“Failed? No, not really. Think of the amount of damage he’s done. He nearly destroyed the DMS. He goddamned nearly helped Hugo destroy the oil supplies in the Middle East, which would have hit the stock market like a tsunami. I know Vox had hundreds of his people poised to profit from that, the same way he had buyers ready to grab stock when the planes hit the towers. Hell, he advised me to have my people ready when COVID hit.”

“Are you saying that the coronavirus was of his design?”

“What? Oh, hell no. That was an actual natural disaster, but our friend was very savvy about how certain world leaders would react and when to have cash ready to buy stocks during flights to safety. Mr. Sunday advised me to snap up stock in companies making hand sanitizer, bleach, surgical masks, and ventilators. I did and, fuck, Rafael, I banked a couple of billion on COVID-19. I think we made more money on that than I would have if it was something one of our labs cooked up.”

“Yes, and that’s excellent in itself, but he isn’t the only person who could advise on such things.”

“Maybe not, but he’s the best at it. He understands human nature. He reads presidents and prime ministers very well and can go from a press briefing or Twitter post to a buying frenzy faster than anyone I’ve ever known. And not only will he handle sales for us, he said that he has some ideas for how to mindfuck your boy Ledger. That boy’s already on the edge, and Mr. Sunday says all it’ll take is the tiniest of pushes.”

Santoro set his coffee cup down hard enough to splash half of it onto the table. “He is a monster. He is the most dangerous person I’ve ever met. His motives are always his own. He was never really on Vox’s leash. Never. He always has a personal agenda.”

“Second most dangerous,” corrected Kuga. “Let’s keep perspective. Church is the real Big Bad. But Mr. Sunday is the scariest cocksucker on our side. And he is on our side, Rafael. Make no mistake.”

“He was on Hugo Vox’s side, too, and Vox is dead,” said Santoro coldly. “He was on Zephyr Bain’s side, too, and she’s dead. Same with Grigor and the Upierczy.”