Family

Chapter 19

“You?” I asked, and my mouth dropped open. “How…why?”

“You read my note?” He raised an eyebrow at me. “Your father would have wanted you to have it.”

“You…you knew my father?” I stared at him hungrily. “You knew him?”

“I did,” Reed said. “Before he died. He was the one who was responsible for me joining Alpha. He had been with them for years and years.”

“I need a name,” Ariadne said, sitting back down in her chair and sliding to the hutch behind her, where her computer waited.

Reed hesitated. “Jonathan. Jonathan James Traeger.”

She blinked at him for a moment and then turned back to her computer, typing. “Jonathan James Traeger…hmmm…” She squinted and stared at the screen. “He was a handler for the Agency before it was destroyed.” She looked up at me. “I would presume that’s where he met your mother.” She looked to Reed, who nodded. “Previous affiliations…hm…looks like he died in the attack that destroyed the Agency.” She looked at Reed. “That doesn’t really jibe with him working with Alpha.”

“Actually, it does,” Reed said. “He was working for Alpha the entire time, keeping an eye on the Agency. They were concerned the Agency was overstepping its bounds, suppressing metas’ rights – which is something that tends to happen when a government becomes aware of metahuman existence and starts to view them as a threat.”

“Were they?” I asked, genuinely curious. “Was the Agency killing them, on government orders?”

Reed shrugged. “Not really. I mean, they certainly made a few really bad ones disappear into a deep dark hole never to return – not unlike you guys – but I’ve read his…uh…Jon’s reports, and they seem to point to an Agency with an almost pathological desire to avoid that sort of anti-meta trap that other governments have fallen into over the years. He thought it was because the Agency’s upper management wanted to stay on the right side of it, that it wasn’t an accident and that they tried to keep a good reputation among metas.”

Ariadne looked at us, her smoky eyes making it hard to discern what she was thinking. “We’ve tried to do much the same. For metas that are awakened, that are aware of the world and whose parents have told them, there’s a tight-knit underground community. Ruin your reputation and a lot of doors slam shut in your face; burning bridges like that can be a quick way to ensure you have to work five times as hard to get half as much done.” She blinked. “At least that’s the way the Director has always explained it.”

“Whatever the reason,” Reed went on, “Jon kept working with the Agency after his assignment for Alpha was completed.” He turned to me. “It was because he met your mother.”

I stared back at him, trying to process everything. A question popped to mind. “You said he’s the reason you got into Alpha.” Reed suddenly looked deeply uncomfortable. “How old are you?”

He seemed to let out a slight sigh of relief. “Twenty-five.”

I frowned. “But then, when the Agency was destroyed, you would have been like seven—”

A beeping cut us off, the sound of Ariadne’s cell phone going off. She blinked at it then picked it up and held it to her ear. “Yes?” Her eyes widened. “What?” She rolled in her chair backward to the window and looked out. “Son of a…all right.” She pulled the phone from her ear and spun around to me. “Your mom is already here, waiting on the lawn with Kat.”

“That was fast,” Reed said. “She was on campus already when she called?”

“Or close nearby,” Ariadne agreed. She looked to me. “You ready to go with her?”

My jaw tightened. “Not really. But I’m not all that excited to spend the rest of my life in a holding cell, either.”

Ariadne looked down. “Fair point.” She stood. “Let’s get this over with.”

“So that’s it?” I asked as she made her way around the desk. She halted a couple feet from me and stared back as I spoke. “So long and best of luck?”

“This is not the end,” Ariadne said. “But honestly, what do you want me to do? She’s got one of our metas as a hostage, you’re her daughter, and she’s proposing a trade. Either you want to go with her or you don’t. Either way, I need Kat back.”

“And if I stay, what guarantee do I have that I don’t get stuck back in the loneliest room in the house?” I set my jaw and readied for an argument of some sort.

“None,” Ariadne answered. “Your fate with us hinges on whether we can find our traitor. Right now the evidence – however weak – points at you. Sorry.” She shrugged. “You can either take your mother’s opportunity and walk free, or stay and let us try to resolve this situation. Your choice.”

“My choices suck,” I said. “I’ve worked for you for six months and you haven’t given me so much as the benefit of the doubt.”

“Oh, but I have,” she said. “More than once, in fact. I’m just keeping you out of a position to compromise our ongoing efforts. I don’t think you’re the traitor, but I’m double dumb if I’m wrong and I keep giving you the rope to hang us with.” She folded her arms. “If you want to leave with your mom, do it. I wouldn’t blame you. But don’t ask me to stand back and not do everything I can, take every reasonable precaution I can to tamp down all the security threats we have hanging out there.” Her mouth became a grim line. “So go, if you want. Stay, if you want. But know where you’ll be if you do stay, because you’ll be there until I can fix this situation.”

I swallowed hard. “And what if you can’t ever find the leak? The traitor?”

Her eyes hardened. “Then it’s still in the hands of the Director what would be done with you. But don’t imagine he’s much more lenient than I am. Assume he’d be worse, as you make your decision.”

I stared back at her, in the depths of her eyes, saw the feeling there beneath the gray, colorless exterior. “Are you telling me to go?”

She seemed to soften, her face falling. “Yes. Don’t make me lock you up again. Just go. Get out of here. I’ll find you once we find the traitor, and you can come back if you want. There’s no point to you being confined here. Take your mother’s out and get clear.” She pressed the watch back into my hands, the edges pressing against my gloves.

I looked at her, then at the watch, and my face dissolved. “I don’t have anywhere else to go.”

With greatest reluctance, she took a step forward and I felt her arm around my shoulder, and she gave me a squeeze, careful not to touch me with her skin. “It doesn’t matter. Just go. This is going very, very badly. We’re losing this war with Omega, and it’s not even close to the worst it can be. Your mother has been dodging Omega for years.”

I pulled back from her, and felt the moisture in my eyes. “Okay.”

She nodded at me, and I felt her hand on my back as I turned to look at Reed, who stared at me, impassive. “You know you always have another place to go.”

“I might have to take you up on that,” I said. “But…I guess we have something else to resolve first.”

He raised an eyebrow at me. “You want me to come along?”

“Sure,” I said, and led the way out the door, Reed and Ariadne a couple steps behind me. “Let’s go see my mom.”