Public Enemy Zero

50

Baylor was watching the unfolding drama of the helicopter hooked to Mitchell’s boat with a sense of dread. Reporters were trying to track down the helicopter’s owners. A quick search on the FAA website revealed the numbers on the tail were fake.

His phone rang with an unfamiliar number. “Hello?”

“It’s Lewis. We have a problem.”

“Please tell me you have nothing to do with that helicopter. Where are you?” said Baylor.

“I got picked up out of the water by a fisherman. I’m going to fix the problem. I need to know if the package is expendable.”

Baylor looked at the news chopper footage of the helicopter hovering over the boat as it raced down the Intracoastal. If the pilot made it away somehow, it wasn’t likely he would get very far. Although Baylor’s hire wouldn’t point directly back to him, the man was going to be in a position where he was likely to tell them everything he knew, which included Mr. Lewis and the package that was left on the helicopter.

“The package is expendable. After that, we need to salt the earth. I mean, you need to.”

“I understand,” said Mr. Lewis.

Mr. Travis was thinking about getting on his VHF radio and asking Marine Patrol why they hadn’t stopped Mitchell’s boat and cut him free. Maybe if he acted petulant enough, he could get away and find a place to bail out near a crowded area.

He could hear his phone ring through the connection to his headset. He answered.

“Mr. Travis, this is Mr. Lewis. It seems we have a problem.”

“God damn we have a problem! I was just supposed to be a taxi.” He looked out the window as almost the entire South Florida nautical and aviation law enforcement fleet gathered around his helicopter and the boat below.

“I left something on board in my bag that can probably help you. It’s an incendiary device. I’ll tell you how to activate it. When you drop it onto Roberts’ boat, it should cause a large enough fire to burn the rope. Once you do that and bail out in a safe place, I’ll call you to help you relocate.”

Mitchell was in the middle of explaining the new conditions for his surrender when the sound of the helicopter behind him changed pitch. He looked over his shoulder and saw the helicopter heading straight at him. The spinning blades were at eye level and starting to pass over the back of the stern.

Mitch jerked the wheel to the right and threw himself to the floor. He felt a jet of air push down on him as the rotors came inches away from the top of the deck. The helicopter skids scraped the left side of the boat before the helicopter nosedived into the water. Mitchell cowered as far down as he could when the tail rotor passed overhead and ripped apart the seat he’d been sitting on just moments before.

Mitch stood up to look at the wreckage and then heard a huge crack and was thrown forward with a jerk. He ducked back down and then realized that was the sound of the anchor rope tearing the anchor cleat from the stern.

He looked at the wreckage behind him. He could see a rage-filled face with bloodshot eyes pounding his fists and face against the glass cockpit bubble. How could the man even smell him? Mitchell was confused. He had no idea how it was possible the man in the chopper could have gotten his scent through the downdraft.

Off to his right, a Marine Patrol boat was pulling alongside him. A man on a bullhorn shouted at him to shut down his engine. Mitch picked the radio microphone he’d dropped when he heard the helicopter coming at him.

“I’ve already told you to keep your distance! No boats! No more god damn helicopters!”

A voice came over the emergency channel. “Mr. Roberts, if you stop your boat, we can negotiate.”

Mitch looked at the two Marine Patrol boats on either side of him trying to keep him boxed in.

“I don’t see any kind of protective gear on anyone around me. Didn’t you guys learn anything today?”

“We’ll pull the boats back if you slow down,” said the voice.

“Every time I slow down, people try to kill me. I’ve told you what I need, for your sake and mine.”

“We’re considering it.”

Mitchell knew it was a waiting game. Sooner or later they’d try to use a high-powered rifle to take out the engine or just wait for him to run out of gas. After that, he’d be metaphorically and possibly literally dead in the water.

He needed something to bargain with. He could threaten to kill himself, but he wasn’t sure if they’d take him seriously having realized he’d had an escape plan the last time he said he would do that. Mitchell thought about that for a moment. He was still an unpredictable element to them. There was something to creating a bluff that they’d be afraid to call him on.

He also knew that he had the public watching what was happening. Mitch looked down and saw one of the spent flare guns. He picked it up and slid it into the zipper of his diving suit.

“Let me ask you a question. Do you believe me now that there is something medically going on with me that’s making people attack me?” he asked into the microphone.

“We don’t know what to believe. If you stop your vessel, we can talk about it.”

“That’s not a helpful answer. I’ve already told you what I need in order for me to stop this boat.” Mitchell looked up to his left and saw the orange and white colors of a Coast Guard helicopter. He remembered how they’d stop go-fast boats like his.

“If anybody else shoots at me today…”

The voice interrupted. “Nobody has shot at you today.”

“Did I imagine gunfire on the bridge? Is this bullet hole in my suit a hallucination?”

“The bridge was unfortunate.”

Mitchell was shocked at how hard it was to get through to these people. “Yes. It was unfortunate. Unfortunate because it was your fault.”

“We’re going to handle things differently. Please power down your vessel.”

“Here’s what I’m going to do. If you do the simple thing I asked for, which quite honestly is not asking for much and is just as much for your safety as mine, then you will have my surrender when I think it’s safe.” Mitch held up the flare gun. “If you guys insist on handling this wrong and doing something like trying to shoot my engine or me on live television, I’m going to straddle the gas tank on this boat and shoot a flare into the leak the helicopter made.”

“Mr. Roberts,” the voice interrupted.

“I’m not finished! Here’s the best part. That explosion is going to send me into a billion tiny little parts all over the Intracoastal. Maybe nothing will happen, maybe everyone around for a hundred miles will get to breathe in a little Mad Mitch.

“Maybe I’m not the suicidal type like the last guy said, but I know I’d rather go out by my hand than yours. I’ve told you what I want.”

There was a long pause. Finally, the voice came back on. “All right Mr. Roberts. Just let us have your assurance that you won’t try to hurt anyone.”

“I’m not the one who needs to make that promise. But I will. I’ve acted as open and ethically as I could. I beg of you to do the same.”

“Agreed.”

The Naked Man in the Forest was in a different place. He didn’t know where to look for the face of the Earth Mother. The trees and the plants were different. This wasn’t his familiar spot. Of course it was all part of the Earth Mother. He just needed to be able to see that.

He dropped a half tab of the blotter and waited.

He jerked his head to the side when something scurried through the brush. He hoped it was Earth Mother. Instead, it was just an armadillo. Just an armadillo? He felt shame for denigrating one of her creatures. It was a thing of light, not a thing of dark like him.

The Naked Man in the Forest scratched a huge welt into his leg for thinking that he was special. He looked down at the red mass of his testicles and penis. Hadn’t he learned his lesson already from the poison ivy? This time it was going to be worse. He’d failed the Earth Mother. For the first time, he feared her eggs may be in danger.

He had come far away from them and wasn’t able to protect them. All because of that damn man. That horrible man shrouded in darkness. Because of him he was sure the Earth Mother was going to make him pay.

Wind blew through the clearing and the Naked Man felt a cold breeze on his back. She was here. But she wasn’t showing herself. This was bad.

“Earth Mother,” he pleaded. “I’ll do anything you ask. Anything.”

I know, my child.

Her voice was sweet. He began to turn his head to look behind him where the voice came from.

Do not turn around!

The words came out like thunder claps. The Naked Man in the Forest froze.

The eggs. Protect my eggs.

Her voice was sweet again.

“Why can’t I see you right now, Earth Mother?” He began to wail.

I don’t want you to see how angry I am right now. I don’t want you to see my face and forget that I ever loved you.

Loved?

“What can I do, Earth Mother?”

Are my eggs ready?

“Yes, Earth Mother. They’ve been ready.”

Then go to them. Stop this man if you can. But go to my eggs. I may have you bring them to him.

“Bring them to this man? I don’t understand.”

The entire forest shook with her fury. Tree limbs snapped and a cold wind stirred up a tornado of dead leaves.

DON’T QUESTION WHAT I ASK OF YOU!

The Naked Man in the Forest buried his face in his hands.

When you came to me, you were lost. You were confused about the things you did. You didn’t understand what was light and what was dark. Who showed you?

“You did, Earth Mother,” he whimpered.

Who told you what to say? Who told you what to do? Who told you about my eggs?

“You, Earth Mother. Everything I owe to you.”

Then if I tell you to bring my eggs to this man, then that is what you will do.

“Yes, Earth Mother. Yes.”

He felt her presence leave the clearing. He sat alone, naked. “Loved,” she had said. She said she had loved him, as in the past tense. All because of this horrible man.

He put on the Otherself’s clothes. He would do what she asked. He’d try to bring the eggs to this man. But she hadn’t said anything about trying to stop him before then.

She would love him again. She would love him when she saw that the eggs were his responsibility. That he, The Naked Man in the Forest, not the horrible man or his Otherself, was the one to see to it they were hatched.

He heard a twig snap behind him as he put one leg into the Otherself’s pants. He turned his head and saw an athletic man with cutoff shorts and a tank top whistling at him. The Naked Man in the Forest froze. He’d never been seen changing back into the Otherself.

“You don’t waste time. I like that.”

The Naked Man in the Forest tried to focus on the man’s face, but the acid was making his goatee stretch and distort into a beard. He just smiled back.

The man walked toward him. “So what’s your thing?”

The Naked Man in the Forest looked around the clearing. “Over here.” He pointed to a log. “Sit here and watch.”

The man sat down on the log and looked up at him. “All right. Now what?”

“Close your eyes.”

The man looked up at him skeptically.

“Just close your eyes. Let me get something out of my wallet.”

The man closed his eyes. The Naked Man in Forest leaned down to his pants and grabbed a large rock.

“This better not get…”

The man’s words were cut off when he was struck in the temple. He struggled to get up but The Naked Man in the Forest hit him again and again until his skull cracked open and blood poured to the ground.

For a moment, the man’s face changed into the face of the hunted man on the television but The Naked Man in the Forest knew that was just wishful thinking.