Hyper Lynx (The Lynx Series Book 6) by Fiona Quinn (ebook reader for pc and android TXT) 📗

then turned back to me, fishing in his pocket. “You decide where you want these. Driver’s license, birth certificate, sixty dollars in cash.” He fished in his other pocket. “Cheap ass burner phone. Once you’ve made a call on this phone, it erases from the memory. That way, you can use it to call us or the FBI, and no one will be able to tell. The GPS is connected to Iniquus. Control will be monitoring your location. Oh!”  Another dive into his back pocket. He held up an angel medallion on a chain. “This is also a GPS. In case you get separated from your phone.” He glanced Striker’s way, then back to me. “I can’t imagine this being a dangerous assignment from what you said.” He tapped his cheek where I sported my bruise. “Except when you’re a random heroine. But still, one is none, and two is one, as the SEALs like to say.”

After that, I’d gone up to bed. Deep and Striker hung out watching TV downstairs. The utter normalcy of it helped me drift off to sleep.

Fortunately, I went all night without remembering a single dream.

This morning, I got up and did my morning Tai Chi.

After time on my meditation cushion, I felt much more centered and capable of taking on the day.

I had decided against my routine jog or putting in any time in my basement gym. I had to assume I’d get a thorough workout at the diner today. I’d never tried being a server, so fingers crossed it would all go okay.

Today, I changed my appearance. I wasn’t too worried about presenting one way yesterday and another today. People, in general, weren’t great with holding on to details of someone’s appearance. The swollen cheek would be enough of a physical reminder that I was who I was.

I used my brown contact lenses. Last night I decided to dye my hair pink. Well, not all pink. I lifted up the crown of blonde and colored the layer underneath. I thought it actually looked pretty cool. I liked it. But it was temporary and would wash out in time for next Saturday’s wedding pictures. “Yeah,” I told the mirror, “this is something someone rebelling against her cult might do.”

What did I know beyond Dr. Gupta’s lecture about any of that?

One of the important points I’d taken away: No one knows what’s going on in The Grove now because of secrets. Same for whatever cult I was supposed to have escaped from.

I hoped Modesty—well, Destiny—and I got along.

I hoped she would quickly learn to trust me, and I could figure out how best to get her to agree to turn State’s evidence.

I’d really like to cross this off my slate before Thursday and the beginning of the wedding parties. Disappearing for three days might prove difficult.

No reason to borrow trouble.

Leaving a love note for Striker next to the coffee pot, I gathered the two backpacks and the crumpled bag of food that Deep had put together and headed to the car.

Man, he wasn’t kidding; this looked like a total piece of shit.

The yellow and rust car yesterday, the diner’s would-be kidnappers’, would have been a major step up in luxury.

Still, when I inserted the key and turned the engine over, it hummed.

***

Heading to the diner, I was thinking about Spyder.

I had concluded that he wasn’t in town. Yesterday morning when he called to tell me to take the FBI meeting, that call had come through the Iniquus switchboard that encrypted locations.

I sure would like to ask him some in-person questions.

Why were we trying to persuade Destiny?

The FBI didn’t tell me. All I knew was that my role on this case was to make friends and find Destiny’s vulnerabilities. Those weak spots would be exploited for information, not by me, but by Finley and Prescott at the FBI.

I was getting a foot in the door. That was it.

Assuming Spyder was still working to take down the Hydra, that meant Destiny had to have information on one of three entities—well, there were three groups that I knew about. Maybe Spyder turned up another.

But so far, we had focused on the Assembly for political power, Omega for military power, and Sylanos for criminal money bags.

Did this have to do with something Destiny knew about the Assembly? About a dozen men who were sent to prison after the data dump proved them to be pedophiles. Certainly, the Assemblymen might have exploited youngsters in a cult. Was she a victim? Did she know of others who were?

Omega Security… I couldn’t see how Destiny could have anything to do with them. Besides, after their corruption was exposed, those that weren’t scooped up for trial headed overseas. They were based out of Moldova—with no United States extradition—and took contracts mostly in East European countries and Africa.

Now Sylanos, on the other hand… That was an interesting thought. He was part of that Hydra whose head we didn’t cut off. Working out of South America and constantly changing his location, it had taken me over a year just to prove he was still alive and working his crimes.

Yeah, it would be amazing if Spyder finally had a way to take down Sylanos. Though, what Sylanos would have to do with Modesty Blackburn from The Grove…

I took the long way to the diner, driving by where the apartment building where I grew up used to stand. After it burned down, city developers swooped in and made modern shop spaces with offices above.

Such a shame.

What a cultural and personal loss.

Driving in the direction that Spyder and I used to jog, I’d admit it. I did it on purpose, trying to remember anything that would help me figure out why I was experiencing this odd connection with my parents.

It was out of