were looking to the President – and by extension, looking to him – to get them safely through the geopolitical unrest caused by the nuclear devastation in Korea and the risks and uncertainty of newly discovered alien life that now hovered threateningly above their heads. Until just a few weeks ago he believed ardently that the U.S. government could protect and serve the people, could guide and deliver them to a safe and prosperous future. Now, sitting quietly and alone in the sky over Washington, numbed a little by the good scotch whiskey, he felt no such certainty. And he wasn’t the only one feeling the stress and anxiety. He’d been around the White House of too many administrations not to be able to sense the collective mood. The people that worked there, from the President on down, all felt it. They were the true insiders and knew the detail of things. And like him, they were worried and unsure of what was happening. Unsure of what was going to happen. They were scared. And so was he.
As the pilot of the small chartered airplane circled the little island sitting like a beach encircled jewel in the quiet turquoise waters of the Caribbean, David spotted the small landing strip and then alongside that a row of two story buildings that he had been told was the remnant of an exclusive resort hotel that had gone bankrupt twenty years earlier. Gabriela sitting next to him was also craning her neck to look out the window and in the window seat in front was Dr. Wheeling doing the same thing.
Seeing the island somehow made this hastily set up trip seem real whereas before it still had seemed dream-like. With his eyes still on the island, David thought about the sequence of events over the last 48 hours that led him to an encounter with no predictable outcome. Once he had verified that Ben Planck was still on the out of the way island with the foreboding name of Pirate’s Cay, getting a phone number for him was easy. But before attempting to call Planck he had informed Dr. Wheeling of how and where he had found Planck and the professor had immediately told David he too wanted to go with David to meet Planck. As it turned out that was a good thing because when he finally succeeded in talking to Planck, Planck was not at all eager to meet with David.
The call had started with a brief recollection of their days as doctoral students at Columbia and then quickly Planck stated that he was not the Benjamin Planck everyone was looking for. He had already been emphatic about this to the local Bahamian Police who had come to check and then to agents from the FBI who said they were running down everyone with the name Benjamin Planck. Planck then told David what he had told everyone else: in fact Benjamin was his middle name. He had actually been named after his great great great uncle and his first name was indeed Max. Then he said that his little island community was a Zen Buddhist retreat and nothing he had done or had been doing could possibly be of interest to The Object or anyone else for that matter. Even this brief exchange had taken slow minutes as Planck’s reticence to talk had not changed.
David heard him out but kept prodding. He brought up the matter of the hurricanes and Plank’s attachment to physics. Planck just remained silent to that line of approach. Then David mentioned that Dr. Wheeling also wanted to come meet him. After confirming that indeed it was the Dr. Janus Wheeling, winner of the Nobel Prize, Planck’s attitude changed. He had read Wheeling’s major papers and books and yes he did know that David had co-authored the recent bestseller – for a book on theoretical physics. On the proviso that Dr. Wheeling came too, Planck invited them to come see him.
The small plane landed and taxied over to a hut with an extended roofline where waiting and disembarking passengers could gather in the event of rain. As the three of them exited
As the pilot of the small chartered airplane circled the little island sitting like a beach encircled jewel in the quiet turquoise waters of the Caribbean, David spotted the small landing strip and then alongside that a row of two story buildings that he had been told was the remnant of an exclusive resort hotel that had gone bankrupt twenty years earlier. Gabriela sitting next to him was also craning her neck to look out the window and in the window seat in front was Dr. Wheeling doing the same thing.
Seeing the island somehow made this hastily set up trip seem real whereas before it still had seemed dream-like. With his eyes still on the island, David thought about the sequence of events over the last 48 hours that led him to an encounter with no predictable outcome. Once he had verified that Ben Planck was still on the out of the way island with the foreboding name of Pirate’s Cay, getting a phone number for him was easy. But before attempting to call Planck he had informed Dr. Wheeling of how and where he had found Planck and the professor had immediately told David he too wanted to go with David to meet Planck. As it turned out that was a good thing because when he finally succeeded in talking to Planck, Planck was not at all eager to meet with David.
The call had started with a brief recollection of their days as doctoral students at Columbia and then quickly Planck stated that he was not the Benjamin Planck everyone was looking for. He had already been emphatic about this to the local Bahamian Police who had come to check and then to agents from the FBI who said they were running down everyone with the name Benjamin Planck. Planck then told David what he had told everyone else: in fact Benjamin was his middle name. He had actually been named after his great great great uncle and his first name was indeed Max. Then he said that his little island community was a Zen Buddhist retreat and nothing he had done or had been doing could possibly be of interest to The Object or anyone else for that matter. Even this brief exchange had taken slow minutes as Planck’s reticence to talk had not changed.
David heard him out but kept prodding. He brought up the matter of the hurricanes and Plank’s attachment to physics. Planck just remained silent to that line of approach. Then David mentioned that Dr. Wheeling also wanted to come meet him. After confirming that indeed it was the Dr. Janus Wheeling, winner of the Nobel Prize, Planck’s attitude changed. He had read Wheeling’s major papers and books and yes he did know that David had co-authored the recent bestseller – for a book on theoretical physics. On the proviso that Dr. Wheeling came too, Planck invited them to come see him.
The small plane landed and taxied over to a hut with an extended roofline where waiting and disembarking passengers could gather in the event of rain. As the three of them exited
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