The ladies had called in to their significant others immediately upon getting the news of the explosion at 3 Birds #1. The immediate response was for them to turn around and go back to the Manor and stay there until the crew joined them from the Loft. Team Hannah at the Loft would head to the little airport south of London, pick up a couple of helicopters and be out to the Manor as quickly as it could be arranged.
***
Hannah, by contrast, was beyond frazzled; she was convinced immediately that this was an egregious attempt on Vera’s life, the very thing she had worried about most and for the longest time. She wasted no time informing Edward first, then Adam. They too were equally convinced immediately that the attack was against them not one of the international terrorists attacks the newspapers and media would surely report.
Upon hearing the press reports, George Armstrong Oak quickly arranged for the Team meeting in Kensington to depart for the Manor. They would then circle the wagons until the entire episode could be analyzed and assessed. The mood was somber, and the facts clear; this was, without question, an attempt on Team Hannah by the Gens Collective, who had somehow found a connection to the group via Vera. A response was required, and the London group was certain that Adam, if not restrained, would punish Paulo and his Gens Collective severely. Very severely.
Adam would need Edward and Bethy to coordinate the response, but Paulo and his cabal had been warned and warned again. No excuses would be accepted this time; Adam’s fury would be unrestrained. Edward and Bethy would have little ability to curb his expected excesses; they had gotten a peek at Adam’s plans to respond to Gens duplicity in the event that their ever-tenuous agreement was broken a second time.
There would be no doubt in Adam’s mind. The attack on Vera’s life would be no less grave than an attack on him, Misti or any of the family in Barrows Bay.
***
Her cell phone rang the familiar ring tone that Vera had placed on it for some inauspicious occasion; it was Hannah’s favorite song from the sixties. She had expected the call from the moment the news hit the media identifying the business that had been bombed as 3 Birds #1 in London. His call was hurried and worried; he thought that Vera, and maybe the girls had been killed in the explosion. His cold fury hadn’t yet bubbled to the surface, but when he found out the ladies had avoided death by the most fortuitous of circumstances, his demeanor changed instantly. Hannah had never experienced the cold fury of the “other” Adam, nor had he ever shown her anything other than the pacific side of his temper. But she recognized, as much by absence as by presence, that the Adam on the phone with her was no longer “her” Adam. The man on the other end of the call was someone else - something else - entirely.
Adam, on the other hand, felt something; just not anything in the range of emotions anyone else in his extended family could experience. What happened when Adam heard the news set off a preprogrammed series of thought processes and reactions that would inevitably lead to a result no one wanted, possibly excepting Adam himself. Adam had been shot and wounded in a duplicitous move that lead directly to Paulo and his brother Enzo. Adam had reacted badly to that episode and though he had wanted to punish Paulo and his family, he had been prevented from doing so by Edward.
Punishment had subsequently been exacted, but only for a few random members of the Gens Collective. Edward designed the retribution to send a message, nothing more. He had restrained Adam’s more aggressive tendencies but had been able to convince him that Paulo and Enzo were essential to the resolution of the Gens problem. Killing them might be fitting because of their obvious duplicity, but the ensuing power struggle at the top of the Gens Collective for leadership might be won by some unknown Gens leader who they might be less able to deal with. At least they knew this Gens leader, where he lived and could track his movements. And, his phones and email were tapped so they might not have that kind of access to whoever replaced him. Adam relented, but it took him weeks to recover his calm.
“Hannah, it’s Adam. Is everyone OK? Was Vera…?”
“No, Vera is safe, but it could’ve been very bad. She and the girls were supposed to meet a fangirl at the bakery but were delayed doing some promotional claptrap for 3 Birds at the Manor. If she had gotten there on time, well…”
“I know, I know. And I am so sorry we ever got you involved in this drama. I would never had let either you or Vera ever put yourselves in danger if I had known anything about your pact with the devil. This was never a good idea. Now it’s even worse. I am so, so sorry.”
“I know, I know. But we went into this with eyes wide open. There’s no point in looking back now. We need to focus on what’s right in front of us, right now.”
There was a momentary silence.
“I still love you, Hannah. I never stopped. I can’t help how I feel now; I still need to know you’re safe. I still need to keep you safe. And Vera.”
Hannah knew she still loved Adam too, even though it was a relationship she also knew would never be. And, now, she knew exactly why. But, as they say, the heart wants what the heart wants, even if it’s forbidden and impossible. Adam had touched Hannah again in London and she consciously chose to not stay away. She couldn’t. Not from him.
She gathered herself and her courage.
“I feel it too, Adam. Nothing we can do about it but move on with our lives. You have your life with Misti and I have mine with Vera. We each love our other half and more deeply than we ever felt for each other. Our thing was, is, chemical and biological and complicated. I still think about you and wonder … maybe just a little bit less every day. I can’t help myself. I want to let go. I just can’t.”
“We’re a mess, the both of us. You’re right of course; we must move on. And we will. But I still love you and I don’t want you to think it has no meaning. It does.”
Hannah paused.
“Adam?”
“Yes?”
“Is everything going to be all right. Are we going to be all right?”
“Right as rain. That’s a promise. I won’t let anything happen to you, Vera, or anyone in our little village. Tell Vera I said so and try not to worry. I have everything planned and under control. You can take that to the bank.”
He didn’t have anything under control, but he would. He had just made a promise written in sand. But Hannah believed him, and it set her mind at ease. She trusted Adam with all her heart. She would put her very life in his hands, and willingly.
Adam knew this, and willingly accepted this burden. Now he would execute his plan. Neither Edward nor Bethy would stop him this time.
Rod and Cindy would likewise execute on Adam’s plan. They too were ready.
The Gens would now commence to die. By the many, many thousands. More, if he could make it so.
Chapter 49
“Mr. Sarmiento, how nice of you to call. What can I do for you today?”
“It’s not what you can do for me, Paulo. We have already seen your handiwork and for some reason you have thought it prudent to break our pact again. For the life of me, I don’t know why. But there you have it.”
“What on earth are you babbling about now, Alan? I have not broken our pact again any more than I broke it the first time. We’ve been through this before and although you are given to flights of fancy, your overreactions are costly. To me and my folk. The next retribution you decide is necessary will be an all-out invitation to the war you so scrupulously say you wish to avoid.”
“Look at your email, Paulo. I just sent you something. Very secure and very damning. Wouldn’t you say, old chap? Read the 6:42 morning email first.”
Paulo waited a couple of seconds while his email loaded, and the two most recent missives were indeed from Alan Sarmiento. The first he read was an email chain between his brother, Enzo, and a man in London named Derek Nobilus.
“What’s this?”
“Why don’t you take a moment and give it a good read. Please note the cc’s on the corresp
ondence. If I read English well enough, I’d say the correspondence was copied to you. What’s your thought, Paulo? Anything?”
“I’d say this is pure fiction that you invented for some reason and you have manufactured the entire exchange.”
“Nice try, Paulo, but I’m afraid I have done no such thing. The last bit there was intercepted yesterday following the bombing in London. You see that it reads as though some assignment had been given by you and your brother and that, whatever that assignment was, it was mission accomplished.”
Paulo scrolled over to the second email. It was addressed to Enzo, with a cc to him. It read,
“Target found and assignment complete. Human eliminated per your instructions at London garage; soon to depart for rendezvous with designated contact. Have money and transport ready per agreement.
Derek”
Adam said, “We traced the money your brother wired to Derek Nobilus, along with the eTicket for a flight from London Heathrow to Nairobi, Kenya on BA. One of your cousins, Vincent Romano, was taped calling your friend Derek a scant forty-five minutes after the bombing, confirming the kill. He said the American from Portland was dead and the human bomb maker was disposed of in a rental garage near Whitley Square West. Our people found the rental and confirmed that a man identified as an ex-boxer managed by your comrade Derek Nobilus was indeed dead, two shots to the head with a silenced 9mm tossed into the back seat. We tipped off the Constabulary, so the connection is now made between your folk and MI 5. Good luck with them; they can be very cross with terrorists.”
Paulo was silent. The evidence was damning, and he was speechless. Obviously, this was all manufactured, but probably not by Alan. This was smelling like treason and he detected the faint odor of the Black Shirts and Saldana Ri.
“This is a set up. You must know that. Insecure emails, a digital trail a monkey could follow and careless phone calls. We’re capable, I don’t deny that, but we’re not this stupid. Surely you must see this too?”
“You seem to think I give a shit about which Gens killed my friend. You think you can tell me that you didn’t do it, admit your people did and then we all skip home like friends? Does chain of command mean nothing to you morons? You are responsible, Paulo. You. Now, you pay the piper.”
“Don’t be a fool, Alan. Give me some time. Let me find who did this. I’ll make sure they’re punished. Properly and finally.”
“And, that helps me how, Paulo? Does that bring back my friend? Does it make her undead? Do you think it disposes me to forgive you? Or your brother? It does not.”
“You’re going to regret your intemperance, Alan. I have tried to extend an olive branch and instead have been rebuffed rudely. Give me time and I’ll make this right. Otherwise, I repeat, we go down the very path you seek to avoid.”
“Too late for that Paulo. You are a liar and have been attempting to kill me from the very beginning. Your people, if that’s what we can call them, are likewise engaged in research to destroy humanity. Yet you act as though that doesn’t count and you are the aggrieved party. You aren’t.”
Silence. Paulo knew his position was absurdly weak. He would have to hear this out and take the abuse.
“What are your intentions?” Paulo asked.
“Go home Paulo. Go home now. Your world just changed. Email me when you see what I have begun. You’re not going to like it.”
Adam had begun a process. It included a strategy for Vera’s “death” and her disappearance.
It included a new home for Paulo’s wife and children. Ditto Enzo’s family. They would be relocated to the old military base in South Dakota, Casky, and reunite with the Gens captured at the Grand Canyon. Edward had been studying the Trackers that Misti had captured and had learned a lot. His circle of knowledgeable insiders was widening, as more people now needed to know what they were getting themselves into.
Edward had relied heavily on recruiting talent from within the Eight Families. And the Eight Families had come through and come through with flying colors.
***
Adam’s plan of retribution had been thought through thoroughly and discussed in depth with Bethy, Edward, Rod and Cindy. Misti and Noki were apprised of his plans generally, but as they were now both pregnant, death and destruction seemed to hold far less appeal. Both had informed Adam to leave them out of his revenge machinations; they were busy with other projects and had lost their appetite for vengeance and death. Noki had particularly become deeply engaged in developing her mind capabilities. She had discovered how to reorder the physical properties of her brain to accommodate the advances and new capabilities of her mind. How she did this, she didn’t consciously know; but her brain was now a finely tuned instrument capable of receiving and sending signals to her mind. Her body, even her consciousness, were her tools to work within the physical world.
She wasn’t the old Noki; she was a new prototype human; a woman evolved, a woman reinvented. The child she would bear would have all her physical skills, all her insight, all her physical and mental capabilities. This child’s a priori knowledge would be unlike any other ever born to mankind.
Soon Noki, her son and Adam would the undergo a physical changes that would complete the transformation from what was to what would be. For them, the meaning of the triumvirate of past, present and future would change, and change forever.
At first, neither Noki nor her son would be welcomed into the community of man, just like Adam. That would change and change rapidly too as events progressed.
Of his harem, only Alana was left and interested in everything Adam thought and did relative to the Gens Collective. She had engaged with Adam over her hacking into everything the Collective did around the world, and was deeply involved in altering data, misdirecting the Labs, and collecting all manner of digital data from Enzo, Paulo and the higher echelons of the Gens Leadership Councils. She compiled and verified financial transactions, obtained phone records, and recorded numerous telephone conversations. Her systems were amazing and her data collection spot on.
It was Alana who provided Adam with the information he used on his call with Paulo. It was raw data, as she used the term, and further analysis would need to be undertaken to verify its authenticity. There were things, she warned, that didn’t seem right; Paulo may have had a point in suggesting this was a set up. When Alana compared the Gens normal modus operandi with what had fallen in her lap, she was immediately suspicious.
However, the financial transaction with Derek had, in fact, happened as stated. The phone calls after the attack had taken place. The relationships were established. And, the attack had been carried out. People were dead. So, in sum, neither Adam nor Alana were inclined to back off what appeared to be settled and verified even if a few things appeared ‘off’ or hinky. Whether Paulo had ordered and carried out the attack, or someone else within the Collective had, no longer mattered.
Someone had to send a message.
The Gens had to be punished.
***
It began in the early morning hours just after Paulo and Enzo departed their respective homes for the office in Princeton. Two FBI SUV’s rolled up to each residence, collected the wives and children and confiscated all digital devices that had been left in their two homes. They were then gassed, cuffed, blindfolded and taken to a private airfield, loaded on a small jet, and transported to the former military base holding their two Gens compatriots at the decommissioned NORAD site, Casky Air Force Base. The operation was quick, antiseptic, and civil. Neither the children nor the wives were in any way mistreated; they would, in fact, be treated well and allowed to remain in whatever form they desired.
The two Gens from the Grand Canyon weren’t treated anywhere near as civilly. They were jailed, initially kept in transformed human state, regularly drugged, poked with needles and tested. Later they were permitted to transform to natural state under the watchful eye of Edward St. James. Their vicious natures were evident; nobody wanted the deal
with them unless they were drugged, physically restrained, or both. Their natural camouflage made them hard to spot; heat sensing and other devices, however, gave them away instantly.
Enzo and Paulo, along with a few other senior Gens from the Princeton Lab, departed from their Labs to go home to their families. Adam had warned them that they should go home immediately and tend to their families. Once departure from the Lab had been verified, the coordinated attacks on the American Gens Labs began, including Princeton.
The attacks made the evening TV news everywhere and the rest of the media the following day. Was this attack inspired by domestic or foreign terrorists? No one took credit or claimed responsibility. The American media was hot with theories and experts claiming to secretly know what was afoot. Politicians revved up their fundraising efforts trying to cash in on the news.
The FBI was alerted, and a huge task force assembled. They would be informed of the whys and wherefores of the events later by an ‘anonymous source’, but the task force remained operational for a long time. However, they found nothing that Adam, Edward and Bethy didn’t want them to find.
Saldana Ri had warned a great many researchers and scientists at each Lab, including Calista Gold, to avoid work for the next few days. They had received advance notice via email fortuitously the night before. Based on the earlier threat of a deadly response from Adam, aka Alan Sarmiento, Saldana both expected and reveled in the anticipated lethal reaction he had promised. Her warning was nothing more than an educated guess, but in this instance, she was bang on. Her leadership and management skills would now be augmented by the takeover over the Gens media machine; some of the information she would disseminate would even be true.
The anticipated reaction was the fuse that needed to be lit and it had been lit to immediate effect. Saldana couldn’t have been happier.
Probe Page 61