A Step to Nowhere (30 page)

CHAPTER 35

Samantha finally calmed down and threw a fourth napkin into the trash can. Her assistant stood nearby, useless. He looked lost in a different reality; it seemed as if he couldn’t understand what was going on or why he was here. He looked like a statue.

“A different reality.” Samantha grinned.

She wanted to call her father again and took out her phone, when she noticed that one of the guards was talking over the internal connection. He glanced in her direction, muttering something hurriedly. He looked terrified. No matter what had scared him, Samantha liked it. She stood up and headed to the security area. Her assistant trudged behind. She was going to fire him as soon as all this pard was over. She was going to select the next one extra carefully, so he wouldn’t wet his pants in a critical situation. She probably wouldn’t need one on Planet two. Only, she had to postpone her move there because of this … as they say it … son of a bitch. She had to take care of him first. He was in onis as an observer, but now he was going to get there as an
oniser
. She would love to see him there. Traitor. How
dared
he?

Samantha hadn’t yet reached the security area when one of the guards dashed to her, almost knocking her down. His face reflected such fear that for a second she thought of forgiving him or saying something heartening. It was a moment of weakness and it was so foreign to her. Not one of those who were rude or arrogant to her was going to walk away without punishment. They called her scorfah? Well, they were going to learn how right they had been.

“Has something happened?” she asked with a smirk.

“Ms. Bancroft …”

“Bristow!” she interrupted.

“Sorry! Ms. Bristow, we are really sorry about all of this.” It was the man who had pulled out his gun first and pointed it at her. “Your father … Mr. Bristow … He said …”

“We just followed the rules and tried to keep the territory safe!” the second one said. He was white as powder.

“What about my father? Where are those two?” Samantha looked at the first guard.

“He’s here. In the building. Your father, Mr. Bristow. Those two … We are really sorry.”

Samantha stopped him with a gesture when she heard the signal of her phone. She looked at the screen. Her father was calling from his office.

“So?” Samantha yelled. “Now you know who is who? What do you think …?”

“Sammy,” her father croaked.

“Are you okay?” Samantha pushed the first guard away even though he didn’t block her path, and dashed to the elevator, twisting her ankles on the high heels. “What’s wrong with your voice? Where is she? That Scorfah!”

“They killed my guard and my pilot. They stole my helicopter and they wounded me. Your husband …”

“What?” Samantha stopped in total shock and her assistant ran into her back. He started apologizing. “Shut up!” Samantha yelled at him. She couldn’t believe it. She couldn’t believe anything. Nothing like this could happen. No one died on
her
side. No one had the right to do this to her.

“Your husband betrayed you. He’s with her.”

“I know. Dad …”

“I want you to call … Kevin. Are you coming here? I don’t … feel well. I …”

The phone went silent.

“Dad! Daddy!”

“Call our family doctor,” she ordered her assistant. “My dad was shot. Tell him to come here immediately!”

While they were riding the elevator, the assistant called Kevin, her father’s friend and one of the best doctors in the country. He promised to come right away. Samantha was shaking. The situation was out of control and she didn’t know how to act or what to do. She had never felt so desperate. Everything was getting beyond the point of imaginable. It shouldn’t have happened. It wasn’t fair!

She opened and closed her fists while they were riding up. She wanted to hit her assistant until he stopped breathing. He irritated her, standing behind her back, breathing heavily. She wanted to yell at him, but she knew that if she opened her mouth, she would keep yelling and then start hitting him, kicking him, and demanding that he beg for forgiveness.

The elevator stopped on the forty-ninth floor and Samantha waited for her assistant to insert the key so they could get to the last floor, but he didn’t move.

“What are you waiting for?” she hissed without turning to him. She wanted to kill him, seize his neck, choke him. She wanted to hurt
him
to get rid of the pain growing inside her chest. It was a strange feeling for a spoiled girl, who didn’t know the word “no”.

“Oh!” There was rustling behind her back. The case fell and the man fell after it. He picked it up and found the key. Still standing on his knees, he stuck the key into the panel and the elevator finally moved. When Samantha exited onto the last floor, her assistant kept standing on his knees.

“What’s wrong with you!” she yelled, finally letting her emotions go. “You’re such a biy
!
”

“I’m so sorry.” He stood up, pushing his hands against the floor and dropping his case once again. “I’m so very sorry!”

“Idiot! Fool! Stupid ass! Pener!”

Samantha rushed to her dad’s office noticing the door was half open. She pushed it back so hard that it hit the wall with a bang.

A man was lying by the table on his back with a huge red stain in the area of his heaving chest. Red handprints were all over the white carpet. The remote, covered in red, lay on the floor.

This man was her father.

His face was as white as the carpet, his breathing was spasmodic, and he didn’t open his eyes when his daughter entered.

“Daddy.” Tears filled her eyes again. It was a dream. It had to be. She was going to wake up and …

Her father slowly opened his eyes and he turned his head to Samantha.

“It is
you
. My daughter. Don’t you worry, Sammy. It’s temporary. I’m not going to die. Is Kevin coming? I couldn’t dial his number. I tried auto-dial, but this pener thing didn’t recognize my voice. I pushed a button for Kevin and got security.” Her father’s face twisted in pain; he coughed. “I’ve never used the inner communicator. I don’t know all the codes and … everything. Then it was you. My phone ...” Father waved his hand and Samantha looked at the crushed pile of plastic. “My phone saved my life. Your husband thinks he killed me. He’s celebrating too early.”

“I’ll kill
him
! I’m sorry, daddy.”

Samantha took a step toward her father, but she couldn’t approach him. She had never seen so much blood. Everything inside her turned to stone. She didn’t have emotions because she didn’t know
how
to feel or
what
to feel about it. Was her father dying? Was that what was happening? He could
die
? Bristow the Great, her loving daddy? What was
she
supposed to do? What was she going to
do
?

“He’s done something that no one could,” Father said. “He
tried
to kill me. It’s ironic, if you think about it. I put in the strongest security system known, I threw hundreds of people into onis, and my own son-in-law shot me. Only I’m not going to die. I want you to know this. I’ll dance on his grave, you’ll see.” Then that horrible cough again. “You were so upset when I told you I didn’t trust him. If I hadn’t listened to you and had kept watching him, none of this would have happened. I don’t blame you. He lied to you, too.”

“Dad, you probably shouldn’t talk.” Samantha slowly came out of her trance.

“Probably. You’re so pale. They didn’t hurt you, right?”

“Who?”

“Our security guys. I saw that it wasn’t you, even from the helicopter. I just couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe that on the phone I mistook her … But this connection … Never very clear. She looks so much like you. Even knowing everything about the doubles, it’s still surprising. I realized that she wasn’t my daughter.”

He really could die. So much blood. Huge, horrible spot on his chest. Red on the edges and black in the center.

Samantha took another step. She smelled something sweet in spite of the doors being open and the wind blowing out all the odors. Was that how death smelled?

Father coughed again.

“Where’s Kevin?” he muttered, barely audible, and closed his eyes.

“He’s coming, Daddy,” Samantha said quietly. Suddenly, she realized that she wasn’t tired of her father. She didn’t want to get rid of him, she didn’t want anything like this to happen to him, and she didn’t want him to die. She wasn’t ready to be alone. Especially now, when she’d found out the truth about her husband. No one wanted her. Everyone hated her. She was alone, absolutely alone. She didn’t have her mother, a sister, or girlfriends.

Samantha rushed to her father, fell on her knees before him, and grabbed his hand that was covered in blood without thinking about her assistant or her new suit that would get dirty. Her assistant would see her weakness, but it didn’t matter.

“Daddy, please don’t die! Please, don’t die!”

He turned his head slowly to look at her again.

“Destroy everything in your office. All the files.”

“Dad!” Samantha cried. “What are you talking about? What files? Keep still. Kevin is going to fix you. Everything is going to be fine.”

“Sammy. I don’t remember you crying.” Her father wanted to lift his hand and touch her cheek, but he couldn’t. “They will pay for this. For your every tear. Sammy, I know what they came here for. You need to destroy everything in your office and stop them. Why didn’t I tell you right away? My brain is betraying me, too.” Cough again and eyes closed.

Samantha started to understand what he meant. Only now, she understood what really could happen to her.

“They want to give the information about the lottery to the parliament?”

“What else?” Her old guy opened his mouth, but Samantha saw rather than heard what he said. There were no sounds coming from his mouth.

“I will destroy the files, but what’s next? I don’t know what to do. How do I stop them? No, don’t talk! I don’t want you to talk.”

“A …” Her dad moaned without opening his eyes. “Army. Hunters. My hunters.”

“Raise the army. Dad, I’ve never done it. What if they won’t listen to me? They follow your orders.”

“I gave an order … Go now,” he whispered. Blood appeared in the corner of his mouth and Samantha closed her mouth with her palm covering the scream. “Now everything depends on you.”

“I’ll do everything I can, Daddy,” she said, crying. “I’ll make them pay. They will see my revenge. They’ll pay for everything.”

Samantha said the words, but she couldn’t stand up. People had been doing everything for her. Always. She wasn’t accustomed to taking responsibility. She wasn’t ready for it. She drew air into her lungs, leaned on her hand, and stood up, watching her dying father.

“She will die, too,” Samantha whispered.

She hoped he would survive, heal, and take control of things back into his hands, but she couldn’t wait. Samantha found the number for Jason Stanly, their best hunter. He already was working on her father’s ordeal, but she wanted to redirect his actions. She had almost connected with him when Kevin called, stuck on the forty-ninth floor. All this security system played against them today. Samantha pressed the button and after a few seconds he flew into the office.

“What’s going …?” He stopped, staring at her father. “Oh, dear Mar!”

“Save my dad,” Samantha said and ran out. She had to destroy the files, even if it didn’t matter anymore. Give a new directive to Jason and collect the army. She knew what to do.