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Abby’s gaze is hawklike; she studies me after I answer a question like she’s deciding whether to bother swooping in to devour me.
Not that she could. I’ve been to this rodeo a hell of a lot more times than she has. She’s twenty-three and has the same carefree confidence I had at her age. Eight years later, I’m still confident, but I also know things can go sideways fast.
“So you didn’t question it?” she asks me. “You got sent to this experimental New America island as a leader, and you never asked yourself why?”
“I knew why.”
A few seconds of silence pass, her expression impassive.
“Why?”
“My father, obviously.”
“Did you ask for that assignment?”
I scoff, my gaze darting down and then back up. “I haven’t spoken to my father since we left his bunker. He probably had me sent there as a punishment.”
Her lips quirk. “The golden son’s punishment is being made coleader of a bunch of soldiers when he’s”—she glances at her notes on the table— “an accountant?”
I roll my eyes and grin. “We both know you didn’t just read anything from that paper. I’ve got nothing to hide and I already went through days of questioning by the ILF leaders when I got here. Isn’t this supposed to be a briefing?”
Tanaka clears his throat from the other side of the massive table made from a slice of a redwood tree. We’re at a former luxury ski resort, and the table has to be at least a hundred feet long and four feet wide.
“It is a briefing, but you’re both free to ask each other any questions you want. You need to trust each other completely for this to work.”
“What methods do you use to get the information you want?” I ask her.
She arches her brows, amused. “If you’re asking whether I use straight men ogling my boobs the way you’re doing to my advantage, I unapologetically do. What about you? Are you willing to do whatever it takes?”
She’s an absolute firebrand. I tried to charm her when we met yesterday in the mine shaft, but she wasn’t having it. This morning we were served poached eggs and toast in this beautiful room with open beams, several roaring fireplaces, leather furniture and a stunning view of snow-covered mountains. She’s as impenetrable here as she was there.
“Will I use my animal magnetism to help the cause?” I lower my brows, pretending to ponder it. “If I must.”
Tanaka sighs heavily. “Will we need extra accommodations for your egos on this op? Because we have a lot to cover when you finish whatever this is.”
Abby gives him a pointed look. “You’re putting my life in the hands of Aldous Thatcher’s son. I think you know why I’m skeptical.”
“You can say no,” Tanaka reminds her. “We can pair him with someone else.”
She flicks a glare at him before settling it on me. “If we’re running an op on the inside, I want in.”
“If you didn’t read it in your file, I was engaged,” I tell her. “My fiancée was in Europe when the virus came and I wanted to go get her. My father said he was helping me do that, but instead I ended up in his mountain bunker and he wouldn’t let me out. I’ll never forgive him for that.”
Her expression softens, and she says, “I did read that. I’m sorry about Hannah.”
I nod, surprised she remembered Hannah’s name. “I know I’m valuable to the ILF. So if they assigned me to Tanaka, and to you, I trust that you guys are their best.”
She ignores my compliment. “Did Hiro tell you about me? I work unconventionally.”
“He said you’re reckless and you have a problem with authority.”
Abby smiles at the man at the head of the table. “Aw, Hiro. I knew you liked me.”
His eyes widen and he scoffs out a note of laughter. “I always say you’re either going to win this thing or get us all blown up. I guess it’s exciting not knowing which one it is.”
“I’ve chalked up a lot of wins so far.”
“You have. And Pax brings a lot of advantages. Not just his access to his father. He has aromium, so he’s faster and stronger than most people, with sharper senses.”
