Chapter 13 #2
“When I noticed your behavior shifting after Prague,” Kruger said to him, “I saw a way out. If I let it slide and you disappeared, I could leave. Walk away.”
“And Dresner allowed that?” I already knew he hadn’t.
Kruger laughed without humor. “Dresner doesn’t allow failure. He takes it personally.” He tugged his collar down, revealing a puckered scar on his neck. “I’ve been on his kill list ever since. It’s a miracle I’m still breathing.”
“You’re saying you let me go?”
“I didn’t stop you. There’s a difference.”
“Why?”
Kruger spread his fingers on the table. “Because of St. Elisabeth’s. Because I saw something the programming couldn’t kill.”
“What?”
“Humanity.” Quiet.
The room went still. A car alarm wailed outside, then cut.
“You still haven’t told me what happened,” Specter said, voice soft and sharp.
“No.” Kruger reached inside his jacket and drew out a small silver flask. He unscrewed it and took a swallow.
Specter slammed his palm on the table. Kruger flinched.
“Enough. Did I kill those children or not?”
My pulse kicked hard. The space felt too small, the air thin.
“No.” Kruger met Specter’s eyes. “You didn’t.”
He went motionless, the kind of quiet that precedes a fight. “Then what happened?”
Kruger drank again and capped the flask. “The mission wasn’t yours originally. It was assigned to three new agents fresh out of the Farm.”
“I don’t understand.” Specter’s voice had lost some of its steadiness.
“You had a reputation by then,” Kruger said. “Ruthless. Efficient. The operative who never missed. Dresner wanted to use you as…” He searched for the word. “…quality control.”
“Quality control,” I said. The euphemism turned my stomach.
“The three newbies were sent to St. Elisabeth’s to test their loyalty,” Kruger said. “Under your supervision, they were to go in and… clean the place.”
Kill everyone. The children, the staff. All of them.
“Why target an orphanage?” I kept my voice level.
“Dresner believes in breaking points,” Kruger said. “If you can make someone kill a child, you can make them do anything. Also, he’s a sadist.”
Specter’s hands balled at his sides. “So I was there to make sure they followed through.”
“Yes. And to report or eliminate anyone who hesitated.” Kruger sagged back. “But I’d reached my limit. I couldn’t watch more innocents die. Especially kids.”
“And you grew a conscience then?” Specter asked. “After how many missions?”
“Too many.” Kruger stared at the table. “I decided I’d go with you that night. My plan was to kill the agents, including you, before they reached the children. Then I’d finish it.”
“But that’s not what happened,” I said.
“No.” He shook his head. “It moved too fast. Before I could act, the newbies made their move.”
“Their move?”
“They entered from different points.” His voice flattened, a report now. “Before they could touch the children, you intervened. You started fighting them.”
Specter went very still.
“You broke protocol,” Kruger said. “You attacked another Oblivion operative. That shouldn’t have been possible.”
“But it was.”
“They were good,” Kruger said. “While one engaged you, I went for the second, but the third went on a rampage. Through the screams and blood, you killed the first. I took down the second. Together, we eliminated the third.”
“But it was too late for the kids,” Specter said, hollow.
“Yes.”
Silence pressed in. Light cut his profile into sharp planes. His hands trembled, barely.
“I didn’t kill them,” he said at last, so quiet it almost wasn’t sound. “I tried to stop it.”
He let out a breath. Relief dropped through him like weight falling away.
Training aside, I knew what Oblivion required. Kill innocents to prove the programming held. No exceptions.
Without thinking, I reached for him. My fingers slid over his. His skin was cool, rough with calluses. He stiffened but didn’t pull away.
“That mission changed everything,” Kruger said. “You shouldn’t have been able to disobey. But you did. First crack.”
“Why didn’t you report it?” I asked.
“Because I saw something I’d never seen,” Kruger said. “Hope. If Dresner’s perfect weapon could break programming to save children, maybe there was more humanity left in all of you than we had believed.”
His words hung in the stale air. Hope. Fragile and dangerous. I looked at my hand over Specter’s, felt the contained force under his skin.
“So where do we go from here?” I asked. “You’ve been in hiding. Now we’re all running from the same people.”
Kruger leaned in, elbows on the table. “My channels inside Oblivion are limited, but I still have a few contacts. That’s how I knew Blackout was deployed to Prague.” He glanced at Specter. “Your timing is my only chance to live.”
“How convenient.” Specter kept his tone flat.
“I need protection,” Kruger said bluntly. “Help me reach the Croatian border. The mountains. I have connections there.”
“And in exchange?”
“Everything I know about the Farm and Oblivion. Locations of secure servers with agent files.” He looked between us. “Though without an army, you’ll never reach them.”
“Why is Dresner hunting us specifically?” I asked. “Why send Blackout instead of a standard team?”
“Specter’s refusal at St. Elisabeth’s created what Dresner calls ‘model contamination.’ The idea that programming can be broken—and the fact that you helped another asset and are trying to spread Oblivion intel”—he tapped the table once—“it terrifies him.”
“And me?”
“You’ve shown you can help break conditioning without destroying the subject,” he said. “He’s the weapon. You’re the key that unlocks him.”
My throat went dry. I wasn’t collateral. I was a prize.
“Blackout’s mission is to kill Specter and bring you in,” Kruger said.
Specter’s hand closed around mine, strong enough to hurt. “He won’t have her,” he said, voice going quiet and sharp. “I won’t let him.”
The force behind it hit me low and fast. Not a shiver. More like a brace I hadn’t realized I’d needed.
“If I help you cross the border,” Specter said to Kruger, “you give us everything. Names, locations, access points, handler protocols. Everything on Dresner.”
Kruger’s shoulders eased. “Agreed.”
“Why turn now?” I asked. “After all these years.”
“Self-preservation, mostly,” Kruger said. “And maybe a late attempt to even the scales.”
“Handlers know more than Dresner thinks, don’t they?” Specter asked.
“Yes.” Kruger nodded. “We had to. Working with conditioned operatives meant understanding the programming better than the subjects. Some of us kept our own records. Insurance. Let me show you an example—”
Glass snapped. A brutal crack. Kruger jerked. A fine red spray hung in the air. He folded to the floor, a neat hole in his forehead, eyes still open on the thought he hadn’t finished.
Dead before he hit the ground.