The Big Ten: The First Ten Books of the Beginnings Series

by Jacqueline Druga

  “I do not understand this field work I have to do. These life signs need monitored . . .”

  “That’s why I have Melissa down here now to do that. You are needed in the fields.”

  “All right. Enough playing games.” Chester with determination, raced to Dean’s side. “Where are the embryos?”

  “Oh.” Dean removed his glasses. “We had a power malfunction last night. Sorry Chester, they went bad.”

  “You’re lying.”

  “Excuse me?” Dean shook his head and gathered his stuff. “I really don’t have time for this. I have a clinic to work at and you have fields.”

  “I know that there was some debate on whether or not to reverse this process. Tell me Dr. Hayes, why do these people frighten you so much. Why aren’t you and your Beginnings people welcoming the knowledge that they bring for you.”

  “Because Chester, we don’t want it. We’re fine the way we are. Now if you’ll excuse me.” He walked over to the door and opened it. “Let’s go.”

  Chester met him at the door. “You and I are not finished discussing this.”

  “Yes we are Chester. And if you insist on giving attitude, I’ll have to insist you do not work around this project anymore.”

  “You can’t do that. Are you forgetting this is my project also? And you people seemed to have taken some sort of squatter’s rights over it.”

  “Because it just so happens that your project is setting in the middle of our home.” Dean pulled the door closed bringing Chester with it.

  “You’re home happens to be the Garfield Project.”

  Dean laughed at him. “No, Chester, this place ceased being the Garfield Project the minute we set foot here and began to make it into something.” Dean didn’t want to argue, he was tired and miserable. But there was a bright spot to his morning as he began to walk from the tunnels, Chester pestering behind. Miguel was making his move towards them and he didn’t look to happy to be having to search Chester out.

  ^^^^

  “Now walk straight.” Frank commanded to Josh as they made their way to the line of utility buildings to Joe’s office. “It’s important, it’s a progress day with my dad.”

  “Joe.” Josh spoke softly.

  “That’s right. And you’ve done real good today. Wait until I tell him how you were up and waiting by the door this morning for me. I didn’t even have to tug on your ear.”

  Josh placed his hand to the side of his head. “Ow.”

  “That’s right.” Frank stopped before they walked in. “Now stand up straight.” Frank placed his hands on Josh’s shoulders and arched the boy’s back. “Just like that. And remember what I taught you?” Frank didn’t get a response. “Josh? Remember what I taught you?”

  “Yes.” Josh slowly brought up his hand and gave Frank a thumbs up.

  “Ha, ha. Good boy.” Frank smacked him on the back.

  “Ow.” Josh complained.

  “Ow.” Frank reached for the door knob and opened the door. He saw his father merely lift his head to them as they walked in. “We’re here for our progress report. And you will be impressed. Temperament is good.” Frank closed the door. “And, no violent tendencies.”

  “Good to know.” Joe nodded. “Have you gotten him to speak yet?”

  “Oh, yeah. Check this out.” Frank stared close to Josh’s face. “Josh, tell him what I taught you. What did I teach you?”

  Josh’s face lit up and a proud grin hit him, he stood taller. “Frank’s cool.”

  Frank held out his palm in a showing manner. “There you have it.”

  Joe’s head plopped loudly on the desk. “Anything else?”

  “Oh sure. Josh, tell my Dad. What’s Joe?”

  “Mean.”

  “No!” Frank corrected, then whispered. “The other one.”

  “Joe’s fair.”

  Frank smiled at Josh like a trained seal. “See.”

  “Frank.” Joe lifted his head up sliding his hands across the desk. “He hasn’t a clue what he’s saying. Does he say anything involuntarily?”

  “Sure. Watch.” Frank gave a slight tug to Josh’s ear, which immediately brought another ‘ow’. “See Dad.”

  Joe’s head plopped down again. “Why did I let you do this? Are you teaching him anything valuable besides Frank praising comments?”

  “I’ve given him a job, and he’s good at it. He even knows what it is. Josh, tell my Dad what your job is every day.”

  Josh moved closer. “Fuckin' squirrels.”

  Joe grunted loudly. “That’s it. I’ve seen enough. You’ve made progress. I think he should be ready for containment soon, as long as he has no more violent episodes. You hear?”

  “Got it.” Frank stood up and gave Josh a thumbs up. “Good job buddy. What is Frank again?”

  “Frank’s cool.”

  “Yes.” Biting his bottom lip, Frank nodded to Joe with an arrogant grin. “Who’s the man?”

  Joe leaned back in his chair, covered his face with his hands and let out a long, dramatic whine.

  ^^^^

  It wasn’t as hot as the beating sun made it feel. Miguel figured it had to do with the tension he was feeling. He hoped as he stood outside the main field house that George and his unexpected visit would lessen the burden he carried with his new worker. Chester was not only aggravating Miguel, but every other fieldworker out there. The complaints ranged from, Chester moved too slow, to he dug like a girl. Miguel was getting tired of hearing it. He had enough on his mind personally without being cornered by one of his men concerning Chester even while at the social hall.

  Miguel watched, intermittently wiping the sweat from his brow, as George stood in the thick of it all. Out in the field with Chester. The conversation between the two men was long, and it ended with a polite smile from George. Miguel waited. He had to know.

  “Spoke to him.” George stated as he walked to Miguel.

  “And?”

  “Hopefully he got my message. Don’t you worry about it?” George gave a friendly pat on the arm to Miguel as he began to leave.

  “Mr. Hadly. You did mention to him I was not an illegal alien.”

  George gave a thumbs up and moved on.

  Sighing and smiling in relief, also holding high hope for a better work day, Miguel turned. When he did he got the scouring glance from Chester. Eyes shifting from Chester to a leaving George, Miguel realized that perhaps, all of the former president’s effort were, like everyone else’s, in vain.

  ^^^^

  Frank stood outside the lab in the hallway of the clinic. He peered in through the windows watching Dean sitting at the counter, microscope in front of him, notes off to the side. He had debated all day on what would be the best approach. Though walking and nailing Dean would be fast, feel good and get across his message, it would be more like a sexual quickie. Something for the moment. Frank wanted more of a fulfilling sensation. So on that, he quietly moved into the lab, then blasted with everything he had . . . vocally. “Dean!”

  With a jump start of his heart, Dean nearly knocked over his microscope when Frank shouted his name. “What is it, Frank?” He tried to remain cool and calm.

  “So I hear I’m gay.” Frank’s hands slammed down on the counter in which Dean sat down at.

  Dean immediately jumped up. He knew right where that was coming from. “Frank look, before you . . . I’m gonna kill Ellen . . . before you say anything.” He could see the flare in Frank’s eyes. “You know, Frank, if you stop to think about it, it’s pretty funny how it all came about.” Dean tried to smile and make light of the situation. Of course he stayed on the other side of the counter as a precaution. Like the counter was actually an invisible force field.

  “Funny? Explain to me how it’s funny that my wife accuses me of cheating on her with another man?” Frank saw Dean trying to move away. “Let alone Henry. Henry? I don’t even find him good looking.”

  In the midst of his avoidance of Frank, Dean had to control his laugh. “Be . .
. be that as it may. You said to distract her.”

  “That I did.” Frank said calmly. “And as a fair man. I’m giving you three seconds.”

  “Or what?” Dean snapped sarcastically.

  Frank pulled out his revolver, then lowered his aim at Dean. “You’re a eunuch. One . . .”

  Dean took off.

  “Two-three.” Frank sped out of the lab in pursuit,

  Thinking, ‘shit he counted fast’. Dean plowed through the double glass doors of the clinic and leaped off the steps.

  Dean was a blur to Joe, but Frank wasn’t. Bodily Frank almost plowed him over.

  “Excuse me, Dad.” Frank shifted his body and raced after Dean.

  “Boys!” Joe shouted, trying half-assed to stop them, then waving out his hand he faced the clinic. Andrea was coming out.

  “Joe.” She smiled. “Glad I caught you.”

  “Can’t right now, Andrea, have to chase those two idiots.” Joe tried to make his escape, but Andrea grabbed hold of his arm.

  “Let them be.” She walked to him then descended the steps with Joe. “Stroll with me.”

  “Stroll. But Frank is chasing Dean and . . .”

  “Joe, you’re being ridiculous.” Andrea chuckled. “They do this all the time. What’s Frank gonna do when he catches Dean. Kill him.”

  Both of them stopped when the firing of a single gunshot was heard in the distance. Looking at each other and shaking their heads at the same time with a ‘nah’, Joe and Andrea continued walking.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  May 12

  “There it is.” Ellen spoke excitedly as she watched the monitor in the lab. “The last one, Ralph has reached ten beats a minute.” She imitated a roaring crowd. “Hey, Henry. I’m glad you came down with us tonight. Dean is so dull.”

  “Please El, it’s Dean. You know these scientist type.” Henry pulled the paper from the printer.

  Dean shook his head. “You know instead of insulting me again, for what? The fiftieth time. Why don’t you finish up the report so we can go home.”

  “Someone’s pissy.” Ellen walked over to the counter. “Maybe he’s jealous of your affair with Frank.”

  Henry put the reports before them. “You know El, it’s tough being a fantasy.”

  “Guys!” Dean shuddered. “Please. Just . . . just no talking. Finish.”

  “Miserable.” Ellen divided the stack. “Here Henry do Phoebe through Oscar.”

  “Thanks, El.” He began to flip the pages. “Fine . . . fine . . .” Henry shook his head. “Uh oh. Looks like we aren’t getting a response from Springsteen either. Dead.”

  “Yeah, so is Harris.” Ellen gave a quick look of sympathy. “Oh, well.” She shrugged. “Hey, Henry check this out. Melvin’s brain activity hasn’t increased. I wonder of this is the beginning to the makings of a field worker.” She continued reading. “And neither has Clint’s for . . .” The papers snatched from her hand. “Dean, what are you doing?”

  Dean reviewed them. “I can’t make heads or tails out of what you two are saying. Whose brain activity isn’t normal?”

  “Yours . . . no just kidding. Melvin’s and Clint’s.” She felt his daggers. “Oh, that’s right. Numbers twenty-two and twenty-five.” She pointed. “Turning into idiots. With my luck one of them is probably the hairdresser.” She stared to laugh and Henry joined her.

  Dean was fed up. “Will you two knock it off. God.” He grabbed his head. “You’re giving me a headache. This is serious. According to this we have three who are probably dead already. And four who lost normal brain functions.”

  “Dean.” Ellen snatched the papers from him. “Go back to what you were doing. And what is your problem today?”

  “You want to know what my problem is? I haven’t been to bed since the last three in the morning check.” His voice roared at her, if it could blow back her hair it would. “I deal with Chester and his holier than thou attitude. Demanding to know about the embryos. Telling me this is his project. And then I have you two, giving names to fifty-three scientific subjects. They aren’t even good names, they’re stupid names. And I have to listen to you two call them the names while I sit and try to decipher material I am clueless about.” He stormed over to his work space.

  Ellen took a step forward, speaking softly. “Dean, I understand your frustration . . .”

  “Disks, tons of them with formulas I’ve never seen before.” Dean’s hand slammed down. “Either I forgot what they were or I never learned them and if that’s the case, I’m pretty stupid. I’ve had it! I’m out of my league here. And you Ellen, this is all a big game to you! A big ‘how can I irritate Dean’ Game!”

  “Dean, I’m sorry, I just . . .” Ellen couldn’t get a word in edge wise. Dean was busting lose.

  “I don’t want to hear it. The worst thing I did was ask you to continue assisting me. Either I have to be the lamest person in the world, or the biggest masochist!”

  Ellen blinked slowly, staring at him very serious. “Are we finished taking a temper tantrum?” she waited for his glare. “Good.” she giggled. “You’re so funny, when you’re mad.”

  Dean grunted.

  Henry, raising his hand like a school boy, tried to get Dean’s attention. “Dean, can I say something without you biting my head off? Did you stop to think that perhaps the reason you are having so much trouble figuring out those disks is because they aren’t real.”

  Dean’s head shuddered. “What?”

  “O.K., this is just a theory, but . . . you have this idea that these people are up to something. That they have this genius master plan right? Well, if that is true, theoretically speaking, why would they just leave the information of their plan laying around available for anyone to find. I can see them leaving the defrosting process there, but valuable information. Something about this bothers me. Like . . . here.” He walked over to the computer. “On this monstrous system down here, there are four loaded programs, right? Well, I checked their size, they aren’t that big. So where is all the memory to the hard drive going? I think. Hidden files. And . . .”

  “Wait!” Dean stopped him. “Why would they go through all the trouble to leave all these disks and tapes if they were bogus?”

  “I have a theory on that one too. Perhaps the formulas are backwards or coded. It just doesn’t fit. You’re a smart man, Dean. Do you really think you’d have this much trouble comprehending scientific formulas, if something wasn’t amiss about them?”

  “Henry, this is really good..” Dean said amazed. “I didn’t think of that. What’s your theory on how I’m supposed to figure them out?”

  Henry shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t get that far yet. Let me work on it.”

  Dean wanted to scream at him. But he stopped himself. He really couldn’t get mad. Henry had given him something to not only think about, but work on as well.

  ^^^^

  It was a repeated thing. An annoying thump caused a slight pain between his shoulder blades, every few feet that Frank walked that late morning. He ignored it, he was tough. He had dealt with worse. Bending down to check the eye of the perimeters, at the far end of the back gate, it struck him again, only worse. He stood up, brushed himself off and kept moving. Frank glanced at his watch, then noted the time on his stupid report that he had to fill out. All was well--again--at the back gate.

  Frank, noticing it was near eleven, wanted to hurry along. He was pushing the time frame of his normal routine rounds, because he wanted to check on Ellen this time. Besides seeing her, it took him back in town. Something he missed doing in his rounds. Something he would go back to doing as soon as he was done with the personal project that he had taken on.

  Knowing he was near finished, he had one more thing to check before heading to his father’s office to drop off the reports. Picking up the pace, just a bit, the thumping pain hit him again, this time it had moved. It struck smack at the base of his skull, jolting his head a bit, making him stop, and annoying him more than ever. Fr
ank had taken enough. With his sternest look he spun backwards. “Josh, knock it off. Put the football away!”

  Josh picked it up from the ground, waited for Frank to move on then threw it at his back again.

  “Josh!” Frank pointed the clipboard at him.

  Josh folded his hands and looked up to the sky.

  “I can’t play now. Not now. See the utility buildings. That means we’re almost done. After we get there we’ll play.” Frank began to walk again. He could hear Josh run up behind him, and he quickly turned around. “Don’t!” The football sailed into his chest and Frank caught it. Wanting to yell at the teenager, Frank restrained when he realized that Josh had worked hard all morning too. Dropping the clipboard to the ground, Frank smiled and took a quarterback’s stance. “Go long.”

  ^^^^

  “Plain and simple.” Joe stated as if on trial, sitting in Andrea’s office. “A dog. Always have been, probably always will. Ask anyone.” He lifted his hand. “Ask . . . ask Frank.”

  “I did.” Andrea said..

  “And what did he say?”

  “A dog.”

  “There you have it.” Joe stared to stand.

  “Joe Slagel, sit.” Andrea snapped her finger and pointed to the chair.

  Joe tilted his head and looked around the room. He tugged on his ear. “I’m sorry. I could have sworn I heard someone snap at me.”

  “You are a dog.”

  Closing his eyes with a chuckle, Joe sat down. “You got me. Now, Andrea I would love to sit . . .”

  “Joe.” She folded her hands and leaned into the desk. “What is the problem with this. I have been suggesting a relationship for months. Don’t you feel it between us.”

  “Quite frankly . . . no.” He held up his and when she gasped. “You want honesty. I’ll give it to you. I won’t let myself feel it. I like Miguel. He’s a good guy Andrea. A good guy who you just dumped.”

  “He didn’t help me through my grief. You did.”

  “You never gave him a chance.” Joe pointed. “Give him the chance. Try to make it work with him. If you find it doesn’t then maybe . . .” Before Joe could say anymore, his radio crackled and Miguel’s voice came over.