Designed with a Destiny (20 page)

“Larry, why is it so important for you to
disprove religious teachings? You’re hell bent on steering these
kids down a path of darkness that leads them away from anything
that has to do with God and creation, and I want to know why?”
Bernie demands, pointing a finger at him accusingly. He laughs in
response to her aggravation, his eyes widening in surprise.

“
And here we go with another science
versus religion debate,”
Alisha mutters to me privately,
rolling her eyes.

“
Let them go Ali, this is interesting
stuff.”
I can’t help but find their whole debate a little
intriguing, possibly because it’s not the kind stuff they taught in
school and we certainly weren’t talking about it when I was growing
up.

“Is that what you think Bernice—that I have
an anti-god vendetta?” Their use of nicknames with each other
reminds me of an old married couple—and I wonder if Cat will ever
get around to shortening my name—
Ron? Ronny? Shit I hoped
not.
“There couldn’t be anything further from the truth,” he
says, walking over to her. “If anything, the study of quantum
physics has made me and every scientist I know, including Kenneth,
a believer in a divine creator.”

“Then why is it that you disregard any
teaching that comes from the church?” she throws her hands up in
exasperation. His eyes soften and he takes her two hands in
his.

“Shortly after gaining the ability to see
energy fields, Kenneth and I visited hundreds of different churches
in all different religions, and do you know what we found? More
than two-thirds of the people attending had a blue-gray color
screening,” he discloses before she has a chance to guess. “Energy
fields don’t lie Bern. People can say and do things to deceive
others of their true thoughts and feelings. They can go through all
the motions of portraying themselves as devoutly committed to their
doctrines—but energy fields can’t be manipulated to represent
something that you’re not—they are the truest reflection of
spirituality. Here’s what I know for certain Bernie…” He moves
behind her and places one hand around her waist, while grabbing her
other hand. “God is that pure energy source from which all is
created. When we adopt feelings of harmony…” he shuffles a few
steps forward, moving her with him in a waltz like dance. “Our
vibrational energy increases bringing us closer to that source.
“Thoughts of peace…” he shuffles again, “even closer. But feelings
of jealousy and resentment…” he shuffles backwards ending up in his
original spot. “Decreases our vibratory frequency and draws us away
from our source. Love and peace…fear and hatred…non-judging and
honesty…self-righteous and hypocritical,” he draws comparisons
demonstrating with his dance like moves the effect it will have on
vibrational frequencies, by moving the two of them forward and
backward in the center of the room, getting faster and faster until
it does look like they’re dancing the tango. “If God is pure
unconditional love with a vibrational rate so fast that it can’t be
measured, then it’s what every single human being on this planet
should be striving to achieve regardless of religious affiliation,”
he says softly in her ear.

“Just like him,” Claire announces pointing
in the general direction of Alisha and Jason.

“Him—who?” Cat asks, as we all look.

“Him,” she says again, looking around the
room expecting one of us to substantiate her claim, then rolling
her eyes when everyone shrugs their shoulders, taking it personal
that we have no idea who “him” is. She slides off her chair and
marches impatiently over to Alisha, and points her finger at her
belly, and repeats, “Him.”

There is a long moment of awkward silence as
we watch Alisha and Jason exchange baffled looks, followed by
recognition of what Claire might be alluding to, strong denial,
then acknowledgment of the possibility. Alisha’s hand flies up to
her mouth and she bursts into tears leaving the room, with a
grinning Jason following right behind her.

“What did I say?” Claire asks, becoming
upset by Alisha’s reaction. As brilliant as the six-year-old is,
she wouldn’t be expected to understand the complex issues
surrounding an unexpected pregnancy.

“It’s okay—I just don’t think they were
prepared to learn about him today—that’s all,” Cat whispers,
wrapping her arms around her. I’d like to know how the hell a
six-year-old detects an early pregnancy, even determining the
gender, but figure Cat or Alisha would be the most appropriate
persons to question her about it.

Cat kisses the top of Claire's head, and
gives her sister a tight squeeze before looking up. “Kenneth, I
really need to find my brother and the rest of our families. Can we
see the rest of your science experiments later.”

“Looks like we’re going to be down to six
Designers—do you guys think we can handle it?” Natalie asks. I
wasn’t completely convinced that a pregnancy would keep Alisha out
of the game, but better to play it safe and plan on her not joining
us till told otherwise.

“Hell yes we can handle it.” Austin says
confidently, fist punching the air, and Natalie looks at him and
says, “I wasn’t asking you Aussie.” It's amusing to watch Austin's
face turn slightly pink in response to the nickname.

“I agree with Austin—we have enough skill to
manage any situation thrown at us, as long as we work together,” I
add, looking at my wife who smiles appreciatively.

“Why don’t we start by looking through the
paperwork from my father’s office,” Zane says, getting up to leave.
He looks pleased when Elizabeth offers to help.

***

“Phone records show he made several calls to
Santiago, Chile a few days ago. I’ve been able to trace three of
the phone numbers to Clinica Las Condes, a top private hospital
where neurosurgeries are routinely performed,” Elizabeth quietly
announces giving further credibility to Zane’s hunch about them
going directly after the DNA technology housed in Chord's brain.
Cat sucks in a deep breath and squeezes her eyes shut, no doubt
battling the rising fear that we both know is counterproductive to
getting him back.

“We’ll find him—as soon as we get some
information and images about the facility, I’ll remote travel there
and find him,” I quickly reassure her, not allowing myself to
consider that we might be too late.

“Wait—look at this,” Natalie says, holding
up one of the documents recovered from Mr. Harrington’s office.
“It’s a list of codes; AH38I, AH47M…” she starts to read out loud,
immediately getting the attention of Lawrence, who rushes
immediately to her side.

“May I see that?” He flips through the first
two pages quickly, but something on the third page makes him jerk
his head up in sudden recognition, and with each turn of the page
thereafter, his alarm intensifies. “How in the hell did he get
this?” he mumbles, looking at the only person in the room remotely
close to having the answer. Zane walks over and takes the papers,
studying them with interest but not the same level of concern as
Lawrence.

“I’ve never seen them before—it looks like a
mathematical description of a chemical system” he says, wrinkling
his brow. Kenneth, being a mathematical genius hurries over and
takes a turn scanning the document.

“Are these…?” he finally asks with
astonishment, and Lawrence nods. “I thought Ted Kappel took these
to his grave,” he says, instantly cluing us in to the subject
matter, and we all huddle around him trying to get a look.

“What is it?” Cat asks.

“It’s the formula for the synthetic DNA
molecules that were used in you and Chord specifically. I recognize
it because I helped write the computer program for the genetic
code, which was supposed to be destroyed so that it would never
fall in to the wrong hands,” Lawrence says grimly.

“Wait, isn’t this a good thing? I mean if
they have the genetic code already, then they won’t have to dissect
Chord to get it,” she says getting excited, and raising my hopes as
well. He shakes his head no, and my heart sinks.

“But I thought you said this synthetic gene
is what gives me the ability to influence the vibrational frequency
of others—why not just give people the tools to raise their own
frequencies and cut out the middle man?” she asks not disguising
her disappointment.

“The DNA strand has one simple purpose and
that is to open the pathways to the subconscious mind which holds
the key for manifesting thoughts and emotions. A person must be
prepared with higher vibrational thoughts. In the wrong hands, such
as someone with Hitler’s mentality, you spread vibrations of hate,
greed and crime, bringing the vibrational frequency of the world
even lower than it is now,” he responds quietly.

“Lawrence you said that those pathways would
constrict and clog completely—like a blood vessel, in someone who
consistently harbors negative thoughts and emotions. I thought this
was a self-correcting gift that could only be sustained in a person
with a higher and faster frequency.”

“That’s true—the lower and slower vibrations
serve as a natural blockade within those pathways, but it doesn’t
happen instantaneously. It can take weeks to months for those
pathways to close completely—long enough for someone to trigger
another world war.” Lawrence sighs and glances back down at the
papers in his hand as if trying to decide what to do with them.

“Zane can you get us in touch with the
people looking for these papers?” Cat suddenly asks, a look of
determination on her face. He slowly nods, and Lawrence carefully
rolls the papers up, clenching them tightly under his arm.

“Cataryn—please don’t,” he says in a quietly
pleading voice.

“Give me the papers Lawrence,” she lightly
orders, holding her hand out to collect them. They lock eyes in a
battle of mental persuasion that he does a fairly decent job of
blocking until she lightly touches his arm—then its game over.

“You have no idea the consequences of such
an action,” he softly warns, reluctantly handing her the documents.
She leans over and kisses him on the cheek in response.

“I’m sorry Lawrence—I can’t sacrifice my
brother or anyone else to postpone the inevitable. They’ll get what
they want sooner or later, even if it takes them another five years
to do it.”

“It’ll take them at least two years to
recreate this synthetic DNA strand without the blueprint for it,
and you’ll have a chance to convert millions to yellow, maybe even
white by then. I’m challenging all of you to look beyond your own
circumstances and do what’s good for all of mankind,” he says with
a fire in his eyes. “It’s what you were designed to do—it’s your
destiny.” Dressed in nothing but light weight cotton pants and a
white t-shirt, we watch him leave the house barefoot, following a
stone path that leads to a small seating area overlooking the red
rock formations of the Garden of the Gods National Park. He kneels
on the ground and folds his hands in his lap, where he remains
perfectly still for the next hour while we work on a plan to
negotiate Chord’s release.

***

I’m not entirely comfortable with the fact
that Zane Harrington is bargaining on our behalf using an Arabic
dialect that the rest of us can’t understand. He’s been on his cell
phone for over an hour, slowly working his way up the chain of
command until he finally gets someone on the phone who judging by
the change in his demeanor, and bead of sweat forming on his top
lip, is powerful enough to make major decisions. Twenty more
minutes go by before they end their conversation and we hold our
breath waiting for the verdict.

“They won’t give up Chord, but they’ll
release all four women in exchange for the documents and completion
of one assignment,” he says grimly.

“What kind of assignment?” Bernie
immediately questions.

“It doesn’t matter—tell him yes,” Alisha
says, walking down the hallway with Jason. She must have heard the
entire conversation from the back room because there’s resolve in
her voice that I’ve come to recognize as nonnegotiable. I don’t
blame her—if they honor their side of the deal, we’ll have all of
our mothers and her sister back by the end of the week. I’m
inclined to agree to whatever brutal act they have planned too.

“They want you to destroy the Empire State
Building,” Zane says barely above a whisper, squeezing his eyes
shut. Cat gasps and moans out loud, leaning against me for support,
and Bernie collapses in a nearby chair, murmuring, “Dear God, no.”
Even Alisha loses some of her boldness and where everyone used to
look to her for important decisions, they now turn to me waiting
for my response. My preference would be to make physical contact
with them and use Cat’s ability to influence vibration fields but
they know too much about our abilities to make that mistake.

“It’s out of the question—we have to get
them back on the phone and negotiate further,” I say firmly, for
the benefit of Bernie Stoddard who could never go along with an act
of terrorism. My eyes meet with a pair of puffy, red, sky blues
across the room and I can tell right away that Alisha hasn’t
completely discarded the deal either. The corners of her lips turn
up in a slight smile that if I didn’t know her so well, could be
mistaken for a grimace.

“
Well Ali—are you or aren’t you?”
I
feel entitled to know the answer to my question, after all if the
answer’s yes, she’ll be automatically excluded from any future
plans of terrorism.

“
I don’t know yet,”
she replies which
I suspect is a downright lie because I heard Lena Williams come
back from the store with a pregnancy test earlier. As it turns out,
her confession isn’t necessary, Jason provides me with everything I
need to know. He hasn’t taken his eyes off of her since they walked
in to the room and while he’s always regarded her affectionately,
now he’s looking at her in a completely different way; with
adoration—maybe mixed with a little fear, pride, definitely more
protective—almost hovering.
“Stay out of this Ali—we’ll handle
it,”
I make the harmless mistake of saying in an attempt to
reassure her, and she bursts into tears again, burying her head in
Jason’s chest. Yep—she’s undeniably pregnant.