told her that my computer suffered an attempted hacking. They accessed some files and, although thankfully they didn’t access those I had embedded with additional security, they still have more than enough information about Alexa’s involvement in the experiment than I would like. I get the sense that they have an idea of where we are going with the formula. I have no doubts now that they want what we have got. Thank god I didn’t send her the detailed documents. If she knew everything it would make things so much worse for her. I just didn’t realise they would take things to this extreme and abduct her. Christ! Who would do this, who would take this risk? What a fucking mess. If they lay a finger on her, I swear … Stop! Stop these morbid thoughts, Quinn, and do something rather than standing here swearing and getting lost in your worst-case scenarios. Actions are more important than words. Just fix it!
All these thoughts shoot through my head in the space of a second. I notice Sam beside me staring, mouth open, towards where the car disappeared with Alexa — the one woman in the world I have finally admitted I love more than life itself — leaving us standing in its wake. Fuck, this is so bad! I grab my phone from inside my jacket and dial our driver to let him know where we are. He finally pulls in, after circling the perimeter of Heathrow while we waited for Alexa. As we quickly settle into the car my brain finally kicks into action mode rather than shock.
‘Sarah, get me Leo on the phone, now. It’s an emergency.’ I wait impatiently as my assistant connects me. I end up reaching Moira in New York, his ‘be all and end all’ personal assistant who knows almost every facet of Leo’s life. We have liaised often during the past decade since Leo is never in one spot for too long.
‘Moira, it’s Jeremy. Is Leo there? Where is he? Jesus fucking Christ. The Amazon?’ She tells me that he is deep within the northern region of the Amazon basin living with the Wai Wai people, studying soul flight with the village shaman, and he can’t be contacted for at least three weeks. Bloody hell. That’s Leo for you. ‘We have a massive problem. Alexa has been abducted. Yes, now … right now … right in front of my eyes. Yes, I’m with Sam, he saw it too. Two men, obviously posing as chauffeurs. They just shoved her in when they saw us running towards her … No, I didn’t recognise them.’ I raise my eyebrows towards Sam. He shakes his head. ‘No, he doesn’t either. Yeah, we lost them. Shit. They could be anywhere now.’
Moira shifts immediately into gear, just as Leo would. She’s already been intimately involved in trying to find out who hacked into our computers and the attempted blackmail, so she’s across all the details. Leo also organised for her to secretly compile personal dossiers on each of the Global Research Forum members, just in case the leaks and threats were coming from one of our own people; anger pumped through my veins at the thought, but I couldn’t deny he had a point. I haven’t mentioned it to Sam or any of the others. Moira has the ability to access resources to handle emergencies on behalf of Leo, though we never imagined anything like this. She’s calm and efficient, but my panic makes me feel like shouting given the seriousness of this situation. I take a deep breath before responding in an attempt to control my rising fear.
‘Okay … and Martin’s available?’ Martin Smythe looks after Leo’s security issues. He’s ex-CIA, quick-thinking and highly capable and it’s a huge relief he’ll be involved. Leo had organised for him to be at Avalon just in case anything unforeseen occurred. ‘That’s great, he can organise the team and can you make sure they have a contact in Scotland Yard? We’ll need to monitor London’s security system.’ God, in this city, we’ll never find her with so many millions of people swarming around. No, can’t think like that. My hands begin to shake. Control it, Quinn, I admonish myself as Moira asks what else I need.
‘Can you send through the latest information you have on the hackers and we’ll also need anything you have on what drugs the top five pharmaceuticals are taking to market in the next five years, as soon as you get it together. And get some people working on the next five companies, just in case. We need to work out who is this fucking desperate — there must be a link somewhere that we’ve been missing! Okay, yeah, will do … and thanks Moira, I really appreciate it. I’m desperate to get her back.’
I press ‘end’ and realise my hands are now trembling. I shove the phone back in my pocket and rub both hands through my hair in sheer exasperation at this diabolical situation. I turn to Sam who is still speechless which, given my internal fury and dread, is probably a good thing.
As we silently make our way to Covent Garden, I absently stare out the window and thank god for Leo and I connecting when he had his accident all those years ago — my life changed for the better as soon as I met him and, ultimately, he was able to orchestrate my scholarship at Harvard and essentially my future career path from that point forward.
Leroy Edward Orwell — the philanthropist who has sponsored my work at every level for more than a decade. He has been the financial backbone of every breakthrough and discovery I’ve been involved in. He comes from a family with a long history of inconceivable wealth, providing him with incredible access to global contacts and resources. We first met when I was in the Royal Flying Doctor Service and was on call. He was abseiling near Kings Canyon in the Northern Territory and had a bad fall when he was rappelling off the rock face and one of his anchors didn’t hold. He ended up breaking his leg and had to be airlifted out. We bonded during his recovery time and learnt much about each other’s ambitions and motivations. Even though he is ten years older than me, the nurses used to joke that we could be brothers, although I’ve always thought he was more of a Rob Lowe type. Either way, aging has been kind to him and he keeps himself incredibly toned and fit. There has always been a healthy competition between us in relation to the state of our bodies, and we keep each other in check. We certainly don’t want to risk letting ourselves flab into middle age.
Leo’s passion is anthropology, more specifically biomedical anthropology — his nirvana is the holistic integration of Western ‘science and medicine’ with Eastern ‘philosophies and spirituality’. He’s a big thinker and has studied extensively. He has an extraordinary mind; I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t in awe of his brain. Global phenomena intrigue him and my work is just one piece of the myriad projects he’s indirectly involved in. His seemingly extrasensory perception has certainly worked in his favour when it comes to ensuring his continued financial success, having managed to quadruple his already substantial wealth over recent years. His only requirement of me is to maintain his anonymity in public. I don’t have the opportunity to see him in person much, but it’s great when we do get together. He enjoys his private, more reclusive lifestyle and I respect that in him, but we have a lot in common and his conversation is always enlivening.
Leo was intrigued with my theories and suppositions regarding blood types and depression and even flew out to Sydney and attended Alexa’s lecture with me, highly irregular behaviour for him. To this day I’m not sure whether it was for the project or whether he sensed that my meeting up with Alex was potentially something far more significant. He really is one of those people who seem to have a sixth sense about things, and I suppose he was spot on. Alexa always called him Charlie — as in Charlie’s Angels — as she has never met him, only heard about him.
Actually, he was posing as the maître d’ and served martinis to me and Alex at the InterContinental during our weekend together. Obviously she didn’t see him as she was wearing the blindfold and he didn’t want to be introduced. He was a little shocked when he had to cuff her at my request. Afterwards I had to explain to him that she did her first thesis on the instinct and suppression of sexual behaviour, and why I believed this was an important part of our journey together should she resist and not acknowledge her true feelings.
This was also coincidently just after I received an anonymous letter at the hotel threatening me in relation to her pulling out of the experiment. I couldn’t tell if it was a hoax or not and had no time to explore it further during the scope of the weekend, which admittedly put me a little on edge myself. I knew I couldn’t risk her walking away from me for many reasons, let alone
