Nightrise pof-3
Page 30
Scarlett had spoken to her father when she got home but he hadn’t added much more to what the headmistress had already said. He needed her to come out for a week or two. He would explain why when she got there. The housekeeper – a dark and rather sour-looking Scottish woman – was already packing. It seemed that there was nothing to discuss. Scarlett had spent the rest of the evening emailing and texting her friends and went to bed in a bad mood.
And she wasn’t feeling much better now, waiting for her flight to be called. She looked around her. There was the usual collection of business people, some of them hitting the free alcohol, others catching up with the day’s news. A plasma TV stood in one corner of the lounge and she glanced at the screen.
“Today, the new president-elect of the United States issued a statement…”
They were going on about the election again. For the past week, the news had been full of little else. Scarlett watched as Charles Baker appeared behind the rostrum, facing the press corps.
“The defeat of Senator John Trelawny sent shockwaves among his friends and supporters,” the report continued. “The final vote, with Baker taking just over fifty-two per cent of the nationwide ballot and the electoral college, took everyone by surprise and has led to increasingly bitter accusations of electoral fraud.”
Now Baker was speaking. He was smartly dressed and looked relaxed. He would have been handsome except that there was something wrong with his eyes. It was as if they weren’t quite able to focus.
“I hate to accuse Senator Trelawny of sour grapes,” he said. “But these accusations are completely ridiculous and I see no reason for an official enquiry.”
The image changed. There were shots of people protesting outside the White House. They were carrying banners, walking in angry silence.
“At issue are the computer systems used to count the votes,” the report went on. “Almost seventy per cent of votes in a US election are counted by machines and critics point out that no fewer than three of the main vote-counting companies have strong links with the Nightrise Corporation – which backed Charles Baker throughout the campaign.”
Scarlett had been about to stop watching. She had no interest in politics. But one word had caught her attention.
Nightrise.
How strange.
That was the company her father worked for in Hong Kong, and that was exactly where she was heading now. Could they really have been involved in some sort of fraud? It seemed very unlikely. Her father was a lawyer and she couldn’t imagine him ever doing anything wrong.
A young woman in a British Airways uniform had come into the lounge. She walked over to Scarlett. “Are you ready?” she asked. “We need to go back through departures. They’ve begun boarding.”
Scarlett gathered her things and stood up. The report on the television had finished. She smiled and the two of them left together, on their way to the waiting plane.
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Document creation date: 08.06.2011
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