Chapter 92: Rosie

I was on my way to the airfield for my flying lesson when my phone rang.

“Hello?” I answered it.

“Caleb?” a woman’s voice that I half recognized.

“Yes?” I replied.

“It’s Martha,” she said. “We ... er met the other week.”

“How can I help you?” I asked, guardedly. Although I was no longer enraged about what she’d done to Sarah, and I could kind of understand it, she’d still attacked my baby sister. I wasn’t best disposed toward her.

“Ah,” she said. “You’re still mad?”

“Let’s just say,” I told her, “that it’s probably good that we’re having this conversation over the telephone. I know you thought that you were doing the right thing, but you attacked my sister and then, when you couldn’t breach her shields, you tried to set your goons on her. What would have happened if she’d have fought back?”

“They’d have contained her,” she said. “They’re trained mental health professionals used to taking people down without injury. I’m still not clear on what Sarah did. I thought she didn’t have TK.”

“Obviously,” I told her, “your information was flawed in more than one respect.”

“I guess.” She said. “Look Caleb. I’m really sorry that...”

“And what about the drug you tried to give her?” I went on. “How did you know that you weren’t going to overdose her instead of just knocking her out?”

“That wasn’t a sedative,” she said. “It was a power suppression medicine. It’s what all LEO’s take when they go to arrest power users. It’s completely safe, although it does have some unfortunate side effects. If she’d drunk it, then the boys would have simply wrapped her up. We’d have taken her to our facility where we’d have looked after her until we could have figured out the truth.”

“Terrifying her in the process,” I said. “Why the fuck didn’t you come and talk to us in the first place? We could have saved all of this? As I thought, it was the Empathic attraction that had affected Connie, so I really understand why she did what she did. I also kind of understand how Brian could get bullied into going along with it, but you’re supposed to be professionals at this. You didn’t even know who I was. Surely that information would have been the minimum to find out before blundering in like you did.”

“You’re right,” she said. “I should have done my due diligence better. If its any consolation, I’ve completely updated all my processes for taking such cases on. But you have to understand that sometimes we have a limited window of opportunity, and we have to move. I know we got it wrong with Sarah, and I’m sorry for that, but we’ve helped so many more kids, some of whom would have suffered terribly or even not survived. I also have a filing box full of cases where we failed to move in time and the results of that are more heartbreaking than you can imagine.”

I considered that, admitting that she probably had a point. I only saw the one case, and I was on the wrong end of it, and probably not best placed to make an objective judgement.

I sighed.

“So did you call me for my forgiveness?” I asked sarcastically, guessing that she had another motive for contacting me.

“Not exactly,” she said. “I’ve spoken to Vince about you, at length. He told me that he thought so highly of you that he brought you into our family.”

I was puzzled about that for a second until I realized what she meant.

“He’s a good friend who helped me when I needed someone,” I told her.

“And you more than repaid him,” she returned, “by getting the Healer network to finally agree to heal him and carried out a lot of the healing yourself.”

“Is this going somewhere?” I asked.

“I was hoping to ask for your help,” she said. “And maybe to show you what we do, so that perhaps you might not be so angry with me in future?”

“Why does my opinion of you matter to you at all?” I asked. “We’d never met before, and it’s highly unlikely we’ll ever meet again.”

“Not true,” she said. “I work closely with the FBI, and I’m sure that we’ll cross paths again, but more importantly you’re family, and I can’t be at odds with my family.”

“But...” I began.

“You’ve seen Penelope,” she said. “You showed us the love that her father had for her. We felt it, all of us. I don’t think you can imagine how much that piece of history from our heritage means to our family.”

“I’m kind of tied up today,” I said. “What exactly did you need help with?” I still wasn’t sure about the ‘family’ thing, so I was using the question to divert her.

“There have been a number of young people go missing,” she said, “in Portland. Mostly in their late teens and early twenties. Most of them had already left home, and were making their own way, so it took a little time for people to notice they’re missing.

“However, a young man who, although he’s twenty two, still lived with his parents went missing last week. Don’t ask me about the family dynamic, but they not only had location sharing on his phone, they had a tracker on his car, and they were both traced to a property outside of the city. His phone has since gone offline, but his car is still reporting in. I doubt that they even considered it would be lowjacked, it’s an oldish beater so not a model to be connected to such systems.

“When his parents went to the property, they spoke to the boy. He told them that he’d joined the commune there, he was happy, and he just wanted to be left alone. He was accompanied by another man, who wore what looked like a monk’s robes, who told them that her son was with their commune now and he’d decided he no longer wanted to be a part of the twenty first century rat race. They were all going to live a far simpler life away from the pressures of the modern world.

“They were then escorted off the property and asked not to return. When the police were called, they interviewed the young man who repeated his wish, so they had to leave. His parents received notification in the mail that a restraining order has been issued against them. They’re not allowed to contact him or approach within five hundred feet of him. He, apparently, also signed over all his possessions to the commune, including his savings. His parents fortunately had some access to his bank accounts and have moved most of his money into an account that he has no access to. They also know that it’s only a matter of time before another court order comes through ordering them to hand over the money. The commune seems to have excellent legal representation.”

“So what are you going to do about this?” I asked. “Surely this is bigger than a single person being inducted into some kind of cult. Even if you do manage to kidnap this kid and remove whatever conditioning they have on him, what then? Won’t you have the hounds of hell chasing you through the courts?”

“That’s why we need your help,” she said. “We can’t grab the boy. He’s on the compound and, despite their ‘rejection of the modern world’, it has state of the art security and armed guards. They are fully licensed as a religion and state that they need the level of security because of religious persecution.”

“Can’t the FBI help?” I asked.

“They won’t,” she said. “There’s been no crime committed, and until there is it’s just a gathering of people. They are constitutionally protected by the first, second, and fourth amendments.”

“I’m still not seeing how I can help,” I said.

“I’m not strong enough,” she said, “to go in there alone. I need someone with real power to back me up, and Vince said you were that man.”

“I can’t just walk in there and start waving my dick around,” I said. “I’ll be the one locked up by the FBI. Like you said they’re protected by the Constitution. I’ve already sworn an oath to protect that, and I can’t go against that.”

“I was hoping,” she said, “that you could go in, undercover, and maybe find out how they are controlling these kids.”

“They’re not kids,” I said. “They’re adults, making their own decisions. Are you sure they’re not just making decisions that you don’t agree with?”

“They are definitely doing that,” she said. “But my concern is that they are not making them of their own volition. If you get in there and find that these kids are free to choose and are just making what we would consider to be unwise decisions, then I guess we’re done. I’ll back off and tell the parents they should do likewise. But if, as I suspect to be the case, there is some form of control, either powers, coercion, or something else, then we need to know about it, so we can take them down and make sure that no more people are taken in by them.

“According to records, that property has been there for five years. This year alone something like five hundred people were reported missing in the Portland area alone. How many of them ended up there? When I was there, aside from the guy in robes, I never saw anyone over the age of twenty five. I’m wondering what has happened to the older ones. Where are they going? Are they moving to other areas, being sold off, killed, what?”

“And you’ve approached the FBI?” I asked.

“I spoke to Maggie. I already told her what she told me. She said we needed more proof, and she couldn’t spare anyone for an investigation.”

“And she told you to speak to me?” I asked.

“No,” she said. “Vince told me to speak to you.”

“I’ll need to speak to Maggie about this first,” I said. “If she says to stay away then, I’m sorry, I can’t get involved.”

“I understand,” she said.

“I’ll call you back after I have,” I said. “But I have other stuff on today, and Maggie is not always available. Don’t expect an immediate answer.”

“I’d ask you to hurry,” she said. “I have no idea what’s going on in that enclave. People could easily be getting hurt.”

“Understood,” I said.

“I have some images of the compound, and some of the people that are living there,” she said. “I’ll send them through to you.”

“Images?” I asked.

“We’ve been watching for a few months. We’ve seen maybe four or five ‘new recruits’ brought in. They all seem happy to be there, but there’s something about this that raises my hackles.”

“Okay,” I said, “I’ll take a look, although I don’t know what I’ll get from the pictures.”

“Just look at their faces, their eyes just look strange to me,” she said. “It’s subtle, but I think it’s relevant.”

“I’ll take a look,” I said again.

“Thanks Caleb,” she said, “I’ll wait to hear from you.”

A short while later, my phone beeped to inform me an email had arrived but, since I was in the air, and having fun in the Robinson R44, I ignored it. I’d take a look when I finished my lesson and see what I could see. I’d also try contacting Maggie and see what she had to say about things.

After my Rotary wing lesson, I was going to log a couple more hours in the Cessna 150 before flying the Baron just to keep sharp. I had another check ride booked for the next week to cover my advanced certificates. Once that was done, I just needed to log hours before I could move on further.

“You fly like you’ve been doing this all your life,” Joe said, as I brought the helicopter down on the apron, and shut it down. “If it weren’t for the fact that you need to log certain hours, I’d be recommending you book your check ride. When do you want your next ‘lesson’?”

He actually did the air quotes motion with his fingers, since he’d not taught me a thing, just asking me to carry out certain manoeuvres and watching me do them almost flawlessly. I had the memories, I was still building the muscle memory.

“Can I call you?” I asked. “Something’s come up that I might need to see to. Once I know, I’ll let you know.”

“Surely,” he said. I thanked him and then walked around to Danny’s flight school. Danny was out, presumably at the Lawyers office, but Arnie was in there having just finished a lesson.

“Hey Caleb,” he said. “I thought you were taking the 150 up?”

“I was,” I said, “but I just need a computer. I’ve been sent some pictures and they won’t open on my phone. Can I use yours?”

“Hey ... I can’t have porn on the office PC. My dad would go mental,” he said grinning.

“It’s not porn” I said. “It’s art.”

He laughed.

“Go ahead,” he said moving to vacate his chair. He’d been sitting in front of the computer.

Logging into my Gmail account I opened the email from Martha and saw there were five pictures attached. Each of them dated, the latest some time last week.

I opened the earliest and saw a young girl, probably in her early twenties, walking hand in hand with another girl. I presumed the ‘victim’ was the girl indicated by the arrow superimposed on the picture. They were laughing together but I agreed with Martha; there was something off about the expression on the girl’s face.

The second picture showed a young man. It seemed that they only took good looking people. He was tall, handsome, and buff. He was holding hands with the same girl as they walked onto the property. He too was smiling, but there was the same feeling of strangeness about his expression. It was impossible to put into words. But there was something definitely not right.

The third and fourth images were of equally beautiful young people being led onto the property. They too were being led by the hands, and I realized just what was going on. They weren’t holding hands, as I’d assumed from the first picture, they were being led. One by the same girl and then a girl was being led by an equally beautiful boy. Each had the unfathomable strangeness in their expressions I’d noted on the others.

Finally I opened the last picture and gasped.

I picked up my phone, and dialled.

“Caleb,” Maggie answered.

“Vince’s sister said she spoke to you,” I said.

“She did,” she said. “And I told her what I’m going to tell you. We can’t go in without probably cause. The local LEO’s interviewed the young man that Martha was tasked to find and he assured them that he was there of his own free will and his parents just didn’t want to let go. The officers both said that he seemed to be alert, and fully in control of his faculties. He was also interviewed alone and away from anyone that might influence him. As far as they were concerned it was his choice.”

“Did she send you the pictures?” I asked.

“What pictures?” she queried.

“She sent me pictures of people going into the compound,” I said. “Did she not send them to you?”

“No,” she responded.

“I’m sending you one now.” I said. “You need to look at it.”

I forwarded only the last picture to Maggie’s email address. As soon as I got confirmation it was sent I told her.

“Just received it,” she said. “One second.”

I actually heard her click the mouse, and then take a breath, as she saw who the last person being led into the compound was.

“Rosie?” she said.

“Who’s Rosie,” asked Arnie who’d been watching over my shoulder.

“She’s the receptionist at the FBI office in Portland. Didn’t you meet her at the house warming?”

He thought for a moment. “Oh yes,” he said. “I thought she looked familiar.”

“She just didn’t turn up for work last week,” Maggie said, “which is so unlike her. When was this taken?”

“It’s dated last Friday,” I said.

“Come in to the office,” she said. “We need to think about this. I’m going to get Martha to come in too. Is she safe in the same building as you?”

“I’ll hold off on divine retribution until we sort this, whatever this is, out.” I told her.

“Good enough. See you soon.” She hung up.

“Sorry Arnie,” I told him, “I’m going to have to cancel my flight this afternoon.”

“What’s going on?” he asked. “What’s the problem with that girl being in the picture?”

“It would be quicker for me to show you,” I said and he nodded. I gave him the memory of my phone call with Martha. He smiled softly.

“You can stop being mad now,” he said. “Sarah’s safe and fine. But I love the fact that you feel so strongly for her safety.”

“As I would for any of our family,” I told him.

“I know,” he said. “You go and do what it is you do. Don’t worry about the flight. I’m pretty sure Dad’s decided to stop charging you for lessons in any case.”

“You can’t...” I began.

“Hey,” he said. “Family. You played the card, you have to take the consequences.”

I laughed. “I’ll pay fuel at least,” I said.

“That’s fair,” he said, now go.

I logged out of my email account and headed out.

“Caleb,” he said as I opened the door to leave. I looked back at him.

“Be careful?” he said, his upward inflexion turning it into a question.

I smiled at him and left, trotting to my truck and driving to the FBI office.

When I arrived at the FBI office, I rushed inside forgetting I was still wearing my CQB. The metal detector on the door went off. Normally agents would go through a separate line, I’d just gotten into the habit of going through the ‘public’ entrance

“You carrying?” asked one of the guards, having seen my FBI ID.

“Sorry yes,” I said. “I forgot I had it on. I pulled up my jacket to display my CQB”

“Use the other line,” he said.

“Thanks,” I said, covering the weapon.

“Nice piece,” he said.

“Birthday Present,” I said. “From my in-laws.” I bypassed the reception and headed directly for the elevators, punching the button for Maggie’s floor when I got inside.

Cuthbert saw me approaching.

“Take a seat,” he said. “ADD Forbes is just on a conference call. She asked if you’ll wait.”

I thanked him, and took a seat. Five minutes later Martha arrived. Once she saw me she raised her eyebrow.

“Caleb,” she said. “What’s this about? I was just told to get here as soon as possible.”

Before I could utter a word, Maggie’s office door opened and she stuck her head out.

“Inside,” she said. “Both of you.”

Martha went in first, and I followed, surprised to see Dianna in there and also, visible on the large screen on Maggie’s wall, was Judge Roder. Behind her I could just see Melissa.

“Have a seat,” Maggie said. We sat.

“ADD Forbes has just been briefing me regarding the enclave,” Judge Roder said. “I read the reports from the officers that went to interview Perry, the young man you were interested in, and I can see no probable cause to issue any kind of warrants against the property or persons within.

“However,” she said, “the discovery that a member of the bureau has also been ‘sucked in’ does make me a little more inclined to take some action.”

“Who?” asked Martha.

Maggie turned her screen around to show the image of Rosie being led into the compound.

“Who’s that?” asked Martha.

“That’s Rosie James,” said Maggie. “She works in this office. Although she’s only administrative staff, she does have a security level and some access to classified information and areas. Her compromise might be construed as a security risk for the bureau.”

“She’s a receptionist,” said Roder. “It’s a stretch, but one I’m prepared to make, provided you go in there with kid gloves. What was the plan?”

“I was thinking,” said Dianna, “that we get Caleb to go and ask to speak to Rosie. Say he’s her friend from work and concerned about her wellbeing. If they follow the pattern they did with Perry they’ll bring her out to speak to him. Then he can read her and find out if and how she’s being controlled.

“And if they deny she’s there?” asked Roder.

“I could ‘gently’ prompt them to tell me the truth,” I said.

“You mean Compel them,” said Roder.

“Not into any action,” I said. “Only to answer a direct question truthfully and fully. And the question would be, is Rosie James here?”

“And what if they say she’s there, but doesn’t want to speak to you?” she asked.

“The likelihood is that they’ll want her to speak to him,” said Martha. “They know if he leaves without talking to her, he’ll take further action. How much easier is it if he’s sent away by the person he’s come to see?”

“It makes sense,” said Roder. “Okay, I’ll sign off on a single question and truthful answer. I will give you the option to ask multiple people the same question, given that you might encounter someone who does not know the answer.

“Once you’ve ascertained that she’s there, I’ll allow you to read her only to establish method of control. Any other information obtained from this reading will be excluded from any legal proceedings. When you’ve talked to her, and found out what’s going on, report back and we can decide what we’re going to do from there on.”

“Yes ma’am,” said Maggie, who reached for the computer to end the Teleconference call.

“And Mr. Stott,” said Roder, causing Maggie to pause, “I heard about what happened with Mr. Bleasedale. I think you and I need to have a chat. When this is over, I want you to come to my chambers.”

“Yes Ma’am,” I said, wondering about that.

Maggie cut the connection. I looked at her.

“She heard about you going to see Bleasedale, and wanted to know why. I told her, but she sent Melissa to go and find out more. When she came back saying that she’d been unable to connect to Bleasedale in any way. Roder wanted to know what you’d done and how. I had to tell her, I didn’t know, because, guess what, I DIDN’T KNOW!!!”

“You should have given me a heads up about that Caleb,” She said. “Now Roder is going to want you to explain just exactly how you did it.”

“Nope,” I said. “Not going to happen.”

Maggie sighed. “That’s a worry for later. Let’s talk about Rosie and how we’re going to rescue her.”

“It won’t be hard,” I said. “I go in there, tell them I’m a friend of Rosie James, and am worried that I’ve not seen her for a while, and was told that she was living here now. I’m going to ask to see her, to make sure she’s alright.

“If Rosie is trotted out as Martha seems to think she will be, then I’ll scan her and find out what the deal is. If not, I’ll make some noise until something happens. Worst case, they’ll physically eject me. I’m not going to resist or do anything other than shout and stomp my feet so unless they threaten physical violence I’ll leave, but I’ll see what I can overhear all the time I’m in there.

“Good enough,” said Maggie. “Do not take your weapon in with you. You can take your FBI ID, since they know where she works and thus any colleagues will, by definition, also have to work here. The fact that you’re a consultant rather than an agent plays better for us too. Also, you’re young and good looking. They may even try to take you. Be cautious about eating or drinking anything in there. If they are using drugs, they may offer you something with a little extra in it.”

I nodded.

“Martha,” said Maggie. “I want you to give Caleb everything you have on this ‘enclave’.”

“I pretty much already have,” she said. “Other than looking up property records, and knowing how long they’ve been there, and that the site is owned by a shell corporation, there’s nothing more to tell.

“You don’t even know who’s in charge?” asked Maggie.

“We presume the guy in the monk’s robes,” said Martha. “We know who their legal representation is, we’ve had plenty of contact with them, but other than that, we don’t even have a name.”

“Not helpful,” said Maggie. “I’m starting to agree with Caleb’s comments about you needing to do more groundwork before you act. I understand your need for haste, but this is two operations where you’ve gone in woefully unprepared.

“When it comes, Mr. Stott’s justice will be well deserved I think.”

Martha glanced at me, a look of worry in her eyes. “Justice?” she asked.

“Later,” I said. “Right now, we have more important things to think about.”

“We’ve already frozen Rosie’s bank account,” said Dianna, “so it will take a court order to get those funds released. Until that happens, she can’t give them any, or all, of her money. Her apartment is a rental and she doesn’t own a car. At least if she is being controlled in some way, they can’t take all her wealth, at least not before we can make sure she’s there willingly. She’s not made any purchases over the weekend, nor contacted anyone we’re aware of. Her phone is switched off, but its last location was in a nightclub. I presume that’s one of their hunting grounds.”

“Is it worth going there to take a look around?” I asked. “Maybe someone there knows something?”

“If we were investigating a disappearance we would,” said Maggie. “But we know where she is, or at least where she was on Friday. I do wonder what was going on Thursday though. If we assume she was taken on Wednesday night, which was why she didn’t turn up for work Thursday, and didn’t go to the compound until Friday, where was she between times?

“Perhaps they have somewhere that they pre-condition them,” I said, “so that when they arrive, they appear to be willing.”

“Makes sense,” said Maggie. “We need to roll this backwards, but we’ll start at the compound and work outwards. There’s not much more to prepare, get going. It will take you about an hour and a half to get there. Go see what you can find out.”

I nodded and stood.

“Be careful,” Maggie said.

“I will,” I said.

I left Maggie’s office and was soon on the road, heading towards the compound where Rosie and others were being held. Or were they? Had they truly found somewhere that made them happy, and just wanted to live their lives and be left alone?

I contemplated that thought as I drove. What if that were the case? I’d been accused of being the head of such a cult only recently, so was I falling into the same trap of cynically assuming the worst? Well, I would make no assumptions. I’d do what Martha failed to do. I’d investigate, and then I’d take action based on what I found, not on what others told me.

Just under two hours later, I pulled onto the road leading up to the compound. It was surrounded by a high wall, with a gate, which was open. There was no barrier, but I could see holes in the road which might signify an anti-vehicle device which could be raised if required.

I pulled towards the gateway and a man came out of a booth, and walked toward me, waving me down. He wore a sidearm but wasn’t carrying anything else.

“This is private property Sir,” he said. “There’s nothing here you need.”

“I disagree,” I said. “I know my friend Rosie is in here. She disappeared from work last week, and nobody has spoken to her since. A friend saw her entering your compound on Friday. I want to speak to her.”

“Rosie?” he asked. “I don’t...”

“Look,” I said, opening my ID. “I’m a consultant with the FBI. Either you let me speak to Rosie or I’m going to make a call and get every agent in the state down here, and we’ll come in to talk to her.”

“If she’s here,” he said, “then I assure you it’s because she wants to be.”

“And as soon as she tells me that herself,” I said, “I’ll go away, and not bother you again. But until then I’m going to assume that you’ve got her here under some kind of duress, and will take all legal measures to find out.”

“Would you wait here please?” he asked. I nodded, shutting my truck off. I didn’t want him thinking I might try and drive through the gate without permission.

While I waited, I remembered to remove my CQB and put it in the gun safe. I could see a camera looking down on me through my windshield. I was certain that they’d seen me remove my weapon. I was hoping that it would provide some reassurance that I wasn’t here to cause trouble.

The guard was back.

“Do you have any weapons on you Sir?” he asked.

“No,” I said. “I do not. Look, I’m not here to make a fuss, I’m just concerned about my friend. I just want to see she’s okay.”

“If you carry on up the drive, and park to the left, you’ll be met there Sir. Please stick to the road. You’ll be shown where to park.”

“Perfect,” I said smiling. “Thanks.”

I’d not heard a great deal from him, other than he had to turn people away, but if people insisted he was to send them on to his boss. He was only to activate the anti-vehicle defences if either the alert sounded, he was directed to do so, or a vehicle approached at speed and didn’t seem to be stopping.

I drove through the gate and followed the road. After about five hundred yards I saw a man similarly attired with a sidearm. He indicated a parking space, and I pulled in. He waited until I got out of my truck and walked over to him.