NARROWING HER EYES, she glared. “Does anyone ever fall for that? Anyone ever buy the shit you spout like it’s genuinely in their interest?”
“You’re important to Olympus.”
Pushing to the edge of the couch, she slammed her glass onto the table. “Why?” she demanded. “What the hell am I so special for? Are you honestly telling me that in all the decades Olympus has been in operation, no operative has ever conceived a child?”
“It’s something that would always be taken care of.”
Just the ease with which he said that sent a chill up her spine. “You don’t seriously mean that.”
“A lot of Olympus procedures were still in their infancy when Hera fell pregnant,” he said. That was a name she hadn’t heard before. “Kaiya Canon, Ares’s mother.”
Yes, she knew his last name, though Zeus wouldn’t have any reason to think she did. “It was a complex issue, given the father was her asset.”
A mission? Daire was a product of a mission gone wrong? Concealing her shock was difficult. “If you wanted to take care of it, I’m sure you would have.”
“Well, yes,” he said, swallowing the last of his drink. “It was, of course, discussed at the time. Kaiya was against it, which led to issues between Harry and myself…” He stood up to saunter to the bar, recounting the tale like it wasn’t horrific to hear. “Ultimately, it was decided the child, the pregnancy, gave us another layer of advantage over our asset.”
Her jaw moved as words ached to leave her lips. The pregnancy, this child he was referring to, was the man she loved.
“It allowed you to manipulate him. Was he married?”
“Much more complicated than that,” he said over his shoulder. “He was a political aide to the then vice-president. The mission was more of a test case than anything else.”
Closing her lips, she inhaled through her nose, fighting to restrain the emotion bubbling up within her. “You were testing Kaiya?”
“The system, our system… A live drill. None of the participants knew; it ended up being fruitful. The VP was the mark. Merrill had access to his schedule, his paperwork… Kaiya’s relationship with him allowed us to extract certain sensitive information.”
After some quick math, she said, “Byron Senior was in office.” Given the president was one of their own, Olympus would already have access to sensitive information. “Why would you need information from the VP?”
“Chester Buford was a thorn in the side of the Byron family. He had his own aspirations to be in the top chair. We didn’t want that to happen… And like I said, we had to test our processes.”
“By ruining an innocent man?” she asked. “Buford resigned in disgrace.”
Everyone knew that. She hadn’t been born yet, but the footage of him leaving the White House aired every time Buford came up in the media. Still, her knowledge on the subject was hazy; limited to what most would know about a historical event.
“He wasn’t innocent,” he said, beginning his stroll back her way. “Merrill was one of his trusted advisors and ended up working in the VP’s Chief of Staff’s office… He had access to just about everything the VP did, and their families were social.”
“So this Merrill, Kaiya cultivated him, and then, what? Asked him for information?”
“That she received,” he said, stopping just a couple of feet away. “Buford did allow that information to be leaked. It came from Richard Merrill.”
She searched her memory for anything related to Chester Buford. “He was investigated for selling secrets to foreign governments.”
“It was never proved,” he said though his smirk said it all.
“Oh my God,” she said, pushing her shoulders back. “It was Olympus… Olympus got the information from Merrill through Kaiya, and you planted the evidence to frame Buford.” Beyond shocked, it was a lot to process. “You could’ve ruined his life… You did ruin his life. His career was over.”
The satisfaction ebbed from his eyes as they sank down to his glass. “The man got his revenge… We worked hard to ensure the investigation didn’t end in a conviction. That should’ve been the situation done with… But we learned our lesson about showing mercy… and covering our tracks. The fool went too far, exploiting his access to sympathetic allies…”
The pieces clicked. “Olympus A,” she said. The gun fight Daire had been born in, the havoc that killed his mother, was brought on by the man who’d lost everything for their live drill. “Guess that’s what happens when you play with people’s lives.”
Zeus wasn’t amused or in any way contrite. “He started a war he could never win that day.”
“Didn’t Buford kill himself?” she asked, receiving her answer in another smirk. “What happened to Merrill? Did he kill himself too?”
Shaking his head, Zeus took his time about enjoying his drink. “Considering his own run at the White House, last I heard.”
Daire’s father was alive? Alive and… Did he know? Damn, where was a computer when she needed one? Googling his father without his permission would be crossing a major line. She should wait until he was ready to tell the story rather than force the issue.
“Did he ever ask… about the baby?”
“Kaiya died at Olympus A.”
That wasn’t enough, she expected more, but it didn’t appear he wanted to give it. “Did Merrill ask? Did he care? Didn’t he ever—”
“As soon as the story about Buford broke, he distanced himself. Left the VP’s office… he worked for Byron for a while.”
And probably breathed a sigh of relief that he was never identified as the true leak.
“So much history,” she muttered, dropping against the back of the couch. “So much hurt.”
Zeus came over to sit at her side again. “You can think we’re monsters, but we do valuable work and we learn our lessons. We tightened all protocols, worked overtime to reduce exposure, and put mercy on the blacklist.” She shifted her head to look at him. “After that, physical relationships were held under close scrutiny and only allowed in the course of missions.”
Daire told her.
Of course, there was a glaring issue with that protocol. “From how I understand it, you and Garrick are rarely in the field.”
She wasn’t sure how often Harry took part in missions as an active operative rather than just working oversight. More then than now, she guessed. But that was her father, so she didn’t want to put him in any bracket involving the subject of sex.
His slow smile could’ve become a laugh, but he licked his lips to restrain it. Thank God. Her own cringe wasn’t so easy to suppress.
“There are exceptions for principals.”
“Which I suppose is how Harry got with my mom,” she said. “Those pesky exceptions.”
“Harry met your mother on a mission,” he said. Equal parts intrigued and nervous, she hoped the new story wouldn’t match the previous one. “She wasn’t a mark, just an administrator in the mark’s firm. Harry’s task was to monitor a Michael Lloyd. He was funding a candidate with ties to a severe terrorist group. We wanted to discover his motivation.”
“And did you discover it?”
He sucked in a breath. “We did. Talk about overkill. He was using a flamethrower to swat a bug. His real interest was a single target. Funding the candidate, he hoped, would lead to the terrorist group taking aim at his rival. Thus, suspicion would not fall on him.”
“But it didn’t work out?” Zeus shook his head. “What happened?”
“He was murdered,” he said then raised a hand. “It wasn’t us. It was someone from the group who didn’t like being manipulated.”
Funny that their focus was a single person if a group was terrorizing with impunity. “Which group was it?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
More shock. “It doesn’t matter?”
“No.”
“How many lives have they taken? How widespread is their organization? You’re talking about something that happened thirty years ago. God only knows how many—”
“They were dismantled.” That was a technical term for… He leaned a fraction closer. “You’re welcome.”
Her lips parted. “Olympus…” He nodded once. “Oh.”
Got a little chilly on her high horse.
Zeus returned to his story. “Your mother was in the building the night of Michael Lloyd’s murder. As was your father. He took her out of there… cue the expected issues between myself and Harry… again.”
The roll of his eyes made her smile. The two men sure liked to butt heads often. At least she wasn’t the only one to cause issues in the upper echelons of Olympus.
“He wanted to protect her.”
“We had loose ends to take care of,” he said. “That kept him in the area… At first, we didn’t know they were seeing each other… staying together, I don’t know what they were doing. We didn’t have any reason to monitor our principals.” Back then. “After more than a few false starts, Hades returned to base and that was that.”
Tess sat up to retrieve her glass from the table. “Except it wasn’t.”
“Indeed,” Zeus said. “We didn’t know they continued to see each other. I still don’t know how or when or how often it happened. Evidently, he told her more about Olympus than we would’ve liked.”
“More issues,” she said, tucking a fist under her hair to support her head when she rested an elbow on the back of the couch. “You and Harry like your issues.”
“We’re dominant types. Both enjoy the sound of our own voices and believe in our own superiority.”
Damnit, she didn’t want to like him, but his honesty was welcome. “At some point you found out my mom was pregnant?”
“We didn’t find out about you until Harry disappeared. I know now you were about six months old, he just left. Just walked off base and didn’t come back. We tried to locate him, but we trained him well; he knew how to stay off radar. When we did find him… we found you… We sent agents to retrieve you.”
“On my second birthday.”
“I would apologize for orchestrating that except you weren’t badly treated. You had everything you needed. You were happy at the beta site… In fact, when we go, you’ll be able to see there is still evidence of you there.” That she would like to see. “You were happy. A happy child. Always took everything in stride. If something made you unhappy, you found a way to change it… or manipulate Ares into changing it for you.”
Another smile warmed her lips and this time a brief laugh joined it. “I’m sure he loved that.”
“Ares’s life was filled with routine and discipline. You and your mother were his first taste of a life that wasn’t so strict. He was only eight years old. For a while, we weren’t so sure he’d take to you…” The smile on his face grew to a grin. “You used to sing.”
Leaning forward, her eyes widened. “Me? I’m a terrible singer.”
“You weren’t then. You’d sing all day long, sing all the time, all sorts of songs while he was doing his drills. Being only two, you didn’t get the words right, and regularly made up your own songs. But you were always making a noise, always asking him questions about what he was doing and why he was doing it… Sometimes you tried to join in… He acted like he didn’t like it, but you were his joy. You gave him joy. Then when your mother came to stay, he was stuck between two worlds. You insisted on seeing him often, so he had a nurtured existence while at the same time working hard with Harry.”
Who hadn’t been allowed to see her or her mother after Carrie’s arrival. After the deal was negotiated that allowed her mother to join her at the beta site, Harry was forbidden from seeing either of them.
That blended with what Styx told her about Harry’s grieving frustration and how he got stricter, working Daire harder. Stuck between two worlds. That was the perfect way to put it. The juxtaposition must have messed with the young Daire’s mind.
“There were a lot of problems in their relationship then,” Zeus said. “Harry had been gone for a year and a half. Daire was different, more withdrawn, much more careful about who he trusted. Harry was the closest thing he had to a father, losing that took a long time for him to get over.”
If he ever had, she wasn’t so sure. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because if you’re going to be a part of the Olympus family, you have to understand where we came from. That’s the only way to know why we do the things we do,” he said, straightening up to rest a hand on her knee. “We can look after you. We will look after you. I want you to trust me, Tess. The only way to win your trust is with honesty. Your life might be more restricted than you’d like it to be, but decisions like that will be made in concert with you and for your own well-being.”
Caring about her was one thing, controlling her life was another. All he was doing was filling in blanks around pieces of information she already knew. Well, about her own life anyway. Learning about how her parents met and Daire’s father were new and important details. Still, he wasn’t trusting her with his own personal history or his current plans that somehow involved her blood.
“It will take time,” she said, forcing herself to leave his hand on her leg. “Like you said, this is a new world for me. I don’t want to rush to snap judgments… but I also can’t make any promises.”
“All I ask is that you remain open-minded,” he said. “Don’t assume the worst. Give us a chance to prove to you that we can do good. Olympus works to ensure the big picture is as rosy for everyone as it can be. We do good, even if we’re not perfect all the time.”
It definitely wasn’t as easy as that. Referencing the big picture being rosy sort of felt like another way of saying that people were expendable.
Still, she smiled and sat up, stretching her shoulders. “I’ve had a good night, but it’s getting late. I’m going to head to bed.”
Nodding, he didn’t seem unhappy or like he wanted to object. “Thank you for the pleasure of your company,” he said, sitting up to relieve her of her glass. “I hope we can continue this another night.”
“I do too,” she said, leaving the couch to make her way to her bedroom.
Going inside, she sank back against the door and breathed out. It wasn’t a lie that she needed her bed. All being well, she would catch up with lost sleep on the plane the next day.
Pushing herself away from the door, she hurried to seek Styx’s signal. Turning on the bathroom light, her eager eyes settled on the bottle by the sink. Lying on its side.
Tess smiled. Styx had done it. They had what they needed. Now there was just one thing left to do: get herself home.