The Timeweb Chronicles: Timeweb Trilogy Omnibus Read Online Free Page A

implementing large-scale transformations on the worlds of the Human-controlled Merchant Prince Alliance.
    In the process, Noah had become fabulously wealthy in his own right, so he cared nothing of rumors reaching him that he had been disowned by his father; he really only cared about the loss of a relationship with Prince Saito … the riches of emotion, knowledge, and experience that they were not sharing with each other. Maybe that was about to change.
    The procession of maglev vehicles reached the valley floor, where the single track widened into ten, with a variety of conveyances whirring along on them … luxury cars, truck-trailer rigs, and buses filled with workers. Presently Noah and his entourage passed through a security beam at an ornate gate, and entered the CorpOne compound. A pair of diamonix elephants with red-jeweled eyes stood on either side of a grassy planting area just inside the entry. Ahead, Noah could see the main building. He knew it well, from having worked there with his father at one time, before their blowup.
    A marvel of engineering and aesthetic design, Prince Saito Watanabe’s office headquarters was an inverted pyramid, with the point down. As if by magic, the large structure balanced perfectly in that precarious position, while the foundation—a broad platform that included gardens, flagstones, and ornamental fountains—spun slowly beneath it. But Noah Watanabe (with his scientific knowledge and curiosity) knew how it worked; the structure was held in place by a slender core-pillar of pharium, the strongest metal in the galaxy. Elaborate geomagnetics were involved as well, and as a last recourse, a backup system would shoot stabilizing outriggers into receptacles if the tilt meters indicated trouble.
    Noah’s car hummed up to the edge of the slowly revolving platform and locked into position at the edge of an exotic rose garden. He gazed up at the improbable building above him as it rotated with the platform, and considered the practical benefits of such a design. As the headquarters spun, it gave off electronic pulses that absorbed and processed important data. The system could identify known agitators from all galactic races, profile criminal types, and make highly sophisticated statistical predictions.
    Noah wondered what his father wanted; their emotion-charged enmity had lasted for a decade and a half. In memory, he went over the conciliatory message he had received from the old patriarch, reviewing every detail that had been in the telebeam. His father was a precise man, who said exactly what he intended every time he communicated in any form, but Noah suspected hidden meanings:
    In the past we have not understood one another as a father and son should. I blame myself almost entirely, and you not at all. It is my duty to bridge our differences.
    The electronic transmittal had gone on to suggest a time and a place for a meeting. Now, as Noah watched a white-uniformed escort secretary march primly toward the hover-limousine, he recollected his own written response:
    Father: I appreciate your sentiments, and look forward to meeting with you as you have specified
    * * * * *
    From her office inside the inverted pyramid, Francella Watanabe stared in rage and disbelief at a closed-circuit screen that showed the escort secretary leading Noah and his entourage through a wide corridor. At various points along the route, Francella—as Corporate Security Chief—could activate detonations by remote control and kill the entire party. The thought was tempting, but she had something even more devastating in mind.
    With a heavy sigh, she activated a copy of the telebeam messages her father and Noah had exchanged, and continued to seethe over them, as she had done since seeing them for the first time three days before. To the very depths of her soul she loathed her twin brother, resenting the preferential treatment he had always received at her expense. Before the big disagreement between Noah and