The Invisible Plan The Invis ble Plan Th   Invis ble Pl n Th   Inv s bl   P  n T      nv s bl   P    
 Truth  vs   lies
 
The Invisible Plan Playing was easy. We all had been on stage for years, and felt comfortable there. Running the club and traveling between the Funny Farm and Dwnwrdspyrl, those tasks were troublesome. It was something we expected when we tried a new path. We discussed it at length before we purchased the old theater. We felt like the club was the right move at the time. We wanted to influence the upcoming election, and touring took us away from home. Besides, we had a lot of trouble traveling (everyone had trouble traveling). It used up all our petroleum rations to play a few shows a month, and left us vulnerable nearly every step of the way. When we entered a distant sector we often had no idea what to expect from the hungry masses, or the law, and couldn’t receive any help from our support network back home. The new club certainly made us tighten up security, and we eventually got a handle on the crowds, but this new possession was our responsibility, and our liability. We turned from moving targets into Sitting Bull. When we were on the road at least we only had a handful of people to protect, now there were hundreds. Mr. D. had explained to us that the club was going to be influenced by water - falling water. Michelle, Josie and Megan were going to ensure that. But to tell the truth, Mr.D and I could always find turbulence, it wasn’t just the Graces. He said we were about to change direction abruptly. He thought that it could be something like a water fall or a rapid. He had seen the doors of the club open in a dream, but they opened into a space that was dark and incomprehensible. He didn’t understand the workings or their long term results. He couldn’t seem to focus on what waited on the other side. He new the doors were on the path, and we would go through them. But what would stop the water falling? This riddle caused him a lot of apprehension. He was worried that he had seen nothing beyond the doors. Darkness in dreams of the future, dreams that are usually filled with the entire spectrum of colors and Noise, is always unsettling. We knew we needed a strong presence inside to keep the militarists and freaks from trashing the site, and this would be problematic - a double edged sword. When we offered coffee and doughnuts to the commissars and marshals to get them in the door, we had to watch them too. They didn’t like being watched. They really didn’t like to be watched by US. If we couldn’t invite authority to the dance we would have to establish it ourselves. The first night the club was open we got hammered. No one knew how to behave around the dancers. The crowd was mostly the Dregs from the strip bars,looking for Michelle. They missed her in Hell. It took a while to find our audience, to educate them. That first night the Dregs got hostile when the dancers wouldn’t strip and started to rush the stage. We had to close down because Josie and Michelle were sending too many idiots to the bathroom with black eyes and bloody noses. We were used to hostile crowds from being on the road, but this was what we were trying to get away from. I told Mr. D the next night would be better... It was. Ziggy adjusted the security protocol and we were determined to reshape the image of our club. We eventually got students back in the door and most of the mayhem was left outside. That left us with some problems though. The only place we could securely talk about anything was the Funny Farm. The only place we could let down our guard, take a break and talk to each other as Human Beings was miles away. If issues developed we had to ignore them until we were all together off site. This meant anyone back at Dwnwrdspyrl was isolated, or if we all left we would have to spend hours sweeping the club for devices and traps when we got back. Mr. D. said he believed there was something in the club that could help us make it a success, he just couldn’t see it yet. The Invisible Man was an extremely useful person not to see. We didn't see him all the time. We didn't see him at work, he managed Dwnwrdspyrl. We didn't see him at home, he said he lived on the Stairway to Nowhere. We didn't see him at play. He said he didn't play games. The Invisible Man was our Prometheus. He had been a security officer for the Python program before it had been implemented, during the trials. He was no ordinary mercenary either. He was a personal guard for the creator of the technology. This gave him unfettered access to the people who designed the informant web and their plans. It was not a pretty job. Long hours watching over scientists and click heads, while they destroyed the last freedoms of mankind, must have left his head in a dark place. He said they were a bunch of chickens, working for a pack of wolves. When he came to Dwnwrdspyrl he was no longer a part of the security team. He had been given a desk job by the security firm after being suspected of assassinating several high officials. He never talked about the details, never revealed what he knew, but it was believed he had protected the Governor during an attempted coup. No charges were filed. There was no mention of any of the troubles in the press, but around the time Python was fully implemented a number of security services had been involved in a power struggle. The Invisible Man had been protecting the informant web from the start. Apparently he did his job well. The service he was part of had survived all the intrigue, while others had literally lost their heads. After Python was up and running, The Invisible Man retired from public security service rather than transferring to a desk job. In his line of work, sitting at a desk meant watching the buzzards circle. He was a shape shifter not a desk jockey. He wasn't the type to wait for a tragic scene to unfold, or to hope the cop on the beat would cover his back. At this point in his story the man started to disappear. He was not your typical man on the run. He told me he was sick of politics and wanted to protect what was beautiful - dancers not the Dregs. He started working on security for Automatic Slim’s. This was a critical move. Slim’s was a strip club operated for the pleasure of highly placed security officials. He was able to collect damning evidence on the Protectors of Truth (the Governor’s private security guards), while staying abreast with the latest intrigues in his field. Although any and all cameras fed the web, strip clubs operated under the sea. None of their feeds ended up in a court room, they ended up on the cutting room floor. Besides the owner, no one at the club even new he had joined the staff. The way Ziggy explained it, it didn't matter what the cameras saw, the data miners were more important. If the computers weren't looking for you, you became invisible. Not long after he switched occupations The Invisible Man ran into Michelle "from Hell". Why he chose to put his wing around her is not part of this story, but they were both looking for something better out of life in a place that catered to the powerful militarists, go figure. Anyway, Automatic Slim's was one of the flag ship clubs in the Triumvirate, so they hired the best dancers and security. The Invisible Man had acquired quite the reputation among the cloak and dagger set. Automatic Slim jumped at the first chance to hire him. Not surprisingly there were several dancers at the club who regularly got invited to the Reunion. Word of the event spread among the staff and Michelle ended up with an invite. It didn't take long for her to work into the fabric of the everlasting fantastic fun festival. She described it as love at first bite. She loved the beats. She would come to me and ask for particular rhythms - a samba or salsa, a bossa nova or a beguine. I loved the old school, and she kept asking for more. She would lead me to Sarah Vaughn, and I was digging the Weather Report. It was the start of a beautiful relationship. It wasn't long before The Invisible Man didn't show up. We still don't know how he managed to breach our security, but in the middle of one of the Solstice Gatherings, which everyone knew were unauthorized events, someone reported an uninvited guest. Security was put on alert and feelers were sent into the crowd to flush out the threat. We had every exit covered. We had people at the gate who knew everyone who had an invite. We had our own camera feeds. No one could leave without being seen, but it didn't matter. The Invisible Man waltzed out of the club as easily as he had tap danced in. The Elders were not happy campers that night. Ziggy was in deep shit too. He had never presided over a breach, it would ruin his credibility. He had set up the culture that had delivered up to that point. If Ziggy couldn't even secure the perimeter after an intruder got in, our whole system had to be overhauled, and all our progress would come into question. We had to find some answers fast. Michelle had a hunch who crashed our gate, but she didn’t say anything about it at our initial security review back at the farm. She didn't want to implicate her lover, and thereby put a cloud over both of them, until she was certain. She started to chase her lead. She would have to be sure before she walked down that path. She didn't have to look very far for an answer. The next day at Slim's she confronted The Invisible Man. "What were you up to last night, Baby?" She was in Mr. Invisible's face.” Was my fat cat curious last night?” "I was watching your ass Darling." He calmly replied. He wasn’t surprised by her suspicion, or a confrontation. Michelle could add and subtract large numbers, and could see tiny mistakes. "I told you I was safe, I'm a Big Girl now. I didn't need you snooping around. You gave all my friends the creeps. Why didn't you trust me?" She was pushing him into a corner, “I don’t follow you around like a wolf. Why are you acting like a Protector? Like those jerks who think they own you. Trust is the only thing I asked you for Pussy man. Without it we have nothing.” She jabbed a finger into his chest to give emphasis to her argument. Even the Kevlar got the point. "I do trust you Dear, it's those idiots at Dwnwrdspyrl that I’m worried about. When word came through the lines that you were headed over there last night, I started to worry. Do you know the buzz about that club? The place is a snake pit.” Snake Pit was a street term that meant a place of interest to Python. ”Do you know how close they are to closing down that hell hole?" He was getting emotional. Michelle was wondering how much he knew. "What are you talking about? I love that club, It's the only place that caters to dancers not dregs. The only place we can dance without being tailed by off duty militia," she protested. "It won't last, darling." He was watching for her reaction. "What in the Hell are you talking about?" she asked. There was a tone of concern in her voice. Mr. Invisible new this was a bad sign. He was hoping she didn't know anything about the clockwork behind the scenes at Dwnwrdspyrl. He thought she would stay away from the club if he asked her to. He wasn't so sure now. "What do you care?" he replied. "Those hippies are walking a fine line between Death and Disappearance. Everyone knows they're politically active, that they are gunning for the Governor for Christ's sake. It's only a matter of time before they bust that place open like a Hornet’s nest. Word is they've lost their fucking minds and are fielding a dancer to challenge the Governor. A God damn dancer, a feather against an anvil. I know who I'd bet on." "Well I don't care on whom you'd bet. Who would you vote for?" She was sure he knew way more than the average Protector of Truth. He probably knew more than the Governor himself. They had only been together for a few weeks and he seemed to know everything about her. He was giving her the creeps too. He wasn't answering her, he was staring at her in disbelief. "Well?" "Oh shit... " He said incredulously. "You are part of that fucked up scheme aren't you. Are you out of your mind? I don't know how those idiots have survived this long. I walked into that club last night just to see what they got. It was like a garden party surrounded by a hedge. When their team went into overdrive it was like watching the slow motion replay of a senior wheel chair race. You have got to get out of there. They are going to get you killed, if you're lucky. I don't even want to think about what is going to happen to Count Bleat and the rest of those misfits." He started pleading with Michelle to leave the fold. He was wasting his time. " What do you know about us?" She demanded. "Only what you've seen in Intel reports or heard in rumors. These are what’s left of the Beautiful People. This is the first time in my life that I have been excited about my work. I have respect for myself, because I have friends who respect me as a person, not as a piece of ass. Do you think that the practice or the court room were any different from Slim's. At least at Slim's you know where the Dregs are and the bouncers can protect you if you make them. I can't tell you how many judges have fucked my clients when I wouldn't fuck them. Men in power today are acting as a pack. It's not good enough for me. I don't care if they are all Phantoms. I'd rather die with the misfits than lick the Governor's boots." Michelle was heading for the door. "You go kiss his velvet glove, I won't go with you. You Suck, just like that Asshole you work for!" The Invisible Man watched Michelle slam the door behind her. It was a great act, he thought to himself. She must have been a cougar in a court room. He wasn't convinced. She had to be smarter than that. He waited around the backstage to see her show that night. She wasn't there. He called her, but she didn't answer. He thought this will blow over. She has a good job here, she'll be back. She never came back. A week later he was at Dwnwrdspyrl showing Ziggy how to punch holes in the web. We never saw him coming, we never saw him leave. The difference between Prometheus and The Invisible Man was the Greek got caught. The Governor was strong... but he was not Zeus.