Hypergeniture Bk. 03 Pt. 01

"You're speculating," she accused. "Tell us what you know for certain."

Yonaka complied. "Lord Payne, Edward Sardonis and a group that might be the Archive worked together on various plots. Some months ago, either Payne or the Archive presented Sardonis with falsified evidence that claimed to prove you'd discovered the contents of Elizabeth Wharry's will and killed her to secure the inheritance early. This sent Sardonis into a paranoid rage, which is when he came after you. At some point, they turned against him.

"We can assume the Archive killed Wharry and tried to cover it up, but we don't know why. You may not like speculation, Ms Le Roux, but I believe she was working with them to acquire another doomsday weapon for their collection. Perhaps she upset them in some way."

"Perhaps," Alicia conceded.

I turned out to be more sceptical, trying to estimate the abilities of the private detective who suddenly offered so much in the way of information. "This is very thin, Yonaka. Very thin. Are you sure your organisation isn't just going through its old catalogues of intelligence, dishing up the most ludicrious crap you can find among your greatest hits?"

"Hmph," the muscular man stretched out his shoulders, taking my attitude in his stride. "Whatever happened, this Vallance man seemed to have discovered something in Tunisia. Ms Wharry's yacht happened to be docked there, and we believe that's a good place to start."

There was a lot to digest. I looked down at the dossier on my lap for something I might have missed earlier. Again, the only thing gleaned from the murder scene was that Vallance had some strange coins in his wallet.

Turning each page over, I saw the facts and assumptions laid out in detail. The conclusion: This group that plays with atom bombs and collects chemical weapons as though they're trinkets was busy with a clean-up operation. Whatever they had to hide, it was worth betraying their old co-conspirators, inviting the gaze of international law enforcement, and eliminating me at any cost.

Looking up, I still couldn't quite see the value of examining the yacht.

"It's been searched a dozen times," I said. "Naturally, we tore through everything when the threat emerged. We looked for anything that could explain why I was a target. There was nothing there."

Yonaka held his hands together and exhaled. "I'm told she loved the ship more than anything else."

Nodding, I recalled my first moments in the Mayfair townhouse after learning about the inheritance. The only personal item in the room was a picture of the mega-yacht under construction. I recalled an irritated housekeeper telling me that Ms Wharry adored it as her most prized possession.

"Perhaps you can find something others cannot," Yonaka proposed.

As the Japanese private detective awaited my response, he asked whether we'd mind him smoking. He retrieved a cigarette from its box, placed it between his lips, and lit up using a battered nickel and pigskin lighter that had seen better days.

"The yacht is still in Tunisia?" I asked.

"No," Yonaka replied. "One of your companies redirected it to Italy. Apparently, it's going to be used in some sort of marketing exercise?"

Not knowing anything about it, I turned to Alicia.

She shrugged. "Some corporate executive must have ordered it there, sir. To be honest, we haven't paid much attention to the thing, seeing as you're not a fan of the water."

Biting down on the corner of my lip, I tilted my head from side to side as I considered the merits of an unscheduled flight to Italy. With an indignant huff, I accepted that needs must. I could not let these evil people continue their machinations -- they had to be stopped, and I would do anything to destroy them. Yes, I felt heroic...

I felt like I had been given a mission.

"Well, let's do it then."

Yonaka smiled, but Alicia wasn't on board. "An experienced intelligence officer was just murdered after searching that ship," she reminded. "I'm not comfortable risking you--"

"We can assure his security, Ms Le Roux," Yonaka claimed, having come out the gate fast to assert his confidence.

"Can you?!" she snapped. "I've faced down death with this man by my side more than once, and I'm not so sure we'll get lucky again."

"Don't you want to know what happened to Sian Thomas?" the private eye asked, staring directly into my soul as though he were reaching to touch it with his gaze.

Yonaka was an imposing fellow.

"Wha... What do you mean?" I stuttered.

"Well, she was with Sardonis until recently. Whatever's on that ship might be crucial to finding her."

Sian Thomas... The woman who haunted my dreams and whose place I took as the secret heir to Elizabeth Wharry's fortune. She was the first choice; I was the second. Whereas Sardonis couldn't let go, Wharry found it far too easy to move on.

I was fascinated by Sian. I wanted to ask her so many questions, and Yonaka knew it was a desire that ran so deep that my chief of staff wouldn't dare oppose a move that might reveal her location.

"Can you really guarantee my security?" I asked.

"Mr Orwell, in over 300 years, we have never lost a client."

"Not once?"

"Well... Maybe once, but that's debatable."

I raised an eyebrow, making Yonaka burst into deep-throated laughter, nearly choking on his cigarette. "Ha! He was a notable man who died on the island of St Helena, but we're not sure we could've done anything to prevent it."

I smirked, shaking my head as I rose to my feet. "Napoleon?"

Yonaka didn't indulge my curiosity with an answer.

The assurances seemed reasonable enough. I knew I wanted to beat these shadowy figures who seemed to have plots the rest of us couldn't fathom. It felt like it was my duty as a man of means, or maybe just as a human being surrounded by other human beings.

How could I hold my head up high and deserve love when I didn't act to protect all that's good, righteous, sacred, and true?

As we left, I saw the concern on Alicia's face, and I knew the danger would only increase as I got closer and closer to war with the Archive, Sardonis and whoever else I damn well wanted to beat. I would carry my family and friends with me -- marching them into battle. I had to trust that they were ready for a fight. Yes, I had to believe that we had a mission, purpose, destiny...

As Alicia got in the back of the car with me, I could see in her eyes she was uncertain about our future.

She loved me, dammit... She loved me, and she was frightened. I wished I could reassure her that it would all be okay, but the only assurances I could give were about my motives.

"These people disgust me, Alicia. They fucking disgust me!" I paused, swallowing down some hatred before I could continue. "I can't abide evil. I can't stand by and let vicious animals brutalise innocent people! They're beasts who play with instruments of death like their toys and throw away human lives as though it's nothing! They must be stopped... I can't trust the government to do it. Not when the leader of one of the world's great powers seems indebted to them!"

Turning away from me, I think I saw a tear in the corner of my friend's eye as she refused to indulge my desire to play the hero. Her baby face hadn't been scarred by stress over the tough months we'd spent waging our war, but I saw a new edge in her dusky green eyes.

Taking a breath, I realised that I'd gotten carried away by rage and a sense of righteousness that exceeded what even the noblest men are entitled to at the best of times.

Stammering, I wiped my brow and made one thing clear. "Whether we aim to save the world or not, anything outside our control is dangerous. Everything we distance ourselves from will have us at its mercy, and we will be swept aside by the forces that drive all things. If we idle, the world's sins will become ours, and we will be accomplices to all its atrocities. There is no simple bystander when we're all bound together by our common humanity... That's why I feel the way I do! That's why we'll always need to fight."

Turning to me, Alicia smiled as though she had never waivered or wondered. She'd stand by my side, no matter what.

Still, to her, I seemed insane. To the rest of the world, I might have looked naive -- a man walking straight into the jaws of some indomitable beast.

02 • The Surprise

TEEN TITANS. HOW THE ORWELL TWINS ARE TAKING THE WORLD BY STORM.

It had started raining. Flicking through a magazine without reading it, I reached the end and set it down. The cover was marvellous.

The picture of my sisters in their business suits made me smile again and again, but it also made me miss them. They were off with our cousin in New York, attending a conference about women and Wall Street. She was chaperoning while they were delivering keynote speeches to some of the world's most influential financial wizards, making a stop in London along their way to do some family business.

As I gave the girls more responsibility, they grabbed it with both hands and thrived.

Sure, they were young, but Tecla had money smarts and Elle was good at weaving together plans. Both had watched me deploy those skills to keep our family together during tough times for almost two decades, and I'd taught them well. With the help of advisors, they were making a name for themselves and our family. Their youth made me seem older and wiser, and my decision to foreground them in the business was considered a masterstroke by the financial press.

Leaning back in my chair, I looked up at the ultra-tall ceiling and sighed impatiently. My desk was covered in loose pages as I dedicated myself to work. I had to make a better future for them -- my whole family -- and nothing would be enough. No, nothing would ever be enough...

I wouldn't want to live a life without service to them. I considered it an almost divine task, along with the realisation that I would have to defeat a great evil to render the world safe for them and their children... Our children?

The thought that I might be losing it once and for all saw me pick up one of the many books that littered my desk: Freud's treatise on the interpretation of dreams. The inscription in the front -- a quote from Virgil -- was as far as I'd gotten: Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo.

My old Latin instructors would not have pardoned me for looking up the translation and the context. After all, I was tasked with reading Virgil in the 10th grade (which I completed at 14). The words meant something to the effect of, 'If I cannot deflect the will of heaven, then I shall move hell...' A sentiment that resonated with a soul troubled by matters of fate, destiny and free will.

Grabbing my Bluetooth earphones from the desk, I inserted them, rose to my feet, and played a Miles Davis album from my phone as I went to stand by one of the large windows overlooking Tokyo.

I was a frustrated man; tense.

Sleep hadn't been a priority. In fact, forgoing sleep was one of my aims -- tied closely with my current choice of reading material.

The penthouse that served as our rest-stop had a small footprint, amplified by clever design. We were a few hundred meters away from Tokyo Tower, which loomed large as I turned to my left. Turning to my right, I had the clearest view possible of the city's movements: A million permutations of life executed as part of a never-ending cycle.

My suit was looking worse-for-wear after a long night and lots of travelling. Taking off the jacket, I threw it aside and lifted my shirt to reveal where I'd been stabbed so many months ago. The wound had healed nicely; the scar was faint. I'd grown leaner and more muscular as I trained my body to face my foes.

Smacking my lips impatiently, I adjusted the earphones carefully before closing my eyes and listening to the music with all my attention focused on its sound.

In my head, I planned the next few days...

I'd land in Italy on a Thursday. Tash, Tecla and Elle would need an extra day to arrange their travels. That would give me Friday, Saturday and Sunday to search the ship and spend time with them before we made our way to Munich, which had become our home base while the plane was being refitted.

Part of my brain couldn't stop wondering what we'd find on that damn yacht. Opening my eyes, I narrowed them and focused on fresh droplets of rain against the window. Someone wrote a story about a man who looked into a flame, training himself to see through the back of playing cards. I suppose I was staring at the raindrops in the hope it would allow me to see through the plots and plans of my enemy.

The Doomsday Archive.

As I grimaced at the thought, a divine scent entered the room and relieved all my stress. I paused my music and turned around to face my mother. She'd been travelling with me, hanging out in the background and doing her own thing -- the only one of the girls to keep me company at dinners and lunches and the occasional breakfast.

"You need to get some sleep, Oliver," she urged. "How many days has it been since you've had proper rest?"

Eve wore a robe that fell to her knees, drawing it tightly over her body as warm water from a recent shower clung to her skin and met a slight breeze. She smelled of fresh soap and lotion, looking wonderful under the dim lights and even more wonderful as she stepped forward.

White cotton socks completed her look, hugging her toned calves. On the finger where once her wedding band had its place, she wore a high-tech mood ring that I'd bought her. The colour was dim, but I'm pretty sure it was a happy one.

Shaking myself out of a daze, I defended being up well after midnight. "I... I took a nap on the plane over. I'm not tired."

"That's not good enough, Oliver," my parent scolded. "I know you've been feeling invincible lately but you need to take care of yourself."

Touching my cheek, I felt myself blush as I experienced the rare warmth of parental affection.

"You don't seem to be getting any sleep yourself," I challenged teasingly.

Folding her arms, my mother made it very clear that she was my mother. Seeing her look at me with so much maternal concern and conviction made my heart sing. I adored her for finally playing the kind of role I'd always hoped she would. I loved her for caring. I also knew it was something she wasn't naturally good at, that she'd rather have a different role, and that was fine too.

I wanted her to be happy. Part of me also thought I would always do her job better, so she needed another one. After all, I'd been the parent of the house since almost the day I was born. One day soon, I would give her a life that consisted of nothing but good, and that would become her reason for existing. She would live to live well, but that day wasn't upon us yet, and my brain was too busy with conspiracies to recognise just how badly I wanted to help her find a purpose she could embrace.

What Eve didn't know at that moment was that my lack of sleep was by design -- that I was working on a top-secret plan that would see us get one step closer to finding Sian Thomas, the woman who could testify the truth and topple the corrupt people who were at the heart of the plot against us. Between her cosmetic surgery craze and our endless fights, my mother and I finally settled into a happy place with each other. Despite my plan and sincere stubbornness, I didn't want to upset that progress.

I conceded, "Let me call the girls, then I'll head straight to bed."

"Good!" Eve declared proudly.

Taking a second, I made sure my mother could see the radiant smile on my face as I thanked her for checking up on me and wished her goodnight. I wanted to walk up to her and hug her, but that wasn't the nature of our relationship. Maybe one day we'd grow more physical with each other.

Doing a little bow to acknowledge the kind words and end our conversation, my mother shuffled out of the room.

I reached for my phone and scrolled to Elle's number. Even though it was well past midday in New York, there was still a chance my other sister was fast asleep. Like me, Tecla had a base level of insomnia, but I could still get up at 5 AM after getting to bed at 3 AM... She did not share that ability and her 18-year-old constitution needed at least eight hours a day.

After two telephone rings, both girls answered enthusiastically -- as awake as they'd ever been -- putting me on speaker.

"Olly! Ohmigod, I miss ya' so f'n much!" Tecla babbled, speaking so fast she barely finished any of her words; spitting out syllables and letters.

Elle teased, "It's been like two hours, Tec. You're such a daddy's little girl."

Suddenly, the girls burst into a fit of giggles as one twin launched an all-out-tickle-attack on the other. The two were manic, and I listened to them laugh, wrestle and tussle for a whole minute as they slowly regained their composure.

"Ha... Ahhh..."

"You two sound like you're having fun in the Big Apple," I guessed.

"Nah," Tecla complained, "we miss you too much. We love you, and we're so-so-so-so-so... So-fucking-horny! NGHHH, I WANT YOUR COCK INSIDE ME NOW!"

"You're that desperate, ey?"

The girls giggled again, with Elle taking over, sounding less her usual shy and more like an assertive business type. "We might not be together," she said, "but that doesn't mean we can't have any fun. We arranged a little surprise for you... Two little surprises, actually."

Rubbing my chin, my mind raced through the possibilities. New lingerie, a dirty tape, some steamy toys...?

"I have a surprise for you too," I remarked. "We're going to Italy for the weekend."

"Italy?" Elle queried.

"Yeah, to visit our ship--"

"No!" my sister interjected.

"Huh?"

Elle explained, "There are half-a-dozen bratty and entitled social media influencers on that ship, busy with a last-ditch marketing campaign to revive one of our struggling clothing brands. We can't risk upsetting them!"

Shaking my head, I chuckled. Surely, there was nothing we could do to upset these 'influencers' to the extent that the whole project fell apart? But Elle wasn't so sure, imploring me to reconsider postponing the visit to once they've left.

"You don't understand, Olly," she pleaded, "these girls are high-maintenance to the extreme. I had to hire a hostage negotiator to get them on this trip."

"Are you using earphones?" Tecla interrupted, having grown impatient with her siblings, horny as hell and wanting nothing more than to reveal their super-special surprise for me.

Reflexively repositioning the buds in my ears, I answered, "I am."

"So, your hands are free, and you can hear us properly?"

Raising an eyebrow, I wondered what the girls had planned.

For a second, there was a pause as the tension slowly built. I'd never had phone sex before, and the excitement set my heart racing. My hot and horny twin siblings were obviously all hopped up on hormones in their hotel suite; their palms sweaty and fingers tingling as their pussies pined for touch and tantalisation.

"Head to your bedroom," Elle instructed, sounding very in command and having set aside her complaints about Italy.

I complied, palming my hardening cock through my trousers as it stiffened in anticipation of my sisters' plan. As I reached the door of my room, I found it closed... I'd left it open.

Something was waiting for me past the threshold -- a special present from my darling sister-wives. It was a present only billionaires could arrange. It was ludicrous, over the top, fantastical and sublime. As I opened the door, my jaw dropped, and my heart nearly exploded as I found the gift to end all gifts!

Two Japanese girls were standing there waiting, holding each other's hands. They were gorgeous, doll-like, perfect... Twins. My arrival made them giggle, and they bumped into each other excitedly. The lights were dim, but they could see the tent in my pants; a long hard cock twitching instinctively at the sight of sexy sisters with oriental charms who were there just for me.