The maintenance storage room felt like a tomb as Eduardo sat surrounded by cleaning supplies that had provided perfect cover for twenty-three years of intelligence operations. The electronic surveillance equipment Miguel had planted was sophisticated, but not sophisticated enough to remain hidden from someone who'd spent decades learning every inch of this facility's hidden spaces.They'd finally discovered what he really was.The irony wasn't lost on him destroyed by children whose desperation he'd been cultivating for months, exposed by agents whose emotional vulnerabilities he'd been systematically exploiting. But as he listened to their tactical planning through surveillance devices they thought were secret, he felt something approaching relief.Twenty-three years of maintaining a helpful facade. Twenty-three years of serving an organization he'd grown to despise because they'd convinced him it was the only way to save others from suffering what he'd endured.The Santos twins dese

The emergency session began at 0400 with faces in light and voices from other time zones. Holograms from three continents blinked into the room as if the whole world were watching—and judging. Director Vasquez didn't waste breath."Security breach assessment. Agent Fernandez, report."I activated the intelligence package we'd compiled from Eduardo's arrest and David's surveillance evidence. *Twenty-three years. How did we miss it for twenty-three years?*"Systematic infiltration, family targeting operations, psychological manipulation of field agents. Confirmed communications with experimental facilities and coordination of trafficking networks."Director Chen from Singapore leaned forward, his face tight with recognition. "We've had recruitment anomalies. Enhanced-resistance markers show up in agent families four times more often than chance."*Statistical impossibility. Unless it was planned.*"We attributed it to natural selection," Chen continued, his voice blunt as always. "Affec