The Inner Circle (26 page)

When Earl heard the booming sound again, he opened his eyes and found himself drenched in sweat, lying on the couch in his home. His living room was dark, as night must have fallen while he was sleeping. And the booming sound was actually the sound of somebody knocking on his front door. Even though he was now awake, having escaped – at least for the time being – from the comet, Earl's sense of paranoia was just as great as it had been in his nightmare.

Who’s here? Who is coming to see me at this time of night? Was I making too much noise in my sleep? Did someone hear me scream about the comet? They couldn't possibly put me away for yelling in my sleep, could they?

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"Are you sure he's home, sir?" one of the agents asked. "When we were here earlier, he didn’t answer when we knocked."

“He has to be here," Mansfield answered. "His car is parked outside and the neighbors said they haven't seen him leave for days."

“Do you think something happened to him?”

Mansfield banged on the door again, this time pounding even louder to make sure that Ackerman could hear.

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Earl sat up quickly when he realized someone was apparently desperate to get him to answer the door. If the past two years had been bad for Henry Wilson's physical appearance, then they were a disaster for Earl Ackerman. Patches of facial hair grew on his face, as not shaving or even showering in the past few weeks was really beginning to take its toll. He also wasn’t eating correctly, as his previously thin body was now more skeleton-like. His habit of going for days without leaving his house had not ingratiated Earl to his job and the middle school had promptly fired him the year before.

He crossed the distance to the front door very slowly and carefully, making sure not to trip over the junk that was sure to be lying on the floor in the dark. If his wife had not left him, she surely would have picked up all the trash. But she had already been gone for a year and a half, cutting Earl no slack in those first six months of keeping the big secret.

"I didn't tell anyone, I didn't tell anyone," he continually whispered to himself.

Just before he reached the door, the person outside pounded again, causing Earl to jump backwards and nearly trip over an old pizza box. When he gained his composure, he looked through the peephole and saw a very familiar face, the face of a man he hadn't seen in months and never really wished to see again. This was the man that ruined his life. This was the man who was responsible for his paranoia. This was the man who would make him pay if he ever told the secret.

What the hell is Peter Mansfield doing here? He never comes to get me himself.

Over the past two years, Secret Service agents had shown up at Earl's home a handful of times to bring him to meetings with various members of the 'Inner Circle.' Earl did not know how often the rest of the group met – he did not really care to know – but he knew they relied on him for his opinion about important matters.

Unless they're through with me and want to
make sure
I keep quiet...

Earl again crossed his living room, stopping at his work desk, which he had not used in quite some time. He opened up a drawer and, as quietly as possible, shuffled through all of the garbage until he found what he was looking for: a gun. He purchased it soon after the threat he received from Mansfield, never really expecting to use it but just wanting it so he could feel safer. He was not going to take the chance of his wife being injured or threatened. But that had all been before she left him.

Earl checked to see that the gun was loaded before placing it in the back of his waistband. He opened the front door, but not before Mansfield had pounded on it one more time.

"Earl, what the hell have you done to yourself?" Mansfield asked, shocked at the ghastly sight of the science teacher.

"I didn't tell anyone," Earl croaked, his voice hoarse from weeks of not speaking.

Mansfield immediately looked at the two Secret Service agents to make sure they hadn't picked up on what Earl said.

"I’m just going inside, fellas. We'll be out in a few minutes."

"President Marshall said not to leave you alone," the large Secret Service agent said.

"Well, President Marshall isn’t here right now, is he?"

Mansfield nudged Earl back into the dark apartment and closed the door behind them. A small amount of light came through a nearby window and only allowed Peter to see vague outlines of objects in the room, but beyond that he was blind.

"I didn't tell anyone," Earl said again.

"About what?"

"About the comet, I didn't tell anyone. Like you told me."

"I know, Earl. I trust that you didn't tell anyone. That's not why I'm here," Mansfield said. "Your neighbors say you haven't left here for quite a while now."

Earl backed up from Peter even more, quickly glancing all around the room to make sure only the two of them were present. He wanted to make sure that nobody had sneaked into his home while he was sleeping. Mansfield was a sly man and there was no doubt in Earl's mind that he could have been setting a trap by talking to him. Earl was too smart to be fooled that easily.

"I don't have any reason to leave. That way, I won't have the chance to tell anybody,” Earl said proudly, hoping Mansfield would realize the effort he’d put forth to remain silent.

Mansfield was starting to grow just as wary of Earl as Earl was of Mansfield. Everybody in the 'Inner Circle' knew that Earl was a bit odd, but Mansfield was beginning to wonder if the man had totally lost his mind. And now that they were alone in the dark, Mansfield suddenly wondered if he had anything to fear from the unassuming science teacher.

"I need some light in here," Mansfield said, turning toward the outline of a lamp in the corner of the room. "I can't see a thing."

Mansfield clicked on the lamp and the room was suddenly bathed in light. Earl's reaction to the light only furthered Mansfield's thoughts that the man was going crazy. Earl looked like a vampire who'd been exposed to the sun. He threw his arms over his head to block out the light and turned away. Mansfield did not have time to lament on the strangeness of this reaction, though. What he now saw with the lights turned on was something so strange he swore he would never be able to forget it.

Hundreds of holes – the size of half-dollar coins – were neatly carved into every wall in the room, as well as the ceiling. Mansfield scanned the entire living room, looking in captivated awe that the walls could still remain standing with so many holes in them.

"What the hell did you do?" Mansfield asked, still gazing at the precision that must have gone into making each of these holes. At first he found it slightly amusing, but when he turned back toward Earl, the smile vanished from his face.

Earl was pointing a gun directly at him, his scraggly face contorted in a look that was either angry or frustrated or a combination of both.

"I know there are bugs in here," Earl said.

"Bugs? Are you on drugs? Look, anything that you might think is crawling on you is not really there, you have to believe me, Earl," Mansfield said, his voice uncharacteristically low and soothing.

"Not insects, you idiot. I'm not stupid. Electronic bugs, to listen to everything and everybody I talk to," Earl said. "Now tell me where you had them hidden."

Mansfield thought quickly, realizing that the threat he issued Earl a few years ago was now coming back to haunt him. At the time, he was just warning Earl to make sure he did not talk to anyone about the comet. Earl obviously took it the wrong way, though.

"Earl, you don't know what you're talking about."

"I don't? I don't?" Earl said, raising his voice. "I'm not crazy, you know. I'm not just making these things up."

Earl's hand began to shake, causing Mansfield to grow even more nervous. He did not really think the science teacher had the backbone to shoot anyone, but the way he was shaking, Mansfield could not rule out that he might fire the weapon by accident.

"I don't think you're crazy, Earl. I just think you’re under a lot stress and that keeping this secret is getting to you. Believe me, it's getting to all of us."

"But what about the bugs? Why couldn’t you just trust me?"

"Earl, I'm only going to say this one more time and I need you to trust me the same way the 'Inner Circle' has trusted you. There are no bugs in here. That threat I made two years ago was to a man I didn't know."

Mansfield hid his anger very well under the guise of caring about Earl. In reality, he was beyond angry that this silly little man was threatening his safety just because he couldn’t deal with the pressure of keeping a secret. Earl was weak, and Mansfield now felt embarrassed for having stuck up for him when President Marshall had questioned his loyalty. He now realized something had to be done with Earl, but Mansfield would deal with that as soon as the gun was out of the equation.

Any look of anger that might have been on Earl's face disappeared and the frustration was replaced by despondency. Earl lowered the gun and began to cry. If what Mansfield was saying was true, Earl realized that his descent into madness had apparently been based on needless suspicion.

"I didn't say anything," Earl sobbed. "I didn't say anything."

Just when Mansfield thought he had the situation under control, Earl's eyes cleared of tears and he put the gun against his own head. For an instant, Mansfield considered letting the man shoot himself, since that would be the best way to deal with the problem of having a crazy man who knew about the comet. If Earl ended up dead though, Mansfield would likely find himself in a heap of trouble. Sure, he knew the Secret Service could cover this up and he would not be in trouble with the law, but President Marshall had made it well known to him that Mansfield was not to have anyone else hurt. After dealing with the database worker from NASA, Mansfield had been put on a sort of probation with the president, who would never possibly believe that Earl just happened to kill himself the moment Mansfield showed up.

Peter Mansfield – who hadn’t played football since he was ten years old – proved that he might still make it as a pretty good middle linebacker. He charged across the room and slammed into Earl, throwing the man back against the wall and knocking the gun out of his hand in the process. When the gun hit the ground it discharged and Mansfield froze in fear that a stray bullet could have hit him or Earl. Earl lay on the ground, crying again, and Mansfield immediately feared that he was hit.

"Are you okay? Are you hit?" he asked frantically, as the Secret Service men busted down the front door.

Earl just continued to cry and upon closer inspection, Mansfield was relieved to find the man uninjured. He looked around the room to see if the bullet hit the wall somewhere, but finding a bullet hole among the hundreds of holes would have been like finding a needle in a haystack.

"What happened in here?" the Secret Service agent asked.

"Detain this man," Mansfield said without remorse, as Earl was dragged to his feet and hauled out his home.

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President Marshall and James Armour walked through the probe hangar, as the president got his first up close look at the machine they hoped would save the world. It was still very early in the morning – just a half an hour before sunrise – and most of the NASA compound was deserted. Marshall flew in from Washington the night before and later in the day, there was an official tour of NASA scheduled for the president to see what the nation's space agency was currently involved with. That would all be done for the benefit of the cameras though, as this unofficial tour was the real reason for his visit.

"Doesn't really look like it should be saving the world, does it?" Marshall said, noting the odd shape of the spacecraft.

"I suppose not, sir."

"Looks more like a huge, psychedelic mushroom."

"I'll admit, it certainly doesn't look like anything I ever flew in space," Armour conceded.

The two men silently circled around the craft for the third time. Marshall did not have many questions, although Armour found it necessary to explain every aspect of the ship's design.

"All of the plans are in place then?" Marshall asked at the end, once he was satisfied that he absorbed all of the information he needed to know.

"Yes, sir. Neil Peterson will be arriving on the compound within the next few days, where the final minute details will be ironed out. I see no reason why the launch won't go off next week without a hitch," Armour said, proud that his hard work and careful planning was going as scheduled.

"What about the nukes?"

"Henry signed off on the final approval for the transfer of the nuclear weapon to our compound a few days ago. As you know, the government deals with nuke transfers in a very delicate manner. But to make a long story short, the nuke should be here in the next few days, where we will keep it under tight locks in our research facility until the night before the launch. From there, I will sign off on a top-secret NASA project, so secret that it does not even exist. Like I said, the night before liftoff, the nuke will be transferred from the lab and installed."