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Chapter 32

Intransigent.

That was the word that kept running through Rick's mind: intransigent.

He'd lived with his daughter half of his life. Granted, the care and education she'd received was most often from others - well paid individuals who knew what they were doing and how to be quiet about it. He'd been busy, too. While his beautiful wife was the titular head and spiritual guide of the team, Rick handled the day to day operations in such a way that it was really him who was behind most of what went on. He also functioned as the filter for the information that did reach his wife such that she was only given the information she needed to make the appropriate decisions. This had been their arrangement from since they were first married, he about 8 years older than she.

So why, then, was his daughter so truculent? Why was she unable to simply fall in line? Why couldn't he manipulate her the way he'd so easily done her mother?

The situation was untenable for a man such as Rick. He cast about for people to blame - Michael, Berkeley, the entire state of California, liberal media, the pantheon of secular reasoning... Yet he looked in vain. Her auburn-haired beautiful head was filled with thoughts of glory and power and independence, and that would never do. He had to come up with a way to rein her in before it grew too late.

Rick had spent a lot of time thinking about these things. He perfunctorily glanced at reports, looking only long enough to see that things had begun to ramp up in places like Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, and even China and India. Things he'd worked for his whole life were coming to fruition, yet he had no stomach for any of it. Even the report of the downed helicopter barely showed up on his mental radar, so occluded had it become with thoughts of his daughter.

Intransigent.

What more could I have done for her? he pondered, almost incessantly. He'd even allowed her to leave the team for a while, acquiescing to her wilder passions in a way that he knew he'd later regret. Yet what could he have done? She was head strong and self-willed. These are admirable traits in most, but they served only to frustrate Rick. He knew better than to cross her, too, because doing so would ostracize him from the rest of the team. She was a very different kind of leader than her mother had been, proud and heady.

Maybe it was time for a change in the way things were handled, Rick thought. John was much younger than Janice, and he had never shown the need for independence or exploration outside the parameters Rick so carefully set up. Of course, theirs was a matriarchal society, and the change would be unwelcome and abrupt. But perhaps, with the right leverage, Janice could be brought in line. Rick could think of two small but powerful things living right here in this compound that may prove useful in that regard. And maybe, just maybe, Rick could use his granddaughter to supplant his own recalcitrant daughter... She was a little old to begin the training, but not too old to be manipulated by a doting grandfather...

Janice padded into his office, her bare feet making no noise on the thick pile carpet. It was late. She should have been in bed, but she came into his office anyway, dressed only in a nightgown. For a minute, Rick was taken back to the days when she was a young lady... She had always been beautiful, and she used that beauty to great advantage.

She reached around his neck and lowered her cheek to his own salt and pepper stubbly cheek. She kissed him lightly and said, "What's the matter, daddy? Can't you sleep?"

"No, Janice. I can't. I've got a lot on my mind."

"Yes, I know you have. I've seen the reports. Things are moving quickly. Another few months and everything will be in position."

"Another few months..."

Janice went around the table and wheeled one of the big, padded office chairs around to sit next to her father. He was always delighted to note the way she moved; there was something feline about her grace and effortless beauty. It was breathtaking, and it hurt his heart to think that she'd been gone so long, and even now was beyond his reach.

He turned to face her, sitting next to him. Although they were sitting very close to each other, she seemed miles away, and behind layers and layers of walls he couldn't begin to breech. Again he wondered, how could this have happened? She'd grown up too fast, been given too many freedoms. And she was not his any more...

Janice, for her part, noticed the stony regard that her father gave her. She knew that there was a divide between her and her father, but she wanted to amend that, to be able to work with him. But she also did not want to have the same kind of relationship with him that her mother had. She wanted to be much more active in the way things were done on the team, and wanted Rick around to show her the ropes before he stepped aside and let her assume her full birthright. It was not going to be easy for him to relinquish control like that, but he would. He had no choice.

He opened his mouth to speak, and she held up her hand. "Daddy," she began.

Just then, an explosion ripped through the absolute quiet of the late night, knocking them both to the floor.

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