“Unprovoked?” Anderson retorts. “Reginald Winn is waging a terrorism campaign against the American public. He needs to be taken out.”
“Agreed, Father, but few outside this room know that. Right now, the public loves Global. Any evidence we dig up from the wreckage will be overshadowed by the massacre you are proposing.”
“I want the location of the Dome,” Anderson says to Li Yuan. “Give me that, and we have a deal.”
“No.” Li Yuan shakes her head. “No deal. I extract my family and my team from Global. I bring you the evidence you need to bring down Global. I also bring you vaccine intel, not to mention one of the world’s leading scientists. In exchange, my family and friends are given employment in your compound. This is a good deal, Mr. Anderson. I can think of half a dozen other corporations that would jump at the deal.”
“You could get killed,” Anderson replies. “Then where am I? If your mission fails, and you don’t get the evidence, Reginald wins.”
“I won’t get killed,” Li Yuan says. “I won’t fail. This is the only offer you get. It expires in twenty-four hours.”
Gun widens his eyes at Li Yuan, trying to communicate that this was not a wise play. Anderson has many pressure point, top among them being threats.
Li Yuan registers his warning, but doesn’t back down. She remains before the hearth, hands clasped behind her back, gaze steady.
Gun senses fury building in his father. Anderson swallows, visibly forcing down his temper.
“You must be tired,” he says to Li Yuan. “Let’s continue this conversation tomorrow over a meal.”
Li Yuan inclines her head. “I accept your proposal.”
“Good.” Anderson smiles, all evidence of his temper snuffed out. “Gun, will you please show our guest to a spare room?”
“Yes, Father.” He nods to Li Yuan. “Come, I’ll take you to the guest floor.”
Anderson stops them. “Oh, son, was there a reason you barged in here earlier?”
“Yes.” He’d forgotten all about his plan in the shock of meeting Sulan’s mother. “Global is holding a press conference tomorrow in Infinity Stadium.” He glances at Li Yuan. “Sulan and the others will be there.”
Li Yuan doesn’t respond, but her eyes smolder. If there is a person on this planet who hates Reginald Winn more than William Anderson, it just might be Li Yuan Hom.
“Nate and the twins are working on a way to disrupt it,” Gun continues. “Until we have evidence against the Winns, we need to keep Anderson Arms in the limelight.”
A wide grin splits Anderson’s face. This time, the pride he sees is genuine. “Now you’re thinking like an Anderson. I am at your disposal, son.”
***
Li Yuan is silent as Gun leads her to the guest wing on the third floor, which is mostly used for Global clients and suppliers. Along with suites, there are conference rooms and a communal kitchen.
Li Yuan doesn’t make a sound when she walks, not even on the tiled floor. She moves like a cloud. Or a highly trained killer. The mercs trail at a respectful distance.
“I’d get rid of them if I could,” Gun says. “House rules. All guests have armed escorts. For their safety, of course.” His mouth twists with irony.
“I will indeed be safe with four armed escorts.” Li Yuan glances at him. He glimpses something like amusement in her eyes. Is it because she, too, sees the irony in the protocol, or is it because she can tie her escorts in knots with her eyes closed?
“Here we go. Best suite we have.” Gun opens the door. “Can I show you around?” Not that anyone needs a tour of a three-room suite, but Gun hopes for a chance to talk to her in private.
Li Yuan nods in assent. “After you, William.”
“Gun.” He flicks on the lights as they enter a spacious sitting room. In the far corner of the room is a well-stocked minibar. He retrieves a bottle of water and holds it out to Li Yuan.
“You know my daughter,” she says without preamble, taking the bottle from him.
“I was trying to figure out a way to work up to that,” he says with a grimace.
“It was the way you talked about her in the meeting with your father. The way you looked at me when you first entered the room. Like you knew me.”
Gun nods. He appreciates that Li Yuan is not a woman a mince words.
“Tell me how you know her.”
“We’re friends in Vex. Training partners. I teach her how to fight.”
“She was starting to move like someone who can handle herself. I thought she might be getting training somewhere, but I couldn’t figure out where.” Li Yuan pauses. He sees when the puzzle pieces fall into place for her. “She handled herself well on the rooftop before she was taken. But Vex training will only carry over so much into the real-world. She didn’t fight like someone who’s only trained in Vex.”
Gun shifts. He wants to tell Li Yuan about the Touch, but he’s pretty sure any self-respecting mother would eviscerate a boy admitting to using Touch with her daughter, even if it is in a non-sexual way.
“What?” Li Yuan says sharply. “What are you hiding?”
Gun straightens his spine, reminding himself he has nothing to be ashamed of. “Sulan had this idea . . .”
Li Yuan groans. “Go on.”
“She came up with the idea to train with Touch.”
Li Yuan’s eye’s flare. The muscles of her arms flex.
Gun steps back, holding his hands up defensively. “She only used it when we trained. Never when we competed. I swear that’s all we used it for. I swear.”
Her hands curl into fists as he glares at him. He is conscious of the fact that he’s in the presence of one of the fiercest mercenaries of all time.
“We only used it for training,” Gun says. “Other than that, I never touched her. I swear. I swear, Li Yuan.”
She looks him up and down, assessing. The hair bristles along Gun’s neck. He senses his well-being hanging in the balance. He has the impression Li Yuan, even though she’s shorter and leaner, could take him down with her pinky.
After a moment, Li Yuan relaxes. She shakes out her arms and takes a step back.
“You have my thanks,” she says at last. “Sulan always wanted me to train her. The things you taught her served her well when we fought the League.”
Gun lets out a breath. The last thing he wanted was to be on Li Yuan’s bad side. Or to have her reduce him to dog food.
“She doesn’t know who you really are, does she?” he asks.
Li Yuan gives him a sharp look. Gun realizes he said the wrong thing.
Idiot, he thinks.
“She found out recently,” Li Yuan says, her displeasure clear. “I did not chose to tell her. My friend slipped up.”
“She talked about you,” Gun says, trying to back pedal. “A lot. She wanted to tell you about the training. She . . . wanted you to be proud of her.”
Li Yuan turns away. She takes a long drink of water, keeping her back to him. When she turns around, her face is composed, but the edges of her eyes are moist.
“Sulan inherited my stubbornness.” She smiles. It’s a sad smile.
Gun has an absurd desire for Li Yuan to approve of him. “I helped her fight the League, when she was taken. My team hacked her location and deployed an EMP bomb.”
“That was you who sent the bomb?” Her eyebrows lift. “That was a godsend. It gave us the edge we needed to get the kids off the ship.”
“You were there?” He should have known. Li Yuan wasn’t the sort to twiddle her thumbs when her daughter was kidnapped. “You got Sulan off the freighter before it sank?”
“Yes. My husband and a few of our associates have known the truth about the League for a while.” Her nostrils flare. “We never expected the Winns to attack our children. I don’t know if they really planned to sell them, but I wasn’t going sit back and wait to find out.”
“How did you know where she was taken?”
“We had a way to track Sulan when she was kidnapped. My husban
d and our associates followed. The chaos on the freighter provided the perfect cover for me to fake my death, escape Global, and come here.”
Gun paces up and down the sitting room. “Was that you in the minisub?”
She gives him a sharp look. “How did you know about the minisub?”
“Right after the EMP bomb detonated, I had a bird’s eye view of the freighter and the surrounding waters. I saw the minisub and thought—hoped—Sulan escaped in it.”
“Sulan and the others had another means of escape. The minisub was for me.”
Gun hopes for elaboration, but it’s clear from the set of her jaw that she won’t reveal more. He sighs inwardly.
“Why us?” he asks instead. “Why Anderson Arms? You could have gone anywhere.”
“We need a strong ally to bring down Global.” She meets his eyes. “I do hope your family will agree to be our allies.”
Gun knows better than to speak for his father, but he silently vows to help Li Yuan any way he can. All he says is, “If you knew the truth, why haven’t you gone public with it?”
He sees a flicker in her eyes—a reaction to his words, but he doesn’t know how to gauge it.
“My associate had proof.” She shakes her head, looking away. “The proof is no longer in our possession. My husband will acquire new proof in the Dome. It’s up to me to extract him and the others.” She studies Gun. “You will help me get her out of there. When the time comes.” Her words come out as a statement.
Gun doesn’t refute them. He feels like he’s in a high stakes poker game, and he’s just laid out all his cards for the competition to see. He should care, but he doesn’t. All that matters is Sulan.
“Yes,” he says. “Whatever it takes, I’ll help.”
19
Permanent Guest
“Very good.” Anderson pulls off his Vex set, smug like an overfed cat. “That went well.”
Around the conference room table, others take off their Vex sets: Nate, Maia, Tracie, Margaret, Li Yuan, and Gun, all of them exiting the Global press conference at Infinity Stadium.
Nate and the Dread Twins just pulled off the hack of the century. While Gun was busy distracting the cybermercs with a side show, his team wormholed their way past Global firewalls and gave Anderson a way in. For a few precious minutes, William Anderson had been the focus of the Global press conference.
“I hope everyone has a better understanding of how much is at stake,” Anderson says. The smugness has faded, replaced with a hard-edged scowl. Anderson’s temper has been on a slow boil ever since Li Yuan refused to give him the location of the Dome.
“How did you come up with the idea to change her outfit?” Maia asks Gun. “That was brilliant.” He doesn’t miss the forced cheer in her voice, or the nervous glance she gives their father.
Gun shrugs. The truth is, he’d known Global wouldn’t let the real Sulan on stage. If he was going to hack a Global press conference, he was going to make sure he took care of Sulan as best he could. Even if it was just an outfit change.
“It just seemed like an idea no one would be expecting.”
“It was a brilliant play,” his mother says. “The Global cybermercs never saw it coming.”
“It gave us the window we needed to break into their system and give Mr. Anderson his entry point.” Nate grins. “I wish we could have seen Mr. Winn’s face when he realized Anderson Arms was hacking his press conference.”
From across the table, Li Yuan gives Gun an approving nod.
“Our work has only just begun,” Anderson says. “We need to continue to undermine Global every chance we get.”
This last sentence is directed at Li Yuan. She takes it without comment.
“You do agree, don’t you, Ms. Hom?” Anderson does not like to be ignored.
“So long as the lives of the innocents who work for the Winns are taken into account, yes, I do agree.”
Anderson’s face reddens. Gun feels his father’s frustration balloon.
“Come.” Margaret—an expert on maneuvering her husband’s temper—intercedes. “Dinner will be served upstairs. Li Yuan, we would be pleased to have you join us.”
Li Yuan nods. “Thank you. I accept your offer.”
Margaret carries on cordial conversation with the family when they sit down to eat. Gun does not miss the narrow-eyed looks Anderson casts across the table at Sulan’s mother. He can only hope Margaret’s intervention will be enough.
Li Yuan scrutinizes everything, especially the meal. The food consists of homemade spaghetti with meatballs and sauce, plus a side of fresh, sautéed vegetables from his mother’s garden. She takes slow bites, savoring the flavors and ignoring Anderson.
“You should take a tour of my garden,” Margaret says. “I grow almost all the fruits and vegetables we eat.”
“Remarkable.” Li Yuan holds up a carrot, speared on the end of her fork. “I haven’t had a fresh carrot since I was a kid. I forgot how good the flavor is.” A tiny smile turns up the corners of her mouth. “You have a gift with plants.”
“Mom loves plants,” Maia says. “She’s started an heirloom seed bank. She collects the seeds every season and donates them to churches and food pantries.”
Margaret smiles at the compliment, scooping up forkful of pasta. “We’ve implemented some revolutionary farming techniques to increase our yield. I use the family garden as a test plot. Techniques that work are rolled over into our production plan.”
“My husband would be fascinated. He loves anything that has to do with science.” For an instant, the small smile on Li Yuan’s face grows. Genuine affection warms her eyes when she speaks of Dr. Hom. She suppresses the look immediately, wiping it away with practiced professionalism.
“Your husband can come here,” Anderson says. “All you have to do is give me the location of the Dome.”
And just like that, the mood in the room changes.
“I will not give you the coordinates so you can massacre the Dome inhabitants to get to the Winns,” Li Yuan says coldly.
“What?” Maia shoots her dad a look of horror. “Dad, what is she talking about?”
“The Winns are dangerous,” Anderson says. “They’ve manufactured a terrorist organization for their own benefit. They’ve killed thousands of people, and since you all seem to have forgotten, they plan to murder thousands more.”
The tension in the room is thick enough to reach out and touch. Nate looks like he wants to disappear under the table. Tracie forks food into her mouth, watching the drama unfold.
Margaret gazes at her husband and sighs. “Must you always be so dramatic, William?” She turns, reaching out as though to pat Li Yuan’s hand. She thinks better of it when she sees the look on the other woman’s face. “He talks big, that’s all. He’s been itching to get his hands on the Winns for years. There will be no massacre. Will there, William?”
Anderson scowls, spearing a meatball.
Li Yuan rises. Cold anger oozes off her. “I not only offer to deliver you Dr. Eugene Hom, but I also offer you a direct way to fight Project Renascentia and prove the Winns guilty of treason. I have done nothing but offer you gifts since entering your compound. I told you my offer expires in twenty-four hours.” She glances at her watch. “You have exactly thirty-six minutes, Mr. Anderson. What is your decision?”
Everyone at the table, even Tracie, goes still. Gun wonders if Li Yuan could flatten a man with just her glare.
Anderson stands, meeting Li Yuan’s cold stare with one of his own. Anger roils off him in tangible waves. If Li Yuan had been trying to goad him, she couldn’t have done a better job.
“I will see Reginald dead,” he says with lethal calm. “Until you agree to help me bring him down, you and your offers are worthless to me. Consider yourself a permanent guest of Anderson until you cooperate.”
“William.” Margaret’s tone is admonishing. “Don’t be rude. Li Yuan is an honored guest in this household—”
“She is willfully withhol
ding imperative information from us. I will not tolerate it! Do you hear me? I will not!” His face is red, suffused with rage.
Under normal circumstances, Gun would think his father had a few too many drinks. He’s loud and outspoken anyway, but even more so with libations.
But this is different. Gun senses a tidal wave of fury within his father, the sort of catastrophic anger that only rears its head on occasion. He wants Reginald Winn and has blinders on to everything else. Despite his mother’s well-intentioned diversion techniques, the evening was destined to end up here.
There’s no used trying to reason with him. No one can talk him down when he gets like this, except Margaret. Sometimes.
The best thing to do is get Li Yuan out of here before Anderson challenges her to a duel, or something equally crazy.
Margaret inserts herself between Anderson and Li Yuan. “Honey, believe me, this is not the way to handle the situation.”
“Don’t you dare tell me how to handle this situation. Do you know how long I’ve waited to get my hands on Reginald? Years, Margaret. Decades. You know that!”
“Come on,” Gun murmurs to Li Yuan. “Let’s go while she distracts him.”
Li Yuan strides out the door. Gun means to escort her but ends up hurrying along in her wake.
“Don’t even think about leaving this compound!” Anderson shouts. “Do you hear me, Ms. Hom? Don’t even think about leaving! I want the location of the Dome. I will accept nothing else.”
Margaret quicksteps, keeping in front Anderson when he attempts to angle his body toward the door. Gun slams the door shut, leaving his family behind.
Anderson’s shouts echo in the hallway. Even the mercs stationed outside the door look rattled. Anderson’s rages, infrequent though they are, are legendary in the compound.
Li Yuan glides down the hall. Two mercs break off to escort her, but end up trailing her.
Gun keeps pace beside her all the way to her suite. He wants to say something. What, he isn’t sure. He wants to make excuses for his father, but there are no words to excuse his behavior. He wishes he could say his father will come to his senses, but that would be a lie. Gun knows his father won’t budge on this.
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