Redoubled

by Warren Esby

  When we came in, Muffy was sitting in the middle of a very large dog bed that had Muffy embroidered in the middle of it. Somehow the dog bed did not have as much hair on it as the floor did, and I knew from my previous visit that was because Muffy only sat on that bed when Tommy was in the apartment and usually slept on the couch when he left. I had witnessed that on my previous visit. Muffy looked directly at me with those big sorrowful eyes of hers as if she recognized me, and the wagging tail told me she probably did. I was very flattered. Tommy said to her after we came in,

  “Good dog.” He then turned to us and said, “She just loves that dog bed.”

  Anya made an instant connection with Muffy just as I had during my previous visit and went over to Muffy and started petting her. Muffy’s tail wagged harder. Anya put Muffy on a leash and took her outside to do her business. Tommy and I collected her bowls and dog toys and put them in a plastic bag and carried them, along with a half filled bag of Iams dog food, to the SUV. Tommy wanted us to take her dog bed in the SUV, but I told her we had another couple with us and a lot of belongings and it just wouldn’t fit. He said,

  “But she just loves her dog bed. I don’t know how she’ll get along without it.”

  I knew better and surmised that Muffy would not be unhappy if she never saw that bed again, and I certainly didn’t want all that dog hair in the SUV. I told Tommy to please send us the dog bed C.O.D. and I would be happy to pay for it. He agreed. I hoped for once that something I was expecting would be lost in transit. Of course it wasn’t, but it was lost soon after it got there. We stopped at a drug store on the way back to the motel, and Anya went in and got a brush and shedding comb and brushed Muffy for a long time outside the motel room after we got back. There had been no comb or brush among the dog things that Tommy had given us. No surprise there. Muffy seemed to really like being brushed and acted as if she had never been brushed before in her life. I suspected that was the case. She looked like a different dog afterwards albeit slightly smaller. We decided to take her to one of those pet super stores the next morning, one that has veterinarian, bathing and grooming services in addition to pet supplies, and have her bathed and groomed while we went about our business.

  The next morning, after we all had breakfast, I called Rhong Dong’s office and actually ended up talking to him. I didn’t want to tell him my real name since he might have heard it from Doff, so I needed an alias. We had just had breakfast and I had eaten cold cereal as I often did, so I told him my name was Dr. Kellogg and I was visiting from the University of Michigan. I said I was working on apoptosis and had heard about him and wanted to know if we could meet. He said he was entirely booked up for the day.

  I asked, “What about lunch? We can go to any restaurant of your choice and I’ll pay. I understand there is a good French restaurant nearby.”

  It was an expensive one. I had checked it out on our iPad that morning right after we looked up where the nearest pet super store was located.

  He said, “I guess we can meet for lunch as long as it’s not a long lunch. I am free from noon to one.”

  I told him I would come to his office at noon and hung up. I had also googled Case Western Reserve that morning, not only to find out about the University and what it had to say about Dong, but also because I was so curious about its name. Now I could understand naming a university Case, but where did this Western Reserve come from? And if there was a Western Reserve, why wasn’t there an Eastern Reserve and a Southern Reserve and a Northern Reserve? As I investigated, I found out that Ohio used to be the Western Reserve of Connecticut of all places. How did that come about and did New York and Pennsylvania know? It seems that originally Connecticut continued due west until it got to the Pacific Ocean, even though no one had used that route at the time, and no one seemed to care that New York and Pennsylvania were in the way. So that meant that either New York or Pennsylvania, or even Connecticut itself, must have been the Eastern Reserve.

  I couldn’t find out which one was, and I never could find out either where the Southern Reserve was, but I think it must have existed since I seem to remember that there once was a fine, old southern bourbon called Wild Chicken Southern Reserve. Now I think I’ve figured out what became of the Northern Reserve. It had to be north of Ohio, right? And Canada, where all the French settled, is north of Ohio and so is Lake Erie. Well, I think the French word for reserve is reservoir and Lake Erie was used as a reservoir before it got so polluted, so Lake Erie is probably the Northern Reserve.

  Speaking of Lake Erie, I wondered how it got its name. I know some may think it’s because it looks so eerie when the fog rolls in across it, but that isn’t the reason. It is supposed to be an Indian name, but Indians at that time didn’t know how to read or write, so someone else had to decide how it should be spelled, and it could easily have been spelled eerie or eery or eree or several other like-sounding names. I believe that it may have been an Irishman who was the cartographer who first gave it the name. Now it is true that most of North America was explored and settled by the English, French and Spanish who were in charge of naming the local places after places they liked back home. The Irish were busy planting potatoes at the time and missed out on the initial exploration and didn’t get to name anything. But I think the Irish cartographer did his best and named the big lake, Erie, which is Eire spelled backwards, and Eire is another name for Ireland. And so Ireland got a big lake named after it in a very sneaky way that many people don’t even know about today.

  Now after the English settled Massachusetts, and the major city there was named Boston after a town in England by the same name, a lot of Irish came to live there, but were not allowed to rename it New Ireland like they wanted to. However, once again, they did the best they could. What people don’t seem to remember was that Maine was once a part of Massachusetts where the Boston Irish are located. When Maine broke away and became a separate state, the Irish managed to get it named Maine after their favorite potato, even though they couldn’t give it an Irish name. They somehow also managed to name the state of Idaho, as well, after another of their favorite potatoes once it was discovered. I don’t know how they managed to do that, but they did. And now the United States is the only country in the world to have two of its states named after potatoes.

  Chapter 21

  Ben and Edy and Anya decided to go to another restaurant near the French restaurant where I was taking Dong to eat. I had Ben on my speed dial so I could reach him in case of emergency. I didn’t think anything would happen, because Dong was just a scientist and was unlikely to be armed. Of course you never can tell about people since I too was a scientist and I was armed. Dong turned out to be very unprepossessing. Although he was a little taller than most Chinese, he was not very sinister looking. I thanked him for agreeing to meet with me and we just made small talk between the time we met at his office and the time we got to the restaurant. I know I was taking a chance meeting him under an assumed name in case Doff had sent him a picture of me that he had taken surreptitiously like Gopang had taken of Anya, and I didn’t know how much interaction there had been between the various members of this Al Qaeda effort. I also knew that he might call the University of Michigan to check on me, but I doubted he would do that until after we had met. It was hard to tell by his facial expression if he was suspicious of me or not. He was, as they say, inscrutable, and he never asked about Gopang.

  We ordered and he requested the most expensive selections on the menu, but declined any alcohol.

  After we ordered, he asked me, “So why you interested in my work?”

  I did most of the talking. I told him that I was interested in apoptosis because of its potential to cure cancer. I told him I was intrigued by the possibility of using a delivery system such as he was working on to deliver apoptosis-inducing factors to an individual. I asked,

  “Do you think it’s possible to integrate the genetic information for an apoptosis inducing factor into a virus using a retroviral vector, and use tha
t virus as a nasal spray to deliver the genetic information for the factor to that individual in such a way that it will get into that individual’s cells and replicate and produce the inducing factor and induce programmed cell death?” I asked.

  They can deliver vaccines for influenza this way. FluMist is one of them. I didn’t know if this was the specific approach he was using, but I thought it a possibility. And if it wasn’t and he thought it might work, even if he wasn’t using it, I thought there would be a chance he would think me a potential ally and bring me into his research as a potential partner. He was cagey and didn’t bite on the idea or want to discuss its merit.

  He only said, “Very dangerous.”

  I said I knew it sounded dangerous and could potentially kill people, but I was intrigued by the idea. He said he was horrified that I would try to do something that dangerous, but I could tell by his eyes and the tone of his voice that he wasn’t horrified at all, only curious as to why I should be thinking of doing this. I let him know I had support for this kind of research. I made a note to myself to tell Ben and Edy that the Department of Defense needed to institute a program to prevent this from happening by developing an anti-viral vector vaccine or treatment or an anti-apoptosis-inducing factor or vaccine as soon as possible as a counter measure in case we weren’t successful in stopping them.

  I would also have them suggest that the CIA try to find out the kind of flavonoids that the Pakistanis had isolated from their spices if they had not done so as yet and try to develop countermeasures against them. Flavonoids found in foods can have an effect on flavoproteins, and some apoptosis-inducing factors are flavoproteins, so I thought there was a possibility that a natural or modified flavonoid could actually induce apoptosis which would be consistent with the effect shown by some of the so-called spices that the Pakistanis had isolated and used for inducing programmed cell death. I knew, however, that the likelihood of the Department of Defense scientists listening to a nobody like me, and a paid killer to boot, about developing scientific countermeasures was highly unlikely. It was about as likely as a college student asking the local thug who mugged him on the way to school to help him with his calculus homework, but I thought it was something I had to try.

  Throughout the conversation, Dong had shown almost no change in expression.

  He said, “Let me think about this. How long you stay in Cleveland? Which hotel you stay in? Maybe we have dinner tomorrow night and talk some more after I think about it. I’m busy tonight.”

  I told him I could stay in Cleveland for a few days, but I was staying at a motel nearby and not a hotel with a restaurant. Of course I didn’t want to let him know where I was staying, although I had narrowed it down for him by telling him I wasn’t staying at a hotel, but he couldn’t know that for sure.

  He said, “Call me in morning. Maybe we meet at my office or have lunch again or have dinner tomorrow night after I think about it. I let you know then.”

  I thanked him. We finished our meal while making some more additional small talk and parted in front of the restaurant. He went back to his office and I walked the few blocks over to where Ben, Edy and Anya were eating. I reported my conversation to Ben and Edy and told them about my concerns and about the recommendations that I thought they should pass on, and they said they would. Edy actually took notes so she would get it right. She said she would pass it on without attribution because my value to them was as a private agent and my anonymity was something that would be beneficial for them to retain if I wanted future assignments. I later found out that she and Ben got a bonus for providing the idea. The three of them were just finishing up, and Ben and Edy wanted to find an ice cream shop for dessert.

  Anya and I weren’t interested, so we had them take us to pick up Muffy and then asked them to take us back to the motel for the afternoon while they went in search of the perfect banana split. When they came back later that afternoon, I told them that, after my big lunch, I was just going to veg out with Muffy in the motel room rather than go to dinner with them, and that they could just bring me back something to eat. Anya decided to go out with them to eat and then come back and bond with Muffy for the rest of the evening as well. Muffy looked great after her grooming and all the loose hair was gone. That evening she probably got much more attention than she was used to getting, and we could tell she really liked it. She sat next to me on one of the queen-sized beds and I petted her. Every time I tried to stop, she poked my arm with her nose to get me to pet her some more. She did the same with Anya and we alternated all night long while we watched television until it was time to go to sleep.

  Our motel room was fairly large. It had two queen-sized beds. When you came in the door, the two beds were directly in front of you sideways, one after the other, with the head of each bed against the right wall. Behind them on the right side was the bathroom with a toilet and bathtub/shower. On the back wall was a sink and a place to hang clothes was located to the left of it. The television faced the foot of the beds on the left wall. It was on top of a chest of drawers with a refrigerator and microwave to its right and a desk to its left. In the corner on the left side closest to the front wall was an easy chair and lamp. Between it and the front door was a window. It was a typical setup and you’ve probably seen it often if you’ve stayed in motels when you travel. Anya and I took the bed farthest from the front door and Muffy only tried to get in bed with us once. I told her no and pointed to the other queen-sized bed between our bed and the motel room door. She was smart enough to understand, and she curled up and went to sleep. Anya and I did the same.

  About three in the morning I was awakened by Muffy. She was sitting up on her bed and looking at the front door. She was emitting a low guttural growl. I shook Anya awake and whispered to her to grab her Glock, which was on the nightstand beside her to the left of the bed, and to get behind the easy chair in the corner and take the second person through the door. I grabbed my Glock which was on the night stand on the right side of the bed. I grabbed Muffy by her collar and took her into the bathroom and told her to sit. I crouched in the doorway of the bathroom with my gun ready. We were just in time.

  The door swung open suddenly and two men rushed in. One came around the first bed and stood at the foot of the second bed and fired into it. He had a silenced pistol. The second came in only two steps and fired into the other bed, also with a silenced pistol. They were both outlined by the light from an outside lamppost coming through the front door. It was a good thing that I was crouching, since Anya would have been in the line of my fire directly behind the first one had I been standing. As it turned out, I was able to shoot him in the head without endangering her. The upward trajectory of the bullet went through his skull and ended up at the top of the wall behind him, almost to the ceiling. Almost simultaneously, Anya fired and shot the other one through his left ear, one of her favorite targets, as he faced the beds. Because our Glocks weren’t silenced like our assailants, our shots sounded like two loud explosions which they were. As I’ve often said, I’d rather be lucky than dead, and once again I had been lucky. We both had been lucky. It was lucky that we had Muffy and that she had warned us in time. If she hadn’t, we would both be dead and someone else would be writing my obituary rather than me writing the second installment of my memoirs.

  Within a few moments, Ben and Edy were at our front door. They both had the foresight to get dressed and arrived armed and with their IDs. The police came soon after. It was a good thing Ben was there. He showed his ID while Edy called the necessary senior officials in the CIA. They in turn contacted the higher ups of the local police department who in turn notified the police who had arrived and told them to cooperate with us. In the end, the whole incident was hushed up and the police mainly served to turn people away from the hotel. The night manager came and we requested another room. Ben explained that there was some damage to the room, but that he would see to it that it was returned to its previous condition. The manager contacted the owner who arrived sho
rtly afterwards. Ben showed the owner his ID and asked for his cooperation in keeping the affair quiet. He told him the government would guaranteed that everything would all be returned to its original condition and that additional funds would be dispensed to pay the cost of renting a block of rooms for six months if he cooperated, and if he didn’t then the CIA would be very unhappy. He of course agreed to this very profitable offer.

  Ben had already called the local ServePro to arrange for the disposal of the bodies and the necessary repairs. By this time, Anya had Muffy on a leash and took her out to do her business. By breakfast, everything was arranged and the ServePro people had almost finished cleaning up, repairing the two bullet holes in the walls and taking up the bloody carpets. The bodies were taken out in the rolled up carpet. A new carpet would be installed by that afternoon and the paint on the walls would be touched up and new mattresses delivered to replace the ones full of bullet holes. People were told that a gas heater had made the explosion, but I’m sure that some people may have thought the explosion occurred because we were free-basing drugs. At least that was the rumor we gave out since the heating unit in the hotel room wasn’t gas. We moved our belongings into the new room and gave Muffy a lot of loving and, as I said at the beginning of this narrative, we decided to rename our yacht in her honor. We later called Tom, the boat captain who we had on the payroll specifically to take care of the yacht, and asked him to have the name changed and repainted on the stern before we got home.

  Ben, Edy, Anya and I discussed the situation over breakfast. The two would be assassins didn’t look mid-eastern or Asian, but one couldn’t tell if they were local hired thugs or members of Al Qaeda. After all Kentson hadn’t looked foreign and wasn’t. We presumed that Dong had been behind the attempt and didn’t believe I was just another scientist interested in pushing back the frontiers of medical research. Whether he had been alerted by Doff, before the latter’s demise, and had been given a description of Anya and me, I didn’t know. Nor did I know whether he was the mastermind of this whole scheme to develop a weapon of mass liquefaction or was reporting to someone else.