Far and Beyond Ch. 03

"Wake up!"

John Walton opened his eyes to see a gun pointed right at his face. In a second he knew it was his own Beretta, cocked and unlocked; in another that it was his wife who held it.

"What's the hell going on?" he asked, both startled and sleepy.

"Watch it!" Mary Walton threw her smartphone on the bed, still holding the gun aimed at her husband.

"Watch what?" John rubbed his eyes.

"The video."

John picked the smartphone, pushed the play sign on the screen, then said:

"Please, move the gun aside. Just give me some scope to watch it."

Mary took a step back, holding John at gunpoint.

He sat up in bed and started watching the video, his face growing grimmer and grimmer.

"Describe what you see!" Mary snarled.

"It looks like some hotel room."

"What do you see in the room?"

"I see a woman," John said, sounding embarrassed.

"Give more detail!" commanded Mary.

"Well, I see a naked woman."

"Who else?"

"There's a man. A naked man," John mumbled. "Yes, he's naked, too."

"Do you know him?" Mary inquired.

"Well... one might say he resembles me in a way."

"Okay. He resembles you. Let's have it this way. What are they doing?"

"Obviously they are making love," John gave out a sigh. "Yes, they're having intercourse."

"Any special comment to the video?"

"Well, the video is of high quality, it was shot with two hidden cameras, professionally installed, then skilfully edited by a pro."

"I mean the couple. Can you tell anything about them?"

"They perform rather clumsily. I don't like their technique."

"You don't like it? And what about me? Do you think I like it?" Mary stepped closer to John and touched his nose with the gun. "How should I react to all this?"

John pushed the gun a bit aside from his face with his index finger, then said:

"How did you get this stuff?"

"Just hired a private detective."

John chuckled nervously.

"You hired a sleuth? Great! I hope it wasn't some guy from my agency. Or was it someone of my employees?"

"Don't worry, it was a third-party."

"So, here we go, the founder of the Elm Tree detective agency has been under surveillance by some third-party. How marvelous! How did you get this crazy idea of spying on your own husband?"

"Just as your clients get the same crazy idea of hiring you for spying on their spouses."

"Maybe you should have hired me in the first place."

"Cut out your sarcasm, John, and don't try being funny in this not so funny sort of situation."

"Mary, just put that gun away, please. Let's talk it over quietly. Just allow me to explain everything."

Mary slowly lowered the gun.

"I'm listening to you, John."

"This woman, Jennifer Braley, she's the wife of one of my clients. Nick Braley is the president of Ostreum Systems, Inc. He wanted our agency to confirm or refute his doubts about his wife's fidelity."

"And you, of course, confirmed his doubts. What an ingenious method you employed! Shall we send this video to that grateful client of yours right now?"

"Mary, do not do it! That'd be the greatest mistake you ever made."

"But why?"

"Because now there's great money involved in all this. The money that may become ours pretty soon. Not mine but ours, just because we're married and you're my beloved wife."

"Stop talking of marriage, you lusty bug!"

"For gosh sakes just put that gun away! I want you to hear me!"

Mary decocked the Beretta, put it on the dressing table and sat down on the chair beside.

John got from under the sheet and sat on the edge of the bed.

"Well, Mary, first of all I am very sorry for what happened. Real sorry. I mean it. It was my fault alone, I do feel guilty and I say - please forgive me. I promise I'm not going to see that woman any more, at least not intentionally. I add "not intentionally" just because there may be accident encounters with her for Nick Walton will remain my client."

"So you're to go on spying on his wife," Mary smirked, crossing her legs.

"No, I won't. I say - forget that woman. This time Walton hired me to find some guy."

"What guy? Some other lover of his wife?"

"I say once again - it doesn't concern his wife in any way. It's about those experiments they're doing in their laboratories."

"What experiments?"

"They do some weird thing. They implant electronic chips in the brains of pigs and monkeys, trying to influence their behavior. They do it quite officially, with all those announcements and presentations to the media. According to those announcements they haven't yet started working on the human brain, but there's a hush-hush research unit within their corporation, and it was there where they held that guy. They implanted some extremely smart gizmo in his brain to tinker with his mind. They didn't tell me the details but I know they were toying with his sexual behavior."

"Nick Walton seems to be some perverted scientist," said Mary.

"He's a talented scientist first of all. Well, all they did in that secret lab was done in complete secrecy, there were no leaks to the public, things had been going smoothly for them until this guy somehow managed to escape the lab. He just vanished. They have no idea about his whereabouts. He may be lying low, or roaming somewhere at large.

They have their own security department and they've already been looking for him, but they are afraid of making too much noise and attracting unnecessary attention to this manhunt. So they hired our agency to find the runaway. Just because Nick Walton knows me well."

"And you know well his wife," Mary grinned.

"Darling, please... It's all about that man, not Walton's wife. To be exact, they do not need him back, what they are after is the chip he carries in his head.They wanna get it back before it falls into the hands of their competitors, or the US authorities, or the Chinese and the Russians, whatever and whoever. They want it back badly. And that's why I've been offered a seven-figure sum if successful."

"A seven-figure sum," Mary pronounced thoughtfully. "Don't you think they want you to kill him?"

"All they want is to have that chip back in their laboratory as soon as possible, whether within that guy's head, dead or alive, or without his head, dead or alive."

"I hope you've no intentions of doing any harm to the poor man."

"What I intend now is to find that runaway, then we'll see what can be done about him. He was last seen in Seattle. It's possible that he's in Canada now, or even somewhere in Asia or Europe. Wherever he is, I must get that fucking chip."

John got up, walked up to his wife and gently kissed her on the head.

"Will you forgive me, honey?"

Mary looked up at her husband and smiled widely:

"Only if you go to that lab and ask them to get some gizmo implanted in your scrotum to give your balls electric shock every time you think of any other woman."

John shook his head:

"Darling, that'd be extremely cruel and inhumane."

"You will survive. Okay, let's get out of the bedroom and have some morning coffee."

"I'd rather have a beer now," John picked up his Beretta from the dressing table and pushed the safety up. "Any idea where my pants may be?"