Short Stories

Iron Heart

Phillipa Gold was an assistant, nothing more, nothing less. 

She was in love with a man who would never see her, he only saw the money rolling into his bank account, even though Gold saw something good in him. She saw his good heart. 

Was he the wealthiest bachelor in the world? Yes... Was he constantly partying, buying things he didn't need? Well, yes... Was he also throwing money into successful projects with a flick of his hand? That too.

Was he her boss, Christopher Heart? Most definitely.

He was always smiling out of pride. His dark hair always loosely combed back in that stylish, party look. Always on the cover of magazines...most of the time it wasn't for his supreme intelligence as a businessman, but as an excessive party-goer.

Still, Gold was his assistant...barista...media consultant...maid...and chauffeur. She was whatever he needed her to be. 

Phillipa Gold did so much outside her official job title for the man she loved, while many of his "friends" hung around him for the expensive parties they got for free and for his status in the celebrity world. 

Gold, the invisible assistant, was in love with Heart, who was the most watched man in the world.

Until the day he disappeared.

Gold was the first person to notice, he'd been gone for over 24 hours and missed one of his business meetings - but she knew something was wrong when he didn't call in to explain. 24 hours was long enough to write up a missing person's report, but it was also long enough for Gold to know that Heart should have called in to tell her where he was, or to cancel so he could party more, or that he was in an important meeting or-

He should have called her.

So Gold called the police.

And the media grabbed the information and spread it around the world. 

Journalists shunned her for being paranoid, saying the typical party boy ended up in the wrong woman's bed so he's hiding - the fact that someone dared to peg her boss, her Christopher, in that light infuriated her more than the stuff they said about her 'tight-leash'.

But when the hackers released the video of Christopher Heart, the CEO of several multi-billion dollar companies and creator of worldwide security devices, at gunpoint...well, the world listened to Gold then.

It was bad news for the world. Heart was the CEO of really expensive companies that were based all around the world, many countries loved what he produced in terms of defence and security for their prized information and artefacts. 

If the kidnappers managed to break Christopher Heart...the world's market would collapse. Business would crumble. Security would fracture. 

Intelligence services from around the world, like the CIA, MI6, ASIS, FBI and more, grouped together to work with Phillipa Gold in deciphering the graphic videos that came through. She went from being the invisible assistant to the most watched woman on the planet.

Christopher didn't have a lot of family, and those that spoke to him now didn't want to see how he was doing - just how much he was earning.

Gold was the only one who knew him well enough to see if he had any specific signals in the videos, ways that they could rescue him.

So Gold watched every day as the man she loved was tortured, and watched his torture to try and find a way to save him.

The only video released to the media was the first one that showed Christopher Heart at gunpoint - the rest was her burden to carry, her decision not to release to them.