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Page 56.

Mélu continued, "Next thing, I hear these slapping feet and I see two guys running by who looked like pirates or Cossacks or something. They were young men, with long hair, with scars and tattoos all over. They had mean, brutal faces and vicious eyes."

"They were Triad from Macao," Hannah said. "Las Vegas times ten. Money laundering for Chinese zillionaires who otherwise aren't allowed to gamble and do a whole lot of other things legally, but in Macao anything goes."

Rick shook his head. He was just getting to know this woman he had pledged his heart and soul to. "What—?"

Hannah made a serious face and patted his hands, explaining in as few words as possible. "They had four of us, all Western women. Wan gave us to them as a present. They were raping us. So I ran."

Mélu nodded in her gamine, athletic way. "So I hid her for two days in my room."

Hannah said, "It blew over. These aren't normal people. They live like wolves. One minute they are nuzzling each other at the nose, the next minute sniffing each other's assholes, the next minute ripping each other piece by piece in bloody chunks."

Romain added his bit; "It's a world run by predators. Eating, fucking, killing—they do it without thinking. Like animals, they don't remember. It means nothing from one moment to the next. Human life has no value. We have them in the West. They have them in the East. It's all the same."

Mélu nodded. "People are the same everywhere. I have good Chinese and Indian friends who are like us, not like that. They are victims also."

Romain stirred his coffee. "Which is why PAX seeks to unite the good people of the world to resist the rabble and their owners, the zillionaires. People against animals, smart people over ignorant rabble."

"PAX, Progressive Alliance," Mélu said. "We're still legal. Democracy isn't dead, but going fast. We have to act smart."

Hannah made a startled face. "Then—do you know—?"

Mélu nodded matter of factly. "Of course. You stole Wan's toy, which he stole from a Luxembourg scientist his people murdered. Pierre Sander intended it for peaceful purposes."

"That is the Doctor Sander I mailed the McGuffin to."

"And now you understand," Mélu said. "I never expected you would create such a wonderful coup!"

"Wan must be beside himself," Romain said.

Rick felt overwhelmed. "I just stopped for a beer in a Paris bar."

They all laughed. Hannah patted his shoulder. "Are you sorry, my dear?" She eyeballed him frankly.

He passionately looked into her eyes. "I am in love with you."

She softened, as if he'd been about to kill her but spared her life. "I love you too, Richard."

He looked around the table in the silence and said, "I have this dream."

"We have a dream," Hannah said, wrapping herself around him again. "We want to go home to California and live our lives together in peace and quiet. We've had enough commotion to last us a lifetime."

Mélu's eyes twinkled, amid a nod that radiated understanding.

Romain made a wry face, saying, "We would love to escape also. We are here in the middle of things. Two world wars plus Napoleon I and III started near here, not to mention a thousand wars of Dark Ages dukes and pukes. But we are stuck here. This is our homeland."

Romain and Mélu in turn linked arms and sat close together, almost defiantly.

"Maybe we can make this work for all of us," Rick said. "I have no idea how."

"I mailed the package to Professor Sander," Hannah said. "What else could I do? We were being watched by a Chinese agent in the Luxembourg Gare."

Mélu and Romain looked at each other, then at Hannah. "That might be Shen."

"Who is Shen?" Rick said.

Romain explained, treading through apparently difficult mine fields, not sure how much to say and what not to say. "Shen is known to us. He is a kind of dangerous guy. He plays both sides, but really I think he is sympathetic to PAX. We have evidence to think that."

"From two previous actions involving him," Mélu said.

Rick shook his head in amazement. "You guys lead active lives."

"We are trying to save the world," Mélu said. "The corporations have all but destroyed the environment and with it the climate. They have used the power of common mobs to destroy democracy since at least Reagan's election in the US, which was the big turning point."

Romain added, "Even the ancient Greek philosophers talked about the violent power of ignorant mobs over twenty-five centuries ago. It's the fundamental problem of democracy—when power of the people turns into rioting mobs led by demagogues."

Mélu said, "Like in those old Frankenstein movies, when the villagers march on the castle at night carrying torches. That is what the Germans became when they followed Hitler. The Italians with Mussolini, the Serbians with Milosevic. It's the Human Condition."

Rick sighed. "Look, no offense, but I have a life to live. I'm in over my ears as it is."

"We understand that," Mélu said.

Hannah patted his thigh. "Rick, listen, I have just one thing to do and then I will go anywhere you want me to. I need to get that package into the hands of the right people."

"PAX," Rick said, and again it was a question.

Hannah replied by lowering her eyelids, yes.

"Okay," he said. "Give me an hour to let this all sink in. You mean—yesterday, Fincoff…"

Hannah explained, "Fincoff was the best I could do."

"I wish you had called me first," Mélu chided gently.

"I had no idea you would be there to help."

"I gave you my Luxembourg phone number in Shanghai, dear."

Hannah said, "You were recruiting me for PAX." It was a realization.

Mélu and Romain exchanged sphinx-like glances, and each shrugged.

Hannah explained, "I stole this thing from Wan because he stole it, he screwed me over, and I was just plain pissed off and ready to run. It was my opportunity to stick it to him. That's all I thought about. I had no idea that people everywhere are watching each other, like animals in the woods, waiting for someone to make a mistake so they can kill each other. There must be fifty different enemies watching every move Wan makes."

Romain nodded. "That is the sort of world powerful people like that have always lived in. It is the world of Macbeth, of King Lear, of Hamlet. Terror, conspiracy, always knives and blood in the dark."

"It is their natural element," Mélu said. "Many of them are sociopaths. You have to be."

Hannah said, "So I had this thing I stole, and I was on the run. Somebody knew what I did, who I was, and what I had. Next thing I know, I'm sitting in a Metro station in the Marais, wondering what to do next with what little money I had, and this man walks up to me."

"Fincoff," Rick said. It was a question.

"Yes. He said if I let him broker the package, he would get a million Euros and split it with me. I didn't believe him, of course. I had the package hidden in a locker in the Clignancourt metro station, and nobody but me knew where it was. So I had a leg up on everyone."

"And Fincoff still tried to screw you," Rick said.

"Yup. Only I had the McGuffin and as long as only I knew where it was, I was more valuable alive than dead. So Fincoff tried to arrange a meeting with PAX, but CEOC got wind of it. They showed up at the bar in Bagnolet and tried to drug Fincoff. They must have thought he had the package with him."

Rick brightened. "I get it. I come staggering in, full of my own woes, not knowing a thing about all this, and Fincoff switches drinks with me. I get zonked and go staggering out into the alley…"

Hannah finished, "I was watching from a distance, because I didn't trust Fincoff. I wanted to see who was who in the zoo before I handed over the locker key—and got my money."

Mélu said, "You didn't know what the package was."

Hannah shook her head. "Not really. I just wanted to hurt Wan back for letting my mom die, and doing bad things to me and other victims."

Romain said, "With the new fuselage skin, it makes all existing aircraft and missiles obsolete. A flying object with that skin can outfly, out-think and kill anything it wants to. So you get the drift now. We want someone other than Wan and his clique to control CEOC."

Rick said, "You think there is hope for CEOC?"

Romain gave him a cagey look. "We think CEOC can be defanged. Not all zillionaires and corporations are evil and heartless. PAX is a global union of students, workers, intelligent middle class, the artisan class—not the rabble who blindly follow demagogues and do the dirty work while the Hitlers and Wans count their money laughing all the way to the bank."

Rick bit his lip. "I'm a soldier, serving the United States Army."

Romain had difficulty hiding his contempt. "Your mission is long obsolete. Your country is obsolete. You were fighting in the last gasp of the oil and coal wars. The CEOC people have moved beyond dirty fossil fuels and are onto solar, wind, tidal, geothermal, even just plain gravity. As long as they control the energy that drives the world, they own you, me, the governments, the fake politicians, the fraudulent insurance companies, you name it."

Mélu added, "You walked up the Avenue de la Liberté, right?

Hannah nodded.

"You stopped at the nice park?"

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