Goosebumps crawled up my arms as I walked past the mental training room. I blamed the unwelcome emotions on Rhett. He’d opened my eyes, and questions I’d never asked filled my head. Could I trust Russ? Who had erased my memories? How long had I been there?

The sliding door to Russ’s office was open. He’d known I would come.

“Have a seat, Ava.” Russ swung around in his chair to face me. He didn’t have his usual friendly face. “You’re early, but I figured you would be.”

I sat, watching Russ pull out something from his desk. He handed me an envelope.

“What’s that?”

“I missed your birthday. Happy belated birthday.” He offered a small smile.

“We don’t celebrate birthdays here. Why are you doing this?”

“You’re eighteen. An eighteenth birthday is a big deal. This isn’t from ISAN. It’s from me. Open it.”

Slowly, I opened the envelope, aware of Russ’s eyes on me.

“It’s a free night to wherever I want to go with my team?” I read the paper twice to make sure I had read it correctly.

“Let me know when you want to use that. I would have to go with you, along with the bodyguards. You know the drill.”

Why? What do you have up your sleeve, Russ?

“Thank you,” I said.

I shoved it inside my pocket. For a second, I had forgotten why I’d come in the first place. Handing me a birthday present was a nice distraction.

“I’d like to ask you a question,” I said.

Russ didn’t respond, so I asked anyway.

“Was it always just girls here? Did you ever have male subjects?”

“You’re not a subject.” His tone was sharp and cold as if I had offended him.

“If we’re being probed and tested, I think that makes us subjects,” I said, though I wanted to yell at him.

“You’re all special.”

His calm neutral tone made me angrier.

I leaned in closer to the desk. “You didn’t answer my question.”

Russ furrowed his brow. “Does it matter? What did the kidnappers say to you? Don’t believe everything you hear. There are always two sides of the story.”

“I wouldn’t know. Which is your side of the story, Russ?”

“Ava ...” He pushed back in his seat, releasing a quick sigh. “Don’t ask for stories that aren’t meant to be told.”

“I’m not going to ask you anymore. I’ll make up my own.”

“Ava.” His tone softened. “You only know the surface of ISAN. You don’t want to get involved. Do what you are told and everything will be fine. I’ll tell you this much. We had boys in ISAN, but the serum was defective for them. But now it’s promising.”

Promising? What did that mean?

“What happened to them?”

“Some did not survive the serum and some were sent back to juvenile detention.”

I knew he wasn’t telling me the truth, but perhaps he was telling me what he was told. Either he was hiding information from me to keep me safe, or he simply didn’t know. I wanted to ask him who had created the serum and where it was manufactured, but I already knew he wouldn’t tell me. If he even knew.

“Okay,” I said. “Thank you.”

“Okay?” His eyelashes fluttered, most likely shocked I agreed so easily. “Now it’s my turn to ask you questions.” Russ tapped the TAB on his desk and touched the letters. “Can you recall the names of your kidnappers?”

I swallowed and my blood ran cold. ISAN guards will report Ava shot back. If they ask you about it, you lie. Tell them they must have made a mistake. I dug my fingers into the armchair and prepared to defend myself.

“No.” I bored my eyes into his. “They locked me up in a room. They asked me questions, but I didn’t tell them anything.”

A screen popped out. Profile pictures scrolled one by one. “Can you recognize anyone?”

“No, I don’t so far.” When a picture flashed of Rhett, my stomach did a funny tingling flip. “I never saw their faces. They wore masks.”

Russ seemed satisfied with my answer. I was getting good at lying. One day I would lie to myself, and I’d believe every word. I might not even be able to distinguish lies from the truth.

The screen came down.

“It doesn’t matter if you can’t identify them. I have the result of the blood test from the drop of blood he left behind at Shooting Stars. I know who he is.”

My heart took a dive, squashed like it hit the cement. “That’s great. Who is he?”

“His name is Rhett. He used to be one of our operatives, but he went rogue. I was told he didn’t believe in our cause. He formed a group against ISAN. When a group of them escaped, they killed a lot of guards. They will hurt anyone associated with ISAN.”

Rocks settled in my stomach. I folded my hands together to keep steady. Steady Ava. Keep calm. I would not let Russ see my emotions. I wanted to tell him he was wrong, but I had no evidence. Rhett had told me I was there that day with him. Had Russ been there as well? Nausea coiled in my stomach like a viper ready to attack.

“That’s great you found out who he is.”

“Did you overhear anything about their plan of attack?”

“No. Like I said, they locked me in a room.”

“Do you know where their hiding base is?”

“No.”

“You don’t have any valuable information to share. I’ll let Mr. Novak know you’re clean. Enjoy your dinner. See you in the morning.”

I didn’t bother to be polite. Relieved he hadn’t asked me about shooting at the ISAN guards, I sauntered for the door and debated whether I should probe for more answers. Not able to help myself, I halted in the middle of the room.

“How long has ISAN been around?”

“They don’t disclose that kind of information. Only the founders would know.”

“How long have you been here?”

“I started working for ISAN a little before you came aboard.”

“How about Lydia?”

“Same for her.”

“How about Mitch?”

Russ rose from his chair, and approached me. “I’m not going to answer for him. You need to ask him yourself. Better yet, don’t ask him anything. Why are you asking these questions, Ava?”

I didn’t answer. I remembered Mitch had said he’d been out in the field a lot longer than Russ when I’d gone to kill Mr. San. Reyna had also mentioned Mitch, like she knew who he was, but I hadn’t asked. When Mitch and I were next alone, I would drill him with questions. I figured I could ask one question before he decided to stop answering.

“Are there other ISAN facilities besides us?”

Russ placed a hand behind my back and guided me to the side, away from the door. “Yes. There is one in each of the four territories.” His voice lowered to a whisper and didn’t hesitate. At least he hadn’t lied about that.

“We will be meeting the other ISAN groups soon and possibly working together,” he added casually, like he was telling me the color of my hair.

The news thrilled and shocked me. According to my father, my twin was in the West. My lips slightly curled at the corner. Would I recognize my twin?

“Where are we located?” Though I knew the answer, I needed a confirmation.

“I can’t disclose that information. But you’re a smart girl. I think you know.”

I had a hunch we were in the East and it had been confirmed when I traveled to the Leviathan Hotel. It wasn’t too far. I had recognized the hotel when Rhett had taken me to the city.

Since Russ seemed receptive, I probed more. “Can ISAN erase someone’s memories?” As soon as those words left my mouth, I wanted to take them back.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. What was I thinking? My desire to find answers made me bold.

Russ chuckled lightly and cocked an eyebrow. “You forgetting things, Ava?”

I scowled. Russ found my question amusing, and obviously he had no idea, or he wasn’t going to give me an answer.

“Never mind.” I sighed, beyond frustrated. “Was the blood test the only indicator that pointed to the kidnapper?”

I needed to know if Russ knew about the messages Rhett sent me, or if he had been spotted on cameras when we were out in the city.

Russ glimpsed over his shoulder to his desk and then back to me. “Rhett contacted us. He let Mitch know he was going to release you on the third day. We were to meet them at the Abandoned City. Mitch wanted to go earlier, in case he wasn’t telling us the truth. His team wanted to scout out the place, but they ran into trouble.”

I wasn’t sure what hurt me the most; the possibility Russ had lied to me or Rhett had kicked me out. At the end, just like the book, Rhett walked away after relentlessly pursuing me. Though it wasn’t fair of me to think that way. I was the one who had made the decision to go back. He would have let me stay.

“I should be dead.” I folded my arms in front.

“What do you mean?” Russ furrowed his brow, his eyes focused in heavy concentration.

“I should’ve had a heart attack since I never made it back to our sub-glider.”

Russ shifted uncomfortably. “It wouldn’t have mattered anyway. We wouldn’t have let it get that far.”

He didn’t look away like I thought he would. It meant he told me the truth.

“You said you wouldn’t let it get that far for me. Are you trying to tell me Mitch didn’t activate my capsule?” I waited for his answer. When he didn’t, I pressed more. “But how about Brooke, Tamara, or Justine?”

He bristled and his nostrils flared.

“Why, Russ?”

“This is where I draw the line.” Russ wrung his fingers around my wrist and practically dragged me to the door. He let go of me and spoke with an authoritative tone, “Go have a nice meal with your team. Make sure to drink your protein shake. Tomorrow, you’ll be sent to the doctor to get detoxed. You’ve missed three days. You’ve got a lot to catch up on with your studies and training.” Rubbing his chin, he paused to inhale a deep breath. “By the way, if you get another message on your TAB, I forbid you to reply. Don’t worry. I don’t intend on reporting you, but you need to stop. ISAN monitors your TAB activities.”

Blood rushed through me so fast I thought I would faint. I didn’t know how Russ knew, but he’d found out. Either he was bluffing to see my reaction, or he had purposely gone out of his way after I had opened my big fat mouth.

Leaning closer to me for my ears only, he added, “Look within yourself. Sometimes trauma can cause memory loss. Don’t ever ask me that question again.”

Ice coated my spine and my tongue. Russ knew more than he would share. At least he’d told me that much.

Look within yourself. Had I caused my own memory loss? Rhett had mentioned the same.

Without a word, I got the hell out of there.