Chapter 32: The Bureau Investigator Figured Out Everything And She’s Using It To Trap Me?!

The summons arrived at six in the morning while Soren was still trying to figure out how to get out of bed without waking up two girls and a wolf.

Maren had rolled into him during the night, her fox ears against the pillow and her tail wrapped around his thigh in a way that suggested she’d done it on purpose.

Selah was on his other side with her back against the wall, her eyes already open when the knock came.

Grimm lifted her head from the foot of the bed.

The knock came again.

Three sharp raps with a pause between each one, the Bureau pattern.

Soren read the folded note that had been slid under the door.

Office 2-C. 0700. Non-optional. — J. Sawyer

Vesna’s voice from yesterday played back in his head. You have six days.

Dani’s voice from last night. I’m on your side.

And now Joan wanted a meeting before breakfast.

He pulled Maren’s tail off his leg. She made a sound in her throat that was half growl and half whine, her claws catching the sheets.

"Bureau," he said.

Maren’s eyes opened. "Want me to come?"

"No."

"Want me to follow you anyway?"

"Maren."

"Fine." She rolled onto her back and stretched, arms over her head, the hem of her shirt riding up past her stomach. "Be careful with that woman."

Selah was already on her feet.

She handed him the cup of tea she’d been cooling with her hands, the frost on the ceramic dissolving under his fingers.

"I’ll be in the east corridor," Selah said. "If you’re not back in thirty minutes I’m coming in."

"She’s a Bureau investigator, not a kidnapper."

"Thirty minutes," Selah said, and the frost on her wrist climbed half an inch.

◆◆◆◆

Joan’s temporary office was on the second floor.

Light under the door at seven AM, the same way it had been at two in the morning the last time he’d come here.

She opened the door before he knocked.

She was wearing the Bureau coat but it was open at the collar, and her hair was down instead of pinned.

He’d never seen it down before.

It changed the shape of her face, softened the angles, made her look less like a case file and more like a person.

"Sit," she said.

Soren walked past her and sat in the chair across from the desk. She closed the door.

Joan picked up a folder. His name was written on the tab in her handwriting.

She read the first line out loud.

"Soren Kane. Three active bonds, one unregistered beast in humanoid form, one Ice-Fused Tamer with no precedent in the database, one Mythic Tier-6 Shadow entity bonded through a method the system can’t classify, and a soul signature operating at exactly 50.1%." She set it down. "The precise threshold where my monitoring seal becomes relevant."

She folded her hands on the desk.

"Did I miss anything?"

"You forgot the wolf."

Joan’s mouth moved about a quarter of an inch. "The wolf is the least interesting thing about you, Mr. Kane."

She stood up.

The Bureau boots added an inch to her height, enough that when she walked around the desk and stopped two feet from his chair, her eyes were level with his.

"I’m going to tell you what I’ve built," she said. "Then you’re going to make a decision."

"I’m listening."

"Good boy."

Soren kept his expression where it was because the alternative was reacting, and he wasn’t going to give her that.

Joan walked to the window.

"I haven’t been building a case to expose you," she said. "I’ve been building one to contain you."

"Those sound different but they feel the same from this chair."

"They’re not." She turned.

"Exposing you sends your file to the Continental Council. Containing you keeps it in this drawer." She tapped the desk.

"This is the only copy. Handwritten. Nothing on any server."

"Why handwritten?"

"Because I don’t trust my own Bureau with what’s in this folder." She let that sit for a second.

"Full immunity. You and every bonded partner. Cole’s identity stays classified. Young’s fusion status gets buried. Your Mythic bond goes under a sealed codename that only I access."

"In exchange for what?"

"You operate under my tactical command during the Fracture Event, You follow my approach, my timeline and my extraction protocol."

"My bonds follow your orders?"

"Your bonds follow your orders but you follow mine."

Soren looked at her.

She’d spent weeks mapping every piece of him.

Every bond, every vulnerability, every data point the monitoring seal fed her.

So she could build this room.

The "good boy" dropped early so he’d still be chewing on it when she made the offer.

"You’ve been playing me since day one," Soren said.

"I’ve been positioning you. There’s a difference."

"The difference is you think you’re in control."

"I am in control." Joan tilted her head.

"Your soul is at 50.1%. One point of friction and my seal breaks open. Every secret you have goes to the Council." She paused.

"I don’t want that, I want a clean Fracture containment and to go home. Help me go home, Kane."

"And if I can contain it without you?"

"Then I go home happy and you never see me again but you can’t. Not alone within five days."

"I’m never alone."

"I know." Joan’s voice dropped. "That’s why I want you."

Soren stood up.

She didn’t step back.

That put them close, close enough to see the pulse in her throat.

"I’ll take the deal," he said. "Modified."

"I’m listening."

"My bonds don’t hear your voice. You give tactical direction to me. I relay it, If your order puts any of them at risk, I override. No discussion."

"That’s not how Bureau command structures work."

"I’m not Bureau."

"You will be."

"Then the Bureau just got an asset who doesn’t follow orders he disagrees with." He held her eyes.

"Take it or leave it, Ms. Sawyer."

She held the stare for five seconds.

Soren didn’t look away.

"Fine," she said. "But I need something else."

"There’s always something else."

"The Fracture Seed It’s being cultivated." She pulled a second folder from the desk drawer, thinner than the first.

"Someone placed it here before the academy opened. Before the first student walked through the gates but my Bureau can’t identify who."

She looked at him. "But I think you can."

Soren looked at the folder.

He knew exactly what was at the end of that thread but giving Joan a name right now would open a door he couldn’t close.

"I have a lead," he said. "When I have proof, you’ll be the first person I tell."

"That’s not an answer."

"It’s the only one you’re getting today."

Joan looked at his hand.

Then she took it.

"Welcome to the Bureau, Mr. Kane."

She sat back down. Her hair fell across one shoulder and she left it there.

Soren walked to the door.

"Kane."

He stopped.

"If your shadow entity kills me in my sleep, the sealed file auto-submits to three Bureau offices. Just so we’re clear."

"She won’t kill you in your sleep."

"Good."

"She’d do it while you’re awake. She’d want you to see it coming."

Joan’s mouth did the quarter-inch thing again. "Get out of my office."

◆◆◆◆

Selah was waiting in the east corridor with her arms crossed and frost past her wrists.

"Twenty-eight minutes," she said.

"I had two minutes left."

"What did she want?"

"An alliance."

"And?"

"I took it, but on my terms."

Selah looked at him. The frost on her wrists pulled back half an inch.

"Your terms," she said. "Not hers."

"Mine."

She nodded once.

Then her pinky touched the back of his hand as they walked but neither of them said anything about it.

[DING! — Alliance formed: Joan Sawyer, Continental Bureau. Status: ACTIVE. Command structure: Split authority. Fracture countdown: 5 days, 3 hours.]

[DING! — Obsession Index: Yara 40/75. Selah 30/50. Maren 13/50.]

[DING! — Soul integrity: 50.1%. Stable. Margin: 0.1%.]