Panspermia Deorum (22 page)

G
rigori’s lawyer had not made further contact and
Kolorov was getting twitchy, but had no intention of making the
next move, even though he was about to head off to see Julien
Delacroix. His brinkmanship paid off, yet he decided to push it to
the limit. The lawyer finally phoned to ask if he could come and
see him again, but this time alone. Kolorov gave him a time
ultimatum of his self-discharge from hospital. After that, the
offer would be withdrawn. The lawyer said he would be there in
under thirty minutes. He arrived with a pile of papers.

“I need to make
you aware of a couple of sticking points with your proposal. They
are minor items but they must be attended to if the transfer is to
satisfy the financial regulators. It won’t take long.”

“I would ask
you to take a seat, but you are correct, this won’t take long. You
represent the interests of a murdered oligarch’s son. He, Grigori,
wants this to happen. I told him when he first came to see me that
his request would be quite a difficult one to execute. That is why
I sent him to see you. That is what you get paid for is it not? I
could not care less if the deal collapses, but I would if I was in
your position. These oligarchs look after their own, and you may be
unknowingly placing yourself in the firing line. If this is just
about your cut, I would resist getting too greedy. Just take less
and make these sticking points go away. You need to be aware that I
leave for the other side of the world in two hours, and the outcome
of that meeting could have serious consequences, one of which would
prohibit me from acting on behalf of Soyuz any longer, so I am
afraid you have to make up your mind.”

“I see. In that
case I will delete the relevant points and find a way of getting
the young man to safety with his money. Can you please look over
the agreement and sign if you are happy with it?”

“Of course. If
I may offer you another piece of advice, you would be well advised
not to ask Grigori where he intends to become invisible. His family
should do the same. Finally, there will be no financial regulators
to worry about in two years’ time unless some other organisation
can derail the asteroid, so, I would not lose sleep over that.
Perhaps you should worry more about traceability of your cut, or
even whether you should take anything.”

The signed
documents were exchanged and the lawyer shuffled uncomfortably out
of Kolorov’s office.

*

As loathe as he
was to divulge a confidence, Eugene decided to ask for his father’s
opinion.

“Sophie has
given me a hard time, she insists on being the first human
volunteer to undergo the genetic ‘snip and restore’ technique.
She’s in one of those moods, you know, when she won’t take no for
an answer. I can see her point in some respects, but the work isn’t
complete. It looks really promising, but it’s my sister for hell’s
sake. What do you think, Dad?”

“Eugene, you’re
asking someone who has totally screwed up his family life once
already. I’m no oracle when it comes to stuff like this. I’m lucky
to have a second chance and I’m sorry but I don’t want to influence
you in coming to a decision. I’ll respect whatever you decide.”

“Yeah, you’re
right, I shouldn’t be troubling you with this. Apart from trying to
discuss this with her rationally, she has this young man Reuben
supporting her. He’s a great kid, and he argues a good case without
shouting and getting in a strop. Anyway, tell me, I haven’t
pestered you in a while, but I need your honest opinion. Do you
really believe we will knock the asteroid out of the equation? A
hint would help, and it stays between us.”

“All I can say
right now is that the launch project itself could not be going
better, and the asteroid has not strayed significantly from its
predicted trajectory. I’m confident in our ability to get
everything under way on time and our electronic monitoring
capability is vastly superior to anything I’ve ever seen before.
There is another matter though. I have a visitor arriving shortly,
you must remember Ivan Kolorov, the man who asked me to
decommission the flight deck system?”

“Oh yes, the
Russian, the one who used VB Aerospace to further his own future.
Why in hell is he coming here?”

“I wanted him
to know that his meteoric rise to power hinged on us burying the
content of the flight deck data system. I can’t think of any other
way to extort the truth from him about the Soyuz failure to
influence the asteroid. I’ve studied the official explanation over
and over, and it simply doesn’t make sense. I can’t rule out
sabotage, Eugene, and that in my opinion is the greatest threat to
our mission. There are many factions of the human race which don’t
want to interfere in God’s great plan, you know, ‘everything
happens for a good reason’. Kolorov isn’t one of them, indeed the
Soyuz fleet may have been victim to such misguided terrorism. If
that is the case, he must have a different story to tell. Let me
speak with him before you make up your mind about Sophie’s
treatment.”

“Shit! I had
hoped you could make my decision clearer, I wasn’t expecting you to
muddy the water. Can I be present during the discussion?”

“I was
intending to invite you anyway. You convinced me not to trash the
flight deck, remember? He will have to listen to the person who
advised me at the time, and now I have my very own I.T. expert.
Don’t worry, I have no intention of letting him know you’re my
son.”

*

Julien’s mobile
vibrated and flashed up Sophie’s picture. “Hi, honey, I’m just
about to…”

“Listen, Dad, I
came to Geraldine’s cottage to see Mum because she wasn’t in her
own space. They had arranged to go shopping today and Mum asked if
I wanted anything. I said I’d bring my list of stuff around before
they left, but they aren’t here in the cottage and the place is in
an almighty mess. It looks like a break-in, the rear door has been
smashed in, all of the wardrobes and drawers have been emptied on
to the floor. I can’t get either Mum or Geraldine on their phones,
and anyway, they would never leave the place like this. I have
informed the police, but they gave me some crap excuse for not
coming after I told them there was no burglar on the premises.
They’re a bunch of arseholes, so I think you should speak with
them.”

“What? Ok, I’ll
go to the station right away, meet me there. Were you late going
around to the cottage? I mean, could they have left before the
break-in?”

“No, I’m not
late, they said they were leaving at eleven, and it’s just gone
quarter to. Come on, Dad, don’t treat me like I’m spaced out or
something, this just feels all wrong. I’m on my way to the station,
see you there, just hurry.”

*

Kolorov was
looking forward to the flight, but not the meeting. Fresh from
hustling Grigori Malenkov’s lawyer into effectively making him the
owner of Soyuz, he could now concentrate on turning the crosshairs
on Julien Delacroix. The long journey would have been distracting
even in first class seats of a commercial airline, but the private
jet of the company was a different matter. It felt right, not
having to justify such indulgence to anyone else for a change.

He relaxed with
a glass of his favourite red wine, hoping that it would wash over
his grey matter as well as the beluga caviar. He’d underestimated
Julien, and experience taught him that there must be no repetition.
The wrong kind of revelations would pretty much guarantee his exile
from his homeland, or worse. A dignified burial plot with droves of
pretend mourners.

His
recollection of events just before he left VB Aerospace were pretty
blurred, not least because of everything that had happened since.
He had shafted so many people in his rise to the top that he only
really remembered the most outstanding examples. Suddenly, this
naïve anorak who studied the night sky and got his thrills from
pulsars, quasars, and supernovae, was his single most fearsome
opponent in the gladiatorial arena of winner takes all. He was
struggling to pinpoint how Julien would come at him. Flexibility
had to be the watchword until he had a handle on the parameters of
manoeuvre he could bargain with. This would not be possible unless
he could review all of the data supposedly retained on the flight
deck. This, even if Julien agreed to it, would take a number of
days or even weeks. How he could have done with his most faithful
ally, Alexei Bondarenko, on such a tricky firefight.

*

Julien arrived
at the police station and was met by Sophie and an officer who was
taking her statement.

“It’s ok, Dad,
there was a misunderstanding. Mum and Geraldine are in the next
room. Apparently, they were strolling along the cliff at the front
of Geraldine’s cottage at about nine o’clock this morning and they
heard a lot of clattering and banging which seemed to be coming
from the cottage. As they turned back to see what was going on,
they saw someone jump into a car which approached the building at a
hell of a speed. The man threw something into the back of the car,
got into the passenger seat and the driver sped off again. When Mum
and Geraldine got back to the cottage, they saw it had been trashed
and called the police. They were asked to come to the station to
report the incident, and the police sent a car for them. They’ve
been describing the man and the car, and also trying to think of
anything that could have been stolen. They lost track of the time
and forgot that I would be going around to the cottage at eleven.
They were asked to switch off their phones while they were giving
the statement. I got so angry with the officer on the phone when he
asked if the burglar was there, but the poor guy thought the
perpetrator must have come back when I was reporting the break-in
for a second time.”

“Well,
thankfully they are both ok, I was beginning to imagine all kinds
of things. So, has anything been taken?”

“They don’t
know for sure, but they checked the place while they were waiting
for the police to arrive and they couldn’t say that anything was
missing. It’s weird.”

“So, it’s just
damage to the property itself…that is strange, especially when the
guy who broke in had an accomplice ready to come and pick him up.
It sounds like they were looking for something specific. I think we
should help Geraldine to go over the place again, very thoroughly.
The burglars, if that’s what they were, must have either known the
place was going to be empty or they were just chancers, looking for
signs of easy pickings.”

“Yeah, maybe,
but if that was the case, Geraldine has lots of stuff which is
worth taking, but most of it was just left lying on the floor.”

They all left
the station together and drove back to check the cottage once more.
Just as the second search was about to be abandoned, Geraldine
muttered something to herself and then shrieked, “Oh my god, it’s
the other jewellery box that’s missing.”

“Which other
box?” said Elise, “you have more than one?”

“The one for
the keys. I’m sorry, Elise.”

“Sorry for
what? What was in there? Expensive family heirlooms or
something?”

“No, no,
nothing like that. It was my key box. It had all my keys for
everything in the cottage, but it also had the spare key for your
house. I should have kept it in my purse.”

They jumped
into the car and drove the quarter mile to the family house. There
were no signs of a break-in until Julien checked his safe. It had
been jemmied and there were documents missing.

I
van Kolorov was surprised but not deceived by the
warm welcome he was offered by Julien. He didn’t recognise the
third person in the office, Eugene. This was important, and Julien
was very happy about the perplexed expression on the Russian’s
face.

“Please, take a
seat, Ivan. I’ve asked for coffee to be brought before we begin
reminiscing. I take it that you have no objection to a double
espresso?”

“Certainly not.
Just what I need, lots of caffeine to keep me alert.”

Turning to
Eugene, he introduced himself. “Hello, Ivan Kolorov, I don’t think
we have met.”

“No, at least I
don’t recall having seen you in the flesh, but I couldn’t pretend
that I don’t know who you are.”

“Well, do not
believe everything you hear, uh… Mr…” Julien interjected.

“Mr
Christopher, Paul Christopher. He’s my right hand man for all
things information technology. You know how limited my capability
is in that department.”

“Aha, so you
are the man who advised my friend not to wipe the data from the
revered flight deck of Volker Brandt?”

“Yes, I guess
you could say that.” Conceded Eugene. Kolorov was first to get down
to business.

“Are you going
to enlarge on that decision, and then tell me what happens
next?”

“All in good
time, Ivan,” said Julien, “don’t be so anxious, the espresso is on
its way. Anyway, I want to wait for our other guest to make an
appearance. Don’t worry, we can’t let you leave today without all
of us knowing exactly where we stand.”

*

The process of
clearing up after the break-ins was not yet under way. The police
had insisted on taking away certain items to check for fingerprints
and DNA, and said it was still a crime scene. Sophie was overtly
unhappy with the law enforcement squad, berating them over their
apparent lack of urgency, especially as the two households were
denied a date when they would be allowed to get on with restoring
their respective properties to normality.

“These people
are just going through the motions of finding the bastards who did
this. They want us to believe they are actually doing something,
but all they are really after is covering their own arses.”