Fourth, after all of this is over, we have to find a safe way to disappear forever, while at the same time deciding just how we are going to be able to control the formula while remaining anonymous.
He reached up and scratched his head with the pencil, trying to think of any other problems the group faced, as if these were not enough.
After staring at the wall behind his desk for several minutes, he finally nodded. Maybe they could find a chemical compound to add to the formula after it was in the syringe so that if the formula was exposed to air, it would destroy the key components, rendering it useless. That way, if Ashby or his uncle tried to have the formula analyzed, it would be destroyed the moment it left the syringe. At the moment, he couldn’t think of any such compound, but maybe the other doctors could. He put a check mark and a small question mark next to number one.
Moving on to the second problem, he turned to his laptop computer and Googled “Anonymous bank accounts.” A range of choices was displayed and he picked one entitled “Open an Anonymous Banking Account Online.”
As he read the article, he decided this was the best way for them to go. He read down the page to the “NO ID Option /Invisible Man Option” and began to read: If you open a personal bank account, the bank secrecy will protect your privacy to a certain level, but to get a 100 percent Anonymous Offshore Bank Account, you will need to register or incorporate an offshore company. This offshore company should be registered with a foreign nominee director who will also act as the sole shareholder. You will need him to sign the documents for the opening of the offshore bank account, for you to remain invisible and have your name appear nowhere. Once your account is opened, you will receive your business debit card, along with a portable electronic device (generating six-digit security codes) that will allow you to log on and safely address your online banking, and only you will have access to your new Business Bank Account; no one else will have access to your funds.
He read on to learn that after the account was opened, the funds would be transferred to various tax haven countries that had not signed the new international banking agreements and so were still completely anonymous. He also found out the entire process would take ten days to two weeks to complete. The initial fees were high, but not exorbitant. After the accounts were set up, the fees increased markedly, but that was to be expected; after all, anonymity was expensive.
He quickly logged on to the website mentioned in the article and got the process started, opening an account for each of them in their own names, four in all, each under the umbrella corporation he named the Phoenix Corporation. After thinking about it for a moment, he went back into the website and added Jordan Stone’s name to the other four, feeling sure the others would agree that the professor deserved at least a share of their fee.
He used his own personal credit card to pay for the initial fees, figuring that by the time the bill came due, he would have enough money to pay it off. Now all they had to do was to stall Ashby until the accounts were set up, a matter of a couple of weeks.
Once that was done, he looked back at his legal pad. Numbers three and four were problematic: He had no idea how to find a secret place or to disappear completely once the deal was done, especially if they still wanted to administer the usage of the Phoenix Formula.
When his doorbell rang twenty minutes later, he put the legal pad into his desk drawer and answered the door.
Dr. Tom Alexander stood in the hall, looking expectant. “Hey, Kev. I hope you have good news for me, ’cause Ashby is getting rather impatient.”
Kevin grinned. “Come on in, Uncle Tom, and I’ll let you judge for yourself.”
“Okay,” Alexander said, and he looked around at the sparse furnishings and small room as he entered. “Jesus, Kevin. I didn’t know you were living like this. You know all you had to do was to let me know, and I’d have given you more money for a better place.”
“No need, Uncle Tom. This is plenty good enough for a grad student, and besides, from what Mom says, you had it much worse working your own way through medical school.”
Alexander grinned. “Well, yeah, but I didn’t have a rich uncle who was willing to help me.”
“We’ll talk about that later, but for now I want you to have a seat and take a look at this,” Kevin said, handing him the video camera. “Would you like a cup of coffee while you watch?”
Alexander arched an eyebrow. “Is it safe?” he asked, glancing around at the disorder in the room.
Kevin pointed to a corner where a brand-new Keurig coffeemaker sat. “One of the first purchases with the fifty thousand dollars you advanced us.”
“Then, by all means, let me try it out.”
Minutes later, Kevin handed his uncle a mug of steaming coffee and watched as the doctor observed the video of Stone bending and stooping and exercising like a man twenty years younger than his chronological age.
After the video was over, Alexander took a drink of his coffee and shook his head. “Amazing, Kevin. Just amazing, though I am a little worried because the man has a mask on. Ashby may feel they are two different men, the before and the after.”
“Run it again, Uncle Tom, and notice the strawberry birthmark below the waist in the rear just above the buttocks. I think you’ll agree this is the same man.”
After Alexander ran it again, he nodded. “I believe you, Kevin, but Ashby is a very suspicious man.”
Kevin took a seat on the bed next to the chair where Alexander was sitting. “Then explain it to him, Uncle. We are not big con men trying to flummox him; we are just a group of everyday, ordinary doctors and one grad student. Does he really think we are dumb enough to try to con one of the richest, most dangerous men in the world? How in the world would we get away with it—where could we hide where he couldn’t find us and seek retribution? For that matter, where could we hide millions of dollars where he couldn’t get to it with his battalion of lawyers and detectives?”
Alexander smiled grimly. “You are more right about that than you think, Kevin.” He hesitated and then looked directly into the young man’s eyes. “You know I love you, Kevin, and I am telling you right now not to cross J.P. Ashby. As good of a friend as I am to him, that would not stop him from doing terrible things to you and your friends if things don’t go as you’ve stated them.”
“I promise you, Uncle Tom, on my honor, the formula works just as we’ve shown you. There is no trickery involved in this video.”
“Okay, then. If you don’t mind, I’ll take the chip out of this camera and show it to J.P.”
“A couple of things first,” Kevin said.
Alexander took another sip of his coffee and leaned back, crossing his legs. “Okay, let me hear them.”
“First, we are going to need another installment of fifty thousand dollars. It was more expensive setting up the lab than we thought, and we also need some funds to set up bank accounts where he can transfer the funds when we hand over the formula.”
“That should be no problem. I can give you a check for that amount right now.”
“Okay, good. And second, we are a little worried that Ashby might try to . . . um . . . take control of the formula for his own uses, and that he might even possibly try to do us harm to keep us from revealing the secret of the formula, so we are going to take precautions to make sure he can’t take the formula and have it analyzed in order to make more of it.”
Alexander raised his eyebrows. “How are you going to do that?”
“Mix a little something in the formula that is harmless but that will destroy the mixture if it is exposed to air instead of being directly injected into Ashby.”
His uncle laughed. “Very good, Kevin. I told Ashby you were a shrewd businessman. Anything else?”
“Yes, we prefer—for obvious reasons—not to be available when we hand over the formula to Ashby, so we are going to give it to you at a secret location and then disappear before Ashby can come after us.”
“But you’ve already said that d
isappearing from a man like Ashby is impossible.”
“That’s if he really wanted us badly ’cause we’d conned him. In this case, the formula will work and he will have no reason to try to hunt us down, unless he intends to steal the formula once he sees how effective it is.”
“And if he does intend to do just that?”
“We have taken precautions against that also. We have given the precise chemical formula to a number of lawyers and other people we trust, with orders that if any one of us does not check in with them on a precise schedule, they are to release the details of the formula to the press and other scientific persons whom we have named. That way, if Ashby does manage to snag one or two of us, the others will make sure the formula is given out free to the world, and thus will be useless to him.”
Alexander frowned. “Have you really done that?”
Kevin shrugged. “It is a process in the midst of being carried out. And none of us will know to whom the others have sent their packages, so unless he was able to corral us all at one time, the others would have a chance to get the formula out.”
“Wow, you really don’t trust Ashby, do you?”
Kevin stared at his uncle for a moment before asking, “Would you?”
Alexander laughed out loud. “Hell, no, Kev. I wouldn’t for a minute.”
He took his checkbook out and began writing a check. “Uh, there is one other thing I’d like to ask,” he said.
“Yeah?”
“Would it be possible to get two doses of the formula for the same price as you are charging for one?”
“So you have decided to partake of the formula also, huh?” Kevin asked.
“Yes,” Alexander answered. “I find that as I enter my sixties, I am rather bored with my life. The chance to start over younger and healthier and rich is a very powerful dream. There are a lot of things I have given up over the years in order to be a successful doctor, and I would relish the chance to travel and see the world and not to have to work eighty hours a week while doing so.”
Kevin smiled. “While I cannot promise anything until I talk to my partners, I can promise I will do everything in my power to get the formula for you, Uncle Tom. I owe you much more than that for all you have done for me.”
Alexander’s eyes filled as he stood and handed Kevin the check for fifty thousand dollars. “Thank you, Kevin.”
* * *
Three hours later, Alexander sat sipping brandy in Ashby’s bedroom as the billionaire watched the video for the third time. Finally, he looked up. “And you are sure this is not a fraud?”
Alexander shook his head. “As Kevin himself told me when I asked him the same thing, these are three rather ordinary scientists and one young grad student. How in the world would they expect to get away with conning a man with your wealth and rather . . . dangerous reputation? After all, they know that you could easily track them to the ends of the earth if you thought you’d been wronged.”
Ashby grinned wryly, “There is that.”
“Actually, John, they are much more worried about you trying to get the formula from them for your own private use, and they are also worried that you might actually do them some harm in order to accomplish that.”
Ashby blushed, for that was exactly what he was planning on doing, but he knew he couldn’t let Alexander suspect that because of the involvement of his beloved nephew. “But, Tom, you know we haven’t planned on doing that.”
Alexander laughed. “I know I haven’t planned on doing that, but I’m not too sure about you, John. I am not sure that being given an entirely new lease on life and being made younger and smarter and healthier is even enough for you, considering just how valuable the formula would be to a man willing to exploit its use for personal gain.”
Ashby frowned. “Tom, after this . . . uh . . . transformation, I’ll be, as you say, younger and healthier and still worth over nine billion dollars. Don’t you think that is enough for anyone?”
“Sure, I think that, John. I’m just not sure of what you think.”
Ashby waved his good hand in dismissal. “Forget about all of that, Tom. When did they say I . . . uh . . . we can get the injection?”
“They want to watch the subject they injected for two more weeks to make sure there aren’t any unexpected late side effects of the injection, and then they’ll present us with two syringes of the formula for injection.”
Ashby looked disappointed. “That long?”
Tom smiled. “Oh, there’s more than that. They are also working out how to get the money transferred without causing a stir in the financial markets and without alerting the government to the transfer, and they are working out a way that we can’t take the formula to have it analyzed and replicated for our own use.”
“What?” Ashby exclaimed, his face flaming red, for that was exactly what he’d planned on doing.
“Yeah, and they also are working out a way for them to give me the syringes in a secret place—unknown by you—and then to have me bring the syringes to you for injection while they are many miles away . . . for their own protection.”
“Why, those dirty—”
Alexander held up his hand. “Now, John, try to tell me you’d do anything different if you were in their place.”
After a moment, Ashby relaxed and smiled. “And I’ll bet most of this was your nephew Kevin’s idea, right?”
Alexander grinned and nodded. “I told you he was sharp.”
“All the more reason to try to get him to join us after all this is over,” Ashby said, a glint in his eye that Alexander didn’t like.
He leaned forward in his seat. “John, there will be no ‘us’ after this is over. We’ll both be young and healthy, and I intend to spend my new life traveling and enjoying life, not trying to make another million or two dollars.”
“Of course, Tom, of course. I understand, but your young Kevin may have other ideas, and I do intend to offer him employment of some kind. He has too much talent to waste on being a run-of-the-mill biochemist.”
Alexander sat back and nodded, but he was still concerned that John Ashby was planning a double cross of his nephew and his friends.
CHAPTER 32
As soon as she neared the Houston city limits, Kat called Kevin on his burner phone. “Kevin, we need to meet as soon as possible . . . the entire group.”
“Okay, how about at Sheila’s apartment?”
“No, we need someplace very secure. I know—let’s meet at that new steak house on Bellaire Boulevard that’s not too far from your apartment, the Longhorn Steak House, I believe is its name.”
“Okay . . . but wait a minute. Where are you?”
“Just pulling into the city limits.”
“How did you get here? I drove the Honda home and you didn’t have a car when I left Conroe.”
“I took a taxi to downtown Conroe and rented a car, but don’t worry, I used Jordan’s driver’s license. It was expired, but the rental guy didn’t notice. Good thing Jordan can be either a male or female name, huh?”
“What about the picture?”
Kat laughed. “Kept my thumb over it while the man copied down the license number.”
“What are you gonna do about Sheila and Burton? Their cars both have GPS monitors on them.”
“I’ll arrange to pick them up at the Methodist hospital parking garage. It’s so busy that there is no way anyone could follow them in and see them get in my car without being obvious about it. Besides, the detectives will just think it’s normal for them to be going to Methodist hospital in the middle of the day.”
* * *
Nicholas Fowler woke with a crick in his neck due to falling asleep in a chair while trying to keep track of what J.P. Ashby was doing. Damn, for one of the richest men in the world, he leads a damn boring life, Fowler thought as he keyed up the videos and tapes to watch what he’d missed while asleep. Of course, being partially paralyzed and bedridden limits his choices for fun, Fowler mused while chuckling to himself.
He suddenly sat straight up in the chair when he saw Ashby’s doctor, Tom Alexander, enter the bedroom.
After twenty minutes of watching the same video Ashby was perusing, Fowler muttered, “Holy shit!”
So that’s what all of the excitement concerning the doctors and scientists was all about, he thought. These damn people had discovered a veritable fountain of youth, if the video Ashby was watching was legitimate. What am I thinking? Fowler realized. Who in their right mind would try to con a man as powerful and dangerous as J.P. Ashby was. Hell, they’d never live to enjoy any money they extorted out of him if the formula didn’t work.
When the doctor finally left, Fowler shut down the video, went into the bathroom of the safe house, and began to scrub his face and prepare to shave and shower. He needed to wake up and gather all of his wits about him if he was to figure out some way to profit from what he had just found out. He no longer had any thoughts of busting Ashby and bringing him to justice; the formula was simply too valuable of a commodity for that.
He realized that if he could get even a piece of what the formula was worth, he’d be set for life, assuming he could do it without making a mortal enemy of Ashby—that kind of trouble he definitely didn’t need. Nope, he figured his best chance was to somehow get the formula from the scientists and then make a deal with Ashby to cut him in on the profits, even a small percentage of which would be worth millions, if not billions.
* * *
Since it was still mid-afternoon, the group requested a booth in the rear of the Longhorn where they could talk without fear of being overheard
“Okay, Kat, you requested this meeting, so get down to it,” Burton said crossly.
“Yes, please do,” Sheila added, “I left an office full of patients who aren’t going to be too happy to have to wait for my return.”
Kevin merely nodded.
“All right,” Kat said. And then she proceeded to tell them what she and Stone had talked about, especially his ideas about how impossible it would be to market or use the formula as it now stood. She emphasized his point that they would never be able to keep total control of such a valuable formula, especially when people began to realize there was a fountain of youth in existence.
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