The Squad

MANCINI

This can’t be right! Everything Lyon had ever said about her played through my head as I watched the scene play out over and over again. “Well damn, I have to tell him about this; he’s going to lose his shit.” I should be more worried about the guy who was just given a death sentence but somehow, that didn’t seem as important as this.

I tapped the face of my watch by the number twelve, and he answered. “What’s up? Didn’t we just leave each other?”

“You need to come up here right now.” I didn’t give him any more, and from the way he cussed before going silent, I figure he was trying to make time with his wife. This is going to kill that shit dead.

I rewound the lab's surveillance one more time and watched the scene, still not quite believing what I was seeing. “What the hell is your problem, Hank? You do know this is an island, right? Some of us might want to enjoy the sun and surf…. What the hell is wrong with you?” He finally got a look at my face.

“I have to tell you something.”

“What?” His eyes went to the screen where Catalina was showing the senator’s aide something in the lab.

“So that’s where she disappeared to; what’s the problem? He a wrong one?”

“Lyon, I don’t know how to tell you this, but she just made her first kill.”

“Dafuq? What do you mean?” I rewound it again and had him sit next to me.

“I thought it was strange the way she latched onto him. So once the others were settled and Illyana and the senator had been introduced, I came up here to check on her. I followed them on surveillance to the lab.”

“Yeah, and he’s still standing, so what are you talking about?”

“Watch! Those gloves she put on, I had them specially made for her. One, because I don’t trust her not to mess with harmful stuff, and two, because I want her protected at all times. Nothing can get through those things, but you only need them when working with very toxic materials.”

We watched on the screen how she went for the gloves as soon as she entered the lab with the aide, chattering all the way as innocent as a lamb. “Right there, that vial she just removed. I don’t know how she even found it; I thought I had it locked away.”

“I told you she picks locks you fuck.”

“Yeah, Colt, but… never mind. Anyway, the stuff in there is deadly. Now watch what she does.” On the screen, Catalina tipped the vial onto her gloved fingertip and then walked back over to the aid and took his hand without him noticing what she'd done. "I don’t get it, what did she do? What’s in there anyway?”

“It’s called dimethylmercury; it’s a deadly neurotoxin, the deadliest in fact.”

“Di, what dafuq now?”

“It’s a deadly neurotoxin Colt. He won’t die right away, but his whole body will shut down in a matter of months. There’s no cure, no way to save him. And I’m pretty sure she knows it.”

“Dafuq, did he do to her that she offed him?”

“Seriously, Colton, that’s what you’re asking?”

“I told you that she was fucking crazy. Get her in here, and lockdown that damn lab before she gets it into her head to off her sibs. This fucking guy!” He went off on a tangent about me encouraging her, but for the first time, I was at a loss. There’s no fucking way. She did it so effortlessly. “Colt, what the fuck are we dealing with here?”

“Don’t ask me, ask her mother!” He got up and went to get her.

Lyon

“Men…Catalina, a moment, please.” She was in the playroom with her little friend playing some board game shit and looking like the eight-year-old she walks around here pretending to be.

“Yes, daddy?” That smile, those bright eyes like her mother’s, and my fucking face tore a strip from my heart. I have no idea what the fuck Kat breeds, but I’m sure this one is the worst of the bunch.

“Come with me.” Fuck if I’m going to be the one to confront her. Let Mancini reap the fruits of his labor. I’ve tried telling his dumb ass time and again not to trust her, but he was always ready with the ‘she’s just a bright kid’ fuckery. Let him clean up his own mess.

“Can Lily Anna come with us?”

“Not this time. Lily, she’ll be right back. Mengele, how did you just change the people’s kid’s name?”

“Daddy, uncle Brandon, and aunty Illyana had a baby Lily remember? We can’t call them both that, or it’ll get confusing.” Never mind that one is only a few months old; whatever.

“Where are we going, daddy?” She slipped her little hand in mine, and I gave her a hard side-eye. At least she wasn’t wearing the damn glove, so I figure I’m safe. “Your uncle Hank has something to show you.” She was all but skipping with every step, her murdering ass. Eight years old, and she’s already taking out motherfuckers; not my monkey, not my circus. No one listens to me when I try to warn them about her, so there you fucking have it. Dafuq am I gonna do with this kid?