Bat followed her to the room.
"Bat ... You and your father are more alike than I could have dreamed."
"What do you mean?"
"You arrange things. So that people can hardly back away from them. He is manipulative. And so are you."
"We can talk later," he said.
5
"I am not your fiancée, Bat," she said when they were in bed, a little after midnight. "Your father has made an assumption. Have you?"
"No. I've been reminded how much I love you."
"But your father assumes —"
"Yes, he assumes we are going to marry. He also told me I was a fool not to accept the idea you should have a career of your own."
"He did?"
"I grew up in a different tradition," said Bat. "I am an American in all but the basic things: family and so on. I'm learning."
She put her hand to his crotch and fondled his erect penis. "I've missed you, Bat," she said softly. "If we — Are you going to be in New York? That is, New York and Mexico City?"
"I'm not certain," he said. "I think my father is going to offer me a retainer as attorney for some part of the family business."
"My god, you can't take it!"
"That's what I've thought. Give me your reasons."
"Your father is a fine man, Bat. He's not what I expected. But he's like a — What is he like? What can I say? Everything that comes within his reach becomes his. If you go to work for him, you'll belong to him."
"But I'm his son. If he and I can get along together, I could inherit —"
"Forget what you'll inherit! Think about what you can be and what you can build on your own. Think what you will give your own children, not what you'll get from him!"
"Toni, he's not exactly what you think."
"Okay, he's a great warm-hearted, generous spirit — and he'll crush you. You've got ability of your own, Bat. You don't need him."
"Maybe he needs me."
"Sure he does. The question is, do you need him?"
"I can cope with him," said Bat grimly. "I know more about him than you do, and I can cope with the son of a bitch."
"You'd better read the history," she said. "The fields are strewn with the corpses of people who thought they could cope with your father and grandfather. What a horrible cliché! But there's truth in it. You can't cope with him. Nobody ever did."
"Maybe you underestimate me," said Bat somberly.
"If you let him drag you into his business, it will be a lifelong fight," she said. "And you'll lose."
"Maybe not. If you'll help me —"
"I'll help you, Bat. I love you."
"Then we can marry?"
"Not yet. Being married to you will be a full-time job, and I'm not finished with my other job yet."
"Toni, goddammit —"
"Patience, Bat. Besides ... Let's don't waste a night in bed arguing. I've got something better in mind."
6
They didn't have a night to waste. At six on Christmas morning they were wakened by a knock on the door. Robair had come to tell Bat his father wanted to see him.
The usual heavy Cord breakfast was not yet on the dining table, but a small table in Jonas's office was set with a breakfast of sausage, scrambled eggs, toast, and coffee. Already, this early in the morning, Jonas had a bottle at hand and was sipping bourbon. He wore a heavy gray turtleneck sweater and blue jeans.
"Before the girl's up, before anybody else is up," he said to Bat, "I want to talk to you alone."
"You summoned me out of a warm bed with a warm body," said Bat ruefully.
"There are more important things. I've got something I want to talk with you about. As we might put it ... your future. I hear you're a good lawyer. You've got a promising career ahead of you. On the other hand, you're an heir. In due time you will inherit ... probably half of my estate."
"I never expected anything like that," said Bat. "I'm surprised even now that you should say it."
"Who else is going to get it? What do you think of your half sister? Jo-Ann's a smart girl. But her talents, if I'm any judge, lie more toward the artistic. Her mother has encouraged her in that. Anyhow, she can't take over the business after I'm gone or have got too old to run it anymore."
"I wouldn't underestimate her," said Bat.
"When I was twenty-five years old and my father died suddenly, I came into possession of the whole shebang. One minute I was a careless kid having a good time. The next minute I was one of the wealthiest young men in America — but also one saddled with a heavy and complex burden. I could have lost it all. Almost did. The various Cord businesses, what some people call the Cord empire, are worth ten times and more what they were worth when my father died. People say I did it by being tough, not by being smart."
"The word about you is that you're both tough and smart. That's what I've always heard about you," said Bat.
"Yeah? Well, you've also heard that I'm a ruthless, rapacious son of a bitch. Right?"
Bat nodded. "I've heard that."
"Okay. Well, I've done something, too; I've built something. But where does it all go if what happened to my father happens to me? And of course it's gonna happen, eventually. What I need is a son to take over the way I did."
Bat frowned. "My god, what are you saying?"
"What's it sound like? I want you to come into the business. If you're not interested in it, everything's going to wind up in the hands of somebody not named Cord, somebody that's got nothing of me in him and nothing of my father. No Cord genes. Lawyers, accountants ... pencil pushers."
"I want to practice law a few years at least. Long enough to prove I can do it."
"I won't say no to that. But we may not have all the time in the world. I'm forty-eight years old. I'm coming into — What do they call it? The hurricane years. I'm reminded all the time that I don't take very good care of myself. Anyway, if you came into the business, you could be a lawyer at first. Corporate law. Anti-trust. Securities. Tax problems. It will take time to learn what you'd need to know if ... Well, if —"
"I'll have to think about it."
"You do that. I'm offering you a goddamned world, and you'll 'think about it.' Okay. I won't offer a second time. I won't shove it down your throat. But you better make a pretty careful appraisal of what you're accepting or rejecting ... a pretty thorough goddamned appraisal."
"I'll keep it in mind," said Bat. He wondered what Toni would say to this.
7
Using the excuse that he wanted to drive his new Porsche, Bat drove into town and placed a call from a pay telephone in a gasoline station. On the way, he told Toni what Jonas had said. She was predictably appalled. Toni sat impatiently in the car, waiting while he made his call. She knew who he was calling: his mother in Mexico City.
They spoke Spanish, so the man in the station would not understand. Virgilio picked up an extension phone and listened. Bat told his mother what Jonas was offering.
"I knew from the day you met him that you would give up your career in law and take employment with your father," said Sonja gravely.
"It is an immense opportunity," said Virgilio Escalante. "You may become one of the wealthiest and most powerful men on the continent."
"But you must be realistic about your father," said Sonja. "He is not a modest man. He is not an honest man. Don't forget that he had a motive for telephoning me. He wanted to make a connection with Uncle Fulgencio."