Part 14 (1/2)

'I can't add much,' Victor said. 'Fielder hasn't used her Amex card for the last three days, so no leads for that. But then she hadn't used it for a ten-day period prior to booking into the Celestious, either.'

'What did she use it for ten days ago?' Greg asked.

130Victor glanced at something off screen. 'It was in Baldocks, that's a department store in Wellington, New Zealand. A bill for forty-three dollars; but it wasn't itemized.'

'Not important,' Greg said. 'So what was she doing for the ten days between Wellington and Monaco?'~ 'That's what you're supposed to tell me,' Victor said.

'Meeting Royan,' Suzi said.

'Right. But where?' said Greg. 'I have two questions, based on what we've found out so far. Firstly, why take so much trouble over a courier? Given that all she had to do was deliver the flower box to Julia, someone has gone to a h.e.l.l of a lot of effort to stash her away.'

'Because she can lead us to Royan,' Suzi said.

'Fair enough. So that means the people behind her, the ones with the Pontiac, don't want us to know where Royan is. Ordinarily, I'd say that pointed to a kidnapping.'

'But there's the flower,' Victor said.

'Yeah, and also the eight months that Royan's been missing. Holding someone for eight months without a ransom demand is ludicrous.'

'Who knows how alien minds work?' Suzi asked.

'Not me,' said Greg. 'But the chauffeur and the kid were human-' he broke off, remembering the boy's perfection. 'Make that humanoid.'

'Oh, b.o.l.l.o.c.ks,' Suzi said. 'f.u.c.king aliens walking round Monaco.'

'They might have the technological know-how to enter and leave the dome whenever they wanted,' Greg pointed out. But he couldn't bring himself to believe it. Too complicated, especially now they had established money could do the job just as easily. 'The thing is, someone powerful is moving Fielder around. That's the second question. Why not bring her in to Monaco the way she was taken out? Letting her come in through the normal channels, going through Pa.s.sport control, thumbprint, the legal construct, then booking into the Celestious, all of that let's us find out who she is. Why? When they could obviously have handed over the flower to Julia, and left us completely in the dark?'

131.

Suzi stretched in her chair. 'Go on. You've obviously got an answer.'

'Two different groups,' Greg said. 'She came from Royan, to deliver the flower. Then afterwards, someone else nabbed her.'

'If it was a tekmerc squad, could you find out, Suzi?' Victor asked.

'Maybe. But it would take time. Week, maybe two. Then longer to find out who put the deal together.'

'Not good enough,' said Victor.

Puck you too.'

'if you want my opinion,' Greg said, 'the group that arranged for Fielder to be lifted are the ones who took the fIrst sample from the flower.'

Victor nodded. 'That fits. You think they'll have found Royan by now?'

'If they had a psychic interrogate Fielder, it would take a minute to find out what she knew. Drugs and a polygraph, that's about thirty minutes. They've had her for nearly three days now.'

'b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l.'

'There's one easy short cut we could try,' Greg said. 'Phone Fielder's cybofax number, and use whatever clout Event Horizon has with English Telecom to find out the co-ordinate.'

'Good idea,' said Victor.

His image on Greg's cybofax slid smoothly to one side. Julia appeared on the other half, sitting in her study again. Nothing behind her had moved, even the sunlight s.h.i.+ning through the window was at the same angle.'No need to make it an official request,' she said. 'I'm infiltrating the location response targeting software in lineisat's antenna platforms. Calling Fielder's number now.'

Greg waited.

'No reply,' Julia said. 'There isn't even a signal from the transponder.'

'Keep trying.'

'If all they wanted from Fielder was Royan's location, then she's probably been snuffed,' Victor said.

132'No, she hasn't,' Greg said.

'OK.' Victor subsided with good grace. He had seen Greg's intuition at work before.

Greg wondered what young Pea.r.s.e Solomons was making of all this. The security hardliner had been sitting at attention ever since Victor had come on the cybofax. After Julia appeared he hadn't taken a breath.

'That just leaves us with Baronski,' Greg said.

'What can he tell us?' Suzi asked.

'Charlotte Fielder left the party early, with a rich young boy, in an expensive car. She walked out of the El Harhari freely, I'd almost say happily. That means the boy was either someone she knew, or more likely the son of a client. Either way, Baronski should be able to tell us.'

I.

t was the sun again, inexplicably wrong. Charlotte finally twigged the reason when she was having a latish breakfast in the Colonel Maidand's aft dining-room.

Fabian sat opposite her as usual. He acted dazed, almost in shock, barely eating his cereal. Every ume he looked at her it was with an unsettling degree of reverence.

But then Fabian was a boy in l.u.s.t. He was also a remarkably fast learner. She had spent a Strenuous t~O hours last night coping with his enthusiasms and deman4s before he finally drifted off into an exhausted sleep, then he'd been ready for more this morning. Which was why they turned up late at the table.

Jason Whitehurst was already sitting at the table waiting for them. He greeted them with an unabashed smile. 'Ah, glad to see you young people are getting on so well.'

Fabian blushed hot crimson.

Jason Whitehurst had chosen his cereal, unperturbed, and ordered his cybofax to display the London Times, which he read as he ate.

Charlotte could hear the waiter squeezing fresh orange juice at the side table behind her. She started in on her own cereal bowl. The sun was filling the dining room with a liquid rose-gold light, rising into view directly behind Jason Whitehurst. She stared at it, feeling cold despite the thick Cotton of her summer dress.

Jason Whitehurst looked up from his cybofax. 'Something wrong, my dear?'

'West,' she said numbly. 'We're heading west.'

'That's right.'