The Aegis Solution (41 page)

"I'm a little confused about that," she said. "Don't the agencies and governments talk to each other?
Wouldn't Faulk have been told about Bassam? Oh, wait! That was a dumb question. Bassam told the
Israelis that Faulk and Eric were bad guys. Benjamin, or his bosses, wouldn't have told our government
anything."

"You're right, Tillie. Well, almost right. Benjamin told me that they did inform Faulk when they first
caught Bassam. I guess it caused quite a ruckus, with Faulk demanding they turn him over to us for
questioning. The Mossad refused. After they interrogated Bassam, and heard what he had to say about
Stone and Faulk, the Israelis realized they couldn't pass on any more information. They decided to tell
Faulk that Bassam was a dry well."

"I assume he didn't buy that."

"Obviously not, but getting information out of Mossad if they don't want to share is almost
impossible."

"Faulk must have been beside himself," Wilson commented. "In his desperation to find out what
the Israelis knew, he must have remembered that you and Benjamin had a relationship."

Elias nodded his agreement. "We did. And it was well known in the intelligence community that
there was no love lost between Faulk and me."

"Looking at it from Benjamin's perspective, it made perfect sense," Wilson thought out loud. "He
knew you hated Faulk. He knew you had lost your wife in the attack. He knew the information he
possessed was of the highest order of magnitude, and yet, since it implicated a highly placed individual
in our government, it couldn't be shared through normal channels."

"Absolutely. He would have no idea who he could trust over here."

"Except for you."

"Except for me. I was really his only option."

Elias had finished assembling the now functional AK-47, and leaned it against the ladder beside
his chair.

Tillie drank the last of her tea and set down the cup. "We have some of the pieces, but we're still
missing a bunch. Why was Eric here for so long? What does Kreitzmann have to do with Faulk's plans?

Wilson spoke up, "If I may ask a question, perhaps I can clarify one point. How long ago did the
Israelis capture Bassam?"

Elias thought back for a moment, suddenly making the connection. "Of course!"

"What?" Tillie asked excitedly.

"The Mossad first picked up Bassam almost three months ago."

"That's when the Israelis first notified Faulk that they had him?"

"Exactly."

"And that's close to when I saw Eric enter Aegis."

"Right."

"So at that point," Wilson interjected, "they knew that it was only a matter of time until Benjamin
contacted you. So they baited the hook, placing Eric inside Aegis."

"Either as bait or as a safe place for him to hide."

"And when they learned that Benjamin had contacted you, Faulk offered you an assignment he
knew you couldn't turn down."

"That's right. Either way I'd go into Aegis. If I hadn't heard anything from Benjamin about Eric,
I would take the job to rescue him. And if I had been told the truth, I would come in to get him."

"That makes sense," Tillie said. "But how does Faulk tie into Kreitzmann?"

"That we don't know. But there is no way that Kreitzmann could have his own way in and out of
here without Faulk's knowledge, not just because the door would be noticed, but there are also the
guards. As Kreitzmann, maybe Eric, and God knows who else have come and gone, they would be
waltzing right past them. So there must be some connection. I'm guessing that Faulk is using the
research for some purpose."

"And what was Eric planning to do with the firebombs?" Tillie asked.

"Faulk sent enough ordnance to take out all of Aegis," Elias replied.

Wilson leaned back in his camping chair, making it creak, the sound echoing back at them. He
stared into the darkness above. "The key is still Aegis. For some reason Faulk wants it destroyed."

"Let's talk about that. There is something about this place Faulk wants gone. I haven't been here
long enough to get a feel for what that might be. Maybe if both of you verbalized your observations,
opinions, conclusions, hunches, anything about Aegis, something will make sense."

Elias could tell that Wilson was organizing the disparate tidbits in his mind before speaking. Tillie,
impatient for him to begin, blurted out at Elias, "You know what Biosphere 2 is, right?"

"Sure. It's the huge glass environment north of Tucson."

"Do you know what the original intent was for building it?"

"Science experiments of some type, but not really."

"John P. Allen conceived of it as a way to study Earth. The Earth is Biosphere 1. He wanted to
create what was to be basically a lab where the impact of life, techniques, chemicals, everything…could
be studied in a closed system."

"I didn't know that."

"For several reasons, it didn't work. Now it is basically a tourist attraction. But my point is, I think
that's what Aegis was really designed to be. Except, instead of studying the physical impact of mankind
on nature, I think this place was an experiment to see what people would do with no government, no
rules, no structure, no outside influence. I think Aegis was intended to be a controlled psychological
experiment. Or maybe even a political experiment."

Elias was intrigued by the concept.

"I mean, think about it," she continued excitedly. "The government can't build an outhouse at a
campground without posting a metal sign listing all of the do's and don'ts for its use by the public. Yet
our government built this gigantic complex where citizens were supposed to be able to come and live
out the rest of their lives, and there's nothing! Not any signs posted. Not even a handbook. I was blown
away the first day I walked in here. We're so used to being handled, directed, controlled, and ordered
around that I went through kind of a shock when I discovered I had the whole place basically to myself
and there wasn't anyone or anything telling me what I could or couldn't do."

"You don't think President Walker built Aegis for the reasons he gave?"

Tillie moved to the front edge of the canvas seat and leaned forward, resting her elbows on her
knees. "Look, I'm sure he was devastated that his daughter killed herself. But I just think that somewhere
along the line between the day the idea was first proposed and the day Aegis was opened to the public,
someone saw an opportunity to use it for another purpose entirely. I wouldn't be surprised if the idea
of Aegis was actually suggested to Walker during his darkest moments by someone with a whole
different plan."

"Wilson, Tillie raises some fascinating points. What do you think?"

"As you can well imagine, she and I have had countless discussions on this very topic over the past
few years. Purely from a logical standpoint, Aegis, insofar as its stated purpose, makes no sense. It never
has. We spoke of this briefly when we met."

Elias nodded, thinking back to that first conversation on the porch.

"But if you impute more devious or sinister motives to its construction, it makes much more sense."

"Such as?"

"You oughta know," interjected Tillie. "It's a great place to dump inconvenient people where they
are never heard from again."

"It is also an excellent source for subjects if you happen to be a scientist in need of human beings
for your work," Wilson added. "No one can ever come looking for them. There is no oversight of any
sort whatsoever."

"True."

"And, to return to Mathilda's point, it does afford one an opportunity to watch and see exactly how
the supposedly educated, civilized people of this country would structure their new environment
without the benefit of rules, regulations, and a constitution."

"From what I heard, the result was chaos."

"The uprising, yes. It was quite horrible. However, the reaction to the riot was the organization of
Madison and Walden, and to a lesser degree ZooCity. That development created a certain level of
stability."

"But, Wilson, you told me when I arrived that there was a disturbing trend now."

"There has been. Most assuredly. The extinction of the ZooCity element ameliorates things
somewhat. But we are still left with the Kreitzmann segment of the equation, as well as the tenuous
coexistence of Madison and Walden."

"Are they enemies?"

Wilson chuckled. "Hardly enemies. They are merely at the opposite ends of the ideological
spectrum. Walden is weak, ineffectual. Madison is organized, strong, and well equipped. If an overt
conflict were to occur between those two enclaves, the battle would be brief and the outcome certain.
You must remember, throughout our history, anytime there has been a dramatic imbalance between two
competing societies, the status quo never maintains."

"One swallows the other."

"Either swallows or destroys."

"Besides," Tillie added, "there aren't that many left at Walden."

"No? Why is that?"

Wilson took a long, deep breath before answering Elias' question. "Perhaps some historical
reference would be of some help. From my own observations over the years I've been here, and the
insightful input I've received from Mathilda, there has been a rather clear and linear evolution occurring
within these walls. At first, when my friend arrived, there was pure anarchy."

"That's not necessarily a bad thing," Elias ventured.

"No, it is not. Anarchy, for the enlightened, is the only way to live a life of self-actualization. A truly
good person needs no rules, no governance, no courts, no prisons…none of the rigid and confining
aspects of society at large which stifle us and cause us to reside at the level of the lowest common
denominator. Sadly, only those who fail to acknowledge the realities and frailties of the vast majority
of mankind believe that anarchy is a viable alternative.

"I am quite certain that the three of us could coexist in an environment of anarchy, without a
problem. It would only be after a fourth or a fifth or a sixth person might be added that we would
suddenly recognize the need for a leader, rules, and methods for enforcement. These are precisely the
stages of evolution that transpired at Aegis. At the time our young friend here first arrived, there was
ample space with abundant resources. Despite the substantial initial influx of residents, the enormity of
Aegis absorbed them easily."

"That's true," Tillie agreed. "At first, we all scattered. It was possible to go days or even weeks
without coming across another resident. If you wanted human interaction, you could find others, and
some did. They banded together in little groups. Some of us made a point of avoiding everyone else
completely. And it was no problem back then."

Wilson resumed his narrative. "More and more people arrived, followed, inevitably, by conflicts."

"It reminds me of the description of the first settlers arriving on this continent."

"There is more to that comparison than you know, Elias. But I am getting ahead of myself. The first
conflicts were resolved on an ad hoc basis. Alliances rapidly formed and were quickly broken.
Populations shifted around the complex. Segregation was rampant as many of the clusters identified
themselves by the color of their skin or their religious beliefs or…well, it just burgeoned. Each of those
groups believed that this superficial commonality would somehow provide a cohesiveness that never
fruited.

"For some, the constant migration was to avoid conflict; for others, it was to find it. All the while,
the ability to find a piece of Aegis that you could call your own and where you could be left alone
became harder and harder to manage.

"People need a leader, someone who can impose order upon them and enforce it. In the absence
of such a man or woman, the uprising, the riot, was an inevitability. But it served its purpose. It
demonstrated to the survivors the undeniable need for structure, for governance. Walden and Madison
were formed. ZooCity came into existence as a result of many feeling disenfranchised. They could not
relate to either entity, nor did they feel that either enclave accepted them."

"Aegis really is a microcosm of society, isn't it?" Elias asked him.

"In many ways it was."

"Was?"

"Yes. In the time after the formation of the enclaves, there was a shift in the paradigm. Subtle, at
first, but discernible."

"What happened?"

"Less and less of the newbies were deferred suicides," Tillie answered for Wilson.

"Deferred…?"

Wilson ignored the interruptions and continued his explanation. "In the early years of Aegis, the
vast majority of entrants, or newbies, as Tillie refers to them, came to this place for the purpose stated
in its initial proposal to the American public. They checked in to Aegis rather than committing suicide.
There were some, such as the young girl from Racine we discussed before, who came here for other,
more spurious reasons. But most fit into the first category.

"That has changed. Tillie and I have both noticed that in the last year or two the largest percentage
of arrivals, by far, are not coming to Aegis as an alternative to killing themselves."