CHAPTER SEVEN
-A JAMES BOND GIRL MOMENT-
The beeping of the cell phone was becoming annoying; she was so comfortable that even stretching the arm to get “That damned phone” was disturbing in this glorious morning. She opened her eyes the best she could, and saw Mr. Sun peeking between the curtains, she made what it seemed a great effort to stand up …the trick? There was a Swiss chocolate with her name on it right on the desk “Now that was worth the walk to the peeping tom” when she opened the curtains, the view took her breath away. The telephone rang, her limo would be ready in ten minutes and forty-five minutes later, she boarded the vehicle.
The trip to the bank was short and in silence, she watched the narrow streets of Geneva, except for the boulevards that are wide and modern, the rest of the streets feel sometimes like your vehicle is not going to fit in, let alone a limousine. The architecture of the city is exquisite, a mix of old world and modern trends, but well balanced. Airy and spacious buildings populate the short blocks but parking is definitely a problem. The streets are as crowded as any other city in the world, with people rushing from site to site, yet there is calmness to it not found in the big cities in America.
She had almost forgotten how different the Swiss really were, although more clamed and collected, they rarely greet anybody or start a conversation.
She saw a couple of Latinos speaking loudly and having fun in the streets and she wished she could say the same thing for herself. Her mind was going crazy imagining all possible scenarios and expecting the worst! That way anything else would look better.
She had never visited a Swiss bank, and she was unsure of the protocols. “How in the hell am I going to pull this out? How come I did not have any questions when he ask me and now I have a million” She thought. “What if they ask me what am I doing here instead of Sven? …What if I get arrested? Hell! At least the mug shot would be good enough for the cover of vogue, either way I’ll be in the newspapers right!” She thought in an effort to make herself laugh.
There were hundreds of others ifs, ands, and buts, playing in her mind. Nevertheless, she calmed her nerves down and decided that she had what it took, to do what she was there to accomplish.
Her heart was pounding very hard when the limo driver told her they had arrived. "Here we go!" She looked around pretending she was admiring the block of buildings. The truth was that she could not pin point the office, she was expecting a big and flashy glass building, with a huge sign and blinking lights and instead she found a gorgeous gothic building in front of the Lavsanne Palace.
--O--------O--------O--
After a good night rest and a sleep in for a change, Greg woke up invigorated, taking care of his myriad of plants and flowers in the garden, and the pet park he build for them to play. Geeko had spent the night there, researching the internet to get some direction in how to continue. The last time Greg saw him awake was nearly five in the morning. Then at six am when he passed out, he actually picked him up like a child and took him to the guest room.
“Man!” Geeko said, coming to the garden stretching his arms and rubbing his eyes. “How did I make it to the guest room?” he said laughing.
“I picked you up! And you are heavy man!”
“Shit yeah! I am 180 lb of pure, sexy, grade A, geek meat my man!” Geeko said laughing.
“You funny! …and delusional too” Greg said jokingly.
“Hey chicks dig me! Even some dudes too”
“Yeah! …the blind ones!” he said and Geeko slapped him in the back. “You hungry?” Greg said.
“I am starving! But before that I want to show you something” he said rushing to the computer desk. “Last night I found this little web site, from a scientist in Dallas, I actually contacted him and told him a little of what we were doing” he said going through the bookmarks to find it “Hmmm man I have way to many bookmarks in here, I need to organize this shit!”
“Common! Let’s go eat, then you can show me that when we come back”
--O--------O--------O--
Back in Geneva, Hope pretended to admire the architecture. “Oh my god! What a beautiful place! But what is wrong with them? Did they really need it to make it ugly, with those little red umbrella things, hanging on the balconettes? Ugh! Please get rid of those things,” She thought.
She was thankful that the limo driver knew his way around; she would have never found the bank on her own. Her driver noticed, she stylishly stood still looking around and he rushed to the correct building to open the door for her, pretending he did not noticed she had no clue which way to go.
“Thank you!” she said and he nodded back.
“He just got himself a great tip, courtesy of Sven’s foundation for the money handicapped”
The building was beautiful to look at and better that she could have ever imagined, surrounded by high-end stores and other businesses alike. The only downer was the narrow street in front of such a majestic structure and the beauty did not end there in the outside. Inside was as beautiful, stunning even but modestly elegant.
The hall was without luxury or self-indulgence, other than two masterfully crafted pillars, painted in a rich shade of rust and some almost invisible splashes of gold; was all the adornment in the small foyer. The floors were beautifully framed by a black and white geometrical motive, commonly used in Native American textiles, but that was it …bold inconspicuous beauty.
She looked at the building roster and found the name of the bank. “Fourth floor … and I need to pee, dammit!”
She boarded the small -but comfortable elevator, next to a stoned faced Swiss woman that greeted her coldly.
The bank’s office was also austere and not as opulent as she would have expected it to be “Maybe all the flashiness is an American thing” she thought. The waiting room was limited to two elegant Victorian chairs a sofa and a center table.
The well-groomed and elegant huissiere quickly rushed to her and greeted her like if he knew her for years.
“Can I bother you with your identification madam?”
“Not at all!” she said grabbing her passport from her purse. He check it trough fully and handed it back to her, he moved slightly to the side and led her to the Vault.
“Are you enjoying your visit to our country?” he said
“I love Geneva, I have been here several times before and I can’t get enough of this city,” she said.
“We can be addictive! If we want to” he winked.
“Why is the volt open?” she said surprised.
“Oh no!” He snapped.
--O--------O--------O--
Back in California, they had come back to the office after breakfast. Geeko was beyond upset.
“It was here man!” Geeko said.
“Are you sure you did not misplaced it”
“No! This was his address; I saved it in the computers, yours and mine, so we could exchange notes!”
“Hmmm, do you remember the name of the scientist?”
“Baldwin, I don’t remember his last name though, I am pissed! He promised me he was going to leave the web page active for us to see what he found. He lives in Dallas, that’s all I remember”
“Dallas is a huge city! It will be hard to find him. And that information you found is extremely important!”
“You think?” he said mocking him.
“So you are sure that is what you read?”
“Yes I am sure!, he said he had the documents to prove, that the USA government, had build more than one hundred and forty shelters around the country, to safe guard their officials. He also mentioned that he had a copy, stolen from the department of defense, with the names of those civilians chosen randomly to survive with them”
“It makes sense, after destruction they will need workers, they can’t save only the elite, someone has to work for them in the reconstruction”
“The plan in a nutshell, is that two years before 2012 random people, professionals and civilians will disappear without any trace. They will be taken from work, schools or homes into these shelters”
“Did you hear back from him?”
“No, I e-mailed him last night and he answered back with this information I just gave you. He even told me that he was not in the list! All the e-mails after that came back with a fail delivery notice. Something is up Greg!”
“Give me the e mail address; I’ll see if I can get the address registered to it”
“There is no way to find that out! Companies do not provide you with that kind of information”
“They do when you have top secret clearance”
“You have top secret clearance?”
“Yes, I was a cryptologist for the department of defense”
“And you tell me now! After I got stoned with ya! Wait minute! Yeah we are kewl, cause we both were stoned
--O--------O--------O--
Back in Geneva:
“Shame on you” Hope said laughing, “You really scared me!”
“I am sorry madam, I was just kidding,” he said “The vault is always open during business hours”
“Ah I see,” she said surprised.
He asked kindly for her key and he used his and her keys simultaneously, to open the safe to retrieve the metallic box.
“That is it?” she asked, he exploded with laugher.
“I see this is the first time Madam has visited a real Swiss bank, I am sorry to disappoint you” he said laughing and apologetic.
“Well is just that…?”
“Let me guess!” he interrupted her respectfully “You were expecting a dark hallway full of giant bouncer looking guys guarding the vault, as if…” he paused. “Just like a New York nightclub! With maybe a high tech pad on the wall to put your hand and have a computer scanned it!”
Hope was laughing and nodding and he kept on making his story even greater, to make her laugh.
“…then, I have to act as if a million cameras are watching our every movement, double check my surroundings to make sure nobody else is watching, so I open a secret door for you to go in …ah! That is just the beginning of the fun, inside that secret chamber; I’ll show you the computerized pad and give you a riddle. A Greek riddle better that anything you ever heard of, something so hard to decode that even Plato himself, could not have thought off! …the beeping starts, beep beep, beep”
He said moving around like a martial arts master.
“Oh no! Your twenty seconds to answer have ended! Beeeeeeeeeeep, I look at you eyes wide open! And I have to run to safety, letting you blow yourself out in a billion pieces with the auto explosive mechanism of the safe! …then” he said comically “I better come out with a really good excuse! To explain the other patrons, how the whole bank blew out, with their belongings!”
Hope was laughing so hard she could barely talk, her eyes were watering and she needed it to go to the bathroom again. He laughed with her and then recovered his professional attitude.
“You know, you are in the wrong business! You should be a writer,” she said drying her tears with a soft pad.
“No! I could not come up with the kind of crap some writers come up with!” He looked around and his face looked utterly satisfied. “I am in the right business though, you know my great grand father started this company, he took care of his generation and now, I am taking care of their heirs” He pointed to the empty desk “What you see is pretty much it” he touched the blank sheets of paper, pens and pencils.
“I can get you some paper clips if you need them? Otherwise I will come back in twenty minutes or so!”
“No don’t worry, thanks for your help and for the laughs!” she said.
“You are welcome!” he said walking out the Vault, leaving her alone.
She retrieved the heavy box and put it on the desk “No keyholes or padlocks? …a plain metal box, how about that!” She thought. “And there goes my James Bond moment!” She laughed. Inspecting the content, she retrieved a few packs of foreign currency, about 50 gold bars with their appropriate certificates, the property deeds of a few estates in several countries and a shiny wood box with leather trim and a black velvet lining. She couldn't stop herself from opening the jewelry box, when she did her knees gave in.
“Oh my lord!” she said in admiration, holding the huge blue diamond ring, which astounded her.
“Oh my god he didn’t!”
She recognized the Jewel as the most expensive one ever sold in the Sotheby’s auction in Honk Kong back in 2007.
“So this is how 7.8 million dollars look in a diamond”
She slid it in her finger and moved her hand to see it sparkle. “I never thought I was gong to have it on my finger” The jewel bought by Moussaieff Jewelers of London had been in every magazine and newspaper that year. The second Hope’s eyes spotted the picture; she could not shake it off her mind, the image of that magnificent ring stay with here since. This prestigious house was and will always be famous for the acquisition of opulent collections, and opulence was Hope’s favorite word.
She took one last look at the ring and carefully put it back in the box. “I want it!” she thought. The only thing left was the infamous black envelope she was there to retrieve. But the diamond was tattooed in her mind, she had to make an effort to care for the documents and she opened the envelope completely unexcited.
--O--------O--------O--
Back in Los Angeles:
“I told you I was going to get it!” Greg said waving the sticky note with the scientist information.
“You have everything?”
“…Almost! I have the phone number and the address in their files. His last name is not there, nor do I know if this is his real name or address but we will find out now,” he said dialing the number. The telephone rang and rang and just when he was going to hang up a woman answered the phone”
“Where are you?” The voice on the phone was obviously agitated.
“Uh? …I need to talk to professor …Baldwin?” Greg said politely “What do you mean he was kidnapped?”
Geeko jumped off the sofa when he heard him say that.
“Ah! Why would you think that? When was the last time you saw him?’ The woman took all the time in the world, to share that information in hopes, he knew anything about her husband “He called you from his office at four in the morning and he never made it home?”
“Greg, Greg!” Geeko said trying to get his attention and he hushed him to continue with the phone call.
“…so he called you at that hour?” Greg said confused “Listen, please keep my phone number and keep me informed” Greg said and hung up the phone.
“Greg, I did talk to him as well,” Geeko said afflicted.
“Why didn’t you tell me that before?”
“I did not talk to him over the phone, but the messenger around that hour. I did not took him seriously but he said -don’t mention anything to anyone because I can get kill for this”
“Why did he post the information then?”
“He posted a message on a blog with a link to his web page. He was trying to get it off the blog, but I found it first. All the information was there already. I sent him the e-mail, telling him about the project and He e-mailed me back immediately. We talked over the msn and I saw him so freaked out; I told him how to alter the link to another web page instead… but he promised me, he was going to leave the web page up for us to read it, and make copies of what he had for the book”
“What time was this?”
“Close to four, he still was at his office”
“And he never made it home? … hmmm did he say anything else to you at all?”
“I have the written messages, if you want to see them and read them for yourself”
“Yeah, let me take a look at them”
--O--------O--------O--
Back at the Bank, Hope opened the black envelope and a thick stack of pictures came loose. She grabbed them and quickly looked at them “Coptic and Latin Hmmm!” She placed them back in the black envelope and put it inside her purse. She was re-accommodating everything back in the box by the time the huissiere was back.
“Was everything as you expected it madam?”
“Absolutely!”
“Very well then, may I…?”
“Yes! You can put the box back in the safe thanks!”
He carefully put the box back in the safe and used both of the keys simultaneously to close it.
“Would you stay in Geneva for a while?”
“No, I wish I could though, I will be leaving in two days”
“What a shame! Maybe the next time I see you, you might let me take you out for dinner perhaps?”
“Is that part of your services as well?” she said salacious.
“No! If my dad finds out that I crossed that line with a patron, he will kill me! But I’ll happily face his wrath for the opportunity to get to know you… Besides! We are not in the eighteen hundreds anymore”
“Perhaps next time I am around, I will let you take me out, I would love that”
“I look forward to, well… you have a great day and until next time then, please give my regards to Sven, I have not seen him in almost two years”
It took just a few minutes to reach the first floor and exit the building, her limo driver quickly got off the cabin to open the door for her and she was just getting in when a high pitch squeal, grabbed her attention.
--O--------O--------O--
Back in California, things were evolving surprisingly.
“Thanks for letting me know madam! I’ll see you shortly then” Greg said to the devastated voice on the phone.
“Are we really going or you just said that?” Geeko said.
“No, we are going! So get your bag pack with fresh clothes because we are living as soon as I get the tickets.
“Man I am scared!”
“No need to Geeko, death is a fact of life.
“Yes but he did not die he was murdered”
“They do not know the details yet, so until is proved otherwise his car just fell off the bridge.”
“Who falls from a bridge in a freeway man, get real!”
“No, no, the George W. bush freeway in Dallas, has a history of similar incidents, so this is not so surprising for the folks down there”
“My bad then”
“So why are we going don there for?”
“His wife and I are going to go trough his documents and see if we can find anything that could be potentially dangerous and get rid of it, she thinks the same thing you do and she is scared for her kids”
“I would be too! …Shit, I am already shitting a brick and I did not even knew the guy”
“Why are you so afraid?”
“Is a minority thing Greg, for people like me with a green card. When you are not an American citizen yet, immigration can change their mind if they wish to; at the first mistake, we make and send us home. Until I become an American citizen, I am just a “dry clean only” Peruvian wet back,” he said laughing.
--O--------O--------O--
In Geneva, things were a little less dramatic and a lot shallower, or so it looked like. The squeal that surprised Hope coming off the bank came from a beautiful bombshell whose doomed day had arrived prematurely.
“…My purse! I can’t find my purse!” She screamed looking around for someone to help her.
The blond damsel in distress, was impeccably dressed and in obvious need of assistance. Hope and her driver looked at each other, wondering.
“What is wrong with her?” she asked him
“She have misplaced her purse madam”
“Oh no! Please ask her if we can be of any help?”
Her Conducteour obediently translated for her in the Bavarian dialect.
“I have my passport, credit cards, identifications, everything is there!” she said in despair in English.
“Have you checked already the stores were you have been?”
“Not yet!” She looked in her bag and after a few seconds, she just gave into tears. “My cell phone is in my purse as well!”
Untypical of Hope, she offered her a hug that the woman accepted eagerly.
“Listen! We will drive you back to the places you have been shopping until we will find your purse, just calm down ok?”
“Thank you!” she said jumping in the limo with her.
The blond goddess told the driver where to go and He drove her to the first four places with no luck. The limo stopped in front of a luxurious high-end store and she rushed her steps in, looking hopeless. A few minutes later, a smiling and flirtatious blond diva, emerged waving Prada on the air.
“Thank you so much!” she said hugging Hope for the second time. “My name is Yovanka, please let me take you out for diner tonight, to make it up for you!” she said in a friendly mode. “Ah! No, need really! It was my pleasure to help you”
“Please, please! Let me take you out for diner!”
Hope knew that when woman get caught in the ‘kindness’ game, they could spend the next three hours of their life’s, going back and forth, until one of them gives in and Yovanka looked like the kind that was not going to give up any time soon.
“Ok! Dinner it is!” she said smiling.
“Great! Meet me at ‘La perle’ at 20:00 hours! Do you know where that is?”
“I have no clue, but I am sure my driver does!”
“Is the one in front of the Geneva Lake” she said to her driver and walked away into her hotel.
Hope looked at her Cartier watch and quickly grabbed her cell phone to make a phone call.
“…Adriano, I am so sorry to be this late, I had a little social accident but I am in my way there!”
If there is one thing the Swiss are famous for, other than their cheese and chocolate are their watches. And is not an stereotype, but a hint of the importance punctuality occupies in their every day life’s, arriving less than fifteen minutes earlier, is considered a social insult and a disrespect for their time. Hope was not surprised that their table was given to another couple; after all, she was twenty minutes later than expected. To her surprised, Adriano received a phone call from work that storms him out leaving her alone.