ARC 1

IN THE BEGINNING . . . If you're going to plagiarize you might as well steal from someone who won't sue you and take something catchy!!

Before I do begin I have to tell you that this is all ----

BASED ON A TRUE STORY
As a transplant recipient, I have to go back periodically for a biopsy and/or blood work. The biopsy makes sure there are no signs of rejection, and the blood work monitors my med levels and other organ functions. The last time I was there, after the biopsy, I went to my doctor's office as usual. A tall man was there already, but I thought nothing of it. When I came out, he approached me.

"Glad to see you're doing OK Mr. O'Neill."
"Do I know you?"
"No, but I knew your donor and I'd like to talk to you if you have some time."
"Well, I've got a bus to catch, but . . . OK, lets, uh, lets talk."

We went to the cafeteria. He got a blueberry muffin and coffee and I had a danish and apple juice. We found a table a little removed from the other eaters.

"So, you knew my donor?"
"Yeah. He worked for me." With that he opened a wallet that he'd taken from an inside jacket pocket. Shiny badge and an ID card from Homeland Security. His picture, and the last name of Doyle.
"OK. Agent Doyle is it?"
"Just Doyle. OK if I call you Denny? It makes the conversation easier."
"Yeah sure. Whatever. How does this affect me? Did my donor die while on duty?"
"No. Nothing like that. Jimmy was shot in a random act. Wrong place at the wrong time sorta thing."
"Jimmy? His name was Jimmy?"
"Yeah. But let me back up a little. Do you know what Homeland Security does?"
"Well, I guess you're supposed to make sure nothing like 9/11 ever happens again."
"Right. You might say we're tasked to protect our resources as well, right?"
"OK."
"And these resources would include our food supplies and power sources. right?"
"Yeah."
"Good. So you'd agree that Homeland Security has the responsibility to protect our food and power supplies from being depleted or used by unwanted sources, right?"
"Yeah. But where's this going?"
"I'm getting to it. You see, Jimmy made a proposal about 6 or 8 months before he died. It addressed these points, but I wasn't too sure so I asked him to put it in writing. He did but I just filed it away. After he died, I remembered it. I took it out, sent it upstairs, and they've just OK'd a pilot program."
"OK. I'm happy for you and Jimmy, but what has this to do with me? I have a bus to catch."
"C'mon. I'll drive you home and fill you in on the way."

We went down to the garage, making small talk. It never occurred to me to offer him directions or give him my address. He does work for the government after all. When we pulled out of the garage, he started.

"Remember how I asked you about protecting our food and power supplies? Well, Jimmy's proposal addressed that. It specified a particular threat - illegal aliens. They are not contributing to our society and yet draining our resources."

I started to protest, but he interrupted.

"Hold on. Let me finish. I'm not going into any specifics, but the People Upstairs liked it and it was implemented on a trial basis a couple of months ago. They now want to look at an offshoot of the proposal. This is where you come in." He paused, unsure of how to continue.
"Go on . . how do I fit in?"
"Well, Jimmy's proposal also had a minor addition that we might potentially want to remove other non-productive types for using our resources. Read in here the elderly and/or disabled..."
"Wait a minute, I'm on disability...are you saying I'm to be removed?"
"No, no, no... that wouldn't be fair. We don't want to target a specific sub-type of the overall population. We want it to be random. Like Jimmy's death. That's where you come in. I liked Jimmy because he had heart, and now you have it. Jimmy's heart that is. Someone will be given the means to remove people, randomly, from the population. I'd like it to be you."
"You want me to remove people? You mean kill them?"
"Well, KILL is such a harsh word, but, . . yes . . kill them. This reduces the demand on our resources."
"You gotta be kidding me! What if I refuse? I could go to the cops, the press?"
"First of all, you wouldn't be believed. Secondly, we'd just wave around the Patriot Act and everything would disappear. And thirdly, someone's gonna do it. We wanted random eliminations, but we could always "suggest" a target or two. You do have family, don't you? A daughter?"
"You wouldn't!"
"Me? No, of course not. But I wouldn't be in charge then. I told them I'd only do this if you were the random element. It's like I'd still be working with Jimmy."
"I . .I. . I gotta think about this." I was stalling. I knew what he said was right. No one would believe me, they could hush it up easily, and my family was being threatened. He knew that I knew.
"If I say yes, what happens? You put me on the payroll or something?"
"Nope. Fraid not. You're on disability, after all. That's part of the beauty of this. We'll setup an account and for every lets call them random events - will deposit $1,000. You'll have access to it, of course. And we'll see that it goes to your heirs after you're gone."
"I don't have a car, so I'm limited to where I can travel."
"Again. Part of the plan. You can more accurately control the event. I can't really be more detailed until I know you're committed. What'dya say?"
"Maybe I outta be committed, but I don't see as I have much of a choice. I'm in."

We pulled up in front of my apartment.

"It goes without saying that you can't say anything to anybody. I have some paperwork to clear up, and some preliminary work to do. I'll be in touch in a day or two. When your phone rings, and the name on the screen is James, it's me. Pick it up."

With that, I got out of the car, and he drove away. I didn't think to look at the license plate. What the hell did I just do?