Descent from Xanadu

by Harold Robbins

  Judd looked at him without expression. “I need three more months here.”

  “We could have an army here and it wouldn’t help, sir. They could put more than a hundred men on the island overnight. The only way I can protect you is by keeping you on the move.”

  Sofia rose from the couch and looked at Judd.

  “Let me go back,” she said. “I’m the one they want. Then you’ll be able to go on with your affairs without interference.”

  Judd looked at her. “You’re wrong,” he said. “If that were true, why did they place their operatives on the island long before anyone even suspected you would come here? I have the distinct feeling they want both of us, either separately or together, but both.”

  “I happen to agree with Mr. Crane. It’s gone beyond just you, Doctor,” John offered.

  “Even if I bring all the files back with me?” she asked.

  “I don’t know what there is in those files,” John said. “But no matter what you give them, they’ll still feel that they have not got all of it.”

  Sofia turned to Judd. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be,” he said. “Don’t forget that it was I who invited you here.” He turned to Doc Sawyer. “When do you think I can move all the equipment to Xanadu?”

  “Xanadu?” he asked. “Is it ready?”

  “Not completely,” Judd said. “But we could push. Maybe we won’t be able to connect everything immediately, but we can get it into place.”

  Sawyer thought for a moment. “Two weeks to dismantle here, maybe a week to transfer, then maybe two or three to reassemble at Xanadu.”

  “A month and a half?” Judd asked.

  “Thereabouts,” Sawyer said.

  “Xanadu?” Sofia was puzzled.

  “I’ll tell you more in time,” Judd said. “But I found out early on when we were building the island that Zabiski was not correct in her surmise. She thought only in her own parameters. Crane Island was to be open to the world, pretty much like her own clinic. She thought that three miles off the coast would provide enough protection and privacy. She was wrong. And so was I. At first.”

  “So you began to construct another complex to replace this?” she asked.

  He nodded without speaking, then turned to John. “Do you think we can stay here for six weeks?”

  “No.” His tone was positive. “You have to be on the move. And no one must know where you’re going or how or when you’re leaving.”

  “But the equipment?” Judd asked. “Even if I leave, they’ll come in here if they think I’m still on the island.”

  “We’ll let them see you’ve gone from here,” John said. “Then we have to be fast and sneaky. Now they see you, now they don’t. You move fast and light.”

  Judd offered no comment. Merlin showed him his palms. “And what about the business, the companies?”

  “We’ll have to find a way to keep in touch. Meanwhile we try to unload everything we can except medical and connecting companies.”

  “You’ll be blowing away over four billion dollars,” Merlin said.

  “What’s the difference between four billion dollars and four cents to a dead man?” Judd replied. He turned to John. “Start the ball rolling,” he said. “I want to be off the island tomorrow.”

  “And the first stop?” the Security director asked.

  “Washington, D.C.,” Judd said. “What higher visibility could I achieve than a meeting with the President of the United States at the White House?”

  “I would like to do a CAT scan on you,” Sawyer said. “I can arrange it in Washington. It will only take ten minutes, and you can have it either on the way to the White House or on your return to the airport.”

  Judd turned to John. “Do you think we can take the time?”

  John nodded. “We can handle it.”

  “Okay,” Judd said. His eyes held Sawyer’s. “Have the tests been completed on the chemical cell reconstruction?”

  “Yes,” Sawyer answered. “The DNA engineering department tells me they’re perfect. There’s no way you can tell the natural cells from the artificial.”

  Sofia looked from one to the other. “I’m beginning to feel that I’m out of things here. You’re all way ahead of me.”

  “Not really,” Sawyer said. “Moscow has the same kind of project underway.”

  “I know nothing about it.”

  “Maybe that’s why they had you buried in Bangladesh,” Judd said. “But if you stick around, you’ll catch up fast.”

  “There’s just one thing to remember,” Sawyer went on. “These are only laboratory tests. The cells have never been used clinically on humans. Only on laboratory mice.”

  “Are you planning to use it on yourself?” Sofia asked Judd.

  “At the moment, no,” Judd replied. “This is just a backup, if we cannot obtain the real thing.”

  “Good,” she said. “I think you’ve done enough experimenting on yourself.”

  Judd glanced at his watch. “It’s one a.m. I think we’d all better get some rest. We’ll meet again at seven.”

  The men said their good nights; only Sofia and Fast Eddie remained in the library with Judd. Judd looked at her. “Fast Eddie will take you to your room.”

  She rose from her chair, started toward the door, then turned back to Judd. “What’s to happen to the girls?”

  “They’ll be returned to their home,” he said.

  “But Amarinth,” she said, and held her breath. “She loves you.”

  Judd met her eyes. “We have no choice. We have enough problems trying to keep ourselves alive. There’s no way we can carry excess baggage.”

  “Excess baggage, Judd?” she challenged him. “She’s a human being.”

  “I know that,” Judd said gently. “But I’d rather she was at home and alive than risking her life here. If we get into trouble, she’d be the first to go down. She’s an innocent with no defenses.”

  Sofia took a deep breath. “She’ll be hurt. She won’t understand. She’ll weep.”

  His eyes went dark blue and without expression as he met her gaze. “I’d weep even more if I were the cause of her death.”

  12

  “He looks well,” Barbara said, watching the television screen. “Time stops still for him. I know he’s forty-nine but he looks much the same as he did at forty.”

  Sofia’s eyes remained fixed on the screen. “Physically he appears the same, but inside he’s different. Psychologically and mentally. He seems to have withdrawn emotionally.”

  Barbara watched Judd shake hands with the President. When the President waved farewell and went through the doors of the White House, Judd descended from the portico to face the battery of reporters and cameras.

  “It was a personal visit with the President,” he replied to their questions. “We had no discussions about business.”

  “You did not ask the President for his opinion about your sale of Crane Engineering and Construction Companies to the Japanese?” one of the reporters asked.

  “No,” Judd replied. “Nor did the President offer any opinion. These matters are always handled by my legal department and the Justice Department.”

  “It seems to me,” another reporter said, “that you are selling off the assets of your empire, Mr. Crane. The financial community is very concerned about it.”

  “I don’t see why they’re concerned,” Judd said. “This decision is only one of many others I’ve been making, and since the companies are wholly owned by me, it does not affect the stock market or any other section of the financial community.”

  “But your companies are considered among the most profitable in the world,” the reporter from the Wall Street Journal said. “Why would you want to dispose of them?”

  Judd looked at the reporter. “Would it be too much if I told you that I began to feel the responsibility for all those companies had come to weigh too heavily on me? That I haven’t enough time for my own life? That only if I retired from these act
ivities would I be able to lead my life according to my own personal inclinations?”

  “Do you have any plans for the future?” the reporter asked.

  “Many,” Judd said. “But first things first. These are the matters at hand. Later I’ll sort out my own plans.”

  “Did you talk about all this with the President?”

  “As I said, it was a personal visit. Nothing more.” Judd paused for a moment. “That’s all I have to say, gentlemen. Thank you.” He walked past the group of reporters, stepped inside the waiting limousine, and disappeared behind the blackout windows. The car began to move down the driveway.

  Barbara turned off the television set. “So that’s it,” she said. “He told them nothing.”

  “He tells nothing to anyone,” Sofia said. “Even Merlin and Doc Sawyer.”

  Barbara went to the small box on the table that contained the cassettes and notebooks. “That’s all he wanted you to bring for him?”

  Sofia nodded.

  Barbara looked into her eyes. “Don’t you think you should tell him about the child?”

  Sofia shook her head. “I’m afraid of him. I’m afraid of what he’d think if he knew. No one knows what goes on inside his head. He may be living on the edge of sanity.”

  “Maybe the child will bring him back,” Barbara offered.

  “I’d be afraid to take the chance by telling him,” Sofia said. “Would you?”

  Barbara sighed. “Sad. Very sad. He is a beautiful child. He has the same cobalt-blue eyes as his father.”

  Sofia’s eyes misted over. “I wish I could see him. But I know I should not. If I did, I’m not sure I would be able to leave him.” She took a deep breath. “Maybe in time. Maybe then Judd will understand.”

  Barbara nodded. “Where did Judd tell you you were going?”

  “He didn’t tell me,” she answered. “I only know that Security will take me to him.”

  Barbara looked out the bay window of the breakfast room at the lights strung like a string of pearls across the Golden Gate Bridge. She turned back to Sofia. “Where is Judd now?” she asked.

  “I don’t know,” Sofia answered. “I know he was going to have a brain scan. He didn’t tell me where he would go after that.” Sofia thought for a moment. “Xanadu? Did he ever tell you about that?”

  “Xanadu?” Barbara repeated. “Isn’t that one of the hotels the leisure company is building? I think it’s in Brasília.”

  “Not a hotel,” Sofia said. “In the context of his talks with Sawyer, it seemed more like a laboratory. Some of the equipment from Crane Island was supposed to be sent there.”

  “Then I don’t know,” Barbara said. “Did you ask him?”

  “Yes, but he always said I would learn in time.”

  “Then you’ll have to wait, I guess. I’ve become used to waiting. Even when he was a boy, if he didn’t want to talk he didn’t talk, and nothing could pry him open.”

  The telephone buzzed. A voice came over the interphone. “The doctor’s limousine has arrived.”

  “Thank you,” Barbara said. “She’ll be right down.”

  Sofia looked at her hesitantly. “Do you have a photograph of my boy?”

  Barbara nodded silently. She opened a small desk drawer. The photograph was in a silver frame. She handed it to Sofia.

  Sofia studied it closely. “He’s big,” she said, half-whispering.

  “You have to remember he’s almost three,” Barbara said. “But he is big for his age. Very bright, too.”

  “He looks so much like Judd,” Sofia whispered.

  “You should tell his father.”

  “He’d never forgive me,” Sofia answered. “Especially since I went behind his back to you.” She handed the picture to Barbara.

  “You can keep it,” Barbara said. “I have others.”

  Sofia shook her head. “I have no privacy. There is nowhere I could hide it that it wouldn’t turn up in Judd’s hands. Sometime, maybe soon, I’ll be able to tell Judd. But not now.”

  Impulsively, Barbara put her arms around Sofia. She kissed her cheek. For a moment they shared their tears.

  Sofia picked up the small container that held the notebooks and cassettes. She did her best to control her voice. “I’ll never be able to thank you enough.”

  Barbara couldn’t reply. She watched Sofia leave the room before she placed the photograph on the desk. She stared at it for a long moment, then covered her face with her hands. “God,” she whispered. “Please, God. Help them. Help all of us.”

  ***

  Two security men awaited Sofia as she came from the house. They fell into step, one on each side of her as they walked down the front steps. Another man held the door of the limousine. When she entered the car, she observed two more cars escorting the limousine, one before and one behind. Each contained four men.

  She sat back in the limousine. The two men who had accompanied her joined her in the back seat on either side. The security man who had held the door closed it quickly and slipped into the front seat beside the chauffeur. All the cars moved smoothly into the street.

  “I’m Brad, Doctor,” the security man to her right said. “My partner there is Lance. We’ll be with you on the plane to Los Angeles.”

  “That’s where we’re going? I didn’t know that.”

  “Actually we’ll be landing in Ontario. LAX is very busy and has too much traffic.” He pulled the jump seat forward and moved to it so he could face her and look through the rear window. “You’ll be more comfortable this way.”

  He gestured to the container. “Are those the files?”

  She nodded.

  “Leave them in the car when we go to the plane,” he said crisply. “They’ll be delivered to the office.”

  “Very well,” she said. She saw the sign leading to the Bay Bridge. “We’re going to the Oakland Airport?”

  “Yes,” he said. “We have a plane waiting for us.”

  Twenty minutes later, the car rolled through the wide wire gate entrance to the private plane section. It swung around several hangars and stopped beside a Lear Jet. She reached for the door.

  Brad held her hand. “Wait for a moment, please.”

  She looked out the car window. Several security men stood near the plane watching them. Two men from the escort cars got out first and spoke to the others. One climbed the ladder into the plane. He disappeared for a moment, then returned to the open hatch and signaled to Brad.

  “We can get out now,” Brad said, opening the door and stepping out before her.

  He helped her from the car and followed her quickly to the ladder and into the plane. He swung up behind her, patted the man still standing in the doorway of the plane. He went down the ladder and Lance came into the plane. The ladder went up and the plane door closed and locked.

  She sat in the first seat in the small cabin and looked out the window. Two of the security men from the escort cars got into the rear seat of the limousine. The car began moving away as the jet engine roared to life. A moment later, the plane was turning from the hangar to the runway.

  She glanced at her wristwatch. It was ten minutes to ten. The seat belt sign clicked on. She fastened the belt around her. A moment later, the plane was at the head of the runway, picking up speed and climbing into the sky. The lights of San Francisco fell away behind them. She leaned back in her seat; she felt tired. “How long will we be?” she asked.

  “About an hour,” Brad answered.

  “And then where do I go?”

  “I don’t know,” Brad said. “Our orders are to turn you over to another team of security men.”

  She turned back to the window. She closed her eyes and dozed. She felt a sting on her upper arm. She opened her eyes, startled. She looked up at Brad’s face. “What?” she started to ask.

  “Don’t be afraid,” he said gently. “It’s only a shot to help you sleep.”

  Then she was asleep.

  13

  Her eyes opened slowly. He
r vision was blurred at first, then rapidly cleared. She looked up at the soft blue of the ceiling, then at the bright sunlight outside the windows. Before she saw the nurse moving toward her, an accustomed odor told her she was in a hospital.

  The nurse was a slim Japanese girl in a white uniform with long shining black hair down to her shoulders. The nurse smiled at her from beside the bed. A small round pin glistened on her white cap. “Good morning,” she said in a soft, unaccented, American voice. She picked up the telephone on the table next to the bed. “Dr. Walton,” she said, “your patient’s awake.”

  She turned to the foot of the bed and pressed a button. The head of the bed rose behind Sofia. “Comfortable?” she asked, then added, “Don’t be frightened. You’re among friends.”

  The nurse smiled again. “A cold glass of freshly made pineapple juice will lift you up.”

  Sofia watched her go to a small alcove. From the refrigerator she took a frosted glass bowl of sliced pineapple chunks. She threw the chunks into a vegetable extractor and a moment later brought Sofia a frost-covered glass.

  The cold juice was refreshing. Sofia welcomed the sweet, cool liquid and drained the glass to the bottom. She hadn’t known she was so dehydrated. As if she could read Sofia’s thoughts, the nurse repeated the whole process without a word and handed Sofia another glass of juice.

  Sofia drank it more slowly this time. At the same time she looked around the room. It was not a conventional hospital room: soft blue walls, gentle tropical paintings, Lucite table and chairs and a comfortable lounging chair for reading. She looked at the nurse. “The bathroom?”

  The nurse opened a door. Sofia could see the tiles in a tropical pattern. She tried to sit up.

  “If you feel dizzy,” the nurse offered, “let me help you.”

  Sofia shook her head for a moment. “I think I’ll be all right.” She sat up, holding the side of the bed for a second. “I’ll be fine,” she decided.

  “You have time for a shower if you like,” the nurse said. “Dr. Walton will be in surgery another ten minutes.”