Mother of All the Gods

by R. P. Wolff

  “Luis Cane,” Zelda said. “Isn’t he the Mater Disciple at the Dallas Mater Cathedral in downtown Dallas? No way.”

  “Believe me, I’m taking a great risk in telling you this. That’s who I handed him off to. I don’t want to be tortured again. I don’t want to go through that pain.” Allan hoped that this would buy him time, but he feared the result once they found out he had lied. He didn’t think he could hold off anymore if she inflicted the pain on him again.

  “How?” Zelda asked.

  “There was a crew that was going to pick him up between the apartments at the train station. I don’t think Cane personally picked him up, but I arranged it with Cane to have someone pick him up at the station.”

  “You mean you talk directly with him?”

  “Yes.”

  “How?”

  Oh shit, thought Allan. He didn’t want to mention about the secret cellphones.

  “How?” Zelda asked again, looking perturbed.

  “We talk on the phone, of course.”

  Zelda squinted and paused.

  “Okay, you said you had an idea of where they are hiding the filthy Lance Hampton.”

  “Well, they don’t tell me everything, but I suspect that they took him to the secret hideout in the second basement level of the Dallas Mater Cathedral.” Lance tried to refrain from smirking because his whole story was bullshit, but it was the same bullshit story that anyone captured was supposed to say. He trusted that if the Maters captured the Slates, the Slates would say the same, which would add credibility to his story.

  “How many people are there?” Zelda asked.

  “Hundreds.”

  “Do they have weapons?”

  “Yes, they have a full arsenal.”

  “Why are you being so cooperative and telling me this secret information?”

  “Because I don’t want to be tortured again, my Mother.”

  “Don’t you ‘my Mother’ me you filthy infidel, traitor. I ought to zap you again.”

  “Please,” Allan begged.

  “I don’t believe one word of your bullshit story. You’re trying to tell me that the loyal Disciple Luis Cane is really a leader of the resistance, or as you call them the Frontiers, and that he is hiding infidels under the very roof of Materism? Bullshit.”

  “It’s the truth. He provides the best cover. Even after I told you, you still don’t believe me.”

  Zelda shook her head, clenched her fists, and the excruciating pain started again.

  Allan wobbled over to the side of the chair and screamed in pain.

  Zelda got close to Allan and whispered into his ear, “Listen here, you traitor, I’m going to verify your story right now. And if you are lying to me, I’m going to torture you for longer periods of time until I get the information I need. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, Mother, please stop, please,” Lance gasped as he begged.

  The pain stopped. Allan exhaled and repositioned himself on the chair.

  “Good. You wait here until we find out whether you were telling us the truth.” She studied the room and turned to Allan, smiling. “I now have to leave. I have an appointment with Lance Hampton’s daughter. We’re going to torture her good tonight. I’m going to supervise it myself. If Lance Hampton doesn’t come in by tomorrow, we will kill her. Don’t worry, we’ll let you watch it in your little room here.”

  “Mother, can I please have something to eat?” Allan asked. He was starving and thirsty.

  She chuckled. “When we find Lance Hampton, you can have something to eat.”

  ◆◆◆

  Zelda left the room and headed towards an elaborate office, filled with brown leather furniture and a mahogany desk. She sat at the desk and gathered her thoughts. The Secret Service agents just informed her that Colin was not at the mansion. This pissed her off. He needed to be with her. Plus, she couldn’t exert pain on him unless he was present. She figured that he knew that and was purposely avoiding her. That was about to end, as she dialed his number.

  “Hello, Madam President,” Colin greeted her.

  “Where the fuck are you?” Zelda blurted.

  “Well, we finished the search at the area around the train station, and we couldn’t find him. But we have detained and questioned the couple that we’re sure helped Lance Hampton. As you know, I also sent the guard that was on Hampton’s train to the mansion for you to interrogate and get some answers. I’m now at the Dallas Mater headquarters, downtown.”

  “I want you over here—not at the Dallas headquarters.”

  “Well, you didn’t say for me to come over to the mansion.”

  Zelda seethed hearing him lie, but she couldn’t harm him over the phone. She needed to get him close by. She sighed. “Colin, what did you find out?”

  “The names of the suspects are Martha and Daniel Slate. We got a tip from a neighbor across the street who said that two guards and a dog went into the house but only the two guards came out of the house without the dog. The purported guards briefly went to the two homes next to the Slate’s. The other two houses must have been decoys. Our dogs discovered a problem area in the Slate’s master bathroom. We sprayed luminol, and the place lit up with tons of blood that they must have cleaned up. Plus, the dogs led us to a secret hiding place in the bathroom.”

  “Wow,” Zelda said. “Good work. So what do you think happened?”

  “Well, what I think is scary.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes. Because of the huge amounts of blood from the luminol test, someone died or was severely wounded. I suspect, and this is just a suspicion, that the two guards and the dog that entered the Slate’s house were killed. Now our informant says that two guards came out without the dog. I believe it was Hampton and some other infidel that’s still at large.”

  “Did our informant see if they had a branding on their forehead?” Zelda asked.

  “No, he was too far to see. Plus, they had the standard “Z” baseball caps on.”

  “Go on.” Zelda’s instincts told her that this resistance was worse than she had ever imagined.

  “So Hampton and his sidekick visited the two houses as if they were inspecting them, but then they drove away.”

  “What about the guards’ Freedom Chips?” Zelda asked.

  “Their chips were activated and showed that they visited those two houses and drove away and then eventually disappeared, but I suspect that Hampton and his partner took the original guards’ Freedom Chips. That’s the only thing that explains it.”

  “Wow. You think they’re that sophisticated?”

  “It’s looking that way.”

  “How did they get rid of the bodies and the dog, then? Were there more infidels in the house?”

  “That’s the scary part. They must have had help. Not only were the bodies removed, but they were also able to get past our perimeter, which tells me that they must have had some help from the Mater police.”

  “Maybe they buried the bodies and the dog in their backyard?” Zelda suggested.

  “We had the dogs sniff around in the backyard, but they didn’t detect anything. We also couldn’t see any disturbance in the soil and grass for them to bury someone. No, I think the bodies were removed.”

  Zelda reclined, gazed up into the ceiling, with her hands wrapped behind her head, pondering the situation. This resistance was organized. They had help. The approximate ten percent of people still unaccounted for amounted to over thirty million nationwide. They had numbers. But how could they survive? How could they feed and supply themselves? Where did they stay? Maybe they had large hideaways like Allan Anderson had just told her about. She had so many unanswered questions.

  Zelda broke the silence. “Did you interrogate that couple yet?” She anxiously waited to hear if their stories matched Allan Anderson’s.

  “We just finished our initial interrogations. They told us, um … it’s kind of unbelievable. They said the famous Disciple Luis Cain of the Dallas Mater Cathedral is in cha
rge of their resistance, which they say is called the Frontiers. And they have hundreds of people hidden underneath the cathedral, second floor basement level. What did you find out from your guy?”

  “Hmm, actually the same thing. I don’t believe them, though, do you?”

  “No, of course not. I think it is all bullshit, but we are going to check it out. If it’s okay with you, I want to station undercover Maters inside and around the cathedral and see if we can see anything going on.”

  “Okay, go ahead and do that, but I want you to meet me at the Harmon Educational Center for that little bitch’s torture on live TV tonight. Make sure you’re there.”

  “Okay,” Colin said hesitantly.

  “Afterwards, we’ll make a visit to Dallas Mater Cathedral and see if our captives are telling the truth. If not, I’m going to make their lives a living hell. Make sure to transfer that couple to the mansion.”

  “Yes, Madam President.”

  Chapter 31

  “Governor Hampton, you’re wanted in the war room,” a young man in army fatigues called out to Lance and pointed to an isolated room at the far end of the facility.

  Lance head towards to what the Establishment called the war room. He had just finished dinner and couldn’t believe how fast things were moving. Just yesterday, he had been a prisoner and escaped, hid away in a house, saw two dead men and a dead dog, saw Maters on TV torturing his daughter, and he ended up in a massive secret underground hideaway. Now, less than twenty-four hours later, he found out that they are going to battle with the whole Mater government, and they wanted him to be their political leader. On top of that, he found out that Zelda, the so-called mother of all the Gods, is phony, which he thought all along, but now they had proof.

  He couldn’t stop thinking that the whole operation was wishful thinking. How would they be able to defeat the well-armed Mater police and military forces? Sure, they had hundreds if not thousands of Establishees, but Zelda probably had hundreds of thousands of active military personnel in Texas alone.

  Lance felt guilty about the brave guard that helped him on the train and the Slates. They had risked their lives for Lance, and now the Maters were torturing them all because of Lance. What would happen if they talked and revealed their hiding spot? The hiding spot wasn’t ideal if the Mater police detected them because there were only two exits, from the north and south.

  Lance almost bumped into a young soldier. There were soldiers scurrying all around him, loading up weapons onto trucks, people changing into the old-school military uniforms used before the Mater white uniforms replaced them, and mechanics tuning up the vehicles. They were getting ready for war.

  Lance approached the war room and opened the camouflage door made of cloth and entered to see a room packed with men and women dressed in military uniforms. There was a large conference-size table in the middle with crude, customized maps spread out across the table. He recognized General Cook, Austin, and Lieutenant Gonzalez among the others. Lance could sense the tension in the room. The people looked worried.

  General Cook stopped speaking once he saw Lance entering and gestured Lance to stand next to him. The General spoke, “Governor, come in. We need your input. We need a politician’s point of view to answer some of our questions.”

  “Sure, I’m glad to help,” Lance replied as he surveyed the room of brave men and women. It flattered Lance that they put so much trust in him in such a short amount of time.

  General Cook continued, “Okay, this is kind of where we’re at. Everything is happening so fast. We know that Allan Anderson, the brave guard who helped you, and the Slates, Martha and Daniel Slate have been held for questioning and are certainly being tortured.” The General shook his head. The others bowed their heads slightly. All the people frowned.

  Lieutenant Gonzalez, who was standing opposite the General, across the table, spoke, “Sir, we’ve been keeping a close eye on the situation. Allan was brought to the mansion, where Zelda is, and the Slates were brought to the Mater Dallas headquarters, which used to be the old Federal Building on Commerce Street.”

  Victor nodded.

  “We must assume that they’ve been tortured.” The Lieutenant glanced at Lance and squinted his eyes momentarily. His subtle stare reinforced the guilt that Lance felt for putting so many people’s lives in danger just to save him. The Lieutenant continued, “We believe that they have given them the false story that we concocted for any Establishee that gets captured. This hopefully will buy them time.”

  “What’s the false story?” Lance asked as he realized that this briefing was just for him as everyone at the table seemed to know the facts already.

  Lieutenant Gonzalez chuckled. “They are supposed to tell their interrogators that the Disciple Luis Cane is the leader of the resistance and that there are hundreds of people hidden in the basement of the Dallas Mater Cathedral.”

  Lance laughed. “That’s outrageous. He’s like the most loyal Mater leader. He’s a disciple and doesn’t he report directly to Zelda? They’re never going to believe that.”

  The General interjected, “That’s why it’s such a great story because it is so unbelievable. Sure, they probably won’t believe it, but they will have to verify it, which buys us time.”

  Lance sighed. “At best, that will only buy them a short amount of time. Then, what happens to them.”

  “When the Maters find out that the story is false,” the General said, “they will come back to Allan and the Slates. In that situation, they’re instructed to say, ‘Hey, you didn’t get there quickly enough. They must have evacuated everyone before you got there.’ But that’s not going fly. We don’t expect that the Maters will believe them.” General Cook rubbed his forehead and sighed. “Then, they will certainly be tortured relentlessly. If it gets to that point, we have told them that they can say what they want to stop the torturing. We won’t hold it against them. But it’s up to us to prepare for the worst and that the Maters will know of our secret locations.”

  “You have alternative hideouts?” Lance asked.

  “Yes, but we don’t want to get to that point,” General Cook said. “We need to attack before we get to that potential crisis.”

  Lance nodded.

  General Cook continued, “Our plan is to strike tomorrow morning, but this is where we need you. We can control all their communications including most of their military communications. We have great hackers. We can take over their communications including TVs, radios, cellphones, satellite phones, two-radio, and ham radio. But here’s the question. Do we show the video of the Awakening before we strike, during, or after? What do you think the timing should be?”

  Again, Lance was honored that they not only trusted him, but valued his opinion as if he was a general. He was only a former governor, which hardly qualified him to make military decisions. Nevertheless, he would give it his best, but he thought he needed more information.

  Lance said, “Can we back up a minute here. What is your plan? Where are you going to strike?”

  “We’re going to strike her at the mansion,” The General replied.

  “Are you sure she’s going to be at the mansion tomorrow morning?” Lance asked.

  “Um … we have a good idea that she probably will be.”

  “When you say morning, what specific time?”

  “Just before dawn. We’re still working out the details, and our goal is to capture and kill her. Then we would show the video. At least that’s what our original thoughts were, but we’re still trying to iron things out.”

  Lance was skeptical. He asked, “And do you think the whole military force is just going to allow this to happen and let you take over the government?”

  “Well, that’s what we brought you here for. What do you think?”

  Lance sighed. He still needed more information. “Let me ask you this. How many people do you have? It looks like you have about two to three hundred people here. You have some trucks. You have some vehicles. You have a lo
t of weapons and firepower.”

  “We have several facilities like this, and some are even bigger. Plus, we have hundreds of Establishees hiding in houses, apartments, and business locations across the Dallas area and throughout the country for that matter.” The General paused and gazed at the ceiling. “All and all, in this area we have about five thousand active forces that are ready to go on a moment’s notice. They’ve been waiting for this moment to recapture our country.”

  “Yes,” exclaimed several people in the room.

  “Wait a second,” Lance interjected, “so you have a total of five thousand?”

  “Yes,” The General replied.

  “Well, they have over a million active military troops across the country. Maybe even a hundred thousand in Texas alone. They can ramp up and have troops here in a minute.” Lance skepticism was growing. “How are you going to beat that?” he asked. “We only have five thousand.”

  “Well, Governor, we know this is not going to be easy. I mean, you’re absolutely right. We’re outnumbered. We’re out gunned. But we have some advantages. We can cut off their communications. We’ll confuse them. We can communicate. They can’t, and that is huge. That’s like having a hundred thousand troops versus the five thousand that we have. They won’t know what to do. We’ll cut off their GPS as well. All their weapon systems use GPS. We will deactivate all their Freedom Chips. They will be completely dark. If we can just get to Zelda, capture her, and kill her.”

  Lance was not convinced and needed more information about specifically how they could cut off the government’s communications. Lance said, “What do you mean, ‘cut off their communications’? I mean there’s so many different types of communications. How can you disable all of them at the same time?”

  The General frowned and sighed. “Well, I don’t have that much time to explain this, but we have been working on this for some time. Our hackers have been working on this since the Conversion and even before the Conversion. All right, Governor, name the different types of communications?”

  Lance replied, “There’s television, radio, cellphones, GPS, satellite phones, Ham radio or two-way radio. Um … what else am I missing.” Lance paused to think. “Oh, local police radio systems, and I know that the military has their own secure systems.”