Page 59 of Hunted to Be Mine

“No.” He shook his head. “It moved too fast. Before I could act, the newbies made their move.”

“Their move?”

“They entered from different points.” His voice flattened, a report now. “Before they could touch the children, you intervened. You started fighting them.”

Specter went very still.

“You broke protocol,” Kruger said. “You attacked another Oblivion operative. That shouldn’t have been possible.”

“But it was.”

“They were good,” Kruger said. “While one engaged you, I went for the second, but the third went on a rampage. Through the screams and blood, you killed the first. I took down the second. Together, we eliminated the third.”

“But it was too late for the kids,” Specter said, hollow.

“Yes.”

Silence pressed in. Light cut his profile into sharp planes. His hands trembled, barely.

“I didn’t kill them,” he said at last, so quiet it almost wasn’t sound. “I tried to stop it.”

He let out a breath. Relief dropped through him like weight falling away.

Training aside, I knew what Oblivion required. Kill innocents to prove the programming held. No exceptions.

Without thinking, I reached for him. My fingers slid over his. His skin was cool, rough with calluses. He stiffened but didn’t pull away.

“That mission changed everything,” Kruger said. “You shouldn’t have been able to disobey. But you did. First crack.”

“Why didn’t you report it?” I asked.

“Because I saw something I’d never seen,” Kruger said. “Hope. If Dresner’s perfect weapon could break programming to save children, maybe there was more humanity left in all of you than we had believed.”

His words hung in the stale air. Hope. Fragile and dangerous. I looked at my hand over Specter’s, felt the contained force under his skin.

“So where do we go from here?” I asked. “You’ve been in hiding. Now we’re all running from the same people.”

Kruger leaned in, elbows on the table. “My channels inside Oblivion are limited, but I still have a few contacts. That’s how I knew Blackout was deployed to Prague.” He glanced at Specter. “Your timing is my only chance to live.”

“How convenient.” Specter kept his tone flat.

“I need protection,” Kruger said bluntly. “Help me reach the Croatian border. The mountains. I have connections there.”

“And in exchange?”

“Everything I know about the Farm and Oblivion. Locations of secure servers with agent files.” He looked between us. “Though without an army, you’ll never reach them.”

“Why is Dresner hunting us specifically?” I asked. “Why send Blackout instead of a standard team?”

“Specter’s refusal at St. Elisabeth’s created what Dresner calls ‘model contamination.’ The idea that programming can be broken—and the fact that you helped another asset and are trying to spread Oblivion intel”—he tapped the table once—“it terrifies him.”

“And me?”

“You’ve shown you can help break conditioning without destroying the subject,” he said. “He’s the weapon. You’re the key that unlocks him.”

My throat went dry. I wasn’t collateral. I was a prize.

“Blackout’s mission is to kill Specter and bring you in,” Kruger said.