled, “but could one of you eggheads tell me what the heck an Albertian is?”

  “Near as I can tell, they’re a secret branch within the Dominicans,” I answered. The sheriff looked puzzled.

  “They’re an order within the Catholic Church?” Rob asked. “Like the Jesuits?”

  “Similar in a way,” I agreed. “Both were originally created to combat heresy. The Jesuits were formed to confront Protestantism. The Dominicans were created with the mission to combat the Albignesian heresy.”

  “Can’t say as I’ve run into any Dominicans before,” Rob noted.

  Sheriff Gunn lifted an eyebrow. “Can’t say as I’ve run into no Albignesians, neither.”

  “Exactly,” Amit pointed out. “Don’t underestimate the Dominicans.”

  “The Albertians take their name from Albertus Magnus, Albert the Great, patron saint of science,” I explained. “Their motto is: ‘Investigare, cognoscere, defendere,’ investigate, know, defend.” I explained MacGuffin’s report of how Majorana was sheltered by the Albertians in Argentina after he fled Europe in 1938.

  “Ettore Majorana?” Professor Graf asked, wide-eyed.

  “You’ve heard of this Majorana?” Rob asked Professor Graf.

  “Of course,” she replied. “He was a student of Enrico Fermi, one of the most brilliant physicists of the twentieth century. He compared Majorana to a Galileo or Newton – a world-class genius.” She looked thoughtful. “No telling who they might have working with them now.”

  Another piece suddenly snapped into place. “The Albertians said they have a Nexus Detector. That they invented it. That the Civic Circle stole the technology from them.” His name would never be on a patent application, but I was pretty sure I knew who invented the Albertian’s Nexus Detector.

  “Judas Priest,” Sheriff Gunn exclaimed. “They’re givin’ those freaking things out in Cracker Jack boxes, now?”

  “What’s a Nexus Detector?” Professor Graf was having trouble keeping up. I explained.

  “And they seem to exploit the physics of neutrinos?” she asked. “Oh,” I could see her reach the same conclusion. “Majorana must have invented the Nexus Detector technology.”

  “Or rediscovered it from MacGuffin’s description. That’s what I was thinking, too.” I saw any number of puzzled faces, so I explained. “Before he vanished, Majorana developed a theory that explains… well, it describes how neutrinos work. The Albertians said the Civic Circle stole Nexus Detector technology from them. Nexus Detectors work from neutrino physics in some obscure way, so…”

  “Majorana probably invented them,” Amit completed the thought. “So now we’re one of three groups fighting the Civic Circle: Professor Chen’s Brotherhood, The Albertian Order, and us. And only
the Albertians and the Civic Circle are fighting with their blindfolds off.”

  “Yeah, more or less,” I confirmed. “Unless the Brotherhood has a Nexus Detector and just didn’t say anything. They’re very coy. Oh, and the Albertians have sources of information at least as good as our own. Like I said, they seemed to know all about the plot to poison Professor Graf,” I added. “I was supposed to get you out of the reception before you ate or drank anything, then give them a call and arrange for them to pick you up.”

  “This is all moving so fast.” Professor Graf sat down. “The last couple of months, I’ve felt I’ve been in a race – that someone, something was right behind me, about to catch me. The quiet sense of something lost. Now that I know what’s happening… There’s so much going on that I was blind to – a darkness consuming the heart of the world… about to devour me as well.”

  “It’s a lot to take in,” I said, sitting on the dresser across from her. “If you go with the Albertians, I doubt you’ll have an opportunity to change your mind. Come with us. You’ll be safe. You’ll have time to think, time to decide.”

  I saw her thinking about it. “The world is vastly more complicated than I thought… Survival first. I need to escape from the Civic Circle.” she said. “Time to weigh the alternatives once I’m safe.”

  “That other burner phone,” Amit made the connection. “What are you going to tell the Albertians?”

  “I need to buy time with them,” I concluded.

  “Tell them she’s safe, you’ve got her in hiding, and you’ll be in touch tomorrow,” Rob agreed.

  “The Civic Circle thinks I’ve been poisoned,” Professor Graf noted. “Maybe they’ll be less vigilant now that they expect I’ll be dead in a few days.”