Three (8 page)

His mirth suddenly turned to
shock as he began to examine the next exhibit.  It was a grand sequence of
photographs and newspaper headlines describing the planning and early
construction phases of the nation’s most expensive science project, the
Superconducting Super Collider.  Surrounding Waxahachie a circular accelerator
tunnel 54.1 miles in circumference had been planned.  Excavation began in 1983
and had reached a length of 14.6 miles by 1993 when it was canceled for lack of
funds.  The 4.4 billion dollars originally budgeted had been expended, the cold
war had come to an end, and tax payers saw no reason to continue the project
for the sake of national security. 
This is the SSC facility Khalil said
would eventually have replaced Fermilab as the National Center for High Energy
Physics, had it not been canceled!
 

Oliver almost felt faint as
he made his way quickly out of the courthouse and back to his car.  For a long
moment he sat in the front seat in the afternoon heat and stared ahead at the
empty street, trying to calm himself, as his mind raced through all of the possible
connections between this I&A assignment in Waxahachie and Peter’s death at
Fermilab.  Shaking his head violently to clear his thoughts, he dialed the
encoded line to Bob Clark, his I&A supervisor. 

When Clark answered Oliver
said, somewhat harshly, “Clark, why didn’t you tell me that the Texas
transmissions came from the site of the Superconducting Super Collider rather
than Waxahachie!  I’ve just come from a big exhibit of it at the courthouse!  I’m
beginning to think there’s a relationship between Peter’s death at Fermilab and
this SSC site!” 

“Calm down, Oliver.  I
thought you knew about the SSC location.   I’m sorry if you were blindsided. 
We’ve already checked out that angle and dismissed it.  You must also have
learned that after the SSC closing in 1993, the tunnels were flooded for safety
reasons, and the control and administration buildings were turned over to Ellis
County.  The county has since sold the entire complex to a chemical company
that produces solid rocket propellant.  It’s not been a government facility for
over twenty years.  If you’ve begun to find a link between these transmissions
and Peter’s death, make sure you remain objective in your research.  I chose
you for this fact-finding mission because of your ability to see the big
picture.  If there’s a big picture that links these events together, then the
threat of a widespread conspiracy against the United States is very serious. 
Understand also anyone close to this case, if it turns out to be a true threat,
could also be a target.  That is why I want you to be careful, and to maintain
a very low profile; you’re not trained in law enforcement.” 

“I’ll drive out to the SSC
complex and begin playing tourist along the surrounding farm-to-market roads,
but my head is still reeling from the sudden discovery of another Super
Fermilab.”

As he drove out Old Buena
Vista road to the southwest of town, Oliver was filled with a growing fear that
he was in grave danger.  He also began to fear for Peter’s team and for Alice. 

In order to assure himself,
he called Maxine.  “Max, did you find any connections between the Father
Abraham transmissions and the work at Fermilab?” 

“Oliver, I ran a media search
for events that may have triggered an ISIS initiative, following the patterns
of similar communication in the past, and came up empty. However, in the targeted
period of time, three days prior to the transmissions, there was the Public
Television broadcast dealing with the ‘God Particle’ and concluding with Dr.
Newbury talking about his work at Fermilab.  This may be significant, and so I’m
in the process of sending this information on to Director Clark and the federal
agents investigating the death of your friend.  By the way, I’ve been keeping
up with their reports from the autopsy.  It’s in the earliest stages, and so
far they’ve found nothing suspicious.” 

“Max, this leg of our Father
Abraham conspiracy appears to be located at or near the site of the
Superconducting Super Collider project that was intended to eventually replace
Fermilab.  I now believe there must be some connection between this leg of the
conspiracy and Peter’s death.”

“Aren’t you jumping to
conclusions?  How can Dr. Newbury’s death be connected to the three-way
communication between Waxahachie, Jerusalem and Damascus?”

“Max, as Peter was dying he
uttered to Father Ryan, ‘You must find the three.’  I have not mentioned this
to Alice or Peter’s team.”

“Does Robert Swift, the
investigator working on Peter’s case know about this?”

“I’m sure Father Ryan told
him during his interview.”

“Do you think Peter knew about
the Father Abraham conspiracy?”

  “I think maybe he did.  Now
I’m being drawn into a possible terrorist cell, armed not with a weapon as you
are, but with only a cell phone, pencil and notepad.  I’m on my way into the
dragon’s lair, and I haven’t a clue what the dragon looks like, or how to fight
it.” 

“Oliver, don’t fight it; just
get its photo and keep out of trouble.  I know how personal this is becoming
for you, but if you let your feelings overcome your reason, you’ll endanger
yourself and possibly others.  I know for a fact Clark is watching your
reactions carefully.  He just told me about yesterday’s attack at your
apartment, and admitted he  came very close to calling you back to I&A.  He
needs your expertise, but doesn’t want to place you in danger.  He’s just
indicated that if he finds you are in over your head, he’ll pull you off this
case as well as Dr. Newbury’s, leaving you on the outside looking in, neither
able to help I&A or your friends at Fermilab.” 

“He’s made that painfully
clear to me, Max, but I keep sliding deeper and deeper into this interconnected
web of frightening events, while still reeling from Peter’s death.  But, you
are right; I’ve got to be careful.  I’ll try to move more slowly and calmly for
the next day or two, and approach this mission with reason rather than emotion.” 

Oliver thanked Maxine for her
information and her concern, and signed off.  Maxine sat at her desk in the
I&A office staring at her cell phone and worrying about Oliver.  
If
there’s a real threat in Texas, where this
leg of the Father Abraham
conspiracy seems to be, then Oliver may be in real danger.  I wish the director
had let me join him. 

Oliver
drove on toward
the location of the now privately owned main site of the SSC.  The scenery
along Old Buena Vista road was much like that which he had seen on the north
side of Waxahachie: Bluebonnets and Indian Paintbrushes, pastures, ranch houses
with out-buildings set back from the road, and stands of low scrub trees along
creek beds and ditches.  He began to notice, however, that many of the houses
were large and expensive, looking more like country estates than functional
ranch houses.  The out-buildings were not barns, but four-car garages. Obviously
the 4.4 billion U. S. taxpayer dollars had had a significant impact on the
local economy. 

Many locals had been put to
work in the management and construction of this facility until it was ended in
’93.  Certainly many of these government contractors and employees had retired
wealthy here in the land that they loved.  Some were even raising those
two-toned designer cows from Scotland, the black ones with a solid white girth
around their back and belly.  They looked, for all the world, like an old style
black and white police car, minus the red dome light of course. 

When he reached the old SSC
facility, he was immediately struck by its contrast to Wilson Hall at Fermilab. 
Rather than looking like a temple or a cathedral, the low, monolithic,
two-story, central building with linear rows of windows resembled a prison.  He
had seen more attractive warehouses in the industrial districts of Chicago. 

He turned right on Perimeter
Road and drove around the complex, stopping to take a few photos with his cell
phone.  It was obvious this facility was now privately owned and produced
hazardous material because of the signs, high fence, and security gates.  The
employee parking lot was filled with cars, indicating a large number of
employees at work at the present time.  There was nothing suspicious about the
place that he could see
.  If in the future it’s necessary to check out this
private company, a federal warrant will be needed.

The prison-like appearance of
this facility, with its stark buildings and high security fence, brought back
to Oliver an inner feeling of foreboding.  He had been feeling this same
darkness periodically since first learning of Peter’s death.  He began to realize
he had not really dealt properly with his loss.  He knew that Alice had called
on her strong faith in God and was comforted by this faith, along with the help
and care of Father Pat.  His own inner darkness had its origins in the choices
he had made 20 years earlier, when he began to ignore his own faith while
becoming an expert in religion
.  My first experience out of undergraduate
school was a spiritual calling to become a minister.  Now I feel alone and in
need of one.
 

These thoughts turned in his
mind as he drove, somewhat aimlessly, south of the SSC site along small
farm-to-market roads, hoping that some ISIS threat would become obvious to him
in the form of suspicious buildings or people.  This was the general area from
which the Texas leg of the three-way ISIS communication had come, according to
Maxine, and Oliver was hoping to find something unusual.  All the houses, barns,
and garages looked the same, with no peculiar antennae or suspiciously large
numbers of cars parked behind them.  The normal countryside in no way suggested
some evil conspiracy was afoot here in this Texas farmland.  As he drove he was
not so much thinking of cells of terrorists as he was thinking of his own pain
from Peter’s sudden death.

Almost on cue, his thoughts
were interrupted by the sight of an old church building some distance off the
road.  Driven by a longing for the comfort he felt as a child in church, since
this one resembled his childhood church in Cutten, he decided to stop.  He
approached it expecting it to be abandoned since much of what appeared to be a
ghost town stood in ruins along either side of the old, broken pavement along
which he slowly drove.  Instead, he saw that two cars and a pickup were parked
neatly behind the attached wing to the old frame sanctuary.

It appeared to be an active
church, with people engaged in some church activity, and he felt comfortable in
parking in the front and approaching the main entrance into the sanctuary.  The
door was unlocked and the church itself appeared to be well-kept and regularly
cleaned.  He found a pew near the back and sat, taking in the simple trappings
of the kind of church he had known as a boy but had shunned for many years
now.  Tears began to well up in his eyes as he allowed himself to be overcome
with grief at Peter’s death.  He bowed his head and began to pray, struggling
with his doubt in, but need for, the grace of God.  As he prayed with tears
streaming down his face he was vaguely aware of the faint murmur of men’s
voices from a room in the annex.

Four men had gathered in this
small church annex, in what Oliver assumed was a mid-day prayer meeting.  They
were led by the Reverend Benton Spencer, a man in his late sixties with
carefully styled silver hair and a charismatic presence.  He paced slowly back
and forth as he addressed the three men seated before him.  Transfixed, they
watched his expressive face and listened to his resonant, flowing monolog as he
again reminded them of their Christian duty to combat evil in a world growing
more and more corrupt. 

“Satan has been released from
his thousand year bondage and is gathering together all those who bear his
mark.  He had anointed Dr. Peter Newbury as his high priest of the satanic
temple called Fermilab.  We have all heard his public sermons, calling all
mankind to worship the God Particle.  Surely he was the false prophet the Bible
warned against.  Even though we have now conquered this high priest, Satan is now
bringing forth into his other temples called CERN and The Dark Sector Lab,
those bearing his mark. They now begin to gather in order to worship this God
particle idol.  Satan will soon gather Gog and Magog from the four corners of
the earth, and bring their multitude together to strike down the righteous. 
The Holy Scriptures of the world religions have all foretold these final days
of judgment.  We, the righteous, must take up the sword of truth and combat the
Evil One.” 

“Amen and Amen,” answered his
three disciples.

Forrest Pierce, the better
dressed, spoke for the three. “We’ve begun the struggle against sin and
idolatry, for I have made the first strike.  Your expert guidance has carried
us safely through the fight against the evil one.   We shall prevail in our
efforts until the final judgment.” 

“You must be careful not to
become too confident, Brother Pierce.  The Devil always brings down the
self-confident; be very vigilant in the coming days and keep me abreast of all
the evil doings that you see.” 

“I will keep you informed,
but now I must get back to the lab before I am missed,” said Forrest, as the
four left the room of the old church and began to walk to their cars.

 Barry Smith, one of the two
local men, who were climbing into the pickup, noticed Oliver’s car parked in
front of the church.  “Who’s that?” he asked as he pointed.