Incarnations, Part Two

 As the three walked into the house Alex spoke.

“Something happened on Earth and you had to cut the visit short?”

“Yes.”     Evelyn replied.

“What happened?”  Asked Alex.

“I committed a sin.”  Said Evelyn.

“Sin is a mystical concept and is therefore invalid.”

Evelyn thought for a moment.  He then replied.

“I didn’t live up to the rational ethical standard.”

“What did you do wrong?”  Asked Alex.

Evelyn answered.

“If there was one thing I should’ve recalled from the memories I received from you, it’s that I should never give an evil man a break.”

“You did?”  Asked Alex.

“Yes, I did.”  Said Evelyn.  “And because I did an innocent girl was murdered right before my eyes.”

Both Alex and Diana stopped in the hall.

Alex spoke.

“Should we sit down?”

“Yes.”  Said Evelyn.

Alex led Evelyn and Diana into a sitting room.  The large picture window of the room overlooked a small lake on the Charon family estate.

When all three were seated Alex spoke.

“Now, what happened?”

Evelyn paused before answering.

“I went down to Minneapolis, just to see what the place was like now.”

“Is the Uptown Theater still there?”  Alex asked.

“Yes,” said Evelyn, “and they’re still running The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”

“Really?”  Said Alex.

“Yes, only once a year now, in the holographic format.”

Diana asked a question.

“What’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show?”

Alex answered.

“It’s a deconstruction of Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein as written by a follower of Herbert Marcuse.”

“Now I’m more confused.”  Said Diana.

“Which was the entire point of the film.”  Said Evelyn.
 
Alex nodded, Evelyn continued.

“But that wasn’t the fundamental problem.”  He said.  “The Chairman of the Grande-Sinjoro Corporation made several requests for a meeting with me in person in at their headquarters in the city of Chicago.  I gave a negative reply to the first message and ignored the subsequent notes.”

“He didn’t understand your response?”  Said Alex.

“No.”  Evelyn replied.  “He didn’t.  ‘No,’ is such a simple concept.  And he wasn’t the only one.  The concierge at the New Millennium Hotel couldn’t believe that I wanted nothing to do with that piece of garbage and offered to set up the meeting anyway.  So I changed hotels.”
   
Alex and Diana remained silent.

“I come back to the second hotel after a short tour of Nordeast Minneapolis, and there’s the piece of garbage, appearing in the center of the suite as if he was the senior senator from New York, he was acting as if he owned the place.”  Said Evelyn.  “He had a male flunky with him and a gift.”

“A gift?”  Said Alex.

“He likely thought of her as such.”  Evelyn replied.  “A female sex slave, with long blonde hair and blue eyes, she appeared to be about ten years in age, and was completely naked except the white slave bands.”

“White bands means she was unused.”  Said Diana.

“What a nice euphemism.”  Said Alex with a slight note of sarcasm.  “So what did he want?”

“He wanted to market their product on Freya and in the Ursa Major Confederation.”  Said Evelyn.  “He wanted to use our family’s influence to lift the capital ban on slavery.  And he brought along the girl to the meeting as a bribe.”

“You said no, of course.”

“I wasn’t polite about it.”  Said Evelyn.  “I used some old school barracks language in front of the girl.”

Evelyn wanted to stop.  He didn’t want to remember.

He sat silently until Diana spoke.”

“Evelyn?”

“I said no.”

“That wasn’t all, was it?”  Said Alex.

Evelyn hadn’t simply said no.  He thought that he was being clever in his response.  It didn’t work.

“No, that wasn’t all.”  Evelyn replied.  “I told him, ‘I won’t lift a finger to help you politically.  But I will do you one favor.  I’ll take this little girl back to Freya, where she’ll be adopted by a real family and grow up as a real person, and then when it’s time for you to join the choir infernal you’ll have one less sin to atone for.’”

Evelyn closed his eyes and silently wrapped himself around Diana.  He didn’t want to let her go.  Ever.

Alex spoke.

“He killed her.”

Evelyn opened his eyes and stared as if he were seeing into a void.

“Yes, he killed her.  Right there.  It was as if he was simply pressing the off switch for her.”

The monomolecular threads swiftly cut through the neck, wrists, and ankles.  Every part of the girl simply dropped to the floor.  Blood sprayed everywhere.

“I didn’t say anything.”  Said Evelyn.  “I simply drew my weapon and shot them through the heads.  As if they were simply animals.”

Evelyn paused, and then spoke again.

“I knelt and looked at her face.  I could see the light fading from her eyes.”

“I seen death.”  Said Alex.

“I know.”  Evelyn replied.  “I remember every one.  You never saw this one, and you don’t want to see this one.”

In Chicago as far as anyone standing outside could perceive it was simply an ordinary block shaped office building in the center of the newly reconstructed city.  It appeared as if the architect was barely competent to design such a structure.  In fact the designer had gone out of his way to make the structure, clad in black tinted glass, indistinctive when compared to other buildings in the city so it wouldn’t attract unwanted attention.

The ground limousine entered the restricted section of the underground garage.  An actual living and breathing security officer in a normal business suit stood and waited as the white haired passenger completed a retina scan.  Only then was the man allowed to enter the restricted section of the building.

The man rode the private elevator to the top floor of the building.  There he was met by another security officer.

The white haired man introduced himself.

“Mister Wolfe to see The Committee.”

The security officer looked through an actual printed book of holographic color photographs to identify Wolfe.

“You may enter, sir.”  Said the officer.

Wolfe said nothing more to the officer as he entered the restricted suite.

Past the entrance of the suite was a corridor.  On the far side of the corridor was another familiar set of doors.  Standing before the doors was a tall brown haired woman in an expensively tailored all white business suit.  She was one of the rare people in this age to still wear eyeglasses.

She spoke to Wolfe.

“The Committee requires that you sit in the chair under the spotlight.”

Wolfe took a step forward.  The woman blocked him with the right hand.
 
She spoke again.

“The Committee requires that you acknowledge their instructions.”

The elder Wolfe resented being treated as if he were still a mere schoolboy.

He replied.

“I will sit in the chair as instructed.”

The woman replied.

“Thank you Mister Wolfe, you may enter now.”

The woman opened the door.  Wolfe walked in.

The walls of the chamber were covered with black curtains.  Before the head of the room and the right and left sides were the elevated tables behind which The Committee would sit in judgement of the elder Wolfe.

Before the bench was a single and simple chair under a spotlight.

The elder Wolfe sat down.

It was then the men and woman who made up The Committee filed into the chamber.  Each member of The Committee was as old or older than the elder Wolfe.  Each member wore a black robe over a black shirt and a black skullcap.

When all the members were seated the chairwoman spoke to Wolfe.

“You will stand up.”

Wolfe stood up.

The chairwoman asked a question.

“Do you understand why you have been summoned?”

“Yes, Madam Chairman.”  Wolfe replied.

“Do you know the truth?”

“Yes.”  Said Wolfe.  “‘There is no god but God and the Elder Gabriel is His voice.’”

“Please be seated.”  Said the chairwoman.

The elder Wolfe sat down.

The chairwoman spoke.

“Brian Francis Wolfe, do you understand why you have been summoned before the committee?”

“No.”  He replied.

The chairwoman shook her head and then responded.

“Your son, Edward, was arrested, tried, and executed for the crime of enslavement in the Ursa Major Confederation.”

“My son was murdered by a false state to enforce a false law.”

The chairwoman spoke again.

“By placing himself outside the boundary of the true state your son placed himself outside the protection of the true law.”

“They had no right to murder my son!”

The chairwoman shook her head and spoke again.

“You are fully aware of the fact that there is no right and no wrong, there is only power over others.  You should have passed this awareness on to your son.”

“I know now.”  Said Wolfe.

Wolfe sat silently.