Don looked up at Louisa. She was still working hard at something over in the corner.
“How’s it going? Are you going to be long?” he asked, probing gently to find out how long she would still be working for. Don liked Louisa, but tonight her continued presence was beginning to annoy him. He just wanted her to leave as soon as possible, so that he could get on with taking the damaged thorn from the Crown.
“Oh… I’ve got quite a lot to do yet…”
“That makes two of us…” Don tried to hide the disappointment and annoyance in his voice.
For the next two hours they crept round each other in the lab, each trying to find extra work to do to make it look like they were really busy. Don was getting more and more agitated, and even began to get wound up by Louisa’s continual calmness. It was almost as if she were so focussed on her work that she didn’t notice Don was there. By nine o’clock he could take it no longer.
“Listen, Louisa, I was wondering if you could do me a huge, huge favour. It looks like you’re not working on anything incredibly time dependent. But I’m really stuck at the moment...I can’t leave my samples until they’ve settled down, and that could take another hour or so…The thing is…I’m absolutely starving, and I can begin to feel my sugar levels dropping...you must be hungry too…is there any chance of you popping down to the chippy and bringing us both back some fish and chips...I’m paying! Please?” It was a long shot, but the way he said ‘please’ so pathetically made it difficult for her to say no.
Louisa looked up. Although her conscious mind couldn’t tell why, she felt an overwhelming urge that she had to stay and work late in the lab that night. She was not at all aware of the hypnotic programme that Mike had laid in her mind, but all the time her subconscious was preparing for ten o’clock when she would fall back into the trance, as Mike had pre-programmed her to do.
Consciously, for whatever reason it was, Louisa knew that she must work hard. She knew she had to get her work done. She knew she would probably be working all night until the small hours of the morning, but it was only 9pm and she was hungry! She needed to eat. And the way Don had asked she couldn’t really say no. Could she?
‘Why would I want to say no anyway? In fact, why am I working so hard?” For a second her conscious mind began to question what she was doing, but the power of the hypnotic programme running in her subconscious took over, and reinforced her instructions. “No, I do have a lot to do…” she thought to herself, “ but I can eat dinner then come back later, when Don’s gone...I can work late afterwards...”
“Okay Don…sure…No problem. Don’t worry about the cost…and I’ll treat you. It’s on me.”
“Thanks…you’re a star.” Don replied gratefully. Genuinely gratefully.
“I’ll be back in half an hour. Hold the fort!” said Louisa as she disappeared into the first airlock.
.
Excellent. He only needed ten minutes alone, tops.
As soon as he heard the third airlock open and close behind Louisa, he went to the wall safe and opened it up, taking out the metal box protecting the Crown and placing it down on top of one of the nearby work surfaces he had earlier cleared for this purpose.
He bent down and reached underneath one of the benches and pulled out a small protective metal vial full of non-genetic padding, which he had hidden there earlier. He opened up the big metal box and carefully lifted the Crown out of the box, putting it down on a pad of protective matting he had laid on the worktop surface beside it.
Working quickly but accurately, he took a new scalpel from one of the drawers, slid off the plastic top which protected the blade, and proceeded to quickly cut the dangling thorn away from the rest of the Crown. The blade was sharp and it sliced easily through the dry matted material of the thorn's branches. The thorn came away cleanly and Don let it fall directly into the vial he held underneath it. He quickly sealed the vial and pulling open the top of his bunny suit he squeezed it through a gap around his neck and let it fall into his suit underneath, shaking himself so that it continued to fall down the contours of his body until it came to rest in the folds of cloth around his sealed ankle. Then he sealed up the top of his bunny suit again and put the Crown back in its box and back into the wall safe. He put the cap back onto the scalpel and threw it into the “Hazard” waste disposal bin. It was his duty to take the trash out with him when he left the lab at the end of the week.
All in all it took him only eight minutes. Faster than expected. He returned to his work, and when the buzzer on the intercom went a few minutes later, it was the voice of the Professor that greeted him, not Louisa.
“I bumped into Louisa on the way down to the chippy. Forget the bloody fish and chips Don, I’ve got something to celebrate tonight. Get you and your backside out of that lab, we’re all going to Browns. I’ve booked the table…and that’s an order!”
Don smiled. He could hear that the Prof. was slightly drunk, but he had got what he wanted now, and a direct order from his boss was the perfect excuse he needed to get out of the lab. Otherwise he would be stuck with Louisa for another couple of hours still pretending to be working hard.
“Okay, you’re the boss. I’ll be out in a minute!”
As he stepped through the final airlock, not forgetting to carry the bag of rubbish out with him, he was met by the Professor and a nervous Louisa who made a gesture of apology behind the Professors back.
“Give me a second…I need to change. I’ve been stuck in this bunny suit all day!” Don spoke as he walked straight to the toilet immediately outside the airlock door. Once inside it took him only a few seconds to find the vial in the folds of his trouser legs and slide it safely into the left hand pocket of his trousers.
He flushed the toilet, took off the rest of the bunny suit and joined the others outside.
“And where do you think you are going with that?” the Professor asked sternly, pointing wildly in the direction of Don’s trouser pocket.
“What?” he replied, a hot flush rising on his forehead, and panic blossoming in his chest. The Professor must somehow know he had the vial in his pocket!!
“The rubbish....You can leave that here young man. We won’t be needing it in Browns!”
Don laughed nervously, realising that he was still carrying the trash from the lab in his left hand.
“Oh…” Don tried to muster up some sort of excuse. “It’s Friday night…I thought the idea was to go out, celebrate and get trashed!”
.
Chapter Thirty One
Browns Restaurant
Oxford, England
.
Laughing and joking they made their way over to Browns, finding Jason already sitting at their table with a round of drinks in front of him. Both Jason and the Professor were several pints ahead of the others, but Louisa and Don were both good troopers and could quickly make up for lost time. That wouldn’t be a problem. Don picked up his pint and waved it in the air at the others, signifying that one of his famous toasts was coming along.
“Okay, team, I would like to propose a toast to the Professor, and to the success of his treatment. I don’t know what on earth they’ve been doing to him, but it certainly seems to be working. We’ve all noticed that you’ve stopped limping, and you’re looking about twenty years younger. So…raise your glasses and join me in wishing ‘Good Health’ to the fat old bastard at the end of the table!”
Everyone laughed and there was a general murmuring of ‘Good Health!” around the table.
The waiter came across to them, hovering in the background for a few seconds then stepped forward quietly and attentively.
“So, does everyone know what they are ordering?”
“No, not yet. Can you give us a few more minutes please” said Don, hurriedly picking up the menu.
“Wow, I didn’t realise it’s so late. I’ve almost lost my appetite.” Jason chirped up from behind his pint.
Louisa glanced hurriedly at her watch. It was five past ten. For some reason tha
t time seemed very significant to her. It was after ten o’clock.
“Oh no” she thought to herself. “I’ve got so much work to do…I really should be in the lab.”
Without realising it Louisa automatically slipped back into the hypnotic state that Mike had placed her in the last time she had seen him. She could suddenly hear his voice in her ears, smell his breath on her face, sense his touch on her skin, and she knew that she had to do something for him. Something very important. But first she had to go back to work. She looked around the table at the others all burying their heads behind their menus trying to choose what to order. She knew she couldn’t tell them she was going back to the lab. They would never allow that.
“Ouch…ooowww!” she let out a little whelp of pain, and grabbed hold of her stomach.
The Professor looked up.
“What is it Louisa, are you okay?”
“Yes…ouch…no, actually I’m not. I’m sorry, I think I’m going to be sick…I must have got that virus that my sister’s kids have got. Excuse me...” Louisa jumped up and hurried to the ladies bathroom. She locked herself in one of the cubicles for a suitable amount of time, then came out and dabbed some cold water on her face from the sink in front of the mirror, and rubbed her cheeks until they were slightly flushed. Then she went back to the table, and picked up her jacket from behind her chair.
“I’m really sorry everyone, but I’m just going to catch a cab home just now. I’m not feeling too great. Sorry.”
“Do you want me to take you home?” Don asked, genuinely concerned.
“No, it’s okay. Thanks. I’ll just take one of the cabs outside. I’ll see you on Monday.”
She waved at Jason and the Professor, and left the restaurant quickly before anyone else offered to take her home. She opened the door to the nearest taxi and jumped in, leaning forward to talk to the cab driver.
“Sorry, it’s not very far but could you take me to the I.G.E.G.G.M labs in Parks Road beside the Pitt Rivers Museum?”
The cab driver snorted something behind the glass panel, obviously annoyed that after waiting for ages, his fare wasn’t going very far, but when they drew up outside the lab a few minutes later, Louisa stuffed a twenty pound note into his hand and told him to keep the change.
The guard at the door greeted her warmly.
“Working late tonight, Louisa?” He was used to the nocturnal comings and goings of the lab teams and never paid it much attention. His job was to watch the building and make sure that only authorised personnel came into the lab.
“Yes...I’m doing an overnight run. Need the results by Monday.” She walked past the guard, and just before she got into the elevator, she turned to the guard and said.
“Oh, and by the way Jonathan, my boyfriend will be getting back from London later tonight and I’ve asked him to stop by the lab on the way home. It’ll probably be about 3 o’clock. If you see him pull up outside can you give me a call on the Inner Lab phone? It’s his birthday and I’ve got a present for him!…thanks.”
The two permanent guards on the floor outside the lab greeted Louisa as she walked past, and she feigned small talk with them for a moment or two. Entering the lab area, she made her way through the airlocks after putting on the bunny suit, and made her way over to her bench. She switched on a couple of things, to make it look like she was busy, then sat down on one of the seats and started staring into space. She felt very relaxed, even wonderful, ....and very content. She looked at her watch. It was 10.45pm. Plenty of time to get her work done before her boyfriend came.
The hours sped by, and Louisa worked hard. Although completely in a hypnotic state she was behaving and functioning almost completely as normal, able to get on with her work and focus clearly on the task at hand with no problems at all. She had completely forgotten how hungry she was, and was so focussed that she was rather startled when the phone in the lab rang at 2.55am. It was Jonathan from security.
“Your boyfriend just pulled up in the car outside. He’s parked on the opposite side of the road, but I kept an eye open for you just as you said.”
“Thanks. I’ll pop down to see him.”
She went to the wall safe, and opened it quickly, removing the big metal security box containing the Crown. She made her way through the airlocks, hurriedly stripped off the bunny suit, and scurried out past the security guards. They looked briefly at the big metal box as she walked past, but since she was one of the key managers in the building, they had no reason to be suspicious of her. When she got to the ground floor, she scurried past Jonathan out into the street, spotting the car on the other side of the road where Jonathan had said it was.
Mike leant across and opened the passenger door as she approached.
“Hi Louisa. Are you feeling good? Excellent…is that for me? Why don’t you get in the front seat for just now...I think the security guard watched you crossing the street…”
He reached out and took the metal box from her and gave her a long slow kiss, so that the security guard would be able to see them in their lovers’ clinch.
“You’re doing great! We’ll drive round the corner and then you can get in the back seat. You look very tired. Maybe you should sleep for three minutes.”
They drove around the corner, and obediently Louisa climbed into the back seat, closed her eyes and went straight to sleep. She couldn’t see anything as Mike reached his padded gloved hands under the passenger seat and took out a flat box, from which he extracted an identical copy of the Crown of Thorns. He opened the metal box, and replaced the real Crown with the copy, tucking the original securely into the flat box under the passenger seat. It only took two minutes.
Mike turned around in his seat and looked at Louisa fast asleep on the back seat. She looked fantastic and a sharp pain of regret shot through his chest. He wanted to reach out and kiss her, to hold her, and to tell her how sorry he was for doing this to her. He hated himself for treating her like this. And he realised that which he had feared for some time was true. He had fallen in love with her. There was no way that he could keep hypnotising her like this. He wanted a normal relationship with her, one where he could return the trust she put in him. This game had to end.
Mike made up his mind that he was only going to hypnotise her once more, to deprogram her. He couldn’t treat her like a doll anymore. He was going to have a proper relationship with her, and he didn’t care about what the Ambassador in London was going to say! He had got the Crown for them, and from now on that was the end of the affair. Louisa’s eyes flickered open. The three minutes were up. She climbed out of the car and got back into the front seat.
“Hi there beautiful. You must have been really tired. But you feel fresh now, so you can go back up to the lab and complete your work. Thank you for showing me the Crown of Thorns. It’s amazing. But look, I’m giving it back to you now, and I want you to take it back to the lab, and put it away exactly where you found it this evening, locking it up securely. Then, after about twenty minutes, I want you to go home to bed and sleep. When you wake up tomorrow morning, you won’t remember anything about this. Nothing. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Mike, I understand you.”
“Good, I’ll drive you round to the front of the lab, give you a kiss then you can get out of the car, taking the Crown with you.”
He pulled up outside the lab, leant across and gave her a big kiss. Mike knew that the security guard had seen them before, so now he wanted to make it look very obvious, as if he wasn’t hiding anything.
When Louisa got out the car, he waved to her and drove off, taking the real Crown of Thorns with him.
.
It was eleven o’clock in the morning when Louisa woke up in her flat. The phone was ringing. It was the Professor asking her how she was.
“I was worried about you young lady…you left the restaurant so fast. You didn’t look well…”
“Restaurant...oh, yeah...sorry, I felt terrible. I came home and went straight to bed. I’m ok
now though. I’m feeling much better.”
“Good…you take it easy today though. Have a good weekend, and I’ll see you on Monday morning.”
Louisa hung up the phone. She could vaguely remember leaving the restaurant feeling unwell the night before, but after that it was a complete blank. Mind you, she felt absolutely great now. In fact, she hadn’t felt this great in years. And hopefully she would be seeing Mike later on that evening. She hadn’t seen him for days!
.
Chapter Thirty Two
Dover Air Force Base
Delaware, America
5th November 2018
.
Tim Curts and the team flew into Dover air force base on the Sunday evening. The trip had been successful, much easier than anyone had expected. It was simply a matter of picking up the package from their contact in Oxford on the Saturday afternoon, then flying home on the Sunday morning.
Tim had called President Jamieson the night before, to let him know that they been successful and that all was well. Unfortunately, the President had insisted on coming to meet them personally at Dover Air Force Base, where they would land and refuel before flying onto Vale, to deliver the Crown personally and safely to the lab in the mountains.
Tim had enjoyed his little trip to England, and although he hated to admit it, he was almost sorry to be returning home. Sure, he would be glad to see his wife and daughter, but England had something special that Tim regarded highly.
Just walking down the streets in Oxford and interviewing people it had been immediately obvious how much more relaxed the Europeans were. They were free people. Free to do whatever they wanted. Free to live a decent, normal life. A life uninhibited by rules, and ten o’clock curfews in the evening, where ‘pubs’ served real beers and people laughed and cried, and played ‘soccer’ in the streets and watched decent television.
He prayed that one day, his own country would be like that again, because he knew that one day, not so very long ago, it had been.
The Messiah Conspiracy - A gripping page-turning Medical Thriller - [Omnibus Edition containing Book 1 & Book 2] Page 15