The Rise of Rachel Price T-Girl Pt. 26

Levant's gaze remained serious as he considered her words.

"Oh, I get it. That was a dumb question," Rachel realized, her voice tinged with a hint of self-deprecation. "Okay, I guess the real question is, would it please you to go?"

Levant's mood seemed particularly buoyant for some reason, and Rachel desired his cooperation when she swapped pens later on. The desert gaff had given her a newfound sense of confidence.

With a satisfied nod, Levant accepted his card back, along with a ticket handed to him by the waiter. "The Tigers games are fun. I've never been with someone I'm dating," he admitted, revealing a hint of vulnerability.

Rachel responded with conviction, her voice laced with a touch of playfulness. "You've definitely been dating the wrong people then," she asserted.

"Well, we can both agree on that." Levant said, adding, "Look, the race is starting."

An elegantly dressed crowd surged forward as the race shot off. It was hot, so the first race was short. Levant and Rachel cheered the horse on, but it came second last. Levant had lost his money, and Rachel leaned back in her seat.

"Well, that was fun," Rachel remarked as she returned to Levant's side.

Between the races, they brought food and, with special permission wine. The food in Qatar and the UAE was some of the best she had. The Qataris could afford to import the best cuisinier from nearby by India or, indeed the best chefs in the world. Rachel found herself craving salt, olives and a number of things she never had before. Quite a lot of food didn't interest her any more which had helped keep her weight down. She

"Cinnamon," Levant began, his tone full of anticipation, "your birthday is coming up soon. If you could have anything, what would you want?"

Rachel had to pause for a moment. Levant was referring to Rachel's fictional birthday, not Denver's actual one. Rachel's initial response would be to say "Out of here," but she smiled instead. She sipped some Perrier water. She wore the new gaff and felt there was something about it which made her feel feminal and super sensual. She needed that emotional edge with him to prevail in her negotiations with him.

"What is it? Jewellery? A flat in Paris? A horse, perhaps? Tell me," Levant grinned, eager to hear her answer.

"You've given me so much" Rachel said, meaning a health grandpa and soon mom.

"Well, if I could have anything in the entire world, it would be something you can't possibly get me," Rachel replied.

"Oh, that sounds like a challenge. You'll be surprised--I am the best at getting things," Levant boasted confidently as the first course was served. Rachel began eating her salad.

"Well, I would love to have Part Five of Red Dead Redemption," Rachel said sincerely.

Levant savored his wine before swallowing. "Come on, a game? Is it a video game? That's almost too easy. Could you try to make it more challenging?" he teased.

Rachel leaned forward, a devilish grin on her face. "Well, what you don't know is that the game hasn't been released yet. It's still in production. No one has access to it, not even the journalists. The rumour is that it's finished, but they're waiting to launch it during the Christmas season."

Levant nodded in approval of the challenge. "So, for your birthday, you want a game that doesn't exist yet?"

"It exists but hasn't been released," Rachel clarified. "Failing that, the Asylum has a stables, but no horses. What about you?"

Levant sat there, exuding confidence in his elegant morning suit. He always carried himself with such sophistication. "Well, that's easy. If I could have anything in the world, it would be you, obviously. To make it more challenging, I'd have your name on a marriage license. And while we're fantasizing about things that don't exist, you would opt for a trip to the Unicorn."

"Would you really? I mean, I'm going to get old and wrinkled one day," Rachel said.

Levant chewed on his steak for a moment. "But it's the old and wrinkled you I want to be with. Because then I'd be old and wrinkled as well. We'll be old and wrinkled together, surrounded by lots of grandkids. I mean, you're the one who said family was everything. Why do you think I'm thinking anything different?" Levant said.

"Stop," said Rachel. "I'm melting."

Levant rolled his eyes. "Now I get to find out what it's like dating the wicked witch of the East."

"I thought it was west," Rachel remarked.

Levant shrugged finished his steak, and Rachel was on too much of a diet to rush through her meal. Soon, the main course was finished, and the waiter insisted on refilling their wine glasses.

"So, have you had a chance to read the final contract?" Levant asked.

"Yes," Rachel replied as the waiter took away her plate. "I've bought you a signing present."

She handed over the box containing the spy pen.

"Thanks," Levant said, opening the wrapping. "Oh, a pen. How lovely" He continued opening the box within a box until finally, he lifted the pen up. What was clever about the spy pen was that it actually worked as a real pen. The supply of ink was smaller than normal, leaving space for the bug itself. Rachel had already paired the bug with her phone. The app was disguised as a game.

"Nice weight," Levant said as he reached into his suit and pulled out the principal pages of the contract. The contract itself reached 90 pages in PDF form. There were a lot of clauses that they both had introduced. Levant had included a bunch of extreme and wild clauses if they were to get married. That part of the contract became a dumping ground for any wild notion Levant dreamed up. Rachel ignored them, as all she had to do was not marry him.

This time, Rachel got Levant to sign his copy first. Then she signed hers, and they swapped over. Finally, Levant folded his sheets up and put them away.

"I feel so fantastic," Levant said, his eyes getting slightly watery. "It's just such a relief to know we've got another Eighteen months together. I hope you don't mind me saying, it's like I knew when the end of the world was, and you have just made it stop for a year."

Rachel smiled sympathetically. "It's my pleasure."

Levant reached into his other pocket and pulled out a small box. "I got you this," he said, placing the box before her. Guessing the contents, Rachel opened the box and studied what was inside.

"That looks really similar to a certain other ring used for base ball practice near a cliff," Rachel said, referring to the one that Levant had thrown over the edge of the cliff.

"It is the other ring. I had some professional climbers and divers searching the rocks floor nearby the cliffs and they found it." Rachel said.

"Wow," Rachel said, looking closely at it. "It's lovely, but you know it's not going to serve its original purpose, is it?" Perhaps this was Levant's new plan. To trick her into marriage?

Levant leaned in. "No. Can I see it on? Just to check the fit. I'm not expecting you to say yes, but if you wanted to say yes, I would still skip the prenup. But, you know, only if you felt like it. No pressure."

Rachel wanted to laugh in his face, but she was quite caught up in the moment, and more importantly, she wanted to keep things sweet with Levant while her mother got better.

"Okay, as long as we know it's not me accepting. I'll give it a go," Rachel said, slipping off one pretend engagement ring and putting on another one.

"It looks radiant, and so do you," Levant answered, taking Rachel's hand and kissing it.

The sign indicated that the next race was about to begin. "Any suggestions for the next horse?"

Rachel scanned the list of horses. "#7 Savage Twist sound good" she picked randomly.

-------------------

Qatar was a ravenous beast of experience. You kept feeling that mystic of energy a new city provides. Looking the sky had a strange purity to it. The wealth was more than on tap it was stark an flashy like a Las Vegas showgirl made good. Yet there was also an exoticness to it that no American city could ever quite maintain.

The next morning, Rachel was sitting in the back of a limousine with Levant. She was wearing an abaya, which was a large flowing overgarment. It was black with rich, complex designs on it, and she had her hair covered in a niqāb. Lucy was wearing one too. As Western women, they could have gotten away with just covering their arms and legs, but this one was a gift from Prince Rashid to Levant. It had arrived just after Levant had returned from his meeting. Levant said he was keen to impress Prince Rashid and had ordered Lucy to get one for herself. As part of his scheme, Rachel and Lucy were to wear darker foundation and "go for a look more in keeping with Islamic traditions,". Beth had sent Rachel a couple of photos from the US with instructions on what to do. The pictures arrived in the morning.

Rachel looked at her abaya; it was baggy and shapeless. "You know what I like about this," she said, "is that Prince Rashid managed to guess my size."

Lucy looked over and said nothing.

"You don't have to stay with me, Cinnamon," Levant said as Rachel sat close to him in the back seat. "It's just an investor's meeting. I can't let you in. Investors are getting jittery about industrial espionage, and there are short sellers everywhere."

Rachel shrugged. "I don't have that much to do, and I prefer to be with you. Anyway, this is something new. If I get bored, I'll have Jerry drive me somewhere."

Lucy looked at Rachel, her eyes heavy with suspicion. Rachel had tried to see if she could attend the meeting, but Levant had insisted on how boring it was going to be. Having the spy pen as a backup meant Rachel didn't have to try too hard. For the spy pen to work, they she had to be in range.

Levant put his huge arm around Rachel and kissed her. "Yeah, I want to be with you 24/7 as well."

Levant shifted seats to sit next to Lucy and work. While he moved, when Levant couldn't see. Lucy gave Rachel a Mona Lisa smile.

They drove for a long time, Levant and Lucy worked on some PowerPoint slides. Lucy kept looking up at Rachel but head still only moving her eyes when she did.

Rachel took out her phone under the guise of photographing the occasional camel and building, and wrote notes.

She looked out and briefly caught sight of the reflection of a red-lipped Instagram model looking without passion at the memorable world around her. Then Rachel realized it was herself from an unfamiliar angle. The car turned into a long driveway and began passing huge mirror gold-covered life-size sculptures of horses frolicking on a long green lawn strip. As they drove, Rachel noticed a thin, scrawny man using a brush made of palm leaves to keep the place tidy.

"A peeling veneer of modernity," Rachel typed into her poetry and rap notes.

The approached a modern building. It was situated in a prime location, this conference center features a sleek and contemporary design that seamlessly blends with its surroundings. The exterior showcases a captivating blend of glass, steel, and geometric patterns, giving it a distinct and sophisticated appearance. The limo pulled up, and Levant got out, then reached back to pull Rachel out.

The car had driven into an air-conditioned entrance space behind a wall of glass. Upon entering, they are greeted by a cool grand atrium with soaring ceilings and an abundance of natural light, creating a welcoming and inspiring atmosphere. The interior boasted a harmonious fusion of elegant aesthetics and cutting-edge technology. The small number of people where outnumbered by security guards.

Rachel was drawn into the small crowd of people who were now approaching. She was expecting to be ignored but found herself shaking hands with investors. She tried to remember faces in case Hunter needed her to identify them in a lineup later. There was an Arab called Fakka who had a nose like a bad version of Fagin. An American investor called John would pass for a living version of Peter in Family Guy. He shook Rachel's hand for a long time and squeezed it tightly. He told her he was representing the Save Our America foundation.

After the orgy of handshakes, Lucy told Levant it was time to get the workshop started.

"You take the car back to the hotel or wherever you like. It's very safe here," Levant said moving to a security body scanning arch, "Crime is really low. They cut the hands off thieves, so the whole place has very low crime. They should try that back home."

Rachel smiled. "Yeah," she said, "There's a nice-looking cafe over there. I'm going to sit down, do a bit of Instagramming or something, and then see what's happening. I'm a bit tried, so some downtime would be OK. If I'm not here when you get out I'm properly shopping."

She wasn't totally lying. She had the occasional migraine for no reason. As her body shifted between genders, events like that were to be expected.

She then moved up and put her hand on his chest and kissed him on the cheek. She could feel the spy pen in his breast pocket. "See you later. Knock them dead," Rachel added.

She stood, watching Levant pass through security. Rachel had a working phone and could look things up on the internet. The facts were sober, as facts are. She knew that in Qatar, they didn't cut off people's hands, which was good. Denver had been caught stealing once when he was younger. It had been for a dare, but she might not have a hand if what Levant wished for was true.

Technically, alcohol, pornography, sex out of marriage, homosexuality and pork were all against the law. For sodomy, it was jail for five years or death if it involved a Muslim. No one in Qatar got whipped for it; that had been one of Lucy's malicious untruths. The downside was that cross-dressing was illegal, so if anyone noticed her, it might mean a big fine or, if they thought homosexuality was involved, years in prison. If this got into the courts, the illegal passport would be noticed, and the whole thing might get back to the states. Actually, 'might' was an underestimate. Levant had his enemies; someone like Sam Spade would jump on this. The identity of the boy involved would be published, and his family and the entire neighborhood would know. Looking down, Rachel's hand was shaking. This would be a good time for a drink, but this was a dry country. Coffee would have to do.

As Rachel walked, she heard a young, thin, dangerous-looking man getting more upset with the desk that handed out the badges. "It would be booked under The Fallen Freedom Foundation... Look it up... Look who is your boss? I want to talk to them."

Rachel made a mental note to add that to her list. This spying business wasn't as difficult as people made it out to be.

As he left, Rachel watched Levant at security. There were two security men at the entrance to the complex. They were Indian. As far as Rachel could tell, the natives of Qatar had been made rich with payouts for oil. They tended to own things, but the wealth was such that they brought in people from India and around the world to do the menial work for them. There were armed Indian men in black combat uniforms and black caps standing around everywhere. They had nothing to do but challenge people. There was a fuss as Jerry, the bodyguard, was stopped by the guard because he wasn't on the official attendees list. Levant had to come back and personally intervene.

With that, Rachel retreated to the public cafe outside the security. She got a coffee sat down, and a tall blonde woman in Western dress sat down near her. Rachel had noticed this. Women would sit near each other for solidarity. It was strange how she had never noticed this before as Denver. The blonde woman pulled out a laptop and a cigarette. Smoking was all the rage here, men smoked continuously.

The woman looked familiar, Rachel remembered her from the opening of the Asylum. She had been in Venice as well. Then Rachel figured out she might be Volk's girlfriend or wife or significant other or something. Volk had worked out of the Lido in Venice, apartments were cheaper and internet faster he said. She and a few other tech people had shared a large apparent. She worked almost continuously during, then flew to Germany for weekends. So they had't really met.

Rachel's best description was a reformed goth. Arms had to be covered but you could see signs of some large complex techno-tattoos. She was quite tall with good features. She had an oval face that was slightly long and on the edge of what someone could use to live from their face. She wasn't wearing any makeup, and she was lanky and ungainly in places. Mel had brown eyes that sat neatly on either side of a small nose. She was wearing a T-shirt with a chemical symbol for caffeine on it, but it was hidden under a more formal jacket. Her left nostril was pierced with a small blue stud.

Rachel pulled up the app on her phone. It was also disguised to look like a breakout game. In fact, there was a secret setting that switched on the surveillance device. This was perfect for Rachel since her phone was filled with game after game. No one would notice it. Plugging in her headphones, Rachel began to hear what was going on.

Her first disappointment was that the reception was terrible. The pen was in Levant's coat, and it muffled the sound. Rachel concentrated, and there was a strange, regular thumping sound. After a moment, she realized it was Levant's heartbeat.

"The good news is he isn't a vampire," Rachel said to herself.

Rachel pressed the record combination. This was another gift for Hunter. For no reason, Rachel swiped to her photos of the house warming and found Hunter, and then Samantha. Samantha was cute; Denver could go for Samantha. There was something about how she played for the camera that made you sense her inner vixen and love her for it.

"OK," Levant's voice began, "We are going to have a presentation by Volk on the successes of the software in France, Italy, and Indonesia. Then we will hear from Fakka about why having someone as governor and then president will be in your best interests." Levant said.

Rachel sat back. Volk had software which could make Levant governor? Hunter would have to know about this. May be she might risk texting him. She carried on listening " I know this is a lot of money we are asking for, but we are going to have a presentation from Kleen--sorry, what?... Dr. Kleen?... Dr. Kleenen--about what this means in the long term for you. You all have a lot to lose from a candidate like Gore. I'm your white knight."

Rachel sat back. "Yeah, referencing the Crusades. Cultural sensitivity factor low," she thought, sipping her coffee.

"OK, after lunch we'll talk about how to get your funds to the project. Obviously over seas finance and have laundered otherwise there will be a trail, the state department might ifind. Then I will bring everything together at the end about what you'll get. OK, Volt, if you would," Levant continued.

Rachel turned up the volume, but due to the microphone position, low volume, and Volt's accent, it was hard to understand what he was saying. Rachel caught a few words: 'social media,' 'affective computing advances,' 'deep sentiment analysis,' 'advances in sociology, psychology, and a deeper understanding of peer pressure,' 'social influencers.'

Then Volt's voice grew louder, "a long-term plan to flood social media with next-generation AI-based bots... These bots will befriend people well before any election and slowly hijack the agenda. Upvoting and likes can gradually nudge people in the direction we choose. Already, 55% of Americans get their news from social media. We have shown many are unreachable by traditional parties... As we have demonstrated, we can control the election, once out of power they won't know what hit them. My technology can deliver you the votes to not only get the government you want but keep it there as long as you want it."