Chapter 4 -- WGKNYZYMSVZNRDOV
"I got everything you should need for a few days," Jessica said as they reentered
the freeway. "As soon as we're clear of the city we'll stop at one of those
truck stop places that has a motel and restaurant. You can finish cleaning up,
get some food and sleep. Hopefully by tomorrow your past few years
begin to fade."
Carter looked over at her. She was a careful and attentive driver, seldom
looking at anything other than the road and the mirror, and occasionally over
at the other lanes beside the car. He was already beginning to sense that she
was not quite like most women he had been around.
"OK if I ask some questions?" he asked.
Jessica gave him just a quick glance.
"Sure."
"I knew Tommy for a while and we talked, but mostly about our past lives. He
never said anything about this, except for a hint when he visited the last time.
Where do you fit in?"
"I'll explain more later, but for now just say that Tommy and I are both part
of an operation you are likely to have some interest in. We're on our way to,
I guess, our base of operations. It's somewhat complicated, so it may take a
while.
"There are some more people you'll meet later. For now I'm just here to get
you to your destination."
Carter looked at the signs along the highway, mostly indicators locations of
fuel, food, and lodging. Before long Tommy signalled a turn, and they exited
the freeway near what looked like a sizable collection of these facilities.
They followed Tommy to a relatively new-looking motel and parked. The parking
log was not yet crowded - that usually would be the case in a couple of hours
as more travellers stopped for the night.
There were fuel stations with accommodations for large trucks, several
fast food restaurants, and a reasonably attractive restaurant next door to the
motel.
"This is a good place to stay," said Jessica. "We always look for a big place
like this, with a fairly new motel. Let's get checked in."
Inside Jessica got them three rooms and they went to get their luggage.
Jessica and Tommy got theirs from the trunk and Carter brought in the shopping
bags with his clothes.
"We'll wait while you get cleaned up and changed," Jessica said. "There's no
need to hurry."
In his room, Carter dropped the bags on the bed and stood, silently, in the
quiet room, experiencing solitude, if only for a while, for the first time in
years. He walked into the bathroom and looked in the mirror. Having for so
long had nothing more than a small mirror for shaving, he found a complete
image of himself unfamiliar, as if he were looking at a stranger.
In a way, he thought, I am a stranger. To myself and to the world. If Tommy
hadn't showed up, I would have had no idea what to do, where to go.
But he did show up, and he apparently has some sort of plan that involves me,
he thought. Since there is in any case nothing else to do, I might as well
get on with it.
Jessica had brought the necessary toiletries for him to shave and brush his
teeth, which he immediately began to do. Each stroke of the razor, the
toothbrush, removed a little of the prison residue. A shower and fresh
clothes completed the process. As he tossed the prison clothing into a corner
of the closet for the motel staff to clean up, then washed his hands again.
Leaving his room he knocked on Jessica's door. When he entered he saw Tommy
was there as well.
"Ready?" Tommy asked.
Carter nodded, moved to let them take the lead. Jessica took a moment to look
him over.
"You look better already," she said. "Not let's get you some real food."
They went out and walked across the parking lot to the restaurant. The sign
announced it as just Libby's. It looked like a reasonably quality place, with
a hostess seating the patrons. It wasn't extremely busy so they
were able to get a table without any other diners close by.
Carter wasn't worried about an adjustment to food outside the prison. Most
prisons provided essentially the same sort of food as a school or other
institutional dining facility. Following his hosts' lead he had a ribeye
steak with a salad. The tea was strong and sweet, the way he remembered the
mother of one of his girlfriends made it.
The food was one more reminder of what had been taken from him. Those years
should have been some of his best, and now they were gone. The anger inside
him, briefly pushed aside by the day's activities, came back, evidently
visible to the Tommy and Jessica.
"Hey man, it's over," said Tommy. "Whatever happens now, the bad stuff ain't
ever coming back. Time to start living again."
Jessica was quiet, but his manner seemed to have darkened the mood.
"Were you ever around a newly released prisoner?" Carter asked.
"Just Tommy," she replied. "I suppose it's different for everyone."
"Maybe so," Carter said. "Look, I'm all right. Thanks for coming to get me. I
don't know what's going on, but I trust you. Not just because it's my only
choice. Time may not heal, but maybe it will stop the bleeding."
"It will," said Tommy. "I know it was worse for you, getting railroaded that
way. But once you get into your new life things will improve fast."
The salads arrived and provided an activity in place of conversation. The
remainder of the meal involved talk about events in the world outside, which
Carter had ignored for the entire time he was in prison. He had long since
written off not only his remaining life, but the entire world as well.
So his perception of what Tommy and Jessica said was a blank slate. It seemed
that the only developments were that things were continuing as they had been.
In the cities the decay continued - ever-increasing crime, corruption and
incompetence in the governments, and a continued exodus of the productive
citizens.
The growth of the underclass - both of the criminal elements and those too
poor to go anywhere - had turned many of the cities into veritable jungles
with islands, or more often suburbs, of gated communities where the wealthy
who remained paid exorbitant prices for their comfort and safety, seemingly
oblivious to their hellish environment.
"Most of those who stay are themselves corrupt," said Jessica. "They're in the
government, or they own the politicians. They feel safe, as long as they
never have to actually walk the streets. You've got, literally, close to a
hundred shootings per week in some of these place, with multiple fatalities,
and absolutely nothing is being done."
"It's getting worse due to the lack of law enforcement," said Tommy. "As you
learned, it doesn't pay to be a cop these days. There were a lot of guys who
had the same thing happen to them as you did, and they just started leaving.
Not only are the departments way undermanned, many of the cops they do have
are no good. When the good men won't even consider applying, they take
whatever they can get. And what they can get is often worse than nothing."
"Are there any safe places left?" Carter asked.
"There are those few states where the majority of the population is still
sensible, but those will soon go the way of everything else, with the rigged
elections. The problem is that the decent people left, while still in the
majority, are not united. And it's all they can do to survive.
"Having to work for a living, care for a family, try to have some kind of
decent life - they don't have any time left. The mobs they use to intimidate
politicians, and the law-abiding citizens, don't have jobs. They're paid, by
the organizers, transportation and weapons are supplied, all they have to do
is show up and collect the money, drugs, and whatever else they're paid with."
"You must have noticed, even before you..." Jessica paused. "...went away,
that these mobs were well financed and organized. The riots before, and
during you trial. They were brought in in busses, from other cities even.
And a lot of money was from big corporations, extorted with threats of being
attacked, or in some cases given by misguided management."
Tommy snorted. "Misguided, more like stupid. And corrupt. You don't get to
be a CEO of these companies any more by being smart or hard work. It's all
politics." Of course Carter knew that was true. Even the lower levels or
business, and certainly government, were thoroughly infested with corruption.
Which was why his department threw him under the bus - to save their own skins,
and in some cases perhaps advance their careers. They were as guilty as the
prosecutor and the rioters.
"Sorry," said Jessica, seeing his expression. "I didn't mean to..."
"It's all right," said Carter. "It happened. It just seems that there's
nothing to be done."
Jessica took the statement as a question.
"Maybe tomorrow I can enlighten you, away from walls with ears. I hate to
make you wait, but it's only a little while, and it's important. Let's try to
enjoy this time."
The steaks arrived, giving them something to do instead of talk. Carter had
learned, both in police work and in prison, to observe people at close
quarters without seeming to. He tried to figure out the relationship between
Tommy and Jessica, but neither had given him any useful clues. Initially he
had thought Jessica was just an acquaintance Tommy had recruited to drive him,
perhaps because he didn't have a car. However, she seemed to be involved as a
partner in whatever he was up to.
He noticed that while he had immediately thought her attractive, she became
even more so the longer he was with her. Not in a magazine cover or actress
way, but more the girl-next-door type. She appeared to wear very little in
the way of makeup, and didn't really need it, as far as he was concerned.
She was one of those women who had somehow naturally, effortlessly, the
look most women would die for. Or kill for he supposed, perhaps literally.
Eventually the meal was finished, and they walked back to the motel. Carter
suddenly realized he was quite tired, and thought he could fall asleep as soon
as he made it to his bed. He did.