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QT:NW continues the official Spin Off for the Quaranteam universe originally created by CorruptingPower. You do not need to have read the original series to enjoy this one, but you really do need to start with Chapters 1-4 (I really suggest you read the original though, it's great!). Fans of the original should be pleased to know CP has approved the story and the continuity.
In this chapter you can expect an awkward conversation about trust and loyalty, a heartfelt conversation, an anal encounter, and an imprinting with a special request.
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The problem with going toe to toe with a spy was that all of my usual methods of evaluating someone were
already
going off.
As a teen I'd been a bit of a hillbilly, I'd been an athlete, and I'd been a kid from a family with generational grudge issues. Then I'd joined the military and I learned about professional backstabbing and politics, and then I'd become an MP and really saw some of the dumb and vile crap that Man could do to each other. I'd been trained to be aware, alert, and suspicious.
Seven years out of the military had softened me, I was sure. But not that much.
Maybe Greerson shouldn't have told me about Kyla's background. I was trying my best to
not
be suspicious, which I bet if I saw myself back on a recording I would have seen as a red flag. If I hadn't known about her, I could have just accepted her and hopefully my natural and trained instincts would have picked up on anything fishy.
I sighed a little huff of a chuckle and leaned back in the Murphey chair, looking at Kyla across the RV. I'd been doing my best not to just really stare at her, to make a judgement scan of her to really assess her. Maybe that gave me away. Maybe not.
She was beautiful, but I'd already judged that. Her Filipino heritage was strong, but wasn't so different from the natives that I'd grown up around that it seemed out of place or exotic to me. Not to mention the plenty of varied Asians I'd lived around in Portland. She was still wearing the bulky coverall so it was hard to judge her athleticism, but just the way she sat told me she was a physical person. She was sitting on the bench, which wasn't particularly tall, but her feet were pressed to the ground by the balls of her feet and toes, her heels raised. Even though she was leaning forward with her elbows on her knees she also wasn't slouching at all. She was a coiled spring, but with a loose tension. She wasn't on edge, but was a calmly controlled nervous.
"It does," I said, answering the question she'd stunned me with for a moment. 'Does it bother you that I'm a spy?' Who asked that? Was it a game, or a test? Was she trying to be truthful because of the situation, or was she running a long con to gain my trust to inevitably betray me? How calculated was this move, and what were the variables?
Was it a move at all?
"But not the way you might think," I continued. "It's funny, I don't even know how much they told you about me. I think I mentioned outside that I was in the military at one point. I was an MP before I was discharged. You are exactly the kind of person I would have been worried about for an important part of my life. But now? Honestly, Kyla, I just don't want you to fuck up the family dynamic we're trying to build here. I don't want you to put any of the people out there in danger, on purpose or by accident, if you plan on trying to do something for your father or NICA."
She gave me a long look back, evaluating what I said. If we were sitting across from each other with a chessboard between us, or cards, I would have said she was trying to read if I was bluffing or not. But this wasn't a game, and there weren't stakes on the line, and I thankfully got the impression she wasn't trying to read me. At least, not like that. She was reading me, but she was trying to form her opinion of me, just like I was trying to with her.
"Have you ever killed anyone?" she asked me.
I pressed my lips together and nodded. "I didn't see as much combat as others, but I got in a few firefights," I said. "I had a few confirmed kills, and likely several more unconfirmed. And one of my investigations as an MP turned into a shootout with some human traffickers that ended... badly. Fuck, I haven't talked about that with anyone since I got out. I'd prefer you not bring it up with the girls, or Leo. Please."
"I won't," she said quietly.
"Have you?" I asked.
"No," she shook her. "I mean, I have enough training that I could, but that wasn't ever supposed to be my job. I- I'd rather maybe talk about my story if I get more comfortable with you, but I've never carried more than a knife and a can of mace in my purse for self-protection and haven't ever needed to use either of them."
"Does it bother you that I know?" I asked her.
"I feel like it should, but I don't think it does," Kyla said, pursing her lips a little in thought after she said it. "I just spent the last four years living a secret life, but I've always lived a
double
life. You know, which means... I don't know what it means. Which is a first."
"I told Erica," I said. "I wasn't supposed to, I don't think, but she can read me like a book and I didn't want to keep it from her anyways."
Kyla smiled a little. "I could tell," she said. "I only picked up on little things from you because of the way she was acting."
That made me chuckle a little. "Well, at least that's something. I'm not a complete waste."
"So what now?" she asked. "You know that I know that you know. Do we need to set some ground rules or anything?"
"Let's play it by ear, at least today," I said. "As long as you don't do anything to endanger anyone, we should talk again before you make the decision of whether you want to stay with us or not. I'm not sure how long you have before that becomes a problem - Erica and Ivy both got their imprinting within a few hours at our best guess, but Dani had to wait for maybe five or six to imprint with Leo and when she showed up she was a little fuzzy and thought I was him."