A warm and soft wind blew through the valley, the last breath of a beautiful summer, Giorgio sat at the edge of the forest and looked out over the lake. He had a stillness over him, today they finally made it, after a grueling ten years of intense work, they finally got it, the long awaited breakthrough that would change everything. As Giorgio sat there dreaming of all the new possibilities that he and his team could have, his phone buzzed. He took out his phone, half annoyed, why now, in the midst of his thoughts, but the message would change everything and have a greater impact on his life than he could ever imagine.

The message was from his colleague dr. Hurtind, she was one of his closest colleagues and had been working alongside him for the entire time here, it simply said that he must come in as fast as possible. As he entered the lobby he was met by his colleague, she was in tears and started to tell him what happened.

The science center were they worked was called “The Cross” and it was one of many centers owned by a wealthy family called Orsopella, the family was heavily invested into biotechnology and artificial intelligence research. Dr. Hurtind explained now through her tears that the family plane had crashed on its way from Italy to here in Rumania, and everyone onboard perished. That was almost the entire family, only Thomaso Orsopella was left. The news hit Giorgio hard, he was the one who told the family to come here, just because of the new breakthroughs. Now all was in jeopardy, how would they be able to keep going, Thomaso was the oldest member of the family and was demented and a permanent resident of a care center, and he hard no power to either approve or deny the costs for the “The Cross”.

The following weeks Giorgio desperately tried to find a way to keep the funding coming in, but it became apparent to him that it was not possible, as long as there were no one who could approve the cost, the center would have no choice but to close down. Giorgio discussed this with dr. Hurtind and together they decided that the research was too valuable to just be abandoned, so they would stay there as long as possible. As time passed and they both got older, they knew it would just be a matter of time before the last remaining member of the family would die. The center was already officially closed down, and it was only themselves who kept it running, at the great expense of their funds. Giorgio knew this was not going to a lasting solution, he decided to reach out to the familie’s lawyer, and that is when he discovered the existence of a long lost heir to the family fortune. This could not have come at a better time, Thomaso drew his final breath only a week after, but by then Giorgio was already on his way to find this lost heir.

The clouds were hanging heavy with rain over Oslo as Giorgio came in for landing, he was still surprised that he actually found the heir, and that he was living in Norway, totally unaware of the enormous fortune he had. Giorgio had to find his way through a wet and rainy Oslo, and when finally reach the apartment of the heir, he was soaked. On the third floor of a old apartment complex he knocked on the door, waiting anxiously, feeling his own pulse pounding, listening intently for any sound of someone coming to open the door. But nothing, it was all quiet, his heart sank and he turned around and started to descend down thee stairs. After just a few steps, a young man came hurriedly up the stairway, passed Giorgio and stopped outside the very door Giorgio had knocked on, then he took out his keys and opened the door and was about to enter. Giorgio almost shouted out of excitement to the young man: Hi, are you Jonathan Nording?

The young man, looked at him a bit startled, and at the same time he obviously tried to recognize this old man, studded out a simple yes. Giorgio took the last few steps up and started with a brief apology, then said he was there looking for Jonathan, and that he had some crucial information regarding his family, this of course made Jonathan even more perplexed since he didn’t know of any family at all, he was told that his family were all dead and he was left at the orphanage by the state service after his mother passed during childbirth. Giorgio then asked if they could go inside so he could explain everything to him. Jonathan agreed and opened the door, they went inside. The apartment was a small one bedroom apartment, simply decorated and a typical Scandinavian apartment. Giorgio could not help smiling to himself, this small simple apartment was owned by one off the richest people in all of Europe.