Angry Moon

Chapter 7a

     “Before we go any further,” said Eddie, “I should tell you right here and now that I won't be joining this mysterious team of yours. I only came because it’s an all expenses paid holiday in Martinique. I'm afraid I’m just taking shameless advantage of you.”

     “Of course you are,” said Ben with a smile. “Why do you think we chose Martinique?”

     Ben led the younger man out to the car park of Aime Cesaire airport, a small suitcase following after them, its electric motor making a faint hum as it drove the small wheels. He led him to where he had a hired car waiting, a Citroen Bella in metallic blue. Its boot opened with a click as they approached and a small lift descended that the suitcase drove onto. The car then lifted the suitcase into the boot, which closed again.

     Eddie took a moment to glance at the leather upholstery and wood panelling of the interior before he got in through the door Ben was holding for him. “So where'd you get the money for this?” he asked as he settled into the comfortable passenger seat. “You bring me, all the members of your team and their families, all the way to Martinique more or less on a whim, giving us all rooms in a top hotel. You hire a top of the range luxury car... This must be costing you a fortune! Where'd you get this kind of money?”

     “The British government is picking up the bill.” The car started automatically as he sat in the driver’s seat and the head up display appeared on the windscreen. He touched the self drive button and the car reversed itself out of its parking space. “They consider it money well spent if it results in you joining the team. That should tell you something about the importance they place in it, and in you.”

     “They might not need to fork out quite so much if you told me a little more about this project. If I'm interested, I might join up without the British taxpayer having to stump up so much money.”

     “I told you, security is very tight. They can’t take any chance of someone turning us down and then spilling it all to the media. When you sign up, and I'm confident you will, you'll sign the official secrets act and we'll tell you everything then. I do have a little something to show you that I think will pique your interest.”

     “Oh? What?”

     “Tomorrow. I'll show you tomorrow. I want you to meet the rest of the team first.”

     The car reached the road and pulled out into the traffic. Ben settled down in his seat and closed his eyes and, realising that he intended to keep him guessing for a while, Eddie also relaxed and enjoyed the view.

     The airport road was wide and open, with palm trees along either side and in the strip of grass between the two carriageways. There were very few other cars, but there were people walking along the paths that ran alongside the road, enjoying the sun. Martinique was enjoying an early winter heat wave at the moment. Temperatures were already in the high twenties and expected to rise into the low thirties as the day wore on, and there was a lot of bare flesh on view, some of it female and rather attractive. Eddie found himself hoping he'd get a chance to slip off alone at some point so he could get to know one or two of the locals a little better.

     Being on the coast, Fort-de-France, Martinique’s capital, had suffered a little from the rising sea levels, but was coping better than most by virtue of all the tourist money being made from people from the northern latitudes looking for a warm place to take a winter holiday. Sea walls had been built along the docks and the coast roads, and new districts of the city were being built higher up the slopes of the Caribbean island. Where other coastal cities were in dire straits, therefore, Fort-de-France was doing very nicely for itself and was looking to the future with hope and optimism. Whether it would still do so if the West Antarctic ice sheets melted completely, as the experts were saying was increasingly likely in the coming decades, remained to be seen.

     La Bateliere hotel, where Ben had booked rooms for them, was on the other side of Fort-de-France, and they had to drive through the centre of the city to get there. The city wasn't a large one by global standards, having a population of around a quarter of a million, but it was busy and bustling and the car had to slow to a crawl as it encountered the local traffic. Ben turned a dial on the dashboard to increase the car's selfishness setting from two to three so that it would give way to other traffic less and force its way through narrower gaps, but it would only result in them getting to the hotel sooner if everyone else still had their cars set to a lower setting. In most cities, people kept their cars set to their maximum selfishness all the time, but the people of Martinique were apparently more relaxed in their driving because the two scientists immediately made better time through the congested streets.

     Eddie was rather disappointed to find that the city looked very similar to every other city he'd ever been in. If it hadn't been for the fact that all the signs were in French and that they were driving on the right they might very well have been in any small city in England. Then they turned into another street and he saw that the palm trees had invaded the city, lining the streets in the same way that chestnuts and maples did back home, many of them leaning over at precarious angles so that the upper parts of their trunks were almost parallel to the ground. He wondered what kind of palms they were, whether they were the kind that had coconuts. No, not in a city, he decided. Way too dangerous. Probably a kind of date palm. He studied several of the trees as they passed them by, but couldn't see any of them bearing fruit.

     They passed through the centre of the city, then through the suburbs on the other side until they were heading back towards the coast. The hotel was at the top of a small hill that overlooked the beach. The car entered the car park and drove around until it found a parking spot for itself.

     “Wow!” said Eddie, looking around. The main hotel building was surrounded by perfectly manicured lawns and shrub beds as well as the ubiquitous palm trees, some of which, he saw, had somehow been trained to grow into the shape of Japanese fans. There was a taxi rank beside the hotel's main entrance along which a row of identical white cars were parked, none with a driver inside. The latest voice activated self driving taxis, he guessed. Just get in, tell the taxi where you want to go and the taxi identifies you from your voice print and deducts the fare from your account automatically. And If you have to ask in advance how much it will cost, then this isn't the hotel for you. Shit! Just how much was Ben having to pay for this? He felt himself growing increasingly uncomfortable about having to turn down the job offer just because of the amount of money that was being spent on him.

     They got out of the car and the boot opened to deposit the suitcase on the tarmac. It followed after the two men as they walked towards the hotel's entrance. Inside, a human receptionist was standing behind a desk. Ben identified himself to her and she smiled as she handed them a key each. “Profitez de votre séjour, messieurs,” she said, her smile growing even wider, and Ben thanked her as they left to find their rooms.

     “When you’re settled in,” Ben then said, “we'll be waiting for you in the lounge, down there. Everybody else should already be here. By the way, the cover story is that we work for a defence contractor called Wilson’s. That's what we tell the wives and children. They think we're working on laser weapons, ECM systems, that sort of thing, so if you hear them talking about it, please just go along with it.”

     “I don't know anything about weapons,” protested Eddie. “I’m a theoretical physicist.”

     “Yes, and the story is that we're working on a new weapon that uses cutting edge physics. A vacuum energy weapon. If anyone brings the subject up, just say you're not allowed to talk about it. Okay?”

     Eddie nodded. “Is there such a thing as a vacuum energy weapon?” he asked.

     “I’m pretty sure not, because if there was one, we're the people who would have invented it.” He grinned like a shark. “So, see you in the lounge.”

     “See you there,” Eddie replied.