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‘If you order a hit on my best friend, I’ll never forgive you.’
‘And what gives you the impression that I care about your opinion of me?’
‘Firstly, you haven’t ordered the hit, and secondly, you’re here.’
‘The information that was stolen from me. Do you know what it contains?’
‘Information about my birth parents.’
‘Indeed. Has this Jess passed it to you?’
I nodded. ‘Is this the part where we cuddle, Grandfather? Because you haven’t struck me as the hugging type.’
‘There’s a few “greats” before that title.’
‘How many greats?’
‘I’ve lost count. Suffice to say I am your great-great-etcetera-grandfather. I have been protecting your family line for many years.’
‘You didn’t do a bang-up job for Luca and Maria.’
For a moment I thought an old pain flared in his eyes but it was there and gone in an instant, making me doubt what I’d really seen it. ‘No, I did not,’ he said. ‘I only learned certain facts after their death. If they had come to me earlier, perhaps something could have been done.’
‘What did you learn after their deaths?’
‘When you were born, they took you to see the seers.’
‘ “And he’s going to be born with the power that he knows not”,’ I quoted Harry Potter.
He frowned at me. ‘Don’t be flippant. This is serious.’
I was impressed that he caught the reference; apparently Alessandro was a bibliophile. ‘You’ve read Harry Potter?’ I asked.
‘Everyone has read Harry Potter.’
‘So what did the seers say?’
‘I can’t tell you.’
‘Because if you tell me, it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy?’
‘Because I don’t know. I have spent most of your adult life trying to track down which seer made the prophecy. That was difficult because your parents went travelling around Europe when you were a baby.’
‘They did? Cool.’ I brightened; it was awesome to think that I’d had the kind of hippie parents that took a baby backpacking around Europe.
Alessandro ignored my comment. ‘Consequently, it has taken some time to identify the seer who made the prophecy.’
‘Hold the phone. There really is a prophecy?’
‘Yes,’ he said, a shade impatiently. ‘That’s what I’m trying to tell you.’
‘What does it say?’
‘As I said, I can’t tell you because I don’t know.’
‘So how can we find out?’
‘Prophecies are stored in prophecy orbs, which are kept in the basement of Liverpool Town Hall.’
