The Zul Enigma (2 page)

When he’d moved to
Vienna from the US just over four years before, he’d been in his prime. But now
look at him. His shoulders drooped and his once steely six-packed abdomen
sagged over his belt like a melted marshmallow. He looked like an old man. He
wondered where his youth had gone. It had disappeared overnight, or so it
seemed.

He sank deeper into the
cushions. It had been another long day. He took a sip of coffee, loosened his
tie, undid the top button of his shirt and ran his fingers through his hair.
How different things in Vienna were when Elena had been around. She’d made him
eat healthily. She’d nagged at him to exercise. Her presence at the endless
round of obligatory lunches, dinners and cocktail parties made them bearable.
She’d lightened his burdens and celebrated his successes. When he was down,
she’d made him laugh. He dropped his head in his hands. He couldn’t believe
that just over three years before, the good life he’d taken so much for granted
had come to an end.

A loud beep dragged Carlos back to the present. It was an incoming instant
message. He walked over to his computer terminal and sat down at the virtual
keyboard that the laser, streaming from his monitor, beamed onto the desk.

The message was from an
old friend who worked at NASA. They’d met when they were students at the
University of Southern California. Carlos clicked on the icon and Drew’s
grinning face filled the screen.

‘Charlie boy!’

‘
¡Amigo!
This is
a surprise. What’s up?’

‘I’m in Vienna. I got in
from London a couple of days ago. Listen mate, want to meet up tonight? I know
it’s short notice.’

‘
Sí
. Where are
you staying?’

‘Hotel de France.’

‘I’ll pick you up after
I finish work around eight. I’ll call when I’m on my way. We can go to my place
for a drink then out for dinner. Italian, okay?’

‘Fucking brilliant.’

Carlos cut the
connection. Well that had come right out of the blue. He hadn’t seen his
English friend Drew for years – not since Carlos left NASA and moved to
Vienna.

Spurred on by the call,
he ploughed through what he needed to do. When he was finished, he tidied his
papers, put his desk in scrupulous order like he did at the end of every
working day and paid a visit to the gents, grabbing his jacket with the tag
clipped to it – a grudging concession to Corrinne – off the back of
his chair. As he hurried into the corridor he realised he’d forgotten to
reserve a table for dinner and fished his iTab out of his trouser pocket. He
tapped the shortcut key, but the line was engaged.

Minutes later when he
walked back into the office, the incoming message prompt was flashing on his
terminal screen. In the sender box were the words “Galactic Federation”.

 
Galactic Federation! thought Carlos.
What in Christ’s name was that? He opened the e-mail but there was no text in
the body, just an audio file attachment, which he played.

A voice boomed out of
the speakers. It was deep and rich.

‘This is the President
of the Galactic Federation making contact with Dr Carlos Maiz, Director of the
United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. The Federation has information
of momentous significance that we wish to present to you. We will contact you
again shortly.’

Carlos played the
message a second time. It was like something out of a science fiction novel. He
shook his head. It had to be a hoax. Someone who thought it was funny
pretending to be an extraterrestrial. Or worse still, something more sinister.

He really did not need
this. Not right now.

He contacted the Network
Administrator on call, fired off an Unusual Network Incident Report and
forwarded the message for investigation. Then, as there was nothing else to do
but worry, he logged out and headed out to collect Drew.

CHAPTER 2

Explaining to the parking valet he was picking up a friend and would only be a
moment, Carlos jumped out of his car and ran into the lobby of the Hotel de
France.

‘
Amigo. ¿Que pasa?
’
he called out to the tall lean man talking to a pretty receptionist.

The man looked round and
grinned. In two strides he was towering over Carlos, enveloping him in a big
bear hug and pounding him on his back. ‘Charlie boy! It’s so good to see you.’

***

‘This is a bit flash isn’t it?’ Drew said as they took the private lift up to
Carlos’s penthouse. ‘You must be doing all right – poncing around in a top
of the range Mercedes sports coupe and living it up on top of a converted
palace.’

Carlos completed his
retina scan and opened the door. He fixed a couple of gin and tonics and left
Drew sipping one in the living room while he took the other into the bathroom.

‘So, what’s going on?’
Drew said when Carlos walked back into the room, his hair still wet from the
shower. ‘You look like shit...' he reached out to pinch Carlos’s spare tyre,
‘and since when have you put on all this beef?’

Carlos sucked in his gut.
‘Hey – give me a break! What can I do?’ he shrugged with his whole body
the way only a Spaniard can. ‘I work too much, travel too much. I get no time
to exercise.’

‘But more than enough
time to eat?’

Drew hadn’t changed,
Carlos thought. Although his sandy hair was flecked with grey, he still had his
trademark schoolboy look. And smartass retorts.

‘So where do we start?
It’s been… what… over four years since the last time I saw you? Just before you
left the States. How’s Vienna?’

‘Different to Maryland, that’s
for sure.’

‘You don’t say!’ Drew
laughed.

‘But since Elena…’
Carlos looked down as he fixed himself another drink. ‘I never did tell you the
whole story.’

‘Come on mate, that was
all a long time ago…’

‘Three years, four
months.’ Carlos felt his throat tighten. ‘It was horrible. We’d been here a
year, exactly a year. And Elena was loving it – after all that drama
about leaving the States. We had so many visitors: friends, my Mama and Papa,
hers too. It was their first time out of America. You can imagine how excited
they were to see Vienna. She joked she’d changed career to tour guide. And I
loved the job. Life was perfect. Until that day.’

Drew frowned.

‘We’d gone out to a UN
reception the night before and then on to a club. When I woke up the next morning
Elena was just bringing the coffee into the bedroom.’

Carlos had watched his wife from under the covers, long legs sidestepping the
clothes she’d left scattered over the floor, loopy curls matted from a night’s
sleep falling over her shoulders. He caught a peek of her breasts as she leaned
over to edge the tray onto an already overloaded table and catching him
staring, she flashed him a smile. It was as if the sun had come out.

He studied her face.
Taken singly, her features might have been regarded as unattractive. Her mouth
was too wide; her lips too full; her big eyes too far apart; and her nose too
long, but somehow it all fitted together. It was synergy, Carlos thought. Yes,
synergy, where the combined effect exceeded the sum of the individual parts.
Even after a late night on the town, one cheek traced with sheet creases and
mascara smudged like kohl around her eyes, she couldn’t have looked lovelier.

She walked over to the
windows and touched a sensor to open the blinds. Insipid sunlight slid in,
highlighting the silhouette of her body through the silk of her nightdress.
Carlos felt himself stirring. He wanted her to get back into bed so he could
possess her, feel her flesh wrapped around him.

‘
¡Querida!
Come
here. I’ve been waiting for you,’ he called, lifting the quilt and smiling.

‘Ooh!’ giggled Elena,
raising an eyebrow, ‘you’re awake!’

Later, as they lay
curled up wallowing in the serenity of after-love, Elena ran her fingers
through Carlos’s chest hairs.

‘I saw you talking to
Charlotte last night, but when I looked for her she’d already gone. How is
she?’

‘I forgot to tell you.
She and Pierre are expecting.’

‘That’s terrific! I’m
real happy for them,’ Elena smiled.

‘That’s when she brought it up. About us having a baby.’

‘You know Carlos, I’ve been thinking,’ she’d lifted herself up onto one elbow
and looked down into his eyes. ‘We’ve been in Vienna a year now and I’m
starting to get my bearings. I know I’ll never get a job here doing what I used
to, so…’ she had the look of a little girl who knew she’d got all her spellings
right.

‘… so…’

‘… so… what do you think
about us having a baby?’

The muscles in his jaw
tensed. ‘What do I
think
?’

‘Sure. What do you
think?’

He forced a smile. ‘No,
I don’t think. Not about that. Not today, thank you.’

The expression on her
face left Carlos in no doubt he’d given the wrong answer.

She dropped the hand her
chin was resting on and placed it on his shoulder. She leaned over him so
closely he could smell her coffee scented breath. ‘What do you mean, no? I thought
you wanted kids?’

‘
Sí
. One day.’
Carlos nestled closer into her warmth. ‘But right now I just want to keep you
all to myself,’ he said patting her backside.

‘Carlos!’ she yanked his
chest hairs, making him wince. ‘You’re forty-six. I’m not working. Now’s the
perfect time. A baby’d give me something to do. Why do you wanna wait? Why not
now!’

‘You mean try now? Right
now?’ he grinned, reaching down to stroke the inside of her thigh.

‘But talking about babies was the last thing on my mind.’

‘Carlos! Stop that!’ She’d shoved his hand away and sat up. ‘This isn’t a joke.
We need to talk about it. You need to take me seriously.’ Her voice was
creeping up the scale. She was getting angry. Her eyes flashed and her nostrils
flared. She crossed her arms over her breasts and tossed her head, jutting out
her chin. She looked like a wild mare with her crazy mane of russet hair. Good
God, how she turned him on.

He knew they were
entering the danger zone – the point of no return. But something in him
wanted to push her over the edge, to watch her explode. He didn’t know why, but
he loved to bait her, to make her mad. The energy she radiated when she was
angry was electric and it aroused him.

He knew he’d pay for it
later. He always did. Their rows followed a pattern and it could take days
before she’d start talking to him again. It wasn’t worth it. It
really
wasn’t worth it. But… he just couldn’t seem to help himself.

‘Elena, I
am
going to take you seriously,
very
seriously.’ A smile curved his lips.
He pushed her back into the pillows and tried to nudge open her thighs
whispering, ‘seriously long, seriously slow…’

‘Then she lost it. She kneed me in the balls for Christ’s sake. You know what
she was like when she got mad.’

She’d caught him between the legs as she struggled out of bed from under him.
Holy Mary, Mother of God – it had hurt. ‘
¡Hija de puta!
’ he
gasped.

She
froze. ‘What did you say?’ her words hanging like icicles in the frosty
silence. Carlos rolled on his back, cupping his throbbing testicles in his hands.

‘You think that was
deliberate, huh?’ she said. ‘Well, it wasn’t. But this is!’

She grabbed a book from
the pile by the bed, whacked him round the head with it and hurled it across
the room. It hit the wall with a smack, breaking the spine and crumpling the
pages.

She stared down at him,
hands on hips. ‘Don’t you call
my
mother a whore – asshole!’

Speechless, Carlos
stared up at her, rubbing the lump that was forming on the side of his head.

She nailed him with a
killer look, marched to the cupboard, yanked open the doors, and flung on some
clothes.

He watched her, furious.
He knew he’d provoked her. Pushed her too far. But hitting him with the book
– that was way out of line. He took a deep breath trying to override his
anger and pacify her before it went too far. Battling to get his own emotions
under control he got up off the bed and walked towards her.

‘I wanted to calm her down, but she didn’t let me.’

‘Elena,’ he’d said, using his gentlest, softest tone. When she turned to face
him he saw tears streaming down her face and he was stirred to comfort her. He
opened his arms wide in front of him. ‘
Querida
, stop crying. Don’t do
this.’ He rested his hands on her shoulders, and tried to pull her close, to
console her.

‘Let me go!’ Her voice
sounded thick through the tears as she squirmed free. She rubbed her eyes dry
with the heels of her hands before pulling on the rest of her clothes while
Carlos stood there naked, watching.

‘You’re not going to
walk out on me again, are you?’ he sighed, crossing his arms.

‘What do you care if I
do?’