Chapter 442: I want Dante away from my laboratory

Antonio’s face went still.

"She was five days without it," Dimitri said. "Her body gave out. She stopped breathing properly for nearly two minutes. If the man she was with had been a little slower, a little less careful, she would be dead."

"I wasn’t told that."

"No."

"The seizure was short?"

"Short enough." Dimitri’s jaw tightened. "She is eight years into a dependence you built, and she nearly died of it because someone stopped the supply. Not you. Not Lorenzo. The man she ran to kept her alive."

"The man she ran to," Antonio said.

"He is the one who found out what was wrong with her."

Antonio was silent. He picked up the pen and turned it once between his fingers, then set it down again.

"The one thing I did not account for," he said at last, "was a man who would take her out of reach."

"You didn’t account for a lot of things."

"I accounted for you."

"Did you?"

"I expected you to do exactly what you are doing now. Walk in here with your face set and demand an explanation." Antonio’s mouth moved slightly. "I did not expect you to understand it."

"I don’t."

"No," Antonio said. "But you’ve begun to."

...

The silence this time was longer. Outside the window, a gardener crossed the grove with a wheelbarrow. His shadow moved across the grass.

"How many others?" Dimitri asked.

"None."

"Don’t lie to me."

"I would not lie about this." Antonio looked at him directly. "She was the only one. There was a reason. It was a particular girl at a particular moment, and the opportunity did not come twice."

"Did you ever intend to stop?"

"After the wedding. When the accounts were joined and Lorenzo could no longer undo the arrangement." Antonio spoke without hurry. "Then I would have weaned her."

"And if she hadn’t survived it?"

"She would have."

"You don’t know that."

"I knew it the way I know most things." Antonio’s eyes didn’t waver. "By being careful."

"And when she ran?"

"I was as surprised as anyone."

"You sent Lorenzo a hundred men to hunt her."

"I sent thirty." Antonio’s voice was dry. "And I told him it was for her safety. Which was not entirely a lie."

Dimitri’s eyes narrowed. "You knew Dante was digging."

"My people told me two days ago. Someone was pulling at the courier. Then the courier was gone, and so was Armani’s file, and so were a number of things I had never wanted found." Antonio’s hand moved slightly on the desk. "And then the safe at Armani’s office recorded an opening. At eight in the morning. Two cartons gone."

"I took them."

For a moment Antonio did not react at all.

Then he said, very quietly, "You."

"I took them. I gave them to Dante, in plain bottles with no labels, through a courier who knows nothing." Dimitri did not look away. "I had a doctor on the phone through the worst night. I had my own man build a false trail so Dante’s people would stop looking at your gate. I did all of it, and I would do it again."

"You armed my enemy."

"I kept a girl alive."

"You gave a man who wants me exposed the means to stay close."

"I gave him a reason to stop looking." Dimitri’s voice did not rise. "He believes the source went dark two months ago. He has no idea whose it is. He doesn’t know your name. I made sure of it."

"Why?"

"Because I wasn’t ready to tell him."

"Or because you wanted to protect me."

Dimitri said nothing.

Antonio studied him for a long time. Something moved behind his eyes, too quick to read, too faint to name. When he spoke again, his voice was lower.

"You protected my laboratory," he said. "While you were saving the girl I was poisoning."

"I protected the secret. I don’t care about the laboratory."

"It is the same thing."

"It isn’t." Dimitri leaned forward and set both hands on the desk. "I did it because if Dante finds out, Lorenzo finds out. And if Lorenzo finds out, there is a war. I would rather not fight my father’s war with an enemy of my own at the gate."

"That is the first sensible thing you have said."

"Don’t mistake it for agreement."

Antonio sat back. His fingers drummed once on the arm of the chair, a small and unconscious sound.

"Do you understand what you’re asking me to risk?" he said. "Prometheus is the only weapon I have against The Covenant. Eight years of work. Everything we have. If Lorenzo learns that his daughter was dosed from my laboratory, he will end the alliance. If Dante learns it, he will use it. And The Covenant will find a way to profit from both."

"She is not a weapon."

"Everything is."

"Not her." Dimitri straightened. "I’m here for one reason. Stop it. Release her from this. Tell me how to bring her off it."

For a moment, Antonio didn’t answer.

"There is a way," he said.

Dimitri went still.

"A counter-compound. It was developed alongside the first, in case it ever became necessary to reverse it." Antonio spoke carefully. "It would strip the dependence in days. Not weeks. She would feel it, but she would come through."

"Where is it?"

"At Prometheus."

"You’ve had it all this time."

"I have had it since the beginning. I never intended to use it." Antonio’s eyes did not leave his. "Until now."

"Then give it to me."

"No."

The word fell flat and final.

"I will give it," Antonio said. "But not for nothing."

"What do you want?"

"I want Dante Romano away from my laboratory. I want him told that the trail is dead, and I want him to believe it. I want no more questions, no more digging, no more men in Naples pulling at files. You will see to it." Antonio’s voice was very quiet. "In return, you will have what you came for."