I check everything we have on him.
Ella holds thepicture frame next to the display.
“Looks like him,” Ella says and points at the man in the back of the photo, referring to one in the database.
It’s hard to tell because his face isn’t shown, but the appearance matches the mugshots available in the database.
“Can you print that out?” Ella asks me.
“Why?” I ask.
“Let’s see his reaction to it,” she says casually. “I’m sure your bulldog has learned all the interrogation tactics there are.”
I nod.
We enter the room where Doug has handcuffed the employee, and the security staff watches him.
Doug flaps the photo in front of him.
“Recognize that?” Doug asks.
I see his pupils widen for a fraction of a second, almost impossible to catch. It is all the confirmation I need.
The man shakes his head. I can see the glee on his face; he’s wearing it proudly like a crown.
“Listen,” I say, “You can either tell us what you’re up to, or we’ll invoke every possible fine and legal option we have per violation of your contracts for the protection of government secrets.”
He seems utterly unimpressed.
“Try me,” he says, and I have a desire to hit him full in the face. “I have done nothing wrong.”
“Being part of an extremist group is,” I say dangerously.
He looks me dead in the eye as if I am something beneath him. “Prove it,” he says darkly, an arrogant smirk on his face.
A tickling sensation spreads through my fingers. I am going to crush him. Doug sees my anger and signals me to keep it together. I don’t know what’s happening to me lately. Everything seems to spin out of control.
Ella leans in on me and whispers in my ear.
“He’s so self-assured; those people are very well connected with the underground world, drugs, money, guns, identities. There is only one thing that can’t be changed, and that is DNA.”
“You think he’s someone else?” I whisper back.
“My brother vanished and became someone else—” she says silently. “There’s only one way to find out…” she adds.
I can’t tell what it is, but when I look in her eyes, I don’t see the woman I met before all thisanymore. She seems so different, and I don’t know whether that is a good thing, but I don’t have time to think about it right now.
I tell Doug what to do by whispering in his ear. He nods and unceremoniously walks over to the man and scratches the guy's arm purposely with his fingernails.
Completely illegal, but I don’t care at this point. I’ll vanish that man faster than he can say lawyer if it comes to it—well, or Doug will.
Doug nods at me, telling me he’ll take care of running the DNA, and we leave. I need that DNA, I need to know who that is and what’s behind it.
I take Ella back to my office, and I close the door behind us. I lean against it for a moment, closing my eyes. I feel slightly jittery as the adrenaline flushes out of my system.
Her hand on me. Grabbing around me. Her touch. Her body. Her lips.
She’s like a remedy to all my pain, and I hate everything about it, but I can’t withstand it any longer.
