The Sandcastle Conspiracy

Chapter 7: The Police Station

"How can you lose an unconscious man lying in bed in a Hospital?" said the voice in the intercom.

"I know it sounds stupid, but if we want to stay discreet and keep a low profile, I can't get into the hospital and draw all the attention to us,' replied Aleksy, "He probably got the message anyway."

Aleksy was worried that his cover would be discovered. At this point, he had easy access to quite some information. Security increased as the G7 meeting approached, and it was not the moment to lose that privileged position.

Aleksy needed to find Michel, however. He searched the whole hospital.

The patient completely disappeared.

Carla had been clever enough to mess up the Hospital System. While the anonymous guy who was saved from the cliff was, in principle, in one room, a new drunk named Michel Gérard entered the hospital with his wife, according to the log. A few hours later, the wife asked for his husband to be discharged. She left with her husband, suffering an intense hangover after some nursing.

Michel woke up in a tidy room. "This does not look like a Hospital," he thought before remembering being brought by Carla in her car. Then nothing.
He must have passed out at some point.

Someone knocked at the door.

A nurse entered the room and asked, "Hello! How are you feeling today?".

"I'm OK,'' said Michel as he noticed an awful headache.

"We are just going to check that everything's fine. No worries. You are in one piece. It's only a matter of resting, and you'll soon fully recover."

"Where am I?" he asked softly.

"At a nursing home," she smiled. "Your friend brought you here yesterday. You passed out in the car, and we needed two of our stronger colleagues to bring you here. Try to rest and have breakfast. You'll be ready to rock and roll pretty soon."

At Carla's house, Suzanne printed the maps they found on Michel's computer the day before and was reassembling them on the floor. The tunnels had at least two levels. She was sure one of the entries to those tunnels was in the garden. It seemed odd to think that they were walking 'over the tunnels' all the time.
She managed to get a city map from the Tourist office, hung it on the wall,l and was trying to make the match.

Marta entered the room. "Come on, come to have some breakfast," she interrupted, "these croissants are delicious!"

They both got into the kitchen. Carla was washing the dishes. She looked like she had not slept for the whole night. The two girls remained silent, drinking their coffee and eating their pastry. Carla approached them and announced, "Girls, we must stop sneaking into Michel's computer. He is doing fine and will be brought home during the afternoon. I'm preparing a room for him. Go to the beach and have fun. Please do not talk about this to anyone, and try to make your friends understand that this needs to remain a thing between us for the moment. It's important." "Understood?" Carla added abruptly.

Marta had never heard that tone from her grandmother before.

Suzanne and Marta arrived at the beach in complete silence. They started looking for their friends. They texted them, reminding them to close their mouths, but they did not get a reply.

Almost at lunchtime, Nazim arrived all stressed out and sat beside them.

"Jon's been caught!"' he said.

"What do you mean 'caught'?" said Marta.

"He is in fucking jail," Nazim roared.

"Yesterday, when we left you, he decided to go the beach for his little business. I was drained and went home. Two hours later, a common friend phoned me and told me he was at the Police Station behind the town hall.' he gasped.