Growing more confused, I look between Victor and Nora, searching for answers.
“I’m capable of taking on any role, even a sex slave, but you’ll need to give me pointers, tell me about the behind-the-scenes, what to be most aware of, how not to get myself killed.”
I shake my head, already not liking this idea.
“Victor, I imagine things aren’t the same there anymore. Javier is dead. Izel is dead. His brothers are dead.”
“They may be,” he says, “but that doesn’t mean things have changed much. Javier had six brothers that we know of. Two of them are still running his operations. The compound is still in the same place. Girls and drugs and weapons are still bought and sold as if nothing ever happened. Within two months of our last mission there, they were up and running again.”
I knew most of this information already, but I see why now he had to repeat it.
Shaking my head with a whitewashed look, I lean forward with my arms on the table.
“OK, but why? Why go back? Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem killing those bastards and freeing more of the girls, but—”
“That’s not the mission, Izabel,” Victor says.
I blink, a little stunned.
Nora and Victor exchange another knowing glance.
Then Victor says, “Nora told me something, the last night she was detained in that room, before she joined us. Something about you that I wanted to be more certain of before I said anything.”
I just look at him, feeling the sting of betrayal, even though I know he didn’t betray me at all.
Victor goes on:
“Also, after speaking with Dorian when he was first detained, Nora’s story seemed to hold more truth.” After a pause he says, “The mission to Mexico will be to figure out who Vonnegut is. You may be the only person among us who has ever seen the real Vonnegut.”
“What?” I can’t believe what I just heard.
He nods, and then starts to speak, but I interrupt.
“You’ve seen him,” I point out. “What are you talking about, Victor?”
“The man who I met with on rare occasion when I was part of The Order,” he begins, “who I was valued by as an operative, I have reason to believe was not the real Vonnegut. He was a decoy. The truth is that no one really knows who the real man is behind the oldest and largest assassination organization still running today. Not even the CIA or the FBI—no one. Just when they think they have an identity, they find that they’re just running in circles.”
Victor fills me in on everything Dorian told him, about Vonnegut’s suspected dealings with selling weapons to terrorists and that his business deals in so much more than contract killing. He goes on to tell me about the things Nora told him in secret, and about the tracking device that Victor cut out of me when I was on the run with him.
“Niklas and I knew,” Victor says, “the night I took that device out of you, that something that high-tech had to come from an outside source, that there was no way someone like Javier Ruiz would be able to produce it himself.”
“While I was spying on all of you,” Nora cuts in, “and delving into The Order’s information, I found out that Vonnegut was dealing in girls, too, and was selling high-tech tracking devices like the one they found in you.”
Victor adds, “I believe the device that was placed in you came from Vonnegut. I think Vonnegut was selling to Javier, and you were right there on the inside, closer to Vonnegut than just about anyone has ever been.”
“But what makes you think I know what he looks like?” I shoot back, growing overwhelmed by this surprising information.
“The wealthy men that you saw when Javier was using you as an arm trophy,” Victor says, “one of them I believe is the real Vonnegut.”
Immediately, I start to think back on all of their faces, each one moving fast through my mind like a blur.
“He can’t stay hidden forever,” Victor goes on. “Someone has seen him. He may be a ghost, but he’s still human and humans by nature need to associate with other humans, be in the presence of other people—I think he was one of those wealthy men, Izabel. And I think Nora going on this mission will be how we ultimately find him, dethrone him, and kill him.”
He pauses and adds with depth, “And then I will take over The Order once he’s dead.”
I don’t respond to his last comment, but for the first time since I came into the room, Fredrik’s eyes lock on mine.
This is the first time I’ve ever heard Victor say something like that. Take over The Order, The Order…it’s a conversation for another day. Right now my brain is overloaded with…everything.
I’m silent for a long time, letting everything else he’s told me sink in. There still seems to be a lot that has been left unanswered, but it takes me several minutes to figure out what those things are.