Madness

by Bill Wetterman

In Chicago

  General Marco Giamo, former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President Monroe, served on the front lines with his troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. He earned the respect of the frontline soldier. The military stepped in line with Giamo when the United Nations Building blew apart.

  Now looking out over the city of Chicago, he wondered why he fought the urge to save the entire Southside and disobey Pendleton’s orders. Pendleton worked in a systematic and orderly fashion, making a thorough attempt to subdue rebellion before the show of force. Here, despite efforts to explain the advantages on joining and consequences of refusing—burning, looting, and civil disobedience raged out of control.

  Giamo had orders to act. The locals refused to listen. They defied all authority and chose to act as an authority on their own.

  Giamo’s plane landed at noon on a Thursday, right before Pendleton was to go on the air to give his weekly update. Flyers had been dropped inside a square from Midway Airport along W.71st all the way to Lake Michigan, down S. Cicero Avenue to Ogden Avenue, up Ogden to University Hospital, and across to the lake on the north.

  Armored trucks had canvassed the neighborhoods, requesting an end to the violence and the turning over of all weapons and drugs to the Global Realm. When the trucks came under extreme firepower, they withdrew. Pendleton issued the final order to the residents. Leave the area at once unarmed or suffer the consequences.

  Twenty-four hours had passed and only about 70,000 of the estimated 110,000 residents had evacuated the area. The Global Realm processed them, tested them, and relocated them into responsible jobs and housing.

  Giamo’s America had rapidly fallen to a modern-day moral low. He had to remind himself that the age of the World War II generation had given way to a selfish, greedy, generation of takers. Still, giving this order made him sick.

  Special Forces units and heavy artillery lined the streets surrounding the Southside of Chicago. On Giamo’s order, they were to meet at the center of the blocked-off area, leaving no one alive within the square.

  The gang populations banded together in a suicide-style bonding, vowing to fight to the death for the life they so relished.

  Twice Giamo took a drink of water to clear his dry throat.

  “Advance.”

  With that one word uttered, the house-to-house destruction began.

  As the troops entered a block, artillery shelled the area for five minutes ahead of them, reducing buildings to rubble and forcing people out of burning buildings right into the bullets of the units advancing toward them. Flamethrowers fried the garbage-filled alleyways.

  “General, Sir,” a commander called in.

  “Yes.”

  “There are several people waving white flags. They’re wishing to surrender, Sir.”

  “They waited too long. Shoot them down.”

  The Global Realm sent a signal. If you join the cause and obey the law, you become an equal among equals. If you don’t, you will pay the consequence. Refusing to disarm and turn over illegal drugs was a crime met with fatal consequences. Six months from now, a world purged of these vices wouldn’t need the death penalty.

  Chapter 28

  Peacock opened her eyes and smelled the odor of alcohol. The objects surrounding her registered as varying shades of achromatic gray. Her intellect knew the color spectrum. She was colorblind. Her head ached, and she sensed some misfiring in the central part of her brain. She wiggled her toes, her fingers, and listened to her heartbeat. Her body seemed in perfect working order. Aware of her intense femininity, she relished being a woman.

  A young man, early thirties, entered her room wearing a white coat and carrying a clipboard. He sat next to her with a microphone affixed to his collar and a recorder in his pocket. He spoke. “Case 772, seven p.m. Laverna Smythe Pendleton, patient.”

  She examined him head to foot, impressive looking.

  “Good evening, Laverna, I’m Doctor Pederson. I work for Doctor Levi. Do you know where you are?”

  “No.”

  “What’s the last thing you remember clearly?”

  “My head aches.”

  “Yes. What’s the last thing you remember clearly?”

  “That my head hurts. I just told you.”

  “Before that?”

  She tried to recall, but nothing leaped into her mind. “I don’t remember anything.”

  “What language are you speaking?”

  “I don’t know. The same one you are.”

  She giggled and found that response refreshing.

  “Tonight we’re going to test your mathematical skills. All right?”

  “All right.”

  “How much is two plus two?”

  “What would you like the answer to be?” Someone famous had spoken the same words. She didn’t remember whom.

  “I want it to be what you were taught it was in school.”

  “Four.”

  “Good.”

  “Why is that answer good? It just is.” She pushed herself up. The doctor raised the bed so she could look straight at him.

  “It’s good you know the answer. Where did you learn the answer was four?”

  She didn’t know and shook her head.

  “What’s your name?”

  “You said it’s Laverna Smythe Pendleton.”

  “What do you say it is?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Where were you born?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Doctor Pederson reached in his pocket and pulled out four pictures. “Look carefully at these faces and tell me which one makes you feel good about being alive.”

  She studied them, two men and two women, but only one was smiling. She pointed at the smiling face, “This one.”

  “Why does this one make you feel good about being alive?”

  “She’s not sad.”

  “Okay. I’m sure you’re tired. I’ll be back in the morning.”

  She wasn’t that tired. “Who am I?”

  “Maybe we’ll find out tomorrow.”

  He left her irritated. She should have been able to continue. There was a television set and a control by her bed. She turned the set on, but could only find two channels, both broadcasting the same programming. She settled in to watch the Western Division of the Global Realm Broadcasting Network.

  “In total, an estimated 30,000 insurgents were killed battling Global Realm forces in Chicago,” a man was saying. “While here in Los Angeles, the collection of firearms and drugs is proceeding with few incidents, and clean-up is moving along fairly well. The main problem is bringing in enough large haulers to remove the trash and debris. Volunteers who have a hauler should report to the Global Clean-up Center in West Covina.” He gave an address.

  The world she was looking at was unfamiliar to her, although seeing people working together to clean neighborhoods lifted her spirits. Maybe I am tired. The T.V. control fell from her hand.

  After a sound night’s sleep, Peacock awoke to a rainbow of colors. The staff had moved her to a private room with a view of a city. She could see the colors outside and in the room. She smiled and heard herself laughing. Her voice sounded almost giddy. She rolled to her left and stepped down onto the floor. Quickly, she rocked back onto the bed and sat still to gain her bearings.

  “I’ve brought someone to see you.”

  She recognized that voice and put up her hand without turning around. “Give me one second.” Peacock liked the voice, male, strong, yet loving. “Are you my lover?”

  “Always and forever,” he said.

  She heard a cooing and the stifled cry of an infant. She swiveled around to see a man holding a little baby. Her mouth dropped open and she knew. This was her son. “Please,” she said, and reached for the child.

  The man placed the boy in her arms and tears burst down her face.

  “His name is George Henry Pendleton, our son.”

  Peacock struggled within her mind to recall.

  “It’s all r
ight, Lovey. Things take time. I said I’d find a way to get that device out of your head, and I have. Eventually you’ll remember.”

  Her breast milk had dried months earlier, and she pulled her hand back from the instinctive urge to nurse her son.

  The man handed her a bottle. “Feed him. You’ll breast feed our next one.”

  “Then you’re my husband,” she said, and thought him far superior than most men.

  “And you’re my wife. The best wife a man could ask for.”

  “Please, tell me your name. I’m sorry I can’t remember a thing.”

  “I’m Arthur Pendleton, your husband and friend.”

  “Nice to meet you, Arthur.” George cooed and she grinned. “Oh, this is divine.”

  Her husband seemed to enjoy watching her with their son as much as she did holding him. The twinkle in his eyes created a warm loving feeling. Then she noticed several men in black uniforms standing guard outside her room.

  “Why all the bodyguards?” she asked.

  “Don’t worry about them. Until we’ve subdued the resistance, they’re a necessity.”

  An older man entered the room, with the young man she’d talked to the night before. “I’m Doctor Levi,” the older man said. “This is my assistant, Doctor Pederson. How are you feeling today, Laverna?”

  “I’m happy. I have my son and my husband, Arthur, here with me.”

  “I’ll be introducing you to a number of people in your life over the next few weeks.” He studied her vital signs. “We’ll see how much of your memory we can stimulate to recollection.”

  “Now it’s time for you to do your physical rehab,” Pederson said, and Pendleton reached to take back George.

  “No!” Peacock felt a surge of rage and tightened her grip on her son. “I’m not ready to let him go.”

  A sharp prick behind her neck and the world became fuzzy. She couldn’t move her eyelids, let alone her arms. The colors faded to gray, and she slept.

  #

  Pendleton handed George to his mother out in the hall.

  “How did it go?”

  “Great for a first time. She adores our son, and I think she likes me.”

  Doctor Levi motioned Pendleton over. “We’re discovering unusual activity in her brain. Pathways have developed in the area surrounding the absent implant that fire instant activity into the subsections of the brain controlling emotional reaction, first and foremost, rage and secondarily libido. Her brain scans confirm our observations. She’ll be normal until a trigger ignites her emotions, then she’s uncontrollable.”

  “Which means?”

  “She’ll need a lot of retraining to control her emotional swings. You saw how she acted when we tried to take George back.”

  “Yes, but. . .”

  “No buts, Arthur, we have to administer her therapy slowly.”

  “All right, give me a game plan.”

  “There should be visits by you with George, daily. If you can’t make it, have Anne bring him. You will ask her the questions our researchers want her to answer.”

  “All right.”

  “She should also see her former associates and allow them to participate in her recovery.”

  “Again, I’ll do anything to have her back.”

  Reuben Levi placed both hands on Pendleton’s shoulder and looked directly in his eyes. “From everything I’ve read on her from Kolb’s files, I can say with certainty. There is no her to have back.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “When she came to Hercules, she went by the name of Donna O’Conner. That person dealt with severe post-traumatic stress disorder and emotional psychosis. They trained her to become Peacock. Peacock’s training is that of an assassin.”

  “Oh for God’s sake.”

  “Are you following me, Arthur?”

  “I’m following you. But I can tell you, my Lovey isn’t either of those two people.”

  “No, Laverna Smythe Pendleton is a role she performs.”

  “She isn’t acting. She loves me.”

  “In a sense, she does. In another sense, you’re not real. She plays a role and loves the part. Being Laverna gives her a sense of self she never had before. But honestly, after Kolb adjusted the implant, none of the personalities that made up your wife exist anymore.”

  “Is she insane?”

  “Yes, she’s quite mad. She’s also brilliant. She’s is capable of becoming somewhat sane. Think of an artist removing all the paint from a canvas and starting over.”

  Pendleton slumped in a chair and waved away everyone but Levi. He tried to understand his wife’s condition. However, he kept running into his own emotions. “So her mind is an empty canvas on which a new life can be painted.”

  “Except, the pathways most used by the implant are supercharged. Her gene pool is unaltered. She will have memories, but memories are not personality.”

  “What about her capabilities? She is a trained martial arts expert.”

  Levi chuckled. “She’s as deadly as they come.”

  In her mid-twenties, his wife wasn’t anyone. All right, he’d help her become a vibrant individual and teach her to love life. To Doctor Levi, Lovey was a unique opportunity to understand the human mind. To Pendleton, she was the woman he loved. Between the two of them, a wonderful human being would result.

  He shivered, but not from the cold.

  #

  Peacock opened her eyes. She reached for her child to find her arms empty. Color returned to her sight, but her temper raged red. She pulled herself out of bed and disconnected the monitor lines attached to her skull. She pitched the blood pressure stand and gauge across the room, slamming it against the wall.

  Two attendants raced through her door only to barely escape with their lives.

  “I want my baby, now,” she howled. “Now, I said.”

  Doctor Levi stepped into the room, and she glared at him. “Where’s my son?”

  “With your mother-in-law.”

  “Bring him here.”

  “No.”

  She jerked back at the word, no. “But he’s mine.”

  “You could have harmed him with your tantrum, Laverna. You didn’t think. How is your rage working for you?”

  She sat down on the edge of the bed. “You’ll sedate me when I get mad, won’t you?”

  “We have to.” Levi walked fully into her room. “You and the team I’ve assembled need to work together to bring you to some sense of normalcy.”

  “I want to read my files. I have a right.”

  “Under the new regime, I’m not sure what rights you have.”

  “Is my husband still here?”

  “No, he’s left for one of his hundred meetings a day.”

  “Doctor Levi, please, I’ll cooperate, but I need to know about the world I live in and who I am. I can read, write, speak, and understand. I’ll work with you, and yes, we’ll figure me out together.”

  She watched Levi’s face, trying to read his mind. Finally, he said, “All right. Work with your therapist today. Give a hundred percent, and tonight, I’ll give you a copy of every file I have on you. I think you’ll be occupied for a good month.”

  “I’m sorry I blew up. The rage happens before I can think to stop myself.”

  “I know. We’ll work on finding out why.”

  Chapter 29

  Three Weeks Later

  Peacock closed the last of a mountain of files. This one labeled, Mind Control Project-DBS, Subject 34. Where did she go from here? What were her assets? Intelligence, an IQ of over 150, physical dexterity and strength, and the ability to mimic emotions led the field. Reading about her life amazed her. Since memories were returning, she could connect the writing to events in her head.

  Like working a twelve-step program, Peacock tackled her steps. The first three were easy. She admitted she was helpless and couldn’t restore herself to sanity. She had become willing to work with God and Doctor Levi’s team and turn herself over to their hands. He
r past emotions purged, and seeing her life for the miracle it was, she readily accepted God as the reason she’d survived.

  Now, she’d come to the place where she had to write down a thorough assessment of her strengths and weaknesses. One glaring weakness lay in her inability to disconnect from her intellectual fear of attachments and actually experience the relationships she mimicked. Being alone most of her waking hours gave her time to reflect.

  She remembered standing at her family’s gravesite talking in her head to her dead father almost fifteen months earlier.

  I’m mortally wounded, Dad. Only it’s my mind that’s dying. Even my feelings for Arthur can’t be described as love—only a boost to my ego. One day, I’m afraid I’ll be just a whore and a cold-blooded murderer.

  She remembered licking the melting snow off her lips and sighing.

  I’m pregnant. I want the child, but I’m afraid to grow fond of it. Everyone I love dies. That’s why I know I don’t love Arthur. He’s very much alive.

  She’d mulled those words repeatedly. Did she really believe admitting she loved Arthur Pendleton would result in his death? Apparently, she had back then. Right before Ursa showed up that day, she’d asked her father.

  If God is real, why did He allow you to die the way you did? Answer me that.

  Logically, there was no answer to the question. A person believed either God did not cause that event, or God did. Until she understood God, she was stumped. Arthur told her once that God never brings evil, but He allows evil to happen and has His own reasons as to why.

  “I want to live a normal life,” she said aloud, knowing her emotional makeup and Kolb’s work altering her brain had destroyed everything normal in her. She made a decision and pressed the button Doctor Levi installed when she wanted to talk. “I want to explore the past.”

  A voice over the intercom answered. “Doctor Pederson and your husband will be with you at four o’clock.”

  “Can I take the tests?” she asked.

  “Of course, I’ll bring them to you.”

  The Global Realm required all its citizens to undergo evaluation for skills, interests, and life experiences. She’d already selected the modules she wished to follow. The testing would take seven hours. She had nine hours before her meeting. She’d finish well ahead of time. “All right, God. Your creature needs Your love to understand how to love herself.”