Yes, if he is involved. Charlotte Fielder has been lifted from Monaco, and it was a very professional deal. Greg suggested that the same people who took a sample of the flower are now holding Fielder.

Where is he now? she asked.

On his way back to Monaco's airport. He is going to visit Baronski to see if he knows Fielder's current whereabouts.

OK, keep monitoring the situation.

"Marry me," an American voice said. "Marry me and let me take you away from all this."

Julia turned from the hummingbird to see Clifford Jepson standing at her side, grinning ingratiatingly. The president of Globecast was in his forties with a round berry-brown face, thick black hair combed back, channel newsman smile. She knew it was all a forgery, cosmetic face and hormone hair.

Like Julia, Clifford Jepson had inherited his position; and Globecast had nearly doubled its share price in the eight years since he'd been its president. He also carried on his father's underclass arms trading, which was less welcome news. Julia had used him to supply the Trinities. And she'd questioned the wisdom ever since.

She really liked his father, her uncle Horace. But Clifford Jepson seemed to think that it was a friendship which he'd inherited along with Globecast. He hadn't, but his position made him just equal enough to talk without being stilted.

Julia glanced round, and saw Melanie Jepson talking to the headmaster. She was a beautiful woman, early twenties, blonde hair so fine it was almost white, a spectacular figure.

"You've got it all wrong, Clifford," she said drily. "Middle-aged businessmen with midlife crises are supposed to leave frumpish old wives for dazzling young actresses, not the other way round."

"Nothing frumpish about you, Julia. You know I've always held a torch for you."

"Spare me, you'll be calling me a real woman next."

He looked at the hummingbird painting. "Not bad, sharpen up the colours, add some life to the eyes, could be the makings of a decent artist there. Nice to see the old forms being adhered to. Kids these days, all they do is talk to their graphic simulators."

"Bloody hell, crook and art critic. Clifford, what are you doing here?"

He waved his glass in the direction of his wife. "Getting the kids down for entry. I'm based in Europe more often than not these days. So we thought they could board over here, give them a chance of some permanency in their lives. Trouble is, the entrance list for this place is getting kinda full these days. Can't think why."

That was another aspect of life Julia didn't enjoy. She'd chosen Oakham School because it was good, and near Wilholm, and Greg and Eleanor sent their children to it. Daniella and Matthew wouldn't be friendless when they arrived, nor would they have to board, a notion she couldn't bear. The arrangement had been confidential, but within a week of Daniella starting every entry place for the next ten years had been booked solid. Rumour had it that places for Matthew's year had been traded for over a quarter of a million Eurofrancs.

"Clifford, Bonnie's only two," she said.

"Thirty months, and every bit as pretty as her mom."

"Oh, well, I wish you luck. It's a good school, Daniella and Matthew enjoy it here." She walked on to the next painting, a rusting petrol-driven car with a Coke bottle growing out of its roof. A couple of parents were engrossed with it. The woman nudged her husband who looked up, and gave a start when he saw Julia. She gave them a flicker of a smile.

"Julia, I was being serious about us."

Why couldn't he take the hint? "I'm a mother with two children, remember?"

"You're a single parent, who's been alone for eight months." His face was sober.

"What do you know about it?"

"That he's a fool. That he won't be coming back."

"He will."

"Face it Julia, eight months."

"Eight months or eight years, it makes no difference to me. I'll wait."

Clifford Jepson gulped down the remainder of his drink. When she looked closely, she saw he was strangely apprehensive. Almost frightened.

"Can we talk?" he asked.

"Not if you're going to make any more indecent proposals."

"It's important, Julia."

The last thing she wanted was to talk shop. Oliver, Anita, and Richy had pulled Eleanor away to see the exhibitions various departments were staging, Matthew and his bodyguard had gone with them. Daniella and Christine were part of a big group of girls in a corner of the marquee, Daniella's bodyguard wearing a tired tolerant expression.

"Five minutes," she said.

The sports field was almost deserted. A group of school maintenance staff had already started to dismantle the stage, ten boys were stacking up the chairs under the supervision of a master. Ahead of her, the first Xl's cricket square was a bright strip of emerald, standing out from the rest of the field's parched grass. Over to one side the score board was still showing the result of the last match. It was one of the old-fashioned affairs, a small boxy pavilion dating from the last century, with junior boys scurrying about inside changing the numbers round.

Matthew had to explain how it worked the first time she and Royan came to watch a match. She was amazed at the primitiveness of it, the scorer even used a big paper ledger to keep the runs in. Royan, of course, had loved the idea. It'd been a good afternoon, she remembered, after the match they'd taken Matthew, Daniella and some of their friends to have tea at a café in the town. A big noisy party, where the children had all eaten too much cake. None of them cared who she was.

Julia sat on one of the wooden seats dotted around the pitch's boundary line, tugging the brim of her hat down against the glare. The air was dusty, tickling the back of her throat.

Clifford Jepson sat beside her, grimacing at the stains of ancient bird droppings on the cracked wood. A line of their bodyguards had fanned out behind them to form a phalanx against casual intrusion by any of the other parents.

"Marriage was only half the proposition," he said. "It's a start, an opening to something much bigger, grander."

"Merging Event Horizon and Globecast so our children could take over the world. No, thank you, Clifford. You forget I could buy Globecast if I really wanted to."

His PR smile turned tight. "Will you hear me out? I'm not talking about Globecast. Right now, I'm holding something that's gonna grow and grow. It's big, Julia, the biggest. I'm offering you a partnership."

Open Channel to SelfCores. I think you three had better listen to this. "A partnership in what?" she asked.

"Something new. Something explosive. It's a whole new industry, Julia. The company that markets it is gonna win big."

How interesting, NN core one said. Not many days when we get offered two revolutionary partnerships.

You think they're connected? she asked.

There's one way to find out, Juliet. Start name dropping, see how our Clifford reacts.

Right. "This partnership," Julia said laconically. "Let me guess: you provide the data constructs of a rudimentary technology, and Event Horizon develops it to a commercially viable level? Is that the way you see it working, Clifford?"

He raised his hands, putting on a rueful grin. "God damn, on the ball or what? After all these years, Julia, I'm still not in your class, nobody is. OK, let me lay it straight on the line for you. Event Horizon is one of several possible partners I'm considering. And I'd like it to be you, Julia, I really would. This operation of yours, you leave the kombinates standing. If we can thrash out a deal, make the numbers work, then it's yours. I'll be a sleeping partner, maybe a gate to some military contracts, but essentially it'll be your field."

"This sleeping partner arrangement, I hope that's not intended literally, Clifford."