396 Identity 9

A growling sound from Katherine's mid-section interrupted their hugging. 

"You're hungry…" Damien pulled back and his eyes instantly landed on her stomach.

"I haven't eaten since morning." A pout formed on her lips, making her look extra pitiful and adorable that it crushed his heart.

"That bastard." He clicked his tongue and got up. "I'll bring you some food."

"Ah! I'll go with you." 

Before he could stop her, she had already pulled out the IV catheter from the back of her hand. He narrowed his eyes and watched as she pressed the part where the IV needle was earlier with a band-aid that she kept on the nightstand and proceeded to close the IV flow regulator.

When she met his questioning eyes with her innocent ones, she was confused. "What?" As if what she did was a normal thing to do.

"You should rest. Why did you remove your IV?" he questioned.

"I don't like needles. And I'm fine now. I'm just really hungry. Please feed me," she pleaded, with hands pressed together like she was praying kind of pleading.

How could he decline her request looking like that? He would seem like a monster. "Fine." He dug his hands in his pockets as he headed outside and she followed behind.

…

At the kitchen, Katherine and Amelia sat by the island counter while Damien grabbed a few ingredients from the refrigerator to make some stir-fried chicken and vegetables. It was the fastest that he could make so she wouldn't have to wait long.

"So this agent—the one who took you. You knew him?" Amelia asked. Her hands were nursing a cup of chamomile tea that she occasionally sipped from time to time.

"Yeah. We sort of joined Shadow together. He was a Type A."

"An orphan," Amelia confirmed.

"Yeah." Katherine nodded and turned to face Damien, watching him as he started slicing up boneless and skinless chicken thighs into bite-sized chunks. When he had enough for about half a cup, he kept the rest of the chicken aside and started preparing the vegetables. "Wait… Can you add more?" she requested, pointing at the chicken.

Damien's hand paused mid-air and his gaze flitted from Katherine to the chicken. Raising a brow, he sliced up and added some more.

"More, please…" She bit her bottom lip, already salivating when he hasn't even started cooking yet.

So, of course, he added some more. And then looked at her as if he needed her confirmation if the one cup of chicken was already enough.

"A little more?" She unabashedly smiled and rubbed her hands together. She was really hungry.

"What did he say?" Amelia asked as she poured a glass of water for Katherine while Damien plated the stir-fried dish on top of a bed of rice then placed it in front of her.

"Thank you," Katherine told the two and started to eat a spoonful of the delicious food, chewed, and then swallowed before she answered, "Nothing much really. He just constantly asked me for my name." Another spoonful of stir-fried chicken and vegetables with teriyaki sauce and fluffy rice went past her lips and into her mouth. She had to close her eyes as she savored the tasty dish that exploded in her mouth.

"What do you mean he asked for your name?" Damien probed.

"Literally that. 'Tell me your name. What's your name. Your name.' Over and over even after I told him I was Katherine Young."

"Is that all? He didn't ask you anything else?"

She snorted and rolled her eyes. "It was the only thing he asked. And trust me, it got annoying after the tenth time and I lost count after that. That, plus me getting hungry was not a good combination. A different kind of torture, I say. "

"He wanted to hear you say it." Amelia's voice was low. She averted her gaze to the side as if she was imagining something.

"Hear what?" Damien looked at the two women in front of him. There was an understanding between the two that only they knew.

Katherine gulped down her food and drank water. "The agents in Shadow live by several codes. Actually, many. One of which is a constant reminder to everyone." She glanced at Amelia and continued, "We don't have an identity. As far as we all were concerned. We only exist for Shadow. Live and breathe for Shadow. He asked for my name. But agents don't have 'identities'. We—They basically don't exist anywhere. So what he really wanted to know was if I would tell him I don't have one."

"But wasn't it easy to just lie your way through? He spent the whole time asking you the question, wasn't that a waste of time?"

"It doesn't matter. He wasn't only testing my words. The entire time he had this recorder on. I'm assuming it was for Parker—he who sees with all his senses."

"Hmmm." Amelia chimed in. "Parker is great at reading people. He could tell when you're lying by just observing your body language. How was your Poly test?" She turned to Katherine.

"I aced it." A small smile danced on her lips before she chewed another spoonful of food, seemingly proud that she was great at keeping the lie during the test in Castle.

"Poly? Like a polygraph?" Damien probed.

Amelia nodded. "Yeah. We were trained to beat the test but not everyone actually passes it. It's why each agent has different types of missions than the others. The missions were assigned depending on their skillset. Polygraphs aren't 100% reliable. However, the FBI, the police, etc.—they still use it as of date. So it's important for us to be able to handle it, in case we were caught one day while on a mission."

"What if an agent didn't pass that test and he gets caught by the police? What happens if he can't lie his way out?" Damien was curious.

Katherine and Amelia exchanged looks as though the information was something unpleasant. Katherine pushed her empty plate forward, drank the rest of her water, and wiped her mouth dry before she answered, "It usually depends on how valuable you are to the organization and what kind of mission you're assigned to. But we couldn't expect Shadow to rescue us. If that's the case… We… have to do a self cancelation."

When Damien's brows furrowed deeper as though he had an idea what Katherine was saying but he wasn't sure if he thought right, Amelia cleared up the confusion and told him directly, "We have to kill ourselves."

Damien swallowed at the thought of the two women being part of this dark organization in the past. How could they exist? 

He knew about the existence of the underworld and crime syndicates but Shadow wasn't anything like what he knew. There seemed to be something darker than what Katherine and Amelia were aware of and that's what they needed to find out—the truth about Shadow. So that once and for all, they could bring it down.

But will they be able to beat this cruel organization with their current resources? How much light do they need to have in order to overcome this darkness?