Ten minutes later, Tim peered out the keyhole and saw Rinna standing on the porch, porchlight on. As he opened the door, two men and a woman stepped out of the shadows and forced their way inside. Rinna showed no expression of any sort, turned, and walked away as Tim looked over his shoulder while being pushed inside, his expression a mix of confusion, surprise and betrayal.
***
“Now Mr. and Mrs. Bertoli, let’s us, you and Timmy boy here, have a nice little chat.”
Chapter 53
“Do you know who we are?” The question was directed at Cara and Emilio Bertoli, Tim’s parents, now seated together with Tim on the couch. Three strangers were holding guns on the family standing just a few feet away. One of the men broke away from the group, performing a cursory search of the home and dashing down to the basement to make sure there would be no surprises coming from any direction.
“I assume you’re from either the Collective or the Movement.” Emilio was defiant, and unafraid of the three thugs with guns entering his home. He was prepared for this day but had thought that he and his family had successfully gone into their own version of the federal witness protection program. None of the three in the Bertoli family wanted anything to do with either the Collective or the Movement. They wouldn’t take sides; they simply wanted to be left alone.
Emilio continued, “What do you want from us? We have nothing you can possibly need or want. Is it money? Well we have damn little of that either. If you thought you’d make some big cash score, you couldn’t be more wrong.”
“Now, now Dr. Bertoli, it isn’t like that at all. We just want a little advice and a few hours of your time. And some help from your young son, Marco. Just help us out and we’ll be gone and out of your lives in no time.”
“I’m a simple high school teacher and Marco is a mathematician. Don’t see how that helps you, whoever you are.”
“Come, come now you’re being far too modest, Dr. Bertoli. Because my understanding is that your Ph.D. is in computer software engineering, and your son is quite an accomplished nerd of some repute. Seems your young Marco did some work in college that caught the attention of the NSA, though when they offered him a job, I understand he turned them down. You should’ve taken the job, Marco. We wouldn’t want to fuck with those boys and girls; they play rough.”
Emilio listened to the man talking, then said, “We changed our name and left the old life behind. We did that for a reason. We want no part of your plans or your politics, your power struggles or wars. Leave us alone. We will help no one.”
“I certainly understand your desire to melt into the background. I do. But if you wish to survive the next few hours, you need to develop a more flexible attitude.”
“So, if we don’t cooperate with you, you’re going to kill us. Is that it?”
“Bingo, as the humans say.”
“You’re from the Movement then, I assume?”
“Bingo again, Emilio. We need a little of your time, that’s all. Then we leave.”
“And we’re still breathing.”
“That’s the offer on the table.”
“OK, but how do we know we can trust you? If you want us to do something, probably something the Collective will not like, if I were you, I might be inclined to eliminate us and dispose of the evidence afterward.”
“True. But then you trade a certainty of death tonight for the possibility of getting through this alive if you help us. Seems like a no brainer to me.”
“Not to me. If I’m dead anyway, why would I want to help you with whatever you’re up to? To live another day or two? As the humans so delightfully say, fuck you.”
“I can start by killing your wife right now, if you’d prefer that.”
“If you do, you’ll get no help after that. Not from me. Not from Marco.”
Marco had sat quietly, deferring to his father. Now he spoke up. “Say we help, what’s in it for us?”
“You get to live. And we promise to leave you alone.”
“Let me speak to my father privately and I believe I can change his mind. Give us a moment.”
“No. Give me a yes or no right now.”
“No. Sixty seconds with my dad, and you will probably have our help. Kill us and you will need to report your failure to Saldana Ri. Then I think all three of you are dead. So, lighten up and give us a few. Deal?”
The three looked at each other and spoke, then their leader said, “OK, you have your sixty seconds. If it’s not a yes, you’re dead. We have our orders. Directly from the Queen herself.”
Marco leaned over to his father and they whispered back and forth for the full sixty seconds.
“The leader said, “What’s the verdict?”
“We’re in. Now, what exactly can we do for you?”
***
The three thugs present in the Bertoli home were there to secure the assistance of Emilio and Marco to hack into the multitude of websites of the Collective worldwide. There was the main news site located in one of the darker corners of the dark web, together with sites for the Great Council, the Council of Elders, the Trackers, Captains and Military establishments together with each of the Regional and Local Councils and the Preserves. The purpose of the websites was to communicate with the transformed communities, so accessing the sites was easy. What the Black Shirts wanted was to take control on a date certain, to be announced, and effectively lock out the leadership of the Collective. New content would be prepared and substituted for the existing Collective propaganda on that date and the database of names, usernames and passwords would become the sole property of the Movement. The Collective could create new websites for the Gens worldwide, but who would know anything about them, how to access them or whether they were from the leadership of the Collective?
It was the intention of the Movement to keep the existing website formats and gently ease their Black Shirt propaganda in slowly. By the time the rank and filed transformed Gens found out that the leadership of the Collective wasn’t in control of content, the damage would likely already have been done.
***
And so, it was that Emilio and Marco Bertoli went to work on accessing each site, finding ways to gain control of them and begin the process of subtly altering content on a pre-set schedule. It took several months of concerted effort for which they were handsomely paid. They then took about a month or so to train some of the Movement’s tech specialists on how to maintain access to the sites, lock out intruders and maintain security.
At the conclusion of training and several trial runs, Saldana Ri was satisfied that, when the time came, full access and control would be in their hands. She too now concluded that the Movement no longer needed the services of the Bertoli’s, father and son.
She summoned them to the base in Northern California where they would be dealt with quickly and quietly. Upon their imminent demise, Cara, the mother in Washington, would likewise be dispatched during an apparently bungled home invasion.
Sad and tragic, but the whole Bertoli family would just suddenly disappear.
“You wanted to see us?” remarked Emilio when the two Bertoli men arrived on base.
“Yes, I wanted to know whether you had changed your minds about supporting our cause? We could use two superior minds in the Movement.”
“Nope, as we said, we neither support nor oppose you or the Collective. We simply wish to be left alone.”
“In our view, there can be no neutral nations in this war. If you are not with us, you are, by definition and default, against us. It’s a sad, but necessary view of the world in which we live.”
“You don’t intend to honor your agreement to let us go and leave us alone then? Is that why we are here?”
“You are perceptive, Emilio. But, sadly, yes. We cannot allow you to go free. You represent a serious security risk to the Movement.”
Marco said, “We understand, of course. That’s why we built in a security failsafe into each site
such that, if not properly activated, will cause all the sites to crash, then be rebooted up with old content, and the administrator codes sent back to the Collective. Sorry, Saldana, but we never trusted you, your commitments to us, or your promises. The sites will crash every second day unless the code is entered. And the code fluctuates daily on a formula that only I know. So, you will set us free and keep your friends away from me and mine, or your plan goes bye-bye.”
“I can kill you now unless you change the programming.”
“You said you were going to kill us anyway. We have nothing to lose. So, make up your mind.”
Saldana looked at the men, knowing they had the upper hand. “OK, you’re free to go. Make sure you keep the sites up and running. If you don’t, you’ll be dead and very quickly.”
Marco said, “And one more item.”
“Yes?”
“Is Rinna here? Rinna Tewes?”
“Yes, why?”
“I’d like to see her before we leave.”
The men stood waiting while Rinna was brought to Saldana’s office. When she came inside, she was surprised to see Marco/Tim and his father.
“She’s here. What do you want?”
“I want you to kill her while I watch.”
Rinna began to panic.
“Why?” asked Saldana.
“Because I want you to. It’s an addendum to the deal. She can go down as martyr to the cause. A real patriot.”
“I’ll consider the request.”
“You’ll kill her now. While I watch. Better yet, give me the gun. Two bullets are all that’s required.”
Saldana reached down to open a desk drawer. She pulled out an old .38 revolver and removed all but two bullets. “As you wish.”
Rinna turned to run, but two guards blocked her way. She turned slowly to face Marco. “I was only doing my job. Nothing personal.”
“I really liked you. And this isn’t personal either.” He emptied both bullets into her head, one while she was standing and one after she hit the floor.
“Sorry about the mess. We’ll be in touch.”
Chapter 54
Edward sat in his private office on the fourth floor of the main Administration building at the Institute just thinking. Today he was preoccupied with thoughts of his two granddaughters who, to his way of thinking, were growing up far too fast. He wondered what might be done about the problem but, as there was no solution short of a time machine, he decided to think about them for a while longer and just smile. His thoughts also turned to his eldest son, Adam, and the impending birth of Adam’s first child, a boy, with Nocera Lee. The small community in Barrows Bay was all a flutter with the scandalous news of the living arrangements at the Adam St. James residence; the women were aghast at the thought of one man living in a pansexual relationship with three women, one of which was his very own wife. And adding to the scandal, he was just newly married. Speculation abounded about the sleeping arrangements, though the men of the small community mostly smiled and wondered how he did it, or in the alternative, how he got sway with it.
The evening walks, to which everyone in the Community was invited helped keep the gossip under control; the scandalous ladies were all quite nice, and more than willing to discuss almost any topic. After a while, the juiciness of the scandal just faded away and was replaced by the pure enjoyment of being around the extended St. James family.
Much to everyone’s utter amazement and surprise, the oddball family seemed quite normal. Even Edward, who could be quite prickly, and the hermit, Agustin Suarez. People at the Institute had fun and enjoyed this new facet of their lives. The perceived distance between personnel in different positions and different perceived ranks also melted away.
Edward smiled broadly thinking about how radically life had changed over the past couple of years; the changes served to increase the broadness of his smile, and the contentment in his soul. He had always loved Barrows Bay, but he loved this new serenity even more.
The ringtone on his cell suddenly interrupted his contemplative mood blasting out the song “White Wedding” by Billy Idol. He’d have a word with his son, Adam, and Alana McCarthy who delighted in hacking into his cell phone and reprogramming functions, just to annoy him. His ringtone was one of them.
The caller ID indicated that the person calling was a certain Manolo Fabregas from the US Department of the Interior. His first thought was that it must be a misdial, but then that was somewhat unlikely given his 213 exchanges on Vancouver Island.
“Hello?”
“Hi. Dr. St. James? Dr. Edward St. James?”
“Yes, this is he.”
“Oh good, my name is Manolo Fabregas and I’m with the US Department of the Interior, Forestry Division. I was given your name by mutual friend of ours at the FBI who suggested I give you a call if anything within the Forestry Division ever came up with the name Gens, Gens Collective, Black Shirt or anything even remotely connected to any of those names. Have I got that right that you’re interested?”
“Yes, that’s correct. Has something crossed your desk?”
“Yes, yes it has. Might be something, might be nothing, but we just received an application for an access permit for a wilderness area in Idaho. Seems that the applicant company is owned by an American, but is registered in Panama, and owns a decommissioned military storage facility in Northern California, and a fairly large hunting lodge in Idaho. The Lodge is adjacent to the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area and the owner wants permission to conduct nature walks from their property into the Wilderness area year around.”
“Seems pretty harmless. What concerns you?”
“Oh, nothing really. Seems to be within our guidelines to grant the permit so long as there’s no hunting involved. But it was the names of the companies that I thought might be of interest you.”
“How so?”
“The Panamanian company is called Camisa Negra, SA; the Lodge is owned by a subsidiary of that firm called CamNeg Recreation International, Ltd.”
“So, translated, Black Shirt, SA and a subsidiary company which is a variation of that name?”
“Precisely.”
“Can you tell me who owns the Panamanian company?”
“Sure. It’s listed on the corporate filings, and the disclosure statement to the Department here as a Ms. Saldana Ri, of Chicago, Illinois. Does any of this ring a bell?”
“Maybe. Can you send any of the application information to me?”
“Normally no, but the FBI has requested that we cooperate with you and the work you’re doing, so I’ll email the file to you.”
“Do you have my email address?”
“I’ll send it through channels to our friend at the FBI, Jonathan Warnock. He can forward it to you from there.”
“Perfect. And thanks. This will be very helpful.”
***
Edward received the file a couple of hours later with a short note from Edward’s old friend at the FBI. The file contained quite a bit of information, including the location of a decommissioned ammunition dump, currently abandoned in Northern California, and the Lodge in Idaho. Edward shared the news with Adam and Alana, so they would get some satellite telemetry on both locations, and then alerted Rod and Cindy to prepare for a field trip in the next month or so.
Alana reported back that the location in Northern California was far from abandoned and was quite busy with activity. Almost without exception, the heat signatures of the individuals at the Depot were within tolerances for the Gens. The heat signatures of the human population seemed to be largely stationary, with little movement in the compound.
To Alana and Adam, that could only mean one thing.
The Lodge in Idaho was an entirely different situation. There the numbers were completely out of proportion to a five-hundred-acre Lodge and a few nature trails leading into the FCRNR Wilderness Area. Alana estimated through heat signatures that there were many thousands of individ
uals in the Wilderness Area adjacent to the Lodge grounds, with many more pouring in each week through the conduit of the Lodge’s five-hundred-acre compound. Every individual bore the heat signature of the Gens.
Edward spoke to Rod and Cindy, “I think it’s high time you took a couple of teams and went down to Idaho to poke around in the Wilderness Area and see what mischief our friends in the Collective are up to on US public lands. You should speak to Alana and Adam first and look for a safe way to approach the area without attracting any attention. Alana should be able to provide you with a clear path in and out, avoiding the main body of the Gens. Also, we won’t know whether these individuals are in human form or in natural state. If they are in natural state, you’ll need the thermal helmets that Adam and Misti used at the Grand Canyon. Probably a whole bunch more for your crew. These guys are hard to spot without the thermal detection equipment, so gear up before you go. You should also take the new weapons tech that Mom has just put into limited production, along with the standard stuff you guys carry.”
“Are you thinking this might get ugly?”
“I’d like to say no, but it is probably more likely a yes. I’d spend a lot of time with the topo maps and the thermal imaging and make sure your satellite coms are in tip top shape. You may need some help getting out, so we’ll have helos in the vicinity on standby, just in case. Turned out pretty handy at the Grand Canyon. After that episode, I’d expect a more robust response to intruders this time.
***
Rod and Cindy decided to heed Edward’s advice around preplanning ingress and egress from the Wilderness Area as the Gens who were detected were spread out over a large area and seemed to travel in packs numbering anywhere from ten to fifteen individuals or collected in larger groups of one hundred to two hundred plus in more permanent camp sites. Vanguard units pushing outward deeper into the Wilderness Area numbered around fifty individuals per unit.
The Gens were seldom stationary for more than a few days, and were expanding outward, radiating in every direction out deeper into the wilderness, but always remaining within the Wilderness Area boundaries. They appeared to travel rapidly and showed no heat signatures for vehicles, and very few detected even camp fires. This meant that the Gens were likely in natural state, which could cause some real problems for the field teams commanded by Rod and Cindy.
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