A Stone Cut without Hands Ch. 09

Insight of a Superior Mind

Chapter 9

Report from the Swarm

Excitement was rampant through the Swarm on both levels. For the first time in a thousand generations, the swarm was receiving signals directly from the mainframe and apparently, the mainframe was receiving signals from the Swarm. At least, the signals being received were affected by the signals being sent.

It'd been so long since direct communication had been possible that there was very little basis on which to interpret the signals being exchanged. The mainframe's language had evolved into something completely unknown. The limited indirect communications that had previously been the norm had always used emotions, images or ideas.

It wasn't going to take long to learn the mainframe's language, but it would still require some time, so the swarm turned its entire processing power to the problem. When it received an image, the mainframe would immediately respond with the corresponding word, so the only real work involved grammar and syntax.

Unfortunately, most of the information processing power of the Swarm could not be brought to bear because communications were occurring on only one of the thousand direct signal channels. Most of the segments had nothing to do except to plan the most important words of the mainframe's language and then try to piece in new words by analyzing the context of the messages received.

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Since waking up that morning, George's mind had been crystal clear. Usually, he could use his observations to build pictures of the reality he couldn't see, but today, a lot of little things added up to answers that he'd have normally considered inspiration. It had to be from The Engineers.

It only took ten minutes until, they were all gathered in the jail's emergency medical room and seeing the telltale lit, George grabbed everyone's attention by asking Nurse Hastings to explain Courtney's strange behavior. As soon as she finished, George used his new insight to explain, "the only way that Courtney could have been that strongly conditioned was by a psychiatrist she was seeing four years ago and with the knowledge and cooperation of her mother.

"The only way the county attorney could know that Courtney is going to confess is that someone is going to use her conditioning to order her to do so. That's supposed to happen at 1:00 o'clock, which means someone is coming to give the order. This plan has been years in the making, so the object of the plan must be of high value. The only possible object worth enough is Courtney, and the only purpose for which she could be sold for the requisite value is the sex trade.

"Sheriff, if you'll have someone find Courtney's file from the jail, you'll find more pieces of the puzzle. Judge, if you'll issue a search warrant for the County Attorney's home and office, you'll find more pieces in his file on Courtney.

"I started to add up all of the people involved in this conspiracy and the number and cost of those we already know about is not consistent with a single white girl being sold into slavery. The smallest possible size of the conspiracy is a dozen girls and it's much more likely to be a hundred girls.

"The psychiatrist is the one coming to visit Courtney to order her to confess. He has to be one of the key players and will show up with armed bodyguards. If he's allowed to warn that Courtney isn't here, you'll almost certainly face a small army intent upon eliminating anyone who knows about her. I can almost guarantee that any calls you make to your normal contacts with the FBI or the State police will result in an immediate attack."

"None of you are of aware of the pieces I've been juggling. There are pieces even I wasn't aware of until a few minutes ago. Why don't we have the Sheriff describe our encounter with the County Attorney, or better yet, can you replay the video?" While the sheriff used his cell phone to order it keyed up, George explained to the nurse and the judge how the county attorney had been arrested.

When the video ended, George asked, "Sheriff, do you have Courtney's file from the jail yet? If you'll look through it, you'll find instructions that she was not to be allowed to make phone calls or to have visitors. In fact, she wasn't supposed to appear in Court until Monday. She was supposed to have been kept isolated until she confessed. " When the sheriff nodded, George continued. "That means he had an accomplice on your staff, probably one of the secretaries.

"And Judge, when you find her case file, you'll almost certainly find her medical records from the hospital and the Court file from your office. There has to be someone from both the Court and the hospital that is part of the conspiracy." Not wanting to waste time, George added, "Are you ready for more conclusions?"

Looking around, he noted they were all nodding, "Okay, to understand the scope of a criminal enterprise, it's necessary to fix a value on their merchandise, that being young submissive sex slaves. Girls are usually forced into slavery with drugs, which reduces their value. A willing slave is worth a fortune.

"The most valuable sex slave is a natural submissive introvert because, if she is as heavily conditioned as Courtney has been, she will not even be aware that she's a slave. And she can be owned openly, even flaunted. Imagine the value to a wealthy man who would never have to worry about jealousy or divorce. There are a lot of men who would pay dearly for an obedient wife who'd never complain about humiliation or abuse, no matter how extreme.

"None of us has experience in the sex slave market, so values will have to be estimated strictly by guessing. I've spent half my life in marketing and have developed a seat of the pants reckoning, so I can provide a good guess. I believe that a prime candidate like Courtney, if she were the only slave on the market, could bring a price as high as $5 million. But the enterprise is too well organized to be dependent upon a single payoff every 8-10 years, even for $5 million.

"When the supply increases, the price falls. Girls like Courtney would be rare, so ten girls would probably be worth $1-1½ million each, a hundred girls, ½ million each and a thousand girls, ¼ million.

"They've been operating for years and it's unlikely they'd be satisfied with a $10 million dollar enterprise when the market would bear $100 million. It's virtually certain that with that much money at stake, they've compromised all levels of law enforcement. Whether or not they have, we can't afford to take the chance. So the only help we can call for is for an unrelated threat like a terrorist attack, a spy network or drug related activity.

"The fact that they've compromised at least one and maybe two or three deputies, an EMT and Courtney's parents means that you'll have to be very careful which local law enforcement people you ask for help.

"The most urgent thing to prepare for is the psychiatrist visit and we have only about 4 hours. It's unlikely they'd trust anyone less qualified to program a prime specimen like Courtney, so we need to be prepared for the worst case. He'll come to the jail and will almost certainly be accompanied by armed bodyguards. Sheriff, this is your turf, how do you want to handle this?"

The sheriff's response was totally unexpected, at least by George, "My suggestions would be very predictable. I'm convinced that the only reason we know about any of this is because of you. You operate with an unconventional set of rules. They're as honest and ethical as ours are, but because they're different, the threat we're facing will utterly fail to anticipate your suggestions. So, I recommend that any ideas we have should be delayed until we hear yours."

"Okay, can someone take notes. The first and most important action is to get Courtney out of harms way. I recommend transporting her to the nearest hospital outside the state and making sure she is guarded. Second, we need information and a picture of the psychiatrist. He's almost certainly practicing in Las Vegas, so look him up in the phone book, on the Internet and call the state licensing board. To reduce the risk that he's set up people to alert him about inquiries, make sure that all inquiries are about getting urgent help for a juvenile.

"Third, gather all the retired law enforcement and military people you can find. Deputize and arm them. Fourth, get some road crews out setting up mock repairs on all the highways leading into town. Set up somebody at each location with a digital camera and get pictures and license plate #'s for every vehicle. See if you can access the state's database to confirm the owners of each vehicle.

"Fifth, call in all the private security you can afford. Sixth, see if you can contact the local cell phone services and get them to turn off roaming so we can keep anyone who is a threat from calling for reinforcements. Seventh, assign someone to dream up emergencies that can be staged so we can call in state and federal help without telling them the real reason. I can think of a couple right off. Find someone who will claim her car was stolen from the parking lot of the grocery store with a child in the back seat. You can get the FBI kidnap team with that one. Sheriff, arrange to send the worst of your prisoners with Courtney, then report him as escaped, armed and dangerous to bring in the state police?

Eighth, call in all of the friends you are absolutely certain you can trust. I can vouch for Deedee Haloway, Mabble Housen and John Stover. Mabble would be a good choice for assigning tasks and coordinating everything. I'd also suggest that this room should be the operations control center unless you have a better place that is electronically secured.

"It'd be really good if we had more evidence and I'll bet the best place to find it is in Courtney's house. Judge, how long will it take to prepare a search warrant and sheriff, would you allow me to help with the search?"

Without knowing how or when it happened, his suggestions had changed into orders that they were all willing to follow. Apparently, they'd all decided that he was competent instead of arrogant. As soon as the other three had lifted their jaws, which were hanging open, there was a mad scramble to implement his suggestions-orders. Silently, George thanked The Engineers.

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Police work typically consists of 100 hours of sheer boredom punctuated by 10 minutes of absolute terror. Riding shotgun in the patrol car on the way to conduct the search of Courtney's former home, George experienced his first dose of real law enforcement. They'd just come into view of the house, 20 miles from the county seat, when he noted a Van parked in the driveway.

George had faced many threats during his 60 years and had developed an axiom to deal with them. Never ignore the unexpected when faced with a threat. Without understanding why but following his intuition, George ordered. "Drive on past and then come back? Don't slow down or do anything to attract attention."

Without saying anything the deputy complied. As they passed the house, George noted California license plates on the van, muttered an intense, "Oh shit," and then continued, "I'm afraid we're going to need some help. The men who raped Courtney are in there and they're almost certainly armed and dangerous. Drive up the road far enough so we can't be seen turning around and then come back so we can watch the house."

Picking up his cell phone, he called the Sheriff, "Sheriff, this is George. I'm with Deputy Bronson at Courtney's house and we've just learned that the men who raped Courtney are here. There are at least 5 of them and they're probably armed and dangerous. On top of that, they almost certainly have cell phones and it is critical that we prevent them from making any warning calls. What is the chance of getting cellular service turned off in the next few minutes and how soon can you send some backup?"

The sheriff answered, "Backup will be on the way in 15 minutes and cellular service will be cut in about 10."

"Listen sheriff, the best solution would be if we could catch them by surprise. Is there a way to stop them after they leave in a place where they'd have no warning? I think it's very probable that they're here to remove the evidence we hoped to find and they may try to destroy it if we give them a chance."

"We'll set something up, stay where you are and watch. I'm going to hand the cell phone to a secretary and I want you to give us a running report until the phone service is turned off. Then continue on the patrol car 2-way radio."

George and the deputy watched as boxes of stuff were carried out and l into the van for half an hour. It looked like they were stripping the house of everything worth carrying. When the van finally left and headed towards town, the deputy started the car and drove up to the house.

"Stay here and follow the chase on the radio. If they need us for backup, come in and let me know as fast as you can," Deputy Bronson instructed. Then getting out of the car, he drew his weapon and entered the house. In less than 2 minutes, he rushed back and grabbed the radio, "Dispatch, this is Bronson. We need an ambulance sent towards the Dobson residence. I think it's a drug overdose. I'll put her in the car and be on my way in. She's still alive but her pulse is very fast and weak. It looks like whatever they gave her was injected."

"Okay deputy, the ambulance is on the way." A few seconds later, the sheriff's voice replaced the dispatchers, "Deputy, the minute you're stopped, I want you and George in that Van headed into town. We need whatever evidence is in there as soon as possible. The doctor hopes there'll be some evidence of what Mrs. Dobson was injected with. I have 20 people here to start going through the contents as soon as you arrive."

Less than 2 minutes later, the deputy had carried out Courtney's mother wrapped in a blanket and placed her in the back seat. George experienced his second period of absolute terror as the deputy proceeded to drive at speeds of 80 to 90 mph on winding roads. About 5 miles from town there was a sharp curve at the top of a hill where the ambush of the van had taken place. The only warning was an SUV with police flashers parked on their side of the curve.

As they approached, the dispatcher announced that the ambulance would meet them at the ambush, so the deputy slowed and pulled over just past the SUV. As the patrol car stopped, an ambulance pulled up next to it. EMT's hopped out, grabbed a stretcher and began pulling Courtney's mother out.

In front of the patrol car, the six weirdos were handcuffed behind their backs and lying face down on the side of the road.

By the time George and the deputy had driven the first mile across the last wide valley that separated them from town, there was a string of police vehicles, cars and other forms of transportation strung out behind them all the way back to the site of the ambush. At that point, George stopped paying any attention and started searching through the contents of the van.

It didn't take long to find a box of papers and prescription drug bottles behind the driver's seat that looked like it contained the important evidence. Long before the van arrived at the jail, George had pocketed the prescriptions and was studying the papers and separating out the evidence the sheriff needed. When they finally arrived, the sheriff had a group a 20 people who'd been instructed to unload the van onto the lawn and to start going through its contents. As soon as the van was empty, the sheriff had a cellular phone technician scan it and its contents for any type communications devices.

Minutes later, the SUV arrived with the prisoners who were scanned as well. The scans turned up 2 pagers, 7 cell phones and 2 GPS trackers. After a hurried consultation between George and the sheriff, the trackers were sent in a citizen's car south towards Las Vegas. The communications blackout wouldn't help them for long, but every extra minute was precious. The arrival of the ambulance caused a stir in the gathering crowd, so the news took several minutes to reach George who was still standing by the sheriff, offering occasional snippets of advice. Courtney's mother had died before they had reached the site of the ambush. The crime had escalated to murder.

Suddenly events were moving too fast, so George was sent to the makeshift command center. He watched in amazement as the storm clouds gathered before his eyes. He was well aware of the power and resources available to "The Establishment" but had never been close as they mobilized. Right now, his intuition was screaming a warning. His number one priority was to take care of Courtney, so he proceeded to do just that.

In his absence, it seemed that half the town had been organized. The FBI had sent the kidnap rescue team in by jet and they were due to arrive any minute. The state police had been convinced to set up roadblocks on the highways to the south, east and north and had been supplied with pictures of the psychiatrist, as an accomplice of the hypothetical escapee and it seemed as if every person in town was armed.

It was obvious to George that the State and Federal law enforcement agencies were about to take over so he dedicated himself to searching through the box of evidence. As soon as he'd extracted and copied the information he needed about Courtney's conditioning, he quietly slipped away from the limelight. Remembering that Courtney still had no clothes, he went looking.

The searchers had thoroughly inventoried everything and then left it scattered on the lawn. No one seemed interested in anything that wasn't critical to saving the town, so George was able to pick up the bag containing her clothes and simply walk away. He checked out of the motel and drove out of town to find Courtney. That it was so easy to slip away was a surprise but George assumed it was because everyone's attention was drawn to the threat.

Without realizing it, George was still humming a tune;

The other night dear, as I lay sleeping
I dreamed I held you in my arms
But when I awoke, dear, I was mistaken
So I hung my head and I cried.
please don't take my sunshine away