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I’m almost ashamed that it has taken us this long on our end while the women handled it with such ease in less than a fraction of the time. I wonder, though, if Lyon realized what he was unleashing. If someone that young was given free rein now, what would the future look like?
She’d wasted no time; she just got right down to it, which leaves me with the question of her abilities. Lyon has been keeping her well hidden since he took over. Even in our briefings, her name never came up, though we knew there was a new program involving kids; that’s all we were told.
Dad was all for it since he, too, had worked with kids, myself included, in some capacity. But there was a limit to what he’d allow us to do or get involved in. From what I have seen the last few days, Lyon placed no such limitations on the kids in his squad, though Hank’s description of what was going on on that island was confusing. It sounds to me like the father and daughter were playing a cat-and-mouse game with each other.
I was all set to deal with Jack myself now that we had the information, but it seems the kid has a different idea, so I can only sit back and watch. I’d asked only one thing, and that was to not involve my wife any further. Not because I doubted her ability to do it, but because she’s now pregnant, so all bets are off.
I don’t care how strong she thinks she is; she’s not putting herself and our children in danger. Once the children are born, we’ll revisit the issue since she seems hellbent on sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong. Another testament to the way things have changed; Mom never got involved in anything to do with the organization and was kept pretty much in the dark for the past half-century.
None of my children have my abilities, something I was very thankful for in the past because I know the strain that can come with special powers as they were. I never wanted that hell for any of them. Now, my new fear is that one or more of the new babies might not be so lucky.
* * *
JACK
* * *
Something is very wrong.It’s been days since I heard anything from Jessica, and that’s not like her. We usually keep in touch at least once a day after she leaves to go back to the apartment. I’m afraid to get in touch with the boss to let him know of my fears because that could end very badly for me unless, of course, he had something to do with her sudden disappearance.
Then again, if he’d been the one to take her, I would’ve been forewarned. I knew he was getting a bit frustrated because things were taking as long as they had, but this was a big deal after all, one of the biggest jobs we’d been trusted with, which made it all the more annoying that we hadn’t gotten anywhere.
If I didn’t know better, I’d have sworn that Mark Wilson was always one step ahead of me. No matter what I set in motion, he never fell into my trap, and Jessica had even less luck because he tended to stay away from her at every turn. Even when we blindsided him, he always seemed to find a way out.
This was the first time we’d been on the job this long without any results, and though we knew it was going to be harder this time around, we thought for sure we would be done within six months. It’s true the pandemic had added more time than we’d expected, but things had let up there a while ago, and nothing had changed on our end.
Now, my partner was in the wind, and I had no clues. My fear of letting the boss know this before I knew anything more about her location or what was going on left me in a bind.
I find myself looking over my shoulder for the first time since coming here. What makes it worse is the fact that just days before she disappeared, she’d run into Trudy at the restaurant, and now I’m beginning to wonder if all those things were indeed a coincidence or if someone here had figured us out.
The not knowing is playing hell on my nerves, not to mention I can’t get to her apartment to check things out myself because there’s always someone lurking around the building for some reason or another. The little paved yard behind the building where the trash was kept that I used to use to get to her place without being seen has a new gate that’s always closed these days so there was no way in or out without going past the front desk
Things like that are making me paranoid that someone has been watching us. But since no one has approached me or said anything to me, and Mark does not seem to be onto me, I’m still left with questions. The not knowing is wreaking havoc with my life.
I’m caught between a rock and a hard place. I’ll have to report to the boss sooner or later, but I dread telling him about this new screwup after all the time we’ve wasted. On the other hand, if he were the one to take her, I would have no idea what that means for me.
She’d had a few mishaps in the last few weeks before disappearing, like the snake that appeared in her apartment. I was sure that it was someone’s pet that had gotten out somehow and ended up there, but now I’m not so sure.
But if all the things that occurred in her last weeks here were more than coincidence, who or what was doing these things, and where the hell did they take her? Or maybe she was dead. In which case, what the hell happened?
I still have to go to work to keep up appearances, and that’s about as uncomfortable as you can imagine. Mark has been the same as always, which only makes me more nervous for some reason. No one had asked me about Jessica’s disappearance because we’re not supposed to be that close, but there’s been talk around the office about her not showing and not calling.
As each day passes, speculation has been running high among the staff, and now, something even worse than not knowing has happened, and I don’t know what to think anymore.
That’s because five minutes ago, Wilson had claimed in my presence while speaking on the phone with HR that he’d heard from Jessica, and she was fine. She had a family emergency and had to go back home, so she won’t be back at the company.
None of that made sense, and that was the reason I was now looking over my shoulder every few seconds. I was beginning to feel hunted. I have to get out of here, but where can I go? I’ve been working for the boss for the better part of fifteen years. I have no doubt he would find me wherever I go. But I can’t stay here. Something is very wrong.
CHAPTER21
“Cierra, what’s going on? I didn’t expect to hear from you this soon.”
“Someone wants to talk to you.”
“Oh, okay.” The child that I had taken to calling Shirley Temple came on the line. Her greeting, as always, was respectful, and she’d taken to calling me Aunty Britt; I mean, seriously, could she be any more adorable?
“Let’s play a game.” I don’t know how I knew she wasn’t talking about ‘game’ in the normal sense or why my heart started racing.
“What game?”
