better-quality projection system capable of displaying television, video
tape, or laserdisc images on a five-by-six-foot screen. It was a plush,
windowless space. There was even an antique Coke machine which, he
learned later, dispensed the soft drink in classic ten-ounce glass
bottles, plus a candy-vending machine stocked with Milk Duds, Jujubes,
Raisinettes, and other favorite movie-house snacks.
Because of the music in the film, he found it easy to creep up behind
the Senator and overpower him with a chloroform-soaked rag, which he
pulled out of a plastic bag a second before putting it to use. He
carried the politician upstairs to the ornate master bath, undressed
him, and gently conveyed him into a Roman tub filled with hot water,
periodically employing the chloroform to assure continued
unconsciousness. With a razor blade, he made a deep, clean incision
across the Senator’s right wrist (since the politician was a southpaw
and most likely to use his left hand to make his first cut), and let
that arm drop into the water, which was quickly discolored by the
arterial gush. Before dropping the razor blade in the water, he made a
few feeble attempts to slash the left wrist, never scoring deeply,
because the Senator wouldn’t have been able to grip the blade firmly in
his right hand after cutting the tendons and ligaments along with the
artery in that wrist.
Sitting on the edge of the tub, administering chloroform every time the
politician groaned and seemed about to wake, he gratefully shared the
sacred ceremony of death. When he was the only living man in the room,
he thanked the departed for the precious opportunity to share that most
intimate of experiences.
Ordinarily, he would have left the house then, but what he had witnessed
on the movie screen drew him back to the media room on the first floor.
He had seen pornography before, in adult theaters in many cities, and
from those experiences he had learned all of the possible sexual
positions and techniques. But the pornography on that home screen was
different from everything he’d seen previously, for it involved chains,
handcuffs, leather straps, metal-studded belts, as well as a wide
variety of other instruments of punishment and restraint. Incredibly,
the beautiful women on the screen seemed to be excited by brutality. The
more cruelly they were treated, the more willingly they gave themselves
to orgasmic pleasure, in fact, they frequently begged to be dealt with
even more harshly, ravished more sadistically.
He settled into the seat from which he had removed the Senator.
He stared with fascination at the screen, absorbing, learning.
When that videotape reached a conclusion, a quick search turned up an
open walk-in vault–usually cleverly concealed behind the wall
paneling–that contained a collection of similar material.
There was an even more stunning trove of tapes depicting children
involved in carnal acts with adults. Daughters with fathers.
Mothers with sons. Sisters with brothers, sisters with sisters. He sat
for hours, until almost dawn, transfixed.
Absorbing.
Learning, learning.
To have become a United States Senator, an exalted leader, the dead man
in the bathtub must have been extremely wise. Therefore, his personal
film library would, of course, contain diverse material of a
transcendent nature, reflecting his singular intellectual and moral
insights, embodying philosophies far too complex to be within the grasp
of the average film-goer at a public theater. How very fortunate to
have discovered the politician lounging in the media room rather than
preparing a snack in the kitchen or reading a book in bed.
Otherwise, this opportunity to share the wisdom in the great man’s
hidden vault would never have arisen.
Now, curled fetally on the back seat of the Buick, he may be temporarily
blinded in one eye, bullet-creased and bullet-pierced, weak and weary,
defeated for the moment, but he is not despairing.
He has another advantage in addition to his magically resilient body, .’.. , .
unparalleled stamina, and exhaustive knowledge of the killing arts.
Equally important, he possesses what he perceives to be great wisdom,
acquired from movie screens both public and private, and that wisdom
will ensure his ultimate triumph. He knows what he believes to be the
great secrets that the wisest people hide in concealed vaults, those