An hour after Rick had sent his reply with the coordinates, Wolf, Hank, Will and Izzy were hovering invisibly over the next day's meeting location, a deep chasm inside a B.C. river valley. Sharp cliffs fell precipitously to the small river below. The land around the chasm was a plateau with visibility stretching for miles. No way could a DPS force sneak up on them.
The coordinates put the meeting at the bottom of the chasm, but Wolf figured that Rick would hide in one of the caves in the cliff walls. Once he was inside, he'd be invisible to spying eyes but still able to communicate. For the time that it took him to climb up to the cave, he would be extremely vulnerable.
They saw no signs of any of the area being booby trapped, so Wolf picked a spot at random where Izzy could hide, well away from the chasm wall but still close enough to communicate. Plus she'd be in her sling. Hank and Will would be nearby if she needed them. Nobody could see any personal danger for Izzy in this meeting. She'd listen but make no commitment to anything. However, there was high personal danger for Rick. First in being sniped, and second if Zzyk ever found out that he had met with Izzy. A visual recording of Rick talking to Izzy would be very valuable to the Wilizy but virtually impossible to make if Rick set up deep inside a cave. It would be very risky for anyone inside a sling to try and follow him in.
"But it would be valuable?" Will asked.
"We'd own Rick from that point on," Izzy answered and then added. "You're not going inside a cave, Will."
"I wasn't thinking of that," Will replied. But he was thinking of a way to make a video recording. So he went ahead and made the recording without asking Izzy first.
# # # # # # # #
Written transcript of a video record made of a conversation between an executive assistant of the IOF named Rick, and a manager of the Wilizy name Izzy. Time of taping was Monday, September 19, at 11 a.m. Location in B.C.
Rick: Izzy? Please confirm that it is you by answering this question: At the airport, what did you ask when you wanted to buy some food from a vending machine?
Izzy: Does anyone have change for a gold coin? What do you want, Rick?
Rick: First some preliminaries. As you can hear, I'm sending this message via computer voice. You can't record my voice and use it to blackmail me. I am hidden deep inside a cave so no pictures can be taken of me with a communication device in my hand. If we use this location to communicate again, you should be aware that I will know if anyone has climbed up or down this rock face recently. The rocks are quite unstable and crumble easily. Since these caves are never disturbed, I will also know if somehow, somebody managed to sneak inside them to plant recording instruments.
Izzy: I see no reason to have future meetings. I see no reason to have this meeting. Get to the point.
R: We have mutual interests. I freely admit that I have something to gain from reaching some accommodations with you. For example, tomorrow, Zzyk is going to order my execution if I do not have a plan to identify your main camp. I'd like to be alive on Wednesday.
I: Not nice knowing you, Rick. See yah.
R: My death will not be in your best interests. The subordinate who will take my place will undoubtedly submit a plan to locate your main camp that Zzyk will approve because he'll receive a lot of enjoyment out of the plan. When I say enjoyment, I'm referring to the enjoyment he received from ordering two recent executions. I would prefer to submit a different plan but I can't unless you help me.
I: Spell it out.
R: In the early hours of our recent difficulties, a recording of the living room where Zzyk's babies were kept was broadcast on the WZBN. In that recording a baby caretaker appeared. You don't know this, but shortly afterwards, a DPS sergeant stood in almost exactly the same place in the house. We know the exact height of the sergeant in question. That means that we now know the height of the child care attendant. There can't be that many giant aboriginal women in the Aboriginal Nation. In the plan that I expect my subordinate to submit to Zzyk, he will select aboriginals at random and will encourage them to identify the giant and where she lives. My subordinate is not reluctant to use intense encouragement. In fact, he is the man that Zzyk ordered to murder your grandfather and Janey. Somebody will eventually tell their torturer but many will die first. After he finds the giant, he'll find your camp. You have the ability to prevent those deaths.
I: You'll keep torturing people until someone tells you where we are?
R. Not I. I'll be dead. But yes, Zzyk will order an endless number of aboriginals to be interrogated and he will enjoy every minute of the recordings that my subordinate will make. You can't protect every single person in the entire Aboriginal Nation, Izzy. The man who will take my job has the skills to sneak into any part of the Nation he wants; he'll conduct the interrogation in B.C. and bury the body there; then, he'll find someone else. He'll stop only when some poor soul tells him how to find you.
I: You would stop this how?
R: I'd give Zzyk a different plan. One that doesn't require interrogation. One that will work quickly and easily. He'll be happy with my plan and his inclination to liquidate me will be lessened.
I: Where do you see this accommodation with us going?
R: I will be utterly candid. Ultimately, I want Zzyk's job. He's getting old and he has lost some abilities. On the science front, he has no idea how to stop Will's transmitter. He believes that he can jam the WZBN signals or set up a competing broadcast network based on brain-bands. Those ideas have no hope of succeeding. He increasingly loses control of his anger and is resorting to violence at every turn. For example, in response to your broadcast on the silliness of modesty panels, he could soon announce that anyone who removes their modestly patches will be executed. He is so fixated on you that he can't see the danger that is concealed within the current negotiations about our incursions into B.C. land. I see the danger, but have not warned him. He is fighting a war that he can't win. But he will fight to the very end because he hates you to the point of obsession. You may eventually win Alberta; but many, many people will die in the process. He will give you no choice on that.
I: So, you want us to put you on the throne?
R: Not put me on the throne; just don't stand in my way.
I: How will that help Albertans? You'd still be another dictator.
R: Partly true. Let me explain. I assume that you know that Ingrid created more than 26 gene profiles. I was in the 28th. There were 10 males in my class when we were created some years ago. We have somewhat unique appearances, but everything else about us is mostly the same. We were shipped out to another country early in our lives and given the education we'd need to perform as executive assistants/executioners. We were also instructed to walk the streets of the city that hosted us, and from time to time, we'd be told to kill the person standing next to us. The brain-bands we were wearing provided the motivation and the reward. The country hosting us permitted our violence because we kept their citizens scared to death of being anywhere near a foreign visitor. Our partners have had a very docile population for well over a century. They wanted to keep it that way.
I: Even more reason for us to stay clear of you, Rick.
R: I haven't murdered an Albertan citizen for a long time now. Men below me in the cadre are given those duties instead. When I am specifically instructed to make people disappear, I send them out of the province instead of killing them. They lead an uncomfortable life, but at least they're alive and I don't have their blood on my hands. If questioned about my actions, I say simply that I made them disappear as instructed.
Since my duties now are so concentrated on running the IOF, I am losing the conditioning imposed on me as a child. When we captured you in Surrey, seeing a little slip of a girl take on the mighty Zzyk intrigued me. I had trouble hiding my enjoyment when you destroyed half of his air force. Recently I sat in a garden in B.C. and wished that we had such a garden in Alberta. I'm at the age where I'm tired of killing and torturing. I'd like to put my management skills to
good use running the IOF while you put your long term plans into play. When the time is right, I'll leave. I'll take what wealth I've accumulated – and I do plan on accumulating wealth – and I will disappear.
I: I don't believe a word of it.
R: Then, don't. Do believe this though. When my cadre of 10 boys was learning to be killers, 10 girls were learning the same skills. Abby had the worst skills of all, which is why she's the only one you've ever seen. Two members of this cadre of twenty are hiding in B.C. Zzyk calls them his sleepers. One of them has been assigned to get close to somebody in the Wilizy. Did you know that Ingrid has a button she can push on her computer that will create white babies that look nothing like the brown Albertan babies? You'll have no warning before she strikes.
[Silence on the tape.]
R: Know this too. You have only one way to avoid the kidnapping and tortures that my subordinate will inflict on strangers in the next month to find your camp. Those won't happen if I find you.
I: And how do you propose to find us?
R: Easy. You're going to tell me where your camp is.
I: Would you prefer it if we shot ourselves and saved you the trouble?
R: No. That would ruin the surprise party. In return for your assistance, I'll tell you when the DPS is coming for you and what they'll be bringing to the party.
Back to the Table of Contents
Chapter 13
From Izzy's journals: Friday, September 30.
Yollie and I were catching up while walking in the woods with Liset and Patella. Catching up had become somewhat of a routine for us. But walks in the woods were not routine. We had to wait for the DPS scout who was spying on our camp to go home for the day. No Wilizy members showed themselves when the scout was around except for Yollie and me. We knew that the DPS wouldn't invade until Will was here which is why everyone, including Will, was hiding. We weren't ready to be attacked yet.
Will was now out in the woods doing whatever Will needed to do to make his defensive system complete. Burying things into the ground or into trees, for example. He never fully explained how the system worked – I doubt that we would understand anyway. He reassured us that we were protected against conventional weaponry and that's all that Zzyk had. When I pressed him about what would happen if Zzyk had squirreled away some exotic weapons that we didn't know about, he was less certain. "I won't know if the system works against something I don't anything about, until I know something about it," he had said.
It was at that point that we started working on a plan to move all the children out of the area before the DPS assault. We'll be ready to let them attack the empty camp in about a week. A day or two before that, Granny is going to stuff the kids into the Wilizy and take them to a foreign land where they'll be safe. They believe that it's a school field trip to learn geography. Which it is. But, it's also a scouting trip. TG figured out that the computer he had hacked into was in a North Korean factory that manufactured the brain-bands. He can now read the language well enough to confirm that the new brain-bands will be shipped to North America, as in carried in a boat. TG said their computers had virtually no protection, which led him to believe that the country might have primitive military defenses too. Granny is going to look. TG will be along as well, partly to handle Liset, but also to hear how their language was spoken. I keep forgetting that he's very smart. He had been trained in computers, but that doesn't mean he's only smart there. Having someone who can speak as well as read Korean could be very helpful.
Meanwhile, I show myself every day going over to Yollie's, and if TG is home to watch Liset, the two of us walk around outside; otherwise I visit inside. Liset is still screaming a lot at Yollie, but we don't need to worry about the scout hearing that. He's kilometers away on the top of the hills surrounding our valley. Establishing shooting positions, lines of attack, and so on. He's going to surround us with a DPS assault team. He thinks that we'll be like fish in a barrel at the bottom of our valley.
TG and Yollie figured out that Liset is scared of people because she was beaten. I had noticed her immediate pull back response when Yollie had raised her hand. I saw that a lot in the dissidents' camps from women as well as children. I hadn't said anything at the time; not my place. Yolanda told me to say something the next time I see something that will help them. TG and Yollie were overwhelmed with the problems that Liset was having. So I suggested to Yollie that she always kneel in front of Liset when she talks with her and Yollie said later that it worked.
The problem of Liset not being able to sleep through the night? Yolanda had suggested nightmares. Winnie took care of those. So now Yollie and TG are sleeping more. Still no sex though. Both are too tired. I never would have thought that Yollie and I would talk together about our sex lives – make that our non-sex lives. But she's actually quite easy to talk to. I told her that both Will and I are finding that one hockey game a day is all we need. Yollie said that she'd be happy if she at least had a chance to skate on the ice.
Yollie told me today that Liset has been taking food out of their kitchen and hiding it. She has even buried some of it outside. Yollie found her eating a dirt covered food bar yesterday and almost lost control. "They beat her and starved her too?" I asked.
"That's what we think. We're storing half of our food supplies in her bedroom now. Hoping that will reassure her that she's always going to be fed. TG says that his people always take care of their children properly, but he figures that if they were going to discard her, they wouldn't assign a caregiver for the interim. They'd pretend that she didn't exist. That's the only explanation that we can think of. We can't imagine how someone so young could have survived on her own."
"She's not scared of Patella," I observed. Liset was sitting on Patella's back while the wolf trotted easily through the woods. "I'm surprised that Patella leaves Winnie's side."
"Winnie tells her to and she has shown her how to be a horsey. Will rigged a filament saddle and some stirrups, and she's locked into the saddle front and back. Patella will respond to me calling her too." When I raised an eyebrow, she said, "Winnie told her to. Right in front of me and the wolf understood."
We talked a bit about me and how I was continuing to improve. No more nightmares, thanks to Winnie. Something useful to do, thanks to Yollie. "Mom was right about thinking about others being the key to fighting depression," I said.
"You're calling her Mom, now? Not Yolanda?"
"Yah. I was alone in the kitchen with her yesterday, gave her a hug and said, Thanks, Mom. She said, You're welcome, daughter, and she put her hand gently against my cheek and kissed me on the other. I apologized for being a jerk and that got me another kiss. It became kind of moist in the kitchen for a while and we just hung onto each other. I know why I reacted that way, but why would Yolanda cry too? I have to admit that she surprised me. Did you know that our mom was in a depression once?"
"No. That's news to me. She's admitted that she had had a rough time when she first moved to this valley, but she didn't say anything else."
"Did she tell you how she and Hank met?"
"Yeah, we've heard that story. Falling in love in high school, working together for a bit for the RCMP, and then getting married."
"Did she say what she did for the RCMP?"
"Working the phones. Filing papers. Boring stuff like that."
Interesting. "Do you think that they had sex before they were married?"
"Izzy!"
"So I'm a nosy person. Do you think?"
"How would I know? Mother would never share something like that with anyone."
# # # # # # # #
Izzy, Tuesday, September 30
FF wanted to bring me up to speed on his negotiations with Zzyk so I skipped out of my babysitting duty and asked Granny to fill in. TG was still working on his language skills and Yollie said that she needed to find out what Will was doing if she was going to be any help with the compound's defense. Granny hasn't been around Liset very much but Liset isn't
scared of her. I don't believe a grandmotherly person had ever been mean to her. I wonder if TG's people let their grandparents live. I will have to ask.
FF was his usual self, as was the office where we met. Not really an office. Perhaps an interrogation room. Very bare. He said that negotiations about the DPS incursions into B.C. had reached the final stages. Zzyk was refusing to budge on one point, but FF would have their special forces remove some prison walls tonight while the DPS army was watching some volunteers from Kamloops party in another part of the border. "Is Will's defense ready to go?" he asked.
"Yes. We can't test his system yet, but he's confident that it will work. He's been letting the DPS scout wander throughout the security zone and the sensors pick him up every time. We've used those sensors before so they've been calibrated to pick up humans and not deer." I had to catch myself from saying that we had those sensors on the Wilizy. I am finding FF so comfortable to be with that I forget that he's not on the Wilizy team.
"OK. I'll let my old age and physical infirmities overwhelm me tomorrow and let them win one last point. Can Will show up in the compound Saturday morning?"
I wondered what he meant by physical infirmities. FF sometimes speaks in riddles. "Saturday is good. We'll send the kids on their holidays tomorrow. You believe Rick will warn us like he promised?"
"Oh, he'll warn you. His treachery won't come for a long time yet. Everybody in the Wilizy realizes that he's playing you, right?"
"Yeah. We didn't have any choice about teaming up with him. We have no illusions about his character. I did find it very interesting about how he was raised though. Did you know about IOF children being educated in North Korea?"
"No. We knew that the special gene profiles weren't being educated in Alberta. Searching for them is how we learned what happens in all of their buildings. But where they went was a mystery. You've confirmed the new brain-bands will ship from North Korea to Prudhoe, and then somehow to Edmonton?"
"That's what we figure. You knew about Ingrid's button that creates white kids?"