The Minnesota Candidate (40 page)

Tom stood facing the door, catching his breath,
when Sam and Chona caught up with him. He was shocked that neither
appeared to be even the slightest bit winded. Chona held up her
hand. “Don’t touch that door,” she ordered. “Let me see what it
says in the journals.”

“Tommy, you okay?” asked Sam.

“I’m… just out of… breath.”

“You really got to go on a diet. You should
start hittin’ the gym with me.”

“You really should listen to him,” said Chona.
“You’re a walking heart attack.”

“Thanks… for saying so,” said Tom, “I feel… so
much better now.”

“Chona’s right, you don’t want to make Shari a
widow. Once we get out of here, I’m gonna put you on a protein diet
and we’re gonna start slingin’ some weights.”

Chona pointed to the door. “Unless I’m wrong,
this door leads to the main laboratory.”

“And if you’re wrong?” asked Tom.

“Trust me, you don’t want to know.”

Sam looked back up the stairwell. “Well, I say
we open it up and take our chances. No way Tommy is gonna make it
back up these stairs.”

“Not without having a heart attack,” agreed
Chona.

Tom narrowed his eyes and glared at them both.
He then handed Sam his candle and reached for the door handle.
“Just leave me alone,” was all he could think to say. He grasped
the door handle and pressed the thumb catch. There was a click and
Tom shoved it open, praying it opened into the laboratory.

White light blazed out of the open doorway,
blinding Tom. He covered his eyes and continued walking. He heard
the sound of shuffling feet and metallic clicks. He pulled his hand
away from his eyes and waited for them to adjust to the bright
light. Wherever they were, the smell of disinfectant was nearly
overpowering.

“How nice,” said a strangely familiar voice, “we
have some more company.”

Tom raised his eyes and found that he was
staring down the barrels of several guns. “Oh shit,” he grunted,
raising his hands in the air. The men behind the guns were
well-dressed and each wore dark sunglasses.

“And will you look at that?” asked the familiar
voice. “They’ve even brought us the journals. Well, miracles never
cease. I’ll be taking those.”

“They don’t belong to you,” said Chona, angrily.
“You can’t have them.”

“My dear, I’m the President of the United
States. I can have anything I want.”

Slowly, Tom was able to make out the figure
behind the men with guns, whom Tom now recognized as Secret Service
Agents; the man was none other than President Peabody, there was no
mistaking him for anyone else. Peabody was a jug-eared runt of a
man, with an upturned nose and cold blue eyes. He was smiling as he
approached Chona.

“Don’t you hurt her!” shouted a voice. Tom
thought the voice sounded like it belonged to Merle Levitz. He
looked around the ransacked lab until he spotted Levitz, clinging
to the bars of a tiny cell.

“Shoot them all if any of them moves,” ordered
Peabody. He wore a presidential ball cap and was dressed in a
bomber jacket over a white shirt and khaki trousers. “Welcome to my
little search party,” he said, jerking the journals away from
Chona. “On behalf of the American people, I’d like to thank you all
for your service.”

“You’ll never get away with this, Peabody,”
growled Chona.

“That’s President Ali Mohamed,” corrected the
diminutive president. “Haven’t you heard? I’ve converted to
Islam.”

“How very original,” she hissed.

“It suits my purposes. Besides, I just love the
irony. Please, don’t call me that. The name is strictly for
business purposes.”

One of the Secret Service Agents chuckled, but
he was silenced by the icy glare of his five peers. “What do you
hope to accomplish?” asked Chona. “Why are you doing this?”

Peabody now stood at a work station and he was
leafing through the journals. He ignored Chona’s question and Tom
let his eyes wander around the mammoth laboratory. The ceiling was
at least forty feet tall and everything was either white or
stainless steel. He tried to imagine it before it had been
ransacked. There were machines of all sizes and shapes, and there
were so many, Tom was certain that Shari’s father must have
employed a team of scientists to assist him in his research. In the
very center of the room was what appeared to be a giant steel
hatch, set into the tile floor. As strange as that was, Tom barely
noticed it. What captured his attention were the painted eyeballs.
They seemed to be everywhere, but they were never in pairs. Single
eyeballs, in all shapes and sizes, they seemed to stare back at him
with some kind of hidden knowledge.

“Why am I doing this?” asked Peabody,
rhetorically. “Do you have any idea what you’re even asking? I’m
merely looking for an insurance policy. You don’t understand what’s
happening in the world, do you?”

“Well,” said Chona, “no I don’t. Could you
please explain it to me?”

“Have you studied these journals?”

“I’ve read them, if that’s what you mean. I
wouldn’t go as far as to say that I’ve studied them.”

“I’m guessing that you’re down here looking for
Munthon’s ray gun, am I right?”

Chona shrugged her shoulders.

“Don’t lie to me. Get over here and show me
where to look. I have a schedule to keep. I’ll explain everything
to you as we go over the journals.”

“Fine,” spat Chona, “you’re just going to kill
us, anyway.”

“Perhaps, but I can guarantee you that your
deaths will be far less painful than the one that’s in store for
Senator Levitz.”

“You can’t kill me!” shouted Levitz. “I’m the
Chosen One!”

Peabody laughed at that. “I take it that you
didn’t tell him?” he quietly asked Chona, as she stepped next to
him.

“How could I?”

“What was that?” called Levitz, from across the
room inside his cell. “Let me out of here!”

Peabody shook his head and returned his
attention to Chona. “It’s really a shame about Doctor Munthon. He
was a brilliant man, but he was too smart for his own good. They
don’t like independent thinkers. That’s why he had to go.”

“They?” asked Chona. “Who are they?”

Peabody seemed surprised by the question. “Why,
the Illuminati, of course,” he said, “the people who run the show.
You don’t really believe that people like me are involved in the
real decision making, do you? I’m nothing more than a puppet on a
string.”

Chona looked up from the journal and stared at
Peabody. “Do you really expect me to believe that?”

“Kid, I don’t give a damn what you believe. But
you had better believe this, our world is about to undergo some
radical changes. The Illuminati have been busy aligning the stars
for a very long time. Everything you see, everything you hear,
everything you believe, it’s all carefully controlled by them. Why,
at this very moment, you’re probably carrying around several of
Doctor Munthon’s microchips. Most Americans are. Your life has been
thoroughly examined and classified as either essential, or
non-essential.”

“That’s despicable. What kind of people would do
such a thing?”

Peabody smiled and held up one finger. “That’s
where you’re wrong,” he said, “they’re not people, not like you and
I. The Illuminati aren’t of this world.”

“You must be crazy to believe something like
that.”

Peabody laughed and shook his impish head.
“They’re from the Dark World, preparing the way for their Dark
Master. My dear girl, you have read the Bible, haven’t you? It’s
all in there, every last word of it.”

“If that’s true, then why aren’t you fighting
them? We can still beat these monsters. Have you ever stopped to
think that you might have been classified as non-essential?”

Peabody shook his head. “I’m the President of
the United States,” he said, proudly, “And they need me right where
I am.”

“That’s where you’re wrong!” shouted Levitz.
“I’m going to beat you in the November election!”

“Good luck with that!” hollered Peabody. “There
isn’t going to be a November election. As a matter of fact, there
aren’t going to be any more elections, period. This country is in a
State of Emergency, and it’s going to stay there, indefinitely. We
still have a war on terror, Senator Levitz.”

“That’s insane,” gasped Chona, “you can’t win a
war against an ideology.”

“So, you’re not as dumb as I thought.”

“The people won’t stand for it.”

“The people won’t have a choice. By November,
they’ll have forgotten all about their precious elections. They’ll
have forgotten about their guns and their freedom. They’ll listen
to whatever we tell them to do.”

Tom and Sam exchanged a worried look. Tom could
see that Sam was busy doing the math, plotting a strategy to
overtake the Secret Service Agents. Tom gave him a slight shake of
his head. With four guns trained on them and two on Chona, there
was no hope of escape. Much to Tom’s relief, Sam gave him a
reluctant nod.

“You’re stalling,” said Peabody. “Where did
Munthon hide that ray gun?”

Shari held up one of the journals and she looked
around the room. “I can’t really tell, but it looks like it could
be somewhere around those cabinets.”

Peabody pointed from Tom and Sam, to the
cabinets. “You heard her,” he said. “Get over there and start
searching. You men, keep an eye on them. They mean nothing to me,
so if you think you need to kill one to see some results, you have
my permission.”

“Yes sir,” barked one of the men in suits. The
black-haired man motioned to Tom and Sam with his gun. “You heard
the President. Get moving!”

Tom and Sam were ushered over to a long bank of
white cabinets. The doors hung open with their contents strewn onto
the white tile floor; many of the cabinets were dented and hanging
open by just a single hinge. Just seeing this made Tom angry. “You
guys didn’t have to make such a mess down here,” he said. “This
doesn’t belong to you.”

“Excuse me?” asked Peabody. “Who do you think
funded this project? The taxpayers of the United States, that’s who
built and equipped this laboratory. Do you think this place was
chosen by accident?” Peabody pointed to the massive hatch that was
built into the floor. “Behold, the Gates of Hades, the Portal to
Hell. When the Illuminati gives me the green light, we’re going to
open that door,” Peabody said, walking over to stand in front of
Tom. “What do you know of Fred? I knew Fred Munthon when he was
still experimenting with vacuum tubes. If it wasn’t for me, he
would still be doing it.”

“If it wasn’t for you,” said Tom, “he’d still be
alive.”

Peabody shook his head. “That’s where you’re
wrong. The Illuminati had Fred and Irene killed. I had nothing to
do with that decision. I keep trying to tell you that I’m just a
pawn in all of this. Never mind, just find me that damned ray
gun!”

Tom and Sam began to paw through the looted
cabinets, searching for secret compartments and hidden levers.

“What about me?” shouted Levitz, who was still
hanging from the bars of his cell. “You must still need me if I’m
still alive.”

“Oh, we need you, Merle,” chuckled Peabody.
“Have you ever heard of the Cerberus?”

“Are you talking about the three-headed dog that
guards the gate of Hades?”

“Yes, that’s the one. Well, let’s just say that
he’s hungry and he’s very fussy about what he eats.”

“You didn’t need to tell him that,” growled
Chona.

“Looks like that cat is outta the bag,”
whispered Sam.

“I don’t believe you,” shouted Levitz. “And I
don’t believe in the Cerberus!”

Peabody roared with laughter. He then turned to
Chona. “Now, where were we?” he asked.

“Your plan will never work,” said Chona. “Even
if you’re able to get the entire world to convert to Islam, they’ll
just band together to rise up against you.”

“Oh look, I’m shaking in my boots,” scoffed
Peabody. “That’s the one thing we never have to worry about. You
can’t get the Sunni and Shiites to agree on anything. Don’t even
get me started on the extremists. They hate everyone. Do you know
why terrorist organizations like Boco Haram, Al Qaeda, the Taliban,
do what they do? They want to draw us back into another war in the
Middle East. This has never been a secret. Their plan is to keep
drawing the west into these wars until we’re financially ruined.
That isn’t as crazy as it sounds. Do you know what caused the
collapse of the Soviet Union? It was their war in Afghanistan.
Knowing that, what did we do? We spent trillions on wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan. We walked right into their trap. You think about
that.”

“That’s insane,” snapped Chona.

“Maybe, but we can’t beat those people. That’s
why we decided to join them.”

“What kind of logic is that? You’ll never get
away with it.”

“I’m just a cog in the wheel.”

“You were elected to defend the American
people.”

“You still believe in election results?” asked
Peabody, his face showing shock. “Do you still believe in Santa,
too?”

“You’ll burn in hell for this.”

“Kid, nobody is going to hell. That’s what I’ve
been trying to tell you. Hell is coming to us.”

“Not if we can stop you!” cried Levitz.

Peabody laughed at that. “Tell that to the
Cerberus,” he shouted. “Look, this has been a lot of fun, but I’m
out of time. It would have been nice to have Fred’s ray gun, but I
can live without it. I have other matters to attend to. I’m sorry,
you seem like nice people, but now you know too much. That’s what
happens when you get too close to the flame.”

Chapter 29

They weren’t dead. Doris knew that the moment
she tripped and fell, quite painfully, onto her face. Hovering over
her was Marie. “You’re as clumsy as an ox,” she said. “Where do you
suppose we are?”

Doris pushed herself up and climbed to her feet.
“I don’t know,” she grunted, “but could someone turn down the
lights? My eyes are burning.”