Monica walked over to the table and touched the seat and said, “May I sit?”
The man with the cowboy hat said, “Yeah, go ahead.”
Monica looked at him. He was in his mid-forties, handsome, wore a nice long-sleeved, button-down shirt, blue jeans and cowboy boots. In her life she had never had a conversation with a CIA agent or with a man wearing a cowboy hat. It all made her nervous, the cornfield, the sad-looking people, the CIA agent. None of it made any sense to her. It all seemed absurd, but she wanted to find Michael and would do what was required of her.
The man said, “You are Monica Whitten. I have read your documents. You’re a state university grad in computer science, you got above average grades. You grew up middle-class. You have lived basically a normal life. Is this true?”
“Yes, but who are you?”
“That isn’t important.”
“But why are you helping me?”
“I am helping because there was another committee and I disagreed with what they said, a committee just like the one Dr. Charles Nevitsky was part of, but this committee was different. Its goal wasn’t to make America strong or to defeat the Soviets. The CIA did not invite great minds from all over America to participate. The committee was a bunch of stooge politicians and corporate assholes. The question was: how does America compete in the twenty-first century in a global economy with so much cheap labor in other countries? Their answer was that America needed a large amount of unemployed people which would lead to everyone’s value being cheapened. We had to turn America into the third world to compete. Many protested and said there were real problems, global warming, the fact that the wealthy are buying up everything. No one cared. I have determined that no one cares, but I care. And I do not care where it leads us as long as someone does show some concern. So I will help you.”
Monica didn’t understand any of this. Why would her government join up with corporations to make life worse? Why would anyone want to make life worse? Monica’s main problem with the situation was that she had grown up around people who believed that people strived to make their own lives better while at the same time showing a great deal of concern for the lives of others. Her father worked not only to make sure they got what they wanted but also to make sure she got what she wanted. She remembered times when her father would help his brother out with money. She remembered how her dad would shovel the older people’s driveways in the neighborhood. She remembered how on holidays they would go to church and feed the poor. She remembered simple things like canned food drives she had done at high school. She thought about Michael and how he lived with his grandpa, helping the old man with daily chores he could no longer do. She recalled Hurricane Katrina and how she donated money to it and how she helped raise money for the people of Haiti when the earthquake happened. Monica’s world was a world where people helped each other, where people shared and tried their best not to be selfish. The idea of people intentionally being selfish scared her. It confused her. She just didn’t understand why a human would want to be selfish.
The man in the cowboy hat said, “I will help you find Michael.” He pulled out a laptop and put it on the table. He showed her a satellite map. He pointed at a small little dot in the map and said, “This is Nevada. You need to go here.” He pointed with his index finger and said, “This is where the camp is, fifty miles off any known highway. There is a dirt road that goes to it but you can’t use that one, because you will be spotted. You need to park your car here and walk.” He pointed at a little gas station, then he said, “Leave the keys in your car. Someone will pick it up.”
Monica responded, “But that’s my car.”
“You won’t need your car after that. Listen, what you know is over. Your old life is over. You will need to walk through the desert for two days. This will be very hard, but I will supply you with all you need. After you find the camp, you need to find Sherwood Burke.” The man made the screen focus on the camp. He pointed with his index at a part of the fence and said, “At three in the morning Sherwood Burke will be standing at this point in the fence. You will give him the materials I will give you, then he will tell you what will happen.”
Monica said in surprise, “Sherwood Burke, that crazy criminal from NEOTAP?”
“Sherwood Burke is a total and complete soldier. I would even say a warrior, a true leader and warrior. He shows no fear, no matter how loud and vicious the battle becomes. He remains calm, he remains at peace. He only feels alive when engaged in struggle and violence. He is my man on the inside.”
“Do you know if Michael is okay?”
“Yes, Sherwood said he is fine. They have become friends.”
Monica and the man finished their coffees and went outside. The cornfield and giant sky terrified Monica, but she was starting to come to terms with it. She had a direction now, a point at which to move. She could finally move with purpose and confidence.
They walked over to the man’s truck. He pulled out a bag and showed Monica what was in it.
The man went over the supplies. Two bottles of water, a small pillow, a sleeping bag, and a small amount of food. He said, “These are yours. It won’t be hot so you won’t need much water. Conserve your water. Snack a little bit every three hours but don’t eat a lot at once.” Then he took out a small handheld GPS system and night vision binoculars and said, “You will need to find the camp and locate where you should be.” Then he pulled out five handguns, extra bullets and five grenades, and said, “Give these to Sherwood.”
“I don’t understand. Am I getting Michael out or starting a war?”
“You can’t just get one person out. Either you get them all out or no one gets out. There will be a firefight, but there are over one-thousand prisoners and only sixty people on the staff. Half of the staff is cooks, janitors and case managers. There are five guard towers with high-powered machine guns that must be taken out.” Then he pulled out bolt cutters and attached them to the backpack and said, “These are to cut the fence with.”
“What the fuck is this shit? All I want is Michael, I can’t be getting shot at by high-powered machine guns.”
“You have to.”
“Have to do what?”
“Get shot at or you won’t get Michael back, or the men and the women in the camp won’t be set free.”
“I just want Michael.”
“No, you want all of them because they are all Michael. Every single one of them is Michael. They are all a person trapped in that camp because of what they were thinking.”