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When Matthews’ message played into Grayson’s earphone, it was almost like Matthews was intimately whispering into Grayson’s ear.
Grayson sat frozen at his desk. He was too stunned by his disbelief to allow his inner rage to register and kick in. The painful news felt all too similar to the worst nightmare he had ever dreamt, but he knew this was real.
He replayed the taunting message, listening keenly to the gloating undertones in Matthews’ smug voice. The arrogance was still there, like it had been when Grayson had worked with Matthews, which had been the biggest factor in why their personalities violently clashed. He detested the condescending timbre Matthews displayed, but in his self-blindness, he didn’t realize the actual similarities he demonstrated to everyone else were identical.
A chill rushed through Grayson. The pit of his stomach ached from a sudden rise of desperation, which was an alien sensation for him. How had he allowed himself to be bested by his greatest enemy? The worst part about the situation was Grayson had had the best opportunity to kill Matthews and totally eliminate the possibility of any future threat from Matthews. Lydia had pleaded for Grayson to let her carry out her hired assassination assignment of Matthews. Instead, Grayson had chosen to keep Matthews alive as a miner on Mars to prove Grayson’s ultimate power and control, thinking the lifelong punishment was better than death. But Matthews would never take any threat Grayson offered seriously now.
Even if he could find Lydia, Grayson knew she wouldn’t be willing to travel to Mars to finish the assignment. If his speculation about her was correct, he believed she had a new target instead. Him.
Grayson stood and looked out the window at the crashing ocean waves. Anger still hadn’t stirred within him. Dismay rose inside him. Everything he had worked so hard to earn was slipping from his grasp. How could he possibly sidestep these disasters?
Jonas was the one man he had trusted above all others; someone he had thought he could depend upon to keep Mars in perfect running order. Now, Matthews was in charge? It didn’t make sense. What had happened?
His mind reflected over the details of the previous messages that Jonas had sent. He vaguely remembered something about deadly insects that had been discovered in one of the mining shafts, but due to circumstances with the Chinese and the Russians and Parks’ wellbeing, Grayson had shrugged it off as a joke when he should have known better. Jonas never teased or joked about anything. He certainly wouldn’t have made up these insects.
Grayson rubbed his tired eyes. He had failed Jonas. He feared Jonas might be dead. Whether he had died because of the insects or at Matthews’ own hand, it didn’t matter. Either way, Grayson was the one at fault.
He took a deep breath and released a long sigh, wondering what he should do.
Henry said, “Is something wrong?”
“Many things.”
“Anything that I can help you with?”
Grayson shook his head. “No, but I would like some time alone, if you don’t mind.”
“Not at all.”
Henry turned, opened the door, and stepped out, closing the door behind him.
Grayson’s eyes heated. Burning tears blurred his otherwise splendid view of the ocean. His chest tightened. He couldn’t recall the last time he’d actually cried. Perhaps when he was a child? But his tears didn’t come from sadness or remorse. They flowed due to his increasing frustration and loss of control. His massive ship had been the target of his enemies for quite some time. Now they were firing at it. His vessel was hemorrhaging and leaking from numerous holes. He didn’t see any way he could repair the damage before the coming tsunami tossed and capsized it.
He noticed his reflection in the glass, saw the tears meandering down his cheeks, and a new resolve kindled within him. Those moments of self-despair somehow tapped into his pool of indignation, which ignited strong enough to dry his tears in an instant. He refused to be steamrolled by anyone, and especially not Matthews.
Regardless of what Matthews might believe about his reign over Olympus Mons, Matthews was a thief. Grayson could not idly sit down and ignore this hostile takeover. However, given the situation, there wasn’t any swift action he could enact. None whatsoever. The only thing he might successfully achieve was to poison his enemy with kindness until he was able to adequately deal with the situation appropriately.
Grayson could cut off future supplies, but he couldn’t afford to lose what was left of his guards and staff inside Olympus Mons. No, he must extend a pretentious olive branch to Matthews and hope to work out a mutual agreement about the Martian settlements, but how could he make it sound authentic. With all the sludge between them, Grayson knew Matthews could never trust him anymore than Grayson could trust Matthews. The skepticism between them was a thick barrier. They were too much alike and despised one another equally. Even if they truly wanted to become friends, they couldn’t. They’d constantly question the motive behind every action, good or bad.
Grayson returned to his desk and sat down. He uploaded the message Matthews had sent and clicked to reply.
“Steven Matthews,” he said. He began his message without any hint of hostility and used an almost comical tone. “Is there not any way that I can make you vanish for good? You’re like an insect immune to all pesticides. Again, you’ve proven yourself capable of outfoxing me. You must tell me how you managed to free yourself from the Sleeper Chip. In addition to being a great geneticist, I recall that you’re a technological genius, and since you have such skills, perhaps you could investigate what is glitching with my current chips? If you look at Jonas’ records, you will see how these chips have malfunctioned.
“I know we’ve had our differences, Steven, and you know I had initially hired Lydia to kill you. But I didn’t allow her to carry it out. There are reasons why I prevented her from doing so. The world, even Mars, would be at a loss if your intellect was eliminated. You’re knowledge is too valuable, and I have realized that almost too late.”
Grayson chuckled softly. “So why did I have you implanted with a chip and placed in the Martian mines? Naturally, that would be my first question if our positions were reversed. I simply needed to test you. You accessed my top-secret records when you were employed in New York. The computer records indicated that you read the information about the Sleeper Chips. Since you knew about them, I wanted to test your abilities to the limit, and you succeeded in finding a way to counteract the chips or perhaps defect the one implanted in you.
“Jonas was a dear friend of mine and someone I entrusted to oversee Olympus Mons. But he was old. I couldn’t expect him to continue much longer. Besides, you have ambitious zeal and youth on your side. I’m certain we can both set our past differences aside and work for a productive future together in building the Martian civilization. Can we not? I offer you a high percentage of all profits, and I am in progress of obtaining one hundred fresh miners to transport to Mars. There’s no need for contention to remain between us. Let me know your decision, and we can keep the machine running. I won’t stop shipping essential supplies, and those working for you on Mars will continue receiving their monetary deposits. What do you say? Can we be partners? I maintain the business side from Earth and you maintain the Martian activities? I await your reply.”
Immediately after he had finished the message, he found his stomach so nauseated that vomiting probably wouldn’t have eased the rising bile at the back of his throat. He didn’t believe Matthews would take the offer seriously because he had a difficult time placing the deal out in the open.
To his surprise, fifteen minutes later, he received a reply from Matthews.
Matthews chuckled softly when he began his diction. “And people here told me that you and I could never become friends. Grayson, I would be happy to work from Mars, but I have a couple of things you must approve. I realize I’m not exactly in a place of making demands, but this isn’t for me, but for the workers employed here. I have offered them twice their salary to continue onward. They have endured severe hardships with these strange insects in Mineshaft 15, which they have sealed by the way. However, we did lose a few prisoners and some guards. From the engineering department, I have news that might interest you as well. It seems you had an unsuccessful attempt by the Chinese to eradicate the general population of Olympus Mons. The robots the Chinese commissioned have been destroyed with Derek Walker’s help.
“Anyway, if you can have an attorney draw up an agreement between us, I’m certain we can become a powerful team in the world of universal science, keeping Mars for ourselves and shutting out the other countries on Earth. While in the past, our relationship and the competition between us has often been strained, I believe we are finally working at the appropriate distance from one another where we can remain amicable. Worlds apart . . . so to speak.
“But no matter, we’ll attend to things as they occur by not allowing our egos to get in the way of one another. Contention crumbles any empire. Never forget that. Instead of working against one another, imagine what we can achieve by working together. Awaiting your reply.”
After the message ended, Grayson sat perplexed. Was Matthews on the level or was he feeding Grayson the same kind of BS Grayson had messaged to Matthews? The latter seemed more likely, but he imagined the possibilities if they decided to work together. Surely Matthews had weighed the same aspirations.
The news about the destruction of the Chinese robots thrilled Grayson and lessened the chance for the Chinese government to destroy his encampments and delayed their hopes for a hostile takeover of Mars.
Grayson called his attorneys and gave them specifics for drawing up a contract with Matthews and offering him a lucrative forty percent cut of the profits made from the Martian exports. It was simply a formality, which might work or sour. Only time would tell. But keeping communication lines open between them allowed Grayson to figure out if he needed to take any extreme action in the near future to secure what he still considered to be his property or not. He didn’t fully trust Matthews and he understood the feeling was mutual. There were at a strange impasse without either knowing what to believe or what might happen next.