Chapter 23
“What?” Linda stares blankly, “How would I know? Do you know?”
“How about a compromise?” Bernard conciliatory yet curious, “I mean, we help you with one thing and you help us with something.”
“Help you?” peering she asks, “Why? I mean why would you trust me and why would I trust you?”
“Hence the word ‘Compromise’, Miss Cunningham.”
“What sort of compromise?”
“The kind, where we stop hostilities for a while, and we find a common ground first, if we can.”
“What sort of common ground?”
“Like I said, would you like to find out if you have any siblings or if your parents are still alive or known in any database.”
“You just met me, how would you know where to start?”
“Would you volunteer for a DNA comparison?”
“Is there something else you are not telling me?”
“Your baby blanket seems similar to someone I know, perhaps you might also know that person.”
“And that person would be?”
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
“Soon is not soon enough, what if we are not related?”
“But we still have a common ground. Why do both of you have the same blanket? Which was supposedly left with you when you were both infants. How about that for a start?”
“In return what do you want?”
“We are rather curious why you attacked us. When we do not get involved in the limelight at all.”
“Like you guys are playing that innocent card.”
“Well, tell me what it is that made you say that? Obviously, you seem to have your views on someone else, in comparison to what are we? What is it that they do? And what is it that we do?”
“Control.”
“Obviously, we need to protect our interest.”
“No, not that control, total control.”
“Ah, you are talking about empires.”
“Is it? Do you call it an empire? When more than one person is behind it.”
“The Romans had their senate.”
“Do they take life and give life?”
“Why do you think they take life, and give life?”
“For the sake of their empire, I suppose.”
“What do you think they are protecting this time around?”
“The planet?”
“They take life to give life, sounds like the Romans.”
“But they don’t have an empire?”
“Don’t they? Tell me what they do, and I’ll tell you what they are.”
“Bankers, businessmen, billionaires”
“What is it that reminds you of them, and the Romans, or for any other word, an Empire?”
“What?”
“[sigh], You are a little slow? Where are the Romans from?”
“From Rome.”
“And your, bankers, businessmen, billionaires?”
“From all over?”
“The Romans conquer lands and possess territory. What do they, your bankers, billionaires, have in comparison with Rome?”
“They possess this time interests, business territories, properties and even land. So?” Linda realizes it, “It is still an Empire!”
“Precisely, and where it leads, you follow the money. Like they all say back then, all roads lead to Rome. You will find what you are really looking for to where all the money leads.”
“What is it that you want to know?”
“Why us? When we are vaguely connected with them. Sure we are in business with them. But we do not owe them money, nor they owe us. Moreover, they do not own us.”
“You guys were, shall I say, just that. Big unconnected to most, not tied to anyone, which is quite suspicious.”
“And no one told you to look into us?”
There was a moment of silence with Linda, her spontaneity caught something in her mind. “None.”
“Then lead you into looking.”
Silence again, “none, what are you trying to prove?”
“No one looks into us, without getting into trouble. Someone made you look into us, to poke the hornet’s nest. Who does Alexander work for?”
“Work for? Are you being absurd? He’s a billionaire, he does not work for anyone?”
“To be one comes at a price, young lass. Surely he owes someone, how did he achieve his goal? Someone lend money to him? Or the capitalists, the venture capitalists? Who are they? They are the ones in control.”
“He always has control. He controls the Board and the Executive.”
“Oh, in terms of management, in research and development, what is his business anyway? Is it also tech? Or is he a front, of or for someone else? Who does he talk to, especially when you are not allowed to listen?”
“Of course, there are things I am not allowed to listen to.”
“This is your conundrum. But, is it? And it is in these closed doors that you will never know, if someone is pulling the strings. SOS. Is it an old man? An uncle perhaps?”
“You guys were on the list, or on the list. The only company or organization with no links to any other company, but rather being a majority holder of, but never under someone else’s. It is like you guys are some whole other faction. So who are you guys really?”
“DNA test? And we shall go from there?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“It will be your loss, if you do not. It will be our gain to know. Maybe we have enough DNA material of you somewhere, that way we do not need to ask it from you.”
“So how do I know the results, or when?”
“You are quite well versed on burner phones, here is one. We will call you.”
“It’s not that I already said yes.”
“Can you say yes?”
“Yes. Why?”
“Okay you agree then.”
A technician grabs her jaw and takes a swab around the insides of her mouth.
“That was tricky, old man.”
“Till we meet again.”
Manhattan Island
A macabre shrill, a sound that sends shivers down the spine of a security guard on a penthouse floor. He runs to investigate. A woman, sitting on the floor, a maid, shaking, breathing heavily, as she tries to get some sense of what she is seeing. Over her head, is a man hanging by his neck.
Horse Island
Irene comes out of Ernest’s room, “did I miss something?”
