"We'll monitor you closely for any changes, but first you need to appear with me on a press conference."
Ah, nice to know press conferences were more important than me possibly having the disease. Maybe Oliver was right that I wouldn't immediately end up in the lab and his team would have the time to rescue me. "I know I made a huge mistake, but I was in love with him. I'd never felt like that before... and he... that asshole.... he broke my heart."
"What did he do? Refused to give in to your every whim?" My father finally sat down in the chair across from me, his arms crossed defensively.
"He cheated on me!" I lied, hoping my father would be at least a bit sympathetic, even though I knew I couldn't expect much from him after what I'd done.
"Well, what can you expect from a filthy magic disease carrier?" He scoffed. "You were the one who let him escape from his rightful place."
I clenched my fists under the desk, taking deep and slow breaths. I couldn't let his words get to me. His element was getting stronger too, which was a serious problem in this small, closed space.
"I was sure he was the one," I said. "I don't know what to do now."
"Where is that boy you dated? Mathew or something?"
"Michael," I said, unsure what my father was aiming at. He couldn't possibly think Michael didn't have a clue I'd gone with Adrian.
"Yes, Michael." My father waved his hand as if it didn't matter what Michael's name was. "You should appear with him in public. The press has been bugging me for weeks! We can pay him for taking you out once in a while if he doesn't want to do it anymore. You need to fix the mess you've made, starting with having or pretending to have a decent relationship!"
"Are you still using Michael and me as your poster children for your big project?" I was dangerously close to snapping at him and telling him I wouldn't let anyone use me, but between him and Oliver, I'd never find not even an ounce of peace.
"Yes, and that project is more important than you can imagine!" He hit the desk with his fist, making it shake. I flinched, a frown appearing on my brow.
"What is so important about people being able to choose which element their baby will have? Yes, we'll get rid of the crazy murderers and the stupid disease, but it's not like there's a ton of them, is there?"
"You're still a child, Ria. You don't have a clue what we're dealing with!" he yelled, shaking with fury. Come on, damn it! Tell me what's been bugging you. Come on! I was so close to finding out now.
His anger seemed to die out as soon as it had surged. "Your top priority is smoothing your public image. I don't want to have any more problems with you. Not a single one! Ever. Did you hear me?"
"Yes, I heard you," I said, knowing full well that I was about to cause him the greatest problem ever if I dropped that device in the main office.
"Come with me," he said, getting up. "I want to show you something."
This time we did go to the main office. My father punched in the code and used his element on the lock before I could even realize what he was doing. Why was he in such a hurry? I cautiously entered the office, taken aback when I saw the room wasn't bigger than the one we'd been in a few minutes ago. Oliver had described the room as the biggest in the building, but these white walls were almost closing in on me. Was I even in the right room?
"Don't just stand there. Come and sit down," my father barked, settling himself in his big leather chair. I sat in the smaller black chair opposite to him, glancing down at numerous papers scattered all over the shiny, mahogany desk.
"I thought you'd have one of those huge offices," I said, unable to keep quiet.
"Sometimes you have to make a small sacrifice to get what you want," he said, making me frown. What the hell was he talking about? Anyhow, he didn't deny this was his office. Maybe I should trigger Oliver's device and render all the electronic security in the building useless, but that would alert Oliver's team and set them into motion.
"I don't understand," I finally said when my father remained quiet.
"Of course you don't. If the press wasn't so persistent, I'd be sending you off to a reformation center to improve your behavior."
The temperature in the room jumped as I gritted my teeth to stop myself from lashing out. My finger hovered over the button that would get Oliver and the others running here. My father sighed and got up, facing the wall behind him.
"You might not have inherited my intelligence, but even you will understand the importance of this." My father placed his palm against the wall at the same time I caressed the button with the intention of pressing it. The wall suddenly parted and revealed another part of the office, and my pulse sped up. Oh, shit.
Chapter 08
"What is that?" I breathed, staring at a bunch of white devices that looked exactly like detection systems at stores that sounded an alarm if someone tried to steal something. Hell, they were even the same size and shape. I pulled my hand back from the device in my pocket. Oliver could wait a few minutes more.
"The greatest invention of all," my father beamed, spreading his arms and motioning for me to come closer. He kept looking back and forth from me to the inventions. "They're called element collectors."
"Element collectors?" I gaped at him, not liking how that sounded. "You mean, these things can collect elements?"
"Exactly!" he said proudly. "Come closer and take a look. They're not functioning right now."
Taking my hand out of my pocket, I got up and inched closer to the split in the wall. My father encouragingly nodded at me as I passed by him and entered the hidden room.
"We have more in our factories. The production is going rather well," he said, coming to stand behind my back.
I fought the urge to flinch and back away. "So, these... umm, collect... all sorts of elements?" Why would my father need element collectors? Did he know about magic disease carriers who could keep an element? Whatever he needed these things for, it just didn't fit with what we all thought he was doing. At least I couldn't come up with a good use for these devices.
"They can be set to collect only one type of elements. That's why we need a separate collector for each type."
My hand automatically went into my pocket, searching for Oliver's device. An element-sucking machine was some serious nightmare material and I didn't want it to see the light of the day. "Whose elements will they collect?"
"From people who have the right elements," he said as if I were slow.
"What? But why?" Taking elements from magic disease carriers would make sense from his point of view because people who stole elements wouldn't get to keep them, but to steal elements from people who didn't have the disease... Nope, that didn't make sense at all.
"Oh, we wouldn't take the whole element, just a bit of its energy."
"You'd be taking the same amount someone loses when they use the element for a while?" I looked up at my father's dark eyes.
"Yes, and we'd be sending that energy to our factories."
"Don't you think people would notice that? And how would it even work?" I felt slightly lightheaded. No one had even come close to guess this was my father's big plan and not a complete annihilation of magic disease carriers or something else. I had no idea how to proceed.
"Those amounts are insignificant. No one can notice that. And even if people start to feel dizzy, they won't blame the alarm gates at their favorite store for that." Well, he was right about that one. Who'd ever think passing through a detector stole a tiny bit of your element?
"People with weak elements can pass through untouched because it would be pointless to collect their energy," he added. "We plan to use the collectors in all stores, bars, cafés, libraries,... Basically in all places where people might steal something."
"Did the government agree to this?" I doubted shops and bars would accept these new devices and change their old ones only because my father wanted them to. Besides, it would be suspicious if the Element Preservers Organization bothered with security. Even if my father signed a secret d
eal with the owners, there would be too many of them all over the country and someone would leak the info.
"Yes, of course. We've been working on this for years."
Everything clicked together in my head. I knew there was a reason why my father got support from people who would never approve of his treatment of magic disease carriers. All those names I'd seen while surfing the web... They all knew about element collectors. "So stealing elemental energy is cheaper than using real energy in factories?" I could see how that would be profitable for big corporations. As if those people needed more money.
"No, it's actually more expensive." A crease appeared between my father's brows, making him look older.
"Then why are you doing it?"
He pursed his lips together, watching me in silence for a moment. "What I'm going to tell you is a national secret. But remember, you can never use this to blackmail me because you'd have the whole world after you." The corners of his lips quirked up, but I had no idea what he found so amusing. "I know you're not interested in this kind of things, but our planet has changed drastically in the last few years."
"Yeah, so what?" The only time my father had cared about our planet was when someone mentioned his name during a fundraiser for environment protection.
"We're running out of water and energy," he said, his face grim. "If we don't start drinking elemental water soon, countries all over the world might start wars to get water. The same thing can happen with energy. It's the best that the public doesn't know about this. People would be upset, cause riots and create additional problems for us."
"Don't you think people will notice the water tastes different? Besides, water made by elements can be poisonous."
"That's why we'll be taking only pure and strong elements, and our machines will convert the energy to water. It does taste a little bit different, but people will think it has a bit more chlorine than usual." He thoughtfully scratched his chin. "Anyhow, it will be better than revealing the horrible truth that we wasted the Earth's resources because we were too lazy to use our elements for things. God of Magic has punished us, and it is high time we changed our ways."
"Well, I kept telling you to change our educational system and allow teens to use their elements," I said, crossing my arms in front of me. "Young people are the ones who are interested in their elements, but everyone tells them they should wait until they learn things, and by then, half of them lose the interest, others are busy with their new jobs, families and who knows what, and can't be bothered to use their element."
"You could be right, but we don't have enough time to go through such radical changes."
"And how do you plan to get so much energy from pure elements when they make only 1/3 of population?" I raised an eyebrow at him. "Is that why you want people to be able to choose which element their child has?"
"Yes, my scientists have found a way to manipulate genes for elements. It isn't perfect yet, but it will be in a year or two. We can live with smaller amounts of elements for at least a couple of years. That's why we're starting the whole process before."
"How do you plan to convince people they should risk their unborn children's lives to have an element they don't really need?" If his logic wasn't faulty, I didn't know what it was.
"Magic disease carriers will make sure of that," he said confidently. My pulse started to race again, and I had to use all of my willpower to appear calm.
"Don't tell me you made a deal with carriers too." I gave him a small smile and licked my dry lips. Yep, I was failing at looking composed.
"I'm not about to tell you that so you can go running to your ex-lover and tell him everything," he said, his eyes hard and unforgiving. "I don't trust you, sweetie."
"I know." Damn it! My father planned to do something that involved the carriers, but he'd never tell me in a million years. My palms began to sweat as I contemplated whether to make a clear path to Oliver and his team or keep up the pretense to learn more. Oliver would be royally pissed, but he didn't care about the planet or anything, so I was afraid he'd simply ignore the whole thing and do whatever he wanted.
"There is something I want you to do for me," my father said, startling me from my thoughts. "Do you want me to believe it's over between you and that carrier?"
"I don't care what you believe, Father," I said, brushing past him as I went back to the main half of the office. "I don't want to see him ever again."
"Now, now, honey." He followed me, closing the secret door in the wall. "Don't you want revenge?"
"If you want me to torture him in a lab, my answer is no." I inspected my nails, wondering what he would say to that.
"Why not?" His voice was full of curiosity.
I looked up at him. "He's not worth my time and energy."
"If you say so." He seated himself in his chair, leaning back until he was more lying in it than sitting. "But I have a proposition for you. Bring your ex-lover here and I'll consider forgiving you."
"What?" Once again, my father managed to shock me to the core of my being.
"Bring Adrian Liandre here to me, and I'll forgive you. Even you should understand such a simple sentence."
"Bring him here?" I frowned. "I'm not sure how I'm supposed to convince him to come. He's not that stupid. Besides, killing him here would be messy."
"Who said anything about killing him?" My father smiled. "I just want to talk."
"You want to talk to the monster who you tortured and did experiments on? Let's not forget the part where he ruined my life. I don't see how any of you would sit calmly together in the same room without going for each other's throats." Would my father really only talk to Adrian? Hell, I couldn't even come up with a possible topic they could talk about. Something was very wrong here.
"Oh, I'm sure he'll be at least a bit interested if you offer him freedom."
"You can't offer him freedom. He's not a slave." I rolled my eyes, and started pacing up and down the office. "And you love to do experiments on him."
"He's not the only magic disease carrier in the world. We found a substitute." My father picked up one of the papers from his desk and slammed it back down. "My plan will work with or without your ex, but he could be useful too."
"You're lying." I snorted. "You don't want to talk to him. You want to capture him. And yes, you can tell me that because I don't care. But if you want me to trust you, you'll have to trust me too, or did you forget you almost had me killed in that lab? I might have been in the league with the enemy who clouded my judgment with sweet words, but I was still your daughter."
"I wouldn't have let you die, Ria." His dark eyes looked sincere. "I didn't let you go just because of the blackmail, but you're right. I don't plan to talk to Liandre. The only way he'll come here is if he believes we can't do anything to him and if our offer is good."
"He won't come because he knows I'm furious with him. He'll figure it out it's a trap." I stopped pacing and walked over to the window, watching the street lights dance across the empty sidewalks. How long did I have until Oliver assumed something happened to me?
"But you can contact him." I didn't miss slightly accusatory tone of my father's voice.
"Maybe." I turned around, my face expressionless.
"You know him and what he wants. Offer him whatever you like. I don't care as long as you bring him here." He straightened himself in the chair and grabbed his phone, checking out something. "I'll unblock some of your credit cards."
"Thanks Dad!" I grinned from ear to ear. "I guess I'll be staying in a hotel tonight."
"Whatever you wish, honey, but you know what you have to do." He slipped the phone into his pocket, a satisfied smirk on his face. "You have two days to complete my request. The press conference is tomorrow morning and you better be there. With that other boy, if possible."
Well, wasn't that a ton of requests? My father's forgiveness was rather expensive. "If Michael doesn't want to come, I can't make him."
"Then come up with a good excuse why he
isn't with you!" he said, exasperated. "Now go. Shoo! I have work to do. I'll text you the address of the hotel where the conference will be held tomorrow. I don't want you to babble something about it to your ex-lover."
"Fine. See you tomorrow then." I considered slamming the door behind me, but they slid into place perfectly, so I couldn't even be childish. God, this was a mess, but I was planning to get to the end of it.
Chapter 09
"What have you done, you stupid bitch?" Oliver ran out of the van as soon as I rounded the corner, his face a mask of fury.
"Hey!" Adrian yelled, coming after him. "Leave her alone!"
"We have to talk," I said calmly. "In private."
"You bet we do." Oliver painfully grabbed my forearm and dragged me into the van. "Everyone out!" The few guys that were sitting inside hurried to the door, leaving Oliver, Adrian and me alone in the darkness. My brother pushed me onto the seat and I could feel the temperature around us rising.
"Are you ok?" Adrian sat next to me, taking my hand. I gave him a reassuring nod and started retelling Oliver what had happened between my father and me.
"You should have gone through with my plan!" Oliver said after I was done. "Who cares if we'll be out of water in a couple of years? We'll deal with it! God, Ria, you're so stupid!"
"No, Oliver!" I could barely discern his features, but I knew he was still as mad as hell. "You want to ruin our father and you want to rule. I want to make sure all these other issues you couldn't care less about will be addressed too when the time comes."
Oliver laughed. "Wow, little sister. Since when are you interested in the well-being of humanity? Or are you trying to get rid of Adrian first?"
I stood up, careful not to hit my head on the roof. "You know what, brother? Why don't you take the Element Preservers all by yourself? Adrian and I can live fine without you." I turned to leave, knowing full well that was the last thing Oliver would let me do.
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