Alice 1 (6 page)

The next morning there was a report was on the
bottom of page one of the Chronicle.

A STRANGE DEATH

An unidentified man was found dead in the
Mission District yesterday around 7 PM. Two knives were found
nearby, but there are no knife wounds on the body. Police report no
obvious cause of death.

____________________

Skinny Santa got us all together that afternoon
for more preaching. Nope, not Santa. Old man Benson.

“Let me give you a little history. As some of
you know, Stephen was the leader of the Vigilantes for many years
and died recently. We call them the Glacier Gang. He and I formed
the Vigilantes and everything went well for a few years. We
discovered the Squeeze and used it to right the wrongs of the
world, to spread Freedom, Justice, Truth. Yes, I’m being sarcastic.
It all fell apart for me one day when we made a mistake, and killed
two innocent people.

“The lesson Stephen learned was to be more
careful. I spent a month revisiting the places that had been
blessed with our good deeds and found we had not looked carefully
enough at the possible consequences of our actions. I came to the
very painful conclusion our fight for Freedom, Justice and Truth
may well have caused more harm than the wrongs we righted. Stephen
did not agree and we parted.

“I know the surge of power you feel, the
glorious crusade to punish the wicked and reward the good. Please,
please, don’t fall into that so seductive, so self-righteous trap.
Continue to go on missions and have fun but don’t start a Freedom,
Truth and Justice crusade. Humans don’t have the capacity to know
enough of the consequences of their actions.”

“Ok then, what should I have done?” Linda asked.
“Just let that bastard go on mugging and raping? Have we no
responsibility to rid the world of scum like him?”

“I have no problem with what you did, but things
are rarely that clear. You have to take other people’s word for
things. You have to consider motives, reputation for telling the
truth, conflicting information, your own motives and prejudices,
and on and on. The farther you move from a firsthand experience
like yours, the more likely you are to make a serious mistake. Yes,
Alice?”

“Have groups like ours ever been at war with one
another? And if one of us went crazy, is there a defense against
the Squeeze?”

“Good questions. Stephen and I formed the
Vigilantes to protect him from a group called the Libertines, who
believe all authority corrupt and freedom the only virtue. Stephen
got in their face and they almost killed him. Unfortunately we
never found a counter to the Squeeze except to squeeze first or
physically attack.”

“The Glacier Gang is working on a counter,” Greg
said, “and may be close to finding one. Alice, would you be
interested in helping them out?”

“Sure, and I’ll finally get to Many
Glacier.”

“Good. To get back to the reason for the
meeting, we aren’t going to become vigilantes. If you want that
kind of life I’ll put in a good word with the Glacier Gang but you
may be out of luck because they’ve changed since Stephen died.
Anything else?

“Ok. I just got a message from Karla, my friend
in Berkeley. He has a mission for us and has sent a courier with
the details. He wants us to check out an ancient Zapotec ruin on a
plateau above Oaxaca.”

If you’re wondering, Oaxaca is pronounced
wah-HAH-ka. I’d like to go to Mexico, never been there, but won’t
mind seeing David again. Hope they have lots of big boulders at
Many Glacier.

CHAPTER 12

That night just before I went to sleep, I
got another flash to that old, smelly village.

A very dirty eight- or nine-year old girl
was rolling a drunk lying in the mud. People in the village call
her the Krazy Kid. The drunk woke up and chased her down the dark,
winding street, bellowing anger at the top of his lungs. No
problem, she’s a very fast runner. He tripped over a cobblestone,
hit his head, and was out cold. The little girl giggled and laughed
as she finished going through his pockets, but couldn’t get the
nice ring off his fat finger.

The guy was up from the city for cheap wine
and easy women. She’d never roll a local, just outsiders.

____________________

David picked me up at the Great Falls airport.
Am I falling in love with him? God, I hope not. When you are in and
out of a bunch of foster homes, you learn not to get too close.
Being dumped back to Social Services by someone you loved and
thought loved you hurts…a lot. I’m close to Skinny Santa and the
others, but that’s different. They’re family.

But here I am, looking at him, loving him. Nah,
not love! Just my hormones kicking up a ruckus. But maybe the rules
changed and I don’t need to be so scared. Nah! Stick with wild sex.
Leave love to giggly, pimply school girls.

Everyone was so glad to see me. Ruth and Betty
were jumping up and down, Doris had a big smile, and even old Ralph
gave me a hug. The mountains are so lovely and I feel such a
yearning to be among them. I must have been a trapper, exploring
the wild rivers and mountains of the old west. Those were the glory
days.

Gone! All gone.

We’ll work on the Squeeze when we get back
from dinner at the East Glacier Lodge.

____________________

“Ok Alice,” Doris said. “Squeeze David’s brain
stem just a little, just enough to put him to sleep briefly.”

I squeezed and he fell asleep for a few
seconds.

“Ok, try again.”

Nothing! Wide awake.

“A little more.”

Still nothing.

“Wow, it feels like squeezing something covering
the brain stem. You’ve solved the problem. Great!”

“Not quite. We don’t know how strong the defense
is and aren’t about to find out the hard way.”

“How did you do it, David?”

“Cradle your brain stem with one or both Shadow
hands. People squeeze your Shadow hands, not the brain stem.”

“What if two people attack at the same
time?”

“We don’t know and afraid to try,” Doris said,
“and there’s an even bigger problem. Your whole body is vulnerable.
If you guard your brain stem, all somebody has to do is squeeze
some other vital organ. Stopping your heart will kill you almost as
fast”.

“Well, can we make giant Shadow hands and cradle
the whole body?”

“Nope. The defense is too thin and people
squeeze through.”

Ralph had an idea. “There seems to be about a
two-second delay between the first awareness of an attack and when
it arrives full force. We need an alarm that triggers immediate
awareness and a counter. Ok, enough for now. Let’s figure out how
to set up an alarm and meet tomorrow morning.”

That evening David and I didn’t have to hide
behind a rock, he has his own cute little cabin. We melded together
on the soft blankets, in the warm flickering light of the
fireplace. The fairy bells were ringing and the blue and green
fairies flashing around our shining bodies, as the ancient dance of
soft hardness, sliding into slippery softness, created the
holiness, of love and joy.

Sometimes gentle.

Sometimes wild.

Just sex of course. No love. Nope. None. Nada.
Just the glorious rush of hormones and pheromones. Two wild animals
in heat.

Eat your heart out you romantic, fantasy
loving, sentimental fools.

____________________

The next morning Ralph had the answer,
associative conditioning. We’ll associate a word or sound to the
first tiny feeling of being attacked. ZAP was the trigger I chose.
ZAP will pop and I’ll quickly put my Shadow hands around what is
being attacked.

It took two days of practice before the sequence
became automatic for everyone. Now the whole sequence from ZAP to
defense takes about a second, well within the time needed. We’ll
have to reinforce the association now and then to keep it
strong.

Maybe I’ll go back to school and learn more
about intermittent reinforcement and associative conditioning. It
would be so much fun taking advantage of all those big, strong,
horny guys with my naïve, little girl act. Yes, I love playing
predatory female. About time we got ours.

But that’s all in the future. Tomorrow
morning, real early, David and I are off to Many Glacier.

CHAPTER 13

Well no, the call from Oaxaca came late at
night. Linda is missing. David insisted on coming along, and early
next morning we drove to Great Falls and got the first flight to
Denver, Dallas, Mexico City, Oaxaca. Greg and Johnny met us at the
airport and a taxi took us to a little hotel just off the Zocalo,
Oaxaca’s main square.

Click Zocalo
and take a look.

“Karla asked us to come as a favor to the
Mexican government. Many Monte Alban artifacts have recently
appeared on the black market, so grave robbers must have discovered
something new. Karla thought of our group because there have been
three strange deaths recently inside one of the temples. No
apparent cause, so he suspects the Squeeze.

“Last evening after the tourists left, two
Federales and a guide took us into the temple where the three
people died. We went down narrow stairs to a maze of cold, dark
corridors and rooms. And Linda disappeared. She was there, and then
she was gone. The guide and Federales became very nervous and
wanted to leave. My Spanish is not so good, but I figured out they
were arguing whether it was a brujo or an evil curandera.

“We searched and searched. Nothing! When we got
back to the Zocalo I called Karla and asked him to find someone who
knew of secret rooms or passages in the temple. He called back a
couple of hours later and said an old man will meet us early
tomorrow morning at the entrance to Monte Alban. David, did your
group find a defense against the Squeeze? We may need it.”

“We’re pretty sure we have a good defense but
it’s not fully tested, and I don’t think we can teach it quick
enough.”

“Try.”

We tried, but it won’t be enough.

Molly, Maggie, and Johnny protested but Greg
was firm. Just he, David, and I will go.

____________________

We got up early and took a taxi. Waiting at the
entrance were two Federales, a guide, and a bent over, arthritic
old man with a lizard-headed walking stick. Not the same Federales
and guide. They refused to come back.

The main section of Monte Alban has a simple
layout, reminds me of a football field. There are large temples at
each end and smaller temples along the sides.

Click
Monte Alban

The guide pointed out the sights along the way,
like the statues of dancers. I looked at those twisted forms and
knew he was either ignorant or lying. Those are tortured prisoners,
not dancers. How do I know? I have no idea.

I did a quick radio dial and saw a lovely,
colorful festival down on the field. People were dancing and
singing to the sound of drums and very long pan pipes. But then I
made the mistake of dialing a little further back in time. Mass
cruelty that made me wish I hadn’t eaten breakfast.

We walked down to the field and over to a small
temple at one end. The guide unlocked the door with a large iron
key and we went down narrow stairs to the corridors and rooms where
Linda disappeared. The old man led to a small room at the end of a
corridor, went to one of the walls, and pushed against a stone.

I dialed again and a procession came into the
room. Silent, somber men completely naked wearing animal masks.
They went to the wall opposite the old man, pressed a 5-sided
stone, and pushed. As the wall they were pushing moved in, the wall
on the other side of a pivot moved out into the room, like a
revolving door.

The old man was having a hard time finding the
right stone, but eventually did. There was a small room behind the
wall with a couple of skulls and a tiny altar. He shrugged and the
Federales pushed back the wall that had pivoted into the room.

They started to leave but I held up my hand and
went to the opposite wall. As I started to push the 5-sided stone
the old man went berserk, screaming and clawing at me. The
Federales grabbed him but he kept screaming. Greg and David pushed,
and the wall swung in.

There was another stairway going deeper into the
rock. Something smelled bad, overly sweet. At the bottom was a
corridor with rooms on both sides full of pottery, statues, masks
and glints of gold. There was a faint light ahead and when we went
around a corner saw it was coming from behind a large wooden
door.

There were three smiling men behind the door.
Linda lay off to the side and then I knew what the sweet smell was.
The two Federales went down. I squeezed the brain stem of the guy
nearest me and he went down, as did the guy near David. I put the
Squeeze on the last one and he dropped.