Element

Ch 21 - Element Isn't So Stupid After All

Lane had been surprised when he came downstairs and found Winter sitting with me. He'd remembered seeing her at the ball, and when I mentioned that she was my sister and she'd come with Hartley and I to the ball, it all 'made sense' to him.

That was two days ago, two days before his next big event.

When he told me about the masquerade party, I wasn't keen on going, simply because now that Winter had given me a heads up about the Cypher team, I wasn't sure how I would handle that situation. I knew that my husband wouldn't pitch up because of his connection to Lane.

But apparently I was wrong.

I felt his presence from the moment he walked in. In a room filled with hundreds of people, I knew it was him without a doubt. However his presence made me realize that there was something big happening if he risked being here.

So I followed him.

I know it's wrong, but I was curious about why he was here to begin with, especially since the bartender was the one to tell him where he needed to be. The only time stuff like that happens, is if someone high profile is looking for you.

"You're supposed to be dead. I watched you get shot," I heard him say. I had planted a microphone on the door handle so that I wouldn't be caught standing outside the room. I was instead in a room three doors down.

"No, you didn't. You watched a man shoot a bullet where I was, but he didn't actually shoot me. He shot next to me. I only went quiet because of the ringing in my ears. Someone came back for me later," a young female voice replied.

"So what? You've been alive this whole time and you didn't bother trying to find us?" I heard Thales ask.

"Find you and say what? Hi my name is Rose and I'm your little sister? Would you have believed me?" she asked.

What? Rose is alive?

I could remember Xander telling me about her on our first date and back at our apartment. She's the reason why he's got the tattoo of the Rose. Her full name is Rosalinda if I'm not mistaken. I can't even imagine what must be going through his mind.

"Well no, but we could've run some DNA tests or whatever to find out," my husband replied.

"Huh? I guess that makes sense. I'm curious about how you found me now though," she commented.

"My search database recently picked up DNA results that matched mine and Xander's too closely, so I ran some more tests and diagnostics until I was one hundred percent sure," Thales explained.

He's good like that.

"I had my blood drawn and tested at one of the most secret facilities in the world. You mean to tell me that your database hacked that place?" Rose asked disbelievingly. From the silence, I could only imagine that Thales shrugged.

Again, he's good like that.

"How did you know that we'd found you?" Xander asked her.

"They picked up a breach and traced it back to Los Angeles. We had to employ hackers to trace it back to you, which I'm guessing is what you were hoping for considering that we didn't even encounter any firewalls and the likes to track you," she said knowingly.

"I knew that if it was you, you were probably running in the wrong circles and would have enough power to pull off something like this meeting," Thales explained.

"Power? This isn't power and I'm not on the wrong side of things. I work for the CIA, or at least I'm a part of a CIA black ops off the books project. These guys are my security team," she informed.