Panspermia Deorum (3 page)

He needed to
avail of the best legal advice possible, almost regardless of the
cost. He suddenly remembered the dilemma facing him when he joined
NERO. In the United States, NASA had seen significant reduction in
funding, although not as draconian as the European Space Agency,
which was now as windless as space itself. Russian progress had
declined dramatically and so had the emergent economies of the last
decade, China and India. They had made severe cuts to prop up their
slowing economies. He had made his decision to join NERO on moral
grounds, or so he thought, turning down an offer from a privately
funded enterprise. It was this very organisation which was now in
prime position to launch the first manned mission to Mars in
2033.

Back then,
Julien felt that a globally-funded body would be a more transparent
organisation, accountable to all mankind. He smiled, admitting his
naivety; like many forms of seduction, NERO had sculptured more
than one agenda.

He had to
strike quickly when he got back to France. A call to the
entrepreneur whom he’d turned down was the obvious first step. This
man, Volker Brandt, had access to the best legal people in the
world. The content of the memory stick would at least provide a
bargaining chip for dialogue.

The ‘meeting
minutes Asteroid 1999 A10’ were actually NERO video conferences, in
which people like Sir Ian Waverly had made controversial statements
in justification of decisions outside the charter of the
organisation. Brandt would hopefully see some value in having such
visual and audio proof of manipulative policy.

Julien wrestled
with his conscience, but he also had a duty to his family. Elise,
Eugene, and Sophie could become part of the problem if Waverly
thought a former senior employee was sleeping with the enemy. On
the other hand, there weren’t many alternatives. Waverly wasn’t
going to let him have an easy exit, especially as the passage of
time would inexorably provide evidence that Julien Delacroix was
right. How the hell could Ian Waverly believe he’d get away with
this? Julien eventually fell asleep, despite the nagging feeling
that he’d missed something. The gradual descent into Lyon caused
his ears to pop. He wondered if he would be met by people he didn’t
recognise. It would be safer to call Brandt before passing through
customs.

L
yon airport was pretty busy, and although Julien no
longer had any hold luggage to retrieve, he felt the collection
carousel was the best place to make the call.

Brandt only
gave his private number to a handful of people. He’d fought so hard
to persuade Julien to join his company, and even though he failed,
the gesture had been made at the time. ‘You never know, you may
have a change of heart. I respect your reasoning, but if this post
with NERO does fall short of your expectations, you should let me
know. I still believe you could fulfil your ambitions with my
company. I wish you every success’.

Those words
were ringing very loudly in his ears right now. Volker Brandt came
through a tough childhood to become an extremely wealthy man. Not
much was known about his past, he’d buried as much of it as he
could. A diminutive, moustached man, he had
learned
to be
honest rather than it being a comfortable bedfellow. He rarely
trusted anyone implicitly, and the exceptional few had to earn such
respect over time.

“It’s Julien
Delacroix, Herr Brandt.”

“Well, I must
say I’m not totally surprised. Forgive me, Julien, but I’m in a
meeting at present. I would prefer to call you back.”

“That may be
too late, sir. I’ve just landed in Lyon airport and I anticipate
being detained once I clear customs. Sorry to have called at a bad
time.”

“I see. In that
case, let me walk to my office before we continue.”

The minute and
a half seemed like twenty.

“I saw the
statement you made as you left the conference, and Waverly’s
rebuttal to the press. But I didn’t think the fallout would extend
to such melodrama. Please continue.”

“Well, neither
did I, and yet I should have. I have to be brief. I have a memory
stick which may explain why I said what I did and now find myself
in this predicament. It’s a copy. I wondered if it would be of
interest.”

“Mmm, that is a
tricky one. Of course I’m fascinated by what could be on there,
but, as to any other value it could have, or whether I could
actually
use
it, is questionable in both a practical and
ethical sense.”

“Yes, I can see
that. However, it may have implications you should be aware of,
particularly for the Mars mission.”

“That would
validate my interest but not my interference in any wrangling
between NERO and our paternalistic government spin doctors.
However, there could be another way to look at this.”

“You think
so?”

“You could work
for me.”

“In what
capacity?”

“If you are
sure this information on offer has implications for our Mars
mission, I’d be stupid to ignore it. You would be responsible for
heading up a programme to neutralise the very same
implications.”

“What about
legal aspects? Contractual stuff, and most importantly the
timescale? I don’t know what is waiting for me out in the
concourse.”

“Well, let me
think. Your dismissal was announced on television, so the reason
for, and implementation of that decision cannot be disputed. You
are, in employment terms, already a free agent. My legal staff will
sort out the detail with NERO, boring pension rights, that kind of
stuff. NERO has a very weak case if they attempt to block this, but
they will undoubtedly try. Leave that with me. On the timescale
front, I will send you an offer of employment by text after this
conversation. It will of necessity be a broad brush remit and if
you can send me your acceptance by return, I can get my people on
to it. They will need to slap injunctions on NERO with regard to
proprietary knowledge from our side, blah-blah. This should shake
their tree, keep them busy, and persuade them to back off the Stasi
attitude, at least for now. How confident are you that you can get
past any awaiting search with the memory stick?”

“It’s probably
the one thing I’d given most thought to in the last few hours. I
sent a copy to a safe location as a backup. I thought I’d need it
if NERO took me to court.”

“In that case,
I suggest you voluntarily hand the one in your possession over,
rather than them finding it. Make some mileage out of declaring
that although you were treated like a criminal, not assumed to be
innocent until proven otherwise, and yet they didn’t discover the
stick amongst your effects. Your honesty is validated and at the
same time their credibility suffers. I mustn’t know of any of this
just yet. Look, I’ll delay my employment offer until well after you
do return the memory stick. I had no knowledge of its existence
when I saw Waverly explain your status as unemployed. Send the
phone you are using right now to me. I have people who can clean it
up in a way which means this call never took place. I have a
telecommunications company to take care of problems like this. Buy
another phone at the airport if you need to for personal reasons
but don’t contact me for twenty-four hours.”

“Ok, I think I
understand all that. I will need this phone to speak to my wife
whenever I get through any hoops NERO puts in my way, but they
already cleared it in Osaka, so that shouldn’t be an issue. I’ll
call you tomorrow when I’ve mailed this phone to you, and bought an
unregistered one. Thanks for taking time to talk with me.”

“A pleasure,
but don’t call your wife on that phone. If they have checked it out
in Osaka they shouldn’t be given a second chance to make you the
fall guy. Delete all the numbers of business contacts, including
mine. Retain only the numbers of personal friends and family. Write
my number down somewhere safe and then take out the sim card, flush
it away. My people will take it from there and it removes the risk
involved with mailing it to me. They may put surveillance on you,
even after a search. If they do ask for the phone, tell them that
the Osaka team must have taken it, but make sure you offer the
memory stick before they search you. It’s critical that you plant
in their minds that they screwed up in the first search. Now, I
hope you can accept what I’m about to suggest to you. I know you
joined NERO because of their apparent neutrality in the greater
scheme of things, so don’t let this break your moral stance, we
hypocrites in the private sector are the only honest people
left.”

*

Both Eugene and
Sophie Delacroix had been unsettled by their mother’s
uncharacteristically covert request to meet at Geraldine’s house.
They’d spoken to one another after independently checking out
Julien’s interview on YouTube.

Eugene was in
his final year of a masters in microbiology and Sophie had already
become an artist of some repute.

“What do you
make of this Soph? It’s all a bit cloak and dagger if you ask me.
Why Aunt Geraldine’s?”

“I’m a bit
worried, Mum doesn’t do this kind of thing. She always like,
over-elaborates. She can’t even keep our birthday surprises to
herself. You do know Dad got fired I suppose?”

“Hell no, I’ve
been in the lab all day. That might explain it then. He has always
said he couldn’t talk to us about his work, except in general
terms. He must have broken some regulation in his TV interview.
Actually, I thought he was great, the way he walked out, wanting
the public to know how their hard-earned tax is wasted by these
freeloaders.”

“Of course,
that would explain everything, Gene. You just love a conspiracy,
don’t you? I think we should get to Mum as soon as we can, she’ll
be worried sick. She always goes nuts when she thinks the worst is
about to happen. She never stops to like, wonder if there’s an
obvious alternative. See you there.”

“Ok, I’m
leaving in about forty minutes.”

*

The reception
committee consisted of two men, both of whom Julien knew well. They
were NERO security people, but ones he’d always got on with over
the years.

“Hello, Mr
Delacroix, I’m sorry about this but it’s part of our job. Please
come with us to the car. Sir Ian wants to see you at the office. We
managed to persuade him that it would not be in the interests of
anyone to cause a scene at the airport.”

“So, you don’t
want to frisk me for weapons, or a suicide vest?”

The second man
couldn’t suppress a smile.

“We’ll take
your word that you don’t pose a threat to life, sir. We don’t like
this situation any more than you do, so thank you for your
understanding. Shall we go?”

The fifty
minute drive was quite convivial but without any further reference
to anything NERO. Waverly had a man with him in the grandiose,
pentagonal office; he was vaguely familiar.

“Please, take a
seat, Julien.”

“Julien? Not
Delacroix then? And also ‘
please
’? A hell of a contrast to
your call when dismissing me by phone.”

“I’ve asked
Henry Fellowes to join us. He’s one of our top legal men. I thought
it would be best to get everything witnessed and documented. A
certain sequence exists in our procedure for termination. It is
important that it is implemented. Henry will…”

“Important for
whom?”

“Look, you need
to…”

“You fired me,
without asking for an explanation for my actions, from halfway
around the world. You had me placed under NERO arrest on foreign
sovereign territory, strip searched and escorted under guard to
Osaka airport. I only had the clothes I was wearing, and despite
checking my phone, your people took the sim card. I couldn’t call
my wife on my personal mobile phone. Your goons took my laptop,
with any NERO information, including a memory stick with my
presentation notes. You now have a fountain pen which belonged to
my father. I was left there to check in for my long journey home
with a couple of bank cards and an inoperable mobile. You told the
world I’d been dismissed. That is now your problem, not mine. I’m
not really interested in adhering to anything procedural within
NERO, there are laws beyond this office with which even you have to
comply.”

Henry Fellowes
took the opportunity to lower the tension.

“You mention an
explanation of your actions in Osaka. Any reference to the real
reason for this unfortunate situation to have arisen, namely your
outburst in leaving the conference, would indeed be appreciated.
However, what is done is done. We can only make progress from the
present. I advise all parties to retain a sense of pragmatism as
well as principle. There will be unpleasantness to hurdle in
reaching fairness. Let’s get that out of the way. This could all be
diverted to a courtroom, with a reasonably good chance of neither
side feeling they have achieved justice. Parting company on good
terms may be difficult, yet the best solution. For example, Mr
Delacroix, how would you respond if we wanted to make sure you
didn’t have any NERO proprietary items at your home? Sir Ian, how
do you see Julien’s severance package if he is willing to allow us
that access without a court order? Gentlemen, you need to recover
from a spat, not turn it into a vendetta. Julien has to move on to
alternative employment and NERO has to regain the trust of its
sponsors. Would either of you care to disagree with my
analysis?”

Julien was
contemplating how to offer the first olive branch, just as Volker
Brandt had advised. He looked directly into the eyes of
Waverly.

“I have nothing
to hide, nothing whatsoever. I spoke from the heart in Osaka. I
understand that there’s no way back in terms of reconciliation with
my employer, so I do have to move on. I will allow a search of my
home, as long as my family don’t have to be there to witness my
fall from grace. If we can settle my severance amicably, I’m
prepared to make another gesture which will serve to emphasise that
my only motivation in Osaka was to avoid saying something which
could turn out to be wrong. If you want to take up this gesture, I
would need some kind of signed document certifying my voluntary
disclosure. It will save you some embarrassment. I can assure you
of that.”