Page 96 of Close Protection
‘Are you talking about the formula?’
She cocks her head. ‘Yes. I am. What do you know about the toxin formula?’
‘I know that Daveeno wants it but they can’t find it.’
‘That, unfortunately, is correct.’
I shake my head, still confused by the mere fact my mother is alive, let alone the fact that she’s kidnapped me. ‘I don’t get it. Do you work for Daveeno?’
‘Daphne, I am Daveeno.’
My blood curdles and my heart drops.
‘What do you mean, you’re Daveeno?’ I bite out. I can feel the rage bubbling under my skin.
‘I mean, your great-grandfather founded the organization. And passed it down to me.’
My mind works overtime trying to connect the dots. ‘You were a double agent in MI6, weren’t you?’
She smirks. ‘Smart girl.’
‘You faked your own death,’ I continue slowly. ‘You faked your own death, so MI6 wouldn’t suspect you’re a double agent.’
‘Very clever.’ The fact that she looks genuinely impressed makes me want to jump off a cliff.
‘But why? Okay, so you were a double agent, but why bring Daddy into this? Why bring me in?’
‘Because my cover wouldn’t work otherwise. Before I inherited Daveeno, my grandfather explained to me the art of deception. In order to run the organization, I needed to prove myself; it wasn’t good enough that I was blood. So they sent me into MI6. My job was to retrieve as much information as possible, enlist as many people as I could into Daveeno and have them as sleepers in MI6. But in order to do that I had to appear unassuming. And that’s where George came in. We met my second year in, when there was a deadly toxin outbreak. George wasn’t an active member of MI6 but he was hired as an independentcontractor to help work on the antidote. He did such a good job that they kept him on. Because George wasn’t a member of MI6 he had to go through a lie detector test every time he went into work, so as long as he didn’t know my true identity, every time he took a lie detector test he would be inadvertently maintaining my cover, so I married him. And to keep up appearances, I fell pregnant with you.’
I laugh.
A dry, humourless laugh.
‘So that was all fake? All of those memories I have of us as a family, of me and you, you were just faking?’
‘No.’ She shrugs. ‘Even though I didn’t want to, I loved you, Daphne. I even grew relatively fond of your father. You made me feel human. You made me feel love.’ Her eyes soften, and it’s like she turns into a completely different person. The warmth I remember comes rushing back into her face; even her posture relaxes.
She looks familiar. She looks like my mother again.
‘I was almost immobilized by guilt when I thought about how my decision to fake my death would impact you. But I didn’t have a choice. I kept tabs on you over the years, watched you from afar at your competitions, and I even went to Switzerland for your graduation. And before I “drowned” –’ she makes air quotes – ‘I left youmy necklace. I didn’t realize at the time how much of a pain that would be later down the line, but I just wanted you to have something of mine.’
That does explain a lot. My mother never used to take her necklace off. Not in the pool, not in the shower, not even when it didn’t match her outfit. She wore it every single day, so I was fully convinced she’d drowned in it too.
‘If you’re looking for empathy, Mother, you’re not going to get it from me. As far as I am concerned, my mother drowned when I was nine years old and that’s the end of that.’
She has the audacity to look hurt.
Ha.
Hurt.
How ironic.
‘I mourned you,’ I spit. ‘I mourned you at nine years old and continued to do so for the next nine years, and all the while you were flouncing around living the life you actually wanted to. And you’re wrong. You didn’t have to fake your own death. Youalwayshave a choice.’
‘That’s the thing, though. I didn’t. It was either fake my own death or participate in my real one. Nine years ago, MI6 had a huge problem with double agents so they were trying to catch them out. Security checks were more frequent and rules were harsher. As a result of that, some ofthe Daveeno sleepers started getting nervous. Most were fine after a littlepep talkbut one was more difficult than the rest. He worked with your father and had got a little cagey with his findings. I didn’t have time to keep tabs on him so I invited him around for dinner as my men searched his house. They found a lot of incriminating evidence that could take Daveeno down for good and I couldn’t have that, so I killed him and framed him for my death, planting his DNA everywhere around the lake, suggesting he killed me. Which, in the eyes of MI6, placed him in Daveeno while I was just an innocent, loving mother and wife, who was tortured for information I simply didn’t possess.’
The nightmare.
