The Zul Enigma (56 page)

He took off his gloves,
scarf and overcoat. It was minus two degrees outside, although there had been
no snow.

‘How’s our little girl?’
he asked, circling his hand around her bulging tummy. ‘You’re so big… five
months already.’

‘She’s doing aerobics.
Feel,’ Rebecca said putting her hand on top of Carlos’s.

‘How was your day?’

‘Crazy, busy. People are
getting anxious now E-Day’s so close. My phone didn’t stop ringing. I had to
turn it off to get a break.’

‘You look exhausted.
Shall I get you a drink? Whisky?’

Rebecca took a tumbler
from the drinks cupboard and poured out a large measure of Black Label. She
dropped in some ice and handed the glass to Carlos who had slumped on the sofa.
She sat down next to him, tucking her legs underneath herself.

‘Greg called this
morning.’

‘Oh?’

‘He wants me in the
office on E-Day. Just in case there’s a global meltdown.’

‘But Carlos… what about
your parents?’

‘I know,’ he shook his
head, ‘but I have to do it. I can’t say no. And if I’m here in Vienna, then I
want you with me. I used our families to bargain a deal. I told him I’d do it
if he gets us both to Madrid and London by a week Wednesday.’

‘You’ll come to the UK
with me?’

He smiled.

‘Oh darling! That’s
great. But how about your parents on the 21st?’

‘They’ll have my sister
and her family.’

‘But your mum? It’s
important to her to have us all there.’

‘I can’t say no to
Greg.’

‘I’m so sorry,’ Rebecca
pushed her hair off her face. ‘So – it will be just us – here in
Vienna. But…’

‘But what?’

She shook her head. ‘I
don’t want to be on my own that day.’

Carlos laughed and put
his arm round her.

‘You don’t think I’d
leave you on your own, do you? You can come to work with me.’ She snuggled into
him and he gave her a squeeze. ‘What do you want to do E-Day eve, now we’ll be
here?’

‘I don’t know. Spend it
with friends I suppose.’

‘I thought the same. How
about I book a table at La Lucciola. It may be the last chance to go there.
Hey… Beccy? What is it?’

Beccy had covered her
face with her hands and was crying. Carlos pulled her onto his lap, put his
arms round her and rocked her.

‘
Querida
. Don’t
cry.’

‘I’m sorry. But I’m
scared Carlos. I’m so scared. I try to do what we said. To live each day as it
comes. But it’s so hard – especially having our baby inside me – I
don’t even know if either of us will ever get to see her.’ She buried her face
in his shoulder. ‘I can’t imagine never holding her in my arms after going
through all this.’

‘Shush, shush,’ he
whispered into her ear. ‘Come on. Be brave.’

‘But what if you evolve
and leave me behind?’

‘Me evolve? But Zul said
I’ll stay in third density.’

‘But what if you don’t?
What will I do on my own? I mean… Carlos… I’m so frightened.’

‘Come on
querida
,
try and keep positive.’

‘I do try. But when it
happens, everyone will go demented. Carlos, every time I close my eyes I see
bodies heaped up on the streets. It’s driving me mad… and I’m not the only one.
And what’ll happen after? I mean electricity… fuel… food? It’s winter, for
God’s sake. There’ll be riots. People will go crazy. How will I be able to
protect our baby all on my own?’

‘Beccy, you know that’s
what Greg’s working on. Making sure the core global industries needed for
survival
will
keep going. That’s why he insisted they put together
Industry Operations Packages.’

‘Come off it, Carlos. Do
you think any plan will be good enough for what we’re about to experience? The
closer it gets, the more desperate I feel. And if it does happen, fear and
panic will take over and all the meditation in the world won’t stop it.
There’ll be looting and riots – the cities will turn into ghettos,’ she
began to sob. ‘It’ll be survival of the fittest and I’ll be in the middle of it
all on my own with a newborn baby.’

Carlos was calm. He was
ready. He believed people would come through all right. But he could find no
words to make Rebecca believe. All he could do was keep rocking her in his arms
like a child.

***

Carlos read the last page of the manuscript. So much had happened since the day
Zul first appeared. It was incredible. His life had completely turned around.
On that day back in March he would never have believed he could ever feel happy
again. But now he was centred, confident and calm. He
had
willed himself
to change his grief to acceptance, his anger to understanding and his vengeance
to forgiveness.

Zul had been right. It
felt good to do good.

And then there was
Rebecca. His sweet, pretty Beccy. He loved her so much. It was different from
the way he’d felt about Elena. More grown up, somehow. More complete. More
stable. And his daughter to be – what a gift she was. When he’d held that
hologram all those months ago, he would never have believed he could fall in
love and make another baby.

And that was the only
thing disturbing him now – that he may lose them both. Although he knew
it was wrong to want to keep Rebecca back from fulfilling her potential by
evolving to the fourth density, a large part of his material self prayed she
would stay with him in the third.

‘Finished?’ Rebecca
asked.

‘
Sí
.’

‘You don’t look very
happy.’

‘It’s not what I
expected.’

‘Don’t you like it?’

He stood up and put his
hands on her shoulders. ‘I like it. But I feel horribly exposed.’

She slid her arms around
him.

‘And some of the bits
about Elena…’

‘I wanted to make it
real, so I took what you told me and improvised the rest.’

‘Scary,’ he said. ‘It
was like you’d been in the room. And Drew? He told you all that?’

‘No! Well. I just took
what he did say and…’

‘Improvised the rest.’

She stood on tiptoes and
kissed him beneath the ear.

‘But why do it like
this?’

‘After Bali, I couldn’t
write an objective account. I’d fallen madly in love with the hero. Also I
realised that to make it real I had to drive home the heart of the story so the
reader would be in no doubt why Zul singled you out from every other human on
the planet.’

‘Because I was Director
of OOSA?’

‘No. That was never it.
Not the underlying reason. Think a minute, would he have chosen – say
– Drew if he’d had your job?’

Carlos shrugged. ‘Why
not?’

‘Come on! Zul told you
himself. He chose you because he knew you had the passion to get the job done.
And to make that clear I had to write about you in a personal way: your highs
and lows; your frustrations and successes; your relationships with Elena, your
friends, your colleagues and me. I wrote it as a gift, Carlos. A gift of love.’

‘And if Zul isn’t real.’

‘Now I’ve finished the
book, I know the answer. He is real. And I’m ready.’

***

When Carlos booked the table, he asked Luigi to put a case of champagne on ice.
He was sure everyone would be in the mood to get a little drunk on the eve of
E-Day, everyone except Rebecca, of course.

Drew and Erika had
arrived first and were standing at the bar halfway through their first cocktail
by the time Carlos and Rebecca walked in. Rebecca gave Erika a peck on the
cheek.

‘You look lovely Erika.
Those colours are amazing on you.’

Erika shook her shaggy
white blonde hair. ‘What?’ she said looking down… ‘this old rag?’ and Rebecca
laughed knowing for a fact the dress had been hanging on a rail in Ringstrassen
Galerien only six hours before.

Drew bent down and
kissed Rebecca. ‘You look blooming,’ he said.

‘Thank you,’ she replied
and then made a point of linking her arm through Carlos’s. Although each time
he saw Drew it got a little easier, she knew he hadn’t completely forgotten the
past.

‘Looks like we’re in for
another cold spell,’ Drew said. ‘I nearly froze me balls off walking from the
underground.’

‘Drew!’ Erika said.

‘What?’

‘Language!’

‘You don’t think you can
retrain him, do you?’ Carlos grinned, ‘not at this late stage.’ Then he raised
his arms. ‘Now… what are we all having to drink?’

A few minutes later
Joseph arrived. He said his “hellos” and walked straight to the bar.

‘Don’t panic Joe,’ Drew
shouted, ‘it’s safe… you can order a round. Tonight’s on Carlos.’

Joseph raised his eyes
to the ceiling. ‘It never gets old, does it?’ he muttered and walked back to
the group holding a Martini. ‘So what kept you here?’ he asked Carlos. ‘I
thought you were going to Madrid?’

‘Greg wants me in the
office tomorrow.’

‘And I want to be there
with him,’ Rebecca said, kissing Carlos’s cheek.

‘And you Drew?’ Joseph
asked.

‘Apart from the boys,
Erika and I have no family. We’ve got nowhere else to go. What’s your story?’

‘I want to be with you
guys.’

‘Aah!’ Erika said.

‘It’s a crazy feeling
– the whole world being on hold like this,’ Carlos said.

‘It’s ludicrous,’ Drew
laughed, ‘imagine! Every train, boat and plane round the planet has stopped
operating. Even the world’s militaries are grounded. Everyone’s just sitting
around waiting for something to happen. So let’s party.’

Carlos signalled to
Luigi. ‘It’s time to start opening the champagne.’

They watched Luigi as he
peeled off the foil, unscrewed the wire and eased out the first cork with a
misty “pop” that had everyone cheering. He poured the foaming liquid into five
flutes and handed one each to Carlos’s guests.

As Luigi went to give
him the fifth glass, Carlos said, ‘You have that Luigi,’ and went to the bar to
get himself another.

They stood in a close
circle.

‘I want to make a
toast,’ Carlos said. ‘First, I want to drink to the planet and everyone on it.
It’s been fantastic over the last months seeing people take up the call to
meditate and pray and put their differences away and try, really try to get
along. I’m proud how the Global Consciousness initiative was such a success.’

‘Here, here,’ they all
murmured.

‘Second, I want to drink
to tomorrow – whatever it brings. Let’s embrace it selflessly and see it
through to our full potential.’

‘Well said, mate,’ and
Drew raised his glass.

‘And last,’ Carlos
turned his gaze from one face to the next in the circle round him, ‘I want to
drink to my dear, dear friends and especially to this wonderful woman standing
next to me, who is carrying our baby.’

Rebecca looked up at
Carlos with shining eyes. She looked so beautiful, he thought, with her swollen
belly and her honey coloured hair swept up off her face. ‘We all know very well
this may be the last time we’ll be together like this, so I want to tell all of
you…’ the flickering candlelight reflected in the tears brimming in Carlos’s
eyes and his voice faltered forcing him to swallow, ‘… to tell all of you that
I love you.’

PART III

APRIL 2068

‘Dr Maiz was your father?’ The body sculpting chair adjusted to Scott’s
position as he sat bolt upright.

‘Yes.’

‘I didn’t know he had a
daughter.’

‘Obviously it was a very
well-kept secret. I only just found out myself.’

‘When did your aunt and
uncle adopt you?’

‘They didn’t. Their
names are on my birth certificate. That’s why I never…’

‘Clever,’ Scott said
nodding, ‘but terrible for you. To find out like this. After all these years.’

Rachael pressed her lips
together and closed her eyes.

‘Who was your mother? Dr
Maiz’s girlfriend? Rebecca Marshall?’

‘Yes. A writer like me.
She wrote the manuscript and the entries are from her diary.’

‘What’s the manuscript
about?’

‘It’s called “The Zul
Enigma.”’

‘I see,’ Scott said,
gripping the armrests of his chair.

‘She interviewed
everyone involved and wrote the story of Zul up to the 20th December 2012.’

‘And the diary entries?’

‘They’re from the 21st
December till June the following year… the year…’ Rachael shivered.

‘Are you cold?’ Scott
asked and she shook her head. ‘It’s the diary, isn’t it?’ he whispered. ‘It
must have been shocking reading for you.’