Million Dollar Gift

by Ian Somers

  TRANSCRIPT No. 183, 201

  The content of this phone conversation is deemed legal under the terms of the Golding Scientific Security Division Act of 2004, Section 98, reference A-021, ‘The director of Golding Scientific Security Division has the right to monitor the phone conversations of all Golding Scientific staff and those who he sees as beneficiaries of the corporation’.

  (Internal investigation has commenced: Ross Bentley) The following is a transcript of a phone conversation between Derek Shaw and Stuart Donald, an employee of Golding Scientific Security Division.

  TRANSCRIPT No. 183,201:

  Donald: I’ve just set up the bug on his mobile phone, but he hasn’t made any calls yet.

  Shaw: Well done, Stuart. Notify me immediately if he makes or receives any calls.

  Donald: Hold on. He’s making a call from his mobile right now.

  Shaw: Do you have the number?

  Donald: It’s coming through now, it’s another mobile, an Irish one … someone’s just answered.

  Shaw: Family member?

  Donald: It’s a girl called Gemma. They seem to be friends.

  Shaw: Just friends or does it seem a little cosier than that?

  Donald: Hard to say … wait … he’s telling her how he can’t wait to see her again.

  Shaw: We may have a winner.

  Donald: Seems that way, she’s telling him how Maybrook just isn’t the same without him.

  Shaw: How touching.

  Donald: You might want to get moving, Mr Shaw. Bentley has just said he has to get to the restaurant.

  Shaw: Right, I want to get there before him. I’ll be gone for a couple of hours, when I get back I want Gemma’s full name, date of birth and home address.

  Donald: No problem. We have some people in Ireland who can help us with this.

  Shaw: This is all going perfectly to plan. Bentley will be all ours once we’ve taken care of little Gemma.

  The restaurant was immense with a high, ornately-decorated ceiling and numerous chandeliers. The floor was highly-polished wood and my runners made squeaking sounds as I entered. The room looked even bigger than it should have because there was only one table in it. The circular table was occupied by Shaw, who was sipping from a glass of red wine and waved when he spotted me.

  ‘Hey, you decided to join me. I was just about to order without you. Sit here,’ he said, pulling a chair from under the table.

  A waiter came to the table when Shaw clicked his fingers and placed a menu in front of me and asked if I would like something to drink while I read it.

  ‘Just a glass of water.’

  ‘You want a real drink?’ Shaw asked with a wink. ‘I know you’re underage, but I won’t tell anyone. Promise.’

  ‘Nah, I don’t do alcohol.’

  ‘Water it is then,’ Shaw turned to the waiter, ‘Get me another red wine, will you.’

  I opened the menu and sifted through it. I hardly ever went to restaurants and didn’t quite know what to order. ‘What are you having?’ I asked Shaw.

  ‘I’m having a steak, juicy with loads of blood!’ he laughed loudly. ‘I don’t go for fancy dishes myself.’

  ‘I think I’ll get the same.’

  ‘You should probably get a starter too, though; you must have worked up quite an appetite today.’

  ‘Yeah, the tests took a lot out of me.’

  ‘I wasn’t talking about the tests.’

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘I saw Victor’s head and it’s quite a mess. Lucky he doesn’t have a fractured skull.’

  ‘I already told Victor that I wasn’t responsible.’

  ‘It’s all right to use the gift in that way, who am I to judge you? In all honesty, who wouldn’t use it in that way? I probably would if someone was annoying me, and Victor can be a bit of a pain in the ass at times.’

  ‘It wasn’t me, honestly.’

  ‘I somehow doubt it was just bad timing.’

  I was about to tell him about the stranger and all that had transpired, but I was interrupted by Shaw’s mobile phone.

  ‘Who the hell is this?’ Shaw grumbled as he searched his jacket. He plucked the phone from a pocket and stared at the screen. ‘What the hell…?’ He answered the call quite bluntly. ‘What is it?’

  I could hear there was a woman on the other end, but couldn’t make out what she was saying. She sounded hysterical.

  ‘You idiot!’ Shaw shouted as he pounded the table with his fist.

  I was stunned, by the ferocity of Shaw’s temper and because he spoke to a woman so aggressively in front of me. I was always told never to raise my voice to, or intimidate, a girl. Any guy who did was a coward.

  ‘How could you be so stupid? I’m coming over there and you better have a good explanation for this or you’ll be very sorry.’

  Shaw’s expression and tone completely changed when he hung up. ‘You’ll have to forgive me, Ross,’ he said politely, ‘I have to go.’

  ‘Hope it’s nothing too serious.’

  ‘Just a minor problem. It’s my job to sort out certain types of problems though.’ He stood up from the table and pulled on his jacket. ‘Have your dinner though, it’s on the house.’

  I now saw what the stranger had meant; Shaw wasn’t the nice guy he portrayed himself as. There was something very dark inside him. I’d just caught a glimpse of it and was quite sure I didn’t want to see any more of it.

  I was also becoming curious as to what Shaw’s job really was. He didn’t seem to have any particular role in Golding Scientific. He seemed to hint that he was a trouble shooter of sorts which got me thinking. Trouble shooters for massive corporations like Golding’s weren’t likely to be very nice people. I would have to keep him at arm’s length from then on.

  Security Statement: 82,063

  Date: 3 July

  Statement by Derek Shaw

  The content of this statement is deemed legal under the terms of the Golding Scientific Security Division Act of 2004, Section 16, reference A-001, ‘The director of Golding Scientific Security Division has the right to eliminate any member of Golding Scientific staff, excluding Paul Golding, who poses a serious and immediate threat to the existence of the corporation’.

  The following statement concerns Rachel Phillips, a member of Golding Scientific Communications Division. Employee No. 251

  SECURITY STATEMENT No. 82,063:

  I received a phone call from Rachel Phillips on the evening of 3 July, at approximately 8pm. Rachel had been in charge of making all the video recordings of the promising contestants of The Million Dollar Gift, one of whom was Ross Bentley. When the contest was officially concluded she remained on to record all of Ross Bentley’s tests. She had called to inform me that she had apparently lost a laptop containing copies of all Bentley’s tests.

  I quickly made my way to her apartment in west London to question her further on this matter. She said she had taken a laptop containing copies of the videos so she could continue her editing work from home. She had taken a bus and fallen asleep before she reached her stop. When Rachel awoke she found her laptop had been stolen.

  Taking the laptop from her workplace was in breach of Golding Scientific protocol and was reckless in the extreme. The Ross Bentley test videos could threaten decades of work done by members of this corporation. If those videos are to reach the mainstream media (the ones we don’t have a direct influence over) it would be dangerous for us and we would have to cover our tracks, starting with Rachel Phillips.

  I decided that the best course of action was to eliminate Rachel Phillips and to erase all records of her employment with Golding Scientific.

  I have already disposed of the body and ordered a team of our best investigators to track down the stolen laptop.

  Derek Shaw

  Director, Golding Scientific Security Division

  CHAPTER TWELVE -

  Instant Fame

  I’d lost my appetite and barely touched the meal. I handed the waiter a tip of twenty
pounds and left the restaurant. I was accompanied by a new security guard, who watched me cautiously, and kept a safe distance from any overhead lights.

  ‘Watch out for falling lamps while you’re out here,’ I said as I entered my room and left the guard in the corridor.

  I sat on the bed and planned to spend the night surfing the web, only to find the laptop was not where I left it. I was convinced I left it on the pillows at the top of the bed, not at the bottom where it was now.

  ‘Maybe I’m just losing my marbles … or maybe they were in the room while I was downstairs. Maybe that’s why Shaw invited me.’

  I turned the laptop on and searched for a broadband signal. There was one called Free-Gold. It instructed me to enter the code on the back of my room’s electronic key card. Within seconds I was connected and was about to check my numerous social network profiles but a faint sound drew my attention to the window.

  ‘Not again!’ I thought. ‘Does this man have no home to go to?’

  I parted the curtains to find a sheet of paper pressed against the glass.

  I AM SORRY IF I WAS RUDE TODAY.

  This guy was weirder than I first thought! I opened the window, saw the stranger loitering on a nearby corner, and took the sheet inside.

  I wrote: There’s no need to apologise. I was rude too, but you can’t expect me to run away from here without telling me why I’m in danger and who intends to kill me.

  I flung the sheet out the window and used my powers to push it down the street and into the stranger’s hand. Within a minute, a paper plane soared up the street and in through the open window. I unfolded it and read the message.

  YOU ARE IN DANGER FROM THE PEOPLE WHO ARE KEEPING YOU IN THE HOTEL. SHAW WILL TRY TO EMPLOY YOU AND ASK YOU TO USE THE GIFT TO COMMIT CRIMES. HE MAY THREATEN YOUR LOVED ONES IF YOU RESIST.

  THERE IS ANOTHER PSYCHOKINETIC WHO MAY TRY TO HARM YOU; SHE WILL SEE YOU AS A THREAT TO HER POSITION IN GOLDING’S CORPORATION. SHE EARNS A LOT OF MONEY FROM HER WORK WITH GOLDING SCIENTIFIC AND WON’’T ALLOW YOU TO GET IN THE WAY.

  My thoughts turned to Dad and Gemma. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if my actions resulted in one or both of them being hurt. The desire to escape the hotel was growing in me. I wrote on the back of the sheet:

  How can I escape this place? The hotel is full of armed guards!

  I sent the sheet back to the stranger and a moment later another message came.

  ESCAPE WILL NOT BE DIFFICULT. YOU ARE A PSYCHOKINETIC, YOU’RE MORE POWERFUL THAN A HUNDRED ARMED GUARDS.

  I wrote on the back of the sheet:

  I don’t even know your name. I want to sleep on this, I’ll make a decision in the morning. Will you come again tomorrow night?

  Another paper plane flew into my hand after I sent the message.

  I WILL COME TOMORROW NIGHT BUT I WILL NOT RETURN AFTER THAT IF YOU STILL INSIST ON REMAINING HERE. ROMAND.

  I read the message and looked at the corner. Romand was gone. I tore the sheet up and threw the scraps into the small metal bin next to the bed. The stress of the situation was too much for me and my head felt light. I climbed onto the bed and quickly fell asleep, blissfully unaware of a storm that was starting to sweep across the world wide web. And I was at the centre of it.

  My sleep was blighted by bad dreams and by 6am I was out of bed in search of something to do. I made myself a cuppa and sat at the mahogany desk to power up my new laptop. I instinctively went to Facebook when I connected to the net and was stunned when my profile page opened. Had I been hacked? There were over 91,000 friend requests, mostly from teenage girls. What the hell was going on?

  I opened a second window and tried my MySpace page. 42,000 friend requests. My Bebo page had 76,000. Why were these people requesting me? I cursed aloud, thinking someone had finally recognised me from my Gotcha365 videos.

  I opened yet another window and logged onto Youtube, but there was little or no activity on my personal channel. Something else caught my attention; on a side bar there were over twenty thumbnails of the most popular videos on Youtube. They included: Ross Bentley, The magnificent Ross Bentley, Ross Bentley Test Videos, Ross Bentley the Telekinetic, Guy moves things with his mind, The Million Dollar Gift – Leaked Test Video of Winner and Ross Bentley is hot!! The title of the last video brought a smile to my face. It faded quickly though.

  These clips were footage of my tests. All of them. Even one from the initial interview when I had moved Dr Jones’ cup of disgusting tea. That one video alone had over half a million views already.

  I googled my own name and there were thousands of results. The top results led me to news websites in the USA and there were articles about the leaked test videos from the contest and that Ross Bentley could change the world, he could be the next step in human evolution and all sorts of crazy stuff. Apparently the videos appeared on a blogger’s site the previous evening then spread to another blog, then it became an online wildfire. Within an hour of it appearing in the blogs it was on every paranormal forum in the UK. By midnight it had spread to almost every paranormal website in the world. It first showed up on Youtube at 2am GMT and had been spreading across the United States for the few hours since then and was growing faster now that Europe was waking up. The fascination with Ross Bentley was already out of control and the first television crews had appeared at the entrance to the hotel.

  I rushed to the window and peeked through the curtains; there were at least ten news vans, with satellite dishes attached to their roofs, on the street outside and there were a number of people just hanging around. I felt light headed again. This was not gonna be a good day.

  Suddenly someone pounded at the door to my room. It was definitely not gonna be a good day.

  The door was pounded on until I opened it. Shaw was standing outside looking very flustered. He gazed over my shoulder and saw the laptop open on the desk.

  ‘You on the internet?’

  ‘Yep. Lot’s of interesting stuff on it today.’

  ‘Indeed, it looks like you’re a celebrity now as well as a millionaire. You’re having quite the week, aren’t you?’

  ‘You can say that again. Shaw, I was told that if someone won the contest their identity wouldn’t be made public. How the hell did this happen? I’ll never be able to walk down the street again without people asking me to … I don’t know … to lift them up in the air or make their dog fly.’

  ‘I’d be more worried about religious fundamentalists if I was you. They’ll either want you to be their new messiah or they’ll want to kill you because you threaten their beliefs.’

  ‘You’re really putting my mind at ease. How did this happen?’

  ‘Our editor leaked the test videos yesterday, we don’t know why she did it and it seems like she’s now disappeared, probably off to some tropical island with a suitcase full of money.’

  ‘Why would she do this?’

  ‘Why do people ever betray each other? For selfish reasons, Ross. She was probably offered a lot of money to do it. I can’t believe she could be so evil. I was very fond of that girl.’

  ‘Who was the girl on the phone last night? She sounded frightened.’

  ‘It was one of our employees. She called me when she discovered a laptop was missing from the lab. Why do you ask that?’

  ‘No reason. So, what do we do now?’

  ‘You do not leave this room until I come get you, under no circumstance do you leave, understood?’

  ‘I’m sick of being a prisoner.’

  ‘Hold on, we’ve made you a rich man and now I’m going to use all my resources to clean up this mess, just so you can have a normal life. You can walk outside if you want but they’ll eat you alive. It’s your call.’

  My instincts were telling me to get the hell out of there immediately, but did I really want to walk out of the hotel into a horde of reporters and strangers? I was now quite wealthy and I wouldn’t have felt safe on the streets of London without protection of some sort.

  ‘Wel
l, what do you want to do?’ Shaw pressed me. ‘Ross?’

  ‘I’ll wait here.’

  ‘Good. I’ll try my best to make this go away, but if I can’t, you might have to remain with us for a while. So we can protect you.’

  Everything Romand had warned me about was coming true. It seemed I would never escape the corporation. I wished I’d taken his advice the night before and left. It would be virtually impossible now, because the security would be bolstered and the building was surrounded by the world’s press.

  ‘I’ll be back in a few hours,’ Shaw said. ‘Don’t look out that window! If they catch a glimpse of you, we’ll never get rid of them.’

  I went straight to the window when Shaw left the room. I stood by the curtain and looked out at the growing crowd. More and more reporters and camera men appeared and the horde of onlookers grew as the morning went on.

  I paced to the TV and put on the news channel. It didn’t take long for a live feed from the hotel to be aired.

  ‘I think we can go live to the Golding Plaza now,’ the anchorman said. ‘Yes, Katie is outside.’

  ‘Hi, Tom. Well, this place is becoming a circus with the crowds that are gathering to catch even a glimpse of Ross Bentley, the teenager who has become an overnight global superstar.’

  ‘Katie, how has this all come about?’

  ‘It’s alleged that Ross Bentley was one of the contestants in The Million Dollar Gift, which was held here,’ she pointed over her shoulder at the building in the background, ‘at the Golding Plaza Hotel. Somehow, and we haven’t been able to trace the source as yet, his test videos were leaked yesterday. Understandably, the short videos have been watched by millions all over the world. Everyone wants to get a look at the boy who can move things with his mind!’

  ‘These videos look very real, but is there a chance that this is all a big hoax?’

  ‘I’ve already spoken to two independent video analysts and it’s their opinion that the videos are genuine. This teenager could be a real life superman. It really is an incredible story.’