"We do have treatments. We will give him Dimercaprol right away and I have great confidence that it will prevent just that," Gunnar Moll said and accompanied the statement with a small yet quite reassuring smile.
I felt somewhat relieved but still disturbed as we said goodbye to Gunnar Moll. A doctor came to our room and told us we could leave the hospital if we wanted. My dad was to stay however since they wanted to monitor his development further. Plus they were about to begin a new treatment on him and wanted to make sure he didn't have a bad reaction to it. Given his age and earlier health issues it was vital to keep him under observation.
I wasn't happy about leaving Dad behind again, but he assured me he was fine and if I could just bring him some of his favorite salty licorice that he always ate, then he would even be very fine.
Julie grabbed my hand on our way down the elevator. I kissed her head and stroke her cheek.
"Everything is going to be fine now, isn't it Mommy?" she asked.
I looked into her eyes. I wanted to tell her that I believed it would be, but I couldn't. I was determined to find the source to this and protect my family from it. I couldn't rest until it was found. Somehow. Some way.
"I think we should move into a hotel while we're here," I said looking at Sune. "Just in case."
He nodded. "That sounds like a good idea. We'll go home and pack all of our stuff."
"Yeah!" exclaimed both kids.
I smiled, then looked at Sune again. When the doors to the elevator opened and we started walking out, I stopped.
"What's the matter, Mom?" Julie asked.
Sune and Tobias looked at me. "What's going on Rebekka. You look like you've seen a ghost," Sune said.
"Radiation sickness," I stuttered. "Why haven't I thought about that before? It struck me when the director of the SIS mentioned all of the symptoms. But I didn't see the connection until now. They fit. They all fit."
"What do you mean?" Sune asked.
"I'll explain later. Take the kids. Bring them to a hotel, text me once you've found a place, I'll get a cab later to join you. Then I'll go back and get our stuff later, alone. I don't want the kids in that cabin again in case the contamination source is still there. I don't want any of you to risk being exposed to it."
"Okay, Sune said. "But where are you going?"
All three stared at me waiting my response with anticipation. I didn't have time to clarify.
"To talk to a doctor about a patient."
CHAPTER 40
I RAN INTO Dr. Wad in the ER. He was coming out of a room looking frustrated, then he discussed something with a nurse. I approached him.
"Ah Rebekka," he said then lifted his finger to let me know to wait a second. I listened as he directed the nurse and instructed her in how to medicate a patient. Then he turned and looked at me with a tired, long face.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I don't have any news for you. I really wish I had. Mette Grithfeldt had a seizure last night and we fought to keep her alive for hours. Her heart gave up but we managed to get it beating again. Now she is finally stable. She woke up for just a minute or so and she kept screaming. Said she was dying and that some girl was after her. 'Don't let her drag me to hell with her, don't let her take me with her to hell,' she kept repeating. I don't know what it was all about. Probably just a dream." Dr. Wad sighed. "It's been a long night."
"For you and me both," I said. "I think I might have an idea to what is happening to her, to Mette Grithfeldt."
Dr. Wad looked at me with astonishment. "You do?"
"Well it might be nothing, but I had the thought this morning when I talked to the director of the SIS. They were examining us for radiation exposure. See my dad had traces of polonium in his blood, that's why his blood clotted."
Dr. Wad didn't seem to see where I was going. I could tell he was anxious for me to get to the point. He probably had another place to be right now, other patients to attend to. "The bottom line is," I said. "Maybe she is suffering from radiation sickness. I mean the bloody vomiting, the seizures. When I heard all of the symptoms, I thought of her immediately."
"She does have swelling of the skin and rashes several places on the body," he said. "And the ulcers in her stomach and throat could be caused by something like that. You said your father was exposed to radiation, to polonium? From where?"
"We don't know where it comes from yet, SIS checked our cabin and the areas surrounding but didn't find the source. But our cabin is very close to the camp where Mette Grithfeldt lives."
Dr. Wad nodded. He suddenly seemed to be in a rush. "I think you might be on to something. Thank you," he said and shook my hand. "Thank you so much!"
Then he ran off.
I had a taxi take me back to the cabin. I texted Sune on the way and let him know where I was. He had found a nice small inn in Arnakke, he wrote. They were waiting for me and missing me. I looked forward to spending a few hours in a safe hotel room with my family as well. But first I had to pack all of our things.
I opened the door and went inside the small cabin. It was strange how everything had suddenly changed, the same place I had enjoyed spending time with my family in felt suddenly uncomfortable to be in. No matter where I went I couldn't stop thinking about the radiation and where it could come from, especially when I went into Dad's room and began packing his stuff. I couldn't escape the thought that there might be something in that very room that made him sick. That the source could be in there after all - even if the SIS hadn't found it. I mean he had been with us all the time, hadn't he? We had eaten the same things, drank the same water. How come he was exposed to something and we weren't? The only place he had been that we hadn't, was in this room where he had slept.
I hurried and picked up his pants and shirts from the chair and put it all in the suitcase on the bed. I threw in his book, his socks, his underwear. My movements were slightly frantic and desperate. I didn't want to spend one second longer in that room than necessary. I didn't like being in there at all. When I picked up his brown cardigan that he loved to wear I felt something strange in the side pocket. I stuck my hand inside and pulled out a package of cigarettes and a lighter.
I exhaled and sat on the bed with heavy heart. We had quit smoking together my dad and I - two and a half years ago. He needed to do it since the doctor told him to after he had the stroke a couple of years ago. Was he still smoking behind my back?
I threw the package in the garbage can and continued packing. I was saddened that he insisted on destroying his body with things that caused him to have health issues. I knew I was a hypocrite since I had been smoking too with Sune, but I didn't have health issues like he did. I felt even sadder that he felt he had to keep it a secret from me. I stared out the window while wondering. How could he have managed to keep this a secret from me? When had he been smoking? Maybe he just kept the package in case he wanted to smoke, maybe he didn't even take them out? I glanced at the package in the garbage can next to the bed. It was half empty. My dad would never be able to resist the temptation, I thought. He was that type. If he had a package like that then he would smoke it. It was the same reason why I always hid the chocolate. If he found it he would eat all of it. Not just one piece. That was just the way he was and always had been.
So assuming he had been smoking while we were here in the cabin, where would he have done it? I looked out at the white landscape again and glanced towards the pine forest.
Could he have been sneaking out without us seeing it? I guess he could. He could have done it at night, when he told us he was going to bed, I thought. He had turned in very early every night while we had been in the cabin. Maybe he had sneaked out. I looked towards the forest. Did he go in there? In the darkness? Sune and I had been sitting outside on the porch on the first night we had spent in the cabin. Maybe my dad had sneaked out the front door and walked into the forest to make sure we didn't see him? I looked at the brown cardigan in the suitcase. Then I grabbed his grey pants and lifted them in the air. S
omething was in the pocket. I put my hand inside and pulled out a small flashlight. I couldn't help but chuckle lightly. That clever bastard. He had gone in there to smoke with his flashlight. Well I could hardly blame him, could I? He never had much time to himself and never had much privacy with both me and Julie in the house. On a vacation like this there wasn't much room for privacy either.
I sighed and stared at the forest. Then a thought entered my mind. Could he have been exposed to the radiation in there? Had he encountered something or somebody in there at night?
CHAPTER 41
ISEFJORDEN INN WAS a small cozy place in a timbered house with thatched roof, small windows and low ceilings that had tall people like Sune bent over constantly to not knock their head. It was located right across from the town's church. A typical Danish Lutheran church, white with red roof, placed on a small hill overlooking the fjord. The people at the inn seemed nice and helped me with getting the suitcases and bags out of the trunk of the taxi when I drove up. In the room I took a shower then changed into my own clothes and soon I almost felt like myself again. Still I had the weird almost eerie feeling inside about this town.
We ordered room service and ate in the beds. The kids were watching TV lying on one of the beds while Sune and I found two beers in the mini-bar. We opened them and drank while we ate.
I filled Sune in on the latest news, the talk I had with the doctor and my dad's cigarettes.
"I think it is all somehow connected," I said and drank.
Sune looked pensively. "So you think people are being killed at the camp by radiation sickness and somehow your father was exposed to it in the forest as well?"
I nodded. "Basically that sums it up, yes."
"So the deaths in the camp are not a mass suicide? It's an accident?" Sune asked. "Shouldn't we tell the police so they can get people out of there before more get sick and die?"
"We can't make the connection before they confirm that Mette Grithfeldt is in fact suffering from radiation sickness. It’s in the hands of Dr. Wad now. I expect he will inform the police and the SIS if it turns out to be radiation. The police should be able to connect the dots themselves."
"I guess you're right. Glad we got away from the forest though," Sune said. "If the radiation source is there."
"Me too. I never want to go back there again. This radiation stuff is scary, I tell you."
"But where does it come from? Radiation doesn't just appear out of the blue. There has to be a spill or something, right?"
I shrugged. "I guess."
We both went quiet for a long time. The eerie feeling was back as my thoughts went back to the first night when we heard the Priest's scream in the night. I shivered and cuddled up closer to Sune. He stroked my hair gently while drinking his beer.
"It is a little weird, though ..." he said.
"What is?"
Sune shook his head. "No my imagination is running too wild here. Nothing. Forget it."
I lifted my head and looked at him. Then I kissed his lips. It felt wonderful. Waves of pleasure shivered through my body. It had been too long since we had been together as a couple. I missed it. I missed the closeness.
"I am afraid it's not only your imagination that is running wild here. I have a feeling I've been wondering the same thing over and over again. It's that girl, right? The Chernobyl-kid?"
Sune looked at me and smiled. "Good to know I'm not the only insane one here. Yes, I have been wondering constantly ever since the first talk of radiation. The old lady who told us about the Chernobyl-kid said that people kept dying around her. She was in that camp, used to live there, now she has disappeared according to the rumors?"
I exhaled trying to sort this out. Right now it was nothing but a feeling, some strange sense that there could be a connection. "Why are people dying from radiation-sickness in the camp? The doctor told me that Mette Grithfeldt kept saying that 'some little girl was after her and wanted to drag her to hell with her'. It is a little too coincidental," I said. "How was the story again? Her parents worked at the plant when the accident occurred and the radiation was spilled. The father died right away but the mother didn't die until years later when they had both moved here."
"The girl was still unborn when it happened and came out deformed and acting weird," Sune continued. "After several accidents and deaths in her trail no one wanted her in the end so the church said they would take her."
"The question is what happened to her after the church took her in. Where is she now?"
"That's what we need to find out," Sune said.
CHAPTER 42
ISABELLA DUBOIS LOOKED at her face in the reflection of the window and realized she had aged. It was dark outside and inside she felt a darkness of her mind as well. Today the third person from her church had been found dead in the camp and one was still sick in the hospital. Not that Isabella was sad to see them all disappear one by one. No she wanted this to happen to them, she needed them to be gone in order to make the generation change she wanted for the church. The leaders had all become weak in their older days, she thought. They had deviated from their own beliefs. Especially the Priest whom Isabella had adored so much and whose ideas she had worshipped from the first time she heard of them. But the last couple of years even he had turned soft on her. His ideas had weakened and he was no longer the strong leader she had believed him to be.
It was time for a change, she had thought to herself. It was finally time for someone else to take over.
Isabella had been famous all of her life. At only four years old she had taken the entire Danish population by storm when she had played an adorable young kid in the hit family movie My sister's children. She had been loved and adored all of her life and never lacked anything - except a life that she could call her own.
From only four years of age she had belonged to someone else. She had absolutely no say in her own life, it was all decided by agents and moviemakers. All she could do was what was expected of her and smile her cute smile whenever she was told to. They would all sigh and clap their hands while the newspapers and magazines called her the 'most adorable child-actress of the century.' She had offers constantly to be in movies, commercials and walking runways in children's outfits. She made tons of money to her parent's great satisfaction. Having struggled most of their lives just to make ends meet her parents could now buy anything they wanted and live the life they had always dreamt of. Never once did they ask Isabella if she wanted this life, never did they wonder why she always cried in her bed at night before she fell asleep. Isabella knew how to act, how to put on the right face at the right moment. That was what made her famous, that was what made her parents rich beyond their wildest dreams.
But that also made Isabella's childhood years incredibly lonely and desolate. The only friends she had were make-up artists and other actors who were so star struck in her presence that they were no fun to be around. Her life was lived in the endless spotlight and flashing cameras no matter where she went. Her life was lived at the red carpet, on the cover of magazines, but as soon as the lights were turned off and the cameras stopped flashing, Isabella felt dead inside.
The loneliness tore Isabella apart growing up and she wondered if there was more to this life. She sought out answers to life's big questions about life and death, heaven and hell. As a teenager she declared she was a Buddhist and the hungry journalists ran the story in all of the magazines and newspapers. But not even here did she find something to fill that growing hole inside of her, that emptiness inside of her ever since she could remember. Isabella sought fulfillment elsewhere and studied all kinds of religions, even flirted temporarily with Scientology.
Still she felt the vast emptiness in her grow bigger and it wasn't until she had turned eighteen and starred in the latest hit movie, the last one she ever did, that she heard about "The Way" and met with the leader who called himself The Priest, that she finally found peace and fulfillment. The Priest told her about his beliefs and they clicked immediately. He
opened her eyes to the evil growing inside of her that left her heart empty and unfulfilled. He told her the demon of greed and pride lived inside of her and needed to be driven out before she could finally find peace and joy.
She liked what he told her. She agreed to join them at the camp and soon after she arrived the exorcism of her demons began. The Priest had taken care of her case personally, making sure that it was done properly. Night after night she had been on her bleeding knees for hours repenting her sins, rebuking the demon living in her, commanding it to leave her body, asking God to clean her body, soul and spirit of anything demonic. The Priest whipped her, causing her to fall to the ground, but she fought her way back on her bleeding burning knees, while the church members chanted and sang, filling themselves with God and speaking in tongues. After eleven sessions of forty-eight hours on her knees she was finally cleansed. Beaten, broken and crying they dragged her to a room and let her sleep for days. When she was feeling better and finally ready to walk again, the Priest came to her room. He told her there was one last thing he needed to do. He explained to her how he believed that semen had a cleansing effect and that Isabella had to let him fill her with his cleansing juice to make sure every part of her inside was cleaned and ensure the demons wouldn't come back. He talked to her about her inner dreams, about her past, her future and what she wanted out of life. She had felt confused when he began opening her blouse and touched her young breasts. She felt disordered when he forced her down on the bed and tied up her hands so she couldn't move. She felt even more puzzled when he forced his sex inside of her while screaming his pleasure out.
But if there was one thing Isabella Dubois knew how to do it was to put on a face when it was expected of her - she could smile her adorable smile even in uncomfortable situations - so that was what she did. She smiled and acted like she enjoyed his rough touches, because she knew in the end that it was to her own benefit. Some day she would be the one in power, she would be the one ordering others to do things against their will.