I wipe the tear away.
“What shall I do?” I ask Kat and look at her. The question slips over my lips before I can think. It is absurd that I even ask her; she is part of the mess, and I hate myself for it.
“You lower that gun,” she says, “And then we make a plan. Because Giuseppe’s death will cause a reaction you can’t imagine. One you can stop.”
“Before, you said World War III,” I say.
“Yes. Giuseppe is not a local idiot who runs some drugs and launders money. He is the head of an untouchable criminal empire that holds the power over governments, rare minerals and the most human needs.”
I swallow as I understand the extent of it.
“And I am running that now,” I say. It was not a question, but a statement. One that scares the hell out of me.
“Technically, yes. But you will be challenged, and how you react will determine if you are accepted.”
“But I don’t want to?—“
“You will be dead if you don’t do it, Kiddo,” says Rosalia in an arrogant tone.
Kiddo.
I am not a kid.
My eyes snap back to her.
“And what’s with her?” I say. “She looks like she will murder me the moment I release her.”
“Because I will!” roars Rosalia. “I don’t trust you, you betrayed me, you took from me, you and your father?—“
“She will not kill you, I’ll make sure of that,” says Kat. “She has a bit of a temperament.”
“You call that a temperament?” I ask. “She’s a full-blown sociopath with questionable motives.”
“Ti vaju a ammazzari,” Rosalia curses at me.
“Nobody is going to kill anyone here,” says Kat. “Sophie, you don’t know Rosealia, but I have known her a long time, and what she does?—“
“Don’t,” growls Rosalia. “Don’t you dare tell her. She will not understand.” But Kat ignores her.
“She is taking from men what they have taken—in the shadows, to gain influence and slowly change the world order. It is time for a world where women rule. A world without wars and violence. ”
I look at Kat, and I have to laugh. This is the most absurd thing I have ever heard.
“You are crazy people,” I say. “Do you listen to yourself? Do you see yourself? You tell yourself that you do all that shit for a good cause, but in the end, you are no better than them! You torture, and abduct, and kill, and do God knows what!”
“See,” says Rosalia, “I told you she’s not getting the point.”
“You can’t rid a system built on violence without it,” says Kat to me, ignoring Rosalia. “You want to work as a profiler, you know the executive branch of a government needs force. Only what we do is take on those who hide within those structures, who would never see a judge.”
“But you are theirs?” I ask.
“Yes.”
“So you make the rules of who is bad and who is not? What force to use and what is the punishment?”
“Yes,” says Kat, and I scoff.
“You really don’t see it,” I say and gesture with the gun between them. “There is a reason power is split. And you—you are some crazy power-hungry people with a God-complex.”
