The Secret (The Scinegue Series Book 1) (19 page)

“So, this is a pretty new plane?” Billy questioned as he considered something that had been bugging him.

“Yes, sir. Brand spankin’ new.”

“Do new planes have a new plane smell like cars?”

“Yes, sir,” Michelle said again flashing an excited smile. “They usually do, but not this one. Scinegue does something to neutralize that new smell. I heard someone talking about it on one of my first flights.” She leaned in a little closer. “They said that the odor you smell actually has some toxins in it, or something like that.”

She frowned thoughtfully before continuing. “They were talking about some pretty technical stuff that went way over my head.” She grinned and waved a hand through the air above her head to demonstrate. “Basically they are able to get rid of those toxins somehow.”

“Wow, really? That’s pretty cool.” Billy debated sharing the fact that his new truck had been odorless, but realized it might come across as if he was bragging. He took a sip of his drink before asking, “Did Scinegue have a different plane before they got this one?”

“Have
you
worked for Scinegue long?” she returned his question, raising her nicely shaped eyebrows and giving him a knowing look. “They have a fleet of twenty private jets that I know of.”

“That sounds like quite a few. Do they keep them busy?”

“They do, actually,” she said with a nod. “I’ve heard talk that they might get a couple more of these, but that’s just rumor so far. From what I’ve heard, Scinegue has a group of leaders called Tops who are spread out strategically around the world. I haven’t flown with a Top yet, as far as I know. I’m not sure if they do any traveling or if everyone else just travels to them,” she gave a little shrug “Either way, these planes stay busy.”

“Hmm,” Billy said thoughtfully. “I’ve heard something about them being spread out, too, but didn’t realize there was a strategic reason behind it.”

“Well, you ignore everything you just heard from me. What do I know?” She straightened from the wall and ran a hand down her side to smooth her skirt. “I hear bits and pieces every now and again. I’m sure I should just keep it to myself.”

Billy met her eyes. “I appreciate your information, Michelle. Being new, as you correctly guessed, I’m interested to learn all I can about the company. But I also think you’re right that the higher-up people in the company probably wouldn’t appreciate you repeating anything you hear from them.”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Roth.” Her cheeks reddened, and she fidgeted nervously.

“Michelle, I don’t mind at all, and I won’t say a word. I just wouldn’t want you to get in trouble with someone else in the company.”

“Yes, sir.” A chastened and embarrassed Michelle fled into the galley and made herself scarce for the rest of the flight.

I didn’t mean to upset her,
Billy thought leaning his head back, but what she said made him remember Ben and Jerald. He would rather she be upset than disappear.

He realized that he hadn’t thought of Ben or Ben’s wife at all the last couple of days. It wasn’t that he hadn’t been startled by what Ben’s wife told him, or that he didn’t care. He just had too much going on for him to focus on everything.

He’d experienced such highs and such lows on a daily basis lately. He wondered idly if that’s what pushed people over the edge mentally. When he tried to focus on everything that was going on, he felt overwhelmed.

He let his head loll to the side and watched the wisps of white clouds zip past the window. He wondered how Sarah was holding up. He knew she really wanted to talk to him yesterday, but he had put her off intentionally. He wasn’t sure he could take anymore.

“Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

“What?” Billy turned in his seat, eager to see who’d spoken. The back of the plane was empty. He turned back in his seat and drove both hands through his hair. “So I’ve already cracked, or one of God’s angels is talking to me now. Which probably also means I’ve cracked,” Billy murmured, leaning his chair back and closing his eyes in exhaustion, but feeling surprisingly at peace.

“
M
r. Roth.
Mr. Roth?
” Billy opened his eyes, surprised to find himself in an airplane with Michelle leaning over him, gently shaking his arm. “We are preparing for final descent into Seattle. You’ll need to adjust your seat for landing.”

“Thank you,” Billy murmured. He sat up before stretching his arms overhead, surprised at how wide awake and refreshed he felt.

A black sedan met the plane on the ramp, and the co-pilot made sure Billy’s bags were carefully transferred to the trunk before Billy was whisked away to his appointment.

Billy tried to get some information from his driver about Mr. Berkley, maybe even what he could expect from this meeting. Unfortunately, the driver’s vocabulary was limited to ‘yes’ and ‘no’ as far as he could ascertain. Billy left off his questioning in frustration and turned to look out the window.

The sky was overcast, and a few people on the sidewalks carried closed umbrellas in preparation for the approaching storm. His thoughts returned to the flight attendant. He wished he hadn’t been so blunt with Michelle; she seemed to have plenty to say until he basically told her she was talking too much. He probably could have learned all kinds of interesting things from her. She might have even known something about his upcoming meeting.

The car pulled up in front of a nondescript red-brick building, and a man wearing a suit and holding a dark green umbrella rushed to open Billy’s door and offer him shelter from the light rain that had just started. He escorted Billy into the building, leaving his umbrella just inside the door, and checked him in at the front desk before showing him to the elevator and giving him a floor number.

“That’s the floor for Mr. Berkley?” Billy asked as he stepped into the waiting elevator.

“Yes, sir.”

“Do I need an office number or will there be someone there to meet me?” Billy wasn’t obsessive by any means. He liked to have at least a general idea of what was going on, though.

“You won’t need an office number.” The man smirked as the elevator doors slid closed, leaving Billy alone with his concerns. He meant to prepare for this meeting during his flight, even though he didn’t have a clue what it was about. Well, he would have to wing it and let Mr. Berkley do most of the talking since he was the one to initiate the meeting.

The elevator stopped and the doors slid open, revealing a lavish apartment which reminded Billy of an English hunting club. Stepping tentatively out of the elevator he did a sweep of the room from right to left. Dark green leather chairs, a lively fire in the fireplace, and colorful paintings of the expected hunting dogs on the walls. An entire wall of windows with a view of the city added some originality and brightness to the otherwise dark room. To his left he saw an elderly man with white hair rising from behind a large desk.

“
U
ncle Bill?” Billy exclaimed in shock as recognition set in. The older man smiled, his whole face crinkling up with obvious delight and his light blue eyes shining.

“Billy, Billy,” he said with excitement as he hurried around the desk to greet him, his nimbleness belying his age.

“Uncle Bill,” Billy looked around hesitantly, “what are you doing here? I’m supposed to be meeting with a Mr. Berkley.”

The man smiled broadly as he shook Billy’s hand. “That’s me. William Berkley. Or Uncle Bill as a privileged few refer to me.” He winked at Billy and led him to a grouping of chairs arranged near the fire.

“Sit down. Get comfortable. A warm fire always feels good on a dreary day, even if it isn’t very cold out, don’t you think?” he asked as he rubbed his hands together briskly.

Billy sat down where his ‘uncle’ indicated, but his brain was refusing to function. He was having trouble connecting the ‘Uncle Bill’ from his childhood with the powerful Scinegue Top he’d planned to meet.

“I can see you are surprised, my boy. Well, that’s to be expected, I suppose, but it is so good to see you in person after all these years.” He sat and looked Billy over with a smile on his face. “Why don’t I give you the short version of how I—and you—came to be here, hmm?”

Billy just nodded, hoping he would find his voice soon. He had a lot of questions to ask.

Uncle Bill sat back in his big chair and studied the fire intently, as if he could see a movie of his memories playing there. “You were always a good boy. A smart boy. I enjoyed spending time with you when you were little.” He glanced over at Billy. “I never had a family of my own, as you might remember. I always appreciated Jacob sharing his with me.”

“Jacob?” Billy managed to ask.

Uncle Bill turned to look at him, surprise etched in his features. “I guess you never knew your great-grandfather, Jacob Roth.” He shook his head. “That’s a shame. He was my best friend in the whole world. Oh, I miss that man to this very day.”

“How did you know him?”

“We went to college together. Hit it off right from the start. We went into business together after that, and when Jacob got married, he and his wife Elaine made me an honorary part of their family.” He stared back at the fire and smiled fondly at his memories.

“I’ll bet you didn’t know I was the first person, after the doctor and nurses, to hold your grandfather, did you?” He laughed at Billy’s surprised expression.

“Your great-grandmother was at the hospital in labor and couldn’t get in touch with Jacob so she called me. She knew I would have a way of getting ahold of him. I tracked him down but beat him to the hospital. The nurse came out holding a bundle and said ‘Roth, baby boy,’ and I just held out my arms and took him. I think that’s about as close to having your own child as you can get without actually doing it, holding a baby that is only minutes old...” he trailed off and sighed before chuckling, “It was hard handing him over to your great-grandfather when he walked in, let me tell you.” A sad smile flitted across his face.

“I was always ‘Uncle Bill’ to your grandfather and to your dad and eventually to you,” he continued. “After Elaine, and then Jacob, passed away, I still spent a lot of time with your grandparents. We had a lot in common. When your dad got married he tried to keep me included in his family. Without Jacob linking us, well, the relationship became strained, and over the years we lost contact. But,” he shook a finger at Billy, “I’ve kept an eye on you, my boy, and I am so glad to finally get to see you again.” His eyes crinkled at the corners as he gave Billy a thorough appraisal, happy with what he saw.

“Are you the reason I got the job at Scinegue?” Billy asked his first, but probably least burning question.

“Hmm,” Uncle Billy said, tapping his lips with a finger. “That’s a little harder to answer than you might believe. I kept you from falling through the cracks, you could say, but Billy, my boy, you were born for this job. How have you enjoyed your time at Scinegue so far?” he diverted Billy’s question with one his own, still undecided how much he was prepared to reveal at this first meeting.

“Well, I worked as a trash collector for about seven months, and it was okay, but it wasn’t my dream job. This is my third day working in the office. Yesterday was really the only day that I had a chance to do any work, but I liked what I did. It was very interesting,” he answered truthfully.

“I’m glad to hear that. Your great-grandfather and I were in on the ground floor of starting Scinegue. I have to admit I am rather proud of how it has grown and expanded.”

“You and my great-granddad started Scinegue?” Billy questioned warily. “Sarah and I read that eugenics started in the 1800s. You’re nowhere near that old.”

Uncle Bill gave a hearty laugh and slapped his thigh. “No, I’m not quite that old. Yet.” He took a moment to chuckle again before continuing.

“So, you know about the eugenics connection. That’s not too surprising I suppose, I did say you were a smart boy. No, we didn’t start the
theory
of eugenics, but we learned about it together in one of our college classes. After we graduated we went to work for a company that was involved with eugenics. We were young idealists, and the people who started the company could sure get our blood pumping when they talked about what they envisioned for the future of the human race, and their plans for getting there.” He smiled at the fire as a log popped, sending a shower of sparks into the air. The passion that burned in him as a young man had been every bit as explosive. He’d been filled with the desire to heal the world.

“Over the years, we developed our own opinions on the subject. That’s why we renamed the company Scinegue after we took it over. Eugenics
backwards
,” he smiled over at Billy to gauge his reaction, “which is pretty much what we wanted to pursue.”

Billy looked as confused as he felt, and Uncle Bill laughed again with a shrug of his shoulder. “Let’s just say that as wonderful as eugenics was made to sound, it wasn’t exactly what we were interested in. So, we took some of the better ideas from the theory—or religion as some would call it—and disposed of the rest.”

When Billy remained silent, Uncle Bill turned to look at him with a sympathetic smile. “That’s a lot to take in, isn’t it?” His voice was soft. “Well, there is more. Much, much more,” he added almost under his breath. “Are you up to hearing it?”

“Yes, sir,” Billy said resolutely as he straightened in his chair, unreasonably fearful of what else he might have to say.

“I think first I should ask, do you have any pressing questions so far?”

“Yes, sir, I do. So many I don’t know where to start.” Billy glanced around, wondering if the room was bugged and what he should—and shouldn’t—ask. “I am curious why you never married,” he finally said. “You said you appreciated Jacob sharing his family with you, yet you never had a family of your own?”

“Oh, right off to the heart of the matter for us,” Uncle Bill laughed, but not happily. “I wasn’t sure if this was something I was going to bring up today or not. We have so many other things to discuss, but this question is more important than you might realize.” He rubbed a hand across his brow.

“Since you asked, I guess it really is the best place to start.” He took a fortifying breath. “I never married because the only woman I ever loved was married to someone else. I didn’t mention it earlier, but your great-grandmother Elaine worked with Jacob and me at the company that became Scinegue. We did everything together; we were the stereotypical three musketeers.” A brief, pain filled grin crossed his features at the memory.

“We were all great friends, but at some point, Elaine and I started to develop an attraction to each other. I think Jacob knew, but none of us ever mentioned it. I’m not sure how much you know about Scinegue yet,” he paused to give Billy a searching look, “but we were working on similar problems way back then just as the company is now.”

That look kicked Billy’s curiosity into overdrive. Uncle Bill seemed to want something from him, seemed to expect him to know something about Scinegue, but he couldn’t imagine what.

He was on the verge of asking his uncle to tell him more about Scinegue when he continued, “I think it’s safe to tell you that along with making the world a better place, we were also interested in making man the best he could be: the healthiest, smartest, most productive. With those goals in mind, it was decided that some of us would volunteer to be matched with our ideal mates and, of course,” he explained smoothly, “have children at some point.”

Billy’s heart pounded at this confirmation of what the Browns had told him.

“Elaine and I both volunteered, and I’m pretty sure she believed—as I did—that we were an obvious match. Jacob also volunteered, and according to the criteria the company used, he and Elaine were the chosen match.” His mouth turned down at the corners with that memory.

“I could tell Elaine was disappointed—as was I—but we believed there was an important purpose behind what they were chosen to do, so she and Jacob were married. Oh, a wife was selected for me as well,” he sighed and ran his hand along the smooth leather on the arm of his chair, “but I just couldn’t do it. Your great-grandmother had my heart. I knew I would not be able to even fake a marriage with another woman,” his voice was low and passionate.

“For the most part, Jacob and Elaine and I went on as usual, spending all of our time together. We were at work together each day, and I was at their home most evenings. We were doing okay until after a reasonable amount of time went by and Elaine still hadn’t conceived. Since the whole idea behind the experiment was to use two nearly-perfect people to produce and raise a nearly-perfect child, if either Elaine or Jacob was unable to have children, they would have been removed from the program and, sadly, from the company altogether.”

Billy watched wordlessly as the flickering light from the fire played over his uncle’s features, intensifying his pained expression.

“One night, Elaine caught me before I left work and asked if we could talk. Of course I said yes, and we went to dinner. She told me she had some preliminary tests done, and it looked like everything was probably fine with her. She thought Jacob might have some type of problem that was keeping them from having children. She said she was scared because she overheard someone at the company say that there were too many defective people in this world already, and if Jacob had problems, they should just get rid of him.” He cleared his throat before continuing.

“People had already talked to Elaine about a new husband the company had selected for her, and she was sick with worry. She was able to marry Jacob because she loved him. I’m sure she loved me more,” he added with a quick glance at Billy, “but we were all very close friends. She would never have been comfortable marrying a stranger.” He looked back at the fire with a frown.

“She cried as she told me if she didn’t get pregnant in the next couple of months, they would get rid of Jacob since it didn’t look like she had a problem. She didn’t have any proof, but she felt sure they planned to kill him.”

Billy leaned forward, engrossed. Killing someone considered ‘imperfect’ sure lined up with the stuff Sarah had read about eugenics.

“After dinner we took a walk so she could gather herself, and we ended up at my house. Before the night was over your grandfather was conceived. We never told Jacob, but when Elaine realized she was pregnant a couple of months later I think he suspected.”

He looked Billy in the eye. “I want to tell you I was just being noble and doing my part to protect a friend. I told myself that for years. The truth was, way down deep, I thought that might be our way to be together. I secretly thought if she conceived we would surely get married, even though that would mean hurting Jacob.” His eyes drifted down to the floor.

“That one night together made not being with her absolute torture. I talked to her once about divorcing Jacob, quitting the company and running away with me.” He sighed. “Only once. She gave me the most tormented look I had ever seen, reminded me that she was a wife and now a mother, and on top of that she was part of an experiment that could change the world.”

Uncle Bill stared at the flickering fire, completely lost in his memories, as Billy stared at him and tried to make sense of what he was hearing. How was it possible that he’d gone his whole life knowing none of this? He had never even heard of the connection between his uncle and Scinegue.

“Jacob never let on if he suspected anything,” Uncle Bill continued suddenly, interrupting Billy’s musings, “except for the day at the hospital when he saw me holding out his son to him—my son—and he acted as if he wasn’t going to take him. For just a minute he looked at the baby, then looked at me, and I really thought he was going to just walk away.”

He rushed on, “I can’t tell you the excitement I felt in that moment. Elaine would have never left him. But if he left her and the baby? Of course she would marry me. Then he reached out, took the baby and fell in love with him. His little Danny.” He sighed deeply. “Whatever he knew, or thought he knew, he always loved that boy as his own,” the pain in his voice was cutting.

“I’ve rambled on forever,” Uncle Bill said abruptly, turning to Billy. “Would you like a cup of tea, or perhaps a glass of water?”

“You’re my great-grandfather?” Billy asked in amazement, putting the pieces together, and ignoring the question he’d been asked.

“Well, yes, I guess maybe I should have just said that?” He smiled and looked at Billy uncertainly. “Like I said, I wasn’t sure if I was going to bring all of that up just yet. Should I have waited?” he asked seriously.

Billy stood up and walked over to the windows to gaze out at the gloomy day. “No,” he answered slowly, “I’m glad you told me.” He turned back to face his great-grandfather. “It is a lot to digest. I guess I’m curious why you’re telling me all of this now. It doesn’t sound like you’ve told anyone else. Am I the first?”

“Let me have some refreshments served. Have you eaten lunch yet?”