DIRTY ANGELS
To his right and left sat his grandsons: Nathaniel, managing director of three central banks no one outside this room acknowledged existed; Jakob, the quiet architect of resource wars disguised as humanitarian interventions; and young Lionel, already the shadow hand behind half the algorithms that moved global capital.
They did not rise when Marvin entered. Waylon took a seat at the far end.
Marvin bowed his head once, respect, not subservience, then sat.
Otto spoke first, voice dry as autumn leaves.
“The offering.”
Marvin recounted it without embellishment: the virgin’s ascension, the blood on the statue, the night-long fertility that bound them all tighter.
Then the anomaly.
“A reporter,