Synarchy Book 2: The Ascension (30 page)

“
You knew,” Nicholas said
lowly, but louder the second time. “You knew?!”

Dominic looked back at his son,
sneering in revulsion. “Of course I knew. I didn’t tell you to
teach you a lesson. I hope you’ve learned it. Now, get ready to
move.”

For seconds, Nicholas saw red. He had
known his father was a hateful, spiteful, selfish man, but Nicholas
had never thought him truly evil. Until then. Nicholas raised his
gun and pointed it in his father’s face. “I’m not on your side. I
never have been.”

Dominic stared at his son with furious
incredulity. “How dare you. Get that gun out of my face. Of course
you’re on this side.”

Nicholas laughed bitterly. “Oh, no.
After my family, I turned. I’ve been ratting you all out to
Marcello for years. And I’m going to make sure that you rot in
hell.”

Dominic’s eyes widened, his face
turning red; a combination of anger and sudden fear.
“Nicholas—”

It was the last word he
spoke.

Nicholas pulled the trigger, blowing a
hole in his father’s face. Stepping over the dead body, Nicholas
shot him again, just because his rage bled that thickly. The sound
of the chaos around him finally roared back into his ears and
spurred him into action. He shot out the tires on three out of the
four vehicles, ran to the fourth, opened the driver’s door, and
killed the man at the wheel. Yanking out the dead body, Nicholas
climbed into the drivers’ seat, peeling out and pulling out his
cell phone. He needed to get to his sister. Then, they needed to
leave.

§

“
Roger that, we’ll meet the
helicopter on the roof,” Caleb said quietly, poking his head out of
the door to the suite. On this floor, the hallway was quiet.
“C’mon.” Gun in hand, he slipped from the room and took Simone’s
hand in his other, moving quickly towards the stairwell.

“
Just what the hell is going
on down there, Caleb?” Worry clouded Simone's features.

“
I don’t know how bad, but
the island is under attack. We’re in evac mode.” Caleb halted her
by the door to the stairwell, listening. He pushed the door open a
crack, his gun raised as he stepped in. He looked over the railing,
just as Kayla looked up from three floors below. “Shit. Move fast
and stay low, babe. They’re on our ass.”

Heart pounding, Simone took off her
heels and ran past Caleb as he instructed, darting up the staircase
and keeping herself bent over. She could hear shouts below her,
immediately followed by the sound of gunfire. Bullets ricocheted
off the metal, sending off small sparks and pulling a startled cry
from Simone’s lips.

“
Keep moving. Eyes straight
ahead,” Caleb urged from behind her. He didn’t bother trying to
shoot back yet. He needed the rounds for when they got to the roof.
He touched his ear piece and said, “That helicopter better be
waiting.”

“
It’s a fucking shit storm
out here, sir,” came the static-filled reply, “but we’re almost
there. AF is cleaning house.”

“
That guy better be as good
of a pilot as you used to be!” Simone shouted, slightly out of
breath.

“
Few pilots are as good as I
used to be, but so long as he can dodge bullets and not crash, we
don’t have that far to go.” Caleb managed a quick grin, hoping
Simone could hear it in his voice.

They reached the door to the roof, and
Caleb used his security code to get the door open, pausing to
quickly check outside and make sure they were alone. When he didn’t
see anyone he motioned Simone through and shut the door, just as a
hail of bullets ripped into it. Caleb stepped back and shot the
control panel, buying them some time.

They ducked behind an air vent and he
trained his gun on the door. “This would be a lot more fun if you
had that cute little revolver you used to carry on your thigh,”
Caleb said, double checking his clip.

Simone smirked. “I’m really pissed off
right now that I don’t.”

“
It’s okay. Now, I don’t
have to worry about accidentally shooting myself in my haste to get
you unclothed.” Caleb winked at Simone, and she smiled at him, just
as the door to the roof blew open and their helicopter appeared. An
Omega Cadre sat in the open helicopter door, letting loose a round
of cover fire.

“
That’s your ride, babe. Go,
I’ll cover you.”

“
Tell me you’re coming with
me,” Simone demanded.

“
Right behind you. Playing
hero applies this lifetime, too. Go on.” Caleb poked his head
around the vent and fired two shots that landed in one PLFs’ head
as he tried to get out the door. Simone hesitated, but relented,
and ran over to the helicopter. The Cadre reached down to help her
up and was pulling her inside when he got shot in the
neck.

Simone fell in and looked over at the
soldier, startled. The pilot looked back, confirmed that she was on
board, and began pulling them up into the air.

“
Wait!” Simone grabbed the
machine gun out of the dying soldier’s hands and leaned out the
side of the helicopter. In her current incarnation, she had never
used a machine gun, but she had a few of Liliana’s memories to rely
on.

“
Ma’am, I have orders to get
you to the airfield!”

“
If you move this helicopter
without my husband, I will shoot you myself!” Simone snapped, and
then jerked her eyes back to the ground. She didn’t even notice
what she had called Caleb. What she did notice was that he was
pinned behind the vent as the PLFs began creeping out onto the
rooftop.

“
Caleb, get over here!”
Saying a little prayer, Simone hoisted up the machine gun and
squeezed the trigger. The first few rounds went haywire, and she
cursed like a sailor. Memory, sharp and vivid, flashed behind her
eyes. She adjusted her grip on the gun, and the next time she
pulled the trigger, a heavy tide of bullets sent two of the
soldiers that looked human, but didn’t, right to the
ground.

Caleb jerked a glance over his shoulder
and saw Simone with a machine gun in her hands, eyes blazing
determinedly. Suppressing a grin, he pushed off from behind the
vent and sprinted over to the helicopter. “Take her up, take her
up,” Caleb shouted to the pilot as he jumped in. Simone fired
another round at the soldiers below, just because she was pissed,
as the helicopter flew away.

Kayla pushed past the PLFs and came out
onto the roof as the helicopter gained altitude then whizzed off
towards the airfield. “Are you all this useless?” she snapped her
eyes over the PLFs and brought her radio up to her mouth, “Simone
got away. All forces to the airfield. The triplets don’t leave this
island alive.”

§

Agata was in her office in the Dion
Corp building when the world went insane. Three men in all black
fatigues with a strange symbol painted on their faces had rushed
into the building, nearly deserted at this hour, and pulled her
from her office. Her demands to know what was going on were only
met with the response that her father had sent them.

Now, she was sitting in the back of an
SUV in front of the building, with those same soldiers guarding the
car. Agata didn’t like whatever the hell was going on—it sounded
like a war zone around her—but it seemed like answers weren’t
coming any time soon.

Nicholas pulled his SUV to a halt
behind the similar model double parked in front of the Dion Corp
building. He slapped a fresh clip into his gun before he climbed
out of the car. “Is my sister secure?”

The solider in charge nodded. “Yes,
sir.”

“
Thank you.” Nicholas shot
that man in the head. As the other two soldiers turned to respond,
Nicholas shot them, too. He stepped over to the car and pulled open
the back seat door. “Get out. You’re coming with me.”

“
Nicholas? Nicholas, what
the hell is going on?” Agata demanded, staring at him in shock. She
couldn’t believe her brother was carrying a gun. When she saw the
dead soldiers on the ground, she thought she might
faint.

“
Agata, I can’t explain
right now. We’ve got to go.” Nicholas grabbed her arm and began
dragging her over to the car.

“
I’m not going anywhere with
you unless you give me some answers!” She dug her heels into the
ground, pulling against his grip. “Where’s Dad?”

“
Dad’s dead!” Nicholas
tightened his grip, still trying to move her. “Aggie, please. I
double crossed them. The triplets’ plane is going to leave any
second, and we need to be on it.”

“
Dad’s dead?” Shock
registered on Agata’s face. “What do you mean, you double crossed
them? Nicky, what did you do?”

Nicholas opened his mouth to answer,
but a Hummer screeched to a halt behind his car. Nicholas whirled
around, raising his gun, but not in time. A bullet landed in his
shoulder. Agata screamed, and Nicholas shouted in pain, his gun
clattering from his fingers as he stumbled back into the
car.

The door to the Hummer opened, and
Olivia stepped out, walking briskly over to them. “How long have
you been a traitor, Nicholas?” She glared at him.

Breathing heavily, Nicholas sneered.
“Everybody plays the game better than you, Livy.”

“
What are you two talking
about? Olivia, put the gun down!” Agata moved to her brothers’
side, staring wide eyed at Olivia.

Olivia shoved the gun into Nicholas’s
forehead and pulled the trigger. Agata screamed again, and Olivia
shot her in the head, too. They fell on top of each other as they
hit the concrete. “Apparently not.”

“
Let’s go, Olivia!” Amadeo
shouted from the car.

“
Such a waste.” Shaking her
head, Olivia turned around, marching back over to the Hummer, and
got inside. “Get us to the airport. Hurry.”

§

The majority of Alcyone Island’s small
but effective military force was stationed at the Loyalty Airlines
airfield. Under Christopher’s direction, they had been secretly
training for this kind of scenario for the last five months.
Holding the perimeter until the triplets’ plane got off the ground
was the primary objective.

The triplets’ Hummer zoomed through the
gates, skidding to a stop on the tarmac in front of the plane.
Vasco was the first to climb out, and Lieutenant General Richie
Archer was waiting for him.

“
Our air force kicked their
ass, so the skies are clear. The ground is a mess. They took the
hotel. We lost contact with the governor and Chief Vaughn,”
Lieutenant Archer explained. Sadly, Vasco had expected as much.
Lucien frowned darkly.

“
Where is Simone?” Vasco
asked.

“
She’ll be here in five
minutes. Both she and Mr. Kincade,” Lieutenant Archer
said.

“
Thank you. Have the Omega
Cadre put on their plane. The remainder of the Dion Corp Security
team is to come with us.”

“
What are your odds of
holding them back after we’re gone, Archer?” Lucien looked over at
the men guarding the airport, then back at the L.G.

“
Sir, General Christopher
Zhane made it very clear that if this day came they would be
fighting for something greater than themselves. Not false
patriotism, or an orchestrated terrorist attack, but something a
lot simpler and a whole hell of a lot more valuable. He said they’d
be fighting to give people like them a choice. It was a very
inspiring speech, sir. So, to answer your question it doesn’t
matter. They’ll fight until they can’t, because they choose
to.”

That sounded like Uncle Christopher,
Lucien thought. His eyes teared up. Jaw working back and forth, he
nodded, unable to say anything because of the knot in his
throat.

“
Rest assured, Archer,
General Zhane was right.” Vasco clasped his brothers’ shoulder and
led him over to the waiting plane.

“
I believe you,
sirs.”

“
Lieutenant General,” A
solider lowered his binoculars and pointed, “We’ve got incoming! A
whole fuckin’ lot of them!”

Chapter 16

“
You have enemies? Good.
That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your
life.”

- Winston Churchill

December 2, 2012 - 1:12 AM

International Airspace

SVT One

The Boeing 787 was its own version of
Air Force One. The triplets could have run things from their plane
for the next twenty days if they chose to. They sat in the
conference room, trying to come to terms with what had just
happened. They had all been a lot harder in their past lives. While
those memories were helpful in some ways, they didn’t take away the
pain, or the reality of the current moment. Lucien’s eyes were as
raw as he felt. Watching someone die in front of him, someone he
loved and respected, simply hurt. He slouched into his chair, with
his fist pressed against his mouth, and stared down at the polished
wood of the table.

Simone felt numb. While her family was
being attacked and murdered, she had been giving into something
that wasn’t hers to claim this lifetime. She knew better. She
fucking knew better, but the selfish, undisciplined part of her had
wanted something that she’d had before, instead of focusing on what
she needed to do now. She was here to play the game, and win it.
She might die trying to accomplish it, but so long as she and her
brothers called checkmate, who cared?