Amazonia

By Nick Gosman

In a story that contrasts the highest ranks of the corporate stratosphere with the raw, elemental power of the Amazon jungle and the high-tech world of biotechnology, three people with a passion to save the world and humanity’s most precious cultural and biological treasure become inextricably ensnared in a race against time to uncover an ancient conspiracy two thousand years in the making.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Sep 15, 2023
• ISBN: 9781398491984

Nick Gosman

A born adventurer, Nick started rock climbing as a teenager finding excitement and solace in wild places. Having travelled the world using most forms of transport, some practical, others ridiculous, he is always on the lookout for a good story. A tale well told can be an inspiration for us all.

Book preview

About the Author

A born adventurer, Nick started rock climbing as a teenager finding excitement and solace in wild places. Having travelled the world using most forms of transport, some practical, others ridiculous, he is always on the lookout for a good story. A tale well told can be an inspiration for us all.

Dedication

For my Girls – fierce advocates for wild nature.

Copyright Information ©

Nick Gosman 2023

The right of Nick Gosman to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781398491977 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781398491984 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published 2023

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd®

1 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5AA

Acknowledgement

I’d like to thank my little band of readers, especially Carl and Yvette, for providing me with their support and insightful feedback.

Chapter 1

That’s nothing short of mass industrialisation of food production! Shouldn’t we be worried about putting control of the world’s food production into corporate hands?

Brigitte Fassbender smiled inwardly but the CEO maintained her impassive expression, she knew the interviewer would throw her the line she wanted and now that he had she was ready to take her cue. She’d only agreed to come on David Leyton’s Late Show as a favour to the producer who was an old friend, but free publicity on a primetime network show was going to pay dividends later on. She’d learned a long time ago that the world of big business is like a rollercoaster ride. Sure, the Diadem Corporation was riding the crest of a wave right now, but the next dip was always just around the corner, so better to bank some capital in the popularity stakes now while the going was good. Turning slightly left to deliver her favourite incisive pout to camera, Fassbender decided to set a jocular tone, ‘Frankly, David Big Ag, has dropped the ball. While the planet is burning, they fiddle around with nitrogen-fixing bugs and plant breeding for goodness’ sake! They’re trying to save the world by encouraging plants to have sex!

Throwing her hands in the air in a comic appeal for reason, Fassbender lapped up the expected laughs and applause from the audience, her willing disciples. She knew how to work the crowd. After the comedic opening, it was time to deliver her candy-coated message to the public.

We at the Diadem Corporation have a vision! There hasn’t been a new vision for agriculture for five thousand years, not since the Greeks, the Romans and the Aztecs. Farming, as we know it, needs a serious rethink if we’re to address climate change and feed nine billion people. My company has always pushed the boundaries of science and we recognise business where we find it; food production is good business! Our vertical farms are already providing millions of people in rich industrialised nations with wholesome food grown using a fraction of the land area and carbon footprint of conventional agriculture, now we’re moving into Africa and Asia. Factory-produced food is a reality…an unstoppable force! We’re providing cheap, safe food using microbes growing in fermenters powered by solar radiation. Basic raw materials, carbon, water and air can now be used to produce any type of food that people desire.

Having been listening like a man trapped behind an invisible wall unable to get a word in, Leyton saw his chance, But the bugs you’re using are genetically modified, right?

Rolling her eyes and barely able to contain a snort of derision, but smiling sweetly like she was talking to an imbecile, Brigitte leant forward ominously, The bugs, as you call them, are genetically enhanced, but the food they produce is not. It’s clean and safe.

Thinking that he might have Fassbender on the back foot, Leyton steered the conversation along a well-worn track, Many industry commentators are saying that you’re forcing the public to eat manufactured GM food by railroading public opinion.

David, the world is in peril. The old ways of farming are part of the problem. We, on the other hand, are part of the solution! People want cheap food. It’s a basic human right and we in the west can’t refuse it to the world just because we’re stuck in the past. More clapping from Fassbender’s appreciative audience.

Leyton decided that he’d given his guest enough free publicity, so he changed tack. Brigitte, we hear that your company has plans to save what you’ve been referring to as, and I quote from a recent magazine interview, ‘our precious global collateral.’ Are you going into the conservation business as well? Will there be any opportunities left for other companies?

Laughs and some clapping from the audience were rewarded with a steely-eyed stare from Fassbender. With some hauteur, she replied, All I can say at this point is that we’re in negotiations. But I can say this. Whilst most companies focus on consuming resources, we at Diadem are taking a different path. The natural world and its diversity are fundamental to the survival of all life on our planet, including ours. Governments have repeatedly failed to ensure that our world remains viable for future generations. Our company has prevailed for centuries not through short-sighted plundering of resources, but by their careful management. Climate change threatens all our futures; acting now will help to avert natural disasters that will result in the loss of trillions of dollars. If nations refuse to act, it is up to companies like ours to take steps to protect our natural heritage for future generations! It makes perfect business sense! Nodding and smiling into the camera, Fassbender acknowledged the applause and cheering.

Since she wouldn’t be drawn further, the interview came to an end sooner than expected and Fassbender had to endure an overlap with Layton’s final guest, an insipid publicity-seeker who’d just married Barney Vostrom, the self-styled billionaire aerospace magnet, no doubt for his money. She’d met Barney a few times at conventions, he was an astute businessman, but like all men, he just couldn’t keep it in his pants long enough to avoid making an ass of himself. Pushing eighty, you’d think he’d learn to control his urges! Not for the first time, Fassbender reminded herself that she was in control when it came to relationships. Ty was evidence of that. Take them when they’re fit, young and impressionable. Ty’s puppyish good looks and sleek body was just what she needed after a long day at the corporate coalface, but marriage? Not a chance!

Waiting at the back of the ABC Studios, there was the usual mass of paparazzi crowding the sidewalk. A phalanx of beefy men with thick necks, her entourage of bodyguards, pushed them aside like Moses parting the Red Sea for the Israelites. Not that she needed them, beyond expert in martial arts, Fassbender could break a man’s wrist like a twig, but she didn’t want to ruffle her Versace co-ord, a rare indulgence, but even she couldn’t resist the way it hugged her shape, like silken body armour.

Folding her six-foot frame into the waiting limo, she took a moment to savour the hush that only bulletproof plate glass and leather upholstery can afford a tired businesswoman. She met her chauffeur, Matthew Towers’ eyes in the rear-view mirror just as he winked at her, You were stunning as always; you knocked ’em dead!

Fassbender loved the uncomplicated relationship she had with her chauffeur; he was definitely one of her longest standing fans. Once a reasonably well-known prize-fighter, Brigitte had happened upon Matthew lying drunk in a gutter near her apartment. Somehow, the sight of him had tugged on her heartstrings; something she thought she didn’t have. She’d seen it as a sign and had helped him into a cab and taken him home, some hellhole down in the Bronx. On the way, he’d sobered up enough to ask if she needed some protection. She remembered surveying his dishevelled and rather elderly appearance and saying, No, not a bodyguard, I’ve got plenty of those, but I need a good driver. You’ll need to sober up some before you can drive one of my cars though! They’d both laughed at that. The next week, when he showed up at Diadem’s offices in a black suit and tie, she had hired him on the spot.

Even in the crazy gridlock of New York City traffic, it was only a twenty-minute drive from the ABC studios to her apartment at the UN Plaza in Lower Manhattan, but she needed time to think before she had to deal with Ty’s endless questions about her day. He was becoming needy, a sure sign that he was soon going to be yet another ex in a long line of exes. Her life seemed to be littered with the detritus of failed relationships. Truth be told, she needed the physical side of a relationship more than the trying daily ritual of having a live-in lover. Fassbender knocked on the glass screen behind her driver’s head and said, Matthew, I’m not ready to go home just yet. Carry on across the river and take a loop around Queens and Brooklyn. The bright lights and hustle are great inspiration. I’ve got to prepare a pitch to the shareholders and it needs to be watertight.

You got it! Do you wanna stop over at that cocktail bar you like? Y’ know, that rooftop place over by the East River?

Yeah, good thinking. You can have one of their famous egg cream sodas while I’m sipping a dry Martini. For medicinal purposes, of course!

Towers nodded and smiled. More time with the boss was fine by him. Up until now, there hadn’t been any bosses he’d had where he could say that, but Fassbender was one notable exception. She had that effect on people.

Taking a position in the centre of the back seat, so she could occasionally chat to Towers if she wanted to, Fassbender relaxed into the soft leather upholstery and pulled her tablet out of the satchel she habitually carried when she was on business. Normally, she wouldn’t think twice about presenting her plans to the board or the shareholders for that matter, but this was different. If she pulled this deal off, Diadem would instantly become the biggest private real-estate owner in history. The idea to simply purchase the Brazilian portion of the Amazon Basin, all three and a half million square kilometres of it, rather than purchasing parts of it piecemeal, had come to her one night in a sudden blinding flash of inspiration. Acquisition of tracts of land in Africa by China and Russia was a national insurance policy. Getting access to available land for food production and possibly mineral rights was just colonialism by the backdoor. Countries had been doing it for centuries. But her offer to buy the Amazon would be an act of corporate altruism, like the National Trust in England buying key areas of high natural diversity to prevent its destruction by developers. In return, the State of Brazil would get what it could never achieve on its own, freedom from its crushing national debt. Their country would be saved and the thankful populace of the world’s seventh largest economy would be willing customers for Diadem Corporation consumer products for the foreseeable future, a win-win, in other words, good business!

From thirty storeys up, the terrace of the East River Bar offered a stunning view. The Empire State was visible in the distance and the lights of Lower Manhattan were laid out like a twinkling carpet reflected in the murky waters of the harbour. There was sultry piano music playing in the background. And the person she’d chosen to share this rare moment of calm with? Her driver. It occurred to Fassbender that what she might be missing was a father figure, or at least somebody fatherly. Was that why she often made an excuse for these stops on the way back to her apartment? Sometimes she couldn’t fathom why she did certain things; it was like she was hostage to some kind of autopilot. Towers returned with their drinks. Sure enough, his was an egg cream soda in a tall glass. When he’d settled into the seat opposite, Fassbender nodded, Thanks. I hope you put the drinks on your expense account. I don’t want you out of pocket on our little stops.

Towers shook his head, It’s only fair that the first one’s on me, don’t worry, you can pay for the next one.

Y’ know, you need to watch the calories, there’s cream and eggs in those sodas!

Don’t worry; I’m keep’n in shape. I’ll be able to handle the bad guys if any show up. Besides, the cream’s half fat and there’s protein in them eggs. He chuckled to himself, settled back in his chair and observed his boss at a slight distance. You’re plann’n something, I know that look.

Wondering how much she should say, Fassbender nodded warily, Mmm-hum, yeah, it’s a pretty big deal, the biggest. But I’ve got to keep it under wraps for now, even from my friendly taxi-service provider.

Am I gonna hear about it on CNN?

Yep, you sure are…I just need to square it with Diadem Board and shareholders first!

Well, if I had a vote, it’d be yours. Towers smiled a partially toothless grin; apparently too many rounds with a southpaw name Stefanski, and then said, What am I holding in my left hand under the table right now?

A full pack of Barclay Rex.

The old boxer slowly clapped his hands, and showed her the unopened pack of cigarettes he was holding. That’s the weirdest thing. How do you do that?

Simple deduction, I know you’re trying to quit smoking and I know the name of your favourite brand. I assumed you were succeeding, so I guessed it would be a full pack.

Towers wasn’t convinced. The only other person I knew who could do that and get it right every time was my great aunt and she was clairvoyant. It’s a pretty handy gift to have if you’re runn’n with the sharks, play’n five card stud…or runn’n a multibillion-dollar corporation!

Fassbender shook her head and smiled, You’re reading too much into it, really, it’s just deduction. She made a mental note to try and get it wrong the next time he pulled that trick. But she just couldn’t help herself. Sometimes, the answer popped out, as though it had bypassed her brain, like a reflex.

Towers dropped Fassbender by the elevator door in the underground parking garage of her apartment building right next to his pride and joy, an original 1960s Ford Mustang Convertible. Nodding in the direction of the car’s vintage red and chrome exterior, she said, That thing must be costing you a fortune in gas and insurance!

Towers patted his car’s fender lovingly. Worth every penny, just like an old lover, she’s dependable and always gets you there in the end! With a wink, he swung his bulky frame into the car and sat heavily on the old leather driving seat.

You’ll break the springs doing that!

Nah, it’s good old American engineering, not like your fancy German stuff, no offence to those present of course.

None taken.

Have a great night. And tell that Ty, if he wants me to show him a few moves sometime, he should come down to the gym. He keeps ask’n me but he never shows!

A ting sound like a microwave oven heralded the arrival of the lift. She waved as Matthew swung the high-powered car around. Its tires squealed as he drove up the ramp towards the exit.

Fassbender sighed as she got in the lift that would take to her little oasis of luxury on the apartment building’s forty-fourth floor. Inserting her key card, she pressed the button for the penthouse suite that sat imperiously atop the other forty-three. The doors swished shut and the lift picked up speed as it hustled rapidly upwards. She often wondered whether the thing would remember to stop before shooting out the top of the shaft.

Although she’d been a resident for four years, the view from the outside deck still captivated her and she was drawn to it. Sliding open the patio doors, she found Ty practicing his crawl technique for the ironman competition he was going to compete in at the end of the month.

Hey, Ty! Are you gonna say hello or are you too busy getting the training miles in?

Exhaling hard, Ty levered his body out of the pool in a single, smooth movement and momentarily sat on the edge of the pool breathing hard, before he came over to where Fassbender was standing.

It sounds like you’re tired! Those twenty-eight years of yours are starting to weigh heavily!

Habitually taking his girlfriend’s little jibes literally, Ty slicked his hear back with the palm of his hand and scowled, It’s the laps not my age that’s mak’n me pant. Snaking his arms around her waist, he pulled her towards him and kissed her on the mouth.

Hey! Too late…this was my new Versace business suit. She giggled. Why don’t you do more than just swim lengths and get us a drink?

Baby, if you’re so worried about getting your clothes wet, you should just take them off.

Ty expertly unbuttoned her blouse and unzipped her skirt. But, by the time her silk garments had quietly fallen onto the wet tiles, another part of her brain had taken over that didn’t care about thousand-dollar suits and, not for the first time, she threw her underclothes over the balcony rail and dived naked into the pool. They made love in the water before they even got to the king-sized double bed. It was her turn to pant with the physical exertion of their wild lovemaking with a perfect physical specimen ten years her junior.

Chapter 2

Three fifty-something business suited guys strolled along Harbour Drive, each with his jacket over the shoulder, each with a hand in his trouser pocket looking for all the world like old friends taking a well-earned break from the stresses of work. Black backs wheeled and screeched overhead in the trademark blue skies, motorboats, some small, some huge, chugged through the flat calm waters of the bay, and palm fronds swayed gently in a comfortable 20 °C breeze on another perfect January afternoon in San Diego.

Guys, you’re gonna love the food in this place. They serve the best tuna and swordfish steaks I ever tasted. Diadem’s Chief Technical Officer, Marty Spinks, was reliving his glory days as a post doc at San Diego Medical School and loving every moment of it.

Marty, did you ever do any work while you were a lab jockey up at the university? It seems to me like you spent more time swanning around bars and nightclubs than grafting at the lab bench like you’d have us believe!

Spinks assumed a hurt look and said, C’mon…Theo, would you rather be dining at the conference hotel or having a stroll in the sun with the prospect of a decent lunch? Dammit, in New York, it’s minus ten degrees right now! Convincing Brigitte that we should attend a conference in San Diego was a stroke of genius! Are you tell’n me you’d rather be freezing your ass off at the alternative, a dry old trade-show up in Chicago?

Smooth and tanned, Diadem’s suave old chief commercial officer raised the palms of his hands in mock surrender; Labouda laughed and said, Okay, okay, you’ve got me there. With just a menial degree from Chicago Business School, one science conference is much like another to me, but the weather is definitely better than New York, I have to admit!

Perhaps feeling that, as Diadem’s Chief Financial Officer, he should mention the financial angle, Terry Pritchett held a hand up and assumed the habitual serious tone he always had when talking about budgets and said, If you do the math, Diadem just spent six grand on three business-class flights when we could’ve attended a nearly identical conference in Chicago for twelve hundred! And that’s just the flights, three nights at the Beachfront Parador is costing an arm and a leg!

Labouda smiled, he couldn’t argue against the financial logic, so instead he said, You know Brigitte, when she has something serious to discuss; she likes to have a conducive atmosphere to do it. Besides, we all know she’s up to something. She’s at a meeting with some of the big investors up in Silicon Valley today. I reckon she wants to make her pitch on the Amazon deal at the annual shareholder meeting, it’s happening in a couple of weeks, remember?

Pritchett rolled his eyes, How could we forget? Guys, let’s get real here. You’re thinking about food at a time like this? We’ve gotta focus. Fassbender has lost her marbles this time! We’ve gotta push back against her insane plan; we’ve gotta take back control of the board!

Seeing that the CFO was about to fly off the handle into one of his famous tirades, and not wanting to mar the convivial atmosphere whilst he relived his past, Marty adopted a conciliatory tone, Look, you know the shareholders have already got wind of the idea. Why do you think she’s been up there in Palo Alto? She’s trying to get the Silicon Valley bigwigs on board with the programme before she pitches it to the full shareholder meeting. It’s what I call a Marmite deal, you either love it or you hate it!

Pritchett stopped unexpectedly causing the others to stumble into one other in a minor pedestrian pileup. Uncharacteristically for a man with a relaxed, easy-going temperament, Labouda’s temper flared, Look, Terry; Brigitte will be with us this evening. The least we can do is to hear her out. Trading in bad debts isn’t new. Diadem is cash rich; maybe it isn’t such a crazy idea. You know we can’t discuss the deal out here in an open space, but if, you know who, is about to declare itself bankrupt, it would cause a shockwave in international markets. I mean, a nation state defaulting on its debt repayments, it’s unheard of, but it looks like it’s gonna happen! We, on the other hand, could buy those debts cheap, renegotiate payments and get ourselves some very lucrative trade deals into the bargain.

Pritchett shook his head, You make it sound so simple, Labouda! What do you know about international finance? You’ve never been more than a salesman with the right pitch at the right time. Fassbender is on some kind of mission and she’s using Diadem to finance her crazy ideas. She’s taking her celebrity status too far! Look, we all know that all you wanna do is to get into Fassbender’s panties. You’ve been schmoozing up to her for years. God dammit man, you’re not her type! You’re too old for one thing; she’s only interested in men under the age of twenty-five for Christs’ sake!

Seeing that Labouda was about to say or do something he might regret, palms held up once more in a conciliatory gesture, Spinks got between the two men. Look…guys, guys, please! Why don’t we just take a step back here and relax. Like you said, we’re gonna be seeing Brigitte this evening, we can unpack this whole thing then. We can also gauge the mood of the shareholders from her meeting up in Silicon Valley. Maybe they’ve already closed her down, maybe not. Let’s hear the story first before we start to jump to hasty conclusions.

Perhaps seeing sense, Pritchett backed off, and quieted his voice, Look, don’t you see? She’s going to split the board. This deal is in nobody’s interests except hers. She’s acting like some corporate Mother Theresa, so she looks good in the media; maybe get an interview in Time Magazine or a Nobel Peace Prize.

Having got ahead of the other two men, Spinks returned to his role as a friendly tour guide, C’mon guys, I booked us a table at the Harbour Restaurant for one pm. If we hurry, we’ll just make it! And don’t forget to say ‘Hi, Bob’ on the way past the Bob Hope Memorial, it’s supposed to be good luck!

Finally seated in the restaurant, Spinks smiled and said, well, what d’ya think? Pretty old school, huh? Spinks could see his plan to lunch at the Harbour was already helping to pour proverbial oil over the fractious board’s troubled waters. The Top of the Harbour positively oozed old-world charm. A wood-lined interior took the edge off the militaristic gravitas created by the imposing presence of the old WWII aircraft carrier; USS Midway whose hulking mass dominated the upper end of the harbour. Where the quick-fire gags from the National Salute to Bob Hope Memorial had done nothing to sooth the edgy feel of the group dynamics, the pretty young greeter who helped them find a table, the languid sophistication of the restaurant and the expansive view of the harbour were working their magic.

As Pritchett eased himself into a comfortable recliner in the lounge bar, he nodded appreciatively, Now this is more like it. God dammit, Marty, you’ve had us wandering around the place on a wild goose chase for hours when you could’ve just taken us straight here from the convention centre. Maybe, it’s your scientist’s mind, but do you guys ever just take the straightforward route from A to B, or is it…’ Here Terry bracketed his next sentence with air quotes, ‘more intellectually stimulating to take the winding route’?

Spinks smiled mischievously and said, Hey, don’t mock science! That pacemaker that’s keep’n you alive right now was developed up in New York State, in Buffalo actually, not a million miles away from our good ’ole Diadem Corporation offices, so if you ever need a tune-up, you don’t have far to go!

Before Spinks could say anything else, Labouda nudged him and whispered, "Cut it out, Marty, you know how sensitive Terry is about, y’know, getting old. You’re not gonna get round him by making light of his heart condition. You, science geeks might be smart, but you’re scoring pretty low in