Total Control (65 page)

"Oh, my God!" Sidney turned and sprinted toward the sound.

"Amy? Amy? The doors to the large room she had earlier been in were closed. She hurled them open and burst into the room, her chest heaving, her eyes wildly searching for sight of her daughter.

Nathan Gamble stared back at her as Richard Lucas appeared behind him. He wasn't smiling. The side of his face was heavily swollen. Sidney was quickly disarmed and held by Gamble's men.

The disk was taken from her purse and handed to Gamble.

Gamble held up a sophisticated recording device and Amy's voice was heard once again: "Mommy? Mommy?"

"As soon as I found out your husband was on to me," Gamble explained, "I had your house bugged. You get lots of goodies that way."

"You sonofabitch." Sidney glared at him. "I knew it was a trick."

"You should have gone with your first instinct, Sidney. I always do." Gamble shut off the tape and strolled over to a desk situated against one wall. For the first time Sidney noticed that a laptop computer was set up there. Gamble took the disk and popped it in.

Then he pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and looked over at her. "Nice touch your husband had on the password. All backwards.

You're sharp, but I bet you didn't figure that one out, did you?" His face crinkled into a smile as he looked from the paper to Sidney. "Always knew Jason was a smart guy." Using one finger, Gamble punched a number of keys on the keyboard and studied the screen.

While doing so, he lit up a cigar. Satisfied with the contents of the disk, he sat down in the chair, folded his arms across his chest and flicked cigar ash on the floor.

She kept her eyes fixed on him. "Brains run in the family. I know it all, Gamble."

"I think you don't know shit," he calmly replied.

"How about the billions of dollars you made trading on changes in the Fed Funds Rate? The very same billions you used to build Triton Global."

"Interesting. How did I do that?"

"You knew the answers before the tests were given out. You were blackmailing Arthur Lieberman. The mighty businessman who couldn't make a dime without cheating." She spat out the last words. Gamble's eyes glittered darkly at her. "Then Lieberman threatens to expose you and his plane crashes."

Gamble got up and advanced slowly toward Sidney; his hand an anger-laden fist. "I made billions on my own. Then some jealous competitors paid off a couple of my traders to secretly tank me. I couldn't prove anything, but they ended up with cushy jobs down the street and I lost everything I had. You call that fair?" He stopped walking and took a deep breath. "You're right, though. I caught on to Lieberman's little secret life. Scraped enough cash together to set up my little mole in luxury and bided my time. But it wasn't that simple." His lips curled into a wicked smile. "I waited until the people who had screwed me took their investment positions on interest rates and then I took the opposite one and told Lieberman which way to swing it.

After it was over, I'm back on top and those guys couldn't afford a cup of spit. Nice and clean, and damn sweet."

His face gleamed as he recalled his personal triumph. "People mess with me, I pay them back. Only a lot worse. Like Lieberman.

Nice guy that I am, I paid the sonofabitch over a hundred million dollars for doing his thing with the rates. How does he show his gratitude? He tried to take me down. Was it my fault he got cancer?

He thought he could outsmart me, the big Ivy League legend.

Didn't think I knew he was dying. I do business with somebody, I find out everything about him. Everything!" Gamble's face flushed for an instant and then he broke into a sly grin. "Only thing I regret is not having a picture of his face when that plane hit."

"I didn't think you were into genocide, Nathan. Men, women, babies."

Gamble suddenly looked troubled and took a nervous puff on his cigar. "You think I wanted to do it like that? My business is making money, not killing people. If I could have come up with another way, I would have. I had two problems: Lieberman and your husband.

They both knew the truth, so I had to get rid of them both.

The plane was the only way to tie them together: Kill Lieberman and blame your husband. If I could have bought every ticket on that plane except Lieberman's, I would have." He paused and looked at her. "If it makes you feel any better, my charitable foundation has already donated ten million dollars to the victims' families."

"Great, you score PR points off your own dirty work. You think money is the answer to everything?"

Gamble exhaled smoke. "You'd be surprised how often it is. And the fact is, I didn't have to do anything for them. It's like I told your buddy Wharton: When I go after somebody who screwed me, I don't care who gets in the way. Too bad."

Sidney's face suddenly hardened. "Like Jason? Where is he?

Where is my husband, you sonofabitch?" She screamed the words in an out-of-control fury and would have pounced on Gamble if his men hadn't held her back.

Gamble stepped directly in front of her. His fist slammed into her jaw. "Shut up!"

Sidney swiftly recovered, ripped her arm free and slashed Gamble's face with her fingernails. Shocked, he stumbled back, clutching his torn skin. "Damn you!" he yelled. Gamble pressed his handkerchief against his face, his eyes blazing at her. Sidney stared back at him, her entire body shaking with more anger than she had felt in her entire life. Gamble finally motioned to Lucas. Lucas left the room for a minute, and when he returned, he was not alone.

Sidney instinctively jerked back as Kenneth Scales stepped into the room. He stared at Sidney Archer with eyes that bespoke intense hatred. She looked over at Gamble. He looked down and sighed while he stuffed his handkerchief back in his pocket, touching his face gingerly. "I guess I deserved that. You know, I had no intention of killing you, but you just couldn't leave it alone, could you?" He ran a hand through his hair. "Don't worry, I'll set a big trust fund up for your kid. You should be grateful I think everything through."

He waved Scales forward.

Sidney shouted at him. "Oh, really? Did you think through the fact that maybe if I could figure it out, so could Sawyer?" Gamble stared blankly at her. "Like the fact that you blackmailed Arthur Lieberman by setting him up with Steven Page. But just when Lieberman was up for the Fed nomination, Page contracted HIV and threatened to blow the whole thing. What did you do? Just like you did with Lieberman. You had Page killed."

Gamble's response stunned her. "Why the hell would I have him killed? He was working for me."

"He's telling the truth, Sidney." She jerked her head around and stared at the source of those words. Quentin Rowe walked into the room.

Gamble stared at him, his eyes wide. "How the hell did you get up here?"

Rowe barely glanced at him. "I guess you forgot that I have my own private suite on the corporate jet. Besides, I like to see projects through to their completion."

"Is she right? You had your own lover boy killed?"

Rowe looked at him calmly. "It's not any of your concern."

"It's my company. Everything concerns me."

"Your company? I don't think so. Now that we have CyberCom, I don't need you. My nightmare is finally over."

Gamble's face grew red. He motioned toward Richard Lucas. "I think we need to show this little prick some respect for his superior."

Richard Lucas pulled out his weapon.

Gamble shook his head. "Just rough the little sucker up some," he said, his eyes glowing maliciously. The glow quickly ebbed as Lucas swung the pistol in his direction and the cigar fell out of the Triton chief's mouth. "What the hell. You sonofabitch traitor--"

"Shut up!" Lucas roared back. "Shut your mouth or I'll blow you away right here and now. I swear to God I will." Lucas's eyes tore into Gamble's face and Gamble quickly closed his mouth.

"Why, Quentin?" The words floated softly across the room.

"Why?"

Rowe turned to find Sidney's eyes on him. He took a deep breath.

"When he bought into my company, Gamble drew up legal documents so that he technically controlled my ideas, everything. In essence, he owned me." For a moment he stared at the now docile Gamble with in-concealed disgust. Rowe looked back at Sidney, reading her mind. "The oddest couple in the world. I know."

He sat down at the desk in front of the computer. He stared at the screen as he continued to talk. The proximity of the high-tech equipment seemed to soothe Quentin Rowe even more. "But then Gamble lost all his money. My company was going nowhere. I pleaded with him to let me out of the deal, but he said he'd tie me up in court for years. I was stuck. Then Steven met Lieberman and the plot was hatched."

"But you had Page killed. Why?"

Rowe didn't answer.

"Did you ever try to find out who gave him HIV?"

Rowe didn't answer. Tears spilled down onto the laptop.

"Quentin?"

"I gave it to him. I did it!" Rowe exploded out of his chair, staggered for a moment and then collapsed back into the chair. In a painful voice, he continued. "When Steven told me he had tested positive, I couldn't believe it. I had always been faithful to him and he swore the same to me. We thought it might have been Lieberman.

We got a copy of his medical records; he was clean. That's when I took an examination." His lips started to quiver. "And that's when I was told I was HIV-positive. The only thing I could think of was a damn blood transfusion I'd had when I was in a serious car accident.

I checked with the hospital and discovered that several other surgery patients had contracted the virus during the same time period.

I told Steven everything. ! cared for him so much. I never felt so much guilt in all my life. I thought he would understand." Rowe took a deep breath. "Only he didn't."

"He threatened to expose you?" Sidney asked.

"We had come too far, worked too damn hard. Steven wasn't thinking clearly, he..." Rowe shook his head in complete despondence.

"He came to my apartment one night; he had been drinking very heavily. He told me what he was going to do. He was going to tell everything about Lieberman, the blackmail scheme. We'd all go to prison. I told him he had to do what he thought was right." Rowe paused, his voice breaking. "I often gave him his daily dosages of insulin, kept a supply at my place. He was always forgetful about it."

Rowe looked down at the teardrops dropping onto his hands.

"Steven passed out on the couch. While he was asleep, I gave him an overdose of insulin, woke him up, and put him in a cab for home."

Rowe added quietly, "And he died. We kept our relationship since college a secret. The police never even questioned me."

He looked at Sidney. "You understand, don't you? I had to do it.

My dreams, my vision for the future." His voice was almost pleading.

Sidney didn't answer. Finally Rowe stood up and wiped the tears away. "CyberCom was the last piece I needed. But it all came with a price. With all the secrets between us, Gamble and I were wedded for life." Rowe grimaced, then suddenly smiled as he looked at Gamble. "Fortunately, I will outlive him."

"You double-crossing bastard!" Gamble tried his best to get to Rowe, but Lucas held him back.

"But Jason found out everything when he was going through the records at the warehouse, didn't he?" Sidney said.

Rowe exploded again and directed his tirade at Gamble. "You idiot! You've never respected technology, and it was your undoing.

You never realized that the secret e-mails you sent Lieberman could be captured on tape backup even if you later deleted them. You were so damn anal about money, kept your own set of books documenting the profits trading on Lieberman's actions. And your enemy's losses. It was all buried in the warehouse. You idiot!" Rowe exclaimed again, and looked over at Sidney. "I never wanted any of this to happen, please believe me."

"Quentin, if you cooperate with the police--" Sidney began.

Rowe erupted in laughter and Sidney's hopes faded completely.

He went over to the laptop and popped out the disk. "I'm now the head of Triton Global. I just acquired the one asset that will enable me to accomplish a better future for us all. I don't intend to pursue that dream from a prison cell."

"Quentin..." She froze as he turned to Kenneth Scales.

"Make it quick. She is not to suffer. I mean it." He nodded in Gamble's direction. "The bodies go into the ocean, as far out as you can. A mysterious disappearance. In six months' time no one will even remember you," he said to Gamble. Rowe's eyes shone with that thought.

Gamble was slowly led away, struggling mightily and cursing.

"Quentin!" Sidney screamed as Scales came closer. Quentin Rowe didn't turn around.

"Quentin, please!" Finally he looked at her. "Sidney, I'm sorry. I really am." Holding the disk, he started to leave the room. As he passed by, he kindly patted her on the shoulder.

Her body and mind numb, Sidney's head dropped on her breast.

When she looked back up, the cold, blue eyes were floating toward her, the face completely blank of emotion. She looked around.

Everyone in the room was intently watching Scales's methodical advance, waiting to see how he would kill her. Sidney gritted her teeth and backed away until she was flat against a wall. She closed her eyes and did her best to hold the image of her daughter rigidly in her mind. Amy was safe. Her parents were safe. Under the circumstances, that was the absolute best she could do. Good-bye, baby.

Mommy loves you. The tears spilled down her face. Please don't forget me, Amy. Please.

Scales lifted up his knife and a smile crept across his face as he looked down at the glistening blade. Light reflecting off it turned the metal a harsh reddish color, a color it had been many times in the past. Scales's smile receded as he looked down at the source of this colored light and saw the tiny red laser dot on his chest, and the barely visible, pencil-thin beam that emanated outward from the dot.