In
less than a day we were in LA, but Frank was exhausted from the long
flights. The six hour layover in
Chicago did not help matters. When
we got to the Shining East Buddhist Temple it pretty much looked like a building
in Mosul. That American
invention, yellow perimeter tape
with black letters stating “Crime Scene – Keep Out” was wrapped around the
perimeters using the street lights as fence posts was all around the
temple. Frank carefully pulled up
on the yellow tape and crawled under it.
I followed. There was no
police or any governmental official around.
“Wow,
some party” was all Frank said. He
walked up to the front entrance which was scorched from a fire that basically
destroyed the interior. It looked
very dark inside. Thankfully, Frank
did not decide to go in. It looked
very unsafe. I was surprised the
roof was still intact. The amount
of carbon compounds in the air was very high. I am sure Frank could smell the burnt
odor.
Frank
walked around to the back of the building to where there was a Buddhist
cemetery. When he peered in he
stopped and turned to me.
“Jack
come here and take some photos.
Also, who is that way over there?”
On
the far end of the cemetery was a man in black sitting on a broken bench. Frank’s human eyes could not make out
who it was, but with my digital eyes I could easily magnify and analyze. According to my specifications I can
zoom in 80X optically and then because of my 27,000 dpi sensors I can
electronically enlarge the image many times more than 80X. It was easy to do an Identification
protocol on this man in black.
“It
is Monsignor Angelo Pietro.”
“The fuck it is. Are you
sure?”
“99.9992% sir.
“What the hell is he doing
here?”
“I have no theories, Frank. Might I suggest we ask
him?”
“No, let’s just pull back and
keep an eye on him. With your eyes
we won’t miss a thing. We can go by
the rental car and still see him.”
From our car I could see the
Monsignor was taking photos or maybe videos of the damage. From the routs caused by car tires on
the lawn I surmised that much of the damage done to the funeral markers were
caused by vehicles being rammed into them.
That could not be done by public self driving cars. Only private vehicles with manual
override could do that. Those were
the only cars today that were capable of off road driving and only affluent
people had such vehicles.
“Frank, he is talking to someone
on his smartphone.”
“Can you hear or make out what
he is saying?”
“Yes. . . . ‘This is Angelo, I’m
at the Buddhist temple. . . . . . It is as I suspected. Totally uncalled for. . . . . . . . No..
. . . . . . . . . No, I don’t have a clue why they went postal. . . . . . .
Maybe. . . . . I don’t know. . . . . . The entire temple is burnt out, but I
will see if there is anything I can sample. . . . . Maybe so. . . . . I’ll see
you in a couple of days. I want to
talk to some of the congregation. . . . . . . Yes, one of the monks was killed.
. . . I’ll see if any of the others will talk to me. . . . . . Who knows. . . . . Okay,
Arrivederci.’ He has put his
smartphone back in his pocket, sir.
By the way, most of his conversation was in Italian so we might assume he
was talking to someone in the Vatican.”
“I wonder what the Vatican finds
so fucking interesting about a Buddhist temple that has gone crazy? That has got to be a connection with St.
Clara’s. We need to talk to the
same people he talks to so we can find out what happened here and why the good
Monsignor is so interested.”
“He is coming out towards the
street.”
“Scrunch down, let’s see if we
can tail him.”
The Monsignor went to a car and
sat in the front seat. A minute
later the car started down the street.
Frank ordered are car to follow the Monsignor’s vehicle. We continued to stay low so the
Monsignor would not recognize us.
Frank knew he wouldn’t notice as empty cars were often sent to fetch
people or packages. That is what
caused UPS to go bankrupt ten years ago.
After about ten minutes the Monsignor parked in the parking lot for
Beverly Hospital.
“Jack, I want you to follow
him. Be surreptitious about
it. See if you can record any
audio.”
“Yes sir. That should be easy.”
No one really notices
robots. Robots are used for nursing
and orderly duties all the time now.
And a personal robot would not raise an eyebrow, either. As I was dressed as a high functioning
robot, I could easily stand outside a patient’s room and just look blank while
my ultra sensitive hearing could easily record any conversations in a room. It was, as humans say, child’s
play. I followed him into the main
entrance area of the hospital.
While he asked for the room of Bishop Noritaki Ito I quickly bought a
bouquet of flowers to add purpose to my presence. From there we went up in the same
elevator to the sixth floor. I did
not have to worry about the Monsignor noticing I was Frank’s robot as I looked
on the outside like a million other robots in Los Angeles. However, I was not like some cheap
commercial robot with a business logo embossed on my forehead. That was not Frank’s or the Wall Street
Journal’s style.
Once out of the elevator I fell
back. If I lost him visually it
would be very easy to find him by his voice, his infrared signature or even by
scent. I had several options, but
then I had heard the room number so it was not likely I would need to fall back
on my sensors. Basically, I let him
arrive at the Ito’s room about twenty seconds before I got there. Then all I had to do was stand by the
door holding the flowers.
This is the audio I recorded –
The first voice was Monsignor
Angelo’s.
“Yes, I came all the way from
Rome. Thank you for seeing me. How long will you have to stay in
hospital?
“The doctors tell me I need
another surgery tomorrow to set my leg.
They did not have time to do that when they were dealing with my
fractured skull.”
“Bishop, I cannot imagine the
pain you must have been submitted to.
Can you tell me what started this calamity?”
“I am sorry, it is all a little
fuzzy to me. Everything was going
on smoothly for the festival. We
all enjoyed an outdoor picnic. More
than 300 attended. Several hours
after that some of the congregation started arguing and soon we had to break up
a couple of fights. In twenty years
I have never seen such a thing.”
“What were they fighting
about? I remember talking to John
Ho after we stopped him beating on Bobby Hiroto. He kept ranting about how Mr. Hiroto had
disrespected his family by not marrying his cousin.”
“I don’t understand fully. Did he violate her or breakup with
her?”
“No, the Ho and Hiroto family
had made a contract under the old traditions and Bobby when he became of age ran
off with a Westerner and shamed both families.”
“Do many families still do
arranged weddings?”
“No, most do not. We were a very Americanized
congregation. Of the over two
hundreds families we have as members no more than ten have pursued arranged
marriages. Anyway, we had to send
the two men home. It was most
embarrassing.”
“What happened
next?”
“More fighting. Everyone seemed angry. Women were fighting with other
women. People took sides. Then our assistant minister got in a
fight with three women. They had
told him that not all fathers are worthy of respect. They were sick and tired of his speeches
telling them to be good respectful wives.
When their husbands tried to stop them from verbally attacking Mr. Tasuki
it became a free-for-all. It was
soon after that I was injured.
Someone took to their car and started ramming people. I tried to stop them, but I over
reacted. I jumped on the car and
started banging with my shoe the car roof.
I don’t understand why I was so angry. The car took off and I fell. I don’t remember anything after
that. I have been told over sixty
people were hospitalized and twice as many as that had to have medical
help.
Several of the members have
visited me. They told me that it
turned into a riot and the temple was burned down.”
“I saw it. It was very sad to see. Why were the graves
attacked?”
“This is what I have only been
told. It quickly evolved to where
everyone became angry with their dead ancestors. They became enraged that their dead
parents and grandparents had lied to them.
They said there was no Buddha.
There is self and everything we see in the world is real. Nirvana was a lie by the monks and the
dead. Commemorative rites of the dead only enslave the
living. And so not only the temple
but the graves of the dead were attacked.”
“What
made them reject their faith in Buddhism?”
“I
don’t know.” After a long pause the
injured Bishop said, “I don’t know.
And to be honest Monsignor I don’t care. I no longer feel filled by the spirit of
Buddha. I don’t feel his spirit in
my veins or my heart. “
“So
what the congregation feels you feel, too?”
“Yes,
but for some reason I am not filled with the anger they have. I feel emptiness” said the Bishop in
barely a whisper.
“Will
you go back to your temple and rebuild?”
“No. Why would I?”
“Surely,
you cannot abandon what has given you a just life?”
“Was
it just?” asked the old monk.
“What
will you do?
“I
will find out what it is like to be me.
You sound worried, my religious friend. Do you worry that your religion
may die like mine?”
“Not
if I can help it. Man cannot turn
away from God and not pay a high price.
My mission is to save these precious souls for God. My God is a jealous
God.”
“So
I have heard. I never understood
why the Christian god had to be jealous if he was what he claimed to
be.”
“I
did not come to preach to you. I
wanted to know what happened. We
come from very different religions, but many of our goals are the same – to
bring salvation. Buddhism did it
through spiritualism. I respected
your efforts. I believe Christ will
judge you with mercy for your religion is one of peace.”
“Thank
you my young priest. There are many
of your faith you think we are just as damned as any not of their faith. But now I have no faith in
anything. I wish I could believe in
your God, but I feel as if all the idols have been smashed. Now I must find out where happiness
dwells for it is no longer in my soul.”
“Thank
you again. I will pray for you and
your people.”
I
could hear steps coming to the door so I immediately walked away from the door
in the direction I guessed the Monsignor would not take. Instead of the elevator I took the
stairs and hung back by the elevator door.
I saw the Monsignor walk out of the elevator and head for the parking
lot. I kept my distance and made my
way back to Frank to report.
He
had fallen asleep in the car, but woke up as soon as I opened the
door.
Frank
had the car follow the Monsignor again.
This time he went to a hotel and into room 202.
“Well
Jack, I’m tired. Wake me if the
Monsignor makes another move.”
As
usual Frank left the stake out up to me.
I guess that is to be expected as only a robot can be trusted to watch
day in and day out without pause.
Humans are no good at that.
They are distracted so easily.
Anyway about an hour later I saw the Monsignor come out and get into his
car. I ordered our car to follow
and then woke up Frank.
“Sir,
he is on the move.”
“Any
idea where we are going?”
“Not
at this point.”
After
about thirty minutes the Monsignor arrived at a Japanese Restaurant called the
Heavenly Palace. Frank thought it
would be too suspicious to send either of us into the restaurant. Unfortunately, wherever the priest went
inside the restaurant I could not hear him. “I think you will have to try and
interview this person after the Monsignor leaves, sir.” looking at Frank and
seeing him nod in agreement. It was
just then that we saw the priest fly out of the restaurant. I could see blood flowing out of a wound
on his right arm. Less than a
second later a Japanese youth came flying out with a very large knife.
Frank
barked at me, “Go Jack” but before he had finished this short sentence I already
had the car door open and proceeded to run over and intervene. By the time I reached the Monsignor and
his pursuer, the attacker had tackled the priest and then proceeded to beat the
crap out of him. It only took me a
second to restrain and drag away this very aggressive Japanese youth. Frank then arrived and started to help
the now unconscious priest. I
continued to hold the assailant and had called for the police and an
ambulance. The assailant was
yelling in Japanese that the priest was just as evil as the monks. Finally, the police came and took hold
of the assailant from me and so I went over to the Monsignor and helped
Frank. I put pressure on his
arm to stop the bleeding. The poor
man’s face looked a mess. Cuts and
bruising were all over his face. He
was breathing, but it was shallow.
Finally after a full five minutes the ambulance came and they immediately
took him away.
“Sir,
you look a mess” I told Frank. He
was covered in blood. Frank did not
care. “I’m going to talk to the
cops, Jack. It was kind of a mutual
interview. The cops asked Frank
what was going on. He played dumb
like he just happened to see that attack and had ordered his robot to stop the
attack. After the cop was done
taking Frank’s statement he came and asked me questions. I responded truthfully to his
questions. We robots don’t have a
choice like you humans do. However,
I did not volunteer any additional information which was easy to do since the
officer was unaware of the connection of the temple riot and an attack on a
priest.
After
that Frank went into the restaurant and used their bathroom to wash up as best
he could. He got plenty of stares
from the patrons, but oddly, no one asked any questions about the attack. After seeing what happened to a nosey
priest, Frank was not going to press his luck and ask any questions. Frank’s shirt was still rather bloody so
we took our car to our hotel.
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