Bobby thought. “I don’t think I do,” he said, “but it sounds like a lot of fun.” He didn’t remember ever having fun at Hjälp Teknik.
“I used to take you to the refectory and get you ice-cream. Look at you now!”
“Well, I’m pleased to meet you,” said Bobby, “again.”
Bobby took a seat across the tables from Anthony and Toni. Anthony affected to be busily studying some of the papers in front of him. Toni sat with her elbows on the table, her hands together, fingers interlocked with her chin resting on them. “Okay. Down to business, then,” she said. She addressed her spiel to Bobby. He assumed that she had already gone through a lot of it with Anthony, or that Anthony was so close to the operation that he didn’t need to be briefed. “Your father, Jack Karjalainen, is nearing the end of his life. The nature of his illness has afforded him time to consider his legacy, and to formulate a plan for Hjälp Teknik moving into the future. As his representative, he has asked me to explain that plan to you.” She paused, and moved some papers. She found her place on the next sheet and continued. “On his death, Mr Karjalainen’s entire portfolio, including his majority shares in Hjälp Teknik, will pass to Anthony. The house in Allentown will also pass to Anthony. Mr Karjalainen’s secondary residence in Dog Sur,” she leant into Bobby, explaining unnecessarily, “the flat,” before continuing, “shall pass to Robert.” She paused for breath. “The position of Chief Executive Officer of Hjälp Teknik shall be given to Anthony, subject to ratification by the board.” This last point was academic, Bobby noted. With a controlling interest in the company Anthony would be able to overrule any decisions made by the board.
Toni Philips quickly looked up at the two men. “Your father writes,
‘It is my hope and belief that, under Anthony’s stewardship, Hjälp Teknik will prosper and continue to build upon the good works started in my lifetime. Hjälp Teknik was founded on the belief that things can, and should, be better. We have always sought to provide goods and services that help the maximum number of people for the minimum cost. The bright new frontiers of Mars and the asteroid belt beyond can provide potentially limitless resources to a forward-looking organisation with faith in the people it serves. It can allow them to look toward a future filled with hope, and away from a past too often filled with despair. My son, Anthony Karjalainen, will guide Hjälp Teknik toward this future.’”
Bobby thought about clapping, but knew sarcasm wouldn’t go down too well. “Congratulations, Anthony,” he said.
“I’ve been working very closely with Dad for the past few years,” Anthony replied. “He wants the change to be as seamless as possible. I’m running most of the day to day stuff now anyway.”
Bobby nodded.
“You understand -” Toni started, but Bobby cut in.
“I understand. Anthony gets the business, I get an apartment.” He shrugged. “It’s about what I expected.”
Toni turned to Anthony. “Your father is placing a great deal of trust in you. He believes in you, Anthony.” She reached out and patted Anthony’s arm, her brow furrowed in pity. “I know these are difficult times, difficult for us all, but we have to think about the future. Your father is being very brave about all this.”
Bobby shifted in his seat. “Is there anything we should be doing?”
“For your father?” asked Toni.
“For anyone.”
Toni thought. “There is nothing that needs to be done at this time. If I were you two I would be spending as much time as I could with my father. There isn’t long to go now, and,” she caught herself before continuing, “the time we have with our loved ones is so precious.” Toni, for the first time, looked sad.
Anthony looked across the table at Bobby. “Stay at the house for now. If you want to move out to the apartment you can. It needs remodelling, really. Stay at the house while we sort the apartment out for you. Stay as long as you like.”
“Thank you,” said Bobby. It rankled that Anthony made giving him comparatively nothing sound like a grand gesture, but Bobby knew this was not the time to get into that. He did not mind being largely frozen out of the will. He had expected it. Maybe he was being paranoid but the line ‘My son, Anthony’ had really stuck in his craw. He felt his dad was, even at this late stage, having a pop at him.
Bobby stood and shook Toni’s hand again. “Thank you very much,” he said.
“Thank you,” said Toni. “If there’s anything you need, either of you, just get in touch. Your father is a wonderful man. I’m so sorry for both of you.”
Earlier in the week Toni Philips had visited Jack Karjalainen at the hospital. He had been very specific. “Anthony gets Hjälp Teknik. The board will have to ratify, but they will, if they know what’s good for them. He knows it already, we’ve been through it a thousand times. I need you to write it all up and make it proper. Tie it all up legally, and don’t leave any holes. Make sure Anthony’s tied in. Lock his shares down for two years. Have letters written up to the board informing them of my decision. I’ll sign them.”
As an afterthought he added, “I’ve got an apartment in Dog Sur. It’s Bobby’s.”
Toni had hesitated. “Nothing for Bobby but the apartment?” It was a nice apartment, to be sure, but in light of Karjalainen’s accumulated wealth it was as nothing compared the share of the empire left to Anthony.
“My first born son has been a grave disappointment. I came here to get away from the bullshit and the squalor and the fighting. We were looking to the future. He always wanted to spite me. Even when he was a kid. And the first chance he got he went back there. To fight in their wars, to kill people. He made me ashamed to be his father. He deserves a place to live. Nothing more.”
He had waved her away after that.
Toni felt that at this point, at the end of his life, Jack Karjalainen should be thinking about forgiveness.
Jack disagreed.
Leaving the room Bobby heard Toni calling after him. He paused as she caught up. “Bobby, I’m sorry your father feels this way. I tried to talk with him, but . . .”
“It’s okay. I know what my dad’s like. Stubborn as a mule. I don’t need the money, anyways.”
They walked together.
“It’s so sad when families fight,” Toni said. “No good ever comes of it.”
“Hey,” said Bobby, “my dad is my dad. He achieved everything he did by being a stubborn asshole. Why would he stop now? Admitting he was wrong about anything would kill him as surely as any cancer.”
“I’ll speak to him again.”
They walked on.
“I’ve been to see him,” said Bobby.
“You have?”
“He was okay with it.”
“That’s great.”
C H A P T E R 7
The Rumour
Audrey Andrews read Colleen Acevedo’s report in bed the night she received it. There was a case there, and everyone had overlooked it. The crux of it was this: Mars was a long, long way away. It had been assumed, to the degree that no one had ever considered otherwise, that the colony on Mars was wholly dependent on Earth. Why wouldn’t it be? It was so small and so distant that it seemed it had to be constantly looking back to the bountiful mother for support and reassurance. For these reasons, no one had ever considered Mars as a separate entity. For many years the Martians had held the same view from the reverse perspective. Like an old habit, they had routinely assumed that Mars was second best, out on a limb, dangerous and desolate.
It had been a slow realisation that once the Martian colony had developed beyond a certain point the relationship ceased to make sense. Venkdt Corp made huge profits on Martian deuterium and other minerals that went to its shareholders on Earth. What did Venkdt Mars get in return? It didn’t need the protection of an army; it had no enemies. It didn’t need any other services from Earth; it was too costly in time and money to go back there for anything. In short, it got nothing in return that it couldn’t, with some minor development, provide
for itself. Why wasn’t Venkdt Mars trading with Earth rather than mining for it?
Once this idea had been grasped it was impossible to see things the old way. Mars needed Earth solely as a trading partner. But Earth absolutely relied on Mars as a source of increasingly scarce minerals, and would have to trade for them come what may. In this new paradigm Mars held the upper hand.
Despite not having or needing a military Mars held a strategic advantage, too. It was just too far away to threaten with a big stick. If they wanted to pull away, who was going to stop them?
Laying down to sleep Audrey mulled these ideas through her mind. As she sunk into progressively lower levels of consciousness something occurred to her. It was bold and radical, but it just might work. She slept like a baby.
Peter Brennan disliked having his routine disturbed.
“This better be about something. I’ve cancelled two meetings and a teleconference. The president can’t make it, but he wants me to report back to him directly. We’ve got twenty minutes. What is it?”
Andrews spoke. “We have reliable intelligence coming out of Mars that Charles Venkdt is going to run a plebiscite asking the entire population of Mars whether Venkdt Mars should break away from the parent company. Since more than eighty-five percent of the Martian population work for Venkdt this would be tantamount to Mars declaring independence from Earth.”
Brennan grunted, and noted something down.
“Should this come to pass it would present us with a number of problems. First, it would be a criminal act on a huge scale. Venkdt Mars is worth vast sums and would be, in effect, ‘stolen’ from its rightful owners. And that would be happening on the other side of the solar system, where we cannot police it.
“Secondly, it would damage us strategically and economically. Our whole society is underpinned by the power provided by nuclear fusion reactors and they run on deuterium which comes, in large part, from Mars. An independent Mars would mean the USAN were no longer energy independent. We would be hostage to the prices Mars could set for deuterium as well as other minerals which, at present, are more cost-efficiently gathered and transported from Mars than they are gathered here on Earth. We could see energy prices double, triple, quadruple; who knows?
“Thirdly, we would look weak politically. A major source of our energy and a major technical and social achievement in its own right - a source of national pride, no less - would be seen to walk away from us with utter impunity.
“And fourthly, we would lose our frontier outpost. Mars is our forward base, right out near the asteroid belt, which is ripe for exploitation. Ten, twenty years down the line we want to be out there mining those asteroids and looking out to the further reaches of the solar system. If we lose Mars, we’re pushed a hundred and forty million miles backward, and that can’t happen.”
Brennan turned to Farrell. “What do you say?”
“Our analysis is largely the same, senator,” said Farrell.
“What do we do?” said Brennan.
“Well,” started Farrell, “certain actions are being prepared already. We can’t move yet because Venkdt hasn’t made a formal announcement, but we’re expecting that soon. When he does, we’ll be ready. We have a statement ready for the president, condemning the action in the strongest terms, and we have a team working now on all diplomatic avenues that we might want to pursue.”
“Which are?”
Farrell shuffled his notes. “We can assure the Venkdt Mars hierarchy that we will pursue all legal means to prevent this from happening. We can pressure them into seeing the folly of taking this path. We can co-opt the Venkdt shareholders on Earth, and other stakeholders, to bring pressure on them to see sense. And we’re looking at the practicalities of freezing their assets, should it come to it.”
“Would any of that have any effect?”
Farrell seemed momentarily startled. “I would hope so, senator.”
Brennan turned back to Andrews. “What have you got? There’s a garrison up there, isn’t there?”
“There is senator, but its role is very limited. Venkdt have their own security service and mostly police themselves. In terms of physical force they outnumber us ten to one. We couldn’t jump to that at this stage, anyway.”
“So we have an inadequate and outnumbered force that we can’t afford to use, and persuasion? That’s it?”
“At the present time that’s it, sir,” said Farrell. “I have a team working on this right now, and we hope to have something much firmer in the next few days. We have until Venkdt announces, too.”
“What would we do if this was, say, Sri Lanka?” Brennan said to Andrews. It was what she had been waiting for.
“We’d do just what we’re doing now, sir. Monitor communications, pursue diplomatic channels, play the media. But if it was Sri Lanka, sir, we’d park a carrier group off-shore, just for emphasis.”
Brennan raised an eyebrow. “Ms Andrews, I take it we don’t have any carriers in the vicinity of Mars?”
“No, sir, we don’t.”
“Nor do we have any such vessels in space at all, do we?”
Andrews didn’t hesitate. “That’s not quite true, sir. We do have the two LEO carriers. They’re the most expensive ships ever commissioned by the USAN, and they’re brand new and ready for service.”
“LEO. That’s Low Earth Orbit, isn’t it, Ms Andrews?”
“Yes, sir, it is.”
“So that’s not going to help with Mars, is it?”
“Well, sir, if we could get them to Mars they would be exactly the thing to show we mean business. Their strike capability is enormous and highly configurable. They were made for policing the world. They could just as easily police another world.”
Brennan thought. “Could we get them to Mars?”
“I don’t know. The hard work was getting them built in the first place. If we could refit them in some way for interplanetary flight we could police our frontier.”
“Is that even feasible?”
“I’ll talk to Helios.”
“Financially feasible?”
“I’ll talk to Helios. Time is the issue. Even if it can be done it will take time, then we have to wait for a launch window. It’ll take two years at a bare minimum.”
Brennan shook his head. “It’ll all be over by then. Too late.”
“It’s all we have. And it won’t be over, legally. And they’ll know we’re coming from the minute we make the announcement.”
Farrell called ahead from his car and had his people waiting for him on his return. He entered the room at pace, walking to his desk and planting his briefcase down on it as he said, “What have we got, people?” A handful of his top advisers were seated on plastic chairs in front of his desk. As he took his seat he looked at them expectantly.
“A special envoy is out,” one of them offered. “The next launch window is’nt for eighteen months.”
“Who do we have on the ground?”
“No one,” another adviser answered.
“Who’s senior at the garrison?”
“That would be Colonel Katrina Shaw,” another said. “I’m squaring it with defence that she can assume diplomatic responsibility for us.”
“That’s good. As soon as that’s cleared I want her fully briefed on the situation and ready to meet with Venkdt the moment he announces.”
“Yes, sir.”
“What about legal?”
“Without the specifics of the plan we’re guessing against certain likely scenarios. For each scenario we’re working through the legal issues; which laws are being broken, who by, potential remedies etcetera,” said an adviser.
“That’s good,” said Farrell. “As soon as Venkdt goes public I want to know what laws he’s breaking and what laws he’s proposing to break. And I want a warrant for his arrest in Colonel Shaw’s hands five minutes after that.”
“You want to arrest him?”
Farrell shook his head, “No, we can’t arrest him. But I want him to k
now there’s a warrant.”
Audrey Andrews had already scheduled a call to Lewis J Rawls before the meeting with Brennan had begun. As her car pulled away she barked instructions to it. “Get me Rawls, put it on the wall.”
Presently, the chest and head of Lewis Rawls appeared opposite Andrews. The image was slightly distorted initially, as it fell over the opposing cream white seats. The projector quickly recalibrated the image to allow for the uneven surface so what Andrews saw resembled the man in the flesh. A subtle but definite 3D effect helped, too.
“Make him smaller,” said Andrews.
“Make him what?” came muffledly over Andrews’ speakers. The image shrank a little.
“That’s good,” said Andrews. “I was just resizing you, Lewis. You were bearing down on me like some huge ape.”
Rawls laughed. “That’s just how I like it. What can I do for you Audrey?”
Audrey looked at the image of Rawls. Approximately life-sized now it felt disconcertingly like he was sat there in the car with her. She looked into his eyes as she spoke. “You’ve done a lot of work for us over the years, Lewis. Right now we need you to really pull something special out of the bag.”
Rawls leaned into the camera. “I’m intrigued. And I’m excited, on behalf of billing.”
“We’re in the process of taking delivery of the second carrier. As you know, they’re arriving too late for the war. We may have another use for them, but they would need some modifications. Is this all sounding plausible?”
“It sounds great so far, but you haven’t got to the modifications yet.”
“Well, it’s this Lewis. We need the carriers to do exactly what they’re designed to do, but we need them to do it someplace else.”
Rawls didn’t have a comeback for that. “Go on,” he said.
“We need to get them to Mars,” said Andrews. “Can that be done?”
Rawls sat back in his chair and was silent for a moment. “It,” he paused for a long time, “. . . could be done, yes.”
Ephialtes (Ephialtes Trilogy Book 1) Page 9