"In what way?"
Apparently I was going to have to give more details. I wracked my brains for an example that would get through to her. "Remember the town I told you I grew up in?"
She nodded.
"Well I made that my first project when I joined, before I came to Australia. The group worked wonders over there. We got the government to pave actual roads, had them install better water filtration, even got the town on the electricity grid. It's still dirt poor, but the people there actually have a chance now. Our work isn't all that overtly philanthropic of course, don't think I'm sugar coating it, but our overall goal is to fix glaring inequalities, to protect people who can't protect themselves."
"But those sorts of responsibilities belong to the government. You know, the people we actually choose to run things."
"Come on, Sophia. Someone as smart as you can't really believe in the effectiveness of the government when it comes to protecting the individual. There's as much corruption there as anywhere in the world. Look at the GFC. Millions of people were financially ruined, and yet nothing came of it. Nobody has really been punished, no changes have been put in place. And that's just the tiniest tip of the iceberg."
She pondered this. "Okay, that might be true, but if you're so concerned with the lives of the everyday worker, why didn't you do something about that?"
I grimaced. "That's a sore spot for us, actually. The truth is we just didn't see it early enough. We're powerful, but we're not omniscient, and the big banks are particularly hard for us to break into at a high level. The kinds of guys who are happy to swindle people for billions aren't generally the sort of members we want to recruit."
For a few seconds she sat in silence, her face impassive.
"You know me," I continued. "You know the sort of person I am. Is it so hard to believe we might actually have good intentions?"
Her expression softened, although she still seemed somewhat unsure. "Let's say I believe you," she said. "There's still a lot of questions unanswered. Like how are you not discovered?"
I shrugged. "We're very good at staying under the radar. We've had a lot of practice. The group is over two thousand years old."
Her eyes widened. "Two thousand?"
I nodded. "This sort of thing doesn't just spring up overnight. We started in ancient Greece — hence the name — as a way to keep the government in check, and it kind of grew from there. Democracy was new then, and there were... teething problems. When those problems didn't go away with time, we hung around. Anyway, with the amount of influence we've now got, keeping our activities out of the limelight is actually fairly easy, as long as we don't do anything too bold."
"So what about Fraiser Capital then?"
"It's a real company," I replied, "but it's also our main front, here in Australia. Venture capital firms throw money at all kinds of strange projects. Having it as a legitimate entity makes financing and directing our operations much easier."
"So that party I snuck into...?"
"A meeting for potential new recruits."
She nodded to herself. "Right." She was much calmer now that the initial disbelief had worn off, calmer than I'd expected.
Her eyes flicked to mine, and she hesitated. "So I'm guessing that a group like this probably has its share of enemies," she said slowly.
I could see where she was going with this, connecting the dots. "We do."
"Enemies that might do things like kidnap your members' girlfriends?"
My shoulders slumped. "It's possible." Instinctively I reached out to clasp her hand, but managed to stop myself. No more mixed messages. "Believe me, I've been wracking my brains trying to work out why this happened. I have no idea what anyone would hope to gain from taking you."
"Is there anyone out there that might want to hurt you personally?" she asked.
It wasn't like I hadn't been through that a thousand times too, both now and when Liv was killed, but I always came up empty. "Not that I can think of."
She pondered for a few more seconds. "What about whatever's going on here then? The other disappearances. Is there a connection there?"
I closed my eyes briefly, feeling a fresh surge of anger. With everything that had happened to Sophia, it was easy to forget that there was more at stake than that.
"Maybe. Those situations were a little different," I replied, struggling to keep my voice level. "They weren't disappearances. They were murders."
Her hand flew to her mouth. "Oh God," she said, and this time she was the one that reached for me. That simple contact felt wonderful and, although I knew I should, I didn't pull away.
"The first one happened a few days ago. Charlie didn't show up for an appointment. We didn't think too much of it, until the next day, when someone went to his house and discovered his body."
"Jesus," Sophia replied.
"We were still trying to figure it out, but then yesterday, the same thing happened with Simon. At that point we knew we were under attack, so we followed protocol and gathered our senior members here." It felt strange to be saying this stuff out loud. It made it seem more real. I'd known Charlie and Simon for the better part of ten years. They were my friends, and although saving Sophia had briefly blotted out everything else, I felt their loss as keenly as anyone.
"I'm sorry," she said.
I nodded in thanks. "Perhaps there's a connection there," I said. "Perhaps it was the same people and we just got to you before..." I couldn't finish the sentence. "Anyway, we're using every available resource to work out who is responsible. And I swear to you, I won't stop until you're safe and you can leave all of this behind."
She stared at me for what felt like an eternity, her jaw set tightly, her eyes flickering with some emotion I couldn't identify.
Eventually, I heard the sound of a door closing upstairs. People were starting to wake up. Realising she still held my hand in hers, I reluctantly pulled away and got to my feet. "I have to go. There will be a meeting soon and I have to prepare. Just try to lie low, okay? I'll check in with you later."
She gave the barest hint of a nod.
I felt better, having told her the truth. Now she understood. It didn't make up for the pain I'd caused, but it was something.
On my way back to my room, I ran into Trey, who was just coming in through the front door.
"Just the man I wanted to see," he said. He wasn't part of our senior council, so he wasn't staying in the house. He was out on the street, working leads and keeping the rest of Alpha's ventures running smoothly.