Page 34 of Pride
He tensed, made a fist and flexed his arm to break the tie binding him to the chair. It snapped easily, and he stared down at it, stunned. He’d sat there the entire time and not once attempted to break the binding. Refusing to dwell on why, he got to his feet and surveyed the empty plates and tipped over champagne, feeling that tug in his chest again. Alice had cooked for him. She’d cut his steak. She knew exactly what he wanted, but she never once used that against him.
He pulled his cell out of his pocket and dialed Evan.
“Bro,” Evan answered.
“Be in my penthouse in five with your tattoo kit and bio-indicator ink.”
A pause. “Thank fuck you’ve come to your senses. I’ll be there in five.”
“Actually, make it the basement. Family meeting.”
* * *
“Almost done,”Evan said as he put the finishing touches on Parker’s inner wrist tattoo, the gun buzzing. Evan had grumbled about the cleanliness of the basement workshop, so they’d moved to the next room—the operations HQ. Wall to wall screens depicted news networks from around the world, and especially in Cardinal City.
The square table the family sat around was clear and doubled as a touch screen monitor they used to plan missions. Deadly suits sat dormant in glass cabinets on faceless mannequins, reminding Parker he needed to finalize AIMI’s resurrection so they could get the suits functioning again. Flint tinkered in the workshop adjacent, immersed in something.
When the rest of the family turned up, Parker told them what Alice had revealed. Now, an hour later, they all stood around Parker and Evan, stunned.
“Clearly it’s a fabrication,” Parker said of the Hell-mouth tale. “Designed to distract us or perhaps lull us into a false sense of urgency and thus agreeing to this sham of an alliance.”
As the words came out of his mouth, they felt hollow. Maybe the story was false, but Alice’s intentions had been true. He knew that in his heart.
He looked up and found at least half of his siblings agreeing with him. A few others, Evan included, gave Parker worried eyes.
“What if it’s not?” Evan asked as he wiped the blood from Parker’s wrist. “I mean, I can’t explain how I can predict the future, or how mama did. Going by that theory, there must be other things in the universe we can’t explain. Maybe even other dimensions.”
“Magic is science we don’t know yet,” Griffin said from his seat at the table.
It was something their birth mother and creator had always said to Mary, and something she’d always repeated to them. It had been a handy mantra to have when they needed to demystify a seemingly impossible problem. Parker looked at his mother.
The ex-Sinner stood in her usual black yoga attire, as stiff as a board. Dark circles were under her eyes and had been since Daisy’s sacrifice and consequence absence.
“Mary,” he said. “What do you think?”
She swallowed. “It’s possible. How could it not be?”
Parker frowned.
“Stay still,” Evan warned, and yanked Parker’s wrist back to the correct position before continuing with the final mark.
“If we hadn’t exterminated the replicates, we could have followed them,” Griffin suggested.
“No,” Parker grumbled. “If the Sisterhood wants to chase down alternate dimensions, then we can’t stop them. But we have more pressing matters to worry about than where replicates go if they’re uncontrolled. The Syndicate is worldwide. We’ve caught glimpses of their plans, and between the plant monsters and rabid sin-sensing animals, we’ve got enough on our plate. Sloan, is AIMI’s tracking data collated from the recovery device?”
“She’s been sifting through new and old data from Daisy’s tracker. I thought we’d be able to differentiate the two, but there are so many options. It seems as though Daisy has been moved about. All around the world.” Sloan slid her laptop onto the table and opened a spreadsheet. “Griffin helped me order all of this. We have a few possible destinations we can investigate, but—”
She lifted her head, eyes stark.
“What?” Parker prompted.
“It’s just that we have no idea if she’s currently there or has moved on.”
“What’s the live tracking data saying?”
His sister shook her head. “It’s coming in pieces. I can’t get a good read. I think AIMI needs some more work if we want to fill in the blanks."
“Then we go to all the old locations,” he stated, leaning over to view the screen. “All hands on deck, we pair up, visit all the sites and report back. They could be international Syndicate bases for all we know. Evan and Liza, Sloan and Wyatt, Griffin and Tony. I’ll go alone.”
