Transparency by Charles Royce (children's books read aloud txt) 📕

“They’re not going to make it through all of this.”

“There will be collateral damage, yes. But you’ll be fine. Once it’s done, the insurance comes through. And I initiated the short sell this morning through the offshore. We’ll be set.”

“We don’t know that.”

“If it doesn’t work, we move to plan B, we’ll access the Lennox account.”

“We can’t. We’ve looked. Over and over, we’ve looked. We don’t know how to find what we had.” West covers the mouthpiece, rolls his eyes.

Agent Pillsbury mimics him, rolls right back.

“But we know who has the information,” Billy says. “We circle back after all this is over. You call me on this phone, and we’ll activate plan B.”

West looks at his cell phone, sees Billy’s number, tries to memorize it. He gives up. “No. You’ll be fine. I’m the one who needs saving.”

Agent Pillsbury nods. West nods back.

“I’m doing it,” Billy says. “If you’re in prison, we’re both fucked anyway. With Fallback, we have a chance. All the evidence we relocated will be destroyed.”

“Where’d you put it?”

“The South Tower, in one of the unfinished condos.”

“I don’t think divorcing ourselves out of this situation is the most prudent thing to do. Especially like this.”

“What was that, sir? It’s really hard to hear.”

“Don’t do it.”

“What, sir? Sorry, the wind.”

BILLY DUCKS IN the corner next to the utility door. He tries to shield himself. He hears West one last time.

“—do it.”

“Okay, sir.”

He hangs up, searches his surroundings. After finding a long piece of jagged metal in leftover construction pilings, he rips the sleeve off his hoodie and wraps it around his provisional crowbar. He makes his way to the utility door, trying to steady his walk in the blustering wind.

C h a p t e r   6 2

THE WIND CAUSES the glass atrium above Shawn to shake violently. The crowd around him in the silent-auction area silences for a moment. They all look up. After the rattling settles, one of them cheers, then most start clapping.

Shawn turns to the man who cheered. It’s Leroy Spitz, his favorite NBA player.

Shawn walks toward him. Tracy comes forward to meet Shawn.

“Should we be alarmed?” Tracy asks, points to the ceiling.

“The wind? Hell no. This entire building was designed by Enrick Goldman. It’ll withstand anything.”

“Then why’d you come over here to me?”

“I want a selfie.” Shawn holds out his phone. “With Leroy.”

“Oh, dear God.” Tracy grabs his phone, then stops. She presses her ear. “Repeat. Please repeat.”

Shawn watches Tracy as she nods and paces. “Everything okay?”

“Copy that, we’ll get someone up there right away.” Tracy gives the phone back to Shawn. “Can you do me a huge favor, please? Pamela is with former vice president Maddox on the roof deck. The wind just shut the door and they are locked outside. Can you go open the door for them? I’m gonna run to the control room, check the monitors, make sure everything is okay.”

“Sure. What about Leroy?”

“He’s drunk, and he’s over me.” Tracy turns around.

“I meant the selfie,” Shawn says under his breath.

“Put your headset on, just press the side when you wanna talk.” Tracy points to her shoulders as she walks away. “Channel four!”

Shawn takes his headset from his shoulders and places it on his ears. While he turns the channel knob to four, he walks to the elevator.

C h a p t e r   6 3

“ANOMALY DETECTED ON Sublevel One, Exterior Door 3-B.”

“Shit,” Josh says. He sees ArchEngine’s center feed change to a view of the exterior door, now open and clearly dented around the jamb and lock. A hooded man is walking down the hallway. ArchEngine is following him.

“Shit, shit, shit.” Josh switches headsets and addresses the agents guarding the box on Sublevel One. “Hey, guys, we have a problem.”

C h a p t e r   6 4

“PROBLEMS AT HOME?” Agent Pillsbury asks West. At the same time, she hears Josh in her headset, warning her agents.

“Suspect is approaching Sublevel One. Repeat, suspect has broken in through the exterior door and is heading in your direction. He looks lost, but keep your eyes peeled.”

“My wife?” West laughs and leans forward, elbows on his desk, face between his wrists. “Lady, I have problems everywhere.”

“You must be tired.”

“Exhausted.”

“We know about the short sell.”

“Excuse me?”

“Your offshore account. We’ve been watching you for years, Mr. West. We know you used the account to buy stock against your own company this morning. Do you know something we don’t, something that could be happening tonight?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Sir, this is your last chance. I need you to be honest with me.” She places a recorder on his desk. “Have you, or anyone you’re associated with, activated Project Fallback?”

“Where did you hear that word?” West asks.

“We found the ArchEngine simulation.”

“I want to talk to my lawyer.”

“You haven’t been arrested yet. And with the sheer horse pile of evidence we have against you, we could have arrested you months ago.”

“For what?”

She looks up in the air, uses her hand to do the Minority Report swath in the air again. “Racketeering, embezzlement, market manipulation, insurance fraud, insider trading, illegal surveillance, kidnapping—would you like me to keep going?”

“Then arrest me.”

“Who are you working for?”

“Me? I own the place.”

“CAAD owns you. Who are they? Who are these investors and what is their end goal?”

“I want a deal.”

“You give me what I want, we might work something out. Right now, my concern is for the thousands of people in this building. The grand opening, the hotel, the restaurant level. You don’t want to do this. Not right now. Not today. I’m going to ask you the question one more time. Has Project Fallback been initiated?”

“I want a lawyer.”

“You haven’t been arrested yet. We can talk in circles all night. Tell me, and we can talk about a deal.”

West stands up, walks to the window, looks to his left at the main building.

“I built this, you know,” he says. “All of it. Do you know how crazy that sounds? Someone like