Evil in Retreat

              Jordan Smith had worked his way up in the aeronautics industry, becoming CEO of Wingcraft Innovations at only 47 years old in only seven years.

     The climb up the corporate ladder from line mechanic to the top spot had brought him more success than a kid from the ghettos of Newark, NJ would ever have expected a few decades before.  He loved the social connections, the perks of his office and, of course, the many previously-closed doors of economic achievement that now flung wide open for him.

      His achievements took many years of hard work and some backbiting and resulted in a healthy amount of stress.

      As the stress piled up more and more each day, he felt the need to retreat and conduct a thorough self-examination.  

       Jordan’s vacations in Martha’s Vineyard with Sari and the three kids had filled his overworked life with joy. He still sought something more–a place where he could truly evaluate his existence and project the fulfillment he sought into his life going forward. He felt this also would enable him to become a better father, husband and corporate leader.

        Scrolling through the internet one day, he came upon the Inner Sanctum website. Unlike other meditation channels, it seemed this one spoke directly to his soul and offered the comfort and internal fulfillment his psyche seemed on a mission to find.

      The executive packed his bags and told his family the new and improved version of himself would return in about a week. He headed for the retreat in Ocean Isle Beach, NC. After a three-hour drive fighting beach traffic he arrived at the nondescript hideaway.

      The sign-in procedure, which took about 20 minutes, seemed unusually detailed and probed into a number of details one would not expect in an organization supposedly geared to promoting tranquility. 

      After Jordan finished outlining his life story down to the smallest minutia a balding man in an orange robe greeted him and introduced himself as Master Chesterton before quickly rushing his newest guest to his neatly-appointed suite.  

     “Take your time getting settled,” Chesterton said. “You will find everything you need here for your stay with us.  I will take your luggage and clothing and return them to you when you have completed your journey.” 

       Although the newcomer questioned what seemed like unusually invasive procedures, he decided to go with the flow and slipped into the sky blue robe hanging in the bathroom to which the master directed him. 

          The new guest read some of the literature given to him at registration and prepared for his first session, scheduled for noon in a room called the Holistic Amphitheater. The readings said very little about the organization, except that most guests found it very useful in reaching their life goals, as long as they followed staff instructions to the letter. 

       On his way to the session Jordan ran into a number of other guests. Although they seemed friendly enough, they seemed too preoccupied to greet those they passed with more than frozen stares.

        Well, he thought, guess that comes with the territory when you center your existence on probing only your inner self. Think this is what I’m looking for. Hope it helps.

       When what the brochures called The Teachings began, he detected an edginess in the manners of the facilitators and in conspiratorial whispering among his fellow attendees that seemed a little out of place for people who supposedly thrived on peace, solitude and love.

       “We have developed our curriculum after careful research into a number of cultures,” lead teacher Harston Hewton said. “Our beliefs have proven superior to those of others and we only can achieve our ideal society if we wipe away all other ways of thinking and acting. You may consider our ways a little too forceful, but you will discover the true wisdom of our program.”

         Almost as if on cue, the attendees began nodding their heads in agreement and discussing ways to turn their idea of a corrupt world into the highest level of existence.

          Although the generalities seemed only a little off the charts to Jordan, the specifics involved in the execution of those ideas almost knocked him off his feet.

          “We need to destroy all institutions that currently exist in the corrupt world,” Hewton shouted. “Their laws promote evil, their traditions stand in the way of moving the true society forward and those currently leading in the corridors of power need to meet final destruction along with the edifices that house them. We have brought you here because we believe we can transform you into the soldiers in our fighting force.”

         Hewton then introduced Falstaff Polston and Garelick Gastone, his lieutenants, who divided the 40-plus men and women participants in the room into cadres of eight members each.

         He explained that the lieutenants would assign tasks to each of the five groups, including challenging laws which stood in the way of their mission, teaching children and adults the correct ways of their organization so they could expand throughout the existing society and armed caravans that would carry out what the leaders considered the necessary destruction of their enemies and the structures that housed them.

      “If you have not learned up to now, you soon will realize that our cause is just.  It is the only way to a better world. You must make a total commitment and never waiver from the mission. Go forth now to bring us victory,” Hewton shouted.

      Jordan could not believe his ears. He hadn’t spent $2000 to seek peace and inner enlightenment to get drawn into a terrorist cult. Of course, he didn’t approve of many things in his world outside this retreat venue. At times, some people angered him so strongly that he wished he had never met them. Some of society’s laws either allowed what he considered obscene and dangerous behavior or did not do enough to stop some humans from harming others or their possessions. He felt able to deal with these faults and correct them or find a way to live with them with little help from those outside himself.

     But he had never believed in extreme terrorism to overthrow society or bring harm to other human beings.

      The leaders of the Inner Sanctum proposed solutions that turned Jordan’s stomach, but it looked like he alone on this retreat could not stop these terrorists from bringing an end to the world as he knew it.

        Because the compound existed like an armed fortress he didn’t know if he could even escape to warn his family, friends and leaders about the apocalypse they faced.

        Jordan had not clawed this way to the top of Wingcraft Industries without developing a keen intellect and a suspicious nature.

       He had some hint of things to come when Chesterton took away his luggage and clothing on the first day of the retreat. He had carefully hidden his cell phone in a corner of the rest room when dressing in his retreat robe.  

       The retreat leaders had used every bit of technology at their disposal to block all WIFI signals emanating from the compound.  Jordan had a solution to this. As a young engineer he had developed a smartphone whose signals could circumvent any blocking mechanism then in existence. He always kept his phone with him because he always had prepared himself to escape from the kidnapping of corporate executives so common in the 21st century.

       Leaders of the retreat had made it pretty clear that they would carry out their scheme for global domination in short order.

       As soon as Jordan’s cadre leader dismissed his group from the seminar he rushed back to his room and found his hidden smartphone.

       He tried four times to reach his wife and then the local police.

       It looked like his high-tech smartphone had failed him, and he heard several of his fellow cadre members attempting to unlock the door to his room.

       As they burst through the door he escaped through the French doors at the back of the condo and made his call.

       It took some time to convince his wife and the officials about the seriousness of the plot, but the FBI had kept tabs on the retreat masters for several months after local law enforcement found internet messages hinting at the terrorists’ plans and the officials discovered a cache of high-powered weapons buried in an abandoned graveyard near the compound.

         The retreat leaders had captured Jordan and prepared for his execution. As they got ready to kill him an army of National Guard troops, FBI agents and local troops burst in, saved him and arrested the terrorists.