The Straw Men

It was Mary.

'So what do you think about the Ed guy? Could he be the cameraman?'

'The only time I saw him and my dad in the same room they behaved like strangers.' I'd already described this occasion to Bobby on the way out to the bar. 'But they must have known each other. They all did. For some reason, Mary moves out, possibly not even that long after the time shown in the video. She'd certainly been in Montana a long while before my folks moved out there. In the meantime, my parents and Ed stay here, but not in contact, and the one time I accidentally bring them together, my father lets it happen but neither acknowledges the other.' I thought back to the occasions when I'd met Mary at my folks' house, but all that did was confirm my existing impression — which is that if they'd all known each other before Montana, they went to some trouble for it not to appear that way. I was wondering why they'd all bother to hide this fact from me, and then saw this was muddled and egocentric thinking.

My parents went out there on purpose, I realized. 'They went there because they thought or knew something was going to happen, and that's why the three of them pretended not to know each other.'

'You're stretching just a little bit.'

'Am I? Maybe Mary wasn't killed just because she was in the way. Maybe whoever came out to the house had two jobs, and Mary was one of them.'

Bobby considered, nodded. 'Then, when you turn up back in Hunter's Rock, Ed runs like a jackrabbit.'

'We should have stayed out at his trailer.'

He shook his head. 'He's not going back there in a hurry. By now he'll have called the guy at the bar, and found you know where he lives. Plus you're looking too zonked for any action that might involve chasing people. You left your number. If he goes home, he knows how to get a hold of you. Tomorrow we go back out to the bar and lean on the owner. Find out if the old guy has any known associates or another place he hangs out.'

'Needle in a haystack, in other words.'

'The needle's still there. If it's been placed at random, it could be the very first thing you find.'

'Very deep, Bobby. Let me write that down.'

'Meantime, I'm going on the Web.' He glanced at the cell phone, which was lying on the table. 'And if

you're hoping Lazy Ed's going to call, you might want to turn your phone back on.' While he ran a phone cable out the back of the laptop to the connector on the desk telephone, I

watched the screen of the cell. Sure enough, within a few seconds a message indicator lit up.

'Got something?'

I dialled the service and listened. The voice recorded was that of a woman. 'Not him. It's the girl I

talked to at the hospital. She said she'd look up some files, let me know if anything looked useful.'

'And did it?'

'She doesn't say,' I said, disconnecting. 'Just for me to give her a call tomorrow.'

'Ward, look at this. You got an email.'

I looked over his shoulder. There was a short message on the screen:

EARN BIG $$$ GUARANTEED!!! We are a small company offering an EXPANDING service. Make use of our product to

change your world, working with nothing more than your own dedication. The pure shall

rejoice in there hearts when he seeth our Web site!

Go back for information that could change all our lives! Start immediately — with a

business that's growing fast. Hundreds are already doing more than they ever thought

possible: Why don't you become one of us?

Don't delay — this offer ends at midnight.

'Look up 'junk email' in a dictionary,' I said, 'and they've probably got that printed out in full.'

'But,' Bobby said, 'there's no order form. The sending address looks fake and it mentions a Web site without giving the URL, and then gives a deadline in three hours' time. They're not making it easy for you to get ripped off. Plus look at the two sentences with exclamation marks at the end. The first is odd — some kind of biblical-sounding thing — and the second says 'Go back'. Go back where?'

I thought a second. 'This has come to me as a result of having already visited some site and having my IP address logged.'

'Sometimes, Ward, it's almost like you've got a fully functioning brain.' He doubleclicked a desktop bookmark, and the browser loaded up. Within a few seconds we had the page in front of us, with just the two words: WE RISE.

But this time they were underlined, and when Bobby moved the cursor over them, it became a pointing hand.

'It's changed into a link,' he said. He clicked on the words and a small dialogue box popped up asking

for a password. 'Oh, crap.'

'The Straw Men,' I suggested.

He typed it in. A white page came up with the words UNAUTHORIZED ENTRY at the top. Bobby

swore and clicked the back button. 'Show me the email again,' I said. He switched the browser to the background, bringing the email

back to the front.

I scanned it quickly. 'Try there, as it's spelled in the 'rejoice' sentence.'

'Because?'

'It's the only misspelled word in the entire email, and it's in the sentence referring to the Web site.'

He clicked, typed it in. We got unauthorized again. 'It's going to throw us out soon,' he muttered,

retracing his steps once more.

'Try it spelt correctly.'

He clicked and typed in 'their'. There was a pause. And then another page came on screen. This was

black, with the word WELCOME, in white in the centre. 'Okay,' Bobby said, his voice quiet and constricted. He moved the cursor over WELCOME, and it

changed to a pointing hand. I crowded in closer, and he clicked on the word. There was a pause, and then the screen changed to a forest green, filled with white text.

THE HUMAN MANIFESTO [image: strawlogo.jpg]

HERE IS THE TRUTH Some people do not agree with Evolution as a Theory. This is wrong. We were only told

that Evolution was untrue for so long to STOP US from seeing the real Truth. But now we have Seen it, and it cannot be hidden again by Politicians or other LIARS. You think you know the Truth but you don't: You only know LIES.

THE HISTORY OF MANKIND. In olden times we were all apes. Then one day 5 Million years ago a new line split off to make three new types of apes: the gorillas, the chimpanzees and the 'hominids' — who became us. Anyone who has seen TV programs on how smart chimpanzees are will not find it hard to believe this is TRUE. 2.5 Million years later the first creatures who were true Humanity came into being. They are sometimes referred to as Habilis, although names during this period are open to controversy: This is a dark period in our Evolution, and the scientists use LONG WORDS when they do not know as much as they want us to THINK they know.

By 1 Million years ago we began to see a type called Erectus, so-called because they stood Upright. It is standing Upright that divides us from the apes, and from all other animals. Some of this type became Neanderthals, who were successful for a long time. Over the next few hundred thousand years this type became better at walking, got better tools, and tamed FIRE. Further Evolution then took place in Africa, finishing in Homo Sapiens. Our brain size became bigger, hence our Intelligence, which is unique. The Homo Sapiens supplanted the Neanderthals.

During all of this time, humankind and those who came before us were HUNTER-GATHERERS. We lived in small groups who tied together through Kinship and Co-operation. We fed ourselves with game that we HUNTED and berries and roots that we GATHERED, and then we moved on.

AS YOU SOW SO SHALL YOU WEEP

About fifteen thousand years ago everything started changing. This may sound a long time ago, but not when you think in terms of Millions of years. What happened is we stopped our natural hunting and gathering. Why?

Some people have put this down to growing population, causing a strain on resources, and less freedom to move. Or changes in the weather because the Ice Age had finished, and various other things. I have read all of the so-called Scientific explanations, and no one