The Zul Enigma (21 page)

‘Charlie, Greenbelt
Park, main entrance parking lot in thirty. Got it. I’ll tell him immediately.
Do you have a contact number?’

‘He has it, but my
phone’s not working. So tell him not to call back. I’ll just see him there
soon. Thanks Helen.’

‘You’re welcome.’

Carlos got back into the
taxi hoping his conversation hadn’t been tapped and that he’d managed to buy a
few hours of freedom. That’s all he wanted, just a few hours. Just time to talk
things through with someone he could trust.

CHAPTER 12

‘Shit dude! Thanks.’

The size of the tip
probably confirmed the driver’s suspicion that Carlos was a deviant entering
Greenbelt Park at dusk, but he smiled anyway. And Carlos didn’t care. He was
just relieved to have made it so far without being picked up. He got out of the
cab. The office was closed and the car park empty. It was dusk and the place
was deserted. It was the perfect spot to meet Drew.

As he walked towards the
woods at the far end of the parking lot, all Carlos could hear was the muffled
swoosh of wheels churning up slush on the main road. He faded into the shadows
to wait. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed something looming
towards him. He held his breath and froze. A split second later the shape took
the form of a tall figure. It was Drew.

‘
Amigo
. Am I glad
to see you!’

‘Charlie boy!’ Drew
grinned, ‘follow me.’

Drew led Carlos deeper
into the woods until they reached a service road. Parked in a small clearing
was an old beat-up black Ford saloon.

‘That yours?’ Carlos
asked.

‘For tonight. I swapped
with a guy at work. He wants to impress his new girlfriend and after getting
your cryptic message I reckoned we should go undercover. Go on, hop in.’

Drew started the engine
and put the stick in drive. Then he turned to Carlos. ‘So what’s up?’

‘I got away.’

‘No shit. Are you being
followed?’

Carlos shrugged. ‘I
don’t think so.’

‘They probably bugged
you but take the batteries or SIM out of your iTab anyhow.’

Drew drove down the
track to the park exit. It was getting darker and car headlamps illuminated the
trees bordering the main road like searchlights. He edged out of the shadows.
There was nothing coming and he slid into the nearside lane before turning on
his lights. They didn’t see anyone on foot, there were no parked cars, and
there was nothing behind them.

‘Where are we going?’
Carlos asked.

‘You tell me! What the
fuck happened?’

‘The President called me
back in this afternoon. It didn’t go well.’

Drew looked at Carlos
over his shoulder but Carlos didn’t see because he had his head buried in his
hands. ‘I can’t believe this is happening to me,’ he whispered.

‘You know they’ll catch
up with you sooner or later.’

‘I know.’ He lifted his
head and circled it. ‘Jesus, I feel horrible.’

‘How the hell did you
get away?’

‘After the meeting they
were taking me back to the house and a truck drove into the car. The two guys
with me were knocked unconscious… or worse. I didn’t wait to find out.’

‘Were you hurt?’

‘No. I was lucky. I
jumped out and ran. I got a train to Metro Central and took a cab from there to
the park.’

‘But why Carlos? Why
run?’

‘What would you do, hey?
Sit in the car till the police arrived?’ Carlos turned in his seat. It was dark
now and the streetlights flickering on his face had an eerie stroboscopic
effect.

‘I had to get away from
the madness.’ He reached his hands out, pleading. ‘Right now I don’t know
what’s going on. I’m scared Drew and I don’t know what to do,’ he paused. ‘I
want to go somewhere they can’t watch me. Somewhere I can talk without being
spied on. Even if it’s only for a few hours before they find me.’

Drew nodded. ‘We don’t
want to hang around here then. There’s a small motel half an hour away. We’ll
go there.’

***

Drew drove into the motel’s forecourt and parked. He ordered Carlos to keep out
of sight, slammed the door and wandered into the office where a short,
overweight, middle-aged man wearing thick spectacles and a stony expression
peered over the reception desk. Behind him in the shadows Drew could just make
out a gaunt-looking woman. Her coral-coloured cardigan was buttoned up wrong.
She’d either got dressed in a hurry or couldn’t care less. Gripping a
calculator she was hunched over a heap of receipts.

Attempting an American
accent, Drew registered in a false name and paid cash up front for two rooms
for two nights. He invented a story that his wife and another couple were
travelling up the coast to New York when his friends were taken sick, probably
food poisoning, and needed to stop for a couple of days until they were well
enough to go on. He hoped that by getting two rooms it might put Carlos’s pursuers
off the scent. To his relief the man expressed no interest in the imaginary
sick friends and simply grabbed his money with a gruff ‘Thanks Bud’, as he
dropped the room keys on the counter with a clatter.

Drew was about to pick
them up when the woman called out. ‘Mister? Just a minute.’ He looked up. ‘This
is our local doctor. Just in case.’ She held out a scrap of paper with a phone
number scribbled in pencil. He thanked her, scooped up the keys and walked back
to the car. Parking it outside one of the allocated rooms, he checked nobody
was around and unlocked the door for Carlos who scurried in.

It was a cheap motel and
they got what they paid for. The room was small, dimly lit and smelt of stale
cigarette smoke and damp. It was decorated in tones of muddy mustard and khaki.
The heels of their shoes snagged on the loops of the acrylic carpet and built
up static that gave Drew an electric shock from the bedside light when he
turned it on. Then the bulb blew.

The musty-smelling bed
covers were covered with stains, the origins of which Carlos preferred not to
deliberate, and the handle of the dressing table drawer hung by a single screw.
After turning on the tap, an ancient ridged radiator eventually delivered some
localised heat. It clunked and gurgled over the background drone of traffic
noise while car headlamps, only marginally obscured by the thin curtains, swept
across the walls like flashlights.

Seeing Carlos in the
light Drew was appalled by how pale and strung out he looked. He was dressed
with his usual flare but his eyes darted around the room as if he was expecting
someone to leap out from behind the furniture at any moment. He’d lost weight
and he was jumpy as hell.

‘What’s that?’ Carlos
exclaimed as two bright beams lit up the room and tyres scrunched on the gravel
outside. The lights went out and Drew peered out of the window from behind the
curtain.

‘Just a couple. Looks
like they’re checking in.’

Five minutes later they
heard footsteps on the walkway and a door being opened, closed and locked.

‘It's that couple,’ Drew
said, ‘they've moved in next door.’

He put on his coat. ‘I’m
starving. I’ll get us something to eat,’ and he strolled back to the reception.
The woman was alone and whether it was the surly man earlier or the
mis-buttoned cardigan, Drew wasn’t sure, but he pitied her. He couldn’t imagine
the drudgery involved in running a seedy motel.

‘Hi again.’ Drew flashed
her a big smile. ‘Still at it? I’ve never seen so many receipts.’

The woman looked up. ‘I
have to do everything around here,’ she grumbled, ‘it’s all I can do to get
Bert to take a turn at reception. Says it’s boring. He just sits around on his
fat fanny complaining while I run the whole show.’

‘Good job he’s got you
then.’ Her cheeks flushed. Obviously she didn’t get too many compliments. ‘Can
you help me?’ Drew said. ‘My wife and I are hungry but she doesn’t want to go
out. Wants to stay close by our friends, you know? So where can I buy a couple
of steak sandwiches and a few beers to bring back to the room?’

‘There’s a diner just a
block up the road. They do takeout. Is that all you want?’

‘Yeah, something to eat
and a coupla beers. I tell you I’m so tired after all that driving. And then
our friends getting sick?’ he shook his head. ‘Trip’s been a nightmare.’

She smiled. It transformed
her face. She lifted the phone and punched in some numbers.

‘Gloria? It’s Thelma. I
wanna order two steak sandwiches, two portions of fries and a half dozen
bottles of Corona,’ she glanced over at Drew who nodded, ‘to go. No, for one of
my guests. I’ll collect.’

Drew shook his head, ‘I
didn’t mean for you to go to all that trouble.’

‘It’s no trouble. Just a
phone call and a bit of exercise. And it gives me an excuse to visit with
Gloria. Bert can look after the shop.’ She glanced sideways at Drew and made a
quick stiff shrug. ‘Too bad it’ll interrupt the game. But that’s all part and
parcel of running a business. Ain’t it?’

‘I guess it is,’ said
Drew smiling as he counted out some notes.

Carlos and Drew sat facing each other on the two single beds.

‘So, what happened at
the meeting?’ Drew asked.

‘You were right,
amigo
.
Bob put his National Intelligence dogs on me. The Director, Barbara Lord,’ he
lifted his arm in the air, ‘this tall woman, big face, too much make up, big
hair, looks like a drag queen, she tells me I’m crazy.’

‘What did I say?’

‘I know, I know,’ he
held up his hands. ‘She told me commit myself to a mental hospital or they’ll
arrest me because they say I threatened their security.’

‘Hospital, huh.’

‘In Madrid. I have to
decide by midday tomorrow. Bitch!’ he spat.

‘It’s a no-brainer
mate.’

Carlos lifted his hands.
‘But what they’re doing – it’s illegal!
They’re
breaking the law,
not me. I’ve done nothing wrong. They have no evidence – nothing.’

‘You can’t fight them
Carlos. And don’t think just ‘cos you were lucky and got away for a few hours
they won’t find you.’

‘I can’t believe Greg
letting them take over the investigation.’

‘But that’s the reason
you went to them. To
ask
them to investigate.’

‘
Sí
, investigate
the messages – not me!’

‘Carlos. You’ve got no
choice but…’

‘Hey! Of course! NASA!’
Carlos clicked his fingers and pointed at Drew. ‘Have you heard anything?’

Drew shook his head.
‘Sorry mate. I already asked around but there’s not a whisper. Bob will’ve kept
it well close to his chest. Aliens, for fuck’s sake! He won’t want a whiff of
that getting out. Especially not now.’

‘Oh Jesus!’

‘Carlos. Do what they
say. Commit yourself…’

‘But there’s nothing
wrong with me!’

‘It’s your only option.’

‘What if they never let
me out?’

‘It’s not the Middle
Ages. It’s not a witch hunt.’

‘You wouldn’t say that
if it happened to you,’ and Drew looked away.

A sudden knock had Carlos jumping off the bed and diving into the bathroom
where he locked himself in. Drew opened the door. It was Thelma wrapped up in a
knitted hat and matching scarf, both of which had a lumpy handmade look. She
passed him one carrier bag containing food and another with eight clinking
bottles inside. ‘I got you a couple extra. Reckon you deserve it. And I popped
in a bottle opener. Just give it back when you leave.’

‘Well thank you,
Thelma.’

She stood at the door
and watched Drew put the carriers on the bed. ‘Your friends next door, they’re
not hungry?’

‘They just wanted to
crash. Try to sleep it off, whatever
it
is.’

She nodded. ‘Oh! Your
change.’

Drew tried to push a
twenty back into her hand, but she jerked away.

‘Oh no! I didn’t do it
for that.’ She backed out of the doorway. ‘Enjoy your meal.’

‘We will. And thanks
again.’ Drew bolted the door after her. ‘Oi!’ he walked over and tapped on the
bathroom door, ‘food’s here.’

They sat on two rickety
cane chairs either side of a small round glass top table. Carlos opened a
couple of beers and Drew took a mouthful of the sandwich.

‘How is it?’ Carlos
asked.

Drew chewed for a while
and swallowed. ‘It’d make a good pair of boots.’

Carlos grunted and took
a gulp of beer.

‘So have you heard any
more from Zul?’ Drew asked through a mouthful of fries.

‘Nothing. It’s been a
week. All he had to do was contact me – or appear – appear in front
of Greg, or Bob, or that Barbara, or in front of anyone for Christ’s sake. I
need help here. Everyone says I’m crazy,’ he looked at Drew, ‘including you.’

‘Think about it. He
contacts you out of the blue to talk about…’ Drew pulled a face and trembled
his hands in front of him, ‘… “the future of the planet Earth, man”, and then
you never hear from him again.’