Sidney Sheldon (9 page)

T
ANNER KINGSLEY WAS
reading the headline of the afternoon newspaper: “Hailstorm Batters Iran.” The rest of the story went on to call it a “freakish event.” The idea of a hailstorm happening in summer, in a hot climate, was bizarre. Tanner buzzed for his secretary. When she came in, he said, “Kathy, clip this article and send it to Senator Van Luven, with a note: ‘A global warming update. Sincerely…’ ”

“Right away, Mr. Kingsley.”

Tanner Kingsley glanced at his watch. The two detectives were due at KIG in half an hour. He looked around his extravagant office. He had created all of this. KIG. He thought about the power behind those three simple initials, and how surprised people would be if they knew the astonishing story of KIG’s humble beginnings, a mere seven years ago. The memories of the past raced through his mind….

He remembered the day he had designed the new KIG logo.
Pretty fancy for a nothing company,
someone had said, and Tanner had single-handedly turned that nothing company into a world power-house. When Tanner thought about the beginnings, he felt as though he had performed a miracle.

T
ANNER KINGSLEY HAD
been born five years after his brother, Andrew, and that had totally shaped the direction of his life. Their parents were divorced, and their mother had remarried and moved away. Their father was a scientist, and the boys had followed in his footsteps and had grown up to be science prodigies. Their father had died of a heart attack at age forty.

The fact that Tanner was five years younger than his brother was a constant frustration. When Tanner won the top award in his science class, he was told, “Andrew was number one in his class five years ago. It must run in the family.”

When Tanner won an oratorical contest, the professor said, “Congratulations, Tanner. You’re the second Kingsley to get this award.”

On joining the tennis team: “I hope you’re as good as your brother, Andrew.”

When Tanner graduated: “Your valedictorian speech was inspiring. It reminded me so much of Andrew’s.”

He had grown up in the shadow of his brother, and it was galling to know that he was considered second best only because Andrew had gotten there first.

T
HERE WERE SIMILARITIES
between the two brothers: they were both handsome, intelligent, and talented, but as they grew older, major differences became apparent. While Andrew was altruistic and self-effacing, Tanner was an extrovert, gregarious and ambitious. Andrew
was shy around women, while Tanner’s looks and charm drew them to him like a magnet.

But the most important difference between the brothers was their goals in life. While Andrew was deeply concerned with organizing charity and assisting others, Tanner’s ambition was to become rich and powerful.

A
NDREW GRADUATED FROM
college summa cum laude and immediately accepted an offer to work at a think tank. There he learned what a significant contribution an organization like that could make, and five years later Andrew decided to start his own think tank, on a modest scale.

When Andrew told Tanner about the idea, Tanner was excited. “That’s brilliant! Think tanks get government contracts worth millions, not to mention corporations that hire—”

Andrew interrupted. “That’s not my idea, Tanner. I want to use it to help people.”

Tanner was staring at him. “Help people?”

“Yes. There are dozens of Third World countries that have no access to modern methods of agriculture and manufacturing. There’s a saying that if you give a man a fish, he can have a meal. If you teach him to fish, he can eat for the rest of his life.”

You could cut down an oak tree with that old saw,
Tanner thought. “Andrew, countries like that can’t afford to pay us—”

“That doesn’t matter. We’ll send experts to Third World countries to teach them modern techniques that will change their lives. I’m making you a partner. We’ll call our think tank Kingsley Group. What do you say?”

Tanner was thoughtful for a moment. He nodded. “As a matter of fact, it’s not a bad idea. We can start with the kind of countries
you’re talking about, then go after the big money—the government contracts and—”

“Tanner, let’s just concentrate on making the world a better place.”

Tanner smiled. It was going to be a compromise. They would start the way Andrew wanted to and then they would gradually build up the company to its real potential.

“Well?”

Tanner held out his hand. “Here’s to our future, partner.”

Six months later, the two brothers were standing in the rain, outside a small brick building with an unimpressive little sign that read
KINGSLEY GROUP
.

“How does it look?” Andrew asked proudly.

“Beautiful.” Tanner managed to keep the irony out of his voice.

“That sign is going to bring happiness to so many people around the world, Tanner. I’ve already started hiring some experts to go to Third World countries.”

Tanner started to object and stopped. His brother could not be rushed. He had a stubborn streak. But the time is coming. The time is coming. Tanner looked up at the little sign again and thought,
Someday it will read KIG, Kingsley International Group.

J
OHN HIGHOLT, A
college friend of Andrew’s, had invested a hundred thousand dollars to help get the think tank started, and Andrew had raised the rest of the money.

Half a dozen people were hired and sent to Kenya, Somalia, and Sudan to teach the natives how to better their lives. But no money was coming in.

It made no sense to Tanner. “Andrew, we could get contracts from some of the big companies and—”

“That’s not what we do, Tanner.”

What in the hell do we do?
Tanner wondered. “The Chrysler Corporation is looking for—”

And Andrew smiled and said, “Let’s do our real job.”

It took all of Tanner’s willpower to control himself.

Andrew and Tanner each had his own laboratory at the think tank. They were both immersed in their own projects. Andrew frequently worked far into the night.

One morning, when Tanner arrived at the plant, Andrew was still there. He saw Tanner come in, and Andrew jumped to his feet. “I’m excited about this new nanotechnology experiment. I’m developing a method of…”

Tanner’s mind drifted to something more important: the hot little redhead he had met the night before. She had joined him at the bar, had a drink, taken him to her apartment, and given him a wonderful time. When she held his—

“…and I think it’s really going to make a difference. How does that sound, Tanner?”

Caught by surprise, Tanner said, “Oh. Yes, Andrew. Great.”

Andrew smiled. “I knew you would see its possibilities.”

Tanner was more interested in his own secret experiment.
If mine works,
he thought,
I’ll own the world.

O
NE EVENING, SHORTLY
after his college graduation, Tanner was at a cocktail party when a pleasant, feminine voice behind him said, “I’ve heard a lot about you, Mr. Kingsley.”

Tanner turned around in anticipation and then tried to conceal his disappointment. The speaker was an unremarkable-looking young woman. All that kept her from being plain was a pair of intense brown eyes and a bright, slightly cynical smile. The sine qua non for Tanner was the physical beauty of a woman, and it was clear that this woman didn’t make the cut.

Even as he said, “Nothing too bad, I hope,” he was thinking up an excuse to get rid of her.

“I’m Pauline Cooper. My friends call me Paula. You dated my sister Ginny in college. She was mad about you.”

Ginny, Ginny…Short? Tall? Dark? Blonde? Tanner stood there, smiling, trying to remember. There had been so many.

“Ginny wanted to marry you.”

That was no help. So did a lot of others. “Your sister was very nice. We just didn’t seem to be—”

She gave Tanner a sardonic look. “Save it. You don’t even remember her.”

He was embarrassed. “Well, I—”

“It’s all right. I just attended her wedding.”

Tanner was relieved. “Ah. So, Ginny is married.”

“Yes, she is.” There was a pause. “But I’m not. Would you like to have dinner tomorrow night?”

Tanner took a closer look at her. Even though she was not up to his standards, she appeared to have a nice body and seemed pleasant enough. And this was certainly an easy lay. Tanner thought of his dates in baseball terms. He would throw a woman one pitch. That was it. If she didn’t hit a home run, she was out.

She was watching him. “I’ll pay.”

Tanner laughed. “I can handle it—if you’re not a world-class gourmand.”

“Try me.”

He looked into her eyes and said softly, “I will.”

T
HE FOLLOWING EVENING
,
they dined at a trendy restaurant up-town. Paula was dressed in a cream-colored, low-cut silk blouse, a black skirt, and high-heeled shoes. As Tanner watched her stride into the restaurant, it seemed to him that she was a lot better looking than
he had remembered. In fact, she had the bearing of a princess from some exotic country.

Tanner stood up. “Good evening.”

She took his hand. “Good evening.” There was a self-assured air about her that was almost regal.

When they were seated, she said, “Let’s start over, shall we? I have no sister.”

Tanner looked at her, confused. “But you told me—?”

She smiled. “I just wanted to test your reaction, Tanner. I’ve heard a lot about you from some of my friends, and I became interested.”

Was she talking about sex? He wondered whom she had spoken to. It could have been so many—

“Don’t jump to conclusions. I’m not talking about your swords-manship. I’m talking about your mind.”

It was as though she had been reading his thoughts. “So, you’re—er—interested in minds?”

“Among other things,” she said invitingly.

This is going to be an easy home run.
Tanner reached over and took her hand. “You’re really something.” He stroked her arm. “You’re very special. We’re going to have a good time together tonight.”

She smiled. “Are you feeling horny, darling?”

Tanner was taken aback by her bluntness. She was an eager little thing. Tanner nodded. “Always, princess.”

She smiled. “Fine. Get out your little black book and we’ll try to find someone who’s available for you tonight.”

Tanner froze. He was used to making sport of women, but none of them had ever mocked him before. Tanner stared at her. “What are you saying?”

“That we’re going to have to improve your line, love. Do you have any idea how trite it is?”

Tanner felt his face getting red. “What makes you think it’s a line?”

She looked him in the eye. “It was probably invented by
Methuselah. When you talk to me, I want you to say things that you’ve never said to any woman before.”

Tanner looked at her, trying to conceal his fury.
Who does she think she’s dealing with—some high school kid?
She was too damned insolent for her own good.
Strike one. The bitch is out.

T
HE WORLD HEADQUARTERS
of Kingsley International Group was located in lower Manhattan, two blocks from the East River. The compound occupied five acres of land and consisted of four large concrete buildings, along with two small staff houses, fenced in and guarded electronically.

At ten o’clock in the morning, Detectives Earl Greenburg and Robert Praegitzer entered the lobby of the main building. It was spacious and modern, furnished with couches and tables, and half a dozen chairs.

Detective Greenburg glanced at the assortment of magazines on a table:
Virtual Reality, Nuclear and Radiological Terrorism, Robotics World
…He held up a copy of
Genetic Engineering News
and turned to Praegitzer. “Don’t you get tired of reading these in your dentist’s office?”

Praegitzer grinned. “Yeah.”

The two detectives approached the receptionist and identified themselves. “We have an appointment with Mr. Tanner Kingsley.”

“He’s expecting you. I’ll have someone escort you to his office.” She gave them each a KIG badge. “Please turn these in when you leave.”

“No problem.”

The receptionist pressed a buzzer, and a moment later, an attractive young woman appeared.

“These gentlemen have an appointment with Mr. Tanner Kingsley.”

“Yes. I’m Retra Tyler, one of Mr. Kingsley’s assistants. Follow me, please.”

The two detectives walked down a long, sterile corridor with tightly closed office doors on each side. At the end of the corridor was Tanner’s office.

In Tanner’s waiting room, Kathy Ordonez, Tanner’s bright young secretary, was seated behind a desk.

“Good morning, gentlemen. You can go right in.”

She got up and opened the door to Tanner’s private office. As the detectives stepped inside, they stopped to stare, in awe.

The huge office was crammed with arcane electronic equipment, and the soundproof walls were lined with wafer-thin television sets displaying live scenes from cities around the world. Some of the views were of busy conference rooms, offices, and laboratories, while others showed hotel suites where meetings were taking place. Each set had its own audio system, and even though the volume was barely audible, it was eerie to hear snippets of sentences spoken simultaneously in a dozen different languages.

A caption appeared at the bottom of each screen identifying the cities: Milan…Johannesburg…Zurich…Madrid…Athens…At the far wall was an eight-tier bookshelf filled with leather-bound volumes.

Tanner Kingsley was seated behind a mahogany desk that contained a console with half a dozen different colored buttons. He was elegantly dressed in a tailored gray suit with a light blue shirt and a blue checked tie.

Tanner rose as the two detectives walked in. “Good morning, gentlemen.”

Earl Greenburg said, “Good morning. We’re—”

“Yes, I know who you are. Detectives Earl Greenburg and Robert Praegitzer.” They shook hands. “Sit down, please.”

The detectives took seats.

Praegitzer was staring at the swiftly changing, worldwide pictures on the profusion of television sets. He shook his head in admiration. “Talk about today’s state of the art! This is—”

Tanner raised a hand. “We’re not talking here about today’s state of the art, Detective. This technology won’t be on the market for another two or three years. With these, we’re able to watch teleconferences in a dozen different countries simultaneously. The information that pours in from our offices around the world is automatically categorized and recorded by these computers.”

Praegitzer asked, “Mr. Kingsley, forgive a simplistic question. What does a think tank do, exactly?”

“Bottom line? We’re problem solvers. We figure out solutions to problems that may lie ahead. Some think tanks concentrate in only one area—the military or economics or politics. We deal in national security, communications, microbiology, environmental issues. KIG functions as an independent analyst and critic of long-range global consequences for various governments.”

“Interesting,” said Praegitzer.

“Eighty-five percent of our research staff hold advanced degrees, and more than sixty-five percent have Ph.D.s.”

“That’s impressive.”

“My brother, Andrew, founded this company to assist Third World countries, so we’re also heavily involved in start-up projects there.”

There was a sudden rumble of thunder and a flash of lightning from one of the television sets. They all turned to look.

Detective Greenburg said, “Didn’t I read something about a weather experiment you were doing?”

Tanner grimaced. “Yes, it’s known around here as Kingsley’s folly. It’s one of the few major failures KIG ever had. It was the one project that I most hoped would work. Instead, we’re closing it down.”

Praegitzer asked, “Is it possible to control the weather?”

Tanner shook his head. “Only to a limited degree. A lot of people have tried. As long ago as 1900, Nikola Tesla was doing experiments with weather. He discovered that ionization of the atmosphere could be altered by radio waves. In 1958, our Defense Department experimented with dropping copper needles into the ionosphere. Ten years later, there was Project Popeye, where the government attempted to extend the monsoon season in Laos, to increase the amount of mud in the Ho Chi Minh Trail. They used a silver iodide nuclei agent, and generators shot banks of silver iodide into the clouds, to become seeds for raindrops.”

“Did it work?”

“Yes, but on a confined local basis. There are several reasons why no one will ever be able to control the weather. One problem is that El Niño creates warm temperatures in the Pacific Ocean that disrupt the world’s ecological system, while La Niña creates cold weather temperatures in the Pacific, and the two of them combined completely negate any realistic weather control planning. The Southern Hemisphere is about eighty percent ocean, while the Northern Hemisphere is sixty percent ocean, causing another imbalance. In addition to that, the jet stream determines the path of storms, and there is no way to control that.”

Greenburg nodded, then hesitated. “Do you know why we’re here, Mr. Kingsley?”

Tanner studied Greenburg a moment. “I trust that that is a rhetorical question. Otherwise, I would find it offensive. Kingsley International Group is a think tank. Four of my employees have died or disappeared mysteriously within a period of twenty-four hours. We have already started our own investigation. We have offices in major cities around the world, with eighteen hundred employees, and it is obviously difficult for me to keep in contact with all of them. But what I have learned so far is that two of the employees who were murdered were apparently involved in illegal activities. It cost them their lives—but I assure you, it is not going to cost Kingsley International Group its reputation. I expect our people to resolve this very quickly.”

Greenburg spoke up. “Mr. Kingsley, there’s something else. We understand that six years ago a Japanese scientist named Akira Iso committed suicide in Tokyo. Three years ago a Swiss scientist named Madeleine Smith committed suicide in—”

Tanner interrupted. “Zurich. Neither of them committed suicide. They were murdered.”

The two detectives looked at him in surprise. Praegitzer asked, “How do you know that?”

There was a hardened tone in Tanner’s voice. “They were killed because of me.”

“When you say—”

“Akira Iso was a brilliant scientist. He worked for a Japanese electronics conglomerate called Tokyo First Industrial. I met Iso at an international industry convention in Tokyo. We got along well. I felt that KIG could offer him a better atmosphere than the company he was with. I made him an offer to work here, and he accepted. In fact, he was very excited about it.” Tanner was fighting to keep his voice steady. “We agreed to keep it confidential until he was legally able to
leave that company. But he obviously mentioned it to someone, because there was an item about it in a newspaper column, and…” Tanner stopped again for a long moment, then went on. “The day after the item appeared, Iso was found dead in a hotel room.”

Robert Praegitzer asked, “Mr. Kingsley, couldn’t there have been other reasons that might explain his death?”

Tanner shook his head. “No. I didn’t believe he committed suicide. I hired investigators and sent them and some of my own people to Japan to try to learn what had happened. They couldn’t find any evidence of foul play, and I thought that perhaps I was wrong, that possibly there was some tragedy in Iso’s life that I knew nothing about.”

“Then why are you so sure now that he was murdered?” Greenburg wanted to know.

“As you mentioned, a scientist named Madeleine Smith supposedly committed suicide in Zurich, three years ago. What you don’t know is that Madeleine Smith also wanted to leave the people she worked for and come to our company.”

Greenburg frowned. “What makes you think the two deaths are connected?”

Tanner’s face was stone. “Because the company she worked for is a branch of the same Tokyo First Industrial.”

There was a stunned silence.

Praegitzer said, “There’s something I don’t understand. Why would they murder an employee just because she wants to quit? If—”

“Madeleine Smith wasn’t just an employee. Neither was Iso. They were brilliant physicists who were about to solve problems that would have made the company a fortune larger than you can imagine. That’s why they didn’t want to lose either of them to us.”

“Did the Swiss police investigate Smith’s death?”

“Yes. So did we. But again, we could prove nothing. As a matter of fact, we’re still working on all the deaths that occurred, and I
expect that we will solve them. KIG has far-reaching connections all over the world. If I get any useful information, I will be happy to share it with you. I hope you will reciprocate.”

Greenburg said, “That’s fair enough.”

A gold-plated phone on Tanner’s desk rang. “Excuse me.” He walked over to the desk and picked up the phone. “Hello…. Yes…. The investigation’s coming along very satisfactorily. As a matter of fact, two detectives are in my office at this moment, and they have agreed to cooperate with us.” He glanced over at Praegitzer and Greenburg. “Right…. I’ll let you know when we have any further news.” He replaced the receiver.

Greenburg asked, “Mr. Kingsley, are you working on anything sensitive here?”

“You mean are we working on something sensitive enough to have half a dozen people murdered? Detective Greenburg, there are more than a hundred think tanks around the world, some of them working on exactly the same problems we are. We’re not building atomic bombs here. The answer to your question is no.”

The door opened, and Andrew Kingsley walked into the office carrying a stack of papers. Andrew Kingsley bore little resemblance to his brother. His features seemed to be blurred. He had thinning gray hair, a lined face, and he walked in a slightly stooped posture. Whereas Tanner Kingsley was brimming with vitality and intelligence, Andrew Kingsley appeared to be slow-witted and apathetic. He spoke haltingly and seemed to have trouble putting sentences together.

“Here are those—you know—those notes you asked for, Tanner. I’m sorry I didn’t finish—finish them earlier.”

“That’s perfectly all right, Andrew.” Tanner turned to the two detectives. “This is my brother, Andrew. Detectives Greenburg and Praegitzer.”

Andrew looked at them uncertainly and blinked.

“Andrew, do you want to tell them about your Nobel Prize?”

Andrew looked at Tanner and said vaguely, “Yes, the Nobel Prize…the Nobel Prize…”

They watched as he turned and shuffled out of the room.

Tanner sighed. “As I mentioned, Andrew was the founder of this company, a truly brilliant man. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for one of his discoveries seven years ago. Unfortunately, he became involved in an experiment that went wrong and it—it changed him.” His tone was bitter.

“He must have been a remarkable man.”

“You have no idea.”

Earl Greenburg rose and held out his hand. “Well, we won’t take up any more of your time, Mr. Kingsley. We’ll keep in touch.”

“Gentlemen—” Tanner’s voice was steel. “Let’s get these crimes solved—fast.”