Chapter 9
I gathered the seven captains Marcus claimed were committed.
Only five admitted it.
Two lied.
Salvatore already knew.
I let them.
Then I placed the unopened decanter in the center of the table.
Nobody looked comfortable.
Good.
One captain, Victor Leone, spoke first.
“We were told you were ill.”
“I wasn’t.”
“We were told you had episodes.”
“I don’t.”
He looked at Katherine.
Wrong move.
I noticed.
“What episodes?”
Victor hesitated.
“Disorientation after drinking.”
I stared.
“I barely drink.”
Silence.
Then Salvatore handed me something.
A small notebook from Katherine’s rooms.
Dates.
Christmas dinners.
Council meals.
Private tastings.
Beside three dates:
MILD TEST SUCCESSFUL.
My hands became still.
This had happened before.
Not enough to collapse me.
Enough to create observations.
One dinner where I felt dizzy.
Another where I left early with a headache.
A council meeting where I lost track of a conversation for several minutes.
I remembered all three.
I blamed exhaustion.
Katherine had been rehearsing.
I looked at her.
“How long?”
She said nothing.
Marcus looked horrified.
“You told me Christmas was first.”
Katherine turned toward him.
“It was the first full attempt.”
His face changed.
She had lied to him too.
I almost laughed.
Of course.
People who build conspiracies around control rarely share equal truth with their own allies.
Victor stared at the notebook.
“We thought you had a condition.”
I looked at him.
“You saw three incidents.”
“Yes.”
“And never asked me.”
“We thought Salvatore knew.”
I turned toward my security chief.
He looked furious.
“I knew nothing.”
There.
Another borrowed authority.
Katherine had manufactured symptoms, then allowed people to assume my closest man knew.
Nobody verified.
Again.
The system did half her work.
I looked around the table.
“You were prepared to remove me because of a condition you never confirmed.”
Silence.
“And move my daughter because of danger nobody proved.”
More silence.
“That is not loyalty.”
I tapped the decanter.
“That is obedience to whoever tells the most convincing story first.”
May you like
Katherine looked away.
For the first time, the old captains began seeing the manipulation too.
