Milo Moon: It Never Happened (19 page)

He finished his morning check of Milo and went looking for Mary. Finally finding her in the kitchen with Marie.

‘So this is where you are. I’ve been looking for you, Mary.’

‘Oh hello doctor. Marie is showing me how to make pancakes,’ Mary said, excitedly while Marie smiled at her enthusiasm.

‘Well Mary,’ Dr Fleury started. ‘I think your check can wait. Pancakes sound like a much better idea. Can I have some when they’re ready?’

‘Oh yes!’

‘Good. I’ll be back in a little while then.’

It was after lunch before Marie had a chance to ask Dr Fleury if it could be arranged for Milo and Mary to go outside. She explained about how important the sky and clouds were to them.

‘Look, I’ve got no problem with it, Marie. In fact I think it’ll help them a lot. But I’ll have to get permission and clearance first.’

‘Yes, I understand. But I think it’s really important for them. To reassure them.’

‘All right. I’ll see what I can do.’

*****

A telephone rang in London.

‘Yes.’

‘Decision time.’

‘And? Still no sign of them?’

‘No. No signal.’

‘Have you spoken to Moscow?’

‘Yes.’

‘And?’

‘Same as me. Evacuate.’

‘Shit. That’s next to impossible.’

‘Nothing’s fucking impossible.’

‘All right. All right. How?’

‘Slowly. Two or three at a time.’

‘Through the top and France?’

‘Yup. Moscow’s organising accommodation.’

‘Where?’

‘A place called Nowheresburg.’

‘Right. Sorry I asked.’

‘Okay, get your people moving. One per two or three monkeys. No more. Liaise with me, and Moscow as far as timing. Can only handle one movement every two days or so?’

‘That’ll take nearly two months. Minimum.’

‘Don’t panic. It’ll take that long for the governments to start to decide that they’ll maybe do something. If at all. It’ll be fine.’

‘And our guys working in the top?’

‘All reassigned to Nowheresburg with their monkeys.’

‘Did you find out how all this happened?’

‘No.’

‘Okay, I’ll get onto it.’

*****

Rudiger Staheli was informed at six p.m. that Françoise Klausner had arrived in Paris for her evening meeting. The Federal Council had agreed unanimously that morning that approaching France in the first instance was a sensible move. Klausner had a number of new clearer images in her file, but they showed no new features of the facility. Staheli waited to hear the result at the end of the meeting from Françoise Klausner. Checking his watch, it was eleven fifteen. He was about to make coffee when his secure phone rang.

He replaced the receiver and instantly called his personal secretary. ‘The French President will be arriving at two p.m. tomorrow. I’ll meet him in Geneva Airport. No publicity. Get everything organised.’ Rudiger then went back to making his coffee. Happy that Switzerland had, from time to time, a friendly neighbour. He smiled when he thought of what the French president had said in their brief phone call. ‘I’d start digging now with my bare hands to find this hell hole.’ Sitting sipping his coffee his phone rang again. It was Françoise Klausner this time.

‘All hell broke loose at the meeting. One look at the images and the file, and the president was called in on a conference call. It was the 1951 agreement that really seemed to start the sparks.’

‘Luckily it wasn’t de Gaulle,’ Rudiger said, with a historical sarcasm.

‘Yes. Well, I’ll be back by morning.’

‘You know about the meeting tomorrow in Geneva?’

‘Yes.’

‘Good, make sure you’re there too.’

‘Yes Rudi. Okay.’

*****

Marie was reading before bed, wondering about Jean-Paul. She cursed her luck in meeting him at the precise time she had to disappear. The chances of him understanding when she finally got back to Geneva were slim, she thought. At least with the improvement in Mary and Milo’s condition, it may not be much longer. She was very pleased to hear from Dr Fleury over dinner that Milo and Mary could get some fresh air tomorrow morning. Thirty minutes only and under tight security, but she was sure it would reassure them. Two psychologists were arriving Monday morning to begin assessment, so she was now more positive about some kind of future for Milo and Mary.

*****

‘Oh, it’s not blue,’ Milo said, in disappointment at being taken outside on a gloomy, foggy and grey Swiss morning.

‘It’s not always blue Milo,’ Marie explained. ‘Sometimes it’s blue, sometimes it’s grey. Other times it can be orange and red.’

‘I’d like to see that,’ Mary exclaimed, excitedly.

‘It’s not so high today,’ Milo said.

‘It’s cloud Milo. Remember the white fluff. Well sometimes it can be grey and low too,’ Marie continued, trying to reassure Milo.

‘But it’s still much higher than Sootere, Milo,’ Mary added.

Milo looked up and blinked his eyes as fine drops of water started to fall on his face.

‘That’s rain Milo.’

‘Water,’ was all Milo said.

‘Yes, water from the sky,’ Marie said, as Milo continued to stare towards the clouds and blink as the drizzle became slightly heavier. ‘Do you like it, Milo?’

‘Yes.’

‘So much prettier than Sootere,’ Mary added.

‘What colour was the sky in Sootere, Mary?’ Marie asked, and then instantly thought it was a bad idea to remind them.

‘Only white or black and very low. Just above my flat.’

‘When does the blue come?’ Milo asked, while he still stared.

‘Oh look Milo, Mary. A rainbow. There!’

‘Oh it’s beautiful. Milo look. Look!’ Mary said, almost jumping up and down with excitement. ‘That’s even more beautiful than blue Milo,’ she said.

‘Yellow, purple, green, blue,’ Milo mumbled to himself. ‘Pretty. So pretty.’

Marie was concerned that the presence of soldiers and security agents would disturb Milo and Mary, but they seemed oblivious to them, and just enjoyed what they saw. In the distance, an air force Mirage was coming in to land.

‘Look, look, look,’ Milo shouted, as he pointed to the Mirage. ‘Look, look, look!’

‘What is it Marie?’ Mary asked.

‘It’s a plane. It flies in the sky.’

‘I want to fly to the rainbow, Marie,’ Milo said.

‘One day, Milo. Perhaps one day.’

‘Me too!’

‘Oh of course Mary. You too!’

The rain became a little heavier, but neither Mary nor Milo wanted to move. Staring at the wonders that were so new and strangely beautiful to them. Marie could see Dr Fleury becoming concerned by the rain. Understanding that he wouldn’t like to have to treat them for pneumonia, she took his concern as a good time to get Mary and Milo back inside. It took a few minutes, and she thought of how difficult it was to get children to leave a playground. Milo was still looking over his shoulder as they made their way back inside.

*****

Within an hour a telephone rang in Washington.

‘We had a signal for nearly twenty minutes.’

‘Location?’

‘Still the damn North Pole.’

‘It tells us they’re underground then. Must’ve come up for fresh air.’

‘Or inside a mountain.’

‘Yes.’

‘Do want us to keep tracking?’

‘Sounds like the transmitters are re-set, so we really stand no hope of finding them, but keep tracking. At least if we get a constant signal, we’ll know they’re out of the bunker.’

‘Will do.’

‘The evacuation?’

‘Starts tomorrow night. One with two.’

‘Good.’

*****

Rudiger Staheli tried to answer the French president’s questions, as they looked for possible action to take.

‘Why can’t it be accessed from CERN?’

‘It must be possible. But the access is probably well hidden.’

‘So why don’t you send in the Army?’

‘I’m not sure all our European friends would react well to us invading CERN. And there are the lives of those held in the facility. If we storm in with guns blazing, it would be a massacre.’

‘Well, yes. I take your point, but we can’t sit around and do nothing. What about the management of this place? Who’s controlling it and from where?’

‘That is something we can’t answer as yet.’ Staheli replied.

‘There must be some level of control within CERN though. Surely.’

‘Yes, that goes without saying. But we would need full European cooperation to be able to start questioning staff there.’

‘You and I know that could take forever. Would it be possible to take the route that these two escaped from?’

‘We’ve considered that. We’ve got a fairly good plan of the route through the ducting system now from our surveillance unit. The problem is that is it so small, we could only hope to get maybe two or three people down there. And then what? We don’t know how many people are down there or if they are armed. Then there’s the problem of getting them out. The way down is relatively simple, but back up is not so easy. The two who escaped were very lucky indeed to have made it out.’

‘So what do you suggest Rudiger?’

‘Diplomacy and pressure.’

‘How and why?’

‘We need to get a subtle message across to the US, UK and Russian governments. Get them to find out what’s going on and hopefully have the facility closed down quietly.’

‘By threatening to go public with this?’

‘Oh no, not at all. But as hard as we will try, secrets are never able to be kept for very long.’

‘Embarrass them into action?’

‘None of these governments would want to be seen being associated with human medical experimentation. I’m sure they will try their best.’ Rudiger said, matter of factly.

‘Right. So who’s going to tell them the good news? Me I suppose?’

‘I thought a combined French and German approach maybe productive. We haven’t shared this information with our German friends as yet. But what you do with the file now is up to you.’

‘I see the logic. I’ll start the ball rolling. But you’ll have to keep trying to find a way down there in the meantime. This could take a while you know.’

*****

‘We managed to get two out last night. They’re on their way to Nowheresburg.’

‘Any problems?’

‘No. None. Any sign of the two we lost?’

‘No.’

‘Well, we’ll keep our eyes and ears open this end.’

‘Good. Keep me posted.’

*****

Marie was up early and readied herself to meet the two psychologists who were arriving to assess Milo and Mary. She did not know Dr. Paul Schmidt or Dr. Sylvie Rousseau but Dr. Fleury had assured her that they were very experienced and highly regarded. It was a little after ten when they finally arrived, and began being briefed by Luc Fleury and Marie.

‘Have you worked together long?’ Marie asked.

‘No. In fact we only met this morning, although we’re aware of each other’s work,’ Schmidt replied.

‘I’m based in Lausanne and work in Vaud and Valais mainly.’ Rousseau added.

‘Private practice?’

‘Yes, pretty much. Some government work though from time to time. Like now,’ Rousseau answered.

‘And you Dr Schmidt?’ Marie asked.

‘I have my practice in Geneva plus I do some work with CERN. With their HR unit.’

‘What? You do profiling for them?’ Luc asked.

‘Yes. They’re demanding physiological analysis of all short listed applicants now. Keeps me busy.’

‘I’m sure it does,’ Luc replied.

‘So to our patients. What’s the story?’ Schmidt asked.

Luc Fleury and Marie outlined their perceptions and opinions and briefed the two psychologists on both Milo and Mary’s files. Over lunch it was decided that each psychologist would assess Milo and Mary individually and then compare their assessments at the end of the afternoon. Dr. Schmidt would assess Milo first while Dr. Rousseau assessed Mary. After a mid-afternoon break they would swap patients for the second half of the afternoon.

‘I really am looking forward to hearing what they have to say this evening.’

‘Yes, me too Marie. They’ve both recovered reasonably well physically, but psychologically and emotionally I think there’s a long way to go.’ Luc Fleury said.

‘How long before you think they’ll be able to leave here?’

‘As far as I’m concerned Marie, they’ll be well enough in a week or so. But I think it’s more of a security issue than a health issue now.’

‘And the things in their heads?’

‘If we can get them back into HUG or the CHUV hospital in Lausanne, it could be done quite soon. Medically that is. Like I said, it’s a security matter really.’