Gertie

Chapter 37

Stefano made his way towards the basement of Maison Blanche, looking for Rolf. He fumbled with his cane on the stairs, furious that the man hadn't answered when he'd summoned him. Stefano could hear Rolf cackling with laughter from his lab, which was opposite of Stefano's dungeon. It echoed down the dark, brick lined corridor. "Rolf!" he roared, as he stumbled towards the lab. "Rolf!" Still the man did not reply, and the maniacal laughter continued. "What is that imbecile up to now?"

Stefano pushed the door open to find Rolf hunched over a computer, with a headset on, saying into it, "You need to increase the speed to 100 miles per hour. Do it now!"

"Rolf!" Stefano yelled as loudly as he could. "Rolf, I have been calling you for twenty minutes! Ignoring me has forced me to fumble my way down here to find you. You know I can barely walk, and yet you have forced me to navigate those wretched stairs. What are you doing?"

Rolf turned, looking at him excitedly. "Stefano! Stefano! You will not believe what I have been able to do!" Rolf said, ripping the headset from his ears, and dropping it to the desk in front of him with a clang. "The microchip! The one we implanted into Roman 2.0! Do you remember it was a newer updated model?"

"Yes, I remember, Rolf. Get to the point!"

"Well, I have discovered that I can use it to control him!"

"We've known that," Stefano said, as if Rolf were an idiot. "That's why we implanted it."

"No, no, no, no! You don't understand," Rolf said excitedly. "Look! Look! Oh, wait...wait..." Rolf suddenly looked panicked as he placed the headset back on his head, and started typing furiously on the keyboard. "Decrease speed, and find a place to stop for the night."

"I need an explanation, and I need it now, Rolf!"

"I was studying the possibilities of the microchip a few weeks ago. I knew we could send signals through a satellite that would enable us to bring Roman 2.0 back to Maison Blanche if we needed to, and I was thinking that possibly, with a few code adjustments, we might be able to do more, and I was right!" Rolf said excitedly. "I can make him do whatever I want! I can play him like a video game!"

Stefano stared at Rolf incredulously, "A video game? Rolf, that is ridiculous!"

"Given a specific set of code typed into the program, combined with verbal instructions through the headset, it isn't ridiculous at all! You won't believe what I've been able to have Roman Brady 2.0 do over the past few weeks!"

Stefano eyed Rolf warily, suddenly worried that Rolf had gone rogue as a mad scientist, "What have you been doing?"

"I was able to get him to have Isabella Toscano shoot Marlena Evans and John Black! Although, shooting John was purely accidental, of course," Rolf said with the giddiness of a child. "I controlled everything he did! It was amazing!"

"You fucking imbecile!" Stefano roared, swinging his cane at Rolf's head. "Is he dead? Because if you've killed John, you've ruined all of my plans! We can't replace this Roman! Not after you killed the first one with your ridiculous experiment!"

Rolf whined, "That wasn't my fault, Stefano! You had me working in poor conditions. How was I supposed to know that the machines required to keep Roman Brady alive would be too much for the generators?"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

July 1996

"John," Marlena said softly. "We received good news today. The best news actually. Right now, you and I, we need all the good news we can get, don't we? The test results came back for Shawn D. He's a match. He's Gertie's match. Bo and I sat down with him yesterday and explained what that means. For nine years old, he so mature. He didn't hesitate to agree, and he loves Gertie so much." Marlena wiped the tears from her cheeks, "Her chemo should be done in a few weeks, and Dr. Steinmann is going to meet with Bo and I tomorrow to discuss the procedure."