"Get her out of here," he said so that the com picked it up.​ "I want no speck left of her existance left by the time I get out of the shower."  

     Two of Goldbody's associates hustled into the room. One of them frowned as he looked at the corpse. He'd known the countess. He'd liked her. 

​     "Oh, you have a problem with what I've done?" Goldbody asked. He pulled a pistol from one of his dresser drawers. "Let's see what we can do about that." 

​     "No! No, I..." 

     Gideon emptied the clip into the guy's chest. To the associate left standing, Goldbody said, "Okay, now get both their bodies out of here before I return."

     "Of course. Of course."

​     Stupid fool. Make a face at him the day he was to become Master of the World, would he? You're lucky I killed you instantly, Gideon thought. If he'd had more time, Goldbody would gladly have played with him for a while, make him bleed, make him scream. As things stood, however...  

     "I'm sorry about the blood. Try to have it cleaned up as well, would you?" His way of saying, have it sparkling clean by the time I get back or I'll kill you the way I killed them, without a single thought. 

​     "Of course. Of course." That second associate got on his com very, very quickly. "Get in here, Hercule! I want the full sanitary team..."  

     Gideon shut the door to the shower so he wouldn't have to listen to anymore. Such trivialities. Didn't they know that, even at that moment, he was the most Powerful Man that Ever Existed? He set the shower so that it emitted steaming hot needles of water. He let that go for several minutes, then reset the temperature of the water so that it was at its coldest. Gideon felt his skin harden as the icy water bombarded him.  

     Gideon's lair rested on the crest of the third tallest mountain in the United States, Pete's Peak. Therefore, one wall of his shower was yet another picture window, only this window faced out over the most spectacular view in America. Mountaintops. Clouds below. Desert beyond all that. Gideon breathed in the view as he would a fresh, icy breath of winter air. 

​     And it's all mine, he thought. By this time tomorrow, I will be the Undisputed Master of All I Survey. 

     At which point, damned if he didn't get hard again.

END OF CHAPTTER ONE

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