The E Utopia Project Read online

  “Uncle Martin! Sorry for waking you up so early.”

  The old man wanted to run toward George and Sara but he turned and walked back into the house when he realized he was getting asphyxiated. He breathlessly hobbled into the house and took deep gasps of the oxygen-rich indoor air, impatiently waited for the visitors to enter.

  George took off his breathing machine and hugged the old man. “How are you, Uncle Martin?”

  “I’m fine, son.”

  The old man got delirious when Sara removed her breathing machine. “God, it’s you, Sara! I knew you and George would get back together.” He pushed George away and, with agility that belied his age, he pounced on Sara and embraced her. “I’m glad to see you with George. I always told him he made a mistake when he let you go.”

  “It’s good to see you, Uncle Martin,” Sara purred, marveling at the old man’s resemblance to George.

  The old man ushered them to seats. “You look like you slept on the road. What happened to your car?”

  “We didn’t come by car.”

  “You mean you hitchhiked with Sara at night? Is there something you want to tell me, George?”

  George hummed, hawed and cleared his throat for seconds before he decided the old man could handle the truth. Uncle Martin was a Vietnam War veteran. He had handled worse things in the tropical jungles of Vietnam.

  “Some people want to kill Sara,” George said.

  “Who wants to kill Sara?”

  George told the old man everything that had happened from the moment he met Sara in the supermarket the previous day.

  “Sara do you have any suspects?” the old man asked.

  “No.”

  “I can see you’re both tired. Go and have some rest. We’ll talk later.”

  “Let’s go and rest, Sara,” George said, rising from his seat.

  “Or maybe you are more hungry than tired,” the old man said with a knitted brow. “If that’s the case, I’ll make you some breakfast.”

  “I’m not hungry, Uncle Martin, but I could use a few hours of sleep,” George said.

  “What about you, Sara?” the old man asked.

  “The same applies to me, Uncle Martin. We’d lots of junk food on the way.”

  “Alright, kids. Have some rest.”

  George led Sara out of the sitting room. The first door they came to led into the bedroom that they used the last time they were here.

  “You use this room,” George offered. “I’ll use the next.”

  “No,” Sara said louder than she intended. “Let me use the next.” She couldn’t sleep in this room. It would evoke too many memories of her and George.

  “Fine.”

  “I’ll have a shower first,” she said.

  “Alright,” George said, going to his room.

  Sara went straight to the toilet, which she needed more than the shower. When she finished performing her excretory functions, she went into the bathroom and took a long shower. Even though Uncle Martin lived on the shores of a lake, he got all his domestic water from the big condenser that was located in the ceiling of his house.

  When she finished showering, she went to her room. To her dismay, the room was an exact replica of the room next door. Memories of the times she spent with George in the next room inevitably came to her mind. It didn’t help knowing that he was lying in bed next door on a bed that looked exactly the same as the bed in this room. She told herself that now wasn’t the time to think about distant history. It was time to think about her current predicament. Why did someone want to kill her? Why did George come to her rescue of all people? She couldn’t help suspecting that George had set up the whole thing. Perhaps it was just his ploy to become her hero and win her back. Perhaps he was against calling the police because he feared they would find out that he stage-managed the whole thing. She tried to tell herself that she wasn’t being fair to him, but she just couldn’t shake the suspicion away.

  In the end it was sleep that managed to expunge thoughts of George.

  When Sara woke up, she found George and his uncle sitting in the living room in serious discussion.

  “Afternoon, Uncle Martin”

  “Good afternoon, my dear.”

  “Hi George?”

  “Hi.”

  “I made brunch,” George said. “Go to the kitchen and have a bite.”

  Sara felt her stomach groaning. “Thanks,” she said, rushing to the kitchen.

  One of the things that made her fall in love with George was his ability to cook. A man who could cook and loved to cook for her was almost too good to be true. She went to the eat-in kitchen and served herself rice and crispy pan-fried tofu. Although George had used exactly the same ingredients that she used when she fried her tofu, George’s recipe tasted much better. A grain of rice dropped to the table and she picked it and tossed it into her mouth. Many people were going without in the world and she regarded wasting food as ingratitude to God who provided her with food. The realization that she was feasting whilst her dog was starving filled her with guilt but it didn’t stop her from enjoying the tasty vegetarian meal.

  George and Uncle Martin were still discussing gravely when she returned to the living room.

  “Sara, George and I are in disagreement,” the old man said. “I think you should call the cops but George thinks otherwise. What do you think we should do, Sara?”

  “I don’t know what to think. All this seems like a bad dream.”

  “Sara, you are a director of an arm of the United Nations,” the old man said. “The government will protect you. I think you should call the police.”

  “Uncle, something inside me tells me that involving the police could be dangerous,” George said.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be taking part in the UN Environmental summit in Paris?” the old man asked, folding his wrinkled arms, rubbing his hairy forearms with his hands.

  “I’m supposed to deliver the keynote speech,” Sara said.

  “I feel proud whenever I see you on TV,” the old man said with a fond smile. “One time when I was out having a drink with friends, someone spoke about you and I proudly told him that you knew me. He looked at me as if I had said I was the Queen of England.”

  “Maybe someone doesn’t want you at the summit,” George said. “Did you plan to speak out against someone at the summit? Did you plan to say something that could destroy someone’s political career?”

  “No, I didn’t plan to criticize anyone.”

  “Are you sure you did not discover something that could seriously ruin someone’s reputation, political career or economic interests?”

  Sara’s eyes widened. “I discovered something about satellite images. Someone is covering up something big.”

  “Something big enough to kill you?”

  “I think someone could consider it big enough to kill for.”

  “What did you discover about satellite images?” Uncle Martin asked.

  Sara told them everything about the failure of NASA, ESA and six satellite imagery companies to livestream a location in the Indian Ocean.

  “This is too much of a coincidence,” George observed. “Aren’t these companies supposed to be business rivals?”

  “Yes, the privately owned ones are competitors.”

  “Yet they all somehow agreed not to show real-time images of a particular place at one particular time,” George reflected.

  “It seems someone has the power to control the companies,” Uncle Martin said.

  “And if they can control satellite imagery companies they sure can control the police,” George said.

  “You’re right, George,” Sara said, chastising herself for daring to think that George had a hand in the attempt on her life. “Phoning the police is out of the question.”

  “Did you tell anyone about your discovery?” Uncle Martin asked.

  “Yes. I told my personal assistant and my deputy.”

  “One of them or both of them are involved in the attempt on
your life,” George said.

  “If we don’t trust the police, who are we going to trust to help us protect Sara?” Uncle Martin asked.

  “Certainly not my workmates,” Sara said.

  “Which one of the two do you suspect more?” George asked.

  “It’s difficult to say. Wong, my deputy, has been somewhat hostile toward me of late and he would be my natural suspect but you never know. Nzue, my PA, could be the culprit despite his affability.”

  “So for now you’re treating everyone as a potential suspect?” Uncle Martin said.

  “Everyone except George and you, Uncle Martin,” she said, blushing at the thought that George had been her first suspect.

  “It seems we’re up against a well-organized syndicate,” Uncle Martin said with a sigh. “We’re obviously going to need some help to fight this syndicate. If we can’t trust the police, who’s going to help us fight these murderous bastards?”

  Silence befell the room as everyone pondered over Uncle Martin’s question.

  Worry deepened the lines on the old man’s face. “I hope they didn’t track you here. They got their hooks into satellite companies and space agencies. I hope they didn’t track you with satellites.”

  “I don’t think they would have used drones if they could track us with satellites,” George said, sounding surer than she felt. “When they discover we’re gone, they may look at satellite photographs of the area.”

  “But that will only work if they capture images of the point where we emerged from the woods and got into the truck,” Sara said, her heart thumping as if she was back in the woods.

  “We have to act fast before they find us,” George said somberly. “We’re up against a big organization. They’ll leave no stone unturned in their hunt for Sara.”

  “I have a feeling that this organization has some people in high positions in government,” Sara said.

  “This whole thing makes no sense.” Uncle Martin grimaced. “Why would anyone want to cover up the cause of El Monstruo? We all live here on Earth and El Monstruo doesn’t discriminate. We’ll all die if this disaster goes unchecked.”

  “What are we going to do?” George said, more to himself than to his interlocutors.

  “I don’t know. They want me. I guess I’ve to give myself up so that they won’t harm you.”

  “Have you lost your mind?” George said fiercely. “I won’t let anything happen to you, Sara.”

  “Thanks,” Sara said, looking at George with unconcealed affection. He sounded very much like the George he fell in love with, the George she now believed he could never be. She knew he was a good man in his own way but she also knew he was too good to other women for him to be the man she would love to be with for the rest of her life. If you care so much about me, why did you break my heart, George? she thought, looking at him with an anguished mixture of love and hatred.

  “The same applies to me, Sara,” Uncle Martin said. “I’ll do everything I can to help you. I love you like my own daughter.”

  “Thanks, Uncle Martin.”

  The old man cleared his throat. “However, the question remains. What can we do to help you, Sara? We haven’t got the slightest idea who your enemies are.”

  They racked their brains for a way out. They were up against powerful unknown enemies and they couldn’t contact the police because they suspected that their enemies had informants in law enforcement agencies. The odds were very much against them.

  “George,” Sara said after a while. “Thanks for saving my life.”

  “You’re welcome, Sah.”

  Sara felt a tickle of excitement when she heard the word Sah. George was the only person in the world who called her Sah, and he almost always called her Sah when they were making love. “I never thought I would say this to you, George. I forgive you.”

  “Forgive me for what?” George asked with disgust.

  “For breaking my heart.”

  “There you go again. You’re saying this just to make yourself look good in front of Uncle Martin. You’re saying this because you’re ashamed of what you did. You dumped me when you were on a way up not knowing you will need me on your way down.”

  “George, that’s very unkind of you,” the old man rebuked. “Sara is not on her way down.”

  “Uncle Martin, I know you think she is an angel. I used to think that too. She dropped me like a hot potato when she got promoted. She thinks I am not good enough for a hotshot director of GEMA.” He glared at her, searching for the meanest words to say. “Okay, let me humor you, Sara. Thank you for forgiving me. I guess you also forgive me for trying to rape you yesterday.”

  Sara sprang to her feet and walked to her room.

  “You didn’t have to be so mean, George,” the old man said. “Maybe she had her reasons for leaving you.”

  “Yes, she had reasons. Good reasons, if you ask me. She’s a highly paid famous UN official and I’m just a poor ex-soldier. I perfectly understand why she dumped me. But what I don’t understand is why she accuses me of dumping her. She even dares to tell me that she forgives me.”

  “Come on, George. Don’t be too harsh on her. Someone wants to kill her. She’s scared and I guess she just cracked.”

  “Scared or not, she has no right to accuse me of breaking up our relationship.”

  “What is this story about you trying to rape her? Did you rough her up, George?”

  “Look at me, Uncle Martin. Do I look like the kind of guy who violates women?”

  “Of course not, George.”

  “Thank you,” he said before he walked to his room.

  He dived onto the bed and stared at the ceiling, replaying his last conversation with Sara. How could she be so rude to him when he risked his life for her? How could she accuse him of something that she herself did? He tried to focus more on thinking of ways to thwart the people who wanted to kill Sara but all he could think of now was how she had wronged him.

  To hell with Uncle Martin, he thought. I’m not going to play softie softie with her. He sprang from the bed. I’m going to tell her exactly what I think of her.

  He paced out of his room and burst into her room. She was curled in fetal position on the edge of the bed, hugging her knees. He felt a stir in his pants when he remembered that this was one of the positions he liked to have her when they were making love. As he looked at her posterior, he couldn’t help undressing her in his mind. He brushed images of her naked body from his mind. He was by far much more angry than amorous.

  “Sara, I understand why you dumped me,” he said. “You’re educated, rich and famous and I am just me. But I cannot understand why you said that you forgive me for not refusing to be dumped.”

  Sara sat bolt upright, looking at him with murderous eyes. “You want to talk about understanding, huh? Fine. Let’s talk about understanding.” She breathed deeply for seconds, her eyes never leaving his. “I understand that Kyla has bigger boobs and a much sexier ass than mine. It is clearly obvious that I can’t compete with her in that department. But I don’t understand why you cheated on me with her. I loved you, George. It was obvious she wanted you back but I never thought you’d cheat on me with her, not after what she did to you. I used to wonder why you wouldn’t propose to me. But now I understand that I was just a plaything to entertain you while you patched up things with Kyla.”

  “This is the lamest excuse I have ever heard in my entire life,” George scoffed. “Are you saying you dumped me because of Kyla? You and I both know that you dumped me because you think I’m beneath you. I was shaken when you shut me out. At first I thought it was my fault. But when I heard news of your promotion, everything became clear. This has nothing to do with Kyla’s ass because you have a much sexier ass that hers. Yes, she has bigger boobs than yours, but let me tell you something. Those boobs aren’t real.”

  “So how is she? How are her fake boobs?”

  “If you want to know about her boobs go ask her.”

  “I thought the milk
man knows more about a cow’s breasts than the cow.”

  “Who told you I’m milking her boobs?”

  “I saw you with her in your apartment. There’s a fine line between love and hate, George. You said you hated her but I saw you wrapping her in your arms, holding her as if your life depended on it. You were so busy making out that neither of you saw me. I can even remember what you were wearing that day. She was putting on a black dress and you were wearing a red vest and white shorts. Go ahead, deny it.”

  “Jesus! So this is why you dumped me?”

  “Did you expect me to be content with my place in your harem?”

  “Yes, I hugged Kyla. She had come to tell me that her father had passed away. Kyla and I go way back together. Her father was like an uncle to me. He was my football coach in high school and he taught me a lot about sport and life. Kyla knew how close I was to her father and she thought it was improper to tell me about his death over the phone, so she came in person and that was the last time she came to my apartment. Sara, when you love someone, you give them the benefit of doubt; you give them a chance to explain things. But you just rushed to assume the worst of me. You rushed to assume that I cheated on you just like you rushed to assume that I wanted to rape you yesterday. Thanks for the explanation, Sara. Now I know why I was dumped. I was seeking closure and now I found it.”

  George walked towards the door. Without thinking, Sara lunged at him and held him with all her might. “Please, George, I’m sorry. I love you, George. I never stopped loving you. I didn’t understand why you didn’t propose to me when we were so perfect for each other. When I saw you hugging Kyla in your apartment, my self-doubt and my frustration got the better of me.”

  “If we were perfect for each other you wouldn’t have rushed to assume the worst of me,” he rasped with rage.

  “Many times I almost proposed to you myself,” she said. “George, why didn’t you propose to me?”

  “I didn’t propose to you because I didn’t want you to think I was after your money. You were Deputy Director of GEMA and I was just a nonentity who did odd jobs.”

  “You didn’t give me the benefit of the doubt, George. You rushed to assume the worst of me.”