THE CONTROLLER-Obsession

by Jerry Bruce

  “Precisely. Everyone except the Controller will accept the scenario as fact. Even though the Controller will know the truth, he won’t be able to do anything about it as long as you are out of reach.” Adam was proud of himself upon seeing Richard’s acceptance of this plan since he was the one who dreamed it up.

  “The only downside I can think of, off the top of my head, is that once the Russian premier hears about it, he will go off on his own. I suppose that there is nothing we can do about that short of filling him in on the plan and I don’t think that would be a good idea. We still have the possibility of a spy among our close group hanging over our heads. And I think that we have to have Vashenko at the head of the list. He’s the biggest unknown.” Richard paused and looked up at the ceiling as if hoping for divine intervention. “Okay, let’s do it. How soon can you release a statement?”

  “I have one ready to go.” Christine reached into her attaché case and pulled out a draft copy of the proposed statement. As she handed it to Richard she commented, “Once this goes out the wheels will be set in motion for you to be replaced as W.O.N. president. There is no way the organization can allow a disruption like this to bring it to its knees.”

  “Of course. It doesn’t matter in any case. I want to be able to devote all my time to the Controller from now on.”

  Almost, as if on cue, the cell phone sitting atop the mantle rang out its familiar tune. Suddenly there wasn’t a sound in the room as all three turned to the source of the ring. Each time it repeated its electronic summons the silence seemed even more intense. Richard finally got up and walked over to the mantle. Making a quick decision that he hoped he wouldn’t later regret, Richard answered the call.

  “It’s about time you decided to answer. It wasn’t very nice of you to ignore my previous calls.”

  “What do you want? Haven’t you done enough already?”

  “Oh no, Richard, it’s just going to get better and better from here on out. No, I thought you must have been wondering how I slipped through your fingers.”

  “The thought had crossed my mind.”

  “Oh, I would be willing to bet that it has done much more than cross your mind. In fact, I dare to venture a guess that it would take me several hours of discussion to answer all the questions running through your mind at this very instant. However, I have no intention of entertaining your curiosity; my time is far too valuable to indulge your questioning.”

  “Tell me one thing, who was Wilkins?”

  “Ah, you are still thinking as clearly as ever, Richard. You have cut right to the heart of the matter. For the time being, I think it better if I keep that my little secret.”

  “What’s the matter, afraid I might find something to use against you?”

  “Afraid? You give yourself too much credit, Richard. You had your opportunity, your fifteen minutes of fame, if you will, and you couldn’t get the job done. You’re now so confused it’s mind boggling. You don’t know how to proceed from this point. Yes, I realize that you have no intention of giving up your pursuit. It wouldn’t be at all like you to give up so easily. In fact, I would be amazed if you did give up; it would be so unlike you.”

  “You are afraid. Besides being insane, you’re starting to have doubts about your ability to stop me, aren’t you?” Richard sounded confident and challenging and hoped that he had pushed the right buttons, fortunately he didn’t have to wait long to find out.

  “You presume too much, Richard.” The Controller’s voice sent a chill down Richard’s spine and caused the hair on the back of his neck to rise. This was the first time since their very first conversation many years prior that Richard detected some emotion in the Controller’s voice. He had finally evoked some reaction, albeit anger. “You have no idea what I am capable of doing to you.”

  You took the bait you sick son of a bitch, Richard thought to himself.

  Suddenly the voice was calm and not as ominous. “I will answer your question after all, Richard. Why don’t you make yourself comfortable, then I’ll tell you a little story.”

  Christine and Adam, hearing only one side of the conversation, were confused when Richard calmly went to the bar, poured himself a scotch and then returned to his chair next to Christine, all the time in utter silence, with the phone pressed to his left ear.

  “Okay, I’m comfortable, let’s hear it.”

  “You know Richard I’m surprised that you haven’t figured it out by now. I did give you a clue a long time ago.”

  Christine and Adam couldn’t help but notice the puzzled look on Richard’s face.

  “What clue?”

  “Do you remember me telling you about a little project of mine regarding cloning?”

  It hit Richard like a slap in the face. Of course, why didn’t he think of that, it was now so obvious.

  “So Wilkins was a clone.” It was a statement not a question and caused both Christine and Adam to gasp.

  “Yes Richard, a clone. You see, when I learned of your little conspiracy, I had a clone take over my day-to-day schedule. What better way to fool you into thinking you had indeed captured me?”

  “Did you somehow program him to resist our questioning?”

  “There was no need to do that. You see Richard; we have the capability to selectively filter out any undesirable characteristics before creating the clone. He couldn’t tell you anything because he didn’t know anything. His memory didn’t contain anything damaging about me or my past, let alone his beginnings. Putting it in movie terms, you could say he was merely my stand-in.”

  “Well, he did give us one thing. We know what you look like you little weasel.” Richard let his emotions get the better of him, and wished he could retract his statements. He couldn’t believe that he let the Controller get to him.

  “What makes you so sure? I told you he was a clone. I didn’t say from whom he was cloned.”

  That last comment threw Richard for a loop. Now he had absolutely nothing he could be sure of. Regaining his composure, he decided to see if he could learn a little more.

  “If there was no way he could tell us anything, why did you resort to bombing the house to silence him?”

  “I think you know the answer to that question, Richard; you just don’t want to admit it to yourself. I didn’t want him silenced as much as I wanted to teach you a lesson.”

  Richard was reminded again how sick a man the Controller truly is, snuffing out the lives of four agents just for the sake of teaching him a lesson. “How did you know where we were keeping him?”

  “Oh yes, I suppose there wasn’t much left to give you any indication. You see, the clone had a tiny implant that transmitted his location to me. I assumed, correctly I might add, that you would want to take him alive for questioning, so the implant was a given. Too bad your agents didn’t think of that. And isn’t it unfortunate that they overlooked the possibility of an air assault?” With that the Controller did something that he had never done in all the years they were in contact—he laughed. A laugh that could only have originated in the bowels of hell reverberated through Richard’s skull. Before he could tell the Controller what he thought of him, the line went dead.

  “Wilkins was merely a clone. And we can’t even be sure that he was cloned from the Controller. He was a plant and didn’t have any knowledge of the Controller or his activities. No matter what we did to him, he wouldn’t have been able to give us anything useful.”

  “So we’re back to square one.” Adam was showing the first signs of being overwhelmed by the battle to unseat the Controller.

  “Not quite. One thing is different, now.” Richard had a solemn look on his face.

  Adam responded. “What’s that?”

  “He has killed four of our agents just to teach me a lesson.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  After Richard told Christine and Adam what the Controller revealed to him, they were speechless. Most of their questions were finally answered with the Controller’s revelation that Wilk
ins was a clone.

  “That explains a lot.” Adam was trying to be positive in spite of some of his misgivings. “But now we have a whole new set of circumstances to deal with.”

  “Such as?” Christine had her own ideas and wanted Adam to elaborate.

  “Well, for one thing, we don’t know who the clone was derived from. We also don’t know who put the Controller on alert in the first place so that he could get a clone ready—and that’s the thing that bothers me the most.”

  “Adam has made a couple of good points. We may have answered some questions, but we have replaced them with questions of far greater significance. We are going to have to figure out a way to nail the Controller without any outside collaboration. We can’t trust anyone outside of the three of us.” Richard spoke very firmly and punctuated his statements with a poke of his finger.

  “That could be a lot harder to do than to say. If we do that it means we won’t have any help from the CIA, the president, or any foreign powers. We would be left to our own wiles.” Christine wasn’t sure they could make any progress on their own.

  “We don’t have a choice. We can’t be sure who told the Controller of our plans to abduct him. It could have been any one of a number of our so-called friends. After all, we couldn’t really ascertain beyond all reasonable doubt that everyone we conspired with was on the up and up. We did the best we could, it just wasn’t good enough.” Richard sounded a bit apologetic.

  “It’s all water under the bridge. Now we have to concentrate on moving forward.” Even though Christine had doubts, she felt that Richard needed some cheering up with a show of support. “First thing we need to do, in my opinion, is make sure that whoever clued in the Controller is kept out of the loop.”

  “How are we going to do that when we don’t know who it is?” Adam had a touch of sarcasm in his tone.

  “Simple, we don’t let anyone know of our plans. Only the three of us will know what is going to happen. We shine off everyone else. As far as they are concerned, we’ve hit a stone wall and can’t make any progress.” Christine looked at Richard and then Adam with a pleased look on her face.

  Richard felt that Christine had the right idea. “From now on, it’s just the three of us on one side and the Controller on the other. We’ll go ahead with the abduction scenario. After that’s done we’ll be able to devote all our time to the task at hand. You two do realize that your jobs will be terminated once a new W.O.N. president is in office, don’t you?”

  “Of course, the new guy will bring in his own staff and after a suitable transition period, which I suspect will be very short, we will be free to work with you again.” Adam sounded elated at the idea and Christine smiled broadly at the possibility.

  “By the way, don’t worry about being unemployed. I’ll see to it that you still get a monthly salary. I realize that you have financial responsibilities to live up to.”

  “Thanks Mr. President. I was dreading bringing up the topic.” Adam made the assumption that Richard would somehow talk the W.O.N. into continuing their salaries for a time. Unknown to him was that Richard quickly decided that he could afford to take care of the salaries on his own.

  “Don’t worry, Adam, I understand. We all have commitments. We are going to have enough to worry about without the added pressure of paying bills. Now then, unless there is something else we need to discuss … .”

  “Mr. President, are you going to continue staying here at Christine’s? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to be nosy, but we need to consider whether or not it is a good idea.” Adam had a point and Richard could see where he was headed.

  “I won’t hear of Richard staying anywhere but here.” Christine left no doubt that the conversation was over.

  “I was only thinking from a safety point of view. With two out of the three of us in the same place most of the time, it puts two team members in jeopardy instead of just one.”

  “I understand your position, Adam. I thought of the same thing. It appears more natural that Christine is at home rather than going out to another location on a consistent basis. And when all is said and done, if the Controller finds out about the two of you being on the team, we are all on borrowed time. I’ll have to come up with another hideaway.”

  “So when do you want to start on our next assault, Mr. President?”

  “I’ll start brainstorming on my own and once you two are free from your W.O.N. duties, we will gear up. So in the meantime, it’s business as usual. So back to work you two and get that news release out.”

  “Aye, aye, sir!” Christine tried to lend some lightheartedness to the conversation by snapping a salute.

  “Not funny! Just remember, a captain always goes down with his ship.” Adam wasn’t laughing.

  Richard didn’t know whether to laugh or sigh so he gave a brief smile to Christine as he ran his right hand through his hair. The years of association with the Controller had manifested itself by changing his once pitch black hair to greater shades of gray, and lately it seemed each day brought more. The wrinkles around his eyes didn’t help the overall impression that this man had been through a great deal.

  Christine couldn’t help but notice that Richard was lost in unpleasant thought and bent over to plant a big kiss firmly on his lips, not caring about Adam or what he thought.

  “Cheer up sweetheart; we’re going to nail this bastard.” With that, Christine flashed Richard a big smile and a wink.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Richard was watching the evening news after Adam gave him a heads-up that he was breaking the news about his abduction. Richard, trying to remain true to his word, had insisted that Ralph Blocker be given the story first. It wasn’t the earth-shattering story that Richard was hoping to have announced—namely the entire airing of the Controller’s rise to infamy and his downfall—but it would have to do.

  Even though Blocker’s newsgroup, BNN, knew of the story well in advance, they made it a point to interrupt their normal prime-time segment with a “special report.” On cue, Ralph Blocker could be seen standing in front of the World Organization of Nations building. Blocker had pulled out all the stops and was impeccably dressed in a new suit, complete with a vest. He had gotten a haircut and a facial, all to appear the young professional that he once was. Even Richard couldn’t help thinking to himself how great Blocker looked on the tube.

  “This reporter has the unfortunate privilege of being the first to bring to the world the shocking news that World Organization of Nations President and former United States President, Richard Sinclair, has been abducted by members of an as yet unidentified terrorist group. When I inquired, authorities within the W.O.N. refused to comment on the issue. However, I have it on good authority that a communiqué was received by the W.O.N. from the terrorists claiming responsibility for the kidnapping of President Sinclair.

  “It has been approximately five days since anyone has actually seen the president. He has reportedly been absent from his duties due to an illness believed to be food poisoning. However, my sources, who wish to remain nameless, are saying that President Sinclair has not been ill, but has been missing the entire time. Since foul play was considered to be the reason, secrecy was deemed appropriate until such time as further information could be obtained. While the exact contents of the communiqué have not been revealed, this reporter has been guaranteed exclusive access to that information when it is released. We do know, however, that the message contains demands that must be met if President Sinclair is to be returned unharmed. The exact nature of the demands is being kept under wraps so as to avoid any complications during the negotiating process.

  “It is interesting that the term ‘negotiating process’ has been used, since it has been the norm for governments to not negotiate with terrorists for quite some time. This raises the question of the identity of this group. Since terrorism has been eliminated on a worldwide scale—coincidentally enough, by Richard Sinclair while serving as W.O.N. President—the W.O.N. may be at a l
oss as to how to deal with the Sinclair captors. It is probably safe to assume that this group is not affiliated with any government since membership in the W.O.N. is dependent upon governments eradicating all known terrorist elements.

  “So the questions are mounting faster than they can be answered. Who are these terrorists, where are they hiding, what do they want and, most importantly, is President Sinclair alive and well? Hopefully we will find out the answers soon. Stay tuned to BNN news for further developments. For now, this is Ralph Blocker signing off.”

  Blocker delivered his story with undertones of urgency and concern. His demeanor showed genuine shock that the man he had conspired with recently had been absconded and with his very existence threatened. While somewhat dubious of Richard’s motives, Blocker had come to respect Richard more than he had any other man, and without consciously realizing it, had developed a fondness for the leader that now led to a feeling of loss.

  Blocker genuinely believed in Richard and his quest to bring down the Controller. His first reaction to the news was that the Controller was behind it, although he soon reasoned that the Controller would simply kill Sinclair and not bother with putting up some bazaar cover story about terrorists. He came to the conclusion that this was not something that the Controller had any hand in bringing about.

  Richard, having heard enough, switched off the television and walked over to the bar to make himself a scotch and water. After mixing the drink he slowly walked over to the sliding glass door that led out onto the balcony. Sliding the door open, Richard walked to the balcony railing and looked out over the city taking in the considerable view afforded by the tenth floor apartment. Even though he knew the Controller wasn’t going to buy into the whole kidnapping scenario, he still felt a sense of relief. He didn’t feel as big a target as he had been. It was only a matter of time before the Controller tracked him down and Richard could only hope that he would be prepared for the showdown.