As Luigi Mondo broke away from his family and started walking toward the grand staircase to the upstairs, certain he was a dead man; I took Lucita by the arm and whispered, “Your brother is here.”

The appearance of the Smiling Killer was an unexpected wrinkle. He wasn’t exactly inconspicuous, and the Caesar wasn’t the sort of person to send backup. Given someone had just tried to kill his daughter, it was possible he was there as a bodyguard, but it was equally possible he had another mission. The Smiling Killer had been listed as “highly unstable” among his many other more charming qualities, like preferring to kill people with a machete if he managed to get them up close. It was also possible he could be here to monitor my actions with Lucita, or kill me. The Caesar was no fool, and an attack on Lucita so soon after my arrival might be something he was suspicious of.

Assuming his mole didn’t outright inform him of my presence as an infiltrator.

Dammit, too many unknowns.

Lucita’s eyes widened at the mention of her brother. In an equally low voice to mine, she replied, “Fuck. Sending him is no small matter.”

“I thought you said Alonzo was incompetent.”

“Incompetence can be measured in many ways, and he’s very good at the killing part of our business. He is one of those who murder because they like it. If he’s here, he’s almost certainly brought his gang as well. Each of them is as modified as I am.”

“Perhaps we should abort.” It was a general policy for Letters. You didn’t let your targets pick the time and place for attack; you did. Better to retreat and strike again another day than subject yourselves to exposure. It was the difference between an assassin and a soldier at the end of the day.

Lucita’s response put my definition to lie, though. “I am not one to run away from a fight.”

I clenched my teeth and was about to say something nasty when a thought occurred to me. I had entertained it earlier before dismissing it, but given the changing circumstances, it seemed like a much better idea now. “There might be an alternative to our situation.”

“Which is?”

“Divide our enemies and conquer them.” I needed to keep Lucita from her brother for multiple reasons, not the least being he could know I was here to bring about the end of her father’s organization. I also saw another opportunity to weaken the Carnevale and possibly bring about its end.

“I’m listening.”

I put together the idea quickly in my head, trying to figure out how all of the dominoes would fall if I changed my plan. It was a risky but necessary part of this operation to make some educated guesses. “Luigi thinks I’m a member of the Society because of my appearance. We can convince him you are now with them and ready to turn against the Carnevale. Then we use his guards against Alonzo and company, or flat-out call the military down on your foes.”

Lucita blinked. “That will never work in the long term.”

“It only needs to last long enough to kill him. As for my former masters, you said yourself they’re not going to be a problem for much longer.”

“You are a duplicitous snake. I’m starting to like you.”

“Only starting?” I gave a false reassuring smile.

Lucita rolled her eyes. “Don’t push it.”

“I believe this is a risk worth taking.”

Lucita closed her eyes, and then looked at the figure who was already halfway up the stairs. “All right. Like my father’s namesake, we have already crossed the Rubicon. I must be willing to do everything I can to destroy him, even work with—ugh—the government.”

“Not a fan, I take it.”

“Look around you,”

“I see.” Truth be told, I wasn’t sure where a woman who belonged to a family of assassins formed by a fascist relic of the Cold War had room to judge, but we were running out of time.

I needed to contact the Society and see if I could press on Mondo to make use of this plan. I had permission to kill Mondo, but they still might be able to exert some influence on him.

The worst case scenario, at least as far as I could tell, was we’d just have to kill him. Well, actually, the worst case scenario was any number of people killed me and Lucita, but that was splitting hairs.

Walking with my temporary partner toward the grand staircase, I decided to bypass the presently absent Marissa and contact Persephone directly. It was a breach of protocol, but since I wasn’t getting any response from my Assistant, I figured I was justified in doing so.

Much to my surprise, I was answered by S rather than Persephone. A little square appeared in the top right-hand corner of my vision showing her sitting behind Persephone’s desk. Her hair was tied up in a bun and she was wearing a black jacket over a business suit dress. “G? My God, I thought you were dead.”

“What?” I responded, trying not to show my surprise to Lucita.

“You’ve been off the grid since you arrived in Italy. Marissa scrambled your signal as well as Delphi’s ability to monitor you. Persephone was about ready to issue a kill order on you. They thought you were involved with her escape.”

“Escape?” My blood ran cold.

“Is something wrong?” Lucita asked, taking my arm as we walked up the stairs past security.

“Just the usual,” I said, feeling my mouth go dry. “People trying to kill me, treachery, and lies.”

“Ah, Tuesday,” Lucita said.

Inside my stomach was churning and I felt like vomiting. I’d spoken with Marissa at length since my arrival, even made arrangements for a hit, and she’d gone rogue during it? What the fuck was going on?

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

S, meanwhile, explained my situation. “Marissa was the mole. She set up Lisa Simple with the aid of outside contractors, but our investigators saw through that. It was to buy her some time, though, as she ditched her monitors. Somehow, she broke her conditioning or was never conditioned in the first place. We’re investigating everything she’s been involved in since the beginning, and that, unfortunately, includes you.”

I thought of the first time I’d made love to Marissa, not long after we’d both barely escaped from an assassination gone wrong involving anti-government terrorists calling themselves the John Brown Brotherhood. The excitement and adrenaline had made us tear each other’s clothes off in the safe house, and we’d had sex on the hood of a 2013 Mercedes Benz.

I thought about the time Marissa and I had first discussed my desire to find out about my past in violation of protocol. I’d been trying to seduce her for some time but hadn’t made much progress. So I dropped the facade and simply explained to her how much I wanted to know who I was and where I came from.

I thought about how Marissa loved playing video games that involved violently shooting people and had to explain the appeal to me.

And she was obsessed with Chinese noodles.

I had been betrayed before, but this was something that felt a whole order of magnitude different, like someone had kicked out a ladder I hadn’t even realized I’d been standing on and now I was falling to the ground in slow motion.

“I see,” I responded, unsure of what else to say.

“Give me a status update, now. I’m temporarily in command and we’re running blind here.”

“Understood.” I gave S a short rundown of the situation. I considered leaving off the fact that the International Refugee Society had been exposed to Washington by the Carnevale, but S was the one on the other line and I wasn’t about to endanger her in order to get revenge. God, I was starting to see the point Persephone had about human ties making a mess of a person’s loyalties. Right now, I would give anything to return to my early days as a soulless automaton. Suddenly, my whole mission here seemed unimportant. Trite. “We’re about to kill Luigi Mondo.”

“Don’t,” S responded, her voice having an urgent stunned quality to it. “Luigi Mondo is a huge patron of the Society. You are not approved for killing him.”

Great. This just kept getting better and better. My mind was swimming with all the possibilities this new information presented as well as the ache of realizing I’d been played for a fool. Elements of Marissa being the Carnevale’s mole didn’t make sense, though—like why did the Zombie break her finger if she was their informant? Why was she taken prisoner? Why hadn’t she blown my cover? I was almost embarrassed that my thoughts included the stereotypical “Was anything she felt for me real or was it all a lie?” I tried to force it all down and focus instead on the contract.

“How did she do this? Where is Persephone?” I tried not to show any concern in my thoughts to S, but somehow, I knew my wife picked up my absolute distress.

“I’m sorry, G. I truly am.”

“Please, answer the questions.”

“All right.”

Lucita and I reached the top of the stairs, turning to the right to follow Luigi into his office past a hardwood door. There were numerous cameras throughout the hallways and the upstairs guards included men with modified assault rifles and heavier weapons. Luigi was prepared for cyborgs as well as regular assassins, leading me to think we might just be walking into the lion’s den.

Truth be told, I didn’t care. Right now, if Luigi’s men or the Smiling Killer’s came out and murdered me, I would have barely noticed.

No, I needed to push that away.

I wanted to live.

Is this what life with attachments was like? Being a slave to another person?

If so, it was foolhardy.

I focused instead on the mission.

It was easier that way.

S explained just how Marissa pulled off her coup. “She inserted some kind of root-kit into Delphi which gives her unprecedented access to the entire mainframe. We’re still trying to find it, but it’s not like we can just reboot her from a previous save. What makes her useful is the connections she’s formed with all of the information she monitors. As for Persephone, she’s in Washington D.C. with her contacts. It’s possible she knows what’s coming or maybe… I dunno, shit. Can you stop Mondo from being killed?”

“Possibly.” I needed to get ahead of this immediately. I had no idea what was waiting for us in Mondo’s office and it was entirely possible he was calling security now to order our detainment. I needed to get him to trust us and as good as I was with manipulating people, I wasn’t that good.

Not without leverage.

Stopping in front of the door, I directed Lucita to the bannister overlooking the party and whispered into her ear, “I see your brother’s men. We need to point them out.”

Lucita nodded, coming to look over the bannister. “Where?”

“S, I need you to call Luigi Mondo immediately and tell him he needs to work with me and Lucita to take these people down. Tell him it’s a plan by the Society or whatever else you need him to do. Also, to lend us his security forces.”

“That’s a big favor to ask right now given your connection to Marissa.”

I sucked in my breath. “For me, please.”

S was silent for a moment. “All right. Stall for a minute.”

I fumbled over my words. “Well…”

“Now I know something is wrong,” Lucita said, shaking her head. “Does the presence of my brother frighten you? I thought Letters were made of sterner stuff.”

I bit down on my tongue before I gave her a verbal lashing, which would have ruined everything. Instead, I said, “No. I’m playing it safe. Knowing each of your brother’s weaknesses as well as the people he’s travelling with will be necessary to coordinating Mondo’s people.”

“He’s probably going into a panic room now, calling down his guards on us. They’ll proceed to take us outside and put bullets in the backs of our heads. I might survive, but I doubt you would.”

“I think he’ll listen to our offer.”

“Because he thinks you’re part of the Society? He’s a politician; they’re naturally cowards. Eager to send men and women into battle but very rarely risking themselves or the lives of their offspring. The Society is the same. Weak.”

I disagreed. “They’re good at controlling people, Lucita. Believe me.”

Lucita stared at me. “Then why did you leave it?”

I stared back at her. “I wanted to be more than a machine. How about you?”

“I wanted to be me, no matter the cost to my father’s pride.”

That opened a lot of questions. Because of Marissa’s betrayal, which I hadn’t even confirmed but trusted coming from S more than anyone else, I asked, “Why do you even want the Carnevale, anyway?”

Lucita did a double take at that statement, looking every bit as flustered as me. “You wouldn’t understand, Letter. It is my inheritance. It is a connection to my family. It will be my legacy. I may have nothing good to say about my family, but the Carnevale is my past… and my future.”

“You’d be surprised by what I understand.”

“As for my brother and company’s weakness, shoot them a lot. Show them no mercy, for you shall be shown none in return. They are not subtle men and when they strike, they do so with maximum force and total ruthlessness. You can expect them to have unlimited resources as well. Another of my father’s indulgences is he has the local military base outfit his men with NATO equipment.”

I nodded.

It’s done, S said, contacting me. He’ll do what you say.

I nodded, looking over my shoulder. “Let’s get this over with, then.”

“Do you have someplace else to be?” Lucita joked, following me into Mondo’s office.

“No, no I don’t.”

The office was, in my humble opinion, a preparation for Luigi taking his position as future leader of Italy. The place was lavishly decorated, but not in the style of a man who was intending to actually work there—more in the manner of someone who thought they were going to be president of a country. There was a single hardwood desk in the center of the room covered in papers, an old-fashioned telephone, and a chair designed to loom over the two smaller ones in front of it.

The flags of Italy and the European Union were in the back of the room, sitting on opposite sides of a bulletproof reinforced glass window overlooking the courtyard below. A fireplace was off to one side, my guess hiding the aforementioned panic room beyond, with a picture of the current president of Italy hanging over it.

Mondo was standing behind his desk, staring down at the phone as if he’d just talked with Satan—which was close to being true. I could imagine he’d planned something very similar to what Lucita had just said, only to be interrupted by S’s phone call.

Now we had him.

I just hoped it was enough.