Page 6 of Hunted to Be Mine

Morning light from the skylight divided his face. Half in shadow, half in light. Every choice with him felt intentional.

He extended his hand across the glass table. “Thank you for your quick thinking in there, Dr. Crawford.”

I took it, analyzing the interaction with clinical detachment. Skin temperature normal, pressure carefully calibrated, duration exactly three seconds. Professional. Controlled. Nothing given away.

“Just doing my job, Commander.”

“Iain.” The familiarity felt more like tactics than courtesy. “May I?” He gestured to the chair opposite mine, asking permission he clearly didn’t need.

From beneath the table, he produced a silver tray with coffee service. An impossibility given the sterile setup. The message was clear: I control things you don’t see coming.

“I thought you might need proper coffee after the morning you’ve had.” He poured without a spill. “One sugar, splash of cream?”

My exact preference. Not a guess. A demonstration of surveillance so complete it included my coffee order.

“Your intelligence gathering is thorough.”

“Not intelligence.” His mouth tightened by a fraction. “Observation. You ordered the same at the interdepartmental conference last spring. The one where you presented on cognitive fracturing in deep cover operatives.”

“You were there?” The blind spot in my memory disturbed me more than his knowledge.

“Your work on identity compartmentalization was… illuminating.” He leaned back, coffee untouched, using the pause to let me wonder what else he’d observed. “Particularlyyour thoughts on memory reconsolidation under extreme stress.”

I sipped my coffee, perfectly prepared and unsettling. “I assume we’re not here to discuss my academic work.”

“Aren’t we?” He set down his cup with care. “What you’ve studied, every paper you’ve written, has been preparing you for this moment. For him.”

The weight of that statement hit hard.

“Tell me about the organization.”

His expression shifted, the mask slipping just enough to show genuine concern beneath. “Project Marionette was a Cold War relic. Crude psychological programming through drugs, deprivation, and conditioning. Twenty years ago, Tobias Dresner acquired the research and transformed it into something far more sophisticated. Dresner’s network doesn’t just program operatives, it rebuilds them from the ground up. It was one of the goals of this organization.”

SENTINEL’s official mandate. Counter-terrorism, transnational threats, the usual diplomatic language that masked bloodier truths. But the weight in Dawson’s tone suggested something more personal.

“Dresner doesn’t see himself as a criminal.” He watched me over the rim of his cup. “He believes he’s advancing human evolution. Removing the inefficiency of free will.”

The coffee turned bitter on my tongue.

“Specter isn’t just a patient, Dr. Crawford. He’s evidence. Proof that Dresner’s network exists beyond rumor and redacted files.” Dawson leaned forward, elbows on glass. “The UN Security Council has authorized extreme measures to dismantle Oblivion, but first we need to understand how deep their conditioning goes. Whether it can be reversed. And with this newfound memory, we can gather true knowledge on howDresner operates, which will help us bring the whole structure down.”

“And if it can’t?”

“Then we’ve lost him.” Simple. Final. “But your work suggests otherwise. Memory reconsolidation, emotional anchoring, the techniques you pioneered with trauma victims.”

“Those were civilians suffering PTSD, not trained killers with systematic neural conditioning.”

“Exactly.” His smile returned, sharper now. “Which is why you’re the only person qualified to try.”

The weight of Dawson’s analysis settled over me like humidity.

“Why did he cooperate?” The question cut sharper than I’d intended. “Specter. Once he was in São Paulo police custody, he could have stayed silent. Could have waited for extraction or leveraged his information differently.”

Dawson’s expression shifted, something like approval flickering across his features.

“You read the intelligence brief.”

“I read what I could about him.” I set down my cup. “The police report said he initiated contact. Asked specifically for SENTINEL representation.”