Punishment

by Guerin Zand

  “That all sounds good, Guerin, but they’re not going to see it that way. No matter what we do there’s going to be trouble. What happens if you are killed?”

  “I’m sure our friends would contact you directly. That’s why I’m saying the team has to step up and be recognized as just as important as I am. If I were killed, I want you to fight them not to shut down this project. My death might simply confirm to them we’re not ready and they’d have you close it all down. If that happens, I’ll make sure they provide you, the team, and your families, the opportunity to leave with them for your own safety. I hadn’t thought about that until now, so I will make the request. I guess we should prepare for the worse.”

  “What about your family?”

  “As soon as we can get our friends here I’ll discuss that with them. They’ll be taken care of. I also want to arrange with them some training for our operations teams. Have Katie and Steve get a list together of some of the top candidates. I want them to train using site-to-site portal transits. We need them to be able to come out of a portal ready to fight.”

  “Do you think they will agree to that?”

  “I was told I would have the resources I needed. I’m going to probably have to push hard to make it happen, but I will make it happen.”

  More than a few people had told me that I had a bad attitude in the past. They said I was paranoid and that the whole universe wasn’t out to ruin my life. Supposedly my life would improve with my attitude, or that was the latest new-age gobbledegook. I was going to call bullshit on that. I had never been happier and my outlook never more cheerful. My wife and daughter left very little room in my life for my old attitude. I was looking forward to all the happiness this new life would bring. I let the paranoid, pessimistic Guerin take a rest. That was a big mistake. I forgot about the impending shit storm that the old Guerin had predicted. I was sitting back, fat, dumb, and happy in this new happy life. As I talked to Roger, I got a whiff of the shiticane approaching my happy little world, and it was heading directly for me.

  “Roger, forget what I just said and get the plane ready. We need to get my family out of here now.”

  “What is it, Guerin.”

  “Think, Roger. Who benefits if something happens to me?”

  “China?”

  “No. Why is China behind this?”

  “They feel slighted by the JAFI exclusion. This leaves Japan in a powerful position when fusion power is rolled out to the public. It’s Japan that will have all the contracts in Asia.”

  “In the whole scheme of things, the JAFI politics are small potatoes. We gave China a major role in the Moon operations to compensate for that, and they're getting a fair share of the benefits from the IOET. No. Think about it, Roger. If we go to the security council with a show of force what happens?”

  “We possibly cause even more members to side against us.”

  “And what if something were to happen to my family?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  “I’d go ballistic on them and use every possible advantage we have against them. I would probably go so far that the Collective would recall me or abandon me altogether. Just about every scenario we can imagine ends up with the Collective retreating from Earth, and who benefits from that the most?”

  “You’re not saying the Trogans are behind this?”

  “Go ahead. This is the point where you say I’m paranoid.”

  “Are you?”

  “Maybe, but think about it. We still have the two Trogan agents out their loose and we haven’t heard a peep out of them. It was my ego that made me think they were after me. Maybe they are, but that would just be the icing on the cake for them. If they set us back by removing the Collective’s assistance they win.”

  “What about China’s illegal use of the alien tech? If you’re right about all of this what does China gain from causing the Collective to pull out?”

  “It’s a galactic cold war, Roger. You need to think about it that way. That means we and our allies are the proxies for one side and the Chinese block powers…”

  “Are the proxies for the other side.”

  “Exactly. I’d bet we haven’t found those agents because China is hiding them. They probably helped them with that power distribution scheme for their satellites and are promising them even more.”

  “We’ve been fighting the wrong battle all along. So, what do we do, Guerin? As you said, just about every scenario results in them winning.”

  “First, we get my family to safety. We’re going to Chile. Get a team down there to meet us and set up security. We need to hide the flights with U.S. military flights if we can. That property is in my wife’s name.” Anna and my daughter were using Anna’s maiden name, Shida. The marriage was performed by a Catholic priest, yes Anna was Catholic, but without a marriage license. There should be no record of the marriage, just as I wanted. Anna was fine with that since she considered us married in the eyes of God and that was all she needed. “We’ll have to check to make sure we find any connections between my family, me or the NFT and erase them.”

  “And then?”

  “We start re-thinking everything we’ve been doing. I’m going to get my family and we’ll meet at the airport. Once they’re safe we’ll start planning. This is the first volley of the shit storm to come. We’re going to get some on us, and it isn’t going to be pretty. When the real shit storm hits we need to be prepared. If we fuck this up, we could be looking at World War III, and that would be the best possible outcome for our Trogan friends.”

  It only took about fifteen minutes for me to get back to our Tokyo home. There wasn’t much traffic at 10:30 in the morning. I knew Anna was not going to be happy about what I was going to ask her to do. I also knew that she trusted me and would do what I asked. Maria had just started a kindergarten program and was making friends, so this was going to be hardest on her. Daddy was going to have to come up with some story to make her want to leave. I’d already used the new puppy trick to get her excited about living in Japan and that wouldn’t work twice.

  I walked in the front door and Anna was surprised. “You’re home early.” She came over and kissed me.

  Maria came running out. “Daddy, Daddy! K2 did a big juicy poo on the kitchen floor and Mommy let me clean it up!”

  “Well, wasn’t that nice of your mother. She lets me do fun stuff like that too! Now you know what it’s like to be me.” Maria and I giggled at her Mother. Maria and I were close. We often teamed up against her mother. Anna had learned to simply look at us, with one of those disapproving parental type stares, and then sigh. Maria had become a daddy’s girl, or at least I was convinced of that. From what I know about women, which as some of you may have guessed is very little, Maria could actually be conspiring with her mother to make me think she was a daddy’s girl while the whole time she was just gathering intelligence for her mother. I guess I didn’t care. Either way, I got to spend a lot of time with her.

  “Anna, you and Maria need to pack. Just the essentials. We’ll send someone to pick up the rest.”

  Anna looked at Maria. “Honey, go play with K2 in your room for a while. Mommy and Daddy need to talk.”

  “Ok.” And the little tornado I called my daughter tore out of the living room and up the stairs to her room.

  Anna turned away from watching our daughter and looked at me, and the smile on her face disappeared. “What is going on, Guerin? Are we in danger?”

  A long time ago I had explained that my work could put the family at risk. I had convinced her that is was no more of a risk than any diplomat’s family faced, but it was a possibility. “I don’t know. That’s why we need to leave now and not ask questions. We can talk on the plane. If you would, can you try to come up with a way to get Maria excited about this?”

  Anna stared at me, trying to figure out if I was serious, but not for long. She shook her head slightly and a sly grin appeared. “Honey, we’re going to take K2 on a surprise vacation. We need to get pa
cked.” Maria screamed her little rebel yell and that was that.

  I think I could have come up with that story on my own. I hoped Anna didn’t think that counted.

  We were done packing in half an hour and we were waiting for our ride. Roger had arranged for a van to pick us up with a security team. The local offices all had private security to handle local affairs. Some were as mundane as security clearance processing or escorting VIPs. The van pulled up, and as I watched out the front window, Katie and Steve hopped out. As they walked to the front entrance I nodded to Maria to open the door. She was waiting there with all of our luggage and K2.

  “Aunt Katie! Uncle Steve! Are you going on vacation with me and K2?”

  Katie grabbed up the little hellcat as she charged out the front door. “How did you know?”

  “Because, I’m a lot smarter than I look!”

  Yes. That was my daughter. She had those two wrapped around her little fingers and she could play them both at once. It was times like this that caused me to simply shudder. Imagining that little girl all grown up. As beautiful and devious as her mother, and with my intellect and attitude! Along with the shudder, or perhaps what actually caused it, I could hear my dead parents saying, “Wait until you have kids of your own.” As I continued to watch, Maria had transformed these two seriously military types into a human Jungle Jim. Each of them had their arms out in front of them, straight and stiff, while my daughter swung from them like branches on a tree.

  Finally, I shook my head at all three of them. “Enough, you three. We’ll have plenty of time to play when we get where we’re going. Let’s get packed up and on the road.” Yes, Daddy was the bad guy. The three of them scowled at me and then stuck their tongues out at me simultaneously. Again, I shuddered.

  I walked to the van with a few bags in my hand and Steve helping with a few more. “So, you came here with Roger?”

  “Yes. Didn’t you know?”

  “No. Roger said he wanted to send you out here, implying you weren’t actually here.”

  “I guess he figured better safe than sorry.”

  I let it go. Roger played around with the truth a bit just like everyone else I dealt with. I was grateful that Katie and Steve were actually there. We hit some traffic on the way to the airport and we didn’t get to the plane until almost 6:00 PM. With loading the aircraft and all the hullabaloo of airport security, and getting clearance for takeoff, we were in the air within an hour. Ten hours later, and actually 6 hours before we left, we arrived in LA. Yes, you can actually travel back in time, but that’s where jet lag comes from.

  We taxied to a private hangar where we disembarked. Maria and I took K2 for a walk and she asked, “Are we there yet?” I said, “No.” She pouted. When we were done, we hopped into the waiting van, our luggage already loaded. Yes, the dog walk was my plan to avoid physical labor. The van took us to a C-130 waiting for us to board. The C-130 was loaded with medical supplies and several Air Force personnel. They were flying off to Santiago, Chile, and several other South American cities, to help with an outbreak of the latest strain of the Zika virus. Roger, of course, found this “mercy” flight an easy way to get us all to Chile without any attention.

  On approach to Santiago, our flight took a little detour that would eventually lead to an overflight of our home. A red light came on and eight men and two women stood and preceded to gear up. Through the entire flight they had blended in with the rest of the passengers but now they had a purpose. Katie and Steve went forward to gather some equipment and came back to where I was seated with my family. The two of them donned harnesses and they held out one to Maria.

  “You want to watch something really cool?” Katie asked Maria and then looked over at me. I gave her my best concerned Daddy look. “She’ll be fine, Guerin. We’ll all be hooked up and Steve and I will be holding her as well.”

  Maria looked at me, oh it’s so obvious how she looked at me that I won’t bore you with a description. I shrugged my shoulders and looked at Anna. “I think this is one of those decisions we have to let Mommy make.” A lighting fast elbow strike, which may have actually cracked a rib or two, was delivered to my midsection from said Mommy.

  Anna squinted and pursed her lips while looking deep into my eyes. I had seen this look before, but I couldn’t remember exactly what it meant, even with my mutant memory. I was pretty sure it wasn’t the, “I love you so much.” look. I could have been wrong though. “Ok, Maria. Go play with your Uncle Steve and Aunt Katie. I’ll just wait here with your father in case I have to kill him.” Both me and Maria looked at Anna with raised eyebrows and bugged out eyes. Then Maria took off with the two troublemakers, screaming all the way, all three of them. I smiled at Anna, the same way I used to smile at my parents after I did something wrong, hoping that would be good enough to avoid a slap or spanking. It wasn’t then, and it still wasn’t.

  The red light flashed a couple of times and an audio alarm sounded. The cabin depressurized and then the back ramp proceeded to lower. We flew with the back ramp down for several minutes and then the green light illuminated. In under 30 seconds the red light flashed again, the audio alarm signaled, and the ramp began to close. Roger had arranged our security team to jump right onto our property and avoid any scrutiny. They’d also have plenty of time to secure the property before we actually arrived. Our house was on 135 acres nestled up to a small lake. There was plenty of open land for a team to jump in since it was originally a sheep ranch. That was good and that was bad. Anyone could jump in on us.

  Ok. Roger was really good at this military type shit and I wasn’t. I was amazed how he could have arranged all of this in a matter of hours. Just like when the aliens showed off, I tried to look unimpressed. When I thought about it, I realized that all of those things must have been arranged beforehand and Roger had waited for them to all come together before coming to see me. He had Katie and Steve come along as well. He may not have known exactly what was happening but he knew we had trouble coming. I realized at that time, I was not the person to be making the plans on how to handle the current situation. Roger was going to have to lead us and I needed to cede that role to him. I had resisted him initially when he suggested more security that morning, and that cost us time.

  Maria came running back screaming like a banshee and jumped up on me. “Daddy, can I jump out of the plane?”

  Katie and Steve gave me their best innocent looks, not all that convincing, and Anna’s look was a simple one as well. Her look said, “See what you’ve done now!” Now I know, because I just wrote about it, it was Anna that said it was ok for Maria to go back and watch with Steve and Katie. I didn’t see how she could possibly think that this was my fault, could she? I had to be fast with the correct, and fatherly answer. “When you’re old enough to drive.”

  “But Katie said she could take me to jump out of a plane when we were on vacation!”

  I looked at Katie. My look said, “What the fuck, Katie!” I had to restrain my normal verbal profanity, since there was a child present, to simple looks. Those looks conveyed the same profanity but in a way a five-year-old wouldn’t understand, but any adult would. This worked fairly well but putting together multiple looks to convey a profanity-laced diatribe was not possible. When this was needed I found placing my hands over Maria’s ears was an acceptable solution. Anna’s look was the same as it had been previously and I don’t think I need to describe it again. Katie just smiled and shrugged her shoulders. I had no one on my side. I stood up and simply said, “I have to go to the bathroom.” And I walked away from them all.

  We arrived in Santiago in the evening, so we were transported to a home. The home had been rented by the CDC to house staff there to help with the outbreak. Maria and K2 went and played in the backyard. Maria asked how it could be winter in Japan and summer here. I looked at her and said, “I have no idea!” and I looked like I was as amazed as she was. See, I figured out a while back that acting dumb, something I was really good at, was the easiest
way to avoid that whole infinite loop of questions that always went something like this, “But why?”. The next morning after breakfast, we boarded a couple of SUVs and headed out for Panguipulli, the largest town close to where our home was located. This was a day-long trip taking almost eight hours with all the stops. We were doing our best to pretend, for Maria’s sake, that this was a normal family vacation.

  The home in Panguipulli was actually more of a compound with several living quarters. The main house was a three-bedroom cabin with a very simple and rustic look. We had all the basic luxuries, but it was pretty much off the grid. The water came from wells. Power was supplied through a combination of solar and propane, with a backup generator for emergencies. This was the same for all the dwellings on the Rancho De Zand as I called it. Once a year at most, we would need a propane delivery from the outside world.

  We had spent a lot of time here in the past for vacation. The lake was a fantastic treat for Maria. It was a mild summer here when the northern hemisphere was experiencing winter. We had made local friends and hired a family to take care of the place when we were not living there. They had their own smaller home on the property, as partial payment for their help, with a private drive. The Cerda family consisted of Luis, Sophia, and their eight-year-old son Cristopher. Sophia also had a very beautiful younger sister, Ela, who would often help out. For some reason, Anna would get agitated whenever Ela dropped by to check in on us or help out with the chores. I never figured out why.

  There were two fully equipped bunkhouses on the property from the days when this was an active ranch. One was up in the hills at the southeast end of the property, and the other was on the edge of the lake at the northwest corner. Roger’s security teams had taken up residence in these two structures. There was also a small guest cabin located close to the main house and that is where Roger, Katie, and Steve would stay.