Chapter 1: Nothing is forever

Argent

              I’ve never wanted to kill anyone more than I do, my traitorous right-hand man, Sebastian, at this moment. In fact, I’ve been feeling a mixture of emotions since I learned of his betrayal─ hurt being one of them. Sebastian was, up until I learned of his deceit, my best friend, and that’s what hurts the most. For years Sebastian and I worked together. I thought we were friends─brothers. However, recently, I found out that he was dealing with the enemy behind my back. Now, I’m on his trail, and as soon as I catch him, I’m going to…well, let’s just say it’s not going to be a friendly talk that we’ll be having. Sebastian thought he could escape the Confradia’s wrath by faking his death during a boat accident, but he wasn’t very good at covering his tracks, which confuses me. However, I’m too angry to analyze his idiotic plan.

              At this moment, my trusted Assassin, Gage “Rogue” Constantine, and I are dealing with one of Sebastian’s co-conspirators. Unfortunately, the co-conspirator is Sebastian’s assistant, Mario Sousa. Mario was also a trusted employee until Rogue found out about his duplicity. Everywhere I turn, I see betrayal, which leaves a sour taste on my tongue. For months, I’ve berated myself for my complacent attitude towards my Assassins. I trusted Sebastian, and he, along with Mario, has betrayed me. Rogue is the only one I trust. He has always had my back and had saved my life many times. Of course, I’ve saved his life too. I just don’t understand why Sebastian would do this.

              Right now, we have Sousa strapped naked to a tree in an obscure area of Brazil as we pummel him. You can hear the sound of wild Toucans, Capuchins, insects, and bush dogs in the distance. The lush green canopy of the trees provides shelter for our activities, and the vast expanse guarantees that no one can hear us.

              As the Confradia’s South American board director, I’ve been working in Brazil for over ten years. Before I was recruited by the Confradia, I worked for the National South African Defense Force. I was born and raised in South Africa, speak seven languages, and am trained in various forms of combat. Unfortunately, all of my training failed me when it came to the man that I trusted most. I was blindsided by my faith in Sebastian, but not any longer.

              Rogue’s obsidian eyes gleam with rage as he watches me work over Mario. Most of it has more to do with me expelling my anger than actually getting any information from him. Rogue and I were able to intercept pieces of communications between Sebastian and Sousa recently. The information uncovered a series of underground auctions that have been happening right beneath my nose. It’s very humbling. He and Sebastian were helping several cells kidnap women to cater to some very sick men’s pleasure.

              I found out about Sebastian’s deceit a couple of months ago from two US Confradia directors. It seemed that there was a large nefarious network actively working beneath our noses. It disgusted me to hear about the atrocities occurring in our territories. One of the Confradia directors, Logan “Ares,” Blake’s wife, Bella, was almost killed at what these sick men call a “Hunting Party.” The purpose of the parties was to invite women to a party, then kill and rape them.

              “Where’s Sebastian?” I spit out, emphasizing my question with a punch to Sousa’s ribs. Sousa sputters and spits blood, his face bloody, and his sweaty chest heaving, as bruises form all over his face. Sousa has very little tolerance for pain since he wasn’t trained as an assassin. The man’s slight frame swings and shudders with every strike.

              “I…I told you, I don’t know where he is. He never told me about his plans. I swear!” He cries out again as a punch connects with his gut. His scraggly, sweat-soaked hair bounces with every strike.

              “What do you fucking know?!” Rogue yells near his face. I can tell that Rogue, like me, is at the end of his patience. I give him a warning look before I proceed. I don’t want him to kill Sousa before we get the information we need.

              Sousa blinks his swollen eye as blood glides down his cheek like a tear. “I know…” He swallows hard, trying to calm his heavy breathing. “I know that he erased all of the files before he left. The bastard took everything and left me behind with nothing.” He spits out indignantly. I have to resist rolling my eyes. Hasn’t he ever heard the saying, there’s no honor among thieves?

              Rogue and I smirk at his belligerent tone. “Yeah, it’s truly horrible when someone betrays your trust, isn’t it?” I jeer sarcastically.     Rogue chuckles in reply. “Poor, Mario is Sebastian’s little bitch boy, patsy.”

              Sousa’s grimace comes out as more of a painful cry when Rogue begins to smash his ribs with a bat. The thumping and the cracking sound of the bat connecting with his stomach would be gruesome to a normal bystander but music to our ears.

              “Don’t make this harder on yourself, Mario. Just tell us everything you know, and we’ll go from there.” I grit out gravely. I’m ready to kill him, but I must learn Sebastian’s plan before I do.

              Sousa spits blood again, his eyes dull with pain and resignation. He knows that there’s no way out for him and that we’re not going to let him live. It’s just about how he’ll die at this point. He has seen Rogue and me in action long enough to know that we can either make his death very painful, or we can make it quick and efficient. He just needs to cooperate.

              “I swear to you, Apollo, I don’t know much. Sebastian was very tight-lipped about his dealings. He mostly asked me to scope out empty homes in secluded areas.”

              I look at Rogue, who gives me a disbelieving frown. “Do you think he’s bullshitting me?” I ask Rogue, who nods his head.

              “Oh, yeah. It looks like Mario here is looking to die the hard way.”

              I nod my head and shrug my shoulder. “Then I guess we better give him what he wants. Rogue, take out the needles.”

              Rogue gives me a knowing smile before he opens up a satchel and removes several six-inch needles. The needles look like knitting needles, but instead of hooks at the end, they’re sharp and extremely painful.

              Rogue was the first Assassin that I brought on when I became the South American Board Director. The first thing I taught Rogue was how to use the needles for the purpose of torture. I use the needles to dig them into vital organs, which causes slow, excruciating pain to run through my victim’s nervous systems. It’s a very painful way to die. Rogue prefers to use a gun, but I enjoy my needles.

              Sousa recoils at the sight of the needle’s lethal tip, his chest heaving faster as fear and panic come to the forefront of his mind. It’s almost comical how his eyes widen like saucers, and his mouth curls into a panicked grimace. “Please, no,… don’t!” He cries out.

              Not giving his pleas a thought, I push the first needle deep into right his thigh. Birds scatter from the trees as his scream reverberates across the sky. Any animals near the area grow quiet, making sure that they can hide their presence from predators.

              “No! No! Please!” He blubbers. “There’s a calendar! He had a calendar! I saw it!”

              I release the needle, leaving it embedded in the fat part of his thigh as a reminder of the pain I can inflict. I’m sure that before the night is over, he’s going to look like a pinned butterfly. “What calendar?” I ask evenly.

              Sousa glances down at his impaled thigh with a groan, then looks back at me. “He didn’t know that I saw it, but Sebastian had a calendar of dates showing when the auctions or parties were happening. It was on his computer.”

              “What else did it have?” I ask, digging another needle inside of his forearm.

              Sousa’s sobs wrack his body as he writhes with agony. “All I know is that the calendar had information about the parties and what kind of merchandise they had available, but I never got that thorough a look of them. All I saw were colors. The appointment colors would change according to what kind of auction it was. I remember he said the color “red is dead,” Sousa hisses out through clenched teeth. “Please, let me go. Please!” He shrieks out when the pain becomes too unbearable.

              We work on him for a few more minutes, but he just repeats the same thing over and over again.

              Eventually, Rogue and I become tired of questioning him and put Mario out of his misery. I take some pity on his pathetic form in a moment of weakness and make it a clean shot between the eyes.

              Once he’s dead, Rogue and I make our way back to my home and reconnoiter. Mateo, my tech, is sitting in my office, gazing fixedly into his laptop.

              Oddly enough, it’s nothing out of the ordinary. However, what surprises me is the man sitting across from him. Irving “Jefe” Correa, Mexico’s board director, is sitting in my office. Irving has been with the Confradia for over thirty years. His name, Jefe, which means chief. With his graying hair, full beard, and robust frame, he has an arrogant air about him that most men of power seem to carry. I’ve spoken to him over the years but have only come to work with him since Sebastian’s disappearance. Sebastian’s boat was found in his territory, along with evidence that he found pointing out Sebastian’s traitorous actions. Because of him, we were able to retrieve Sebastian’s laptop. Since then, he has made every effort to help out. He has even gone as far as to establish a temporary office in Sao Paolo. I told him I’d do my own investigating into Sebastian’s whereabouts, but I couldn’t keep him out of it because it happened within his jurisdiction. Unfortunately, when something happens in a director’s territory, they’re responsible for investigating it. The Confradia is very stringent when it comes to their rules.

              Irving’s been helpful in many ways, but something about his demeanor makes my nerves stand on end. It might be that as an Alpha male, I feel like he’s treading on my territory, but I’m never fully comfortable around him.

              Unaware of my thoughts, Irving rises from his seat and offers me his hand. “It’s good to see you, Argent. I hope you don’t mind the intrusion, but I heard you had a possible lead on Sebastian’s whereabouts and the auction, and I was anxious to know what you learned.”

              Keeping an even expression, I shake his hand. “Irving,” I reply. Somehow, I can’t bring myself to fully welcome him. But I’m not a fool. Instead, I gesture for him to take a seat. “Of course, you heard correctly. We followed a lead and found one of Sebastian’s co-conspirators Mario Souza.”

              He nods his graying head and gives me a congenial smile. “My goodness, I thought Souza was dead. Did he tell you anything?”

              I look at Rogue, who remains stoic, then turns back to Souza. “Not much. He told me of the varying auctions that Sebastian was participating in and of the money, but he didn’t give much information.”

              Irving’s face tightens. “That’s all?”

              I shrug. “It seems so. As soon as I saw that he wasn’t going to give us any more information, I put a bullet in his head.”

              Irving smiles benignly. “Oh, well, that’s unfortunate. I guess all we can do is keep digging. Please, let me know if there’s anything that I can help you with.”

              I give him a respectful nod in hopes that he’ll take it as a signal to leave. “You’re assistance is always appreciated, Irving. Are you planning on staying here long?”

              I know it’s rude to ask, but I’m growing weary of having him underfoot. This is my territory, and like an alpha dog, I don’t like anyone else treading on it.

              “I’ll be going back to Mexico in the morning. However, I will try to stop in when I can.”

              Once Irving leaves, I turn back to Mateo, who has been working intently into the computer’s screen. The Confradia recruited Mateo a couple of years ago. Mateo is a twenty-four-year-old hacker who grew up in a Sao Paulo favela. When they found him, he had set up ATM cards with false accounts to withdraw money from banks. The Confradia only initiated him because of how good he is as a hacker. He was mobile within the organization for a while. But he has only worked for me for a year.

              Mateo blinks as if waking up from a dream and gives me a shy smile. “Sorry about that, Apollo. He came in unannounced, and I didn’t know what to do.”

              “That’s fine, Mateo. Did you find anything on the computer?”

Mateo blinks again. The kid is definitely a space case. He’s a decent guy, but he spends most of his time attached to his computer and very little time socializing.

              “Ah, yeah, Apollo. I do have some good news for you.” Rogue and I approach when he gestures for us to look at the computer’s screen. “After what Sousa said about Sebastian deleting his files, I did some research. It took me a while to search for any information I could find on Sebastian’s laptop after it was “wiped clean.” His eyes widen as he makes exaggerated air quotes. Mateo has a bad habit of making air quotes when he’s being sarcastic.

              “Thankfully, instead of making it hard for us to find those files, Sebastian made it easier for me to pinpoint the most important ones. It took me a while to work a patch to those files, but eventually, I was able to restore them.”

              Mateo rises from his seat and waves his finger in front of him thoughtfully. “Sousa wasn’t lying about the color coding and the calendar.” He shows us the computer’s screen. “If you look, you’ll find that each one is colored on specific dates. After a thorough search, I found what each color means. Red is most definitely dead. They represent hunting parties. The parties are set up at least two times a year. The pink represents child auctions; the blue represents young girls’, and the white represents a virgin auction.”

              “How do they get the women?” Rogue asks, shocked.

              “Some of his notes refer to the kidnapping of women and children, either from the streets or through social media sites.” He replies grimly. “They probably catfish the women, drug them, and take them. It’s surprisingly not uncommon in this business.”

              “So, how do the people who go to these auctions or parties learn about them?” I ask evenly. “I’d imagine that they wouldn’t want to leave a paper trail.”

              Mateo shakes his head with a wry frown. “I talked to some of my sources on the street, and the answer is obvious; the men have dummy social accounts that they use to communicate the addresses and dates of the parties. All you need is a Snapchat account to send a video or a message. The site is perfect because the post will disappear as soon as it appears. They don’t even have to type a message. They need to post a check-in with a background signaling the color code and date stamp on it. The person can save the picture and be on his way. Most of the time, the person running the parties or auctions will not know the person behind the dummy accounts because you can use false information. All they know is that the person is wealthy because they pay a lot of money for exclusive access to the social account.”

              Rogue and I give each other a silent look. This is a lot worse than we thought and extremely horrific to consider.

              “What’s Sebastian’s role in this?” I ask, trying to hold back all of the rage that I’m feeling.

              Mateo shrugs. “From what I can gather, Sebastian’s men provide the women and children, and Sebastian arrives afterward to collect the money. At the most, he’s a courier for someone. The records show that he’s not involved in the kidnapping or the planning. All Sebastian deals with is money. The spreadsheet that I was able to uncover shows that he made over two million dollars for every party after he paid off his cohorts.”

              His words are like knives in my heart. Sebastian had never shown any indication that he wanted more. If I had to describe him, I’d say he was happy in his role in the Confradia. You’d never think he would be the type of man who’d sell women and children for profit. I guess you never know what’s in a man’s heart.

              “Is there any way that you can get me a seat at the next auction or party?”

              Rogue snaps back in my direction with a surprising growl. “Are you louco, Apollo? You’d be walking in blind, and it’s possible that Sebastian will not be there.”

              “It doesn’t matter. I’ll take the risk. I need to find that bladdy cunt and bury him. But don’t worry, we’ll do this the right way. Call Ricochet and Hex. I want everyone available to sweep in once we get confirmation of Sebastian’s presence. I’m done with waiting. It’s time to take action.”

              Both men nod their heads and step out of the room to follow my directive. As I sit there, I can’t help but feel my predatory instincts awaken. Sebastian won’t know what hit him.