Chapter 20
“Hannah Vale is your mom,” I repeat.
I should have seen it before: the familiar slant of Piper’s mouth, the icy blue eyes, the way her voice has the same inflections.
I should have seen it when Carla jerked her gun away from Eames.
I thought it such a brave act for him to step between me and a weapon—but he must have known she would never shoot him.
When Edgar threatened to blow the building’s oxygen, Hannah Vale panicked. It was the first time she displayed any real emotion. You don’t put together a fake cyberterrorist group, hack state infrastructure, take people hostage, and then try to flee the country without having nerves of steel.
I can only think of a few things that could scare Hannah Vale. And losing her family? Edgar was right. Family drives humans to irrationality.
Eames opens his mouth and I can see the lies forming on his lips. I know, because it’s what I would have done.
Lie until the lies taste like truth.
“Come on,” I say. “You’re constantly scratching at your tattoo.
Which means it’s not healed yet. You didn’t take off your shirt at the pool, and I’m going to guess that’s because there’s a few stitches in your upper forearm where ISD put a tracker.
” I direct my gaze toward Piper. “You’re Persephone.
It’s why Eames calls you ‘P.’ Easier to remember a nickname. ”
Her eyes widen.
Finally, I look at Aunt Connie. “And you. You found them. On the right floor during a blackout and a terrorist invasion. Only way you could manage that was if you were tracking them. So I’m not even going to ask your real name. Wraiths don’t know handlers’ names.”
Aunt Connie watches me with all the warmth of an industrial freezer. I feel that tingle at the back of my hairline, the one that indicates I’m in the presence of someone dangerous.
“What should I call you?” I say. “Because you don’t look like an Aunt Connie to me.”
Her eyes glitter. “Consul.”
A wraith handler’s title if ever I’ve heard one.
“Let me guess,” I say. “ISD knew what Vale was up to. They knew about her hacking infrastructure and couldn’t let her sell that information. So they kidnapped both of her kids and stashed them here as bait to lure her in.”
“No.” It’s Eames who speaks up. He meets my eyes and doesn’t look away. “It was me.”
That startles me. “What?”
“I wanted out,” says Eames. “I took my sister. I ran to ISD. And this…” His gaze sweeps across the dark apartment. “This was never supposed to happen. Mom wasn’t supposed to find us here.”
Aunt Connie—no, Consul—uncrosses her arms. She doesn’t reach for the gun sitting on the steamer trunk, but I’m aware of how quickly she could lunge for it. “You know who we are. Identify yourself.”
“Asset 1191809.” I give her a tight-lipped smile. “Augusta Pine. But you knew I was a wraith, didn’t you?” This is directed at Eames. “I told you I was with ISD. You only trusted me after I said that. You thought I was backup security.”
Eames’s jaw works. “I wasn’t sure,” he admits. “You didn’t know anything. But I thought maybe they put you here … just in case. Maybe they didn’t tell you the details.”
“It’s my weekend off,” I say. “I said as much. I had no idea there was any ISD operation in this building or else I would’ve stayed at the crappy motel they tried to stick me in.”
Consul’s gaze never wavers. “You’re saying this is a coincidence,” she says quietly. “You being here. You saving them. It was all … luck.”
I can’t tell her the real reason I came here: to spy on the old woman I left in the kitchen.
Or rather—not in the kitchen. Because Nonna is in the doorway. She is watching the entire conversation play out like it’s one of her daytime dramas.
“Yup,” I say. “Bad luck for me.”
Consul narrows her eyes. “I don’t believe you.”
“I don’t care,” I retort. “Now, you want to tell me why you’re hiding Hannah Vale’s kids here instead of an official ISD black site? I’ve visited a few of those—they’re a hell of a lot more secure than this place.”
Consul tilts her head and gives me a calculating look. Deciding whether or not to trust me. Finally, she does.
“Because there is a mole,” she says quietly. “In the division.”
“Oh,” I say, surprised. “So you thought they’d be safer here.”
Eames shifts on his feet, his expression torn between defiance and apology. “Hannah Vale—our mom. She’s an expert hacker. She used to be white hat … but…”
“Something went wrong,” I say.
He nods.
“So let me guess,” I say. “Your mom stared into the void, and the void stared back and said, ‘Hey, you should use your powers for money and chaos,’ so she went after state and national infrastructure, intending to sell those hacks to the highest bidder. And that’s when you decided to run to ISD?”
He nods. “We had to truly disappear. Become different people. If that meant they had to stop my heart for a minute, then fine. I’d do it.
My sister was never inked because my mom preferred to keep it that way until we were older.
So her identity was easier to change—a haircut, a new birth certificate, a paper trail, and all the usual stuff that no one bothers with anymore.
” He takes a deep breath. “I traded information about her group to ISD in exchange for the new identities. After she goes to prison, we’ll be free. ”
So he isn’t a true wraith.
He is running from his past while I’m running toward mine.
“I betrayed my mom,” says Eames heavily, “so my sister could have a chance at a real life.”
“Project Persephone,” I say.
He nods. “William and Persephone Vale,” he says quietly, as though admitting a truth he has long buried.
I look at Piper. She’s so young—she looks like a fawn with her large eyes and thin limbs. But then again, she’s not that much younger than I was when I became a wraith.
“Is that what you want to be called?” Nonna asks gently. She stands in the doorway of the kitchen, listening quietly.
Piper bites her lip. It’s Eames who answers. “No,” he says, putting a hand on his sister’s shoulder. “We’re Eames and Piper Ahlberg. Because it’s who we have to be, to be safe.”
Piper is the most valuable person in this building.
If Hannah Vale manages to find her, she can purge the apartment complex of every witness without fear of killing her daughter.
That would be the pragmatic—and vicious—thing to do.
I remember her fingers flying across the keyboard, downloading remote access of the building onto her ringware.
That ring now controls the entirety of the building.
If she finds Piper, she can implement her escape plan and vanish.
Then she’ll undoubtedly sell those infrastructure hacks to whoever can pay her the most.
I imagine what those hacks could do in the wrong hands: entire power grids going down during a heat wave, water systems crashing when they’re needed during a fire, communications and internet unresponsive during a hurricane or tornado.
This isn’t just about saving a building full of people.
It’s about saving so many more.
I grit my teeth.
“Okay,” I say a third time. “We should—”
“Augusta.” Edgar’s voice flows into my ear, unheard to all but me.
I hold up a hand, gesturing for silence. “Edgar?” I ask. “What is it?”
There is a heartbeat of quiet, a moment in which the world is suspended.
Then Edgar says, “They’re here.”