The Vitamin C betrayal

Marcus pushed the orange across the marble table, the fruit's dimpled skin catching the sterile fluorescent lights of the conference room. "Your daily vitamin," he said with that easy grin that had first drawn me in during our agency training three years ago. "Keeps the immune system strong."

I caught the orange, watching his eyes—warm brown, like coffee with too much cream, like the eyes of a friend who'd covered my back in three undercover ops. A friend who'd taken a bullet for me in Prague.

Now I was swimming in data I shouldn't have seen. Yesterday evening, retrieving a file from his desk, I'd noticed the folder: OPERATION JANUS. My name, detailed profiles, intercepted communications. Marcus had been playing both sides since before we met.

The realization had knocked me underwater, no air, just slow-motion suffocation. All those missions, all those close calls—how many times had he sold us out?

"You okay, Devon?" Marcus asked, peeling his own orange. "You've been quiet lately."

I thought of the burner phone in my pocket, the encrypted message waiting to be sent: *Target identified. Proceeding with extraction.*

"Just tired," I said, forcing a smile that felt foreign on my face. "You know how it is."

"Yeah." He offered me a section of orange. "But that's why we look out for each other. That's why we're friends."

I took the orange segment, the juice sharp against my fingers. Tomorrow, Marcus would be in custody. Tomorrow, the agency would dissect his life like a frog in biology class. But tonight, sitting across from the man who'd saved my life and betrayed my trust, I just ate the damn orange and pretended everything was fine.

Outside the window, the city lights burned like stars drowning in smog. I swallowed, the vitamin C sour on my tongue, and wondered which version of Marcus had been real—the one who'd taken a bullet for me, or the spy who'd been setting me up all along.

Maybe both. Maybe neither.

"To friends," I said, lifting my coffee cup.

"To friends," he echoed.

The coffee was cold, but I drank it anyway.