Duplicate Minds

Twenty-Four

Rajeev had known that if he wandered around long enough he was bound to get caught eventually. The humiliation stung all the more, however, because he'd been so close to getting away with it.

He was screwed now. He was sure of it. Ted and the others were his only hope now. If they could somehow get into the room on the sixtieth floor, he was confident whatever was inside would be more than enough to make Greg Maltek happy. Hopefully he'd honor the agreement they'd made and refrain from harming Sarah or Mira. Or Dev, for that matter, although Rajeev was pretty sure his son would consider the resulting damage to his company "harm." He wondered if Dev would ever forgive him once he inevitably found out his own father had betrayed him.

The guard had dragged him into what looked like an interrogation room. A large table took up most of it; a chair sat on either side, and a large mirror made up most of the back wall.

"Wait here," the guard snapped, not even giving Rajeev a chance to sit down before he'd gone and closed the door behind him. Rajeev walked around to the far side of the table and sat.

A few minutes later the door opened again and the guard walked in, followed by Dev. His face was stern, though not angry, which Rajeev counted as a win.

"Leave us, please," Dev told the guard. He did as his boss commanded, glaring at Rajeev the entire time until he disappeared out the door.

Dev took the seat across from his father. He looked him up and down appraisingly.

"You really do have a big pair of balls on you, don't you?"

"Dev . . . let me explain."

"No, let me explain something to you, dad. Do you think I'm an idiot? Do you think I'm stupid enough to think it's perfectly innocent that you were somehow able to travel onto unauthorized floors, snooping around in areas that are none of your business?"

"I'm sorry if you feel disrespected, Dev. But I only did it to protect you, your mother and Mira."

"Don't drag them into this. This is about me and you."

"No, Dev, you don't understand. I had to protect you all from—"

"You had to test me," he snapped. "That's what this was all about from the beginning for you. You're used to being the parent, the one in charge, and when you woke up from your coma and found your son in charge of you, you couldn't accept it with humility and grace like a normal person—you had to rebel like a snot-nosed teenager."

"Dev!" He'd raised his voice more than he'd meant to. He sounded, indeed, like a frustrated parent trying to talk over a child in the midst of a meltdown. But he had to get through to his son. He realized that what he was about to tell him could jeopardize everything, but it seemed time to bring his son in on all that had transpired with Gregory Maltek. "Listen to me, Dev. All that I've done, I've done to protect you, okay? Listen to me. Your life, and the life of your mother and sister, were threatened by Fresh Meat."

Dev stopped. He tilted his head. "Fresh Meat?"

"Yes. When I escaped, Gregory Maltek contacted me and made it clear that unless I came back and spied for him, he would harm you, or Mira, or your mother—anyone I cared about. He wanted dirt on your company, at any cost."

"So not everything you've done was to protect me," Dev said, an air of suspicion to his voice. "You left the first time on your own, without any coercion from Gregory Maltek."

"Yes, okay, Dev—I had a moral disagreement about the way you've chosen to run your business. I escaped with the intention of bringing awareness to your company's failings. It was never to hurt you, Dev. I hoped you'd see the error of your ways and change. But that's all irrelevant now, because all that matters right here, right now, is that unless I give Gregory Maltek some juicy piece of intel in the next couple of days, he's going to hurt your mom, or your sister, or both."

Dev grew somber. He looked down at his feet. "I wasn't aware of that," he said.

"I know. But you know now and we need to do something to protect them. Surely you of all people have the resources to keep them safe."

"I do, but I'm not sure they'd accept my help. I'm not exactly on speaking terms with either of them these days."

"Family forgives. Reach out to them. This can be the start of making amends."

He nodded. "Okay. I'll talk to them. But right now, I need you to tell me everything that happened between you and Maltek. Don't leave out a single detail."

Rajeev told the story, explaining how Maltek had sent a representative to Rosa's house. How he'd flown him out to Fresh Meat's headquarters and made him an offer—dirt on NLT in exchange for a boatload of cash and a flesh-and-blood body. How he'd refused, then been given a new offer he couldn't refuse: Dirt on NLT in exchange for his family's safety.

He went further, explaining how Maltek claimed he had a mole in NLT, and how that mole had been the one to disable his access permissions.

"Wait," Dev interrupted. "If Maltek already has a mole in the company, why did he need you to spy for him?"

"I hadn't thought much about it. My best guess is that his existing mole wasn't entirely effective. I think Maltek thought that because I'm your father, I'd be able to get closer to you and dig up deeper dirt."

"He probably wasn't wrong." He stood and gave his father a grave look. "I want to show you something, dad. I've known for awhile now that Maltek had a mole in the company. Unfortunately, they didn't stop at spying . . . they also engaged in sabotage. I didn't want to involve any more people in this than necessary, but you're in it pretty deeply now and you just may be able to help."