“I’m guessing The Doctor’s notes might prove to be more information than they need for the next while,” I said quietly. “Thank goodness for small favors. ”
“It did help,” Tyler admitted. “What he did to you is horrible, and I know nothing I can say or do can help make up for what you’ve been through. ”
“If you did anything to keep it from happening again, you’ve done more than enough. Thank you. ”
“There’s more to it…”
“My freedom comes with an asterisk?”
“A small one,” Emilio said. “Teeny tiny. ” He held his fingers so close together light could barely pass through the gap.
“I don’t have a list of spies I can give them or anything. ”
“We’re not the CIA. ” Emilio sneered and sipped his coffee with a loud slurp.
“What’s the catch?”
“Well…you’re sort of a government asset now. ” Tyler stood up as if he was afraid I might slap him, which would have implied he said something bad, only I couldn’t figure out what he was talking about.
“An asset as in an employee or an informant?” I asked.
“More like an asset we could stick a label on that says Property of the US Government. ”
I struggled to sit up, because surely even in my condition there had to be a way for me to strangle two smirking government employees to death with my bare hands. “What?”
“It’s a formality, just a paperwork thing. This way you can be incorporated into the project but you don’t show up in any personnel documentation. Your asset tag is assigned solely to us. ” Tyler pointed from himself to Emilio. “We’re your handlers. ”
“I’m not totally sure you heard me the first time, so I’m going to say it again. What?”
“For all intents and purposes, you now belong to the US Government,” Emilio said, leaving no room for me to second-guess his meaning.
“But I’m Canadian. ”
“We won’t hold that against you. ”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Before the boys had a chance to tattoo a serial number on me or inject me with any tracking chips, they went through a standard debrief. What should have been a quick question-and-answer turned into an hour and a half of me reliving the last week of my life for them.
When I was finished, Tyler assured me Dr. Kesteral would be made to pay for what he’d done.
“No court in the world can punish him the way he deserves to be punished,” I said. My headache was returning with more vigor than before, and the blood bag attached to my elbow had gone dry.
“He won’t be tried in a public court. He won’t be tried at all. There’s a special panel that will review what he’s done, get whatever information they can from him and then…”
“Then?”
“He’ll be disposed of. ”
“If your panel needs any help, I think the government owns a tool that would be mighty useful to them in psycho doctor disposals. ” I tried to make a joke of it, but the truth of the matter was if I ever saw The Doctor again, I would shred him until nothing but a fine red mist remained.
“Do you need anything before we go?” Emilio had left his card with me in case I ever had a request for him when Tyler was unavailable. They both assumed I would continue to trust Tyler as I had before, in spite of the fact he’d been lying to me for over a year.
I didn’t know how I felt about this new revelation, or how to process the news that the Government of the United States knew about vampires and werewolves but suppressed that knowledge from the general public. I shouldn’t have been shocked to learn politicians would lie to the people they represented, but this seemed like an awfully big secret to keep buried.
“I want to see Holden,” I said.
“I don’t think—”