“Call him,” Gordy said.
****
Pierre thought of Devin Snitch on a Gamblers raid a short while ago. Would he come down the elevator? He never thought he’d actually want to see Devin. But they didn’t have much strength left and the aqueduct covering wasn’t going anywhere. Then the cell-phone rang.
“Answer!” Pierre yelled.
The cell-phone picked up the call. “Pierre, it’s Chester. Are you all right?”
Pierre felt tears come to his eyes. “Chester! We’re trapped in the aqueduct at Edgar Toll Northeast. You have to find a way to remove the cover.”
“I’m on it,” Chester said.
The seconds passed seeming like forever. The two of them were rapidly treading water, taking as much air as they could now and then, waiting fearfully. Then, the covering began to retract. Pierre and Cloud rejoiced as they climbed out of the aqueduct. Then Pierre sobered. He picked up the cell-phone.
“Chester?”
Chester was still there. “Yeah.”
“Call Chase McDowell at The London Times and tell him that the Grease isn’t life threatening. I’m going to lead everyone. Tell him they need to tell everyone to use the Grease.”
“Pierre. We’re at the control room. Toll is going to approve the television watching requirement.”
“Postpone it. Don’t use the programming until after people have used the Grease.”
There was a pause, then Chester said, “Toll says that’s fine. What now?”
“I’m gonna go get my life back.” He broke into a sprint for the Sanitarium. “I’ll call you as soon as I know the code.”
He hung up and turned to his left. The Gamblers guns were still there.
Pierre looked at the gun wondering if Devin had gotten a shot authorized for Caleb Price as Pierre had asked him to. He switched on the videocamera and hit record. Now he had a direct line to the control room – at least he thought he did. The good news was that everything he did from now on would be recorded and sent to Southwick. The bad news was he wasn’t sure anyone in Southwick would be watching.
****
“Mr. Toll,” an agent fifty feet away from Chester called out. “I’ve got a visual. Looks like Pierre Morena using a Gamblers gun. Pressed record.”
Toll narrowed his eyes and said, “Put it on the main board.”
On the enormous screen against the wall there was the recording from Pierre’s Gambler’s gun, the blue and white tiles of the tunnel seemingly bouncing as he ran towards the Sanitarium.
****
“Pierre,” Cloud called. “I’m not going to let you kill yourself. We’ve been through that already.”
He turned. “I’m not killing myself. I know it seems that way but I have to go.” Pierre sighed, deep in thought. “I need you to do something. Devin Snitch is upstairs on a Gamblers raid. Tell him the Audric Earnings Authority is going to be handling things in a bit. We need the Gamblers to help us negotiate. Tell him to bring three Gamblers with him and some operative weapons. Tell him I’m getting all of Audric to use the Grease. Tell him I’m with him.”
Cloud nodded. “You’re a Gambler.”
Pierre nodded. He said reluctantly, “Yeah. I am.”
She smiled. “Be careful.” She got into the elevator.
Pierre turned and began walking quickly towards the stairs. He looked back at Cloud as the elevator doors closed. He stepped up the stairs and peered out from under the pliable plastic. He could hear an alarm sounding and a voice saying, “Breach, breach, breach.” Pierre looked around. The rotation of the rooms of the Sanitarium had stopped. Surrounding the Sanitarium in the woods were Audric Earnings Authority officers.
In the room that used to be Kalpana’s, Pierre could see the secret entrance was open, and a cracked window to the right that looked like it had been shot unsuccessfully. No one was coming out. Then before he could even think to react, a hand was grasping his arm. The hand pulled him up. It was Theodore Hendrick. Pierre recognized him from his pictures on the BIP. He had a tall head, puffy brown hair, creases around his mouth, and serious brown eyes.
“I’m Theo Hendrick. All the roads have led here. Welcome to judgment,” he said.
****
Chester turned to Toll, his eyes wide. “What’s happening?”
“You remember Genesis Smith wanted to call a Tribunal? Here it is. We’re not barbarians after all.”
“Where will they hold the tribunal?” Chester asked.
“They’ve converted the bottom floor of the Sanitarium,” Toll said. “Looks like a courtroom. An Audric courtroom.”
“You mean you knew this would happen?” Chester asked.
“Not exactly. Genesis Smith did,” Toll said.
Chester thought of the rumors that Genesis Smith, whom they now knew was Elijah Harbinger, was psychic but decided not to ask about it. His eyes were glued to the image of grass being picked up by Pierre’s Gambler’s Gun. They could hear Hendrick in the background.
Hendrick said, “I heard that Devin Snitch is on his way. Let’s clear the board first. Caleb?”
****
Pierre raised his gun towards the secret open door and Caleb jumped out. He smiled which made his grey eyes squint.
“Back from the dead again,” he said to Pierre. “The other side doesn’t like you it seems.”
“I’m too good for Hell,” Pierre said. “Too early for Heaven. You’re time is up, however.”
“That’s a Gamblers gun,” Caleb said. “Has the shot been authorized?”
Pierre didn’t know. He turned to Hendrick who had a little smile on his face. Hendrick said, “Care to find out?”
“Would you defend a known murderer and traitor?” Pierre asked.
“No. I wouldn’t,” he gave a little smile, meaning Pierre might as well be describing himself.
Pierre remembered his dream in the hotel: Dot full of bullet holes and his father saying, “Take the shot.” Pierre turned around and saw Devin walking up the stairs. Devin hoisted himself onto the grass and beckoned for his allies to follow him. He removed a gun from his jacket and pointed it at Pierre. Pierre still had his gun on Caleb. He felt tears come to his eyes as he looked around at the Audric Earnings Authority closing in slowly.
Pierre turned to Devin. “Did you get a shot authorized for Caleb Price?”
Devin said, “Now, why didn’t I think of that?”
Pierre had his finger on the trigger, but couldn’t bring himself to fire. “You murdered Kalpana. You have five seconds to admit it. They’re watching at Southwick.”
“Hendrick knows I killed Kalpana,” Caleb said. “I have enough power to get my son a duplicate name. Now you’ve got your faith. Perhaps you’d like to put it to a test?”
His smile was making Pierre’s skin crawl. Pierre looked back at Devin.
“Been reading that Friedrich Nietzsche yet?” Devin asked. “’No need for revenge. Just sit back and wait. Those that hurt you will eventually screw up themselves and if you’re lucky, God will let you watch.’”
“Shortly we’ll find out where you got the nerve to think you could overthrow Audric,” Hendrick said. “For now, let’s keep things simple. You’re a Gambler it seems. You believe in God. You believe Audric is corrupt. And most importantly, you believe you have the right to believe whatever you want. So there’s really only one question. Are you right?”
“The right to believe what you want is sanctioned by Genesis Smith himself,” Pierre said. “It applies to you too.”
“There’s dozens of people watching,” Hendrick said, as he began to walk around him. “You can feel the gun adjusting its position in midair. Taking stock of whom it’s pointed at, calculating a facial reading and comparing it with Audric’s entire stock of faces. There’s never been a mistake by a Gamblers gun in the history of Audric. But maybe that’s because they are never used. Perhaps it’s irrelevant if I have or haven’t authorized a shot. Perhaps Toll wants you to blow your arm off either way. But you’re staring at the man that put you and your mother in an aqueduct, closed the covering, so you could drown. I agree. This man is a disgrace to everything Audric holds dear. Now, do you want to handle it? Or should I?”
Pierre stepped forward. He felt the anger in his belly. He pulled the trigger as hard as he could and felt a searing pain all over his body. He felt his eyes widen and go out of focus. He fell to his knees and looked around without sight.
He’d blown his own arm off.
Now, he could see the bloody stump. The flesh lying on the grass. He fell face first and silently begged God for it to be over.
“That’s your penalty for distrusting Audric to do the right thing,” Hendrick said.
Pierre looked up at Caleb, and then back at Hendrick. Hendrick withdrew a gun and shot Caleb in the head. Caleb fell on the ground. “Get Pierre inside to the medics. Get him a new arm.”
Devin smiled and looked around at his allies. “He let us watch.”
“You’ve been summoned too,” Hendrick said to Devin. “Follow me.”
The content of The London Times was added to the Brighton Information Posting and printed out landing on the Morena’s doorstep at three fifteen am. Edmond had Cloud were already awake reading it on the computer. Pierre was going to stand trial the next day, and while he was expected to be exonerated, they wanted to be there for it. Edmond said he needed a couple hours of sleep, and Cloud echoed that sentiment. When Paul Little awoke at seven thirty am that day both of them were gone.
Paul Little had also awoke several times in the night to the sound of Anna Lee, locked in an ER Marine Machine sobbing. She said she got a few hours of sleep in all and Paul fixed her breakfast. He picked up The London Times off the coffee table and brought it into Edmond and Cloud’s bedroom to share the news with Anna. There were three articles on the front page, and they all applied to Pierre. Written in big letters under The London Times banner were two headlines:
Mandatory Audric Television Watching
Genesis Smith Declares Emergency
Paul Little had curly blond hair that came down past his ears, blue eyes, and a ring in his bottom lip. He took the ring out as he walked towards the bedroom. He was trying to ingratiate himself to Anna Lee whom he had already grown fond of. She was stellar looking with doe brown eyes and brown hair which he had pulled back for her to make her more comfortable. He planned on reading the articles to her to give her some hope that she wasn’t going to die in the machine.
He pulled a chair from beside the bed into the closet, took a couple Kleenex’s, and dried her tears, then gave her a warm smile.
“They are holding a tribunal for Pierre,” he said. “I guess that’s where Edmond and Cloud went. We’ll have you outta here in no time.”
Anna nodded, her bottom lip trembled. He began to read the articles silently to himself. The first article was titled:
“The Angel Speaks:
Says He Plans to Lead Us”
After Paul finished reading he said to Anna Lee. “They say Pierre is the only person who has ever aced the GSKT. Barnaby Brown and others admit it wasn’t rigged. Toll says Audric should do what Pierre wants.”
“What does Pierre want?”
“Pierre wants everyone to use the Grease before they watch the programming. He says they have to disconnect from the control room. He says he’ll lead everyone out of the emotional problem they have now.”
“And Toll is going along with it?”
“Yeah. Some people tried to break into Southwick Harbor and they convinced Toll to help. Toll admits boosts alone won’t do it. The depression is too severe.”
“Wow,” Anna Lee said. “So everyone will see what happened when they watch the programming. I guess everyone’s watching.”
“Do you want to watch?”
“I didn’t buy any bottles of Orangina.”
Paul nodded. “Oh yeah. I didn’t think of that.”
“What about the other articles?”
Paul looked down at the newspaper then back up at her, his eyes showing surprise. “This one has a video embedded in it. A video of when Barnaby Brown met Genesis Smith for the first time. They say they’ve released a photo of Genesis Smith and ‘as many suspected he looks different from the photo so many of us have come to know. Genesis Smith is Elijah Harbinger, the Gambler’s televangelist.’ I guess the video proves it for sure.”
Paul pressed play on the embedded video and watched as Barnaby Brown, a large black man with glasses and close cropped hair, shook Elijah Harbingers hand, took the podium, and told everyone that, “Audric is an American society for the most part. It was created to mitigate the suffering in the world that has become common place. I can think of no one more fitting to help facilitate this process than Elijah Harbinger who can pick any word or phrase out of someone else’s mind better than a mentalist. Audric is an experiment and we will tell the world how it went in thirty years.’”
Paul said to Anna Lee, “I guess pretty soon we’re going to have to tell everyone how it went. That’s what they want Pierre for. Maybe Elijah Harbinger is psychic. Maybe this is all part of the plan. Maybe they’ll want to hear what you have to say too.”
****
Pierre felt like it was the Land of Nod – people who he had met at various times in his life sharing dreams with him. He was post operation, and heavily sedated. It had been almost sixteen hours since the medics saved his life. He had dreamt of Devin jumping out of the third story window of Helter. He’d chased him into the hotel and fell flat when he realized how much Devin weighed. He had dreamt of Dot, and her bullet holes healed, which made him feel relief. He had dreamt of the man in Gamblers and Guns blowing his arm off, it growing back, and him strangling Pierre with his hands.
He dreamt of the angel triplets, the ones in white, with halos on their heads. Josephine was wearing a suit now and she extended a hand for Pierre to shake only to realize Pierre no longer had a hand. She began laughing in Pierre’s face. Then she disappeared with a poof of smoke like she had spontaneously combusted. The angel from Gamblers and Guns said, “That’s a pretty good trick, Pure Pierre. For someone without an acceptor, of course.” The last one that he’d seen outside Lonnie’s appeared and said, “39D.”
Pierre awoke trying to catch his breath on the verge of a panic attack. He looked around him and saw he was in a room in the Sanitarium. He recognized the blue bedding and the projector ceiling -- something like a slug on his stomach, and its presence was bothering him. He racked his brain for the last thing he remembered, and it dawned on him that he didn’t have an arm anymore. He threw the covers off. It wasn’t a slug. It was a new arm, grown in a lab, and surgically attached to him.
The nerves in his belly were jumping frantically. He looked down at the new arm and tested it out, slapping his stomach. His hair felt foreign as he put his new fingers through it. It all felt so strange he wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. Neither. He said, “All right,” and sat up on his bed. The scar on his shoulder where the arm had been attached sent a shiver through him. Then, someone knocked on the door.
It was Hendrick. He opened
the door a crack and said, “They got your message. They are dropping like flies. We are losing all of Audric.”
Pierre was confused. “They’re dying?”
“No. They all used the Grease. We’ve lost contact with all their acceptors. Each agent is assigned to a different sector. Fifty two sectors almost totally lost. I suppose you’re proud.”
Pierre shook his head.
“Come downstairs. Bottom floor. You won’t believe who the judge is.”
“Who?”
“Barnaby Brown.”
****
“I made you breakfast,” Paul said, as he lifted a spoonful of oatmeal to Anna’s lips. “Oatmeal okay? I think we’ve got some waffles.”
She nodded. “It’s fine.”
“So tell me about you and Pierre.”
“There’s not much to tell.” She tried to maneuver her shoulders inside the metallurgically manufactured computer controlled locks. “We dated for a while.”
“Did you love him?”
She shook her head. “We met at a basketball game. It was a tournament. His team was playing Roudeville. He came right up to me after the game, picked me out of the stands. He asked for my number and I wrote it down. The last couple digits weren’t legible. So when me and my friends left for the night he ran a few blocks down the street to ask me the right number. I loved that he did that. He’s brave. And he can stomach a lot. I guess that’s what all of Brighton is learning now. The same way I did.”
Paul nodded. “I guess you like him better than Saad Price.”
Anna laughed. “You could say that. Saad told me this time I wasn’t going anywhere. He’s crazy.”
“Pierre will get the code. I’m sure he’s figuring out how to get it right now. What did Saad want with Pierre’s home anyway?”