The Haissem lab was the most secure of the I.G.E.G.G.M labs, with three levels of decontaminating airlocks that had to be crossed through before entering the main working area of the clean lab, and with two armed guards stationed permanently on guard outside the lab twenty-four-hours a day. Such security was standard practice for all Class A genetics projects and was mandated by the government regulations, so in itself the guards wouldn’t draw any extra attention to the project. Everyone else in the building who worked on other projects at the I.G.E.G.G.M. just thought it was another of the Professors many new projects and didn’t give it a second thought. They had their own work to get on with.
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The preparations were complete two days before the Crown arrived, and the night before its arrival the Professor called everyone together for dinner. Lydia was also in Oxford for the weekend, visiting Jason while on a week's leave from Egypt, and she was immediately accepted by everyone as an honorary founding team member. It was a great evening, the wine flowed freely, and everyone was inspired and excited. The next day couldn’t come fast enough.
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It arrived rather unceremoniously in a blue Securicor van, escorted by the Cardinal’s assistant, who watched the Professor sign a document of receipt and then promptly disappeared, without so much as a “God Bless” or a “Hail Mary”.
The group gathered in the air-purified lab, each member wearing their full Class A biological protective ‘bunny suits’ with protective face masks to prevent contamination of the samples in the lab.
As they removed the Crown from its velvet lined heavy duty metal container, which Jason suggested would probably have survived a nuclear attack, they stared in wonder at the small object in front of them.
Jason and Don were both not Christians, but as they looked at it before it was placed in the airtight-humidity controlled safe in the laboratory, they both felt something which they couldn’t immediately describe.
Something...there was ‘something’ about it. Jason felt the hairs on his arms and the back of his neck stand on end, and Don felt a wave of emotion running through his body. The first real emotion he had probably felt in years. Where it had come from he didn’t know. Just that suddenly it was there, and that he felt awe, sadness, joy, and expectation all at once, conjured up from nowhere by the simple object before them.
Neither of them really knew what to expect, but Jason had imagined something round, with a patchwork of thorns interwoven to form a sort of “thorn tiara”, like he had seen sitting on Christ’s head in the religious pictures in the art galleries. Whatever they had imagined, what they had in front of them now didn’t exactly match their expectations. The Crown turned out to be a rather simple affair, more triangular in form than round, with numerous large thorns sticking out at obscure angles from several coarsely interwoven branches. Jason’s first thought was that it was ugly, and would have been very painful to wear.
It was a dark brown in colour, and the surface of the thorns were smooth in some places but rough in others. In places it looked dirty, and the surface of the thorns had begun to peel back revealing the inside of the plant stem underneath.
The Professor and Jason examined it with magnifying glasses as it sat on a dish before them, hoping to be able to see some obvious signs of some blood on the surface of the thorns. Unbelievably, two of the thorns on the inside of the crown gave them immediate hope. The tips were pointing inwards and were discoloured at the ends, being slightly darker than the rest of the surface.
The Professor was quick to point out though that they shouldn’t get their hopes up. If there were any samples to be taken they were most likely to get them from inside the thorns, from blood soaked up into the membranes of the plant, and not from the outside surface.
But as they locked away the Crown and returned to their own homes that night, each person could not help but think of the discolorations they had seen on those thorn tips, and sleep didn’t come easy to any of them as they lay in the darkness of their rooms wondering what the months ahead would contain.
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Chapter Fourteen
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“Louisa, I’ve made an appointment for you to go to the Science Engineering Lab and have several spectro-holograms made of the Crown. They’re expecting you at ten, so you’d better get your skates on.” The professor announced at the first of their team meetings: whenever Wainright was working on a new or an important project he had a team meeting at 8.30am every Monday morning to get an update on the week before and plan the week ahead.
“Why a hologram?”
“They’re not just holograms, my dear. They are spectro-holograms. The object in question is recorded using multiple wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum, the images formed by the interference patterns of the different wavelengths being recorded on the recording crystal on different lattice planes. A computer can then scan the images from the recording crystal into the computer and we can generate holograms of the object at any wavelength of light we want. We can then view the holographic image in the infra-red, ultra-violet or even the X-ray regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.” The professor explained enthusiastically.
“How can that help us?” Jason asked.
“First of all, we need to know exactly what the object looks like. To get any blood samples we may have to conduct destructive testing on the material of the Crown…i.e. remove bits or even whole thorns from the branches that make it up…Of course, using the digital holographic maps we will be able to use other thorns to make exact replacements for the ones we test destructively, so that later on no one will be able to tell that any are missing."
"Secondly, and this is the neat thing, dried blood cells resonate at certain frequencies when stimulated. By irradiating the Crown with that range of frequencies, electromagnetic radiation will be reflected back from the Crown at those frequencies only where blood residue is present, and we will be able to get a holographic mapping of all the areas on the Crown where blood samples exist!”
“If there are no blood samples on the surface of the Crown, what then?” Jason asked.
“Then the next step is to conduct Nuclear Magnetic Resonance scanning of the Crown on a spread of different frequencies. I’ve arranged for this to be done at the hospital. NMR scans allow us to see the inside of the Crown at any depth or level we want. From that we can build up a map of the inside of the thorns, and that will allow us to pinpoint exactly where any blood may have been soaked up into the membranes within the thorns! Jason, that will be your job...”
“.… And remember, whenever you handle the crown, you must use your laboratory gloves. Never, on any account, should you touch it without wearing gloves!”
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When transporting the Crown from department to department they had agreed to used minimal security to avoid drawing attention to themselves, carrying it in its secure metal box in one of the laboratory's small white vans.
Later that morning Louisa arrived at the Engineering Science lab and was met at the entrance by a tall, good looking young American in his early thirties.
“Hi…you must be Louisa. I’m Mike Sanderson!” he introduced himself, smiling ear to ear, and revealing a perfect set of white teeth.
“Hi Mike...” Louisa replied, nervously shaking his hand and trying to hide the immediate attraction she felt to him. It was a long time since she had felt so drawn to a man. She had very high standards which were seldom met.
Mike was extremely good looking, but Louisa matched him in her beauty, and Mike felt drawn to her in return...in spite of his training.
In general, he was not attracted to English women, finding them too weak minded and white. The sun never shone in the UK anymore, the skies being almost permanently covered by grey, depressing clouds. Climate Change had a lot to answer for. He preferred sun-tanned American women, who invariably took a lot more pride in their appearance than the English ladies.
“
Let me help you with that!” Mike took hold of the containing box for the Crown and carried it up the three flights of stairs to the laboratory. The elevator in the Engineering department never worked.
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The laboratory had been set up in advance and was ready for them when they arrived. ‘Officially’ the object that was being examined was a religious relic from Russia from around the turn of the first millennium, and they were researching the likelihood of it having belonged to one of the Saints who lived in the tenth century. Not interested in religious relics, Mike handled the container carefully but didn’t pay much attention to it.
Instead, he paid a lot of attention to Louisa. He flirted with her throughout the day, and by the end of the afternoon she was obviously beginning to warm to him, even accepting his invitation to dinner one night the next week. When the work in the laboratory had been completed, Louisa gave him her telephone number and left with the Crown in its protective metal box. Mike promised to call her in the next few days, once the data was ready for handing over.
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It was standard practice on all commercial holographic projects to hand over all the computer data, holographic plates and holographic crystals, and any exposed recording medium used. All rights and copies belonged to the commissioning party. For the analysis of the Crown, Professor Wainright had agreed with Mike’s boss, Prof. Smythe of the Engineering lab, that all the images and data would be handed over to Jason, who was Wainright’s student and who was basing his doctorate’s DPhil. on ‘the analysis and application of computer techniques to the verification of historical artefacts using genetic coding’.
Prof. Smythe's team had developed a software programme that enabled the analysis of the holographic images at all the different wavelengths, and to assist Jason in his research they had agreed to provide a copy of the programme so that Jason could do further analysis in his own time.
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It took two days for Mike and his lab assistant to complete the imaging and package all the data up in a suitable database, integrated with their software programme so that they could hand it over to Jason for them to run on their own Cray computer in the I.G.E.G.G.M lab.
The images that had come out were good, and although it was not allowed, a gut instinct told Mike to make a copy of one of the holographic images to keep secretly for himself. He had a hunch that there was more to the project than he knew about, but didn’t know what...yet.
Unfortunately, because of the secure encryption tagging system that they used on the data, it wasn’t possible to also copy the actual raw data from the holographic analysis without Jason knowing it, so when Jason came to collect the data two days later he handed over the complete package he had prepared for him. The data, the images, …everything.
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There was something about the project which troubled Mike. He had once been trained how to spot when a person was lying, and once he knew the physical telltale signs, he found it quite easy to spot when a person was not telling the truth.
And Louisa had lied when she had described the history of the religious artefact and their reason for conducting research on it. It hadn’t bothered him at the time, but afterwards when she had left, he remembered it, and it disturbed him.
So why had she lied? And what was it really all about? He had to know, and he knew the person who could tell him. Louisa.
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Chapter Fifteen
Mike was a hard worker. He had always been a good student, conscientious, loyal and extremely patriotic. When he graduated from Harvard with his degree in Physics, he met all the criteria laid down by the CIA for the ‘Good Citizen’ programme, his good looks being a special bonus which would come in very handy in his future career: five foot ten, tanned skin, brown hair, smouldering dark brown eyes, high cheek bones with dimples in both cheeks. When Mike smiled, women melted in response to his irresistible Latin looks, and firm, strong body.
They had recruited him when he was doing his doctorate in Physics at MIT, and after graduating he had spent twelve months undergoing specialised field training, which qualified him to act as an undercover field agent in the coming years. Everyone who had worked with him on the programme agreed that Mike was going to be a very rewarding investment and would make an ideal agent for the United States of America.
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Apart from having the fees and expenses for all his college education reimbursed to him, Mike had welcomed the opportunity to serve America. His vision was to help restore the country to its former glory.
When the SARs 2 virus had swept across America, society had started to collapse and it was only by the temporary imposition of martial law that total anarchy had been avoided.
When the president, vice-president and a third of the Senators in the Senate had been infected with the virus and died, the military had stepped in and taken control of the country for a few months, until the next elections had swept General Jamieson into power as the new President of America.
General Jamieson was regarded as being the architect behind the successful ongoing war against terrorism. Surprisingly, no one had blamed him for not being able to prevent the terrorist attack that had seen the release of the Flu virus into the subway of New York.
However, the swift arrest and subsequent military executions of the terrorists responsible had helped raise his profile even higher amongst his fellow Americans. It was no surprise therefore that Jamieson was considered by the American public to be the one leader who could best lead their weakened country back to its former strength.
He was the right man in the right place at the right time. What people didn't realise until too late, was that the man behind the public image was a very different man indeed. President Jamieson had few enemies. Who were alive. Those close to the man, knew him as a ruthless egotist, powerful, strong, and determined. No one stood in his way. No one dared to.
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Although Mike hadn’t wanted to move abroad the CIA had persuaded him that with his skills he would make the ideal plant, and he had finally accepted a posting to Oxford University. Officially he was just a normal Fellow of the University, with a specialisation in Holographic Analytical Techniques, his field of specialisation at MIT. In reality though he was an undercover agent, gathering information of any sort that could be useful to the CIA.
Oxford was still one of the intellectual centres of the world. Part of his job was to gather as much information as possible on the new research that was being conducted in the university, and ensure that the CIA was kept aware of any new developments that American industry could benefit from commercially.
The other part of his job was to socialise with the rich and famous who visited the university, to make friends and influence the sons and daughters of the important and wealthy who studied at the colleges, and to gather any titbits of information that could be of interest to the American government. And he got a bonus for every person he recruited as a spy for the Agency.
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His funding from the CIA allowed him to be one of the most ‘popular’ people on the Oxford social circuit, always able to buy champagne for his ‘friends’.
He also proved to be very popular with the ladies.
Although he probably didn't need it, during his CIA field training he had spent several weeks being taught how to seduce women, and had been shown all the techniques how to make women blissfully happy in bed.
Not surprisingly Mike had found this to be the most enjoyable part of the training, and had been taught personally by some of the most attractive women he had ever met. Although he had scored highly in all parts of the field training, the lead instructor on the course had decided that Mike required an ‘extra week of personal tuition’.
At the end of the week she had admitted to her colleagues that even she had learned a few more tricks from the young man.
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Mike was interested in Louisa. She aroused him, of that there was no doubt. But why had she lied about the religious relic? There was something about her story that didn’t ring true. He decided that apart from having pleasure with Louisa when they next met, that he was going to do his best to find out what was really going on.
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Louisa was already sitting in an alcove at the back of the pub when Mike walked in. She was wearing a knee length dress, and had her hair up. Her dress hugged her figure and Mike was impressed how sexy she was. He smiled to himself. “This was going to be a good evening.”
After a drink or two they moved onto dinner at Browns. They were both relaxed with each other, and the attraction between them was mutual.
“So…tell me a little more about the project you’re working on? Where did you get the relic from?” Mike started to probe for answers just about when the dessert course arrived during dinner. Hopefully, having had a few drinks, Louisa would open up a little about her work.
“Just like I said earlier, it’s a relic from Russia that’s supposed to belong to one of the Catholic saints. It’s from a private collector and comes from abroad…I really can’t say much more because he, the owner that is...has sworn us to secrecy and he contributes quite a lot financially to the running of the lab, so we value his trust...Oh...maybe I’ve told you too much already. I’m never very good at keeping a secret…” Louisa pretended to blush. She was sticking to the cover story they had concocted regardless of how much she wanted to tell him the truth!
Mike knew better than to push it at the wrong moment. He knew that later that evening he would get the truth from her.
The Messiah Conspiracy - A gripping page-turning Medical Thriller - [Omnibus Edition containing Book 1 & Book 2] Page 6
