Ken Follett - Code to Zero (2000)

It must have been something highly important, Luke reflected, to take him away from Cape Canaveral just before his rocket was to take off. 'Is the launch going ahead tonight?'

'No, we've got weather problems. It's been postponed until tomorrow at ten-thirty p.m.'

Luke wondered what the hell he had been doing. 'Do I have friends here in Washington?'

'Sure. One of them's been calling me every hour. Bern Rothsten.' Hide read out a phone number.

Luke scribbled it on a scratchpad. I'll call him right away.'

'First you should talk to your wife.'

Luke froze. His breath was taken away. Wife, he thought I have a wife. He wondered what she was like.

'You still there?' Hide said.

Luke started to breathe again. 'Uh, Bill...'

'Yes?'

'What's her name?'

'Elspeth,' he said. 'Your wife's name is Elspeth. I'll transfer you to her phone. Hold the line.'

Luke had a nervous sensation in his stomach. This was dumb, he thought. She was his wife.

'Elspeth speaking. Luke, is that you?'

She had a warm, low voice, with precise diction and no particular accent. He imagined a tall, confident woman. He said: Yes, this is Luke. I've lost my memory.'

'I've been so worried. Are you okay?'

He felt pathetically grateful for someone who cared how he was. 'I guess I am now,' he said.

'What on earth happened?'

'I really don't know. I woke up this morning in the men's room at Union Station, and I spent the day trying to find out who I am.'

'Everyone's been looking for you. Where are you now?'

'At the Smithsonian, in the Aircraft Building.'

'Is someone taking care of you?'

Luke smiled at Will McDermot. 'A fellow scientist has been helping me. And I have a number for Bern Rothsten., But I really don't need taking care of. I'm fine, I just lost my memory.'

Will McDermot stood up, looking embarrassed, and whispered: 'I'm going to give you some privacy. I'll wait outside.'

Luke nodded gratefully.

Elspeth was saying: 'So you don't remember why you took off for Washington in such a hurry.'

'No. Obviously I didn't tell you.'

'You said it was better for me not to know. But I was frantic. I called an old friend of ours in Washington, Anthony Carroll. He's in the CIA.'

'Did he do anything?'

'He called you at the Carlton on Monday night, and you arranged to meet him for breakfast early on Tuesday morning - but you didn't show up. He's been looking for you all day. I'm going to call him now and tell him everything's all right'

'Obviously something happened to me between Monday evening and Tuesday morning.'

You ought to see a doctor, get yourself checked out.'

'I feel fine. But there's a lot I want to know. Do we have children?'

'No.'

Luke felt a sadness that seemed familiar, like the dull ache of an old injury.

Elspeth went on: 'We've been trying for a baby ever since we got married, which was four years ago, but we haven't succeeded.'

'Are my parents alive?'

Tour Mom is. She lives in New York. Your Pa died five years ago.'

Luke felt a sudden wave of grief that seemed to come from nowhere. He had lost his memories of his father, and would never see him again. It seemed unbearably sad.

Elspeth went on: 'You have two brothers and a sister, all younger. Your baby sister Emily is your favourite, she's ten years younger than you, she lives in Baltimore.'

'Do you have phone numbers for them?'

'Of course. Hold on while I look them up.'

I'd like to talk to them, I don't know why.' He heard a muffled sob at the other end of the line. 'Are you crying?'

Elspeth sniffed. 'I'm okay.' He imagined her taking a handkerchief out of her handbag. 'Suddenly I felt so sorry for you,' she said tearfully. 'It must have been awful.'

'There were some bad moments.'

'Let me give you those numbers.' She read them out.

'Are we rich?' he said when he had written down the phone numbers.

'Your father was a very successful banker. He left you a lot of money. Why?'

'Bill Hide told me I'm staying in my 'usual suite' at the Carlton.'

'Before the war, your Pa was an adviser to the Roosevelt' administration, and he liked to take his family with him when he went to Washington. You always had a corner suite at the Carlton. I guess you're keeping up the tradition.'

'So you and I don't live on what the army pays me.'

'No, though in Huntsville we try not to live very much better than your colleagues.'

'I could go on asking you questions all day. But what I really want is to find out how this happened to me. Would you fly up here tonight?'

There was a moment of silence. 'My God, why?'

'To figure out this mystery with me. I could use some help - and companionship.'

'You should forget about it and come down here.'

That was unthinkable. 'I can't forget about this. I have to know what it's all about It's too strange to ignore.'

'Luke, I can't leave Cape Canaveral now. We're about to launch the first American satellite, for heaven's sake! I can't let the team down at a moment like this.'

'I guess not.' He understood, but all the same he was hurt by her refusal. 'Who's Bern Rothsten?'

'He was at Harvard with you and Anthony Carroll. He's a writer now.'

'Apparently he's been trying to reach me. Maybe he knows what this is all about.'

'Call me later, won't you? I'll be at the Starlite Motel tonight.'

'Okay.'

'Take care of yourself, Luke, please,' she said earnestly.

'I will, I promise.' He hung up.

He sat in silence for a moment He felt emotionally drained. Part of him wanted to go to his hotel and lie down. But he was too curious. He picked up the phone again and called the number Bern Rothsten had left. 'This is Luke Lucas,' he said when the phone was answered.

Bern had a gravelly voice and the trace of a New York accent 'Luke, thank God! What the hell happened I'd you?'

'Everybody says that The answer is that I don't really know anything except that I've lost my memory.'

You lost your memory?'

'Right.'

'Oh, shit Do you know how this happened to you?'

'No. I was hoping you might have a clue.'

'I might'

'Why have you been trying to reach me?'

'I was worried. You called me on Monday. You said you were on your way here, you wanted to see me, and you would call me from the Carlton. But you never did.'

'Something happened to me on Monday night'

Yeah. Listen, there's someone you have to call. Dr Billie Josephson is a world expert on memory.'

The name rang a bell. 'I think I came across her book in the library.'

'She's also my ex-wife, and an old friend of yours.' Bern gave Luke the number.

'I'm going to call her right away. Bern ...'

Yeah.'

'I lose my memory, and it turns out that an old friend of mine is a world expert on memory. Isn't that a hell of a coincidence?'

'Ain't it just,' said Bern.

.

4.45 P. M.

The final stage, containing the satellite, is eighty inches long and only six inches across, and weighs just over thirty pounds. It is shaped like a stovepipe.

Billie had scheduled an hour-long interview with a patient, a football player who had been 'dinged' -concussed in a collision with an opponent. He was an interesting subject, because he could remember everything up to one hour before the game, and nothing after that until the moment when he found himself standing on the sideline with his back to the play, wondering how he got there.

She was distracted during the interview, thinking about the Sowerby Foundation and Anthony Carroll. By the time she got through with the football player and called Anthony, she was feeling frustrated and impatient. She was lucky, and reached him at his office on the first try. 'Anthony,' she said abruptly, 'what the hell is going on?'