Ric stood for a long time seeing Penny in repose. Even thus she seemed unrelaxed and tired. He thought she should go with Thea to Psathi immediately. He and Hep would cope with the AG with Marina's a.s.sistance. But he knew she would not go now. Perhaps if she could finally get over Alexander she would feel things were more able to be handled. He could only hope.

Chapter 7.

If the manager of the surprisingly large and elegant Olympia Hotel, tucked away among the larger 'thirties' villas, off the North Circular in North Hendon, was surprised to be chosen as a venue for a three-day international conference of 'shoe manufacturers' he did not show it. New reception staff booked-in some highly recognisable members of the Advisory Group, as the manager and all of his usual staff enjoyed an unexpected holiday. Marina's people had recently been taken on as temporary staff to service the conference with all its needs for food, 'phone calls, faxes and email communications. Only people in Marina's pay would get near any of the guests. The hotel was discretely located and the Thatcher Suite, was ideal for small private conferences.

As usual, Penny and Ric were on hand to greet the guests for drinks at the first evening session, before the admirable dinner. The guests were cut off from the rest of the world, and closely guarded by Marina's staff. No one entered or left without her knowledge.

The guests filtered in from their rooms, clearly pleased to see each other. There was much hugging, kissing and hand clasping. It was a quite different atmosphere from the early meeting which set up 'Operation Denial'. Although members of the group met each other from time to time at functions and gossip-worthy sporting and artistic events; only at this gathering were they able to lower their guard and be themselves without playing a role. They were in constant touch with GAIANET and monitored by Ric and Hep but telecommunications, were a poor subst.i.tute for flesh and blood contact. Electronic contact would never be quite the real thing. Penny was revived in spirit by the presence of these hand-picked people. For the next two to three days she would have her energy recharged by people in tune with herself and Ric. The only missing person was Alexander, a thought she quickly put from her.

It was a unique gathering, dedicated to reframing commerce and industry to ensure mutual balance between the needs of people and a more easily maintained sustainability of the earth's resources - but with the financial muscle to make a difference. They were not merely urging corporations and governments to try and change things at some indefinable time in the future. They were activists in a.s.sociation who deployed great financial, social and technical strength. This was the phenomenon of the now dispersed but highly active JNO.

They knew the vast wealth they had 'inherited' from the break up of the Dodona's enterprises gave them an edge and their access to HIGO and the resources of GRADE, put them ahead of other interest groups. Between them and with Ric's information they influenced modifications and productive capacities in the biggest commercial conglomerates on earth. In six short years this group had become the unknown back-room of the planet.

The first phase of Operation Denial was complete. Their success, came largely from the element of surprise. While it was not possible to siphon billions of dollars of profits from oil, shipping, and money transactions without detection and re-deploy them without causing problems which would give them away; they had got away with a significant amount of re-deployment and were still in control - just. While some observers had always been suspicious of the Dodona empire, a few of the more a.s.siduous were beginning to smell a conspiracy, not yet identified but unseen in the background.

Penny and Ric moved among their guests saying their h.e.l.los. Hep and Marina were in a sealed room recording the whole event for a.n.a.lysis. Marina was searching for any dissonance's which might betray total trust. Hep was after the overview to feed into HIGO.

At the oval conference-table in the centre of the room, each place was rigged with an videophone. These were encrypted and linked by JNO's private satellite to the internet and were connected to a large monitor visible to all. They were also coupled to HIGO and GAIANET. All the delegates could communicate instantaneously with each other and anyone, anywhere in the world. All information, incoming and outgoing, was simultaneously interpreted by HIGO.

Clapping her hands for attention over the steady hubbub, Penny brought the group to order. When everyone was a.s.sembled for business she flashed the agenda on the screen. No paper ever exchanged hands, nothing was recorded except by HIGO. Marina insisted on this simple precaution.

As on all previous occasions, Ric as chairman opened the proceedings. The meetings of the AG were informal and allowed time for people to find their own ways into the meat of the discussions and decisions. Ric, pushed the electrical paraphernalia in front of him slightly to one side and remaining in his seat addressed the group informally.

'I suppose it sounds trite to say this, but it's a privilege to sit here with you at these meetings and particularly at this time. Our coming together becomes more and more important and the more crucial it becomes, the more difficult it is for each of you. So I want you to know that we are fully aware of the problems many of you have experienced merely getting away from your work; finding time in your busy calendars and putting up with the intricate security arrangements dreamed up by the indomitable Marina. At least I can a.s.sure you of the quality of the food and I hope you are comfortable. We think we have thought of most things to make this conference as easy and convenient as possible, but as you know, each time it gets that bit harder to ensure success. Should you need anything, any of us will be pleased to try and meet your requirements. That said, I have one piece of news I could not impart electronically as it has to be for your ears only. It is that Lucina Dodona has asked to spend a little time with you tomorrow morning - if that's okay with you of course?'

He waited to see the reaction to this announcement. They were all aware the Dodona's were central to their work as a group through the fortunes of the enterprises they, or through them, their princ.i.p.als manipulated. Apart from Penny and Matsuko Morii, none of the members had met either of the Dodona's. A visit from Lucina was a significant event not to be missed.

'Before anyone asks why she is coming, the answer is that none of us know any more than she has made a simple request to share a small amount of our time. I am as much on tenterhooks as yourselves. Until then I ask you not to speculate pointlessly. Not that that will stop you,'

There was polite laughter, 'But honestly we have no idea and can only wait. We have already been pointlessly speculating for twenty-four hours longer than you have and it's done us no good so far.'

Another polite laugh went round the table.

'Can I take it that there is no objection to her coming?' He searched the listening faces and was struck as always by the sense of satisfaction he felt at the energy and the poise of the members. These were important and influential people in their own worlds. The highest of high-flyers. Whenever they met outside the group they behaved as themselves and on their own terms. Here, by contrast, they were a team; their own needs and desires sublimated or linked to achieve joint goals.

He thought it a miracle of Penny's commitment that each one of them shared her unshakeable desire to bring harmony into the world as an objective over and above any of their personal ambitions or those of their firms or countries. They knew the dangers and costs of acting independently. Of taking complex initiatives often against the direct interests of their employers, colleagues or friends. Even though they did it for ideals beyond personal or corporate ambitions, if detected they each would be ruined. That they believed they should act together in this way; was a major connecting strand that kept them involved. None of them gained anything personally in terms of worldly power, influence or reward from their activities with JNO - but they changed things. Many of the original, now defunct advisory group, had believed their a.s.sociation with the Dodona empire would be good for their own enterprises and or social standing and left when they realised they had to put more in more and more resources than they would ever take out, and expose themselves to ever greater risks. Of the several hundred candidates and early members screened by Marina; those a.s.sembled here were the best of them.

They could be trusted to seek out like-minded people and nurture them as supporters. Each member of the group represented at least a hundred other individuals on a first ring of a network, like ripples in a pond, each of the hundred were in touch with another hundred and so on to the outer limits; where it was harder to see the connections even though they existed. Not even the group knew how many they influenced, but it must have been tens of thousands, probably millions. The development of the information super-highway enabled their influence to reach further than ever possible before - millions were linked unknowingly to HIGO through this small selected gathering.

In response to Ric's question Dov Krajowa the grizzled old Sabra, asked ironically, a half-smile hovering on his strongly hewn face, 'I thought the Dodona's were a law unto themselves. Don't they go where they like?'

'True,' answered Penny. 'And it is as a mark of her respect that she first asks our permission. As you know our work now reaches a critical point. The Dodona's have long waited for this time and it is our belief Lucina Dodona wants to check where we have got to for herself.'

'What's the exact nature of your relationship with her Penny?' asked Doris Botham. 'I know you were Executive Chairman of JNO for many years and a partner, but since JNO, well - broke up, I've been meaning to ask you for a long time but it didn't seem important as long as GRADE was sh.e.l.ling out....but her coming here like this...well it begs certain questions about our relationship with the ...what shall I call it...the 'mother company' springs to mind.' Doris smiled her nicest smile.

At first glance she personified homespun Britain. A motherly figure, no more than five feet two, almost as round as she was tall, her little legs hardly reached the floor of the solid armchairs provided by the hotel for the additional comfort of their conference guests. Despite her fifty-five years her face had maintained a smooth roundness and her hair, expertly cut, framed large, intelligent, piercing, cobalt-blue eyes. She had never married, wedded to her work and her politics, she was however, against all appearance by no means the innocent figure she seemed. As Chief Secretary to the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Innovation in the UK Government. She also chaired Europe's standing committee on trade and industry. Her strategic intellect and fearsome homing instinct for the phoney and the spurious in human endeavour had killed off many who thought to benefit from the support of either governmental body. Her staff called her the smiling a.s.sa.s.sin. Many who accepted on face value her 'b.u.t.ter wouldn't melt in her mouth' demeanour, later found themselves totally undone without being at all aware, until too late, of the ruthlessness of her decisive genius.

Penny smiled back, 'dear Doris, I wish I really knew. When you meet her you will form your own judgement. To be honest I don't ask and never have. She, as you say, enables GRADE to keep 'sh.e.l.ling out' and that's the main thing.'

'I don't think there is any value in this conversation continuing any further,' Matsuko Morii trilled in her soft, clear voice. 'Madame Dodona will make it entirely clear why she comes. Penny's relationship is not an issue, as you will discover when you meet her. I can say that I have met Madame several times in recent years, and I say you do not have a relationship with her, she has one with you. There is no more to be said - wait and discuss this after her visit, if you still have need.'

This comment was met by a silence during which Doris continued to smile sweetly and which Ric believed meant that Matsuko's statement might or might not be the last to be made in relation to the forthcoming visit. Not wanting any important threads left dangling he adressed the point and speaking to Matsuko said, 'Okay - Fine, an interesting experience to come. Thank you Matsuko.' He turned to Doris. 'Is that alright with you? I felt you might want to know more from Penny. Do you have any reservations about our relationship with JNO or any other of the princ.i.p.als?'

As if to clear her head, Doris coquettishly shook her hair and smoothed it back with her two hands. Her bell-like voice filled the room without being too loud. It was impossible to do anything but pay attention when she spoke.

'We all know we are at a watershed. What happens next will make all the difference to our success or failure. Look, on one level I don't have any problems with it either way. If we succeed then my dreams will be fulfilled (and while I don't know what that would do to me personally, it will certainly be a time for universal rejoicing). If we fail I will go on ploughing my furrow as I always have. Things will be slower, more damage will occur, I probably will lose more in the end than I will gain in terms of real success but I will have the satisfaction of having done my best according to my abilities. You can't ask for more than that. But on another level, I have to say what alarms me is the fact of the Dodona's being at the back of things. When all this began several years ago, I was too pre-occupied with getting things done and the thought of being able to manipulate events from the wings was, so to speak, too enticing. Like, getting the Euro linked to the Dollar and the Yen to make what is now essentially a world currency, took all my and other people's time and well...you know the effect of more or less taking out the money traders from the world scene. But without the Dodona fortune, it could not have been done. I now realise I don't know these people. I a.s.sume they share our aims or they wouldn't put such resources at our disposal. But what's in it for them? It's a question I ought to have put at the beginning, and I'm not sure why I didn't - why any of us didn't!' She turned her penetrating blue eyes on Penny and continued. 'And if you don't know Penny, who does?'

Penny felt a strong need to answer but knew she had nothing to say that would satisfy Doris. She sensed correctly the others were equally as interested in her response. She again faced the feeling that Lucina had another agenda as well as her own. Her basic honesty was driving her to answer Doris' reasonable question with her own inability to grasp their ultimate motives. Her more considered response was to utter some plat.i.tude about all of them sharing the same goals, but was afraid she would sound insincere. Doris had asked the question deliberately, and Penny was sure her reply was vital. Any hesitation would also be read by the group as an evasion, whatever she said afterwards. Before she was however, able to say anything, she was grateful to be rescued by Ric, who, without a glance in her direction, simply interposed, 'I think You'd better wait for Lucina Dodona, and put the question to her. I think it's a question none of us should speculate about, not even Penny.' He paused for a long two seconds and in view of the silence he continued by introducing the business agenda. Doris smiled ever so sweetly at him.

'The first item is my report from the GAIANET work since the last meeting. You should have been receiving coded information directly. We think that with the speed of change now developing, this method of disseminating information to you is outmoded and potentially insecure. We have therefore, devised a direct link to HIGO which you can only access with a special programme. This is written in a new form of computer language which you can voice or type into your PC's and which is coded differently for each of you so that HIGO will automatically know who is doing the accessing. Any unauthorised user will get nothing from HIGO and it will recognise rogue equipment and automatically destroy the memory of an unauthorised computer which tries to make contact. The personal code programme will be given to you while you are here and we require you to memorise your own. It's not very long. Any questions?' There were none.

Right, if you will be so good as to notice the screen, I will take you through the developments in the time since we last met. The first set of diagrams shows HIGO's interpretation of the overall effect of our collective work since we began.'

Ric threw onto the screen a series of overlapping graphs figures and patterns which lasted for about an hour.

The overall effect clearly showed the extent of the multiple crises of social and ecological change acting and reacting. The series on global warming alone, showed the actual effect on the polar ice-caps and rising sea-levels, coastal inundation, together with shifting weather patterns. These were linked to the human and financial costs of hurricanes, severe cold-snaps, excessive summer heat-waves, changes in desertification, insurance costs, employment changes, new dust-bowl areas from soil erosion, deforestation, shifts in the production patterns of oil and electricity, the effects of acid-rain - and so on. The next set of screens traced the changes of industrialisation on society and the ecology of the earth from the early nineteenth-century to the beginnings of the twenty-first and projected several alternative scenarios for the next hundred years. The conclusions of all this a.n.a.lysis were inescapable and simple. While production of raw-materials, foodstuffs, and economic growth used the marketplace as a natural regulator, there was simply not enough time for human ingenuity to come up with sufficient antidotes to the existing consequences of the ignorance and greed of previous and current generations before the conditions for human life on the planet as it was now lived; became simply untenable. The consequences of global warming alone included the dual catastrophe of a drying out of the American Mid-Western grain-belt together with an inundation of coastal agricultural lands amounting to a third of all global cropland. This linked to the current difficulty of feeding the rising world population, was only one of many socially explosive ingredients. Then there was the addition of the destruction by the permanent flooding of the Egyptian and Bangladeshi Deltas. Other screens dealt with the social and ecological effects of pollution, growing amounts of indestructible nuclear waste, the effect of global agricultural production and land ownership and the effect of all this on economic and social life. Interestingly, a hypothetical scenario slipped in by GAIANET showing the time-scale for the earth to rehabilitate herself naturally, a.s.suming people were wiped out, coincided with the critical date to reverse the worst ravages of the industrialised world.

The year which acted as the pivotal point of no return was set by the computer as 2012. For reasons best known to itself, it gave a twenty five year caveat as leeway.

Mo Chu of the Chinese Food and Agriculture Commission, sitting on the left of Chieko Terakoa of Taiwan shipping, with whom he was on very good terms despite the att.i.tudes of his Government, ostentatiously cleared his throat. He was everything a Mandarin might be expected to be. Tall, dressed impeccably in a Saville Row suit and tailor made shirt, his elongated frame seemed to thrust his long head in a majestic rise from the loose confines of his high collar. He was almost completely bald, with deep set eyes, cadaverous cheeks and an enormous Adam's apple which danced as he spoke a too impeccable English with no hint of an accent, despite having learned the language entirely abroad.

'My dear Ricardo, do you mean to say that the world as we know it is to come to an end in such a short time. Because, if I may say so, this puts the wondrous GAIANET system into the same category as many other 'earth-enders', if I may put it so. I cannot believe this is a prediction of certainty. Surely you would not presume to be so absurd.'

'It could be true,' said Piotre Ulybin of Moscow Oil. 'If you take it all together and if you don't take into account our current work - I take it Ric that this information doesn't take into consideration the collective work of this group. Of course I don't either believe the year 2012 is any more than convenient stab at a watershed time - a computer simulation of prediction based on limited information. I agree with Chu here, to take literally would be absurd.'

Ric scanned the a.s.sembly and spoke in the same quiet even tones he had been using so far. He wanted to keep emotion out of the discussion for as long as possible. The facts which he knew would be pouring from GAIANET once HIGO delivered the interpreted work of the group would make it difficult to keep things calm later on.

'No, I don't take it literally Piotre, but neither Chu, do I think it absurd. But if you will bear with me, I want to leave such considerations on the back-burner for now. We need to feed into the machine the finer details of your experience of the last months. If the indications are right you may well be at the point of turning the tide. By the end of tomorrow morning's session I want us to have a clearer picture of the potential for change you have initiated, contrasted with the predictions of GAIANET. I am not however certain that 2012 is a bad year for us nevertheless. - I notice however colleagues that it is dinner time. I suggest we adjourn to the dining room and continue afterwards with your own inputs.'

The dinner was excellent but regrettably for several, without alcohol. Minds needed to be kept sharp. They were there to work and given the tight time-frame, through the night and into the next day if necessary. It would not be the first time, and given the current scenario, it probably would not be the last. When the members were again seated after the meal, there began a brief input from each of the partic.i.p.ants in turn. They were recorded by GAIANET and interpreted by HIGO. In much the same way as the bottom line of a spread-sheet changes as information is changed on the grid, so the interpretations of HIGO changed the predictions of GAIANET. The burning question was whether the inputs would change the sixty four thousand dollar date of 2012. Or despite whatever they did, would it remain inexorably the same?

Three themes gradually developed. The production of mineral and vegetable resources; ecological consequences; and social and political effects. Several trends connected to these themes interwove, as each member spent about fifteen minutes indicating the current effects of their work as they saw it. Screens flashed over and over as members checked new information against their own and up-dated effects. All the time HIGO re-interpreted the three main themes and all eyes kept re-checking the 2012 date as it changed as new information was fed into it - sometimes lengthening, sometimes shortening.

The last speaker, Lynne Farrell had been working on digital telecommunications. After many boardroom and stock exchange battles, her international corporation, Sydney Communications, now dominated the international digital TV and telephone networks. While the internet remained free territory, SYDCOM could exercise control over nearly all the server systems and although it would take a computer genius all his time and several thousand million dollars to funnel everything into GAIANET. Lynne was getting into position to link nearly three-quarters of the population of the earth directly to JNO's computer at Markham at Penny's instruction; but not for some considerable time. When asked how long, she could not yet answer. This news had the effect of bringing the date back from 2043 to 2015.

At the end of the session there was a hubbub of conversation. Ric allowed people to talk freely for a good half-hour and when the conversations subsided a little he called them back to order.

'Ladies and gentlemen, as you see there is a terrifying inevitability binding our work to the approximate 2012 date. It seems that if we are unable to accomplish the changes for which we strive, after 2012, the earth will have gone beyond the point where its self-regulatory mechanisms can permanently restore it to full historical functioning. After 2012 it will always be less of itself and there will follow a slow but inexorable decline of the optimum conditions for human life. If we cannot modify this scenario we will have failed in our task. If we remain on course it is still possible we can just about change things in time. However our current predictions rest entirely on the interpretation of this model of events - as if they were to go along in the present pattern and this we know is unlikely.

Before the visit from Lucina Dodona we must therefore concentrate on worst case scenarios and how they can be offset. I suggest we now retire as it's three am and resume at eight a.m. to prepare for Madame Dodona's visit'.

The group, tired and inclined to silence slowly made for their rooms. Penny, exhausted, went directly to her room to sleep. Ric lingered with some of the delegates over a night-cap in the bar before retiring.

A mere four hours later, a little rested Ric and Penny ate a light private breakfast in the conference room to make arrangements for Lucina's visit.

'What do you think?' asked Ric over his coffee cup.

'I'm tired and not sure I'm thinking straight but right now to make it, feels like it's going to take a miracle. You saw the lengths Karl Kahn is having to go to prevent a good dozen Third-World powers from crushing the empowerment of workers we have already liberated. It seems as if we shall have to arm them to the teeth and encourage b.l.o.o.d.y revolutions to shift things properly and the history of violent revolution is not on our side. Besides there isn't time. The requirement for anti-personnel weapons from countries struggling to control the movements of ordinary workers and the landless are astronomical. You saw how some of them are even thinking of going tactically nuclear as a way of blackmailing the West to help them control their shaky power bases.'

She shrugged her shoulders helplessly, overwhelmed by the size of the task facing them. The despair in her voice encouraged Ric's previous doubts about her ability to continue under such strain. Her next comment made him sit down as if a heavy hand had forced him into the chair, it was her att.i.tude more than what she actually said that affected him.

'It seems to me that for every step forward we take to deny the power of capitalistic enterprise to keep exploiting either people or resources, results in a backlash which means unacceptable bloodshed or intolerable destruction. It's as if n.o.body can conceive that the future of people in the world depends on a changed model for human commercial and industrial behaviour. The worst thing is that the more you know this to be true the more ridiculous it is and the more tragic. See how the West is deregulating environmental curbs to encourage growth. This is in the teeth of all our work, which means we have to redouble our efforts. The only response to this must result in a tightening of the already destructive spiral - so that the harder we work the greater is the opposition. The harder we work - the worse they behave. We also have to deal with the political fall-out of unemployment in parts of the West and especially in Eastern Europe. I'm also very worried about the potential of migration patterns of the middle cla.s.s from the third world and its effect. China is flexing its muscles seeing the weakness of the West and India believes it can catch up with the Pacific countries even faster now. Also there are the religious fundamentalists who just want to make everything go backwards.'

Now she was walking around the room talking to the walls, to the computer screens - her mind was a whirl of conflicting images of force and counter-force. Her voice was tense, 'What I thought we are doing is certainly highly complicated, but it is an orderly strategy for change. Now it's countered step by step by an inexorable return to the status quo. It is as if there is really no alternative than the inevitable self-destruction of the human race, whatever the power of JNO might perform. As hard as I try I can't make the spectre of 2012 diminish - Ric - I just don't think we can make it in the time, barring a miracle. The forces of reaction are just too strong. It's like lemmings heading for the cliff edge simply because the momentum alone sweeps away every argument for even slowing down, let alone stopping. It's pure lunacy and everyone knows it but they can't stop. However much GRADE helps to redress imbalances, money is just not going to be enough in the time-scale we have. I used to think it would. I used to think that if it were no longer profitable for companies to destructively use up the world, the ecology movement coupled with Operation Denial would bring things to some kind of acceptable equilibrium.'

She stopped pacing compulsively and pulled a chair round to face him, 'I figured without the incredible force generated by the sheer momentum of the opposition. I knew there would be opposition but I thought enough reason would have prevailed by now. That when Governments saw the benefits of our work they would pitch in and support it.'

Ric's spirit rallied a little thinking about the important progress they had made in some quarters. 'I'm sure,' he responded. 'The time frame of 2012 is too early for the necessary changes to take hold and I don't believe in the doomsday scenario thrown out by the computer. There are too many variables for any logical machine, even for the highly sophisticated fuzzy logic of GAIANET. I'm a computer man to my bones, but my faith in the machinery and software I create is always limited by the knowledge that the input is always flawed in some degree and that conclusions are always relative to the absolute quality of the input.' He spoke calmly, taking her hand in an attempt to soften her mood.

'You've made some excellent progress in Colombia, Brazil and parts of Africa in particular. You shouldn't get too despondent Penny.' Always the realist, he tried to build up the positive elements in the scenario. 'The colleges and universities in something like thirty countries are already sending out a second generation of graduates trained via GRADE enterprises in JNO techniques and values. In eleven years there will be three generations of JNO trained graduates and entrepreneurs at the helm of world affairs. You can already see a difference in at least twenty or thirty countries and...'

'Don't you see, Ric,' Penny interrupted grasping his hand so tight that it hurt, as if grasping for her very safety to prevent her falling into the abyss confronting her mind. 'It isn't that we are on the wrong tack, on the contrary we are doing everything right and we are getting amazing results. It's just that there's not enough time! If we could prolong the prediction to say 2025 we might have just the merest chance. But as you see, even a.s.suming that scenario we are tight up against the deadline. An appropriate use of words don't you think in the circ.u.mstances.'

He smiled wryly, he was about to say he did not believe in artificial deadlines - but her mood did not allow it. She continued, becoming ever more agitated.

'There's no time Ric! Your computer is the most advanced yours and Hep's technology can make it, and you're the best there is. I know you don't believe the date business - No don't tell me! It's probable that the rest of the group, possibly with the exception of Matsuko, who alone of them has met Lucina, is of the same opinion. But believe me the date is not simply a computer prediction with a plus or minus leeway...'

'My dear you are so right,' Penny heard the familiar voice more in the mind than through the physical involvement of the ear. She was not sure if it had been heard by Ric. Both however turned in surprise to the hallway to see the majestic figure of Lucina Dodona, a galleon in full sail, enter the room, accompanied as usual by Pannie Ljeschi who danced about her before spiralling his crooked body round them and upped himself cross-legged onto the table among the gadgetry. Lucina flashed a glance at him and as if he had been physically lashed, he slid off the table and insinuated himself into a chair. Lucina pealed with laughter. 'Pannie, behave or...' She turned to Penny and Ric without finishing her threat. 'Penelope, please to introduce me to your friend.' This was an instruction disguised as a simple pleasantry. Penny did not like her tone. It was as if Lucina read the depths of her heart even to the parts of it she herself preferred to leave unvisited. Lucina clearly disapproved of their relationship. She conveyed at the same time approval of the work they did by her manner towards him. As usual in the presence of her benefactor, Penny felt her loss of control. Ric on the other hand was as charmed as he was supposed to be by her majesty and graciousness. Penny was helplessly irritated by the effect Lucina had on Ric. It was however only to be expected and she was surprised at her own reaction. She supposed she had hoped, without actually voicing her feelings to herself that Ric would be somehow immune from the effect of Lucina - above it in some way. She had no reason to suppose the power Lucina exercised over her would not be felt by him. But she was disappointed nevertheless. If she did this to him, the Advisory Group had no chance. Under the gaze of her mentor, Penny made the introductions, 'Lucina, this is Ricardo Trefoil, our computer expert, he and Hep have made our system what it is- second to none.'

'Ah Hep, how is he? I see so little of my family these days. He works well for you? - ne? Mr Trefoil I have heard so much of you. Delighted to acquaint myself at the first hand.' She beamed at him.

Unable to prevent himself Ric had risen at her entry and although he simply intended to shake hands, he found himself compelled to kiss the proffered extremity instead. Lucina spotting Penny's distaste at the gesture, laughed merrily and stretched her other hand in a motherly caress of Penny's cheek. Having thus established her presence she sat in Ric's seat at the table and motioned Pannie to a spare seat by the door.

'I am ready Penelope my dear. Ah - they are at breakfast, please do not disturb, so this gives me a little time to...how you say?...catch up with you. I have been examining your HIGO and GAIANET machines. Pannie here talks to Hep, do you not my boy?'

Pannie merely grinned more broadly.

'I don't actually know how it all works but Pannie here tells me the main points. You are surprised at the 2012 date I hear you speak of it. To tell you the truth I also am surprised. You would be amazed at the efforts I have put in to extending the timeline. The plain truth is that not even I with all the means of the Firm at my disposal, nor, it seems even Zarian, can alter this scenario. The plain fact is that it is out of our control. But I am into the substance of my subject for this morning.' She penetrated Ricardo with a gimlet eye, and he recoiled inwardly. 'You are a good man, Mr Trefoil, I can see it,'

Ric knew for certain she really could see into him, it was as if his psyche had been pulled from his mind and stretched like wet cloth on tenterhooks - on full view.

Lucina continued. 'I have to say I do not altogether approve of Penelope in relationship with another man, other than my poor brother, especially at this time, but if there will be a man - you will be he, I think it so. I like you and I trust you. Penelope is careful and knows her people. And you are her lieutenant so I will trust both of you with the information I bring you of her son Alexander.'

Ric started, Alexander was dead. What possible news could she have of him? Penny would not have lied to him about such a thing. Suddenly he became aware of Penny's changed manner in the shadow of Lucina and the words of Matsuko Morii rang in his head. It was happening to him. All contact with this formidable woman was being made on her terms. A great revelation fell into place in his mind - whatever Penny got from the Dodona's was involuntary on her part. He was in the presence of a mind more powerful than his own and even than Penny's. He disliked the feeling intensely and knew that Penny did too. This was why he had been deliberately kept away from the senior partners in the Firm. He felt a great urge to reveal his thought to her but knew that he was too easily read by Lucina and resolved to have it out with Penny as soon as they were alone. He had the uncanny feeling that his thoughts were being read by Lucina anyway, and there was nothing he could do about it, he could only let this woman speak what she had come to say and deal with the aftermath.

'Penny she knows he is not dead but on a mission of the gravest importance to you all. You should know he risks more than merely his life which in the scale of things is little enough. He risks all of you. Only we at Psathi know this. I share this with my Penelope for she is his mother and has the right. You Ricardo Trefoil are her man and she needs you. If you do not know all she knows you will mistrust her and may endanger everything. Mistrust grows like a virus in the system until it eats up all the good. So I tell you of him but you do not tell the advisory group of him. When they rea.s.semble I will talk to them of 2012 and what they must do. You alone will know what Alexander does and what my Zarian must also do. The advisory group has their role a.s.signed and they are doing well, this I will say to them. You have chosen well my Penelope as I knew you would. But as you say time for the people of the world is short and they cannot do enough in what is left without help. The powers of la.s.situde, ignorance, greed and above all the past - will slow you down too much. This Alexander confronts in its own realm. The weight of the past drags the heels of the future and will not allow you to surpa.s.s the present. Alexander works in the gap between past and future for all of you. If all goes well he will return to you.'

'And if not?,' Penny asked tremulously.

'If not - then there is no future for him nor anyone else.' She proceeded to explain Alexander's mission, and Pannie's grin widened until his face was in danger of splitting in two.

At this point the others could be seen drifting from their breakfast into the conference room in ones and two's. They sat down eyeing Pannie and Lucina in the manner of people who see a celebrity they do not know personally, and not wishing to be obtrusive, keep them in view by glancing self-consciously in their direction. Pannie was too strange a creature to be ignored and Lucina was gorgeous in a light gold chiton, clasped by a large jewelled pin at her left shoulder. Her hair was piled high on her head exposing the marble of her neck and shoulders. Her presence, a fraction larger than life, flooded the room like light. Only Matsuko approached her directly as if to receive her blessing. She bowed her head in the traditional j.a.panese greeting and involuntarily bent a knee ever so slightly. Lucina beamed at her and touched her hair lightly. No words were uttered and Matsuko, thus blessed, sat at her seat at the table. A palpable silence fell over the a.s.sembly. Lucina's smile of welcome lit her eyes with an intensity which commanded the close attention of all present. Even the hard-boiled Johann Pettershonn was entranced by the illuminated face. What occurred next, none of the partic.i.p.ants was ever able to share with anyone else as long as they lived.

Each found themselves addressed by this radiant G.o.ddess. Each uniquely; their individuality isolated and recognised. A gentle radiance invaded every mind separately, probing thought patterns and following them to their origins. Whole lives from pre-birth to the present were explored and then re-worked; private thoughts were a.n.a.lysed and made clear to them - many for the first time. So intense was the connection, they would be unable to convey the profundity of the experience.

An intense clarity about the purpose of their lives and the role of humankind on the planet flooded each one of them. They were praised for the integrity of their commitment to their task and any doubts they may have held were dispelled by the clarity of their own thoughts. It was as if they had always believed they had thought correctly and now they knew for certain. This was no dogma, believed because a greater power said thus and thus to be the truth. This was a clear rational a.n.a.lysis of everything they had known or experienced which, where it had been vague and mis-understood, was newly brought into crystalline flawlessness in tune with all they felt. The responsibility for what they each did became easier to carry and they faced the future with eagerness for the struggle, fully armed with a knowledge of the past and present to illuminate their path. They each saw with a unique and renewed vision the meaning of the year 2012. They understood the significance of the date of the Maya. With this understanding came a revelation. This was no arbitrary date, plucked from the air, nor was it a computer prediction. It was the last challenge of the G.o.ds to their race. It was not negotiable. Their earth would survive with or without them. They had just the time left to get the message across.

Lucina pa.s.sed before them and blessed each one by placing her hand on each head in turn - and then she left with Pannie in tow.

The room was somehow empty. Ric's voice, even though he spoke as softly as he could, seemed harsh and alien as it broke into the ensuing stillness.

'Matsuko was right. Lucina's message is clear. The next session is the crucial one. I propose we waste no time. I have put you in three groups to tackle the three themes of production, ecology and politics. We will work until tomorrow morning and report back to HIGO and see where we get.' They worked long into the night and the next day. when they had finished - They had a strategy.

Chapter 8.

What treasure?' asked Alexander on L1 in his meld with Hermes.

'Why the thing that links you to the timelines of course. The past as it shapes the future. It's like a kind of DNA in the timeline system that makes you mortals what you are. Your Darwin was the first of you to understand the concept. But it's more than simply natural selection. There's consciousness to it. Your Freud got an inkling and Jung got pretty close, but who listens properly to any of them any more - if they ever did. The failure of memory in your race will kill you all in the end. Barboncito has remembrance, his people, and those like him whom you have despised and despoiled for so long will have the last laugh because they have the treasure. Without it you can do nothing properly creative. Inventive, yes. You can invent anything - and you do. But you do it as if you owned the stuff of which it's made and you don't. You just think you do, but it's an illusion. You have to use the collective memory of what the treasure is and what it can do. You must find it and add it like leaven to all you do if you are to survive. But from what I hear it's too late. The future is too unpredictable and the present too manic to listen to the past. That's why Hades will win. Zeus has lost control over you and Yahweh is too preoccupied with what ought to be than what is or what was. You have to stop dealing with should's and ought to be's until you have remembrance. You come from the earth not the heavens. You are made from good, honest clay. Your feet are stuck in the ground not floating somewhere in the great beyond where you fancy your heads to be. But now then brother, that's more than enough of my ramblings. I'm just the messenger and my job is to get you over the Styx without being detected. - Now this visor thing of Hephaestos'...'

'Is the treasure to be found here in Hades?'

'Of course it is, like I said it's in the past! - Now will you please listen and carefully observe this visor!'

'I'm sorry, Hermes - but there are things I need to know and Pannie said you would help me.'

The lanky being, gently placed the helmet on a convenient boulder. He positioned himself on another, higher up, and letting his long legs dangle, folded his arms across his thin chest. He let out a large sigh and in an exasperated tone said, 'Alright, my boy, since you're a recent relative and I've not had time to get to know you as well as the others I'll give time to get questions out of the way. Themis said you were full of doubt and that's very dangerous material down here, so I'd better help you as best I can. What do you want to know?'

'This treasure, how will I know it?'

'You won't know it as such. You feel it at work in the mind. Without the patina of experience the mind has nothing substantial to grip on except its present self. Thought becomes meaningless. It simply rehashes old truths as if they were discoveries. The treasure of remembrance is not just history, you have to struggle to keep its meaning alive, the meaning over the fact. The fact exists of course and what you have to do with it in the now is to take its meaning into the future. You can't just import facts as if they were truths or make truths into facts. Truths are living realities to be fashioned into states of being, into action and reaction, they are alive and doing, whether you heed them or not. The G.o.ds know this of course. That's why you need us. You let us do this for you and receive our wisdom as if it were given, coming from outside you. Which of course it isn't. You know all these things but basically you are mind-lazy, you no longer act on what you collectively know is true as a species, you act only on what you think you can prove in advance as fact. In the absence of provable fact you either leave it to the G.o.ds to act out your truths and you regard them with uncritical wonder, which leaves you off the hook of responsibility, or you search for truths well beyond your own realities in some promised hereafter where you hope all will ultimately be clear. Can't you see that it's all there inside each of you to find for yourselves? You don't really need G.o.ds of any kind because you've got yourselves. That's not to say there are no G.o.ds. It's that you don't really need them. We, on the other hand, can exist without you, no problem about that my friend, but so far you can't live without us. You've tried to subst.i.tute for us your inventiveness, what you call science, but it doesn't work. Making the earth do things for you is clever I grant you, ask Hephaestos he loves it. (That's probably why he is helping your mother) We think invention is fun too, but no more than that; without the use of the treasure it is destructive in the end as you are beginning to discover too late. Still if you get to Hades in time there's a hope for you. Not that I care...'

'You're just the messenger!'

'Exactly. - Any more questions?'

'Yes, What do you mean when you say Hades will win and that it's too late?'

'A question of balance of power, what you call real-politik. Think of the past as an active force not a dead weight to be got rid of. You ignore the past and think you are so clever in the here and now, while, on the other hand you are always being pushed forward from the point of origin whether you know it or not. That's Hadean business if ever I saw any - and that's the main point; you don't know it but it's there, it's from there that comes the momentum that drives the human spirit. Pushed from behind rather then pulled from in front. Hades knows this as do we all. Up till now, Zeus was clever enough to have made sure Hades cannot enter the now and has kept the realms apart so you could develop unhindered by your past overwhelming you and taking over (which of course is Hades' main objective now Zeus has set up the challenge). Mnemosyne maintained Remembrance for you but you ignored her and left Zeus on his own; the result was the take-over by Yahweh. When you forgot the past; ignored the present and dwelt too much on the hereafter, so you were pulled by the future - which by definition you don't know - unlike the past which you do - despite your forgetfulness. Once the future was seen for what it is - un.o.btainable in your short life-times - you lost your bearings altogether and left with the present, which you filled with your cleverness for making things, you ignore the treasure of the past and cannot contemplate the future. Things are closing in though because you damage your ability to maintain the present by pulling the rug of Gaia from under you. You know the rest.'

'Do all the members of the Pantheon know my mission then?'