The Chardon Chronicles: Season One -- The Harvest Festival (26 page)

Robbie took off his hat and rubbed his hair
vigorously. He tossed the hat on the seat. “Shit. I think you’re
right. But… hear me out, say we get this out there in a mini
documentary at least it reaches some audience. Maybe that causes a
few cracks. A few more people see the rot.”

David drummed on the wheel a little while he
thought. “Could work… On the other hand, this is such a shocking,
horrible example of the rot, it might just be a trap for people’s
minds… Get them stuck looking for new horrors all the time, just
feeding their need for strong stimulus.”

Robbie smirked, “do you remember
bigfoot…”

“What?” David was annoyed. “
Apropos
of
nothing… What are you talking about?”

“You remember what got you started doing
research in the library?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah… Sasquatch. I loved
‘In
Search Of’
when I was a kid. It was a report for school! I
started poking around in the farmhouse library because I was too
lazy to go to the Chardon library, really. Seems like a lifetime
ago.”

“So you went from
sasquatch
to all
this craziness in what, three months?” Robbie laughed.

David quickly meshed his fingers together and
steered with his knees. “The mysteries are all connected…”

“So, yeah, some people will get stuck in the
maze forever, but a few will find the breadcrumbs that lead
out.”

David finally agreed, he held up one hand.
“Alright, alright. You heard about podcasting?”

Robbie nodded, “Sure.”

David continued, “Yeah, so how about we get
the story out through that channel. Bypasses the regular media,
right to the people. Boom.”

Robbie slapped the top of the seat. “Hell
yeah. Good plan. You know anyone?”

David shrugged, “Maybe. I say we go meet with
the guy.”

Robbie nodded, “Yeah, that sounds like a good
plan. Where’s he at?”

“San Diego.”

Robbie grimaced, “Well, OK, but I think we
need to switch rides.”

David patted the school bus wheel. “Yeah,
she’s a beauty, but not exactly practical for a two person road
trip.”

A few plain white buildings were at the end
of a long gravel driveway that terminated in a parking lot. The
buildings were surrounded by hillside pasture fields. Cows noted
the bus’s arrival as they chewed cud. Some miniature donkeys walked
up to the fence by the driveway to see what was going on. Goats,
dogs and chickens wandered around through the yards.

David honked the horn as they slowly rolled
down the driveway. The kids stood up in back and looked out the
windows.

David and Robbie got off the bus, but the
kids just stared out the windows.

Robbie said, “I don’t think they trust
anything. Can’t even imagine how they see the world.”

A woman and a young girl came out of a barn.
Both of them waved. The girl trotted over to the bus. “Come see the
donkeys!” she called out and ran over to the fence. She had a bag
of carrots. Robbie and David followed her over to the fence and
helped feed the donkeys. She scratched their stubbly bony heads
while they crunched the big orange carrots.

“If you hold out your hand, they’ll check it
out with their lips!” she laughed at the weird sensation.
“Sometimes they nibble.” her voice bubbled with affection and
joy.

Rose caught up with them. She was a full
figured forty something woman. She was wearing a light green
T-shirt and jeans, and had a flannel shirt tied around her waist.
Her hair was sweaty and pulled back behind a bandana. She’d clearly
been working.

“Hey boys. I haven’t seen you guys in
ages…”

Robbie shook her hand. He casually walked
away from the donkeys and she and David followed. “Hi Rose. We
picked up three kids, very, very traumatized. I have no idea how
long they’ve been in Goldstein’s ring. They haven’t said a word
since we picked ‘em up. I’m not sure they speak English.”

“Poor babies…” she sighed. “Are they a group?
Brothers sisters?”

David shrugged, and Robbie answered, “We
don’t know anything about their background. Let’s just say we
happened upon them during a dispute with their captors.”

Rose made a pushing motion with her hands,
“Oh lord, don’t tell me any more!”

David asked, “Do you have any room for
them?”

“Oh we can always make room.” Rose
smiled.

Robbie put a hand on her shoulder, “if we can
get
any
leads about Goldstein, that’d be great, but I don’t
think they’ll want to talk about it any time soon, maybe not
ever…”

She nodded. “Understood. I never ask about
their past. If they offer anything up, I’ll let you know.”

“Hey, by the way, can you use that school
bus?” Robbie pointed at it. “It’s all yours.”

“Of course, sure!” She said. “Might chop it
and make a big flatbed.”

“Yeah, call Kenny. I’m sure he’d be able to
help you out with that.” Robbie said. “Could we get a lift into
town? We’ll pick up a new ride and be on our way.”

“Where you going?”

“San Diego.” David said.

“Oh gawd, that’s a haul. I haven’t driven out
to California since I was in my twenties. Why not fly?!”

David shrugged. “How many laps of the country
have we done, Robbie?” David asked.

“Shoot. I hate to count. A lot! We
always
drive. Usually do a lot of business on the way.”
Robbie said.

“Suit yourselves. Yeah, we can get you into
town no problem.”

Telia and Tracy were already in bed, and the
entire farmhouse was dark and quiet, except for the library, where
Tiffany style desk lamps illuminated the tabletop in a warm
yellowish glow.

Matt was contemplating several large format
prints of churches, ancient temples, and megalithic monuments. He
thought about his own drive to reach over to the other side and
contemplated it as a general human instinct, no different than the
desire for sex, food, or prestige. He thought about the invisible
ecosystem that intertwined with the visible one; and guessed the
variety of relationships that pervaded the visible world had their
analog in the invisible one: predator and prey, parasite and host,
symbiosis, cooperation, pets, friendships must exist there,
too.

His work now focused on building a better
connection between the realms. He now understood that the
connection to the other side was made by melding one’s own
conscious mind with the larger
field
of consciousness.
Apparently, the brain had an innate ability to do that, but
generally the signal was so weak that the flow of information back
and forth was just a trickle.

He suspected many religious rituals and
ceremonial spots were meant to amplify this signal. Having a
congregation sing, or listen to music would have the effect of
synchronizing their brains and might produce a coherent signal that
could be orders of magnitude stronger than the incoherent mishmash
of private thoughts. He considered that mass entertainment
spectacles broadcast through television might have a similar effect
on an industrial scale. Likewise, astronomical events, like a solar
eclipse, might affect a vast population of people, animals, and
even the planet itself for a short duration, anyway.

As he chewed on the problem, he struck up an
email correspondence with Johnny, who had a much deeper practical
understanding of signal processing than he did. They tried to
devise a method and apparatus to amplify the signal. Johnny
immediately steered the discussion to fractal antennas and arrays.
Matt had been laboring through the articles and papers Johnny kept
forwarding in emails. His eyes flitted over the latest as he zipped
the scroll wheel on his mouse.

“Holy shit!” he muttered. He called Johnny.
The phone rang and rang, then went to voicemail. He hung up the
call.

Johnny rang him back, “What’s up Matt?”

“Hey, sorry if it’s too late. I just saw
something really intriguing in the latest article you sent--the one
about the Minkowski Island. This might be nothing, but… well,
look.” he forwarded an image to Johnny.

“Hey, wow. That’s definitely interesting…
definitely.” Johnny stared at the Occitan Cross.

“That’s the Occitan Cross, an insignia used
by the Cathars.”

“Seems likely it’s just a coincidence--only
so many cross shapes and aspect ratios.” Johnny was skeptical.

“True… That said, why don’t we go forward
with that as our starting point?” Matt was staring at the two
shapes.

“Alright, we’re going to wrap up some work
down here at Kenny’s, then we’ll hit the road. Probably two or
three days.”

Robbie and David rolled onto Carlsbad
Boulevard after a few days on the road.

“I never get over that Pacific Ocean view!”
David said.

“Oh man, no kidding, what a life out here.”
Robbie held his hand out the window.

“There’s something about seeing that sunset
over the ocean that freaks me out a little. Makes me feel so tired,
too.” David yawned.

“Oh man, I guess it’s my turn to drive, you
were going all day. At least I napped.”

“Yeah, sounds good, while we’re at it, let’s
stop at the beach before we go meet this guy. I have a bad case of
road brain.”

Robbie agreed. They parked and kicked their
shoes off and walked out in the sand. David stretched and tried to
shake off the feeling of non-stop driving. After a while, they
plopped down to watch the sun sink toward the horizon.

Robbie said, “I listened to a whole shitload
of this guy’s podcasts on the way out here… I’m not sure about
him.”

David nodded. “Yeah, the whole shape shifting
lizard thing is pretty crazy. But c’mon. It’s not that far off the
mark, right?”

“Literary propaganda performance art?” Robbie
laughed.

“He’s also ties in the child abuse story.
That’s what made me think he’d be a good outlet for this
information.”

“Will this video add anything to his
repertoire?” Robbie wondered out loud.

“One way to find out, right?” David
shrugged.

“I wish Dana were here… she’d get a good read
on him. For all we know, he’s one of the bad guys.” Robbie got up
and brushed the sand off.

David put his hand over his eyes and watched
the sun go behind clouds on the horizon. As they walked back to the
car, the whole coast took on a reddish tint and the periodic rustle
of light surf breaking on the beach gave way to the sound of cars
on the Boulevard.

They met Jacob Eisenhauer at a seafood
restaurant a little way down the road. The building was barn red
and the outside was decorated with nets, and traps, and other
nautical knick-knacks. David recognized him at the bar and the two
went over to greet him. Jacob was a short stocky man, with hobbit
body proportions, and had big hands and big blue eyes, and his head
was framed by curly salt and pepper hair.

They made small talk over drinks, then sat
down to dinner at an isolated table.

“You have a tape for me? David here played
excerpts. Really gripping stuff.” He chewed while talking. In spite
of the enthusiasm in his voice, his eyes and face gave no sign of
excitement or interest.

Robbie folded his hands, “Jacob, one of our
main concerns is that this information...without the complete
context is really only salacious. We’re not sure what the audience
will get from it.”

“You mean other than the truth?”

Robbie continued, “I guess I see this tape
more as a fragment of the truth rather than ‘the truth’.”

“Surely, it’s an impossible task to unfurl
the supposed whole truth, isn’t it? I see my job as a way to get
bits of it to my 1.5 million person audience.”

“Wow, really 1.5 million…” Robbie stroked his
beard.

David put his arm on the table and leaned
closer, “Another concern we have is that this information could
endanger you--and of course, us.”

Jacob wiped his mouth. His eyes were still
not giving anything away. “Look,” he said emphatically, “Over the
years, I’ve presented the wildest information about the most
dangerous and powerful people in the world and here I am.”

Robbie nodded, “Fair enough…” he put a copy
of the video on the table.

“It’s a video!?” Jacob’s eyes actually lit up
for the first time.

“Yeah, I’ve got a camera out in the car if
you want to watch it now.”

They paid the bill and went out in the
parking lot. Jacob sat in the back and watched. When it was done he
whistled. “Holy fuck. I see what you mean.”

“About what?”

He put the camera down. “Well this, it’s
astounding. I’ve heard audio before, seen grainy pictures before,
but never have I witnessed such clear footage and audio of them
setting up the horrors for these children.” He paused and continued
on with emphasis, “What I’ve presented to date, is largely based on
rumor. I believe it to be true, and it is corroborated by some
evidence, but nothing like
this
… When it’s just rumors,
they
can pretend it doesn’t matter… and frankly so can we.”
He remained silent for a second. “But with this…” he pointed at the
camera, “not only the footage that captures the crime, but then the
start of some type of vigilante attack… well, that’s a whole
different ball game, isn’t it?”