years of dominating boardrooms and courtrooms, failed miserably. Of all the meetings he had been in where he had issued threats in many guises or simply laid out the full truth of everything he and his company could do, of all the times he had negotiated with people who were key to his plans but had never known the full extent of their personal worth, he squandered all of that experience, and he failed.
In hindsight, much later, he knew he had folded under the pressure. This was the first time in his life that the stakes were high enough that he could actually lose. It had always been wealth, or reputation, or power in the past, and all of those things were easily replaced with a glib statement to the press and an ambiguous offer of an exciting new project. Never, not even in the poker dens in Calcutta or in the underground gambling pits of Hong Kong and Thailand, had he ever truly been in physical danger. Even when in the worst peril for a rich man in third-world countries and at risk of a high-level kidnapping he had never been in any real peril, because the men he employed had always been there to shield him from the threat.
Men like Tanaka, the original one at least, had always put their own bodies between him and the risks he courted.
Now, unsupported by a global network of contacts and billions of dollars at his disposal, he faced the danger and he completely blew it.
The face he pulled, only momentarily, and the look of panic he threw in desperation to the quietly polite man beside him who was pretending not to be a killer hiding beneath his mask, told Tanaka everything he needed to know.
He knew that these men were afraid of him. He knew that they knew what happened in the night during the full moon, and he knew that they were afraid of Tanaka’s warriors paying them a visit. On top of what he knew, there were also things he suspected.
He suspected that Harrison and the fools from the Hills had beaten him to the prize of meeting the newcomers. He suspected that, given their equipment and the fact that only one of them carried a single knife, that they possessed weapons which he could use to turn the tide in his favor for another hundred years. That suspected knowledge made his analytical brain search for a way that could be done safely, and he formed the assumption that there were others waiting away from the camp.
He doubted, even with their superior technology and weapons, that the few people who had so recently come from their long sleep in space, were quite ready to face his whole army. He couldn’t risk using The Swarm against them, because he wanted their people alive to show him how their equipment worked, so he decided that he would turn his attention to them.
As soon as he had dealt with the deserter and dealt a crippling blow to the Hills in retaliation for attacking The Keepers of The Source.
Hendricks, a master of many skills and not all of them physical or tactical, was a man well versed in the subtle psychological warfare of an interview. He recognized the face that Amir Weatherby made, and he knew that the man who had dreams of becoming the great leader he wanted to be had failed them all.
~
Miles to the south, both in unhappy silence, Anderson and Catarina watched the jerky movements on screen as Hendricks and Amir were shown the exit in the high wooden walls and began their journey into the jungle where they met with Geiger and Stevens and relayed the story.
The one line which stung the minds of the two people watching through the cameras on their chests came from Hendricks before the screen went black.
“Whatever he says, that man wants to rule everything… and we have just stepped right in the middle of this war whether we like it or not.”
Exchanging their own looks which made no attempt to hide their fear, the speaker crackled gently in to life. Annie actually cleared her throat, a development which Anderson completely missed partly because it was so human and natural, before she gave her own report and opinion.
“They have met up with the others now. They should be back by dark, which isn’t ideal.”
“You’re telling me,” Anderson replied before an idea hit him through fear for his friends. “Can you keep the drones