AGENT 23 BLACKOUT (Agent 23 Book 1)

CHAPTER 31

With the thought of losing Kayla forever, I turn back to my dad and let my gaze penetrate to the core of his being. I need to consider his heart. Beneath Agent 1, within the depths of his soul, what kind of person is he? Really? I have to know for sure if I'm going to surrender my future girlfriend to Zero's claws and her minions that work for The Collective.

The more I weigh my options, the more I see my dad and Kayla on the scales of honor. Who deserves to live a life of freedom and who deserves to become an assassin? Who deserves to experience a life of love and accomplishment and who deserves to be a servant of a secretive organization devoted to enslaving the minds of innocent people?

My eyes burn, staring at my dad. A fire kindles in my heart as I remember my mom's murder scene. I found her in the living room with a bullet wound to the chest. Dead. I know now that Zero can't be my mom. She can only be her twin, separated at birth, like she said.

With that in mind, the fire rages inside of me. It all adds up: Zero is my aunt. She's not my mother. She had denied it, and I saw my mother's body.

That means my dad could have been there for my mom, but he wasn't.

With under two minutes left, my attention turns back to Kayla. She's the innocent one in all of this. All she wanted to do was save her father. When my eyes behold her, I want to save her. I desperately want to save her. When I glance at my dad, the anger bursts into a bonfire.

But if I save Kayla, my dad—my freaking dad—the guy who loved my mom enough to create me, I will lose that guy forever to The Collective's Mind Bender.

The slight possibility that I could save them both knifes through my mind.

What if I wake them up at the same time? I could use one hand to shake Kayla and the other to stir my dad.

But what if it doesn't work? What if I lose both of them?

Zero said if I didn't wake one of them up before the twenty-three minutes expired, I'd lose them both forever. That brings me to the conclusion that if I try to save Kayla and my dad, I'd probably lose both of them.

Just over a minute left...

The red digital numbers look like the countdown for a nuclear bomb, as the time hits fifty-nine seconds and counting...

With my hands holding my head like my brains are about to explode, I peer over at my dad one last time. If I save Kayla, should I do it with hatred in my heart for my dad? Would I ever forgive myself?

That reality strikes through me, twisting into a wrenching spasm.

What would my dad want me to do in this situation?

As much as he would want to be reconciled to his son, what would he tell me to do if he could speak?

I think about our moment of bonding in the van, minutes before Agent 24 gassed us. My dad told me he wanted the chance to be a part of my life again. He wanted my forgiveness; he wanted to make up for lost time.

Now, I know what kind of heart my dad has. It's genuine and kind.

I know what he'd want me to do in this situation. He would want me to save Kayla. He would sacrifice himself for the greater good because he would do the same thing to save someone else's life.

With less than thirty seconds left, I gasp and my hands fly to my knees. The weight of the decision forces me to bend over, panting for air, for the breath to decide the fate of the two people that means the most to me.

I have to make the hardest choice of my life.

And then it hits me.

Because my dad would want me to save Kayla; that realization compels me to make the hardest decision, the toughest choice I'll ever make. And with that burning in my mind, I choose to save...

...my dad.

As I touch his shoulder, my eyes dart back to Kayla. I'm breathless when I continue through with the decision I've made, but when I shake him awake, his body seizes and trembles. This doesn't seem as easy as Zero said it would be.

My dad jerks up in the chair and glares at me with hard, squinting eyes.

He swivels his legs to the floor and stands with his mouth and nose snarling at me. His narrowed gaze and crooked brows send a shock wave through me, making me take a step backward.

He grabs my arm and shoves me away, and proceeds to the stairs that lead up to the grated metal platform and the glass door where Zero exited. I realize now that the woman tricked me. As Kayla stirs and awakens in the other chair, I feel like bowing over and throwing up. Yes, I wanted to save her. I wanted to save both of them. Part of me feels a ton lighter when I see her tearful gaze, mouth open, and sagging jaw, but another part of me churns when I think about Zero double crossing me.

At that moment, Zero steps through the glass door to claim the prize she wanted all along, Agent 1.

I tremble when I think about the fact she rigged the Mind Benders to enslave the person I saved. That's evil and demented. How could someone be like that? How could anyone be like that? Unless... I pause as a thought bounces around inside my head.

As Kayla rises and joins my side, I quake with an unfathomable possibility. No. That couldn't be possible. Could Zero be under control of a Mind Bender too? Could she?

Men with assault rifles and technicians filter into the lab and begin breaking down the Mind Bender machines. When they're disassembled, they carry the separate components through the glass door, outside of the warehouse.

Zero and my dad direct Kayla and me outside, too.

In broad daylight, a semi-truck awaits with two back-to-back trailers attached to it that look streamlined and futuristic, with contours and ridges running down their lengths. The men load the Mind Benders into the rear trailer and my dad enters the first one.

Zero wipes the imaginary dust off her hands. "I suppose I failed to inform you about the fine print at the bottom of our verbal agreement. Regardless, I'll remain true to the part of our deal that lets you and the person you saved go free."

"What are you going to do with my dad?"

"That's none of your business."

"What are we supposed to do?" I ask.

"I don't know. Graduate high school. Go to college, get a degree. Get a job and get married. Have lots of babies." She shrugs. "Whatever. I don't care."

Kayla and I share a troubled glance.

Following that last statement, Zero pivots on her block-heeled shoes and enters the first trailer to join my dad. As the truck rumbles away, Kayla and I have to decide what we're going to do next. After the semi disappears around a bend, and as we discuss this mind-bending topic, my dad's Jeep Gladiator bursts from a garage door on the other side of the lab area. Behind the wheel is Agent 24.

He skids to a stop next to us and says, "Get in, we're going after them."

I stare back at him, mesmerized. Somehow, when the big agent blacked-out, when his head slammed into the concrete floor, the Mind Bender lost control of his mind. And now, he appears to be on our side. As Kayla and I climb aboard, and Agent 24 mashes his foot on the gas pedal, I ponder the possibility that a blackout—someone being knocked out and suffering from a concussion—could be what sets them free. That could be the only thing that might save my dad, if we can reach him before Zero and The Collective disappear for good, intending to unleash a bigger threat to the city I call home. Even worse than that, the rest of our country, and even more demented than that, the rest of the world.