Yesterday (Part Four - Chapters 70 & 71) (Patreon)

CHAPTER 70

Spencer Kelt overheard his chauffeur announcing.

He would rather not speak unless it was strictly necessary. The two arched leaves of the old blackened metal door swung apart after an electric hum and his Rolls creaked parsimoniously down the short gravel driveway to the mansion where he had his appointment with Victor Sertres.

A butler was waiting for him at the door with an umbrella, and dutifully escorted him from the car to the entrance hall. With a polite gesture he asked him to follow him through the monumental foyer, and a few meters further on he gently knocked on a heavy, elongated wooden door carved with profuse floral motifs.

The butler entered the room and Spencer Kelt waited until he returned and politely granted him passage.

Sertres was waiting for him sitting in an armchair in front of the fireplace and rose to greet him when the butler left them alone. Victor knew better than to touch Spencer Kelt, so he simply bowed his head gently.

Kelt came to where Sertres was and sat down across from him. He quietly opened his briefcase and extracted an electronic tablet.

—I hear you’ve been traveling a lot these days, —said Sertres, trying to break the ice.

—I gather you discussed it with Mr. Hebert, —Kelt answered, looking him straight in the eye and then returning to his tablet, as if not expecting an answer.

—You know we are good friends.

—Yes, I know.

An awkward silence fell between the two. Sertres decided to get to the point, and could not help but appear somewhat impatient.

—I hope you have brought me what we agreed upon. My superiors have been waiting for results for a long time.

—That’s why I’m here.

—Did you bring the it with you? —asked Sertres in wonderment.

—Yes, —Kelt answered laconically, —but first, in your capacity as liaison with the Holy See, we must fulfill the contract, a message will be revealed to you and you must transmit its contents in its entirety to your superiors.

—Agreed.

Kelt extracted a thin metallic pellet from the inside pocket of his briefcase, stood up and carefully deposited it on the floor between the two of them. He then sat down and before Sertres’ disbelieving eyes, a luminescent mist began to emanate from the pellet. The mist assumed human form and increasingly defined features began to imprint themselves upon it.

Before them, the figure of an elegant elderly man finished forming out of nowhere.

Sertres was totally fascinated with that beautiful and elegant telepresence device, and a part of his mind could not help but be distracted by calculating the fortune that could be made on the patent of that invention, just as the figure came to life and began to speak.

--Greetings, allow me to introduce myself, I am Elias Harperin -- the figure saluted him with a polite if old-fashioned nod and made a brief dramatic pause --, I understand that you are the legal representative of the Vatican Church at this meeting, if so, please impress your fingerprint on the device that will be offered by my assistant next.

The figure stood still and Spencer Kelt approached Sertres with his electronic tablet. He pointed to a frame and Sertres pressed his finger on it. The projection came to life moments later.

—All right, having proven your identity, and having demonstrated the authority vested in you to represent the contracting party, which from this point forward I will refer to as the organization, we now begin the matter at hand, which is your request for full access to our Metatron tool. Do you understand that this terminates our contract and that you hereby waive any future claims to it?

—Yes, I understand, —Sertres replied loud and clear, assuming that the identification system would need to process his voiceprint as well.

—All right, do you understand that from this moment on no future contact will be possible between your organization and the Harperin Corporation, nor will you be able to claim any renewal or improvement of the technological benefits you have received up to the present moment?

—Yes, I understand, —he repeated.

—All right, do you understand that from this moment on any joint operation that remains in force will be suspended?

—Yes, I understand.

—Okay. All that remains is for me to give you my modest advice before we finalize our agreement. In all certainty, on the day of this meeting, or to express it more properly, today, this, your present day, I will no longer be among your people, but I have every hope that the Harperin Corporation will go ahead with its plans and achieve what at one time in history was a common goal for both you and us. I regret that, for whatever reason, you no longer wish to continue your journey with us, but I offer you, as the founder of our wonderful project, my promise that, when the day comes, you will all be welcome.

Finally, I urge you to use wisely the power we have given you, for although it can do precious good, it is also capable of terrible evil if it falls into the wrong hands. You have before you the fruit of our discoveries to date and you are free to initiate a parallel development on your own of whatever fields you see fit. We will not intervene, it is not our role, but we will be vigilant. I hope, for the memory of the venerable man who signed with me this contract that is ending today, that you are making the right decision.

Now I deliver to you, as the officially appointed representative of your organization, Metatron, the bridge to eternal life, the nourishment of faith.

With that said, the figure vanished into mists of steam amidst a slight nod.

Spencer Kelt stood up again and offered Sertres a dark, elongated polished wooden box.

Without sitting down again, he gathered his things.

—I must go, —he said.

—Yes, of course, —Sertres conceded, rising perplexed, —allow me to see you to the door.

The two men left the room together without a word. Sertres signaled his butler and he hurried to open the front door for them. As they were about to say goodbye Sertres made a gesture to shake his hand, but Kelt looked him up and down with a raised eyebrow and turned his back.

Spencer Kelt climbed into the car. Sertres walked back into the mansion and quickly came back to his new toy.

The case appeared to be mahogany. Its finish and luster were perfect. Marveling, he took it in his hands and went to his table, where he placed it carefully over the leather bureau.

It was about forty centimeters long by no more than five or six wide, and about three or four high.

There was a discreet clasp in the middle to open it, and Sertres pressed it with tremendous excitement.

Inside he found a piece of dark burnished metal encased. Only a small dot of blue light distinguished it from an ordinary metal bar. He carefully pulled it out and discovered that the lining of the box was a dark red velvety material. As he held the piece of metal he marveled at the attention to detail that the Harperin Corporation had paid to every detail.

“I will surely miss them”, he said to himself.

He returned the bar to its case and wondered how it would work, what it would do. He had hoped for something else, but the words “bridge to eternal life, nourishment of faith” kept swirling through his mind. Maybe they had come up with something better than they expected. He examined it again closely. He knew from experience that all the Corporation’s devices were based on very simple, almost instinctive principles, that protected them from obsolescence.

He slid his finger over the cold surface. The idea of the power treasured in that simple piece of technology fascinated him. And now it was all his.

A trail of red light followed his finger as it swept past, but nothing else happened.

He tried again, but this time all he got was the blue dot of light flashing.

He crossed his arms in frustration. Apparently Hebert had been right with his theories. He warned him that they would need the twins to make it work and he didn’t want to take any chances, so he wouldn’t hand it over to his team of scientists without showing it to them first. He wanted to be the first to discover its contents, to know what was the great power that protected the Corporation. It had to be something huge for the church to accept the contract. And those words. They needed to keep some of that knowledge to themselves, to dose it properly. And according to Hebert, they needed the brothers to do so.

He tried to reach the Professor on his mobile again but there was no answer. He made one more call, they had to delay the activation of the beacons until they could locate Hebert and confirm that he had the siblings safe. Now he really needed both of them back in London.

Spencer Kelt returned to Harperin Castle in his helicopter hours later. He dismissed the pilot with a wave and an envelope and stood gazing at the two huge, sharp towers as the aircraft glided away over the valley.

His work was done. The inertia of his actions would precipitate the next events, and he could, after so many years, rest.

He entered the silent castle with a firm step, and crossing the hall he made his way up the grand central staircase to the upper floor, where his control center was housed in one of the former guest rooms. Once there, he checked the data on his console and pressed a button. The silent countdown started and Spencer stared at the data flowing across the screen.

CHAPTER 71

Hebert rolled his eyes and collapsed, falling out of his chair under Jonah's furious gaze, Aminarti looked at his body lying on the floor in shock and then at Jonah.

He no longer recognized him. His world had just collapsed.

Everything had happened so fast and he didn't know how to react. Paralyzed by fear, he felt old and useless. He wanted to forget the professor's last words, but they kept ringing in his ears. Together they had made him loathe everything he had given his life to in just one day. He loosened his collar.

—But now you know that I am right, Pater, —answered Jonah, guessing his thoughts, —you don’t hate me, you abhor yourself for having fallen into such a trap.

—Don’t lecture me. Do not speak to me.

—Would you rather not have known?

Aminarti did not answer him, still clutching his rosary.

—We should get going, —Laura interrupted him, coming out of the bedroom with the cell phone in her hand, —have you decided what to do with it?

—Let him go back to Rome, it’s all the same to me.

—Are you sure? —she insisted.

—He won’t hurt us.

Jonah and Laura left the suite. Laura had called her father to let him know they were going to see him and to ask him to book them tickets to London as urgently as possible. They had little time. After a few arrangements, he was able to put them on the private jet of a colleague who, fortunately, was leaving for London late in the afternoon.

They knew where they had to go to meet Hebert's partner. He confessed shortly before they felt they had enough. They had been mentally sharing information for hours. They had filled in almost all the gaps in their story and came to the same conclusion, it was time to put an end to the whole conspiracy, only then they could be safe.

Laura spoke to Eva on the phone on the way to the offices. The distance she felt from her hurt. It would take a lot for things between them to be the same again. In fact, Laura regretfully sensed that they would never be the same again.

She told her that they had decided to stop by before leaving for London, and she also told her that Jonah could help them understand what had happened to Adrian, that it wouldn't happen to anyone else, but this didn't matter to Eva. She felt hurt again, but she set out to win her back.

Jonah took her hand. Her brother still found it hard to talk about his emotions out loud, but Laura sensed how much he cared and loved her, and that made her feel something new that she didn't yet know how to describe.

Meanwhile, Oscar was still in his office making calls from his private line and coordinating his strategy for the next morning. After the brief conversation with Laura he finally had a clear idea of who to focus his anger against, and what he was going to do.

He did not consider himself a vindictive person, he was not, but he had not come to his position with mediocrities or allowing himself to be pushed aside.