Lying on the desk next to the receiver was a sheet of white paper. Jerry had been drawing childish pictures of naked women on it with a pen.
“Jack, you’ve got to see this.”
Jack stopped chopping at the black box, turned to look at me, “Genesis Alliance?”
“No, look at these pictures Jerry has been scribbling, the desperate pervert.”
As I turned the sheet of paper around to show Jack, I saw the other side.
Genesis Alliance — Voice Procedure for Operatives
The page contained basic procedures for radio conversation along the lines of what we had heard Jerry using. It was pretty standard stuff, but at least we now had a name for the people who were behind all this.
“Did you have any luck with that device?” I asked.
“No, breaking into Fort Knox would be easier.”
“Okay, let’s wake him up and find out who this organisation is.”
Jack took a bottle of water from the stockpile, opened it, and poured it over Jerry’s face.
He came around, thrashing and shouting, “No!”
“We’re not waterboarding you, yet. Who are Genesis Alliance?” I said.
Jerry’s eyes widened. “Who told you about that?”
“The sheet of paper by the radio. The one you had been scribbling dirty drawings on. Did they place the devices?”
“Maybe.”
Jack slapped him across the face.
“I mean yes. Yes, it was Genesis Alliance.”
“Why? Who are they?” Jack replied.
“You’re going to kill me. Why should I keep talking?”
“We’ll let you go if you tell us everything you know,” I said.
“Do you expect me to believe that? You’re even more stupid than you look.”
He must have realised by now that we were not joking, but whenever we gave him a short break, he slipped straight back into being an arrogant bastard.
“I guess it is time for phase two, Jerry,” Jack said before pulling the right shoe and sock off his foot.
He held the bolt cutters open by Jerry’s little toe.
“Stop,” Jerry screeched. “They activate the devices remotely. It’s done from a place just south of Detroit, called Monroe. That’s where Control is.”
Jack squeezed the bolt cutters around Jerry’s big toe, I leant close to his face, “Who are they?”
“Genesis Alliance. There’s no way you can take them out.”
“What is the distribution area of these devices?”
Jerry looked straight into my eyes.
“Global. I’ve told you, its taken years to build the network.”
I put my hands over my face and shouted, “Fuck!”
Jerry had confirmed our worst fears about the scale of these events. I looked at Jack who was repetitively shaking his head. Lea had been peeking her head through the door and was open mouthed.
I grabbed Jack by the arm and led him out of the barn. He, Lea, and I, all stood in silence for a minute, contemplating what Jerry had just said.
“What do we do now?” Jack asked.
“He’s given us two locations, should we go?” Lea replied.
I looked back into the barn.
“We need addresses. I also want to know why this is happening. He hasn’t explained that yet either.”
“Are we going to take that dick with us?” Jack replied, looking back into the barn.
“You want to bring him along?” Lea said uncertainly.
“He could be useful. We can use him to find the other locations, and possibly as bait. I think we should pay Anthony a visit, and then take it from there,” I answered.
“You flew from Detroit, didn’t you? How far is it to Monroe?” Jack asked Lea.
“It’s around six hundred miles from here,” Lea replied. “Hermitage is on the way.”
“If we’re going to both places, at least they’re in the same direction,” Jack said, “I agree with Harry, let’s see if we can get any more out of Jerry, and then go and ambush his mate.”
“That’s settled then,” I said. “Let’s get back in there and get him talking, we can decide on our Hermitage tactics based on his information.”
Happy at least to have a vague plan, Jack and I walked back into the barn. After picking up the bolt cutters again, Jack rested them on Jerry’s leg.
“You’ve two minutes to tell us all about Genesis Alliance and give us the addresses of Anthony and Control,” Jack said. “Otherwise, you can kiss goodbye to one of your toes for every minute you don’t talk.”
“You’re bluffing.”
“I assure you, we are not. Bernie is reason alone for us to do it, never mind the fact that you are partly responsible for wiping out millions, if not billions, of people. Don’t test me,” Jack replied.
He put the bolt cutters around Jerry’s big toe and squeezed. Jerry screamed as Jack drew blood.
“Stop! Fucking stop. I’ll talk.”
Jerry composed himself, “Genesis Alliance is dedicated to ensuring the survival of the human race. There are around two thousand of us.”
“Survival of the human race? You’ve got to be kidding?” I blurted.
“No, I’m deadly serious. The only way we could guarantee at least limited human survival, was to assist with the plan. Genesis Alliance has saved the human race, you just don’t realise it yet.”
Jerry didn’t appear to be lying, but I was still struggling to absorb what he was saying.
“Limited human survival? What the fuck are you talking about?”
“You’ve seen the effectiveness of the technology first hand. Do you seriously think you can beat that?”
I looked at Jack who was now staring at Jerry in amazement.
“So we are being attacked?” Jack asked.
“It appears we have a genius in the barn, you didn’t think Bill Gates designed that device over there did you?” Jerry answered with a sarcastic smile.
Jack gritted his teeth and squeezed the bolt cutters around Jerry’s big toe. He screamed as blood started to run down his foot and formed a small pool on the table. I was surprised by the action but kept my feelings hidden; Jack was probably doing it for Bernie.
It was difficult to believe what Jerry was saying, but it did provide an explanation of sorts. We needed to know more.
I looked down sternly.
“So now that you know we are not bluffing, Jerry, you can keep the sarcasm to a minimum. You said that there are only two thousand of you. How was it even possible, on a global scale, to do what you did?”
Sweat was pouring down Jerry’s face, and his chest was quickly raising and lowering.
“I told you, the devices were activated remotely. Mine is a small portable one. I know that two were placed in Africa in the middle of the desert. They can cover the whole continent and back each other up in case of failure. It was the same for Australia. Some have even been built into major constructions — there’s one in the roof of the Shard in London. None of this was done overnight.”
“How did you get the devices? Who built them?”
“All I know is that the smaller ones were delivered to Michigan, and then sent out to people like me. The larger ones were constructed by a special team from Genesis Alliance.”
“You mean, they were put in position and not a single person noticed?” Jack replied.
“Who would believe an African tribesman or an Australian farmer if they said they saw a team constructing such a thing? I saw a couple of pictures of the larger devices and they are well camouflaged. It was all done right under peoples noses, they just couldn’t see it.”
“So you’ve a number of patrols here in New York, there will obviously be Genesis Alliance people in Michigan and we know about Anthony. That’s a few hundred right? How can you cover the planet with only two thousand people?” I said.
“No, it’s two thousand in America, I don’t know how many are spread around the world, there’s probably a hundred thousand for all I know.”