“Bastard. How much?”
“How much what?”
“Giselle and I trusted you and you sold me out… you sold out the planet!”
I grabbed him by the arm and led him down an empty corridor that harbored the restrooms. “Listen, pal, I can’t remember anything that happened last night. I woke up in the St. James Hotel in my birthday suit, sporting a typhoon of a headache.”
“You can’t remember anything?”
“Bits and pieces, but nothing from last night or from two days ago when apparently I was here and we met.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys with a small light attached. Aiming it at my left eye, he turned it on and off, checking my pupil’s response. “Fucking bastard; he used it on you.”
“Who used what on me?”
“Colonel Alexander… Dr. Death. I told you they possess electronic warfare systems, psychotronic devices that can cause you to submit to any command. You didn’t believe me.”
“Who is they, and what is this all about?”
“They is PI-40, formerly SECOR, formerly MAJESTIC-12. I’m a physicist, Dr. Robert Gibbons. Two months ago I completed a zero-point energy prototype.”
“Let me guess… it’s something that can power a car without gasoline.”
“Not just a car, Captain. We’re talking about a technology that essentially replaces jet engines, steamships, internal-combustion engines, gas, oil, public utilities, rockets, and paved roads — abundant, clean energy that never, ever runs out. In the aggregate, you’re talking about replacing several hundred trillion dollars of world activity; by comparison the entire U.S. budget is a mere three to four trillion dollars.”
“And you invented the device?”
“Yes and no. I invented the device, but we’ve had the technology since the mid-1950s. We could have wiped out poverty, hunger, disease, and prevented climate change, only a bunch of rich oil oligarchs, bankers, and warmongers refused to allow us to implement the technology. Giselle provided one of the prototypes to the Jordanian energy minister, Mr. bin Rashidi—”
“Whoa, hold on. I thought bin Rashidi was a Saudi? He was buying Syrian oil from ISIS and selling it to the West.”
“That is what you were programmed to think. Giselle works for Mossad, the Israelis and Jordanians were working together to—”
He was cut off by a loud gong, the castle tower clock striking the hour, unleashing the first of nine bells.
Don’t ask for whom the bell tolls… it tolls for humanity.
A set of massive ancient doors opened, releasing the tide of guests into the courtyard.
“We have to go!” Before I could stop him he darted back to the main room and was swallowed by the crowd.
Pushing my way after him, I followed the throng outside.
The courtyard stage resembled something out of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Towering over a wooded clearing was a forty-five-foot-tall statue of an owl. As the ninth gong tolled, a dozen men cloaked in dark brown robes gathered around an unlit ten-foot-tall tepee configuration of sticks, branches, and logs.
For several minutes they pretended to struggle to ignite the bonfire while a voice addressed the crowd over a sound system, alternating every few lines in English, French, and German.
“The opening ceremony begins with the sacrifice of the human symbol known as ‘Dull Care,’ which represents the burdens and responsibilities of you, our world leaders. Help us to ignite the bonfire by praying to Moloch. Join us now, brothers and sisters!”
“Moloch… Moloch… Moloch… Moloch…”
The chanting grew louder as a human effigy was lowered from above.
I glanced over the shoulder of a woman standing in front of me as she Googled Moloch.
MOLOCH: A Canaanite deity worshipped through the sacrifice of children.
Sweet Jesus… I’m surrounded by a bunch of Satan worshippers.…
Wild applause broke out as an aura of light appeared around the pagan statue’s head. With a metallic screech an electrical charge shot out of the giant owl’s mouth and down an unseen wire to the gasoline-soaked pile of wood.
With a whoosh the pyre ignited, accompanied by the haunting sound of human cries blasting over the PA as the human effigy burned and the sick bastards cheered—
Only it wasn’t an effigy… it was Robert Gibbons.
“Where’s the car, Cowboy?”
Female… European accent. Hot breath in my ear. The stench of expensive vodka and tobacco.
“Come on, big guy. Don’t go limp on me now… on me now… me now…”
The ceiling spun, my brain on fire as I attempted to keep the psychotronic wave of energy from dragging my soul out of my body.
Let me die!
“Shut that damn thing off; it’s like an oven in here.”
The wave disappeared, my soul easing back into my physicality.
I opened my eyes. I was bare-chested and drenched in sweat, seated on one of the wicker chairs in Room 4 of the bed-and-breakfast. I was neither bound nor gagged — my arms hanging limp by my side. Try as I might, I couldn’t move or speak.
The device was situated in a metal attaché on the desk to my left, its disk-shaped antenna aimed at my eye. Even powered down, it was giving off tremendous amounts of heat, turning the bedroom into a sauna.
The white-haired colonel was seated behind me, attaching electrodes to my chest.
Giselle appeared on my right. Her red satin bra and matching thong were moist with sweat. “The colonel is attaching a lie detector. Your voice box should reengage any minute.” She moved closer, licking the sweat off my neck. “You wanted me last night… I know you did… just like you want me now.”
Her hand slid up my inner thigh, initiating a primal reflex that caused the tuxedo’s pants to rise. “Funny how the first nerve endings to regain their impulses are the sex organs.” After reaching into her purse, Giselle removed another 9mm Glock, this one with a silencer attached. She chambered a round and placed the gun on the desktop to my left.
Then she removed her thong and bra and straddled me.
“I’ll make you a deal, Cowboy. Tell us where the car is… and I’ll unzip your pants and fuck you silly before I put a bullet in your brain.”
My erection had a will of its own, fighting to free itself while my arms hung limp by my sides. Giselle was intoxicating and I absorbed her with all of my senses, inhaling her pheromones, staring at her womanhood — the sight and scent and touch of the high-priced whore doubling my heart rate, quickening my recovery.
“Agreed,” I said, clearing my throat, my mind racing to keep the conversation going, fighting to buy time. “First tell me… why? Why keep this energy system from the rest of the world?”
“Why? Because free, clean energy would completely even the global playing field. Big Oil would go belly-up, wiping out the banks. The stock market would collapse… there’d be chaos. And for what? So a bunch of Third World countries can have sewage plants? A society where everyone is rich doesn’t work, Cowboy. Equality and peace undermine evolution; we are who we are because of the law of the jungle. If you make everyone a predator, society would stagnate.”
The trigger finger of my right hand twitched. “Point taken. Who the hell wants peace when we can spend eternity fighting the War on Terror.”
“War is profitable, which is why we encourage it.”
“Enough!” the colonel barked. “Gibbons is dead; all we need is the car.”
I felt pins and needles as sensation slowly returned to my body. “You’re right about one thing, Giselle, I do want you. Send grandpa on his way and let’s do this.”