CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR "I know plenty," Tim confessed. "But a man never shows all his cards unless the game is over, and as long as there's a Cassadine alive, the game goes on."
"I concur. I don't trust them, either, and especially not Stefan. Helena is unashamedly evil-wicked to the bone, but she doesn't pretend to be anything other than what she is. She's of the persuasion that she is above the law, and answers to nobody."
"Standard Cassadine method of operation," Tim nodded. "I take it that Stefan is different?"
"He varies somewhat in his technique. Stefan is stealthier than his mother-occasionally pretends to be a sheep rather than the wolf we know him to be."
"So tell me something that I don't know."
"Aside from the damage he's inflicted on your family, he's done damage to other friends of mine, damage for which he's gotten no blame, indeed, damage that he's craftily managed to lay at his mother's door."
"Such as?"
"You met Lucy Coe-Collins recently."
"While she was looking for her husband." Tim's face lit up at the memory of Lucy dressed to delight, then changed to a frown. "Stefan hurt Lucy?"
"Not precisely, but he knew very well that Kevin hadn't been stalking Felicia, and knew that Tom Hardy, that is the fake Tom Hardy, had been. It's taken me some time to prove it, but I got the goods on him only a couple of days ago and that following some serious computer hacking by my son, Jack, who turned it up accidentally. As a consequence, we can also tie Stefan to some peculiar dealings with Felicia Jones' bank account, and a couple of other interesting things. Jack was extremely impressed with Stefan's ability. The man is simply more technologically advanced then Helena is."
"So why don't you take him down? Why not just pull the rug out from under him?"
"Because Stefan's actions don't make sense to me yet, though I think that I'm beginning to reason it out. Stefan is all about power, and he draws his power from his name. Cassadine. A Cassadine can justify doing damned near anything he or she wants as long as it is done for the preservation or the enrichment of the family-so logically, whatever is going on is, somehow, a threat to the Cassadine family, or a means of greatly enhancing the family fortunes. Or both."
"And Stefan wants to be viewed as a good guy, or he wouldn't have blamed Mama for everything."
"True. Besides, a great number of people stand to be harmed by my revelations, and for that reason, I have to move carefully to limit the damage that I do. General Hospital could come to grief over this-he's still in charge there-and the fallout of taking him down could do irreparable damage to that establishment. I'm still trying to figure out what Stefan has to gain by being there. I mean, he's already had the perfect opportunity to destroy the place if revenge for the death of his father was his only motive. According to Luke, the whole debt thing was engineered by Stefan, and the only casualty was Steve Hardy, whose heart gave out over the strain."
"Can you prove that?"
"Not the part about Steve, of course, but the rest, yes. Luke gave us some very strong leads. Which carried me to a few things that really concern me."
"You mean this hasn't?"
"Not really. I know that Stefan is, shall we say, less than honest, but these revelations have allowed me to acquire a tap on his phones."
"And?"
"And things are considerably deeper than we'd known before. He's ordered a man named Reece to kill someone-probably Ryan Chamberlain-and bring the child-I'm assuming Carly's baby-to him."
"Reece? You don't mean..."
"I do mean. Handsome, elegant Englishman also known as Gabriel Hawthorne."
Tim chuckled. "At least we know that Stefan went to the right man. Reece does have a license to kill."
Nik stared at the book in his hand, and back at the letter that he'd found when he'd unwrapped the package that he'd found at Ruby's. The address had been destroyed when he'd spilled coffee on it, and Ruby hadn't been able to recall to whom it had been addressed. In fact, she hadn't even recalled receiving it. Working at the diner, Nik had come to respect the woman he now called Aunt Ruby, to know a part of his family that had only recently been made known to him. Granted, he had no need of work, but there was something about the job that gave him a different perspective on his life, and, he admitted almost guiltily, got on his uncle's nerves.
But this letter, and this book-this had him very upset. He knew that he needed to give it to someone, but to whom? Brenda, the woman to whom the letter had been sent, was dead, and her husband was out of the country. Worse yet, Nik thought, his own family was involved in whatever was going on. No, make that his former family. No, make that his...oh, hell, he thought angrily. He was related to the Cassadines no matter how he looked at it, and the more he knew about them, the more ashamed he became.
There was also a little girl, an innocent pawn, separated from her mother, and from her father, and apparently living in Port Charles. Nik thought back, trying to remember if he'd met the child, but couldn't call her to mind. Jillian Rose.
Nik crumbled the letter in his hand. "No," he muttered. "I can't believe that. No matter what they've done in the past, they wouldn't hurt that little girl."
Then, he recalled something that Laura had said in passing, that Helena had accused Stefan of causing Lulu's illness. He'd dismissed that at the time, but if the things that Julia Barrett was accusing the Cassadines of being involved in were actually true, maybe Helena's accusation was, as well. He thought back about how neatly their arrival in Port Charles had been, how fortuitous the timing, and shuddered. If Stefan had actually endangered Lesley Lu's life, then there was no depths of depravity to which he wouldn't descend.
He had to know, Nik decided. He had to know whatever was in the book, whatever Julia had feared might cost, no, had cost Brenda her life, and whatever it was that jeopardized the life of little Jillian Rose. He was tired of the secrets, of the Cassadine rule that whatever benefited the Cassadines was not only justified, but somehow sanctified, and that the end always justified their means.
At that moment, Nikolas Spencer was born.
"Damnit to hell and back again," Marty cursed as she slammed down the phone. "I don't need to know?? That $%^&* Brit thinks that I don't need to know??? I've got murders, mayhem, mind-control, an escaped mobster, an escaped lunatic Cassadine, a serial killer running off with a newborn heir to the Cassadine name, another Cassadine up to absolutely no good, a dead ringer and probable brother of Cesar Faison, descendant of Rasputin, and now, lurking around in the background, I find that we have one of Her Royal Majesty's finest??? And that wretched M says that I don't need to know??? Hah!!!"
"This isn't to say that you don't know what I know," Marty informed Tim as they drove back to the airport. "Especially given your interest in and past history with the Cassadine family."
