Around the time that Aurora arrived in Worksop, Edmund’s home phone rang. He picked up the receiver, “Hello, who is calling, please?”
A male voice spoke down the line, “Edmund, old chap, Sir Roger here. It has been ages since we have been in touch. I trust you are keeping well. Look, one of my people, my nephew, Henry, has had to come up your way, and I have just got hold of some rather lovely port. I think you will really enjoy it, and I have asked him to drop a bottle off with you. He should be with you very soon.”
Edmund smiled back down the line. “That is terribly kind. Thank you for thinking of me. I will look forward to his arrival. And Roger, pass on my regards to Lady M, please.”
The voice said, “I certainly will. Goodbye, Edmund.”
Edmund turned to Vesna, who was lounging on the sofa, reading a cookbook. “I think we are about to meet our tail face-to-face.”
She looked up, “That sounds interesting?”
He shook his head, “Probably not. He blew out trying to tail us. The camera he hid at Ella’s is giving him nothing. That just leaves coming and asking me why I have suddenly changed my lifestyle. New business, new adopted daughter, new friends. My file from way back probably has a flag on it for just this sort of thing. And it has been waving frantically. Now, when he arrives, he will be looking for signs of us trying to hide something. The main question in his mind will be the new business; they will know that we are trading very actively and successfully, although they probably have no idea of the scale we, you, have been achieving. When he mentions the business, take him to your laptop, better yet, hook it to the big screen, ” he pointed at the TV “Tell him everything, when he asks about the software, even if he doesn’t, show it to him, show him the flickering trading screens and then show him your code, the C something which Duncan was so excited about. Blow his mind with detail.”
Vesna looked at him and groaned, “Can’t I just ask him for cooking tips?”
Edmund nodded, “Definitely, after you have done all that, ask him for cooking tips.”
Vesna tutted, “Dad, you are impossible!”
Moments later, the doorbell rang. Vesna went to answer it. A man in his mid-twenties stood on the doorstep. “Hello, I am Henry. I have come to see Mr Hale. I believe he should be expecting me.” He held up a bottle-shaped gift bag.
Vesna smiled at him, “Yes, he told me to expect you, do come in, this way please.”
She showed him through to the conservatory, Edmund put down his book, stood up and shook the young man’s hand. “Good to meet you, Henry, Sir Roger said you have a bottle of port for me?”
The young man held out the gift bag to him. Edmund took it, lifted the bottle out and inspected it. A very fine bottle, he thought, an exceptionally good year. In the bottom left corner of the label, there was a mark, which, to the casual observer, would be unremarkable, a stain, a fleck of spilt port, but the shape was a cloverleaf. The last confirmation of the sequence of signals of verification in the telephone dialogue. Sir Roger of didn’t exist, never had existed, let alone have a nephew, one Edmund thought was most likely an Indian from the Brahmin caste, second, maybe third generation UK born, Oxford or Cambridge graduate, fast stream Civil Service entry, which all matched what Eostre said the ladybird had reported to her. Edmund smiled at Henry, “Tell Sir Roger the port is very appreciated. Thank you for dropping it off.” He paused very briefly, “But I expect you will need to be getting on your way, please don’t feel you need to hang about here, if you have other business to be getting on with.”
Henry shook his head, “Actually, I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions about your new business ventures.”
Vesna said, “If you will excuse me, I do have some work to be getting on with, but if you both like a coffee while you chat, I will bring you one through. I made a pot just before you arrived, Mr..?
“Just call me Henry, please, yes, a coffee would be lovely.” He sat down opposite where Edmund had been sitting.
Edmund sat down too. He looked at Henry and waited for him to speak.
Henry paused. He had been expecting Edmund to offer up some information at least, which would have given him fuel for his questioning. He had been warned that Edmund played this sort of game well. “Mr Hale, the thing is, Sir Roger was rather surprised to hear about the recent changes in your life. I think he is quite pleased if you have found a new purpose, and also, a new addition to your household,” Vesna had returned with two coffees, on a tray with cream and sugar. He took one, smiled at her, “Thank you.” He continued, “But it does all seem to be rather sudden?”
Edmund shook his head, “Call me Edmund, please. That may be how it looks from the outside, but you should understand, this is a project which Vesna’s late father and I put considerable thought into, over quite some time. It was all triggered by a conversation he and I had about the possibilities opening up through the application of various automated and AI systems to stocks and shares trades. Vesna happened to be listening, and quite simply, she said that she could write the code and build the system we needed. I must admit, even though we were both quite clear about her extraordinary programming skills, we were taken aback when she showed us a proof of concept demo a few days later. Of course, it has taken almost two years to progress from that demo to a working system, which, it has to be said, is now producing results way beyond our expectations.”
Henry leant forward, his mouth opening to formulate a question, but Edmund got in first, “Vesna, would you please show Henry the system? I don’t think I really have the expertise to tell him much more about it.”
Vesna scowled slightly, “I did say I had some work I needed to do.”
Edmund nodded, “Yes, but if you could spare a few minutes, I think we would be very grateful, please.”
Vesna shrugged, “Okay,” she turned to Henry, “If you wait here a moment, I will get my laptop and hook it up to the screen in here.”
She went to the next room and came back with her laptop and an HDMI cable, which she connected to the big screen TV on the wall. The screen flickered into life. The display showed a row of graphs of the day’s activity on various stock markets around the world; beneath that, columns of data relating to specific shares, news streams and in the bottom right-hand corner, a very active box, rows of data streaming up and down the list. The title of the box was ‘Today’s Automated Trades’, and at the bottom was a box labelled ‘Today Cumulative P+/L-‘. Henry was giddied by the constant changes on screen, the scrolling news, the share tickers, the flickers as graphs updated in real time. But he noticed another 0 added itself at the end of the P+ figure in the bottom corner. He pointed at it, “You have made that much today already?”
Vesna shook her head, “No, that is just the small automated trades, they run very fast, so I have to keep an eye on them, they can sometimes go off track, and I have to tweak the model from time to time. There are larger investments, set to be held for days, even weeks; they are subject to a more sophisticated management system, more hands-on. But hold on, I will show you how it all works. This is the automated trading module. The screen changed, and Henry was now looking at a programmer’s IDE, a 72” screen full of C++. “Now, this bit I am really proud of, it was tricky to work out how to get the automated system to select good trades without constant intervention, but if you look at what I did here, you can see…..” Henry, who couldn’t see, had been glad when he escaped from the compulsory programming course at his boarding school; he had hoped never to see a screen of code again. But Vesna just kept on going, showing him more and more, “….This module, I coded it in Assembly Language, C++ is very fast, of course, but Assembly edges it.”
Henry managed to escape Vesna’s clutches after about half an hour. Edmund had come and asked if he would like another coffee; he accepted gratefully, thanked Vesna for her “wonderful” presentation, and Edmund and Henry sat down to drink their coffees. Vesna excused herself, saying she needed to get back to her work.
Henry drank his coffee and gathered his thoughts. “Edmund, Vesna’s system is quite remarkable. She is 17, I believe, so she came up with the concept when she was only about 15; that is quite incredible. Did she work alone, or get outside help?”
Edmund nodded, “All her own work. And, while in pretty much every other respect she is a normal and lovely young woman, as far as programming is concerned, well, she is Mozart.”
Henry nodded, “Yes, I got that. Now, one thing she was quite dismissive about was the automated trades. I mean, she showed me how it all worked, but that section alone, you have made an extraordinary amount of money just today, and from what I understand, that is repeated every day, and the amounts are growing as you reinvest. So what is the end game?”
Edmund nodded, “Yes, that is what she is working on now. There will be a point when our trades will become market influencers, so our actions will directly affect the trades we make, which will invalidate the AI processes. We will need a suite of programs that help us identify, analyse and select businesses for long-term direct investments or buyouts. Then, a second suite that first tracks and evaluates performance and profitability and then helps to identify new market niches and opportunities.”
Henry thought for a moment, “You mean, something like the model Berkshire Hathaway run, find well-run businesses with good prospects and supply the capital and support they need to achieve their full potential.”
Edmund nodded, “Something along those lines, yes. But I think there are some opportunities, new technologies, and niches we could also explore. For example, we will need a great deal more server space than we currently have, we would like to control the hosting ourselves, to ensure no leaks of sensitive information, so we have in mind to set up our own micro datacentre and offer a boutique, high security service to other businesses with similar needs, which hopefully will cover our costs.”
Henry nodded, “I was going to ask why you have acquired a derelict industrial site up the coast. That is what you have planned for it?”
Edmund nodded, “Yes, secluded, private, but also near where the substation where the electricity from the latest wind farm will come ashore, so the connection to the Internet will be excellent in that area, still outside the sweet spot near the city, but Vesna has a workaround for that. I have talked to a friend in the USA, though, who has been trying to persuade me to move the business over there. He has a point, their business environment is more entrepreneur-friendly, but so far, Vesna likes it here. She feels safe and comfortable and has started making friends, and after what she has been through, I think it is important for her to put down new roots. I suppose it really depends on her asylum application; if that gets complicated or drags on, it will make her much more inclined to accept his offer of a US passport. I certainly don’t want to move anywhere, though.”
Henry grimaced inside at the mention of a US passport. After what he had just seen, the flight of what looked likely to become a major contributor to the British economy and all its tax contributions to ‘sunnier’ climes was something he would not want to be blamed for. “Edmund, I think I have all I need. Vesna was extremely helpful, told me more than I needed, frankly, a lot more than I understood. She really does seem to be the out-and-out genius you say. I think it would be a great shame if she felt in any way unwelcome or uncomfortable here, and I will mention that in my report. Maybe we can do something to help. Otherwise, I can’t see any reason for us to be concerned rather than enthused about your project. I hope all goes well for both of you. Thank you for your openness. He stood up, “I will be on my way, enjoy the port.”
Edmund smiled at him and shook his hand. He called out, “Vesna, Henry is leaving, come and say goodbye.”
Vesna came through from the next room. She reached out her hand to Henry, “It was lovely being able to tell someone about all my work, someone who actually understands what I am talking about.” She looked pointedly at Edmund.
Henry laughed as he shook her hand, “I am not sure I understood that much to be quite honest, but it was certainly impressive.”
He turned to head for the front door, spotted the aquarium and paused to look at it, “A nice looking tank, my MA at Cambridge was in Biology,” he suddenly started, “Wait, you have a Knightia eocaena. They have been extinct, well, since the Eocene era.” He turned to Edmund, “Where on earth did you get it from?”
Edmund looked puzzled, “Well, all the fish came from one of the local aquarium shops. They didn’t mention any of them being at all special.”
Eostre’s voice spoke in his head, “Fixed, gone.”
“Careless of us, Eostre.”
Edmund walked over to the tank. “Which one?”
Henry searched the tank, “I can’t see it. How odd, I was sure I saw it, but of course, that is impossible.” He carried on scanning the tank, looking for the fish.
Edmund said, “Well, there have been cases of supposedly extinct fish and other creatures being discovered, haven’t there?”
Henry said, “Oh yes, the prime, or best known example is probably the Coelocanth, but that was a deep-sea fish, the Knightia were freshwater fish, so much more unlikely they would suddenly turn up.”
Edmund nodded, “A pity, I would have rather liked having something special in my tank.”
Henry shrugged, the fish he thought he had seen was not to be found, “Sorry to raise false hopes. I must be off, though. Thank you for having me.”
Back in London that afternoon, ‘Henry’ or rather, Sanjit Mukherjee, went to see ‘Sir Roger’ or rather, Geoff Culver, his boss. “I had a very interesting meeting with Edmund and Vesna Hale. He was initially guarded, as you were expecting. But he passed me over to Vesna. Incidentally, her English is excellent, in fact, almost accentless, just a few words which come out with a Ukrainian accent. She is the real deal; she programmed their entire system herself, showed me the trading platform, they are making a great deal of money every day, and each day, they have more to reinvest, and the returns go up accordingly, more or less exponential growth. From everything I saw, the way they are scaling, there is every prospect that they could become a very major corporation, very fast.
Geoff Culver nodded, “Yes, I read the report. I was concerned by your remarks about the US. I want you to get her passport issued now, no messing around, use my authority, get it couriered to her. There will also be stuff to smooth with the rest of the asylum process; there’s no point in someone like her being forced to sit in a classroom in an ordinary school. Make sure they make her a priority; basically, they do what she wants, provide what she wants, and do it quickly. Off you go, get it sorted.”
Around the time Sanjit was getting his orders, Ella turned up at Edmund and Vesna’s house, carrying a large bag. It was time to prepare for nightclubbing. Alice had given them directions to a friend of hers’ house near the club, and the plan was that they would meet up there with her other friends, and all go together. Ella thought Alice probably wanted to ‘polish’ Vesna so she could show off her craftsmanship with Vesna’s hairstyle looking its absolute best. But in the meantime, Ella was going to do some Vesna ‘polishing’ of her own; she had brought along makeup, nail polish and some clothes she thought Vesna might like to try.
Vesna was lounging in the conservatory with a stack of cookbooks when she arrived. Vesna looked up, “Do you like ravioli?”
Ella replied, “Well, yes, it can be rather nice.”
Vesna looked back at her book, “I can’t see the point of it, meat and pasta, why bother making little packets out of it?” She looked at Vesna’s bags, “Are those for me?”
Ella nodded, “Just brought some stuff to see if you fancied trying it out, up to you, I won’t mind if you already have your own ideas.”
Vesna dumped her books on the coffee table and jumped to her feet. “OK, bedroom, come!”
Up in her room, Vesna grabbed a couple of envelopes which were lying on her bed. She ripped open the first packet and poured its contents on the bed. Three pots of nail varnish landed on the bed. Vesna said, “Guards Red, couldn’t find anyone with it in stock online, so I had to hunt for someone who could mix a custom colour. Looks ok, they said to use a base coat for the best results.” Then another packet, lipstick to match the nail varnish.
The third and last was ripped open, revealing a small, black jewellery box. Inside was a gold necklace with a stylised daisy pendant. Vesna held it for Ella to see, “This is me, us, the Kind, our symbol, a daisy. A daisy opens at dawn, when I was born. This one is crafted in gold wire, formed into one unbroken line, looping, never ending. It is a symbol of the dawn, of continuity, spring, new birth and eternity. I found a jeweller, a craftsman and had him make it for me. I think he did a wonderful job of it.”
Ella looked at it, “Wow, that is very pretty. I love the concept and the design, and yes, you are right, it has been beautifully made.”
Vesna clipped the pendant’s matching gold cable chain around her neck and looked in the mirror. “Perfect, just the look I wanted.” She pointed to her hair, then the pendant. “Red, gold and black? I think I will stick with that. I have these. She grabbed a hanger from the wardrobe door, “Low cut top, black silk, and a short black skirt to go with it. I have these shoes, black, comfortable, not too high, I think they would work?”
Ella nodded, “Yes, I think you will look great, stick with your plan, don’t bother looking at the stuff I brought, you will look terrific. Can I help with the nail varnish and lipstick?”
“Yes, please.”
Vesna got dressed and twirled in front of the mirror, “Good. Yes?”
Ella laughed, “I think you know. You look absolutely awesome. It is a very ‘you’ look. The pendant is a gorgeous finishing touch, too.”
Ella set to work, carefully polishing Vesna’s nails and lipstick.
When Ella finished, they chatted while Vesna’s nails dried. Then the doorbell rang, the taxi had arrived. Duncan was already on board, and the two of them piled in beside him. They were dropped off at Alice’s friend’s home on a street not far from the nightclub. Alice let them in and introduced them to her college friend Janey. There were some drinks and some chat, mainly from the two hairdressers who walked round Vesna, cooing admiringly at Alice’s handiwork on Vesna’s hair, snipping off any ends which they thought were slightly out of place. Then, off to the nightclub.
When they arrived at the entrance, Ella was fretting about getting in. Janey had reassured them that she would have a word with her friendly security guard. When they rounded the corner, she saw he was not on duty and swore under her breath. But at the door, both security guards just smiled at them and said, “Hi Janey, you and your friends have a good time,” and waved them in. Ella looked suspiciously at Vesna, and Vesna looked innocently back.
Inside, dark and loud, Vesna modulated the volume of the sound to avoid any hearing damage and filtered the sound so that she would be able to understand what people were saying, or rather shouting at each other. She could still feel the vibration of the music and quite quickly started to enjoy the whole experience. Dragged onto the dancefloor, she danced tentatively at first, then really started to revel in the freedom to fling herself around. She plumbed her libraries for dance samples, and when TOTP tracks came on, she pulled out the dance troupe’s routines and performed them. When Ella and Duncan were tired, they took breaks. They chatted with Alice, Janey, and a couple of Alice’s other friends, who were all wowed by Alice’s craft with Vesna’s hair. Alice preened. It was getting late, and they grabbed a last drink. Duncan was off chatting to an old school friend as a man brushed close past Ella and Vesna. Vesna turned to Ella and spoke into Ella’s ear. “Don’t drink that, the guy who walked past spiked it. Wait for me, I will be back in a moment. Someone is going to be taught the error of their ways. Don’t worry, I will be fine.”
Vesna downed her own drink in one and set off in the direction of the ladies’ toilets. She weaved and stumbled slightly as she crossed the floor, then continued out of sight. She walked down the passage, past the ladies’ and headed to the emergency exit. A ladybird was sitting across the door alarm’s contacts. Behind her, the large man who had spiked their drinks had followed her. She walked out through the door into the dark alley outside. The man followed her out.
Back in the club, Duncan had seen Vesna weaving across the room. “Ella, is Vesna OK? She looks like she has been drugged or something.”
Ella said, “Vesna is fine, Duncan.”
He looked at her, surprised by her lack of concern and set off after Vesna. She, in turn, followed him.
In the passageway, Duncan stuck his head through the door of the ladies’, got sworn at by a cluster of girls, but found no trace of Vesna. Then he noticed the exit door was ajar, went through it, and out into the alley. A large man, heavily built and over six feet tall, was reaching out to grab hold of Vesna. Duncan started forward, then stopped.
There was a loud thud. Vesna struck the man’s wrist, fast and hard, a blow carefully targeted to inflict both pain and damage. He cried out in pain. Bruising from burst blood vessels bloomed and started to spread up his arm. He tried again with his other hand, but Vesna struck again with the same effect. His hands agonisingly disabled, the man tried to throw a kick. Vesna delivered two fast, hard kicks, spinning her body mass down as her shins crashed into his left and right thigh muscles with paralysing force. The man teetered. Duncan recognised the next strike Vesna used, it was karate, a Nakayubi Ipponken, a fist with the knuckle of the middle finger projecting. She struck the man cleanly in the solar plexus, sending his diaphragm into spasm. He started to subside to the ground. Vesna reached out, her thumb lined under one side of his jaw, her fingers under the other side. She lifted him into the air, his feet dangling inches above the ground. Her arm held straight out, she looked into his eyes and spoke quietly to him. “Now, I don’t think you are a bad man, but you are on a bad path. You have bad friends who you are following. You are doing bad things, as you tried to with me tonight, poisoning me, and then I assume you planned on sexually abusing me for your own pleasure. I think you know better, and I think deep down, you know that the path you are on has only misery at its end. Well. From this point on, you will change. You will be the good person you really want to be, you will find better friends, and live a better life. Don’t let me down. I will know if you do, and you will not enjoy seeing me again. I may simply feed you to my dog.”
Vesna placed him on his feet, then, in one final act, launched herself into the air and knocked him to the ground with a flying kick.
She turned and walked over to Duncan. Ella had joined him. “Duncan, I have a feeling you have questions you want to ask me? Shall we find a quiet table, and I will tell you everything you want to know.” She pointed across the alley, where there was a door, with a sign above ‘The End Of The World Inn’.
Duncan nodded. The three of them walked through the door into the pub. Once the door had closed behind them, the alley wall reverted to grubby, graffiti-marked brick. On the ground, the large man groaned. When he looked up, a massive black dog glared into his eyes, its muzzle inches from his face. He froze. He could hear a low, menacing rumble of a growl from deep inside the dog’s body. Then the dog walked on past him, behind his back. He turned slowly to see what it was doing, but by the time he had turned, it had vanished.