The Generals Missile

Chapter 10 - The Vipers Tongue

I fell silent for what felt like an eternity, the fluorescent light above us flickering ominously.

"If I tell you," I finally said, my voice low.

"Everything changes... There is no going back and you will not be able to pretend you do not know because your family... your father... they are involved in things that will destroy them when it comes out."

"And it will come out, Victoria." I said to her.

"I am going to make sure of that." I smiled.

Her chin trembled, the weight of my words sinking in.

"My father hired people to hurt you tonight."

"Did he not?" She said.

"Yes." I replied.

"And the sniper."

"The one pointed at Lily's room."

"Your father's business partner arranged that."

"A man named General Marcus Voss."

"Your father has been working with him for at least six years according to my findings." I said.

"Six years," she whispered, closing her eyes as if wishing the truth away. "Since we got married."

"Since before we got married... Victoria, your father did not approve of our marriage because he thought I was beneath your family. He approved it because your grand mother made him too, and who knows maybe Voss was also involved, I was being positioned to be permanently killed while been placed inside the Harrington family where I could be watched, controlled, and kept quiet." I said to her.

"So it's possible, your father already knew my identity but couldn't kill me yet because I am not a small person and Voss's ego will want to kill me himself." I said to her and she exploded further.

"Okay and what do you mean, kept quiet? About what?" Her eyes snapped back open, demanding answers.

"About who I am."

She looked at me, her expression shifting, the gravity of my admission settling in. "Then tell me."

I exhaled, the words heavy on my tongue.

"Six years ago, I held the rank of Major General in the Strategic Command Division and my operational code name was Asura... I commanded a specialized unit responsible for counter-terrorism operations across three continents and we ran missions in fourteen countries... My unit had a ninety-seven percent success rate, zero civilian casualties and I was twenty-nine years old but I was being considered for the highest military command position in the country."

Victoria stared at me, her expression one of disbelief, as if I had just declared that the earth was flat.

And if you think that's all, then i have lied.

I was mistaken exposed to Asura matter 49, a chemical substance that gave me the Asura name, and the last matter of its kind in the world, so I became a threat, a living lethal weapon, my blood became more important than gold to create meta soldiers and governments who used me for various wars decided that only I - General Ethan Cole can lead all armies as General but Voss wants to be boss too.

Because he was meant to be on that throne.

But Asura Matter 49 made me the chosen General.

This is why your father is playing with Fire.

He is millions deals off this already but his greed is pointing the entire Harringtons family in danger.

Because I am that danger and I will destroy anything that seems to hurt you or my daughter and if you choose to join them in this evil, so be it!

"Asura the war General of Chaos?" She asked shaking.

"Yes my love!" I replied as she trembled.

"Asura is your Husband."

And Asura still lives.

"Marcus Voss was my commanding officer, my mentor," I began, the weight of my words hanging heavily in the air. "He trained me, saw something in me when I was a nineteen-year-old recruit, and for ten years, he shaped me into a weapon."

"But Voss had his own agenda, selling military intelligence to private contractors, orchestrating weapons deals worth billions."

"When I discovered what he was doing... he moved first, especially since i could be called a government threat." I said to her.

"What did he do?" Victoria asked, her voice barely above a whisper, a tremor lacing her words.

"He fabricated evidence that I had sold classified information to enemy combatants and was plotting a war." I explained, the memories flooding back like a tidal wave. "He forged communication logs, planted financial records in offshore accounts under my name, and presented it all to a military tribunal... I was stripped of my rank, my identity was classified, and every record of my service was sealed or destroyed."

"Why did you not fight it?" she pressed, her brow furrowing in confusion.

"Because Voss told me that if I fought it, he would kill everyone I cared about and I couldn't dare an old Generals connection," I replied, my voice low and steady, my first tries to fight was countered with my mum dying right in my arms.

Her hand flew to her mouth, shock etched across her features.

"So I disappeared," I continued, the pain in my chest tightening... "I let them erase me... I walked away from everything I had built, everything I had earned, and I became nobody... I became the useless son-in-law, the broke failure, the man your mother slaps at dinner parties and I did it because Voss was searching for me, and as long as I stayed down... as long as I stayed harmless, he had no reason to hurt you or Lily."

"Six years," she said, her voice cracking, the reality of my sacrifice washing over her.

"You endured six years of... Everything my family did to you... to protect me?"

"To protect you and Lily," I affirmed, my heart aching at the thought of our daughter.

Tears streamed down her face now, not the delicate kind that dripped softly, but the ugly kind, the kind that comes when your entire understanding of reality gets torn apart and rebuilt in sixty seconds.

"Every time my mother slapped you..." she started, her eyes wide with disbelief.

"I let her," I said, my voice barely above a whisper.

"Every time Derek called you a beggar, a waste, a parasite..."

"I let him." I said.

"Every time my father forced you to kneel at the dinner table and pour wine over like a servant..."

"I let him, because kneeling kept you alive."

She grabbed my hand suddenly, her fingers ice-cold, nails digging into my skin as if to anchor herself in this storm of emotions.

"Why did you not tell me?"

"I would have... I could have..."

"Could have what?" I interrupted gently, knowing the futility of the argument.

"Stood up to your father? He would have cut you off, no money, no protection, no resources and Voss would have known, he has people inside your family, Victoria. People who report to him... I could not risk it, I had to keep my self disguised knowing how much Voss needed my corpse to ascend as supreme general."

"Gemi," she said, the name hanging heavily between us.

"Gemi was one of Voss's Spies."

"Voss trained me, so he knows how secretive I could hide, he thinks outside the box and there may be other spies too in other elite families." I confirmed, seeing the realization dawn on her.

She was shaking now, her entire body vibrating with some fierce combination of rage and grief.

"I treated you horribly, Ethan," she confessed, her voice pained.

"When my mother told me to give you the cold shoulder, I did it... When Derek humiliated you at family events, I looked away... When my father told me our marriage was a mistake... I started believing him."

"I know," I replied simply, the truth of it settling like a stone in the pit of my stomach.

"How can you sit here and say 'I know' like it does not matter?" she questioned, her voice rising.

"Because it does not."

"What matters is Lily," I said firmly, urgency threading through my words.

"What matters is that Voss is in this city, he is under your father's roof, and he has already tried to kill our daughter once, your father greed is just dumb! Everything else... The pride, the ego, the six years of humiliation... None of it matters if Lily is not safe."

She wiped her face with her sleeve, determination flickering in her eyes.

"What do we do?"

"We?" I echoed, shaking my head.

"There is no we in this, Victoria... Not yet. Your father is on the other side of this... Your entire family is on the other side of this... If you stand with me, you will lose them... All of them... Everything." I said.

"They tried to kill my daughter," she said, her voice steady, but fierce.

"My daughter is family! If they will sacrifice her for billions of dollars then it makes no difference if it were me, their full daughter, they would sacrifice me too if I was that important, so..." She said.

"So what?" I asked.

"I will rather die Ethan! Than let them hurt you again or my daughter Lily, I will stand by you, tell me the head you need and I will cut it down rolling to your feet!" She cried as she fell on her knees before me.

"Tell me what head you need!" She asked.

"I need Yours!" I fired back.