“I used to think I sewed us together at the edges with my own hands, pulled the stitches tight and I could unpick them any time I wanted. Now I think it always ran deeper than that and farther, underground; out of sight and way beyond my control.”

Cassie did not realize at the time what a risk it was to create an alter ego. Undercover work is completely immersive, blurring the lines between fantasy and reality. In embodying the created identity of Lexie, Cassie becomes inextricably tied to her in ways she could not have predicted.

“Lexie Madison developed out of nothing like a Polaroid, she curled off the page and hung in the air like incense smoke, a girl with my face and a life from a half-forgotten dream.”

The author employs the use of figurative language in two similes to convey the idea Lexie was like a real person. A Polaroid is a type of photography where the image develops slowly on the paper after the camera shot. Incense is a sweet-smelling aromatherapeutic believed by some to clear the air of negative energy. Both images are haunting and mysterious and make Lexie feel ghost-like.

“Some people are little Chernobyls, shimmering with silent, spreading poison: get anywhere near them and every breath you take will wreck you from the inside out.”

In explicating the epic failure and stigmatizing effect of Operation Vestal, the author alludes to the historic meltdown of the Chernobyl nuclear plant in 1986 that devastated the city of Pripyat in Ukraine and surrounding areas. The fallout from the radioactive material is still detectable today, and the village uninhabitable.