Page 64 of A Touch of Treachery (Section 47 #3)

CHARLOTTE

T he next few days passed in a blur of meetings and debriefings.

All my actions during the Winterfest mission were put under the proverbial microscope, and I spent hours being interviewed and typing up reports. Joan was also grilled, although to a lesser extent, since I was the instigator and she was merely my reluctant accomplice.

I stayed quiet about Joan’s alter ego as Nemesis and her interference in the Tannenbaum mission, and she kept her mouth shut about Gabriel helping us rescue Desmond. Between the two of us, we spun a plausible enough story to keep Gabriel out of the official reports.

Despite my going rogue, General Percy didn’t fire me, although I knew that had more to do with Desmond’s influence than any sudden benevolence on the General’s part.

My suspension was lifted, and I went back to my normal analyst duties on level three.

Percy didn’t return me to the hunts for Henrika Hyde, Niles Perran, and Oriana Luzzo, but I didn’t need him to.

One way or another, I was going to find Henrika and make her pay for everything she’d done to Desmond.

And so my life slowly returned to normal. Well, as normal as it could ever be at Section 47.

Two weeks after the lab explosion, I walked into the Moondust Diner to work my regular shift. I’d been so busy with Section meetings that Pablo had been stuck handling everything, and I wanted to give him a break.

It was another cold, snowy January night, and I was glad to leave the winter chill behind and step into the warm, bright diner.

I shrugged out of my winter gear and hung it all on a hook.

Then I tied a white apron on over my blue waitress uniform, went behind the counter, and peered through the open service window.

“Did you miss me?” I asked.

Pablo looked up from the burger and fries he was plating and gave me a wide smile. “Hey, stranger. Long time no see.”

“I’m so sorry about my sudden vacation. A friend from out of town had to have knee surgery and needed some help. It took longer than I expected for her to get back on her feet.”

The friend-in-need lie was an old Section standby which I’d used to explain my unexpected absence from the diner.

Pablo had believed me, but I still felt terrible for deceiving him.

Even if I’d told him the truth, I doubted he would have believed me.

Supernatural spies, magical abilities, underground labs, daring rescues, massive explosions.

I wouldn’t have believed it myself, if I hadn’t lived through it all.

Behind me, the front door opened, and the bell chimed. A gust of cold air blasted over my back, making me shiver.

“Be with you in a second,” I called out, grabbing a notepad and pen from the back counter.

“Take your time, Charlotte. I’m in no rush.”

My hands froze, and my entire body stiffened, as though someone had just shoved a knife into my back. That low, silky voice had echoed through more than a few of my nightmares over the past two weeks.

“Something wrong?” Pablo asked, frowning at my sudden silence and stillness.

I forced myself to smile at him, even as my fingers curled a little more tightly around the notepad and the pen. “I just need to see what this customer wants.”

Pablo nodded and returned to his plating. I slowly turned around, knowing and dreading what I would find.

Henrika Hyde was standing at the dining counter wearing a stylish dark green coat. A smile spread across her face. “Hello, Charlotte.”

Every muscle in my body tensed, and I had to resist the urge to leap across the counter and tackle her. Two men stepped into the diner behind Henrika, both wearing long dark coats over matching suits, and I didn’t need my synesthesia to know they were armed.

Henrika tilted her head to the side. “Let’s chat.”

I had no choice but to step around the counter.

Henrika sat down in the back corner booth that Gabriel, Desmond, and I always used.

The two guards followed, although they plopped down in another booth a few feet away.

All the customers kept eating, while the other waitresses saw to their needs.

In the kitchen, Pablo and the other chefs continued cooking, and everyone was completely oblivious to the danger.

“What do you want?” I growled.

Henrika arced an eyebrow at my harsh tone. “I hear this place has excellent desserts. Let’s start with that.”

I whirled around, marched back behind the counter, and grabbed a blackberry cheesecake Pablo had made earlier. I put a slice on a plate, then carried it over to Henrika, who gestured for me to slide into the opposite side of the booth. My stomach clenched, but I did as commanded.

Henrika looked at me, and I looked right back at her.

My heart thumped at a painful pace, and clammy sweat coated my palms. It took all my willpower not to look at the neon French fries sign burning in the window beside us—and the three vials of Redburn hidden inside it.

I didn’t know why Henrika was here, but if she realized I had samples of her formula, she would probably kill me and everyone else in the diner.

Henrika looked at me a moment longer, then stabbed a fork into the cheesecake and took a bite. “Mmm. Delicious.”

She hadn’t noticed the sign or the vials. I had to bite my tongue to keep from hissing with relief.

“What do you want?” I growled again. “If you’re here to murder me, then take me out into the parking lot and put a bullet in my head. But leave these people out of it. Nobody here has done anything to you.”

Henrika took another bite of cheesecake, set her fork down, and nudged her plate aside. “As amusing as it is to watch you plead for your customers’ lives, mass murdering innocent civilians has never really been my style.”

“You dream up biomagical weapons for fun . Mass murder is literally your job .”

She waved off my accusation. “I just make the weapons. What the buyer does with those weapons is completely on their conscience, not mine.” Henrika gave me a cool look.

“I bet you’ll reconsider your self-righteous stance when you realize what your Section superiors are really up to. Care to wager on it?”

I knew she was talking about General Percy, and I couldn’t keep myself from asking the obvious question. “What would that be?”

Henrika shook her head. “I’m disappointed in you, Charlotte. I sent you everything you needed to find the answers you’re so desperately searching for.”

“What answers ?”

She laughed, as though it should have been as clear as glass. “About your father, of course. And what really happened in Mexico.”

Once again, my entire body stiffened, even as my heart gave a painful wrench. A dozen questions dangled on the tip of my tongue, but I swallowed them all down. Henrika was playing yet another game, and she wouldn’t tell me anything she didn’t want me to know.

She eyed me, but when it became apparent that I wasn’t going to demand answers, her mouth puckered with disappointment. “Well, I’m sure you’ll figure it out sooner or later. But in the meantime, I have another engagement.”

Henrika delicately blotted her red lips with a napkin, slid out of the booth, and got to her feet. She pulled a hundred-dollar bill out of her coat pocket and laid it on the tabletop. She stared at me, a thoughtful look filling her face. “Come work for me, Charlotte.”

Shock zinged through me. That was just about the last thing I’d expected her to say. “ What? ”

“Come work for me,” she repeated. “We both know your talents are being wasted at Section 47. Jethro Percy is a duplicitous fool who will never appreciate your skills. I could use someone like you in my organization. Someone smart and dedicated. Someone who can see the big picture and isn’t afraid to break the rules to get results. ”

Truth , my synesthesia whispered. As crazy as it seemed, Henrika’s offer was genuine.

I slid out of the booth and climbed to my feet so that we were eye to eye. “I will never work for you,” I growled. “And I will never stop trying to take you down for what you did to Desmond. You should just kill me now. Because sooner or later, one way or another, I will destroy you.”

A mysterious smile played across her lips. “We’ll see. Enjoy your evening, Charlotte. And please tell Pablo that cheesecake was amazing .”

Henrika lifted her fingers to her mouth and blew a chef’s kiss. She smirked at me a moment longer, then strolled away. The two guards followed her, and all three of them left the diner.

Helpless and angry, I stood by the booth and watched through the windows as my greatest nemesis climbed into a waiting SUV and disappeared into the cold, snowy night.

I didn’t call Gia or Evelyn and tell them what had happened. I didn’t call Joan or Diego either. I didn’t even alert Gabriel or Desmond. Instead, I finished my shift, closed the diner for the night, and went to my apartment.

Desmond was working late at Section headquarters, still caught up in his own mission debriefings and reports. I texted to let him know I was home, stripped off my waitress uniform, took a hot shower, and threw on some fuzzy fleece pajamas.

Then I got to work.

Over the past two weeks, I’d brought home copies of every single Section file relating to Henrika.

All the initial research I’d done on her, all the reports about our confrontation at the Halstead Hotel, all the info from the Tannenbaum mission and the Vault heist, and every map, photo, and report relating to the Winterfest mission.

Several towering piles of folders, binders, and papers covered the kitchen island counter, and I hadn’t had a chance to put them in any kind of order yet.

No time like the present.

I grabbed the files, sat down on my yoga mat, and spread everything out on the floor. And then I went through them all again. Only this time, instead of trying to figure out where Henrika had gone, I scoured the files for anything connected to my father’s doomed Mexico mission.