Chapter 35 - Classified Information

"I don't... I don't believe it," Mariah muttered to herself as she dug through Liberty's files.

Hacking her password hadn't been as hard as Mariah expected. Neither had finding the files on Antonio Basso. There were a lot of them. Reading through even the first few...

"This... I can't believe it," she said again, stunned.

"A couple of things," Liberty said.

Mariah jumped in her seat. The older woman sat calmly, despite being still dressed in her nightgown, in one of the funky chairs, a kind of stern amusement on her face.

"First, you tripped the silent alarms," Liberty continued, "and, second, you didn't disable the camera. You'll want to watch for those things next time."

"I'll try to remember that," Mariah replied.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" Liberty asked coolly.

"Is this for real?" Mariah nodded at the screen. "Or is this all some game you're running on me."

"Oh no, those files are quite real," Liberty said. "I'd be running a big risk, letting you in here to read them."

"You didn't let me in here," Mariah bridled. "I broke in."

"Precisely," Liberty nodded. "Now, you asked that particular question because..."

Mariah hesitated before bursting out, "My dad was an informant?!"

"Yes," Liberty nodded. "Tony was one of my assets. He was a friend."

"General thinking in the trade is that that was my first mistake," she continued. "Never get too close to an asset, because you might have to burn them."

"Is that what happened?" Mariah asked angrily.

"Not intentionally," Liberty said. "Like I said, your father was a friend. Big Tony Basso was the Alto underboss in charge of Family business in Tartosa. He was Nick Alto's right hand man and there was talk that he was being groomed as Nick's possible successor. He was a smuggler, a thief and a killer... and despite that, he was an honorable man, even a good man in his own way.

"There are places in the world, in the inner cities and even here in the hills above Tartosa, where the Families are effectively the authorities, the only real functional power. Traditionally, they have their own codes of honor... beyond the Code of Silence... a ruthless, brutal and frankly medieval honor, but honor nonetheless.Your father believed in those codes, and lived by them."

"Not if he turned informant," Mariah pointed out.

"You've had time to read some of the files," Liberty replied. "I could never get Tony to turn on the Family, never get him to break the Code of Silence. Oh, he walked a fine line. He provided with information about operations that came close to the Family business, but he never crossed that line."

"Why, though?" Mariah pressed.

"Isn't it obvious?" Liberty asked. "For you."

"Tony loved you, very much," Liberty continued, "and he wanted you to be protected. You were growing up, and eventually he was going to be forced to make a choice. He could either acknowledge you as his daughter, or not. If he did, you would be protected by the Family, but you would also be drawn into the Family business... you would either become a gangster yourself or, more likely, have been married off to one of Alto's men, a prize for a loyal soldier. Like I said, medieval. Your father didn't want that for you."

"Uncle Nick said my dad wanted me to be part of the Family," Mariah countered.

"Uncle Nick," Liberty's voice poured poison over the name, "lied to you."

"Or you're lying to me," Mariah replied.

"It's possible," Liberty allowed. "I'm a very good liar... but hear me out before you decide."

"Your father didn't want you to be dragged into the Family," Liberty insisted. "He wanted you to be safe and protected. I offered him that, in exchange for information... but the Agency wanted more. My superiors wanted to take down Nick Alto. Tony refused to turn on the Family, but he offered something almost as good. There was another player on the scene, a powerful individual who was negotiating an alliance with the Altos."

"Uncle Nick told me," Mariah interrupted. "My dad was in charge of the negotiations... and the Agency killed him to break up the deal."

"The best lies are always based on the truth," Liberty said.

"Your father offered me information about the deal, and about the new player," Liberty continued. "In exchange for Agency protection for you. I agreed. He told me where he was meeting with the other party and we arranged for me to follow him, observe and listen in on their negotiations. He was so confident... always so absolutely confident... and I was an eager young agent. This was going to be my big win, my chance to prove I was a top agent. Neither of us had any idea how deep the waters we were swimming in really were."

"To this day, I don't really know what went wrong," Liberty sighed. "Somehow, she made us. Somehow, she knew... for all I know, she smelled me. I'd never dealt with anything like her before. You see... until that night, I didn't believe in vampires."

"I can still see her, standing there over his body, blood on her mouth," Liberty whispered, almost to herself. "She smiled at me, and all I thought was how I'd failed... failed the Agency, failed Tony, failed you. It didn't occur to me until later that she could have killed me in that moment. I don't really know why she didn't. Maybe she thought it was funny. She just vanished... she was so fast I never saw her move.

"The Agency moved in, of course," she continued. "The clean-up and debriefing took hours. By the time they let me go, you were gone. Janet must have found out what happened, at least enough to know to run... and run she did. Whatever else we both think of her, she ran fast and she hid deep. I couldn't find you... and I tried... and neither could the Altos."

"It was years later and blind luck that I found you again. I was working on an investigation of drug trafficking in Sulani, and your name came across my desk... in relation to the testimony of Rocco Christman. 

"So, I found you and with you the damning proof of how completely I had failed to protect you. All I could do was try to make up for it. I knew Danielle and Londyn were looking to adopt another child. I knew they would be good and loving parents for you. So I let slip to them about a story I had heard, about a young woman in Sulani who they might be able to help... and I smoothed over any barriers to them doing just that. It didn't take much to encourage them to keep you out of the press as much as possible. They were already inclined to that anyway.

"Unfortunately, I couldn't interfere with the deal Rocco had with the Sulani authorities. In the end, for better or worse, someone lured him out onto a pier one evening and he paid the price for his sins."

"That's what you meant," Mariah said softly, "when you said your felt responsible for my dad's death... and for me. Because you sent him out there, to get information, and it went wrong."

Liberty nodded quietly.

",,, but you left one thing out," Mariah said. "Who? Who was this 'other player' who made the deal with the Altos fall apart? Who killed my father?"

"She calls herself Ms. H," Liberty replied, "and the deal didn't fall apart." Liberty added, "She has been an associate of the Alto Family for years."