Frank was the first to open his eyes. It was now 6:50 in the morning and he
slowly opened his eyes and stared at the Princess’s sleeping face. I am sure he must have noticed the
bruised tissue about her right eye.
Slowly he stroked her hair.
Even in the early morning light it was glossy and very graceful in the
way it draped her face. Frank had
often said he was always amazed at how beautiful a woman looked in the morning
compared to men who always looked like they just came off a battlefield. Very soon the Princess also opened her
eyes. She took Frank's hand and
held it. She peered into his eyes
like she was looking for the answer to every question that had ever been asked
by a woman. Frank returned her gaze
as if he had every answer she sought.
Finally, Frank kissed her on her forehead
and repositioned himself so he was sitting up.
“Jack, he said in a quiet voice, I want you
to run out to Waitrose and pick up two Danish. Buy a pint of cream, too. In fact, if they have an English
breakfast take-out buy that.”
I moved the dresser and slipped out the
door. I can’t account for what
happened when I was gone, but Frank was in the shower and the Princess just laid
quietly in bed. I put down all the
breakfast items and moved the dresser back. I wasn’t sure when Frank would have me
stop barricading the room. After a
few minutes Frank came out with a towel around him and fished through the bags
for some underwear. Once he was
dressed he went over to the Princess and said, “Do you want to get up and have
something? Maybe you can tell me how you got that shiner.”
The Princess rallied herself and came over
and sat by the table and poured herself a cup of Drop Dead.
“What do you think happened?” she
asked.
“My best guess is you were discovered
messing with the Cirrus flight plan by either your diabolical husband or one of
his security goons.”
“That was pretty much it. I have never seen
him so angry. He said all the
questions from those pods being deployed when the plane was not having an
emergency would cause him a lot of problems. He dragged me to my bedroom and put a
guard outside the door. He kept me
in there until ten last night.
Finally, he had me come down and eat with him. He went on about how he thinks you are
out to ruin him with unfounded accusations that you think he is some kind of
Frankenstein monster. He was very
incensed by that. He kept talking
about how many lives he has saved, which is true. He has done a lot of good, Frank. I didn’t dare defend you and I certainly
didn’t dare accuse him of being behind the religion
stuff.”
“So you put two and two together?” Frank
said with a serious face.
“Yes, after tagging along for that tour and
your being held incognito I knew there must be a connection. Frank, you have no idea how big that
laboratory is in Finland. It is
over seven floors underground. You
only saw part of two floors,” she said as a tear came out of her bruised eye and
rolled slowly down her cheek.”
“I guessed as much. I have no idea how to stop him. Who would believe me? And even if I
could convince a government to do something, he could deploy this nano-shit
before the ink was dry on the order to arrest him.”
“He did mention one thing. He says he needs to get his depression
product on the market because he needs the cash flow. He has sunk all his cash into
Finland.”
“So we do have some time, unless he was
trying to feed you bullshit.”
“Frank, I think you are in danger. If you were dead that would solve a lot
of problems. They would have to
turn your friend here into a paper weight, but then they would have no one on
their tail.”
“You forget the Monsignor. He would figure it out
eventually.”
“Maybe, have you told him what you
know?”
“Not yet,” Frank said with a scowl, “I’m
hoping to see him today.”
“I’m not sure the Church is in any position
to offer much help. I can’t see the
Swiss Guard in their blue and yellow tights storming
Finland.”
“Frank agreed by saying, “They're not what
they used to be.”
I had to speak up at this moment, “Frank
there is someone coming down the hall with a very heavy and determined
step. We may have a
visitor.”
“God, I hope it is the
Monsignor.”
Right after that there was a sharp knock on
the door. Frank and I moved the
dresser and he opened the door. I
think he was surprised when a left hook caught him in his right
eye.
Frank engaged the enemy. He was not one to avoid a fight. The enemy was none other than Sir
Terrance Lutts. I would have to say
he got a lucky punch due to the element of surprise. It did not take Frank long to take the
wind out of Sur Lutts, as well as leaving him with a rather bloody mouth. Frank finally pushed him away and said,
“What the fuck do you think you are doing?”
Breathing heavily, Sir Terrance wiped his
mouth with his sleeve and said, “I think I should be the one asking that
question, Mr. Huntington.”
The Princess was still just wearing a
blouse and her slip, but that didn’t stop her from telling her husband to stop
acting like a madman.
“If you would like to know, she came
because she is not too sure you’re sane.”
“I’m the most sane man in the world,
Huntington,” he said sitting down on the bed. He was still catching his breath.
“Fuck you are. Do you think the world will thank you
after you have fucked with our minds?”
“Probably. If they know, but I still hope to not
have them know. You’ve seen Old
Jerusalem. Do you think they give a
shit if they knew I did it?”
“No, you pretty much turned them into
smiling zombies.” Frank said with derision.
“That is not true. You will find out that they can still be
angry, just not about religion.
They control their lives just as they did before, with one
exception.”
“What, pray tell is that?” Frank asked with
a sneer.
“They are no longer a slave to some hateful
god. They have to be their own
moral compass.” Lutts said forcefully.
“Do you really think they are free?” Frank
asked with disgust.
“As free as they ever were or ever could
be. If freedom exists it exists for
very few of us. Most of humanity
are prisoners of their silly irrational culture.” Lutts spit out some blood onto the floor
and then continued, “You think for yourself, Huntington, but don’t you realize
you are a product of your American culture?”
“So what? Everyone has behaviors and ideas that
come from their culture. No man is
an island, except maybe you. Not
everything that shapes us is bad.
We are humans and there is a lot of crap that can either kill us or bring
unhappiness. All most of us are
trying to do is live as happy a life as we know how. Sure, most people are idiots when it
comes to critical thinking, but they have every right to their life as you
do.”
“I’m not killing them,” Lutts said with a
look of disdain.
“What about those nuns who killed
themselves?” the Princess said forcefully.
“Yes, that was disappointing, but with all
medical breakthroughs there is always the chance of people dying. Some end up in the control group, but
that is how science must work. It
is unfortunate, but when compared to all the people who die of a disease before
a cure is found, it is nothing.
Science has saved millions from dying from diseases. Religion is one more fucking disease
that needs to be cured.”
“You don’t get it. You have the means to do anything to our
minds. What damn thing are you
going to force on humanity next?” Frank said after standing up
again.
“Nothing. I know my limits. As an atheist I fully support human
rights.”
“And you think you can keep the genie in
the bottle?” Marianne asked him.
“Yes.”
Frank shook his head and said, “You are
more stupid than I thought. Show me
any example in history where technology was successfully kept bottled
up?”
Marianne got up at that and said with
contempt, “You can’t even keep me under control. Even though I realize you must have used
your damn nano crap on me.” And
with that she walked over to her husband and attacked him with her nails. She caught him by surprise and the blood
started flowing down his cheeks.
Frank pulled her away when he saw that Lutts was going to punch her
out. After Frank did that, Lutts
decided to take aim at Frank and flayed him with his fists like a crazy
man. Frank took one step back and
then gave him a solid punch in the stomach. Lutts went down. A moment later vomit started coming out
of his bloody face.
“Grab your coat. Jack, we are leaving immediately.” Frank
said as he wiped blood off his hands on the bed sheet.
I grabbed as many bags of clothing as I
could and we left for the elevator.
Frank pushed the down button like his life depended on it. The elevator door finally opened and
standing there was Monsignor Angelo Pietro dressed in a business
suit. Frank and Marianne quickly
went into the elevator and Frank pushed for the first floor.
This unexpected invasion of his
elevator caught the Monsignor by surprise so it took a second for the penny to
drop.
Princess! Mr. Huntington! I was just coming to see you, Mr.
Huntington. Is that blood on your
sleeve?” asked the surprised priest.
Frank gave him a weak smile and
said, “Yup, this is the aristocratic blood of Sir Terrance
Lutts.”
“You hit him?” the Monsignor
asked in an even more surprised tone.
“We left him in Frank’s room
sprawled on the floor. He’s a
bloody mess,” the Princess explained.
Just before the door opened up
to the lobby, Frank asked the
Monsignor, “Where are you staying?”
“I’m just down a block from
here.”
“Good enough. Let’s head over to your
place.”
No one said anything as they walked down
the street. It was a busy street and a busy time of day. Brits were walking with a purpose. It was time to go to work. In the streets the taxis outnumbered the
private cars and they all had to dodge the classic red double decker buses. They no longer had the faretaker with
his black uniform or the bus driver that would never wait for someone running
down the street. Everything was
robotic. Identification cards were
linked to your bank and read automatically. In New York they still would take cash,
although most paid with their smartphones.
The Monsignor’s hotel was rather
nondescript. It was one of those
Indian run places that were inconspicuous and that is what the Monsignor wanted
considering his line of work for the Vatican. Rather than wait for the lift which was
always being hogged by the cleaning staff with their carts, we walked up the two
flights of stairs. It was a small
room with only one chair. The
Monsignor beckoned the Princess to take it and Frank and the Monsignor sat on
the double bed. I put all the bags
I had brought on a small table and on the floor.
“Jack, go see if you can rustle up some ice
and real glasses for drinks. All I
see are those paper thin plastic glasses.
I think we all could use a good drink” Frank said to me without making
eye contact. He was looking over
the room and the Monsignor.
“I am sorry the room is not much” the
Monsignor explained, I try to keep a low profile when I am working on secret
tasks for the Church” the Monsignor said as a matter of
fact.
I got up and went back out onto the
street. The Waitrose we had stopped
at was just a half block back and I knew they would have a bag of ice and some
real glasses. I also picked up a
bottle of wine in case the Monsignor and the Princess did not wish to drink
Frank’s strong American liquor.
When the Princess let me back into the room
Frank was explaining to the Monsignor his adventure in Finland and on the Cirrus
T-80. He spent several minutes
explaining how he figured out that the new technology that Lutts was going to
release to the world to cure depression was the very same technology needed to
destroy religion. When he explained
the use of nano-capsules to deliver the genetic material that would change the
brain.
“Ah” the Monsignor ejaculated, “that is why
we could not find any trace. We
were looking for a drug or retro-virus and he was using something far smaller
than that. I’m going to assume
these nano-capsules are made of carbon and would show up as inert clutter in the
blood, if they showed up at all.
You would have to be looking for them and no one had a clue to do
that.”
“Yes, that is true, Monsignor. He could have Old Jerusalem drowning in
those things and no one would have seen them.”
Frank then went back to his time in the
plane. The Monsignor only comment
was he had never heard of a jet being used as a prison. The nice thing about it is that he could
blame the predicament on an error in programming. Anyone who was unfamiliar with how
planes are set up with flight plans would think it was plausible. Plus he could always blame an underling
and claim he never had a thing to do with the plane flight to nowhere.
Finally, Frank brought it back to the
conversation and fight he just had with Lutts.
“And so you see, Monsignor, we need to
figure out how to stop this madman.
He controls a very large organization. I can’t say for sure that all these
nano-capsules are in Finland. For
all I know he could be having them spread all over the earth. It will be the perfect crime. Even if I reveal to the world his plan
after they wake up atheists they will feel so good that they will be sending him
chocolates. In fact, now that I
think about it, this depression product will probably be unnecessary after he
kills religion.”
“No”, Marianne interjected, “He has
mentioned to me several times he needs the income from this depression
treatment. He may not be over
charging the world for it but there are millions of people who will clamor to
try it. Maybe we have more time
than we thought?”
“How much time?” asked the
Monsignor.
“I bet no more than six months if he rolls
the treatment out worldwide,” Frank said while rolling the ice around his
glass.
Frank got up and threw his ice cubes in the
sink that was in the room and refilled his glass with Jack
Daniels.
“Once the money starts rolling in, he will
start producing the quantities he needs to zap religion,” the Monsignor
concluded.
“Meanwhile my life is in danger and I don’t
have a clue how we can stop him,” Frank said forcefully. He slammed down his glass as a visual
explanation point. I was surprised
to see the Princess jolted by the loud noise of Frank’s glass.
“This is beyond the resources of the
Church,” the Monsignor said while letting his body slump on the bed.
“I wonder how many in his organization know
what he is up to?” Frank said out loud in a tone that almost sounded like he was
just thinking out loud to himself.
There was silence in the room for about a
minute. Suddenly, the Princess
said, “Only one. Terrance’s
assistant, Dr. Amy Larson. She
would be the only one to know.
Terrance would be honest to her because she would be smart enough to
figure it out on her own. Everyone
else would be working on a piece without knowing the purpose of the whole. Just look at the labs in Finland. Each had a specific project. Only when you combined all three do you
get a cure for depression – or a cure for religion. Dr. Larson has the run of the place, she
would figure it out in a minute.”
“Holy Mary, Mother of God!” Monsignor said
while shaking his head.
“If she knows what is going on why doesn’t
she stop him?” Frank asked the Princess.
“I don’t know. She is an odd one. I can’t make her out. I’m not sure she knows she is a
woman. She works non-stop,
literally. Terrance has told me he
envies her ability to only sleep twenty minutes a day. She only takes one break a month for two
days when she flies back to her mother in Edinburgh.”
“When is her next break?” Frank
asked.
“Funny you should ask. It is always the third weekend of the
month. Terrance says statically it
is the slowest time of the month for business.”
“It’s the same in the news cycle, too. Journalists are always saying there is
nothing but car accidents and cats up trees during the third week of the
month. I’ve always took it as a
myth. I need to talk to this
chick. Fat chance of doing that at
the lab since Frankenlutts wants me out of the way.”
“Well, it is happens to be only three days
away” the Monsignor said with a smile to Frank.
“I think we all need to go to Edinburgh,”
Frank said returning that smile.
The Princess continued to speak in a tone
as if she was speaking out loud to herself, “My husband never does anything big
while Dr. Larson is away, so we know that is another bit of intelligence that we
have some time. He won’t do a
product launch without her about.
He has set the publicity date to be when she is gone. That is why you were asked to come
because he thought he could give you the background so when he made the
interview circuit your story about the Finnish lab and the discovery would run
at the same time. She never takes
part in the publicity. Not her cup
of tea. But now he can’t depend on
you to be his background man, Frank.
What are you going to do?”
“This is too big a charge to make against
your husband without real solid proof.
If I could get the research data from his computers that would be
enough. But I’ve got
jack.”
“Yes Sir, you do have me. Can I do something for you?” I
asked.
Everyone started laughing for some
reason. It only took me a second
after the laughter started before I surmised what Frank really meant by the
phrase, “I’ve got jack.” Every
million sentences or so I still make a mistake on meaning. Language can be so difficult to cipher,
especially when you have to factor in body language and humor. My failure rate to understand what is
said is still 70% lower than human miscomprehension. People have killed each other from not
understanding what was said.
After a pause, the Princess went back to
her thinking out loud mode, “I can’t go with you, Frank, to Edinburgh. I don’t relate to her and she barely
acknowledges my existence. I’m just
a fluffy princess to her. My
husband was furious at my interfering, but he did let me go. He knows I fly off to London or New York
on any little impulse. I need to
fly off in order to show him I am back at my Princess lifestyle. I will go back to Maidstone while Dr.
Larson is away. I can try and get
you the proof you need. I’m no
hacker and it is probably a long shot.
Security is very tight everywhere, even in the castle. I’ll probably be wasting my
time.”
“If I could come along, Princess, I might
be of help. I might be able to
bring a gadget or two that can help get into a computer. You could say you invited me to work on
some project to help the poor,” the Monsignor said while toying with the silver
cross hanging from a watch bob on his expensive vest.
“Perfect” Frank said, “we all now have
parts to play to try and stop Lutts.
Now all we need to do is try not to get ourselves killed. Are you sure you’ll be safe, Princess,
after what happened in my hotel room?”
“Terrance will hear about me tearing around
New York. He will realize I don’t
want to make a big deal out of this.
I think I will be alright.”
“I wish I could help tear up New York with
you, but I best be incognito until I see Larson” Frank said while reaching out
for her hand.
The Princess gave a weak smile back to
Frank, but it was obvious to me she was not interested in hopping into bed right
now. She was truly worried that she
was in over her pretty little head.
“Gentlemen, I think it is time to
separate. Monsignor, I will meet
you here in three days. Good luck,
Frank” she said softly and then got up without another word and
left.
Frank got up and filled his glass again,
“Well Padre, do you think we can save the world?”
“Not even Jesus Christ was able to save
everyone, Senor Frank” the Monsignor said slowly shaking his
head.
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