The Zul Enigma (53 page)

‘He’s passionate about
Zul too, so Drew says. What do you make of that?’

Rebecca nodded. ‘I…
well… I support him whole-heartedly on the meditation initiative. I’ve followed
a meditation practice myself for a couple of years now – I know how
powerful it is. But I can’t say I believe in the evolution bit. It’s a
wonderful spiritual concept – and that’s why it’s been received so
positively all over the world. People
want
to know there’s a deeper
meaning to their lives. But… I just find it hard to embrace unconditionally
like Carlos does.’

‘I don’t know what to
think. I’ll probably end up believing by default. Drew was anti at first too.
But like everyone says, if it’s
not
true then who would go to all that
trouble making it up? I mean – what’s the point?’

‘Look up there. Isn’t it
beautiful?’ It was nearly half past eight in the evening and another blazing
sunset was painting the sky. ‘Hard to believe we might not see anything like
this again after the 21st December,’ Rebecca sighed.

‘Hey you! Come on back down
to Earth. Now listen… obviously Carlos likes you… and you’re falling for him,
so… what are you going to do about it?’

Rebecca threaded her
fingers through her hair and pushed it off her face. ‘I don’t know. Wait for
him to make the first move, I suppose.’

‘Why wait?’

‘He’s so busy right now.
He doesn’t have time to get involved.’

‘That’s a load of bull
Rebecca. Everyone has time to get involved. You know you’re such a sweet
person, you’re bound to end up evolving to fourth density spirituality in
December,’ Rebecca laughed. ‘I’m not joking – so my advice to you is to
make the first move and get a romance started while you still have the chance.’

CHAPTER 14

‘
Buonasera signore, signorina
.’ Luigi bowed low as Carlos and Rebecca
walked through the archway into the restaurant.

Familiar with the
ritual, he already had a bottle of Chianti standing by, which he opened with
his customary flourish. ‘I will come back to pour after she is breathing.’

‘You look happy,’ Rebecca said taking the last mouthful of dessert – her
favourite at La Lucciola – tiramisu.

‘A perfect meal…
fantastic company… what more can a man ask for?’

She smiled, and good
God, how he was growing to love that smile.

‘Do you mind we always
eat here?’ Carlos asked. ‘I got stuck in the habit.’

‘No… not at all! The
food’s amazing and I love Luigi.’

‘I never did this with
Elena. We always had to try a new place. She was a debutante. Rich family… old
money… you know? It was all “who knows who” and “who goes where”,’ he shrugged.
‘It was how she grew up.’

‘Did you enjoy it?’

‘
Sí
. I guess I
did then.’

‘Erika talked about
Elena the other night. She said she turned men’s heads.’

Carlos smiled. ‘She was
very beautiful. She had long wavy chestnut hair,’ he spiralled his hands either
side of his head, ‘and a special kind of presence. It was electric. You always
knew when Elena was around.’

‘What was she like as a
person?’

Carlos took a moment to
reply. He’d been so caught up in rolling out the Global Consciousness
initiative, he hadn’t thought much about Elena for months. ‘She loved to have
fun,’ he said, ‘but we fought like you wouldn’t believe.’ He shook his head.
‘We spent so much time shouting and screaming at each other. Is that love? You
know she used to say I loved her the wrong way – that I loved her in a
selfish way. But now I think back, I don’t know if she loved me any
differently.’

‘You don’t mind me
asking about her, do you? It’s the journalist in me.’

‘I couldn’t talk about
her before but somehow now, with you, it’s okay.’

‘You said she didn’t want
to come to Vienna. Why was that? Her job?’

‘No. Her job didn’t mean
that much to her. It was because she didn’t think OOSA was right for me. She
said I’d get bored.’

‘Did you ever wonder if
there was another reason? Whether she was scared moving to another country, to
live so far away from home? After all, she was only twenty-nine.’

‘You mean your age.’

‘You got me there. But
still…’

‘I don’t know. She
always acted so tough, but take away the security of her family and friends?
Maybe she was scared.’

‘So that night she left
you – back in the States – why do
you
think she went to
Drew?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Well… most women would
run to their family, or to a girlfriend. Did you ever wonder why Elena ran
straight to
your
best friend?’

Carlos shook his head. ‘I
never thought about it.’

‘Could she
subconsciously have wanted to create a situation that would stop her leaving
DC?’

‘You saying she seduced
him?’ Carlos snorted. ‘Knowing
his
record with the ladies, I always saw
it the other way round.’ He called the waiter over and ordered liqueur coffees.

Rebecca leaned forward.
‘No – I’m not saying she did it deliberately, Carlos. But perhaps she was
desperate. You said for weeks she’d been trying to persuade you not to take the
job. Perhaps on an unconscious level she was trying to find a way out of
going.’

‘If it did happen that
way, he should have said “no”.’

‘I know I only met Drew
that one time in DC. But he seems the kind of man who likes to help people.
Think of the way he helped Erika when she had trouble with her ex-boyfriend?
And she told me how he helped her out when her husband walked out on her
leaving her with a toddler and a newborn baby. Drew didn’t do those things to
get something for himself. He did them because that’s the way he is… he’s a
kind man.’

Carlos thought back to
his first week at USC. ‘That’s how I met him. He talked to me because I was
overseas alone.’

‘I’m sure he only wanted
to comfort her that night… but…’

They were still sitting
in silence when the Irish coffees arrived.

‘Did you ever wonder how
she felt when she found out she was pregnant? Perhaps she was petrified to go
through it all so far away from home. Especially with the amount of travelling
you did.’

‘She never mentioned it.
None of it.’ Carlos screwed up his napkin and slammed it on the table.

‘Do you think,’ Rebecca
said in a soft voice, ‘perhaps, subconsciously she wanted to goad you into
having a row that night. Perhaps she was looking for an excuse to run back to
the States.’

‘But to go to Drew…
again?’

‘Yes,’ she nodded, ‘to
go to Drew… again! The man she could rely on to listen to her, to help her.
And…’ Rebecca’s eyes were intense, ‘… after speaking to Erika, I don’t believe
Elena ever intended moving in with Drew. Imagine what a mess it would have been
for all three of you – four including the baby? What she wanted was to
get your attention. Make you realise how important it was to her to live in the
States near her friends and family where she had all the support and
reassurance she needed to bring up your baby. She wanted to move back there,
with you. I truly believe she loved you, Carlos.’

‘That’s what I want to
believe too.’

***

Faith opened the door to the suite of offices on the fourteenth floor at UNO
and showed Carlos in.

‘Two weeks into the
initiative,’ Greg said, ‘and it’s all going well.’

‘It’s fantastic. I’m
very happy. People all over the world are taking up the meditation call and
physicists all over the planet are investigating Zul. Our website’s getting
millions of hits. Every day the number of people participating is increasing
exponentially. And they’re from all different backgrounds.’

‘And you’ve added a
business section.’

Carlos nodded. ‘More and
more businesses, big and small, are holding meditation sessions at work. And
the Europeans and the Russians are pressuring their governments to resolve the
conflict.’

‘The power of the
people,’ Greg smiled. ‘My dream come true. And how do you feel about the press
rechristening your initiative?’

Carlos laughed. ‘Calling
it the “Evolution Revolution” and “E-Day Drive”? It’s all good.’

‘There’s more good news,
too. Philanthropists and corporations around the planet have pulled out all the
stops. We’ve collected enough money to roll out the swine flu immunisation
programme to all the impoverished and low-income families in the world.’

‘Fantastic! And how’s
the Clean Up Plan coming on?’

‘It’ll be finalised in a
couple of months.’

‘And I hear you’re
setting up Virtual Archives on the Internet.’

Greg nodded. ‘We need
one specific location where the corporate world and the general public can
lodge critical data. I’m also pushing captains of industry to develop master
handbooks detailing how their businesses work. I’m calling it the Industry Operations
Package. It will make it easier for skeleton teams to keep core businesses
running, in case we do lose large numbers of personnel.’

Greg shook his head. ‘I
can hardly believe I’m buying into all this. But as you both said that day at
lunch, it would be irresponsible not to and the more I think about it the more
I’m starting to accept it.

‘You know, Carlos, the
vast majority of our members are embracing Zul with open arms and I think
you’re right… it’s because he’s revealed a higher purpose to our lives… given
us the key to unlock the mystery of our existence. He’s given us hope.’

‘Hey, I nearly forgot.
There’s something I want to ask.’

‘Of course, son. Fire
away.’

‘Did you see the feature
about OOSA and the Space Elevator in last month’s
National Geographic
?’

‘Yes. It was very well
written.’

‘The author, Rebecca
Marshall, she’s a friend and she wants to meet you.’

‘Why?’

‘She’s spent hours
asking me about Zul, the videos and the holograms. She wants to interview
everyone involved and write a book about it.’

‘I’m back off to New
York in a couple of days, but I can meet her next time I’m here. Tell her to
call Faith and fix something up.’

***

It was another cloudless day and people in bright clothes were scattered like
confetti throughout the parks, making the best of the evening summer sunshine.
Drew, suit jacket slung over one shoulder, tie loosened and shirt sleeves
folded back, strolled up to the table where Carlos was sitting in front of City
Hall.

‘Hey,’ Carlos said,
without getting up.

‘Need a drink?’ Drew
asked hanging his jacket over the back of a chair.

‘Sure. Another one of
these,’ Carlos said tipping his head towards the nearly empty glass of
Austria’s famous Zwickl Rot beer in front of him.

Drew came back and put
the drinks on the table. ‘Cheers,’ he said and took a series of gulps. ‘So… you
want to talk?’

Carlos, who had also
shed his suit jacket, nodded without looking up. He ran a hand through his dark
curls, exposing a damp crescent shadow under the sleeve of his shirt. ‘It’s
difficult. I don’t know how to start.’

‘Well, don’t take all
bleeding night. I’m meeting Erika for dinner in an hour.’

Carlos sighed. ‘It still
hurts. When I think about her with you. Even though you thought we broke up…
you shouldn’t have done it.’ Drew looked away. ‘But I… well… I’ve been
thinking… and… thing is… I believe what you said.’ Carlos took a mouthful of
beer. ‘For Christ’s sake, I know what she was like. But it wasn’t over,’ and he
shook his head, ‘although she hated living here – it wasn’t over.’

Drew leaned forward.
‘Listen mate…’ he started.

‘No, you listen. I was
so busy, so sucked in by my super-special job, Jesus Christ,’ Carlos dropped
his head in his hands. ‘I didn’t get how bad it was for her. I just didn’t get
it.’

‘Are we okay then?’ Drew
asked.

Carlos looked up. ‘We
can try.’

***

‘So that’s why he wanted to talk to you,’ Erika said.

The boys had showered
and were in bed and she and Drew were sharing a bottle of wine curled up on the
couch together.

Drew pushed a lock of
shaggy white blonde hair off her forehead. ‘You could have knocked me down with
a feather,’ he said. ‘Carlos takes umbrage easily and gets over it just as
quick, but I never expected him to forgive
me
for what I did,’ he
wriggled himself up to rest on one elbow and leaned over Erika. ‘It reeks of
female intervention. So my question is… did you and Rebecca have anything to do
with it?’

‘I like Rebecca,’ Erika
said. ‘She’s a very sweet gal.’

‘And so are you. But
that doesn’t answer my question.’

‘You know she really
likes Carlos. I mean she
really
likes him.’