“You’re right, that sounds dodgy as hell.”
“It does. But it gets better. The Alliance received word about fifteen minutes ago that we’re about to get a surprise visit from certain government officials. Depending on your views of those officials, you could call it an audit, or a raid.”
“What do you call it?”
“A raid.”
“They do that?”
“Not usually. Valak and Noah agree with me that the people en route are in some way connected to what happened to you earlier. We’ve managed to confirm that one of the people trying to take you tonight was a mid-clearance level scientist. He has lots of friends from the old regime, and the old omega department.”
“Great.”
“But wait, there’s more.”
“You sound like a late-night infomercial promising the world,” I add. Gabriel has this way of talking; it’s blunt, but he pulls it off with humour while he oozes a sense of dependability. It’s weird, but it works, and part of me knows I can believe what he’s saying.
“But I’m different than those infomercials because I’ll deliver on my promise.”
Oh my god, this guy has a smoothness to him I didn’t expect.
He goes on. “Okay, here’s another piece to add to the puzzle, and another reason I’m keen to keep you away from here. The woman who you shot has been on the Alliance wanted list for a while; we think she’s responsible for a spate of recent attacks on omegas. We’re ninety percent sure she’s the person responsible for an attack on Bailey Henderson, the television reporter. I don’t know if you saw that recently, but Bailey was in hospital when it happened, and the woman responsible escaped.”
I squeeze my eyes shut at the mention of Bailey. I know exactly what happened to her but there is no way I’m sharing that right now. Gabriel keeps telling me more and more.
“The man and the woman should not have been together. The van had a file containing a few photos and names of omegas they’re trying to track down, including a rough description of you. All that information is now in our hands, well Valak’s, so at least we can protect you and hopefully some of the other omegas too.”
“Why me?”
“All unpacked and unclaimed omegas are being rounded up. But my brother says you’re different from all our other omegas we’ve helped. And whether the two that tried to take you tonight picked up on that, or not, remains to be seen.”
“Your brother?”
“Valak is my brother. Twin actually. And yes, we’re identical in every way.” I can hear him smile again.
My eyes jump to Valak, and unashamedly I stare at him like he’s a tasty snack. And the realisation that having two people looking the same as him in this world is actually a good thing. A very good thing.
“Every way,” Gabe teases again, his voice drops even lower suggestively.
“Shut up! I must have whacked my head if we’re having this conversation.”
“Girl, we’re going to be having a million strange as fuck conversations because I’m proposing you go offline.”
“What?”
“At least until we find out why the government is doing a sweep of our supposedly neutral omega centre and/or we find out the reasons why the woman wanted you so bad.”
“I doubt they’re after me particularly. And the government has been dodgy as shit for a long-time regarding omegas. The only good thing that happened was the Alliance.”
“That’s mostly true, we have a solid core group of alphas working to make the Alliance better, but you always have bad seeds. Now, do you have a pack?”
“No.”
“Lucky, or I’d have to put kicking their asses to the top of my list for leaving you out by yourself. Probably makes it all the better anyway.”
“You are literally not making sense.”
“Yeah, yeah. Okay, let me run through the issues. Get comfy because it gets a bit fucking long winded.”
