Fractured (Unreel series Book 1)

by Sanna Wolf-Watz

  “You don’t have a choice, princess. You don’t call the shots around here. I…”

  “Okay!” Gloria cut in, moving so she was standing between Sofia and Zack before Sofia could punch him. “I have made schedules for your training. We’ll start you off with some basic testing so that we can decide the shape you’re currently in.”

  “I can’t do this,” Thomas said. “I can’t be here. I have classes! Baseball!”

  “We understand that…”

  “No, you don’t understand! I have a life! I can’t be stuck below ground in some twisted…”

  “You can try running away, I suppose,” Zack said, walking up to them. “You wouldn't get far.”

  “You can’t keep us here!” Sofia protested. “People will wonder where we are, they’ll come looking for us and…”

  “We already have your parents’ signed agreement and your friends will be told that you are away, doing an internship.”

  “They won’t believe that for a second!” Thomas said. “We have an important game a few days from now. I can’t…”

  “Do you want to die?” Zack asked. “Did you like being kidnapped and interrogated for however long they had you back there?”

  Thomas paled.

  “Of course he didn’t,” Sofia hissed. “But that doesn’t mean that staying here is the only alternative. Surely, we can all come up with a better way to solve this than to use teenagers in a convoluted…”

  “I think we would have tried those alternatives before we involved you two,” Zack replied mockingly.

  “Is that so? Because I believe everyone would appreciate if this was being handled by trained professionals instead of kids.”

  “Don’t worry,” Zack said with a twisted grin. “We’ll train you.”

  “We don’t want you to train us! We want to go home!”

  “Newsflash, Jefferson. People don’t always get what they want.”

  “That is the dumbest argument ever when…” Sofia started.

  “What’s going on here?” a new voice asked from behind them and Sofia snapped around, her hands already fisted and at the level of her eyes.

  “Wow, calm down,” the man said, raising his own hands in a placating gesture.

  Sofia did not intend to calm down. If anything, she wanted to amp it up. If she came off as mentally unstable they’d have to let her off the hook. Besides, just because someone said that they meant her no harm, it didn’t mean that she would come to no harm.

  The man in front of her didn’t look like he was going to hurt her, though it was hard to make out what he was thinking because of how tight his skin was drawn over his face. She wasn’t sure if it was due to laser, Botox or too much plastic surgery, but whatever had happened to him made his skin look more like a mask than a face.

  His large lips broke into a grin, showing a perfect set of teeth so white they had to be fake.

  “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said.

  “Said the spider to the fly,” Thomas muttered.

  The man looked over at him with a slight frown. “What was that?” he asked.

  “Nothing.”

  The man stared at him a little longer, before turning back to Sofia. “Where were we? Ah, yes. Introductions. You may call me Trent. Agent Trent.”

  “That rhymes,” Sofia said as she tried to figure out if that orange hue was his natural skin color or if he’d suffered a mishap at a spray tanning salon.

  “What does?”

  “Agent and Trent.”

  “Yes?”

  Sofia blinked. The man blinked. Or tried to. His eyelids didn't completely close. They couldn’t. His eyelids were stretched too tight.

  Gloria cleared her throat. “Agent Trent is a master of martial arts. He’ll help you with your training.”

  “How many people know that we’re here?” Thomas asked.

  “That’s none of your concern,” Zack said and when Thomas looked like he wanted to argue he continued. “You’ll be safe as long as you stay here.”

  “Yeah, right.”

  “Sounds like you’ve got an attitude problem,” Agent Trent cut in, taking a step towards Thomas. He had a bit of an accent, but Sofia couldn't place it. “Nothing that a few thousand push-ups won’t sort out.”

  Thomas crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m not pushing anything until I get out of here. Who are you anyway?”

  “Like Gloria just told you, I’m going to be part of your training,” Agent Trent said. “And you’re not going anywhere.”

  Sofia opened her moth to retort when Zack cut in.

  “Are you always this selfish?” he asked. “Do you have any idea the heat you would bring down on your family and friends if you went back to them now?”

  Sofia’s blood ran cold. Surely, no one would believe these silly rumors and come after her? Though somebody already had. They had discovered where she lived, gone into her house and grabbed her. What if her mom or dad had been home? What if next time they were home?

  “That got you thinking, huh?” Zack said with insufferable smugness.

  “Can’t you protect them?” Thomas demanded.

  “We won’t have to. You stay here and do what you’re told and you’ll be able to protect your families all by yourselves once you get out,” Trent said.

  “How long?” Thomas ground out.

  “A few months. If everything goes well,” Agent Trent said.

  “And if it doesn’t?” Thomas asked.

  “Let’s not dwell on the ‘what ifs’. Now, I reckon we’ve been standing around here long enough. I want to see you here in your workout clothes and trainers in five minutes.”

  “Er…” Sofia said pointing to her feet. “I can’t do that.”

  “Blimey. What the devil happened to you?”

  “Are you British or something?” Thomas asked.

  Agent Trent’s fixed face managed to look sheepish. He cleared his throat. “Welsh, actually. Not that it matters.”

  “What are you doing here if you’re Welsh?”

  “You know that this country is built on migration, right?”.

  “Assassins get green cards?”

  Trent ignored them and turned to Zack and Gloria. “What happened to her feet? And someone’s been using this boy as a punching bag, he can hardly stand straight.”

  “There was an accident,” Gloria said.

  “We don’t have time for accidents!” Trent hissed. “What am I going to do with them now?”

  “You could let us go,” Sofia suggested. Again. Perhaps if she suggested it enough times they’d agree to it.

  “They can do schoolwork as they rest up.”

  “Schoolwork?” Thomas asked. “You’re kidding, right?”

  “We wouldn't dream of letting you being chased by covert government agencies stand in the way of furthering your education,” Zack said sardonically.

  “You’ll be doing online courses,” Gloria supplied helpfully.

  “There’s internet here?”

  “There is, but don’t try to get to your e-mail accounts or your socials. We have a firewall here that makes the Chinese one look like child’s play,” Zack warned.

  “Lovely,” Sofia said under her breath.

  “There are laptops in your rooms. I suggest you get started right away,” Gloria said with a smile Sofia supposed was meant to be comforting.

  She didn’t see the point of arguing anymore so she dragged her tired body back through the hallway, Thomas following closely behind her. They shared a silent glance before going into their respective rooms.

  She closed her door, leaned back against it and gave in to the silent tears streaming down her cheeks.

  Thomas stared at the screen. He didn’t understand how he was supposed to concentrate on arithmetics when his entire world had been turned on its head.

  The day before yesterday, his greatest worry had been his lousy performance in a high school baseball game and the breakup with his girlfriend. Now he didn’t know i
f he’d ever be able to play again and when it came to Rachel… Well, at least he wouldn’t have to work so hard to avoid her. And he wasn’t alone here. Sofia might not be his favorite person, but at least she was here. And she’d helped him.

  He shivered when he thought about her trying to leave. It was selfish, but he was glad she’d stayed. Not that she’d had much choice. Not that either of them had had much choice. The moment they threatened his family he’d known he’d be staying. He couldn't put John at risk.

  He got up from the chair and groaned when his muscles protested the movement. The past thirty-six hours had sure done a number on him and he had no illusions that the coming days would be any better. Trent’s face might look like a campaign ad for plastic surgery gone wrong, but the man was built like a tank.

  Thomas attempted a careful stretch and hissed. He was not going to be able to do anything physically straining for a while and he was clearly not making much progress with learning either.

  He wondered what Sofia was doing. He remembered the weight of her body on his in the back of the car and flushed. He’d be better off not thinking about what must have been a reaction to the constant adrenaline rush he’d been in since he woke up in that room.

  He paced in the small room. He and Sofia needed to be… friends. They had stick together now. He had to have someone here who he knew would have his back. He’d call a truce. He’d even apologize for yelling at her in the car if he had to.

  He walked out of his room before he had time to change his mind. Sofia’s door was closed, but it wasn’t locked. He pushed it open and immediately wished he hadn’t. She was sitting on the floor by her bed, crying again.

  He froze, not sure if he should back away quietly and pretend he hadn’t seen her cry or step forward and try to comfort her. She took the matter out of his hands when she looked up and spotted him standing inside her door.

  “What do you want?” she asked, quickly drying the tears on her t-shirt.

  “Er… I was… are you okay?”

  She snorted a teary laugh. “What do you think?”

  Thomas hesitated another moment before closing the door behind him and walking over to her. He slid down next to her, carefully making sure that they weren’t touching. He couldn't hide a wince when the movement made his bruised abdominal muscles clench with pain.

  “Are you okay?” Sofia asked him.

  “Yeah, just bruised.”

  “How bad is it?”

  Thomas grimaced. “Pretty bad.”

  “Can I see?”

  He gaped at her. “You want me to take my clothes off?”

  Sofia blushed furiously, even as she snorted a laugh.

  “To be honest, it might make me feel better,” she finally admitted.

  Thomas tried to swallow. “Er…”

  “Not like that,” she said shoving at him. “Sorry! So sorry!” she said when he moaned in pain.

  “What did you mean?” he asked, massaging his ribs.

  “That seeing you all bruised and hurting might make me feel better about my own situation. You know, skadeglädje is the only true joy,” she said with a grin.

  “Scadegwhat?”

  “Skadeglädje means finding joy in someone else’s pain.”

  “Ah. I suppose you would know all about that.”

  Sofia looked like she was about to shove at him again, but when he tensed up she must have thought better of it. Instead she leaned her head back against the wall and closed her eyes.

  “What are we going to do?” she asked.

  Thomas shrugged and immediately regretted the sudden movement. He winced. “I don’t know. I mean, we can’t trust them. We know virtually nothing about them, they might as well be terrorists. Soon they’re going to send us out there on some mission and we’ll…” he stopped himself before he could say ‘die’, “…get seriously injured.”

  “We’ll die,” Sofia said and sighed. “This sucks.”

  “It does,” Thomas agreed.

  “We’re going to have to try and make a run for it.”

  “Not to home.”

  “Canada or Mexico?” Sofia asked.

  “Mexico. Canada’s too cold.”

  Sofia rolled her eyes. “We can handle the cold. Do you know the murder rate in Mexico?”

  “So we don’t get involved in the drug trade,” Thomas said tiredly.

  Sofia laughed again and shook her head. “I never thought you’d be the one to make me laugh.”

  “I’m funnier than I look.”

  “Nah, I must still be suffering from shock or something.”

  Thomas snorted, shaking his head. “Whatever. I came over because I have a suggestion.”

  “Go ahead.”

  “I was thinking… since we only have each other and we can’t trust anyone else it would make sense for us to… you know… stick together.”

  She stared at him. “You want us to be friends?” she asked.

  He sighed. Why was the idea of being friends with him so awful to her? He wasn’t that bad. Lots of people wanted to friends with him. He took a deep breath, let it out.

  “Yes,” he said. “I want us to be friends.”

  She mulled it over for a few moments. “Okay. We can be friends,” she said slowly.

  Thomas finally relaxed his shoulders and smiled at her. She smiled back and Thomas was struck again by how pretty she looked when she did that. Then she jumped as all around them alarm bells went off and the lights above their heads went out.

  “What the…” Thomas started to say, but was cut off when the ceiling came down.

  About the Author

  Sanna Wolf-Watz is the author of the books in the Unreel series. Together with Huang Qiong she's written the Travel Guide to New Zealand and the Study Abroad Guide to New Zealand.

  When she was very young she wanted to become an author. Instead she worked as an economist, journalist, bank officer and administrator. Now she's finally gotten around to realizing her dreams.

  Sanna loves to travel and learn new things. So far she's visited more than 20 countries and successfully passed nearly 50 university courses ranging from subjects such as creative writing to philosphy and journalism.

  Get in touch with her on social media or check out wolfwatz.com or amazon.com/author/sannawolfwatz for new book releases.

  Also by Sanna Wolf-Watz

  Book 2 in the Unreel series: ”Frenzied”.

  Sofia and Thomas are facing new challenges and enemies as they struggle to not become secret agents.

  Coming in December!

  With Huang Qiong

  ”Study Abroad New Zealand”

  ”Travel New Zealand”