“Your dreams?” he argued with a muffled chuckle. “Working with us was never your dream, Whisper. It’s your albatross. Your self-punishment and nothing else. You gave up your dreams for your grief, and you and I both know it.”
God, she hated him.
“Go to hell.”
It wasn’t the first time they’d had this argument, nor was it the first time she’d cursed him.
“Been there,” he stated with an edge of boredom. “As for how you do it? However you must, but we have to know what information they have, and exactly where they managed to unearth it. Nothing else matters. To survive, we have to remain hidden. Remain a fairy tale to our people. Somehow, someone’s contact has managed to acquire enough information to identify at least one of us. If one of us falls, eventually we’ll all fall.”
Blinking back at him in shock, she gave her head a little shake.
“How do you know one of the Unknown has been identified?” she questioned him, suspicion and disbelief suspended for the moment. “You don’t let anyone know who you are.”
“I don’t,” he agreed. “What one of the others has done, I can’t say for certain. All I know for a fact is that my contact within Jonas Wyatt’s force assures me that one of us has been identified. He was unable to learn who, or how.”
“You have a Breed contact?” That did surprise her. “He’s in a better position than I am—”
“Jonas is also aware that the Unknown has a contact on his force,” he snapped, anger edging into his tone now. “Whoever betrayed us knows far too much about us. Enough to assure me that the warrior that handles him has taken this person into their confidence. And that can’t be tolerated or allowed to continue. And I can’t trust the others to ensure that the identity of the warrior is not revealed. That leaves you with the task of identifying them. Because other than you and the Breed within Wyatt’s unit, I have no other contacts that my fellow warriors aren’t aware of.”
So what happened to an Unknown when they were fired? Gypsy had a feeling the position didn’t come with an out clause.
“You’re certain Jonas can identify one of you?” she whispered.
“I was told that Jonas was overheard making the statement that the Unknown were no more a fairy tale than the Breeds themselves were and that he now had the information he needed to question one of them.”
Yeah, that sounded like Jonas Wyatt knew exactly who he was looking for.
She knew Jonas too well to ever doubt he knew exactly what he was talking about. She’d heard far too many tales about Wyatt, and listened to far too many Breeds discuss him when they thought no one could overhear. He didn’t make generalized statements. If he had what he needed to question someone, then he knew who the hell that someone was.
Her own experience with Wyatt nine years before, and again after he and his family arrived in Window Rock, confirmed her supposition. She’d even managed to secure two invitations over the past two weeks to lunch with Rachel and Amber, as well as Isabelle Martinez and Ashley, one of the Coyote females with whom she’d become friends.
She knew Jonas was determined, single-minded, and nothing mattered to him but his family and the Breeds. Their survival was his only reason for living.
Rather like the Unknown.
The Breeds were considered part of the People, their genetics a direct tie to past chiefs, medicine men, the sisters, and children who had been taken from the tribes during the years the Council was building its so-called army.
Her brother had revered these warriors. He’d dreamed of eventually becoming one himself if a position among the six ever opened up.
“Getting that kind of information will be extremely hard. Hell, it could be impossible,” she muttered, making a quick mental list of the Breeds who might know what Jonas was doing. Though she doubted more than one, possibly two, would be privy to the information he had.
Rule Breaker would definitely be one of those Breeds, as would his brother, Lawe.
Jonas had several bodyguards; no doubt they knew quite a bit, but Rachel Broen was his lover. She would know everything Jonas Wyatt knew, and Gypsy knew Rachel.
A sickening feeling of self-disgust overtook her.
She couldn’t reveal anything Rachel told her, even if the other woman did tell her something important. She knew what the Breeds were searching for and why, just not their actual identities. She had no information to give Jonas that would help him; her contact never told her anything, he merely took what she collected. And she believed him when she’d asked him if he could help Amber and he’d denied the ability. His voice had resonated with regret when he told her he couldn’t.
“Watching your mind work is fascinating,” the warrior said then, his voice reflecting amusement and disbelief. “At some point, my friend, you’re going to have to realize how much your talents are being wasted as my contact. You could do far more with yourself.”
Gypsy shook her head.
“Rule’s suite was completely clean when I went through it last week,” she stated, brushing aside his comment. “He keeps his e-pad on him, at least whenever I’ve seen him. It’s never turned on when he has it, and he never pulls it free to use it.”
She knew that because one of the programs the warrior had added to her secure satellite phone had been designed to hack into the device the Breed commander carried and download the information contained on it. But it would only work if the e-pad was turned on.
“You had to have overlooked something,” he told her then. “When Breaker returned to his room, there was a definite indication of data being accessed or routed into his room from the hotel’s cameras. He couldn’t do that if he didn’t have a computer there. The e-pads aren’t capable of running a program like that. They can only read what’s routed to them from a program existing on another device. And he wasn’t carrying it in with him when he returned.”