by Lila Dubois
Such a simple thing, and if Luca hadn’t been so emotionally distraught back in Boston, he might have thought to mention it.
“What changes?” Owen asked, then answered his own question. “Nothing. We still go in as planned. If they’re still monitoring Cohortes Praetorianae—"
“How?” Milo demanded, this time in Italian. “They have a spy?”
“How could they have a spy?” Luca countered. “You’re all members.”
“Actually, that’s not accurate. A few of us…people who have certain security positions within the Masters’ Admiralty, are, but most of the people, and all of the support staff, don’t know about the society.”
“Oh.” It was humbling every time he realized exactly how much he didn’t know about the Masters’ Admiralty. “Apps,” he told Milo. “Game apps, with built-in spyware. Enough targeted ads, and they can get almost anyone to download an app, even if it’s just to try it once.” Joli had told him that.
Milo blasphemed—creatively—and turned away, his own phone in his hand.
“English, please,” Selene said.
“I’ll tell you in the car,” Luca assured his lover.
His lover.
Luca still struggled to believe the past week had been real. The days and nights spent in Oscar’s and Selene’s arms felt like a dream.
One he was about to wake up from. They weren’t his, and once all of this was over—if he survived—the Grand Master would place him in a trinity with strangers. Strangers he feared he could never love. He’d already given his heart away to these two incredible people standing next to him.
“Everybody in the car. I’ll let the rest of the MPF team know en route.” Owen’s attention shifted to Oscar. “We have some backup coming too. He had to catch a commercial flight from Texas, but he’s only a couple hours behind us. It gives us time to stop by your lab, Luca. I assume you’ll need equipment to help dismantle the explosives. We’ll wait to breach until we have the last member of the team.”
“Who?” Luca asked.
“Texas?” Selene said at the same time.
Oscar sighed. “Fuck. They’re talking about my brother. Langston’s coming to help defuse some bombs.”
Luca froze. “Is he coming…alone?”
Owen nodded. “Yes. His spouses wanted to come, but there was no reason for them to make the trip.”
Luca breathed a small sigh of relief. That meant he didn’t have to face Mina Edwards yet. The woman he’d forced to wear a bomb. A bomb that he would never have detonated.
But even if he told her that, did it excuse what he’d done?
No.
He’d emotionally tortured her, and the memory of the fear in her eyes that day had haunted him ever since.
Being with Oscar and Selene these last few days, he’d managed to push away the things that hurt him to remember. Now, faced with seeing Langston, the past was catching up to him. And the reality was, he’d done evil things.
For good reasons, but still, truly evil things.
Suddenly he was glad for the reminder, the reality check. Because when this was over, once his sister was safe, he would walk away from Oscar and Selene, knowing it was the right thing to do. They deserved better than to be tainted by his presence.
“Load up,” Owen said again. “It’s time to go.”
Luca went first, and instead of sliding into one of the rear seats, he took the front passenger seat. That way Selene and Oscar couldn’t sit next to him.
It was time for him to start distancing himself from his lovers.
Luca stood at the front gate, flanked by Owen and Rodrigo, the controls for one of his robots in hand. He also had at his disposal the rest of the things he had grabbed from his lab, including some smaller blast walls, a bomb suit—which he hadn’t bothered with, and a small bomb box that had fit in the back of one of the SUVs.
He was the bomb expert with the front gate team. The rest of the MPF people were stationed around the edges of the compound as combination lookouts and guards, posing as a road crew and diverting traffic, or in one of the vans working the communications system, or watching a live satellite feed of the area. The fact that someone in the MPF had enough pull to re-task a satellite was both alarming and impressive. And strangely…it instilled in Luca a small sense of pride.
After all, he was now a member of the same society as the satellite re-tasker. Within the Bellator Dei, he’d been treated as a subordinate, a pawn to be used, someone without a voice, without a choice, in his actions.
Today, however, while in the company of some of the most brilliant minds he had ever met, he’d been treated as an equal, and even deferred to as they made decisions regarding this mission.
It had given him emotional whiplash from first being the main suspect to then being a part of the discussion about who the potential traitor within the Masters’ Admiralty side of the MPF might be. Background checks had already been run, so unfortunately there was no clear suspect, but he’d carefully looked at the dossiers Owen and Devon had given him, looking for anything that might indicate a Bellator Dei connection.
There hadn’t been anything, but those hours of working with them had made him really feel like a member of the Trinity Masters. He was here because he wanted to be, because it was the right thing to do. The Bellator Dei needed to be stopped.
There was a second bomb disposal team at the back gate. Langston was with them, but Luca had yet to see the other man. Oscar also hadn’t seen his brother. He and Selene were in a van with Sidika, the woman who’d come to Boston with Owen and Milo, and they were helping watch the various camera feeds that had been set up to monitor the areas around the compound for any incoming problems via satellite images.
“We’re ready.” The speaker was Jennika Davis, an American NSA agent—and a very likely candidate for the person who had enough power to re-task a satellite.
She motioned him over to a second van that was pulled up near the gate. Luca hopped inside and put on the headset when she passed it to him.
“This is the live satellite feed.” She pointed to one of several monitors. “It’s cropped so you’re only seeing the compound. Here, here, and here are the feeds from our snipers.”
Three people—Sarah, Vadisk, and Claudette—had managed to make it onto the roofs of buildings closest to the wall, Vadisk by retracing his exact steps from the first raid, and Sarah and Claudette by jumping from the tops of the chain-link fences onto the roofs. He’d watched their jumps via video feed from their body cams, and it had been both impressive and horrifying.
“Hit this button to talk to them.” Jennika pointed at a small panel with a dozen identical silver switches. A piece of tape was stuck to one of them. “Flip it down to come back on the main comms line.” She pointed at his headset.
Luca nodded, then scooted his small stool back and unfolded a printed image of the compound on his lap. He’d drawn over the top of it, outlining the main building in thick black lines. Owen had helped him number them, then taken a picture of his map and sent it to everyone. They would use his map to guide the whole operation. It seemed insane that they were putting their faith in him, considering Owen had tried to arrest him for lying to a federal officer twelve hours earlier.
Luca looked at the image then closed his eyes, thinking back to what he’d been taught about land mines. Undoubtedly the curriculum had been changed and updated since his time in “school.”
But what hadn’t changed was the layout of the buildings, or the way they thought. Bombs were blunt instruments, land mines especially so.
He opened his eyes and looked at the map, studying the location of the first land mine, which they’d found only because Owen had noticed the recent disturbance of the flagstone.
Luca flipped the switch so he could speak to the three people on the rooftops. He took a breath and started giving directions.
“At the steps of building two, is there a cross?”
After a second there came a reply. “No.�
�� The voice was female, with a Nordic accent.
There had been a cross there. If they moved it, it was because they didn’t want to risk it being damaged.
“There,” Luca told them.
“I have it,” a second female voice said with a French accent. “The base of the steps.” A second later, there was the cracking sound of a rifle being fired.
Followed shortly by the loud boom of a land mine detonating.
On the satellite feed, a puff of dirt appeared, the delay only a matter of seconds.
Owen leaned in. “Nice one, Luca.”
Luca nodded, looked down at the map, and gave the next direction.
It took over an hour and forty beanbag rounds to explode nine land mines. With each one that went off, the mood of those around him grew a bit grimmer. Nine land mines.
There would be more. Other traps, other ways the Bellator Dei leadership would try to keep the cult’s secrets.
Jennika tapped her own headset then pointed to the switch. Luca flipped it, tuning into the comm link that everyone else was on.
“Woohoo! That last one was a good one,” Oscar said enthusiastically.
Luca blinked. That was Oscar’s voice, but it didn’t sound like Oscar.
“It’s not a fucking fireworks show,” Oscar grumped.
Wait, that was Oscar, which meant the first voice had been Langston.
Luca’s stomach knotted, but he didn’t have long to dwell on his guilt over what he’d done to Langston, Mina, and Rich.
“Clear the channel,” Owen commanded.
“Aye, aye, Mr. FBI,” Langston said.
“We have clear pathways,” Owen continued. “But there are no guarantees. Breaching is a risk, clearing the buildings is a risk. There’s no shame in backing out.”
Through the open door of the van, Luca saw Owen looking around at the handful of people who had started to gear up—strapping on vests, checking tool belts, and putting on helmets. None of them looked up or acknowledged what Owen had said.
“This is your chance to take a step back, and there is no shame or cowardice in it,” Percival added.
“Out teams?” Owen asked.
“Ready.”
“Ready.”
“Last call.”
Luca could see Owen putting on his vest while his voice came over the comm link.
“We’re all going in, boss.”
“Let’s find these people, rescue the ones we can.”
Luca didn’t know who any of the voices belonged to. They were strangers to him, but they were willing to risk their lives to go in and search for any information they could find about the Bellator Dei. They had just spent an hour listening to land mines being detonated, and they were still willing to go in. The cynical part of him said it was because they wanted to put an end to the Bellator Dei. They were, after all, enemies of the Masters’ Admiralty, and, by extension, the Trinity Masters.
But part of him, perhaps the part of him that had taken a leap of faith and joined the Trinity Masters, believed that the members here today wanted not just to stop the Bellator Dei, but to save those people, like his sister, like his younger self, who were trapped. Victims. Even if they didn’t realize it.
Luca passed Jennika his headset and stepped out of the van. Oscar and Selene were waiting for him. Neither one of them had on protective gear, and Oscar looked pissed, especially when Owen passed Luca a helmet and vest.
“They won’t let us go in with you,” Selene said quietly.
“Good. I don’t want to risk you.” He looked at them. “Either of you.”
“Be safe.” Oscar’s voice was gruff as he helped fasten the Velcro of the vest.
“Is your robot ready?” Selene asked.
Luca picked up the remote he had put down in order to guide the land mine clearing effort. He clicked a button and then used the joystick to guide the robot forward, toward the open front gate.
Selene put his helmet on, and once more he could hear chatter on the comms. “We’ll be here. Come back to us.” Selene blinked, as if she’d surprised herself. Oscar was frowning at her, but it was a frown of concern.
Luca allowed himself one moment—one brief, quick, beautiful moment—to pretend he was coming back to them. Then he shut those feelings down hard. He needed to concentrate on the job at hand, do what needed to be done in that compound to save innocent lives.
And when it was over…all of this was over. He wouldn’t be coming back to them. He couldn’t.
“We’re taking building two,” Owen said. “We’re going on a separate channel, and if needed, Jennika can patch us through to the other team. As you suggested, Luca, they’re taking building four, the, uh, school facility.”
Luca was going to the main building that housed not only the dormitory, but the Prelate and clergy offices as well. He was hoping there would be records there, something that would give them a clue where they’d gone.
Where his sister was.
Those buildings were also the most likely to be rigged with some kind of explosive.
Owen looked at Luca. “Ready?”
He nodded, the helmet heavy on his head, and guided the robot forward. He walked behind it, fifteen feet of space between him and the small machine. Once they were through the doors, Luca could see the back gate, at the far side of the compound. Though the view was somewhat obscured by a few buildings, he could see the open rear gates and a team of people following their own robot, which looked considerably nicer than Luca’s.
For a moment, the man walking behind the other robot paused, staring across the courtyard at Luca. His face was in shadow, hidden beneath the helmet, but the breadth of his shoulders, his height, was achingly familiar. Even with the distance between them, Luca could feel Langston’s animosity.
All the more reason he needed to distance himself from Selene and Oscar. He didn’t want Oscar put in the middle. While Oscar understood and accepted the reasons for Luca’s actions, the same wasn’t true for Langston. Nor should it be. Luca had deeply hurt someone Langston loved. Luca would want to commit murder if anyone ever hurt Selene or Joli in such a way. There was a reckoning coming for Luca and Langston, and he didn’t want Oscar forced to watch or take sides.
It took a painstaking forty minutes to get to the building, mostly due to the slow speed of the robot. Having the robot go first meant that it would trigger any remaining land mines, but for safety, he also chose a path that went over the craters left by the land mines, which slowed them even further.
They reached the steps of the dormitories. He looked up at it, shocked that it was just…just a building. Somehow knowing that it was empty, that the Bellator Dei leadership, the men who had controlled his life and shaped him into something he had never wanted to be, weren’t there, took away the power of this place. He no longer feared it. Now it was just a building.
A potentially dangerous building.
Luca navigated the robot up the steps, but now that they were so close, the painfully slow pace was aggravating. He hurried forward, ignoring Owen’s shout, and lifted the robot up the steps. As he set it down, he glanced at the doors and froze.
There was a red wire peeking out from above the stone lintel around the door.
He’d known there was going to be something, but seeing it, being so close to a bomb built by someone he knew, someone who had been trained by the same people who’d trained him, was jarring.
“Opening the door will trigger a bomb,” Luca said very carefully. He eased back and gently nudged the joystick to send the robot forward.
Behind him, Owen was talking, his voice buzzing in Luca’s ear as he asked to be patched in to the other team to let them know that the door here was rigged. Luca was focused on what was in front of him. There was a small screen on the control, which gave him a grainy feed from the camera on the robot.
Defusing bombs wasn’t what he’d been taught here. It was a skill he’d had to learn on his own—with the Bellator Dei’s support—in order to get h
is job with Cohortes Praetorianae. A job he’d walked away from in a desperate attempt to retrieve his tablet, something he had yet to think about or really deal with. He was out of work, homeless, and facing certain heartbreak.
Luca shook his head as if he could physically drive the dark feelings out.
Too many thoughts ran through the back of his mind as he methodically worked the robot. He found where the red wire disappeared though a small hole beside the doorway that they must have drilled just for that purpose.
Learning to defuse the bombs, even if it had been done to serve the Bellator Dei’s needs, had been a small rebellion.
He shifted the robot and got a better look. It wasn’t just wire. It was thicker than he’d first thought. Detonating cord? But why would they have that around the door? Det cord was used as a transmission medium in commercial explosions—construction. But it was also an explosive in its own right.
Deep down, he’d clung to the hope that maybe he’d be able to secretly disarm the bombs made by the Bellator Dei. Between that and the flaws he always built into his own bombs, he’d been trying to minimize the damage he’d done.
To change what he was.
There was nothing else he could do from out here. Time to open the door.
He held his breath, ignoring the chatter of people talking though the comms as he slowly opened the door with the robot arm. It was unlocked. Given the blasting cord, the unlocked door was by design.
And suddenly, Luca knew what was waiting for them.
Even as he piloted the robot forward, he backed up, walking blindly as he kept his eyes on the screen.
Hands grabbed him, guiding him back, and then there were people around him…protecting him.
“There’s going to be a fire bomb inside,” Luca murmured. He didn’t realize he was speaking in Italian until he heard someone repeating what he’d said in English. Since there was someone to translate, he didn’t bother wasting the brain power and kept speaking in Italian.
“You see it?” Owen asked.
