The Night Children by Kit Reed

Author:Kit Reed
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780765360168
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

SIXTEEN

AMOS IS IN THE inmost, secret command module, tapping the master screen as though he can pick up the shoppers captured by the cameras yesterday and move them around in the box. He’s so excited he is singing, “Spring and summer, winter, fall. Cool kids shop at the MegaMall.”

Soon this jingle will be playing in all the major cities of the world. Amos is poised to move on, into Phase Two.

“Spring and summer, winter, fall. Cool kids shop at the MegaMall.” The warped tycoon knows better than anyone that when you control people’s wallets, you control them. Money speaks louder than all the bombs and artillery in the world.

“Spring and summer . . .”

With the commercials, he lured them, and now . . . Plastered to his walls are years’ worth of missing posters, piled layer upon layer—pictures and details on adults, children, all reported missing in the countless sectors of the MegaMall. These are the old man’s trophies. Gleefully, he sings, “Spring and summer . . .”

At his back, Isabella clears her throat.

Amos jumps. Caught in the act! Quickly, he claps on the gray mask that he wears to meet family. “You took long enough.”

Full of self-importance, she says, “Something came up. It’s seriously grave,” and then stands there, waiting for Amos to ask.

When you get right down to it, he doesn’t much like Isabella. He never did. She is a necessary evil, at least until this part of the operation is done. He put her in power because the last thing Amos Zozz wants to do is meet the public looking the way he does. What if somebody ripped off his mask? Dozens of years and millions of dollars’ worth of plastic surgery and he looks worse than ever. His lumps are bigger. His bumpy head is just as bald. He can still hear the children’s ugly laughter. The wasps and the glue he had to use after the Galt twins ripped off his wig all those years ago destroyed his scalp. He can’t stand anything on his head.

He will get even with them, he is in the process. He has people working around the clock. He has the ultimate checklist in place. The big day is approaching and all his fool daughter can talk about is this wretched meeting she just had.

Right now, Isabella is boasting. “I’m a very motivational speaker, Dad. I had them eating out of my hand! And then. And then!” Preening, she buffs her fingernails on her gold stripes. “You’ll never guess what happened, Dad.”

“Don’t call me Dad.”

Her proud face hardens. “But, Dad!”

“Stop that. You came out of a test tube.” He only had Isabella to carry on the family name, and look how that turned out. His daughter is so vain that he had to pay her to get married and double the amount to lose her figure long enough to give him an heir.

“Father, it’s important.”

“Don’t.” The boy was his living image, a proper figurehead for the corporation. Beautiful hair, Amos had such hopes.

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