1682320006 by Andrea Kane

Author:Andrea Kane [Kane, Andrea]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Suspense, Fiction, Thriller
ISBN: 9781682320013
Publisher: Bonnie Meadow Publishing LLC
Published: 2016-05-17T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

St. Thomas, Virgin Islands

The Living Room was Max’s favorite meeting room at the luxurious Ritz Carlton. The room had a breathtaking ocean view and looked out over the hotel’s exquisite courtyard. It was a vacationer’s dream.

Today, however, The Living Room had been transformed from a warmly decorated, crystal-chandeliered meeting area into something resembling the stage on American Idol. Inside the room, a raised dais of three people, with Max in the center, was situated way up front, below which sat an empty horseshoe-shaped table. Outside in the hallway was a stream of eager, nervous contestants.

The contestants—Max’s nationwide web of athletic trainers—were shifting or pacing anxiously, each one sizing up the competition and convincing themselves that he or she, along with one of their trainees, would be the winner. The prize: a primo position in Max’s elite cadre of trainers, accompanied by his or her chosen trainee, who’d be expected to be one of the next Olympians or future Einsteins. The two-person team would be transferred from the members’ individual homes to Max’s private, secret estate. Nondisclosure agreements would be signed. The trainers’ salaries and expense allowances would double, and if Max’s projections were to be believed, they would be part of the team that achieved what evolution had failed to do in two hundred thousand years: create a smarter, faster, stronger human being.

Each trainer had the chance to present three of their finest athletes. Their sales pitch would be punctuated by evaluative comments from the other two occupants of the dais: Dr. Leonid Eltsin, Max’s head physiologist, who would provide physical and medical assessments, and Dr. Galina Petrova, Max’s head psychologist in charge of the administration of the scathing battery of mental tests used to gauge each candidate’s progress, all of which helped her comprise the ultimate character and intelligence evaluations.

It normally took over a week to make this size evaluative meeting happen. Dmitry had trimmed the process down to five days—five days to summon all the nationwide trainers, to inform them to choose their three top contenders and book all their flights for this trip, to make the necessary hotel accommodations, and to have everything set up precisely as Max expected.

That was part of why Dmitry was where he was in Max’s hierarchy. There was little or nothing he couldn’t accomplish for his employer.

Now, he stepped inside the room and gave Max a questioning look.

Max nodded.

Holding open The Living Room door, Dmitry turned to speak to the first trainer—Dave Perkins—asking him to join them.

Dave wasn’t new to this process. He’d been here once before, at which time he and his athletes were not selected. That had really gotten him pissed off, not at Max but at himself, igniting his competitive spirit. Dave liked winning and had been training winning teams and individual athletes for over twenty years. Failure only drove him harder.

For the past few months, he had brutally and ruthlessly driven his athletes to the point of breaking while still adhering to Max’s strict limitations on the supplements provided.

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