Blown for Good - Marc Morgan Headley [37]
At 8 p.m., Claudia came in to the office where I was grading someone’s tests and told me that I was approved! Holy shit, that was fast! I am really going. This is really happening. She said that I was going to be taken to my apartment to get my stuff and that I was going to be taken to the base tonight. I could only imagine how long it would take to get there, given I had no clue where the International Base was.
The location of Int was strictly confidential, no one actually spoke about where it was or anything about it for that matter. If you knew where it was or had been there and told anyone about this, you, along with anyone you told, would instantly be assigned to the Rehabilitation Project Force! For this reason, I had never really thought about its location, but figured it to be somewhere north of Los Angeles. Everyone always referred to it as “up” so I assumed it was north, maybe Sacramento or San Francisco. I had seen a few pictures of “Gold”, short for Golden Era Productions, and also known as the International Base, and everything was always so green. This, factored in with the “up,” Int must have been somewhere very green.
A black gal named Renee Norton met me in the clearance unit. She stood out because there were only about 10 black people that I had ever seen in Scientology, so I remembered that I had seen this woman around. She had a few gold bars on her shoulder boards and everyone was always calling her “Sir’. In the Sea Org you call any senior officer “Sir” regardless of their sex. Renee told me that she was the Supercargo Golden Era Productions and that she would be driving me to my new home at Gold.
We went to the parking lot across from the Hollywood Guaranty Building. She led me to a run-down Red Nissan Hatchback that sat parked in the lot. “Wow, this thing is going to make it all the way up to Int?” I hoped so.
We stopped by my apartment near the complex and grabbed my clothes and a few of my things. She said that the rest of my belongings would be packed up and sent to me in the next few days.
We got on the road and headed to Gold.
Chapter Six – Everything Counts
We got on the freeway and took the 101 to the 10! We’re heading east. I wondered where the hell we are going. After a while I recognize the route as the same way I had been to Big Bear once or twice before. Was Gold in Big Bear?
After two hours, I suddenly woke up as we came up on a huge blue and yellow lighted sign that said Golden Era Productions in huge letters and had a crawling red digital readout below it. For a super secret place it did not seem so secret. If you drove by and did NOT see the sign, I would say that you were definitely visually impaired.
We pulled up to a guard booth that had a security guard in it. Renee said that she had “Marc Headley” with her. They look at a list in the booth and let us pass through.
Renee said that we had to go to Motor Pool and wash the car. Part of me is wondering what the hell she just said and the other part knows what she said and is wondering why the hell we are washing this heap at midnight?
We pulled into a parking spot near a huge garage and sure enough, she grabbed a hose. We made little effort to actually clean the car but went through the motions, the car was wet. She told me that I needed to meet with Ray McKay. He was going to be my buddy and tell me what to do. But right now, I needed to catch the bus to the barracks, or as we knew it, berthing. She gave me an apartment number and told me where the buses were leaving from, which would be my next ride.
I made my way towards where the buses would be and noticed a ton of other people heading in the same direction.