I thought that the two mafia men and their Company had completely forgot about me, since nearly two months passed and I heard nothing from them. It was on the day after my birthday, when I arrived to my office a little bit late because I took Martha to do some of the last medical examinations right before her pregnancy, which was due soon, that I found a message from my boss to go to his office upon my arrival. I thought he was probably questioning my delay. I rushed to his office, to find him together with the two men from the company of agricultural products.
"Good morning Doctor Johnson" said my boss. "I thank you for coming. Now I have to leave you alone with these two gentlemen for about half an hour. They do have something extremely important to tell you." And he left the room closing the door.
The Elder man made himself comfortable in my boss's leather armchair and started talking to me.
"Doctor Johnson, please relax and listen to me. I have to tell you something important and extremely secret.We do not belong to a Corporate Company in the agricultural business. We are from the Bureau of National Safety that is under the direct command of our President. Your study, if it works, may be very, very helpful for the safety of our country and all the other allied countries. It may save millions of people. What we need from you is approximately one week of your time to go through a quite risky challenge. We can only give you the details about what you are supposed to do after you have accepted and the mission has started. You may refuse now, and only feel guilty later when some terrible war may happen. You may give us one week of your time, perform a quick but risky challenge, you will become a hero and go back home with one million dollar tax-free. We do have an extimation that the possibilities of something going wrong are ranging to around ten percent. In that case your family will receive assistance all their life long. In case something goes partially wrong and you get injuries, you are going to receive full assistance from us and covered by insurance for all your life. No questions now. In case you refuse, you should forget about us. In case you accept, be here next Monday at five in the morning. We shall be waiting for you at the front door of the labs. Come alone with your own car. Nobody needs to know. Not even your wife. You have to find an excuse for which you don't have to call her for about four days. We know she is pregnant, but secrecy means saving your own life and the lives of our team working with you. This is all for now. See you Monday at five in the morning!"
Both men left while my boss came back.
"Chris, everything has been arranged already." He said while walking in. "I mean, following their instruction, we issued an order for you to go on a mission studying the new experimental plantations in Jose's Valley for one week, so if anybody is looking for you here and you would be covered."
"Thanks, but I am not sure I can really do that." I answered in a very doubtful way.
"You must try to do it. It is for you, your wife, your future children, for all your friends, for the Nation... and they say that the risk involved is quite low: only five to ten percent chances at the very most."
"I will think about it over the weekend and, in case I am not here on Monday at eight as usual, it means I am with them for one week...."
It was a very hard weekend. Mostly trying to figure out how to find a good excuse for my wife. Yes, a really good excuse that would let me stay away from home one full week and not calling, or being called, for about four days in such a critical time for a woman's life, as pregnancy is. And all this right in the cell phones era, in which is literally impossible to miss a phone call even in the middle of the desert, as long as there is some energy in your battery and a tiny bit of line....She was not happy, but accepted my excuse.
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