Lopez nodded.
‘There must be some kind of underground movement here, or maybe even environmentalists who Stanley could run to.’
‘In an anti–American populace, they would gladly hide such an ally from prying eyes long enough for him to prove to them that he can build a device that will render the House of Saud penniless overnight,’ Ethan said. ‘He’s not trying to start a revolution in America, but in the country that supplies America with oil.’
Amber held her head in her hands. ‘He’s playing with fire, literally. Dissident movement leaders in this country have been publicly beheaded in the past and the legal system is governed by Sharia Law. He’s going to get himself killed out here!’
‘We need to track him down and fast,’ Ethan agreed. ‘Majestic Twelve, if they’re behind all of this, will have been able to track him too. It’s only a matter of time before they figure out where he is.’
‘And where we are,’ Lopez reminded him. ‘We’re on their radar too after Argentina.’
‘I don’t think that they’ll have anticipated us coming out here so soon after what happened in Clearwater,’ Ethan replied, and on instinct he glanced over his shoulder out of the rear window of the sedan.
Behind them on the dark asphalt, beyond the escorting SUV, were several vehicles on the multi–lane highway heading south toward Riyadh. Two of them were the dusty sedans Ethan had seen earlier, following a respectable distance behind Assim Khan’s escort.
‘Well, somebody other than Seavers knows we’re here,’ he said.
***
XIII
Seavers Incorporated,
Saudi Arabia
‘You stay in the car.’
Amber shot Ethan hurt look as he climbed out of the vehicle. ‘No way. I want to look this guy in the eye and find out what’s happened to my father.’
‘If Seavers is behind any of this, the first thing he’ll try to do is use you as leverage against Stanley,’ Ethan insisted. ‘Right now it’s my guess that the guards he sent to escort us don’t know of your significance, but if you give any indication you’re somebody Seavers wants to get hold of we’re going to find ourselves in a whole world of hurt. Stay here, let Nicola and I find out what’s going on and we’ll report back as soon as we’re done.’
Amber smouldered with fury, still gripping the door handle.
‘He’s right,’ Lopez soothed. ‘We need to keep you out of sight, or what happened to your father may happen to you, too. We won’t be long.’
Amber, her teeth gritted, released the door handle and folded her arms as she stared out of the tinted windows at the elaborate building nearby.
Ethan climbed out of the vehicle and watched as Assim and his three associates approached them. The two vehicles had passed through a security checkpoint, which itself was the only point of access past a twelve foot high razor wire fence that encircled the entire compound. Outside, a loose gathering of Saudi protesters were watching with dark eyes that smouldered with suppressed rage.
‘Those guys always there?’ Ethan asked Assim as the escort joined them.
‘Most days,’ Assim admitted. ‘There is a strong anti–American feeling in this country. Most foreign compounds are heavily guarded, little patches of Americana in the desert that are often the target of attempted suicide bombers and other militant attacks. Trust me, it’s not possible to be safe in Saudi Arabia as an American.’
‘Reassuring,’ Ethan said as they walked towards the building. ‘Those two sedans followed us from the airport,’ he added as he gestured to the two vehicles now parked beyond the protest line.
‘We kept one eye on them,’ Assim replied without concern. ‘They cannot harm you here. What of your friend?’ Assim asked as he looked back at to where Amber was sitting inside the vehicle and staring out of the tinted glass. ‘Will she not be joining us?’
‘Catherine is a journalist,’ Lopez replied for Ethan, whipping up the first name that popped into her head. ‘We have some delicate questions for Huck Seavers and the presence of a journalist may cause him to doubt whether his answers will be kept in confidence. We’ve asked Catherine to stay in the car for now.’
Assim nodded, apparently appreciative of the gesture.
‘Mr Seavers has a lot of problems with journalists in the United States, so I’ve heard,’ he said as they walked into the building’s elaborate foyer. ‘I don’t suppose he’ll be wanting any further issues with them out here, although the kingdom has very strict rules governing the work of journalists.’
‘I wonder why,’ Ethan murmured, his words heavily laden with satire.
Khan led them to an elevator on one side of the foyer, as one of his associates handed out identity badges to them. Ethan was surprised to see that his name and image was already on the badge.
‘Just how long has Seavers known that we were coming here?’ he asked.
‘I have no idea,’ Khan said with a shrug as the elevator climbed away from the foyer. ‘We were given the badges this morning.’
Ethan glanced at Lopez but said nothing as the elevator carried them up to the third floor and opened out onto a plush corridor that led to a pair of wide, open mahogany doors. They walked into a conference room dominated by a long, slender glass table arrayed with glasses and vases filled with exotic desert flower species. Broad windows looked out across the scorched desert, tinted with a film that shielded them from some of the sun’s brilliant glare. As Ethan walked toward the windows he could see the protesters far away beyond the brutal wire fences that glittered brightly in the sunlight, the crowd looking a little larger than it had before.
‘Mr Warner?’
Ethan turned as a tall, broad–shouldered man in a sharp suit of dark grey charcoal and a crisp white shirt strode into the room behind them, his hands in his pockets and a broad smile on his face.
Huck Seavers looked good for his age, which Ethan recalled from the file as being forty five. Seavers had inherited the family fortune, rather than digging in the dirt for it for the better part of his life, and thus Ethan assumed he had lived in the lap of luxury all that time.
‘Mr Seavers,’ Ethan said as he shook the CEO’s hand. Seavers’ skin was soft, the hands of an office worker.
Ethan introduced Lopez, as Assim Khan and his three associates moved out of the conference room and closed the door quietly behind them.
‘Please, sit down,’ Seavers said as he strode to the head of the table.
Ethan took a seat, his back to the windows and Lopez sitting down opposite as Seavers stretched out in his chair, crossed his legs at the ankle and folded his hands in his lap.
‘Now, you’ve come along way so what can I do for you folks?’ Seavers asked.
Seavers exuded the folksy charm of a Kentucky oil man made–good, and it appeared to Ethan as though he had spent many years perfecting the image. Seavers clearly wanted himself to be seen as the ordinary man who had simply struck lucky, probably cultivating the natural image of his father. Whether Seavers thought his charade fooled anyone was anyone’s guess, but Ethan wasn’t interested in the image, more the man beneath it.
‘We’ve come to discuss what happened in Clearwater,’ Ethan said.
Seavers inclined his head in acquiescence, gestured with his open palm hands in what looked to Ethan a carefully choreographed display of honesty.
‘One of our more successful campaigns,’ Seavers said. ‘It’s likely we’ll begin excavating there within a few months, once the final legal technicalities are in place.’
‘You know that’s not what we’re talking about,’ Lopez said.
‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘It’s been a very thorough cover–up,’ Ethan observed casually. ‘Not just in the way that the town of Clearwater, Missouri has been given a makeover that makes it appear to have been abandoned for half a century, but in the sheer scale of the media cover–up. I’m incredibly impressed that a company as small as Seavers Incorporated has been able to eradica
te not just any media references to the legal case brought against your company by the town Council of Clearwater, but also to silence the judges involved in the case, the lawyers, the supporters of the case in neighbouring towns, literally anybody with any knowledge of events in Clearwater. And that’s not including the three hundred people who lived in the town who have suddenly just disappeared.’
Seavers frowned as he raised his hands and linked his fingers together to form a cradle upon which he rested his chin.
‘Really, I don’t know what you’re talking about. The town of Clearwater has not been inhabited for at least forty years according to the census, and the surrounding terrain has been legally cleared for mountaintop mining operations. The paperwork’s already on its way through.’
Ethan leaned casually back in his seat as he examined the tips of his fingernails.
‘That’s strange,’ he said idly, ‘because despite the apparent thoroughness of your work you missed a few of the town’s inhabitants.’
Ethan figured that Huck Seavers had never really been a poker player. Although the CEO’s expression remained unchanged, his eyes wobbled in their sockets as he began to realize the depth of Ethan’s knowledge of what had happened.
‘Missed a few inhabitants?’ Seavers echoed, his voice less steady than before as he attempted to conceal his concern. ‘Really, what are you two talking about? Nobody has lived in Clearwater for … ’
‘The town of Clearwater was inhabited by three hundred people,’ Lopez cut him off, a touch of irritation in tones. ‘We know it and we’re interested in what happened to them. Did it not cross your mind that living in a wilderness town would result in many of the people going camping, hunting, to have pursuits that may have taken them out of the town while you and your men were going about the business of making the rest of the inhabitants vanish?’
Huck Seavers sat for a long moment staring at Lopez, either thinking fast or unable to bring himself to speak. Ethan took full advantage of the silence.
‘There are survivors,’ he said softly. ‘They were not present in the town when you made your alterations. It’s time to stop pretending, Huck. We don’t think that the people of Clearwater were murdered because we also know that they were paid quite substantial sums for them to simply disappear. There are a few more people who would like to disappear too, but understandably they’re a bit cautious about coming forward because if a person like you is willing to make three hundred people disappear, you’re probably willing to do just about anything to ensure you gain mining rights to that town. In fact, we suspect there may be more to it than just the mining rights, don’t we Nicola?’
‘Yes we do, Ethan,’ Lopez picked up her cue smoothly. ‘We’re enormously interested in the device that apparently was loaded onto a truck and whisked away from Clearwater in the wake of its inhabitants disappearing. Tremendous energy emissions, so it turns out. The sort of thing that might represent an alternative form of energy and might render Seavers Incorporated worth, oh, I don’t know, nothing for instance.’
Huck Seavers features gradually imploded as Ethan and Lopez assaulted him with their narrative, and he finally folded his hands together in a tight ball.
‘What do you want?’
Ethan smiled a cold little smile. ‘What do you mean, Huck? We have tremendous evidence to show that Seavers Incorporated is behind the vanishing of three hundred people, and is behind the concealing of a device that could provide our country, and perhaps the entire world, with free energy. I should imagine that the price for silence in such an explosive story would be far beyond even the means of your company. Unless of course, you didn’t pay them off and what we’re looking at here is a form of genocide?’
‘Nobody has been murdered!’ Seavers snapped and slammed a clenched fist down on the table with a sharp crack.
A long silence enveloped the conference room, broken finally by Lopez’s voice, a degree softer now than before.
‘To know that, of course you would have had to be involved,’ she observed. ‘Tell us what happened, Huck. Better to hear it from you than to see all of this evidence presented before major news networks across the planet, maybe even Congress and the Supreme Court.’
‘It won’t happen,’ Seavers said with a tight smile, rage radiating from his eyes. ‘You’re dealing with people you really don’t want to cross.’
‘Yeah,’ Ethan murmured. ‘The problem is we’ve made a career out of doing that, so threats aren’t going to change anything. Either you speak to us or by tomorrow morning every newspaper and news channel across the world will be reporting on how Seavers Incorporated is suspected of mass murder and possibly the greatest cover–up in the history of the United States.’
Seavers glanced at the scorching desert outside for a long beat before he spoke.
‘Ten million,’ he said. ‘Each.’
Ethan felt a flush of excitement tingle down his spine as he realised the position he had suddenly put himself and Lopez in. Ten million dollars was a tremendous amount of money and more than he could ever hope to earn in an entire lifetime. Now, it was being presented to him on a plate in return for nothing more than remaining silent about what he knew. It crossed his mind he should have tried this years ago, considering the number of people of means they had encountered over the years.
‘Twenty million each,’ Lopez said from beside him.
Ethan looked at her sharply in surprise, only to see a stony face glaring at Huck Seavers, dark eyes smouldering like hot coals as she called the man’s bluff. Ethan looked at Seavers and watched him fold like a deck of cards.
‘Twenty it is,’ he said simply. ‘You will be required to sign nondisclosure agreements, to leave this country, to never approach Seavers Incorporated or any of its subsidiaries again. You will also be required to relinquish any evidence into my hands. Should you renege on this agreement you will lose everything that you have been given, every last dime. You will be left destitute, is that clear?’
‘It’s clear,’ Lopez chirped.
Huck Seavers leaned forward on the glass table, the smile back on his face now as he returned to more stable ground. With tens of millions of dollars hanging in the balance, Seavers clearly felt that he had control of the situation.
‘You will also be required to hand over any of the survivors you have referenced. Without them, there is no deal.’
‘Ah,’ Ethan murmured. ‘That’s a shame. You see, without them you could simply have us eliminated as soon as we leave this building. In fact, once we’ve handed over all of our evidence there’s nothing to stop you from having us shot on the street.’
‘I am not a murderer!’ Huck Seavers almost shouted, and for a moment Ethan thought he was going to get out of his chair and swing for him.
Ethan was struck by sudden realization that despite his involvement, Huck Seavers may actually represent a half–decent human being stuck in an impossible situation. Ethan leaned on the table and watched Seavers closely as he spoke.
‘You’re not on your own in this,’ he said. ‘Your company does not have the ability to achieve what’s been done at Clearwater on its own. We know damn well that you’d have needed the assistance of the FBI in order to make those people disappear into new lives. We know that Seavers Incorporated does not have sufficient influence, money or power to sway the media, to silence the news channels or to influence criminal courts in Virginia. Who are you working with, Huck?’
Ethan did not expect Seavers to reveal anything about those assisting him in his mission to destroy every last scrap of evidence of Stanley Meyer’s device, but he did want to see the Kentucky man’s reaction to his question. Seavers’ eyes narrowed as conflict raged behind them, the desire to share his woes warring with his need to remain silent.
‘You’d be surprised at the influence I’m able to generate,’ Seavers replied. ‘The buck stops here, Mr Warner, and so does your offer. You either take the twenty million now, or you leave this office with nothing.’
&
nbsp; Ethan leaned back in his chair for a long moment, purposefully drawing the moment out. He had to admit, even to himself, that the temptation to take the offer right there and then was almost overwhelming. Twenty million bucks. He wouldn’t have to work another day in his life. He could buy the boat he had always wanted, moor it outside a property on Lake Michigan that he had often dreamed of and while his days away in solitude and comfort, free of the constant financial worries that it seemed plagued every single person in the Western world.
Stay the course Ethan, people’s lives are depending upon it.
Ethan made to get out of his chair and he realised that his legs were resisting him, as though every fibre of his being was screaming at him to take the offer and simply walk away from the Defense Intelligence Agency. The hell with them, they had never paid much anyway.
Ethan gripped the seat rests more tightly and pushed himself up onto his feet.
‘You and I both know that’s not true,’ Ethan said, trying not to let his voice croak. ‘There’s somebody else behind this, somebody powerful, and believe me they’ll drop you like a rock should news of this device get out.’
Ethan looked down expectantly Lopez and her dark eyes shot to his in desperation. He could see that she was struggling with the dilemma that she faced, just as he was, and it was almost out of embarrassment it seemed that she clambered to her feet and stood by his side.
‘You’re making a mistake,’ Huck Seavers said, ‘probably the biggest of your lives.’
Ethan shook his head.
‘No Huck, you are,’ he replied. ‘We know what Stanley Meyer invented and we also know that he intended to give it away to the world. But even if he does, even if he hands it out to the world for free, you and I both know that the spirit of humanity is far stronger than the greed of the powerful few. Stanley Meyer will be sent money from every corner of the world by people who have never met him, simply for saving them thousands of dollars a year on their energy bills. If every person in America only offered him a dollar he’d be on his way to his first half billion.’ Ethan smiled as he warmed to his theme, that of a man who had invented a device that could save the planet and yet still put that planet ahead of his own financial security. ‘Your twenty million bucks is nothing compared to what Stanley Meyer will soon be worth, so I’ll be throwing my lot in with him thanks.’
The Fusion Cage (Warner & Lopez Book 2) Page 10
