Aaron's Book of Secrets (Sleeping Dogs Lie, 1.5)

Chapter 8

About a year-and-a-half ago, Allen sent a spy into the Kernel.

Her name was Tina, and he'd used the system to match her with me – the system that knows when and what we eat, when we sleep, when we're likely to take our next breath, what our favorite colors are, the types of books we check out from the Library, the sorts of movies we watch, the people we hang out with.

The system knew what I wanted in a woman, and when Allen had his lackeys punch me in as a living algorithm, it spat Tina out.

She was a year older than me, leggy and blond. Smart enough to warrant a job in the Kernel, but not smarter than me. Which, evidently, is exactly the sort of girl I'm into. Who knew? She liked the same movies as me, could keep up with me at gaming, and provided stimulating conversation. Well, there were various forms of stimulation going on, if we're being completely honest.

The problem with Tina was that Allen had her Snapped before he sent her in to me. She was never really working for me in the Kernel. Never really working for me in the bedroom, either. I think I was entertaining for her, but we were never really "together." If she wanted to keep her Snap flowing – to keep herself alive – she had to report back to Allen on all my movements, that meant he knew about all the times I left the Kernel for hours during the day, any derogatory remarks I made about the leadership or the way the Hex was run, any trips I took away from the Kernel at night. Basically, anything that wasn't boring, work day Kernel business. Thankfully, I prefer to keep business and pleasure separate, and the pushier Tina got about trying to integrate those two areas of my life, the touchier I got about revealing anything of myself to her at all.

I was with her for approximately two-and-a-half months before I caught onto her game. That's about two-and-a-half months too long.

Then I got smart and dosed her beer with truth serum.

After an hour and forty-five minutes, I knew all I needed to about what Tina was up to. She spilled everything. Allen had recruited her nearly a year earlier and had been schooling her for months on what to do and how to do it.

Tina cried when I busted her and tried to tell me that she'd come to really like me. That it didn't matter what she'd told Allen. That was only about Snap. She told me that if I could get her Snap, she'd be mine forever.

That's what all the Snappers say.

Needless to say, Tina didn't last another day. Not in the Kernel. Not in my bedroom.

Thankfully, I was able to get her out of there before she could do too much damage.

Sometimes, though, I still miss those legs.

My current problems started when I began to notice that Alecto bitch poking around in my bedroom through secured footage. I had to wonder: has she ever really been off the Snap at all during the time she's been working for me? Is someone else using her to get to me? Has Allen gotten better at playing me than I think?

I can't always keep an eye on everything my people in the Kernel are doing. That's why I have my own surveillance up there, so I'm always aware of whatever they think they're doing behind my back when I leave them alone during the day.

I was watching footage of the Kernel from about a week after we'd put Alecto up there. I still avoid her like the plague. She's struck up a working relationship with Anderson, and that's just fine. They seem to get along fine. I leave her assignments just like I do the others, and I expect her to complete them in a timely fashion. So far, she's seemed to do exactly what I tell her to. When I send her out into the Hexagon to run errands, she's never deviated from the path I put her on.