Chapter 6 - Project Orpheus)
Vittorio looked almost exactly as Caesar remembered him.
Controlled.
Elegant.
Dangerous without needing to raise his voice.
“Father.”
Vittorio smiled.
“I have missed hearing you call me that.”
“You are supposed to be dead.”
“So are many useful people.”
Caesar looked at Amelia.
She did not seem surprised.
“You knew?”
“I knew he survived. I did not know where he was.”
Vittorio continued.
“You have questions. I have answers. But I suggest we avoid wasting time on outrage.”
Caesar stepped closer to the monitor.
“You threatened my children.”
“No.”
“The call said my family would die.”
“That call was not from me.”
Vanessa whispered, “Then who?”
Vittorio’s expression hardened.
“That is precisely why I came.”
Caesar laughed coldly.
“You expect me to believe you came to protect us?”
“I expect nothing from you. Expectations make fathers weak.”
Caesar remembered childhood dinners.
His father correcting how he held a fork.
Correcting how he stood.
Correcting how he spoke.
Teaching him that emotion invited exploitation.
Vittorio had treated parenthood as military training.
Caesar hated him for it.
And had spent half his life becoming him.
“What is Orpheus?”
Vittorio leaned closer to the camera.
“My life’s work.”
“You experimented on my children.”
“I ensured your bloodline would survive.”
“You stole Amelia’s embryos.”
“I preserved assets that would otherwise have been wasted.”
Amelia’s face contorted.
“They were children.”
“They were possibilities.”
Clara pulled Evelyn closer.
Vittorio noticed.
His eyes moved toward Clara.
“Clara Bennett. The forgotten daughter.”
Clara’s face went pale.
“You knew about me?”
“Of course.”
“Amelia said you did not.”
“I know more about the Bennett family than Amelia ever did.”
Caesar interrupted.
“Why fake your death?”
“Because certain people needed to believe I was gone.”
“Who?”
Vittorio paused.
“The people who took control of Orpheus.”
Marcus leaned forward.
“You lost control?”
Vittorio looked directly at him.
“Marcus Hale.”
Marcus stiffened.
“You have become old.”
Marcus’s jaw tightened.
“So have you.”
Vittorio smiled.
“I was old when I recruited you.”
Caesar turned.
“Recruited?”
Marcus said nothing.
Caesar’s voice rose.
“What does he mean?”
Vittorio answered for him.
“Marcus did not rescue you from that warehouse fire fifteen years ago.”
Caesar stared at Marcus.
“He caused it.”
Evelyn whimpered.
Marcus shook his head.
“That is not true.”
Vittorio continued.
“He was twenty-five. Idealistic. Angry. Working for federal investigators who believed the Moretti companies were laundering money.”
Caesar stepped toward Marcus.
“You were a government informant?”
“Briefly.”
“You caused the fire?”
“No.”
Vittorio laughed softly.
“Tell him who placed the incendiary device.”
Marcus looked at Caesar.
“I was ordered to install surveillance equipment.”
“That is not what he asked.”
“I did not start the fire.”
“Then who did?”
Marcus looked toward Vittorio.
“Your father.”
Caesar turned back to the screen.
Vittorio showed no reaction.
Marcus continued.
“He discovered the investigation. He set the warehouse on fire to destroy evidence.”
“And you?”
“I went inside because I knew you were there.”
Caesar remembered smoke.
Steel.
Marcus dragging him through flames.
His father arriving later at the hospital.
Vittorio had held Caesar’s hand and told him Marcus was a hero.
Why?
“Why keep him close?” Caesar asked.
Vittorio answered.
“Because guilt makes men loyal.”
Marcus looked away.
Caesar understood.
Vittorio had known exactly what Marcus was.
And had placed him beside Caesar anyway.
A watchdog.
A witness.
Perhaps a weapon.
“Who took Orpheus from you?”
Vittorio’s smile disappeared.
“A group calling itself the Directorate.”
Amelia shook her head.
“I never found that name.”
“Because they did not exist when you started investigating.”
“What do they want?”
Vittorio looked at Evelyn.
“Her.”
Caesar moved instinctively between the monitor and his daughter.
“Why?”
“Because Evelyn is the only surviving child from the first successful Orpheus line.”
Amelia frowned.
“Successful how?”
Vittorio said nothing.
Evelyn stared at the screen.
“Grandpa?”
Everyone turned.
Vittorio’s expression softened.
“Yes, Evelyn?”
She stepped closer.
“You are lying.”
Vittorio smiled.
“Why do you say that?”
“My mommy said liars blink after they say something important.”
Caesar almost smiled despite himself.
Vittorio did not.
Evelyn continued.
“You blinked when you said they want me.”
Vittorio’s face hardened.
“You are observant.”
“Who do they really want?”
Silence.
Then Samuel began crying again.
Vittorio looked toward the baby.
Evelyn followed his gaze.
“Oh,” she whispered.
Caesar understood a second later.
“They want Samuel.”
Vittorio closed his eyes briefly.
When he opened them, he seemed suddenly older.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Samuel is not part of the first line.”
Vanessa moved closer to the monitor.
“What does that mean?”
Vittorio answered.
“He is the first child of the second generation.”
Amelia’s hand tightened around Caesar’s arm.
Vittorio continued.
“And if the Directorate gets him, they will learn how to make thousands more.”
An explosion shook the mansion.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
The monitor went black.
Marcus grabbed his weapon.
Daniel checked the hallway.
A voice came through the house speakers.
Not Vittorio.
A woman.
“Caesar Moretti, you have something that belongs to us.”
The safe room lights turned red.
“Bring Samuel to the front entrance.”
Caesar stared at the speaker.
May you like
The woman continued.
“Or we will return the daughter you forgot you had in pieces.”
