The Noble Mercenary

by Patrick John Donahoe

  Kurt avoided the Professor’s gaze. “No apologies required. I understand.” Kurt said, not wanting to continue this topic of conversation.

  “Please excuse my rudeness, would either of you like to have some refreshments, before we adjourn to the laboratory?”

  “I could use a whiskey on the rocks,” Kurt replied. “A double, actually.”

  “A cold beer for me,” added Aloisia.

  The Professor poured Kurt a drink from the built-in wet bar at the side of the room, and handed Aloisia a cold Amsdel from the bar’s refrigerator. “I don’t know how your father found the time to run Tridente and do all the research he did. He was a remarkable scientist, businessman, and time manager.”

  Kurt replied with bitterness in his voice, “My mother died when I was young. My father sent me off to boarding school to get a ‘quote-unquote’ good education and threw himself into his work 24/7. He had very little time for me, or anyone else. He collaborated with my grandfather, but that was all work related. We did sail for two weeks’ vacation each summer, but my father spent most of the time on the yacht working, not socializing.”

  “I see. . . I’m sorry.”

  Kurt took a sip of his whiskey. “Is Tridente carrying any of the expenses for your work?” he asked.

  “Not directly. The Baron, and his associates, provide the bulk of my funding. Tridente has a line item in its research budget that comes to me under new vitamins’ development.”

  “I haven’t seen that particular item in the books, but I haven’t delved too deeply into Tridente’s accounts . . . yet.” Kurt made a mental note to study Tridente’s books more carefully at the first available opportunity.

  “Are we ready to go to the lab?”

  “I am,” answered Kurt.

  “Very well.” Ehrlich led the way through his handsome mansion to the outside, past a large swimming pool, past a tennis court, to a cottage behind the mansion. The professor entered the key code into the security lock on the cottage door, and they entered a compact, but fully equipped laboratory - clean, brightly lit, and organized.

  Kurt started to ask why Ehrlich’s house, tennis court, swimming pool, and cottage behind the main house, was laid out so similarly to his father’s jungle house, but held back. Maybe he was better off not knowing.

  A young woman in her early twenties with long brown hair, and wearing glasses, sat at a desk, entering data into a computer. Kurt studied the layout: a small desk and chair, a single drawer Mohler safe filled one corner of the room, along one wall were several cages of white mice, and on shelves along the other wall was a lineup of the most current sophisticated laboratory equipment.

  “This is my lab assistant, Janine, a medical student at the University of Sao Paulo.”

  “Nice to meet you Janine,” Kurt shook her hand, and Aloisia followed his example.

  “We have a small facility here, and operate on a smaller budget. Janine works for little pay and graduate credit.” Ehrlich and Janine both laughed at the joke. “Even though we’re a small operation, just the two of us, we have made substantial progress this past year.”

  “Can you fill us in on your progress?” Aloisia asked.

  “Of course, I’m glad you’re finally ready to take the lead.”

  Kurt shot Aloisia an angry glare, “Did your father set me up to continue my father’s work? You told me I only had to evaluate the progress being made, not work on the effort.”

  “I swear,” she replied. “You only have to evaluate the progress.” She grasped Kurt’s arm as a gesture of sincerity.

  “I’m sorry if I hit a sore point with the two of you. I was only expressing a wish for more help, and help from you, Kurt, and Aloisia, as Aloisia is a newly branded doctor in her own right, would be ideal. Don’t mind me.”

  Kurt unclenched his fists, and relaxed slightly. “I’m only here to be briefed on your work, and report to the Baron, no more. So let’s get on with it.”

  Janine interrupted them, “Doctor Ehrlich, excuse me, but I have to get to class. All the latest data has been entered into the file named, ‘Eve.’”

  “Thank you, Janine, see you tomorrow.”

  Janine gathered up her book bag and let herself out of the laboratory.

  Doctor Ehrlich explained his recreations of the last experiments Karl Brandt had conducted with rats, and his duplication of the results. Devising a set of modifications to Karl’s original experiments, he had extended the data base of possible protocols with his successes and failures.

  “One of my protocols extended the lives of several rats by an average of 19%, but their final days exhibited accelerated aging, as if nature wanted revenge for the lengthened lifespans. I feel like I’m under constant pressure. The Baron demands results unnaturally quick, and clear cut. This work takes a great amount of time and involves many trials with multiple failures for every success.” Ehrlich looked at Kurt as if he hoped Kurt would understand.

  “I understand, my father and the Baron are both driven men.”

  “Your father was ahead of his time with cancer and stem cell research. By taking the best aspects of cancer, that is replication without bounds, and stem cells ability to be developed into desired cell type, and to be able to modify DNA to remove undesired characteristics, and implant desired ones, your father was on the path to lengthening our lifespans. We know that cells incur errors as they replicate and we age. I’ve also been repeating your father’s experiments to eliminate DNA replication errors.”

  “Now for the good news.” Ehrlich hesitated for Kurt’s reaction.

  “There’s good news?”

  “Of course, I’ve saved the best for last. I’ve developed what I think is an immortal mouse by modifying his DNA with an engineered virus I grew in mouse cancer cells.”

  The professor opened the door of a cage and gently lifted out what appeared to be the perfect lab mouse, all white hair, pink actively searching eyes, pink nose and feet. “I call him Adam. He’s two-years-old and in perfect health. He runs my test maze faster than any of my other test mice. I can change the arrangements of the partitions and run him through one time, and the next time, with the same partitions, he’ll run the maze without any dead ends.”

  He placed Adam back in his cage and picked a baby mouse from the adjacent cage and held it up for Kurt to examine. “This is Eve. I’ve used the same techniques to develop her as a mate for Adam. She’ll be immortal also. With this pair I’ll breed an army of immortal mice for further experiments.”

  “Very interesting,” Kurt said, examining the tiny animal. “Can I borrow your lab reports to read for a couple of days?” Kurt placed the mouse back in its cage.

  “Of course, Kurt. Do you mind if I call you Kurt?”

  “Please do. What else can you tell me?”

  “I have copies of all of your father’s research notes on DVD if you would like to study them.”

  “Do the DVDs contain the records of his other research . . .the deadly viruses and bacteria he worked on?”

  “They do. You’re welcome to all of it. I’ve not delved into those areas.” Ehrlich lied, having noted Kurt’s negativity, although he had made some improvements, dangerous improvements in a substandard laboratory. “Besides, this is a home laboratory, not a Level Three, or higher, bio lab.”

  “I’m only interested in my father’s longevity research to extend, and improve, everyone’s quality of life, not in developing humanity destroying bio-pathogens for the Select’s evil purposes.” Kurt spoke directly to the professor in a matter of fact tone, fully aware that Aloisia was hanging on to every word he said.

  Doctor Ehrlich walked over to a standard three drawer metal filing cabinet, retrieved three DVDs, and handed them to Kurt. “One of these DVDs summarizes your father’s work on the longevity project, the second summarizes his work on deadly viruses and bacteria, and the third documents my efforts to date to further our understanding of longevity, including Adam and Eve. Will there be anything else?”

&n
bsp; “This will do for now. I’ll get back to you with questions when I’ve gone over the material.”

  On their way home, Kurt was silent for the first half hour. Aloisia was uncertain how their next conversation would go, so she avoided initiating it. Kurt stopped short of the electric gate, but instead of clicking his wireless gate opener, he turned to Aloisia, and said, “You know I would prefer not to be involved in any of my father’s research, not even his life extending work.”

  “I know my darling, but please do enough so my father will not try to prevent us from staying together.”

  “For you I’ll try my best. Just remember I’m opposed to my father’s bio-weapons.” But, Kurt did not tell Aloisia how his interest had been piqued by Ehrlich’s Adam and Eve. He thought, after I’ve studied Ehrlich’s work in great detail, I may give Ehrlich a positive report for his Adam and Eve research.

  Forty Seven

  The four met at Serena’s house the day after Jacques returned home. Jacques left Charmaine at his apartment, and told her to rest. She would get to meet his other three friends that evening at a party. Charmaine was content to follow Jacques’ lead.

  When Jacques arrived at Serena’s the other three were already there. Serena had called in for delivery pizza and beer. She was too exhausted from her travels to cook a big meal.

  “Welcome home, traveler,” Serena greeted Jacques at the door. She gave him a big ‘happy to have you home’ hug and led him into the living room. The room smelled heavenly of combination pizzas, Jacques’ favorite.

  Ian and Desiree in turn hugged Jacques and welcomed him home.

  “I didn’t know you were going to throw me a party, or I would have come home sooner,” Jacques said grinning from ear to ear.

  “Sit down and shut up before all the food is gone. The last few slices are for you,” Ian said around a mouth full of peperoni, sausage and mushroom pizza.

  Jacques squeezed himself between Ian and Desiree on the sofa, and grabbed a large slice of pizza.

  “While you three reprobates are stuffing your faces, we have some items of business to discuss,” Serena announced, taking charge.

  “Uh oh, Miss Iron Pants is at it again,” said Jacques.

  “Listen up and this won’t take long.” Serena gave Jacques one of her ‘don’t mess with me’ looks.

  “OK, OK, I’ll zip it,” Jacques said, and grabbed the largest slice of pizza.

  Serena moved an empty pizza box aside, handed Jacques a cold beer from the cooler next to the coffee table, and sat on the table’s edge. “Jacques, we’re glad you’re back, safe and sound.”

  “Hear, hear,” Ian said, “welcome home, brother,” and ‘clinked’ bottles with Jacques. The others chimed in, “Welcome home.”

  Serena said, “Konrad Jaekel and David Egan are both in CIA custody. With the data we pulled off Jaekel’s laptop and the email traffic Egan sent as a spy for the Select, both of them will spend many years in prison. Congratulations to Desiree for her fine work with Alicia at the NSA. We couldn’t have caught the spy without her.”

  Ian said, “Salud,” and he and Jacques clinked their bottles of Budweiser with Desiree’s glass of cranberry juice.

  “Thank you, all of you.” Desiree said.

  Serena continued, “We’re hoping we can find out who Jaekel’s assassins are so they can be rounded up, and we warned Chancellor Merkel that an attempt may be made on her life. I tipped off the CIA that the Baron has made more progress on his stealth aircraft than he has owned up to, but they don’t seem to care. It seems they knew he was working on the stealth aircraft that took Jacques into and out of Russia, but didn’t know how operational it was. Now they know.”

  “What are they going to do about it?” asked Desiree.

  “Probably nothing more than pressure him to reveal his progress. Spy business makes odd bedfellows.”

  “It sure does,” Ian added.

  “The Baron continues to run his company as if nothing happened.”

  “I would love to know how Katherine and the Baron’s henchman got out of my hotel room after Charmaine and I handcuffed them together . . . naked.” Jacques realized his friends didn’t know about Kat being naked in his hotel room, and hoped they wouldn’t pry.

  “We all might like to hear more about that whole episode sometime,” Serena said.

  Jacques, embarrassed, leaned forward to speak, but was at a loss for words.

  “But not now,” Serena added.

  Everybody laughed.

  Jacques leaned back on the sofa, chagrined at being stopped from telling his story, his way. Jacques held up his beer indicating he wanted to add something.

  “Yes?” Serena asked.

  “Do you know what Louise and Herman are doing?”

  “We think they’re still in the Baron’s employ back at the drone factory.”

  “I hope they’ll quit working for the Baron. There could be some hope for them.”

  “For your sake and for theirs, I hope you’re right. We’ve added them, and others, to our list of Select members, and obtained more background on the ones we have. They’re a large and powerful organization. It’s too bad you can’t work undercover with the Baron anymore.”

  “I’m glad I can’t,” Jacques said.

  “We’ll stop them some other way,” Desiree said.

  Serena continued, “As we’ve been hearing on the daily news, Putin’s interference in the Ukraine continues to get worse.”

  “Did Jaekel’s failed assassination plot stir up Putin to become more aggressive?” Jacques asked.

  “Perhaps, we don’t know,” Serena replied. “He’s taken over the Crimea, and deployed shock troops to the eastern Ukraine, with obvious objectives to annex the Ukraine.”

  “Does anyone have anything else to add before we get back to some serious partying?” asked Ian.

  “Yes, I do,” Jacques added. “What do we know about Kurt Brandt? Is he behaving himself?’

  “Our source in Brazil informed us that Kurt has married Aloisia von Hapsburg, and they’re running a village clinic for the poor outside of Sao Paulo. He also seems to have taken some interest in acting as CEO of Tridente Pharmaceutical.”

  “I, for one, hope he keeps his nose clean and stays away from his father’s research,” said Ian.

  “I hope he can stay out of the Baron’s clutches,” added Desiree.

  “So far, so good,” said Serena. “Anything else?”

  “Yes, I want to talk about Charmaine,” Jacques said.

  “We’re sorry about Jon’s death, and Gretzky going missing. We hope Gretzky got out of Russia alive,” said Serena.

  “Thank you,” said Jacques. “What are we going to do for Charmaine? I was hoping she could somehow stay with us.”

  “Well, she can’t go back to Russia, and she can’t stay here with us.”

  “Why can’t she stay here?” Jacques asked.

  Serena looked to Ian, then Desiree, then continued, “If anyone ever made the connection between us, and her, and the assassination attempt, it would create an international incident we couldn’t resolve. Vladimir Putin will have an all-out investigation into Charmaine, Jon, Gretzky and yourself.”

  “Gretzky didn’t know anything about me, and Jon is dead.”

  “True, but Charmaine is still alive. We can’t allow you, her, and us to be linked, especially if they link Ian and me, to you and Charmaine.

  “So what do we do?”

  “Enjoy having her here with us for a few days, and then Moira thinks she can take Charmaine to Israel, and make good use of her talents there --”

  “Israel. . . wouldn’t that be even more dangerous for her than staying here!” Jacques interrupted.

  “As I was going to say, or she could go into the witness protection program here, and start a new life. It can be her choice.”

  Jacques settled down, embarrassed at his outburst. “I see.”

  “Talk it over with her, since you’re her friend, and let me know what s
he decides. We’ll do everything we can to protect her, either way.”

  “OK.” Jacques remained on the edge of the sofa. “Before I pick up Charmaine and bring her here for our get together this evening. . . would it be possible to bring her into our group?”

  “As a friend?” Serena asked.

  “Serena, you’re being difficult, no, as one of our team. We haven’t brought a new member onboard in the last 914 years. Maybe we should now.”

  “Are you in love with her?”

  Jacques hesitated at the question. He hadn’t considered the real reason for wanting Charmaine to be an integral part of the group. “Maybe, I don’t know.”

  “If she is to be one of us, there has to be a good reason,” added Desiree.

  “I know, and I apologize, maybe my judgment is clouded.”

  “It’s alright, Jacques, I had the same quandary many years ago with a woman I cared about,” said Ian.

  “We have all cared deeply about a mortal at one time or another. It doesn’t mean they’re supposed to join us,” continued Serena. “When the right one, or ones, come along, I think we’ll all know, and there won’t be any questions. Enjoy your friendship with Charmaine, but I don’t think she’s the right one. Besides, you know having her work closely with us now, or any time in the near future, could be very dangerous for us, as well as for her.”

  “Sorry, Jacques, but I agree,” said Desiree.

  “Me, too,” added Ian.

  “I’m going to pick her up at my apartment and bring her here, if everyone agrees.”

  “Of course,” Serena answered for herself, Ian and Desiree. “Hurry back.”

  Jacques left Serena’s house feeling disappointed. He knew they were right. He wasn’t even convinced that Charmaine was right for their group. He felt like a teenager around Charmaine, even though he was 934 years old, and had had his share of mortal flings. He told himself, I’ll enjoy her company for as long as I can. He turned up the volume on his car’s Satellite radio station playing Glen Campbell’s Gentle on My Mind, and felt sorry for himself.

  When he arrived at his apartment, he found Charmaine dressed in shorts and blouse and casual flats, ready to accompany him to the party. In flats, she was just the right height for Jacques to bend down slightly and kiss her on the lips. In high heels they were eye to eye. Jacques decided to enjoy their relationship, and not spoil their short time together by moaning over the fact that one day, too soon, he would have to call it off.