The Honorable Knight

by Patrick John Donahoe

  “So do I,” added Serena.

  “Me, too,” added Jacques.

  “So do I,” added Desiree.

  “Whatever happens, we have each other,” said Ian. Ian held out his hands and the other three all grasped his hands in theirs. Ian continued, “Here’s to the rest of our long lives.”

  “Thousand year lives,” added Jacques with a hint of doubt in his voice.

  As they ventured out to the noon day sun, Ian felt reborn, renewed, and revitalized. Ian thought, perhaps the Ancient was telling the truth. What a future we have to look forward to.

  Aloud Ian said, “I think for now we’re to be peacemakers and should use whatever influence we have to promote peace among the Christians, Jews, and Muslims.”

  “I can do that,” replied Desiree.

  “So can I,” added Serena.

  “Me, too,” added Jacques, “at least until we’re told something more specific.”

  Twenty-Four

  1975 AD

  Rolf Brandt left camp before daylight to prevent awkward questions from his still asleep local guide so he could pursue his real purpose in the Southern Sudan’s Mbarizunga Game Reserve. If his guide saw him leave alone early in the morning with his air rifle case, medical bag, binoculars, and 35-mm camera case, he might prove too curious about Rolf’s intentions. Rolf planned to inject several slightly different strains of experimental virus into chimpanzees, green monkeys, mice, and bats in both the Sudan and Zaire. Rolf needed the guide until he left for Zaire, then the guide would be disposable.

  Rolf and his father, Dieter, traveled to Africa multiple times together in the 1950’s, 1960s, and once in 1971, experimenting with various viruses. Dieter, who passed away in 1973 at seventy years of age from lung cancer, conducted medical experiments with diseases for the Fuehrer during World War II.

  Dieter had been a Nazi sympathizer during the War to further his own research, but many years before the rise of the Third Reich, he and a few like-minded individuals founded the Select. Some of the original Select members supported the Nazis because of their similar ideologies and for convenience, but felt they were superior to the Nazi elite. They envisioned a world ultimately occupied and run by only Select families and individuals. Dieter said that not only was Hitler not worthy enough to belong to the Select, he was also a neurotic psychopath who suffered from irritable bowel syndrome, skin lesions, Parkinson’s disease, and syphilis.

  Africa had been his father’s and was now Rolf’s experimental laboratory. His research was the yin and yang of life expectancy, kill off everyone but the Select and make the Select immortal, and thus become the immortal rulers of the earth. Rolf’s current research was the development of an aerosol virus to kill off everyone but the Select. The virus was intended to speed up the error generation in cells and be lethal to all who contract it without protection from an antidote.

  To Rolf’s right he heard the ‘hoo’ of a chimp informing the other chimps in the vicinity that a potential threat was approaching. Rolf admired the ‘intelligence’ of the action, but as soon as he spotted the sentry high in an acacia tree, he pointed his air rifle at the chimp and shot him with one of his inoculation darts.

  The chimpanzee screeched at the pain, pulled the syringe needle from his rump, and threw the dart back at Rolf. Rolf was pleased to retrieve the dart syringe from the jungle floor and find its contents expended. He had enough dart syringes to infect eight chimpanzees and/or green monkeys, two bats, and two mice, and more if the injected animals returned the syringe as this one did. Rolf didn’t want to waste any syringes.

  He took a zoomed-in 35mm photograph of the animal for his records and noted the time and location, animal type, and syringe number in his pocket notebook. He packed the air rifle into its custom carrying case and trekked farther from the campsite in search of another chimp.

  He knew the ‘monkey eaters’ and poachers would be infected soon enough, so he would wait on the results while he worked on the vaccine in his laboratory at home. Animal tags were expensive in the Mbarizunga Game Reserve, but weren’t required for a photographic expedition. The guide approved his intentions to only photograph the local wildlife and the carrying of the air rifle and ‘tranquilizer darts’ as a safety precaution in case he was set upon by an antagonistic beast.

  Nzara, the nearest village, had only a cotton plant for industry. After Rolf has injected three more chimps, one bat, and a mouse in the Sudan, he planned to take the Land Rover, without the local guide, and drive the poor excuse of a road to Yambuku, Zaire and inject another test set, then return home to Brazil.

  The viruses to be used in Zaire, which meant ‘the river which swallows all rivers,’ differed from those he used in the Sudan, making it easier to trace the effects and origin of the infections. The virus he experimented with on this trip was designed to destroy the immune system of its victim.

  The chimpanzee, the closest animal relative to man, made their reactions to his serum important to his research. He planned to observe from a distance, from Brazil, because he couldn’t afford to be implicated in his handiwork, and the results could be dangerous beyond imagination.

  Dieter moved to Brazil in the early years of the Fuehrer’s rise to power and conducted biological weapons development for the Fuehrer. This relocation and indirect research were the reasons his father hadn’t been swept up in the war crimes trials after World War II. Dieter had maintained his invisibility, and Rolf had learned from Dieter’s experience.

  Africa became the perfect field laboratory for his experiments; killing the local inhabitants was in line with Rolf’s world view that only the superior should survive, and he and his race were superior. When the outbreak occurs in Nzara, it will probably be contained by the World Health Organization or the American Center for Disease Control, who will collect the resultant data for him and write it all up in slick paper magazine articles to be read at his leisure.

  Rolf had no cures for these viruses, another reason to disperse them far from home. He volunteered his pharmaceutical company to the World Health Organization to develop cures, then patented the cures for his company and made money on the diseases he created.

  Another alert ‘hoo’ refocused Rolf on his current mission. He needed to use his syringes quickly, to avoid creating curiosity in his guide. He searched the trees with his binoculars until he spotted the second sentry and injected another chimpanzee.

  Rolf’s goal, as a member of the Select, was not to just create an epidemic, but to fast forward the dangerous conditions being created by destroying the primordial forest and overpopulation. The destruction of the ecology would eventually bring destruction to mankind. He allowed the general course of natural events following the introduction of his new pathogens to create an epidemic and study the results. Ultimately, he inserted a ‘sleeping monster’ into the biosphere, a monster which, when unleashed into the world by global transportation, would drastically reduce the world’s overcrowding population, or at least the African population.

  Injecting the forest creatures with viruses that hadn’t co-evolved with them would cause devastating effects. Rolf didn’t know what the final outcome of his experiments would be, and wouldn’t know for several years, but he was patient. Some of the injected creatures might sicken and die before they could infect another of their species, or better yet, a human. Perhaps the animals would survive infections and develop antibodies, perhaps some or all would die, perhaps some would infect many of their own species, but his hope was one of his experiments would infect a human with devastating effects, then be transferred to other humans.

  Chaos prevailed when all the right conditions fell into place; too many people in contact with each other, destruction of the primal forest, starvation, depletion of the fresh water supplies, and the list went on. Why not accelerate the elimination of overpopulation before the world was damaged beyond repair? The Select intended to take over and become the proper caretakers of the world. So Rolf experimented, observed, and learned
. In the meantime, he continued his efforts to develop a life prolonging virus or serum for the Select and a life shortening virus for the rest of the world’s populace, and the antidotes to both.

  Twenty-Five

  2013 AD

  Rolf Brandt strode into the CEO’s office of Tridente Farmaceutico without knocking and asked his son, Karl Brandt, “Are you ready to go? I’d like to arrive before dark, and you’re not offered the free help of a 78-year-old lab assistant every day.”

  Karl looked up from the paperwork on his desk and asked, “Is it time to go already?” and seeing his father’s nod, continued, “Alright, the rest of this drudgery can wait until Monday.” Karl signed one last document, placed it into the outbox for Dora, his secretary, to post, rose from his desk, picked his briefcase off the floor, then placed several of the documents on his desk into the briefcase. He gathered his laptop computer and charger and stuffed them into their black carrying case with the red flap.

  Meanwhile, Rolf walked over to the teak paneled right wall, pressed a small triangle shaped button, and a full bar extended itself from the wall. “How about a shot of Schnapps for the road?”

  Karl arched his back in an attempt to relieve the tension from the workday stress and said, “You and your Schnapps. You know I don’t care for your fruity tasting Schnapps and I know you don’t either. How about some American Jack Daniels on ice instead?”

  Rolf grinned and said, “Nörgeler.” He hefted the 750ml crystal decanter of amber-colored Jack Daniels Single Barrel Tennessee Whiskey, filled two shot glasses, then handed one to his son. “Zum Whol.”

  Karl accepted the drink, held it up, and said, “Cheers to you, too,” and took a sip. “You’d be grouchy, too, if you had to endure the stress I have to put up with each and every day.”

  “I did; remember, that’s why I retired from being CEO. I couldn’t deal with the BS any longer. I’d rather spend my time doing research and drinking Schnapps.”

  Karl ignored his father’s attempts at humor, sipped his Jack Daniels, and tried to relax.

  Using his shot glass to point at the panoramic view of downtown Sao Paulo, Rolf said, “I admire your German work ethic, even if I don’t admire your almost exclusive use of English and sometimes use of our native Portuguese instead of German.”

  “You know that English is the language of business, and almost all of my correspondence is written in English. We only make ourselves stand out when we use German. Besides, you were raised in Brazil, not in Germany.”

  “I understand my hard working nörgeler. We have much to do this weekend, but next week why don’t you take a few days off and relax at one of our famous beaches? Or go to some of our Select socials and find yourself a new wife?”

  “With Elyse passed away a year ago and Kurt away at University, I might as well work as carouse.”

  “After we have our talk with Kurt, the three of us should at least play a round of golf. I can still beat the both of you, and I want to savor that experience while I still can.”

  Karl downed the rest of his drink in one gulp and set the glass down on the bar. After checking the room one last time, he said, “Let’s go.” Karl hit the light switch, followed his father out of the office, and closed and locked the office door behind him.

  Karl assisted his father into the shotgun seat of his Porsche 911, then passed behind the cobalt blue machine to take his place in the driver’s seat. He started the engine to a low growl and roared off out of the parking lot in the direction of his laboratory in the jungle.

  Karl sped along the two lane road to Petropolis passing every vehicle he approached, some with a small margin of error to the oncoming traffic. Rolf white knuckled the calf leather seat and the dash with each reckless maneuver.

  To distract Karl from his obsessive speed, Rolf said, “Are we going to brief Kurt about our plans for his future during his next visit?”

  Karl slowed the Porsche, glanced at his father, and replied, “Do you think it’s time?”

  “He’s your son, but he needs to gain the vision of his future, so he can focus on the important and not fritter his time away with nonessentials.”

  “I want to feed him a little at a time. Our plan is too comprehensive to understand all in one sitting. He’s a modern youth and may not grasp the whole concept at once. I want to have a well thought out strategy for explaining our plans to him.”

  “Should we tell Kurt about Aloisia spending two weeks with us in March setting up our desktop publishing capability and making and filing digital copies of our most important data and findings?” Rolf asked.

  “And don’t forget, she produced a digital and a print copy of the Book of the Select,” added Karl. “No, each time I bring up Aloisia, Kurt says he thinks Aloisia is a fine young woman with her own agenda, and he’s a modern man. Kurt is adamant that he won’t accept an arranged marriage, and when the time comes he intends to find his own wife. Aloisia, on the other hand, grasps the full magnitude of our vision.”

  “You’ve done everything you can to bring them together. They’re headstrong young people. The kind we need to lead the Select into the future,” added Rolf. “We didn’t fight against our parents when they arranged marriages for us. Children today think they have to fall in love and find the ‘right one.’ Such foolish notions.”

  “Her father, the great Baron Friedrich von Hapsburg,” Karl said with a hint of sarcasm, “explained everything to her before she arrived. The melding of our families, the quest for longevity, her and Kurt’s roles as the future leaders of the Select. She embraces all of our goals. She’s much like her father. She can be the strong woman behind Kurt. She can help him give up his wanting to sacrifice his life for the poor, opening a clinic to treat the natives for free, and all the other foolish notions he’s picked up.”

  “Having her intern in the same medical school hospital as Kurt was a brilliant stroke. She can connect with him intern to intern while they finish their training to become MDs. She’s on track to become a brilliant researcher and Kurt need never know we arranged it all. With her beauty, brains, athletic ability and feminine wiles even if he does suspect we’re in the woodwork, I don’t know how he couldn’t fall under her spell. If I were fifty years younger she could have me for a song. He doesn’t realize what a lucky young man he is.”

  “Not to change the subject, but I asked Heinrich to store two digital notebooks in the safe, to destroy the original paper copies, and to provide a digital copy of the notebooks to Doctor Ehrlich and a digital copy to the baron.”

  “I was able to digitize the last two notebooks, those too sensitive to allow either Aloisia or Heinrich to see. So give me some credit,” said Rolf.

  “I do, but I give most of the credit to Aloisia for simplifying the process enough for us to continue archiving.”

  “Agreed. We go slow but steady with Kurt, but one day soon we have to bring him all the way in,” added Rolf.

  Anxious to change the subject again, Karl said, “I’d like to try our new virus DZ104 out on a few more human subjects before we commit to a large scale experiment. We have little time left. Our sponsors would like a live demonstration of what we can do. They’re setting up a vehicle to dispense the virus for us and we need to convince them of our capability.”

  “You provided them with data and photos from the monkeys and street orphans. What more could they want?”

  “A larger demonstration, but I’d like to have the antidote for our special project in hand before we unveil it in America.”

  “I wish you hadn’t gotten involved with our new clients. We don’t need their money. You should have at least let Professor Jaekel conduct all the dealings with them,” Rolf said.

  “He did set up the first meetings and arranged for them to provide the delivery vehicle, dispersal canisters, and launch team.”

  “The less involved we are with the clients, the better off we are. I dread our trip to Cuba. They’re not patient nor understanding men.”

  “Th
ey’re worse than that; they’re fanatical monsters, but I can deal with them. They only understand guns, knives, and bombs, and have little appreciation for genetics or virology. In some ways their goals are similar to ours. They wish to rid the earth of those they think are inferior and infidels. They’re even more cautious than we are, making arrangements with us through go-betweens. I have to be careful with these crazies. When I tell them what we can do, it’s like explaining basic mathematics to children. They only care about results.”

  “We have to be careful about what we promise them,” Rolf added.

  Karl switched on the bright lights to be able to negotiate the curves better on the moonless country road.

  Karl continued, “They believed me when I told them we’re working on pandemic level viruses that can target specific races. I told them many of the Ashkenazi Jewish people carry a defective gene on chromosome 15 which could be used against them. I told them that eventually we could develop a pathogen to take advantage of genetic characteristics, and they want us to. The problem with them is they think this kind of work can be done overnight. They have no concept of the years it takes to develop viruses and genetic tools.”

  “I’d like to develop the antidotes for whatever we develop before we use them, and not put them out into the world like we did with Ebola, Marburg, and AIDS before we had cures, at least cures for ourselves,” Rolf said.

  “We’ve been over all of this many times. Don’t be such a worrier. Just remember our goal is to develop an aerosol-delivered pathogen that will eliminate everyone except the Select, so that the Select can inherit the world. We also want to develop a serum that will make the Select immortal. We know it can be done, at least on the cell level. George Gey created the immortal HeLa cell line from Henrietta Lacks’ cancer cells.”

  “Making an immortal cell line from cancer cells is easier than doing it from ‘normal’ cells.

  Immortal without copy error. That’s the trick. I know we can do it, eventually,” Karl said. “I look forward to the day when the Select are the only humans, make that meta-humans, on the earth, so we can repair the damage humankind has done; the wiping out of whole species of animals and plants, polluting the water and air, and destroying the natural beauty of our world.”