Monkey Games
By Vince Coyner
Chapter 15. Lyon
The Lyon train station was a beehive of activity. As the easternmost city of significant size in France, it was the point of departure for most traffic traveling to Italy, Switzerland, and much of south central Europe. Amid the chaos of the hustle and bustle and the chaotic symphony of sounds Felix was easy to spot. As instructed he was waiting at the McDonalds. He had taken a seat on the bench outside of the eatery. He was sharing the bench with a smiling Ronald McDonald statue who was permanently attached to the bench with his arm behind the shoulder of anyone who chose to sit with him. Felix was sitting for about ten minutes before he saw Laura walking towards him. She looked so beautiful it actually hurt. “Felix!” Laura said as she approached him. He leapt to his feet with a smile that seemed to rival that of the Ronald McDonald statue. She walked over to him and they embraced. “Thank you” she said. It was the warmest embrace he could ever remember getting and it was certainly the most enjoyable since he first wrapped his arms around Sonya, the girl that opened his eyes to love when he was 15 and broke his heart when he was 16. Stepping back Laura asked, “Do you have everything.” “Yes” Felix said as he pointed to the brown leather briefcase he had set on Ronald McDonald’s lap. “Great” she said, “we should get going. The car is just outside” Felix grabbed the briefcase as he said “see you later Ron.” The Ronald McDonald statue did not respond. The gray Audi A6 was parked on the side street just to the south of the station. Laura hit the unlock button and opened the drivers side door. Felix started to walk around to the passenger side and Laura gestured to the back, you’ll have to sit in the back.” Bending over Felix was somewhat startled to notice that there was someone sitting in the passenger seat. He opened the rear door on the passenger side and climbed in. The person sitting in the front seat looked vaguely familiar but Felix was sure they had never met. “Hello”, Jonathan said as he reached his right hand into the back to shake hands with Felix. “Hello, I’m Felix” “Jonathan. Nice to meet you.” Laura pulled the car out, coming within an inch of the Aston Martin that was parked in front of them with dents and scratches on its bumper, a telltale sign of any car driven in France for more than a week. As she was prone to doing, Laura wasted no time. “Now, tell me what you’ve got.” “Well” said Felix. “We’ve got five islands, one of which is Aislado.” Continuing, “The other four are all within 250 miles of both it and La Playa Arena.” “How long have they been active?” Laura asked. “Of the five, two have been active for ten years, one for fourteen years and two for twenty. Aislado is one of the twenty year facilities and El volcán is the other.” Jonathan and Laura looked at one another. They both knew it. They had hoped it would not be true, but they both knew it was now. There was undoubtedly another clone of about Jonathan’s age who lived on El volcán. The boys on the other islands were ten and fourteen years old, which meant they had literally not grown big enough to be considered candidates for what Alexander had in mind. The clone on El volcán on the other hand was exactly Jonathan’s age and therefore a perfect replacement for Jonathan. They both knew what was implicit in his question this morning “What if there are others like me?” If there were, they had to go and try and rescue them. They didn’t have much time. They had no doubt that Alexander had made plans to do to this other boy that which he was not able to accomplish with Jonathan....
Looking at Felix in the rear view mirror Laura asked “Were their any names associated with these islands?” “Well, all of them were code named C1 through C5, with Aislado being C1 and El volcán being C2. I don’t remember the specific order of the other three.” “No, what I’m really interested in is names of people. Did the name Jonathan ever show up with that data on Aislado?” “Oh” said Felix. “Not that I noticed, but I’ve got a printout of the data I could find for each of them.” He opened a manila envelope in which he had five sets of stapled sheets. He found the sheets for Aislado. Each paragraph or block of data was preceded by a heading and a number. The sheets were single spaced with ten point type which made them difficult to read, particularly in the dark back of the Audi. Finally on the third page at line number 48 he found the heading: SUBJECT NAME: JONATHAN on line 49 found the name TUTOR: Sebring. “Here it is. The subject’s name is Jonathan,” he said looking up at Jonathan. He continued, “and the tutor’s name is Sebring.” “Yes, that’s what I was looking for” Laura said. “What does it say about El volcán? Felix quickly grabbed the sheets for El volcán and flipped to page 3 and scanned down to line 48. “Here, I’ve got it. Benjamin. The subject’s name is Benjamin and the tutor’s name is Ho."She looked at her watch, it was almost midnight. They should be at the Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport by one.
Earlier that afternoon after they left the mall in Zurich they took a taxi back to the airport. Just as Jacob had promised, Hans was there and ready to go. He was laying on the couch in the pilots’ lounge in the hanger inside of which Alex’s plane was sitting. He quickly stood and said “Hello” shaking Jonathan’s hand and then Laura’s. He was a tall young man in his early thirties with sandy blonde hair and strong features and a confident smile. “I’m Hans, I think my Uncle Jacob mentioned me to you. He said you had a week or more of flying and he wasn’t sure where we’d be going.” “Correct” said Laura. “Your uncle said you would have no problems with the Gulfstream IV-SP, is that true?” Smiling, Hans said that it was. And then for emphasis went down his qualifications and the jets he had piloted. He was not trying to be cocky, but it probably sounded a bit like it. Nonetheless, he simply wanted them to be comfortable with the fact that he could handle the plane with his eyes closed. “He said that you had promised to pay 25,000 Euros.” Laura looked at him, knowing that she had told Jacob that she was willing to pay 15,000 Euros. He had no doubt assumed that given her situation she would likely pay more without argument. He was right. She had neither the time nor the inclination to bargain right now. “Yes, that is correct” she said. After a few more questions the three boarded the plane and Hans flew them to Lyon. Laura had told him they would probably get back to the airport just after midnight and he should be ready to lift off as soon as they arrived.
“How did you find them?” Laura asked Felix as she once again began of focusing on the road ahead. Felix proceeded to recount the path he had taken that allowed him to find and isolate the five islands. “Amazing” she said, knowing that he had found the proverbial needle in a haystack, “Felix you are just amazing.” She continued “So where exactly is El volcán located?” “It is approximately 230 miles north of La Playa Arena and 175 miles southeast of Aislado.”
Soon after they pulled back onto the access road to Lyon-Saint Exupéry. She was hoping they would not run into any problems with customs inspectors. With the new designation code they didn’t have any problems in Zurich and when they arrived in Lyon the inspectors were out on a symbolic 12-hour strike to protest the government’s suggestion that adjustments might need to be made to their retirement plans. That should have meant that they had to wait to disembark, but as there was no one at the hanger to trouble them and they simply got off the plane, walked to the terminal and rented the Audi.
Returning it seemed the strike had gone on longer than had been anticipated and still no one was there to trouble them. They simply drove up to the general aviation terminal and left the car with the valet. Before they let the valet go, Laura asked Felix if he wanted the valet to drop him at the taxi stand. A disconcerted Felix protested that there was no way he was leaving. “But you don’t even know what is going on” Laura said to him. “That doesn’t matter, if you’re in trouble, I’m in trouble. I’m helping.” “OK” she said, happy there would be another person to help them face whatever might be ahead. She was fairly sure that was what he had planned the entire time but with something like this she did not want to be presumptuous. As they approached the plane Laura could see Hans sitting at the controls going over the preflight checklist. “Excellent” she said to herself, “we should be off the ground in 5 minutes.”
Felix was amazed at the plane. It was easily nicer than most hotels he had ever stayed and frankly bigger than some as well. Laura went up front and sat in the co-pilots seat. Hans taxied them out to the runway and within seven minutes of boarding they were in the air. They would once again head south until they reached the Mediterranean and would fly due West to the Azores. From there it was a straight shot to Martinique and then to El volcán. Total flight would take a total of almost 18 hours, including the two fuel stops.
Once they reached their 35,000-ft. cruising altitude Laura turned to Hans and asked “I’m going to head into the back, are you OK up here?” “Sure, I’m fine. Go ahead. I’ll call you if I need something.”
As she climbed out of the seat closed the cockpit door before heading into the cabin. She knew there would be a barrage of questions from Felix about what exactly was going on, what had happened, what that information was for as well as a myriad of others. She took a deep breath.
Jonathan had not talked much at all since Felix had arrived. It had been less than a week since his world was turned upside down. He had met more people in seven days than he had met in his entire life, many times over. As such he simply was not comfortable talking with people he did not know. Felix was full of questions but his first attempts at conversation with Jonathan led to quick roadblocks so he simply sat and looked out the window. At three in the morning there was more to see than he would have imagined. With the full moon he could easily see the contours of the clouds below and the outlines of the coast as well. It was not so much that he could see the land itself, but rather its silhouette could be seen as it interrupted the shimmering reflection of the moon dancing on the sea.
Continue...