Chapter 14 When Charles came out of the bathroom Kathryn was waiting for him in the hallway, and asks, “Can I talk to you for a moment, Charles?”
“Of course Kathryn, I always have a moment for you,” he replies.
“I’m against killing Chase,” Kathryn opened. “My God woman, I don’t think we should discuss this here; this is not the time or the place! The walls and hallways have ears, you know that,” Charles scolded her.
Ivan comes out of the bathroom. He confronts both Charles and Kathryn standing in the hall, sensing they want to be alone he bows slightly to both of them, grinning with a wide smile and continues down the hall. Kathryn continues, “Who is this guy, he gives me the creeps, and you didn’t clear him with us, why?”
“It wasn’t my choice is all I can say,” said Charles. He looks both ways and takes Kathryn by the arm walking her down the hall to a small room. He opens the door turns on the lights and as they step inside he continues, “The President told me that Russian Intelligence discovered the facts and purposes of EOJ and demanded that we add Kolinsky or they would leak the details to the world. We’ll make the best of it! Also, I agree with you about Chase. But we need to understand the problem. He is resisting all the programming we are giving him. I suspect that Beneizen has something to do with this,” Charles whispers.
“How did you get that information?” Kathryn probes. “I’m the boss Kathryn, and I have my sources.” “I’ll bet you do,” Kathryn stares into Charles’s eyes. “I want your permission to personally get to the bottom of this!”
Charles looks at her with amazement. “Of course, good idea, you must bring Chase in, we have to examine him. I understand Ally is bringing him in as we speak. But you’re going to have to let Colonel Nichols and his teams examine him too.”
“Charles, I’ll tell you what bothers me here; not that I don’t completely trust you, but each of our Guards has their own code. These codes are pretty complete, we programmed them ourselves. There is no one who knows the codes for my group of Guards other than me. Someone must have figured out a way to extract these codes directly from our Guards.”
“Most interesting!” Charles says, looking surprised. Kathryn fumed, “No Charles, it’s not interesting, it’s dangerous; that’s why I’m going to get to the bottom of this.”
Charles says, excitedly, “Hold on, just hold your horses. I gave you permission to bring Chase in alive and have the whole crew examine him but you will submit to the decision of the committee after they have made a determination. Tell Ally to keep him away from Juan Martinez; that’s a can of worms we don’t want opened! Understand?”
“No! What is the issue with Martinez?’” Kathryn fakes a faint sardonic smile.
Charles replies, “The world-wide network of Guards is simple in design. Guards are activated here. They each have a human handler in the field. Sometimes they have two. When there is a problem with the Guard, there is a problem with the handler. The problem with Juan is he's a mole, a spy.”
Kathryn wants to believe Charles, saying, “Charles you’re the master politician, but Juan a spy? That's hard to believe,” and then starts to leave the room. Charles’ face drops, "You had no idea about the fact that Juan works for the FBI?”
Kathryn replies, “Unbelievable, We’ll pick this up later but I have to go, are you coming?”
“No, I’m going to stay for a moment, you go ahead, I have to make a phone call.”
Kathryn leaves and Charles looks around the room. It’s a classroom with a desk at the front of the room, a blackboard on the wall and a large American flag hanging from a pole next to the desk. He sits on the edge of the desk, takes out his phone and pushes and makes a call.
“Mr. President, yes good morning to you, I’m so glad to hear that. I was worried about your dog too. Good, good, excellent. No we’re not going to kill any senators but I want a raise after all this stress. I know senators but I want a raise after all this stress. I know 49 – Cybarium implant.”
Charles begins typing into his smart phone.
Chapter 15 Ally, Susan and Chase walked up the stairs to the Central Park precinct with its old and seedy appearance. Precincts were rarely cleaned. Chase wanted to find Juan. They walked past the duty officer, up the creaky stairs, past rows of metal desks next to monkey vomit green walls and directly to where Juan was sitting meditating over files that were piled high on his desk.
“Hi Susan, Hey Chase, I thought you were sick, look at this pile,” Juan smiled uncomfortably.
“I’m fine we need to talk now!” Chase said, speaking very close to his face.
“Sure man, take it easy,” He notices Ally over Chase’s shoulder. “Who’s she?” Juan asks.
“Just a friend,” Chase says.
Bryan had come out of his office surveying the situation and asks, “Who’s the babe?”
"She works for the government," Chase snapped, "and her name is Ally.”
“Well, then all of you come in here,” he snapped back.
“Bryan I need a minute to talk to Juan alone,” Chase replies.
“You’ll all come into my office, now!” Bryan bellowed.
The four pushed into Bryan’s very small office which had a utilitarian look. There was a photo of his family on the wall, and a large union jack from the “Iron Brigade” that had been handed down through his family since the Civil War. Bryan sat at his desk, his red hair and ruddy complexion a fitting setting for his green Irish eyes. Susan leans against the sill of the small window and Ally and Chase sit in the two chairs with Juan standing behind them. They felt like kids in school that had been sent to the principal’s office.
“Who is this woman Chase?” Bryan opened. “Why did you let her into this room? A woman you never met? Come on Bryan? I think you know who she is, or at least Juan does,” Chase replies.
“Now how would I know who this woman is, is she a witness? I don’t know, you think I’m a mind reader?” Bryan retorts nervously.
Ally moves slightly sideways in her chair, saying, “My name is Ally, and I work for the federal government.”
“OK good! That’s a start. Just Ally, no last name, and what government agency do you claim to work for? And what are you doing with these creeps in my office?” Bryan asks.
Chase steps in “Bryan I think Juan knows exactly why she’s here.”
Bryan is becoming exasperated “Am I missing a beat here, someone please fill in all the pieces.”
“Juan, tell me why was I directed to kill you? It can’t be because your wife makes the best beans and rice?” asks Chase.
“Kill Juan,” Bryan blurted out, “What are you talking about?”
Juan who has been slouching against the back of the door, reaches up and pulls down the blind on the window with the view into the outer room. He takes off his Yankee cap and scratches his head. So you’re selfaware? Is Ally?” Juan asks.
“Yes,” Chase replied.
Bryan collapses in his chair. He reaches in his drawer, takes out a cigar and lights it up.
“There’s no smoking in here Bryan,” Susan informs him.
Bryan looks amused and says, “That’s right Susan, so why are you Guards here? Is this my last cigar?” The change in Bryan was amazing to watch. He was such an ‘act’ as a NYPD lieutenant.
“So what’s the story Bryan, who do you work for?” Chase asks.
“Are you two here to kill us: I'm just your handler?” Juan asks.
“Do you have a real wife and all those kids, or is everything a plant to make me feel at home?” says Chase.
“That’s my real family. I took a chance; you could have been programmed at any point to kill all of us. I knew that, but I was offered a handler position in exchange for taking care of my kids’ medical problems. I know very little about my own handler,” Juan replies.
Chase was speechless then asked, “That was quite an act, you have no accent, wow are you even Hispanic?”
“Colombian, 100%,” Juan confessed.
“Great performance, how many years has this been going on?” Chase inquired, applauding.
“Just a few months, Chase, you were programmed to believe it was for years,” Juan explains.
“Do you know what my original assignment was?” Chase asks.
“No, I was trying to find out. Look, I was told that they would never harm my family, but if anything happened to you I would be killed,” said Juan. “Who told you that?” Chase asked.
Juan smiled and looked at Chase feeling his time had come. He seemed resigned to a very short future. At the same time, Chase began to experience an excruciating pain in his head and also experiencing a desire to take out his gun and shoot Juan right there. “I resisted the order to shoot you before and I’m resisting another order to shoot you right this minute, why is that Juan and who is it you really work for?” Chase demands.
At that moment Susan takes out a gun and pointing at Juan pulls the trigger. Ally who is even faster than Susan slightly deflects the gun and the bullet slams into the side of Juan’s head at an angle. Susan turns the gun and shoots Bryan in the middle of the temple. Ally grabs the gun from Susan with her right hand and at the same time with her left she reaches right through Susan’s throat and with one quick jerk pulls her spinal cord right through the front of her neck. “She was a Guard too, but not Cybarium,” Ally exclaimed.
Juan sank to the floor. Even though the bullet was slightly deflected by Ally’s lightning fast movements Juan lay bleeding. Chase went down on one knee and checked Juan’s vital signs.
“You’re going to be alright tough guy,” Chase said. “Chase, I don’t know what you are, but you work for a government agency called EOJ, you need to understand who you are, for all of our sakes. All the handlers are in debt to EOJ. My kid has leukemia and needed chemotherapy with new drugs that I never could have afforded,” Juan spoke these words before he passed out.
“Quick, call 911,” Chase said to Ally.
“I already have, we have to get out of here, now,” Ally answers.
“How, I didn’t see you make a call?” he said. Ally points to her head and says with a smile, “You really don’t know much about how we really function.”
"Are you truly self-aware Ally or are you on assignment and how do you know the difference?" Chase asks.
"There was a great African sheik who once said, "There’s your truth, my truth and THE truth," Ally says and continues; "I'm on assignment to bring you into EOJ for evaluation, I also am aware that I'm being directly influenced by Beneizen.”
"You are so complicated," Chase says.
"I’m having the same headaches as you, I just don't complain. Somehow or other you and I are similar," Ally says.
Chase opened the door to the office. A lot of detectives were responding to the gun shots and were just about to enter as Ally and he ran out of the room, pushed past the detectives and ran down the stairs, out the front of the building, moving so quickly that it was clear that the police didn’t have the reactions or the speed to respond. It was obvious that they had powers that were very different from other people Chase says, “These urges to follow unknown directives, have nothing to do with who I am." Then Chase thinks to himself, “There’s a war going on in me, all the time. Who am I in all this? I guess like everyone I just want to know who I am, and why I am here or if it is even possible for me to have a ‘self.’ Maybe I am just a machine, kept asleep, by the will of others except when needed.”
Ally was ahead of Chase as they ran into Central Park. “Follow me and remember I can read your thoughts,” she said.
Several cops were shooting at them and suddenly Chase felt a sharp pain in his left leg but the impact had no effect on his running at all. Chase, again thought to himself, "I’m running fast and I’m not even breathing hard.” Together Ally and he found a pace that was in perfect balance with their capabilities; a new balance of energy and movement. As Chase ran he became aware that his whole body was filled with energy like a fully charged battery. They ran into the north woods area of Central Park. There’s a waterfall there and near it a small cave. Ally knew just where. They huddled in the cave breathing hard and sweating. He felt her body right next to his. He could smell her sweat. There was an energy flowing between the two of them. “You’ve been shot in the leg,” Ally said.
He looked down and saw the hole in his leg and blood slowly oozing out. “I must be partly human. There is blood. I can hardly feel it, but there doesn’t seem to be any damage to the bone” he said
“Chase, your genetically designed bones are titanium not calcium. “Here,” Ally reaches down and pushes one finger into his wound, takes out the bullet and then takes a small patch from one of her many pockets, opens it and applies it to the wound on his leg saying, ”You’ll be better by morning.” She drops the bullet into his hand and smiles.
“Thanks,” Chase said.
“You know Chase we're alive. We're not androids or robots; we're a Cybarium life form, synthetic, genetically altered humans! Beneizen told me that we are very special organisms.
"I'm glad you clarified that" Chase says looking even more confused.
"We’ll stay here until morning and then go to Leesburg, Virginia, a little ways outside of Washington - I’ve been directed to take you there.” “What for?” Chase asked.
“I don’t know, probably to examine you. To see why you malfunctioned,” she replied.
“You know why I malfunctioned. We're just alike you and I - and what if I don’t want to go?” Chase asked again.
“That could be a problem, but you love being with me. I can sense it. I'll protect you. No one is going to hurt you Chase. Beneizen has ordered it,” Ally says with a smile.
He took her hand in his.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“I’m touching you,” he said.
“What for?” she asked.
“Because I want to,” he answered.
“Oh!” she answered.
They held hands for a long time sitting in that cave, two sweaty bodies huddled next to each other and holding hands. She slowly put her head on his shoulder and said, “I wonder if I’m programmed to do this.”
“Do you care?” he responded.
“No,” she paused and exhaled. Then he kissed her for a long time.
Chapter 16 Sam was sitting next to the hospital bed where Juan laid, his head covered in bandages. Sam took a syringe out of his pocket and injected its contents into Juan’s IV tube. He waited for a moment and watched as Juan’s eyes began to open. He was in obvious pain. He started to speak…
Sam said, “Don’t speak; just blink your eyes, one for yes and two for no, alright?”
One blink.
“I’ve given you an injection of programmable Nano Anti-tytes. They will have you up and around in no time. They are tiny machines that work like antibiotics but much faster and actually work with your DNA and help the body rebuild damaged tissue. I personally programed them. I know you don’t believe this, but EOJ actually made many contributions like this to everyone’s life. “Did you find out Chase’s assignment?” asked Sam.
Two blinks.
“Too bad, is he self-aware?”
One blink.
“Do you think Ally is supposed to bring him in?” One blink.
“Is she supposed to kill him?”
Two blinks.
“Do you know to who Chase is to be delivered?” Two blinks.
Sam takes a moment to think, asking, “Do you know where they are right now?”
Two blinks.
Sam sits back in his chair, thinks for a moment and then says, "I’m going to have you moved to a small hospital in New Jersey, and you’ll be safe there. Chase was sent to kill you because Charles thought the FBI was getting too close to knowing his secrets. Charles wanted to ‘send a message’ to the bureau. I need you well, and quickly. Terrible events are about to take place. I believe Charles has managed to plant a Guard as President of the United States an
d is running the country through him and I have reason to believe he has brought in some very dangerous people to help him, even from other countries. Charles must have had to make potentially damaging trades for their cooperation. I know you are involved with the FBI and your deal about getting help for your sick kid. If I know, Charles could know and that could get you and even your family killed. I will watch over them too. I know you think we have been on opposite sides, and I know the FBI has known about us for years, but right now the stage is being been set for global catastrophe. This isn't just a problem for our country any more.
Juan takes Sam’s hand. Sam squeezes it very hard and continues, “You know I believe that we have done a lot of good, but I also believe there’s a law in the universe that everything becomes its own opposite in time. I always thought I knew best; and I thought I was always in control. Beneizen and I were in such an illusion. I always expected Beneizen to know best; after all he’s an ancient… It just goes to show that everyone in the cosmos is subject to the same laws. I need to contact Chase and Ally before Charles does, it’s imperative for our future that they live.”
Sam gets up and looks down at Juan, saying, “Get better fast, my friend.”
One blink.
Sam leaves the room and watches two marines come in and prepare Juan to be wheeled out of the room. Sam walks down the hall and out of the hospital. He stops and takes out his phone and makes a call. "Hello Esperanza, my name is Sam Nichols and your husband is in the hospital, you need to listen to me very carefully."
Chapter 17 It was Ivan's idea to use a focus group to see which virus would be the best to use on New York City. He had rented a room for the research in a laboratory located in one of the zip codes being considered. The entire EOJ committee was flown in to attend... Senator’s Bennett, Lee, Burnside, and Congressman Dean crowded into a small observation room to view the results of his labor. Ivan had picked a dozen people from poor and underprivileged families, of different ethnic origins, who could disappear from society and not be missed.
The committee was sitting behind a plate glass window which appeared as a mirror to those in the large white tiled room. The room had the appearance of a shower room with a long black table in the middle, over a drain in the floor. There was a young black woman heading the panel. She was thin and pretty, next to her was a slim, well-dressed man of Asian background and around the table sat eleven others of varied ethnic types.
Sentinels of the Cosmos Trilogy Page 7