No Future Christmas (18 page)

Shauna sat up in bed, pulling the covers over her to keep
warm.
“You don’t think Scott told him you’d missed Christmas?”

“I know he didn’t.
Why would he?
Scott probably made the
obligatory invitation to Christmas dinner, Dad probably turned it down and no
one’s spoken to each other since.
But I bet Aunt Evelyn said something about me
not being there this year.
She would have noticed.”

A long silence reined.
Shauna pulled Mike’s face to hers and
kissed him sweetly.
She gave him comfort without words.

Comfort he needed.
Words he didn’t.

“I love you, Shauna.
I love you with all my heart.”

“I love you too, Mike.
I always will.”

Chapter Ten

The alarms rang throughout the four buildings.
People rushed
madly around trying to stop the blaring noise and find the source for the
warnings.
Three CEOs huddled in a conference room at Planet Energy Corp.
“Where’s the alarm coming from?” Donald Carson asked.
His lanky, emaciated body
was bent over studying a hologram.
“Anybody know?”

“We’re working on it, Don but the computers say hackers have
penetrated our second highest level of security.” Robert Cranston, CEO of
Circle Planet Com pounded his fist on the table causing a loud tone to screech
at the harsh treatment.
“Damn table.
Who thought it’d be smart to make it
ring?” He chain-smoked, leaving a gray cloud to hang over the conference table.
“Damn fake tobacco.
Who outlawed cigarettes?”

No one answered.
They’d heard this tirade before.

“There’s no trace yet,” Layton Kendall, CEO of Planet Care
Health Systems said.
“Who has the technology, the money, the smarts to
penetrate the best security system in the world?” He paced the large room,
running his hand over his balding head.

“Obviously not you, Layton,” Cranston grumbled.
“You’d have
never gotten this far if we hadn’t covered your ass all these years.”

Kendall puffed up with anger.
“Now see here, Cranston, I’m
tired of your bullying.
I orchestrated this whole operation.”

Donald Carson interrupted.
“Now, boys.
You know as well as I
do that this scheme has been in the works for over a hundred years.
It was
passed down to us through The Society.
We’ve inherited the responsibility never
to let the secret out and we’ll die for it.
Right?” He gave each man a stern
look.

Kendall looked away from Carson’s direct stare.
Cranston
glowered and said, “Some inheritance.
It seems the secret is unraveling right before
our eyes.
Why doesn’t someone do something about it!”

“Marion, will you come in here please?” Carson said.
The
hidden speakers in the room picked up his voice and carried it to the other
office.

The fifty-ish secretary bustled in, her arms full of “paper”.
She dumped the load on the table.
“I’ve had research go back twenty years to
see if anything crops up.
There’s only one little blurb about some couple who
started a digital newspaper called
The Real Truth
.”

“Never heard of it,” Cranston stated.
“What’s it about?”

“It was a small publication that hunted for the truth about
anything and everything that had to do with The Fearsome Foursome—” Marion’s
hand flew to her mouth.
“Oh…er…I’m sorry.”

“No need,” Donald Carson said waving his hand in the air.
“We know what we’re called.
What has
The Real Truth
published?”

“Just stories about corruption in the world, how the
Fours—the CEOs came to be, why the world voted out the politicians, things like
that.”

“Nothing to compromise our secrets,” mumbled Layton Kendall.
“So why’d they come to your attention?
Were they illegal?”

“No, they had all the proper licenses,” Marion said.
“But
about four years ago, according to the last report I saw that mentioned them,
the owners, Douglas and Louise Wentworth were arrested.”

All three CEO’s heads snapped up.
“What for?” Carson asked.

“They were arrested for publishing false and inflammatory
articles against The Fearsome Foursome.” The door to the conference room slid
open.
A medium height man with military-straight posture strolled in.
“They
were doing more than that,” General Glen Tillson, CEO of the Global Guardians
stated.
“They were distributing information on the worldnet that said we were
hiding a secret.”

Three mouths gaped open.
“How’d they find that out?” Kendall
stammered.

“They didn’t, you moron.” Robert Cranston glared at Kendall.
“How’d we get such a pussy as a CEO?”

Carson interrupted the feuding men.
“They were fishing,
right Glen?
They didn’t really know anything.”

“Well, we silenced them before they could find out
anything,” Tillson said.

“Are you sure?” Cranston spat.

“As sure as I can be,” Tillson replied.

* * * * *

“I’m in,” Shauna hollered to the room.
People drifted over
from their stations to peer at her computer.
Her mother stood behind her.

“Let’s see what you’ve found,” Louise said patting her
shoulder.

Beaming with pride and excitement, Shauna bounced in her
chair.
She was still working on an old computer with a real keyboard.
“I
figured that if I used this old machine the Global Guardians wouldn’t know to
look for codes that were all but forgotten.
We all know that every modern
computer has a GPS tracker and signals to tell where the person is located but
these guys don’t, thank goodness.” She patted the computer monitor fondly.

“I hacked my way into their system.
But I didn’t find
anything of real importance there.
I did find an old link, you know, the kind
that turned blue and was underlined and it led me to the security files for
Planet Care Health Systems.
Layton Kendall’s the CEO—the weasel.

“And while searching I came across a long-forgotten file
from somebody called Regis Standish.
He was CFO to the then Unity Health
Company.
They were one of the biggest in the country at the time.” Her fingers
flew over the keyboard clacking loudly.
“Oh…this is all back in 2010 or so.
He
sent an email to his boss outlining how he was going to siphon money from the
company—and get this, it’s a direct quote— ‘For the express purpose of
undermining the solvency of Unity Health Company and to build the coffers of The
Society.
Once Unity fails, other health care companies will follow suit and the
government will be forced to take over the health system of the United States.
With the public’s approval.’” Shauna turned in her seat to see everyone in the
room staring at her.
The silence was unnerving.

“So,” Louise said, tapping her teeth lightly and gazing into
the distance, “here’s the first acknowledgement that there is a secret club and
they called it The Society.
What a boring name.”

“Yes,” Shauna agreed.
“And it shows the plan to ruin health
care and cause the government to take over with the blessing of the unknowing
public.
They’ll think the companies are badly managed and in those days the
government was the fail-safe outlet.
Come save our health system and all that.”

“And we know,” Louise continued to the still silent room,
“that that’s exactly what happened.
The government swooped in, bailed out the
health care companies and swindled the tax payers to pay for it.
All under the
guise of ‘that’s the only way we can save the system’.
Then they set up a
one-size-fits-all program.”

“People were so afraid of not being able to pay for their
medical needs that they drank up the story like the old sickly-sweet Kool-Aid
drink of the day,” Shauna agreed.

“So, where do we go from here?” A male voice asked from the
back of the room.

“For now we keep searching,” Louise answered.
“Back to work
people.
We’ve made a major find.
This should begin to unravel the trail of lies
and deception that have been kept hidden from the world for a hundred years.”

Noise filled the room as The Subversives went back to work.
Rustling “paper”, ringing tables, low, modulated voices.
But an excited tension
overrode it all.
Shauna sat for a minute soaking up the energy surge.
Pride
filled her that she’d found the link, the beginning of the truth.
With renewed
energy she hunched over the computer and went back to work.

* * * * *

Mike had just finished his skycar practice and headed over
to the armory to practice with Douglas.
He breathed in the clean, cold air and
studied the stunning snow-covered mountains that ringed the hidden valley.
He
stopped for a minute and closed his eyes.
If he didn’t know better, he’d think
he was standing in Bend, Oregon in 2004.
The mountains weren’t a straight line
the way they were down Highway 20 but circled the hidden valley.
Yet the scent
of pine and the brisk cold air were the same.
For a minute he had an
overwhelming urge to be back home.
See Scott.
His time was simpler.
The world
was more ignorant, even with the aftereffects of 9/11.

Just thinking that there really was enough oil to not rely
on the Middle East incensed Mike, renewing his resolve to help Shauna and her
parents.

What an organization they’d created.
Only the members knew
about The Subversives and how to contact each other.
Mike wondered who the
spies were and how high up in the four corporations they really were.
He wanted
to see the house of cards come tumbling down before he went back to his time.

That brought to mind his other dilemma.
The one that kept
him up at night.
What would he do about his love for Shauna?
He’d never loved
this deeply before.
He felt as if every fiber of her was inside him.
He craved
her, needed her, wanted her.
Even now he felt his body stir and stifled a
groan.

Last night had been another magical night in her arms.
After
he’d told her about his upbringing, Shauna had sweetly, slowly and secretly
made love to him.
She wouldn’t let him do anything but feel.
That’d been so
hard.
He laughed at himself.
He’d been so hard.
He’d wanted to touch her and
kiss her and tickle her soft, sensuous body.
When he’d finally had enough, he’d
rolled her over and ravaged her.
Never before had the sex been so rough, so
tender.
Shauna met him thrust for thrust and still it wasn’t enough.

Mike sighed.
He wanted her with him for the rest of his life
and had no idea how to accomplish it.

He entered the armory and grabbed a javelin.
It was made of
the clear plastic material of today with green and yellow colors swirling
through the center and was light and sharp.
He had never seen one outside of
this building but Douglas said the Guardians kept them in their skycars for
emergencies.
So be it.
If the Global Guardians had them, then Mike would learn
how to use one against them.

He went to the throwing area and aimed at the target.
He
missed.
Mike had only been practicing with the javelin for a day but his
frustration at his aroused body and his unresolved situation with Shauna forced
him to concentrate.
He threw spear after spear and finally, when his arm felt
as if it were on fire and he thought he couldn’t throw another, he hit the
target.
Barely.

“Good shot,” Douglas said.

Mike hadn’t heard him come up behind him.
“It’s taken me
thirty minutes of hard throwing to skim the outer rim.” Mike frowned at the
offending target.

“You’ll get it.
Keep in mind that it’s balance that
determines skill.
Give yourself time.” Douglas took the javelin from Mike’s
hand and without a glance at the target threw it.

Bull’s eye.

“Goddamn it, Doug.
You didn’t even look.” Mike sank onto a
chair and rubbed his shoulder.
“I’ll never get the hang of it in time.”

“Now, son,” Douglas laughed.
“I’ve had forty years to
practice that.
You’ve had two days.” Douglas gave Mike a quick squeeze of the
shoulder.
Mike winced.
“Enough for now.
You’re going to be plenty sore in a
while.”

“Yeah, I might have overdone it.” Mike rubbed his right
forearm to release the tension in the bunched muscle.
“Too much on my mind.”

“Want to talk about it?”

Mike glanced at Douglas Wentworth.
His bushy eyebrows framed
intelligent blue eyes.
Thick, silver hair covered his head and a cowlick
flopped over his forehead.
Here was a man a kid could look up to.
A father
who’d be there for him when tragedy struck the family.
Suddenly he needed an
outlet, man to man.
“You in for a long story?”