Chapter Eighteen
Adam
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ADRENALINE FLOODEDmy system, making it difficult to remain still as Akari directed the remote control toward the flat screen.
“Have you seen this yet?”I asked, hoping my voice conveyed more authority than I was feeling.All those hours we’d waited for any kind of response from Ian, and then, all at once, the communication had landed, and I’d been ushered into a private viewing.The impromptu broadcast had been arranged in the same room I’d originally met Akari and the other two judges in, the space even more oppressive than before, with the blinds shutting out the daylight.
“Not yet,” she answered at the moment a picture of Ian appeared on the screen.Akari paused the video, leaving his image staring in my direction.
From the seat beside me, Caroline reached for my leg and stroked my thigh.I captured her hand, wishing it was as easy to calm my racing heart.
“Let’s see it then,” Laurent urged, seemingly every bit as impatient as me.
Settling back in her chair, Akari pressed play, and the attention of every single person in the room focused on the man in charge of ensuring Britain was a little less great than it had once been.
“Adam.”Ian smiled, revealing the impressive white teeth he’d paid so much money for in recent years.Fleetingly, I recalled how much his old smile used to embarrass him, but that had been a long time ago, when he was only ‘irritating Ian’ and I had been infallible.“I was so happy to receive your message and hear your opinion on this sorry situation.”
“Jesus,” Caroline muttered under her breath, her fingers tightening at my leg as she closed her eyes.“I’d forgotten how awful he is.”
“You didn’t mention your current whereabouts, but our tech guys tell me the message was sent from Switzerland.”His brow rose as though he couldn’t believe I’d got so far.“You’re a long way from home, Adam.No wonder you want back into the fold.”
My jaw clenched at his taunting tone.I’d known he was going to be intolerable after my apology, loving every moment of my concession, but having to witness every lurid detail of the response was uglier than I’d imagined.
“I thank you for your apology.That means a lot.”Ian’s lips twitched, another tell that he didn’t mean a word that he was saying.I wondered if I had had similar facial reactions that had given away my true intentions.I certainly fucking hoped not.“But it would mean even more if you showed me regret in person.”
Cradling Caroline’s hand in mine, I exhaled, knowing he was finally drawing closer to the actual point he was there to make.
“And you intimated a desire to see me, too, to ask for my mercy.”His lips twisted, his piggy eyes shining with prospective excitement.“I am willing to give you that opportunity—to allow you to come back to Britain and, as it were, bend the knee to your president, and in return, I will grant you the fanfare you mentioned.I agree.Let’s make your homecoming a reason for celebration.We can blow the budget on twenty-one-gun salutes and fireworks.”
I closed my eyes briefly, all too able to conceive the money he’d waste on blowing smoke up his own ass.As far as Ian was concerned, the treasury was his own personal pot of money, there for him to use as he saw fit.
“I have also done you the courtesy of not making this reply public.”He shifted in his seat, having seemingly put on at least another thirty pounds since the last time I saw him.“Instead, I am asking that it’s returned to your server’s IP address, along with the details of how to reach out to me going forward.We have a lot to organize, Adam, but I believe we can make this happen.”
He rose from his chair, tugging down his lapels as an anonymous hand thrust a glass of what looked like an ageing bourbon toward him.Reaching for the glass, he raised the drink in a gesture of a toast while the camera followed the action.
“I am ready for my commander general to come home.”
The screen went black after that before returning to a message headed with the official insignia of Ian’s office.Listed below it were his official email address and a phone number I didn’t recognize.
“And that’s it?”Caroline’s voice filled the shadows as I waited for Meyer to flick on the overhead lights.“I don’t know what I was expecting, but it was more than that.”
“He seems warm to the idea of you going back,” Laurent observed as the illumination flashed on around us.
“Yes, he’ll want the opportunity to gloat and rub my return in my face.”I grimaced at the appalling thought.“But I can play along, so long as you guys can arrange for him and me to meet as we previously discussed—on the water, and with the French military on standby.I don’t want to be on British waters for too long.”
“Our I.T.people can reply to him and set that up,” Laurent replied.
“And what if he doesn’t go for it?”Caroline probed.“What if he insists on Adam flying back and waiting for French air traffic control to stop striking?”
That was a good point I hadn’t considered.“Ian can be a belligerent prick when he chooses to be,” I reiterated.“It’s probably worth us having a contingency plan, just in case he digs his heels in.”
“We should upsell the idea of the water, ja?”Meyer interjected.“Describe the sumptuous display of fireworks and international media so that he craves it.We will make him feel like the most superior leader of the century.”
“Definitely,” I replied.“The more over the top we are, the more likely he is to bite.”
