His head swam. Reliving that event of long ago, Blair wondered who he truly was. The twelve-year-old with enough courage to help someone who was blind? Or the one who refused to stand up and defend himself against a boy with a crippled arm?
His conscience twitched. It forced him to reflect once more on the bed sheet and the light fixture. The easy way out.
He thought back to the classic novels he had read. One particular character came to mind: Robert Jordan, in Hemingway’s For Whom The Bell Tolls. Lying injured and facing certain death, the man refused to give up without a fight.
Who am I, Blair wanted to know now. Robert Jordan? Or someone else? Someone not even worth thinking about?
In the room they called his office, he turned on the computer and began sending e-mails. One to his sister, one to Jeremy Samson, one to his lawyer, a dozen more to his business associates. Each was a call for help of which only he was aware. The secret words weren’t as much disguised as nonexistent.
Blair recognized there was less than a week to go. Less than seven days to decide. If he stopped the shipment of Cyber-tech from going out, they would kill his daughter. If he gave the okay for the product to be distributed, as many as twenty-five thousand people would perish. Maybe more. Among the victims would be a large percentage of boys and girls the same age as Sandra.
How could he allow that many children to die?
For the balance of that day, into the next, and the one after that, Blair couldn’t think of anything else.
Was there even a choice to be made? he asked himself.
A nervous tic developed in his right eye. Rubbing it only made it worse.
He put a call through to his mother that had been cleared with Yassin beforehand.
They had a problem connecting him at first. Then the caregiver at the hospice in Montreal asked him to hold for a moment longer. When she came back on the line she was apologetic. “I am sorry, Mr. Mulligan; your mother is not able to speak to you at the moment. Is it possible for you to call back later?”
His need to hear his mother’s voice was such that Blair felt bitterly disappointed. “Yes,” he said. “I’ll call back.”