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“Where is Jana?” I demanded shrilly. “What did you do to her? An implant? Reggie has an implant? In her body? Where? What kind?”
“Never mind that,” he snapped. “You’re missing the point. Forget the implant. Forget Jana. She’s the past, and you are the future of Halliwell Enterprises. Which is yours to manage now, by the way. With any staff you choose. Bring your Red Queen Consulting staff onboard, if you think you can control them. They were an eccentric bunch, from what I remember. But it’s your call.”
It chilled me that he had observed my Red Queen staff so closely. Attention from him was not healthy for them. “I, ah… don’t see them doing well in this environment,” I hedged.
“But that’s the thing, my dear,” he said. “It’s your environment now.Tabula rasa.Entirely new, from the ground up. You will run Halliwell Enterprises for me, leaving me free for the next part of my life plans. Which I can now begin in earnest, now that SmokeScreen is at my disposal. Thanks to Glow-worm. And to you.”
I tried not to flinch. “What plans do you mean? Like, world domination?”
My question had been pure mouthy snark, but to my horror, his smile widened.
“Right on the money, Cassandra,” he said softly.
I felt my blood pressure drop as I stared into his wide, tilted green eyes, just like my own. Halliwell’s toxic influence, that maimed or killed or poisoned everything it touched, magnified, spread out over the whole world?
He would turn it into a blasted hellscape.
“You’re kidding, right?” I pressed him. “Just fucking with my head. Right?”
“Language, Cassandra. You sound like a rebellious child when you talk like that. You’re in the bigtime now, so please, grow up. I am not kidding. It’s time to put my plans into motion. I’ll be like a god with SmokeScreen. And I want you by my side. My heir.”
“I don’t want to be your heir,” I blurted out.
“You haven’t tasted absolute power yet,” he said, with a gloating smile. “Trust me. You’ll like it. Once you get a taste, you don’t look back. You’ll see.”
I let out a slow breath, reminding myself that this guy did not get to dictate what I thought, what I wanted, who I was, what I cared about. He never would.
But I had to be careful. Rein in my big mouth. Keep myself alive. For Reggie.
I stared down at the Paleolithic goddess figure that adorned his desk, and focused on it, to keep my mind steady. How typical, for that prick to use a priceless prehistoric representation of the divine feminine, painstakingly carved by some caveman or cavewoman untold tens of thousands of years ago, as a fucking paperweight. The guy didn’t even use paper.
“Is that an original?” I asked, gesturing at the goddess.
He looked amused. “What do you think, Cassandra?”
He pulled a phone from his pocket which I recognized as my own. “What the hell are you doing with that?” I demanded.
“Moderate your tone.” He tapped into it swiftly. “I’m sending a message to your ex-boyfriend. So that he understands the new order of things. It features you demonstrating your intention of working with me.”
“But I never?—”
“I took the liberty of anticipating that you would change your mind when you saw the possibilities. You’re not a stupid woman. There. Sent. Haley did the deepfake work for me. She took the technology miles beyond where anyone else has. Not even a forensic video expert would be able to tell that it wasn’t you in that video. And I have plenty of video and audio of you, with all my eyes and ears in this place. Haley did a beautiful job. She’s the best. Or… well. Was the best, I should say.”
“Was?” I demanded. “What do you mean? What did you do to her?”
He slid the phone back into his pocket. “There,” he said, with satisfaction. “Now everyone knows the score, and we can all move on.”
He looked at me expectantly. For a moment, I wished that I’d used my misspent youth studying abnormal psych instead of computer science. This guy was not just a psychopathic asshole. He was utterly deranged. He scared the shit out of me.
What had he done to Haley? Jana? And everyone else here?
“Listen,” I said, keeping my voice even and reasonable. “I’ll work for you. I like power, I admit. But I can’t function with this threat to Reggie hanging over my head. That just won’t work for me. You’ve got to cut her loose if you want me in top form.”
He looked irritated. “I thought from the very start that this might work better if I removed Regina from the picture before we even began. Sad and unpleasant, but it would be so much simpler for you and for me. You wouldn’t have your emotional energy divided. And it would be a kindness to the poor girl, after all the suffering she’s gone through. Besides, if she lives, she’ll be tormented by being compared to you, which isn’t fair to anyone. I should’ve done this long before.” He pulled out the remote.
“No!” I yelled. “Don’t you dare! If you kill my sister, I will never, ever, ever work with you. Ever. I swear to God. I’d die first.”
He studied me, eyes narrowed. “And you will work with me if I spare her? Is that the corollary?”
