Was Wes really heading a mission to turn me in—after we had planned to run away together, after we spent the night wrapped in each other’s arms? “Wes wouldn’t do that to me. He loves me.” But even I am starting to hear the doubt in my voice.
The general stands up and walks over to the door. He raps on the metal once and it immediately opens. “Bring in Eleven,” he says to the guard standing outside.
“Yes, sir.”
I stare at the door. In less than a minute Wes appears, and my breath catches in my throat. He doesn’t look at me as he enters the room.
“Wes.” I stand up. “Tell me it’s not true. This is a mistake. It has to be.”
“Eleven, please explain your objective to Lydia,” General Walker says, his voice less familiar and more commanding.
Wes stares blankly at the wall. “I was assigned to follow Lydia Bentley and to do whatever was necessary to bring her into the Project on July thirtieth, two thousand twelve at exactly 10:57 P.M. This objective was made more difficult when I had to follow her to nineteen forty-four. I made sure the target returned safely, but she had grown attached to me and I was forced to change my strategy for her detainment. I brought her to nineteen eighty-nine because I knew it would be easier to turn her in here, when she was willingly disconnected from her friends and family.”
I close my eyes so I won’t have to look at his face.
I hear Wes say, “It became imperative to persuade the subject I had romantic feelings for her in order to convince her to trust me. It was an unavoidable part of the mission.”
I make a small, jagged sound in the back of my throat and squeeze both hands tightly against my chest. “I don’t believe it. I don’t! You’re just saying this because he’s here.”
Walker’s chair scrapes on the tile and I open my eyes to see him walking toward the door. “I’ll give you two a minute.” He sounds amused. “And Lydia? There are no cameras in this room.”
Then Wes and I are alone.
I spare two seconds to look at the corners of the ceiling. The general is right; I can’t see any cameras. Moving quickly, I launch myself across the room and take Wes’s arm. “What is going on? Please tell me you have a plan.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” His voice is still cold.
“Wes, he’s gone,” I say desperately. “We’re alone.”
He stares into my face and I jerk back at the vacant look in his eyes. This is not the Wes I know. I’ve never seen this person before.
“It doesn’t change anything. Finding you was a mission. Now you have been delivered to the Project and the mission has been completed.”
It’s not until I taste the salt that I realize I’m crying. The tears drip down my face. One falls onto Wes’s foot, a tiny drop that disappears into the blackness of his boot. “Why didn’t you turn me in when we got back from nineteen forty-four? Or when we first came to eighty-nine? Why did you wait so long?”
“Those events weren’t close enough to the time I was instructed to bring you in. Now it is. The timing of our missions is precise.”
I shake my head back and forth and dig my fingers into the stretchy material of his sleeve. “You told me you were dying. Was that a lie too?”
He doesn’t answer.
“Wes, I love you. You love me. Don’t let them take this from us.”
He pries my hands off his arm and takes a step back. “You were a mission. That is all.”
“Give me a sign,” I whisper anxiously. “Show me that this isn’t real. That they’re forcing you to say this.”
But he just turns and strides toward the door.
“Wait!” I shout, my voice cracking on the word. I see him hesitate. “When I first saw you in Grandpa’s cell, you hugged me back. There was no reason for that.” I take a step closer to him. “You told me that you loved me. You gave me your watch, Wes. I know this is real.”
He faces me again, and there’s a slight spark in his eyes. Finally. But he reaches into his shirt pocket and pulls out the gold pocket watch. “You mean this?”
I reach for my chest, but the watch is gone. “When did you . . . ?”
He last had his arms around me in the cell. While I thought he was showing me a small sign of his love, he was actually taking his watch back. I didn’t even notice.
A dull emptiness spreads through my limbs. Is this what going into shock feels like? My legs no longer support my body and I slide onto the floor. Wes stares down at me with what looks like pity. But not love.
It was never love.
“Why did you do this to me?” I spread my hands out on the white tiles and desperately press my knuckles into the floor. It hurts, but I don’t care—I want to feel something other than the pain.
“It was my job. I told you someone like me isn’t capable of love. You should have listened.”
I can’t look at him again. Somewhere above me I hear the door open and close.
“Get up,” a voice snaps.
General Walker is back, sitting in the same chair. It’s like Wes was never here.
I tilt my head up.
“Now you know the truth,” General Walker says calmly. He crosses one leg over the other one and hooks his hands around his knee. “The question is what you’re going to do about it.”
“I thought you were forcing me to become a recruit,” I manage to say.
He gives me a thoughtful look. “I have an offer for you to consider. Yes, your first option
