Read Online White Gold by Rachel Amphlett - Free Book Online Page A

of bastards.’
    The caller laughed. ‘Watch them change their minds when your coal-fired power stations close down under European Union climate change legislation and you haven’t got enough gas to last the United Kingdom over winter. Ask them where their wind farms are then.’
    The Minister grunted. ‘We’ll be back in the middle ages before you know it. Do you know we have enough coal in this country to last three hundred years but the European Union won’t let us burn it, so it just sits there while we buy gas from the Russians?’
    Another laugh, twelve thousand miles away. ‘That’s why I’m going to sell my coal to your government when you’re all freezing your nuts off and come begging.’
    The Minister chuckled. ‘Yes, well thanks to your kind donations, I’ll be sure to winter in the Caribbean when that time comes.’
    He looked at his watch. Time to end the call. ‘Keep me posted on developments. I don’t want any surprises.’
    ‘Neither do I, Minister, so you make sure you keep your eyes and ears open.’
    The Minister put down the phone as a knock at his office door pre-empted his personal attaché entering the room. ‘Thirty minutes until your meeting with the Prime Minister, sir. I’ve ordered the car – traffic’s horrendous this morning.’
    The Minister nodded, took his thick winter coat from the attaché and threw it around his shoulders.
    Stepping out of the ugly building into a rain-ravaged morning, he walked quickly to a waiting car where the driver was holding the back door open ready for him. He climbed inside and spent the journey daydreaming about a holiday home in the Caribbean.
     
     
    Brisbane, Australia
     
    Uli Petrov tapped on the privacy glass between him and his driver with a fat forefinger.
    The glass lowered slowly. ‘Sir?’
    ‘Stop here, by the traffic lights,’ Uli instructed and leaned back in his seat.
    ‘Yes sir.’ The glass raised once more.
    Uli loosened his tie. The car was air-conditioned but his Siberian bulk wasn’t designed for the short walk from the vehicle to the building, his ultimate destination.
    The car swung into a drop-off zone below a towering skyscraper. Uli waited while his driver got out, walked around the vehicle and opened the rear door. Uli forced his huge bulk off the rear seat and stood up. He almost gasped from the humid air. He swore he could feel it sucking the oxygen out of his lungs.
    ‘Wait here,’ he said to the driver and limped towards the revolving doors at the base of the office block.
    Uli glared at the people milling around the reception area and stalked towards the elevators. He stepped into the next available elevator car and held his hand up to a hopeful young secretary who tried to enter the elevator at the same time.
    ‘Room for one only,’ he intoned. ‘The sign says this has a maximum weight capacity.’ He chuckled to himself as the elevator doors closed and began to rise through the bowels of the building. No such thing as a skinny rich Russian .
    The elevator stopped and Uli stepped out into a sumptuous reception area. A woman behind a granite-effect desk looked up, smiled at him as he approached, then stood up.
    ‘Mr Petrov?’
    He nodded.
    ‘We’ve been expecting you,’ she said. ‘I trust you had a good flight yesterday?’
    ‘Yes,’ said Uli, not wanting to waste time talking to his business partner’s minions.
    The receptionist interpreted his curtness correctly and beckoned him to take a seat. ‘One moment please, Mr Petrov,’ she said, ‘Mr Delaney is waiting for you.’
    She dialled a number and announced his arrival, then turned back to her work.
    Uli looked up as a door opened down the corridor next to him and Delaney appeared. Petrov stood up and walked over to him, his hand outstretched. Delaney laughed loudly as he walked down the corridor towards the reception area, shook Uli’s hand and held the door open to the boardroom for the other man.
    ‘Uli, it’s good to see you.’