Chapter 7 - MotherVienna smelled exactly as Daphne remembered.
Rain.
Stone.
Diesel.
Cold air.
Memory.
She hated it immediately.
The training facility stood seventeen kilometers outside the city behind a vineyard that had gone wild with neglect. The main building resembled an eighteenth-century estate from the road. From above, its true purpose became obvious.
Reinforced underground levels.
Multiple security zones.
Hidden vehicle access.
A private firing range.
Daphne had spent four years there.
She remembered none of the beauty.
Only concrete rooms.
Timed drills.
Bruised knuckles.
Numbers instead of names.
Valentino studied the property through binoculars from a wooded ridge.
“You lived there?”
“Trained there.”
“Same thing?”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
Valentino lowered the binoculars.
Daphne ignored him.
Rico and six Milani soldiers waited behind them. They had traveled separately using false documents and entered Austria through different routes.
The plan was straightforward.
Which meant Daphne did not trust it.
“We enter through the western service tunnel,” she said. “It connects to the lower maintenance level.”
“How do you know it’s still accessible?” Rico asked.
“I used it to escape punishment when I was seventeen.”
Valentino glanced at her.
“You escaped often?”
“I tried.”
“Successfully?”
“Once.”
“What happened?”
“They found me at a train station four hours later.”
“And?”
Daphne looked at him.
“You don’t want to know.”
His expression said he very much wanted to know.
But he let it go.
They moved at 2:00 a.m.
The tunnel entrance was exactly where Daphne remembered.
Hidden beneath vegetation.
Steel door.
No visible guard.
Too easy.
She touched the lock.
Already open.
“Trap,” Rico whispered.
“Yes.”
“We backing out?”
“No.”
Valentino sighed.
“One day I’d like us to identify a trap and then actually avoid it.”
Daphne opened the door.
“That sounds boring.”
They entered.
No guards.
No cameras.
No alarms.
The underground corridor smelled of disinfectant.
Fresh disinfectant.
Someone maintained the facility.
Daphne’s body remembered routes before her conscious mind did.
Left toward armory.
Right toward medical.
Stairs toward training hall.
She stopped.
A door stood twenty feet away.
Room B-17.
Her room.
Valentino noticed.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Daphne.”
“I slept there.”
He walked toward it.
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
“Why?”
“Because I said so.”
A moment passed.
Then he nodded.
They continued.
At the central stairwell, lights activated automatically.
Daphne raised her rifle.
Speakers crackled.
Then a woman’s voice filled the corridor.
“You still lead with your right shoulder when you’re angry.”
Daphne stopped.
Anna.
“I trained that out of you three times.”
Daphne looked upward.
“Come down here.”
“You always hated patience.”
Valentino spoke.
“Anna Angelo?”
A soft laugh.
“Valentino Milani. You grew into your photographs.”
Valentino’s expression became murderous.
“I’m going to assume that’s a compliment.”
“It isn’t.”
Daphne gripped the rifle.
“Where are you?”
“Training hall.”
Of course.
They climbed.
The old training hall was enormous.
Daphne remembered fighting there until her hands bled.
Now the mats were gone.
A single table stood in the middle.
Anna Angelo sat behind it.
Alone.
No weapon visible.
She was fifty-three according to records that might or might not be real.
She looked younger.
Daphne entered first.
Anna stood.
For several seconds neither woman spoke.
Their resemblance was undeniable.
Not identical.
But close enough that Valentino understood immediately why Daphne had gone pale at the photograph.
Anna’s eyes moved over her daughter.
“You’re beautiful.”
Daphne nearly shot her.
“You don’t get to say that.”
Anna’s face tightened.
“No. Perhaps I don’t.”
“Where are your guards?”
“I sent them away.”
“Why?”
“Because if you came here believing I was your enemy, fifty guards wouldn’t stop you.”
Valentino stepped in beside Daphne.
“She killed forty-eight men at a vineyard.”
Anna looked impressed.
“I heard.”
Daphne’s jaw tightened.
“You activated Vesper.”
“Yes.”
Rico raised his weapon.
Valentino held up one hand.
“Why?” Daphne asked.
“To stop something worse.”
“You’ve killed twelve people already.”
“Seventeen.”
The casual correction chilled the room.
“They were compromised.”
“They were human beings.”
Anna studied her.
“You’ve changed.”
“Answer me.”
Anna sat.
“The Architect wasn’t the Syndicate’s leader. He was its jailer.”
Daphne frowned.
“He kept the network fragmented because he understood what would happen if its clients ever gained direct control.”
“What clients?”
“Governments. Intelligence services. corporations. criminal organizations. The usual architects of respectable violence.”
“Vesper is killing witnesses.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because those witnesses hold pieces of something called the Atlas.”
Valentino folded his arms.
“Another dramatic name.”
Anna almost smiled.
“The Atlas is a distributed archive containing every Syndicate contract performed over thirty-one years.”
Silence.
Daphne understood immediately.
Every assassination.
Every coup.
Every political murder.
Every corporate sabotage operation.
Names of clients.
Payments.
Evidence.
If exposed, governments could collapse.
“What happened to it?”
“Marcus divided it.”
“Why?”
“Insurance.”
“Among the people on Vesper’s list?”
Anna nodded.
“Most don’t know what they have. Data fragments hidden in financial accounts, encrypted devices, even genetic storage.”
Chen’s voice came through Daphne’s earpiece from the surveillance van.
“Did she say genetic storage?”
Daphne ignored him.
“Vesper is collecting the fragments.”
“Yes.”
“To destroy them?”
“No.”
Anna looked directly at Valentino.
“To assemble the Atlas.”
Valentino’s expression changed.
“Who wants it?”
“The people really controlling Vesper.”
“I thought you controlled Vesper.”
“I activated it.”
“Difference?”
“A considerable one.”
Daphne felt anger rising.
“You sent me a message.”
“Yes.”
“You killed Voss.”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
Anna looked toward the windows.
“The same people who will kill everyone in this room if we remain here another eleven minutes.”
Rico immediately checked his watch.
Valentino’s eyes narrowed.
“You invited us into a building under attack?”
“I needed Daphne to come.”
Daphne laughed bitterly.
“Still manipulating me.”
“I needed you somewhere without electronic surveillance.”
“You’re speaking through speakers in a fortress.”
Anna smiled faintly.
“Those systems are analog.”
Daphne hated that she admired the precaution.
“Who is coming?”
“Helix.”
The name meant nothing.
Anna continued.
“Helix is a consortium formed by eleven of the Syndicate’s largest historical clients. When Marcus died, they activated contingency agreements to seize the Atlas.”
“And you activated Vesper first.”
“Yes.”
“To collect it before them.”
“Yes.”
“By murdering anyone who holds fragments.”
Anna’s expression hardened.
“I never said I was innocent.”
Daphne stared at her mother.
There it was.
Not apology.
Not justification.
A simple statement.
Valentino shifted beside her.
“Ten minutes.”
Anna stood.
“There’s an armored train tunnel beneath the property.”
Rico looked at Daphne.
“You knew about that?”
“No.”
Anna smiled.
“You weren’t supposed to.”
Daphne stepped closer.
“You still haven’t answered the important question.”
Anna stopped.
“Why did you abandon me?”
The room changed.
Valentino looked away.
Rico became suddenly interested in the entrance.
Anna’s face lost every trace of command.
“I didn’t.”
Daphne felt something break.
“You were alive.”
“Yes.”
“You watched me grow up.”
“Yes.”
“You knew where I was.”
“Yes.”
“Then don’t tell me you didn’t abandon me.”
Anna’s eyes glistened.
“I put you into foster care because Marcus knew I had a daughter.”
“You could have taken me and run.”
“No.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I tried.”
Anna’s voice cracked.
Daphne had never expected that.
“Your father tried first.”
“My father?”
“Michael Angelo wasn’t your father’s real name. His name was Adrian Vale. British intelligence.”
Daphne stared.
“He discovered the Syndicate while working an unauthorized operation. We met. We made the mistake of believing we could leave.”
“What happened?”
“Marcus found us.”
Anna looked down.
“Adrian died buying me enough time to get you out.”
Daphne remembered nothing of him.
Only fabricated fragments supplied by social workers.
“Then why did the Syndicate recruit me?”
Anna’s silence answered.
Daphne’s entire body went cold.
“You.”
“I thought if I trained you myself, indirectly, I could keep you alive.”
“You put me inside the organization.”
“Marcus had already found you at sixteen.”
“You could have warned me!”
“And then what? A frightened sixteen-year-old runs? He would have killed you within a day.”
“You turned me into Viper.”
“I turned you into someone Marcus couldn’t kill.”
Daphne lunged.
Valentino caught her around the waist.
“Daphne.”
“Let me go.”
“No.”
Anna did not move.
“Let her.”
Valentino looked at her.
“That may be the worst suggestion anyone has made tonight.”
An explosion shook the building.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
Rico shouted into his radio.
“Movement outside! Multiple vehicles!”
Anna checked her watch.
“They’re early.”
Gunfire erupted above them.
Daphne forced herself away from Valentino.
“How many?”
“Approximately sixty.”
Valentino drew his pistol.
“Finally. A family reunion I understand.”
Anna crossed to the far wall and pressed a hidden switch.
A section opened.
Tunnel.
“Move.”
They descended while gunfire intensified overhead.
At the bottom, an armored rail vehicle waited on old maintenance tracks.
Everyone boarded.
Anna remained near the door.
Daphne grabbed her arm.
“You’re coming.”
Anna looked surprised.
“Why?”
“Because I haven’t decided whether I’m going to forgive you or kill you.”
Something almost like pride appeared in Anna’s eyes.
“There’s my daughter.”
“Don’t.”
The train started moving.
Seconds later, explosions rolled through the tunnel behind them.
The facility collapsed.
Daphne watched flames disappear into darkness.
Her childhood.
Her training.
Her prison.
Gone.
Valentino sat beside her.
Across the compartment, Anna Angelo watched them together.
After several minutes she said, “You love him.”
Daphne’s head snapped toward her.
Valentino smiled.
“This trip just improved.”
“Shut up.”
Anna laughed softly.
It sounded painfully familiar.
Daphne hated that most of all.
Then Anna’s expression changed.
“Daphne, there’s something else.”
“Of course there is.”
“Helix isn’t hunting the Atlas simply to protect itself.”
“What do they want?”
“To use the Syndicate again.”
“For contracts?”
“No.”
Anna looked between Daphne and Valentino.
“They want governments.”
Valentino stopped smiling.
Anna continued.
“Elections. markets. wars. They don’t want assassins anymore.”
May you like
The train entered another tunnel.
“They want control.”
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