Synarchy Book 2: The Ascension (22 page)

Caesar growled and punched her in the
stomach, watching her sink back against the counter and gasp for
breath. “Why the fuck didn’t you tell me?!”

Kayla swallowed hard and stared at the
floor. “Because… because I believed him, when he called me his
daughter. And even though I knew I couldn’t switch sides, I wanted
to keep what he said to me, for me.”

“
For fuck’s sake, Kayla.” He
slapped her, a vicious strike that made her gasp. Grabbing a fist
full of her hair, he yanked her head back to make her look at him.
“You are not his daughter! Are you that fucking stupid? He didn’t
love you, he was playing you! What kind of man could love an enemy?
You probably sucked the fucking life out of him every time he
looked at you and saw the lie.”

It was uncontrolled, the single tear
that slipped from the corner of her eye. Caesar was wrong. For
whatever reason, Marcello had loved her, hadn’t he? Maybe she had
been incorrect. After all, what did she know about such a thing?
“I’m sorry. Sir.”

“
Are you keeping anything
else from me?” Caesar demanded, tightening his grip.

“
No.” She met his eyes.
“Nothing.”

Caesar stared at her for a long time
before he released her. “Go clean yourself up. I’m taking you to
one of the training centers for an update on your
programming.”

“
Yes, sir.” Drawing herself
up, Kayla walked obediently past him.

Caesar tracked her movements, frowning.
If Marcello had known, then he had to have someone on the inside.
Caesar snatched his sandwich off the plate and took a bite, chewing
thoughtfully. Joseph Mengele had died years ago in a house fire.
Kayla’s secret should have died with him, because the file on
Project Mannequin was in the Vatican’s Secret Library. That meant
someone either brought Marcello the file, or Marcello somehow found
Mengele. Dropping his sandwich Caesar walked quickly through the
house and over to his laptop. It took him ten minutes to access the
old case file on Mengele.

“
Son of a bitch.” Caesar
frowned deeply. The date SVT Securities had acquired the file was
the date that Mengele died. There were notes that the Brotherhood
suspected that Mengele had been murdered, and launched a private
inquiry specifically to find out if Terenzio could have done it.
Caesar eyes narrowed as he read that Matthew DeMarco had led the
internal investigation and concluded that no foul play was
involved; Mengele had died of a horrible accident.

Caesar didn’t buy it. Especially now.
Either Matthew DeMarco had killed Mengele and given Marcello the
file, or Marcello had done it, and Matthew had covered up for him.
Caesar suspected it was probably the latter.

“
Those fucking traitors,” he
said to himself. Caesar had never,
ever
trusted the DeMarco family or
their loyalties. It had really burned him when he’d been forced to
report to Tony. From his past life, Caesar clearly remembered how
close DeMarco had been with the Terenzios.

The DeMarcos were Illuminati, though.
They were so entrenched on the inside that he couldn’t dare accuse
them of being traitors. That would be signing his own death
warrant. Caesar rubbed his hands over his bald head, thinking.
Eventually, he closed his laptop and went upstairs to get his
things, a plan forming in his mind. He’d just have to prove
it.

§

July 10, 2012 - 6:33 PM

New Orleans, LA

DeMarco Family Estate

“
Uncle Tony’s here!” Seven
year-old Bobby DeMarco came running into the foyer and threw
himself against Tony’s leg.

The sight of the boy brought
flashbacks, clicking away fast and disturbingly vivid behind Tony’s
eyes. He knelt down, pulling his nephew away from his leg and held
him at arm’s length. Bobby’s face was full of color, his hair
mussed, his big blue eyes bright and alive; so unlike the face of
the child that Tony had been forced to kill. “Bobby the Man
DeMarco.” Tony forced a smile and drew his nephew into him, hugging
him tightly.

“
Yer shaking, Uncle Tony.
Are you cold?”

“
He’s just fine, Bobby. Your
mother is calling you.” Alex stood in the archway, watching his
brother and his son.

Tony sucked in an uneven breath and
drew back, plastering the smile back onto his face. “I’m okay.
We’ll throw the ball around a little later, all right?”

“
Sweet!” Bobby turned
around, and with the never¬-ending energy of a child, went running
off in search of his mother.

Tony rose to his feet, rubbing the back
of his neck as he walked over to his brother. “I wasn’t
expecting—”

“
It to hit you like that? I
know. I didn’t, either.” Alex gave him a tight hug. “You did what
you had to do.”

“
Yeah.” Tony knew his
brother was right, but that didn’t make it any better. “So, what’s
up?”

“
Come with me.” Alex
squeezed Tony’s shoulder and led him into his home office. He
closed and locked the door once they were safely inside. “My
meeting with Michael went well.”

Tony walked over to his brother’s mini
bar to make himself a stiff drink. “Who’s Michael?”

“
The Archangel
Michael.”

Tony turned around, glass in hand, and
blinked. “I thought you were going to meet with the Ascended
Masters?”

“
So did I. At any rate, we
are to stay the course. He also provided us with the communication
devices we’ll need, when the time comes.” Alex walked over to his
humidor and pulled out a cigar, offering it to his
brother.

Tony shook his head at the cigar.
“Okay. What else?”

Amusement suddenly slid over Alex’s
face. “He gave me a gift to give to you. Gabriella.”

Tony took a healthy swallow of his
bourbon, enjoying the warming burn as it coated the back of his
throat. He looked at his brother curiously. “Michael gave you a
woman to give to me?”

Alex chuckled. “Sort of. Look behind
you.”

Quirking a perplexed brow, Tony turned
around and jumped. “Whoa. What the hell is that?”

Floating in front of him was a tiny
being, no more than eight inches tall. Her wings were translucent
and fluttered at a dizzying speed. She had a beautiful, tiny
face—or she would have, if not for the long white beard that
stretched from her chin. A gold helmet sat on her head. She giggled
at Tony and zipped over to his glass, poking her head into
it.

“
I’m not sure what the
proper terminology for her is. I just call her a mini-angel.
Michael said you would need her.” Alex watched in sheer amusement
as the tiny being sucked up a sip from Tony’s glass, then
coughed.

“
Number one, Tinkerbell, get
your own liquor.” Tony pinched his fingers around one of her legs
and pulled her out. “Number two, what the fuck am I going to need
it for?”

“
He didn’t say. Think of her
as your guardian angel.” Alex clipped the end of his cigar,
watching his brother.

Tony frowned, letting the mini-angel
go. She zipped around his head and found a seat on his shoulder,
crossing her legs. “I’m fine, Alex. I don’t need a babysitter.
Especially not this dwarf-pixie-angel thing.”

Gabriella huffed at Tony and looked
offended. Alex laughed. “Antonio, you could at least be polite.” He
grew serious after his laughter died down. “And you are not fine.
None of us who have to sit this close to evil are.”

“
They’re not evil. They’re
just fulfilling their soul’s obligations. They simply
are
,
remember?”

“
That is true. Even so, the
things we have chosen to do are not easily cast aside. In case you
haven’t noticed, your hand is still shaking.” Alex tipped his head
at Tony’s hand. It trembled around his glass.

Tony hadn’t noticed. He looked down at
himself, frowning lightly. After a moment, he sighed in
resignation. “Fine. She can stick around.” He knocked back the rest
of his drink in a solid gulp. “Xavier has been in touch with
Simone. And Amadeo and Olivia gave Enlil one of the Atlantean
Crystals.”

Alex lit the end of his cigar, pushing
a thin cloud of scented smoke into the air. “How did they manage to
acquire that?”

“
An Atlantean escaped from
Rainbow City with one of the crystals and found his way to the
wrong Terenzios.”

Alex frowned. “We’ve got to find the
other one.”

“
I think the triplets might
have it. Or, their scientists do.”

“
Oh, good.” Relief passed
over Alex’s face. “They’ll need it to open the Cave of
Creation.”

Tony quirked a brow. “No shit? No
wonder Enlil was so happy to have found it.”

“
Does he not know there were
two?”

“
Apparently not. I think he
believes the triplets are pretty much fucked, now.”

“
Good. Let’s hope he keeps
thinking that way.”

Tony nodded and glanced at his…guardian
angel. “Why do I get the one that looks like a
cross-dresser?”

Gabriella grinned and batted her
eyelashes. Alex burst into laughter. “Oh, don’t be so superficial.
I think she’s quite attractive.”

“
Yeah, but you’ve got shitty
taste in women.”

Amusement swirled through Alex’s eyes.
“You’re just bitter because Mona shot you down when you asked her
out.”

Tony suppressed a grin, getting ready
for the blow he knew was coming. “That’s because she’s got shitty
taste in men.”

Chapter 12

“
Difficulties increase the
nearer we get to the goal.”

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

July 11th, 2012 - 10:52 AM

Denver, CO

Blue Moon

To get to the lower levels of the DUMB,
one had to pass rigorous security protocols. It took Caesar five
minutes to get through them all, and even then he was escorted, by
a Grey, to the NSA offices. He went through another security check
point to get into their operations center, and only then did the
Grey alien leave him to handle other mundane tasks.

Caesar strode past busy cubicles and
knocked on the door to Tony’s office.

“
Come in.” Tony was standing
in front of a floating LCD screen, watching data flash across
it.

“
Sir, we have a situation.”
Caesar closed the door behind him. “The Triplets know about Kayla
and probably me.”

Tony snapped his eyes over to Caesar.
“How the fuck did that happen?”

“
Someone tipped off Marcello
years ago.” Caesar watched DeMarco closely. “Someone on the
inside.”

“
Motherfucker.” Tony rubbed
a hand across his stubbly jaw. “Have they made any moves against
you?”

“
No. For whatever reason,
they are leaving Kayla in play.”

“
Probably so they don’t
alert us that they know, and so they don’t give away whoever is on
the inside.” Tony frowned thoughtfully.

“
Sir, Xavier is a blood
relative. Perhaps he—”

“
Xavier doesn’t have that
kind of security clearance. Don’t be a moron. You don’t think he’s
watched twenty-four seven?” Tony walked over to his desk, snatching
up his cigarette pack, and lit one up. “How did you find out they
know about you?”

Caesar tensed at the insult, but kept
himself contained. “Dominic found a file about Kayla and Project
Mannequin on Lucien’s computer.”

“
Whoa, whoa, time the fuck
out.” Tony blew a heavy line of smoke at Caesar as he advanced on
him. “Our people are snooping around the triplets’ offices? How
fucking dumb are they?”

Caesar frowned. “Sir, you said
integrate and observe—”

“
Yeah, observe, not get
yourselves caught! If that’s how you’ve been running your shit the
last few decades, it’s no wonder Marcello found out about Kayla. We
might not have a leak, just a bunch of incompetent fuckin’
agents.”

Caesar’s eyes narrowed sharply. “Beg
your pardon, sir, but if there’s a leak it’s not coming from my
end. No fucking way.”

“
I’m not convinced.” Tony
took another hit from his cigarette, then paused and canted his
head at Caesar. “Wait, you said Marcello knew, but Dominic found
the file on Lucien’s computer. How do we know that Marcello knew a
fuckin’ thing about Kayla?”

“
He wrote Kayla a letter,
before he died, that she failed to share with me.” If that stupid
bitch got him in any more trouble, Caesar thought, he would
terminate her himself without waiting for orders.

Tony laughed without any humor. “Are
you fuckin’ kidding me? There’s your leak. Where is she,
now?”

“
At a Training
Center.”

“
You make sure she doesn’t
leave until it’s hammered into her skull what side she’s playing
on. And you tell your people inside to chill the fuck out. No more
side ops unless you get them from me. You got it?”

Caesar folded his arms behind his back
so Tony couldn’t see his clenched hands. As annoyed as he was with
the conversation, though, something wasn’t right. Tony’s logic
couldn’t be faulted. Kayla may very well have, at some point,
broken down and confessed to Marcello, but Caesar didn’t think the
lapse in her programming was that strong. He had a strong hunch he
was looking at the traitor. “Yes, sir. I don’t think it’s wise for
me to be a continued presence on Alcyone.”