Rise of the lowly janitor

Roots

*Jake POV*

I grab the man closest to me and aim the sharp portrait directly at his jugular. They just revealed their identity to me and now this!

If it’s my day to die, I am taking Tom with me.

Len puts his hands in his pockets with a huge grin on his face. My heart is now racing, I want to wipe that smug with my fist.

“Easy, Son. That’s your godfather.”

What the hell? A godfather aughts to have taken care of me when I became an orphan. They must think I am an i***t.

Len must have read my mind because he continues. “Well, I am too, so is Joe, but he was more of a parenting type than the two of us.”

The mention of Bra Joe takes me by surprise when it aught not. He is another mystery I have been struggling to understand for a long time. Now that I know that ARF really exists, it make sense that he was one.

“You better start telling me everything I want to know because I will push this through his neck,” I threaten pressing the sharp portrait on Tom’s neck.

This man actually laughs at me and makes a call instead. It does not take long for me to understand why he has his phone on loud speaker.

“Sir?” the voice over the phone responds.

“How’s our Miss Asherway doing there, Pal?”

My heat sinks, the fear I did not even know I had hitting me.

“Signing the thirty-third autograph,” the voice responds , sounding bored.

The guy has clearly been watching Tanya for him to know the exact number of autographs she has signed. I can imagine how boring an agent would find that.

I let go of Tom, a realisation hitting me that I was never even close to having an upper hand over them. They were watching me when I arrived here, they saw me leaving Tanya downstairs. It’s also fair to think they knew or had some idea that we may end up here.

“Great, keep an eye on her,” Len orders.

“Yes, Sir.”

Len lifts his eyes and looks at me, expressionless. His expression are too labile for me to predict. I have never met anyone with antisocial personality disorder but I am sure this is one.

“You have amazing instincts, kid, but we have been in this game way before you were born. We know everything about you, everything about the people you care about. Mrs Reed, Mrs Pule….” he continues and names each one of my friends at the racing club.

I walk towards the president’s desk, pull out the chair and slump on it. I don’t need to be a genius to know that they have me right where they intended. I now understand why the president keeps gulping on the whiskey because I would be too if I drank. Being with these two in the room is enough to turn one into a drunkard.

It’s Tom who speaks next. He seems to be more sensible than his friend but he also has this aura that sucks the soul out of you.

“The country was in trouble. Spies and threats you will never imagine just kept coming. Len, Joe and I had to do something. A military wing that operated outside of normal restrictions was the only solution. We did whatever was needed to protect this country. Dan was the first agent we trained…”

“Tom,” Len warns. The asshole obviously does not think I should be told any of this.

“He is not going to stop looking for answers, it’s in his DNA. Stern was right. He deserves to hear the truth from us,” Tom responds. I hate being predictable but he is right.

Len rolls his eyes before pouring himself the whiskey and sits on top of the desk, uninterested.

“Lucy…” Tom starts but the president interjects.

“My fiancée they killed.”

I wonder how many people these two have killed.

“Lucy was the second, then him,” Tom proceeds.

Now I am shocked. The president is an ARF agent who hates his former bosses. Some things are starting to make sense to me now. How he knew exactly who I was and how he drove that car through the shooters when someone else would have tried fleeing instead. I am also starting to understand why he has never gotten married despite being the country’s eligible bachelor. This Lucy these two apparently killed must have meant a lot to him.

“And my mom?” I ask.

Tom laughs. “Livy, that’s one agent we did not recruit. She forcefully recruited herself,” he says, amused but I don’t get it.

What would possess anyone to recruit themselves into this? With what authority?

“You don’t seem the kind to be forced into anything.” I think my scepticism is warranted.

“Hah!” Len exclaims and pours himself more whiskey.

I’m am starting to worry about the amount of alcohol the people in charge of our country are consuming.

“We thought so too. Man, were we wrong!” Tom exclaims and the president burst out into laughter.

“Oli beat their narcissistic asses and wiped the floor with their stupid heads. She’s the reason one has no leg and the other has a c***k on his skull. My hero!”he beams while both Tom and Len shoot the him deadly stares. Stern is not the least shaken by their stares, he lifts his whiskey glass up proudly instead.

If this is true, then I get why these two left me to suffer all my life, but I don’t get why my parents made them my godfathers after all that.

“Your mother was a Bali island secret agent, the best I ever met. Hot temper, daring and lethal. Dan was the only one who could calm her down.”

The mystery about my parents keeps unfolding until it’s clear that I knew nothing at all about them. All in all I am a product of killer machines.

I am emotionally exhausted by the time I stand up to leave the president’s office.

“You might want to keep that ring in a secure place,” Len shouts behind me.

“What?”

He takes out a wallet I have seen before and I am not even shocked anymore.

“You killed Mr Spencer.”

The media reported that the old man had a heart attack but the president’s words about the possibility of these two killing him and an autopsy report coming back as a stroke is still playing in my head.

Len shrugs his shoulders as if that’s nothing. This man is a psychopath.

“Just keep that ring out of sight or more people will have to die,” he says this like all this is normal. Maybe I should be glad that my so called godfathers left me to fend for myself.

“Why?” I need to know what’s so special about this ring. I have kept it with me all my life, none of this make sense.

“Well, besides the billion dollars the Egyptians will pay for it, Kali will know that your mother killed their president.”

“Excuse me?”

“Which part are you shocked about?”

“Both!” I did not mean to yell but all of this is too much to wrap around my head and Len’s nonchalant attitude is not helping.

“Kali tried to overthrow us a multiple times. We had to get rid their greedy president. Your mother was wearing that ring when she executed him and a witness caught a glimpse of it.”

“Mom killed President Dolf?”

I thought nothing would surprise me anymore, I was wrong.

Len waves his hand dismissively. “No, that was me and Tom.”

“President Da Silver?” I ask.

“That was your dad.”

“Seriously? How many Kali presidents have you peopled killed?”

“Five to be exact,” he replies and I don’t even know what to say. “They are a greedy nation,” he adds as if that absolves them of the crime.

“And we are a murderous nation,” I say to myself.

“Did Mr Spencer know this?”

I recall the old man asking curiously about my mother the day l he picked up the ring Leticia threw on the floor and his grandson kicked away but I did not make anything of it at the time.

“No, he knew it’s roots and worth.”

“Roots?” I am even scared to ask. My parents sound like they were not so different from these two. I can only imagine what they did to be in possession of such a ring.

“Your great, great grandfather was an Egyptian explorer. He made that ring, it’s the purest emerald there is. Rumours are even Queen Cleopatra wanted it,” Tom jumps in.

I can’t believe this. I have been poor and even lived in the streets while in possession of a ring that is worth billions!

“You have not told me what gave us away when you walked in,” Len has not moved on from this.

I shrug my shoulders and leave them exchanging looks.

Tanya does not ask any questions when I hold her hand and lead her out of the building.