DemPOV
The helicopter rose from the outer courtyard of Bourtzi, Aro had called early this morning calling Felix and I back to Volterra. Jane and Alec would remain in Bourtzi with the two idiots James and Victoria and our two guests. I didn't envy them. Neither Ms Swan nor Mr Cullen had divulged anything to us, despite numerous hours under interrogation. In fact, this was another reason that I was glad to be heading back to Volterra, they were withstanding our methods and I was swiftly losing my patience. Jane was annoyed, even her sadistic use of electricity was fruitless. I was beginning to think that all this effort on getting information from them was pointless and we should just get on with killing them and finishing up the job. Why did things have to be so complicated?
On arrival back in Volterra, we were greeted at the helipad by an agitated looking Aro. I was somewhat confused that he had come to meet us at all, but didn't question it, as I didn't wish to incur his wrath...ever. We disembarked from the helicopter and swiftly walked along the city walls to the central citadel. Aro continued to appear agitated as we walked in silence, barely exchanging murmured greetings. It was unlike him to be this way, but when he was it didn't bode well for whoever was on his shit list. I could only hope it wasn't me.
It wasn't long before we arrived in the main reception hall of the old Medici fortress, the tall marble columns towered skywards across the pristine marble tiled floors. We strode confidently through the familiar rooms, heading towards Aro's study, passing through the thick gilded wooden doors into the richly panelled room, filled floor to ceiling with books and manuscripts. The lighting was low creating a warm glow throughout the room and a fire blazed vibrant in the hearth near to Aro's ornate desk. He moved to sit behind the large wooden piece of furniture and gestured to the two large wing back chairs positioned opposite. Both Felix and I didn't question this and moved to take our respective seats opposite our leader.
"Demetri, Felix, I expect you are wondering why I have requested your presence barely days since I sent you away," Aro began, while steepling his fingers on his desk in front of him.
"Yes Sir, although we are sure you have good reasons," I responded.
"Indeed," Aro replied with a glint. "Plans have changed a little, timings need to be moved up."
"In what way Sir?" Felix asked.
"There are rumours, many of course are just pure speculation, but they are getting too close to home."
"Sir?"
"You know of my history with the current Presidential office in the US. So I'm sure I don't need to go into great detail as to how that cheating, lying fool owes me," Aro spat.
I grimaced at the memory of Aro's involvement in 'assisting' the current President in gaining his position in the White House in return for his 'assistance' in acquiring weaponry, and a promise to overlook our involvement when we incited tensions in the Balkans in order to overthrow the regime and use it as our own training ground and eventual plan to turn the area into our own personal terrorist state. Of course that hadn't worked as he'd not wanted to keep his nose out of proving himself to the other 'Nato' alliance countries and had sent in teams to quell the fighting, thus breaking his promise to Aro and marking himself a traitor, a liar, a cheat and ultimately DEAD. We'd been in hiding for the past two years because of this and only recently had we made a presence back on the circuit. Of course we'd kept our hands in with various criminal activities, but the ultimate goal was to overthrow the Balkans, declare the country as ours and hold the world to ransom. Well that's the gist of it. Now Aro wanted revenge.
"So the plans have changed, do we have timing for this change sir?" I asked.
"There's to be a Gala at the Smithsonian on Labour Day, September 6th. The President and much of congress are expected to be there."
"Okay, so we have two months, I presume that you require a bomb sir?"
"We have a nuclear device; however I want no mistakes, so I want you to create secondary devices. I don't care for the details only that when Labour Day has passed, the Americans will be so concerned with the turmoil in their own country, that our march into the Balkans will be barely a blip on their radar."
"I won't let you down sir," I responded.
We talked into the night, hours passed with barely any notice from the three of us. We plotted and planned everything down to who would be where when the shit hit the fan. As dawn approached I stifled a yawn as I looked bleary eyed over the maps and notes scattered about Aro's desk. It was settled. I would immediately begin working on the liquid devices that would be placed within the basement of the Smithsonian. The Nuke would be flown in under their noses and remote detonated. It would arrive the day of the Gala so as to avoid the possibility of being located beforehand. An insider will pass it for us, so that it won't be searched.
We settled back in our chairs, all of us weary and needing our beds. Felix broke the silence. "What of our guests in Bourtzi?"
"They are of no use to us now, kill them," Aro commanded coldly.
"With pleasure sir," Felix replied with a grin.
"If there is nothing more sir, it has been a long night and I feel that we could all do with some rest," I suggested.
Aro nodded in agreement. "Until tomorrow, gentlemen," he said, before standing and striding from the room.
I looked over at Felix, his face bore a fixed grin, he was eager to return to Bourtzi and inflict the sentence on the two we held there. Always eager to clean house and never to relinquish the honour to anyone, especially Jane or Alec, they each held a mutual dislike and respect for one another, Felix relished in the thrill of the clean kill, while Jane and Alec were sadistic in drawing out the pain for as long as possible.
I shook my head in amusement, my brother, so childlike and yet cold and hardened at the same time. He truly was made for this life. We rose from our seats and walked casually from the study in silence. We had no need to speak, tiredness and the comfort of comradeship enveloped us. Our footsteps echoed across the cavernous reception hall, bouncing off the marble floor and rebounding from column to column. As we neared the stairs that would take us to our rooms my cell rang, the shrill tone piercing the solitude.
I glanced at the display, the word Jane appeared on the screen as the tone shrieked out of the small device.
"Are you going to answer that or what brother?" Felix moaned.
"Yes?" I said lifting the cell to my ear. The voice on the other end sounded panicked. Alarm bells rang in my head and I looked warily at Felix.
"What do you mean they're gone?" I asked incredulously.
"Alec and I went to the cell after you had left, that idiot James and his puttana had been behaving suspiciously, acting nervous around us, with good reason it seems. They'd let them escape." Jane said viciously, her voice quivering with a mixture of worry and rage. I'd be worried too sister, Aro will not be pleased.
"Then why are you calling me? Find them and when you do, keep them away from the other two. Felix will be returning shortly, he will be in charge from now on," I spat.
Felix looked at me, his eye brow cocked in question. I nodded at him and lifted one finger, asking him to wait one minute. I finished up on the cell and looked at my brother. Barely keeping the rage simmering under the surface I told him what Jane had told me, how our guests had somehow escaped, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. She believed they had taken the submersible as the boats had been scuppered in the dock.
I barely heard Felix mumble "Stupid Bitch" under his breath, but his whole demeanour made it clear to me that he was not pleased about this latest development and was eager to return to Bourtzi in order to clean up the mess. I closed the cell tossing it into my pocket angrily, we'd hardly been away 24 hours and already they had managed to let our guests escape. It makes me wonder if Aro puts too much faith in the sadistic twins. Incompetence is high on my shit list and there will be some pretty strong retribution awaiting their return to Volterra.
I rolled my eyes, mentally huffing in anger. Felix remained beside me as I ascended the stairs to our quarters. The atmosphere between us was prickling with anticipation, rage and anxiety, the incompetence of the twins could veritably put a stumbling block in front of us. I could only hope that Felix would be able to round the escapees up swiftly.
I was broken from my internal reverie by Felix' large hand landing on my shoulder.
"I'll clear this up brother. Concentrate on what you do best, things that go boom. Let me deal with the fools on Bourtzi."
I nodded in response, still too angry to say anything. We parted ways at the top of the stairs, Felix wishing me well for the following months I would spend ensconced in my workshop building bombs for the Gala. I shook his hand and patted his shoulder, mentally hoping that he wouldn't be too far behind the escaped guests to be able to catch them and clean up the huge mess that had been left behind. They had both proved to be quite adept at resisting our attempts at making them talk, even more so now that they had somehow managed to escape and in Aro's prize submersible at that. I can only hope that they didn't damage it. I slightly wished I could join Felix on Bourtzi so I could watch him exact his punishment on James and his puttana for allowing the escape. Had those two kept to the plan and left the interrogations to Jane and Alec, I'm sure we wouldn't be facing this problem. Oh there will be hell to pay for them, but for now we needed them alive, at least until September.
~*~*~*~*~*
30th June 2010.
Felix had been in Bourtzi for three days now and even he was getting disillusioned. They'd had a possible sighting of them on Spetses, unconfirmed of course, but the evidence told us it was them. We had sixteen dead foot soldiers. Some of our best men were now dead, all of them found on Spetses after they had gone ashore having found Aro's missing submersible abandoned in a cove. After that night the trail had gone cold. There'd been an obvious fight, the blood soaked earth, the bullet riddled trees and not to forget the bodies of our men spoke volumes. Felix was furious of course, how could two heavily injured people, regardless of the man’s training have taken on and beaten sixteen highly trained mercenaries? He'd taken out his anger on the two idiots James and Victoria, both of them now bearing the scars of my dear brothers’ wrath. Jane and Alec had remained scarce in order to avoid a similar fate at is hands.
~*~*~*~*~*
VicPOV
I hunched over the wooden table in the banquet hall of the fortress, my body throbbed from the beating I had taken at the hands of that sadistic bastard Felix. He blamed James and I for the escape of the two prisoners and to ensure we understood his rage he beat us black and blue for hours. I knew it was a mistake to get them involved, but James wouldn't listen to me, well he'll listen to me now won't he!
"Bitch so help me, you better start coming up with ways to find them or I will have no choice but to remind you of your inadequacy," Felix yelled into my ear.
I tried so hard not to flinch at his proximity, but I just didn't have it in me anymore, he scared me.
"I... I have a contact in Washington, perhaps I could call them?" I said hopefully.
"Do it now, hurry up. We need them dead yesterday."
I nodded in response digging into my pocket and fumbling slightly with the cell phone as I lifted it to dial the contact. She better answer me or so help me she will die at my hand.
"Hello?" she spoke nervously.
"About time you answered, you really should have better manners than that, considering your position," I sneered.
"Sorry, I'm sorry, I wasn't near to the phone," she said panicking a little.
"No excuses, it won't happen again," I said.
"Of course, I'm sorry, I'll keep it close at all times," she stuttered.
"Good. Now I have a task for you."
"I've done everything you asked of me, I've planted the Intel, I gave you the information you requested," she responded shakily.
"It seems that our 'guests' have escaped..." I started.
"I...” She gasped out, but I had no time for her bullshit and interrupted her.
"I'm not finished. Should they reappear in your locale, they are to be silenced...permanently," I spoke icily.
"But...that would be murder, I can't, I have a respectable job, a family..." she stumbled out.
"You can and you will, I don't care how, but they will be dead, either at our hands or yours. You will call us when it is done," without waiting on her response I hung up.
I looked back at Felix, he was watching me intently, a shudder went through me involuntarily. Ugh he gave me the creeps.
"It's done, if they turn up there then they will die at the hands of my contact or they'll tell me where they are and we'll take them out."
"Now why didn't you work like this before, perhaps if you had shown this kind of effort before we wouldn't be in this position now," he replied smoothly.
*~*~*~*~*
4th July 2010 - Bourtzi, Nafplion
FelixPOV
This was getting beyond a fucking joke, seriously how hard is it to find two well tortured people and silence them forever. I'll tell you how hard, fucking impossible. Oh don't get me wrong, we'd come close, so very close, but they somehow managed to get away. Not without leaving sixteen dead in their wake. SIXTEEN. For fuck sake, I'm surrounded by incompetence. We'd combed the island of Spetses for days and nothing, the only evidence of them ever having been there was the blood stained grass and the sixteen bodies we hastily removed. Unbelievable. How on earth do two people, sure one of them was a Seal, but they were tortured for days, how the hell did they manage to not only escape a fortress, surrounded by water, heavily guarded and also manage to take out sixteen highly trained mercs and vanish without a trace? It's inconceivable. I'm loath to admit defeat, but we had greatly underestimated them both, neither had shown signs of cracking and both had somehow managed to escape us and continue to evade recapture, if I wasn't so pissed off, I might even respect them for that.
Aro had been riding my ass again, I'm really wearing thin now, if something doesn't happen soon, then James and his puttana won't be darkening my horizon for much longer. It's their fault and I need retribution. I really need to kill something.
Jane and Alec have been avoiding me, I expect even they have the sense to stay out of my way, the mood I'm in, it would only take one wrong word and blam, bye bye assholes.
That stupid bitch is back at my door again, hovering like a fucking vulture.
"So help me whore, you better have something of worth to tell me, I'm in the mood to kill."
She blanched, did she honestly think I didn't know she was there.
"Well?"
"I... ugh I had a call from my contact in Washington. Um they showed up at some military medical facility, they're dead."
"Finally, now tell me, is it a confirmed kill and make it good."
"Um, the er contact didn't say, all they said was that it's done. I was a bit short with them and hung up," she stuttered nervously.
"Then how do you know that they're dead, you're taking the word of some shady individual who you have scared into doing your dirty work over evidence to prove the fact?"
"I believe them; they have too much to lose to be lying."
"Fine, but be it on your head if I find out otherwise bitch. Now get out of here, or you'll be joining them in the afterlife."
I'm surrounded by incompetence.
The red head bitch turned and walked away swiftly, no doubt eager to get away from me, in case I decide to just get rid of her. I'm tempted, but we need her for the mission. Her and that worthless piece of scum she calls a partner. Their demise would be a service to humanity, I shudder to think what would happen if they procreate. It really doesn't bear thinking about. Of the two the woman appears to be more savvy, even if the man and I use that term loosely is the more dominant, he's definitely not the brains of the party.
I flipped my cell open and called Demetri, I needed to be back in Volterra with my brother, he always knows how to calm my mind.
"You have news brother?" he spoke keenly through the phone.
"I do, I'm eager to return home and be rid of these imbeciles."
"Patience my brother, good things come to those who wait. What news have you for me?"
"The red head bitch, has a contact in Washington DC, they've confirmed the kill on our missing guests," I said with a hint of scepticism.
"I see, and you trust this information brother?"
"No, I believe the stupid whore will believe anything she hears on the phone without demanding proof. I believe they're in Washington, or at least they were, but until I see them cold and dead for myself, I'm sceptical."
"Ideally we need to see for ourselves, but I feel that if you and I were to turn up in 'DC, it would be a little too hot for us, I've no doubts that she'd be able to identify us no."
"I agree brother, so what now?" I asked.
"We send those two bumbling idiots to 'DC, we need to scope the Smithsonian and if they should happen to garner any further information on our guests, then all the better."
"And what of the creep twins?"
"Send them with them, they have some mistakes to atone for and working alongside dim and dimmer will be a good start along that path for them. It'll get them out of our hair too," Demetri laughed.
"Now I like your thinking brother, so once I've told them, I'll meet you in Volterra?"
"Yes brother, come home, we have much to prepare."
"Until then," I said closing my cell and slipping it back into my pocket.
Finally I'm getting out of here, I've had enough of this place to last me a life time. Standing from the couch I moved across my quarters grabbing my duffle I began to empty the dresser, the sooner I could get packed the sooner I could get home.
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