CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Jack
I reached out but Nate wasn’t there and the sheets were cool.
I eased out of bed and stood shakily. My limbs were heavy and everything ached, like I was ninety-two, not thirty-two.
My mouth was arid; like I’d been licking sandpaper and so I reached for the bottle of sparkling water on my nightstand and downed it.
These were the after effects of Rohypnol I was familiar with and I knew they would pass.
I hobbled unsteadily into the bathroom, took a leak, and then stepped up to the sink.
I was met by my grim reflection. Short russet stubble had grown in; and my hair was sticking up.
It looked like I’d been electrocuted. I washed my hands and then splashed water over my face.
I brushed my teeth with the new toothbrush the hotel provided and then finger combed my hair… I’d shave later.
Walking naked through the suite I found that the laundry was returned and now I had clean, pressed clothes.
There was also a garment rack, probably delivered by the hotel concierge.
Nate must have taken the garment rack in before he’d gone to the hotel gym, or something!
It held a selection of shirts and jeans, shorts and a couple of pairs of black slacks in mine and Nate’s sizes.
I hoped Nate would come back with a treat because I was starving again.
I dressed in shorts and a tee, before stepping through the French doors and onto the secluded balcony.
The view was fantastic and I inhaled a lungful of the cool breeze.
The view of the winged charioteer at the top of the Brandenburg gate depicted Victoria, the Roman Goddess of Victory.
I stood dazedly for a few minutes and watched the ant-like tourists in the square below, desperate to get their Instagramable shot in front of the neoclassical arch.
My belly growled in complaint. There really was no end to my appetite!
I needed coffee and a snack. I returned to the bedroom to grab my phone.
We had a fully stocked kitchenette, so I used a coffee pod machine.
I took my latté to the balcony and swiped another Danish pastry from our breakfast trolley on the way past. I’d relax and browse, maybe I’d listen to an audiobook while waiting for Nate to come back.
Then together we’d decide how we were going to spend the afternoon.
I hoped we’d hide away from the world, go back to bed, and make good on our shared promise to fuck one another’s brains out.
I sat back on a lounger chair, as I sipped the latté.
I pressed my thumb on the biometric reader to open my phone.
I’d only slept for an hour and a half, but it was enough to refresh me.
Now it was just after midday. Immediately, I found a bunch of messages from Lucy.
I’d told her the bare minimum of last night’s events and she said she would discuss things with Roz and the studio to get a security plan together.
After the Paris debacle, security for this junket would be increased–but only when the entourage from Maritime and our personal teams arrived on Thursday.
I scrolled through my notifications and saw two emails from the studio, and then a text message from Nate.
I read Nate’s message and spluttered, swiftly placing the coffee on a table before I spilled it. I couldn’t believe what I’d read.
Jack,
Sorry to leave you in the lurch. I remembered some things from last night and if what I remembered is true, this is all on me. I don’t want to put you in danger again. I’ll sort everything. Stay put. See you later. X
I read it again, and yes, I’d understood the message alright!
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” I exclaimed out loud.
Angrily, I rose from my chair and paced into the lounge.
If I was reading this right, Nate regained memories of what happened on the ship.
For some reason he believed our incarceration was his fault…
his responsibility. I didn’t understand how that could be the case.
Nate told me he’d never visited Berlin before and didn’t know anyone in Germany.
Reading between the lines, he’d gone into the city to do some sleuthing on his own…
without me…alone. I couldn’t help but feel a little…
hurt. I’d thought we were a team. Had he even considered that the men who’d abducted us hadn’t found what they wanted and they were still out there!
A dart of fear hit me in the solar plexus.
What the fuck had he done? In an instant I realized my fear was not for me, but for Nate.
Shit…shit…This wasn’t supposed to happen.
I’d told myself this was a fling, but I was feeling things…
all the things…anger, worry, longing, and an all-powerful desire to have Nate safely in my arms. I cared more for Nate’s safety than I did for my own.
I’d fallen arse-over-tit in-love and he’d gone, leaving me like I was irrelevant, and useless.
I supposed then that he didn’t feel the same for me, and, duh, of course he didn’t.
Nate was still processing the end of his marriage and his impending divorce. I was such a bloody fool!
Pacing the lounge, riled up, dejected, and ready to give him an earful for walking out on me, I called Nate’s number, but his phone didn’t even go to voicemail, it was dead.
Weird. That didn’t leave me many options to expend the energy bubbling in my blood.
I’m a proactive guy, I needed to do SOMETHING!
There were two chances of me sitting here and waiting for Nate to return—zero and none!
I could go to the hotel gym, or I could call one of the friends I’d invited to the première—Nina was always around, maybe Marek would meet me to take walk into the city or…
I could go sleuthing too! Yes, two can play at that game.
I knew this city better than Nate, and I had particular skills!
Everything we’d gone through in the past twenty-four-hours began with meeting Hugh Jorgen.
I had the photographic proof of it on my phone.
He’d trailed us in the park, and then to the club.
Jorgen was followed by a couple of men and he hadn’t seemed to realize.
Nate said that the Swede was a delegate at the security tech conference at the event centre on the far side of Pariser Platz.
I slumped onto the couch and searched on my phone browser for the conference’s daily agenda.
The event was on for three days and this was the second day.
Over a hundred tech companies were exhibiting their new products.
This was a place where state-of-the-art security tech was showcased and billion-dollar deals would be struck.
The schedule said there would be speeches from government representatives, security advisors, and military analysts from all over the world, as well as tech high-flyers with connections and more money than sense.
The keynote speech on the final day was to be by Oliver Roux, the multi-billionaire tech entrepreneur who had bullied his way into the public consciousness with technological breakthroughs, like the ORIGN mobile satellite launch pad, which was lauded for aiding global communication, while detractors said it also caused the Earth’s atmosphere to become a tech junkyard. Personally, I couldn’t stand the guy!
It would soon be lunchtime. Everyone had to stop for lunch, right?
I needed to find out which tech company Hugh Jorgen worked for, and, if they dealt with Chinese chip technology it would mean he was directly involved with industrial espionage.
I might also discover which hotel he’d moved to or even his contact details.
I pulled up the map app on my phone and zoomed in to see the layout of the huge Pariser Platz district.
To the left of Adler Kandinski hotel was the Academy of the Arts, and then curiously, on the far-left corner of the square was the US Embassy.
Opposite the US Embassy across the square was the Axica Conference Centre–the venue for the conference.
The bird’s eye view map showed the building, and from above there was a glass rotunda roof.
The street view front elevation faced the square.
I continued searching through the event website and venue images.
Tech companies were exhibiting in glass walled rooms off the mezzanine and speeches were in the main rotunda hall.
There was a bar and restaurant facility, so there would be extra wait staff employed temporarily for this large event.
To pay my bills in my late teens and early twenties I’d needed to wait tables, work as a barman, and as a barista.
The event website told me the caterers for the event were called Palace Catering and their manager was Artur Springer.
If I could blag my way into the event as a waiter then maybe I could make my way to the organizers offices to find the Intel I needed?
I smiled privately. This mission would be a piece of piss!
****