The Factory Read online

  “What is it?’

  “When we took him to a see the doctor, she said for him to write the things down that he saw in his tormented dreams. The devil so tortured him at night.”

  “In what way was he tortured?”

  She pointed to the book and said,

  “It’s in the book.”

  Flipping through the pages he saw similar confusing scribblings and long series of numbers as in Amina Green’s bedroom. He was compelled to ask,

  “What is the name of the doctor you took him to?”

  He was not surprised to hear the name of Doctor Fran Jorden.

  Sitting in his cruiser, he activated the onboard computer and searched for Doctor Fran Jorden’s office. The readout showed that it was across town. That was the good news. The bad news was that she was no longer practising in Twin Rivers. The office was closed and the house she had rented was now occupied by somebody else. Normally a doctor moving on was not suspicious but with circumstantial evidence pointing to her involvement in the three missing children, Isaac grew suspicious.

  Back in the precinct, Isaac proudly moved his green peg over to the ‘in’ side of the board and Edith produced an accepting nod. The sheriff was still in his office struggling with the confounded computer. Isaac sat at his desk and emailed the pictures he had taken of the strange equations in Amina’s bedroom as well the pages given to him by Mrs. Ellsworth to a friend at the university. A few minutes later, just as he was thinking of getting something to eat, his cell phone rang. It was his friend at the university, Professor Henry Christianson. Even before the customary ‘hello’, Henry blurted out,

  “What the hell Isaac? Are you into the pseudo-sciences now?”

  Isaac laughed and explained that it was part of an investigation. He then asked,

  “What does it mean Henry?”

  “Well, for one thing, it really doesn’t equate to anything.”

  That was not what he wanted to hear, until Henry added,

  “There was however enough there to suggest a correlation to an idiosyncratic science.”

  Isaac understood that to mean a science of the strange. It was a discipline conventional scientist would not touch if they wanted to keep their jobs and funding. Isaac said.

  “Talk to me buddy.”

  “Parts of the equation pointed to geo-energy. Some science labs are secretly studying it. It is believed that the pressure of the tectonic plates rubbing against each other creates some sort of energy field.”

  Isaac interjected,

  “You mean like the energy of the Lay Lines running through the earth?”

  “Yeah, well that’s a new and legitimate science. The sporadic equations you sent to me suggest something even stranger. This is where it gets crazy. It looks like somebody is trying to merge geo-energy frequencies to human brainwave frequency. Somebody is attempting to merge brainwaves to the earth’s electro-magnetic field.”

  “You mean the matrix?”

  “Yes, and more. This is where it gets better. It looks like there is an effort made to integrate human brain wave frequencies into the matrix and open up another dimension.”

  Isaac was so shocked he was willing to end the conversation right there. He rebutted,

  “Okay, that’s a little off the page. I’ll just take it all as the scribbling of an unstable mind. Thanks for the input.”

  Henry, sensing a disconnect quickly shouted back,

  “No. Many scientists have had their work analyzed as merely the scribbling of an unstable mind only to be proven correct later on. There is some validity to parts of the equations you sent to me.”

  Henry then asked,

  “Where did you come across those calculations anyway?”

  This was police work and Isaac did not want to confess or contaminate the source. He simply chuckled and replied,

  “Sorry Professor, that is well above your pay grade.”

  Henry loudly rebutted,

  “Shit Isaac, I make twice your pay. I have tenure. Are you guaranteed your position?”

  Accepting the hurtful facts, he simply replied,

  “Thanks for your help Henry.”

  Before he could hang up, Isaac heard,

  “She is not here anymore Isaac. She left the university with him. Come back and continue your brilliant career here.”

  She may have walked away from him but she was still stomping through his heart and dreams. Running away and changing careers just seemed like the right thing to do at the time. He hung up and stared blankly into the room.

  Isaac had discovered a good lead and wanted to pursue it but the last thing he wanted to do was report to Sheriff Cornwall the case might involve the supernatural and a pseudo-science. Turning around to see the Sheriff still in his office, he decided to conveniently leave an unsubstantiated science out of his report. However, Walter had a keen sense of knowing when eyes were upon him. He looked up from his computer just in time to see Isaac snap his attention back to the report and the things he was going to leave out. Walter watched as blurry fingers flew across the keyboard and then suddenly stopped. He understood that Isaac had suffered a sudden disconnect between brain and fingers and wondered what it might be.

  While Isaac was out on the road, Walter had sent an email to the Lexington Police Department asking for details into the death of Carol Albright, Gary’s mom and Ruth’s daughter. Carol Albright was coming home from work when it happened. She was standing at a bus stop when a speeding car lost control and hit her dead on. It was a hit and run. Two witnesses were only able to give a vogue description of the driver. He appeared to be middle aged with long brown hair. When the car was finally located it had been reported as stolen hours before. There were no fingerprints in the cab or on the multiple empty beer cans found in the passenger foot well. As yet, the case has not been solved.

  Chapter 17

  It was early the next morning when Ruth knocked and entered Gary’s bedroom. He had spent so much secret time in the attic that he was much more than just sound asleep. Gary was practically in a coma. She sat on his bed and shook him many times. Finally when one eye creaked open, through the haze he saw a shadow and knew it was his grandmother. It was enough to perk him awake and ask a groggy question.

  “Grandma?”

  Ruth said,

  “You don’t have to get up yet dear. I just want to tell you that I will be gone for the better part of the day. I put a meal in the fridge in case I don’t get home in time for supper.”

  It was a struggle for her to stand up. Gary asked,

  “Why are you leaving Grandma? Where are you going?”

  “It’s Tuesday morning, my usual hospital appointment. Plus I haven’t been the same since I tried to get up in the attic the other day.”

  Suddenly guilt covered Gary like one of his blankets. He understood that she wanted to get up there and see what he was secretly doing. He knew what happened to her was his fault. She said,

  “Do you think it would be okay if I left you all alone in the house for the day?”

  From his bed, he nodded and said,

  “I’ll be okay grandma.”

  Because she could not manage the front steps, as always she left the house by the back door. There was only one step down to the ground and she struggled with that one. From his bedroom window, he watched her labour down the driveway. Once past the fence he watched as she turned and walked a half bloke down Jasper Street to the bus stop. It did not take much for him to understand that something was wrong with her. Heavy with guilt, he went back to bed and tried to recapture elusive sleep.

  After getting off the bus and struggle across the street to the hospital, Ruth was outraged at the two hour wait to see a doctor. Why on earth did they tell her to come in at 9AM only to make her wait that long? She also hated the embarrassing hospital gown they made her wear. As much as she objected, she lost the battle to stay in her street clothes. Sitting on the hospital bed waiting for the result of the scan was another intolerable wait.
When Doctor Rodrigues walked in she was fuming.

  Although he seemed pleasant and at least to her, looked like a teenager, she snapped,

  “I didn’t know doctors were paid by the hour.”

  Not understanding the insult, he simply smiled and read aloud the results of her ultra-sound.

  “You probably recently suffered an over excretion. You have a slight scar on your left ventricle.”

  Although he was poised to say more, she curtly cut him off.

  “I live on this planet young man. Speak English to me.”

  Clearly she was not the first cantankerous old lady he had suffered and therefore recovered quickly. He calmly said,

  “You suffered a slight heart attack.”

  With the promise that she would take it easy, stay away from stairs and only do light housework, Ruth was given a prescription and released. Finally out of the embarrassing hospital gown that revealed enough to cause another heart attack, she walked out of the hospital and back across the street to the bus stop. Much to her chagrin, as she stood there patiently waiting for a bus, something happened that she loathed. Young people nowadays seemed insolent in both manner and dress. She hated to see a young lady with a mouth full of rings and a few sticking out of her nose. She always thought it looked like snot. She hated young men who were covered in tattoos and goodness knows what they call hair like that. Whatever happened to polite youth? Where were the ones who knew how to present themselves in public?

  Just her luck, a rough looking young man entered the bus stop shelter and stood next to her. Earrings, tattoos and shoddy pants somehow hanging that low and not fallen off was a miracle. The way he looked at her with those intense and evil eyes, she held tight to her purse. If there had been anybody around, she would have screamed for help. It was a very uncomfortable and scary situation for her.

  Suddenly without warning or a chance to avoid it, the man jumped at her, wrapped both arms around her waist and tackled her to the ground. With the wind knocked out of her she couldn’t even scream. Strangely, she heard the screeching of tires and a tremendous shattering of glass and metal. The man helped her sit up and just as she was about to scream and retaliate as best she could, she saw the shrapnel of the destroyed and levelled bus shelter. In the distance she saw a car speeding down the street and disappear as it sped around a corner. It slowly came to her that the man she distrusted and feared had just saved her life.

  Then something that was very dangerous to her health happened. Her heart started racing and everything started spinning in slow circles. The ambulance was only across the street in the hospital parking lot and was there within minutes. She struggled to stand but the young man kept trying to stop her saying,

  “No ma’am, best you stay down. We will lift you onto the stretcher.”

  She may have been knocked for a loop but there was nothing wrong with her cantankerous side.

  “Get away from me. I can walk by myself.”

  “No,” said her rescuer, “you are injured. Stay down and wait for the stretcher.”

  After the medic pulled the stretcher out of the ambulance, he approached and saw the confrontation. He asked,

  “What’s the matter Doctor? Is she in shock?”

  Adding to her shock, she just discovered that her hero and saviour was a doctor also waiting for the bus. He said,

  “No, but she insists on standing up.”

  The medic looked at her and then said to him,

  “Then let her stand.”

  Although stunned that the man who saved her life was a doctor, she heard the good news and struggled to her feet. The pain was so intense that she immediately fell over. Knowing that it would happen, the Medic was quick to grab her. He said

  “Even a stubborn jackass can’t walk with a sprained ankle.”

  Her bad heart weakened and Ruth passed out.

  Chapter 18

  The Copper River was a half mile away from the city. It was there that a narrow arm of the river split away and eventually tore through a steep narrow canyon at the base of Copper Mountain. The banks are rocky and in some sections steep. The river roars through the narrow canyon creating a thunderous echoing off the steep walls. Nobody ventures into this section of the dangerous canyon, except for Sam and Gary. Sam stood on a giant boulder with the river wildly surging around it. She had jumped from one boulder to another and while standing on one yelled over to Gary,

  “Just jump. It’s only three feet.”

  That may be true but to a terrified Gary it might as well have been a mile. He couldn’t do it. If it was not for Sam’s constant encouragement or as he heard it, constantly calling him a chicken and to show some gonads, he would not have made it this far at all. It was no use yelling back that chickens do not have balls.

  In the treehouse she had told him that her secret entrance to the Factory was a tunnel in the base of Copper Mountain alongside this narrow but fast arm of the river. She convinced him that it was an easy journey and you just had to be careful not to fall into the river. After only a few minutes of struggling along the bank of giant boulders and raging water, Gary knew he had been lied to. While watching Sam jump from boulder to boulder like a gazelle on steroids he was prepared to yell over the roar of the river to go ahead and he will wait for her in the safety of the tree house.

  She stood on a big rock, pointed and yelled across to him,

  “Come on chicken, its right there. You can see the tunnel from here.”

  From a spot that he deemed not safe at all, with raging water practically at his toes, he dared to look past her and into the steep gorge. He couldn’t see it and wondered if it was not just another lie encouraging him deeper into danger. Hoping that it would not be his last, he sucked in a deep breath and jumped. Okay, it wasn’t that far and she helped by grabbing his arm but he thought it was one of the bravest things he had ever done, at least in reality. He had done far braver things in the safety of his imagination. He didn’t like reality at all.

  This time she had not lied to him. After a leap to one more boulder and scramble to shore, he looked up and saw a hole in the cliff. Half hidden by the angle and other boulders, it was narrow, maybe only three feet wide and six feet high. A few minutes later he was standing at the entrance looking in. He saw only bleak darkness and what he perceived was a scary tunnel. He asked,

  “How did you ever find this thing?”

  She seemed proud to say,

  “My dad told me it was here and so I went looking for it.”

  “What is it?”

  “It’s supposed to be what dad called an air vent. When they dynamited a new tunnel they needed some place for the concussion of air to escape and this was it.”

  Looking around his dangerous surroundings, about fifty yards down the river he was surprised to see only steep cliffs without a gap in them. Pointing, he yelled over the roar of the river,

  “That’s a dead end. Where does the river go now?”

  Understanding his puzzlement she yelled back,

  “This narrow arm of the Copper River disappears into the mountain through an underground tunnel. Tests had shown that it again joins the main river on the other side of the mountain.”

  Gary had trouble with the idea that a river could run through a mountain and come out the other side. However, it was not the most impossible thing he had ever imagined.

  Sam slipped off her backpack and pulled out what she knew was needed for their next adventure. Gary saw two flashlights, a rope and to his pleasure, sandwiches. After slipping on a baseball cap she handed another to him and said,

  “Here, put this on. There is a lot of dripping water in there.”

  He missed the next comment aimed at his weakness.

  “We wouldn’t want to get our hair wet huh.”

  While putting the hat on, he thought it was a good idea.

  As he followed Sam into the dark unknown it had a different feel than what his imagination thought it should have felt like. Venturing into a drag
on’s gapping jaw did not feel like a wise adventure at all. The last thing Gary felt was brave and daring. Now deep in the tunnel he turned around to see what was by now only a pinpoint of light in the distance. He hoped that would not be the last time he ever saw daylight.

  He was not good at judging distance but certainly understood they had ventured very far into the tunnel. For the third time he asked,

  “Is it much farther?”

  For the third time Sam replied that it was. She was right about the dripping water from the ceiling and was glad he was wearing a cap keeping his hair dry. He also noticed that there was a slight upward direction to the narrow tunnel. It took a while but she finally stopped, turned to him and said,

  “It goes on a little bit longer but gets too steep and slippery. I tried a couple of times to get up there but never made it.”

  Thinking it was bad news, he asked,

  “Now what?”

  Her silent answer was to scan the beam upward until he saw a rusty steel ladder clinging to the cliff wall. That was not the scary part. When she kept raising the beam, he gulped when looking way up into a seemingly endless shaft. Although he knew what the next leg of their adventure was going to be, he looked to her and questioned,

  “Really?”

  She dug into her backpack and brought out a pair of gloves and a pair for him. Handing them over, she said,

  “We wouldn’t want to break a nail.”