The Wounded World, a story of Mantra, Chapter 2

By Aladdin 

Edited by Christopher Leeson

Originally written 2006

Revised and posted Oct. 21, 20v18
Revised, Nov. 21, 2018

CHAPTER 2

CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER

She went out in Morning

Attired plain and neat.

"Proud Mary's gone Mad,"

Said the Child in the Street. 

 

William Blake

"Did -- Did he hurt you, darling?"

Evie shook her head. "No, but he chased me and he said he was gonna hurt me. Then Laddin came and Lauren helped them beat up on Gus and take him away to jail."

Somebody wake me! How had Lauren Sherwood, the children's favorite babysitter, suddenly gotten into all of this? And what was this about sending Gus to "jail"? The name "Laddin," threw me for an instant, before I realized -- with alarm -- what she saying.

"Do you mean 'Aladdin'?"

"I guess so."

Aladdin was the government agency that I worked for. Actually, I stuck with the job only because I'd found out how dangerous it was, not only to the country but to the world, and I wanted to keep an eye on it. Like the CIA and FBI, it was being run by compromised renegades.  Dedicated to doing the dirty work for a cabal of power-mad trillionaires, these agencies took their marching orders from shadowy figures based in Western Europe and in the Far East. 

How had Evie learned its name? I was careful never to talk shop in front of Mom -- Barbara Freeman, I mean -- or the kids. I'd been giving them the standard cover story, claiming that I worked for the C.I.A., which gave me the excuse make my job something that we never discussed. Had I let the name slip out sometime during the days that I had apparently forgotten, or had something even more sinister occurred?

"Is Lauren okay?" I asked.