Chapter 3

New York, USA.

The Bentley pulled up in front of one of the great buildings on Fifth Avenue, near the Metropolitan Museum. They got out of the car and entered the building. The man who had always spoken to them entered the elevator with them, while the other two who accompanied him stayed in the car and continued on their way. They came to a large entrance hall to one of the apartments, with marble floors and walls covered with some paintings that they supposed must cost a fortune. A butler greeted them and led them across the hall to an office which looked more like a library, judging by the number of books. The butler asked them to sit down, while the other subject told them he was going to look for Mr. Richmond, leaving immediately.

"Can I get you something while you wait?" The butler asked them.

"If possible, a soda," Doris asked, somewhat embarrassed. The butler nodded slightly.

"And for the gentleman?"

"Just water, thanks," Mark replied.

The butler left the office, closing the doors behind him. Mark still maintained certain skepticism, agreeing to go to that place out of curiosity to know who was this apparently very powerful character who had followed in his footsteps in recent days and now had them there, at his mercy, about to ask them for information about something they had promised to keep secret. He looked around and noticed that on the back wall, behind the large desk, there was a kind of picture with an emblem unknown to him, which showed what apparently was an open book with a very bright sun in the back, and in the center of the book a kind of star, with its lower peak longer than the rest. In the upper part of the sun they could read some words in Latin: Dux Vocavit¸ and in the lower part another: Ut Dicitur. Mark’s attention was drawn to them and he took his little notebook and pen out of his suit, jotting them down. I would find out what they meant later.

“What do you think they mean?” Doris asked him, seeing he wrote down those words.

“I don’t know, but I’ll find out later.”

“Why later? I can g****e it right now with my phone.”

Then she started looking for her cell phone in her bag.

"We’ll look for it later! I don’t think it means much. Put your phone away!”

Doris was dazed.

“Okay! Okay..! You don’t have to get like this! I already put it away ...”

Behind them, the study doors opened again, giving way to the butler, who was carrying on a tray a bottle of mineral water, a can of soda, and two glasses of ice. He placed the tray on the large desk and immediately poured the contents of the water and soda into each glass, offering them to each and then leaving with the tray. Not a minute passed, when the doors were reopened, this time to give way to a tall, thin man, elegantly dressed, with a fine mustache and glasses, incipient bald and graying hair, and apparently no more than sixty. years. The butler, who had opened the doors for his employer, closed them again, leaving them alone in the study. Mark rose to shake his hand, and Mr. Richmond squeezed it briefly, then greeted Doris in kind.

“Let me to introduce myself: my name is Philip Nathaniel Richmond. It is a great honor to meet you, Detectives Forney and Ventura. Please excuse me for being late," he said serenely as he sat in the wide leather chair behind the desk, "lunch was served a little later than usual today.”

"Given the conditions of our meeting, I’m afraid I can’t say the same, Mr. Richmond," Mark said, trying to hide a bit the tension he felt at the time. “I really have to tell you this whole situation is a bit awkward for us.”

Richmond stared at him for a few seconds.

“I apologize if my staff has treated you incorrectly. If you are here at this time it is because you have rejected my initial offer, and now it is my turn to personally convince you to give me the information I need to locate the clone child and Dr. Hansen.”

"We don’t have that information," Doris replied. “We only help them escape the FBI. We don’t know where they went after that.”

"May I ask you why this sudden interest after so many years?" Mark asked.

Richmond leaned forward in the chair, resting his elbows on the desk, staring at him.

“What I’m going to tell you should stay between us. Agree?”

Mark hesitated a few seconds before nodding, if they were already there they should get to the bottom of it all. Doris nodded, too, expectantly.

“I have information from reliable sources where it is assured that in the coming days the self-proclaimed Islamic State will carry out a violent terrorist attack of gigantic proportions in the United States. We don’t know where or when it will happen, but it will happen, and it will be here, in our country. Most likely cities: Washington or New York.”

He paused to see the impact his words had made on his interlocutors. Although Mark and Doris were hardly surprised, they were even more confused. Mark was the first to react.

"Are you sure? Where did you get that information from?”

“From internal sources in the government. A few days ago they received the information from their agents and spies in Pakistan and Turkey; they intercepted messages sent between terrorist cells in those countries, where they were apparently negotiating the means to transport a large device to America.”

"But Isis is already defeated and doesn’t operate in those countries," Mark observed. “Their caliphate was in Iraq, where they have been practically eliminated, according to official information.”

“Yes, Mr. Forney, officially the Islamic State has been defeated, but it isn’t known if it is still operating. It had thousands of fighters in many countries. Who could deny they are not planning something like what I am telling you?”

“And why hasn’t the government said anything?” Doris intervened. “If that information is true, they should be preparing and alerting the population ...”

“They don’t want to generate panic, what of September 11 is still latent in most of the people. In addition, they don’t know from which of those two countries the device will come out. They are in the phase of verifying the information received, and so far the only thing is confirmed is the device is already built, but they don’t know what it is like, what material it is made of and what its destructive capacity is.”

Richmond settled back in the chair, which looked more like a luxurious armchair, waiting for his guests to digest the information received. He began to touch the tips of his fingers with each other, playing with them for a few seconds. As always, Mark was the first to react.

“And what does the clone child have to do with all this? Why do you want to locate it?”

“Apparently one of the possible demands of Isis will be that we hand over the clone child, to be executed live over the internet, as a lesson for the scientific community and the infidels of the west for having played God. Another demand could be the return of the lost territories in Iraq, but neither that information, nor that of the child, has yet to be confirmed. Whether they are true or not will be known when they are made public.”

"But they don’t believe in Jesus," Doris observed. “I don’t know much about religion, but as I understand it, they believe in the Prophet Muhammad and the Quran. It would not affect them at all if Jesus was cloned. Or am I wrong?”

"Let’s just say this is a dangerous game between religions," Richmond said. “Muslims have Islam with its prophet Muhammad and the Quran; the Jews to Abraham and the Torah; Catholics to the Bible and Jesus of Nazareth, Buddhists to Buddha, and so on with other theological currents that I am not going to explain to you now because it wouldn’t be relevant. The truth is all of them believe they have the absolute truth, and in that sense they carry out their devotional activities as they have been taught throughout the centuries. The most radical are Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and now Isis, or Islamic State, with its terrorist attacks against the "infidels", as they call us in this part of the world. The truth is for any religion which doesn’t have Jesus of Nazareth as messiah and guide, having him return to the world represents a danger or a threat to their beliefs, even though a clone that may not do anything more than exist. He would oxygenate or empower the religions that follow him and unleash a true world revolution as he did thousands of years ago. Jesus of Nazareth has been and continues to be an important figure in human history, and many people await his "second coming" with hope and faith, to eradicate the evils of this world.”

"But this second coming would be after the apocalypse, according to the Bible ..." Mark said. “It would be naive to think the clone child represents that second coming at the present time.”

“And what makes you think that we are not on the verge of an apocalypse?” Richmond asked with some perspicacity. “The conflicts in the Middle East do not stop; treaties against the proliferation of nuclear weapons are dying; there are countries like North Korea and Iran challenging the rest of the world with their tests; the growing tension between Russia, Syria and the United States with their allies like Israel ...”

"Then it would only take a small spark to ignite the gunpowder." Mark thought he understood where Richmond was going with his words. “And that little spark can be the clone child?”

"Maybe. Maybe not."

“And what do your sources tell you about what the government is going to do about the child?” Doris asked.

“No decision has been made on this yet. At the moment they are focused on verifying if the threat is true. They are not ruling out conducting a search operation for the child, but only to make sure they have all the aces up their sleeve, should they ever need them.”

“And what interest do you have in the child?” Mark asked this time. “Why do you want to find it before our government?”

“Believe it or not, I’m a man of convictions, and although I confess that I am not very devout, I believe in God, and I thank him for giving me the health and drive necessary to have everything I have now, but it doesn’t mean you believe the clone child is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. For me, he is only a child, and as such he doesn’t deserve such a horrendous fate as Isis wants to give him. I just want to protect him, make sure no one else who wants to harm him will find him, or uses him as a pawn in a power game between nations or religious groups. In my point of view, this child can be a powerful instrument for the disturbance of world peace, destabilizing nations and economies, and since I depend to a large extent on those economies, I cannot lose everything I have built over the years with efforts and sacrifices, and I’m sure that more than one person in my position thinks the same. That is why I need your help, to tell me where they could have gone six years ago, and for that information I would be willing to pay you a lot of money.”

Deep within himself, Mark was not quite convinced of the man’s intentions, although the financial part could well be a more than valid reason for anyone. There was something about him that he didn't like, and surely his friend thought the same, so it was wise to be cautious.

"I see you have the means to pay for a professional search for the child, Mr. Richmond, and yet you haven’t, or so it seems. I wonder what role my partner and I play in all this, the true role, because I don’t conceive in any way that it depends on the information we can contribute to start the search.”

Richmond laughed frankly at being exposed.

"You are a very apprehensive person, Detective." He leaned forward in the chair again, and leaned back on his elbows on the desk, "and it’s true: I have the means and the resources, and that’s why you’re here. I’ll be frank with you: I hadn’t started a search for the boy because I wanted you precisely, partly to convince you of my intentions. Work for me, investigate the whereabouts of Hansen and the boy, and when you have found them, convince them to come under my protection, and you will see for yourself what I tell you is true. You will be witnesses of where I will take them, where I will hide them, the comforts I will provide so that they don’t continue to flee. What do you say?”

Mark and Doris looked at each other for a few seconds. He was not entirely convinced to accept the assignment, and his partner, knowing him well, knew it. In her eyes, Mark could see she would accept whatever he decided, but since her financial situation in recent months was not very favorable, he decided to accept, but under one condition.

"We accept the assignment, Mr. Richmond, but we have one condition for you: if we find Hansen and the boy and cannot convince them to come with us, you will still pay us for our work. We will inform you of their location, and it will be up to you to convince them to want your protection. Okay?”

Richmond opened one of his desk drawers and took out a manila envelope, got up, and faced Mark.

"I accept your terms, Mr. Forney," he said, offering him the envelope. “In this envelope you have the exact location of one of my properties in the state of Texas, with detailed photographs of the facilities it has. You will see it is a small fortress in the middle of the desert, equipped with all the necessary comforts for staying in it for a long time, and with the appropriate security measures to protect those who live in it.”

Mark opened the envelope and took out some pictures; more than a fortress, as Richmond put it, it looked more like a military installation, with guardhouses, electric fencing, and armed personnel. From the south side on the outside he could see what appeared to be a runway for small aircraft. In the center of the complex he could see a building of at least three floors: a mansion, equipped with two huge swimming pools, sports fields, garages, and even a helipad with a small hangar where he could see a helicopter, the only thing that contrasted, in addition to the airstrip, with the military style of the facilities.

"Wow!" Mark said, as he handed the photos to Doris for her to see. “Rather it looks like a prison, if it weren’t for the big house in the center. If Hansen sees those photos I doubt very much he wants to live locked up there with the child.”

"True," Doris said. “It seems extreme, don’t you think?”

"I remind you that my future guests were already fiercely hunted once," Richmond said, as he made his way to one of the library bookshelves to his right, locating a book and barely pulling it. The library moved outside, revealing a safe built into the wall. Richmond punched in a series of numbers on a digital front panel and the box was opened, took out a couple of wads of bills, closed it again, and the library returned to its place. He returned to stand in front of them.

"So far they have managed to stay hidden and I hope they are safe," he told them, "but with everything that lies ahead, I doubt they will be safe any longer."

He handed each a wad of bills.

“There you have a hundred thousand dollars in cash for each one, outside of your pay and as operating expenses. Each of you has just been paid a million dollars to your accounts as an advance on your fees. When you get back to Hansen and the boy, you’ll be credited two million more and that will close the deal. Are you okay with it?”

Doris was excited and struggled not to show it, she couldn’t believe she had a hundred thousand dollars in her hands, and a million more in her personal account. She couldn’t tell for her excitement that the man knew her account numbers without asking.

“How do you know our account numbers?” Mark asked suspiciously.

"Let’s just say when you have a certain position, Mr. Forney, there is nothing you don’t know."

The Bentley took them back to their office on Fifty-Seven East, when the car started Doris couldn’t help but blurt out what she had been holding on for all that time:

"Holy shit!" She yelled, doing a little dance. Mark shot her an amused look. “I’m rich, I’m rich, I’m rich…”

"Calm down. I remind you that we are still on the street.”

"Fuck it!" I have a million dollars in my account, and a hundred thousand more in my pocket! I’m rich!”

Mark liked to see his friend happy, but he remembered he had to find out a few things, and his face changed. When they entered the office he immediately turned on his computer, he had to find out who the hell this Richmond guy was. He typed his name into Yahoo! and some articles appeared on newspaper pages, apart from the well-known F******k. There was a lot of information, but what was on the first page of results was enough for him.

He discovered that Philip Richmond was an important businessman dedicated to the manufacture and commercialization of petroleum products, such as industrial resins, fuels for industrial and domestic use, and lubricants for the automotive industry. He was also the main shareholder in several newspapers and television channels; owner of an independent film company, a major construction company and one of the most important real estate companies in the country. He had participation and was an investor in activities related to the research and development of new technologies, new medicines, and the study of infectious and tropical diseases, as well as being the majority shareholder of a major pharmaceutical company. Elsewhere Mark could see why the man knew his account numbers: he owned shares in one of the major banks in the country.

"What a fuck!" Doris exclaimed, seeing Richmond’s extensive profile. “This guy does just about anything! He only needs to run for president!”

"And it almost does," Mark said, pointing to other lines of information on the screen. “The Republican party offered him the candidacy for the primaries in the last elections, but he rejected it and preferred to support and finance the campaign of the current president, Sean M. Collins. What do you think?”

"Maybe you don’t like politics. I see there he has a family. Three children?”

“Yes, two boys and a girl. The oldest is forty-two years old and his name is Philip Nathaniel, Jr. The girl is thirty-five, her name is Sarah, while the youngest is twelve and her name is Aaron, and he is adopted. A year after adopting him, his wife died, a victim of cancer.”

"It’s surprising that you can find so much information about a person on the web," Doris observed. “He is not a public figure, like an actor, singer, politician or something like that.”

"Yes, unless you want that information to be in the public domain. For some reason this man allows practically his entire life to be on the network. We already know it is not because of politics. Could it be because of the clone child? Maybe he wants to make himself see as the only almighty one capable of taking care of him and standing up to the government, should that be the case.”

"It could be, but remember he also wants to keep the child hidden. It would not make sense to know who he is and all the fortune he has, if he doesn’t want the world to know the child is still alive and he has him under his protection. In addition, he financed the Collins campaign, I don’t think there will be a confrontation between the two for the child, in case the latter decides to go for him.

Mark considered the information in front of him for a few seconds. Then he remembered the figure he had seen behind Richmond’s desk and took out his notebook. He typed the words into the computer, looking for the translation, and wrote the results:

Doge vocavitit meant "called to guide," and ut dicitur "called to lead."

“Do you think it is the symbol of a sect or something similar?” Doris asked, seeing the meaning of those words.

“More like a secret society, like the Illuminati, or something like that.”

"If it were a secret society, they wouldn’t display their emblem so easily."’

"Only those who go to that apartment can see the emblem, like us. Unless they are coming to light, for some reason.”

"Maybe that’s why his personal information is on the network," Doris said. “He must be the leader of that secret society, and he begins to show himself publicly so the people get to know him. By the time he makes his society known, people will already admire and accept it without problems, even if it is a closed group and limited only to a few powerful people like him.”

“But nowhere in his profile is there a mention of a group, society or brotherhood to which he belongs.”

“Many powerful members of societies such as the Illuminati or the Masons don’t go around proclaiming it to all winds. Don’t worry”, Doris said, patting him on the shoulder, "if we’re right, we’ll hear it very soon.”

Phillip Richmond had lied to Mark and Doris. The information he had that allegedly came from government sources was just about to be released to a US agent in Pakistan.