A Rat Conspiracy

By Jeremy I Bernstein

A light reading fictional novel about two groups, who come together to pull off a sophisticated world changing scrupulous scheme using a deadly virus, each for their own interests, while using a patsy: Jay. A nobody who learns to become a somebody really quickly given the circumstances.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jeremy I Bernstein
• Release date: Oct 18, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215128626

Jeremy I Bernstein

Born in Dublin Ireland 1972 moved to Israel together with his mother and brother following the divorce of his parents in 1980, studied Behavioral science and Business administration at Ben-Gurion University, married plus one over twenty years, currently works over 20 years in the field of office management and administrations. So far he has published several books on kindle, which include, novels, a children’s book, and several low content books.

Book preview

Introduction

In a world where chaos and bad news is fed to us on a daily basis, the bare necessities of life, as defined by Maslow, have become intolerable. Something must be done someone needs to step up. The decisions of steps to be taken need to be drastic and would have unspeakable consequences. As Darwin once had stated; it is a world where the strong will survive, he meant the most adaptable. But what if, playing god is just another ploy and not a means to change our world for the better. Gene Roddenberry had a vision where a world of power struggles (it has been like this since the dawn of man), becomes almost a thing of the past. We find it hard to envision such a world since human nature has always progressed nearer to its own demise.

Although the following is pure fiction, we have evolved into a society, where a really good shake-up could actually wake us up to make those necessary changes. All we need to do is believe in ourselves a little more, understand the goals, and look towards the future. But there will always be cynics who would tangle the concept.

This story tries to delineate between the various levels of cynics; the harmless individuals who make up almost ninety-five percent of the planet, that no longer have faith in the system believing that corruption has become a way of life and maybe the only way to survive, using cynicism to get by. On the other hand the five percent believe that rules were made for the only purpose, to be broken using power as a means to destroy whatever gets in their way.

Philosophers for centuries have been trying to define happiness, could such changes in the way the world works bring ultimate happiness for most of its inhabitants?

Or maybe the change must be per individual, therefore each happiness is an internal impulse, thus no matter what is done, it could never suit all.

It remains to be seen! 

Part One - A New Beginning

Sitting upon a mountain top, along the Chinese-Tibetan border, Jay thought that time after time he had told himself, not to get in these situations.

But he hasn't learnt anything. Running away from your problems is never a solution, although it didn't hurt, it gives him enough time to think where he went wrong? What was he thinking?

Our story actually begins a couple of years beforehand;

Across the sea in a place once called the land of the free, in the city of New York.

After Jay had lost his job, his flat, not to mention his goldfish, poor thing was lucky to last as long as it did. 

Jay, mostly seen as a cross between a dashing movie star and a walking disaster, looked good but had the body of a dweeb, your average height and weight, short black hair, and sad brown eyes. His full name was James Francis Weinberg, sounds Jewish and rich, which was far from the truth as can be. Try middle-class Irish c

Catholic upbringing, Jay didn't like his name and made sure that no one knew it outside the family.

Expect for his father who calls him James and his mother who calls him Franny, everyone else knows him as plain old – Jay.

He walked into Mike's bar, a dark little place with the only daylight coming in, was from a small window through the door, the rest of the lighting came from behind the bar and the candles on each of the twelve small round tables and the four tables at the back with comfortable benches.

It was around six o'clock when he sat down on one of the six red stools at the bar and started on his gin, low on the tonic, then moved on to a bloody Mary, easy on the blood hard on the Mary.

By his twelfth drink, he had made friends with a guy named Bubba and told his life story to half the bar, which hadn't amount to much so far.

When she walked in, Jay was totally pissed, which meant any pun he"d deliver would be a lousy one, so he kept quiet, she had short black hair, blue eyes, and one hell of a stunning body, he could tell, because the skirt was short enough to show the most beautiful pair of legs he had ever seen.

As she walked across the room she bumped into him and gave out a wink, and kept going heading towards the powder room, this would be the first and last time he would see her.

Now there are a couple of ways this story could have gone: one way would have been, that she puts something in his pocket and it turns out to be some item belonging to the government or some big cooperation, and throughout the story, he is chased harassed and all most killed getting to the truth.

Another way is, he spends this entire story looking for the woman only to find out she doesn't really exist, just a figment of his drunk mind at the time, but why bore you all to death with such stories that have been told over and over and over, when the truth, in this case, is the weirdest thing that could happen to anyone. 

So here he is, drunk and nowhere to go, with all his stuff packed neatly in the car, the only thing he really owns, a 72 Chevrolet, thinking this is where he"ll be sleeping tonight.

But Mike, the pub's owner had other plans, this was a man in his late forties who still had a nice lob of hair about 5ft 6 and a bit of a swell around the stomach, even though he swore he worked out constantly.

Jay turned to him and said suuch aa nicce man you aree mike

Jay continued hellping mee out whenn I'm needing suuch hellp,

He knew it wasn't the smartest thing to say, but when you're as sloshed as Jay was, and you wanted to thank the man for offering to take you to his home, to sleep it off, it's the only damn thing he could come up with.

When Jay woke up in the morning, he found himself on one of those hard modern couches, mostly metal with very little fabric. Looking around he could see shelves full of books on the Far East, Buddhism, and reincarnation.

Mike had lived in the Far East for almost ten years, through his travels he said he had fallen in love with human nature, upon his return he opened his bar with the idea that the best way to find real humanity was when a person was at his lowest or his highest point in both cases you would find a man with a drink.

Mike came out of the shower, with only his bathrobe turned to Jay,

Morning Jay, want some breakfast

Mike smiled and persisted I'm afraid we're out of hot water but feel free to use the shower anyway.

Jay turned around showing no expression

Jay replied, with a gloomy face Thanks.

He still felt bells as big as Notre dame ringing in his ears.

Jay took a shower, had a small breakfast, toast with jam and butter, a small glass of orange juice, and a bowl of cereal, and was about to thank Mike for his hospitality when Mike turned around and said:

Jay, I have left the key on the table, stay as long as you want then bring it over to the bar,  by this time the bells in his ears had toned down a bit to the size of cowbells, this is something he could live with,  more or less.

Jay smiled at Mike, as Mike exited the apartment.

So since Jay had some time on his hands he thought he would take a look at some of the books on the shelves, Jay was especially interested in Mike's books on reincarnation, most of them were based on Tibetan Buddhism. Mike said that he had spent over four of his last ten years in a monastery studying just that, but his morbid look on the subject was worrying some of the monks and so he was asked to leave.

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AFTER FINISHING SIX cups of coffee and roughly going through at least five of Mike's books he felt it was time to leave and start looking for a job, but before doing so he thought he would ask Mike a couple of questions on the subject of reincarnation,  what was Mike looking for? and why?, God know what Jay was thinking at the time, maybe he thought that showing some interest in what Mike liked would be a polite way of saying thank you for letting him use his couch.

He reached the bar around 4 o'clock in the afternoon;

Mike was setting up a stage for an artist that performs there once a week, some weirdo Mike picked up on his way back from one of his trips, Jay heard his name was Tom Prancer but he wasn't sure, although Tom couldn't really sing.

Mike felt for some pity for him and had given him a job on one of his slow nights, with Tom, there was not much to look at, he had long hair but was no sex symbol, a bit chubby, but he had a smile that charmed you into staying.

That was four months ago, now Tom has a following and the bar is packed with people with no ear for music whatsoever, go figure!

Walking up to Mike, Jay thanked Mike Thanks for last night,

Mike not turning around replied you're welcome,

Jay continued Mike...I have a couple of questions concerning those books you have,

Mike had stopped working and gave Jay a puzzled stare which books?,

Jay replied: you know the books on reincarnation,

Mike answered ooh those books

Jay asked, Well! Can I??,

Mike was taken back a little by Jay's insistence, but just out of curiosity decided to play along so he replied with a sigh O.K. what do want to know

Jay looked up at Mike smiled and asked What can you tell from your experience of reincarnation? 

Mike then leaned over and began It is a well-known fact, he paused that the spiritual leaders of Tibetan monks are chosen through reincarnation. Moving from each leader to the next. and when finding the next leader there are signs which certain monks know like identifying objects which had belonged to the former lama.,

is everyone reincarnated or just a special few, interrupted Jay, Showing some sort of actual interest in the matter

Mike continued according to the Tibetans everyone is, but you do not necessarily come back as a man or a woman, we are all part of the big picture of nature you could return as a frog

That would be fine by me,  Jay thought, a kiss from some rich babe, and he is set for that life with only one tiny issue - try catching a thousand flies a day with your hands, could prove to be rather difficult.

Jay was not quite finished with Mike, he felt a need to get more out of the question so

Jay then asked, what interests me is can a person remember his past life?

Mike who didn't really mind, replied with a smirk not necessarily but there have been cases where the person had unfinished business and felt at a certain time to finish the task in the next life without his knowledge of doing so

Jay pushed to get to some point so drumming himself up, he asked,

So here's my question, Mike, what would be the circumstances and what kind of people are we talking about here?,

Mike stopped and pondered for a moment well....tough ones he answered,

Jay confused looked back at Mike and replied

Tough ones???...what is that supposed to mean,

Mike lifted his eyebrows in dismay, with a concealed smirk, replying you got me!! This is where I was thrown out, although asking questions are good for the knowledge; you have to know what not to reply.

Now since Jay had no responsibilities what so ever, this would be a perfect time to take a trip, the Far East seemed a good a place as any, Mike's book was the inspiration, so he asked Mike if he could leave his stuff with him for a while, and in return, Mike could use Jay's car instead of taking the bus.

Mike gave him a few names and addresses of people he thought would still be in the Far East since he was there and would be able to assist Jay with what he may need.

After making a few calls Jay had a ticket to Bangkok on the two o'clock flight, in the morning, which meant he wasn't going to get much sleep, Jay never slept well on flights anyhow since the seats were always too small and every couple of hours they serve you something else and play a movie that you know you would never want to see.

He packed a small suitcase, remembering the short trip to Thailand four years ago that you can get clothes there, and they were really cheap, he didn't think much has changed since then.

Mike had Tom look after the bar, while he dropped Jay off at the airport,

Jay again thanked Mike for his help that night and also for some books which he loaned him, thinking they may come in useful.

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CHECKING IN WAS EASY, the hard part was hearing about the three-hour delay.

He asked what the airline was going to do with the passengers for three hours,

The hostess gave him a coupon for a soft drink and said enjoy with that fake smile.

Either she had a bad day or she was pure evil and gets her kicks out of seeing flights being delayed, either way, she didn't help, all the same, Jay was not