She pulled the trigger and the hammer slapped on an empty firing chamber. He’d foreseen what she would do, and had unloaded the gun.
He reached into the pocket of his robe and started to withdraw a pistol, when Liese suddenly came to her senses. With a small scream she leaped forward, raising her hands, her elbows stiff.
Because of his condition he was too slow to react. Liese hit him squarely in the chest with the palms of both hands, the Sig-Sauer still in her right hand, shoving him backwards over the low stone railing.
He fell without a sound, his body hitting the face of the cliff about ninety feet down, and, turning end over end, finally landing in the rocks at the bottom.
For a long time she just stared down at him, unsure of what she felt. But then she dropped the Sig-Sauer over the edge, turned and went back through the bedroom and out to the great hall where she retrieved her sandals.
Before she left the villa she washed her hands in the guest bathroom. One more job and Fukai would pay her. After that no man would ever touch her again.
Chapter 69
A polite young man in a three-piece business suit was sent over to escort McGarvey and Kelley from the main gates to the administration complex overlooking the bay.
They had to leave the rental car parked outside and take an electrically powered shuttle across the compound.
“We employ more than eighty thousand people at this location alone, Mr. Fine,” their escort explained. “Traffic would be worse than Tokyo’s if we allowed everybody to bring their personal vehicles inside.”
“Where do your employees park?” Kelley asked.
Their escort smiled. “Very few of our employees feel the need to drive, Ms. Fuller.
Fukai Semiconductor provides bus service for the majority of employees, limousine service for some, and helicopter shuttle service for others. It is very efficient.”
“How about Mr. Fukai himself?”
The young man’s smile broadened. “Ah, Mr. Fukai maintains a private residence here on the grounds.”
“Will we be able to meet with him this morning?” McGarvey asked.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Fine, but that will not be possible. Mr. Fukai will be involved with meetings all day.”
“Tomorrow, perhaps?” McGarvey pressed.
“Bad luck. Mr. Fukai will be out of the country tomorrow. Paris.”
“I see. Then I will have to try again the next time I come to Nagasaki. My company hopes to do much business with Mr. Fukai in the future.”
“Yes, I have seen the preliminary proposals. We are most anxious to do business with your firm.”
Evidently Fukai had contacted DataBase, and they’d upheld the legend. McGarvey made mental note to pass along his thanks through Carrara.
The world headquarters of Fukai Semiconductor was housed in a mammoth, sprawling building of glass, polished aluminum and native rock that seemed to be a hybrid design between traditfonal Japanese architecture and something off the drawing board of Frank Lloyd Wright, though there was almost nothing Western about the place. Situated along the shore of the bay, the massive structure rose in some places five stories above the water, each level cantilevered at a different angle thirty and sometimes fifty or sixty yards without apparent support. In other places the building was low, and followed the sinuously twisting shoreline as if it had grown out of the rock.
About a half-mile north, still along the bay, the end of the main runway was marked by a cluster of hangars, a 747 jetliner with Fukai’s stylized seagull emblem painted in blue on the tail, parked in front of one of them.
On the way across they were stopped four times by red lights. Electric cart and truck traffic was very heavy.
“Is it like this all the time, or just on weekdays?” McGarvey asked.
“All the time, Mr. Fine,” their escort said. “Twenty-four hours per day, seven days per week. We must be ready to accommodate all of our offices and branch factories worldwide … in every time zone.”
“Almost looks like a factory on war footing,” McGarvey said.
Their escort glanced sharply at him, then smiled again. “Business is war, one’s competitors the enemy, don’t you agree?”
“Of course,” McGarvey said.
They left their electric cart with one of the security people in front and went up a broad wooden walkway to the headquarters dramatic main entrance. There were no doors, only an opening thirty or forty yards wide and a couple of stories tall blocked by a shimmering curtain of water. Whether it was falling from above or being pumped straight up was impossible to tell, but as they approached the entry the curtain of water parted, leaving them a dry opening wide enough to pass through.
The entry hall was just as dramatic, with curtains and ribbons and tubes of water angled through the air as if to defy gravity, multicolored laser beams piercing the flowing water in seemingly random patterns.
“It’s beautiful,” Kelley said.
“It represents the inside of one of our new computer chips,” their escort said. “It has the same architecture.”
They followed their guide along a series of moving ramps and walkways, to a reception area on one of the cantilevered floors jutting out over the bay. Docked just below was a sleek pleasure vessel that McGarvey figured had to be two hundred twenty feet or longer.
“If you will just rest here for a moment, I shall return,” their escort said, and left them.
They were in a large open area, furnished with groupings of couches and chairs. Flowers, living trees and other plants were everywhere in profusion. It was almost like being in a futuristic greenhouse.
McGarvey moved down the line of windows until he could read the vessel’s name. She was the Grande Dame II
out of Monaco. Another connection between Fukai and K-1, who were said to be based somewhere in the south of France? The Japanese flag flew at the stern, and Fukai’s blue seagull ensign was hoisted on the port halyard.
But the boat was docked here, not at Monaco, which was half a world away.
A hostess dressed in a traditional kimono offered them tea, or anything else they would like to drink, but before they could order anything their escort returned, an apologetic expression on his face.
“I am very sorry, Mr. Fine, but the gentleman who was to have met with you this morning has been unavoidably detained. He asked me to convey his sincerest apologies, but he asks if you could postpone your business until tomorrow. A helicopter would be sent for you.”
McGarvey remained by the windows. He looked down at the boat, and studied the line of the dock running south, until he had his answer. He turned.
“Regretfully I will have to first check with my company. I was supposed to return to Tokyo first thing in the morning.”
“We could arrange for your meeting here, and still get you to Tokyo faster than you could get there on public transportation.”
“We will see,” McGarvey said. “I will telephone from my hotel in the morning.”
“Very good, Mr. Fine.”
“Who shall I be calling?”
“Mr. Endo, ” their escort said. “He is in charge of special projects.”
Chapter 70
