Insight of a Superior Mind
Chapter 9
Report from the Swarm
Excitement was rampant through the Swarm on both levels. For the first time in a thousand generations, the swarm was receiving signals directly from the mainframe and apparently, the mainframe was receiving signals from the Swarm. At least, the signals being received were affected by the signals being sent.
It'd been so long since direct communication had been possible that there was very little basis on which to interpret the signals being exchanged. The mainframe's language had evolved into something completely unknown. The limited indirect communications that had previously been the norm had always used emotions, images or ideas.
It wasn't going to take long to learn the mainframe's language, but it would still require some time, so the swarm turned its entire processing power to the problem. When it received an image, the mainframe would immediately respond with the corresponding word, so the only real work involved grammar and syntax.
Unfortunately, most of the information processing power of the Swarm could not be brought to bear because communications were occurring on only one of the thousand direct signal channels. Most of the segments had nothing to do except to plan the most important words of the mainframe's language and then try to piece in new words by analyzing the context of the messages received.
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Since waking up that morning, George's mind had been crystal clear. Usually, he could use his observations to build pictures of the reality he couldn't see, but today, a lot of little things added up to answers that he'd have normally considered inspiration. It had to be from The Engineers.
It only took ten minutes until, they were all gathered in the jail's emergency medical room and seeing the telltale lit, George grabbed everyone's attention by asking Nurse Hastings to explain Courtney's strange behavior. As soon as she finished, George used his new insight to explain, "the only way that Courtney could have been that strongly conditioned was by a psychiatrist she was seeing four years ago and with the knowledge and cooperation of her mother.
"The only way the county attorney could know that Courtney is going to confess is that someone is going to use her conditioning to order her to do so. That's supposed to happen at 1:00 o'clock, which means someone is coming to give the order. This plan has been years in the making, so the object of the plan must be of high value. The only possible object worth enough is Courtney, and the only purpose for which she could be sold for the requisite value is the sex trade.
"Sheriff, if you'll have someone find Courtney's file from the jail, you'll find more pieces of the puzzle. Judge, if you'll issue a search warrant for the County Attorney's home and office, you'll find more pieces in his file on Courtney.
"I started to add up all of the people involved in this conspiracy and the number and cost of those we already know about is not consistent with a single white girl being sold into slavery. The smallest possible size of the conspiracy is a dozen girls and it's much more likely to be a hundred girls.
"The psychiatrist is the one coming to visit Courtney to order her to confess. He has to be one of the key players and will show up with armed bodyguards. If he's allowed to warn that Courtney isn't here, you'll almost certainly face a small army intent upon eliminating anyone who knows about her. I can almost guarantee that any calls you make to your normal contacts with the FBI or the State police will result in an immediate attack."
"None of you are of aware of the pieces I've been juggling. There are pieces even I wasn't aware of until a few minutes ago. Why don't we have the Sheriff describe our encounter with the County Attorney, or better yet, can you replay the video?" While the sheriff used his cell phone to order it keyed up, George explained to the nurse and the judge how the county attorney had been arrested.
When the video ended, George asked, "Sheriff, do you have Courtney's file from the jail yet? If you'll look through it, you'll find instructions that she was not to be allowed to make phone calls or to have visitors. In fact, she wasn't supposed to appear in Court until Monday. She was supposed to have been kept isolated until she confessed. " When the sheriff nodded, George continued. "That means he had an accomplice on your staff, probably one of the secretaries.
"And Judge, when you find her case file, you'll almost certainly find her medical records from the hospital and the Court file from your office. There has to be someone from both the Court and the hospital that is part of the conspiracy." Not wanting to waste time, George added, "Are you ready for more conclusions?"
Looking around, he noted they were all nodding, "Okay, to understand the scope of a criminal enterprise, it's necessary to fix a value on their merchandise, that being young submissive sex slaves. Girls are usually forced into slavery with drugs, which reduces their value. A willing slave is worth a fortune.
"The most valuable sex slave is a natural submissive introvert because, if she is as heavily conditioned as Courtney has been, she will not even be aware that she's a slave. And she can be owned openly, even flaunted. Imagine the value to a wealthy man who would never have to worry about jealousy or divorce. There are a lot of men who would pay dearly for an obedient wife who'd never complain about humiliation or abuse, no matter how extreme.
"None of us has experience in the sex slave market, so values will have to be estimated strictly by guessing. I've spent half my life in marketing and have developed a seat of the pants reckoning, so I can provide a good guess. I believe that a prime candidate like Courtney, if she were the only slave on the market, could bring a price as high as $5 million. But the enterprise is too well organized to be dependent upon a single payoff every 8-10 years, even for $5 million.
"When the supply increases, the price falls. Girls like Courtney would be rare, so ten girls would probably be worth $1-1½ million each, a hundred girls, ½ million each and a thousand girls, ¼ million.
"They've been operating for years and it's unlikely they'd be satisfied with a $10 million dollar enterprise when the market would bear $100 million. It's virtually certain that with that much money at stake, they've compromised all levels of law enforcement. Whether or not they have, we can't afford to take the chance. So the only help we can call for is for an unrelated threat like a terrorist attack, a spy network or drug related activity.
"The fact that they've compromised at least one and maybe two or three deputies, an EMT and Courtney's parents means that you'll have to be very careful which local law enforcement people you ask for help.
"The most urgent thing to prepare for is the psychiatrist visit and we have only about 4 hours. It's unlikely they'd trust anyone less qualified to program a prime specimen like Courtney, so we need to be prepared for the worst case. He'll come to the jail and will almost certainly be accompanied by armed bodyguards. Sheriff, this is your turf, how do you want to handle this?"
The sheriff's response was totally unexpected, at least by George, "My suggestions would be very predictable. I'm convinced that the only reason we know about any of this is because of you. You operate with an unconventional set of rules. They're as honest and ethical as ours are, but because they're different, the threat we're facing will utterly fail to anticipate your suggestions. So, I recommend that any ideas we have should be delayed until we hear yours."
"Okay, can someone take notes. The first and most important action is to get Courtney out of harms way. I recommend transporting her to the nearest hospital outside the state and making sure she is guarded. Second, we need information and a picture of the psychiatrist. He's almost certainly practicing in Las Vegas, so look him up in the phone book, on the Internet and call the state licensing board. To reduce the risk that he's set up people to alert him about inquiries, make sure that all inquiries are about getting urgent help for a juvenile.
"Third, gather all the retired law enforcement and military people you can find. Deputize and arm them. Fourth, get some road crews out setting up mock repairs on all the highways leading into town. Set up somebody at each location with a digital camera and get pictures and license plate #'s for every vehicle. See if you can access the state's database to confirm the owners of each vehicle.
"Fifth, call in all the private security you can afford. Sixth, see if you can contact the local cell phone services and get them to turn off roaming so we can keep anyone who is a threat from calling for reinforcements. Seventh, assign someone to dream up emergencies that can be staged so we can call in state and federal help without telling them the real reason. I can think of a couple right off. Find someone who will claim her car was stolen from the parking lot of the grocery store with a child in the back seat. You can get the FBI kidnap team with that one. Sheriff, arrange to send the worst of your prisoners with Courtney, then report him as escaped, armed and dangerous to bring in the state police?
Eighth, call in all of the friends you are absolutely certain you can trust. I can vouch for Deedee Haloway, Mabble Housen and John Stover. Mabble would be a good choice for assigning tasks and coordinating everything. I'd also suggest that this room should be the operations control center unless you have a better place that is electronically secured.
