Chapter 34 Roman
ROMAN
The auto shop is quiet when I pull into the garage. The lights are all off, and it’s as if no one’s here.
But I can sense Nolan’s heavy gaze through even the darkest shadows. It has a weight that bears down on your shoulders and makes you uncomfortable.
“General.”
“Lieutenant.” He strikes his lighter, and a small flame discloses his location against the far wall.
I let out a long sigh and walk over to him. He extends his pack of cigarettes. I take one and light it, standing beside him and staring out into the dark like he is.
“You’ve done good here, Syxx. I’m sending your squad back to home base after tomorrow,” he says flatly.
My body jolts at his words. “Nolan, you made me a promise.”
He chuckles and inhales deeply off his cigarette. “You made that girl a promise. Did you keep it?” My eyes widen. Nolan stares at me, something calculated in his gaze.
How would he know about my promise to Briar? I swallow thickly as my fingertips smooth over the phone in my pocket. They’ve been listening to everything. A breath escapes my lips because I feel stupid. Of course, they’ve been listening.
“That’s what I thought. It seems we aren’t so different, Syxx.
That’s why I like you so much. You get the job done, even if it means you discard the people who care about you the most.” His words are an axe to the throat.
Nolan flicks his cigarette to the cement and steps on it as he heads toward the office.
“Pack your shit, you won’t have time to do it tomorrow. ”
I don’t pack. I just sit in my empty room and stare at the flash drive. With everything going on with Callum, I don’t think anyone has said anything about it to Nolan. And maybe he’s forgotten as well, or assumes that it burned in the fire.
What’s in the locked file that’s so damn important that they brought Briar into town? I tap my knee anxiously before grabbing my laptop and booting it up.
I click on the locked file and enter words I think Arnold may have used as passwords. Nothing.
I drag my hand down my face and think. If there was information that was locked because of the Dark Forces, then what would I put as the password?
I close my eyes and picture Arnold and remember who he was as a person.
He was like most of the other high-ranked officers.
Cold. Disconnected. Someone who likely didn’t crave anything perhaps other than…
My eyes widen.
Freedom.
I punch in the word, and the file opens. I sit for a few seconds, just staring at the screen and the unlocked file. If the password is indicative of anything, it’s that whatever is in it could potentially give not only Arnold the freedom he sought, but perhaps all Dark Forces soldiers.
I click on the folder, and it opens. There are hundreds of documents and videos labeled with dates alone. I open the most recent one. The date is the same day that it was reported Arnold was terminated.
The video plays; it’s footage from the war room at the main base in California. My brows knit. How could he have access to this if he was here? Shock ripples through me. Arnold either hacked into the Dark Forces’ security cameras or he had a connection on the inside, likely the IT department.
Nolan and Captain Bridger are discussing the Bane Falls operation. They skirt over the Icarus Squad and focus mainly on Arnold and the underground he’s been infiltrating to get information on the locations of the dark cities.
“This has to be their entry point there,” Captain Bridger says slowly as he smooths his hand over a map. “It’s the only one Callum visits often aside from Seattle.”
Nolan nods thoughtfully. “And you’re sure Callum is the gatekeeper? We still have a few other candidate towns that have the potential of being the entry point too.”
I frown. It sounds like Nolan wants more than just the cities. Why does he care so much about the entry point? Who are they looking for? Callum’s boss? I didn’t consider it before, but of course, he’s reporting to someone just like we all are.
Captain Bridger slides a few documents to Nolan. I can’t make them out in the grainy footage.
“Right. Well, Arnold won’t last the night.
He’s been discovered by one of Sub-Rosa’s men, and satellite footage indicates that they’re on the move to his location.
So at least that ties up that loose end.
” Nolan’s tone is indifferent. I’m not surprised in the slightest that he’d let his elite soldiers die so easily when he’s harvesting more and more each year in the Under.
“And Icarus?” Bridger leans on his hand pressed against the map.
Nolan shifts in his chair, the first sign of discomfort I’ve seen from him. “I haven’t decided yet.”
The video cuts to black, and a sick feeling coils in my stomach.
I don’t trust Nolan to do good by us in any sense. I thought we were here to shut down the underworld, not tap into it and get our hands even dirtier than they already are. What is he really after in all of this?
A document next to the video has the same date on it. I click on it, and a one-page PDF comes up. My eyes skim through it with little interest before catching Chloe’s name. My jaw flexes, and a knot grows in my throat.
I read it.
My heart starts pumping faster, and I start sweating.
I read it a second time.
Then a third.
“What the fuck.” I stand abruptly, dropping my laptop to the ground and not blinking when it breaks and sends keys across the floor.
My hands are trembling, and my jaw works with horror.
“No.” I shake my head and fist my hands in my hair. “No!” I shout and fall to my knees, pounding my fist against the cement. “Not her. No. Not her. What have I done?”
I don’t stop when my hand starts to bleed, and I don’t fight the wall of emotions that crashes over me like a tidal wave.
Gale bursts through my door, followed by Taylor, Bensen, and John. The four of them have panicked expressions. They’ve never seen me like this before. Fuck, I’ve only seen myself like this one other time, and it was when I killed my friends in the Under Trials.
I force my head up and catch my reflection in the mirror on the wall. My hair is tousled, and blood is smeared over my jaw. I look fucking insane. Tears are in my eyes, and that’s the most shocking part of all.
I bite my lower lip as my tears fall…before I start laughing.
My men stand in the doorway, staring down at me in horror. They’ve never seem me like this before. Fuck, I’ve never seen me like this before.
“Lieutenant… What’s going on?” Bensen asks hesitantly.
Gale is the first to step closer and kneels beside me, setting his hand on my shoulder and furrowing his brow. “Roman,” he says softly. As a friend, not as my subordinate.
I look at him and then behind him at the others. General Nolan is standing with them now too.
I glide my tongue over my teeth and force myself to stand.
Gale follows my death glare and lets his eyes land on Nolan.
“Tell them,” I say with a lethal tone. Blood drips down my knuckles and peppers the ground with red dots.
Nolan takes me in, then looks down at the laptop on the ground with the flash drive in the port.
A weary smile moves across his lips. “Which part?”
Fire burns in my chest, and I feel like I’m going to be sick. “All of it.”
The general lights a cigarette and slowly takes a seat in the chair by my closet, completely unbothered. I’d dare even say he seems a little relieved. “Briar doesn’t have time for me to tell you all of it,” he says smoothly.
“What?” I whisper. It feels like a shot to the heart. “She’s—”
Nolan grins. “Alive.”
I stumble and brace myself against the wall as I take that in. The overwhelming sense of hope and hurt mix together until I can’t tell which is which. I rush to my bag and start getting my gear on.
John walks up to me and grabs the collar of my shirt to get my attention, but I keep moving. She needs me. If she’s alive, I have to save her. I have to.
“What? Fucking say something!” John snaps.
Gale grinds his jaw. “General, what does this have to do with Briar? She was only a civilian that happened to get caught up in this.” He sounds confused but suspicious.
“Briar. Chloe. We used to call her Lethe.” Nolan doesn’t sound the least bit upset.
Taylor takes a step forward and tilts his head. “What the fuck?”
I freeze, squeezing my vest tightly as I listen.
“Arnold has been in the Dark Forces for over twelve years. He doesn’t have a fucking niece. There is no Thornton Farms. No Thornton family that Briar was ever a part of. It’s all a hoax. She’s Project Lethe. Our forgetful little non-soldier soldier.”
John stares at him with a disgusted look. “What are you saying? She’s a girl from the city. She has a past and memories!” He has tears in his eyes now, too, because it’s a really fucked-up reality to believe in.
Nolan shakes his head. “No, she’s not. She only knows what we brainwashed her to know.
She’s never left Seattle until coming here.
She has no surviving family members.” My blood runs cold hearing him say basically what she’s told us.
He makes her sound like a robot. Like a tool.
“Did she ever tell you where she’s been in the last eight months since Callum attempted to terminate her?
She’s been in ‘hiding,’ hasn’t she? No? It’s because she doesn’t know.
We picked her up in the forest and put her under for surgery.
That little prick almost killed her. She’s been in our care this entire time.
Until Grahm reached out with the ploy of luring her in as an estate attorney. ”
Our silence is loud. Practically numbing.
Sutherland lured her here? Why?
“How can she not remember any of it? What did you do to her?” Bensen asks, sounding hurt.
“A little serum that we’ve been using for years now.
She’s the most susceptible person to it.
And look at how she’s blossomed.” Nolan looks at me.
I stare through him. “I knew you’d take a liking to her, Syxx.
She’s just as broken as you. You’re practically magnets for each other.
Shame that you didn’t keep your promise to her.
I was willing to let you keep her if you would disobey a direct order.
You know I like seeing how far you’ll go. ”
I force my head the other way and strap on my gear.
“Where are you going?” John asks with a raspy voice.
I don’t look at them. I just clutch my helmet tightly. “I’m going to go get my girl.”
Bensen and Taylor approach me and set their hands on my helmet.
“Me too,” Taylor says definitively.
“Squirt’s coming home,” Bensen adds.
Gale nods. “No member of the Icarus Squad left behind.”
My chest warms, and I look at them. I didn’t expect them to do this. For me, of all people. They know I wouldn’t do this for them…but maybe I would. I’m not the same man I was before.
We collectively look at John. He flexes his jaw and gives me a slight shake of his head with a pained grin. “Let’s go get her.”
General Nolan doesn’t say anything as we suit up.
He doesn’t try to stop us. That man’s mind is a sea of mystery.
I don’t know what he’s planning to do. I don’t know what he anticipates will happen.
But I have a sick feeling that this was one of the scenarios he thought of because he doesn’t seem a bit surprised.
Hold on, Briar.