Vlad didn't look at the extraction coordinates Tom had sent. He knew that the moment they handed this woman over to the Agency, she would become a lab rat—or worse, a replacement. He caught Vance's eye, and for the first time in their partnership, the younger agent didn't make a joke. He simply nodded, his jaw set.
"I know a spot," Vance whispered. "A decommissioned relay station in the Missouri Ozarks. It's off the Agency grid."
They bypassed the VTOL pick-up and hijacked a rugged, blacked-out transport rover from the facility's lower garage. Vlad drove, pushing the vehicle through the dense forest floor while the white-haired woman sat in the back, staring out the window at the passing trees as if seeing the world for the first time.
The Safehouse: Sector 4
Two hours later, they arrived at a small, reinforced cabin disguised as a ranger station. Inside, it was cold and smelled of pine and old electronics. Vlad started a fire in the hearth while Vance swept the perimeter for trackers.
The woman stood in the center of the room, the tactical cloak still wrapped around her. Vlad walked up to her, his movements slow so as not to spook her.
"What is your name?" he asked.
She turned her silver gaze toward him. "I am Subject Alpha-0," she said, her voice devoid of emotion. "The Beatrice you know is Delta-4. She was sent to Nashville to test the emotional-attachment parameters of the Unit."
Vlad felt a cold knot tighten in his stomach. "Emotional attachment?"
"She wasn't just 'nosey' about your mission, Vlad," she continued, her eyes fixed on his. "She was programmed to find you. To see if a high-level operative would protect a 'vulnerability.' She reported every heartbeat, every touch, and every word back to the Forge."
Vance walked back inside, leaning against the doorframe, his face pale. "So the whole thing at the Hyatt... the breakfast, the goodbye... it was all a data collection?"
"Yes," Alpha-0 replied. "And now that I am awake, Delta-4 is considered obsolete. Tom has already issued a 'Recall' order for her. In the Agency, a Recall means deletion."
Vlad's hand went to the grip of his blade. He didn't care if Beatrice was a "unit" or a "blueprint." To him, the heat in that hotel room had been real.