“She sees me as soft and not up to the business that must be conducted. I also saw her with Hao on several occasions, no doubt convincing him to do what he did. But it was impetuous, reckless on her part.”
“My God, I knew the woman was ruthless. But—”
“It wasn’t the first time. She also planted the bomb on my plane.”
“What!” exclaimed a stunned Nash.
“Thattruth only occurred to me recently. I long thought it was other enemies of mine. I was wrong about that. It was her.”
“But why?”
“My mother’s loyalties lie elsewhere. Not even her own flesh and blood takes priority over that.”
Nash was still confused. “But why a bomb on the plane? If your mother was allegedly already in prison that meant you were running the company by then, and it seemed that the Chinese were pleased with the job you were doing.”
“But you do not know one critical point:Iwas not supposed to be on that plane, Dillon-san. Only myfatherwas.”
“So she wanted to only kill him then? And not you? But why?”
“My father loathed the family business. And I had succeeded my mother as the head of that business. Under the cover of this prison subterfuge, I’m sure she returned to China to do other work for her masters there. But she kept a close eye on things. And I know without doubt that she knew but did not like how devoted I still was to my father. I’m sure that she believed he would influence me in bad ways, much as she thought Hiroko-san did.”
Nash, who had been told by Hiroko that Joseph Steers had not actually been Steers’s biological father, said nothing. Whether she knew this fact as well, he didn’t know. But Joseph Steers had clearly been, in all important respects, her father.
“Hiroko told me something similar, actually. About your mother fearing your father’s influence on you.”
“I think my mother began to think that with her out of the picture I would succumb to more and more influence by him. I only changed my travel plans at the very last minute, and Hiroko-san and I boarded that plane. I still remember the explosion, the sudden dive of the jet, the flash of light, the screams. And when we struck the ground, it was. . .I cannot describe it, really.” She looked down at her arms. “I was on fire. The. . .pain. And I. . .I watched my father die.”
“I can’t imagine how horrible that must have been,” said Nash emotionally.
“If Hiroko-san, an elderly woman by then, had not pulled me out of the wreckage and obtained help, I would have assuredly perished as well.”
“If you both had been killed, then what would have happened to the business?”
“My mother would have simply stepped back in to run it,” replied Steers. “She would not have shed a single tear.” She looked off for a moment. “I thought by rescuing her that she would. . .change toward me. That we could finally have a. . .relationship. But I was a fool. She does not love me. She does not even care about me. I must thank you, Dillon-san, for telling me of her deception in Myanmar. Quite frankly, my mother’s imprisonment had never made much sense to me. And no one had explained any of it to me. She was there, and then she was gone. I was only notified of it later. And why would she be taken and sent there of all places? My father did not understand, either. And then the successful attempt on my father’s life so soon after? When considered in all its aspects, and after realizing she was never a prisoner, things readily began to make sense to me. It was my mother still controlling things even though she was no longer with us.”
“But why a prison?” asked Nash. “Why not just have her return to China?”
“Because it gave them maximum leverage over me, knowing that I would do whatever they told me to in order to keep my mother safe. It was quite brilliant in its conception and execution. And it worked, Dillon-san. But now I have turned that influence against them by selling my business to Lord.”
Nash remembered that he had thought something similar, before he knew that Masuyo had not actually been a prisoner in Myanmar. “Back to my original question: What stops Lord from killing you?”
“I have many legitimate businesses and properties. Their sale must be done in an aboveboard and orderly fashion or else none of my assets and operations will legally convey. And a man with Lord’s stellar reputation will do everything in his power to shield his connection to the business in which I am engaged. He is a private man, but he also loves the idolatry shown to him by his wealthy and powerful peers. He has been China’s intermediary with me all this time, but to the rest of the world he is legitimate and well respected. That would all collapse if he were tainted in any way by a connection to someone like me.
“This will all take time for the lawyers to complete and the necessary documents to be signed. It is far more complicated than a typical business transaction, because of the additional layers of complexity necessary with the sale of an illicit, underlying company. And my partners to the south also must be appeased. Beijing and Lord know this. To not do so will invite a war that Beijing does not want. That is why Lord so readily agreed to my terms. His hands are tied on this. Otherwise, I would never have come here.”
“Why did you mention his possibly being in need of your mother?”
“To absolutely confirm my suspicions about Lord and my mother working together all these years. His reaction provided me the necessary answer.”
“And what is this prison he runs? Do you know what it’s actually for?”
“I have learned that it is a place where people who have fallen out of favor with those in power in their respective countries disappear to. For the Russians, the Middle East princes, strongmen in Africa, even enemies of the cartels. Indeed, as I said, I had come to believe that my mother had been taken so that Beijing could maintain control over me, as her successor. Now I know that was all a lie.”
“But why not just kill them, rather than imprison them?”
“Oh, Dillon-san, a quick and easy death compared to decades in a place like that? Which do you think is the greater punishment?”
“I see your point.”
