A few minutes later Sarah returned with Joseph. He was a very large man. Tall and broad shouldered. A lot bigger in person than he had seemed in the hologram. He walked to us as we struggled out of the sofa, a slight limp was visible in his step. He shook our hands.
‘Thank you for coming’ he said. ‘How was your trip?’
‘Uneventful’ we both said almost in unison. That brought a chuckle from Sarah.
Panat continued. ‘It all went reasonably well. It was smooth sailing all the way here once we were out of Bharat. The passport worked wonders.’ Joseph nodded.
‘Please follow me’ the tall man continued as he turned to the doorway. We followed him back into the long hallway. At the end of the hallway he opened a door that led into the kitchen. Another door there led to the cellar. We descended the stairs down into the bowels of the structure, into a very large room. It seemed to stretch the length of the building. Most of the floor was cluttered with different kinds of furniture, bags of clothes, and even some farm utensils, most of which had a thick layer of dust on them. This was the storage, and had been for ages by the looks of it.
We came up to a massive oak cupboard. Joseph did something and the enormous piece of furniture swivelled smoothly to the side and revealed yet another door. This one was modern. An iris scanner was set to the right side of the door and Joseph placed his right eye in front of it. There was a soft swishing sound and the door opened.
We stepped through into a stark white corridor. From there we went further underground into a suite of rooms that strongly resembled those of the council in Tibet.
There could not have been a stronger contrast with the house above. This was once again, all state-of-the-art technology. I estimated that we were more than fifty meters from the house. The extent of this subterranean complex was unclear, but judging by the large number of people we had seen in the first chamber, and taking into account that they and any others had to be housed underground because the buildings above were not sufficient—it had to be immense.
Joseph led us to an office off the main chamber, There, we were introduced to the three people who were there waiting for us. Jan was middle aged, small of stature but with a very big smile. Hetty, I estimated was in her late seventies, and Hans was the exact opposite, maybe early twenties. He was the resident geek, complete with thick glasses and a reluctance to make eye contact.
We shook hands all around and took our seats. Someone brought coffee and Dutch biscuits. Funny waffle-like things with syrup in between. They were good though. The inflight meals hadn’t been fantastic, and besides, that was a long time ago. I was hungry.
‘Please bring us something more substantial.’ Joseph asked the man who brought the coffee. He was definitely observant. ‘You must be famished.’
‘Was it that obvious?’ I asked.
‘Well you did wolf down the cookies.’ Panat laughed.
‘Yeah, but they are good.’
We didn’t wait for the food. The meeting started.
Joseph gave Hans the floor for an update on the current situation.
‘Azazel has been busy’ he started. ‘There have been reports of emergency admissions to several London hospitals due to the effects of Shiva. Until now they only concern the people who have used the drug itself. No collateral damage. The patients were released the same day—so no long-term hospitalisation. It looks as though the drug has been diluted so that the impact is not fatal. But it is still disturbing.’ The photos he showed us on the screen augmented his report. We could see ambulances bringing the patients to the hospital and later shots of a famous actress leaving through the back exit, trying in vain to cover her face from the paparazzi.
What about Azazel himself?’ I let Panat do the talking for now. ‘How close are we to him?’
‘We’re not.’ Joseph was very clear. ‘He sniffs out anyone from our clan. He has a sixth sense for that. Anyone who gets near is killed. We find them in pieces, or they just disappear.’
‘The information we have comes mainly from the internet and surveillance cameras that we hack.’ Hetty added.
‘And some long-distance observations.’ Joseph completed the picture.
‘Azazel is still in his penthouse in London.’ Hans continued. Once he overcame his nervousness, Hans was a fountain of information, clear and precise. He was in his element. ‘He’s been there for the past three days. Before that he was at his estate in Wales. The last weeks he has commuted between the two residences all the time. His parties are mainly in London, though he has announced that the next one will be in Wales.’
‘When is that?’
‘Next week Thursday.’ Six days from now.
‘Does he have extensive security?’ I asked.
‘No, he doesn’t need it, he has some acolytes but because he can read people’s minds he has the advantage over any would-be assailants. Besides he’s immortal.’ This was getting more problematic with every added piece of information.
‘So how do we get close?’ it seemed like an impossible undertaking.
‘He can’t read your mind.’
‘No, but Kahdi said that he would instinctively feel my presence.’
That silenced everyone. We would have to think of a solution, and quickly. But first there was another thing on my mind.
It would have to wait though. The food was brought in. It smelled great. Some kind of oven-dish. Lots of beef and vegetables. It was fantastic. We ate ravenously. Me, most of all.
After we were finished we continued the meeting.
‘Do we know more about the Shiva?’ I asked.
’Not really in detail, no. We know that the container came into the Port of Rotterdam on the twenty-seventh of last month. There it was unloaded and transported out of the dock on a truck. The truck crossed the border into Belgium and then we lost all contact. There are no documented reports of where it went from there. We think he either brought the whole thing to England—though that’s doubtful because of all the safety measures that the UK has in place—or he has it stashed somewhere in Belgium or France and sends small consignments to the UK by private boat or plane, bypassing the customs.’
‘The second option sounds most likely.’ Panat and I agreed.
‘So how do we proceed from here?’ the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question. It was quiet. No one said a word. We seemed to be in an impasse.
‘Can we get to him through one of his acolytes?’ I asked.
Joseph and Hans looked at each other, Hans shrugged. It was Joseph who answered. ‘We don’t actually know. Maybe we could look into their backgrounds a bit more.’
‘Do we have names for them?’
‘We do for twelve of them, five are women and the rest are men. There also seems to be one very secretive person. Always in the shadows. We don’t really know who that is. The only hint we have is that it’s probably a woman.’
‘Ok, we can see what kind of information we can gather about them and get back to you.’ Joseph was luckily very to the point.
The fatigue was showing on Panat’s face. To tell the truth, I was quite tired myself. Not only had we been travelling for three days straight, but we had gone from the top of the world to one of the lowest countries. There was quite an altitude difference. And that gave the weariness an extra edge.
‘You should rest now.’ Hetty offered. ‘We will see what we can find out, and maybe tomorrow we will be able to determine the next step.’
We were taken to two small bedrooms where our meagre belongings had been deposited. I dropped on to the bed and fell into a deep slumber almost instantly. Sleep had been very minimal during the past few days. When we had been able to rest it had been for very short periods and in not so comfortable circumstances. A real bed was extremely welcome.