The Nemesis Program (Ben Hope) Read Online Free PDF

about her work projects. Some of them were real fascinating. I hadn’t heard from her in a little while, just assumed she must be busy at work or something. Then yesterday, I get this letter from her by registered mail.’ Roberta glanced anxiously at Ben. ‘I thought it was strange that she’d write me that way, instead of the usual email. When I opened it I saw it was more like a note, real short, and you could see it was written in a hurry. She said she was in deep trouble, that she was certain she was being followed and that something bad was going to happen to her. Said not to contact her by email or phone because they’d know. They were watching every move she made.’
    ‘Who was?’ Ben asked.
    ‘If she knew, she didn’t say.’
    ‘Have you got the letter with you? Can I see it?’
    She shook her head. ‘The Paris cops have it now.’
    ‘Did it say any more than that?’
    ‘She asked me to go to Paris to help her. To hurry before … before it was too late.’ Roberta gave a bitter laugh.
    ‘No indication what it was about?’
    ‘No, she said she’d explain everything once I got there. Said I was one of just two people in the world she could turn to.’
    ‘Why not the police?’
    ‘Something else was going on, Ben. Something that meant she couldn’t go to the police. The last line she wrote was this rushed scrawl that just said “If something happens”. That was it. Underneath were a bunch of figures. She didn’t even sign her name.’
    ‘Figures?’ he asked.
    Roberta dug a crumpled sheet from her handbag and handed it to him. ‘I copied them out before I passed the letter on to the cops. Still have no idea what they mean, though.’
    Ben looked at the paper and studied the three lines of what appeared to be some kind of cipher.
4920N1570E
6982
2715651291
    Codes weren’t his favourite things. He stared at the sheet for a few moments, completely baffled, until the two letters in the top line suddenly flew out at him and he realised what they were. They stood for North and East.
    ‘I don’t know about the rest,’ he said, ‘but the top line’s definitely a set of GPS co-ordinates, scrambled together. If you teased it apart it’d pinpoint a geographical location.’
    ‘You’re sure? What location?’
    ‘I’m sure. But that’s something we can come back to afterwards. Keep talking.’
    ‘What could I do?’ Roberta continued. ‘She was my friend. I cancelled everything. Managed to get on a late flight to Paris. I was so worried, all I could do on the plane was sit there trying to understand what those goddamn numbers meant, but it was no use. I got into Paris just after seven this morning and took a cab straight to Claudine’s apartment in Montmartre. She lived alone on the top floor of this crumbly old building in Rue des Trois Frères. When I arrived, there was a police car and a van parked outside but I didn’t think anything of it at first. Then as I was heading up the stairs, these cops and forensics people were coming down, with the concierge who looks after the building. I asked if everything was okay. They asked me who I was coming to see. I said “Claudine Pommier”. They told me what happened.’
    Roberta paused for a moment to compose her emotions. ‘It was her neighbour, Madame Lefort, who found her the morning after she was killed. The door was open, and there she was on the bed. Old lady had to be hospitalised for shock. It’s so … so horrible .’
    ‘It’s bad,’ Ben said. ‘I’m sorry.’
    Roberta sniffed, dabbed away a tear and went on. ‘It happened on the same day as the postmark on the letter. She must have posted it just a few hours before she died.’
    ‘Did she have family?’ Ben asked.
    ‘She lived alone. Lost touch with her relatives a long time back. Parents were a couple of religious assholes who disapproved of her career in science … oh, shit, Ben. I didn’t mean—’
    ‘It’s okay.’ He smiled.
    ‘The only person in her life was a bum