been fair but had since faded, on its way to going grey. But he looked fit and healthy. He was wearing cords, a loose-fitting blue sweater and trainers. He was obviously tired but his light brown eyes were full of life.
“Alicia, this is a very unexpected surprise. How are you?” He embraced her. “Is there any news of Daniel?”
“Yes, there is, Senator. That’s why I wanted to see you.” She turned and introduced Jamie. “This is Jamie.” This time, she used his name.
Trelawny reached out and they shook hands. “How do you do.”
“Sir…” Jamie found it hard to believe that he could be shaking hands with the next president of the United States.
“I’m sorry to come here like this,” Alicia went on. “I know how busy you are and how important this time is for you. But I urgently need to talk to you.”
“You’ve found your boy?”
“I think I may have. Yes. But I can’t reach him.”
“Senator…” A woman sitting at the table held up a cell phone. “I have the mayor of Auburn on the phone for you. He wants to talk about the birthday parade.”
Trelawny looked bemused. “Not right now, Beth,” he said. “Can you tell him I’ll call him back?” He turned to Alicia. “I’m afraid I can’t give you too much time,” he explained. “There’s a lot going on right now. But, you know, a break might be good for me. In fact, it might be good for all of us. OK, everyone!” He raised his voice. “Go out and get some fresh air or have a snack or do something that approximates to real life. We’ll get back together in ten minutes.” He turned to Alicia. “Why don’t you and I go next door where we can talk undisturbed?”
Alicia glanced at Jamie. He nodded back. The senator and his former assistant walked off together. There was a sitting room next to the conference centre. Jamie watched the two of them go in. They shut the door behind them. None of the campaign workers left the table. They just went on working as they had before. The Irish man came over. “Can I get you a drink, young man?” he asked.
“Do you have a Coke?”
“Sure. Why don’t you sit down on the couch and make yourself at home.”
Jamie did as he was told, glad to be out of the way. There was a plasma TV turned on in the corner but it had the sound turned down and was tuned into a news station. Patrick returned with a Coke and Jamie drank it slowly, wondering how long Alicia would be. John Trelawny had said ten minutes but it seemed to him that much time had already passed.
At last the door opened and Trelawny appeared again. “Michael,” he said, addressing one of the men in the room. “Can you get me the file on Nightrise?” He turned to Jamie. “I’d like to have a word.”
Jamie got up and went in. He was aware of the campaign workers glancing at him with curiosity. They were working on a major speech. Why was this teenager taking up so much of their boss’s time? The man called Michael had snatched up a thick folder and handed it to Trelawny, who nodded his thanks. Jamie followed Trelawny into the second room, closing the door behind him.
Alicia was sitting on a sofa but Jamie was directed to an empty chair as if the senator wanted to keep them apart. Trelawny stood by the door, gathering his thoughts, then he put down the folder and moved into the room.
“Alicia has just told me the strangest story I’ve ever heard in my life,” he began. “If I didn’t know her well, I’d have already told her to leave. In fact, even now I have to ask myself if she isn’t in some way disturbed. I don’t mean that cruelly. After everything that’s happened to her, the loss of her son, I’d understand. But she tells me that you have also lost someone… a brother. Scott. That he was taken from a theatre in Reno – is that right?”
Jamie nodded. He knew what was coming.
“According to Alicia, the people who took Scott may be the same people who took Daniel. And the reason they’re interested in you, she says, is because you have an extraordinary ability. You can read people’s thoughts. My thoughts, for example.”
“I’m sorry, Jamie,” Alicia muttered.
“That’s OK.” Jamie had guessed what he was going to have to do, but this time he wasn’t worried. Everything about Senator Trelawny, even the way he spoke, made him feel comfortable. He wouldn’t be the same as Colton Banes. He didn’t live in the same world.
“I try to keep an open mind,” Trelawny went on, “and I’d be the first to admit that there are plenty of things in this world that can’t be explained. But this…” He shook his head doubtfully. “Anyway, this should be fairly simple. Alicia suggested to me that I put you to the test. Do you mind?”
“No, sir.” Jamie was ready.
“Very well.” Trelawny gestured at a low table in front of the sofa. There was a plain wooden box, about the size of a cigarette packet, placed in the middle. “My wife gave me that,” he said. “I carry it with me wherever I go. Alicia doesn’t know what’s in it. I haven’t told her. But she says you can tell me.”
Jamie concentrated for a moment. Then he looked Trelawny straight in the eyes. “There’s nothing inside the box,” he said. “It’s empty.”
Trelawny didn’t give anything away. But Alicia could feel a sudden tension in the room.
“Your wife made it,” Jamie went on. “She likes working with wood. Her name is Grace. You keep things in it when you go to bed. Cuff links and stuff like that. Right now it’s difficult to tell you more because all you’re thinking about is the election. It’s weird…”
“Go on.”
“Well, I was going to say, you’re really scared of losing. But what’s strange is, you’re even more scared of winning.”
There was a silence. Trelawny stood where he was, so still that he was barely breathing. At last he let out a long breath. “You have an extraordinary talent,” he said. “I won’t call it a gift – because perhaps it isn’t. I can’t imagine what it must be like for you – to have this ability.”
“I don’t use it,” Jamie said. “I don’t want it.”
“Nobody but me has ever looked inside this box,” Trelawny said. “It travels with me when I’m on the road. I’ve never told anyone who made it.” He went over to the table and picked it up, opened it and showed it to Alicia. There was nothing inside.
“Alicia has suggested that I should launch a full-scale investigation into the Nightrise Corporation,” he said. “But as it happens, I’ve already started.” He went over to the folder and opened it. “This is just the tip of the iceberg. Let me tell you a little bit about them. And then I’ll tell you why, right now, there’s nothing I can do.”
He sat down.
“I don’t believe all big business is bad,” he began. “But Nightrise are very big and they seem to take pride in being as bad as they can get away with. The trouble with this country is that we’re all too ready to turn a blind eye to crimes committed in the name of business. A factory burns down and twenty workers are killed. A tank leaks and a whole river system gets polluted. A weapons system is sold abroad and ends up being used against American soldiers. Nobody notices – and you know why? Because profit is all that matters. Profit is king. These companies are making huge profits and employing tens of thousands of people. So we let them get away with murder.
“I first heard about Nightrise about six months ago.” He produced a clipping, cut out of a newspaper. “This was sent to me by a friend. He thought I might be interested in the story of a twelve-year-old child working in a toy factory in Indonesia who got burned by one of the machines and died. The kid had been working ten hours a day for twenty cents an hour and he was exhausted. I call that murder. He was making parts for a shooting game and the company that employed him just happened to be fully owned by Nightrise. But did they pay any compensation? Did they care? Of course not. And you could buy that toy in any mall in America…”
“You said there’s nothing you can do,” Jamie cut in.
“Here’s why.” Trelawny frowned. “The current vice president and the chief of staff both used to work for Nightrise before they went into politics. When they leave the White House, whoever wins the next election, they’ll go back on the board. Nightrise has about three hundred companies all around the world and many of them do work for the US government. There’s one that manufactures bombs. The bombs are dropped. Then another one that’s hired to rebuild the cities that the bombs destroyed. You see what I mean? Business and politics go hand in hand.
“And just to make matters worse, Nightrise is supporting Charles Baker in the presidential election. In fact, they’re one of his main sponsors. They’ve channelled millions of dollars in his direction. They have to be clever how
