Rival of Atlantis

XIX

9:13PM

April 17, 2013

Novotel

Paris, France

THE ROOM WAS FILLED WITH rolling applause as Gillian made her way down the stage of the plenary room of Novotel Paris. She carefully stepped down with the high-heeled formal shoes that were paired to the neatly-pressed grey business suit. Her hair was tied on a bun and circular earrings about a coin in size ornamented her ears. She wore a light makeup and glossy lip shiner. To say that she was gorgeous tonight would be an understatement. She looked like she really belongs to some 200 business professionals packed in the room with her.

Gillian have been one of the key speakers in the sponsored world tour that was dubbed as Green Earth X and will take course of one month. The project had been in Sydney, Washington, Mexico, Tokyo, and now Paris. The tour was aimed in teaching the adverse effect of the green house gasses, the rapid changes in temperature it causes and ways on how to help the planet heal or stall the inevitable demise of all the species. Her part is a three-hour lecture about the findings of SAR which are related to global warming and even though it is her birthday, she gamely did the lecture.

On the course of her lecture, she gave a walkthrough on the species that have been considered endangered or extinct. She showed them the habitat of these animals and the changes that occurred on it which led to their disappearances or the ongoing process of their extinction. Migratory birds, bees and butterflies were included on her lecture but the crowned character of the lecture is the golden toad which they had just investigated lately. Her lecture also implored the audience, which represents marketing industries of Europe, to sponsor UNESCO-protected sanctuary and not just focus on enlarging their business empire.

As she walked towards the back of the two columns of chairs where the audience is seated, a man in nicely pressed classic tuxedo approached her. He met Gillian just as she was passing one of the aisles at the side of the audience. The man who has thinning grey hair and light built took one of Gillian's hands to both of his and introduced himself as an executive in a leading electronics company.

"What a splendid presentation," the man greeted him in a learned accent. "You took the audience by a sweep."

"The presentation is anything but splendid," Gillian humbly uttered as she walked to the back of the room. The pronouncement was not of humility but truth that none of these business industries representatives are a bit interested in the disappearances of some species. She well knows that if there are potential profits from a project, everyone of these business executives will gladly bite each other to get their hands on the exclusive contract.

"I was moved by the disappearance of the golden frog which you said was last seen in 1982," the man trying to keep on her pace.

"Golden toad," Gillian eyed him icily. "And it was last seen in 1989."

"Yeah, that one."

"The golden toad is only one of the species that disappeared," Gillian added more ice in her words. She is waiting for the business executive to get down to his point.

"Yes. But imagine if in this year, 2018, we find a dozen of them left or get results what caused their extinction."

"We?" She took note of the word and disregarded the rest.

"Yes. From what you said, the research about the golden frog-"

"Toad."

"Toad. Has been called off. What if there is a way to get back on the research? You see, my task in the company is related to advertisement and community involvement. Last time I checked, we have a deep reserve for community involvement funds and I do not know where to put them."

"I think I know where this road leads." Gillian said as she picked up a wine flute when a bartender with a tray of drinks passed by her.

The man picked a drink for himself. "Maybe you can launch again the project. This time, it will be sponsored by our company. I can arrange for the funding of the project."

"Special Advanced Research is a new outfit under UNESCO."

"Which last time I check, does not get all the funding it needs."

"I admit it does have a limited funding as of now. But we do get the funding."

"So you are turning down my offer in exchange of something simple?"

"How simple?" She sipped on her wine as she stopped at back of the audience. A man on cue to the program is starting his one-hour long lecture before the conclusion of the program for the night.

"If so you ever find a golden frog, no toad, would it be great if the first official photo was taken by one of our latest product?"

Gillian waved for her bag at a receptionist and a gorgeous Parisian in Novotel uniform came to her in an instant. She handed her the bag and turned away instantly. Gillian noticed that the man engaging her in a conversation watch the receptionist as her healthy buttocks swayed from a side to the other at each pace.

"You were saying?" She snapped before his face and it made him turn red in embarrassment.

"Ah-yeah, the golden toad. Can we help in funding the research?"

"What if there's none of 'em left?"

"Maybe that's a big risk my company got to take."

Gillian fished in her bag for her wallet. She pulled it out and produced a card from it. "You can contact my boss. She is just in the neighborhood."

The man extended his hand and Gillian took it in hers. She waited for the man to bid his goodbye and watched him take his seat among the audience. After that, Gillian intently listened to the last speaker behind the podium on the stage. The speaker is talking about innovations and soliciting for support in the inception of earth-friendly products. She was too taken in listening that she did not notice the man at her back who was calling for her attention.

"Doctor Brown," the man called for maybe the tenth time.

"Oh," Gillian turned around when the calling finally registered in her mind. "Sorry."

The man introduced himself as a CEO of some heavy industries in Europe that produces ships. The man sweet-talked her into suggesting sites that can be chosen as wildlife sanctuaries. All employees that will guard and maintain them will be sponsored by the company in exchange for advertisement. The chosen wildlife sanctuaries will be featured in presentations of their choice as part of their community engagement. It will make the company look like they care for the planet when in truth they do not care about it. He also asked her to recommend a spot in the sea that will be declared a UNESCO-protected aquatic life sanctuary in exchange for same thing. Gillian ended exchanging cards with the man.

The course of the next minutes will be repeats of conversation with either another executive or a group of them collaborating to fund this and that in exchange for these and those. The speaker on the stage has ended his lecture and was engaged in some talks with some business executives himself too.

Gillian thought the night would end talking to people as the Novotel crew prepared a table with buffet of meals and cocktail drinks. She was talking to a group of people who are engaged in the field of medicine, oncology and bacteriology when a group of people poured in the twin doors of the plenary room.

While exchanging ideas about researches that may help the field of medicine, Gillian glanced at the group of people who had just arrived. The group was composed of a dozen of men in neatly pressed tuxedos with black wires around their necks which are connected to earplugs with the exception of the lead man. The lead man is dressed in ash grey suit and vest paired to a black pair of slacks.

Gillian made a quick study about the lead man who she guessed is some top brass in a business empire. The man is short, about five feet flat in height and ages somewhere over sixty years. He got a light built made evident by his graceful moves as if his body is made by flowing liquid. Gillian got fancied by the way he strode which made him seems to be floating a millimeter of the ground.

"May we have your attention please," a booming voice announced over the sound system. "May we give the major sponsor of Green Earth X, Mr. Rudolfo Cayetano, the stage for a short speech?"

Gillian watched how Mr. Cayetano moved fluidly toward the steps of the stairs. The eleven men surrounding him spread all across the spacious room on strategic locations of their choice. She instantly knew they were his bodyguards.

Cayetano moved on the stage towards the podium, gave the microphone short and soft taps before looking around at the scattered people in the room. The room was thrown in hushed silence instantly as if by command. All eyes were thrown at the stage.

"A pleasant evening," Cayetano spoke on the microphone with a voice that seem borrowed from Popeye the Sailor Man. "My apologies for being late." He cleared his throat before going on again. "Some things needed my attention."

He looked around at the sea of people or at least pretended to. "I see delegates from the field of commerce, medicine, ship-building and heavy industries, automotive, mining and beverages. Pardon to those I am not familiar with. We also have few people who were at our event at Sydney, Tokyo and Washington. If there are others from our previous events, maybe I did not have the honor to get to know you yet."

He looked at the backboard of the stage and read on the letters projected by assembled ADI LED screens. Gillian noted that the gesture is a fake. He already knows the letters on the screen.

"Green Earth X," he went on then looked down the podium and back to the audience. Gillian noted that he is glimpsing at something, perhaps reading fast on some device. "The greatest collaboration of many companies in all fields of industries and major scientific researchers all across the seven continents. Make it only six, I believe Antarctica is inhabited by penguins and we are still waiting if they'll collaborate with the campaign."

Laughs erupted and he waited until it fades."Let's keep this simple. Green Earth X means a habitable planet for the next generations that is yet to come. There is no other major goal than the preservation of our home, Earth, which is also a habitat of countless organisms. The act of saving our planet. But how do we save the planet?"

He looked at few individuals as if expecting answers. "Many outfits have been campaigning to protect our planet. Some campaigned for less emission to lessen the green house gasses and its effect. Few waived for the excessive use of energy. We had also something called Earth Hour. Others opted for recycling and many more. All of these helped stall the heating of our planet and opened doors to adopt new technologies or get back to the old ones. But we at Green Earth X are holding the real keys to protect our planet."

He looked down the podium a second then up again. "Why? Because we are the manufacturers; the innovators! What the people consumes and utilizes comes from no one but us. We are the tip of the spear here and no government can make any move if we do not step up first."

He looked around and waited for it to sink down in them. "The manufacturers produce what the people consume. It's only when earth-friendly technologies were produced that any government can set up the limits of dos and don'ts. Imagine; can a government require the people to use only shoes that are produced by eco-friendly manufacturer if there are no such manufacturers? Can they confiscate machineries that produce harmful fumes if none of our people from the automobile industries incepted vehicles with zero hazard emissions? A government can only set up the limits, if we, the spearheads, step up. And that is what Green Earth X is; a collaboration of innovators that will manufacture products that are either eco-friendly or made by one. And speaking of innovations, we have partnered with various other companies to produce this."

He nodded at someone at the back and all the lights instantly died and the room was thrown in darkness. The ADI LED screens making up the backboard of the stage blinked and then showed three-dimensional image of some kind of an engine. The engine rotated and then faded away to show aerial shots of some cities.

"In the past decade," a male's voice that may belong to some disc jockey can be heard over the sound system. Then the video clips went to the some coast of ice where big chunks are falling on the sea. "Various groups have already warned us for the heating of our planet."

Then it showed different videos of animals like lemurs, butterflies, spiders and bees. "And the heating up of our planet which caused the disappearances of many species was mainly blamed on the manufacturing industries."

The video showed assembly lines of some factories and mufflers of vehicles. Then, there were smokestacks of factories. "In pursuit of production and comfortable lifestyle, the manufacturing and transport industries have been the alleged major contributors to the excessive green house gases. Production, manufacturing, lifestyles and protection of environment seem cannot go hand in hand all together."

Then the video came back to different types of engines. "But not anymore. The GE-X engine series is the new innovation that produces zero hazard emission without compromising production and efficiency."

"GE-X engines are powered by electromagnetic technology," the video now showed luxury ships, airplanes, helicopters, cars and factory machineries. "And it will soon empower production lines and transport vehicles."

Then it was back to the rotating engine model. "GE-X, the power of tomorrow is now here."

The ADI LED screens blinked then faded to black just as the lights came back. Cayetano who is still behind the podium did not waste a second and spoke again. "Ladies and gentlemen, Archemedes Corporation, which spearheaded the inception of GE-X has given me the honor to announce that the engine series will not only be used to empower military defense units but will be also made available to vehicles of any kind, factories and other industries. It is scheduled to be launched within few months from now but with a little funding from Universal Defense, the project was done in haste and is scheduled for launching tomorrow at Paris Convention Center."

He looked around and waited for some murmurs to fade away. "Factory engines, generator sets and every engine type will also have GE-X models and maybe in about a couple of years, zero hazard emission is already possible as everything will be powered by these eco-friendly engines. Archemedes and Universal Defense will also pave the way for the patents to be available for massive production by our automobile companies."

There was a series of claps and he waited for it to die out. "My friends in the European industries, I invite you to attend the launching of GE-X. For the meantime, let's party and I'll see you at the Paris Convention Center the day after tomorrow. Good evening."

In an instant, Cayetano left the podium and was already making his way down the stairs as a melodic music filled the sound system speakers. Upon reaching the last step, a group of business executives is already clustered around him.

Gillian looked around her and found that the other business executives clustered in factions in the room and were engaged in excited talks about the GE-X or other matters. The Novotel crewmen are also swarming around with trays of plates or drinks. The bodyguards of Cayetano were not missed by her eyes too. Nothing about the activities around missed her sight, or so she thought.

A man dressed as a Novotel crew passed by clusters of people and is carrying a flute of red wine. When hands attempted to pick up the drink, he just danced around them graciously and acted like he did not see the attempts to get it. He passed through the center aisle and had successfully dodged every attempt.

In no time, he was at the front of Gillian who was at the moment downing her drink. "Maybe you want a refill, ma'am?" He greeted with a curt smile.

"Yes, thank you." Gil placed the empty flute on the tray and moved her hands to pick the other but a wrinkled hand of a man with a gold ring on one of the fingers made it first to the flute.

"A word with you, doctor," the man aging over fifty said with all the air of an aristocrat. "And may I have the drink?" He peered at the eyes of the man dressed in Novotel crew uniform.

The crewman simply nodded and turned around after the man picked the drink.

"A word about what?" Gil faced him with a raised eyebrow as he sipped at the flute.

"A possible scientific exploration for a cure at the sss," he said and drank again.

"What exact cure is that?"

"My people-," he tried clearing his throat but did it with a lot of effort. "Peo-." His hand let go off the glass and it came down with a fragile crash on the floor.

Gillian watched as the man fell on the ground when his knees turned to jelly. He dropped down with folded knees; his feet were under his body, and his body was shaking. His hands were holding tight around his neck as if he is choking the life out of himself while blood is seeping out of his mouth and nose.

Gillian went down on the ground and held the man on the shoulders, pinning him on the ground as if it will stop the shaking of his body. She was calling for help but all of the people around were rooted on the floor and only threw her their curious eyes, puzzled on what is going on. She was too occupied in calling for help that she did not noticed the man dressed in Novotel uniform produced a silenced compact handgun and aimed at her back.

She was surprised when g*n blasts erupted. She instinctively covered her head with her hands. After some moments, she stood up and looked around. The dead body of the Novotel crewman who offered her a drink was lying on the floor and is surrounded by a pool of his own blood. A silenced .22 caliber g*n is inches away from his right hand. He panned her head around just to find two of Cayetano's bodyguards aiming their g*n at the dead man, their barrels still smoking from shooting.

Then it dawned on her. The man tried to poison her and also attempted to shoot her. Someone went in all the trouble to kill her.