by Steve Shear
After several follow-up questions to her last answer, which clearly stunned everyone listening and watching, the president was about to end the press conference when one of the reporters in the back could be heard. “Madam President, can you tell us what you know about a Smotecal Decretum having to do with the Click?”
“Okay!” Nigel said, jumping up from his chair. “It’s about time.”
“I’m sorry sir,” the president said, “I know nothing about a Smotecal Decretum.” She then ended the press conference, leaving the world to wonder what the reporter was referring to—everyone, that is, except the crowd in the lobby of the DanSheban Hotel and certain others, including the Supreme Minister of the Church of the Ecclesia.
“I think we’ve been double-crossed,” Nigel pronounced as everyone else sat in silence.
It was Hitch who finally responded. “Nigel, you’re wrong. What the president of the United States did was nothing less than brilliant. She used the Smotecal Decretum to move a colossal mountain in a way that its exposure would never have accomplished—could never have accomplished. It certainly is true that public knowledge of the Church’s complicity in the history of the Click would have been damaging, but not lasting. Andrea Wainwright used that document to extract important concessions from the smotec, concessions that are needed now. Concessions she would have never obtained by exposing the Church to ridicule.”
Hitch looked around to see if his words were sinking in. “And should the smotec, or a future smotec, consider reneging on those concessions, the Decretum will always be a robust reminder not to,” he added and then focused his attention on Elana. “Are you confident the antidote will be effective on people in the throes of the Click?”
“It will be once we tweak the formula some, and yes I am confident of that.”
“In that case, I believe our work is just about done here,” Hitched announced as he took his daughter and grandson in his arms. “I may have a head start, but let’s all go home and grow old together.”
Epilogue
Spider rooms around the world were all but overheating with information on the Click antidote program worldwide. All one had to do was turn on his or her computation shell or TV or scud. The streets of New York, San Francisco, London, Rome, and others exemplified what was happening across the Earth. Lines of people, the Ecclesian clergy, government officials, and volunteers from their various communities were brought together to eradicate the Click.
Oliver Hitchcock was happily watching his computation shell when the keys, Janine Rousseau’s keys on the dining room table, caught his eye. He had been putting that off but couldn’t do so any longer.
Twenty minutes later he was at Janine’s front door. He opened it with one of the keys she gave him and entered. Everything seemed different, familiar but different, since Rousseau was no longer… Hitch quickly shook himself out of that thought and immediately went to the safe and opened it with two other keys. He stared at the photo next to the safe, the one of Rousseau and a little girl hanging on the wall, then looked in the safe. He pulled out a satchel, opened it, and thumbed through at least a million dollars in cash and credit notes. “Oh, Janine.” He couldn’t help but laugh.
He then pulled out an envelope. It read on the front—Dearest Oliver. He opened the envelope, took out a formal document and note. He studied both. He read them again and moved in front of a mirror. He looked at himself and touched the wrinkles that weren’t there a month ago. He looked at the note again. “I can do this. I want to do this.”
Two days later he was in a rented convertible on the outskirts of Paris, France, approaching the gated entrance and lush grounds of Bouchaur Academy, a private school. Classical music streaming from Radio-USA was interrupted by an announcement. “Today, the Israeli Institute of Science has confirmed the validity of the recently published findings by geneticists from the tiny village of DanSheba and a consortium of secret labs around the world. Together they have unlocked the secret of aging, making it possible for people to live well beyond one hundred years of age. Reaction from the UN has…”
“Jesus, not again!” He shook his head. “Please, no more plagues!”
Hitch turned off the radio as he pulled up to a white building and focused on its magnificent Eighteenth Century Gothic architecture. He turned off the engine and got out. As he did, he watched the doorman watch him. He climbed the steps and showed the man the formal document he had been given. The doorman merely nodded without saying a word and went inside with the document.
Hitch paced along the grounds in front until he heard his name called out.
“Mr. Hitchcock, I am Andre Roue, director of Bouchaur Academy. We have been expecting you. We just didn’t know when. And this here is Olivia Rousseau.”
“Bonjour, Papa.”
Hitch smiled, then crouched. They hugged, then walked along the beautiful grounds hand in hand toward a bench where they sat and talked, where he told her how his mother saved his life, how she would meet Kathy and Christopher, how they all planned to live together. No more boarding schools. He reached over and kissed her on the forehead.
A word about the author…
The Trials of Adrian Wheeler was my first published novel (L&L Dreamspell, 2011). It was awarded runner-up in the San Francisco Book Festival 2015. It has also been optioned as a movie by EVW Entertainment (producer of the movie Break the Stage), and the screenplay has been written by Erik Wolter and me. EVWE is presently looking for partners to produce the movie.
The Wild Rose Press published The Fountain of Youth, my second novel, in May of 2017. It has received exceptional reviews, some of which appear on Amazon and Goodreads.
My wife, Susan, and I collaborated on The State vs. Max Cooper and The Steele Deal (published by ArtAge Publications), courtroom plays in which the audience serves as the jury. Both are being produced around the country.
In addition to those recited above and The Click, presently being published by The Wild Rose Press, I have three novels that have recently been completed: The First Coming, An Eye for an Eye, Black Hearts and Hungry Bears (a trilogy).
I have been writing poetry for over fifteen years (some of which have been published) and am also a portrait and figure artist and sculptor, having been represented by a number of galleries in Denver and Boulder, Colorado. I am presently represented by the Delta Gallery in Brentwood, California and on line by Vango Art. My work can be seen at my website, http://www.steveshear.net.
Thank you for purchasing
this publication of The Wild Rose Press, Inc.
Also available from The Wild Rose Press, Inc. and other major retailers
The Fountain of Youth
by Steve Shear
“Two generations of dementia are enough!” Robert Glickman declares in his quest to die with dignity and the likelihood he will be next. To that end, he uses his grandson’s sixth grade quiz book, a locked away metal box, and a secret weapon that eventually comes back to haunt him.
In the meantime, he is embroiled in the lives of other residents: his neurotic sister, Essie who plots to steal his secret weapon for herself; beautiful Christina Abernathy, a retired psychotherapist he instantly falls in love with; Hester, a young server at the Fountain who suffers from progressive mutism; Boyle, a man of mystery with a questionable past for good or evil (Glickman isn’t sure which); and Boyle’s grandson, Santini, a troubled young man caught between the dope dealers he runs with and the FBI wanting to use him.
Will Glickman and Essie beat dementia? Can he win over Christina? And what about Hester, Boyle, and Boyle’s grandson?
Also Available
Dead Man's Take
by Paul Carr
When Detective Michael Dalton is called to investigate a floater at Little Basin in Islamorada, Florida, he finds a man with a bullet in his head. Dalton is a veteran homicide cop but suddenly he’s hitting roadblocks. Someone wants to torpedo the investigation. As the body count rises, Dalton suspects his saboteur is involved in th
e murders.
Trusting no one local, Dalton calls on shady freelance investigator Sam Mackenzie for help. He brings a computer expert on board and their efforts uncover a complicated web of deceit.
With each step forward, Dalton knows he must get the killer before the killer gets him.