AllFreeNovel
Share Us
No, you’re not.
Lila picked up the first file, wiping at her eyes before tears could take root, the words swimming into blurry dots.
She needed to work.
She would work.
The words solidified at last.
Dixon awkwardly gripped his notepad, waiting for her to speak.
“Is there anything useful in these transcripts? In the videos?”
He shook his head.
“Anything interesting?”
Yes. Read them and see if you agree.
Lila slipped her laptop from her satchel. While it booted up, she opened the transcript and skimmed the first page, noting the merc’s name. Ezio Fiore. “I have a few ideas about how we might find the mole, but it will be up to you and Tristan to complete my work. Despite what your brother and the oracle believe, I will not be leaving Bullstow unless it’s in a coffin or by armed escort to the auction house.”
Lila held up her arm to stop Dixon as he slid closer. “I’m serious. The committee will at least give me a slave’s term tomorrow, and a rather long one at that. My father has probably been working to secure such an outcome. I’m not going to be in a position to help anyone.”
I’ll break you out.
Lila gripped the papers in her lap, the plastic folder cutting into her fingers. The words she’d wanted to hear so desperately from Tristan had come from another man. “Please, Dixon. Don’t put yourself in danger for me.”
He lifted his pencil, but Lila shook her head. “Just listen, okay? This mole in the compound? It stands to reason that the person is trusted. I don’t think we’re talking about a simple spy from the empire. Oracles read body language like I read code. If you wanted to infect an oracle’s compound, who would be the best person to send? Who would be the most malleable? The most trusted?”
A child?
“Exactly. I need a computer, the most powerful one in the shop.”
Dixon stood up and jogged downstairs.
While he retrieved a computer, Lila used a fake ID to access the Allied Land’s missing persons databases, running a search for all missing children in the last two decades. She filtered out those kids who had been found and those who had been taken by relatives. She still ended up with five thousand hits—five thousand children who might have been stolen and turned against their own country, programmed by the empire.
She hacked into the empire’s database next, running the same query and saving the three thousand hits she received. While Dixon set up the computer in the corner, she searched for Roman orphans. It resulted in a comparatively smaller data set, but at least every hit included a picture.
After she logged out, she dug into her luggage and withdrew a star drive, using it to install age progression software on the shop’s computer. She quickly coded a program to pull each child’s photograph from the files, run a dozen possible age progressions, and drop the results into a folder, labeled with the child’s name. The altered photographs would be an educated guess for how each child might look, calculated by varying body weight, hair styles, hair colors, facial hair, and other factors.
“This might take a couple of days to complete,” she explained as she sat back down on the couch. “After it’s done, you’ll need to compare the photos to everyone who has been inside the oracle’s compound in the last ten years. You might get lucky.”
Dixon taped a note to the monitor. Do not touch.
Her laptop’s screen flashed. Connell had sent her the list.
Ignoring it, she snatched up the transcript for Ezio’s first interrogation. The bulk of the oracle’s questions had to do with the source of the information they’d received for their job. Ezio claimed it had come from the Italian government, filtered down to their commander and his lieutenants, many of whom Lila had killed.
She shifted on the seat, not wanting to think about the death she’d dealt.
After reading through more transcripts, she and Dixon ate a late dinner, feasting on takeout burgers and fries from Bob’s Burger Mart. Afterward, Lila snatched up another batch of transcripts, scanning each line of text, looking for something to latch on to, some clue she could investigate.
Her thoughts soon wandered. She recalled the feeling of Tristan’s soft, worn sheets against her back. His tongue as it slid into her mouth. The twitch of his fingers working at her slit. His cock filling her. The sound of his moans as he came. She’d thought herself special at the time, but now she had to accept the truth. She’d only been a hole he’d filled, and now he’d moved on to another.
Tristan and Katia had been having sex in that bed the night before, perhaps that morning, with Tristan likely doing the same things to Katia that he’d done with her. Perhaps he’d said the same things too, claiming to be in love, claiming to need her, claiming to want her and only—
Dixon tapped her laptop screen. Thirsty?
