Trilogy: The Darkest Night

"What about Collins?" said Scott. "We can't leave a soldier behind on the battlefield!"

"I'll take care of it." said Wargrave. "Now both of you: Get. The. Fuck. Out."

"Dammit, Wargrave, we can't just shut down!" cried Corrigan. "There's too much at stake-"

"Yes you can, at least in this County. Your operation is finished." said Wargrave. "Now go!"

Part 4 - Meditation and Healing

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" said the lovely redhead reporterette at 7:00am on July 7th. "Channel Two News has learned that the FBI is seeking indictments of several rogue CIA agents! Let's go to Priya Ajmani at the National desk. Priya!"

"Thank you, Bettina!" said the lovely Indian woman, who was standing in front of the Federal offices of the County as if that would make her story any more or less worth anything. "Channel Two News has learned that the FBI has moved to shut down a cell of rogue CIA agents that have been operating in the United States and abroad. The CIA has disavowed this cell, stating that their actions were without the authorization of the Director or the top leadership, and that they had acted outside the law and would be disciplined internally by the CIA as well as through the Federal Court system. No names have been released, and the White House has issued a statement saying that the President has been informed and is monitoring the situation. Back to you, Bettina!"

"Thanks, Priya." said Bettina. "Meanwhile, Town & County Police Detective Cindy Ross remains in critical condition at University Hospital after being badly wounded in a raid intended to arrest three-time murderer Ned-"

I listened to see just how accurate this would be. Would Bettina attack the police, or actually tell the truth? She continued: "Police spokesman Lt. Scott Peterson said the criminals used illegal cop-killer bullets, and while Detective Ross was wearing body armor, these bullets managed to overcome the protection and wound Detective Ross. The shooting comes just one day after Detective Ross and her partner Teresa Croyle won the County Triathlon on July 4th. Let's now go to our newest reporter, Diane Williams, for an update. Diane?"

Diane Williams was a 'decided' blonde (she decided, and by how much), and she had a condescending way of talking, as if speaking to young dumb children. Come to think of it, I thought, most of her viewership probably fit into that category. I also knew that Diane had been hired from a station in the City to possibly replace Bettina, as I was aware of the deep divides within KXTC.

"Thank you, Bettina." said Williams. "Channel Two News has learned from several sources that Detective Ross's actions saved the life of at least one other police officer, and that the Town & County Council has convened a Board of Inquiry to determine exactly what happened during the raid. The State Bureau of Investigation has called for their own investigation into the incident, but the Governor has ordered the SBI to remain uninvolved. Bettina?"

"Thank you, Diane, and welcome to the Channel Two News team. In a University-related story, Dr. Bartholomew Scott submitted his resignation as a Professor of Pharmacy last night, which was reluctantly accepted by University President Dr. Sidney P. Wellman. Dr. Scott cited health issues within his family back east, and leaves after only a few months at our University. This is Bettina Wurtzburg for KXTC Channel Two News, and we will break in with any new developments in these recent cases."

Wow, no attack, I thought to myself. Who called Katherine Woodburn's dogs off?

--

At 8:00am that morning, Captain Charles brought Sergeant Wes "Coldiron" Masters to Headquarters, having had the Midtown officer stay with him the previous night.

"I'm going to give him the grand tour." said Captain Charles to the Chief in his office, with me present. "Is it okay if we take him downstairs?"

"By all means." said Chief Griswold, still hobbling and so staying seated behind his desk as much as possible. As an aside, the Chief had ordered that all but 'family' leave the Hospital and get back to work, that Cindy would recover, or not, without us hovering in the waiting room. When I replied that the Chief himself had said we were all a family, and so we all were refusing to go home, he said "I did say that, didn't I? But I mean immediate family: Evans and Croyle. The rest of you scoot, go home and clean up and they'll let you know if anything happens." I think it meant a lot to Teresa when the Chief called her Cindy's 'family'.

"I'll be heading home right after this." said Masters. "Detective Evans said she'd arrange to be taken back home, though it won't be for some time until her sister is more fully recovered."

"We'll take care of it." I said. Molly and Teresa had already been told they could stay at The Cabin while here in Town. "And come by my office before you go, if you don't mind."

Once the tour was done, Masters came into my office and sat down at my invitation. "Nice office." he said.

"Yes, it's above my pay grade, but I stole the keys to it." I said. "How do you like our operation?"

"Looks good. Different than ours in some ways, of course, but I got some ideas to take back home." replied Masters. "I like the security of your basement areas. But I'm most impressed with the camaraderie among your teams. I guess Detective Ross being wounded really has everyone hanging together."

"That's true." I said. "By the way, if you're in no hurry to get home, stick around with us for a while and swap some notes with my guys." Masters did just that, and I introduced him to the MCD team and had him work with them for the day. By the end of the day, when he did head home, he seemed to be much more considerably at ease than he normally was.

My reasons for doing this weren't idle. Like any decent chess player, I was looking far into the future. And if Cindy survived, I knew some good changes would be coming our Department's way...

--

"Well, that's that." said Dr. Wellman as he poured club soda for Henry R. Wargrave in his University office. "Dr. Scott has resigned and left. And he left in a big hurry."

"Yes, he did." said Wargrave. "I get the feeling you are less than upset about that."

"I usually do a much, much better job picking professors for my School." said Wellman. "Though this was one of those where I was persuaded to take the man because of the 'extra' duties he was doing. He did have impressive credentials, though."

"He got a little too big for his britches, Sidney, as my mother used to say about me when I was a kid." Wargrave replied. Wellman laughed.

"You still are too big for your britches, Hank." the University president said, needling his friend. "You just have the money now to go along with it."

"Yes, that's true." Wargrave said, allowing his friend to tease him. "But to get serious, things around here have gotten too hot to keep the operation going. My God, of all the people to get hurt, they had to shoot the Iron Crowbar's most trusted associate. Jesus! he's going to be a bear to deal with now."

"And she'd just won that triathlon. The whole Town is on pins and needles about it, Hank. And they are demanding answers for what happened. The Town & County Council is being besieged about it." said Wellman. "Yes, as much as I liked having the money for the School, I think it's best if you close up shop and lay low for a while..."

--

At 4:00am on the morning of July 9th, I was feeding my baby son a bottle. As he looked up at me with his blue eyes, I felt huge gratitude to be alive and be holding him. Finally, the bottle was finished and the burping and diaper-changing done, and I lay little Jim back down in his crib.

Laura was asleep, exhausted. The calls from Washington, D.C. had been constant, and often at unpleasant hours. This rogue-agent business was causing her grief.

Just then I felt a strong 'premonition', or 'vibe'. I felt that Cindy needed my help, her energy was flagging. I didn't question what I felt, but I quickly got dressed.

"Where you going?" Laura sleepily asked as she woke up. "I haven't given you your morning blowjob yet."

"That's okay, sweetheart." I said. "We'll make up for it. You get some rest. I'm going to the hospital before I go to the Station."

At the hospital, I was surprised to find my mother Phyllis sitting with Molly in the waiting room. "We just got here, son." said Phyllis. "Molly stayed with me last night."

"Good," I said, "I'm glad you're getting to know each other." Considering that Molly was carrying my mother's grandson, this was a good thing.

"Tell you guys what." I said. "I'm going to go make Teresa go to breakfast with you, so make sure she eats, okay?" I then headed to Cindy's ICU room just down the hall. The nurses were not amused at my presence, but knew better than to protest.

Teresa was half-asleep in a chair next to Cindy's bed. Cindy still had a breathing tube and IV tubes sticking out of her. No one had been able to make Teresa leave the room, much less go home. She woke up as I came in.

"Hey, Teresa," I said, "you need to go get something to eat. I'll stay here for a couple of hours, and my mom and Molly will take you to eat and get a shower."

"I take it that's not a request." Teresa said as she woke fully up.

"I'm delighted to see we understand each other." I said. "Now scoot. I'll call you if anything at all happens."

Once Teresa was gone, I got very close to Cindy's ear and whispered to her that I was here, that I wanted her to get well, and quickly, that I needed her help to put away the bad guys. I still felt she was at low energy. The instruments showed her pulse to be weak.

Some will say what I did next was crazy or weird. I sat down and began meditating. I let my mind drift, go deep, trying to feel the Life energies around me and Cindy, and to let energy flow to her. I could sense her presence as my head began rolling uncontrollably, I could feel her energy and it was indeed very low. She was letting go.

Then suddenly, I felt an almost blinding energy come in, and a bright light surround us. This powerful energy felt very strong and uplifting, and it was a healing power of great strength. I basked in the energy, then tried to send it towards Cindy, feeling her receiving it. Was this the end of it all? I wondered. I began to come out of my meditative trance. I opened my eyes. Cindy's pulse was much stronger, her heartbeat more regular. Everything seemed better. And then I looked over to my right.

Dr. P. Harvey Eckhart, founder and leader of The Vision, was sitting in the chair next to mine.

He was still meditating, and I knew that the energy I'd felt had been from him. His years of training had allowed him to harness his energies much more than my meager attempts had allowed me to harness mine. I just sat there, watching and waiting, wondering if Eckhart was truly the psychic that some said he was.

A few moments later, Eckhart opened his eyes. "Ah, hello my young friend Donald. I see that you felt what I did, that Miss Ross needed our help."

"Yes..." I said. "Oh yes."

"I think your premonition was correct. But I'm happy to say that she is now doing much better." said Eckhart. "I think she's going to make it, my friend." Enormous relief flooded my soul. I knew Eckhart was right.

"Yes, my friend, she's chosen to stay with us... with you." Eckhart whispered. "I'll be going now, before my presence causes the Hospital a commotion." Almost as quickly and as silently as he'd arrived, Harvey Eckhart vanished.

Part 5 - Life And Death

A few hours later, Cindy opened her eyes. Teresa was looking at her.

"Don't try to move." Teresa said. "You're in the hospital. You still have a breathing tube in you. Just relax and let it work for you. Easy, relax..." Cindy stopped trying to struggle against the breathing tube. Her eyes were locked with Teresa's, and no further communication was needed.

"I'll give you the 'forgot-to-duck' speech later." Teresa said. "You just concentrate on getting your hardbody butt out of this bed, okay?" Cindy tried to smile at that one.

I came up and said "Glad to see you back, partner. I'm going to go get the doctor. Don't beat up Teresa while I'm gone, okay?" I think I saw the light in my partner's eyes get a little bit brighter.

Moments later, doctors and nurses were swarming. "I don't know how she came out of that medically induced coma," one doctor told me later, "but she's doing much, much better now."

I didn't say anything. Doctors don't want to believe in the power of meditation.

--

In those same pre-dawn hours, Henry R. Wargrave was doing what he did best: cleaning up after a mess. For hours now, workers had packed up every scrap of paper, equipment and glassware that was in the secret labs under the Pharmacy building. It was an empty, lifeless shell... and that left just one more shell to take life from...

Dr. Heinz was lying on his bed in his makeshift bedroom. He had watched the dismantling of his laboratories, the taking of his papers, the removal of his life's scientific work. He was in pain; he was in the last stages of cancer and would soon die, anyway.

As the last of the workers finished up, Wargrave came to his bedside and sat down. "I'm sorry, Dr. Heinz, but you won't be leaving this room." Wargrave held what looked like a flask that normally held saké, the national wine of Japan... but the contents were not something anyone would want to drink.

"I don't get to see Laura one last time?" the old man asked. "Not one last phone call to say goodbye to her?"

"No. I'm sorry." said Wargrave, feeling genuinely sorry for the old man, but knowing he could not allow that contact. "Now, you can drink this, and go out the way the great Socrates did, or I can shoot you. I'll make it painless, but it's your choice."

"Give me the flask." Heinz said. He drank the potion. "Ah, you put it in mint julep. That was nice of you."

Wargrave waited and watched as Heinz said "My legs are numb, I cannot feel them... ah, no more pain, it feels so good to have no more pain."

"It won't be long, Doctor." Wargrave said. "When it reaches your heart, you'll go to sleep."

"Yes, it's happening now." Heinz said, his voice drifting. "Ah, the Light, it's so beautiful... God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob... ah, my Lord Jesus... He is coming, He has come for me! He is here!" Heinz smiled, a smile of supreme joy. Wargrave just watched, not understanding. After a moment he realized that Heinz was staring sightlessly into space. He felt for the old man's pulse; there was none. Dr. Heinz was dead.

If any man deserved eternal rest and joy for a job well done on earth, it was Heinz. He had saved many Jews from the Nazis. He had saved many Jews from death while working behind the Iron Curtain. He had saved many others and helped them to Freedom in the West. Despite all Wargrave's money and power, Wargrave could never hope for his soul to equal the soul that had just left the disease-racked body of the old man; that soul was now sitting at the right hand of God...

--

There was joy in Town & County Police Headquarters the afternoon of July 9th when it was announced that Detective Ross was awake. She was not completely out of the woods yet, but everyone knew that her odds were much more in her favor now. Bettina had even broken into the soap operas to announce the news, and the entire Town and County seemed much happier.

The doctors had thrown everyone out of the hospital, except Teresa, Molly... and Molly and Cindy's parents. They'd come down from Canada. Relations between them and Cindy had been strained (at best) for years over Cindy's sexual orientation, but that was forgotten for the moment when they saw their daughter bravely clinging to life after having bravely nearly sacrificed it. Cindy seemed happy to see them, also.

The Chief and I had reinforced the instructions to the Force to not tire Cindy out by visiting, and to let her rest and get better. She still needed lots of rest.

--

"Hello, honey." I said as I entered Laura's office in the University Psychology building late that afternoon. "Why did you need me to come down?" My wife had called and asked me to come to her office, claiming it was urgent.

"I can't get hold of Dr. Heinz." said Laura. "He's not answering is cell phone nor any of his office phones. Some of his 'aboveground' students went to his home, but he wasn't there, either."

"Did you try the, er, other place?" I asked, and Laura knew I was intimating the secret underground laboratory.

"Yes, and that's the thing, Don, that's why I called you: I can't get down there. The code has been changed, and I can't access the elevator."

"Ohhhhhh, shit." I said, fully understanding. Laura understood, also. "Okay, let me call Cindy- dammit, I mean let me call... Tanya Perlman to back us up, then we'll try to get down there."

Tanya arrived within a few moments. I instructed her to wait for us in the hallway of the Pharmacy Building, in front of the door that led to the secret basement, telling her that if we weren't back in half an hour or if she didn't hear from us, to bring heaven and earth to dig us out of the basement passage that was below us. Her eyes sparkled as she realized something big was going on.

Going in, Laura's card worked to get us to the back room and the elevator, but the elevator would not respond to her numeral entry. "Let me try." I said, punching in a code. The elevator shut and began moving down.

"How did you do that?" Laura asked.

"Manufacturers' code." I said. "I used to sell these security devices, remember? Well, to keep from getting sued, they install an ultimate fail-safe code in addition to the one the customers ask for. I've always remembered those codes. Most customers don't realize those codes exist, and leave them in place. Seems the Company even forgot about it, or didn't know."

"Good thing you didn't turn to a life of crime, what with all that knowledge." Laura joked as we got off the elevator. She didn't know how right she was, I mused. I also did not tell her that that was how I'd gotten to P. Harvey Eckhart's luxurious suite when I'd been at The Vision's World Headquarters.

Just as we stepped off, the light in the elevator went off; it was totally dead. "How are we going to get out of here?" Laura asked nervously.

"Secret Passage to the Conservatory." I said, half joking. "I'm sure there's a back way out of here." We went down the dark hallway. An eerie blue light was coming out of the lab door. When we looked in, we got a shock: everything was gone. Every cabinet, every piece of equipment. The lab benches, the shelves and cabinets, had been taken down and removed. Only floor remained. One of the fume hoods remained against the back wall; there had been four fume hoods before. That hood was the source of the blue light, the only light in the room.

I heard Laura cry out. She had found Dr. Heinz. She was sitting in the chair next to the bed, holding his wrist. "He's gone." she said, trying to hold herself together.

"I'll give you a minute and look around." I said. The back office was totally empty; every desk taken, every scrap of paper. "I'm surprised they didn't buff wax the frickin' floor." I said to myself as I looked at the far wall. I moved to it and began feeling around. I had to reach up high, but I felt a latch and engaged it. the wall panel came loose and I swung it open. Behind the wall was another elevator, with a dim light.

"Laura, let's go!" I called out, running back to the little bedroom. Laura came out of her moment of mourning as I quickly wrapped Heinz's body in the blanket beneath him and hauled him over my shoulder. We made our way to the elevator, stepping inside. I entered the manufacturers' code. To our relief, the elevator doors closed and begin going up!