Knowing (32 page)

Harlan turned to Jane. “What’d I tell ya? Didn’t I say this heart was ‘rehabilitated’?”

She nodded. “Yes, Harlan. You certainly did.”

“It’s true, man,” Monroe interjected. “He proved that he couldn’t be broken by them. He had mind-bending abilities before he left the group but after that, he honed those gifts with razor-sharp precision. He used those gifts when he needed to during his sabbatical and it made him much more powerful than they could
ever
wish to be. When they figured that out, they had to kill him because you can’t have anyone on this planet more powerful than they are.”

“Wait a second. That can’t be the reason they took Gabe out. I get that he had ‘mind-bending’ abilities. Wouldn’t that be a useful skill for his covert employment, instead of a detriment? You don’t kill a man simply because he has a unique gift that other soldiers don’t have.”

“You kill him if you see that man as a threat!” Monroe relaxed a little more, seemingly comforted by discussing his dear friend. “Gabe was a student of the mind and how far you could push it. Maybe they were afraid of all the things he was able to see. You know? Not just the behind their curtain, but behind the veil? Know what I mean? Or maybe,” he offered, seemingly trying to dive into Gabe’s thought process, “he worried that somehow his abilities could be manipulated for their benefit. Maybe they could fuck with his head and rewire it somehow, making him a truth teller of what world leaders were saying behind closed doors. I realize that sounds a little sketchy, but the possibilities are endless with these people. If you can dream it, they can build it and make it happen with better precision than the sun rising and setting. They have access to the greatest minds on this planet. I kid you not. If you even knew some of the rooms I’ve walked into and the people who’ve been in those rooms, you would shit your pants.” He paused, taking a breath. “Look, Gabe was
never
a company man. Even when he was embedded in a job, he was his own man. His allegiance was only to himself and those he trusted and cared about. He’d protect you and guide you toward the next place, even when you thought it was all over and your number was up. He was the guy you want at your back because he
knew
. He
knew
how to keep you safe. And when you have got nothing and you think the gig is up, feeling safe is priceless. But maybe they thought he was too much of a loose cannon. If he didn’t like what you were doing, he let you know about it. He never backed down from any fight. If anyone could do it, Gabe would be the one to fuck up their ability to keep their secrets. Loose cannons are only effective when they hit their target. If you can keep them from doing that, you win. Problem solved.”

Jane leaned forward. “Look, Gabe obviously discovered something of great importance. Their greatest asset turned into their greatest liability. I think he wanted to expose something he uncovered. I mean, there’s a limit, right?”

“A limit?” Monroe asked.

“Yeah. A limit to what a truly honorable person will agree to do. Even the most courageous soldiers who have seen and done everything have a line they don’t cross. It’s different for every single one of them, but if you’re the least bit human and your soul hasn’t been destroyed, there
are
places you won’t go, no matter what somebody orders you to do. Based on what you’ve told me and what I think I know about Gabe to this point, I have a feeling that his murder was directly related to some plan he was going to disclose.”

“Well, hell, what’s that got to do with his heart ending up in another man’s body?” Monroe asked.

Jane sighed. “I don’t have a fucking idea.”

Monroe pondered. “Maybe, it’s not one thing. Maybe what Gabe knew and the heart transplant were two separate things?”

“They
have
to be connected, Monroe,” Jane stressed.

“Why? ‘Cause that’s the way you want to control your investigation?” Monroe shook his head. “You need to open your mind more and explore the options here.”

“I don’t have time to do that!” Jane argued. “For all I know, Romulus is already onto us.”

“Hang on, you don’t have time to find out the
truth
?”

“Jesus!” Jane exploded. “You sit there and act like I’ve got a task force behind me, helping me sort out the minutia. I don’t even have a fucking office! I have a van with a laptop and two disposable cell phones. If you know something that will help me decipher this mind fuck of a case, please share it!”

Monroe thought long and hard before he spoke. “Gabe got into exploration of the levels.”

“The levels?”

“Of consciousness,” he replied as though it was obvious. “That’s the future, man. Forget space exploration. The mind is the next frontier. You want
real
power in this world? Own your own mind. Exploring the mind is a person’s God given right. And that ain’t easy to do when everything around you is programmed to destroy it. I’m telling you….consciousness and how to manipulate it is the future. That was Gabe’s passion. He tried to teach me all the different methods he learned. Mediation, sun gazing, moving a pencil with just your mind. I never figured out how to do that one.”

“But Gabe did,” Jane assumed.

“Yep.

“Wow,” Harlan said in wonderment.

“But,” Monroe continued, “he always said there was a dark side to the coin.”

“Like what?” Jane asked.

He hung his head. “Most of what he said I don’t understand—”

“I don’t give a shit. Just repeat to me what he told you!”

Monroe appeared to pull up the conversation from an old file in his brain. “Consciousness can be corrupted for someone else’s gain.”

“That’s it?” Jane asked, her irritation growing.

Monroe focused and gradually recalled the information. He spoke as if he were in a trance. “The heart of a person’s mind can be corrupted, exploited and manipulated in order to gain power for those who don’t possess the heightened awareness.”

Jane let it percolate. “The heart of a person’s mind,” she repeated. She remembered the old man from her vision who held the white binder with IEB written in the front.
The heart and the mind
, the old man stressed to her. The chances of that strange reference and now this information nearly coinciding had to have value. “What does that mean, Monroe?” She leaned closer to him. “Come on. Go deep.” She felt a moment of angst, acting like a handler and forcing this delicate soul to tromp across his already traumatized mind. “Pull up the information. You can do it.”

He willingly took several shallow breaths as if “go deep” was an order he never refused. When he finally spoke, it was as if he was reading the words in the air. “He said knowledge might be power, but higher consciousness is the gold standard for acquiring that power. When you have the ability to see a lie or hear a truth simply because your mind is wired to receive that input, you have massive leverage over somebody else who doesn’t possess that capability.” He hung in the ether, reciting from a script only he could see. “The fruits of consciousness cannot be reserved for the few who believe they are owed that gift.” He emerged out of the trance and turned to Jane with fear tracing his face. “Gabe wanted to leave a legacy. But more than anything, he wanted to stop those bastards.” He looked at her with terrified eyes. “Whew! It just got hot in here!” Monroe exclaimed. “You feeling hot?”

“No,” Jane said.

“Jesus! I feel like I’m on fire.”

Jane needed to keep him on point. “How was he planning on stopping Romulus from what they were planning?”

Monroe got up and opened a window. “I don’t know and that
is
the truth. But Gabe never set out to do something he wasn’t going to finish.” He stood in front of the open window and let the cool air hit his body. “Romulus has their hands in a lot of pots. Private military contracting is just one division of the group. Basically, if you know about it, they’re involved in it. And if you
don’t
know about it, they are
still
involved in it. Ignorance of something does not prevent it from still operating on full tilt.” He turned to her, lifting his t-shirt to cool off. “Gabe and I saw and did a lot of things during our time together. I hope when it’s my time to leave this world, God understands that everything he and I did was because we didn’t know the whole story and because we didn’t have any choice.” He sighed as he leaned against the wall. “When they’re feeding you those frequencies 24/7, it’s hard to not be under their thumb.”

“What frequencies?” Jane asked.

Monroe walked toward her and sat down. He twisted around and pointed to a spot in his neck that was red and scarred over. “See that spot right there? That’s where Gabe dug it out of me. After his five month sabbatical in the mountains, he came to see me in the flesh one more time and he told me he was going to make me free. He’d dug it out of his neck the day he took off and once he got unplugged, he said he’d been resurrected. So, I figured, why not?”

Harlan turned in his chair. “Check this out, Monroe.” He pointed to the same spot on the back of his neck. “It feels like I got something stuck under my skin.”

“Ha! That’s priceless, man! Yep, yep, yep. That’s where he had it. That’s where we all have it.”

“Have what?” Jane asked.

“The microchip. What’d you think I was talking about?”

Jane stared at him. “Please tell me this is a joke,” Jane said.

“Hell, I
wish
it was a joke. Did you know there are idiots out there right now who are voluntarily allowing themselves to have a microchip injected in them? And it’s all being done under the bullshit guise of ‘safety’ or ‘health protection’. Shit, they brag about the chips they put in animals and how great it is because you can just wave a wand and locate the owners. People think that’s a modern miracle of science.” He rolled his eyes. “People are fucking stupid! Modern science is so far
beyond
microchips, it’s not even funny. But that doesn’t stop some people from wanting to jump on the ol’ chip wagon. Let me tell you, as somebody who lived with a fucking chip inside of his body for way too many years, I can attest to the fact that it’s not cool or inventive. It’s fucking crazy! And I
know
that you already think I’m crazy so me saying that to you won’t have much of an effect. But I’m here to tell you that it’s
fucking crazy
!”

Jane recalled a comment that John Burroughs said to her. “You lost your connection?”

“Humph,” Monroe snorted. “I wouldn’t call what I had injected in me a connection! It was a leash made of steel chains. When Gabe cut that chip out of me, he helped me unhook the controlling voice in my head. That was the first step. You gotta get unhooked from the matrix. But he couldn’t hang out with me long enough for me to get straight again. Whew! I’m a mess in there!” He pointed to his head. “He said it took him a while to unhook himself after he cut it out. A lot of old memories came flowing back, he said. Stuff that he’d compartmentalized and forgotten. He had some caverns in there from his past where he didn’t like to go but he went there and came out a better man. He said he could finally
think
again, after getting rid of all the static in his brain. He told me it took him months to find himself. But his cell memory finally kicked in after a bit and slowly, he remembered who he was and what he came into this life to do.” He looked at the floor, somewhat saddened. “I’m still waiting for that to happen to me. And I hope I can find myself again before they kill me. But, just like you two, I don’t know how much time I got left. My future is so uncertain, I stopped buying green bananas.”

“Why haven’t they killed you yet?” Jane asked.

“When I feel them coming, I take off and ride it out until they leave. Somehow, at least up to now, I get warnings. I can’t explain except that I just know they are close by. It’s the same feeling I get that tells me Gabe is protecting me too.” He turned to Harlan. “Just like he protected you when you were in the hospital? Sitting by your bed? Yeah. He does that for me too.” He turned to the screened in front porch. “Sometimes, I think I see him standing sentry out there at night. And even if I’m just imagining it, it gives me peace. I know that as long as he’s out there, I’ll be safe. But I know he can’t do it forever.”

“So, you haven’t worked for Romulus since—”

“Since Gabe cut the chip out. That was about four years ago.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, how do you support yourself without Romulus?”

He smiled a sad smile. “The bank of Gabriel.”

“I don’t understand,” Jane said.

“I was plucked out of college by the group because of my ability to break codes and hack into any computer system and fuck it up. I got straight A’s and was on the Dean’s List,” he said proudly. “I had a full scholarship to any Master’s program I wanted in computer sciences. But Romulus offered me a shit load of money to do that first job and I was too stupid to realize it when they sucked me in. It’s like your first dose of heroin, you know? The first dose is always free. It’s all the ones after that that cost too much.” He studied the ground. “Years later, my job title changed. I was Gabe’s front man. The set up guy? I’d go ahead of Gabe and set up what he’d need to do the job. I’d hide notes, directions, money, all over hell and back. Then I’d send him coded messages to let him know where to look. When he and I agreed to get out, he told me he’d take care of me. And he meant it. He’d send me a coded message and I’d go to the location and dig a hole at the exact point and there would be a piece of PVC pipe wrapped in duct tape and inside would be separate stacks of money. Sometimes, it was thousands of dollars. And he seemed to always know when I was running low because I’d get a message and, damn, he’d save me again!”

“Bank of Gabriel,” Jane mused. “I like that. We should all be so lucky to have a friend like that.”

“He was my brother in spirit. The one I never knew I needed? He saved me from my past and gave me the feeling I could have a future that wasn’t dependent on the length of my kill sheet.” He let out a hard breath. “But I don’t think that’s going to happen now that you’ve shown up. You two being here is a sign. He came back just like he said he would. So all that’s left for me to do is to help you out and then wait.”