The Secret (The Scinegue Series Book 1) Read online

  “Uncle Bill, Mr. Radcliffe, Sarah? Is anybody there?” he desperately thought of each of them.

  “You have done well, Billy,” he heard his uncle’s voice say. “Let him go to the hospital. He will be okay now, thanks to you. A car will be out front waiting for you after you see him to an ambulance. It will bring you to us.”

  “How do you know what happened?” Billy questioned, but the ring was silent. No matter who he thought of or what he said, he received no response.

  His eyes darted around the faces of the curious onlookers in a panic. He needed to tell his uncle about the vaccine right away, but didn’t know how to contact him without the ring.

  The paramedics arrived and scooted Billy out of the way so they could do their work, and soon had Mr. Bryant in the back of an ambulance on his way to the hospital.

  Billy followed them outside, then climbed numbly into the backseat of the car waiting for him. He shut his eyes in exhaustion. This had to be a bad dream. This kind of stuff didn’t just happen. First the mystery with codes, and now a battle with the devil?

  His eyes popped open at his own choice of words. Mary had talked about this being a battle just this morning, and he thought she was being extreme. He wondered now if this was part of the secret she was keeping from him.

  People wanting to kill off large parts of the population because they weren’t found worthy was hard enough to believe, but the devil directing them in their endeavors? He felt sure he wouldn’t have believed that for a minute. He wasn’t sure if he did now.

  Billy leaned back in the comfortable car seat, his mind racing before he murmured a final prayer and fell into a blissful sleep of oblivion.

  Chapter 32

  Billy awoke with a start, surprised to find himself in his old bed, in his old house, with Sarah smelling sweetly of vanilla snuggled close to his side sound asleep. He slipped from under the covers as quietly as he could so he wouldn’t wake her and sat on the edge of the bed, trying to remember what had happened. He was with Mr. Bryant at the cafe, and then he got in the waiting car...he couldn’t remember anything after that.

  He walked from the bedroom and went to his great-grandfather’s desk, sat in the office chair and ran his hands over the old, but carefully tended wood. This couldn’t have just been a dream. No one had dreams that vivid or that long lasting. But how did he get here?

  In the dim early morning light he noticed the ring on his finger and couldn’t decide if he was relieved or not that he hadn’t been dreaming. He watched the ring as he ran his hand along the smooth desktop and tried to decide what he should do now.

  A sudden red glow caught his attention, and he focused on the once again dark ring. Strange. He started to move his hand along the desktop again, this time stopping his movement as soon as he noticed the glow appear.

  He moved his hand slowly past the point, and the glow faded into darkness. He moved it back again and it glowed brightly and began to pulse. Fully awake now, he took off the ring and laid it on the desk. The glow faded away. His mind raced. What was going on? He pulled out the side drawer directly under the ring and dumped out the contents. Pens, scrap paper, nothing of consequence.

  He reached inside the opening where the drawer had been and felt around, finally pushing what felt like a small button protruding from the top of the opening. A slim drawer, hidden above the drawer he had removed, popped open against his arm, surprising him.

  He pulled it fully open spying a ring similar to his own on top of some papers. He took everything out of the drawer and set the ring carefully by his, admiring the rings side by side before reading the handwritten words on the paper below it.

  My heirs are not my own, and so this ring bides its time. Another ring will find its way to my not descendant when the time is right. My heart breaks as I have learned of the betrayal of my best friends, but I know they betrayed me only to save me. To protect me from the weakness within me that will not allow me to have heirs of my own. I remain quiet because I know it is what they want, but Daniel is my son. I will not give him up! I have loved him as my own since the day he was born, though I had doubts even then as to whether I, or my best friend, was his father.

  I forgive them, and I pray for their forgiveness from God and beg daily for Him to be merciful to them.

  This will be hidden where only another ring can find it so if you have found it, you have a matching ring and know of our undertaking. I am not sure how many years it will be before the ring is passed on, so do not know if I am addressing my own child, grandchild or even a future generation. My hope with this note is to release any ties to hard feelings that may occur when the deception is discovered. I only confirmed recently what I had long suspected, but I forgive them completely. I ask you to do the same.

  The papers in this drawer contain my pledge which I am now passing on to you. Not as my blood relative but as the descendant of my heart. Elaine is gone now, and I believe I will follow her soon. I am happy to do so because I know where our rest will be. Think carefully before accepting the pledge as I and Elaine and William have done. Do not take it out of a sense of duty, but only if your heart is filled with a burning passion to fulfill it.

  As my descendant, and as William and Elaine’s as well, I find myself confident that you will accept the pledge whole-heartedly. Even though we might have never met, I am filled with pride at the thought of the person I believe you will be. Genetics is but a small part in our make-up, and although it is something we do not share, I fervently pray that we will share an even more important trait: A faith in the same everlasting God, our Father.

  May the peace that fills me be passed on to you,

  Jacob Matthew Roth

  Billy reread the short note surprised by the tears filling his eyes. Here was a great man. He would have been proud to be related to him. He guessed that the words were true, the faith they shared was a much greater tie than a genetic tie would ever have been.

  The room was brighter now as the sun made its appearance, but Billy turned on the small desk lamp to help him read the slightly fading print on the rest of the papers and found himself filled with awe at the startling commitments both made and required in them.

  Sarah padded out in her comfy flannel pajama bottoms and a tank top and joined him with a sleepy smile and a warm kiss. “Hi there.”

  “Hi yourself.” He smiled back and pulled her onto his lap. “What are we doing here?”

  “You were dead to the world when your car arrived so we decided to let you sleep for a while. I just felt more comfortable coming here.” She shrugged, “So, here we are. Ritchie’s sleeping in the guest room.”

  “I guess I didn’t tell anyone about the vaccine then.” He slumped in his chair and closed his eyes, wondering if everyone who received it was already dead.

  “No.” Sarah shook her head and a smile played around her lips. “You didn’t have to, though. Mary and many others have been onto Mr. Bryant’s master plan for some time, even though they didn’t know at first that he was behind it.

  “Once they told Mr. Radcliffe and your uncle what was going on, they were able to out-maneuver him at the last minute. They had all the vaccines replaced with a pure saline solution! Word already hit the news by yesterday evening, and the manufacturer is facing some serious accusations about one of the biggest ‘supposed’ frauds in pharmaceutical history!” Sarah smiled brightly as she watched Billy’s face light up as understanding sank in.

  “They didn’t accomplish it,” he stated in wonder, then jumped up with Sarah in his arms and spun her around. “They didn’t win! They didn’t kill Mr. Bryant’s son!”

  Sarah laughed and kicked her feet playfully in the air until Billy set her down. “No, they didn’t win. They weren’t even close to winning. Yeah, they got a few contaminated foods on the market, but even that was cleaned up quickly. Your uncle and Mr. Radcliffe are amazing. You should have seen them at work.”

  Billy looked at Sarah seriously. “I think it’s their Boss who
is amazing.”

  Sarah tilted her head. “What do you mean?”

  “You need to look through these papers I just found in my great-grandfather’s desk. They all work for the same Boss, and it looks like you and I will be joining their team. That is if you want to,” Billy added tentatively. “It sounds as if it’s a life-long commitment.”

  Their small house was filled to capacity, everyone dressed in their best and in a celebratory mood. Billy wore one of his new dark blue suits from work that Sarah claimed did amazing things for his light blue eyes. She was dressed in a lighter blue, sparkling dress that the tailor from Scinegue had been delighted to design just for her. Her blond hair was swept up in a flattering, elegant fashion, and she felt like a princess for the night.

  They made a stunning couple and received many compliments as they mingled from group to group, hand in hand, enjoying this new family they had discovered. Uncle Bill and Mr. Radcliffe were there, along with Mary and over a dozen people from the local Scinegue office.

  A third Top was also in attendance. Mary’s grandmother, Elizabeth Sinclair, flew in from Australia to check on her granddaughter. Even Linda Brown was there after spending most of the day with William Berkley discussing what had gone wrong within Scinegue to let things get as far out of control as they had.

  “I still don’t understand why God didn’t use someone like David Cleary from our church instead of me for this.” Billy shook his head and looked at the small group around him. “He would have been able to quote scriptures and would have known just what to say and do.” He raised his arms in a helpless shrug. “I don’t think I did anything but run to you guys for help.”

  Uncle Bill put an arm around Billy’s shoulder. “You did just what you were supposed to do, when you were supposed to do it. God uses the least of us to display His greatness. If He had used your Mr. Cleary, or someone like him, then he could have been filled with pride at the fact that he knew the right scriptures to quote or the biblical way to handle the situations.”

  He looked into Billy’s eyes. “He chose you and guided you in a way that you would know it wasn’t through you, but through Him. Then only He could receive the glory for the outcome.” Everyone in the group nodded their agreement. “Sometimes the absolute hardest thing to do is just be still and wait.”

  “I guess that’s another mark against the common interpretation of eugenics,” Billy said. “If God uses the ‘least of us’ as you said, that means the weak and the simple, right? Destroying them—us—would be destroying part of His plan.”

  Sarah interjected a question of her own. “Has anyone heard how Mr. Bryant is doing?”

  “He is perfectly healthy. He and his son were released from the hospital earlier today,” Uncle Bill answered without elaborating.

  “If nothing was found to be wrong with him, does that mean he was really possessed?” Sarah pressed with a shiver, thinking of the strange events Billy had related to her. “Was Satan really using him to try to stop God’s plan?”

  “That’s hard to answer with certainty,” Uncle Bill told her. “I think it’s accurate to say that Satan has always been trying to stop the plans of God. Mr. Bryant was one of many who wasn’t content with the speed of our progress. He was crafty enough to gently warp Scinegue’s values and present those warped values as our own to the other employees.”

  Mr. Radcliffe frowned. “It wasn’t hard for him to persuade people who wanted to believe what he was saying. There are more people in the company right now who think like he does than we realized,” he said with a furrowed brow. “At this point his doctors believe he had a mental breakdown. He will be in treatment for quite some time as I understand it. Mental breakdown or an actual evil entity, the results of his plan could have easily been devastating.”

  “What about the way he collapsed when I said ‘I cast him out’. If he wasn’t possessed, why did that happen?” Billy persisted

  Mr. Radcliffe sent a glance towards William before answering vaguely, “It is possible that if he did have a mental break, he could have convinced himself that he was doing what the devil was making him do. If he believed it deeply enough, his mind could have reacted to your words as if he was possessed just because he had convinced himself he was. Or,” he finished with an apologetic look to Billy’s uncle, “he could have been possessed. It has been known to happen.”

  Billy was surprised at his nonchalant reference to possession. It may have been ‘known to happen’, but not to anyone he had ever known before, and it was the most awful thing he’d ever experienced. “Well, something strange was going on because my body was doing things that I was telling it not to do. What do you think caused that if Mr. Bryant didn’t have some kind of powers?”

  “I wish I could give you an accurate answer, Billy,” Uncle Bill said. “As it is, there are many things in this world that we may not ever fully understand. Even the fact that so many of our employees were willing to do things so contrary to what they were originally hired to do.” His tone expressed his frustration.

  “Thankfully there are still many people, such as Stanley Bennett and Daniel Brown, God rest their souls, who did not know who was instigating the changes at Scinegue but weren’t willing to go along with them, even at the cost of their lives,” Mr. Radcliffe added.

  Each member of the group remembered the lives that had been lost to the wicked plot within Scinegue, and Sarah squeezed Linda’s hand, receiving a sad smile in return.

  “At least you were able to stop them,” Billy said before continuing in a more somber tone. “I just don’t know how you will be able to stop all the outside individuals, like that FBI agent.”

  “Unfortunately, this is not the first time we have had to contain a situation such as this,” Mr. Radcliffe said. “Clean up is already in the works.”

  “On a different note,” Billy said, “I talked to Ben earlier. He is so thankful to be out of that Reprogramming facility. The little he said about it was terrifying. He was offered a position similar to mine, but just as Mr. Bryant originally insisted I had to divorce Sarah to accept the job, Ben was told he had to leave his wife and children. His youngest son has Down Syndrome and was not deemed a suitable child of a Scinegue employee.”

  “Oh, that’s awful!” Sarah’s heart clutched at the thought.

  “Awful and so far off-base from what we want this company to represent,” Mr. Radcliffe stated angrily with a tap of his walking stick on the floor for added emphasis.

  “When he refused to give up his family, he was taken to Reprogramming, ‘for his own good’,” Billy added.

  Uncle Bill shook his head sadly. “Your missing Mr. Tanner was in Reprogramming as well, I understand?”

  “He was! Ben said that they were able to stick together in there and help each other stay strong in their beliefs and keep their sanity. He’s moving, though.” Billy gave a quick nod. “Ben will continue working for Scinegue—the real Scinegue. Jerald, on the other hand, said he is getting as far away from here as he can. I don’t know if anything could ever convince him that Scinegue wasn’t behind the reprogramming.”

  Billy’s expression was grim. “It sounds like the facility they were in was using some pretty high-tech mind control and brainwashing techniques. Ben didn’t want to talk about it too much, but it sounds like it will be critical that all of those things are securely contained. No one should have power like that over another person’s thoughts and actions.”

  “It is being taken care of,” Mr. Radcliffe reassured him.

  Billy turned to look around the crowded room, and someone jostled his shoulder as they squeezed by. “I guess a gathering like this is when a bigger house would really come in handy,” he murmured.

  “You know,” Uncle Bill put a hand on Billy’s shoulder, “the house in the Scinegue subdivision is yours. Yours and Sarah’s to do with what you like. We are making sure all the houses are cleared of any recording devices. We’re also disabling the tracking feature in the implanted monitors that
the employees receive. It’s a nice safety feature, but until we can guarantee that it can’t be used for evil, we won’t be using it at all. That’s not what we have developed this company to be about.” He looked at each member of the group noting their agreement.

  “We want to have like-minded individuals working for us that don’t have to be monitored. I’m afraid we, the Tops, became so caught up in our idealistic goals and plans that we forgot to keep a closer watch on what was happening within the company and we let someone like Mr. Bryant get a firm foothold.”

  Mr. Radcliffe and Mary’s grandmother added their agreement. Billy let his eyes move from Mary to her grandmother, and decided he now had a very good idea of what Mary would look like when she was older. Still beautiful with silver hair replacing the deep red and an added layer of refinement that Mary was even now growing into.

  “It shows a sad state of things,” Mrs. Sinclair sniffed, giving Mary a reproachful look and earning a contrite one in return, “when your own granddaughter is unsure if you are involved in a sinister plot just because an individual has enough influence within the company to convince everybody that his plans are ours. We have decided to take a more hands-on approach within the company,” she continued. “If people are acquainted with us, they will have no reason to question our beliefs and our direction for the company. Everyone will know if they hear of plans that run contrary to our own that we haven’t had a sudden change of heart, but that evil is once again trying to infiltrate our company, and I believe it will be stopped much faster.”

  “That leads to another idea we’ve had,” Uncle Bill continued Mrs. Sinclair’s thought. “Each of us has chosen someone to take our place when we can no longer fulfill our duties. As you know, Billy, you are my chosen replacement.” He patted Billy’s shoulder.

  “We are making a plan for each of you to begin your duties sooner than originally planned. We would like to have you in active roles as junior Tops, so to speak, rather than keeping you in the dark about our plans until you are thrust into a Top position. You will work within the company as our direct representatives while learning more about our beliefs. Is that something you are interested in?”