Instead, because of Katarina, I was still here, vulnerable to being exposed.
I stared at the director through my scope. It would be so easy to shoot him right now. I could take him out, and maybe the entire Mafia behind him would crumble and Hallow Hall would be shut down. I could go after the ringleaders later, visiting Pavol and Benedict in their homes, after they thought they were safe...
But I had no idea what the power hierarchy was in the Centrium Group or the family behind it. Maybe there was an ambitious son waiting to take over the reins. One thing was for sure, shooting the Director right now would plunge the institute and all its patients into chaos. I could be separated from Katarina in the fallout. That was a risk I couldn’t afford.
I’d taken the liberty of crushing up the medication I was supposed to be giving Katarina every day and adding it to the wine supply that Benedict and Pavol kept in their private dining room. They had certainly been hitting the blood of Christ hard since Vargas’s death, and I might have dosed with a heavy hand. Ilooked forward to seeing the effect it would have, considering that they’d been giving it to Katarina for years.
A fun little experiment of my own. Maybe science was interesting after all. Other than that, I could only wait. Wait for Pavol and Benedict to be in the right position to end them. Wait for Katarina’s vengeance to be served so I could take her from this place. Wait for information about Centrium Group. Wait for information about my mother.
Always waiting.
19
KATARINA
They cleared out Vargas’s office. What kinds of incriminating evidence did they have in those boxes? I wished I could comb through it. Details about their victims? A record of the patients who had “died” in childbirth and whose children had been “stillborn”?
I itched to get my hands on it but was powerless. Instead, I watched them carry those precious boxes outside.
“What do you think?” Tatiana asked me. She was drawing again. Another day and another landscape.
Tatiana had been born here, in Hallow Hall. Alonso had once mused that she had to be the daughter of one of the higher-ups around here... because there were no other children.
Just the idea had been terrifying. That would mean that the powers that be at Hallow Hall actually thought the environment worthy for bringing up their own secret love child. I absently wondered whose daughter she might be as she frowned down at her picture, her features locked in fierce concentration.
Benedict’s daughter? Maybe Pavol’s? She might have beenVargas’s, but I didn’t like to consider that, as it would mean she was currently sitting next to her father’s killer.
But once Massimo does his job, won’t it be the case regardless?
That was true. If I had my way, all three of the powerful men at Hallow Hall would be dead soon. I couldn’t bring myself to be sad about it. Tatiana and all young women would be safer once those men were gone from the world.
I checked the clock and noted it was time for my session with Benedict. I hadn’t seen him in days. Pavol was flitting around here and there, his appearance increasingly awful. Benedict was a mystery. I decided to head there before Sister Vera came and reminded me.
I wandered toward Benedict’s office and abruptly stopped when I saw the horde of men in black suits in the hallway outside.
Before I could back away, the door to Benedict’s office opened.
“I swear, nothing is out of control. The testing is coming along perfectly.”
“You seem erratic, Benedict. You need to get a grip. If you’re going to take over Michal’s responsibilities, you need to step up and get your head on straight.”
Benedict’s face was ruddy in some spots and pale in others. He looked a mess. Worse than Pavol, honestly, which was really saying something.
“How’s the new serum coming along?” The director was there—what had he said his name was? Sergei, that was it.
“Very well, I’m in the last stage of testing.”
Sergei sighed. “And yet... you’re behind on all your other performance indicators; don’t think I haven’t noticed. Now that you’re shorthanded, isn’t it only going to get worse?”
“We have Father Lucciano to pick up some slack—” Benedict was saying to Sergei, before the latter turned to see me approaching.
Shit. Was Benedict about to talk to Sergei about Massimo?
Stop him, now!
The voice in my head had been quiet for a good while. Her sudden cry sent me hurrying toward the two men. I wasn’t exactly sure why it felt vitally important to help Massimo cover up his presence here, but suddenly nothing mattered more. He hadn’t explicitly explained his cover here to me, but I could guess that he didn’t want word spread about his presence.
“Director!” I unearthed my voice to call out.