and they’d taken everything from computers to some of the most important religious iconography. Because of that, they had to have used either larger vehicles or a dozen smaller ones.
“My parents’ house?” Luca asked. Prior to yesterday’s mission, he’d given his parents’ address to Owen and Percival and they’d sent a team to check on not only the house he’d grown up in, but the homes of other supernumeraries—married couples or individuals who didn’t live at the compound. All had been abandoned and stripped of computers.
“We have a forensic team coming in to do sweeps. We’ll start with your parents’ home,” Milo explained. He was lounging against the wall, looking elegant and brooding and a lot like the imaginary men Luca had conjured during his guilt-filled fantasies as a teen.
“Thank you.” Luca nodded in Milo’s direction, and the Italian answered with a smile.
Selene leaned toward him. “I’d be cool with one more night if you still want that gang bang. I vote we get Milo and maybe Rodrigo to join us.”
Luca tried to turn a startled laugh into a cough.
Oscar glared at them from across the table. “Hold it together, you two.”
Luca’s brain was tossing up detailed images of Oscar and Milo together, and it was destroying his focus.
Oscar made an aggravated noise. “Really, Luca? Time and place, dude.” But he was smiling.
Luca had felt crushed by sadness and fear this morning, worrying about Joli and devastated by the knowledge his time with Selene and Oscar was over. Leave it to his amazing lovers to find a way to break through all those bad feelings and make him smile.
Everyone let their byplay go, though a few smiled at either him or Oscar. Luca studiously avoided looking at either Milo or Rodrigo.
The meeting progressed with various people providing updates or making suggestions. The updates made Luca realize that some of these people had been up half the night trying to figure out where his sister was.
It was still difficult for him to truly believe there were people this genuinely good in the world. In his experience, no one did anything without expecting something in return.
“I’m going to work on the laptops,” Oscar said.
“They’re old models, and if they had anything useful on them, they would probably have taken them,” Percival warned.
“Still worth a try.”
“I’d like to help him.” Luca looked back and forth between Percival and Owen. He wasn’t really sure which of the men he should be asking.
“There’s a smaller meeting room down at the end of the hall.” Owen pointed. “Ridley, can you bring them the box of computers?”
The big American saluted as he pushed up from his seat. The discussion continued as various possibilities for tracking the Bellator Dei down were debated. It was both fascinating and horrifying how many options there were and how little privacy people really had. The Bellator Dei’s paranoia and distrust, taught to them by their benefactor, whom Luca had heard referred to as Petro by several people, made them a little harder to track, but by no means impossible.
For those at the table, it wasn’t a question of “if” they would find them, but “when.”
Ridley returned, holding the plastic storage tub full of old laptops. They were uniform and basic black, and Luca thought they might be the “school” laptops that he and the others at the technical academy had used as part of their instruction.
Oscar rose, and Luca followed suit. Selene squeezed his hand as he stood up. He smiled back at her, then followed the other two men out of the meeting room.
Ridley led them to the far end of the generic hotel hallway, then used a keycard to unlock the door. “I stopped by the desk and got these after I grabbed the box out of storage.”
This room had only a small rectangular table with six chairs around it. Ridley set the box down on the table. “What else do you need?”
Luca had expected Oscar to open it immediately, but instead, he bent and peered at the laptops through the clear side of the storage bin. “Respirators, gloves, face shields, maybe some plastic to cover the table.”
“Damn, son, that’s paranoia. I like it. You thinking Anthrax?” Ridley asked.
“Better safe then fucking dead.” Oscar straightened.
“Milo’s people are paranoid too, so the vans were outfitted with damn near everything. I’ll go check. If I find a hazmat suit…?”
“Nah, but if they have Tyvek coveralls, I wouldn’t say no.”
When Ridley left, Luca went to stand by Oscar. “You think this is a