Highest Order

by David Archer

  A moment later, he brought them into the library. Noah was standing near one wall, not far from the rifle.

  “Clarence Gibbs, Barbara Holloway, I’d like you to meet my nephew…” He suddenly looked blank. “Oh, the hell with it,” he said. “Clarence, Barbara, meet Camelot.”

  Gibbs looked like he was about to bolt and run, but Holloway held out a hand. “I can wish we were meeting under other circumstances,” she said, “but I am delighted to make your acquaintance.”

  Noah took her hand and shook it gently. “Considering the fact that you put yourself in jeopardy to help protect our country, I feel the same way.” He turned to Gibbs and extended a hand, and the man took it nervously. “Congressman, I consider you a hero, sir.”

  It took a moment, but Gibbs finally started to relax. “I wasn’t exactly expecting you to be here already,” he said. “On the other hand, I’ll confess that I’m glad you know which one is me.” He tried to grin, but it didn’t quite work out.

  Another car could be heard on the gravel, and a glance out the window showed two more approaching.

  Duckworth took a deep breath. “It looks like things are about to begin.”

  “James Wilcox,” Noah said. “I’m your nephew, James Wilcox.”

  Duckworth nodded, and for the next twenty minutes he greeted newcomers and introduced them to his nephew. Noah made himself useful by playing host, offering coffee to each person as they arrived. He was particularly gracious to Herschel Robinette, and to Edgar Mikesell when he arrived a few minutes later.

  At ten minutes after seven, Senator Perkins arrived. He looked around the library at the twenty-two people who had preceded him, and nodded.

  “Looks like everybody is here,” he said. “I suppose we should get on with the business at hand. If nobody has an objection, I shall serve as chairman for this meeting. Is that all right with everyone?”

  “I second that motion,” Holloway said, chuckling. “Better you than me, anyway.”

  There were a few lighthearted laughs, but no one seemed to object. Perkins took a position where everyone could see him and stood tall, his hands clasped behind his back.

  “Well, I think most of you know that the reason for this gathering is to decide who will serve as our new leader for the project. Senator Martin has proposed that we offer that distinction to Senator Duckworth, who I personally think would be an excellent choice. However, in fairness, the chair will entertain other nominations. Do I hear other nominations?”

  “What about you, Bill?” Senator Ryan asked. “I thought you wanted the job.”

  “I would certainly serve if that were the will of the members,” Perkins said, “but I’m not sure that’s where my greatest value to the project would lie. I’ve been busy with other aspects, and I’m sure some of you know what they are. It might actually cause us some difficulty if I had to pass those off to someone else at this point. And I note, for the record, that no one jumped up to second that nomination.”

  There were a few more polite chuckles.

  “How about Ed Mikesell, then?” Wilbur Benton asked. “I think he’d do a great job.”

  “Hey, no,” said Mikesell. “I’m not the leadership type. Besides, I’m a lot more important where I’m at. The Council is going to need somebody in intelligence, and I’m already well entrenched.”

  “Well, that’s two nominations and no seconds. Senator Martin, would you like to nominate Senator Duckworth formally?”

  “I so move,” Martin said.

  “I’ll second that one,” Holloway said quickly. Duckworth looked at her, and saw the mischievous gleam in her eye.

  “I have a nomination and a second,” Perkins said. “One more time, are there any other nominations?”

  Every eye was on Perkins as Noah reached up and quickly took down the rifle. “I have one,” he called out, and as everyone turned to look at him, he raised the rifle and fired four times in rapid succession.

  Congressman David Anderson, Simon Scheiber, Ronald Pickering, and Congresswoman Harriet Morgenstern all died instantly where they were sitting, a single bullet penetrating directly between the eyes of each of them.

  “I nominate me,” Noah said. “Anybody care to argue?”

  Another shot rang out as Jenny and Marco came rushing into the room. Senator Robert Chambers had leapt to his feet and drawn a pistol, and it was Jenny’s shot that took him through the throat. He dropped his weapon instantly, reached for his throat, then gurgled and fell onto his face.

  “Anybody else want to be a hero?” Jenny asked. “Come on, give me a chance to blow your head off.” The smile on her face seemed to terrify all of them, and those few who had been reaching for weapons suddenly made sure their hands were quite visible.

  “One at a time,” Noah said, “I want each of you to take out any weapon you might be carrying and toss it onto the floor over here by me.” He aimed the rifle at Mikesell. “You first. Move very slowly.”

  One by one, each of them did as they were instructed. Once they were all disarmed, Noah took out his phone and punched a speed dial icon he had set up.

  “Go ahead,” Allison said as she answered.

  “All clear,” Noah said. “Come on in.”

  “I’ll be there in two minutes.” The line went dead and Noah put the phone back into his pocket.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” Noah said, “please allow me to introduce myself. I’m afraid I’m not really Senator Duckworth’s nephew. Those of you who know of me at all would only recognize me by one name. I am Camelot.”

  There were a couple of muted gasps, and a few more quiet curses.

  “Not long ago, I was informed about the Ascension Project. Now, the people who told me about it didn’t have a lot of details, but they did know enough to be certain it wasn’t something America could allow to happen. For that reason, I was ordered to bring it to an end as quickly as possible. Those orders compelled me to eliminate every person, regardless of who it might be, who was an active participant in the project. For those of you who wonder, honeybees don’t normally live in a high-pressure air conditioning system. It was actually necessary, and quite difficult I might add, to carry a number of them into the air conditioning ductwork and entice them into the room occupied by President Andrews. A little bit of honey dripped through the vent was all it took to make them believe they were somewhere near their hive, so when the president began moving about, they took it as a threat and they attacked. That eliminated my first target.”

  “Tony Borden was mine,” Jenny said with a smile. “And by the way, if every politician is as big a scumbag as Congressman Borden was, I personally think you should all be taken out and shot. All he saw when he looked at me was a girl he wanted to drag into the sack. Well, he kinda got his wish. Of course, it didn’t exactly go down the way he wanted. Me, though? Oh, I had a blast. My, how that man could scream. He screamed your name, and your name, and your name…” She pointed at different people as she talked.

  “Then you’re going to kill us all?” Mikesell asked. “You found out about this meeting and decided to take us all at once?”

  “Yeah, something like that,” Noah said. “But first, you’re going to tell me and my friends all about the events you’ve got planned.”

  Neil and Sarah entered the room at that point, and Neil took out a cell phone and panned it around the room, capturing all of their faces. Several of those present tried to look away or block the camera with a hand, but he walked around until he had gotten them all.

  A moment later, the front door opened. Sarah was still standing in the doorway and spun toward it, but she recognized Allison before she could even aim her gun. Allison smiled at her and walked into the library, and almost everyone present began to groan or grumble.

  “Well, hello, boys and girls,” Allison said. “I see you met my friend, here. How’s it going, Camelot?”

  “I was just explaining to them that I want information,” Noah said. He looked around the room for a moment, then
pointed at Mikesell with his rifle. “Mr. Mikesell,” he said. “Tell me about the events.”

  “Up yours,” Mikesell said. “You’re going to kill us all anyway. At least I’ll die with the satisfaction of knowing that the country you love so much is going to suffer.”

  “Eddie, Eddie,” Allison said. “What on earth has made you so cynical? You honestly want the country to suffer? The people?”

  Mikesell sneered at her. “The people? Do you mean the people who continue to allow their children to be sacrificed on the altar of liberty? We have mass shootings every other week, school shootings even more often, and then we have the fact that there are at least fifty ISIS training camps within our borders, running radicalization campaigns and recruiting from among our own youth, something the government knows but prevents the intelligence community from doing anything about. This country needs to be shaken up. If the Ascension Project does nothing else, maybe it will wake them up to the fact that their freedoms are what allows these things to happen.”

  “Those freedoms are the very foundation of our country,” Allison said. “They are guaranteed and sanctified by the Constitution of the United States, the same Constitution that you swore to uphold and defend. I don’t know how you managed to delude yourself into believing that you’re doing something good with this effort, but what you’ve really done is commit treason. You even planned to benefit from it, and you have the nerve to complain about the very freedoms that have allowed you and your compatriots to accomplish what you’ve already done?” She turned to Noah. “Find out what he knows. We want everything.”

  Noah looked at Jenny and nodded, and Jenny handed over her pistol to Sarah, who took it and kept it, along with her own, aimed toward one of the sofas, where four people were sitting.

  Jenny reached around her back and pulled out the stilettos she had used on Borden, then walked toward Mikesell.

  “Eddie, Eddie,” she said, mimicking Allison’s tone. “How much would you like to bet that I can make you scream even louder than Tony Borden did?”

  Mikesell shrugged. “Do your worst,” he said. “I’m not going to tell you anything.”

  Jenny’s hand flashed, and Mikesell screamed, along with several of the others, as his right ear fell into his lap. He picked it up without thinking, staring at it, then turned to glare at Jenny as he put his hand against the side of his head.

  “That was a love tap,” Jenny said. “If I do it again, I’ll get serious about it. Now, tell the nice man what he wants to know.”

  Perkins started to take a step toward her, but Marco, who had been standing close to him and watching, suddenly reached out and grabbed him by the shoulder. He pushed downward and kicked the back of Perkins’ right knee, forcing the man to kneel on the floor, and then put his gun against the back of Perkins’ head. Half the people in the room turned their faces away.

  Mikesell was trembling, but he had his jaws clamped shut. Several of the others in the room were whimpering, and there were a lot of tears. Jenny glanced around at the rest of them, then reached out and took hold of the hair on top of Mikesell’s head. She tilted his head back and heard several wails of anguish, as everyone else in the room thought she was going to cut his throat.

  She held one of the knives in front of his face. “There are a number of extremely sensitive parts of the human body,” she said. “One of them is the ears, but we already dealt with that one, didn’t we? Would you like to know what the others are?”

  Once again, Mikesell kept his mouth shut, despite trembling from the pain he was suffering. Jenny suddenly yanked his head forward and downward, and then dragged just the tip of her stiletto across the back of his neck.

  The man screamed and tried to jump out of his chair, but Jenny yanked him back. The cut wasn’t deep, but blood was flowing steadily from it, running down his back and all over the chair. Mikesell was almost having a seizure, he was shaking so hard, and he was obviously having a hard time controlling his hands. They were gripping the arms of the chair at one moment, and clenching into fists the next.

  “Now, you were asked a question,” Jenny said. “I would suggest you answer it while there is still the possibility you might survive.”

  Mikesell opened his eyes and glared at her, but still refused to speak.

  “Okay, we’ll move on to lesson number three,” Jenny said. Her left hand continued to hold onto his hair, and the knife in her right flashed forward. The tip pierced Mikesell’s bottom lip at its edge, and she dragged it across quickly, flaying it open.

  That was the end of his self-control, as he tried to lunge and grab her by the throat. Jenny’s stiletto sliced quickly across both hands, making him yank them back as he continued to scream in agony.

  “Lips are very sensitive,” Jenny said, “but so are the hands. I guess you were impatient to get to lesson four.”

  “Oh, for God’s sake,” shouted Congresswoman Charlotte Willamette. “Stop this, it’s uncivilized! You can’t torture people!”

  Allison turned and pointed her gun directly at the woman. “Are you serious? You’re part of a group that wants to basically enslave most of the human race, for the benefit of a few who will become rich and powerful, including yourself, and you dare to speak to us about morals? I’ll tell you what, we’ll stop what we’re doing to Mikesell, and you can start talking about the events. Now.”

  “Hell, I’ll tell you,” Willamette said. “I’m sure as hell not willing to die to keep it a secret, not when it’s obvious you’re going to shut us down, anyway.”

  “Jenny,” Allison said, “take a break for a minute. All right, Congresswoman, start talking.”

  Willamette glared at her for a moment, then let out a sigh. “Event number one is scheduled for a certain date, a few weeks from now. It’s been in the planning stages for about two years, now, and it’s all set and ready to go. We have people, through our intelligence agencies, in every terrorist organization. We’ve used them to recruit fanatics to drive over three hundred large cars, each of which is equipped with a package of high-yield, incendiary explosives…”

  “Charlotte, shut up!” Mikesell screamed, but Jenny put her knife to his upper lip and he closed his mouth again.

  “We might as well tell them, Ed,” Willamette said. “It’s over, can’t you see that?” She looked back at Allison. “These people are true fanatics, the kind who believe America is a great evil. When it’s time, each of them will get into their cars and drive from their current locations to a certain school in a neighboring state and crash into it at high speed. The explosive packs that are built into the car are powerful enough to level a large building. Because each bomber traveled across state lines, a bill would be introduced in Congress to require limitations on travel. Americans would be required to have permits for any traveling they wanted to do, and those permits would require vehicles to be searched, so it could never happen again.”

  Allison stared at her for a moment, and her finger almost squeezed the trigger. She caught herself just before it would be too late, and nodded. “Go on. The next event?”

  “One month after the school explosions, a hundred mass shootings will take place in different places around the country, all at the same time. Once again, the shooters are fanatics we have recruited. Each of them would be targeting a crowded event, so imagine a hundred Las Vegas shootings, happening all at once. Each of them would be wearing a suicide bomb. If it appeared they were going to be captured, they would detonate.”

  “With further devastating loss of life, of course,” Allison said. “What’s the benefit to the project?”

  “With so many gun-related deaths happening all at once, Congress would respond to the people who would be screaming for gun control, and outlaw the sale or possession of any weapon that can fire more than three rounds. Hunters would be required to keep their rifles and shotguns in centralized locations, and to sign them out when they want to go hunting. Civilians would not be allowed handguns at all.”

  “And the t
hird event?”

  “That’s the one that would cinch the whole project. Two weeks after the mass shootings, twelve small nuclear devices would go off. They are already planted, some of them in specific cities and some in small towns that no one would ever expect to be targeted, and they would do a lot of damage and cause a lot of death and injury. It would result in a complete suspension of the fourth amendment, allowing any person or place to be searched at any time, for any reason, so that such a thing could never happen again without warning.”

  “Dear God,” Allison said. “You people are crazy. You’d end up with a revolution on your hands.”

  “Oh, I doubt it. In total, the death toll from all three events would exceed two hundred and fifty thousand people, about a third of them children less than fifteen years of age. The people would be told that it was all the work of terrorist groups, and that there was no way to protect everybody and still have all the freedoms we’ve been enjoying. By this point, except for some diehards, pretty much everybody would be willing to give up most of their freedoms if it means their families are going to be safe.”

  Allison stared at her for a moment. “How do we stop them?”

  “I don’t know that you could stop the events from happening,” Willamette said, “not without my help. If you were to close down all of America’s schools, the actors would simply wait until they reopened. I doubt there’s any way you could cancel all of the different crowd-drawing events that would be targeted by the shooters, and even if you put every resource you possibly can on finding where those nuclear devices are, there’s no way you would find most of them. Without specific information, you’re pretty much SOL.”

  “And do you have information on which schools would be bombed, where the shootings would happen, where the nukes are?” Allison asked.

  “As a matter of fact, I do,” Willamette said. “And I’ll give it to you, once I’m assured that I will be able to survive and live out my life without reprisal.”