Rebel (Legend, #4)(36)

The thought makes my stomach recoil. Daniel stiffens beside me.

“Enough,” Daniel says.

Min ignores him and focuses on me. “Our proposal is this: We need you to draw him out. We will track every movement you make. If you lure Hann out into a space where our agents are ready for him, we can take him down before he can escape.”

My face pales. Daniel steps in front of me, his arm instinctively pushing me behind him as he’d done when I was still a kid. “You want to use him as a mole?” he snaps. Now the real anger is out.

“You are an agent for the AIS,” the director snaps back. “And right now, Eden is the sole link between us and the man we’ve been hunting.” She looks back at me. Even though she is stern, there’s a pleading glint in her eyes. “I am not going to force you to do something you’re uncomfortable with. This all depends on what you decide. But you are the closest thing we have to a lead, and it’s an overwhelming one. We are going to do everything in our power to keep you safe.”

“But we can’t guarantee that,” Daniel adds.

“Do you run this agency, Wing?” Min says coldly to him.

He just shrugs. “I’m willing to do a lot for this agency,” he replies. “But handing my brother over to a killer is not one of them.”

Her eyes narrow. “This isn’t a game. There are a lot of lives at stake here.”

Again, others are deciding my fate, not me.

“What do you want, Eden?” Daniel suddenly asks me.

I look at my brother. All I wanted to do was help someone out—I didn’t expect to find myself here, caught in a web between two enormous forces. I turn back to the director. “Give me some time,” I finally say.

She nods. “You have until morning.”

Daniel mutters a curse under his breath and turns away. He nods for me to follow him. The tension in the room feels thick enough to cut, and I wonder how many times he’s had confrontations like this with his director.

When my brother escorts me out of the room and we are alone in the hall, he reaches up to disable my system’s records. He turns his own off too. Then he leans close.

“Eden,” he says in a low voice. “Don’t do this.”

His voice is so worried that it even cuts through my resentment. “Your director’s going to be disappointed,” I mutter.

“That’s my job. Yours is to steer clear of Dominic Hann. Your interaction alone has given us more clues than we’ve ever had.” He’s silent for a moment. When he glances over his shoulder through the windows, out at the city, I glimpse the fear on his face. He turns back to me. “This isn’t like the war, Eden. This isn’t saving the Republic from the Colonies. We didn’t leave the Republic behind just for me to throw you back into a snake pit.”

I look at my brother. “You’ve been in this snake pit for months, and I had no idea. You never breathed a word about any of this to me. You put yourself in danger every single night while I stay home and wait, hoping you come back from whatever the hell you’re doing.”

He looks exhausted now. I think back to how I saw him perched on the edge of his balcony the other night, his gaze settled on the city before him. I have nightmares, but I wonder for the first time if maybe he does too, if they’re worse.

His voice hushes. “Let me deal with AIS,” he says again. “But promise me you’ll stay away from the Undercity. Let Hann forget about you. He’s still a busy man with plenty of other businesses to attend to. Maybe a racer isn’t going to be his top priority.” He takes a breath. “Maybe it really is like you said. He just wanted a quick win.”

I meet my brother’s steady gaze. “I promise.” I don’t add what I want to say. Even though you can’t do the same.

The director’s suggestion lingers in my mind. If I don’t help them out, my brother is going to continue his hunt for Hann. And if even half the reports I’ve heard about the man are true, then Daniel’s walking straight into the snake pit he’s trying to keep me away from.





DANIEL



When your kid brother has caught the attention of the most notorious criminal in Ross City, it’s hard to concentrate on anything—even a gala thrown in honor of the Republic’s Elector.

Several nights later, when I head in full black tuxedo to Ross City’s Hall of Philosophy for the gala, my mind is still swirling around what Eden’s memories revealed at the AIS headquarters.

Long blue banners stretch vertically down the sides of the skyscraper, all the way from the top floor to the lowest rung of the Sky Floors, where we and other guests are mingling on the outdoor walkways. Above and below us, the rest of the city’s floors shimmer in a sea of lights. Overhead and beyond the biodome, a snowstorm is raging, but when the flurries pass through the biodome, the warmer atmosphere turns them into rain. The air smells clean and cold.

Director Min Gheren is here, along with several other high-ranking members of AIS. Now she finds me standing on one of the ivy-covered walkways leading into the Hall of Philosophy, staring up at a virtual projection of the Republic’s flag on the side of the building. With her is Anden Stavropoulos, the Elector of the Republic.

“I believe you both already know each other,” the director says as they approach me. “But a greeting is in order, nevertheless. Elector, this is Daniel Altan Wing, one of our most promising young agents in the AIS. Mr. Wing, the Elector of the Republic.”