Spirals

by Scott Bergin

  "What's he doing in the jungle?" Angela asked.

  "He was tracking down a story." Gabrielle replied.

  "Literally." Robert said, jumping in.

  "And WHEN he gets out of the jungle, he will be calling here." Gabrielle said, tiring of Robert's pessimistic attitude.

  "So you guys are just going to stay in London, waiting for him to call?" Angela asked.

  "No." Gabrielle replied. "We're going to stay right here in this office."

  "He won't try to call you at home?" Angela asked.

  "No." Gabrielle explained. "We agreed that we would meet back here. If he is having any difficulty getting back here, I suspect he would call here."

  "And you think he is going to have trouble getting back here?" Angela asked.

  "Oh, I guarantee he has a lot of trouble." Gabrielle replied.

  "What makes you say that?" Angela asked.

  Gabrielle didn't say a word. She reached into her small handbag and pulled out some papers. She held up two sets of visas for Angela to see, then she set them onto the counter. Next she removed a passport from her bag. She opened it for Angela to see. The picture inside was of Alex.

  "I guess he would have quite a bit of trouble leaving the country without those." Angela admitted.

  "My guess is that he'll call here to try to straighten things out." Gabrielle replied.

  "It makes sense." Robert said. "If he wants to prove to a foreign government why he is in their country, he would only have to call work to have them verify it."

  "Exactly." Gabrielle replied.

  "So what are you going to do when he calls?" Angela asked. "I don't know how to get in touch with Dana. I don't even know what country she's in."

  "That doesn't matter." Gabrielle said. "We're going to fly back to Africa, and pick him up."

  "You could have just called me from Africa and explained everything." Angela said. "I could have saved you a lot of miles."

  "That's what I suggested." Robert said.

  "You should have listened to the man." Angela replied.

  "I'm afraid you wouldn't have liked it if I had done that." Gabrielle said.

  "Why not?" Angela asked.

  "Because we are going to stay here all night." Gabrielle explained. "I don't want Alex calling in the middle of the night, and leaving a message on the machine."

  "We're staying up all night?" Robert asked.

  "No." Gabrielle replied. "We're just going to unplug the machine, and sleep near the phone."

  "Thank god." Robert replied. "I thought you had just forgotten to tell me that we'd be staying up for three days."

  "Three days?" Angela asked.

  "That's when he gives up hope on Alex." Gabrielle said, motioning to Robert.

  "That ain't giving him much time." Angela replied.

  "He's been gone for nearly a week." Robert said.

  Angela looked to Gabrielle for confirmation. Gabrielle nodded her head. What they were all thinking, but none wanted to admit, was that it was starting to look grim. A week was a long time for someone to be missing, especially in a foreign country filled with wild animals.

  "He'll make it out." Angela said, though she couldn't even convince herself.

  "I only hope he does it in the next three days." Gabrielle said. "Or I don't know how he'll be getting this."

  Gabrielle held up the passport one last time. She glanced at Alex's picture, then closed it. For the first time, she was starting to realize the possibility that they might not be returning to Africa again. Gabrielle held the passport to her chest and embraced it, as if it actually contained a part of Alex. Upon noticing that the two were staring at her, she released her grip on the passport. Then, Gabrielle gentle tossed the passport toward the counter. The passport seemed to hang in the air before gently coming to rest on the counter.

  Chapter 40

  April 17

  2:05 p.m.

  Libreville, Gabon

  The passport landed with a small thud. Alex looked down at it, sitting beside him on the bed. When he looked up, the assistant ambassador was at the door to the hallway.

  "You understand that the passport is only a temporary one." The assistant ambassador said.

  "I understand." Alex replied.

  "It will get you out of this country." He explained. "It will get you into France as well. If you stay in France beyond a week, you'll need a real passport before they let you back into England."

  "I don't think that will be a problem." Alex said. "I can probably have my passport brought to me in France."

  "It doesn't matter much to me." The man said. "After tonight, you're not my problem."

  "What about tomorrow?" Alex asked.

  "Didn't I tell you?" The man asked.

  "No." Alex said. "Tell me what?"

  "I managed to get you on a plane out tonight." He replied. "It's not a direct flight, but it's the fastest way you can get to France from here. You leave here at eleven thirty, and you'll get to Paris at nine in the morning. Your ticket is waiting to be paid for at the airport."

  "I don't know how to thank you." Alex said.

  "Actually, there is a way." The man explained. "If you could talk to the press. Tell them your story."

  "Sure." Alex said. "May I ask why?"

  "Well, you are an American." The man replied. "It would make us look at little better down at the embassy, and they'd stop bothering us with questions."

  "No problem." Alex told him. "Just as soon as I make one telephone call."

  The assistant ambassador thanked Alex again, then made his way out into the crowd. As he tried to close the door, Alex could hear him announcing that there was going to be a press conference in a couple of minutes. Alex was thankful that the new tailor had already come and gone. The tan cotton suit Alex now wore was infinitely better looking than the hideous leisure suit he had been enduing for the past few hours. Not only was it more appealing to the eye, but it fit exceptionally well. After the man finally got the door closed, Alex made certain to lock it.

  Alex picked the phone up off the night stand. He called down to the front desk. He gave the clerk a long distance number for him to call. Alex listened to the man dial the number, then talk with the long distance operator. Eventually, they stopped talking and another phone started ringing.

  "World Portraits. This is Angela speaking. How may I help you?" Came the response from the other end.

  "Angela, it's Alex." He replied.

  "No shit!" She yelled. "Are you serious?"

  "Yes." Alex replied. "I have got something really important that I have to explain."

  "Hang on." Angela said. "I got someone who wants to talk to you."

  Alex could not believe that Angela was going to put him on hold. He guessed that Dana Barlow was about to get on the other end of the line. She would drill him for all the information he had, after she made sure that it was not a collect call. Only after she was through, would he be able to explain what he wanted. Alex wasn't looking forward to speaking with Dana, but he didn't mind her as much as Gabrielle did.

  "Hello?" Came a soft voice from England.

  "Hello." Alex said. He knew that the voice was not Dana's, though he couldn't quite place it.

  "Alex!" The voice screamed.

  "Gabrielle!" He hollered back, realizing who it was.

  "Where are you?" Gabrielle asked, still excited.

  "I'm still in Africa." Alex replied. "How did you get to England so fast?"

  "I flew back with a wealthy businessman." She explained. "If you tell me where you are, we'll come down and get you."

  "I'm in Gabon." Alex said. "But there is no need to come down and get me. I already have a flight out in a couple of hours."

  "Are you still on his trail?" Gabrielle asked.

  "I lost him days ago in the jungle." Alex replied.

  "That won't make Robert too happy." She said.

  "Robert?" Alex asked.

  "The wealthy businessman with a vested interest in finding T
homas." Gabrielle explained.

  "Well, then this will make him happy." Alex replied. "I know where he is heading, and I think we can still get there ahead of him."

  "Where?" Gabrielle asked.

  "France." Alex replied. "Get there as soon as you can. My plane arrives in Paris at nine tomorrow morning."

  "How do you know?" Gabrielle asked.

  "Because, I checked the flight schedule." Alex said.

  "That's not what I meant." Gabrielle replied.

  "I know." Alex said. "But I thought it might make you smile."

  "It did." Gabrielle admitted. "Why France?"

  "Something I discovered back in Cameroon." Alex replied. "I found a coin from France in his hotel room. Since he is afraid of flying, we should still be able to beat him back to France. Then we can catch him when he tries to enter the country."

  "Sounds like a good plan." Gabrielle said. "Do you think we can pull it off?"

  "I know we can beat him back to France." Alex assured her. "I'm almost positive we can find out where he lives in France."

  "How are we going to do that?" Gabrielle asked.

  "That expensive computer equipment had to come from somewhere." Alex replied. "Probably from that Catherine."

  "Who?" Gabrielle asked.

  "When I searched his hotel room." Alex explained. "I found a piece of paper that read: For me, Catherine. How nice."

  "You think he's married?" She asked.

  "Maybe." Alex replied. "Maybe he's just living with someone named Catherine. Either way, it might help us find him."

  "I wish we could have found out what that page was, back in the museum." Gabrielle said.

  "When we get to Paris, we'll have my film developed." Alex said. "That should help us determine what the page is."

  "You mean." Gabrielle said, then paused in disbelief.

  "I got pictures inside the museum." Alex said. "I got a shot of the page zoomed in enough to read it. Unfortunately, I didn't get one of his face before I got caught."

  "You still have it?" Gabrielle asked.

  "Yeah." Alex said. "When Thomas caught me, I had already switched rolls. He had no way of knowing that. All he destroyed was a camera full of unexposed film."

  "You are so smart." Gabrielle said, overjoyed.

  "Lucky is more like it." He replied, reminding her how close they had both come to dying.

  "We'll see you in Paris tomorrow." Gabrielle said. "At Orly, or de Gaulle?"

  "At de Gaulle, I think." Alex replied.

  "Call here when you know for sure." Gabrielle replied. "And I'll call in the morning to find out which airport."

  "Okay." Alex said. "I'll leave a message."

  "I'll see you in the morning." Gabrielle said. "Until then, be careful."

  "Far more careful then I've been." Alex assured her.

  Alex hung up the phone, after the line fell dead. He wanted to tell her how much he missed her, and how he felt. Somehow he felt that Robert was in the room, preventing her from talking openly. She hadn't said much, and that was quite unusual for her, especially considering that he had been missing for days. Alex convinced himself that she didn't want to say too much over the phone. Maybe she didn't want to start rumors in front of Angela, or maybe she thought that he might be calling from a police station, or some other recorded phone. Alex was certain that things would be different when he got to Paris.

  Placing the phone back onto the night stand, Alex knew what he had to do next. He got off the bed, and went to the door. The reporters flooded his room. Lights and cameras flowed in an endless stream into the room. Within minutes, the room was turned into a press conference. Alex sat on the edge of the bed and told his story. He told a fantastic lie about a plane going down into the jungle. With the pilot dead, he had to make his way out of the jungle. He was going to tell them that he made it out of the jungle alone, but he felt he owed it to Fimyany to include him. However, he left out the part where they killed a little girl. The rest he told, including how Fimyany had died to get him out of the jungle. The reporters seemed to buy it. In fact, they loved it. When he was through telling his story, he asked if there were any questions. Alex expected to have to defend his story, like he had with the assistant ambassador. He was shocked at how considerate the reporters were. They all seemed sympathetic toward his ordeal, and asked mainly questions about how he felt during his time in the jungle. The rest of the questions were about simple clarifications, like how long he was in the jungle and how large the raft was. Alex didn't mind answering the questions at all. When it was all over, a half hour later, Alex was surprised at how well the whole thing went. One reporter even offered to take him out to dinner, to discuss his adventures. Alex knew that he had nothing better to do until his flight. After seeing how the rest of the journalists treated him, he accepted the reporter's invitation.

  Chapter 41

  April 17

  11:48 p.m.

  On Board Flight 603 From Gabon to Mali

  The plane leveled its ascent. The seven forty seven's seatbelt light went off. Alex didn't bother taking his off. He simply leaned his seat back and tried to relax. Alex's first thoughts were of Gabrielle. He missed her while he was in the jungle. He even wondered if she was what he missed most. Alex was finally able to admit to himself that he was falling for her. It had been years since he felt for someone so strongly. The last person he could recall caring so much about was Maria Douglas, his high school sweetheart. Alex couldn't imagine what brought her into his mind. He hadn't seen her since their graduation, that was nearly fourteen years ago. Alex tried to clear her from his mind, because leaving her was the one mistake that he regretted in his whole life. He was certain that he would not make the same mistake with Gabrielle.

  Alex focused his attention out the window beyond his right shoulder. The wing of the plane was visible in the flashing lights. Alex stared at the wing as clouds obscured it, then vanished, revealing it again. The pattern of flashing lights against the dark wing was enticing, and Alex somehow felt compelled to watch. He was afraid to turn away. As if there was something he was supposed to see on the wing. Then he saw something he never thought he would see. During one of the pulses of light, he saw part of the wing shear off. It was only a small piece, about one square foot. The piece was torn from the back of the wing, at least half way between his window and the tip. Alex immediately called a stewardesses over. He pointed it out to her, and she looked out the window. She explained that she had very bad eyesight, and could not see what he was referring to. She also asked if Alex wanted another stewardess to come over and take a look. Alex instructed her to do so. He looked back out the window, and wondered if Thomas' fear of flying was justified. The plane was thousands of feet over some remote part of Africa, and it was starting to come apart.

  He continued to stare at the wing, as the plane began to experience turbulence. The wing bounced up and down outside Alex's window. It pivoted up and down, at the spot where the piece had been torn. The wing buckled, and the tip bent upward forty five degrees. The plane banked hard to the right. Alex was unsure if the wing buckled due to the turn, or if the plane turned due to the buckle in the wing. Seconds later, he got an answer. The wing folded onto itself. The tip of the wing just missed Alex's window. The plane banked even harder to the right. It also began to lose altitude rapidly. Alex wished he had been as afraid of flying as Thomas. People and luggage began spilling into the isle to Alex's left. He was surprised to see that no one was screaming. They all seemed to accept the fact that the pilot was turning the plane in circles, without anything being wrong. Alex didn't want to incite a riot, so he kept quiet as well. He stared out the window, which was now almost below him.

  The end of the wing tore itself free from the plane, and smashed into the widows behind Alex. Instantly, the cabin began losing pressure. Oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling, but that didn't help those who were slammed against the tiny windows, and knocked unconscious. With the loss of pressure, and the wing, the plane
began to descend more rapidly. The passengers were still not chaotic. Alex was convinced that they must be in shock. The oxygen masks over their faces probably helped to keep them quiet as well. The noise coming through the shattered windows was so strong it hid any scream that might have otherwise been heard.

  Alex spotted another stewardess walking past him. As she walked by, he tried to read her name tag. The plane rolled sharply to the right, and she was dumped into his lap. Her slender body seemed to float over the seats. He was caught off guard by her, and he let her head hit the window. Three inches in front of his face was her name tag.

  "Sorry, Maria." Alex said, reading her name tag.

  The woman pulled herself off the window, and stared him in the eyes. Alex could not believe that he was staring at Maria Douglas. She looked older, but he knew it was her. Her long black hair was unmistakable, as were her vibrant green, cat like eyes. Alex had never seen eyes like that since Maria's, and he doubted if anyone else could have eyes like hers. Alex had no doubt, it had to be Maria Douglas. He wondered if he might be getting delirious from the oxygen mask. After taking off the mask, he found himself still staring her in the face. Alex quickly checked her hands, no rings. He didn't know what she had been up to for the past fourteen years, but she was still available. He was about to ask her if she even recognized him, when she spoke.

  "What have you done to us, Alex Taylor?" She yelled, above the howling wind from the rear seats.

  "What are you talking about?" Alex replied, looking out the window. "I didn't do this."

  "You have sent us spiraling toward disaster!" Maria yelled. "You knew what was happening, and you didn't try to stop it!"

  "I didn't know the plane was going to crash!" He hollered back.

  "You didn't see how it is all connected?" She asked.

  "What are you talking about?" Alex replied.

  "The spiraling water in the jungle." Maria said. "And that tree trunk, it was no coincidence."

  "How could you possibly know about all that?" Alex demanded.

  "It is all related." She replied. "We are connected, just as you are connected to Thomas. The sooner you accept that, the less likely we are to die together in a spiraling plane crash."