Chapter 4 III

Source

Footsteps behind me, whispered words:
 

-- I like the version with the seaman better -- Those where the words I was hoping for. Had it been

--It would have been more powerful of a message had they included a reference to a submarine-- I would have had to turn around, walk down the street without looking back and fly back to my life and forget all this... and perhaps expect a new contact.

In any case, thing were looking up, so we exchanged a couple of muffled commentaries while we walked along, or I walked along him, towards the opposite end of the room from the entrance. There a small distribution hall let you access to the toilets on one side but my guide lead the way up some relatively steep stairs.

 
Not only were they steep but also rather narrow and I had to walk a little behind my guide, and they were carpeted too, which made me sneeze. When we reached the landing, I could feel my heart beating on my temples. I wish to think it was excitement and not lack of physical form. I had not had yet the chance to have a good look to my contact, however there had been not a chance for it

The landing lead to a corridor, which was also not on the wide side. The figure ahead of me opens a dark door in the also dark paneled corridor and turns around towards me.

--Please-- he said, signaling me to enter the room. Friendly face with friendly smile. Not too much teeht. small eyes, wide appart and dark which also seemed to smile.






I entered the room, dominated by an oval table in dark wood, same tone as panels and doors... there was a whole damn forest in this building. Anyway, sitting with their backs to the windows and faces towards the door there were two men.

One of them looked in charge, he looked about 50, fairly long white hair and pale blue eyes. He smile weakly, with his eyes on me and introduced himself as Alfred Vonsteinfeld, the one who had guided me in, now on my side after closing the door behind us, introduced himself too, as Jim Petersen and the third one, a big bloke of big hands and dark short hair, with a straight look behind thick lenses turned to be James Wooldrow.

After handshakes and all that, we took a sit around the table, almost equally spaced. And we got to it. The three of them were responsible of the finances of Boone's and Co. Project. They were based in London and they were busy with building and maintaining complex networks of companies in different convenient locations. On the other hand, the respectability and legality was ensured through a totally legal front, Green Island, which was in reality little else than a mailbox in London. Green Island was necessary to make purchases, manage sites and perform certain tasks. Therefore one of the first actions of Geen Island to support the European Project, as Boone was so keen on referring to, was to buy themselves an engineering company. This would enable it to create a department dedicated to the engineering tasks of the project, which were not little, and this is where I came in.

The matrix company they chose to buy was called InGnio InGnieros and it was based in Madrid, Spain. The buyer (Green Island) would do little changes there, basically they would create a small separate department for "special developments", some sort of skunk works, subdivided in small areas. The rest of the company would keep working the same way. Obviously all that this special department would deal with would be the technical aspects of the project. Much of the manpower needed would be part of the project, but not necessarily and not from the beginning.

There was also the possibility to transfer part of the work from the new "Special Developments" dept to the conventional workflow of InGnio InGenieros, but financing would be done through Green Island.




"Special Developments" would be created with a structure that ensured that the small subdivisions could work separately and independently, but they could also be arranged to work together. The so called Technical Committee would be setting the targets and priorities and thus creating sub-projects. The workflow was that each package would be assigned to a ad hoc analysis team to create a concept solution and then different packages would be created, from technical solutions to logistics or budgeting. These budgeting would be validated and passed on directly to Green Island, which would chalk them up to clients, which where really companies controlled by Green Island, which would then contract InGnio InGnieros to perform the task. There would be of course real outsourcing, which would be handled by Green Island.



So, the first task was getting the technical committee to get to work, so we needed people to get on it. Recruitment was on the top of the to do list.

Parallely there is the point of assembling and acquiring resources and supplies for the future. The main Idea of the project, phase 1, was to gather and train the participants, and pile resources. Phase 2 was to transport them to a new location and settle there. Thus a few work groups were to be commissioned to create these concepts

•  Shipping and Transport committee: Transport ships 
• Vehicle Design comittee
• Housing and urbanisation committee
• Energy and resources committee
• Weaponry and defence committee
• Education committee
• Internal security committee to develop procedures and maintain secrecy while the project was underground 
• Storage and housing committee, to allocate storage of resources and provide accommodation for those relocation, while the project was underground
• Logistics committee, which would take it from the previous, once things go underway
• Production committee, to ensure that a given range of items could be produced and serviced, even under the collapse of society

I would be tasked to create them and find the right people to run them, as well as following them. The timeline was not entirely under my control but I would get milestopnes from Jim Patterson, who would be my reference point for this. On financing, personnel or other ressources needed, James Wooldrow would me my ontact.

The purchase of InGnio InGnieros was almost completed. The Idea was that I would officially change job in about a month, and I would take the responsability ofr SD, the new Special Developments division based in Cologne, Germany. That was because the headquarters of InGnio InGnieros was there. Until then I was supposed to work on my own training and to prepare candidates to start populating the different committees.

Little by little, the meeting was reaching its end. I had a lot of stuff to get done. First, my new work contract would be delivered next week. Then, I had a lot of people to talk to... into a little new adventure.

Capítulo 4 X

Me detuve entre dos coches aparcados y me giré, ligeramente irritado. Al fin y al cabo la calle era suficientemente ancha como para un coche, que era como sonaba el vehículo. El vehículo en concreto era un corsa C negro. O, según el fabricante,  MIDNIGHT BLACK MET. Pero eso lo sabría después cuando mirase en el compartimento del motor. En aquel momento era negro y la cara sonriente de Jesús era visible en el asiento del conductor, con la ventanilla a media altura. Sabía que lo hacía para evitar ser reconocido en los vídeos de seguridad. El Opel siguió moviéndose unos cuantos metros, simplemente rodando, y liberándome así de quedarme encerrado entre los coches aparcados y el Opel. Crucé al otro lado y caminé paralelo al Corsa hasta poder abrir la puerta del pasajero y sentarme. Sin mirar hacia mí ni esperar a que me pusiera el cinturón, Jesús arrancó. No de una forma brusca, por cierto. Al cabo de pocos metros giró para entrar en la calle principal, aunque yo no estaba prestando atención. Después de conseguir embutir la mochila entre mis piernas, estaba luchando por enganchar el cinturón, que estaba empeñado en quedarse a media altura.

Cuando estaba compuesto y miré hacia adelante, Jesús estaba tomando la curva hacia la M-40 dirección sur, dejando los rascacielos de Madrid a nuestras espaldas. Alrededor de la carretera, campos de alta hierba amarilla estaban marcados por ocasionales edificios. Jesús pulsó el botón de pausa en la radio y el ritmo de Madness, my girl llegó a un volumen razonable desde los altavoces. Por alguna razón que desconocía Jesús era un fan de Madness y tenía todos sus discos. Tenía mucha más música, pero siempre parecía estar escuchando Madness. Observé el USB que sobresalía del panel frontal de la radio y suspiré.

En pocos minutos le expliqué mi conversación con Natalia y los dos acordamos que posiblemente la gente de Madrid no estaba demasiado contenta con el trato y querían saber quién era yo. De todas formas acordamos que iría y el sábado empezaríamos a trabajar en mi lista de contactos, preparando el primer reclutamiento. Por unos minutos rodamos en silencio hacia el sur, atravesando el largo atardecer de Madrid en aquel principio de verano. Mi mente saltaba de unas ideas a otras mientras los primeros acordes de "`land of Confusion"' empezaban a sonar. Parecía impensable que aquella ciudad que se extendía a lo lejos pronto dejaría de estar cocida bajo el sol para convirtiese en una llanura inhóspita y azotada por vientos gélidos. También parecía impensable en lo que yo me estaba metiendo...

... This is the world we live in
And these are the hands we're given
Use them and let's start trying
To make it a place worth living in.
...

Cuando llegamos a la ciudad, no lejos de mi piso, pero no muy cerca, Jesús ejecutó la maniobra que habíamos practicado muchas veces. En una zona de poca circulación, después de un giro, me bajé del coche. Jesús apenas frenando siguió con su camino. Yo crucé la carretera rápido y seguí por un camino sólo para peatones, cruzando un parque. H de reconocer que el parque era diminuto y en pocos pasos estaba entre altos edificios residenciales construidos en los anos 60. Pero yo había hecho mis deberes y conocía aquella zona como la palma de mi mano. Minutos después caminaba a buen paso por la Avenida Bucamanga hacia casa. Aquella noche, mientras oía el extrano sonido del metro transmitido por el aire todavía cálido, pensaba en cómo iban a salir las cosas...

Al llegar a casa me encontré a Diego cocinando. Había abierto una lata de bonito con tomate y lo estaba sirviendo cuidadosamente en un plato. El plato era posiblemente el plato más pequeno que teníamos y era el que Diego en sus buenos días ponía debajo de su bol de cereales. Diego parecía preocupado de que la lata tuviese más dimensiones de las normales, pues, con la parte abierta más o menos hacia abajo, intentaba mirar dentro, y hacia arriba. Para no alejar demasiado la lata del plato Diego estaba en una posición semiencogida. Cuando hacía estas cosas se concentraba totalmente, por lo que era mejor dejarle. Le saludé y fui a mi habitación a dejar las cosas.

Cuando salí, Diego seguía en la misma posición, pero apenas unas gotas de aceite caían.

-- Puedes dejar la lata en el fregadero, así es fácil de limpiar --
-- Buena idea! -- Como un origami, Diego se desdobló y dejó cuidadosamente la lata en el fregadero.
--Qué te cuentas? --
-- El fin de semana tengo que trabajar -- Diego me hablaba con el plato en la mano, en el medio de la cocina.-- Le he pedido a mi jefe que me devuelva el dinero del vuelo y me ha dicho que no --

Asentí con la cabeza, le dejé espacio para pasar y le dije -- Siéntate cómodo, voy a pillar algo de comer y ahora voy -- Con tantas cosas como estaban sucediendo en mi vida, no tenía demasiado tiempo para cocinar. Abrí el congelador con algo de esperanza, pero lo único que había allí era una bolsa de frío para cuando me destrozaba la rodilla corriendo y la bandeja de hielos que llenamos cuando nos mudamos, porque, según Diego, tener hielos siempre viene bien.

En el frigorífico la situación no estaba mucho mejor, pero había unas lonchas de queso y lo que había sobrevivido de un tomate. Cundo cerré la puerta del frigorífico pude escuchar a Diego en el salón, haciendo conversación.

-- ...y dice que por qué me va a tener que devolver el dinero si me paga las horas extras, es una vergüenza ...-- En mi armario tenía que haber algo de pan en lonchas, que resultó ser una rebanada y el final del paquete. Suspiré y corté el tomate en rodajas. En ese momento me dí cuenta de que no había visto a Diego calentar su cena.

-- Has calentado eso que te estás comiendo? --
-- No --
-- Por qué? --
-- No puedes meter una lata en el microondas -- respondió la voz cansada desde la cocina, mientras me limpiaba las manos con el trapo
-- Pero el plato lo puedes meter -- Cogí mi ídem y me dirigí al salón. No había recibido una respuesta y al salir por la puerta pude ver a Diego con la mirada fija en la puerta de la cocina.

Después de unos minutos de silencio, cuando yo ya me había sentado y estaba masticando diligentemente mi bocadillo, Diego se giró hacia mí con ojos vidriosos. Con la  boca llena, puse la mano más o menos a la altura donde se suponía que hablar era educado y le dije:

-- Horas extra, vuelo --

La vida retornó a sus ojos y durante los siguientes 20 minutos Diego me explicó lo que pensaba de la sociedad moderna y el hecho de haber estudiado y tener entusiasmo y entrega en el trabajo para no poder disfrutar de la vida. A la vista de las circunstancias decidí no alterarle más con mis noticias.

Capítulo 4 IX

Después de la reunión tuve una conversación con el responsable de los subcontratados. Traté de explicarle la situación. Realmente no había nada que yo pudiese hacer. En cierta medida me sentía como si estuviese traicionándole. Los muchachos habían hecho un gran esfuerzo. Sus condiciones no eran especialmente buenas. La sala donde trabajábamos estaba protegida por una cerradura electrónica. Ésta se activaba con la tarjeta. Los baños estaban fuera, así que había que salir y entrar cada vez... Para ellos, cada vez que abrían para salir, el sistema descontaba del tiempo de trabajo que estaban fuera.

Aquel lunes salí temprano del trabajo, cogí el metro hacia el norte. Al salir del metro, me encontré en una calle relativamente ancha, con edificios a ambos lados, de media altura, en su mayor parte de ladrillo rojo y ajado por el tiempo. En cada uno de los edificios había varias empresas. Lo que no había era mucho aparcamiento, La acera era estrecha y entre la acera y la carretera había gran número de coches apartados, en batería contra la acera y otra línea a lo largo de la carretera, en paralelo, Las oficinas de InGnio InGnieros estaban a casi un kilómetro de distancia desde el metro, pasado un colegio no muy distinto al colegio donde yo mismo había estudiado. Los barrotes en la verja pintados de verde, capa sobre capa hasta que los perfiles del metal habían perdido su definición. Polvo de la carretera, de los ladrillos y de los parterres llenos de tierra rojiza y vacíos de plantas volaba con los coches que circulaban a más de 50 km/h y se depositaba en todas las superficies posibles.

En algún momento del pasado el edificio de cuatro alturas había tenido portero. La puerta se abrió cuando pulse el llamador. La portería estaba cerrada, el cristal cubierto por un cartón amarillento. El ascensor era nuevo, Thyssen, con  una luz azul que parecía fuera de lugar. Se cerró con un suspiro y una voz suave me informó de que estábamos subiendo.

La recepción era diminuta y estaba desierta. Mi contacto, de personal, vino a recogerme. Una chica morena de unos 30 y tantos, con un traje con chaqueta crema y zapatos a juego bajos. Tópico?, quizás, pero por teléfono sonaba dulce y divertida, por lo que me había esperado otra cosa. Le seguí hasta una sala de reuniones con una mesa baja y sillas mullidas, en la que colgaba un poster de InGnio InGnieros. Cumpliendo con el protocolo, me ofreció algo de beber y acepté agua agradecido. Aunque no estaba especialmente nervioso (al fin y al cabo, hasta ahora todo era muy normal) el polvo se hacía notar y mi garganta estaba seca.

Natalia volvió con el agua y se sentó diametralmente opuesta a mi. Se sentó en un taburete que estaba junto al cartel y, a pesar de que no podía medir más de 1,50 m, su cabeza estaba más alta que la mía, lo que me obligó a reclinarme un poco hacia atrás. En tono distendido repasó el tema de la documentación y mis tareas. estaría a cargo de un equipo de ingeniería dependiente directamente de la matriz Green Island cuyo nombre sería "`Special Developments"'. La base estaría en Colonia y yo tendría dos semanas de aclimatamiento. Me harían un hueco en la sala común. En los próximos días tendríamos una reunión extra con mi contacto en InGnio InGnieros y con el jefe de ingeniería de Green Island.

Charlamos un poco más, poco a poco derivando hacia temas más banales hasta que me invitó a pasarme, el fin de semana, por un evento de "`team Building"' que organizaba la empresa. Por una parte sentí el impulso de preguntarle si ella iba a estar allí. Por otra no quería parecer un imbécil, así que me decidí por la carta del inseguro y de disimularlo bien, así que simplemente le pregunté en qué consistía y dónde iba a tener lugar. Dado que mi tiempo libre estaba dictado por Jesús y sus entrenamientos, posiblemente no tendría tiempo.

Después pasamos a lo interesante, que era la oferta de trabajo en sí misma. El sueldo que me ofrecían era de 50000 Euros brutos anuales, lo cual era una salvajada comparado con los 32000 que yo estaba cobrando en aquel momento, pero al fin y al cabo se suponía que yo iba a tomar cierta responsabilidad en la empresa. Hasta cierto punto daba igual, puesto que después de todo la civilización iba a ser destruida por las fuerzas de la naturaleza y todo eso... pero en el caso de que no, el dinerito en el banco no me iba a hacer daño. No se trataba de dudas, pero había estado pensado bastante en un "`Plan B"' por si todo aquello no salía bien y hasta dónde yo podía no involucrarme en algo ilegal... en caso de que salieran mal dadas. No era algo especialmente secreto. Había hablado de ello con Boone, quien en un primer momento se limitó a sonreír y asentir con la cabeza: -- con el tipo de persona que estamos buscando, es normal que salga este tema-- Puesto que la mayor parte de los integrantes del proyecto pensaba así, querían hacerlo todo lo más legal posible. Con lo cual, en caso de que las predicciones no fuesen mas que un montón de estiércol binario o que finalmente la civilización no terminase en la alcantarilla, yo habría hecho un movimiento acertado con mi carrera.

El siguiente punto era cuándo empezar. En un primer momento yo me había hecho expectativas de empezar cuanto antes, pero las cosas de palacio van despacio y la empresa estaba posponiendo todo un poco. Al fin y al cabo las oficinas de Colonia aún no estaban listas y no estaba claro qué tenía la empresa que aportarme a mí. De eso se trataba la reunión con los jefes precisamente. mi nueva amiga no sabía nada al respecto y no parecía tener demasiado interés, lo cual quizás era comprensible. Al fin y al cabo ella no había tenido que seleccionarme y, ahora era claro para mí, El objetivo de la reunión era saber quién era yo y de qué iba aquello. Tal y como yo lo entendía, Green Island había requerido mi participación y la apertura de "`Special Developments"' directamente bajo control de GI. No podía imaginar que la situación hiciera muy feliz al director de InGnio InGnieros.

Después de aclarar los puntos de las vacaciones y demás, acordamos que firmaría el contrato al día siguiente de la reunión y que la reunión tendría lugar a principios de la semana que viene. En este contexto, cuando me recordó la cita del sábado, entendí que posiblemente ella no estaría allí, sino el director. Decepcionante, pero el inseguro imbécil había acertado. Me despedí con un apretón de manos tipo pez muerto por parte de Natalia, pero con una bonita sonrisa. También me ofreció una bolsa de tela con "` el pack de comienzo en InGnio InGnieros"' a lo que respondí con cierta sorpresa, que se acentuó cuando la bolsa golpeó la mesa y produjo un horrible ruido de cristal. --Hay una taza, has de tener cuidado! --
Con la bolsa de tela segura en mi mochila, me encaminé hacia el ascensor y dejé que la entrevista pasara de forma acelerada por mi cabeza. Abrí el portal de aluminio y salí a la calle, donde la nube de polvo no había decrecido. La acera era estrecha entre los coches aparcados y la pared, así que ante la aparente falta de tráfico decidí circular por el asfalto  hasta una zona con acera más ancha. Al cabo de unos pocos minutos un vehículo se acerco por detrás. Me pegué a los coches aparcados, pero aún así pude percibir como el vehículo frenaba hasta prácticamente detenerse.

Chapter 4 II

Alfred Vonsteinfeld was the name I had memorized. The hotel where the encounter was going to happen was a hotel near the Natural History Museum. It was probably not a Victorian building, but it certainly wanted to look like and on first impression it seemed to have its last renovation about that time. It had a generous entrance and reception area, in which there was an exhibition of WWII Propaganda. It was mean to commemorate and celebrate the rediscovery of the famous "Keep Calm and Carry on" Poster, and it was organized by a society in the frame of "War Propaganda" and its effect on the population. It was something which, with the war in Afghanistan raging on, seemed to be very much an actual issue.


The exhibition gave me the cover I needed to get into the hotel, but obviously I had to get myself a little lost in the Natural History Museum. When you are in such a place, especially in such a big and convoluted one as the Museum in London, it is not odd to backtrack, turn around and sometimes follow an erratic path, that is no sensible path at all (look, dinosaurs!). This allows you to have a look at those who are around you and, eventually whether they are following you

 
After a couple of hours in the museum, which to some extent disappointed me a little because some of the exhibits were very old, I carried on with the plan. At the prearranged time I stopped at the prearranged place to get a coffee to go. Certain waypoints would help Jesús to track me more easily and, presumably, also would make it easier for him to check on my tail. Also it was a sign that I was going ahead with the rendezvous. Navigating from memory I managed to arrive in front of the hotel. I did my thing of reading the exhibition poster before the main entrance of the hotel while sipping that horrible coffee that made me think I would have to run in to the toilet instead, but instead I read it carefully and I strolled towards the entrance of the building  and climbed the few stairs that lead to he reception area. There, sitting behind the desk, a dark skinned man looked slightly bored. He had some cheap corporate tie over a gleaning white shirt. On seeing me he jumped into action, standing up and going through the motions.

I smiled shyly, or at least I hoped he would chalk my nervousness to shyness. He answered my question with detailed instructions on how to reach the exhibition, left on the reception and through a short and dark corridor up to a double door. I thanked his kindness with a smile, to which he replied and nodded, sending me on my merry way. I already knew that the exhibition was behind that door, housed in a somewhat longish room, with high windows on the left. What I did not know was that the rest was paneled on some dark wood and the flooring was white and black tiles. The exhibition was laid out in the middle of the room, along its longest axis  and also used the right wall, since there were no windows there. At first glance there seemed to be about 15 people in the room.

After a few steps I reached my target. A poster that represented a view over the icean, with a dark blue sea and a blood red sky. In the center, a dark shadow of a ship was sinking, bow first, stern in the air and the chimney still pouring black smoke, the same color as the ship. The motto was written in contrast and big letters Loose lips might sink ships. The simplicity of the message, the colors and generally the ambient is so potent was in many other posters of the time.

Capítulo 4 VIII

Al día siguiente el clima en la oficina no mejoró especialmente. A media manana recibí una llamada de la oficina central en Madrid de InGnio InGnieros. Una señorita encantadora del departamento de personal, Natalia, me llamó para comentarme que el contrato debería llegarme hoy en el correo, hablar de las fechas y de mi llegada  a Colonia. En principio, pasaría algunas semanas en Madrid, en sus oficinas, antes de irme a Colonia. El cuándo no estaba decidido del todo. Tenía que seleccionar a mi equipo.

Por la tarde me escapé temprano del trabajo y me pasé tres horas con Jesús montando la habitación con literas dos armaritos y, en la otra habitación, dos mesas de trabajo y un par de estanterías. Después seguimos trabajando un rato en mi lista de candidatos y cocinamos algo rápido en la cocina. Jesús no era del club de Diego, pero ciertamente era amigo del microondas. Con la única sartén que había en el piso y después de un salto al supermercado conseguí hacer algo de carne picada con verduritas y un poco de pasta.

Llegué a casa baldado, Jesús se había comprometido a fregar los platos y para cuando llegué, Diego dormía. Me dí una ducha rápida y me fuí a la cama.

El resto de la semana fue similar. Recibí finalmente el contrato de trabajo, lo firmé y lo devolví. Tuve una conversación con Diego, aunque no le conté que eventualmente me iría a Colonia y Jesús me llevó a correr un par de veces. El fin de semana estaría dedicado a planear los primeros reclutamientos.

El lunes comenzó movido en el trabajo. Además de los recortes que estaban por venir, el cliente estaba empezando a hacer preguntas incómodas a nuestra dirección. La respuesta de la dirección? más trabajo, pero  los recortes aún planificados, solo "`pospuesto"'. Después de nuestra reunión semanal, donde habíamos discutido un par de cambios. Los radiadores son relativamente delicados. Cuando el espacio entre las aletas, por donde normalmente circula el aire, se llena, la eficiencia del radiador disminuye notablemente. En ambientes con mucho polvo, el polvo puede compactarse y endurecerse. Al cabo de no tanto tiempo el radiador está totalmente atascado y el motor se sobrecalienta. Desgraciadamente este proceso puede ser relativamente rápido. Cuando el motor comienza a recalentarse, el sistema colapsa, el motor necesita más aire, con lo cual aún mas polvo entra y el motor se calienta aún más. Total, que es necesario hacer algo. En algunas zonas, los operadores han de desmontar el radiador, limpiarlo y volver a montarlo. Abrir el circuito de refrigeración es un lío. Allá donde hay mucho polvo, es difícil evitar que entre polvo en el circuito. EL polvo contiene compuestos de silicio, que son extremadamente duros... y destrozan las bombas y válvulas. Total que queríamos modificar el diseño para que fuese más fácil sacarlo. En el mejor de los casos podríamos colocar unas válvulas para evitar tener que vaciar el circuito y prevenir que entrase  polvo. El coste de las válvulas era más alto de lo que nos podíamos permitir. El coste de las modificaciones estaba extremadamente ajustado. Tendríamos que reducir costes en otras partes para poder instalarlas. Por otra parte, el argumento del jefe, aparte del coste, era que más componentes, más probabilidad de fallo. Estábamos a la búsqueda de algo barato, pero que no fallase. Pintan bastos.

Chapter 4 I

My to do list, after the conversation with Boone, was fairly simple: First to build a European net and second, to create an infrastructure to support the whole project.

For two weeks, I would meet with Jesús after work to learn the basics about counter vigilance, dead box letters and strategies to contact an unknown agent.
Saturdays was for me a free day. Sundays I took care of the "project". On the side I was putting together a list of people whose characteristics and traits would be useful to seed the European project. It was supposed to be as the branch to be transplanted, a picture from the current status of our society. For each of the candidates I had to fill up a form, plus the contact data and a list of traits and plus points. I would type all up and forward it to Jesús

His task, in this case, was to collect data and compile his report together with his recommendation, a pre analysis and data gathering if you wish. At the base, as Jesús called it, the same comitee that had approved the US team would go through it and take the final decision with regards to the candidate.

For what I got from Boone, the committee was  formed by  two psychologists, a mathematician and an ex-Army Sargent. Only afterwards I would learn that the second psychologist was Robert, a navy sailor who had sailed the world for 40 years... but that comes later.






The two weeks had been key to prepare myself for the first contact with the London team. On the one hand, I had learn a lot from Jesús but I had a lot to prepare and get the right mental attitude for what, at the end of the day, was going to be my first step into all this

  London, May 2009

The London trip was planned on the weekend. Jesús was coming along, but we would travel separately. He would shadow me and, all going well, we would not need to interact with each other at all.

When Friday arrived, I took my travel bag to work. Diego was used to me staying, and he would be the last leaving the house. He was close to go into shock when he realized he had to close the apartment. On Thursday evening he sat before me while I was making a sandwich to make a plan, What had to be unplugged, which doors had to be closed, whether the mat had to be sotored in... for the time he thought he was ready, I was done with my sandwich and I was more focused on my suitcase.




At 16:30 I turned off my computer, I said bye to my workmate with whom I shared my table and I bee lined for the tube, which was starting to be a little full, as people was gaining momentum for the weekend. Once the train left the city behind, there were still a lot of people, with suitcases, so it did not take a genius to presume they were flying out for the weekend... and to my disappointment, they were going straight to London.


At no time I saw Jesús, but that was the point in a way. On the other hand I was not stupid enough to look for him.


The flight was uneventful, the light coming through the window was that of a beautiful sunset and I decided to put some effor on relaxing with  ...And Justice for all on my mp3 player and reading Help, I am Being Held Prisoner by Donald E. Westlake. once crossed the many doors at the other side of the planes, I got myself armed with my Oyster Card and... soon it felt like in the Tube, back in Madrid because a lot of the people was the same. To a given extent, this trip was a sweet deal. I just had to take planes and trains and sit tight. The whole thing was planned meticulously(with lots of love by Jesús). On Thursday I had prepared my way to the hotel, what was fairly central and about two street away from where the meeting with my contacts will take place.

Chapter 4 b

The sovereign state of the islands had not enough income to keep an educational system or a social system worth mentioning. Having the expenditure for contracting a company to get all that fuel out was totally out of the question. They have tried to get it founded from the US and Japan, but they failed. 

Nevertheless, at the beginning of 2008, a company based in the US offered a deal that could not be ignored. Namely, they would perform the recovery operations at 0 cost, just they would keep it for themselves and would have total freedom what to do with it. The government of the islands would cede some land for a while for the whole operation, for storage and living quarters purposes.

We should probably go one step backwards here.  Even if it was not the main focus, many religious organizations keep active missions in the Pacific. They are quite zealous with "their" islands and do not support the souls of their congregations being plucked bare by capitalism, that is what they are there for. Also there were ecologist groups. That is a little broad, as there where the typical tree huggers, just living like parasites there, to marine biologists, most related to universities, that should probably be called conservationists. All of them were worried about the crude oil seeping from the tanks. Well, not that much for the religious bunch... they are not concerned about earthy things but selling tickets to paradise, but about the souls of the islanders being tainted with money and prosperity. The coming company had meetings with all the collectives.The cost would not be covered by the recovered oil as such. The business idea was a different one. The method they would use was not entirely new, but it would be sold like that, and as humanitarian relief operation. Publicity, a documentary and then sold overpriced 0.2 cans of "war oil" to collectors.

For the Japanese war veteran associations, this was a war cemetery  , for the US ones, too, but mostly of the enemy so it was too, a monument to the American Victory. So it would have to be done fast, fait accompli

At the end, even the most anti-everything accepted it, the mother ship should be moored outside the lagoon. The religious groups were happy that the contact of the company would be limited to a couple of local guides, which at any rate were almost lost through the dirty contact with the outside world and the needed bureaucrats.

 

All in all, in February 2009 two ships arrived to the atoll. The mother ship laid anchor outside the lagoon, but right at its entrance. The other ship moored next to the new pier at the space that was conceded for the operation. Eventually a small container village started to develop within the fenced area, which was connected to the next village through a tenuous road.  The locals noted that, irrespectively of color and size, all containers had a logo stenciled on the sides, about the size of a magazine.

All the movement would be done by sea. Once the base was completed, there was a rotation. The specialists that would perform the extraction arrived. Then also the filming got underway.

Chapter 4: Opening moves

South Pacific, February 2009

Between the tropics and the equator, there is a myriad of small rocky archipelagos. There are coral reefs that enclose lagoons and some formations still retain the rocky island or islands in the middle, leaving just the waters between the islands as a lagoon. they are mostly related with volcanic activity even though that might be long gone. They are mostly isolated from what we call "the modern world" and they are linked though small and simple airports and occasional shipping trade



Not all are inhabited and from those who are, the population lives off the tourism and exporting a few products, like crafts and fish products. Among these there is a mid sized atoll, which contains a big archipelago. At the height of activity, this atoll served as a base to the Imperial Japanese Fleet during WWII. The glory days ended a day of February in 1944 with the arrival of the US Attack Force 58 and their airborne bombs and torpedoes. Because of its location, this atoll was an advanced operation base for the IJF, which allowed them to comfortably resupply their vessels and shorten their operational lines. At a distance of 1000 km to New Ginny and abut 500 km to Micronesia, this atoll was near enough to be fairly easy to reach and far enough to be considered isolated.


Nowadays, glory days gone and all, the population peaked on less than 10000 inhabitants, much of it on the two biggest islands, whereas the third biggest is mostly left to birds. There is little infrastructure in the island, not much of it of modern age and all of it focused on tourism.


The proud vessels of the IJF are today a powerful diver magnet and thus the main income source for the locals. This explains a few things, as divers looking for this kind of mixture between history, wreckage exploring and wild nature are far in the spectrum from those whose adventure feeling is jump from one balcony to the next while being pissed drunk. So the economy is not what we would call booming. There was a caveat though. Among the wreckage there were several tankers and those which were not tankers or resupply ships , there where a lot of ships with full fuel tanks and carriers with extra fuel for planes and other land support ships with fuel for vehicles and more planes. After all those years, corrosion was starting to get to the tanks and leaks were almost of common nature. You could just remain floating mid way in height and see once in a while a dark waxy looking bubble making its way up towards the light.

Capítulo 4 VII

Era tarde cuando llegué a casa. Tenía hambre y después de saludar a Diego, que estaba despatarrado en el sofá viendo uno de esos documentales del Discovery Channel donde te muestran cómo se hace algo, narrado por un comentarista especializado en el seguimiento de grandes dramas... Por qué? bueno "` El cocinero servirá ahora los yogures en el plato. Si comete un error, los 200 invitados podrían intoxicarse y morir. Aún peor, en el caso de una elección errónea de los vasos para los yogures, éstos podrían explotar a causa del gradiente térmico, lanzando miles de astillas de cristal en todas direcciones..."'. Como tenía hambre, abrí la puerta de mi habitación y en un fluido movimiento, lancé mi mochila sobre la cama. Ya me había girado, cuando desde la oscuridad un satisfactorio "`boing"' confirmó que la bolsa había aterrizado como planeado.

-- Déjame pillar algo de cena y ahora voy -- dije como respuesta a los murmullos que llegaban desde el salón, y me dirigí a la cocina.

Bajo la zumbante luz blanca abrí el armario donde guardaba mi despensa seca, latas, café y similares. Cogí un punado de almendras y saqué una de mis raciones en tupper de sopa. En invierno solía hacer sopa los fines de semana, en la pota más grande que teníamos, que por cierto era bastante grande y posiblemente tenía 50 años y la dividía en tuppers de entre una y tres porciones y lo congelaba. Cierto es que nuestro congelador era diminuto y yo ocupaba prácticamente todo, pero Diego desconfiaba  los congeladores y de la comida congelada. Como el vetusto microondas había claudicado, incluso una pizza congelada tenía que ser cocinada en el horno. Diego y la cocina... bueno. Aún recuerdo su primera pizza congelada, cuando me preguntó cómo funcionaba el horno.

-- Éste dial de aquí controla la temperatura y este otro controla qué resistencias están activas. Cuando se apague la luz es que ha alcanzado la temperatura -- Alternaba su mirada entre mi persona y el horno. cuándo, ante su inactividad, moví los díales, Diego abrió los ojos aún más y con el sonoro clic al conmutar las posiciones de calentamiento dejó escapar un jadeo. Se pasó los 20 minutos que decían las instrucciones mirando por la ventana del horno, lo cual, para ser sincero, no me parece tan extrano, pues yo mismo lo hago cuando uso el horno. Aquel día, Diego se convirtió en un hombre, rezumaba orgullo e incluso llamó a su madre para contárselo.

-- Ma, hoy he hecho una pizza en el horno yo solito -- le dijo sobre el plato aún caliente y con una sonrisa beatífica en el rostro.

En cualquier caso, me senté con Diego en el salón mientras la sopa se calentaba y masticaba algo de jamón y queso. Pronto tendría que decirle a Diego que me iba a ir del piso y que iba a cambiar de trabajo, quizás en orden inverso mejor... y por otra parte tenía que encontrar un alojamiento en Colonia. Pero aquella noche y en aquel momento, sólo quería ver qué pasaba con la construcción de aquel jodido Túnel y escuchar los comentarios de Diego.

Chapter 3 VI

In a way, we would be doing a lot of field training, as my new trainer called it. He had a critical look at what was my every day carry.  I always carried a day pack around with all my stuff and some extra space for a foraging expedition to the supermarket. I had a bunch of stuff there, from a reusable bag to enhance my foraging, water (important in Madrid) a small survival kit and others, see the image below.

-- You need some chalk, with different colors to leave marks, on dead letter boxes and similar... and a few things more. Tomorrow we will start on following and being followed and communication protocols. We will also need to start working on alibis and excuses
 

--Excuses? what for?-- replied.

--For everything, what are those chalks for?, why are you walking on this side of the road? where are you going?-- he shrugged--you need to have a story ready for everything and it has to be a coherent one that is credible. And most important, you have to believe this story.

  Metro Station Eugenia de Montijo, Madrid 25th April 2009 12:15h

-- In a way, the tube is a great place to lose people, but it is also a great place to get someone on your back without you noticing-- The digital panel above the platform informed us that the next train was due in 3 minutes. -- The fist rule is that if anyone really wants to follow you, you he will, and the second is that if someone does not want to be followed, he will lose you. All that is of curse relative, it is about being subtle. what is key is that you do not want to be noticed, you see. If you do everything possible to lose someone, it is evident that you are losing someone, the same if you do everything possible to follow someone because then you will be noticed. If you are noticed, then it is not secret anymore, is it? so it kind of defeats the whole thing and will make you look suspicious, which is not really good because then anything you do will be suspicious.

Come on, it did sound a little bit like the who's on first routine.

We boarded the train and Jesús immediately started walking at a good pace towards the rear of the train.
 

--So, moving in the train. If someone tailing you does not climb onto the train, he will give information to where are you located, moving will give you a couple of seconds and a little advantage when you see somebody on a platform trying to look for you. On the other hand, moving will also help you if someone climbs on board with you. You may force him to keep a visual on you, so he gives himself away, without you giving yourself away--

Jesús had a different way of teaching. It demanded a lot of focusing. He would speak and demonstrate, sometimes at the same time, sometimes not. You were supposed to follow in his steps immediately. Some other times he would do something without explaining and then ask, what have I just done, or why. He wanted you to anticipate every move.



Little by little, it did seem as if we were going towards the super spy. The rest of the day, we followed the same routine. I learned about meeting points, dead letter boxes, tailing people ...

Capítulo 4 VI

A pesar del cabreo, eran las 18:00 cuando salí de la oficina y me dirigí a casa. Aún estaba rumiando el cabreo cuando atravesé uno de esos parques de Madrid, donde la tierra roja parece parte de la naturaleza en sí misma y unos cuantos árboles que parecían estar en la UCI. Ya sabes, con los soportes para que crezcan derechitos, los tubos de riego gota a gota, una redecilla al rededor para que los niños o los perros no se acerquen. Total que por allí estaba cruzando cuando Jesús apareció de la nada, cosa poco sorprendente pues es conocido precisamente por eso. De dónde realmente no lo sé ,pero seguro que  no de detrás de uno de aquellos escuálidos arbolitos. En cualquier caso apareció, como digo, de la nada y comenzó a caminar junto a mí.

No nos habíamos visto desde mi vuelta, es decir, desde la semana anterior, antes de mi viaje a Londres. O al menos yo no le había visto a él.

--Tenemos trabajo para hacer -- Lo dijo sin acritud, simplemente constatando los hechos.

-- Lo sé, ha sido un día largo ...-- No quería justificarme, pero por otra parte necesitaba dejar escapar mi frustración. Jesús asintió profundamente, comprensivo, pero su gesto no cambió. Por una parte Jesús era un tipo eminentmente práctico y si no podía cambiar la situación, como en este caso, que no le afectaba directamente y además pertenecía al pasado, podía escuchar educadamente, pero le importaba un nabo.

-- Ven conmigo, tengo novedades para tí -- Al final del parque, giró a la derecha y le seguí. El tiempo era mejor que en Londres, en el sentido de que era más seco pero también más largo. De hecho, empezaba a anochecer ahora y en algunas calles, según su orientación, las farolas empezaban  a desperezarse.

Mientras caminábamos, Jesús empezó a contarme las cosas que había hecho bien y las que había hecho mal en el viaje a Londres. Después de unos minutos, nos encontramos caminando por la avenida de la Gran Vía de Hortaleza, rebosante de tráfico de hora punta. Jesús cambió de asunto para hablar de la reunión en sí

-- El feedback que me han dado es bueno, tenemos que centrarnos en reclutar gente aquí y rápido --

-- Qué hay de la lista que te pasé? --

-- La lista es buena, ahora hablaremos de ello -- y se detuvo frente a un portal. Me detuve junto a él, primero un poco sorprendido, pero ví que tenía una llave en la mano. Sin decir nada abrió la puerta y subió las escaleras hasta el segundo piso, donde sin detenerse demasiado abrió una de las puertas y entró en el recibidor, sosteniendo la puerta abierta e invitándome a entrar.

Tras cerrar la puerta y encender la luz del recibidor habló por primera vez.

-- Este será nuestro piso franco, aquí nos reuniremos a partir de ahora. En caso de que no nos encontremos aquí, conoces los buzones muertos y los puntos de encuentro alternativos. Cuando estés en casa has de correr siempre las cortinas de la cocina. -- me dijo mostrándome la cocina. -- Hay dos dormitorios, uno de ellos lo convertiremos en dormitorio, en caso de que nos quedemos a dormir y  el otro lo utilizaremos como sala de trabajo. El salón está un poco expuesto -- señaló al edificio de enfrente a través de las ventanas. Con un poco de esfuerzo podría chocar las cinco con el vecino -- por lo que lo usaremos de salón -- . Al llegar a los dormitorios noté que a diferencia del salón y la cocina, no estaban amueblados. Había una pila de cajas de ikea en cada habitación. Con una ligera patada a una de las cajas, Jesús me miró y dijo -- Tenemos que montar esto, pero ahora es muy tarde. Mañana has de salir más temprano, ok?-- entonces me alcanzó unas llaves, que supuse que eran una copia de las llaves del piso.

Chapter 3 V

The man took the initiative and moved backwards, slowly and calmly with his stare fixed on me, but in a friendly manner, as if inviting me to get in...

-- You were expecting me --- he did not ask, he just said it. His Spanish had a little accent
-- You may call me Jesús -- 

I swallowed and came in -- I guess you know who I am. Jesús nodded. I could feel the awkward silence coming, so I asked -- do you want something for dinner? -- he just smiled so slightly -- I guess I will get the news better if I am not hungry.

Once the initial surprise started to wind down, I took a closer look at Jesús, I mean I had acknowledged  him, but not I was looking at him. "Jesús" was a little taller than me and he was rather pale. not waxy or pinkish, just pale. His face was a little squared with a prominent nose flanked by deep eyes which seemed to be always a little closed, not really squinting but scrutinizing and topped with prominent and bushy eyebrows, wheat color. The lips were thin and the mouth small in a carefully shaved face and big cheekbones. Atop of all that was more wheat hair, cut very short and framed with flat ears. He did not look particularly pumped, but the neck was thick and the sweater was roomy, but you could see that the frame was solidly built. He was wearing jeans and Timberlands... which I guess is also a choice in Madrid.

I left the keys on the wood at the entrance. There was a small metal dish for the keys, but it was full with coins, all small copper cent coins,very rusty, some semi disintegrated rubber bands and some other totally useless stuff that we had gathered over the time. So the key always went on top of the wood... except when the landlord came to visit. 

I took my jacket off and I left my backpack in the living room. Diego was not there and I was supposed to have the living room, so it was going to be MY living room. Now there would not be dining in shorts before the TV, that was gone, but on the positive side, we could use saving money on heating. I motioned Jesús to get comfy  and asked him whether he would like to share dinner then

-- why not?-- he did not seem to be very talkative.

After the offering, I though I might have been a little overoptimistic, as the status of my pantry was not the best. Foraging into Diego's was always an option, but aside of yogurt and cookies I was not expecting to find anything, and that was on the best days. As in any new and confusing situation, there is nothing else to get busy on something else, at best totally meaningless, so I busied myself with putting together and acceptable salad with some chicken. Jesús showed what I soon would learn to be a strong skill on him, patience. He waited until I got myself sorted out.

While I went on to cut tomatoes, Jesús started to speak, slowly and calmly. He had a English accent in Spanish, sure enough, but his Spanish was heavily influenced by South American Spanish. I could not pinpoint it, perhaps even Mexican. Perhaps Colombia? I found it funny that he used the name "plata" for money, perhaps because of him looking very British... What he was actually saying was that he was going to be my teacher, trainer and coach to help me launch the next phase of the project. He did not put dates anywhere and I did not ask.


As I  moved into cutting the chicken breasts, Jesús started to talk about the plan he had in storage for us.

Firsts things first, we had to train what he called operational movement. we were not doing anything illegal, at least of yet, but there was no need to go on and show it around. We had to keep a low profile and put enough barriers in place, in case somebody came nosing around.


We had to do some counter-vigilance and intelligence, in order to go on and actively recruit people. We were not going to put ads in 4Chan. The first tier to draw candidates from would be my own contacts and expand from there. It was not only about getting friends here, but selecting people among a trusted circle. Those who could be useful for the project at more than one level. 

Once recruiting got going, we had to train and prepare these people and at the same time, prepare for the incoming apocalypse. I mean this in a literal meaning, not religious but hey, the society and world as we knew was going to melt down.

Listening to Jesús I was starting to imagine the incoming future as a mixture of old movies, from Mad Max, the man with one red shoe, Funeral in Berlin and Charade, with touches of An Italian Job. At any rate I was Michael Caine though... and Jesús was sure far from Audrey Hepburn.

Once I was done with the chicken breasts, Jesús helped me taking everything to the living room, where our dinner table was. The kitchen was way too small to have any table there, though I often did eat there, standing up, when I was alone. 

Once we sat, Jesús carried on with his talking. I had to learn a bunch of new skills, I had to increase my awareness on what was going on and learn tools and methods to process that. To be able to recognize potential dangers and learn to understood the environment around me. Easy and obvious you say. You arrive in a new city and the train is very full. Is it rush hour, football match, demonstration? It is a blend of information beforehand and processing the information at hand.

Capítulo 4 V

Madrid, 11 de Mayo 2009

Lunes, en el trabajo se olía a lío. Parte de la planificación del proyecto donde estaba trabajando no había sido actualizada adecuadamente y el cliente no lo conocía. Resultado, le comunicaron de sopetón que había dos meses de retraso al día siguiente de haber pagado parte de la siguiente entrega.

Sabía lo que venía, caras preocupadas y mucho "`chavales hay que arrimar el hombro"'. Por primera vez en mucho tiempo esta situación no me preocupaba tanto como en otras. Yo tenía la mente en otras cosas. A la hora de comer hice mis cuentas. En unas semanas pediría una excedencia de un ano y dejaría la empresa. Tenía período de quince días en esta empresa desde que pidiese la excedencia y después preparar todo para irme a Colonia, donde se encontraba la sede de lo que sería Special Developments, dentro de InGnio InGnieros. El edificio estaba prácticamente nuevo y vacío. Después de la compra por parte de Green Island, el personal de la sede Europea en Amsterdam se había movido a Colonia. Sin embargo las tareas de la "`Sede Europea"' eran poco más que un par de clientes y la representación era puramente comercial y administrativa. El resto era mi terreno.

Después de comer, mi jefe de sección vino a hablar conmigo. La consigna de arriba era reducir costos y deshacerse de empleados externos 

--Los empleados externos están haciendo tareas de diseño y produciendo CAD, que es, en este momento lo que le estamos vendiendo al cliente --
 

-- Por culpa de los retrasos, hemos sobrepasado el presupuesto y tenemos que dejar los números rojos, tenemos que reducir costes de empleados externos, que es lo que podemos reducir. Cuántos tienes trabajando contigo?--
 

-- Conmigo están trabajando al 100 por 100 un delineante, un delineante de tubos y el soporte de simulación, ocasionalmente estamos trabajando también con gente de hidráulica...  --

-- Al chaval de simulación lo podemos compartir, los demás se tienen que ir--
 

--y quién va a hacer el trabajo -- estaban empezando, como se dice comúnmente, a hincharme los cojones.

Silencio y mirada profunda -- Es el momento de tomar responsabilidades y que empieces a trabajar más con CAD --

--Todo eso está muy bien, pero estoy trabajando casi 14 horas diarias y no... --
 

--Eso es una cuestión diferente, lo tienes que hablar con recursos humanos... --

Esta conversación no estaba yendo a ninguna parte y lo único que había conseguido era ponerme de mal humor.  Finalmente no se sabía cuándo los recortes iban a ser efectivos ni qué profundidad iban a tener.  Mi jefe de sección me estaba "`sondeando"'. Mi equipo de diseño había cumplido todos los plazos que nos habían puesto y era el que mejores soluciones había aportado. Los costos eran altos, porque el presupuesto era totalmente irreal. Dado que mi responsabilidad no estaba ligada a presupuestos, sino a requisitos, no había mucho que yo pudiera hacer al respecto.

Chapter 3 IV

After the fourth lap I started to get a little uncomfortable and a very cold. I took the umpf look to my wristwatch and I could see that there were still a couple of minutes left. I stopped for a second to fish the city map I had folded to about an A5 and kept on walking, doing some mental calculations. I am not good at mental calculations, I will admit even rather bad. I almost run into a man, who was somehow also standing in the way and did not look like Boone. I mumbled  some apologies and left him behind. It would take me a good half an hour to get to the second meeting point. I had already had a look how to get there and I did not want to take the bus. For one it would take me about the same time and for another I did not want to get stuck in a bus with little time to spare and face something like that the bus was diverted because roadworks or similar stuff. Finally I was nervous and walking would help me feel I was doing something.

I walked into the station with still 10 min to spare, so once I found out where the shop was, I went to kill some minutes by reading the timetables. If I had to kill time in that minuscule shop I would end up buying  half of it. While I looked at the trains coming and leaving and the board getting updated I started to think about one of those inflatable pillows. I rarely slept during flights but people seemed in love with theirs... boy I was not even in the shop and already thinking about buying stuff.

I turned around and found a free spot in a bench where I could rest my bag for a minute. I took the hat and gloves from the pocket where I had stuffed them on entering the station building and collected some other bits and pieces, partly to kill time, partly to get more comfortable. Then I hung the bag across my chest and strolled towards the shop. Before entering, Boone caught my attention and with his eyes pointed to the closest exit. At this time I was starting to feel my bladder, as the coffee was working.

--Let's go for a coffee-- Boone said
--Make it close-- I answered.


Boone turned slightly, a little confused and a little worried look on his face.

-- I have to pee-- I said


By the way he nodded back I presumed it was going to be long, bit I was wrong. About 600 m away from the station, Boone nodded towards a restaurant seated on a corner building, with big picture windows looking upon the intersection. We sat down and we order some coffee and rolls. When I came back Boone looked up to me with an expecting expression and asked

--well, what's gonna be? --


I nodded while sitting down

-- It's going to be,yes-- his expression did not change -- However, I guess there is quite some stuff we have to talk about and I have some questions --



-- Well, let's get it going then --

 
Boone explained that I would get a visit in Madrid in about a week. From somebody who would train me on communication and basically keeping it all secret. That basic training would last for about three weeks and then I would start moving and get active. I had to get everything set though. Dead letterboxes, emergency shelters and escape routes.


Once there, I would have to go on with helping the project. Finances and a lot of front companies and lawyers was based in The US. The idea from Boone and his mates was to create a net there in the US, bit another sister net was an insurance policy and two separate nets could gather people a little more quietly. Yet the second net needed financing and Boone went on to tell me how through the brother of one of his colleagues it all was set up. This brother worked on high finances and knew his way through all the alleys. In a few months, an experience banker and couple of IT wizards got a few dubious business going and in a few months most of the capital was honest and clean. With expert moves did what for the US mafia took two generations: to move  the black money to legal business while keeping some investments that where, even after a second look, not definitely black.

--At the end of the day, on the high finances world, all those numbers do not correspond to anything real. The software behind it has a few rules behind, sure, but it ain' real -- he said, seemly in a justifying tone.

I just shrugged and replied --  Well, you could say the same about much of our laws.

Boone stared at me  -- That is the point exactly. We are not living in a world were meritoracy is the norm. It is not about how good you are but how good you get along with the group you are getting into. That is the key of circles. People is looking for chumps that are like them... like in the high school.. that is the basis in our society.  Because we had access to the right circles, we could set up a financing system for the project very fast and we started to pile money. Not too much, just enough --

-- There is a team in the UK, they got established after a few months and they will finance the European project and take care of the front companies and all that. They are just five, but there is more people working with them, just not in the plan.-- Again Boone seemed to be following a script, but that was fine with me because I did not want him to miss anything.
--They will be your guide on what economy is concerned, and also when you need a company front. Your job will be first to create a net of contacts and train them and maintain operational safety. You will use then those to train the next batch. Also there is quite some technical stuff to get on. And there will be some technical stuff we are going to unload on you, like the urbanization on destination and transport of goods and means of manufacturing
-- You haven't done anything there? -- I was a little surprised because those seemed very basic stuff and I had read through the whole "expectations" section where mentioned the right to have land and housing and such

-- Oh yes, there is a lot of stuff we went into, but we need details and specs. Things have to advance in many fronts-- On a way I was feeling a little skeptic now-- You will have to be the technical leader of a company we are going to create. You will use that company to define the specs and details of all the technical issues, and you can recruit people from the staff and or bring some people you know.

Boone kept talking, we had payed and were strolling along the city center, Boone getting into details and I, leaving skepticism, trying to retain everything formulate the right questions. Step by step we reached the end of the Gaulois Avenue, where Boone turned around and said:
-- I came this far. If all goes well we will meet in a few months in the US . I am taking the train here and you are going back to Charleroi--

Before saying his goodbyes, Boone reached in his bag and produced a small computer, which I exchanged from the original one he had given me back in Vienna

--This will be your communication tool with us-- and with that he turned around and headed down the street at a brisk pace

As you may expect, I spent most of the time, while in planes and trains, thinking on what I was letting myself into. Apparently first stop was to become the super spy.

The coming week, my flatmate Diego was not going to be home so I  would have a little freedom to think.

Of course, with all this of the superspy I was becoming a little bit conscious about my safety. I mean I was a little sensible on being observed. Nevertheless nobody bothered givin me a second look at the controls. Another passenger, another nobody.

 Monday at work I was feeling hungover. I was feeling a little detached and by lunchtime I thought I was sick. On the microwave queue, a colleague started talking about some news he had been hearing. I was not directly in the conversation, but could not help overhearing. Apparently some people got sick through bad health and safety procedures with some tools on a chocolate machine or something. This derived on our expert crew on health and immunology to produce a  lecture on  why our sick society was going to kill us all with processed food.


On the afternoon I kept at my current task. The cooling system we were working on was going nowhere with the current concept.  The results from the test in Vienna where very clear and I was working it into a Power point for the management. We needed an alternative or better two, to convince the management. We had a realistic idea, but it would cost money, so we needed another alternative that was almost as realistic, but more expensive to force the decision...

I took the tube home, reading my book during the ride. However I could not focus so I closed it and just looked around me while the car gently bounced me around. It was that funny time in the tube, people who leave early has somewhere to go and they are in a rush but after 1800, most have given up and know they are not going to scratch any quality time anywhere, so they just go with the flow and then there I was, I went through the exit gates and in the outside. It is like suddenly you are activated again, you can decide where to go, overtake people take control again! I stopped to get some tomatoes, some salad, cookies and milk. I was thinking about a light dinner, because it was late and I was tired, but cookies and milk are never bad as a backup.


The moment of climbing the four stories of old worn-out stair was not the brightest  of the day, but I usually went up almost running. I did not want to turn on the light in the middle. I had an irrational fear, since a kid, of confusing the bell of a door with the push button for the light. For one it was not so irrational, as the switches were old style, so no pilot light was available, which were integrated in one panel... right next to each door.


When I arrived at the fourth and last landing, I introduced the key in the keyhole and surprised when I realized I had not locked it. I opened the door thinking that maybe Diego was back before expected. What I did not expected was to see a tall thirty something man, looking at me very calmly, leaning on the entrance piece from our landlady, which was made of the most expensive wood on the planet (according to her) and had to be oiled with a specific bottle with a specific rug in this and that way and then with a piece of paper do that other thing...