The Cross of Mithras Vol. 1: EOD Operation Welcome to Hell (8 page)

  “Well... I’m sorry to hear that. And I’m sorry to say... that you are stuck with him.”

  “What!? Why!?”

  “Well it’s mainly due to the fact that you’re British, and you still have your British accent. So, people tend to act more nicely around you. What’s more you are the only police officer in our Task Force. So you know how to talk to the cops. I understand how you feel; it’s just that nobody wants to be stuck with him. I guess you can consider it a rite of passage since you’re the rookie of the group. Is there anything else?”

  “No ma’am.”

  “Okay then, goodbye.”

  “Goodbye... ma’am.”

  Vaistll kind of figured that Wexler was bound to do that. But as she sees it, he is in a safe place until the mission starts. She laughed a little bit because it reminded her of a song that Triple T (Thomas [Ellis] the Texan) came up with, about Wexler doing that. Although Behlmer couldn’t see it, he was the only one who cared about Wexler enough to try and stop him. And that’s the real reason why he gets stuck with him.

  After she finished watching her movie, she got a phone call from Ramirez. “What’s up?” She asked, knowing that it’s not like him to call her up this late in the evening.

  “I was just wondering... how are you holding out?”

  “Fine. Why do you ask?”

  “Because you seemed to be bothered by your memories of your people - the Apollinarians. And I know that they put you through hell. So I was just being concerned for you.”

  “Oh, I see.”

  She began to think about it more. The desire to finally tell someone what happen to her on her planet. She knew that if she told someone it would give her the chance to heal. A chance to let go of those bad memories. A chance to let go of the past. Out of all of the human friends that she ever had, who she was close to, she strongly felt that Ramirez is the only one who would understand. It just never occurred to her to tell him... until now.

  “You know... there is a part of me that wants to tell you what happen to me. But I…”

  “That’s okay. You don’t have to.”

  “No... I want to. It’s just that it’s long story. And I didn’t know if you have the time to hear it.”

  “No I have the time. Besides... I kind of figure it would be long story given your age.”

  “Can you swing by tomorrow morning around 08 ‘til 10 hundred hours?”

  “Sure.”

  “Okay. See you then. Goodbye.”

  “Goodbye.”

  She got up and went over to the window and looked out. She felt a little nervous and a little scared. There was still a part of her that was afraid to tell anyone. But she knew that she had to. She told herself, “I need to tell someone what happen to me. I need to heal. I need to let go of these bad memories.”

(3)

  Lieutenant Sanchez, a very beautiful Puerto Rican woman who is 5’8” tall, was sitting on the couch in her room at the Roosevelt, grieving over the lost of her husband. She was drinking and crying while looking at a picture of him.

  “I miss you so very much.” She said, with the pain in her heart that was almost unbearable.

  Her husband was a CIA agent who encountered the EOD and disappeared. Nobody went looking for him, and it was some time before anybody told her that, ‘In all likelihood, he was captured.’ Being an officer in the Space Core at the time, she wanted to go and find him. But her superiors told her no. She left anyway, taking her men with her to the place where he was suspected of being held. (Luckily for her, the EOD forces were light, and were easily overcome.) She didn’t find him; all she knew was that they moved him to the “Volunteer Room.” She was about to leave to go find that room, when her men started to rebel against her. Most of them wanted to leave and go home. While she was pleading with them to stay, the EOD reinforcements mysteriously retreated. Her, and her men, then learned the hard truth why; military authorities where coming to arrest them.

  Her men were given a light sentence for testifying against her. They told the truth: she lied to them saying it was an authorized mission. When they did learned of the truth, that is when they rebelled. But as for Sanchez, she was demoted, and the prosecutor wanted to send her to a military prison for life. The prosecutor did sympathize with her and gave her a plea deal - join Project 21 for life. She took the deal, not for her sake, but rather for her children and for her husband.

  Vaistll and Ramirez were already members of Task Force ZH-3C when Sanchez came along. Sanchez had mysteriously “lost” the file on her that she was supposed to give to either Vaistll or to Commander Taylor. Later, when Sanchez found out that Ramirez was a former EOD Special Forces agent, she just had to ask him what a Volunteer Room was. He didn’t realize it at the time, but he made the mistake in telling her what it was. He told her, ‘When you get captured by the EOD... they will send you to the “Interrogation Room.” If you don’t tell them the truth, you may be sent to the Volunteer Room, or you may be sent to the “Conditioning Room.” It all depends upon your mission, and/or, how much damage you cause to the EOD. What the Volunteer Room is; you just volunteer for whatever Dr. Frankenstein is working upon in his laboratory. Why do ask?’ From her reaction that is when he realized that he made a mistake in telling her. He also could tell that it was over somebody, and she was blaming him for what the EOD did to that someone. He then asked her, ‘Who was it?’ but she didn’t say. He knew that she was hiding something and she wouldn’t mention what it was. Being a good officer, Ramirez told both Vaistll and Taylor what happen. When they finally got the truth out of her, Vaistll had her thrown in the brig for losing the file, and for lying to her and to Taylor.

  Sanchez always held a grudge against former EOD agents. It just goes to show how much she hated the EOD for what they did to her. To her it really didn’t matter what a former EOD agent did, or didn’t do. She did not trust any of them. Does she want revenge? In truth, see don’t even know, she just want to find her husband. Just to know what happen to him is all she cares about. What Ramirez said about the Volunteer Room haunts her. If he is still alive, then in what state is he in? Just what did they do to him? Can it be undone? She hated what Ramirez told her. She hated hearing him say that her husband is “better off dead.” It tore her up inside not knowing what they did to him. Fearing what type of a monster they turned him into, his pain, his suffering, his loneliness. But in her own pain she neglects her own children who are not old enough to be in high school. In her own pain she makes it difficult to work with former EOD agents. If she was in command, she probably would get Task Force ZH-3C killed off. May what any god Task Force ZH-3C believes in, have mercy on their souls if that becomes the case. May God have mercy...

(4)

  It was 05:50 hours in the morning and Ramirez just woke up. It did dawn on him that he would be the first person to ever hear about Vaistll’s life back on her home world. Thinking about what he would hear got him to think about the history of the EOD. He didn’t want to think about his life with the EOD; too many bad deeds and too many bad memories. So the way that he figured it that it was the same way with her, bad memories and bad deeds. But he also knew that the only way he could heal from that life, is to take the first step: to tell someone. He knew her well enough to know that with her, that was probably the only reason why she wanted to tell him. But with Ramirez, he never wanted to tell Vaistll about what he did. He just wanted to tell the woman that he loved.

  Ramirez went to the bathroom to get ready for the day. He hated looking at himself in the mirror; it reminded him of what he did while he was in the EOD Special Forces. He hated what he did, and he hated what he became. He is a good man that feels ugly inside for the evil that he did. Trap in a world of hell, an inescapable nightmare, where being good is a form of damnation. Cursed to walk in a world where evil is all around, and feeling powerless to stop it.

  After he finished brushing his teeth, he step into the shower and started to think about the past. He started to think about everything that he was taught while he was growing up in the EOD. He started to think about what Project 21 had collected about the EOD history. He thought about the information that he had access to when he was in the EOD Special Forces. It was information that he wanted to collect so he could use it one day against them. He started to think about a history that very few people knew about. He started to think about how the EOD became so strong, so very long ago.

  It all started in southern California, way back in the mid-part of the 1980’s. A 6’2” tall white male founded what he called, “the Era of Darkness.” He called it that because as he puts it, ‘We are living in some era of darkness. A return to a dark age in our civilization where dystopia is all around us..., destroying all that is good within the human race. Every attempt in the 20
th
century to create a utopian society... has failed. And worst yet... it has turned that century into something that resembles... hell on Earth. They failed because their leaders wanted absolute power for themselves. They did not care for the freedom and liberties of the people. They just wanted absolute power at any cost. Well somebody should have told them... the truth about absolute power: absolute power demand absolute control over one’s self. But that is something that they refused to do. Power without control over one’s self leads to abuse of power. If a person allows their limitations and frailties, to get the better of themselves... than how much power should you allow them to have? If they can’t control their own limitations, then why should they dictate your own life? Secundum ipsius naturam (Latin - according to its very nature): power will always turn virtue into vice. The forces of dystopia are strong and misleading. You will see that in due time Communism will retreat out of Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union will vote itself out of existence. Each one of you are looking at me as if though I am crazy..., but wait. If you will..., then please wait no more than ten years and you will see that it is true. But is this the time of rejoicing, a time of celebration, a brotherhood of man? Is peace on Earth finally here? No, it will only get worse. Like I said, ‘The forces of dystopia can be misleading.’ When the ‘90’s come, you will see that not even here in America are you safe. Terrorism will come to the shores of America. The people of New York will see their world come crashing down upon them. Why? Terrorism. By 2010..., you will see the signs that show that the American way of life is crumbling. But why will all of this take place? Because the forces of dystopia is just that strong. There will be no Second Coming of Christ. Only dystopia will come, for it is already here. Join us and you will keep your freedoms and liberties. For the only thing that we stand for is both the family and the community. To us..., the family and the community IS UTOPIA. But the forces of dystopia... have put both the family and the community under siege. We called our society the Era of Darkness to remind ourselves of that. It is to remind ourselves, everyday of our lives, that what we hold dear and true..., is under siege. Join us and fight for your family, fight for you community, and fight for your way of life. Before the forces of dystopia infiltrate your family, and your community, tearing it apart. We..., the Era of Darkness, will protect your family, and protect your community. We will protect your freedoms and liberties from those who will take them all away. Do not forget that the only thing you have to lose is your family and your community. And that is something that you can never get back. The choice is yours.’

  It was just plain perplexing how the Founder of the EOD could have known all of that before those events occurred. Nobody questioned the fact that he said that before those events occurred. The only thing is he never wanted the general public to know that he said it. It did have a Messianic impact upon those who heard it, and later saw those events occur. But despite that fact, the Founder of the EOD never wanted anybody, under any circumstances, to worship him as some Messiah. He strictly forbid it saying, ‘It will only distract us from the fact that utopia is under siege by dystopia.’

  Because the EOD put emphasis upon both the family and the community, combine that with what the Founder said, it created an undying support within the EOD community. The EOD wanted everybody within its community to strive to raise the EOD standard of living higher than that of the United States, and to keep it that way. This created the sense that the EOD community WAS utopia, and everybody else IS living in dystopia. What’s more, the EOD had the saying of, ‘What would this world be like if utopia destroyed dystopia?’

  To the EOD both the family and the community are considered sacred. The family protects the individual, the community protects the family, and the EOD protects the community. So what was freedom and liberty to the EOD? As the EOD puts it, ‘If you increased freedom, you decreased order. If you increased order, you decreased freedom. What is needed is something that can strike a balance between the two. And the most efficient form of balance is something that we all share in common - reason. It is reason that makes us all equal. It is reason that tells us the difference between right and wrong. There can be no such thing as freedom and liberty without reason to guide us.’ As Vaistll would later put it when she heard that, ‘Reason only holds value to those who are an intellectual equal. If I knew a great deal about a given subject, and you knew very little about that same subject, don’t you think that I could selectively choose what to tell you? And don’t you think that by me doing that, I could convince you that you are wrong about that subject, when the opposite is true? So how could reason, therefore, make you an equal to one who is more intelligent than you are? If equality means to be treated as an equal, would you give a blind man the right to fly airplane? Would give a person who is a psychopath the right to own a firearm? If you do not give those people, those rights, than you have deprived them of being treated as an equal. So what is equality? Yes, equality is what we all share in common, so what is it? In truth, it is reason. Reason is the maturity of acceptance that we are all different. That we did not come from some genetic goo where we are all the same. Reason is acknowledgement that a person can be deceptive, and have an ulterior motive of why they are telling you, what they are telling you. In a matter of speaking, reason is the freedom of being cynical to a person’s intentions. Does the EOD give its people those types of freedoms? Both the right and the freedom to be cynical over their intentions?’ She always said that the EOD use of reason was quite deceptively simple.