Beast Machine (43 page)

Chairman Obelis swallowed
slowly. “Are they human?”

“
What?”

“
Are they from the Earth,
as in are they humans or… something else?” Chairman Obelis held up
a cumbersome notebook that had been residing on the nightstand. “My
father wrote extensively on what he knew about The Flagship. He
often drew them too, when he would catch a glimpse of them.” He
opened a page to a drawing of Aster Granzella and what she looked
like in the 1970s. She was the woman found on the pinup poster in
McCarthy’s interim room. McCarthy’s eyes squinted at the drawing.
“He often thought they were from a different world but had nothing
to back up that claim.”

“
They’re as human as us,
far as I could always tell,” replied McCarthy. “All of them had
emotions, had to piss and shit, had to eat, had to breathe oxygen –
as human as us. Their technology seemed out of this world, but they
are human.”

Chairman Obelis sighed,
“That’s what I thought.” He stood up with the notebook in hand.
“Get some more rest, Joe. We’re going to need you in this last leg
of the race.”

McCarthy laughed, “Thank
you, but I think you have this thing all wrapped up.”

Chairman Obelis winked and
walked out of the room.

McCarthy let out a bout of
flatulence that would make a bovine blush. “Been holding that since
I woke up,” said McCarthy.

-----

Chairman Obelis made his
way down to the war room, where Jeffrey was waiting for him.
Jeffrey was still fielding any calls or emails that Arkansans might
have about Chairman Obelis. With most of the state under Chairman
Obelis’ thumb with the Carda Implant, there were rarely any calls
or emails.

“
What’s the word on Silva
and that miner?” asked Chairman Obelis.

“
Oh, hello, sir,” replied
Jeffrey. “He will begin an autopsy within the next few days. He
says he’s tinkering with some tool that will help improve the Carda
Implant. A tool that will be able to send out
updates
to each person.”

Chairman Obelis disregarded
Jeffrey’s last comment. “I’d like to be briefed immediately on the
autopsy results once you receive word from him or
Thane.”

“
Of course, sir,” said
Jeffrey. “What about McCarthy? Did you ask him about the creatures
your father wrote about?”

“
He’s still too weak to
talk about such things,” said Chairman Obelis. “He’s slowly opening
up to us, just like I knew he would. We must first figure out what
was meant by Malthus visiting us out of the blue. It’s an out of
character move.”

Chapter 38
Rough Terrain

A man wearing brown cowboy
boots, jeans, a brown polo shirt, and a shiny bolo tie inserted a
quarter into a rusty coin slot of a payphone. He pulled out a card
from his back pocket then began to dial the number found on the
card.

His head tilted left and
right anxiously as the tone buzzed. “Yeah, is this, uh, that white
haired guy I bumped into in El Dorado, Arkansas?”

“
Mr. Erdol,” replied Bob,
“pleasure to hear from you. I didn’t think I’d hear from
you…”

“
Heh. Sure, I guess,”
replied Jimmy Erdol. “You have no idea how hard it was for me to
find a damn payphone. I’m in a rundown neighborhood, bunch of
ethnic types and bums lurking about. I didn’t bring my gun either,
stupid me. Didn’t think I’d need it…” He laughed nervously then
felt to see if his wallet was still in his back pocket. “So, what’s
the scoop? Where am I, and the others of course, supposed to meet
you?”

Bob laughed slightly, “You
all have access to a helicopter, correct?”

“
Well, sure, we can find
one. Or just use mine, I suppose. I didn’t want to get it out of
storage just yet. It’s a new model and I’d like to keep it
pristine.”

“
How many are coming with
you, Mr. Erdol?”

“
There will be six,” he
sighed. “No wait, seven. Definitely seven, including me. Seven
total.”

“
And all seven of you
gentlemen are in positions of power? Senators, wealthy businessmen,
and so forth. Particularly in Arkansas?”

“
Well yeah,” laughed Jimmy
Erdol. “You expect a bunch of welfare queens to be able to pay you?
We’re all oil and gas men, don’t fret. Mostly old money, I believe,
so we know how these things go down. What’s your fee by the
way?”

“
Bring the amount you
believe that I’ll want.”

“
Um, what?” Jimmy Erdol
looked around. The payphone he was using was next to a rundown gas
station. The side of gas station had been spray painted with the
words:
Where is the savior we need?
Each word a different color than the other; black,
blue, green, white, brown, red. This angered Jimmy Erdol. “I think
I’ll just bring a lot.”

“
A wise choice, Mr. Erdol,”
said Bob quietly. “I am pleased to hear that.”

“
Yeah, so give me the
directions, damn it. I don’t got all day.”

“
You’ll fly to Dallas, then
need to drive to San Antonio.”

“
We can just fly directly
to San Antonio… and the helicopter when does it come into
play?”

“
No, you must follow these
directions, Mr. Erdol. Patience.”

“
Fine.” Jimmy Erdol looked
at his surroundings again. A young black woman with short hair was
pushing a beat-up stroller down the side walk. The child in the
stroller was giggling. Jimmy Erdol shuddered. “Just hurry up and
tell me the rest.” He looked at the spray painting again and spit
on the ground.

“
After you’re in San
Antonio, you’ll use your helicopter to fly to specific
coordinates.”

“
Okay, uh, sure. So how the
hell am I supposed to get my helicopter to San Antonio, but fly by
plane? Can you explain that to me? Is the helicopter even
necessary?”

“
Absolutely necessary.
You’re a man of means, Mr. Erdol. You will find a way, I’m sure.
Unless you aren’t up to it.”

Jimmy Erdol sighed loudly
and then spit at the ground. “Damn it, this shit better be worth
it. What’re the fuckin’ coordinates?”

“
You’ll want to fly your
helicopter to N29.62, W100.46. Leave in two days, I will be ready
to greet you all once you all arrive.”

Jimmy Erdol wrote the
coordinates quickly on the back of the card Bob had originally
given him. “So N29.62, W100.46, correct?”

“
That’s correct, Mr.
Erdol.”

“
Got it. Before I go, I
just have one last question for you… Why are you making us go
through such an ass-backwards way to meet you? We could just as
easily fly directly to you.”

“
I want you to ask yourself
the entire time before you meet me, ‘Is this really what I
want?’”

-----

Erdol and his constituents
arrived in Dallas two days after his conversation with Bob. None of
them brought any luggage with them, aside from their cellphones,
wallets, and for one man, Allen Zuber, his small gun. Jimmy Erdol
had told them to not bring large sums money to this visit in case
plans went awry. Each of the men walked to the front of the airport
and found two van taxis waiting for them. They split into groups of
four and three into the vans.

Zuber sat in the same van
as Jimmy Erdol and two other oil and gas executives, Carl Bjornssen
and Lester Pigeon. “How long is this drive gonna take?” asked Zuber
to the cabbie. “We’re in a hurry.”

“
About four hours,” replied
the cabbie. “Unless you boys want the scenic route.”

“
Hell no! Just get us there
as fast as possible,” said Jimmy Erdol. “Don’t give a shit about no
scenic views.”

“
Why couldn’t we just fly
to San Antonio,” asked Bjornssen. “We’d have been there already. He
wouldn’t have known.”

“
I’m following his rules,
okay,” replied Jimmy Erdol. He looked at his watch, the time said
10:45 AM central time. “Now just shut the fuck up and relax. I’ve
got four hours of not hearing a peep out of any of you weasels,
okay?”

Each man nodded and leaned
back in their respective seat. They’d rather just put up with Jimmy
Erdol and get this secret meeting over with. No reason to start any
trouble within their own ranks.

To the dismay of Jimmy
Erdol and the other men, the drive took well over four hours.
Apparently, heavy road construction plagued interstate highway 35.
“It’s been like this for years,” relayed the cabbie. “I’d use
another route, but it’ll take even longer.”

“
It’s fine, it’s fine,”
said Jimmy Erdol shaking his head furiously. “I’m just going to be
stuck with these dipshits for even longer.”

The other men shrugged
sadly.

After a dreadful six hours,
the men had finally arrived in San Antonio. They were dropped off
at an outlet mall in the west part of the city. Jimmy Erdol
begrudgingly paid his cabbie since it took so long to get to San
Antonio. “You knew it’d take forever to go that way, you punk ass.
That way you could charge us way more than needed, god damn scam
artists!” yelled Jimmy Erdol after paying the cabbie.

“
Whatever, man,” said the
cabbie as he drove away. The cabbie gave Jimmy Erdol his middle
finger and yelled, “Sit and spin, old man. Sit and
spin!”

Jimmy Erdol shook his head
angrily as he put his wallet back in his pocket. The other men were
laughing at Jimmy Erdol and how the situation unfolded.

“
Got’em good!” laughed
Bjornssen. “Totally got’em, Erdol, ha!”

“
Oh shut the fuck up,” said
Jimmy Erdol. “I’m the one that set this shit up, so I’m the boss.
None of you clowns would be here without me or my family’s
connections.”

“
Whatever,” replied
Bjornssen. “Where’s this heli of yours? Behind this Jo-Ann
Fabrics?” He laughed again.

“
Actually, it is.” Jimmy
Erdol smirked proudly at Bjornssen and the rest of the men. “Follow
me, gentlemen.”

The other six men followed
Jimmy Erdol around the Jo-Ann Fabrics to a large dusty field
directly behind the store. They stood there for a few moments
looking around. To the west was the dusty field that led into a
vast nothingness except a highway and to the east sat the city of
San Antonio, shyly peaking up from the Earth. There was no
helicopter in the dusty field.

“
Well, Jimmy, where the
hell is it?” asked Lester Pigeon. “We came all this way and you
didn’t even remember to have the helicopter here? For fuck’s sake.”
Pigeon’s face turned red and he grabbed his hair. The other men
were beginning to become flustered. Jimmy Erdol stepped ahead of
the group with his back turned to them.

“
Just wait,” said Jimmy
Erdol as he raised one finger to the group. He slightly turned his
head so the other men could see the wry smile on his face. “One
minute.”

Most of the men crossed
their arms in displeasure. They thought Jimmy Erdol had pulled one
over on them again. Suddenly, a breeze from the north began to roll
through. The men, including Erdol, turned to their head to the
north. In the distance was some sort of blurry object heading
toward them. It was Jimmy Erdol’s helicopter.

“
My guy Stanzo flying in
right on time,” said Jimmy Erdol.

“
Right on time?” said
Bjornssen. “He’s late!”

“
I texted him on the way
down that there was some construction slowly us down on the
highway, so shut up. You pissants have to wait two fuckin’ minutes
and you’re already spinning outta control.”

The helicopter, its blades
whirring loudly, sat down forty feet from the men. It was a
behemoth of a machine, mustard yellow with one horizontal blue
streak down the side. The doors of the helicopter slid open
automatically, presumably by the pilot pressing a
button.

“
Get in and buckle up!”
shouted Jimmy Erdol. He placed a hand on his head to hold onto his
hat as he walked toward the helicopter. He was the first to enter
the helicopter and the first to place on his helmet. “Hey, Stanzo,
what’s happening good buddy?”

“
Hello, Mr. Erdol!” replied
Stanzo. “Always a pleasure to help a man like you.”

“
That’s what I like to
hear, Stanzo!” Jimmy Erdol pointed to empty seats for the last two
men that were having trouble getting seated properly. The
helicopter had a comfortable seat available for each man. There
even was a television available to watch for the forward facing
passengers, though it was just a feed of a camera on the back of
the helicopter. “We have a few rookjobs on the flight. So let’s
keep it an easy ride, okay?”

Stanzo laughed, “Where are
we headed, sir?”

“
Ah yeah, the coordinates
are N29.62, W100.46. It’s the middle of nowhere, near some state
park I think.”

“
Roger that,
sir.”

“
This thing is called a
Relentless,” Jimmy Erdol said to Zuber, who was sitting right next
to him. Zuber nodded, feigning interest. “This heli isn’t even
officially out on the market yet. I know the guy that runs the
company that makes these things and other aircraft. Cost me a cool
$20 million extra, but totally worth it.” Zuber nodded again, then
turned his attention to the camera feed.