EN ROUTE TO CUBA
Meinrad and Jake found their way into the room several minutes later. He walked, while running his mouth, pliantly, in reports over what kept him at the event hall. After he was done, he said, with his palm held out. "Where is the tube?"
Olivia pulled out the topmost drawer of the table and took it out. When she handed it over to him, Jake noticed some shimmery gleams on her hand and he wandered where she inserted her hand, but he chose not to spoil Meinrad's joy with disturbing questions. Meinrad took the tube from her with his handkerchief. "The joy of owning something I worked for." He smiled, staring through the glass.
"You mean, we worked for?" Olivia looked at him, stressing the 'we'. He looked her. "You all did well...where are the rest? Where they caught?"
"You want them caught?" She asked him. The door went open immediately, with Ali and Camillas walking into the room. Jake caught the shimmers on their hands as well and his restlessness grew. Meinrad turned to them.
"How did you guys do it?"
"The same way we did it at Fermilab," Camillas answered.
"What's that thing on their hands?" Jake whispered into Meinrad's ear, and he looked at their hands, noticing the colorful shimmers.
"Why the glints on your hands?" Meinrad asked. "You guys touched stuffs?"
They all looked at their palms, turning it side to side.
"The tube was immersed in a slimy fluid when we saw it," Camillas said.
He looked at his hands again, wondering why the dregs of the fluid had refused to clear from his palm after the bath he had. Meinrad and Jake looked at each other in fright, it seemed they knew what the fluid was, or why the tube was immersed in it.
Meinrad swallowed saliva and looked at them. "You all did noble." He tried to smile, but something kept contracting his lips. "Tomorrow we leave this place." After he said it Alban opened the door and walked in.
"Where is it?" Alban asked, smiling broadly.
Meinrad shook the tube before his face and walked out of the room with Jake.
Alban looked back at him. "What's wrong with that man?" He asked.
"Alicia gave him a back seat maybe," Ali mumbled.
Olivia laughed. "I don't know really," she said. "Meinrad swings foolishly. But nonetheless, we would make our machine work."
The sound of that cheered Alban up and he joined them on the bed. "You need to see the way I maneuvered my dad just to make it right here. He insisted I stayed here in CERN for a few more days."
"That can't be possible Alban, you know, don't you?" Olivia laughed.
"I gave him a truckload of reasons why he should let me go. You needed to see the look on his face." He chuckled and fell on the bed, with his hands stretched above his head, and his hair, spread out.
"Buh if ah were ya ah would stay," Ali said.
"Tell me this is one of you jokes Ali," Alban turned to him. They all laughed.
At the other room below, Jake sat on the bed, staring up at Meinrad who kept walking to and fro within the room, with his fingers clutching his cheek, and his head bent to the floor.
"You know what they inserted their hands into, don't you?" He asked Jake.
"A thick fluid," Jake said. Meinrad halted before him. "Have you ever heard of liquified goolet?"
Jake sat confused on the bed, saying the word silently in murmurs. He looked up at Meinrad and shook his head. "No...never heard of that."
"That liquid could keep you hunted for over five years."
"I...I don't get you professor."
"Look, that liquid stuck to their hands could enable CERN track them wherever they are, even if it's at the dark side of the Moon. The scientists at CERN are supersmart and seeing. They knew the tube could be sought-after. That was why they stored it inside a tracking-fluid as soon as the Higgs bosons were stored inside it."
"So, you mean we would be followed as soon as we step out of here?"
"That is the reason we need to think fast. Look." He sat beside him. "We don't have the fluid in our hands, so we are at an advantage."
"Does such advantage count? If we all converge in Fanfield we would all be apprehended," Jake said.
"You are a scientist Jake, think like one." He poked Jake's temple.
"We need to do a little soily work to save our heads." Meinrad said. "This is it. We need to send them to our auxiliary laboratory at Cuba with a box containing an empty tube, while we return to New Haven with the pyrex tube. How does that sound."
Jake looked away, thinking of Olivia particularly. "And they would be apprehended there?"
"I'm afraid that's the reality." He shrugged. "Or you want to join them at Cuba?"
"But...but...oh shit." He held his face tightly. "Can't believe this is happening. CERN turned out to be a last stop."
"I am as sad as you are Jake." He patted his shoulder. "Can't believe my titans would slip away from my fingers."
"But if they are caught, wouldn't they call us out?" Jake faced him.
"I would know how to settle that boy. The main thing here is this...we won't be caught. I also trust my titans, especially the Asian guy. They will even escape apprehension, I trust them, so chill, okay?"
Jake still held his face in disappointment, rubbing his forehead vigorously. Meinrad looked at him and smiled, thinking what bothered him was just the welfare the scientists, but he didn't know who, exactly, was in Jake's mind.
Meinrad had earlier made it known to them before they left that he and Jake would stay back at CERN in order to meet with some demands, meanwhile they already knew the reason for the sudden change of plan.
They all rode inside the CERN shuttle to the airport, where they were awaited by the same pilot that brought them to Geneva. They saw the grandiose aircraft parked at the tarmac. It appeared different to them. Something close to new, or it's new looks could be an illusion, they thought. After the vehicle came to a halt, everyone got down from the vehicle, including Dr. Dedeon and Mr. Basil. Dr. Dedeon started with an unsatisfied smile, which the rays of the sun further ruined. He wasn't contented with the short duration he spent with his son, he wanted more. His smile quelled into sadness, over the feeling of missing his son until further notice. He spaced his arms and Alban hugged him tightly. Jake began to cry, but what they read in his tears wasn't what was really behind it, only Meinrad knew.
"Safe journey you all." Meinrad said, while Dr. Dedeon's mouth still felt weighty, he couldn't say goodbye yet, because he wasn't yet ready to assure himself that Alban was leaving. But he was leaving, though. The crew stood in the sun, in their casual wears, hanging heavy bags on their shoulders, while the pilot stood in front of the plane from a distance, waving at them. The fuselage was already open, and they needed to hit the runway already.
"Good bye," Dr. Dedeon finally said, after he saw no other reason to keep Alban from leaving.
"Good bye lovelies." Mr. Basil waved, hinting mainly at Olivia.
"Good bye." Meinrad and Jake waved, with Jake's face, smeared with tears and catarrh. He sniffed.
"Good bye everyone." The crew waved at them and turned to leave.
"We are going to Cuba you know," the pilot said, ushering them in, after they reached where the plane was. They all got in and shoved their belongings overhead. Alban and Ali sat together, and after the pilot made it into the plane, the move began.
While the plane ran along the runway, Alban looked through the window and saw his dad and the rest, still standing, staring and waving at the plane. They appeared tiny to him, like tiny, emotional creatures. He smiled passionately, and in his smile, grew feelings of wanting to stay back, but he fought against the feeling immediately.
"Woah, wasn't easy at all," Alban said, after the plane had taken off. He looked at Ali, who sat beside him, looking out through the window. He turned back and reclined on the seat, looking up at the overhead bins, which got blurrier and blurrier with time, until the drowsiness weighed down on him like a barbell, then he gently shut his eyes and slept off.