The Monarch (23 page)

“What did he want?” Lara said, eyes wide.

She's good.

“It was a very interesting conversation. Very enlightening. It seems Canton wants to amend our deal. Now he wants three million dollars in cash added to the original agreement. Why do you think he would do that?”

“I don't, um, I don't know,” Lara said, adjusting her position in the chair.

“See, I know Canton, and the fact that he's a greedy bastard is no surprise. But three million dollars? That's a fairly odd amount to add to a deal between a ­couple of billionaires, don't you think?” He tried not to think about the fact that he wasn't technically a billionaire anymore.

“I suppose he . . . maybe he just wanted to make a point?”

“Oh, he made a point, all right. In fact, he made such a point, I decided I had better find the answer to these questions before the deal took place. And you'll never guess what I found. It seems that someone from Tartaruga has been calling Australia. Fairly regularly. And not just Australia, but Canton's private line,” Nathan said. His chair turned and whirred around his desk so he was right beside Lara's chair. “Who do you suppose could have made those calls?”

“Thomas is from Australia. Maybe—­”

“Honestly, Lara. You expect me to believe after all these years, Thomas would sell me out for a paltry three million? No, this was someone else. And I'm willing to bet the three million is just a gratuity on the real arrangement. What did he offer you?” Nathan said, tired of playing. He turned and rolled back behind his desk.

“Me? Seriously, Father. You don't really believe I would ever do something like this, do you? It sounds more like something Sophia would do.”

“First Thomas and now Sophia. You're running out of scapegoats, Lara. Sophia doesn't have a traitorous bone in her body. You, on the other hand, could teach a master's class on the subject. And don't insult me by denying it. I already checked with Ruby and she's confirmed it was you calling Canton.”

“Ruby? Who's Ruby?”

“Canton's personal assistant. She's been on my payroll for years. She doesn't know why you were calling or what you two talked about, but she knew enough. So again, what did he offer you? Or more importantly, what did you offer him?”

Lara sat in silence, her cheeks flushed and her eyes moist. Nathan waited in silence as well. He had more experience than she and could wait her out. He was pretty sure what the offer was, but if she wasn't forthcoming, he had an ace or two up his sleeve.

“The three million dollars was . . .” Lara said it, but trailed off so quietly he couldn't make out her words.

“Speak up, girl.”

“The three million dollars was for me!” she almost shouted.

“Why?”

“Because you're taking too long,” Lara said.

“Taking too long to what? Recover?”

“No.”

“To find The Monarch?”

“No,” she said, stronger.

“Then what am I taking too long—­”

“To die! All right? You're taking too long to die!”

Nathan fluttered his eyelids like he'd been slapped in the face. He hadn't expected that. Not from her. But now that he heard it, he was sure he knew what the deal was. He fought for control, glad that he wasn't jacked-­up on Sophia's serum. If he had been, Lara would surely be dead right now. She
was
dead to him now, but she was still useful. Even more so now, actually. He wouldn't have to hold back. He could swing her at his enemies full force, and if she shattered . . . there were always more weapons.

“Let's see if I understand your little conspiracy,” Nathan said. “You convinced Canton to renege on our deal. Not a hard endeavor. Then you told him if he cut you in, you'd give him your shares of Kring Industries. With the inheritance you envision from my death—­an inevitability without this deal—­you'd sell him controlling interest. For what? Power? Money?”

“He said he'd keep the company as a separate entity and let me head it. The three million was a sort of signing bonus.”

“And all you needed for your dreams to come true is for me to die,” Nathan said.

“Can you blame me? You treat that little gutless bitch down there better than you treat me! And you sure as hell didn't drag her into your bed. Why would I care what happens to you?”

God, she had it backward. He did all those things because he loved her, not because he didn't.

“You're a fool,” Nathan said.

“Excuse me?”

“Let me tell you how your deal would have really gone down if I hadn't found out about it. Canton would have given you everything you asked for.”

“I know,” she said.

“What you don't know, or aren't considering, is what happens
after
the deal. He'll drain Kring Industries of everything worth having, and then he'll short the stock. The company will dissolve with the guts ripped out of it, and when the stock is decimated he'll make more money than if it had been successful. And you, my dear, will have long spent your three million dollars. You'll have nothing left but your tight dresses and an attitude.”

“That's not true.”

“Have you even considered the thousands of employees and families that work for us? Or the thousands of peripheral industries we support? What happens to them because of your arrogance and shortsightedness? Do you really think the only reason I'm doing all this is to keep breathing?”

“It's not?” she said, challenging his convictions. He ignored it.

“It doesn't matter.”

“Why not?”

“Because you would never have the shares to give him in the first place.”

“What?”

Nathan pushed every fiber of his body to the breaking point and fought the neuro-­blocker as much as he could, doing his best impression of leaning forward.

“You don't own any stock. And you never would have. Do you really think I'd leave my company to someone who didn't have my blood running through their veins?” It was a lie. Nathan had fully intended on leaving everything to Lara, with a healthy portion left to her sister, of course. But everything was unraveling: going behind his back to Canton, Sophia discovering he wasn't their biological father and attacking him. Ironically The Monarch—­the thing he'd been trying to destroy and blaming for his financial downfall due to the expense of the search—­was looking like the only thing that could save him.

“
What?
” Lara hissed more than said, her breath coming in gasps.

It was time to get in front of this thing.

“Sophia, who you seem to think is oblivious to everything and naive, has figured something out you haven't—­I'm not your biological father. In fact, legally, I'm nothing to either one of you, since I never adopted you either.”

Nathan, to send his point home, took his eyes off of her and rolled over to the window, looking out on his jungle. A few guards were moving about, their loyalty bought and paid for. Lara sat slack-­jawed, staring at the floor.

“Almost forty years ago, when the doctors first detected kuru in my blood, I bought Kring Laboratories and set them to work. Never being one for half measures, I wanted someone in-­house with my best interests at heart. Someone who would fight for me, regardless of a paycheck. I had no idea how long I had before the symptoms would start showing up. So I assembled a team of scientists and sent them to scour these islands looking for just the right person.

“Someone young and malleable, someone with off-­the-­chart intelligence but controllable—­someone without a father.”

“Sophia,” Lara said softly. Nathan wheeled around to face her.

“Sophia.”

“But Mother said—­”

“Pearl was an exceptional woman. She knew a once-­in-­a-­lifetime opportunity when she saw it. Your life on the Maldives was less than luxurious, and the future that lay before you and your sister was anything but bright. Your mother and I made a deal, a business transaction. Beneficial to everyone.”

“You . . . you
bought
us.”

“Not
us
. Sophia. Originally I was just going to take her, but your mother was savvy and if I didn't take both of you there was no deal. She impressed me and I agreed, bringing her along in the bargain. And don't be mistaken, I came to love your mother, dearly. As she came to love me. It was a tragic irony when a disease she was carrying took her from us,” Nathan said, feeling melancholy at the remembrance of holding Pearl's hand at her bedside while cancer destroyed her.

“Then I was—­”

“Baggage,” Nathan said, being deliberately cruel. She had to be punished.

Lara visibly recoiled in her chair. She looked around the room as if waiting for someone to let her in on the joke, her mouth opening and closing as she gulped air.

“How did you think I would react?” Nathan asked. His biggest problem right now was not Canton George. He was sure he could handle that old snake even in his present condition. The real problem was that he still needed Lara. It would soon be time to clean up the loose ends, and he couldn't do it alone. Sophia, though brilliant, was no killer. Neither was Lara at the moment, but if he spun this situation right, that would change.

“In any case, I'm willing to forget this momentary . . . lapse in judgment. You may not be my blood, but you're still mine.” Lara winced and closed her eyes. “As long as you do as I say and keep me alive, you'll continue to have the money and power of the Kring family at your disposal.”

Nathan drove forward until he was right beside her again. She turned and looked at him. Nathan assayed her eyes for a moment. The fire was gone. She would do as he said from now on. He realized once all this was over it would be child's play to get her back into his bed.

“You'll have a job for life,” Nathan said. “My life.”

9:45
A.M.

“W
HAT'S DOWN THERE?”
Jonathan asked as he and Sophia passed a ladder that led below. They were in the bowels of the complex, a core area that ran the full height of the installation, where the lifeblood of the complex coursed in and out. Bands of pipes hugged walls and ceilings, running up, down, back and forth. From what Jonathan could tell, they carried water, sewage, steam, hydro cables, and natural gas. The smell was terrible, but not nearly as bad as the noise.

“That's where the generators are and the holding tanks for the natural gas,” Sophia shouted, though he barely heard her. “Come on.”

Sophia waved for him to follow. They turned one of the corners in the poured concrete tunnel—­which seemed to be made of nothing but corners—­and she led him to a ladder. Jonathan had lost track of their way a long time ago. He didn't even want to think about being in here without Sophia.

She pumped her thumb up. Jonathan was glad he got the message, because he couldn't hear a thing.

He climbed up the ladder, with Sophia close behind him, until he reached a closed hatch. He reached up and turned the circular handle a few times and then pushed up. When the hatch was all the way open, he climbed up out. Sophia followed, shutting the hatch behind her, muffling the majority of the noise.

“Thank you,” Jonathan said, wiggling a finger in his ear.

“It's been almost twenty minutes,” Sophia said. “Let's go. If they come back while we're in here noise is going to be the least of our problems.”

Back in her lab, she'd led Jonathan to a vent that had looked welded shut, but had opened easily. Sophia said she and Lara used to play in the tunnels when they would visit the island as kids. But then her father had discovered the natural gas pocket under the island and dug out a newer, deeper level to manage the gas and house several giant generators. After that, her father had welded most of the vents shut except for a few larger access panels in the corridors. Sophia didn't explain why, but a few years ago she'd used some of her chemicals to break the weld around the vent in her lab. If they found Natalie he wasn't going to be able to hold her, but he could see her and talk to her. That would be enough until he could figure a way out of this mess.

He really wished Lew was here.

“This corridor runs along the guest rooms. If she's here she'll be in one of these,” Sophia said.

Jonathan crouched and trotted over to the first one, but saw no one inside. The next three were the same. Then, in the second to last room, he found her, his breath catching in his throat when he saw her.

The room was bright, fake sunshine coming from phony windows on one wall, an impossibility this far underground. The color scheme was bright as well. All golds and yellows. It resembled a hotel room, with a dresser and writing table against the wall. In the middle of the room was a large bed and on it sat Natalie. She was busy drawing.

He opened his mouth to call to her, but stopped himself at the last second.

“What is it?” Sophia asked. Jonathan gently led her away from the vent so they could talk without Natalie hearing them.

“I can't say anything to her,” Jonathan said, standing close to Sophia so he could keep his voice down. She smelled of chemicals and animals. He thought it odd that it was about the best thing he'd ever smelled.

“Why not?”

“What would I say? ‘Daddy's been kidnapped and has to go be a thief. Remember to brush your teeth.' It's ridiculous,” Jonathan said. He'd explained about The Monarch when they first entered the tunnels. His honesty was Sophia's price for helping him, though he felt she would have helped him regardless.

“She'll understand,” Sophia said.

“No. She won't. Besides, even if she did, as hard as it is for her right now, how much harder would it be knowing I was out here somewhere? How could I explain why she has to stay there? No, it has to be this way.”

Sophia looked at him, her head slightly tilted. She looked almost . . . awed.