“How do you seriously expect to deal with thousands of people all turning up at once? You’re lying,” Jack said.
“That’s a great question. What is your name, by the way?”
“I’m Jack, and that’s Harry.”
“Well, Jack, one of the reasons for the cluster deployment of the North American devices was so that we could handle this part in a phased approach. Activating in different areas at different times avoids the very issue you raise. There’s also geographical distance to factor. Don’t think we haven’t considered every angle.”
“And if it takes more than three days to get to the prison?” I asked.
“My, my, Harry, you have been paying attention. Very good! The effects don’t subside from the next activation. They have to be locally neutralised, we’ll do that once the person is safely under lock and key, and ready to listen to reason.”
“Why would anyone do what you say? You’ve probably killed all of their family and friends,” Jack snapped.
“What choice do they have? I can offer survival and things they have probably never even dreamed of owning — an expensive car, a nice boat, whatever they want. All I expect in return is that they play a part in forming a comfortable new world for us all to live in.”
“And if they say no?”
“Then they will form part of the manual labour force. I have taken into consideration that some people will not be open minded enough to accept reality. They will be de-neutralised.” Ron sighed.
“De-fucking-neutralised? You’re completely mad. I don’t know why I never saw it before,” Lea said.
His friendly expression never wavered, “Careful, Lea, we don’t want Martina thinking you’re a nasty bitch.”
“Where is she? What have you done to her?” she shouted.
Ron looked up at the ceiling, still smiling, I thought telling him about Anthony might wipe the chirpy look off his face, but it was a potentially dangerous move.
”Bravo eight, there’s some trash to take out,” he barked.
Two large, armed men walked into the room and aimed their rifles at us.
Ron pointed in my direction.
“You’ve broken a house rule, Harry. I said no weapons, hand it over.”
He was staring at the hunting knife, hanging from my belt. I paused, reluctant to give away one of our last chances of freedom.
“Just do it, Harry. Do you really think you can get out of here with just a knife?”
A guard stepped forward and cocked his rifle. I didn’t want to put Jack or Lea at risk by trying anything heroically stupid, as the odds were firmly against us. I pulled the knife out slowly, holding it by its blade towards the man. He walked over and snatched it out of my hand.
“There, that’s better,” Ron said, he pointed at Lea, “Handcuff the slut.”
“No, you can’t do this,” she screamed.
As she tried to escape towards the back entrance of the room, one of the men grabbed Lea by the hair and pulled her back towards the couch.
“Stop them, please. Jack! Harry! Stop them!” Lea cried, looking at Jack, and then me.
Ron moved towards our recliners.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. No harm is going to come to her.”
He then gestured the two men to leave.
“She’s okay here for now; wait outside until I call for you.”
Jack looked at me, I didn’t know what to do and it seemed he didn’t either. I was sitting forwards in my chair, but felt completely helpless as Lea was being restrained. One of the guards threw her back onto the couch and they both left the room through the front entrance.
The only way any of us were getting out of this was to hear Ron out. But if he tried a similar thing to us, that’s when I would make my last stand. Jack must have been thinking along the same lines, because he didn’t move either.
“Do you think you’re going to cuff us too?” Jack asked.
Ron shook his head.
“No, not unless you make me!” He then sat back down on the couch and said, “You’re not Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, so listen to me.”
“It doesn’t seem like we’ve much of an option,” I replied.
“I suppose that’s true, but I do have options for you… if you want to hear them?”
“Don’t listen,” shouted Lea.
He patted Lea on the shoulder.
“One more word, missy, and you won’t be seeing my lovely niece again.”
We hadn’t given away our freedom just yet. The rush to Monroe, coupled with a somewhat naïve belief that we could put a stop to all of this, had blinkered us. We should have known instead of suspected that it wouldn’t have been a straightforward operation that we walked away from in triumph.
“Options?” I said.
“You’ve both done incredibly well to get here from New York. Although it’s unfortunate that you’ve killed members of Genesis Alliance, you did it to survive. I understand that—”
“Why did you do it? Most of our family and friends are probably dead because of you,” Jack interrupted angrily.
“I thought you might ask. All forms of effective resistance had to be taken out, that was part of the plan. Because of that, I effectively control North America, and can create a place that you’ve only ever dreamed could exist.”
“You’ve created a nightmare,” I replied. “If anybody dreamed about this they’d wake up in a cold sweat. What about the rest of the world?”
“That’s not my problem. I have ensured the ongoing survival of this continent as best I could. It’s our job now to pick up the broken pieces and provide the best lives we can for the remaining population.”
“What about Northern England?” Jack said.
“Who told you about Northern England?”
“Jerry did. Now answer my question,” Jack replied.
“Trust me, that is not your immediate concern. Now, back to business. I need people like you to join me. You’re obviously a resourceful pair. You made it all the way here and brought Lea home.”
“Why would we join you?” I replied.
“How long do you think your luck is going to hold out, Harry? Even if you made it out of here, and I’d rate your chances of that at around one percent, how long do you think you would survive? At best, you’d have a life as a labourer for Genesis Alliance. At worst…?”
Ron smiled again, and then elaborately clenched his fists. It was almost checkmate and he knew it.
“Let me paint a picture for the pair of you. Harry, you wake up in a mansion in Washington D.C, breakfast is waiting for you downstairs, and you go for a swim, and then workout for an hour. In the afternoon, you decide to drop by the office and a stretch Hummer drives you to the White House. An aide brings you fresh coffee as you spin on the chair behind the Oval office desk, completing some minor paper work. In the evening, you decide to visit Jack at his beach house in Florida, where he is working remotely.”
He pointed at Jack as he continued to look at me.
“Don’t listen to him, he’s mad,” Lea said.
Ron ignored Lea and cleared his throat.
“A private jet then flies you down to Florida, Harry, and you drive a Ferrari to Jack’s place. You won’t have to worry about speeding.” He winked, “Both of you sip the finest champagne overlooking the sea, all bathed in glorious sunshine. How does that sound to you, boys?”
“You can’t offer that. You don’t even know if there is anyone left alive who can fly a plane,” I replied.
“I flew over New York and other cities on Monday in a Learjet. It’s true that we don’t fully know what skills we have left, but we’ll establish that during processing.”