Stratagem

by Christina Hagmann

  I entered the barn, squinting in the dark. I could only make out outlines of old objects. A broken-down tractor that was in pieces. Some old abandoned furniture. Some scary rusty equipment that looked like it should be in a horror movie. I also noticed a large drop cloth that looked like it was protecting a car. Maybe it was our getaway vehicle? I couldn’t be sure of anything anymore.

  Finally, the weight of what happened hit me, and I was angry. I was angry at my mother, who wasn’t even acting like the woman I remembered. I stopped where I was standing. “What is this?” I yelled.

  My mother came around behind me and slammed the barn door closed. Isi ignored me, went to the vehicle, and pulled the drop cloth away, revealing a two-seat convertible.

  “Isi,” my mother barked. I looked at my mom and then at the car. It only had two seats. I realized one of us wasn’t going to be getting out of here in that thing.

  “I said, what is this?” I directed my words at my mother. After closing the door, my mom walked right by me, heading towards Isi. I would not let her go that easily, so I took a couple of steps towards her and grabbed her by the arm, spinning her around roughly so that she was facing me. What I didn’t count on was the gun in her right hand coming down and bashing me across the temple. Everything went a fuzzy shade of red and then black. Then I was out.

  chapter 22

  When I came to, I was lying in dirt and dried-out old hay. I looked up, confused. I was on the ground, right where I had dropped after my mother hit me. I reached up and touched the part of my head that burned. My hand came away sticky. Part of the gun must have cut me on the head. My stomach felt weak.

  “I’m not doing it.” I heard Isi say to my mother.

  “God. I knew you were as weak as her.”

  “That is not why I’m refusing. I’m refusing because Chayton will kill me. This is your vendetta. Your mission. Not mine. But maybe you aren’t as unfeeling as you think you are.” Isi’s voice was cold, as cold as when she was talking to me. I tried to see where they were and made out their blurry shapes a dozen feet away.

  My mother laughed, and it was a disgusting laugh. A malicious laugh. She was still talking to Isi. “Don’t even try to play head games with me. I taught you those games.”

  My mother turned from her and walked in long strides over to me. She kicked me in the ribs, and I let out an “oof” that conjured up a cloud of dust. I grabbed my ribs where she hit me, this new pain dulling the pain in my head. I pulled myself up so she wouldn’t kick me again.

  She leaned down and looked at my head. “Oh, honey, you’re bleeding.” She pulled a handkerchief out of her pocket and reached towards me. I pulled away, but just a little. Her voice sounded like it had when I was younger, but her actions were so completely contradictory. She was unstable, unhinged.

  My mother tossed the handkerchief at me and turned to the younger mimic. “Keep your gun on her and don’t talk to her. I have to make a call.” My mother looked down at me one more time and then pulled out her phone, putting in the number as she walked towards the door of the barn and disappeared outside. Isi’s eyes never left me.

  She looked down at me, her head tilted suspiciously but gun at the ready. “Who at the Agency told you my name?”

  I sat in the dirt with the handkerchief to my head. I didn’t think it would hurt to tell her now. I wasn’t feeling clearheaded. “John told me about you.”

  “Who’s John?” She took a few steps closer, her gun aimed at my head.

  I pulled the handkerchief away and looked at the blood. There wasn’t a lot of it. I looked back at Isi and stared at the gun she was holding. “One of the security guards.” Now, I knew I shouldn’t be telling on John, but I wanted her to know I hadn’t been alone at the Agency, that I had a friend, well, maybe not a friend, but someone who was kind to me. I’m not sure why it was important. Probably because deep down, even after what my mom did to me, I was jealous.

  She looked at me curiously. “You didn’t have a security guard named John. I know all your security. There was definitely not a John.” I stared at her, wondering why she was lying to me.

  She spoke again. “You don’t even know who your real father is, do you?” This had to be a trick. “I’ve met him, you know. Your father,” Isi said, smiling. “He wouldn’t like what we’re doing right now. He wants you alive. It’s your mother who wants you dead.” She motioned towards the door with her head.

  I looked out and saw light coming through the crack in the door. I couldn’t see my mother on the other side. “That’s a lie.” I gave Isi my attention. I had no idea what kind of game she was playing. I couldn’t make sense of it. My mind was all jumbled. Memories of times past with my mother rushed through me. Her reading me a book at night, me feeling her belly when she was pregnant with the twins, her, dad, and I going for ice cream.

  My mother leaned back in the room for a moment and looked at both of us, probably to make sure Isi still had everything under control. She pulled the phone away from her ear and stared for a couple of seconds, then put the phone back up to her ear. “Yeah?” she asked as she walked back out.

  “You’re stalling,” Isi called after my mother, but she was out of earshot.

  I held the handkerchief to my head. “So, this is the plan? To get rid of me? I heard you talking about Chayton earlier. He doesn’t want me dead? Who is he?” Isi shrugged. “But it sounded like you’re afraid of him, like you’re going to be in trouble when he finds out, right?”

  “No.” She shook her head, grinning. “Because I’m not going to be the one who kills you.”

  I looked at the crack in the door. “What is to say she won’t turn on you? I am her daughter. Her flesh and blood.” I looked back to Isi. “Who are you? Some girl that she thought she could use to do her dirty work.” I could tell my words stung. Isi put her gun down.

  She stammered. “I am more of a daughter to her than you ever were,” she said, and for a moment, I felt bad for her. That moment passed when she pointed the gun back at me.

  My mother had materialized inside the barn again and was watching us with a smirk on her face. I was sickened. “Ladies, enough,” she called in a sing-song voice. She enjoyed the thought of us fighting over her, only that wasn’t all I was doing. I was trying to get Isi on my side. There was something in her that needed my mother, and I was trying to speak to that part of her, to realize it was one-sided. Something that I was still trying to figure out myself.

  I slowly rose to my feet and brushed the dirt off my backside. Isi kept her gun on me while my mother watched me. I broke the silence. “Who is my father?” I asked my mother.

  “Oh, Isi, you little pot stirrer.” She shook her head at Isi, who didn’t take her eyes off me. “Well.” My mom shrugged. “I guess it won’t hurt for you to know now. I’m surprised George never told you this. He was soooo into honesty.” She said it like it was a bad thing. “But really, that was what I liked about him. My entire life I had been lied to, and George was the only one who was completely honest. That was how I knew I would be safe. He swore to me that he would take care of you like you were his own. How many men would offer that to a pregnant woman they found on the streets? I knew I would never have to worry about Chayton and that I could disappear in the suburbs. Turns out Chayton was more interested in you than I would have expected.” She raised one eyebrow.

  “Who is Chayton?” I asked.

  “Your real father.” She paused.

  “No.” I shook my head. “You’re playing games with me. That’s all you do.”

  “No, Meda. This is no game. This is real, and it’s big. Chayton, your father, is one of the original mimics in the Agency and one of the original founders of the Agency. He has powerful friends in high places.” She spoke about him like he was a god. “He was the man who first took me in when I was a young homeless girl, having been kicked out of my own house for being different and scary. I was all alone, and he taught me everything I knew about putting on a persona and pretend
ing to be something I wasn’t.”

  “Oh, so he used you like you’re using Isi.”

  “Nice try, honey. That’s not going to work on my Isi. She knows better than to fall for mind games.” My mother smiled with confidence, but I saw Isi looking at her out of the corner of her eye. “Anyway, how do you think I survived those years pretending to be a mother?” She laughed.

  I held my breath, my jaw tightening in anger, then let it out, trying to calm myself. “You couldn’t possibly have been pretending. I don’t believe it. Dad told me you came back when the Agency found you. You gave him the earrings to give to me.” I reached up and twisted the replacement earrings.

  “I didn’t leave you just those earrings,” my mother said sweetly. “I left everything. Not as a gift, but because I didn’t want a single trace of that life. Your father, ever the romantic, had this story in his mind about how I valiantly gave myself up for the Agency so they wouldn’t come after you.”

  “But how would he even know about the Agency? You had to tell him something.” My mother looked at Isi. Then her eyes shifted back to me.

  “Stop trying to find something that isn’t there, Meda. That mother you’re looking for, that happy little family we had, it was all a lie. But you should know that. You’re in the family business of lying. So, you, above everyone, save Isi, should be able to understand that. Your poor father never would. Anyway, you have caused me a lot of trouble, dear. The Agency still wants you, but I will never be free until you are gone. Every time you betray them, I have to make it up to them. They lose their trust in me.”

  “You are a psycho,” I whispered. My mother stepped toward me like she was going to hit me again. Then she turned her head, and I could hear what she heard. The faintest hint of people calling out in the distance. Calling out my name.

  “Damn it!” my mother yelled suddenly as the alarm on her phone went off. “She’s transmitting.”

  I wasn’t sure what she was talking about, but when my hand went up to twist my earring and I felt the diamond between my fingers, I knew why Brody gave me the earrings. I felt betrayed. Why didn’t he tell me? I straightened my face and spoke directly to my mother. “They won’t let you out of here if you kill me. You know that, don’t you?” My mother looked frustrated. Isi looked relieved.

  “Ava,” Isi said quietly, trying to coax my mother. “Let’s get in the car and go. This was a stupid idea. It was selfish of you. You know what happened the last time you were selfish.” My mother shot her a look and then looked at me. “Well, you know. That is why she’s here.” Isi became firmer. “Come on.” She jumped in the driver’s seat and turned the key, the engine purring quietly in the vast space of the barn. She waited for my mother.

  My mom stared at me, her eyebrows set in a straight line. “I’m serious, Meda. I could have done it. And if you keep messing things up for me, I will. Don’t try to stop us. Even knowing that your father wants you will not stop me next time, especially if you get in my way.”

  Isi stared at me as my mom smoothly slid into the vehicle. Over the hum of the engine, I could hear someone calling my name. My mother aimed her gun at me. I put my hands up. “If I don’t make it out of here alive, neither do you,” I called out, more to Isi than to my mother. My mother was not rational. Isi at least seemed somewhat loyal to the Agency, or she was motivated by the possible repercussions of what would happen if they did get rid of me.

  Isi reached across the car and put her hand on my mother’s arm to lower the gun. I turned and ran as soon as the gun was off me, getting low just in case they changed their minds. When I got to the door, I barely slowed as I shoved the door open and it banged against the outside of the barn. I exited out the back, and when my eyes adjusted to the light outside, I could see a figure moving towards me across the back field. Then I saw the gun.

  I threw my hands up. “I’m not armed! I’m not armed!” I called. Then I could make out the shapes. It was Smith and a few other agents. Behind them, I saw Brody and Aaron. Brody immediately pushed his way by the men, even though they tried to hold him back, but in that moment, an explosion of wood splinters and dust detonated as my mother and Isi rocketed out of the barn in their car.

  The men in the suits crouched immediately into shooter stances, and Brody froze. I looked back in wonder at the blown-out side of the barn and watched as they made their way to the dirt road that led away from us. I expected helicopters and teams of vans to follow them. The Opposition had manpower, but not all-encompassing manpower, like that of the Agency. There were no helicopters. There was no fanfare. No shoot-out. No one to stop the two from driving off. The agents didn’t even bother to take the shots. The car was gone in seconds around the bend of the dirt driveway.

  Some of the men jogged after the car, and some went to search the barn. Aaron stood watching me from a distance, and Smith took out his phone and started talking to someone on the other end. He then pulled the phone away and watched the screen. Aaron stepped forward and peered over his shoulder. Brody came to me. He hesitated, searching my body for injuries. Looking for signs someone had hurt me.

  “I’m fine, Brody,” I said. He looked at me, a million questions on the tip of his tongue, but he didn’t get the chance to speak.

  Smith stepped forward, his phone still in his hand, and Aaron remained at his side. The look on Aaron’s face was cold.

  Smith’s face held no emotion. He wasn’t looking at me to see if I was okay. He was looking at me with suspicion. “What happened?” he demanded. Brody turned and looked at Smith, confused by the tone of his voice. When I didn’t speak right away, Smith moved towards me aggressively. “What happened?” he asked again.

  Brody stepped between us and held his hand up towards Smith. “What’s going on, Smith?” he asked while looking at the older man.

  Smith turned the screen of his phone so Brody could see. Aaron stayed where he was and watched me. I had no idea what he was looking at, but it didn’t look good. I moved in closer so I could see what it was. On the screen was the stairwell of the hotel and Brody and I, but that wasn’t Brody. Shit.

  The video was brief, but it was clear what had happened. It looked like I went along with the whole thing. They had no way of knowing my mother and Isi wanted to kill me. That I wasn’t a traitor to them.

  When it was done, Brody stared at me. I could tell he wanted to ask a question, but nothing came out. Then, Smith turned to me. “So, you planned this?” he asked. “You planned a rendezvous with your mother and this mimic? You planned the mimic’s escape?”

  I shook my head. “No. No. That’s not how it happened.” I directed my words at Brody. “You have to believe me.”

  Brody’s face clouded over. He opened his mouth but didn’t say anything. Smith continued to speak. “You knew your mom was planning something. You knew enough that you needed to be in that vehicle with the mimic. You knew our men might be hurt. And you didn’t alert us.” He paused, giving me a chance to explain myself.

  “Honestly, I didn’t know what she wanted.” I turned to Brody. “I thought…I thought she was someone different. I can’t explain.” What I needed was for Brody to believe me, for one person to be on my side, but in that moment, he took a step back.

  Smith moved closer now that Brody wasn’t between us anymore. “Well, there’s no need to explain. It’s pretty clear. If you had alerted us to an escape attempt, we would have them both right now. And two of my men wouldn’t be dead.” I looked to Brody. He wouldn’t make eye contact. Neither would Aaron.

  “But, I had no idea.” I tried to convince them, my eyes prickling, but the look on Aaron’s face told me it was useless. I was on my own. Even though I knew it was untrue, I said softly, “There was nothing I could do.”

  When Aaron heard my words, he finally looked at me. He slowly growled at me, “So, you’re going to go with that old line again. Poor, helpless Meda.” He spit the words at me. Brody looked down at his feet, and I saw a tear drop off the end of his nose. I started
crying. I put my hands over my face, but Aaron’s words continued to cut me. “Look at how many people have died because you are so stupid, Meda. What about Dan? He trusted you. People have put their lives on the line for you.”

  I couldn’t say anything. I couldn’t defend myself. I waited for Aaron to hit me, but it didn’t come. I looked up to see him walking away from me, back towards the vehicle that was parked in the field. Everything in my life had fallen apart, and it only made sense that I had lost the trust of the few people I had left.

  I didn’t even want to look at Brody. I put my arms out to Smith, trying to fight the tears. “Put the cuffs on me,” I said as Smith stared down at my wrists.

  “That’s not necessary,” he said.

  “I said put the cuffs on!” I cried out. I still couldn’t look at Brody’s face, even though I could sense him watching. Smith took the cuffs out of his pocket and put them on my wrists, not too tight. I only looked up once when Brody began walking away. He didn’t look back, and I was glad for it. I put my head down and waited for Smith to lead me to wherever I needed to go next. I didn’t need to know. I couldn’t be trusted. It would be best this way. When I was responsible for making my own decisions, I screwed everything up.

  chapter 23

  I stared out the window of the van. I didn’t know where we were going, and I didn’t care. Maybe I lost the ability to care about anything anymore. Maybe I was dead inside, like my mother. Maybe I had never cared about anyone for real, and I had only convinced myself, like I had taken on a role. Even thoughts of my father and sisters, the ones who had been my motivators throughout the entire ordeal, didn’t lift me out of my despair. My entire life was a lie. My parents didn’t have this fairytale relationship that I had always thought. My dad took a pregnant, homeless woman in, and she used him. My dad wasn’t even my dad. My mom never cared about any of it. My whole life was a lie. I was empty.