Read Online Express Male by Elizabeth Bevarly - Free Book Online

things got a little murky. Last November, Noah, like everyone at his level and higher, had received a report that She-Wolf had returned to Washington and, while being debriefed by He Whose Name Nobody Dared Say, had gone nuts and tried to murder him. Then she’d disappeared.
    This, Noah had trouble believing. At one time or another, everyone in OPUS had wanted to murder He Whose Name Nobody Dared Say. But everyone in OPUS, especially someone as smart as Lila, knew that to even attempt such a thing would be suicide. Plus, Lila wasn’t one to lose control and go nuts. She never let her emotions overrule her. She was the coolest, at times the most emotion less person Noah knew.
    So, like many in OPUS, he’d had his doubts about the reliability—he hesitated to use the word veracity— of the report. It wouldn’t be the first time the big muckety-mucks in D.C. had inflated—or created—a story to suit their own needs. Still he’d had no choice but to follow protocol and treat Lila as an enemy of the organization.
    Watching her now, he couldn’t quite figure out what she was. She certainly wasn’t cooperating with them. But she didn’t seem to be a threat, either. So Noah would reserve judgment and observe.
    “If she’s your best agent,” Lila said to Gestalt, “and if you think I’m her, then why are you treating me like a criminal? For that matter, if I’m her, why wouldn’t I come along peacefully and cooperate with you? Why would I keep insisting I’m someone else?”
    “Well, there were some…circumstances…surrounding her disappearance,” Gestalt said. “Circumstances that are a bit unclear.”
    Lila was silent for a moment, clearly digesting the information. Then she said, “Meaning she either screwed something up really badly, or else she’s turned to the dark side.”
    Gestalt smiled again. “Let’s just say there are a few questions we’d like to ask her. A few things we need for her to clear up. But let’s talk about you, Marnie. I want to hear more about you right now.”
    For the next half hour, Gestalt quizzed Lila on her phony-baloney Marnie Lundy persona, asking questions that ranged from her childhood illnesses to her high-school social life to her experiences as a teaching assistant at Ohio State. Had he not known better, Noah would have sworn Lila really was some woman named Marnie Lundy. Not once did she stop to think before responding, and not once did she waver from her story. Even when Gestalt tried to trip her up, Lila always made perfect sense.
    But that was Lila. She had a gift for changing herself into whatever she needed to be. When she took on the identity of someone else, she didn’t just pass herself off as that individual. She became that individual. Mind, body and soul. The fact that this time the identity was one she’d assigned to herself instead of being assigned it by OPUS didn’t change that.
    At the end of Gestalt’s questioning, she left Lila alone and returned to the room where Noah and the others were waiting. Much to his surprise, her expression when she entered was one of philosophical acceptance.
    “You think she’s telling the truth?” he asked incredulously.
    “I think she’s telling the truth as she sees it, yes,” Gestalt told them. “I think She-Wolf genuinely believes that she’s Marnie Lundy.”
    “What?” Noah barked.
    “She’s delusional,” Gestalt said. “Something happened to her that’s made her block out her actual identity and assume the identity of a fictional person who lives a life completely different from the one she’s used to. A quiet, uneventful, safe life,” she added meaningfully. “She’s even given that fictional person her initials, albeit reversed. Lila Moreau. Marnie Lundy. But I’m quite convinced that right now, She-Wolf firmly believes she’s who she says she is.”
    “So what are we supposed to do?” Noah asked. He still wasn’t sure he believed Gestalt’s analysis, but he couldn’t offer a