CHAPTER 6

Dante kneels down on the floor, in front of the coffee table. He watches Bette, Tina, Alice and Tasha straight in the eyes.

He talked a lot and now he looks exhausted. I can only imagine how much all this shit means to him and still he tells them everything, like it doesn’t affect him at all. He tells them how half of the building he lives in exploded. How two innocent people died a violent death right in front of his eyes. How some maniacs kidnapped his pregnant wife. How the above mentioned maniacs called and threatened him and us all, indirectly. How he took a flight to Los Angeles to defuse a bomb we didn’t know was hidden in our house. All in the last three, frantic days.

I can only imagine how powerless he feels showing them the anonym letter we received, the deciphered anagram, knowing well that we couldn’t do anything to save WAX from burning down and that still we can’t do anything but wait for the new threats to come or the new rules of this wicked game.

Nobody talks and nobody interrupts him as he speaks in that low, quiet, full voice of his. Even Alice lacks of jokes and her sarcasm seems suddenly dried up. Tasha takes her hand and squeezes it gently, trying to comfort her. Tina and Bette look petrified. Little Angie, thank God, is still sleeping on Tina’s lap.

Dante lays out all the evidence on the coffee table. Neatly, silently, carefully.

“We have two Jacks of spades. They are the attempter’s signature…”, he says calmly, “…We have a typewritten anagram that we already deciphered. We have a defused C4 bomb, totally harmless now, that we cannot give to cops”.

His eyes dart as he shakes his head in frustration.

“We cannot place this matter before any authority. They have Cassandra, and God knows if there are other bombs somewhere or if they’re planning other arsons. We cannot do anything else but wait for them to make another move and, in the meantime, define our action plan”.

He rubs his forehead with the open palm of his hand.

“There is nothing else we can do. We must try and defend ourselves and try to understand what exactly is going on and who’s menacing us”, he repeats tiredly.