‘I’m sorely tempted to try that password before going to bed.’
‘It’s far better to start with a clear head in the morning after a good night’s sleep! ‘Advised Nicole while opening her bag and handing Parker the white envelope.
He opened it eagerly and read out the password.
‘Microbot. Of course! The password is named after these miniature robots!’
Nicole handed him the other document received from the Solicitors. ‘Philips letter says further information would be forthcoming if we go along with his instructions concerning his son.’
‘What further instructions can he be referring to?’
‘Before we get into all that Harry, tell me about MI6 and Agent Parker.’
He put the envelope down on the kitchen table, took Nicole gently by the hand and led her into the drawing room. He went to the drinks cabinet and poured her a glass of white wine and a cognac for himself. He took a sip and sat down beside her on the sofa.
‘Sarah’s death was a complete game changer for me,’ said Parker staring into his glass reflectively. ‘I was very much involved with Sarah and her work on the ground in Angola. I got to know the people she was working with. The double agent, I found out later, was one of her close associates. When Sarah was killed, I returned to London and contacted MI6. I told them I wanted to join up full time. I laid my cards on the table telling them I knew the situation on the ground in Luanda and my primary objective was to smoke-out Sarah’s killers and deal with them. They resisted at first, thinking I was too close to the situation, that I would be like a headless chicken, fueled by revenge and in a semi-irrational state of mind. They thought I could be a danger to myself and to other members of the SIS in the region. However, I was able to demonstrate my first-hand knowledge of local intelligence and a good understanding of the politics. They put me through rigorous psychological tests, which I passed with flying colors. I also proved to them I was extremely steady under fire. They eventually accepted my application. I received Special Reconnaissance Regiment (SRR) intensive field training for two months before returning to Angola.’
‘Did you deal with them?’
‘Classified! But yes, appropriately.’
‘Strange thing. Karl told me if I was ever in trouble, I should contact you?’
‘Not so strange. I confided in Karl some deeply held secrets. I told him I had been a member of MI6. He was quite surprised at first. Karl understood better when I explained about Sarah. He told me at our last face to face meeting he may need to employ my intelligence gathering skills before long. He didn’t elaborate on what exactly was troubling him.’
Parker put the glass to his mouth and took a deep slug.
‘The time spent there after Sarah’s death changed my whole perspective on life. I violated my Hippocratic Oath to ‘do no harm’, because in the line of duty, I did do harm.’
‘You can’t blame yourself for that, Harry. The circumstances you were in were quite extraordinary, not of your making. You were pushed to the brink!’
‘Maybe so, but I couldn’t continue practicing as a Doctor when I came back to London after my time in Angola.’
Nicole did not venture to ask any more questions. The man whom she was growing to admire and respect had exacted justice, rough justice, but justice all the same. He had done his duty.
They finished their drink and ascended the stairs together. As she entered her room, Parker involuntarily caught hold of her hand. She stopped and turned towards him. They stood close to each other momentarily gazing into each other’s eyes. Parker saw a very seductive twinkle hidden there. Gently he brushed his fingers softly against her lips. He leaned towards her spontaneously and kissed her.
‘Steady on mon cher,’ she said eventually pulling back. ‘We have very important business to take care of in the morning.’
‘And then…’
Nicole gave him a curious side glance, pressed her lips against his cheek and whispered a sensual good night in his ear before she disappeared into her room.
Parker suddenly remembered the password and couldn’t resist the opportunity to try it. He went back down to his study, inserted CD No 1 into his laptop and when the password window appeared, he keyed in ‘Microbot’. Nothing happened. He typed in ’MICROBOT’ in upper case letters. Still nothing happened. He tried numerous configurations of the password but could not get it to work.
‘Blast it. I’ll have to wait ‘til morning. Maybe Nicole can crack it.’
63
The next morning Parker awoke at 7:30a.m. He went straight down to his study and switched on his computer, excited at the prospect of ‘cracking’ the password and seeing what might show up on Lehman’s CDs. He again inserted the CD into his computer drive as he did the night before and when the password window appeared, he went to fetch Nicole when she unexpectedly walked in carrying two mugs of coffee and a plate of buttered toast.
‘The password is clearly stated ‘Microbot’! But it doesn’t bloody work my dear!’
‘You tried both upper and lower-case versions.’
‘Yes! Nothing.’
She looked at Philips letter and the password. ‘The password is Microbot, but nothing happens? Ah I see it’s written as ’MicroBOT’. Type it in exactly like this. Lower case ‘micro’, upper case BOT.’
‘Ok, let’s see. No! Still nothing.’
‘Knowing Karl, try using the phonetic alphabet the Police use; that would be Micro-Bravo-Oscar-Tango,’ suggested Nicole in her soft French accent.
‘Pretty good pronunciation for a non-native speaker!’
He typed in these four words and pressed the return button. Voila! To his delight and amazement, the screen came to life with colorful graphics and images.
‘Just typical of women ….’
‘Ce n'etait rien!’ gloated Nicole with mock modesty.
The pair scanned through the contents of the CDs one at a time and saw there were hundreds, possibly as many as a thousand case files containing medical records, video images and CT scans of individuals Lehman and Philips had treated during their clinical work over a three-year period. Parker opened one file and found it was a video of the inside of an infected lung of a forty-five-year-old man. The images initially showed large areas of inflammation and fluid build-up inside the pulmonary space. Then in the next images some twelve hours later, no sign of any fluid in the space and the inflammation had disappeared.
‘This is incredible. The clinical improvement in this patient that we see here is remarkable. We must get to the bottom of this and discover how Karl achieved these incredible results.’
The two spent the next hour or more scrolling through vast quantities of data, video images and medical records all contained on the Discs.
Nicole stood up. ‘I’ll leave you alone Harry to study the rest of the material. It looks like there’s quite a lot more to get through.’
‘That’s fine. It could literally take days to sift through this lot and try to unearth what Karl has achieved.’
When Nicole left the room, his eyes were fixed on the screen. From a first glance he could see Lehman and Philips had carried out hundreds of examinations and medical procedures on patients in their early twenties to elderly people in their eighties. Each case file contained a full clinical profile of each patient, CT scans and MRI images of the insides of many different organs of the human body.
Nicole went to the village to get some groceries. When she got back it was early afternoon. She popped her head around the door and could see Parker at his desk still beavering away in his comfortable leather chair, immersed in his work and deep in thought.
‘I got some wonderful sea bass at the fish shop in the village, Harry. I’m going to cook it for dinner this evening. I’m now starting to prepare lunch.’
‘Great. I’ll join you shortly.’
Ten minutes later he came into the kitchen with a bottle of Pouilly Fume from the cellar. He uncorked the wine and poured her a glass. They bo
th sat and ate lunch prepared by Nicole. It was Cora’s day off.
‘You’re an amazing cook my dear.’
‘It’s the smoked bacon I added to the chicken Caesar salad.’ You look surprised! ‘
‘Oh no. You’re a wonderful cook I’m sure.’
He talked through lunch nonstop about the CDs and was quite excited about their contents and the prospect of discovering Karl’s breakthrough. He returned to his study straight after lunch.
It was well after eight o’clock that evening when Parker emerged again from the room. Excitedly, he rushed into the kitchen where Nicole was preparing dinner.
‘Eureka! I’ve cracked it.’
He went across and gave her a big soft hug. Without stopping to let her draw breath, he took her by the hand and led her back into the study.
‘It took a while to get to the bottom of all this my dear. There’s a large number of CDs and masses of data. But I finally came across a summary report hidden in the middle of all this stuff. Out of the many hundreds of images taken, the report refers to one particular video of a sixty-year-old female patient who was suffering respiratory failure after major heart surgery
‘I’m all ears Harry.’
‘Look at these images. This patient is clearly at death’s door and in the normal course of events would have expired. She contracted pneumonia brought on by MRSA Superbugs for which there is no antibiotic strong enough to fight the infection. Well look at these video images here, Ms. Lehman. What a transformation!’
Nicole stared at the computer screen and her eyes widened with surprise.
64
Montpellier, France is the nerve center of the sprawling Languedoc region and the wine capital of the south. The city is the focal point of wine study, research and new technological developments in wine growing. Montpellier is surrounded by vineyards and the contrasting terrain in the region quickly changes from the coastal resorts along the Mediterranean seaboard through gentle hillsides to brooding mountains. The mountainous area in the north, dominated by Pic Saint Loup, faces the Hortus plateau, which sits on the edge of the very old Massif Central rock formation.
A black Mercedes wound its way slowly along a narrow treacherous mountain pass before travelling down towards the city of Montpellier. The car pulled up outside large gates at the entrance to Jacques Bonnet’s vineyard near the banks of the Lez River on the outskirts of the city. The driver’s electronic window opened, and a hand stretched out and pressed the intercom button on the gate pillar. Soon a voice on an intercom directed the driver to proceed to the front courtyard of the château. In the backseat, Henri Lazare sat with his cousin, Peter Larchet. They both took in the awesome view surrounding Bonnet’s country pile with rolling hills to the west and a glimpse of the Côte d’Azur to the far south. Woodland and meadows surrounded the estate. The majestic and imposing Château dating partly from the 18th century, had its origins in the 13th century. The Château and its outbuildings formed a wonderful stately vista built as they were, around an elegant courtyard. The 18th century part of the Château opened onto large terraces which overlooked the courtyard. South of the château lay a beautiful garden planted with trees and Mediterranean shrubs with a swimming pool to one side.
Jacques Bonnet sat in a large dining room inside the château with four of his ‘Generals’ close beside him. All were carrying semi-automatic pistols. It looked more like a board room than a dining room. Bonnet was expecting a very rancorous meeting.
Meanwhile Lazare and Larchet had arrived at the grand portico at the main entrance and pressed the doorbell.
A butler in uniform opened the door and escorted them inside.
‘Good afternoon Gentlemen.’ Bonnet was standing in the large hallway to welcome Lazare and Larchet to his home. Both men extended their hands to greet him.
‘Still the same old Jacques,’ replied Larchet good humoredly.
‘Still the same old Pierre, eh?’
‘Jacques, my name is Peter,’ protested Larchet with good humor.
‘Your mother invited me to your christening in New York all those years ago, so I know it’s Pierre,’ reflected Bonnet.
‘You have done well Jacques,’ interjected Lazare. ‘I’m very impressed. It must have taken a lot of hard work?’
‘Yes Henri. My business has gone well. This château is a trophy for my challenging work over many years.’
Bonnet led the two men inside, down a splendid hallway and into a large living room. Larchet followed carrying a large suit case.
‘Do you know much about wine gentlemen?’
Lazare and Larchet both looked at each other and shrugged.
‘You must try a glass of Merlot Reserve de Villecours from my own vineyard here in the Languedoc-Roussillon region’
Bonnet opened a drinks cabinet and poured out two glasses of wine.
‘This has a wonderful rich flavor,’ suggested Lazare sipping the wine and holding up his glass to toast Bonnet.
‘I’m glad you appreciate its unique quality. Now gentlemen, please follow me to the dining room. I want to introduce you to my team and afterwards we’ll have dinner together.’
The two visitors followed Bonnet down a grand hallway and in through double doors into a large square dining room. Lazare saw four well built, sharp looking characters with tight haircuts, one or two with deep scars on their faces, all sitting attentively along one side of a long dining room table. He thought this quite strange. He was expecting to be meeting Bonnet alone on a social basis, initially at least.
Bonnet introduced Lazare and Larchet to his men. ‘Henri, Peter, meet Michael, Gaston, Martin and Jerome.’
After some brief small talk Bonnet called the meeting to order.
‘Gentlemen, we must get down to business and discuss where we go from here.’
‘Yes! ‘Agreed Lazare earnestly. ‘Jacques, we need your men to carry out the next phase of the operation as quickly as possible, next week in fact.’
‘Which is?’
‘Kidnap Nicole Lehman from a house in Southern England. We have learnt she’s lying low there with some Doctor guy who is helping her publish her husband’s research papers.’
‘Next week? That’s crazy Henri and in England too. I need a lot more time than this. Besides we need to talk about this whole business Henri. And I’m afraid I have some worrying news for you both.’
‘News! What news Bonnet?’ demanded Lazare now suddenly less friendly.
‘Something I need to say face to face to you Henri’
‘I’m all ears Jacques,’ replied the visitor from New York now with an ugly scowl forming across his face.
‘It’s about Philips, Dr. Martin Philips. We didn’t do the job!’
65
‘So, what’s happening here Harry? The change in this woman’s condition is remarkable.’
‘The first images you saw were of the patient suffering from pneumonia, an infection caused by MRSA bacteria, a deadly strain of superbug. As the name suggests, the Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus has developed a resistance to all the strongest and most widely used antibiotics including Methicillin. You can see how ill and weak the patient is here in this video. The next image is an MRI scanned picture of the inside of the patient’s lungs. Both lungs are completed inflamed and are continuously filling with fluid.
‘Yes, I can clearly see this.’
‘This woman is near death. Now look at these next images.’
Nicole watched the video of the woman being placed flat on a movable table that resembled an MRI scanner.
‘The woman has a catheter connected into her groin. Now they are about to inject Microbots intravenously. They have been pre-programmed to recognize and bind to the Superbug’s receptors. The Microbots are not self-propelled because they must be kept as small as possible for this application. Instead, the machine the patient is now entering provides a very strong external magnetic field that enables the Microbots to be moved to the exact location of the infected
tissue. Look at the technician here in this image.’
Nicole could see an operator sitting at a VDU screen with a mouse in hand, guiding the Microbots to the desired location powered and guided by the strong external magnetic field.
‘The Microbots here are binding with the receptors of the superbug before they discharge a lethal electric current through the pathogen’s cell wall, killing the Bacterium. They can also be used in similar fashion to selectively inject cytotoxic drugs into cancer cells. The next video footage is taken thirty minutes later. The woman has been removed from the machine and returned to the Intensive Care Unit. And finally, twenty-four hours later, here are the dramatic results. The woman is sitting up in bed drinking coffee and has fully recovered.
‘This is truly remarkable Harry.’
‘Indeed! Such a dramatic change in a patient’s condition in such a short time and it’s all thanks to Karl.’
‘How soon can we get all this down on paper and finished?’
‘Don't worry my dear. I’m as anxious as you are to get off this mad merry-go-round.
‘No, I don’t mean that exactly, Harry. It’s important we finish Karl’s work properly and get it presented the way he would have wished.’
‘I completely understand. I won't waste a minute getting this properly written up and assembled into a dossier. This will allow you to complete the deal with the medical device company, I would guess, in the next month or so. If you wish, there is a medical conference in three weeks’ time in Stuttgart. I'll present Karl's discovery there and with prior agreement from the various parties, publicly announce the signing of the contract. I will ensure, through my media contacts, that the world Press is there in force ready to spread the good news across various media networks. Then everything will be out in the open and the focus will be definitely off you.’
‘I knew Harry, I could count on you to get things done quickly. Merci beaucoup!’
The Karl Lehman Affair Page 19