Sascha smiles at him but, like Ikaros, feels slightly disquieted by such hopeful words, but then decides to allow herself to be comforted by the naïve determination evident in his eyes. Her thoughts return to her imminent graduation and her thesis, which now only needs finishing touches after spending all of her spare time on it while in Abuja, much to the displeasure of her supervisor, who insisted for the first few weeks that she return immediately but eventually acquiesced when pleaded with so intently and persistently by her; he has since been helpful and even assisted in negotiating the terms of her absence with the departmental committee.
Ikaros takes a sip of beer as he looks out at the curvature of Earth and thinks about what needs to be done on returning to Germany if his now-almost-completed book has any hope of gaining a decent-sized readership.
Chapter 15
Hong Kong: nearly two years later
Feeling curiously relieved, Ikaros sits in the back of a taxi as it weaves through the densely packed buildings towards his hotel, the air-conditioning keeping him protected from the rising humidity of the day. Having just arrived forty minutes earlier direct from LAX, Ikaros mulls over his conversation with Henry 38 and nods in agreement with himself that this really is where things are likely to get moving in a direction he can do something with.
• • •
Once settled, the first thing he did was to find an assistant who could help him negotiate with the local real estate companies. He posted notices in some shops located in a few local districts not far from his relatively cheap hotel and asked a few people he ran into whether they knew anyone who could help him out for a few weeks.
After three days, he'd received seventeen enquires by phone. By the next morning he decided on an applicant named Yanyan, who, just a bit younger than himself, was high school educated, living in a small apartment with three friends, in between jobs, and reluctant to return formally to the workforce after having had a series of terrible bosses intent on paying her and her colleagues too little and working them much harder than they should have been expected and required to; being in increasing need of finding some rent money, she was happy to take such a seemingly easy job that could tie her over for what she expected would just be a few weeks before she really had to make up her mind about what to do next with her heading-nowhere life.
Late one Tuesday afternoon, two days after Yanyan started work, Ikaros signed papers with an estate agent who was to help him firstly to find a decent apartment and then appropriate office space. Even with only a few requirements in mind, finding an apartment was quite difficult in itself as they were in such high demand; Yanyan had been dismayed for some time by the rapidly rising rental prices and the poor quality apartments that would have been a fraction of the cost only a few years earlier yet were still considered expensive then.
Acquiring an apartment was nothing compared to locating appropriate office space, which was only exacerbated by Ikaros's stringent criteria, which he refused to budge on. After a frustrating two-month search, the agent, who was just about ready to hand the job to someone else out of frustration, finally found a building that was about to be put on the market and that also had four tenants on the top floor, all with leases due to expire over the following few months. Situated overlooking Victoria Harbour with its sixty-three stories providing it with a competitive presence among its many imperious neighbours, Ikaros was eager to take a look at it.
• • •
Late afternoon
From the other side of the harbour, Ikaros and Yanyan stand looking across at the building under consideration. She glances at him, desperately hoping he will like this one as she's kind of getting sick of continually searching with no result; she's also quietly confident that this is the best one so far and appreciates that perhaps he was right to have passed up on all the others. "What about this one?" she asks hopefully, trying to be encouraging, but not too much so.
"Do you like it?" deflects Ikaros quietly and impenetrably.
Yanyan nods enthusiastically. "I think this one's definitely the best we've seen." She listens to Ikaros's silence and worries that she's trying too hard.
Ikaros thinks about it for a moment. "Yeah, okay. Let's sign the papers, then." He glances at Yanyan, grins and adds, "I'm sick of looking, too."
"Oh, good!" she blurts out, betraying her sense of relief caused by the mounting frustrations of it all. She giggles with slight embarrassment at this, then quickly moves on to start chatting about other things as they walk towards the subway to catch a train back to the agent's office.
Ten weeks later: 8 a.m.
On the top floor the building, Ikaros stands alone in one of the four deserted open-plan office spaces quietly watching all the ships, tugs and small boats sailing up and down the harbour far below; he makes a game of spotting the occasional old-fashioned junk among them.
The lift door suddenly opens and Yanyan exits swiftly and walks up to stand by his side. "You happy now?" she asks, having witnessed the uneventful waiting period and Ikaros's quiet, brooding impatience.
"I will be when the sign's up."
"They should be done by lunchtime, I expect." She heads for the laptop sitting on the sole desk on the entire level. "The plane will arrive in just over an hour. We should probably get going now."
"Yeah, sure."
After Yanyan shuts the lid of the computer to put it into hibernation, they proceed to leave the building and catch a taxi to the airport to meet Sascha and Samuel, who have been living in Berlin since they returned from Africa and haven't seen Ikaros since he set off on his book tour just over sixteen months earlier.
Mid-afternoon
Standing by the same window in the 'office,' Ikaros and Sascha look out at the view while Samuel, now eight years old, presses his forehead up against the window, intrigued by the distance to the ground as he's never been anywhere near so high up in a building before. Ikaros notices his intensity and smiles. "What do you reckon?"
Without looking away, he replies quickly, "Will the water ever come up this high?"
Sascha giggles at the thought. "No, baby … it definitely won't."
"Then, I like it." He considers their situation for a moment, then suggests, "Maybe we should live up here just in case, though."
Ikaros follows Samuel's gaze down to the retaining wall that stops the now-over-six-meter rise in water levels from flooding the city's streets. "Don't worry. These retainers are the best in the world. That's why we're here. Anyway, our apartment's up the hill a bit behind us, which is probably like being on the eighteenth floor or something," he says while rubbing Samuel's back comfortingly.
• • •
Just above them, firmly attached to the roof, was the newly erected sign, which didn't get much attention while it was going up but, once the job was done, started gaining quite a bit from those, mainly tourists, on the other side of the harbour looking across at the late-afternoon view. Disgusted and a bit perplexed by the aberrant corporate logo, many of the observers attempted to ignore the anomaly and continue on with their touristy experience.
As dusk approached, and the night sky became ever darker, the lights of the company logos on all the buildings lining the harbour lit up and competed for dominance and attention, punctuating the darkness and standing in stark contrast to the tens of thousands of soft lights emanating from office and apartment windows; in contrast to this was one sign that would have disappeared until morning if it weren't for the lights of the buildings behind it being blocked from view and providing a rough outline of a dark space and an even more unsettling presence throughout the evening.
Before sunset, several news teams started arriving and aimed their cameras across the harbour at the new arrival on the scene; by early morning, not only the Hong Kong newspapers and broadcasters but also many from all over the world had reported on, and raised questions about, the ominously large, black circle hanging above four audaciously conspicuous and carefully selected words — The Global Domination
Corporation — words that immediately seemed to lay claim to more than just their small and curious spot in the cityscape and the typical corporate competition found overlooking the harbour.
Chapter 16
7:15 a.m.
Ikaros and Sascha start to get out of a taxi just in front of their office building. Already waiting for them is a local reporter and her cameraman hoping to get the first interview with those responsible; she ambushes them as they step onto the pavement and asks, "Are you the owners of the Global Domination Corporation?" Without really giving them time to answer and realising that they probably are, she continues, "I'd just like to ask a few questions. Firstly, why did you …"
Since they decided to arrive early to avoid what will likely be there later on, they're slightly taken aback by her eagerness and are unprepared and unwilling to say anything, so they just ignore her barrage of questions and walk causally to the doorway of the building without saying a word. After Ikaros and Sascha pass through the entrance, the two guards forcibly prevent the reporter and the cameraman from following, escorting them towards the pavement and ordering them aggressively and presumptuously to move on.
Waiting by the lifts, Ikaros turns and looks out at the reporter dealing wilfully with the two guards. "We need to get more security."
"We may have to move in here after all," responds Sascha dryly as the lift doors open and they start to enter.
• • •
By mid-morning, gathered outside the entrance to the building was a crowd of reporters, cameramen, photographers, and several groups of speedily mobilised protestors who were all in search of a statement from the so-called Global Domination Corporation; by noon, the crowd had swelled to over eight hundred with many chanting their demands and waving their makeshift banners containing a range of slogans that demonstrated the extent of their indignation and disapproval.
During the crowd surge, a small force of thirty guards arrived after Ikaros asked Yanyan — who was out exploring with Samuel for the day — to contact their contracted security firm for reinforcements; this unfortunately proved to be wholly inadequate. Although Ikaros was hoping for such a result from his actions, the emerging circumstances were considered a hindrance and embarrassment by those in the other companies occupying space in the building. As a result, the police were soon called in by one of the CEOs to break up the crowd and return order. For more than twenty years in Hong Kong, authorities had not tolerated public gatherings of any kind — least of all protests and violence; it was therefore to be expected that on arriving at the scene and jumping out the back of four large personnel carriers, the riot squad, wearing protective clothing, carrying shields and wielding electric-shock batons, would immediately begin using brutal force on all those who happened to be in range.
Having been notified of their arrival, Ikaros peered through the windows and through the row of guards protecting the entrance on the outside, but he was only able to catch glimpses of the ensuing chaos and violence as protestors and the media alike quickly attempted to flee the scene; this was particularly difficult due to the fact that the riot squad was coming from both directions along the street, effectively closing it off and forcing the crowd to make its escape by passing through the violent phalanx without being electrocuted, kicked and beaten, and eventually dragged roughly to one of the six people movers present and thrown in. Nevertheless, due to their large numbers, many did make it through, which enticed certain members of the riot squad to chase some of these terrified people down side streets and into neighbouring buildings, determined to electrocute, beat and cuff at least one each.
Just three minutes after the riot squad had arrived, nearly sixty people were lying cuffed and face down on the street, two loaded people movers were driving off, the four that remained were being rapidly filled, and some squad members were dragging their catches back to the scene or placing them in one of the many patrol cars then circling the nearby blocks. When circumstances permitted, thirty police proceeded to take up a defensive formation around the entrance to the building while another sixty reinforcements began patrolling the nearby streets on foot in order to keep the area secure for the rest of the day.
Quietly watching the scene come to its inevitable conclusion, Ikaros only allowed himself to refocus his attention to his own situation once the lift doors were closed and he was heading back up to the top floor.
• • •
8:30 a.m.
Sitting in a small restaurant eating wanton soup, Sascha and Ikaros consider their predicament and the possible consequences.
"Do you think I should give an interview?" asks Ikaros as he looks around at the patrons, most being locals simply enjoying their breakfasts.
"All I think is that you should do what is likely to be most effective, whatever we define 'most effective' as being. I think we have some idea about what that is," she replies just before taking another sip of the soup, after which she adds, "You should do it while everything is still hot, though."
"Yeah, I don't know how long we can get away with it for, anyway. The whole thing might get shut down at any time. But then again, we've just started."
"You planning on staying here long?"
"Not really. Not much longer, anyway." Ikaros takes another bite of a wanton while trying to make a list of future contingencies; before getting far, he suddenly feels it's pointless and quits. "Okay, screw it! I should do one today. See what happens."
Sascha smiles, then mocks him, "Good, nice to see your strategy skills at work!"
Laughing softly with her, he moves on, "Want a coffee?"
"Of course. Not here, though."
They take a few more minutes to finish their bowls in silence and then exit the restaurant to discover another small place they can acquire their first and much-needed strong coffee of the day.
Thirty-five minutes later
Upon arriving at their building, Ikaros stands in front of the entrance and scans up and down the street, across which, leaning up against a pillar of a more modest-sized building and looking directly at him, is the same reporter from yesterday morning. Ikaros spots her; recognising her instantly, he considers his options while staring at her inscrutably for a moment.
Already inside the foyer, Sascha doesn't notice what's happening until she turns and observes him crossing the street, dodging traffic in his stride. She stands and watches their interaction with curiosity from just behind the glass of the main doorway: Ikaros and the reporter visibly exchange just a few words before they both start looking for a gap in the traffic to allow them to slip cross the street together.
Twenty minutes later
Standing on the top floor, Sascha, Ikaros and the reporter talk casually until the lift door opens and a cameraman exits and walks towards them. They turn to greet him and introduce themselves, and then wait patiently while he takes a few minutes to get organised. Ikaros and the reporter grab the only two chairs in sight and sit on them near a window overlooking the harbour.
When the cameraman is ready, the reporter changes her tone and starts off by saying, "Could you tell me what the primary business of the Global Domination Corporation is, please?"
"Well, that hasn't been disclosed yet beyond what's stated on the public record, which is that …"
"Its primary activities involve 'the dissemination of social change techniques.' Is that right?"
"Essentially. That's certainly what's stated on the public record. But I don't think it's the right time to provide any detail about that just now," replies Ikaros evasively.
"Why not?"
"It's just not. And it's not up for discussion."
"Given the name of the company and its stated activities, it doesn't sound very good, does it? In fact, it sounds quite threatening. And then there's the disturbing corporate logo. Do you think it's wise to cause such negative interest in a company right from the start? What kind of marketing strategy is that … I mean, being so provocative?"
"Well, yeah. All I can say at t
his point is that I have my reasons."
"Do you think that people should be alarmed by a company whose message clearly expresses a desire to 'take over the world'?"
"Ah, look, I'm not going to answer that question directly. What's more to the point is the fact that people have a hell of a lot more important problems they have to deal with on a daily basis than to waste time being concerned about anything that a newly established corporation could possibly hope to achieve some day down the track. There're so many current and imminent massive threats bearing down on all of us, most people are probably more interested in and concerned about these, or at least they should be if they have a clue about what's going on and care."
Slightly taken aback by his fast delivery and message, the reporter continues her previous line of questioning. "Do you think that the government of China sh—"
"It's a regime, it's not a government! It's always been a regime," he interdicts sharply, starting to feel angered by her style.
"Well, that's not a fact. But, anyway … do you think 'they' and any government in a similar situation should allow a company to have such a name while much of their 'business activities' remain a secret?"
"That's not for me to answer. I provided all the information I had to; the rest is obviously up to me. Anyway, governments and regimes alike will try and do what they think best serves their political interests at the time in the particular conditions that they find themselves in … not to mention the laws they're apparently bound by, or at least have to consider. The motivations of governments and regimes and what they allow and don't allow are many, and I'm not about to sit here and philosophise about what they should and shouldn't do about this case in particular. All we can do is respond to actions and events and hope that that will be enough, but most of the time it won't be. We should only occasionally allow ourselves to expect that it will be."
NEW WORLD TRILOGY (Trilogy Title) Page 14
