Love and Other Crisis | Season 1

Episode | 30

Ronin entered his father's office with a pit in his stomach. Katerina's safe yielded insights into the woman's old and new life. If not for her inability to release her grudges, it was anyone's guess if they'd discover her ruse or the intruder within their walls. That there might be others like her—unlisted Supreme and Archaic talents—added to the urgency of their predicament.

Matthias McIntyre reclined in his chair, elbows on the armrest, fingers steepled. He offered no greeting for his older son, his expression a mask of indifference. His piercing gaze, devised to cut through everything in its path, reflected his father's coldness. And years on, the man's demeanor always brokered unease. Ronin sensed a similar trait in his Andreas, although the youngest McIntyre camouflaged it with pleasantries.

Neither bore qualms about exploiting whatever means necessary to acquire their desired results. And both took pleasure in the discomfort of others, relishing in their fear and using it to their advantage. Ronin was the oddball in the family whom his father couldn't quite work out as he was forever his mother's son.

"Father."

"How did your team uncover evidence at the witch's house? My investigators found nothing." Matthias spoke in a monotone voice devoid of outward emotions, yet his enunciated words conveyed his discontentment.

Ronin explained Inola's examination of the premise using her aunt's archaic magic detector. How she and Kaliope located the hidden safe, and Madam Falgor's contribution to breaking the rune that protected its content. As expected, Matthias wasn't pleased Ronin's motley crew bested the Assembly's investigators. Matthias disliked Inola and her clan and voiced his opinion against hiring a human on the Occult CMT's core team.

All the same, his father retained bragging rights as a McIntyre directed the winning team.

"Hmm. Your official report mentioned a card."

Ronin rested a slim crystal case with the plain black card secured inside on his father's desk and pushed it to him. Matthias picked up the case and examined the card. Printed on one side in white was a mask on top of the letter 'X.' Nothing else.

"What's this?"

"An inactive access card. The logo doesn't match any known organization on file. Katerina kept it in the safe, so we're assuming, for the time being, it meant something to her." Along with the card, they recovered the woman's diary, old photographs, and a partially damaged birth certificate.

Unimpressed, Matthias scoffed. "Without a link to anything substantial, it's nothing but a useless piece of plastic." He flicked the case across the table to Ronin.

"Or it's a clue as to who breached our security."

A flash of amber lit his father's eyes. Matthias stood and stalked around his desk.

"I want you to investigate the members of the Assembly."

"You suspect one of them?"

Matthias' show of teeth was all wolf. "As opposed to an outsider circumventing our system undetected for years? Which do you think is more feasible?"

Ronin understood his father well enough to understand it had nothing to do with feasibility. The security of the Server Room was directly under the purview of the Assembly. Matthias was the seated Chairman, and it was an election year. A crisis like this—an outsider breaching Sage Tower's defenses under his watch—would tarnish Matthias' reputation and not to mention his chances at reelection.

While under the guise of an official investigation, his father wanted to weed out the competition and those opposed to his position as Chairman. Matthias attempted the same four years ago, during Ronin's first year of tenure, to use his son as a culling instrument. Ronin undermined his father's attempts then, but now Matthias had Andreas as reinforcement.