Collapse (New America)

by Richard Stephenson

  “What else is going on in the world, Hal?”

  “Sir, I feel I should delay the morning news report to tell you that our trip to the Castle will be delayed.”

  “Why?”

  “Rioting in Denver will cause us to take another route.”

  Howard couldn’t understand this; Hal knew that they were not to enter the city limits of Denver. “How does that affect our route?”

  “The National Guard has extended its western perimeter of Denver by seven point three miles.”

  “That bad, huh?” Howard began to get very uncomfortable.

  “Yes, sir. One of the roads on our route is now inside the perimeter.”

  “Can’t we just go off-road?” Howard was not looking to add two hours to his round trip excursion to see Meredith.

  “I’m sorry to report, sir, that given the terrain, the delay would remain the same and the ride would not be comfortable for you. Would you like me to take us off road?”

  “I would not, Old Man. Do what you think is best.”

  “Of course, sir. Would you like me to continue with the morning news report?”

  “Sure, why not.” Howard was not planning on paying attention, but he did like to hear Hal’s voice. It was the only thing that made him feel like he was still at home.

  The rest of the trip was uneventful. Hal completed his morning report, and Howard watched his favorite episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation entitled “The Inner Light.”

  Once the episode ended, Hal informed his creator, “Sir, we will arrive at Beck Castle in twenty-three minutes.”

  “Thank you, Old Man.” Howard replied.

  The name “Old Man” was also a Star Trek reference, but this one didn’t derive from The Next Generation. On Deep Space Nine, Captain Sisco gave his friend Dax the nickname “Old Man.” Dax was a symbiotic creature that required a humanoid host. When the host died, another host was required to carry the symbiant. Captain Sisco first met Dax when a man named Curzon was the host. A woman named Jadzia carried the symbiant when the older host died. Sisco had called the first host “Old Man” because the host was actually quite elderly. He continued the nickname with the younger woman; it was a source of amusement for them both and the nickname stuck. Howard had to explain to Hal why he had given him a nickname; Hal did not understand the connection. Hal told Howard that he was neither old nor had a gender. Howard just gave up and told him to respond to both names. Hal obeyed his creator.

  “Give me a status report on Beck Castle.”

  “Yes, sir. I have prepared the Manor for your arrival. Director Thornberry’s office sent the quarterly shipment last week, which will be properly inventoried and secured in the warehouse. The air filters in the east wing are in need of minor repair; replacement parts are en route, and I will install them upon arrival. The new bay doors to the landing pad have been installed per your instructions.”

  “Excellent. Where is Her Highness?”

  “Meredith will meet you in the usual place, sir.”

  When Hal came online, the basement of Howard's mansion housed his massive mainframe. Realizing that Hal was one of the most important inventions in the history of the world, Howard began to grow very paranoid that his creation would somehow be destroyed. As a very expensive precaution, Howard had a top-secret facility built beneath a mountain thirty miles northwest of his home. Upon completion, Hal's redundant backup systems were moved into the facility. Nine hundred zettabytes of data chronicling the history of mankind kept Hal company in his secondary home. Copies of every word ever written, every painting ever painted, every image of everything ever filmed, and everything about everything was stored in Beck Castle. The sprawling, underground complex could withstand a nuclear detonation directly atop it. Nothing in the world could destroy it. If a million years from now mankind became extinct, a new species could then spend another million years evolving into sentience and discover the facility. Hal would let them in the massive front door and in a few generations would finish telling their descendants everything they wanted to know about their long extinct predecessors.

  When the facility was completed, Howard bumped down a few notches on the World’s Richest Person list. It was of no consequence; a few years later he took back the crown. Howard built the facility as an ark for the survival of mankind.

  Hundreds of people could live in the complex for generations before they exhausted the resources Howard had provided. He had seen the latest intelligence on the Iranian’s infamous Bunker Five in Afghanistan and wouldn’t wipe his own ass with the blueprints if he ever came across them.

  Howard and Hal designed the geothermal power plant that could keep Hal running inside Beck Castle until the end of time itself. If planet Earth exploded, Howard liked to imagine Hal floating inside the bunker. Howard envisioned Hal spending eternity traveling through space, waiting for some alien race to discover him. Howard debated on whether or not to share the technology of his power system with the rest of the world. He decided against it, fearing people might somehow make the connection to Beck powering some secret facility. The survival of the human race, especially the survival of Hal, was far too great a risk to gamble. Nothing in the world was more important to Howard than Hal.

  Howard had kept the facility a secret from his own government and with much pain, from his dear friend, Malcolm. Should the time come, the president would be ushered to the facility to live with his friend, Howard. The superbunker was built in separate stages around the world. Each company was completely insulated from each other; Hal saw to that. The people building their piece of the puzzle had no idea what the completed picture looked like. Hal and his robots did the majority of the construction. If any stage of construction required human hands and eyes, they were searched for any recording or GPS devices and put on a windowless plane. Upon arrival, they would be blindfolded and escorted into the facility by one of Hal’s robots to complete their work. Howard compensated them well, so all the subterfuge was not an issue for those involved.

  The massive underground super-bunker took twelve years to build. A year after the completion of Beck Castle, the top-secret facility was under the supervision of its first caretaker. Mrs. Beck was crowned as Her Royal Highness, Queen of Beck Manor. Howard loved calling his wife "Her Highness" and really couldn’t figure out if his wife liked the term or not.

  Twenty-three minutes later they arrived at the secret garage that would take him down to the complex. Howard considered the garage the Batcave; he felt like Bruce Wayne every time he entered or exited the mysterious opening. The helipad was not far away. The floor of the desert would suddenly open up like something out of a James Bond movie. A platform would rise up to receive incoming craft and would then lower into the facility.

  Howard exited the vehicle and told Hal to disable all communication. He wanted to speak with his wife in private. He was not looking forward to explaining to his wife why he had not come to see her in such a long time and didn’t want Hal to record the event.

  Howard grabbed the bouquet of his wife’s favorite flowers and walked the short distance to the beautiful garden he had built for her. He swallowed his pride and hung his head as he walked over to her.

  Howard Beck collapsed on his wife’s grave and began to sob.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Years before Richard Dupree became an inmate at Highland Valley State Prison and a white supremacy group sunk their claws into him, he awoke in his home on a cold Sunday morning. He rolled his fingers along the smooth, brown skin of his gorgeous wife. The two had been together on and off since their sophomore year in high school. As his fingers ran down her back, she stirred and let out a barely audible moan of pure contentment. She drifted back into her peaceful slumber, and Richard rolled over to look at the alarm clock. Still had an hour before the alarm would sound and they would have to get the kids ready for church. Richard had spent much of the previous night in the bathroom thinking about how the events of today would
unfold. He had a big day planned.

  Richard had gotten Monique pregnant during their senior year of high school. He had no intention of settling down. Getting married and having to take care of a kid would destroy his plans for the future. When he was in high school, he went with his best friend to see the movie Act of Valor. Richard was blown away by the fact that some of the actors in the movie were real Navy SEALs. What impressed him the most was the fact that the Navy SEALs who collaborated with the production company became so frustrated over the fact that they were not being portrayed accurately and were subsequently invited by the producers to play key roles in the cast.

  Richard talked non-stop with his father about how actual real-life SEALS were in the movie. His dad told Richard that the same was true about the Senior Drill Instructor in his favorite movie, Full Metal Jacket. Kubrick had originally cast a different actor in the roll. Tom Colceri, the actor who played the Helicopter Door-Gunner, was originally cast as Senior Drill Instructor Hartman. Colceri never got to film a single scene once Kubrick viewed a videotape of R. Lee Ermey, a former United States Marine Corps Drill Instructor who had been hired as a consultant to assist with the boot camp portion of the film. In the videotape, Ermey screamed non-stop insults for fifteen minutes, never once repeating himself. The man managed to achieve the impressive feat while being pelted with tennis balls and oranges.

  Richard became obsessed with being a Navy SEAL; he spent his teenage years getting into the best shape of his life. He’d studied everything he could about a vast array of weapons and tactics. His favorite book of all time was SEAL Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy SEAL Sniper by Howard E. Wasdin. He had lost count of how many times he’d read the book; he read it at least once a year and still carried the original copy with him always.

  Richard graduated from high school, broke up with Monique before their son was even born, and set out to achieve his dream of becoming a SEAL. Richard’s father was pleased that he ended things with Monique. His father told everyone it was because he also wanted to see Richard become a SEAL, but Richard knew better. Though his father would deny it and pretend to be outraged if anyone said it aloud, he was a racist. Mr. Dupree had never uttered a racist comment around his children, but it was clear to Richard when he saw the look of disgust on his father’s face anytime he turned the channel to find Oprah or any Tyler Perry show staring back at him.

  When Richard brought Monique home for the first time he wondered how his father would react. His father was polite and cordial to Monique as Richard expected. Mr. Dupree raised his children to treat others with respect and to display impeccable manners in his home. However, Richard could tell that his father did not approve of his girlfriend and preyed upon Richard’s frustrations with teenage love as an opportunity to drive the two apart any chance he got.

  Monique wanted to get married before the baby was born and even tried to convince Richard that she would be the perfect military wife. She swore she would live on base and wouldn’t have any problem with Richard being deployed for long periods of time. Richard did not want to be burdened by a family and wanted to devote himself one hundred percent to joining the ranks of the world’s most elite fighting force.

  Richard enlisted the day after his high school graduation and left a pregnant Monique behind to join the Navy. After the baby was born, Monique sent him pictures on a weekly basis hoping to change his mind about marriage. Richard fell in love with the son he never met but buried the emotions deep down and worked even harder to become a SEAL.

  Having spent most of his childhood obsessing about everything to do with the SEALs, Richard breezed through the selection process. He impressed the instructors with his vast tactical knowledge and skills with a long-range rifle. It was clear to everyone in his graduating class that Richard had a bright future ahead of him.

  Richard did indeed have an amazing career. His childhood dreams became the most amazing reality he could imagine. However, his life would not be complete unless Monique and their son were a part of it. Monique never once tried to collect child support from him. She knew that to do so would only drive him further away. Richard saved up as much leave as he could and after calling in a lot of favors, traveled back to his hometown for a month so he could marry his high-school sweetheart and raise their three-year-old son.

  The wedding was small and simple. Richard wore his dress uniform and Monique wore her grandmother’s wedding dress. Much to Richard’s surprise, his father gave him his own wedding band for Monique to place on Richard’s finger. Richard had never been happier in his entire life.

  Monique did keep her word on becoming a dutiful military wife. She never complained about Richard being away weeks and months at a time. Her complaints would only serve as a distraction for Richard, and his life depended on him being completely focused while he was on a mission.

  Richard knew that his wife was lonely. His own guilt led him to believe that she was not being faithful to him while he was deployed around the world taking down terrorist cells. He began to become suspicious of any man, married or single, who knew Monique. His wife was stunning to look at; every man was spellbound by her beauty. Richard added man after man to his list of suspects and was convinced that one of them was having sex with his wife.

  The suspicions faded away when their second child, a daughter, was born. Richard adored his little princess and could hardly tear himself away. Monique and the kids would wait anxiously by the computer for Richard to Skype them night after night. When he had down time, which was rare, he would dig his iPad out of his bag and look at the beautiful faces of his little babies growing up before his very eyes.

  One night he Skyped his wife to discover the kids were already in bed. He’d been talking with his wife for over an hour when her cellphone rang from across the room.

  “Oh, sorry hon, I’m expecting a call. Hold on a sec.”

  “Sure, sure, go ahead, not a big deal.”

  Monique walked to the other side of the room out of view of the webcam and answered her phone. Richard could only hear one side of the conversation, and he did not like what he heard.

  “Hey, Bryan!” … “Yes” … “Thanks, yeah, I’m online with him right now.”… “I know! I’m so excited!” …….. “Two weeks from tomorrow, I can’t wait to see him.” ……. “Yeah, I’m excited about tomorrow, been looking forward to it all week.” …………. “Martha is watching the kids so we should be able to leave around lunch.” ………… “OK, I’ll remember, I gotta go.” ……. “OK, yeah, bye.”

  Monique walked back into view of the computer and sat down. “OK, sorry about that, sweetie. That was Bryan.”

  “Who is Bryan? Where are you going with him?” Richard tried his best not sound like he was accusing his wife of anything.

  His wife smiled and smirked. “Oh that, I didn’t know you could hear me. It’s nothing; he’s a friend of Julia’s. His sister is getting married tomorrow, and Bryan asked Julia to go with him but didn’t really say it was a date. Julia really likes him and asked me to go along in case Bryan didn’t make a move. She didn’t want to be stuck there with no one to talk to if things got weird.”

  “Oh, yeah, cool. Sounds like fun. Gonna be gone all day? Spending the night?”

  “No, just for the day. They’re having a dinner reception and we’ll drive back that night.”

  “Oh, well that sounds like a lot of fun. Make sure you guys don’t drink too much, and make it home safe.”

  “I will honey. Will you be able to Skype us tomorrow? The kids really want to see you.”

  “I doubt it. I might not be able to call again until right before we leave to come home.”

  “OK, I understand, baby. I’m getting tired. Hope you can call before you come back.

  “Me, too.”

  “I love you, baby. Bye.”

  Richard lifted two of his fingers to his lips, kissed them and pressed his fingers to the screen. Then the screen went black.

&nb
sp; Richard was unable to contact his family until he returned stateside. He pulled out his iPad and tried to Skype his wife but got no answer. He dialed her cell and again got no answer. He texted her and got no reply. It was past 11pm; his wife should have been home with the kids.

  When he got to his home early the next morning he discovered his wife asleep in their bed. He walked into the kids’ room and woke up his sweet little princess. She rubbed her eyes, looked at her father and beamed with pure joy. He kissed her face repeatedly, which made her giggle. He knew that his son was a very deep sleeper and would not wake easily, so he left him to whatever little boys dreamed about. He carried his precious daughter into his bedroom and sat on the bed next to his wife.

  She awoke and couldn’t believe her husband was sitting next to her. He wasn’t due to be home until the afternoon. She couldn’t figure out if he was really home or if she was dreaming.