The MST, Ch. 10

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Alex entered the hotel and headed straight to the bar. She couldn't believe he was immune to her charms. Everything had started out so well with the exception of the tumble, but even that had worked in her favor. Alex caught a glimpse of herself in a mirror. She looked beautiful and she knew he had thought so too, but just as things had started to heat up, he had suddenly turned off. It was disconcerting. Strangely it was also fascinating and one of the things that had always drawn her to Todd. She had never been able to get a good read on him.

Alex sat down at the bar and ordered a drink, "I guess I should give Carlo a call, he wanted to know when I made contact, and I've done that. I hope I can get him to understand what happened. Hmmph, I'm not sure I understand." She pulled out her cell phone and made the call.

Carlo looked at his phone. It was Alex. He answered,"Yes my dear, tell me you have good news."

Alex took a quick drink, then answered. "Carlo darling, I do have some news. I made contact with your Mr. Toddman this evening. I don't understand Carlo. He looks like Todd Manning but he didn't know me, and I know Todd is in Llanview but has a different face. What the heck is going on?"

Carlo replied, "Alex dear, you shouldn't worry your pretty head about that. Just tell me. Were you able to get him interested in you? Do you think you'll be able to get him to Llanview?"

Alex thought and took another drink, she had to tell him something but how to spin it so Carlo would think everything was going as planned. "Well, we've made a tentative date to see each other again. Tonight was just the start, he'll be following me to Llanview in no time." Carlo didn't have to know tonight had been a bust and she wasn't lying exactly, Samuel had said if he found the time they might get together.

"Excellent, Alex, Now remember you have to keep him from seeing Blair. I'm counting on you. I have a few things on my end, that need to be seen to. I'll let you know when I need him in Llanview. Goodnight my dear." Carlo hung up.

Whew, she had managed that well. It gave her a little time but now she had to figure out how she was going to accomplish the impossible. She didn't even know where Samuel lived, much less how to make contact again.  She was exhausted, nothing else was going to happen that night. Alex paid for her drink and headed for her suite. Tomorrow something would turn up and she would be able to continue Carlo's request.

Once in her suite, Alex went and started a hot bath. She needed to unwind and she needed to go back over the night. As she rested in the comforting bubbles she went back in her mind to that first shock. Looking up at that familiar yet slightly different face and hearing his voice. God, she had never expected that. He was Todd, but he wasn't. His concern and the gentleness he showed when helping her up was so not "Todd". And when he had tried to cover his scars because he didn't want to make her look at them. He'd been ashamed of his looks. She'd felt sympathy for that man, that was why she had stopped him from covering the scars.

Todd had never liked his scar, but he had always worn it as a statement that it was him and everyone who didn't like it could shove it. When Samuel had taken her hand and given that gentle kiss, it had been his way of thanking her. She looked at her hand, surprisingly, she really wanted to get to know Samuel. He was quite charming. This could be quite a nice diversion in her somewhat humdrum existence right now. Alex stepped out of the bath wrapping the towel around her. Yes, somehow she was going to make it happen. She was going to get Samuel and she might not let him go.

Carlo hung up and looked at the phone momentarily. Chuckling softly he thought of Alex. "Something tells me you're not telling me everything my dear, but no matter, my sources are there keeping an eye on things, they'll keep me informed." He opened his desk drawer and pulled out a file. The label on the top read Samuel Toddman/Todd Manning. He opened it and began reading.

' March 2003, Cherryvale Clinic ER report of Trauma physician on duty.

Called to the Er in the early morning hours. Discovered a severe Trauma case had been brought in. Patient's brother informed us his brother had been in a severe auto accident and had just crawled free when the car had exploded. The patient has severe third-degree burns on his hands, numerous broken bones all over his body, a severe laceration on the right side of his face extending from his eye to his chin, and massive internal bleeding. Immediate efforts were taken to find and stop the internal bleeding, after numerous hours on the operating table and almost losing him twice, the patient was stabilized. Three units of o-neg. blood was transfused to bring the patient up to acceptable blood volume. The patient had yet to regain consciousness and was going to need numerous more surgeries to repair all the damage. Against medical advice, the patient was removed to a private facility on the family's orders.'

Carlo still recalled Alex's plea for help when they discovered Manning on the side of the road. He hadn't wanted to help.  Manning had been a thorn in his side for a number of years stemming back to his interference in "The Men of Twenty-one".  He had agreed to help only if Alex would let him handle everything. 

He sent Alex home and called some of his business partners and they had staged the car crash and fire.  While that was being staged, he kept an eye on Manning who was barely alive but hanging on.  As quick;y as the car blew he was on the phone calling 911.  He had instructed his men to burn Manning's hands to prevent identification, Manning had been so out of it he never felt it.  By the time the ambulance from Cherryvale arrived the car was fully engulfed and only he and his driver and his poor hurt "brother" remained.

To his surprise, Manning survived. The man was really remarkable. He really was like a cat with nine lives. With his "brother " stabilized, Carlo decided to move Manning.  Cherryvale was too close to Llanview and obviously, someone wanted Manning dead.  It was then that Carlo had an idea of how to make all this work for him.  He sent Manning to his private clinic outside of Philadelphia and began putting his plan in motion.

Carlo decided he could use this situation to his advantage. He had promised Alex he wouldn't let Manning die. He never promised how he would let him live. Carlo and his doctors had been working for some time on a memory transference project. Manning was a captive audience and a perfect subject to test their theories on but Carlo also needed a patsy to give the memories to. That night he sent out his men to find someone of the same general height and coloring. They would also need to match his blood type if Carlo's plan was to work, so they were told to check all blood banks for a suitable candidate. Someone down on his luck who was willing to sell his blood. Carlo's instructions, "Bring him in alive but barely."  Such a man was found that night. Although beaten severely, he was perfect for Carlo's plan. That became the Night of the two Todds.

          Carlo continued to look at the file. Todd Manning had proven to be quite a challenge. It had taken the doctors quite a while to track down all of Todd's memories because they had kept coming up with blocked areas they couldn't penetrate. They gleaned all the memories concerning his wives, his children, his sister Vicki and all of his connections to the Lord Family;   Whenever they had attempted to go farther into his memories concerning his adopted father Peter Manning it was like they encountered a brick wall. No matter what they tried, from the experimental machine to deep hypnosis, they were never able to get those last memories. Carlo had made the final call that they would work with the memories they had and they had begun indoctrinating Todd 2.

Todd Manning improved slowly. The doctors put one of their own barriers around the memories they had taken from Todd and secured it with a deep hypnotic suggestion that if he tried to recall those memories he would experience excruciating pain. Then it was decided to move him to Philadelphia General for more surgeries under the name of John Doe.

Todd went through the surgeries and remained in a coma for about 3 months. The only item that had been found on Todd that night in March had been a safe deposit key, when the doctors said they could find no memory of it, Carlo again made the decision to let it go with him to the hospital. If Carlo had realized the significance of that key, he would have destroyed it.

Carlo had daily updates on Manning's condition the whole time he was in the hospital and was alerted when Manning woke up. When Manning woke up, Carlo and his doctors had expected him to not remember anything; they had never expected him to remember a name. No one was prepared for the reveal that he was Samuel Toddman. Carlo remembered thinking "Who the hell is Samuel Toddman!". Although he looked into it, Carlo had never been able to figure out why Todd called himself Samuel Toddman.

It soon became apparent that although he had a name he remembered little else and every time he tried to push his memory he had severe pain. The doctors at the hospital finally convinced him that he should concentrate on getting well and that his memories would return when they were ready. Just before the doctors released Manning, a large number of funds were delivered in his name. After paying his hospital bill Manning had disappeared. It was just by chance that Carlo's spies at the airport discovered that Mr. Toddman had a ticket to Paris, France.

Once in Paris, Samuel had again eluded his associates. It was early in 2004 that an Art dealer of Carlo's acquaintance had called to tell him of a new artist he might be interested in. Always on the lookout for good art, he had made the trip to Paris only to find himself staring at a very familiar face. There on the wall in front of him had been a picture of one Blair Manning and he knew only one man in Paris would know that face. Mr. Toddman was an artist. Who would have thought that Manning could produce such beautiful work? Although his men hadn't found out where Mr. Toddman lived, they were able to find out where he banked and ate sometimes. Carlo was kept informed when a new painting would show up. It had continued that way for seven long years until three days ago when Blair Cramer had shown up looking for the artist and carrying one of Samuel's pieces.

When Tomas's assistant had called, Carlo knew it would only be a matter of time before his whole charade would start to fall apart. The experiment had definitely been a success. Todd 2 had recovered in Cherryvale and had thought he really was Todd. He had set about making plans to change his looks thanks to the deeply implanted suggestion to do so, and had found Walker Flynn and bought his face. For seven years he had been Todd Manning and lived his life, he had raised Todd's kids. There was a moment when it looked like he might even be executed. All that time he truly believed he was Todd Manning. Recently Todd 2 had been showing signs of paranoia and more quirkiness then usual. After talking to the doctors at the clinic it was believed that he was beginning to unravel. Could Samuel also be experiencing some unusual occurrences?

Carlo closed the file. it was time to pull out of everything before the plan tumbled. His anonymous association with all of Todd's companies had proven very lucrative, but before he got caught in the firestorm that was sure to happen once Toddman's memories returned; he needed to remove his shares. Then he could sit back and watch the Manning/Lord house of cards fall.