Page 63 of Once Hidden
“I’ll bet you didn’t see this as my endgame,” Tony muttered.His eyes flicked to the empty space beside him, then back to the road.“No, of course not.That’s the beauty of it.”
Riley watched him carefully and realized he wasn’t talking to her.Tony’s head tilted slightly, as if listening to a voice only he could hear.His expression shifted—softened momentarily—before he chuckled and shook his head.
“I know, I know.But trust me, it’s perfect,” he continued, speaking to no one Riley could see.“It all comes full circle here.Where you fell, we’ll both go out in a final blaze of glory.”
A cold realization washed over her.The twin.Jay.
Tony wasn’t just talking to himself—he was having a conversation with his dead brother.The brother who had died five years ago in a climbing accident at the very place they were now racing toward.The brother whose death had fractured Tony’s mind and set this entire bloody sequence of events in motion.
There are three people in this cab,she thought.Not two.
This must be how Tony had lived all these years since the death of his twin—with a second presence in his mind.He probably believed that Jay was watching, correcting, sharing the one life that they still had.
But Riley was no stranger to unusual perceptions.Her own had helped her solve many cases.If Tony believed his brother was present, perhaps she could use that delusion.Perhaps she could reason not with Tony, but with Jay—or at least, with Tony’s perception of him.
“What does your brother think of your endgame?”she asked calmly.
Tony’s eyes widened in surprise, darting briefly to her before returning to the road.“What?”
“Jay,” she said, watching his reaction carefully.“What does Jay think about all this?”
A tremor ran through Tony’s body.“He...he loves it,” Tony said, but his voice wavered slightly.“Of course he does.In just a few minutes, we’ll be together forever.”
The truck swerved slightly as they rounded a curve.
“Are you sure that’s how this is going to work?”she pressed, keeping her voice perfectly normal.“Maybe you should ask him directly.”
A strange stillness came over Tony.He made no immediate reply, and in that silence, Riley knew she had found a crack in his delusion, a fault line she might be able to exploit.
She’d hit the right nerve.
*
Tony felt Jay shift inside him, a sensation he’d grown accustomed to over the years.But now his brother’s presence seemed even stronger after the FBI agent’s words.Did she know that Jay was there too?Had she somehow heard him speak?No, impossible.Only he could hear his brother.Only he had been granted that gift, that curse.
“She’s got a point, you know,” Jay’s voice came to him, clear and familiar.“What exactly is this endgame of yours?”
Tony blinked, confused.This wasn’t the response he’d expected.He’d thought Jay would be delighted by the surprise he had so carefully prepared for him—his amazing endgame.
“Isn’t it obvious?”Tony whispered, ignoring the fact that the FBI woman could hear him.“I’m going to hit the trigger on the way down.It’s going to be big, Jay!We’ll be legends, like John Raven, only bigger.People will be in awe of this place forever, all on account of us.I’ll bet nobody will even dare to climb the cliff again.”
Jay’s voice took on that impatient tone he’d always used when Tony missed something obvious.“This wasn’t what I expected, Tony.Not at all.And I’m not happy about it.”
Tony’s mind whirled.The cliff was getting closer, the guardrail now clearly visible against the blue sky beyond.He pressed the accelerator harder, as if speed could outrun the sudden doubt in his mind.
“What’s wrong with it?”he asked aloud, his voice rising.
“For one thing,” Jay said, “you’re not killing the one who failed to deliver the compass.She’s the reason I died.Wasn’t that the point of all this?To make her pay?”
Tony shook his head, frustrated.“An FBI agent is just as good.Better even.She’s important.Her death will mean something.”
“But that’s not what we agreed on,” Jay’s voice was stern now, like when they were children and Tony had broken a rule of one of their games.“And what’s more, you’re going to kill yourself too?What is the point of that?”
The road curved sharply, and Tony followed it mechanically.This wasn’t how their conversation was supposed to go.Jay was supposed to be proud of him.Grateful.
“So, your brother isn’t happy with how this is going?”the FBI agent’s voice broke into his thoughts again.“What happens to him after we go off that cliff?”
“I already told you,” Tony said impatiently.“Jay and I, together forever.”
