“Key players?”
“Ricardo. Catherine Keyes. Tia. Cypher. Redford.” As I spoke, a photo of each of them appeared. These might be the key people involved in this mystery, but there was somebody outside the building who was somehow connected. “Carmen LaToya.”
The photos moved around the board. Ricardo slid to the side. Cypher and Redford moved to the right, “Apprehended” appearing over their faces.
“Tia is an ally.”
Connor scoffed. “Janet is going to hate this.”
“I won’t tell if you don’t.”
“Deal.”
“This leaves Catherine Keyes and Carmen LaToya.”
I moved closer, studying their faces. Keyes had a controlled expression, as if she were trying to maintain her composure. LaToya, on the other hand, didn’t feel as if she tried—emotionally vacant came naturally. I could only imagine the lack of excitement of being in a room with both of them.
I put a finger on Tia’s photo and moved it between them. “There’s our link.”
I expected a confirmation, but when I turned, Connor’s eyebrow had lifted ridiculously high on his forehead. With two fingers, I tapped Tia’s wrist. A square appeared, zooming in on the tattoo. “That marker is the giveaway. Keyes planted it in the file. She must have known it’d catch my attention.”
“This data is insufficient for a proper conclusion.”
“I assure you?—”
The photos flew off the board, replaced by a photo of me. “Drew Hayes. You are the missing data point.”
“I don’t follow.” Unfortunately, I did. Admitting it would mean?—
“Aka Tint.” A second photo appeared with me in costume. Behind me, Wyatt and Orion were striking poses. I hated to admit it, but Janet’s conviction that we neededpress photos wasn’t a bad idea. We looked like arealsuperhero team. “Aka Hellion.”
In a millisecond, my greatest fear became a reality. Photos shifted until three sets of eyes stared back at me, all of them mine. Seeing them side-by-side, I almost didn’t recognize my face. I had siloed each identity to the point of dissociation. I needed to react, to push away the truth.
“What?” I turned to eye Connor. “No. Me? Hellion? That doesn’t make sense.”
“Oh. Am I supposed to be shocked?” His jaw dropped, and his eyes went wide. The gasp was unnecessary. “I would have never suspected.”
“You knew.”
He pointed to his face. “Not the face of knowing.” Speaking without closing his mouth was a nice touch. “Shocked!”
“Who knows?” I growled.
There were a thousand questions I wanted to ask. How had he figured it out? What in my routine had given it away? With how often he scanned surveillance cameras, perhaps he caught some telling sign? With the computer running inside his brain, who knew how he had connected the dots.
“I didn’t till just now.”
My eyes darted around the apartment, looking for the cracks as reality shattered. The world hadn’t come crashing down. The only disturbance came in the form of a snortand a snore from his bedroom. Turning back to the board, it had happened. With a thin blue line connecting each of the photographs, I had been exposed.
“Oh.”
His face relaxed. “The tattoo is the mark of the Trident. They’ve been highly active in Southland, specifically looking for one street-level vigilante. If Carmen LaToya used Tia’s tattoo for what I suspect is the Centurion gala, and for Keyes to know it’d trigger you… Synergy is no longer the center of the conspiracy.”
The photographs moved about. Lines connected me to everybody, but now there were additional lines from Hellion in the mix. I could hardly wrap my head around it. I had been outed, and Connor moved on as if it were an observation about the weather.
“I’m impressed you avoided me for this long.”
“Thanks.” I think?
