Page 41 of False Flag

“You really don’t have any secrets, Anastacia.”

“Don’t call me that.” The words came out sharper than she intended, but her name sounded especially disturbing coming from him. The Burns brothers had similar voices.

Unlike his brother, he didn’t press the point. “Sorry. Staci. My bad.”

“I wasn’t talking about my bio mom. I was referring to my stepmom.”

“You have a stepmom?”

“Yes.”

“But your dad isn’t married.”

Of course, they would know her dad was divorced and still alive. They probably knew where he lived, which was more than she could say.

“That doesn’t change the fact that he was married. Once a stepparent, always a parent. If you’re any good at the role, anyway.”

Karen was a mix. She hadn’t relished being a stepmom, but she’d tried. Especially in the teen years, when Staci had really needed a mom. And unlike her father, Karen stayed in touch. Her dad hadn’t even bothered to call when he’d been informed Staci was in the hospital.

Just thinking about it made her side and shoulder ache.

Staci pulled out her phone and dialed the number she’d saved under the name Karen. The call went straight to voicemail, which was just as well. “Hey, Mom. Just wanted to let you know I arrived in Canada a little over an hour ago and caught a private ferry to a small island. About to head up to the house. I’ll call again when I’m settled in. Probably in about an hour? Call me then, ’kay? Love you.”

She hit End, satisfied Freya would call in an hour to confirm she was okay.

“Since when do you call Karen Mom?”

Shock coursed through Staci. That voice. The pounding rain must have covered the sound of his footsteps.

Hand pressed to her side, she slowly turned to face her first love. Her heart pounded at seeing him standing just inside the shelter, drenched in rainwater and wearing a smug smile.

A year older than her, he’d joined the Army after graduation. She’d been a senior in high school when he broke up with her via text message a few weeks later.

“Oh, around the time you broke my heart when I was seventeen.”

“Staci.” He used a familiar, soothing tone. How had she never heard the condescension in it when they were dating? “We’ve been through that. We both know what I did was for the best.”

She did. But that wasn’t why she was absolutely terrified at seeing him here. Now.

Ten years after that first breakup, he’d landed a permanent change of station to Fort Belvoir, not far from where she lived and worked. He’d reached out, and they’d slid back into a relationship.

A few months in, she’d been certain she was in love and had no doubt he loved her too.

She remembered watching the news the night after the first attack, in Philadelphia. It had been before anyone had ever heard of Archaeological Truthers. She’d been shocked. Horrified to know that an archaeologist had been assaulted by a fan of Lost Civilizations.

Beau had held her. Comforted her. Expressed outrage over the assault.

But a few weeks later, she’d been alone in his off-base apartment and had stumbled upon his YouTube watch history and recommended videos. It was a smorgasbord of white supremacy, eugenics, and pseudoarchaeology.

From there, she took a look at his web browsing history and bookmarks. Which only made the sick feeling in her gut worse. Armed with his YouTube ID, she found his comments on the videos of archaeologists she respected, men and women who were fighting the disinformation battle and calling out Campbell’s lies.

Beau’s comments—full of vitriol and threats of violence—went as far back as a year.

She’d confronted him that evening. She didn’t know what she’d expected beyond some irrational hope he could make sense of it.

He did make it make sense, but not in the way she’d wanted. The man before her, the man she’d thought she loved, dropped the mask he’d been wearing for months. He was a true believer in the cult of Gerard Campbell. He knew in his soul Big Archaeology was hiding the truth to protect their Indigenous agenda.

He admitted he’d reached out to her for the purpose of turning her to the light of truth. Recruiting her to the cult. She would be an important acquisition. He’d gain clout beyond belief if he could present a real archaeologist to his master.