Bringing Down the Cult

"Got it," he answered as several techs rushed those pieces outside and into the van.

I had just started to relax when one of the techs beneath the Gladiator called out, "Bomb. Sweet and Sour."

"Everyone out except the bomb specialists," the chief tech said firmly. His voice sounded very much like a man with military experience.

"What does 'Sweet and Sour' mean?" I asked as we rushed out.

Once we were inside one of the cars and moving a little further down the highway, he said in a somewhat clipped speech, "Sweet and Sour means a simple bomb that could have booby traps. They will give us an all clear."

"And if there are booby traps?" I asked.

He chuckled and said in a flat voice, "I think we will know that, too."

About ten minutes later, his radio squawked and a voice said, "Neutralized. All clear."

We drove back a little slower than we left. When we got there, the bomb tech was sitting in what used to be the old office. There was a blob of what looked like modeling clay on the desk along with a small circuit board and what was obviously a detonator.

"It was on the tank and wired into the gas gauge," he said in a matter-of-fact tone. "The timer evidently was supposed to start when you stopped for gas. We could detect no other devices."

"When would you stop for gas?" the leader asked.

"The only logical place would be where this highway meets the interstate about forty miles up," I replied.

"This is above my level of authorization," he said as he handed me a phone. I was pretty sure who was on the other end.

"Marco," a pleasant sounding female voice said.

"Roni," I replied. It's a long story, but long ago we did a long surveillance together and when we were separated slightly in the woods, I called out to her, "Marco." She had never played Marco Polo as a kid and said the first thing which came to her mind, which was "Roni." It's been a joke... and a verification phrase... between us ever since.

She laughed slightly and I said, "Hello, Lacy. Your man doesn't have the authority to ask me to drive my Jeep up the road until it explodes so he has turned me over to you."

"I really do love working with you," she replied.

"Can we at least save my suitcase?" I said.

"Put it on your expense report," she replied curtly. "They may have access to the video feed from the gas station and definitely will get the videos from the news reports when it blows up at the rest stop."

"So that's how you're going to play it," I said, trying not to sound angry. "I wasn't really angry with her. It was the logical way to play this out, but I was the one who was going to have to drive the Gladiator for the next two hours. The bomb techs hadn't said there were no other bombs. He said that they "could detect no other devices." The undetected devices are usually the ones that get you.

Luckily, there wasn't a second bomb hidden on the Jeep. I got gas and made sure to go inside and pick up a snack so I would show clearly on the surveillance videos. The rest stop was another sixty miles down the interstate. I pulled in and used the restroom, again so my face was on the surveillance videos. Then I pulled all the way to the back of the parking area where the lights were a bit dim.

I lay back as if I was going to go to sleep but hadn't even closed my eyes before there was a sharp tap on the window. A man dressed totally in black with a black hood covering his head and face smiled at me. "Crawl back into the bushes," he said.

As I crawled away, two more men were crouched low dragging a body toward the Jeep. It was probably a John Doe from a local morgue, but I really didn't want to know. The reality of my life is that there are a lot of things that happen where I really don't want to know... or don't have sufficient clearance to be read in.

Once I was in the darkness, someone handed me a black hoodie and mask. "White van between the two lights which are burnt out," he whispered loudly.

He didn't say how I was supposed to get there, but I knew enough to stay out of the light as I worked my way around the back of the restrooms. I just hoped some security guard didn't get spooked if they saw me.

I waited in the van for about fifteen minutes until two figures in black got into the front. "Jimmy wants a clear line of sight when he triggers things to be sure there is no collateral damage," one of them said. Then he added, "He will be here in a few minutes."

A short time later a bright flash followed by a dull boom lit up the night sky. Just moments after that, the rear doors of the van opened and a black-clad figure, evidently named Jimmy, jumped inside. As we drove off, I could see what was left of the Jeep burning fiercely.

Chapter Six - The Fall of Eden

"This man is a genius, an absolute fucking genius," Harold gushed. Harold was Lacy's chief lab rat. His name wasn't actually Harold but he told me the first time I met him, "You wouldn't be able to pronounce it." Also, it said, "Harold" on his name tag. Beneath that it read, "Chief Lab Rat." I really liked Harold.

"It is very fortunate that you did not attempt to touch this device," he said, sounding more serious. "It is a form of living circuitry and would have attached to you immediately."

He laughed, "Of course, it wouldn't have been able to control you attached to your hand, but it probably would still have not been good."

"How does it control people?" I asked. There were a bunch of people in the room who probably could have asked better questions, but Harold was talking to me.

"If you place this right on the top of the neck at the base of the skull," he continued, reaching up to his own neck and pushing in with two fingers," it apparently sinks through the skin and seeks out the base of the medulla oblongata."

He looked at my blank face and said, "That's the very bottom of the brain." Then he continued his explanation, "From what you have described, it must be able to intercept some basic thoughts and communicate directly to the brain. It also can evidently create pain or pleasure stimuli."

"A perfect way to control someone," a General said gruffly. "But how do we counteract it?"

"I think... and this is only a SWAG," Harold said quickly, "that there has to be some high power, very low frequency transmitter located near their base. All of the Adams and Eves are connected to that transmitter."

"How big would the antenna have to be?" the General asked.

"Massive," Harold replied. "And it would have to be close. That's why we can't prove our theory. There's no antenna like that at the compound."

"Draw it," I said firmly.

"What?" Harold sputtered.

"Draw what the damned antenna would look like," I said. My voice was trembling a bit with anger.

Harold quickly used a nearby whiteboard to draw a large antenna with a central pole and four long parallel arms reaching out on either side.

"How high in the air does it need to be?" I asked.

"That's just it," he said. "The bottom has to be almost on the ground to work properly. The top yagi wing would be about fifty feet in the air."

I stood up and took the marker from Harold. Then I slowly drew the Ark around the antenna.

"That's it," Lacy said from the back of the room. "It's hidden in plain sight. The transmitter and antenna are hidden in the ark."

"Close," I said. "They ARE the Ark of Eden. But that is just my own scientific wild-ass guess."

"So," Lacy said in a very firm voice, "we take out the Ark of Eden as we breach." She turned to the general and said, "I want overwhelming force to minimize collateral damage." She paused and then said, "And I want David Allen Carter taken alive!"

It takes a while to gather such a specialized force. In addition, Lacy's people wanted to take advantage of the intelligence coming from the bugs in my machines. The demonstration machines had been separated and both halves were set up for female "riders." The cameras clearly showed that Eve Maria and the leader of the three Eves who had cleaned my room had been singled out for punishment by The Enlightened One. The novitiate Eve was put on the machine each day from eleven to one while the community gathered for their mid-day meal. Eva Maria, however, was evidently left on the machine for three continuous days. She might have been left on there longer, but the attack occurred on the fourth day.

All of the military personnel involved in the attack were deputized to make them a part of an FBI special response team. Lacy even had them deputize me so I could tag along. She was a bit surprised when I said that I would observe from a distance.

Everyone expects such an attack to occur at night, but if you are trying for minimal casualties, you strike during the day. Information gathered from my device indicated that the best time to attack would probably be during the mid-day meal when almost all members of The Community of Eden were gathered in the big roof room. The glass roof gave them a clear view of the drones as they came over the horizon in formation at exactly noon. They were small suicide drones each carrying a respectable charge. One hundred of them crashed into each side of the Ark of Eden, immediately reducing it-- and the mind-control transmitter-- to a pile of flaming rubble.

The attack team expected to meet at least minimal resistance, but instead they found everyone, including the guards, standing around staring at the sky with their heads cocked to the left. It took only minutes to completely occupy The Community of Eden's main campus.

While all this was happening, I was in the woods behind the Ark of Eden watching... and waiting. The Esteemed One didn't disappoint me. He popped out of the ground about a hundred and fifty feet from the back of the Ark. He was no longer wearing his robes. Instead he was wearing jeans and a dark t-shirt. There was a small backpack over his shoulders like he was going out hiking for the day.

He ran for the woods, but stopped short when I put a burst on full automatic across his path. He looked up at me and stuttered, "You... you... how could you be alive?"

"I'm not," I responded. "I died when the bomb you put in my Jeep blew up." I laughed and then said, "And they can't try a dead man for killing you."

He continued to stare at me, so I said angrily, "On your knees with your ankles crossed. Hands behind your head with the fingers interlocked. Anything else gives me an excuse to pull the trigger."

He slowly sank to his knees and put his hands behind his head. I pulled his arms down and zip-tied his wrists to the opposite arm just below the elbow. Then I put one more zip-tie in the middle binding his forearms together. That hands crossed behind your back zip-tie arrangement is a much better way to restrain someone than just zip-tying the wrists. Their hands are totally useless and yet there is still circulation in the arms. I pushed him forward and lowered him into the dirt by holding his arms. Then I put three large zip-ties around his legs.

Three uniformed men and two women came running around the Ark, probably drawn by the sound of gunfire. I fired another short burst into the dirt directly in front of me and yelled out, "Get Lacy McGrath back here NOW. I don't give up this prisoner to anyone but her."

The men continued to advance toward me, so I yelled out to the two women, "If you don't personally know these three, take them into custody until Lacy arrives." I paused and then added, "... or I shoot them where they stand."

The men looked at me and started running for the woods but they didn't get very far. The women were definitely a part of Lacy's well-trained troops. Soon the three men were also zip-tied and lying face down on the ground. The women stood next to them with their weapons lowered. They knew enough not to attempt to approach me.

A voice came over a loud speaker. It was Lacy. "W," she said, "do not shoot. My verified protection detail have reflective arm bands. We will be approaching shortly."

Almost immediately an ATV came rolling around the end of the Ark. Four men were jogging on either side of it. I could see the reflection off their arm bands. I could also see Lacy's blonde hair waving in the wind as she hurried back to where I was standing.

Her first words when she got out of the ATV were, "How in the hell did you know what he would do?"

I laughed and said, "He kept telling me that he and I were alike. If I ran this place, I would have a rat hole that came up behind the Ark. Any attack would come from the front or from above. This area is in darkness and even spotlights from the camp itself would leave this area almost black."

Epilogue

The direct control of the Adams and Eves was broken when the Ark of Eden was destroyed, but the conditioning and training remained. It would take an army of doctors, therapists and deprogrammers many years to undo the damage which The Enlightened One had inflicted upon his followers.

The living circuits are still in place in each of them, but according to the scientists and doctors studying them, without the strong low frequency signals continuously powering the circuits they will eventually be absorbed by the body like any other foreign tissue. It is expected that the only lasting effect will be a permanently increased libido.

I would love to say that David Allen Carter is rotting away in some supermax federal prison, but he isn't. He is definitely under government supervision and will never be allowed back into normal society, but he isn't in a secure prison facility. Instead he is a resident at a super secure secret research facility where the government is further developing his living circuitry. There are supposedly a host of very beneficial purposes for such a device, but it is still the government and I have already seen the evil, twisted ways the technology can be used. I hope for the best, but expect the worst.

Lacy and I spent a couple nights at her place trying to recapture old times, but we have, as they say, grown apart. She can't forget that she effectively sent me on a suicide mission. I told her I understood, but she can't get over the guilt. When I left the last time, I said "Marco." She answered, "Polo," and started crying. I turned and walked away before she could see the tears in my eyes.

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