Chapter Fifty

Date: September 16, 2000

Location: Sydney, Australia

I know I go,

I know I’m free,

I know that this will come to be,

For this will be found by later dynasty.

They’ll be a sign for all to see

Be sure that it will certain be.

Mother Mary Shipton   1488-1561

Jason sat listening as it was explained to him that the most likely suspect in Julie Peirce’s abduction was a Japanese cult called the Ong and how the police believed a security guard that was found dead at the scene had assisted them. Explaining this to him was his head of security Johannes Swenson, an ex-paramilitary with the French Foreign Legion and one of Jason’s most trusted guards.

Pietta had brought him into speak to Jason when she had heard the report on the news of a killing in the lower car park at the Sydney Olympics and the abduction of a female Singaporean reporter. She had put one plus one together and asked Swenson to investigate. Soon as Julie’s name was mentioned to Jason he had paled and began to shake. Frankly, Pietta had never seen Jason so shaken up and she imagined the only other person he would have been affected this way was if it had been her.

            “How on earth could he have known, asked Jason, to no-one in particular except probably himself? I didn’t tell anyone else about my meeting with her.”

            Then he thought about what they had talked about. How she had suspected Ieko Fujimo of killing her ex.

            Pietta and Swenson looked on as Jason was obviously working through things with himself. They were not sure who he was referring to, but Pietta had an inkling that it would be Fujimo.

            “Of course, he wasn’t after me, he was after her, but why? What good would it do him to take her?”

            He stood up and walked to the window of the office that looked out over Sydney’s Circular Quay. The usual boat traffic entered and exited the quay terminal, but Jason saw none of this. His concentration far too intense and directed at Julie and Ieko Fujimo.

            “So, as well as everything else he is a leader of a cult. Why does this not surprise me? This guy is totally psychotic.”

            He turned to Johannes.

            “So, what are the police doing about it?”

            Swenson was no amateur and he expected the question and had done his research. He was very well connected not only in Australia but internationally as well.

            “Australian Police are pretty useless and don’t know where to even start. For a reason not divulged to me Interpol is involved. I guess it is because the Ong are regarded as an international terrorist organisation. They have been responsible for a number of terrorist attacks in Japan and throughout Asia and I did find out they tried to assassinate Julie Pierce in Hong Kong a few months ago, then again in Singapore not long after that, so unfortunately this is not looking good for her.”

            Jason did not want to hear that. He had only met Julie once, but he felt like destiny had just been ripped out from under him and he was not happy about it. This time Fujimo had gone too far, and he was going to put an end to it. He just hoped he could save Julie as well.

            “What is Interpol doing,” he asked Swenson?

            “They have sent a French unit here to hunt for the culprits. I know some of them from my Foreign Legion days. They are good, if anyone can find them and save her, if it is possible, it will be them.”

            “What can we do,” asked Jason?

Swenson could feel his boss’s anger and frustration. He had known Jason for about five years now and in all that time he had never seen him angry, even in the worst crisis.

            “Not allot that I can do that this unit has not already done,” Swenson said, choosing his words carefully, “best I just keep close to those I know and when they find anything tell you immediately.”

            Jason didn’t like the thought of sitting on his hands and doing nothing, but he saw the logic in Swenson’s tactic.

            “Immediately you hear anything you call, no matter what time, or where you might be, or think I might be, just call.”

            “Yes boss.”

            Swenson left. He knew Jason had said enough and he knew how serious he was. He also knew he would not be getting much sleep till this was resolved, one way or another.

            Pietta had sat silent the whole time. She knew better than to interrupt Jason when he was like this. His mood worried her.

            “Jason,” she said. She was looking at his back as he stood looking out the window over Sydney Harbour. He did not answer her, or maybe did not hear her.

            “Jason,” she said again, a little louder.

            Jason turned to look at her and walked over.

            “I’m sorry Pietta,” he held out his hand to her. She took it and stood. “Thanks, really you have been wonderful with this. Without you I wouldn’t have even known.”

He tried to smile.

She just looked at him, holding his hand and smiled back. She noticed his eyes were very dark, almost hazel in colour. She had never seen them that tainted shade of green before. It was as if he was sick, she thought.

“Are you okay Jason,” she said, pulling him in closer?

            “You must think it strange,” he said, putting his head on her shoulder, “I have only met her once, and yet I am so distressed.”

            “No, I understand,” Pietta said sympathetically, as she put her hand to the back of his head to comfort him, “some people you just grow attached to immediately you meet them. Look at us.”

She thought about what she had just said, and it hurt a little. She was not sure why.

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