King of War Tech novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Doorway

Tuesday, 6:40 a.m.

Imogen had slept two hours in my bed, and she woke already moving.

"The safe," she said, pulling on yesterday's blouse. "I know the combination."

"Stellan's birthday backward. He's never changed it since he was twenty."

"He'll know it was you."

"He'll know it was somebody in this house, and that's all."

She was back in forty minutes with a manila envelope.

Inside were bank statements for Harbor Meridian Holdings, a shell company registered in Delaware.

The signer on the account was G. Merrick.

The first payment into it was dated five days before Nevada, from the operating account of Merrick Dynamics.

The last payment out was a wire to a numbered account abroad, three days after the funeral.

I laid the pages on the bed in a row.

Imogen stood over them with her fist against her mouth.

"He sold the schedule," she said. "He sold the day my brother would be on the range."

"For how much?"

"Eleven million dollars."

She sat down hard.

"Eleven million dollars for seven lives."

She nodded numbly, and tears ran down her face.

I took her hand.

"We take this to your mother," I said. "Now, before Stellan wakes up."

"Why her?"

"Because she holds the thirty percent beside yours."

"With her, he can't touch the board."

Imogen wiped her eyes with the heel of her hand.

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