Page 93 of Tag
“I’m not that girl,” I said, leaning on the table. “And you don’t get to define me anymore.”
Her eyes glittered. “Oh, Isabelle… I didn’t define you. I refined you. And whether you admit it or not, part of youlikeswhat you became.”
Tag’s voice was low, dangerous. “Keep talking and I’ll make sure you disappear before the sun sets.”
Tessa’s smile widened. “There it is. The weakness. Emotion. You protect her, she protects you. That’s leverage I can work with.”
I slammed my hands on the table, leaning in close. “No. That’s leverage youusedto have.”
She laughed quietly, then sat back. “Fine. You want something? Here’s something: Chimera was never about one compound, or even a dozen. It’s a structure. A network. Cut off one head, two grow back. And the next head?” She paused, her gaze locking on mine. “It’s already in motion.”
I didn’t flinch. “Where?”
Her voice dropped to a whisper, like she wanted me to have to lean closer to hear. “Ask your brother.”
The words punched through me before I could stop them. “Faron?”
She shrugged, like it didn’t matter. “Everyone’s got a file, Isabelle. His is… interesting.”
Tag’s hand went to my shoulder, grounding me before I did something I might regret.
I stood, backing toward the door. “You’re done talking for now. Tomorrow, you tell me everything, or I’ll make sure you rot in a hole so deep Chimera won’t be able to find you.”
She smiled again, like I’d just proved her point. “Oh, sweetheart… Chimera’s already foundyou.”
The door slammed shut between us.
87
Aponi
Faron was on the back porch, a mug of coffee steaming in his hands as he stared out into the gray stretch of dawn. The desert was quiet except for the faint hum of the generators.
I hesitated in the doorway.
Part of me wanted to chalk up Tessa’s words to manipulation — her favorite weapon — but another part couldn’t stop replaying them in my head.
Ask your brother.
Faron glanced over his shoulder when he saw me. “Couldn’t sleep?”
“Not really,” I said, stepping outside. The boards creaked under my boots. “We need to talk.”
He took a slow sip before answering. “I can tell by your tone I’m not going to like this.”
I folded my arms. “Tessa said Chimera has a file on you. That it’s… ‘interesting.’”
He set the mug down on the railing, his jaw tightening. “She’s trying to get in your head.”
“That’s what I told myself,” I said. “But she didn’t look like she was bluffing.”
His eyes narrowed. “And you came out here to find out if your own brother’s been working for Chimera?”
“I came out here to find out if there’s anything in your past they could use against you — against us.”
For a moment, the only sound was the wind moving through the scrub. Then he sighed, running a hand down his face.
“When I was deep cover for the Bureau,” he said slowly, “I crossed paths with Chimera once. Small-time op compared to what we’ve seen. I got close enough to one of their suppliers to pull intel… but that supplier vanished before I could turn him. Two weeks later, my CO told me to drop it. Classified. Above my clearance.”
