Author's Note: Thank you so much for sticking with me through this part! I know it's pretty heavy on establishing Shepherd's plans, etc. Things are a little different, since Jane is much deeper undercover here than she was in the canon Bradley Dynamics mission, and obviously Borden was never a prisoner of the FBI in season two. But at least I spared Patterson the horrible torture, bug in her tooth, and getting shot...
Taking a bottle of water from the pallet by the door, Kurt approached the hatch meant for passing items through to the occupant of the cell. He put the water and burrito—sorry, Zapata, but it's in the name of national security—into the container. "Brought you breakfast."
Borden got up from the cot with a slight wince, then gave Kurt a half-hearted smile as he retrieved the items. "A warm breakfast? Is it my birthday?"
"It was meant for me, but I'm not hungry. Figured you might appreciate a change." Kurt had taken to keeping a stack of reports under the chair on the observation side of the partition. Since Borden was technically in solitary confinement, Kurt spent at least an hour here a day, usually split over two visits, so that the isolation didn't become torturous for their prisoner.
He settled down to read, as he had every day since Borden had been arrested, making a show of rubbing a hand across his eyes before focusing on the print. On the other side of the partition, Borden unwrapped his breakfast and took a bite.
Occasionally, his former friend attempted to fill the silence, and this morning seemed to be one of those days. "It might not be my place to say this, but you look a little the worse for wear today. Not sleeping well?"
Kurt had been counting on a comment like this. "Jane's still missing. Makes it a little hard to get a full night's rest," he admitted, not looking at Borden.
"Sorry to hear that." Borden twisted off the cap of his water bottle. "I may be a criminal these days, but I'm still a therapist, if you'd like to discuss anything."
"I know you're reluctant to violate doctor/patient confidentiality, and I get that. But if you can think of anything Jane said to you that might indicate who kidnapped her, or why, I'd appreciate it."
"I'll think back over our sessions."
Borden ate in silence for a while, and Kurt looked over a report or two, forcing himself to pay attention to them so that Borden wouldn't notice he wasn't working at his usual pace. Then he stifled a yawn, a move that was entirely unfeigned, but that he hoped would elicit a reaction from his prisoner.
"There's been no sign of Jane at all? No leads to follow?" Borden shook his head. "I'm sorry. I'm well aware that I shouldn't be asking, given my current status. But I do care about Jane's wellbeing. I know she was in a fairly fragile place before she was taken."
His unspoken implication—that she would be in an even more fragile place when, or if, she returned—sent a flash of rage through Kurt. Whether Borden was provoking him on purpose or not, he couldn't tell.
"No leads," he said abruptly. "Her trail's been cold since the night she disappeared. We've got nothing."
Borden nodded slowly, and as Kurt looked up, he could have sworn he saw terror in the therapist's eyes for a moment.
"What are you scared of, Doc?" Kurt dragged the chair closer to the partition, abandoning the reports.
"I suppose I'm scared for Jane," Borden said. "You know better than anyone that a missing person's chances of survival are significantly reduced after the first couple of days—"
"Let's cut the bullshit, Nigel." And if Taylor's name passes your lips, I'll make sure you never see sunlight again—I swear to god.
Borden's focus sharpened, but as Kurt had suspected, the use of his legal name wasn't a shock. Jane had been right to think he'd made her during their last conversation. "I'd wondered when you'd be shifting gears."
"You could have shifted them yourself."
"Forgive me if I wanted to keep the CIA from dragging me off somewhere that doesn't legally exist for as long as possible." Borden sat forward on his bunk, abandoning the last mouthful of his breakfast. "So, Special Agent Weller, what can I do for you?"
"Here's my theory. You want Jane to stop Shepherd and her organisation. You want that because Shepherd abandoned you when you slipped up, and whatever plans she has for phase two, things are gonna be bad enough to reach you in here."
He knew he'd hit the mark when Borden's expression wavered, just for a moment.
"Jane's been off the radar for five weeks now. Wherever she is, she can't get word to us, or find a way to leave without compromising her cover. That either means she's been made, or she's being watched too closely to get any kind of communication out. Any bets either way?"
"If it's any comfort, I doubt she's dead. Shepherd's a classic narcissist, and she'd take Jane's defection incredibly personally. She'd want Jane to watch while she carried out her plans. For Jane to know that she's powerless to stop what's coming—that Shepherd has all the control."
Kurt couldn't help but relax a little at the words, though he tried not to give Borden any outward sign. "Do you know where Shepherd's compound is?"
Borden gave him a steady gaze. "Yes."
"Will Jane be there?"
"Most likely, yes." Borden calmly waited for the next question, and Kurt knew exactly what was coming.
Damn it.
"Will you give us the location?"
"In exchange for what, exactly?"
"From the look on your face when I told you Jane's still missing, you'll be saving your own life by helping us. What do you know about Shepherd's plans? Do you know what phase two is?"
"I only know what Shepherd would allow me to know, but that's enough to make me very nervous. This attack won't just affect one localised area. It'll be the whole of the Eastern Seaboard."
Urgency making him restless, Kurt stood up, staring straight at Borden. "And you implied to Jane that both you and Roman were having second thoughts about it. Tell me what you know. Help us stop this."
Borden got to his feet, too, and crossed the cell to stand in front of Kurt. "I want immunity for anything I might otherwise be charged with."
"If what you give us is enough to stop it, we'll do what we can." Kurt swallowed anger at the injustice of letting him get away with anything at all, and folded his arms. "Start talking."
"I'll talk. But only to Agent Patterson."
Even though he'd expected this, Kurt couldn't suppress a snarl. "You have no idea how much you hurt her. And now you want to rub salt in her wounds?"
"What I have to say to her is between Patterson and me—assuming you trust her enough to turn off the recording devices in here for a few minutes." Borden sighed, and Kurt thought he could see genuine regret in the man's face. "If you'd rather listen in while I explain to her that my feelings for her were always real, I suppose we'll all have to deal with the awkwardness of that. But I'd rather we had as much privacy as this place will allow."
"Patterson is very important to all of us. If she agrees to talk to you, you give her answers first, then discuss your personal issues afterwards. Clear?"
"Do I have any other choice?" Borden moved away from the partition, resuming his seat on the bed. "When can I talk to her?"
"She's not in the office today. It'll be tomorrow, at the earliest." Kurt kicked the chair back against the wall, then turned back to face their prisoner. "Does that change anything?"
"To my knowledge, Shepherd won't be doing anything drastic within the next twenty-four hours. But as you can appreciate, I've been out of the loop for the past six weeks, so…" Borden shrugged.
"And if you're wrong, you'll be as dead as the rest of us, right?" Kurt eyed him with contempt. "What you give us had better be worth the pain you're gonna cause Patterson."
Borden lifted his chin, letting Kurt see the shame in his face. Good. He should feel ashamed. Patterson has agonised over this for weeks.
"I don't have all the pieces of the puzzle, but I think you'll find what I have useful."
"Then I'll see you tomorrow." Without giving Borden the chance to respond, Kurt left the room.
In twenty-four hours, we might have enough to help Jane. God, I hope Borden is right about her being alive.
The rest of the team approached with expressions varying from relieved to grim.
"Well, that went much better than I expected," Nas said, "but Thornton's news is worse than I'd hoped. The entire Eastern Seaboard—that's over a hundred million lives at risk."
Not for the first time this year, Kurt was privately thankful that Sarah and Sawyer had relocated to Portland. At least they'd be out of the range of whatever Shepherd was planning. "What time does Patterson get back tonight? Anyone know?"
"I think she said around nine p.m." Zapata pulled out her cell phone. "I'll let her know what's going on."
"Tell her to call me, if she wants to discuss it. I want this to be something we ask her to do, not tell her she has to do."
"She'll do it either way," Reade pointed out.
"I know. But at least we can make it seem like there's another option." Kurt sat down at his desk again, shaking his head. "To affect that wide an area, phase two has to be a nuclear threat."
"Not necessarily," Nas said. "If Shepherd's influence spreads nationwide, it could just be a lot of localised attacks coordinated to take place simultaneously. But it does seem likely."
"Let's assume it is for now. Worst-case scenario, the whole of the East Coast gets nuked. Tens of millions of people around each blast zone will die, and tens of millions more will end up with radiation sickness. There'll be widespread cancer, birth defects...and the whole area will be uninhabitable for decades." Kurt stared into space, momentarily overwhelmed by the consequences of his failure. "Yeah, that'd be a complete reset, all right."
"Let's see if we can find potential targets. Nuclear power plants, military stockpiles, things like that. Don't reach out to anyone to check if their nuclear material is all accounted for. It could tip off Shepherd. Let's wait for what Borden has to say, first." Nas began typing, already seeming oblivious to her surroundings.
"Wonder if the Truman Protocol is something to be followed in the event of a nuclear threat?" Reade said.
"Let's hope we don't have to find out," Kurt muttered, staring at Shepherd's picture again.
Borden had told Jane the plan had changed since Remi had gone undercover with the FBI. Even as ruthless as Remi seemed, from Jane's memories and what she'd put together from Shepherd and Roman, Kurt couldn't imagine any version of Jane approving of a nuclear attack of this scale, no matter how bitter and vengeful Remi had been.
Jane… I hope you're safe out there.
"Come on, come on," Roman muttered, as they watched the digital code cracker do its work. It would take at least four more minutes, according to the estimate, and all they could really do was wait for it to open the vault where the chip was stored.
"Relax. We're good so far." Jane put a hand on his arm.
Roman nodded, then hesitated before saying, "Good thinking, choking her out. You've always been the better one at improvising in a pinch."
"Really? I don't remember."
Jane thought of the poor woman whose badge she'd swiped. She'd been standing in for the guy with the peanut allergy, who'd been out sick today. With no allergy to take advantage of—thank god—Jane had shooed Roman out of the room before he'd been impulsive enough to stab the woman with a letter opener.
"I know it doesn't feel like it now, but I'm saving your life," she'd told her unfortunate victim, as she'd choked her into unconsciousness.
She'd looked around for a notepad and pen to leave a note for Kurt, along with his phone number and instructions for whoever found the note to call him. Roman had allowed her to see the route they took this time, so she had a vague idea of where the compound was—north-west of the city, within an hour's drive. It seemed strange that she'd been so close to home this whole time. The compound felt as though it could have been anywhere, the same as her black site cell had.
Roman had come back into the room as she'd been searching for something to write on. Jane had had to abandon her plan, following him down towards the secure area with the security pass she'd stolen. She only hoped CSU would find her fingerprints somewhere when the police were called, and that would alert Patterson. At least the team would know she'd been here, and maybe realise that the missing chip was important to Shepherd.
Now she and Roman were waiting for the digital code cracker to finish, the seconds dragging as they listened for sounds that might indicate they'd been made. The people who worked here would be in a meeting down the hall for the next hour, but there was always a chance someone might have forgotten to bring something with them.
"This is the longest five minutes of my life," Roman muttered.
"Tell me something new that I've forgotten," Jane suggested. "It'll fill the time."
Roman rubbed the back of his neck. "I guess now's as good a time as any. We, uh… We weren't on good terms when you decided to take the ZIP."
Jane frowned. "We weren't? I have memories of us being cold to each other, but I assumed that was because I'd decided to erase my memory."
"No." Roman fidgeted. "We were already fighting. I, uh…didn't like Oscar, and you'd agreed to marry him, so… Things got kind of tense. It didn't matter anymore when you volunteered to go undercover, though."
A new memory rose in Jane's mind.
"Please, Remi, don't do this. Not after everything we've been through." Roman's eyes were desperate as he grabbed her shoulders.
She shrugged him off, her voice icy. "I'd thought you'd be happy for me to do this, instead of marrying Oscar."
"God, I don't care about that anymore! Marry Oscar. You have my blessing. Move to Argentina and start a sanctuary for wounded toucans, for all I care—just don't erase everything from your brain. Our parents. What things were like growing up. Everything that makes you you will be gone, Remi. No one knows me like you do, and you won't even remember me."
She hesitated, then sighed as a tear slid down his cheek. "Roman, this is bigger than you and me. This will help to correct the course of our entire country."
"I know, but I—"
"I'm not doing this to spite you, because we're fighting. I'm doing it because I need things to change. Shepherd was right all along. I was just too angry with her to see it, until what happened with my Orion team."
"We can find some other way to get the intel to Weller and frame Mayfair. Nigel's already undercover with the FBI. Let him plant the evidence. We can send the paper tattoo designs to Weller. And you can try to seduce him or something, just… You have to stay you, Remi. Please."
"I'll still be me. I'll get this mission done, and Oscar can bring me back here. You and Shepherd can tell me everything about me that I've forgotten, show me things from our childhood, like our coin. Nigel and Markos have been studying the paperwork we stole from Northlake. The soldiers in the early case studies started to recover their memories after a while. I will, too, especially if I'm surrounded by people and places I know."
"You don't know that for sure."
"You're my brother, Ian. There's no way I'd ever forget you for good." She pulled him into a hug. "I had this conversation with Oscar, too. If you stopped being jealous that he stole me away from the compound for two seconds, you'd realise you've got a few things in common."
"You still want him as your handler and not me," Roman muttered, as she drew back.
"Because I'm more likely to remember you. I need to stay in the dark about as much of the mission as possible when my memories are gone, so I only know as much about the plan as Oscar allows me to know. We've been together our whole lives, and I'm more likely to remember Shepherd if I remember you, which could put the mission in danger if I tell Weller. But I've only known Oscar a year." Remi sighed. "We're not little kids anymore, Roman. We can't just spend our whole lives sharing a bedroom in Shepherd's house. It's time to grow up."
Roman gritted his teeth. She could tell her words had hurt him, and regret needled her brain, but before she could apologise for the harsh phrasing, he changed course. "How would you feel, if the situation were reversed? If I was the one who'd decided to do this?"
"Honestly? I'd be upset. But I think I'd understand, too." She leaned forward. "If you could get rid of all the claustrophobia, all the memories of the orphanage and the rabbits, and make the world less corrupt at the same time…wouldn't you do it?"
"No. Not if you asked me not to." Roman gave her a stubborn glare.
Remi stepped back abruptly. "I'm doing it no matter what you think, Roman. So get used to it."
Jane swallowed hard, sympathy for her brother overwhelming her. "I just remembered some of it. I'm so sorry. It must have been unbearable to know I might never remember you again."
Roman folded his arms, staring at the code cracker. "Yeah, well. You did what you wanted anyway. You always have."
"I know I'm different now. But I still love you, Ian."
He looked up sharply, her use of his birth name—which she hadn't remembered until now—obviously making an impact. After a second, he sighed. "Yeah, you're different now. But sometimes you remind me of how you were in my earliest memories of our childhood. Before you got so much like Shepherd."
Oh, Roman. You just want to be loved, don't you? All this violence was how you persuaded Shepherd and Remi to approve of you, and now you think it's the only way.
Jane smiled to cover the sadness the realisation brought. "So I act like a little kid now?" she teased gently.
The code breaker beeped, signalling the completion of its work. They both focused on it, the present moment encroaching on the past.
"Come on. Let's get this chip and get out of here," Roman said gruffly, and shoved open the door to the vault.
Less than an hour later, back in the car, Jane turned the container that held the chip over and over in her fingers. "That went pretty well."
They'd blown up the vault after taking the chip, to make it look like a rival corporation's sabotage rather than a theft, and then had filed out with the other workers as the fire alarm had blared. By the time the fire trucks had begun appearing, they were safely on their way out of the area.
"Yeah. Shepherd will be pleased." Roman glanced over at her. "She's going to show you something today, and I'm not sure how you're gonna react."
Jane gave him her full attention, dropping the chip into her lap. "Something related to phase two?"
"Yeah. But you were with the FBI so long; I don't think you'll take it too well."
Jane's stomach lurched. Does he mean my team will be in danger? Why would Shepherd want that, if Kurt is integral to her plans? Maybe she wants the rest of them out of the way. I can't let that happen.
"The way you're hinting at things instead of just telling me… It's getting old, Roman."
"You know what is getting old? Having to warn you in advance, so you don't end up with Shepherd putting a bullet in your brain." Roman glared at the road.
Jane sighed. "I'm sorry. I wish I didn't need that, I just… The FBI doesn't kill people just because they're no longer useful, like Kantor. I didn't realise that was the only way of dealing with the situation that Shepherd would have found acceptable. I just didn't want to waste a potential asset."
"I didn't kill him because he wasn't useful. I killed him because he knew our plans, and he was a liability. If he'd gone to the cops, they could have put together enough to raise serious alarm bells with the FBI, CIA, NSA, Homeland Security…"
"I know, I know. I just…needed to adjust my expectations. I don't remember much of my training or my upbringing. The combat skills are almost all muscle memory, even now. But I'm getting more and more memories back. Being back at the compound has really helped me get a better sense of who I was before I took the ZIP. And knowing more of the plan will help me even more." So tell me, she begged inwardly. I have to finish this mission while Shepherd is still in the planning stages. If she manages to pull it off…
"This is the warning. We're meeting Shepherd in thirty minutes, at a warehouse we own on the edge of the city. What's in there, you won't be expecting. It'll probably be a shock to realise what's going to happen. But Shepherd will be watching you. You have to keep your cool." He spoke slowly, as though she might be having trouble understanding him.
"Why don't you just tell me?" Jane demanded, frustrated. "You warned me about Cade. Why is this different?"
"Because Shepherd will know if I've told you in advance. A certain amount of your reaction here has to be genuine, or she'll want to know why I'm coaching you."
Unable to shake the idea that she'd walk into the warehouse to find Zapata, Reade and Patterson tied up, waiting for her to shoot them, Jane said, "Am I gonna have to kill people? Because that seems to be a theme, with Shepherd."
"Not this time."
Jane had to suppress a sigh of relief. "What about maiming and torturing them?"
"Nothing like that. This isn't something she wants you to do, more something she wants you to see. At least, for today." He reached for the radio dial. "Now stop asking questions."
Jane fell silent. As Roman drove south through the city, she watched the scenery go by, hungry for the sight of familiar places. Being stuck at the compound for five weeks had given her new appreciation for the hustle and bustle of New York City. Even the traffic made her nostalgic.
When they finally pulled up outside a warehouse that looked like just about every other warehouse in the industrial park, Shepherd got out of the back of a black SUV with tinted windows. She appeared to be in a good mood—probably because Roman had already called to tell her their mission had gone as planned.
Jane looked down at the chip in her hand. Part of her wanted to sabotage it, knowing how important it was to Aurora's plans, but she was sure Shepherd would be checking what was on it before she used it. Even if she didn't care about her cover, she had no way to know if Shepherd could obtain another chip elsewhere.
"Good work, you two," she said, as Jane and Roman left the car. "Hand it over."
Jane passed her the chip as soon as she got within reach. Shepherd examined it with a small smile. "Any issues?"
"Nothing we couldn't handle." It might have been a different story if Roman had stabbed that woman with a letter opener, though.
"Good. I assume Roman's told you why we're here?"
With a quick glance over at her brother, Jane said, "Only that this place belongs to us, and that you want me to see something inside."
"Yes. This is something we were working on with intel Nigel Thornton was feeding us, before his unfortunate slip of the tongue. We'd like you to cast an eye over it before we start drills with our people. Drills you'll be helping to run, by the way."
"Okay. I have no idea what this is, but if you think it's appropriate…"
Shepherd nodded. "Let's go inside, shall we?"
They stepped inside the darkened interior. "No one else is here?" Jane asked uneasily, as Roman shut the door behind them.
"Not right now. Roman?"
A keychain flashlight clicked on, and Roman used it to navigate to power switches mounted on the wall. As he flicked them on, Jane found herself blinking rapidly, adjusting to the light as she caught sight of something that made no sense.
She took a step forward, gazing at the interior of… SIOC? How…? What is this? Why is this here?
It was like a movie set version of the NYO's Strategic Information and Operations Centre, with office desks and chairs set out in a familiar grid pattern, and smaller offices and conference rooms leading off the main area. Jane even found herself glancing towards the fake version of Kurt's office to check if he was in there, the way she had every working day since she'd returned from the black site.
Why did they build this?
The answer was in her mind before her brain had even finished asking the question, and she suddenly understood why Roman had forewarned her. Drills. They're gonna be drilling an infiltration of SIOC. And the only reason—
They're going to go into the NYO for real. And everyone I've worked with there will be a potential casualty.
She kept her body language as relaxed as she could, ensuring that only a frown of confusion showed on her face. "This is phase two? We're gonna take over SIOC?"
"'Take it over' isn't quite the term I'd use. We're just passing through." After a moment's pause, Shepherd elaborated, "Special Agent Patterson's computer system has access to the Department of Homeland Security's central servers. We can use them to override the security on every important federal building in the country, getting our people in with enough explosives to turn the buildings into rubble."
Don't react. Do not react.
Oh, god, so many people will die as a result of this attack. Federal operations around the country will be crippled. I have to stop this.
"And that's phase two?" Jane sat on the edge of the nearest desk, nodding slowly. "Okay, that makes everything a little clearer. How does the microchip fit into this? Are we putting it into Patterson's systems somehow?"
Shepherd shook her head. "Phase two comes in two parts, really—twenty-four hours apart. This is the first part. The microchip is for the second part."
"You said you were gonna tell me what the chip was for when we brought it back," Jane pointed out.
"We'll go over it tonight, after dinner. I also want to come up with the best way to handle these drills. We'll be taking our most skilled local members in, but I want every step coordinated. Not even one person unsure or out of place." Shepherd gestured around her. "We did the best we could from Thornton's sketches and photographs, but… What do you think? Take a few minutes to walk around. Is anything out of place?"
Jane slowly walked through the false SIOC, looking around her. She wanted to burst into tears with homesickness for this place, which had been such an anchor for her while she'd been Jane. I'd give anything to be walking through the real SIOC right now. I want so much to be able to warn them.
She stopped at the entrance to Kurt's office, pushing open the door and stepping inside. The desk inside was a different model from Kurt's, the laminate on the plywood a slightly different colour, but otherwise, it was all laid out the way his office was, albeit with no office clutter.
She didn't feel at home here, the same way she did in Kurt's office. It didn't carry a faint trace of his scent, and he only rarely kept the blinds closed. He preferred to see out, and to let other people see that he was there.
For a moment, she thought about leaving without changing anything, but even a detail this small could be something Shepherd was testing her with, so she carefully opened the blinds before leaving the fake office, closing the door behind her.
She went into the replica conference room next, recalling discussions the team had had in the real version of it. Nothing in here stood out, and the blinds were closed as often as they were open, so she left them as they were.
She continued down the hall, pushing open the door that led to a replica gym. She'd spent so many hours training in the real equivalent of this room. It was where she'd first kissed Kurt with the intention to start something real with him. It was where she'd discovered the extent of her combat skills, the muscle memory she'd inherited from Remi, even if her knowledge of having learned those skills was gone. She'd sparred with each member of her team, and a few of the other agents, bonding over friendly competition.
The fake version was empty of training equipment, but there was a large, duct-taped rectangular area on the floor with an X taped inside it. As in, X marks the spot. What are they gonna be placing in the real gym? Explosives? Are they going to bring down the building, the same as the rest of the buildings Shepherd wants to give her people access to? The NYO is full of armed agents. This is insane—but Shepherd used to be a Major General in the US Army. She wouldn't do this unless she was sure she'd have a chance of success.
And she wants me to help train her people to do this.
She lingered in the gym for a moment, safely away from her family's scrutiny, and took a couple of trembling breaths, allowing the horror to manifest on her face.
Come on, Jane. Deep breaths. Kurt's voice in her memory was comforting, but more than that, it reminded her what would be at stake if she fell apart now. His safety. Everyone's safety.
She had to pull herself together. There was no other choice.
Schooling her expression into blankness, she left the gym and went all the way down to the replica of Patterson's lab—strange to see it without computer equipment—before returning the way she'd come. The emptiness of the constructed layout was eerie. She'd never seen SIOC devoid of agents or administration staff before—nor of paperwork, electronics or stationery.
When her final inspection of the area was concluded, she returned to Shepherd and Roman. "The desks are a slightly different colour in places, and there's usually computer equipment everywhere, but I'm gonna assume those aren't things you're worried about."
"And apart from that?" Shepherd asked.
"It all looks like I remember it. Let's hope they haven't changed anything over the past five weeks—but they haven't done anything major with the layout in the entire time I was with them, so…"
"All right. That's reassuring. As I said, we'll discuss the drills when I get home tonight. I have a meeting to get to now."
They left the warehouse, Roman shutting off the lights and locking up as they went.
"I'll see you tonight. It's so good to have you on board again, Remi." Shepherd touched her arm with an affectionate smile, then headed back to the SUV.
We're gonna take you down, you bitch. All of your grand plans will come to nothing. Jane was careful to keep the thought from showing on her face as she headed back to the car.
"Where are we headed now?" Jane asked Roman, opening the passenger door of his car.
"Back to the compound. I guess we can use the afternoon for weapons training, if you're up for it. It's the wrong time of year to get hold of Peeps, but we can shoot other small objects off the fence…"
Despite her inner turmoil at the revelations the day had brought, Jane smiled, remembering him telling her about their Peeps-shooting ritual a few months back, when they'd gone for a drink. "That could work."
They were about twenty minutes into the drive back to the compound when Roman pulled over to the side of the road. Jane had been trying not to look like she was struggling with the newfound realisation that Aurora were planning to infiltrate SIOC, but felt a tremor of nerves as she realised he'd stopped the car. What if Shepherd had caught sight of her dismay earlier, and Jane just didn't remember her mother's reactions enough to realise she was in danger?
"Roman? What's going on?" she asked warily.
"We need to talk." He shut off the engine, and the radio fell silent.
"You don't think I kept my cool enough at the warehouse?"
"No, you did fine there." He gazed at her for a long moment, as though he needed a moment to work up to something.
"Then what? I can tell there's something bugging you."
Roman took a deep breath, then spoke words that made her entire body freeze.
"I know the FBI sent you back to us. Jane."