The Variables Read Online Free PDF Page A

inharmoniously. “I should be able to eat in the Sky Room when I want to.” Her voice was lower than Scott had imagined it would be. “And I want a bigger place. And you’re out of your mind if I have to be regulated to that five-minute shower rule. The people who helped supply the finances, the means , we deserve things. It’s our right. I’m not some lowlife...tell them, Eugene, tell them what we were promised. Luxury. And this? This underground shithole...”
    Huck cleared his throat, “Well, that took a turn. Let’s just settle down.”
    “Is he telling me to watch my language now? Jesus Christ.” The wife crossed her arms and looked over at her husband with a perfected coldness.
    Her husband patted her arm to placate her and turned his attention back to the group. “This entire enterprise is a far cry from what I was promised. How hard is it to give us a better apartment? Reward the people. You know?”
    David, Roman’s Elektos partner in Australia, waited until he was certain it was okay to interject, and then he launched. “Reward you ? Are you out of your mind, mate? Isn’t your inclusion here reward enough? And besides, the new world only works if you view yourself as part of a team. And I’m sure you remember how that old adage goes...”
    The teenager Charles scoffed. He tugged his shirt down over his hands and let them fall on the table with a bang.  
    “By all means,” Huck said, “let’s allow all the Brikhams a voice.” Then he settled backward in his chair and waited. “Go ahead, young man. You think you have something valuable to add? We’re all waiting.”
    “My son doesn’t answer to anybody except his father and me,” the woman snapped and she put her hand on her son’s head and wrapped her fingers in his messy hair. He scooched out from under her love-pat and shot his mother a dismissive look.  
    “I can talk, Mom,” Charles said, and he stretched his arms upward, his hands popping out. “This isn’t how it was supposed to be,” the kid complained. “This isn’t what he ,” Charles nodded toward Huck, “promised us.”
    “I’m hearing this a lot...this idea that you didn’t receive what you expected. So, I must ask. What did he promise you, young man?” Morowa asked.
    The kid rolled his eyes and leaned forward. He looked at Morowa on the screen and shrugged. “You know. Like my mom said.”
    If the accusations bothered Huck, he didn’t seemed disturbed. He eyed the family with nonchalance and picked at the edges of his fingernails.  
    “You’ll have to be more specific if we are expected to understand,” Morowa continued. “To the best of my knowledge, your family was promised safety . And nothing more.”
    “Safety?” Eugene slapped his hand against the table. Scott jumped, unsettled. “I could have, with a fraction of the money I gave the Elektos Corporation, built myself a bunker in the middle of the godforsaken desert for just myself and my family. Could have bought myself my own safety from this nutjob.” He thumbed his finger at Huck.
    “A fairytale,” Huck said under his breath.
    “Excuse me?” Eugene looked up from the screen, his nostrils flaring. “I didn’t need you. You needed me . You think you can play me for a fool? What’s done is done, and I know that. But I deserve my share. If you can’t provide my family what we’re due here , then when we go to the Islands, we expect to see what we’re owed. Tenfold.”
    “I did need you, Mr. Brikham. You and your billions of dollars, which you saved through various legal loopholes and good old fashioned tax evasion. I needed your money then because money still mattered. But it doesn’t matter now. You were guaranteed life. Nothing more. Had you denied me, we would have stonewalled your every effort to save yourself.”
    The wife muttered the word “monster” underneath her breath. Huck ignored it.
    “You want to maintain a shred of the old world...but none of that exists. Now you’re