by Hylton Smith
The first interviewer seized on this.
“How close to Earth will the asteroid pass in twelve years from now? You know, according to the latest data.”
“We can’t be absolutely precise about this, and things may change again in the next few years, but we don’t believe it will unduly disturb our atmosphere. Future updates will be forthcoming and appropriate action engaged, if that is justified.”
“Hold on, Sir Ian, but this doesn’t sound much different to what Delacroix said himself, at least to those of us without an astrophysics degree. He also said, as you have, that precision was elusive, but the predicted trajectory would be close enough to justify research now. He then mentioned that the trajectory may be altered again by celestial interaction, but we couldn’t realistically rely entirely upon such good fortune. Is this really about delaying phenomenal investment to tackle this threat in the hope that we get lucky? A conscious gamble to finance other programmes, those designed to counter terrestrially evolved threats? Mistakes for which humanity itself is to blame?”
“I’m afraid I can’t say more on the subject, other than we, NERO, are a highly-trusted world body with an impeccable reputation. This organisation was created specifically to monitor and then advise on such threats. You have to trust the evidence, not be taken in by rhetoric.”
The session ended on that note, but the subject had established a kind of bridgehead with the public.
*
Julien received a message while passing through airport security, but decided not to retrieve it until he was clear of the checks. Elise didn’t have far to drive to her sister’s house. She’d also called her son and daughter, telling them both to make their way there instead of going to their respective homes. It was an anxious few moments when Julien passed through the body scanner, having already placed his phone and the memory stick in a basket, together with a few other personal effects. He emerged on the cleared side just as the basket scanner beeped, automatically causing the conveyor to come to a halt. He couldn’t see his stuff. Thankfully, it proved to be nothing other than someone having dumped a soft drink in their basket, one which wasn’t purchased in the airport. The nearest operative told everyone to stand back and then asked whose basket it was. The drink was without the required accreditation sticker denoting airport goods. A young girl raised her hand and was asked to step aside for questioning while everyone else was moved on.
Julien checked his phone. Elise had said she was on her way to Geraldine’s house and expected to be there in under fifteen minutes. He nervously checked his watch and estimated that he could call her in another two minutes from an internet café.
The information display was now flashing the gate number for his flight. He waited another minute then made the call. Geraldine answered, surprised to hear his voice.
“Hello, Julien, where are you? I thought Elise said you were in Japan.”
“Hasn’t she called you to say she’s coming to see you?”
“No, is there something wrong?”
“No. Listen, I’m about to board my flight home and I don’t have…”
“Oh, that’s her car coming on to the drive now, shall I ask her to come straight to the phone?”
“Yes, great, uh, see you soon.”
He was keeping an eye on the information display. The boarding sign had not yet appeared, but it seemed to be taking an eternity for his wife to pick up the call. She began to explain that she hadn’t time to forewarn her sister of her impending arrival.
“Yes, yes, thank you, darling. Just please listen. I’m going to have to get on the plane very soon, but I need to send some files to you. I didn’t want them to be received by our laptop, so ask Geraldine to switch on hers. I’ve got her email address on my phone. I need you to message me the moment you receive the attachment. Don’t try to open it, you can’t, it’s encrypted. I have to know it’s there before I get on the plane. I’ll explain everything when I get back.”
“Ok, but this…”
“They’re calling the flight, just do it now.”
“Right, please stay on the line.”
Elise explained this to her sister as best she could. Julien sat down, put the memory stick into the internet café laptop and attached the file to the mail. He then heard Elise’s voice again.
“Hello, Julien, are you still there?”
“Yes, honey, I’m ready, are you?”
“I think so. The laptop is on and we are into webmail.”
“Ok, just stay with it, I’m running out of time in this internet café, but I’m sending the file now. It could take a while to get there.” He pressed send and breathed deeply as the seconds turned into minutes. Finally, the screen displayed ‘message sent’.
“Elise?”
“Yes, what happened? There’s nothing received here.”
“No, but it has been sent. Stay on the line until you see it. Oh shit, my flight has been called again. Look, I don’t want any confirmation message from you to my mobile. Just stay on the line for another couple of minutes.”
“Ok, when will you be back?”
“I don’t know, I’ll call you when I arrive in Lyon airport. You don’t need to pick me up, I’ll take a taxi. Tell the kids I’ll explain everything to them when I get there. I really have to go, has the mail come through?”
“No, Geraldine says a voice will alert us to new mail, but there is no… err, wait… yes, the inbox has a new message.”
“Right, just look at the name of the attachment and read it back to me.”
“It says, uh, ‘meeting minutes – 1999 A10’.”
“Fantastic, leave it alone, I’m on my way home, love you, darling, I’ve got to run. Bye.”
“Ok, hurry then, don’t miss the damned flight, it’s been a crazy day. You’d better have one hell of an explanation. Love you too.”
Julien rushed to the gate, perspiring profusely as he submitted his digital boarding pass. He wasn’t the last passenger to do so, and this made him feel slightly less conspicuous. Settling into his sumptuous seat in the upper first class cabin, he began to evaluate the options for the future.
Firstly, his contract. He recalled the clauses which dealt with both scenarios – the one in which he tendered his resignation, and the actual one, instant termination by NERO. The lists of sub-clauses were different. He concentrated on the non-disclosure and no-compete elements. He would have to check his hard copy when he got back, but he was pretty sure that he could prove the relevant disclosures he’d made were predominantly or all known to observatories around the world, ergo in the public domain. It needed to be if he was going to join a rival organisation. Being fired was half of the story, and would normally allow him a free choice. Breach of information which was deemed to be classified could restrict his opportunities, or even take him to court.
He needed to avail of the best legal advice possible, almost regardless of the cost. He suddenly remembered the dilemma facing him when he joined NERO. In the United States, NASA had seen significant reduction in funding, although not as draconian as the European Space Agency, which was now as windless as space itself. Russian progress had declined dramatically and so had the emergent economies of the last decade, China and India. They had made severe cuts to prop up their slowing economies. He had made his decision to join NERO on moral grounds, or so he thought, turning down an offer from a privately funded enterprise. It was this very organisation which was now in prime position to launch the first manned mission to Mars in 2033.
Back then, Julien felt that a globally-funded body would be a more transparent organisation, accountable to all mankind. He smiled, admitting his naivety; like many forms of seduction, NERO had sculptured more than one agenda.
He had to strike quickly when he got back to France. A call to the entrepreneur whom he’d turned down was the obvious first step. This man, Volker Brandt, had access to the best legal people in the world. The content of the memory stick would at least provide a bargaining chip for
dialogue.
The ‘meeting minutes Asteroid 1999 A10’ were actually NERO video conferences, in which people like Sir Ian Waverly had made controversial statements in justification of decisions outside the charter of the organisation. Brandt would hopefully see some value in having such visual and audio proof of manipulative policy.
Julien wrestled with his conscience, but he also had a duty to his family. Elise, Eugene, and Sophie could become part of the problem if Waverly thought a former senior employee was sleeping with the enemy. On the other hand, there weren’t many alternatives. Waverly wasn’t going to let him have an easy exit, especially as the passage of time would inexorably provide evidence that Julien Delacroix was right. How the hell could Ian Waverly believe he’d get away with this? Julien eventually fell asleep, despite the nagging feeling that he’d missed something. The gradual descent into Lyon caused his ears to pop. He wondered if he would be met by people he didn’t recognise. It would be safer to call Brandt before passing through customs.
Chapter 3
Lyon airport was pretty busy, and although Julien no longer had any hold luggage to retrieve, he felt the collection carousel was the best place to make the call.
Brandt only gave his private number to a handful of people. He’d fought so hard to persuade Julien to join his company, and even though he failed, the gesture had been made at the time. ‘You never know, you may have a change of heart. I respect your reasoning, but if this post with NERO does fall short of your expectations, you should let me know. I still believe you could fulfil your ambitions with my company. I wish you every success’.
Those words were ringing very loudly in his ears right now. Volker Brandt came through a tough childhood to become an extremely wealthy man. Not much was known about his past, he’d buried as much of it as he could. A diminutive, moustached man, he had learned to be honest rather than it being a comfortable bedfellow. He rarely trusted anyone implicitly, and the exceptional few had to earn such respect over time.
“It’s Julien Delacroix, Herr Brandt.”
“Well, I must say I’m not totally surprised. Forgive me, Julien, but I’m in a meeting at present. I would prefer to call you back.”
“That may be too late, sir. I’ve just landed in Lyon airport and I anticipate being detained once I clear customs. Sorry to have called at a bad time.”
“I see. In that case, let me walk to my office before we continue.”
The minute and a half seemed like twenty.
“I saw the statement you made as you left the conference, and Waverly’s rebuttal to the press. But I didn’t think the fallout would extend to such melodrama. Please continue.”
“Well, neither did I, and yet I should have. I have to be brief. I have a memory stick which may explain why I said what I did and now find myself in this predicament. It’s a copy. I wondered if it would be of interest.”
“Mmm, that is a tricky one. Of course I’m fascinated by what could be on there, but, as to any other value it could have, or whether I could actually use it, is questionable in both a practical and ethical sense.”
“Yes, I can see that. However, it may have implications you should be aware of, particularly for the Mars mission.”
“That would validate my interest but not my interference in any wrangling between NERO and our paternalistic government spin doctors. However, there could be another way to look at this.”
“You think so?”
“You could work for me.”
“In what capacity?”
“If you are sure this information on offer has implications for our Mars mission, I’d be stupid to ignore it. You would be responsible for heading up a programme to neutralise the very same implications.”
“What about legal aspects? Contractual stuff, and most importantly the timescale? I don’t know what is waiting for me out in the concourse.”
“Well, let me think. Your dismissal was announced on television, so the reason for, and implementation of that decision cannot be disputed. You are, in employment terms, already a free agent. My legal staff will sort out the detail with NERO, boring pension rights, that kind of stuff. NERO has a very weak case if they attempt to block this, but they will undoubtedly try. Leave that with me. On the timescale front, I will send you an offer of employment by text after this conversation. It will of necessity be a broad brush remit and if you can send me your acceptance by return, I can get my people on to it. They will need to slap injunctions on NERO with regard to proprietary knowledge from our side, blah-blah. This should shake their tree, keep them busy, and persuade them to back off the Stasi attitude, at least for now. How confident are you that you can get past any awaiting search with the memory stick?”
“It’s probably the one thing I’d given most thought to in the last few hours. I sent a copy to a safe location as a backup. I thought I’d need it if NERO took me to court.”
“In that case, I suggest you voluntarily hand the one in your possession over, rather than them finding it. Make some mileage out of declaring that although you were treated like a criminal, not assumed to be innocent until proven otherwise, and yet they didn’t discover the stick amongst your effects. Your honesty is validated and at the same time their credibility suffers. I mustn’t know of any of this just yet. Look, I’ll delay my employment offer until well after you do return the memory stick. I had no knowledge of its existence when I saw Waverly explain your status as unemployed. Send the phone you are using right now to me. I have people who can clean it up in a way which means this call never took place. I have a telecommunications company to take care of problems like this. Buy another phone at the airport if you need to for personal reasons but don’t contact me for twenty-four hours.”
“Ok, I think I understand all that. I will need this phone to speak to my wife whenever I get through any hoops NERO puts in my way, but they already cleared it in Osaka, so that shouldn’t be an issue. I’ll call you tomorrow when I’ve mailed this phone to you, and bought an unregistered one. Thanks for taking time to talk with me.”
“A pleasure, but don’t call your wife on that phone. If they have checked it out in Osaka they shouldn’t be given a second chance to make you the fall guy. Delete all the numbers of business contacts, including mine. Retain only the numbers of personal friends and family. Write my number down somewhere safe and then take out the sim card, flush it away. My people will take it from there and it removes the risk involved with mailing it to me. They may put surveillance on you, even after a search. If they do ask for the phone, tell them that the Osaka team must have taken it, but make sure you offer the memory stick before they search you. It’s critical that you plant in their minds that they screwed up in the first search. Now, I hope you can accept what I’m about to suggest to you. I know you joined NERO because of their apparent neutrality in the greater scheme of things, so don’t let this break your moral stance, we hypocrites in the private sector are the only honest people left.”
*
Both Eugene and Sophie Delacroix had been unsettled by their mother’s uncharacteristically covert request to meet at Geraldine’s house. They’d spoken to one another after independently checking out Julien’s interview on YouTube.
Eugene was in his final year of a masters in microbiology and Sophie had already become an artist of some repute.
“What do you make of this Soph? It’s all a bit cloak and dagger if you ask me. Why Aunt Geraldine’s?”
“I’m a bit worried, Mum doesn’t do this kind of thing. She always like, over-elaborates. She can’t even keep our birthday surprises to herself. You do know Dad got fired I suppose?”
“Hell no, I’ve been in the lab all day. That might explain it then. He has always said he couldn’t talk to us about his work, except in general terms. He must have broken some regulation in his TV interview. Actually, I thought he was great, the way he walked out, wanting the public to know how their hard-earned tax is wasted by these freeloaders.”
“Of course, t
hat would explain everything, Gene. You just love a conspiracy, don’t you? I think we should get to Mum as soon as we can, she’ll be worried sick. She always goes nuts when she thinks the worst is about to happen. She never stops to like, wonder if there’s an obvious alternative. See you there.”
“Ok, I’m leaving in about forty minutes.”
*
The reception committee consisted of two men, both of whom Julien knew well. They were NERO security people, but ones he’d always got on with over the years.
“Hello, Mr Delacroix, I’m sorry about this but it’s part of our job. Please come with us to the car. Sir Ian wants to see you at the office. We managed to persuade him that it would not be in the interests of anyone to cause a scene at the airport.”
“So, you don’t want to frisk me for weapons, or a suicide vest?”
The second man couldn’t suppress a smile.
“We’ll take your word that you don’t pose a threat to life, sir. We don’t like this situation any more than you do, so thank you for your understanding. Shall we go?”
The fifty minute drive was quite convivial but without any further reference to anything NERO. Waverly had a man with him in the grandiose, pentagonal office; he was vaguely familiar.
“Please, take a seat, Julien.”
“Julien? Not Delacroix then? And also ‘please’? A hell of a contrast to your call when dismissing me by phone.”
“I’ve asked Henry Fellowes to join us. He’s one of our top legal men. I thought it would be best to get everything witnessed and documented. A certain sequence exists in our procedure for termination. It is important that it is implemented. Henry will…”
“Important for whom?”
“Look, you need to…”
“You fired me, without asking for an explanation for my actions, from halfway around the world. You had me placed under NERO arrest on foreign sovereign territory, strip searched and escorted under guard to Osaka airport. I only had the clothes I was wearing, and despite checking my phone, your people took the sim card. I couldn’t call my wife on my personal mobile phone. Your goons took my laptop, with any NERO information, including a memory stick with my presentation notes. You now have a fountain pen which belonged to my father. I was left there to check in for my long journey home with a couple of bank cards and an inoperable mobile. You told the world I’d been dismissed. That is now your problem, not mine. I’m not really interested in adhering to anything procedural within NERO, there are laws beyond this office with which even you have to comply.”