“Well, I guess I have to wait until I hear from my new friend again before I plan my next move.”

“Mr. Arayo?”

“Yeah, I don’t have any way to contact him, and I imagine that’s how he’s going to play the game.  Until then, I guess it’s more of the same; I visit a few cities and try to wreak as much havoc as possible. Keep the fires burning, so to speak.”

“When he does contact you, what then?”

“Something in Los Angeles, probably. I absolutely hate the west coast.  I don’t know if it will be nuclear though; they’ll be on the lookout for that.  Maybe biological, I haven’t decided on the specifics yet.”

She laughed scornfully, “So you’re next target will be because you have a particular antipathy for a geographical region?  Isn’t that elementary?  This is supposed to be business, not petty personal distastes.”

He scowled at her and retorted, “Hey, I’m the one sticking my neck out. I’ll decide what’s petty and what isn’t.”

“William, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it.”

“Right; excuse me for a minute.”

She watched him as he stumbled towards the restroom and disappeared around the corner.  She waited for several seconds before retrieving the tiny vial from her purse.  She emptied its contents into his drink and quietly slipped out of the bar.  When he finally reemerged, she was gone.  Good, he thought to himself, glad you got the point.  He sat back down on the couch and reached for his glass of Guinness.

***

“William, wake up.  Wake up.  We’re closing; you’ve got to go home, dear.”

He finally opened his eyes and stared up at the blur that he assumed was the bartender.  His head was pounding and the room was spinning.

“What?”

“It’s closing time; you’ve got to go, sweetie.  Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, I think; would you mind helping me up?”

He stumbled and nearly fell as she helped him to his feet.  The spinning only got worse as he stood and looked around.  His head was pounding so hard he could scarcely think.

“Are you sure you’re alright?  Do you need me to call you a cab?”

No, I’ll be alright; I just need to get home and sleep it off.  It’s only a few blocks.

“You must be having an off night, babe.  You haven’t had anything to drink in hours. I didn’t even realize you were still here until I started cleaning up the place.”

William groaned and rubbed his head as he slowly made his way to the door.  He did not want to talk anymore; it only hurt his head to speak.  He just wanted to go home.  The bartender helped him to the door and watched him stumble off into the night.

He had barely staggered a block east down G Street before the city began to spin too violently for him to stand.  William dropped to his knees and tried to wrest himself from the sickening feeling.  He crawled to the steps of The United Church and grasped the railing to steady himself.  He could feel himself getting sick as his mouth began to salivate.  He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths to help ward it off.

He heard a faint whistle, like a bird, somewhere in the distant darkness.  He tried to ignore the sound and focus on his breathing, but it only grew louder.  He suddenly felt a strong sense of a presence near him.  The deep, bass tone of the man’s voice startled him.

“Well hello, little hummingbird.  F eeling sick?”

As William cautiously cracked his eyelids to peer up at the man, darkness suddenly enshrouded him. He was jerked off the steps and carried over someone’s back to a vehicle not far away.  The air was expelled from his lungs as he landed hard in the floor of the van.  He curled into a ball and struggled to breathe, but his lungs refused him.  He could hear several men laughing as the engine roared and the tires squealed on the pavement beneath him.

The sickness overwhelmed him and he retched in the hood that was still over his head. He was too terrified to remove it, much less utter a word. Instead, he rolled around in the back of the van.  The smell only made him feel sicker, but there was nothing left in his stomach to purge.

The vehicle turned so often, he had no idea which direction they were taking him.  He felt a sharp prick in his arm and tried to recoil, but a firm hand held him in place.  The muffled voices in the vehicle grew distant and his eyes became heavier by the moment.  William finally relented to the drug’s effects.

***

William awoke in a tiny, concrete cell void of anything.  The floors sloped gently to a small grate in the center of the cube.  The room was too small for him to stretch out completely, so he curled into a ball.  It was cold, so cold.  As he rubbed his arms with his hands to warm himself, he realized he was not wearing his shirt.  He ran his hands down his body and found that he was wearing nothing but his briefs.  His head still throbbed, though not as painfully as before. William had no idea how long he had been there before he had awoken.

He had never been in a room so dark and quiet.  The vacuous cell seemed as if it was beyond space and time.  William tried to count off the seconds as they passed, but before he could even reach thirty he felt as if he was going mad.  He resigned to lying motionless on the floor.

He did not know if he had been in the cell for hours or days when the light finally came on.  The illumination from the fluorescent tubes was unnatural and uncomfortable.  The light was too bright for his eyes, so he squinted until they could adjust, but they never did.  Immediately after the lights assaulted his eyes, a low hum to assail his ears.

He heard the revolting sound of steel scraping against steel as a narrow plate at the floor level of the cell’s door slid open.  A long, thin knife clattered loudly on the concrete as it was tossed through the opening.  William recoiled as he heard the same deep voice as before.

“Do me a favor, hummingbird; off yourself so I don’t have to.”

In a moment of boldness that surprised even William, he stood up defiantly and shouted, “If I’m to be killed, let him who wants me dead do it himself!”

“It’s not a man who wants you dead, babe; it’s a woman.”

His heart sunk and his stomach turned again.  The woman’s voice was all too familiar.  He cried out as he pounded on the door, but they were already gone.

Ch apter 29

Senator Ames

Indianapolis, Indiana

Indianapolis was as close as the senator had been to Washington in months.  He did not want to admit it, but to be honest, he was afraid of the east coast.  In fact, he had every right to be; the urban areas throughout New England had become something out of a nightmare.

Murder rates in the cities had skyrocketed, riots and looting were rampant, people were starving and no one was safe.  What made it even more dangerous for Ames was that people like him were being demonized for everything.  The same experts who had borrowed and regulated the world into crisis were now blaming the peoples’ woes on a lack of regulation and a fundamental ignorance of the way markets really worked.  It was treasonous in his eyes.  They had polarized the people.  Those who held contrarian beliefs were not considered political opponents, they were now public enemies.  The senator knew that one beat their opponents, but eliminated their enemies.

Ever since St. Ansgar, he had a new resolve; there would be an election, and they would win, or they would die trying.  It did not matter if a man was rich or poor, black or white, from San Francisco or San Antonio, the truth was the truth.  If a moral man was given the truth and was taught how to reason, he would choose correctly.  He had to choose correctly.  The senator’s ideals were founded on that principle.  Eventually, the people and they would realize their mistakes and correct them.  He would take his message all the way to Washington.  But if he did not make it there, then that was all part of a much greater plan and he could accept that.