The Road to Round Mountain: The Betrayal by

by C. G. Roberts

  Jennifer before we left. They said that they would wait for

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  us by the car.

  Our hands still intertwined as Jennifer said, “That was Shakespeare wasn’t it”? “It’s the only one I could remember; it was my Mother’s favorite. What about yours”? She smiled and replied, “Shakespeare also, from A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. My Mother would be impressed with someone who could quote Shakespeare. “Where did you learn that from”, I inquired? She had a sly look on her face, “It seems some Librarian at High School had recommended it to me for a school project I was working on”. I returned the smile, “My Mother”? She nodded as she squeezed my hand with affection.

  I took my free hand and pulled out the second flash drive I had in my pants pocket. “What this”, she asked. I knew the Sheriff wouldn’t appreciate how long it could take to explain everything to her, so I gave her the cliff notes version, and asked if she could figure out what was on it, or if she knew someone who could. Then I said I would call her later to

  further fill her in on Frankie’s activities as well.

  “Thank you so much for coming out here, it means a lot”, as I pulled up her hand to give it a quick kiss. She returned my gesture with a kiss of my hand. The taste of surgical gloves left a lot to be desired but in this case it was worth it. Jennifer surprised me by pulling me in for a hug. She made sure that our faces didn’t get too close; nothing like a shot of electricity to kill the mood. I can’t ever remember anything feeling this good and I didn’t want it to end. “Get a room”, I heard Gordon shout followed by a series of laughs. The Sheriff followed that remark with a small whack on

  the backside of Gordon’s head. “A little respect if you don’t

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  mind”, the Sheriff added.

  We slowly pulled apart still holding hands, “Sorry about Gordon, he was so shy yesterday”. “That’s quite alright Billy I seem to remember being a little shy myself, and some Librarian informed me that her son was the same

  way”. I smile again as I knew that she was referring to my Mother. “Thanks for asking me here, I wouldn’t of missed it”. We started walking down the wooden stairs when she looked at me in a strange manner. “What’s wrong”, I asked. “ When I wheeled you out of the hospital yesterday the streak of white in your hair wasn’t as wide as it is today; looks like you’re going to be all gray here pretty soon”, and her smile returned.

  As we made our way towards the Sheriff and Gordon, Jennifer said, “I heard about those two people killed dur-ing a robbery right across the street from you”. The Sheriff quickly responded, “How did you hear about it”? A con-fused look came over her face, “I heard it on the radio on the way over here, why”? “She sure works fast”, as he looked at me; referring to Agent Boling. “I’ll fill you in later, that’s not what happened”, I told her. “You make sure you call me later, I’m off today but I work mid shift through Sunday”. “I will and see you soon I hope”. She smiled as said, “Me too”, as she got into her car and pulled out onto Marine Drive.

  As sad as the purpose of our visit to the Point was, the end result left me with a warm feeling that I didn’t want to go away. The Sheriff was at the front of the patrol vehi-cle on the phone while Gordon and I leaned on the trunk. Gordon was the first to break the silence, “Do you think we should tell the Sheriff about Friday night”. “Not just

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  yet; when we get back, try and remember everything you overheard Frankie talking about and don’t leave anything out. We might be able to stop them ourselves”. Did I just say that, I don’t remember signing up to be a super hero? Maybe, just maybe if we can time this right, we can stop them. Yeah I said we, I just recruited Gordon, and I’ll let him know later.

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  the sherIFF wAs on the phone for a while which gave Gordon and myself ample time to smoke. He finally came back towards the back of the patrol car. The scowl on his face did not put me at ease that things were going okay. “That was by far the strangest two calls I’ve had”. Gordon and I just looked at each other. “Okay, I keep forgetting that while you’re in on this, you really can’t help. So the first call was some mucked up FBI Person telling me to stay out of their investigation, due to sensitive issues of security. What that means is they just fed me a pile of shit so they can continue their cover up”.

  “Sounds like whoever called you is partially if not totally responsible for what happened here”. The Sheriff was astounded by what I just said. “That’s a more than reasonable deduction Billy. Where did you learn stuff like this”? I shrugged and replied, “From watching Criminal Minds”. Gordon chuckled and the Sheriff continued. “The second

  call was from a guy who said he was with NSA. I had my doubts until he told me the reason he called me was that his

  colleague had given him my number and if I got a call from him that meant his colleague was dead. He also was given a copy of what was on the flash drive. He’s going to get back with me but already has some useful information”.

  “What would that be Sheriff”, I asked? He shook his head, “Not yet Billy at least not until we get more information

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  that makes sense of what’s happened here, and I can figure out how to stop these folks”. He was all business now, pointing to the patrol vehicle. Gordon and I took the hint and got inside. It was dead silence for a few moments as he turned

  right onto Marine Drive until, “That sure was a pretty young lady Billy. Have you known her long”? “No I met her at the Hospital, she’s a nurse there”. The Sheriff turned his head in my direction, “Are you sure she’s a nurse, you remember your last one”? “No Sir, I’m sure this time, and yeah she is pretty”.

  All was quiet as we headed towards what we call the bend. Once you hit this part of our mini peninsula heading west, you follow the road for about two miles, and then 180 degrees later you’re heading east and still on the same road. They call it Marine Drive or Business 101 depending on who you talk to. It’s a nice drive plus just outside the perimeter of the road is a walking trail which is even a better view because you’re that much closer to the Ocean. I will definitely have to take Jennifer down there for a walk.

  Just as we were started our slow turn around the bend, A large truck was barreling down the road towards us at high rate of speed. From my angle it looked like one of those big city trucks they use for construction and fill the huge bed with dirt or whatever.

  The Sheriff had just noticed the truck which by now was maybe a few hundred yards away. “Oh shit boys, this guy is out of control”, the Sheriff hollered as the truck driver was now in our lane. Every time the Sheriff maneuvered to the other lane, the truck followed suit. It appeared as though the trucks speed was getting even faster, or perhaps it was the fact that he was so damn close. The Sheriff tried one

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  more time to get out of the way and of course there was no place to turn into. The truck was almost on top of us when I heard Gordon screaming from the back seat and the Sheriff had closed his eyes and hit the brakes as if that would help prepare him for impact.

  It was just a gut reaction on my part, as I used both of my arms and did a swooshing movement like I was trying to move something out of the way and without realizing it I screamed “Move”, and it was like the truck did a 90 degree turn, missed us by maybe ten feet, hit a power pole and a sand berm and ended up on its side, wheels still turning.

  The Sheriff opened his eyes to a clear path on the road, looked over at me as I pointed behind us. The Sheriff took a quick view in the mirror, hit the lights and did a u turn with the tires squealing. As we got close to the truck the light pole that he hit snapped in two and the transformer that was attached to it fell right on to the cab of the truck and immediately caught on fire. The Sheriff hit the brakes, put it in reverse and backed up a few hundred yards. Gordon was still screaming in the back seat until he realized we had stopped and were still alive.

  The
three of us exited the patrol vehicle at the same time and started walking towards the truck that was blazing away. The sheriff was on his radio calling for help. Gordon and I could hear a blood curdling scream coming from the cab of the truck. Gordon held his hands over his ears. The Sheriff

  hollered at us to back up away from the truck, and just as we started to back away for the inferno, the truck exploded, throwing a huge fireball at least 100 feet in the air. The sounds of flames crackling was the only sound we could now

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  hear from the truck.

  Gordon and I took refuge in the Patrol car as debris was falling around us. The explosion sent bits of metal flying high in the sky, now falling as fiery weapons back to the ground. The sound of the sirens was deafening as they were pulling up to the truck. Flames were still shooting high to the sky surrounded by tons of black smoke. I got back out of the vehicle, as Gordon stayed put. The Sheriff was directing traffic as so to allow passage for the Emergency vehicles. Even a couple of hundred feet back I could feel the heat searing through my nose with a vengeance. The smell being produced by the black smoke was making me sick to my stomach.

  The Firemen had four hoses attempting to put out the flames. They seemed to be getting ahead of it when a second explosion rocked the grounds. The force from the explosion threw two of the firefighters back up against the side of their fire truck and quickly fell to the ground in a motionless heap. I could hear Gordon in the back of the patrol vehicle yell-ing hysterically, but couldn’t quite hear about what. I turned to go back to the vehicle to find out what he was yelling about, when I felt a thunderous thud on the ground right behind me. Turning quickly, I noticed the remains of one of the wheels from the truck almost smashed me to the ground like an ant. The huge rim was smoldering, but any remains of the tire itself had all but disappeared.

  I would need to thank Gordon for watching out for me. I motioned for him to come back out of the vehicle. He re-

  luctantly came out looking above him for any other debris falling from the sky. He stood next to me as we both watched

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  in awe of the power of fire.

  I was looking around the grounds at some of the remains of the truck that had been scattered about from the explosions when I heard a crackling sound. I heard some hissing and then a few more cracks. The source of the sound brought my head to another power pole about a football field away from where the other one snapped in two. Sure enough the power line that was thrown to the ground from the force of the pole snapping had caused severe stress to the next Power pole, and it looked like the transformer on that pole would fall any second.

  The Sheriff and one of the fire trucks were directly under the faltering power pole. I tried to get the Sheriffs attention but he was too busy making sure traffic stayed in the outside lane away from the scene. Gordon tapped my shoulder and pointed towards the transformer. It was ready to fall and take out all parties below. I looked off to my right and saw an area to the left of where the Sheriff and fire was, which was no more than a couple of weeds popping up through a good half acre of sand and moss. As I looked back the transformer threw off a bright blue arc of light and started to fall. I put my arms in the same position earlier as I did with the truck, made a swoop of my arms away from the Sheriff and company to the empty field to their left. The transformer landed safe enough in the field but the line attached to it slithered along the ground like an angry snake, and a deadly one at that.

  The Sheriff noticed sparks falling on him and saw the transformer go against the laws of gravity and travel sideways first. He looked at me in a way that someone might

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  do in front of Harry Houdini after a performance and not understanding what you just saw. I was with him on that one; I could do the trick but couldn’t tell you how.

  The Second transformer laid there with little activity. The power company must have been notified because the light show of sparks drew to a close. This was news much to the delight of the firemen who could now concentrate solely on the fire instead of having to dodge active power lines as well.

  Things were starting to wind down as Gordon asked, “So tell me, did you do the same thing to that truck as you just did to the transformer”? I humbly shrugged, “Yeah and now the Sheriff knows what I did and I’m going to have to ex-plain it to him. Hey, by the way, thanks for the warning ear-lier”. Gordon nodded and got us each a cigarette; just what we needed, more smoke.

  The charred remains of the truck were still smoldering but under control as the firefighters put on their finishing touches to insure the wreckage remained flame free. There was no reason for that truck to be going that fast. I’m sure that there were no emergency construction projects that re-quired that type of expediency from the driver. I’m begin-ning to think that I know now that we were the target of that trucks affection and who it was that wanted us out of

  the way; Agent Boling. It was unsettling for me that The Sheriff and Gordon were expendable in all this and that I was included.

  Agent Boling had told me about the training, compensa-tion and such and would keep me safe from the other………..oh crap, how stupid could I be. She wasn’t concerned about

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  my safety; I just needed to be delivered safely. I wonder how much she was going to get. What is the going price for telekinetic supercharged people? But why was she willing to let me get crushed? That’s when I remembered what she had said about my foot. While I had all this electricity running through me, I wouldn’t feel anything, just like I couldn’t feel anything wrong with my foot. She must have known that I would have survived the crash. Perhaps we can seek a bit of vengeance and return her favor; though we must be careful as I’m sure that she’s been watching us and I’m sure she’s watching us right now.

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  the FIremen hAd extinguished the fire and were packing things up as two of the Sheriffs Deputies were preparing to check out the wreckage. Marine Drive was now open again in both directions as the Fire truck left the scene. The Sherif f made a slow walk back to Gordon and me. He

  looked tired and more that a bit frustrated. The look that

  he gave me indicated that he had some questions for me. I suppose now is a good time to let him in on my other little secret; though seeing the truck miraculously miss us along with the flying transformer, I’m sure that cat is already out of the bag. We needed to talk and he looked ready.

  Breathing heavily with his hands on his hips he managed to get out, “Billy just what in the hell did I just see, or should I say not see, because I damn sure didn’t see us get hit by that truck”? He managed to get some of his wind back as he continued, “besides the fact that you’re full of god knows how much electricity, is there something else you want to share with the group”? Suddenly I felt like I should be at an AA meeting, Hi my name is Billy, I’m a Telekaholic.

  “Gordon already knows as well as Agent Boling and the two agents that got killed, and Sully suspects something but I’m sure he won’t figure it out”. The Sheriff removed his hat, wiped the sweat from his brow then scratched his head, “So I’m the only one in town that didn’t know about this; if that isn’t a kick in the rat’s ass”. That was a new one for me as well

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  as Gordon as we both had a snicker over that one.

  “Billy, how long have you known that you can do this mind moving stuff”? “Just since I woke up in the Hospital Sheriff”, I replied. I continued the story of how Agent Boling noticed what happened in the ER and the stuff she had me do in the Hospital room as well of my own parlor tricks with the TV. “Damn son, your plate is mighty full these days isn’t it”? I nodded in agreement as now is as good of time as any to discuss what Agent Boling might have in store for us.

  “I take i
t that you are already aware that Agent Boling’s been watching us and is probably watching us right now”, I implied. The Sheriff put his hat back on and replied sarcastically, “You think”. Perhaps my keen sense of the obvious is a little slower than others. “Let’s just say that she’s been keeping tabs of your coming and goings, like going over to see those FBI agents; that’s what got them killed. Now that she and I have butted horns, I’m on her list as well”.

  “Sheriff I think I’ve figured out what her angle is in this and that delivering me to where ever that place is in Nevada is where she collects a fat paycheck for her work”. “Let me guess, Criminal Minds”, the Sheriff guessed? “No, just remembering what she told me, then it all kind of clicked into place. The Sheriff looked about the perimeter and said, “You’ll need to fill me in on all that she has said to you, but we need to find some privacy first; let’s go”, as he motioned for us to get in the patrol vehicle. “Oh, and if we have any more traffic issues, let me handle it. If you cause much more damage there’s not going to be much left of Astoria”. I saved our hide and this is the thanks I get. It wasn’t my doing why that truck was trying to run us down; indirectly maybe.

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  “It seems As though you have underestimated the young boy’s abilities Agent”, the Director stated in a firm voice. “I hope you understand the importance that our project is delivered to our colleagues, and they want him by Monday, you do remember that don’t you. I believe that your intentions, although perceptive, seem to be lacking in feasible results. All I want to know is, can you deliver”, the Director asked? Agent Boling was silent for a moment, “Yes his abilities have far exceeded my expectations. I knew that he would survive the wreck but his ingenuity was quite remarkable. The Sherif and that other kid will be easy; I’m going to use information obtained from the bugs I planted in the facilities office to my advantage to which I will take possession of our project this Friday evening”.