Mr. Chen sat at the head of the conference room table. A quick glance at his watch revealed that it was well past the agreed meeting time.

Where is everyone?

Moments later, Gratzano entered the room with Freeman. The kid had various cuts and bruises that weren’t there before.

“What happened to him?”

“The kid had a little accident—”

“Your watchdog beat the shit out of me,” Freeman interrupted.

“Where are the others?” Chen asked Gratzano.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“In the war room. Kurtzen was leading an operation against the Black Heart herself,” Gratzano said, smiling.

“Excellent. Now that the seeds of deception have been planted, the heat will be taken off our doctor friend.”

“Kurtzen served with our friend Norris, who helped us with bringing down the collective. Our connection to the Dark Angels.”

“It’s good having air support at our disposal. I might have some more people to eliminate,” Gratzano said.

“Good luck with that. The Dark Angels only accept righteous causes,” Mr. Tage said.

“Hmm, it doesn’t seem like eliminating the Black Heart was very righteous. How did we convince the Dark Angels to take that job?”

“We connected Dahlia’s group with Dr. Javitts’s gas-disbursement operation.”

“Good idea; then I will need to think of some other righteous cause before we employ the Dark Angels again.”

“Be careful. You don’t want to let Damien get suspicious. Otherwise, you will be blacklisted from their services.”