Everyone was heading to bed early knowing that tomorrow we had an early flight and I think everyone was too anxious to try and pretend to be happy. Yulian was probably the only person I could see getting some sleep, but still, I lied and said I was heading up to bed. The last thing I wanted to do was sleep. It felt like my skin was crawling, my stomach was a rock, and my legs itched to just run.

If I was smart, that's exactly what I'd do, run and never look back. I knew helping the Deviations was the right thing to do, but I didn't want any part of it. Instead, I sat in my office typing out the remainder of everything I remembered from Alaska. It was a much easier process when I was brainwashed, now I barely made it through a paragraph before I had to try to get my hands to stop trembling.

There was a knock on the office door and I turned around in my chair just as it opened. "Hey," Thierry said, rubbing his eyes as he stifled a yawn. "You coming to bed? I thought you were already there?" He asked, bags already under his eyes.

I shrugged. "I'll be there soon," I lied.

Thierry was too tired to argue as he closed the door and I heard his soft footsteps heading to the next room followed by our bedroom door shutting. I sighed and leaned back into my chair, closing my eyes just for a moment and accepting as all the horrors washed over me.

Once again, I found myself questioning why I had ever agreed to this, nearly an hour after Thierry had come and gone when my phone started to vibrate. It seemed to echo through the house it was so quiet except for the soft pattering of rain on the roof. I quickly snatched the phone and answered it without thinkin., "Hello?"

"Oh good, you're still awake," Asmar said into the phone and I tensed a bit. I didn't think about who was calling me, but if I had, I didn't expect him. "We have heard about your little mission in Alaska and we have our own task for you."

I frowned and slid my glasses off my face, setting them down on the desk as I sat up a bit straighter. "How did you hear about that?"

"We hear about everything, Linkin, but that isn't the question you should be asking." Now that he was speaking over the phone, he seemed a lot more confident.

"What should I be asking?" I asked as I reached into the drawer and pulled out a pen and paper, assuming I was going to be given another place I was going to have to go.

Asmar laughed into the phone, loud enough for me to take it from my ear, "You know the saying: when I say jump you say-?"

"What the fuck do you want?"

There was a pause on the other end of the phone, evidently, Asmar didn't appreciate being cut off. "We know you're breaking people out of the Alaska compound, we know there is a man named Nazem there. I want you to ensure his safety and then I want you to deliver him to me."

"What?"

My mind started to race, going through the impossibilities of what he asking for. I couldn't simply hand a human being, even one as awful as Nazem over to a bunch of criminals. "Do not make me repeat myself Linkin, I know you heard me," he sounded both annoyed and disinterested. "It is an easy task. Get him alone, call us, we won't be far away. Even now there is a man only 10 minutes outside your villa in case you ever tried to do something stupid."

Shooting out of my chair, I looked around as if I expected to see someone watching me. "How do you know where I am? This place doesn't exist."

"No, but you do and that tracker in you doesn't care if the building you are in is on any map or not." There was a lump in my throat which stopped me from speaking, instead, my mouth just fell open. "What, did you really think we'd let you go so easily without leverage?"

My mouth was suddenly dry and I licked my lips as I attempted to think of words. "Why?" was all I could come up with.

Asmar laughed once more. "Why what, Linkin? It isn't your job to ask why, it is your job to do what we want. So, ensure Nazem gets rescued, bring him away from all your friends and give us a call. We'll pick him up and then you won't hear from us until we need something else."

I shook my head, trying to think of a way out of my predicament, "What if I won't?"

"You're on the run from multiple governments, do you really think it would be difficult for them to find you and all your friends if your tracking information fell into the wrong hands?" He tsked me through the phone like a disappointed parent. "Be smarter, Linkin."

"You killed Emma!" I hissed into the phone. Now that I had my own brain back, the last thing I wanted to do was work for them. I was done working with criminals; we didn't need them anymore and there were important wars to fight.

Asmar chuckled, "Did we?"

Our conversation was cut short as I heard a scream. The phone fell from my ear as I looked around panicked once again, the door to my office quickly opening. It was Thierry. "Are you alright?"

I hung up the phone without thinking, "What's wrong?" I asked, tucking the device into my back pocket, for the time being, my own problems were put on the backburner as I heard another cry.

"Ira..." Thierry said as he sprinted downstairs, gun in hand and I followed just seconds behind him.