“So, long time no see,” I said.
He called me a very bad name. Alex gave him a smack on his cheek to remind him of his manners.
“How’s the arm,” I taunted him. I couldn’t resist ragging him a little. He had pulled a knife on us! He sat there saying nothing and looking sullen.
“Here is how it’s going to go. You’re going to tell us everything you know about Blankenship and Rinteau. We know the whole purse-snatching thing at the mall was a setup. Don’t try to lie. When people lie to me, I get angry. You won’t like me when I’m angry. Right, Alex?” I said.
“It’s ugly,” he agreed.
Booker sat there, not looking at any of us, doing his best to be defiant.
“Listen: You talk to us, you tell us what we want to know, you walk away from here. You don’t, we’ll take you back to our headmaster. You remember him? He’s the one who broke your arm. I think you’ll want to talk to him. If you don’t, well, I can’t imagine how he might feel about that. He’s been known to get a little upset when people hold out on him.
“I ain’t sayin’ nothin’ to you prep-school freaks. You let me go and my boys won’t come down here and bust you up.”
“No, I don’t think so,” I said. “I don’t think you’re doing much busting up of anything these days. In fact, I bet most of your ‘boys’ have split. I think Blankenship has you on the hook now, and you’re no longer calling the shots. So you better tell us what we want to know. You know why? Because if Mr. Kim doesn’t scare you, we’ll find a way to let Blankenship know you’ve been talking to us. I don’t think you want that.”
His eyes went wide at that. His head spun around, and he looked like a trapped rat, desperate to get out of the van. I didn’t know if he was going to say anything or not—surely he was more afraid of Blankenship than he was of us. But finally, everything seemed to catch up with him and he went slack and sat back in the seat.
“Are you ready to talk?” I asked.
He nodded. “He grabbed me off the street one night,” he said. “Not him. A couple of his thugs in them black jumpsuits. Look like they been on the juice?”
I nodded. I’d seen similar creeps in Hawaii. Blankenship kept his muscle on steroids, and who knew what else he put in their injections.
“They take me to him. Dude is scary. I growed up here,” he said gesturing toward the street. “Ain’t much I ain’t seen. But Blankenship, he ain’t right. All I had to do was get Rinteau inside this rival gang. That’s how he put it: ‘some rival gang.’ I was supposed to lure y’all into a fight and Rinteau would show up and save the day. He wanted it real: cut up Rinteau, make it look like we was badasses and Rinteau saved you. He wasn’t happy when it didn’t go right the first time. Cops got there too quick, you all fought too hard. He made us grab you at the mall again. Didn’t count on your ninja headmaster showing up and busting my arm. But it got Rinteau inside. Just like it went down.”
“How did you know we were going to be at the mall that specific day?” Alex asked.
Booker shrugged.
“I don’t know. He gave me a cell phone. Said to keep it charged and on all the time. When the call came I was to move me and my boys into position and wait for Rinteau’s signal,” he said.
Now my brain was burning. Alex had asked an excellent question. How did he know we were going to be there? Only the four of us and Mr. Kim had known we were going. Unless …
“Where is Rinteau now?” I asked.
“Lady, I don’t know and I don’t care. That guy is freaky. Blankenship has got some kind of hold over him. They’s both crazy. Man, you got to let me go now. I done told you everything,” he said. His voice was nearly at a whine. “Blankenship, he’s gonna find out I talked, man, he’s gonna …” his voice quaked in fear as it trailed off.
“I think you’re holding out,” I said. Then I had an idea. “Do you have the cell phone Blankenship gave you?” Booker shook his head, but his eyes told me a different story.
“Alex,” I said. Alex patted Booker down. He found the cell phone in his inside coat pocket. It didn’t look like a regular cell phone. It looked way advanced. Brent’s eyes kind of went wide and he reached out and took the phone from Alex.
“Never seen one like this before,” he said. He flipped it open and studied the screen.
“Brent, see if you can find a call log in there,” I said. Booker’s eyes went wide again.
“Here it is,” Brent said. “Only calls received. No calls out.”
I took the phone from Brent and looked at the screen. I didn’t recognize the number, but I would bet Charles’s entire fortune that Blankenship would be on the other end. I pushed the call button and watched the screen light up as the call went through.
“Man you gotta let me out of here,” Booker said.
“Hush,” I said.
The call connected. The reception was excellent—I could hear someone on the other end breathing and there was background noise. But whoever had answered didn’t speak. “Simon, it’s me again. Just wanted to tell you that we know everything. We know how you did it and we know where you are. Watch your back, because we’re coming for you.”
Still no response.
There was a click and the call disconnected. I stared at the phone screen, thinking briefly about redialing.
There was a commotion in the back seat. Booker crawled over Alex and grabbed at the door of the van. He managed to get it open and fell out into the street. He scrambled to his feet and started running.
“Should I go after him?” Alex asked.
“No, it’s fine. There’s nothing left he can tell us,” I said. I gazed at my friends. They all understood what we had just discovered. There was definitely a traitor among us. We had been set up that day in the mall. Someone had been feeding Blankenship intelligence, probably from the time I arrived at the school. Or at the very least when we recovered the book off the ship that night. I still didn’t know who it was yet, but I was beginning to get a good idea. There was proof. And I knew where and how to get it.
Brent turned the van around and we left Fourth Street behind, driving through the night until we reached the school.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
The Big Bang Theory
IT WAS LATE WHEN we finally reached the school. We parked the van in the situation room and climbed the long stairs to Mr. Kim’s office. Pilar and I bid the guys good night at the boys’ wing and went to our room. She fell immediately into bed and was instantly asleep. It amazed me how she was always able to do that. I was too nervous and jittery to sleep. I needed a shower. Anytime I was anywhere close to Blankenship, even if it was just a phone call, I felt like I’d been dipped in oil. I changed into my robe and staggered down the hall to the shower room.
The shower rooms were one of my favorite things about Blackthorn. There was always plenty of warm water, and the towels were kept in a heated cupboard so they were warm and fluffy when you dried off. It was really a pretty heavenly place and I found myself finally relaxing a little bit as the warm water pounded into my skin.
After shampooing and rinsing and blow drying and examining my split ends in the mirror, I walked down to the room and got dressed for bed in shorts and a T-shirt. Pilar was down for the count, but I still felt restless. The whole Rinteau thing and the fact that someone had somehow set us up had me ticked off, and I wasn’t sure how I was going to sleep at all. I had to figure this out.
I sat at my desk trying to study. There was a big quiz coming up in languages class. I was behind, as usual, and thought maybe if I could get lost in my homework, I might be able to forget about Rinteau and Blankenship and the Firehorn and all the rest of it, at least for a while.
My book was open on the desk and I started reading over my notes from the last class. It wasn’t working. I couldn’t concentrate. I was about to get up and try some yoga to see if I could relax that way, when my watch, which was sitting on the desk next to my notes, started buzzing.
I picked it
up. The text message said: “Sit Rm 15.” Huh. Mr. Kim must have returned from the crime scene and must have found something important for him to be calling me this late. I strapped on the watch and slipped on a pair of sweats and sneakers.
The school was eerily quiet at night. It was a little unsettling to be walking around it when it was so empty. I always thought it would make a good setting for a slasher movie. It was hard to resist the urge to look over your shoulder every few yards as you walked down the hallways.
I made it to Mr. Kim’s office quickly, opened the bookcase, and started down the stairs, trying to guess what Mr. Kim might have found. Hopefully something that would lead us straight to Blankenship so we could catch that Freakenstein, self-absorbed, thinks-he’s-a-god, no-good, lying, cheating, stealing piece of evil.
I pushed open the door to the room and stepped inside. It was empty and quiet; none of the machines or computers were running.
“Mr. K—” I started to say, but felt an arm grab me from behind as a cloth was pushed over my nose and mouth. A chemical smell stung my eyes and tears formed, running down my cheeks. I shut my eyes and mouth, trying not to breath, and kicked back with my right leg. I hit a shin and heard someone yelp. I clawed at the hand holding the rag.
I raked my nails across the back of the hand and whoever had me yelled and dropped the rag. I struck an elbow into the ribs of my attacker and heard a whoosh of breath leave his lungs.
I staggered forward and whirled around in a fighting stance. It was Rinteau. His hand was bleeding and he was doubled over. My eyes stung and my mouth tasted like almonds. I had no idea what he was trying to knock me out with, but I felt woozy. I tried to take in deep breaths to clear my head.
“You’re a little friskier than I thought,” he said.
“You’ve got some nerve coming back here. I ought to kill you!”
“Really! Earlier tonight in the do jang I felt us growing closer,” he smilirked at me.
“Creep,” I stepped forward and launched a front kick at his head, but I was starting to feel the effects of the chemical. My balance was a little off and he easily stepped out of the way.
“Feeling a little woozy, are we?” he asked.
I took a swing but he easily dodged out of the way. My momentum and lack of balance spun me around, so my back was to him momentarily. He lunged forward, grabbing me with both arms and lifting me off my feet.
“You need to settle down,” he said. His voice was right in my ear. Good.
Instead of taking his “settling down” advice, I cocked my head forward and snapped it back as hard as I could. Head butt. From the satisfying crunching noise, it sounded like I got him good. He yelled and dropped me and I staggered into the conference table and spun around to see blood dripping from his nose. Score one for Rachel Buchanan.
I tried to stand up, but my legs were starting to feel rubbery. This wasn’t going well. I reached for the button on my watch and pushed what Brent called the “Rachel 911” button. It sent a signal to everyone’s device and would tell them where I was located. I needed help, fast. I knew Pilar had been wearing her watch. She would find Brent and Alex and get here as fast as she could. But who knew where Mr. Kim was?
“Man. You are a pistol,” said Rinteau, dabbing at the blood on his nose.
“Why did you come back here?”
“I had some unfinished business—and I guess I just couldn’t leave without saying good-bye,” he said. He was trying to move toward me and I circled away, trying to keep the table between us.
“You work for that creep Blankenship,” I said. The disgust dripped from my voice.
“Yep. Too bad you followed me out of the school tonight; I might have gotten to stay a lot longer and keep an eye on you,” he said.
I angled to my left and he circled the other way, around the table.
“So it was all a setup, from the beginning,” I said. I had to keep him talking. I was feeling weaker. Whatever I breathed in was making me nauseous. Hang in there, Rachel. Help is on the way, I told myself.
“Yeah. Pretty much. Brilliant, don’t you think? It’s kind of funny that you think a bunch of high school losers can compete with Simon. Guy’s a genius. You run around here with all your fancy little gadgets and gizmos like you’re playing Cowboys and Indians. Meanwhile he’s miles ahead of you. It’s almost comical,” he said.
“It’s hilarious. If you find murderous, thieving villains funny,” I said.
Rinteau shrugged his shoulders. “Whatever. He pays me. It’s all I care about. I’m not much into the politics,” he said, still circling toward me.
My legs were feeling heavier and in my stupor I realized he was getting closer. I darted further away. It felt like I was walking in wet cement.
“This is about money? You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said. “That’s not what you’re buddy Booker said. And besides, I’ve met the guy. If you’re with Blankenship, you’re mental. Don’t pretend it’s for something as simple as money.”
“Spoken like someone who’s never had to worry about money, rich girl,” he said. But from the look in his eyes, I could tell I’d struck a nerve. It might have started with money. But now he’d bought into the whole ruling-the-world thing.
He lunged at me again. This time he made up the distance between us more quickly. When he reached for me, I blocked his arms and managed to score a kick to his right knee. The kick was weak, with not very good technique considering my wobbly state, but it slowed him down. I tried to move toward the wall where Mr. Kim kept a bunch of martial arts weapons, but Rinteau recovered in time to cut me off and I was forced to dodge behind the table again.
“I may come from money, but I also know how much things cost,” I said. Where were Alex and the others? I wasn’t going to last much longer.
“Oh, please! Let’s not get into the little platitudes. I don’t have the stomach for it. I came back here to leave your buddies a little present. Simon said if there was a way I could bring you along, I’d get a nice little bonus,” he said.
He was getting angry now. He’d thought at first that it would be easy to take me down, but it hadn’t gone according to plan. Time for me to step it up.
“You’re not going anywhere,” I declared.
I stepped out from behind the table until we were in an open space between the bank of computers and the conference table. Rinteau launched a kick at my head, and I ducked out of the way. He must have been faking it in Tae Kwon Do class. Just like Leikala in Hawaii, it looked like he had martial arts training. Great.
I advanced toward him with my fists up, reading his movements. He feinted with a punch, ducked my counterpunch, then rushed at me and tackled me around the waist. We tumbled to the ground, sliding across the floor of the room and crashing into the chairs in front of the computer consoles. I struggled free of Rinteau’s grip and got to my hands and knees. Then I saw it.
Underneath the consoles was a giant brick of something that looked like Silly Putty. It had a bunch of metal tubes and wires stuck in it. My eyes followed the wires, and to my horror I discovered that they were connected to other bricks of explosives every few feet. I saw a box with a digital clock on the side of it. It blinked 5:00, and then started counting down. 4:59 … 4:58 … 4:57 … It took three seconds for me to process what I was seeing. It was a bomb.
I stood looking at Rinteau, who now held a little remote control in his hand. He smiled.
“That’s right, peaches,” he said. “A little surprise for you and your friends! What do you say? How about we get out of here before it gets real loud and dusty.”
“Are you crazy? There’s a whole school full of innocent people sitting right on top of us!”
Rinteau shrugged. “They’ll never know what hit them, in fact—”
Rinteau crumpled to the ground. Alex stood behind him, holding one of Mr. Kim’s stun guns. Pilar and Brent came skidding to a stop next to him.
“Man, I hate that guy,” Alex said. “He just never shuts up.
”
“Guys, thank God you’re here, we’ve got to get out of here, he’s got the whole place rigged to blow!” I said, pointing at the explosives all around the room.
Brent rushed to the timer and dropped to his knees.
Pilar, thinking quickly, ran to the wall and pulled a fire-alarm switch. It would sound throughout the entire school. Everyone would start evacuating.
Alex slung Rinteau over his shoulders.
“Be careful with him,” I said. “He’s got some kind of drug or something. I almost passed out.”
Pilar and Alex headed for the stairs. I intended to be right behind them. I looked at the timer, which now read less than two minutes.
“Come on, Brent,” I said.
Brent was peering at the timer, staring at the wires like he was studying the Sunday crossword puzzle.
“Brent, come on. We need to get out of here,” I pleaded.
“You go, I think I can disarm this.”
“No! Are you crazy? We are leaving!”
“Rachel. Everything we know, all we’ve learned about Mithras, is stored down here; if we let it get destroyed we’re back to square one,” he said.
“That can’t be! Mr. Kim must have copies of everything at FBI headquarters. No! Come on!” I shouted.
“He doesn’t. The idol is there, but all the records—everything else—is here. He told me he doesn’t want anyone to have access to it without his knowledge. The backups are all encoded in the safe. If this blows, everything will be destroyed. Don’t worry, I can do this,” he said.
“Brent,” I pleaded, tears in my eyes.
“Go. Now! If it gets to thirty seconds and I can’t stop it, I’ll race up the stairs. The steel door on the stairwell will shield me from the blast.”
“I’m not leaving you,” I said.
Brent grabbed me by the arms and stood me up. He kissed me hard on the mouth and pushed me toward the door.
“I have to do this and can’t do it with you here. Go,” he said, and pushed me toward the stairway.
The Spy Who Totally Had a Crush on Me Page 15
