Adam went at her doggie style​, which was the way she liked it. She faced away from him on the bed and looked out her bedroom window at the blinking bright metropolis that was Seatrailia as Adam rammed himself into her from behind while at the same time holding tight to her long black hair like a cowboy pulling on the reins of a horse. Livia didn't just moan with pleasure. She roared like a lion, especially as she drew closer and closer to her oh so powerful climax. Afterwards, they rested in each other's arms for several minutes, sweating, panting, getting their breaths back. Then, 

     "Okay, I feel a little more human now," Livia said. "I don't suppose you smoke."

     "Not anymore." 

     "You won't mind if I have one, will you?" She reached into a drawer next to her bed and pulled out a long, thin cigarette. "I have them specially made in Budapest. The blend is perfect for me. If I allowed myself, I could smoke them all day long." She used a lighter to fire one up. She exhaled a puff, then, "I am in some very serious trouble, Adam."

     "So I've gathered." 

     "Daddy always spent more money than he made. That's what began everything. He owned the third largest privately owned conglomerate in the world, and, after he died, we found that he'd run Montcrief Industries deeply into debt, more money than we could ever hope to recover, even if we did finally go public." 

     "And that's when you got a call from Valtair." 

     "I figured you'd know him." 

     "He's a fairly recent arrival to the scene, actually. This particular Valtair showed up for the first time last year during the Goldbody affair. We got him caught at one point, but he got away from us." 

      "That's right around the time he first contacted me."

      "Let me guess: He promised to make you undisputed Master of the Earth."

​      "More or less. In real terms, he promised to deliver the technology that would turn Montcrief Industries into Montcrief Technologies."

     "He showed you how to make robots, in other words."

​     "Cheaply enough so that just about anybody with a couple extra million could afford a few." 

     "And still leave a tidy profit for you."  

​     "That's what this gala is supposed to be about, to introduce the new Montcrief Technologies to the world for the first time. and also..."

​     "Also?"

     Livia trembled. Something had her terrified, something Valtair-related, probably. She took a fierce drag from her cigarette, then crushed it out violently in the ashtray. She got out of bed to pad to her closet. "I'm tired of being nude," she said. "I need some clothes on. I need protection." 

​     No more gowns. 

​     She slipped on black capris, a black sweater. As she did, she said, "You know, I had the entire building put together in the last six months."

     "I can't imagine the cost."

     "The regulation fees alone...not to mention the overtime...I got a lot of the funds from Valtair." 

     "From the money Gideon Goldbody stole last year kidnapping the Fortune 500."​

​     "Whatever. And now..." 

     "Now you've got a beautiful new building, and a new business that should bring you billions." 

     "Yes, only..." 

     "There's a cost, a price to pay. With Valtair, and those he represents, there's always a price to pay. He wasn't just loaning you money. He wanted something in return." 

     "Y-Yes."   

     "And what he wanted from you was..." 

     Livia seemed to lose all her strength. Her shoulders sagged. Adam thought, for a moment, that she was going to faint dead away. Then, 

     "Adam?" It was Claudia over her earpiece.  

     "Bad time, Claudia." 

​     "Can't be helped."

     "You..." 

​     "Gramps is here, Adam. I'm thinking nexus."

​     "Gramps?" That took Adam back a bit. It'd been years since...

     "He says the Azure called him here." 

​     "Whoa." 

​     "He says this is a nexus day. Something else. He's got someone with him, a young woman." 

     "His daughter?" 

     "Younger than that." 

     "His granddaughter?" 

     "He thinks she's the mother to The One, Adam. He thinks she's the one we've been seeking for fifteen billions years."

     "What do you think?"

     "I got a look at her." 

     "And..." 

     "It's possible. You want more information?"

     Adam looked at Livia. She had her arms crossed. She did not look happy. Here she was, just about ready to dump a truckload of extremely important information on Adam herself, and now he was basically putting her on hold so he could take another call? Livia was considered one of the three most powerful women in the world. He couldn't imagine that anyone ever kept her waiting. 

     "I'm not surprised about the nexus day business. I was kind of feeling it, too. Everything's going to start happening all at once. I'll keep in touch." 

     "You'd better." For the moment, they were finished.  

     To Livia he said, "I'm sorry, darling, but all of a sudden we're out of time. We're going to have to make this real quick. Valtair loaned you billions of dollars and gave you access to technology that shouldn't be introduced into this society for another decade. Why? What did he want in return? What was the trade off?" 

     "It's hard to just..." 

     "What was the deal, Livia?"  

     "I'm a billionaire and the daughter of a billionaire, Adam. I won't be spoken to like..."

​     "I just told you there's no time! WHAT WAS THE DEAL?"

​     Livia broke down crying. "H-H said he'd make me the most powerful woman in the history of the world, Adam! How could anyone turn down an offer like that?"

​     "Are you..."

​     "They're in the basement, Adam. Over two hundred of them. Missiles. It's supposed to happen tonight, within the hour." 

​     "Of course it is." Nexus day, Adam thought. "What is? What's supposed to happen?"

     "Every single one of them is aimed at a nuclear power plant."

     "You getting all of this, Claudia?"

​     "Nexus day. What did I tell you?"

​     "Okay. Okay, here's how it's supposed to go," Livia said. She looked nothing like the "most powerful woman in history" at the moment, but, instead, like a lost, frightened child. "It was supposed to be the climax of the evening. I was supposed to invite the richest and most powerful people in the world to this gala." 

​     "The same people that Goldbody kidnapped a year ago." 

​     "Including me. My father had been dead less than a week when I first climbed into that damned Skymaster. Once they were here, I was supposed to dazzle everybody with all this beyond state of the art technology that I now possess."

     "Due to Valtair." 

     "Right. And that's when the homing pigeons were supposed to fly." 

     "Homing pigeons?"​

​     "That's what Valtair calls the missiles, homing pigeons, because each one is supposed to home in on some power plant." 

​     "One power plant? They're all aimed at one power plant?"

     "No. Each one gets their own power plant to home in on. Two hundred missiles. Two hundred power plants."

​     "Which means..." 

​     "Total chaos. Two hundred nuclear explosions in civilian populations. Zero energy all over the world. Millions of deaths." 

​     "Followed by your immediate arrest and death sentence."

​     "No. Followed by the elite lining up behind me to financially control, then actually run, this nation, then, eventually, the entire world." 

     "Yep. That sounds like something The Fours would come up with. It's an infinitely vicious entity, Livia. It eats entire..."

     "I know, crazy, but I was more than a little crazy when I first agreed to this." 

​     "As well as..."

​     "I've wanted out almost from the beginning. In the last couple of months it's been panic attacks every day." 

​     "But you waited until tonight, the night it's actually supposed to happen, to contact me?"

     "They terrify me, Adam. Valtair and those behind Valtair don't seem like those who would...would enjoy being disappointed, yet I can't...I can't...You've got to help me, Adam. There's got to be a way out. Maybe you could talk...You're so powerful yourself that maybe they would listen..."

​     "No." As Adam spoke, he threw his clothes back on. "You haven't a clue what you're up against. Contact your security people, Livia. There are two people I need allowed into the party, an elderly looking gentleman and his young lady friend. See to it?"

     "Adam, please." 

     "Immediately, please. Thank you." Adam finished dressing, then headed for the elevator that would take him back to the party. "I'll do everything in my power to protect you, Livia, that I can promise."  

​     Not that it'll do any good, Adam thought. You make a deal with the Fours, then refuse to hold up your end of the bargain? Adam's best guess was that Livia would be dead by dawn. The only question left was, how many hundreds, or thousands, or millions of people would have to die with her?

CONTINUE