by V. K. ANANTH
Sonya handed over a phone to Jason,‘You can speed-dial #1 to reach me. I will pick you at 8.00 a.m. Good night.’
‘Good night, Sonya,’ Jason uttered as she departed.
Jason was utterly exhausted. He changed into a spare dress robe, washed his face, and drank some water. The drowsiness increased as he slipped under the double bed sheets, and he was fast asleep in a few minutes.
CHAPTER - 6
The Transformation, Paris
It was 6 a.m., and Jason woke up by the ringing phone. ‘Good Morning, Jason!’ Sonya greeted,’ This is a wake-up call. How are you doing?’
He tried to recall his memories. His mind was projecting images from the conference, call with Vivienne, and meeting Sonya later. Jason was still lost in thoughts until the voice from his phone jolted him, ‘Are you still there?’
‘I’m here, sorry...feeling damn tired. My voice is different, is it happening already?’
‘Well...you should be ideally seeing results by now. I’m sure you haven’t seen the mirror this morning, have you?’
Jason was jolted,‘Not yet!’
‘Go on, and I’ll wait on the line.’
Jason rushed into the restroom and had mixed emotions when he looked at his reflection. He had someone else’s face. He touched his hands over his face and hair and the mirror to believe if it’s true. It was flawless.
‘You won’t believe this.’
‘I’m on my way,’ said Sonya, and the line went dead.
A few minutes later, when he stepped out of the shower, he remembered the envelope and hurried for his coat. It was still there, folded, and sealed. He carefully tore its edge and pulled out a paper when his face turned pale as he read it.
At 8 a.m, Jason heard the Tesla pulled over in front of the apartment before the doorbell rang. Jason answered the door, and Sonya froze for a moment in disbelief. She reached out to touch his face, ‘How does it feel, Jason? I never expected such a transformation overnight. It looks like the gene edit worked on you, flawlessly,’ she said before walking in.
‘It’s a little painful but manageable.’
‘I set a lifetime of ninety-six hours during the edit which means, you will get your original face back at the end of it.’
He smiled, ‘Okay, briefing time, then.’
Here we go, ‘The face you have acquired by gene edit belongs to Diego Perales, a businessman. From now on, you go by the name of Diego.’ She handed him a wallet and continued,
‘This contains your new ID, some cards, cash, and a folded paper with the name and account number of the beneficiary.’
She handed him the tablet. It read :
‘FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS BELOW’
Jason followed the instructions one by one. He speed-dialed #2 on the phone.
‘This is the priority banking line. How can I help you, Mr. Diego?’
‘I need an appointment at 10.00 a.m. today for making a wire transfer. It’s a high-value transaction.’
‘One moment, please. It’s available, and we will meet you at 10 a.m.’
‘Thank you!’ said Jason with a smile, and they both rushed to the car.
‘Drive to the destination Two,’ voiced Sonya and the car headed to the bank. She tested the new in-ear implant on Jason, which was delivered as a part of surgery and was online with him,
‘We’re all set, Jason.’
The Bank of Vault was an eighteenth-century building. Jason was at the reception,
‘I’m Diego Perales. I have an appointment at 10.00 a.m.’
‘Please take a seat, Sir. Your personal banking manager will meet you shortly.’
Moments later, a man who must have been in his sixties walked across the marble floor, before stretching out his hand.
‘How was your vacation, Mr. Diego? It seems like you back early?’ Sonya listened intently.
A nervous Jason responded, ‘Yes...Austria was good.’ The banker whisked him to a private room reserved for privileged customers.
‘But if I remember correctly, the last time we met, you said you were off to Berlin.’
‘Yeah...last-minute change of plans.’ smiled Jason.
‘Would you like to have coffee?’
‘Yes, please,’ when he heard Sonya’s whisper, ‘Say Tea.’
‘Sorry, make it tea, please.’
Jason was trying hard to manage the situation and get out of the bank as soon as possible. He had Tea and finally came the moment he was waiting for nervously.
‘How much would you like to transfer, Sir?’
‘€50,000 to this account,’ he handed over the folded paper.
The manager keyed in all the details on his computer and came to the crucial part-Verification.
‘Sir, Can you please turn around and look at the camera, and place your thumbs followed by forefinger ones at a time on the scanner please.’
Jason’s heart was beating faster. It was the most awkward moment, a life of deceit, living someone’s life. A few moments later, the banker completed the transaction and wanted to have a casual conversation, which he used to have with the real Diego. Sonya whispered, ‘You’ve got to get out, now!’ Jason interrupted, ‘Sorry, I’m in a hurry, perhaps next time?’ and he stormed out of the door.
CHAPTER - 7
Project-X, Paris
They were in a restaurant, seated at a table, far from others.
‘That was one hell of a ride at the bank. It was awkward to impersonate someone. By the way, I need to show you something,’ Jason pulled the folded envelope from his coat.
‘I received this envelope after my conference in Zurich. I opened it only this morning.’
She opened the envelope, and the text read:
‘WE WILL GET YOU SOON - THE RAGING BULL’
It sent shivers down her spine.
‘Sonya, the Raging Bull can’t near us as long as I have Diego’s face. Look at this logo on the envelope. I’ve seen it before, at least a couple of times, most likely at the hospital’s archive area of health information management. Let’s check it out.’
‘Your fingerprints, retina, facial recognition, and voice will no longer work at the hospital after you transformed into Diego. Do you realize that? And are you telling me that we still have paper-based patient records at this age?’
‘Well, first, I don’t need to be Jason, it’s still a key-based entry and here’s the key. Second, the paper-based records still exist only for regulatory reasons, and no one visits that locked space. I would like to visit my home as well.’
They left the restaurant and headed to the car. They first headed to his house. Sonya found something unusual in the area. She stopped the car, a couple of streets away, and turned to him, ‘Jason, I think, Code-C is initiated. We can’t go to your home.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Jason, it means a search order is issued. See the car with a red license plate, something’s not right for sure. Those drones ahead, are deployed to match facial recognition or report anything suspicious. Even if we drive through your street, the police can track our vehicle, and interrogate us. It’s better to be safe than sorry. Let’s head to the hospital. Remember, the situation there is tenser, but the advantage is, it’s your home ground. Try to be calm.’
Thirty minutes later, they rolled into the street of the hospital when police stopped their car. The windows rolled, their IDs were checked and allowed to pass. Once they parked the car, Sonya was online with Jason as he walked towards the hospital. There were police everywhere, and the press vehicle stationed permanently. He passed the sliding doors and said to himself, ‘this is not my normal day’ He belonged here, but not today as he was someone else. He first headed to the cafe and sat at a table with a coffee to cool himself before making the next move.
At 3.00 p.m. news broadcast went live on the TV ahead of him with the headlines, ‘The doctor, Jason Brown continues to be missing in the sensational Furioso case. The patient continues to remain in a coma after a gene edit perfo
rmed by him. The investigation has so far interrogated a certain number of suspects. The investigation continues, and we are hoping for the best.’ As the mild headache intensified, he gulped another coffee.
Jason gazed at the surroundings, he saw Mario busy talking to someone on his phone, and walking throughout the corridor. He became nervous when their eyes met.
Before Mario approached him, he walked to the fountain and descended the flight of stairs behind it, at a medium pace. Jason was confident that it was his hospital, and could go anywhere at wish. At the same time, he was a fugitive with someone’s face, which meant he had to be extra careful and behave normally.
In a few minutes, he was in the basement. The line with Sonya went static. When he reached the archives’ door, and no one was in the vicinity, he slid the key and unlocked it. He quickly closed the door behind him as the lights turned on automatically.
It was a room not entered by anyone for a long time, and the smell of old papers, cardboards, and dust started to irritate his nose. He walked a few steps and took a left into one of the aisles as his footprints followed him on the dusty floor. He took a bunch of folders from a rack, he remembered and flipped through them. He was able to locate the folder which had an envelope with the same logo in less than five minutes. There were two patient records:
—————————————————-
NAME: THE RAGING BULL
DOCTOR: JASON BROWN
PROGRAM: PROJECT-X
LAB: TBD
DATE: APRIL 21ST
——————————————————
———————————————
NAME: DIEGO NOVA
DOCTOR: JASON BROWN
PROGRAM: PROJECT-X
LAB: TBD
DATE: APRIL 28TH
———————————————-
He was shocked to see his name on it. The pages were rubber-stamped diagonally, ‘CLASSIFIED’ in bold red. The picture was visible for Diego but was missing for the raging Bull. Jason pulled out the cellphone and clicked all the pages, and hurriedly put back the folders and envelope in the rack. He hid behind a shelf at the sound of approaching footsteps as the door unlocked, and someone walked in and headed to the far end of the aisle. Before the stranger became suspicious, he quietly stepped out of the room.
When Jason was convinced, he hurriedly climbed the stairs, dabbing his sweaty face with a handkerchief, unaware, a security camera was staring at him. Sonya was online again.
‘We did it!’
‘Glad to hear that. I’m waiting to view the contents,’ responded Sonya.
Jason felt his head spin as he had been passing through the Arc de Triomphe, for the fourth time on the same day.
CHAPTER - 8
The Chase, Paris
Rosita was walking through the corridor when her silent phone vibrated in her hand. It was her team,’Rosita. You should see this.’
‘On my way’ and she headed to U33.
‘This ID flashed on our console a few seconds back. Our AI engine flagged anomalies. His name is Diego Perales, a businessman. He’s new and not been here, at least last six months.’
‘Let’s trace him from the moment he entered the hospital. I’m curious who Mr.Diego is and what’s he doing here.’
‘I’m on it, Rosita.’
As they ran a trace, the sequence of footage started to playback on the screen.
Rosita was describing his movements as the video played, ‘He enters the main door at 2.50 p.m., doesn’t go to the reception, walks towards the cafe. Now, look at CAM 2, he has a coffee watching TV. Look at that, his expression changed. Zoom the TV, What’s on the screen? It’s our case making headlines, which means he is involved. He has more coffee. A few minutes later, Mario appears, and they exchange a glance. At 3.15 p.m., he leaves the cafe and takes the stairs to the basement. Eight minutes later, Diego is back on the stairs. Look, he is nervous, and it’s suspicious to me. Don’t we have a camera in the basement?’
There was no camera in the basement. Rosita and her team headed to the basement and scanned every room before they entered the storage area. She followed the footprints on the dusty floor to a rack before stumbling upon a set of unorganized files. The envelope was protruding from the stack, partially open, and she went for it. It had his picture, the names, the project, and a classified seal, which raised her curiosity.
‘He is definitely on to something. Let’s get some details about Project-X.’ But no one in the hospital knew about such a project. The listed people in the documents could only tell.
‘Did Diego have the key? And why is this place not secured? It’s old fashioned,’commented Rosita. No one could answer how Diego had entered the archives.
Rosita spoke to Mario, who confirmed that a guy was staring at him but couldn’t recognize him.
‘Let’s run a comprehensive search for all these IDs.’
In seconds, Diego’s ID matched at the Bank of Vault while no results appeared for Jason or Bull.
Rosita and her team were at the bank, analyzing the security footage. The bank personnel mentioned that Diego came in for a secure wire transfer. It appeared, he was in a hurry, and something was not right. The account number used was an offshore account for €50,000.
‘Feed Diego’s ID to Interpol and Europol. I also need details of the beneficiary. Also, keep the traction on Project-X and Jason as well. We don’t have much time.’ she instructed her team.
CHAPTER - 9
The Monaco Trip & Chase at Eze
Sonya and Jason reviewed the contents of the envelope. Their goal was to stop Project-X because they believed something fishy was going on.
It was 5.00 a.m., and they were onboard the TGV to Monaco from Gare du Lyon.
‘Here’s the plan, Jason. You’ll meet an informant at the Monte Carlo Casino. He is the beneficiary of the wire transfer you did from the bank. From what I’m aware, he has valuable information for us.’
Later that day, as the train entered Eze station, Rosita and her team were waiting on the platform. She had received a tip-off that Diego had purchased a ticket to Eze and boarded the train. As the train stopped, her team entered one coach at a time looking for Diego. As the police personnel approached Sonya, she pretended to be reading a magazine while Jason’s heart beat faster. They couldn’t identify the man they were after since he had changed his appearance, once the train started from the source. They departed the train, and Jason smiled at Sonya. He let out a big sigh of relief.
Meanwhile, Rosita was trying to come to terms with reality, thinking, ‘How could this have happened?’
She instructed her team, ‘Let’s hop back on U-33 and roll to Monaco. My instinct tells me that he will show up there.’
Once out of the Monte Carlo railway station, Jason and Sonya walked along the promenade towards the casino, overlooking the Turquoise blue Mediterranean waters where luxury yachts were sailing.
‘A perfect place for priceless information,’ Jason commented.
At 2.00 p.m., they were at the destination but didn’t enter together to avoid any suspicion. Sonya was online with Jason. He was seated at a corner table in the restaurant.
The casino had a modern, vibrant, energetic ambiance boasting thousands of slots, a hundred plus table games, dimmed lights, and gamers.
At the restaurant, Jason was seated at the soft jazz music, glancing at his phone when an elongated shadow approached him. It was the informant.
‘Mr. Diego?’
‘It’s me. Do you have the details on Project-X?’
‘May I see your ID?’ and when he was convinced, they had a long conversation with some drinks, at the end of which, Jason asked,
‘Where did my money end up? Who is the final beneficiary?’
‘That...I’m not aware.’
‘Who negotiated the deal?’
‘All I know is that he had a tattoo of a wolf on his neck.’
‘Who i
s the other customer, besides me? Do we have a name or a picture?’
‘He doesn’t have a name. No one has ever seen him, they say. He is called The Raging Bull. I can get killed if he gets to know about this conversation of ours. He shot one of his trusted men last week for lying to him. All I know is, the Raging Bull will be in Paris the day after tomorrow. I will share more info as time progresses. If you want more info, I will need €20,000 more.’
Jason pulled out his backpack, ‘Here it is...’
‘There is a high table in the evening. Stop by the Opera at 8.00 p.m. I will see you there,’ and he left.
When the informant departed, Sonya was online, ‘Fruitful meeting, Jason. I have recorded everything and uploaded it.’
CHAPTER - 10
The Opera House, Monte Carlo
Jason was watching the live performance of Hansel and Gretel on the giant screen outside the Opera. As the watch beeped at 8.00 p.m., Jason glanced at it before looking away at the approaching informant.
He stretched out his hand, ‘Jason, Can you wait at the restaurant? Once the high table is over, I will meet you there.’
Jason was seated at the restaurant and was online with Sonya, who was waiting outside in a car, ‘I’m curious about how useful this informant is. How much do we trust his info?’
‘Don’t worry, Jason, we have him recorded on video. If something goes wrong, we will invoke Plan-B. I have booked an apartment for tonight, and we will discuss it once we get there. Tomorrow is a big day. Hope you remember.’
‘Absolutely!’
Rosita had arrived in Monaco earlier. She answered the phone, ‘Are you sure? Ok, good, be at the Opera. You know what to do next. Keep me posted.’
