Page 79 of Tag
But shewasn’treliving it.
She was weaponizing it.
Why the fuck did she leave you alone with these people?” Faron growled. “She should have left you with me and our father. I will never forgive her.”
He leaned in, tapping the map. “This is good. Enough for us to land within two miles without alerting them.”
“I want a backup team ready to breach if we go dark,” I said. “And someone needs to stay behind to coordinate extraction. We get those girls out, then we bring that place down.”
Raven crossed his arms. “What about Chimera’s pipeline? If Graves was just a handler—who the hell's giving the orders now?”
I looked at Aponi.
She tapped her pen against the map again, then slowly drew a symbol in the bottom corner.
A symbol from memory. A hexagon with an eye.
“They always said the Eye saw everything,” she whispered. “It was how they kept us afraid. The kids wouldn’t run, because they were scared the eye would see them andthey’d know. I used to think it was a metaphor.” She looked up at us. “But what if it wasn’t?”
Gideon stepped in from the hall, holding a burner phone wrapped in foil. “This was dropped off at the fence line five minutes ago.”
Faron stood. “Dropped off by who?”
“No clue,” Gideon said. “No prints. No footage. But the SIM was active. Kaylie traced a signal ping—same relay used when Graves contacted his crew.”
I took the phone and opened the screen. There was only one message.
“We see you, Isabelle. Come back to us.”
Aponi went still.
Fury roared through me. “They’re baiting her. Theywantus to come.”
“And we are,” she said, voice steady as a blade. “But this time, I’m not walking in as a lost girl.”
She stood, her spine straight, her eyes on fire.
“I’m walking in as someone who remembers.”
75
Aponi
The rotors whipped the air into a frenzy as the blacked-out helicopter touched down two miles outside the perimeter.
We moved fast—no lights, no communication chatter, just hand signals and the pounding thrum of adrenaline in my veins. Every step I took down that rocky slope was familiar and foreign all at once. Like muscle memory wrapped in ghosts.
Tag flanked me, his rifle cradled to his chest, eyes scanning the ridge. His presence grounded me. We weren’t walking into the dark alone.
Faron, Raven, and Gideon fanned out behind us, eyes alert. Gage and Cyclone guarded the helicopter, ready for extraction. Kaylie stayed back at the ops site, feeding satellite sweeps and watching every pulse of data like her life depended on it.
Because it did.
Becauseall of oursdid.
We reached the switchback. Just like I remembered—crumbling asphalt, green sign dangling on one bent screw. The bullet holes were still there, rusted over like scars.
I crouched beside the edge of the road, traced my gloved fingers across the dirt. “This is it. Compound’s half a mile down. Keep low. They won’t see us until we’re past the tree line.”
