Updates for Friday, April 7th [2006]
The Return Home Pt. 4: The Big Reveal
Dear Friends,
To continue from where I left, we soon found ourselves in San Antonio, Texas. After waiting in anticipation for the meeting hour, we prepared ourselves for what would come next.
Me: I don't know. We go in, we find out what he wants?
Julius: Well, the techniques I gleaned from Agent N have taught me a few new things about tracking people. I called up local area hotels to see where he might be staying, and found one of his aliases staying at a hotel downtown, just outside Alamo Plaza. That has to be where he intends to hold any hostages, if he has them. So, I have the room number. All we need is someone to go... it probably would be best to go while we're meeting "N".
Me: I believe we can distract "N" long enough to have one of us sneak in, but I cannot go and neither can Julius. We have to retain our meeting with him at the Alamo if we are to keep him distracted long enough for you to intervene & free the captured.
Daniel: What, me? Hell no. I'm not doing this shit without some kind of gun or something. What if he like, has guards there?
Julius: Here, take mine. We're a distraction so you can get the hostages. I don't need it.
Daniel: Are you sure?
Me: You did not meet him at the meeting point last time, he may not know you are with me. If he thinks it is just me and Julius, perhaps then you need to act as our liaison on this dangerous mission. Just remember, nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances. If we execute this operation in due haste without revealing ourselves, we will all be free of Agent N and have him in the compromising position we need him in.
Julius: Once we execute the meeting, you will sneak off to the hotel room. Once there, see if you can get in and secure the premises. If you find either hostage, sneak them out of there ASAP and call my cell. We'll drag the meeting on as long as we can.
Daniel: Got it. You guys think this is really going to work?
Me: Something tells me here is a higher power which will have a say on whether or not it shall work. For now, we wait.
As I waited I created a makeshift brace for my swollen ankle out of some cotton rags and a short piece of wood I broke off a bit of ply board in the back alleyway. Daniel stirred and was restless, talking at long hours on his phone, outside the hotel room. Julius on the other hand, happened to spend most of his time devising escape plans from a downloaded blueprint of the Alamo Mission. I steeled my resolve by reading a good book and staying away from the television journalists. It was soon shortly after 11 PM, on the night of the meeting, and we headed out the door to meet the night. Our first stop was the hotel, to drop Daniel off. We continued driving downtown, until we arrived at 11:45PM, to the Alamo Mission. This old building did not seem to have much by the way of a service entrance, although the main door was unlocked, so we entered. As we entered the main hall, we found a guard, incapacitated. Yes, Agent N had already arrived, and unfortunately, he was not alone. The hostages were here, Natalie and Ludwig, our plan of rescue already foiled. Both were gagged and bound in chairs in the center of the hall. As we approached, Agent N himself arose from the shadows, with his gun drawn, telling us to stand down. I instinctively reached to my holster for my pistol, but immediately remembered that it had been taken from me by the people who need it least. I knew I was not going to be able to so readily defend myself, this time.
Julius: What? That doesn't even make sense. None of the mainstream science journals ever covered our work to much extent, only tabloids covering strange science stories called anything we were researching a "time machine"... how did you even know that is what we were designing? It doesn't matter... the time machine doesn't work anymore.
Me: The machine worked once, I am living proof of this. Ungag Ludwig and he will explain it all better than I can.
N: Yes, as I had hoped! Finally! This should be fascinating! So, Mr. Von Meises, how does your time machine work?
Ludwig: Fick dich, feiger hund!
N: Oh, so brass indeed. Perhaps the butt of my gun will teach you to speak in English, you degenerate!
Me: Keep your hands off him! Strike him again and you'll have more to deal with than a man bound to a chair!
Ludwig: Okay, okay, stop, I am an old man. I will tell you. The man you see before you is Thomas Jefferson, of history. Our device was activated accidentally. Julius set random dates and events, and it so happened that one of the events was in Jefferson's path. So he's here, and that's what's wrong with history. So now you know, right? You intend to fix it?
N: What? Thomas Jefferson? No, that's not right.
Julius: Yeah, it's true. Thomas here is from the past. He was taken out of the timeline in his elderly years, and de-aged as a result of the process. If anyone goes back in time, the same aging disorder affecting the body's telomere strands would behave in reverse, instead of building new strands, it would result in destroying the strands to the point of cellular unraveling. So even if the time machine did work traveling to the past it would result in an advanced aging syndrome that would kill you at best in a couple of months. On the other hand, a trip to the future would be like a reverse aging syndrome, although I'm not convinced that the process is healthy. Thomas might be fine now but he wouldn't live to 80 like he had before. Until we find a treatment for the aging disease related to time travel, and a way to control the cascade reaction to reproduce it predictably, time travel for people is impossible. The calibrations from the original machine were lost on the computers in the lab destroyed by the initial electromagnetic pulse created by the time travel cascade reaction... computations too complex to potentially master again in a lifetime.
N: Yes! Finally! Someone finally gave me the tools I need to fix the world! This is a momentous occasion. An aging disorder? Unimportant! It is the cause, not the death, which makes the martyr. I will go back in time, to restore the glory of St. George Tucker, secret headmaster of the pre-Jew Illuminati. Then that delirious old man John Adam's campaign against the Illuminati, exposing it to the public eye will come unraveled. A long history of communism and homosexuality put at an end!
Me: John Adams? How does he play into this?
N: It was because of that doddering old fool that the secret order's secrets were exposed. Men like St. George Tucker went into hiding, never to be heard of again. But public leaders of the Bavarian Illuminati stood exposed to the public, allowing usurpers to take it over. They've controlled every major event in world history since... JFK's assassination, the rise of the Communists, the Soviet Union, the space shuttle Challenger explosion, 9/11, George Bush AND Bill Clinton. Don't you fools see? The old order must be restored or else our society will continue down this path of degradation. Let's start with the first thing that needs to be fixed. If you're really Thomas Jefferson, you can't be allowed to return to your time. You'd be too great a liability to my plans. That whole era of the early 1800's is where I need to make most of my changes. Power is my mistress. I have worked too hard at her conquest to allow anyone to take her away from me. So, Mr. Jefferson, I do believe we come to a close here. Get on your knees so I can get a good shot, or I'll kill you right there as you stand.
Me: Well.... hmm, I SEE... well! I am subdued. Perhaps I shall get down on my knees.
N: That's better! Victory belongs to the most persevering, and I think we know who that is. Any final words for the history books? I'll be sure to write them down for you.
Me: Yes, actually I do have a few. If adversity should have taught you wisdom, of which I have little expectation, you may yet render some service to mankind, by teaching the rest of us that they can be changed for misrule, and by wearing down the power of the tyrannical to limitable and safe dimensions. You must see nothing in this world but yourself, and looked on the people under you as your cattle, beasts for burthen and slaughter. I might supplement that with a quote from a great fool who once said something wise, that being, "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."
Natalie: HEE-YA!
N: Ooof!
Me: Julius, grab the gun!
Julius: Got it!
N: No!
Natalie: That chair to the back of the head will show you for having the balls to abduct me and tie loose knots, jackass!
It was at this point that suddenly, without warning, a small group of several men in FBI coats with several men in white labcoats surrounded all of us and demanded we dropped our weapons. Julius of course immediately complied, we awaited their aid. Then, behind the group, I saw Daniel. He must have brought the men as backup.
FBI Agent: Just stay on the ground, everything is going to be okay folks. You're under our custody, Norman. Just keep your hands on the ground.
Psychiatrist: Mr. Goodshare, it's time to go back and seek some more treatment. We'll get some nice pills and talk about this.
N: I'm not crazy, and stop calling me Norman! My name is Nabolione, and it is Corsican! I won't go back... let me go!
Psychiatrist: Hold him still.
FBI Agent: Will do.
Psychiatrist: Norman, this shot here will help you take a moment and relax. Then we can head back to the home, to all your friends.
N: No damn you, I'm not crazy! The fags, jews and communists have put you up to this! I'm feeling... very... sl... eepy.
Me: What is going on?
Dr. Louis Stanislas: First of all, I want to apologize all the trouble you've been put through. My name is Dr. Louis Stanislas, I am the chief medical supervisor of high risk inmates at Elba New York mental health facility located on Roosevelt Island. Your friend Danny has been in contact with us the last couple of days, he was saying something about Thomas Jefferson and time travel. Normally a call as crazy as his would be ignored at the FBI, but this man, Mr. Norman Goodshare, has been causing enough problems to make it high up on the FBI's most wanted lists, so they referred it to me and we agreed that it fit his profile. We've had several false leads but this time we actually located Norman, although I admit flying to Texas was not in my business plans. Norman is a paranoid schizophrenic who happens to be a master at stalking and identity theft, he also has a fixation on history and conspiracy. He went missing a few years ago after having earned our trust and being moved into the less secure wing of the facility. Don't worry, he'll spend the next few years in maximum security. His little sprees cost victims thousands of dollars in credit card theft, to pay for luxurious spy trips to harass major world businessmen he thinks are attached to a new world order.
Julius: Well, he's been stalking me so far as to chase me out of the country. He thinks we built a time machine!
Ludwig: A time machine, how ridiculous!
Daniel: But, doctor. That IS Thomas Jefferson. I'm tired of all this hiding about it. I don't want to be put in more danger here. What I did was wrong, and now I'm going to make it right by reporting it.
Dr. Louis Stanislas: Thank you for reporting this situation Danny, however I fear Norman's mind games have paid off on you. If you need someone to talk to, here is my card. Due to the nature of the circumstances we can fly you over to Elba and we can discuss this with some of our professional counselors. Perhaps you are under stress from this whole ordeal?
Daniel: No, I'm not crazy, it's just... I can't do this anymore. I'll meet everyone at the hotel.
Me: Daniel, wait!
Dr. Louis Stanislas: I want to extend the same invitation to you all. The federal government is extremely saddened that Norman has had such an impact during his release. However you are saving many people a lot of time and energy by having brought us here. If you choose to press charges, the FBI agent here will take your statements, however I want you to rest assured that Norman will be returning to federal incarceration, and then to a maximum security white padded cell, where he will stay indefinitely until he shows signs of being cured.
Natalie: So basically there is no point in filing charges?
Dr. Louis Stanislas: Well, there is of course if you so choose, but Norman was first confined after his stalking culminated in murder. So he was never eligible for any term of release. His mental condition required we treat him at Elba.
Me: Well then, I think it's time to head home.
Natalie: Thank god! I was beginning to believe that Thomas Jefferson, time travel stuff for a minute there. That was so crazy.
Me: Well, about that...
As we slowly made our way back to the hotel room, we all had a very long discussion. Daniel did not involve himself. He was mad at me, perhaps, for turning his life upside down as I had. Natalie at first didn't believe us, but once we explained that "N's" fixation was based on a bit of coincidental fact, she started to see the connections. I think she knew there was something about me she didn't know, but I can't say she took it very well. She certainly doesn't want me to leave. We started to discuss travel arrangements to return first to Chicago, and Ludwig had something to tell us all. He said that one of the last things he had done before being abducted was solve the final calculations, so the time machine does in fact work. However, Julius assures me, the aging syndrome issue still remains. So if I travel back in history, I could travel back to the point at which I left, where I was elderly anyways, and live out the last few months or years of my life as I probably would've normally. I just wanted to know if it would change anything.
So I took Daniel's laptop and got online to go read more about John Adams, since his name was brought up. It turns out that my old friend did in fact, during his final months of his life, become unstable, and that it was somewhat my fault. He must have lost his mind with grief after my disappearance, because he thought I had been abducted by secret captors. He died soon afterwards, but this, conspiracy theorists say, was related to the early 1830's anti-Masonic movement. It had appeared to be a popular theory that I had in fact been abducted by the Illuminati, whereas most historians assumed I had got lost during a business trip and somehow met a silent fate with an accident or a bandit.
This left me much to think about, with regards to returning back to my time. We all had time, since the Elba institution is seeking to help offset our expenditures with a small grant. They want this high profile case to go unnoticed by the national media. Natalie wants to go with me to Chicago first, and I think Daniel doesn't have an objection. We all however need rest before we go anywhere. We're going to take this opportunity to get all the sleep we need before getting ready for the next day's flight to Chicago. Then from there Daniel and Natalie will fly back to Portland. However, if the time machine works, I might decide to leave. I have much to consider in a few day's time, however there is no hurry. The grant we were all given was rather large, and we all have few obligations at home. Natalie has already contacted her employer and informed them of the abduction and asked for paid time off, they were understanding of her situation. We all have plenty of time to consider the next course of action.
In the meantime, I remain your friend and servt:
- TH. Jefferson
Editor's Notes:
In case you were curious, I actually patterned Norman "Nabolione" Goodshare after someone who resembles his namesake, and that is French general Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon was in many ways, a dynamic against Jefferson's very own nature, and Jefferson never had many kind words for him. In fact, much of the dialogue and exchange was Napoleon's original words and Jefferson's thoughts about Napoleon. Particular Bonaparte quotes that were included or adapted in some fashion over the last pair of updates were:
"From the heights of these pyramids, forty centuries look down on us."
"Forethought we may have, undoubtedly, but not foresight."
"Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever."
"If you want a thing done well, do it yourself."
"If they want peace, nations should avoid the pin-pricks that precede cannon shots."
"I am sometimes a fox and sometimes a lion. The whole secret of government lies in knowing when to be the one or the other."
"Bonaparte's domineering temper deafens him to the dictates of interest, of honor, and of morality."
"It is the cause, not the death, that makes the martyr."
"Power is my mistress. I have worked too hard at her conquest to allow anyone to take her away from me."
"Victory belongs to the most persevering."
Lastly, the person Jefferson quoted above was Napoleon himself, when he said...
"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."
Jefferson's retorts to "N" too, reflected his real feelings for Napoleon, as some of the following Jeffersonian quotes show.
"Bonaparte was a lion in the field only. In civil life, a cold-blooded, calculating, unprincipled usurper, without a virtue; no statesman, knowing nothing of commerce, political economy, or civil government, and supplying ignorance by bold presumption. I had supposed him a great man until his entrance into the Assembly des cinq cens, eighteen Brumaire (an VIII). From that date, however, I set him down as a great scoundrel only."
"O'Meara's book proves that nature had denied Bonaparte the moral sense, the first excellence of well organized man. If he could seriously and repeatedly affirm that he had raised himself to power without ever having committed a crime, it proves that he wanted totally the sense of right and wrong. If he could consider the millions of human lives which he had destroyed, or caused to be destroyed, the desolations of countries by plunderings, burnings and famine, the destitutions of lawful rulers of the world without the consent of their constituents, to place his brothers and sisters on their thrones, the cutting up of established societies of men and jumbling them discordantly together again at his caprice, the demolition of the fairest hopes of mankind for the recovery of their rights and amelioration of their condition, and all the numberless train of his other enormities; the man I say, who could consider all these as no crimes, must have been a moral monster, against whom every hand should have been lifted to slay him."
"If adversity should have taught him wisdom, of which I have little expectation, he may yet render some service to mankind, by teaching the ancient dynasties that they can be changed for misrule, and by wearing down the maritime power of England to limitable and safe dimensions."
"Bonaparte saw nothing in this world but himself, and looked on the people under him as his cattle, beasts for burthen and slaughter."
Napoleon, after being deposed as dictator of France, was exiled to an Island called Elba, by the new monarch King Louis-Stanislas-Xavier (Louis XVIII). That of course is the basis of the Doctor and the fictional mental institution based on a island.
So, TeeJ has a big decision ahead of him. Try to change history, or try to change the future?
