My throat burned as my fingers itched to hang up on this man. Rewind my life to a time when nothing of this existed, my days simple if not a little unsatisfying. “W-why now?”
Did they know I was the last person to see Tav? Did they think I killed him? Had I blanked it and done it and they’d witnessed everything on a hidden recorder somewhere?
Silence, before a clipped answer came.“When you’re notified of the lockboxes, we’ll need access to them. Immediately.”
“W-what lockboxes?” I played ignorant.
“The ones Bradley told you about.”
“H-how can you hear my conversations?” I interjected.
“One of the apps on your phone is connected to our tech contractor, we have a back door.”
“I-isn’t that illegal?”
Silence before the stranger continued.“We’ll need access to those boxes immediately, as a matter of national security.”
“Does that mean Tav wasn’t one of you?”
“One of us?”A garbled chuckle and then the measured tone returned.“We’ve had tabs on Tav since he was in high school. His father has been a very important man for a long time.”
“Chuck—this all comes back to Chuck?”
“He’s not just Chuck anymore, he’s an elected official and as it stands there are too many important people that will lose big if he doesn’t win big.”
“So that’s why my mother was handled?”
Another long silence drove like a dagger through my heart.“A message was sent by foreign opposition before we could interject it.”
“A message? You know who—who murdered my mother?”
“It’s my understanding there was an accident.”
“But the medical examiner mentioned foul play.”
“I am sorry for your loss.”
“Tell me more! I know there’s more you’re not telling me!”
“Your mother took an offer from a foreign actor that she couldn't refuse, perhaps it cost her more than she bargained for.”
“You son-of-a-bitch, why did you call me? To threaten me not to publish my mother’s things and blackmail me into not telling the world the corrupt underbelly of their reality?”
“We advocated on your behalf, Freya, but if you become a disruptor like your mother it won't end well. That will land you out of our control. There were assets placed on your mother for months before her untimely accident, but she caught onto them quickly and either threatened them in public or ditched them whenever she could. Protecting your mother became a liability of her own making—we would advise you not follow the same path.”
“So...that’s it then, don’t becomeThe Sunday Wifeliterally?”
“The chalet was meant to keep you safe, through election season and beyond, if necessary. Tav was adamant about that.”
“Tav...how do I know you’re not Tav? Maybe this is all a ruse, a mind game to keep me on my toes and tortured forever.”
“I’m not Tav.”
“Of course not now, Tav would have changed his name by now.” I knew I sounded crazy, like the lunatic Tav often made me out to be, but I didn’t care. “If you’re not Tav, tell me your name.”
“Agent Masters. Hopefully this is the last time we speak.”
I laughed bitterly into the phone, desperate tears clogging my eyes. “Sounds fake.”
