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“CALM DOWN!” THEO SHOUTED into the phone. “No, but I think I can. All right, send them.”
On the other end of the line, I thought I could hear a familiar voice ranting. As the volume increased, I realized I was listening to Lukas, and that he was concerned about a bombing. Since we were out of the loop and didn’t have anyone to update us, I had no idea who had been targeted or where. It looked like Theo was getting some of that information delivered to him on his phone.
He hung up, showing me his screen. There was a quick text from Lukas containing cryptic information. Also attached was an all press bulletin describing a bombing in Eastern Europe. That must have been what Lukas was so upset about.
“He says that a Dark Sparrow cell was taken out,” Theo explained.
“Follow me,” Gretchen responded, turning right back around and heading downstairs.
Theo frowned, glancing at me for information. I simply nodded, knowing where his nana was leading us. We walked back to the communications center, after waiting for Gretchen to move the box aside and pull the wall open.
Theo hid a smile behind his hand, appreciating all the trouble his nana took to keep her sources confidential. He didn’t have anything to say beyond relaying the information Lukas gave him.
Gretchen went straight for a piece of equipment I didn’t recognize. After typing into the keyboard, it produced a culled list of communications on the topic. Looking over her shoulder, I saw that the communications were tagged with various countries and groups, clearly some kind of AI software that was scanning multiple channels at once.
“Here,” Gretchen said, pointing to one of the transcripts on screen.
I leaned close to read the CIA report about what had transpired. Unknown agents were involved in the bombing. No one had taken responsibility. The victims appeared to belong to a terrorist group known as Dark Sparrow. There were no survivors.
I stood up, glancing at Theo.
“Lukas is worried that he and Jasmine are next,” Theo said.
“Does this have anything to do with Regg?” I asked, trying to fit the two halves of our problem together to form a whole.
“I don’t know,” Theo replied.
“What about New Dawn?” I offered, seizing on another possible connection to the tragedy in Poland.
“What’s that?” Gretchen asked, turning around to face me.
“New Dawn,” I repeated. “It’s some kind of underground organization that’s been following me.”
“They’ve been following you?” Theo gasped, certain that he’d never heard me express that concern before.
“What other explanation is there?” I asked. “We commandeered a boat from them off the island where we were being held. Why would they be there if it wasn’t to follow up on me?”
“Or Linc,” Theo pointed out.
“Or Linc,” I agreed.
Gretchen stood up and moved to a different computer. This one looked like something straight out of the 1990s with a clunky monitor and a tower that sat next to it. The mouse was attached via wire, and the boot-up process took nearly five minutes. When the computer was ready, Gretchen navigated to a storehouse of old data.
She pulled up two photos of operatives from that time period, one of which I recognized immediately. It was Hector Abernathy. Of course, in the photo, he was much younger than the man I remembered as a child. But the eyes were the same. That steely gray gaze that held no love was something I would never be able to forget.
He had no patience for childhood outbursts, no comfort for those of us who missed our families. He was a driving force behind all of the training we received, a constant voice in our ears telling us to push harder.
“Are they New Dawn?” I asked, my throat dry.
“These were the progenitors of New Dawn,” Gretchen said, studying me carefully. “They experimented on children to try to create super spies. It used to be funded by the US government, but when it came to the surface, they were shut down.”
I found myself unable to breathe. My eyes were locked on the photo of my foster father as this new information raised alarm bells in my mind. I knew that Mr. Abernathy had been training us to become spies. I knew that all my foster brothers and sisters were scattered to the world, supposedly working on undercover projects. But I had no idea that the government funded his work, or that he had been shut down. As far as I was concerned, we had been living within a bubble, immune to the goings-on around us. I thought the whole thing was some kind of personal experiment, like the X-Men. Abernathy was our Xavier. I didn’t know he was a crook.
“There’s more,” Gretchen said, as if her words hadn’t been enough. “The kids grew up, and Abernathy and New Dawn realized they had failed. They couldn’t train all of the children to blindly follow orders. Those who refused to play along were hunted and killed. Some escaped. Some were allowed to continue what they were doing in the hopes that New Dawn could turn them into sleeper agents.”
I saw my entire life in her dire warning. All the trials I’d been put through as a teenager, all the dry runs and assassination attempts I’d suffered before finally being allowed to leave that house. I’d wondered why I wasn’t able to reconnect with most of my former housemates. It never occurred to me that most of them were dead. It certainly hadn’t crossed my mind that Mr. Abernathy was involved.
I turned away from the screen; looking at it for so long was hurting my heart. I avoided Theo’s eyes. I had no idea what to expect from him, and I didn’t want to know. Whether he would wonder if I could be trusted now that the details of my upbringing were made public, or if he would try to comfort me, I wasn’t sure. I didn’t want either. I felt like I was sinking into an abyss, and no amount of goodwill was going to help me climb out.
“Abernathy had a favorite, didn’t he, Clark?” Gretchen said, her voice razor-sharp.
I turned around and fled the room.
