The Adamic Code by C. T. Knudsen

Author:C. T. Knudsen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: C. T. Knudsen

Chapter 22

Hancock Building

Zurich, Switzerland

As Dr. Martin Alba’s limousine rounded Lake Zurich, he marveled at the stunning Swiss city still standing proudly after being founded by the Roman military over two thousand years ago. Now, Zurich was a center of European culture, art, religion, and finance. It was one of the wealthiest and cleanest cities in the world. These things appealed to Alba’s finer tastes.

Zurich had achieved a delicate harmony and balance that eluded so many modern cities with ancient pasts. Most architecture in Zurich resembled old European Swiss influences, but somehow old and modern Zurich seemed to blend together perfectly—with one glaring exception. London had its Shard. Paris had its offensive Louvre pyramid entrance, a monument to France’s former narcissist president François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand. Zurich, too, had its architectural scar—the Hancock Building, which Alba loathed. Located near the main train station in Zurich’s industrial zone, the Hancock Building was a forty-story, bluish-green glass skyscraper Alba felt marred the city’s otherwise flawless architectural confluence.

In a back alley behind the Hancock Building, a long vehicle ramp led down to a private underground garage. Alba’s limousine joined the line of limos and SUVs with black-tinted windows, waiting to reach the heavily secured unloading area. When he finally stepped out of his vehicle, Alba found himself among former heads of state, bank presidents, monarchs, university presidents, CEOs, heads of the world’s most influential families, and global religious leaders. Heavily armed, expensively black-suited guards treated everyone respectfully yet routinely, checking vehicles, examining passports, and asking pointed questions.

At the next security point, Alba turned over his personal belongings, including his computer and cell phone, for safekeeping in biometric lockers. Next, he underwent X-ray and advanced digital scans to check his body for microscopic listening devices. A physician took a small prick of blood from Alba’s finger and ran it against a database that genetically verified his identity.

After running this gauntlet, Dr. Alba joined others on an elevator that rose directly to the building’s fortieth floor. Exiting the elevator, Alba immediately sensed a nervous energy filling the plush lounge area, which included a bar. A few people spoke in hushed tones. Most hunched over alcoholic beverages as they waited silently. Alba knew they all had one thing in common: from a young age, they had been taught, groomed, and compromised in some way. The organization headquartered in this building had, at some point in each of their lives, put its knee on their throats and watched the life leave their eyes. Dr. Martin Alba had long ago accepted that he too was owned by the organization.

Sitting in a dark corner of the lounge, he looked out over the city while nursing a martini. This meeting was pivotal in the organization’s history. They faced several problems that needed immediate resolution before they could execute their plans, and these plans hinged on a solution Dr. Alba had suggested to the group’s leadership.

“Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to begin.” The elderly Benson Hancock seemed to appear out of nowhere.

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