Carter picked up his mobile from the table and located the number he needed.
“I want twenty-four-seven surveillance of all known places that have ever belonged to Dr Drecker. Everyone from his ex-wife to old colleagues has to be monitored,” Carter barked into the phone.
51
Adam pulled out his laptop. Dr Drecker was having a rest on the couch while Hugo and Cameron were out running some errands. Adam considered what their next move should be. The escape from the hospital had been surprisingly smooth. Most people didn’t consider two people dead smooth of course, but Adam’s definition was different from most people’s. Although the death of the agent and the doctor had been unfortunate, Adam was just glad no one in his flock had been hurt.
It was obvious MKULTRA had started to clean up. There had been nothing in the paper about the incident the following day. And although they’d had a close call when they passed a police car exiting the hospital, the escape had run flawlessly. They had moved Drecker over to their own rundown van just on the outskirts of town, and then headed straight towards New York City after torching the ambulance. It was hard to keep moving every single night, but that’s how it had to be. They simply couldn’t risk staying for too long in any one place. They checked into rundown motels late at night and left before the sun rose. Their days were spent on the road.
Adam wasn’t very fond of the idea, but Dr Drecker had insisted that they stop by a house he used to own in the Hamptons before leaving New York. Drecker claimed that he had hidden some of the DMT he stole from Dr Kovacks there, and that it was of utmost importance that they got hold of it. If he was correct – then DMT was the only thing that could transform Cody back to normal again.
Adam logged onto his laptop and opened the internet browser. Back in the days before he had sailed off with Cameron, he had always had the same routine. He would get up at four in the morning and check the news on Huffington Post, USA Today and NBC. Then he would check the sports on ESPN, before reading a couple of personal training blogs he had subscribed to over the years. It felt nice to be able to do something from his old life, from his life before being on the run.
He took a big drink of coffee while updating himself on the latest trends in cross fit and barbell-training. He smiled. His life had changed so much. For a long time he had focused all his energy on making his clients achieve their lofty personal goals. These days he couldn’t care less about training. He still worked out – he enjoyed being fit, but it didn’t consume his life anymore. He had found his daughter, he had found Cameron, and now he just had to keep her safe.
That was the important thing.
Nothing else mattered.
Adam opened up a new tab in the browser. He had never actually checked, but Drecker and he, back before Drecker and Cody had decided to stay in the drug lord Marconi’s camp, had agreed to catch up every year at a pub in Mexico City. It would be their way of keeping in contact, of making sure that the other party knew that everyone was still safe. When Drecker had told Adam that Marconi wouldn’t allow him to leave the camp anymore, Adam had suggested an alternative method of staying in contact. He had suggested they communicate electronically instead.
Adam had of course realised that he couldn’t use the same system he had used to communicate with Matt Parks. MKULTRA had intercepted the Spideroak messages quite easily. So instead Adam had suggested using a Reddit forum. He had created a forum for ‘
Fans of Dogs with Three Legs’
. It was too obscure to risk getting flooded by comments, yet not weird enough to be unrealistic. There were probably people out there who loved dogs with three legs for all Adam knew. It was a crazy world.
He wondered if Cody had ever tried to contact him over the past twelve months. If he had gone to the trouble of hiring assassins, then he would surely have attempted to lure Cameron and Adam into an ambush at some stage. That would have been the easiest strategy.
Adam found the forum after a few minutes of searching the Reddit site, and oddly enough it had attracted a handful of comments. He scrolled through them looking for the username he had set up for Dr Drecker. And then he noticed it.
There was a message from Drecker’s agreed username.
It was from yesterday.
The profile picture Cody had chosen was somewhat odd though. It was a drawing of Moses, the prophet, eating a plant, and the numbers 4 and 49, underneath.
The message only read:
Need to talk. Escaped. On my own.
52
Alejandro took a deep breath, smelling the familiar air surrounding him. He was at last back in his beloved Mexico. It had been an easy decision to flee from Argentina. It was in Mexico Alejandro had his stronghold. Most people incorrectly believed that one needed to have a large group of loyal followers to create a successful mass movement.
They were wrong.
What was needed was a small group of able and devoted lieutenants. It was impossible for Alejandro, or any leader for that matter, to execute all plans alone. Hitler wouldn’t have been successful if he hadn’t surrounded himself with able and devoted men. Hitler’s management team had been the real source of his immense success as a leader. And Alejandro had spent most of the last three years emulating the successful dictators of the world. He couldn’t care less that most of Codyism’s followers looked to Cody as their supreme leader. For the lieutenants in the organisation there had always only been one leader: Alejandro. And Alejandro would be more dependent on them now than ever. His plans had changed after the DMT injection. He wasn’t focused on building a massive religion anymore. Codyism was already big enough. It had two and a half million devoted followers spread around the world.
And they would soon see what he had seen.
And once you had seen what Alejandro had seen, your life changed. You simply didn’t want to live any longer. The truth was that Alejandro couldn’t wait to die.
“Is everything going as planned?” he asked one of his lieutenants.
The lieutenant nodded. “Yes, Master Alejandro. The message has been delivered to all country heads. They will ensure that everyone is tuned in to the live event.”
Alejandro smiled. “Good.”
“Have you decided on a date for the event, Master Alejandro?” the lieutenant asked.
“No, not yet.”
“Is there any preliminary agenda we can send out to the country heads? So that they can make appropriate preparations I mean.”
“There will be no further agenda. The event requires mandatory attendance from all true believers, and it will be held before the end of next month. That is all there is to know. My true believers will not need any additional information. They will know that this is the most important day of their lives. They will be there.”
The lieutenant nodded, before leaving Alejandro alone. He was confused. All previous gatherings had been rehearsed a million times. Alejandro was a perfectionist; some even compared his ceremonies to Steve Jobs’ keynotes. Nothing was left to chance. Everyone knew exactly what was going to happen and when it was going to happen. Now Alejandro had issued a vague message to all the chapters around the world.
The True Prophet Alejandro will reveal the secrets of the universe and the meaning of life
. All the country heads needed to do was to make sure that their followers arrived on time, nothing else. Oh, yes. Each follower had to bring a knife to the event. That was all. Bring yourself and a knife – and Alejandro would reveal the meaning of life.
53
The sun was heating up Cameron’s shoulders and back as she sat on the edge of the pool. Sampling the water she dipped her left foot in. The cool water felt nice and refreshing. And for a moment she closed her eyes, imagining she was back on the sailboat with her mum. Life had been so much easier back then. She hadn’t known who or what she was fleeing from. She had lived life in blissful ignorance, unaware that her dad was still alive, unaware that a secret American agency was hunting her.
Cameron opened her eyes. Sometimes the truth hurt more than the lie. She had preferred living the lies of her mum to this frantic life of constant hide and seek. She felt like a wounded animal. Always suspicious of its surroundings, never letting its guard down in fear of being attacked when it least expected it.
Then she heard a noise behind her. Her body instantly froze, and a wave of terror shot down her spine.
She swirled around, grabbing for the edge of the pool. But there was no point. She went head first into the dirty water.
With a strong breaststroke she directed her body towards the bottom of the pool before twirling around to see who had pushed her. Through the glary sun and water she could clearly see the outline of a man at the edge of the pool. He was holding something in his right hand – it looked like a gun. And then he bent down, aiming it straight at her.
Adam poked Dr Drecker gently in the shoulder. The guy had been stuck in a bed for the last twelve months. His body probably needed the rest, but there was no time. Movement was always better than standing still anyway – at least that was what Adam had always been telling his personal training clients.
Dr Drecker moaned as he pushed his torso up into an upright position. “I never thought I would miss the hospital bed, but this couch is harder than concrete.”
Adam laughed. “We need to get going. And I’ve got some exciting news.”
“What sort of news?”
“It will have to wait until we get in the car. Cameron and Hugo are downstairs waiting.”
“Ok. Let me just use the bathroom first.”
Adam was waiting by the door when he heard Dr Drecker flush the toilet.
“My first pee standing up in twelve months. Shit that hurt.”
“Did it hurt?”
“Everything hurts, Adam. I’ve hardly moved a muscle in the last year. Now I finally understand how astronauts feel when they suddenly have to get used to gravity again. My legs feel like they weigh two hundred pounds.”
“I was a personal trainer before all this shit happened, you know,” Adam said. “Maybe I should create a program for you. To get you back into shape I mean.”
Dr Drecker shook his head. “I’ve never been fond of exercising anything other than my brain. Don’t think I’m going to start now.”
“OK. The offer stands though, if you ever want…”
Adam was broken off mid-sentence by a loud scream. It came from the pool, and it sounded like Hugo.
Without hesitating Adam dropped everything he held in his hands and ran for the pool area.
Dr Drecker just stood there. Frozen. Not fully realising what had just happened.
Adam rounded the corner just in time to see Hugo drop into the pool. On the edge of the pool Cameron was standing laughing, aiming a massive water gun at the spot where Hugo had just jumped in.
“What the hell are you guys doing?” Adam laughed, catching his breath. His heart was still racing, but he didn’t want to reveal that to Cameron.
“Just playing around,” she said, eyes beaming.
“OK. Get dried up. We’re leaving in five.”
“So, what’s this big news you’ve got?” Dr Drecker asked when they were all safely packed in the car, heading towards New York City.
“We have some big decisions to make.”
“What sort of decisions?”
“Well, first of all we need to decide whether seeking out your old summer house is worth the risk. We don’t know if MKULTRA has it under surveillance or not.”
“Why would they? They have no idea I’m out of my coma. My best guess is that they think I’m dead by now. In fact, that’s what I would be if it hadn’t been for Cameron’s unique abilities.”
“Well, Carter knows Cameron is special.”
“But he doesn’t know she has the power to heal others. I’ve listened to his phone calls you know. He mentioned Cameron several times. She is still an enigma to him. She is the second generation; she is the child of a DMT patient. He has no idea what she is capable or not capable of.”
“Well, I’m putting my trust in your assessment, but I don’t like it.”
“What is the news?” Cameron asked.
Adam took a deep breath. “Cody has made contact.”
“What?” Dr Drecker shouted. “When?”
“A couple of hours ago. On the secret communication system you and I set up in Mexico two years ago. Did you tell him about it?”
Dr Drecker nodded frantically. “Yes, I did. I did. Of course I did.”
“Well, he’s made contact.”
“What does he want? Does he want to see me?” Drecker asked.
“I don’t think he knows you’re alive,” Adam replied.
“What?”
“I think that’s the reason he’s been trying to kill me and Cameron. To avenge your death.”
“I don’t believe that. There is not a bad bone in Cody’s body. I understand that now. It’s all Alejandro’s fault. That scheming devil brainwashed me. He made me believe you were a threat to Cody, that I had to kill you in order to save Cody. If anyone is behind this it is Alejandro.”
“Alejandro? The leader of Codyism?” Hugo asked.
Dr Drecker nodded. “He used to be Marconi’s right hand. And then he was my assistant for a while.”
“Your assistant. I remember you telling me you had an assistant,” Adam said with a wry smile. “So who exactly are we dealing with? Who is this Alejandro?”
When Dr Drecker had finished telling the others about Alejandro, the mood in the car had changed. It was obvious that Drecker and Cody had been played. The question was whether Cody was still being played.
“What did Cody write?” Dr Drecker asked.
“He wrote that he had escaped. That he wanted to catch up with me and Cameron.”
“Then that is what we have to do.”
“But how do we know if it is Cody we are speaking to? And how do we know if he is speaking the truth, that he really has escaped from Alejandro?”
“Let me write the response,” Dr Drecker said. “I’ll make sure there is no doubt. Then, after I’ve responded, we need to get our asses out to the Hamptons. We need to get our hands on that DMT. It is the only thing that can save us.”