Page 77 of Lovely Darkness

“I mean, I don’t know what you’re right about,” I add. “But there’s something there.”

“I don’t think we’re out, Merc. I think…”

He doesn’t want to say it so I say it for him. “They shifted us, didn’t they? They shifted us into other programs.” I get a sick feeling in my stomach. “Sydney. What if they meant for me to take Sydney?”

“I don’t know about Sydney,” Nick says. “And I don’t want you to think I’m brushing her off or anything, but I’m really fucking worried about Wendy.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN - NICK

Merc just stares at me for a moment, his dark eyes a little bit bloodshot. “Worried about her how?”

It’s a cautious question because he knows I’m about to tell him something he probably doesn’t want to know about.

“I’m PSYOPS too.”

“OK. You said that.”

“I did a thing.”

“You did a thing?” He laughs. It’s not a happy laugh. “To Wendy?”

I nod.

“What did you do?”

I suck in a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “You have to understand the situation.”

“Explain it then.”

“It was during that last takedown. When the Company elite were being eliminated.”

“I wasn’t a part of that,” Merc says. “But I’m following.”

“It was a complicated operation. There was a huge… nest up at this estate near the Finger Lakes area of New York. All elites. And they had all been given this… inoculation, so to speak. It wasn’t to cure something, though. It was to make them sick. And once sick, they needed the cure to live. Megan Machette, this is what she did. Her and her father came up with this… drug, or whatever. They gave it to the elites up there at that estate, thinking it would make them sick and they would need the drug to keep them alive.”

“And then Megan and her father, who have control of the drug, would have control over them,” Merc says.

“Exactly. So they could put a stop to certain things. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“I guess. But I don’t like where this is going.”

“I don’t know if the Company elites knew they were being set up or not. Probably not, because they did actually accept the drug. They took it. But they weren’t the only ones taking it. They gave this drug to all their kids too. So when the time came to take them out—well.” I shrug. “We couldn’t do it.”

“I don’t blame you. But how does all this fit into what you did to Wendy?”

“I’m getting there. We didn’t do it that time. It was a half-ass operation. We let them know that we were in control, but obviously we didn’t pull the trigger on starving them of what they needed to live. We put in some protective measures, shut down a few things—tried to shut down a few others, but didn’t entirely succeed. And we tabled the final operation for another day. We needed a new plan that didn’t involve the children. And we had one.”

“Obviously,” Merc says. “Since thousands of elites died seven years ago.”

“Right,” I sigh.

“You still haven’t explained what this has to do with Wendy.”

“Wendy… she and Chek were a major part of that last operation. She was seventeen. In her prime. And I know you don’t really know Wendy, but she’s very good at her job.”

“Wait. Didn’t that Chek guy die in that operation?”

“Yeah.” I breathe this word out. And I want to say the rest. But I can’t seem to say the rest.