“This sounds a lot like a critique to me,” Winter said.
She eyed him. “You didn’t even know what a CPU was.”
Winter held a hand out at Sauda. “You told her I didn’t know?”
“Well, he knows now,” Sauda said, casting a stern look toward Sydney before turning back to Winter. “We’ll prepare you. But the best part of your cover, Mr. Young, is that it isn’t really a cover at all. Your cover isyou. So just be yourself.”
His gaze went back to Sydney. Her eyes stayed away from his, and everything about her body language told him that she would do everything in her power to avoid him unless it was necessary for them to cooperate.
There would be no small talk with her.
Fine. Winter tightened his lips and kept his focus on Sauda, too. He wasn’t joining the Panacea Group for this mission to make new friends, anyway. By the end of it, when they made it out, they would never need to see each other again.
“Are we all on the same page?” Niall asked, his eyes settling on each of them. When no one added anything, he nodded and turned off thehologram. The photo of Penelope vanished, leaving the middle of the table bare. “Excellent.” He tucked his hands in his pockets and gave Winter and Sydney a tight smile. “And get to know each other. We’d like you to give off the impression that you both get along, or are at least polite.”
“This is the most optimistic I’ve ever heard you, Niall,” Sauda said.
“I’m only doing it for you,” Niall replied.
Sauda put a hand against her heart. “Flattered as always.”
Niall just grunted. “Optimism is my hidden power.”
Optimism is my hidden power.
The familiar phrase jolted through Winter like a lightning bolt. Suddenly, he saw a flashback before him of Artie leaning back on the couch in their old home, teasing Winter as he scribbled bits of lyrics in a notebook.
The flashback vanished, and Winter found himself staring again at Niall. His head swam. “Wait,” he said, holding a hand up. “Why did you say that?”
“Say what?” Niall asked.
“Optimism is my hidden power.” He looked at Sauda, then back at Niall. “My brother used to say that all the time. Why areyousaying it?”
Niall and Sauda exchanged a knowing glance.
Winter’s eyes had turned solemn and cold. “I’ve signed your paperwork and heard you out,” he whispered. “So I think it’s time you told me the truth.”
Sauda laced her fingers together on the table and gave him a steady look. “We recruited your brother a month after he joined the Peace Corps,” she said. “He worked for us. He was a Panacea agent.”
5
All the World’s a Secret Stage
Winter should have known.
Should have guessed it during his first conversation with Sauda and Niall.
But who the hell would automatically assume that his late brother was a secret agent?
All those missions. All those times his brother had left for weeks, then come back and told him elaborately detailed stories about what he did. Lies.
No, not lies. Hehadworked for the Peace Corps. It just wasn’t the whole truth.
Had Artie once sat in the back of a car and listened in disbelief to Sauda making him an offer? Had he refused, then agreed? How had he really died?
“Are you okay?”
Winter looked up through his swimming thoughts to meet Sydney’s frown.
