Christopher Golde

Fathers and mothers dead of infinite sorrows,
Women in mourning, the pestilent monster;
The great one to be no more, all the word to end,
Under peace, repose and all in opposition.

Nostradamis                    1561                P-82

     Chapter fifty two
          The Victor

Date:             31st December 2001                             Location:       Paris, France

                 As Pietta alighted from the limousine she looked up at the magnificence of the Eiffel Tower. In all her travels it had been the one place she had always wished to visit, especially with someone special. It would have been nice to have come here with Jason she thought but that was now just a distant dream.

              Pietta instructed the driver to wait off for her and come when she called, as she was not sure how long they would be.

              “He is hosting it at ‘Le Jules Verne restaurant,” she said to the driver, “It’s on the second level of the tower, in case I do not come back in one hour.”

              The driver removed his cap as he closed the door behind Pietta and his blond hair fell to either side of his firm chiselled Nordic jaw. Svenson was not only her driver but also was her bodyguard.

              “I will be listening, at any rate, Miss Chong,” said Svenson with a smile. Pietta smiled back and turned on her heel heading for the bottom of the tower.

              “I bet you will,” she said under her breath, knowing full well she had a radio transmitter built into her dress.

              Since the disappearance and presumed death of Jason, Svenson had doubled security measures around all the heads of the company and he personally accompanied them on what he decided were somewhat risky manoeuvres like this one.

              As Pietta walked away from the departing car towards the tower she thought about Jason and how he had loved Jules Verne and for that matter anything with imagination. It had been just over three months now and she missed him so much. The New Years Eve party she was going to was being hosted by Bill Gatwick and her only purpose for accepting the invite was to tell him she held him personally responsible for what happened to Jason. She had known Gatwick for a long time and at one stage had worked for Macram, but she was furious that he had sent Jason in on such a dangerous mission when he was too afraid to go himself.

              As she walked towards the tower entrance she thought also about Julie Pearce and even though she had not got to meet her, it felt like she had known her and for some strange reason, her disappearance and likely death made her doubly sad and for some reason doubly angry at Gatwick. Everything seemed to start with him and now she was wanting it to end with him.

              She also thought of the strange disappearance of Ieko Fujimo, not that she missed him, but it seemed like everyone was gone. Most people and the press presumed he too was lost in the World Trade Centre massacre and she was sure all of this had made Bill very happy. It was unlikely, but she needed to know from him in person if he had anything whatsoever to do with the chain of events that had left him holding the world’s fastest computer chip manufacture and the keys to the technological kingdom. He knew that Jason dying would have no effect on Tradecoms shareholding in the chip, as theirs was a publicly listed company, but if he had somehow sent Jason on a suicide mission she wanted to know and she wanted justice.