Chapter Nineteen #2
Advancing age had begun to slow down his extracurricular activities.
That annoyed and frustrated him. Kelbrook now felt threatened by something that scared the ghost shit out of him.
He would never admit it, but his talent had begun to fail.
He had gone so far as to hire a personal doctor who claimed to be able to retune and stabilize fading talents and, in the process, extend the lifespan.
Leonard was convinced the man was a quack, but desperate people—even a desperate con man—will pay anything for the promise of a cure.
Kelbrook was now on a regimen of supplements and off-label injections designed to stimulate and enhance his senses. Leonard doubted any of the crap would work, but you did not argue with Dunstan Kelbrook.
He rezzed up a reassuring smile for the personal assistants. The pair visibly relaxed. Everyone in the household knew Dunstan Kelbrook was not in a good mood. That made those around him nervous.
Leonard kept going and let himself out into the hallway that would take him to the front door. He had a long drive ahead. The trip to Illusion Town would give him time to do what he did best: come up with a strategy for making Kelbrook’s latest problem go away.
He crossed the amber-and-gold foyer. The butler opened the door for him. The man had worked for the Kelbrooks almost as long as Leonard had, and he was almost as good at reading the boss’s mood. A reassuring smile would not work on him.
“It will be all right, Barns,” Leonard said quietly. “The situation is under control.”
“I hope you’re right,” Barns muttered.
Leonard went out onto the colonnaded portico and down the front steps. He was halfway to his car, a gleaming new Resonator fully equipped with the latest tech, when he saw Charlotte Kelbrook.
Dunstan’s second wife had been a spectacular beauty when she had married into the family twenty-five years ago.
She was still a striking woman and always would be.
She had given Kelbrook two handsome, smart, talented sons, both recently out of college.
The eldest was being groomed to take control of the family empire.
The younger one was focused on a career in politics.
The option of trying to force one of his heirs to marry a woman with Alice Radstone’s unnerving abilities had been briefly considered a year ago after Hampton’s will had been opened.
Dunstan had immediately dismissed the idea on the grounds that under no circumstances would he allow Alice’s psychic talent into the family gene pool.
She had to be neutralized so that the shares were once again in his hands, but she could not be allowed to reproduce.
Both sons, however, had to marry well and reproduce.
They were expected to enhance and enlarge the Kelbrook dynasty.
Leonard had believed those arguments back at the start, but lately he had begun to suspect that Dunstan’s concerns with Alice Radstone’s talent went beyond questions about her rare and little-studied psi profile.
Dunstan, he had concluded, was mortally afraid of the woman.
Kelbrook would never admit it, but on some level he knew that if Alice acquired power and position within the family, she would destroy him. He was probably right.
So no, Alice had to be contained and controlled, and the Kelbrook clan must continue to present the image of the perfect family unit. But with the Kelbrooks, nothing was quite what it seemed.
He was surprised to see Charlotte at the estate.
Years ago she had been a starry-eyed bride who had been wildly in love with her handsome older husband.
But these days she spent most of her time in the mansion the Kelbrooks were pleased to call “the cottage” in a resort town outside Cadence.
There she lived the typical life of the spouses of the rich and powerful.
She filled her days serving on the boards of various charities.
Her evenings were spent hosting or attending fundraisers and social gatherings.
The stars had fallen from her eyes a long time ago.
She waved to him in a friendly way. The gesture conveyed the right amount of the aloof distance that was expected between the wife of the patriarch and a trusted servant.
He raised his hand in polite acknowledgment of Charlotte’s wave and rezzed the sliver of amber in the key fob to unlock the Resonator. He got behind the wheel and used another pulse of energy to start the engine.
He drove down the long tree-lined lane and slowed to turn onto the road that would take him back to the highway. The only sign at the end of the drive was one warning drivers that they were about to enter private property and were under surveillance.
A gleaming convertible approached and turned into the lane without hesitation. The top was down, allowing a clear view of the man at the wheel: Dr. Gerrard Fremont of the Fremont Longevity and Psychic Enhancement Institute.
“I hope you kill him with your fucking longevity and enhancement drugs, Fremont,” Leonard whispered to himself.
If Fremont’s drugs didn’t do the job, he was going to have to get rid of Kelbrook himself. It wouldn’t be the first time he had removed someone who stood in the path of his personal career advancement plan.
The goal was simple and straightforward. He was going to take control of Kelbrook Industries.