FanStory.com - The Devil Fights Back

Recap of Chapter 9: We hear some of Marie's backstory and find out she was treated by her mother much the way she is towards Julia.

The company who attended the christening soon arrives and Marie is introduced to everyone. She hears the story of how Julia joined the bluegrass band.

She and Brian have a talk in his basement lab where he describes what he makes there. When she intimates that he has been sponging off Julia, he sets her straight about the nature of their marriage--that it is built on trust and they are true partners. She doesn't know quite what to make of the revelation that he is not just some worthless addict who is corrupting her daughter and that he has actually earned millions of dollars from his new drug.

Chapter 10

Fran

It’s been a little over a week since the raid on Kevin Glazer’s apartment that turned up the sat phone calls to China and the Dipraxa data on his computer. The morning after that, I turned over my laptop, which contained the data I stole from Kevin to Lou. At the time, he said to me, “Francine, I knew the suspension and the threat to your integrity would light a fire under you. What led you to suspect Kevin?”

I then related my reasoning and how I enlisted the help of a friend who simply got phone data for me without knowing anything about the case.

Lou had said, “I don’t even want to know your friend’s name,” at which point I said, “Good, because I wasn’t planning to tell you.”

“Figures. I presume you didn’t leave any evidence in Kevin’s apartment that you’d broken in?”

“No, sir.”

“Then you can leave it up to me to figure out a legal way to nail Kevin now that we have him dead to rights and Brittany Edwards too. I have a feeling you’re going to have a more important task ahead of you. Here’s your gun and creds back,” he said as he dug them out of his desk drawer and handed them to me. “Welcome back to the fold, Francine… as if you ever even left it. Now stick around. We’ve got a meeting with FBI Headquarters in Washington.”

He then initiated a Secure Video Teleconferencing meeting with them in which he had me explain the data theft from the USPTO and how it led to our current situation. At the conclusion of the meeting, the Director, with Lou’s full support, put me in charge as the Special Agent in Command or SAIC of the mission to stop the spread of Dipraxa. I was given the authority to enlist whatever agents from my office or others I needed to help me with it, plus any authorized personnel like my brother.

A few days later, Mike returned from his mission, and today we celebrated the christening of Brian and Julia’s baby, Johnny. The christening was a very sweet service at a little Baptist church only a mile from their new house. They had made Mike and me little Johnny’s godparents. We were honored to be chosen. He was now both our nephew and our godchild.

Following the service, we headed back to Brian and Julia’s house. They decided to build a new house because their previous home in Charlotte had been too small for a growing family. Julia had told me at the time that they would most likely have another baby or two one day and would need a bigger house.

Brian and I grew up in a fairly rural area; Julia, not so much. But since she joined her bluegrass band and befriended the band members, she’d been to their houses in the country and fell in love with the slower pace and wide-open spaces of a rural area. Together, they decided to move from Charlotte and build their new home out in the country in Cherryville. They seem very happy here.

I’d heard stories about Julia’s mother over the years—none of them good—but this was the first time I ever met the woman. I hope they’ll be able to repair the rift between them for everyone’s sake.

It looked like Brian followed her into the kitchen, and they’ve been gone for a while now. I wondered what was being said between them.

I needed a word with Brian, myself, to fill him in on the news that Dipraxa had gotten out. I’m permitted to speak with him about it since he has been in on the whole scheme from the start and has the necessary authorization.

I will take him aside a little later and explain it all to him. But the bigger reason for talking to him will be to pick his brain for a solution. Somehow, we have to stop this from spreading any further, and he is the perfect candidate for the job because he invented the drug and knows how it works. Perhaps there would be a scientific solution that could be found, although I had no idea what that might be. I hoped he would.

In a few minutes, Brian and Marie rejoined the group and brought out a few platters of snacks. Little Johnny was toddling around, charming everyone. He would pat their knees where they sat and smile a toothless smile up at them. He wasn’t at all a shy baby.

Only 10 months old now, he was an early walker and was pretty steady on his feet. He made his way over to Julia’s banjo case resting on a shelf. He began patting it, and saying, “Ba-ba? Ba-ba?”

I said, “I think you’ve got a request to play, Jules. How about it?”

“Johnny, are you saying ‘banjo?’”

“Ba-ba.”

“I think that’s what he’s saying, Fran.”

“You want Mama to play her banjo, sweetie?”

“Ba-ba. Ba-ba.”

Julia looked at Willy and said, “I don’t suppose you brought your guitar with you, did you?”

“Have you ever known me to go anywhere without it, Darlin’? I come prepared.”

“How about you, Shannon? A snare drum, perhaps?”

“You got it, Babe.”

“Johnny, I think we’re in luck.”

The Stubblefields left to retrieve their instruments from their pickup as Julia took her banjo out of the case, put picks on her fingers, and began tuning it up. Johnny plucked a few strings too. I glanced over at Marie, who looked rather appalled by it all.

When the Stubblefields returned with guitar and drum, Julia said, “Why don’t we start with Johnny’s favorite: ‘Dueling Banjos’?”

Julia and Willy proceeded to give us a rollicking version of this classic song made famous in the movie Deliverance. We all clapped along to the fast part at the end, all except Marie, I noticed. Even little Johnny tried his best and managed to get his two hands together once or twice, but he lost his balance and sat down hard, where he continued to try to clap. Julia smiled at him most of the time while playing.

When this song was done, Shannon joined them for a few more songs together. Then I called out, “How about ‘The Devil,’ Jules?” This was short for the Charlie Daniels classic, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” which had become a standard in their little bluegrass band’s repertoire and was how they concluded all their shows.

Willy shouted out to Brian, “Daddy, want to join us for the vocals?” Brian knew the words and would do this on occasion. He went up and joined the three of them. Julia put the banjo away and pulled out her fiddle because she would play the fiddle parts of both the devil and his intended victim, not coincidentally named Johnny.

It was another spirited performance that got us all clapping again. Still nothing from Marie, although I did detect a wry smile, or was it more of a sardonic one she couldn’t completely hide?

Following the music, folks began refilling drinks and eating snacks. Conversations began, and I decided the time was right to talk to Brian.

“Hey, little brother, would you mind joining me for a private conversation for a few minutes?”

“Sure, big sis. Why don’t we go down to my lab? We’ll have some privacy there.” He led the way.

I’ve been down here before and was extremely impressed with his setup. It was a very modern lab with over a half million dollars’ worth of fancy equipment. He had done all the development of both Dipraxa and its replacement, Glyptophan, in the lab he’d built in his Charlotte house using this equipment.

“Brian, do you remember how I once told you that Dipraxa could never get out into the general population because of the destruction it would unleash? Well, it’s gotten out.”

“WHAT! How? You don’t think I had anything to do with it, do you?”

“Of course not. But you and I both were natural suspects to the FBI. Let me stress ‘were’ because we now know who the real culprit is.”

I proceeded to fill him in on the original meeting with Thing-1 and Thing-2, my suspension, and my subsequent quest to find out who the mole was.

“You know, I still feel partially responsible and a little bit guilty for what’s happened,” I admitted to him. “I know I warned you this should never get out, but it was my idea to use it in the first place. I wish now I’d taken my own warning to heart. At any rate, my boss told me we’ve been cleared of any wrongdoing now that they have the proof of the theft and the mechanism for it.”

“That was damn good thinking on your part, Fran, and I appreciate your effort to clear us.”

“Well, we don’t need you in jail. We need you to help us find a solution to its spread. All we know is that it’s most likely manufactured in China and smuggled into Mexico, then into the US through the southern border. We’re hoping the current administration will tighten things up down there, but you know how clever those cartels are in finding ways to get things through. We can certainly attempt to interrupt the supply chain or the distribution network if we can figure them out, but I was hoping there would be another way, and that’s where I think you come in.”

“What would that be?”

“Would there be some way to incapacitate the drug? You know, make it so it no longer works. I need your good brain to tell me if this is at all possible or even to conceive of some other way.”

“Huh, that’s an intriguing idea. Incapacitate the drug. That’s going to take some heavy-duty thinking. I’ll get started on it right away because it seems time is of the essence.”

“Thanks, little brother. And if you need help with this and know some folks who could help, like your friend Paul Rieke, we’ll be able to get authorization for that. I’ve convinced my boss this is a high priority now.”

“Got it. Won’t know until I think about it for a while, but I’ll let you know as soon as I have any ideas.”

“I appreciate that. I’m sure the country, if it knew the danger, would too. I just shudder at the thought of how many people would quickly become addicted to Dipraxa, because we all know what happened to you.”

“As one who knows, I certainly share your fear. I’m all in now and will begin immediately… well, maybe after the christening party. Shall we rejoin the group?”

I gave him a hug, and we went back upstairs.