The Tesla Conspiracy-Prologue

This prologue introduces two important side characters: a good guy who will later associate with the main characters, and a bad guy who will become the nemesis of all of the main characters.

Prologue

 

The sun rose just above the desert horizon. Rising dust clouds glowed golden in the early morning light, a sign of the movement of vehicles that was only observed by jackrabbits and roadrunners, which turned their heads toward the rumbling vibrations, then scurried into nearby mesquite patches. Three military Humvees painted in desert camouflage appeared rounding a dirt road curve by a small hill. The Humvees left the dirt road and continued driving into a canyon among the desert foothills. Even the dust clouds were not visible above the canyon’s edges. The Humvees stopped in a row near a rock ledge.

Four men exited the first vehicle and another four men exited the third vehicle. The eight men surrounded the second vehicle with assault rifles pointed at it. The men were clad in desert camouflage uniforms, but there were no United States flags, names, nor any military insignia. Their faces were painted with camouflage. Even the assault rifles were painted in desert camouflage patterns. Two uniformed men exited the front seats of the second vehicle and pointed their assault rifles at the rear passenger door.

A single uniformed man exited the rear door, pointing a pistol into the vehicle as he stepped out. He reached in with one hand and grabbed a man wearing civilian clothes with a cloth bag tied over his head. His hands were bound together behind him with plastic zip ties. As the uniformed man pulled the man out the door, another uniformed man pushed the civilian out the door from the other side with one hand while keeping a pistol trained on the man with his other hand.

The civilian fell to one knee, but was quickly jerked back to his feet by the two uniformed men holding on to him. A red stain began to mark the tear in a new hole in the knee of the man’s slacks. Dust was already beginning to stick to his well-polished shoes. One of the uniformed men untied the cloth bag and yanked it off the man’s head. The man squinted in the sunlight as three of the men covered each Humvee with camouflage netting. The two men with pistols held his arms.

“Where are we?” the man asked.

One of the uniformed men struck him in the belly with the butt of his rifle, doubling him over. The men stepped aside to let one of their ranks through.

He walked up to the civilian and said, “We’ll ask the questions, Mr. Benjamin Grazer. And you will cooperate, answer our questions, and obey all orders like a good little boy, right?”

Grazer nodded.

“You aren’t really from the military, are you?”

The man hit him in the face with the back of his hand, causing his knees to buckle, and the two men holding his arms yanked him back to his feet again.

“We’re asking the questions and you are giving the answers, remember?”

Grazer spat some blood on the ground and said, “Yes, sir.”

The leader moved his face very close to Grazer’s. His icy blue eyes shined intensely through the camouflage makeup. He removed a small, rectangular object from his shirt pocket. It looked like a smart phone with a touch screen.

“We are very interested in this device you have made. You are going to demonstrate for us how it works.”

Grazer asked, “I am?” Then the leader raised his hand to strike him again, and Grazer quickly added, “I mean, yes, I am. What will be the subject?”

The leader turned and looked a short distance away.

“How about that boulder over there?”

A uniformed man cut the zip ties from Grazer’s wrists.

As he rubbed his wrists, Grazer asked, “You know there may be other rocks in the area made from the same mineral?”

“Yes,” the leader answered, “but only a few. And by the way, each rifle here is made by a different manufacturer out of a different grade of steel, so don’t try anything. Here.”

The leader handed the device to Grazer. The uniformed men moved into a half circle behind Grazer, all with weapons pointed at him. He took the device and touched the screen. An image of the surrounding area appeared with green outlines of every object and person and there were two colored soft-buttons at the bottom of the screen, a large green button and a smaller red button.

“Slowly,” the leader ordered.

Grazer very slowly touched the outline of the boulder on the screen and it began flashing. Several other rocks in the area also began flashing and the green button turned brighter.

“May I proceed?”

“Proceed.”

Grazer touched the green button. The boulder and other rocks began to vibrate. Some of the uniformed men looked apprehensive, but the leader smiled. His blue eyes and white teeth stood out from the camouflage. The boulder and rocks vibrated harder and harder, then all of them disintegrated into dust. Some of the men were so surprised that they lowered their guns.

The leader barked, “Steady!” and they raised their weapons again toward Grazer.

“I would call that a successful test, Grazer,” the leader said.

“Thank you,” Grazer said blandly.

“Now hand me the Tesla death ray.”

Grazer moved the device slightly away from the leader and said, “It’s not a death ray, it’s a frequency interrupter.”

“I don’t care what it’s called; it’s a very valuable weapon. Now give it to me. Keep your weapons trained on him, men. If he attacks any of us, kill him.” The leader’s icy blue eyes stared into Grazer’s eyes, unblinking, as he extended his hand.

Grazer slowly started extending the device toward the leader. “It is not for killing people, it’s for destroying weapons.”

“Yes, but it can destroy people also, can’t it?”

Grazer pushed the small red button on the screen. “Not anymore, it can’t.”

The leader snatched the device from Grazer’s hand and looked anxiously at the screen, which flashed the words “MALFUNCTION: OVERLOAD.” Smoke began emitting from the sides of the device and it began melting. The leader dropped it and watched it fizz and crackle on the ground.

“What did you do, Grazer?”

“It must have malfunctioned. Probably overloaded the circuits. This is very new technology, as you know.”

Glaring into Grazer’s eyes, the leader gave a signal and one of the other men hit Grazer on the side of his head with his rifle butt and he fell to the ground unconscious.

“Take him to the bunker,” the leader ordered.

 

Benjamin Grazer woke up on the floor of a small cement room. The only light was from a single bulb hanging from the ceiling several feet above him. It was cool and he was shivering slightly. He rose stiffly, and looked around. A few small cameras pointed at him from the ceiling’s corners. There was a table in the middle of the room with several boxes of electronic parts. Next to them were some electronics tools and three devices that looked similar to the frequency interrupter he had demonstrated. An aluminum chair sat next to the table, too light to be used as a bludgeon. In one corner, there was a plastic bucket. The door was made of bare steel, with no door handle or lock visible.

Suddenly the door opened and two of the camouflaged men pointed assault rifles into the room from the edges of the door frame. The leader entered the room. “You will re-create your device for us.”

“I created that device for the United States military as a non-lethal weapon.”

“We know that, Mr. Grazer. That’s why we captured you and took your device. Now that it is no longer functioning, you will re-create the device for us.”

“I won’t.”

The leader stepped back and nodded toward the doorway. Another uniformed man stepped between the two with rifles and entered the room. He delivered a rapid combination of kicks and punches to Grazer that were very precise and painful. He collapsed to the floor.

“Oh yes, you will,” the leader said. He pointed to the table. “You should recognize these parts.”

Grazer slowly rose to his feet and looked again at the items on the table. “The boxes,” he inhaled sharply, “are from my lab, but what are the three devices?”

“We have reviewed your notes and tried to duplicate your device. You seem to have cleverly kept some key information in your head.” He smiled at Grazer, who looked at the floor. “We think we got close enough that you could re-create the device using these similar devices we built and the parts from your lab. You have two days.”

“Only two days?”

“That’s right, Grazer. We’ll give you adequate food and water and there’s a bucket in the corner for your other needs.”

A uniformed man entered the room with a sandwich on a paper towel and a water bottle with the cap removed, set them on the table, and exited, followed by the fighter and the leader, who closed the door behind him. Grazer looked at the cameras, wiped some blood from the corner of his mouth, and sat down. He looked at the sandwich, took a sip of water, and began looking into the boxes. He picked up each of the devices, turned them on and off, studied them, and set them down. Finally, he picked up the sandwich and took a bite. He chewed it and swallowed, but set the sandwich back down. He grabbed a screwdriver and began opening the first device.

After a long while, Grazer had parts organized on the table, with the boxes on the floor. The sandwich was gone and the water bottle sat empty next to the boxes. All three devices lay on the table opened with wires and inner parts exposed. He tweaked a part and began inserting it into one of the devices.

“Looks like you’re working hard.” The leader’s voice startled Grazer, who looked around. No one was there. He looked toward the cameras.

“How long has it been?”

The answer echoed from above, “It’s hard to tell, isn’t it? No sun, moon or stars to see. Hard to tell if it’s been 3 hours or 8, right? Keep working.”

Grazer looked at the device again and grabbed a pair of needle nosed pliers. A panel he had not noticed in the door slid inward with another sandwich and water bottle. He rose and took them and the panel slid back, becoming a nearly seamless part of the door. He took a few bites and went back to work. Soon, he closed up the first device. He pressed a button and it turned on, displaying the walls, door, and every object in the room, with a green outline. He touched the outline of the door and it flashed green. He turned off the device and picked up the second device.

Later, Grazer woke up with his face resting on the table. He wiped drool from his cheek and looked around. The first device was missing. The second device, partially re-assembled, was still in his hand.

“Hello? Is anyone there?” he asked toward the ceiling.

Several seconds later, the leader’s voice answered, “Hello, Grazer, have a nice nap?”

“Wonderful,” he answered, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Where’s the first device?”

“We saw that you reassembled it, so when you fell asleep we took it for testing. You may be disappointed to hear that it doesn’t work.”

“The targeting is working. I wasn’t finished with it yet.”

“Targeting is a start, but you need to have fully functional devices. You’re running out of time.”

“How much time do I have?”

“Not much. Keep working.”

“May I have the first device back?” No reply came. “Hello? Hello?” Nothing. “Please?” There was silence.

He returned to working on the second device, modifying another part and inserting it, then began to close it. He turned it on and tested the targeting screen again, then turned it off as he did with the first. As he began working on the third device, the secret door panel slid open with another sandwich, another water bottle, and the first device.

“Thank you,” he said toward the ceiling. There was no reply.

He continued working on the third device. In about another hour, he closed up the third device and tested it. Like the first two, the third device’s targeting abilities were now functional.

Grazer looked up at the ceiling again and said, “I will need a computer and connecting cables to program these devices.” He waited about a minute, then said, “Hello? If you want these devices functional, it will require programming that must be done from a computer.”

Finally, an answer was heard, “What kind of computer?”

“A simple laptop will work.”

“It will be provided.” A few minutes later, the secret door panel opened again and he took a laptop and three connecting cables out of it. He placed it on the table, opened it, and turned it on. He checked a few settings.

“What, no Internet access?”

“We aren’t stupid, and we doubt you will need it to program the devices.” He chuckled at the response.

He quickly checked the laptop’s software. He found and disabled a key logger. He disabled AutoSave features. He found a wireless connection to another device and disabled it. He connected all three devices to the laptop, shook the crumbs off his last paper towel and placed it over the keyboard. He tilted the screen downward away from the cameras. Then he placed his hands under the paper towel and typed as fast as possible.

“Benjamin Grazer, what are you doing?”

He kept typing. “Programming these devices, like you wanted me to do.”

“Why are you preventing us from seeing what you’re doing?”

He kept typing, gaining speed a little. “This is proprietary information, you know.”

“Not anymore, Grazer. Uncover the keyboard and tilt the screen up.”

He grabbed the paper towel with his left hand, but pressed Enter with his right hand before removing the towel. Then he tilted the screen back up so that it was visible to the cameras. “Like this?”

“Thank you, Grazer. You may continue.”

He kept typing into the laptop for a few minutes, then looked at the ceiling. “May I have another sandwich and a drink?” There was no reply. “This is going to take a while longer. It would help me to concentrate.” Again, there was just silence. Grazer returned to typing.

The door panel slid open with a sandwich and a water bottle. However, there was no paper towel with this sandwich. Grazer chuckled briefly. He picked up the food and water, sat back down, and started eating with one hand while continuing to type with the other. The screens of the three devices turned on. He shoved the last sandwich bite into his mouth and took a long drink of water.

The device screens each showed the room he was in as well as a little of the area outside the door. He saw two guards with rifles and handguns outside the room. He targeted a camera on the first device’s screen and the other cameras flashed. He pressed the green button. As the cameras began shaking, he unplugged the devices, targeted the laptop and pressed the green button. The cameras disintegrated and the laptop began to shake.

On the first device’s screen, he touched one of the rifles and it flashed, but the other rifle did not flash. On the second device’s screen, he touched the other rifle. On the third device’s screen, he touched one of the handguns and the other handgun began to flash. He smiled. Meanwhile, the laptop finished disintegrating.

The voice from the ceiling said, “What are you doing, Grazer?”

He pushed the green buttons on each device as quickly as possible. The rifles vibrated heavily in the surprised guards’ hands and their handguns vibrated in their holsters, then all of them disintegrated, the bullets and plastic grips falling to the floor. Grazer quickly targeted the bullets and the gunpowder inside the bullets with one device and all of the gunpowder in every bullet flashed green.

An alarm began to sound. With the second device, he targeted the door. With the third device, he targeted the men’s belts. He pressed the buttons on the second and third devices. The door shook and disintegrated as the guards’ pants fell to the ground. Grazer took the three devices and cautiously looked out the doorway. There was a long hallway sloping upwards away from the guards, who tripped over their pants as they tried to walk toward him. He dodged around them, grabbed one of the bullets, and ran up the hallway.

Grazer stopped near the end of the hallway. He checked the devices and saw that there were several armed men in a room around the corner, and there was another doorway past them. He made sure he still had the gunpowder targeted and pressed the button. The armed men’s guns began to vibrate lightly, but they didn’t disintegrate. Grazer put one hand out past the corner and the men pulled their triggers. The bullet primers made “pip” and “pop” noises, but there was no gunpowder to explode, so no bullets were discharged from the weapons. He quietly whispered “Yes!” to himself.

He then targeted as many rifles and handguns as possible with the three devices and pressed the buttons. As those weapons began to vibrate, he targeted other weapons again and pressed the buttons. By the third time that he targeted weapons on the three devices and pushed the buttons, all of the weapons had either disintegrated or were shaking heavily. The men were confused, but still dangerous, due to their training, physical strength, and numbers. He targeted their clothing with one device, their boots and belts with the others. He stepped out from behind the corner.

One of the men barked an order, “Stop right there or we’ll kill you with our bare hands.”

Grazer, looking at his devices and back at the man, answered, “Do you want to see whether I can destroy human beings with these things?”

The men looked worried and several of them looked at others as though searching for an indication what they should do. Grazer searched the men’s faces, but the leader’s icy blue eyes were nowhere to be found. Grazer checked the screens again and saw two men walking toward him from behind out of the hallway, and saw that their clothing and boots were also flashing.

“I have you all targeted right now, including the two guards trying to sneak up behind me. Back away out that door or I will push these buttons!”

The two guards ran past him and fled out the door holding their pants up, letting sunlight glare in. A Humvee motor started outside, revved, and rocks and sand kicked up as it sped away. The remaining men looked at each other, then back at Grazer.

“I don’t see you backing out that door,” Grazer said. “I gave you all a fair chance, but I am sorry I have to do this.” He pressed the three buttons. The men’s clothing and boots began shaking violently, causing their bodies to twitch. They ran out the door and entered the remaining Humvees, with boots, belts, and clothing disappearing, and sped away.

Benjamin Grazer stepped cautiously out into the desert sunlight and found himself alone. He went back inside, grabbed a few bottles of water and a sandwich, then left the bunker on foot and began following the tire tracks across the desert. An hour later, he finally reached a paved highway as he finished the first water bottle. His feet overheated on the hot pavement as he walked along and sweat further stained his already filthy clothes. Finally, a car passed. He put out his thumb, but the vehicle did not stop. He targeted the tires on one of the devices, then turned it off and put it back in his pocket. He opened the next water bottle and kept walking.

Several miles down the highway, he stuck out his thumb for a beat up old pickup truck, which stopped. “Heading to the city?” the scruffy old driver asked. Grazer nodded. “I’m not going that far, but I can take you about halfway there.”

“Thank you,” Grazer said, and got in the truck. “May I borrow your cell phone?” he asked.

“Sure.” The old man handed him a cell phone. Grazer dialed into it and there was a ringing, but no answer. He dialed another number, heard more ringing, but no answer. “Nobody home?” the old man asked. Grazer shook his head and handed back the phone.

 

It was dark when Benjamin Grazer finally walked up the steps to his home. He found the door open, with the lock and door frame broken. As he stepped cautiously inside, he called out, “Honey? Brenda? Are you alright?” There was no answer. He walked through the house and into the kitchen, where the bodies of a woman and a teenage girl were laying in pools of blood. Grazer fell to his knees, sobbing.

Reviews

[Elegsabiff]

Ah, I was enjoying it until the family got murdered - I don't like a high and personal body count in books (real life supplies all too often) but that's just one personal opinion and your story had me firmly until then. My rating would have been higher without the last paragraph, but it looks commercially solid and a nice first read on this site.