The Network

by L. C. Shaw

  “You’re joking, right?” Jack said.

  “I’ve never been more serious.”

  “You’re telling me he’s doing all this just to get rid of morality? That he has a bunch of satanists working for him?”

  Jeremy stood up and began to pace.

  “No. There are many different motivations he exploits. Some of them have venal motives.” He cleared his throat. “And some of them have what they consider to be altruistic ones. He uses people’s beliefs, or greed, or vulnerabilities—whatever is the most expedient to gain allegiance. He has true believers in a certain philosophy—those that fight for end-of-life choices, euthanasia, women’s rights, freedom—and they serve him out of allegiance to their cause. Others are simply power hungry or greedy and work for their own advancement.” He took a seat again and leaned forward, looking Jack in the eye. “He has all the money he could ever want. He’s behind the scenes pulling political strings, influencing the media and advertising we see. He does it all for one purpose.”

  There was no mistaking the look of skepticism in Jack’s eyes.

  Taylor furrowed her brow, starting to wonder about Jeremy’s hold on reality. “Are you saying he’s the Antichrist?”

  Jeremy shook his head. “No. But he is heavily involved in the occult. He considers himself a prophet—not for the benefit of mankind, but for its destruction. He believes that man deserves to be destroyed and the way to do it is to eradicate a clear sense of right and wrong. His machinations have been behind the legislature responsible for legalizing drugs, mandating pregnancy screening and forced abortions, euthanasia, assisted suicide, legalized prostitution, relaxing of the ratings system—all of it his. He revels in it.”

  “How did he get started? Where did he get the money to do all this?” Taylor asked.

  “From Fred, or Friedrich, whichever is his real name. He was the richest man in my father’s small town. I wonder now if it was spoils from the war. My father wanted to carry on his legacy and I was supposed to carry on for both of them.”

  “If you are not going to continue his work, who is?” Jack asked.

  Jeremy’s eyes went to her belly.

  As the realization dawned on Taylor, she stood up and began to back away. This couldn’t be happening.

  “Oh no! No. No! What am I going to do?”

  Jack put his arms around her. “Nobody is going to take that baby from you.”

  Jeremy walked over to them and put his hand on Taylor’s shoulder. “I don’t mean to alarm you, but your baby is in great danger. Damon has a long reach. I believe he is trying to engineer a way to get your child, with no one ever finding out.”

  “Then what are we going to do?”

  “I have the proof now. The file—the one he had bragged about, his people file—it has the name of everyone under his control, what they have done for him, and what he has on them. It’s taken me almost a year to find a way to get it. I finally have a connection inside the Institute. He got the file a few weeks ago.”

  “What kind of people are in the file?” Taylor asked.

  “I haven’t been able to decrypt it, but it should have the names of judges, politicians, business magnates—people in all areas of influence.”

  “Okay, so why not take it to the FBI?” Jack asked.

  “Because he has his people everywhere. I can’t be sure who to trust, he has connections everywhere, and they’re not all in his file.” He looked at Taylor. “We need your father’s help.”

  They both looked at him. “What are you thinking?” Taylor asked.

  “You need to stay here in hiding. Jack can take the information I’ve gathered to your father. He’s the only one in the press we can trust, and he has the resources to investigate the names on the flash drive, put together the evidence linking them to Damon, and show that they’ve taken bribes and committed crimes.”

  “What if Damon’s people have infiltrated his paper as well?” Taylor asked.

  Jeremy shook his head. “It’s a chance we’re going to have to take.” He looked at Jack. “You’re going to have to impress upon him the need for his greatest discretion, that he needs to use as few resources as he can, and only ones he feels certain he can trust.”

  Jack rubbed the back of his neck and looked at the floor. “Is there enough on that file to really get any evidence that will stick?”

  “I believe so. It should have proof of bribes. The problem is that the file is encrypted, and it has a digital timer that measures how long it’s been opened, and I don’t know what he set it for. We’ll be able to validate it quickly, but we’ll have to let Warwick read it because it’ll expire if we keep it open too long. That’s where the two of you come in.”

  Taylor looked at him quizzically.

  He explained. “I’ve run all sorts of computer programs to break the encryption, but nothing has worked. My source has just gotten information on the password and how to get into it.”

  “How?” Taylor and Jack both asked in unison.

  “It’s our DNA. That’s the key.”

  “Huh?” Taylor had no clue what he was talking about.

  “He has a sick sense of humor,” Jeremy said. “He, the man with no paternal allegiance whatsoever, has used our DNA sequence as the code breaker. I have it on good authority that he has combined the letters of the codon from each of our DNA sequences.”

  “Hold on. DNA fingerprinting wasn’t discovered until the eighties. You were born in 1976,” Jack pointed out.

  “Yes, but it would have been easy for him to get a sample from me when I was a kid without my knowing it.”

  “How would he have gotten mine?” Taylor asked.

  “Most likely kept a blood sample, a hair, something from your birth. He likely monitored your mother’s pregnancy and had contacts at the hospital where you were born. As I said, he likes his trophies.”

  Taylor was nauseated at the thought.

  “How are we going to get our DNA sequence?”

  “My lab will run the test. I can take the samples now.” He pulled out a kit containing gloves, cotton swabs, and envelopes. “Just swab your cheek. We’ll have it in a few hours. Once we have the information from the flash drive, we can move forward with the plan.”

  “And what about the Institute?”

  “Once he is out of the way, I will fight to take over as his legal heir.”

  Taylor’s head was spinning. She thought of something. “Did Crosse orchestrate my meeting Malcolm?”

  Jeremy uncrossed his legs then crossed them again.

  “This is not easy to tell you—either of you.” He sighed. “You and Jack were deliberately kept apart. But it wasn’t just Malcolm.” He turned and looked Jack in the eye. “Dakota was a setup as well. You were her mission. She knew all about your background, your mother, and she played her part to bewitch you. She—”

  Jack jumped up from the sofa and grabbed Jeremy by the shoulders. “Are you insane? What are you talking about?”

  Taylor sprang up and pulled Jack off Jeremy.

  “Jack! Stop it. It’s not Jeremy’s fault. Sit down.”

  Jack shook his head, then put his hands over his eyes. “I’m sorry. Sorry.” He sat next to Taylor, and she grabbed his hand.

  Jeremy gave him a sympathetic look. “I understand. He had to get you out of the way, so that Taylor could marry Malcolm.”

  Taylor gulped for air. The room began to spin, and then there was nothing but darkness.

  * * *

  When Taylor came to, she was in a bed. Standing next to her was a woman in a white coat.

  Jeremy walked over to her and picked up her hand.

  “Taylor, this is Dr. Haller. I’d like for her to examine you, if that’s okay. Jack told me about the spotting from a few days ago.”

  Relief filled her. “Yes, thank you.”

  “When’s the last time you ate?” the doctor asked.

  Taylor thought. “Breakfast.”

  “Well, if you don’t want to faint ag
ain, I’d suggest you eat more regularly. Let’s do a quick finger prick and make sure your sugar’s not out of whack.” She took Taylor’s finger and stuck it with the glucose meter. “Looks okay, but I’ll run a blood panel to rule out any other issues.”

  “I’m fine. I just forgot to eat.”

  “Even so, I want to be thorough.”

  Taylor sighed and stretched her arm out to let the doctor draw her blood.

  The doctor pulled a portable sonogram machine next to the bed, and Jack and Jeremy left to give her some privacy.

  When she had finished with the exam, she called them back in.

  “I’m happy to report that the baby is doing fine. There’s a strong heartbeat. Taylor is eight weeks along, and everything looks good. Spotting in early pregnancy is more common than you may think and is not always cause for alarm. Her blood pressure is fine; we’ll have the blood results in a little while.”

  A grin broke across Jack’s face. “Whew! That is a huge relief.”

  “Thank God,” Taylor whispered.

  Jeremy walked over to the bed. “You’ll be well looked after here. We have our own medical facility and staff.”

  “It’s like its own little city.”

  Jeremy pulled a chair up next to the bed. “I think it’s time I told you the rest of the story.” He looked at Jack. “Get comfortable, this will take a while. Let me start where I left—”

  “I’m not going to lie here like an invalid,” Taylor interrupted.

  They both turned to look at her.

  “You heard the doctor. I’m fine. Now get out of here so I can get dressed, and let’s go somewhere else to have this conversation.”

  Jack looked at Jeremy. “You heard her.” Then, turning again to Taylor, he said, “Good to have you back.”

  Chapter Fifty-One

  SHE KNEW NATHAN WAS FURIOUS WITH HER. AFTER LYING to him, Dakota had to earn his trust back. She smoothed the tight skirt and admired her shapely legs in the mirror. Pleased with her appearance, she descended to the chamber where he was being kept.

  He looked up from his breakfast, then back at his plate, making a point of ignoring her.

  “I know you’re mad at me,” she said.

  “Liar, liar pants on fire. Lied, tried, fried, died. One, two, three, four.” It took everything she had not to roll her eyes. Friggin’ counting. Enough already. She took a seat across from him. She wanted to look nervous, so she bit her lip and made her eyes wide.

  “He made me do it.” Her voice cracked.

  Nathan looked up.

  “I’m his prisoner. I needed your help, and I didn’t know what to do.” Tears fell from her blue eyes.

  “Who made you do it?”

  “The man with the big, black car. He won’t let me leave here unless I do what he asks. I’m afraid.”

  Nathan puffed out his chest.

  The rube was falling for it.

  “What does he want you to do?”

  She cleared her throat. “I don’t know if I should tell you.”

  “Tell me, sell me. I want to know.”

  “There are people. These people are hurting babies. He wants me to stop them.”

  His eyes grew huge. “Hurting babies is bad. Bad, bad, sad, mad.”

  She nodded. “Yes, but I’m afraid they’ll hurt me, too, if I try to stop them. I’m not brave enough.”

  “I’m brave.”

  “Yes, you are, Nathan. That’s why I thought you could help me, but now I’m not so sure.”

  “Why not? Don’t you think I’m brave?”

  She covered his hand with her own. “Of course, I think you’re brave. You’re the bravest person I know. But I don’t want to be unfair to you.”

  “I want to help. What do you want me to do?”

  She smiled.

  “You will be driven to the place where they hurt babies. You will need to leave a package there. And you’ll leave a note saying you did it to save the babies.”

  “That doesn’t sound hard. Easy, peasy, leasy.”

  “That’s because you are a brave, brave man.”

  He leaned toward her.

  “Then he will let you go, and we can be together?”

  She licked her lips. Like taking candy from a baby. “If you do a good job.”

  He sat up straighter. “I will. Good. Hood. Should.”

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  THEY GATHERED TOGETHER IN THE STUDY WHERE JEREMY had had some sandwiches brought in.

  Jack rose from his seat. “Jeremy, you said earlier that Dakota was a plant. I need to know more.”

  Jeremy nodded. “You and Taylor were together, but Crosse had someone else in mind for his daughter.”

  “Please don’t call me that,” Taylor cut in. She would never be his daughter.

  “I’m sorry. Dakota works for Crosse. They arranged for her to meet you. She was the third one they tried. Apparently, you resisted the other two women they sent your way.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. What other two women?”

  “Your senior year of college, a girl in your study group made a pass at you. She was one.”

  Jack’s mouth dropped open. “You really know how to make a guy feel like a loser. So much for thinking I had charm.”

  “The point is, you said no. Then there was a colleague when you first started at the Associated Press.”

  Jack shook his head. “I remember. Nancy. I thought she’d never leave me alone.”

  “You have to understand that when they want something, nothing gets in their way. They do deep background checks, psychological evaluations, and they make sure that the health professionals in your life are in their pockets. They knew what kind of environment you grew up in, Jack, the depressions and mood swings your mother experienced. They use profilers to help them when they have a delicate mission.”

  “Why not just kill me?” Jack asked.

  “Because they wanted to break Taylor, to drive her into Malcolm’s arms. What better way to induce her to fall for an older, stable man than to have you betray her? It was easy for Malcolm to insinuate himself into Taylor’s affections.”

  “But why did he care if I married Malcolm?” Taylor interjected.

  “Because Malcolm reported to him, and through him Damon stayed privy to your life without your knowing it. Damon thought Malcolm wouldn’t stand in the way when Damon was ready to execute his plan for you, but obviously he underestimated Malcolm’s feelings for you.”

  Taylor ran a hand through her hair. She felt like she was going to explode. “I want to kill that monster.”

  “It’s like we’re all a bunch of lab rats,” Jack said bitterly.

  “He may have manipulated parts of your lives, but not anymore. You’ve both gotten free, and you’re going to help me take him down.” He walked over to Taylor and spoke gently. “I only found out that you existed after Damon and I had our fight when I wanted to get married. You weren’t pregnant then, but he knew you were trying. He called you his contingency plan. He thought it would save me having to provide an heir since he didn’t want me distracted by a wife.”

  “Are you telling me that he has been watching and waiting for me to breed? That all along, he was waiting to take my child?”

  “It’s not that simple. If I hadn’t betrayed him, he probably would have just watched the child from afar. Nurtured him through others and, when the time was right, brought him into the fold. Eventually, he would be told of his true identity.”

  “Did Malcolm know that I was Crosse’s daughter?” she asked.

  “No. And when I went to Malcolm and told him everything, he agreed to help me. He did it to save you and your child. He wasn’t an evil man, Taylor. He never really had a chance.”

  Taylor felt her anger rise again. She was tired of people making excuses for their bad behavior. Malcolm was a liar and a fraud and nothing anyone said would ever make her change her mind.

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  DAKOTA WAS DRIVIN
G THEM TO THEIR MISSION. NATHAN was going to be a hero. She told him so. He couldn’t wait to make her proud.

  “Now remember, you walk in, go to the waiting room, and sit down for ten minutes.”

  He remembered. They had gone last week, and she showed him where to sit.

  “After exactly ten minutes, you go to the bathroom and leave the package in the trash can. Okay?”

  “Okey dokey, lokey, smokey.”

  “Nathan!” Her voice was too loud.

  “Don’t yell! Tell. Bell.”

  “Tell me again, exactly, what you’re going to do. No rhymes!”

  He folded his arms across his chest and jutted out his chin. He didn’t like it when she talked mean.

  She sighed and reached out to put a hand on his arm. “I’m sorry. I’m just nervous. Please, dear, tell me again.” Her voice was nice now.

  “Go to the waiting room. Sit. Ten minutes. Bathroom. Trash can. Man. Stan. Lan.” He couldn’t help it.

  “Okay. When you leave the bathroom, you wait for me outside to pick you up. Wait for the policeman and then give him this note.” She handed him an envelope.

  “Policemen are scary. Very. Merry.”

  “It’s okay. You are very brave. It’s important that you give him the note. I can’t pick you up until you do. You just wait until he comes, and then you’ll see me.”

  She dropped Nathan off a block away from the clinic. He knew where to go; they had practiced.

  “I’ll see you soon.”

  He walked the block quickly, staring straight ahead. The briefcase was heavy, and he shifted it to the other shoulder. What was he supposed to do with the briefcase after he dropped the package in the can? Man, shan, lan, tan. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Stop! Think! Did he keep it or leave it, too? He didn’t want Dakota to be mad at him. What had she told him? Keep it. That’s it. Put the box in the trash and keep the briefcase.

  He arrived at the clinic and opened the door. A woman was coming out and smiled at him. He squinted his eyes at her. She couldn’t fool him. She was another snarkie. He pushed past her and walked over to the seat closest to the bathroom. Someone was sitting there. No, lo, mo, bo, so. Stop! One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Deep breath. In and out. What to do? He gave her a mean look. Maybe she would get up.