Page 26 of G.O.D.S Omnibus

Stage two is birth to five.

Stage three is six to eleven.

Stage four is twelve to seventeen.

Stage five is eighteen to twenty-one.

Stage six is trained operative.

Not everyone makes it through all the stages, and each stage contains specific trials.

“We have captured Agent Trace.” Mr Z pauses, waiting for a reaction, and like good little robots we sit straight faced, just like he trained us to do.

“When?” Boston asks. “When did you capture him?”

“A little over a month ago.”

“Is he dead?” Laughn asks. Cracking his split knuckles, he waits for the news that Trace was executed. My earlier thoughts of him being with his pet were wrong; he has been in a fight.

“No, we are still getting the information we need from him,” Brennan intervenes.

“He fucking killed her. He should have been shot on sight. Who gives a fuck what he knows!” Davis yells. His temper can get the better of him when it comes to Zircon.

“That’s the part of the story you might want to be quiet for,” Brennan says. “We have reason to believe that Zircon is still alive.”

“Jolie,” I whisper, and Brennan nods.

A few choice words are slung around the room, but no one reacts too strongly in front of Mr Z.

“How long have you suspected that Jolie is Zircon?” Marlow asks Brennan.

“About a year. That is why I became her social worker, so we could watch her and find out if she is working for anyone. However, we have suspected she didn’t die since it happened.”

“And what did you find out?” I ask through clenched teeth, trying to rein in my anger.

“Not a lot. She and Trace have had no contact in that year. She also didn’t have contact with anyone else deemed suspect,” Brennan says, pulling down a white board.

“Does she know who she is? You have to know something,” Boston demands.

“She either knows everything and has excellent training, or she literally knows nothing. You are all expected to remainprofessional until we know for sure. Brennan will take her to see one of our doctors for testing. For now, I have to go, but Brennan can answer any further questions.” With that, he ends the call.

We all look to Brennan; we had a feeling he was being a shifty fuck—but a whole year? He should have said something.

“What the fuck are we supposed to do with this information?” I ask.

Boston stands and paces the room, running his fingers through his hair. “How could you leave us in the dark for so long?”

“If I told you, all of you would have tried to save her. We needed to go slow and monitor her movements to try to flush out Trace.”

Brennan has a point; we would have barged in and fucked everything up.

“You kept Trace alive in case you needed to use him against her. What else don’t we know?” Boston stares his brother down.

“I can’t be sure, but she claims he’s her best friend. If he feels the same way, we can use her reaction to him being in harm’s way. It will give us a good indication if everything is a cover—she will have been trained to have no reaction.”

I tune out everything in the room, lighting a blunt. A year they have known where she was. For four years, they’ve kept us in the dark about their suspicions. They told us she died. There is more going on and they won’t tell us. There is a need to know, and they have only told us now because they have an agenda. We will have our own meeting without Brennan at some point—not in the house—to air our thoughts.

I need to see her, to look her in the eyes. Zircon’s crystal blonde hair is gone, hair previously so blonde it was almost translucent. Her front teeth were slightly crooked as well. Jolie’s eyes are the only similarity, and even those are not exactly the same.

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