CHAPTER 6 – AN UGLY BEAST REARS ITS HEAD
01:50 (Washington Time)
Monday, June 10, 1985 ‘C’
326 South Grove Street, Aurora Hills
Arlington, Virginia, U.S.A.
Ingrid was deeply asleep when vigorous shakes and a tiny voice woke her up.
‘’MOMMY! MOMMY! WAKE UP! QUICK!’’
Still groggy, she turned around in her bed to face her daughter Nancy, who had been sleeping beside her, as she did every night.
‘’Uh? What is it, Nancy?’’
Even in the dark, Ingrid could see the deadly worry on Nancy’s face has she shouted her response.
‘’THERE ARE BAD MEN AROUND THE WILSONS’ HOUSE! WE NEED TO HELP THE WILSONS!’’
That answer finished waking up Ingrid in a hurry, as she understood in a flash what could be happening now. Aurora Hills was a fairly affluent district of the city of Arlington, which also happened to be within the state of Virginia. Unfortunately, Virginia, an ex-member state of the Confederacy, still harbored plenty of racists and white supremacists and, despite all the federal laws passed and efforts at promoting racial equality, a strong undercurrent of racism still existed in Virginia. Carolyn Loomis had told Ingrid that, when the Wilsons had moved in after buying the Rodmans’ house next door to that of Ingrid, a number of other neighbors and residents of Aurora Hills had looked at that with reprobation, with some even protesting it loudly, as they believed that black people had no business living in their district. Even recently, Ingrid herself had seen and heard such racist attitudes and comments about the Wilsons, to which she had replied rather bluntly to the persons concerned, getting in response more than a few times the epithet of ‘nigger lover’.
Waking up in a hurry, Ingrid jumped out of bed and ran to her nearest window, which gave her a view of the street and of the neighboring houses. Looking in the direction of the Wilsons’ house, located to the right of her own house, Ingrid felt both dread and rage when she saw that two pickup trucks and one car had stopped in front of the Wilsons’ property, with at least seven men having then come out of them. She could see that at least three of them were armed with either shotguns or rifles but what truly worried her was when she saw that three of the other men were splashing liquid from jerrycans on the external walls of the house.
‘’Shit! Those bastards came to burn down the Wilsons’ house, with the Wilsons sleeping inside. Nancy, you stay here and you don’t move from the bedroom under any pretext: those men are armed and would be dangerous for you.’’
Ingrid, who had been sleeping in the nude as per her usual custom, quickly slipped a long T-shirt down her head, then opened the drawer of her night table, grabbing the Glock 41 pistol she kept there, along with two magazines, each containing thirteen .45 caliber rounds. Inserting one magazine in her pistol and chambering a round, she grabbed the second magazine in her left hand and ran out of the bedroom while shouting a last warning to her daughter.
‘’YOU STAY HERE, NANCY!’’
Ignoring the protests from her daughter, Ingrid ran down the stairs, then unlocked her front door and exited her home, closing the door behind her before running towards the Wilsons’ house while shouting out loud.
‘’STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING! NOW!’’
Her shouted warning had at least the effect of stopping the men from splashing gasoline against the walls of the house, but it also made them all turn towards her, with five of them pointing firearms at her, two of them being handguns. They apparently didn’t see in the dark that she was armed, with one of the men shouting back at her while pointing a double-barreled shotgun.
‘’MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS, GIRL, OR YOU WILL REGRET IT!’’
Despite being heavily outnumbered and outgunned, Ingrid was not the type to scare easily or back away. Abruptly stopping her run just short of the line of low bushes separating her property from that of the Wilsons, she put one knee down on the grass and dropped her spare magazine close to her, so that she could use a two-handed grip on her pistol. With multiple weapons already pointed at her, shouting a second warning now would be both stupid and counter-productive, so she used the laser dot sight attached to her pistol to point it first at the man with the shotgun and opened fire.
POW POW POW POW POW
The man pointing a shotgun at her was the first to fall, hit squarely in the chest by an expanding hollow-tipped .45 caliber bullet. A second man then fell as well before the surviving men started returning fire. Their fire was however mostly wild and inaccurate, them not having sights on their weapons which were visible in the dark, contrary to Ingrid’s laser dot sight. The two men wielding handguns were the third and fourth ones to drop, their own bullets simply zipping past Ingrid’s head. Ingrid was shifting her aim towards one of the pickup trucks, in which stood two men pointing long guns at her, when she felt multiple impacts on her body, along with sharp pain. Ignoring the pain, she fired four more bullets, dropping both the man who had just fired his shotgun at her and two other men standing in the back of the pickup trucks. Five more shots from her pistol took down the drivers of the three vehicles, who had stepped out in order to fire their weapons or had extended one arm out of their driver’s window to point handguns at her. Ejecting her now empty magazine while grabbing at the same time her spare magazine lying in the grass next to her left foot, she reloaded her pistol in less than three seconds and chambered a fresh round in it, then pointed it back at the vehicles, looking for any surviving men who could be a threat to her or the Wilsons. One of the men lying on the grass of the Wilsons’ front yard, wounded, then raised himself on one elbow and attempted to point his revolver at her. That earned him a bullet in the head that dropped him down for good.
As Ingrid continued to scan the Wilsons’ front yard and the three parked vehicles in the street, a concert of dogs barking wildly and of shouts coming from the neighboring houses reverberated around the street. Looking at the Wilsons’ house, where an upper floor window had just been opened, Ingrid shouted as loud as possible at the head and torso visible in it.
‘’LEAVE YOUR HOUSE BY THE BACK DOOR, NOW! THOSE BASTARDS SPLASHED GASOLINE ON YOUR FRONT AND SIDE WALLS. MAKE IT QUICK BEFORE A SPARK COULD LIGHT UP A FIRE!’’
To her satisfaction, the person at the window did not waste time by asking for explanations and disappeared from sight. Burning pain from her torso then reminded Ingrid that she had been hit. Putting her left hand on her left side and then looking at it, Ingrid saw that it was now covered with blood.
‘’Dammit! My legendary luck didn’t hold this time.’’
She was debating whether to heal herself now when someone ran towards her, coming from her left. She however refrained from pointing her pistol at that person, as an attacker would have simply fired at her from a distance rather than run towards her. That person was thus probably someone coming in to help her. The voice of Greg Loomis then rang out, tainted with worry.
‘’INGRID! INGRID! ARE YOU OKAY?’’
As Greg Loomis got close to her, Ingrid was able to see that he was holding a revolver. That did not surprise her: as a federal prosecutor who had been in the past the target of threats by mobsters, Greg Loomis had taken the wise precaution of acquiring a handgun for self-defense, with Ingrid having helped train him in shooting some 25 years ago. Her head then started swimming as she answered her neighbor.
‘’I…I was hit, but not seriously, Greg. Those bastards were splashing gasoline over the Wilsons’ house in an attempt to burn it down. We need to spray water on its façade, quickly, before a fire could ignite.’’
Greg Loomis first reaction was to then turn around and shout towards his own house.
‘’CAROLYN! CAROLYN! CALL AN AMBULANCE, QUICKLY, ALONG WITH THE POLICE AND THE FIRE DEPARTMENT!’’
He then knelt next to Ingrid to examine her wounds in the limited light provided by nearby street lamp posts.
‘’Damn! Your left side is covered with blood. You better lay down on the grass, Ingrid.’’
‘’Okay, but be careful about those bastards I fought with: some could still be alive and dangerous.’’
She then slowly lay down on her right side, grimacing with the pain caused by her movements. To her shock and dismay, little Nancy, still naked, ran out of her house and knelt next to her, mad with worry.
‘’MOMMY, MOMMY, YOU ARE HURT!’’
Before Nancy could do anything, Ingrid sent her a telepathic message.
‘Don’t try to heal me or do something else that could reveal your powers to others, Nancy. The public must not know about your powers.’
‘But you are wounded, Mommy!’
‘Those wounds are superficial and I will survive them, Nancy. However, if the public, and particularly the medias, learn about your powers, they will hound you for the rest of your days. Please do as I say.’
Her daughter, frustrated and fearful for her, did obey her but took Ingrid’s head in her little arms and kissed her forehead while crying.
‘’Please, Mommy, don’t die!’’
Jonathan Wilson, holding a revolver, next approached Ingrid and Greg at a run while shouting.
‘’INGRID, ARE YOU OKAY?’’
‘’No, I am not, but I will survive, Jonathan. However, your house is in danger of burning down, with all that gasoline splashed against it. Go get a gardening hose and spray water over your house in order to avoid a fire. In the meantime, have your family run inside my house and use it as a shelter. Nancy will accompany your kids there. Nancy, you go and protect Billy and Jenna inside our house.’’
Thankfully, that call by Ingrid to Nancy’s sense of caring for others worked and she ran away to go guide their neighbors inside her house. Jonathan Wilson also ran away, to return a couple of minutes later with a long garden hose, which he used to start spraying the front of his house, making a strong smell of gasoline rise in the air and making Greg Loomis sniff and frown.
‘’Damn! The Wilsons’ house could have lit up like a match, with so much gasoline over it.’’
‘’And with the Wilsons still sleeping inside.’’ added Ingrid with some effort. ‘’Those bastards are most probably a group of racists who resented the fact that a black family resided in this neighborhood. Look, Greg, I am not in danger of dying and you can’t do much for me until the ambulance is here. Do a service to me and pick up both my pistol and my empty magazine lying in the grass and bring them inside my house, then go check if any of those bastards is still alive. Be careful about not disturbing the evidence around them.’’
Despite the circumstances, Ingrid’s last remark made Greg Loomis smile.
‘’Ingrid, I have been a federal prosecutor for over 36 years now. I know about criminal evidence. Stay there and don’t move: I will be back in a few minutes.’’
Greg then picked up her pistol and empty magazine before running towards Ingrid’s house. Less than a minute later, he was back out and started walking around the front lawn of the Wilsons and the parked vehicles on the street, checking the bodies lying around. He was shaking his head when he returned by Ingrid’s side.
‘’They are all dead, the ten of them. They also all had weapons. If not for your timely and heroic intervention, the Wilsons would not have stood a chance.’’
‘’Well, heroic interventions are my specialty, Greg, remember?’’
‘’I know, and I deeply admire you for that. Damn, where is the police? CAROLYN! CAROLYN! DID YOU CALL THE COPS AND AN AMBULANCE?’’
‘’I DID, GREG! THEY SHOULD BE HERE SOON!’’ shouted back Carolyn Loomis from her front porch.
‘’THEN, BRING ME OUR FIRST AID KIT! INGRID IS WOUNDED!’’
‘’COMING!’’
Carolyn had time to bring to her husband a first aid kit and Greg had started to put bandages on Ingrid’s wounds when they heard the sound of an approaching siren.
‘’At last!’’ said Greg. ‘’They took their sweet time to react.’’
To his dismay, the siren soon turned out to be a single ambulance approaching at top speed.
‘’What? No police cars yet? With the noise from such a firefight, we should be seeing an army of police cruisers rushing in.’’
‘’Don’t forget that we are in the state of Virginia, Greg.’’
‘’So?’’
‘’So, maybe the local police station already knew in advance about this and is deliberately making its response slow.’’ suggest Ingrid. That made Greg positively furious, but he clenched his teeth and refrained from swearing loudly.
‘’If that’s the case, heads will roll, I promise you. This is obviously a hate crime, thus the business of the F.B.I., and I will make sure that it investigates this in depth.’’
‘’Then, do something for me, Greg: go note the gun models and serial numbers of the weapons used by those bastards, and this before the first local policeman arrives. If you can also identify each gun owner without leaving evidence that you touched them, then do it as well. If what I am afraid of turns out to be reality, some of that evidence may disappear once in the hands of the local cops.’’
Greg made a grimace, not liking at all what she was implying. He however conceded to himself that her fears were grounded in a sad reality. Turning his head to look up at his wife, who was still standing next to him and Ingrid, he spoke urgently to her.
‘’Carolyn, stay with Ingrid for the moment: I have to go back to the house to get something to write notes on and also to place an urgent phone call. I will make it quick, I promise.’’
Greg then ran to his house, not leaving time to Carolyn to object. A few seconds later, an ambulance screeched to a halt on the curbside, some six meters away from Ingrid and Carolyn. Two medics then ran out of their ambulance, with one carrying a large medical bag. The two medics however hesitated for a moment at the sight of the numerous bodies lying around, prompting an angry shout from Carolyn Loomis.
‘’HEY, YOU HAVE A WOUNDED WOMAN HERE, GUYS!’’
‘’But we were told to expect only one wounded person.’’ replied one medic, looking confused. ‘’What happened here?’’
‘’What happened is that a bunch of bastards came to try burning down the house of one of our neighbors and Ingrid here intervene. Didn’t the emergency dispatcher tell you that there had been a gunfight?’’
‘’Uh, the dispatcher didn’t mention a gunfight to us, miss. He only told us that one person needed an ambulance at this address.’’
Carolyn exchanged a knowing glance with Ingrid, then pointed her to the medics.
‘’Well, you are here, so please take care of my friend.’’
The medic carrying the first aid bag went to Ingrid quickly enough, but his partner went on his own way to step on the Wilsons’ front lawn. Ingrid patted gently the hand of Carolyn to prevent her to scream at the medic.
‘’Let him be, Carolyn: he is technically obliged to go see if any of these men are still alive.’’
Doing a quick examination of Ingrid, the medic with the first aid kit nodded his head soberly.
‘’You are lucky, miss: you were hit by multiple shotgun pellets but none penetrated deeply or hit vital organs. You will still need to go to the hospital but you should fully recover from this rather quickly. I will go get our gurney out of our ambulance.’’
Walking back quickly to the ambulance, he was starting to take out his medical gurney when his partner joined him, looking a bit shaken.
‘’There are ten men lying around, all dead from gunshot wounds and all with weapons near their bodies. Why didn’t the despatcher warn us to expect more than one patient?’’
‘’I don’t know, Fred! Frankly, I would rather not speculate about that right now. Let’s pick that young woman up and bring her to the hospital.’’
‘’Right!’’ said his colleague, who then helped him unload and unfold their gurney. Rolling it on the grass up to where Ingrid lay, they cautiously placed her on the gurney and covered her with a blanket, then rolled her to the ambulance, where they loaded Ingrid in the back, with one medic staying with her while the other one returned behind the wheel. The ambulance was rolling away, its siren on, when Greg Loomis showed up at a run and spoke to his wife, who noticed that he was now wearing gloves and holding both a flashlight and a notepad and pen.
‘’I’m going to go quickly take notes about the evidence left around. If the local police arrive, distract them by telling them what you saw.’’
‘’I will have something for you too afterwards, Greg, but go!’’
To the anger of the Loomis, Greg had time to tour the bodies on the grass and in the three parked vehicles before two Arlington Police Department patrol cars belatedly arrived, sirens blaring. Greg put a hand on his wife’s shoulder to prevent her from shouting at the four policemen who stepped out of their cruisers.
‘’Don’t say a word and, if they ask, don’t mention the fact that I examined in detail the crime scene. We only went out to give aid to Ingrid, that’s all.’’
Carolyn in turn gave him a bitter look.
‘’Have things come this low, despite all these years, Greg?’’
‘’I’m afraid so, Carolyn. At least I see the car of Senior Agent Jenkins approaching: I called him to tell him to show here at a run. He should be able to keep those four cops honest.’’
The four local cops then dispersed as Sam Jenkins parked his car in Ingrid’s driveway and stepped out of it. One local cop went to check the three vehicles parked in front of the Wilsons, while two more went to examine the bodies lying on the front lawn and with the last one, who wore the ranks of a police sergeant, coming to see the Loomis, his hand on the handle of his holstered revolver.’’
‘’Alright, what happened here?’’
‘’I was the one who called the police on this, at the demand of my husband, Officer.’’ volunteered Carolyn. ‘’Those dead men came to burn down the house of one of our neighbors and another neighbor, Ingrid Dows, intervened to stop them. Unfortunately, she was wounded in the exchange of fire and she just left in an ambulance.’’
‘’And who shot all those men, miss?’’
‘’Ingrid Dows did. She shouted at them to leave but they fired back in response, starting a firefight.’’
‘’And what tells you that those men wanted to burn down that house over there, miss?’’ asked a bit too aggressively to Greg’s taste the police sergeant, an overweight man with rough manners.
‘’Unless your nose is clogged, Sergeant, the odor of gasoline can still be easily smelled around that house. I am Greg Loomis, chief federal prosecutor for the greater Washington area. Can you explain to me why you took so long to react to our call? My wife called over twenty minutes ago.’’
‘’Mister, I don’t have to explain that to you and…’’
‘’Oh yes you do, Sergeant!’’ said Sam Jenkins, who had approached quietly from behind the policeman while listening to the exchange. He then flashed his badge to the fat cop. ‘’Special Agent Samuel Jenkins, FBI. I was called about an incident of racially-motivated crime, which makes it a federal case. I will thus ask you and your men to leave. I will take care of this.’’
‘’But ten men are dead and their shooter is no more on the scene! This is a multiple murder case that happened inside the state of Virginia.’’
‘’Oh, really? One woman confronted just outside of her home ten armed men and she is now a murderer? Sergeant, leave now before I investigate you and your police department for complicity in a case of racially-motivated attempted arson and homicide.’’
Greg Loomis then saw one of the other local cops picking up one of the handguns on the Wilsons’ lawn and about to put it in his belt.
‘’OFFICER, PUT THAT WEAPON BACK WHERE IT WAS, OR I WILL HAVE ACCUSATIONS OF EVIDENCE TAMPERING MADE AGAINST YOU!’’
Samuel Jenkins, now quite angry, then rose the tone of his voice at the local police sergeant.
‘’That’s it! Leave now with your goons, Sergeant, before you get yourselves deeper in shit.’’
For a moment, the police sergeant looked like he was going to draw his weapon on Jenkins but, realizing that it would be the stupidest thing he could do now, restrained himself and shouted at his men.
‘’GET BACK IN THE CARS, MEN! THE FEDS JUST TOOK CHARGE OF THE CRIME SCENE.’’
Both the Loomis and Jenkins watched with dark looks the local cops sit back in their cars and drive off before Jenkins looked at Greg.
‘’It looks like it was a really good idea for you to call me, Greg. This whole thing stinks to high hell. Where is General Dows?’’
‘’She left by ambulance for the Arlington Memorial Hospital.’’ answered Carolyn. ‘’She suffered multiple hits from shotgun pellets but the medic said that none of the wounds were life-threatening.’’
‘’Thank God for that! Let me call some reinforcements her, then I will be able to take your depositions and gather the evidence.’’
04:09 (Washington Time)
Emergency Care Unit, Arlington Memorial Hospital
Arlington, Virginia
Ingrid was conscious but still half-groggy from the painkillers which had been administered to her when Samuel Jenkins and Greg Loomis came to visit her, little Nancy in Greg’s arms. Greg approached Nancy next to Ingrid’s bed’s right side to let the girl hug and kiss her mother. Ingrid had tears in her eyes as she kissed Nancy profusely.
‘’It is so nice to see you now, my sweet Nancy.’’
‘’Mommy, I was so scared for you.’’ said Nancy in a reproachful tone.
‘’We were all scared for you, Ingrid.’’ Added Greg Loomis, making Ingrid nod her head soberly.
‘’And it is nice to have good friends and neighbors like you and your wife, Greg.’’
‘’Thanks! Let me present you FBI Senior Agent Samuel Jenkins: he is now in charge of this case.’’
‘’The Arlington PD is not in charge of it?’’
‘’No!’’ answered Jenkins. ‘’This is clearly a racially-motivated crime, which makes it a federal crime. Furthermore, the preliminary findings of my investigation have already shed a bad light on the Arlington PD in this affair, such as intentionally delaying its response to Misses Loomis’ call for help and failing to advise the fire department about that attempted arson. You will also be interested to learn that all the ten men you killed were card-carrying members of the Ku-Klux-Klan{8}, and so is the Arlington 911 night dispatcher who handled Misses Loomis’ call.’’
‘’And what about their motives to attack the Wilsons? Or did they try to burn down their house just because they are blacks?’’
‘’There actually seems to be a specific reason for their attack on the Wilsons, General. One of the men you killed was recently fired from the construction firm where he was working, following complaints about the quality of his work and his frequent absenteeism. I will let you guess who was the foreman who complained about that man and got him fired.’’
‘’Jonathan Wilson, of course! A black man who has a white man fired is something looked at badly by many in Virginia. I wish that the United States could finally cure itself from this damn racism and bigotry.’’
‘’Well, don’t hold your breath on that, Ingrid.’’ replied Greg with a bitter smirk. ‘’That will take many more decades to disappear.’’
‘’I am afraid that you are right about that, Greg.’’ said Ingrid, sounding discouraged, before looking at Samuel Jenkins. ‘’What’s next now, Agent Jenkins?’’
‘’The FBI will continue its investigation into this case, General. I have a full crime scene crew presently at the Wilsons’ house and a number of FBI agents are also busy obtaining from the telephone company the recordings of the last 72 hours of calls made to or from the Arlington PD, to see if someone arranged something in advance with your attackers. I can tell you already that the Arlington Chief of Police will find himself in a hot seat, with lots of explanations to give. Unfortunately, all this will also mark you as a target for the KKK. I will thus advise you to exercise extreme caution from now on.’’
‘’If they attack my mommy again, I will vaporize them!’’ then pronounced little Nancy, looking dead serious. While Jenkins didn’t pay credence to that, Greg Loomis eyed her with some concern: he was not ready to swear that little Nancy could not do what she had just promised to do.
08:23 (Washington Time)
Wednesday, June 12, 1985 ‘C’
The Oval Office, the White House
President George Herbert Walker Bush got up from his chair and walked around his presidential work desk to meet with a smile and a handshake Ingrid, who had just been introduced in the Oval Office.
‘’Ingrid, I am really happy to see you in one piece after this despicable KKK attack.’’
‘’Not as happy as my daughter, Mister President. Thankfully, I was only hit by small caliber pellets fired from some distance, so they did not penetrate deeply and I should be fully up to snuff in a week or two, at the most. At least that’s the official story I serve to the medias. In reality, I fully healed myself yesterday at home, after I was released from the hospital, so I am now fully functional and at your disposal, Mister President.’’
‘’That’s good to hear, Ingrid. But let’s sit down before continuing. Would you like coffee or tea?’’
‘’Thank you but no, Mister President. I already had a strong cup of coffee before leaving home.’’
A hint of worry then showed up on Bush’s face.
‘’And your little daughter, who is watching over her? The KKK does have a serious grudge against you now.’’
‘’My guardian angel is watching over my Nancy, Mister President, so the KKK is welcome to try…at their own expense. But thank you for caring for my little Nancy, Mister President.’’
‘’Who wouldn’t care for such a cute little girl? My wife positively adores her.’’
Ingrid smiled with pride at that compliment as she sat in one of the sofas set in one corner of the Oval Office, with the President sitting at the other end of the sofa, keeping a chaste distance between them.
‘’Thank you, Mister President. Nancy makes me very proud indeed.’’
‘’And you are justified to be so, Ingrid. Now, switching to business. I called you in this morning to give you your marching orders for the next few months. Apart from counseling me as needed about problems that could emerge from time to time around the World and at home in the United States, I would like you, as my National Director of Space Programs, to write a long-term Space exploration plan covering at least the next five to ten years. We already have been exploring systematically Mars and have visited Jupiter and Saturn, plus have an orbital space station and a Moon base, on top of dozens of satellites in Earth orbit. What do you see next for our Space program, Ingrid?’’
‘’Mister President, I believe that we should continue the detailed exploration of Mars. I particular, I would like to see our present semi-permanent underground base situated in a cave of the Valles Marineris eventually become a permanently manned base, with periodic base crew relief every year or two. This will mean in turn dedicated use of the U.S.S. LIBERTY and U.S.S. CONSTITUTION for the continued resupply, building up and crew relief of that base. We could also design and build smaller, less expensive automated ships which could take care of the resupply runs. As for our Moon base, it certainly could be enlarged and improved over the next years. As an astronomy observatory, it has proved to be without equal, with the fact that it is located on the far side of the Moon saving it from the radio and light pollution from Earth. I believe in particular that better living quarters, including large artificial gravity carrousels, should be built on the Moon in order to improve the lot of the astronomers and radio-astronomers working there.’’
‘’That certainly makes sense to me, Ingrid. What about Earth itself? How could we improve our orbital facilities and satellites around our planet?’’
‘’Well, believe it or not but our AURORA orbital station has broken even in financial terms last month, with the rents paid by the Sheraton Aurora Hotel, the user fares for its astronomical observatories and the orbital passenger fares covering the operating costs of the station. As for the Sheraton Aurora