RIPTIDE (Shadows book 1.1)

A FUTURE SO HAZY

"Brace yourselves, the worst is yet to come. I will bring hell on earth to protect my family." ~Hope Sinner.

"What do you mean by that?" Vincent asked. He could feel the anticipation in the air as everyone waited for the answer.  He wondered if his sister was merely toying with them by admitting that she runs an intelligence agency. His assumptions flew out of the window when he saw the seriousness on her face.

"International Bureau of Intelligence or SHADOWS as its nicknamed by its members was started 7 years ago. The basic idea was designed by Rune and we worked on developing it. It's funded by the UN and it's countries." Natalya answered.

"It's highly confidential and it's members are spread throughout the world. They can be anyone. Take the Italian Mafia for example. The Sorranos are a part of the bureau. It's the head of all intelligence agencies across the world." Evangeline continued.

"We are a semi-legal organization that cleans up messes in the Underworld. And we stopped a couple of bombings. IBI has lawyers, police, businessmen, doctors, politicians, artists and the list goes on. Basically we have all sorts of people working under the organization." Hope concluded with a sigh. She smirked when the people in the room stared at her in awe.

"We have Top tier and The inner circle. Its members are hidden in plain sight. The fact that Hope runs the organization is confidential to the Top tier. To the others Ace, Spade, Lance and Kai run the organization." Eriks said.

"That is actually true to an extent. They run the organization and I run them." Hope agreed.

Silence engulfed the room. The others tried to get their brains around the fact there is a whole organization none of them knew about. An organization that works in the shadows to protect the world. A fitting nickname for it.

"This is confidential. So why did you tell us?" Hayes asked breaking the tense silence.

"It makes you alert. So stay on guard and don't let it down." Hope warned him. He nodded in response.

"Did they ever experiment on you at the compound?" Alek questioned softly, his gaze trained on his sister. Natalya sighed in response. She hoped that none of them would ask the question. She gave him a small smile in return trying to ease his worry.

"No. They always muttered about some deal Adam made about not using us as lab rats." Evangeline answered for her. Nat nodded in confirmation. Some of the tension eased.

Hope exhaled slowly when she felt all the eyes in the room on her. 'This is going to be hard.' she thought.

"We made a deal with Adam. The first batch for not touching anyone in the compound." She answered staring into Devon's eyes. She watched as multiple emotions flashed through his eyes. Surprise, anger, sadness and finally guilt settled in as his brain processed what she just revealed.

"Don't." she muttered softly. "It wasn't your fault. I made that choice. It was my decision. If anyone's to blame for what happened, it would be Adam and Alexa. ". Devon just shook his head in response. Hope looked away.

"You shouldn't have to go through that. No one should." Atriya said softly.

"It's already done. We can't change the past. We have much more important things to do." Hope replied. Her tone held finality. So they dropped the subject.