by Alice Reeds
“I’m Special Agent James Lido, and that’s Special Agent Nikita McCarty,” Lido said while both of them held their open badges out toward us.
Reluctantly I looked a little closer at them. I’d never seen such badges before, so it wasn’t like I’d be able to differentiate between a fake and a real one. Both had their names, pictures, signatures, and everything on them. They seemed legit, my body and mind relaxing a little at that realization. Besides, Joe knew these people, so if Joe could trust them, why shouldn’t we?
“I know we agreed to meet you farther out, but we couldn’t take the chance you wouldn’t make it that far,” McCarty explained. “We’re overjoyed to have found you alive and well. You were very lucky, and I cannot even imagine how horrible it must’ve been to go through everything you did.” She didn’t even know the half of it, though telling them about exactly what we saw, the bodies and everything, was the last thing I wanted to do now.
But as I listened to McCarty, I couldn’t shake the feeling that she somehow felt familiar, like maybe I’d seen her before or something, but no matter how much I tried to figure it out, I couldn’t pinpoint when or where. Then again, maybe my tired mind was just playing tricks on me. Maybe I was just so suspicious of everything and everyone that I was starting to actually be paranoid. But McCarty seemed nice, her voice friendly and welcoming somehow.
“Thank you,” I finally said. Despite it all I was grateful to be off the island, to be this much closer to getting home, to have survived that entire mess.
“Who’s the captain?” Joe asked a moment later.
“He should be here in a moment,” Lido said. “Very friendly guy, joined the mission the second we asked for someone who was in the area and could handle a boat.”
As though on cue, the door opened and two people, a man and a woman, came inside. The man was tall, at least Miles’s height or maybe even taller, with shoulder-length black hair. His eyes were an oddly familiar shade of brown. He wore the same black clothes as Lido, though he definitely lacked his bulky frame, despite being muscular as well. The woman was slender and tall, her hair up in a neat platinum-blond bun, her clothes a crisp white shirt and gray slacks.
“You must be the ones we’ve been looking for,” the man said. “This is Gail Ford, my assistant, and I am Leon Echo, your captain.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Gone
What the actual fuck?
Leon Echo, Miles’s older brother, was dead.
I turned to Miles. The color visibly drained from his face. His eyes grew a little bigger, and his mouth was slightly open. I couldn’t even fathom what was going on inside his head, what he was thinking and feeling.
Looking back at the man claiming to be Leon, I couldn’t get past their resemblance. I knew he looked familiar even before he spoke, but now all the details screamed at me, flashing in bright colors. Their eyes had a similar shape, their color nearly identical, and their stance and frame were so alike although Leon was more muscular. His hair was also longer, but it was the same mess, the same obsidian shade. Despite their age gap, one could clearly see that they were related.
“Leon,” Miles finally said. His tone almost broke my heart in two. The little boy inside of him, the one that lost his brother, was torn between believing and doubting, happiness and shock. It was written across his eyes, his face, and tainted his voice. “Is it really you?”
I caught the confused expression on Joe’s face in the corner of my eye. If I knew how, I would’ve charades-style mimed him the piece of information he was missing, but I couldn’t and didn’t. Besides, how do you explain “this is my boyfriend’s dead brother”?
Hold on, boyfriend? Where had that thought come from?
Focusing on Leon, I watched his face, the way the easy smile faltered and he looked confused by Miles’s reaction and question. He blinked then looked over toward Gail, who ever so subtly mouthed something, a word or phrase I couldn’t read, before turning back toward Miles. As though a coin had dropped in his mind, Leon’s smile grew, and he said: “Brother?”
This entire scene hadn’t taken more than four seconds, if even, and looking at Miles’s smile I was sure he hadn’t picked up on any of it, but I sure as hell had. Was it really possible that Leon hadn’t recognized him, that he needed some kind of cue from Gail to know how to react? No, that couldn’t be, could it? Sure, Miles wasn’t the kid he was when they’d last seen each other, but they looked so alike, there was no way for him to not realize it. It was bizarre, and suspicious.
Miles got up and walked over to him while I had to stop myself from grabbing his arm and holding him back. As much as I wanted Miles to be happy, this seemed too good. A missing brother back from the grave? How was this even possible? Had the army lied to Miles and his father?
“It’s so good to see you again,” Leon said, sounding almost genuine. While they spoke, Lido, McCarty, and Gail walked over to the side of the room, watching everything from a distance. While I still couldn’t figure McCarty out, I somehow really didn’t like the vibes I was getting from Gail. She hadn’t really done anything, hadn’t even said a word, yet something about her rubbed me the wrong way.
“Leon is Miles’s brother?” Joe asked me quietly, leaning toward me.
“Miles’s dead older brother.”
“Really? Doesn’t look dead to me.”
He certainly wasn’t dead, but how? If I tried hard enough, I could come up with some farfetched and impossible explanation for what happened to us on the island, but there was no way to revive a human who died during war. Dead was dead. I didn’t like any of it, the entire scene seeming wrong. If they knew who we were because of Joe, that meant Leon must’ve seen or at least heard Miles’s name. It would’ve made him realize their connection sooner, even if only because of their shared last name, yet it hadn’t, or at least it seemed that way, I so didn’t look forward to sharing my thoughts with Miles.
I shifted my gaze to McCarty, Gail, and Lido, who had sat down at the table.
“How is it possible that McCarty seems familiar to me?” I finally asked Joe, using the moment we still had to talk just between the two of us.
“You’ve seen her before. You must have,” Joe said, sounding as though my question was strange and his answer pointing out the obvious. “She’s been around when I pretended to be homeless, came by to visit or just watched from afar.”
Before I could say anything to that, or ask further questions, Miles returned to the sofa and I pushed the whole McCarty thing aside. I moved back to Miles, watched his face and eyes. Happiness and shock was written across them, his hands lightly trembling. Carefully I reached out and took one of them into mine, a gesture I hoped would maybe calm him down or something.
Miles looked at me briefly, an almost insecure smile on his face, while I squeezed his hand. He ran his thumb across my skin as Leon began to speak, telling us the story of what happened to him all those years ago. Above all, the story of how he didn’t actually die.
“It’s the craziest story, and far too long to explain it all in detail,” he said, his tone reminiscent but also maybe just a tad too light considering the subject matter. “Basically, I was on a mission with my troop, was supposed to support them from afar via hacked CCTV cameras, that sort of thing. But our cover was blown, and I got taken hostage, found myself in the middle of some kind of plot we had no idea about. Finally, they told me I had two choices: either do as they said and live or be the reason my entire family died. It wasn’t until almost a year later, when the FBI rescued me and took me in, that I even found out what happened, that they made my troop and family believe I was dead. I wanted to contact you, Miles, let you know I was okay, I really did, but I couldn’t. The FBI didn’t know if my former captors would try to get some kind of revenge for their rescuing me, so I had to remain hidden and dead.”
The three of us listened attentively, but the further Leon got with his story, the less I believed any of it. Everything he said, it sounded stra
ight-up like he’d watched one too many action movies and tried to sell us a mashup plot as true story. And even if there was just the smallest amount of truth to it, would sending one tiny message really make that big of a difference, cause that much danger? If Leon taught Miles how to hack, I was sure he could’ve figured out how to send Miles an encrypted message to spare him living for years with the thought that his brother died for our country. I so badly wanted for Leon’s words to be true, just like Joe’s, but I just couldn’t believe them.
Leon spoke completely freely, naturally, and there was happiness in his voice each time he pointed out how grateful he was that he finally found Miles again, that Miles finally knew what happened, and that he was okay, but that happiness felt like acid on my skin. It was too good, too wonderful to be true.
Once Leon was done with his story, he asked us how we managed to get by on the island, what happened while we were there. Miles kept it brief, which I was thankful for, only giving them the bullet-point version of the past days, leaving out certain details like the implants and the Berlin notebook entry. I could see McCarty cover her mouth with her hand in shock at the whole dead teens part and Lido lightly shake his head. Leon’s eyes widened just a tad. Whatever they thought we’d gone through, the real events had been much worse. I’d probably see all those corpses in my nightmares until I died.
“It’s such a lucky coincidence that I took this job, but the most important thing is that everything is okay now, that you two are safe and don’t have to worry about anything anymore. Trust me,” Leon said, smiling. “Fate has funny ways sometimes, doesn’t it?”
Coincidence and fate, my ass.
After everything that happened to Miles and me, I didn’t believe in coincidences anymore, didn’t believe in fate’s funny ways. Something about Leon and Gail smelled fishy ten miles against the wind, his strange behavior and now this crazy hostage story. I refused to believe any of his words, my guts screaming in protest. I so badly wanted to believe it for Miles, wanted to give him this happiness, wanted nothing more for him than to have his brother back, the one he loved and missed so much over the years, but I just couldn’t do it. I wanted to protect him, and everything about Leon told me I had to be cautious, wary of his every move, every word he spoke.
I couldn’t lose Miles, not after everything.
“Please, make yourself at home,” Leon said, standing up. “A room with enough space for all three of you to catch some sleep is ready just down the hallway. If you need anything, just let one of us know and we’ll get you whatever it is.” With those words, and another over the top friendly and happy smile, Leon turned and left with Gail on his heels.
While Joe stayed behind to talk to Lido and McCarty, Miles and I found our way to our room. All the way there, and even inside as we sat down together on the lower bunk of one of the two bunk beds, I tried to figure out how to start the discussion we had to have. I tried to form sentences in my mind, tried to figure out how to voice my worries to Miles, but I was afraid of it, afraid he might think I wanted to stand between him and his brother. I didn’t care about Leon; I cared about Miles.
I knew all those people, these agents, were here to help us, save us from whatever fate had waited for us on the island, all thanks to Joe, but somehow it just didn’t feel right. Maybe I was paranoid, my level of suspicion bordering on sheer ungratefulness, but I simply wanted us to be okay, to make it out of this alive. I was afraid of accepting all of this at face value just to wake up at some point and realize that I’d made a mistake that would get us killed after all. Could anyone blame me for it?
“I can’t believe this,” Miles said, more to himself than to me. “Leon is alive. And he is here, oh my God.”
My heart ached at his words, and I hated myself for feeling so differently about his brother than he did. But he was too shocked by the revelation and too emotionally invested to see through the fog, realize that it was all just smoke and mirrors. I hated this.
“Miles,” I said, my voice almost shaking. “We need to talk.”
He turned toward me, looked into my eyes, and it made all of this only so much worse. “What is it?”
How do you tell someone you think their brother is a liar without making them hate you? “I know this is amazing. Leon is alive, it’s wonderful, and I know it makes you happy, but…I just, I don’t know, Miles.” Why was this so hard? Why did my tongue suddenly feel ten sizes too big?
“What are you saying?”
I forced the words out of my mouth. “Something about Leon seems off is what I’m saying.”
“What? Are you kidding me?” There it was, everything I feared—a defensive stance and this look he gave me like I’d done something wrong. He moved a bit away from me, barely noticeable yet it felt like a chasm opened up between us. “All these people and Leon are here because of us. Come on, he is my brother.”
“Your brother who you thought was dead for years.”
“But he isn’t dead. Don’t you see how amazing that is? Leon was alive the whole time,” Miles argued. Leon was the light, and Miles the moth drawn to it. I stood between them, powerless to stop Miles from getting burned. “Listen. I’m not saying it doesn’t raise questions. We’ll keep our eyes open, okay?”
“And what if that isn’t enough? He didn’t even try to find a way to contact you, consciously deciding to just let you suffer. If he did this once, what makes you think he wouldn’t do it again? How can you act like it’s all forgiven and forgotten?”
Even as I spoke, I knew my words would never be enough. His expression became more guarded than I’d seen it in days. I just couldn’t understand him, his unwillingness to even consider my arguments and doubts. He just wanted his brother so badly that he was willing to buy into the game.
I could sit there next to him and watch, wait, and hope that nothing would happen, that he’d be right and I wrong, or I could try and find out what was really happening here.
I’d never been known for being too patient.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Gone
Once Miles fell asleep, I listened to his steady breathing, making sure he really was sleeping. Part of me just wanted to let it go, accept Leon’s words and look past his behavior, accept that this was our rescue party and that everything was okay, that we were safe, but a far stronger part knew I couldn’t. Ji seemed fine at first, too, but in the end, he was just a killer, so who could say Leon wasn’t the same? What if this was what they counted on, Miles blindly believing him and getting me to do it, too, hoping that I wouldn’t question anything, too happy to be off the island, and would trust Miles’s opinion? Then again, what if I was just being paranoid, if Miles really was right, if Leon’s words were true?
Footsteps came down the hallway, the sound of thick rubber soles against metal echoing through the quiet, and finally halted just outside our door. I closed my eyes and pretended to be asleep, forced my breathing to slow down, to seem calm and quiet as the door softly opened. The seconds seemed to stretch into hours, days, millions of years, until it closed again. Whoever that was, they definitely had been sent to check on us. I had no idea what that meant, but I sure as hell would find out.
While the steps turned quieter, retreating down the hallway, I slid out of bed and out of the room. The idea of being caught terrified me, but I pushed the thought and the fear aside the way I’d been taught.
I walked down the hallway like a ghost, listening to the sounds around me. My footsteps were quiet and light on the dark metal flooring, a skill acquired through years of training. Just ahead of me, I saw what I could only assume was Lido’s tall, bulky frame, taking the next hallway right and walking like a man on a mission. What are you doing, Agent Lido?
Finally he came to a halt, opened a door, and went inside, the door slowly closing behind him. In a split-second decision, I rushed toward it and stopped it before it could close. I could only hope that he wouldn’t walk back to check, that he didn’t even notice that the door was still aj
ar, just enough for me to peek inside.
Leon and Gail stood together in what looked like the captain’s bridge of the ship, the windows in front of them overlooking the front of the ship and the ocean stretching out around us toward the horizon, the space below them lined with what looked like control panels and the steering wheel. At least Joe was nowhere to be seen, and McCarty stood a few steps away from them, looking down at some table in front of her.
“And?” Leon asked, his voice different from the one he’d used with us before, more controlled and stoic. And what, Leon? I leaned against the wall with my ear as close to the door as could be while I listened to their conversation, feeling colder and colder the longer I did.
“Everything is going as planned,” Lido said. “The cargo is sleeping, unaware of anything.”
“You were very convincing,” Gail said, amused, and lightly clapped someone on the back. “Then again, I had no doubt in you.”
“Once we get there, we’ll be able to return them to their owner, fulfill our assignment just as planned.”
“Very good,” Leon said, his tone a disgusting shade of pleased. “And here I thought it’d be harder. Well, they are just kids after all, and Miles seems just as gullible as the papers make him out to be. A shame, really, for him at least. Good for us, though. They’re willing to believe anything to get home.” Leon’s words almost made me gag, his voice like the sound of nails against a blackboard. He was a traitor after all; all of them were. Miles was wrong, and I was right. We were nothing besides cargo, part of an assignment. And whatever feelings Leon faked toward Miles, they were just that, illusions and lies.
