“Dex,” Sparks warned, “continue the questioning.”
Dex rounded on Sparks. “No. I want to know why, when I said she was some kind of secret spy, he looked at you?”
“That isn’t relevant.”
“Oh, it is very fucking relevant!” Dex marched up to her, his anger boiling up. “Why did he look at you?” Dex didn’t care who Sparks was or who she worked for. He wanted some goddamn answers. “I’m getting really fucking tired of being dicked around. Answer the question!”
“Dex, calm down.”
“Was my mother a spy?”
Sparks met his gaze, her expression stern. “No.”
Dex eyed her warily. “Is that the truth?”
Sparks’s steel-gray eyes were penetrating. “Your mother was not a spy, Dex.” She took hold of his arm and pulled him to one side. “He’s toying with you. It’s what he does. Your mother was a very resourceful woman. If she didn’t have the information she needed, do you really believe she wouldn’t have found a way to get it? With your father’s connections? Don’t let him push your buttons.”
Dex nodded. She was right. He was playing right into Shultzon’s hands. His father had been a detective for the HPF. He’d likely had all kinds of connections. From the sounds of it, his mom had set her sights on Shultzon and whatever it was his superiors were up to. The Daleys weren’t easily dissuaded. It wouldn’t surprise him if she’d learned certain techniques from his dad and used them to find a way to get into the secure room. Why, he had no idea. Sloane came up beside him, his hand to the small of Dex’s back, and all at once, Dex felt himself calm.
“You want to keep going?”
“Yeah.” He gave Sloane a small smile. “I’m good.”
Sloane returned to his post by the door, and Dex faced Shultzon. “Tell me about the hit.”
“The order came from my superiors. I couldn’t tell you who. I was never privy to that kind of information. Very few people were. We discovered Gina was meeting someone at a specific location one evening, and the decision was made to intercept.”
“Meaning?”
“Kill her and collect whatever she had on her. Your father being there was unexpected. Once the orders were carried out, we were informed she had nothing on her. We looked everywhere but couldn’t find the file. After a certain amount of time, we had to accept she’d taken our secrets to the grave with her.”
“And the list? Tell me about this First Gens list.”
“It contained the names of First Gen Therians with certain anomalies in their blood.”
“What kind of anomalies?”
“We never got that far in our research. You have to keep in mind that First Generation Therians were only children at the time. We could study them, run certain tests, but the real research couldn’t start until they reached adulthood. By the time that happened, we had no list to go on.”
“So there was only ever one copy?” Dex asked dubiously.
Shultzon nodded. “I couldn’t risk the information falling into the wrong hands. There was no telling what these anomalies meant. After the file went missing, along with the list, I only had a few names to go on. When these children reached maturity, we began conducting the necessary tests. We were about to move them to a secure facility, falsify their deaths, when—as if they’d known—the THIRDS swooped in and removed our most promising candidates. I still believe we had a leak in our facility. The THIRDS couldn’t have known what we were doing off the books, and certainly not about the intended transport of several youths.” Shultzon turned to study Sloane. “She could have saved you, you know. You and the Keeler boys.”
Sloane frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“Do you remember when you were nine years old and your parents brought you to the CDC Registration Office? You were so small and frightened. You clung to your mother the entire time, all through the examination. One conducted by a beautiful blonde doctor with stunning blue eyes and a smile that could rival the sun.”
Dex’s heart lurched, and instinctively he turned to Sloane, who looked just as stricken.
“She smiled at you and told you everything was going to be all right. But it wasn’t all right, was it, Sloane?”
“Stop,” Sloane said through his teeth.
“She knew what was going to happen to you. It was all documented. She knew your classification, how lethal you were. You were due to shift at any moment, and then you’d be taken from your family. Your name was at the top of that list, a list she herself had seen. Yet she said nothing. Too concerned with saving the world, she left you to the wolves.”
“I said stop.”
“She knew you would be the first to be taken. How does it feel, knowing your lover’s mother did nothing to stop your impending years of torture? You’re barely forty. God knows what effects those experiments will let loose in a few years’ time.”