Page 160 of Oathbreaker

My head spins as I struggle to process the idea that my father’s actions are part of some grand, ominous plan.

Nonetheless, I lower my gun, and Leo does the same.

“Excellent,” Misha says with a release of breath. He takes a step, and Leo and I lift our guns in reflex. “Fucking goddamnit, I’m not going to kill you. You both could have been a blood smear on my floor five minutes ago if I wanted to harm you,” he spits out.

I try not to nod. He does have a point.

Lowering our weapons, I watch Misha shift to his desk and take his jacket off. Leaning over his desk, he starts to speak as he types on the keyboard.

“I’ve been tracking you extensively. Both of you. You’re both of interest to us for various reasons,” Misha says without looking at us.

“Both of us?” Leo speaks up.

“Yes,” Misha says, looking up. “Both of you.” He holds Leo’s gaze for a hard beat before he lowers his head again, clicking the keyboard a few more times.

“You’ve heard of New World Order?”

“Like the Illuminati and shit?” I ask.

“Eh, sure,” he says, waving his hand in the air. “The premise is that the world has fallen into corruption and needs to be rectified and unified to end war, famine, and poverty. It is a nice dream—one happy planet spinning in the Universe.”

“Except?” Leo fills in.

“Except the ends do not justify the means when it comes to The Legion.” He spins his computer around. On the screen is a rendering of the eye, and fuck if looking at it doesn’t make me want to avert my gaze.

“This is the Eye of The Architect. The Architect is the leader of The Legion and is very uncomfortably close to ushering in that New World Order. Except a lot of fucking people are going to die.”

My head hurts. “What does that have to do with me?”

“Everything,” Misha says. “Your father was under consideration for the position of Engineer of America. There are seven Engineers from what we can tell, and they are the puppet masters controlling the events of the world. The Architect likes to think they are God. Your father and Morris Winthrope are supposed to be adversaries, as they were up for the same position. Instead, they decided to join forces.”

My head spins.

“How very Manifest Destiny of them,” Leo says with a rough tone.

“According to our intel, your father was already in the lead to become the next Engineer, but there was a shake-up last year. That’s where Morris Winthrope came in. But now Benjamin is dead, and there’s a vacancy in The Legion. And if the thought of Benjamin Brigham being in charge was deplorable, Morris Winthrope is much worse.”

I blink hard. “Okay,” I say dumbly.

“Somewhere, your father has all of the information about The Architect, as well as the secrets that allow them to keep people alive and well for...much longer than any human should be alive. It is thought that the only person to have this information, the secret formulas, is The Architect, but somehow Benjamin Brigham got ahold of it.”

I clear my throat. “Wait, what do you mean ‘keep people alive longer?’”

“You think you’ve created the ultimate panacea? They’ve had it for decades.” Misha’s gaze swings to me, and a long-repressed memory comes to my mind.

Darkness. Underground in Isla Cara. A woman on a pedestal being stabbed over and over.

And after each swipe of the blade, she healed.

“One of our plants discovered Benjamin Brigham had this information a year ago, and we believe it to be on Isla Cara. Believed it.”

I nod at his words, and I feel Leo shift to lean against the low bar a few steps away from us.

“Why couldn’t your plant get it if they knew it was there?” I ask.

“They were compromised. We only found part of their torso floating in the Caribbean,” Misha says, spitting out every word.

“Sheikh Farid Al-Mansoori?” Leo’s raspy question hangs in the air.

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