‘Finn, young man, this is where it gets serious. You’ve got to go up there now. And this isn’t a movie!’
‘Eva Borelius, Karla Kramp. I’ve been particularly looking forward to…’
And so on, and so forth.
Julian found friendly words for everyone, then he came dashing over to Tim and Amber with a furtive grin.
‘So? How do you like it?’
‘Brilliant,’ said Amber, and put an arm around his shoulders. ‘The magma chamber’s amazing.’
‘Lynn’s idea.’ Julian beamed. He could barely utter his daughter’s name without adopting a sickly tone. ‘And this is nothing! Wait till you see the show.’
‘It’ll be perfect, as always,’ Tim stammered with barely concealed sarcasm.
‘Lynn and I came up with it together.’ As usual, Julian pretended not to have noticed Tim’s ironic tone. ‘The cave is a gift from heaven, I tell you. These rows of seats mightn’t look like much, but we can now screen this spectacle for five hundred paying guests, and if it’s more—’
‘I thought the hotel only had room for three hundred?’
‘Sure, but we can basically double our capacity. Put four or five decks on our ocean steamer, either that or Lynn will build a second one. Not a problem either way. The main thing is that we rustle up the cash for another lift.’
‘The main thing is that you don’t get into difficulties.’
Julian looked at Tim with his light blue eyes.
‘And I’m not. Will you excuse me? Enjoy yourselves, see you later. Oh, Madame Tautou!’
Julian darted back and forth between the visitors, a laugh here, a compliment there. Every now and again he drew Lynn to him and kissed her on the temples. Lynn smiled. She looked proud and happy. Amber sipped at her champagne.
‘You could be a bit friendlier to him,’ she said quietly.
‘To Julian?’ snorted Tim.
‘Who else?’
‘What difference does it make if I’m friendly to him? He only sees himself anyway.’
‘Perhaps it makes a difference to me.’
Tim stared at her uncomprehendingly.
‘What’s up?’ Amber raised her eyebrows. ‘Are you slow-witted all of a sudden?’
‘No, but—’
‘Clearly you are. Then I’ll put it a different way. I don’t feel like spending the next two weeks constantly staring into your gloomy face, okay? I want to enjoy this trip, and you should too.’
‘Amber—’
‘Leave your prejudices down here.’
‘It’s not a matter of prejudices! The thing is, that—’
‘It’s always something.’
‘But—’
‘No buts. Just be a good boy. I want to hear a yes. Just a simple yes. Do you think you can manage that?’
Tim chewed his bottom lip. Then he shrugged. Lynn walked past them, followed by the Tautous and the Donoghues. She winked at them, lowered her voice and said behind her hand, ‘Hey, insider knowledge. This is confidential information for family members only. Row eight, seats thirty-two and thirty-three. Best view.’
‘Got it. Over and out.’
Amber linked arms with the group and disappeared without another word towards the auditorium. Tim sauntered along behind her. Someone drew up beside him.
‘You’re Julian’s son, aren’t you?’
‘Yes.’
‘Lovely to meet you. Heidrun Ögi. Your family’s completely bonkers. I mean, it’s not a problem, it’s absolutely fine,’ she added when he failed to reply. ‘I love people with bees in their bonnets. You’re far more interesting than the common run of people.’
Tim stared at her. He would have expected anything from this chalk-white woman with the violet eyes and the white mane of hair: Celtic magic spells, extraterrestrial dialects, just not that kind of misplaced remark.
‘Really?’ he managed.
‘So what sort of madman are you, then? If you take after Julian.’
‘You think my father’s mad?’
‘Of course, he’s a genius. So he must be mad.’
Tim said nothing. What kind of madman are you, then? Good question. No, he thought, what an idiotic assumption! I’m definitely the only one in the family who isn’t mad.
‘Well—’
‘See you.’ Heidrun smiled, drew away from him, waving her fingertips, and followed the jovial Swiss chap who was clearly her husband. Slightly startled, he pushed his way to the middle of the eighth row and slumped down next to Amber.
‘Who are these Ögis?’ he asked.
She looked over her shoulder. ‘The guy with the albino wife?’
‘Mm-hm.’
‘Glittering couple. He runs a company called Swiss Performance. They’re involved in all kinds of areas, but mostly he’s in the construction business. I think he came up with the first pontoon estates for the flooded areas of Holland. At the moment he’s in discussions with Albert over Monaco Two.’
‘Monaco Two?’
‘Yes, just imagine! A huge floating island. It was on the news a while ago. The thing’s only going to cruise in fair-weather zones.’
‘Ögi must be the same sort of bonkers as Julian.’
‘Could be. He’s said to be a philanthropist. He supports needy artists, performers and circus folk, he’s started up educational institutions for underprivileged young people, he sponsors museums, he donates money like it was going out of fashion. Last year he donated a considerable part of his fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.’
‘How the hell do you know all this?’
‘You should read the gossip sheets more often.’
‘Don’t need to while I’ve got you. And Heidrun?’
‘Yeah…’ Amber smiled knowingly. ‘That’s where things get interesting! Ögi’s family isn’t exactly over the moon about their relationship.’
‘Tell me more.’
‘She’s a photographer. She’s talented. She takes pictures of celebrities and ordinary people. She’s published picture-books about the, erm… red-light scene. In her wild years she’s said to have gone so far off the rails that she was thrown out of her house and disinherited. After that she started funding her studies by working as a stripper, and later as an actress in posh porn films. At the start of the millennium she became a cult figure in Switzerland’s smart set. I mean, you couldn’t exactly claim she’s not striking.’
‘Good God, no.’
‘Eyes straight ahead, Timmy. She gave up the porn films after her studies, but went on stripping. At parties, gallery openings, just for fun. At one of those events she came across Walo, and he helped boost her career as a photographer.’
‘Which is why she married him.’
‘Apparently she isn’t an opportunist.’
‘Touching,’ said Tim, and was about to add something else when the lights went out. They were immediately sitting in inky blackness. A solo violin started playing. Gentle music wove threads through the dark, shimmering lines that formed elaborate structures. At the same time the space assumed a blue glow, a mysterious, gloomy ocean. From what seemed to be a long distance away – the impressive result of holographic projections on the huge, concave glass wall – something came towards them, pulsating and transparent, something that looked like an organic spaceship with a vague nucleus of alien, shadowy passengers.
‘Life,’ said a voice, ‘began in the sea.’
Tim turned his head. Amber’s profile shone like a ghost in the blue light. Enchanted, she watched the cell growing bigger and slowly beginning to rotate. The voice spoke of primal lakes and chemical marriages contracted many years ago. The lonely cell in the infinity of blue divided, and then that division became faster and faster, more and more cells came into being, and all of a sudden something long and serpentine came wriggling towards them.