The Zul Enigma

by J M Leitch

  But how would he escape? The house was a fortress and once back inside he’d never get out. He thought about throwing himself out of the car but guessed the doors were fitted with special locks controlled by the driver. It left only one possibility. He’d have to make a run for it when he got out of the car in the driveway of the house and hope he could make it through the automatic gate before it closed. He knew the likelihood of out-smarting two professionals was slim, but he had to try. After all, he had nothing to lose.

  In the midst of formulating a tentative plan, his attention was grabbed by the sound of screeching tyres. Turning his head towards the noise he looked past Paul, through the passenger window, and saw a small truck hurtling towards the driver’s side of the car.

  ‘Fuck!’ Tom screamed and at the same instant Paul’s face took on a look of utter horror as he scrabbled to unbuckle his seatbelt and slide towards Carlos away from the advancing truck. But he wasn’t fast enough and the side of the car was driven in with a deafening crash. The airbags under the front seats whooshed into action but that didn’t help Tom who’s head, like Paul’s, whiplashed sideways into the car door window. They were both knocked unconscious.

  Carlos sat paralysed. The insides of his nostrils burnt with petrol fumes and the car began to fill with steam. Gathering his wits he undid the seatbelt and shook the shattered glass from his hair. He tried his door praying it would open. It did. Of course! Car locks automatically disengage when the airbags are deployed.

  Grabbing his briefcase he stumbled, shaken but uninjured, out of the wreck and onto the road. Passers by were already stopping to stare at the accident and the traffic in the street was coming to a standstill. The car had been propelled three hundred and sixty degrees into the middle of the road. But it was the contact point where the truck had slammed into it that was the main focus of attention, and no one noticed Carlos get out of the nearside door. He edged backwards onto the pavement, retreating step by breathless step until he merged into the anonymous expanding crowd. He backed up until he reckoned he was a safe distance away and then broke into a run, splashing through the slush, putting in as much distance as he could between himself and the accident.

  Too soon the cold dry air was burning his lungs with every breath and it felt like he was dragging solid tubes of lead along under him rather than legs. But he kept on running, zigzagging through the streets. This unexpected freedom was a gift and he was determined to get as far away as quickly as possible.

  He came out of a side street right next to a Metrorail station. Once in the open he was cautious about attracting attention. He slowed to a walk and took a look around, resisting the urge to double over and catch his breath. Instead he inhaled lungfulls of air through his nostrils expelling them through his mouth as he tried to slow the thumping of his heart. He noticed nothing suspicious and strode the last few yards towards the stairs and ran down them two at a time. He was pretty sure no one was following, but didn’t dare look back to check.

  It was already rush hour and the station was packed. His luck held. The next train arrived just as he walked onto the platform and he boarded in the midst of a crowd. He got off at Metro Center and feigning interest in the route map on display there waited until the other passengers had left the platform. No one paid him any attention and he was the only person who lingered. Pretty sure he hadn’t been followed he ran to catch up with the crowd and left the station surrounded by people to join the taxi queue. Within a few minutes his turn came and he jumped in a cab.

  ‘Greenbelt Park, Maryland.’

  ‘It’s a bit late to be goin’ hikin’, isn’t it?’ the driver asked as he clicked on the meter.

  Carlos grunted. ‘I’m meeting someone.’

  The cabby did a double take in the rear-view mirror but Carlos ignored him. He needed to think. The park was only a few minutes from Drew’s office and it would take around fifty minutes to get there in rush hour traffic. Drew normally worked till six and it was nearly five thirty. So Carlos had to contact him quickly. But how? He couldn’t risk using his iTab. And he didn’t dare call Drew’s cell or use his extension number at work. They’d be tapped and Barbara’s goons would trace him in an instant.

  Then it came to him. He changed the setting on his iTab and pressed random buttons making it beep. He wanted the cabby to hear. ‘Shit!’ he muttered.

  Carlos pushed more buttons.

  ‘Shit!’ he said again, louder.

  ‘Gotta problem?’ asked the cabby.

  ‘It’s my cell phone. I can’t dial out. Is there a pay phone nearby? I’ve got an urgent call to make.’

  ‘Sure, dude. I’ll pull in at the next gas station.’

  Carlos dialled the main Goddard switchboard number and asked for Helen Hunt in the Science Mission Directorate. Thank God Drew had mentioned her name the other night.

  ‘Hello, this is Helen Hunt. How may I help you?’

  ‘I need to get a message to Dr Drew Roberts.’

  ‘He’s in his office right now. I can transfer you.’

  ‘I’m calling from a pay phone and I need to be quick. Just tell him his old friend Charlie called and that I’m running late for our meeting. I don’t want to waste time trying to find his office so tell him to meet me in the parking lot at the main entrance to Greenbelt Park. I’ll be there in thirty minutes.’

  ‘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 the
y 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.’