Alchemist (Chap. 1)

Will Walker sat back with a sigh, totally satisfied, his hands
folded over a package in his lap. Folded over the Alchemist. Sat facing
him, wearing a tuxedo suit with a thin bow tie, was the portly Mr
Kaplan. The pig-faced individual was chief software designer for
Quantum Digitalus, QED as they styled themselves, a small company with
huge ambitions in the nano tech market. However, Kaplan had become
disgruntled by the labs lack of ambition in the pay check department.
He had come to sell the Alchemist and rectify this shortcoming. For a
measly ?250,000, he had taken QED's future and flushed it down the
toilet.
"Everything is in the package." Kaplan spoke, in between wolfed
mouthfuls of garlic chicken and vegetables. "Prototypes, schematics,
the works."
Will nodded sagely he had expected no less. He lifted his hand in
signal to the waiter, who scurried between the filled tables, nimbly
avoiding a vulgar Chinese tourist who attempted to grab his attention
and person.
"Sir?"
"Dom Perignom '17, then two taxis in thirty minutes time." The waiter
raised his left eyebrow quizzically.
"Some more bread." Kaplan interjected, "I've almost finished
this."
"Of course sir." The waiter pivoted and swiftly made his way towards
the bar, bypassing the Chinese guest who stared malevolently in his
wake.
Will reached into his jacket pocket and fished out the credit disk.
Kaplan's fork stopped in mid air and his open mouth, filled with half
masticated chicken, twisted into a smile. Will switched the disk to
changeover mode and pressed his thumb on the cool metal surface. A tiny
green LED blinked, awaiting the transfer, Will passed it to the fat man
and leaned back in his seat. Kaplan his eyes blazing pressed his right
thumb against the disk surface, the LED stopped flashing and glowed
green for two seconds then disappeared. It was done. The Alchemist
would be taken to the patent office the next morning and with another
judicious bribe, its approval would be sped through the system and then
would come the billions, trillions even of lovely ?. He beamed a
gracious smile at the halfwit before him. Kaplan smiled back and
shovelled another forkful into his gaping maw.
The waiter arrived and deposited a bucket filled with ice and a single
de-corked bottle of Dom '17; he placed two thin champagne glasses on
the table and poured.
Will took his glass and raised it in toast to Kaplan who hurriedly
wiped his hands on the napkin which he had tucked into his trousers and
grabbed his own glass.
"To Money," Kaplan laughed, and Will joined in. He decided against
telling Kaplan that the Champagne they were drinking had cost more than
his new pay check.

Will stepped into the cool evening air, a pleasant breeze playing along
The Mall. Two well-dressed door attendants stood ready. He winked at
the nearest and passed him a crumpled ?50 note. The man signalled to
the street. Moments later a black cab pulled in at the kerb. As the
door opened, he spotted two burly men inside. Pivoting on his heel, he
turned and ran into the road towards the nearby park. The taxi squealed
after him. Will dodged the oncoming traffic, heavy for the time of
night. Curses and horns echoed around him. The package bumped
annoyingly at his leg, so he pulled it out. As he crossed the central
reservation, the taxi spun onto the grass of the park facing him. The
door opened and the harsh roar of a sub machine gun drowned out the
traffic. He jumped back over the reservation, but the package fell. No
time to pick it up, he ran again into the traffic. Heavy drops of rain
began to fall all around. Will doubled back on himself and caught a
brief glimpse of the enraged taxi driver, who had pulled back onto the
road and now caught in the traffic flow. The side door of a white van
parked twenty meters away from him opened and Will saw clearly that
they were armed and looking for him. ?250,000 was ?250,000 but this was
his life. He cast a last glance at the package the doubled back again.
The heavy rain and roar of traffic prevented him from noticing the bus.
With a sickening thud, his body was thrown 25 meters. The bus unable to
stop quickly enough, collected the tattered ruin and dragged it further
along the road leaving a red sticky mess, which the London rain did its
best to wash away.

"Tabernac." ?lan swore, the traffic ground to a near instant halt, and
he had to squeeze down hard on the brakes to avoid the car ahead. He
waited half a minute staring out into the rain-filled night, across the
barrier he could see three men all armed with cut down MP-12 sub
machine pistols trotting in between the stationary cars away from him
and towards a bus. He stepped out for a better look and almost stood on
the small package lying on the road. He stooped, picked it up and
slipped back into his seat, pulling the door shut. The package wrapped
in plain grey paper, now wet and easily pulled off to reveal a
Samsonite? PocketSafe?, It had plainly been driven over a couple of
times, but had held out. The code lock had not been applied. A beaming
grin filled his face, a flash up ahead caught his eye, the men had
obviously not found what they were looking for at the bus, and were
searching under the cars. ?lan considered giving the case to them for a
nano second then shoved the package into his glove compartment. Ten
minutes later the road began to clear and he drove away into the
city.