Stratagem

by Christina Hagmann

  “Why you?” Brody spoke softly, but suddenly. I jumped, and the phone almost slipped out of my hands and would have clattered to the rough hardwood floor, but I clamped my legs together to catch it as I held my breath.

  “Why you? Why you, when there are others?” He was quiet.

  I didn’t want him to come over and find the phone, but I couldn’t answer his question because I wasn’t sure what he was asking me. “What do you mean ‘others’?”

  “Others. There are others like you, right?” His head still rested on the couch.

  I thought about his question. I didn’t even know how many mimics there were. I only knew of my mother, but I hadn’t seen her in years. There was one. My guard, John, told me about her. He was the only person at the Agency who ever talked to me, even though he wasn’t supposed to. He also delivered books to me to keep me occupied in my one-room cell. I don’t know how he knew that I loved to read, unless someone told him I was the daughter of a librarian. He told me about a mimic who was younger than me, and from what he told me, she sounded ruthless. She arrived there as an orphan and was trained to be an assassin, a product of the Agency. Unlike me, she was loyal. She wasn’t a prisoner. I wouldn’t share this information with Brody though. I didn’t want him to think of me as unique or valuable. That seemed dangerous.

  “There are enough,” I lied, trying to make myself sound unimportant.

  “Why you?”

  I looked down, my thoughts flitting to my mother and then back. “I’m good,” I finally answered. “I’m good at what I do.” I wasn’t sure how accurate that statement was, but I got the job done.

  “Well, you got caught, so you can’t be that good.”

  And then, what came out next I knew I shouldn’t have said after it left my lips. “I have everything to lose,” I answered quickly, then bit the corner of my mouth. I silently cursed myself. But I wanted Brody to know that he was right, what he said to Aaron. That this wasn’t a choice that I made for myself. I was forced. I didn’t know why it was important. I guess I thought that it would help him get over what I was about to do to these boys.

  Brody turned and eyed me from the loveseat. “Don’t you think others have things to lose? Don’t you think that they are holding things over their heads?” He leaned forward as though to get up, and I held my breath, not daring to move a muscle. Then Brody turned back and stared into the fire. “So, you’re good at pretending to be other people?”

  “I’ve always had to pretend.” I pushed the first button on my phone, holding my breath in hopes that it didn’t make a sound. When it didn’t, I exhaled gently. I must have silenced it before I put it in my pocket. I closed my eyes, trying to picture the numbers. When I got to the final digit, I hesitated. I wasn’t sure what the Agency would do in a situation like this. Maybe they would reward my loyalty. They could still use me for the job, but if they found out what I told these boys, and they thought the boys knew too much, Brody, Aaron, and Dan would be dead right along with me. There was no way that these three could outwit the Agency. They were teenagers.

  I held my breath and pushed the button. Brody turned, his eyes boring into me. I had the sudden sensation that he knew exactly what I did. My face flushed. “You should rest,” he said, turning away. My heart pounded in my ears. I slipped the phone back into my pocket and sat and stared at the fire. There was no telling when they would arrive. I should have been prepared, sharp, but instead I was exhausted. My eyes were heavy, and my head kept drooping.

  I dozed here and there but awoke abruptly when Brody opened the door. He held it open and let the cool fall air enter. I could smell the grass on the breeze. When we arrived, it was dawn, but now the afternoon sun was fading into the night. I wondered if I pressed the right button on the phone. I somewhat hoped I didn’t. If the Agency came and I was lucky, I would go back to my preexisting state. If the Agency came and decided to erase every trace of this mission gone wrong, then the struggle would be over. Either way, I seemed doomed to be held captive or be dead. My fate would be decided for me. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I probably hadn’t done the right thing by notifying them, but truthfully, it had been a long time since I knew what the right thing really was. I was so used to following orders.

  The bedroom door opened, and Aaron came out. He didn’t so much as look at me but made his way to Brody’s side. Brody looked back at him. He raised his eyebrows, and Brody nodded. More nonverbal cues that I couldn’t decipher. The two interacted with an ease of a close friendship, like they had known each other for a long time.

  I broke the silence. “Who are you guys? Who do you work for?”

  “You wouldn’t know us,” Brody answered, still searching for something outside.

  “What do you care?” Aaron asked, studying me.

  “I don’t know if you know who you’re dealing with.” I frowned. It came out sounding like a threat.

  Aaron laughed. “Honey, you don’t even know who you’re dealing with. In the grand scheme of things, you’re only a pawn. You have no real power, though you think you do.” Aaron walked into the kitchen and grabbed an apple. He pulled a knife out of the drawer and slowly quartered the apple. He was wrong. I knew I had no power.

  “They’ll kill you if you know things,” I said. What was supposed to be a warning, again, came out sounding like a threat. I was trying to get it across to them the danger that they were in.

  Aaron looked up, away from the apple. Before Brody could react, Aaron took three long strides so he was standing in front of me, then crouched down. “Are you stupid?” Aaron yelled at me, spit hitting my face. He was an inch away, and his cheeks were flushed, and his ears were red. I tried to stay calm, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the knife clenched in his fist. Aaron was unstable. There was no telling what he would do to get the information he wanted. “You don’t think I know that? Do you really think they will ever let you go? Or your family?”

  “Aaron,” Brody called out. He grabbed Aaron’s elbow and pulled him back. “You’re not mad at her. She’s not responsible for this.” Brody was once again defending me. Who the heck was this guy, and what game was he playing? I willed myself to believe Brody couldn’t be that nice. It would make what happened next easier.

  Aaron shook Brody off. “Yes, she is. She’s a coward. If she refused…”

  “Then her family would be dead.” Brody said those last words gently, but the fire had not gone out in Aaron.

  Aaron threw down the knife with such force the tip of the blade dug into the wood floor and held. “Instead mine is.” He pushed by Brody and walked out the open front door. I could hear his large boots stomping down the porch steps.

  Brody bent down and pried the knife out of the board. He examined it, then looked at me, his brow creased as though waiting for me to speak. I couldn’t. Aaron’s family was dead. I had no idea if whatever happened resulted in a general hate for mimics or if it was something I, specifically, had done, but I didn’t kill. That was one thing I didn’t do on my missions. I was beginning to understand why Aaron hated me so much, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it.

  Brody walked to the table and put the knife down. He pulled a chair in front of me and pulled me closer so our knees were touching. He slowly drew the blanket from me. He was calm. I was not. “So, what was Mr. Gray supposed to do? You have to tell me, Meda. Aaron won’t wait forever. We can’t make our next move until you tell me the truth.”

  I didn’t answer. I couldn’t.

  “Please. Haven’t I been kind to you? Haven’t I tried to give you all the fairness I can? Treat me with some respect. Tell me.”

  I wanted to help. I fell hard for his good cop act. I wanted to share everything with Brody. He had been kind. In fact, I had not received this much kindness from anyone in a long time, but I couldn’t tell. I couldn’t put my family at risk, not to mention Brody. And soon he would know about my betrayal anyway, so none of it mattered. And then I would find out if he was jus
t playing good cop.

  The door opened, slamming hard into the wall behind it. Aaron rushed in, eyes wide and breathing heavy. In the breeze, the whir of an engine made its way into the small cabin. “They’re here,” Aaron whispered. “She did it.”

  Brody’s eyes bore into me as he opened the side of my jacket and plucked out my cell phone. He knew exactly where it was. He had known it was there the entire time. “I felt it on you when we were in the trunk.”

  I was confused. Why didn’t he take it?

  “Meda, I knew exactly when you signaled them. My computer notified me of the indicator.” He shook his head, sighing.

  “You tricked me?” So much for the good guy. I spoke quickly, words pouring out with no fear of their reaction. “I’m sorry, Brody. I had to. If I don’t get back to them, they’ll kill my family. I have to follow orders. If I don’t do my job, my two little sisters are dead. So is my father.”

  “Yeah, I get that. But instead we’re dead,” Brody answered. His voice was flat. Dan had made his way into the room with a gun in his hand and dressed in a warm flannel jacket. Aaron shoved one of the ratty loveseats aside to reveal a door leading to a basement or cellar.

  “Maybe not,” I said in tears. I hated the way Brody looked at me. I hated disappointing people, even if they were complete strangers, but the boys weren’t listening to me anymore. Brody pulled a duffel bag from behind one of the loveseats. It had been blocked from my view. They had a plan the entire time. They weren’t waiting for me to tell them about Mr. Gray, though I was sure they still wanted answers. They wanted me to send out the signal. But why?

  Brody pulled out what looked like a cell phone. Dan spoke up. “Tell me again. Why are we waiting for them to show up?”

  Aaron spoke up after heaving the cellar door open. “We had to consider that they had some kind of tracking device on her or that she would alert them in some way. We can’t afford to have them follow us after this point.” He regarded Brody. “Ready?”

  Brody moved over to me and began to roughly tear the tape from my legs and chest. He spoke quickly. “I need you to follow me. You are now expendable to them. They probably think you’ve turned.”

  “No.” I shook my head. “I sent the signal. They’ll know I’m still working for them.”

  “Not after what happens next. Come on.” His orders were direct, emotionless. He kept my hands cuffed in the silver locks and turned back to Aaron. “Ready.” I followed as Brody pulled me down the steps into the dark basement, wondering where they were leading me.

  At first, I couldn’t see anything. Then, when my eyes began to adjust, I noticed boxes with red numbers on them. Mechanical devices with wires attached to them. “Don’t even try anything,” Aaron said and handed Brody jeans and a sweatshirt that he pulled off one of the shelves.

  “Yeah, one false move and pfow.” Dan made a gesture with his hands. I had no idea what they were talking about.

  Brody, holding the clothes, turned to me. “I need you to change.” I held out my wrists. He hesitated for a moment, and Aaron watched, tense. Brody tucked the clothes under his arm and began unlocking the cuffs. “Don’t try anything. We have to assume they could be tracking you using anything, articles of clothing, jewelry. Lose everything.” He removed the cuffs and handed me the clothes.

  I stared at the clothing in my hands, not sure how to begin. I was embarrassed to get undressed in front of the boys. Aaron turned his gun on me. “Do it or you’re staying behind. Believe me. It would be safer for us.”

  “Turn around,” I said. The boys, realizing they were watching me, averted their eyes, but remained close enough to me that I had no chance to escape. I began stripping down.

  As I was undressing, I glimpsed around the room. When I pulled the sweatshirt over my head, I suddenly realized what I was looking at. I couldn’t help myself. “Are those…” I asked quietly.

  “Explosives,” Dan said, his back still turned. “We’re going to blow these guys sky high.”

  “That isn’t the plan,” Brody said sharply, almost angrily.

  “Done,” I said quietly, putting my arms out. They turned around, and Brody settled the cuffs back on my wrists. I winced in pain.

  Aaron stepped close to me. “Lose the earrings,” he said. Brody reached up to take the earrings out, but I twisted my head away in time to see Dan disappear through a passage into the dark.

  “Not the earrings,” I said firmly.

  “Everything,” Aaron said, stepping towards me. “I’m not sure when you began to feel it was okay to make demands on us, but you are following our orders now.”

  “These things never leave me. I promise. They don’t have a tracker in them. They never had a chance to put a tracker in them.” I wouldn’t let them take the only thing I had left that was mine, mine before the Agency came and took me.

  “You say that like we can trust you after you just signaled for them to come get us. I said lose them,” Aaron said. He turned to Brody. “We don’t have time for this.”

  There was a quiet thump upstairs. Aaron glanced up to the ceiling. “That would be the smoke bombs.”

  Brody reached up for the earrings, but I turned my head again. “Please,” I said urgently. “They’re the only thing I have left from my mother.” Brody studied my face. I was sure he didn’t believe me. I wouldn’t have believed me.

  Upstairs, the room exploded in gunfire. I instinctively ducked while the incessant chatter of machine guns continued. Had I been up there, I wouldn’t have survived. My stomach buzzed. The Agency must have decided on Plan B, the plan they didn’t need me for. “Come on!” Aaron yelled.

  Someone upstairs yelled to cease fire, and the gunfire stopped, but heavy footsteps pounded across the floor above us.

  The three of us made our way through the dim maze. The basement seemed to be larger than the upstairs. There was a doorway on the far side of the room, and Aaron led the way over the threshold followed by me and then Brody. We were inside some kind of dark tunnel. My shoulders ricocheted off the narrow walls as I was pushed and prodded down the hallway.

  A light came from behind, and I saw Brody had the cell phone he pulled from the bag. He glanced at the screen but kept pushing forward. “We’ve got ten seconds!” he called out.

  The tunnel ended in a large cavern that had high ceilings carved from stone. I blinked wildly, but before I could take in everything in the vast room, Brody pushed me to the right where a van was parked. Dan was already behind the steering wheel, revving the engine.

  Brody guided me towards the back and shoved me in. “Time!” he yelled. There was a muffled thud as he climbed in after me. Dan reached up into the visor and punched a code on what looked like a larger version of a garage door keypad. The stone wall rumbled as it rolled up in front of us. A cloud of smoke streamed through the door we had just run through, but we didn’t wait around to see what happened. As soon as the door lifted high enough for the van to get through, Dan stomped on the gas and the van rocketed out of the cave.

  “Woo-hoo!” Dan yelled. I couldn’t believe it. He seemed to be having a good time. The van moved uphill and then down. Brody had one arm over me, holding me to the bed of the van so I wouldn’t be jostled too much, or maybe he was afraid I would try to get away. Dan punched a code back in so the garage door would shut. A series of rumbling “thunks” came from behind us. I jumped a little, craning to see the reaction on Brody’s face.

  “Secondary explosives,” he said quietly. Brody put his mouth close to my ear. “Meda, we’re good guys. I need you to remember that, but something bad happened to Aaron. He’s angry, and I can’t control him.” He paused, and then continued, “You will have to tell us the plan for Mr. Gray. There is no getting around that.”

  I bit my lip. Was this good cop again, even after I had dialed the kill orders?

  I was confused. There were no more orders to follow. No more contingency plans. It wasn’t my own life that concerned me so much, but I didn’t know if my family
was in danger or dead. If the Agency knew or even thought I turned on them, there would be no hope for my sisters and father. There would be no reason to keep them around, especially since my father knew about mimics.

  So, there I was, inexplicably tied to the three boys in the van, whether they trusted me or tried to kill me, and I knew that if the Agency couldn’t get their hands on me, they would stop at nothing to kill all of us.

  chapter 5

  Aaron had insisted I wear a blindfold. Brody objected but submitted to Aaron. It wasn’t worth the fight. I could hear Dan humming along to 80s rock music that played on the radio. Occasionally, Brody would ask how I was doing, but any other discussion among the guys was whispered so that I couldn’t make out what they were saying. I ignored Brody, determined not to fall for the good guy routine.

  We switched vehicles twice along the way. Both times, Brody gently led me by cuffed hands to the next vehicle, bending my head down so I wouldn’t hit it on the doorway.

  We pulled off for bathroom breaks. Brody would uncuff me and let me know his back was turned. It was only then that I removed the blindfold, but there was nothing to identify our location. The roads were overgrown and badly paved. We were always traveling on some kind of backroad system. Brody would stand guard, and when I was done, I would put the blindfold back on and call for him.

  We ate fast food in the vehicle. Brody would hand me the food, and I would eat whatever he gave me, no questions asked. Aaron didn’t try to talk to me at all. They didn’t ask me about Mr. Gray, which was unexpected, but they must have had other plans to get the information out of me. That was why Brody warned me in advance that I would need to talk.

  By the time the vehicle stopped and Brody said, “We’re here,” I couldn’t tell how long we had been on the road. I was disoriented from the blindfold and the starting and stopping. I didn’t even know if it was day or night. They unloaded me out of the vehicle, and we began walking.