The Zul Enigma (25 page)

‘So how long before we
can get him outta here?’ Bob asked.

‘A couple of days at
most.’

‘And he’ll go direct to
Madrid?’

‘Sure. His office can
ship anything he needs.’

‘And if he doesn’t wanna
cooperate, then the process’ll be that much quicker.’

‘Exactly. National
Security will arrest him.’

‘And access pending his
removal?’

‘I don’t think he’ll
want to see anyone.’

‘Not Dr Roberts?’

‘They fell out, but I
don’t have a problem with it if that’s what Maiz wants. Then there’s Greg
Howard. You should call him personally to let him know Maiz’s decision.’

Bob sat upright and
smiled. ‘Okay, Barbara. Looks like you’ve covered all the bases. Tell Dr
Roberts he’s free to go.’

***

Carlos, back at the safe house once more, was sitting in the dining room with
Drew. Neither of them knew it but they’d been interrogated in separate rooms right
there in the basement. They’d been forced to repeat their stories over and over
until, eventually satisfied, their interrogators had put more duck tape over
their eyes and one by one dragged them through the back garden where two cars
were waiting at the rear gate. They’d then been driven round the streets only
to be brought back to the house half an hour later. Carlos was surprised at the
relief he felt being back in familiar surroundings, even though it was the
place that served as his prison.

Mary had produced an
excellent breakfast of eggs, bacon, pancakes, maple syrup, toast and coffee.

‘I’m feeling better now
than I did when those goons burst in earlier,’ Drew said, scraping up his last
mouthful. ‘That was magic.’

Carlos didn’t reply. He
was struggling to eat anything at all. He couldn’t come to grips with how his
life had spun out of control over the past few days. The contrast between how
he’d felt the morning he left Vienna and now was immeasurable. Only a few days
ago he’d been energised, excited and confident. Now he was listless, dull and
beaten. He could scarcely muster the energy to lift his knife and fork.

Although Drew had been
trying to put a cheerful face on things over breakfast, he felt just terrible
too.

The significance of what
had happened was only just beginning to sink in. He’d destroyed the only two
things Carlos had left to cling to – their friendship and his memories of
Elena – and he wished he could snatch back the past hours to erase what
he’d done.

Thank God he hadn’t let
on he knew about the baby.

He slid his chair back
from the table. ‘Come on mate. You haven’t got much of an appetite. Let’s take
this coffee into the lounge.’

***

Scott Fuller, Barbara’s messenger boy, was in the sitting room when they walked
in. He greeted Carlos and Drew by name, introduced himself and invited them to
sit down.

‘Dr Roberts. Good news.
You can leave whenever you want. We don’t need to inconvenience you any
further. Thank you for your cooperation. We’ll provide transport back to the
car you left at the motel.’

‘So I’m off the hook,
huh?’

‘You could put it that
way.’

‘What about Carlos?’

Scott
looked over at Carlos who avoided his gaze. ‘Dr Maiz has until midday to make
his choice. What happens after that depends on his decision.’

‘Listen. I’d like to
stay on here a while. Be with Carlos for a bit longer. Is that okay?’

‘Sure.’

‘Can I visit again
before he leaves?’

‘Mary will give you a
number. You can call to see if it can be arranged.’

Scott stood up. ‘Well, I
need to be getting back. I’ll say goodbye for now.’ He shook hands with Drew.
‘We have your numbers Dr Roberts. We’ll let you know what’s going on.’

Drew nodded. ‘Thanks.
I’d appreciate that.’

Scott took a step
towards Carlos but he turned his face away. ‘And unless I hear from you before,
Dr Maiz, I’ll come over at noon. You can tell me your decision then.’

Carlos ignored him.

‘He seems like a pretty
decent bloke,’ Drew said as Scott shut the door behind himself.

Carlos spoke for the
first time since the interrogation. ‘I don’t believe I’m hearing this.’

‘What?’ Drew looked at
him.

‘They’re keeping me
under house arrest.’ He screwed two fingers against his temple. ‘They’ve told
me I’m crazy. They lost me my job. And what words come out of
your
mouth? “He seems like a pretty decent bloke”.’

Drew dropped his head.
‘You’re right. It was an arse of a thing to say.’

‘You know what? I don’t
want you hanging around. The sight of you makes me sick.’ Carlos jumped up,
knocking over the table. His cup bounced across the floor, splashing a trail of
coffee over the carpet.

‘I thought you’d like
some company. Someone to talk to.’

‘Why would I want
your
company?’ Carlos spat. ‘What do you think I want to talk to
you
about?
Hey? How you screwed my wife? Get out, you hear? Just get out of here.’

‘Carlos, listen, I…’
Drew leaped forward trying to put his hand on Carlos’s arm to stop him from
walking out but Carlos shoved it away. ‘For Christ’s sake, LEAVE ME ALONE,’ he
yelled and barged past Drew slamming the door in his face.

***

‘Sorry I didn’t call earlier but I’ve had a cunt of a time.’

The day after they’d
bumped into each other outside the restaurant Joseph had got a clean SIM card
to Drew, so they could talk about Carlos knowing the Americans weren’t
listening in. They remained cautious, though, and never mentioned specifics.

‘Did he turn up okay?’
Joseph asked.

‘Yes. He wanted to talk.
I took him to a motel. He’s in a bad way, mate. And then I made things even
worse.’

‘How?’

‘I told him what
happened with his wife.’

‘What? Why did you do
that?’ Joseph’s voice was angry.

‘I didn’t mean to. I
just got pissed off listening to his griping and I let something slip. He went
fucking demented.’

‘Where is he now?’

‘They picked us both up
in the early hours this morning. They questioned us and took us to the house
where he was before. Then they let me go.’

‘Do you know how much
longer he’ll stay there?’

‘Not long. They say he’s
threatened their security.’

‘Threatened security?
That’s bad. Who’s “they”?’

‘As we thought. The top
man’s main agency.’

‘This just gets worse.’

‘Thing is he hasn’t
threatened their security at all, he just got himself tied up in this mad
situation and right now I don’t know how much of the madness is coming from
him. They say he’s lost it and that’s why he can’t remember doing what they’re
accusing him of. But he denies it – being ill and doing what they said.
And I don’t know what to believe.’

Joseph didn’t respond.

‘They gave him a choice.
Check into a nut house or they’ll arrest him.’

‘Is he really that
sick?’

‘Look
mate, I told you the other day, I don’t know. But I’ve been worried since I had
dinner with him last week. Most of the time he’s alright but every now and then
he acts as mad as a hatter. And after what I told him last night? I’m scared
that could do it – push him over the edge. So, yeah, I guess it could be
serious. And it’s the only explanation for what they say he did.’

‘Which is?’

‘I can’t tell you mate.
I’ve now signed two secrecy agreements, the second with the Septics this
morning.’

Joseph grunted. ‘Did he
say anything else?’

‘Not really. Just they’d
given him till midday to decide.’

‘He’ll go for the
hospital option.’

‘He’d be crazy not to.
Shit, I didn’t mean that the way it came out.’

‘Does his boss know?’

‘He’s the one agreed to
hand the case over to the agency. Our friend’s furious about that too. He feels
betrayed. By both of us.’

‘They won’t waste time
moving him. The problem is, if he chooses the hospital we have no idea whether
they’ll release him if they find nothing wrong with him. Or, if he
is
sick, whether they’ll let him go once he’s recovered. Their concern could be
genuine but it could also be a device to keep him out of the way for as long as
it suits them.’

‘That’s exactly what
he’s scared of.’

‘Then there’s something
else. It’s unlikely, but something we need to consider.’

‘What’s that?’

‘They might really want
him out the way.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘His own country’s
provided a staging point for certain dubious flights in the past.’

‘Fucking hell!’ Drew
knew Joseph was talking about extraordinary rendition, when suspects were
kidnapped without trace and put on secret flights to black sites for
interrogation where they could be held indefinitely, if not killed.

‘If they try that, we
may never see him again.’

‘How come you know so
much about all this shit?’

‘And if he chooses the
other option, I’ve no idea what they’ll do. You believe he really is sick?’

‘I keep telling you I
don’t bloody know. But he needs to get checked out.’

‘So what
we
need
to do is get him to a hospital where
they
can’t touch him.’

‘You make it sound so
easy.’

Joseph cracked a rare
smile that Drew heard in his voice. ‘Identifying solutions is always easy. It’s
finding the most effective way to implement them, that’s the hard part.’

‘You reckon they’ll let
him say his goodbyes at work before flying him home?’

‘You’re kidding. It’s
too costly. Anyhow, the longer it takes to get him to his final destination,
the bigger the risk of something going wrong.’

‘Don’t get uppity with
me – I’m just thinking we’d stand a better chance there – of getting
him away.’

‘Of course, that
is
true.’

‘And it would be a
reasonable request, wouldn’t it, seeing he’s worked there for over four years
and all his stuff’s there?’ Drew hesitated, ‘… and what about his boss? He’ll
need to do something – fire him or make him redundant or put him on sick
leave.’

‘I guess so. But that
doesn’t mean the boss would fly
there
to do it.’

‘They are close, so why
don’t I call him? See if he’s up for putting some pressure on to bring our
friend there first?’

‘Wouldn’t hurt to try.’

‘I could even hint if we
get him as far as his office, it’ll give us a chance to get him away and safe.’

‘This is sounding better
and better. Anything else?’

‘Yeah. One more thing.
We need names.’

‘Names?’

‘Code names. I want to
be Secret Squirrel…’

***

‘Hello?’ Greg said. ‘I had a message to call?’

‘Ah! Yes. I’m sorry to
trouble you… but I need to speak to you urgently.’

‘My secretary said
you’re an old friend of one of my people and that you were with him today, is
that right?’

‘That’s right. But before
we go on, is this a secure line?’

‘As secure as anything
around here. But we still need to be careful. So don’t mention specifics. Now I
assume you’re the same gentleman who recently signed an agreement with us about
some messages?’

‘Yes sir.’

‘So what news do you
have?’

‘I don’t know if you
know this but our friend’s been a…,’ Drew hesitated, putting extra emphasis on
his next word, ‘special… guest of the Yanks in DC.’

‘I knew he was there but
I didn’t know they’d extended him special privileges. So how did you get to see
him?’

‘He got away yesterday
afternoon and contacted me. We spent some hours together.’

‘I’ve heard nothing
about any of this.’

‘He’s in bad shape.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Mentally. And I made
things worse. I blurted out a personal secret and to be blunt, it completely
ruined our friendship and pushed him down to rock bottom. The main man’s
gorillas picked us up in the early hours this morning and interrogated us. They
let me go but they’re still holding our friend. They say he’s gone mad –
that he made up you know who and the messages. They gave him an ultimatum. If
he doesn’t agree to commit himself by midday today they’re going to arrest
him.’

‘Oh my!’

‘I don’t know whether
they’re being honest about taking him to a hospital in his home city. And even
if they do, I’m worried they may have influence over the doctors there. Who
knows how long they’ll keep him?’