Famine

Chapter Thirteen

At three in the morning, unseen thugs hit Jonah in the back of the head while he slept.  They did not injure him, but it disoriented him enough to prevent effective resistance.  They shoved a bag over his head while he was still dazed and dragged him to a car.  But the car didn't kick up dust on take-off.  Jonah's abductors answered to no one, not even to law enforcement.  No one spoke during the next few minutes, not that Jonah wanted to make small talk.  By the time Jonah had recovered from his rough treatment, he paid attention to their every move and slight noise.  From the sound of the squeeky metal doors opening ahead of him, the jackboots stirring the loose, grainy concrete as they dragged him down a long, and last more metal banging closed behind him, he estimated at least four of them.  Then they threw him on the floor and shuffled away.  Banged up a bit but not really injured, Jonah sat up and pulled off his unwelcome headgear.  A lot of good his perceptive powers were under duress, he was still where they wanted him.

   Why?   Jonah wondered.  Police would have done that new thing for him that  he had heard of not long before he came down with cancer: read him his Miranda Rights.  But then he thought of Sam Hydenwright.  He must have had a trial in the technical sense. If Jonah was under arrest in the traditional sense, he'd bet his next lecture fee he was already guilty.  Jonah looked for his wristwatch.  They took it.  He might have determined time in another way, but that would have required daylight.  Not knowing how much time was passing would make him a basket case in a day or so, especially if no open window allowed him at least the sense of a passing day.

   If they could keep him vulnerable in such a simple way, he wondered what other mental ordeals he would suffer before he confessed to anything they wanted.  Jonah started counting to sixty over and over.  He marked the passing of four more hours more or less. He concluded that his room was not a cell but large, judging by the echoes when he walked.

   Jonah determined that another hour passed when an overhead spotlight flashed in his eyes.  There about twenty feet away stood four dark, silent figures seated behind a long, black table.  The whole room had been painted flat black to spotlight what they wanted Jonah to see at any given time.  If it was not illuminated, Jonah would not see it.  That's the way they wanted it.

   Then a light over the central figure came on.  There sat Dr. Boron in his Inquisitor's robe.  As yet he could not make out who the others were even if he knew them.   Dr. Boron began.

   "Jonah Mark, this is not a criminal hearing but a meeting on the Committee on Social-Environmental Ecology.  We are here strictly in the interest of our enlightened society.  We heed to preserve its purity of thought."  He looked at the others and back to Jonah.  "There is no need to bring you to trial to effect your cryoni exile."

   Jonah shuddered.

   "We don't have to find you guilty in the legal sense to find you a social-political undesirable because this is a health issue.  If we find you accountable, you will be sujbected to pubic humiliation before your peers in the Circus.  There you will be given one last opportunity to recant your religius beliefs if we determine you possess them.  If our inquiry goes that far, I strongly urge you to reconsider in favor of recantation well before you get there.  You yourself know it isn't pretty."

   Jonah suppressed his feelings on seeing Sam kneeling to pray, strong but humble.

   Dr. Boron's tone changed.  "We have appointed an Advocate, not a defense attorney, on your behalf.  Another overhead light revealed Rene, who didn't speak or smile but remained stoic. 

   "Jonah Mark, for some months you have been found exhibiting behavior consistent with that of a practicing Christian.  This will mean exile if you are found accountable before the committee."  Dr.Boron looked to his left and waved his hand.  A light illuminated his nearby colleague.  Everyone's words, including Jonah's,  flashed on the wall behind Dr. Boron as they spoke.  Now it was the next inquisitor's turn.