Revealed

by Zoe Allison

  Vic watched the rest of them exit, leaving her on her own with Vale and Priyanka. Vale shut the door and turned to face Vic. “Is there anything you wish to disclose to us?”

  Her mouth went dry. He definitely must have discovered her link to Harvey in his search, but she didn’t know what to say or even where to start. They needed to get down to the lobby to confront Harvey, and she didn’t have time to explain all the complicated reasoning behind why she had withheld information. “I do, but now isn’t the time.”

  He gazed at her for a couple of seconds. The sadness in his eyes caused a searing pain in her chest.

  Priyanka frowned. “What are we doing? I thought we were all going to the lobby?”

  Vale turned to her. “You aren’t.”

  Priyanka raised her eyebrows. “What?”

  “I want you to get to the helipad,” he said.

  “The helipad? You want me to leave?” She shook her head. “I am not running away from the fight.”

  “You are not running,” he said. “You are obeying a direct command.”

  Priyanka’s dark eyes widened in shock and she looked at Vic.

  “Vic knows,” Vale told her. “She guessed who I am.”

  Priyanka appeared relieved. “Good. Then the three of us can go in with our eyes open.”

  Vale shook his head. “Not the three of us. Just Vic and me.”

  “But what can I do from the helicopter?” Priyanka asked.

  “I need you to go to the prison facility.”

  Priyanka let out a deep breath. “Vale, you need to cut the chase.”

  Vic wondered if he was going to mention Angelique, but he must have figured that now wasn’t the time.

  Vale continued. “Zaina has readied the prototype for the explosive version of the Impervious chemical.”

  “Okay,” Priyanka said. “I’ll go collect the prototype. Then I’m bringing it straight back here.”

  Vale shook his head. “It hasn’t been tested yet. Just stay at the prison for now and hold fire until you hear from me.”

  Priyanka stared at him. “I will hold fire, unless I don’t hear from you. Then I’m coming back to play my part.”

  Vale held Priyanka’s gaze. “I will call you.”

  She stared at him then took his arm and leaned in. “Find Gareth.” Her eyes were shining with emotion. Then she turned to walk out of the door, leaving the two of them alone in the room.

  Vic tried to steady her rapidly firing nerves. “Vale—”

  He held up his hand. “I gave you the chance to speak—more than one chance, in fact—but you did not.”

  The searing in her chest intensified, causing heat to prick behind her eyes. “I’m sorry. I—”

  “We need to go now,” he said. “I just need to know one thing.”

  She could hardly get her voice out. “Yes?”

  His gaze was steady. “Can I trust you? Are you on our side?”

  “Of course,” she whispered. Always.

  He nodded. “Let’s go.”

  Vale opened the door and moved off along the corridor, and she had to run a few steps to catch up.

  They reached the elevator, where the other four were waiting.

  Vale drew level with Lorenzo at the front of the group and Vic joined Li, Catarina and Zaina behind.

  Lorenzo pushed the call button. “I’ll head up the group when we get down there.”

  Vale shook his head. “You all stay in formation behind Vic and me. We will speak to Moore and find out what he wants.”

  “Why you and Vic?” Lorenzo asked. “I should be on the front line. I’m the highest ranking of the group so it’s my duty.”

  “I should be with you,” Zaina said. “I’m the weapons expert.”

  Vale shook his head. “Vic and I have previous knowledge of him. We have both met Moore before.”

  The finality of the fact that Vale knew her secret weighed on Vic’s mind and heart. She was so distracted by it that she didn’t spot Gareth creeping around the corner until it was too late. She looked up just in time to hear him shout “You!” at Vale and move to launch a spear.

  Her heart rose into her throat and she made to dash forward to protect Vale, but Lorenzo was in front of her and got there first. He threw himself in front of Valentino, shouting “No!” as he launched his own weapon toward Gareth. The spear hit Gareth in the chest just as he had his arm drawn back to throw his own.

  Gareth fell to his knees, then onto his front as they all watched in stunned silence. His body started to blacken, and within seconds all that was left was ash.

  Vic gulped in air and grabbed the wall to steady herself. Gareth was the mole? No, it can’t be true. He had been her friend and now he was dead. A tidal wave of emotion crashed over her, so varied and complex that she couldn’t identify all the singular units that it was composed of.

  The elevator arrived and she was bustled into it, unable to focus on her surroundings. The others were all talking but she couldn’t take in what they were saying.

  She felt a hand on her arm. She looked up. Vale. His eyes were still sad and hurt, but there was concern there.

  Vic took a deep breath. “It was him.” Her voice cracked.

  Vale squeezed her arm and opened his mouth to say something, but then the elevator door opened and Szymon was waiting for them on the other side. He gestured toward the main doors as they emerged. “That is Mr. Moore.”

  A fair-haired man stood with his back to them, surveying the street through the window.

  “Is everyone clear?” Vale asked.

  “Yes,” Szymon said. “And the doors are locked so that no one else may enter.”

  Vale handed Szymon one of Zaina’s vests. “Put this on, and stay with these four.” He gestured to the others.

  Vic forced herself to push aside what had just happened. This was it. The culmination of decades of work. She glanced over as they walked slowly toward the front of the lobby. “Vale.”

  The pained look on his face was like a knife in her heart.

  She gulped. “I’m sorry.”

  He swallowed and looked away. “Let’s just do our jobs and finish this.”

  Vic pushed away the fact that her heart was breaking. Once it was over, she would speak to Vale, make him listen and understand.

  They neared the fair-haired man and came to a stop.

  Vale spoke first. “Good afternoon.”

  The man turned and smiled. “Hello, Valentino. Great to see you again. I’m pleased I’m not the captive one this time.”

  Vic appraised him, her heart racing. He hadn’t aged as she had pictured, but he had the same fair hair and eyes just like she remembered. And he was clearly a younger version of the bearded man in Vale’s photos, from all those years before. Something at the back of her mind bothered her.

  Vale smiled. “You are looking good. De-aging has suited you.”

  He rubbed his face. “I decided I wanted to be young again…and get rid of the beard. The upkeep was rather tiresome.”

  “Why are you here, Harvey?” Vale asked.

  “I would have thought that was simple,” he said. “I’m here to ask for the surrender of The Organization.”

  Vale raised his eyebrows. “That is not going to happen.”

  He shrugged. “You can either surrender or be conquered. It’s up to you. I think I’m being very fair in offering you a choice.”

  Vale laughed. “We would like to decline your offer…both of them.”

  Harvey smiled and appraised Vic. “You’re being very quiet today, Victoria.”

  Hearing him speak her name was like a cold dagger in her gut. She remained silent.

  He continued to smile. “So, has your crack team managed to discover who my inside person is? I assume you don’t suspect Victoria, what with her being by your side.”

  Anger pierced Vic’s core. “Of course not. They know I’d never betray The Organization.”

  Harvey laughed. “No. You’re too short-sighted fo
r that.”

  Vic was aware that the other four had tailed them up to the front of the lobby and were standing a couple of meters behind. She glanced back. Something wasn’t right. She tried to assess what was bothering her, but it was difficult with the distraction of Harvey standing in front of her.

  “We know who your mole is,” Vale said.

  Harvey raised his eyebrows.

  The sickening image of Gareth decomposing in front of them entered Vic’s mind. Decomposing. But The Organization doesn’t use tainted spears…

  Vic startled out of her thoughts. Vale had just shouted. She snapped her gaze up toward where Lorenzo was moving slowly toward Harvey, alone.

  “Lorenzo!” Vale shouted. “Don’t get too close. We’ll finish him together.”

  Panicked, Vic feared Lorenzo was going to engage Harvey on his own. She made to move toward him in order to stop him. Her heart thudded in her chest as suddenly the reason for things not feeling right when she had glanced back a moment ago became clear. Lorenzo wasn’t wearing one of their vests. Why would that be? Only if he isn’t at risk from the malevolent…or if he’s worried that he’ll burn with the Impervious chemical impregnated within it.

  Lorenzo’s gait started to change from stealthy to sauntering.

  Vic’s heart went into overdrive. The Organization doesn’t use tainted spears. And yet the one launched by Lorenzo was just that.

  Lorenzo casually closed the last few steps to reach to Harvey. He lifted out a spear and pointed it at Harvey’s chest. “Boo!”

  A tidal wave of nausea washed over Vic.

  Pulling the spear away again, Lorenzo collapsed with laughter, before grabbing Harvey into a hug.

  “Shit,” Zaina muttered behind her.

  All the blood drained from Vic’s face.

  Lorenzo let go of Harvey but kept an arm around his shoulders. He spun the spear between the fingers of his other hand. “Well. Caught you all out there, didn’t I?”

  His speech had changed, his neutral accent morphing to one with a definite lilt. She knew that voice. The bothersome thought from the back of her mind when she had initially laid eyes on Harvey became clearer. Why would Harvey’s face appear the same now, albeit younger, as back when Vale had captured him, despite his ability to change it?

  Lorenzo stared at her. “Figured it out now, Vic?”

  Suddenly everything seemed very far away, as if voices were muffled, and a ringing noise sounded in her ears. After a couple of seconds, it reached a crescendo then silenced, and it all became crystal clear. She felt a hand on her arm. Vale.

  “It’s him,” she said. “Lorenzo.”

  “He’s the mole.” Vale said.

  Vic took a deep breath. “He’s the mole and he’s Harvey.”

  She heard the others draw close in behind.

  Lorenzo slowly clapped his hands. “Finally. Not fast on the uptake, are you, sis?”

  Catarina gasped from behind her. “You’re his sister?”

  Vic gritted her teeth as she stared at Lorenzo. “Not anymore, I’m not.”

  He shrugged. “There’s no getting away from the genetics, sweetheart.”

  Li spoke in a low voice behind them. “But what about Gareth? He was going to spear Vale.”

  “Nope,” Lorenzo said. “He was aiming at me. He must have been doing some digging when he was off grid and discovered things about my past.” He tossed his spear in the air and caught it deftly. “But I was too quick for him.”

  A cold, unbearable sadness gripped at Victoria’s heart. That was why the spear had been tainted. The Organization might not use them, but the malevolent did. Gareth wasn’t just her colleague, he’d been her friend, and he’d covered for her. And now he was gone. She clenched her fists as her sadness twisted into incandescent rage.

  “Lorenzo,” Vale said. “Or Harvey, or whatever your name is. What exactly are you trying to achieve here?”

  “It’s Lorenzo now,” he said. “Harvey is my past, and Lorenzo is my future. I’ll tell you what I want—and it’s all of you gone. This,” he said, pointing to himself, “has taken me years to achieve, whereas it could have been a much shorter journey without you on my back. I even had to use my decoy friend here to keep the wolves from my door.” He pointed to the fair-haired man who they had presumed was Harvey and who Vale had captured years previously. Vic remembered Angelique’s words at their first meeting with her at the prison facility. ‘Did I meet him?’ Her cryptic way of hinting that the person they had captured was not Harvey. The bitch didn’t reveal that particular secret.

  “Mind you,” Lorenzo continued, rubbing his face. “This appearance is rather fetching. I’ve enjoyed these dark and handsome features over the years.” He smirked at Vale. “It certainly had all of you fooled from the beginning.”

  Vale raised his eyebrows. “And none of us suspected you because you were safely ensconced here while we were out chasing that guy.” He pointed toward the decoy.

  “Bingo!” Lorenzo said, laughing.

  Vic’s anger swirled inside her, eating up every other emotion that she had felt previously until she could feel it oozing out of her pores like white-hot fire. She gritted her teeth. “So, you still love going on about how amazingly clever you are?”

  Lorenzo stopped laughing, his expression turning stony within seconds.

  Vic had been expecting that response. “And you still don’t like being criticized.”

  Lorenzo clenched his jaw. “I have the upper hand here, sis—and don’t you forget it.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “Do you?”

  Lorenzo hesitated. “Don’t try that one on me. I know all The Organization’s secrets. I’m second only to the deputy of this outfit.”

  Vic pointed at her chest. “Did you know about these vests?”

  Anger erupted onto Lorenzo’s face. “That’s enough! I’m sick of talking to you. What do you choose? Surrender or be conquered?”

  Vale shifted next to her. “Conquered by the two of you?”

  “Nope,” Lorenzo smiled. “By the army of us.”

  He pressed his watch. Outside the window, scores of people started to amass, some speeding in on foot along the street, others emerging quickly from surrounding buildings. There were hundreds—and all moving at vampire speed. They came to a halt in rows outside the HQ.

  Lorenzo smiled. “All under my command—which is what this place should’ve been if I had managed to get into the deputy’s position.”

  Vic remembered the story of how Lorenzo had been vying for the position along with Vale and Priyanka. Vale had turned it down, Priyanka had gotten it and Lorenzo had been snubbed. He would have felt worse if he’d known that Vale had gone on to become Mr. X himself.

  “Okay,” Lorenzo said. “Time’s up. Final decision. Which option do you choose?”

  Vale lifted a spear. “Neither of them.”

  Vic lifted her own and heard the others do the same behind her.

  Lorenzo laughed. “Even if you called everyone out of their upstairs offices, you still wouldn’t have a chance. We are stronger and faster.”

  Stronger and faster. That must be their extra power. That’s why Lorenzo was so much quicker than Gareth.

  None of them moved a muscle.

  Lorenzo shrugged. “Fine. Let’s level your playing field.” He pressed his watch and a rumbling noise emitted from beneath them. Vic looked at Vale. They both recognized that sound.

  “Open the doors!” Vale called to Szymon. “Everybody out!”

  Lorenzo and his decoy zipped through the open doors just before the rest of them, the floor shifting beneath their feet.

  They stood on the street outside the building, facing the mass of malevolents as their building came down behind and around them. The falling debris caused them no harm as vampires, but if they hadn’t gotten out of the way, it would have taken a while to dig themselves out from a mass of rubble that used to be sixty floors up—which would be precisely the predicament for everyone else in th
e building.

  Dust swirled around them and Vic kept her eyes on Vale and Lorenzo, using her vampire vision to cut through the dust.

  “So,” Lorenzo said, “it’ll probably take everyone a while to climb out of that. Are the six of you sure you don’t want to choose surrender?”

  Vic glanced back at other agents still with them. None of them seemed about to give in. She lifted her spear again and so did Vale and the others.

  Lorenzo rolled his eyes. “Fine.” He turned and walked away into the crowd of his followers. As he disappeared among them, he lifted his hand and the first wave came at them.

  The six of them spread out. Vic prepared for the first onslaught, raising her fists as she growled and her canines extended. A group of three reached her and she ran at one of them, slamming her fist into his face. That blow would normally have sent another vampire flying, but instead it only resulted in him stumbling back a few steps. Shit. They are strong.

  The next one managed to connect a punch to her ribcage and the force of it sent her reeling—however, she recovered in time to throw the third one over her head. They had enhanced strength but clearly hadn’t been trained in combat tactics to any degree. Too many to train.

  “Vale!” she shouted.

  He looked over from where he was engaged with his own group of malevolents.

  “They aren’t trained!”

  He nodded and threw an assailant over his head.

  Vic took on another group. She had to concentrate hard to use her tactics against them, due to their speed. She found that the key was to avoid as many hits as possible, because it was their strength that threw her off the most.

  She needed to keep them down, and the handful of non-tainted spears she had on her person weren’t doing the job. If she removed them from the ones she had felled, they would regenerate in a few minutes and come at her again. She threw a spear, which impacted one of them in the chest, and he fell to the ground. She reached into the back of her vest for another, but she was all out.

  Zaina ran toward her. “Here!”

  Vic caught the sheathed spear that had been tossed her way.

  “Careful,” Zaina called as she moved toward another group of malevolents. “It’s tainted.”