CHAPTER NINETEEN
In the chancellor’s office, tension rose quickly as Ric made his way down that hall toward them. He was filled with vengeful passion, blasting away with two machine guns, one in each hand. Ric had so many deaths to avenge, so many wrongs to make right.
But behind those golden doors, Jeanell had no idea what was happening. She imagined it might be Ric, hoped it might be, but it was a hope against hope. She knew it couldn’t be any of the surviving captives; none of them had the strength or resources or opportunity to create the racket that was working its way toward them.
Could it be another country’s forces, Jeanell had to wonder, or a coup from the chancellor’s own forces, finally turning against her?
Her, Jeanell silently repeated. How can any woman wield such horror and tyranny over a people, a nation, the entire world? That’s what men do.
But Jeanell couldn’t deny that evil, corruption, desire for power and control, wasn’t only the purview of men. Jeanell herself had tasted the corruption of the sensual bath, surrounded by luxury, known that temptation. Jeanell knew she always had some hidden desire for power, for fame, which fostered her years of research.
But she hadn’t given in to these things, while Chancellor Kana had. But the chancellor who held the gun on Jeanell, and the chancellor’s arm wrapped around Jeanell’s throat, threatening to choke her off there and then, and leave her for dead. But Jeanell also knew that whoever was on the other side of that door would soon reach them, and that Chancellor Kana’s chances were really not much better than Jeanell’s.
Jeanell wouldn’t die in vain after all, and she’d have to be content with that.
That’s when the golden doors finally flew open, kicked in with a mighty blow. Jeanell and the chancellor behind her turned to see Ric pour into the room alone, eyes quick to sum up his adversaries.
First up was the vice chancellor, who pointed his gun dead-center at Ric’s chest and fired. But Ric came in fast and quickly ducked, barely missed by the vice chancellor’s deadly fire. Ric barrel-rolled out and, instead of shooting the vice chancellor, brandished one of the dead officer’s stolen daggers and planted it deep into Vice Chancellor Haines’ gut.
The men stared each other down, but Ric knew there was no time for any intense exchange. The chancellor already leveled her gun at them both. Ric jerked the dagger several times, the vice chancellor wincing in his death throws. Ric dropped the vice chancellor’s lifeless corpse and turned his machine gun on the chancellor, Jeanell still in his grip.
It had happened in a blinding flash, but now the moment seemed to Jeanell to have slowed to a crawl, as time itself suddenly stood still.
Ric and Chancellor Kana stared each other down. Jeanell knew Chancellor Kana couldn’t afford to turn her gun on Ric again, lest Jeanell be able to wrestle herself free and leave the chancellor exposed. The pistol to Jeanell’s head was a good part of what was keeping her in Kana’s clutches. But both Jeanell and the chancellor knew that Ric wouldn’t open fire with a machine gun with Jeanell in front of the chancellor as a human shield; Jeanell’s accidental death would be certain.
They were deadlocked and both knew it.
“Ric,” the chancellor said, “I knew you’d come.” Ric offered no answer. The chancellor went on, “I’ve heard about you, young man, that you’re a real leader. Impressive.” Still no answer came back, but Jeanell was locked on the intensity of their interaction. Chancellor Kana added, “The fact that you’re here now tells me the stories I’ve heard are true, perhaps even understated.”
Ric snarled at the chancellor, fingers craning around that machine gun, silently calculating his next move.
The chancellor said, “You’ve got nothing to say for yourself? You murder my guards, assassinate my vice chancellor, hold me at gunpoint! All this and you have nothing at all to say?”
Ric gritted his teeth, rescuing the machine gun in his grip. “Hello, Mother.”
Jeanell silently repeated, Mother? What?
She said, “I should have known you’d come under circumstances like these.” Chancellor Kana looked Jeanell over, still pinned in front of her. “You show good taste.”
“Let her go,” Ric said.
“Don’t be absurd!”
A thick tension filled the room, no more gunfire in the outside hallways. Ric glanced toward the stillness of the door. “You said it yourself; your guards are all dead, Mother, your vice chancellor, your regime’s finished.”
Chancellor Kana spat out a contemptuous huff. “You always were an ideological young man. Terribly naive though, like your father. Even if you kill me, you can’t destroy a whole national government just by killing its leaders!”
Jeanell couldn’t resist saying, “Not a democracy, you can’t; but a tyranny? A dictatorship? Cut off the head, the snake dies.”
Chancellor Kana said, “And you’re talkin’ to the original black mamba, honey. Don’t forget it. One little bite…” Chancellor Kana clapped her jaws, then licked the side of Jeanell’s neck. It sent waves of nausea to pass through Jeanell’s gut, skin crawling. “Delicious.”
Ric said to Chancellor Kana, “Look at yourself, Mother, look what you’ve become!”
“I’ve become chancellor, the most powerful person in the world! And you could have the same, even more! More power, more money, more of everything that matters!”
“Those aren’t the things that matter to me.”
The chancellor answered quickly. “That’s only because you’ve lived without them all these years. But try them out, see how the other half lives. You might just find it fits you like a glove.” The chancellor rolled her fingers near Jeanell’s neck, hand encased in a black leather glove.
“No,” was all Ric would say, echoing his late friend Reeves’ one-word missive.
Chancellor Kana urged him, “Look at yourself, Ric! You’ve got greatness within you. Don’t waste that, don’t turn away from it, or waste it living out in the woods like some rabid dog.”
“Never,” Ric said, “not to my dying day.”
Chancellor Kana nuzzled Jeanell’s cheek, sending a wave of disgusted horror through her. The chancellor said, “What about hers?”
Jeanell said, “Forget about me, Ric; shoot us both, shoot us now!”
Chancellor Kana repositioned her arm to slam her hand over Jeanell’s mouth, palm pressing tight against her lips. “That’s enough out of you, sweetie.”
Ric said, “You can’t go on like this, Mother! My father, my friends, Jeanell—you’re mad with power!”
“That has nothing to do with it,” Chancellor Kana shrieked, for the first time revealing more than her cold facade. “I’ve already got all the power in the world!” She pulled Jeanell even closer, her thumb clamping down over Jeanell’s nose. Jeanell reached up to pull that black leather glove from her face so she could breathe, but she couldn’t. Chancellor Kana went on, “I could snuff out your little sex toy right here and now, and nobody would stop me. You won’t shoot.”
“Not as long as she’s alive.”
Jeanell gasped and went on trying to free herself, lungs cramping for air.
“Not ever,” Chancellor Kana said. “Strong? A leader? You’re a pathetic weakling, Ric, just like your father. You were both afraid of me, it was disgusting! If only I’d married a real man, not that ridiculous bookworm.”
“Graham St. Thomas was a great man,” Ric said, “I’m proud to have called him my father.”
“He was a spineless nothing, Ric, why can’t you see that? And you don’t have to be a like him, that’s something I always tried to instill in you. You can rise above, be great.” The chancellor’s voice filled with a wicked warmth, a viscous urgency soaked in bloodlust and thirst for power.
But Ric was ready to say, “No.”
“Rule with me, Ric! There’s a reason you’ve come here, there’s a reason for everything. I’ve always believed that.”
“You believe in Manifest Destiny,” Ric said. “It’s not the same thing.”
Jeanell managed to pull Kana’s thumb from off her nose, breath wheezing trough her nostrils.
Chancellor Kana said, “But it is the same, Ric! And this is your destiny! We’ll rule together, the way it was always meant to be. You’ll take over, and you’ll have the power you’ve always craved, always deserved. If you want to change things, Ric, if you really think you can make this a better society, this is the way to do it, not through rebellion, not through turning against your own family, your own blood. What good can ever come of that?”
Ric had no answer, but Jeanell tried to urge him against being tricked, seduced, turned against his true calling, overwhelmed by the forces of evil in his own world, in his own blood.
Chancellor Kana went on, “But in unity, there is strength, Ric. That’s love, that’s family, not this… this trollop here.”
Ric said, “Let go of her.”
Chancellor Kana looked Jeanell over again. “Sure, I will, my son, my own flesh and blood. I’ll release your girl here. And if you come to your senses, if you want to rule with me, and then instead of me, and take your rightful place as the leader of the obedient world, I’ll give you your little slut. If she promises to behave, if you… take measures to keep her from anything potentially dangerous, I’ll let you have her! She’s yours for the taking.” Another tense silence passed as Ric revealed nothing of what he was thinking.
Chancellor Kana turned to Jeanell, their faces only inches apart. “Are you going to behave, Miss… Jeanell… Glenn?” Jeanell didn’t know how to react or what to say, fear overrode her desire to rebel, exhaustion crippled her limbs. All she could do was wait and wonder what Ric’s next move would be.
She wouldn’t have to wait long, or have time to think about it either.