Montauk Mayhem Read online

  Montauk Mayhem

  A Broken Monarch Conspiracy Thriller

  Tom Schneider

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Quote

  Friday

  Chapter 1

  Saturday

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Sunday

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Monday

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Tuesday

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Wednesday

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Thursday

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Friday

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Saturday

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  The Next Friday

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Other Titles

  Praise for Broken Monarch:

  "...a dark page turner... the action whizzes along"

  - Amazon UK reviewer ★★★★★

  "A fantastic fast moving story"

  - Amazon UK reviewer ★★★★★

  "An exciting, rapid-fire race to the finish, there's plenty here that will appeal to fans of conspiracy thrillers." - Self-Publishing Review (SPR)

  Copyright © 2019 Tom Schneider

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 9781099729126

  “It is a great evil to look upon mankind with too clear vision. You seem to be living among wild beasts, and you become a wild beast yourself.”

  William Beckford, The Episodes of Vathek

  Chapter One

  Friday, August 5, 1983

  10:00 PM, Traveling Carnival, Montauk, NY

  The little rat-dog’s yappy fevered barking transformed into screams from the hounds of hell, while it spat and snarled, scratching at its cage door. Madame Andromeda’s seductive eyes glowed red, piercing like lasers above the tarot cards and crystal ball, deep into Glenn’s where they stirred sleeping terror and rage. Glenn sat up, banged the table, and knocked the crystal ball from its stand. Madame Andromeda caught it as it rolled toward the edge of the table. A young boy rushed out from behind the curtain hiding in the next room. She no sooner repositioned the ball on its stand before reaching out and grabbing the boy’s arm to stop him from passing her.

  Glenn watched as she swung the boy to face her and stroked his shoulder while whispering something to him. The boy nodded at her and walked to the door. As he passed the black-light Glenn saw a glowing mark on the back of his dungaree jacket, which disappeared as he exited the trailer door. Glenn’s gaze traveled to the painting on the wall showing an eye in the center of a palm. Knows All - Sees All written on it, flashing him back through time to the assassination attempt in 1979, Lindsey, Project Monarch, the training, the horror, the war.

  While Glenn stared at the sign, the madame must have let the dog free from his cage or the little monster broke through. Either way, he almost had Glenn’s ankle before she scooped him up.

  “You turn him into a beast,” she said.

  “I didn’t do anything. I try to avoid little demons.”

  Robin apologized to madame Andromeda for all the confusion as Glenn threw two twenty-dollar bills on the table and left the trailer. He lit a cigarette outside the door and watched packs of kids navigate the carnival grounds. A couple strolled past with matching Mohawks. He struggled briefly to figure out if they were girls or guys. He knew he shouldn’t have gone in there. Normally, he would stay away from hypnotists and fortune tellers or anyone like Madame Andromeda. Those people bring all kinds of twisted shit with them, like spells and images of hands with eyes in them. The next thing you know there’s evil and death everywhere. He’s been trying to put stuff like that behind him since escaping the program but it felt like it caught up with him, again.

  Robin came out of the trailer. “What was that all about? Holy crap.”

  She waitressed at the Lookout Diner for the past ten years. A few weeks ago, Glenn was hired as a cook. He was settling in and figured striking up a little romance might be what he needed. He was ready for it. She was one of those overworked moms that didn’t take time to remember how beautiful they are. A natural beauty that if given half the time with makeup that models had, would steal all their trophies.

  She lived alone with her son Michael, who was going off to college soon. His father left them a few months after he was born and she raised him by herself, on a waitresses pay since then. She stopped looking for a husband years ago, but wasn’t against dating. Glenn was new in town, decent-looking, and a good worker. She thought they might have fun together.

  “Tell me about it. Come on, let’s get a beer.” Glenn said.

  He walked, and she skipped a step to catch up to him, grabbed his arm and put her head to his shoulder. They passed the Ferris wheel, entered the Beer Garden, and got two draughts and a basket of steamers.

  “Well, I guess Michael’s experience was a little different from ours.”

  “I told him it was a bad idea.”

  “You just jinxed it.”

  Glenn laughed. “Maybe.”

  “I think he just thought Madame Andromeda was hot,” she said.

  “Definitely.”

  “Oh, really? You too?”

  “I mean I’m sure he thought that.”

  “Well, trust me you don’t have a chance with her or her dog.”

  “I don’t want either one.”

  Glenn downing another clam as Robin watched the butter drip down his chin. He wiped with a paper napkin his growth that was starting to look like a beard.

  “Are you gonna keep letting that thing grow?”

  “Oh, I usually have one.”

  “What? Did you shave just to get hired?”

  “Haha, you got me Columbo! You like me clean shaven better?”

  “No, I like it, it’s kind of hot.”

  He gave her a kiss.

  Robin looked around from her seat. As a single-parent with an only child she was a little dependent and controlling of him. She had to be at times, especially when he was younger. It’s tough figuring out when to let go. Her concern was endearing and she looked cute with the worried look. It brought out those pouty little dimples on her face.

  “Do you see him anywhere?”

  Glenn woke up startled, in a sweat, and filled with dread. He looked around the room and to Robin sleeping beside him. She still looked beautiful. He’d seen her sweating in the kitchen, early for breakfast shifts without her makeup and in the evening after a long day’s work. She always looked good. Her youth helped, he guessed.

  Still, he was uneasy waking up in her house. He wasn’t ready for a family situation and couldn’t see himself playing step-dad. He barely had his own shit together. He pulled on his jeans and went to the bathroom.

  When he came out, Robin was standing there smiling. Van Morrison’s Listen to the Lion was playing. She approached him, raised her heels off the ground and kissed him. She walked backward, pulling him with her to the bed until they fell on it. She pushed him over and rolled on top of him. Sitting up, she unbuttoned his fly and reached in his pants. They made love again.

  “So what are your plans, Glenn? I mean how long will you stay in Montauk.”

  “Wow, I don’t know. Seems like a nice place to live. There’s some good people here.” He smiled. “I could see sticking around.”

  He was afraid it sounded as unconvincing as it felt when he said it.

  Robin got out of bed and was in the kitchen making c
offee. Glenn was sitting on the edge of the bed putting on his shirt when she yelled in a panic.

  “Glenn. Glenn… Michael never came home last night.”

  Oh shit, he thought. “Maybe he got lucky.”

  He stood up as she re-entered the bedroom and threw the dishtowel from her hand at him.

  “He’s not like that. He checks in with me. Something’s wrong.”

  He followed her to the kitchen. She picked up the phone, then hung it back up.

  “You’re late. You better go to work. I’ll try to get hold of his friends and find him. I’ll check in with you later. I’m sure everything is okay.”

  She was pushing him toward the door. Then stopped him and told him to wait as she poured coffee into a styrofoam cup and handed it to him. She gave him a kiss.

  “Okay let me know.”

  Chapter Two

  Saturday, August 6, 1983

  2:00 PM, Camp Hero, Montauk, NY

  Damon was in the chair again when a call came to the radar tower, giving the orders from the generals below ground.

  “Power up the radar full throttle. Leave it run until further notice.”

  Damon looked like an elf. His squinty eyes, turned-up nose, little chin, and the way the electrode-band around his head pushed his long black hair down, exposing his pointy ears helped.

  Terry turned the dial to maximum power. He walked to the two-way glass to see Damon. He worried what the extra power from the transmitter might do to him. Terry looked like what you’d expect an electrical engineer to look, except he weighed a hundred pounds more and his glasses were thicker. The metal coils surrounding the chair rattled and hummed. The electro-magnetic energy filled the room with an invisible light bouncing off the walls and permeating everything. Damon was the focal point for the energy to boost his mental ability to affect time.

  Part of what Terry liked about working on the base was its history. Montauk was a strategic area dating back to 1776. They commissioned the lighthouse in 1792 to keep watch for British ships. They established Fort Hero as an Army base with dirigibles, 16-Inch gun batteries, and Coast Guard personnel in 1942. They disguised the whole base as a fishing village. There were a few visible buildings but a much larger facility underground, beneath the artificially created hills. In 1947, they deactivated it and then in 1952 The Air Force occupied it. In 1958, they installed a SAGE (Semi Automatic Ground Environment) radar system and in the 1960s they started Project Montauk.

  It grew out of The Philadelphia Experiment, where they transported a battleship across time, attempting to make it invisible to radar. When the ship returned to its origin, several of the crew were dead, embedded in the ship’s steel. Others were mentally damaged.

  Project Montauk was interested in combining the human mind with computers through complex radio equipment. They chose the base for its SAGE radar transmitter, broadcasting at a frequency between 400 and 425 MHz, the same used to manipulate human consciousness. They conducted many types of mind control experiments at the base on different animals and humans; mostly boys. In August 1983, the technology centered on what they called the Montauk Chair.

  Damon had spent over 10 hours a day for the past several weeks in the chair. They picked him for his role in the chair because of his remote-viewing abilities. The theory was that when someone with the right abilities was in the chair their remote-viewing could create an open portal they could use to access different times and places. The goal was to establish a permanent gateway for not only viewing but traveling between remote locations and times.

  With Damon in the chair concentrating, they were able to have objects he thought about appear on the base. First visually but not to the touch. Then on August 5th Damon made a full can of Coke appear out of the ether powered only by his mind, the Montauk Chair, and electro-magnetic energy. They moved from altering or displaying human thoughts on screen to using the human mind to generate matter.

  The problem for Damon was that all of this had its effect on the human mind and sometimes inter-dimensional travel included inter-dimensional beings. Human and non-human. His mind was becoming haunted by the things he encountered in the chair.

  Terry worried about how the energy was affecting him. Both of them. He wanted to march down and give a piece of his mind, but he only had access to two levels. He knew there was at least six levels beneath the radar tower building they were in, maybe more. And a rumored network of tunnels emanated from there. One leading all the way to Montauk Manor. They expanded the base underground at various times after its original construction. They classified most of it, and Terry and Damon were both civilians.

  Somewhere down below was the director of the project Louis Gray. His hair and goatee matched his name, but they said his soul was all black. He was at the base all week, pushing for a breakthrough to secure more funding from Congress. He led all of the mind-control projects and Terry had heard rumors about torture and rape as part of his experiments. It was even said that Mr. Gray had his own mind-controlled sex-slaves. He didn’t care if anyone got hurt and Terry feared it would be them if he kept pushing.

  Chapter Three

  Saturday, August 6, 1983

  11:00 PM, Lookout Diner, Montauk, NY

  Glenn finished closing the kitchen for the night and called Robin from the office phone. She must have been sitting by the phone, as she answered within the first ring.

  “Hello,” she said sounding desperate and out of breath.

  “Sorry, Robin, it’s Glenn. How are you doing? Have you heard anything?”

  “No, I’m just sitting here waiting by the phone. The police are still here.”

  “They want you to stop by and give a statement tomorrow.”

  “OK, I’ll see you in the morning. Be strong. Try to stay positive.”

  “I have to get off the line in case he calls.”

  “Ok, bye-bye.”

  He felt bad he didn’t say more. He wanted to say he loved her, if only to make her feel better. He thought he did, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it. He refused to make himself vulnerable. They only slept with each other once. He figured it didn’t matter what he said. Her mind was in Hell, fearing for her son’s life.

  He tried to recall what Michael last said to them when they saw him at the carnival. He had come from Madame Andromeda’s trailer and insisted they had to go. Or his mom had to. She insisted he go too. He got in his two-tone brown and rust color 1982 Mustang and headed back to the carnival.

  Glenn strolled the carnival looking for anything out of the ordinary. Everyone was going about their summer weekend, unaware of the turmoil plaguing Robin or whatever it was Michael was facing. He noticed a few kids wander down a path into the woods. He lingered watching it for fifteen or twenty minutes then headed down behind them.

  He could hear their voices and the clanging of bottles as he approached. There were seven kids sitting on a group of rocks, drinking Budweiser and sharing a bottle of kiwi MD/2020.

  “Hey guys.”

  They all jumped, knocking over two beers.

  “Oh, shit!”

  “Relax kids.”

  One stood up and rushed toward Glenn with a knife.

  “Who you calling kid?” he asked as Glenn grabbed his wrist and had his face in the dirt, his arm behind his back and his knee in his spine.

  “I said relax. I just want to ask a question. I’m looking for someone.”

  Three kids ran off in the woods. Two girls and a guy were still there.

  “Oh, are you looking for that missing kid?” one girl asked.

  Glenn pocketed the knife and let the kid under him get off the ground.

  “Yeah, that’s right. Michael is his name. You see anything strange last night. He was here.”

  “No, not more than usual,” one guy responded.

  “What do you mean?” Glenn asked.

  “Nothing.”

  The girl chimed in again. “He’s not the first kid to go missing around here. There was one a couple years
ago close to here. A few towns away. But we don’t know this Michael kid.”

  “Did they ever find them?”

  “Who?” she asked.

  “The other kid that went missing!”

  “Oh, nope.”

  “Hey, you want a hit of this?” One guy offered Glenn a joint.

  “Or how about a hit of this?” The chatty-girl offered him the MD/2020 bottle.

  “No, I’m good. Though kiwi-lime is my favorite.”

  Glenn walked to Madame Andromeda’s psychic trailer. The door was open, so he entered and looked if the dog was there. The cage was empty, and no one in sight.

  “Just a moment,” she called from behind the curtain.

  Her hand stretched out and swept the curtain aside.

  “It’s you.”

  “Weren’t expecting me?”

  “I was actually.”

  “Where’s your hound?”

  “Don’t talk about her like that. So why did you come back? You still want your future told?”

  “Why don’t you tell me?”

  “Because you’re curious.”