Page 115 of Sigma
“I’m CEO of Valkyrie. I moved out of my parents’ home and I’m living here in Houston on my own. I have a condo. A car. Responsibilities. I’m an adult. I mean, I was before, but…less of one. I worked for Dad but I lived at home and everything I did was run through him. Now, I’m fully and independently in charge of a company that’s sending billions of dollars in parts into space, not to mention the people.” I sigh, frown. “I can’t just disappear. I can’t just…run off with you.”
He nods, and I hate the way his expression shutters a little. “I was not expecting you to.”
I gesture at him, at me. “Where do we go from here, Apollo? What does the future look like for us?”
He doesn’t answer for a moment or two. “I don’t know, Corinna. I’ve considered this at length. Obsessively, even, one might say. And I’ve never come up with an answer. I’ve followed your career, of course. You have a launch coming up in a few days—exciting indeed.” He pulls away, rubs his jaw. “I began this journey of mine for you. I started out divesting myself of any involvement with illegal activities. That was a lengthier process than I’d imagined, as it’s not something you simply…sell off and walk away from. Then, I began examining my various business holdings, and my imprint on the world. I asked myself along the way, ‘what would I imagine agoodperson doing?’ I have no frame of reference for goodness, so I made it up. And to be honest, I often looked at what your father has done in his life, and attempted to find my own version of his decisions. I found that he does not always follow the money. He follows his interests and his instincts, and he makes that payout for him. But he always gives back. And not just in charitable donations for headlines, so he can point to them and say, ‘look, I’m not just a rich selfish bastard.’ He donates to make a difference. He knows where his money goes and how it’s used.”
“Youhavedone some research, I see.”
He nods. “I have. As I said, I began by doing this for you. So I could say ‘look, look what I’ve done.’ But after a time, it became its own goal. Being better, making decisions which leave a positive effect on the world…it doesn’t and cannot erase the blood in my past or the wrongs done by my family, but perhaps I can offset their dark legacy, to some degree. I began making decisions for myself. To become someone I could be proud of.”
“And are you?” I ask.
He nods, but also shrugs. “I think so. I decided it was time to contact you when I could look at myself in the mirror and not flinch. Not only think about who my grandfather was and what he did, who mother was and whatshedid. I could look at myself in the mirror and feel pride in whatI’vedone.”
“And what have you done, Apollo?” I ask, my voice softening.
“I no longer did things so I could tell you about them.”
“I know. But I want to know.”
“Many things.” A thoughtful pause. “I purchased several pharmaceutical corporations in a complicated series of acquisitions, mergers, and dissolutions. I did this so that I could control a dominant share of the market—and I have subsequently forced drug prices down.” A wry smirk. “I left the field of illegal drugs and entered the even more sordid world of legal drugs. The more I forced prices down, the more my competition had to drop theirs to compete. Several smaller corporations went under, and I bought them, only to sell them to my competitors. It’s always been a vicious industry, but now the competition is in the favor of the consumer. My focus has been largely on diabetes medication—one of my cousins who lives here in the States is diabetic. In a brief perusal of her finances, I discovered the amount she pays for diabetes medication, for insulin and the like, and I found it distasteful at best.”
“And so you set out to do something about it.”
“Exactly. And I have.”
“What else?”
A sigh. “I have a corporation dedicated entirely to building low-income housing in poverty-stricken areas—improving ghettos. Where you have people who live in what cannot even be properly termedhouses, just ramshackle assortments of materials to keep the rain off. I fund it through donations and run fundraisers. It’s a model which loses money, and a lot of it, but it provides decent homes for people who otherwise would have none.” A pause, another shrug. “I bought a telecom corporation and lobbied to have the government here finally invest in nationwide broadband access—of course, I saw that my company received the best bid, but I have plans. For every linear foot of cable we lie here, domestically, we will match it overseas, in areas which often have no internet access at all, let alone high speed.”
“Remarkable.”
“When you stop caring about only the bottom line, you can do remarkable things. As I sold off various interests, I set aside enough cash in easily-liquidated investments and shares that I will one day be able to retire in absurd luxury. I take a salary, of course, but it’s nominal—enough to continue funding my retirement. The rest of what I would otherwise earn—the rest of my so-called net worth, is poured back into my various projects. My total net worth may never increase, but I consider it a net gain if I can continue to be a man who…” he swallows, looks at me. “Who you can be proud of—who you could, as you said, fall in love with, someday.” A soft sigh. “But if you cannot, I am still proud of myself, of the things I have done. I have you to thank for sending me on this journey.”
“What are you most proud of?”
He takes time to consider. “Something I think very few will ever hear of.” He eyes me. “It is risky to even speak of it.” A pause. “One of my competitors in the arms business…our competition was friendly, you could say. Business, rather than personal competition. He and I met for drinks a few times, and liked each other. He was into the bigger stuff, whereas I tended to deal mostly in crates of rifles and such. Well, one of the things we shared was an intense distaste for human trafficking.”
“Distaste, huh?”
He snorts. “To put it mildly. Well, when I decided to get out of the business, I knew it was to him I would sell my stock. And I did, for pennies on the dollar, as they say. A steal for him, inventory he would be able to move at a profit and swiftly. My only caveat was that we take down a ring which with we were both familiar. When you move in that world, you come to know many unsavory figures. This man whom we both knew was one such. Mikhail and I joined forces and eradicated his whole ring, from top to bottom. It was, I admit, a bloodbath. I’m certain your contacts in the security business could tell you about it.”
“I’ve stayed away from that end of things,” I say.
A nod. “Understandable.” A wave. “His men and his clients and anyone involved with human trafficking was eliminated. All of his erstwhile…product, meaning the human beings he was shipping in containers like so much heroin, we liberated, housed, and employed. Perhaps not always in legal employment, but we gave them choices, and a chance in this world where they had none.” He nods. “I am proud of this. It was done in the shadows, made to look like an internal conflict among traffickers instead of the calculated raid which it truly was.”
I consider. Pull out my phone, dial a number. It rings three times.
“Rinny, my dear. How are you, honey?” Auntie Layla asks. “Haven’t heard from you in a while. When are you coming down to the Keys?”
“Soon. After the launch.” I hesitate, eye Apollo. “I have a question for you.”
She huffs. “Something sensitive, I think.”
“Have you heard about something that went down with some human traffickers, recently?”
She’s quiet a tense moment. “I think Uncle Harry should answer this. Here, honey.”