The Project Manager

by Terry Connolly

  “Why strange?”

  “Well, normally Laure would encourage Sophie in her investigations. I have done some rough calculations, if the sixteen companies they had subtly removed from bidding process had gone on to win the tenders, the Zheng He would just be a rock sitting over our heads, four years behind schedule and about forty billion dollars over budget. Laure had never asked Sophie to back off in her research before.”

  “You think Laure knows something you do not?”

  “Laure knows lots of things I don’t, I trust her, and I trust she was asking Sophie to keep her distance for a reason. She is hiding her reason though.”

  The therapist looked at the heart monitor, and at the tightening in John’s hands “why does that make you so angry. Do you feel betrayed by her?”

  “I don’t know, yes, I suppose I do. Laure is a friend or at least I thought she was. I need to confront her about this.”

  “You don’t want to lose a friend based on a gut feeling. If she knew who did this wouldn’t she come forward?”

  “Maybe not, that’s the second suspect I have.”

  “You suspect Laure?”

  “No, she would never hurt Sophie, I suspect Laure’s contacts. A lot of the information about these shadow companies had come from a mysterious source that they never discussed around me. If they were reaching a dead end some piece of paper would arrive on their desk, or they would get a tip off on some major shareholder. Surely all of that must have come at a price?”

  “This sounds serious. You are right, it does sound paranoid, but you don’t strike me as an illogical person.”

  “I’m not, but paranoia combined with grief is just as logical an explanation as anything else. When I get home I will search through Sophie’s files and see what I can find.”

  “I think the police are doing that already, this is a pretty big terrorist incident and it’s been treated very seriously.”

  The therapist stood up and walked towards the door, “for example…” he opened the door to show John the guard that had been sitting there for the past few days. John nodded in recognition. The tweed jacketed therapist went out the door and whispered in the guard’s ear, came back in, and locked the door.

  “Don’t look so alarmed John, I just asked that we are not disturbed for the next thirty minutes. I think we are having a breakthrough don’t you?”

  John pulled himself up in the bed, wincing in pain as his stitches pulled at his skin, “why lock the door for that?”

  “I knew I’d like you. Always so clear headed, even moving yourself closer to the emergency buzzer at the first sign of something strange. I recommend you don’t press it if you want answers to your questions, though of course you are free to press it whenever you like if you feel in any danger.”

  John didn’t need a monitor to tell him is heart was beating faster, all the same he pulled the buzzer closer to himself, “I’m not going to press it, but you’ll understand if I want it in my hand.”

  “Naturally, I would take the same precaution myself if I was in your position, trapped by my body in bed as someone you pour your heart out to suddenly becomes mysterious.”

  “So, which one are you?”

  “I am not Ephrem Resources, though we know who they are. I am, as you say, the mysterious source, or at least I am the mouthpiece of the mysterious source. My name Mr. Peeters, is Bin Li and I am not a therapist, though I do have some training in the area.”

  “I suppose you are not going to tell me who you work for?”

  “Oh I am, I have been authorised to give you full disclosure, or most of it anyway, within reason. You are very important to us John, the job you must do is very important to us, and as such we will do everything we can to make sure you get that job done.”

  “Get the Zheng He built you mean. I don’t mean to sound, well, racist, but since you look Chinese can I assume you work for the Chinese government?”

  Bin smiled, “that is just good use of your eyes and your powers of deduction. Yes I work for the Chinese government, not officially of course. We have invested a lot in the Zheng He project and we intend to see it completed.”

  “What do you know about Ephrem, did you know they were going to do this?”

  “I am sad to say no, we did not predict this. If we could have John, please be assured we would have stopped it; you and your loved ones must be protected. We knew Ephrem were acting as though they were aware someone was suspicious of them, so we asked Laure to keep her distance, so you are again correct, we are the reason Laure was trying to get Sophie to back off. We did not however think they were capable of this. We underestimated them; we will not be doing so again.”

  John sat there feeling numb, let his head fall back, and began to cry. Bin handed him a tissue, and remained silent for the next few minutes, just sitting there watching as John cried, there was nothing else he could do. Eventually John blew his nose and opened his eyes. The tears kept flowing but he had control back over his voice.

  “Thank you, I have a face, or at least three faces for the man who put the bomb in Laure’s car. They may not have put it there with their own hands, but in my mind at least they are people I can be angry at.”

  “Two faces John, not three. Giacomo Conti fell down some steps, drunk, near his home last night; it appears he broke his neck, at least that is what the police report will say. As I said, we will not be underestimating them again.”

  John was shocked. Not that someone might have just admitted murder in front of him, but shocked that he should feel happiness at the death of someone else. “So you are sure it was them?”

  “It was someone working for them, of that we are sure. We have one or two people working in Ephrem Resources and we managed to tap their phones. Giacomo Conti was stupid enough to phone up Harry Smith and ask if it was their work. Mr Smith replied by hanging up immediately.”

  “So he knew about it?”

  “Yes, but Mr Conti’s death may have them in a panic so doors will start to close to us. We need to find all the members of this organisation John.”

  “What do you mean, surely it isn’t that difficult?”

  “Oh their board members are public knowledge, anyone can just look up their website for that, but remember what Mr Conti said in his phone call; he asked if it was their work. He knew they were thinking about it but he didn’t know who ordered it.”

  “There is someone higher up?”

  “We are not sure, but there is some type of hierarchy. Our operative is just a general staff member; they have a very exclusive membership which we can’t break into.”

  Realisation dawned on John, the therapy sessions had been to test him, to find out what state of mind he was in, this Mr. Li had another agenda: “that is why you are here isn’t it?”

  “Partially, I needed to see how much you knew and I needed to assess if we could work with you. Now that the mining budget has been taken care of there is only so much Laure can do, but we still need someone who believes in the Zheng He and who can make sure that no matter what, in 2061 it will leave on its journey.”

  “And you need someone who will help you infiltrate Ephrem resources?”

  “Yes, but we don’t need that person to be emotionally compromised. You will not be doing any infiltrating for several months, and you have a more important job, the Zheng He, to concentrate on in the meantime, but you are right, we need you.”

  As if to give his consent, John removed the buzzer from his hand and placed it back on the night stand. “I have no choice but to believe you, do I?”

  “Not really no, but let me put it this way, we had no reason to harm you, Laure or Sophie, our goals all point in the same direction, the success of the project, which is why we have always worked together.”

  “Always?”

  “Yes, always” Bin flipped some pages in his therapist’s notebook and handed it to John.

  He couldn’t believe what he was reading. It was a transcript from eleven or twelve years ago,
of a conversation between himself and Graham, from the early days of the project. John’s mouth fell open, “we hadn’t even presented to the UN at this stage and you were already listening to us?”

  “Of course, we knew you were further ahead than your competitors and in all likelihood you would win the tender, indeed, as I said, we have always worked together, though you may not have been aware of it.”

  “Are my offices still bugged now?”

  “Yes” replied Bin without even blinking “a hundred billion dollars was a lot of the People’s Republic’s money twelve years ago. We are still investing a lot of money today, as you well know of course, and our administration likes to sleep well at night knowing its investments are safe. Your offices are still bugged. You will be glad to know we are very happy with your work.”

  “I would be even more glad to know I wasn’t being bugged.”

  “I didn’t have to tell you, but if you are to trust me then I must, it is in our interest.”

  John didn’t know what to make of that statement; it made sense in its own bizarre way.

  “So how am I to infiltrate….no…oh no!”

  “What?”

  “I told the police about my Ephrem suspicions, I was out of it on morphine at the time, I suppose I knew what I was doing, but I let my guard down”

  Bin laughed out loud. That was the last thing John expected, it almost seemed insulting.

  “Oh don’t worry about the police. We know what you told them.”

  “And that’s not a problem?”

  “No. Remember you thought you were being paranoid? Well so did the police. There were one or two notes made but no investigation. Just in case Ephrem go looking, not that they could, they don’t have our resources; we have deleted that part of the police records.”

  John breathed a sigh of relief, which sent a sharp pain up his side again. It was a surprise really, only twenty minutes earlier he had no idea who killed his wife, he knew nothing about this Chinese conspiracy which somehow had always been there, present at every meeting, at every silent moment with Sophie, like a veneer over his and his family’s lives, and now here he was agreeing to some sort of revenge pact. Abby; she had lost a parent, she couldn’t lose two.

  “Is there any danger to me, or to my daughter?”

  “No, there is no reason for Ephrem to suspect you know anything, but we don’t know how they operate, they might not want to take risks. In their mind they have a divine goal to achieve, that makes them capable of anything.”

  “Do I have time to think about this?”

  “Yes and No. Yes because nothing will happen for at least three months, you need to grieve and get your life back on track and we are not willing to risk anything due to your emotions. No, because I need a commitment from you now. Once I leave this room you will not see me again until your briefing before the mission.”

  “Then yes, I will do it. I am not going to sit around and wait and see if they want to dispose of me someday on a whim.”

  “And also you want revenge?”

  “Yes”

  Bin leaned a little closer, “in that case, this will give you comfort, and something to think about while we prepare. Ephrem will probably win the UN contract, they have enough support, but that is not enough. They will approach you as they will need your advice on the criteria for applicants, in fact one UN committee member will advise them quietly to seek your input.”

  “That won’t guarantee me access to the people you need.”

  “No, but what you tell them will. We will help you with some advance information that will make you an asset to them.”

  “You are going to feed them information through me?”

  “Nothing too sensitive, but important enough that they will take interest in you as an ally, we will prepare you well to gain their trust.”

  “How can someone I hate trust me?”

  “When all our goals point in the same direction things become much easier. Just make them think their goals are also your goals.”

  “Isn’t that what you just said about you and I?”

  “Yes, but I wasn’t lying”.

  At that Bin stood up and rose his voice, “My time is up, I would have to charge you for an extra hour if I was to stay any longer, but I think this session has been successful, your grief and your pain is not going to go away or feel any less, but it should be much easier to handle. Until we meet again John, goodbye and take care of yourself.”

  “Good bye….doctor.”

  Bin gave a curt nod, unlocked the door and left, closing it gently behind him. John felt the pain return to his heart, Sophie was still gone. The loss was still fierce, too fresh in his mind, again the tears came, but now it felt as though they had purpose. He decided then and there that he didn’t trust Bin, but that didn’t matter, he had an opportunity to stop the people who killed Sophie, to stop them harming the project they had worked on together. He could see the future again.

  Chapter 10: 2041

  Paul could feel the vibrations of the drill through his feet. It was a strange sensation but he had gotten used to it. He could see the drill operating just in front of him, plunging down into the surface of the new moon which was once an asteroid and which would soon be a ship. They had to dig several hundred of these holes to hold down the cabeling that stretched between the reactors and the electromagnets that would both shield and help collect material to fuel the ship. If something broke internally while the ship was in transit it could be fixed, but these were outside and if the engines really could reach 20% the speed of light then you couldn’t just stroll out the airlock to tighten a bolt. It was tedious work with very little communication since they had to suit up for zero atmosphere. Over two years earlier when he had been below the surface shifting rock to create the space which would become schools, hospitals, shops, homes to house the people of the Zheng He, he could have casual conversations with the colleagues next to him, argue together about the latest Bundesleague matches and share gossip about the newest members of the “thousand mile high club”; there were loads of affairs on board as everyone wanted to boast that they had done it in space when they returned home. Now though, he had to use his radio to speak to Hans who stood next to him, and knowing that you were probably being listened to by someone in mission control was not conducive to casual conversation.

  Instead Paul found himself alone with his thoughts for most of the day, which was not a good thing, not after the year he had just come through. Once again he was thinking about his wife and kids, or rather his ex-wife and ex-kids. When he had returned to Earth after six months away, gravity wasn’t the only thing waiting to pin him to the floor. His brother flew over from Augsburg in the south of Germany, to the French Guiana space port to meet him. There were the usual hugs and questions about the health of their parents and then Paul mentioned how much he was looking forward to seeing little Isabel and Jan again. The one thing Paul had always appreciated about his brother was his directness, until that moment. His wife had said nothing and Paul hadn’t suspected a thing.

  It was an awkward reunion. His wife and his best friend, his former best friend, stood there and explained how it had “just happened” and it wasn’t his fault, though with him being away she had gotten so lonely and Sebastian had just been there for her. Not his fault apparently, that’s what she had said, but it had turned out to be very expensive for something that wasn’t his fault. He moved back in with his parents and left her in the house with the kids. He had them at weekends while she and Sebastian went on trips together, Paul imagined them sleeping with each other and laughing about him. He had felt hatred before, but not like this. He was supposed to be a hero, a spaceman building the future of humanity. He had imagined how proud his children would be of him, and they were, but somehow it was spoiled. Heroes were supposed to live happily ever after weren’t they? After a few months of hesitation, Paul filed the divorce papers, the court proceedings would happen while he was up on the Zheng He, but he
had contact with his lawyer. While he was Earthside the communications infrastructure between the ship and the Earth had been upgraded using micro-satellites, a lot of data would be uploaded near the end of construction, so now the internet connection was just as good as if he was in his own home, or rather what used to be his home.

  He had loved every second of his previous stay on the Zheng He, but now even the view of the Earth slowly turning below him as he worked couldn’t lighten his mood, and the time he had to think while drilling was killing him. As the drill bored into the rock so to the depression bored into his soul. He was aware of his sadness, but he handled it well, using pills and prayer. His parent’s local church in Augsburg had provided him some comfort initially. At first he just went through the usual routine of mass every Sunday, but he had so much free time on his year of leave that he found himself visiting the church almost every day just to fill the time. It was so peaceful there, the low hum of passing traffic, the dim light, the flickering candles that represented people’s hopes and dreams and fears, but most of all the smiling faces of the statues around him, if he could not smile then maybe they would do it for him. It was on one of these afternoons, as he sat trying to quieten his thoughts, that he met Father Juan. Paul was lighting a candle when Juan came up and lit one beside him, joking that it was to help Bayern Munich in the match that night.

  Paul enjoyed his company as a fellow supporter of his favourite team, naturally enough. Father Juan was in Augsburg on a two year sabbatical in the Benedict XVI School of Modern Theology. It was well known that the theology taught there was anything but modern. They went to football matches together, got drunk together, and since Juan was celibate he made the perfect wingman on nights out at the local bar. Losing his wife still hurt, but his former best friend had been replaced. About four months into their friendship Juan invited Paul to a prayer meeting in a suburb of Munich and to his own surprise he agreed to go. When they arrived at the house Paul felt a little uncomfortable. It was situated in the centre of a small woodland so passers-by could not see it. Even the gatehouse was well hidden. The house itself was of a 1970’s design in timber and it blended into the landscape perfectly. He had made a small fortune working on the Zheng He, but not enough to afford something like this, not even close. What really took his breath away though was that this was only a facade. Behind it an old World War two bunker had been converted into a palace. After going down a steep concrete corridor they entered a reception room where gilded plasterwork adorned the ceilings, and the rooms leading off it were filled with the finest 18th century furniture money could buy, all illuminated by sparkling crystal chandeliers. The “windows” were huge plasma displays showing a stylised formal box hedge garden bathed in sunlight even though it was dark outside. They were led by a middle aged butler into one of the reception rooms where five prayer stools had been arranged next to a blazing fire. Warming his hands by the fire was the owner of all this, and the man who would lead them in prayer that evening. Leon Braun; a man famed for his family’s fortune which he had tripled in value since inheriting it, a self-styled entrepreneur, and the CEO of one of the most successful human resources consultancies in the word: Ephrem.