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...