The Shadow Project

Chapter Sixty-Seven

While Adam was getting patched up in Budapest the next day, Sabrina flew out from London on a Steiner aircraft. Meanwhile, Ben was on the phone to Switzerland. Heinrich Dorenkamp told him the news. Ruth was on her feet and had already discharged herself from hospital after arguing with the doctors. As for Maximilian Steiner himself, he had come out of intensive care, weak and grieving for his nephew, but stable and headed for a full recovery.

Ben didn’t bother watching the news, because he knew nothing would ever come to light about the incident in the wilds of Hungary. What had happened there was buried and gone, just as surely as the legacy of SS-Obergruppenführer Hans Kammler. Nobody would ever know the whole truth about who had been behind it. With Otto Steiner dead and his operation in ruins, the faceless, nameless figures who’d financed the project would now slip back into the shadows and wait for their next opportunity. That was just the way things worked. Always had, always would.

Ben hung around for a while in the hospital while Adam and Rory were reunited with Sabrina. He smiled to himself at the emotional scenes. Things hadn’t worked out too badly in the end.

He walked away without anyone noticing. Jeff was sitting in the Porsche outside. Ben climbed in next to him, and they headed for the airport.

It was the next afternoon, when Ben was sitting with Storm in the kitchen at Le Val, feeding him pieces of sirloin steak and watching him grow stronger by the hour, that he heard a car outside, and a minute later the door opened.

He turned, half expecting to see Jeff.

It was Ruth. Other than the sling around her arm, she looked fine.

‘Is he all right?’ she asked, looking with concern at the bandaged dog.

‘People who’ve been shot don’t just travel about the place,’ he scolded her.

‘Would you take that kind of advice from anyone?’

‘No,’ he admitted.

She swiped a glass off the side, pulled up a chair at the table and poured herself some of the wine he was drinking. ‘How are you, bro?’

‘I heard about Maximilian. I’m glad he’s going to pull through.’

She shrugged. ‘Me too. I feel pretty bad about what’s happened.’

‘Some of the things you did were wrong,’ he said. ‘But you did them for the right reasons, and that’s what’s important.’

‘You’re too nice to me. Fact is, I have some changes to make to my life. A lot of amends to make, and it starts here. Did Heinrich tell you that Maximilian is thinking of retiring?’

Ben shook his head. ‘Meaning what?’

‘Well, Silvia’s not interested in running a business. So, with Otto gone, that just leaves me.’

‘Sounds like something new for you,’ Ben said.

‘Franz will help me. We’re going to build the greenest multinational corporation you’ve ever seen. Use its power and money to do something for the world.’

‘Something that doesn’t involve Zero Point Energy?’

‘Maybe that’s still a little ahead of its time. We’ll find other ways to make a difference.’

‘Something tells me you’ll do pretty well.’

She smiled. ‘Now, enough about me. Did you call Brooke?’

‘We’ve left messages for each other.’

‘You’re nervous about talking to her.’

‘Things were left a little up in the air,’ he said.

‘She and I have been talking a lot on the phone. She told me a few things. Like the fact that your business is in deep shit because of that guy Rupert Shannon.’

With all that had been going on, Ben had almost managed to forget the Shannon situation. The prospect of losing Le Val returned like a toothache. ‘Back down to earth with a thump,’ he said.

‘Is it true?’

‘It’s true. But I’ll sort it out somehow. I’ll be talking to Dupont at the bank soon. Whatever happens, we’ll survive.’

‘Well, maybe you won’t need to,’ she said enigmatically as she reached into her bag and took out an envelope.

Ben slipped out a single folded sheet from inside. It was a letter from the new CEO of Steiner Enterprises, Ruth Steiner-Hope. He smiled at that.

‘Read it,’ she said.

The letter was brief and straightforward, an offer to reinstate the original contract with Rupert Shannon and his team. Ben read it twice, then looked up at her with a frown. ‘But you don’t need them any more. Especially as they weren’t much use in the first place.’

She chuckled. ‘Shannon will be so keen to grab the dough, he won’t read the small print of the new contract that’ll be attached when this is posted in the morning. It basically states that they’re being hired for general duties. No specific mention of bodyguarding. Which means we’re going to put them to work mucking out the new stable complex I’m building, mowing the golf course and sifting out the swimming pools. If they refuse, it’s their choice. Either way, you’re off the hook.’

Ben folded the letter back into the envelope and handed it to her. ‘Thank you, Little Moon.’

‘There’s a condition. Something I want you to do.’

‘Name it.’

‘I want you on a flight to London. You’ve got to go and see Brooke.’

Two hours later, cutting northwards over the Channel on board his sister’s personal jet, he dialled Brooke’s number.

‘It’s me,’ he said.

‘At last. Where have you been?’

‘I’ll tell you about all about it when I see you.’

She was quiet for a second. ‘I don’t know when that will be, Ben.’

‘It’ll be within the hour,’ he said.

She said nothing, but he could hear the smile in her silence.

‘You and I started something,’ he said.

‘Yes, we did,’ she replied after a beat.

‘How would you feel about picking up where we left off?’

‘You and me?’

‘You and me.’

There was a pause. ‘See you in an hour,’ she said.