A Web of Lies, A Rainbow Six Story

Part 11: The Sins of Our Father

Marco

"Uncle."

"Uncle?" The man chuckles lightly, his warm brown eyes shining with his ever present humour. "What? No warm welcome from the long lost nephew? You wound me bambino."

His lips tilt upwards in his trademark grin, and the familiarity of the conversation pulls me in like a magnet. But I'm not the same child who he used to know, not the same scared little boy he taught to fight the darkness trying desperately to shred the very fabric of his reality.

That boy is dead. And the darkness is all that remains.

"What do you want Uncle Santiago?" I growl impatiently.

Santiago shifts his weight from where he stands leaning against a tree, but otherwise shows no reaction to my icy demeanor.

"What?" He says teasingly. "I can't visit my favourite nephew after he's been missing for so long? What has this world come to bambino, hmm?"

When his humour is rewarded with only cold silence Santiago sighs heavily and runs a hand through his hair, which is shot through with more heavy streaks of grey than I remember there being before.

"Always so blunt little one," Santiago says in a reproachful tone. "Attribuisci un valore così piccolo a parole. But you forget that they can be powerful tools to your cause."

"You were always the diplomatic one in the family Zio," I reply. "I had my own methods. Methods where being blunt served my purposes far better than wasting time with wordplay."

I step menacingly closer to Santiago and though his face is kept carefully blank, I can see his chest rise a little faster with a panicked intake of air.

"E la mia misericordia è una gentilezza che non durerà per sempre." I growl. "So Uncle...Why are you here?"

Santiago sighs in defeat and shakes his head. Some small part of me balks, still seeking his affection and approval, but I cut the apologetic impulse down without a second thought.

Santiago watches me for a long moment before finally cutting to the heart of the matter.

"Your father is quite upset with you Marco." He voices hesitantly.

My vision nearly turns black from the immediate tidal wave of fury that rolls destructively through my veins, threatening to shatter my self control and drag me down into an abyss of bloody hatred. A chorus of hissing voices scream inside my skull, their deafening demand for death making my ears ring painfully.

I drive my fist into the tree standing beside me, splintering the wood where my blow connects. Santiago visibly recoils from my sudden movement, fear blossoming in his eyes. Rivers of blood run hot and thick down my wrist, tracing their paths from my knuckles where the bark pierced my skin.

We stand frozen for a long time before I finally break the heavy silence hanging between Santiago and I, and my voice quivers with the force of my rage when I speak.

"I don't give a damn how that bastard feels Santiago. Soon enough the only thing he'll be feeling is pain."

Santiago is silent for a moment as he chooses his words with delicate precision, and when they come his tone is calm and cautious.

"I know you won't forgive him little one...but you know that I cannot stand by and make no effort to convince you to walk away from this."

I lift my eyes to meet Santiago's, and he has to visibly restrain himself from running from me. Instead he takes slow, careful steps towards me as he continues talking.