The Next Ten: Beginnings Series Books 11 - 20

by Jacqueline Druga

  “Did you plan the shape or was that the way they turned out? They are so full and sexy.” Jenny winked at Jeff who stared at her with his one good eye.

  “Actually we had several successful pair. I liked these.”

  “Good choice. What are you doing to them?”

  “A form of electrolysis for the fur that keeps coming back. At least it’s only sporadic ,unlike before. That’s why we haven’t put the skin on his face yet. We have to perfect it.”

  With her index finger swirling, Jenny indicated to Jeff’s ‘sort of nose. Where once a bare cavity was, set almost a building bridge. “How much longer till the nose is done?”

  “It’s a slow process,” Ellen explained. “We’re trimming bone from different sections of his body and building. Actually.” Ellen stood up straight and moved the tray with her supplies. “Dean and I had a wonderful talk with Jeff. Right, Jeff?”

  Jeff nodded.

  “We figured, Jeff won’t look the same, so since this whole thing is experimental, we let Jeff decide who he wanted us to try to make him resemble.”

  “And?” Jenny asked.

  “Do you remember an actor called Tom Cruise?”

  Jenny’s eyes lit up. “Oh. Yes. Excellent choice, Jeff. Maybe perhaps the new looks will make up for the fact that you broke Trish’s heart so badly. Of course, I don’t care now. She’s friends with the she-devil.”

  Ellen chuckled. “She’s up to something with Bev. Bet me. I don’t buy it.”

  Robbie’s voice emerging into the room, took them by surprise. “You would be surprised what people buy.” He smiled “Hey, El. Jen.”

  Ellen was shocked to see him. “What are you doing here in the middle of the day?”

  “I need to talk to you. Can you walk?”

  “Sure.” Ellen moved to the door. “Jenny are you visiting with Jeff?”

  “Yes, then John,” Jenny said. “It’s my invalid day.”

  Robbie’s paused with a hidden snicker in his exit with Ellen. “O.K.” He raised his eyebrows.

  “What’s up?”

  “Have you heard anything? Did they call during the break in the trial?”

  “Joe called. They reviewed the video tape of testimonies of those seven working for George. He said he could judge by the juries face, but what do you think?”

  “The video is pretty damaging to Andrea. Let me know if you hear anything. I’ll be down in the Communications Room waiting for our troops to check in. They’re supposed to be meeting up with the Society at anytime now.”

  Ellen revealed a nervous breath. “That’s scary. You don’t think they’ll . . .”

  “They better not. We’re in a cease fire. I’ll be in the tunnels.”

  “So will I. Lunch?” Ellen asked.

  “Love it. I have a question.” Robbie stopped walking when they reached the lab. He leaned against the wall. “I’m gonna get serious with you.”

  “Sure.” Ellen folded her arms facing him.

  “All right. You kind of . . . you kind of teased me.” Robbie showed an embarrassed smile. “About having an understanding with me, well, rather making me your primary. I want you to consider that. And I’m perfectly fine with having the arrangement include Jess.”

  “Robbie. I can’t divide between three men. Elliott is a definite.”

  “But, El, come on.” Robbie twitched his head. “It’s not like you’ll have three men. Just dealing with us. You said yourself that sleeping with Elliott, if it comes, will take a while. And it’s not like, I don’t know, you’ll be sleeping with . . . Jess.”

  Ellen looked up.

  “Actually, if you think about, the three of us under the same roof would be perfect. I would be the most liberal primary you would ever have. You and Jess would get that companionship thing you seek . . .”

  “You would always have clean clothes, food and such.”

  “Well.” Robbie smiled.

  “And of course I’d be sleeping with you. What about Jess?” Ellen asked. “Huh?”

  “El, I can’t sleep with Jess,” Robbie said.

  “No.” Ellen chuckled. “I’m talking about how convenient he is for you. Robbie, if Jess were a woman, you’d be in love with him the way he spoils you. But . . . you let him spoil you. You have come to expect that without expecting to give him anything in return. Jess can’t go on spoiling both of us forever. He’s eventually got to get into something for him.”

  “Doesn’t, you know, he get that emotional fulfillment from you? Jess always says . . . sex . . . is not important.”

  “Robbie, Jess is learning from me, that’s all. He’s expressed no interest in staying with me. And I believe he’s not getting that fulfillment from me. He’ll move on. You and I know this and it will be soon too. He has other female options. And we also know, eventually . . .”

  “He’ll move on from them to what he needs,” Robbie said.

  “Exactly. So, sorry, no kinky three way.”

  “You won’t consider it. I mean, I really am thinking of Jess this time. I think he’d like it. It could work.”

  “No.” Ellen shook her head. “Jess, it’s just about time he moves on. I feel that. I’m getting ready for it and considering this new ‘first ever’ relationship in Beginnings isn’t a good idea. People can get hurt.”

  “What about . . .” Robbie softened his voice. “Considering me.”

  Ellen whined then walked around him and into the lab. “Robbie.”

  “What?” Robbie followed.

  “I can’t believe you just asked me that. Not you. You’ve never asked me that. You know how I am with you. You’re nearly impossible for me to say ‘no’ to.”

  “I know, but I’m not playing on that,” Robbie said. “I’m truly asking. I know Frank will hate me. And I know with his brand new best friend thing with Dean, those two are gonna make any relationship impossible for you. In that aspect, you know I won’t fold.” He watched her just stare at him. “El.”

  Ellen stopped as she grabbed for a stack of requisitions. She opened her mouth.

  “Don’t answer.” Robbie grinned. “Don’t. I don’t want an answer. Think about it . . .” Sneaky like, he backed from the lab. “Mull over it. Fantasize . . .’ He chuckled. “Come to me if you decide. All right?” He reached the door. “See you at lunch.” He darted out.

  Ellen dropped the requisitions with a heavy sigh.

  ^^^^

  New Bowman, Montana

  Henry sulked as he watched Stan try to be an impressive prosecutor. Henry was so upset. He couldn’t believe Grace would not allow him to question Frank. He just wished she believed he really didn’t have any questions for Frank.

  “Since the start,” Frank spoke unlike himself, soft and not overbearing. And his attire was not one of Frank’s either. He wore black pants, white shirt, and a maroon red tie. “Disbursement of troops, scheduling of security personal, investigation. I’m in charge of security.”

  “What is your relationship with Mrs. Slagel?”

  “She’s my stepmother.”

  “There are several areas in the medical field that are extremely classified and entry is limited. What areas are these?”

  “Cryo-lab, all the back rooms to the Cryo-lab, um, Clinic lab, and the Mobile Lab.”

  “Aside from council, and Daniel Hoi in Mechanics, who has access?” Stan asked.

  “Security, top personnel.”

  “They are?”

  “Myself, Robbie Slagel and recently we’ve entrusted two others. Sgt. F . . . F . . .Elliott Ryder and Jess Boyens.”

  “Out of four doctors and one intern, how many have access to these regions?”

  “Three,” Frank answered.

  “And they are?” Stan questioned.

  “Drs. Dean and Ellen Hayes and Andrea Winters-Slagel.”

  “Our records state, Mr. Slagel, that you reopened an internal investigation into the ‘Mobile Lab’ incident, an incident now known connected to George Hadley.”

  “Yes.�
��

  “I have a list of evidence from that box.” Stan walked to the table. He picked up a long thin plastic tube. “State’s Exhibit ‘2-D’. Tell us, Mr. Slagel, about this.”

  “We have a plastics division that makes those tubings for the medical field, amongst other articles.”

  “Do you know what this is used for?”

  “Objection.” Danny stood up. “Mr. Slagel is not a medical expert.”

  “Overruled,” Graced stated.

  Frank cleared his throat. “I believe that is intravenous tubing.”

  “Tell us about it.” Stan held the two foot piece of tubing. “Why was it in the box?”

  “Robbie, my brother, found that about five yards behind the Mobile Lab.”

  “He collected it, tagged it, and marked it as unviable evidence?”

  “That’s correct.”

  “Explain what that means.”

  “It means he didn’t think it was pertinent to the case.”

  “He did nothing with the tube but you did. Why is that, Mr. Slagel?” Stan asked.

  “My brother was not informed of some things that I was. Had he been informed, he would have. I was told by Dr. Dean Hayes that he recalled being strangled when he was laying on the floor of the lab half unconscious. That’s when the thought of the tubing came into mind as a possible means to a weapon.”

  “So what did you do?”

  “I ran a fingerprint check on it.”

  “Did you find fingerprints?” Stan asked.

  Nervously, Frank cleared his throat. “Yes.”

  “How many sets?”

  “One.”

  “This wasn’t brought to the attention of the Council. Why?”

  After a moment of thought, Frank answered. “Several reasons. I could have screwed them up. We’re talking an old checking system and a thin surface. It made no sense that the person doing the strangling would be so sloppy as to leave their fingerprints.”

  “So you buried the results?”

  “I didn’t bury them. I just filed them.”

  “Whose fingerprints were these?”

  Frank stared at his folded hands then lifted his dark eyes. “Andrea’s.”

  “No further questions.” Stan turned from the stand, flashed arrogance at Henry, and sat down at the table.

  Dropping his pencil slowly, Danny stood up. “Hey Frank.” He walked around the table and leaned against the front. “Sorry to put you in this position.”

  Frank reached up, trying to get some room between the tie he wore and his tense neck.

  “It’s possible that you made a mistake in the fingerprint testing, is it not?”

  “Yes.”

  “In fact, with these security codes that only certain people have, It’s possible that you may have been lax, possibly not on top of things, and someone could have received access to them. Correct?”

  “I really would have had to been oblivious and pre occupied.” Frank nodded.

  “Drunk?”

  “Objection.” Henry stood up. “Danny, come on.”

  Danny ignored him. “Isn’t it true, Frank, you had a substance abuse problem with alcohol so bad your own son shot himself because you irresponsibly left your weapon laying around while you were drinking . . .”

  “Objection.” Henry raised his voice. “Mr. Slagel’s personal life is not on trial.”

  “The integrity of his judgment is,” Danny argued.

  “I’ll allow. Overruled.”

  “Shit.” Henry sat.

  Grace slammed her gavel.

  Danny continued. “Frank? Isn’t it true?”

  Frank swallowed predominantly, following it with a few blinks trying to hide being uncomfortable. “Yes.”

  “So it’s safe to say from the time period . . .” Danny reviewed his notes. “Of November last year to August this year when you went into Detox, that your judgment, responsibility, and perception weren’t a hundred percent?”

  “It’s, uh, safe to say, yes.”

  “No more questions.” Danny walked around the table to his chair.

  Frank stared down sadly, waiting to be excused.

  ^^^^

  Denning, Texas

  UWA Corporal Henricks rubbed his reddish goatee as he looked across what he would describe as a river of land separating his men and the Society soldiers who were setting up.

  “Sir. Robbie Slagel is on the line.”

  With a short chuckle and his hands behind his back, Corp. Henricks walked to the table and picked up the mobile phone. “Sir?”

  “How’s it looking?” Robbie asked.

  “Good.”

  “Any confrontations?”

  “Um . . .” Corp. Henricks snickered. “You can say they’re pretty much keeping their distance.”

  “How many are there?”

  “Predicted amount? I’d say around three hundred. I haven’t spoken to their CO on whether the other troops are headed back to base or dispersed in a search of their own.”

  “All right,” Robbie said. “Keep me posted. Let me know if anything happens. Rest up and set out to follow the search agenda starting tomorrow.”

  “Will do, Sir.” Corp. Henricks handed the mobile phone back to his man. He turned around, paced a few yards forward, and took a position--as if it was his task--watching the Society soldiers finish up the campsite.

  ^^^^

  Beginnings, Montana

  “I really haven’t any idea what they’re gonna ask me on the stand tomorrow,” Johnny stated as he helped Ellen clean up in the cryo-lab. “Did you feed Bub today?”

  “Yes.” Ellen reached to the file holder. “Didn’t you give a deposition?”

  “Yeah, but it was stupid. I don’t really know anything for either side.”

  “Danny has some reason for putting you . . . I really wish Dean would not collect all these folders down here. See, he’s never around to re-file them when the . . .” As Ellen reached to pull folders out, one of them fell and its contents spilled. “Shit. How did that happen?”

  “Maybe it was stuck.” Johnny moved to help her. Their hands met picking up the papers and Johnny noticed Ellen’s bewildered look. “What is it?”

  A clipped blue piece of paper was in her hand. “It’s Andrea’s handwriting.”

  “What does it say?”

  Ellen read. “Against my better judgment, as you requested, Dean, and you did not get this from me.”

  Johnny laughed. “Sounds ominous. What is it?”

  Shrugging, Ellen removed the clip. Her entire expression dropped along with the note when she saw behind it was an ultra sound picture. The name and date indicated it was recently taken of Bev’s baby. “I guess he’s slowly forgetting about the set-up he claims she did to him.”

  “Odd.”

  “What?” Ellen tucked it back in the folder.

  “As far as I know, Dean wasn’t even aware of the sonogram.”

  “Then you knew wrong. Here.” Ellen handed him the stack of folders. “File.”

  Johnny grumbled and laughed when Bub, the lobotomized Savage, mimicked him.

  ^^^^

  New Bowman, Montana

  “Salicain is a drug,” Dean explained on the stand. “It is one identified through the vials in the cryo-lab from a case that was stored away there. We didn’t invent it. It’s not ours.”

  “So you learned to identify the drug from similar drugs you had on hand?” Danny asked.

  “Through trial and error testing,” Dean said. “We can’t unlock the files in the computer system that tells us what each vial is. The computer is rigged.”

  “I see.” Danny paced. “And you said that the drug must be administered in intermittent doses so it doesn’t wear off?”

  “Yes. As far as I can tell, it was basically designed for a replacement anesthesia.”

  “In your opinion, does it take a medical expert to administer this drug?”

  “No.”

  “So anyone could have done this?”


  “Yes.”

  “Hospital records indicate that prior to John Matoose’s suspected injection of a sister drug to Salicain, Andrea Winters-Slagel was in the next room doing rounds.”

  “Yes, and she was the last person to check on John.”

  “How much time was there before the rounds Andrea made and the discovery of John’s condition?”

  “Hours.” Dean shrugged. “I’m not really sure.”

  “Enough time for anyone, non medical, to slip in.”

  “Yes,” Dean answered.

  “Jenny Matoose. You testified that she was given the original strain of the new virus. What brought you to that conclusion?”

  “There were three strains present in the patients. Strain Two was predominant and sequentially those they infected evolved into Strain Three. We had an antidote for Strain One, the original virus.”

  “How do you know the difference in the strains?” Danny quizzed.

  Dean looked up arrogantly.

  Grace drew attention with a slight tap to her gavel. “Mr. Hoi, please don’t insinuate this man doesn’t know his field. We’ve established he’s an expert witness.”

  “I’m sorry.” Danny held up his hand. “Do we know for a fact that Jenny had the original strain?”

  “Yes, retests on the blood concluded it. There was a mix up during all the virus confusion and we initially had inaccurate results of her blood.”

  “How do you know she didn’t catch it?”

  “In laymen’s terms,” Dean said, “she was the only one with that strain. She was a later victim. Virus’s mutate. At the time frame when she turned ill, had she not been intentionally given the virus, she would have exhibited a mutated strain.”

  “In your opinion does a person need medical knowledge to administer the virus?”

  “No,” Dean said.

  “How about in the situation with the tampered notes? Does a person need medical knowledge for that?”

  “Core knowledge, no. They would have had to do some studying to make the formula look good. But they would also have to had access to the computer password to get into the system.”