Australasia Levtube approaching Melbourne Air and Lev port
Thursday 6 February 2110, 3:30pm +10 UTC
It took an hour and fifteen minutes to go from Sisik to Melbourne with stops at Changi, Darwin and Sydney on the way. I’d booked a direct Lev and I was lucky as all the seats were taken. I felt strange that normal life was going on around me. People were traveling to their contributions, taking vacs, and just doing what people do. I moved among them with my relentless thoughts, and acted normal while my life was in chaos.
I’d achieved what I had set out to achieve. I was in the Hawks, but Sir Thomas had outsmarted me or at least upped the stakes. I didn’t know if he was setting me up, or if he just wanted insurance, but either way he had outplayed me. In the time that Mariko had been gone, I had tried to keep my routine. I needed to be strong to get her back and so I ran where we had run and ate what we had eaten. I was strong. I was a wreck. I had no choice.
If before I had been playing a high level game, Sir Thomas taking Mariko had just made it very personal and very real. Until then it was all talk. Even what Gabriel had told me hadn’t really sunk in. I suppose it was too long ago and somewhat removed from me. It was almost as if I had an evil image of Sir Thomas that hadn’t meshed with my reality of him. But now the image and the reality had become one, and I understood just what an evil sick fuck he really was. I also knew now that I was capable of killing. He had taught me that.
I hadn’t been stopped yet, so I could only assume he hadn’t put Mariko through Truth Treatment or had Cochran probe her mind. I wondered about that. It could be that he had put Mariko through Truth Treatment and was having me followed to see who else I could lead him to.
I wanted more than ever to get in touch with Gabriel. I was sure that I was under very tight surveillance, tagged and my every move analyzed. I wasn’t one hundred percent sure that Sir Thomas didn’t already know of my association with Gabriel, and that my killing someone was just his way of getting rid of me, but it didn’t really matter. If I sent any strange messages anywhere I was sure they would be traced. So that ruled out getting in touch with Gabriel.
For the past five and half days I’d written practically non-stop and slept four hours a day. This morning I’d fired off the memoir manuscript to Harpers with instructions that they had to get it together for February the 15th no matter what. I copied Sir Thomas on the message and told them that I was traveling and would be unavailable. I’d done what I could but I had a feeling I wouldn’t be winning any Pulitzers for the writing.
The final debate papers for the Tag Popvote were done. There was the fake ‘rape’ position that Annika would not use, but that I would give to Sir Thomas as her debating position. There was also the real paper for Sir Thomas or his nominees to use in their position together with counter-arguments against the rape case. Finally, there was the real paper for Annika’s lawyers to present once I resigned and joined Sir Thomas. I had all of these on my Devstick but I wondered if I would show them or continue with Annika. It would mean Mariko’s death if Sir Thomas believed I had betrayed him. At the least he would think me incompetent and that could get us both killed just as quickly. Or should I betray Annika? Would Mariko even be with me if I managed to save her life under those circumstances? I knew the answer to that and I didn’t like it. I banished the question from my mind.
The Lev decelerated swiftly. I shook myself from my thoughts and looked around. There wasn’t a face I recognized but then I wouldn’t. The Lev doors opened and we all filed out, those nearest the doors rushing to get to the walky ahead of the others. Take it easy, I thought, there’s nothing so important that a few extra secs will hurt. Move slower, enjoy life. What, like you’re enjoying life? Are you enjoying this ever-present panic in your gut? Taking pills to sleep and living on fumes?
I waited until I got on the walky and then took out my Devstick to find the way to the Hilton on the Park. Being in the Australia Geographic always made me feel as if I had gone back in time. Australia had resisted population growth and high-rises with equal ferocity. Boasting a population of forty million, it was the least densely populated developed Geographic on Earth.
I came out of the Lev port and headed over to the taxi rank. As I reached the railings that zigzagged back and forth to control the queue, a black guy wearing a bush hat cut in front me. The guy behind shouted, “Hey mate, there’s a queue back here.” But the black guy just ignored him and looked forward.
He was shorter than me and I felt angry that he’d jumped in front but I kept my tongue. No point getting in a row and making news of myself. He was also very well muscled with broad shoulders. I wasn’t sure that I could beat him even with the moves that Mariko had taught me. I shook my head. A week ago I had never entertained a violent thought against another human, and here I was contemplating attacking this guy for jumping ahead of me in a queue.
The taxis were arriving quickly and regularly, and soon I was at the open end of the railing next to the Travway. A fat woman wearing a yellow jacket with STAFF written across its front and back in big black letters, pointed at the black guy in front of me and at a taxi at the front of the queue.
Without looking at me the big black guy in front of me said, “Gabriel sent me to get you. Don’t ask questions. Follow me and stay under the cover of the taxi rank. Follow me now.”
He started walking away and, shocked as I was, I followed him. He got in the taxi, leaving the door open, and I climbed in headfirst after him. I heard him say something to the Dev in the cab but didn’t catch what it was.
“You got a Devstick on you?”
“Yes.”
“Give it ‘ere, lie low in the seat and strip off,” he said in a low voice, smiling. I blew out my cheeks in a sigh and rolled my eyes. Does everybody I meet have to see me strip? I undressed, lying low in the seat, and as I did so, he picked up my discarded outers and inners and tossed them in a bag. The taxi had pulled out of the airport. All I could see from my position were the lights lining the Travway. Naked as the day I was born, I turned to him, spreading my hands.
He raised a finger to his lips and shook his head. Then he reached into a backpack that I hadn’t noticed and pulled out a pair of shorts and a t-shirt with an ‘I’ a big heart and ‘Pussy’ written on it. I put them on, but when I started to rise from my low position he shook his head again. He smiled, his huge white teeth gleaming in the dark of his face, indicating with his hands that I should lower my head. I did. I felt his hands smoothing over the tops of my head, down around my ears and then around my neck. He gave me a thumbs-up and pulled a large floppy white hat out of the backpack and jammed it on my head. He patted his hand, palm downwards, to indicate I should lay low. I lay and watched the travlights and blue sky go by.
Wondering if this was an elaborate ruse by my uncle, I decided I was giving him too much credit, but also wondered why he would go to all of this trouble. With Mariko under his control, he could simply ask me and I’d tell him what I knew. Or would I? I didn’t know the answer to that and didn’t really want to. I was cramped, squatting on the floor of the cab below window level, but I stayed where I was. Suddenly the taxi picked up pace and I felt myself pushed against the back edge of the back seat.
About five mins later, we slowed. All I saw was a ceiling and then lights on a wall as we turned and then descended. I knew this because I was thrust forward sharply against the back of the seat in front of me. And then we stopped and the doors opened. I looked at my companion but he was already climbing out of the cab so I followed suit. The cab turned around and pulled out of what I now could see what an underground parking lot.
The black guy walked over to a large tanker. Written in gold on the white tank was, ‘Vanishing Point Vineyards’. He continued to the rear of the tanker, and pulled a handle while pushing another button. The whole rear end of the tanker swung free. He smiled at me and shifted his eyes to the inside of the tank and then raised his eyebrows at me.
I walked around him and looked inside. It had a compartment built into its mid section about two-thirds inside the tank. The compartment had another small door in that with a big round handle set in it. I jumped in and went to the door. I turned the circular handle until the door swung free and then, once sitting inside what was probably roomy enough for cramped four adults, I closed the door and locked it shut again.
I was now inside a tin box, inside another tin box, and being driven somewhere. I should count to keep track of the time, I thought, and began counting. Wait a minute, this is pointless. You have no control over where you are going or what time it will take to get there. So what is the point of knowing the time? Right, think of something else. Mariko. Images of her. At the Nineveh sitting across from me in that pool. In the book shop in Orchard. On the beach in Sisik. Naked under me on the floor in the house. I’ve got to get you out of this babe, and I will. Or die trying. So this is why people believe in God? So they can have someone to ask to help save someone they love.
I slid forward on the seat. We’d stopped. I heard three raps on the tank. Opening the door of the compartment, the rear of the tanker was already open and I could see we were in some kind of building.
I jumped out of the tanker and the black guy hugged me. “Oh mate, it’s so good to see you. When we heard Gabe’s bro’ was still alive, we were all so happy for him and now to meet you. Just a beauty, mate. Eh, let me look at you.” With this he pushed me away from him with his hands clasping my shoulders. I realized with his push just how strong he was. “You look like yer old man,” he said, smiling even broader. I smiled back, it was impossible not to, his face was so warm.
“My name’s Maloo, mate. It means ‘Thunder’ in English, but you can call me me Loo if you wants.”
I waied him. And he grabbed me again. “No mate, no wais, just hugs. I wanna feel you.” I smiled and he threw a massive arm around my neck and pulled me towards a huge stack of barrels. There was a Porsche Diablo and a couple of white BMW Airbikes that looked very close to what UNPOL use but without the lights and sirens.
Maloo did something on his Devstick and the stack of barrels moved across the floor of the warehouse. Underneath them, in the floor, a metal plate slid sideways. Steps led down into a passage. Maloo pushed me in front of him and I went down the steps. It was a thin passage, just wide and tall enough to walk slightly hunched over. If another person came the other way, you’d have to turn back or climb over each other.
There was a single line of strip lights leading the way around a curve up ahead. The curve kept going and the tunnel looked the same.
“About two hundred and fifty meters down, we’ll come to another set of steps but there’s a fork up ahead. Take the left fork. OK?”
His voice echoed in the tunnel. The only other sound was our footsteps on the concrete floor. I took the fork and, after walking another fifty meters, saw the steps. I went up these and came to another door which opened just as I approached the top of the stairs. Standing in the light of the doorframe was Gabriel. I recognized his shape.
He smiled and held his arms out wide. I realized in that instant how alone and lost I had been these past few days. A hard lump hit the bottom of my throat and my eyes teared. We hugged and I held him tight. I sniffed and breathed out loud still hugging him tightly.
“He’s got Mariko.”
“I know. I read the message he sent you. It’s going to be OK, my brother We’re going to get her back.” He squeezed me hard and then with his arm around my shoulder led me into the room, which was another warehouse but this one was all flying vehicles and a rubber dinghy on a motorized trailer.
“Come on. There’s someone I want you to meet, and we have a lot of work to do in a short amount of time, as usual. But let’s get to the house and we can talk there.”
We crossed the warehouse and this time a workbench moved sideways and a flight of stairs appeared. It was obvious that this wasn’t set up as a temporary place.
“Is this where you've been living?” I asked Gabriel as we walked down the flight of stairs which were wide enough to fit both of us side by side.
“Yes. I’ve lived here for about twenty years. I trav a lot but always under assumed identities. I’ve never used my real identity. I knew that Sir Thomas was just waiting and that would have been the end of me.”
We came to a set of doors that looked like they were sealed with fat black rubber-like bands on either side of them. Inside was a four-seated pod.
“You’ve got your own Lev tube!” I exclaimed. I had never heard of anyone having a private Lev tube, but of course buildings had them.
“Yes, the house is about ten kiloms away and this is the quickest and most discreet way of getting there.”
We all took a seat and with a command to his Devstick, Gabriel shut the doors. We took off fast — I slid over on the seat to Maloo who was sitting next to me. He laughed.
“Not quite as smooth as commercial Levs but it’s safe. Don’t worry about that,” Gabriel said this and I realized he’d braced himself against the sides of the pod, as had Maloo. I nodded and smiled at my brother. It was great to see him. Just when I needed him most.
The Lev rapidly decelerated but I was ready and braced for it, coming to a stop with a thump against something that gave. We rocked back a bit until locking into place. The doors opened and there was another small platform with concrete steps leading upwards. I followed Gabriel out and we went up the steps to a door at the top.
The door opened into a small room with another door. When Gabriel opened that one inwards, I saw that it had various cleaning equipment hanging off it and then he opened another door and I realized the access to the Lev was hidden in a cleaning equipment storage closet. What a life he must have had to live like this, I thought.
The cleaning closet emptied us out onto a wooden floor passageway with white doors at both ends. Gabriel walked to the one on the left and opened it to a beautiful sunny room that looked out over dunes to the ocean below. I followed him into the room and saw, on two matching white sofas, Annika Bardsdale and a woman I recognized as Martine Shorne, sitting opposite each other with a bottle of wine between them. Annika had been saying something but when she saw me, she stopped and rose from the sofa. I smiled at her and she walked over and gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. She held the back of my head and looked into my eyes.
“Gabriel told me about what’s happened to Mariko. I’m so sorry, but you must know that we’ll do everything in our power to bring her home safely.”
I smiled back at her, returning her hug. “Thanks. I know.”
Martine stood up and came over to us. She waied and Gabriel walked to her side, putting his arm around her.
“Mark, this is Martine, or Marty as she likes to be called. She’s the love of my life.” When he said this she looked up at him and with a hand steered his head so that she could kiss his cheek.
I stepped over to her and held my arms out. “That makes you my sister, Marty.” She smiled and hugged me. I was struck by how beautiful she was compared to the image that UNPOL had issued of her. We stopped hugging and Marty sat down on the sofa with Gabriel. I sat on the opposite one with Annika on one side and Maloo on the other side of me.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t move sooner to bring this meeting around but we needed you away from the heavy surveillance you were under. Sir Thomas is watching you like a Hawk, if you’ll forgive the pun, and we couldn’t move. When I saw that you were meeting Annika in Melbourne I thought it better just to wait. This is home ground. We have a lot of resources we can call upon here and practically none up in New Singapore. Anyway I’m sorry, this last week must have been hell for you.”
“Don’t apologize. I understand. And yes, it’s been rough. What about this meeting though, won’t UNPOL have picked up on my disappearance?”
Gabriel poured me a glass of wine. I took a gulp to wash away the lump in my throat. He smiled at me, like he knew what I was thinking.
Elbows on his knees, Gabriel leant forward on the sofa.
“No. Right now you’re in the Hilton on the Park with Annika and you’ll be in her room ordering room service tonight after the two of you have spent all evening talking. Then you’ll spend all of tomorrow making love, after which Annika will return to London. As for you, that will depend upon what we decide to do. Sir Thomas kidnapping Mariko, is that because he’s blackmailing you to do something?”
“No. Not exactly. The night before he kidnapped Mariko, I joined the Hawks. He asked and I accepted. But right after I accepted he said I had to prove my loyalty to him by killing someone. I asked him who. And he said just anyone — it doesn’t matter.”
Annika gasped. “This is incredible. This man is UNPOL Director! What kind of a world are we living in?” Shaking her head she got up and walked to the windows facing the ocean.
“I take it you said you would kill someone?” Gabriel asked me in a low voice.
“Sure, what choice did I have? He had two bodyguards in the living room with Mariko. If I had said no after what he’d just told me I’m pretty sure we would have been killed right then.”
Gabriel nodded. “I’m sure too. No, you did the right thing. Does he suspect anything about us?”
“I don’t think so. I think he thinks that he’s training me by doing this. Or maybe I’m just being hopeful, but I think he’s showing me how to be ruthless. It fits with ways in which he has interacted with me in the past. Anyway, I doubt that he’s harmed Mariko, that is if he still believes that I know nothing about you other than what he has told me. I am worried about Cochran doing a mind probe on Mariko or Truth Treatment.”
“Cochran’s not in New Singapore. She’s been visiting each of the bomb sites. Every city where a bomb attack has taken place is now under martial law. UNPOL Special Ops teams have been placed in force at each location. They’re getting ready to make their move and Cochran’s not due back in New Singapore until next Monday.”
I nodded, relieved. One less thing to worry about.
Gabriel went on, "When do you have to kill someone by?”
“By Valentine’s Day. Ironic isn’t it? I wonder if he didn’t choose the date deliberately.”
With a wry smile, Gabriel said, “He might have done. He’s certainly sadistic enough to take pleasure in such details.”
Which increased my worries. “So, what about the chances of Sir Thomas putting Mariko through Truth Treatment?”
“There was a chance that he might have used it straight away, but we’re sure you would have been picked up or killed if he had done. As you haven't, it's probably because loyalty, trust and honor are crucial qualities between Hawks. It's a matter of honor for him to trust you now until you prove otherwise. It would certainly risk your loyalty to him if he questioned your lover behind your back without a valid reason.”
“What about Cochran next week? I doubt she's any scruples about doing a mind probe. Though I have coached Mariko in how to avoid dangerous thoughts.”
“Now you're a Hawk, you are a rival to Cochran," Gabriel said. "I think Sir Thomas would prefer to play those cards close to his chest as yet so I doubt he'll give Cochran access to Mariko. Either way, we have a bit of time to work with."
Giving a shrug, Gabriel glanced at the other conspirators and changed tack. "All right, let’s sum up where we are. Sir Thomas doesn’t yet suspect you know the truth about me, Mark. He doesn’t know where we are or who we all are, so those are things in our favor. Against us is we still don’t know anything about how to prevent the toxin from killing people and how they’re hiding it in the tags. And it looks like we’re not going to find out until the Tag Law is passed. We don’t know where Mariko is being held, and if Mark doesn’t kill someone within eight days then Mariko will probably be killed. We also have to consider that Cochran may attempt a mind probe on Mariko within the week, and that might lead to her and Mark being killed. Would you agree with that summary of where we are now?”
Gabriel sat back on the sofa and looked around the room at each of us in turn. I exhaled heavily and Maloo put his arm around my shoulder.
“Don’t ya worry, mate. Gabe’s gotta tell it like it is but we’ll fix this fucka for ya, don’t ya worry.” He looked over at Annika and said, “Pardon my French, Ms Bardsdale.”
Aniika flashed a grin at Maloo. “I don’t think that was French, Maloo, and I agree. We will fix this fucker.”
Maloo burst out with a bark of a laugh and I had to grin too.
“I’m serious,” Annika said, smiling. “I know some pretty high-level people and they would be horrified to find out this is going on. They’d move fast to stop it too.”
I looked at her and said, “I’m pretty sure that Sir Thomas has got Secretary General Deng, either with him or being manipulated by him. That’s high-level. Without evidence, rock-solid evidence, anyone going up against Sir Thomas at this point would just be putting themselves on a list for execution.”
Gabriel leant forward and picked up his wine glass. He said, “We’ll have to use every resource we’ve got in an orchestrated plan if we’re going to succeed. I think the big question we have to ask ourselves is: do we have enough to stop the Tag being voted in?”
“I don’t think that we do. Even if we exposed Sir Thomas and all of the conjecture that we have about Tag, even if Sir Thomas was out of action, Tag would still go ahead. Once the cull is completed, they’d just release Sir Thomas. The question isn’t about whether we can legally stop Tag, because let’s assume we can’t. The real question is how do we stop the cull happening and at the same time make sure it can’t ever happen? Once we’ve done that we can then work on getting rid of Sir Thomas. Or maybe if we’re lucky, we can kill two birds with one stone.” Gabriel raised his eyebrows and shrugged at me. Maloo rolled his eyes.
“OK, OK, enough with the bad puns.” Gabriel's moment of levity passed, and he shook his head. "Seriously, this guy is dangerous and clever but he’s not infallible — no one is. Enough things start going wrong and he’ll make a mistake. We just have to be there when it happens. He’ll be at his weakest when the Tag has been distributed. Once released, we can get a hold of it and set Maloo to work on it.”
I looked at Maloo. Gabriel said, “Maloo’s got a PhD in bio-engineering from Sydney uni.”
I tried to mask the surprise I felt but Maloo saw right through me. With a big grin, he said, “Had ya fooled, didn’t I, mate?”
Gabriel laughed but then his look turned somber again. “The problem with this approach is that it means we have to wait until the Tag is distributed. Which means that you and Mariko are exposed. Essentially, you have to choose whether you want Mariko or someone else to die. Unless, of course, we can locate and extract her before the 14th, which will be our primary focus.”
“I can’t put Mariko’s nor my life in front of six billion deaths. She wouldn’t want me to. I detest the thought of having to kill an innocent human to save her. I know I can do that. I’m sad to admit it, but I do. That’s just love, but what worries me is that in doing it, she will hate me forever.”
“What if the person you killed wasn’t innocent?”
The question from Marty turned the room to silence. I looked at her. She held my look and sat calmly next to Gabriel. Her legs together, leaning forward with her arms on her thighs, she stared at me under her blonde fringe. Her eyes bored into mine.
“I mean a really nasty person. Unfit to call themselves a human. That kind of non-innocent. Could you kill such a person?”
“It doesn’t matter whether the person is a bad or a good person. Under the law I believe in, they are both due the same rights as humans under the Nation’s Law. If we have failed to stop this person from committing illegal or just plain evil acts, then that is a failure of the Law and its processes, not the individual. Any other understanding leads to anarchy or vigilante mob justice.”
“That doesn’t answer my question. I’m not talking about theories, I’m talking about right now. A particular person and whether you want to save Mariko or not.”
Gabriel put a hand on her arm. “Maybe we’ll come back to that question later. I have an idea which I’d like to run by you. Something I’ve been toying with for a while now and I’d like to get your opinion on it. OK, here goes. What if we delete all identity records? Everyone’s PUI. Gone in an instant?”
Marty shook her head and said, “Shrouded in the heaviest of security and even if you get through that, there are backups in several different places.”
“Yes, I know, but suppose we could do it. What do you think of the effect?” Gabriel sat back in the chair.
Annika walked to the table and held her glass out for Gabriel to refill. Once filled, she emptied half of it in a huge swallow. “You’d destroy personal wealth, contribution would cease to have a reason, and the world would sink into anarchy overnight. But apart from that I don’t see a problem with it,” she said, smacking her lips. Hand on hip she raised her glass, giving us her profile. We all burst out laughing.
“OK, to be a little less extreme," Gabriel said. "The Tag has to be controlled with a command that would be uploaded to it. This would release the toxin. To do that selectively, you have to match serial numbers of Tags distributed with names of people distributed to. Makes sense right?” He wasn’t expecting an answer. “Right. So we need to find those two lists and once the product has been released, destroy the lists of serial numbers or randomize it. Because if we can’t do that then our last recourse is to delete everyone’s identity. And Annika, I agree with your evaluation of what would happen, but that’s still better than six billion dead. Right?”
“Yes, you’re right,” I responded. “How much time do you think we have after the Tag Law has been passed?”
“I’d estimate no more than two weeks. By that time I reckon they’ll come up with something to force the issue. It looks to me like the Hawks have achieved enough insiders in the UN and in the Security Council to manipulate a crisis and get people to inject the Tag quickly. So yes, about ten to fourteen days tops.”
“So no later than the end of month?”
“No. I reckon he’ll order the cull once he gets seventy to seventy-five percent adoption. If what we know about the toxin is correct, and we think it is, then it takes about a week before it kills. Which means that he can kill the ones who haven’t injected before the ones who have start to die.”
“So the key is the list of Tag serial numbers and to get it I have to kill someone. There’s no getting around that is there?”
“No. Unfortunately not.” Gabriel looked straight at me and spread his hands.
Leaning forward in her seat, Marty spoke softly. “I know who you can kill.”
I looked at her, struggling to match the beautiful woman with the words. She continued in the same soft tone. “His name is Jonathan Wigley. We called him ‘Wriggly Wigley’ because we couldn’t get any evidence on him even though he practically boasted about his crimes in a few online forums. He lives in Bangkok and on the surface is a — ”
“I know him. He was lead counsel for Bauer.”
“Yes. That’s why he’s perfect, because you do know him. And you had some serious arguments with him too, right? We got that tracing some of his communications with his people back in Bangkok.”
“Yes, that’s right. During the settlement negotiations he was obstructive without being constructive. He was just wasting time, I suspected, so that he could charge more for his contribution. Finally I accused him directly in a meeting and the Bauer team replaced him with David Chalmers. After that we reached settlement quickly.”
Marty nodded. “Mr Wigley spends his cred and self-time getting young boys and girls from all around Asia and having sex with them. They’re always under ten years of age. We haven’t been able to get a witness or evidence to point the finger at him but we know he’s doing it. It is only a matter of time before he slips up and we get him, but who knows how many more young lives will be corrupted by his touch before then.”
Gabriel leaned close to me. “I can do this if you want. We’ll rig it to make it look like you did but I’ll actually take care of it.”
“No. I will take care of it. As much as I hate the thought, it’s possible that the deception would be found out and then all this would be for nothing. I’ll kill him unless we can figure out a way to get that list before the 14th.”
“So you want to leave it until the final day?”
“I know it’s risky, but yes.”
“All right. I think you should stay with me until then. What do you think?”
“Won’t that raise all kinds of alarm bells?”
“We’ll come up with a good reason for your absence. I think it will also unsettle him and Cochran.”
“Cochran?”
“Sure Cochran. She’s in deep with this thing.”
“I should go back the day after tomorrow when Annika leaves. Being here is nice and I feel safe. A part of me, a big part, wants to stay here, but I’ve got to get back into it.”
Gabriel nodded and smiled at me. “I’ve got to provide you with some protection against any mind probes or truth treatments. We can’t take the chance of those being successful, for all our sakes, and we need at least twelve hours to do that. It isn’t a pleasant process either and at the end of it you’ll be too messed up to trav. So I think that you will need to stay until Sunday morning.”
“Annika?”
“Yes, Gabriel.”
“I need you to continue your affair with Jonah through till Sunday morning. Can you do that?”
“I think it’ll probably make my popularity ratings increase,” Annika said with a smile and blew a kiss at me.