Son of Heaven (17 page)

Yes. That was it.

And afterwards? Did he ask her then? Or did he take her to bed? Show her how much he wanted her, then ask her, in the afterglow.

Jake let out a long breath. This was the start of it. The permit meant they could get married and have children. Without it the whole thing was a non-starter. Any child they’d have had
would have been outside the protection of the legal process, would have been ‘unprotected’, and whether you agreed with that or not – and there were many, Hugo included, who
didn’t – it was how things were.

Yes, the permit was the key. It opened doors.

‘Hey…’ Hugo said as he stepped from the lift, handing Kate the flowers and Jake the wine, ‘something’s up, I can sense it.’

Kate looked to Jake.

‘Not yet,’ he said. ‘Wait till the others are here.’

Hugo let Jake take his coat. As he turned back he saw that Jake was smiling.

‘What?’

‘I saw you earlier, on the news…’

‘Oh, the campaign… you don’t approve…’

‘Someone’s got to help the UPs. But I was more interested in the piece. You didn’t tell me you’d written something new.’

Hugo shrugged, as if it was nothing. It wasn’t that he was modest, he just kept things to himself. It had always been this way, since their schooldays. You always had to drag out of him
what he was up to.

‘Where’s Chris?’ Kate asked, as they went back inside the apartment. ‘I thought he was coming with you.’

‘He’ll be along. Something cropped up, last minute. You know how it is…’

Chris was Hugo’s partner. He was ten years older than Hugo and ten or twenty million Euros richer, but you wouldn’t have known it.

As the door irised shut, Hugo made an exaggerated gesture of sniffing the air.

‘God, that smells wonderful! You got a new chef, Jake?’

‘I thought I’d try Bellini’s… I was there today.’

‘At Bellini’s?’

‘Yes… making a new immersion for the firm.’

Hugo looked impressed.

‘Remember that piece you helped me write… you know… about being inside the datscape?’

‘Sure.’

‘That’s what we used. The director, Carl, loved it. So much so, in fact, that he gave me his chip to hand to you. Says he’d like to work with you sometime.’

Jake handed him the chip. He’d not had time to look at it himself.

Hugo stared at it a moment, then slipped it away in his pocket. ‘Serendipitous,’ he said. ‘I was about to look for a director… for the new piece.’

‘Well, Carl strikes me as a good man. He’s keen, intelligent…’

‘Gay?’

Jake laughed. ‘No… at least, I wouldn’t have said so.’

Kate reappeared at that moment with drinks. She had put on an ice-blue, full-length dress for the evening, and had tied her hair back in a bun, giving her a classical, almost Grecian
appearance.

‘You look stunning,’ Hugo said, accepting his glass with a nod. ‘Not only that, but you look like a girl with a secret…’

‘All in good time,’ Jake said. But Kate was blushing now.

‘I won’t spoil things,’ Hugo said, as if he already knew.

Trish’s voice rang out. ‘Your other guests are here, Mister Reed. They’ll be touching down in approximately one minute.’

Jake looked to Hugo and smiled. ‘Trust Jenny to make an entrance…’

They went out onto the roof to watch the hopper set down. It wasn’t a ‘taxi’ or a company hopper, but one of the big military versions, similar to those Jake had seen on the
news item, the craft bristling with heavy armour.

As Jenny and her partner, Alex, stepped down from inside, two uniformed guards saluted Alex, then stood back as the door hissed closed and the craft lifted, merging into the darkness.

They came across. Jenny was giggling now.

‘Sorry about that,’ Alex said. ‘Just thought I’d cadge a lift.’

Alex was Security. ‘Plain clothes’, as he liked to call it. But Jake knew he was special forces. Jenny had told him when they’d first started going out together, three years
back.

Back inside, Kate brought more drinks, then looked to Jake. ‘Have we
got
to wait for Chris?’

‘Oh, no, don’t…’ Hugo said. ‘You know what he’s like… it could be
ages
before he gets here. Just tell us…’

‘Tell us what?’ Jenny asked, intrigued. She was wearing red, but otherwise, she and Kate could have been twins.

Jake looked to Kate. ‘You want to tell them, or shall I?’

She blushed and looked down. ‘You do it…’

‘Okay… but before we do, I think something special’s called for… a bottle of the eighty-one, possibly. No… let’s go mad… two bottles!’

There was laughter.

Jake went out to the kitchen, returning a moment later with a tray of glasses. He had obviously prepared for this moment.

As they took their new glasses, Jake looked across at Kate and winked.

When he’d told her earlier she had gone very quiet. At first he thought that maybe she had a problem with it. Then he realized what it was. She was crying. Crying with happiness.

They had made love, gently, tenderly, like it was the first time. They couldn’t conceive, of course – Kate would have to go to the clinic to have the implant removed – yet it
felt different. It wasn’t just sex any more, it was creating.

They had ‘created’ once more before showering and getting ready for their guests, but Jake had never seen Kate so happy, so bright-eyed and rosy-cheeked. Hugo was right. She looked
stunning.

As he raised his glass, the others copied him.

‘To my future wife…’ he began.

‘A permit! You’ve got a permit!’ Jenny squealed, almost spilling her drink in her excitement. She put her glass down then rushed to hug Kate.

‘Oh, you darlings! You precious darlings! I am so happy for you!’

Hugo was grinning in a kind of ‘I told you so’ fashion, as if he’d known all along – which was quite possible, knowing Hugo. Alex, meanwhile, had a calm smile on his
features. ‘Well done,’ he said. ‘I’m really pleased.’

Kate met Jake’s eyes, then raised her glass to him. ‘To my future husband…’

‘Oh, Jake…’ Jenny said, tears in her eyes now. ‘Don’t stand there like a lemon… kiss her…’

He kissed her. The others cheered and raised their glasses high.

‘To Jake and Kate,’ Hugo said, looking about him. ‘May they have health, wealth and happiness… and many children…’

‘Hear, hear!’ Alex said, nodding vigorously.

But Jake only had eyes for Kate.

Sometime in the past, Jake had been at a party. It was a firm ‘do’ – Hinton had thousands working for them at all levels – and they had hired Hampton
Court Palace for the evening, flying their employees in along a protected corridor over the ghettos of Wandsworth and Wimbledon.

He’d spent an hour talking to colleagues, making an appearance, ‘networking’ as they called it, though why he, a rogue creature of the datscape, should need to
‘network’ was beyond him. To be frank, he had been bored. Bored shitless, as he’d later recalled when telling the tale. He had decided to seek out his line-boss and then leave.
Get a good night’s sleep and get in early – make the firm some profits before the sun came up.

It was then, as he’d crossed the room, having spotted old George Hinton, to whom he nominally reported, that he ran into her – almost literally.

She had turned and stepped backward, even as he made to move past her in the crowded room. As he later said, he didn’t have a chance.

‘She literally threw herself at me.’

It was Kate, of course.

‘I am
so
sorry,’ she said, her face an agony of embarrassment. ‘I really,
really
didn’t mean to do that.’

Jake had picked himself up and, putting his hands up as if to ward off any further assault, answered her. ‘No, that’s perfectly fine… you didn’t see me… I was
moving very fast…’

‘Very,’ she echoed, but she was smiling now that she could see he wasn’t angry with her.

‘And you are?’

‘Kate…’

It was almost a whisper. People were watching now, amused by this sudden entertainment, and Kate clearly didn’t like being the centre of attention.

Jake liked that. He had liked it immediately.

‘Well, Kate… I’m Jake, and I am
really
pleased I bumped into you.’

She seemed surprised. ‘Are you?’

‘Yes, actually, I am.’

He had been a
login
only eight weeks back then. A novice, making up with keenness what he lacked in skill and subtlety. And Kate? Kate was the daughter of the chief exec of one of the
City’s biggest insurance companies. One he knew by touch and scent. A very ash grey kind of company.

That was how it had begun. Accidentally. And now this.

As Kate cleared the table, he watched her, pleased that he’d done so well. She was grace personified and, as far as his bosses were concerned, the perfect partner for such a high-flier as
he. Now, when he got an invite to a Hinton ‘bash’, it was for ‘Kate and Jake’, as if she too were an employee.

‘Kate…?’

She looked to him from the doorway, pausing, the tray full of dirty plates balanced tremulously. ‘Yes, my love?’

‘Have we any of that glorious stilton your parents bought us?’

‘I’ll get it.’

And she was gone.

Jake turned, looking to Alex, who was facing him. Alex was staring down into his brandy glass, slowly swirling the dark liquid about. Sensing that Jake was watching him, he looked up.

‘You’re a lucky man, Jake. A very lucky man.’

‘I know…’

‘Looks, brains… she’ll be a good mother, too, I bet… but d’you know why you’re so lucky?’

Jake shrugged. ‘Go on… tell me.’

‘Because she’s kind.’

It was a very un-Alex kind of thing to say. Alex was always so formal, so…
closed
. But he had drunk a lot tonight – they all had – and he had loosened up considerably
as the evening had progressed.

‘She is,’ Jake said, nodding his agreement.

He looked to Hugo. ‘Have you given up on Chris?’

‘I don’t know… he’s probably buggering some poor little office junior…’

‘Hugo!’ Jenny protested. ‘He’d never…’

‘Oh,
wouldn’t
he.’ But they could see he was teasing. In truth he trusted Chris absolutely. Chris was, after all, the love of his life. ‘Jake… about what
you were saying earlier… about the Chinese…’

‘The Han,’ Jenny said. ‘They call themselves the Han.’

‘The Han, then… Do you really think they’re still our enemies? I mean… it’s been more than fifty years since they joined the global economy. They’re fully
integrated into our world. I mean, it’s
their
world too, only…’

‘What the fuck are you trying to say?’ Alex asked.

‘I don’t know…’ Hugo shrugged. ‘It’s just… well, I deal with a lot of them… you have to… more than half our sales are in the Far
East… only I’ve never felt I’ve got close to any of them. I can’t say, even now, that any of them are my friends.’

‘We don’t mix,’ Alex said, leaning forward, his face serious now. ‘Half the cases I deal with these days… well, I can’t say, of course… but I know
who’s at the bottom of most of them. The Chinese.’ He looked to Jenny. ‘The
Han
. Horrid and Nasty, we call them. And you know what? They are. They’ve got whole armies
of hackers, hacking away at our data. Stealing it or corrupting it. Like burglars, breaking in and sniffing our dirty underwear.’

Jenny looked appalled. ‘Alex…’

‘I know. We do it, too. Only for them it’s like a mission. They don’t have ideas of their own, they steal ours. Always have done, ever since they came out of the dark ages and
started to trade again.’

Hugo sat forward at that. ‘Oh, unfair, Alex… You can’t say that. They’re every bit as creative…’

‘As
us
? See how we talk “us” and “them” when it comes to the Han. We don’t talk about the Yanks that way.’

‘No, but the Yanks
are
us. Genetically. They’re Europeans. The Han…’

‘Are Ha-han, o-o-ho…’ Alex said, doing his best Elvis Presley impersonation.

There was laughter, but beneath it there was a sudden, darker edge to things.

Kate reappeared, carrying a large platter filled with various cheeses.

‘Oh, Kate,’ Jenny said, jumping up to help her. ‘They look wonderful!’

‘You wouldn’t catch a Han eating cheese,’ Alex grumbled. ‘Just bloody noodles…’

Jake looked down. He wished now he hadn’t mentioned it. Wished he’d kept it to himself. But there was some truth to what Alex was saying. If they weren’t enemies, then they
most certainly were rivals. He knew that from the datscape. When it came to the acquisition of raw materials, China was voracious. Was a giant mouth that demanded to be fed. It was the only reason
they were out in space…

Trish interrupted his thoughts.

‘Mister Reed… two more guests have arrived. They’re coming up in the lift right now…’

Hugo jumped up, casting his serviette aside. ‘It’s Chris… I wonder who he’s brought…’

Jake felt a brief flash of irritation. Chris might at least have asked. It was, after all, a private occasion. Now he’d have to make small talk to some stranger.

Only it wasn’t a stranger. It was a very old friend.

‘Alison… how in god’s name…?’

‘I found her,’ Chris said, stepping past Jake to give Hugo a peck on the cheek. ‘Hi, hon… having fun?’

Jake just stared. ‘The last time I saw you…’

‘…was on the steps of New College five years ago.’

She stepped closer, embracing him. It wasn’t a hug, Alison never hugged, it was more the slightest physical touch, an establishing of boundaries. It reminded Jake of why they’d
broken up; of how insular, how self-contained she was. There was the faintest scent of perfume about her, but the dominant impression was of her cleanliness. Hair, clothes, manners, all were so
neat and precise.

‘Jake?’

He turned. Kate stood there, smiling, looking to him to make an introduction.

‘Kate… this is Alison. Alison, this is Kate, my fiancée.’

‘Ali…’ Hugo pushed past Jake to take Alison’s hands, leaning in to plant a kiss on her cheek. ‘I wondered when you’d make an appearance…’

Jake turned back, looking to the others for an explanation.