Chapter 27 - Smoke and Mirrors

In the hallway of the small house was a bookcase filled with reading material. There were paperback books, hard back books, magazines, sections of newspaper, spiral-bound notebooks and various other forms of paper with writing on it. There did not seem to be a system to the organization of the bookcase. It was just a mass of material.
Jack selected a small book hidden among the larger volumes. The title said that it was a field manual for air conditioning maintenance and repair. On the cover of the book was a 1950’s style drawing that showed a friendly looking, bright smiling man dressed in a crisp blue service uniform with an official hat to match. Next to the service man’s head was a dialogue bubble that pointed at the character’s mouth and read “Freon is For Fuckheads.” Apparently, this book wasn’t what it seemed, thought Jack as he flipped the book over to see if there was anything written on the back.
The only item on the back of the book was a finely printed line near the bottom that indicated that the book was printed by Killer Bee Publishing.
Jack opened the manual and began reading the table of contents, all of which indicated that this was some type of political propaganda put out by some group wishing to convince people that their unnatural use of natural resources could one day wind up wiping out all life on planet Earth.
On page 37 was a picture of a happy family of four, smiling cheerfully at the reader while the picture showed their hands and feet bound by rough looking rope and their bodies strapped to the front of a large vehicle being driven very fast by a large barrel of oil. It looked to Jack like the manual was a collection of political cartoons and short articles explaining political arguments related to environmental causes.
Jack was amused, but set the book down and browsed some of the other material on the bookshelf. There was a large dictionary and a brochure for a set of steak knives. One of the magazines was a National Geographic magazine with a large and colorful close-up photograph of the sun. The space surrounding the sun was black and empty. The sun itself was a massive, continual explosion with loops and jets of fire leaping from random areas on the surface. Jack brushed his finger over the cover half-expecting it to be hot to the touch. He set the magazine back on the shelf and examined a box in the top corner of the top shelf and reached up to grab it.
The box was black and made of heavy card board. He blew dust off of the top of the box and slowly opened it. Inside was a small envelope that he picked up. Inside the envelope was a set of safety deposit box keys and an aged, yellowing piece of paper that had the name of the bank.