“Did you kill him? I thought that the leaders of the mosque strapped him into the vest.”
Fred felt himself growing irritated. “Of course, they did. But it’s my fault that they strapped him into the vest in the first place.”
“How is that so?” Fatema pressed.
“If I had not befriended him and witnessed to him, he would never have made plans to come to this church. And he would not have died.”
“So,” Fatema continued. “If you had never told Walid about Jesus, he would still be alive. He would play street soccer with his friends from the mosque, and he would grow up. Then one day he would strap on a suicide vest all by himself and willingly blow up as many people as possible; because, Fred, that is what street boys with no families do. They allow themselves to be recruited by the mosque leaders, and they kill themselves and as many others as possible while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar!’ This is what you wanted, yes?”
“No!” Fred snapped. “Don’t twist my words. I wanted Walid to have a good life. I wanted to take him to New York to live with my wife and me. I wanted him to go to college, and get married, and have a family.”
“Oh, I am sorry,” Fatema responded. “I did not understand that you know more than Jesus. Your plan was better than His. He was probably busy watching someone else when Walid died.”
Fred was so angry that he would have liked to slap Fatema, but he clenched his teeth and said nothing.
“Fred, do you believe that Jesus died for Walid? But I know that you do. The Bible says that God wants everyone to be saved. Walid was like the hearer in the parable of the sower; he heard the Word and he believed it, but only Jesus knows what the outcome would have been if he had lived. Perhaps, Walid would have been like the seed that fell beside the path and was eaten by the birds; perhaps, he would have been like the seed that fell on rocky soil or that which fell among the thorns. He would have believed for a little while, but when persecution came, he would have fallen away. We will never know, because Jesus took him quickly. But this we do know: Walid is safe with Jesus, and nothing can change that.
“You are mourning Walid’s salvation and entrance into heaven. Stop it!”
Fred was stunned. He had expected Fatema to be sympathetic—perhaps to cry with him. He had not expected to be lectured. He thought that after today he would never speak to this heartless woman again.
Fatema continued, “When Maryam died, I felt so guilty. She was the one with the pure heart. She was the one with the strong faith. She was the one who forgave her captors. She was the one who gave me the courage to survive our ordeal. I could never be the strong woman that Maryam was. She was love in the midst of hate; she was light in the darkness of our prison; she was what I wanted to be but knew that I would never be able to achieve. Even so, God took Maryam and left me. God also took Walid and left you.
“Have you thought that, maybe, He took them because He knew they were ready? Maybe God looked down and saw that they had completed their work, and so He took them away from the sickness and pain and sorrow that is this world.
“Maybe he left you and me because we still have more to do here. Only He knows.”
Silently, Fred rose from his chair and walked out into the darkness. His anger had passed. For the first time since Walid’s death, he felt deeply peaceful. That night, almost as soon as his head hit the pillow, he was asleep.
Chapter 20
Heinz Felhaber was watching the vast expanse of desert beneath him as Helmick I coasted to a landing on the private airstrip outside Dubai. He stared with curiosity at this strange barren land; when he had left his lab in the scenic Swiss Alps that morning he had seen expansive forests and mountains disappear far beneath him. Now, he might think he was landing on another planet if he did not know otherwise.
Heinz was a plain man—unimpressive in every sense of the word. He was of average height and had average non-descript thinning hair which had once been light brown but was now so salted with gray that the exact color would be difficult to describe. His small pale eyes, heavily-lined by age, were hard to detect beneath his thick black-rimmed glasses. His weight was average for his age—he was pudgy and out of shape but not fat. In short, there was nothing about Heinz Felhaber that would make anyone look twice.
In spite of his ordinary outward appearance, however, Heinz was, in fact, a very special individual. First, he was one of the only individuals in the Helmick Empire who was organic—Josef’s term for men and women who had been conceived and born through natural means rather than artificial cloning. This accounted, in part, for his plainness—Josef liked for the men and women around him to be beautiful, so he frequently fixed any imperfections he found in his clones, and he periodically exterminated and remade them so that they were always the perfect age and perfect weight, with good complexions free of wrinkles and age spots and clear bright eyes with no bags or sagging—in other words, they generally had the “right” appearance to represent Helmick. In Heinz’s case, there was no fixing anything—the man was, as he liked to boast, exactly as “God” had made him. Of course, he did not believe in God, but he knew the reference annoyed Josef. In fact, being organic made Heinz feel special in a world of perfect, beautiful clones, and when he looked in the mirror and saw his own plain visage staring back at him, he felt empowered.
The second quality that made Heinz truly special was his mind. As a young scientist, Felhaber had developed extraordinary breakthroughs in chemistry. More than any other living person, he understood the power of narcotics to enhance the human experience, not just for pleasure but for mind control. Heinz understood that “better living through chemistry” was not merely an advertising slogan—chemistry was the means to remake the world into utopia. In his post graduate school days he had worked for major pharmaceutical companies, and for a time he had enjoyed a very promising career. Increased scrutiny of narcotics and mind control in the 2020s had forced him out of his job and onto the Genetic Crimes Enforcement Network (GenCEN) watch list. No one on that list was employable by any major company. Fortunately, at the lowest point in his life, when he was in a state of true despair, a far-thinking innovator named Josef Helmick had visited him in Berlin and hired him to be the chief chemist for Helmick Laboratories.
Officially, Heinz’s name appeared nowhere—officially Heinz Felhaber was buried in a cemetery in Berlin after having died in an explosion in a homemade lab in the basement of the rundown apartment building where he had lived after being relieved of his previous position. Of course, officially Helmick Laboratories did not exist either. Unofficially, Felhaber was the mind behind most of Helmick’s genius. He lived in luxury in a six-bedroom guest cottage on Josef Helmick’s Swiss estate; he went to work every morning in a car driven by one of Josef’s staff, and he enjoyed the companionship of his choice of the exquisite copies—the left-over clones from the beautiful women he produced for Josef to sell to wealthy men worldwide. Life was better than he had ever imagined—except for one thing. In spite of the fire and official story of his death, Heinz had remained on the watch list. Jarrod and Joshua Sinclair were a major source of funding for GenCEN, and they had never confirmed to their satisfaction that he had actually died in the fire. Because they suspected he was alive, they kept his genetic information and insisted that he remain on the watch list as “possibly living.” This fact, combined with Josef’s general paranoia about the possibility that his existence would be discovered, made it impossible for Felhaber to see the world. His universe was confined to the Helmick estate where he lived and worked. Every few months he flew on Helmick I to this private airstrip in Dubai, and there he met with Josef on the jet, but he was never allowed to disembark. Therefore, although he had traveled this route dozens of times, his feet had never actually touched the ground in Dubai.
The door of the jet opened and blinding light flooded the aircraft. Heinz stood but did not move toward the door. He had made the mistake of doing that once, and he had never forgotten the blinding rage he had seen unmasked on the face of h
is employer. Josef had beaten Heinz back from the door with his fist, breaking the scientist’s glasses, bloodying his nose and blackening his eyes, until he collapsed in a heap. When Helmick began kicking him, Felhaber feared that his explosive new master might actually kill him, but, fortunately, Josef regained his composure and allowed the scientist to crawl to a corner before any real damage was done. There he had remained, curled up in a ball, until Josef reviewed his reports and exited the aircraft. From that time on, when the jet landed, Heinz rose and stood by his seat waiting for his employer to enter.
Now he stood in front of his seat in a slouchy form of attention as air so hot it seemed to come from a blast furnace flooded the cabin. Felhaber waited for a long time—twenty minutes—and still Josef did not appear. He knew better than to approach the door; he had observed that after a “lesson” such as the one that Josef had administered to him, Helmick would often “test” the subjects by setting up another situation to see if they would repeat the behavior that had warranted the initial punishment. In the cases of the “enhanced” employees—his clones—these tests normally resulted in death. In the cases of the organics, by the time their master had finished with them, they often wished they were dead.
Thirty-five minutes passed before a strong figure darkened the door of the jet. Josef sauntered casually toward Heinz, but his sardonic smile seemed to confirm what Heinz had quietly suspected—he had made him wait so long in the hope of finding another excuse to beat him. No matter—it was not for no reason that Felhaber was widely considered one of the greatest minds of the twenty-first century; Josef could direct his cruel tricks and traps at some of the many lesser intellects he employed.
“Herr Doctor,” Heinz greeted Josef with more enthusiasm than he felt.
“Heinz, so good of you to wait for me,” Josef responded. “Welcome to Dubai.” His expression and tone grew serious, as if he were just now remembering why they were there. “Show me what you have for me.”
From a sealed case, Heinz produced the reason for today’s trip—a small black vial of liquid.
“This is the second generation of Labyrinth,” he proudly displayed his handiwork and then carefully handed it to Josef.
“The properties?” Josef questioned his chemist as he carefully handled the small black glass bottle.
“The first generation—level you might say—of Labyrinth enhances and stimulates the memory sectors of the brain. Our studies in enhanced subjects demonstrate that implanted memory sectors grow much faster with the drug than without. Memories become more vibrant and vivid. Sounds, sights, smells and impulses are recalled with a level of intensity that would not be possible without the drug. The first generation of Labyrinth also made those taking it very susceptible to suggestion; because the drug stimulates the sensory perception areas of the brain, the subject loses track of time and of any connection with reality. As desires and impulses become magnified, and as inhibitions disappear, the subject can be told he is looking into the future when he is actually only viewing his own desires and fantasies magnified by memories. Labyrinth blocks and confuses the way the brain tracks time and perceives reality, thus, giving the impression that the recipient is traveling through time. When we conducted our studies, the enhanced subjects believed that they had traveled back and forth through time and that they were able to look into both the past and the future with equal clarity. In reality, they were experiencing highly-elevated levels of memory and desire. Afterwards, when asked to relate their experiences, they used such descriptors as ‘trance’ or ‘hypnosis.’ How did your own experiment go?”
“My experiment was conducted using Labyrinth on an unsuspecting group of organic subjects and one enhanced subject,” Josef continued on without explaining where or how his experiment had been conducted. “Interestingly, the enhanced subject did not experience any notable results as she had been previously treated with Labyrinth to grow the memory sectors in her brain. However, in the organics, Labyrinth worked perfectly—most of my subjects became convinced that they had experienced some level of trance which led to time travel. Many of them believe that they were able to look into their own futures. After the first experiment I received hundreds of unofficial requests from organics who wanted to recall the past or see the future; this has led to many opportunities for unofficial experiments. With the exception of one or two who experienced some negative psychotic episodes, the drug works uniformly in most of the test subjects. But the environment must be carefully controlled.”
“And the crystals? Did the prisms provide a suitable focal point to anchor the subjects’ attention?”
“Suitable for such a small test group. Of course, we had to control the lighting, the noise—basically every stimuli in the room. The prisms worked because the subjects could hold them and touch them. As they did so, they became individually convinced that their new sensory experiences were emanating from the crystals so their minds accepted what was happening and did not try to resist. In a small gathering, the prisms were ideal, but for use in a larger setting they are impractical. Also I have perceived that the level of mind control is very limited—other than enhancing memories and suggesting possible future outcomes, Labyrinth did not produce much response from its ‘victims’.”
“Yes, Herr Doctor, but as I told you before, this was just the first generation. The second generation—Level Two—is capable of producing more profound reactions,” Heinz answered proudly. “Level One must be ingested. To be able to deliver the drug to a subject without his knowledge required that he ingest food or liquid containing it. One reason the original formula took so long to develop is that we had to find a pharmaceutical that would mix with alcohol so that it would be undetectable in the blood stream of the individual consuming it. Additionally, the drug had to have a chemical structure that would not negatively interact with the alcohol, thereby causing the death of the subjects and calling attention to the experiment. Still, the very fact that the drug had to be ingested caused it to act more slowly and wear off more quickly. It made it harder to control.”
“Level Two does not require ingestion—it is absorbed directly through the skin into the blood stream. Just one drop applied to a surface is enough to cause immediate results.”
“How long does it remain potent on the surface of its delivery method?” Josef was staring into the glass bottle. He had noticed the heavy glass on the small vial when he picked it up—now he understood why such a thick bottle was needed.
Heinz noted his interest, “We have not only used double-reinforced glass, but we have painted the bottle with a thin coat of lead. This will keep Labyrinth from permeating its container. In answer to your question, the length of time that the drug remains potent when applied to a surface depends on the medium of delivery. On a hard, non-porous surface, such as metal, one application might affect only the first person who touches the object. Trace amounts might have a slight effect on the next person to handle the object, but most of the drug will have passed to the first user. In a porous substance, such as paper or cloth, the uses could be almost infinite until the item is washed with water or chemicals.”
“What if Labyrinth could be applied to a medium at the time of manufacture? For example, if it were applied to treated paper—how long would the drug continue to affect someone touching it? How long would it remain potent?”
“Indefinitely. Labyrinth does not break down—ever. If the medium were treated at the time of manufacture so that the drug became an intrinsic part of the paper or cloth in question, it would forever affect anyone touching that substance.”
“Perfect,” Josef responded. “And the other properties? The widespread success of this drug cannot depend on a controlled environment. Have you corrected these design flaws?”
“Level Two does not require a controlled environment. Unlike Level One, Level Two does not enhance memory—it suppresses memories and emotions as well as inhibitions.”
“The same drug?” Josef looked skeptical.
“Indeed, Herr Doctor. Remember that we initially created Labyrinth to grow the memory sectors of the clones so that they could retain the memories of their sires. It was only after we began to experiment with the effects of this memory drug that we saw its other properties—how susceptible it made subjects to all suggestion. A worthwhile tool for mind control on a major scale, however, should not produce intense memory—it should produce forgetfulness.”
“And this drug can do that?”
“It can. The human mind is like a labyrinth—as we travel more and more deeply into it, we unlock new doors which hold the key to who we are. Level One worked on the surface of memory—helping subjects recollect details from the past with which they had some strong emotional response. Level Two will blur and fade those emotional responses—it not only fades the memory itself but the emotions and feelings of the subject. As it works it erodes the cortexes of the brain that store the human capacity to love, to hate, to desire, to envy, to trust and to protect. In other words, Level Two kills the emotions that contribute to what we call ‘humanity’. As these emotions are faded, the memories and values connected to them also fade and disappear. As the capacity to love disappears, so do family ties, memories of a happy childhood, longings for a spouse, and so on. Patriotism, religious fervor, values and teachings of youth can all be diluted until they no longer have any genuine effect on the subject.”
“Fascinating. Good work, Heinz,” Josef was still staring at the vial he held, but he sounded genuinely impressed. Heinz felt very proud.
“And Level Three?” Josef queried. “When will it be ready?”
“We are still experimenting with the formula. Level Three will require a variety of extensive tests, on both organic and enhanced subjects. To ensure that it is working properly, we require a ratio of at least three to one organics versus enhanced. Because the enhanced subjects have already been treated with other versions of Labyrinth, without a wide variety of organic test subjects it is impossible to fully determine the true extent to which the new drug is working.”
The Force (The Kingdom Chronicles) Page 12
