by P. W. Child
“Slainte!” Sam said, lifting his glass to meet his shrink's. “I have been privy to that same kind of observation myself. Not only religion but unorthodox methods and downright illogical doctrines that had masses under their thrall as if it was almost…”
“Supernatural?” Dr. Helberg asked, lifting one eyebrow.
“Esoteric, I believe, would be a better word,” Sam said, downing the shot and wincing at the nasty bitterness of the clear substance. “Are you sure this is tequila?” he stammered, catching his breath.
Ignoring Sam’s trivial question, Dr. Helberg didn't stray from the subject. “Esoteric subjects encompass the phenomena of which you speak, son. The supernatural is but an esotheric theosophy. Are you perhaps referring to your recent visions as one of those perplexing mysteries?”
“Hardly. I see them as dreams, nothing more. They hardly constitute mass manipulation, like religion does. Look, I am all for spiritual belief or some sort of trust in a higher intelligence,” Sam explained. “I am just not convinced that these deities can be appeased, or persuaded by prayer to give people what they wish for. Things will be what they will be. Hardly anything throughout time came about by man’s pity-party begging a god.”
“So you believe that what will happen will happen regardless of any spiritual interference?” the doctor asked Sam, having pressed the record button in secret. “So you are saying our fate is already set out.”
“Aye,” Sam nodded. “And we’re fucked.”
Ch apter 2
Berlin was finally calm again after the recent assassinations. Several high commissioners, members of the Bundesrat and various well-known financiers had fallen victim to the killings that were as yet unclaimed by any organization or individual. It was a conundrum the country had never had to deal with before, as the reasons for the attacks were beyond speculation. The men and women targeted had little else in common than being wealthy or well-known, though mostly in the political arena or the business and financial sectors of Germany.
Press releases had confirmed nothing and journalists all over the world flocked to Germany to look for some sort of secret report somewhere in the city of Berlin.
“We believe it was the work of an organization,” Gabi Holtzer, ministerial spokeswoman, had told the press during a formal statement issued by the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament. “The reason we believe that is because there was more than one person responsible for the deaths.”
“Why is that? How can you be so sure it was not the work of one individual, Frau Holtzer?” one reporter asked.
She hesitated, letting out a nervous sigh. “It is only speculation, of course. However, we believe that many are involved because of the different methods that were used to murder those elite citizens.
“Elite?”
“Wow, elite, she says!”
The exclamations of several reporters and onlookers repeated her ill-chosen words in exasperation while Gabi Holtzer tried to correct her formulation.
“Please! Please, allow me to explain…” she tried to rephrase, but the crowds outside were already roaring in upset. Headlines were bound to reflect the unsavory comment in a worse light than it had been intended. When she did finally manage to get the journalists in front of her to calm down, she explained her choice of words as eloquently as she could, struggling, since her English-skills were not particularly strong.
“Ladies and gentlemen of the international media, I beg your pardon for the misunderstanding. I am afraid I misspoke - my English, well... M-my ap-pologies,” she stuttered slightly and took a deep breath to compose herself. “As you all know, these terrible acts were committed on highly influential and prominent people of this nation. While these targets had seemingly nothing in common and did not even move in the same circles, we have reason to believe that their financial and political status had something to do with the attackers' motives.”
That was almost a month ago. It had been a difficult few weeks since Gabi Holtzer had to deal with the press and their vulture mentality, yet she still felt sick to her stomach when she thought about the press conferences. Since that week the attacks had ceased, but all over Berlin and the rest of the country, there prevailed a dark, uncertain peace, fraught with apprehension.
“What did they expect?” her husband asked.
“I know, Detlef, I know,” she sneered as she looked out the window of her bedroom. Gabi was undressing for a long hot shower. “But what nobody understands outside of my line of work is that I have to be diplomatic. I cannot just say things like ‘we think it is a well-funded bunch of hackers in cahoots with a shadowy club of evil landowners just waiting to topple the German government’, can I?” she frowned, struggling to unclip her bra.
Her husband came to her aid and opened it, slipping it off, and then unzipping her beige pencil skirt. It dropped to her feet on the thick, soft carpeting, and she stepped out of it, still in her Gucci platform heels. Her husband kissed her neck and rested his chin on her shoulder as they looked over the floating lights of the city in a sea of darkness. “Is that what is really going on?” he asked in muffled words as his lips explored her collar bone.
“I think so. My superiors are very apprehensive. I believe it's because they're all thinking the same. There is information we did not reveal to the press about the victims. That's the disturbing facts that tell us it is not the work of one person,” she said.
“What facts? What are they hiding from the public?” he asked as he cupped her breasts. Gabi swung around and looked at Detlef with a stern scowl.
“Are you prying? Who do you work for, Herr Holtzer? Are you actually trying to seduce me for information?” she barked at him, playfully shoving him backward. Her blonde locks danced on her bare back as she followed him every step he retreated.
“No, no, I am just showing interest in your work, darling,” he protested meekly and fell backward on their bed. The powerfully built Detlef had a personality quite the opposite of his physique. “I did not mean to interrogate you.”
Gabi stopped in her tracks and rolled her eyes. “Um Gottes willen!”
“What did I do?” he asked apologetically.
“Detlef, I know you are not a spy! You were supposed to play along. Say stuff like ‘I am here to get information from you, at all costs' or ‘if you don't tell me everything I will fuck it out of you!' or anything else you can think of. Why are you so goddamn sweet?” she lamented, thrashing down her sharp heel on the bed right between his legs.
He gasped at the close vicinity to his family jewels, freezing in position.
“Ugh!” Gabi grunted and pulled her foot away. “Light me a cigarette, will you?”
“Of course, darling,” he replied downheartedly.
Gabi opened the taps in the shower to let the water get hot in the meantime. She pulled off her panties and walked into the bedroom to get her cigarette. Detlef sat down again, looking at his stunning wife. She was not very tall, but on those heels, she towered over him, a kinky goddess with a Karelia blazing between her full red lips.
***
The casino was the epitome of lavish luxury and only allowed the most privileged, wealthy, and influential patrons into its sinfully exuberant embrace. The MGM Grand stood majestically in its azure façade that reminded Dave Purdue of the surface of the Caribbean Sea, but it was not the billionaire inventor's final destination. He looked back at the concierge and staff who waved goodbye clutching their $500 tips tightly. An unmarked black limousine picked him up and drove him to the closest airstrip where Purdue's aircrew awaited his arrival.
“Where to this time, Mr. Purdue?” the head stewardess asked as she accompanied him to his seat. “The Moon? Orion’s Belt, perhaps?”
Purdue laughed with her.
“Denmark Prime, please James,” Purdue commanded.
“Right away, Guv,” she saluted. She had something he valued very much in his staff members – a sense of humor. His genius and inexhaustible wealth had never changed the fact that Da
ve Purdue was a fun-loving and daring individual, first and foremost. Since most of the time he was working on something somewhere for some reason, he elected to use his time off to travel. In fact, he was heading for Copenhagen for some Danish extravagance.
Purdue was exhausted. He had not been up for over 36 hours straight since he had designed a laser generator with a group of friends from the British Institution of Engineering and Technology. When his private jet took off, he kicked back and opted for some well-deserved sleep after Las Vegas and its crazy nightlife.
As always when he traveled alone, Purdue left the flat screen on to soothe him to sleep with whatever boredom it broadcast. Sometimes it was golf, sometimes cricket; other times a nature documentary, but he always chose something unimportant to give his mind some reprieve. Above the screen, the clock showed half past five when the stewardess served him an early dinner so that he could go to sleep with a full stomach.
Through his slumber, Purdue heard the monotonous voice of a news reporter and the debate that followed to discuss the assassinations that had been haunting the political sphere. While they argued on the low volume television screen, Purdue fell blissfully asleep without a care for the dumbfounded Germans in the studio. Every now and then turbulences would shake his mind to consciousness, but soon he would doze off again.
Four stops for refueling on the way gave him some time to stretch his legs between naps. Between Dublin and Copenhagen, he caught the last two hours of deep, dreamless sleep.
After what felt like ages, Purdue woke to the gentle urging of the stewardess.
“Mr. Purdue? Sir, we have a slight problem,” she cooed. At the sound of the word, his eyes sprang open.
“What is it? What's the matter?” he asked, still slurring in his daze.
“We have been denied permission to enter Danish or German airspace, sir. Shall we redirect to Helsinki, perhaps?” she asked.
“Why were we den…” he muttered, rubbing his face. “Alright, I'll sort this out. Thank you, dear.” With that, Purdue rushed to the pilots to figure out what the problem was.
“They did not give us a detailed explanation, sir. All they told us was that our registration identifier was blacklisted in both Germany and Denmark!” the pilot explained, looking as puzzled as Purdue. “What I don't understand is that I requested preclearance, and it was granted, but now we are told we can't land.”
“Blacklisted for what?” Purdue frowned.
“It sounds like bullshit to me, sir,” the co-pilot chimed in.
“I wholeheartedly agree, Stan,” Purdue replied. “Alright, do we have enough fuel for go anywhere else? I'll make the arrangements.”
“We still have fuel, sir, but not enough to take too many chances,” the pilot reported.
“Try Billord. If they don't let us in, head north. We can land in Sweden until this is sorted out,” he ordered his pilots.
“Roger that, sir.”
“Air traffic control again, sir,” the co-pilot said suddenly. “Listen.”
“They are directing us to Berlin, Mr. Purdue. What do we do?” the pilot asked.
“What else can we do? I suppose we would have to adhere for now,” Purdue reckoned. He called the stewardess and asked for a double rum on the rocks, his choice of libation when things didn't go his way.
Touching down at Dietrich Private Airstrip on the outskirts of Berlin, Purdue prepared for a formal complaint he wanted to lodge against the authorities in Copenhagen. His legal team would not make it to the German city anytime soon, so he called the British Embassy to arrange an official meeting with a government liaison.
Not a man of hot temperament, Purdue felt rather livid about the sudden so-called blacklisting of his private aircraft. For the life of him, he could not figure out what on earth he could be blacklisted for. It was ridiculous.
The following day, he entered the Embassy of the United Kingdom.
“Good day, my name is David Purdue. I have an appointment with Mr. Ben Carrington,” Purdue told the receptionist in the fast-paced surroundings of the Embassy on Wilhelmstrasse.
“Good morning, Mr. Purdue,” she smiled cordially. “Let me take you to his office right away. He has been waiting to see you.”
“Thank you,” Purdue replied, too confused and irritated to even force a smile for the receptionist.
The doors to the British representative's office were open as the receptionist showed Purdue in. At the desk sat a woman with her back to the door, chatting to Carrington.
“Mr. Purdue, I presume,” Carrington smiled as he rose from his seat to welcome his Scottish visitor.
“That is correct,” Purdue affirmed. “Good to meet you, Mr. Carrington.”
Carrington gestured to the seated woman. “I contacted a spokesperson from the German international press office to assist us.”
“Mr. Purdue,” the stunning woman smiled, “I hope I can help you. Gabi Holtzer. Pleased to meet you.”
Chapter 3
Gabi Holtzer, Ben Carrington, and Dave Purdue discussed the unexpected landing ban over tea in the office.
“I have to assure you, Herr Purdue, that this is unprecedented. Our legal department, as well as Mr. Carrington’s people, has checked your background intensively for anything that could merit such a claim, but we found nothing on your records that could possibly explain the refusal of entry for Denmark and Germany,” Gabi reported.
‘Thank God for Haim and Todd!’ Purdue thought as Gabi mentioned his background check. ‘If they knew what a score of laws I have broken in my explorations they would lock me away right now.’
Jessica Haim and Harry Todd were Purdue's anything but legal computer analysts, both freelance computer security experts he had on retainer. While they were responsible for Sam, Nina, and Purdue's exemplary criminal record sheets, Haim and Todd had never been involved in any financial tampering. Purdue's own affluence was more than adequate. Besides, they were not greedy people. Just as with Sam Cleave and Nina Gould, Purdue surrounded himself with people who had integrity and propriety. They were often operating outside the law, yes, but they were far from common criminals, and that was something most authorities and moralists would simply not comprehend.
In the pale morning sun that pierced through the blinds in Carrington's office, Purdue stirred his second cup of Earl Grey. The fair beauty of the German woman was electrifying, yet she did not wield her charisma or looks as he would have expected. On the contrary, she seemed to really want to get to the bottom of things.
“Tell me, Mr. Purdue, have you ever had any dealings with Danish politicians or financial institutions?” Gabi asked him.
“I have done extensive business deals in Denmark, yes. But I do not move in political circles. I am more academically inclined. Museums, research, investing in higher learning institutions, but I keep away from political agendas. Why?” he asked her.
“Why do you think that is relevant, Mrs. Holtzer?” Carrington inquired, looking positively curious.
“Well, that is quite obvious, Mr. Carrington. If Mr. Purdue has no criminal record, he must be a threat to these countries - including mine - in some other way,” she informed the British liaison confidently. “If the reason is not based on crime then it has to be due to his reputation as a businessman. We are both aware of his financial status and his reputation as a bit of a celebrity.”
“I see,” Carrington said. “In other words, the fact that he had been involved in countless expeditions and is well known as a philanthropist makes him a menace to your government?” Carrington laughed. “That is absurd, Madam.”
“Wait, are you saying that my investments in certain countries may have caused other countries to distrust my intentions?” Purdue scowled.
“No,” she replied calmly. “Not countries, Mr. Purdue. Institutions.”
“I'm lost,” Carrington shook his head.
Purdue nodded in agreement.
“Let me explain. I am in no way saying that this is the case for my country or
any other. Like you, I am just speculating and what I am thinking is that you, Mr. Purdue, might be unwittingly caught in the middle of a dispute between…” she paused to find the right English word, “… certain bodies?”
“Bodies? Like organizations?” Purdue asked.
“Ja, precisely,” she said. “Maybe your financial standing with various international institutions has caused you to be antagonized by bodies opposing those you are involved in. Matters like that can easily spill over on a global level, ending in your ban from certain countries; not by the governments of those countries, but instead by someone with influence on the infrastructure of those countries.”
Purdue gave it some serious thought. The German lady had a valid point. In fact, she was more correct than she could ever know. He had previously been seized by companies who felt his inventions and patents could be of tremendous value to them but feared their opposition could make better offers. This sentiment had often before turned into industrial espionage and trade boycotts that kept him from securing business with his international affiliates.
“I have to concede, Mr. Purdue. This makes a lot of sense if you consider your presence in powerful conglomerates of the science trade,” Carrington acceded. “But as far as you know, Mrs. Holtzer, this is not an official entry ban, then? It is not on the part of Germany's government, right?”
“Correct,” she confirmed. “By no means is Mr. Purdue in any trouble with the German government… or the Danish I would guess. I believe this is done by more under wraps, um, under—,” she struggled for the right term.
“You mean covert? Secret organizations?” Purdue prodded, hoping that he was misinterpreting her flawed English.
“That is correct. Underground groups that want you to stay out of their way. Is there anything you are currently involved in that could prove a threat to the competition?” she asked Purdue.
“No,” he answered swiftly. “As a matter of fact, I have been taking some time off. I am actually on holiday right now.”