Icejacked

The USA

The four of us were sitting in the hotel restaurant having a pre-tour breakfast. Leddicus and I were feeling refreshed after two days of rest and relaxation. Joe, Leddicus, and I had a huge full English, and Julie had her usual calorie-frugal fruit and yogurt. Joe had agreed to take the three of us to Heathrow for our late-afternoon flight, so this was an ideal opportunity to tie up final details for the trip.

After the plates were cleared away and the coffee poured, Joe hauled the statutory wedge of papers from his briefcase. We went through them one by one, and as usual, he had been thorough. After a while, Leddicus got busy pouring himself more coffee, fiddling with the sugar and milk, and paying no attention to the proceedings. He tried to stay interested in the business side of things, but he mostly faked it and swiftly got bored. These contracts meant we would all, including Leddicus, be earning a great deal of money, but he was just not interested. Apart from clothes, the occasional edible treat, and of course, his beloved laptop, he spent very little. Consequently, his bank account in the continued to expand.

Once all the contracts were signed and safely stowed in Joe’s briefcase, we chatted about next steps following the tour. We agreed Joe should continue to negotiate regarding the film possibilities and documentary opportunity. Joe was pretty certain that he could push for an increase in the offers being made on the back of the tour.

“We can turn Leddicus into a money-making machine!” Joe quipped.

Leddicus looked up from stirring his coffee. “I don’t want to be a machine. I like being human!”

We all laughed, except Leddicus, who gave us a bemused frown.

“Don’t worry,” said Joe. “You’ll still be human, but if the book is a success and the film goes ahead, then the possibilities of making money expand. You can endorse products for example.”

“Endorse? What does that mean?”

“Once the film has been released, people will recognise you even more than they do now. So you could say in a TV advert, ‘This orange juice is the best. You should get some.’ That’s an endorsement, and you’d get paid for saying it,” Joe explained.

“I could do that. No problem!” Leddicus said quickly. The frown disappeared as he held his coffee cup above his head. “This is good coffee. You should buy some.”

We all laughed, and Joe slapped him on the back. “You’re a trouper. That’s what you are.”

“Good for you,” I said. “Let’s leave Joe to work that out. In the meantime, the book deal is ready to be signed, and Julie wants to get started on that. We’ll all get paid for that as well. Are you up for it?”

“Let’s do it,” Leddicus said.

Julie leaned over and gave him a hug. “I’m looking forward to doing this, Leddicus. I love to write. Before we make a move, I have one more piece of news. The red top has issued its apology, and as I expected, it was a tiny piece hidden away in the middle of the paper. They said they were given the wrong information. I have my suspicions that perhaps Pricilla Morrison is involved, but I can’t prove it, and the paper will not give us its source.”

“Well, it’s better than nothing, and I’m sure you’ll circulate it widely,” said Joe. “I don’t know what can be done about Morrison. Perhaps Leddicus can come up with an answer.”

“Me!” Leddicus said. His eyebrows shot up. Surprise filled his dark brown eyes. “I don’t know what I can do.”

“Well, have a think,” said Joe. “Something might pop into your head.”

“Okay, I will,” Leddicus said without conviction.

On that note, we concluded our meeting, piled our luggage and ourselves into Joe’s car, and thus began the second tour.

As usual, we had a couple hours to kill while waiting for our flight. To pass the time, I hit on the idea of getting a world atlas to show Leddicus. I didn’t know why I hadn’t thought of that before. He was always fascinated about where he was, trying to understand the world and how it was interconnected. We sat in the coffee shop flipping through the pages. I pointed out place names I thought he might know, but Leddicus was struggling with the concept of the shape of the world.

“Is it flat or round?” He flipped between the front cover, which had a picture of a colourful globe, and the internal maps, which were flat.

We sauntered over to the nearest stationers, and I showed him the model of a globe I had spotted earlier when purchasing the atlas. I opened up the page with a map of on it and then turned the globe around to show him the same piece of land. His expression showed me that understanding had clicked into place.

“Ah, that makes sense now. And what was written in the Jewish scrolls?”

It was my turn to be confused. “Jewish scrolls? They had maps in them?”

“No, no, it has these words in the book called Job. I saw them this morning when I looked in the copy of the scroll that is in my hotel bedroom.”

“You have completely lost me now, Leddicus. What are you on about? There’s a scroll in your hotel room?”

“There’s a book in my room, and it has the same writing in it as the Jewish scrolls.”

“Ah, I think you mean the Gideon Bible, but what’s that got to do with the globe?” I scratched my head in frustration.

“In the book called Job, it says, ‘God has hung the earth on nothing.’ I always wondered what that meant, but when I look at this ball, it sort of makes sense to me.”

My mobile chirruped at me. Julie had sent a text to say our flight had been called. We headed back to collect her and our luggage. As we walked towards our gate, it occurred to me how something that is initially strange and alien can rapidly become second nature. I remembered the first flight that Leddicus took and his wide-eyed fascination with every detail. Today, he headed towards the plane as if he had been flying all his life.

Although a hardened flyer, Leddicus had never done a long haul. As we waited for take-off, I talked him through all the new technology. He was particularly delighted with the TV screen embedded in the back of the seat. He had never lost his fascination of all things tech and wanted to know the function of every button and attachment. By the time the plane began taxiing to the runway, he was keen to get some use out of the TV. With his headphones on, he pressed hopefully on the appropriate control.

“It’ll be an hour or so before they switch on the entertainment.” I removed one of his earpieces so he could hear me.

He flicked through one of the flight magazines, but quickly became bored of adverts for perfume and jewellery. He turned towards Julie, who was craning her neck to watch the white cliffs of Dover pass by far below. The clear blue sky gave a perfect view.

“I saw an interesting program about values last night,” he said to her.

“What sort of values? Money? Stuff? Or life?”

“Life, that’s the one. The values of life. In the programme, a man, who was an artist, was talking to another man who had something to do with ships. They were saying how you get values in life, but I think they got it all wrong, especially the man who was an artist.”

Julie giggled. “I watched that, too. He wasn’t an artist, he was an atheist, that’s someone who doesn’t believe in God. The other guy, he wasn’t anything to do with ships, he’s a bishop; that’s someone high ranking in the Church of England.”

An unfazed Leddicus ploughed on. “The artist man said we get our values from being human and how we were educated. Seems mad to me. My education and upbringing taught me ways to live and what it is to be human, and now I think most of the values I was taught were all wrong.”

I leaned over and said to them both, “I know Leddicus in this mode. He can get very deep!”

Julie flashed a wide smile. “I know,” she said without rancour, “but he is fascinating.” She focused on Leddicus. “What do you mean when you say it’s all wrong?”

“That’s easy. When I became a follower of the way, following the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, my values changed, my thinking changed, and my life changed. Some of the values he gave me would be mad to people in my world. For example, ‘Love your enemies and do good to people who are bad to you.’ That value had never been taught me and probably never would be.”

“I see what you mean, and I agree. If there isn’t a God, how can you get a trusted and consistent value system? An atheist would say a value system develops all on its own, but when has anyone ever suggested we should be good to people who are bad to us ever in the history of time?”

“Exactly!” said Leddicus. “A lot of the values I was taught came from Caesar, and he was totally corrupt.”

I interrupted them, “The entertainment module is working now.”

These heavy-duty conversations, for some strange reason, really got me rattled. I stuffed the headphones in my ears and switched on the TV screen. Leddicus quickly forgot about the debate and followed suit, flicking through the programs.

We arrived in in the late morning. Leddicus was very tired, and the time change puzzled him. As our taxi crawled its way through the lunchtime traffic, I filled Leddicus in on the concept of jet lag and how best to counteract it.

“So we’re not going to bed now?” He yawned widely.

“Nope, that would be the very worst thing to do. To limit the effects, you have to jolt yourself into the new time zone,” I said.

We paid the fare and checked into the Marriot.

“The restaurant here has rave reviews,” Julie said. “It’s on the top floor and has panoramic views. Shall we eat here?”

“Sounds like a plan,” I said. “Let’s take a couple hours to shower and unpack. We can meet up at the restaurant for early dinner and enjoy the view while it’s still light.”

We followed the steward down the corridor to our rooms. Leddicus was the first stop. As he entered his room, I walked in after him and prodded him in the back. “No cheating!” I said with mock authority.

“What?” He plonked his case on the gargantuan bed.

“No taking a nap. You’ll thank me tomorrow.”

“Right, okay,” he said blearily.

Julie and I waited for ten minutes in the restaurant reception before Leddicus appeared, looking very sheepish and breathless with shock at the speed of the lift. Julie grinned at me. We both knew what had happened. He would need copious amounts of coffee tomorrow. Julie had booked us an excellent table that took full advantage of the view. Leddicus snapped fully awake as he sat down and got sight of the view from the forty-eighth floor. He stared out for a full two minutes without saying a word., his eyes like saucers.

“I think I’m a bit dizzy,” he said. “It must be the effects of the long flight. I feel like I am still moving.”

“That’s because you are!” Julie said triumphantly. “We all are! The restaurant is moving round, and you will eventually see views of the whole of , including Times Square, and we’ll be able to watch all the lights coming on right across as it gets dark.”

“Incredible!” He stared back out of the window in awe. “How on Earth does that work?”

Neither of us said anything, and he looked with anticipation from me to Julie and back again. We just shrugged at him lamely and thrust a menu into his hands.

“Do you know how it works?” he said again.

“Google it,” I said.

“But I haven’t got my laptop here,” he said in a mock whine.

To distract him from his engineering quandary, I pointed to the centre of the restaurant. “Have you seen that?” I pointed towards the chocolate fountain and the typical American overkill buffet, which could feed everyone in the restaurant for a year.

“Wow!” said Leddicus, instantly keen to get stuck in. He banished hidden cogs and gears from his mind.

Even though I was a little tired from the flight, my adrenalin kicked in as I revelled in this new experience. It had been a master stroke to arrive at the restaurant while it was still light. We were able to watch as night enveloped the city, turning it into a carpet of sparkling black velvet, glistening and winking as far as the eye could see.

After dinner, we decided to take a stroll in and experience the unique attack on our every sense. Sirens wailed, music blared out of open doorways, and delicious smells wafted from street vendors, all against the panoramic backdrop of signs that constantly ticked, winked, flashed, and blinked. Poor Leddicus was becoming dizzy as he stood twirling on the spot, staring at every corner from every angle. From ground level to as high as he could crane his neck, he tried to take in the hundreds of signs dazzling his vision.

We met up at ten thirty for breakfast, and all felt refreshed after a good rest.

“I have to go back to in three days,” Julie announced. “So Leddicus and I have our work cut out. I must capitalise on this time to get the outline material ready for the book.”

“What do you need me to do?” Leddicus poured syrup over a huge stack of waffles.

“Answer lots of questions while I make notes and record the conversations.”

“Can I eat first?” He grinned at us, daring us to say no.

Straight after breakfast, Leddicus and Julie found a quiet corner in the lounge, and I headed off to explore .

For the next three days, we settled into a routine. We took an early breakfast. After which, Leddicus and Julie would settle in the lounge. She would fire endless questions at him and make copious notes while I went exploring or worked in my room. I would meet them when they took a break for lunch, and then it was more of the same for all of us. In the evenings, we tried different American eateries.

At lunchtime on the final day, Julie announced. “I’ve enough to keep me going to make a good start on the book. Let’s take the afternoon off to go sightseeing!”

We went to the . From there, we went to the remains of the Twin Towers and to check out progress on the new construction. I also managed to negotiate a private tour of the United Nations building by calling in a favour from a long-term acquaintance.

Leddicus struggled with the concept of the United Nations. “ rules everywhere. There is only one authority. Why would you consult nations on their opinions?”

While we waited for my acquaintance to arrive at the appointed meeting spot outside the building, we looked at the sculpture of a gun with a twisted barrel. I explained to Leddicus that this was a symbol of peace. The United Nations aimed to bring an end to all war. We had arrived about a half hour early so we wandered around the gardens and came across a sculpture of a man with a huge hammer raised above his head, ready to take an almighty blow to a fearsome-looking sword that he held in his other hand. The statue bore no inscription, standing bold and stark against the backdrop.

“I know what this statue represents. It’s a verse in a Jewish scroll, but I can’t remember it all,” Leddicus said.

“Have we time to walk over the road, Gerhardt? I remember something from my last visit,” Julie said.

I checked my watch. “We’ve got about twenty minutes before David is due.”

“That should be enough time.” Julie steered us across the road to in order to see the Isaiah Wall in the Plaza. And there, carved in the concrete wall is part of the Bible describing the statue we had just seen in the UN gardens.

Leddicus read it out very slowly, “They will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.”

We all stood in awe as we thought of the statue and the chiselled words on the wall before us.

“Come on,” I said reluctantly. “We’d best make a move so we’re not late.”

My acquaintance, David Wakefield, turned up at the same time as us. After warm handshakes, he ushered us into the building. One of the best parts of the tour was being able, with use of David’s pass, to access the main Security Council room and view the place where it is all decided, for good or ill, depending on your point of view.

The main United Nations forum room fascinated Leddicus, and he was still confused that representatives from each country had a seat and could take part in discussions on policy. He asked where sat, and David walked over and pointed out the Italian seat. Leddicus also wanted to know if a seat were allocated for where he came from. He was shown the seats for and . He wanted to know where on Earth the country was with the seat labelled Holy See. I explained that was , which he had already visited on our trip to Rome. He looked very puzzled at that. He wandered from seat to seat, asking question after question. David checked his watch with barely concealed irritation. I knew he was on a tight schedule so I swiftly intervened, wheeling Leddicus out of the room and diplomatically suggesting a trip to his favourite venue for lunch. We were all bowled over by the visit, and grateful to have had the opportunity.

For Julie and Leddicus, New York had been hard work, but for me, it had been an adventure. I had explored so much of it while they worked. But all good things come to an end, and it was now time for Julie to go back to . She waved good-bye to us from her taxi. An hour later, some very friendly people from , where our tour was to begin, collected us from the hotel.

***

Eduardo slit open the package and pulled out the brand-new mobile. He plugged it in to charge the battery. He had located a source of new units. Some of them were of a very fresh variety. The first nine were ready for dispatch. He already had excellent transport links in place, a new and seemingly foolproof method. The final destination was .

While he waited for the phone to charge, he put the finishing touches to the manuscript. He was almost ready to send it to the publisher. All that was needed were the essential notes containing the intimate personal details to bring it to life. Joseph had emailed to say that the courier would be en route within a few days. The up-front payment, which he split equally with Joseph, was in the region of £200,000, and that was just for the English version. He had already begun work on the Italian version and would thereafter commence the German translation followed by Spanish. His multi-lingual abilities engendered the only gratitude he felt for his violent and domineering father, who had forced him to learn all the languages spoken by both his parents.

Joseph had close ties with the film industry, and if sales were good, a movie deal was a foregone conclusion.

***

A powerful pulled up gently to the curb alongside a terrace of up market North London new build flats. The driver drew the bike up onto its stand beneath the thick foliage of a London Plane tree. The midnight streets were deserted, and there were very few lights showing from the windows of nearby homes.

He was clad entirely in black, and he did not remove his helmet as he moved swiftly through the shared courtyard and up the steps to one of the front doors, he quietly unzipped a pocket on the front of his jacket and removed a slender tool. This he inserted into the lock, and within 15 seconds the door swung open. To any casual observer, it was just a resident returning home early in the morning.

He did not remove his gloves or switch on any lights, he removed his mobile from his trouser pocket and switched on its flashlight. He checked each room until he found the one containing a desk and PC, and there, in a tray beside the keyboard sat a slim red notebook. He flipped it open, flicked through a few pages, and nodded to himself. He tucked it into a pocket on the inside on his leather jacket and stood silently for a moment, slowing his racing pulse, calming his breathing and listening.

No sound could be heard within the flat. He moved silently towards the front door, opened it a crack and checked each way along the street, it was still deserted. He cranked the bike back off its stand, but didn’t push the ignition; instead he wheeled it to the end of the road where he placed it back on its stand, unlocked the small container behind the pillion seat and removed a sat nav, he clicked this into its housing on the dashboard and punched in the co-ordinates for Dover, then he fired up the bike.

***

For the tour, we used a similar format to the , and everything soon became a blur with us not really knowing when or where we were. Joe’s office kept us on time and on track. The main difference was the hospitality. In the , at the end of most evenings, we would end up back at our hotel, grabbing a bite to eat from the room service menu. But in almost every venue, at the end of the seminar, the hosts insisted on taking us out to eat in fancy restaurants. It was fantastic, but my trousers were getting tighter and tighter. Even the salads added inches to your waistline here.

Leddicus did not take long to adjust to the new way of speaking English and could soon drawl with the best of them. He loved the hospitality and the fact that the Americans were much gentler with him with their questions and much less sceptical about his story.

We spent our time doing four things: sleeping, lecturing, eating, and flying. We criss-crossed the country from to the Midwest and then back to the states. We even dipped once into , where Leddicus would normally have quizzed me relentlessly.

“Why is it another country? Why do they use different money? Why is it the same person on this paper money as the money in the ? Why is it different money? Why does it say dollar and yet has a different value to the American dollar?”

But by now, he knew that, whatever question he asked me, my response was always the same, “Google it.”

On one of the rare free evenings during the tour, we were sitting on the hotel balcony and gazing out at the landscape when his mobile rang. He fished it out of his pocket.

“Julie!” His smile rapidly changed to a frown. He listened silently for a while and then handed the phone to me.

“Hey, Julie, it must be the middle of the night there. We’ve been having such a—” I stopped short as I caught a sob on the other end of the line.

“It’s gone!” Her voice trembled. “I lost all the notes I had typed up for the book, and I lost the fifty pages I had typed for the start of the biography.”

“Lost? How could you lose them? Did your laptop malfunction?”

“I don’t know. They just disappeared from my files, along with a few other obscure documents.”

“What was it? A virus?” I kept my voice calm, but I knew what this meant.

“I’ve had it checked out. The tech boys can’t find anything wrong. They can find no trace. I’ve got a good virus protection program, and my laptop is firewalled, but that’s not the worst of it.”

“There’s more?”

“I don’t know how to tell you this. Joe was absolutely furious with me. I’ve never known him so angry.” Julie stopped for a moment. I could sense her trying to regain control. “I’ve also lost my notebook, all the notes I made while I was with Leddicus. All Joe kept saying was, ‘Why didn’t you back it up, you idiot?’ I’ve never backed anything up. I’ve never needed to before.”

“How on Earth did you lose your notebook?” I asked gently and pointlessly, but was actually wondering how such an organised girl as Julie had lost all her work.

“I’m so sorry. I’ve let you all down. I don’t know how I can make it up to you all.”

“Look, Julie, this is terrible, but it can be fixed. When we are back, you can start again. I know that’s wretched, but it just means it’ll take more time.”

“I hope you’re right, but Joe kept saying timing is critical. We may not keep the monopoly if we don’t strike while the iron is hot, and this is going to set us back months.”

“I think I understand.” Leddicus was hovering at my shoulder. “Leddicus wants to speak to you.” I handed the phone back to him. He left me sitting on the balcony and wandered up and down the corridor as he chatted soothingly to the distraught Julie.

Over the next few days, we spoke a few more times. Julie went over and over it. She was torturing herself trying to discover what went wrong, but could reach no conclusion. The only answer was to start again. Julie had suggested this to Joe, but it did not seem to stem his anger. He kept saying that timing was of the essence. Someone else could pip us to the post. I didn’t see how that could happen. We were the only ones with access to Leddicus.

When I compared the three-month UK schedule and the two-month States schedule, I realised the cunning Joe had packed in as many bookings as we had undertaken in the UK. No wonder I was beginning to feel ready for a break as the end of the tour approached.

I sat in my seat with a huge sense of relief as the plane revved up its engines, ready for the long haul back to the .

“Leddicus, you’ve done a great job. We’ve had a fantastic two months, and there’s a lot to talk about.”

“Yes, there is.” He folded his arms and looked attentive and expectant.

“But I’m exhausted and just need to rest my brain, so, if you don’t mind, let’s have a quiet flight home.”

His face fell, and he shrugged. “Okay, I understand.” I was pretty sure he didn’t. He had boundless energy and never seemed to need peace and quiet.

To ensure he was under no illusions, that I really did mean to have some quiet, right after the “remove seat belt” sign winked on, I stuffed on my headset, pushed the seat back as far as it would go, and closed my eyes. Almost immediately, I was fast asleep.