Not If I Save You First

twenty-eight | false flags

It didn't take long for Grayson to declare that the conversation was over. Nothing productive has been said during this interrogation. Donovan Halstead is playing everything close to the vest. He hasn't let a single detail slip. His linguistic choices are superior right now.

"You two are Seven and Nine. Have you ever wondered if there's an Eight roaming around?" Donovan asked.

"Don't play me like that," I stated.

"I'm not playing. Leila has mentioned it many times before. The Hawthorne's have said that the only number that matters is three. Any idea what that means?" Donovan asked.

"Whatever it means, you'll never find out," I said, stepping away from the table. "You'll never get another dose of the technology and Leila won't get the chance to kill her parents."

🂧

When we got back to the apartment Celia, Thea, and Archer were crowding around the computers in my bedroom. I let them all have access to my bedroom while we were gone, which is completely out of my comfort zone. No one should ever be allowed in my bedroom while I'm not there. My entire life as a secret agent is in this room.

"Leila Schneider," Archer muttered, not removing his eyes from the screen. "My sister goes by a different last name. She was so close and never reached out to me."

Grayson pushed his way to the front of the computers.

He typed away for a few seconds, before configuring all the necessary information that we needed to understand.

Step one: background.

"Leila Schneider didn't exist until she was about eleven years old. No birth certificate but the name Leila Schneider was first used on a United States passport and was stamped in London then Scotland on the same dates. After a few years of living off the grid in remote isolation, Schneider started using that passport like it was a debit card. Stamps in Bulgaria, Romania, Italy, Spain, and Ireland," Grayson explained.

"Donovan Halstead said that his associate is a nomad. All these countries seem like pretty nomadic tendencies to me," I said.

"How is this information going to help us find Leila and my parents?" Archer asked.

Grayson huffed at Archer's question.

What is his problem?

I started writing down and mumbling the answers that Donovan Halstead had given to me. That man doesn't say anything by accident.

First he said that he had a feisty assistant. That concluded to the finding of Leila Schneider/Hawthorne's existence. Second he said that she wanted to play the long game. Her and Donovan had differing opinions on how long their plan would take. Third he said that Archer looks like his associate but is nothing like her. We now know that he was talking about Leila. Fourth he called his associate the daughter of the night. The name Leila means night.

I don't know how I didn't put all this information together earlier.

"Seven?" Grayson questioned. "Seven?" he asked again, and I finally stopped muttering to myself. "Can I talk to you?"

Grayson and I went to the kitchen to have some privacy; however, he requested for Little Dean to come with us. I sat on a stool at the island, ready to be interrogated by my older brother and a kid who barely knows the difference between espionage and policing.

"Dean and I have been talking and we don't think involving Archer anymore is a good idea," Grayson said. He stood in front of me, leaning against the island. Little Dean stood off to the side like he always does. "He did his part by talking to Donovan Halstead, but this is his family we're talking about. He can't be around this."