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Brady was fast asleep. He dreamed of being eaten and swallowed by sharks for what seemed like forever. He felt a light tapping on his shoulder, and he opened his eyes. He felt groggy as if he’d spent the whole night in battle.
‘Mr Mahone. I’ve made you coffee.’ Tyrone left the coffee on the bedside table. ‘I’ve already fed Billy Big Paws and taken him with me for a walk.’
‘Thanks Buddy. Call me, Brady. What time is it?’
‘It’s 5:30am. Venus is like a precious jewel in the eastern sky this morning.’ Tyrone added, ‘You said to wake you. I’ve got the keys to the Library on Seventh Street, but we must get going soon, as I start work at 7am.’ Brady flung back his covers and Tyrone shuffled shyly, ‘I’ll just go and put my telescope away.’
Brady drank his coffee, got changed quickly and went to meet Tyrone outside the tour bus. It was cold, but the sky was crystal clear. As they walked, Brady noticed that Tyrone scanned the skies continuously. At least he isn’t boring me by telling me what all the stars are called.
Tyrone watched the stars as he didn’t know how to talk to somebody like Brady. They walked for long minutes with just the sound of their sneakers softly squeaking across the ground. It was Brady who finally surrendered to the silence. ‘Boy, your Pops and his stories really got to me. I was having the weirdest dreams all night. I still can’t shake them.’
‘Yes. Uncle Sam will do that to you. He usually just repurposes old bible stories and fits them into a contemporary context. Which one did he tell you?’
‘Something about a man being swallowed by a Great White shark.’
Tyrone stated, ‘That will be Jonah and the Whale.’
‘I don’t know no bible passages, but he sure as hell woulda made one helluva preacher.’ Brady said this without any knowing sense of humour.
‘Actually, Uncle Sam comes from a long line of preachers.’ Tyrone withdrew his gaze from the skies as he assessed that Brady wasn’t as threatening as he first feared. ‘He would dearly love for Alicia to continue in his footsteps, but she can’t weave a tale like he can. Sure, he encourages her, but Alicia relays a tale more like a reporter giving the facts from a crime scene, rather than with the fire and brimstone treatment style of my dear Uncle.’
Brady thought about this, and remembered her story about rock climbing, and agreed. She may as well have been talking about a roller coaster ride at Disney World - if that was still a thing. ‘And what about you? Have you got a thing for preachin’ the gospel?’
‘No. I’m into science and astronomy. I like to see concrete evidence and judge things on their merits.’
Brady tested him, the thought of Alicia’s apparent interrogation of him still niggled him. ‘And what do your concrete observations make of me, Brady Mahone.’
Tyrone thought carefully. Brady didn’t scare him physically, he was protected from everything, but he had the self-awareness to know that he was sensitive to criticism and didn’t handle conflict with any degree of confidence. ‘I think you found yourself in an exceptionally complex situation, and you are just doing your best to take each day as it comes.’
Brady nodded. He liked this answer. He said, ‘You say your Uncle came from a long line of preachers?’
Before Tyrone answered, he spotted Brady’s FusionCar™, ‘Is that your vehicle over there?’
‘Yes.’
‘I just thought we should drive it over to the Library and park up outside. There are quite a few boxes to carry.’
‘Good idea.’ Brady changed course and headed to the Hearse. He drove them quickly over the short journey and parked up. He laughed at the thought that he was illegally parked if this was back in the old days.
Tyrone pulled out the keys and opened up the Library. He said, ‘Follow me, the stock you are looking for is located in the basement. I’ve brought a torch.’
Brady pulled out a larger torch from his Poacher’s coat of many pockets. ‘Never leave home without one.’ He joked.
Brady searched the racking for anything useful, but they were full of old books. However, he decided that the racking itself could be of use to one of his many processing sites. I’d have to ditch the books and come back for the racking later. I wouldn’t want to offend the young scientist’s delicate sensibilities.
Tyrone went ahead and quickly located the boxes of old Blank Black Files. ‘Here you are. There are more than I thought. Look, they are double stacked. There are approximately twenty-three thousand, not the eleven thousand from my first estimate.’
‘Fucking ace! High-five me, baby.’ Tyrone high-fived the big man with a mixture of relief and the pride of a job well done. Brady said, ‘Why have they got so much of these here, do ya think?’
‘Before the Internet Crash of 2050, we, I mean, the GreenRevs were putting enormous amounts of useful and authorised data onto Blank Files from the Web. They used selected local libraries from around the world to do this for them. The money from Sattva Systems™ kept them solvent. Of course, the libraries did all the work, they made a lot of money, but then went broke in the later crash, after all.’
Brady laughed, ‘And you people think I’m the big criminal around here. I gotta hand it to them, there’s been some clever shit going on. Still, their loss is Brady Mahone Enterprise’s gain.’ He slapped Tyrone across the shoulders. ‘Good man. Now give us a hand with these and then I’ll drive you to your work.’
They moved the boxes into the back of Brady’s Hearse, and Tyrone noticed how Brady packed the boxes away while leaving plenty of room for more ill-gotten gains to come - but he wasn’t going to ask him what this might be. He was content enough to be in the good books of Brady Mahone. Brady left his torch on the counter near the checking out area. Brady went to the car while Tyrone locked the building behind him. I don’t know why he’s bothering to do that. It’s all going to be decomposed in a matter of months. Brady waited until Tyrone was settled back in the car, and then he said, ‘Damn. I’ve left my torch in the Library.’
Tyrone said, ‘Whereabouts? I’ll find it.’
‘No. I’ll quickly retrace my footsteps, and I’ll get it in no time. Can I borrow the keys for a minute?’ Tyrone looked at him, nervously, but Brady added, ‘I wouldn’t want to make you late for work - not after all you’ve done for me.’ Tyrone took out the keys and handed them over to Brady. ‘Thanks, man. I won’t be long.’ Brady headed over to the Library. He picked up his torch and a piece of an old duster which he cut up with a nearby pair of scissors. He looked at the office scissors. These could be useful. And shoved these inside a pocket. As he left, he stuffed the material inside the lock-catch and then made a show of locking up after him. He held up the torch, triumphantly.
As he got back in the car, he changed the subject to stop Tyrone thinking over the events. ‘You were saying about a long line of preachers in your family.’ Brady sped away at a much higher speed than was necessary and smiled at the concern showing on Tyrone’s face.
Tyrone stuttered, ‘Yes. Samuel Beardon the First used to preach about the evils inherent on the Internet. He then met the Industrialist John Kane, and John Kane backed him financially, because he loathed the Tech Giants in Silicon Valley, as it was known back then. Have you heard of him?’
‘Who?’
‘John Kane?’
‘No.’ Brady lied.
Tyrone wasn’t surprised, Brady hadn’t even heard of Jonah and the Whale. ‘Anyway, John arranged for all of Samuel the First’s sermons to be filmed and shown on the Internet.’ Tyrone laughed at the irony of this situation, but Brady smiled, politely. ‘Sadly, Samuel the first died young, along with his wife. A car accident.’
‘I’m sorry to hear that.’
‘Samuel the Second was only a child, but John Kane, in his benevolence, took him into his personal care. He paid for his schooling, all the way to his Doctorate in the Effects of Climate Change on the Environment. Samuel the Second travelled the globe, preaching on the need to turn away from the Satans of Industry, and that if they formed communities to demonstrate the new way of Green Living, then they would be the beacons for others to follow.’ Tyrone said proudly, ‘With the backing of John Kane, my Great Uncle helped set up the Green Communities across the planet.’
Brady was deep in thought. He then asked, ‘What happened next?’
‘That’s a bit of a mystery. Firstly, John Kane disappeared, and secondly, Samuel the Second fell out with John Kane’s son and heir, Xavier Kane. Not long afterwards, Samuel Beardon the Second was charged with the disappearance of John Kane. He died in prison before he had a chance to clear his name. He was stabbed to death by a radical Green activist, who got it into his head that Samuel Beardon the Second was going to betray the Green movement.’ Tyrone shook his head.
Again, Brady lied, when he asked, ‘Who’s he - this Xavier?’
‘Xavier Kane is Bodhi Sattva.’ He added, ‘He had been friends with Samuel the Second. He wanted to bring Uncle Sam, sorry, Samuel Beardon the Third, into the inner sanctum of Sattva Systems™, as he had always been a close associate to the family, but Uncle Sam thought it wise not to follow the footsteps of his Father and Grandfather, so he said that he would always be loyal to the Kane family, and he would happily toil with his fellow Green workers, but he would prefer to follow the Lord on another path laid out before him.’