American Mole
Hi. Welcome to my fourth novel, in progress. I invite you to come back often as I write this. Please feel free to email me and tell me what you think can improve it. Most of all, if you like it, consider posting a review of it for me.
Chapter
24
Escaping Winter
Escaping Winter
Two months later
Between sessions with Chief Hodges, forays running down runaways, and learning the ropes from the guys, Amos caught up with the rest of the country by watching the news on television. Life in the compound inside Vespers was as normal as an isolated community could be. Still, It was a welcome relief from the ascetic life of a monk. Amos was glad to be out of there and that.
As he expected, the news, after a year and a half without it, remained a mixed bag. The President Callander struggled with growing unrest over the inability to identify terrorists and quell unrest among the many political factions bickering over how the country could get well again. The Mars program begun by George Bush had run into serious problems. The Moon Station struggled with dust from its inception and was finally abandoned for the cleaner and safer orbiting International Manned Space Station after several astronauts and scientists died in accidents taking off and landing at the Moon. Power failures threatened the lives of everyone trying to build the Moon Station in the alien environment of gritty dust and an unnerving one-sixth Earth gravity.
Unmanned missions sent to Mars were failing left and right and putting a tremendous financial burden on the United States as the primary source of funds for the effort. Devastating viral infections killed millions in China and India. Both countries struggled to overcome soil and water degradation caused by thousands of years of land misuse and pollution. The only bright spot in the war against global warming was the fact that the price of electricity in the United States, Western Europe, and Russia had leveled off at about $.40 a kilowatt-hour. At that price, solar, wind, geothermal, and nuclear energy were very competitive with coal, natural gas and oil. The major coal and oil companies were engaged in research for ways to chemically convert their products directly into hydrogen or electricity. At the Vespers, there was a huge biomass electrical generating unit running from crop waste, a secondary unit running from animal waste, and many solar and wind units throughout the properties. The police Jeeps were hydrogen powered and all the rest of the vehicles ran on batteries that were charged by the Vespers electrical grid. The Vespers sold power to the Wisconsin Electric Cooperative.
Since the tragedy, the American people had never fully recovered. Extremism had reached the point where Congress was often plagued by dissent from splinter groups that ranged from religious fundamentalists crying Armageddon to libertine hedonists who believed that living life to the fullest in violation of most decency laws was okay in a world where terrorists could blow you up any moment. Plane bombs, truck bombs, car bombs, and men and women willing to be human bombs spread from being an aberration of Moslems in the Middle East to a worldwide phenomenon. The preferred way of responding to enemies was to bomb them first and ask questions later. The United States went from sealing its borders to all immigrants to trying to detect and defuse every bomb plot hatched in the mind of crazies. Crazies, newbies and copycats were multiplying with every report of another attack. Terrified citizens who once thought that they were guaranteed freedom from such threats blamed it all on the influx of illegal immigration in the latter years of the 20th century. There was plenty of blame to go around, but few solutions.
Amos surmised that the unrest was a result of too much knowledge, albeit diabolical. After all, it was the Chinese who developed gunpowder into a lethal weapon. Once Marco Polo brought gunpowder to the West, warring European countries seized upon it and the gun became the weapon of choice. In the 21st century all bets were off. The new equalizer was a stab in the back by a well-placed bomb. What resulted was a society that was more fatalistic than ever, praying that it wouldn't happen to them, while doing it to others. Washington, DC was the big one. The rest was aftermath.
Things were clearly out of hand. The threat of anarchy was ever present. The Vespers was both the center of and isolated from the violence. Pius One had ties to hate groups and religious fanatics all over the world. Chief Amos, as he became to be called, had three jobs: keep the perimeter clean from the trash outside, keep the pions inside and unaware of the outside world, and protect Pius One from his enemies. No easy task.
When the transition month neared its end, Randy Hodges had called Amos into his office, looked him in the eye, and said his goodbyes. They had built camaraderie in the short time they'd known each other that would last a lifetime. Amos hoped that he would see Randy again. Maybe it was their military backgrounds. Maybe it was their innate sense of decency and loyalty. Whatever it was, they had become like father and son. Amos had learned a lot, but he feared not enough. As he helped Hodges pack his mementos from his career, they didn't speak but they shared that sense of loss when people divorce, a child goes off to college, or a good friend dies. When they were finished packing, Chief Hodges called some of the others in and they carried his boxes to the Jeep.
Amos drove Hodges into town. When they got there, Randy rented a car and they transferred his things to it. There was a moment of silence as they hugged each other and shook hands, fighting back tears like the family they had become. They both drove out of the lot together and turned in opposite directions, waving. Amos vowed to himself to look Hodges up when he got out of the service. As he drove back to the Vespers, his thoughts returned to what he faced there.
There were seven security officers and a few technical people in support, all tightly under the grip of Pius One. In his short time in training to be chief, Amos learned there were two groups among his officers. Three of the officers had accepted his authority immediately and without question. He felt he could work with them and talk to them in confidence. The other four were another matter altogether. Two of them were longtime officers who were good friends of Randy's, but were upset with the selection of Amos as the new chief over Ralph, who had worked so hard to be able to take over after Chief Hodges left. George, his best friend on the force, supported Ralph. Used to the whims of the One’s autocracy, both men conceded to the fact that Amos was now chief and showed it. Hector was a sharp dresser and carried his attitude on his shoulder like an amulet. He was responsible for Pius One's internal investigation of the force and the surveillance system which he took great pride in. Hector's primary ally was an enforcer called Longray. Longray, who didn't go by any other names, was the one who carried out the One's wishes. Amos had a hard time even speaking to the man. It was obvious whenever he was in his presence that Longray hated him. He sensed the same in Hector, but couldn't pin it down. Hector would smile at him and assure him that everything was going smoothly. Amos knew it wasn't. He had learned how to read people and their body movements always gave them away. There was hurt in that practiced smile, as though Hector were hiding something. Amos was afraid he knew what it was.
The biggest surprise about the compound was that there were women living there. There was a small group of illegal immigrants that lived in a group home in the compound and were kept to provide cooking, cleaning, and other services. Because of their illegal status they were literally slaves to the Master. While they lived quite well compared to others in the country illegally, they had no freedom and no hope of leaving the compound. They were carefully groomed and trained by Pius's henchmen to do his bidding. The young women were picked for their beauty and there was no doubt that they were useful for more than just their domestic skills. There were some older men who had more trusted positions like butlers, chefs and custodial supervisors. As far as Amos knew, none of these servants ever left the compound except to be deported in the fashion that Pius One preferred. Like so many of the pions, they were taken to the bus station, given a ticket and some cash, and sent on their way. The cleansing process was almost perfect. Only the most beautiful, beautiful and skilled were allowed to stay and have the privilege of serving Him. The rest were disposable like so much garbage.
And then there were the other women. Like Amos had seen being treated by Dr. Sarah Robinson and that first night with Pius One, a stream of beautiful women came to the compound in helicopters or limousines from airports throughout the area. These were women the One met on his many forays to hotspots around the world. They usually stayed in his house by the lake and were afforded the best of everything that the Vespers could provide. Parties were the thing and they lasted all night. Occasionally, one of the guys would have to drive the ambulance to Rapids when someone overdosed or had a medical problem. There were two EMTs who spent most their time treating pions that had been exposed to heat, cold, insects, poison ivy, or one of the many other hazards associated with farm life. As much as possible, these problems were handled in-house. In the case of the overdoses, the ladies were whisked off to hospitals in Chicago or Minneapolis where their afflictions and identity would remain anonymous.
Amos wasn't close to Pius One. He let Hector do that. Instead, he concentrated on making sure that the guys had the best support and equipment money could buy. Gradually, he got a picture of what was going on. As he had suspected, the sinister side of the One was even more grotesque than he thought. While the One's public image was of a man of the cloth with great appeal for his liberal views and openness to ideas, his hidden side made him more like Jekyll and Hyde. On Amos's forays into town, he made a point to visit the local gas stops, cafés and coffee shops, and the local police. It took the people some time to warm up to him. Amos’s clean-cut face, warm smile and chief's uniform helped, but nothing worked better than a cup of coffee and cherry pie.
Three months later, early October
"Hiya, Sis." Amos called out jovially as he arrived for his occasional morning coffee at the Cozy Corner Café. Sis smiled coyly, coffeepot already in hand as they both approached the counter at the same time. She palmed a cup and saucer from under the counter and poured him his usual cup of "hold the sugar, hold the cream" without spilling a drop. Amos slid onto the smooth plastic covered stool and took a sip of "better than Starbucks at 1/10 the price." It was his third cup of the day but the way it flirted with his nostrils rivaled the way he flirted with Sis. He said what he thought. "Girl, if you were only 20 years younger!"
"I don't discriminate. Why don't you come over and try me sometime? What's the matter? That highfalutin Pius One gotcha by the a-huh?" A long time waitress, hardened by the divorce wars, Sis didn't mince words. Her intuition was right on.
"Not today. Got to get back to my highfalutin honey. Has Chief Blake been in yet?"
"Not today, but that's him pulling in right now.” She nodded to the window over his shoulder. “Must of seen your Jeep. Guess that means I'll be playing second fiddle again for your affections." She got that downtrodden look on that she was so good at.
"Oh Sis, you know your number one in my book." But his mind was already on what he was going to say to Chuck Blake. He rose from the stool, and waved at Blake coming through the door as they headed for the corner table of the Café where they were out of line with the surveillance cameras and could talk without being overheard. Sis followed with a coffeepot and another cup and saucer. She poured Chief Blake a cup and refreshed Amos's. She winked and swirled around like the fashion model she thought she would be when she was in her teens. Amos couldn't help but admire the curve of her hip and the model unfulfilled.
Chuck Blake was a big man, almost twice the size of Amos, but he had a gentle, country way about him that made him a well-liked small-town police chief. They exchanged greetings and got down to business right away.
"Pius has pulled five million from Junction City Savings. It's got those farmers on the board hopping mad. I thought he was supposed to be supporting this community!"
"Thanks Chuck. That's news to me. What is he doing with it? Any ideas?"
"Claude Adamski said that he wired it to a John White down in Razorback, Arkansas. Isn't that the John White of the Aryan Nation that's on the FBI list as a white supremacist promoting anarchy?"
"That's right. He is. Now that the Cathedral is almost finished and not sucking funds from the Vespers nest egg, it looks like the One is spreading his good fortune around, helping out his friends with similar ideas. No one on the inside told me that, it’s just my gut feeling. As for me, the only thing I can tell you, Chuck, is that we had another kid come up missing last week, Arthur Five. Anyway, we got no orders to search for him and he wasn't escorted out, so I think he joins the many that have just disappeared. I want to thank you and Randy for cluing me in on what’s happening. By my count, that makes 73. That's more than John Wayne Gacy. And here I am working for him. I will get to the bottom of it. I hope it's before the next one because it's got to stop. Halloween is coming again soon, and I hear he's got big plans. It makes me shudder just to think of it."
"Remember what I told you, Amos. The community depends upon Pius and holds him in high esteem. They don't know anything about what goes on in Vespers except what they see on TV and how he lines their pockets. Pius One is probably the most devious criminal this country has ever known. But he's squeaky clean. There is no evidence. All we've got is the missing kids that we know at one time or another came to the Vespers and disappeared. Watch yourself. Trust no one, not even me.” He broke out in a knowing smile. “Some of our local people may be in on it with him. I don't think we can get him without your help. You know, habeas corpus? Take care."
Having finished their coffee, Amos left a generous tip for Sis and blew her a kiss as he and Chief Blake left the cafe. Amos stopped by to chat with two more townspeople before heading back to the Vespers by noon. After discussing some modifications on the Jeeps with Marian Karpinski at his shop, Marian was always willing to give him a feel for how the local people viewed the Vespers. Virgil Morand, at 69, was still holding on to his barbershop with the old-fashioned porcelain chairs whose plastic cushions, though replaced, showed much wear. While Virgil was giving him his occasional trim, he was also filling him in on the local scuttlebutt. Unfortunately, most of it was useless gossip.
Amos was back from town, at lunch, in the kitchen, when Hector approached. "Chief, I'd like to have a talk with you, privately, in your office." There was urgency in his voice behind that patented smile. Hector slipped out of the kitchen before Amos could finish. Amos followed, and found Hector sitting in his office, waiting. Amos closed the door. He knew his office was bugged, so, like usual, he let Hector do the talking.
"Chief, you know Halloween is coming up in a couple of weeks. Pius One's got big plans. He wants me to handle security for the Cathedral for the Midnight Mass. He wants certain security cameras turned off and he wants you and the rest of the force to maintain the Vespers perimeter, while Longray and I, assisted by Robert Four and Elias Three, will protect the Cathedral. That's it. Just passing on His request." Hector got that smug look like he always did when he figured he had one up on the new chief. Amos ignored it. Something in his stomach told him that something bad was going down. He tried to dismiss it and went about his daily routine, but he couldn't ignore his gut instinct as Halloween approached.
Halloween coincided with the full moon, an ominous sign. Amos normally wasn't on night patrol but he selected to be on the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift. As requested, he checked the gates and stayed away from the Cathedral. It was a quiet night, and the full Moon cast long shadows from the trees, almost barren from a recent windstorm, across the landscape. He stopped at the gates, got out, and checked the electronics to see if they were working properly and, as usual, waved at the guys monitoring the cameras back at the office. He enjoyed the smell of rotting leaves and the calm of the night. At midnight, he was at the East gate, some 10 miles from the compound. As he got out of the Jeep, a wind came up suddenly and the few remaining leaves once again filled the air. He felt a chill and heard a lone coyote howling in the distance. The coyote sounded wounded, mournful. He hadn't heard that sound before. It gave him the creeps. "Halloween,” he muttered, and got back into the Jeep. Amos wasn't the least bit superstitious. But he knew something dreadful had happened. When he arrived back at the office to check in an hour later, everything was normal. He stopped to say hello to the guys in the monitor room and then headed back out into the bright, moonlit night.
It was only a rumor. He couldn't verify it. But, supposedly, three pions had gone missing Halloween night. He knew it was true after making the video of the spectacle the year before. But no bodies ever turned up. The dogs, keen on scent, never found anything at the Vespers other than live pions and animal remains. Without habeas corpus, Pius One was innocent. A better thought would be that He, as a reward for their sacrificial performance, whisked them off to one of his far away hideaways to a life of luxury. Not the sort of thing young men enter monasteries for.
The next day, he tried to get some shuteye. But he couldn't. He wasn't used to sleeping in the light of day and thoughts of what really happened kept flashing across his mind. He had to stop Pius One. But how? It would take more than evidence. It would take an act of providence. It was several nights before he was sleeping normally again.
Gradually, Pius One let Amos into his confidence. It started with small gestures, when the One would call him and ask security advice for a trip that He would be taking or for a party that he would be throwing. On these rare occasions beautiful, anonymous, alluring women always surrounded Pius. He was always dressed in white to fit the occasion and his women were always dressed in the finest designer clothes. Amos thought--Hugh Hefner in the 21st century. On a bitter cold day, just after Christmas, Amos was summoned to Pius's residence. The butler lead him through the luxurious home from the grand white marble entry that soared two stories to a dome and a crystal chandelier with matching curved marble staircases on either side down a wide hallway. Amos glimpsed the huge dining room and dining table to the left and the small, but high tech, office to the right and a powder room to end all powder rooms. Straight ahead was a large, multipurpose room that served for meetings, parties, and recreation. It was all glass on the side, bringing the cold, barren, snow-covered landscape right up to the luxurious and warm furniture of the room. The One was at the bar with a hot chocolate waiting for Amos's approval, while behind him a faux fireplace roared and warmed the room. He was dressed in white slacks with deep creases, a white pullover turtleneck, and white boots. The sunglasses seemed a bit out of place except when looking at the sun off the snow. There were three girls in the room. A brunette, a blonde, and a redhead. Amos surmised that they were real -- no boob jobs, no fake teeth, and no hair dye. Hef would roll over in his grave.
Pius One greeted him. "Chief Amos, it is good to see you again. I like the way you're running the force. All I hear is good things." He extended his hand. It was like shaking hands with the devil, but Amos did it out of courtesy. He shook firmly, trying not to give away his anxiety.
"Thank you. Your place is beautiful."
"I like it. But it can be boring, especially in the dead of winter. I've got a few days before the New Year Celebration. How would you like to go fishing?"
Amos hesitated a moment. He knew what his answer had to be. There was no denying the One. "Sounds great. Are we going to go ice fishing on the lake?"
"No, Chief, I've got something more tropical in mind. Go pack a swimsuit. We'll be leaving within the hour."
Amos rushed back to his apartment and threw some summer clothes in a suitcase, stopped by the office and rearranged all the schedules to exclude him. He had felt it his duty to be part of daily patrols. He called Ralph and Hector on the radio and told them to have Ralph take over until he got back, he assumed, on the 31st. Hector laughed sarcastically when he heard it. "So, He's got you on his party list now?" Even without seeing him, Amos could sense the envy. He knew he'd have to watch Hector carefully. Ralph responded more favorably, glad to be able to act as chief while Amos was gone.
Amos grabbed Elias Three from the monitor room to drive him in an electric cart to the One's home. By the time he arrived back at the multipurpose room, he could hear the staccato of a helicopter landing on the pad just beyond the house. Snow was kicking up like a blizzard outside the window. Pius One, in a white fur faux coat, was standing with the three ladies, also decked out in furs, by the double door leading to the pad waiting for the rotors to slow and the blizzard to die down. He motioned to Amos to hurry, and opened the door. It was still about -10° outside in the bright sun, but they only had to make a few steps before they were in the warm helicopter. As soon as the butler had stowed their luggage, they took off. It was like being freed from the nightmare while riding with it. Amos admitted to being excited and enjoyed the panoramic view of the Vespers, climaxed by the steel and crystal cathedral rising from the bluff. The fields and forests were blanketed with snow, blazing white against the dark of the trees and blue of the sky. Somehow, it reminded him of looking off a Virginia mountaintop in winter in another time and place. It also reminded him of that trial, long ago, in the sub arctic. Wisconsin in winter was much more interesting to look at. Pius One interrupted his thoughts.
"Ever flown in a helicopter before? A lovely form of transportation. Unfortunately, a bit too slow to get us where we're going, so we’ll have to pick up my jet at Central Wisconsin Airpark."
Noticing that the girls, now in close proximity--one vaguely familiar--were all staring at him like a new piece of meat, he hoped that he could play along in the fashion expected. "No, I haven't." He lied. "The Vespers is awesome from the air. I didn't know you could see so much from a helicopter. It feels so warm yet it's below zero out there."
"Yeah, they invented the heater with the Model A, I think." Pius laughed out loud at his cool wit and the girls joined in. Amos felt right at home convincing them of his naivety. He hoped to keep it up. What he couldn't disguise was the attraction he felt to the heavenly bodies so close at hand. By their gestures and glances he could see that they were interested too. He wondered if the One might share.
And, as if to have read his thoughts, Pius One interjected. "My apologies, I haven't introduced you to my friends. They all know who you are because I showed them your dossier." He winked. He put his hand on the redhead's shoulder. "This is Mary McCowen. Can't you see the Irish? Believe me, she's got freckles..." He paused before he overstepped the comment. Mary is a very good actress and singer, and hopes to make Broadway soon, right?" Mary, embarrassed enough for redness to appear on her cheeks, nodded yes.
"And this little sweetie, Angela Sanchez, is a dancer. She's got muscles where I..." He paused, once again careful not to overstep but still clear in his meaning. Amos got the point. They were all up-and-coming starlets that Pius One was grooming for greatness. Amos knew that he was also close to rich and famous people, but it was obvious from these three, that he was skimming the cream from his crop of admirers.
"Finally, and by no means least, this is Bambi Wilcox. She's my rocket scientist. Under that platinum hood and behind those baby blue headlights is the genius behind my wireless enterprise. She's not too bad in other departments either!" Pius One burst into laughter again. Once again, Amos sensed familiarity with the blonde beauty before him. She looked at him as if to say something, but didn't, except, “Hi.”
It wasn't long before he could see the sharply etched semi-X of the runways against a blinding white of the surrounding countryside. A few moments later they landed at a large hangar on the far western edge of the airpark next to a Norstar Supreme being fueled. A brief run from the helicopter in the bitter cold to the jet left them breathless and laughing. Their drinks were already having the expected effect.
The Norstar Supreme was luxurious beyond words. It was a 20 passenger so there was room to spread out. They didn't, ending up in the circular lounge in the rear of the plane, obviously the One's abode. Within ten minutes, they were airborne. With more drinks, a happy chatter continued until Pius One stopped talking, a signal that he was either tired or bored. He excused himself and went forward to where the pilot and copilot were and begin talking to them. Amos decided that it wasn't appropriate for him to talk to the girls while the One was absent, so he excused himself and moved forward to a seat with a view in front of the wing, but not within earshot of the cockpit.
They flew southeast over the shimmering bleak landscape that is Wisconsin in winter. Amos was on the right side of the plane, the sun waning into one of those glorious winter sunsets that come so early in midwinter. He soon noticed that Pius One had fallen asleep, and, as darkness fell he could see little of where they were going and didn't know how long they would be in the air, so he too, tilted his seat back and soon found himself nodding off.
Amos awoke to the feel of heat and humidity. So unlike the cold, crisp air of Wisconsin. They had already landed and the copilot was gently shaking him awake. It was uncharacteristic of him to sleep so deeply. But then, the shift he had been working and the stress leading up to the flight, combined with the liquor, explained it. He didn't put his jacket on, but carried it. Like the sweater he was wearing, it seems awkward and heavy in the heat of the night. He was glad to give it to an attendant who waited dutifully by the plane when he exited.
Like before, there was a helicopter waiting and he ran alone to it. "I thought you weren't coming along," Pius One quipped as he entered the helicopter and then laughed that sarcastic laugh that had begun to irritate Amos to the bone. He just hoped that Pius couldn't see his disgust. He didn't ask, but the girls were talking about Naples, so that's where he figured they were. Soon, the helicopter left the lights of the city and they were out over open water. The line of lights on his left disappearing into the vanishing point suggested that they were following the route of US 1 to Key West.
An hour later, they put down on a small helo pad on a small island with few lights. "Welcome to Cutaway Key! Clothing optional." Pius One announced. His turtleneck sweater long gone, he pulled off his T-shirt, bearing a surprisingly tanned and buff chest. By this time, Amos had already removed his sweater. The girls giggled. Their furs neatly stowed away, they were showing more skin than ever. As the door opened from the air-conditioned helicopter, Amos once again felt the heat and humidity instantly surround him. It felt good. Two young men with oiled bulging muscles and six pack abs greeted them. Their white, translucent harem pants hanging off their hip bones from lightly tied bowstrings. "Say hello to Jacob and Joshua, my caretakers. If you need anything, just ask them.”