|YA featured story|
Welcome to 2325.
The natural world is no longer habitable, the government has been all but privatised and the 15-billion strong population has spent the last 170 years crammed into a single man-made continent.
When her father's...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I stared at him in bewilderment, the intensity of his eyes holding me trapped momentarily.
"You were assigned to him—by Zenith," I said once my brain unscrambled, suspicion coating my words. "You didn't work for him."
"That's true, I was assigned to him by ZenSecure, but I never worked for Zenith. My role at there was strategic—part of one of The Alliance's plans." Zaphron dropped his eyes to the vape he twisted in his fingers. "I got lucky—getting assigned to Alistair. As soon as he knew I was with The Alliance he put me to work on his own assignments."
"Like?"
His shoulder lifted in a half shrug. "Gathering information, getting messages to his contacts—" he hesitated "—and keeping an eye on people."
"Keeping an eye on who?" I asked slowly.
Zaphron glanced at me, ruffling his hair. "You mostly."
"Me?"
"Not because he didn't trust you or anything," he added quickly. "But he thought someone might try and get to him through you."
I shook my head and blinked as if the whole conversation was some kind of hallucination created by my power patch comedown. "Let me get this straight. The Alliance assigned you to ZenSecure, ZenSecure assigned you Dad and Dad assigned you to me?" I bit my lip as he nodded. "That's some double agent kind of shit," I said in an exhale.
He scoffed, a wry smile taking hold of his lips. "You have no idea."
I pushed off the vent, all lethargy gone as fresh natural adrenaline flooded through me. "How long were you working for him?" I asked over my shoulder as I headed for the ledge.
Zaphron sighed as he got up to follow me. "Eight months."
"Eight months?" I whipped back around and Zaphron nearly walked into me. We were suddenly so close I could feel his surprised exhale on my face.
We both took a step back at the same time, splitting instantly apart. I crossed my arms over my chest while he rubbed at the back of his neck and cleared his throat.
"Eight months," he repeated, darting a glance at me, "but I was only assigned to guarding you the last three."
I looked away, my face burning. Three months was better than eight, but I still found myself going over all the stupid crap I'd done in that time with unexpected mortification.
"Why didn't you tell me any of this after the theme park?" I asked, still not willing to meet his eyes. In the bright sunlight their intense colour was almost blinding.
"I was on strict orders from your dad not to—and I didn't know anything had happened to him at that point. Atlanta got a call while you were at the flat and filled me in—and I took off."
