CSI: American Carnage (Thursday, February 21, 2019)
There is a knock at the door of a nondescript room on the second floor of the Grande Elyria Inne. Little Timmy, pup reporter, looks over at the Professor with surprise. Sarah, Timmy’s friend from the resistance pot luck, says in a stage whisper, Don’t answer it. No one knows we are here. The Professor says, It could be agents from the Cyber, perhaps. Timmy says, We closed off the wormhole, professor. There’s no Cyber leakage at this stage – unless a new hole has been ripped in the fabric of reality. The Professor says, What is reality? Sarah says, Shh! They may hear us. The knock comes again, this time with more authority. The Professor says, I don’t think that’s maid service. Timmy says, They don’t have maid service. Sarah says, We could be dealing with foreign assets. The autocrat will use any assets he can. And what he doesn’t have at any given moment, he will simply take. Never forget: The autocrat has been running a criminal syndicate his entire life, a family affair passed down from generation to generation. They have linked up with other criminal syndicates and working kleptocracies that, essentially, span the globe. People in our solipsistic country believe the autocrat acts on his own; but in fact, he is part of a worldwide scheme that draws its rancid strength from every continent, with the possible exception of Antartica. Timmy says, In other words, Sarah, it could be anyone out there? Sarah says, Yes. The autocrat has packed the courts and decimated honest law enforcement, he’s cowed his ostensible opponents, he’s purged in plain sight all manner of agencies and offices, he’s surrounded himself with his corrupt family, he’s encouraged those around him to bring their family members in as well, and he’s ensured that everyone else is complicit in the on-going criminality. Who is there to protect the people? Who is willing to stand up? The knock on the door comes again. This time it is more like an incessant pounding than a knock. The Professor says, We have no choice. Timmy, open the door. Timmy, small of stature, nevertheless pulls himself up to his full height. He says, jauntily, It’s been great, Professor! He opens the door. A very tall maid pushing a grocery cart stands in the hallway looking down on him. A great cloud of garlic and onions fills the room. She says, Da! Eet is room service. She wheels her cart in, nearly knocking Timmy down, flops into a chair, and looks up at the astonished Professor and his small band of supporters. She breaks out in a great laugh. Ha ha ha! Eet ees me! Timmy says, Boris! Professor, it’s Boris! There are hugs all around. The Professor says, As good as it is to see you, we must ask where stout Mohammed may be. Boris instantly looks grim. Boris says, Mohammed has headed for the border area. He ees using tunnels and the holes of the worm we found in the Cyber. He say that eet ees important to have information directly from the source. The Professor says, He’s probably in Nogales by now. Should we let him continue or should we try and get him back? Sarah says, That country is largely empty, despite the autocrat’s claims. Boris, the genial triple agent, looks from one to the other. He says, Eet ees empty. Mohammed not believe. Sarah says, He is right. The border is teeming with the fantasies of the autocrat and his henchmen. Timmy says, Well?
— Thursday, Feb. 21, 2019