By Order of the Council… 2nd draft

By Order of the Council…

By Mark Andersen

I knocked on the door, a small opening about eye level opened. I could see a set of brown eyes on the other side of the door. A disembodied voice said,

“No bible study tonight.”

To which I replied,

“But I need to speak to brother Richard.”

With that I heard the lock turn and the door creaked on its hinges as it began to open. What appeared before me was anything but a bible study room. It was dank, hot, smoky and smelled of alcohol and sweat. In the center of the room was a rectangular bar with seating around its outside perimeter. Two bartenders were serving drinks from the inside of the bar. If you could call what they were serving drinks. Yes, the clients who had money could afford the stuff on the top shelf that had been imported from the nations of California, Oregon, Washington, or the Nation of the Great Lakes, but most folks in the establishment could only afford the clear liquid on the bottom shelf, a homebrew made here in the bar. A potent blend of fermented and distilled grain. A product that has gone by many names through the years, White Lightning, Moonshine, Mountain Dew, Rot Gut and Hooch to name a few. Here it is just called Shine, a shortened version of Moonshine. Luckily here it would not blind you or kill you outright like it did in some other places.

I saw my quarry in a corner table of the room. He was in his mid-twenties, rugged looking with dark blonde hair and blue eyes. In another era people would have said he had Rock-star looks. He was surrounded by a bevy of young and old people all of them listening intently to his every word. I would have to move closer to verify what he was saying, to see if he was a worthy target.

As I edged closer to the table I noticed that the young man at the table just would not shut up.

“The government has taken away our rights, and if you speak out you will be killed! I mean really, how many people do you know that have died from a congenital heart defect? I know at least ten.” The young man said to his audience.

“There are squads of assassins everywhere, watching us, listening to our thoughts an watching our dreams.” He went on.

He really left me with no choice, had he stopped after one outburst, had he not gathered a crowd around him, I would have let it slide. Everyone slips up now and then and I understand that; however, he kept going on and on and would not stop. That last one got me…you see, I am one of the secret assassins, but I don’t work for the government, hell, the government doesn’t even work for the government anymore. After the second Civil War that broke the United States up into six parts, the government in the form he thinks of, in no longer exists. Sure, it looks like it does, and the state controlled media reports that it does; however, it is all a dog and pony show for the masses.

I work for the real leaders of the country, the Council of the Evangelical Elders. They are the men who really run the country, not the President, not the Congress, and not the courts. The Elders pull all of the strings; they are the ones that tell Congress what bills to pass. They tell the President what to sign into law and they tell the courts how to rule on every case. Me, I am just a cog in the machine no one knows what my real job is. My cover is that I work for a state owned grocery store in an administrative position. Some admin I am, my days at work are reading reports from citizens about rabble rousers like the young man I am watching tonight.

“I am telling you, they will kill you if you speak out. They have spies and assassins everywhere.” The young man said.

“Then why haven’t they killed you yet?” Asked a younger woman.

“Because I am careful who I talk to. I know I can trust everyone in this bar.”

“How do you know that?”

“Simple, this place is illegal, everyone in here is breaking the law…if there was a government spy in here, this place would be shut down.”

At that point I staggered by the young man’s chair as if I had had one to many drinks and I lightly bumped him, just enough so that he would not feel the injection. He would not die right away, but in three to four days he would have a heart attack due to a congenital defect in his heart. Seems that there are a lot of people dying of congenital heart defects these days. It is the number one killer of both men and women the United Christian States of America, at least he got that part right.

I went home that night knowing I had done my duty and that it was God’s will that the young man would die. If God had not willed it, then I would have no reason to exist. That logic had been drilled into my head from the day I was born. I was groomed for this job from birth, I never knew my parents, or if I had any siblings. I was born for one purpose in life to kill.

Once home I looked in upon my wife, beautiful Sara, she was everything to me, even more so now. She was carrying our first child, a boy from what the medical reports had said. She was even more beautiful now that she was pregnant. Her jet-black curls framing her heart-shaped face. If her eyes were open you would see that they were as green as an emerald. Add her beauty together with her pregnancy and you had a woman who positively glowed. I undressed as quietly as I could, trying not to wake her. As I slipped under the covers she rolled over and said,

“How was your day? Did you get caught up so you don’t have to work late tomorrow?”

“Yes, I did, now go back to sleep, we can talk in the morning.”

The next day arrived and I awoke to the smell of bacon, eggs and coffee. I wiped the sleep from my eyes and joined my very pregnant wife in the kitchen.

“Good morning my love.” I said to her.

“Good morning.” She said in her typical cheery voice.

“So are you all caught up at work?” She asked

“I think so, depends on the boss though. Mr. Hammonds is tough. I think it is safe for you to make plans for tonight though.” I replied.

“Great, there is this great new play about the life and times of Jesus that I have been wanting to see. They say the lead actor is quite good. Here, read the entertainment section from yesterday’s paper, they have a review of the play.”

I opened the paper and to my surprise the actor playing Jesus was the very same man that I injected last night. Well, if my wife wants to see him perform, we had better go tonight, he will not be around much longer.

I start my day much like any other; I go into the grocery store through the back entrance and walk up the stairs to my office. Once in my office I turn on my computers and then make a pot of coffee. Once the coffee is ready I sit down at my desk and file my report about last evening. I mention that the young man appeared to have knowledge of assassins and they way we kill. The Council will probably send another of my brothers to terminate the young man in a different way to make it appear as an accident.

Once the report is filed I open my new target folder. It reads the same as any other folder, a list of transgressions against the State, witnesses to these transgressions and a photo of the target. When I get to the photo I drop hot coffee all over myself…how can it be. I have to terminate my wife for crimes against the State. Her crime, belonging to a poetry club that reads secular material. Material that has been outlawed for decades, all books deemed to be secular or undermining the faith of the people were all destroyed long ago. My orders are to dispatch her tonight which means to make it look like an accident, I am to push her off a curb into an oncoming bus at the corner of 5^th and Main this evening.

As the evening approached I became nervous about a job for the first time in my life. How could I kill my wife, the mother of my unborn child? I would not only be killing her but my son as well. I went back through the file to see if everything was in order, and it was. I contacted my superior via videoconference,

“Sir, this is X236YA2 requesting a conformation for target SUBVERT9856.” I said to the camera.

“Target is confirmed. Is there a problem X236YA2? Do you need assistance on this mission?”

“No Sir, no assistance required.” I said coldly, knowing that if I asked for assistance I would be terminated and then someone else would kill my wife.

There was no way out of this. As a man of faith, and a man of logic I knew that God was willing me to do this. I had to carry out my duty to the Lord, the Council and Country. But why would the master of all beings want me to take out my wife and unborn child? Isn’t they taking of a life in the womb forbidden? Isn’t it imperative to protect the womanly vessel that carries a child in her womb?

It was evening, time to take my wife to the last play she would ever see, and one in which the lead role is being performed by a dead man, only I am the only one who knows he is already dead. Throughout the evening I am detached, lost deep in thought. Not knowing if I can or cannot destroy the only thing, the only person, who means anything to me in life. As the play goes on the lead actor comes on stage and begins to utter his lines,

“Let he without sin…” those were the last words he ever spoke, as one of the lighting fixtures fell from the rigging onto the exact spot where he was standing. An accident, and the actor with the Rock-star looks was dead. The audience was horrified and in shock. I was surprised that such a public execution was used for the young man. But, it is not my concern to consider the reasoning behind the decisions made by the council. I looked at my watch; I had one hour to get my wife to the intersection where she would meet her demise an intersection that was only a half block away.

“Honey” I said as we were leaving the theatre, “Do you know what I do for a living?”

“Yes, you work as an admin at the grocery store.”

“No, I don’t, that is just a cover. I am actually an assassin for the Council of Elders. I know that may sound far-fetched and hard to believe. But, it is true. I kill people for a living. And tonight, I have been ordered to kill you for your subversive poetry club.” I said to her as I held her hand tightly.

Her face was drained of color and she was shaking as she said,

“I knew the poems were wrong, and I had heard the rumors of assassins. Just like everyone else, but I never believed that they would come after me for a couple of little poems.”

“I am not going to kill you. I cannot kill you, you and our son mean too much to me. We are going to head to Wisconsin, there, we can live our lives free in the Nation of the Great Lakes. But we have to go tonight and we cannot go back to our home ever again.”

I looked at my watch, still forty-five minutes before she was supposed to die. We had time to get to the train station and get aboard the last train of the evening. It would take us as far as Springfield, Illinois, we would have to make our way to the border on foot some one hundred twenty miles north of there before we would be safe.

I paid for our tickets, fifteen minutes before the accident was supposed to happen, our train leaves in ten. I pray that the train departs on time. If it does not, not only will my wife die but I will meet my end as well, and as a traitor to the Council, it will not be a quick death, it will more than likely be a slow agonizing demise.

We board the train and find our seats. The train rolls out on time. We are safe. I get up to go the dining car and get my wife and something to eat for our journey. An older gentlemen bumps into me on my left and I feel a pinprick in my right thigh. I look to my right to see my wife’s face. She says,

“You shouldn’t have told me you were an assassin and you should have followed your orders. This was a test set up by the council. You have failed the test.”

She has a small hypo in her hand. She is also an assassin…and she has killed me.