Chapter 34

When a Roman general returned triumphant from whatever campaign he was on he would ride on his chariot while a slave would ride behind him holding a laurel over their head. While he was doing that the slave would be whispering, "Remember, thou art mortal."

In my case the slave would be whispering in my ear, "Remember thou art human."

Today was Wednesday, and for three days minus the time I spent hearing the offers from other countries as well as visiting the gambling clubs and continuing Aleydis's treatment I had been reading the file Daniil had given me concerning the condition that he as well as his grand children suffered from. I say grandchildren as there were notes in what I had read concerning other family members. In most of those they were only comparisons of symptoms to deceased family members.

Now the file was scattered around the room like a proverbial battlefield with the dead scattered about haphazardly. Only the files were not haphazard at all but just rearranged in the chance that something might spark a random thought that I could use, something I might have overlooked, alas after ten or was it fifteen times, I had picked up the files and reorganized them trying to produce different results yet nothing changed. Everyone listed had the symptoms with all of them being controllable however Daniil's along with his grand daughter were the only two who's symptoms were more extreme than the rest of the family.

From what I had read, I was thinking maybe something in their environment was making the problem worse or maybe just suppressing the treatment. With the file I had there was no way for me to go forward as there were no notes as to areas or countries they visited outside the doctor's offices in Moscow. Being at a dead end for my inquiry I packed everything up telling Sven to set a meeting with Daniil.

The meeting was for dinner again, only this time he promised dinner would be the two of us. The ride over was the same with my entourage though the guards outside were more along the lines of what were there the first time we met. Greetings were just as warm though I did notice him eyeballing the case. Since I was ignoring the case so did he, at least until we were inside, then he asked why I was returning the case. I told him the truth, that I had run into a dead end with the question being if everything was equal, then I considered that there might be an environmental trigger. Daniil stated he did not know but if I would keep the file for the time being he would get a list of where he and his granddaughter had both lived and visited. Heading back to Korea I agreed to take the file with me and give it to Dr. Sung when I returned.

Dinner that night was another Russian dish only this time I did not care for the taste though when offered to Sven and the other guards who took turns on duty while the others ate. Sure there was already the chance that I was being set up but I was more at ease with Daniil than Dr. Atwater and my own countrymen.

After dinner, talk turned to what I was going to do with my winnings. I laughed saying I had been distracted. He understood offering his apology and thanks for my time. After his thanks I was introduced to the concept of the business proposition, handing me a rather thick file. Inside the papers were not some slick prospectus but rather what looked like someone's notes. Leafing through it I found a summary which stated the site had some of the best samples ever found. My understanding as to what I was reading was a foreign language, asking Daniil what it was I was looking at, he gave me a rundown saying the file I was holding was a report on a location with the possibility of significant mineral deposits that his family business specialized in.

Asking why he was showing me the file, he smiled saying that up until recently he was planning on developing the site on his own but after a severe depletion of his cash he was no longer in a position to continue on his own. Daniil went on to suggest he had heard a rumor that I had recently come into a significant amount of cash and that I might be looking at investment opportunities. I agreed the rumors were somewhat correct and we laughed together. Once we finished our laugh we talked a while more and I will say that most everything went over my head and I said so adding anything he gave me I would take with me and when I found an investment adviser, I would have whoever it was look over the deal he was proposing.

Accepting I would look at his proposal, Daniil handed over yet another file and we soon ended the evening with yet another drink; as much as he was offering me to drink, on the drive home I was wondering if he was trying to get me drunk. I had to laugh at the thought but then again with my metabolism it would take a lot more than three drinks to get me drunk.

Thursday morning, during our morning conversation, Steve and I talked about how things were going here, and our plans on returning to Korea. Steve stated he was already packed for his return as most everyone who had bet against us had paid off. Sure there were a few who were hold outs but the total for all still not paying was less than a hundred million. He also let me know that he had been approached by several people who insisted if we hired them further collection efforts would not be necessary for a mere twenty-five percent or twenty-five million dollars. I laughed suggesting as a counter offer that he would let it be known that any contracts not fulfilled would be given to others to collect.

Myself, I was saddened to hear about a local businessman who had passed away from a sudden heart attack. One heart attack did not lend a lot of muscle to my collection efforts but from what the press had been saying this was the third this week of people in their thirties. By the afternoon Sven had let slip the idea that it was more than just bad luck they had bet against me, lost, and then refused to pay. We allowed that rumor to hang around and we were both pleased that by the time we were ready to board our plane to fly home to Korea, agreements were in place for those who either could not pay on time, or needed more time to liquidate assets. In a few cases my lawyers managed to trade some of the debts for property giving me places to live once I formed an international company and gave it the property; that I was the sole owner did not make any difference according to the lawyers.

The one area I did put my foot down as far as what I would accept as collateral, were more than a few instances of family members being offered either as straight up trades or as collateral until assets could be sold off. Since I was raised as an American, there was no way I was going into the slavery business temporary or not, especially with the laws the United States had put into place to deal with sex tourists and human trafficking.

Thursday afternoon was also the last time I was to see Aleydis. Before I saw her, her guard came into the room saying that she wished me to close my eyes as she had a trick of her own to show me. Smiling I did so and when she told me to open my eyes she was standing before me without a wheelchair to be found. Seeing how proud she was at not needing the chair after being confined to it for so long, I smiled, congratulating her on her accomplishment.

In return, I got a hug. Of everything I had ever been offered in payment, I liked those the best as they truly came from the heart of a child. Putting her on the couch, I found what I expected, that her body was responding to my killing off of the cells of the disease she inherited from the family vacation to Africa. Pronouncing her cured after I finished killing off the remaining cells, I got another hug and a kiss as a goodbye. For her guardian I went over what I had done and what her mother needed to look out for as far as problems went.

After Aleydis departed, I was ready to go back to my place in Korea to contemplate where I wanted to live next. Getting a few papers to read on the flight I saw that the North was back to rattling their sabers but no one was taking them seriously; least of all their southern neighbors.

Arriving back in Seoul the atmosphere was more like Rio during Carnival with people ready to celebrate their Olympic champions. Even passing through the airport there were posters of the athletes showing off their medals. Nothing out of the ordinary there, except I had been around them for two years and none of them celebrated like this. Moving through the concourse there were even posters announcing a public day of appreciation.

Meeting up with my driver, he was all for telling me how well the Korean team had done never mentioning that I had anything at all to do with their winning. Not that I really cared as Sven who was walking beside me had shown me the analysis from my accountants on how I did, and after only two years of work I just missed becoming one of the top one hundred richest people in the world, coming in at one hundred and nine if the list was done today. So being excluded from the big celebration did not bother me or at least it did not bother me all that much.

The ride to the monastery where Steve and I first stayed when we arrived two years ago was about as boring as the first time we were there even though the ride was shorter as we flew in versus driving in from the coast. What had changed were the people and their attitude as they were packing everything that was not nailed down and that was just in the courtyard where my driver parked. Dr. Sung was there and although he was happy to see me, he also looked worried.

Getting out of the car, he was right there with a smile, but behind the smile, his eyes were tired. How worried he was came out right after we finished our greeting while we were still standing in the courtyard. Standing there, he told me he was closing the research center and moving all of our people and research to the medical center saying there was enough room for everything until the North settled down again.

Asking what had changed from our conversations while I was still in Monaco. Dr. Sung stated the various newspapers, instead of backing down as they had done in the past, were now antagonizing their counterparts in the north. They were at it to the point that the military was not only "test" firing missiles into the sea of Japan but in the last day people in the government he knew let him know that the Democratic Peoples Republic's troops were issued order to move south. I reminded him of what he said to me when all this started, and he agreed but he then added there were other formations on the move and they did not move. Asking what he meant, he stated they were strategic forces.

Thinking back to what I saw in Seoul, Dr. Sung stated the people were not being told anything more than the North was simply issuing threats. Asking what Steve thought of the North's actions, Dr. Sung stated Steve had flown to Nagasaki to make arrangements if things turned bad.

If Steve was making alternative plans then things were worse than I was being told and I did not like being a mushroom. Asking what Steve was planning, Dr. Sung stated Steve had gone ahead to make arrangements to open a new medical center as well as new identities. I did not see a need for them but Dr. Sung disagreed saying they were a precaution just in case. I still disagreed with the precaution because the precautions we were talking about were about nuclear weapons. I had no defense against something like that and if people were getting stupid, then I wanted to be well away from any hint of a madman with nuclear weapons.

Dr. Sung agreed making a point suggesting instead of staying near Seoul, I would head south east in the morning and back to the island that had been set aside for the Olympic team and stay there and start seeing a few clients, while Sven made arrangements for various people to come and meet me. The first one to the island two days later was not the one I was hoping for but instead a financial planner turned up first.

I would have thought after meeting Daniil and his proposal I would have a clue as to what I wanted to do with my fortune. After ten minutes with this guy, I was sure he was not the planner for me, after twenty minutes I was even considering giving myself a heart attack just to get rid of him. That turned out not to be necessary as Sven who was beginning to know my looks, intervened on my behalf, stating I had another meeting in five minutes. Shaking his hand good-bye, I had Sven escort him out to the helicopter I was renting bringing people back and forth as well as myself when I was flying to the medical center to treat people.

I was the only one that needed to be treated, was me because for the next three days Sven had me meeting people from around the world willing to fly to Korea in the hope of making me a client of theirs. I on the other hand had no real desire to be "landed" by man or woman but as Sven kept pointing out, I needed someone to manage my properties if nothing else. Fortunately Steve had returned the day before; he listened to the four people we met with previously, and then seconded my opinion saying they did not match my style.

Style? I had no idea I had a style. If I was in a fight, I used whatever I had at hand whether it was my feet, hands, a gun or my abilities but more important was that I loved to compete and I loved to win. To be honest I loved fucking but I had read somewhere that sexually harassing your financial planner was a good way to lose money. Sitting there thinking, if you could call thinking after six beers along with six glasses of whiskey thinking I had an idea that I was not going to pass along until I was sober if I remembered what it was.

Even though I was drunk, as I had gone through all that alcohol quickly I was already recovering and by morning the idea I had was now a plan. The plan I had after thinking about what Steve had said about my style. The short description of course was using what was available. The dozen people who we had interviewed to that point were all too stuffy for my taste as they talked about different aspects of planning.

What I told Sven and Steve was that I wanted my financial planner to make me money so that I could do what I wanted when I wanted too. Their first question was how was I going to do that? My answer was easy as I stated I was going to make it into a game, with all twenty people I was to interview would receive a hundred million dollars to invest as they saw fit provided everything was legitimate. In one year's time Sven, Steve, and myself would evaluate their work, anyone losing money would be fired, and my assets would be distributed to the others for another year.

The email Sven sent out to all the planners who had already been there or the ones we were still waiting to interview went over like the proverbial lead balloon. Sven got six emails back in short order stating they did not do business that way. When he asked what I wanted to do about them, I simply stated those six had made my choice even easier as they eliminated themselves. The other fourteen replied saying that they did not have a problem with what I wanted to do. Therefore, after a couple more emails back and forth I would be meeting with all of them in one week to finalize the arrangement.

With that task put off for a week, I was able to make some money doing what I was beginning to love, healing children and today Dr. Sung had me seeing two. The first was a boy out of China and after reading his file I wondered how his father who worked in the government as some bureaucrat could afford what I was charging. I put that thought out of my mind as the boy and his minder and mother entered; so long as they had paid, I did not care.

His treatment was about the same as Aleydis's and after talking for a few minutes with him, his English was better than my Chinese was, we took our seats on the couches in the room and I went to work. Once I was done, I explained to him and his mother that I would be seeing him each day for the next week or two depending on how he responded to the treatment. Explaining things took longer as I had to explain the process to the minder standing off to the side.

Spies, spies spies everywhere, I smiled at the thought knowing there was no way anyone could duplicate what I could do.

The second case was different. Heck if I would have known ahead of time I would have volunteered. The girl involved had been attacked by a suitor who would not take no for an answer from her father. When he would not change his mind marrying off his thirteen year old daughter to a guy in his forties he stalked her attacking her outside of the studio where she was an actress slashing her with a knife slashing her multiple times before security detained him before he was arrested. Her injuries were severe enough her television career was over. No one wanted to see a kid on television with the scars she had. Worse were her chances of a decent marriage, sure different countries and societies had different ideas as to what beauty was, however large nasty scars did not look good on a woman unless she was maybe from an Amazon warrior tribe.

Unfortunately, her she did not come from a warrior culture that elevated women with scars. What she did have which surprised me was a father who loved his daughter, contrary to the image put forth in the press, who was willing to pay so that his daughter could have a better life. In order to make that happen he was willing to pay not only doctors to put her back together, but also was willing to risk hiring the Svengali to do what I could for her.

What I was planning on trying I was sure would take more than a few days, which I was willing to do as I kept worrying about the crazy man to the north. How much time I had, I had no idea, as both the north and south continued to exchanged editorials as well as other slurs in their respective papers and even to me the rhetoric was becoming more bellicose.

By the time my meeting with my new portfolio managers arrived, I was ready to leave for greener pastures. I had even met a real estate agent that specialized in selling islands, I had no idea how someone would even get started in that business. Not that I cared past the idea; that he could do the job. Sven stated the agent came highly recommended so I accepted him at face value. I can't say he did the same and I was very close to needing another agent as he accused me of trying to punk him with my age. In the end, it took Sven a few minutes to convince him I did have the money to buy an island.

With the question of my resources out of the way, it was on to the shopping part and I can say with confidence, I did my best to contribute to the global economy buying several islands around the world. The largest of them being in Greece; of all of them my Grecian island would take the longest to develop as the island was deserted being left to wild olive trees and goats. Everything would need to be brought out to the island including a power system as well as water, though I was told there were springs on the island.

The other islands I purchased already had buildings on them so once all the paperwork was finished I could hop from one to another letting everyone who wanted to find me playing whack a mole or maybe a game of Where's Waldo. Looking at the checks I was writing; I totaled them out and with only a couple stokes of my pen I had spent nearly two hundred million dollars, all in cash or should I say bank transfer orders. I loved my life.

The meeting with my new portfolio managers broke new ground with four of the six companies saying they were not going to show up appearing anyways. Only they did not bring a senior manager along with the manager who would be handling my account. The conversation went down from there as I got suspicious of the four who had shown up were looking more scared than knowledgeable. Asking why they had come, they gave me their stories and if I did not know better, I would say I was being set up, as all four were women with remarkably similar stories of bosses who dismissed their degrees turning them into nothing more than secretaries.