Christopher Golde

For storms will rage and oceans roar
When Gabriel stands on sea and shore
And as he bloes his wondorous horn
Old worlds die and new be born.

Mother Shipton         1488-1561

Date:          25th June 1999                                Location:    Victoria Peak, Hong Kong

 

 

              Nigel Stansen looked around the restaurant as he came through the door. A waiter approached him and he replied that he was looking for someone he expected was already here. At the far side, there was an outside terrace that had a single line of tables. Only two of these were occupied and he could see that at the furthest one sat the solitary figure of a woman.

He indicated to the waiter that he would sit outside and made his way to the terrace exit. The restaurant was not so busy yet, as lunch had only just started. In total, there were only four occupied tables, which included one family of four, two couples and the girl that sat alone.

The outside terrace was not very wide, just enough room for one person to pass at a time, and they were all lined against the outside wall. The view looking out over Hong Kong was spectacular. Today the sky was blue and the air was clear.

As he passed the other table on the terrace that was occupied by the young Asian couple, the girl sitting by herself looked in his direction. She had beautiful, long, black hair and as she removed her sunglasses to look at him, he could see that although her features were Asian, her skin was almost pure white and there was a definite western ingredient in her facial cosmetic.

She watched as the tall distinguished-looking, grey-haired man approached, suspecting immediately that this was her mysterious meeting. When he was within arm’s reach, he raised his hand to her in a greeting gesture.

“Miss Julie Pierce, I presume,” he said, with a big welcoming smile on his distinguished, silver-bearded face.

The girl half stood and accepted his long-fingered hand gently, offering only the tips of her delicate fingers.

“Mr Stansen,” she replied politely, with a slight dip of her head.

“Very nice to at last meet you in person Miss Pierce,” he replied, with a similar slight dip of his head, “thank you for coming at such short notice.”

She sat down again and Sir Nigel pulled out the seat opposite, removing his off-white suit jacket and placing it on the back of the seat before sitting down. A waiter approached and asked him if he would like some refreshment.

“Just a cup of English tea, if you could, my good man,” replied the English professor, “would you like anything else Miss Pierce,” he asked politely, having observed that she already had a glass half full in front of her?

“No I’m fine, thank you,” she said, smiling and looking at the waiter.

At that, the waiter bowed slightly and left. Sir Nigel settled himself looked around at the magnificent view, but also taking another quick suspicious glance about the restaurant.

“My favourite spot in Hong Kong,” he began, settling his gaze upon Julie.

“Yes, it is beautiful,” she responded cordially.

“You’re from Singapore I believe, Miss Pierce, is that correct,” he asked, knowing full well the answer?

“Yes Mr Stansen, and please call me Julie,” she said, smiling sweetly at him, “but I do spend a lot of time in Hong Kong.”

The waiter was returning with a pot, a cup and a jug of milk on a small tray. Sir Nigel waited until the waiter had departed again, and then poured his tea.

“I must come quickly to the purpose of our meeting Miss Pierce, I mean Julie,” he added apologetically, “there is an urgency about getting to see you today.”

Julie just looked at him and nodded. Sir Nigel looked into her beautiful blue eyes as he spoke and he immediately understood why the priest had been so drawn to her.

“I work for an organization that was remotely connected to the group Father Aldo Dominique was working for.”

Julie’s heart missed a beat at the mention of her lover’s name. She felt some colour come to her cheeks and she momentarily looked away towards the view of the city. Sir Nigel continued, but he had noticed the effect mentioning the priest's name had on her.

“Well sort of anyway,” he continued, as if he did not notice, “I work for a scientific team set up by the United Nations and Father Dominique worked for a special multi-denominational organization commissioned by the Vatican. The connection is that the Vatican also has representation on our committee. We were fully aware of their activities and them of ours.”

Julie looked back at him and he detected a hint of hope in her beautiful eyes. He took a sip of his tea and continued.

“Our team is more involved in the scientific aspect of the investigation and the good father’s team was more, as you would be aware, concerned with the philosophical, theological and dare I say, mystical side of things. But we did share information, and respected each other’s work,” he added as if he needed to say that to have her onside. “You are probably not aware of this, as it was kept under wraps for security reasons, but after the somewhat mysterious, and dare I say, the suspicious death of Father Dominique, his organization’s headquarters in Australia were attacked by as yet unknown assailants. All of the five-man team was killed and all of the information they were working on was stolen.

Julie just looked at him in absolute horror. She had always suspected the death of Aldo had been suspicious, but now, she knew it had to have been murder.

“The attackers used a deadly nerve gas called Sarin,” the English professor continued, “and we know it to be a weapon favoured by a fanatical religious cult based in Japan, who calls themselves ‘The Ong’.”

Sir Nigel moved forward in his seat towards Julie and lowered his voice as if he suspected someone might be listening.

“We know that the day your friend the priest died, he was scheduled to have a meeting with a person called Ieko Fujimo. Aldo may have mentioned this name to you at some time if he had taken you into his confidence, as he is not only the head of a major computer company, but he also has links to ‘The Ong’,” he paused and studied Julies face to see if there was any hint of recognition.

Julie was a professional journalist and knew how to keep a poker face when need be. At the moment she did not know who she could trust, so decided to keep what she did know to herself until she knew more. Having paused sufficiently, but not having detected anything, Nigel decided to continue.

“We think that Monsignor Dominique may have stumbled onto something important that we may need to know, but now that all his information has been stolen, we only have leads to follow. That is where you come in my dear girl.”

First Nigel leaned back in his chair, still studying the beautiful reporters face, and then he raised his cup of tea and took a careful calculating sip, before returning it to the table. Again, he leaned forward and this time spoke in a soft understanding tone.

“Julie, we know you and Aldo had a very close and perhaps, even intimate relationship, during the months leading up to his trip to Japan.”

She eyed him suspiciously.

“He was required to report to the Genesis Brotherhood on a regular basis, all of his activities,” he explained, trying to regain her trust, “even the personal ones. It was their safeguard against infiltration. There, of course, was no problem him having a relationship with you, but now we need to know if he shared with you any of the information he had acquired that may have led to his death and also the slaying of his colleagues.”

“But that was over a year ago,” she said, still suspicious, “why has it taken till now to ask me?”

“That is a reasonable question Julie,” answered the grey-haired professor, unperturbed by her obvious distrust, “but you see at first it did not occur to us. As a matter of routine, we kept an eye on you, more for security reasons than anything, but then, recently your newspaper published an article on the priests work in Africa. Although it had little do with the work we are interested in, it has become obvious now, than previously, ‘The Ong’ did not know about your involvement with Aldo. Since the article, our agents have detected members of the cult following you.”

At this news, her face drained of all colour and she raised both her hands to her mouth.

“But that was only last weekend,” she said softly, her words muffled slightly by her hands.

“Exactly, that’s why we are concerned,” replied Sir Nigel emphatically, “in fact; my security people have told me that when they followed you here today, they detected at least four members of the cult, right here on Victoria Peak.”

She immediately looked about the restaurant at all the other patrons and Sir Nigel could see an element of panic in her eyes.

“It is okay Julie,” he reassured her, “our people have the situation under control, we know exactly where they all are and we have our own people sitting in this restaurant right now undercover,”

She looked at the young couple at the table near them, but they did not look back.

“You are completely safe here,” he said, as he reached forward and gently touched her arm. She settled, feeling a bit more at ease with his assurances.

“Julie,” he continued, but this time a little more emphatic, “do you have any of Aldo’s work in your possession?”

There was a pause and he watched her carefully. He thought that she seemed to be trying to settle her anxiety, but also, make a decision. Gradually, she seemed to be calming herself, so he let her and sat back in his chair and looked around the restaurant. When she did speak, it seemed as if a new Julie had surfaced from deep within.

“Yes, I can help you,” she said confidently, “in case anything was to happen to him, he gave me updates on their records for safekeeping. He knew what he was doing was dangerous and he thought that if ever his security was compromised and anything ever happened to his office, he should have some back up elsewhere, with someone he trusted that was not associated with his team.”

Nigel was both relieved and amazed. They had not really expected too much and this was the jackpot.

“That is excellent news indeed,” he exclaimed, genuinely excited by the prospect of what she might have in her possession, “we did not expect such a marvellous result as this. Now we have to get this information to a safe place. If you don’t mind me asking, where is it all?”

“We, Aldo and I, decided to keep it all at my newspaper's office. It was of course with the knowledge of my editor, and the deal was that one day, we might be able to use some of it for the paper. When Aldo…” she paused and looked down, “...passed away...I just couldn’t, so we locked it all up and it was only recently that we decided to do an article on his work in Africa. Like a sort of Memoriam.”

She looked out over the edge towards the city and Nigel could see there was a tear in the corner of her eye. She tried to discreetly wipe it away then looked around the restaurant and back at the grey-haired professor. Nigel understood now where she was drawing her strength from, it was her love for him and his memory that she was not going to let go to waste.

“Okay then,” continued Nigel, “we need to get you out of here and go somewhere safe.”

At that, he pulled out a mobile phone and pushed only one button. He spoke in French, which she did not understand, and then once he had finished, he stood, putting the phone back in his pocket.

“Julie,” he said to her, “they’re waiting for us.”

He held out his hand and she stood accepting it. Together they walked to the front of the restaurant, where he paid for their drinks before they left.

Outside the restaurant, the number of people in the shopping precinct had increased markedly. They made their way through the crowd and emerged from the shopping complex where the restaurant was located, then headed towards the cable car that would take them back down the mountain. They stopped briefly at the ticket office, where Nigel purchased a ticket for one and then grabbed her hand, leading her to the cable car that was waiting.

Another car was just arriving from the bottom of the peak and Julie observed that there was much more coming up the mountain than what there were going down. As they entered the waiting car, Nigel made some small talk and Julie understood that he was attempting to blend in and look like they were just tourists, like everyone else. She smiled and joined in, why not, it was a beautiful day, and just for the moment, she forgot about the dangers that could be lurking in the crowd.

Once inside the car, Nigel directed her towards the rear and when they sat down, Julie could see clearly everyone else on board. After a short wait, the cable car commenced its steep descent down the Peak. Now that they were higher than everyone else in the car, she could see clearly the mix of passengers. At the front were two men of western origin, and seated next to them were two young Asian men, she thought were Japanese tourists. Behind them was an Asian family, with two small children, a girl, and a boy. Then there was a gap of two empty seats before there were a blonde lady and a large European looking man with a bald head, then directly behind them an Asian couple, perhaps Japanese, then there was another empty seat between the couple and Julie.

All the passengers she could see seemed like genuine tourists, chatting to each other, pointing at the sites and taking photographs. It wasn’t till she could see the approaching bottom station, that she noticed something strange. The woman of the Japanese looking couple sitting in front of them stood and walked to the front of the carriage. The man with her stood and walked to the rear, behind them.

Julie did not look behind her, but watched the woman at the front, as she went right up to the front door of the carriage and stood there expectantly. As the car slowed, pulling into the station, she rummaged through a large bag hanging from her shoulder, in what could only be described as an agitated manner.

Slowly, the car ground to a halt and as the door opened everything seemed to erupt. In the blink of an eye, the two European men seated at the front, dived from their seats, knocking the woman clear out of the carriage. At almost the same time, Julie heard a commotion behind them as someone yelled. At first, she was not sure if the yell had come from the back, or the commotion at the front, but then Nigel grabbed her firmly by the arm.

“Let’s go Julie, quickly to the back!”

She had no opportunity to ask why, as he almost lifted her from her seat and pushed her towards the rear exit, only two seats away. It was then, that she saw that a man and a woman of western appearance were wrestling with the Asian man just outside the carriage door, half on the steps of the carriage and half on the platform.

Sir Nigel pushed Julie forward out of the carriage, and she had to step over the flailing legs of the man, narrowly avoiding being kicked. He did not let go of her and kept pushing, until they were well clear of the mayhem, weaving their way through the crowd that was gathering to watch the bizarre spectacle on the platform. Uniformed police rushed past them but took no notice of them. She could see that the woman at the front had already been restrained and was being dragged away by other police that had guns drawn on her.

“Just keep walking,” Nigel said, quietly in her ear, as they passed the front of the carriage and towards the exit. Julie caught a glimpse of the detained woman as they moved through the onlookers at the front of the carriage, and for that brief moment, the woman looked at her and smiled. It hadn’t been a pleasant smile, she thought, it had been more a chilling psychotic grin. Julie looked away quickly, feeling a sudden, threatening coldness creeping up her spine.

Once out of the station, Sir Nigel stopped and turned to face Julie who was looking very pale.

“Are you okay,” he asked, with genuine concern?

“Yes… but what happened back there…was it…?”

“I know it looked bad,” he said, still holding her by the arm. He turned and walked with her casually now, strolling towards some waiting police cars.

”Please don’t be frightened, we were on top of it all the time,” he continued, in attempt to reassure her, “the two people arrested were known members of ‘The Ong’ group I mentioned earlier.”

Julie stopped walking and looked at him incredulously.

“What…I...” Julie stammered.

“It’s okay, the other four on the tram car was French Secret Service agents, you were never in any danger. True, we do believe they were intending to attack us, but we got them first, you are safe. The Hong Kong police were alerted and they have the place completely under their protection.”

            She seemed less than totally convinced, but said nothing and looked nervously about at the swelling crowd. Even though Sir Nigel had told her in the café that these people had killed Aldo and his staff and were now after her, the threat had still not seemed real, until now. Now, she was terrified.

            “And now that we are out here,” she asked?

            “We still have French agents watching over us and over there are three Hong Kong police cars waiting to escort you directly to the airport, onto a protected flight to Singapore, and home to safety,” he said confidently, and turned indicating the three cars sitting at the curb with uniformed officers waiting.

            “Now, do you need anything from your hotel?”

            “Yes. I ahh… need my bag, I guess,” she said, looking at the cars waiting and trying to get some order to her thoughts.

            “Look, my dear,” he said, trying to be gentle with her and bowing his head down to hers, “we will protect you and the sooner we get the information Aldo left with you, the safer you will be. I will have one of my best agents go with you all the way to your office in Singapore, get the documents and never leave your side until you are safely at home. These Ong are deadly, but they are amateurs, my people are highly trained and very well equipped professionals, you are in good hands.”

            He looked at her and she half-smiled.

            “Okay,” she sighed, “I’m finished in Hong Kong and I was going back to Singapore tomorrow, so leaving tonight won’t make any difference.”

            “Good,” he said, turning her towards the waiting police cars. As they approached a police officer standing next to the middle car, the rear door opened and a lady dressed in stylish European clothes emerged.

            “This is Special Agent Anne Marie, she is one of our finest,” Nigel introduced the attractive blonde; “she will accompany you all the way and keep in contact with me.”

            The girl nodded to Julie and smiled. Nigel spoke in French to her and then in Chinese to the police officer. Doors opened and closed and they all got into the car. Nigel bent down to the open window of the car and looked into Julie’s worried face.

            “I will see you in Singapore tomorrow, at your editor’s office,” said Sir Nigel, in a comforting tone, “now go and don’t worry.”

            The police cars started their engines and at the last minute, as Nigel was stepping away, Julie lent out of the window of the car and waved him back. Nigel looking concerned came back to her and bent over once again to look into her beautiful face.

            “I will be okay,” she said determinedly, “we will win this for Aldo’s sake,” he noticed a small tear in the corner of her eye. He put a hand gently on her arm and smiled.

“The good guys always win Miss Pierce.”

Her lips crested in a slight warming smile as she pulled back inside the car and the window went up. Nigel stepped back from the curb and the three cars sped off around the roundabout into the crowd and disappeared. Nigel smiled to himself and turned to walk back towards the peak station. He needed to find out just what the two ‘Ong’ agents had said. He was less confident that he made out to Julie that all was okay, even though he was sincere in saying to her that they were amateurs, the problem was that they were also fanatics and he did not like dealing with fanatics.

He had only walked a few steps when there was an ear-shattering explosion and in the distance, he could hear screaming. What followed was bedlam. The whole crowd was running in a furious human tide away from where the three police cars had just departed. Nigel looked in the direction they were fleeing from and could see a plume of black smoke rising into the air, what seemed like about two to three hundred meters away. He pushed his way through the chaos towards the smoke having to bodily throw himself into people to get anywhere.

Finally, he was at a high enough point to see what could only be described as sheer pandemonium that turned his blood to ice. About two hundred meters away on the road leading to the main highway, was one of the three police cars blown into three or four pieces with smoke and flames distorting what little could be made of the vehicle. On the ground lay numerous bodies some still moving, others nothing but blackened smouldering blobs.

A little further down the road were two other police cars, stopped, completely intact, with doors open and officers standing, staring, obviously bewildered by the carnage. Nigel’s heart froze; his senses were racing to cope with the horrific implications of the scene. He felt the blood rushing to his head and the bile building up in his stomach. Nausea consumed him completely.

“My God,” he said uncomprehendingly, as someone rushed past bumping into him, “was she…?”


 

    Chapter thirty seven
         The Mourning