When she doesn’t speak, I decide to. “What did he tell you? Before he jumped.”
“That’s kind of what I’m here to talk to you about.” She leans back in her chair, looking exhausted, but also with a trace of fire in her eyes. “Endo was a...resourceful man. In the last year he managed to coerce, bribe, manipulate and threaten his way into being the primary shareholder of Zoomb.”
The news straightens me up in my seat. “Endo owns Zoomb?”
She shakes her head. She takes a deep breath, holds it and lets it out slowly. “I was a ten percent share holder before. Endo...I’m not sure how he did it, though I suspect certain people might have been beholden to him in the same way the President is to you. The end result is that he managed to take control of fifty-one percent of the stock, meaning that even if everyone else united against him, nothing could be done about it.”
“That was a lot to say before jumping,” I point out.
“I already knew all that,” she says. “But... He... I’ll just show you.” She digs into her coat and pulls out a sheet of paper. She hands it to me. I unfold it with Collins looking over my shoulder.
Collins, who is a faster reader than me, says, “Holy shit. Holy. Shit.”
And when I get to the real meat of the letter, I have to re-read it three times. “Is this for real?”
She nods. “You are now the primary stock holder of Zoomb. The company is yours. You’re the seventh richest man in the world.”
“But...but why?”
“I think you know why,” she says, but then she elaborates. “There are threats in this world, that even with the President’s ear, you are unprepared to face. Black organizations within your own government prefer to remain clandestine, performing their unscrupulous research in the shadows, but never really facing threats head on.”
I know she’s speaking about GOD, but maybe there are more organizations like them.
“When he learned about the Aeros, Ferox and Atlanteans and their connection to Nemesis, he wished for Zoomb’s relationship with the FC-P to improve. He decided to...” She’s holding back her emotions. “...merge the organizations through you.”
I’m stymied. “But...this is crazy. I don’t know how to run a company. The FC-P is enough to—”
“I will run the company for you as I have been for Endo,” she says. “But you will have full access to all of our research, technology and—”
“The flashdrive,” I say, remembering Alessi’s espionage back at GOD. “You have all of GOD’s files, too?”
She grins. “All of their biological research, including files on the extraterrestrial life forms and a few hundred other projects I think you’ll be interested in looking over...or assigning a team to, which you can do. Or have me do.”
Here I was, worried that she was going to hand the information over to her cold corporate bosses at Zoomb, and it turns out that I’m the cold corporate boss.
Alessi leans forward, locking her eyes on mine. “I can see you’re a little overwhelmed. Who wouldn’t be? But here is what I want you to take away from all of this. If they...” She looks up at the sky. “...return, you now have a chance to be prepared for it. And I think you’re right, let’s start by finding Atlantis.”
“You...” Collins says. “How did you?”
“The miracles of advanced technology.” Alessi leans back, smiling. “When do you want to start being briefed?”
I look to Collins. The stunned look in her eyes must match my own. I look back to the door. Woodstock, Joliet and Hawkins are there. I turn my eyes up, looking in the Crow’s Nest windows where Watson, bouncing his son, Cooper, Lilly and Maigo stare down at us.
Back to Alessi. “We’re not going anywhere. Let’s get started. But first...” I stand up and address the two masked men at the bottom of the stairs. “You two. Take this beast—” I wave my hand at the big chopper. “—and fetch us some Nick’s Roast Beef sandwiches.” I clap my hands twice. “Chop, chop!”
When I sit back down, Collins and Alessi are staring at me, slightly aghast.