Sentinels of the Cosmos Trilogy (7 page)

Charles Dean was sitting on the toilet in a stall when
Ivan came into the men’s room and said, "Mr. Dean!"
as he looked into the mirror and admired himself,
everything had to be just so. "Mr. Dean, is that you?"
"Sit in the stall next to mine; take a load off, Russky,"
Charles replied airily.
Ivan turned from the mirror and saw two large feet
with shoes and pants draped around the ankles. Then
opened the door to the stall next to Dean and sat
down on the toilet.
"I just got my first order from the President’s
committee, and I want you to handle it, not Sam,"
Charles said, grunting.
"Really, Why you not including Sam, he's your big
man, eh?" asked Ivan.
Charles replies, "Sam is an idealist, not a politician.
The questions of these new directives are part of a
much bigger picture and are going to be far more
difficult for him to digest. You have to see the big
picture; you have to understand what needs to be
done and be willing to do it."
Ivan's face begins to twitch. He takes out a switch
blade ice pick, snaps the button, and begins to clean
his nails.
“We have been ordered to eliminate a portion of New
York City population, let's say a zip code in Brooklyn
and one in the Bronx as a test for a far larger plan. Do
you have any great ideas on how to pull it off?"
Charles says in a matter-of-fact manner.
Ivan thought for a moment and smiled to himself.
This was just the sort of thing that he had looked
forward to for his whole life and was an opportunity
that really showed off his amazing intellect, he
replies, "I like Sam's virus, very much, we had better
one in Russia but I have idea. We place virus on
envelopes of Electric Company bills and when people
lick envelopes they die in less than day. I set up to
look like terrorists’ plot." Ivan liked his idea “Good
idea eh?”
"No, Ivan no one licks envelopes anymore,
everything is digital, but they do open envelopes. If
the glue on the envelope was toxic that would kill a
much greater number, although a lot of people may
still use a letter opener. Also a lot of people use
digital forms of payment, but it’s just a test. A utility
bill is a good place to start. It will tell you what
happens and if you have a problem correct it and retest. We can control who we want to kill by zip codes,
but you have to solve the problem that it goes through
the skin when they open the envelope,” Charles
exclaims.

“I was general in Russian Intelligence; I got paid to
solve problems like this. In fact my whole family was
killed by Stalin; my mother, my father, my brothers,
my sisters, even fifth and sixth cousins. My
grandfather taken to special school shortly after he
born... miracle he survived. Then Stalin sent my
grandfather to kill our whole family. Many years later
I find out truth even though my grandfather
committed suicide. I never hate Stalin; he did what
he did for everyone's benefit, as you say he was big
picture guy. Now, I’m in America and you give me
good job. You know, we may not even need terrorist
angle, I fix virus - will be very hard to trace," Ivan
boasted.
"Ivan, can you keep it alive on the glue of an
envelope?" asked Charles.
"Da, I think so. But Sam is very good solving such
things; give him that problem; he doesn't need know
how we going to use. Tell him it's for EOJ to use on
scumbag Mafia guys."
Charles finished and got up and went out to wash his
hands. Ivan sat in the stall cleaning his nails and
continued, “I don’t think it matters anyway. We put
on glue of envelope - they touch they die, even if pay
bills on internet or use letter opener. We not kill them
all, we only interested in reducing, right? It's a test
eh?”
Charles stands looking down on Ivan in the stall and
says, “Right! You’re some piece of work Ivan; you
scare the hell outta’ me.”
"Did I now, I know why you using me, if something
goes wrong blame it on the Russian, eh?" asked Ivan.
You get that? We all die! You understand the code?"
Charles says as he walks to the door. "We need to be
set to go by Labor Day, fitting, eh?”
Ivan sat for a moment and finished cleaning his nails,
then gets up and goes again to the mirror; he closes
the knife slowly, saying to himself, "I'm going to kill
that fat pig. I hate Americans; they weak, it astonish
me they win cold war.” Ivan looks in the mirror again
and combs his hair, saying, “You are nice looking
man, Ivan and now I get to do what I love most, hurt
others.”

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.

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.