Taming the Telomeres, a Thriller

by R. N. Shapiro

  "Have you ever sat in a chemo room?" Kent asks.

  "No. Never. What’s that like?”

  "Well, I can’t think of what would be worse. Uh, torture? You won’t forget it once you visit one. Hers was in the building right beside the hospital. My dad didn't want me to go but I told him I wanted to see it. I just wanted to be with my mom. All these people in the room are poisoning themselves, on purpose, with these drugs that drip from bags hanging on IV poles. But they were all really nice to me. It made me think a lot."

  "Think about what?" Amanda asks.

  "About how unfair life is. My mom didn't deserve it. We thought at one point she was cured, but she got it again, and that time it spread. It hung over our heads like a cement cloud. Every day in school I would think about it, even though I tried not to. It was a really good day when I forgot about it even for a few hours. But when I got home it was always there."

  "With my mom and dad,” Amanda says, “I don't feel anything. It's weird, I can't remember them, even after staring at their pictures. I know their faces now, but all the memories were stolen right out of my head. I don't have that sense of loss like you. Wow, I swear I just remembered being right here before. I mean, I think I had a dream or NDE about us being here. That sounds dumb but…”

  "Not dumb. This is special being here with you.” Amanda moves slightly closer to Kent so their bodies are touching.

  “Volunteering at the hospital since my mom died is the first thing I’ve done that wasn’t motivated by me selfishly trying to get myself somewhere."

  “If you weren’t a volunteer, we would never have met! Maybe that was karmic.” Amanda says, smiling at Kent. She runs her hand lightly through his hair a moment, then adds: "My friend David from school says you went to MA for a year and that you either got kicked out or quit or something. Was that when your mother was doing chemo?"

  "Yeah. My dad and mom enrolled me there the year before my mom was diagnosed. I wanted to get kicked out. There were so many snobs, and I couldn't focus on anything. But, yeah, the reason that I quit was because my grades were terrible. I was flunking two of the classes, but I couldn’t have cared less, I was numb. They let me finish the semester but weren't going to let me come back, and I was pretty happy because I didn't want to," Kent says, letting a few seconds pass. "Some people think I do crazy stuff, but to me it's not crazy. I'm just not going to waste my life sitting around doing nothing."

  Chapter 29

  Whippers-in

  "David also showed me your video. That's the most I've laughed since I woke up from the crash. What made you do that?" Amanda asks.

  "I wanted to throw mud on all of the highbrow people in Middleburg and Upperville. You know, the whole thing with fox hunts and their snobby traditions. I had no idea it would go viral, I just sent it to a couple friends." Kent says.

  Amanda chuckles. "That's pretty twisted Kent."

  "Well that's just my mojo.” Kent says. “There were a lot of pissed off people in Middleburg. I actually participated in a bunch of real fox hunts, even the exclusive Orange County hunt.”

  "When you were a teenager?"

  "Yeah, I went when I was 13 years old with my uncle on my mom’s side. It's like a rite of passage here."

  "Did you have to wear, like, special horse riding clothes?"

  "Oh yeah. You have no idea how formal this stuff is. Do you know what the MFH is? Or what a whipper-in does?" he asks.

  "No idea. Tell me."

  "Well the MFH is the master of foxhounds, the leader of the hunt. He's in charge of the entire thing. But the huntsman has a horn and actually directs the foxhounds and the whippers-in," Kent says.

  "Whippers what?"

  "The whippers-in are the horseback riders who kind of keep the hounds together and keep everything going with the flow. They release a red fox, which gets a little head start, then everybody takes off."

  "Do you carry rifles to shoot the fox?"

  "No, no one shoots at the fox. Sometimes, though, the foxhounds will just tear the fox apart. That even has a name. I left a lot of stuff out, but what happens is the foxhounds track the scent of the fox, and the riders follow the dogs. If they get to the covert — it's pronounced ‘cover,’ but has a ‘t’ on the end — that's when the huntsman makes the key decisions.

  “None of the riders can get ahead of the draw. When the foxhounds actually find the fox, everyone is supposed to be silent because the foxhounds make a distinctive sound, or 'speak,' so everyone knows that the fox is in the covert. If the huntsman decides to cheer the hounds all together, he makes a series of short blasts, called ‘doubling the horn,’ that calls the hounds all together. At that point the fox is jumping around in the covert, pretty much surrounded and sometimes the foxhounds just tear into the fox. They also used to do something called blooding."

  Amanda is almost afraid to ask. "Good God, what is that?"

  "I'll never forget when they actually did it to me. Blooding is when the hounds have all torn the fox to pieces, and the lead huntsman takes some of the blood from the fox and symbolically rubs a little bit of it onto the youngest riders' foreheads. Also, they will cut off the fox's tail, paws, and head, as trophies. Then they throw the remaining carcass to the dogs."

  "I think I’m going to puke. That seems horrid. Why did you let them do it?"

  "I didn't know any better. I was 13. My uncle was into all this stuff. It was what Middleburg was all about."

  "When they do those hunts now, do they still do that?" Amanda curiously asks.

  "No, they don't do the blooding ritual anymore. And sometimes they don't even kill the fox at the end. Foxes are smart, some of them know that they should run along a stream, or run along the top of fences. That throws off the hounds, and they can get away. Really, the only fun thing about it was galloping along trying to find the fox and leaping over low fences."

  "So, that’s why you did your video. You were making fun of them because of all that."

  After making their way back to the parking lot from the overlook, they go through the ritual of getting Amanda into the van. Kent starts driving down the road as the sun is setting in the western sky. Bands of sunlight stream through the tall trees, creating a strobe effect inside the van.

  "I have one more place I want to stop, and I can still get you back in time." Kent says.

  He pulls the van up to a little country roadside café, and asks Amanda what she would like.

  "Just get two of whatever you're getting and I'll try it." Amanda surveys the area and sees some picnic tables in front of the café. Kent returns a few minutes later and helps her out of the van. There's a family with a little boy who looks to be about three years old at one picnic table and another young couple at another. Amanda suddenly feels self-conscious about the metal halo around her head and notices a few furtive glances in her direction.

  "I got you green tea with some brown sugar, is that okay?"

  "Guess I'll find out."

  They situate themselves at one of the picnic tables with a large umbrella over it. Shortly after they start sipping their drinks, Kent asks a question he has obviously been thinking about a while.

  "You really can't remember anything about your parents? Nothing about your dad’s job, your mom’s job?"

  "Nothing. I keep flipping through the scrapbooks hoping I’ll remember something."

  "Do you feel sad about that?"

  "I mean, some of my family members tell me things that make me smile or make me sad when I hear them, but it's not because I'm remembering anything."

  "Can you remember anything about the plane crash, like getting on the plane, where you were going, being at the airport?"

  "Not really. They tell me it was my birthday present, we were going to shop in New York. But I will tell you something that I haven't told anyone else but Dr. Lucent. I’ve been having these dreams, or maybe they’re really near death experiences, I don’t know. Lucent said he thinks they’re NDEs."

  "That's pretty spooky,
" Kent says, twirling the circular cardboard protector on his cup.

  "A couple of my flashbacks, are really weird. I remember something from the Wizard of Oz movie, but I can't even remember my parents or the crash."

  "How can you remember the Wizard of Oz?"

  "No clue. Why can I remember the color of the dress Dorothy was wearing and that her dog's name is Toto? Brain damage is what Dr. Lucent says."

  Kent begins to wolf down a white chocolate brownie. Suddenly, they both notice the lady standing beside the picnic table.

  "I’m sorry to interrupt, but are you Amanda Michaels?" she asks. Kent realizes that the metal halo surrounding her head is a fairly big giveaway.

  "How did you know that?" Amanda asks.

  "We’ve seen you all over the news. I just wanted to tell you that my husband and I are amazed at how strong you are and we just want to wish you a speedy recovery. We know that you have been through so much."

  "Thanks, you are very kind," Amanda responds. The lady walks back to her picnic table where her husband waves to Amanda and Kent.

  "You're a celebrity now," Kent says.

  "I really just want to be invisible. I didn't ask for this. And I really want to get this halo off my head and get back to whatever I was doing before."

  "I hope you guys had fun. And Kent, I want to thank you for taking Amanda," Barb says.

  "I had a great time," Amanda says, "and I got to meet Roxy and Voodoo and see the farm."

  "I heard that your family's farm is up for sale," Barb says to Kent.

  "Yeah, it's been listed for a while now but there haven’t been any offers."

  "That beautiful farm, you should never let him sell it," Amanda says.

  "Well, I definitely agree but it's my dad's business and his finances that are involved, not mine."

  "Are you volunteering tomorrow?"

  "Day after tomorrow," Kent responds.

  "See ya then,” Amanda says.

  Amanda watches him walk down the hall, wondering what he could possibly see in her.

  Chapter 30

  Surveillance

  "I've reviewed all the surveillance tape. When would you like to talk about it?" Angie asks Andy through speakerphone.

  "Do I need to look at it with you?" Andy asks back.

  "Like I told you, there isn't much of anything there.” They already know that the plane crashed, and watching video of the people in the waiting area at the gate probably is not going to shed any light on why.

  "I still want to look at it. Let's go in the conference room and view some of the footage and you can tell me what your preliminary thoughts are."

  Andy enters the conference room, and Angie is already there with the remote in her hand.

  “I used the family pictures and tried to locate each of our clients in the gate area. One surveillance camera shows everyone leaving the gate, going down an escalator, and gathering on a lower level. The second cam shows the representative that checks the tickets, and then they all get on a shuttle bus that takes them out to the jet on the tarmac."

  Angie points the remote at the flat screen on the wall and they both look at some footage.

  "So in this first section here you see Rochelle and Amanda in line to go down the escalator. Notice that Rochelle is on her cell phone. What's interesting is that we've got the cell phone records so we know the last call she made was to your brother. Ron is nowhere to be found. He must have been running late. Let me fast forward here and I'll show you where he comes in."

  Angie fast forwards the video to the time she has in her notes as correlating to Ron’s arrival. "Here is the footage where Ron gets to the gate and hurries down the escalator. He was one of the last passengers. The second cam shows him presenting his ticket and heading out to the shuttle bus. They sent the last shuttle bus with Ron and the last couple passengers, none of whom are our clients."

  Angie hits the pause button on the remote control.

  “Why weren’t they together?” Andy asks.

  “Yeah, that’s kind of weird. Rochelle and Amanda were moved to that flight because their earlier flight was canceled. As best as I can tell, your brother was scheduled on this flight. It’s odd they weren't booked on the same flight in the first place.”

  “Yeah, that is strange,” Andy agrees.

  Chapter 31

  Black Box

  “Andy, we received a stack of documents and cds on the Hemispheres black box data. I know you want to look at it right away.”

  “I don’t need the cds right now, but I want to see the transcripts,” Andy responds.

  Moments later Angie drops them on the corner of Andy’s desk.

  “Here you go. Are you calling Garrison to tell them they’re here?”

  “Yeah, and I may ask you to take the stuff to him. He lives in Arlington somewhere, I think.” Andy locates the transcript from the pilots. He flips through a few pages and quickly finds the first relevant communication before the crash:

  * * *

  Pilot: Mayday mayday!

  ATC: Hemispheres 310, state your position and souls on board.

  Pilot: Near Lancaster. 27 souls on board.

  There is a four-second pause followed by the following:

  Pilot: Declaring an emergency, want to land immediately. Control problems.

  ATC: I see you. Recommend Lancaster.

  [Second Voice – likely co-pilot] Smell electrical smoke and controls acting weird, not responsive.

  * * *

  He reads a little further:

  * * *

  Pilot: Smoke getting thicker, loss of control, losing altitude and control of jet.

  Pilot: Nothing’s responding. Can you get any control over there?

  Co-pilot: No response here either.

  * * *

  Five seconds later per the timestamp on the transcript:

  * * *

  Pilot: Okay, I’ve got the airplane.

  * * *

  Three seconds later:

  * * *

  Co-pilot: Smoke’s getting thicker, we’re going down.

  * * *

  Another timestamp indicates the time of the crash as seven seconds later when there is no velocity reading whatsoever.

  Andy paws through several transcript pages from the other event recorder, which records air speed, altitude, power settings and other parameters he doesn’t understand. He scrolls through his address book on his phone for Robert Garrison.

  “Robert, Andy here. We have the Hemispheres event recorder printout on the Flight 310 crash. We also have the logs of all cell phone calls made by the passengers for a period of time before the crash. I didn't even know they did all of that, but in any case, it’s a ton of stuff. I’m going to have Angie bring it all to you in Arlington. Is that okay?”

  “That will be fine,” Robert responds. “If you get them to me today I should be able to give you some preliminary thoughts tomorrow.”

  “The press has been doing a lot of theorizing about an electrical cause, but once you look through this we’ll obviously have a better idea.”

  “Exactly, I will talk to you tomorrow.” Garrison says.

  Next, Andy presses the speakerphone button on his phone for Angie. "I just spoke with Garrison and I need you to take everything to him.”

  The next day, Garrison calls Andy with a preliminary report. “Andy I’ve studied all this material. To me, it clearly was an electrical issue. For the pilot and co-pilot to lose all of their controls on this type of Embracer aircraft, there’s no question that a wiring bundle completely failed. A complete failure like this is extremely rare because of the secondary engineering put in place specifically to avoid this type of disaster. Hard to say what caused it, especially since there’s no evidence of a bomb or sudden explosion. That makes it harder to figure out.

  “Without a forensic analysis of all kinds of parts from the aircraft it’s hard to determine anything else. Is there any chance you could get me in to do an inspection of the aircraft par
ts being held by Hemispheres?” Garrison asks.

  “Fat chance, you know that.”

  “Well, we can definitely make some assumptions based on what we currently have, but I sure would like to look at some of the actual electrical system if you can get me access to it.”

  “Let me see what I can do in the coming days or weeks. Thanks a lot for your help so far.” Andy ends the call.

  He buzzes Angie to give her the update and to see if she has any interesting information about the cell phone log.

  “I just got off the phone with Garrison. He says it was definitely an electrical failure, but he can’t say much more than that without examining the parts that were collected after the crash.”

  “I can’t imagine how many motions and hearings that would require,” Angie says, rolling her eyes at the thought of it.

  “I’ll probably file a new motion for a detailed expert inspection just to see where it goes. Are there any interesting calls on the cell phone logs?"

  Chapter 32

  Café Loco

  Iris had promised Amanda to take her by Café Loco on one of their strolls. Dr. Wrightson had given Amanda permission to walk a few days ago, and Amanda delighted in any opportunity to get out of the hospital.

  "You remember the Red Fox Inn, don't you?" Iris asks as they walk down the sidewalk in the center of Middleburg.