“If things go to hell,” Nate called over his shoulder, “we’ll use this exit to run for it.”
Nadia peeked in and gave him a doubtful nod. They both knew that if things went to hell, they weren’t getting out of here. That didn’t mean they wouldn’t try.
Since the door wasn’t that hard to open, Nate went ahead and closed it and slid the bookcase back into place. There was no reason to broadcast their escape plan, even if it wouldn’t be anything like a surprise to his father. They both knew the exit existed, and it was the only logical way for Nate and Nadia to try to get out, if it came to that.
The phone inside the office rang, and both Nate and Nadia jumped at the sound. Their eyes met across the room. The phone rang a second time.
“I guess that’s for us,” Nate said, because there was no way a call for his father was coming in to the office at 6:00 A.M.
“Are you going to answer it?”
The phone rang a third time, and Nate couldn’t think of any reason not to pick up. It wasn’t like security could arrest him over the phone. He grabbed the receiver.
“Yeah?” he said, because hello just didn’t seem right for the occasion.
“I hear you want to talk to me,” his father said.
The calm, cool voice of the man who had raised him made Nate shiver. Nate was sweating with nerves, and his father sounded about as worked up as he would be if he took a sip of his coffee and found it had gone cold.
“That’s right,” Nate said. He sounded like a scared little boy to his own ears, not at all the bold rebel who planned to demand the Chairman step down in his favor.
“I’m on my way. But son, the smartest thing you can do is use the emergency exit and get out before I get there.”
Nate snorted. “Yeah, right. You think I’m going to make it that easy for you?”
“There are things going on you don’t know about.” Maybe Nate was imagining things, but he thought he heard an uncharacteristic edge of worry in his father’s voice. Not that Nate gave a damn.
“You mean things like you murdering Gerri Lake and trying to have Nadia killed?”
“That wasn’t me.”
Nate laughed. It was either that or scream. That his father would try to deny he was behind it all was positively maddening. How stupid did he think Nate was?
“You know what, Dad? Fuck you. We’ll talk when you get here.”
Nate hung up the phone with a resounding bang, his heart pumping hard enough he figured Nadia could hear it from her perch across the room. She was chewing her lip anxiously and looked pale and fragile, but even so, she looked more together than he felt. He’d come here certain he wasn’t capable of cold-bloodedly killing his own father, but judging by the intensity of his rage, he was no longer so sure.
“You’re going to have to do most of the talking,” Nate said. “A few sentences on the phone were enough to make me want to kill him with my bare hands.”
“You expect me to be more reasonable?” Nadia asked. “He had my sister killed, Nate. It’s going to take everything I have not to shoot him the moment he shows his face.”
She had a point. Negotiations of the kind they were about to attempt were best carried out with a cool head. Shouting expletives and broadcasting uncertainty weren’t the best ways of establishing themselves as negotiating from a position of power. Nate closed his eyes and wished it weren’t too early in the morning for a drink. He probably had too much adrenaline in his system for alcohol to even take the edge off unless he drank it in larger-than-advisable quantities, but the illusion that he was doing something to steady himself would have been nice. Something other than pacing a rut in the floor, that is.
The phone rang again within seconds of Nate having hung up, but he felt no inclination to answer. Voice mail picked up, but a different line started ringing almost instantly. Nate turned the ringer off, because the sound was getting on his nerves.
The good news was that his father had been telling the truth when he said he was on his way. The room was well soundproofed for privacy, but, even so, Nate and Nadia could hear the evidence of people gathering outside, if only because they themselves were so quiet. Of course the Chairman wouldn’t show up without a large entourage, including bodyguards. Even to meet with his own son.
There was a knock on the door, and then Nate heard his father’s voice, much muffled by the soundproofed door.
“I’m here, son,” he said. “Let me in.”
“Only you!” Nate shouted. “Your bodyguards and the rest of your entourage stay outside.”
“Understood.”
Just because the Chairman said “understood” didn’t mean he was planning to comply. Nate raised his gun and positioned himself so it would be the first thing his father saw.
“Do me a favor and open the door, would you?” he asked Nadia. “And stay behind it until he’s safely in.”
She nodded and unlocked the locks one by one as Nate listened to the sound of blood rushing in his ears and tried to ignore the sweat he felt beading on his brow.
The last lock snicked open, and Nadia looked at him for a signal. He nodded, and she opened the door just enough for someone to slip in.
Nate half-expected the security team to rush the door. After all, for all he knew, his father had stepped aside the moment he’d heard the locks opening. There was no peephole to show them what was just outside the door. There were surveillance cameras that his father could access from his desk, but Nate didn’t know his password so couldn’t get to the feed. His finger tightened on the trigger in preparation.
But when the door opened, only his father stood there. Nate had the vague impression of maybe ten or twenty more guys milling about, but the Chairman was blocking his view.
The Chairman had sounded like his usual calm, dispassionate self on the phone, but in person he didn’t seem to be quite so calm after all. His face was paler than usual, and his body screamed with tension. And not because Nate had a gun to his head. Nate doubted his father believed he would shoot, though he would be cautious on the off chance he was wrong.
“Come on in,” Nate said, backing up to give him space while keeping the gun firmly pointed at his head. “Move slowly. And if anyone else tries to come with you, I’ll shoot.”
His father hesitated on the threshold, and Nate had the strangest impression he was trying to convey some kind of silent message with his eyes. It was no doubt a ploy of some sort, but it didn’t work, since Nate didn’t get whatever it was his father was trying to communicate.
“Are you coming in, or aren’t you?” he prodded. The gun was surprisingly heavy, and Nate’s muscles already felt a little shaky holding it up. Of course, holding a gun to your father’s head was somewhat unnerving, even when you hated the bastard.
With a look of resignation, the Chairman crossed the threshold.
Nadia heaved the door shut the moment the Chairman was clear, but she wasn’t fast enough. Another figure darted in behind Nate’s father. A tall, auburn-haired beauty Nate belatedly recognized as Dorothy, the impostor.
Nate was startled enough that he almost pulled the trigger by reflex as he jumped backward, trying to stay out of reach of the attack he was sure was coming. But as the door slammed shut behind Dorothy, he saw something that made his blood run cold and that turned his understanding of the situation sideways.
Dorothy had a gun. And it was digging into the small of his father’s back.
* * *
When she saw an unfamiliar woman push her way into the room behind the Chairman, Nadia had a split second to decide what to do. She went with locking the door to make sure no one else came in, even though that left her with danger at her back. She slid the last lock home as quickly as possible, then pulled her gun and whirled.
She and Nate had discussed a lot of potential scenarios as they’d talked over their strategy for this morning. This was not one of them.
The woman who’d forced her way in had a firm grip on the back collar of the
Chairman’s shirt and jacket, fingers pulling the fabric tight enough to make him bend his head backward. She also had a small pistol in her other hand and was pointing that pistol at the Chairman’s back.
Nate had backed off several steps, but was still pointing his gun at his father. Nadia supposed she could point hers as well, but it would most likely be redundant.
“I’d advise you to put down the gun, Nathaniel,” the woman said, smiling smugly. “Daddy has already declared me the new Chairman Heir after you went and kidnapped a foreign Chairman’s daughter. You don’t want to make me Chairman so soon, do you?”
“Dorothy,” Nadia muttered under her breath, realizing who the mysterious woman had to be even though they had never met.
“You’ll want to put down your weapon, too, Miss Lake,” Dorothy said without taking her attention away from Nate. “You’ve been quite the thorn in my side, and my first act as Chairman of Paxco would be to order your death.”
Nate had not lowered his weapon. His eyes swam with confusion, and there was a fine sheen of sweat on his brow, and yet he still gave the impression he had no intention of backing down.
“This is some kind of trick the two of you cooked up together,” he said. “You think if you pretend to hold my father hostage, I’ll go from hating his guts and wanting him dead to giving myself up to save his worthless life. Well, it won’t work.”
The explanation sounded plausible, but it seemed rather more extreme than necessary. Surely the Chairman wasn’t afraid to confront the two of them, even though they were armed. He was arrogant enough to think he could talk his way out of any problem.
Dorothy shrugged. “If you think it’s a trick, then call my bluff. Shoot him.”
The Chairman tried to say something, but Dorothy tightened her grip on his collar and choked the sound off. Nate wavered, sending a quick glance Nadia’s way. Asking for her help figuring things out, no doubt, but Nadia didn’t have a clue.
“What is it you want, Dorothy?” Nadia asked, because it seemed like a reasonable question.
“That’s ‘Miss Hayes’ to you,” Dorothy corrected. “I don’t suppose we are destined to become friends.” She paused as though expecting Nadia to rephrase her question more politely. She had a long wait ahead of her.
The look on Dorothy’s face hardened, her eyes going cold with malice as she stared Nadia down. There was hatred in those eyes, but why would Dorothy hate someone she had never met? Come to think of it, why had she said Nadia had been a thorn in her side? What had Nadia ever done to her? She’d been imprisoned in a retreat since before Dorothy’s existence had even been made public.
“I want both you and Nathaniel to put down your guns and back away,” Dorothy said through gritted teeth. “Do it now, or Chairman Hayes will regret it.”
“I fail to see how putting our guns down is going to improve the situation for Nate and me,” Nadia said. “I presume the next step after that is arrest and execution, and that doesn’t sound so good.”
Dorothy smiled broadly. “What if I told you I had every intention of allowing you both to walk out of here unharmed?”
“I’d say you’re full of shit,” Nate snarled. He was still pointing his gun, but his arm was shaking from the strain.
Once again, Chairman Hayes tried to say something, but Dorothy shook him by the collar. “Hush now, Daddy. You don’t have a speaking role in this little drama of ours.” She returned her attention to Nate and Nadia. “You will serve my purposes better if you’re on the loose, wanted for the possible kidnapping of Agnes Belinski, than if you’re in prison awaiting trial—or even awaiting one of those unfortunate accidents that tend to occur in prison.”
“And what purposes would those be?” Nadia asked.
“Put down your guns, and I’ll tell you.”
Nate and Nadia shared a look of confusion. None of this was making any sense. Nadia could understand why Dorothy wanted them to put down their guns, of course, but obviously she wanted something more than that. Nadia just had no clue what it was.
“Let’s put an end to your concern that Daddy and I are just trying to fake you out, shall we?” Dorothy said. In a lightning-fast motion, she lowered her gun from the small of the Chairman’s back, angled it toward his butt, and fired.
The shot made so little noise, Nadia thought it was a bluff of some kind. Except the Chairman’s face squinched up with pain and he tried to force a scream past Dorothy’s choke hold. Then there was the blood that was pooling on the seat of his pants. His legs seemed to go weak, but Dorothy held him up by the collar, displaying a strength that seemed incongruous with her delicate build.
Nate had gone pale, and he’d lowered his gun, though he hadn’t dropped it.
“Shall I have Daddy turn the other cheek?” Dorothy asked with a predatory grin. “Or are you going to be good little children and put those nasty guns down so we can have a civilized conversation?”
Nadia didn’t like the idea of putting the gun down, not one bit. However, as much as she hated the Chairman, she couldn’t stomach standing there and watching Dorothy torture him before her eyes—and before Nate’s. Nate’s skin had gone from pale to a sickly green, and Nadia couldn’t even imagine the riot of emotions he must be sorting through.
Moving slowly so as not to startle Dorothy, Nadia shifted her grip so she was holding her gun by the muzzle, then slowly bent and put it on the floor. She still had Lily’s gun in her uniform pocket, as well as the canister of knockout gas, though it was perilously close to empty. Nate wouldn’t be disarmed if he put his gun down, either, so Nadia hoped he’d follow her lead—and that Dorothy would think the guns they’d taken from the guards were the only weapons they had.
Still looking almost sick to his stomach, Nate put his own gun down. The bloodstain on the Chairman’s pants was spreading, and his face was bathed with sweat as he gasped for air.
“How about you loosen your hold enough so the Chairman can breathe?” Nadia suggested as she stood up.
“How about you each kick your guns toward me. Nathaniel, I’ll need your other gun as well, and I’ll need that knockout gas from you, Miss Lake.”
Damn it. Dorothy must have watched the security feed from the lobby and seen their other weapons before coming upstairs to confront them. Surely now she would assume she’d completely disarmed them. They were just a couple of kids, after all. How much firepower could she expect them to be packing?
Reluctantly, Nadia did as Dorothy ordered, and Nate followed suit. Dorothy forced the Chairman to his knees so she could keep easy control of him while she gathered up the weapons. The guns were too large to fit in the pockets of her skirt suit, so she stuck them in the waistband instead, one in front, one in back. The knockout gas did fit in her pocket. She rose from her crouch, dragging the Chairman with her, keeping him between herself and Nate and Nadia as if she still needed his services as a human shield.
“So what happens now?” Nadia asked quietly. Dorothy seemed to have painted herself into a corner by shooting Chairman Hayes. If she let the security officers in now to arrest Nate and Nadia, how would she explain the gunshot wound?
“Have you figured out who I am yet?” Dorothy countered.
“We’ve figured out you’re not my sister,” Nate snarled.
Dorothy looked at him with an expression of smug condescension. “But I am, Nathaniel. Ask any geneticist you like to examine my DNA, and he will tell you I am the daughter of Chairman Hayes.”
Nadia’s head spun as an awful, terrifying idea came to her. “Thea,” she whispered barely above her breath, not expecting anyone to hear her. But Dorothy did.
“In the flesh,” Dorothy said with another grin. She certainly wasn’t making any attempt to hide how much fun she was having. “Literally.”
“What?” Nate cried.
“I was rather further along in my research than you were led to believe,” Dorothy said. “Even Daddy didn’t know about the most recent breakthroughs I’d had before you meddling child
ren got in the way. I’ve had to move up my timetable a little bit to make sure my remaining research is secure. I couldn’t stand the thought of coming as far as I have and then being cut off just before achieving full success.”
Thea had claimed to be researching the mind/body connection. Her ultimate goal had been to fully separate the two, so that she could combine a person’s mind—more specifically, Chairman Hayes’s mind—with a younger version of that person’s body. To protect herself from any change that might lead to her deactivation, she had determined that Chairman Hayes had to remain in power forever, his mind forever reimplanted into a new body when old age got the best of him.
“So you’ve succeeded,” Nadia said breathlessly, unable to stop herself from looking Dorothy up and down with both awe and revulsion.
“I’m very close,” Dorothy corrected. “As you can see, I have mastered the construction of a human body. Minds, however, are harder to create. Fascinating thing, the human mind. Give me an original to work with and a perfect duplicate of the body, and I can bring it fully to life. As I did when I created this Replica of Nathaniel.” She jerked her chin toward Nate. “A perfect likeness. But as of this moment, I can only transfer that mind to the exact physical duplicate of its original.”
Dorothy’s brows drew together in obvious frustration, her fingers tightening on the Chairman’s collar.
“Obviously, there’s something about the human brain I am failing to understand properly,” Dorothy continued. “There is no such thing as what you humans call a soul, no mystical, magical entity that makes you who you are. It is all scientific and physical, or I would not be able to produce such perfect Replicas. Somewhere in that science, I will be able to isolate the specific differences in brain chemistry or biology that make a human being into a unique individual, and I will be able to sculpt a fully functioning brain in a fully functioning body.”