Page 46 of The Surrogate Omega, Part Two

Fuck. I’m quickly running through the conversation and realize Raine has used they/them pronouns every time while I clearly gendered Kraken as a male. Fuck, Lake, you need to give me more here.

“No, why would you think that?” I’m sure she can see right through me, but I know how to evade questions when I need to.

“Nobody knows Kraken’s gender. They are very careful to keep everything about their identity a complete secret. So, you are either a misogynist asshole who thinks only men can be hackers or in the computer field, which I know isn’t true because you bug me for help at least twice a day and never go to the male techs.”Yeah, because they suck.I keep that thought to myself. “You are discriminating against people who are nonbinary by refusing to acknowledge their chosen pronouns, or you know Kraken is really a man. I know it’s not the first two, so that leaves option three.”

I don’t really have an answer so I just say, “Can we just leave it alone? They obviously have their reasons for staying private, and I didn’t mean to fuck it up for them.”

Raine sucks in her lip. “Yeah, of course. I would never do anything with that information. I like my life. I don’t intend on being blacklisted from the community because I outed Kraken. And yes, fuck yes, I’ll help them. I’m assuming they’ll contact me if they need me?”

I shrug. “I guess. They gave me no details. Just for you to be prepared.”

Raine claps her hands together. “Oh, my gods, this is the best day of my life. Even if Kraken doesn’t contact me, knowing they might, that they trust me enough to take my help . . . This is amazing!”

“Just be careful, please. I seriously doubt anything they ask you will be approved by the department.”

Raine rolls her eyes. “Please. What they don’t know won’t hurt them.” She waves us away with a shooing motion, “Now, go. I’m sure you have your own thing to do.”

“I do. Thanks, Raine.” She waves distractedly, already back on focus. Knowing a dismissal when I see one, I take Ev’s hand and we walk back outside.

“You realize if her timeline is right, Lake was about fifteen when he started this?”

I whistle lowly. I’m clearly losing my touch because I’ve always prided myself on my quick thinking. Tonight, I feel like I’m functioning through a fog. I don’t even get a chance to respond to Ev because we’re barely on the sidewalk for a minute when a black town car with tinted windows rolls up. Fuck, we really are becoming secret agents.

“Gods,” Ev whispers next to me, and I feel his hand tighten on mine. I try to remind myself that this is all to save that boy. He has no one else looking out for him. I swore to myself I’d be that person, and I plan to stick by that. I take a deep breath as a middle-aged woman comes out of the driver’s seat.

Maybe I’m that asshole Raine said I wasn’t after all, because this middle-aged soccer mom is the last thing I expect to see. She’s wearing a light-blue cardigan for fuck’s sake. Her light-brown hair has streaks of gray that’s pulled back off of her face with one of those butterfly clips. Her blue eyes are kind and the laugh lines around her face make her look warm and welcoming.

I’m starting to think she’s not actually our driver when the woman says, “Hi, gentleman. If you do your best each and every day . . .” She pauses.

Ev may be more cut out for the secret-agent life than I am because he’s the one who answers with, “Good things are sure to come your way,” before I can even get my brain back online.

The woman smiles warmly at us, reminding me of the grandmas you see on TV. I’ve never really had a female mother figure in my life, so I don’t know if grandmas are really like this, but if I was picturing my ideal granny as a kid, this woman would probably be it. The exception that she’s some kind of secret agent aside.

“Perfect. It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Cirillo and Mr. Taylor. If you would please follow me?”

The woman holds open the door to the back seat to us, waiting expectedly. I share a look with Ev, who shrugs and ducks in. Ok, I guess we’re doing this.

Once we’re in the luxury vehicle, the woman climbs into the driver’s seat, closes the door, and puts the car in drive. Right before she starts to move, she turns to look at us over her shoulder, her smile friendly. “I’d suggest you two try to get some rest. It’s going to be a long couple of days.” Without another word, she turns back around and starts to drive us to our unknown destination.

TWENTY-FIVE

Evander

The kindly woman drives us to an airport. As friendly as she is, I notice how careful she is not to give us any information whatsoever. I’ve tried more than once to get her name, and she’s evaded me every time. She’s so smooth at it, I don’t even realize it until several minutes later and it’s way too late to make mention of it. It doesn’t take me long to realize we’re not going to one of the bigger airports. This is definitely not LaGuardia or JFK.

It’s one of those tiny private airports nobody realizes exists unless they happen to need it. The airport contains only a small air traffic controller building and the runway. The woman drives us right to the asphalt and stops along the side. A small plane is already parked.

“Oh, fuck no, we’re supposed to go onthat?”

Logan laughs and kisses my shoulder. “We’re not going that far, babe.”

I scoff, “If we’re going any farther than the other end of this runway, it’s too far.”

The woman laughs, her friendliness not wavering at all. “I assure you, it’s perfectly safe.”

Before I can respond, Lake walks out of the building. Or waddles, really. I saw him earlier today, and I swear he’s grown since then. He’s wearing a wool coat, the bottom buttons open to leave room for the swell, and his standard dress pants and shoes. The only sign that he’s been running around all day on a secret operation is his mussed hair that whips around his head from the wind.

The lines on his face and bags under his eyes show how tense he is, and it’s only been a handful of hours since I saw him last. I would do anything to take that away from him. A little bit of the stress eases as he sees us. He smiles, though it’s tight.

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