Chapter 15
Specter
The station buzzed with midday noise. I sorted it into useful and useless: two guards by the main doors, unarmed and bored.
A family of four with matching luggage, harmless.
A businessman checking the time, a bulge under his jacket, maybe a weapon, maybe bad tailoring.
Nothing urgent, but I kept my eyes moving.
Pain pressed under fresh bandages. Three cracked ribs, a deep cut across my left shoulder, enough bruises to make breathing a choice. I’d worked with worse. It was data. Manageable.
What wasn’t manageable was the hollow that opened every time Selina stepped out of sight. Like now, while she ordered at the café, back to the terminal.
I shifted and my side complained. Last night came back in pieces: the narrow compartment, the cramped beds, Selina’s steady hands cleaning my wounds. Professional at first. Not for long.
It sharpened: her body curved against mine, breath slow with sleep. I drew her closer despite the heat in my ribs. The car swayed. Her hair brushed my chin.
I stayed awake most of the night, listening to her, tracking the warmth where our skin met. Keeping watch, I told myself. But there was something else, a pull that pushed the pain to the edges, something I couldn’t name.
“You’re doing that thing again,” Selina said, setting a tray on the table. Coffee in paper cups. Pastries in wax paper.
“What thing?”
“Watching the room like you’re waiting for the world to end.” She sat across from me. Her knee touched mine under the table.
The contact tightened a wire inside me. Not the usual pullback. Something worse. I wanted to close the gap. I didn’t. She met my eyes anyway, a quiet acknowledgment of the night on the train.
“Force of habit,” I said, taking a cup. “Old training doesn’t quit.”
“So does the operative, apparently.” Her smile didn’t reach her eyes. “You scared me yesterday.”
“Sorry to disappoint Blackout.”
“That’s not what I meant.” Her fingers brushed mine as she passed a pastry. “I’m glad you’re alive.”
I bit into an apple and let the taste fill my mouth instead of answering. My attention drifted to her hands. The same hands that had stitched me with calm focus and later trembled against my skin for a different reason. They’d moved over my chest slowly at first, then surely.
“We need a next move,” she said. “Blackout will regroup. If not him, then Dresner and Oblivion.”
“The Farm,” I said. The word surfaced before I could stop it. “That’s where we need to go.”
“What’s the Farm?”
“I don’t know exactly. If I had to put it on a map, I’d bet the mountains in Croatia.” The words came out tight.
Her palm covered mine, warm and steady. “Then that’s where we find answers.”
I turned my hand and laced our fingers. That small connection felt more dangerous than a fight.
The burner rang, cutting through the station noise.
Selina slid closer, set the phone between us, and dropped the volume until it blended with the chatter. She answered, voice low. “Hello?”
“Thank God you answered.” Mattie’s voice tumbled out, relief obvious. “Are you both okay? Tell me you’re still in one piece. Well, two pieces, but—you get me.”
“We’re fine.” Selina sent me a quick smile. Her shoulder pressed mine as we leaned in. “Both still breathing.”
“And you?” I asked.
“Nothing we couldn’t handle,” Damon said in the background, voice deeper. “Your operative training coming back to you, Specter?”
The way he said operative scratched at me. A reminder of what I was.
“Just being thorough,” I said.
“We’re at a train station.” Selina leaned in, her fingers brushing mine under the table for a second. “Heading somewhere quieter.”
“How bad are your injuries?” Mattie asked, already in doctor mode.
Selina glanced at my bandages.
“Nothing fatal,” I said before she could answer.
“That’s not reassuring,” Mattie said. “Selina?”
“Three cracked ribs, shoulder laceration, contusions,” Selina told her. “I’ve been cleaning and changing dressings. No infection so far.”
“Good work, Doctor,” Mattie said. “Watch his ribs. If his breathing worsens—”
“I’m right here,” I cut in. “I can monitor my own injuries.”
Selina gave me a look. “Ignore him. He’s extra grumpy since Blackout tried to crush his chest.”
“Can we focus?” Damon said, businesslike. “We’ve got intel.”
The café noise thinned in my head. I straightened. “Go.”
“SENTINEL flagged unusual movement at three known Oblivion sites across Eastern Europe in the last twelve hours,” Damon said. “Sat images show convoys. Equipment being moved.”
“Dresner’s rattled,” I said, my hand inching toward Selina’s without thinking. I stopped halfway and pulled back.
“Exactly,” Damon said. “Something has him shifting assets.”
“What kind of equipment?” I asked.
“Hard to tell from above,” he said. “Big cargo trucks. Heavier security. Priority clearance through checkpoints.”
“Files,” I said. “Hard copies. Drives. Anything they can’t move over a network.”
“Could be,” Damon said.
Selina let her fingers skim my forearm, grounding me. “What about Croatia?” I asked. “Any movement in the mountains?”
He paused. “How did you know?”
“Lucky guess.”
“Yes,” he said. “Heavy activity. Multiple transports. They’re evacuating a facility.”
My muscles tightened. The Farm. The place from the nightmares. Where they broke me down and built something else.
“What’s the movement pattern?” I asked. “Destination?”
“The convoy’s splitting,” Damon said. “Half toward a storage site in Zagreb’s eastern district, half toward an industrial area on the outskirts. It looked rushed. Security lighter than usual. It’s a holding pattern, not storage.”
“Which means they’ll move it again soon,” I said.
“Right. This is a pass-through.”
“We put eyes on both,” I said. “Especially the factory district.”
“Already in motion,” he said. “I’m pulling a small team.”
“How fast can they be operational?” I asked. The concession surprised me.
Silence for a beat.
“Forty-eight hours,” he said. “Thirty-six if we cut corners.”
“We’ll go ahead to Zagreb,” I said. “Set surveillance. Gather intel. No engagement. Your team meets us there.”
“I don’t like it,” Damon said.
“You don’t have to,” I said. “Every hour we wait, more disappear.”
“Damon,” Mattie said, softer. “They’re right. By the time you get there, it could be gone.”
Another pause. I could hear him weighing it.
“Fine,” he said. “Observation only. I’ll send secure meeting protocols when we’re en route.”
“Agreed,” I said. Selina’s shoulders eased.
“Selina,” Mattie said. “Take care of each other, okay? Call us the minute you reach the city.”
Selina nodded. “We will.”
“Damon,” I added, “have your team bring medical supplies.”
“Already on the list,” he said, tone a shade warmer. “Stay alive till we get there.”
The line went dead.
I pocketed the phone and watched the crowd again. Oblivion was moving, either shoring up or cutting loose. We’d hit something they didn’t want exposed. Good.
“Zagreb it is,” Selina said. Her voice was even. Her eyes were already assembling the plan. I recognized it now.
I waited for a group of tourists to pass before leaning in. “You’re staying somewhere safe while I go to Zagreb.” It came out like an order.
Her expression shifted, jaw set, eyes steady. I recognized the same stubborn set from last night when I had tried to be careful with her bruises, but she had made it clear she wanted more.
“We’re not doing this again.” She leaned in until we were inches apart, voice low.
“I didn’t sleep with you just to watch you walk into a suicide run alone.
I don’t carry a gun, but I know the mind.
What if you black out again? What if someone who knows your trigger words, Kruger’s words, finds you first? ”
The bluntness hit hard. Hearing her say it here, plain as facts on a chart, shut me up for a second. I’d replayed the night, her skin, the way she had said my name. Hearing her name it like that knocked me off balance.
“Blackout almost took you,” I said finally, keeping my voice low. My hand slid across the table, stopping just short of hers. “If he had… if Dresner got hold of you…” I couldn’t finish.
She closed the gap and threaded her fingers through mine. “I know what I signed up for,” she said. Her palm was warm against my rough knuckles. “And you need me there. Not just for the files. For this.” She squeezed once. Something inside my chest drew tight.
I studied our hands. Hers small, careful. Mine used for damage. Her touch had stitched me back together, moved over my scars with care. Mine had done the opposite to too many people.
I ran my thumb along her knuckles while I weighed it. The ease of it felt right. I saw her again under me, the way she had said my name like it meant something, even if it might not be mine.
“Kruger knew my trigger words,” I said. “He knew who I was before all this.” I met her eyes. “What if those files say I was someone you couldn’t…” The rest stuck.
What if Specter was the improvement from the man I was before?
“Couldn’t what?” Selina asked. When I didn’t answer, she moved closer. “I’ve seen you at your worst, remember? I watched your conditioning take over. I felt your hands on my throat. And I’m still here.”
A businessman passed close by. I shifted, putting myself between him and Selina. Pain lit my ribs. I kept my face blank.
An announcement rolled through the station. We were wasting time.
“Zagreb,” I said. “We go together. You follow my lead exactly. No arguments. No heroics.” I tightened my grip on her hand, too possessive, too protective, but true. “I need you alive, Selina.”
Her expression softened. “Then we should move.”
I rose with her. We held on a second longer before I let go. As we gathered our things, my fingers skimmed the small of her back.
We headed for the ticket counter. I took a step behind her, close enough to read as a couple. As we walked, one thing settled in my mind. Whatever I was before, I’d keep her safe now, even if it meant walking straight into every ghost waiting for me.