Addie’s eyes went big. “Oh my God, I’m in love with him. I’m going to have his babies. True story. Let’s be a throuple.”
I laughed. “And then he kissed me. Like not just a chaste, okay see you later, love kind of thing. More like in a hey, I’ll see you later and I plan to shag you against the wall kind of way.”
“Oh boy, first of all I love that he’s British and you’re already saying his Briticisms. Second of all, if he does shag you against the wall, can you please call me and tell me all about it? And finally, I would have killed to see the look on Tyler’s face. Killed.”
My timer went off, and I knew it was time for the Victus briefing. “Ugh, we should head down. I wanted to talk to Roz before the briefing, but I guess she’s busy.”
“She is. She was in there talking to Browning. He was shouting, as he’s prone to do, about security measures, how the hell someone found one of his agents, how the hell Victus was being allowed to run around in our backyard, and what we need to do about it.”
I frowned. “Wow, okay. So I guess everybody knows.”
“Oh hon, don’t worry about it. This isn’t on you.”
“Yeah, but I’m the one who let him get away.”
She knew better than to argue with me since I had let him get away because I’d been worried about the civilian that I was with.
“Stop worrying. They’re taking it seriously. Roz might not want you to be the one on this.”
Like hell would I sit this one out. “Oh, I’m on this. Whether she wants me or not.”
Addie sighed. She knew me.
When we reached the briefing room, Browning was already there. He marched right up to me. “You’re well, Agent Wilkinson?” William Browning was the section head of our branch of The Firm.
I nodded. “Yes, sir. I’m fine. I just wish I’d been able to bring him in last night.”
He shook his head. “You were with a civilian, yes?”
I nodded. “Yes, sir. It was either let Prochenko go or blow my cover.”
“You made the right decision. Roz and I were just talking about it. Come in. Take a seat. We’ll brief the rest of the team.”
I frowned at Browning’s back as he marched to the head of the table. He was being nice. He was never nice. Ever. I didn’t even think the man knew how to be nice.
There was something weird about this. Were they worried I’d been compromised?
When Roz started the meeting, she brought everyone on the team up to speed on Victus. And I surreptitiously turned around to see who was in the briefing room.
Everyone.
Jesus Christ. It was practically standing room only. So everybody was going to know that I had fucked up.
Next time don’t fuck up.
Usually I liked to have my massive fuck ups in private. Take responsibility and deal with them appropriately. But now, everyone was hearing all about my mistakes last night.
A familiar voice from somewhere near the back piped up. “Just what was Agent Wilkinson doing last night when she encountered Prochenko?”
I ground my teeth. Fucking Tyler. What in the world? Why had I ever, ever, ever thought that I cared about him?
It was Browning who answered, not Roz.
“She was off duty. Which is even more concerning. How is it that Victus knows the movement of our agents?” He clicked the button to show the next slide. “Senior management has been reviewing Agent Wilkinson’s movements over the last six weeks. Nothing untoward has occurred. She’s been following movement protocols. So this isn’t a breach. This was either luck or something larger.”
I hated that I was under constant surveillance. Only senior agents lost the big brother eye.
Roz stood up then. “Our intel indicates something larger. Victus is in the market for a weapon.”
I spoke up then. “What kind of weapon?”
“Something so new it’s not even on the market yet. The Annihilator. In essence, it sends some kind of radiation pulse that causes a rapid acceleration of charged particles. So it’s not a bullet. It’s a wave of radiation.”
She pressed a button on the remote control she was holding, and a video began, showing us what a weapon like that could do to a human body.
I winced. It showed a man being shot at, with protective gear on, and his body flying backward.
When the camera panned in, his skin looked charred and burned.
But there were no points of entry on him. No bullet wounds, no explosion. I whistled low. “There’s a weapon like that?”
She nodded. “It’s highly experimental. It was built by this man,”—she clicked a button to stop the video, and a slide appeared on the screen— “Dr. Ryan Dodd, a military contractor. Dr. Dodd went missing about six weeks ago. From what we can gather, he either went to ground or someone took him. Victus is in town to meet with a weapons broker who may either have Dodd, know where to find him, or have gotten their hands on the weapon. We will send out a team to pick up the broker and bring him in so we can question him.”
Before my hand even went up, Browning announced, “It will be a three-person team. Agents Tyler Warden, Lyra Wilkinson, and Adaline Franklin.”
My mouth hung open. Why Addie? And my God, why the fuck Tyler?
When we were dismissed, Addie frowned. “I don’t know why they would pick me.”
We approached Roz, who waved us off. “I don’t know why you were picked. You were Browning’s choices. And as for Tyler, he has a lot of experience with Victus.”
“Yes, I remember,” I muttered. “But you couldn’t have given me a heads-up that he was being transferred to our section?”
Her gaze narrowed on me. “Now is not the time for personal feelings, Lyra.”
I ground my teeth as I fought to remain calm. “I hear you,
