Chapter 8
The next morning, Amy, Jake and Dan all returned to Cambridge to face Mark Rosenbloom. Jake had called Atticus to tip him off that they were coming and see what he could do to prepare their dad for their eventual discussion. Everyone had agreed that Atticus had the best shot at warming their father up to Amy and Dan's presence.
Like a trooper, Atticus had been talking his father's ear off for an hour and a half, regaling story after story of how great Dan was at video games and how he had become such good friends with him. He made a special point to stay away from anything having to do with their physical adventures the last two years. He knew that would only raise questions Atticus couldn't answer without Amy being there.
When the three finally arrived, Jake, Atticus, Amy, Dan, Mark and LaCher all sat around the dining room table. Amy felt butterflies in her stomach. Jake must have sensed this and squeezed her hand under the table.
Dr. Rosenbloom began, eyeing Amy first, "Thank you all for coming. I want to start by apologizing for my little display at the restaurant last night. I should have handled things differently, and I'm sorry."
Amy thought this was a good sign to start with. Maybe his fight with Jake last night had given him time to think. She knew it certainly had on her end.
He continued, "I asked you all here today to help get to the bottom of something that has been bothering me for quite a while, actually, a lot of things that have been bothering me."
Amy glanced over at Dan. He gave her a small nod, as if to say we got this sis', it'll be OK.
"I realize I've been out of the picture for Jake and Atticus for a time, but I've heard snippets from both of them and I have snippets from LaCher about what's been happening, but I want the whole story from start to finish."
Amy took a deep breath, looked Mark Rosenbloom right in the eye and began: "Doctor Rosenbloom, you have the right to know what's been happening, but it is not a short story, nor an easy one. Your sons have been an invaluable part of my family's struggles with the Vespers, a secretive organization that your very family has a long history with. Your wife, Astrid, was the last of a long line of Guardians, a special elite group of people tasked with the preservation and concealment of a deadly doomsday device originally designed by Archimedes himself."
Amy looked over at Atticus, who was beaming, "Now, that task falls to Atticus, Astrid's son. He is the final guardian and he did his job admirably. Damian Vesper kidnapped 10 members of my family and held them hostage, threatening to kill them one by one if we didn't produce the items he desired to make this device. We did not know at the time why he needed these items. It was Atticus' hints along the way and the snippets of memories he had of Astrid that we were able to eventually piece together what his master plan was and try to stop it. The device was built right here in North America along a subduction zone and if it had been fully activated, would have caused catastrophic global disaster."
Amy continued, "Damian Vesper and all the Vespers before him were at war with my family, they had been for centuries. The Vespers wanted…something that the Cahills possess, but has now been destroyed, never to be made again."
Amy gave a meaningful look at Dan who looked right back at her. The serum. Dan possessed the only recipe knowledge. His photographic memory unable to delete this plague.
"Dave Speminer, also known as Damian Vesper, knew Astrid was a guardian and wormed his way into her confidence, only so he would be positioned to administer a very rare poison to her. That is why she died, and it is the same reason he tried to kill Atticus. Jake worked tirelessly to protect Atticus, not endanger him."
At this, Amy turned to look at Jake. He was grinning at her. He bumped her thigh with his under the table and gave her hand a squeeze.
Atticus took over for her, "Dad, mom's final words to me were 'stay friends with Dan Cahill.' I thought she just wanted me to have a friend, but now I know she was trying to get an aly for me in the fight against the Vespers. She knew the Cahills would help end this once and for all. I owe my life to Dan and Amy…and Jake of course."
Jake caught his brother's eye and gave him a nod and a wink. Atticus smiled broadly and continued, "LaCher came into the fray when we decoded some of mom's emails to her and figured out LaCher had to be living in Brazil, AND that she had found a page of the Voynich."
Dan took over, "What we didn't realize was that we were being followed by Vespers and they caught up to us at a restaurant on our one and only night with LaCher. She took a knife to the throat in order to save Atticus' life. We couldn't stay around you LaCher for fear of endangering your life further."
LaCher Siffrite unconsciously reached up and touched the scar on her throat where the knife had sliced her. Dr. Rosenbloom looked over at her with concern on his face. She turned to him and gave a small smile. She had sacrificed herself in order to save his son.
"Did you really do that?" he asked her. "Did you really put yourself in front of a knife for my son?"
LaCher spoke with a raspy voice that none of them had really listened closely to before now. She didn't sound the same as she did in Brazil two years ago. "Yes, but I think I had been followed before you four showed up, at least, that's what my gut told me." The table was silent listening to her, "I knew what I had found was very valuable, which is why I tried to get it away from populated areas. The problem was, I never could shake the suspicion I was being watched. When you kids showed up digging around for the folio, I thought I had found my mystery followers. Little did I know you were being hunted yourselves."
It was Mark Rosenbloom's turn to speak, "Let me get this straight, Astrid was a guardian to a horrible secret that Dave Speminer was trying to make a doomsday device and he killed her to protect that secret? And then he went after Atticus, critically wounding LaCher in the process, and still getting you Cahills to gather all of his materials for him under threat of death if you didn't?"
"Pretty much," Dan said as all the rest of them silently nodded around the table.
"Well, please excuse the obvious question, but why in God's name didn't you get the authorities involved?" Dr. Rosenbloom fairly shouted.
It was Jake's turn to answer, "Dad, would you have believed anything you just heard of you were the feds, and a group of 4 teenagers waltzed into your office?"
It was Dr. Rosenbloom's turn to nod appreciatively, "I see what you mean, no, I wouldn't have. You could at least have come to me with this, I could have helped you!"
Jake took on a look of steel, "I tried coming to you. I tried coming to you several times, but you didn't want to hear it. You were convinced I was being reckless and girl-crazy."
Amy stared at Dr. Rosenbloom. She could feel Jake's spine straighten as he plowed on. "Amy's story doesn't stop here. Last year, J. Rutherford Pierce got ahold of Amy's family's secret and used it against her and Dan. He smeared their name in the papers and on TV, discrediting their work and accomplishments, painting them with a broad brush as spoiled, self-centered, entitled brats. He did a lot of damage to the Cahill name. Amy, Dan, Atticus and I had to find a way to stop him from taking over the world. He very nearly was president and he had horrible plans for several cities to be destroyed by nuclear devices. It was only the Cahill family working quickly together to disarm his nukes. Now he's rotting in a federal prison somewhere and can't harm anyone ever again."
LaCher looked stunned, "Is this true?"
Amy nodded solemnly, "Yes, Pierce was angry at my family because my mother spurned him a long time ago. Apparently, he never got over his heartbreak and vowed to get back at the Cahill family, in specific, Dan and me. Again, without Jake and Atticus, we would never have survived. Dan and I owe our very lives to your sons. They've become family to us."
Amy looked over at Jake. He pulled their clasped hands out from under the table and placed them in plain sight. He gave her a long stare, full of meaning and she looked right back. Even Ted Starling, who was blind, could have seen the intense love between these two. Everyone at the table felt it, it was unmistakable.
Finally, Mark Rosenbloom cleared his throat, "hmm, hmm, well, that clears up quite a bit. Thank you. I still feel like I'm not being told the whole story, but I have enough to go on now that I can move forward."