by R Arundel
“Yes, stool.” Matthew pulls out the piece of cardboard box with the hand-written code:
“Stool. It doesn’t mean anything to me. But I can say Michael was a real doctor; his handwriting was atrocious.”
“I think it is a code,” says Matthew.
“That’s obvious,” says Jason. “We can’t risk sending it to headquarters. I have a friend. I’ll send the image to him. We’ll get an answer soon.”
“Thanks, I’ve already sent it to an encryption specialist.”
“Who?” Jason turns the piece of cardboard over and looks at the back.
“Alice.”
“NSA? Never heard of her. What’s her last name?.”
“Freelancer, she just goes by Alice,” says Matthew.
“Let’s get back to the task at hand. We need to kill or capture this guy.” Jason tosses the piece of cardboard back to Matthew.
“We need to take him alive. We have a few questions we still need him to answer.” Matthew puts the cardboard back in his pocket.
“We’ll play it your way.”
***
Matthew and Jason walk quickly along the busy street. Shops and cafés mingle with old factories.
Matthew’s cell phone rings. “Hi, Alice.”
“The building has a storefront. The front of the building is a high-end furniture shop.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
Alice continues, “However, there is a large lab and living quarters in the back. You definitely have the right place. The side door is accessed with the code 60193. I think there are two people in this part of the building. It looks like there is a secure area and a number of unsecured rooms. I am trying to get into their surveillance equipment, but it will take some time. Be careful.”
“Thanks,” says Matthew.
“You have a female agent giving you some help? I knew you had someone on the inside.”
Matthew smiles. He punches in the code. They go down the wide hallway. The clean white walls and gray metal doors remind him of the National Research Facility. They follow Alice’s instructions. There is no sound and the place appears empty. Matthew memorized the map that Michael had drawn in the notes he had left in the fava bean salad. He knows exactly where he is going.
“Jason, you go down that hallway. I’m going right. You’ll find the real president.”
Jason pulls his weapon and creeps down the hallway.
Matthew quickly makes his way to the main area. Michael’s directions are good, and in no time, Matthew enters the office. He is angry. There is no fear.
Chapter Forty-Five
Liam sits at a desk almost identical to the one he has at his office in the hospital. He takes off the black fedora. “I really wasn’t expecting you, Matthew.”
Matthew looks around. They are alone. Liam works on his computer. He has two screens going. A large fish tank occupies the entire wall behind him. The tank contains a vibrant array of tropical fish.
“I didn’t know you liked tropical fish.”
Liam smiles. “There are many things you don’t know about me.”
“I know you’re a killer, a liar.”
“I have some of the rarest tropical fish in that tank. It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
“Why?” says Matthew.
“I didn’t think you would get so far. I’m truly amazed you figured it out. I have no idea how you traced me here. I’ve been popping over here for years. I’m curious, how’d you find me? You followed me?”
“Mervyn Clewes.”
“He has no idea where I live. I have my courier pick up my shoes and bring them here.”
“We matched a footprint at Amanda’s crime scene to your shoe.”
“I wore my black ones for that job. I wear a new shoe for each job.”
“It was Jason who figured it out.”
“I stayed close to you to know all your moves. That’s how I was so sure I was in the clear. Did you ever suspect me?”
“I started to have my doubts after you nearly killed me in the old factory. How did Francesca know I would be at the airport? Only Sarah, Kofi and you knew that. I still didn’t want to believe it, I thought someone was listening in on us. When I left Karakatura, I had most of the answers.”
“Not from Michael, I killed him. I was shocked you and Sarah made that climb.”
“Michael spoke from beyond. He screamed what a monster you are. He screamed for me to stop you.”
“He left you a message. We tore the place apart, but I couldn’t find it. No matter. There is nothing you can do.” Liam’s blue eyes brighten.
“Why do this?” says Matthew.
“When did you figure out it was me?”
“It slowly fell into place. I really wasn’t sure until I saw you at this desk, right now. Few have the transplant knowledge to pull this whole thing off. I narrowed it down to you, Quentin, or Kofi. I saw the photos of you at Amanda’s crime scene. I couldn’t see the face, but the body type, it just struck me. It had to be one of you three. I had a feeling, when I was in the elevator the day of the two recovery room deaths, that the man in the elevator shadows was you. I couldn’t see you, but I just had that feeling.
“Guilty as charged.”
“Why did you go back to Amanda’s?”
“I’m hands-on for all my operations, the only way to make sure it is done right. No ego, no bloodlust. I had to remove some clues, plant some false ones. With forensics the way it is now, you have to be careful.”
“You had no problem framing your son for murder?” says Matthew.
“You’re full of surprises today, Matthew.”
“You deny you’re my father?”
“No, no I don’t. I’m just surprised. Caroline told you then?”
“No, she always told me she couldn’t be sure of my father and never to try to find him. I searched my birth records once, father unlisted.”
“Then how in the world did you find out?”
“I asked Tom about my father. I was very young. I told him how I wished he were my father, wished my mother hadn’t had me. The kids teased me pretty bad back then. He told me to never blame my mother. He said sometimes good things can come out of an ugly situation. He said he didn’t know who my father was, but I know he had his suspicions.”
“How did that tell you anything?”
“One day I was at the lab. A graduate student was talking to Tom in private. I heard the tail end of the conversation. Tom said something like, ‘I’ll try to talk to Liam.’ She left crying. I asked Tom about it. He said it was private. She transferred to another lab. Shortly after that you three broke up. You left to set up New York; Michael went to Houston.”
“So Caroline never said?”
“No, she kept your dirty secret. But I know I’m right.”
Liam claps slowly. “Bravo. I haven’t given you the credit you deserve. You really are quite the mind. Good genes, I guess.”
“Your wife know you fathered me? I did the math. You were married for three years at the time. That one would be a little hard to explain for the loving husband, devoted dad. Did you tell the twins? How’d you think the girls would react?”
“It was a moment’s indiscretion. Caroline and I worked in the lab. I can hardly blame her. I was the young, brilliant surgeon. What can I say?”
“You hardly came around our house—you never visited me. I spent most of my time with Tom.”
“Tom was single at the time. I could hardly be seen spending time with you and your mother. Questions would be asked. As it was, most people thought you were Tom’s boy.”
“So you found a way to duck out on your responsibilities?”
“Some might see it that way. If you do, I’m sorry. I had to get free of a very delicate situation.”
“You’re a deadbeat dad, a murderer. Did I leave anything out, Dad?”
“You didn’t fall too far from the tree. I helped get you the New York job. I gave you the training.” Liam smiles. “You
are now one of the best facial transplant surgeons alive.”
“So fill me in. Michael thought you planned to kill almost everyone in our country. In the next week, I guess.”
“Matthew, it’s in motion. There is nothing anyone can do about it. The plan is genius. I may as well tell all.”
“Please do.”
“Well, most of it you know. Patricia was a gambler. It was easy to get her into deep, deep debt. She had no way to pay the debt off. We offered her a way out. Tom does a transplant and her debt is paid. If Tom didn’t do the transplant, she would be killed. Simple. Tom transplanted the president. He did a great job—he took the face of the real president and then transferred it to our body double.
“We told Tom we were going to put the president’s face back on him and no one would have been the wiser. We told Tom it was to make some money. He wasn’t thrilled, but he did it. When my men presented him with the second face, the Secretary of Defense, he balked.”
“You didn’t realize he would not transplant both the President of the United States and the Secretary of Defense? Any grade school kid knows that the only thing those two people are needed for is to fire nuclear weapons.”
“I’m not a fool. I know of the two-man rule. The Secretary of Defense is needed to authenticate the president before the weapons are launched. I thought Tom would still do it to save his wife and his own life at that point.”
“So what went wrong?”
“It was a rare miscalculation on my part. He had transplanted the President’s face onto an impostor! There was no going back. I owned him at that point. Or so I thought.”
“How did you get the Secretary of Defenses’ face?”
“Just as you thought. Michael was friends with him. George H. Brown did not climb, but he fancied himself an athlete. Michael convinced him to go on a climbing expedition on Karakatura. Sadly, George H. Brown had a fatal fall.”
“Michael killed him?”
“No. Remember that week I took off for a flying trip. I was on the expedition. Michael didn’t know I was going to do it. He was weak. I think it was after that, he turned on me.”
Liam continues, “ I killed George and harvested the face. That was the canister you failed to transplant the night my associate visited you.”
“But the climbing accident was three months before Mr. Glock visited.”
“I had to do it well in advance of the kidnapping the president. In case anything went wrong, I couldn’t have both the president and the Secretary of Defense go missing. George’s face was cryopreserved..”
“Tom refused to transplant the second face? Even to save Patricia?”
“He refused. He had already transplanted Middleton. I knew he loved Patricia and would do anything for her. My only miscalculation was that he would not think rationally. When we told him to transplant George’s face, he turned white.”
“He said no.” Matthew edges closer to the desk.
“He said no. I tried to show him this was his only option. It was as if he was being mind-controlled. He just kept saying no, no, no. He wouldn’t see reason. The only logical thing for him to do at that point was to perform the second transplant.”
“You would have killed him anyway.”
“True.” Liam smiles.
“Why didn’t you just do the transplant yourself? You were right there; you didn’t need Tom.”
“That was the first thing I tried. Alice wouldn’t let me. I was not authorized. We tried to short-circuit her. It was not until I went back to his lab with you guys that I understood the power of Alice. First time I went back, I was worried she would recognize me. But we swapped the hard drive before we left; she had no idea who I was.”
“So when Tom refused to do the transplant, you hauled everyone to New York to force me to do it.”
“I thought it was a brilliant plan made on such short notice. We grabbed some Steriazol and I sent the man you dubbed Mr. Glock with the canister containing George H. Brown’s head to New York. I was certain you would have no problem transplanting the head. My second miscalculation.”
“You were the one he was talking to that night.”
“I stayed in communication with him and the clean up crew the whole time. I was in Palo Alto.”
“Tom told you about his perfect transplants?”
“He confided in me. He even wanted me to come down and help make it better. Can you imagine? With a discovery like that, what a fool. You don’t share something like that.”
“Why the energy weapon? Why not just shoot him?”
“No one knew I had the high-energy-pulsed weapon. I had a technician on the inside and was simultaneously building my own as the government built the prototype. Right here in this very lab. Mine was better. I planned to sell it. I had to test it, and it seemed like the perfect opportunity. I wanted his death to look like a government job. Throw suspicion on a foreign government.”
“It worked.”
“Like a charm. I really did not want to get you involved, but you could see my position was desperate. I could not go to Houston and implicate Michael. I had no choice. If anything was discovered, I had to make sure it was not one of my helpers.”
Matthew mocked him. “Oh, I see very clearly. You had no option but to try to force me to do a transplant at gunpoint. You also knew you would kill us all. Me, Amanda, and Sarah had the transplant worked.”
“I couldn’t believe you cut the carotid and killed the patient. My own son. Maybe the apple fell farther from the tree than I would care to admit. That maneuver was routine. Anyway. The rest was cleaning up loose ends.”
“What I can’t understand is why—why all this work? For what? To sell nukes to some dictator? Your family is loaded.”
“You insult me. Such a petty plan is not in my nature. The president that I have installed in the White House, my president, will be creating a new America.”
“A new America?”
“In exactly three hours, he will punch in the codes to release The Freeze. Do you know what that is?”
Michael had documented The Freeze in his notes, but Matthew does not want Liam to know.
“No, please enlighten me.”
“The Freeze: It is a mutated virus that has been weaponized. The ultimate bioweapon. It is highly effective and has a 100 percent kill rate. Kills all humans, but here’s the kicker. It doesn’t kill dogs.”
“You’re an animal lover now?”
“Remember The Binary Sequence? Facial transplants is one half, biological weapons the other. The two things are the new weapons of this century. I will be the first person to use these together successfully. The fake president will release enough of The Freeze to kill 90 percent of the population.”
“Madness,” says Matthew.
“Madness or genius? Look at this society. Soft. Lazy. Uninspired. Mass entertainment. They can’t even sing today. Show me a star with a voice to sing or something to say. Now they just wear as little as possible and screech. Consumerism. Buy, Buy, Buy! They don’t even know why they’re buying. I’ll tell you why they’re buying. They seek to fulfill a need; they want to be a part of something greater. So they buy whatever they’re told is the in thing, whatever they think everyone else has.”
“So killing most of the US is going to solve this?”
“We have no community; we don’t even know the neighbors next door. We pretend to have friends by using computers, putting up walls. I can fix it. I can make them a part of something great.”
“You are well and truly mad,” says Matthew.
“I’m courageous enough to say what we all know is true. And bold enough to act. The educational system, it’s garbage. Kids today can’t even read; they can’t spell. Forget about math. We need to start anew. With 90 percent of the population gone, we can rebuild. Create a society based on principles and make something great.”
“Let me guess, you’ll take charge.”
“I will lead the rebuilding. In the chaos that ensues, A
merica will need new leaders. New people to reshape our destiny. I am that leader. All things we know will be gone. In the aftermath Liam Rasulov will be a lucky survivor. Slowly, I will help rebuild. With my considerable wealth, I will be the leader of the new America. I may even run for president.”
“Not too close.” Liam picks up the gun and points it at Matthew.
Matthew takes the piece of cardboard box from his pocket where Michael had written the word “stool.”
“Does this mean anything to you?”
“I have no idea what nonsense is written here. Stool?”
Matthew looks into his father’s eyes. Before the shot is fired, he knows Liam plans to kill him. Matthew anticipates well and is on the move before he hears the shot. After he read Michael’s note, he told himself he would kill his father. Liam has manipulated, used, and then discarded so many people he has to be executed.
Matthew thought he could kill his father. He has told himself he won’t hesitate when the moment arrives. Not after what Michael had detailed in his notes. Michael had done what he could to stop it. Matthew has to finish Michael’s work.
Matthew realizes he just can’t kill Liam. He does not know this person who stands before him now. The Liam he knew was nowhere to be found.
Instead of taking his advantage, Matthew runs for door. It is locked. He hears a shot and moves again quickly. His father fires a few more shots at him. Liam must have locked the door electronically. Matthew runs toward a large sofa. He throws a vase and breaks the light on the ceiling. The room dims.
Matthew moves fast. Liam is up with the gun, but he is not sure where to aim. Matthew is either behind the chair or a large cabinet. Liam moves slowly. He does not calculate on Matthew doing the unexpected. Matthew jumps out and hits Liam. They fall to the ground and roll. As they fall, Liam loses his grip on Matthew. Matthew jumps up and runs to the desk. He desperately looks for the button to unlock the door.
Liam grabs the gun and fires at Matthew. Matthew runs from the desk, but Liam has moved to cut off his escape. Matthew tackles and tries to disarm his father. They both stand, fighting to gain control of the gun. Liam tries to fire the gun into Matthew’s chest, but it misses. They are now in close combat.