Episode 72
CHAPTER 13
THE CYBER LOVER “THANK
God,” Jane whispered to herself and sighed in
relief. It was all over. She had quickly left for
Michael‟s apartment when she reported to
Inspector Jack that Brenda wasn‟t picking her
calls after going over to Michael‟s place and
he told her that they were going to the latter‟s
compound since the two officers he set up to
watch Michael were not answering their calls.
Brad had agreed to join her there, but he was
still on his way. On arrival, the officers had
quickly broken down Michael‟s door, only to
realize the revelation of the worst of their
fears. Luckily, they had earlier arrested the
fugitive Professor McLeod in another African
country, and the information he had willingly
given the investigators had immensely helped
Dr. Ryan in the setting up of the system they
had used in disabling and capturing the Cyber
Lover. Jane ran over to Brenda and Michael,
who were being escorted to an ambulance by
two police officers. “Brenda!” she called out as
she came up. An officer prevented her from
getting closer. “I‟m her friend,” she affirmed,
annoyance welling up from within her.
“I‟m sorry, Miss,” the officer soothingly
replied, “but your friends are too tired to see
you now. They both need medical examination
and rest before they can see anyone.” “Jane,”
Brenda began when she realized who was
trying to get to her. Michael was being told to
go into the vehicle, but he refused to go in,
coming to stand beside her instead. The
events of the past few hours had all but
drained her strength. “Jane,” she tried again
and the officers allowed her friend some room,
but stopped them from hugging each other.
“Jane,” she repeated, looking up. “Yes,
Brenda…I‟m here. It‟s alright now.” “No, Jane,
it‟s not alright,” sobbed her friend. “There‟s
something I could have tried to make out a
long time ago and told you, but I…I just
couldn‟t get myself to…to…” “Brenda, what is
it?” began Jane, bewildered. “It‟s B-Brad,
Jane…. It‟s about B-Brad!” “And what about
him?” she was asked. “He told me he‟s coming
over, but I haven‟t seen him yet. What about
him, Brenda?
Do you need to see him? I can call him right
now if you want me to.” “No, Jane,” negated
Brenda, tears now streaming down her cheeks.
“Brad has been here all this while, Jane.” “And
what do you mean, Brenda? I – I don‟t
understand.” “He is Cain, Jane…B-Brad is
Cain.” Jane was dumbfounded. * * * The body
bags holding Nimrod and his nefarious group
were first brought out of Michael‟s apartment.
Brad came out in handcuffs, followed by
Officers Kennedy, Daniel, Inspectors Jack and
Bromsbey as well as Dr. Ryan. An officer had
thrown a robe over the shackled man‟s
nakedness for decency‟s sake, but he still
painted a picture of shameful defeat and
embarrassment.
Jane was still in shock when they stopped
before the ambulance. She couldn‟t even look
him in the eyes. He was avoiding hers as well.
“H-How?” she finally let out, almost covering
her face in shame. The tears were itching to
explode from her eyes, but bravely she looked
up. “H-How is this possible, Brad? You – You
couldn‟t possibly be Cain, right?” “Yes he is,
Jane,” confirmed Inspector Jack, looking over
to Dr. Ryan for support. “This is not Brad!”
vehemently fumed Jane. “I refuse to believe
it‟s him! Brad is on his way here, Inspector
Jack!
This man is an imposter!” “You‟re right again,
Miss,” replied the inspector. “He is not Brad.”
“But . . . ” confusedly began Jane. “You just
said that…” “Dr. Ryan?” interjected Inspector
Bromsbey. Jane‟s confusion was expected.
The scientist nodded, and stepped forward.
“How long have you known Mr. Brad Stephens,
Miss?” he asked Jane. “Ever since I met him in
school,” she replied, turning to Inspector
Bromsbey. “He…He‟s my fiancé, officer.” “I
see,” said the man from Scotland Yard. “Well,
Miss Damascus…I‟ll leave it to Dr. Ryan to fill
you in on this.” The scientist cleared his
throat. “For starters, Miss Damascus, your
boyfriend‟s name is not Brad Stephens. His
real name is Steve Johnson and he is a
wanted man in sixteen western countries.
INTERPOL has a warrant out for him.” “I don‟t
believe you,” cried Jane, immediately bursting
into tears. The scientist continued. “Brad here,
a.k.a. Steve, has a crime syndicate operating
from Greece. You name it…prostitution, drug
peddling, assassinations…the whole works!”
“We still don‟t know how he got to know about
the existence of a Swedish team of scientists
working on a top secret affair for three major
countries in the UN Security Council,” added
Bromsbey, arms akimbo. “But we now know
that he induced an important contributor to
this work into developing a product for him
from this mission.”
“For three million dollars, Miss Damascus,”
resumed Dr. Ryan, “one of us, a certain
brilliant scientist, Professor Floyde McLeod,
who is now in custody after being
apprehended in the Democratic Republic of
Congo, was made to reveal the secrets of
Biomoleculodynamic Invisibility to your
boyfriend, and help him fashion out an
invisible suit from this process. This
molecular suit also made him ten times
stronger than the average adult male.” “Bio
what?” Jane could not believe her ears. It all
sounded like something from a science fiction
novel. Although she had stopped crying, she
still felt the tears welling up. “Officer, you are
making me the more confused,” she
whimpered. How could Brad be someone else?
And what shame! “Well,” continued Dr. Ryan,
“to cut a long story short, Brad here has been
using the weapon he was given to assassinate
your friend‟s ex-lovers, as well as carry on
with his dirty dealings in the criminal
underworld of Europe, such as stealing
diamonds and money from major Switz banks.
Thank God we accosted Prof McLeod soon
enough, because he was the only one with the
destabilizing gas for the suit.” It was clear
that the scientist was confusing everybody,
Jane the most. She shook her head several
times as if trying to clear it of the bewildering
information it had just been loaded with. “I
guess that explains it all,” concluded
Inspector Jack. “What of Brenda‟s seizures?
How do you explain that?” stammered Jane.
“Brenda‟s headaches were caused by a tracer,
which our friend here had injected into her
bloodstream, probably while she was asleep at
night, so that he could detect when she was
unconsciously angered by her breakups and
who she was specifically angry with, and then
go on to perform the murders,” smoothly
replied Dr. Ryan, “and whenever she‟s angry
and has activated this tracer, it chemically
affects her brain, causing her to call out the
names of these men.” He raised his right hand
in order to stop Jane from asking another
question before continuing: “At the cyber café,
Brad was sitting right next to Brenda and
sending his replies to her via an invisible top
secret electronic gadget, which Professor
McLeod had also fashioned him with from our
top secret laboratory.” The scientist knew
what the girl was about to ask him. Michael
let out a low whistle and Jane angrily turned
to Brad. “How could you, Brad?” she cried in
despair. “What did I do to deserve this?” But
her former fiancé wasn‟t looking at her.
He was looking at Brenda. “Be a man and look
at me, Brad or whatever your name is, when I
ask you a question!” shouted Jane. “But why
should I?” he queried her. “Why should I do
that when it‟s your friend here who caused all
this in the first place?” Brenda looked away.
“Why don‟t you tell her, Brenda? What are you
hiding?” “Tell me what, Brad? What more is
there to tell?” “I don‟t think…” Brenda was lost
for words. “You don‟t think what, my love?”
threw in Brad. “You don‟t think this is the
time to reveal it all?” “I am not your love,
Brad!” Brenda stressed, but he continued.
“You don‟t think you should tell them that I‟ve
been sleeping with you all the time you had
someone with you?” “What?” Jane was very
confused now. Brenda made to reach out to
her and she struck away her hand. “Jane,”
said her friend. “It‟s…It‟s not what you think…
he-he forced me into it…he usually came to
me as Cain every other night to…to sleep with
me…he raped me every other night!” “How can
I believe you, Brenda?” Jane asked her. Brad
chuckled, but Michael stepped forward.