The Zul Enigma (45 page)

Greg requested a table
on the mezzanine floor and as they sat waiting for Joseph, they watched the
tables below filling up as the lunch crowd began to pour in.

‘Can I get you gentlemen
a drink?’ the waiter inquired and Greg ordered a bottle of Pinot Grigio.

In less than ten minutes
Joseph arrived, brushing the rain from his short curly hair.

‘Sorry to keep you
waiting,’ he said, as he pulled out a chair and sat down.

‘Have either of you been
here before?’ Greg asked and both Joseph and Carlos shook their heads. ‘It’s
the third Busboys and Poets restaurant in DC,’ he told them. ‘I just love the
concept – food, poetry and activists – a fascinating mix. And look
here,’ Greg put his spectacles back on and pointed to the owners’ mission
statement printed on the menu. ‘See? They want this to be a place “where people
can discuss issues of social justice and peace”. That’s why I wanted to
celebrate here. Can you think of a better spot to christen the UN’s latest
initiative?’ he chuckled.

‘Looks like it went
well,’ Joseph said. ‘You both seem very pleased with yourselves.’

‘Fantastically well! We
got exactly what we wanted.’

‘Anita surprised me,’
Greg said taking off his glasses. ‘She’s the one who swung it.’

The waiter brought a
third goblet for Joseph, uncorked the wine, and poured a splash into Greg’s
glass for him to taste.

‘A toast!’ Greg
announced, ‘to the successful implementation of our new global initiative and
to achieving outstanding results. Carlos, Joseph… cheers.’

‘
¡Salud!
’ Carlos
replied, as the waiter buried the bottle up to its neck in a shiny bucket of
ice.

‘Carlos told me about
your plan last night. It’s impressive.’

‘I am very, very
excited,’ Greg said beaming. ‘Let me tell you something, the reason I joined
the UN was to make a difference. But as the years rolled by, I became more
cynical. When you see what I see travelling around doing my job, it’s hard not
to.

‘I’m always asking
myself what are we doing that actually helps? And the longer I live the more I
fear that the poor and the abused will always be with us, billions of them,
regardless of what we do.’

The other two men were
silent.

‘But now, after talking
to Carlos, I believe his idea to introduce the practice of meditation on a
global scale round the planet, could be the key to making a difference.’

Greg took a sip of wine.

‘Do you believe Zul is
what he claims?’ Joseph asked.

‘No.’

‘Do you believe it’s
possible
he is what he claims?’

‘No. I’m sure Zul is a
human acting out a part.’

‘With what agenda?’

‘Joseph, I’ve given it a
lot of thought over the past couple of days and until any other motive is
revealed, my theory is that the person acting out Zul represents a group that
genuinely
does
want to start a global initiative to help people. But,
for their own reasons, they want to remain anonymous.’

‘Jesus!’ Carlos said. ‘I
never thought of that before.’

‘But why contact
Carlos?’

‘For the same reasons
Zul gave.’

Joseph and Carlos
exchanged a glance. Was it a feasible explanation? Neither of them felt very
convinced.

‘If the message is to
encourage meditation, why mention the 21st December 2012? Why tell me some
people will evolve and disappear, while the rest will relocate to another
planet?’

‘Relocate to another
planet?’ Joseph cut in.

After glancing at Greg,
who gave an almost imperceptible nod, Carlos turned to Joseph and said, ‘That’s
what Astraea came to tell me… what’s going to happen on the 21st December 2012.

‘She said the people
ready to evolve to the next density will continue existence as pure
consciousness while everything physical, including the dead bodies of all those
who made the evolutionary leap, will be transported to an identical planet in a
parallel universe where they’ll continue their physical existence until the
time comes for future generations to try and make the evolutionary leap again.’

‘Remember,’ Joseph said
‘what I said last night? About all those websites and blogs talking about the
end date of the Mayan calendar?’

‘
Sí
.’

‘That’s what some of
them predict too.’

‘It’s a hard concept to
accept … horrible and fantastic,’ Carlos said.

‘And what was Bob’s
reaction?’ Joseph asked.

‘We didn’t tell him.
What’s the point?’

Joseph glanced at Greg.
‘And how do you fit all that into your humanitarian hypothesis?’

Greg shook his head. ‘I
don’t know. Perhaps they said it to scare us. Or perhaps it’s what they really
believe.’

‘But you still don’t
believe it could be true?’ Carlos asked.

‘No! You know I don’t.
Life after the 21st December will carry on exactly the same as it was before. I
guarantee it.’

‘But unless we prove
Zul’s lying, there’s still a chance it won’t, however unbelievable that might
seem.’ Joseph said, leaning towards Greg. ‘What if we
do
wake up on the
22nd and the planet
is
covered with bodies? Don’t you think we should be
prepared for the possibility? And not just mentally prepared, I mean prepared
on a practical level.’

‘But…’

‘Imagine how you’d feel?
Knowing all this for months and doing nothing about it? It wouldn’t just be
foolhardy – it would be grossly irresponsible. If it does happen like Zul
says, how could the few left possibly manage the logistics of disposing of all
the dead without a comprehensive plan in place? Imagine it? There’d be who
knows how many thousands – what am I saying? Millions… no more like
billions of bodies littered round the planet, which if left would pollute fresh
water supplies and cause terrible disease that would end up killing even more
people… or even wipe out everyone that was left.’

‘No,’ Greg said, shaking
his head so hard his jowls quivered, ‘no. That’s not going to happen.’

‘Greg,’ Carlos said, ‘I
agree with Joseph,’ but the big man didn’t answer.

‘How many people have
you told about this? About what Astraea said?’ Joseph asked Carlos.

‘Only Greg, and now you.
Have you told anyone?’ Carlos looked at Greg, who shook his head again.

‘Seriously Greg, the UN
should form a focus group. Have it develop a contingency plan. Because I
believe it will happen,’ Carlos opened his arms. ‘In fact, I
know
it
will.’

‘If you’re reluctant
because you’re scared of creating panic, come up with another reason for it.’

‘Like what?’

Joseph shrugged. ‘A
killer pandemic?’

Greg sighed. ‘Last year
during the swine flu scare we put something together along those lines, but
nowhere near on the scale this would…’

‘There you are!’ Joseph
interrupted. ‘You’ve done the ground work already.’

‘
Sí
, build on
that,’ Carlos lifted his hands. ‘You’re crazy not to. Joseph’s right, it’s not
just stupid to ignore it, it’s irresponsible.’

‘Perhaps you do have a
point. I’d never forgive myself if it happened and we weren’t prepared.’

A waiter appeared to
take their order but they hadn’t looked at the menu, so they just got a second
bottle of wine.

‘And you’ll inaugurate
the initiative at a Special Session of the General Assembly and then roll it
out publicly?’ Joseph said to Carlos.

‘
Sí
. Like I told
you last night.’

‘You know,’ Joseph said,
taking a breadstick from the basket and breaking it in half, ‘I’ve been
thinking about that.’ He took a bite and chewed. ‘Although many leaders of
countries and religions, many of the politicians and heads of state
you
hold sway with Greg, may publicly support it, what about the bigots on the
gravy trains below them? And what about the countries controlled by vicious
dictators and religious zealots?’

‘The first hurdle is to
get support from the members,’ Carlos said.

‘I’ll do the canvassing
for that myself,’ Greg replied.

‘Another thing,’ Joseph
added, ‘how you present your launch at the Special Session is crucial. It will
be the focal point that your awareness campaign will build up to.’

‘Hey, it’ll be like any
company launching a new product into the market place. We have to position what
we’re selling just right to make sure we get optimum results. Greg and I
already talked about it.’

‘You’ll have to make it
attractive to the top dogs, of course, but you’ve got to make sure it appeals
to the masses too. And you don’t want a polluted or diluted message getting
out. The media’s fickle. You can’t trust them, especially when they’re in the
pocket of some government or religious leader.’

‘We have our own TV
station,’ Greg began. ‘I wonder…’

‘Greg, that’s a
fantastic idea. We’ll cover the launch in-house. The UN news department can
write the commentary, dub it over footage of the Special Session and beam out a
satellite broadcast that can be relayed around the world simultaneously. That
way there won’t be any language problem, because we can use a computer
automated real-time translation system. If we do it like that, the message
can’t be influenced at all.’

‘And to top it all,
we’ll provide the service gratis,’ said Greg.

‘If you play this right,
you’ll end up with the biggest initiative to ever hit the planet.’

Carlos grinned. ‘I can’t
wait to get started.’

‘And I can’t wait to
eat,’ Greg said. ‘Let’s order.’

***

‘Hi mate! How’re you doing?’

‘I’m good. Thought I’d
give you a call because I’m back again. Got in Tuesday afternoon.’

‘You’re building up some
frequent flyer miles.’

‘They called me in to
work on the great mystery of the messages.’

‘Ah ha! You’ll know more
about them than I do then.’

Joseph laughed. ‘It took
a while, but I worked out how they came in. If it wasn’t for the Americans
recording every element of our friend’s communications, they’d probably still
suspect him. But now they’ve got nothing on him.’

‘You mean they won’t be
trying to listen in on us any more?’

‘That’s right.’

‘Thank God for that. So,
who sent the e-mails?’

‘That, my friend, is
still a mystery.’

‘Is Carlos okay?’

‘He’s more than okay.
He’s buzzed. Just like he used to be. But listen, the real reason I’m calling
is to tell you it may take a while longer, but he’s starting to come around.
About you, I mean.’

‘What makes you say
that?’

‘We talked. He told me
he’s trying to deal with what happened. That he’s trying to put everything
negative behind him. He means it, I know it. And since I’ve seen all the
communications, I now understand the impact they had on him. He believes in
them completely and he genuinely wants to become a better person. He’s even
committed to helping others improve themselves. He’s going to spearhead a
global UN initiative.’

‘Well that’s bloody
magic. But he’ll need to change a whole bunch before he’ll ever forgive me,’
Drew said.

‘Sure. But it’s
possible. And I thought you should know.’

CHAPTER 7

‘This Austria Centre’s okay,’ Carlos said, opening his arms and turning around
in a circle. It was after eight thirty in the evening. He’d just got back from
DC and had to meet Corrinne and OOSA’s Associate Programme Officer for a walk
through of the venue for the Legal Subcommittee Session he was to open the
following morning.

‘We were lucky to get it
at such short notice,’ Corrinne said.

‘All thanks to you
pulling some strings,’ Carlos replied and Corrinne tucked her chin into her
chest trying to hide the colour flushing her face.

They walked into the conference
hall. Many bosses wouldn’t have bothered to do the walk through, Corrinne
thought, but Carlos was a perfectionist.

When they were done he
said, ‘Corrinne, I need to talk to you.’

She pursed her lips. ‘Is
something wrong?’

‘No. Nothing’s wrong.
You and Willem have done a terrific job. It’s nothing to do with the Session.
Come on, we’ll go back to UNO and I’ll buy you a drink.’

She glanced at her
watch. ‘I really should be getting home… my husband… and I need to be back here
again first thing in the morning.’

‘Take a cab. Put it on
expenses. This won’t wait,’ and Carlos strode off down the corridor connecting
the Austria Centre with UNO City. At the coffee shop a surly waitress took
their order – a beer for Carlos and herbal tea for Corrinne.

‘What’s so urgent?’ she
asked when the waitress had finished.