Page 45 of The Surrogate Omega, Part Two

Lake sounds indignant. “It’s my favorite Disney movie.” He huffs.

Trying not to laugh, Ev leans into the phone. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. It’s a great movie and a good quote.”

Lake huffs again but moves on. I try really hard to keep a straight face. “Besides, she’ll know who both of you are. Still, don’t go without the quote.”

“We won’t. I do have some training, Little Bird. We’ll be ok.”

“I know you will. I’m just nervous. Oh, and can you please tell Raine that Kraken may need her assistance and to be ready?”

It takes me way too long to process what Lake is asking me. Who or what is Kraken? “I don’t know what that means.”

“She will. Just tell her, please.”

“I will, Lake.”

“Ok, I’ve really got to go. You do too. I’ll see both of you soon. Be safe.” Lake hangs up before we can say anything.

Ev looks at me after the line disconnects. “What was that?”

I shrug as I stand and heft one of the duffel bags over my shoulder. I hold out my hand to help Ev up, and despite his indignant look, Ev takes it. “I have no fucking clue. We better go find Raine before our driver shows up.”

Ev shakes his head in disbelief as he grabs the other duffel. “I feel like James Bond.”

“Same. It’s crazy, right? Like, I know what Lake does for a living but . . .”

“It’s still hard to comprehend that our sweet, innocent, loving mate is some kind of genius hacker super spy? Yeah, I’m struggling with it too.”

We walk hand in hand back to Raine’s office. Luckily, she’s by herself when we get there, and she lets us in after one knock.

“What’s up, detective?” she asks.

“I hope this makes more sense to you than me, but Kraken says he may need your help and to please be ready.”

I have no idea how I expected Raine to react. Part of me thought she’d look at me like I’m insane and kick me out of her office. Instead, her eyes widen so much I think they’re gonna pop out of her head as her mouth drops open. It’d be almost comical, if I wasn’t so fucking confused.

“Y-you spoke to Kraken?”

“Yes? He’s the one who’s been sending us the evidence.” I’m not sure if I should have said that. But I’m having a hard time keeping up.

Raine practically falls out of her chair. “You mean to tell me Kraken is the one assisting us with this? And now they want my help? Mine?”

“Um, yes? Can you fill me in here?”

Raine rolls her eyes and immediately starts typing rapidly. “Kraken is only the best white hat hacker of our generation. Seriously, they are a legend. About fifteen years ago, they popped out of nowhere and for about ten years or so had their hand in just about every white hat operation. In my world, Kraken is the equivalent of the biggest celebrity or rock star you can think of.” She’s so excited she can barely sit still.

I share a look with Ev. Our Lake, our mate, is this legendary hacker?

I’m having a hard time keeping up with everything that’s happened today and how much I apparently didn’t know about my mate. I keep having to remind myself we’ve only been together a short amount of time and Lake has always been honest about having to keep most of his work a secret. I respect that, and I understand. It still comes as a bit of a shock.

Ev seems to get his head on his shoulders first. “You said the first ten years. What happened in the last five?”

Raine shrugs. “They more or less disappeared. We knew they weren’t dead or completely out of the game because occasionally—oh, I’d say maybe three or four times in the last five years—something happens that clearly has Kraken’s signature on it. But they’ll just show up, do their thing, and go ghost again. The rumor going around our circles is that they got recruited by one of the big alphabet agencies. This about confirms it.”

I look at Ev. Did we just sort of blow Lake’s cover? Fuck, I wish he gave us more details.

“I didn’t screw something up for him, did I? By telling you he’s been giving you the information? I won’t pretend to have a damn clue about what’s going on, but I don’t want to cause problems or put him in danger.”

Raine’s eyes narrow on me and she tilts her head. “You keep calling Kraken ‘he’? Do you know who they are, like their true identity?”

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