PERKS OF THE POSITION のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 191 - チャプター 200

GERALDThe executive suite had been designed to make the rest of the world feel very far away.From my chair behind the mahogany desk, London stretched beneath a sky the color of bruised steel. Rain crawled down the reinforced windows, blurring the city into streaks of gray.I was halfway through reviewing the Baltic supply reports when the doors opened.Not the quiet chime that usually announced a visitor.They slammed against the wall.I looked up sharply. Norton stood in the doorway.For years, I had watched that man remain calm through situations that would have broken lesser men. He had been shot and continued giving orders. He had walked through active war zones with the expression of someone checking the weather.I had never seen him like this.His spectacles were crooked.His face was almost completely drained of color and his breathing was wrong.He was clutching an encrypted slate so tightly his knuckles had turned white.“Mr. President…”His voice cracked.Something cold s

VERONICA I stood at the top of the hill beneath a black umbrella, my coat buttoned to my throat.Below me were four graves.The earth had already been opened.Four dark wounds cut into the green lawn.I stared at the smallest grave for a long time.Lev's.Eight years old.He should have been complaining about the cold. He should have been running around the cemetery, bored by the adults and asking when he could go home.Instead, there was a small white coffin waiting for him.I had personally chosen the flowers.White hydrangeas and dark-blue delphiniums for Nikolai, intertwined with rosemary. White lilies and fir branches around the others.I'd even checked Elena's coffin before it was sealed.Her little silver piano locket was still in her hands.I needed to know that.I needed to know that at least one thing had gone the way it should."Veronica."Carolina's voice came quietly from behind me.She stepped beneath the umbrella, her dark suit already damp from the rain. She looked ex

VERONICA The first thing I noticed was the movement.A flicker at the edge of my vision. I had spent too many years in dangerous places to ignore instincts like that.We had just arrived at the private sovereign terminal at Farnborough. Twenty yards away, our Gulfstream G650 sat on the tarmac, its engines already spooling up. The high mechanical whine vibrated beneath my heels.Alexander stood near the stairs with Norton, discussing satellite clearance.Silver was already inside the aircraft, connected directly to the Zurich grid.I paused beside the hangar entrance and pulled my leather gloves tighter.Then I saw her.Sienna Louis.She emerged from behind a row of fuel containers wearing a black trench coat that had clearly seen better days. Her platinum-blonde hair was wet and tangled, her face pale and wild.Around her neck hung a stolen maintenance badge.In her hand was a stun device.I sighed."Really?"She heard me.Her expression twisted with rage."You ruined my life!"She

GERALD I had spent years dealing with men who believed power belonged to whoever was ruthless enough to take it but there were few things more dangerous than an old estate lawyer arriving on a Tier-0 aircraft in the middle of the night with an unopened leather portfolio.The cabin had settled into silence after Silver completed the primary Zurich override.Outside the windows, the English Channel had disappeared beneath a blanket of clouds. Somewhere below us, Europe slept, unaware that a war was already moving toward its doorstep.I stood beside the mahogany drinks table, pouring two fingers of Scotch into a crystal tumbler.I didn't drink it.I simply liked the weight of the glass in my hand.It gave me something physical to hold while my mind worked through everything waiting for us in Switzerland.Across the cabin, Veronica sat behind the forward briefing desk.Her dark velvet jacket hung over the back of her chair, and her silver-rimmed spectacles rested neatly on the bridge of

VERONICA People rarely showed their greed by asking for money outright.They wrapped it in family.In grief.In words like blood and legacy and what would Nikolai have wanted?The ones who hadn't been there when the blood was spilled were always the first to arrive when there was something left to inherit.I was reviewing the final satellite feeds for Zurich when Carolina's voice came through the secure intercom."Veronica, Amalya Volkov is at the perimeter checkpoint."I didn't look up."She says she has a family matter to discuss with you before the Zurich operation begins."That made me pause.Amalya.Nikolai's third cousin on his mother's side.She had spent most of her adult life moving between Saint-Tropez, Monaco, and whichever resort happened to be fashionable that month. Nikolai had supported her financially for years, mostly because he had a weakness for family, even distant family.She hadn't attended his funeral.She hadn't sent flowers.She hadn't even called.But someho