‘Before you passed out?’ He sounded incredulous.
‘It’s not impossible, is it?’
‘No, but it’s not going to be easy to get in there.’
‘I thought you said she had gone to see a medic.’
‘That was yesterday, right after it happened.’
‘It’s worth a shot, isn’t it?’
They pulled up at a set of traffic lights next to a news stand. The headlines blared off the stand at them: ‘Bioavancement S.a.r.l. sells youth back!’ Eva looked away and the lights turned green.
When they arrived at the flat, Leon met a man in a suit standing at a bus stop opposite and they had a short conversation.
‘She’s out,’ he said when he returned to Eva.
‘Who was that?’
‘A friend.’
‘Did your friend also have any idea how we can get in?’
‘The best way is just to walk through the door.’
‘Fantastic, where’s the key?’
Leon held up a small set of wire-thin tools.
Once they were outside Valerie’s door it took Leon less than a minute to shift the internal mechanism of her lock around so that it sprung open.
‘I’m guessing you’ve done this before.’
He ignored her.
‘We have an hour maximum.’
‘I need to clean up. I’ll meet you in the room with the computer, down the hall.’
He nodded.
Once Eva had located the bathroom, she gratefully shut the door, sat on the edge of the bath and took a minute to try and collect her thoughts. After allowing herself several deep breaths she quickly used the products she found in the bathroom to wash off the liquid that had been thrown at her and remove the blood from her face, neck and hair. She took one of Valerie’s hair-bands and pulled her long dark hair back into a ponytail. Her face was scratched and she was developing another huge royal purple bruise across her right cheek where she had been hit, but nothing felt broken and at least now she was clean and less bloody. She cleaned and dressed the wound on her hand from her fall at the petrol station and wiped antiseptic lotion over the smaller grazes on her face, hands and arms and the cuts on her collarbone. Finally, she borrowed mouthwash and deodorant to try and make herself feel slightly more human and took a couple of painkillers with water from the bathroom tap. Her head was still pounding.
She found Leon sitting at the computer, his broad frame blocking most of the screen. When he heard her come in, unexpectedly he stood up and Eva took up a position in front of the computer. She looked back at him over her shoulder, surprised at the relinquishing of control. Then he handed her the USB stick.
‘You found it!’
‘Under the table leg. I noticed as soon as I walked in that it wasn’t level. I always notice lines that aren’t straight – OCD.’
Eva took the stick and glanced at him sideways. She’d never met anyone with the same issue she had. She watched him line up an iPad that was sitting on the desk so that it was exactly parallel to the edges of the table. It was satisfying.
As the contents of the USB stick opened up in the window and the folder names came into view, memories suddenly began to filter through Eva’s mind.
‘I opened “briefing” last time,’ she said, hovering the mouse over the file as she remembered.
‘What’s in it?’ asked Leon, his voice tinged with impatience.
Eva thought for a second. ‘It’s a collection of research sources – articles about a youth supplement. I don’t think it’s very important.’
‘What about “test results”?’
‘I don’t know. Perhaps that’s what I was reading when I passed out.’ She clicked on the folder, selected the first file and the ‘Highly Confidential’ document appeared on the screen. She felt Leon reading over her shoulder, his eyes like laser beams boring into the page. ‘But this… ’ He began and then stopped and carried on reading. Apparently the scientific jargon was no barrier for Leon. When he didn’t say anything else, Eva opened the summary document she had read the day before and Leon made fast work of that too. Then he folded his arms, gave a short whistle and leaned back against a cupboard.
Eva closed the file ‘test results’ and looked at the remaining folders. There was one labelled ‘Read Me’, a document rather than a folder of documents. As she looked at it, she knew she had read it before.
‘I think this might have some answers.’
She moved the mouse over the icon and opened the document. As she began to read, it all came flooding back.
Eva looked away from the screen and up at Leon who seemed to have turned very pale.
‘Does it seem serious to you?’
‘It could be.’
‘But it’s just algae.’
‘I expect that’s the assumption they are relying on everyone making.’ Leon scrolled further down the page and whistled. ‘Jesus. This stuff is virtually unstoppable.’
She looked at him incredulously. ‘I know what the document says, Leon, but seriously it’s just a plant,’ she repeated.
‘Have you ever heard of a “red tide”?’
‘No.’
‘It’s a “population explosion” of toxic, naturally occurring microscopic algae. It can kill everything it comes into contact with – fish and plants – it contaminates water and is even harmful to humans. Here,’ he reached over Eva and opened up an internet search engine on the computer, typed in ‘red tide’ and pulled up the results.
All at once Eva was looking at blue-green seas covered in vast swathes of red algae – a ‘red tide’. She quickly read the accompanying FAQs.
‘But it says here the particles are only harmful if you eat infected fish or shellfish and normally they are filtered out of water by our filtration processes.’
Leon frowned and stared ahead. ‘This information, Eva, I find it very confusing.’
She nodded. ‘It doesn’t make sense.’
‘I don’t understand why this company is importing algae plants into the UK, when these plants are clearly going to become a threat to its water system. How can this have been allowed to happen?’
‘What I don’t understand is why they have done it. I mean, surely this Bioavancement S.a.r.l. company is going to end up getting sued for the damage it causes. No commercial contract would leave a loophole like that.’
‘And what about this?’ said Leon bringing up the ‘Highly Confidential’ document once again.
Eva looked blankly at the screen. ‘I don’t understand the language in that one.’
‘It’s describing the effects of this strain of algae on the human body if you consume it as a supplement. It doesn’t seem to have anything to do with cell regeneration – in fact, quite the opposite. It actually shuts some of the body’s functions down.’
‘Fatally?’
‘Not really. Look,’ he pointed to the screen. ‘This is the effect that the algae have on the liver. They increase its resistance to insulin, which in turn means the pancreas has to make more.’
‘I’m not sure I understand the significance.’
‘It’s basically blocking the message the liver would normally send to the brain to tell it to stop eating.’
‘Eating?’ Eva was taken aback. ‘The way Sophie described this information made it sound like a life-threatening situation. I don’t understand. What use is a supplement that makes you eat a lot?’
Leon looked at her. Once again he reached past her to the computer and searched the words ‘obesity epidemic’. He pulled up a page from a National Health Service website.
‘The UK diet industry is currently worth more than £2 billion. Obesity is predicted to rise by 70% over the next fifteen years,’ Eva read quickly.
‘An enormous rise in the number of obese people creates a brand-new market,’ said Leon still leaning over her shoulder, ‘all with one life-threatening problem in common.’
‘Of course. Obesity drugs.’ Suddenly something dawned on Eva. She
began searching through the other documents on the file and sure enough there was a file labelled ‘forecast’.
She opened one and they read in silence.
‘Look,’ said Leon, ‘with this supplement they’re going to speed up the “natural” advance of obesity. Look at that profit forecast. It’s made on the basis of a 200% increase in the level of obesity over just the next two years.’
‘Create a market by making us sick and make money by selling us the cure. A classic business strategy,’ Eva said.
They sat in silence for several seconds before Eva spoke.
‘But what would happen to Bioavancement S.a.r.l. if someone found out this was what they were doing? Is this really worth killing people like Sophie and Jackson for?’
‘It would be the end of their business and I imagine they would be heavily sanctioned, probably imprisoned.’
‘There must be a lot of money at stake.’
‘People have killed for less.’
‘It seems so reckless though. Is it really something that could go unnoticed?’
‘They wouldn’t be the first company to make money by manipulating the public into harming themselves. But I see what you mean.’
‘I don’t know, I’m not sure I buy it. How can someone have looked at this and thought they would get away with it. And why use algae that you know will spread uncontrollably. Surely the whole point of this would be that after the initial launch they try to stay below the radar. It specifically says in that report that they intend to withdraw the supplement from the market after two years to stop any association with it.’
‘When the damage has been done.’
‘But this document says the algae is being shipped to Bioavancement S.a.r.l. sites. When it starts to spread that will draw an intense spotlight on Bioavancement S.a.r.l. and then presumably an investigation into its business.’
Suddenly, a floorboard creaked in the hall.
Eva looked at Leon, heart pounding.
‘Wait here,’ he whispered. ‘Take the memory stick.’
‘OK.’
Eva disconnected the stick as Leon disappeared from the room. The flat was not large so there was little time. She wiped all the recently viewed document records and stored the memory stick in her pocket where she could feel it pressed against her hip. Then she waited, listening for any sounds coming from beyond the door.
After several seconds, Eva realised she could hear scuffling along the corridor and the grunts of some kind of muted fight. There was a crash and the sound of glass smashing and Eva’s skin began to burn with adrenaline. Then she heard Valerie’s voice, speaking low almost in a whisper. She moved closer to the edge of the door. The voices were coming from further inside the flat.
‘I said I’d kill you if I ever saw you again. I should have killed you then.’
‘Do you know what fucking chaos you left behind?’
Eva’s skin began to tingle as she listened to the conversation. They know each other.
‘I was never part of a team.’
‘That was how it worked!’
‘I don’t work with anyone.’
‘You signed up to work with a team.’
‘Honour amongst thieves? You know it doesn’t work like that, don’t be so fucking naive.’
‘You just don’t do that, Valerie.’
‘I don’t have time for this, Leon. I have to be at the airport in an hour. Let me go.’
‘Fuck you.’
Eva heard a grunt and then the sound of bone crunching on bone. She heard something heavy drop to the floor and then there was silence.
Eva stood beside the door, her entire body rigid. She strained to hear the sound of movement or voices; and then suddenly there were soft steps coming in the direction of the bedroom.
She looked around the room for a potential weapon and settled for a stone Buddha head, the size of a small football. She hefted it with both hands and crept towards the door.
NINETEEN
SUDDENLY EVA FOUND HERSELF FACE to face with Valerie. The Frenchwoman’s eyes were aflame and she was breathing heavily. She had a gun in one hand pointed straight at Eva’s chest but her face wore an expression of shock. Eva realised Valerie had not expected to encounter her until she was inside the bedroom and took advantage of the slight delay in the other woman’s reactions, swinging the Buddha head like a shot put at the gun in Valerie’s hand, before dropping it in the general direction of her feet.
The heavy stone, empowered by gravity, immediately hit Valerie’s hands and the gun went skittering across the floor. Valerie let out a scream as the stone landed on the edge of her left foot before she could move it out of the way, crushing the bones beneath it.
Eva leapt past her, out of the bedroom door and veered to her left, making a dive for the gun, which had landed underneath a small side-table in the hall that held an ornate antique lamp and a small potted plant. As she fell, she hit the table, which began to pitch over. On all fours, she managed to touch the gun with her fingertips but suddenly she was being dragged away from the tipping table, by hands pulling her ankles.
She twisted onto her back and made a grab for one of the table legs behind her with her hands as she was pulled in the other direction. She missed but managed to get hold of the light cord and pull it, bringing the antique lamp smashing down onto the floor above her head, where the thick glass shade shattered into five pieces, leaving jagged edges reaching upwards from the bulb.
Then Valerie was above her with the Buddha head in her hands, apparently not slowed at all by the broken bones in her foot. Eva rolled away just as Valerie smashed the heavy stone to the floor where Eva’s head had been. As soon as she had released the stone head Valerie threw herself at Eva, pinned her to the floor and began trying to strangle her. Eva, flat on her back now, gasped and struggled as her eyes met Valerie’s, a frightening shade of green only a few inches from Eva’s own.
‘Stop!’
‘Shut up,’ Valerie hissed, spitting at Eva as she continued trying to strangle her.
‘Why… ?’ gasped Eva.
‘You would not understand.’
‘But Jackson… ’
‘Unfortunate,’ said Valerie and then began to tighten her grip so that Eva could no longer speak.
From the other room there was suddenly the sound of glass smashing and Valerie looked up briefly. Eva wondered what she had done to Leon; he was obviously still alive. Then the pressure of Valerie’s stranglehold began to make her see stars. She knew that soon she would lose consciousness. She had to do something. Bringing her hands up in a move she had seen in a film, Eva slammed the flats of both her palms against both of Valerie’s ears as hard as she could. Valerie screamed as her eardrums burst, released Eva’s throat, pushed herself into a crouch and stumbled back, disorientated and unbalanced.
Eva quickly shunted herself upright and then sideways in the other direction, kicking out at Valerie who dropped to a sitting position on the floor as she rocked away in pain. Eva began struggling to her feet, gasping loudly as she recovered from having her throat crushed, but Valerie, recovering inhumanly quickly, snarled and made a grab for Eva’s left leg, locking her hands around her shin and trying to twist it at the knee to break it. My God, thought Eva, breathlessly, this woman is unstoppable.
Eva stumbled to the floor, landing on her left side, instinctively reaching for the shattered light that had fallen from the table with her left hand, the only weapon she could see. She yanked the stem of the light, trying to pull the plug out of its socket but it held fast. Eva cried out as she felt the pressure Valerie was putting on her leg almost reaching breaking point and then with an almighty tug, the lamp was free from its plug.
Eva used all her strength to try to kick Valerie wildly in the head with her free leg and one blow landed square on her temple. As soon as Valerie reacted, releasing the pressure on her leg enough for Eva to move, she leaned forward and sliced the shattered glass lamp into one of Valerie’s arms as it held
tight to her leg. Blood spurted from a deep cut she had made in the forearm and Valerie howled and jumped backwards. In that split second, Eva was on her feet and running towards the living room, still holding the shattered lamp.
Behind her, Valerie was no slower and she made a grab for Eva’s ponytail, yanking it backwards so that she could get an arm around the crook of her neck. Her arms were strong, much stronger than Eva would have anticipated for someone who looked so very feminine, and try as she might, she couldn’t break Valerie’s stranglehold.
Now with a clear view of the living room, Eva could see Leon lying on his back on the floor; hundreds of glass shards from a smashed coffee table he seem to have collapsed on were all around him. He wasn’t moving.
Suddenly Eva felt Valerie start trying to force her down to floor level from behind, whilst still keeping her choking hold around Eva’s neck. She resisted the downward pressure but Valerie was stronger. Eva realised Valerie was going to try and get them both onto the floor so she could reach the gun that had fallen under the tipped side-table. She gasped, straining for breath, taking in as much air as she could through the tiny space left as Valerie’s arm crushed her windpipe. Then, as Valerie reached for the gun, rocking them both in the direction of the fallen table, the grip loosened, just enough to allow Eva to breathe. She gasped in two large breaths, waited until they were almost on the ground and then jabbed an elbow back as hard as she could into Valerie’s torso. She heard Valerie grunt but her arm remained locked around Eva’s neck as if it was made from steel. She tried another jab but this time Valerie was prepared and moved her torso slightly away so that the force of the blow was wasted.
Crying out with frustration, Eva looked around for anything she could use as a weapon. Valerie still had her in a headlock and when they reached the ground she would be within the reach of the gun.
Eva was still clutching the base of the shattered lamp in one hand and was about to throw it to the floor when she realised she could use it. As Valerie lowered them both right to the ground and reached out for the gun under the wreckage of the table, Eva reversed her hold on the lamp so the base of it was now facing forwards and the points of the jagged glass shards backwards towards Valerie behind her. At the same time as Valerie jerked forward, Eva shoved the lamp backwards where she could feel Valerie’s body against her. She heard a gasp as the sharp ends of the lamp stuck in flesh and then she shut her eyes, gritted her teeth and shoved the dagger sharp shards further back. Immediately, Eva felt the hold around her neck loosen. She bit down hard on Valerie’s forearm and, as the other woman let out a shuddering shout, Eva was released completely.
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