Sea of Greed (with Graham Brown) by Clive Cussler

Author:Clive Cussler [Cussler, Clive]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Thriller
ISBN: 9780735219038
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons; Penguin Group
Published: 2018-11-06T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

• • •

AS PRIYA SWAM away from the Monarch, Tessa Franco was in her office on the aircraft’s upper deck, dealing with her chief engineer.

“I’m not talking to your investors again,” Brian Yates informed her. “Not if you’re going to have me lie about the state of our technology.”

Yates was a genius designer and brilliant chemist, he was also stubborn and had very few interpersonal skills. If he hadn’t been so highly regarded by the tech community, Tessa wouldn’t have trotted him out in front of her possible benefactors.

“They’re not my investors,” she said. “They’re our investors and we won’t have a company without them.”

“We won’t have a company with them,” Yates countered. “Not the way things are going.”

“What are you saying?”

“Exactly what I’ve been saying for months,” he snapped. “The fuel cells don’t work. Certainly not as well as you’re representing. And they never will, not without extensive design changes. They’ll also cost twice as much to manufacture as you’re claiming. You realize there will be no profit at all on the final product. And, I’m not going to stand up in front of a bunch of investors who trust me and tell them otherwise. I have a reputation to protect as well.”

Tessa realized Yates had an overinflated view of his importance, to the point where she’d caught him referring to the fuel cells and the company as if he were the driving force.

“Listen to me, Yates, and listen to me carefully,” she said. “It’s your job to fix that. I’m protecting you, not the other way around. Everything you’ve worked for, everything you’ve been promised, it all goes away if the world suspects there might be a problem with what we’re building. Do you understand?”

Yates was undeterred. “There’s a difference between keeping it quiet and lying. I’m not going to lie anymore. You can find someone else to be your mouthpiece. The next time someone asks me about the system, I’m telling them the truth.”

As Tessa stared, Yates took his conference ID badge and tossed it at her feet.

She ignored the tantrum, her blood running cold instead of hot.

Yates seemed disappointed. He turned his back on her and walked out. She allowed him to reach the hall before pulling out a snub-nosed Smith & Wesson .380 automatic.

“Mr. Yates,” she said coldly. “I will not allow you to ruin me.”

Yates turned, saw the pistol but never got the chance to retract his resignation.

Tessa fired repeatedly, hitting him four times squarely in the chest and sending him to the deck in a pool of spreading blood.

The gunshots echoed through the aircraft and the commotion brought Woods down the corridor.

He stopped and stared at Yates’s body. “What . . . ?”

“Don’t ask,” she said. “Just get rid of him. Take him out to sea and dump him.”

Woods looked at the body and shook his head. “Fine,” he said. “But, we have another problem.”

“Seems to be the night for them,” Tessa said with a sigh. “What is it now?”

“A diver,” Woods said.

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