An Everlasting Legacy

The ice cubes clinked against the glass. The scotch. Thank God for the scotch. 

   "How long is this going to take?"

Fritz looked up from the shredder. His sleeves rolled up to his elbows and his tie on the floor. 

   "We have a lot of documentation to get rid of, Frank. We have been at this for three straight days." 

   "I know, Fritz. I don't want anybody to have these methods after this is over."

Fritz had worked for my father since the beginning. His right-hand man.  This made his swift change in allegiance on my behalf questionable. My father had treated him horribly over the years. Still, it was better to keep him close. 

    "My father could be back up and working at any time now. We have to deal with the receiving department." 

   "So this is it. This is the beginning of the end." Fritz said as we walked to the elevator. 

   "It has to be now or we won't get this chance again. Not for decades." 

We descended through the sublevels of the high rise. 

    "Do you need a nose clip, boss?" 

    "No I'll be okay." 

Fritz gave a shrug and placed the plug over his nose.

    "You haven't been down there in years. The smell is worse," he said.

The elevator stopped on B3. Red lights were all that illuminated the cement walls. I had been all of sixteen the time I had to get the last set of supplies for my father. We walked for what seemed like a mile in silence. Drips from the rusted water main echoed through the tunnel. Finally the smell hit me like I had passed through a curtain of rotten meat.

   "God," I said and clasped my hand over my nose. Fritz handed me the nose plugs and this time I obliged. 

   "God's not here, man," Fritz gave a chuckle and pushed through the swinging doors. The fluorescent lights fluttered and hummed. In the corner Andrei sat on his wheeled stool arranging parts according to their labels on the wall. He was organized. I gave him that. The workers topside referred to him simply as The Butcher. 

    "A place for everything and everything in its place. Everything except me," he said and turned to us. A scar ran across his face diagonally from his temple to his chin. 

    "We won't be needing the parts any longer, Andrei."

    "Sorry, boys. I already submitted the work order for approval on the last one. This request came down right from the top. The part already went up in the mail cart." 

   "How long ago did it go up?" 

   "Oh not even twenty minutes ago. You must've just missed Phil."

Fritz and I looked at each other. 

   "I'll put out a call to Ralph in the mailroom to try and catch him before he gets up there," Fritz said. 

   "What's this all about anyway?" Andrei wiped the sweat on his forehead with his black rubber glove. It left a streak of red. We probably should have informed Andrei of the plan in the beginning, but I was unsure if I could trust him to do the right thing. This was his job after all. Plus, he scared the shit out of me.

   "Andrei, the company is headed in a new direction. One that doesn't require this position any longer." I handed him the folded slip from my breast pocket. 

"We won't be needing your services any longer." 

He slumped in his chair and stared down at the metal drainage table. I braced myself for a torrent of rage. 

   "I have worked here since ninety-four. Your father found me and personally hired me. I have been here working for twenty-six fucking years." Andrei stood up and walked to me. He grabbed the back of my head until our foreheads touched. "And now you're letting me go?"

  "Yes," I squeaked and cleared my throat. "Uhh yes, Andrei. I'm sorry--"

   "Sorry? Hell this might be the best news I've had since before your dad found me." He grabbed my hand and shook it vigorously. 

   "Well we sure do appreciate your service over the years. You're free to gather up your belongings and head out." I walked towards the doors. 

   "Wait. What should I do with all of this?" 

   "Oh, feel free to take what you want for yourself. Whatever is left we are going to put in the incinerator. Consider it part of your severance. Thanks again." I pushed through the doors before he could ask anything else.

Fritz was already in the hall trying to use the wall phone. He shook his head and hung it up. 

   "It's too late for that. We have to intercept him before that part gets up to the top floor." And with that we ran back down the tunnel to the elevator. 

   "I thought we had more time," Fritz said in gasps of labored breath as we rode up.  There was a genuine look of worried urgency on his face. He had that look everyday working for my father. His bidding had to be done and it had to be done straight away. Over the years, Fritz had absorbed the brunt of my father's rage and insanity that had masked itself as shrill business leadership and scientific philanthropy. 

The mezzanine level was a stark contrast from the tunnels. A bright and open area surrounded by fountains and bits of foliage. The goal was to communicate a statement of life and renewal to the wealthy clients that came to the facility.

I asked the receptionist to page Phil over the intercom. She did.

   "I doubt he heard that. He's always got his headphones on as he works. He listens to that dark metal music." She pushed her mousy brown hair behind her shoulder revealing a scar around her ear. At one point she must have been a client here.

   "We have to get up there before he does. Come on." Fritz ran to the tower elevator and I followed. I knew then this was no longer just about my struggle to end a legacy of underhanded business dealings that thrived for centuries on the backs of the poor in this city. It was also about this man's revenge after a lifetime of abuse. We had both been plotting this for years.  In just under two minutes the elevator doors opened. Phil stood by the doors thumbing through his letters.

The music from his earphones was muffled yet audible.  I pulled them from his ears.

   "The package from B3 where is it?" I grabbed his shoulders. His eye-widened. 

   "It's...it's in with Ludwig," he stuttered. 

We rushed past him. Elizabeth stood up from her desk. She was Ludwig's mother. Ludwig, my half-brother, who had assisted father in every surgery. He fawned over our father and his alleged mission. This blinded him to the ultimate truth. Our father did not save lives. He ended them.

   "What are you two doing making all of this noise?" she said in a hushed yet shrill tone. "Your father must not be disturbed before the procedure." 

We walked around the desk to my father's office door. Fritz stood in front of Elizabeth, calming her as she protested. 

   "Elizabeth, it's over. He's going in. We have to stop this or it's going to be what? Another eighty years of this facade of medical rejuvenation? It's a chop shop. You know we have to do this." Fritz pushed her down and pressed her hand against the scanner. The frosted glass panel slid open. Ludwig stood above my father, his gloved hands already covered in blood. Small wires covered father's head. Four electrode pads surrounded the gaping hole in his chest, each attached by wires to the metal obelisk that reached through the open skylight above. The heavens trembled and flashes of light reached like branches across the sky. In moments it would be too late. Ludwig pulled down his mask. 

   "Ludwig, please stop this."

   "What are you doing? Are you crazy? The cell is almost here." 

He looked up at the clouds and then back to me. I had already drawn my gun. 

"You know as well as I this is no longer about science, no matter how often it can be studied or replicated. This is an affront to the natural law, Ludwig." He knew this day would come.

"But then he will die. And we will die!"

I lowered my gun. 

"Yes we will die when these beating hearts give out." I pounded my fist against my chest as I walked towards him with slow deliberate steps. 

 "Whether that is tomorrow or in eighty years I can't be sure. We cannot continue to defy death and leave those people down there to deal with the consequences while we suck away their life like vampires," I shouted.

 Ludwig shook his head. 

    "Not like vampires. These people requested their bodies be donated for science after they died. What difference does it make if we are simply recycling their parts to help others live longer lives?"

   "The difference is these people were not dead before we went to collect." No look of shock registered on his face like I had expected. 

 He looked at my father as he laid lifeless on the table and then back to me. 

   "I know," he said. His hand reached for the switch. Lightning struck the metal coil and surged down. I don't remember firing the gun. If I had a moment to ponder the loss that would result, I may not have. As Ludwig fell back his arm wrapped around the wires. The defibrillator pads ripped from my father's chest. At the speed of light they were both dead. Part of my family that had survived for two centuries was gone. Fritz walked up beside me. Elizabeth screamed and ran to the table and cradled Ludwig. She was sobbing as she rocked him. They had been a family for two hundred years. 

   "So that's it. It's over?"

   "It's over," I replied.     

    "What are we going to do now, Frank?" 

   "We are going to live the rest of our lives." 

Frank is my middle name. You can call me Victor. I was named after my father.