Red Hourglass : Dark Coming Of Age Romance Thriller

Zhong Yuan

"Roses for my Scarlet Queen," said Conan as he greeted me with a bouquet of flowers on Monday morning.

He was wearing a shiny gray suit. The sharp cut of the jacket highlighted his well-defined features.

"Thank you ... Conan." I was surprised, to say the least. Everyone was looking over their cubicles at us and I was embarrassed. I smiled shyly in their general direction.

"My pleasure." He winked at me and walked back into his office.

I breathed in deeply and let the aroma of the flowers fill my senses. He was everything I liked in a man—strong, solid, secure, smart, and suave. He's so dashing. Life is beautiful. I shook my head and put the dozen red roses underneath my desk. The last thing I needed was to get caught up in fantasies about running off with Conan and living happily ever after.

He came out of his office with a MacBook Air tucked under his arm. It matched his suit.

"Did the roses delight you?" Conan looked around to see if anyone was watching us. He leaned down and kissed my forehead.

"Oooo ... I love the roses. They bring out the Scarlet Queen in me," I squealed. I was caught off guard by his public display of affection and I couldn't control my response. My mind began racing with fantasies.

"I'm glad," he whispered. "I'm off to meet the new security trainees. We're meeting downstairs if you need me."

Conan was so charming and disarming. I had to talk some sense into myself and I gave myself a quiet little speech under my breath: "You aren't supposed to fall in love. Don't compromise your mission. Remember Max. He used you, abused you, and tore out your heart. Remember what your stepfather did to you. Conan is the same—a dirty, filthy, liar. These lowly men aren't even worthy of your attention. They're only worthy of being your minions."

I clenched my fists and felt my confidence go up. I caressed my tattoo through my blouse. I'm the Red Hourglass, not a secretary falling in love with her boss. I have to continue working here, but there's something for me at the end of it. I'm an agent and I should've been on the hunt by now, but I have to do this if I want to find my mother. I am in control. I used an NLP technique to reinforce my positive thoughts and I felt much better.

I picked up a stack of papers and started my filing. I came across an important-looking press release.

Zhong Yuan Holdings buys stakes in Wilmar Enterprises

Zhong Yuan Holdings has acquired a 30% stake in Wilmar Enterprises. This move will secure Zhong Yuan's continuous overseas land acquisitions.

"We are very impressed with Wilmar's growth," said Yuan, the CEO of Zhong Yuan. "We will continue to work closely with Wilmar."

Yuan and his team will travel to New York City later this year for a meeting with Wilmar's board of directors.

I googled Zhong Yuan Holdings. It was a state-owned enterprise of the Chinese government. They'd recently acquired a whole town in Los Angeles County and were planning to redevelop the land as an upscale retirement community.

Most of the town's residents had purchased their homes at the peak of the latest property boom, and many of them ended up defaulting on their mortgages. Property prices plummeted, and the remaining homeowners wanted to sell up. Zhong Yuan bought them all out. Then the government sold all the public land at cut-rate prices to Zhong Yuan—with huge tax breaks—bailed out the mortgage companies, and gave the rest of the land to Zhong Yuan.

Zhong Yuan headquarters were in Shanghai and they had subsidiaries in solar energy, construction, and land development. I found an article with a picture of Zhong Yuan's CEO shaking hands with the Premier of China. It was obvious that the Chinese government used Zhong Yuan to acquire property and influence in foreign countries. If they gained a controlling share in Wilmar, they'd exponentially increase their US holdings.

Is Zhong Yuan going to buy up New York next and make it a mega-Chinatown for the rich? The thought sent shivers through me. An influx of rich foreigners would drive up property prices, force out the locals, and the cost of living would skyrocket.

It's exactly as the White Queen said, and it's going to get worse now that Zhong Yuan's involved. I'm sure The House lost their lease because of Wilmar or some other big developer. A café serving the community for three generations ... gone in an instant.

With all economies now linked, this was the sheer force of globalization. Our city was, next and I wanted to save it from the greedy bastards. I'll have to find out when Zhong Yuan is coming to meet Wilmar's board.

I checked Google News for the latest info on Wilmar Enterprises and White Holdings—the White Queen's conglomerate. The news was flying in with updates every minute and I saved all the articles to my encrypted flash drive. I opened another window and watched the stock prices of both companies fluctuate wildly as investor confidence waxed and waned with each bit of news.

Human are unpredictable and stock markets are in constant flux. The market is a strange beast. I didn't quite understand the rules of this game of chance. All I knew was that the forces of globalization had created a level playing field for foreign competitors to invade a market and create chaos for established home players like White Holdings.

"Hey Scarlet," Kelvin snorted.

I almost jumped right off my seat. I saw him walking up to my desk out of the corner of my eye, but I was still startled.

"Kelvin ... hello. What can I do for you?" I shut the window with the stock ticker and ripped my flash drive out of the USB port.

"Will you remind Conan that we have a meeting at three this afternoon? We usually have our meetings in the mornings, but he's with the new trainees today, so I think he should get a reminder."

"Of course." I opened Conan's calendar. "The meeting's in his calendar, but I'll remind him. Kelvin, three o'clock. No problem."

"Good. Thank you." Kelvin sauntered back to his office.

* * *

I uploaded all the articles into the White Queen's Wilmar database when I got home from work. We didn't use the database to communicate our analyses or future plans, so I wrote a short report in agent code.

I reported that it looked like a merger with Zhong Yuan was on the cards and we needed to get the date of the meeting. I ran downstairs and left the report for Vanus in an old built-in milk box that we were using as a dead drop. Then I sent her a text saying "I forgot the milk."

I thought about last Friday night with Conan. Out of all my sisters, I was the closest to Johnson Wilmar ... because of Conan. Did the White Queen know who Conan was when she told me to apply for the job as his secretary?

I'd never been on an assignment that put me in close proximity to my target for a long time. My assignments had always been simple—marked target, predetermined location, seduction, and murder. Like a spider, all I had to do was wait for my prey and kill it.

This assignment was taking place in a complex arena of human dynamics, corporate espionage, and global capitalism. The White Queen was playing chess with Wilmar. Conan Casey was a knight, and I was just another disposable pawn. She was maneuvering me so that she could checkmate the king. Would I be killed, or have to sacrifice myself, in this game? I shuddered just thinking about it.

I realized I was closer to learning the truth behind all the lies I'd been taught. I started questioning my beliefs, my identity, and my place in the world. Questions that I had no answers for were spinning through my mind. Where do I belong? Does the White Queen really believe that I'm meant for bigger things? Or has she been deceiving me all along?

I was an orphan with nothing to live or fight for other than the White Queen. She was my mama and I'd never questioned her love for me. I'd always believed that her love was worth fighting for, worth risking my life for, but was it true? I feared that I would never know.