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  “Huh. So, it is announced that I have been found and the stock recovered. Interesting.”

  The stock continued recovering over the two days following her discovery, and it resumed its previous level.

  Someone wanting to buy out the corporation would want the price down. At this point, that would mean that Brneary had to die.

  She drummed her fingers on the tabletop and took a deep breath. There were a number of things that she and her father had discussed, but he wasn’t here to talk to.

  Brneary looked down at her list, and she started making her investments. The calls would follow, and she could set the plan that she was just coming up with as she went into motion.

  She worked through the night, and when she finally dragged herself to bed, she had a pretty firm grasp on what she was going to do with the corporation. She was going to haul it into a multi-planetary situation. It was going to take grit, determination, and knowledge of the laws of those worlds. Fortunately, studying the law was right up her alley, and she knew just who to call upon when it came down to selecting a specialist.

  A lifetime of working and socializing with all the most intelligent people on the planet was finally going to pay off. Her family dinner parties were going to pay dividends.

  She rubbed a hand over her face and headed up to her bedroom just as dawn was creeping in.

  She passed Monarth in the hallway. “Give me six hours and then have breakfast sent up. There is still a lot to do.”

  “Yes, Miss. Leadra has brought in the extra security, and your personal physician will be here when you wake.”

  Brneary smiled and nodded. “Good. I don’t want the hospital to get a toehold on my physical condition or my sanity. He will make an assessment, and we will make a public statement.”

  “Are you sure you are up to it?”

  “I have to be. I just need a nap and a shower, and then, I can get myself in the public eye once again. Once I am there, it will be harder for me to accidentally disappear.”

  Monarth’s eyes widened. “You think they will come for you.”

  “I know they are coming for me. The doctor and nurse were on their payroll or simply bribed on the day. I have declined their offer to sell my shares of the corporation, so they want me declared unfit as soon as possible. Unfortunately, my stay in the hospital is going to work against me, but if I can get into the proper mindset and make a public declaration of intent, I can keep one step ahead of them.”

  “Get your nap then, I will arrange for the press to be let through the gates the moment that you are ready.”

  “Thank you, Monarth.” She patted him on the arm and headed toward her room. “I am also looking for a tutor for the gifted if you happen to know anyone in that particular vein. I didn’t come out of the explosion unscathed.”

  “I will make some calls, Miss. Good rest.”

  Brneary walked back to her room, set her alarm, and dropped into her bed fully clothed. She smiled. Not all heroes belonged on teams. Some retired and rejoined domestic service as bodyguards and housekeepers.

  She walked past her staff wearing the office formal wear that she normally reserved for meeting dignitaries. Her boots clicked on the stone of the hall, and she turned to walk out to the area that had always been used for press confrontations.

  There was a surprised murmur when she stepped out, and she quirked her lips in the smug smile she was known for.

  “First. I am going to speak, and then, I will answer questions.” Her tone was firm.

  The forty press members nodded, and when she had their agreement, she proceeded.

  “I want to express my condolences and sympathy to those who have lost family and friends in the explosion. After seeing that light wave coming at me, the last thing I thought was that I would never open my eyes again.”

  She looked down and then out at the sea of faces staring at her. “It was supposed to be fun. Supposed to set our people free of the dependence that we have on the other worlds.”

  Brneary drew in a deep breath. “That dependence is going to continue for now, but I am pledging to continue research—safe and contained research—into the means and methods of finding a new power source for our world that does not lean on the rare and deadly minerals that we currently use on a daily basis.”

  She smiled and shrugged. “It is what my family wanted.”

  She exhaled slightly and opened the floor for the interrogation. “Right. I will answer one question at a time.”

  Hands shot up. She chose one at random.

  “What happened to your hair, eyes, and skin?”

  “The flash of light seems to have bleached me out. I don’t know if it is permanent or temporary, but this is what I look like now. The hair is easier to comb if that makes a difference.”

  She nodded to the next one.

  “Why did you only just leave the hospital?”

  She smiled slightly. “In an effort to keep me calm after my mysterious survival and the death of my family, the hospital took the decision to act as my guardian ad litem and sedated me. Apparently, my own guardian was not notified until I had been in the hospital for over thirty-six hours. I was grieving, and they were running tests, so the moment they ceased prodding at me, I left. My family physician and two unrelated doctors have examined me physically and mentally and say I am a little cranky but otherwise fine.”

  The laughter ran through the press, and the relief on some of their faces showed her that they recognized her personality when they saw it.

  “What are your plans for the future?”

  “I am going to take stock of Kiniak Corp and consider what direction we should move toward in the future. This world is not my father’s and mother’s world. We need to do the best for our people, the best for our communities, and the best for Akerhar. Kiniak Corp will do as it always has done--to keep people employed, to move the presence of our planet between worlds. We have always been the head of trading between the worlds, and there is no reason to stop now.”

  There was applause from the press. Another hand went up.

  “What do you say about the video circulating that indicates you are now gifted?”

  She smiled slowly. “I am going to say that I have seen the video, and it is not my best side. If anything happened during the explosion, it is not a gift, it is a burden.”

  Brneary inclined her head. “The video also blurs the face of the doctor who was attempting to sedate me. His financial records will indicate that he received a large donation from the Kiniak Corp twenty minutes after I dismissed the administrators from the board of directors from my hospital room.”

  She used her tablet and the linked projector. They watched the fast forward and the image of the moment with the contract, showed her speaking to Leadra, and then, she was staring out the window when the doctor crept up behind her with the hypo.

  “You are welcome to circulate this version. It shows the complete and unaltered sequence of events. As an Ornuac, I will never hide in the shadows. I don’t know what happened to me there, but I do know that it saved me from being sedated and filed away in the depths of the hospital until someone could declare me unfit.”

  Another hand came up.

  “Are you unfit?”

  She looked at the young man whose face was unfamiliar. “I am the same woman I was before the explosion, and I was competent then. I have a purpose now. I have to uphold the family name and the family corporation. I will spend the next few months working and grieving in turn, but that is normal and natural.”

  She looked around at the others, and no one raised a hand. “I will hold another one of these in a month. I am sure you can check up on how I am doing. All medical reports will be made clear to you. Thank you for coming.”

  She nodded and left the podium that was as much a part of her family’s garden as other folks had benches.

  She walked back to her home, entering through the double doors, and the moment
she was clear of the view of the press area, she sat heavily on the floor and pressed her head to her knees. “Well, that took it out of me.”

  Monarth crouched at her side, his dark clothing making him a friendly shadow. “Let’s work on putting it back.”

  She grinned at all of the staff that was with her. “Thank you. Everybody gets a raise. Especially whoever doctored the video to disguise that my body was wearing the chair.”

  One of the maids lifted a hand. “It was me, Miss. I was going to be a digital videographer, but this paid better.”

  Brneary grinned. “That is one of our claims to fame.”

  Monarth helped her to her feet. “Your grandfather was clever for instituting it, and now that you are in charge, you will uphold it.”

  “Of course, I will. So, do you think the Kiniak Board of Directors is going to run scared or attack?”

  He sighed. “They will attack.”

  “Excellent. I have recently discovered a talent for defense.” She felt her lips twist in her signature smirk. Ah, well, it was her signature, and she was embracing it.

  Chapter Three

  “So, you think you have a gift?” Monarth smiled slightly as they faced each other in the private garden.

  “I think I have experienced an alteration.” She looked at him and tilted her head. “Can you help me test it out?”

  “What do you need?”

  “If we are using the theory that my body did it automatically both in the hospital and on the day of the explosion, I need to be under physical threat.”

  He nodded, and his right hand began to glow. “Are you sure about this?”

  “I am absolutely not, but I need to know.”

  “Fair enough. I will aim low, so you will still have most of your limbs.”

  A crackle of power streaked toward her, and she felt pressure against her skin. The beam of power sent her stumbling back, but there was only the scent of scorched turf in the air.

  She looked down, and a black hole was smouldering in the matted green turf that was wrapped around her.

  Monarth nodded and fired again and again, finally aiming for her head.

  She squeaked as her head was encased, but she was able to see through the green woven protection.

  “Well, Miss. I believe that you are fairly impervious to attack. Your body reacts on instinct as if it is listening to the air around it. Can you get loose?”

  Brneary took a few steps, stopped, bent, lifted her hands, and flexed the gloves that covered her digits. She put her hands on either side of her head, and she pulled on the casing.

  The casement lifted away, and she breathed in deeply. “Well, that is weird. Let’s see if I can get the rest off.”

  She pulled at the neckline of the suit, and it dropped to the ground, peeling away from her in large chunks.

  Her clothing was a little muddy but still intact. “Well, that settles that. Sorry that I made more work for the gardeners.”

  “That is impressive. If I had a talent like that, I would have quit my life of crime and become a hero.” He grinned.

  “I have seen your rap sheet. You didn’t really go into crime, you were a master of social revenge.”

  “Which is why your father took me on as a security consultant and then housekeeper when I applied for the position.”

  “That was still a weird career move.” She chuckled as they walked back to the house.

  “It has put me in a position to help the man who had a good soul and a clever heart.”

  “He was a really good man.”

  “And he married a very good woman. My cousin was not everyone’s choice as a companion, but she did very well when she got the nerve to court him.”

  Brneary cackled. “Oh, if only he knew what she was planning for his future.”

  “He knew. He wanted a partner, and he got one.” Monarth exhaled softly. “I really miss them.”

  She nodded. “I do, as well. All I can do is keep moving forward on the path that they wanted.”

  “You are going to do well. You have all of our clan behind you. We are here when you need us to be.”

  Brneary smiled. “It is good to still have someone to claim as family.”

  “We are here for you, Miss. Everywhere around you. You only have to call.”

  She nodded, and her heart tripped in her chest. She knew it. They had always been here for her, daughter of the head of the thieves’ guild, Dramaria Cadein Ornuac. Her mother had been a woman of power before she threw in her lot with Brneary’s father. Her family had had to go legitimate for the sake of her new union, and most of them did it gladly. The money was steady, and the health plan was amazing.

  “Good. I am going to have to return to training, but it will have to wait until I confront the board of directors.”

  “Why wait?”

  “Because I am going to focus on the training, and I think bruises might be involved. This paler skin of mine is going to show colour like crazy.”

  “Fair enough. Full complement of bodyguards?”

  “Please. But, I start my own vehicle unless there is a driver in play.”

  He frowned. “You think they will try to kill you before you head to headquarters?”

  “I know it. I certainly would. When you see the coming storm ready to destroy what you were going to build, do you defend it, or do you let the destruction come?”

  Monarth nodded. “Right. When do you go in?”

  “Tomorrow. I will make the calls tonight. I have already set things in motion across the cluster.”

  “What are you doing?”

  “Working on one of my father’s ideas with the intensity my mother would add to the project.” She smiled slightly.

  He winced. “I pity those who get in your way.”

  She patted his arm. “So do I.”

  Brneary walked into the boardroom and stepped to the head of the table, where her father had sat. She was carrying a walking stick that her mother had favoured.

  “I believe that you are in my seat, Mecor.”

  He smiled smugly, the room around them was filled with his cronies.

  She tapped her stick twice on the ground. The room was filled with members of the Cadein clan, each one holding a proxy crystal.

  “I believe that you are still in my seat, Mecor. I will remove you if you don’t move of your own accord.”

  He stood, and she stepped toward him. He backed up and tripped over the chair. When he scrambled to his feet, he spluttered, “You don’t know anything.”

  She straightened the chair and stood with her hand on the back of it. “I know that when our deaths were announced, the stock dove, and within the hour when my survival was announced, the stock rose to slightly higher levels than it had been at before. It has been holding steady since.” She cocked her head. “Someone has faith in my ability to control Kiniak Corp, and those someones have changed the proxy for all of their shares to these representatives. Gentlemen, please surrender your seats.”

  Mecor spluttered. “You can’t!”

  “According to the charter of this board, I can. Our corporation has always been a family-held concern, with the distant family voting via proxy. Now, they are represented, and I would like to begin this meeting.”

  Her clansmen pulled the chairs of the board members away from the table. The startled men rose to their feet and slowly walked out.

  The representatives stepped forward and took their seats. Brneary sat down, and she exhaled. “Right. Activate proxies.”

  The crystals were slid into the tiny ports on the table, and the images of the family heads on six different worlds were projected.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for attending this meeting of the board of Kiniak Corp. Are you all certain of the path that I have laid out, or do you have questions?”

  Her cousin on Duboss frowned, his blue face dark. “Are you sure that you can manage this? No one has tried to work on a
power source of this nature before.”

  “I am sure. Akerhar needs what was promised, and there is only one way to get it. We were not participants in the original research, but we will find a way to bring clean energy to this world.”

  Her cousin from Taleit made a face, her expression long-suffering. “I don’t see why you just don’t go with solar or wind?”

  “We don’t have the minerals here on Akerhar. We have to import tons of volatile metals and minerals just to power a town, let alone the entire world.” Brneary shrugged. The other five cousins projected nodded.

  They came to the agreement that it was necessary, and the meeting continued in earnest with the minutes being recorded by her cousin Treama.

  They discussed the focus of the corporation and its different branches for hours before addressing the dismissed board of directors. They would be given a token for their service and replacements would be sought out from ethically inclined specialists on Akerhar.

  It was a complicated setup, but they set in motion the first steps that she and her father discussed to create some safety nets in the world. It had always been a what if scenario, but now, he and her mother were gone, and she was going to have to make that what if a right now. Fortunately, she didn’t need Kiniak Corp’s funds to do it. She had a tremendous fortune that she had been growing since her father first gave her a stake to invest. With his advice, and sometimes in spite of it, she had made enough money to set their plans in motion. Her inheritance from her parents would take months to be ratified, and she was in a hurry.

  Chapter Four

  Three days after the board meeting, she got the response she had been waiting for.

  Brneary had gone to the corporation to pick up some files she needed to work out the final dismissal funds for the directors, and when she went out to her vehicle, she waved for Leadra to stay back.

  Brneary hoped that her gift worked the way she thought it did, and she started the engine.