“Damn it all to hell.”
The crystal paperweight from his desk made an excellent projectile as it flew through the air. The carving across its surface only made it easier to splinter into a thousand pieces against the concrete wall.
A soft sound reached his ears from just outside his door.
Punching a button on his desk phone he called out to Helena. “I told you to leave me alone!”
He could almost see her petulant expression on his daughter’s face. She was so very like her mother.
“I’m worried about you, Papa.”
He looked at the debris field of crystal shards across his charcoal-colored carpet. It would be hell to clean up.
Not that he had to do it himself.
“Go home, Helena. For once, do what you are told to do!”
The line went silent, and he leaned back in his chair to stare at the ceiling.
The surface was covered in metal and mirrored his desk and the rest of the room.
Spread across the surface, he could see the satellite photos that he’d paid for.
Being in Fool’s Gold, Colorado meant that he’d had to be a little more creative than in a larger city like Norfolk.
A drone would be noticed more.
A surveillance car, too obvious.
He couldn’t just rent out an apartment or office with a view!
No.
And Cygny had bought a ridiculous tiny home adjacent to a ranch. There was always someone around even though the ranch was in the middle of nowhere.
Still, it didn’t matter all that much.
He’d only needed to know where she was.
And he did.
He reached out his hand and touched the file folder on the edge of his desk. The folder as over three inches thick and filled with the various and sundry accomplishments of Hank Patterson and his Brotherhood Protectors.
It was all so wholesome, it had made him sick.
There was only so much money and power that could come from being a ‘good guy.’
He should know.
He’d amassed a fortune selling secrets from the American government and the military. He’d had more success and more money than he could have spent in a lifetime.
Several lifetimes.
He flipped the file open and saw the image that Helena had tried to hide from him.
A group photo of five women and five men flanking Hank Patterson.
Labeled under it in Helena’s slashing pen marks were the words ATHENA PROJECT.
He dragged his finger over the emulsion on the paper and stopped on the woman in the middle of the others. Cygny Devoy.
That’s what she was calling herself now.
He’d given her the name of Elaine on her last mission, thinking it fit her better than the name she’d been given at birth.
Some people had no class. No… imagination.
He tapped his finger on Cygny and smiled.
“You thought you’d succeeded. I wonder what you’re going to think when you find out that your misdeeds aren’t all dead and buried, hmm?”
The door to his office cracked open and slowly swung open.
“What?” He spat the word out and she was lucky that he’d already destroyed the paperweight.
“Why are you still looking at that file? Why aren’t you done with her?”
He met her fury with his cold gaze, and they were locked in combat, staring at the other.
She, predictably, broke first. Her gaze turned away and down, her shoulders rising in defense.
He managed to hold back a sneer at her reaction.
Helena was nothing like Cygny.
Cygny was intelligent. Beautiful. And leagues ahead of Helena.
That’s why his daughter was so jealous.
“Papa? Why?”