When we return to the Executive, which is located beneath a secured government building, Alpha leaves the limousine in the parking garage and heads for the elevator without looking at me. The ride back was uncomfortably silent, and neither of us tried to talk at all. I haven’t been able to figure out if he’s disappointed because I failed to close the mission, or because I might feel something for Jamison Hart, or because of something else entirely.

I follow my partner into the elevator, waiting silently as he presses the button combination for the Executive. But as we descend to the main floor, he stands far enough apart from me that I can’t take it anymore. I have to say something.

“What’s wrong?” I ask, hating how small my voice sounds.

“Nothing,” says August, still not looking at me.

“I tried to close the mission,” I say. “I really did. But it was too late—”

“I know, Echo,” he says, sounding tired. “I know.”

The tone of his voice makes it clear that he knows exactly what happened between me and Jamison Hart in the Woodland Castle. He might even have seen me with Romeo up on the roof. But I can’t understand why he’s giving me the cold shoulder for only doing what I’ve been trained to do, the same thing I’ve done in every other mission we’ve been on together. I’m supposed to get close to my targets. I’m supposed to do whatever I can to avoid detection. Alpha has his job and I have mine. That’s all. It’s always been this way, and it hasn’t ever affected our partnership before now.

I first met August when I was five and he was nine. I’d just been taken away from my home by Agent Novenine, a handler with the Executive. She had spectacles and dark hair pinned up in a tight bun, and there was a gun in the holster at her side. We’d left in a limousine while my parents were sleeping. No, not sleeping. Your parents are dead, Echo, she said in the elevator, the same one I’m in now. I’m sorry.

My name isn’t Echo, I protested.

Agent Novenine glanced at me with a strange expression on her face. It is now.

She brought me to the dormitories for operatives and introduced me to my new roommate. Juliet was a few years older than I was, and she wore white gloves that fully covered her hands. What’s your name? she asked me. Eliza, I said, then corrected myself. I mean Echo.

It still felt like a game at the time, like I was playing make-believe, even though I knew everything was changing for real. This was to be my new school, and Agent Novenine was to be my new teacher, and the other operatives were to be my new classmates. I just had to accept it. There was nothing else I could do.

Agent Novenine showed me around the rest of the Executive before escorting me to the training gym, which had weights and mats and other equipment strewn around the polished floor. But what caught my attention was the brown-haired boy standing at the very center of it all. He was watching me carefully, as if afraid to believe I was really here.

This is your new partner, Agent Novenine said to me.

What’s a partner? I asked.

He’ll be your friend, she said. He’ll be there for you when you need him. He’ll keep you safe.

None of it made sense to me at the time. I didn’t know the boy at all, and he looked so lost, probably even more so than I was. How could he ever keep me safe? But even though his face was expressionless, I could see the yearning in his dark eyes. It was the same yearning I saw in my own face whenever I looked in the mirror. He wanted to be my friend. He wanted to have someone to talk to who could understand him. This, at least, made sense to me. For a moment I forgot about my dead parents, about Agent Novenine, about the Executive, and all I could see was someone like me.

“Hi,” I said to him. “My name’s Eliza.” I had to correct myself again. “I mean Echo.”

“Hey,” was all he said. His eyes weren’t looking at me anymore.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

He thought for a moment. “Alpha.”

“That’s a funny name,” I said, giggling. Then I whispered, “What’s your real name?”

“August,” he said, glancing at me cautiously.

“I like that one better,” I said.

“Me too,” he said solemnly. “But you have to call me Alpha.”

I nodded, already acclimating to the new rules. “See you later, Alpha-gator.”

He smiled unexpectedly, and for a brief second he seemed like any other child I might have played with after school. But then any trace of emotion disappeared, almost as suddenly as it had come, and I never saw him smile again.

Ever since that first meeting, August and I have become partners and relied on each other time after time. We’ve trained together and rescued each other from sticky situations and closed hundreds of missions side by side. There have been other moments scattered here and there, too, like when I was crying in my dorm on my tenth birthday and he knocked on the door and gave me a stuffed rabbit that had been through the wash a few too many times. One ear had been ripped off, and one eye had been replaced by a button. It’s for you, he said. His name is Fiver. And then there was that time after I’d finished screaming my heart out at him, when he walked away and I thought that was it, he was gone forever, he was asking the Executive for a new partner as I stood there shaking in the training gym. But he came back after a few minutes with a blanket and draped it around my shoulders. Get some rest, he said. Okay? I nodded, tears spilling from my eyes. Okay.

So even though he isn’t standing next to me right now, even though he hasn’t been talking to me whatsoever, I know August isn’t an emotionless bastard. I know he isn’t ignoring me on purpose. Even if he had an issue with how I dealt with Jamison Hart or Romeo, it would never prevent him from making sure I was okay. So there has to be something else going on, something that’s important enough to make him act differently. But I already know I’ll never be able to make him talk to me. All I can do is trust that he’ll tell me eventually.

When the elevator finally stops at the main floor of the Executive, we disembark together in silence. The hallways down here are sterile and illuminated by fluorescent lighting, even in the middle of the night. It almost makes you forget that you’re underground, being watched over by security cameras at every turn. Sometimes I actually do forget. But then I see an operative with bloodied hands, or a file crammed full of mugshots, or a handler carrying a duffel bag filled with weapons, and I remember again.

Alpha and I walk together to the briefing room, the same way we always do, with him at my side but one step behind, watching my back even when it isn’t really necessary. Normally it makes me feel safe, but right now it just makes me feel pissed off. If he was going to ignore me, you’d think he would at least be consistent about it.

I speed up slightly, only to glance over my shoulder and realize August has sped up as well, maintaining the distance between us. But my partner isn’t checking for my reaction or anything like that. He’s just staring at the tiled floor as he strides behind me, lost in thought, not even aware of my expression. This is simply automatic for him by now.

My anger dissipates the tiniest bit.

Agent Novenine is waiting for us in the briefing room. Her hair has grayed over the years, and she wears thicker spectacles than when she brought me to the Executive. I’m worried about her reaction to what happened on the mission. She has the power to sentence me to solitary confinement or ground me in my dorm until further notice. And, of course, I have no idea how much Alpha told her while I was getting to the extraction point.

But she isn’t alone.

I stop in my tracks when I see who else is sitting at the conference table. There’s an older man with a pointed beard, wearing a chauffeur’s uniform like the one Alpha has on, which is really nothing out of the ordinary. But lounging next to him is the operative I thought I left behind at the Woodland Castle.

Reese code name Romeo.

He raises an eyebrow when he sees me enter, barely managing to control his smirk. “Why, hello there.”

I ignore his tone. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Echo!” Agent Novenine purses her lips and gestures at a stack of files in front of her. “Please take a seat. We’re ready to begin.”

Still glaring at Reese, I sit down in a chair at the opposite end of the conference table. After a moment, August takes a seat in the middle, somewhere between the two of us. I can’t help but feel a flash of irritation that he isn’t taking my side. Literally.

“Romeo works for the Executive in the United Kingdom,” says Agent Novenine. “He’s posing as Lawrence Fisher, a wealthy investor from London. His partner, Uncle, is serving as his personal valet and chauffeur. Their target is Mellie Hart, who’s been traveling between here and London pending her divorce from Gallagher Hart. We’ve decided that some coordination is necessary to prevent any further mishaps.”

“I have to work with him?” I spit out.

“The Hart family is participating in a sailing race next weekend,” she says, ignoring my outburst. “Echo and Romeo will attend together and claim to be former acquaintances who reconnected at the Woodland Castle. Is that understood?”

No. Alpha and I have worked with other operatives before, but not like this, when we’ve already started a mission. There are too many variables that need to be reconsidered, too many issues that could crop up. Normally Agent Novenine would be instructing us to continue our mission separately, as if we didn’t know the other operatives at all. At least from glancing around the briefing room, I can see that no one else is on board either.

“Hold on,” says Reese. “I thought we’d merely be sharing our plans, that sort of thing. I’ve already taken out two Ophidian directors, and I don’t have the time to incorporate a new cover story involving your operatives.”

“You can and you will,” Agent Novenine says, her tone indicating that she’ll shut down any further argument. “I’ve already spoken to your handler about it. For this mission, you’ll be serving both of our nations and not just your own.”

“Wait,” I say desperately. “I was going to close the mission on my date with Jamison Hart. I can’t do it if I have a boyfriend—”

“Not a boyfriend,” she says. “A first date. If you’ve read Jamison Hart’s file thoroughly, which I’m sure you have, you should know that he’s extremely competitive and goes for what he wants. This can only help your mission.” She spreads out several files on the table. “While Echo and Romeo are distracting Mellie Hart and fueling Jamison’s jealousy, Alpha and Uncle will set Mellie’s jeep to explode at the sailing race. Echo will get closer to Jamison at his stepmother’s funeral before killing him at his colleague Damien Fabre’s wedding. You will have one month to close the mission.”

Agent Novenine begins to distribute the files, but this marks the end of any discussion. Ignoring everyone else, I shove my chair back and stalk out of the briefing room. As always, Alpha will make sure I get anything I need, including a bunch of files I don’t actually want to memorize.

By the time I reach my dorm, I’m practically shaking with rage, my insides feeling as if they’re going to explode. I crash onto my bed and shove Fiver aside, releasing a muffled scream into my pillow. I didn’t want to kill Jamie. I didn’t want to lose control over every aspect of my mission. Part of me wanted to make it last forever, but that’s clearly no longer an option, if it ever was.

But that’s when I realize what all this means. Instead of being locked up in solitary confinement, I’m being given extra time to spend with Jamie. For the next month, my cover story actually requires me to get closer to my target without killing him. I can do whatever I want.

I can even be normal.

Instead of crying, I begin to laugh hysterically, the sound bubbling up from the depths of my gut. Somehow I managed to find Jamison Hart during the game of Sardines, and I escaped from the Woodland Castle without getting caught, and Agent Novenine didn’t even sentence me to solitary confinement. And now I don’t have to kiss my target for an entire month?

For once, it feels like a celebration.