Yuen-Mong's Revenge (33 page)

 
     
"Yuen-mong will not be living here," interjected her grandfather. "I
have given her permission to arrange her own accommodation."

 
     
For several seconds, there was a stunned silence around the table.
Yuen-mong sensed the instant rise in emotions of the young women and,
in particular, Pat’s growing resentment, and responded by meeting her
grandfather’s gaze.
Did he secretly enjoy the commotion he caused?
she
mused.
I think I’m going to like the old man.

     
"But this is highly irregular," exclaimed Pat, showing his outrage
openly. "How can we make sure she lives according to the covenant?"

 
     
"Cousin, how do you assure that the Foundation members living in
the Sanctum honor the covenant?" She locked eyes with him. "I hired a
young woman the other day to help me set up an apartment, and she
claims that her former employer, a Foundation member, tried to coerce
her to have sex. Is that not against the covenant?"

 
     
The three young women were visibly embarrassed by her openness.

     
"Oh, you cannot believe everything you hear, particularly not from a
lazy and clumsy domestic."

 
     
"Cousin, tell me, why do you think she is lazy and clumsy?"

 
     
She heard Susan suck in her breath and look at Pat accusingly. The
latter turned crimson.
The poor fellow — he constantly gives himself
away.

     
"Ha, they all are," he replied petulantly.

     
"You speak of experience?"

 
     
"Yes."

 
     
"So, why do you then hire them if that is the case?"

 
     
"Pat, I think you have met your match," remarked her grandfather
drily. "But let us not spoil this first gathering with trivialities."

 
     
"Thank you, grandfather," Yuen-mong murmured and respectfully
lowered her head, while Pat continued staring at her, not even trying to
hide his hatred.

     
"I am curious why Syd Twan was the first person you approached on
arrival in Androma," queried her uncle.

     
"Oh, that is simple. My parents always hoped that sooner or later,
some or all of us would make it back to Andromatis. So my mother
instructed me that the first person I must contact who would help me get
in touch with my relatives was Syd Twan."

 
     
"Why not one of us, or the Foundation which has representatives on
all planets in the Galactic Federation?"

 
     
"She never talked to me about the Foundation. I only discovered its
existence when we read old Foundation Families news updates of 2405
or 6 that were in the ship’s AI files. I was also afraid that I might be taken
as a fraud, and that Syd Twan as a lawyer would advise me correctly."

 
     
"I think you acted wisely, my granddaughter," remarked the old man,
cutting off any further questioning. Ko Young raised his eyebrows, but
let the subject drop.

     
The rest of the meal passed without further controversy. The talk
revolved mainly about stone-age daily life on Aros. It was Mai and
occasionally Bee who asked questions. Susan never opened her mouth,
except to eat. Pat also remained silent throughout, putting on a studied,
bored expression. His growing resentment toward her and the unspoken
words of some of the others began pressing on her mind, absorbing more
and more of her energy.

     
Mai made Yuen-mong promise to visit her after having settled into
her new apartment. Her uncle gave her a contact to arrange for the
downloading of the research files, and then she was driven back to the
hotel in one of her grandfather’s chauffeured limousines.

14

"How did it go?" asked Atun, jumping up from his chair and coming to
meet her, as she entered the room.

     
"Hold me, Atun," she replied and melted into his embrace, eyes
closed, suddenly aware of the tension that she had carried inside her up
to that moment.

     
"Was it that bad, love?" he murmurs, stroking her back.

     
"It was not bad. It was just taxing. I had to be constantly on my guard,
weigh up what I said, but it was mainly their mental emanations which
were oppressive — intense curiosity mixed with pity, but unwilling to
talk openly about it … and then the hidden resentment of some, the open
hatred of Pat Young, you know, the guy who tried to coerce Anouk?" She
paused and held him closer. "It’s good to be again with somebody where
I can be myself."

 
     
She kissed him and let go. "I actually liked the old man, my grandfather. I think he is OK. I felt he understood me. But the others were difficult, particularly Pat Young. I clashed with him several times and had to
make an effort to hold back … not always successfully, I must admit."
She paused. "So I met two more people on my list. Pat is too young to
have had anything to do with it. There is the oldest brother who has gone
into retreat about twenty years ago — a rather curious coincidence, you
agree?"

 
     
"Or more ominous."

 
     
"Yes. What is even stranger, my grandfather is apparently the only
person who knows where he is, and whom he visits him regularly. If I
interpreted Syd’s hint correctly, he is mentally ill."

 
     
She sat on the edge of the bed, undoing her hair. "My grandfather
wanted me to live in his house, with my uncle as my guardian. But I convinced him that I needed my own space and that I already had a partner."
She smiled at him.

     
"And how did that go down?" questioned Atun, standing in front of
her.

     
"He said that the covenant is flexible and can accommodate special
circumstances. He wants to meet you." She got up and undressed, while
begging: "Atun, I’m tired. Are you willing to come to bed with me, let
me snuggle up to you?"

 
     
"Oh Yuen-mong, you know that I love nothing better than that."

 
     
He helped her undress and then joined her in bed. She started
recounting word-for-word what had happened and then almost in the
middle of a sentence fell asleep.

* * *

Saturday, after their morning exercise in the gym, they moved into their
apartments and put Anouk in charge of stocking their kitchen. Yuen-mong instructed her that she wanted naturally grown foods, none of those
artificial substitutes, and that cost was no consideration.

     
Atun installed hidden surveillance equipment in both units that would
record any unauthorized entry and send a text message to their wristunits.

     
Monday morning, Syd Twan notified Yuen-mong that all inheritance
matters had been finalized and only her signature was needed for it to
take effect. They dropped by his office the same afternoon. Miss Blacey
proudly showed her the new necklace that her jeweler had crafted from
two of the gold nuggets, with the smallest and most irregular one used as
a pendant.

     
Syd asked about the family reunion and was relieved to hear that
everything seemed to have gone reasonably well. He then went over her
financial position. In addition to the over fifteen million in ready credits,
she owned her mother’s villa, valued at about eighteen million, shares in
UniCom amounting to five percent of all shares issued, as well as investments in other conglomerates and real estate valued conservatively at half
a billion credits.

     
"Your total wealth is about five and a half billion credits," Syd concluded, looking at her with a pleased smile.

     
She sensed that Atun was stunned, but these figures had little meaning
to her. She quickly calculated that this was about 10,000 times the
amount they got for the ten kilograms of gold. "The equivalent of about
100 tons of gold? Is that much?" she asked, looking from one to the
other. Both men smiled, seemingly amused.

     
"It’s staggering," exclaimed Atun.

     
"You are one of the richest women in the galaxy, if not the richest,"
said Syd. "Naturally, you cannot touch your shares in UniCom. They
form part of an honor agreement between the two main shareholding
groups of UniCom, the Young and the Deng dynasties, which each hold
27 percent of the company shares. Any increase in shares of one requires
an equal increase in shares of the other."

 
     
So lack of money will not be an obstacle to my quest,
she mused,
guessing Atun’s similar thought. In fact, this wealth opened up untold
possibilities. "Are you willing to manage my fortune according to my
instructions?"

 
     
"I would gladly do this, but I doubt that this would be wise. It is currently managed by your uncle, who also exercised the proxy votes on
your mother’s behalf for the last ten years. He would see this as a vote of
no confidence, and your appearance, barely a month before the inheritance procedure they had initiated became final, has already caused
considerable misgivings and friction. I advise you to leave things the way
they are right now, at least for the foreseeable future."

 
     
She exchanged a brief glance with Atun that confirmed her own view.
"My uncle can still exercise the voting rights on my behalf. I don’t
understand much about that anyway. No, I want an outsider to be my
financial advisor, and I would like it to be you. That is the only way I can
remain independent. If I allow them to interfere in my financial matters,
they will also try to dictate my private life, and I have been my own
master for the last eight years and have no intention of giving that up."

 
     
Syd looked at her with admiration. "You are your mother’s child.
Since you put it that way, I will accept that duty under one condition, that
you talk to your uncle about it first."

 
     
She smiled. "Certainly. May I now sign all documents?"

* * *

"One of the richest women in the galaxy, Yuen-mong. Did you hear?"
Atun exclaimed as they left Syd Twan’s office, still overwhelmed by the
size of her fortune.

     
"It has raised the stakes of what I can do to revenge my parents. Are
you still willing to help me? I would like you to."

 
     
"Yes, love, I do, but I want you alive, not dead."

 
     
"I want to stay alive too, and I will. We can now go ahead with our
plans full steam — what a funny expression. What does it mean?"

 
     
"I think it’s an old saying from Old Earth, five, six hundred years ago
when they built the first locomotive engines that were driven by
producing steam pressure." He smiled, hugging her shoulder. "Sometimes I forget that you are a stone-age survivor."

 
     
She answered his smile and then turned serious. "Have you settled yet
on an electronics firm to build the equipment needed?"

 
     
"I’ve given this some more thought. I could do it myself, but that
would take about six to eight months. The main advantage of this would
be that nobody else is involved."

 
     
"Yes, but I would prefer things to happen faster."

 
     
"There’s another reason for doing it fast. In a bit over three months
there is the galactic communications convention here in Androma. That’s
an annual event sponsored by UniCom, where everybody in the communication field will either be present in person or linked up at various
remote locations. This would be the ideal forum to demonstrate instant
communications to the whole galaxy. If it’s disclosed there, there is no
way to suppress it anymore."

 
     
"Oh, Atun. Fantastic. How did you find out?"

 
     
"I knew that it was an annual event and searched for its date the other
night. There is still time to register for it and submit a conference paper."