Betrayals (Black Cipher Files series Book 2) by Lisa Hughey Read Free Book Online

discovered Department 5491. A super secret, National Security Agency, Department 5491.
    Starting right after my grandparents were killed, every month I received a check. I'd been told it was insurance money and I’d never wondered about that money.
    Until I went back over what happened when they died. Carson Black had come to me and professed his sympathy. A friend. A mentor. He was the reason I got into espionage work. He was the man who helped me after the rest of my family perished. And I'd never questioned his involvement. I'd been eighteen and shell-shocked.
    But when I started asking questions a few months ago, I was shut down and shut out.
    Firmly. Emphatically.
    When my queries to Carson were unanswered and information about the mysterious department 5491 was stifled, my desire to know more rose.
    And I realized it all tied into those monthly checks. The more resistance I encountered, the more determined I became to get to the bottom of Department 5491.
    That’s when I discovered there was a whole list of people receiving the same checks. Checks that started after someone in their family had been killed. All in October of 1995.
    Same as my grandparents.
    So now while I thought my troubles likely stemmed from my investigation into 5491, I didn’t have a freaking clue where the threat came from. Who was behind Department 5491?
    The NSA, the CIA and the DIA were all possibilities. All had employees on the list who were receiving checks. But none of the family members who were killed worked in espionage or for those agencies. So why were we receiving those checks?
    And, I was stalling .
    With a huge exhale of breath, I twisted the rubber tourniquet and waited patiently for the vein in my left elbow to pop. I ignored the slight wobble as I moved the needle into place. I splinted my left arm whenever I was alone, but the still knitting bone ached constantly. I didn’t splint it in public. I had no idea if my captors had known my arm had been broken, but I couldn’t afford to assume that they hadn’t.
    Outside the ramshackle and only door, the chickens clucked and squawked. The warm breeze as trade winds hit the island’s shore shifted the ragged bit of fabric tacked over the window behind me. Sweat and the oily, sickly scent of my fear coated my grimy face.
    No one was coming. I’d purposely tossed corn feed around my door and window to set up a warning system. The scrawny hens would squawk and screech if anyone bothered them while they tried to peck up the offering.
    The simple measure was probably as effective as the fancy alarm system I had in Alexandria.
    Nice stall, Stace .
    I inhaled, trying unsuccessfully to ignore the odors of rotting garbage and refuse of the people too stoned or too tired to care where they defecated.
    Afghanistan was hell.
    The Bahamas were paradise...if you had enough money and influence.
    If not, you were stuck in clusters of houses with amenities from the last century, bacteria-laden water, less-than-ideal refrigeration, and minimal electricity.
    “And you’re still stalling, dammit.” My voice came out ill-used and harsh, and my words grated inside my throat like claws trying to tear out of me.
    I’d hoped talking to myself would jolt me out of this funk long enough to get the job done. If I didn’t shoot the damn drug, Fariya would have died in vain. That--I couldn’t let happen.
    I snatched the syringe and angled the sharp point of the needle at my blue, blood-engorged vein. With a sharp exhale, I jabbed the needle in, pressed the plunger down.
    How the drug could be so freaking ice cold in the humid, languid heat of the Caribbean was beyond me.
    But it was.
    The liquid seared into my blood, working its magic. I pulled the needle out slowly and watched the blood pool into a drop at the crease of my elbow. I turned my hand over slowly. After two injections I already saw the difference in the color of my skin.
    My once extremely light, olive skin was a coffee brown. The drug