Henry smiled, his face clearing. “For about seven years. I take care of problems for her and she does the same for me. She’s smart. You know I like them smart, my friend.”

Anger spiraled through Angus, and his laugh felt strained. “Yes, I do. So. That at least explains how your death was faked and you disappeared for rehab. If anybody could make that happen, it’d be the head of the HDD.”

“Yes.” Lassiter rubbed his thigh, where Angus remembered shooting him. “Unfortunately, rehab took longer than I would’ve hoped. The second I could, I returned here for our game. It was some time after you began looking for me, however. It’s nice that we’re on the same wavelength.”

Angus shook his head. “So you knew so much about our team because our boss was working with you. I thought it was Quan.”

Opal shoved Angus harder. “Quan’s a moron. It’s because of me that you’re alive, Henry,” she spat. “You owe me. But the second you were well enough, you wanted to play with him and put my entire career in jeopardy.”

Oh, this was so fucking weird. Angus continued to ignore her, focusing on Lassiter instead. “I was alerted by Miles Brown, an elderly clerk, that there was a problem with your file, but he had a stroke before I could talk to him.”

Lassiter inclined his head. “Well, I owe Opal for that. It always comes down to billing and medical records, right? Apparently there was one medical bill still left in that file that Opal hadn’t caught. Miles was no doubt closing out all his records before retiring, and he must’ve caught a hint. Opal took care of him, though.”

Angus almost shut his eyes, but he had to stay in the moment. He’d grieve for Miles and face his guilt later. The administrator had somehow gotten to the clerk. Strokes were easy to fake. “Henry? What about the female paramedic who pronounced you dead?”

“Opal again,” Lassiter admitted. “She’s good at making accidents look real. Well, the whole HDD is, actually.” He sighed, as if giving up a secret. “By the time I was well enough to come home, she’d compiled dossiers on everybody in your life. It was like the best birthday present ever.” His gaze finally rose so that he looked over Angus’s shoulder at Opal. “Well, that and the ultimate game, which I didn’t know we were playing for a while.”

The ultimate game? What? For him? Angus dropped his chin to regain Henry’s attention. “She was trying to kill me, and you were trying to get to Nari? Was it all some narcissistic game between you two? Whoever got there first won?” It made an odd and sick kind of sense. “She shot at me, bombed my house, and hired that blond moron who ended up shooting my lawyer.”