Schizophrenia

Chapter 5 Conference Call

             Doctor Walker is sitting in the conference room. This room is the only all-white room , designed to allow free-flowing creativity at the drawing board. The professor specifically requested that he be there at exactly eight-thirty in the morning. There is a certain silence in the room that is deafening to the point that one could hear a mouse walking across the floor. It is driving the doc crazy. He really does not want to be here right now. He can think of one-thousand other places that he would rather be, then stuck in another boring, continuous hamster wheel conference, circle-jerking around a steaming pot of coffee and cold, stale donuts. 

                   Professor Hërschoff walks in the door, holding a letter he received in the mail, glasses tipped at the end of his nose. " So glad you could be here. The rest will be arriving soon. I have a special announcement to make today. You will want to be awake for this.." He sits down, slowly, almost missing contact between his derriere and the chair. 

                 "I received a letter in the mail today... I will be discussing it in the meeting." 

            Just in, the nine other staff members walk in, some exhausted, some perky and excited to be here. They all take a seat. 

                     "Thank you all for joining me today. I am so glad you could be here. I received a letter in the mail today...About two months ago, I sent a letter to the President of the CERN Control Centre in Geneva, Switzerland...to request access to their particle accelerator, Super Hadron Collider, located three-hundred feet below ground. They have declined my request...but that's okay, because I had also placed a request for the eleven-point-five Tesla MRI machine that was built in my hometown in Germany, to be brought here. It so happens, my cousin runs the place, and is a brilliant physicist. He is a god. He is giving it to us as a gift, for my contributions to their center in the past. How does that sound?"

   The entire room explodes with clapping, cheering, and applause. They raise to give a standing ovation. This meant a break through. This meant new equipment, new discoveries.  "I wanted this, because it's stronger, it's better, more accurate, and can be used more efficiently, to help these kids have a better chance at living without Schizophrenia. Yes, I want to prove that they can see the divine, however, when everything is said and done, I would also like for them to be able to live a normal, functioning and successful life without even a trace of negative symptoms associated with their diagnosis." More cheering, laughter, joy, and applause erupted.

              "Beautiful...well-spoken..." Doctor Walker replied. 

               "Also, as a gift, he has granted us a quarter of a million dollars to help fund our research center!" 

                "Nice." Doctor Walker exclaimed. 

                "So, all of you are receiving a bonus of thirteen-thousand, six hundred and thirty-six dollars and forty cents, equaling to one-hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The other one-hundred thousand is going to other new equipment. First of all replacement parts for our monitors will be purchased,  which are each seven grand a part."

                   "Thank you! Awesome!" Cheers and applause rang out and echoed down the hallway. By the way, none of them realized that this was hush money for something even more sinister than the professor had already concocted in his mind. He had them right where he wanted them. Although he was unsure about Walker. He had his suspicions that Walker would remember what happened at the other sight and ultimately betray him one day. But, he kept this to himself and was smart enough for his own sake to play it cool. The Professor had a  mind to steal the particle accelerator from Switzerland, and pay his cohorts ten grand each to do it. As he closed up the meeting, all of the little lie-fed sheep scurried off back to their cubicles, to Facebook, Face Time, an  Tweet their souls away to every hungry eye on the screen, about their new surprise bonus check, all except for Walker. He had this gut-wrenching knot and he knew something was up. This hadn't happened since 2012. He remembered receiving a bonus check from the Professor for some fifty-thousand dollars.The rest was a blur, but why was this so familiar? Why did he feel this knot? Was it possible that what he feared, had already happened before? Why couldn't he remember? Why was there this big black blank of memory loss? He could remember almost anything he wanted to, but two time periods. He had been working with the Professor for so long he had forgotten how long it had been. As he went back to this cubicle, he decided to do some research. He googled "Large Hadron Collider" and a well of sites sprung up onto the screen. "Just pick one" he though. He clicked on on. "____________________" He scrolled down. It read 'there were rumors that back in 2012, CERN successfully opened a portal and witnessed giants known as Nephilim. This is said to be one f the reasons that hey shit down the LHC in order to make it more powerful and fix the magnets after they broke open the portal. CERN have scheduled  to attempt to open the portal in September." Then, he skimmed and saw "Magnet shut down to Aibus A320 crash in the Alps."  Everything started coming back to him. That's where they had worked before. He and Professor Hërschoff had worked for CERN, before they broke off and started Wide Awake. He thought this was absurd. Why would they need to make it stronger? My God! How fast do they really want to summon the Rapture? The Apocolypse? Armageddon? He swore under his breath. This was stupid and foolish. Had they all gone mad? He had to put a stop to this. He didn't know what exactly the Professor was up to, but he was starting to pull all of the pieces together. It spelled disaster. He had to stop the Professor before he destroyed the world. He would keep a closer eye on Hërschoff. 

                     While all of this was going on, Hërschoff had slipped away and had called some people. He was no longer in the center, but now in his own concave big enough to hide an upright whale, with room to spare. He had been working on this for two years. No on else knew about it but him and the people he hired to construct it without collapsing the mountain. 

         "So, you cna bring it to me now, and I'll pay each ten grand to steal it, haul it, and bring it in?" 

          Two men on the other end of the phone were dressed in black suits, one short and bulgy, and the other one, tall and lanky. They were from Boston. Their parents had been with the Italian Mafia, so they had learned very well how to be stealthy. But, they had done less work for more than this guy was offering. This was small potatoes compared to their highest paid jobs. " Now, you know we aren't going to accept that.  Come on, man, you know us. Fifty grand a piece, and it's a deal. Whad'ya say, eh?" 

              He really couldn't afford to pay over the entire hundred grand, but he wanted this really badly, so he caves. "Okay, okay. Fine. Fifty...are you sure? How about forty?"

            "No.Fifty or no deal. Capiche?"

       "Okay, okay. You drive a hard bargain, but okay. Fifty grand each. Deal?" 

   "Ok. Much better. When do you want it, boss?"

     "As soon as possible, please. I'll have the money ready and waiting when you get here." 

            "Okay, right on, boss." 

         The phone cuts. 

The professor paced back and forth, nervously, pissed off, madder than a hornet, that he had to hand over the entire hundred grand. "Fuck me! God damn it! We needed new machine parts and a new coffee machine! They will kill me if I don't replace their coffee machine." They would, too. They loved their coffee like they needed oxygen. Many of them could not do their job or function without it.  "I will have to take it out of my own money now. I was saving it for my getaway. Oh well." He sighs, thoroughly disappointing, crossing his fingers that everything would go as planned. 

   Before anyone had a chance to notice, Hërschoff had popped back in the hallway and back to his office, as if nothing happened. He had become very good at dissociating. Just then, the doctor came in. "So, when are we looking at the MRI machine arriving?"

                "Hopefully, by tomorrow, but Friday at the latest. That's two days from now." 

 He figured this should be sufficient time. While everyone else would be focused on the MRI machine arriving, he would slip off and make sure his LHC came and was in place.  "Okay. Is there anything else that I can do?" 

                 "Not right now...thank you...just go check on the patients...See if they need any assistance. Normal routine stuff." 

                  "Gotcha. Yes, sir. Right on it. "