Absolution

VI: Masquerade and the Power of Faith

+Author's note:

As our tale of sin and sex and the soul continues, we find our hero one step closer to salvation. But at what price? To really be saved, he must first be freed. What is he willing to sacrifice to free himself from the devil that tempts his soul?

What do you risk when the darkness is so close and the light so small?

How do you deny the duality of your own nature?

Slainte.

....

VI. Masquerade and the Power of Faith

VESTIS VIRUM REDDIT

"You are the music while the music lasts." – T.S. Elliot

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Vito De Mare, Italy 2017

The trail to Maria Gomez led them across the ocean. The trip was surprisingly easy and made on a private jet. The Italian province of Vito De Mare was little more than a tiny island floating off the tip of the boot of the country. It was a haven for the wealthy, the bored, and the overtly depraved.

What Vito De Mare was primarily known for was its night life. Swingers frequented the island, sharing in their sexual delights with others of the bored and idle nature. Sex games were the theme of things in most fronts, offering moonlight masquerades and anonymous delights to those who sought to fill their souls with such sins of the flesh.

The blending in was going to require a fair amount of footwork and...handiwork. Leon slipped on the expensive Dolce and Gabbana suit in commanding black, double breasted, silk, with peak lapels and a vest beneath, that accompanied his costume with little concern for it. The intricate venetian metal mask he slid onto his face made the whole look, which might have been Vogue and very high fashion, a sensual edge that promised the viewer a different kind of delight beneath the expensive packaging.

He was lean, handsome, charismatic and charming – he'd blend right in. Beneath the suit, he wore an inner pants holster that placed his pistol at the small of his back. Charming or not, he was never unarmed.

Joel, Rebecca, and their two newest accompaniments: Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield, all were gathered in the living room of the three thousand dollar a night suite being used as HQ for this operation. Jill was dressed in black as well. The dress was so low cut that it left little to the imagination...and everything to it. It was a dress the promised something dark and delicious to any who wanted to try to touch and see if they got lucky, or lost a hand trying. Her blonde hair was artfully styled in piles of twists and curls around her face. She wore a little mask herself, this one lacy and red, hiding but not really hiding, the delicate features of her face.

Chris chuckled when he saw them stand next to each other. "You two look like the top of a Fifty Shades of Grey wedding cake."

Jill snickered, "You're just jealous because you have to wait here while we get to go play."

"Maybe." Chris snorted again, "Probably. But I'm shit in the playacting department. I'd ruin it."

Leon rolled his eyes as they moved over to get outfitted with communicators. Joel tucked a tiny piece in Leon's ear and put the battery pack, the shape of a cigarette lighter, into his breast pocket. He clipped a little camera in the form of a diamond tie tack to the front knot of his silky white tie.

He literally stuck his hand in the front of Jill's dress.

She raised her brows, shocked. But Chris snickered. Joel cared as much about boobs as the Pope did about sex. He fitted the device to her and added the one in her ear. "There! Voila!"