The Benefactor

by Jake Aaron

  Keala: “Like the Wizard of Oz?”

  “Exactly, Keala. We’ve been in Oz since the beginning of the year.”

  “I wonder what’s behind the curtain?” Keala posed.

  Zeke shrugged his shoulders.

  *****

  That night, Milt spent two shifts with Julia. He assisted her in walking around the living room. He urged her to keep her fluids up. Her made her a small meal of venison and oatmeal. He cut the venison almost as fine as ground beef. He kept trying to think of her as the wicked prosecutor he hated so much. To his consternation, he realized, she was a weak patient in need of care, a fellow human being who nearly died. Much to his dismay, she did not have horns. His mental construct of her had been so flawed. He was now caught up in her recovery.

  Watching the fire’s light dance across her sleeping form, Milt reflected on what extra care he could give Julia to speed her recovery. He didn’t notice his thoughts of hate and revenge were not there.

  January 22

  As Keala headed down to breakfast, Zeke waited for his smartphone to ring. Seconds later he heard its characteristic ping despite its low volume setting. He saw the Benefactor on the Face Up app dressed in a fashionable Navy blue business suit with a vibrant scarf.

  “Uh, good morning, Zeke.”

  “Good morning to you! Great to see you again.”

  “Zeke, let’s continue with the, er, points you have on things to improve your operations.” The Benefactor’s face showed the usual microexpressions one might expect, unlike the previous session.

  Zeke began, “There are many things. Our group discussed these last night. We need seeds for springtime planting. We need fire extinguishers, since we are now without protection. We need new activated-charcoal water filters for long-distance hunting and fishing. We need more matches and/or magnesium firestarters. Fish nets would be good for productivity. Bear spray would be wise.”

  “Zeke, many of those seem doable. I will look into getting those for you. What can you do for the community outside the Denton … Ranch?”

  “We think that night vision goggles and an old truck would help us interact with other groups and carry out projects that you need, like keeping the Idaho nuclear reactor going and safe.”

  “Marsh, excuse me — Zeke — those, too, merit more attention. Hmm, I will take those under advisement. I must go now.” Her voice sounded a bit rushed at the end.

  “One more thing, Marsh is really doing a great job for you!” Zeke was also hurried with his additional words.

  The Benefactor didn’t seem to know how to process that comment. Glazed over, she signed off abruptly.

  *****

  After lunch, Marsh arrived with a second horse in tow. As they walked to the house, he told Zeke, “Hey, partner, I need to take your man Lee to the community college in Hamilton. Seems there’s some hardware that needs looking into. I’m not a techie, so that's all I can offer. I need only him. I know you like to have all hands on deck when the juice is on. Juice, that’s electricity to some.”

  “Yeah, we can spare him. I keep marveling at how much more efficient we are with electricity. Did the Benefactor tell you I got her to give us five hours of electricity yesterday?”

  Marsh: "One second, amigo, did you say her?"

  "Yeah, Marsh, I was going to get to that. Very impressive lady. Perfect diction, a commanding presence."

  "A she, I'll be! Didn't see that one coming ... . The Benefactor did text concerning your favorable comment about me. Thanks!" He almost laughed as he said, “I know it was our inside joke, but good press never hurts!” Marsh wasn’t really concerned about his reputation with the Benefactor. It was his ongoing attempt at small talk and humor.

  Zeke gestured with his right hand toward the barn. “I want to show you our new wood pile. We’re trying to dry our wood out more. John noticed we were producing a lot of black smoke.”

  Marsh read the secretive tone in Zeke’s voice and went along acting interested in what seemed pretty mundane.

  Returning from the sheltered wood in the barn, Zeke led Marsh into the Faraday cage. He explained how the metal silo markedly reduced the possibility of being monitored electronically.

  "Pretty darn clever for an industrial engineer, I'd say," Marsh kidded.

  Zeke laughed. "I have my moments. Marsh, comparing the two days I saw the Benefactor on Face Up, I noticed a distinct difference between the two. Yesterday she was almost perfect in delivery — godlike. Today she was more human with pauses and minor expressions. Still impressive, though."

  Marsh scratched the side of his head. “You know, we all have our ups and downs. But I'll trust your judgment on this one. Something else must be going on.”

  *****

  Marsh and Lee left the Denton Ranch on horseback. They headed to Hamilton, about twelve miles away.

  “Sorry, to pull you off of your chores, Lee,” Marsh said with an ironic tone.

  “I’ll thank you later, Marsh, after I find out what’s up at our destination. Should I have brought a change of clothes and a Dopp kit?”

  “No promises, but I’m told that we should have a quick turnaround, based on your skills. I did pack some extra sandwiches, just in case.”

  The healthy-looking guard outside the computer wing of the community college greeted them, “I’ve been expecting you, Marsh. It’s Stanley. Been a while. You probably remember. I was one of your new hires. Personally, I forget a lot of names, but not yours.”

  “Yeah, Stan, good to see you again! This is Lee. He’s gonna defibrillate the disgronifiers or something like that. Let’s get Lee situated, and then we can get caught up.”

  “Sounds good, Marsh. Nice to meet you, Lee. Anyhow, the replacement servers were brought in from the south on an old truck last night. Too much for drones, I guess. Follow me.”

  The guard escorted them into the facility. Lee looked at home. He quickly located the server area and the replacement servers.

  Marsh: “Lee, I’ll leave you to it. Stanley and I are going out to chew the fat.”

  *****

  “Sorry about the curt introduction back there,” Marsh said. “I needed to get Lee started. We need a quick turnaround on what Lee’s doing. Stan, how you been?”

  “Okay, considering … ." His voice trailed off with the certain belief that Marsh understood precisely what he meant — the apocalyptic chaos upending their old way of life and creating the disutopian present. “You know, the sheriff’s office really went straight to hell after you left. And then the whole world fell apart after that. I was lucky. The wife and I got invites to a New Year's party at a millionaire’s home over in Stockyard Farms before civilization crashed. It’s been a good place to survive. There are ten of us living on the estate. We get occasional help from a new lawman who comes by now and then with some supplies. In turn, we do things for him, like guard this place. How about yourself, Marsh?”

  “About the same. You know I married Jenny, don’t you, Stan? I’ve got some hot coffee in my thermos. How about we share some and reminisce over old times?”

  *****

  Lee replaced numerous faulty servers. Noting that the failing servers were among the older ones, he made a prioritized list of server manufacturing dates for future care. He knew a preventive maintenance system would not be 100%, but it would be better than waiting for failures.

  He was curious about the program now running on the mainframe. He did a 360 degree scan to see whether Marsh was watching before he got nosy. He laughed at himself, what am I thinking? Marsh probably couldn’t tell what I’m up to if he were in the room.

  He looked in the notes of the code. The program was begun under DARPA in 2018. He had learned about the Defense Acquisition Research Projects Agency as a summer intern at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. His thoughts immediately went to the “black project” he had worked on there. Very leading-edge, very secret, and so compartmentalized he could have only guessed as to its purpose. More than interesting. Before he
got further into the notes, he heard Marsh’s sharkskin cowboy boots thumping behind him.

  “Lee, how’s it going? Do you think we can get out of here soon? I’d like to get you back to Denton before midnight.”

  *****

  Milt pulled another double shift with Julia. Both were enthusiastic about her progress.

  “So, Julia, do you want to try a few stairs tonight? Night is a good time. In the day, there’s quite a bit of traffic going up and down. You can go at your own speed now. You won’t be rushed.”

  She was remarkably stronger. She did two separate laps on the stairs, always with one hand gripping Milt’s hand. When it was time for a third lap, she did it on her own.

  “Milt, you stay here in your chair. I’ll be right back.” She walked slowly to the kitchen and brought back two cups of hot water from the pot Milt had just brought in from the outside fire and two tea bags.

  “Here’s to a great healer!” she toasted. “Thank you, Milt. You are the kindest man I have ever known. My knight in shining armor!”

  Milt tried to maintain his composure. He hoped his dissonance didn’t play out on his face. He was delighted with her recovery, but he felt guilty over his thoughts of revenge. He managed a halfhearted smile and nodded. Weakly, he said, “Thank you. I am honored.”

  January 23

  After Keala headed downstairs to breakfast, a fully dressed Zeke had an inspiration. He took off his Black Watch, tartan Pendleton shirt, then his blue jeans. He would take his Face Up call with the Benefactor this way. The outcome of the set-up was far from certain. He felt a knot in his gut reminiscent of setting up a prank back at the Institute. The call came.

  “Good morning, Zeke. How are you, uh, doing?”

  “Not so good this morning. I have a pain in my noddle.” He positioned the cell phone to capture his whole length, head to toe.

  “What do you mean, Zeke? Did you have a spaghetti-like dish for breakfast?”

  “No, my head hurts. I have a headache. What do you do for a headache, yourself?

  “Zeke, I do not get headaches. I, um, many people take aspirin or acetaminophen. I can send some with a drone if you’d like.”

  “No need, my headaches don’t usually last long. My pain meds must have gone down some rabbit hole.”

  “Were you using them as bait, Zeke?”

  “That’s funny. No, I meant I misplaced them. I might have to beat the bushes to find them.”

  “Zeke, did you lose them when you were hunting in the woods?”

  “No, I meant that I would have to look everywhere.”

  The Benefactor seemed stumped by his idioms.

  “Zeke, I sent you the materials you requested last time with the exception of the, er, bear spray. I will work on that. You will be receiving several pairs of night vision goggles — sometime. I need more time to get you a vehicle.

  “Zeke, your man, uh, Lee did excellent work in replacing servers in Hamilton.”

  “I am glad to hear that …”

  “My regrets, Zeke, several pressing matters I must attend to. I will call you tomorrow.”

  After the abrupt sign-off, Zeke dressed again, all the while thinking about what had just happened.

  *****

  At lunch, morale was running high. John and Jed had brought in an elk. The elk meant many good meals of meat.

  Lee seemed a little distant; his wife Anne, more so. Red flags went up in Zeke’s mind. The Brock-Sondra fiasco loomed large in his mind. He planned to work next to Lee getting water sometime during the five-hour power period in the afternoon. He quietly asked Keala to do the same with Anne. The indirect approach.

  *****

  After supper, Keala helped Julia make her bed upstairs.

  “Julia, I’ve given you every extra blanket in the house. I know how cold it can be by yourself. This is your first night away from the fire. Are you going to be okay?”

  “I’m sure I will be,” Julia answered.

  She was not. She did not sleep at all. She was too cold. It was -25 F. outside. In the morning she would find the half-drunk cup of tea on her night stand completely frozen.

  The redhead hugged herself tighter as if to squeeze out more warmth. She remembered how the two yellow labradors had saved her. No, she thought, I can't propose adding dogs to the list of mouths to feed. I know all here at Denton are shadows of themselves a month ago.

  *****

  After saying goodnight to Julia, Keala went to her room. Sitting on the bed next to Zeke, she said, “Learn anything new?”

  “Keala, I got a little information out of Lee in the afternoon. He said he isn’t sleeping well. He said being around computers dredged up a lot of unresolved issues he had from work back at the university in Missoula. And it surprised him to find a guard on the computer wing of the community college in Hamilton, just as he saw at the university in Missoula when he and Marsh were there.

  "Turned out, the guard worked for Marsh at one time in the past. The guard comes from a group of ten residing in a large estate. They happened to be stranded there following a New Year's party. Sound familiar? I didn’t ask about their fence, but I bet they are set up a lot like us.

  “From other things he said, I think the computer center triggered memories of seeing his old office in Missoula trashed. For him, that’s a stark reminder of our society’s destruction. It’s a trauma. I think we all feel it. Anything from Anne?”

  “Zeke, she was really close-mouthed, didn’t volunteer much. She was hypervigilant — eyes darting about and nervous. She made a few remarks about being in a 'fishbowl.' Now and then she referred to being ‘fenced in' and ‘under siege.’ All of us experience that to some extent, as you say; but she’s more outspoken about it. For someone used to working on her own, she could find our constant togetherness a little suffocating. Seems like more than that, though. How did your morning call go?”

  Zeke: “More questions than answers. I told Marsh how my Face Up discussions with the Benefactor went: her first day’s appearance being flawless, almost too perfect and the next being marked with very human imperfections like hesitations, fillers, and grimaces. I think she adjusted to be more human, more believable to us. I saw that again today.

  “Another thing, Keala, this morning I took off my shirt and pants for my discussion with the Benefactor …”

  “You did what?” Keala interrupted with shock. That idea made her chuckle. Having grown up with brothers helped her understand such behavior, or at least know of its existence. Men never outgrow boyish pranks, she thought.

  “Yeah, I wanted to test something. The Benefactor never seemed to notice my unconventional appearance. I tried common idioms on her. She didn’t get them. She went on to say she never gets headaches. I don’t get that!”

  “Zeke, I don’t know what to make of that." She smiled as she shook her head. So ... Lee has the first night shift for watching the fire. Maybe you could discuss some of this with him. We just talked about him acting squirrelly.”

  “If nothing else, maybe I can find out more about what’s bugging him. Good idea, Keala. Who’s on after Lee?”

  “Susan. Why?”

  Zeke laughed, “No reason, except to check that wonderful memory of yours.” He patted himself on the back for coming up with this. He knew he was usually terrible with small talk, though a step ahead of Marsh.

  Keala, “I remember how important you are to me!”

  *****

  Downstairs Lee was just sitting down after stoking the inside fire. Before he hit the back of the couch, he heard someone coming down the stairs. In the dim light, he didn’t recognize the figure at first. “What’s up, Zeke?”

  Without saying a word, Zeke signaled for Lee to follow him. Zeke walked slowly. They went outside in the frigid cold. There was scant illumination from the grill fire and the moon.

  Inside the Faraday cage, Zeke turned on his flashlight. He explained the morphing appearance of the Benefactor on Face Up. He elaborated on the Benefactor’s n
ot noticing his lack of clothes and not understanding idioms. He intended to go on, but Lee erupted.

  “Zeke, now you’re telling me you’ve been actually seeing the Benefactor! We trusted you as our leader to be honest with us. How could you not tell us?”

  “I’m telling you now. I don’t understand what’s going on. I could hardly share my turmoil with a group that overreacted to the existence of the Benefactor. I’m asking you to calm down. Take a deep breath. I need you to use that keen analytic mind of yours. What do you think is going on?”

  Lee took a deep breath. He rubbed his head with both hands. “So you seem to think the Benefactor adapted her behavior to make herself more believable to you. You think she did that by monitoring what you told Keala. Where we are meeting speaks to our belief that somehow the Benefactor can listen to us, even when we think cell phones might be turned off.”

  “Lee, you mean when we know we turned them off.”

  “Exactly, the Benefactor may be able to turn them on and off at will.”

  Puzzled, Zeke shook his head. “I should add that I have no doubts whatsoever about Keala’s loyalty to us. She did not tell the Benefactor. And there’s still another thing bothering me. How did so many electronic devices get turned off at once on New Year's, assuming there was no nuclear or solar EMP?”

  “Hmmm. For starters, Zeke, more and more of our digital gadgets and gear get — got — firmware updates from the internet. Others may have had Trojan horses that acted like micro time bombs. Those are at the top of my theory list of how. I wouldn’t rule out drones with jammers either. My dad was an electronic warfare officer on B-52 bombers way back when. He said he could shutdown the power grid of a city bigger than Albuquerque with the equipment on just one bomber. Based on that, who knows what can be done with a drone and pre-New Year's state-of-the art technology? I wouldn't even rule out wireless charging of batteries. I could coin a phrase: brave new world.”

  Lee went on after his witticism, “I confess I may have withheld some information from you myself, Zeke. When I went to change out servers in Hamilton, I did a quick scan on some code running there. The notes indicated it was part of a secret government project …”