Immediately the bodyguards took out their machine pistols. The Maharishi spoke again. “We are also prepared to kill Sofia, and with her, the child she is bearing in her body.”
Judd stared at her. “Is that true?”
Tears began appearing in her eyes. “Yes.”
“You’re stupid,” he said.
“Please, Judd,” she implored. “Please give him the formula. It’s not that important.”
“It is to me,” Judd said coldly.
“Even if they get it, you’ll still have it. You will have the immortality you seek,” she cried.
He laughed. “No way. Now, you’re really being stupid,” he said. “Don’t you realize that the moment he has the formula, we’re all dead. He’s not planning to share it either.”
The telephone rang, he picked it up. The Maharishi held up his hand. “I want to hear this conversation.” Judd nodded, pressed the button, and the voice came over the speakers in the room.
“Mr. Crane?” John asked excitedly.
“Yes, John,” Judd said.
“You were right. We have the kid. He’s okay. Just crying to go back to his grandmother.”
“Take him,” Judd said.
“Anything else, sir?”
“No, John. Nothing more for now. Thanks.” Judd put down the telephone. He looked at the Maharishi. “You lost one threat.”
The old man looked at him. “We still have others.” He gestured to his bodyguards. They moved slightly. The explosions of their guns echoed in the room. Schoenbrun slammed back against his chair as the bullets tore into him, then he fell backward with the chair to the floor.
The Maharishi was cold. “That might convince you that we’re ready to do as I have said. The next bullets are for Sofia. Unless you give me the formula.”
Judd stared at Sofia. She was pale, her lips tightened against fear. He turned to the Maharishi. “I have the formula. But it’s very complicated and it’s in Computer Central.”
“You can transfer it here?” the old man questioned.
“Yes,” Judd answered.
The guns turned toward Sofia. “Then do it,” the Maharishi ordered.
Judd let out a deep breath. “Okay.”
He walked to the computer on his desk. The old man followed him with one of the bodyguards. The other bodyguard stayed with Sofia. Judd switched on the computer and began to make the connection to Computer Central. A greenish glow filled the screen.
Judd typed in the access code. “DNA HCC ENG. PROJ. FORM.”
“What does that mean?” the Maharishi asked.
“DNA Human Cell Clone Engineering Project Formula,” Judd said.
“This code is restricted,” the words came up on the screen. “Enter your authorization number.”
The Maharishi spoke to him. “Can you make a copy here?”
“Yes,” answered Judd. He pointed to the tape machine standing against the wall. “Just press the ‘on’ button at the top, then press the copy button.”
The Maharishi turned to his bodyguard. “Turn it on.”
As the old man turned away, Judd moved quickly. He pressed the bar. Transmit and erase, forward and back. Then he immediately began typing in his authorization code. “JC1–1-02–102-JC1.”
“Acknowledged,” the screen showed. A moment later the letters “BEGINNING TRANS. DNA HCC ENG. PROJ. FORM.”
The Maharishi called to his bodyguard. “The copier working?”
“Yes, sir,” the man said. “I see the words on the screen.”
The Maharishi watched the screen over Judd’s shoulder. The numbers and letters making up the formula began to appear on the line, then moved slowly to the next line. “How long will this whole thing take?”
“About three and three-quarter hours,” Judd said.
“Can you speed it up?” he asked.
“Yes, but it will move so fast that you won’t be able to read it. It will just be a blur.”
“How long will that take?” the old man said.
“About twelve to fourteen minutes,” Judd answered.
“Do it,” the old man ordered.
Judd immediately pressed the Speedtrans button. The picture on the screen responded and was transformed into a blur of indistinguishable figures and numbers flying by. He looked over the computer screen at Sofia. The other bodyguard was standing behind her, his automatic pistol at her back.
Her eyes fixed on Judd’s dark blue eyes, as she asked, “Is the baby really okay?”
Judd nodded. “Really. You heard John. He’s probably on his way to San Francisco and Barbara right now.”
She exhaled slowly. “Thank God,” she whispered.
Judd was silent. He watched the screen, the blurred lines kept moving. He turned to the Maharishi. “I don’t know if you’ll be able to understand it.”
“Maybe not me,” the old man said. “But we have scientists who will.”
“Maybe,” Judd retorted. He glanced across at the body of the German doctor. “What did that gain for you?”
“That Jew doctor?” the old man said. “We’ve known about him for a long time. He was due. And maybe it convinced you that we aren’t playing games.”
Judd was silent. He glanced at the screen. “I suppose you took care of the real Maharishi the same way.”
“That was six years ago,” he said. “His sister never knew she was communicating with a dead man.” He glanced at his watch. “How much longer?”
Judd looked down at the tape meter. “About four minutes.”
The Maharishi looked at him. “Call the control tower and ask them to bring our plane to the head of the runway with the door open and the automatic ladder down. Then have them bring a Land Rover to the elevator door with the motor left running and have the driver leave the car.”
Judd stared at him for a moment, then called the tower and relayed the order exactly as he had been given it.
“Have the tower call when everything is ready,” the old man said.
“Call me when it’s all cool,” Judd said, and put the phone down. The tape counter began clicking. Suddenly there was a bell and the screen changed to another typeface. “Tape completed. Trans. ended.”
Judd turned off the computer. The Maharishi gestured to him. “Take the tape out.”
Judd went to the recorder and unlocked the tape reel and took it out. He handed it to the Maharishi. He watched the old man as he opened the tape case and slipped the reel into it.
“Open the door,” the Maharishi ordered.
Judd walked to the door and opened it. Three more bodyguards were waiting for them just outside the door.
“Okay, outside,” said the old man. “The girl first, then you.”
Silently, Judd watched Sofia walk to the door. He looked at her. “I hope God is watching over us,” he said in a strong voice. “All that we can do now is keep our cool.”
The telephone rang. Judd picked it up. It was Fast Eddie’s voice from the tower. “Everything is ready, sir.”
“It’s ready,” Judd repeated, putting down the phone.
“Then you follow the girl,” the Maharishi said. “We’re all going up in the elevator together.”
“We’ll need coats if we’re going up there,” Judd said.
“You won’t need coats for long,” the Maharishi said flatly.
Silently, they moved into the elevator and up to the plateau. A rush of cold air came blasting over them as the doors opened onto the plateau. The Maharishi gestured to one of his men, who then pushed Judd and Sofia out in front of them. Carefully they followed.
The Land Rover was standing in front of the elevator doors, its motor running as ordered. The 707 stood at the head of the runway a long way down on the plateau, its door open, the automatic ladder hanging to the ground.
Two of the bodyguards pushed past Judd and looked around. “No one in sight,” one of them called to the Maharishi.
The old man stepped out. “Both of you. Keep your hands high if yo
u want to live. Start walking slowly in front of us to the car.”
They walked slowly, the freezing cold turning them stiff. The bodyguard shoved them roughly. When they were next to the car, the Maharishi quickly jumped into it. Another man jumped behind the wheel. The remaining guards pushed Judd and Sofia to the ground and leaped into the car behind the others.
The Land Rover began moving and Judd rolled over, looking at the two guards, who were lifting their automatic pistols. He thrust himself onto Sofia, raising his sleeve gun, and fired. One of them seemed to slip back clumsily.
The Land Rover was almost a hundred yards from them, and the other bodyguard aimed his automatic pistol at them. Judd sucked in his breath and tried to mold himself into a protective blanket to shield Sofia.
Then he heard a strange rush of air as the ATW missile seemed to whistle over them. A faint ping was followed by a tremendous explosion. He held Sofia more closely, staring at the Land Rover. It was now a fireball rolling away from them. Then he heard another whistle and another explosion which hit the fireball, breaking it into pieces and flinging them into the air.
Judd pulled Sofia to her feet and began running with her to the elevator. A moment later Fast Eddie was beside them with several men. “Get Sofia into something warm,” Judd yelled.
The men began helping her. Fast Eddie turned to look at him. “Are you okay, boss?” he asked.
“Okay,” Judd gasped.
“Don’t be fooling with me,” Fast Eddie smiled. “This is God you been talking to.”
***
The next morning he and Fast Eddie were watching the Maharishi’s girls board the airplane. Fast Eddie looked up at the Intertel screen. “Shit,” he said. “All that pussy an’ I never got none of it.”
“C’est la vie,” Judd said.
There was a knock at the door. Fast Eddie opened it. “May I come in?” Sofia asked. She held a heavy fur-lined coat on her arm.
Without waiting for an answer, she came into the room to Judd. “I’m sorry,” she said.
“Don’t be sorry,” he answered. “Everything worked out all right.”
“No, it didn’t,” she said.
“I don’t understand.”
She took out a box of Kleenex from beneath her coat and held it out to him. “This won’t work,” she said. “Even as it didn’t work for Hughes.”
“I still don’t understand,” he said.
“Everything you have here, everything you’ve done,” she said, “it’s like Kleenex. It won’t work for you. Even if you want to stay here alone, you will not live forever, no matter how hard you try. All you will do is die alone.”
He was silent.
She looked into his eyes. “Good-bye, Judd Crane,” she said. “I’ll tell your children all about you.”
He stared at her. “Why are you saying good-bye?”
“Aren’t I leaving with the others?”
“I didn’t say that,” he said. “I had the tapes erased for you, I turned off the power at the lab for you. Then I transferred Xanadu over to a Crane Industries nuclear medicine research facility, to be named for Dr. Schoenbrun. And now you want to leave me?”
“I didn’t say that,” she said, a faint hint of tears coming to her eyes.
“Then wait,” he said simply, reaching for her hand. “Wait. And we’ll go home together.”
Harold Robbins, Unguarded
On the inspiration for Never Love a Stranger:
“[The book begins with] a poem from To the Unborn by Stella Benson. There were a lot of disappointments especially during the Depression—fuck it—in everyone’s life there are disappointments and lost hope…. No one escapes. That’s why you got to be grateful every day that you get to the next.”
On writing The Betsy and receiving gifts:
“When I wrote The Betsy, I spent a lot of time in Detroit with the Ford family. The old man running the place had supplied me with Fords, a Mustang, that station wagon we still have…. After he read the book and I was flying home from New York the day after it was published, he made a phone call to the office on Sunset and asked for all the cars to be returned. I guess he didn’t like the book.”
On the most boring things in the world:
“Home cooking, home fucking, and Dallas, Texas!”
On the inspiration for Stiletto:
“I began to develop an idea for a novel about the Mafia. In the back of my head I had already thought of an extraordinary character…. To the outside world he drove dangerous, high-speed automobiles and owned a foreign car dealership on Park Avenue…. The world also knew that he was one of the most romantic playboys in New York society… What the world did not know about him was that he was a deadly assassin who belonged to the Mafia.”
On the message of 79 Park Avenue:
“Street names change with the times, but there’s been prostitution since the world began. That was what 79 Park Avenue was about, and prostitution will always be there. I don’t know what cavemen called it; maybe they drew pictures. That’s called pornography now. People make their own choices every day about what they are willing to do. We don’t have the right to judge them or label them. At least walk in their shoes before you do. 79 Park Avenue did one thing for the public; it made people think about these girls being real, not just hustlers. The book was about walking in their shoes and understanding. Maybe it was a book about forgiveness. I never know; the reader is the only one who can decide.”
Paul Gitlin (Harold’s agent) on The Carpetbaggers after first reading the manuscript:
“Jesus Christ, you can’t talk about incest like this. The publishers will never accept it. This author, Robbins, he’s got a book that reads great, but it’s a ball breaker for publishing.”
From the judge who lifted the Philadelphia ban on Never Love a Stranger, on Harold’s books:
“I would rather my daughter learn about sex from the pages of a Harold Robbins novel than behind a barn door.”
On writing essentials:
“Power, sex, deceit, and wealth: the four ingredients to a successful story.”
On the drive to write:
“I don’t want to write and put it in a closet because I’m not writing for myself. I’m writing to be heard. I’m writing because I’ve got something to say to people about the world I live in, the world I see, and I want them to know about it.”
Harold Robbins titles from RosettaBooks
79 Park Avenue
Dreams Die First
Never Leave Me
Spellbinder
Stiletto
The Betsy
The Raiders
The Adventurers
Goodbye, Janette
Descent from Xanadu
Never Love A Stranger
Memories of Another Day
The Dream Merchants
Where Love Has Gone
The Lonely Lady
The Inheritors
The Looters
The Pirate
Descent from Xanadu Page 32
