Sentinels of the Cosmos Trilogy (8 page)

"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.

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 and 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."

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.
Ivan was standing next to the committee looking
through the glass. He said, "I was careful pick people
who had no family and represent many diverse groups
so can see if effects of virus vary, not only virus I
wished to demonstrate, but make sure everyone open
envelope. I have solution you will see demonstrated.
Following may even be very disturbing to some of
you; I mean we are human beings with feelings.
The young panel director stood, looked around the
room and began: "Good morning. I am Dorothy
Winston and this morning we will be asking you to
give us your feedback on the envelopes that are in
front of you. Please pick up your packet. You have
twelve envelopes in all and each one has a different
adhesive. The paper to the right is your rating sheet.
Please rate each envelope on a scale from one to ten
with one being the easiest to open and 10 the most
difficult. Please don't talk among yourselves, as it’s
important that we have your personal opinion
exclusively. Remember your opinion is very
important to us. Do any of you have any questions?"
One man asks "Why are we in a room that looks like
a shower room?"
Dorothy, who was very frustrated replied, "I believe
it's because that was all that was available this
morning. I apologize for the surroundings"
"It seems very strange, what was this room used for?"
another questioner asked.
"Yes, I guess it does," Dorothy said puzzled looking
around the room herself.
The rest of the group are growing impatient with what
they felt were stupid questions. They wanted to rip
open their packets and start offering their opinions so
they could get their money and leave.
"We're each getting $500.00, right? asked one.
"Yes, that's right," Dorothy says.
They started opening the envelopes and writing their
answers on the rating sheet.
Senator Burnside said, "Charles what are they
doing?"
Senator Lee interrupted, "Where are Beneizen and
Sam, I thought they were heading this project."
“Sam is on assignment, dealing with the Chase affair
and we don’t know where Beneizen is, frankly he has
disappeared. Maybe he just wanted to be alone for a
while. He
is
very eccentric,” Charles said.
Ivan is transfixed looking through the one-way glass.
All those people down there opening his envelopes
and about to die, he had worked very hard for this
moment.
“You can see its starting work,” Ivan reports
excitedly.
Several of the members of the focus group were
beginning to show signs of nausea.
Everyone edged closer to the glass. They all were
very interested in the proceedings.
The panel members first started to have problems
breathing, and then started to sweat. They grabbed
their throats and started to turn red. One after another
they fell to the ground writhing in pain, unable to
speak, unable even to squeak, and then they died. A
few moments after they stopped moving blood began
to flow from their eyes, mouth, butt, and nose. In less
than ten minutes they were all dead, lying in pools of
blood on the floor.
The doors in the back of the room opened and several
Guards dressed in white coveralls entered the room
and began removing the bodies.
Dorothy was just standing in the middle of the room
screaming "Oh, my God, what's going on?" One of
Guards took out a small black box pressed it and with
one click she stopped moving. They immediately
carried her out of the room as well. Another group,
also dressed in white, entered the room, connected
hoses to the faucets on the walls and started to wash
the room down.
Charles looked disgusted, "Very messy Ivan, much
too messy. I like Sam's Bumba much better; make
that work with the envelopes."
"You think that everyone is going to believe that all
those people died of a heart attack?" Ivan asked.
“Ivan this is much too messy. The cost of the clean-
up and the outrage from the media would defeat the
purpose of the whole thing. I want clean deaths, no
blood; just carry out the bodies looking like they’ve
had a heart attack, understand? Ivan, think about it, do
you think that thousands of people bleeding out in
their homes is not going to cause a panic. Years ago
one person in the U.S. got Ebola and it was on the
news for months. The news media caused sixty
percent of the population to think they were in
danger. No, we need neat, quiet, and serene deaths.”
Charles says.
Ivan looked at the committee that was sitting stunned
and horrified by the carnage, they couldn’t even
move.
“That was horrible. Can’t you kill them more neatly,
with less mess?” Kathryn asks.
Charles jumped in, "I know how you all feel. This
was not the original purpose of the EOJ, but look at
the ramifications of increased world population."
“I can’t support brutally murdering citizens Charles.
I’m resigning from the committee, EOJ meant
“Equality of Justice.” This is genocide,” Senator
Burnside blurts out.
All the committee members start to move to the exit.
"The problem is that there are too many special
interest groups. The church, the anti-abortionists, the
fatalists, the East-West Liberation from too Much
Fast Food Foundation…" Charles expounded.
"I don't like it one bit Charles, and I have no intention
of being part of it or any of you that intend on being
part of this kind of murderous rampage. I'm going to
the President." yells Senator Burnside.
Ivan takes out a small gun the size of a lighter and
shoots Senator Burnside in the neck with a pellet the
size of a pin head. Burnside grabs the back of his
neck and leaves the room. Neither he nor anyone else
saw the shooting.
"He'll be dead before leaving the building," Ivan
whispers into Charles’ ear.
"You didn't shoot him with that messy virus did
you?" Charles questioned.
"No, it was Bumba, untraceable," Ivan says
disappointed.
"Well, that should tell you something Ivan, or did you
do this because you wanted to watch all those people
bleed out?" Charles smiles bleakly.
Kathryn turns to Charles and says, “Doris would
never have stood for this, for what we just saw
happen. Can’t this be achieved with another
population control method, or a lottery for not having
children? I can think of a dozen ways better than
this.”
Charles had a big voice from years on the house floor.
He used that big voice to say, “Wait! All of you just
for one second.”
The group stops filing out and turns to listen.
“There isn’t time; the reports show that if something
isn’t done now, right now, terrible things are going to
happen.”
“This is a terrible thing in itself, a country killing its
own people for a test, my God, what could be more
terrible than that?” Senator Lee asks.
“Ah… all kinds of terrible things; I don’t have the
report in front of me, but you are all welcome to read
it,” Charles replies.
“Charles, we’re not killers, we’re legislators, elected
by the people to solve these problems. Let us all try
and come up with another plan, a more sensible plan,
not this,” Senator Lee says.
"Ladies and gentleman I know you all think of
yourselves as lily white, but we have all been
conspirators in ordering the deaths of thousands of
people. Among other things, EOJ is a kind of league
of assassins. You're all kidding yourself if you think
you have a conscience left. There has to be a balance.
That’s what we’re about," Charles speaks out.
Kathryn says, “Charles, we know you’re under a lot
of pressure. We all know that the loss of Doris weighs
heavily on your heart. At least let us read all the
material and make another recommendation, alright?”
“Alright, I agree this appears a bit excessive. I'm also
concerned about how to contain the response from the
press to so many people mysteriously dying all at
once, no matter how humanely it's done. We may
need to think further about this,” Charles concedes.
"That’s right Charles we need to re-think this,"
Kathryn adds.
Charles mumbles to himself, "Yes Kathryn we need
to think about this, thinking is overrated; Doris where
are you?”
Kathryn hears something, and asks, "What were you
saying Charles?"
"I was just agreeing with you and praying at the same
time," Charles responds.
“Burnside, you’re not looking at all well,” Lee says.
“I’m having trouble breathing,” Burnside says.
“I think he’s having a heart attack,” blurts out
Kathryn. “Call 911, someone please call 911!”
Kathryn turns and says to all present, "What ever
happened to truth, balance, responsibility and
conscience?"

Flashback
:
Twenty years in the past, at the
headquarters of the EOJ Doris sits at the great round
table. The conference room at EOJ was very unusual
and different from other conference rooms. It was
round in shape. In the center was a large all-glass
table above which a large projection cube was
suspended from which everything could be projected
on any surface in the room. The chairs were all high
backed and everyone could see everyone else very
clearly. The members were all invited by the
President and appointments were for life regardless of
political position or party.