Agent 34

Chapter 5

Everly's POV

"Tell me about Agent Nineteen," I said as I looked over her file. This got a long sigh out of Ian and he ran his hands over his face. For a split second, he looked absolutely exhausted, but that look was soon gone.

He pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. "Nineteen is . . . something else."

I raised my eyebrows at him before looking at the psychological profile written up for her. It was pages longer than anyone else's.

Alejandra Villa. Age seventeen. Her file was much longer and not in a good way. There were pictures of her kills as well as pictures of people she'd brutally tortured before killing and none of it was pretty. I would have thought her and Lily could have become the best of friends if it wasn't for the fact that the best description of her given by the agency psychologist was that she was a sociopath. In reading over her file, I had to agree. Except for some rare instances listed, she seemed to have absolutely no conscience. Although, in reading through her file, she didn't seem to have any of the superficial charm often associated with sociopaths. She just seemed, closed off to everything and everyone. Detached.

"So I've read," I finally replied to Ian. I looked up at him from the file. He looked like someone who had been trying to help but just didn't know what more to do for her anymore. He'd given up.

"You don't want her on your team anymore," I stated.

He let out another sigh and shook his head. "No," He replied.

"You think she's a risk."

He nodded again. "I allowed her to be placed on our team because I thought we could help her. I thought maybe I could get her on the right track but now . . . I just don't know what to do with her."

I stared at him. "You do realize that being a sociopath is a personality disorder and rarely can you actually ever help them, right?"

"She's just so young," Ian said quietly. "I thought I could help. And she wasn't like this before." He shrugged. "At least, that's what I'm told. I don't know too much about how to she came to be in the agency but from what I've heard her talk about and from what Zero was able to learn about her past, she was a normal child."

"Until she suffered a trauma," I said as I looked over the section of the file written about her past. "Shut down, blocked out all emotions, and detached herself from everything."

He nodded. "That just about sums it up."

I studied him. "Why do you think she's a risk?" I asked him.

He briefly looked at me before turning away to stare at the wall. "I'm afraid she's going to cross a line she won't be able to come back from."

"You're afraid she'll kill someone on the team.

He just shrugged. "When she gets going with torture or killing, the look in her eyes is just . . ." He trailed off. Didn't finish his sentence. He didn't have to. I knew all too well.

"Off," I finished for him. "Like there's someone else there. Someone else who will take a life without caring who it belongs to. Someone who no longer recognizes whose side they're on or who their friends are." I could feel him looking at me. He was studying my face but I gave nothing away. Even though I knew all too well what it was like to know someone like that.

I set down Agent Nineteen's file and picked up the next one in the stack, wanting to move on. And hoping he wouldn't turn the questions on to me.

And just like that, after reading the name listed at the top of the file, I completely forgot our previous conversation. I scowled and anger flared up inside me. I turned the file around for Ian to see and pushed it across the table to him.

"She's not an agent," I said firmly.

Ian raised his eyebrows in surprise at my tone before looking at the file I'd turned toward him. He pushed it back to me. "Yes, she is."

"No," I said as I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned back in my seat. "She betrayed this agency."

Ian shook his head. "Zero wanted someone on the inside to monitor Lydia's operations. He sent her alone. She reports into me every week or so, but otherwise, we have no contact. I report back to Zero with whatever she tells me. She's still an agent. The paperwork on her has just been buried very well."

Lydia Kingston was a former agent that turned against the agency. Mostly because she believed Zero wasn't actually looking out for anyone's best interest. At least, that's how the story goes. Reality is that she just wanted the freedom to do whatever she wanted to whoever she wanted. She didn't like being bound by laws. She was able to recruit a whole lot of people, agents and criminals alike, to her organization. So far, she had posed no real threat to the Agency, so Zero hadn't made her a priority. He still wanted her brought in, but he didn't particularly care when it happened since she'd made no direct threats to the Agency. She was also, my older sister. She'd tried to kill me a couple of times, I'd tried to kill her, and right now we were actually on speaking terms. She'd been uncharacteristically helpful as of late. We had a complicated relationship, to say the least.

I blew out a long breath. "I don't believe this," I muttered more to myself than him.

"Believe it, Sugar."

I hadn't even heard the interrogation room door open. But there she was, leaning up against the wall next to the open door. Long hair dyed a fiery red, tattoos down up and down her left arm and leg, to her elbow on her right arm, and all across her chest and back, and then there were the piercings all over her face. One in her eyebrow, nose, another half a dozen in one ear, a couple more in the other ear, and one last one in her belly button. All of this visible only because of the hole filled tight-fitting white crop top with the black leather vest over it, black jean shorts, and black combat boots that looked like the kind issued to soldiers.

She pushed off from the wall and pulled up a second chair, taking a seat next to Ian and putting her feet up on the table between us.

Ian looked just as surprised to see her as I felt. "What are you doing here?" He asked her.

Tessa Dixon turned to give him a look of irritation. "An agent of our team goes missing and you expect me to continue playing suck up to her-" She jerked her thumb in my direction briefly as she spoke to him. "-b***h of a sister? Not happening."

Ian looked like he wanted to strangle her. "I expected you to follow Zero's orders."

She rolled her eyes. "Please, what agent-besides you and Noelle-actually does that?"

Ian glared at her. She glared right back.

Unfortunately, she then decided to turn her attention to me. "Tell me," She started as she stared at me, but I knew she was actually talking to Ian. "Why are you fraternizing with Heartless b***h?"

I ignored her, since I knew she was just looking to get a rise out of me and got to my feet. "I think I've got everything I need."

Ian frowned. "You didn't even ask me about Agent Fifteen."

"I didn't need to," I replied as I gathered up all the files.

"Why?" Ian questioned me suspiciously.

I barely resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "Because I know all I need to know about him." I picked up all the files and started for the door, knowing damn well he'd be following me. Tessa too, unfortunately.

"You've spent the past hour grilling me about my agents-"

"It has not been an hour," I said. "Don't be dramatic."

"-only to stop short on the last agent."

I sighed. I knew he wasn't going to drop this. I picked up Agent Fifteen's file from the top and flipped it open over the stack of files. "Agent Fifteen. Ryan Darwood," I read aloud. "Eighteen years old. According to the file. Not according to the file, he's a pain in the ass who thankfully has wised up enough to no follow me around on missions anymore. I've saved his ass way too many times to count and on the very rare occasions I ever actually attend a family event I'm always forced to sit next to him. For whatever reason, he's decided I'm his honorary big sister." I turned to Ian who was staring at me in surprise. "He's my cousin," I said simply. "I could tell you just about whatever you want me to tell you about him. Unfortunately. That kid just does not know how to shut up and keep things to himself."

This actually got a smile out of Ian. "That sounds about right."

"Why are we working with her?" Tessa questioned.

Ian made a face. "Zero's not giving us a choice."

"Wonderful," Tessa said sarcastically. "It's bad enough I've been stuck dealing with the other one. Now you're telling me I have to deal with this one?"

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not jumping at the chance to work with you either, Tessa," I told her.

"Yeah?" She crossed her arms over her chest and got in my face. "Well with a few well-worded sentences, I could get you off this mission. After all, there are so many things I could tell Zero about your . . . extracurricular activities."

I stared back at her without blinking. "And I have a few things I could tell him about yours."

She let out a bark of laughter. "I have an excuse. I was undercover. What exactly were you doing during your time with Lydia?"

I shrugged. "That's a little bit above your clearance." I smiled sweetly at her. "Shame." I turned and began walking away.

Files spilled from my hands all over the floor as was I shoved into the wall. I glared over my shoulder at Tessa before stooping down and gathering up the scattered pages.

"I forgot how charming you were. And how very mature," I told her sarcastically as I gathered up the last of the files.

"I was never your biggest fan either," Tessa replied with a glare.

"And why's that?" I questioned. "Because I have a conscience?"

Tessa's arm pulled back and I was ready to drop the files once again and throw her into the wall instead. But Zero was the one to grab hold of her fist before she could strike me.

"You are supposed to be watching Lydia, Agent Eleven," He told her.

She turned to glare at him for keeping her from striking me. She pulled her fist from his hand and adjusted her jacket. "That got boring," She told him.

Zero narrowed his eyes at her. "I don't care whether or not it got boring, as you call it. I'm ordering you back to Lydia."

Tessa sucked in a breath of air. "See, I don't think that's going to be possible."

"And why not?"

Tessa shrugged and tried to look innocent, which only served to make her look like a hungry coyote. "Well, I don't think Lydia trusts me anymore."

"And why's that?" Zero asked as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Well, it could have something to do with me just disappearing like I did to come here. It could be that I haven't answered any of her calls or texts as I usually do." She pretended to ponder over it before snapping her fingers together and widening her eyes like she just had an epiphany.

"Wait," She said. "I've got it. It had to have been when she told me not to leave and I told her to go f**k herself because my teammate was missing and I had to go report to, well, you," She said to Zero.

If she hadn't just attacked me, I would have laughed, because for once in his life, Zero appeared to be comically speechless.

He looked like he wanted to bash her head in or strangle her with his bare hands. His face was turning red from anger and his mouth kept opening and closing as if he were trying to find the words to say but couldn't decide between yelling at her or just plain old violence.

Ian let out a sigh and rubbed at his forehead, a sure sign that this was not the first time something like this had happened involving Tessa. Though that did not surprise me. The best description anyone-and I do mean anyone-at the agency had for Tessa was that she was a b***h. And that was the nicest thing anyone ever had to say about her.

"You blew your cover!?" Zero finally roared.

Tessa rolled her eyes dramatically. "No, I'm welcome back any time with open arms after that."

If Zero was a cartoon character, smoke would be erupting from his ears right now. It was rare he ever got this mad and it was usually because of me. So the fact that this anger was not directed at me was putting a smile on my face.

"My office," Zero growled out at Tessa. "Now."

Tessa shook her head. "I'm going to pass, thanks. I still got Heartless b***h to deal with," She said as she turned her attention back to me.

Zero grabbed hold of her arm. "That was not a suggestion."

Now, I knew for a fact that just because Zero typically sat behind a desk all day, did not mean he had never been trained as an agent and that he was not just some weak pushover. He knew how to fight as well as any agent and he was good at it. There was a reason he'd become the chief.

He dragged her away with an iron grip and she appeared to know that she would not be able to get away because she didn't really put up a fight.

I smiled at her innocently and gave a finger wave in her direction.

She threw a knife back at me.

I caught it. Which only served to piss her off even more.

I blew out a sigh as I looked at the knife in my hand. "I forgot just how much I disliked dealing with Tessa."