The Duce of Pentacles

by S. A. Gorden

  One of Peterson's first memories of his college days was a group of classmates driving to a public school passing out Christian flyers. In that group was a pretty young girl who would soon become his wife. It was in his second year at college during another evangelistic push that he decided that he would become a pastor of a church. He never knew that his church's fight against humanism, Darwinism, secularism and any other newism was just made up so they could have an opponent to compete against in every town and village in this country.

  Tom Peterson, still fresh from the indoctrination of the Bible College, hadn't as yet tempered his thoughts of the schools as churches of secular humanism and of teachers as their priests. When he heard the rumors of a teacher having sexual relations with a high school girl, his anger flared. He pulled his class notes from college. He called the _good_ Christians and asked them to find out who the teacher was. He prayed and prepared for the calling down of hell and damnation.

  Tom stood in front of his congregation. He had heard that the name of the teacher was James Makinen just before the service. He recognized the name. When he asked his deacon, Mr. Shermon, about the name, he was told that he was the son of the older couple who always sat in back. He decided to ask them to

  come up to the front of the church after the service to pray for their son.

  The congregation was waiting.

  "The text today will be coming from Second Peter PAGEBREAK

  CHAPTER two." Tom waited as the people turned to the pages of their bibles. He loved to hear the rustle of the pages. While he waited, he noticed a few new faces in the congregation, a lone man in back, a young woman in front, and a family in the third row.

  "I will read verses one, fourteen, and fifteen.

  "'But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

  "Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:

  "Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bo'-sor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;' Amen!"

  "False teachers!" Peterson yelled. "Bringing damnable heresies!"

  "Teachers! Heretics! Teaching lies to your children. How we came from monkeys. The false prophecies of humanism..." Peterson stamped and yelled and pranced about the altar. He told of teachers denying the Lord. He told of humanism permitting drugs and sex. He told of one teacher in their own school! He had gotten to the section in his sermon where the adulterous teacher had just beguiled the unstable soul of an innocent student when the young woman in front got up and left. Everyone watched her. The man in back and the Makinen couple left next. The young family followed. Unknown to Peterson was that half of his congregation either were teachers or had sons and daughters or mothers and fathers that were. Before he could start his sermon again, the auditorium had emptied. The only ones left were two deacons and their families and an old man in a walker who had to wait for a ride to pick him up.

  In the silence of the nearly empty church, the old man spoke up. "Son, you sure acted dumber than Balaam and not as smart as his ass today. You need to know what you're talking about and who you are talking to before you open your mouth. I guess you now know how many teachers you had in your flock."

  * * * *

  James Makinen woke in the pre-dawn light. He had slept badly. He kept seeing, in his mind, the soft curve of Lori Waithe's back as she stood in the front pews of the church. He watched over and over again the swaying of her body as she strode out of the church. He had enjoyed watching her before. But after seeing her stride out of the church, it had changed from pleasure to desire. In his dreams, he kept reaching for her body. All he found was the shabby blanket he had on his bed.

  Unable to go back to sleep and prevented from going to work, he decided to clear some of the brush from the swampy lowland in back of the trailer. He got an axe, a bow saw and a machete from the small shed he had built in back. He cut, chopped, and dragged brush into piles all day only stopping for a sandwich at noon.

  It was late afternoon when he heard the honking and cars. A caravan pulled up along the road. Out of the cars and pickups poured high school boys and some of the wilder girls. A few threw empty beer cans at the trailer. A knot of rowdy kids got tangled on the steep sides of the highway ditch and tumbled into a pile of arms and legs and squeals. A girl at the bottom of the knot took the opportunity to grope her boyfriend's crotch. The resulting squeals occupied three carloads of students and kept them out of the upcoming fight.

  Makinen had learned early in his career that you never back down from a confrontation. He walked right up to the screaming kids. In his hand, he had the bow saw. The cars had arrived while he was cutting a small tree down. The saw had seemed to stay in his hands. He rocked the saw back and forth in his

  hand as he walked to the kids. When he was only a few feet away from the mob, the swinging brought the saw up against his forearm. It seemed to fit. The steel tube of the bow saw ran along the edge of his forearm in the same classic way you see the police hold their batons on the late night cop shows. The saw blade ran along the outside edge of the arm protecting it.

  The first student, an Arne Johanson, was swinging a tire iron. Behind him and to each side were a half a dozen other boys two of which had baseball bats. Arne didn't wait. He and John had beat up other people for Pike. He had learned that the one who strikes first usually has the least bruises afterwards. He swung the iron at Makinen's head. Instead of the crunch of metal against flesh that he expected, he heard the ring of metal against metal. Before he could recover, he felt excruciating pain in the back of his knee followed by the air leaving his chest when he landed with his back on the ground. It took him a full minute to catch his breath and open his eyes. When he did, he saw two of the boys with him with their hands raised, one had blood flowing from a ragged cut on his arm while the other had a foot long gash across his chest. Arne heard screams of terror from the distance and the sound of cars speeding away.

  Makinen walked into his sight. Arne saw that the bow saw he held was bent at an angle with blood dripping from the blade. Makinen looked at them and shook his head.

  "Stupid. Stupid. Stupid," he said, still shaking his head. "Okay, boys, you grab Arne and start walking. Your friends left you. I'm going to call the sheriff's department now. I want you a half mile down the road by the time they arrive. If you're not, I will have to talk to you again. Understand?"

  The two boys shook their heads 'yes' and dragged Arne to his feet. For the first time, Arne realized his leg was broken. He screamed himself unconscious. When he woke again, he was in the hospital.

  * * * *

  Henry Hakanen was finishing the last of the day's paperwork when Nancy buzzed him and told him he had a call on line two. Al Gallea was leaving the office when Henry waved him to a stop.

  "You're coming with me on a call, Al," Henry told him after he hung up the phone. As they were leaving the station, Henry told Nancy, "Send an ambulance up county six. Tell them they will find three injured boys walking down the road. Then send a deputy to the hospital. Tell him to hold the boys there until I get there to arrest them."

  Al asked, "What's going on?"

  "Some local punks tried to attack Makinen. We'll get Makinen's statement and then talk to the kids."

  When Henry and Al pulled up to Makinen's trailer, they saw the dozen black tire marks left by squealing tires along the edge of the road. In the driveway halfway to the trailer, they saw a tire iron and a couple of baseball bats. Makinen was waiting for them, sitting on the trailer's stairs. After they got out of their car, Al noticed that there were drops of blood on the bats.

  "Al, would you collect the evidence while I talk to James?" Henry ordered.

  Gallea went back to the car and got
out a camera to photograph the scene. He walked back toward the trailer until he could overhear the conversation between his partner and Makinen.

  "Henry, you've got three in the hospital. If you want the names of the others, get their names from them. I'm tired. Right now, I feel about a hundred."

  "Okay, Jim, but why don't you stay with your parents until this thing settles down?"

  "What, and have them show up there? I'm staying."

  "Jim, I can't have you hurting any more kids... "

  "Hold it, Henry. You're the law. You take care of the problem. It's your job, not mine."

  "I can't have you hurting anyone else. I can put you in protective custody."

  "I'm staying... "

  Al had to move past hearing distance to get pictures of the tire tracks on the road. When he started back to the car, Henry was carefully loading the baseball bats into the trunk. Makinen wasn't in sight anymore. Al figured he went into the trailer.

  "Henry, what went on here?"

  "James was in back, doing some yard work. The kids pulled up more drunk then sober. They were yelling something about getting even for Jenny when they came at him. Three of them had those bats and the tire iron we put in back.

  The other kids seemed to be along to see the fun. Makinen took their weapons away and everyone got scared and left."

  "Henry, there's more to it than that. What else happened?"

  "That's all, Al."

  That was all Gallea got out of Hakanen about his talk with Makinen until they got back to the station. "I told Jim he should go somewhere until we could get things settled down. I even suggested he go to California to see his kids. All he did was look at me and say, 'I'm not the one you should be worried about.' We've got to work fast, Al!"

  The two deputies got out of the station just before midnight. The three juveniles were booked on assault and battery charges. Two had been released into their parents' custody, while Arne spent the night in the hospital so a specialist could view the x-rays of his leg in the morning before his release.

  * * * *

  James woke, drenched with sweat. When he concentrated, he could just remember the last few images of his nightmare. He was watching Lori walking away. He followed, enjoying the swaying of her body. He reached out to touch her shoulder. When he removed his hands, there was blood on her blouse. He looked at his hand. It was filled with blood. He woke. It was the second time that night that he had the same nightmare. He took a shower and went into the living room, turned the TV to the morning news shows. He slept finally, with no dreams, to the reading of the death tolls from across the world. One hundred killed in fighting in West Africa. Thousands die of diseases in Asia ... earthquake in South America ... bombing in Ireland ... school bus in California...

  * * * *

  _The hands turn over the card._

  _A man in armor sits on a large black horse. He has in his hands a circular disk inscribed with a star. The armored figure looks as solid and immovable as a stone mountain.

  CHAPTER 6:

  The Knight of Pentacles Sandra Thomas had great parents. Her father was a lawyer and her mother was a teacher. Her sister was beautiful and smart. Sandra was plain and even smarter. Sandra grew up toughened by the comparisons between her and her beautiful sister. She would come home, crying about a comment by a boy in school or an award her sister got because of her beauty, to the warm arms of her parents. She loved them so she became a lawyer for the teachers' union.

  * * * *

  Normally, Sandra administered the State legal office for the teachers' union. She would assign or contract out assignments from the requests sent to her office. Today she had a problem. She had contracted out the sexual-assault case of the small rural community to a local law firm. But now she had a request for help from another teacher claiming the use of blackmail for sexual favors by the principal and superintendent of the same school. And unlike most cases having to do with employer misconduct, there was proof, including audio tapes. She had a feeling that both cases were linked. She knew she wasn't the best trial lawyer on staff, but could she trust that both cases would be handled correctly if she left them with the contracted law firm?

  She called in her assistant and told him he was in charge of the office until she got back. She phoned the local law firm, telling them she would be taking charge of the case but they would still be on contract for support services. She made appointments with the county sheriff's department for the next day. Finally, she called her parents and asked if they would baby-sit for tonight. She had to go out of town for a few days and would like some time alone with her husband. Her husband never knew how much of that night he owed to the warm loving feelings Sandra got from her parents.

  * * * *

  Jim carefully placed the 200-pound nail magnet in his shoulder bag. He went through his closet and found his best-looking shirt and pants. From his sock drawer, he found a dark blue tie he had last worn at an uncle's funeral. He brushed and polished his shoes. Putting on a wool sport coat, he looked at himself in a mirror. He took a deep breath and was ready.

  This was payday. He knew that Kawalski and Shermon would try to stop his check. He drove into town trying to run through what could happen when he asked for his check. He tried to breathe in through the nose out through the mouth. He centered his energy in his lower stomach, the Ki, the location that oriental martial arts refers to as the center of the body's force. He saw the sign _reserved for office staff_ in the choice parking spot in front of the school and pulled in. He took a final few breaths, controlling his emotions.

  He entered the building; walked to the high school office.

  "Amy, I would like to get my check."

  "I'm sorry, Mr. Makinen, but I don't have one for you."

  "Well, I want my check. You better find out where it is."

  Flustered, Amy hemmed and hawed for a few moments and then walked to Kawalski's door. Knocking, she entered. Jim used the distraction to stand next to the office computer. There he carefully placed the shoulder bag with the magnet next to the machine. He heard the machine beep once and the disk drive start to run and finally silence. He had the bag back on his shoulder before Amy came out of Kawaski's office.

  "I'm sorry, Mr. Makinen, but Mr. Kawalski doesn't know anything about your check. He said you could come back tomorrow."

  "Well, I'll just talk to him," Jim said pushing past Amy. As he entered the office, he said, "Well, Joe, I want my check."

  "Get the hell out of my office!" Kawalski ranted. Jim walked in far enough to lean the bag against Kawalski's computer.

  In a soft kindly voice, Jim commented, "Joey, you had better stop being a prick. This isn't the schoolyard. This is where the big boys play. Here you are just a little turd floating in one mighty big cesspool." Kawalski's ravings completely masked the crashing of his computer.

  As James left the high school office, he again quietly replied, "I want my check. Don't make me come back." Makinen went next to the superintendent's office and finally to the business office. By the time he left, all five of the administration's computers had crashed. It took another hour before anyone noticed that their computers were no longer working. The discovery of the malfunctioning computers corresponded with a phone call from the school's attorney.

  "Mr. Shermon? This is Jack."

  "Who?"

  "Jack Andrews, the school district's attorney."

  "What do you want?" snapped Shermon, his anger still boiling from Makinen.

  "I was just contacted by Makinen's attorney. You have to pay him his salary. In fact, you should keep him on salary until he is officially fired."

  "What! Do you know what the little fucker did?"

  "I don't care what he did. You and the district can be held in violation of his contract. That means you can be held personally liable for his salary plus penalties. In other words, he could take you to the cleaners in the courts. As the school district's attorney, I would have to advise them to suspend you from duties if
Makinen files a complaint. That would be the only way to limit the district's liability. Are you willing to put your job on the line just to keep Makinen from having his pay?"

  Andrews had, at various times, defended some of the worst scum in the region. He had learned to appreciate a good string of cuss words. The string of epitaphs that came from Jefferson were only passing in creativity but in venom they rated an _A_. He decided that he would have to contact a couple of the more responsible members of the school board. They might need to cut their losses and get rid of Shermon. With the bribery of a favorable recommendation, you could usually find a district that would hire a troublemaker off your hands. School boards were notoriously easily swayed into hiring anyone who looked good and had what appeared as the proper background.

  Shermon fumed in anger for the next few hours. He had just gotten himself under control when he realized that all their bookkeeping, even the carefully doctored books, had been on those computers. They had kept everything shady on the computers to make it easier to erase if anyone started to check up on the bookkeeping. Could they rebuild the fake books without being caught?

  * * * *

  Makinen never heard the bullets. He woke to the squeal of tires and a sharp pain in his arm. When he touched his arm, he felt a warm liquid, blood. He turned on the bedroom light. Crouching low, he went into the bathroom to clean and check his arm. He found a two inch long crease along his upper arm. Wrapping his arm in a pillowcase, he got his twenty-gage shotgun. Leaving the lights on, he threw on some clothes and hurried out the back of the trailer.

  He ran to the highway ditch just past the edge of his yard. Crouching in the brush, he waited with his loaded shotgun.