John Vendrick III was tall, muscular and had an aura that radiated power. The hair had started to become greyer at the temples but otherwise he kept himself in good shape. He enjoyed his scent, a mix of masculinity and expensive perfume. You could not see that he had passed fifty years a few days ago but it had not been interesting for him, age was something that you decided. He had always been aware of the importance of his physical appearance and what power a man could radiate if one wanted to dominate his surroundings. It was something that he had learned from his father. Today he wore a pin-striped suit and dark Italian shoes. He loved those shoes.
Otherwise, there was not much John liked about Italy or the Italians for that matter, but he could not deny that they made the best shoes in the world.
He had been in Europe several times and once he had traveled through Italy but he had hated every minute of it. Those arrogant Italians who thought Rome was the most beautiful city in the world. However, John had bought a major industrial company based in Rome. It was a big investment and he had originally planned to stay in there for a while to take over the company in a good way. But it had been unbearable.
The company itself was healthy and the finances were good but the managers did not have the same vision as he and he had to get rid of the entire senior management after a week and introduced his own people. All his plans for the company had inevitably failed. The economic future that seemed so promising for it had developed into a nightmare because of strikes, stopped work and unexpected interruptions in production. It was close that he had lost control of the situation and it was not until he agreed to reinstate the old management and agree to several of their demands that the situation had been resolved to some extent.
But his pride had suffered a blow. It had demanded a lot of work from his side and it had been a learning experience, but after six months he had sold the company, and then in the background, gone on a viscous attack. He had used all the dirty tricks in the book to rip the company apart and had with bribes and threats brought down the company down to its knees. However, had a small, hard core of honest people had remained in the company's board and refused to give in.
They had all disappeared during a trip to one of the company’s factories in northern Italy. All seven people that was on board the plane had died halfway in the flight when the plane in a mysteriously way had banked hard and turned upside down in the air while the pilot had increased the speed at the same time as he had pulled the stick hard. The plane had in the violent descent begun to tear into pieces when the speed it was designed for were exceeded and from their flight altitude of two thousand meters, it had not taken many seconds before the plane smashed into the ground with a devastating force. The following investigation had not found the reason why the pilot had taken all their lives.
Neither had the communication between the airplane and the control towers shed any light about the accident. What the investigation concluded was that the only reason was that the pilot had committed suicide with the plane. But during the investigation they never found any motive why the pilot would have committed suicide. The last communication the air traffic control had with the plane was that the pilot without warning started screaming.
“No, no, they are coming, they are coming!” The screams continued for over ten seconds on the recording obtained from the black box, and then stopped as abruptly as they began. The investigators never found the reason why the pilot started screaming or what it meant. During the investigation of the pilot, they found only typical daily problems similar to those most people struggled with, but nothing that could motivate any suicidal action.
Nobody had understood that it was John who had given his most trusted assassin the mission to get rid of the company’s management. The man that John had sent had a characteristic appearance with a big, eagle-like nose that adorned his stiff face. John had always thought that the man looked like an old roman emperor. The eagle nosed man, whose real name was Jaap Winckelmann, was a wonder of efficiency, he was ruthless and had never failed a mission. The man had been a petty thief addicted to drugs that had lived a rough life in Rotterdam’s underworld and lived for his next fix. He had moved between the European capitals and lived on crime and theft to pay for his drug use.
Tabula Rasa had sent out groups of men whose mission was to arrange guinea pigs that were going to be used in different illegal experiments. After a series of experiments where the other eight subjects had died, the eagle nosed man had survived. And after the experiment, the eagle nosed man was a changed man.
His drug addiction disappeared, he became a vegetarian and started with an advanced training program. The change had not only been physical but also mentally the difference had been remarkable. Before the experiment Jaap had been uncertain, evasive with light sadistic tendencies. When he had woken up after the experiment, it had become apparent that he had lost all compassion and empathy, and his sadistic traits had blown in to full bloom. The difference between before and after the experiment had been like night and day.
The eagle nosed man had placed a small robot in the cockpit of the plane that would take the Italian management to the factory. During the flight had the eagle nosed man activated the robot that crawled out from under the pilot's seat, moved up along the side of it, and when it was close to the pilot's head it had sprayed out an experimental nerve gas that quickly penetrated into the pilot's lungs. The gas had more or less immediately provoked violent hallucinations in the pilot and John smiled when he imagined the horror they must have felt on the plane when the pilot turned the plane down to escape the nightmare hallucinations that he thought was attacking him. The power of the crash had been so violent that all the debris were all smaller than a meter in diameter. John had enjoyed the knowledge that those who had been against him had suffered a cruel and agonizing death.
* * *
It knocked quietly on the door and John snapped with his fingers to lower the music.
“Come in.”
The door slid aside and Dr Weng-Li walked in with his gaze fixed on the floor. The short, Asian doctor stood silent in front of John, as a school student in front of the principal. They were in John's office, in the top of the northern one of the glittering glass pyramids that formed Tabula Rasa. The room was magnificent and decorated with the finest pieces of art; imperial Chines vases, Etruscan handicrafts and Asian gold masks were tastefully lined up and hung in the room. The walls were covered by windows from ceiling to floor. The window glass had a weak, golden coating that gave the room a warm glow. Many of the furniture was ultra-modern in its design and the contrast between the old and the new gave the room a special character.
John sat behind an oval desk of marble that shimmered in the sunlight. On the desk several gold coins was spread out on a soft cloth and his hand held an ancient Egyptian knife. The knife was still sharp and its edge glimmered in the sunlight. He watched a big holoscreen that broadcasted live from Macau. The hologram generated by the screen hovered half a meter in front of it.
The smoke laid heavy over Macau. The cameraman panned over to what appeared to be a part of the harbor. The camera swept further out toward the horizon and zoomed in on what looked like a military ship that seemed to go at full speed. Thick fog of smoke slowly glided over the water. The sleek ship came rushing straight ahead at full speed and unseen men began to shout and scream. John leaned forward with interest and studied the ship.
A few seconds passed while the razor sharp bow of the ship split the water. He could see what appeared to be about ten men moving on the ship. Someone pushed the cameraman and the camera began to film the ground before the cameraman recovered the balance and returned to filming the attacking ship. Two of the men on deck had got up to something that looked like a weapon and John tried to distinguish any details but the smoke made it hard to see what was happening.
The cameraman zoomed out and John saw that the ship's course was going straight to Flor Fria, the mega complex built in Macau, which was a bit
outside the port. The cameraman panned quickly back to Flor Fria where the automatic defense weapons was activated.
Three, fifth-generation C-Ram high-speed cannons glided up from their positions around the mega complex. The canons looked like big, white trolls and from each of the trolls a dark barrel slid out and took aim at the attacking ship.
During four years in the 2030s Flor Fria, which in Portuguese meant Cold Flower, had been built. Macau's mega complex was popular. It had a little more than half a million inhabitants and was at the cutting edge in many areas, but especially in the conservation and research of flowers and plants. The downside of Flor Fria was that it was also controversial because of its rabid defense of nature and the fact that it was weighed down by bureaucracy. The Chinese had four mega complexes under various stages of development and did not want that Macau would have its own because then the Chinese thought that it would be harder to recapture both Hong Kong and Macau if they grew too strong.
The sleek ship turned sharply to port and steered to a heading that took it alongside Flor Fria. The white trolls followed the ship and was just about to open fire when two of the trolls exploded at the same time. John flinched. The third troll, however, seemed be ok and opened fire. A prolonged, deep rumble as if you would pull a gigantic zipper rattled over the water. The cameraman crouched instinctively but kept focus on the ship.
The weapon on deck opened fire. A rapid-firing rail cannon spat out devastation from two long barrels and John saw how big explosions shook Flor Fria. The cameraman screamed and the live broadcast went black.
A shiver went through John. Damn terrorists. That was what they were. Damn terrorists, but John analyzed callously the situation. Now when Flor Fria was under attack their stock value would crash for sure.
John made a mental note to give his financial analyst an assignment to begin a detailed analysis of Flor Fria and investigate whether he should begin to vacuum the stock markets for Flor Fria shares. There was certainly a lot of synergies that he could profit on. The anger inside him was replaced by greed, one man's loss is another man's gain.
He waved his hand, the screen went dark and he sat silently and reflected over what he had seen. Dr Weng-Li cleared his throat and John blinked, he had forgotten that the doctor had entered the room.
Dr. Weng Li stood before John on a handtied Persian rug which costed more than a middle-class house. He rubbed his sweaty hands and bowed if possible even deeper than he had done in the last few minutes. His back began to ache from all the bowing. John sat silently in front of the good doctor with Jackie in his lap. Jackie was a Russell Terrier and was one of John's weaknesses, at least in his opinion. But he had always liked dogs, ever since he was a young boy. He stroked it gently over the back where it laid in his lap.
John stared at the doctor, gently lifting Jackie down on the floor and hastily got up out of his chair and took three long steps around the desk and stood in front of the doctor who took a quick step back.
“I apologize a thousand times, Mr. Vendrick, I ...” before Vendrick interrupted him. The anger welled up in John. As red, glowing lava, it rose within him until he was ready to explode. His body was like a pressure cooker where the safety valves had been disconnected and the pressure rushed up to disastrous levels. His head was pounding and his neck muscles were tense. His long, muscular body was tensed to the breaking point. John grabbed the collar of the doctor's white coat and began to drag him with him. The surprised doctor stumbled forward. John dragged him as easily as a child dragged a doll, and he could feel the doctor's sour smell of sweat. He held the doctor in front of the panorama window and pointed out.
“How do you think I created something like this?” he hissed to the other man. Fear shone in the doctor’s eyes. Dr Weng-Li crouched during John’s outburst. He stuttered.
“I apologize again a thousand times, Mr. Vendrick. According to the plan, they should’ve been ready now. That was the idea, but unforeseen events have caused delays.”
Dr Weng-Li instantly pulled his shoulders together like animal does when it is attacked. John held the doctors collar with an iron grip and the doctor did not dare to move a muscle. A couple of seconds went by.
“Look outside” John said with a strained, soft voice, “Look outside and see what I have created. It is my will that has done it. Mine. It is something that I wanted and it became as I want, do you understand?”
The doctor turned his head and looked out. The view in front of him was magnificent. Along the edges of the triangle that the pyramids formed stood buildings and houses and beyond that border a few kilometers away, was the outer fence. Three different access roads stretched to the west, south and east. He looked down towards the inner area that the three pyramids formed. He could hardly distinguish the people far down there. John pulled him closer to the window and pressed his face against the window.
“You see? This have I created. Tabula Rasa is my life's work and even disasters like Maxim Hoy can’t stop me.” John's voice dripping with contempt.
Dr Weng-Li nodded silently. John’s voice softened.
“You see doctor. Tabula Rasa is my legacy to humanity. It is here that we will help humanity into the next era. For too long, mediocrity has been accepted and praised in the society. For too long humanity has been allowed to exploit nature for its own benefit. It's over with that here.”
Outside, the sun rose and its rays reflected in the solar cell coated outer sides of the pyramids. A kaleidoscope of colors slid over the buildings. John leaned toward the doctor and whispered.
“It's over with that now, my dear friend. This is the last time, do you understand?”
Doctor Weng-Li shrugged and nodded quickly.
“Yes, Mr. Vendrick. I understand.”
“You promised they would be ready by now. It was the same thing that you said two weeks ago. This is completely unacceptable. I don’t understand, I give you everything you need to succeed, to become someone. That you should also take part of the success that I've made, but you insist in disappointing me over and over again.” John's voice dripped with sarcasm and small splashes of spit landed on the doctor's cheek. The doctor did not dare to wipe them of out of fear that he would have to take more yelling.
“When nobody wanted to have anything to do with you, who was it then that helped you? Who was it that believed in you when the whole world had left you to the wolves?”
Dr. Weng-Li looked up and met John's eyes that stared down at him as John was a head taller than the short, stocky doctor.
“One more day. That's all I need. There were some configurations last time that failed but now we know what went wrong. The next batch is already on its way and I expect it to go completely according to plan.” He bowed again.
John turned away from the doctor and looked out through the big window, the view was outstanding, and the sun's rays searched through the fractured cloud cover and gave the whole scene a golden tone.
“I don’t know. I really don’t know. I almost feel that I ought to kick you out. What would you say about that?”
Small beads of sweat broke out on Weng-Li's forehead, and he crouched even more.
“No, please.” He said weakly. “I promise; I will not fail again.” The silence dragged on. Tormenting seconds passed. Not a muscle moved in Vendricks well-trained body. He was well aware that Weng-Li knew that you could not be kicked out from Tabula Rasa. There was no way out except possibly in a body bag. John continued while he looked out through the window.
“You know that I need them. Both for Tabula Rasa and to go up with the space shuttle as soon as possible. Every day of delay is another day of risking that someone else will discover what we are doing. NASA and ESA are in full swing with their landing on the moon that will happen within a couple of days and, although the sphere is on the backside of the moon which makes detection more difficult, but it’s only a matter of time. They will discover the sphere and if we won’t get the exclusive right on the access to it, then everything
will be in vain. Think of the possibilities that would be lost. Think of all the chances we have to completely dominate the following centuries of mankind. Think of the possibilities we have”, he paused, “Think if it is because of you that we lose that possibility.”
Doctor Weng-Li rubbed his hands and his eyes begged.
“I’ll work as fast as I can. I’ll see if there’s a way push the process some more. I promise to push more.”
John did not answer but stared silently out on the glimmering horizon, Weng-Li shifted uneasily behind him.
“I know that I’ve let you down, but give me one more chance. This time it will be right. I promise.”
Seconds ticked by without any of them saying anything. A shadow slid across his face, and John turned around and smiled widely.
“Ok, my friend. You’ll get one last chance. When are they ready?”
Weng-Li blinked.
“One day. Not more. There will be seven of them. We are doing the final adjustments now.”
John clapped his hands
“Wonderful, I'm so excited about the result. Do you have everything you need?”
The doctor twisted uncomfortably and tried to breathe deeply a few times, without it being too obvious, then nodded.
“Yes, we have everything we need. We have got the process down to less than four weeks now and those who come out are stronger than ever. I think the next round will be absolutely perfect.”
John frowned his forehead and stared coldly at the doctor.
“Think?”
Weng-Li's heart skipped a beat.
“Know. Of course know.”
“Wonderful, ok, then it's done. One day.”
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