Free The Judas Line by Mark Everett Stone Page B

dizzying heights it had attained. Powerful beyond imagining, a being of myth and legend, the Patron would continue to guide us until the arrival of our Family’s prophesied messiah, the Redeemer. At that time, the prophecies said, the Redeemer would cast down the Liar, the great enemy of the Family, of the Patron, and restore balance to the world.
    “He wishes to speak to me?” I squeaked. I cursed my traitorous voice. A drop of sweat rolled into my eye.
    The voice that emerged from the speakerphone took me totally by surprise and made me jump. A little bit, anyway. “Yes, I wanted to speak to you, Olivier. It is time I did so.”
    “Sir,” I acknowledged, throat dry.
    “You father speaks highly of your intelligence and cunning.” Like a warm blanket the voice wrapped me and held on tight, a comfortable, protected feeling. Despite its rich, deep notes, it had an edge … an almost metallic undertone that grated against your nerves. It was at that moment I dubbed the speaker The Voice.
    “Thank you, sir,” I responded quietly.
    “He’s polite, Julian. I like them when they’re polite.”
    Compared to the voice flowing from the phone, Julian’s sounded tinny and grating. “Yes sir. I tried to raise them correctly.”
    “Young man,” the voice continued as if Julian had not spoken. “There will come a time, if you survive, that we might work together. The fact that we are speaking tells me that you do know more than one Word, as was reported. I’ve been monitoring your progress closely through the years, so you can imagine my surprise when I heard ‘one Word.’ ”
    “Yes, sir.” I wasn’t sure where this was going, but I felt the sweat drenching my shirt.
    “Julian,” the Voice said, his delivery clipped and formal. “How many Words indeed?”
    The head of the Sicarii’s lips barely twitched in what might have been called a nervous smile. “All twelve, sir.”
    “Ahhh.” A purr, the sound of a contented feline predator. “All twelve … very nice, Olivier. Too bad Professor von Andor did not catch you out in your little lie.”
    “I can hold my own in a lie, sir.”
    A long pause. “No, boy, you can’t. I know liars and you aren’t one, not yet, which makes the Professor’s oversight more egregious.”
    Julian spoke up, “I’ll have a talk with him, sir. It won’t happen again.”
    “No need to speak with him, Julian. I have received news that he suffered a terrible accident while speaking to his granddaughter on the telephone.”
    Julian’s face gave the barest hint of shock before he quickly regained his composure. As for me, I was on edge. From the slight degree of smugness that had crept into the Voice, I knew that he had killed the Professor.
    Mind you, no one much cared for the old Nazi. He was a cold, calculating, mean son-of-a-bitch who had a streak of bile a mile deep. I’d shed no tears for Professor Klaus von Andor, former employee of the Sicarri. Had I been given the job, I would have gladly killed him myself, but the Voice was more than capable of eliminating those in his employ.
    “Anyway,” the Voice continued. “Don’t sweat the small stuff, Olivier, I will take care of that.”
    “Thank you, sir.”
    “Now … I have a very positive feeling about you, young man. If you keep your eyes open and survive the next few years, I think you and I shall become close. Yes, close indeed.”
    That thought nearly stopped my heart. “Thank you, sir.” I don’t think I was capable of saying anything else at that point.
    “Good. Good.” Click! The line went dead.
    “That’s that,” Julian muttered, lips pursed.
    
     
    Redeemer, Liar … prophesies of restoring balance to the world? I slipped the pages back into the manila envelope, more confused than ever. What the heck had I gotten myself into?
    I looked over to the other bed and saw that Jude was fast asleep, snoring softly. A flick of a switch and the bedside light went out. For what seemed like hours, I lay in the