Wonderland - Jags

eport itself failed to alert the Congress and the
Executive office.
The Inner Circle concluded that the infection
had spread. That they, themselves, the final
gatekeepers might be infected—and that the cycle
was only beginning. There was a sterilization
option: keys worn around the neck of each
member. Turning the keys in a lock at each station
of the table would detonate charges set into the
walls of the room. The Inner Circle would be
sterilized in a cloud of superheated air and highvelocity
metal.
They didn’t do that. Whether it would have
ultimately made a difference or not, they did not
invoke the final suicide switch. Instead, by joint
decision, they liquidated the committee. They
separated, sworn to silence. It was supposed to
end there, but just as it hadn’t really begun there, it
didn’t.
Project Puritan was born.
Third Warning
‘A loaf of bread,’ the Walrus said,
‘Is what we chiefly need:
Pepper and vinegar besides
Are very good indeed--
Now,if you’re ready, Oysters Dear,
We can begin to feed.’
-- The Walrus, Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There
I woke up about a year ago. We—Linda and I—were playing with mirror
corridors: like when you open your medicine cabinet in front of your
bathroom mirror and you get an infinite regression of mirrors that go
back to a dark place. We were meditating with them, reaching into them.
Pretending to drop things into them. Making sacrifices.
We were also doing a lot of drugs and kinky sex and shit. I think that
helped as much as the mirrors some times. I did more than Linda since
she kept her job. She kept us together through that. I’ll always admire
her strength. I was strung out in the bathroom drawing made-up symbols
on the mirrored depths in my own blood while she was out working at
the supermarket.
But it’s funny who gets rewarded. When it came up out of that darkness
I was the one who was home. I was the one who was there and could see
the glass bulge and pulse because for some reason it couldn’t get out.
17
Introduction