Of course, the Black King knew the power of fear too. He had sent Holocaust to Hammer Bay, ostensibly as an additional layer of security, claiming that he would feel happier with one of his own agents guarding the Legacy cure. But the presence, and veiled threats, of the otherworldly creature had given his hapless pawn the spur he needed to get the job done.
The scientist had exposed the Beast’s blood sample—and the few vials of the cure that had so far been extracted from it-to a small dose of microwave radiation. Just enough to weaken the super-cell, for it to start to break down almost imperceptibly. The results had been unpredictable—and, as it transpired, almost too slow to become evident. Perverse as it seemed, Shaw was grateful to the X-Men for deactivating the trident firework in Sydney, and for kidnapping him. They had bought him time-and they had given him an excuse to be in Magneto’s command center at the critical moment.
He had destroyed the hope of mutantkind rather than let it fall into the hands of a despot.
He smiled at the thought that some people might have considered him a hero. But then, like Tessa, those people would have been unaware of the whole truth. They couldn’t have known how handsomely Shaw had been rewarded for his calculated act of betrayal.
He felt in the pocket of his smoking jacket for the precious vial. He ought to have secured it in his wall safe by now, but he enjoyed being able to touch it like this. As a tangible reminder of his great achievement, it helped him to dismiss his nagging worries about Tessa and his sundered Inner Circle, to concentrate on what was important.
The vial had been smuggled out of Genosha at some expense, and much risk to the smuggler, while Shaw and the X-Men had delayed Magneto in Sydney. It contained the cure, of course-and this sole remaining sample was pure, untainted. It would work.
The only drawback was that Shaw couldn’t use it yet, at least not openly. For one thing, he would attract the X-Men’s attention again, although he felt he could handle them. Selene, too, if it came to it. Magneto, on the other hand, was a different proposition. If he suspected what Shaw had done, he would seek recompense-and he was not an enemy to be made lightly.
But Shaw knew how to bide his time. He was used to playing the long game. First, of course, the cure would have to be duplicated in sufficient quantity. That would take time. Then, a few additional months down the line, he could start to use the cure, surreptitiously at first-and if challenged, he would claim to have come by it some other way. Nor would he waste the intervening weeks. He had plans to make. He had a powerful tool at his disposal, and it behooved him to employ it strategically, to maximize its potential worth to him.
In the end, then, this was all that mattered: that Sebastian Shaw had set out to cure the Legacy Virus, and to keep that cure to himself. And that, despite his trials along the way, he had achieved that goal.
The Black King had won.
The Legacy Quest Trilogy Page 74
