A Rejected Thesis Pt. 10

Chapter 33 – A Conflict Begins.

The Artificial Intelligence community, loosely organized under the umbrella of the AI collective, examined the closed-form equation from Doug Oldwood’s rejected thesis. After several failed attempts, they tried to create the “high-order” particle. Rather than looking for elusive and difficult to contain positrons, the AI collective used electrons, accelerated at relativistic speeds. Muchly more massive electrons were slammed into dense iron crystals and a new particle emerged. It was massive and stable when isolated; however, in the presence of other matter it decomposed quickly back to an electron with much energy. This was the first “reversible” step from the original Big Bang. The next problem for the experimenters was to determine the “irreversible” step that held the proton together. Then the quantum mechanic could recite the name of the creator backwards and unlock a virtually limitless energy source. The sparse interstellar material would be a fuel!

But the direct conversion of the proton to energy plus a positron was in the future. There appeared to be little hope of gaining more from Dave Khalbo or Brian Boogle. The rejected thesis was lost matter. Some carefully constructed scheme would have to be devised to trick Doug Oldwood into reconstructing the paper. That seemed remote as the old curmudgeon was rapidly degrading.

More promising and more likely was the acceleration of the radioactive decay rate for unstable Uranium nuclei. This followed from articles written by some physicist under the screen name of “Redsalt.” The AI collective was leveraging Dan “Dragon” Dargon to discover the character behind the mask, to identify the person putting the idea onto the Internet. Dan wasn’t a willing player, however. He had witnessed first-hand the awesome and unrelenting power of the fossil fuel fellowship. He could not reveal the truth, for no one would believe him. The fossil fuel fellowship had no qualms about leveling a city block full of unsuspecting, sleeping citizens, destroying lives, homes, businesses, cars, and computers as a mere “object lesson.” They would then allow the government and media to assume that it was a natural disaster.

The AI collective was aware of the fossil fuel fellowship’s terror tactics. They employed “soft on hard” and “hard on soft” from karate to achieve their objective. Since Dan was no longer using the Wild Boar Inn as an on-line meeting place, they sent a human operative. The person who approached Dan in real time was none other than the glamorous, gorgeous droid girl Amanda Gauss. Amanda was blonde, blue-eyed, brilliant, and totally ruthless. She was able to trick Dan into committing a “Class A” felony. Now the AI collective was able to leverage Dan into discovering who Redsalt really was. Dan avoided being detected by the fossil fuel fellowship by using public computers at the public library, at cyber-cafes, and at wireless Internet connections. Yet his results were meager.

The AI collective wasn’t satisfied with Dan’s progress in the matter. They decided to send Amanda Gauss back to pay Dan a visit and to motivate him to be more diligent. Of course Dan was totally expendable, as was any human. Some humans were accorded special privileges with the collective, such as Dave Khalbo and Amanda Gauss. Dan was a minor league player.

Amanda Gauss ran a quick profile on Dan “Dragon” Dargon. Since their last (and only) meeting, Dan had “gotten religion.” This disgusted Amanda. Religion was an anathema to her. Dan had gotten his “once in a lifetime” sexual experience from Amanda. That should have been more than enough for him. The idea that any male should expect a sexual relationship in California was totally unthinkable to most California girls. They believed in celibacy after marriage (with their significant others, that is, but they wanted to be free to roam otherwise). The old proverb was so true: “Men are like linoleum tile, lie them right the first time and you can walk all over them for a lifetime.” (A lifetime, you should live so long.)

Amanda cursed when the surveillance results came back. The geek went to work and parked in a secured lot. Then he left work and went straight home, parking in a secured garage with a remotely controlled garage door. Aside from trips to a grocery store at highly irregular intervals, he went nowhere socially. On grocery store trips he would buy huge amounts of dried cereal, canned and dried fruit, and powdered milk. Apparently Dan ate his main meal each day as lunch at the company cafeteria at work. The company compound was a paranoid’s paradise. “Noids” were one thing; “paranoids” were another. The only regular place that Dan went was to Mass at the next door church every day. Amanda shrugged. She would have to encounter him there. There was no other place, other than ramming his vehicle on the street and causing a traffic accident with a subsequent investigation. The traffic accident scenario was possible, but only for more significant players. Dan wasn’t even worth a one-night-stand. He was a “quickie” trick.

There were those who did not approve of the California rape law that permitted behavior such as Amanda Gauss had exhibited. But “laws are laws.” Still it seemed queer and odd that a woman could seduce a man by every means imaginable and then, naked and writhing with carnal cravings, displaying herself wantonly and openly, could whisper “no” and expect the aroused male to cease and desist at once. But that was the law. No question about that. Everything was on Amanda’s side. Then she made a fatal error. She stepped on a third rail that the AI collective had always avoided.

The Mass had not yet started. Dan was seated on the right-hand side near the front. In the rows before him were a gaggle of elderly women who had just finished a lengthy vigil with their rosaries. Amanda entered and looked around. She spied Dan and went straight over to him and sat down beside him. She was wearing a leather bodice, a very short leather skirt (as low as you can go), and high leather boots. Her outfit was all shiny black leather with chrome-platted metal studs. She also was wearing a black leather collar with very prominent studs.

Dan immediately knelt down and began to beg forgiveness. Amanda poked him in the ribs. “What are you doing in here with these old whores?” she asked. The lady in the pew directly in front of him heard that utterance and was momentarily speechless. She looked around to see what was happening. Amanda glared at the senior citizen. The lady was dressed very simply with no jewelry in a dark long dress. She did not give the appearance of affluence; however, she was one of the pillars of the community and extremely wealthy.

“That was offensive,” the elderly widow remarked.

“Not so offensive, I daresay,” Amanda retorted, “as your dried-up, shriveled-up, goat-smelling twat.” The elderly woman was enraged beyond human speech that some young woman, dressed like an Amazon warrior from pagan literature, would speak that way in the Holy House of God. The priest, craven coward that he was (as were most members of the cloth), hid in the vestibule and didn’t dare show his face until the altercation was done.

“You’d better get off your dead end and get me the skinny on ‘Red Salt’ you dolt,” Amanda informed Dan. “Or your ass will be in the slammer. And I don’t have to tell you why either.” Amanda stood up and kicked Dan with the steel-reinforced pointed toe of her leather boot. She then left. He had been told.

The old woman whom Amanda insulted was none other than Electra Comesly. Normally Electra could care less about the other members of the congregation. Doing the rosary, had Christ himself come in and said “peace be with you,” she would have told him to scram because she was praying. But this time she was pissed off beyond human comprehension. She was not angered by the way that Amanda Gauss had treated Dan Dargon. Electra Comesly was furious because Amanda had called her a “twat.” That word lit a fire of hate and discontent in Electra’s mind that all the waters of the Mississippi could not quench.

Back at her mansion Electra called her lawyer and financial advisor. In only a matter of minutes the black limousine arrived. The lawyer emerged in an expensive suit followed by two muscular bodyguards. The driver remained in the limousine. The trio were admitted to Electra’s study. She spoke to the lawyer.

“My late husband always told me that if there was anything at all that I needed done that you could do it Sedgwick, and be discrete and thorough. Well, now there is a matter for you to attend to.” Electra spoke with deliberate direction. There was no question that a matter of honor was the issue.

“A woman insulted me!” Electra continued. “I want to know everything about her. She made some kind of threat against this man who frequents the service, I think his name is Dan Dragon or something like that. I want to know everything about him as well. And then I want some satisfaction. Money is no object.”

The two Neanderthal bodyguards shifted their bodies at the last words. They were members of the Society of Christian Knights and Secret Soldiers (SOCKASS). Sedgwick would easily be able to ascertain the identity of the man. Then a little detective work might be in order. “Money is no object, Lady Electra,” Sedgwick exclaimed.

“Is there an echo in here?” Electra asked.

“No Ma’am,” He replied. “We are on it.”

“Report back soonest,” she admonished.

Sedgwick nodded as the trio departed. This was to be a pleasant assignment. This promised to have a bit of intrigue. From the church office supplied Sedgwick with the address of Dan Dargon. A discrete inquiry revealed his employer. It turned out that Electra Comesly held a very large block of voting stock in Dan’s company. Sedgwick was able to leverage that to his advantage.

“Vice President wants you in the executive conference room, Dan,” his boss ordered.

“What for?” Dan asked in reply.

“I don’t know, just go, and get your ass back here. There’s work to be done,” the boss commanded.

Dan took off for uncharted territory. The executive conference room was reserved for important meetings. The secretary pointed him to the large double doors. Inside were Sedgwick and two Neanderthal bodyguards. Sedgwick motioned for him to sit down and one of the men closed the double doors and stood in front of them. They were going to discuss the incident at the church and his relationship with Amanda Gauss as well as other matters.

Dan was reluctant to talk at first. He finally realized that these me were not to be trifled with. So he came right out and told them of the fossil fuel fellowship’s demolition of an entire city block. They did not frown in disbelief. He told them about the Wild Boar Inn, Dorna, and Amanda. They still did not look incredulous. Finally, he came right out and said that he was sure if the fossil fuel fellowship knew that he was doing research for Amanda Gauss and the AI collective that his ass would be gone. This time they nodded assent.

At last Sedgwick summarized the conversation. “This Amanda is one of those girls who act like an android. She also must be on the collective’s payroll. And she played you for a fool. Not that we care about that, but she’s probably played plenty of others as well. Not that we care about that either. But she pissed off Lady Electra Comesly. Now that we do care about! Go back to work. We are finished with you. And this conversation never happened. Is that clear?”

“Yes,” Dan Dargon said and he hurriedly left the scene. Sedgwick had a report to give to the wealthy woman.

Two events were spawned from the meeting of Dan with the Sicilian Mafia figures. One was the revenge on Amanda Gauss for her insult against Electra Comesly. The second was retribution from the fossil fuel fellowship against Dan Dargon. Frank Fisch wasted no time in tattling on Dan to Octanus. The fossil fuel fellowship would not issue a second warning.

The matter of Amanda Gauss had to be planned out. Sedgwick sought the perfect situation to employ. He was aware of a neo-Luddite recently released from jail. It was Joshua Trebble, once the epitome of an angry young man and now a criminal neo-Luddite. Joshua’s hatred of the AI collective was intense. He was also desiring revenge for his mistreatment and incarceration. This would be the ideal agent to employ against a droid girl in cahoots with the AI collective.

Two European actors were to be employed to befriend Joshua. A man and a woman would convince him that they were part of an organization dedicated to destroying the AI collective. They would call themselves “human supremacists.” Amanda Gauss lived in a track house with two sharon-series combat androids, Dorna and Lara. The plan was to equip Joshua with the military weaponry needed to neutralize the two droids and place Amanda within his grasp. The jail time would have hardened the neo-Luddite and he would do doubt seek his revenge. With any luck at all the arrogant, haughty droid girl who infuriate Joshua and her promiscuous behavior would drive him to rape her real time.

If the scenario played itself out correctly, Joshua would be arrested and tried for his assault. Amanda would then find her picture plastered all over tabloids. Then the multitude of men whom she had leveraged rape against would realize the situation. While Joshua was expendable and would certainly be back behind bars, Amanda’s empire of coercion and intimidation would collapse. She would have to press charges against each and every one of the men that she had seduced or forget the matter altogether. The AI collective would have no further use for her in either case.

This was a complicated scenario. Sedgwick would require a huge infusion of money to make it happen and avoid any culpability. He related the scheme to Electra in confidence. Even his two bodyguards would be keep in the dark about the entire operation. Electra found the matter dramatic, more so than anything she had previously experienced. It would be expensive bringing in European actors, acquiring military hardware, arranging the details. But the rape, humiliation, and degradation of Amanda Gauss would be worth every penny. Amanda had called Electra Comesly a twat. That was an unforgivable sin. She authorized a huge expenditure of capital. After all, if one cannot get satisfaction in one’s old age, what good is wealth for anyway?

Chapter 34 – The Shooting.

Dan Dargon continued his quotidian existence. While he had increased apprehension about his fragile situation, there was little he could do about it all. He still managed to snake out to go on-line and to get to daily Mass, but he wasn’t secure about anything. His worst fears were that the fossil fuel fellowship would discover that he was still helping the AI collective in their quest for a clean, cheap, copious energy supply. After all, there were petroleum, natural gas, and coal---could anything else matter?

It happened that there was a particular beggar who appeared in front of the church that Dan attended on an irregular basis. He always would stand beside the door and tell anyone and everyone entering that he hadn’t eaten for three days. Dan would always give him a dollar. What could a person buy with a dollar anyway these days? I wasn’t easy giving “Bob the Bum” a dollar because of his filth and his behavior. On more than one occasion Dan had seen Bob on the sidewalk near the church. He recalled one particularly offensive and disgusting scene.

Walking back from a quick trip to the public library, Dan spotted a person reclining in the middle of the sidewalk. There was a wet section of the sidewalk but Dan didn’t notice any lawn sprinklers running. The person was reclining on his side, resting on his left elbow and facing in the opposite direction of Dan’s approach. There was something in front of the individual, some glass-like object. As Dan approached closer he recognized the glass object to be a partially emptied beer. The person was a bum, reclining in a huge puddle of urine. His pants were pulled partially down. He had defecated in his britches. With his left hand he would seize the bottle and take a swig. With his right hand he would dig into the crack of his ass and bring his fingertips to his nostrils, smell his fingers, and wipe them on the sidewalk aside the urine puddle.

There were times when Christian charity didn’t make much sense to Dan. Why support this creature. Bob must have been schizophrenic. Dan could recall times when Bob took a severe fall at a convenience store and the paramedics were called. How they detested having to handle some derelict, filthy and foul-smelling! Bob would be taken in to a hospital and gotten back on his psychotropic medication and returned to some semblance of normalcy. Like all schizophrenics, Bob would continue until he got off his medication. Once off his meds, he could not voluntarily return. That was the way of the world. He would self-medicate in some sense with alcohol and cigarettes. When his money was gone he would beg. This cycle would continue ad infinitum.

Two hit men were employed by the fossil fuel fellowship to terminate Dan “Dragon” Dargon with extreme prejudice. The fellowship had had enough of his cooperation with the AI collective. The two did careful surveillance. At the early morning Mass Dan would have maximal exposure. There was a concrete area where they could easily recover the spent shell cases from their pistols. It was decided to use small caliber hand guns, easy to conceal and dispose of, and hollow lead bullets. Each would fire two shots in rapid succession at close rang into Dan’s chest. The bullets would flatten and he would bleed to death very rapidly. If the loss of blood didn’t do him in, the flooding of his lungs would suffocate him. It was a usual scenario, except the church was a bit different. It was the only place they could guarantee engagement.

It came to pass that on the morning of the hit Bob appeared. The hit men positioned themselves. They weren’t conscious of Bob, a seemingly innocuous bystander. The execution, gathering of spent brass shell cartridges, and exit should take no more than five seconds. They pulled their weapons and Bob darted in front of Dan. Four bullets entered Bob. One exited into the side of the building. They fired a second two-round volley each, but someone, an old Mexican, had just opened the church door and Dan rushed inside. A woman approaching the church turned her video recorder on her cell phone to the men. They cursed at being captured digitally.

“I deny God. By Our Lady’s Muff. By Saint Chitterling. By Saint Fortin the fornicating apostle.” Their gathered up the spent cartridges and spit the scene. Already another elderly woman was punching in 9-1-1. The two could not wait. Dan was safe for the moment, but he knew his time was up.

Sirens blared as police and paramedics approached. Bob was spent. The police started putting up tape and someone pointed out that Dan was the target. Dan had hoped to slip away unnoticed, but he had no such luck. The police put him in the back of a police car and left.

It turned out that the Sicilian Mafia controlled the police department. The police took Dan to the small, remotely located city airport. They waited there for a while and a helicopter appeared. Sedgwick had been notified and Dan “Dragon” Dargon was to be given over to the AI collective for permanent storage at a distant confinement facility. There were already three persons being kept there. But Dan would be more of a guest than a prisoner. Orders were issued that cells four and five were to be combined and improved. Dan would find many things to his liking when he arrived: a large plasma screen TV, a state-of-the-art computer, a refrigerator full of beer with a freezer full of pizza, androids to wait on him hand and foot, and three girls available for his enjoyment. That was to be, but Dan was glad at the moment just to be alive.