“Fine,” Cooper grunted. “Keep your secrets. Just hope you’re not getting involved with some woman. You know this lifestyle isn’t conducive to that sort of thing. Told you when you got in you could never lead a normal life. No wife. No kids.” He leaned forward in the La-Z-Boy as if shortening the distance between them could better convey his next words. He stabbed the palm of his hand several times with his finger. “NODEAL is your life.”

Gideon understood perfectly. He always had. “I know.” He smiled without humor. “Love ’em and leave ’em. I learned the code from you. You drilled it into me. How could I forget?”

“That’s right.” Cooper nodded, still looking unconvinced as he settled back in the chair. “Let’s talk shop. The body you called in the other night has been identified as one Leonardo Becker. Age seventeen. Born in Houston and birth certificate looks legit. Of course, no record of him in the files,” he said.

NODEAL’s confidential database was used by agents throughout the world for the cataloging of all known lycans, living and deceased. It was no surprise to Gideon that the kid wasn’t documented. Gideon already knew he was newly infected.

Leonardo Becker. Lenny, Gideon silently mused, experiencing a strange flickering of sorrow for the kid whose last thoughts had been not for himself but his teacher. “He’s probably too new to have made it into the database,” Gideon murmured.

“What happened Friday? Anything unusual?” Cooper eyed him speculatively. “I sent Foster to run detail and he said everything looked clean. Aside from it being such a young kid. Easy kill?”

“Yeah,” Gideon muttered. “No sweat.”

Nodding, Cooper asked, “Any leads?”

He hesitated before sealing his act of deception with an indisputable lie. “No.” There. He’d done it. Without even a stutter. No going back now. “He operated alone.”

“What?” Cooper’s brows dipped into a frown. “No buddies?”

Lycans operated in packs—at least two or more. Never, or rarely, individually. That’s what made hunting them so dangerous and why inexperienced agents were assigned to a team until deemed fit to hunt alone. Gideon had completed his team training quickly. In fact, he held the record for quickest promotion to IAS—individual agent status. But then, he had something other trainees didn’t. A grudge.

“That’s right. Solo.”

“Unusual.”

“I know,” Gideon retorted. He wasn’t some grunt, new to the ranks. He didn’t need Cooper questioning his every answer. Even if they were lies.

Cooper rubbed his bristly chin. “What’s your take on it?” he quizzed in his best mentor voice.

“He could have been accidentally infected,” Gideon offered, one possibility that couldn’t be overlooked, even if unlikely. Lycans didn’t run around accidentally infecting people. They fed. And when they fed, they gorged until their victims were dead. Recruitment into their packs was very deliberate, and they didn’t abandon their inductees.