27. The Contract

Nico is curious. “Professor, you have never told anyone what happened to your wife, your son and his wife and you have never reported them somewhere as missing?”

Professor Johan frowns and you can see the words hurt when he answers: “I lost all of them in India in a wild car chase in an effort to get away. Only Martie and I survived and I ran away with her. Luckily I ducked into the right ashram where believers hid us for two years because the web of the organization was everywhere. There I got direct tuition from a swami and studied classical Sanskrit and built up a rich knowledge of the Vedic culture. Eventually, we were smuggled out of India by the ISKCON movement. I was disguised as a swami and Martie as a baby of an ISKCON woman in the group that eventually travelled to South Africa.

“You must realize, my wife and I, as well as my daughter in law, were orphans so they were my only family. We were a very close-knit family. Do you now understand why Martie is my all and everything in life? She is the only family I have left. She is the reason why I went under the radar at that time back in South Africa and remained silent and changed my occupation. She is the reason I am here with you in the hope you can help us, if it is true that those devils are after me again.”

“So, everything was fine with the holiday and you did not suspect foul play.”

“We were treated like kings. We toured India with a special tour group. The guide taught us so much about the different cultures and lifestyles of the people. We stayed in five-star hotels. And then we went back to the city where we had landed and from where we should depart the next day. It was the day of the interview. A chauffeur picked us up in a luxurious limousine and guess who surprised me and sat at the back with us on our way to the interview?”

“I wouldn’t know, professor.”

“Elize Ezkariot!”

“Your former colleague who had reported you and landed you in hot water?”

“Precisely!”

“It must have been a weird situation.”

“On the contrary, she humbly apologized because we had been such good friends. She wanted to compensate me for she knew I wouldn’t easily get a new position as a researcher; in any case, not a position that would pay well. When the organization offered her a research position to do the same experiments we had done for the German company and promised to pay her twelve times her salary, she thought of me and wanted to compensate me for what she had done to me.”

“After she had been with the organization for a few months and had been very happy and had surety, she told them about me. She literally bubbled with excitement about the ground-breaking research they were doing. I would work together with a number of scientists that are years ahead in research. I asked her about my trouble with the medical council. She assured me that it was not a problem because the reason they were so far ahead, was because their research was highly secret and they didn’t let the world's rules and regulations hamper their work.

“I wanted to know what they were researching precisely and what the organization’s mission was. She explained that I had to get well acquainted with the research before I would fully understand because what they were doing was quite revolutionary. She could assure me that my future colleagues were all people of great character and principled and were working like one big family and fully believed in the work they were doing.”

“What happened next?”

“We stopped in front of a giant, round building or rather a wall with no windows that stretched for blocks. We entered via a security opening and inside we saw the place was built like a fort. It was only the high wall that isolated the town inside from the rest of the city with homes all around at the inside of the wall. In the centre were streets with shops, sports centres and everything you would find in a proper city. The place fascinated us immensely. It was an isolated town in the middle of the city.

“Next we went to an office building in the centre of the town where we met Ronald, the leader of the scientific team. Ronald wanted to know whether Elizabeth would be interested in work but we had beforehand decided she would be a housewife. He said that was also the situation with quite a few of the scientists. Ronald introduced Johan junior and Tanya to representatives of the organization that thoroughly interviewed them promptly. They wanted to know what their interests were and what their current occupations were. Both were teachers but Tanya deferred because she wanted to give all her attention to Martie. Financially they were struggling with only one breadwinner.

“They were instantly offered teaching posts with salaries twelve times their current remuneration and asked whether they wanted to visit the school where they would teach. They left and I remained with Ronald and Elize. Later that evening, back at the hotel, they told us they were extremely impressed with the learners. It was clear that the children were very intelligent and respectful. They were excited.

“Ronald managed the research according to the company’s goals. I asked for details about these goals but he and Elize subtly sidestepped this subject. Thereafter we had lunch with the whole research team, and I must say, I was highly impressed with those people. They were of different nationalities, convictions and disciplines, but I could see there is a strong bond between them. Most of them also had their next of kin that did their own work just as Johan and Tanya should have done. Each family was housed in their own home at the inside of the wall and they all looked happy.

“All of them were looking forward to welcoming us as part of the family and then we visited some of the homes against the wall where they live in isolation of the world. They had super quick internet and the best computers money can buy and gadgets that made their lives easy and also servants that kept their homes clean, do the washing and looked after the children. We were surprised by the luxury and space each family enjoyed.

“From there we went with one of the families of the researchers who showed us around in the town. His wife was also a housewife and she and Elizabeth clicked immediately. She enlightened her about the many activities that housewives enjoyed together. For example, they had a book club and an art school and did many past times together. No one in the town used money; they only fetched what they needed from the shops. They attended concerts and films free of charge when they had the time. A fully equipped sports centre was available as well as an artificial seaside and also an amusement park and they played squash, soccer, tennis and whatever you can think of. They competed against the rest of the world through tours. They had their own hospital, pharmacy and medical care, everything free, while huge salaries were deposited in their bank accounts which they never had to use because everything was free, even lodging. They could leave the town at will if they wished so, but it never happened because they preferred the safety and luxury.”

Nico is amazed. “It sounds too good to be true, Professor. I don’t understand. What went wrong?”

“We were taken back to our hotel and we had the opportunity to once again study the contract in detail. We could sleep over it but we had to decide by the next morning. Elizabeth, Johan junior and Tanya were exhilarated and signed even before they went to sleep, but I wanted to carefully think it over. The chauffeur would have picked us up after lunch the next day to either go to Ronald with the signed contract by all of us or to the airport. Should we decide to stay, we as a family would move into one of the dwellings and started a new life together.”

Nico is flabbergasted. “Professor, it all sounds so rosy. Why did you decline the offer?”

“Sixth sense, Nico, I have always trusted my sixth sense in everything I did and something was out of place. I didn’t trust the secrecy. The place was hopelessly too isolated and could easily be changed into a jail. But, all the families looked quite happy, but something bothered me and I could not place my finger on it. I realized that it was my instinct that warned me and every time I had disregarded my instinct, things went terribly wrong. They were too hasty for us to sign. We had only that one opportunity. Why did they want us to move in so quickly and become part of the family?

“What was the hold on the families that no one wanted to leave? Could it be that there was a family that wanted to leave and they hid it from us, and if it was the case, what happened to that family? I studied the contract again for any clause about a breach of contract but could find none. The only strange clause was that we as a new family were obliged to have a face to face personal interview with the founder of the organization before we moved in. Everything indicated that any resident could take his things and leave if he wished to do so.

“I picked up the phone and phoned the number Elize had given me and asked her who this founder was that wanted to interview us personally. She said I did not have to worry about it, it was only tradition. I asked her why she tried to circumvent my question. Who is this person? And what she then told me, raised my suspicion sky high. She said it was the man who opened the eyes of all of them and gave them a collective goal that made them one inseparable family. And when I ended the call, I remembered the day when I had made that dangerous discovery and the nightmare I had and I just had the feeling that my subconscious would clear up things for me. If I slept through till morning, I would know nothing was amiss and I would sign the next morning.

“That night I had a terrible nightmare. I don’t want to relate the whole dream, but it was a warning and the next morning everything was clear as daylight. I didn’t sign the contract but left it in the hotel room. I decided we had to catch the organization unawares and clandestinely try to get out by getting to the airport as early as possible and tried to get an earlier flight to South Africa and vanish before they suspected anything.

“Elizabeth, Johan and Tanya were very unhappy but, eventually, I succeeded in convincing them partially that something was out of order and we immediately caught a taxi to try and get an earlier flight. Something just compelled me to get away.”

Nico’s eyes widen. “Things probably eventually went wrong at the airport, not so Professor?”

He dispiritedly shakes his head: “I wish we had never travelled to India and stayed here. Then probably Elizabeth, Johan and Tanya would be with us today.”

He hesitates for a while, stares at nothing in particular and then quickly speaks: “Things went wrong even on our way to the airport. We never reached the airport!”