Sovrano

by Michael Powers

  “His wallet was still in his pants, so I went through it. There was a Visa card, driver’s license, copy of his military orders, plane ticket, several hundred dollars, and some receipts. I marveled at how the picture on his license looked just like me. Slowly, an idea took shape. I removed everything from the room which could be connected to me, and I left a dead body on the bed with no identification. I considered leaving my own ID on him, but was afraid someone would contact my parents. I walked out of that room carrying a driver’s license, Visa card, military orders, and a plane ticket which identified me as Eric Price.

  “Three days later, I reported for Air Force basic training in San Antonio, Texas. Each day, I signed more and more documents as Eric Price. Each day, the identity became more firmly established. I created a whole new past for myself whenever someone asked a question. The military helped me create a paper trail which proved I was Eric Price complete with fingerprints, blood samples, photos, and dental records.

  “After basic training, I was assigned to a base outside Kansas City. It was a safe place. I was a good little airman my first year and struck up a friendship with an older man. We both enjoyed running on a dirt track at the far edge of the base. We became great friends, discussing a wide range of topics each time we met. I knew him for six months as Rocky, and was stunned when he summoned me to his office one day and I discovered he was a general. He invited me to become his enlisted aide. When I hesitated, he told me I couldn’t refuse my mentor, so I accepted. That’s how I met Robert Dornfeld, who was the General’s officer aide. Generals had an enlisted aide to do menial chores and an officer aide to handle administrative tasks. I drove the General’s car, made him coffee, ran errands, polished his shoes, picked up his laundry, and lots of other go-fer stuff. Robert arranged meetings, made calls, and wrote memos. We pooled our activities since I could handle the admin tasks just as well as he could. The three of us made a good team.

  “Rocky played a major role in Desert Storm,” Eric continued. “He was responsible for coordinating Allied air strikes, something he liked to do from an airborne command post. Twice our plane went down. Once from enemy fire and once from engine failure. Our survival training kept us alive both times, but I have firsthand knowledge what it feels like to have your life flash before your eyes. I was decorated for valor and returned to the States. The Air Force showed its appreciation by sending me to finish my bachelor’s degree, made me an officer, and assigned me to North Dakota to be a missile commander. You know most of the rest of my story after that. Meeting Tommy, working at the bank, going through treatment, getting fired from InterNorth Bank, and then working for Vincent.

  “There’s one other secret I need to share with you. After Tommy died, I went to see his widow, Jackie. We got drunk, had sex, and nine months later she had a child. I know it sounds crazy, but Jackie was the only link I had to Tommy. Having sex with her was like having sex with Tommy one last time. I’m fairly certain her third child is mine. What’s really bizarre is that Jackie moved to California, and married a man named Mark Jensen. My security chief has done extensive checking. Marcus Sloan’s trail ends when he escaped from a Mexican jail, then a new trail begins for a man named Mark Jensen, who seems to have appeared right out of thin air. We believe Marcus and Mark are the same person, and that he tried to kill me in LA a few months ago when my limo was blown up. It appears my worst enemy is raising my son. God only knows what he plans to do with him!

  “It’s not a pretty picture, Cody. I’m not proud of everything I did. I spent many years being angry because I was forced to turn to crime to support my family. Yet, nobody forced me to be greedy. I made choices and knew what I was doing every step of the way. I knew the difference between right and wrong, legal and illegal. Lots of people got hurt, including me. I began to deal with my shame, guilt, and anger while I was in treatment. I’m determined to spend the rest of my life making amends for all the harm I caused. So, how do you feel about your lover now?”

  Cody’s face was blank as he stared into Eric’s eyes for what seemed to be an eternity. “I love you, Eric Price. Nothing you’ve told me has changed that. I’m stunned, surprised, shocked, amazed and more, but I’m not disgusted by anything I’ve heard. You’re even more remarkable than I thought you were the first time we met. You’ve been in situations no man or boy should ever face, and you survived by doing what you had to do. Somewhere along the way, greedy, opportunistic, immature Jason York died and only Eric Price survives in the body you shared. I think it’s time we bury Jason.”

  Eric grinned. It was such a typical response from Cody.

  “The part I find most amazing is the way you left your family when you were twenty.”

  “I had no choice,” Eric murmured.

  Cody studied Eric, nodding slowly. “You could have stayed and faced your enemies. You’re not the kind of man who runs to save his own neck. That’s the amazing part. When you realized there were people angry enough to kill, you made the decision to leave town in a matter of minutes, then stuck to that decision for twenty years. You did it to protect your family, didn’t you? You didn’t want them to get caught in the crossfire. That’s really quite incredible.”

  “That’s one way of looking at it,” Eric conceded.

  “What happened to the half million dollars you put in that Swiss bank?” Cody asked.

  “Spent most of it gambling and drinking. I couldn’t seem to get rid of it fast enough. I went on a lot of three-day benders. During some of them, I’d walk around handing out money to people on the streets. I bought drinks for everyone in sleazy bars, tipped lavishly, and did everything short of flushing hundred-dollar bills down the toilet. By the time I sobered up, it was all gone and I was deep in debt.”

  “Do you think Marcus or Mark will try to kill you again?”

  “Yup,” Eric nodded with a faraway look. “I’d rather deal with him sooner than later, before he hurts anyone else. I've got people looking for him right now.”

  “What was the DA’s name who betrayed you, Eric?”

  Eric nodded slowly. Cody had been paying very close attention. “Griffin.”

  “Marcus’ stepfather?”

  Eric nodded.

  “The same guy who was the prosecutor in Harry’s trial?”

  “The same.”

  “The same guy who’s running for Congress?”

  “The same.”

  “And you’re going to make sure he doesn’t win, aren’t you, Eric?”

  “I am,” Eric nodded.

  “How far will you go?” Cody wondered.

  Eric realized what Cody was getting at. “I’ll contribute heavily to his opponent, but that’s all. No strong-arm stuff. Nothing illegal, I promise.”

  “Good. Why don’t you drop the whole thing? The man was just doing his job.”

  Eric shook his head vigorously. “No, he took more of a personal interest in my family than his job alone warranted. I think he blamed me for corrupting his stepson, but Marcus was a bad seed long before our paths ever crossed.”

  They flew in silence for several minutes. Cody was still trying to sort through what Eric told him. It was an incredible tale, yet he believed every word. Cody knew he and Eric could be targets for blackmailers and assassins the rest of their lives. He finally understood why Eric avoided publicity, and why power was so important to him. Eric’s past explained why he kept most people at a distance and put such a huge premium on trust.

  On balance, Cody was even more impressed by Eric. At an age when most boys were worried about parties, pimples, and easy pickups, Eric Price had been concerned with protecting his family. He may have become obsessed with his responsibility and made some mistakes, but his intentions were certainly admirable. No wonder Eric felt so comfortable shuffling Foresight International’s billions around the planet. He had been doing the same thing on a smaller scale since his teens.

  “Eric, it took courage to tell me about your past. You gave me both the good and the bad. It’s all
pretty shocking, but I can handle it. We never had anything like this in my family.”

  Eric grinned at Cody, fondly caressing his arm. “Mom said the same thing about Dad’s drinking and abuse. Never had anything like that in her family. You have several things in common with Mom. No wonder I love both of you so much!”

  Cody kissed Eric’s hand. “I’m in this for the duration. I’ll stay with you just as long as you’ll have me.”

  That was exactly what Eric needed to hear. They held each other’s hands for a few moments, then Cody asked his final questions.

  “Why did you wait so long to go home again, Eric?”

  “Good question,” Eric admitted. “The short answer is that I was finally more curious than I was afraid, but it’s more complex than that. Guess I wanted to wait until I could return to my family as someone they would be proud of.”

  That made sense to Cody. “Final question,” he promised. “Why didn’t you ask friends or relatives for help before you started stealing from the theater?”

  “It never occurred to me,” Eric replied. “My relatives, my parents’ friends, our neighbors, and teachers weren’t blind. How could they miss the frequent black eyes and bruises on all of us? They heard the shouts and screams. Lots of people knew what was going on inside the York home. They just didn’t want to see it up close. Nobody wanted to be saddled with our problems. Since I wasn’t about to accept charity or be a ward of the government, there weren’t too many other choices.”

  Cody nodded his understanding, clenching Eric’s hand more tightly.

  In a small voice, Eric added, “I was ashamed.” He lowered his head and stared at the floor, blinking back his tears. “My siblings and I couldn’t bring ourselves to talk about our parents with each other. How could we tell anyone else?”

  Cody felt that was the most brutal part of the truth Eric shared with him. How could Eric be honest with strangers when he couldn’t be honest with himself and the people he loved the most?

  CHAPTER 22

  Each morning, Eric and Cody watched the news as they ate breakfast and sipped coffee. One Sunday morning, they woke to the stunning news that six people posing as repairmen had smuggled weapons into a store adjoining a popular Dallas gay bar. They waited until the store closed for the weekend before breaking in. At midnight, they blew a hole in a wall, entered the gay bar, killed two security guards, sealed all exists, and systematically murdered hundreds of people. As police surrounded the building, the terrorists poured fire accelerant on the floor, then torched the place. By the time first responders broke through the barricades, there were no survivors. Nine-hundred-eighty-two people died in one of the worst hate crimes of the 21st century.

  Cody and Eric held hands as they absorbed the shocking news. As Eric’s grip tightened, Cody felt Eric’s sorrow turning to anger. Stroking Eric’s arm, Cody murmured, “You’re not going to let this go unanswered, are you?”

  “No, I’m not,” Eric replied. “You think I should?”

  Inhaling deeply, Cody shook his head. “I think you should do whatever is necessary to make sure we can walk down the street holding hands without being shot or incinerated.”

  “That’s exactly what I have in mind,” Eric nodded. “I’ve had an idea for a while. It’s time to pull the trigger on it.”

  New York City

  Eric tapped his water glass with a spoon. “Ladies and gentlemen, could we get started? Feel free to bring your refreshments to the conference table. This will be an informal meeting, so please make yourselves comfortable.”

  For the previous hour, Eric mingled with his guests, working the crowd like a seasoned politician. The meeting he had planned for weeks was one of the most important sales efforts of his career. Each of his fourteen guests had been carefully selected.

  “Let me begin by expressing my gratitude to each of you for accepting my invitation. I asked you here today since our conversations led me to believe you will share my enthusiasm for the venture I’m about to launch.

  “The package in front of you contains a list of the people present today, along with each person’s current professional status, achievements, and a short biographical sketch. All this information is available on various websites; I simply collected and summarized it for the group. You will no doubt be as impressed by the wealth and diversity of talent in this room as I am.

  “I’ll summarize for you what the collective talent in this room represents. We are fifteen respected leaders in our professions or industries. We represent all the vital skills needed in every organization: finance, marketing, engineering, legal, communications, technology, organizational behavior, planning, and security. Each of us has a remarkable track record of achievement. We range in age from thirty to sixty. Our minimum education level is a master’s degree. Our demographic mix is more diverse than you’ll find in most boardrooms with seven men, eight women, six non-Caucasians, and five non-Christians from four continents. Our common denominator is that we are all non-heterosexual.”

  Eric paused for effect, allowing his audience to absorb his opening remarks.

  “I’ve traveled a lot during the past ten years,” Eric continued. “I’ve been to every major city in North America, and visited more than ninety countries. I’ve seen some amazing things, but no matter where I go I always see one thing that disturbs me. Bigotry. Western civilization made some excellent human rights progress in the second half of the 20th century, but there’s been some backsliding. The amount of hatred I see everywhere is unsettling. In the West, that hatred is being directed at non-whites, non-Christians, women, and the LGBT community. Most governments lack the will and the resources to do anything about the growing hate and violence. If governments aren’t willing or able to deal with bigotry, I refuse to be at the mercy of hate groups and terrorists. Like any good businessman, I’ve identified a problem, and in a moment, I’ll offer a solution.

  “I have a heightened sense of urgency after the vicious mass murder in a Dallas gay bar. It wasn’t the first attack on a gay business, and it probably won’t be the last. What shocked us all was the sheer scale of the massacre, and the cold-blooded way it was carried out. Six men carefully plotted their hate crime over a period of months. After their deaths, the FBI pieced together the activities leading up to their crime. From their systematic purchase of weapons and ammo, to the careful transfer of their assets, those church-going assassins knew exactly what they were doing. They weren’t loners who’d been bullied as children. They weren’t acting in a fit of temporary rage. They were gainfully employed husbands and fathers who carefully targeted homosexuals for execution. They left no doubt on Twitter that they despised gays and lesbians, considering us to be sub-humans who need to be exterminated. They knew they probably wouldn’t survive, so they left behind farewell videos explaining their actions. They wanted their children to remember them as heroes, making the world a better place for heterosexuals.

  “There were tearful candlelight vigils around the world after all the bodies were tagged, bagged, and sent to the hospital or morgue. Politicians made long, sad speeches, recommending change. Flags were flown at half-mast for a couple days, then it was back to business as usual. What bothered me most was that many Christian ministers praised the murderers for performing a public service. Twitter reported a billion messages were sent the week after the Dallas massacre expressing everything from sympathy to outrage. However, another 500 million messages expressed sympathy for the shooters. Meanwhile, homophobic fanatics are still free to build home arsenals, attacking LGBT targets at will. All of us are just as vulnerable today as the people who entered a gay bar in Dallas on that fateful Saturday night.

  “I believe socially conscious corporations can bring about the change we need since politicians aren’t able to. When several state legislatures tried to neutralize Supreme Court rulings permitting same-sex marriage, many big companies threatened to close plants, costing those states billions of dollars in lost jobs and tax revenue. We have ample evid
ence that mega-corporations can fight bigotry and win.

  “How does this concern us? As I shared with each of you privately, I’ve had an idea for a very different kind of organization since I was a graduate student. I believe any problem can be solved with the right combination of people. Most organizations become so bogged down with trivial issues they lose the ability to deal effectively with crises. They can turn in routine performance statistics year after year, but hit them with a natural disaster, an economic downturn, new government regulations, and swiftly changing technology and they fall apart!

  “I believe the best way to achieve the change we need is to provide special expertise to troubled businesses. Some of you may be thinking I’m not breaking any new ground. There are already specialty consulting firms and investment banks doing just that. While it’s true there are hordes of bankers and consultants, I have something quite different in mind. I wouldn’t suggest the fifteen of us give up our careers just to form another consulting firm. I propose that we form the most unusual organization in the world and here’s how it’ll work.

  “First, we’ll only seek out large clients with problems serious enough to make them desperate for our help. Our targets will include conglomerates and those who have large market shares since that’ll save us a few steps in the consolidation process. Further, we’ll seek out companies operating in critical technology. It’ll do us little good to dominate companies or industries where there are easily available alternatives. Our goal is to acquire the minimum amount of control necessary to exert the maximum amount of influence. I believe we should initially focus on the three areas which will be most important for the next few decades: high tech, financial services, and healthcare.