The Espionage Effect(97)
Escobar’s frozen horrified expression as he fell to his death replayed in my mind.
A heartbeat later, satisfaction thrummed through my veins, and I took a deep breath.
The world shone a little brighter suddenly. The only colors in view were black and the digital reds and greens illuminated on the instrument panel and the shocking white and vivid blue visible from our altitude. But in unexpected consequence, the beauty that existed in the rest of the world down below interested me.
As my mind relaxed further, a hazy memory floated in:
Alec pulled me tight to his chest.
High-pitched shouts pierced my ears: Anna. “Devin! Oh my God. Are you all right?”
The world spun, dizzying. I burrowed deeper into Alec’s strong hold.
“She’ll be fine.” His deep tone reverberated through me.
“But…all the blood.” Terror laced Anna’s voice. “She was shot!”
“Gave her a syringe full of Field Cocktail III. She’ll live.”
I straightened a little and turned my head, squinting as I zeroed in on the sound of her voice. “Anna?”
“Devin, listen to me.” Her cold hand skated over my forehead, then cupped my cheek. “I didn’t…couldn’t say anything. EtherSphere, the mission, it was for you. But everything else?” She focused her intense emerald-green eyes on me. “The fun and laughter? That was us. Remember the laughter. Remember us. I’m still your best friend—if you want me to be.”
Reality jarred back in and I narrowed my eyes, pushing aside the drug-induced fragment. Then I turned toward Alec. “Did Anna manipulate me?”
Instant tension hung heavy in the air between us. I sensed so much more lay unspoken.
“Yes.”
Satisfied with his answer, I gave a sharp nod. “Good. No lies.”
“I’ve never lied to you.”
Uh-huh. “Just not offered the complete truth: the story behind the story.” Even though I’d fallen prey to deception, I’d mastered the art of lying through distraction and distortion. Too bad the best liars made the worst detectors.
He finally glanced my way. “Wasn’t within my authority to offer it.”
“And now?”
“Anything you want to know.”
“Because you’ve suddenly been authorized?”
He flicked up a switch. A green autopilot light glowed on. Then he unharnessed himself and bent his leg on his sheepskin-covered seat, fully facing me.
He stared at me for a few beats, dark eyes full of compassion, the features of his face drawn tight. “I’m here now because I choose to be, not because a mission mandates it.”
The sadness of that gradually sunk in. “But before? When you…” Brought me to life, jump-started my heart—made me love again. The meaning behind my emotions bottlenecked into a choking cramp at the base of my throat.
“Everything between us was real, Devin.” His hand slipped over my forearm, down to my hand until he threaded his fingers through mine and squeezed gently. “It is real.”
Too much. The lies, the levels of deception, were all too much to process so soon.
Panic welled in my chest, and I jerked my hand away. With trembling fingers, I depressed the metal buckle securing my harness until it clicked and released the straps. I bolted up in my seat so fast, I knocked his upper body back against the buttercream-leather surface of the bulkhead.
His expression hardened as he pushed upright into his seat again.
“I don’t know what’s real,” I hissed, my breath coming in short bursts as I began to hyperventilate.
Action. I needed to do something. Get out of my head that whirled with all the wrongdoings of my parents, of Anna…of what he’d done, no matter how he spun it now.
I climbed over the center console, then rushed into the lavishly appointed cabin, searching frantically for something, needing to push through the out-of-control state I found myself freefalling in.
“Whose plane is this?” I jerked open a large cabinet door at the back of the cabin. Parachutes were stacked. A medical kit and tool kit were neatly positioned in their own nooks.
“EtherSphere’s.”
My gaze landed on familiar black cases scattered haphazardly on random leather seats, in the carpeted aisle. “Those our weapons?”
The “our” slid off my tongue, smooth and easy. Because I considered myself an agent now? That had to be the reason.
“Yeah,” he replied. “Anna and an EtherSphere field-response team helped me load them, got us to the airport.”
Anna. The mention of her name pulsed anger hot inside my gut. I had no idea why it riled with greater fury than Alec’s in-my-face presence did now. Betrayal was a funny thing. So was compartmentalizing. Survival instinct brought forth only the necessary, without obvious reason.
“Can you hotwire the plane?” Logic pinged strong into the forefront of my mind, and I clung to its familiar security like a life preserver.
When he didn’t respond, I turned toward him. He stared at me, blinked, then narrowed his eyes and glanced toward the front of the plane. “It’s already flying, Devin. You feeling okay?”
“Of course not.” That was beside the point. “But I need you to splice the plane’s autopilot function together with” —I bent down, fire flaring into my hip as I froze in a half-crouch before I growled in frustration and straightened— “That. What is that?” Instead of opening the case, I pointed and sucked in a deep breath, blinking back fuzzing vision, trying to remain conscious.