Chase knew where Matt was located the whole time, as Matt had kept the gift Chase had given him the last time they were together. Chase had given him a key chain with a small but powerful, hardened steel, impact resistant laser pointer. Matt commented that it looked like a mini-mag light.
When Chase gave it to him, he showed him how to activate it, and impressed upon him the gravity of the action. It was only to be used if his life was in mortal danger. Chase didn’t fully allude to what kind of help was going to come, but he showed Matt how to make it come. He told Matt that he wouldn’t have believed him if he told him anyway.
Then again, Chase considered, thinking of where Matt had just come from, that was a silly thought; but the information was to remain classified anyway. So they left it at that. Matt assumed that Chase was a man of his word and apparently he hadn’t given up on him enough to throw the pointer out.
Of course, he didn’t let Matt know they could ping it at any time, but he should have assumed it given all he had been taught already. Matt had been in Cancún, which was confusing at first, but once Jan and the boy joined him, Chase got what it was about. The one thing his people somehow didn’t see in this man was his heart.
Chase had been at the funeral of Vera Maldonado, Matt’s lover he killed because she stood in the way of a madman about to bring on the big hurt to the world. He saw the man’s anguish, and he heard the man’s words at the eulogy. He knew the man, and normally that would have been enough, but with so much on the line and his role to be played out throughout their ranks periodically with different board members, they had to know without a doubt that he possessed the judgment and temperament to do the job they needed him to do.
If he had pulled the trigger, then he would have been retired at an early age by the Board. But he didn’t pull the trigger. Yet instead of being handed over his new title as planned, he took umbrage and unexpectedly decided to disappear.
Well, at least it seemed that Matt had decided he was done with clandestine agencies and associations for a while. Now he was back and Kim came to tell Chase her thoughts. Her husband, Ray Callahan, had a huge personal interest in the whole thing, as he was about the only one who believed in and stood up for Matt when literally a whole country was against him.
Ray would be very disappointed by this turn of events, as her husband was a psychologist and Matt had been under his care until he had transferred him to his mentor in the civilian world. No, Ray certainly didn’t know about this. He thought Matt was done with this life and had taken his family and just checked out. In reality he was lying to Ray when he turned down the CIA analyst job and joined TJAC, and so was Ray’s wife lying.
That was the real reason she was here, Chase wanted to ask her point blank what she intended to tell her husband if the subject of TJAC ever came up? It was another point that had become a source of dissention in their usually placid organization. TJAC had carefully chosen Kim Sullivan because it looked like they were never going to have to deal with her having a spouse. Now they were facing a new name of Callahan, the surname of one of the CIA’s greatest minds.
TJAC was a closed society of billionaire philanthropist who had his or her own view on how philanthropy should be meted out. The organization itself was only known to its board members and four outsiders: one was a West Point legend, one was sitting in front of him, one was Matt Hurst, and the other ran the free world.
He broached the question and became more concerned with the answer. She simply stated she wouldn’t lie to her husband, and since he was a clever guy, he’d probably figure it all out at some point anyway.
Chase almost recoiled at the revelation, as it was so troubling on many fronts, but the main one was that they were doing things that the CIA might take umbrage to; after all, it was “their” job to be defending the sovereignty of the United States, not the Thomas Jefferson Action Committee. Or at least that was how they would see it.
Chase brought her up to speed, as all she knew was that Chase wanted to know when Tom Holsinger re-entered the country, and have a picture of that re-entry. The thought occurred to Chase that maybe Matt did give away his laser pointer, and they were looking at some donkey walking around with it in its saddlebag.
Then when it got on a plane, Chase thought that maybe it was in some tourists backpack that Hurst had slipped the pointer into. But sure enough, it was he in the photo at Sea/Tac, plus they pinged him again and it showed Seattle as the pointer’s location. So he was back. But still no word.
Chase finished his meeting with Kim, but he was so distracted with his thoughts about Matt that he was barely listening. His true reason to have her here was really just to gauge her reaction when asked the magic question, and now he knew. It was now dinner for two apparently. Unfortunately for Chase, Kim was brought into them as dinner for one, and now he was tap dancing.
Chase had to face the fact that his fellow board members were right about this, and now they were a breath away from being known by five people instead of four. The unnerving part was the fifth was a wild card, and that let into play something no one at the table would tolerate—being exposed.
Every one of those people would disappear from that table and their aid, which was desperately needed to the world, would be pulled. It would be a serious tragedy that sadly no one would ever know about, as no one knew they existed.
Kim left Chase to his thoughts, and his thoughts were that he hoped Matt came to his senses and came back in from the cold. If he just came back in and talked to him, then he would become a very powerful and trusted man. They were not vetting Matt for a job; they were vetting Matt to take control of all of TJAC’s operations. They were going to use him as an agent, but only of the intimidation kind, they didn’t want to rub people out. If they ever really had information on a drug cartel, then the right people would get that information. On the other hand, if they got information that an American industrialist was doing things to undermine the interests of the United States, then they would decide if that person was going to get a visit or receive other means of retaliation.
Matt was going to have the keys to the operation handed to him, but the keepers pushed too far. Now he looked unstable in their eyes and his window of opportunity was shrinking by the minute. If he’d just come in and explain that he was not some arbitrary killer, he would not believe the doors that it would open.
It was always planned for him to join them, but he had no idea in what capacity for which they wanted him, and he certainly would not have guessed that another chair was being made at their table for him.
It was unfortunate that Matt’s only way out of the situation in Ecuador was to eliminate everyone involved, because now he had the daunting task of removing the stigma he’d placed over his head. He needed to change the perception they had of him and that was not looking good at the moment. It looked like he just plain snapped.
3 – Revelation
There it was again, his wake up call. Vera was screaming at him, and those eyes, those crazy, glassed over eyes, just like every night. No matter the pleasantries initially, the dreams always ended the same, with her accusing eyes judging him, so betrayed and furious. As always, the shot rang out that ended her life and he awoke. The clock read five fifteen. He pulled himself up, no need to just lie there and try to get back to sleep; sleep time was over.
He looked over to see son sleeping soundly. Jon Jon was sick again. Sooner or later they were going to acclimate to this region, but for now at least one of them seemed to be sick at all times. He was getting to be such a big boy and was beginning to protest Jan’s methods, but he was not winning that battle, as Matt had found out the hard way. This was probably his last night in their room.
Matt sat at the computer and turned it on. It had taken a month to get back into any kind of normal routine, and he was sure his old discussion group had moved on, seeing he had, but he sure did miss them and hoped to at least find one.
He logged onto the group he had created, “Where's my A
merica?” The topic was the economy today as the group had taken on a life of its own long ago, but before he had a chance to get into any kind of discussion, he had given a “thumbs up” on a comment and was immediately mobbed by all of his old guys.
Picomann was the first to say, “HEY CONEJO, WELCOME BACK, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?”
The rest all did similar greetings and he had to explain that his job took him away for a while; he even traveled out of the country. He apologized and gave Picomann his phone number. Apparently his absence had a more profound impact than he would have thought and he realized he should have checked in.
Sometimes life did that though, it took one in directions that one never saw coming and then one quickly forgot all non-essential things. They were all having a great time until PhillyBob74 showed up. Matt wasn’t sure he really missed him too much, as he had never really like bullies. Philly asked him how he’d been, and actually said he had been worried about him and almost sent out a search party.
El Conejo said thanks and meant it, it was a rare day to get sincerity out of Philly. Matt started to get into a good mood and decided to have a little fun with Philly seeing he was in such a good mood himself. He wrote, “Hey Philly, as I recall, you had a mission to accomplish and then I never heard from you, either. Where’s my organization to run?”
Philly then broke off into a private chat with just El Conejo, PhillyBob74, BostonMike1, Picomann, TimberJustin12 and SASPURSRULE29.
Philly led with, “Hi guys, I just wanted to say that you need to keep an open mind here, as you’re about to step through the looking glass.” Next appeared a link, and he asked that they all count to three right now and click on the link. He implored, “Please, this is no joke.”
The next thing Matt knew, he was in a virtual world. His screen lit up with full animation and he found himself in a boardroom where at the head of the long conference table was a portrait of this virtual company’s CEO—and the picture was of him.
His character looked around by using his mouse, he was walking with the arrow keys. There were five other characters in the room as well: two were Caucasian, one was Hispanic, one was African American, and last was an Asian American. The graphics were so unbelievably lifelike. A short nerdy white guy walked up and said, “Hi, Tom, I guess I have some explaining to do.”
The words appeared in a bubble above him and Matt responded with “Yeah, you do.” They were all asked to take a seat. There were eight seats, four on each side and one at the head of the table. Their moderator was PhillyBob, it appeared, and he told him to approach the chair and hit F4. As Matt’s avatar approached the table, his name lit up at the head, but as Tom Holsinger, of course.
They all sat at their respective places, the only problem was, it was their real names that lit up and not their usernames that everyone used in the chat room.
SASPURSRULE29 was the first to speak up, “How did you get my name Philly? I never mentioned my name—on purpose.”
Robert’s avatar was the only one not sitting. He responded to SASPURSRULE29 with a request for patience. He claimed that although he had been a jerk in the chat room quite often, it was mostly an act, a way to vent his anger at the world.
Robert let them know that everyone in the room was scaled to their physical self. Matt remembered looking down on him when they met a few minutes ago in this virtual boardroom.
Robert began with his life story, describing his early childhood. Everyone at the table winced at the real world torture he had endured. Picomann finally interrupted with, “Okay, Philly, but what has this place got to do with it? How do you know what I look like, this thing looks like me?” With that everyone erupted into havoc and Philly had to rein them in.
He raised his hands and implored, “Please just listen to what I have to say, then after, if you want to leave, you can go. I will erase your avatar from existence, I promise. That quieted everyone, mostly because everyone’s curiosity was so high. Philly continued, “Forget PhillyBob74 people, and just listen. My story didn’t end with being tortured, it began there.” For the next thirty minutes—two had to call in late for work—Robert filled their heads with an unbelievable tale, right up to the point where Tom empowered him to create this.
Matt was blown away, “Robert, I don’t really know what to say. But at the very least, I need to tell you that there is a lot about me that you don’t know, and if that is true about me, then it is probably true about everyone here.” Matt continued, “I’m not saying I’m a bad guy, but I’m not saying I wanted to be this guy, either.”
Robert spoke back, “Tom, this is all your doing. You’re the one who so passionately pointed out what must be done. Well, here’s your chance.” Robert then addressed them all, “I’m a millionaire many times over. I don’t have to do this, I already got my break. But Tom was right last month, it can be done.”
He turned his avatar to Picomann, “John, your family has lived in Los Angeles their whole lives. You work in a store on the edge of the neighborhood you grew up in, which also serves an international community where you are quite popular. You know so many people and you don’t even realize how many you could touch if you wanted to.
“All of you, you’re all capable of the same things, I checked you all out. I know why you don’t want your name out Griffin, it’s because you’re the Head Physical Education Trainer for the San Antonio Spurs.” He had their attention now, Matt noticed, and Robert continued, “I know you all have a lot to lose, but from the retired Fire Captain in Seattle to the Pharmaceutical Rep in Boston, all of you have more connections than you can ever imagine.” He asked them to rise and they followed to the stairs where they all climbed to the top, several floors up.
The mapping of the game was amazing and the stairwell looked very real, like nothing any of them had ever seen before. They came to a window where they could look out over the empty city.
He said to the group, “Once the game starts, people will flood this place and they will all be trying for those two empty seats, and while they are doing it, we can prime our agenda.
Matt could see that Robert had it all worked out, but the one thing he hadn’t figure into the equation was that Matt could not afford Tom Holsinger to become a household name. Once his likeness hit mainstream, someone would put it together. He could change his hair, unsoften his features, but he was still Matt Hurst.
Many a time in public he caught people giving him a double take, and then he would always get the comment, “You remind me of someone?” Only no one had yet put two and two together.
He turned and told Philly the words that he didn’t want to hear, “I’m sorry, Robert, I guess I’m just full of shit, but I can’t do this. I’m just not as brave as you are in real life. Please do as you promised and remove my likeness and avatar from here. I believe in you guys and I wish I could tell you why I can’t do this, but that is not possible either, but trust me, I can’t.”
While Robert was trying to pitch his case, Matt’s avatar disappeared and Robert and the group were left standing with one burning question. Why?
Matt turned his computer off, stunned. How the hell did that just happen? The shit just kept piling up and now he was starting to feel that old pressure again—the pressure he’d felt before he enacted his plan two years ago when he thought he would be discovered and killed by his captors as a saboteur. It was a feeling of foreboding, as the clock just kept moving forward until it ran out of time.
Eventually time is the foil in every situation where one wants to stall the clock or to simply stay where they were in time. He went back to his room and spied on Jan. As usual, she was sleeping peacefully while right in front of her things were reverberating in another realm that could upend the apple cart one more time. How many more apple carts topples would this girl endure before she got wise he wondered?
He knew he needed to get out and be alone with nature, so he scribbled her a note, packed the hunting gear, and left. Today was the last day for Mule Deer. The drive out w
as quiet.
He took his boat over to the mainland so he had to wait for no one today. They kept a slip on the other side along with a car, which enabled them to get off the island when the ferry wasn’t running. It was at Jan’s insistence when they moved that they had these two back ups. Of course, the boat had provided a floating hotel when they wanted privacy, too. Those were some good times he mused.
He had gone out the first day of deer season and almost got an eight-point buck. He had been hunting his whole life, but had never gotten a trophy buck. He had also never been the shot he was now—but the buck smelled him that day and got spooked.
Matt was hunting out near Baker Mountain. It was a large swath of forest he would hunt occasionally when he did not want to travel up near the Canadian border. Just the word border made him always think of that night many years ago—a night when he made a mad small plane dash across the Mexican border with the U.S. Military hot on his trail. He couldn’t help but think that the wiser path would have been to have headed up through Canada, it was so sparse.
He passed the heavily wooded area where TJAC’s training safe house was and proceeded around the lake. Of course his thoughts immediately drifted off to Chase, and the confrontation he was avoiding.
Jan was going to be up soon. Jon Jon had an early doctor appointment and then they were going to go play at his favorite children’s park near downtown Seattle. His cold had waned and he was feeling better, but she just wanted them to listen to his chest to be safe. She thought that if he felt up to it, she would take him to the park to play afterward.
He dialed home. She answered on the second ring, sounding a little put out. Apparently she was already up. “Why are you going to go kill Bambi when we need you to go with us?” He chuckled at the joke, and said, “I’m not going to kill Bambi, just his dad. Today is the last day of hunting season and you know I’ve always wanted Bambi’s dad’s head on my wall.”
Jan burst out, “Not in our house it won’t!”
Without Wrath (Harbinger of Change Book 3) Page 13
