PROJECT ASTERIA

T W E L V E

Carina handed the recording of Alejandro's confessions to Rin, who took the device and nodded, the only signal of her approval. Again, dismissal. But she could slowly feel the leader of the Seven grow warm towards her, as now, Rin had a new method to covertly gain power and spread influence.

Clearly, she wasn't perceiving her as a threat, which was exactly what Carina wanted.

Barbara Collins.

"Barbara Collins," she mumbled under her breath. Somehow, none of them had managed to dig up anything useful on the supermodel, and it had been days. There was not even a record of the last time she had been seen. There were no death certificates, so if she was dead elsewhere, then they had nothing. And if she was alive, it was as if somebody had taken her directly off the grid and completely made her disappear.

Cyrus was a disappointing lead. Carina didn't often doubt Andrei, but she couldn't see where the investigation would go. If she were to find Armon, then she needed to go from a different angle.

Maybe Homeland Security's archives would have something. Collins was an American citizen, and Armon might be too. There had to be something on them there, beyond the shallow depths of what Leo had already found.

She grimaced in the darkness, remembering the video footage of the screaming children and the tortured ones throwing themselves to their deaths, only to be "rescued" and brought back for experimentation. It wasn't the terrible images that made her want to crawl into a ball, though. It was that she was helpless to do anything but think about it and chase after disappointing leads, while offering her services to the Seven, the organization behind these horrific deeds.

Carina realized that American politicians likely knew about the Seven's involvement in many of the events that had happened in the last twenty years, but had been too cowardly to take action. Instead, those like the US Secretary of State would make a backroom deal with Igor. He would crack down on the dissenters, and keep the money flowing. In return, the Americans would ignore the fact that these attacks had been orchestrated by the Seven, and divert their citizens' attention with countries in the Middle East.

She wanted to throw something at Igor's head. A bullet. Out of a gun. With her finger on the trigger.

But Rin was the bigger issue, supposedly.

Deep within her thoughts, a knock on her door jarred her. She opened the door. The butler gave her a nod of acknowledgement. "Uh, good evening?" She said, tilting her head.

He was holding a file folder that was packed with papers, and she raised an eyebrow.

"These are from Mr. Stefanovic and Ms. Rin," he said. She reached for the files, and peeked at the first few, which was a thick packet of paper held together by one measly staple. Hmm, she thought.

"Mr. Stefanovic is leaving on a trip to Barcelona in an hour," he said. "He asked that you accompany him and that you bring something pink to wear."

She raised an eyebrow. There was their code word.

"Interesting choice of color," she said. "Thank you."

After he left, Carina dragged her emergency backpack from under her bed. It was already packed, so she didn't have to waste any time getting ready.

Andrei was waiting for her by the Seven's private airport. The plane entrance was open and the pilot was boarding. "Sir," she nodded. "Why are we going to Barcelona?"

His eyes twinkled. "We're going to meet an old friend."