Wired (22 page)

Graham wanted to say no, but couldn't. Once again, Carson mesmerized him back inside the man's circle of control. Almost mechanically,
Graham answered. “Yes sir.”

“Excellent.” Carson smiled and turned back to Bridges. “My true portrait will be released to the public in the immediate future.
I am sending you are a secure, top-level, hand-delivered package with materials that I want distributed across your city.
The time has come for the citizenry not only to recognize me but also to understand that I am fully prepared to protect from
aggression. I will be their defense against the terrorist attacks you have experienced in recent days. Be prepared for immediate
distribution of these materials. Are there any questions?”

Graham instantly shook his head.

Bridges bowed in formal respect. “No sir. We are prepared to act immediately upon your request.”

“Excellent.” Carson held upon his hand in the form of a salute. “We move forward.”

The technicolored image disappeared back into a green light. In a blaze of brilliance, the shape dwindled and disappeared.
The color turned into nothing more than an intense white light.

Graham blinked several times, clearing his eyes. He took a deep breath.

“As always, Borden Camber Carson was brilliant!” Bridges said. He had a detached look in his eyes almost as if hypnotized.
“Magnificent!”

Catching his breath, Graham took a step backward. He wanted out of the office as quickly as he could run. “Anything else?”
be mumbled.

The mayor walked slowly around his desk again and sat down in a careful, if faltering manner. “I don't think so,” he said
mechanically. “Thank you for coming.”

“Yes sir.” Graham kept walking backward. “I'll be leaving the office shortly.”

“yes Graham.” Bridges's voice was flat and distant. “I will call you if a need arises.”

“Thank you.” Graham hurried out of the room and darted down the hall. Without returning to his office, he went down the back
stairs and ran toward the Metro station.

W
HEN MARY ARRIVED
home from school, her brothers had already been there for an hour and were upstairs playing. Graham was sitting at the kitchen
table with Jackie, waiting for her.

“Oh!” Mary blurted out. “I'm surprised to see you home so early, Dad.”

“Sit down, Mary.” He pointed to the chair across the table. “You mother and I want to talk with you.”

Mary grimaced. “I haven't done anything,” she instantly protested. “I mean, no one at school has even…”

“Mary,” Jackie cut her off. “No one has accused you of anything. Your father and I have some important matters to discuss
with you. Please sit down.”

Mary looked suspiciously back and forth between Graham and Jackie. “Okay.” She slowly sat down.

Jackie reached over and took her hand. “We have something important to talk about.”

Mary recoiled. “Has someone died?”

“No,” Jackie smiled. “I'm glad to tell you nothing has happened to anyone we know.”

“But the matter is just as serious,” Graham said. “We need have a confidential conversation.”

Mary pursed her lips. “
Confidential?
”

“which means you cannot talk with anyone about what we say. Is that agreeable?”

“Sure.”

“I mean your brothers, anyone you know, but especially your friends at school.”

Mary frowned and made a face. “No one?”

“Absolutely,” Graham said. “I've always trusted you. Can I continue to do so?”

“Well, sure. Of course, I can keep a secret.”

“Good.” Jackie said. “We want to talk about the conversation we had the other with the women from Israel. The New Seekers
group has become important to us.”

“Oh, no!
Not her.
” Mary shook her head. “I wouldn't let anyone on the world know those creeps came to our house. I hate that quasi-religious
stuff they're into.”

“Mary, it is far from nonsense.” Graham said. “We need you to give serious thought to these Matters.”

“
Serious?
Listen, Dad. I don't want to hear about this nonsense much less talk about to
anybody.
”

“It's no longer an option,” Graham said. “This matter has become extremely serious.”

Mary crossed her arms over her chest defiantly. “The last thing in the world that my friends want to hear about, and I mean
anything about, is religious junk. Whatever you believe is fine with me. Just leave me out of the loop.”

“Mary, we won't be able to do that,” Graham explained. “I expect serious changes to happen quickly.”

“Good for you! You and Mom believe whatever you Wish and do whatever you think is right, but I don't want to be any part of
it.”

Graham looked at Jackie and his head. “She doesn't get the picture.”

“No,” Jackie said. “she refuses to listen. Okay, Mary. We'll leave you out of the picture for the moment but…”

“
But nothing!
I don't want to know any of these ideas and I sure don't want my friends hearing about your plans. Let's just leave this
issue as a truce. You go your way; I'll go mine.”

“I don't think we can,” Graham said, “but for the moment we'll agree to leave you out of these discussions.”

“Your father believes something critical is about to happen,” Jackie said. “if we're wrong. Then it won't make any difference.
If he's right, it will all the difference in the world.”

“Whatever.” Mary stood up. “I need to go upstairs. Is that all right with everybody?”

“Go on,” Graham said, lowering his head into his hands and sighing.

Mary stood in the doorway, staring at her parents and their strange behavior.

“We did our best, Graham.” Jackie patted him on the back. “I'm sorry, but Mary simply isn't with us.”

“The day is coming when she will have to be,” Graham said. “and I'm afraid the time is growing short.”

This scene is way too much
, Mary thought and turned toward the stairs up to her bedroom.
I think my parents are completely unzipped. I'm living in Nutsville.

D
URING THE WEEK
that followed Graham's attempt to confront his daughter, the European nations began to fall in line behind Borden Carson.
Turkey declared its total national support for Carson as its new prime minister. Working behind the scenes, the oil magnate
lined up Italy, Hungary, and Slovenia immediately. Romania and Poland pledged to unify with him in a few days as did Croatia
and the Netherlands. France and Germany held out, waiting to see what the rest of Europe did, but Greece seemed to be a pushover.
Political disunity for well over a decade in Europe had shoved these nations apart. Carson's challenge had a sudden jolting
affect, reeling them back in. None of these changes affected Mary Peck one iota. The fourteen- year-old never watched the
news on television or got it anywhere else. She shut her ears and avoided all talk of what was on in the world. While she
and her friends wouldn't admit it, they worked to avoid hearing about incidents of terror exploding all over the world. Affluent
and happy, she had no intention of upsetting her apple cart.

George and Jeff listened carefully when their parents talked about a rising world leader who could prove dangerous to their
family. Jeff quickly tired of chattering about family problems and the five-year-old went back to playing, but his bright
mind still picked up and retained the details of what was going on. George remained fascinated and was willing to talk constantly.
His world had turned into an exotic movie offering a thousand strange plots for him to think about and giving George constant
diversion.

With Thanksgiving only a few days away, the weather abruptly turned unusually warm. Matt called to ask what the family would
do for the holidays if it stayed hot. Mathew generally called home in the evenings to inquire how the family was doing. He
shared what he was learning in the New Seekers group and exchanged worries with his father. The growing reach of the security
cameras that were now almost everywhere concerned him. Graham kept him informed about the areas of the metroplex that were
wired and the he should avoid if Matt wanted to stay away from the big “eye.”

“Dad,” Matt said over the phone, “if this heat wave stays, have you considered going to the summer place at Tomahawk? The
woods in Wisconsin are great in hot weather.”

Graham laughed. “Usually Mohawksin Lake is snowed under at this time of the year. It's a thought, but who knows, by tomorrow
the temperature may drop freezing.”

Matt lowered his voice to nearly a whisper. “We are going to have an important meeting tomorrow night. The president of the
United States is going to speak on television and many of the students feel we should listen as a group. Would you and Mom
would like to join us?”

Graham thought for a minute. “Do these people know who I am? My involvement in politics?”

“Jennifer and Adah do, but the others don't. We still keep our identities under wraps.”

“Good. As a matter of fact, I'd like to hear what your friends think about this presidential address. Yes, your mother and
I will be there.”

“Excellent! I'll let you know where the meeting will be tomorrow. We keep the place secret until the last minute, but it will
be somewhere with a television.”

“Thanks, son. We'll look forward to seeing you.”

Graham had barely hung up when his private cell phone rang. He clicked it on.

“Graham, we need to have a special meeting early in the morning.” The familiar voice Frank Bridges boomed over the tiny receiver.
“At the crack of dawn.”

“How early?”

“Can you get here by seven o'clock?”

“Certainly.”

“As your Middle Eastern friend would say, this is an Inner Circle meeting so you'll need to come up the back way.”

“I'll be there.”

The phone clicked off. These special meeting inside Bridges's inner sanctum always proved disconcerting. If there was anything
Graham didn't want, it was another holographic conversation with Carson. The man frightened him and Graham now had plenty
of evidence to fear whatever it was that this Middle Eastern oil tycoon was doing. Maybe he was simply an international opportunist;
nevertheless, he had personal capacities that were too powerful to be treated lightly. Graham would not sleep well that night.

A
T PRECISELY
seven o'clock, Graham walked down the hidden hallway into the mayor's office. Jake Pemrose was already sitting in front of
Bridges's desk smoking a cigar.

“Ah, our star athlete of the behind-the-scenes maneuvers,” Pemrose greeted him. “Welcome.”

Graham's eyes squinted menacingly. “Good morning,” he said solemnly.

“Surprised to see me?” Jake quipped and blew a big cloud of smoke in the air.

“Every morning the sun comes up on a new day,” Graham said. “Can't ever tell what expect next.”

“Now, now, you boys put your swords away,” the mayor said. “We're all playing on the same team. I haven't revealed any other
identities to you, Graham, because it's been important to keep our work in complete secret.”

“Oh?” Graham said.

“Sit down, Peck,” Bridges said. “Before you arrived, Jake and I were discussing some of the details of what will be unfolding
in the next twenty-four hours. I believe that today will prove to be a major turning point for the entire globe.”

“
Really?
” Graham said. “What do you mean?”

“Come on, boy!” Pemrose said in a condescending tone. “You should be able to guess what's on the table.”

Graham shot a hard glance at Jake, but said nothing. The fact that Pemrose had arrived earlier meant the man was at least
one step up the ladder from Graham and maybe many more rungs.

“Peck,” the mayor began, “between now and Christmas you will see amazing things happen across the world. Borden Carson has
already talked with me about most of what will be developing and tonight the president of the United States will start the
big ball rolling.”

“Please be more specific,” Graham said.

“Electronic surveillance is not only in place around Chicago but across the entire country,” Bridges began. “Computer systems
in this country have been meshed with the operations fronted by the Royal Arab Petroleum Company. Surveillance is now positioned
on anyone who resists our control. Understand me?”

“We've made some other adjustments,” Jake said and tapped his cigar in the ashtray. “Our local police department is going
to have direct access to everything in the State Department's records. At the flip of a switch on our computers, we'll be
able to look at anyone's Visa, MasterCard, and any other credit card data as well as any criminal records even from overseas.
The Chicago Police Department will be part of a global network. We've got our finger on everybody.”

Graham frowned. “Really?”

“No matter how solid our political leadership is, someone is always out there trying to wrestle control away from the central
leaders,” Bridges said. “Carson now has a plug in that bottle. Anyone trying to stop him can be identified quickly.”

Graham turned nervously in his chair. “What kind of group are you talking about? Terrorists of some sort?”

Pemrose shook his vigorously. “Naw. We can handle those people quickly enough. What you have to watch out for is religious
groups, the nut cases who always spark trouble.”

Graham blinked several times, trying to carefully frame his question. “You talking about those Sunday Morning Encounter Groups
springing up around the country?”

“No, no,” the mayor said. “Those gatherings are little more than hot air conferences of navel gazers, individuals with too
much time on their hands and too many worries in their heads. You have to watch the extremists. Those are the people who might
throw a wrench into the machinery.”

“Look,” Pemrose continued his tirade. “Freedom of expression is going to be thing of the past, Peck. We can't have people
running around saying whatever pops into their heads. The government's going to put a clamp on those loudmouths.”