by Nana Malone
But Lyra had gone to private schools most of her life and traveled around the world with her parents. Interesting spots like Prague, Thailand, and Russia. All hot spots in our line of work. Were those trips actually missions?
Don't get distracted. Focus on what you need. Lyra is depending on you.
I found all the basics. Her parents died when she was eighteen, and then Lyra was approached to join The Firm at nineteen. I went back to her parents again and typed in their names. Her mother's name got flagged first.
Helen Adamson, maiden name, Darfoor.
She'd been born in Ghana, but then raised in the States in the DC area. She'd gone to Boston College where she'd met John Adamson and they had fallen in love.
It was all a great story.
But, when I tried to research Boston College for records of Helen Adamson, I came up empty.
A quick search told me that she'd worked at a company called HD Accra Fashions and further digging led me to BH. That was the Boston location of the Firm. As for her husband… John Adamson didn't work for Blakely Tech. Blakely Tech didn't exist. He, in fact, also worked for The Firm.
Holy cow, both of her parents were Firm agents, after all. And Lyra had no idea about any of it.
“Did you find anything?”
“Yeah. I found a lot, actually. Both of her parents were Firm agents just like Tyler’s flash drive indicated. Code names, Renegade and Rogue. One daughter. Lyra. When she was sixteen, they were asked to put her on track for Firm training, and they declined. They didn’t want her to be an agent.” I knew Exodus's history indicated that was one of the key points our founders had disagreed upon. Aiden Saint-James had wanted to recruit agents at a very young age. Orion McClintock prefer to use ex-military.
“So she got her badassery from them.”
“Yeah, she certainly did.”
“Mate?”
I glanced up at him. “I know. We’re out of time.”
I downloaded everything that I could, making sure to back myself out and log both Roz and Addie out of the system.
“Do you have what we need on Tyler?”
He nodded. “I got it.”
“Let's go.”
We eased out of the records room, taking our time and whistling like regular cleaning staff. There was one agent still at a desk that we passed. He nodded his thanks and then frowned for a moment. “Are you guys new?”
Rhodes gave him one of his killer smiles. “Yup. Angus and Rey were absent, so we got called in.”
He laughed. “Ah yes, Angus said they were trying to have a baby, so I guess that's how sick they are.”
I was relieved that it was standard protocol for us to do full research on anyone we'd be replacing, because that could have gone poorly.
When we found Addie, she was waiting for us at the front door. “You got everything you need?”
We nodded and she held up a folder. “Me too. The good news is, I know where Lyra is. The bad news is, it's going to be a bitch to get her out.”
“Good thing we have the entire Exodus team ready to go.”
Her brows shot up. “Lyra is not Exodus.”
“No.” I shook my head. “She's not. But Exodus isn't interested in her. They're gunning for Roz because the people she's working with are some of the biggest terrorists that we've been after for years. Make no mistake, Exodus is helping us, but they're not entirely altruistic.”
Addie shook her head. “I don't even care at this point. I just want my best friend back.”
“Me too. Me too.”
Chapter 18
Lyra
My mother used to have a saying that everybody knows which one of their friends is most likely to be a homicidal maniac.
Roz was that friend, and I couldn't believe that I hadn't seen it before. For the last six years, she'd been the person that I went to for everything. She was not my mother, but she was certainly the closest thing I’d had to one after my mom’s death. Or so I’d thought.
As she walked me around her little house of horrors, she showed off proudly, and I couldn't help but think back to every single lecture I'd ever gotten from her about how we couldn't just kill people and how everyone has a purpose. I'd seen no less than three of the men I'd worked for years to put away, people that had always just slipped out of our fingers, who were at her facility and working for her. The horror in realizing that she'd been helping them for her own reasons, for her own cause, made me sick. But more importantly, the fact that I'd been so naive that I'd blindly followed her. What she was doing now made all the years I spent with The Firm seem like a lie. She’d made a mockery of my whole life, because if I left, what job could I have now?
You'd be free.
Sure, I could go do something else. Join a real government agency, because the truth of it was, all I knew about The Firm was what she'd told me. What if I'd been working for the bad guys all along like Marcus had suggested? Was he even alive? Was Addie? My twisted pool of feelings about them was not going to get me out of there.
You need to focus. You need to think.
One of Roz’s little minions had put me in what they called the guest room. Well lit, furnished decently, though minimally. And there was a couple of bright pops of color in potted orchids. Roz had always loved orchids. But there were no windows. And having already tried the door, I knew that wasn't a viable way out. The only way I was getting out of there was when Roz was damn well good and ready to let me out.
I had become her prisoner again. She hadn't quite enjoyed my response to her little weapons demonstration. So there was that.
I needed to find a way out. I tried to turn on the GPS signal in my boots, but I knew we were underground, so having no signal wasn’t a surprise.
Think it through, Lyra. The only way she's going to let you out to roam around is if you say you agree with her and that you don't give a hoot about human life. That's how you're going to save yourself.
I was still reeling from the things she'd said about my parents. She'd known them. Was she the reason they were gone? That idea scared me. She'd known my parents, knew who they really were, but she’d barely shared anything about them. And every time she did, only bits and pieces of information were mentioned. It almost seemed like she was keeping something very significant from coming out.
I'd been completely lost after they died, only to find out that I walked right into the life that they'd chosen. Had they wanted this for me? Had that been their plan all along? All I had to go on was Roz’s word.
When the door opened, I glanced up from the bed. I smiled up at the woman that came in with a tray of food. “Hi, I'm Lyra.”
She gave me a nod.
“Um, what's your name?”
“Natasha.”
Her voice was soft, with a drowsy tone that made me want to immediately relax, even though I knew better. “Nice to meet you, Natasha. Listen, is it possible that I can see Roz?”
She shook her head. “No, there's a meeting. When she's finished though, I'll send her in to you.”
“Do you mind sitting with me? This is all really new, and it's taking me some time to adjust. I just don't want to be by myself.”
She studied me. “You're the one.”
My brow furrowed. “The one what?”
Her smile was soft. “The daughter Roz speaks of.”
If that was supposed to reassure me, it certainly did not. “Oh, I'm not her actual daughter.”
She frowned. “She said that you were.”
“Uh, maybe I’m like a daughter to her. But I'm not adopted or anything.”
She gave me a shy smile. “I had wondered.”
It was then that I recognized her accent. Estonian maybe? “How did Roz find you?”
“Clive Moran is my father.”
Over the years, I'd been working on perfecting my poker face. Thank God. Because she’d unknowingly dropped a bomb on me. This was Clive Moran’s daughter? Forced into work in this underground bunker for Roz?
Moran was the head of Signat. They’d been active for nearly thirty years. Jesus, had Roz always been bad?
“Are you and your father close?”
She shook her head. “No. But he and my mother were having a custody fight. He took me and brought me here. He and Roz are, I don't know, together?”
“Natasha, do you want to be here?”
She studied me. It was a battle of wills between us because neither one of us could trust the other. After all, we could both report each other to Roz, and then where would we end up?
“I wish I saw sunlight. Don't say I said that.”
And then I took a leap of faith. “And your mother?”
A quick shuttering of her eyes told me what I needed to know. She didn't want to be there. She was not there by choice. She was there for survival.
“Look, if you just let me out, I can try and get us out of here.”
“You don't know my father. He won't allow it.”
“Maybe, but we have to try, right? You have to realize you're not leaving here if you don’t take action.”
“Roz wanted you here. Once she realized she couldn't kill you, she said it was more important to have you here instead of out there poking around her business.”
“Right, because my mentor has been trying to kill me.”
She winced. “I am sorry. That is probably horrible to hear.”
“No. The truth is the truth. It can't hurt you, right?”
She nodded. “Yes. I'm still sorry though.”
“It's fine. And your father essentially imprisoned you here, so that's equally terrible.”
“Yes, it is.”
“So what are we going to do about it?”
“You think you alone can break us out of here?” she scoffed. “We're underground. Do you know how long she's been building this place?”
“No, why don't you tell me?” I eyed the food on the plate. “Is that poisoned?”
“Don't drink the cola. That has been drugged. The water is clean.”
I blinked at her honesty. “Thank you.”
“You're the first person I can actually talk to in here. Everyone else believes in Roz’s cause and my father's.”
I hated to ask but knew I had to. “Roz’s husband, Adam, where is he?”
Natasha frowned then. “What does he look like?”
I furrowed my brow trying to think how to describe him. “About five-ten, has a paunch, salt and pepper hair, kind eyes.”
Natasha winced. “Oh, he died a month ago. What she did to him, it wasn't in kindness.”
“Right. Okay, let's get out of here.”
“How?”
“I don't know how yet,” I said, “but at least get me out of this room so that I can have a look around the facility. Scope it out, case it, find the chinks in the system.”
“You're going to have to learn to lie better.”
I nodded. “Yeah. The throwing up thing certainly did not help.”
“She doesn't trust you, you know. Which is why she's drugging you.”
“Right. Thank you for the warning.”
She nodded. “It's the least I can do. But I'm not a soldier.”
“No, you're not. But not everyone needs to be. And I have friends. Can you get access to a phone?”
She shook her head. “The only access to the outside world is hard wired. You can tap in and use the internet if you want but only some sites, and they're all monitored.”
I sighed. “How many stories down are we?”
“Six.”
“Is there an elevator? Stairs?”
“There are stairs and an elevator. They're all guarded though.”
“Right.” I touched her arm, attempting to show her my concern. “Listen Natasha, I appreciate your help. And don't you worry. I'm going to get you out of here. I promise.”
“How are you going to do that?”
“I don't know yet, but just know that as devious as Roz is, she trained me. I will find a way to get you out of here.”
* * *
Lyra
The next morning, or at least I thought it was morning, there was someone at my door again, and I sat up, hoping for another opportunity to get out, look around, escape.
It was Natasha again. And as much as I wanted to get out, I wanted to make sure I protected her too. She was just as much a victim as I was. “You're back.”
“Yeah, um, I wanted to see how you were. I was going to bring you more food, but Ivan beat me to it. He's mostly fine. Sort of harmless, really. But don't drink whatever he put in front of you. The coffee will smell good, but it will knock you out again.”
“Thanks.”
“You still have your bottle of water under the bed?”
I nodded. “I've been filling it with the tap water from the sink.”
“Okay, good.” She went to back away, and I stopped her.
“Wait. I need to figure a way to get out of here.”
She looked down the hall. “I might be able to say I'm taking you to the gym for a workout?”
“Anything. I will be quick.”
“All right. Come along.”
“Thank you,” I said, grateful to be making some progress with the frightened girl.
“Has Roz been here to see you?”
I shook my head. “No, but at this point, I didn't really expect her to come. She knows me well enough to know that I was disgusted and horrified by what she was doing and who she was working with. She hasn’t been buying my little charade. Matter of fact, she may even be playing me. Where's the gym?”
“This way.” And then she leaned in and whispered, her lips barely moving, perhaps to keep the cameras from catching her. “Around it is an elevator. You can try and use it to get outside, but do so at your own peril.”
“Noted.”
She hadn't been kidding about the gym. When I peered in the glass windows, everything I saw was state-of-the-art equipment, everything brand new and shiny. How long had Roz been planning this? All those times she and Adam had traveled, but this wasn't a just-now thing. This was a situation she’d carefully thought about for years. She wouldn't have been able to scam enough from missions, steal enough from assets, or siphon enough from Adam to fund all of this. Someone had paid her well. I needed to find out who.
“Thank you for this.” I said.
She shrugged. “Sure thing.”
“You're going to be okay, right?”
“Sure, I'm perfectly fine.”
Knowing that was usually code for, ‘hell no, I’m not fine at all,’ I said, “You can come with me.”
“I'm pretty sure if I go anywhere, my father will have my mother killed. That's if she's even still alive.”
“So what, you'll just stay down here like a prisoner?”
She hung her head. “Maybe. I just know I’m not ready.”
“That's no way to live.”
“No one can protect her, not from him.”
I sighed, because she might be right. The kind of people Roz was in bed with meant any tussling with them was going to get people dead.
Suddenly the lights flickered, and Natasha froze.
I asked her, “What is that? Why do you look like that?”
“The silent alarm has been tripped. Someone's here.”
“What does that mean? Tell me what's happening.”
“I don't know. But we’ve got to get you back to your cell,” she said with obvious fright in her voice.
“Oh, no. No. I'm not going back to the cell. You might as well tell me what's happening.”
“I don't know. But if you go back to your cell, I can find out and let you know.”
I shook my head. “If I go back in that cell, I might never come back out again.”
“I've only ever seen this happen once when someone tried to escape.”
“So escape is possible?”
She frowned at me then. “No one has ever done it successfully.”
“Oh, God. Way to give me a false sense
of optimism.”
“Sorry.”
“Show me the elevator. I'll do it myself.”
“You'll be killed. You don't know where to go, and now that the silent alarm has been triggered, everyone is on red alert. Go back to your cell,” she demanded.
I shook my head. “Sorry, Natasha, I can't.”
“I will die when they discover I helped you.”
“Your father went so far as to bring you here, so he's not going to let anything happen to you.” I prayed I wasn't wrong.
“But he can punish me through my mother.”
Bile rose in my throat as I thought of that. I turned and glanced longingly at that corner corridor that would lead to my potential freedom. And there was a part of me that didn't want to listen. That didn't want her to be right. But I knew if I continued on this path, the girl would likely die. If not physically, then part of her heart would. All because I couldn't be patient. “Okay, fine, let's go back.”
Visibly relieved, she led me back down the hall toward my cell while guards and agents ran toward the direction we'd come from. When we rounded the next turn to get back to the room, there was a movement in one of the doorways that caught my attention. Blond bouncy curls. I frowned. Addie?
I ran ahead of Natasha then.
There was no way Addie was there. No. She didn't know about this. Did she tip Roz off?
Natasha caught me by the arm when I tried to run past my room. “Nope, in here. I'm sorry, but it's not safe right now.”
I ground my teeth. “No, there was a woman down the hall that I think I know.”
Addie. Had she come for me?
I wanted to keep arguing with her, but then I looked down. She had a gun in her palm. I frowned up at her. “Natasha?”
“I don’t want to use this, but you need to go back in.”
I put my hands up.
“I'm sorry. But if you try to escape right now, there will be nothing I can do to help you. And I can't let that happen.” She unlocked my room and then shoved me backward into it. “I'm sorry.”