The Hidden Two

by Kimberlee R. Mendoza

  “Right.” He nodded and strode a few steps away, then faced her. “And everyone else has been with us since the beginning.”

  “Not everyone.” Laura gingerly met his gaze, knowing the implication would not set well.

  “I trust her with my life, Laura.” With chest out, he took a step toward her. “No way Helena is involved. Move on.”

  “Okay, maybe not. I hope you’re right. But, this enemy knows us…personally. We have got to stop running and figure this out.” A beetle ran onto her boot. She pushed it aside and reached out to touch Myers’ arm. “I need you thinking with all cylinders. Paying attention to everything they do. All are open to scrutiny. Do some of your computer stuff. The sooner we know our enemy, the sooner we can begin to fight them.”

  “Okay, I will. But I don’t like spying on our friends.” He put a hand on hers and squeezed.

  “I know.” She hugged him again and sighed. “But something isn’t right. Let’s get back.”

  They walked the rest of the way in silence. She knew Myers would not like her accusing Helena. But she needed him considering it as a possibility. Though she doubted Willow and Teddy had anything to do with this, there was always the possibility they could have been turned.

  Willow was with the enemy for more than twenty-four hours. Maybe she wasn’t really in danger. They never checked to see if the claymore mines were functional. And Teddy, maybe his joyfulness was a ruse. Maybe he wasn’t working at the movie theatre all those months, but rather, he was meeting his handler. And then, there was Helena. She was alone with Bryce when he died. Not to mention, she had been with her pseudo family a shorter period of time.

  Memories of the first time they met came to her memory. She had fired a gun at Laura’s head and then she turned them into the enemy. So, who knows? Not the best history. And where is Alicia? The girl just disappeared. Should they consider she could have been following them? All of them were suspects until she could determine otherwise.

  When Laura entered the hotel room, it had been cleared and cleaned. The group sat around, quiet, reflecting, obviously lost in their thoughts. She sat on the floor next to Eri and laid her head on her friend’s shoulder. Eri responded by wrapping an arm around her. Charlie joined on the other side. Together, they wept. That day was the longest day, but it was also the last time Laura wanted to give into this feeling.

  “We need to know our enemy. It is time to stop running and start fighting,” Laura said, wiping her tears with the back of her sleeve.

  Myers squatted in front of her. “You know I’m all in.”

  “But what about Deshawn?” Helena asked. “Did you guys get any idea what happened to him?”

  Laura sighed. All of this had completely made her forget their friend was missing. “My hope is that when we find them, we’ll find him, too.”

  Eri squeezed her shoulder tight. “We all are in. So, what do you want us to do?”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Helena heard something through a fog.

  “What?” Helena blinked against the hot sun.

  “Are you okay? I’ve been yelling your name?” Myers stood over her, hands on his hips. “I was trying to see if you could stay back while we go scout.”

  She nodded.

  “Great, see you later tonight.” Myers kissed her and then joined the rest of the crew in the SUV.

  Sure, why not? I am always good for staying back, fetching supplies, whatever is the least threatening adventure. If this were a real relationship, where she didn’t have to play nice, things would be way different. Often, she was overlooked. Her thin frame and diminutive statue made her appear weak and innocent. Both were hardly true.

  She had scored extremely high on her IQ test, was the equivalent of a black belt in martial arts, and could toss a knife at any target with exact precision—not that she would ever let this group know that. It wasn’t the plan. She had almost given herself away back at the cabin last year when she fought Laura. Harding would not have been happy. But all of this made her ill.

  Always endeavoring to establish she was better than everyone else was a constant battle and put her on Harding’s radar in the first place. After a bar fight went wrong, she ended up in a Mexican prison. There she met Alicia—a younger girl with a big attitude. Like her, she looked about five years younger than she was. Most thought she was maybe fifteen, but in reality, she was twenty-one. She never told anyone the truth. Her mind flooded with memories of the last year and all that had happened.

  Alicia and she were recruited by S.I.U. for one purpose—to destroy Laura Black. At first, it seemed simple enough. Helena was sent to shoot Julio and hang out there until Laura appeared. Harding assured her Laura would come. To this day, she still wasn’t sure why that worked. He said it had something to do with a “dog always returning to its vomit.” Gross.

  But it was prophetic. Unsure why, but she did come. Pretending to fire on Laura and Bryce and miss was hilarious. In seconds, both of them could have been dropped by her hand. However, Harding commanded they were to be taken alive. The plan was for Laura to kill Greenstone and then join them. Amazing how most of it fell into place. The crew’s suspicion was short lived, and Helena and Alicia were officially on the team.

  Helena shifted on the ground and drank from the water bottle in her hand. Nothing was perfect. In some ways, it backfired. Unable to get word to Harding about the final raid, S.I.U. fell, and he was captured. Thankfully, she suggested the mental institution, as it was likely easier to break out of than jail.

  After the smoke cleared, Alicia went back to free him. It took much longer than they thought to get him out, but once they did, everything was back on. Together, the three of them began to torture the Black Squad, as they had begun to call them. The idea was to kill off their team one by one until the only one left was Black. Still harboring a grudge for locking him up, Harding wasn’t sure if he would kill her yet, thinking it would be better to let her live with the pain.

  But killing everyone on the team had been harder than they thought. Twice, they had failed. It wasn’t looking good—until today. Helena sighed. Bryce was dead—the one who would hurt Laura the most. If his passing was all that happened, it may be enough.

  Helena turned on her phone and dialed Alicia.

  “Yeah?” Alicia said.

  “They’re gone. Are you extracting me?”

  The sound muffled, and Alicia spoke away from the earpiece. “Are we getting her?”

  Harding came on the line. “I’m not sure that is the right play. It helps having you there.”

  “If you take me, they will think you kidnapped me and come looking for you. It’s the perfect scenario.” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Plus, it’s been almost a year. I can’t do it anymore.”

  The line was silent for a moment. “Fine. Meet us latitude 24.02775 and longitude 104.65319 in two hours.”

  “Okay. Thanks.” Helena rumpled through her stuff, seeing if there was anything she couldn’t live without. Then grabbed her passport and a GPS, tugged on her boots, pulled her hair in a ponytail, and donned an olive-green cadet hat. A knife sat on a small table by the door. Helena cupped it in her hand and willed herself for the next part. Big breath in. She lifted her pant leg and cut an inch slice. Blood ran down her calf. Scooping it up, she smeared a handful on the counter, down the wall, across the bed and pillow, and ended with a few drops by the door. She kicked a lamp, shattering it across the room, and then pulled the blankets from bed. That should do it.

  She glanced around one more time and headed out the door. In the distance, she could see a billow of dust. That could be them. No time to waste. Helena took off across the desert, GPS in hand. A part of her felt sad. This had not been the best day. Though she signed up for this long-term assignment, knowing she would betray them, it still stung a little.

  There were some real feelings for Myers and even for Bryce. That probably hurt the worst; it pained her to kill him. But it was the job. The hate for Lau
ra was real. All of them had been indoctrinated to despise her—some through hypnosis, some through suggestion. For Helena, her hatred came from one very important reason. Her real father, Ignacio Perez, had been murdered by Laura’s hand five years ago.

  Tears pooled in her eyes, blurring her vision. Helena blinked to clear them. The memory of that night was still fresh in her mind. She had just received news she had been accepted into an American university. Excited to share the news, she ran up the stairs to her house, whistling. But then stopped. Something was not right. The lights were all off, and the front door was slightly open. A stream of blood smeared through the entryway and down the hall. At the end of the trail was her father. She deduced shot in the back as he tried to escape with a final kill shot to the head.

  For three years, she tried to find the killer. No one knew who until that night when she was arrested. Harding knew. He showed her the case file, where Greenstone had ordered the hit, and Black had carried it out.

  Helena sniffed and wiped her face with the back of her hand. From then on, whatever he had in mind, she was his girl. No matter what, this would happen. Often, it was hard. At times, she actually started to like Laura. But one flash of memory from that night, and all the feelings returned. It took everything in Helena to stick to the plan. Several times, she had had to restrain herself. One night, she had actually stood over Laura’s sleeping body with a knife in hand. If Bryce hadn’t rolled over, she would have stabbed their leader in the heart.

  A pebble rolled under foot, causing her trip. She grimaced as the dried blood on her leg separated from her jeans. How much farther? She glanced down at the GPS. Almost there. The sun beat down hot burning her nose and exposed arms.

  Almost there. Something shiny shimmered in the distance. A vehicle, maybe. She squinted to see it in the bright landscape. Yes. A truck. She smiled through parched lips. With arm extended high, she began to wave. “Hey!”

  The truck circled around and gunned its engine, before driving to her spot.

  Alicia leaned out the side window and waved back. “Hello, my sister. Ready to do some real damage.”

  “I’m just glad to be free.” Helena smiled. “Could use some water though.”

  “Get in.” Alicia opened the door and shifted over the seat, sitting in the back. A Hispanic guy Helena had never seen sat at the driver’s wheel.

  “Hola,” Helena said, climbing in.

  He nodded and revved the engine.

  “This is Gael.” Alicia handed her a canteen. “He doesn’t talk much, but he’s got mad fighting skills. He’s the one who nailed Bryce with that bullet.” Alicia patted his arm, then turned to Helena and pointed at her leg. “You’re bleeding. What happened?”

  “I left them a gift.” She winked and took a long drink. When she pulled back, she said, “Better they think I was hurt.”

  “Smart.” Alicia leaned forward and folded her arms around Helena’s neck. “This is going to be so fun.”

  “How’s Harding?”

  Alicia sat back, licking her lips.

  “Alicia?”

  “He’s good. There might have been a slight development.”

  Helena tried to turn around in her seat, but the belt kept her from going far. “What?”

  Alicia stared out the window, a slight smirk on her face. That infuriated Helena. Even though they didn’t really share DNA, they had been partners for three years. Often, they fought like sisters. And right now, Helena was in no mood for the girl’s game. “What happened?”

  Her head slowly turned to face Helena, the joy of what she was about to say plastered on her expression. “We hooked up.”

  Helena’s eyes went wide, and then she grimaced. “Gross. He’s like, how old?”

  Alicia crossed her arms, obviously determined to fight that resistance. “Um, only twenty-five. Remember, I’m twenty-one, not fourteen like the crew thought.”

  “Fifteen.”

  “Whatever.”

  “You hooked up with the boss? I thought romance was forbidden in S.I.U.?”

  She shrugged. “It is. But he’s in charge and makes his own rules. Besides, this whole thing is rogue anyways.”

  Helena glanced out the windows and watched as cracked earth scattered with yellow bushes rolled by. Inside, she knew this was not sanctioned, but pretending it was made it easier to complete.

  “It’s about revenge, Helena. About all of us getting our due.” Alicia slid the window behind her open and stuck her hand through the opening.

  That Helena could understand. That she could appreciate. Laura killed her dad. Until she had suffered enough, Helena would be Harding’s puppet. That was one thing she would endure. When it was over, maybe she would kill him, too. How else would she find true freedom? It was about using people to get what she wanted, right?

  Chapter Sixteen

  Teddy turned down another empty road. It had been hours, no sign of anything useful. “How much longer do you want to do this?”

  Laura leaned forward in the middle. “I don’t know. I hate that we not only lost another one of our men, but also any sign of the enemy.”

  “I’m starving,” Eri said from the back. “I say we call it a night. I think we’ll be better tracking them in the morning. The sun is already starting to set.”

  “I’m with her,” Charlie said.

  “You’re always with her.” Laura laughed. “Fine, you’re probably right. Go ahead, Teddy, turn it around.”

  He didn’t have to be told twice. As soon as he could do a U-turn, he did. The trip back took another half hour, and his stomach complained for food. “I hope that tamale truck is still open.”

  “Ooh, that sounds awesome,” Charlie said.

  Teddy pulled in the lot and cut the engine. He stepped from the vehicle, drained. His usual busy mind felt subdued through a fog of sleep, such an emotional day. He didn’t know which he wanted to do more—eat or sleep. He trudged through the courtyard toward their digs, nudged open the door, and gasped in disbelief. Any fog swished away. The room was in disarray. Blood covered the walls, the bed, and the floor. He opened his mouth to scream, but no noise escaped.

  The crew entered laughing and stopped in unison, all halting at the door, shock present on their faces.

  “Where’s Helena?” Myers pushed past Teddy, frantically glancing around the room. “Whose blood is this?” He lifted a pillow traced with blood. “No! No, this is not happening. Where is she?”

  “We need to follow the blood trail.” Laura snapped a flashlight onto the floor, then walked out toward the back of the building. “The sun is beginning to set. We have to hurry,” Laura yelled over her shoulder, breaking into a run.

  The group quickened their pace. Everyone followed, heads down, except Myers and Teddy. Myers’ fixed stare was on the horizon; Teddy’s was on Myers. He had experienced Myers’ rage before. It was how his friend dealt with grief. No lie, it could be frightening when he got super mad. Something like this could send Myers over the psychological edge. After all, he lost his first girlfriend to a bullet. Could he have lost another the same way? Teddy’s heart ached for this man and Helena. He silently prayed it was not how it looked.

  No one spoke. Teddy wanted to say something. Nerves usually made him prattle, but something told him to keep quiet. The eeriness of the forlorn desert made the condition of this so much worse. Myers charged out in front. Anger and pain evident with occasional grunts. After a few miles of tracking blood and footsteps, they spotted tire treads and Helena’s trail went cold.

  “The trail…it ends here. Whoever took her, stopped here to grab her,” Myers said, pacing with hands cupped around the back of his head. “This can’t be happening. Who would take her?”

  “Well,” Laura sucked in her bottom lip. “Don’t get mad, but I’m not convinced she was taken.”

  “What?!?” Myers head snapped up as he glared at her. “Of course, she was. Don’t be absurd.”

  Laura pinched her lips together, studying him for a mome
nt. Teddy understood her hesitation to speak her mind. Nothing she said would change the outburst that was sure to come. “Myers, as you know, I’ve been doing this a very long time. You have always trusted me, right? I have never led you astray. Not once. I have nothing to gain by doing so.” Her tone was patronizing, but she was obviously worried about what she had to say next. “To be honest, I don’t know why it didn’t click before, but this just confirms it. Helena was the spy.”

  Myers walked toward her with a puffed-out chest and fire in his eyes. If he swung, Laura would take him, but it would not be pretty to watch. “Stop lying, Black. You know that isn’t true.”

  “Listen to reason, Myers. There is just one set of footprints until this point. There was no fight or struggle here. We know that, if she were taken, she would have not gone easily. Whether or not we like it, she walked out here on her own and got in this vehicle willingly. If someone was chasing her, we’d see a second set. If someone abducted her, there would be signs of a fight, a skirmish, a second set of prints.” Laura lifted her hands to her face and rubbed. “Even back at the hotel, there was no sign anyone was there but her. No sign of other footprints but hers. And…” Tears were evident on her cheeks, and her voice cracked as she said, “I think she killed Bryce.”

  The group visibly gasped together.

  Myers stepped away, shaking his head, clearly angry. Tears began to crescent his eyes. He flipped around, violently wiping at them.

  “Why would you say that?” Eri asked.

  “Bryce was fine, and then he wasn’t. And then, she buried him without letting me see him one last time. I think she covered up the evidence.” Laura lifted her head, blinking. “She’s been playing us since Puerto Rico.”

  “No!” Myers spun around with more hurt than rage in his voice. “No, I refuse to believe that. She loves me and wouldn’t do that.”