A few minutes before 5 p.m., the doorbell rang at the twins’ house.
“That must be Tom,” Cynthia called. “I’ll get it! ... hi, Tom, OH!” she exclaimed as Tom handed her a bouquet of flowers. “How pretty!”
“I felt I had to bring a little spring to your home to try to get rid of this morning’s unpleasantness,” Tom remarked as Cynthia kissed him.
“Thank you, this is so nice. Come meet my mom,” she said, pulling Tom with her to the kitchen. “Mom, this is Tom Emerson; he’s the guy who helped us chase down the kidnapers.”
Sarah came over to him and grasped his hands. “I’m honored to meet you, son...”
Cynthia showed Sarah the flowers and took out a vase for them.
“How lovely, Tom, thank you... and I also want to thank you so much for what you did for our family.”
“Thanks, Mrs Denison, but all I did was to...”
Roger interrupted, “Tom, please don’t be so modest. If you hadn’t followed me like you did, it wouldn’t have turned out so good. You did much more than just follow me.”
Ayame chimed in, “Yes, Tom, and I’m grateful to you too, so you’re outnumbered.... Is that the right word?” she asked Roger.
“Exactly right, sweetie.”
Meanwhile, Sgt Denison had just arrived home and came up to Tom.
“Good evening, young man,” he said. “Good to see you again, and under much nicer circumstances. Welcome to our home.”
“Thanks, sir, and I appreciate your invite.”
Sgt Denison continued, “I’ve seen you swim on my son’s team, right? Thought you looked familiar. Do you think the team can repeat winning States this year?”
“Got a shot at it, sir, but our top freestyler graduated last year and he was one of the best swimmers in the state. This’ll be a tougher year.”
“I see... well, just buckle down and give it your best shot. Say, Sarah, kids, I don’t want to put a damper on this evening’s festivities by reminding you about what happened this morning, but Sgt Raymers—he’s the chief NCO in the investigations unit—wanted to tell me what they found out about the kidnapers. He’s supposed to come over at about 6:30 to talk to me but he said you can hear this too if you want.”
“Yes, I want,” Roger said, and everyone else chimed in to agree.
As they were eating, Sarah asked Tom about his family.
“Well, I’m sort of a military kid,” Tom began. “My dad was a Navy pilot but was killed when I was 11 years old...”
“Oh, sorry...” people around the table said.
“...thanks, it was during one of those Mideastern wars. His aircraft was hit. We were so close and I really miss him terribly. Anyway, my mom is an engineer at the nuclear power plant and she married a man who works there. My step-dad is the security director there; he was an Army colonel who got wounded in action; he retired after he was hurt and eventually got his job here. He’s a really cool guy; my family does lots of things together.”
“Man, I didn’t know your story,” Roger said. “That’s why you’re just like a whole lot of other military family kids I’ve known—even how you are with others, a real team player. It’s why the kids on the team look up to you.”
“Oh, c’mon, Rog, you’re gettin’ carried away,” Tom objected.
Sgt Denison broke in, “Tom, this morning I noticed how you behaved out there with my kids and Ayame. You were disciplined and thoughtful, very mature. So I’m not surprised to hear of your family background. Anyway, what are your educational plans after high school? Following your father in the Navy?”
“No sir, my mother, actually. I want to be an engineer—industrial or mechanical, I think.”
Soon the conversation turned to other topics and the meal was finished. Roger and Cynthia volunteered to clean up from dinner and the others went to the den. Not long after the twins rejoined the rest of the group, Master Sergeant Raymers arrived and Stuart introduced him.
“Hello, sir, oh—I remember you from this morning, right? You were there pretty quickly, I think,” Cynthia exclaimed.
“Very observant, Miss. Yes, I was on North Base when I heard the call and not far away. So the base is involved in the investigation because of a number of factors. First, the kidnaping took place on federal property; next, so many of the families involved have a Marine member and third, most live on base. Usually we’re not involved in civil matters but this situation is kind of unique and potentially dangerous since the federal government seems involved in some way because of this Program thing. But we also have to observe the ‘Posse Comitatus’ Act—you know what that is? Most people don’t. It says that the Army and Air Force cannot be used as a police force to enforce domestic law. The Marines aren’t mentioned in the law but Navy regulations exist that have the same effect.
“Anyway, our MPs are also sworn law enforcement personnel in addition to being military, so we sometimes help the civil authorities in limited ways, and on this occasion, we were asked to assist by the state police. Miss Ayame remembered that her kidnapers had entered an address in their vehicle’s nav system. So a team was designated to go to that address, six MPs, together with state police and a Riverside County sheriff’s team, and a member of the Riverside prosecutor’s office; he had gotten an emergency search warrant.
“We arrived at the site at about 12:40 p.m. It was a building in a suburban office park, a free-standing building with no outside identification. There were three black sedans in the parking area with virtually opaque rear windows, government plates, like the kidnapers’ vehicles. We posted men around the building and then entered. And what we found was incredibly disturbing.
“The outer door was locked. We decided to ring the doorbell rather than break in, but that was a tough decision to make and we lucked out. A woman answered the door for the uniformed state police trooper who was the only visible person to her, but when she opened the door, we secured it and the woman and rushed in to secure the other rooms. There wasn’t any armed opposition, thankfully; we didn’t know what to expect since one of the kidnapers had been armed.
“We eventually tallied twelve rooms set up like sleeping rooms with two beds each but the windows were blocked off and the doors could be locked from the outside. Another room looked like a doctor’s office with an exam table and medical supplies. Some offices. But the disturbing part was in one larger room, set up like a kind of little gym, we found four blindfolded and naked teens, three girls and a boy; their arms were strapped to their chairs’ arms and their legs were restrained too. They had headphones on them and some kind of hypnotic tape was playing.”
There were gasps and cries of outrage from the group.
“There were two men in the room watching the children; when we rushed in they tried to resist but they were restrained and arrested. In another room that was set up like a classroom we found a naked boy and girl; the girl was being forced to take the boy’s penis into her mouth by a man standing behind her, holding her head and trying to push her face into his groin. That man was also arrested.”
Ayame put her face in her hands and began crying. Roger whispered to her, “Want to leave?”
“NO!” she insisted. “Need to hear!”
Raymers went on, “In all cases, the children seemed only partially aware of what was going on; they moved lethargically but did react when they saw us—with a kind of wary relief. We had an ambulance on standby and one of our team had called them in; they had brought a physician with them in case of injuries.
“This is what we learned from records we found and from questioning the people we took into custody, one of whom was actually a psychologist. The place was run by a contractor to what we learned was the district office of the federal Program—the ‘Office of Social Awareness’—and it was set up to do a kind of training for students who refused to participate in their schools’ Program. The doctor who examined the children found that they had been lightly drugged using drugs like amobarbital, scopolamine, and sodium thiopental. Those drugs were found in the exam room.
“The children would be kept naked day and night, made to listen to subliminal suggestion tapes like we observed in that room, and put through sessions of mutual masturbation while being kept very lightly sedated. The drugs that were used are commonly believed to work as ‘truth’ drugs but in reality they simply reduce inhibitions and make the subject more amenable to suggestion. Apparently the objective of the treatment was to break down the children’s resistance to the Program.”
The group sat there silently, stunned by what they were hearing.
“All of this is highly illegal on many levels—violates a whole slew of laws, and is morally reprehensible as well. What the civil authorities are trying to determine now is who in the federal chain of this agency arranged that contract and who knew what was being done with the children who were kidnaped. Also where their instructions for which children to kidnap came from would be useful to know. Our base’s involvement with the brainwashing part of the case is ending since that’s an entirely a civil matter now; we’re still involved with the kidnaping, though.
“It appears that the law that set up the Program allows officials to ‘detain’ the minor children who don’t cooperate. But clearly the law never anticipated how far these perverts would go in detaining children and basically using them as guinea pigs for brainwashing. It boggles the mind how far they went. And to use a professional—a psychologist!—in such a way. I think those people will have long prison sentences to look forward to.”
Sgt Denison asked, “What about the others that were stopped at the school? What happened with them?”
“Oh yes. We turned them over to the civilian authorities to be charged with attempted kidnaping. There were four student names that the kidnaping group was given, Miss Ayame’s name and three others. Two of the other kidnapers went to one room for a boy on their list but he wasn’t present. Then they went for another student and took her out of the class. The second two pulled the third, another girl, out of her classroom. But the MP patrol saw one of the girls struggling as she was taken out of the building so they called for backup and intervened. That’s how we captured those first two teams.
“The two girls needed to be transported to the hospital. One fought so hard—she actually kicked a kidnaper in the groin—he punched her in the face so she needed treatment. The other girl was throwing up; they weren’t sure if she had been hit in the abdomen, so they took her for observation.”
“Oh my god,” Sarah groaned. “How awful... You know how they are now?”
“A little better now. The girl who was punched has a nasty bruise on her cheek but she’ll be okay, physically anyway. The other girl was in shock and they gave her light sedation. I heard they’ll keep her overnight but she wasn’t physically injured.”
“Thank God for that,” Sgt Denison exhaled. “I’m so glad that Ayame escaped that torture, as did the other two. Do you think the perverts set up other operations like that elsewhere?”
“No way of knowing yet. The classroom teachers were given an official letter authorizing the children to be removed from class and an envelope to go to the school office. We checked; the envelopes contained a letter from the Program office to be read to the kidnaped children’s parents...”
Sarah interrupted, “Yes, the school secretary read me a letter like that.”
“...so state law enforcement is going to each school running the Program to see who had gotten such letters. They hope to learn more that way.”
Roger looked at Ayame. “No one asked you if you heard those creeps say anything to each other about what they were doing. Did they talk to each other?”
“I didn’t hear too much. Only heard about navigation when they got into car. There was wall with window between front and back, Roger.”
“Say,” Roger said, “what about their cars? I heard they were motor pool. Was there any info about them?”
“Only that they were being used by the contractor under that name, son. But that’s another lead that’s being checked.”
Stuart broke in. “And that office—it was open like you could just walk in and see everything that was going on? When you got in, those rooms where the kids were being held were in the open?”
“Ah, no. The outer office looked like a bookkeeping office setup; nothing suspicious. But there was a security door behind a closet door in the room that led into what we called ‘the dungeon,’” Raymers commented. “Fortunately it was open so the woman didn’t have a chance to warn the others. They must have been waiting for the kidnapers to arrive.”
“Oh, wow... And I guess that no one’s talking, either the kidnapers or the people at that office,” Cynthia commented.
“Not much. The people we arrested at the office site gave us a little information at first but then refused to say anything more.” He laughed. “I suggested that we loosen them up a bit; give them the same treatment as the kids using their own drugs—give ‘em a taste of their own medicine. See how their drugs work on them. But the prosecutor nixed that idea real quick. Real shame he didn’t go for it. They’re also going to question Mr Cirota, he probably has essential information.”
“Yeah, Cirota,” Roger snarled. “I warned him that if anything happened to Ayame, I’d cut off his balls...”
“Roger!” Sarah exclaimed. “You could really get into trouble making threats like that!”
“Yes, ma’am, I know. I apologized to Davis later for what I said. I told him what I did with Cirota. And you know, Cirota didn’t complain about my putting him in a judo hold when I threatened him, I was surprised that he let that slide.”
Cynthia looked at Roger. “Say, I’ll bet he didn’t because he thought that if he tried to discipline you for that, it might interfere with the kidnapings they planned. He probably didn’t want anyone looking closer at how he added Ayame to the Program list. But you told Cirota that if you didn’t nail him, the Marines would, remember?”
“Oh yeah. Man, was I so damned mad! Then I was ashamed about how badly I lost my temper.”
Raymers raised his hand to stop their conversation and everyone turned to look at him.
“We Marines have this covered, son. The abductions were from federal property, remember? The school’s on base land, so the Marines are very involved. Also the law in this state says that if a death occurs when a felony is committed, no matter who dies—whether a perp or victim—then those involved as conspirators can be charged with murder—it’s known as the felony-murder rule. And if Cirota provided those names, it’s very possible he could be charged as a co-conspirator to the felonies of kidnaping and intended sexual assault. I’m sorry that the people who were torturing those kids likely won’t be able to be implicated in this kidnaping, but they face very long prison terms anyway. And since this was a felony committed on federal property, be sure that the JA office will be very involved in the prosecutions. So you’ll get your wish; we’re going to nail Cirota if he’s responsible—so don’t take punishing him into your own hands, okay, son?”
Ayame clutched Roger’s hand and he pulled her close.
“Yes, sir, I’m cool,” he told Raymers. “I’m glad to see that the base will keep the pressure on the investigation.”
“For sure, son,” Raymers responded.
The discussion was winding down and the shock of what they heard had dampened the mood considerably. Soon Sgt Raymers was taking his leave.
“I wanted you to hear about all this first-hand. You know how the rumor mill exaggerates stories like this and turns them into wild fantasies. This way you’ll know what actually happened and what those attempted kidnapings were supposed to be about. And I’m sorry if the information was disturbing, but now that you know, you can better judge what can happen when government policies like the Program run amuck. You can tell that I’m no fan of it either. Have a good evening; see you at work tomorrow, Stu, my friend.”
After Raymers left, the group sat and looked at each other for a while, gathering their thoughts. Stuart was the first to speak.
“To think that something like this was allowed to happen... It’s disgusting, treating kids like lab animals, hauling them away, drugging them senseless, and then prostituting them in the name of an educational program that’s supposed to help their self-image somehow. My God, what a disaster.”
Sarah was sitting next to Ayame, she leaned over and put her arm around her shoulder.
“To think, honey, that they were taking you to that place...” she shivered. “Those poor kids; I hope that they have no bad effects from their experience. And their parents when they find out what happened... awful.”
“Aunt Sarah, I too hope they will get help. Maybe the drugs dull the memory of what was done to them. I remember something from a health class about drugs for childbirth and one name was familiar. It made memory forget. I’m so happy I got rescued,” Ayame said as she held Roger’s hand.
“Makes me wonder if I should become a refuser too,” Tom sighed. “That was an awful story.”
Stuart looked at him. “Right! So you’re doing the Program this week. I heard your comments this morning and was wondering about your wearing that poncho.”
“Yeah, Dad, you should have seen my wild-eyed naked driver racing after the bad guys!” Cynthia exclaimed, and related the story about how Tom came to become involved in the chase.
That improved the mood in the room considerably, as the adults tried to visualize the images of a naked boy and clothed girl running down the school hallway, streaking across the parking lot, and then traveling in a car rushing headlong down a county road.
The four teens excused themselves then and went to Roger’s room for a quiet chat.
“Cindy, thanks so much for dinner. And the after-dinner entertainment was, I don’t know, riveting is the only word I can think of. Damned Program crap. Hey, Ayame, I can see that you did okay hearing what the cops found at the kidnapers’ place. Yesterday you were a basket case over your selection for the Program. You freaked out every time someone said you should be nude but today you seem much better.”
“Yes, thank you, Tom. Maybe because I know that I escaped an awful time, I understand now that there is worse that can happen than just hearing words.”
Cynthia looked at Tom. “You know, in psych class I asked our teacher about something like that, Tom. Roger and Ayame and I were talking about our nudity fears. So I asked about facing fears, how to cope. The teacher said that if you force yourself to do something you’re afraid of doing and see that it didn’t hurt you, then when you have to do it the next time, it may be easier to do.”
“You mean about being naked in school?” Tom asked.
“That’s the first time I felt any panic about being nude,” Cynthia continued. “I reacted that way when Roger and I found that we were picked for the Program. When they told us that we had been picked, I panicked. I couldn’t stand the idea of having to be in the Program. Later both of us figured that we must have some kind of psych problem since we have such strong negative feelings about being naked like that. Ayame does too, but for a different reason. But you’re doing the Program without any real objections. That’s why we think your being in it is so brave. We couldn’t make ourselves get naked in public like that.”
“Cindy, I mentioned before, I’m kind of used to it because I’ve been going to nudist resorts since I was little. My mom grew up in a nudist family and got my dad, then my step-dad, to try it. My step-dad was really hesitant—actually afraid to get into public nudity, but grew to love it. I bet you guys would, too. It’s the absolutely greatest feeling ever, the breeze and sun on your bare skin. My step-dad got used to it slowly—got used to going to nudist resorts with us, that is. I’d love to get you to try. He did it in private, a little at a time.”
“How do you mean, private?” Roger asked. Ayame looked very doubtful.
“With no one else being around. Would you consider trying it? Cindy, it would be wonderful if you guys would try. Would you?” Tom asked.
The twins looked at each other and exchanged a silent message. Roger nodded and whispered in Ayame’s ear, “Darling, Cindy and I agreed to see what Tom has in mind. Would you go along with us too? For me?”
Ayame squeezed Roger’s hand and squeaked, “I think...”
Cynthia looked at Tom intently. “Rog and I have been talking about our nudity hangup. I wonder if my panic was because of the stuff we’ve heard about the Program. Actually I’ve been pretty modest since I was little, but I never got all panicked over it. Small steps? That’s what our psych teacher said helps to get used to uncomfortable stuff. How would we do it?”
“You’ll try? Great! My step-dad needed to get into nudism slowly. Mostly a newbie will just go to a resort, hang out for a few hours wearing a swim suit to get used to the idea, see that the nudity’s no big deal and get naked too, but some others need time to get used to it. We can try it at my house—we have a pool and the yard is fenced in; it’s totally private. My family sunbathes and swims naked there a lot. You can come over after school; the folks won’t be home then and it’d be totally private.”
“So when do you think we should try?” Cynthia asked.
“How about if you come tomorrow after school? Can you come then?”
Roger was showering with Tom after swim practice Wednesday morning.
“Cindy was talking to Ayame for half the night. Ayame is really, really uneasy about our nudist trial this afternoon but Cindy convinced her that she could come but she wouldn’t need to take her suit off. Is that okay?”
“Oh, sure. No one’s being forced; this isn’t like the Program, after all.”
“Let me tell you why Ayame is so shy about her body. She doesn’t like to even appear in a two-piece because she was burned in a fire when she was little...”
Roger continued explaining to Tom why Ayame was modest about exposing her body, about the merciless teasing she had endured.
“Yeah, I can see why she’d think she looked like a freak. But, man, she should definitely come to our resort—she’d see people with scars and plenty of people who aren’t very good-looking. One woman comes who had to have her breasts removed. She wasn’t at all embarrassed at how she looked. But Ayame can come and be dressed however she wants.”
“Good, I’ll tell her. See you in front after school?” Roger asked.
“Sure.”
All morning during school, the twins and Ayame kept hearing snatches of rumors about Tuesday’s kidnaping attempts, but apparently not many solid facts were known. One of the girls was back in school because Ayame heard a student in Civics mention seeing a girl with a bad bruise on her face. It was during their lunch period that they heard a guy talking about seeing MPs handcuffing two men and watching a girl being put into an ambulance. They didn’t hear anyone mention the raid on the Program contractor’s offices until later, however.
It was right after English that one of the students said she heard during her lunch period that there was some kind of major raid, somehow involving the Program, at a site in Riverside County to their north. The news report contained only speculative coverage since the authorities claimed that because minors were involved, few details could be released. The girl only heard that a number of people had been arrested and some teens were found who were being held against their will at an office facility and had been hospitalized for observation. No other details could be learned, the girl related.
“Wow,” Cynthia said after she heard the girl’s comments, “they got a lot of that correct, actually. I wonder if we’ll hear anything more or if this’ll get the coverup treatment too.”
“So the press is pretty good at digging out the details of stuff like that,” Roger commented, “and if it’s a hot topic—and the Program is really a hot one—they won’t stop unless they’re forced to do it, you know.”
“Yeah, I guess. I don’t know how much control the feds have over what the press reports, though. They have the press rights of the First Amendment, no? Do you remember that stuff from Civics last year about prior restraint? I don’t think the government has any power to censor news before it comes out unless it’s a national security matter. I think that’s what I heard, right?” Cynthia remarked.
“Ha. I’d like to see the feds try to make the Program into a national security issue. I’ll bet they’re staying up nights trying to work out how to do that, though,” Roger joked. “Anyway, let’s check the news tonight and see if they dug up any more details, okay?”
After school, they went to meet Tom at the entrance. Mary and Jessica were there, and within a few minutes Mike came out, followed by Elliott. Jessica was still wearing shorts and Cynthia and Ayame went to talk to her.
“Jessica, hi,” Cynthia greeted her. “How was today?”
“Not too bad. Wearing the bottoms makes a world of difference. But Cirota pulled me out of class briefly, told me that he was going to make me repeat the week. I told him something like, ‘In your dreams! I didn’t pick this week, you did!’ If they say I need to repeat, I’ll refuse.”
“Good on you. Show ‘em you’re not taking any crap,” Cynthia said approvingly as Tom came up and took her hand.
“Hi, Cindy. Three down, two more to go. That snarky bastard had to get his threats in just now.”
Roger had joined them. “You must mean Cirota. ‘Snarky’ is the word that fits him best.”
“You got it. He was waiting for me after my last class. Told me he was failing me for my Program week for an unexcused absence for several hours on Tuesday. I told him where he could put his failure—my class absence was excused by the principal and he couldn’t override that excuse. I think he was trying to scare me or something. It didn’t work.”
“I wonder how people like him get picked for that position. You’d think they’d want to put supportive, empathic people in Program positions. Not a tyrant wannabe. It would help the kids so much,” Cynthia said.
Elliott was finishing getting dressed. “Hey, you guys hear about a raid on a Program office up north? I was working on my history project in the media lab and saw a report on the news feed.”
“What did you hear happened?” Tom asked.
“So there was this office building where it seems some kids were being held. They didn’t say anything more about the kids, except that they were high-school students and had been taken to the hospital to be checked out. The news said that the people in the office were arrested and being held without bail on suspicion of kidnaping—you think that they might be related to the kidnapers here?”
“Oh my God,” Jessica exclaimed, “you think it’s a kidnaping ring?”
“No—the report said it had to do with the Program, so can the government be involved in kidnaping? I don’t see how. Maybe... um, maybe they weren’t doing what they were supposed to? Like if the kids got injured or something, then maybe that’s why those people could be arrested. There wasn’t much more information, but it makes me worried a little, like what the hell is going on if the Program people can’t be trusted either. This whole fuckin’ screwy deal is bad, I tell ya...” He waved his hand at the school building as he walked off.
The others just stared at his back as he walked away. Then everyone had left except Tom.
“Wow. Elliott is pretty perceptive, you know?” Roger commented.
“What do you mean?” Tom asked. “What did he say that was perceptive?”
“About that raid. He put some things together and came up with close to the correct answer, actually,” Cynthia remarked. “Tom, after you left Dad said that stuff about that raid is apparently still kind of secret, apparently. Please promise not to repeat it. Really promise, okay?”
“Cindy, I’m not a gossip spreader and there’s no one I need to impress with knowing any secrets. I’m cool too, especially if your dad thinks that info is so hot.”
“Thanks, Tom, and I’m sure the details will be out in a few days anyway, the way the press manages to dig it out.”
“Yeah, Cyn, those poor goddamn kids,” Tom muttered. “Being tortured and brainwashed over that crap. Because they objected to the Program, they get officially kidnaped and brainwashed. I have even less respect for the turds who came up with the whole damned Program abomination. I hope those creeps get locked away for life. Like the sergeant in charge of the investigation said, they should’ve gotten a dose of their own treatment.”
“Ha. Can’t agree with you more,” Roger commented. “Too bad the DA said he couldn’t allow it, though.”
“Yeah, I guess. Well, on a happier note, so you guys wanna follow me home now?” Tom asked. “We can try taking that little step today if you want.”
Cynthia looked at Ayame who shrugged, blushed, and looked down. “It’s okay, sweetie,” Cynthia said, “if you don’t...”
“Hinin, ehh, no, Cindy, is okay to go. I need small step.”
Copyright © 2015 Seems Ndenyal. All Rights Reserved.