Delivering His Heir

by Jesse Jordan

  His words just up my tension as we take the quick flight from Newark to New York City, circling and landing on top of the H-S building only twelve minutes after taking off. There isn’t enough time to let my nerves get the best of me as we step out, the New York weather striking me as somehow warm. I don’t know why I notice, maybe I’m just getting acclimated to Minnesota, or perhaps I’m just in shock about all this.

  The elevator down from the roof is deathly quiet, and when the doors open Rick leads Freida and I out, striding powerfully and purposefully towards the boardroom. His secretary for the New York office comes out of nowhere it seems with a hundred questions, but he blows right by her, Freida giving the woman a firm shake of her head. This isn’t the time. Rick doesn’t have it.

  Rick hits the doors to the boardroom like a Spartan phalanx crunching upon the enemy, blowing the oaken barriers open like they were made of tissue paper. The board, with Harvey standing at the front and already talking, all turn their heads towards the commotion.

  “Harvey!” Rick bellows, his eyes burning. “What the fuck are you even thinking?”

  “Rick, what are you…?” Harvey Stone asks, looking surprised. “You’re supposed to be-”

  “Yes, I know exactly what you thought about me, you stupid, slimy son of a bitch,” Rick says, slamming his palms down on the table. Maybe the board doesn’t notice, but I know he’s doing it to stay stronger on his feet. “You thought you could take advantage of my supposed physical weakness in order to slip some shit by me. But that’s not going to happen.”

  “You’re delusional Rick,” Harvey says, trying to take control again. “You’re a very sick man, very sick. And I think that the board will back me in saying that your bad decisions have cost this company billions. I’m invoking bylaw sixty six of the charter.”

  I glance over at Freida, who leans over. “Bylaw sixty six says that a board member or shareholder’s voice can be nullified if they are found to be incompetent.”

  I nod, keeping my silence as Rick smirks. “You have to get the rest of the board’s approval, Harvey. It takes a unanimous vote of the other board members to invoke sixty-six.”

  “Look at you Rick. You’re thin as a rail. Your mind is in a bad place, very bad. And I know you won’t consider the Pentagon contracts simply because you have this delusion that your ideas can somehow become weapons of mass destruction.”

  “Not could be, but easily are,” Rick says. He reaches inside his jacket pocket and withdraws a memory stick that he hands to Freida. “Plug this into the projector screens.”

  Freida goes over to the wall and opens a port, tapping at her tablet and inserting the memory stick. She nods to Rick, while Harvey tries to act unconcerned. “Rick, if you’re going to show us some science fiction, at least make it good.”

  “Actually, this comes from NASA and the Department of Energy,” Rick says. “Don’t worry Harvey, it’s short and uses small words, so you’ll be able to keep up.” The screen on the far wall flashes to life and I watch as a jar of gloop pops up on screen. “This is the capacitance gel that our energy division is using in computing.”

  I watch as a man in a lab coat adds a squirt of chemical to the jar, then stirs it up before removing an amount about the size of a peanut on the table. He quickly leaves with the rest of the gel. Moments later, the gel explodes in a reaction strong enough to totally destroy the lab table and damage other metal panels that I now see are set up at various distances. The shot changes to show that what I took to be a lab is in fact a large concrete room, and the explosion knocked over metal panels up to fifty feet away.

  “That was capacitance gel mixed with another simple compound and hit with a laser of a certain color,” Rick says. “Less than an ounce, and it created an explosion the equivalent of four sticks of dynamite. The NASA guys I talked to say that if that much was loaded into an old fashioned five hundred pound steel casing and rigged with a simple timer connected to LEDs of the right color, it’d match a mid-range nuclear bomb.”

  The board watches the explosion again before one of them speaks up. “What’s stopping someone from mixing that up right now?”

  “The compound and the frequency of light that NASA used. Only I have that data, and thankfully… I’m the only one who does,” Rick replies. “This isn’t a joke to me, or some game, or a grab for politics. I’m protecting this planet and this country by saying keep the Pentagon away from K-S tech. The Air Force doesn’t need another generation of supercruise stealth aircraft armed with missiles that could level a city the size of New York without even being detected until the blast wave hits.”

  “What’s stopping someone else from developing the same thing?” one of the board asks, and Rick shrugs.

  “Nothing. Except the hope that by then, the rest of the world will have caught up. A balance, and hopefully we won’t have megalomaniacal overgrown children with delusions of godhood at the switches.” Rick gestures, and I step forward. “Harvey is wrong. He always will be on this issue. Do not invoke Bylaw Sixty Six.”

  Rick stands straight, and walks around the table to stare Harvey in the eye. Harvey tries to get up, and Rick pushes him back down into his chair, a feat I didn’t think he was still capable of. “Why you fucking punk!” Harvey thunders. “I’ll see you fired, you son of a bitch!”

  “You keep forgetting Harvey, I don’t work for you,” Rick growls. “Now, I call for the vote.”

  It doesn’t take long for the vote to go Rick’s way, with the first three votes saying they were siding with Rick. Only one other board member besides Harvey sided against Rick, and Rick nodded. “Good. Meeting adjourned. I don’t give a shit about the rest right now.”

  Rick turns and heads for the door, leaving a sputtering, enraged Harvey behind him. “What are you doing? How do you-?”

  “That’s what you get when you screw with people who are superior to you in every way,” Rick says, glaring over his shoulder before opening the door. “Don’t call another meeting Harvey on this. Or else I’ll be forced to take action myself.”

  Rick

  I jerk awake, looking around with confused eyes before I see her, the woman that I know I’m robbing of so much but I can’t seem to do anything about. “Su Lin?”

  “We’re almost at the jet,” she says gently, squeezing my hand. I feel like hell, the IV is wearing off and I’m more exhausted than I’ve ever been in my life. “Do you need help?”

  I nods, and she helps me down the steps of the helicopter, where I sway for a moment before steadying myself. “I had a dream,” I tell her as we get into the cart to take us to the jet. “Do me a favor, would you? Name our son Alexander.”

  “And our daughter?” she asks, and I nod.

  “Roxanna. She was Alexander’s wife, the mother of his only child. And it’s a pretty name.”

  “I promise,” she says as we approach the jet. Mounting the steps is a Herculean task, and I have to use every ounce of strength I have left to climb the steps before my legs give out. Freida comes up and pushes on my lower back, taking my other arm to relieve Su Lin of some of the pressure as they help me onto one of the long couches nearest the door. Freida kneels and straps me in, and Su Lin sits behind me, cradling my head in her lap. “Don’t worry, we’ll be home soon.”

  “Good. Su Lin… I’ve never felt for anyone the way I feel about you,” I whisper, trying to reach up and cup Su Lin’s face but everything goes gray, and I feel the world swim away.

  “You were a fucking idiot,” Dr. Gordon says, looking more pissed off than I’ve ever seen him before. The walls are pale white, and while the decorator obviously tried to make it look more comforting with the use of pastel furniture and some drapes, there’s no escaping the fact I’m in a hospital room. Well, at least I’m in one of the best in the world, and I’m looking with blurry eyes at one of the best doctors in the world, too. Even if he is pissed off at me. “What the hell were you thinking?”

  “I was thinking that I’d like to be known as m
ore than the real world Myles Bennet Dyson,” I reply, my voice papery thin and weak in the quiet room. Since waking up, I’ve been on oxygen the whole time, but I still can’t seem to catch my breath. “You know the name?”

  “Nope.”

  “Watch Terminator 2,” I answer him. “He’s the guy who invented Skynet.”

  Gordon sighs, nodding as he gets the reference. “That may be the case, but what you did… well, our lab tech said it would be like taking a breaking down engine and dropping three bottles of nitro into it. Sure, you went fast as hell for a while, but-”

  “But I cracked the case in doing so,” I finish for him. “Remember, I’ve got an supercar. I know what can happen.”

  “Yeah well, fixing a sports car is a hell of a lot easier than fixing you,” Gordon says sadly. “Rick… there’s nothing I can do. We can make you more comfortable, but that’s about it.”

  I nod, giving Gordon my best smile. “That’s okay, Doc. Hey, do me a favor. Two, actually.”

  “What’s that?”

  “One, don’t spend the whole endowment I’m giving you in my will on hookers and blow,” I joke lightly. “Second… can you ask Su Lin and Freida to come in?”

  “Freida’s right outside, but Su Lin is upstairs talking to OB,” Gordon says. “Don’t worry, but she thought you were going to be out a while longer, and they had a few minutes to squeeze in a weight check. She’s healthy as can be, Rick.”

  “Thank you, Doc.”

  Gordon leaves, and a moment later Freida comes in. Her face is grave, and I know that inside she’s got her emotions in that same iron grip that I saw all those years ago, back when I knew I’d found the person I could have as my right hand and who could deal with my bullshit. There’s a reason I’m entrusting her with my wife and child.

  “Hey,” I greet her, wishing I didn’t look like I’m dying, even if I really am. “Is everything okay with Su Lin and the company?”

  Freida nods, sitting down next to me. “Harvey doesn’t know. And nobody here is going to say a damn thing until the power of attorney is in effect.”

  I nod, relieved. I lay my head back, looking up at the ceiling. Four floors or so above me, my wife is getting checked out, and it’s the only thing on my mind. “I think I’m ready, Freida. I’ve done my best.”

  “Don’t say that,” Freida says, her control slipping a little. “You’ve got more to do.”

  “I took care of Harvey, my inventions are in good hands,” I reply. “Hey… just think, you’re going to be one of the richest women in America pretty soon.”

  “I’d give it up if it meant you getting to be there for the birth,” Freida says.

  I nod, wiping at my suddenly tearing eyes. “Me too.”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll tell Alexander all about how great a man his father was,” Freida promises me, making me laugh sadly.

  “I’m not a great man, Freida. I’m pathetic. So weak I can’t even tell Su Lin that I love her, because I’m afraid it’ll hurt her. She’s stronger than me, you know that? I should have trusted her, and now… it’s too late to tell her.”

  “It’s okay, she knows,” Freida says. She reaches over, taking my hand. “She knows even if you don’t say it.”

  “Thank you, my… my friend,” I tell her. “Su Lin’s not the only one who’s saved me from being a totally pathetic crazy inventor.”

  Freida smiles, and reaches down, giving me a hug. “You’re the brother I always wanted,” she says quietly, hugging me tighter. “That was the whole reason I stuck around.”

  Suddenly, a sharp pain jabs me in the shoulder, and Freida lets go. “What did you do?”

  “I’m sorry,” Freida says as the curtains drop again. “Please forgive me.”

  Su Lin

  “Is he out?” I ask as Freida comes into the exam room. She nods, and drops the syringe into the wastebasket.

  “I already told Gordon. He’s pissed, but I don’t think he’s going to call the cops.”

  When Rick passed out on the Panther again on the way back from New York, I didn’t need Gordon’s evaluation to tell me that Rick’s idea had worked, but at a tremendous cost. If it wasn’t for the speed of the plane and having a medical helicopter waiting for us at the airfield, Rick might not have made it.

  Freida knew as well, and went to work. When she approached me while Rick was unconscious with her plan, I realized again not only how smart this woman is, but how devoted and devious she can be as well. Thankfully she’s on our side.

  “You know he still might,” I tell her, pulling my shirt on and giving her a hug. “I still don’t like that part.”

  “He had to go into a coma for you to get the power of attorney,” Freida explains again. “Now you have the power not only over his company, but his medical care as well. Gordon knows it, he’s not an idiot.”

  “Will Rick hate us if he wakes up?” I ask as we leave the exam room heading for Rick’s room.

  “If it works, then who cares? I’m willing to risk jail for attempted murder, if a prosecutor wants to go that route. I don’t think losing my job is that much more,” Freida says. “And you love him. That’s worth the risk, don’t you agree?”

  I smile, nodding. “You’re a romantic.”

  “Perhaps,” Freida acknowledges. We get to Rick’s room, where Dr. Gordon and a nurse are checking the monitors that are attached all over Rick’s chest, his mouth and nose covered in a mask. “So Doc?”

  “So… I really wish you’d told me about this cockamamie idea of yours,” Gordon growls after dismissing the nurse with a jerk of his head. “Jesus, after all that he’s pumped himself with, and you go and give him more… you’re both lucky that our code blue team is fast or else you’d be looking at a dead billionaire.”

  “Mayo’s the best,” Freida explains simply. “Now, what’s his condition?”

  Gordon rolls his eyes at Freida’s supposed nonchalance and turns to me. “Mrs. Kelley, I’ve got your husband stabilized in a medically induced coma. He’s on a ventilator, but I don’t want to insert a breathing tube unless absolutely necessary.”

  “What about maintaining his health?” I ask, speaking for the first time. “Can you keep him alive?”

  “With Trikala Syndrome?” Gordon asks, slightly surprised but nodding. “For four months, five months maybe. Mrs. Kelley, what Rick did to himself… he’s facing systemic organ failure unless the Trikala is reversed, and even then he may never be the same man.”

  “Half of Rick is still more than enough for me,” I tell Gordon.

  “But Rick refused treatment,” Gordon says. “Without the treatment, I’m just delaying the inevitable. And I must respect Rick’s wishes, regardless of your power of attorney. He refused the treatment using the fetal cells.”

  “There’s another source of genetic code,” I reply, rubbing my stomach. “Five months? You might just have enough time.”

  The house feels empty, even if all of the staff are here and it’s only Rick missing. I’ve asked the housekeepers to clean up our bedroom, and moved back into what was originally mine. Right now though I’m in the gym, not doing wushu but just walking on the treadmill while in front of me a widescreen TV plays a movie. I’m not going fast, just trying to keep myself moving and in shape for my babies.

  The door opens, and Freida comes in, dressed casually like she always is now. “How’s the movie?”

  “Barely paying attention,” I reply honestly, wiping at my forehead with a towel. “It’s just noise.”

  “If you’re looking for a recommendation, I’d watch Iron Man,” Freida says. “It’s about a billionaire who gets injured, has a major change of heart, and becomes a superhero.”

  I shake my head, smiling a little. “Already seen it. And I don’t find Robert Downey Jr. sexy.”

  Freida gawks in mock disbelief, then smiles. “Okay. Well, to each their own. I’ll take tall, dark and snarky any day of the week.”

  “I would have too… before I met Rick,” I reply. “And
Harvey still doesn’t know?”

  “So far, he’s behaving himself,” Freida replies. “If he does know, he isn’t raising hell. Probably because he knows that with your power of attorney, you can block anything he does. And he knows I’ve got your ear.”

  I nod, turning my attention back to the screen. “Well, let me get another half hour on here before I’m done with my morning exercise. If you don’t mind, unless there’s an emergency I would like to be alone.”

  “Of course,” Freida says. She turns, pausing at the door. “By the way, when you get back to your room, check the top drawer on your right hand dresser. I put some clothes there that I think you’ll enjoy for your exercise sessions.”

  “Thank you,” I reply, putting it out of my mind as I keep walking. I’m not trying to be strenuous, but it helps distract me from the pain in my heart. Waking up and knowing where Rick is, I want to not even be here, I want to be in that room at the hospital, spending all my time with my husband. The only thing that’s gotten me out of bed the past four days is our twins. I want Rick to hold them some day soon, and that means I have to make sure all three of us stay healthy.

  “Well Alexander, I guess I’ll spend plenty of time telling you about your father,” I tell my stomach, rubbing it through my t-shirt. “You too, Roxanna. You’re both going to get tired of me talking to you for the next few months.”

  I keep up my steady pace, not sweating heavily but not strolling. The television keeps making pictures on the wall in front of me but I’m not really conscious of them as I tell my babies a story about how Rick and I met, switching between English and Mandarin the whole time. I know what the books say, that the babies probably can’t understand me even if their brains are conscious at this stage of development. But right now talking to them is as much for my comfort as it is for them.