Fall of Hades Read Online Free PDF Page B

Italian jester named Giacomo Schema.”
    Welch was stunned by the news. “Why?”
    â€œThe malfunction of the MEI. The board is terrified that if the word gets out and the deaths are linked to us, it could cost us billions.”
    â€œWhere will you go?” Welch asked.
    â€œNowhere. I’m staying here. As director.”
    Welch was even more surprised. “With all due respect, sir, they’re not firing you?”
    Hatch grinned. “Fire me ?”
    â€œThat seems to be the standard corporate procedure.”
    â€œNo,” Hatch said. “They can’t.”
    â€œWhy is that?”
    Hatch smiled. “Precisely because the board is terrified that if the word gets out and the deaths are linked to us, it could cost us billions. I let them know that if they fired me, there was a very good chance that word would get out. Not from me, of course. But via an anonymous source.”
    Hatch reached into his desk drawer and brought out a large manila envelope. He handed it across the desk to Welch. “Keep this somewhere safe. If anything happens to me, I want you to take this envelope to the Wall Street Journal . The precise contact information is inside. Can you do that for me?”
    â€œYes, sir.”
    â€œThank you. I knew I could depend on you.” He looked at Welch for a moment, then said, “Be assured, this is only a temporary setback. I will run this company again.”
    â€œI believe you, sir.”
    â€œI know. You’ve been loyal from the beginning, and trust me, your loyalty will be rewarded. Until then, I will see that you retain your position. However, I would like to broaden your responsibilities.”
    â€œHow so, sir?”
    â€œI want you to gather information on each member of the board, especially Schema. I want to know the skeletons in their closets, their loves, their affairs, their thought crimes, their every vulnerability. Everything. Can I count on you?”
    â€œYes, sir.”
    â€œI want you to forget what you know about corporate security and start running the Elgen guard like an army, with you its general.”
    Welch nodded, excited at the prospect. “I can do that.”
    â€œOne more thing. And this must never leave this room. Schema is talking about silencing some of those who are potential leaks.”
    â€œBy ‘silencing,’ you mean . . . killing  ?” Welch said.
    â€œExactly.”
    â€œWho in particular is he considering silencing?”
    â€œCarl Vey, the research manager from the Pasadena Hospital; his assistant, Anna Ferguson; and our own head of research and development, Dr. Coonradt.”
    Welch’s chest froze. “Dr. Coonradt?”
    â€œYes. Those are the main names. And if Schema’s making a list, you can bet that I’m on it as well. That’s why I gave you the envelope.”
    â€œYes, sir.” Welch looked down at the envelope, then back up at Hatch. “Do you think it will come to that?”
    â€œI don’t know,” Hatch said. “But billions of dollars are at stake. You’d be surprised at what people will do for a little money.”

E verything Hatch predicted, with the exception of his own murder, came true. Carl Vey and, presumably, Coonradt, were terminated. Vey’s assistant, Anna Ferguson, went into hiding.
    It was only a few years after that that the existence of the electric children was revealed. It was Hatch who learned about them. He was looking into the children who had survived, to see if any of them had subsequently died of MEI complications, when he discovered, from confidential state and medical records, that the survivors had been affected in peculiar ways.
    The first electric child discovered was Nichelle. She’d been in foster care from the time she was very young, and state records showed that she had been in and out of an unusually high number of homes—sometimes only lasting a day or two before being