Mind Switch (37 page)

For a man who had been able to mask his true feelings over a lifetime, it was obvious Schultz’s concern was legitimate.

Fred decided not to mince words. “You now have lost three division directors, and I know Flynn didn’t commit suicide. Without going into case details, I can tell you that the evidence is overwhelming that someone made it look as if he committed suicide. Beyond that, I also know that neither Long nor Jackson had been killed as an accidental byproduct of a seemingly meaningless mass murder. Their deaths were planned. The point is, George, your subordinates are systematically being eliminated one by one. You must know something about the reason for their deaths, something you’re not telling me.”

“Fred, I’m just as much in the dark as you are.”

“I don’t think so.”

Schultz started to expand on his denial, but his words froze as he started to talk.

“‘Look, Fred, there are some things that may best be left alone.”

“George, these are murders we’re dealing with! You know there is no way I can leave this alone. If you feel any loyalty to your employees, you can’t either. Now what in hell is going on?”

Schultz lay silent for a minute, carefully assembling his thoughts before he spoke.

“Fred, when I started this company I guess it was what you would call the revolving door approach to government. I was a CIA operative, fairly high up in the organization. In that position you know what the handwriting on the wall is. I knew there would be a change in administrations, and the new one would attempt to put a powerful amount of money into defense and into the black world of espionage.”

“Yes, I know all of that.”

“Let me continue. Well, I had an inkling of where the new administration would want to spend the government’s money. My foreign tours allowed me to get in touch with people with extraordinary talent, talent that would be perfect for a fledgling new area of the CIA. After I retired I retained close contacts with some of my former colleagues, which made it easy to gain access to their contracting area. Based on the nature of our business, sole source contracts are easy to come by.

“To validate the capability of these extraordinary people that I had been exposed to, I hired a first rate team of evaluators. The unexpected results of the tests these potential employees took, mystified everybody. Their paranormal talents were literally beyond the charts. I knew I had something. I have none of these talents myself, but I am a good administrator and I knew how to put together an effective organization.

“The trouble was that as extraordinary as these talents were, some individuals seemed to have capabilities well beyond the others. They may have entered my organization possessing a single talent; but in a short time they were able to digest new processes manifesting superior capabilities in other areas.”

“How could they do that?”

“I have no idea, nor does my scientific organization. It was almost as if the talents were already there but hidden, even from their own view; or else it was some type of accelerated psychic evolution brought on by God knows what.”

Fred nodded his head as he thought about the moving pen when he had interviewed Mr. Atwell. “So, for your organization that was a good thing, right?”

“It should have been, but these gifted people, instead of confining their talents to company objectives, started using it on each other. It was a pastime, at least at first. Many of them could read the thoughts of others. They could seemingly make things disappear; they could violate the privacy of each other’s homes and look though their personal articles through the technique of remote viewing. The greater problem was that they didn’t disclose their identity when they did it; so our entire organization became obsessed with paranoid feelings and beliefs.

“When the firm started up, I had hired some of my former colleagues for the position of division directors. They had limited or no paranormal abilities, but they all had good relations with their counterparts in the agency. Beyond that they had great organizational skills.

“The problems that almost immediately came to light,” Schultz went on, “were issues in dealing with their subordinates. The first guy I hired was a personal friend. The terms of his employment specified that if he stayed at least a year, he would be entitled to a significant number of shares of stock in my company when we went public.”

“Why did you make such a generous offer?” Fred asked.

“Simply because I needed organizational strength and stability during my company’s start up period. I believed that a minimum period of one year’s organizational experience would provide me with the ability to structure our business properly. It would also give us institutional memory to perpetuate our successes well into the future. However, after six months, my friend no longer showed up for work; and you must realize that this guy was one of the most reliable men that ever worked for me. I called him several times at his home, but he just said he had resigned and no longer wanted to work for me. The same process of uncontrollable absenteeism occurred in all of my other divisions, except for the Science Division.

“At that point I entered on a promotional system where the next person to be promoted to the division level would be the one that displayed the greatest ability, and not necessarily the most seniority or organizational skills. I told my employees that if the disruption they were causing didn’t stop, I would close down the company. I told them in no uncertain language that I am rich enough that I didn’t need the money, and I certainly didn’t need this type of headache. That seemed to eliminate the problem.

“Then one day not long ago, I was in my office reading over our profit and loss statement, when I felt that a door had been opened and somebody or something had just come in. I looked up and no one was there. Suddenly I realized it was not a physical door that had been opened; it seemed to be a door to my mind.”

“I don’t understand,” said Fred.

“Fred, I don’t fully understand it either but once it occurs you know it. I knew it! Well, we all revert to that which we are most familiar with to create our defenses; in my case it was physical things. I must admit that I was frightened. So I put extra sets of locks on the office door including three interior locks. I directed the installation of remote video cameras; and I hired the best security guard that money could buy.

“But, of course, none of that would keep out a mental invader. Nevertheless, I have always been a bit of a control freak and I couldn’t accept the fact that someone was gaining control of my mind. So I tried to fight it. But not long after it, or him, had entered my mind, it exited. It was almost if something was sending me a message, telling me that it could enter and exit whenever and wherever it wanted to. It was a personal message to me, much stronger than a threatening phone call or note. And, of course, totally anonymous.”

“So you had no idea who was doing this to you?”

“Frankly, it could have been any of my employees, except for those in the Science Division. They have purely formal academic skills. At one time I tried to think it through as to who it could possibly be. But then all of a sudden something entered my mind again. Fred, I then experienced the greatest headache I ever had in my entire life.”

Fred said, “I know that you received some form of treatment from Mr. Ford. He also met with two of your division heads who have since been killed. Why do you think he met with your division heads?”

“I have no idea, except that hypnotism can sometimes enhance native abilities. Maybe they were trying to strengthen the talents that they had. Beyond that I don’t have a clue. In my case, I was having trouble sleeping at night after my experience with the damn mental invader. Ford really helped me.”

Fred decided to ask his question head on. “Do you think Ford might have murdered your division heads?”

 
“Anything is possible, but I don’t see what his motive could have been.”

“Join the crowd, I have to admit neither do I,” said Fred. “He seems to be totally motivated by money; so the most logical reason might have been that somehow he had them change their wills to make him their beneficiary. I checked that out, but it was a blind alley.

“Now that three of your division heads are gone,” Fred continued, “how will you replace them?”

Schultz thought for a moment. “My normal technique would be to replace them from someone in operations that is multi-talented. The more talent an individual has in multiple fields, the fewer people I have to hire.”

“Do you have any idea who you are going to promote?”

“Not yet, I’m going to have to give that a lot of thought; but I just can’t seem to get to it, I’m afraid—”

“—George, you haven’t been in to work for a quite some time now. Are you considering retiring in the near term; and if you do, would you sell your company?”

“Yes, and no; I’m obviously not well. I’m not recovering as quickly as I would have liked; and going back to work would be a tremendous grind at this stage in my life.”

After a long pause Schultz added, “I don’t know if you knew this, but my wife Julia, holds half interest in the company. We both worked in the agency at one time and she bankrolled me to start up the business. She received a healthy inheritance when her parents passed away. Julia has recently decided that she would like to get involved in the day to day operations if I left the company. She would, of course, have an executive assistant to help her. My major mission in life would transition to retirement and golfing. I have never had time to enjoy the sport during my working life.”

“Interesting. And how would her assistant be selected?”

“I guess she would hire the person from within my company. Everyone who works for me knows that would be her tendency.”

“Do you know of anyone in your employ who uses the perfume Chanel Number 5?”

“I would have no idea; to me all perfumes are just alike; they all smell like a really sweet brand of men’s after shave lotion.”

“Do you know if any of your employees drives a gray Buick sedan?”

“Sorry, I never paid any attention to that type of detail. I’m too wrapped up in running the company, to pay attention to that sort of thing. I don’t think I’ve ever noticed anyone’s car.”

“How many females do you have working for you?” Fred asked.

“Right now a total of four: Louise Jones, a division head; Ann Darby, Melissa Moore and Debra Black. And, oh, yes, my secretary, Miss Lang. Of course, if my wife takes over the organization, there will probably be a lot more women in the company. My wife may even have invented the concept of women’s liberation.”

As Fred left the room, he noted Mrs. Schultz was close to the door. He sensed a familiar smell.

“Mrs. Schultz, I like your perfume. What is it?”
 

Without hesitation she responded, “Why, thank you. It’s Chanel Number 5.”

Chapter 63

Roberta Smutters and Hank Jeffery jogged briskly along the rock laden trail leading to the Crystal Quarry. Jan and Hank were both thirteen years old, and each had been sternly warned against swimming in the deep waters at the quarry site.

Roberta and Hank were next door neighbors who had become the closest of friends over the past year. Their houses were within a couple hundred yards of each other, no other nearby home was in the area. The proximity of the homes and their isolation from their peer groups, contributed to the accelerated speed in which their friendship had developed.

Both were avid swimmers and enjoyed the sport more than anything else in the world. The coolness of the quarry water, added to the potential danger it represented, drew the two of them to the area like a great magnet. The quarry became their own secret area which they loved equally. Their parents would be asleep for at least another hour, which would give them plenty of time to get in a half hour’s swimming before they had to start to head back home.

They wore their swimming suits under their jeans; the moment they reached the quarry they quickly removed their outer clothes, putting them on the rock laden bank. Sunday was a perfect day for swimming. The quarry workmen had the day off and no one would be there to bother them.

A couple of weeks ago Roberta had asked her father how deep the quarry was. Her father said he had no idea but he was told it went down at least 200 feet. He said if one drowned there it could be decades before their body would be found. He took the moment to warn her again about not swimming in the quarry.

Both Roberta and Hank hit the water at the same moment. As was their standard routine, they started racing to the opposite side. Hank was the superior swimmer; but lately as Roberta started to develop into womanhood, her strength had increased and her swimming was becoming more and more competitive. At the half-way point, Roberta was only a couple of body lengths behind him and holding her own. As Hank continued on to the 3/4 mark, suddenly he realized that he no longer heard the splashing sounds of Roberta behind him. He looked back realizing that the race was over. Roberta looked terrified; she was treading water with no discernible forward movement. Hank yelled to her but she didn’t respond.

The first thing that came into Hank’s mind was alligators. He never heard of an alligator entering the quarry, but anything in Florida is possible, he thought. As fast as he could, he swam toward Roberta until he reached her side.