He should have warned Kalli. When she presented her findings and suggestions, she would encounter an impenetrable wall of resistance.
But even if he had told her about it, she would have forged ahead with her hypothesis and conclusions. If anything, it would have incited her more. A half smile tugged at his lips, thinking of his little spitfire. The thought sobered him. She wasn’t his anything. She wasn’t his, period.
The voice of the president’s assistant jolted him out of his musings.
“Good morning, Mr. Kinkaid. Mr. Greer is waiting for you,” she said, opening the door to the president’s office.
He spared her a brief glance, noticing she looked similar to Angelyna. Apparently, her boss favored the look. Did Mr. Greer employ her for more than professional purposes? He snorted under his breath. Of course he did. He thought with a cynical twist of his mouth as he entered the lion’s den, or in this case, Mr. Greer’s office.
CHAPTER 36
“Dariux!” Mr. Greergreeted him with a genial smile. Standing up from his desk, he approached, his hand extended as if receiving a long-time friend. Dariux knew better than to fall for that but responded with an equally amiable greeting.
“Mr. Greer, a pleasure to see you, sir,” he said, offering a firm handshake.
“How many times do I have to tell you to call me Max? After all this time working together, we are past formalities. Get comfortable. Would you like something to drink?”
“Yes, thank you.” He didn’t. It was too early for the kind of hard liquor the man favored, but it would be impolite to refuse. He sat in a comfortable armchair facing the imposing floor to ceiling windows.
Mr. Greer went to the sideboard to pour, and Dariux took the opportunity to study him. He was a wily old bastard. Every encounter with him was a chess game, and he couldn’t afford to miss any clues. The man was in his sixties, but his trim physique and jovial face made him look no older than forty. The only sign of his age was his silver hair, which he kept uncolored. It gave him an almost unnatural appearance. They had worked together for over ten years. Ever since ChronoSynthetics had found out about Dariux’s research and experiments with time-travel technology and had proposed a partnership of sorts.
In exchange for thirty years of exclusive use of the technology, ChronoSynthetics had offered a significant expansion of his funding. And he had accepted, because without their support, he could not have achieved the results he did in such a short time. And what were thirty years when dealing with the possibility of traveling through time? Insignificant.
The association had been extremely lucrative and professionally rewarding. But he had no illusions about the type of man Mr. Greer, Max, was. He was a greedy and ruthless bastard. If he had any scruples, Dariux had yet to see any evidence of them. He would stop at nothing to manipulate events to his advantage, and Dariux would do well to remember that.
Taking a sip of the proffered glass, he noted the superb quality of the cognac. But of course. The man accepted only the best of the best.
“I have to confess, Max, I’m a little surprised at the urgency with which I was required to take a test this morning. And the secrecy of it all,” he said casually while studying the other man. But as usual, he was difficult to read.
“I must apologize for that. Admittedly, it was not the smoothest way to deal with the situation,” Max said with a self-deprecating smile that was supposed to be charming, if one didn’t know better.
Dariux remained silent. This was a battle of wits between them. Not the first one they had engaged in. Theirs was an uneasy partnership. Both of them with different interests and both equally strong-headed about their purpose. They were well matched, but this one was a battle Dariux intended to win. He felt the fate of his research, and perhaps the entire human race, was in the balance.
Recognizing his move, Max nodded and went on.
“The original plan was for the tests to be performed yesterday. As soon as you and Dr. Brooks arrived. It is important to have accurate data. After twenty-four hours of being back in your respective environments, the data might be altered.”
