AGENT 23 BLACKOUT (Agent 23 Book 1)

CHAPTER 25

As I trace every inch of her face, Zero tilts her head and stares at me with mild curiosity. Her lips curl up at the corners and her eyes brighten at the possibility of recognition. I remember her irises as grayish-blue but in the dim lighting of the warehouse which casts shadows at certain angles; they appear black, fusing together with her pupils. Her hair used to be dark brown. She must have dyed her locks into the lighter caramel color to go for a particular look, or maybe, since she supposedly died three years ago, she wanted to change her appearance to make her not as noticeable? Or maybe something else is going on?

Ever since I called her mom a few minutes ago, I have gawked at her, calculating every angle of her face, like someone linked my eyes and brain to facial recognition software. After repeated scans, I make the only conclusion possible, that this woman squatting in front of me, the woman codenamed Zero, as difficult as it may be to believe, is my mom.

Of course, how did my mom become the leader of a secretive organization called The Collective?

"I see the questions rolling around inside that head of yours," the woman says. She turns to Agent 24. "Do you mind giving us some space?"

"As you wish, but be careful. He's dangerous."

With that, Agent 24 fades into a darker section of the warehouse and leans against a support pole, his black orbs glaring at me from the shadows.

"Mom, where have you been?" I blurt out. "Why are you working for The Collective?"

With her elbows resting on her knees while squatting, Zero widens her feet and stands. Her block-heeled shoes scrape and tap across the concrete, echoing out in the large, empty warehouse. Her leather pants stick to her figure in a way that makes me writhe on the inside. I've never seen my mom in anything that tight and revealing.

I swallow the anxiety bubbling up in my throat. "What are you doing here, and what have you done with dad and Kayla?"

Her head bobbles with a chuckle. She fixes her glare on Agent 24. "Go turn on the lights."

He hurries off toward the door they came through. Near the open passage, he swipes his hand over the wall and overhead lamps all over the building's interior pop and sizzle as they flicker on. At first, the effect is an amber twilight glow as the high wattage bulbs power-up, but eventually, the fixtures burst into a brilliant radiance that bathes every corner and wall with a bright, white light. A few bulbs spark and wink out, leaving some isolated spots of dimness. But otherwise, the sudden brightness forces me to bring my free arm up to cover my eyes.

When my pupils dilate enough to account for the light, I cast my gaze around me and take in the vast and empty building.

A mouse scurries along the far wall and disappears into a corner hole.

Zero bites her lower lip and crosses her arms. "What am I going to do with you, Aiden Quick? Or should I say, Agent 23?"

At the sight of my arched brow, she grins, her head tilted once again as if curiosity has gotten the best of her. "I'm not your mother," she says.

I sag against the pole, putting pressure on the cuff, bracketing my wrist and cutting off the blood flow to my hand.

She wags her head. "I'm not your mother, Aiden. Get that through your thick skull."

I wince at the harshness in her voice. "You look and sound like her."

"But I'm not." Zero squats again, her heels squeaking over the concrete, placing her elbows on her knees to support herself as she leans toward me. The bright light frames her face, reminding me of a picture of her and dad that used to set on the table in the foyer of our old house, the house Agent 13 supposedly murdered her in. Now, that photo sits in a box in a dark corner of my bedroom closet.

"We tried to get control of your mind." She produces an oval object from her pocket. "Your dad gave your girlfriend this little thing to block our signal. Good thing I have the device now." She holds it over her shoulder for a long moment until Agent 24 gets the drift and comes walking towards us. He takes the device, sticks it in an inside jacket pocket and makes his way back to his post near the open door.

"Stop looking at me like that," Zero says. "I'm not your mom, for goodness' sake."

"Then who are you?"

"For years I didn't know who my birth parents were. All I knew was that while my sister was with my mom, that my dad left me in the backseat of his 1977 Pontiac Firebird when he entered the liquor store to get booze. When he came out, someone had stolen his car and me along with it. My adopted dad couldn't allow my birth father to raise me as an alcoholic, so he stole me away and brought me up in a proper environment."

As I listen, my mind reels with the information spilling from Zero's mouth. More questions pop up in my head, like: If you're not my mom, what do you know about her? If you are, why can't you remember your own son? And the biggest one of all... what are you saying? Are you my—

"I guess that makes me your Aunt Zero." She rolls her eyes. "Yes... when I was a baby, someone kidnapped me and separated me from my parents and my twin sister. Your mom is dead, Aiden, and the quicker you come to terms with that, the better off you'll be. Anyway, pardon the pun, but I didn't know any of this until I started working for D.A.R.P.A. My research and experiments with mind control unlocked the repressive memories inside my brain. My adoptive parents didn't tell me any of this. They kept it from me. You can imagine the shock and anger I felt when I strapped the brainwave prototype onto my head and triggered the memory of the incident as seen through my own eyes as an infant. It was there. I didn't understand what I was seeing as a baby, but when the memories burst into my brain as an adult for the first time, I knew exactly what I was seeing. I can still picture the tan interior of that seventy-seven Firebird. Quite the classic automobile."

I rub my hand over my face, trying to absorb all this mind-numbing information.

"When The Collective went rogue," she grins, "and I discovered where your parents lived, I thought it would be fun to play mind games with your dad. After all, there was my sister living the charmed life in Coastal City, but then your dad resisted an older version of the Mind Bender and broke free, started developing technology to counter me." She snorts. "Then it got more personal when he started actively fighting against me to foil my assassination attempts and other efforts. So, once I grew weary of your father and his disruptive efforts, I had your mother killed by one of my later assassins. Eventually, I made it even more personal to draw him out of the shadows. That's when I started targeting you."

"Aiden, ever since your dad fled, I've had this sore displeasure gnawing at the back of my mind, driving me to reel him back into the fold. Either he works for me or he dies."

There it is. My dad is alive, which probably means Kayla is, too.

Zero narrows her eyes at me. "The mayor of Coastal City is someone else who sticks in my crawl. He's a freethinker, and we can't have that going forward. We have plans for him and his bodyguard." She stands. "We need to reel everyone in, and with the latest version of the Mind Bender, that now is possible."

"Aiden, you're a wild card in all of this. I may even let you and your girlfriend go free."

She looks at me with a clever glint in her eyes.

"So, Kayla is alive?" I ask.

"For now." She purses her lips. "The Collective needs the strongest players in the coming chess match. Your dad is weak, but that can change. That's why I'm going to give you the opportunity to atone for the sins of your father."

"How are you going to do that?"

"That's what I'm about to tell you. So, perk up and pay attention, because the next twenty-three minutes are going to define the rest of your life and determine what the future has in store for the ones you hold most dear."