Ava did what she did for Anthony and for her homeland. But it wasn’t enough to draw out the man she was looking for. Not all come out to show their respect for the dead. Maybe second time around would be different, but then the dead don’t care.
26 – Who’s lost the plot?
AVA PERDU’S HUSBAND’S STYLE OF MANAGING GOT THINGS DONE. It got the drug through the development process, through the clinical trials, through the regulatory approvals. The combination of her persuasion skills and his greasing the necessary hands to smooth pockets of resistance ensured the drug entered the market. A market that had already been primed to diagnose illnesses they didn’t have, a gullible market, easy to manipulate.
Ava knew she and the company took advantage of such weakness, but the existence of such weaknesses infuriated her.
“Have you read this summary she wrote?” Anthony stood up as to give a speech, he read from his tablet device.
"There is an area in the temporal lobes that points to some kind of spiritual junction, where the soul and spirit connect with the human body. Experiments with activity levels in this area have confirmed this. We have been able to ‘switch off’ this connection by introducing a chemical imbalance. We believe there is a ‘sixth sense’ that picks up vibrations from the non-physical world—the sixth sense receptor converted these vibrations to a recognised pattern (like a voice, self-talk). This, we believe, is how God and his angels communicate with the physical."
“Don’t we just love these intelligent people who have lost the plot?” He continued.
"We are making a mistake with releasing this medication. It causes imbalances and allows other thought patterns to dominate, patterns easily influenced by enemies of God, namely demons. These entities contribute greatly to the negative thought process and influence man’s nature which is still susceptible to sin. It would be able to switch these thought patterns off. They’re cunning, these demons, as they can also masquerade as angels of light."
“Even the reference she makes to ‘we’ is misleading. Feedback indicates many considered her bordering on crazy. But people do what they’re told, and she was their leader.”
“So you’re saying there are no more ‘Mrs Roses’ floating around in our company. No more white ants?”
“That’s right.” Anthony said
Ava pondered further. “Sin. Demons. Do people still use those words, still believe in fairy tales?” Such things made Ava angry.
“Sadly, yes, but they’re a confused lot. Seventy per cent of the population of the USA supposedly believe in God but the percentage is a lot lower in northwest Europe—aren’t you glad that’s where we’re from? Think, we could have been born in the USA and had religion jammed down our throat.”
“Yes, so we need to spread the good news,” Ava said.
“That’s funny, that’s what they call it. The Christians.”
“Really? I wonder why?”
“Mrs Rose could tell you.” A small smirk appeared. “I let her ramble on a number of times. Her test results did show something I didn’t fully understand, but turning off a desire to seek a religious experience appealed to me, but from a different perspective—no seek, no soul, no Christianity.
“Aye, Aye.” Ava thumped her fist in the air. She felt those lingering feelings of anger dissipating.
“Their belief system is based on the continuity of the soul after death. There is no heaven, no hell, no eternal life.” Anthony continued. “It’s sad that we have to assist in forming correct beliefs. But we now have a large percentage of the market covered for mental illnesses, depression, and the like. And that’s a big market. How to get everyone on the new pill is the challenge—but maybe slipping the active ingredient into other medication is one way.” He smiled.
“We will leave that to the experts, love. But we will watch as our medication finds its way into those God-centred countries. What sort of world do you think we would have when only a remnant of people believe in God?”
“An interesting one. Like our home country—nothing but truth and freedom.”
<°)))><
The room had taken on a pinkish tinge. Ava looked outside and realised that the sun was setting and had brought the glow into the room. She moved to the comfortable leather guest chair and started to consider her strategies as she stared past her husband out in to the open grass fields.
She was dearly loved by her husband, who often told her how attractive she was, what an intellect she had, how very dangerous she seemed. Ava knew her husband felt above the law and believed he was untouchable—he’d say kings were a protected species.
They were well matched, driven by wealth and the survival of the fittest. They both had an interest in the Cult of Reason—a belief system intended as a replacement of Christianity, with its goal the perfection of mankind through the pursuit of truth and freedom. They had a fondness for logic and scepticism, accepted each other’s individualism and were protective of each other. They scoffed at those that sought out God, considering them weak.
Her eyes were drawn from the grassy fields to her husband’s eyes. She smiled at him. She saw the back of the picture frame he had on the desk. She knew the picture well: it was their Madeleine, wearing a white cap with the sparkling blue water of the Mediterranean behind her. It was taken at a resort—their last holiday together.
Ava took her daughter’s death hard. It is what it is. Reality. That’s what her husband said. He was over it, but she wasn’t. Not when she knew others had caused Madeleine’s death. Others like Isabella Rose. She had teased Madeleine. Ava had found the evidence in Madeleine’s social media accounts, and saw the change in her daughter. Too late.
Madeleine’s words became darker, talking about demons, saying that they would attack her enemies. Where had she got such talk from? They called her daughter the ‘Demented One’, the one who heard voices in her head. Why were young people so vicious?
“Why did you go to the house?” Anthony asked.
27 – Planting seeds
AVA'S THOUGHTS WENT TO THE HOUSE where they found Madeleine’s body. No—that wasn’t what Anthony was referring to. Ava collected her thoughts and focused on what was in hand.
“The girl. She’s been off the radar for a while. She came back to the house. I was curious as to why. Others were also interested; Defence people I believe.”
The wrinkles on Anthony’s forehead tightened.
“Our interest?” Ava continued. “Maybe there was some connection to her mother’s work. Maybe there was some unfinished white anting. Maybe the girl knew something that could help us. More plants would be good.” Half-truths were second nature to Ava.
Anthony showed little interest in the manufacturing process and they’d neglected something. His wonder drug couldn’t be produced synthetically because of the complex chemical structure. They needed more plants. They needed thousands of the plants. They needed to protect their small plantation and locate more plants.
“Of course, Mrs Rose wouldn’t have told me that we had a shortage. But I’m sorry I’ve been so focused on the marketing side. Can’t we just start up a plantation somewhere?”
“Why do you say that?” Ava was muddled.
“Well, the horticulturist just advised us that our plantation isn’t looking good. As though the plants had been poisoned. It’s not good timing due to the seedling process—we’ll have to address that before we run out of stock. She also advised that it’s a rare plant and she wasn’t aware of where to find any.”
“That’s a problem. We need seeds to start a plantation.” The girl should’ve been kept alive—they needed her to find where the plant originated from. If she knew. Mrs Rose would have been thorough in destroying any information leading to the location of the plant. Ava shouldn’t have let her desire for revenge get in the way of the company but that was her second priority, she was still trying to draw out somebody.
“So you believe they were defence personnel?” Anthony asked.
