He walked us through a busy kitchen. Five people (and I mean normal people, not crazy goons bent on world destruction) washed glasses, squeezed juice, and carried baskets of eggs from the small coop outside. They looked peaceful in their work, if thrown back a bit in time.
Jonas led us outside and along the perimeter of the compound. The building had been constructed entirely of driftwood and fallen trees. It was insulated by old blue jeans that he’d found at the Salvation Army. All the metal and glass had been rescued from condemned buildings and repurposed to create a truly beautiful structure.
The compound sat on a quickly moving river, which provided constant hydro energy and food for the twenty-four people who lived there. He showed us the geothermal energy system that in the winter moved the heat from the earth into the building and in the summer moved the cooler air up. What wasn’t provided by these energy sources came from the sun, via the butterflies. It was a completely off-the-grid, zero-impact, super-green haven. I was having a hard time remembering that I was there against my will.
“You see, we are living here peacefully and are taking nothing from Mother Earth that she does not want to give us freely.” Jonas finished the tour of the ground floor in his office. John and I were each offered a seat, while Danny shifted nervously behind us, probably for the first time regretting the whole grass skirt look.
Jonas Furnis addressed John first. “You can stay as long as you don’t speak. Nod to indicate that you understood me.” John nodded, and Jonas turned his attention back to me. “Are you wondering why your government doesn’t encourage this type of lifestyle for its citizens? Sorry, was I reading your complicated little mind?”
Kinda.
“It’s because there’s no money in it for them. They are so ingrained in their system, their outdated utilities, the tax revenue from manufacturing and selling plastic nonsense. They believe they need to keep raping Mother Earth to survive. And they think I’m sick!” Nods and chuckles from the thugs in the doorway.
His desk was an old wooden door balanced on two sawhorses. He had an assortment of maps and weather charts sprawled out as if we’d caught him during exam week. Perfectly squared to the upper-right-hand corner of his desk was a paperback copy of
Silent Spring.
He caught me staring. “Have you read it?”
“I had to for AP Environmental Science.”
“What did you think?”
Oh great, we’re in a book club now.
“I found it kind of depressing. But I know it made a big difference in your . . . in the environmental movement.”
“It did. It made all the difference in the world. It’s the only reason we have birds anymore. If you work quickly, I might let you read it again.” He leaned back in his chair and placed both hands, decisively, on the table. “Now that I’m flush with cash, we are going to start fresh. And I mean you, me, and Mother Earth. Plus whoever else survives. There will be fewer people, and they will have no choice but to live off the earth in a cooperative way. When you’re ready, we’ll get started. You see what we’re doing here?”
“No?”
“Have you ever seen
Little House on the Prairie
?”
Danny jumped in. “I totally love that show; it’s on late night cable. I had the biggest crush on Mary, even when she went blind.”
“My apologies. I forgot to tell you: You don’t speak either.”
“No, I have never seen it,” I answered.
Danny threw his arms down in disbelief. I could hear his disappointment loud and clear:
How could you possibly not have seen
Little House on the Prairie? It’s classic television. You and your crazy math stuff that no one cares about . . . I was half grateful that Danny wasn’t allowed to speak.
“It’s just an example, maybe familiar to a few night owls, of how people used to live with nature. They did not try to control it. When the sun went down, they slept. When the sun came up, they woke. Nature is here to control us, and we are best served to honor it and live within the boundaries it sets for us. You and I, Digit, we are going to give the earth back to Mother Earth. Once she is no longer under attack, she can get back to taking care of herself.” I thought back to the trees by the highway, all surviving on their own. No pruning, no sprinkler system. “In doing so, we are going to give the human race back to itself. We are going to shut down all the noise of the modern world. If you want a toy, you can carve it out of wood. If you want entertainment, you can talk to another human being. Sick people will die, rather than being kept alive artificially, and they will leave room for new life. In this way we will control the population so that the burden placed on our Mother can be alleviated.”
To be honest, I think the scariest part of this conversation was that he seemed like the sanest person in the world. I could totally see how his followers walked away from their lifestyles to embrace this. I had a thousand questions for him. How deeply did he think we’d already injured the earth? Did he really think people could be retrained to live that way? What if there was an outbreak of some horrible disease because there was no medicine? Would he let us move forward in time for a minute to produce some?
I only asked this one: “Why can’t you just educate people? Can’t you just spread your message? I mean, I feel like taking responsibility for what we are doing to the earth is stuff that most people can agree with.”
He shook his head. “It’s too late. Think of your veins, how they move blood through your body. You are a living organism. If someone threatened your life, you would fight back. The rivers are Mother Earth’s veins. She is a living organism. She has been poisoned for so long that this is her time to fight back. I am here, sent as her soldier. She calls me the Guardian. We will eradicate much of what is killing her and allow a new world to prevail. After you are done, Digit, the U.S. government will be broke. I am building a new treasury just beneath where you are now sitting, and I will be the new government. Things will be done my way, her way.”
Okay. Hmm. Less sane now.
We’d gone a little off the rails.
She calls him the Guardian? Like when she speaks to him?
“She told me that she would send me a squire. I waited for a long time, and when my work was foiled by a teenager, I knew that it could not be an accident. Squires, in more chivalrous times, were teenagers, you see. You, Digit, you are to be my squire. Mother Earth has brought us together as her warriors. We shall save her together.”
Um, squire?
“Um, squire?”
“Mother Earth whispered it to me years ago. She promised me a young helper. She told me again when I was in despair over our failure at Disney World. And I knew that she meant you when I saw the dozens of photos of trees you have on your laptop. In your heart, you are a friend of the earth.”
“Yeah, I like trees. A lot. But mainly they’re there because I’m . . .” I looked back in time to see Danny making a curlicue with his finger by his head to indicate that I am, in fact, cuckoo.
“Because you are my squire. I am the Guardian, knighted by Mother Earth, and you are my young squire. You will accept this truth, and we will be victorious.”
Um, yeah, okay. But if you make me dress up in tights and armor and stuff, I’m gonna flip out.
Honestly, as maniacal as he seemed, I wasn’t really that scared. John was sitting right next to me, and I knew that Mr. Bennett knew where we were and had gone to fetch an army. Add to that the fact that John realized that Spencer was a lying criminal (even worse than me!), and I actually felt okay. I’d been in worse spots for sure. All I had to do was act like some weirdo’s squire, work as slowly as possible, and wait for the cavalry to ride in.
“And what is it exactly that I’m going to do to make the U.S. government go broke?”
“Simple. You are going to hack into the defense systems, as I’ve seen you do, and fire U.S. missiles on our petroleum, natural gas, and nuclear power facilities. You can leave the windmills. They please me.”
Spencer delivered the final blow. “See, Digit? You get to spend the rest of your life working for the new government. It’s a dream job.”
Those words hit me hard. I checked my watch and saw that it was 7:55 a.m., almost time for my meeting with Professor Halsey. Was Bass standing around waiting for me to go to coffee, or did he know? Of course I’d been mad when I thought Spencer was trying to steal my boyfriend and lead me to slaughter and overthrow my government. But at that moment, knowing I was missing that job interview, it got personal. My flight instincts kicked back in, and the first thing I needed to know was where we were.
“What’s the velocity of that river out there?”
Jonas seemed surprised that I’d taken an interest. “About four knots.”
I laughed. “There’s no way that river allows for that kind of flow. And there isn’t even a large enough water body feeding into it. You must have some sort of regular energy source.”
“We most certainly do not.” I’d offended him. “Let me show you.” He spread out a local map that showed the exact site of the compound. He identified the river and its tributaries.
“Oh, and at what point does the river pass by here?” I asked. He put his finger right on the map, in the exact spot of the compound, and I made a note of our latitude and longitude.
I nodded in understanding. “Wow. This place really is in the right spot.” He was pleased with me. He’d converted so many people to his way of thinking that he probably expected my reaction. And I was his chosen squire, after all. I studied the map a little longer, though I had all the information I needed. Score: Jonas Furnis—a jillion, Digit—one.
“You are starting to understand. Our buildings impose on Mother Earth. We must build in response to her design, rather than try to alter her to accommodate ours.”
I found myself nodding. Not that I was ready to become a card-carrying member of the Green Gangsta Brigade, but it was hard to argue with anything he was saying. Especially sitting in that beautiful setting.
“Are you ready to get to work?”
“I’m actually not thinking that clearly. Can we rest for a little bit first?”
Jonas was annoyed. “Fine. Throw the girl and the boy in the skirt into the room with the others. They have two hours. And our FBI agent, we don’t need him interfering—take him out and make sure I never see him again.”
A
ND SO BEGAN MAJOR MELTDOWN
#1. I was aware that I couldn’t hear my own scream. I was aware that I was being restrained and that if I strained my right arm any harder, my shoulder would dislocate. I was aware that I had been very wrong to be so relaxed. They dragged John out and he caught my eye. It was a replay of when they were going to kill us in that middle school in Brooklyn. That time I saw confidence in his eyes, encouragement. I didn’t know it at the time, but he had a concealed weapon. This time I saw sadness or even a bit of an apology. He did not look like a guy with a plan.
Danny started to freak out. “Digit. They can’t take him. Are they taking him? Digit, stop screaming.” I still couldn’t hear myself screaming.
We were led down a poorly constructed staircase into a damp basement. When the door to our cell was unlocked, I wasn’t entirely surprised to see Adam Ranks slumped over on his bunk. I rushed over to him with that same suspension of reality that you have when you see a celebrity on the street. You feel like you know them so well that you want to run up and say hi, while they have no clue who you are. “Adam!”
“Mr. Bennett!” I heard Danny behind me, terror in his voice.
Mr. Bennett sat upright on the bunk directly across from Adam Ranks. This was the first time I’d ever not been happy to see him. I went over and hugged him anyway. I said, “They caught you. Now they have John.”
He didn’t have to say anything. I saw the pain on his face. He held me for a few minutes and let me cry. How awful, really, to be comforted by a man who’d probably just lost his son. But I was going to take anything I could get. After I don’t know how long, I pulled myself together. A little. “Will they really kill him?”
“I don’t know. He could escape if they don’t kill him right away. But now no one knows where this place is but me. I should have called my wife.” Danny was completely still. I couldn’t even tell if he was breathing. Reality was sinking in. And reality’s not exactly on my short list of favorite things anymore.
Adam spoke: “Is this the genius? Who’s the kid in the hula skirt?”
“Oh, I’m Danny, Digit’s brother. I would argue that you are the genius between the two of you. I mean, you create beauty, and now money, while she just keeps screwing up.”
“Nice.”
Jeez.
“Are you okay?”
“I am for now,” Adam answered. “But they don’t need me anymore. I turned over my technology so they wouldn’t kill me. And now they’re going to kill me anyway. Idiot.”
“I love the evergreen. It’s perfect.” I was a little off topic and talking through a stream of tears, but I wasn’t sure I was going to have another chance to say that to him.
“Thanks. That one’s called
Natural Order.
” Of course.
“What are we going to do?” Danny was anxious to end the art appreciation lesson and get us back on track.
“I have no idea.” Mr. Bennett said this while tugging on his ear to show that we were being listened to. He pointed to me. “I guess we’re all going to have to cooperate. They actually do make a strong case against our way of life.” He shook his head, unnecessarily, to show us he didn’t mean it. He pulled me close and barely whispered, “Listen to me. John is a survivor. He’s been trained to be. We work inside; he’ll work outside. No more tears—we need to think. And we need you out of here. Deal?”
I barely spoke: “They caught you. And you’ve been trained.”
“I’m old. I lost focus. John will not lose focus.” I nodded, a lie to make Mr. Bennett feel better.
“I have no plan, that’s for sure,” I said out loud, nodding furiously to show that I actually did.
“I know. What plan could possibly get us out of this?” Danny was playing along now.