The walk back to the penthouse took longer than it should have. I kept stopping to process what Vivian had told me. An army. Enhanced operatives. Multiple abilities per subject. Father building weapons from stolen blood and broken teenagers.
My blood. My genetic markers. Everything he'd learned from experimenting on me as a child now being applied to create soldiers he could sell to the highest bidder.
The original Rome hadn't known any of this. Or maybe he had and just hadn't cared. Hard to tell with the fragments of memory I'd inherited.
Either way, I knew now. And knowing made everything more complicated.
Mera was waiting at the door when I arrived. Her tail rigid. Her expression somewhere between relief and murder.
"Forty-three minutes."
"I sent the message."
"You said thirty. You were supposed to check in at thirty."
"The conversation ran long."
