Page 78 of Tag
Faron looked at me. “Based on what?”
I tapped the screen, zooming in on one of the webbed diagrams. “This location here. It’s in New Mexico. Middle of nowhere, but I remember it. Or at least... I think I do.”
Tag crouched beside me again, eyes locked on mine. “What do you mean?”
I looked at him, heart pounding. “I think I was there. Before my mom left me she took me on a trip. I think it was here. She took me to a remote camp for ‘training.’ It was run by people I didn’t recognize—he called them ‘the ones who make kings and break queens.’ I thought it was just some over the head crap. But now... I remember one of the guards wore this patch.” I tapped the screen again. A hexagon. Black with a silver eye.
Tag’s whole body tensed. “You sure?”
“Positive,” I said. “It was stitched into his vest. I didn’t know what it meant back then, but now... I think it was Chimera’s mark.”
Faron leaned forward, eyes sharp. “If that memory’s real, and that camp still exists—we’ve got a lead.”
“I can draw you a map,” I said. “I remember the way the air smelled. The rock formations. The road in. It was hell. But it burned into my memory. She left me there alone. i tried calling her and begging her to come and get me, but she ignored me.”
“So I left. I walked out in the middle of night, and hitched hiked my way home. when I got there she was gone. I stayed there until CPS came for me. They asked me where my mom was. I said she must be dead because she never came home.”
Tag stood up, already pacing. “We don’t go in soft. No surveillance drones, no advance warning. They’re watching us like we’re watching them.”
“So we go loud?” Faron asked.
“No,” Tag said. “We go smart. Quiet insertion, blackout gear, EMP tech. We hit them where it hurts. We get those girls out.”
I stood too, every nerve buzzing. “And I’ll go with you.”
Tag whipped around. “Hell no.”
I crossed my arms. “You need someone who’s been inside. Someone who knows the layout—what itfeelslike. You want to find that camp? You need me.”
“Aponi—”
I stepped closer. “Don’t you dare try to protect me now. I survived Chimera once. I’ll burn them to the ground.”
Tag stared at me, chest heaving.
Then finally… he nodded.
“Then we do it together.”
74
Tag
The war room felt different now.
There was a pulse to it—urgent, primal. Everyone moved as if they had a blade at their back. Faron stood at the whiteboard, organizing names and photos from the drive into clusters. Raven and Gideon were checking weapons. Kaylie had her laptop open, muttering to Gage over comms as they ran scans across encrypted networks. We all knew we had to shut this monster down and save those children, boys and girls.
And Aponi—she sat across the table from me, a pen in her hand, sketching.
The map she was drawing wasn’t perfect. It was fractured, fragmented from memory. But her hand moved fast, her brows tight in focus as she recreated the route from her childhood.
“I remember this switchback,” she murmured, tapping a jagged line. “There was a green sign with bullet holes. Half hanging off. The road curved hard around a cliff after that. And here—” she circled a shape “—was the compound. Chain link fence. One tower. Dirt bikes out front.”
I glanced at the digital map beside her drawing. “Nothing shows up on satellite.”
“Because it’s buried under camouflage netting,” she said without looking up. “They taught me how to disappear in plain sight. I wasn’t very good at it since I only stayed there three days before leaving.”
The way she saidthey taught usmade my throat tighten. I wanted to reach across the table, pull her into my arms, and tell her she didn’t have to keep reliving her mother leaving her there alone.
