The Magnificent James Lawrence

Chapter 5 - Devil's Disease

The phone call ended, James gave the phone back to Gilbert. He fully understood what the president wanted, especially since the current situation could be considered urgent.

The spread of drugs was worrying, having a significant negative impact on the nation's generation. James knew why this task had been given to him.

"He has high hopes for you, Mr Lawrence. He has even chosen his best people to help you in your duty," Colonel Gilbert explained, putting his phone back into the pocket of his military shirt.

He sat on a single-seat sofa, poured his best wine into his glass, and took one sip, "I will choose my own men."

"But the president wants it in person. He wants to make sure that you are carrying out this mission well," Gilbert explained.

"So, the President doesn't trust me and my men?" asked James, squinting both eyes with a sharp glare, making Gilbert clumsy.

"It's not like that. He just doesn't trust them yet," Gilbert replied.

James poured the wine back into his glass; it was sweet and fresh in his throat, "If the president doesn't agree with my men, then I'll do it myself without any help."

Colonel Gilbert seemed to cluck his tongue, annoyed by James' stubbornness in his opinion. After exchanging serious glances, Gilbert took a deep breath. He agreed with putting James' men in the field.

"Alright. I will try to talk to the president to make him understand the situation," Gilbert explained, relenting for the good of everyone.

"We'd better start discussing this mission," said Gilbert.

The man turned his head slowly to the right, towards the agent who had come here with him. The male agent opened the black briefcase and took out a white box with a hole in the center.

He activated the object using his phone, and light emerged from the hole in the center of the white box. The blue-colored light seemed to form a three-dimensional object.

"What's that?" asked James, moving his head forward and watching as a hologram of a green-colored pill continued to rotate.

"It's a DD pill; people call it daydream because of the hallucinatory effects, but people in the government call it devil's disease," explained Gilbert, looking in the same direction.

"Research has been conducted over the past few years, and the result is that the pill combines the ancient Indian herb salvia Mazatec and an unknown synthetic chemical," said Colonel Gilbert.

"Because of the ingredients, people who take the drug will feel hallucinatory symptoms for as long as five hours," Agent Gilbert said, helping Colonel Gilbert explain the drug James was targeting.

James nodded. It was new to him, after two years of James not having much to do with intelligence information. The hologram changed shape from a spinning green pill to a child suffering from the drug's hallucinatory symptoms.

"The first symptoms are hallucinations, red eyes, increased saliva production, and in some cases, non-stop laughing for an hour after taking the pills," Colonel Gilbert explained.

"Excessive hallucinations will have an impact on brain function. The chemical must significantly impact brain damage," James said.

Colonel Gilbert nodded. These forbidden pills have a lethal impact, which the consumer doesn't realize. In other words, the consumer doesn't suffer the pain of fatal brain damage.

"If you take it continuously, it will damage the parietal lobe, causing you to lose your sense of pain and so on," Gilbert explained.

James squinted his eyes, looking at Gilbert suspiciously, "Similar to leprosy?"

"Leprosy is a skin disease; it has nothing to do with brain damage. However, they basically don't feel any pain at all," Gilbert explained.

"For more details, let us play a video recording of one of the patients with extreme addiction," said Gilbert, nodding his head toward the agent on his right.

The man cleared his throat softly, moved his finger over the phone, and swiped it to the left. Now, a video documentary and the doctor's explanatory voice appeared clearly before James.

"74th day. The patient is starting to show a serious condition. The skin all over his body is peeling off along with green fluid coming out of the skin pores," the doctor explained in the documentary video.

"The liquid had a strong smell and was sticky; both eyes were yellowing with the patient's response of feeling zero pain," she said.

James gasped in shock, his eyes wide as he stood up from his position on the single-seat sofa. He hadn't expected such a horrific event. The patient kept laughing and chattering incoherently as his body parts peeled off one by one, like decomposing.

"In this kind of case, no one can save him. The patient's life expectancy is 1%."

"What happened after this footage?" asked James as the documentary finished playing.

"The patient wasn't saved. He died three days after the video was taken," explained Gilbert.

Colonel Gilbert stood up, looking at James, who was still shocked by the information he was getting, "That's the longest a patient can live with an extreme level of addiction. Imagine how many thousands of people are taking this, and they are certain to die in the next two months."

"This drug is hazardous. The government is working with the pharmaceuticals to try to contain the spread of this drug in society, but it's useless if they can't deal with the mastermind of this problem," said Gilbert.

James nodded. Now, he realized fully and understood the huge responsibility he was taking on in this mission. Several generations of this nation were placing their hopes on James to solve and stop the circulation of DD pills.

One of the agents handed Colonel Gilbert a file with information that the other agents had gathered over the past two years. Gilbert gave it to James.

"What is this?" asked James, opening the file folder and seeing a piece of paper with a barcode in the center.

"Scan the barcode with your glasses; this mission level is classified for the public," Gilbert replied.

James nodded, his hands began to hold the file tightly, "Prime, scan this."

[Prime activated]

[Yes, Mr Lawrence]

[Scanning the barcode]

[Scanning process complete]

[Opening the folder of files]

[1. 22/10/2034 The Eirene Operation - 1]

[2. 31/11/2034 The Eirene Operation - 2]

[3. 15/02/2035 The Eirene Operation - 3]

[....]

"The Eirene Operation?" asked James, looking at Gilbert.

"Eirene, the goddess of peace in Roman mythology. We are using her name in this operation," said Colonel Gilbert.

"I don't need to go into details about that piece of information. You'll know your next move after reading it," Gilbert replied.

The two agents who came with Gilbert looked ready and packed up. They didn't want to stay in this place for long, as they thought James needed time to focus his attention on this mission.

Gilbert walked up to James, extending his right hand to shake hands, "Good luck to you, Agent Lawrence."

James nodded, taking Gilbert's hand and shaking it tightly. He would probably spend today comprehending the information received by him, so it was unlikely that he would return tonight to the Rosewood residence.

As Gilbert was about to exit James' study, his steps were halted when he remembered something important, "Let me know immediately when you have gathered your people. The President is a type of impatient person."