She smiled. “Good news. You’re going to have a very successful dinner party.”
He frowned. “What are you talking about?”
She held up the papers. “These are all acceptances. Everyone’s coming.”
Tanner got up. “Coming where? Let me see those.”
Kathy handed him the papers and went out to her desk.
Tanner read the first e-mail aloud. “ ‘We would be delighted to come to dinner at KIG Headquarters on Friday to see the unveiling of Prima, your weather control machine.’ From the editor of Time magazine.”
His face turned white. He looked at the next one. “ ‘Thank you for your invitation to see Prima, your weather control computer, at KIG Headquarters. We look forward to being there.’ It’s signed by the editor of Newsweek.”
He skimmed the rest of them. “CBS, NBC, CNN, the Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune, and the London Times, all eager to see the unveiling of Prima.”
Pauline sat there, speechless.
Tanner was so furious, he could hardly speak. “What the hell is going on—?” He stopped. “Those bitches!”
AT IRMA’S INTERNET Café, Diane was busily operating a computer. She looked up at Kelly. “Have we left anyone out?”
Kelly said, “Elle, Cosmopolitan, Vanity Fair, Mademoiselle, Reader’s Digest…”
Diane laughed. “I think this does it. I hope Kingsley has a good caterer. He’s going to have a big party.”
VINCE CARBALLO WAS looking at Grace Seidel excitedly. “You know Kelly?”
“Oh, yes,” Grace said. “She’s one of the most famous models in the world.”
Vince Carballo’s face lit up. “Where is she?”
Grace looked at him in surprise. “I don’t know. I’ve never met her.”
His face reddened. “You said you knew her.”
“I mean—everybody knows her. She’s very famous. Isn’t she beautiful?”
“You have no idea where she is?”
Grace said thoughtfully, “I do have kind of an idea.”
“Where?”
“I saw a woman who looked like her get on a bus this morning. She was traveling with someone—”
“What bus was it?”
“It was the bus to Vermont.”
“Thanks.”
Vince Carballo hurried away.
TANNER THREW THE pile of faxes and e-mails to the floor and turned to Pauline. “Do you know what those bitches have done? We can’t let anyone see Prima.” He was thoughtful for a long moment. “I think Prima will have an accident the day before the party and blow up.”
Pauline looked at him a moment and then smiled. “Prima II.”
Tanner nodded. “That’s right. We can travel around the world, and anytime we’re ready, we’ll go to Tamoa and start operating Prima II.”
Kathy Ordonez’s voice came over the intercom. She sounded frantic. She buzzed into Tanner’s office. “Mr. Kingsley, the phones are going crazy. I have the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Larry King, all holding for you.”
“Tell them I’m in a meeting.” Tanner turned to Pauline. “We have to get out of here.” He patted Andrew on the shoulder. “Andrew, come with us.”
“Yes, Tanner.”
The three of them walked over to the redbrick building. “I have something very important for you to do, Andrew.”
“Anything you want,” Andrew said.
TANNER LED THE way into the redbrick building and walked over to Prima. Tanner turned to Andrew. “Here’s what I want you to do. Princess and I have to leave now, but at six o’clock, I want you to turn this computer off. It’s very simple.” He pointed. “You see this big red button?”
Andrew nodded. “I see it.”
“All you have to do is press it three times, at six o’clock. Three times. Can you remember that?”
Andrew said, “Yes, Tanner. Six o’clock. Three times.”
“Right. See you later.”
Tanner and Pauline started to walk out.
Andrew looked after them. “You’re not taking me with you?”
“No. You stay here. Just remember: six o’clock, three times.”
“I’ll remember.”
As they walked outside, Pauline said, “What if he doesn’t remember?”
Tanner laughed. “It doesn’t matter. It’s set to explode automatically at six o’clock. I just wanted to make sure he’s there when it happens.”
Chapter 45
IT WAS A perfect day for flying. KIG’s 757 was speeding over the Pacific Ocean under an azure blue sky. Pauline and Tanner were snuggled together on a couch in the main cabin.
Pauline said, “Darling, do you know it’s a shame that people will never know how brilliant you are?”
“If they ever found out, I’d be in big trouble.”
She looked at him and said, “No problem. We could buy a country and proclaim ourselves the rulers. Then they can’t touch us.”
Tanner laughed.
Pauline stroked his hand. “Did you know that I wanted you from the first time I saw you?”
“No. As I remember, you were very impertinent.”
“And it worked, didn’t it? You had to see me again, to teach me a lesson.”
There was a long, erotic kiss.
Far away, lightning flashed.
Tanner said, “You’ll love Tamoa. We’ll spend a week or two there and relax, and then we’ll travel around the world. We’re going to make up for all the lost years when we couldn’t be together.”
She looked up and grinned impishly. “You bet we will.”
“And every month or so, we’ll come back to Tamoa and put Prima II to work. You and I can pick our targets together.”
Pauline said, “Well, we could create a storm in England, but they wouldn’t notice.”
Tanner laughed. “We have the whole world to choose from.”
A steward approached. “Is there anything I can get you?” he asked.
Tanner said, “No. We have everything.” And he knew that it was true.
In the distant sky, there were more flashes of lightning.
“I hope there isn’t going to be a storm,” Pauline said. “I—I hate flying in rough weather.”
Tanner said reassuringly, “Don’t worry, darling. There’s not a cloud in the sky.” He thought of something and smiled. “We don’t have to worry about the weather. We control it.” He looked at his watch. “Prima’s about to blow up.”
Sudden drops of rain began to pound against the plane.
Tanner held Pauline closer. “It’s all right. It’s just a bit of rain.”
And as Tanner said it, the sky suddenly began to darken and tremble with loud peals of thunder. The huge plane started to bounce up and down. Tanner was looking out the window, puzzled by what was happening. The rain began to turn into large hailstones.
Tanner said, “Look at—” The realization suddenly hit him. “Prima!” It was a cry of exultation, a look of glory in his eyes. “We can—”
At that instant, a hurricane hit the plane, bouncing it around savagely.
Pauline was screaming.
IN THE REDBRICK building at KIG, Andrew Kingsley was operating Prima, his fingers flashing over the keys in remembrance. Watching his target on the screen, he could see an image of his brother’s plane being buffeted by three-hundred-mile-an-hour hurricane winds. He pressed another button.
AT A DOZEN branch offices of the National Weather Service, from Anchorage, Alaska, to Miami, Florida, meteorologists were staring at their computer screens in disbelief. What was happening seemed impossible, but it was happening.
WORKING IN THE redbrick building, Andrew was grateful that there was still one thing he could do to help make the world a better place. He carefully guided an F-6 tornado he had created—up—up—higher and higher….
TANNER WAS LOOKING out the window of the wildly tossing plane when he heard the telltale freight train sound of the approaching tornado over the roar of the storm, traveling 320 miles an hour. Tanner’s face was flushed, and he was trembling with excitement, watching the tornado spinning up toward the plane. He was ecstatic. “Look! There’s never been a tornado this high. Never! I created it! It’s a miracle! Only God and I could—”
IN THE REDBRICK building, Andrew moved a switch and watched the screen as the plane exploded and pieces of wreckage and bodies were hurled into the sky.
Then Andrew Kingsley pressed the red button three times.
Chapter 46
KELLY AND DIANE were finishing getting dressed when Grace Seidel knocked at their door. “Breakfast is ready whenever you are.”
“Coming,” Kelly called out.
Diane said, “I hope our little stunt worked. Let’s see if Grace has a morning newspaper.”
They stepped out of their room. To the right was the recreation area. A few people were gathered around the television set. As Kelly and Diane started to pass it, to go to the dining room, a television anchorman was saying:
And according to reports, there were no survivors. Tanner Kingsley and former senator Pauline Van Luven were on the plane, along with a pilot, copilot, and a steward.
The two women froze. They looked at each other, turned, and walked up to the television set. On the screen were pictures of the exterior of KIG.
Kingsley International Group constitutes the largest think tank in the world, with offices in thirty countries. The weather bureau has reported an unexpected electrical storm in the South Pacific area where Tanner Kingsley’s private plane was flying. Pauline Van Luven was the former head of the Senate Select Committee on the Environment.