Chapter 10 - Pleagos

Oliver called me a week after Ingrid's trial was over and he was already under house arrest and awaiting his court date.  He was relaxed and confessed to me everything that he was supposed to have joined Karl that day and likely would have been arrested and sentenced to death.  In a way, my call that day startled him as he at first thought I was an Artesian and had gotten some special instruction from Karl, however cryptic to await further orders that never came.

For nearly a decade he believed I was Karl's lieutenant and was waiting patiently for what would be the next move of the cause.  He nearly died laughing when he realized what a fool he had been all these years when he realized I was nothing of the sort and just a friend of Karl seeking an answer to something so meaningless.

But he thanked me all the same as the political climate is very different and instead of being shot as a traitor, he would spend the rest of his days in his gilded cage.  He did regret the fate of poor John who truly was the fool's fool in all of this.

I asked him what exactly are the Artesians and what are they seeking.  He paused and said, I am a big fool and felt John's death was the only real crime out of all of this and didn't wish to add me to that list.  The Artesians are now all dead, well except for Michael, Ingrid and himself, that would be the end of the cause and as the world still exists and the Politiburo continues to function, he confessed that it might have all been a lie anyway and Karl was nothing more than a con man who ruined so many lives.

Anything that was recorded went up in smoke in the Perkin's Home.  Karl had kept all of the movement's writings there and the switch was a fail safe that Oliver had Michael trigger that night.  He did so when he began to suspect I wasn't an Artesian.