Chapter 89 - Breakthrough (1/2)
An old truck was speeding down the road as it headed outside of town. Inside, Grandpa Crowe was just listening to the radio as he was paying attention to the road while lost in thought. He couldn't help but wake up once his phone started ringing.
”What?”
”You know how hard you are to find Mr. Jones? Or Mr. Smith? Or whatever you go by these days?”
”That's the point of not wanting to be found and don't bother trying to guess. How did you find me anyway?”
”It's easy to locate someone when you've got more that a few senate members in your back pocket.”
”Good for you. What do you want?”
”You know what I want!”
”And you know I'm not going to give it to you. Guess this was a waste of both our time.”
”Hold on now. You should know that we are already making progress towards our goals, the only reason I want the information is to save time and lives along the way.”
”I don't really give a rat's ass.”
”So you don't care that people will be subjected to intense torture like pain because you refuse to hand over a few notes?”
”Bingo. Guess you're not as dumb as we all thought you were.”
”To think my father held you in such high regard.”
”He held me in high regard because I stuck with him until the end. I held him in high regard because he knew when enough was enough. Too many lives were wasted on that project. Your dad understood that and shut it down.”
”He was just scared. He could have made humans immortal, but he was too short-sited.”
”Is that why you killed him kid?”
”My father died from a heart attack which had nothing to do with me. If he were still alive, I'm sure he would be thrilled with what I've done with his work. Thanks to me, Global Sciences has become the leader in biotech engineering. That was something he could only dream about.”
”No kid. His dream was to help improve the world, not help destroy it.”
”We are not trying to destroy the world, we are trying to save it. My father just forgot that part in the end. He was more focused on the test subjects that had become monsters than he was on pushing through till the end.”
”No one regretted Frankenstein's monster more than Dr. Frankenstein himself.”
”What the hell does that mean?”
”Sigh. Never mind.”
”Look. The information from the experiments with that fossilized plant belongs to the world and it's something we need more than ever. It's obvious that what my father did back then was only the prelude. The world is changing once again. Whether you like it or not old man, people are changing. The more we understand, the better prepared we can be. Tell me, how have you and the others been affected?”
Grandpa Crowe paused for a moment. Despite knowing that nothing good can come from responding, he knew that there was no point in hiding it.
”Some of them went insane and killed themselves. Some of them didn't go insane and still killed themselves. And as for the rest? Well, we might as well be insane for all that it matters.” Grandpa Crowe couldn't help but shiver at the thought of the pain his body went through every time his energy flared up. Bill had it pretty easy since it just affected his head due to that crazy eye. As for his brother Chu, he was lucky since he didn't come to the states until after everything had ended. As far as Grandpa Crowe knew, he was still unaffected.
”Hmm... interesting. You know, we've found that the energy that is taking over people is like an illness. And illness's can be treated. Having that information will help us greatly on our path towards a cure.”
”Heh. Sweet sounding words. But I have never heard of a drug company that actually wanted to cure diseases, they just want to sell more drugs to treat it. You're a business man Declark, your father was the scientist. Don't get your rolls reversed.”
”Fine. I will pay you. 10 million, tax free. What do you think?”
”I think i'm old and won't live that long. Sorry, I'm at detestation. Hope you can find me again some other time,” and with that, Grandpa Crowe hung up the phone as he pulled into Bill's driveway. By the time he got to the end, he saw Bill and brother Chu sitting around and drinking a bit while brother Chu was once again trying to teach Bill how to play mahjong. Seeing the look on Grandpa Crowe's face, they couldn't help but ask what was wrong.
”The kid found me which means the government will be coming to find us soon.”
”Do they know how many of us are left?” Bill asked with concern.
”No, I don't think so,” Grandpa Crowe answered after thinking it over.
”That's good. What do we do about Laz? We can't drag him into this,” Bill asked.
”Maybe it's time that he got going?” Chu suggested.
”Yeah, maybe...” Grandpa Crowe seemed to hesitate.
”I know. He won't go if he knows we are in trouble. Even though he's just a little shit, he's got balls on him, that's for sure.”
”Brother Chu, have you arranged the dojo?”
”Already done. He's set to go in a few weeks. He will be safe there,” Chu said while shuffling the tiles.