Antiphon

by B. L. Roberts

  He went back to his study, lay his head on his desk, and his shoulders shook, as he sobbed.

  For the next few days, Wong was inconsolable. No matter what his wife said, or did, to cheer him up, he remained depressed. From time to time, he took out some of the copies he had made, read them, and put them back, shaking his head. He kept checking on his preserved samples, ensuring they were surviving, then asked himself, why was he doing it?

  What brought him abruptly out of his state of misery, came out of the blue with a few words over the telephone. They were words he thought he might never hear. They came a week later.

  “Professor, it is Frederik here. Lee, we have them back! The boys! They are safe! They are back home with us! They have been rescued. It is over! I will talk to you more, later, but I had to let you know. The boys are safe. We have them back!” Sorensen hung up.

  On hearing this, Wong burst into tears, then ran to his wife and threw his arms around her.

  “They are safe! The boys, they are safe! Mr. Sorensen says he has them back! They were rescued from the kidnappers. Oh my God, Lanfen, it is wonderful news.”

  Wong stopped suddenly as the thought struck him.

  “Maybe it is not all finished. Now the boys are safe, maybe Mr. Sorensen will open up his laboratory again, and we can get back to work. What do you think, Lanfen?”

  His wife also burst into tears. Wong had told her about the kidnapping, and although they had no children of their own, she felt a mother’s grief at the news. She, too, had been fretting at her husband’s misery, and shared his sense of loss of the hard work he had done, and the moments of elation as they had made progress. Shutting it down had broken his heart, but now? The old Wong was suddenly back, and perhaps things could get back to where they had been. She hoped so, for her husband’s sake.

  34

  Maria Scarletti was very happy. She left the travel agent’s office, clutching a bundle of leaflets extolling the wonders of exotic places around the world, her head buzzing with excitement. Where should she and Georgio go for their holiday? A tropical island resort sounded wonderful. The pamphlet showed a sandy beach, a pretty girl sipping a cool drink, and snorkelling around coral beds.

  Yes, that sounded nice, but so did the thought of adventure, and sight seeing, visiting famous places, that had been just names, until now. Now, she and Georgio could afford to go and actually see them. England sounded wonderful, those old cities with fine buildings. It would be fantastic to be able to come home, to tell her friends of the wonders she had seen with her own eyes.

  Maria had been relieved when she made the decision to tell father about Georgio and the other scientists, and what they were getting up to, with their experiments on that island. Father had obviously talked to God, warned Him of what was going on. Maria had no doubt God decided to put a stop to the evil work, and that her good fortune at being allowed an overseas holiday with Georgio, was her reward for her part in it. She must remember to make a bigger offering at church on Sunday.

  Tonight, she would sit down with her husband, and carefully consider the brochures she had brought from the travel agent, and they would make plans. She would have to ask Georgio when he would receive the money Mr. Sorensen had promised, the travel agent had said something about a deposit, so they would need to have the money ready. Several days later, however, she was feeling deflated.

  “Georgio, please show some interest. Tell me what you would like to go and see.”

  A week had passed, and although Maria had tried several times to get her husband to look at her brochures, he had shown no interest.

  “I don’t care where we go, you make the plans. We will go wherever you decide, I will leave it up to you.”

  “No, you have to tell me what you want.”

  Maria waived a brochure at her husband. “How about Canada? Look at these pictures, wild bears and wolves, glaciers and high mountains. Wouldn’t you like to see them?”

  Georgio turned a lack lustre face towards her, barely glancing at the brochure. “Yeah, whatever, that sounds fine. You make the bookings.”

  Maria tried not to show her disappointment in her husband not sharing her enthusiasm for a holiday. She pouted at him, and left the room. Georgio could be so difficult at times. Never mind, he would jolly himself out of this mood he was in, once they got started. She would make the arrangements, he had said she could, and they would go to Canada.

  When she arrived back home two days later, after spending an hour with the travel agent, she was astonished to see her husband dancing around their living room, clutching a bottle of chianti, from which he kept taking swigs.

  “Georgio, what has got into you? What are you doing? Give me that bottle before you drink it all. You had better explain yourself, young man. Just what is going on?”

  Georgio reluctantly gave up his bottle, but not before taking another mouthful. His eyes were sparkling, and he took one of Maria’s hands, pulled her onto the carpet, and dragged her around, dancing with him. Laughing, Maria shook herself free.

  “Let go of me Georgio, right now, and tell me what is going on. What has got into you? Why are you suddenly so happy, you are celebrating?”

  “Oh, Maria, it is fantastic news. I am going back to work! I have just spoken to Professor Wong. He wants me back, in the lab, on the island, he says, as soon as I can get myself organised! The lab is opening up again, and we are to continue with the work! It is a big secret, and no one must know about it, you must not tell anyone, but Maria, I can keep on with my experiments. The professor says he kept copies of most of our work, and these will let us continue on, pretty much from where we were. Oh, Maria, isn’t it fantastic news!”

  If Georgio expected his wife to share his happiness, it was an expectation soon dashed. Maria was shocked. How could this be? God had closed the laboratory down, the evil work going on in that place had been stopped. How could it start up again? And what about their holiday? She allowed the papers in her hand to fall to the floor, where they made a colourful pile.

  “How can this be? You said the work was finished! You said you were going to be paid a year’s salary, and that we could go away somewhere, for a holiday. You told me to go ahead and book it, and I have. Now, what is going to happen? Georgio, what you were doing in that dreadful laboratory of yours, was evil, and God stopped it. You can’t go back to it.”

  Georgio was completely taken aback by his wife’s reaction. He had not realised Maria held such a bad opinion of his work. Was she so dense, she couldn’t comprehend it was to save the world? Stopped by God indeed! It had not been God who had shut down the laboratory, it had been something to do with Mr. Sorensen, and the kidnapping of his children. The work they were doing was to find a way to save the world from eating itself out of existence. That was not evil. Why couldn’t Maria understand this?

  When the news of the kidnapping had got out, the scientists working on the island had been shocked and horrified, but at first, no one suspected it could lead to the closing down of their experiments. There was early speculation that Mr. Sorensen would be forced to pay a ransom, but he was very wealthy. After news of the lab’s closure was announced, a few gossips had suggested he no longer could afford to keep the laboratory running, that the money, demanded by his sons’ kidnappers, would ruin him. It was just speculation. Frederik’s offer to pay all the staff a full year’s salary, had quieted the gossips somewhat, but no one suspected that closing the laboratory lay behind the kidnapping.

  For the next hour, Georgio tried to reason with his wife, repeating the same arguments he had used before, but Maria would not have a word of it. In her eyes, her husband was doing the work of the devil. To her thinking, this was now a contest between God, and the devil. God had shut down the laboratory, but the devil, it seemed, had managed to get it opened up again, and the devil was conspiring to prevent her going to Canada.

  Already, Maria was go
ing over in her head, what she should say to father. The priest had shown great interest in what Georgio was doing, and had been obviously delighted when she told him it was closing down, and no doubt he would be as upset as she was, when she told him the fiendish devil’s work was going to proceed again. She and Georgio would not be having the wonderful holiday she had dreamed of for the past week, and Maria was bitterly disappointed. That was obviously the work of the devil, also.

  Maria burst into tears, and disappeared into their bedroom, where she locked the door. Georgio could sleep on the sofa that evening, and if he wanted dinner, he could get it himself. Georgio retrieved the half finished Chianti bottle, sat on the lounge, and wondered what was wrong with his wife. Who could understand women? He decided he couldn’t, and the best thing he could do, was finish the bottle, which he proceeded to do.

  When Frederik Sorensen phoned professor Wong with instructions to restart his work in the laboratory, what the professor told him gave him a pleasant surprise.

  “Professor, we can get going again. I know it must have been terrible for you, to have had to destroy all the work that you had achieved, but hopefully if you can get your team back together, they might be able to recall much of it, make progress fairly quickly and get back to where they were, what do you think?”

  Wong had been hoping for this call.

  “Mr. Sorensen, it is not as bad as it seems.”

  He went on to tell of his copied files, and refrigerated specimens. “Hopefully, we should be able to be back where we were, fairly quickly.”

  Frederik was delighted, and had Wong been in front of him, he would have kissed him. He went on, however, to stress the potential for danger this could involve.

  “Professor, the criminals who kidnapped Michael and Victor, are totally without morals or compunction. They were quite prepared to kill the boys, if it became necessary. The only reason the lads stayed alive, was to guarantee the kidnappers would be paid the ransom money. We were most fortunate to find out, in time, where they had taken the boys, and get them back. This isn’t over yet, not by any means. Some of the criminals were killed in the rescue, and Brent Peters tells me, he thinks there will an attempt to get revenge. We are dealing with the mafia. Also, I told you, they used the kidnapping to force me to close down your laboratory. Peters thinks they will make another attempt at closing it down. How they might try to do this, we don’t know, but be on guard.

  “Make sure you stress to your staff, the need to keep our work quiet. I don’t want word to get out we are starting up again. It is better if people think the laboratory is still closed. I know this is going to be difficult, that people talk, and there will be the helicopter traffic to the island, that will give us away, but we must try.

  “Also, Peters is going to send a few men to live on the island for protection. I want you to co-operate with these men, do whatever they suggest, to keep you all safe. They shouldn’t interfere with your work, but your staff should be informed why they are there, that there is a potential for danger. I intend to increase your staff’s salaries to compensate for this, but they all must understand there could be danger. You must make this quite clear to them all, and let any go, who want to leave.

  “Can you get your team back together, back on the island? We might have to offer them a cash incentive to get them again. I imagine they would have been pretty peeved off, when we gave them all notice.”

  Wong said he was confident he should be able to recover most, if not all, members of his team. They had been enthusiastic, excited, about what the work were doing, and how it was progressing, and there had been genuine grief when they were told that work had to stop. Yes, he thought they would be glad to come back. He told Frederik he would try to contact them. He didn’t think any further cash incentives would be needed.

  Wong spent the next two days, his ear glued to the telephone, his keyboard busy with emails. Getting his team back to work turned out to be not as straightforward as he had anticipated. Two had already lined up work with universities, and several had begun making plans for a vacation, on the strength of the year’s salary they had been promised. This included his brightest researcher, Georgio Scarletti. However, their reaction to his news that their work at the laboratory was to continue, was received as he thought it would be. Without exception, all were delighted. Also, all indicated they would return, as soon as they sorted out their other plans.

  Over the next two weeks, a slow trickle of team members began arriving at the island, keeping the Sorensen choppers busy, ferrying them out. The laboratory slowly began to hum again. Georgio eventually made up with Maria. After his hangover had worn off, and two nights sleeping on the lounge and preparing his own food, he decided he had been unfair to his wife. He had promised her a holiday, then, almost without thinking, abandoned the idea, when going back to work became possible. Now he reconsidered. She was still red-eyed, as he took one of her hands.

  “Maria, I say again, what we are trying to do, is not the work of the devil. There are just too many people being born, for the world to support, it is a problem growing bigger every day, it is out of control, and already there are places in the world, where society is unravelling because of this problem. What we are trying to do is fix that. There will be some people who are made sad by not having all the children they would like, but if the world is saved, their sadness is a small price to pay. I am sorry you cannot see that.

  “We shall have our holiday, as I promised, before I go back to work. We can go to Canada as you planned. I shall take off two weeks, and we will enjoy ourselves, then I will return to work.”

  “Could we take three weeks? Two weeks is not very long.”

  The holiday was a waste of time, and Georgio was itching to get back to his work bench, but the lounge was lonely, and he had made that promise.

  “Very well then, three weeks, from today. You make the plans, and we will get away immediately.”

  Maria’s heart felt lighter as she rushed back to the travel agent. She had settled on Canada. They would see tall mountains from their train window, and perhaps wild animals, cruise in a luxury liner to watch ice bergs being created. She would put out of her mind for a while, her husband doing the devil’s work in that the laboratory, and be happy. Also, it would give her time to think about what she should say to father. Better still, they could could catch a flight to depart, the very next day.

  Georgio kept insisting how important it was that no one find out he was back at work. He had said it to her several times, which was all very well for him. Maria had nodded, but his words did not reach her. Nothing he said, had changed her opinion of what he was doing. God needed to be informed, and she, Maria Scarletti, saw it as her Christian duty to inform father Oriordan, so he could talk to God, and let Him know. Once God heard the laboratory was up and running again, He would know what to do.

  35

  “Georgio, thank you for bringing me here. Isn’t it divine?”

  The view from her window seat changed slowly, as the train wound its way through the mountains, and she strained to catch it all. Towering high above them, seemingly into the heavens, snow capped mountains soared, to be replaced only minutes later with steep valleys, each with its racing stream, coursing over rocks. A flash of white, high in the mountains, disclosed a frozen river, a ribbon of ice, trapped in a monstrous mountain, struggling to grind its way downwards, obeying the laws of gravity, and taking with it everything it encountered.

  Georgio, too, was caught up in the beauty of his surroundings. For the first few days of their trip, sitting in a deck chair, peering at the distant coastline as their cruise ship plowed northwards, he had been restless and a little grumpy, his mind darting back to his work bench, and the experiment he wanted to get on with, but that mood passed, and now he was sharing his wife’s pleasure.

  “It is breathtaking. I wouldn’t like to be up in those mountains. It looks very cold.” />
  “Of course it is cold, that is ice we can see up there. I wouldn’t want to be out there either. You saw that bear, running next to the train, you wouldn’t want to meet up with him. This past two weeks have been wonderful. We should have more holidays.”

  Maria was enjoying her holiday in Canada with Georgio, but a shadow lurked. Despite the distractions of the trip, there kept niggling at the back of her brain, worrying her subconscious, the knowledge that, when they returned home, Georgio would be again back at that work. It gnawed at her.

  Despite Georgio’s admonishment to keep his work secret, before they flew out to Vancouver, she had made the decision to speak to father Oriordan. She would see father, as soon as they returned. That would be soon enough, Georgio was not working while they were away, so he was doing no harm, and she would certainly not tell him, he would not understand.

  She had made peace with herself, confessing to father. If she spoke in the confessional, it would be alright, that would not really be betraying Georgio. The confessional was sacred. It was secret, between her, the priest, and God. If father told God, that was his decision, and that was okay. God had to be told. He needed to know what was going on under His nose, and God would know what to do. If Maria’s faith was simple, it was genuine.

  The first Sunday after their return, Maria duly waited her turn to enter the confessional. Father Oriordan was pleased to see her again. His instructions from the Monseigneur, to learn all he could about the work this woman’s husband was doing, had not yielded much information. Maria didn’t seem to understand a lot about that work, but what she had divulged to him, had been tremendously important. When she had reported that the work had ended, that Georgio, her husband, had been sacked, and the laboratory closed, Oriordan had not been unduly surprised. God would not allow such work to continue for too long. He guessed the church had played a part in the decision to shut down the evil laboratory, but had no knowledge of what that part was. He had read the newspaper reports of the kidnapping of the Sorensen children, but did not associate that with the closure. That, was about a demand for ransom money.