Lights out in America's Dairyland: An EMP Adventure

by Victor Marbury

  The townspeople continued to plug away at life, despite the challenges they faced. Many people were married at our harvest Festival that October, including Elaine and I. I expected to see many new babies born in late summer of next year thanks to the loss of other forms of entertainment as a result of the event. Elaine and I settled into her house and began the adventure of being husband and wife. I really didn’t know what happiness was until one evening I saw my lovely wife asleep on the couch with a mystery book laying across her chest in front of the woodstove. The rise and fall of her chest under her nightgown brought me to tears of joy. I was finally home.

  Later that year, our first elections were held and I was elected to the position of Chief of Police. Elaine was elected to head the town council. Things pretty much quieted down in our little corner of the world. By spring, we had security and aid pacts with the majority of towns in the area, and there was talk over the radio of the state re-organizing itself under a simpler set of rules that stressed personal responsibility and fairness without regard to religion, color or any other special category. The legal code was drastically simplified, and older forms of punishments such as restitution, service and the noose came back into fashion. People were tired of accepting excuses for criminal behavior and used old-fashioned punishment to mete out justice. It worked well too; Jails were virtually non-existent, and reserved for people awaiting trial.

  Essentially, everybody had something to contribute for the survival of their town. As a result, everyone worked at something which gave rise to a new wave of entrepreneurship. People were free to start businesses with little interference from the government in an effort to re-start the economy. Slowly but surely the local economy began to build, and traders from all over the country began to appear and share news and good from far off territories. It reminded some of the Wild West, but without the gunslingers. People got along.

  The old political parties were a thing of the past, and work, self-reliance, and honesty were the new buzzwords when it came to governance. As time passed and local Government reformed, the constituency demanded that members elected to the new government could only serve two four-year terms as a legislator. If they were elected to the office of the Governor, they served one six-year term. The overly confusing and unnecessary common core got abolished in favor of basic Math, Science, Reading and History. Civics became a central part of standard education models so everyday citizens could understand how government worked and was prepared to be a member of the government if they wished to be. The new government had curbs to power and influence installed, so no special group such as lawyers, could take over and bring us to the brink again with their short-sightedness and greed. Simone and Grinker were elected by the town to be our first representatives to the re-forming state government, and by all accounts, they were known as shrewd and fair-minded legislators. By the end of August, we began to reap the benefits of the compact between towns, and ended up with a surplus of food that went into storage for emergencies.

  We never heard from any representatives of the old Federal Government. We supposed that they locked themselves away from the world and were still hiding. Some in the town expected an invasion of FEMA shock troops or a foreign power when everything settled down. But the only people we saw were the merchants plying the new trade routes and representatives from the surrounding towns who came to solidify defense and trade pacts. I always thought that when the remnants of the old Federal system emerged from their plush bunkers and attempted to regain control, they would find a different people, with different ideas on how to run things in the places they chose to abandon. I mused that it would probably be an interesting meeting……

  Victor Marbury returns with his second novel……The Circuit Caper. Release date August 2014

  Exclusive preview

  November 1, 2015 Manchester, New Hampshire

  The service door on the second floor of the parking garage opened and a beautifully coiffed head sporting long black locks and perfectly made up face poked out and surveyed the empty space. The cold air struck Lily like a sledgehammer, causing an involuntary shiver. Believing that the coast was clear, Lily made her way to the south stairwell, where she knew a taxi was waiting for her. Her stiletto-heeled patent leather boots sent harsh clacking sounds off the concrete walls as she tried to hurry to her destination.

  “Goddamned dress!” She thought to herself. The black dress she was wearing was custom made for her of the finest Italian leather and clung to her lovely form like a second skin, but also slightly hobbled her due to it’s snug fit, slowing her progress to the stairwell.

  She was wearing a Burberry trench coat with matching scarf and carried an oversize bag, which she clutched like her life depended upon it. In the bag, she had a change of clothes along with her passport and $125,000 in cash she had just stolen from her pimp. She knew there was no going back, once they found the money was missing she would become the most likely suspect. Her absence would confirm her guilt to the powers that be. She knew she had less than 25 minutes to pull this little caper off and get in that taxi, or she would be caught and killed in a very unpleasant manner.

  As she crossed the parking lot, her mind went over what she had just done. She had left her client early after fixing him a drink spiked with GHB. He was resting comfortably in the bed, hopefully dreaming of having his panty-clad ass spanked by Mistress Lily. She made her way to the adjoining room where the cash from the gathering at Xanadu was collected and hit Luther, the bodyguard, on his head with the lead sap she had recently purchased to add to her mistress equipment. Luther collapsed to the floor in a muscular heap, and she grabbed the bag containing the cash, concealing in her oversized bag and fled the room. She then deftly made her way to the service elevator and down to the second floor-parking garage.

  She knew that the probability that the lookouts would still be at their posts was low, as her client was the last of the evening. She figured the lookouts were more than likely clustered in the bar thinking about the cash they would get later in the evening. “Never underestimate the power of greed and laziness," she thought to herself as she crossed the final parking area to the stairwell.

  She entered the stairwell and made it to the ground level in seconds flat despite her restrictive clothing. The taxi was waiting for her just where she had asked for, its motor running. She jumped into the back seat and said in her best mistress voice, “How would you like to make $200.00?”

  The cabbie looked in his rear view mirror, “You Lily?”

  “Yes, good sir. So, would you like to make $200.00?”

  “What do I gotta do for it?”

  “Take me to Logan Airport, and then forget it ever happened.”

  “Shit, for $200 I’ll drive you there twice!” He put his cab into gear and made his way down South Willow St. to I-293 South at a good clip.

  Just as the cab was pulling away from the curb, Vinnie Stampone stepped out of the bar to have a smoke. He looked up from his match and saw a cab pulling away with a woman inside that looked a lot like Lily. He thought she was upstairs finishing with a client, but he knew faces, and that was Lily pulling away in that cab. He memorized the details of the cab including the number before heading upstairs and checking with his boss Xavier Smith. Lily’s client, -along with Luther-, were discovered in short order, and Vinnie provided Victor with the cab information. Xavier picked up the phone and made some calls. The first call was to the cab company, and the second call was to the Senator. Xavier knew what the Senator would say when he found out about the theft and the identity of the actor. One thing Xavier learned while working for the Senator was that you didn’t fuck with the proceeds from his business venture, if you did, you were guaranteed to be on the night train to oblivion.

  Xavier dialed the private number, and a pleasant voice with a slight New England accent answered “Yes?”.

  “Sir, it’s Xavier. I’m afraid we have had some trouble with one of the ladies. It appears that Lily knocked out her client
and then attacked Luther rendering him unconscious by striking him on the head. She made off with the Xanadu profits and fled. We know she fled in a cab, and I am getting that information now on the cab and destination. I know that this might seem foolish of me to ask, but when we catch up to her, what would you like us to do? I think she is a valuable asset…….after all she is one of our most competent and exotic specialists.”

  The Senator cut Xavier off, “I agree, but you know the first rule, if you disrupt the cash flow, you are no longer of any value to the organization. When you find her, kill her!”

  Xavier frowned, “Yes sir, it will be taken care of.”

  “Good, keep me posted. Oh, and Xavier, I don’t think I have to remind you what will happen if we don’t catch up to her in short order, do I?

  “No sir, you don’t”

  “Excellent. Goodnight Xavier."

  “Goodnight sir.” Xavier hung up the phone and looked at Vinnie, “Find out where that cab is going and identify the driver, we must find Lily!”