Ricky Roskov

  Book 14

  Copyright © Geoff Wolak

  Written in July, 2022, from an idea first formed in 2006.

  This book is a work of fiction, technically accurate in the detail of geographical locations, and the time period history. It is young adult romance, conspiracy and murder-mystery.

  Family

  Sat with my French granddaughter, Gabrielle, we got to know each other, stories swapped, but she knew many of mine already from the TV news, and from the troubles with Demoine.

  Ross Daniels called as I knocked the kettle on, Bill and Ted sat watching the TV with Pat and Dingle. ‘Where are you?’ It was a logical question these days.

  ‘At home in Leicester for a change.’

  ‘There’s a problem with Mandoch Spring Water.’

  ‘What … problem?’ I worried.

  ‘Pascal from the Dive Federation, he handed a few gallons to his father, who handed much of it to a friend with chronic arthritis, the guy sixty-eight. That guy, he’s now jogging.’

  ‘Jogging?

  ‘Fucking jogging! The water, it cured him, and his daughter is a nurse and she told the local medics - and they told the local TV station and the newspapers in Corsica!’

  ‘Ah … fuck. But if it is a cure then … then shit, people will steal it at gunpoint.’

  ‘I have extra security men on the way there, and we’ll start to move as much as we can soon and store it and bottle it.’

  ‘Listen, if it is a cure then we should serve genuine medical needs first, not sell it in Europe, or if we do sell it then we sell it for a shit load of money in the States.’

  ‘For a cure for arthritis they’d pay a million bucks, if they had a million bucks.’

  I considered the ramifications here. ‘Did you sort a nursing home study -’

  ‘Yes, and they’re already suggesting good results. One guy can see again!’

  ‘He was blind?’

  ‘No, he just had shit eyesight and early onset cataracts in one eye.’

  ‘We need more time to study it, so send a shit load to Italy, to the hospital I was at, and then send some by plane to Florida and have it tested on chronic cases, tested independently.’

  ‘I’ll shift some water out today, there’s gallons of it sat around, it was being tested and they found nothing harmful. And the people doing the testing all drank it apparently.’

  ‘When could you bottle it and sell it?’ I asked.

  ‘We’ll start production tomorrow, got no damn choice, and we’ll have 24hr armed guards, and tankers taking the water day and night. At the opposite end of the tunnel will sit huge vats, to store the water, but at the moment we’d waste most of it.’

  ‘Don’t waste it, not if it helps people, have locals in need take it for now.’

  ‘I can dump a shit load at the local hospital and at a few other nursing homes.’

  ‘Pascal said his father had some, so what happened to his father?’

  ‘Pascal reports him as feeling better, but he was not sick to start with.’

  ‘So we need a few really sick people. I’ll try and get a few British hospitals to test it, send me some by truck.’

  ‘Expensive,’ he cautioned.

  ‘Not if it works, people will pay over the odds for it.’

  I called Rolf next. ‘We have a problem with Mandoch Spring Water.’

  ‘What problem? It is not being sold yet.’

  ‘A man on the island took it, a man with chronic arthritis, and it cured him. He’s taken up jogging apparently.’

  ‘Jogging? My god.’

  ‘Ross will start to bottle and store it, so ask him to send you a tanker full and then contact a Swedish hospital.’

  ‘I know a doctor that specialises in old people, Stan uses him.’

  ‘Contact him now, get him ready for a quick scientific study.’

  Call ended, and my phone went straight away, Bishop Armani. ‘Can you talk?’ he asked.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Where are you?’ was a logical question again.

  ‘At home in Leicester.’

  ‘We have heard about this Corsican man cured of arthritis using Mandoch Spring Water, and we wished to test the water at our hospital.’

  ‘You have a hospital?’ I puzzled.

  ‘Many around the world, but the one in the Vatican is for senior staff, some of whom are elderly and unwell.’

  ‘Take as much as you want to run a test, but be careful because it is untested.’

  ‘We have excellent doctors,’ he assured me.

  ‘Contact the Prefect and say that I agreed you take some, and you know Ross Daniels, he’s bottling it.’

  ‘I will contact him and ask for some. But … do you think that the water is … special?’

  ‘It … may be, yes, so my priority willbe sick people in Europe, as well as sick Americans with money to spare.’

  ‘Healthcare is not free, not even in Europe, citizens pay taxes and governments spend billions on drugs. This is a drug, no different.’

  ‘Apart from the glowing crucifix that was sat next to it,’ I pointed out.

  ‘Well, yes, a sign.’

  ‘Take the water and test it, but on arthritic conditions first, no fit young healthy people.’

  ‘And if it works…’

  ‘Then I would sell it, make a great deal of money and use that money for my causes, which was the plan before this happened. Don’t publish any results till you’re sure, and after you’ve spoken to Ross Daniels and his medical team.’

  ‘In Corsica, the TV news there has already made up its mind.’

  I heaved a sigh. ‘Yeah, could be an issue.’

  Sat back with Gabrielle, I explained it. She finally asked, ‘It may have helped mother?’

  ‘It may have done, if I had found out about you a few months earlier. But … I was blocked from saving her, so … I’m not sure.’

  The BBC called an hour later, for a statement.

  I began, ‘It’s too soon to label the water as being special, but it does contain a great many minerals and metals. A man with arthritis seems to have been helped by the water, but other pensioners noticed no changes.

  ‘We’ll now rush out the bottling process and have the water sent to many hospitals around the world for testing on pensioners with medical conditions.

  ‘Till it has been tested fully we have just an isolated case. And if it does help sick pensioners then the water will be prioritised and not just sold over the counter to anyone but through doctors and hospitals.’

  At 9pm Rolf called me. ‘Swedish TV news is detailing the water, and Stan called, he’ll visit the island tomorrow. He was due to go but will now use the water and see what effect it has.’

  ‘Tell him that it will help him sire many sons.’

  ‘He has two daughters, and I doubt that this aspect will be of interest to him at his age!’ Rolf quipped.

  ‘Does he have any conditions?’ I asked.

  ‘Many, but he looks well enough. He will stay in the Gun Room for a few days and look around our other hotels.’

  Ross called a few minutes later. ‘A climber in Corsica, he took water and has been feeding it to his father, the man now walking, and the man has not walked in ten years!’

  ‘Fuck. Could be a mad rush of people heading for Mandoch Valley,’ I warned.

  ‘I’ll have some bottles sold, just to keep the peace with the locals, sold in the city – high profile.’

  ‘My investor, Stan from Stockholm, is on his way down there, and he’ll test it … on himself. But what if more sick people fly in?’

  ‘Then it could be an issue, but if we don’t sell them some water it could be a bad newspaper headline for us,’ Ross noted. ‘But very sick people would not be allowed to fly.’

  ‘Did the Vatican contact you?’

  ‘Yes, a plane to be loaded with water in the morning.’

  ‘That’s … a very fucking expensive way of doing it,’ I thought out loud.

  ‘They must think it Holy Water, and that hospital in the Vatican is full of old bishops a step away from death.’

  ‘And what could anyone do to fuck-up our plans in Mandoch Valley?’ I posed.

  ‘The Prefect will protect the valley and the water source, and if people can buy it they won’t steal it.’

  I called the Prefect, and he was already stressed about the water. ‘Listen, if people think the water is Holy Water and has magical properties then … then the number of pilgrims will double.’

  ‘Double? My god.’

  ‘Get ready to lay on more aircraft, make some plans. Arrange more ferries maybe.’

  ‘Oh my god, the road traffic.’

  The 10pm BBC news ran the story, which would not allow me a quiet week here, or a quiet week anywhere.

  Checking my computer, there was an email from Lee Tong, and he would be in Europe in a few days, and could meet with the Prime Minister.

  I suggested a date and time, and then called the Cabinet Office with that suggested date and time, for the Prime Minister to look at his diary.

  Mandoch Valley Champagne

  At 10am the Prefect called, to tell me that the Vatican had two dozen of the gallon plastic containers full of the water, which were now in a Learjet – seatbelts around them – and heading for the Vatican. A second aircraft, a commercial 747, was transporting water to America.

  I stood stunned. ‘A fucking 747?’

  The Prefect reported, ‘It brought in medicines to us and other things, was emp
ty to fly back.’

  ‘Ah, a cheap trip back.’

  ‘Yes, or it flies empty.’

  Michelle called next. ‘We had a delivery of the water, and we’re letting guests drink it if they tell us they have conditions. We have like six pensioners, two quite frail, so they have a few bottles of it in their rooms.’

  ‘We need to be careful, because if they die we’re liable. We need a signed disclaimer maybe, because this stuff has not been medically approved by anyone.’

  ‘We got a piece of paper, it was sent to us last night, from the hospital labs here on the island – no harmful substances. And it lists what’s in the water.’

  ‘So we may be covered, at least there, but it’s still a worry.’

  ‘Dave was offered that job with you, and he starts next week, marketing.’

  ‘Good, because he’ll be married soon, and wives are expensive.’

  ‘I don’t waste money, I’m tight with money,’ she insisted.

  ‘Those are the best kinds of wives. How much water do you have?’

  ‘We have ten of these big plastic things, which is labelled as a gallon each.’

  ‘Ration it, one pint a day per person, no fit young people to get it, because it would be wasted.’

  ‘The caretaker took some, he saw the news.’

  ‘If you see him out jogging, tell me.’

  ‘Him? Jogging? Hardly.’

  David Hutton called midday. ‘Have you seen this story in Italy?’

  ‘Which one?’

  ‘The Vatican’s new Roskov Initiative.’

  My brow pleated. ‘No..?’

  ‘The Pope has announced that the church needs to be more focused on missionary work and the poor.’

  ‘Ah, I did suggest it.’

  ‘You … suggested it … to the fucking Vatican … and they followed your suggestion?’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Bloody hell. Oh, more money arrived, two hundred million.’

  ‘Got a paper and pen.’

  ‘Yep.’

  ‘I want more games consoles, for the loans business and our computer outlets. I want a third Three-Phase site found in Leicester straight away, and then I want a list of old army bases that might be available to us, and old airfields up for sale – as with the one west of us.

  ‘I want an extra twenty million loaned to the fifty percent mortgage people, tell them I insist, and to expand quickly.

  ‘But my main focus is more soft prisons, so … we need old army bases with huts. Go have a look. Oh, and find me a lab in Britain that could test Mandoch Water, spend a million – charity money, send them down to Corsica … like tomorrow.’

  ‘I’ll get the team on that, Dick Klein has an assistant now,’ he responded.

  ‘Have them bring some water back and have it tested here in Leicester on arthritis sufferers, I need some answers quickly.’

  He cautioned, ‘If people start making wild claims we could be liable…’

  ‘We’re not the ones making the wild claims, and I’ve already played it down. And selling it as spring water is legal, and the bottle label says what it is; we have a license in France and the EU already. And down at our hotel in Corsica the guests can get it.’

  ‘We’d best test it soon, to British standards,’ he suggested.

  ‘Oh, hand a few million quid to the motorway sensor people as a loan-in and shout some more. But find me some army bases, I’ll check with the MOD now.’

  I called Biggs at MI5 and he put me through to someone.

  ‘Roskov?’ a new voice asked.

  ‘Yes, and what do you do?’

  ‘Buildings maintenance, MOD, so why are you calling me?’

  ‘I want a list of old bases, closed and about to close, for soft prisons.’

  ‘Ah, I know the chap, and he has a list. I’ll send it to you via your charity, they’re listed publically.’

  ‘Thanks.’

  ‘While you’re on, there is something you could look at. We suffer from young Army recruits being … a bit crap these days, a high fail rate. What’s needed is a place for them to be tested before they waste our time, and to get fit.’

  ‘Interesting. I think I can help. Let me look at that one, but I would need a base for them, so get me that list.’

  With Bonza available to take Gabrielle to the airport, I had Gabrielle pack what she had, which was not much, and Ingrid had booked the ticket to Stockholm for Gabrielle.

  I waved goodbye on the street at 3pm, Gabrielle to learn all about modelling and to have test shots taken, and to be fussed over by the twins no doubt.

  Ross Daniels called as Bonza returned, at 5pm. ‘We’re selling the first few bottles off the back of a truck in the city, and they’re selling fast.’

  ‘How much a bottle?’

  ‘Just three Euro for now, local people. It’s just a stunt to get the crazy people off our case and not trying to get to Mandoch Valley, because if they can buy it cheap in the city they have no need for a taxi or boat to Mandoch Valley.’

  ‘Could sell it in Pilgrim Valley, but I don’t want the poor gullible people to be parted from their money.’

  ‘Oh, Doc Naval just started with us, he’s at the warehouse drug section.’

  ‘Good, we need that moved along. Have him shown the plans for the nursing home, and to visit the first home with a guide, to see if he has any suggestions.

  ‘Then I want him up here with my Doctor Dick Klein in a few days, a big pow-wow.’

  ‘I’ll chat to him today, he has good ideas already, and it’s his old contacts in Florida that the water went to.’

  ‘How long till we get some results?’ I pressed.

  ‘As to the water being dangerous, we’ll get a result quickly. As to the implied benefits … that should be a five year process!’

  ‘Well according to those people in Corsica you mentioned, drinking it every day for a month makes a difference, so target that time frame – chronic arthritis sufferers.’

  ‘Might be a quick fix, and then they relapse,’ he warmed.

  ‘If it is just a quick fix then we state that, nothing hidden. Contact Doc Naval and have him go meet this guy that was cured, just in case it’s bollocks.’

  ‘Our water has boron and selenium, which the experts now think suppresses inflammation in arthritic joints, so the water may have accidentally offered those minerals.’

  ‘And if our miracle man stops taking the water?’ I posed.

  ‘He would revert to the pain in weeks. But all meds suppress the arthritic pain not cure it.’

  ‘If the make-up of the minerals in our water can be seen, then someone will copy it…’

  ‘They could try, won’t be so easy to get it just right,’ he insisted.

  ‘And people wanting to fly to Corsica and get some?’

  ‘Bookings have jumped up already, yeah. We could fill our city hotel rooms.’

  I noted, ‘A silver lining, to what might be a dark cloud of manic suffers killing each other to get at the water, like a zombie apocalypse.’

  ‘Uh … chronic arthritis suffers don’t move as fast as zombies, and zombies are damn slow, so don’t worry.’

  ‘It’s the bad publicity I’m worried about, some woman on the TV reporting her son with a chronic condition and that horrid Roskov won’t cure him.’

  ‘You’ll always get those nutcases, but it’s an untested mineral water not a drug.’

  ‘And the religious angle…’

  ‘That could be an issue, yes, we need to play it down, because the religious nuts move faster than zombies, and are more dangerous – by far.’

  The twins called next, to say that they loved Gabrielle and would find some modelling work for her, and take her to the club tonight with Anna.

  Anna now had a small apartment in Stockholm and she met with Olesya often, her temporary visa issued, six months, Rolf as her business sponsor, my name mentioned in the visa.

  Sat with Bonza in the kitchen, we discussed what we could do for The Labour Party campaign coming up to the next election.

  I told him, ‘I want to find a dozen army camps and make soft prisons, criminals off the streets before June, let the voters see what I’m doing and what the Conservatives never did.’

  ‘How quickly can you make a soft prison?’ he wondered.