Stratagem

by Christina Hagmann

  I slumped down in my chair. “Mr. Gray’s security firm was chosen to help do security for the President’s visit. Gray was the obvious choice because he had no family. No one would know, and he wouldn’t need to be eliminated, leaving an unnecessary trail.” I turned to Brody. “It was the easiest in. The least suspicious. You have to know if I don’t do this, someone else will.”

  “I know,” Brody said. He was facing me, leaning over the table. “That’s why we need to stop it. So, what does that mean, Gray was the obvious choice?”

  I rubbed my wrists, still red from the cuffs. “I was to infiltrate Gray’s security team through Gray, set up back doors in the security, and then, eventually, take over for the President.”

  Brody persisted. “But what would happen to the President?”

  I looked up at him, throwing my hands in the air. “They don’t tell me those kinds of things.” I knew it sounded stupid when I said it. This was exactly what Aaron was talking about. I was responsible because I didn’t ask questions, not that they would tell me.

  “So, you know it probably means they plan on getting rid of the President, right?” I didn’t answer Brody. He continued. “Why don’t they just assassinate the President using the security back doors that you create?” He said it almost like he was talking to himself.

  “All I know is that I had a series of appearances to make on an issue, which they didn’t disclose to me ahead of time. They were going to brief me when I was in place. They don’t trust anyone enough to tell the plans to in advance. Plus, this one is a game changer. That was why the security team was so small. They didn’t want to raise suspicion at the Agency. The Agency is big and far-reaching, meaning that, though the chances are small, there are opportunities for double agents to sneak in.”

  I paused. I wanted him to realize how big this was, if he didn’t already understand. “Anyway, then I had some papers to sign, and that was it. I do know it was supposed to be my longest placement ever. I myself wondered how sustainable it would be.” Brody’s eyebrows creased in confusion, so I continued. “I mean, it’s easy to impersonate someone for a small period of time. But the longer you are in position, the more likely you are to get caught. And the President is so public…” My voice trailed off. I hadn’t spent a lot of time thinking about the assignment because I had expected the Agency just to take care of everything, like they always did, and leave nothing to chance.

  “Well, we have to stop it,” Brody said, clenching his fist and dropping it on the table.

  “You stopped Plan A. That’s pretty impressive.” I wasn’t sure why I was complimenting him for kidnapping me and beating me.

  “No, we have to stop the whole thing.” His mouth was set in a firm line. I glanced at the door Aaron and Dan had gone through, waiting for them to come back out at any moment, but they didn’t.

  I turned back to Brody, confused. “How are you going to stop it? This is big. The Agency is big. You’re just a bunch of…boys.” By this point, I knew that they were more than just “boys” based off what I saw at the cabin, but I needed to get it across to Brody how serious this all was.

  Brody looked at me and shook his head. “You still don’t get it, Meda. We didn’t stumble upon you. We helped set this entire thing up. We have a plan. Here, let me show you something.”

  He stood, pushing his chair out, and grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the chair. I was about to shrug him away, but my neck was still aching from the throttling that Aaron gave me. I let my body go limp with exhaustion.

  Brody pulled me over to the large metal door at the back of the room. He punched in a code, and the door slid open. When I caught a glimpse of the room on the other side, I was surprised by the amount of electronic equipment that was there, not just computers, but other devices that I couldn’t identify. Dan was also on the other side of the door, sitting with his feet up on the desk and blowing spit bubbles. When we walked in, he quickly dropped his feet, almost tipping out of his chair.

  “Uh, what’s up?” he asked, looking between Brody and me. When Brody didn’t answer, Dan stood and continued. “Um, it’s probably not good that she’s in here.” He spoke to Brody like I wasn’t even there.

  “She’s with us,” Brody said. “There’s no turning back, and there’s no getting rid of her. This is for better or worse.”

  “I know,” Dan said. “It’s just that…Aaron…and we can’t trust her.”

  “Aaron better straighten up. He knew what he was signing up for,” Brody said, “and the only way to build trust is both ways.” Brody nodded at me, then a smaller door opened in the back of the room. We all turned to look in the direction of the bathroom. The toilet was still running when Aaron walked out the door. He looked up and saw me, then froze. His face did not reveal his feelings. Brody spoke quickly. “Aaron, you need to show Meda the files.”

  “Brody,” I interrupted. “Maybe this isn’t the right time.” I reached up and touched the tender part of my face. My skin hurt, and I could feel where the bruise was forming. I didn’t want to be anywhere near Aaron.

  “This is the only time, Meda,” Brody finished. “We aren’t staying here long, and you need to be caught up to speed if you are going to be any help to us. You’re on our team now, right?” Aaron clenched his jaw. I didn’t say anything. Brody seemed to be putting a lot of trust in me for no reason. I didn’t know if I could believe that he would trust me, and I knew Aaron wouldn’t. I didn’t understand it, but I’d go along with it. I would be on their team until it wasn’t convenient to be on their team anymore.

  Aaron still hadn’t moved, so Brody stepped past him to the file cabinet that stood in the corner and started paging through the files. Dan sat back down, quietly looking between Aaron and Brody. He sensed their emotions bubbling like water in a boiling pot. I just hoped it stayed at a nice simmer.

  I looked at Aaron, who glared back at me, cracking his knuckles. He stared for a moment longer and then barked out a dry, humorless laugh. I tried to hide my flinch, but I was sure he saw it. He was like a predator looking for a weakness in his prey. Then he walked by, knocking me a few feet over, and exited the room. I stumbled and caught myself against a desk. Letting out the breath that I didn’t even realize I was holding in, I gathered myself and stood up straight.

  “Well, that went better than expected,” Dan said. I gave him a look that I was sure translated to “are you serious?” He shrugged.

  Brody came back with some file folders in his hands. He motioned for me to sit down at a nearby desk that had some electronic equipment and what looked like a torn apart computer on it. “Dan, could you get us some water?” he asked, pulling out the chair for me.

  Dan looked between the two of us, unsure if he should leave or not. “Are you sure it’s okay?” he asked. “I mean, she doesn’t have cuffs on or anything.” He gestured at my still raw wrists.

  “She won’t change. Right, Meda?” Brody asked me. I nodded slowly. Dan looked back once and left the room. He seemed happy to go, and as soon as he was gone, Brody spread the folders out across the empty portion of the desk.

  He pulled out a chair from a small table filled with wires and batteries. It made a loud scraping noise on the concrete floor, and he pulled it up so that the arm of his chair was touching the arm of my chair. “There are some things you need to know. And they have to do with you. And Aaron. Well, more specifically, Aaron’s father.”

  I held my breath. This wasn’t going to be good.

  chapter 7

  Brody opened the folders. They were filled with documents and pictures. “You will probably recognize the people in these file folders. Aaron’s dad got the intel before…” He paused for a moment as he shuffled the papers around before finding the one that he wanted. He held it to his chest so that I couldn’t see it. “Aaron’s dad was tracking the Agency, you in particular, Meda.” I was surprised to hear that. I was careful, and the Agency moved me around all the time. It was hard to believe that anyone could have tracke
d me. The Agency was nearly invisible, or had been.

  “Do you remember this man?” Brody put down the picture he was holding and slid it in front of me. It was a picture of an older man with shocking white hair and a serious look on his face. I immediately recognized him because the circumstances around that job had been so different from the normal. I remembered it clearly. It had been two months ago, and the Agency had sent me out in a car to an undisclosed location, which was really some road in the suburbs of D.C., on the north side, I thought. Two men in suits escorted the man into the car. The man seemed out of it, like he was doped up or something.

  One of the men in suits placed the white-haired man’s hand in mine, and as I stared into his eyes and started taking his shape, I saw something unexpected. It wasn’t a look of horror, but a look of recognition. Usually people freaked when they saw me change, and rightly so. This man seemed like he knew what it meant. But that was the last I saw of him. The men in suits took the white-haired man away.

  Then, they gave me a script to follow with some phone numbers. I was to place the calls from the back of the car and follow the scripts to the letter. I didn’t even understand what the conversations were about. They didn’t make sense to me.

  After that, I had to go to a public place and make a scene. Once again, I was told exactly what to say, but it was incoherent ranting. I assumed it was to discredit the man so that people wouldn’t listen to him. That would be one of many reasons to make a man look crazy.

  I made a scene at a local restaurant. It wasn’t directed at anyone in particular. I walked in and started yelling exactly what they had told me to. Men dressed in police uniforms came and took me away. Of course, they weren’t real police. They were Agency men, bringing me back to my little room at their compound when the assignment was done.

  I was quiet. I didn’t think it was safe to admit that I knew the man in the photo, but Brody could see it in my eyes.

  “That was Aaron’s father.” He said it so quietly that I barely heard him. My stomach lurched. Aaron’s anger made more sense to me now. Once again, I fought tears that burned behind my eyelids as I squeezed my eyes shut. What I had done made me responsible for Aaron’s father, but I had no choice. I had to protect my family. I didn’t know if the guy was a good guy or a bad guy. I hadn’t thought if he had family. I couldn’t think about those kinds of things.

  I put my hand on my forehead, feeling sick. “After they used you, they assassinated his family and killed him as well. They made it look like a murder-suicide.” Brody pulled the picture back towards himself and studied the photo of Aaron’s father. It was curled up at the edges, as though it had been looked at many times before. I didn’t know what to say. They killed his entire family? How would I know that they would do that? I thought of my sisters, and then I started to wonder if Aaron had any siblings, any younger siblings. I felt my stomach lurch and swallowed hard, trying to push the bile and my feelings down.

  Brody continued. “Reg Monroe was a smart man. He was an aide to the Vice President of the United States. That was how he caught wind of the Agency and their far-reaching hands. That was how he uncovered the truth about mimics.” Brody paused, but he wouldn’t look at me.

  “I was at the house that night.” His voice quavered. “I often spent the night at the Monroe’s, especially when my dad was on a bender.” Brody looked up at me. He seemed surprised that those words had come out, as though it wasn’t something he normally talked about. When I didn’t react, he looked back down again.

  “Aaron and I snuck out of the house that night to meet some friends at the football field. It happened when we were gone. When we returned, we first found Aaron’s sister, Angela. She must have been trying to get away, maybe to come to us for help. They shot her in the head.” His words hit me like a slap in the face, violent and unexpected. I felt like I couldn’t breathe, and I noticed Brody’s eyes beginning to glisten. He tried to blink the tears away. “There were still men in the house,” he continued. “They shot at us, but we got away. We couldn’t help anyone. We left Angela lying there.” Brody didn’t seem like he was talking to me anymore. He was speaking to the photo. “Aaron tried to stay. He thought he could save them. I had to drag him out of the house.” Just then, Brody fought off a jerky breath, the kind of breath that comes with tears, but he remained composed as he continued talking. I held my breath, but tears had broken through and I couldn’t stop them.

  “Aaron called his uncle, Dan’s dad, who met us outside of town at a gas station. He gave us cash, a duffel bag, and a tape made by Aaron’s father and told us we needed to get out of D.C. He sent us to Chicago to meet with one of Aaron’s father’s associates. He also sent Dan with us, afraid that Dan wouldn’t be safe.”

  I was quiet. Tears streamed down my face. The dam had broken, and there was no fixing it. The edges of my vision got a bit fuzzy.

  “We made it out safe. Dan’s family went missing soon after, but it turns out that they went on the run as well. Dan’s dad had prepped to hide with instructions from Reg. This,” Brody glanced around the metal tomb that we were hiding in, “was where Aaron’s family was supposed to hide. But they never made it.”

  I looked at the picture in front of Brody. I understood. “I didn’t know, Brody. I had no clue. You must believe me. Every assignment, I just did what I was told. They didn’t tell me anything. They threatened my life and the life of my family. I didn’t know…I mean…his entire family…” I shook my head, trying to shake off this new information. I now understood why Aaron hated me, and hate was a weak word for the situation. Because of what I did, Aaron’s family’s death was swept under the rug. Aaron’s father was painted as a murderous crazy man. “I can’t change this,” I sobbed. “I can’t fix things.” I wiped my eyes with both hands. The guilt was crushing me. I suddenly wished that Aaron had done more than beat me up. Then I wouldn’t have to live with the guilt.

  “I know, Meda.” Brody let out a deep breath. He didn’t reach out to touch me or comfort me, and I was glad for that. He held onto the picture. To the memory of Aaron’s father.

  I spoke again, this time in choppy breaths. “It’s just that, the only thing I could see in front of me were the guns pointed at my own family. That was what was immediate. That was why I did it all. I guess I never let myself think of anyone else.” I ran my hand back through my hair and fidgeted in my seat. I couldn’t sit still. “I’m so stupid,” I whispered to myself. I couldn’t even think of Aaron or what to say or do the next time I saw him. I could never make things okay. Reaching up to my ears, I removed the backs of my earrings, bundled the diamonds in my fist, and held them out to Brody. “Take them. I don’t want them.” It was selfish of me to want anything from my old life after what I had taken away from Aaron.

  Brody studied me but didn’t take the earrings. He got up and went to the shelving that contained old keyboards, monitors, cords, and various other electronic devices. He grabbed a box, sat back down across from me, and opened it. Holding the box out, he motioned to me. I gently placed the earrings in the box. He spoke quietly. “If these do have some kind of tracking device in them, they won’t be able to catch the signal through here once we head to the city.”

  “It isn’t important anymore, Brody. They are stupid earrings. Throw them away. Smash them for all I care.”

  Brody studied me again for what seemed like the millionth time. The sadness had drained from his voice. “Sometimes, it’s the little things that we hold onto that help us remember who we are and why we keep fighting. If they were important to you before, they still are now.” He closed the box and leaned forward, his hands resting on top of it. “So, there is a plan in place, but nothing that you need to know about right now. We’re still working on it, and we have some help.” I nodded. “Can I ask you a question?” he asked. When I didn’t respond, he continued. “What was it like? How you lived?”

  At first, I was horrified and confused by what he was asking. What was it like becoming peopl
e? Pretending people were crazy? Setting them up for who-knows-what?

  Brody must have seen the look on my face because he rephrased his question. “I meant, where did you live? Were you kept in a prison?”

  I thought back to my room. I started out quietly. “I was kept on lockdown at all times. There was a computer with limited internet access. It was also where I was allowed to watch videos of my dad and sisters. They gave me books. I read over a hundred in the time I was there.”

  And then, I couldn’t help it. My thoughts turned to my dad and the library. “My dad is a librarian,” I started. “He taught me that reading books is a lot like reading people. You can’t just look at isolated incidences. You have to see the whole picture, the whole plot, the character’s past decisions. You also can’t get hung up on what you think you know, because what you think you know keeps changing. If you get hung up on what you think you know, you will never be able to guess the end, but when you get there, you will realize that you knew it the entire time.” Brody didn’t say anything. I wasn’t sure if what I said sounded like rambling mumbo jumbo or if he was thinking about my words. Maybe I’d said too much, but there was no turning back.

  Though it pained me to even ask the question, I mustered up the courage. “Can I…can I see more of the files?” I didn’t want to see them. I had never wanted to know anything about any of the jobs. But now I needed to know the truth.

  Brody’s face remained unchanged. “Are you sure, Meda? I don’t think that would be the best idea for you right now.” He held them protectively.

  “I understand if you can’t let me.” I turned away, towards the wall. “I completely get it. I don’t deserve it, but I need to know, and if not now, when?” He considered me for a moment, then slid the folder over to my side of the table. He quietly got up.