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“My gut is telling me Seshat’s somehow involved in this,” said Wren.
Decker nodded as he typed something on his laptop.“Never ignore your gut.”In less than two minutes, he announced the birth record was on its way to each of us.“Why haven’t you received anything else from the NRO yet?”he demanded next.
“We’re waiting,” muttered Pinch.
“You Brits are too damn polite,” he said, pulling out his mobile.“The clock is ticking.We don’twait.”
While he placed a call, I pulled up the document he’d sent.
“Very interesting,” Wren said under her breath.
I walked over to her and took the seat beside her.“What’s that?”
“There’s a recorded time of birth.”
“Is that unusual?”
“Not so much unusual as what it signifies.A reported time means there was more than one birth.”
“As in twins?”
Wren nodded.“Twins, triplets, etc.”
“What are you thinking?”I asked.
“That we just stumbled on something very significant.Not that I know what it means yet.”
“Evil twin, perhaps?”Wilder asked.
“It’s been known to happen, even in the best of families,” Wren responded.
“Right.Except Matthew wasn’t a twin, thank God.”
Three years prior, Wilder and his siblings learned their father had sired another child before he married their mother.The man had been raised by Sir Ranald Caird—former chief of MI6—and his wife, Anna, the boy’s biological mother.
From what I’d heard, the man, who suffered from mental illness, took Shiver’s now wife, their child, and Darrow hostage, intending to kill all of their father’s descendants by way of a bomb.SIS launched a full-court press, resulting in the women and child’s rescue and the arrest of the half brother.He’d subsequently been assassinated in prison.While the identity of the assassin hadn’t been divulged, I’d heard a rumor that the Turkish terrorist organization Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan, or PKK, was responsible.
If that entity hadn’t been dismantled via the combined efforts of the US and the UK intelligence, I would’ve added their leaders’ names to the list of suspects in Z’s kidnapping.In a briefing on terrorist organizations, he’d listed them among his mortal enemies.However, they wouldn’t have taken Z hostage; they would’ve killed him on the spot.
“How disappointing,” Wilder muttered.
I studied the name listed as DeDe Starkweather’s mother—Angela Starkweather.However, under father, it saidunknown.“How in the bloody hell did he get this so quickly?”I muttered.
When Decker shot me a look, I realized I should’ve kept my voice down.Wren chuckled.“If it were anyone but Decker, I’d ask the same thing.I swear the man has superpowers.”
Wilder leaned back in his chair.“Aren’t either of you the slightest bit curious as to who the father is?”
Wren rolled her eyes.“Whatever you come up with will be purely conjecture.”
I glanced at Wren and caught her studying Decker.
“I’ve never seen him like this,” she whispered.“I guess it isn’t surprising.I don’t know how his life would’ve turned out without Z and Quint.”
“And you,” her brother, who she hadn’t realized was standing behind her, said.He leaned closer and spoke in a quiet tone of voice.“But I agree.Dad saw something in Deck that most people in the world would’ve missed, and he made sure he got everything he needed to explore his unique level of genius.”
“Burns?”I asked.
“He wasn’t even out of high school when Dad took him to stay with him and his wife for the summer,” Wren responded.
