In a Stranger's Shoes, part 4

Read the previous part here.


According to News Paper reports, Michael Baker is dead. I know the report is not true; it doesn’t take much persuasion to convince oneself that one is not dead: I am Michael Baker. The clouds of confusion surrounding my head become denser. The News Report also says that Baker was missing from his California office for a week. Today is August 24; there is certainly one week of activity that my brain cannot account for. For some strange reason, I can’t recall how I engaged myself during the last week. The News Paper could still be hoax. There’s one way to find out. I must call the Crescent Hotel and find out if someone by the name of Michael Baker was found dead there. I reach for the Telephone Directory. Upon opening it, on the inside of the cover, I find stamped in red ink:
“Property of the Crescent Hotel, Brussels.”
Upon further inspection, I find similar stamp marks on the other books in the shelf.

I realize I am in The Crescent Hotel. The only logical explanation I can summon is they must’ve mistaken someone else for me, but logic is not the driving force of the events I have experienced lately.

The phone rings again. I pick it up and the same female voice conveys that they are still waiting for me in the car. I tell her to tell them that I’d be there in five minutes. I must go and find out who they are and what they want.

I find my clothes and get dressed up properly. There’s no money on my person. There’s a small gray attaché case on a wooden shelf. I open it. There is some loose cash, besides a few Credit Cards and some other documents. Among the documents I can see a Passport with my picture on it. But it bears the name of some Jean Felix. It dawns on me that I am being set up as an imposter. Someone has died and the departed is being identified with my identity.

There has been no misunderstanding: these events are planned; I can bet my life on it. There is some force which has brought about the series of events - by expert planning and flawless execution - culminating to this point so far, and this adventure will definitely go beyond the present, for this is part of a scheme which is yet to see its final stage, a fact which I know because they are waiting for me in the car. The forces who have planned the scheme are no ordinary ones, they have exhibited extraordinary qualities by making an American citizen disappear from his country and reappear in strange circumstances in a strange Nation with one week of his memory more or less fully erased. They must have International links and substantial resources to pull this off. Without a doubt they are a threat to my life, but my guess is: I have an important part to play in this plan, whatever it is, and my living is essential to the completion of it.

Now that I’ve figured out as much as I could’ve with the aid of the clues at my disposal, I must play along with their plan to discern their motive and their plan. The bottom line is, I must know more about the people I am dealing with before trying anything that might lessen my chances of survival. And for that I must meet these people.

Read the next part here.