Wilson checked his watch. Within minutes, they would be landing at St. John’s to refuel. If he was going to do something, it had to be then. Wilson knew Forrest had Melissa. That’s why she wasn’t at her desk. Like him, her cover had been blown. Melissa would have stood a better chance at getting close to Donna, but she would never agree to help Forrest. She would die first, which was probably what was going to happen if it hadn’t already. It had been four hours since Wilson left D’Netics. From experience, he knew what Forrest did to dissenters, but he couldn’t risk helping Melissa until he could find a non-traceable hotspot.
The guard sitting beside Wilson was fast asleep, but Wilson knew if he tried to use his cell phone to send a message to Sir Richard, Forrest would find out. But… if he used his cell phone to type out a draft email and sent that to his Nexus, via his Bluetooth connection that obstacle could be avoided. Once they landed at St. John’s, Wilson had to come up with a reasonable excuse to get inside the terminal. The question was what. Think old man! Think! His eyes twinkled. That’s it! Use your old body and your age to your advantage.
Wilson quickly typed out a short email and sent it to his Nexus, concealed in his inside pocket. He set his tablet up so all he would have to do was get to a free hotspot and hit send. His only hope was that Sir Richard would get the message and take him seriously. If he didn’t, they were all doomed. Wilson was not going to betray Donna or the promise he’d made to her mother. The only loose ends were Linda and the diary. At this point, his life didn’t matter, but Linda’s and the diary did. It would speak beyond the grave, revealing the nasty dark secrets that few knew.
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“So it’s settled then,” Jared prompted. “After this, no more D’Netics for you?”
“I can’t see that I have a choice, especially if Mr. Forrest finds out I helped. I’ll have to leave the country,” she laughed.
“You don’t need to leave the country, sweetheart. You just need to move to Wickenburg with me.”
“And what am I going to do about Mama? Jared, she’s confused enough as it is.”
Jared finished his pizza and cleaned his hands. He checked the time on his cell phone. “It doesn’t look like our friendly hacker is gonna deliver this time. He’s got fifteen minutes, and I’m going in whether he’s sent the program or not.”
Juanita studied Jared’s eyes. “With what you showed me back at my apartment, I doubt we’ll need Gary’s help.”
Jared smiled his sexy smile; the one that made women’s hearts melt. “You certainly took that better than I’d expected you to. Now do you understand why Nano and I may have problems?”
Juanita chuckled. “If he senses what’s inside you, he’ll shit himself silly. Nano hates dogs. You’ll never see him. He’ll cower in my room for the rest of his life. Donna is really a lucky woman to have someone like you.”
Jared tucked his chin and swallowed hard. “She’s not too lucky sweetheart. According to what Gary said, she’s found the strength to move on. Anyway… even if she does, I’m not giving up. Not until I’ve had a chance to explain and she tells me to my face to go away. Then… I’ll give up.”
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“Sir Richard sat back in his chair and sighed in exasperation. “No one knows anything about Kevin Wilson. He could be anywhere. The idea of him having a change of heart was just wishful thinking.”
There was a knock on the door. “Dad… it’s me. Are you guys in there?”
John glanced at Sir Richard, who nodded. “Yeah, Ricky. Come on in. What’s up?” John responded.
Richard pushed the door open. “Have you had any luck locating Missy?”
“Close the door behind you,” Sir Richard said. “Where are Sam and Donna?”
“Cuddled up on the settee, reading. They’ve done a lot of that recently.”
John grinned. “What? The cuddling or the reading?”
“Both,” Richard sighed.
Gary softly chuckled. “Do I detect the green-eyed monster?”
Richard slumped in the chair next to John. “It looks as if I’ve lost this battle. She obviously finds Sam more to her liking than someone who could give her everything.”
Sir Richard raised an eyebrow. “Sometimes everything to one is nothing to someone else. There are more important things than money and power, Ricky.”
Richard snorted. “Yeah – well – I’ve never had this problem before.”
Sir Richard’s email notification chimed. He glanced at the subject and the sender, narrowing his eyes. “Is this a prank?”
Gary turned in his chair. “What is it?”
“An email Kevin Wilson sent a few seconds ago.”
John’s attention peaked. “What does it say?”
Sir Richard read it out. “‘Forrest has Missy. Her time is running out. He wouldn’t risk taking her to his Cross Lake mansion. Check penthouse first, but be prepared. He’ll have guards. Forrest knows where Donna is. He sent me to bring her back. She has what he needs. I’m willing to help, but I need Linda out of the country. I have to be at the Savoy in six hours to answer the phone or else. If you don’t want to help me, fine. Just get Missy and Linda out. Once Forrest realises I’ve betrayed him, he’ll go after Linda. Trip, he has drugs. Drugs that will destroy Missy’s mind, if they haven’t already. Ask Donna about EIA.’”
John clenched his teeth. “The fucking bastard!” he hissed. “What in the hell is EIA and why don’t we know about it?” he asked, turning his attention to Sir Richard.
Sir Richard groaned and shoved a hand through his thinning hair. “I guess we’ll have to follow his advice and ask Donna about EIA. We need Jared’s help too, but how do we keep Donna from finding out Jared and Juanita are involved?”
Richard frowned. “Jared is involved? I thought he wasn’t allowed to have contact with us.”
“Not us, Ricky – Donna.”
“Well, I would have preferred he stayed out of our affairs,” Richard grumbled.
Sir Richard held up a hand. “I made the decision to ask Jared for help. Now, if you want to be involved, stop beating your chest, Ricky. John get some people over to Wilson’s house. Have them go in under the assumption that Forrest has already moved in on Linda. If we play this right, we can kill two birds with one stone. While one team is working on the problem at D’Netics, the other team can be dealing with Linda Wilson. With any luck, we can get them both out on the same flight. Gary, is our new version of ‘Dessert’ ready?”
“Just sent a copy to Jared.”
“Has he got it?”
“Yes, but I would have felt a lot better if he had one of our phones. At least we would know the line was secure.”
“He’s not even part of Triplet International,” Richard responded. “Jared didn’t want to be part of Triplet International! I tried to recruit him when I was there. He flat out refused. Do you think it’s safe to give him a piece of our advanced technology? Especially technology we plan on using when we move to the complex?”
“Ricky, for Gary and Donna’s sakes, I think we should start trusting Jared more. He can be an arrogant asshole at times, I will admit, but he’d never let us down. He walked away from Donna to protect her. Would you have done that?”
Richard opened his mouth to speak, but stopped, sighed and tucked his chin.
“That’s what I thought,” Sir Richard continued. “Find a way to get one of our phones to Jared, and possibly Juanita, too. Arrange the thing at the Savoy.” he said, turning to John. “Gary, since Jared feels more comfortable talking to you, tell him our plans. If he’s willing, we may be able to use some of his security to help with getting Linda Wilson out. I’m going to go talk to Sam and Donna and see if I can find out if she knows anything about EIA.”
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Not knowing what to expect, Sir Richard loudly entered the lounge. Just to be sure he didn’t catch them in a compromising position, he paused at the doorway. Sam was stretched out on his back with Donna’s head resting on his shoulder. One hand gently stroked the back of her head; the other held his Kindle. Donna was on her side with her back against the sofa, and her Kindle in her other hand. Both were engrossed in their reading; not the scene Sir Richard expected to see. He cleared his throat and tapped on the doorframe. “Excuse me,” he said, stepping into the room. Sam and Donna sat up. Sir Richard sat beside Donna and turned to face her. “Petal, what can you tell me about EIA?”
Donna’s mouth dropped open. Her eyes widened. “A drug, Sir Richard, an inhumane monster. It was one of Forrest’s mind control projects that I refused to help him, and the government develop. Mr. Wilson assured me it would be scrapped. Originally, it was supposed to be controlled by the Department Of Defence. They planned to use it to extract information from terrorists. I rejected it after I saw how unpredictable and unstable, the results were.”
Sir Richard let out a long sigh of exasperation. “Unless Wilson is lying to me, the project wasn’t scrapped.”
“What?”
“Kevin Wilson has confirmed that Forrest has Missy. He also mentioned EIA. Donna, what does EIA stand for?”
Donna’s face paled. “Is Mr. Wilson implying that Forrest used EIA on Missy?”
“If I’m to take his email seriously – yes. It seems that’s what he’s doing. What does it stand for, petal?”
Donna swallowed hard. “Euphoric Induced Amnesia.”
Sam frowned. “Would that be something like a super version of MDMA?”
“Yes,” Donna replied, “Methylenedioxymethamphetamine.”
Sir Richard looked confused when Donna spouted off the scientific name for the psychotropic drug Ecstasy. Sam chuckled. “Now you know why we use acronyms.”
Donna softly smiled. “They do come in handy.”
“If Forrest has used EIA on Missy, what will it do to her and how would you treat it?”
“The name is a little misleading. EIA can be used two different ways. One way, as Sam has suggested is through extreme pleasure. The other puts the test subject through a living nightmare – literally. If you can imagine a recurring dream of your worst fears – mine, of course being spiders – that’s what the person experiences. So, if you take that into account, you can imagine what the test subject would experience through extreme pleasure.”
“One hell of an orgasm,” Sam chuckled.
Donna’s cheeks showed some colour. “That’s one way of putting it. While the test subject is – so to speak – high, one way or the other, their frontal lobe is wide open to whatever information you choose to embed there. It goes way beyond the effects of LSD or cocaine. If you were to expose someone repeatedly, it could lead to madness and permanent brain damage.”
“You said the results were unpredictable, sweetheart,” Sam spoke up. “What did you mean by that?”
“In a few rare cases, residual engrams caused the test subject to develop schizophrenia. Those particular test subjects could be conned into believing anything. With most people, the effects were temporary – wore off – but with a few, they became permanently locked in a state of subliminal suggestion. They would kill without question. They had no morals. I don’t know who did it, but someone put it in Forrest’s head that it was possible to genetically collect these residual engrams and implant them into compatible hosts. He wanted to create mindless killing machines and sex slaves. I think that’s one of the reasons he took such a dislike to me. I said no! It seems he found someone who said yes.”
Sir Richard studied Donna’s eyes. “What about the death gene project? If Forrest has used EIA on Missy could it reverse the damage?”
“Yes, if I get what I need to develop a vector,” she responded without question. “Richard and Gary were on the right path. They just used the wrong vector.”
“What vector do we need?”
Donna looked at Sam and swallowed hard. “HIV1,” she said, turning her attention back to Sir Richard. “I need an active sample of the HIV1 virus, Sir Richard. The HRV-A virus, better known as the common cold, is never going to serve as a suitable vector. To make this work, we have to insert two genetic sequences at the same time. Either of these on its own could be detrimental. HRV-A will only infect, at most, thirty percent of the cells it comes in contact with. Of this thirty percent, some cells get only one of the sequences and either dies or develops into carcinoma.”
“She’s right about that, Sir Richard,” Sam interjected. “Our experiments were only successful when we did them on simpler animals. When we tried them on vertebrates, our success rate dropped to near zero.”
Donna frowned. “Well what did you expect? According to my calculations the best you could hope for is a twenty-seven percent cell success rate. In more complex organisms, such as vertebrates, it’s more likely to kill the cell, or trigger rapid cell growth. The HRV-A virus simply cannot withstand the vertebrate immune system. It has proven to be one of the most successful viruses only because it mutates so rapidly and doesn’t kill its host. To accomplish our aims, we need something much more deadly which infects more of the cells before the immune system can identify it. We need a retro-virus.”
“HIV1? Wouldn’t that be too risky, Donna?” Sir Richard was incredulous.
“If you don’t know how to handle it, then yes. I’m not saying we use it live, per say. I’m talking about a genetically altered version. One in which the dangerous parts have been removed and reprogrammed. It would attack the entire body not just part of it. HIV1 can disguise itself against T-cell immunity. We use it to carry the code we want to modify. It enters the bloodstream, attaches itself to the cells with CD4 receptor molecules thereby entering the cell, and injects its genetic programming.”
Sir Richard scratched his head. “AIDS?”
“No, Sir. AIDS is actually a set of symptoms and infections resulting from the damage to the human immune system caused by HIV1.”
“See, that’s what I believe happened to me,” Donna continued. “When Gary examined the DNA sample I sent him from Arizona, he found some extra code attached to a leg of one of my X chromosomes. He compared it to his, and it turned out to be the maternal X chromosome we shared. He then compared that to earlier samples of my DNA, and it was the only difference he could find. I believe that’s the answer. At the moment, our virus is about as unstable as EIA. It’s only going to work on genetically compatible hosts. For others, it could be a death sentence – a rapid death sentence. If Forrest has used EIA on Missy, and she turns out to be one of these rare cases, it wouldn’t make much difference either way. Without something like this virus we’re developing, the effects of EIA are irreversible. One thing is for certain, Forrest never intended EIA to be used to heal anyone. He wanted it as a weapon of war, and it seems that’s what he’s got.”
Silence filled the room as they waited for Sir Richard’s response. “Is there any other way?”
Donna breathed a long sigh. “Not if you want results in this century, and certainly not if you hope to use this on Missy.”
“Donna, I have no doubt you know what you’re talking about but, if it were to get out that we’re using HIV1 to do this, the public outcry, regardless of the outcome, would be devastating. You want to use AIDS as a delivery system? Won’t that just kill whoever is exposed to it?
“Like all research of this nature, there would be risks,” Donna replied. “The ideal situation would be to have a separate place, a remote place away from the Centre to do the actual work and testing,” she suggested.
Sam shared a knowing glance with Sir Richard. “That would be the ideal situation.”
Sir Richard sighed. “All right Donna, you’ve convinced me. Start setting up your tests, and expect to get underway after the New Year. I know that’s not what you wanted to hear, but I’m afraid that’s the best I can offer you. As far as Missy’s concerned… we may have to find another way.”
Donna paused in thought. She looked at Sam and back to Sir Richard. “I suppose, we might be able to expand on my CTZ5 method. By using G-CST{1} or VEGF{2} or in combination, we might be able to increase stem cell production to a more acceptable level. If that works, we could try using CTZ5{3} as a vector. It could work, but I don’t believe it will give us the lasting results we’re looking for. It’s worth a try unless you tell me you can’t get that either.”
Sir Richard softly smiled. “I’ll find a way to get your HIV1, but I’m afraid I can’t get it in time to use it for Missy. How long would it take to develop something using your CTZ5 method?”
Donna paused again. It would mean Richard and Sam working side-by-side. “If we started right now, with all of us working together…” she said, glancing at Sam. “Possibly by morning.”
Sir Richard stood to leave. “Get ready. I’ll talk to Ricky.” He went back to his office. “Is Wilson set up at the Savoy?”
“Yes, Sir,” John responded. “But how do you know Wilson will take a shower when he checks in?”
Sir Richard grinned. “Because he’s a clean freak.”