“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.
JOHN 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.
ONE 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.”
THE 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.
Chapter 15
THE 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.