He had no way of knowing the ranch would play such a critical role and saving hundreds of thousands of lives.
The one thing he knew was he was driven to find Syra and the aliens, and now he was one. He had no intentions of ever returning to Earth and Earth II was now a part of him.
At this point, James knew one thing for sure, and that was the Caldiron Ranch had a destiny that not even he could understand.
Why did he leave Earth so easily, he thought, it was because he chased a woman so exciting that he had to have her in his life!
Syra had already said if she could not save mankind, then no one on Earth or Earth II could ever save it! James Caldiron had always remained silent until now!
“Syra honey, if things get worse, we may both need to return to Earth and contact my people,” James went on to say, “We can offer them hope. If we don’t, I fear they will simply give up.”
Syra replied, “Then we need the people’s president, our son Zach with us!”
That is when they both decided they would return to Earth for a short time to speak to those still alive and living on the streets and offer them some ray of hope, in person. To encourage them to rebuild. They would also visit the ranch and the three settlements of freedom too!
It would be impossible to send everyone to the three settlements, but they could offer food, clean water, and assistance to rebuild their society.
Neither knew of when this trip would take place, or if it ever would.
Both knew that in the end, they may not get to take that trip at all. Their safety was of the utmost importance, but saving James, Zach and Zoey’s homeland was first in their minds.
book two
chapter six
Back on Earth, the interrogations began on the five men. Hannah needed information on how both President Trevil, and President Anderson managed to win their elections through deceptive news, propaganda, and payoffs and exactly who aided them. She needed undeniable proof!
She needed names and hard evidence to bring those responsible to justice for what they had done to America. Although the justice system was nearly broken, she knew she could at least expose them and let the people decide what should be done about them.
Hannah would make sure they all were exposed for their evil deeds for all to see. She would make sure the angry crowd walking the streets and wrecking everything in sight, would focus on who's really to blame, more than blaming each other.
Hannah knew full well that there was a good chance the country would not recover fully for many years to come. She knew times ahead were going to be really rough. That most likely, society will continue to break down, collapse and then start over sometime in the future.
With all the fighting in the streets, killing and robbing, there simply was no way to bring order at this time. She had basically rescued as many as she could, and it became a full-time job just helping the refugees get settled into the three settlements of freedom.
Having her prisoners questioned now, she may find some helpful information to send out to the people rioting on the streets and get them to stop, if it was possible at all. It was worth a try.
Trevil was first to be questioned, but it was difficult for Hannah to look at him, even though it was through a one-way mirror!
Hannah knew it was illegal what they were doing at the ranch, they had not only kidnapped these men; they were taking the law into their own hands.
But since there was no law and order anymore anywhere, somebody had to do something, and this she could do.
Old man Trevil was blindfolded and tied to a chair. Sounds of a mouse in the room must have terrified the old man, because every time they hit that sound button, he shrieked.
Hannah regretted the fact that the vice-president to old man Trevil had died in his sleep because he would have had a lot of information no doubt. An examination showed he had died of cancer which obviously he had had a for a long time.
Hannah’s bot spoke perfect Russian, and this terrified Trevil because he only understood a few words like poison, torture, slow death and prison.
For hours, this is all Trevil heard. Russians getting loaded with vodka, and the sound of rats crawling all around his feet.
The terror on his face was obvious, he feared they would be all over him and biting him to death at any moment.
Then there were the sounds of out of control arguing, some in Russian and some were in English. All old Trevil wanted was to go back to the island and live out his life in peace. But Hannah knew he needed to see what he had done to their people, and she would see to it he got what he deserved before going to some damn island!
The problem now was there was no way he was going to confess to anything, ever! He was as stubborn as hell, and even though he was terrified of rats he remained silent.
At that time, Hannah ordered video be sent into the room of all of his evil deeds and to play them constantly until the man broke.
At first, he sat there with a smirk on his face as if he was proud of his evil accomplishments. He only regretted that he had gotten too old to do much of anything anymore and that was his only regret.
That is when he was shown a video of his family being taken from the protected island to live among commoners. Forced to eat whatever they could get their hands on and wear dirty filthy rags upon their backs.
No limousines to cart them around, no helicopters to transport them from one town to the next in the same state. They were now relocated to one of the old apartment buildings he owned in Chicago.
Trevil was known for being a slum lord, but this was one of his buildings many had lived and died in. The deaths were mostly because of drug use, murder, robbery, and gang violence. And that is where his family now resided!
It was then that he wanted to cut a deal. He began spilling his gut with names, dates, places, and evidence on the promise he and his family could go back to the island.
His confession was recorded and would be used when needed. But Hannah was careful to say that they would make sure he went to the island. He assumed she meant he and his family.
Trevil had broken down and did show some signs of regret, but it was obvious the regret was that his family may have to suffer because he allowed himself to get kidnapped.
After the interrogations, he was told that he would be released as soon as his information checks out to be true and not misleading. Unbeknownst to Trevil, the video was faked, and his family had never left the island they were on.
Meanwhile, Anderson was next. He was one of Trevil’s sources with the Russians and was responsible for much of the money laundering done in America.
Anderson sat there and watched his vast wealth disappear before his eyes. His Swiss bank account was losing large amounts of his fortune every hour as he watched himself become a poor man.
By this time, he was breaking out into a cold sweat and started to scream, “Stop it, stop it, I’ll tell you anything just stop them from taking my money, damn it.”
Anderson knew nothing but how to make his fortune with others’ money. His current wife was what he often referred to as his trophy wife. He had been married seven times over the years and had children by several of his wives. Those children, now grown, cared nothing about him and all they wanted was to inherit whatever he had.
But his biggest fear was going broke. If he had nothing, his trophy wife would leave him and that he could not bear to think about.
Every time he gave accurate information, money was redeposited back into his accounts. When he lied, the money would be withdrawn and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
The questioning went on for several days until Hannah’s interrogator was satisfied that he had the correct information. He was then told, he would be taken to the island in just a few more days.
Anderson was left alone to wonder what was going to happen next. But all he could think about was that his money had nearly vanished before his eyes.
His vice-president, Jerry Hines, was very rel
igious and was a perfect pick for Anderson's running mate. He would be the one that would demonstrate Anderson could, in fact, make good choices. By the time Hines found out why he was picked, he did not care anymore, even if he knew he was only meant to be a softened blow to a bad image.
But Hines was horrified that his love of pornography would be leaked to his Christian wife. Jerry had sold his soul to the devil because of his political desires.
He had turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to all illegal activities and simply prayed the bad thoughts away. It was his hope to be president one day and to have everyone love him. The fear that he would lose love or friends was unthinkable!
A guilty conscience was something he prayed away and convinced himself it was just the devil trying to take something good from him that God wanted him to have.
Getting any information out of him was going to be tough, and his interrogators would have to be really creative on this one.
With every question about any wrongdoing, Hines started to pray and turned off any words he heard and would clam up. That is when it was decided to convince him God was speaking to him now, and not some interrogator!
He was then sent back to his room and told they would pick up where they left off tomorrow.
What Hines did not realize is that he talked a lot in his sleep. His wife never told him this because it was her way of knowing if he had sinned!
If he was cheating on her or anything else ungodly, he would spew it out in mumblings in his sleep and this was used to get the truth out of Hines.
That night, while Hines was sleeping, his room lit up in all its glory and he found himself dazed and confused. The holocom unit was working great!
God had called upon him to wake up and was about to take him to Heaven to answer for all his sins and told him it was time to confess them if he was going to enter into those pearly gates.
The God-like voice reminded him of that toy train he stole from the school Christmas play he was in when he was five years old. He reminded him of that girl he kissed next to his locker in the seventh grade and he was not even married to her!
Then, there was the time another boy on the playground played with Jerry’s private parts behind the bleachers and he returned the favor. This had always haunted Jerry Hines, and what he feared the most was that he might somehow be gay.
But to enter Heaven, he had to tell everything he knew about his life as a politician. The God-like voice that echoed across the room would ask a question, and he would answer as honestly as he could. This continued nearly the entire night.
The God-like voice was loud and commanding and fearless! And by the early morning hours, Jerry Hines had confessed to everything he knew of on Anderson and everyone else he had ever known as an adult.
Out of sheer exhaustion, he fell asleep, sound asleep. His room had gotten very quiet and dark and peaceful. When he awoke the next morning, he was like a young man again. His interrogator told Hannah, “Well, I guess confessions really are good for the soul!”
So far, Hannah was happy with the efforts they were putting into the questioning. They were already building a database of information that was going to become very useful in the near future.
But Clifford Trevil, President Trevil’s brother, still needed to be questioned. He was as evil as the devil himself. Hannah found it hard to watch because anyone crazy enough to call themselves the Armageddon Executioner had to be crazy!
That he wrote a manifesto with serious threats to kill millions was reason enough to take him seriously.
The only good thing that monster ever did was provide the whereabouts of anthrax that would have killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people had they not figured out his stupid riddle.
Yet his other threats did pan out, Hannah thought. All the bombings and the fires that burned half the country during his brother’s time as President. And then there was the crime spree that began during those days and to this day, still, are running rampant.
Hannah simply could not see a benefit in interrogating a crazy man. When she had him scanned, it clearly showed he had no emotions other than hate and it was all he was capable of feeling.
He showed no signs of compassion or empathy. He was narcissistic and had glorified himself into a place no one could ever reach. He was, in fact, a psychopath.
It was obvious he had a personality disorder with his antisocial behavior, impaired empathy and lack of remorse.
Placing him somewhere, where he could never harm another soul would be the only way to rid society of him. There would be no rehabilitation, and that was obvious from all the information that came back on Hannah’s scan and Zhian Sphere’s database!
Meanwhile, the men remained in the custody of the Caldiron Ranch. There would be much discussion over the next week on exactly what was the best thing to do with each man based on his cooperation!
Hannah called up Syra on Earth II for some advice, and Syra thought it might be a good idea to reopen Alcatraz Prison on Alcatraz Island located east of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
She had read about that place years ago and thought that may be the perfect place to secure these criminals for good.
They could place a shield around the old prison, but it would need to be cleared of any of the folks that were running tours first.
This way, any prisoners would go there while society tries to rebuild. To place them there as an example if for no other reason.
But Hannah wasn’t sure it was going to be big enough to house them all, yet it sounded like such a good idea at the time she went for it.
The four men still remained isolated and weren’t sure what was going to happen next.
Meanwhile, Ellead and Ohtron with his bitrons took a trip to the prison island to secure it on Tuesday just after midnight and was done by daylight the next morning. No one saw anything and by morning the island was theirs for the taking and would soon be ready for its new occupants.
Several replicators were installed, a communications room, and a supply room that would be filled over time. A generator powered by Zhian technology and a few other things were installed to secure the place.
No one had done any tours of the old prison in almost two years since all the fighting started and the prison was falling into disarray.
Hannah decided there was no reason to not start using it now, and Lawson, the director of the FBI, was more than ready to see its grand-reopening and see to it that it had all the best staff a good prison needed.
Lawson began interviewing and hiring everyone he needed, and their pay would be in food, clothing, medical assistance, shelter and anything else the staff needed within reason.
They would, of course, have to pass the scans to be sure they were fit for the job and Lawson loved the Zhian technology.
So far, that technology had never let him down and allowed him the chance to apprehend criminals without years of red tape!
There was not a law agency that would have disagreed. Every court all the way up to the Supreme Court turned the other way, they knew what Lawson wanted to do was perfect. Especially since it had zero cost to achieve it.
If there were any hope at all of bringing peace to the streets, the most hardened criminals would need to be pulled off the streets. The problem was, it was next to impossible to apprehend them.
With Rebecca Holmes, the Speaker of the House, temporarily in charge, she gave Lawson full power to apprehend and send all of them to Alcatraz.
With full-blown evidence, caught red-handed, there would be no time for lawyers and no trials. That system had failed the people and was no longer operating.
Rebecca was offering hope by using the alien technology and embracing it. Of course, there was always going to be the factions that resisted.
Hannah called for the men to be moved to Alcatraz, but to keep them isolated until further notice. The island prison was not yet fully staffed or operational, but she did not want them on the Caldiron Ranch any longer than necessary
.
When Hannah finally got her report ready to turn over to Lawson, he was stunned that it indicated thousands of people in the Trevil administration and the Anderson administration combined were guilty.
It was the most elaborate scheme Lawson could have ever imagined, and that report was nearly a thousand pages long. And the evidence, well it was sent to him in crates that filled the back of several pickup trucks.
Lawson knew it would be years before he could track these men down and apprehend them. That is when Hannah reminded Lawson that he had all the assistance he needed from her people and her database.
The time finally came, and the four men were moved to Alcatraz. The blindfolds were removed moments before they reached the island prison.
When they were unloaded inside the prison, the guards reported back that President Anderson was screaming, “She promised that I could go back to the island, this is not it!”
Jerry Hines, the once vice-president of President Anderson went fighting, kicking, and he had now learned how to curse with every breath, and his God had let him down.
President Trevil, now in the last few years of his life, was speechless. Now too old to give a damn, he walked now with a cane and had not accepted the consequence of his deeds.
Clifford Trevil in his straight-jacket was led away and all he had was the coldest deadest look in his eyes. No one dared look inside them.
Hannah looked at Charles and said, “Those men are responsible for nearly destroying our society. Let them rot there for all I care!”
“Hannah, they are not the only ones, we need the rest of those guys on that list before we can start to rebuild,” Charles replied.
“Then let’s step up the process and help Lawson apprehend the rest of them! Let them be an example on the prison island!” Hannah said as she got angrier and angrier about the situation.
This was a job for Ohtron and his bitrons, but they would need to use the shrouding device and the holocom units to lure all those men and women to justice.
Both knew this meant apprehending Russians too! And this is the one thing Syra had told them she would not get involved in.
The Chronicles of Syra Omnibus Page 32
