Malcolm let out a deep breath and pointed to his former assistant. “You—you’re working for Erich then?”
Erich shook his head. “The real Buck Besa is dead. My operative here found out he had turned against you and begun sending info over to Nilda. When the time came, I had my man eliminate Buck and assume his identity. Nilda never knew what had taken place.”
Buck removed his synthetic hairpiece, revealing a blue-colored scalp underneath. “My name is Kierkegaard One.”
Malcolm could hardly believe what he was seeing. “A … a synth? But … but assuming another’s identity is against the treaties with your kind.”
Erich chuckled. “You and I have violated a ton of laws over the years, and now you’re suddenly telling him this? That’s rich coming from you.”
Malcolm wiped the sweat off his brow. “Nilda was a … symbiote host? How long have you known about this?”
“I found out just a few days ago,” Erich said. “My people hadn’t yet perfected a detection device, but I scanned Nilda thoroughly when she had a private meeting with me back in Switzerland at one of my places. I was trying to find her weakness, and it seems my researchers just got lucky.”
Malcolm stared down at the two corpses. “This is … this will be a major scandal. The public will go nuts over the news that one of the executive directors had a symbiote master.”
“So we don’t tell them,” Erich said. “We simply state that Nilda died due to an unfortunate accident.”
“But the vote for the chairmanship? It will be delayed for a long while if we announce that,” Malcolm said.
“The vote will go through,” Erich said. “Kierkegaard here can assume her identity just long enough for us to take the vote, then we can announce her demise after a few days.”
Malcolm had calmed down. “And so you’ll become the new chairman now? Over my dead body.”
Kierkegaard aimed the laser at Malcolm but waited for the order.
Malcolm snorted. “You think you’ve won, Erich? You can’t kill me tonight; I’ve told my people to release the information about your collusion with the xtid unless I give them a code.”
Erich held up his hand and waved Kierkegaard away. “My, my. It seems you were prepared too.”
“Damned right,” Malcolm said.
“Since I’m now in possession of your private videos, it’s a stalemate. I’ll offer you a compromise,” Erich said. “We use both our influence and vote for Kurita as chairman instead.”
“Kurita? He’s a dithering moron!”
“That’s right,” Erich said. “This way we can both rule behind the scenes. A truce, so to speak. Neither of us gets the chairmanship, for now.”
Malcolm thought about it for a minute. He strode over and held out his hand. “Deal.”
Erich shook it. He would have to finish Malcolm off in the future, but with Nilda’s demise, he had one less rival to fight against. Plenty of time to formulate new schemes. “Good. Let’s get moving. Kierkegaard can clean up this mess.”
Malcolm eyed him warily for a minute before turning and walking away. “I’ll have my people meet with yours by tomorrow. Goodbye.”
“I look forward to it,” Erich said. “So long.”
After Malcolm had disappeared back into the shadows, Kierkegaard turned and faced Erich. “Do you wish me to kill him in the future?”
“Not yet,” Erich said. “For now, I need to consolidate my gains. We’ll deal with him when the time comes.”
“Very well.”
“Those pirates who took my asset,” Erich said. “Gather as much intel as you can about them. Once I give the word, you are to destroy the Nepenthe, and kill every crewmember on that accursed ship.”
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Nepenthe Rising Page 36