Chapter Text
5/2
Old habits rising from the dead: haven’t kept a journal since grad school. Picked up this one before leaving Charleston, struck by the thought that my card might decline once outside the US, and again reminded I’m at Surbeck’s mercy. My most frequently repeated consolation is I’m too broke to scam this elaborately. Less consoling, more pacifying: not sleeping well and getting snappish, staring down the barrel of probably 13 hrs of flight or being in unfamiliar airports.
Too broke to bother scamming but stupid enough to fall for it, clearly.
OK. Eating terrible cold sandwich and drinking terrible hot coffee and feeling more alive. Surprised there aren’t better options for witching hour dining at a big airport like ATL. For now it’s just the Newstand people, guy buffing the floor, and me and my overstuffed carryon.
Stalling a bit. A bit afraid if I write down the context, the absurdity will solidify from dreamlike to unavoidably real but I think that ship has sailed plane has taken off.
CHS -> ATL -> SCL -> PUQ -> ???
It feels like a scam because of the urgency. Surbeck (first name Alan or Albert or something. Check business card) lined up this flight to somewhere in remote Argentina in minutes, his money/my time no matter at all. The specificity makes it feel like a scam. “Your background and toolset make you an excellent fit for a unique opportunity” OK. Sure. The ambiguity makes it feel like a scam. “A research project”-- researching what?
Everything he’s said (very little in writing since the first email) makes me think someone is embarrassed of something that’s gotten out of hand. I’m going to counsel, to monitor, to observe… who? Surbeck’s dodged this: offered no case notes, no personnel files, “briefing will be on site” ad nauseum. Best case scenario, maybe a bunch of climatologists are getting stir-crazy in close quarters monitoring arctic crosswinds. Antarctic? Worst case, venture capitalist grindset project at the end of the earth has resulted in some kind of horrible industrial accident.
But I did the due diligence checking him out. I googled, I used up my favor with Martin for the background check, I can safely say yes, Alanbert Surbeck is a real person really from the UN and really representing the CSTD in a multinational research project. There’s “science” and “technology” somewhere in that acronym so that’s what makes me think it’s tech related.
Not so broke that if I get there and it’s nothing I can’t just throw money at the airlines until I get home.