The Zul Enigma (20 page)

‘You’ve committed a
serious offence, Dr Maiz. We don’t think you realise just how much trouble
you’re in. But we do believe…’

‘You have no evidence…’

‘Please do not
interrupt. We do believe that as a result of your mental condition you have
been afflicted with amnesia during certain time periods, which explains why you
can’t remember filming the videos or sending the messages. Dr Maiz,’ Barbara
continued, lowering her voice, ‘we have an offer to make. If you agree to
voluntarily commit yourself to a mental institution in your hometown of Madrid
we will take no action against you. If you refuse, however, we will pursue this
incident with the full power at our disposal. And that, Dr Maiz, will not be
pleasant. You have our absolute assurance on it.’

‘You’re threatening me?’

‘I’m not threatening
you, Dr Maiz. I’m simply stating facts.’

‘But I’ve done nothing
wrong.’

‘The evidence points to
the contrary.’

Carlos was beginning to
panic. ‘But you don’t
have
any evidence. YOU HAVE NO PROOF!’ he
bellowed.

‘We have your office
CCTV records.’

‘They can’t prove
anything.’

‘They prove you had the
opportunity.’

‘How?’

Barbara leafed through
the report. ‘One. The e-mail you received at UNO on Monday March 12…’

‘When I wasn’t even at
my desk.’

‘You walked out of your
office carrying your jacket with the RFId tag clipped to it at 19:39:56. As you
walked down the corridor you took your iTab out of your trouser pocket and made
a call.’

‘
Sí
. I wanted to
book a table for dinner but the line was busy.’

‘You entered the men’s
room and were in a stall at 19:40:33, the exact time the e-mail was sent from
your terminal session…’

‘But…’

‘We enhanced your office
CCTV video and it shows the exact time your terminal screen changed content
when it received the message, which coincides with the time you executed the
x-mail programme from your iTab in the bathroom…’

‘But…’

‘…which also ties in
with the internal e-mail server’s own e-mail log. Since you were logged in on
your terminal
and
on your iTab by taking your tag and iTab to the men’s
room, you ensured your session would not be terminated. You sent this e-mail to
yourself.’

‘That’s… wait a minute…
you say the CCTV records show my terminal screen changing when the message came
in… but if I’d input any data on my iTab, then that would have shown on there
too.’

‘Not necessarily true,
Dr Maiz. Depending on how the system is set up, it’s also possible that the
input is
not
duplicated on the remotely controlled session. Nice try,
but I assure you everything checks out. Two. The message you received at your
home the same evening.’

‘Drew, Dr Roberts, was
at my apartment…’

‘And we’ve spoken to
him. He was in another room when you set up your iTab in the kitchen. You had
ample opportunity to send that one unobserved.’

‘This is…’

‘Three. The following
morning at your apartment. You were logged in on your iTab in the kitchen and
again, sent the message to yourself.’

‘But Dr Roberts was with
me when…’

‘He told us he was
searching through your refrigerator for an isotonic drink, at your request,’
she said with emphasis, ‘the exact time the third e-mail arrived. Four. At your
office on Friday March 16.’

‘How can you explain
that one, hey? Hans Baade was sitting at my terminal at the time.’

‘And you were sitting
behind him on the couch. You used your iTab to send it.’

‘You don’t know that.
The couch in my office isn’t in range of CCTV.’

‘Baade told us when he
looked round at you, you were holding your iTab.’

‘
Sí
, I picked it
up because I nearly sat on it…’

‘He said you shouted at
him,’ she consulted the file, ‘“what are you staring at?”. He confirms you had
time to use your iTab to send the fourth message while he was calling up the
logs.’

‘For Christ’s sake… I
don’t even know how to spoof an e-mail,’ Carlos said slumping back into the
cushions, his face contorted in frustration. ‘Why are you doing this to me?’

‘Dr Maiz,’ Barbara
continued, her voice low, ‘we don’t want to harm you. We want to help…’

Carlos sat upright with
a jolt. ‘The baby! The hologram.’

‘Of course we
investigated that too. NASA checked the logs and there is no record of a second
holovideo call coming in that day.’

‘How about ITU-T’s final
report?’

‘The Secretary-General
cancelled their investigation.’

‘I don’t believe it.’
Carlos sank back in his seat again and buried his face in his hands.

‘As I was saying Dr
Maiz, we want to help you. Make the right choice. Commit yourself to a mental
institution.’

‘And if I don’t?’

‘Then we will have no
choice but to consider you a security threat and deal with you accordingly.
It’s up to you.’

 
‘I’m no security threat. You know that.
If any crime’s been committed, it’s against the UN in Vienna and it’s up to the
UN in Vienna to investigate, not you. You don’t have this kind of jurisdiction.
What you’re doing is illegal and I can’t believe Greg’s letting it happen.’

‘When he met the
President late Monday afternoon, the Secretary-General agreed to abide by the
results of our investigation and to comply with our recommendations. You think
we have no power over this case? You have no idea how wrong you are.’

Carlos was trapped and
he knew it. One way or the other, these people intended robbing him of his
freedom and there was nothing he could do to fight it. How dare they! He felt a
surge of anger that he thought would make his heart explode.

‘Do you really think I’m
going to check into a mental hospital when there’s nothing wrong with me?’

‘So you refuse?’

‘
Sí
, yes! No! I
don’t know,’ he threw his hands in the air and brought them down with a thump
either side of himself on the couch. ‘This is a big shock to me. I need time to
think.’ He looked at Barbara who was staring at him.

‘You have until midday
Friday. That’s tomorrow.’

Carlos shook his head.
He couldn’t believe what was happening. And where was Zul? He felt abandoned
and alone and with his conviction wavering for the first time since holding the
baby, he began to fear that he
was
going crazy, just like they said.

Bob, Barbara and Anita
stood up simultaneously. Carlos looked up at them and also got to his feet.
‘You’ll regret this,’ he said summoning the last scrap of fight he could
muster, ‘soon you’re all going to realise that you made a big mistake here.’

Bob gave a humourless
smile. ‘And when’ll that be, Dr Maiz?’ he asked, ‘the day hell freezes over?’

***

When Tom opened the back door of the car, Carlos saw a man sitting behind the
driver’s seat, the same person that had accompanied him to the White House
earlier and who Tom had introduced as Paul. He didn’t acknowledge Carlos, just
sat there, motionless staring straight ahead as they waited for Tom to start
the engine.

Even Tom had nothing to
say that afternoon and the journey passed in silence for which Carlos was
grateful, because since he’d left the Oval Office his brain had been buzzing.
He wanted to talk to someone. He wanted to talk to Drew.

But how would he escape?
The house was a fortress and once back inside he’d never get out. He thought
about throwing himself out of the car but guessed the doors were fitted with
special locks controlled by the driver. It left only one possibility. He’d have
to make a run for it when he got out of the car in the driveway of the house
and hope he could make it through the automatic gate before it closed. He knew
the likelihood of out-smarting two professionals was slim, but he had to try.
After all, he had nothing to lose.

In the midst of
formulating a tentative plan, his attention was grabbed by the sound of
screeching tyres. Turning his head towards the noise he looked past Paul,
through the passenger window, and saw a small truck hurtling towards the
driver’s side of the car.

‘Fuck!’ Tom screamed and
at the same instant Paul’s face took on a look of utter horror as he scrabbled
to unbuckle his seatbelt and slide towards Carlos away from the advancing
truck. But he wasn’t fast enough and the side of the car was driven in with a
deafening crash. The airbags under the front seats whooshed into action but
that didn’t help Tom who’s head, like Paul’s, whiplashed sideways into the car
door window. They were both knocked unconscious.

Carlos sat paralysed.
The insides of his nostrils burnt with petrol fumes and the car began to fill
with steam. Gathering his wits he undid the seatbelt and shook the shattered
glass from his hair. He tried his door praying it would open. It did. Of
course! Car locks automatically disengage when the airbags are deployed.

Grabbing his briefcase
he stumbled, shaken but uninjured, out of the wreck and onto the road. Passers
by were already stopping to stare at the accident and the traffic in the street
was coming to a standstill. The car had been propelled three hundred and sixty
degrees into the middle of the road. But it was the contact point where the
truck had slammed into it that was the main focus of attention, and no one
noticed Carlos get out of the nearside door. He edged backwards onto the
pavement, retreating step by breathless step until he merged into the anonymous
expanding crowd. He backed up until he reckoned he was a safe distance away and
then broke into a run, splashing through the slush, putting in as much distance
as he could between himself and the accident.

Too soon the cold dry
air was burning his lungs with every breath and it felt like he was dragging
solid tubes of lead along under him rather than legs. But he kept on running,
zigzagging through the streets. This unexpected freedom was a gift and he was
determined to get as far away as quickly as possible.

He came out of a side
street right next to a Metrorail station. Once in the open he was cautious
about attracting attention. He slowed to a walk and took a look around,
resisting the urge to double over and catch his breath. Instead he inhaled
lungfulls of air through his nostrils expelling them through his mouth as he
tried to slow the thumping of his heart. He noticed nothing suspicious and
strode the last few yards towards the stairs and ran down them two at a time.
He was pretty sure no one was following, but didn’t dare look back to check.

It was already rush hour
and the station was packed. His luck held. The next train arrived just as he
walked onto the platform and he boarded in the midst of a crowd. He got off at
Metro Center and feigning interest in the route map on display there waited until
the other passengers had left the platform. No one paid him any attention and
he was the only person who lingered. Pretty sure he hadn’t been followed he ran
to catch up with the crowd and left the station surrounded by people to join
the taxi queue. Within a few minutes his turn came and he jumped in a cab.

‘Greenbelt Park,
Maryland.’

‘It’s a bit late to be
goin’ hikin’, isn’t it?’ the driver asked as he clicked on the meter.

Carlos grunted. ‘I’m
meeting someone.’

The cabby did a double
take in the rear-view mirror but Carlos ignored him. He needed to think. The
park was only a few minutes from Drew’s office and it would take around fifty
minutes to get there in rush hour traffic. Drew normally worked till six and it
was nearly five thirty. So Carlos had to contact him quickly. But how? He
couldn’t risk using his iTab. And he didn’t dare call Drew’s cell or use his
extension number at work. They’d be tapped and Barbara’s goons would trace him
in an instant.

Then it came to him. He
changed the setting on his iTab and pressed random buttons making it beep. He
wanted the cabby to hear. ‘Shit!’ he muttered.

Carlos pushed more
buttons.

‘Shit!’ he said again,
louder.

‘Gotta problem?’ asked
the cabby.

‘It’s my cell phone. I
can’t dial out. Is there a pay phone nearby? I’ve got an urgent call to make.’

‘Sure, dude. I’ll pull
in at the next gas station.’

Carlos dialled the main
Goddard switchboard number and asked for Helen Hunt in the Science Mission
Directorate. Thank God Drew had mentioned her name the other night.

‘Hello, this is Helen
Hunt. How may I help you?’

‘I need to get a message
to Dr Drew Roberts.’

‘He’s in his office
right now. I can transfer you.’

‘I’m calling from a pay
phone and I need to be quick. Just tell him his old friend Charlie called and
that I’m running late for our meeting. I don’t want to waste time trying to
find his office so tell him to meet me in the parking lot at the main entrance
to Greenbelt Park. I’ll be there in thirty minutes.’