12.
Silence. Some people hate it, the solitude scaring them. Other look for it, that vid being crucial for their well-being. I had an ok relationship with silence. I appreciated its capability of saying more than a thousand words at once sometimes. Very useful when delivering bad news.
Like now, I was getting to experience first handedly how silent the Universe actually is, because the lack of sound in the room couldn't have been of earthly origins. And only somewhere in the Cosmos you could have felt so insignificant like I did.
I looked at all the faces surrounding me, and what hit me, was the fact that they were wearing the same expression. You know; the one which doctors have around unstable psychiatric patients? The combination of wariness, sympathy and the resolve to take actions the minute something goes wrong, and all that sort of covered with seeming casualty and the 'I-couldn't-care-less' expression? Yeah, that one. Apparently they were expecting me to have some kind of… I don't even know what they were expecting.
"Uncle Leonard, do you realize what you just said?" I asked in a ridiculously steady voice, not unlike the voice of those people who said their last words to the world right before being decapitated.
Uncle Leonard opened his mouth to say something, but I stopped him.
"If you are saying this just to toy with me, I warn you: think twice. I will overlook the fact that I've known you my entire life, and I will personally kick your ass."
"Nika I am not toying with you. I can swear it on a Guttenberg Bible if you wish. I think I have one somewhere in here."
"Not funny Uncle Leonard. So not funny." But I could feel the smile creeping on my face.
And that's all it took for the entire room to relax. Seriously, if I would have been able to feel magnetic fields somehow, I am sure I would have seen it go from flaming red to a nice cool blue. Not that it looks like that in real life. Electromagnetism has never been my favorite physics part. After all, mechanics was much more applicable to my job.
"Nika, I am about to tell you a story. Only unlike the ones that you read with such hunger, this one is real."
Great! He was going all brothers Grimm on my ass. Everybody was getting comfortable in their seats; like this was a freaking Sunday night and we were sitting in front of a fireplace sipping cups of hot chocolate. Actually, Sebastian was holding a cup in his hand. I glared at him and he gave me the most innocent face in his arsenal, like it was completely normal to get cozy on unknown territory. Not.
"You know that we thieves are…rules optional kind of gentlemen. And women." He added with a smile, right before I shot him a glare. "So in order to keep us in line there was established an organization that you've probably heard of. The Sons of Hermes."
He paused for a second, and I wondered how much was he actually risking telling me all this. I mean I couldn't get a hold of that information to save my life, and here he was, spilling the beans with such ease. I didn't even want to think what could happen if somehow word of this little gathering got out. For some odd reasons all I could picture were corpses with concrete blocks tied to their legs.
"It was…like the Supreme Court of thieves. Everybody who thought that somebody broke the rules could bring their case, and they were guaranteed a fair trial. And that's how it was until recently."
Ah…the old 'the-one-who-was-supposed-to-protect-us-turns-against-us' story. Figures. There wasn't one single case in the entire history of human kind when someone voluntarily decided to limit his power when there was potential for growth. It all comes down to that grabbing instinct that is sort of given to you with your life.
"The entire world took a hit from the event that took place in the twentieth century. First World War, the Great Depression, Second World War, The Cold War…well I don't need to list them, you probably know the details better than I do. The bottom line is that The Sons started to gain more influence. Government officials started to ask them for favors. Of course, it has happened before, but now much more dangerous weapons were involved. After all, there is only that much damage you can do with a sword."
"Uncle Leonard, I appreciate the whole history lesson, but again, that all stuff I know. How is my mother involved into all this business?"
He sighted heavily, completely deflated. He looked… he looked like an old man, who was tired of living with secrets. It was the hardest part of our job, knowing. Sometimes I wanted to be like: screw those who say that knowledge is power! Try and got through life knowing the stuff we do. I can book you a place in a mental facility in advance.
"The Sons of Hermes is an extensive organization, but they have a Council of Elders. The council is made out of twelve members, and some of them are pretty important people in the outside world."
I was getting sort of annoyed with Uncle Leonard, because, hello, this was not different from any organization. They all had Elders, and they were all powerful people. Those people might have been geniuses at pulling cons, but when it came to originality…not so much. What else was new?
"As you can suspect, this organization is a lot like a family. They arrange the marriages of their children at the age of eighteen, when they officially get their inheritance. Usually, it all goes as planned. But sometimes it doesn't."
I sucked in my breath. This is it! The moment when all the pretenses were going to disappear and I would finally find out everything that had been slowly poisoning me for years!
"Your mother wasn't the one to agree to an arranged marriage. She was strong minded, not unlike yourself." He added with a warm voice. Despite that what I really wanted, was to kick him in the face. 'Not-unlike-yourself' my ass! Torture me some more, why don't you Uncle Leonard.
"She ran off with your father and went into hiding. And then, nine months later she had you. Your father asked me to be your God Father. But then, her family found her, and…"
I gestured him to stop, because I couldn't take it anymore. I felt like…hell I don't even know how I felt. I wanted to scream, and I wanted to cry, and I wanted to punch someone, and…Vaguely, some sort of sound registered in my brain, a sort of cross between a wail and a sob. Only after a couple of seconds I realized that it was me who was making that sound and that someone's arm slid around me, surrounding me in a familiar aroma of citrus and green tea. It was a sure sign of my emotional failure if I was letting Sebastian hold me in his arms like that.
"I'm afraid that is not everything I have to say to you tonight."
"What?" I managed to croak in between Sebastian's muscular forearms.
"Your mother was forced into another marriage, to her original betrothed, who now is the Head of the Council. They have a child together now and…"
"Why are you telling me this? Why are you breaking my fucking heart?" I yelled shaking Sebastian's arms and standing up.
Didn't he get it? It was worse than being burned alive, realizing that your own mother was…someone else's mother. It sounds so pathetic in those teen books, like some sort of joke, something not even worthy of attention. I wasn't thinking like that anymore.
"Because this child is the reason why your father is in danger."
I always considered myself lucky for being an only child. And not because I was selfish or anything like that. It was…nice, this whole 'us-against-the-world' thing we had going with my dad. Of course sometimes I was slightly more literal than I liked, but you can't choose your relatives. But apparently you can get new ones.
"So let me get this straight. My mother is not dead, she's married to some random dude who is the head of one of the most dangerous organizations in the entire world, and they have a kid whose sole existence threatens my dad's life. Is that it? Did I miss anything?"
Uncle Leonard gave me one of those looks that sometimes mothers give their children when they kept them awake for a couple of days with their tantrums. Like the looks that my own mother never gave me. No! I was not going there. Later, with a couple of dozen packs of Kleenex next to me, maybe. Now, it was a big no-no.
"Nika, I realize that you must be hurt, but please, listen to what I've got to say. At the age of eighteen, every child of the council has to accept his or her heritage." He looked at me expectantly, and since I clearly wasn't getting something, he added: "You are eighteen."
I think I must have stared for a whole minute at him, before his words actually registered. It was getting quite usual for me to stare in the black space for several moments before I actually understood the point. European air must have been bad for me, since I clearly was becoming more retarded by the second.
"No WAY! No fucking way! I do not want to have anything to do with this whole mob wanna-be!"
Uncle Leonard chuckled, but it didn't reach his eyes, making him look like the mask of comedy, sort of funny, yet dead.
"Well, it's not that simple. You have to understand that these people don't function like a normal society does, for them the fact that you share the blood with one of them is enough to make you a threat. And they take their threats very seriously."
I took a couple of calming breaths. Definitely not the sort of information I was hoping to hear. I was hoping to find an easy access to the Vatican archives and I found an easy way to heartbreak. Just my luck.
"What can be done to stop them? I mean, I could just tell them that I don't want my heritage or whatever. Hell, I can even sign it in my blood if that will take them off my dad's back. By the way, why are they stalking him and not me? It just doesn't make sense."
"They are trying to draw you out." William said, and I almost jumped at the sound of his voice, he was that quiet before.
"So they are honey-trapping me?"
"Sort of. That's why he sent you to Sebastian. To protect you. And that's why you need to steal that book. To return the favor."
I put my hands on my hips and asked him in the calmest tone I could muster. Which wasn't that calm, really.
"Oh and how are we going to get in the Vatican? You have any genius ideas there sparky?"
"Actually, I do." Seeing my raised eyebrow, he added quietly "well, my dad does."
I shrugged and pretty much collapsed back in the armchair I was sitting before.
"What's the plan?" I asked exhaustedly.
"Well, you see, when your dad meant the Vatican Archives, he didn't actually mean the Vatican Archives." Uncle Leonard said with a mischievous smile.
"An alias?"
He nodded.
"Yep. In actuality it's just a private collection of books. A much protected one, but still just a private collection. And its owner is a bishop, ergo the whole Vatican disguise."
"And the Da Vinci shit?"
He cringed like he just ate a particularly sour piece of lemon.
"Please, some appreciation for true genius. It's just the key to decoding the information, it comes with the book."
I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples. Ok, that was definitely better than breaking into the actual Vatican Archives. I could do this. I mean, I've robbed private collections before. And yeah, the last time I did it, it sort of ended badly, but hey, things change right.
"Ok. Let's assume that I have the book. What do I do with it?"
"Threaten to go public, of course?" William said as it was the most obvious thing to do.
I thought about that for a second. Exposure was definitely a strong card to play, but something told me that with those guys it wasn't strong enough.
"It's not enough. They'll somehow silence me." Cue visions of concrete blocks in here. "They've survived for that long because they were smart, and somehow I really doubt they've lost their brains."
William started to say something but Uncle Leonard silenced him with a single gesture. He looked straight at me, piercing me with his steely eyes, pretty much dissecting me.
"Once you have the book, it's up to you what to do with it. Your father entrusted me to tell you the information I just did, and in a couple of moment my mission is going to be over. Exposing the information is your safest bet, but you are past the age when I can tell you what to do." He gestured me to come closed, and then whispered in my ear: "Nika, darling, your father doesn't want you to get involved with this anymore than you already are. Your mother wouldn't have wanted you to get hurt as well."
I pulled away, like he just spit acid in my face, my breathing ragged and my eyes throwing lightning. Nevertheless, Uncle Leonard continued like nothing happened.
"I will give you the blueprints of the house where the book is kept. I will also give William at your disposal. Try and get over your…hormonal issues and work it out."
He sat down in his chair, this meeting clearly over. William already stood at the door, holding a tube in his hands, so I stood up and headed towards it. William, the gentleman, opened it for me and gestured me to go first, but instead of doing that I turned to Uncle Leonard and said:
"Uncle Leonard?"
He looked up from the paper he was looking at.
"Yes darling?"
I smiled a weak smile, pretty much the only one that I could squeeze out of myself at that point.
"Say hi to my mother."