Welcome to Zell

by K. D. Fryslan

  He was feeling charitable and merely smirked in reply.

  At that moment, Bianca called out from the living room, “You doing all right, sugar?” Then she came into the kitchen and both Gideon and Liesel raised their mugs to her in greeting. She eyed Liesel, “Do you have any real pants in that closet of yours or was that one outfit for the hearing it?” she asked Liesel.

  “The baddies do not care how we are dressed, Bianca,” Liesel said. “I can’t take weapons so there isn’t anything to hide.” She shrugged. Bianca shook her head and laughed.

  Bianca looked over to Gideon. “Your fed suit should be here soon,” she said.

  “Thank you,” said Gideon.

  The land line in the home office rang and Liesel left the kitchen to answer it. She picked up the receiver of the phone. “Liesel Bohm,” she said. “Yes, Ms. Bohm, this is Trooper Alvarez,” said a male voice on the line. “Yes, Trooper Alvarez, how can I help you?” she said. “TX DOT discovered a single vehicle accident in an unincorporated area of the county. The victim’s driver’s license and the vehicle registration are not for the same individual but both locations are in Zell, Texas. We assume the vehicle belongs to the driver’s next of kin and were hoping you could assist us in making contact with them for an identification and claim,” said Alvarez. “Oh no, I… I will help however I can of course,” said Liesel. “I assume the victim is dead.” She said. “Yes, Miss, he is deceased. A Gideon Gauner,” said Trooper Alvarez.

  Hearing Gideon’s name as the deceased victim gave her a sharp pain in her chest. She stepped to the side and leaned until she could see Gideon and Bianca through the doorway. “Yes, Trooper Alvarez, I’m familiar with Gideon. I’m very sorry to hear this news of his passing. He lives with his brother Jonah and sister-in-law just outside of town. Do I tell them to contact a certain office? Is there a number you can give me to pass on to them?” she said. “No, Miss, that is not necessary. It is our duty to alert next of kin. Do you have a contact number and address for the Gauner’s so we can match that to our records and contact them ourselves?” said Alvarez. “Of course, let me look them up.” Said Liesel. She moved back around to the desk and flipped through the old school rolodex on her grandmother’s desk. She passed on the number and address and Jonah and Amber’s names to the state trooper. “Thank you, Miss,” said Alvarez. “May I asked what happened, sir?” asked Liesel. “I am sorry, Miss Bohm, but I cannot divulge that information to anyone but the next of kin and we won’t have all of the information until the autopsy is complete anyway,” said Alvarez. “Of course, thank you for your service, Trooper Alvarez,” said Liesel before replacing the receiver in the cradle. She took a few steadying breaths before returning to the kitchen.

  She walked back into the kitchen, returning to Gideon and Bianca, “TX DOT found a single car fatality and the troopers were wanted to confirm contact for next of kin,” she told them both. “Jonah and Amber should be getting a phone call or visit soon,” she said.

  Gideon put his coffee mug down and opened up his arms in the universal invitation for a hug, or the ‘come at me bro’ taunt, depending on your perspective and context. Liesel walked directly into his arms, wrapping her arms around his waist and resting her cheek against his chest. Bianca maintained silence, not being one to judge or comment on the relationships of others, having been discriminated against on more than one account herself.

  Liesel’s cell phone began to vibrate aggressively on the counter top of the kitchen island and she sighed. She pulled herself reluctantly from Gideon’s embrace, turned sideways, and reached out to grab the phone. She saw her mother’s name and number on the caller ID screen and hung her head and sighed. Then she tapped her finger over ‘accept’ and lifted the phone to her ear.

  “What do you want Mom?” she asked without the nicety of phone call etiquette.

  Ingrid Bohm sighed heavily into the phone. “Really, Liesel? Why can’t you at least be polite to me. I am your mother,” she said.

  “I know. Hence, calling you mom,” said Liesel. “Why are you calling though? It isn’t like we have a weekly chit chat, more like a yearly check in and that was only six months ago,” she continued.

  “Fine,” Ingrid practically spat into the phone. “A Council of Stewards representative called me and tried to shame me because my mother went missing and my daughter was taking on the Stewardship about a quarter of a century too early.”

  “So are you calling to find out about your mother or are you calling to find out what I am doing? What?” said Liesel irritably.

  “I may not get along with my family, that does not mean I do not care for either you or your grandmother,” said Ingrid.

  Liesel seemed to slump a little bit and was glad that she was not on a video stream call. “Grams and a couple other folks from town were kidnapped. I stepped in as interim Steward because you rejected placement and I knew some random fill in from the Council wasn’t going to give two shits about Grams or her things. We think we found the kidnappers but we do not know how Grams is doing or if she is even alive still,” said Liesel.

  “We?” asked Ingrid. “Who is we? Are you working with the residents? Liesel you cannot trust the residents of that town. They need Stewards for a reason.”

  “Really mother? You refuse to accept the position of Steward and that is what you tell me,” said Liesel.

  “Well, it is true, they need someone to manage them, they are heathens. I just do not believe the sacrifices a Steward is asked to make are worth it. If you insist on being a sacrificial lamb or shepherd or whatever,” said Ingrid, huffing in exasperation, “then you need to at least remember your position. You know better and do not let them sway you into being some sort of servant or worker, you are a manager, a benevolent dictator.”

  Liesel rolled her eyes and changed her mind, a video call would have been better. “Thank you for the sage advice mother dearest, are you done now?” said Liesel, derision in her voice.

  There was a long pause and Liesel could only faintly make out sounds from the other side of the line confirming it had not been dropped or otherwise disconnected. “Mom?” asked Liesel.

  “Don’t get sucked in, Liesel, please. You are so young still,” said Ingrid in a much softer voice.

  “I don’t know what to say to that,” admitted Liesel. “I am doing what I feel compelled to do,” she said.

  “Be safe dear,” said Ingrid, having regained her composure and speaking more firmly again.

  “Yes, mother,” said Liesel, and then they mutually ended the call.

  Liesel put the phone back down onto the counter top. She looked Bianca in the eyes. “I swear I am going to start forwarding all phone calls to the city office, you are so much better at handling people than I am. Please do not ever leave me,” Liesel said to Bianca without a hint of sarcasm even coloring her voice.

  Bianca smiled. “Sug, I got your back. We all have our strengths,” said Bianca.

  “Bless you,” said Liesel in reply.

  The three manage to make casual conversation about innocuous news, if it could even be called that, from around town and the county for the rest of the morning while they waited for other preparations to be made. It was a Saturday so the city office was not open and thus Bianca was not tied to a desk and almost no one had work or other obligations beyond their plan for that night and keeping house. Gideon made coffee for Bianca while Liesel was taking phone calls and refreshed his and Liesel’s coffees at the same time.

  “Our county high school football rivals are petitioning to not come to our sports facilities any more,” said Bianca.

  “Oh really. Why?” asked Liesel curiously.

  “They are trying to say we have a stray dog problem,” said Bianca before sipping her coffee with a mischievous expression on her face.

  “A stray dog problem? Are there any stray dogs in Zell?” asked Liesel.

  “That is what we keep telling them. We have not seen a single stray dog around town and there are no witnesses
for these bite reports,” said Bianca. “The county has even come out to find these so called vicious dogs but never find any evidence of any animals that don’t belong here. Pets aren’t even popular in Zell,” said Bianca.

  “Uh huh,” said Liesel. “Why for we think some high schoolers from out of town are getting bit by these invisible critters?” she asked.

  Bianca smiled widely. “I think perhaps these entitled brats who think they are too good for the kids in our town and try to bully them might be feeling the after effects of karmic retribution,” she said. “Could be.”

  “Aren’t the teens a little old to be bitey?” said Liesel, although she was smirking.

  “You tell that to the Dixon kids,” said Bianca. “Honestly, hun, it only happened a few times and twice they were actually retaliating for bullying of a couple Pherein girls. I like to think of it as cross cultural cooperation,” she said.

  Gideon and Liesel both burst into laughter. “Good for them. You tell that other district their are just a bunch of classist bigots and don’t want to play out in the sticks,” said Liesel after she recovered from the laughter.

  After some indiscriminate amount of time, one of the twenty somethings currently assigned to be the gopher and fetcher of the elders came to the homestead with Grimsley’s suite for Gideon, minus any evidence of an altercation. Liesel retrieved her flash drives and was thankful they came extra small and concealed these days and slipped two USB portable drives into her sports bra, one for each cup or one for each cup, however one wanted to look at it. Jamie also showed up, dropped off by one of the Pherein folk. He was now wearing what could be described as urban tactical gear. He had on black pants with cargo pants, black boots, a snug black tee shirt underneath a black vest covered in pockets and weapons holsters. He also had a black beanie covering his bright ginger hair.

  “What’s in all the pockets?” asked Liesel.

  “Southern hemisphere pockets are supplies for the wounded, the northern hemisphere is for weapons and stuff to break other stuff with,” he answered right away.

  “Well aren’t you a boy scout,” said Liesel.

  “I am an EMT in Texas,” was all Jamie said before sitting on a bar stool at the island and propping one foot up on the foot rail at the bottom of it.

  Gideon left the room to change into the suit from the day before. He came back several minutes later fully dressed and securing Grimsley’s handgun into the shoulder holster. Liesel assumed the smaller pistol was already in the ankle holster, she had not been aware of that weapon until later after the incident when she saw it after Gideon had removed it along with the jacket and belt to speak with the community elders and leaders. Jamie nodded toward Gideon in greeting and Bianca followed suit. Liesel stared a moment but then looked directly into his eyes and smiled at him. Gideon smiled back with relief, although he tried to keep the emotion from being too visible on the surface.

  “The others are assembling in other locations to avoid detection as a group or throwing off our cover story,” said Liesel to the others. She knew that they knew but it made her feel better to talk about it out loud while she could just to make it seem less bizarre by having them react as if she wasn’t saying anything bizarre - of course the others were assembling elsewhere, that is how we planned it they would think, or so she thought.

  Bianca gave Liesel a careful hug, then put a hand on Liesel’s cheek, the white gloves she tended to wear were soft against Liesel’s skin. “I need to head home so I have Maria as my alibi should anyone come asking and so that I can be away from action should I be contacted by anyone on our side or against it,” said Bianca. Then Bianca looked at all three - Gideon, Liesel, and Jamie - in turn and back to Liesel again. “Good luck. I will be waiting when you return,” she said.

  After giving Bianca plenty of time to make it back out to the main road such as it was, Gideon straightened up and clapped his hands together. “Alright kids, let us get this show on the road,” he said.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  The trio walked out to the SUV Grimsley and Martinez had arrived in. Gideon opened the hatch to the back and Jamie got in and Gideon covered him loosely with a tarp that was already in the vehicle. Then Gideon opened Liesel’s door for her before moving around and opening his to get in himself and start the drive to the secret government facility in the desert. On the way, he picked up Grimsley’s cell phone and hit a saved speed dial number. “Strip Agent Martinez of any and all security rights and area permissions, he has gone missing after a potential altercation with a group of Therians. He has not reported in and is believed to be deceased. I don’t want them using his security clearance to access anything,” he said into the phone after a moment. His voice taking on a different tone. Still gravelly but back to the cold grind that it was before the body was occupied by Gideon, when Grimsley was the original and current owner. He listened to someone speak on the other side before speaking again to whoever had answered. “Yes. I am bringing Liesel Bohm, she claims she isn’t a part of any of this and has no idea what is going on or that anyone in her family or community is anything abnormal. Start running a check on her and see what you come up with,” said Gideon cooly and abruptly as Grimsley.

  After a relatively short drive of two hours into the direction of brown dusty desert in the middle of nowhere Texas, they arrived to a chain link fence manned by a single guard armed with an assault rifle and a clipboard of approved people he was allowed to enter and a list of people he was to sound the alarm for. He also had a walkie talkie for communication and that was it. He held up a hand to stop the SUV. Gideon rolled down the window and raised an eyebrow at the young guard. “Identification please Agent Grimsley,” the guard said. His uniform had a name patch saying proclaiming him as “Johnson,” Liesel didn’t know enough about military ranking or insignia to know if he was a private contractor in a corporate uniform or an actual soldier, she also had no clue what his standing was beyond his sole task being to man a gate in a chain link fest using only a gun, a checklist and a walkie talkie.

  Gideon pulled out his wallet and showed an ID to the guard, who pulled a small flashlight from his waistband. The flashlight was for black light, and shined it on the surface of Grimsley’s paper ID and ti was then Liesel realized that his real agency must have simply added his real statistics and information on top of his cover information just using ultra violet ink that would not be seen in normal circumstances. The guard put his flashlight back into his pocket and indicated Gideon, who he saw as Grimsley, could put the wallet away. “Thank you, sir, I will move the gate for you and notify security of your arrival and guest,” he said finally.

  Gideon didn’t speak to him, just gave a sharp nod of his head, which was stone faced. The guard got on the walkie talkie, “This is guard station one. Agent in Charge Grimsley is coming in warm to hot with a guest,” he said into the electronic device.

  Gideon and the guard shared another nod as the guard opened the gate wide enough to allow Grimsley’s SUV to pass. Once they were inside the perimeter fence, Liesel looked back in the rear view side mirror and saw the guard drop to the ground. Gideon stopped the SUV and hit the door release for the back hatch. Jamie jumped up and out of the SUV, waved an almost salute to Gideon and Liesel before moving to the guard to tie him up using zip ties pulled from his pants pockets and disappearing into the brush as the sun started going down. “Always prepared,” said Liesel under her breath, “or is that the coast guard?” she asked no one in particular.

  They drove a few more miles and a squat nondescript dirt-colored square building appeared in front of them. Gideon parked in a reserved space in front of the building. He got out of his side of the SUV and came around to open Liesel’s door. She climbed out and almost reached for his hand before she remembered that he was being Grimsley, not her Gideon. He walked to what must be the front door, pulling Liesel along with him by holding on to her upper arm. The first entrance was a security checkpoint. To get in he had to press his security card to a
scanner on the outside of the door above a key pad he had to type a number in to as well. Once inside, they were greeted by more actual security personal.

  Gideon spoke first. “Jones should have called ahead. She’s here voluntarily for questioning,” he said, letting go of Liesel’s arm and giving her a small push in the direction of the two security guards. Then he walked around the side of security and stood with an impatient look on his now hard face while he waited for one of the guards to get the hint and buzz him through the side so he didn’t have to remove his weapons and empty his pockets to go through security when he ran the place for all intents and purposes. Liesel was asked to remove anything in her pockets and she gave them a confused look.

  “What pockets,” she asked.

  “We hire idiots now?” asked Grimsley from the other side of the metal detector. “The girl is wearing exercise pants and a tee shirt, where the hell do you think she her mystery pockets full of weapons are?” he asked. One of the guards looked shame faced and waved Liesel toward the metal detector. The other coughed to cover his discomfort. Liesel walked through the metal detector with nary a beep or alarm. “Now pick that mess up,” said Gideon, gesturing toward the security desk.

  There was no one at anything that could pass for reception and the halls were mostly dark. Lights set up to motion detectors came on to illuminate the hallways as Gideon as Grimsley escorted Liesel toward the public offices on that same ground level floor.

  “In here,” he said coldly and gruffly, opening the door to an interrogation room and shoving her into it before closing the door behind her. Liesel stumbled as she entered but then took a few steps to the metal chair and slowly lowered herself onto its cold surface and sat with her hands in her lap to begin the wait.