“Oh, dear,” Mars whispered as he took out his phone to call the pilot of Lee’s private plane.
“Oh, dear, what?”
Before he could answer Eli, Mars spoke to the pilot, having him ready the plane and chart the course to the usual place in Mexico. Once he got off the phone, he went to check the doorway, gazing down the hall to assure they wouldn’t be overheard.
“Eli, this is…you’re not going to like this a bit.”
“Will you tell me what’s going on?”
He felt like the world was collapsing, but he didn’t know why. He could quit, figure out a way to get the money for his loans, hide from the world if he had to. It was all going badly so quickly.
“Eli, I can’t say. It’s not the NDA here. ith Lee’s family, it’s…something so much bigger. Mexico, where Lee goes, it’s a place that hosts many people in high positions. All around the world, they travel there, and it’s…”
“Don’t say anything more, Mars. You’ve already helped me too much. If Lee ever knew, he’d do worse than fire you, I’m guessing.”
“Yes. You’re quite right about that.”
“I’ll figure this out. Somehow.”
Lee insisted that Eli join him on the trip and once they were settled in the luxurious cabin of the private plane, Lee poured himself a generous drink and did the same for Eli.
The seats were suede and fine leather, dark beige and comfortable. Couches lined each side and tables were set in the center. There was a full kitchen set up toward the cockpit, and bathrooms with tubs and showers in the back of the cabin. One could live there forever without ever if they had the fuel.
“Don’t you guys become alcoholics? I’ve never drank so much in my life.”
“Comes with the territory, Eli, but this time, it’s a celebration.”
Skeptical, Eli took a tiny sip then set his glass on the bronze coaster on the wooden table. “I thought you were furious.”
“I was. I listened to you, which was my first mistake. I was brought back around by my father. He, of course, doesn’t know about this place where we’re going, but he’s heard rumors of it.”
“Where is it we’re going, Lee? It seems to be someplace you’re using as a weapon over me.”
“Astute. I am. This place, it’s been in operation for decades, only not ten years ago, it changed hands. See, it’s a place where the wealthy and powerful go to have some illicit fun.”
Suddenly, pictures of islands and courtrooms went through his head, and remembered uncomfortably how an owner of one such island died mysteriously in jail. “Why are you taking me there? Either you’re trying to corrupt me or you’re trying to shock me.”
“Maybe both.”
Eli saw Lee more than Lee thought anyone could. The night he was talking to the protestors, he smiled, a real smile, not one of those reserved for photo-ops. Speaking with them, and better, listening to them, it had brought something to his eyes that Eli liked seeing.
He feared he’d never see that again.
“I’m sorry people jumped your ass for what you did.”
Cutting his eyes away, Lee shrugged a shoulder and mumbled, “It was nothing.”
“Yes, it was. You listened and you cared. Don’t let all these people take that from you. It felt good, I know it did.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about, Elijah Bloom. You have no idea the world you’re playing around in right now. In DC, in Mexico, there are few differences. Maybe I’m simply showing you that the people that truly run the world are the ones behind the scenes.”
When his eyes met Eli’s, there was truth there. He thought about how Mars said he’d become numb to it, and Eli knew at that moment that Lee, the real Lee, the one that he saw with the protestors…
He was buried. He was buried and numb, succumbing to the rules of the ones that came before, that ruled behind the scenes.
And he was burying Eli with him.
“Lee, I’m sorry, for the record. You may have done something wrong, giving me the job and holding the debt over my head, but that didn’t mean I had to get into your head about things. I’m starting to realize, you’re just the front man to a long tradition of manipulating the country. I think I knew it. In fact, I think everyone knows it, deep down.”