Vance looked down.
“Something went wrong.”
“What?”
“Your team was compromised.”
“How?”
“We don't know.”
Mara stared at him.
“You're lying.”
Vance looked up.
“I am withholding.”
“That is the same thing when you're talking to me.”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“It isn't.”
“Then tell me.”
Vance took a breath.
“Your team was supposed to recover a digital archive from a private contractor facility.”
“What archive?”
“Personnel records.”
“Whose?”
“People involved in a classified program.”
“Which program?”
Vance hesitated.
Mara leaned forward.
“You called me an asset.”
“Yes.”
“You said I was never supposed to remember.”
“Yes.”
“Then tell me what I forgot.”
Vance looked at her for a long moment.
“You weren't the investigator.”
Mara's face tightened.
“What?”
“You weren't assigned to investigate the operation.”
“Then what was I doing?”
“You were the operation.”
Silence.
Mara stared at him.
Vance continued.
“You were embedded inside the team.”
“As what?”
“As an intelligence asset.”
The room seemed to tilt.
Mara looked down at her hands.
“No.”
“You were recruited because of your ability to read people.”
“I work investigations.”
“You learned that later.”
“You're telling me I was some kind of undercover operative?”
“Yes.”
“Why don't I remember?”
Vance looked away.
“Because you asked us to make sure you didn't.”
Mara's expression changed.
“I asked?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Vance did not answer.
She stood.
“Why?”
“Because someone tried to kill you.”
Mara froze.
Vance continued.
“You survived.”
“How?”
“Atlas.”
Her eyes closed.
A fragment appeared.
A warehouse.
Rain.
A gunshot.
A dog barking.
Her own voice shouting.
Then darkness.
Mara opened her eyes.
“Where was Daniel?”
Vance looked at her.
“With you.”
The answer hit harder than anything else.
“My husband was there?”
“Yes.”
“What happened to him?”
“He disappeared.”
Mara stared.
“He's standing in my house every night.”
Vance's expression remained grim.
“I know.”
Mara shook her head.
“You're telling me my husband disappeared six years ago, yet I've been married to him for four.”
Vance said nothing.
Mara stepped closer.
“What did you do?”
“We extracted you.”
“And Daniel?”
“We couldn't find him.”
“You couldn't find my husband?”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
Vance looked directly into her eyes.
“We believe Daniel found himself.”
Mara felt cold.
“What does that mean?”