Chapter 35

"Benjamin Louise!" He whispered his name while squeezing his chin. The expression that ephemerally crept through Henry's face was inexplicable. David and Amelia who had just arrived to inform him were baffled by his reaction too. It was something that they couldn't really gauge. "Sir! What happened?"

She asked politely. "Do you know him?"

He moved to and fro in the middle of the room deeply engrossed in his thoughts.

Her question was followed by an eerie silence.

"Whaattt?" David mouthed at Amelia without really breaking the quietness. "Has it upset him?" David whispered in Amelia's ear. She shrugged her shoulders unable to answer.

"I think Cole was right."

"Everybody except us knows him." She whispered too. "Remember how he mocked us when we showed him our unawareness about Ben." David nodded his head at Amelia's assumption.

"He really is into politics as much as he is apparently away from it. I know him very well." Henry finally said coming back from the depth of thoughts when he heard his name. But there was something that had profoundly bothered him. Whether it was Ben's unexpected involvement in this catastrophe or it was the predictive threats to their own lives, whatever it was, he seemed unhappy with this exposition.

Despite the intricacy of situation Sir Henry pretended to be unfazed and made them sit in the lounge which emitted cosy ambience with beige leather sofas placed in the middle and a huge round coffee table lit with a big globe of wooden pendant lights.

The two walls were decorated with paintings and the other wall was a floor to ceiling shelves neatly adorned with Sir Henry's books. "Leonardo Da Vinci..." she thought looking at one of the famous paintings of him 'The last supper' the originality of which was doubtful.

Beside that was hung the famous 'portrait of a man in Red chalk' by Da Vinci that startled David.

"I know what you are thinking?" Henry smiled when he looked at David's astonished gaze.

"The last time you saw it was in the Royal Library of Turin. Right?"

"Don't worry the original painting is still there. It's just a copy." He disclosed as if trying to relieve him of the confusion.

On the other wall was a painting of a man with beard and white turban.

"It's Ibne Sina." He said with a smile. They were not just paintings they depicted his devotion to science and art which transcended every boundary of religion drawn by humans themselves. "He was a famous philosopher and physician. Regardless of his religion we should be thankful to his contributions." It was another aspect of Henry's personality that they were completely unaware of. "It is the accomplishments of these people that motivate us to do better." They knew he was right and it was completely evident from his own contribution to science and medicine.

He was engrossed in his reading when David and Amelia had come to see him. And the revelation was unexpected

"Sir what should we do now... After knowing who is involved?" David asked breaking the silence again.

"Should we inform anyone?" Amelia inquired too.

He fell silent and blank to answer what they were asking.

"I am afraid this could be more complicated than we think."

"How?"

"If it's Benjamin Louise then it is not he alone. There might be others too."

He said looking at them.

"Ben is just a kingmaker. He doesn't get involved visibly. He stabs from behind. All he needs is money. He enjoys being in the shadows but having the power to exercise what he wants."

They were dumbfounded. "Where are we going with all this."

"It is not so simple."

"he is the king of empires that work in the shadows. Everyone who encounters him in the shadows know what kind of a man he is. Just like that man you are talking about. That..."

"Cole..." Amelia finished his sentence.

"Yes he.."

"Sir how are we going to find who is involved?"

"Look think rationally. He is not a real scientist to devise such a thing. All he has done is to infuse his brute in the plan. He has definitely done it through other scientists whom he might have paid."

"And obviously something like this would need a huge amount to accomplish the plans."

They nodded to make sense of what he was saying. "So it means he might have a team of scientists who are heavily paid by him to carry out experiments in order to make a terrible virus so that people are killed in a gruesome manner?"

"But how does it benefit him?" David asked curiously. "Ben... is not an ordinary man. He is a genius in his own way. His motives are to make money but also relish the power of politics."

They were amazed to hear Henry's knowledge about Benjamin Louise. "I know what you are thinking. He would have been a doctor if his greed did not mislead him." He smiled.

The results were loud and obvious but his involvement in all this situation is a queer revelation. It tells me that there is much more behind it.

He is a hand in the shadows but I can now tell that there may be faces in the light who are doing everything in their power to masquerade their true faces with innocence.

"How do you know him?" David asked.

After a long pause he said with a smile, "He was my batch mate in the Harvard medical school."

"Harvard?" Amelia suddenly asked with a thumping heart.

"Which year?" she asked again confused and excited.

"It was the year 1978 when we graduated."

"1978?" She murmured to herself and he did not notice the look on Amelia's face which had struck her like a bolt of lightning.

"We were a group of friends. Very motivated and ambitious but..."

He stopped for a while and then began, "Benjamin gradually became a part of organizations..."

"...where he met powerful people from the elite societies..."

"...He was mesmerised by their aura so much that he slowly drifted away..."

"... and his motivations soon transformed into money and power driven ambitions." He sighed.

"Why didn't you convince him to come back?" David asked curiously.

He sighed tiredly, "Well! We couldn't he just vanished and didn't complete his graduation."