Page 91 of Tag (The Golden Team #9)

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T he helicopter's blades cut through the sky like a war drum.

But in the cabin, it was quiet.

Too quiet.

Lacey had fallen asleep against Aponi’s side, but I knew Aponi wasn’t resting. She hadn’t said a word since we took off—just sat there holding the paper like it might tell her more if she stared hard enough.

I sat across from her, watching the storm build behind her eyes. She wasn’t breaking down—Aponi didn’t do that. She was processing. Calculating.

Preparing for war.

When we landed, Cyclone and Gage helped the girls off the helicopter and led them inside the safehouse. Blue was already there, waiting to examine them. She took one look at their bare feet and hollow eyes and went full doctor mode, her voice soft and warm as she ushered them into the medical room.

Aponi didn’t follow.

She walked straight past the others and into the ops room.

I followed her.

The second the door closed behind us, she spread the list on the table, her fingers tracing the names like each one was a landmine.

Four crossed out. Hers circled. Mine just below it.

“What does this mean?” I asked, stepping beside her.

“It’s a kill list,” she said quietly. “But not just any list. This is a target roster for Chimera’s cleanup unit . The ones they can’t control, they erase.”

I clenched my fists. “Then we find them first.”

Her hand stopped on the seventh name.

Classified.

I stared at it. “Any guesses?”

She shook her head. “Could be someone we haven’t met yet. Could be someone we already know and don’t realize they’re involved.”

The implication sat heavy between us.

“Someone inside?” I asked. “Feeding them intel?”

Aponi hesitated—then nodded. “Graves knew too much. Chimera knew about our mission plans. Our movements. My real name. Either they’ve got someone inside law enforcement… or someone near us .”

Silence.

I hated the thought. But we couldn’t ignore it.

“Then we smoke them out,” I said.

Aponi looked up at me, fire in her eyes. “And we end this list before anyone else gets crossed off. And when this is over we find an Island and swim in the ocean where no one is.”

I nodded. “I agree, sweetheart. Just you and me. But first we finish this. We start with the crossed-out names. If we can figure out who they were, maybe we’ll understand the pattern.”

Faron stepped in right then, holding a file. “I’ve got your pattern.”

He dropped the file on the table. “Two of the four crossed-out names? Former CIA assets. The third was an investigative journalist who vanished six months ago after chasing leads on a child trafficking ring. The fourth?” He looked at Aponi. “FBI. Went missing two years ago. Off the grid.”

Aponi frowned. “What do they have in common?”

“They all tried to expose Chimera.”

I looked down at the list again.

“So what’s the connection between them and us?”

Faron flipped a second sheet. “They all reached out to a single alias in the last year: SilverEye82 .”

My pulse thudded. “The woman with the tattoo?”

“Could be,” Faron said. “We’re trying to trace it, but it’s bouncing off encrypted servers like nothing we’ve ever seen.”

Aponi pressed her palms to the table, her voice steel. “Then we dig deeper.”

I stepped behind her, wrapped my arms around her waist. She didn’t pull away. Instead, she leaned back just enough for her head to rest against my chest.

“We’ve got one name left to uncover,” I said. “One final player.”

“And when we find them…” she whispered, “we bury everyone tied to Chimera.”