The Click

All the time Oliver Hitchcock showered and shaved, Rousseau remained the

focus of his attention, her bare breasts, thick lips, and his groin. He wiped the steam from the mirror and stared at his body, recalling her warning the last time they slept together that he wasn’t getting any younger and her prediction that he would return to her bed. At the time he believed her regardless of his declaration otherwise. But no longer, considering his promise to Edna, and his hookup with Barnaby. Rousseau was now an enemy he had to stay clear of. Nevertheless, that didn’t stop him from thinking about her in bed.

After dressing and strolling into the kitchen prepared to boil some eggs, he realized there was little counter space left for such menial tasks. Stacks of printouts, news stories, and the like were everywhere except on the stove top and in the oven. He had to clean up … and he was concerned that VAMA, which seemed to have set up an office out front, might decide to expand into his living space once again.

It was that latter thought that prompted him to pull up the carpet across the fifth step on the stairway to the second level. He lifted the hardwood underneath, exposing an elongated safe extending the width of the step. He pulled it out and then pried open the board underneath, divulging a larger space spanning several steps. It was there that he placed his more recent work product that might incriminate him.

Once he finished that task and tidied the rest of the kitchen and his study, he was about to boil his eggs and brew some coffee when he heard his scud VIBRATING on the desk in the study.

It was Barnaby. Elana Wu was missing. He was clearly upset and Hitch tried his best to calm him down.

“Yes, it’s true. Sometimes she does go off for days without calling, but I’m worried nonetheless. I mean with all these VAMA cars that now …”

“Barnaby, please, give it a couple of days. If she’s not in touch by then I’ll see what I can do.” While Hitch acted nonchalant, he was worried also, and for the same reason, those VAMA shits. He immediately thought of Julian. Surely he would be able to find her if she was in their grasp.

“All right, I guess,” Barnaby acquiesced. “But in the meantime, I think we need to talk. I have an appointment at American University tomorrow morning. Can I come by after that, say around eleven?”

“No. I mean yes, eleven will work,” Hitch said. “But I have a better place to meet than my house,” he continued while poking his nose out a window and watching a VAMA hearse drive by.

Among Oliver Hitchcock’s talents was his uncanny ability to shoot fast and accurately. That didn’t come naturally. He worked at it constantly, even after he retired from the Company. Just about every Thursday morning he would spend at least an hour at the shooting range not terribly far from his house. However, in the last several months he only managed to make it there a couple of time and welcomed the chance to kill two birds with several zings of the trigger, so to speak.

It took ten minutes to calm Barnaby down, after which Hitch showed off his skill firing at human shaped targets with his laser rifle. ZING-ZING-ZING. And with each zing, Barnaby flinched.

“Enough!” Barnaby hollered out over the noise. “You can continue after I leave. For now please tell me what you’re going to do about Elana?”

He took off his earmuffs and so did Hitch.

“I will have someone extremely reliable on it if she doesn’t call by tomorrow. I promise. … Now, this ‘Cause’ you said you wanted to talk about. What the hell is it?”

Barnaby approached Hitch and took his rifle from him. Held it close, as if he were inspecting it, then set it down on the bench close by. Hitch stared at Barnaby, then at his rifle. “Jesus, Barnaby, are you afraid I’m going to shoot you?”

Barnaby laughed. “No, but I am afraid we haven’t been entirely candid with you.” “Not what I want to hear, my friend … my new friend. There’s too much at stake.”

Barnaby shook his head. “We had to be careful. I apologize.”

Hitch picked up his rifle and without earmuffs approached the target line. ZING-ZING-ZING-ZING. “I don’t have time for any bullshit, Barnaby. My grandson doesn’t have time.”

Barnaby sat down on the bench and motioned for Oliver to join him. “The Cause goes back three generations to my mother and father and his father, my grandfather, all enemies of the Cūtocracy. Today we are over 100,000 strong worldwide.

“What? Who? Oliver Hitchcock started to sit next to Barnaby but changed his mind. He thought better on his feet.

Barnaby stared at Hitch for a moment, as if he were not sure he wanted to confide in him, and that was seriously aggravating.

“Barnaby, this is no time for gamesmanship, not with my grandson’s life at stake and Elana Wu … who knows where.

Barnaby nodded. “The who are anonymous men and women and the what is their conviction that the Click is the Cūtocracy’s fraud on humanity.

Hitch stared at his new friend and was about to respond. ZING-ZING exploded from a stranger who had just begun shooting two lanes over. This time he flinched. “Wait! You’re saying you believe the Cūtocracy is responsible for the Click?” Hitch whispered even though the stranger had earmuffs on.

“Believe? I’m saying it’s a fact. They hid it within the ERAM-V vaccine in order to control population growth ever since the Ecclesian Church insisted on outlawing abortions and birth control way back when. That was their quid pro quo.”

Hitchcock turned his back on Barnaby and froze as he observed the stranger zero in on the enemy. ZING-ZING-ZING. The sign flashed ‘Enemy Eliminated’ in bright yellow. It’s one thing to believe the worst, another to know it’s true, he thought, and tried to shake it off. Finally his attention turned back to Barnaby. “So where does Elana fit into all of this?

“Coming up with the antidote and a Clickless vaccine. She’s our only hope. She’s the only one with the knowledge and intellect to put it all together.”

Hitch merely shook his head in disbelief. “Really? And what do you want from

me?”

“Blood, unvaccinated blood. Elana will need lots of it.” “Unvaccinated blood?”

“For the antidote. We need lots of unvaccinated blood. We’ve been scouring the Earth with no real luck. For every person we have in the field searching, VAMA has dozens vaccinating the masses.”

“So this is all about …”

“Mr. Nagasi, and India. Elana’s bit of blue sky. And yours too, Oliver.” Hitch shook his head. “You really believe he’s for real? Nagasi?” “You’re the expert. That’s for you to determine.”

Without much hesitation on his part, Hitch agreed to return to Mumbai, but first wanted to know everything about the Cause, not merely what amounted to an elevator speech.

“Well, that calls for sustenance,” Barnaby suggested and the oldest and newest living members of the Cause walked across the street to a café at the corner and dined on duck salad and discussion. After giving Oliver even more than he had asked for about the Cause, he reminded his new charge that Elana must be found.

Several hours later Hitch stood on his back deck taking in the rising mist over the Potomac, punching in numbers on his scud. “Julian …”

Once satisfied that Julian was now in the loop and up to speed, Hitch disconnected but remained within the shroud of mist that now surrounded him. He had decided not to mention Elana Wu or that she was missing, at least not then. She’s probably off on her own, he thought. No point complicating a situation already fraught with complications.