Raven's Rise

Father Paladina and Haatim arrived at an old building in an older district of the city early the next morning.

Dominick spent most of his time in the lounge on the second floor of the estate and tried not to think about just how much money someone had to have that their estate would have multiple lounges inside the same building.

Haatim arrived at St. Peter’s Basilica Cathedral early the next morning. A car waited for him when he awoke and drove him from the hotel and across the border into Vatican City.

Jill Reinfer had worked as a member of the Council about ten years ago, though she had only lasted a few months. Just until her father died, and she had inherited his vast fortune. George Reinfer had been a good man. His daughter, not so much.

Early the next morning, when his flight landed at the John Glenn International Airport, Dominick felt exhausted. Though still dark outside, it promised to become a dreary day. He rented a car and headed away from the airport, struggling to stay awake.

Desperation and worry settled over Frieda as soon as both Dominick and Haatim got on their flights out of Switzerland. It worried her that they might get stopped and their passports confiscated, but luckily, they had made it through all right.

“Who—or what—is Surgat?” Haatim asked. “And what do you mean by ‘the original seven’?”

Haatim walked aimlessly around the outside of the destroyed and broken down hotel toward the lobby. Lost in his thoughts, exhausted and bitter, he ought to hurry back to Frieda and Dominick to let them know that he’d found a survivor, but right now, he didn’t want to talk to anyone.

Haatim clutched the gun in his hands. They shook, and he worried that he might lose his grip and drop it onto the floor. He stood in the loading area of the hotel in Switzerland, where the Council had resided over the last few months, and aimed the pistol at his father.