Sentinels of the Cosmos Trilogy (25 page)

“Maybe the human race was not meant to survive,”
said Ally.
Beneizen says, “Maybe not, but they were given a
possibility, and I believe we must make every effort
to help them actualize that possibility. If not for that
purpose then why were they given it in the first place?
But time is running out.”
“I agree, one really does get the feeling that there is a
wager between God and the devil to see if humanity
can complete itself and become responsible members
of the universe or become a viral cancer that the
universe has to cure or die from,” comments Chase.
Later, at the tribal feast the three of them were given a
place of honor at the table with the tribal elders. Ally
and Chase were reeling with the changes that were
occurring within themselves. Everything became
more and more vivid. Beneizen watched them and
wondered what they were experiencing. He had been
through this himself eons before and he knew from
personal experience how it worked, but the process
was still mysterious even to him. They sat in the
village’s great long house listening to the six part
harmonies of the women singing and watching the
men dancing to the hypnotic rhythms.
He telepathically implanted the final programming
into Chase and Ally. Then Beneizen felt the door
between them close and now he could no longer
control their actions. They had truly been reborn, they
were on their own. He thought to himself, “What
have I done? Almighty father give them strength.”
He was no longer father, he was colleague.

Juan and Ruth sat in the back of the FBI helicopter
flying up the East River next to Manhattan. Juan gets
a phone call and after listening for a moment he
completely explodes, saying, "Why didn't you let me
know this earlier, why didn't you call me, and why
didn't you detain the guy; you didn't question him,
you did nothing? Can you at least describe him?
Short, what do you mean short, how short, and he’s
mean looking? Well that helps a lot. He left chicken
flavored envelopes on my desk saying they were
poisoned and killed his partner and you didn't call
me? You are a piece of work," Juan ends the call,
thinks for a moment and makes another call, finally
reaching his family. He told Esperanza, “Do not touch
the electrical or cable or water bills and tell everyone
you know not to touch theirs either.” He told her he
was on his way back to the city with his new partner.
“Do you have any idea where to start?” Ruth asked.
"Shut up, don't talk to me, another damn machine for
a partner," Juan complains.
"You need to trust me," Ruth explains.
"Trust, yeah, right… that's going to happen. You
could get an order at any moment to put a bullet in
my head. You know this new world order is screwed
up," Juan says.
"I can't do that," Ruth comments.
"And why did they make you so cute, you are
absolutely adorable, how did they do that?" Juan asks.
"You know I have feelings and you’re making me
feel bad about myself" Ruth complains.
"Boo hoo," Juan returns. He sits back and realizes he
has to deal with her no matter how he feels so, with a
deep sigh he says, “OK, Chase told me that a Russian
agent is in charge of the project. Ivan Kolinsky who is
now part of EOJ; another of Charles’ great ideas, he
is also a real piece of work! I looked up his profile
and he’s very dangerous. Get this; he’s a General and
a Russian virologist. I wonder what he worked on in
Russia. He was in the Ukraine war. Even though his
family was killed by Stalin, he still admires him. I
suspect that he was responsible for germ warfare. We
know he’s also an assassin with over 50 kills. He can
shoot the wings off a fly a mile away. In fact I got his
file from your office,” says Juan.
"The fly part was in the file?" Ruth asks.
"No that was an exaggeration," Juan responds.
"How big a one, I mean could he hit just the fly?"
Ruth asks.
"What's the matter with you? It doesn't matter, maybe
he was first in his class, I don’t know," Juan responds.
"Well, it matters and helps me gauge your behavior,"
Ruth says.
"It doesn't matter," Juan yells.
Ruth pauses and sits back in her seat, saying, "It does
matter. How can you evaluate that way? You're lying
you know."
"Give it a rest," Juan says. "You're worse than my
wife."
"You’re unhappily married?" Ruth asks.
"No!" Juan screams in exasperation.
“OK, but do you have any idea where we should start
looking?” Ruth asked again.
“No, but Chase said that the directive from EOJ said
that this was a test. They were going to use the Bronx
and Brooklyn as the test for a very lethal virus,” Juan
says.
“Why such a large group of people for a test, I
thought a test was to be small? And what are the
parameters for the test - are they putting the virus in
water, in the food, how?” Ruth asked.
“Envelopes,” Juan said.
“Interesting, maybe we should check the morgue,
maybe someone already died from this virus?” Ruth
said.
“Not a bad idea,” Juan says surprised and continues,
“They said there were samples of the envelopes on
my desk, and so we should check that out too!"
“Right” Ruth said, “I’ll tell you what I know.”
“The CIA is actually going to share? I’m going to get
down on my knees and kiss your ring in thanks,” Juan
says sarcastically.
“Why do you want to get on your knees? That seems
very stupid and even silly. Are you trying to be
provocative?” Ruth asks.
“Never mind, go on,” Juan says disgusted with
himself.
“We know that EOJ was originally the creation of
Doris Dean, the wife of Congressman Charles Dean.
She was an advocate of ‘one country, one planet.’ She
preached reducing the world population to bring it
into balance with itself and with nature. However,
since Doris died, Charles has been carrying out her
work as he sees it, but from a pretty disturbed
viewpoint, I don’t get it, EOJ is a bunch of assassins,
and they carry out jobs that are perceived as justice
that could not be obtained through other means,”
recited Ruth.
“How did world population reduction get into
that
equation?” Juan asked.
“I don’t know. The CIA is trying to pick up Dean

now; they say he has lost a lot
of weight.” Ruth says.
"That's your intelligence on Charles Dean; he's been
on a diet?" Juan responds.
"He lost it very quickly," Ruth says.
“Can we concentrate on the problem at hand? This is
really scary; I don’t know where to start. This is
beyond a needle in a haystack, this is an investigation
that normally should take months and we have maybe
a few days or even a few hours,” Juan says.
“It sounds like a challenge. I agree, let's start with the
envelopes on your desk at the precinct,” Ruth says.
"How did you know that? I didn't tell you they were
on my desk." Juan asks angrily.
Ruth says sheepishly, "I listened to your phone call
and you said it before out loud, would you like to see
the tape?" she projects the tape in front of her.
"You can do that, and you wonder why I don't trust
you? You lied," Juan says and continues: “who
programmed you?”

“I didn't lie and I programmed myself,” Ruth says.
Juan laughs, “I guess we all have that illusion, you
have a long way to go to be a good partner to a
human”
"You have a long way to go to being a sincere and
honest human being who understands synthetic
humans… you’re prejudiced," she says quietly.
The phone rings; its Esperanza and Juan answers,
"What's up?"
Esperanza sounds desperate, "It's Maria - she passed
out and we're on the way to the hospital, Where are
you?"
"Is she breathing?" Juan asks.
"Yes, she just blacked out, where are you? You're
never around when I need you- I'm terrified!"
Ruth pipes in, "We're on our way to Manhattan."
"Who's that?" Esperanza asks.
"I'm Ruth, Juan's new partner," she pipes in again.
"I'll be there soon honey. I have to go to the precinct
first!" Juan says.
"NO, NO, NO, you come and be with us; you hear,
we're first this time!" she says.
Juan thinks for a moment, and responds, "I'll be there
as soon as I can."
"That's not good enough," she says and hangs up.
Juan turns to Ruth, "If you ever interrupt a
conversation with my wife again. I'm going to reach
my hand into your chest and pull out your
motherboard and then stomp on it."
"It's not in my chest. I'm synthetic DNA I have no
processor, well maybe one, but I'll never tell you
where it is!" Ruth says excitedly.
"You seem a little excited Ruth, are you having your
period?" Juan snickers.
"I can have children you know. I have sex organs and
everything, but I'm not sure what would happen if I
had one of yours," Ruth says matter-of-factly.
Juan stares at Ruth almost in shock. He then shakes
his head and stares straight ahead.
"What!?" what was that look?" Ruth says accusingly.
The helicopter landed and they proceeded to the
Central Park precinct. It seemed like a long time since
Juan had been in Manhattan. It fact it had only been a
few days, but to him it seemed like years. He was
exhausted, he wanted to hold his wife and children in
his arms and he was scared for both them and his
beloved city.
Charles sits quietly in his tomb-like vault in his new
Klacknel body but the vault had a different meaning
now. He didn't wish to hide anymore. He looked at all
the screens in front of him. He used to be obsessed
with controlling everything but now as he sat he
thought, “If I'm not in control what will happen?
What am I supposed to do?” Part of Charles was the
same but now he questioned his previous actions,
thinking, “What were my motivations for doing
anything?” The deep emptiness he was experiencing
haunted him. He loved what he was now, he was no
longer physically miserable and he didn't hate
anyone. He was playing along with all the life
agendas that he had set up, but it was a mediocre
performance at best, nothing registered as being
important.
Suddenly one of the screens lit up and Ivan appeared
in the middle of the screen saying, "You're looking
different. What kind pill did you take?"
"A big one," Charles snaps, "what's happening with
the mailing?"
"I lost the truck; unfortunate accident," Ivan replies.
"Are you kidding me?" Charles complains.
"The cops have some of envelopes," Ivan mawkishly
explains.
"You’re a moron!" Charles exclaims one octave
higher.
"I have under control; I take care of," Ivan pleads.
"It doesn't sound like it, Ivan, what’s the big picture?"
exclaims Charles.
"What, what you talking about?" Ivan appears
confused.
"Ivan you're not seeing the big picture. You're
screwing up and I'm trying to enjoy it, how about
that? Now fix it, before it gets out of control," Charles
shouts.
"I will, I'm on way to precinct - get envelopes find
truck and kill stupid truck driver, which I'm very
much looking forward to." Ivan boasts.
"Good, because I'm looking forward to having one of
those big mean Guards kill you if you fail. Fix it all
now!! I have to meet with EOJ in five minutes,"
Charles says in a droning, menacing tone.
Charles thinks for a moment to himself, “I remember
my purpose. I'm still basically in charge. I feel good.
I'm trim, handsome and smart, I’m still rich and
powerful and the Speaker of the House of the United
States of America and I still have the same twisted
corrupt and savage personality. I guess I'm just fine,
why am I not enjoying it?”
Hank walked out of the precinct a very unhappy man.
He knew somehow those envelopes had killed his
partner and he wasn’t going to let that Russian
bastard get away with it. He was also very curious as
to why anyone would make poison envelopes. He had
all the envelopes in the back of his truck but he was
not going to deliver the envelopes to the Electric
Company. He had Ivan’s phone number and he was
going to meet that evil Russian and kill him himself.
He was going to take the law into his own hands.
He sat awkwardly in the truck behind the steering
wheel. It was hard for him to get behind the wheel.
Hank was small and round and almost bald. He was
often referred to as the Penguin. But Hank also had
the personality of a pit-bull. He had placed a large
pillow behind his back and strapped wooden blocks to
his shoes so he could reach the pedals. Placing Ed's
old, greasy Yankee’s cap on his head, he opened the
glove compartment and took out a Smith and Wesson
snub-nose 38. Carefully he checked to see it was
loaded and set it gently in the open lunch pail next to
him on the seat. He adjusted the mirrors and then
picked up his cell phone and made a call, saying,
"Hello is this Ivan?"
"Da," Ivan responded.
"This is Hank the partner of the truck driver you
killed and I have your envelopes."
"You should have delivered them by now, not very
professional of you," Ivan complained.
"I will meet you in one hour at the warehouse where
we picked up the envelopes and I want one million
bucks in cash," Hank demands.
"I can't have million dollars in one hour. Need six
hours, and then have money, agreed?" Ivan asks.
"Agreed, you show at the warehouse in six hours with
the money or I deliver all the envelopes to the cops,"
Hank demands.
"Aren't you interested what envelopes for?" Ivan asks.
"I don't give a shit. I just want my money you Russian
piece of crap." Hank screams.
"OK," Ivan replies and hangs up. He smiles and
thinks to himself, "He thinks he's going to kill me. I
love that.”
Hank waited almost six hours before he saw Ivan pull
up in front of the warehouse in a white truck with
‘Better Business Co.’ in big black letters on the side.
Hank carefully peered out of the huge window of his
truck and saw that Ivan was dressed in a delivery
uniform. Hank had not quite decided what he was
going to do. He took the gun out of his lunch pail; he
knew how to use it, but just barely. He wasn’t scared;
he was angry, very angry. He also knew the dopey
police didn’t believe him at all, and that really ticked
him off. Hank tucked the gun in the back of his belt
and slowly slid out of the cab to the ground far below.
Ivan stood in front of his truck with an aluminum
case.
"I have money," Ivan proclaims.
Hank is eager to finish Ivan off. He takes out the gun
and points it at Ivan. Ivan puts down the aluminum
attaché case and folds his arms in front of him and
says, "You know how shoot gun?"
"I'm going to kill you for killing big Ed. I know
you're up to no good with these envelopes?" Hank
yells.
"No good, how you know I'm up to no good? I could
be greatest savior in history. I out to save world,"
Ivan professes with a sneer.
"You're a killer," and at that moment Hank pulls the
trigger but the bullet misses Ivan who does’nt even
flinch; he wasn’t surprised when he saw Hank run for
the crates, boxes and moving equipment littered
around the outside of the warehouse. Hank was a
really a bad shot. Hank ran from crate to crate and
then behind a piece of equipment.
Ivan just watched and waited for him to get closer and
closer. He took out a very large silver gun and
pointed it right in Hank’s direction, shouting,
“Bullet’s go right through boxes, come out where I
can see you,”
Hank slowly comes out from behind the boxes with
his hands in the air and pleads, “Don’t shoot,”