Lords of Corruption Read Online Free PDF Page B

reminded whenever he returned. The sugar maples were dense and vibrant on the sides of the road, marred only by the occasional poorly maintained trailer home. He waved to the few people who were outdoors, and they waved back unenthusiastically. Most he'd known since he was a kid, but he'd never really fit in. He still didn't.
    His lunch with Stephen Trent had gone even better than the interview, and it was hard not to let his guard down, to fantasize about being offered the job at NewAfrica. Or maybe "romanticize" would be a bette r w ord. Josh Hagarty: World Traveler. International Sophisticate. Perhaps even Jet-Setter. The idea of actually going somewhere, seeing the world, had never occurred to him. But now that it did, he had to admit that it was just a little bit appealing.
    Another fifteen minutes passed before he crested a hill and spotted a teenaged girl reading a book beneath a shedding tree. Laura.
    Instead of immediately jumping up, she sat there contemplating his approach. It wasn't lack of excitement, he knew, but just the way his sister was.
    "I'm sorry I wasn't there to pick you up, Josh."
    She spoke with a slow, soft cadence made necessary by the fact that she considered every word -- a trait she'd had since she'd first learned to talk.
    Laura had been born more than a year after their mother's third divorce, at a time when she couldn't handle a new baby. Josh had only been seven, but he'd taken on virtually everything relating to the raising of his new half-sister. And despite the crappy job he'd done, she'd turned out to be the best person he knew.
    "I'll eventually find it in my heart to forgive you. Now give me a hug."
    When they embraced, she felt frailer than usual. But he always thought that. It was guilt more than anything -- for being too young to be a real father. For not taking her away from all this long ago. And now for the likelihood that he would fail her again.
    "You look good," she said, pulling away and looking up at him, her light-blue eyes, blond hair, and pale complexion washing out even more in the flattening sunlight. "Imagine. A Hagarty with a master's degree."
    "Seems unlikely, doesn't it?"
    "And how goes pimping yourself to the man?"
    He laughed and took her hand as they started up the road. At seventeen, she was already a senior and seemed to have read every book ever written. He'd never figured out who her father was, and their mom wasn't talking. To this day, whenever he was in town, he was always on the lookout for blond men with the personality of a sarcastic Buddha. So far, zip.
    "I've got some good offers, but I'm waiting for all of them to come in."
    "Anything you'd love? Something that would make you happy?"
    He hated lying to her and had to be careful not to exhibit the list of tells that sh e h ad learned years ago. "They're all pretty good, but there's a lot to think about. Money, location, opportunity for advancement."
    "Fun?"
    "As far as I'm concerned, anything that involves an obscene amount of money is fun."
    She squeezed his hand, not looking completely convinced. "We're going to be okay, Josh. No matter what you decide."
    "We don't deserve to be okay. We deserve to be great. And that's what's going to happen, right?"
    She didn't respond.
    "Right?" he repeated.
    "Tell me about New York."
    "It's really tall." He glanced over at her and once again regretted not being more insistent that she come live with him at school. She'd dug her heels in, and no amount of begging, yelling, or pictures of opulent local high schools had even made a dent.
    "Tall? That's all you have to say? It was tall? What did you do? What did you see? Did you go to MoMA?"
    She grimaced. "What about the Statue of Liberty? Did you know the French gave us that?"
    "No and no."
    "Did you see a play before you left?" "Uh-uh."
    "Geez, Josh. All that education and still a Philistine."
    "Philistine? Jesus Christ, Laura, act your age. Use 'like' every other word. Talk about how lame your boyfriend is. You're