The Secret (The Scinegue Series Book 1) Read online

  Sarah nodded silently, unshed tears stinging her eyes. This was her husband. The man she had loved, and who had loved her, for years. “I trust you, Billy. Just hurry home, okay?”

  “Count on it!” The phone went dead, and she smiled through her tears. Things were twisted up in their world right now, but she did trust Billy. Whatever he was up to was important. He was doing his best to work out a solution to whatever they’d stumbled into. She would do her part here.

  She answered questions for the police, even going so far as to mention that someone had called the shooter ‘Nick’, but withholding the fact that it had been her brother. When the police finished with her, she joined some of the others in Linda’s kitchen who were busy preparing coffee and hot water for tea, and fussing over Linda as much as she would let anyone.

  “Would you like to spend the night with me?” Sarah asked, squatting beside the chair where Linda sat.

  Linda gave her a slight smile and patted her hand, but shook her head. “No, thank you dear. I am not going to let these people run me out of my home. I’m trying to remember that God has a plan and can use this for His good. I think there will be many people who hear about this and have questions. I want to be here to provide the answers for them the best that I can.

  Her voice was steel-laced, “We knew a time would come when we would have to openly confront Scinegue but hoped to have many more people on our side before then. Well, it doesn’t look like I’m going to have that luxury. It has started.”

  Chills danced up Sarah’s spine as Linda repeated the words of the older lady who had confronted her earlier.

  “What has started?” she questioned, unsure if she really wanted to know the answer.

  Linda looked her full in the eyes for a moment before answering firmly, “The fight for our lives.”

  Chapter 20

  Pacing the luxurious suite where he was staying, Billy replayed his conversation with Sarah. She hadn’t come out and said Scinegue was involved, but it was apparent that she thought so. Especially with the shooter knowing her.

  He had enjoyed a productive conversation with his uncle earlier and knew he believed Scinegue only had the good of humanity in mind. He admitted that there were people throughout the years who believed that Scinegue should not only be about improving people, but also believed some people should be eliminated. Uncle Bill assured him that most of those people had left the company. Or had been ‘dealt with’. Whatever that might mean.

  He told Billy that Scinegue was only one of many companies around the world involved in eugenics, and disclosed that some of the others were more open to the termination of undesirables. He was adamant that Scinegue was not in agreement with any of them on that point.

  Billy decided he had to talk to his uncle again tonight. He hadn’t mentioned any of the mysterious information that had come his way in the last couple of weeks. He wasn’t positive he could trust him, but with Farmer Dan being killed, he felt he didn’t have a choice.

  He worried how his uncle would take the accusations he was about to make. Would he be defensive and deny there was even a possibility that his company could be caught up in something so evil? Or did he know about Scinegue’s dark secrets and was just lying to Billy?

  As torn as he felt about whether or not his uncle could be trusted, he had no one else to turn to. Farmer Dan was dead. Linda was grieving. Mr. Bryant sounded like he could very well be involved in some serious eugenics stuff himself, and probably wouldn’t be concerned about people being killed as long as they weren’t perfect. And Sarah knew no more about any of this than he did. That left Uncle Bill.

  Billy had been driven to the company suite to spend the night and was told someone would meet him in the morning. So far someone had met him at every step, but that left him without a number to contact the driver. He didn’t have a number for his uncle either. He threw on some clothes and called a cab.

  Without an address or street name, it took a little longer than it should have. Billy was able to offer some general directions, and soon the cab pulled up in front of the red-brick building that he recognized from earlier. He paid the driver then jogged to the front door, surprised to find it locked, assuming people besides his uncle must live in such a big building. He rattled the handle and pounded on the door, peeking in the window for any sign of movement.

  He stepped back and looked up the tall building. Every window was dark. His uncle was on the fourteenth floor. Billy wondered if there was a fire escape or any other way to get up that high, and strode around the side of the building determined to find a way in.

  The alley to the right of the building was dark. Light from the street barely crept in. Billy walked resolutely around dumpsters and over litter, wishing he had a flashlight and trying not to jump at every noise he heard. He found the fire escape but couldn’t reach it. He decided to circle the whole building for another, easier way in, but filed the fire escape away as a possibility.

  He couldn’t believe Farmer Dan was dead. And twenty other people? He shook his head as he continued his search. Sarah could have been one of the twenty so easily. He clenched his jaw and fought off a surge of panic. He had to talk to his uncle.

  There was a brightly-lit parking garage at the back of the building. Billy stooped under the bar guarding the entrance and looked around for an emergency phone or door into the building. He felt sure this place would be heavily guarded, but there was not a soul in sight.

  There was an elevator in the back of the garage so he entered it and hit the button for the fourteenth floor. Nothing happened. He tried again and then tried pushing all of the buttons, but the elevator doors remained open and it didn’t move. He hadn’t really wanted to call too much attention to himself, but he finally pushed the button for the alarm, hoping someone would come along and be able to get him to his ‘uncle’. If the alarm worked, it was silent. Billy pushed it two more times before getting out of the elevator. The silence was eerie.

  “Hello?” he called out, his voice echoing throughout the garage. “Is anybody here?” Absolute silence answered him.

  He finished his circle of the building and was soon back at the fire escape, since no other ways of entry were apparent. He jumped for the dangling ladder a few times, feeling foolish at the distance he would have to be able to jump to reach it, but trying anyway. He then tried to move a dumpster closer so he could climb up from the top of it, but couldn’t even get one to budge.

  He finally started rummaging through the dumpsters. He figured there must be something useful out of all of the stuff that had been thrown away. Billy dug under several empty boxes and bags of trash.

  He grimaced as he grabbed unidentifiable objects and wished for his work gloves. He found a broken bar stool. He pulled it out and balanced it against the wall under the fire escape. Eyeballing the distance, he calculated that if he could brace the bar stool up so he could stand on it, he might be able to reach the ladder.

  He remembered seeing a pile of crumbling bricks by one of the dumpsters and set out in search of it. He found it and picked out the sturdiest bricks, making a couple of trips with them back to the bar stool. He made a leg for the broken stool with several stacked bricks, and warily climbed onto the seat. He could almost reach the ladder, so he got down and grabbed a few more bricks to place under each of the legs. The old stool rocked precariously from its perch. Billy balanced himself and was able to climb up far enough to reach the ladder. He pulled it down and scrambled up, counting the floors as he raced upwards.

  Stopping at what he counted to be the fourteenth floor, he cupped his hands against the cool glass of a dark window and peered into what looked like a small storage room. What would happen if he broke in? Would alarms go off and security come rushing to arrest him? What if it wasn’t even his uncle’s room? He thought of Farmer Dan and Sarah, and realized the risk was worth it. He had to talk to his uncle now. Tomorrow just wasn’t soon enough.

  Breaking in was harder than he would have imagine
d, and he contemplated going back down the ladder to get a brick. He leaned back and gave the window one last hard kick with the heel of his shoe, and the glass finally shattered. He froze, feeling every bit the criminal, waiting for alarms to go off or for someone to come explore the noise. Everything remained silent.

  He let several seconds tick by, but when nothing happened he reached through the broken window and unlatched the lock. The window pushed open easily and he crawled through, broken glass crunching loudly under his feet, but still no one came to check out the noise.

  He walked through the storage room and opened the door cautiously. One quick look confirmed it was his uncle’s apartment. “Hello?” he called. “Hello?” He looked around the room and in the dim light of the dying fire saw a slumped shape in a chair.

  “Uncle Bill?” He rushed to the shape and found it was his uncle wearing a dark-red robe. “Uncle Bill!” Billy shook his shoulder gently, trying not to startle him.

  Uncle Bill moaned and opened an eye. Seeing Billy he whispered, “I prayed you would get here in time. Go to my desk,” he wheezed. “Get the red file and a pen. Bring them here.”

  “Are you okay?” Billy asked, peering at his uncle’s face, pasty in the dying light.

  “Quickly!” Although weak, his uncle’s voice still held command.

  Billy rushed to the desk and found the folder and a pen and brought them back.

  Uncle Bill tried to grab the folder but was too weak. “Turn to the last page and sign it. Quickly!” he repeated. “Now put the pen in my hand, and help me sign it.” Billy did as he was told, and the elderly man let out a sigh when it was done.

  “They tried to stop me, but they didn’t succeed.” He coughed weakly and slumped further in the chair.

  “I’ll call an ambulance.” Billy stared at his uncle wide-eyed and pulled out his phone. “What’s the address here? What is the address?” he repeated loudly when his uncle didn’t answer the first time. He repeated the mumbled address to the operator, then sat back to look at his uncle. He couldn’t see anything visibly wrong with him.

  “Uncle Bill, an ambulance is on the way. You’re going to be okay.”

  “They gave me a shot to make it look like I had a heart attack,” his uncle gasped. “There may be traces in my blood if you tell them what to look for.”

  “You’re going to be okay,” Billy repeated, only slightly shocked by his uncle’s words after every other strange thing that had happened recently. “Just hold on.”

  “Evil has infiltrated Scinegue. We worked so hard to move away from the killing and the forced changes.” The remorse in his voice was painful to hear. “Someone wants that brought back, and it looks as if he or she is nearing that goal.”

  Billy’s heart pounded in his ears, and he felt light-headed.

  “I’m sorry,” Uncle Bill rasped. “I was naïve. You will take my place now. Oliver will help you. The papers we signed transfer my power to my heir.” He opened his eyes and smiled faintly at Billy. “My namesake.”

  “Who did this? Who wants to change Scinegue?”

  “They said there were many who were tired of the old way of doing things. Said our ways took too long. You will take my place. Your vote will sway the decision of the Tops. You must convince them that the path we are on is the only way to make the world better. Murder has no place in what we are trying to do.”

  Billy tried to make sense of what his uncle was saying, then heard sirens nearby. “How do I let them in?” he asked, thinking of the locked doors he’d encountered as he hurried to the elevator.

  “1909. Enter...code.”

  Billy punched the code on the keypad near the elevator door and soon heard the elevator rising. The EMTs burst into the room, turned on lights and began working with Uncle Bill.

  One of them pulled Billy to the side. “Do you know what happened?”

  “He said someone gave him a shot to make it look like he had a heart attack,” Billy answered truthfully. The EMT gave him a funny look, but pulled a bottle and syringe out of his black bag and injected his uncle with something.

  “His vital signs are weak, but we’ll do all we can. Do you want to ride to the hospital with us?” Billy accepted the offer and followed the EMTs to the waiting ambulance, pausing at the front desk, indecisive about whether he should leave a note to let someone know where Uncle Bill was.

  Deciding against it, he climbed into the back of the ambulance and held his great-grandfather’s hand, realizing that he still held the red folder in his other hand. Probably just as well. He would have time to look over the papers at the hospital.

  “Sarah, I need you to come to Seattle. Right now. Will you?” Sarah sat up in bed and rubbed her eyes which were gritty from all of the crying she did before finally falling asleep.

  “How am I going to get to Seattle?” she asked the first question that came to her mind.

  “I’m going to try to arrange things through Scinegue. If I can get it arranged, will you come?”

  Sarah was wide awake now and wondered what could possibly be happening. “I’ll start getting ready in case you are able to work things out. Do you need me to bring anything for you?”

  “Some casual clothes would be nice. All I have is two suits. I’ll call you back as soon as I know something.”

  Sarah hopped out of bed, and the memory of the massacre at the Brown’s house overwhelmed her. She fell to her knees and brought both hands to her aching chest. Why was all of this horrible stuff happening, and how had she and Billy become involved in it?

  “Oh, Lord, I know you have a plan for everything that is happening. Please help me to remember that and help me to do your will. In Jesus’ name I ask this. Amen.”

  She felt a little better after her short prayer, but was still barely able to drag clothes out of the closet for herself and Billy before getting dressed. She picked up the phone and dialed *11 which Maria said would connect her to their house. Sarah gave Maria the little information that she had, and Maria and her husband rushed over to help her get ready for her possible trip.

  Billy called back while Maria was adding toiletries to Sarah’s bag, and told her a car was on the way to take her to the airport and that he would see her when she got to Seattle.

  “Why are you flying to Seattle in the middle of the night, Mrs. Roth? Is it because of your friends who were shot?”

  Maria was waiting up for Sarah when she finally got home from the Brown’s, and Sarah had poured out the whole story to her, except for the parts she thought might be dangerous to mention. Like the fact that her brother knew the killer. And the killer knew her.

  Sarah shrugged her shoulders wearily. “Billy didn’t say. He just asked me if I would come.”

  Maria put a hand on Sarah’s shoulder and looked into her eyes. “You are a good wife, Mrs. Roth. Mr. Roth asks you to come and you just do it.” She grabbed Sarah’s bag and started for the stairs. “Me on the other hand?” She laughed over her shoulder. “You ask my husband. I would ask questions until he changed his mind and told me not to come.”

  Sarah smiled faintly, thankful for Maria’s distracting chatter.

  The ride to the airport flew by in silence. Sarah hoped the driver that had been sent for her wasn’t feeling as sleepy as she was. She tried to sip the coffee Maria had prepared for her, but found her uneasy stomach wasn’t too interested in it.

  The pilots were friendly but quiet as they helped her board the plane. She was amazed that they looked so professional, assuming they had probably just been awakened themselves for this flight.

  She barely had time to register the lavishness of the jet she entered as the flight attendant helped her get settled and offered to keep the lights dim if she wanted to try to sleep on the flight. Sarah was pretty sure she wouldn’t be sleeping. Her mind was a jumble of questions and her stomach twisted at the gory images of all the people who had been shot just hours before. But she did sleep, and just like Billy, she was soon being awakened by the flight attendant t
o prepare for landing in Seattle.

  A car met her at the plane, and although she looked inside eagerly, hoping to see Billy, he wasn’t there. The driver handed her a note from her husband and helped her into the car.

  Sarah,

  I’m sorry I couldn’t meet you at the airport. I will see you very soon though. The driver will bring you to the hospital. I’m fine. I am here with someone else and didn’t feel as if I could leave. Someone will bring you to the room when you get here.

  I love you,

  Billy

  Sarah tucked the note in her purse and added this information to her rampaging thoughts. At least Billy had been considerate enough to let her know he was okay. She could imagine how panicked she would have felt if she had just been taken to the hospital with no clue why. Not that she had much of a clue now, but at least she knew Billy was all right.

  The predawn traffic was light, and it didn’t take them long to get to the hospital. The driver walked her in and spoke to the person at the front desk. Soon someone was escorting her to see Billy.

  She hadn’t been in many hospitals and had never been escorted to a room before. She watched her escort insert a key into a panel in the elevator before tapping a floor number. When the doors opened, she realized this wasn’t a normal hospital floor. It looked as if she just stepped into someone’s formal parlor. Soothing music played softly, and the doctors and nurses were not wearing the scrubs that she associated with hospitals. They were dressed nicely in skirts and slacks. She was led to a room, and Billy met her at the door.

  He looked her over anxiously, taking in her puffy, bloodshot eyes and grim expression before pulling her into his arms, and resting his head against hers. “I can’t believe it has been less than twenty-four hours since I saw you last,” he murmured. She felt so good against him, he didn’t want to let go.

  Sarah, exhausted and overwhelmed, dropped her overnight bag at their feet and returned his embrace, melting into him.