Jock had kept a close eye on the vault while the house was disappearing. Nobody had seen Ramón during the operation and Jock was a little concerned that he might not have been part of the migration of El Patrón's thugs to other parts of the Philippines. When nobody came near the vault and tried to communicate with El Patrón, Jock decided that he was being too cautious. Ramón didn't have the means to remove the cement porch quickly anyway. Jock left a drone flying over the vault and went back to Regina.
As always, Sunday was Mathias' and Kashmira's time together. They decided to visit Cebu City this Sunday. The land closest to the ocean had been lost to the rising waters, but the land rose sharply to the northwest, and that's where the bulk of the city had been relocated. Mathias and Kashmira mostly sat around in the shade, looking at people, and remarking on how prosperous and happy the citizens of this city appeared. They talked about why one city would prosper while another so close to it would be so poor. They returned to the ship in time for supper and Kashmira ate what would be close to a normal portion for a girl her age. This prompted an immediate weighing ceremony. She was up 2 kg for the week and didn't go to bed until 9 p.m., which is when Mathias left.
# # # # # # # #
This brings us to the evening of Monday, October 21 and Kashmira's meeting with Constanza and Mariangela. They were bringing a few of their close friends to the church and Kashmira was planning to ask them how they felt about having numerous children, whether they knew what condoms were, and would they ever use them?
We don't know exactly what else happened in that meeting. At the time, Doc was flying guard above the church but didn't go inside. Nor did the Wilizy have any drones inside. At one point in December, long after the Philippine operation had ended, Granny suggested that a time-travel trip to this particular October meeting inside the church might turn up answers to the raft of unanswered questions they were facing. Doc argued against it.
"It is what it is," he said. "Just let it go."
Since Doc had been the one most affected by what had happened, Granny respected his wishes.
Here's what we have been able to learn about that October 21st meeting. All of this came from accounts that we picked up from participants who were willing to talk about it.
About thirty women came to the meeting. All stayed for at least two hours – some of them stayed longer than others. They talked about birth control devices – what they were, how they worked, and whether the women should use them, or be even allowed that choice. They talked about Maasin City, its poverty, and its rich people. They talked about how husbands could kick them out of their own house, and how rich men, criminal men, and religious men controlled their lives. They talked about their children and what they wanted for their children. And they talked about prostitutes and whether they should ever be allowed into the church.
We don't know who said what about these issues or what, if anything, was decided. We only know that they talked about those things. We don't know if they came out of that meeting happy or sad. We do know that eight women stayed behind with Kashmira after the others had left. Doc recognized Constanza and Mariangela when they eventually left. He didn't recognize the other six.
We're reasonably certain that it was in this final segment of the meeting that Kashmira learned what the paterfamilias had been doing to some of the women in his congregation. What they shared with her was so devastating to them that we doubt that they would have talked about it in the larger meeting. That left this small meeting of eight women as the only reasonable opportunity for them to share their experiences. Why they revealed their secrets to Kashmira is a mystery. Perhaps because they hoped she could help? Perhaps because they needed to tell somebody? But Kashmira definitely learned of their secrets. Did this affect her health? Perhaps. I say perhaps because what the paterfamilias was doing to those women was very much like what he had done to her. Only worse.
We are absolutely certain that the paterfamilias was raping women of the congregation when they came to him to confess about something that had happened in their lives. You'll be wondering what that event was and why they had kept their trip to the confessional a secret. The event that prompted them to confess was almost certainly a single rape or a series of rapes that the women had endured from some other man or men. Constanza and Mariangela, for example, were raped at their work repeatedly by El Patrón for over fourteen years. They had no choice but to comply. Had they resisted, at the very least they would have lost their jobs if not their homes and their children as well. For one other woman at the meeting, we know that she was raped by her brother-in-law. We don't know how the others were first raped, but we're confident that they were.
All went to Paterfamilias to confess. His confession ritual went something like this. "You are an honest and religious woman. You attracted this rape in some fashion, perhaps unknowingly. I can't let a single mistake ruin your life. If you do not fix this, your husband will remove you from your home and your children. You will be unable to come to church. I will be unable to pray for your entrance into heaven."
"With that rape, you now have evil inside of you. Perhaps it is growing into a child. If so, that child will be evil. Even if there is no child, you have evil inside you. I can help you but you must swear... " Etcetera, etcetera. Paterfamilias' solution for the women was not the laying on of hands. The solution for the women of the church was lying down with the paterfamilias and allowing him to purify their bodies. That purification required repeated visits to his bedroom.
If they had known what Paterfamilias was doing to escape heavenly justice for those acts, they would have been even more outraged. You, the reader, know how he excused his loathsome acts but perhaps I should remind you. Do you remember how Granny found Paterfamilias' prayer book and translated the prayers from Latin to English. One prayer in particular caught her eye. She didn't understand why the person confessing would say to the paterfamilias, in Latin: I forgive you for the sins you have committed. This Get out of jail free card would have become public knowledge and would have been part of the earthly justice that El Pervertido would have received had he not escaped his trial.
Would learning about this have affected Kashmira? Certainly. Would it have been the reason why she would lose 5 kg in the few days following that meeting? Was that why she had to sleep so much? Was that why she had little energy for anything? Or was an organ in her body starting to fail? We don't know the answers to those questions.
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Chapter 44
"What's the progress on the murder charges," Judge Ambrose asked Detective Bertoia. He had been waiting two weeks for the detective to call everybody together for an update. When she didn't, the judge ordered her in for a meeting. One of the Dingle/Dangles probably had a word with him first.
"I've made no progress. Yes, she could have murdered him. They were in the same bar the night he disappeared. And yes, he was trying to hit on her. But she sent him packing and left the bar alone. I found no witnesses to them meeting later nor did I find any physical evidence in her apartment linking her to the man."
"We could provide a witness for you," Agent Dingle offered.
"I thought we were going to prove the case legitimately," Bertoia countered.
"The next charge?" the judge asked. "Can we get a conviction?"
"The next charge is flimsy at best. I thought that we'd accumulate some evidence from watching her in her cell. Stress her out and she'd crack. Putting her in a cell with a sadist didn't do it. Solitary confinement hasn't done it."
"What does she do in her cell?" the judge asked.
"She dances weirdly," Agent Dangle said. "Like she's some sort of puppet moving in slow motion."
"It's not a dance," the detective corrected. "It's a form of martial arts. She uses it to calm herself."
"So she's unlikely to crack," Agent Dingle concluded.
"Which means that we'll have to rely on the final charge." This from Agent Dangle.
r /> "The final charge is not much of an offense, let alone a crime," the detective warmed.
"You'll have to describe the offense in a more serious light then, won't you?" Agent Dangle's words and tone took a left turn into Threatening Street.
"You mean you want me to lie."
"I could always reveal the truth of your personal life if you wanted." Yup, no doubt about it. The detective found herself on Threatening Street. If she weren't careful, it would become Reveal Avenue. Reveal Avenue was a one-way street leading to End of Career Boulevard.
"This crime is hardly ever charged in Chicago's courts. Besides, it's not a capital crime."
"But it will produce a medical treatment that could prompt a confession on the first charge." Dingle continued what he was good at – thinking of ways to convict terrorists who were threatening the USA's constitution by personally breaking the USA's constitution himself. He didn't see the irony in that. Whereas most men have two eyebrows, Agent Dingle had one continuous eyebrow. He combed it regularly. That had nothing to do with his ironic behaviour. I just thought I'd mention it to you.
"You would do that?"
"To save the USA, yes."
"I'd lose my career."
"You better hope that you can make the charge stick then. Does Chicago have any of those half height cells where the prisoner can't stand up? If we remove her ability to calm herself by exercising, perhaps she'll reveal something."
"We have those cells," Judge Ambrose responded. "I'll order her moved tomorrow."
"Her skills in martial arts could be a problem if she can get free," Bertoia observed.
"She's never going to get free," Agent Dingle announced.
# # # # # # # #
"We're never going to be free of them," Yolanda said to Hank.
"They're not breaking any laws," Hank replied. "They're just camping in the woods." Hank knew this because he and Yolanda were hovering over the Scandinavian spies' who were camping in the woods adjacent to the home compound at that very moment. "EmmaGee is safe."
"We can't remain forever under a threat of her being kidnapped."
"They're not breaking any laws, Yolanda." Hank said this in the tone he used when he considered the matter closed. There'd be no pre-emptive action, which was what Yolanda was edging towards.
"What if we knew that they were planning to commit a crime?"
"It might be possible then. We'd be defending ourselves. I thought that you didn't want EmmaGee translating our surveillance tapes."
"I don't. I know somebody else who could tell us what they're talking about."
"That army girl who led that Scandinavian platoon into a trap?"
"Yes. Her name is Bean."
"She's long gone. How would you find her quickly?"
"When she was leaving, I had her hover her copter and open the door to talk with me. That gave me the chance to slap a drone inside the copter."
"I thought you said she had access to several copters. How would you know which one she'd be using?"
"She does have several copters. After our battle debriefing, I followed the drone to her camp and hid drones in all of her copters."
"Do you know where she is right now?"
"I know where the copter she last used is right now. Chicago. From there I can TiTr her current location."
"We're all very busy right now on Lucas' operation."
"I'll go with Wanda. She's free."
"Why'd you drone this army girl? I thought she warned you away. She had something in her past that you wouldn't want to know."
"I believe she's a cold-blooded killer, Hank. Her eyes were dead."
"And you wanted to keep track of her because why?"
"I felt a tug. She would need help dealing with what she had become."
"From you?"
"I was a cold-blooded killer too, Hank. I know what she's going through."
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Chapter 45
By Monday, October 28, Kashmira could only move around inside the ship by sling. She did not have the energy to walk. She was sleeping 14 hours a day, she was on a continuous intravenous drip, and she was throwing up if she ate more than two teaspoons of food at a time. Mathias and Winnie were now living on the ship and one of them was always with her when she was awake.
However they weren't with her the evening of Monday October 28. Kashmira was determined that she would meet with Constanza and Mariangela again in the church but this time only the three of them would be meeting. They were going to tell her about her mother. For her part, Kashmira was planning to give both women money so that they could continue to feed their children until they found another job. Stu said that the Wilizy would give Kashmira money for such situations. He told Doc what she was planning to do and both were impressed with her concern for the two women.
Kashmira didn't believe that she had the strength to walk, so Winnie found a wheelchair for her. They tried it out on the ship. So long as somebody pushed the chair, she'd be fine. Kashmira did complain however about the footrests on the chair. They were very rough and she had only a thin pair of moccasins to protect her feet. Granny gave her a set of moccasins from her own closet, but added a padded sole to each. Kashmira joked that she was now wealthy. She had two pairs of moccasins – her ship moccasins and her wheelchair moccasins.
Once again, Doc stood guard above the church. Winnie posed as a friend in a burqa, wheeled her into the church, and then joined Doc outside. Once again, we know very little about what happened inside. We are certain that one of the women gave Kashmira a picture of her mom on her wedding day. We are certain that Kashmira gave each of them a tidy sum of money. That's all we know about that meeting.
# # # # # # # #
Something happened on the Wednesday and Thursday of that week that may give us some insight into what the women talked about in that Monday meeting.
On the Wednesday, Kashmira asked Mathias to do her a favour. "Would you catch about a dozen rats, put them in a cage, and bring the cage to me?"
"You're getting hungry again?" Mathias winked so that she'd know that he was kidding.
"No, silly. I want to give them to somebody."
"That's a terrible gift."
"Yes it is. Can you do it?"
"Live rats?"
"Yes."
"Sure. There are enough of them around the city. I can stun them. Best if I do that in the dark. Tomorrow morning good enough?"
"Yes."
# # # # # # # #
Thursday morning came and went. Kashmira woke up at 1 p.m. and found a cage of rats on her bedroom floor.
Thank you, Mathias.
You're welcome.
Will you do me another favour?
Eat the rats?
No. Help me deliver my gift. I'll need to go in your sling as soon as it's dark enough to hide ourselves. When I deliver my gift, we will have to be visible.
OK. Are you going to climb out of bed now?
Perhaps in a bit.
# # # # # # # #
That Thursday night, Mathias took Kashmira in his sling to El Patrón's vault. They landed on the top of the vault, deactivated the sling, and Kashmira waited while Mathias pried off the screen on a ventilation vent. Kashmira held the rat cage open so that the rats would run down the vent and into the vault. Then Mathias put the screen back on.
Kashmira seemed quite content with her outing and she snuggled with Mathias all the way back to the ship. Either they travelled there very slowly, or they went back to the ship via Australia. We're almost certain that they had their first ever kiss that evening. There may have been more than one.
# # # # # # # #
The reader may be wondering what's up with the rats, and what's the insight that I mentioned we might gain. We know that up to this point in her story, Kashmira believed that her father had returned her mother to her village after her birth. The reader knows differently. Doc and Stu watched Kashmira's mother die in Manila, not in her
home village. Her death was so disturbing that neither man wanted to tell the directors about it. As far as we know, they never mentioned it to anybody.
If that's the case, how did Kashmira found out how her mother died? We know that she knew about her death because that's why she dropped rats into her father's vault. The only way that she'd connect rats to her mother's death is if Consuela or Mariangela told her how Kierra had died. We have to assume that one or both of them overheard El Patrón and Ramón discussing how Kierra had died. For Kashmira to learn of her mother's death, when she herself was too weak to travel and did not even have TiTr capability on her sling, she had to be told during the Monday meeting. It's either that or she learned it from Doc or Stu. That second option would be very unlikely.
So how did Kashmira' mother die, you ask? I had to TiTr to that time myself as part of the research for this book. Nobody else in the family knew how Kierra had died.
Kierra survived in a Manila alley for a little over two years. During that time, she worked as a prostitute in that alley. She also slept in the alley. A customer beat her to death in that alley because he didn't like her smell. That smell was coming from all of the abscesses on Kierra's body. Those abscesses were from rat bites.
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Chapter 46
"What did you learn from the surveillance bug?" Agent Dingle asked his partner as he entered the screening room back at STUSA's Chicago office. At one point before The Troubles, STUSA's offices took up three floors of a non-descript building in an industrial area of the city. Back then, the three floors above ground were full of agents keeping the Chicago area of the USA safe. The building also had a three-level cellblock in the basement that they used to imprison people who had been intent on harming the USA.