The Covenant of Genesis

‘Ooh, your repartee cuts like paper,’ Sophia sneered, giving Nina a disdainful look - then spotting her engagement ring. For a moment she seemed both shocked and angry before her contemptuous mask came back down. ‘Please don’t tell me you’re getting married.’

‘We’re getting married,’ Nina told her with an icy smile.

‘We did think about inviting you,’ Chase added, ‘but then you died.’

‘Speaking of which,’ said Nina, ‘how about you tell us why the Covenant arranged for you to be snuck out of Guantanamo.’

Sophia sat back. ‘Part of that comes down to why I was put in there in the first place.’

‘Because you’d’ve been killed before you ever got to trial in a regular prison,’ said Chase.

She sniffed. ‘Hardly. Do you really think anybody would have cared if Large Marge had shanked me in the shower? That way, they would have avoided an incredibly long, costly and complex trial that would have exposed America’s border security as a hopeless pork-barrel shambles. After all, despite all the billions of dollars they’ve spent on Homeland Security, the only thing that stopped a nuclear explosion was a balding Yorkshireman sticking his hand in the mechanism.’ She glanced at Chase’s left forearm and the long X-shaped scar running along it.

‘And it still hurts,’ Chase rumbled.

Nina made a disgusted sound. ‘I can’t believe this. You tried to be the biggest mass murderer in history, but you’re talking about it like . . . like it was nothing.’

Sophia shrugged. ‘What do you want me to do, cackle maniac-ally and proclaim that the world has not seen the last of Sophia Blackwood? I had a plan. It failed. I was caught. By you. Obviously I was . . . rather angry about that at the time.’ She gave them a dark look that made it clear embers of resentment still burned within her. ‘But that was then - and there are other people I’ve had more reason to be angry at since. Specifically . . . Victor Dalton.’

‘The President?’ asked Nina, puzzled. ‘Why him?’

‘He put me in Guantanamo - even though I’d already been kept in a regular high-security prison for months. Hardly the nicest surroundings . . . but it was like a stay at the Dorchester compared to Camp 7. And it was practically the first thing he did after his inauguration. Do you know why?’

‘He thought you needed to work on your tan?’ Chase suggested.

‘Ah, that rapier wit. So there is something you and Nina have in common,’ said Sophia. ‘No, Eddie. The reason he sent me to Guantanamo is that I was a threat to him. I could destroy his presidency, just like that.’

Nina eyed her dubiously. ‘Oh, yeah? How?’

‘Do you remember the night we first met?’

‘Sure. Rene Corvus’s yacht.’

‘Yes. I was with Richard Yuen. And Victor - Senator Dalton, as he was at the time - was there as well.’

Nina nodded, remembering the evening. ‘Yeah. And?’

‘And later that evening, he and I had a . . . private meeting in one of the cabins.’

Chase coughed on his coffee. ‘You shagged the President?’ he blurted. The waitress glanced up from her book.

‘Eddie!’ Nina cried, batting his arm.

‘Eloquently put, as ever,’ Sophia said. ‘But yes, I did.’

Chase shook his head. ‘Bloody hell. And you did it with your ex-husband, current husband and future husband all on the boat at the same time. Just can’t get enough, can you?’

‘Oh, Richard knew about it. And so did Rene. They just didn’t know about each other knowing.’

Nina’s head was spinning. ‘Why? Why did you do it?’

‘Business, of course. He hadn’t won the party’s nomination yet, but he was by far the leader in the polls. So both Richard and Rene thought - once I put the idea into their heads - that having a little, ah, influence over the next President of the United States would be very useful.’

‘You recorded it,’ Chase realised. ‘You hid a camera somewhere and taped the whole thing.’ He made a face. ‘That’s really, really . . . gross. I mean, I’ve met the man. He’s not exactly George Clooney.’

Sophia smirked. ‘It’s funny, Eddie - a lot of my friends said exactly the same thing when I married you.’

Nina shook her head. ‘No, this is insane. There is no way that you enticed Victor Dalton into bed and recorded the whole thing. He had the Secret Service with him, for God’s sake!’

‘The Secret Service doesn’t just protect the presidential candidates,’ said Sophia. ‘It protects their secrets. Why do you think it’s called that? All men of power have their lusts, their addictions, their perversions - they come with the kind of personality that craves power in the first place.’

‘Perfect match for you, then,’ said Chase.

‘Can we stop talking about - about lusty addicted perverts?’ Nina demanded. ‘So you made a recording. Then what?’

‘Then, I kept it very close to me,’ Sophia continued. ‘Do you remember in Shanghai, Eddie, that I took us to Richard’s office to open his safe?’

‘He had your passport in there,’ Chase recalled.

‘Yes, but I could have got it at any time. I really went to pick up a memory stick with a list of all Richard’s less-than-legal campaign contributions, not just to Dalton but to several other politicians as well - and also the digital recording. I had it with me in New York and Botswana, and then when I went to Switzerland with Richard I put it in a bank deposit box.’

‘And it’s still there, I bet,’ said Nina.

‘Yes. Which is why Dalton wanted me as far out of sight as possible. If I were in the normal system, I’d have visitation rights, access to counsel, lawyers - people I could conceivably tell about the recording and use to arrange its release to the media.’

‘Which would kill Dalton’s career stone dead. The President, having an affair with the terrorist who tried to nuke New York . . .’

‘Exactly. But since Dalton declared me an enemy combatant as soon as he took office, he could ship me off to Cuba where I was denied all those things. Which was why when Gabriel got the Covenant to demand my release, Callum came as well - as my executioner. I have knowledge that can bring down the President, so I can’t be allowed to live.’ She smiled, a broad, mocking grin. ‘Oh, by the way, now that you know about the recording, the same applies to you. You’ve just become enemies of the most powerful man in the world. Congratulations!’ She took in their stunned expressions with smug satisfaction. ‘Although from what I picked up from Callum, I gather that you already were.’

‘What?’ Nina gasped.

‘I don’t know the details - he didn’t exactly confide in me. Something to do with you sabotaging a black operation.’

Nina and Chase exchanged worried looks, thinking back to the events of four months earlier. ‘Dalton knew about it?’ Chase asked.

‘Of course he knew,’ said Sophia with a hint of impatience. ‘Presidents always know, otherwise why bother having them? The man at the top gives the orders.’

‘Except when the Covenant do,’ Nina said, fixing Sophia with a questioning stare. ‘You said you’d tell us about them. So, who are the Covenant? And how do they have the power to tell the President what to do?’

Sophia took a long sip of coffee, the silence in the room broken by the crackle of the jukebox changing records. ‘Obviously, I don’t know everything,’ she said at last. ‘They don’t exactly regard me as a confidante. Even Gabriel was reluctant to tell me too much. But,’ she went on, leaning closer, ‘I have my ways.’

‘Yeah, we know,’ Nina muttered. ‘Just the facts, okay?’

‘Very well,’ said Sophia sourly. ‘The Covenant of Genesis is a black operations unit - but one that doesn’t belong to any country. It was established to protect the mutual interests of three very old, very powerful and very wealthy . . . well, organisations isn’t quite the right word.’

‘Do you mean, like the mafia or something?’ Chase asked.

Sophia laughed. ‘I suppose there are some people who’d say that. But no, the right word is actually . . . faiths.’

It took Nina a moment to take in Sophia’s full meaning. ‘Wait, what? You mean, faiths as in religions?’

Sophia nodded. ‘Three religions - all different, but with a common origin. Three leaders, one from each