“Come.”
Lilith entered. At the look on her face, Ajax jumped to his feet.
“What is it?”
“We have a problem. A very big problem. Major Russo failed. They’re on their way here—the FBI agents and the Fox.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Ajax cocked his head at her and said, his voice soft, “I don’t understand this, Lilith. How could they even know about us?”
“I don’t know,” Lilith said, and took a step back at the look on his face.
Again, that soft voice. “You should know, Lilith. You should know everything about this mess. You were MI5, you know all the players, all their skills, their resources. You’ve had control, always carried through. But this time you’ve screwed up royally.”
“It is not my fault. Major Russo’s men should have killed them. But now they’re all dead. I was following, and I found them. One of Russo’s men wasn’t dead yet, he told me Drummond was still alive, and the fool died without telling me anything else. I came here to alert you.”
Cassandra slowly rose, splayed her hands on her desk. Unlike her brother’s, her voice was hard as chipped ice. “Lilith, it is you who has failed. You were in charge of everything—the thief, the plan to kill her, and when that failed, the plan to capture her husband to draw her out. And now you’re saying it was Russo who couldn’t get the job done?”
Lilith wanted to leave now, run out that door and keep running. She ran her tongue over her lips. “Drummond is better than anyone could have expected.”
“Cassandra is right,” Ajax said. “It is you who are always preaching accountability, Lilith, that one must always take the blame as well as the praise. Isn’t that true?”
“Yes, of course, but Ajax, these FBI, the Drummond agent, I couldn’t have imagined they’d manage to beat Russo’s men. He’s very proud of the killers he’s trained, and you have to admit, he’s performed admirably for us for years.”
He pulled her against him, put his arms around her, held her close, and Lilith eased. He ran his fingers through her hair, whisp
ered against her temple, “I begin to believe this Drummond must be a magician. Perhaps he waved his wand and destroyed Russo’s men.” He kissed her, leaned back, and before she knew what was happening, a stiletto buried itself in her chest, up to the hilt. “Goodbye, Lilith.” She heard his soft voice as if from a great distance, but there was no regret. No regret. She died in his arms, his voice chiming in her head, soft, so very soft.
Ajax eased her to the floor. He pulled his knife from her breast and wiped it off on Lilith’s black slacks.
He looked up at Cassandra, who hadn’t moved. “I will miss her,” he said.
Cassandra said, “They’re coming here.”
He leaned down, picked Lilith up, and threw her over his shoulder. “I’ll be back. I’ll bury her in one of the tunnels. And, Cassandra, crash the public server for Genesis, put up a 404 message that we’ve been hacked and we’ll be back online very soon. We can’t run the risk of this Drummond and his team getting into our servers.”
She nodded.
He paused at the doorway. “We will find a way to stop this FBI agent. He and his team have been smart enough to find out about us, then we must assume he also has an idea of what we can do with the weather.”
“I know what we’ll do,” Cassandra said, and her eyes sparked with excitement. “We will have Grandfather wipe out Washington, D.C. Flatten them with a hurricane, maybe a tsunami. The United States government will fall, the headquarters for the FBI will fall—it will be chaos. We will be the last thing on the FBI’s mind.”
Ajax stared at her. “That’s brilliant. But they’re coming here right now. We must find out exactly what they know. Then we will have Grandfather act, if it necessary.” He frowned, shifted Lilith’s weight to his other shoulder. “I wish I could be certain we will be able to convince Grandfather to flatten the U.S. capital, even if it is necessary to save us.”
“If Grandfather refuses, you know how to reprogram a storm that’s already in the making, like the current one.”
“Yes, I can do that, but I can’t program directionality myself without his formula.”
“Yes, the precious formula in his bloody vault.” She smiled. “Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out. Can you imagine, you and I will bring an entire country to its knees. And then we’ll be safe.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Castel Rigone, Italy
Both Nicholas’s and Mike’s phones buzzed as the Škoda sped along the highway toward Castel Rigone.
Mike said, “You’re going to want to pull off. Adam was fast. Here are the plans for the Kohath palazzo. This place is huge.”