Free Dominatus by D. W. Ulsterman

going to be fully prepared.  I’ve been fully prepared. We have the cave on standby.  Worst case, that’s where I imagine a bunch of us will end up and from there…who knows?  If pushed, I’ll be putting up a fight, that’s for sure.”
     
    Voices rose up in protest, and again Mac waited for them to quiet down.  One of the loudest came from a tall, thin woman with graying blonde hair that clung to the sides of her narrow face before spreading across the tops of her shoulders.
     
    “That guest of yours brought trouble here Mac.  This is YOUR responsibility and YOU need to fix this.  Apologize for what happened yesterday and hand him over to the authorities and be done with it.  It’s not fair for you to bring this kind of trouble to us.  Not fair at all!”
     
    Mac pointed to the woman before responding.
     
    “If we hand him over to the New United Nations, why not hand you over too Stacy?  How many compliance violations are you involved in every day of your life up here?  Is that what we are about?  Isn’t that the kind of world we left when we made Dominatus our home?”
     
    The woman Mac called Stacy remained undeterred in her anger.
     
    “Bullshit Mac!  Bullshit!  You brought him up here and now we have Carol saying that they’re coming for us.  All of us!  That people are going to be killed!  Your behavior in this…all of this, it’s dangerous.  It’s unacceptable!  This place could be crawling with them by tomorrow.  And it’s your fault Mac!  Your fault!”
     
    Dr.  Miller took a few steps toward the stage and similar to Mac, raised his hands to ask for silence. 
     
    “Please everyone, we all know how much Mac has done to keep us safe over the years. While I don’t condone his behavior yesterday - you’re right to be concerned over that, Stacy, we are not about to turn people over to the N.U.N office simply because they came up here to visit our home.  If that is what we have become, then the reason for all of us coming here no longer exists.  And we have all known that some day they would try to shut us down…they threatened it just last year.  So please, let’s not eat our own out of fear.  We are better than that.  At least I pray we are better than that.”
     
    Mac gave Dr. Miller a grateful nod and then continued.
     
    “As I said, you have a choice about how much you want to prepare for worst-case.  Or you can leave.  That’s always an option as well.  Doctor Miller is right, we’ve been threatened before.  Many times.  And so far we’ve come out ok.  Maybe this time will be different – maybe not.  I just don’t know. None of us do.”
     
    As the chorus of angry voices rose to fill the hall, drowning out Mac’s own attempts to speak, the door once again opened and the slight and bent figure of a very old man shuffled inside, his left handing holding onto the right arm of an attractive, olive-skinned woman of thirty or so years of age.  The sight of his entrance quickly quieted the room, as all eyes turned to face the most recent arrivals to the morning’s meeting.
     
    Mac looked to me and was able to understand my question without my having so speak it.  He nodded his head slightly and then turned himself to follow the steps of the man and much younger woman as they made their way to the stage.
     
    The Old Man had arrived.
     
    Those gathered in the hall moved as one toward the Old Man, gently reaching their hands out to touch him as he slowly passed by.  The scene was one of near total reverence – almost messianic.  As for the Old Man, I knew his real name, having been told it by my father some years ago.
     
    Alexander David Meyer was the last living member of a once-great global financial institution that dated back almost two hundred years – a family whose personal fortune was valued at nearly twenty billion dollars by the end of the 20 th Century.  In a world of secrets, power, and influence, Alexander Meyer had ranked among its