The elevator doors were open and waiting for them. The front door to Lansing’s penthouse was also open. Alec tensed. Drake had thought this was safe. What if it wasn’t?
“Stay behind me,” he said.
“Philip’s the only one inside.”
He scowled. “You could have mentioned that.”
“Sorry. I was busy checking. I was worried too.”
The foyer of the penthouse was empty. “Which way?”
“Toward the back, the opposite way from your room.”
The door to Lansing’s private study was open. He went inside first, Beth behind him. Drake was standing in front of the wall painting of the siege of Khartoum, arms crossed over his chest, no expression on his face.
“You haven’t slept, have you?” Beth asked.
“Later,” Drake said.
“Promise you’ll rest as soon as we’re done?”
“More rest than I’ve taken in a long time. I promise.”
“Okay.”
She turned in a circle to take in the whole room, the coat of arms over the fireplace and the tables with all the miniature battles.
Alec pointed to the coat of arms. “Death or glory. Did he get either?”
“He saved your life,” Beth said. “More than I ever thought he’d do.”
“It’s more than I ever thought Richard Lansing would do for anyone,” Drake said.
“Yay, the monster loved me.” Alec had no idea what to think about that. He wasn’t sure that he loved Lansing back or that he would have taken a bullet for him.
“There’s nothing wrong with that, Alec.”
She’d spoken in his head to protect his privacy from her father. That was nice.
“I think Lansing raised you thinking that he could keep his distance, emotionally. But it became more than just a role,” Drake said.
“Was he really your father? That was your mother I saw in his memories, right?”
Drake’s face lost all expression. “He was no father to me. He wouldn’t allow himself to be.” He shook his head. “He left my mother without a second thought because he considered her beneath him.”
“You were better off without him.”
“Maybe, though my mother’s taste in men worsened. But you want answers about your life, not to hear my old grudges.”
“They’re entwined, aren’t they?” Alec said. “When did you figure out Lansing was your father? And that he was immortal?”
Drake collapsed in a chair in front of the fireplace. He didn’t look as bad as when he’d almost died but it was close. The dark circles were back under his eyes and so was the weariness, almost like some great weight was crushing him. Seeing his blood father die, Alec guessed, had affected him. He also guessed that Drake would never talk about it.
“I always knew my stepfather wasn’t my biological father,” Drake said. “But I didn’t connect anything with Lansing until just before I rescued Beth, about fifteen years ago. I didn’t trust Lansing at all, so I dug deeper in his background.”
Drake scowled.
“I discovered that Lansing was the father who’d abandoned me. He already knew. He’d been waiting for me to approach him. He naturally thought his bastard son would join him in this crusade to control events. In a secondary position, of course, because my mother’s mixed-race blood and my common upbringing kept me from anything higher.”
“Mixed race?” Beth asked.
“My mother was a quarter Lakota and a quarter African-American,” Philip said. “It only takes one drop of the wrong blood to disqualify a person from true nobility.” He imitated Lansing’s cadence exactly. “I decided he wasn’t a suitable father figure for anyone and I made sure Beth was never delivered to him. I should’ve realized that he already had a child under his control.” Drake looked away. “I could have looked deeper and found you then.”
“But you decided to protect Beth instead by giving Lansing no reason to look your way.” Alec nodded. “I would have done the same.”
“No,” Drake said. “You would have gone after him with everything you had and dismantled his entire operation. There were reasons for me not to do that, protecting Beth being the primary one. But that’s the difference between you and me, Alec. You aren’t satisfied unless you have total victory. I value survival above all.”
Alec scanned the room again, not certain how to take Drake’s comments. Lansing had sat in this place and brooded, reliving his old battles. No, not just battles. Defeats. What was it like, to live so long and have everyone you love die and everything you knew change beyond recognition?
“He never really left the Victorian age, did he?”
“No.” Drake cleared his throat.
Alec thought of all the stiff, silent meals with Lansing, the insistence on knowing specific kinds of music and books, the endless academic tests and drills.
“He called me his true son, Drake. Does that mean he was my blood father? Are we brothers?” Alec hoped not. That would make his relationship with Beth more than a little weird.
“No, we’re not brothers, for which you should be grateful. I’m not the type of person most people want for a relative.”
Beth cleared her throat. Drake smiled. “With one notable exception.” He put his feet up on a footstool, allowing more of his fatigue to show. “Your adoption by Lansing was legal and aboveboard, though I suspect he paid off some of the state officials to formalize it, so—”
“Wait a minute. Lansing adopted me?”
“He never told you?”
Alec shook his head.
“That would be typical.” Drake slapped a hand on the armrest of the chair. “He was probably making you earn the right to be called his son.”
“Yeah, that fits.” Wait, if Lansing was his adopted father, then— “What about my birth parents?”
“Your birth parents, as far as I can tell, were from a good family but simply not ready to take care of a child.”
“You know who they are?” He had family? Relatives?
“Do you want to know?”
“I—uh, I don’t know. Are they like me?” Alec took a deep breath and produced a ball of fire above his palm. Beth slipped her arm around his waist.
“Do they have your abilities?” Drake shook his head. “Not as far as I can tell. And I think Lansing would have grabbed them if they had.” Philip stared at the fireball and chewed on his lip, as Beth did sometimes. “Do you want to meet them, Alec?”
Meet some strangers who’d given him away? “What would be the point? If they cared, they wouldn’t have handed me over to Lansing.”
“I’m certain they thought they were giving you a better life. Lansing would have presented a good cover.”
Alec shrugged and let his fireball go out. What did it matter, really? Drake himself proved that it was taking care of someone that made you a parent, not blood relationships. Maybe someday he’d look into it, if there was need. But Beth was his family now. And Daz and F-Team. Drake too, by extension, he supposed. Though he didn’t know if Drake would like that much. Alec wasn’t sure that he liked it either.
“It’s probably better that my blood parents didn’t raise me. I’d have burned down their house or something. Lansing taught me control. Now I know why he wasn’t too worried about getting burned. He could heal it.”
Alec put his arm around Beth’s shoulders, feeling her mental support to go along with the physical.
“Are you older than you look, Philip?” Beth said. “Are you keeping anything else from me?”
Beth’s grip around Alec’s waist tightened. He hoped Drake hadn’t lied to his daughter the way Lansing had lied to him.
“No, I’m the age I look.” Drake opened his eyes and smiled. “Forty-one this year, I think. My birth records are a bit fuzzy on the date. A long story but a very dull one. In any case, I’m surprised I lived this long.”
“I could read the long story from your mind,” Beth said.
Drake shook his head. “It’s an
old tale. Timid mother, bad father. You don’t need to hear it.”
“What else do you know about Lansing?” Alec said. “What the hell did he do after his first life as a soldier in Queen Victoria’s army?”
Drake closed his eyes again. “I could only trace his tracks in the modern day. After he left my mother, he next appeared as an undercover operative for the CIA, specializing in investigating psychic weapons. He spent some time undercover in the Soviet unit that studied psychic abilities. He set up his network of military and CIA contacts during that time.
“Once back in the States, he resigned from the CIA and built the Resource, setting himself up as an independent contractor specializing in psychic research. Beth supposedly was going to be the first long-term study subject under a contract from the Company. He said he had Beth’s mother’s consent. He didn’t. And then Beth was grabbed by the others, I rescued her and Lansing was left in the lurch.” Drake stared up at the coat of arms above the fireplace and smiled.
“It wasn’t until recently that I realized Lansing also had you under wraps, Alec. It came as an unpleasant shock. And I told Beth, and she wanted to help you and here we are.”
“Yeah, here we are.” He was trained as a weapon. He was good at it. He’d saved millions of people. But with the Resource finished, what did he do? “Now what?”
“Whatever you want, Alec,” Beth said. “All the choices are yours.”
He walked away from her. “Counselor, I don’t even know what the choices are.”
“I do.” Drake snapped to his feet.
“You want me to work for the CIA?”
“No one in their right mind should.”
Left unspoken was Drake’s implication that he wasn’t in his right mind.
“Though I have no doubt they’ll approach you,” Drake said. “After what I saw yesterday, I’m assuming you can handle them.”
“He’s not in danger from them any longer?” Beth asked.
“I think it’s safe to say that after his heroism yesterday, they view him as more useful alive.” Drake walked over to Lansing’s massive black oak desk in the corner and tapped a foot-high stack of papers.
“Here are your real choices. It’s all yours, Alec. Lansing left the Resource to you, along with all his other holdings, which are run by several different shell companies.”
“What?” He was Lansing’s heir? “He owned this place outright?”
“Not outright. Through several holding companies that look like they hold leases on it. But he’s the ultimate owner.”
“How did he get that kind of money?”
“He seeded it with his savings. But the vast bulk of the money is more recent, as he acquired government and military contracts. If you know the right general with Pentagon insider experience, and you hire him to lobby for your new military consulting company, well, money piles up fast. He used that to pay off the original loans and to set up the other holdings.”
“What other holdings?” Beth asked.
“The mercenary operation centered in upstate New York, for one. Most of the guards here were originally with that division. Lansing used it as a way to vet them and he picked the guards from the most reliable soldiers.”
Beth whistled. “What about the science lab where I was held? Are there more of them?”
“Yes. Several research facilities specializing in genetics. They’re scattered across the world. I think we can guess what type of research it was.”
“Why would he leave things to me?” Alec put his hand on the stack of papers and spread out his fingers. He was tempted to burn the whole pile into ashes. Was Lansing reaching out to him from the grave? Take the Resource, that’s what Lansing had said. Is this what he meant?
“This is a quick summary.” Drake picked up a portable hard drive next to the papers. “I assume everything was left to you because he knew he had to fade into the background at some point as people started to wonder about his age. He certainly didn’t expect to be dead. It probably never crossed his mind.”
“He thought he’d have control of me.”
“Yes, of course.”
“Did the genetic research facilities find other children?” Alec said.
Drake winced. “Not as far as I know. But—” he sighed, “—I haven’t looked into them as deeply as could have, as I said.” He looked at Beth. “There’s also one other element to consider.”
Beth frowned. “Now what?”
“After Alec left last night, I searched the records further. I found some of Lansing’s personal notes.” He set a black leather journal on the desk. “Alec, you reported something unusual that night on the docks. You said you encountered a ‘spongy’ feeling with your TK just before the tug exploded.”
Alec nodded. “That’s right. I also felt it just before we assaulted the container ship. But it was moving away. Lansing told me it was nothing after the first incident.”
“He lied.” Philip tapped the book. “He’s concerned that someone else, another party other than the terrorists, was watching you. Or him. He’s not certain which. He was worried these people would take you from him. Maybe that’s part of why he came on the final mission with us.”
“How much did Lansing know about these watchers?” Beth asked.
“I don’t know, and that worries me. I’m guessing they have abilities like you or Alec. The implication from the notes is that Lansing knew about them but didn’t completely trust them. Perhaps they were behind the operation to take Beth all those years ago.”
Alec picked up the notebook. “So if these guys were watching me or involved in the terrorist plot as a way to get me to show off what I can do, does that mean Putin wasn’t behind the bomb plot after all?”
“He certainly allowed some radioactive materials to slip through the cracks but that appears to be the end of his involvement,” Philip said. “It’s the CIA’s judgment that even Putin wouldn’t risk being connected to blowing up New York City. Also, the United States does unpredictable things after an attack like this. Putin would be wary of that.”
“So the ones that Lansing was worried about might be behind the attack,” Alec said.
“Yes.” Philip ground his teeth. “And I don’t know anything about them, either.”
Alec paced the study, furious. How did this all land on him? He stopped, faced the wall behind the desk and waved his hand.
The wall vanished and there was only open sky in front of him.
Wind blew in, sending some of the papers flying. Alec closed his eyes and imagined a big picture window like in the Maine cottage. When he opened his eyes, the wall had been replaced by three of those windows.
Drake’s mouth was hanging open. He shut it quickly and flushed, probably mortified he’d been caught surprised. “Molecular re-arrangement. That will be handy for redecorating.”
Beth touched the windows. “Alchemy of a sort.” She smiled. “Is that what happened to our helmets up there in the sky, Alec? They just vanished.”
“I think so. That’s a bit blurry. I was focused on other things.” He took a deep breath. His knees felt week. He joined Beth at the window and put his hand on the glass for support. Note: Don’t do this every day.
“Does this facility all fall apart without Lansing?”
Drake ran a hand over the windows, as if to double check if the glass was real. “There are people who’ll continue to run the other operations for the Resource on a day-to-day basis. The general who heads the military consulting firm, for instance, and the CEO of the mercenary company. Lansing’s attorney has the will, it’ll be filed, and then you’ll have legal control of it all. And very full bank accounts.”
Drake sat on the edge of the desk. “I can dismantle the Resource for you.”
“I bet you could.” But was that really the best course? To throw it all away? There might be something salvageable from this. “But it looks like I’m the one with the power to play God now.”
“Or Lucifer,” Drake said. “Best
to get rid of it all, start fresh.”
“Maybe.” Alec stared at Philip. “That’s what you’d do?”
“Yes. Liquidate everything. Put aside enough money to support yourself and my daughter for the rest of your lives. Donate the rest of the funds to a well-run charity. Make a clean break.”
“You mean run and hide,” Alec said. “You’re offering to help Beth and me start fresh and have a normal life. And it would also keep us safe from these people watching me.”
“Just so. Beth’s safety has always been my first priority.”
“And this all turns to ashes?” But there had been something valuable about being raised to control his power. Doing so had saved his life, and yesterday, he’d saved a lot of other lives as a result. “All my skills, all that I’ve learned, all that F-Team can do and we just let it go? Like it was nothing?”
Drake glared. “Now you sound like Lansing.”
Alec glared back. “I won’t put the responsibility off on someone else. Who says I can’t take this place and make it what it should be?”
“And what should it be?”
“A chance to make a difference.”
Drake snorted and looked out the new windows. “People seemed damned set on killing each other. The best that can be done is to protect your own.”
“Protect your own. Now you sound like Lansing.”
Drake slapped the window. His face lost all expression. “Watch it, boy.”
“Yeah, Lansing called me that too.”
Drake took a step toward him, his hand hovering near the gun holstered at his waist. Beth grabbed her father from behind.
“Stop it. Neither one of you is like Lansing, deep down, and you both know it.”
Drake scowled. “You don’t know all the consequences of the decision you’re making. You’ve no idea who your opponents might be.”
“And you’re convinced that I can’t make a difference because you couldn’t,” Alec said.
“Philip did make a difference. He saved me,” Beth said. “And without my father, I wouldn’t be with you. And you wouldn’t have been able to stop the nuke.”
Drake shook off Beth and paced away. Alec took a deep breath. Beth knew her father. There had to be something underneath that he didn’t see, something kinder. But that didn’t make Philip Drake any less dangerous.
Phoenix Rising Page 28
