Tom Schreck - Out Cold

"It could have. You got a better explanation?"

"Holy shit, Karl. Is this really possible?" I shook my head.

"Now you know why I don't tell everyone the details."

"Maybe Karl, I just don't know. If it is happening, how come no one is doing anything to stop it?"

"Anyone who believes it is considered crazy," Karl said.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," I said. It became quiet between the two of us for a couple of moments.

"Duffy, you mind if I ask you something?"

"No, go ahead," I said.

"You think I'm crazy and you're worried you might be getting crazy if you follow what I'm saying aren't you?"

"Maybe a little."

"You still want to get involved?"

"Yeah."

"Why in hell do you want to do this with me?" I thought about it for a minute. I wasn't sure of the answer, but I had an idea.

Elvis sang If I Can Dream, a song about visualizing a better world where all types of people walk hand in hand. He reached the crescendo.

"A few reasons," I said.

"You want to share them with me?" Karl sat still and looked right at me.

I thought about it for a second before I said anything. I wasn't sure if I could get the words around what I felt, but I gave it a shot.

"I think it's something like this, Karl: One, I don't like people fucking with other people who can't defend themselves. Two, I don't like the fact somebody fucked with you." I hesitated.

"Is there something else, Duff?" Karl said.

"I don't like the fact three guys suckered me in the back of the head."

I may have gotten hit in the head too many times, but I had never spent a lot of time following my head anyways. Still, deciding to listen and believe Karl Greene told the truth was something else. I wasn't so confident about my own sanity, and now I teamed up with a guy who liked to wear a football helmet as his main sartorial statement.

Nuts or not, if we were going to foil world-changing terrorist events, I was going to make damn sure I did my homework. Despite how silly even thinking it sounded, I believed it. If you believe something hard enough it becomes true-at least to you.

It was time to talk to Kelley. He'd chew me out and tell me I was nuts, but he'd listen and tell me what he thought. We met during his lunch break at AJ's, which would mean me taking a long lunch at the clinic, but I figured I could call it a consultation with a community member. The Michelin Woman had her door closed, so got out without reliving her version of the Spanish Inquisition.

Only Jerry Number Two sat in AJ's at this early hour. He sat at the bar with his laptop, sipping a Cosmo.

"Hey Jerr, you look lonesome," I said.

"Nah, spending some quality online time with my D amp;D friends," Jerry said without taking his eyes off the screen.

"D and D?"

"Dungeons and Dragons. You know, role playing." I didn't really ever get what that was all about, but when your main hobby is getting punched in the face repeatedly youdon't spend a lot of time making fun of other people's pastimes. AJ stacked boxes. He stopped to slide me a Schlitz, without saying anything by way of greeting.

Kelley came in on cue and in uniform. He got a diet coke and ordered a burger.

"I don't got a ton of time, Duff," he said "How's your noggin'?"

"It's mostly all right."

"So what are we here about?"

"You're going to think I'm nuts."

"Too late. Let's hear it." He sipped his diet coke and ran his hand through his flat top.

"All right, you know Karl, my client from the clinic?"

"Yeah-he was in the other night."

"I told you how he's been making predictions about tragic events and terrorism."

"Yeah."

"It turns out its not just crazy paranoia stuff. He got a little fucked up in Iraq because he accidentally shot and killed a couple of little kids."

"That'll do it. What does that have to do with him being able to predict his or anybody else's future?"

"Well, his best buddy, a guy he enlisted with, finished out his tour and joined a private security force over there." I looked at Kelley to see if he listened and if he had any reaction. He listened, without reaction, so I kept on.

"When Karl got fucked up he tried to convince Karl to come join the private security firm and he told him there would always be work. Somehow Karl asked a bunch of questions and his buddy said he was guaranteed a lot of work for years to come whether there were any wars or not."

"Duffy, is there a point to this?" Kelley took a bite out of his burger and frowned. AJ's burgers often did that to people.

"According to Karl, he saw documentation about a plan for events inside the United States would keep people supporting the wars and the defense funding."

"A plan?"

"Yeah, a plan in which they would engineer and set up tragic terrorist-linked events."

"Who would?"

"This private security firm. They're called Blackgard."

"And you know this because the guy in the Redskins helmet said so."

"He wasn't always nuts; he knows what he's talking about," I said, just raising my voice a tad.

"Duff, this is Bigfoot stuff, it's Area 51, the Chupacabra. It's bullshit. Man, you really took a shot in the head."

"C'mon Kell, I'm not nuts-"

"Look Duff, you asked me, I told you. I think Karl's nuts and I think you're right behind him." He got up, wiped his mouth with the paper napkin, and left half a burger in front of him.

"Sorry, but I got to get back to work." He put his hat on and headed out.

I felt ridiculous. AJ gave me another beer. I started paying attention to ESPN when Jerry said something without looking up from his laptop.

"Northwoods," he said.

"What's that Jerr?"

"Northwoods, the name of a project the CIA proposed around the time of the Cuban missile crisis."

"And?"

"They proposed staging a fake invasion of the continental U.S. to make it look like the Cubans did it." Jerry finally looked away from the computer at me.

"Why would they do that?"

"So the American people would endorse the military bombing the shit out of Cuba."

"Why didn't they do it?"

"I don't know." Jerry looked away from me. "The point is they considered it."

"Jerry do you think it could happen-I mean, fun conspiracy stuff aside-is it really possible?"

Jerry took a hit off his Cosmo and smiled a little bit.

"In 70 B.C., a Roman named Crassus wanted to be in charge and take power from Spartacus. So he paid mercenaries to pose as Spartacus' troops and had them invade Rome. Spartacus showed up not knowing what the hell was going on, but before he could explain to anyone that they had been duped, Crassus had rallied the Roman troops and defeated the same mercenaries he, himself, hired." Jerry folded his hands in his lap and seemed very proud of his point.

"So you're saying he set up a situation where he could scare the citizens and then he could be a hero," I said.

"Exactly!"

"Don't take this the wrong way Jerr, but strategies from 70 B.C. really don't help my confidence level on this."

"Well, then, how about a nice Hitler story? Did you know Hitler had his soldiers dress in Polish uniforms and attack a radio station in Germany, no doubt to insure solid media coverage, and then used that attack as justification to invade Poland. From there you got the beginnings of World War II." Jerry raised his eyebrows and did the Groucho Marx thing.

I guess I just stared at Jerry, not saying anything.

"Ahh…but young Duffy is thinking, not here, not in good

'ol God Bless America." Jerry smiled.

"Well…"

"Far be it for me to ruin a young man's view of his homeland…"

"Go ahead," I said.

"A hundred years ago, William Randolph Hearst wanted the U.S. to invade Cuba. He sent a team of photographers there to take shots of the Cuba-Spain war. Except it wasn't really going on. Hearst had the photographers stage the pics, so it looked like war was raging and published them in his newspapers so people would get riled up."