***DECEMBER***

“Now, Ms Larsson. I apologise for being blunt, but I have reason to believe your husband was murdered.”

Magnus Larsson let the words float on the air for a little while, to let them sink in.

“And?”

Magnus looked around at his daughter, Suzanne. That had not been the response he was expecting.

“So you knew?”

“I don't know. That's why I'm here, but I doubt there's a lot you can say that's going to surprise me.”

Suzanne looked up at the stranger with a mix of challenge and expectation. She had come to Las Vegas on a whim, on a promise of answers, and even now that she was finding these things out, she couldn't stand to look powerless. No matter what this man said, she couldn't let him feel completely in control.

“I see,” replied Magnus. “I know that you have met the Icelandic Council.”

Suzanne nodded. The two men going by that name had met her after her first round victory in GTT7, and promised that they could unlock the potential inside her. They had spoken to her of Gifts and powers and of schemes far grander than those of mere professional wrestling. In return for their tuition she had promise to aid them, but after the loss to eventual GTT runner-up Garbage Bag Johnny she had fled. Just like everyone else, their words had been hollow and she was left unfulfilled.

“Gunnar Arnisson and Lars Halldorsson may appear frail at times, or not fully in control of the situation, but believe me when I say that you'll not have met anyone as dangerous as them before in your life.”

Suzanne had witnessed their eerie powers when they subdued her twin brother Charlie without even touching him.

“So they killed Kyle and set it up to look like suicide?”

“In a manner of speaking. Kyle did feel genuine regret at striking you, and in such a fragile state of mind he'd be easy pickings for Arnisson. He's got a Gift too, just like you, though his is to do with persuasion.”

“He talked my husband into killing himself?”

“I have no proof, Suzanne.”

“Then why are you saying this?”

“I know these men, and I don't want to see them succeed.”

“Succeed in what?”

“In indoctrinating you to their cause,”said Magnus. “I know how easy it is to get caught up in their offers and their politics. We used to be close, they and I.”

“How close?”

“Suzanne, I was on the Icelandic Council.”

***MARCH***

“They called again,” said Charlie Larsson.

“How many times is that?” replied Suzanne.

“Twice a week, like clockwork.”

“But you haven't seen them?”

“No.”

There was a pause, and both of the twins knew what the other was thinking. They'd not seen either Lars or Gunnar since they left Denton behind for Las Vegas, but there was a chance that they had spent time with Charlie and then made him forget.

“Did they leave a message?” asked Suzanne.

“The same one. Telling you not to believe anything you had heard about them from outside sources. Asking you to meet with them.”

The Valkyrie shook her head. The past few months had been confusing. Her meeting with the stranger in the hotel room at Caesar's Palace had just been the start. Since then her world had been turned around in so many ways, and yet here she was, dealing with the day to day life of being a wrestler.

“Then fuck it. We've got promotional work to do and I've got to get to the gym.”

“Don't forget we're going over the tapes of Varga tonight too.”

“Can't we just eat pizza and watch re-runs?”

“No.”

“Or poke our eyes out with sporks”

“Suzie, you know you have to scout him properly.”

“I know, I know.”

“So I'll see you back here tonight.”

“Sure thing.”

Charlie got up and exited the room, leaving Suzanne alone with her thoughts. Since their meeting in December she had barely seen the man who had given her a chance in Sin City Championship Wrestling. The simple reality of being in a premier wrestling federation was a full time job, and with the tour going around the country and into Canada, she'd not had the chance to spend any time in the city that gave her company its name.

Quite who this man was remained a mystery to her, and the whole business with the Icelandic Council became little more than an unwelcome distraction, but Suzanne knew that things like this had a habit of coming to a head at the worst possible time. This wasn't the last she'd see of these people. Even if her so-called Gift didn't manifest itself again, and it hadn't since her match in GTT7, these people would not remain loose ends forever, and at some point they would not be satisfied with her voicemail.

Larsson looked at the calendar on her iPhone. She had a week until the match. More than enough time to do a little digging.

***ELSEWHERE***

“Any luck?” asked Lars Halldorsson.

“No,” said Gunnar, placing the old style phone back on the cradle.

The two men stood in a room lined with old books, their spines reflecting the light from a dozen small electric lamps spaced evenly around the room on an equivalent number of petite round tables.

“Never mind.”

“Never mind? We haven't see her for months now! You know how important she is to us, and yet you...”

“And yet I what, old friend?” said Lars.

Gunnar smiled. Having spent his entire life with the leader of the Icelandic Council, he knew that he was being challenged for a reason, and that Lars finally wanted to divulge his reasoning.

“And yet you let the one person who can continue our line waste her life on this wrestling!”

Gunnar had to play the part of the ignorant enforcer. It was his role, and he knew it. Never mind that he came up with as many of their plans as Lars, or that he had been the one to find the twins, this was his role in life, and always had been.

“We are playing the long game, Gunnar,” smiled Lars. “She must come to us by her own accord, not by our manipulation.”

Gunnar laughed.

“Really? And the business with Kyle?”

Lars thought for a moment.

“That was not what you believe.”

Gunnar tilted his head, knowing that he did not need to talk back to his friend.

“She distrusts us, Gunnar,” continued Lars. “She will continue in her life, but she will know that something is missing. She will know that she is special, that she is Gifted, and that we're the only people who can truly show her what her life is about.”

“I agree,” said Gunnar. “Suzanne Magnusdottir must learn about her heritage from us, for we are the only one who can show her the true picture. Yet, you bade me send her a message warning her about others who might poison her mind against us. Who are these people?”

“I confess that I do not know, but I have seen that someone is trying to turn her against us. I do not know who it could be.”

“Maybe we didn't cover all of our friends in the CIA? Maybe one of them talked?”

“No,” replied Lars, shaking his head. “It feels like someone from our past.”

“Such as?”

“I do not know. I thought our past was sealed.”

Silence fell upon the room. Lars Halldorsson was troubled by recent events, as much as he didn't want to show it. His Gift of foresight had been weakening for years, and he needed Suzanne to join them if they were ever going to lift Iceland out of the economic mess that it now found itself in.

“After this match,” he continued. “We will see her, whether she wants us to be there or not. She will face her birthright and we will make her come with us.”

“I thought this had to be of her own accord?” said Gunnar, knowing full well the response that was going to come.

“Perhaps I was wrong? Perhaps it has to be like this. I just wish it were easier...”

***NOW***

Suzanne Larsson sits at home. Her world is changing around her, but she often feels like she's somehow been left behind, as if she's just a pawn in a game between people manipulating her. She hears so rarely from these people, the Icelandic Council and the 'stranger' who gave her a place in SCCW, but she knows that they are the ones whose decisions will affect her life. She knows that her future lies in the resolution of these conflicts.

Yet her future also lies in the resolution of conflicts closer to home, of those with the wrestlers of SCCW, and specifically with Civilization and James Varga. She knows he's not the joke that some people think he is, and she knows that he'll have company at the ring, so she'll not just be up against one person. Whether she can overcome this sort of adversity remains to be seen, but it worries her.

I think that it needn't. I have faith in her, faith to overcome the stresses and strains of her job and come out on top. You see, she needs direction in her life, and by playing her off against the Icelandic Council I am giving her just that. I am making sure that she has a fire burning inside her, that she doesn't become a cold, living block of ice like those who would take advantage of her.

She's my daughter, and even though she doesn't know it, I'm shaping the way she will live. I am bringing about her victory, which will not be measured by three counts and submissions, though they will play a part. Her victory will be something else entirely, will be magnificent, and it will be all ours.

It's not something I can ever describe or explain to her, so I must remain in the shadows, in the darkness guiding her, staying one remove away from the front line.

All I know is that this will all come to a head soon.

And when all is said and done, not everyone will be left alive... though I will. I see that much clearly. And the others?

Collateral damage.