The Scorpion's Tale (44 page)

Steven stood with his gun pointed at Nick.
Nick was perspiring, coveting his gun.

“Fifty seconds,” the Scorpion said.

“Steven. You’re playing into his hands if you
shoot me. We need to stick together,” Nick yelled. “How was I
supposed to protect your wife? Tell her I was going to have Tony
killed?”

“Forty seconds,” the Scorpion
interjected.

Steven looked back and forth between Nick and
the waiting gun. “The Scorpion is right. I’m just a loose end. If
you don’t kill me now you’ll certainly kill me later.”

“Thirty seconds.”

“Together we can beat him,” Nick pleaded. “I
had no choice with Amanda; you’ve got to believe me.”

“Twenty seconds,” the Scorpion shouted.

“If you truly loved her, you would have saved
her. You wanted me dead and out of the way, and if that wasn’t
possible, you wanted us all dead. It was an amazing opportunity for
you. While you were ridding yourself of Tony you could eliminate my
whole family. After all, if they couldn’t belong to you, they
shouldn’t be allowed to live without you. What a coup!”

“Ten seconds.”

“You’ve got this all wrong, Steven. I have
one hundred million in diamonds that I’ll split with you,” Nick
said, nervously looking at the gun on the table and figuring how
many seconds it would take him to get to it.

“No,” Steven growled. “My diamonds are buried
in a cemetery because of you. It’s your destiny to die alone, as
the coward you have always been.”

“Time!” the Scorpion shouted. The locks
clicked and released Nick.

Without hesitation, Steven shot Nick in the
head.

“Good lad!” the Scorpion exclaimed. “You now
know how I felt after I killed those who took my beloved away. Now
the stakes have changed. You and I shall play for the life of the
young lady. I will leave her here while you and I hunt each other.
If you beat me, she leaves with you. If I win, I choose her
fate.”

Steven nodded in agreement, having no choice
but to obey. “Keep the faith, Sophia. I’m coming for you.”

“Better get moving, Steven. I’m almost upon
you.”

Steven darted into a nearby passageway
leading to a narrow hall down into the lower portion of the castle.
The dark staircase spiraled around until Steven finally reached the
bottom. He carefully pushed open a door and stepped into a large,
open space, where he stood perfectly still. The castle had an eerie
silence. As night settled in, the torchlights became dimmer,
casting dark, malevolent shadows onto the walls. Steven strained
with all his senses to make out any sounds or sights around him, or
any clue to the Scorpion’s whereabouts, but there was nothing. He
felt his blood pulsing through his veins, his head throbbing like a
drum. He nervously panned the room with his gun, his finger aching
to squeeze the trigger over and over. It became increasingly
difficult to distinguish objects. There were several doorways
leading to different extensions off the main area. He approached an
open door that led into a dark, damp, and windowless room. The room
had cold stone floors and walls, but nothing else. Steven
remembered the psychological torture his nemesis had endured with
the scorpions in the cold darkness. Could this be that very same
room? Steven moved into the doorway to examine the room. He shut
his eyes and felt naked in fear, as a boy had felt forty years ago
in this depressingly lonely place. Suddenly, from behind, another
door thrust open.

“This is the end!” the Scorpion screamed.

Steven instinctively raised his gun and fired
twice in the direction of the sound. He heard a moan and the sound
of a body collapsing down the stairs. Steven ran to the body and
kneeled over it. It was Giovanna–her mouth taped shut. He felt for
a pulse but there was none.

“Oh no!” Steven wailed. “No, God, No!” he
sobbed uncontrollably. “Nooooooooo! I’m so sorry!”

“Now Steven, you have almost completed your
education,” echoed the Scorpion’s voice in the cavernous dungeon.
“You can now understand my pain. You can feel the horror of my
mistake with your wife and children.”

“You sick fuck!” Steven screamed. “I’m going
to rip your lungs out! She didn’t need to die!”

“You are wrong, Steven,” the Scorpion
countered in a calm and reassuring tone. “There is a grander scheme
awaiting you and she was a necessary sacrifice. I await you atop
the castle. Do not disappoint me.”

Steven stroked Giovanna’s face. His mind
raced. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered, as he stood and collected
himself.

Steven strode with renewed conviction up the
spiraled staircase. The Scorpion had successfully destroyed
Steven’s past, present, and now a possible alternate future. He
left the room where, many years ago, the Scorpion had overcome his
worst fears. Steven no longer feared anything; he was completely
resolved to kill his tormentor. His hatred guided him forward, just
as the Scorpion envisioned.

Steven reached the top floor of the castle
and searched each direction with certainty in his heart.

“I await you, Steven.”

“What are we playing for now? Everyone is
dead.”

“We are playing for salvation–nothing more,
nothing less. Follow the hallway to the third room on the right and
enter. You will know what to do.”

Steven walked to the room and stood in the
doorway of a small antechamber. He raised his gun and took a
controlled step over the threshold. The Scorpion’s voice was heard
through the room’s speakers.

“Before we finish, I want you to understand
that I began following you as soon as I heard you were hunting me.
I was astounded that anyone had the audacity to make it known that
he was coming to kill me. I am an authority on human behavior, and
I concluded you sought vengeance at any cost, with no plans or hope
for your future. You were also naïve enough to believe you might
succeed.”

Steven stared blankly at the speakers.

“I began this journey strictly out of
curiosity, but it became quite another matter when I discovered you
were Tomasso’s son. Make no mistake, I was and am sickened by the
death of your family, but the revelation of who they were changed
the course of my life. I brought you and the others here to
demonstrate some basic truths so that you would never meet your
father’s fate. Tomasso shared your poor judgment regarding loyalty,
and it led to his death. I wanted to reveal the truth to you about
the Manziones, to make you really see.”

Steven remained silent.

“It was my desire to teach you that killing
is not a generic act. Some murders are justifiable, even just. I
think we agree that Nicholas falls into that category. There is
also collateral damage, such as Michael Johnston. He was a sudden
complication. Then, of course, there are the tragedies. You have
heretofore refused to believe that I was in fact, actually caught
off guard by your wife. The only way you could understand was to
put you in that position. Ms. Milani’s death was indeed tragic, but
you needed to experience it to accept what happened to your own
family.

“Life is interesting, don’t you agree Steven?
When I decided to eliminate Nicholas for allowing your family to be
present, my plan was to abduct him and bring him here even before I
received the contract. Ironically, I would get paid for my fantasy
of hunting a worthy opponent. Then you entered the picture and my
priorities changed. How disappointed I would have been if I’d had
my wish; Nicholas proved to be quite ordinary.

“But, I have veered off topic. I hope you
continue your life with a new appreciation of human nature. People
are rarely the masks they wear. You need to realize mankind does
things that appear, at first glance, to be wrong. Your Amanda
betrayed you by withholding the truth about your daughter. However,
she did it to protect you, a lesser of two evils; it was thus
forgivable. Life is not black or white, good or bad, heaven or
hell. Life and those who live it are a mixture of colors with many
shades of gray in between.”

Steven began to speak, but the Scorpion
interrupted.

“Next, I want to address your future. If I
could, I would do anything to give you back your life.
Unfortunately, that is impossible, so I will construct a new life
with limitless possibilities. I have left you three laptops. The
red laptop contains the files of all my assignments, including
digital recordings of all conversations I have had with each
client. My research files on the victims are here–where they lived,
worked, played, what they ate, the women or men they seduced, when
they traveled, where they slept. By the time I killed them, I
understood each one better then they understood themselves. These
files contain my philosophical musings and observations on human
behavior. This is my bequest to you, Steven. It is a lifetime’s
worth of my accumulated knowledge, skill, and intuition. This will
empower you. Whenever you need me, I will be there, a conversation
between the past and the present. This will be your source of
knowledge and your guiding light. Whatever questions you have, the
answers are here.

“The blue laptop contains all of the evidence
I accumulated on your father’s death. Several low-level
politicians, who have since risen to the highest echelons of
American government, orchestrated the murder of your father. I
thought you would find the information useful by finally providing
the answers that have eluded you all your life.”

Steven’s quivering hand moved toward the
computer.

“You will have ample time to review the
material. Please look to the right. There is a third laptop
conveniently green in color, containing my financial records for my
extensive holdings. You now have access to all of my accounts,
including the great wealth that Joaquin and I acquired in blood, in
this castle, so many years ago. My accounts have been safely
created and administered in the most financially stable countries,
which do not easily submit to Letters Rogatory by any government.
There are also hoards of cash at your disposal contained in secret
locations at my churches. All of that information is contained in
the laptop. Use these resources to right the wrongs of the past and
avenge your father’s death. But this wealth also gives you the
tools to attain wonderful and humane objectives. You will have a
new identity as Father Miguel De La Sombra, my nephew, with
complete accreditation as an ordained priest. Your robes and the
original certificates are waiting for you at my church in
Archidona. A duplicate has already been placed with the Vatican.
You will be able to feed the hungry, clothe the poor, and house the
homeless. You will be able to travel freely, without the
constraints of being Steven Capresi, as the beloved priest and
nephew of Pierre Mateuse. I am in the next room and I await you for
your final lesson.”

Steven cautiously entered the adjoining room
where he found the Scorpion awaiting him, clothed in his priestly
robes and collar. He was kneeling next to a desk in prayer with his
eyes closed.

The Scorpion opened his eyes and smiled at
Steven. He slid his gun across the desk, resting it in front of
Steven. “This is the final debt I owe you. I have given you the
tools and knowledge to rebuild your life, and now I will give you
what you most desire. Take the gun and have your revenge. You have
earned it and I deserve my end at your hands. Then you can take up
the mantle of the Scorpion and the Priest, both having the power to
change the world.”

“How can you be both a savior and a killer?”
Steven asked. “One minute you are an assassin, the next, a disciple
of Christ.”

“Steven, think. Your father shared my
occupation and yet he was a loving father, husband, and friend. I
know that it is difficult to comprehend my relationship with both
my professions, but life is never simple. Years ago, Joaquin told
me there was a beautiful side to life, if I could manage to forgive
both myself and the world around me. I have forgiven myself and in
the process discovered there are simple, lonely, loving people as
despondent as I. That is when I was truly ordained by God, no
longer as camouflage for an assassin, but for my damaged soul.”

“My wife and daughter didn’t deserve to die;
neither did Giovanna nor her parents!” Steven shouted. “Detective
Johnston was a good man. He didn’t need to die. The three girls on
the hiking trail were innocent. Why kill people like this when you
don’t even need the money?”

“The three women were not innocent bystanders
but were sent by the Vatican to find me, through Veeksburn. To my
dismay, the Pope reopened the investigation into the Cardinal’s
death and his sources have rightly connected me to it. Should they
delve into my alter ego, my only advice to you is to beware the
initials ‘CPH’. This secret society for the Vatican will pursue you
for the rest of your life until they discover the truth about the
dead Cardinals.

“As to the truly innocent, that is an
impossible question to answer. I became involved with the Church as
a cover for an assignment. At first, it was nothing more, but over
time I became swayed by the works of the priests and I became a
believer. I tried several times to stop killing and devote myself
solely to God. Despite my good intentions, I simply could not shed
my old self. You see, Steven, at heart, I am a killer. I was raised
from birth to kill. It is who I am. I love the challenge and the
pursuit. I have come to accept that I am what I am, and even Jesus
could not erase my breeding. I chose to both spread the word to the
poor and deliver a stronger message through the sword of the
archangel Michael to the unbelievers. I feed both my needs.”

Steven stared into the eyes of a man who, he
believed, lost his mind and soul years ago.

“Go ahead, have your revenge and claim
justice. It is your right. You are surely due the vengeance your
soul requires.”