The Darkfall Switch Read Online Free Page A

engineering. When he had been working in Hong Kong he had enjoyed building beautiful scale models in a tiny workshop that he had converted from one of his apartment’s bedrooms. The machines he needed for this work had had to be laboriously hauled up the outside of their tall apartment block.
    ‘What’s your latest project?’ Foster asked.
    ‘A twelfth-scale model of an RNLI lifeboat. I’ll show you later.’
    Foster knew better than to ask if the model had been built from a kit. He knew that Cooper would have lovingly hand-crafted the vessel, and that it would be accurate down to the most minute detail. He looked forward to seeing it and the workshop.
    At that point Tina walked in. She had filled out a little since he had last seen her in Hong Kong. Her dark hair showed no trace of grey, but Foster suspected that this was due to the careful work of a skilled colourist. Somehow it suited her; she looked elegant and happy.
    ‘Dan, how lovely to see you again!’ She smiled as she offered a cheek to be kissed. She still retained a trace of an accent from her Canadian roots. Her greeting was warm; one could have been forgiven for thinking that it was quite genuine. ‘I hope you don’t mind,’ she went on quickly. ‘I’ve asked a friend of ours to join us at dinner.’
    Foster looked past her and saw Cooper grimace and open his arms in a gesture of resignation.
    ‘Tina, it’s your party. You ask whoever you like.’
    The doorbell rang before they could settle down. Tina apologized and bustled out of the room, heading for the hallway. ‘Darling!’ Foster heard her cry as she opened the front door. ‘Don’t you look wonderful!’
    The woman she brought in was indeed stunning. She was tall, slim and elegantly dressed, with sleek, jet-black hair that shone in the evening light. She was wearing a figure-hugging green dress with a black Pashmina over her shoulders.
    ‘Come in, Janet, there’s someone you should meet.’ The newcomer looked at Foster and smiled as she proffered her hand. He shook it, feeling the smooth warmth of her skin.
    Tina introduced them. ‘Janet, this is Dan Foster, an old friend of ours from Hong Kong.’
    ‘Janet Coleman,’ the woman said. There was a brief pause as she looked at him, her brow furrowed in thought, before she continued. ‘Foster…. Oh, I remember now! Weren’t you the one who exposedsome sort of scandal involving the government a while ago? You were on TV.’
    Foster nodded and was about to speak when Tina commanded, ‘Get the drinks, won’t you, darling.’
    Knowing his friend’s tastes Cooper gave him a malt: a Balvenie DoubleWood, surely kept for just this occasion. Tina and Janet each asked for a sherry and after he had poured these Cooper dispensed a stiff gin and tonic for himself. He measured the proportions carefully, as was his habit of old. A G&T had to be just so; nothing but Bombay Sapphire, the proportions exact, the sequence of combining them just right. Foster smiled and then turned and asked the newcomer what she did for a living.
    ‘I work for an insurance company.’
    Once again Tina interrupted. ‘Listen to her,’ she laughed. ‘Just listen! She doesn’t just work for them; she’s the chief executive. And it’s not a small company either: it’s one of the majors.’
    Foster realized then that, whether or not she was a friend, Janet was another of Tina’s acquisitions, an accoutrement to bolster her own standing. He decided to pander to his hostess’s whims; he owed it to his old friend to keep her happy.
    ‘I’m impressed,’ he said to Janet. ‘No glass ceiling with your firm, then.’
    ‘Don’t you believe it!’ Janet smiled at him, showing perfect white teeth. ‘I just had to work harder, that’s all.’
    Foster could imagine it. He found himself admiring her. He guessed she was in her early forties. It would have been quite an achievement for anybody to have reached her exalted rank at such a young age; doubly so for a woman.