Page 2 of The Phoenix (Spy Girl 6)
“In other words, no emotional reunion?”
“Not until we know if we can trust them. They have been lying to us at every turn. But there’s something bigger going on. I don’t understand why they manipulated us the way they did, but we need to at least listen to their story.”
“And be on guard,” Ari says, giving me a hug. “Thank you for waiting for me.” He opens his blazer and flashes a shoulder holster. “And if they aren’t on our side?”
“We take them out together,” I say, glaring defiantly toward the camera with the hope that those inside are watching.
I trek back up the stairs, Ari following behind me. He’s full of nervous energy, and his heart seems to have sped up. I know he’s mad, maybe even looking for a fight.
Which is not what we need.
I turn around and whisper to calm down.
All three men are standing in the same spots they were when I left them.
“I thought Ari should be here when we went over all of this. Obviously, we need answers. But, first,” I say, “Aristotle Allister Bradford-Von Allister, this is the man who I believed to be my father and who helped raise me, Blake Cassleberry.” They shake hands, and then I turn to our grandfather. “And this man, who you met as Ares’s attorney, is—I just realized that I don’t know your name.”
“I’m Alexander Von Allister, your grandfather.” He puts his hand on Ari’s shoulder and adds, “I didn’t know until recently.”
Ari nods at him. I feel a little like crying.
But I can’t.
I have to be strong. I have to be a warrior. The firestorm. Only this time, I won’t be killing. I will be using the other skills I was taught to separate fact from fiction.
I stand up straight and tall. “And this is Ares Von Allister.”
“Your father,” Ares corrects.
“Right now, as far as we’re concerned,” I say, “you were the father given to us in our cover story. Whether or not you are our biological father remains to be seen.”
“In other words, we have some explaining to do,” Blake says with a hearty laugh. “Chill out, Calliope. How about we move to the living room, take a seat, and discuss this calmly?”
“Fine,” Ari and I agree.
We sit. In a conversation area centered around a large brick fireplace with what appears to be an original of Gustav Klimt’s Bauerngarten hanging above it. It features a profusion of brightly colored poppies, daisies, and other flowers.
“My mother had a print of this painting in our home, and it was on the cover of a notebook she always carried with her.”
“Her love for that painting is what made me purchase the original,” Ares confirms.
I can see the love shining in his eyes mixed with the sorrow and pain he still feels over losing her. And probably the guilt.
“Let’s start at the beginning,” Blake suggests, turning toward me and allowing me a better look at his scars.
“No,” Ares disagrees. “We’re going to talk about more recent events. Huntley, you asked my old man if it was true that I told your mother that Aristotle had died at birth and then gave him to the general as a bribe.”
“Which he confirmed that you had.”
“And it’s what you told me,” Blake says.
“No, it’s what you told me,” Ares counters. “I assume it’s the lie that Kelley told you. I couldn’t prove differently, so I went along with it. And my father was only recently told that you were his grandchildren. I let everyone believe the worst about me because I loved your mother. We’re all fighting for her cause, and I didn’t want to disillusion anyone.”
Ares puts his head down. I can see his chest tremble as he tries to steady his breathing. It was hard for him to let them believe something like that about him.
When he looks up, his eyes are ringed with red, and it’s obvious he’s holding back his emotions.
“I will preface what I’m about to say with some evidence,” he finally says. “Six months before your nineteenth birthdays, I received a letter. Apparently, your mother had set it up to be delivered before she was killed. Being a covert operative means you never know when your life could end, and it’s clear that, on that specific date, she wanted me to know. I suppose she wanted you both to be legal adults before I learned the truth.
“It’s probably not a big surprise that I was a bit of a nerd in high school. Not that I didn’t enjoy social activities, but my head was so full of ideas. I was bored with school and always working things through on what would be my greatest inventions. I wasn’t popular but wasn’t unpopular either, and Kelley was my best friend. She was smart and beautiful, and I cared for her very much. Of course, I never told her outright, and we never dated back then, but I did everything in my power to help her, to be there when she cried—even though she wouldn’t tell me why she was upset. I didn’t learn the extent of her stepfather’s abuse until the day I found her badly beaten. Don’t get me wrong; there were signs, but when I asked, she would always deny. She was always a good liar, I guess. Good at pretending to be in control when everything around her was falling apart.
“She called me her warrior because of my name. And she broke my heart in the hospital when she told me we couldn’t see each other anymore. Because I loved her, I understood. Her stepfather was a policeman. He was actively trying to find her. She was afraid that he would use me to do so. We didn’t have contact the entire time she was away at college under her new name, Charlotte Cassleberry.”
“After college,” our grandfather adds, “she wondered if the name would hold up to scrutiny for a job in the government. When I learned how she had been trained in martial arts and knew how to use a gun, I hired her on the spot. Back then, it was my job to recruit and train agents. When she moved on, I became her handler while I continued to train other agents.. Before she died, she came to me, said she needed a holiday and would be taking a couple of weeks off. I didn’t hear from her during that time until she arrived home and told me she had discovered a plot that could end the world as we know it.”
“That was the night she was killed,” Ari states. “And the night Huntley managed to escape from The Priest.”
“That’s correct,” Ares says. “But let’s go back to when you were conceived. Kelley and I hadn’t seen each other in a while. I knew I was under scrutiny from the government and even under CIA watch when I traveled. I built high-tech military goods, but I was careful who I sold them to. I offered our government a first look and always gave them long, exclusive contracts. But I suppose there was always that worry.
“Your mother and I ran into each other at a party. I had started my business, made my first twenty million, and was on top of the world. I was enjoying the spoils of my hard work at the Montrovian Grand Prix with my best friends—”
“Jack, Malcolm, Aleksandr, and Gio?” I interject.
“Yes,” he says with a melancholy smile.
“And you shared a night of passion,” Ari adds. “We know. We read it in her letter.”
“What letter?” Ares asks.
“There was a letter in a Montrovian safety deposit box,” I explain. “Would you like me to read it to you?”
Ares squints his eyes in curiosity. “It spoke of our relationship? Yes, I would very much like to hear it.”
I pick my backpack up off the floor, pull the letter out of a secret compartment hidden in the bottom, and then read aloud.
“My darling daughter,
“If you are reading this, it means you have discovered the Zurich safety deposit box and found your way here. You know about my profession as a covert operative for our government, and more than likely, I have passed and taken my secret to the grave.
“I lied to you, and I’m sorry for that, but it was for my safety as well as your own.
