is what the Masters’ Admiralty is focused on. We have a smaller but connected issue. Who were the mercenaries who attacked you in Pennsylvania?” Sebastian asked.
“At first, our assumption was the Bellator Dei hired them to find Luca,” Owen said.
Luca nodded. “They think I am loyal to them and the cause. I may not be a full numerary, living on the compound, but my profession is one they chose, and I tithe fifty percent of my salary, as is expected of everyone in our congregation. There should be no reason for them to suspect me. They shouldn’t even know I’ve left Italy, as I told them I had to go no-contact for several weeks.”
“Someone clearly knows,” Percival pointed out.
“The Serbians,” Oscar added.
Luca whispered what sounded like a prayer, or maybe a curse, in Italian.
“We had to turn over the people we captured to the authorities, but before we did, we discovered several things that concern us. First, all but two of them were American.” Owen raised his finger.
“Boss and Henchman Two,” Selene said. “Those were my pet names for them.”
“You gave them…pet names?” Percival looked alarmed, probably for her mental health.
Owen ignored them both. “Second, they had Serbian passports but have no ties that link back to Bellator Dei. They do have some very distant ties to Serbian dissident groups. But the connections are tenuous. One of them is the neighbor of a man whose brother-in-law’s cousin is a paramilitary rebel in the ultranationalist Serbian Action Organization, who are believed to be neo-fascist and neo-Nazis. They have the resources of a small government and have used bombs.”
“Did you design bombs for them?” Percival asked.
“No.” Luca shook his head. Then paused. “Not that I… I don’t make car bombs or suicide vests, if those were what was used.”
“If they have the resources of a government, I’m thinking they have access to components.” Owen raised both eyebrows.
Luca sat back, blinking behind his glasses. “I was never told where the Bellator Dei got the bomb-making materials. I had some in the lab I used for my job, but that is a known facility, and everything I brought in was regulated,” Luca said. “But I overheard a few things that made me suspect weapons and bomb supplies were purchased from a Serbian or Ukrainian source.”
“A paramilitary organization would be a good source for those kinds of things,” Owen said.
“You never interacted with them directly?” Percival asked.
Luca shook his head.
Percival leaned forward slightly. “But they might have figured it out. If I was selling bomb supplies to someone, I might get curious as to who was designing and building the bombs for them.”
Luca rubbed his jaw wearily. “But I am not the only one they trained to do it. I focused on experimental bombs. There are others who build package explosives, car bombs—”
“They’re still rebuilding the villa that particular device destroyed.” Percival sounded stiff once more. “And of course, the families of those who died are still grieving.”
The table went silent, and while her heart hurt for what those people must have suffered, Selene’s thoughts were focused on putting together pieces of what she knew, and what Owen and Percival had said.
“The neptunium.” Her voice broke the silence.
“Fuck.” Oscar sat up straight. “Of course.”
Luca looked back and forth between them, realization stamping his features. “If they supplied it…”
“Much better to have that for themselves,” Selene said.
“Exactly,” Oscar echoed.
“Would you like to share with the rest of the class?” Owen asked mildly.
Selene turned away from her lovers to look at the rest of the people around the table. All of whom, with the exception of the Grand Master, were leaning forward with either frowns of concentration or confusion on their faces.
“Let’s say I’m the leader of a military rebel group—”
“Aka, a supervillain,” Oscar said.
“—and I’m selling guns and explosives to a funky little religious cult. That’s fine. They’re terrorists, I’m a terrorist, it works out for both of us.”
Luca didn’t flinch when she called the Bellator Dei terrorists, and she was glad she hadn’t hurt him, even if she was, unfortunately, correctly labeling both him and his sister.
“Then one day, they ask for something different. Neptunium. You get it for them, but then you start to wonder why they need it.”
“Ahhh, yes. Shit.” Owen sat back. “Nice one, Selene.”
She nodded, but kept going in case the others hadn’t figured out where she was headed. “So I do some research, realize it could be used in a nuclear device. Suddenly the little cult I’ve been supplying has