Marty wandered round the room in a daze, desperately tying to work out where he was, why he was there and how the hell did he get here! There were some clues, peeping over a very fat man's shoulder, he looked through a large glass French window onto a balcony which in turn looked over a bustling harbour. The idea of the SEA resonated, but with what he could not make a link yet. A beautiful girl walked up to him, gave him a long slow kiss on the cheek and whispered, where have you been hiding, No.1 lover? punched him in the ribs playfully,,but with a force that left him gasping and she disappeared into the crowd.
A very smooth looking waiter materialised at his side with a silver tray laden with several decanters of really expensive looking Armagnacs & whispered, the XO 1947 Sir?, but don't tell anyone and by the way I took your advice and now our future is protected in a way no one but you could have imagined or made possible - I owe you, big time!! Then he too vanished like the mist into the crowd.
So far he had not said a word to anyone, when he suddenly noticed his cuff being pulled and looking down, blinked not quite believing what he saw - a dwarf straight out of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, bobble hat and curly toed shoes included, but not so nicely pointing in a discrete yet threatening way a Walther PPK. Its time we had a chat about that unfinished business and you are invited downstairs for a private chat. The matter must be resolved in the next hour, if not there will be hell to pay for you, for us and .... no that's too terrible to contemplate!. OK was the only word that Marty's fevered mind could come up with.
They swept through the crowd, as if they did not exist, stepped into a huge lift, furnished like a a very chic Manhattan Bar, with a bar lady, who gave Marty a knowing wink and shot up who knows how many floors, eventually sighing to a halt on the top floor, onto a spectacular air bridge that leapt from the building they had been in to an odd lollipop shaped building that seemed to consist solely of one huge penthouse with no other flats below it. The harbour now looked like a toy, twinkling umpteen stories below.
It took five minutes to cross the bridge with his dwarf companion keeping silent, but pointing helpfully at the other building with the PPK. As they got to the three story high, shining aluminium front door, it opened by itself and they were ushered into a foyer of such gigantic proportions that the mind reeled. On top of the jumble of confusions, wildly leaping emotions and and just plain crazy thoughts that had been building up since being aware of his presence at the party had, was a sense of awe, as to who might it be who owned this fabulous, monstrous sky palace and why he was needed to sort out what matter, and the consequences that might befall him should he not.
At the far end of the foyer a wide doorway led into a vast library, with maybe 40 levels of books encased in gorgeous wood facing onto a glass wall with a truly unbelievable view of the sea, and some mountains, possibly a volcano in the distance. By a huge baronial fireplace half way along the immense room, sat a small figure, embedded in a very comfortable armchair with a foot rest, and holding a long twig, with a marshmallow on it, being toasted to perfection.
Dopey! is that our honoured guest? or should I say host, as I have been camping here in this mediocre hut for a year, whilst you tracked him down and brought him here. Marty staggered as an explosion of memories repressed deep in his psyche began to tumble out - of course he was .......
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