by Jerry Bruce
“Please call me Josef. And I in return will call you Richard.” It sounded like an order instead of a suggestion.
“Thank you for agreeing to talk to me, Josef. I have to admit that I was surprised to find out that Jean Pierre’s source was the Russian premier.”
“Why should you be shocked? I don’t think our adversary, the Controller, shows any favoritism. He deals with people from all continents and all political views.”
Richard immediately picked up on the use of the word “adversary.” He didn’t believe that this was just a random choice of words. Vashenko was known to be very precise with his verbal expression. If he said “adversary,” then that’s what he intended to say—and to have Richard pick up on it. Richard decided that since the premier had purposely given him a clue to his feelings, then it was appropriate to respond in kind.
“I suppose that no one is beyond the reach of his evil influence.” Richard stressed the “evil.”
“I see we have a similar aversion to this man. Is that a correct assessment of your position, Richard?”
“Yes it is.”
“That surprises me to some extent. I have felt for some time that your own involvement with this man was—how should I say it—of mutual benefit. What has brought about this sudden change?”
“First of all, it isn’t a sudden change. I have always wondered about his intentions. However, since together we were accomplishing some things that were good for the world, I cooperated. I have since come to realize that to be a mistake.” Richard tried very hard not to appear apologetic, which he was sure the premier would interpret as weakness.
“I was hoping that would be the case. Tell me Richard, what made you realize that you made a mistake?”
Richard sensed that Vashenko was on a fishing trip. “Some things that the Controller related to me.” He was going to leave it at that until such time as the premier gave him reason to believe he was trustworthy.
“I can see that we have to earn each others trust before we will be able to proceed.”
“Proceed with what?” Richard remembered that LeClerc used the same expression. He didn’t think much of it at the time, but now it seemed significant.
“Very well, enough of this chess match. I am going to assume that I can put my faith in you. I believe that you are genuinely at odds with this fellow, Controller, otherwise we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Therefore, I am going to ‘stick my neck out’ as you Americans say and tell of my intentions.”
“Let me interrupt you, Josef. I promise you, I don’t have any ulterior motives or hidden agendas. I am being sincere with you.” Richard hoped this would put the premier’s mind at ease.
“Good. Because what I am going to tell you could result in my death. I had some scientists analyze our water and crops. It is unfortunate that my predecessor didn’t do this before making my country dependent upon these. In any case, my scientists discovered traces of a substance that should not be present. They haven’t been able to tell me what effect this substance has upon those who digest it since they cannot obtain a big enough sample to run controlled laboratory tests. But I got them to speculate that it is probably not good for those taking it into their systems and could have undesirable long-term effects. Because of this, I feel that this Controller must be neutralized.” The premier gave no hint of emotion when he said, “neutralized.”
The premier’s words were like manna from heaven to Richard. Finally someone else was thinking along the same lines as him. “Josef, you have shown me a great deal of respect and trust by telling me this and I would like to return the favor. I have been planning a strategy for the overthrow of this madman for some time. I obviously had to proceed very carefully to avoid him getting word of my intentions. Can I assume that you and Jean Pierre are of like mind and would be willing to join me in my efforts?”
“By all means yes. We have already discussed the possibility. I only revealed my own intentions last evening to Jean Pierre. He was unaware of the chemical treatments being used against us.”
That explains why Jean Pierre was up all night worrying, Richard thought to himself.
“Do you have any idea what these chemicals are meant to accomplish Richard?”
“Yes. Unfortunately the crops and water have been treated with a genetically engineered substance aimed at altering how people react to authority. It seems that if a person is prone to complacency, the drug will enhance that trait. People would be very docile and could be led like sheep to the slaughter.”
“I have thought up many scenarios, but that one eluded me. This man is truly mad. But also very clever to take advantage of mankind’s tendency toward disinterested contentment.”
“You haven’t heard the best part. This maniac has done all this so that he can be the world’s ruler—forever. To insure that is possible, he has been able to have himself cloned. He claims the cloning process is perfected and that there will always be a Controller to rule over mankind.”
Finally telling someone of the Controller’s agenda, outside of his inner circle, gave Richard a deep sense of satisfaction. The burden he had been carrying was growing lighter.
“That is very disconcerting news. I never dreamed that it was this involved. It is clear what we must do. When can we take care of this man?”
“Josef, first we must identify him. That is our first goal, until we can do that, we are powerless.”
“How do you suggest we proceed, Richard?”
“I have several trusted associates who are working on that right now. I have been trying to identify every leader that may be under the Controller’s influence. I thought I had a good handle on that until you came to light. Now I’m not so sure that we will be able to find out who all the players are. I know that Prime Minister Rolt is one of Controller’s pawns as well as someone in the Israeli government. I have also heard rumors to the extent that Syrian President Yahman might be involved. I was hoping to recruit as many other leaders as possible, but it may be too risky to chance bringing someone else on board. We may have to limit it to the three of us.”
“I believe that would be the best course of action. Do you think we will be able to identify this man?”
“We must identify him. I have assembled everything I know about this madman and my team is piecing it all together. We are confident that we will be able to put a name and face to the Controller. For now I encourage you to cooperate with him, we can’t let him find out about our alliance or give any hint of our dissatisfaction. He has to think that his plan is on track. I will keep you posted to my progress and hopefully we will be able to act soon.”
“Very well, Richard. I’ll try to be patient. I will also pay close attention to everyone I deal with in other countries to see if I can pick up on any others who may be involved, but I won’t approach anyone.”
“Good. With any kind of luck, the next time I talk to you I’ll know the identity of the Controller.”
“I hope so.”
Richard hung up the phone and walked over to pour himself a cup of coffee. He sat in his favorite chair and reviewed his conversation with Vashenko. He hoped that he hadn’t made a mistake in giving the premier so much information. If he was ever going to make any progress he was going to have to start bringing others into his circle of conspirators.
His biggest concern was revealing the names of some of those he knew or suspected of being Controller’s pawns. He had quickly decided, under the heat of the moment, that if Vashenko wasn’t on his side and informed the Controller of his knowledge about the others involvement that he wouldn’t be in any worse position than he already was in. If it meant the Controller took action against some or all of the others, it would be of no concern to him. The Controller would merely be aiding in his own overthrow. This seemed like a win-win situation.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“Mr. President, President Hamilton is on the line for you, shall I put him through?”
“Please do, thank you.” Richard was
anticipating a call from Stephen—ever since Christine told him that she had an interesting conversation with Stephen the evening prior. Christine was impressed with how Stephen was non committal yet gave her every indication that he was interested in hearing her out. Even though it was obvious to her what he was doing, she had to admire the way he pulled it off. Richard told her that Stephen was too experienced to tip his hand if he didn’t want to. Richard was hoping that Stephen was merely trying to get as much out of Christine as he could, with the intention of relating everything to Richard. Now the call had been placed; the only question now was what Stephen would have to say.
“Stephen, good of you to call.”
“I called you as soon as I had a few free minutes. There is something that I think you need to know, Richard. I believe you will find it very interesting and critically important.”
“You sound very solemn, Stephen, what’s wrong?”
“This isn’t going to be easy for you to hear but here goes. Christine Morrison called me last night and we had a very interesting conversation. I led her on so that I could get as much information out of her as possible. It was odd, but she was talking to me as though she felt I was working with the Controller. I played along to see if she would tip her hand and she did. She admitted that she was conspiring with the Controller against you. She claimed to be the Controller’s inside source while you were U.S. president. Richard, you have to do something about her.”
“What would you suggest?” Richard could hardly hold back his happiness that his friend was truly on his side, but he wanted to play out the entire hand before telling Stephen the real story.
“Are you familiar with the saying ‘Keep your friends close and your enemies closer’? Well I would suggest that you follow that advice. Preventing her finding out you know could be tricky, but it may also be the best option.”
Richard decided to fess up. “Stephen, I have something to tell you and I hope you won’t get upset with me. I put Christine up to it. I had to be one hundred percent positive that you had no connection to the Controller. Don’t get me wrong, I believed in you from the beginning, but there is so much at stake here, I had to be positive. I hope you’re not upset.”
“You set me up? Why you sneaky devil, I should be pissed off—but I’m not. I probably would have done the same thing if the situations were reversed. So now that you know I’m clean, where do we go from here? Oh by the way, how do you know that Christine is clean?”
“As a matter of fact, I called in a favor from your CIA Director and had Adam and Christine submitted to polygraph tests. So I know that they are both okay. I have confided in them and they are going to work with us on this. I trust all three of you explicitly. Are you ready for other news?” Richard decided to relate his conversations with LeClerc and Vashenko to Stephen. He filled Stephen in on every detail of the conversations.
“Wow, that’s big news. And you believe we can trust them?”
“I do believe that. We went around, back and forth, trying to draw each other out before we each laid our cards on the table. I think our biggest problem isn’t a lack of trust, it’s keeping Vashenko in check; he really wants to take down the Controller. Probably the only reason he hasn’t acted by now is because he doesn’t know the man’s identity. When we do find out, we will have to keep it under our hats for a while. We don’t want him going off half-cocked.”
“Yeah, he can be very rash at times. I often wonder how he got where he is with that temper. But I think we will be okay, he’s smart enough to know what’s at stake here. You didn’t answer my question, what’s our next move?”
“I have something else to tell you. I’m sure you have heard of Ralph Blocker?”
“Sure, he’s in the press corps here at the White House. He makes all the important briefings from what I’m told. Used to make them all, but recently he hasn’t been around as much.”
“He hasn’t been around because he is dedicating a lot of his time trying to find out the Controller’s identity.”
“What! Do you mean he’s in on this?”
“He has been for years. He is a very resourceful man. He approached me a long time ago, shortly after we started the water purification project, as I recall. He made it his quest to find out the identity of our benefactor. I convinced him that it would be in his best interest to wait it out. In exchange, I gave him some exclusives and had Christine show him some slight favoritism by giving him a heads-up on occasion. I had to give him something to keep him from going off on his own. He doesn’t know the whole story of just how vicious the Controller is. He has no idea of the real intent of the projects. He only wanted to expose the Controller. He doesn’t even know the name ‘Controller’. I promised him the biggest story any newsman has ever had and he is willing to work with us.”
“But you say he has information that can lead us to the Controller?”
“We are evaluating everything he has gotten so far. If he turns up anything else, we will evaluate that as well. Obviously we need all the help we can get to find out who our adversary really is.”
“I just hope we can trust Blocker.”
“Don’t worry; I’ve impressed upon him that if he slips up it could be very harmful to his welfare. He got the picture, although I think he believes it’s me that would harm him, not the Controller. I didn’t set him straight on the matter, figuring the less he knows the better.”
“Good decision. Is there anything else we need to discuss, since you obviously are choosing to ignore my question about our next move?”
“Sorry, Stephen, I didn’t mean to stonewall you. I’m going to feel out a few other foreign dignitaries to see where they stand. I’ll keep you posted of my progress and hopefully I’ll have something for you to sink your teeth into.”
“I hope so. I’m tired of warming the bench. I want to get into the game.”
* * *
Richard had long wondered how close Prime Minister Rolt’s ties were to the Controller. He had decided to see if he could elicit some information from Rolt, having planned to do so during his early strategizing. Richard had placed a very early call to Rolt hoping to catch him during regular office hours but Rolt was unavailable and agreed to call Richard in the evening, London time. The call finally came through at three p.m.
“Hello, James, how are things in Merry Old England these days?”
“Just fine, Richard. How are you adjusting to your new position? Have you gotten disillusioned yet?”
Strange choice of words, Richard thought to himself and then shrugged it off. Richard loved Rolt’s accent and it was all he could do to avoid trying to talk the same way. He had previously told Rolt of his propensity for simulating a British accent every time he finished a conversation with him, to which Rolt responded with a hearty laugh, after first calling Richard “a bloody wanker.”
“No disillusionment here, just long days and sleepless nights!” Richard was tempted to add an “ole chap” at the end but decided against it.
“Give it some more time, you’ll get there. So what did you wish to discuss with me, Richard?”
“Well I just wanted to touch base with you to see if there is anything I can do for you. I also wanted to follow up on how the water purification project in South Africa is proceeding?”
“Just fine, in fact it will be fully operational by the end of next month. While we are on that subject, Richard, have you gotten any feedback from some of the countries that have had plants up and running for a bit?”
Richard wondered if this was Rolt’s way of asking if there was something out of the ordinary. “Can you be a little more specific, James?”
“Well, I have heard that there may be some substance in the water that has been treated at the plant in Ethiopia. I’m not at liberty to go into any more detail, I’m afraid. I just wanted to know if it is something that is isolated to this one plant or might possibly be endemic to all.”
“Are you saying that we should be concerned about the water q
uality?” Richard didn’t want to let Rolt get away with saying so little after raising the topic.
“I’m reluctant to say anything further, Richard.”
“But how can you expect me to just let it drop? If there is a problem, whether it is isolated to Ethiopia or common to all the treatment facilities, then we need to take action. You have to give me more to go on James.”
“Very well, I have a source of information that says the testing of the water from the Ethiopian plant reveals traces of an undetermined chemical. It’s hard to tell if the chemical is having any adverse effect upon the consumers of the water. If we could identify the substance perhaps we would know whether there is cause for alarm.”
“I would think that anything in the water would be reason to worry. The fact that there is something that we cannot identify is cause for even greater concern to me.” Richard had to keep pushing to get Rolt to show his hand. “What else can you tell me?”
“Just that I have some chemists working on breaking this substance down to see if we can shed some light on its composition and possible effects. I’m surprised that you haven’t heard anything about this.”
“Well, since you seem to be the first one to come to the realization that there is something in the water, how would I have heard anything? Unless … you know of other instances don’t you James?”
Rolt was taken aback by the accusation and was searching for words; “I assure you that I had no intention of concealing information from you Richard. I am merely trying to see if there is a reason we should consider this to be of worldwide concern. I didn’t want to raise any red flags until I had a chance to digest some of the information.”
“How long did you intend to wait before bringing this to my attention James?” Richard hoped that by putting Rolt on the defensive, he might slip up and reveal more than he would like.
“I was going to contact you in a few days, I swear. I just wanted to know as much as possible before doing so.”