(c) John, Rekesh 2004-2007. No part of this work may be copied or reproduced without the author's permission
8. Web
Aliyah recognizes various levels of evil, reflected in the habitat of a spider.
The spider had spun its gossamer web in a long series of agile movements. The web was built in a large orb that started from its outer edges, spiraling all the way to the center and terminating in a small networked platform, the hub, where the spider lurked, waiting for its prey. It knew by instinct that flies and insects frequented this location. The stench of rotting food and other wastes from the city drains were strong and attracted many denizens of the insect world into these dark alleys. Like the dark forces signified by its pattern, the spider was large, scary and loathsome in appearance. It avoided the light and preferred dark or shaded corners, and usually hunted in the night. Its eight dark and spiny legs and its eight eyes signified the dark ones’ allegiance to the forces of retribution. For the number eight represented the forces of reaction to action, of sowing and reaping, of that which caused the results of an action to ultimately impinge back, returning to the agent of causation. Even the shape of the numeral was comprised of two returning arcs or circles, the higher one signifying the return of good, and the lower one that of evil. The spider’s body itself had the same figure of-eight, with the lower circle often greatly emphasized.
And the spiral that started at the periphery of the web terminated at the spider, representing the downward spiral of spiritual degeneration that ended in utter destruction, the vital essences of a trapped and degenerated soul being ultimately absorbed into the dark ones, just as the spider sucked out the juices of its prey. In the successful hunter’s web was to be found the shriveled bodies of various insects, which ultimately fell down to the ground and decomposed into the body of the earth, for the spider’s mouth parts could not take in solid food but only the vital liquids of its prey. The dark ones too preyed on the vital energies of a trapped soul, and the soul stuff drained of all its organizing and sustaining energies was left to decompose away into the body of God. It took the light of spiritual discernment to recognize their complex webs of deceit, just as it took the glint of sunlight to reveal a spider web. The web itself, sticky, intricate, invisible and hovering in air, represented patterns of thoughts and emotions abetted and encouraged by the dark ones. These patterns compelled souls to indulge in certain activities which, when carried further, dragged them into an ever-accelerating downward spiral of destruction. The dark ones were exceedingly crafty and clever, and adept at spinning such elaborate, complex and invisible patterns of deceit.
And the spider waited motionlessly in its web with infinite patience, as though it knew that its prey would surely come.
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Aliyah had entered this South American country on a mission of personal importance. Paramount were her memories of Theo and the legacy he had left behind. The other was her association with a number of social welfare groups working with children and teenagers who were in need of counseling and support. Too often she had witnessed the literal devastation that resulted from the abuse of narcotic drugs, and such a pitiful wasting away of young lives had evoked both a deep compassion and a righteous anger within her. Combined with her feelings for Theo and the cause for his death, they had created in her a personal vendetta.
Her meticulous research on the trafficking and distribution of certain drugs had led her to a study of some major supply chains that originated in countries in the tropics. As a social worker with a reputed multi-national organization, she had asked for, nay, demanded, that she be assigned to this project. A project where she could get an opportunity to personally investigate drug abuse and its criminal origins, in a country she was determined to enter at any cost. This was quite a dangerous motive but none could dissuade her from following it through. Her decision also came from a simple guilelessness and a foolish innocence that often bestowed a kind of courage on her, creating a drive to explore grounds where others feared to tread.
The country was unlike anything she had seen before. Much of its population was poor, and yet there was blatant opulence displayed by those in power. The drug cartels ruled the country with their shadowy hands, like puppet masters. They had penetrated all aspects of government, from the legislature and the judiciary to the police and military forces. Even the churches and the news media were not left untouched. With billions of dollars being generated from the trafficking business and a population poor enough to cater to the trafficker’s demands, the drug lords and their hierarchies of henchmen had the country fully in their grip. And they maintained it by systematically bribing or destroying opposition, and resorting to violence and bloodshed, including mass murder. Even the highest office in the country was supposedly on their payroll and any who dared voice dissent or refused to cooperate were destroyed mercilessly.
There was little she could do in terms of exposing the political nexus with the mafia, for this was common knowledge among the populace. Her intent was to generate sufficient documentation that could highly escalate the perceived threat level originating from such countries. This, with sufficient lobbying, could help aggravate the foreign policies of various nations of the world toward these countries, forcing the political system to react and shake off the deeply entrenched tentacles of the drug mafia. But to do this she needed facts and statistics on drug volumes, the labor force, chemical plants, air fields, destinations, distribution networks and so on. And these she hoped to amass from field work and from interviewing various people at all levels, from peasants to politicians.
Surprisingly, the peasants were willing to talk and most of them seemed to support the drug cartels. Their cultivation and sale of their crops provided them with much higher profits than they could hope to gain otherwise. The drug lords had even pumped some of the money into social welfare programmes, such as constructing houses, building roads, and disbursing grants. All these gave them a veneer of legitimacy and they were seen by many as great benefactors. The disastrous effects of their trade, their penchant for violence and bloodshed, and their system of corruption and control were often overlooked.
While people in the labor force were willing to provide information, often based on gossip, those at higher levels offered little help and resisted all her attempts. And her colleagues in the news media always warned her of danger, for they had been persecuted too often for their efforts and many of their people had been murdered for going against the will of the mafia. The drug lords had a system of issuing contracts on targets that hit men or bounty hunters would take up in hope of collecting huge rewards. The contracts were often aimed at specific individuals among politicians, judges, newspaper editors, lawyers and so on, but at times they also targeted generic classes of officials such as the police. In such instances, rewards were offered by head count, making each and every member of the institution valid prey, with deadly consequences. Thus the drug lords had achieved total control of the system. There was little hope that Aliyah could achieve anything.