The Zul Enigma (17 page)

‘All right Bob. I see
your point. This may escalate into a situation that could embarrass us all.’
Greg dropped his hands onto his thighs and nodded his head. ‘I agree.’

‘Tell your people to
cancel further ITU-T investigation – no point in wasting any more of
their time.’

‘Will do,’ he sighed.
‘Then once you let me know your results, we can decide on the best way to
proceed, as you say, the best way for
all
of us, including Carlos.’

‘Good. It makes sense.
Who knows what Dr Maiz’s agenda is? But whatever the answer, we’ll find it. I
assure you of that!

‘Now, you can go back to
New York, but before you do call Carlos and tell him we’re still awaiting
NASA’s final report and need him on hand in case we have any questions. Believe
me, everything will be resolved ASAP. I want the matter squared away before the
end of the week.’

‘That quickly?’

‘Yeah! That quickly.
We’ll be in touch as soon as we have something for you.’

***

When Drew walked into the cocktail lounge it took him a while to spot Carlos
who was already sitting at the bar with a drink. Drew weaved his way towards
him through the noisy crowd.

‘Been here long?’

‘I only just sat down.’

‘I’m busting for a
piss,’ Drew announced and without another word strode off in the direction of
the men’s toilet.

It had been his
suggestion to meet at this classy Screwball lounge club in downtown DC and
although it was a Monday night the place was crawling with students, suits and
singles talking, laughing and getting drunk.

When Drew got back from
the gents he squeezed himself onto an adjacent stool that had just become
available.

Carlos passed him the
menu. ‘What do you want? They do every cocktail in the world. And more.’

Drew read through the
menu page by page and back again. ‘Excuse me,’ he yelled over the hubbub of
background noise, waving to catch the barman’s attention.

 
‘Yes sir?’

 
‘I
was
toying with the Dog’s
Bollocks, but on second thoughts I think I’ll have a vodka martini.’

The barman repeated his
order without a hint of a smile.

‘Unappreciative sod,’
Drew said. He swivelled his barstool towards Carlos.

‘You just got in then?’
Carlos asked.

‘Yeah, a couple of hours
ago. Dumped my bag at me mates, had a shower and came straight here. I’m
meeting him for dinner later when he knocks off. Want to join us?’

‘No. I don’t feel like
company tonight.’ Carlos replied.

‘So… tell me about your
meeting.’

Carlos studied his
glass.

‘You fucked it up,
didn’t you?’

‘It was horrible.’

‘Bloody hell, I warned
you. What happened?’

Carlos raised his hands.
‘Greg insisted on leading the meeting. He said he wanted to keep it really
brief.’

‘That makes sense. I
can’t see the mighty Bob tolerating anyone wasting his time.’

‘We walked in and Greg
introduced me. Anita Goodwin was there too. There was no small talk and before
we even sat down Bob made it clear he couldn’t wait to get rid of me. Greg
started to explain why we were there and as he was talking, Bob kept looking at
me out of the side of his eye, like he disapproved of me.’

‘And that pissed you
off.’

‘What do you think?’
Carlos snapped.

‘And you just couldn’t
sit there and keep your trap shut.’

‘He was so
condescending.’

Drew raised his eyes.
‘And you’re surprised? You know bloody well politically he’s so far right it’s
wrong. He hates the UN – just imagine what he thinks about you and your
mission to keep space for peaceful uses. Did you give the Pentagon any
concessions regarding the Space Elevator?’

‘No. It was a tough
meeting, but I held firm.’

‘There you go. And you
damn well know what he thinks about space exploration. He must have thought you
were taking the mick, telling him you’d had e-mails from aliens.’

‘He read the transcripts
and the report and he didn’t even react. He didn’t ask one question. Nothing.
Hey, he could have been reading a user manual for an obsolete cell phone for
all the interest he showed. All he said was “Why’re you bringing this to me?”’
Carlos exaggerated Bob’s Southern drawl.

‘Come on Carlos. You
know his reputation – the Mr No Nonsense Ice Man of politics. That’s just
the way he operates.’

‘Ice Man is right.’

Drew lifted the martini
to his mouth. The glass was so full the clear liquid dribbled down the stem and
dripped onto the bar.

‘Greg explained why we
were there.’

‘Which was?’

‘To ask him to authorise
his people to investigate the messages.’

‘And…?’

‘And then I said
something.’

‘Which was…’

‘I said that if his
people couldn’t prove the messages came from Earth then there would be a major
situation. That it wouldn’t just concern us at the UN, it would concern our
entire planet.’

Drew cocked his head to
one side. ‘That doesn’t sound
so
bad.’

‘Well, Bob obviously
thought it did. He sneered at me. He said, “Ya kidding me! Ya think this Zul’s
an alien?” and I said that I believed he was.’

‘Bloody hell, Carlos!’

‘Then he started
shouting and threw a file at me. I was this close to punching him,’ Carlos
scowled as he held up his thumb and forefinger less than an inch apart.

‘You’re shitting me! But
you didn’t say anything about the ba…’

‘
Sí
.’ Carlos cut
him off, burying his face in his hands. ‘He made me so mad. He said he wanted
“proof”, so I told him I’d seen proof.’

Drew closed his eyes and
shook his head.

They sat hunched over
the bar, elbows on the counter, oblivious to the bustle and din surrounding
them.

‘Well, it shut him up.’
Carlos said eventually.

‘I’ll bet it did.’

‘Greg smoothed things
over. He got Bob to agree to look into the messages. Then we left. Greg was so
upset I embarrassed him. He’s not just my boss, he treats me like family.’

‘Oh, Carlos.’

‘Greg saw Bob again a
couple of hours ago. He called me to say NASA’s still investigating. He wasn’t
angry, just very quiet. I feel horrible.’

‘I can’t believe what
you did, Charlie boy.’

‘Me neither. It was so
stupid. I couldn’t care less about Bob but I’ve lost Greg’s trust. He’s going
back to New York tonight but the Americans want me to stay on here till they
get NASA’s finished report.’

Drew stared down at the
bar with a grim look on his face. ‘Where are you staying?’

‘One of their guest
houses near the White House.’

‘That’ll be a safe
house.’

‘A safe house?’

Drew nodded. ‘Yeah.
They’ll have you pegged as a potential security threat. Especially after that
meeting. The house’ll be equipped with all the latest surveillance gear. How
did you get here?’

‘They gave me a car and
a driver.’

‘Yeah, so they can keep
tabs on you. They’ll be listening in on us right now.’

‘You’re kidding me.’

‘Grow up, Carlos. This
is serious shit. National Intelligence will be digging into your background as
we speak. You can’t avoid that. But be careful who you talk to and what you
say. I’m dead serious, Carlos, these guys don’t muck around. If they think
you’re a threat, you don’t know what they might do.’

‘Me? A threat? What have
I done?’

‘Don’t be so bloody
naïve. You can’t go into the Oval Office and tell the President you’ve been
contacted by aliens without someone pushing the panic button.’

Drew motioned to the
barman for another round.

‘We shouldn’t talk about
it here.’

‘You really think
they’re listening?’

‘Of course they’re
listening!’

‘You’re paranoid.’

Seeing the pained
expression on Carlos’s face, Drew held up his hands. ‘Have it your own way. So
he gave you a really hard time, huh?’

‘Bob?’

Drew nodded.

‘He must hate the
Spanish.’

‘He’s a good old
Southern boy – just thank God you’re not black.’

‘Forget the jokes, there
was something about me he didn’t like.’

‘Did it cross your mind
that it may not be you he doesn’t like? That it could be what you were saying?
You blabbing on about all this crazy shit.’

Carlos sat up straight
on the stool and looked Drew dead in the eyes.

‘And what exactly do you
mean by that?’

‘This whole business.
You’re losing the plot,
amigo
.’

‘Losing the plot?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Because I’m saying what
Zul claims might be true?’

‘Let’s put it this way,
it’ll be interesting to see what NASA comes up with.’

Carlos flung his arms in
the air. ‘They won’t find anything we don’t already know.’

‘Why are you so sure?’

‘Because there’s nothing
to
find.’

‘Tell me Carlos, why are
you doing this?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘You said it yourself
the other night. When you broke down over dinner. Since Elena died, your life’s
meaningless. You’ve got no friends. You don’t have anything apart from work and
you hate that. Are you trying to create some drama in your life? Trying to fill
the big void?’

‘You saying I’ve gone
crazy?’ Carlos lifted two fingers to his temple and rotated them.

‘Not completely perhaps,
but temporary insanity’s looking a pretty good bet right now.’

‘I don’t believe I’m
hearing this. From you, you of all people.’ Carlos banged his glass down on the
bar spilling his drink. ‘When did you qualify as a psychiatrist, hey?’

‘Carlos, it can happen.
Your wife died a brutal death. You felt responsible. You still feel
responsible. You’ve never dealt with it. Then out of the blue you get this hoax
message. So you latch onto it and start believing it’s real. Then you start
imagining things – the baby.’

Carlos shook his head
from side to side. He was angry. ‘I didn’t imagine the…’ but Drew wouldn’t let
up.

‘Listen mate, Elena’s death
fucked you up. You need to see someone. Get help.’

‘What
are
you
talking about, hey?’ People nearby turned to see what the raised voices were
about but Drew didn’t care. He wouldn’t let it drop.

‘All this crap about
aliens, the baby? It’s not happening. None of it’s real. It’s all in your head.
When you told me about the baby? I should have done something to stop you
getting on the plane and going to New York. Now look what you’ve done? You’ve
got the President of the United States involved! Shit man… they’re going to
nail your arse. They’re going to send you to get your head shrunk and they
could even press charges. You’ll be out on your ear, mate. You’ll be lucky to
get early retirement.’

Carlos looked over at
the barman who was attempting to resolve a query on the bill for a group of
drunken students sitting a few bar stools away. Still dissatisfied, one of them
grudgingly produced his credit card and slapped it down on the counter.

Unable to stand the
silence any longer, Drew put his arm round Carlos and gave him a shake. ‘Think
about it. Early retirement. That wouldn’t be so bad now, would it?’ But Carlos
sat rigid like a pillar of ice, freezing Drew out until he dropped his arm.

 
Then, little by little, his posture
softened and he turned. Far from the impassioned outburst Drew expected, he saw
that Carlos was in fact smiling. Really smiling.

‘Hey, you’re so full of
yourself, Drew Roberts. Well this time you’re the one that’s fucking up. You’ll
see.
¡Salud!
’ and Carlos drained his glass and called for another round.

***

‘Drew!’

‘Joe?’ Drew’s shoes
squeaked in the freshly fallen snow as he tramped over to where Joseph stood on
the footpath, his face highlighted by the flashing neon lights of a steak and
rib restaurant, ‘I didn’t know you were back on this side of the pond.’

‘NASA’s Dryden Flight
Research Centre and the Department of Defense wanted to see me. You know what
it’s like. When the Pentagon snaps its fingers, everyone has to jump. Including
me.’

‘Carlos had a meeting
there this morning. I just had a drink with him.’

‘No kidding?’

‘Then he went to the
White House.’

‘What was that about?’