The Deck's Ace

Part one, Chapter 2. Ace of Spades

“How is Dovolo’s progress?”

“Her physical training is nearly complete, thanks to Luke Morris. Her psychological and mental training are far from over, but she will need to be transferred to the Nevada facility for that.”

“And what of her Team?”

“Most of her team is on track in their development. Dovolo and Joel Marshal are continuing to butt heads, however they are working well together. Logan Guevara may develop into a liability. I believe that Dovolo is done with him.  And there is the situation with the Volatio girl.”

“I was not made aware of any situation, Hart”

“The girl was raped two weeks ago, she has kept things relatively quiet, I doubt that Dovolo knows of the situation.”

“Was the boy taken care of?”

“Yes, Dovolo delivered the Spade herself, although she was given different information regarding the kill.”

“It may have been better to give Dovolo correct information, do not underestimate her resourcefulness, or her manipulation abilities. She might have been able to guide the girl and intensify her loyalty.”

“What would you recommend Madam?”

“We are nearing a critical point in the project. If the girl is a liability, then eliminate her. In fact, give the Spade to Torrance; it will be a good test for her.”

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January 16th, 2002

Later that night, Torrance Dovolo walked alone down the school corridors. At one a.m., the halls were deserted, save the occasional guard. They paid her no attention, as they all had special instructions to disregard the Deck's Ace.

She made her way from the Fine Arts department toward the dorms, silently rewriting the last hour in her mind. Silently going through every detail and effectively erasing it from her memory, only to be replaced with the preset story that would be cohobated by the cameras.

Her body was covered with black. Her black long sleeved Body Armor shirt was tucked into a pair of black pants. Her hands were covered by tight leather gloves, and she wore her usual black boots, minus the treading, which could give her away as a suspect. Her hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail. She had used a full bottle of gel to keep it all in place, and while she smelled like some bad tropical drink, at least she wouldn’t be shedding.

As she made her way through the boy’s dorms, she looked for room 108. It was easy enough to find, as it was on the first floor, but Torrance was cautious. When she passed room 106, she pulled a rather large knife from the sheath strapped to her right thigh. She continued walking, then casually slid the blade under the large oak door of 108, pausing to hear if she had woken anyone.

When she heard no one, she continued on her way. The night was still young and the Dovolo gang had a plane to catch.

She made her way out of the boy’s dorm and across campus to her own. Rae would be waiting for her there, probably Logan and Ryan as well. They still had to make it to the airport by three in order to catch their plane to Colorado. Hopefully they would have everything packed and ready to go.

As she walked, she was careful not to leave any incriminating evidence. She did not walk on the snow, remove her gloves, nor look around with any sign of guilt. If she could make it back to the dorms without interference, she would be home free. But as she walked, she also thought on the last few hours.

After classes, she was finally able to open the envelope that Dean Hart had given her. Inside were three things. A picture of the Mona Lisa, and two playing cards; the 10 of spades and 8 of clubs. Dovolo immediately knew what it meant. Even an idiot would know why the organization was known as the Deck.

The cards represented action that needed to be taken. Every suit had a meaning. A heart meant protection, diamonds were bribery, clubs were humiliation, and a spade was murder. The card numbers were used to show priority. A 2 of diamonds was far less important than a 10 of clubs.

The picture represented a person. In this case the Mona Lisa was Arianna Volatio. She was the only female member of the OR. In fact, she was Tori’s personal OR, and the first one that Torrance thought could pass the Deck's requirements. But then again, Torrance could never be sure with the Deck.

When Torrance was admitted into Banfoul, the Deck was put in charge of her development. The government wanted ingenious military minds, but they needed to know that they were controllable. The Deck was charged with shaping her into a great tactician without harming her mentally or physically. Yeah, they had done a great job of that so far.

The Deck was also responsible with creating her team. These were the individuals that would work with Torrance in the years to come. Her own soldiers had been willing team mates, however they were only half of the equation. There were others that would be less than willing, such as the OR.

The OR, or Over Riders, were the glorified computer hackers of Banfoul. Because almost every room in the academy had a camera, it made things difficult for students who did not want to follow the rules. But there was hope. For a small fee, the OR would erase or create any camera record. Few new their identities, and those lower on the food chain thought that the OR were a school myth.

While very few students knew the true identity of the OR, the faculty certainly did. The only thing that kept them from expulsion, and considerable jail time, was the Deck. They allowed the students to continue their practice, but they were closely monitored. Torrance would need great technical minds, and these children were the cream of the crop. While they were all brilliant, they were all in one way or another, unacceptable. Mostly it was due to drug use, narcissism, or an apathy towards anything or anyone but themselves. The Deck had yet to find one that would suit their purpose. So they continued searching, cycling students through the group, looking for the select few that were stable and manipulatable.

Torrance was certain that Arianna would be the first OR to join her team. The girl was brilliant, yet submissive and controllable. Although she came from privilege, her life was anything but glamorous. Her father had beaten and raped her until she killed him at the age of 13. Because her mother was somewhere in Europe, and would not come to her daughter's aid, Ari had to face the music alone.

Dovolo had noticed her case when the newspapers reported that the girl had tampered with evidence by altering the security footage of the murder.  The interest caused Torrance to investigate, and eventually pay for the girl’s legal counsel. She even went so far as to sit in on the trial. Toward the back of course, as to not draw any suspicion. The girl never knew the generous benefactor that had funded her defense, or what it would later cost her.

When the charges were dropped, Arianna was quickly recruited by Banfoul. It was not long before the OR pulled her into their ranks, and thankfully she had done it all by herself. Torrance was glad that she did not have to pull any stings to get her into the group. The OR operated without the knowledge of the Deck, and they did not know Dovolo as their Handler.

Torrance was invaluable to them for another reason, drugs. Most of the OR was addicted to speed. They relied on Torrance for their fixes. It made her Golden, untouchable. She was number one; if she needed something, they dropped everything else to do it. It was one of the reasons that she was able to get away with half of the things she did.

But tonight might have gone too far. Torrance had carried out her assignment, done what the Deck sometimes required her to do.

Behind her, in one of the Orchestras soundproof practice rooms, Arianna lay dying. Her body was broken, her breathing was labored, and there was a good chance that she would not make it until morning. The only female OR was now dying, and it had been Torrance herself that had done the deed. The ten of spades had signed Ari's death warrant, but it was the eight of clubs had made the death painful, gruesome, and bloody. Her death was designed not only to end her life, but to act as a warning to others. But a warning of what?

The Deck sometimes asked her to do the unthinkable, but it was what Torrance was bred for. She came from a long line of killers. Her father was second in command of the Dovolo Empire, the ruling party in the organized crime world of New Orleans. She was born into a world of violence, a world of death. She had never felt remorse for her victims.

However, it was odd that the Deck would have her make the girl such an example. What had she done that been so unforgivable?  Hart said that she was a threat to everyone, including Torrance. The girl was her personal OR, she, other than Rae, was probably the most aware of Tori’s true nature. But what as she doing? Was she selling secrets? Did she learn about the Deck and plot against them? Why did the big bad Dovolo have to snatch her from her bed, break her physically and emotionally, and leave her body for her friends to find?

Torrance was so deep in thought that she didn’t realize that she had made it to her room until she instinctively reached for her keys in her pocket. They weren’t there of course, because she was traveling light. So she had to knock, silently laughing at the thought of asking to enter her own room.

Rae opened the door and motioned Torrance in, locking the dead bolt behind them. They were the only ones in the room, which meant that the boys were probably already down at the truck.

“Do you have an override going?” Torrance asked as she started stripping out of her ruined clothes. She pulled the ponytail holder from her hair and shook her head, feeling the follicles on her scalp relax.  A led Zeppelin T shirt, khaki cargo pants, and white Banfoul hoody were already laid out for her on the bed.

“Yeah I started one when you left. I replaced you with the kid who gave Donovan the fake roids. As long as you cleaned up really well, we won’t have a problem.”  Rae said, smiling up from her laptop. Rae was as good as any OR, but because she was so close with Torrance, she would never be part of the group.

She watched Tori change, trying to hide the feral flicker from her eyes. She and Tori hadn’t been anything other than best friends for several months. Torrance said that it was because the Deck might put two and two together and use Rae to control her.  It was a classic symptom of the superhero complex. Torrance had begun to push everyone away, for fear that they might be caught in the cross fire.

Torrance threw all of her ruined clothes into a garbage bag and into her luggage. She would get rid of them somewhere on the way to the airport. “Oh I did, trust me. We killed two birds with one stone tonight.” She said as she changed, “Are you packed and ready to go?”

“Uh huh.” Trace said, double checking her work. She didn’t just have to do one override, but three. She had to replace Torrance with Jeremy Myers throughout the whole ordeal. Myers had been the one to sell Donovan the pseudo steroids, and this was a more than fitting punishment.

Instead of Dovolo dragging the girl from her room to the sound room, it was Jeremy. Thank god the sound rooms didn’t have audio, because Rae had never spoken to Myers, and no one could articulate themselves quite like Dovolo in attack mode.

She created a skeleton of the boy and replaced it with Torrance. When Ari’s knee cap was shattered, when her left eye was gouged out, it was the punk and not her friend. When her throat was slit and her hands crushed, the records showed that Torrance was catching up on homework in her room.

Rae had to cover Torrance’s trek home, and even the conversation they had just had.

“Where is your stuff?” Torrance asked, running a brush through her hair before throwing it in the bag with her other toiletries.

“In Ryan's truck. When are we leaving?” Rae said, watching her friend pack. Why Torrance always waited until the last minute to do these things was beyond her.

Dovolo double checked her board and equipment, “As soon as we can get all of our stuff in the truck. We have to get to the airport before three if we want to make the flight. Shit I hope these boots and bindings still fit.” She said as she crammed her snowboarding boots into her suitcase.

“Ok let me text the guys.” Rae said as she pulled her phone from her pocket and sat on the bag, compressing the contents enough so that Torrance could zip it.

“Thanks,” Torrance said as her friend hopped off. “Don’t guess I will be bringing back any souvenirs.” The girl laughed and picked up her bag and threw the strap over her right shoulder. Dovolo used the snowboard to balance herself, but she was severely weighted down.

“I've got some room in mine. Are you just taking the bag and board?” Rae said as she packed up her laptop and got ready to leave.

“And my backpack. Would you grab it?” Torrance asked.

“Sure thing babe.” Rae said. She pushed the pack over her shoulder. They shut everything off in the room and locked up before heading down to the truck