Crowns and Cabals Read online

  “I’m going to need your help. This time I’ll come to you. A very special doctor has relocated to your area. Doctor Laurie. Hope to see him during my stay.”

  “Raph, one more thing. I have a video. It’s encrypted, but also ready to share. I think you’ll figure it out. Anyway, right before you come, find a way to share it with as many people as you can. See you soon.”

  The conversation ended. Jaxie acted odd. Our disposable phone system might not be as reliable as before. After she told me about her arsenal, face-to-face conversations served our mission best.

  The night was still young, only nine o’clock. I was fired up and planned on seeing Chad. He worked as a warehouse manager. I knew his shift ended an hour ago. His apartment was two miles away. Walk, drive, or cab? My energy level was through the roof. I chose to walk. He shared a tiny two bedroom first floor apartment closer to the middle of the city. His roommate worked at the same place. I wasn’t sure if the roommate would be home or working the graveyard shift.

  I knocked on the door, and he answered. Marta was there. Both of them were eating macaroni and cheese. Despite being an uninvited third wheel, I accepted a plate and scarfed it down. Chad’s dark eyes darted towards his roommate’s bedroom door. We cleaned up the table and then took a walk outside on the grounds of the apartment complex. Chad took out three bottles of beer from his inside jean jacket pockets.

  I was annoyed that Marta came with us, but she was part of our group as well as Chad’s new girlfriend. I personally liked her better when she was just one of the guys.

  Finally, I said in a low, whispered tone, “I did a little research. Before you say anything, I was careful. In a couple of weeks, I put in for a four-day weekend. Destination Boston, where your doctor lives. Jaxie, the woman I told you about, lives outside of Boston. She promised to help. We will check out his house, maybe even his medical center, and formulate a plan or many plans. For the record, that plan does not involve killing the man unless we have to, understand?” Chad stared me down and didn’t move. I assumed he had other ideas, but chose to ignore them. “Well then, before I go, I’ve got to know a few more details on what happened.”

  He held Marta’s hand as we walked and looked at the ground. “My mother was a single mother. There were three of us, me, my brother, and my sister. My dad was what you call an absentee father.”

  “I had a parent like that, too. My mother. Must have been hard,” I said.

  “Very hard. We lived with my grandmother. My mom worked a few jobs. We were poor, but didn’t know it. Happy though. When I was eleven, my grandmother was told she had cancer. She didn’t feel sick. It just showed up in a routine blood test. Anyway, she was shuttled from doctor to doctor, then eventually got to Doctor Laurie. He was a rising superstar in cancer research back then. He figured out a way to beat cancer by altering one’s genes. We had no insurance and my grandmother wasn’t old enough for governmental insurance.”

  “But the good doctor told you not to worry about it?” I asked, not sure of where this was going.

  “Oh there was a price. He was fascinated by my grandmother. She had very unusual traits going on within her cells. Not your typical cancer. He even questioned the diagnosis. In her cells, she had twice as many chromosomes as most people. The cancer cells multiplied faster, but didn’t make her any sicker. She just seemed tired all of the time. He took her in as his patient, and we were so grateful. She seemed better. She had a lot more energy after his treatments. He even dropped the ‘remission’ word a few times, giving us hope. We believed God was working his miracles through Doctor Laurie. None of us were sure of what medicine he was giving her. It was experimental and hadn’t been through all of the trials. He didn’t believe in chemotherapy or radiation.”

  Marta put her hand on his shoulder. I sensed that she already heard this story, and I felt a twinge of jealousy. “But you said he killed her? How do you know?” I asked before Chad snapped off at me.

  “I’m far from finished, Raphael. We didn’t know it at the time, but when she died, we were told her cancer came out of remission and killed her. He was the best and the best could not save her. And that was accepted until… Oh God, we should have known back then. Suddenly, Doctor Laurie became very interested in the whole family. Test after test, telling us the whole time he was worried that we, too, had inherited her Hela cells,” Chad said with contempt.

  “What is a Hela cell?” My eyes glazed over. I couldn’t put the dots together.

  Marta shook her head of long, dark wavy locks in disgust. “Can’t you shut up and listen? Hela cells were discovered inside of a woman with cervical cancer. His grandmother had these same kind of these very special cells, except hers originated from leukemia. Let him explain already. He has every reason in the world to bury this doctor.”

  I scoffed in frustration. Already our friendship faded with Marta taking my place in both companionship and influence. How could I blame him? She was twenty-one years old and looked like a lingerie model.

  “Okay, then allow me to process all of this. Your grandmother had some special cells that Laurie was interested in. What exactly are you implying? He killed your grandma for her cells? Couldn’t he have taken a swab sample or something and then cloned them?”

  “Raphael, you can be such an asshole. It’s not that easy. My grandmother’s cells were tricky. And my mother had the same kind of cells, except hers were noncancerous and found in her uterus. My sister’s cells were the real jackpot. They were Hela cells found in her brain. Doctor Laurie said her cells had the power to help someone walk again. All of the women in my family had these cells, but with each generation the cells evolved. My grandmother might have died with or without Laurie’s interference. But she sparked his interest.”

  “Were the cells how he won the Nobel Prize? How he figured out to cure cancer?” I asked, interrupting him again.

  “Oh yes, at least some cancers. He also used them in some way for genetic experiments and auto-immune diseases like multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s. He even figured out how to grow back missing limbs, at least to a point. But that’s not the half of it.”

  “Is it his age? I mean, how old was he when he treated your grandmother? His online biography states he is sixty-four as of today.”

  “Exactly. He was old fifteen or so years ago. Late sixties, maybe early seventies. And now he’s sixty-four? Impossible. He looks like he’s your age, Raphael. Anyway, he talked my mother and sister into participating in his research. They were paid a small stipend in return. We needed the money. Less than six months later, they died within a week of each other. He said they had an irregular reaction to his trials. We tried to get the police involved, to get a warrant…”

  “Hold up! Is there a connection between your family’s cells and the doctor not aging? Is that why he looks so young? He’s one of the richest people in the world. Billions. He could hire the best plastic surgeons…”

  “He didn’t hire anyone. He just began to age in reverse. Don’t you see? He figured out a way to manipulate the Hela cells so that he could live forever. Maybe he could fix it so his friends could live forever too.”

  “I understand your pain. I really do, but do you have a shred of proof? What about you? What about your brother? Do you have these Hela cells?”

  “No. Neither of us do. My brother is dead. He died in Washington D.C. during the war. He just graduated from Georgetown and started working for Senator Slater from Illinois. He intentionally sought out a job with that senator because he was helping Doctor Laurie. We knew the senator was funding Laurie’s medical research with tax dollars.

  “Slater conveniently was out of Washington D.C. when the bomb hit, just like Laurie. Talk about a lucky, too lucky. What are the odds? Anyway, Slater rules over Richmond, Virginia now. He’s another patron of the inner circle, like an Alberta Ross of Virginia. The senator doesn’t matter much. It’s the doctor I want.”

  “What was your brother’s name?” I asked.

 
“Adam Whitley.”

  “And the rest of your family?” I asked.

  “My grandmother was Mrs. Shirley Dunham. My mother was Rose Whitley and my sister was Chandra Whitley.”

  “To Adam, Shirley, Rose and Chandra. We’ll get the bastard,” I said.

  “Saint Stephen Laurie is going down. And we, the Patriots, will annihilate him and everything else in our path,” Marta yelled. Like Jaxie, she had a manic edge in her voice.

  I looked up at the jet black sky, at the streetlights, across the street, and all over. No drones, but she got the message as to why my eyes were shifting. “Listen, Marta, a little respect is in order. I’m your leader. And weren’t you listening? I’m going to Boston. You’re staying here until we have a plan.”

  Chad let go of Marta’s hand and stopped walking. He said, “Yes, Raphael, you are our leader. She’s not disrespecting, she just knows how important this is to me. I’ve been dreaming of getting even with this bastard for some time. I already know he lives in a huge mansion and probably has an army guarding the grounds. He travels with private body guards, all former CIA, and has his own Peacekeepers. He also has live-in help. His clinic is set up with more security than the old Fort Knox and Area 51 put together. I’ve heard that Peacekeepers are all over the building. I know you doubt my crazy accusations, but think about it. Why would dozens of Peacekeepers guard a medical center? He’s dirtier than a blind man’s toilet.”

  I smiled at the visual. There was a lot of meat to Chad’s theory. “I’ll be careful. This is just an initial visit. I won’t do anything drastic, at least not without you.”

  The kindness in Chad’s eyes was gone. All I saw was hate. The mere mention of this doctor turned Chad into someone I didn’t even know. I assumed there was even more than all that he told me, but I no longer wanted to press. We all had secrets. He would tell me more if and when he wanted to.

  “Chad, can I talk to you alone?” I asked. He nodded, and Marta walked a block away. I gave him my key and a map of my grandfather’s farm in Oklahoma. “In case things go badly with my trip. There are tunnels underneath the property. They are marked on the map. I will be with Jaxie Nottingham of Brookline, Massachusetts. She is my friend and sister-in-law. You saw a picture of her-the blonde at my wedding. She is our founder of whatever you want to call this. I call it justifiable vigilantism under the Patriot Movement.” Chad chuckled at that one. “She works at Fogle, and she will help me get even with your doctor. Don’t tell the others about my farm unless you have to. And Chad, one more thing.” I waved Marta back to where we stood.

  “Whatever you want, my Patriot,” he answered.

  “I forwarded you an encrypted file. You won’t recognize the name or email address. Patriot is the password. Slap it up on your blog. Slap it up on others’ blogs, and keep on slapping it up after that. It will help us recruit some more Patriots.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Jaxie

  After hanging up with Raphael, I learned through his vague conversation that he had a new target, Nobel Peace winner Doctor Stephen Laurie. The minnows and goldfish of the New World government were no longer enough. He set his sights on the sharks of the sea. Only he hadn’t realized the he was using a wooden stick for a fishing pole and a raft for a boat. Maybe once he saw what he was up against-the doctor and his team of bodyguards, Peacekeepers, and powerful friends-he would continue on with easier targets such as city and state officials who were doing all of the dirty work. Although terrified, I was too intrigued to refuse the challenge.

  Raph offered no explanation. His shaky voice suggested that he no longer trusted the disposable phone system, or maybe it was me. He kept the conversation at a minimal.

  Maybe the doctor wasn’t his target. Maybe the doctor was only linked to a much lesser, easier target. From what little I knew, the man had something to do with birth defects. He was the only redeeming elite in the world. But then again, he surrounded himself with vultures, and birds of a feather…

  I didn’t know how naming another target, especially Laurie, would play out with my Patriots. Everyone grieved over Yolanda. She was our first, and hopefully last, casualty.

  A week after Raph’s phone call, I saw Camden outside of the Fogle campus having a cigarette. I smiled at him and politely asked to borrow one even though I didn’t smoke. We sat next to each other, both covering our mouths as we tried to look like we were strangers getting our nicotine fix in before lunch.

  “I fixed both the satellites and drones. Filled them up with footage of old traffic in the area in case anyone was curious. I’ve been watching our new storage facility, if you know what I mean.” I slightly nodded. “There hasn’t been a car down the alley this past week. A few cars drove down the street, but no one seemed curious. Some bad news. Yolanda’s disappearance has struck a chord with my security team. Don’t get mad, but I made a mistake. Didn’t quite cover all of my computer fingerprints when I logged into the satellite. I did it under a fake user with clearance, but made it look like it was Yolanda.”

  I took a drag of the smoke and tried not to cough. This could work to our favor. “So you threw poor, dead Yolanda under the bus? Made her look like a traitor? Brilliant. She would have wanted it that way. No mistake, just an amazing adjustment.” I put out the smoke and smiled at Camden. “Back to work. Have a great day.”

  “One more thing, Jaxie. I found out where the new, rebuilt U.N. will be. They will change the name and probably the way it’s set-up. But the world government headquarters will be in Boston. Max Steele himself ordered hundreds of drones and microphones to surveil the city. The world’s leaders will soon be here.”

  “Thank you.” I smiled and waved goodbye.

  Camden played along with the work friendly environment, although I could see the surprise in his kind blue eyes. Yolanda’s death bothered him. Having to drag her name through the mud bothered him. And now, increased surveillance bothered him. Was he getting cold feet? Brick certainly wasn’t. The young man was addicted to action.

  A few days went by, and sure enough, rumors circulated that Yolanda wanted to sabotage the corporation. The false account Camden set up was discovered. No one could answer how she sabotaged Fogle, only that she broke into some high clearance security in one of the satellites.

  We began to breathe. No one was looking for us. Our secrets died with Yolanda. She would have gladly taken the blame in death so that we could continue on with the mission of disrupting power. Raph no longer wanted disruption. His cell of Patriots wanted it all-an eye for an eye. Doctor Laurie lived and worked less than a half an hour away. I needed to meet him before Raph came to town.

  Sai knocked on my door after work, asking to spar in the nearby park as we often did for both exercise and private conversation. Our corporate Sensei had taught us well in the art of self-defense. I wished Fogle would spring for some military weapon training as well. Maybe that was next. I had a feeling they hired their own security and didn’t trust the U.N.’s Peacekeepers.

  The afternoon sky was gray, but for the first time after the war, I saw a hint of blue peek through the heavy, dirty white clouds. The temperature hovered slightly below freezing point, but sparring with Sai kept me warm. I mentioned the next job. “You ever hear of Doctor Stephen Laurie?” With a roundhouse kick, I got her in the neck harder than I wanted to kick her and she fell to the ground.

  “Watch it, Jaxie!” I gave her a hand up. “You’re getting way too good at this! Did you just ask me about Doctor Laurie? Of course I heard of him. The whole world heard of him. He’s part of the new General Assembly right here in Boston. He’s on the Internet all of time. You know, celebrity gossip. I think he’s old, but he doesn’t look it. Good looking guy. Got a young hottie on his arm every few weeks.”

  Sai tried to kick me back, but I caught her leg and twisted her. She fell to the ground. “Sorry. Again. So what kinds of girls does he like? Blondes, Asians, Blacks? Maybe a beautiful Indian woman like you? With long, silky black hair?”
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  “Don’t think so! You were a lot nicer before learning this karate bullshit.” Lying on her back, Sai swung her legs up and arched her back. She now stood in a front stance. “Seriously, I don’t really know his type. Probably any attractive young woman. You. You’re his type.” Sai used her left fist and hit me with an uppercut jab. She hit my face, but not hard enough to leave a bruise.

  “You finally got me. Did I say something to make you mad?” We both chuckled as we caught our breath. “Stop for one minute. I need some water. Sai, you gave me an idea. Do you think the doctor would be interested in me? At least for a night or two?” We sat on the bench to catch our breath. Despite the freezing temperatures, we both had a few beads of sweat on our foreheads.

  “Yeah, why not? You’re young and gorgeous-that’s his criteria.”

  “But how would I meet him?”

  “He runs the biggest genetic database in the world in Boston. People go there and register to look for other relatives who survived. Saint Stephen Laurie is what they call him. Just go there and pretend you are looking for lost family.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Raphael

  Harper Bensen needed to be formally voted into the Patriots. My instincts approved of her, but then she was a huge risk. She knew where I worked, my address, and that I was in possession of an ancient artifact. If things went badly… I pushed all of the negativity out of my head and daydreamed about robbing Doctor Laurie blind and then beating him to a pulp. Instantly, I calmed down.

  I walked to work on Monday, earlier than usual. My mind was heavy with emotions. About midway to the college, I remembered that my microchip was in the kitchen drawer. Whew! I turned back to retrieve it for the day and managed to arrive two hours earlier than my first class. Harper still beat me to school. I glanced through the window insert of her door. She rummaged through her bookcases with an exasperated look on her face. She didn’t even notice my stare. Was she preparing for class or did she find something on my crown?