Might's Odyssey (The Event Book 2) (13 page)

By and by, they reached the entrance to the university. It was not imposing, which was what he had been expecting. To the right of it was a giant gilded statue of a stag. The head of the stag was held up proudly. Aaron reached over and whispered that the statue was softly lit up at night.

Beyond the gates was the long road leading into the University. The road had gentle speed bumps, which slowed the drivers of the bus by necessity.

A building loomed up ahead. A frown roughened Gbenga’s brow when he realized the buses were headed towards it. Aaron leaned over again.

“That is the senate building__”

Gbenga nodded slowly.

The buses stopped outside the building and they were all quickly herded inside. Each student was given keys to their rooms along with an orientation pack. Afterwards they were directed to their allotted rooms.

“If you had been a student, you’d be receiving a starter pack too.” Aaron said with a chuckle.

Gbenga smiled wanly but said nothing.

“Also had you been a student I would have advised you stay off campus cos of costs. Off campus is usually cheaper, you could stay at Hazel farm, hazel drive and Manor Park.”

Gbenga nodded slowly. The names meant nothing to him, there was little if anything he could say.

The welcoming committee herded the students back to the buses. The buses took them back to their allotted hostels, dropping them outside their rooms.

They then took him to a low cost guesthouse at the opposite end of the campus. Aaron told him the name but he promptly forgot it almost as soon as he heard it.

Seven hours later

He lay on a soft four-poster bed in a small room staring at the white ceiling with his thoughts going around in a million directions. The lecture Gerald Summers was going to give was not scheduled to take place until tomorrow morning. Around eleven am UK time.

Gerald could already be on the campus for all he knew. If he knew where he was, he could have sought him out. He sat up suddenly as something occurred to him.

There was a phone on a small table to his right. He turned reaching for it and pulled out a crumpled card from his left trouser pocket as he did so. He examined the card carefully until he located the phone number he sought. Dialing it quickly, he settled down to wait. The phone rang thrice before it was picked up.

“Yes__” A sleepy voice murmured into his ear.

“Hi Aaron. It’s me! Gbenga Akintunde. Remember? I am the Nigerian delegate you escorted from the airport today.”

There was a long pause. Gbenga was on the verge of shouting into the phone thinking Aaron had slept off when he spoke.

“Oh Gbenga__” He chuckled still sounding sleepy.

Gbenga grimaced. He had just murdered his name. It came out sounding like Gee-been-ga. Instead of just plain Gbe-n-ga, pronounced the way it was spelt. Europeans! Only God knew why they could not pronounce African names properly.

‘I guess for the same reason, you cannot pronounce European names properly either.’ A sardonic voice in his head murmured.

Shaking his head to clear it of the voice, he tried to focus on what Aaron was saying.

“What can I do for you?”

“I was wondering whether you know if Gerald summers had arrived in Surrey yet?

“Yeah he has.”

Gbenga’s heart skipped a couple of beats. Holding the phone away from his mouth, he took several deep breaths before he brought the phone back and spoke once again.

“You wouldn’t happen to know where he is staying would you?”

There was a long pause__ before__

“As a matter of fact I do, but we are not supposed to say.”

“Oh? Why?”

“It’s for security reasons Gbenga! I am sorry, but those are the rules. It wouldn’t do for a man of Gerald Summers caliber to get hurt in our university would it?”

“I hope you are not suggesting I intend to harm him?” Gbenga screeched doing his best to sound outraged.

“No of course not__” Aaron hurriedly cut in. “I am not suggesting anything of the sort. However, you must realize that Gerald Summers is something of a celebrity and not everyone means him well.

“We are not supposed to talk about it, but there was an attempt on his life in North Africa. It was foiled of course and kept very hush hush. Gerald did not want it to sour the proceedings and throw a dark light on what he was trying to achieve. Peace and world stability is the only thing he cares about you see.

“So no one here is taking any chances. Security has been tightened around him. Nothing and no one get close to him until he is back in the air after the lecture.”

Gbenga sighed deeply as Aaron’s words sank in. He had not expected anything less. Maybe this trip had been a waste of time.

“Where is the lecture gonna take place?” He asked subdued.

“The Austin Pearce building, AP4.”

“Thank you Aaron, have a lovely night.”

“You too Gbenga__ sorry I wasn’t able to be more helpful.”

“Don’t worry about it__ goodnight.”

Gbenga sighed again as he replaced the receiver on the cradle. He lay back down on the bed staring at the ceiling. He was still for a total of twelve minutes, before he rose slowly and began to put on his clothes.

‘Call me a lunatic__’ He thought to himself as he grabbed his cane. ‘__ But I have to see the Austin Pearce building.’

He was out the door of the room in seconds slamming it shut after him.

It took several minutes, almost thirty to get to the Austin Pearce building. He would have gotten there sooner, but it took a while to find it. It was located on the northern edge of the perimeter road, opposite the main car parking area by the central bus stop.

His eyes widened when they settled on it. It was massive, several stories, a brownish gold color. On his left was water; it looked like a very shallow pool with tiny sprinkler like things within it, which spewed water.

There were several stone benches dotted around the front of it. He found one on the north side of the building and sat down. He noticed out of the corner of one eye that a man dressed in a hoodie sat on one of the stone benches several feet away.

He was so still that it took Gbenga almost ten minutes to notice him sitting there. However, what he did not know was, the man had been watching him too. More minutes passed and the man stood up sauntering over.

Gbenga stiffened prepared to defend himself if need be. His eyes drifted to the two security men walking in front of the building. A quick shout he knew would bring them running over.

A brisk wind blew at that instant and he shivered drawing his thick leather jacket closer to his body. The British he knew regarded this weather as mild. But to him, it was like the worst sort of harmattan. No matter how many times he came to this country, he never seemed to get used to the cold weather.

“Hi there__” The hoodie wearing man called out stopping a few feet away from him.

This close, Gbenga could see that he was tall and slender. His face hidden from view by the shadow created by his hoodie. His voice sounded familiar.

“Hi__” Gbenga responded warily trying to see the face of the man talking.

“Didn’t mean to startle you__ but I could not help noticing you staring at the building.”

“Are you with the security? Do you plan to arrest me? Not sure I did anything wrong by looking at the building.”

A loud bubble of laughter erupted from the man’s lips. “You misunderstand me sir__,” He gasped still chuckling.

Gbenga’s heart started to race. What were the odds? It could not be.

“__ I am not with the security of the school__”

“No you are not__” Gbenga interjected leaping to his feet, taking a step closer. “You are Gerald Summers aren’t you?”

The man stiffened shocked before he sighed and threw back his hood confirming what Gbenga already knew.

“How did you know?” He asked surprised.

“I know all there is to know about you.”

“That sounds rather creepy__,” Gerald said with a frown taking a step back.

“No you misunderstand me__ I came to attend your lecture.”

“Hmmnn__ are you from the science community?”

“No I am a business man from Nigeria.”

“Aahh! I think I get it. You are one of those people aren’t you?”

“One of what people? I am not sure I follow.”

“One of those people always scheming for a profit.”

Gbenga paused, still looking puzzled. What the devil was he going on about? He was still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that he was speaking to Gerald summers in the flesh. What he could not figure out was why he was out here alone and without security.

“Look I am not searching for profit or whatever you mean. I came here hoping to convince you not to unveil what you are going to unveil at the G8 summit in December.”

Gerald froze, his body becoming stiffer than a wooden post.

“I must say I was not expecting that__” He began slowly giving Gbenga a speculative look.

There was a pause as they exchanged wary glances.

“I suppose you are going to tell me why I shouldn’t share my greatest discovery with the world?”

Gbenga swallowed taking a step back. This was all he had thought and dreamt about for the last three weeks. Now that he was face to face with the man, he found he did not know what to say.

“Why are you out here alone? Isn’t it dangerous?” He croaked and almost kicked himself. Why in the world was he asking that? That sure as hell was not what was important here.

Apparently, Gerald seemed to think the same thing, because the look he gave him spoke volumes.

“It’s sort of a fetish with me. Every country I go to give a lecture, I usually like scoping out the venue under the radar the night before I am scheduled to speak. Not sure why I do this, but I find it relaxes me.”

“Isn’t it dangerous?”

“Sometimes; A man in my position cannot afford to take too many risks, but that’s why I have them__” He said pointing to his left.

Four men stood twenty feet away. They wore long black overcoats and had hard looks in their eyes. Their hands were stuffed into their pockets and from the bulge; Gbenga knew they had guns in them.

Gerald was not alone. That fact made more sense.

“So__” Gerald began snapping him out of his reverie. “Why do you want me to hide my greatest creation from the world?”

Gbenga sighed searching for an easy way to say what he had to say. Unable to think of one, he pressed on bravely.

“If you unveil that invention, you are inadvertently going to start the apocalypse.”

His bombshell did not have quite the effect he had been hoping for. Gerald looked more curious than disturbed by what he said.

“And you know this how?”

“Never mind how I know it__ all you need to know is that it’s going to happen.”

Gerald took a step closer giving Gbenga a probing look. Gbenga held the look with a hard look of his own. Satisfied that Gbenga was not kidding, the probing look turned to one of shock and puzzlement.

“You are serious about this nonsense aren’t you?”

Anger surged on Gbenga’s insides and he controlled his temper with great difficulty.

“First of all Gerald, it is not nonsense. Second if you continue along the path you are taking, more than three quarters of the world’s population will die. And just so you know there is no pressure, its gonna happen in December at the G8 summit, less than six months from now; unless of course you desist in this action you seem hell bent on taking.”

There was a long pause as both men’s gazes locked and held. To Gbenga’s shock and amazement, Gerald burst into laughter. His laughter was so high pitched and squeaky that it drove a chill into Gbenga’s bones.

“I’ll admit it does sound a bit crazy__” Gbenga began slowly.

“It doesn’t just sound crazy you imbecile, it is crazy. You do not even know what I want to unveil. How the heck then do you think its going to destroy the world?”

Gbenga took a deep breath and tried again. “Because I have been there__”
At the incredulous look on Gerald’s face, it occurred to Gbenga that this conversation was going much worse than he anticipated.

“You have been to the future?”

The sides of Gerald’s lips trembled and Gbenga could see he was preparing to laugh again. The anger within him grew so great that he was tempted to reach out and choke the man. What stopped him however were his bodyguards who moved closer as if they somehow sensed his intentions.

“Believe what you want__,” Gbenga said, suddenly fed up. He turned and walked away still talking.

“__ I am sure I am not the only one who has told you this__” He paused for a second wondering why he said that before he continued.

“I have nothing to back up my claim, but what I do know is this, if you unveil your discovery, our world as we know it comes to an end. I do not expect you to believe me anyway __” His voice drifted off as he started to jog wanting to put as much distance between him and Gerald Summers before he did something he regretted.

“Awwww leaving so soon dream walker__”

Gerald’s words spat out in a droll tone were like blocks of ice sliding down Gbenga’s spine. He turned slowly looking at Gerald with fear shinning in his eyes.

Gerald chuckled and bounced over. His eyes were bright red coals and his mouth was curled in a hard snarl, appearing slightly distended.

“Don’t look so surprised man___ I know what you are. That idiot scientist that postulated the theory of dream walkers did not know how right he was.

“You were right in one respect Gbenga or would you rather I call you Swift?”