Annihilation - Book Three

Chapter 13

We watch them leave, my eyes bearing down into the back of our burnt-out leader. Nobody moves, I suppose it never was an option for Verando to just decide he'd had enough. If I was being honest with myself, I'd always envisioned him as a being who couldn't fathom defeat.

 It seemed as though time and time again he returned from the brink of death, alive and with new ideas much in the way that every hardship found me stronger and more capable of keeping up with the heavy hitters of our alliance. How was it that I was on the rise and he seemed to be on the downward slope?

 Haryek touches my arm and I'm really not in the mood for his input through the Elf Lord has been much more tolerable since the battle to overtake the elf kingdom. I suppose I would be too if I got everything I was after. He hands over a leather book and I take it from him, arching a brow as I open it and flip through it. 

"Our sales records, Tomas looked over it; he didn't recognize any names but by the way he is drinking up our wine and eating our food, I'd say they didn't trust him considering he's supposed to be hunting us." The elf narrows his eyes and Tomas responds with an impish grin. 

"They aren't my friends, it's a job. 'N it's not you I be huntin' either." He says casually.

 Haryek rolls his eyes, passing a hand smoothly through his braided crown. "Be that as it may, I'm putting security on you if you're going to stay here, and, you are going to stay here. You know too much for us to let you go now." He turns his attention back to me.

 "Talk to him. See if you can get him back on our side, you did it once before."

 I frown as I flip through the pages, I don't recognize any names either. I might have done it before but he was Alpha then, I don't know who this man is. I suppose that's the problem, I don't know him truly. How do we get a lycan army to follow a human? My eyes fall on a particular name that shows up on a monthly basis.

"Gerasim?" I ask, "It's here over and over again. Haryek, you're a master at trade deals, how did you miss this?" 

"I'm a trade dealer, not a bookkeeper. Sometimes people send their lackeys to do their trading so we never meet them in person." He tells me in such a posh way that I know old Haryek never left, he just got what he wanted. It sounds so familiar; like I've heard it somewhere. I say it a few times, asking the room if they knew who the name belonged to. 

 I notice Adriam and Victor are quietly talking and stare at them, willing them to let us in. Adriam pipes up but Victor looks decided. 

"Gerasim is leader of Mafia. Gerasim Burridge. If is buying 'wine', well, would not know why mafia needs wine. Especially from knife ear." He tells us, shrugging as if it's obvious. "But he is not human. He is lycan, like us." 

"The plot thickens..." Penelope whispers dramatically and I swat at her. This doesn't make any sense. Why would a lycan want to use modified werewolves to start a war? Enslaving them nonetheless? Isn't loyalty enough? Why not just unite his people?  I run a hand through my hair, my attention turns to Tomas. 

 "Well the shipments under Gerasim's name aren't for Russia, they're going to Moldova so is there any chance this is a different guy?"

"Randy said it was a Russian who was leading this whole thing. There isn't going to be a display claiming they're bad people." Penelope speaks up and it hurts me all over again that he talks to her more than me. I suppose I need to hunt him down and have another conversation with him.

 The tangled web of information circles and grows, Tomas enlightens us that there have been a lot of other wars going on besides ours though we already knew that from the dinner party with Oris's friends. With invading forces coming up from Turkey and the mad dash to secure lands to our west, it seems the world as we know it is in a frenzy to gain control.