The Big Ten: The First Ten Books of the Beginnings Series

by Jacqueline Druga

  Ellen nodded.

  “O.K., now get off that bed, wipe off your face, and look presentable. I’m hungry and we’re going to dinner.”

  “I’m not going” Ellen said.

  “Yes, you are.”

  “You scare me.”

  “I don’t give a shit.” Joe told her. “Let’s go.” Ellen didn’t move. “Now.” Still Ellen didn’t budge. “Ellen, move your ass. Now!”

  Sniffling and shaking, Ellen jumped from the bed. “I hope Frank never turns out like you.” Ellen stormed by Joe, out the bedroom, and into the bathroom, slamming the door so loud it rattled the pictures on the wall.

  Joe shook his head with a grunt, looking at the door. “Thank God this will never last.”

  End of Flashback

  ^^^

  In the hospital Joe laughed quietly. “I swear I thought one month, two at the most. My boys had very little tolerance when it came to women and she was typically female.”

  “Yeah but Dad,” Robbie added, “she was Frank’s first lay. From the second she popped his cherry Ellen had him wrapped.”

  Joe winced. “Do we need to discuss this?”

  As expected but not as hoped, Henry had something to say. “I don’t remember being wrapped in the girl that took my virginity. Of course, I was really embarrassed that I did it with her. She was kind of large.”

  Dean snickered. “I would have gotten wrapped up in my first, but she never spoke to me again. I was only sixteen, she was twenty and it was . . .” Dean laughed again exaggerating his last word, “bad. How about you, Robbie?”

  “Me?” Robbie shook his head and rolled his eyes. “I was too young to even realize what I did. I don’t think I was even thirteen yet.”

  Joe was shocked. “What! You were twelve years old? Could you even do anything at twelve years old?”

  “I think I did.” Robbie shrugged. “I know I was closer to thirteen though.”

  “She had to be older,” Henry commented. “Was she older?”

  “Oh yeah.” Robbie grinned. “Man, I was lost. She had to tell me everything. I kind of thought it was neat just seeing her boobs. Boy did I get the bonus. I felt really guilty after because I felt like I was doing my mom so I never did it again with her. Of course she wasn’t around much after that.”

  Dean whistled. “That much older than you that you felt like you were with your mom?”

  “No. She was young, but she was engaged to my Dad.”

  “What?” Joe blasted then thought back counting the years. “Lorna?”

  “Yep.” Robbie nodded.

  “Oh Jesus Christ, I didn’t want to hear this.” Joe stood up. “I’m leaving.” He walked to Ellen and kissed her. “Can you boys keep the conversation tame for Ellen’s sake. She’ll bitch about it when she comes out.” Joe walked to the door, stopped, and looked back. “Lorna?” He saw Robbie nod. “Jesus Christ.” Running his hand down his face, he walked out of the room.

  It was silent for a moment then Henry snickered. “I can’t believe you told Joe you slept with his fiancé.”

  “It was pretty funny, huh?” Robbie laughed, “and the best part is . . . none of it’s true.”

  Henry and Dean both released a loud ‘Aw’, They had been had, but they thought it was funny. All three of them looked at Ellen, hoping for a reaction she didn’t give. Robbie and Dean then sat back and listened, against their will, to more Henry stories. It was better than silence.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  September 4

  Quantico Marine Headquarters

  A long table and a map of the United States of America was in the meeting room. George was calm as he stood before his advisors. “Look at where we took our hits gentlemen. Take a look. North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Montana, and now, after this morning, Kansas. What does this tell you? Anyone?”

  Jeremy knew he had the answer. “They’re creating a border.”

  “Exactly.” George’s hand slammed down on the table. “East versus West, that’s what I think gentlemen. Now we estimate that they are only five hundred strong and growing. That’s O.K. There’s nothing more I would like to do than to fly over and drop a single nuclear warhead on them as soon as we find out where they are. But we aren’t going to do that. I want their men. Overseas operations are going to be taking off soon and I expect difficulty. Of course, we haven’t a clue what’s going on overseas yet. We may get there and find nothing.” George began to pace. “I rescinded the firing squad order. Right now we have four of these UWA soldiers at our Alabama site. They are the key. Beginnings doesn’t know jack shit about this UWA yet. These men were there when we went after Frank and Ellen. Why? They know of Beginnings. I think it’s their intention to join forces, but right now, we have their men and I plan on breaking them. They’ll break eventually.”

  One of George’s advisors had to question, “Sir, you said they are approximately five hundred strong? Beginnings is one fifty. That is nothing compared to us.”

  “Small yes, but nothing. I doubt that.” George’s hand pointed to the map. “If this small group of men were nothing, then you tell me why we can’t get near the western United States anymore. Our soldiers suck gentlemen, but they don’t suck that bad. Someone is training them and someone is training them well.”

  ^^^^

  Beginnings Montana

  Dean hurried across his clinic lab and dropped folders in front of Johnny. “O.K. John, here’s what I need you to do. I need you to run our TB-4 batch on these sputum samples. See if we can get some sort of reaction, because nothing I’m giving these patients is clearing their lungs.”

  “Tough batch of pneumonia.”

  “Toughest we’ve seen here.”

  “Deadly?” Johnny asked.

  “All pneumonia can be.”

  “I mean more so than usual.”

  Dean thought about it. “I just think it’s tougher. It doesn’t want to leave the body. Try the TB batch on it. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”

  “I hate playing with phlegm.”

  Dean grinned. “So do I, but I run the lab and you’re my assistant.”

  “Hey.” Johnny shook his head. “Ellen’s your assistant and she never messes with spit.”

  “See John, Ellen’s also my lover, so I have to take that into consideration when I hand out tasks.”

  “Whipped.” Johnny gathered the cultures.

  “Aren’t all of us men?” Dean checked through the folders one more time.

  “Not me,” Johnny scoffed.

  “How can you not be whipped?” Dean wondered in question to him. “There aren’t that many women and you have one. She doesn’t control you?”

  “Nope.” Johnny shook his head. “I control her.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Dean laughed as he put everything back in order. “Sometimes you are too much like your father.”

  “I’m nothing like my father,” Johnny said very seriously, almost with a snap.

  Dean stopped cold in what he did. He looked at Johnny and finished what he was doing. “All right, I’m off. I have to meet with your grandfather.” Dean moved to the door.

  “Hey Doctor Dean, why are you always meeting with my Pap?”

  “Well we’re trying to figure out who . . .” Dean halted himself when he heard his own voice in his mind, ‘Johnny is the only Slagel that George actually liked, I mean really liked.’ “Trying to . . .” He heard Johnny in his mind. ‘I’m nothing like my father’ “Trying to figure out who is gonna be the test guinea pigs for this new food growth Ellen and I have been working on. We had to put it aside because of the virus, but now that it’s done with we can go back to the food growth. But we need some people. We are looking for volunteers.”

  “Cool. Does this mean it could have weird side effects and cause shit to happen to them?”

  “It could.” Dean cleared his throat. “I’ll let you know when we get started.” Dean left the lab and slowed down in the hall thinking to himself, “Food Growth? I couldn’t come up with so
mething better than that? I’m a scientist for crying out loud’. Shaking his head and sort of laughing at his bad quick thinking, Dean moved down the hall toward Ellen’s room.

  “Sorry I’m late,” Dean said as he walked into the room, shutting the door and kissing Ellen. Joe, Robbie, and Henry were already there. “I had to get things situated in the lab.”

  Henry watched Dean get situated and take a seat. “We wouldn’t have started without you Dean. We talked about you, but we didn’t start without you.

  Dean huffed. “When do we discuss him as a suspect, Joe?”

  “Today.” Joe grinned. “Today is Henry, Josephine, and Cole day. Let’s go with the easily eliminated.” Joe looked at Henry when he heard Henry sigh of relief. “I don’t mean you. I’m talking about Josephine.”

  Henry snickered. “That’s still so funny about her and George.”

  Joe cringed. “Glad you’re still getting amusement out of that two days later.”

  “Oh I am Joe, I am.”

  Dean raised his hand. “I say we eliminate her on the basis of means alone. She’s not agile enough to move about. When I was under hypnosis, I remembered someone else being in the trailer following the Moses attack. She certainly isn’t strong enough to strangle me unless she’s hiding it under that eighty-eight year old body.”

  Henry shook his head. “We don’t know if it was one of Moses’s men that came into the trailer that night.”

  Robbie disagreed. “No, if they came from outside I would have found another set of foot prints in the tunnel. I found two, both Beginnings shoes. Now either it was John with Moses or our other person. Either way it wasn’t someone else who came in. Their shoes just aren’t that treaded.”

  “Good point,” Joe said. “I move to scratch Josephine by . . . what Henry?”

  “Do you suppose she was an attractive woman when she was younger?”

  “What?” Joe yelled. “What the hell does that have to do with this?”

  “Nothing really,” Henry said. “I was curious because she thinks she’s hot now. Maybe she’s still stuck in the past.”

  “Henry.” Joe tried to get him to shut up.

  Henry kept going. “Do you think George actually was physical with her or do you . . .”

  “Henry!” Joe yelled. “It’s none of our business what George was with her. They were intimate. Leave it at that. Robbie, Josephine?”

  “Take her off Dad. I don’t want to waste my time when we really start investigating.”

  “Henry?” Joe looked to him.

  “O.K.” Henry shrugged. “Take her off.”

  “She’s off. Now Cole,” Joe stated.

  “Aw,” Henry whined. “Why can’t it be me? I would like to be eliminated soon.”

  “Soon. Cole,” Joe said. “Motive.”

  “Now see.” Dean raised his hand some. “We are getting way too wrapped up in motive.”

  “What do you mean?” Joe asked. “You have to have a motive.”

  “Yes, yes you do,” Dean explained, “but isn’t dedication to George enough? We should establish why they are dedicated instead of motive. If someone has little to lose in Beginnings then their dedication to George would be enough to work on the inside and bring us down. Take Andrea, for example. Her dedication to George, according to Henry’s theory, is love. Cole dedication would be friendship. They hung out together.”

  Robbie added, “And he definitely had the means. He may not have had the medical knowledge needed, but he works in the fields. That’s where the first exposure to the virus was.”

  Joe agreed, “And he’s trusted, almost too trusted with a lot of security secrets. I say he stays. Henry, you have anything to add.”

  “He’s a pervert, Joe. That alone should keep him on the list.

  Joe growled. “Dean, Robbie, any objections to looking into Cole?” He watched them both shake their heads “Then Cole stays. Next up, the one we’ve been waiting for… Henry.”

  Robbie was excited. He flipped a page in his note book. “Oh yes.”

  “Uh oh.” Henry looked at him. “Joe, I should be off. I’m not working for George. I have no motive.”

  “Dedication to George,” Joe said, “could be motive enough. You two were always close.”

  “But . . . but . . . I have something to lose. I have a son.”

  Dean grinned. “Lose to what? The virus? Your son is naturally immune to the virus. Everyone in Beginnings could have died with the exception of the naturally immune. In fact, as a scientist, I have to say it’s remarkable that you and Ellen are the only two naturally immune.” Dean thought about it.

  Joe saw the thinking look on Dean’s face. “What’s so remarkable?”

  “Well what if . . . this is just a what if,” Dean spoke. “What if Henry was going to be living here and working for George and George had to leave, which he did. What if they used Henry’s blood to create a base for the virus? Therefore he would be naturally immune.”

  “Can they do that?” Joe asked.

  “Most definitely,” Dean answered.

  “Oh yeah?” Henry got defensive. “Explain Ellen’s immunity then.”

  Dean snickered. “They spliced it. Her blood sample could have been obtained while she was in Colorado or . . . even taken here from the clinic which you have number one access to everything, Mr. Council Member.”

  Henry was aghast and his face showed it. “No.”

  Robbie lifted his hand. “May I take it now?”

  Joe held out his palm. “The floor is yours.”

  “Thanks.” Robbie smiled. “Means. I love what you just said Dean because it goes with what I’m going to say. Henry has the means. He has access to everything, information, the virus. He worked with the virus. Say he had this thing for Ellen for a while. That would explain why they spliced her blood into the virus. Henry wanted her. He was right there during the whole virus thing, wasn’t he? If I recall he was there for the testing, the clinic, and the plague. Right there. If the blood needed switched, Henry could have done it.” Robbie stood up. “I recall the night of the Moses attack. We were playing cards. You were awfully nervous that night, acting all insightful that something was wrong.”

  “That’s because Ellen didn’t check in,” Henry defended.

  “Yeah but what if you just knew what was going on up there? Say you knew the attack was happening and you were nervous about it. You flew up there awfully quickly, didn’t you? Moses was a crack pot and you feared he’d break and hurt Ellen. He did and when you got there, you saw that Dean was still alive so you tried to kill him. Didn’t you Henry?”

  “No.”

  “You’re always coming off as Mr. Nice Guy. Isn’t that the cover up you say Andrea uses? No one would suspect you, so trusted, so nice, but you aren’t, are you?”

  “Oh my God.” Henry moved back as Robbie neared him.

  “You’re a cold hearted man, Henry. You were at Frank’s house, nervous. You hadn’t heard anything and you should of. So you took off in a frenzy for the trailer . . .” Robbie told his story.

  “Damn it.” Henry’s hand hit against the steering wheel as he pulled up at the mobile lab. “Something went wrong.” He stepped from the Jeep and walked to the mobile. He saw the body of Bill the guard and bent down to him. “Damn it.” Henry tossed his head. “Sloppy Moses.” Pissed off, Henry walked through the open door of the trailer. He saw the blood on the carpet and didn’t see Ellen. He walked through using the trailers’ entrance to the mobile lab. When he entered, he saw Dean lying on the floor. As he turned to walk out, he heard Dean moan. Grumbling and seeing Dean move, Henry walked over to him, bent down, and braced Dean’s neck to finish the job that Moses should have done.

  Henry laughed. “O.K. Robbie. So if I did that, why didn’t I kill Dean? I had the chance.”

  “Easy,” Robbie answered, “it dawned on you that I knew you were there and Ellen was gone. You love Ellen and she took first priority. Moses had insured that no suspicion would be placed elsewher
e, so you radioed for help and took off looking for Ellen. Amazing how you knew what direction to look for her too.”

  Dean added, “Don’t forget that Henry knew exactly where Frank and Ellen were. He was probably helping George’s men out with their little strategic hit. Frank doesn’t come back, but Ellen does, dropped off at the gate as a little present to Henry.”

  Joe blinked several times in amazement, looking back and forth from Dean to Robbie. “Wow, you boys gave this an awful lot of thought. I have to admit I really didn’t put too much into it. It’s Henry. But if you feel that he could be working for George, I’ll leave him on the list. Robbie?”

  “I really don’t think he’s working for George, Dad. He was just so easy to do this to.”

  “Dean?” Joe questioned him.

  “I don’t think he’s working for George either.” Dean watched Henry slump in relief. “However, leave him on the list because it will really bother him.”

  Joe nodded, “I can do that. Robbie.”

  “Leave him.”

  “No!” Henry shouted. “Don’t I get to vote? I vote no.”

  “Too bad.” Joe pointed his pencil at Henry. “You’ve been out voted. You are hereby on the big suspect list with Andrea.”

  “Joe that is so unfair,” Henry griped. “It isn’t very nice either. You’re kidding me, right?” He didn’t get an answer. “You’re not kidding me.” Still silence. “Oh my God, I can’t believe this.” He stood up. “I can’t believe this. Me? Working for George?” Henry gasped dramatically one more time and, grabbing his notebook, flew out of Ellen’s room.

  Joe stared at the door for a second then laughed. “O.K., I say we let him go until later then we tell him he’s not really on the list.” He got agreement and laughed again. “Pretty damn good story we all came up with it though.”

  Robbie, who was laughing also, stopped and turned serious. “Dad? Something just dawned on me. We worked hard on that story, coming up with a scenario totally outrageous, but how farfetched is that scenario? Really? Think about it.”