The Trinity Game

Daniel,” she said. “And I woke up with your name on my lips. I know, it must sound crazy…”
    Daniel felt lightheaded. He said, “In this dream, did I say anything? Did we speak?”
    Ory nodded. “You walked into the shop and called me by name. You said, ‘Angelica, I need you to understand, we’re on this road together,’ and I said something like, ‘What road?’ and ‘Who are you?’ but you just smiled, and then you turned and left the shop. And I woke up. That’s it.” She stared at him for a few seconds. “It’s truly incredible, you look
exactly
like you did in the dream.”

Tennessee Williams Suite – Hotel Monteleone…
    W illiam Lamech had sent the men on a kill mission, with strict instructions to report every three hours. The last text from Samson Turner had come just before dawn: STAGE 2 UNDERWAY. They’d located the truck and were moving in for the kill.
    Not a word since. Lamech glanced at his watch. They’d now missed three scheduled reports. If they’d been arrested, he’d have heard about it. If the mission had gone wrong and any one of them had survived, he’d have gotten a report.
    Lamech didn’t get this far in life by lying to himself, and he wasn’t going to start now. The men were dead.
    He scrolled through the contacts in his cell phone and stopped at the direct line of
Eric Murphy, Esq.
Murphy was a senior partner at a blueblood Canadian law firm with offices in the historic district of Old Montreal and at least one former prime minister on the payroll. Lamech had been paying the firm half a million dollars per year for the last five years. The invoices read
legal consulting
, but that was a fiction. In truth, the money was just a retainer. It bought him access, should he ever need it, to the services of aman named Lucien Drapeau. The only way to contact Drapeau was through Eric Murphy, and keeping that conduit open was worth $500K a year. If you actually used Drapeau, it cost you an additional five million.
    Lucien Drapeau was the most expensive assassin in the western hemisphere. It was said that he’d never botched an assignment.
    But William Lamech was not disturbed by either the price or the possibility of failure. He was disturbed—deeply disturbed—by Drapeau’s complete independence. Drapeau was a specter. The law firm’s clients didn’t know where he lived or what he looked like or how he traveled. Terms were simple: half up front, half upon death of the target. No meetings, no details, and no future promises. You could pay him five million to kill a guy, and when the job was done, he was free to take five million from the guy’s widow to come back and kill you. The half-a-mil you paid to the firm each year bought you a place on the client list, but it didn’t buy you Drapeau’s loyalty.
    William Lamech didn’t like it, but the men he’d sent were capable professionals, and they were dead.
    Now he would use the specter.

W hen Tim Trinity took off his hat and sunglasses, Priestess Ory immediately recognized him. She sat in stunned silence as he told her of
his
dream, and how he awoke with the vision of her storefront.
    He summed up with, “So I had a vision of you, and you had a vision of Daniel. I think it’s safe to conclude that God has brought us three together. The question is, why?”
    “I have no idea,” she said. “I’m still trying to process the thing.”
    “Danny? Any ideas?”
    Daniel was still stuck on
God has brought us three together.
She had dreamed of
him
, not of Trinity. And with that, his place at Trinity’s side was no longer a leap of faith.
    He was
supposed
to be here.
    But that didn’t answer the question.
Why here? And why her?
He looked from Ory to Trinity, shook his head. “Priestess Ory, do you know anyone who goes by Papa Legba?”
    “Papa Legba is the guardian of the crossroads.”
    “I don’t mean the
loa
. I mean, a person using it as a nickname.”
    “Of course not. It would be very disrespectful, and,” she smiled, “nobody wants to get on Papa Legba’s bad side. Legba can be temperamental, and you’ll get nothing done without him.”
    Daniel turned to Trinity. “Well, I’m out of ideas. I don’t know why the hell we’re here.”
    They sat in silence for a moment. Priestess Ory said, “Following Tim’s line of thought: The divine brought you here. To me. Maybe the intent is for you to receive what it is that I provide.”
    “Somehow I don’t think he brought Tim here for a tarot