Chapter Thirty-Four
THIRTY-FOUR
There are twenty-five beneficiaries on the list. I can see why I presumed none were people.
While some of the trusts seem to be surnames, so is “Chamberlain.” The Chamberlain Foundation refers to the charity arm of the company.
Likewise, the MacMaster Trust could refer to a company name or to a charity set up in honor of some long-dead MacMaster.
But as Theo points out, even the ones that aren’t names could be for people.
His mom named his trust after the first film she did following his birth.
For now, what matters is that even with the list of primary beneficiaries, I don’t necessarily know every person and charity that stood to benefit if I was never found. That will still benefit if I die before I turn eighteen, when I’ll presumably make changes.
What I do have is the percentage of the Chamberlain fortune that goes to each named foundation and charity.
Thirty percent goes to the Chamberlain Foundation.
Theo and Maddox say they can be removed from the list of suspects.
There are four other foundations and trusts that receive ten percent each, and the remainder is to be split between the long list of twenty.
For now, we focus on those four. Yes, as Maddox correctly pointed out, even the other twenty stand to inherit millions, but we need to start somewhere.
Of the four, two are easily identifiable as legitimate charities, recognizable even to me. When we research the other two, one is easily found and seems to be a very legitimate charity. The other, the Enhcara Foundation, is…
“Suspicious,” Theo says when we don’t find it online. “Could be a shell company, which is always suspicious.”
“Mmm, not necessarily,” I say. “While they are used for shady dealings, they’re also used for legitimate ones, like mergers.”
Theo smiles. “Ask the future MBA.”
“The thing about shell companies is that we wouldn’t usually find them online. They exist only for a corporate purpose, regardless of whether that purpose is shady or legitimate.”
“So how do we find them?” Theo asks.
“Leave it with me,” I say. “With the understanding that I’m almost certainly just going to discover it’s a very legitimate company that definitely isn’t trying to kill me.”
“Give us the other twenty,” Maddox says. “We might be able to find some of them.”
“Thanks. In the meantime, I accept that I may be in danger, so I’ll be on super-lockdown. But I really do want to visit Isolde tomorrow and see what she has to say.”
“Unless she’s trying to lure you out of Westdale,” Theo murmurs.
When I look over sharply, he lifts his hands.
“I know you’re friends, Lil, but I’m pretty sure she tried twice to lure you out.
The second time was the charm. And also…
” He nibbles his lip. “I hate to say this, but while I know you want to believe it was about framing me, I wasn’t even supposed to be there. I was, I suspect, a bonus.”
He’s right, of course.
“So what do you suggest?” I ask. “Presume it’s a trap and stay at Westdale?”
“Call her in the morning. See if you can get her to talk, on one of Maddox’s secure lines. If she refuses and insists you need to come in? That’s when you know it’s a trap.”
—
I don’t get far with the Enhcara Foundation.
I start by trying to figure out what Enhcara means.
It doesn’t help that I keep misspelling it as Enchara, the ch being more common in English.
That leads me to search for it as a non-English word, but nothing comes back for that either.
I know companies sometimes make up words for their names.
Or they take initials and smush them together without punctuation.
Like WHSmith. Could it be E.N.H. Cara? Cara is a surname.
I spend two hours searching before the guys make me give it up and go to bed.
—
Before Theo’s alarm goes off the next morning, a brisk knock at the door has us all jumping.
“Fuck,” Maddox mutters. “If that’s Dimitriou giving us hell for sharing a room, she is about to learn this is really not the time for that shit.”
Theo lifts a hand. “I’ve got it.”
He rolls out of bed, walks to the door, and opens it just a crack. “Yes?”
“I need to talk to Liliana,” Allegra says.
When Theo pauses, she says, “Do you honestly think I care about your extracurricular activities, Theo? If you all need time to get decent, you have two minutes.”
“Come in.”
Allegra walks into the room and looks from Theo, in his sweat pants, to Maddox and me, in the bed but also wearing sweats.
“Well, this is disappointing,” she says. “I really do think you’re doing this wrong.”
Theo sighs. “It’s not even eight yet, Allegra. What is it?”
“I need to talk to Liliana. In private.”
I start to roll out of bed. “Your room?”
“Outside.”
That gives me pause. “Outside?”
“Yes, outside. The place that is outside the house rather than inside it.”
Maddox opens his mouth to protest, but I discreetly wave him to silence. Allegra doesn’t go outside.
I yawn and stretch. “I really don’t feel like getting dressed. Can we do this in your room?”
“You’re in a T-shirt and sweatpants, Liliana. You’re perfectly decent.” She pauses. “Though if I might make some suggestions for more…flattering nightwear…”
“She’s fine,” Maddox says. “And she’s not—”
“I’m not going outside this early unless you tell me why we can’t talk in your room.”
“Because it is a very private conversation.” She looks around and lowers her voice. “And I have never trusted that the walls don’t have ears here.”
I hesitate and then say, “Give me a minute.”
—
Is it strange that Allegra insists on going outside?
Very strange, for Allegra. But if she legitimately believes we can’t speak in total privacy indoors, then she’d brave the horrors of Mother Nature for a secret conversation.
However, given that we’ve established that three of the four possible attacks occurred outside the school…
Maddox doesn’t want me going out with Allegra. Theo convinces him that I need to hear what she has to say, and I can do that safely with them following. And if Allegra has anything more diabolical in mind? Then this is our chance to catch her.
I meet Allegra in the hall. The guys stay in the room—they’ll sneak out after we leave.
I expect the yard to be completely empty, but it’s a warm and sunny morning, and Cosmo is on the back deck with a coffee and laptop. As we pass, he looks up and nods.
“Morning,” he says.
We return the greeting, and we start to leave when he calls, “Hey. How’s Isolde?” As we turn, he looks sheepish. “I was hoping to go see her today, if you think that wouldn’t be too weird.”
Allegra gives a wave that he seems to presume means we’ll talk later. He nods and returns to his work.
With Cosmo outside, we need to lower our voices. I plan to stick close to the house. It’ll be a danger sign if she tries leading me away from it, but she doesn’t. We head up the north side before she speaks.
“I know where I’ve seen that scorpion symbol,” she says. “I’m reluctant to say it in front of Theo and Maddox, because it might mean nothing.”
“Okay.”
She lifts her phone and shows me what looks like a corporate logo.
It’s not a scorpion with two heads—it’s two scorpions forming a circle, head to tail.
She glances over, as if checking to see whether I recognize it.
I don’t, and I appreciate that Allegra has obviously been thinking about this, but I’m sure scorpions feature in a lot of symbols and logos.
“It’s Obsidian,” she says.
When I frown, she says, “That’s the company name.” Then she peers at me. “You don’t recognize it, do you? It’s the Brandts’ firm. Isolde’s family business.”
“Isolde’s family? They’re…” My stomach chills. “Security, right? She said they do security.”
“That’s the nice way of putting it. They’re private military contractors.”
“M-mercenaries?”
“They prefer ‘private military.’ But yes. Her family made their fortune as part of the so-called military-industrial complex.”
“Industry that supplies the military with technology and weapons.”
“Her parents branched out into private military. Very specialized mercenaries for hire, all legal as long as they don’t operate in America.”
Isolde’s parents run a company of mercenaries.
A company with a logo that resembles the Janus Society symbol.
The Janus Society…whose main job seems to have been shaping the Optima race through blackmail, coercion, and even violence.
Which is one thing private militaries can be hired to do—help shape the leadership races in other countries.
I remember what Theo’s Uncle Charles said.
“I’m guessing the Optimas are doing the work themselves these days, with the help of their dogs.”
“Dogs? Someone they hire instead of using Janus?”
“The dogs have been there from the start. A very special brand of pup.”
He’d laughed when he said brand.
Brand.
Brandt.
“That’s—” I begin.
A ringtone cuts me short. We both look toward the rear deck, where Cosmo was, but it’s empty now. And the distant ring comes from our right not our left.
“The gardener,” I murmur. “Or one of the guards.”
I continue walking, only to realize Allegra isn’t behind me. I glance back. She’s standing there, staring in the direction of the sound.
“Do you hear that?” she says, without looking my way.
“Someone’s phone. One of the staff?”
“No, I know that tone. Can’t you hear it?”
“Barely. Who—”
She strides toward the back of the carriage house. Then she does something I could never have imagined Allegra Khan doing.
She breaks into a run.
Allegra rounds the back of the carriage house and disappears into the forest.
I swallow hard and glance over my shoulder. I can’t see the guys, but I need to trust they’re there. I take out my phone, ready to speed-dial Maddox, just in case. Then I run after her.