Herald the Night

Chapter Thirty-Five

The knowledge that she was in way over her head did little to slow Abriella’s intensity once they reached the office. If anything, it increased it. Theo and Toby were safe, but the job was far from over. Especially once Director Robins tapped her as a temporary second in command for the investigation. They had Luke Fields in custody. Now, the games could begin.

She wasn”t allowed to conduct any of the interrogations, but she was asked to observe them. It was probably for the best. Every time he opened his mouth, the desire to whip her gun out of its holster grew exponentially. Never had she ever wanted to shoot someone as badly as she wanted to shoot this man, and that was saying something considering it was her go-to threat. It didn”t help matters that he was spewing complete garbage woven with tiny, nearly microscopic glimpses of actionable information.

Marissa Robins was honestly the ideal person for the interrogation. Tiny, blonde, blue-eyed, and able to turn on the charm as she helped lead the man toward eviscerating any chance he might have once he went to trial. If he went to trial. Abriella was pretty positive he’d had a psychotic break at some point. An insanity plea was looking more likely every time he opened his mouth. And dios mio, did he love to run his mouth.

Taz was beside Abriella in the observation room as they both listened to Fields ramble on and on about his motives. Most of it was unhinged garbage, but Taz was finding dozens of trigger words and key phrases as he tapped a shorthand transcript into a document while also running searches in the background. Abriella was scrawling notes of her own the old fashioned way—pen and a legal pad.

“Luke, help me understand what got us here. I know you said they ruined your life, but help me understand how.” Marissa kept her posture relaxed and her eyes focused, but the occasional glimpse toward the two-way mirror let Abriella know she was angling for another tripwire question.

“He was supposed to die that night. They all were, but fucking Christian fucked up. If Connor and Abriella hadn”t escaped, the whole plan would still be in action.” Fields flicked his hands skyward with a grunt. “Shit show. They”re all buffoons. Locke, Williams, all of them.”

“Remind me what the plan was, again?” Marissa feigned checking her notes, even though Fields had already loosely outlined this plan a few times already. The consistency would help with the investigation and the case, if there was any truth to it. She was hedging her bets on it being the deranged ramblings of a madman.

“To overthrow the government. Montgomery was supposed to crash and burn, the safety nets around the country were supposed to fail, and then the Wolf would sweep in with his army to instate the New World Order.” Fields was dropping more information every time he circled back. Whether the information was good or not was another question entirely.

“Who is the Wolf, Luke?”

“Ha! I”m not stupid. You won”t get that information from me. He”s safe and secure. He”s waiting. Once the day comes for him to save the country from destruction and bring us to a new time of peace and prosperity, he will reveal himself.”

“Right. Of course. What if I wanted to help him? To help bring the plan to life? How would I do that?” Marissa pushed her notebook to the side and brought her elbows to the table to lean closer. Her gaze honed in on Fields as she tucked a strand of hair over her ear. “It sounds like a good plan.”

“Please tell me this shit doesn”t actually work,” Taz whispered beside Abriella as he deadpanned at the spectacle in front of them.

“Ay… si. It does. She is good at what she”s doing.” Abriella snickered softly at Taz’ reflection in the window. “Just imagine your Luke questioning a man like that.”

“Fuck that… I”d fucking kill him.” A crinkle formed in his nose as he went back to his laptop.

“Or,” Abriella murmured in a lower voice. “Picture him questioning you like that.”

His hands froze over the keys and she knew she had made her point as soon as a flush developed over his cheeks.

“Ay, see? It does work.” She gently nudged his side and shifted her eyes back to the interrogation room.”

“Yeah, whatever. Shut it. Not my fault he has sexy, vascular forearms,” he muttered dourly under his breath.

“Ew. Vascular? Really, T?” Abriella shuddered.

“Yes, Bell. It”s sexy as fuck. You stick with the X chromosomes. I prefer my Y.” He jerked his chin with a smirk. “Veins for days. Sexy. As. Fuck.”

She scoffed and swatted blindly at him before they both tuned back into the conversation happening on the other side of the window. They had only missed a few moments, but the tension on the other side was much higher than before they”d gotten distracted. Mercifully, they”d have access to the recordings and tapes.

“But why hide all this time? And why were you so sloppy now? You clearly wanted us to figure out it was you.” Marissa had lowered her hands, leaving them folded on the table near Fields’.

“Because I wanted to crack them. I wanted them to know they”d failed and that we would always, always be stronger. They failed with me. They failed with Tristan. As much as they gloat about being the saviors, they keep failing.” Luke shifted his hand and covered Marissa’s with a palm. “I only hid until the plans were repaired and in motion. Now that phase two is ready, my work is done. I wanted my revenge. He stole my life from me. I wanted to steal his from him.”

Abriella felt the scowl twist her features as she watched the scene and registered the words. He really was completely out of his mind.

“What”s phase two, Luke?” Marissa eased backward and slowly slid her hands from beneath his.

“They march on Washington.”

“I”m sorry, I just can”t see how anyone expects to orchestrate a military attack on the nation”s capital. You do understand how many military operations are available to prevent that, right?” She gave Fields a no-nonsense glance before reaching for her notebook again.

Fields chuckled, snorted, and then broke into laughter that bordered on manic and hysterical. He rocked back in his chair and continued laughing. It was a chilling, uncomfortable laugh that had Abriella squirming on her stool. Even as he grew breathless, the howling cackles continued to shake his body. His behavior had her even more convinced he”d broken from reality a long, long time ago.

Marissa glanced toward the mirror again and gave a subtle nod as Fields continued to hoot and holler and spasm with uncontrollable hysterics. They rose to their feet in unison and moved toward the doors to the hallway. Fields didn”t even register Marissa’s movements. Even once she had the door closed behind her, his laughter persisted.

“Dios mio… he’s insane.” Abriella walked back into the observation room with Marissa at her side. Taz was still busy at his laptop within, but he managed a curt nod and kept his mouth shut, for once.

“He’s something. But I refuse to write anything off as psychosis yet. Too many loose ends have been dropped already. Until a psychologist tells me otherwise, I”m going to take everything he”s said seriously.” Marissa moved through the room and bent low to see what Taz was working on.

“Hi, no. Ask first.” Taz turned his chair and laptop, shooting a nasty glare over his shoulder. Abriella cringed. Couth, he was not.

“This is me asking.” Marissa arched an eyebrow at him, perching her fists on her hips.

“Yeah, whatever. Still rude.” Taz reluctantly straightened his laptop and cleared his throat. The irony in his statement wasn”t lost on Abriella, but she managed to keep her snickering to herself. “So, he is definitely a few cards short of a full deck, but a lot of little things he”s saying do match up.”

“Go on.” Marissa nodded toward the door after catching Abriella”s attention. She shut it and moved closer to see what her tech analyst had figured out in such a short time.

“So, there”s parallels. He knows a lot about Locke. He mentioned Tristan a lot—we still don”t actually know where he is, right? Like, we haven”t gotten eyes on him?”

“Correct. I”ve been given promises by the CIA that he is in a secure detention center.”

“The same agency that told us Luke Fields was dead, so I”m calling bullshit. Anyway, he talked about the attempted biological attack, he spat out a lot of the key phrases I”ve already been monitoring. The shit about a Wolf, the protests, the bomb threats. It”s all there.” Taz tapped his screen gently with a fingertip.

“But he also had access to all of these records up until his ‘death’ and likely after. He was the FBI Director. We’ve established this is how he knew the locations of all the safe houses and could track down the First Children,” Marissa countered. The truth of it left Abriella battling a wave of nausea.

“Fair, but there’s just way too much to discount it. His name was on the fucking deed of the warehouse where we found the lab. The CIA is compromised. I”m with you—we can”t discredit a single fucking thing he’s said. Which means—”

“We’re looking at a plot to overthrow the government by force.” Abriella finished Taz’ train of thought, and then the room went silent. Silent save for the eerie bubble of laughter occasionally coming over the speaker from the interrogation room next door. All three of them turned toward the observation window and studied the hunched figure of a man once thought dead. A man who might be the best option they had for stopping the worst case scenario from happening.

“Well, fuck me sideways,” Marissa groused, tousling her hair with an exasperated sigh.

Taz stifled a cackle and sat up straighter on his stool. “No thanks, but I agree with the sentiment.”

Abriella failed to smother her snicker that time. The options were to laugh or cry. Laughter seemed the better option in the face of what potentially lay in store. Once she regained her composure, she cleared her throat to speak.

“What next?”

“I… don”t know yet. But we’ll figure it out.” Marissa’s shoulders fell with a soft exhale. “We”ll figure it out somehow.”

“And probably die trying. Sounds fun as fuck.” Taz closed the laptop with a huff. “Can I press pause on saving the damn world until I”ve gotten laid? Maybe squeeze in some sleep, too? Not asking too much there, right?”

Marissa burst into uncharacteristic giggles before hastily clearing her throat. She tried to pretend it didn”t happen, which just made the whole scene even funnier. A second later, they were all laughing. It was a quiet, weighted laughter, but it was far better than the alternative.

“Yes. We aren”t going to get to the bottom of this tonight. Go home. Spend some time with your family tomorrow. We can circle back on Monday.” Marissa glanced toward the observation window again. “I plan to do the same. The world will still need saving once we’ve all gotten some rest.”

“Hospital or home, T?” Abriella stepped around their boss and moved closer to her friend. She knew the answer without question.

“Hospital, but I can catch a rideshare if—”

“Cabrón.” Abriella gently swatted at the back of Taz’ head. “My best friend is unconscious in a hospital bed. Of course I am going there.”

“You”re all very close, aren”t you?” Marissa’s gaze bounced between them both with a half smile.

“Unfortunately,” Taz groused, leaning into Abriella’s side with a smirk.

“Si. They are family. All of them.”

“Then that”s all the more reason you should head out. I”ll see you both on Monday.” Marissa hesitated for a moment. Abriella swore she was about to say something more, but she simply smiled and left. Taz and her were out the door mere seconds later. The only world that needed saving, at least for her, was in a hospital across town. They could worry about the rest another time.