The Prince of Cups (Villainess Book 2)

by Melos,Alana

  “What happened?” I asked as I shifted in his arms, trying to get more comfortable.

  “I had a falling out with your mother,” he replied. “Go to sleep, Reece.”

  “I can’t,” I said. “I feel weird.”

  “You’re sad, Reece,” he said with a chuckle. His hand cupped one of my breasts and he shifted. “I told you you weren’t as empty as you thought you were.”

  “I’m not suicidal,” I said, frowning at his statement. I wasn’t sad… was I? I frowned even harder, trying to remember what ‘sad’ looked like, and I couldn’t come up with anything other than a faint blue feeling, like someone playing the saxophone without a band.

  Gerard hmphed. “I didn’t say you were suicidal, I said you were sad, a little down,” he said. “Happens from time to time.”

  “Not to me,” I said, then added after a moment’s thought, “or to you either.”

  “Being sad is a wasted, useless emotion,” he said. “I’m not built that way.”

  I shifted slightly so I could see him out of the corner of my eye. “No, I meant earlier,” I said slowly. “When we met… you said I was self-destructive. I’m not. It’s not me.” My voice hardened, “It’s her. Her fault.”

  He kissed my ear, “Go to sleep, Reece. It doesn’t matter.”

  I hmphed then fell silent. Brooding thoughts plagued me as I stared at the wall until I finally drifted to sleep. My dreams that night were full of murder.

  Chapter Nine

  When the alarm went off, we both snapped awake instantly. After a large room service breakfast, we got ready for our job. Instead of dressing in our civilian clothes--not that I could since mine were pretty much destroyed--we dressed in the Schattenkraft uniforms. They fit perfectly, and I had to admit we looked good. No one liked Nazis, but their uniforms were sexy as hell. It was hard to go wrong with black and grey. I braided my hair and let it fall down my back, and put on the cap to admire myself in the full length mirror. If I didn’t hate what it stood for, well, I’d be tempted to keep it.

  Gerard looked sharp, and more at home than I’d seen him before. He was built for the uniform, and I could see now the harder edges in his face, brought out by the severity of the black. I looked good; he looked perfect.

  As we left the hotel, we cast a mental net around ourselves so that people wouldn’t see the uniform. Regulus told me telepathically the Schattenkraft often did that just walking about, so they wouldn’t cause people to fear them… until they wanted to be seen. In this way, they could monitor thoughts and look for traitors without being detected. If any of the Schattenkraft saw us, they would think nothing of it.

  We walked towards the center of Berlin, heading towards the Reich HQ. Regulus kept a sharp look out for any official vehicles he could commandeer. The first one he saw, he made them pull over, erased their memories of us, and set them on a walk out of town. He slid in the driver’s seat and I sat next to him.

  “So you got the idents in the database?” I asked him as he pulled away from the curb.

  “Last night, while you were on your adventure,” he said, giving me a sly sideways look. “I was all business.”

  “He would have found me anyway,” I said, watching where we were going, memorizing our route. “The mark on my neck… that’s how he found me. It was just as well it wasn’t at the hotel, or at the headquarters while we’re trying to break in. He doesn’t know where we slept.” Assuming he didn’t follow me back, that was, and considering my Nosferatu’s habits… that was entirely possible.

  “If you say so,” Regulus replied, his tone dubious. “It’s not going to matter after today anyway. A couple hours and I’m home free.” As he spoke, his voice grew warmer, and I glanced over at him. A slight smile graced his thin lips. I could feel satisfaction coming from him. Freedom had been a long time coming for him, and he was happy to be at the end of it.

  Getting into the Reich HQ was both easier and harder than I thought it would be. The ident scans went perfectly; there was absolutely no trouble there. The hard part was shutting my mind off, keeping things perfectly “normal” and thinking about routine orders and commands that my cover would be distracted with… and thinking in German. That was much harder than I thought it would be since it rolled off my tongue so easily. The Schattenkraft at the gate invaded my mind with a courtesy ‘knock’ first, and I allowed them in so they could snoop around. I was well practiced in protecting myself from unwanted discovery via stealth, but disguising only part of myself was a new thing.

  Regulus and I maintained telepathic communication too, which wasn’t unusual, and we held a whole conversation about our supposed “orders” here, following a script he’d written. The words came awkwardly to me, as part of my brain would think them in German, then translate them to English for the meaning, and then back to German. I tried to cut that process out, but it kept looping around in my head… German to English to German. I hesitated on an answer, and the officer’s eyes sharpened somewhat, becoming more aware of what we were saying.

  Behind the shield in my mind, anxiety grew. He kept looking at me, as if sensing my otherworldliness. I kept up with the script Regulus had come up with, and yawned as if bored. When I did, I snuck a glance at my partner, who wasn’t paying me any attention, slumped down behind the wheel of the car, playing his part. I had to do something. This script thing wasn’t working for me.

  “Straighten up!” I snapped.

  Regulus blinked, then scrambled to straighten his posture. He glanced over to me, one of his brows twitching as I had went off course. “My apologies, Lieutenant,” he said, his voice fawning, with a pleading note in it.

  “Have some pride,” I snapped again, then glared at the officer scanning us. “Is this going to take much longer? I have appointments.” I waited, drumming my fingers on the dash impatiently.

  The officer scanning us shook his head, hiding a bit of a smile. I caught some conversation between him and Regulus, kept secret from me. My partner gave me a sideways look, and shook his head slightly. The scanning officer guffawed and waved us through.

  Honestly, if he’d been prying hard, he probably would have discovered our ruse. Fortunately for us, he scanned hundreds of people per day, and while he’d taken extra precautions being as we were telepathic officers, it was still sloppy. No one had tried to infiltrate the Reich HQ in years, and those who had weren’t successful. If I had been his commanding officer, I would have had him executed. When we moved on, I heaved a mental sigh of relief and let go of the alien thought patterns. Thinking in German had just been too weird for words.

  “What did you two say?” I asked him.

  “He asked if I was having an affair with you,” Regulus said with a cheeky grin. “Because you acted like my wife instead of my superior.”

  I had a laugh at that. “And when you said no?”

  “Well,” he drawled, “then he said I should be, because you were going to hound me to death anyway, so I might as well get something out of it.”

  Chuckling, we pulled into the Reich’s central of operations. The headquarters itself was a massive complex, built around the Reichstag building. That was an ancient, but imposing, building in the heart of the empire. It represented age and class. Unlike Earth Prime’s Nazi party, Axis’ Nazis had stayed in the Reichstag in 1933, making it their center of power and a symbol of the natural continuation of their right to rule. Instead of having parliament, they converted it to their own purposes as a central office and general meeting place for their own officials. The parliament was officially disbanded a few years later, and a full blown dictatorship took its place, holding court in the ancient building. Whether it worked or not I couldn’t say, but they were still here, so it might have had something to do with it.

  In these modern times, the Reichstag had become a huge complex with additional buildings to house military troops, top secret science research (including the portal project, which was why we were here), and a depository for their intelligence and per
sonnel records. Regulus parked the car, and we headed towards their intelligence section. Plenty of other people were about, some in uniform and some not, and not a one of them flicked a glance towards us.

  Looks like we’re going to be home free, I sent to him.

  Still have to do the deed, he said, and I could sense him going over the procedures in his mind, reminding himself of what he had to delete.

  It’s still going to be easy, I said. No one’s looking for us. That guy at the gate? An amateur. Or if he wasn’t, he was sloppy. Some simple mind reading, hitting the files, the database… you’ve got the coordinates home. I glanced over and gave him a smile, and he shrugged in response.

  I rolled my eyes and looked straight ahead again. The intelligence building had been built after the war, and while it still held echoes of the art deco decor of the era, it seemed to proclaim strength and victory in the long pillars and snarling wolves which flanked the main door. He held the door open for me, and I entered, taking off my hat and tucking it under my arm. The main secretary didn’t even look up; too many other people were bustling about and we looked as if we knew where we were going. We did… but only after gathering information from the people surrounding us, giving us a layout of the building, and knowledge of where the data storage was: the basement. It was always the basement.

  Instead of taking the elevator, we elected to use the stairs as it was less likely we’d run across anyone. Most people took the lazy option when it was available to them. Since most of the basement was used for storage--at least that’s what the crowd told us--it stood emptier than above. Light bulbs flickered from time to time like every basement ever, and as we walked down the tiled hallway our boots clicked smartly upon the floor. There were two places here we needed to hit, and on an unspoken agreement we split up to do our tasks. I peeled off from him to go find his physical files while he went to break into the database.

  The file storage took up a large section of the basement, and it did have an unteroffizier overlooking it. He saluted me, and I returned it. “How can I help you, lieutenant?” he asked.

  “Bring me these files,” I said, handing him a piece of paper with the file numbers written down. He turned to his computer, and typed in the numbers.

  “Ah, I am sorry, but it requires top secret access,” he said, and waited.

  I brought out my wallet and showed it to him. Now this, Regulus hadn’t been able to get a copy, so instead I went into the unteroffizier’s mind and told him he saw the clearance needed. When he nodded, I put my wallet away again and tried to look impatient, as if being here on this boring task was the last thing I wanted to do.

  He got up, and went to retrieve them. When he returned, I was surprised to see it was an armful. “Do you need help to carry them, lieutenant?” he asked as he handed them over.

  “No,” I said. “Thank you.”

  That was it. It was that easy. Once we penetrated their ring of defenses on the outside, it was incredibly, ludicrously simple to get what we needed. I told Regulus telepathically I was on my way with the files, and barely got a response. He was distracted with his own work, and I walked down the hallway towards him.

  Curiosity got the better of me, and I opened up the top file, the thickest one. I expected to see his name there, but instead I saw the words “Projekt: Übermensch”. The concept of the übermensch went back to the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and had been embraced by the Germans during the socialist party’s rise to power, warped and twisted to mean a “master race” rather than just a superior human. On Earth Prime, it had been a call to say how superior the Germans were compared to the rest of the world, how the Aryan race was born to rule. Here, they had obviously taken it a different direction. Instead of claiming they were the best naturally, they were trying to make the best.

  I stopped in the hallway, scanning the top documents quickly, in disbelief. What I found there answered a lot of questions I’d had about Regulus, and why he was so determined to be free, with no traces of him left behind. He was a clone. They’d grown him in a tube over thirty years ago and programmed him to infiltrate Earth Prime. Because he was an infiltration “unit”, he had to have some freedom of will, some leeway to adapt and learn new strategies. The project files held nothing about Regulus himself, save for his codename among hundreds of others, but his personal file held all sorts of information. His handlers on Axis had become worried that he was becoming a sadist, a sociopath, and they had recalled him many times to refresh his programming. Somewhere along the lines though, that spark of free will he had grew, and he rebelled. Their carefully laid plans had backfired and he’d gone into hiding.

  Of course, there was a warrant for his capture or termination. They listed the warrant as ‘preferred alive’ but they weren’t going to be picky if someone brought in his corpse. No wonder he was so paranoid on Prime. Granted, it wasn’t like Axis could cross over to Prime willy-nilly whenever they wanted to. Too much and it would be detected, and declared a reason to cancel the ceasefire… but they had spies and agents everywhere, some of which like Regulus himself had been in place for years, or even decades.

  This was why he didn’t age, and his references to his training or programming… it wasn’t just run of the mill brainwashing, but a genetic code built into him to obey. How that spark of free will got fanned I had no idea, but over the years, he’d become his own man enough to want to be rid of his masters. I admired that tenacity.

  Where are you? he asked, his thoughts stained tan with irritation.

  I got mixed up in the corridors, I sent, shuffling the papers around. I’ll be there in a moment.

  I hurried along to join him with the papers gripped tightly in my arms. In under a minute, I found the door to the computer database and opened it. Clicks and whirs greeted me as I peered inside the dark room. Regulus was inside, busy dragging a couple of unconscious technicians away. Close the door and lock it, he sent to me.

  Did you delete it? I asked. When he came into view, I saw him in a different light. For the first time, I really saw his age and the experience in his eyes. He still looked young, but now he also looked mature.

  I can’t, he sent, scowling. Come here.

  I set the documents down on the nearest desk and moved over to him. He already had the files loaded up, all highlighted. The box on the computer asked if we wanted to delete the files. I don’t understand.

  I can’t, he sent. I need you to push the button.

  It dawned on me how deep his programming went, and how much of a minor miracle it was he was doing as much as he did. He could think about freedom, and he could plan for it, but he couldn’t actually do anything concrete which would hurt the Reich. I reached forward and clicked the mouse on ‘yes’, and the files began the deletion process. There was a lot of them, but it still wasn’t going to take more than a minute, tops.

  That’s why you needed someone else, I sent. You couldn’t do it on your own even if you snuck in here… someone else had to physically do it.

  Regulus shrugged. It doesn’t matter now, he sent. The physical files, you got them all? When I nodded, he gestured to a waste basket nearby and pulled out some lighter fluid and a lighter. If you would, please?

  I gave him a smile. It would be my pleasure.

  He gave me a tight-lipped smile back, and went back to watching the computer delete, glancing occasionally at the door as if afraid someone would catch us by surprise. The trash bin he indicated was made of metal, and I started to shove the paper in, pausing to soak some of them in fluid before throwing them in the container. When they were all in, I lit a single page and let it drop on top. The stack burst into flames and burned merrily. I used my teke to stir them around, ensuring every page burned evenly and left nothing behind to be traced back to him. That process took much longer than the computer, and we waited in silence until there was nothing left.

  Alright, I sent. We can go, unless there’s anything el--

  The door crashed open before I compl
eted my thought. Silhouetted in the door stood a slight feminine figure, clad in a black leather uniform jacket and heavy dark green pants. She wore a gas mask over her nose and mouth, and dark green goggles rimmed with black leather over her eyes, looking some some leather fetishist’s sweetest nightmare come true. When I reached out with my telepathy, she wasn’t there. A plant could have been sitting there in its pot and been more psychically active.

  Regulus and I exchanged a look as she came in and closed the door behind her. The mask made her slight frame more menacing than it should have been. My partner and I looked relaxed, as if we had every right to be here, but in reality both of us were ready to strike, our weapons just a heartbeat away from being drawn.

  The woman pulled down her mask revealing a slightly too wide mouth and almost pug nose. She lifted her goggles up and snapped them around her captain’s hat. Her blue green eyes were scrunched up and her brow down in an almost scowl. She focused on Regulus and chewed her lip in a distracted way, as if she were trying to figure something out.

  “It is you,” she said in lightly accented English. She stepped forward, her eyes alight with eagerness. Once she released the scowl, I saw how pretty she was. Her eyes were expressive, and by far her best feature. When they softened or hardened, her whole face followed suit. “I knew it was when I saw you on the camera. I’ve been looking for you.”

  “I’m sorry,” Regulus responded in German. “I don’t… understand.” He put on a helpless face, and I gave him a severe look, playing the part of his superior.

  “Silence,” I ordered him. To the smaller girl--and she was a girl, no more than twenty at the most--I said, “Who are you? Why are you interrupting us?”

  She raked me over with a look, assessing then dismissing me. All of her attention stood riveted on Regulus. The black and green clad girl strode forward without hesitation or fear, her stride showing her cockiness. As she approached I saw insignia I didn’t recognize on the leather lapels and shoulder. Her rank was a captain, but the rest of it I couldn’t decipher. A quick flick of my mind to Regulus told me he didn’t know it either, that it was new since his last visit. Strands of pale blonde hair escaped her hat in crazy directions, sticking out in absurd ways as if she’d just plopped it on right after she rolled out of bed.