Page 21 of Hunter's Game
“And after?” The question carried more weight than just tactical concerns.
Hunter’s smile was fierce as he gunned the engine in the final stretch of their treacherous journey. “Let’s survive this first. Then we’ll talk after.”
They rode through darkness toward the compound, leaving chaos and destruction in their wake. Ahead lay new alliances, new dangers, and the growing certainty that their separate missions had become hopelessly entangled.
Behind them, the rest of the Blind Jacks crew fell into formation, leaving Thompson’s forces to regroup, no doubt coordinating with other players in a game bigger than either of them had imagined.
And somewhere in between, Sarah Mitchell’s ghost waited with her hidden evidence and encrypted secrets.
The truth would either set them free or get them both killed.
Hunter found he didn’t care which outcome they were hurtling toward. For the first time since finding the woman curled up against his body, he had something worth fighting for beyond revenge.
He had a partner who understood the darkness in him.
He had a cause bigger than personal vendetta.
He had a chance to finish something that actually meant something beyond his own wants and desires.
And maybe, just maybe, he had something worth surviving for.
Assuming they lived long enough to find out.
After the security footage, after the mysterious messages, after all the carefully laid breadcrumbs, Eden still wasn’t prepared for the truth about Dr. Katherine Chen. She moved with the same economical grace Eden recognized from her own training.
The curator’s dark hair was pulled back in a practical bun, her features a more refined echo of Eden’s own. Where Eden’s eyes held barely contained fury, Katherine’s carried the patience of someone who’d played a very long game.
Now, watching the woman through her scope as she infiltrated Romano’s private gallery, Eden’s mind kept returning to that grainy video of her mother. The same fluid grace, the same precise movements—a Mitchell family legacy written in bone and blood.
“Target’s approaching the vault,” Hunter’s voice carried quiet tension through her earpiece. “You sure about this, Eden? Trusting Chen after she kept this secret for so long?”
“She did exactly what Mom would have done,” Eden replied, tracking her newfound family connection’s movements. “Built her cover so deep even I didn’t recognize her. Gatheredevidence right under Romano’s nose. Waited until everything was in place before making contact.”
She was still in shock. This woman was the closest connection she had to her mother, and she’d been right under her nose all along. She’d gone her whole life thinking she was alone in the world. Now, she had ties to another human being, albeit lose ones, but they were on her side. It was comfortin.
The memory of their confrontation just hours ago was still raw. Katherine in her office at the Institute, calmly laying out proof of their shared parentage while showing Eden their mother’s hidden case files. “I had to be sure you were ready,” she’d said. “That you’d figured out enough on your own to understand what we’re really dealing with.”
Looking at Katherine now, Eden could see all the similarities she should have noticed before—the way she carried herself, her methodical attention to detail, even the slight tilt of her head when she was concentrating. Their mother’s habits, passed down to both her daughters. Fifteen years of thinking she was alone in carrying Sarah Mitchell’s legacy, only to discover she’d had an ally all along.
“You’re staring.” Hunter observed, amusement mixing with concern. “Still processing the revelation?”
“Wouldn’t you be?” Eden kept her rifle steady as Katherine reached the vault door. “Finding outthe curator I’ve been studying for months was actually my mother’s closest confidant. That she’s been playing Romano this whole time, just like Mom did.”
“Speaking of lies.” Hunter’s position on the opposite roof gave him clear sightlines to all approaches. And gave her clear sightlines to him, which was more than a little distracting. “Want to tell me why those artifacts seem to react differently when you two are near them? The UV readings are off the charts.”
Eden studied the strange patterns emerging on her tablet’s screen. The artifacts’ quantum dot markers were pulsing with unusual intensity, their carefully engineered nanotechnology responding to something in the women’s genetic markers.
“It’s in the Mitchell DNA,” Katherine’s voice joined their conversation, her fingers dancing across the vault’s keypad. “Mom discovered that Romano’s organization had engineered these pieces to respond to specific genetic sequences. They’re not just art. They’re sophisticated data storage devices.”
“Storage for what exactly?” Despite the question, Hunter’s voice suggested he already knew.
“For everything.” Katherine’s smile was knowing as the vault door opened. “These pieces have been designed to conceal data using extremely advanced technology. Mom figured out how they worked, how Romano’s people usedspecific biomarkers to encode and access the hidden information.”
“And Romano killed her for it.” Eden kept her voice steady despite the rage burning in her chest. “Used our father to silence her before she could expose the truth.”
“Not just the truth about the artifacts.” Katherine’s movements were silent as she entered the vault. “The truth about what Romano’s organization was really doing: using cutting-edge tech to create the illusion of supernatural powers. About how they’ve been manipulating certain families for generations.”
Eden watched her screen as the artifacts’ readings spiked. Inside the hidden compartment they’d identified through careful surveillance, ancient tablets covered in seemingly random patterns waited, their surfaces engineered to conceal volumes of encrypted data.
