Crossing the Line

by Meghan Rogers

  “Did it at least feel good?” I asked.

  Sam’s face lit up. “Oh, better than you can even imagine.” He put his backpack over his shoulders. “See you later, KATO girl. I’ll let you know if I come up with anything else.”

  • • •

  Later that night I flipped through the file Sam gave me again, but I couldn’t stomach any more than that. At least, not until I knew more details. And it wasn’t long before Travis gave me something new to think about. The first time I saw him after the medical wing had been when we crossed paths early Monday morning, three days after I was released. I could tell he wanted to say something, but I wouldn’t give him the chance. Instead I asked him about when we were going start working on finding Eliza. We made plans to skip the afternoon training session and meet in the library when I was done with my classes.

  I knew the library was on the top floor of the tech and training facility, but I’d never had a reason to go until now. It was expansive. Tables filled the front portion of the room, and behind that were shelves and shelves of books. Travis said there were some private rooms in the back that had access to the library’s inventory along with the IDA’s databases. Most of the tables were taken by either students studying or by agents who seemed to be flipping pages with intense concentration. I saw Gwen and Olivia working at a table nearby, and asked them to point me in the right direction. I started moving through the stacks, walking slowly, taking in each section until a voice stopped me.

  “Are you kidding me?” I turned into one of the aisles to see Rachel glaring at me. “You’ve taken over every other place on campus. You had to come here too?”

  I rolled my eyes. She had every right to hate me, but she didn’t own the campus. “It’s not your library,” I said.

  She stepped toward me. “All of this is mine.” She was much closer than I was comfortable with, cornering me against the bookcase. “You don’t belong here.”

  I met her eyes. She was trying to bait me. “You need to step back.”

  Instead she stepped closer. “You going to kill me if I don’t? That’s what you do, right? You didn’t get me before so you have to finish what you started?”

  “If that’s what I wanted, you wouldn’t have to ask.” The more she invaded my personal space, the less patience I had.

  She shoved me into the books. “You need to pay for the damage you’ve done. No one’s made you!”

  I pushed her off me, but I didn’t attack. It was what she wanted. Though, apparently a push was all it took. She tried to punch me, but I dodged it and stepped back, putting some space between us. She moved for another hit, but we were interrupted before she could.

  “What’s going on here?” Travis asked, strolling casually in front of me, effectively forcing Rachel to keep her distance. He faced Rachel with his arms crossed, making it clear who he thought was responsible.

  “You’re defending her?” She was stunned. “You’re picking the cold killer over me?”

  I couldn’t see his face, but his stance and voice were rigid. “You can go now.”

  The hurt in her eyes deepened. “I can’t believe you!”

  Travis didn’t move a muscle. And after it became clear that he wasn’t changing his mind, Rachel turned away from him and stormed out of the library. Travis didn’t move even after she was gone. He stood eyeing the doors until he was sure she wasn’t coming back. Then when he turned to me, it was with this mixed expression—like he didn’t quite know what to make of me. “This way,” he said, leading me back down the aisle. I was surprised he didn’t have more questions, but when I looked back I saw that the handful of people in the room were watching, Gwen and Olivia included. We stalked to the back of the library where a row of doors lined the back wall. He found an empty room and didn’t speak until the door was shut.

  “Why did you let that happen?” he asked.

  “Let?” He was blaming me? “She attacked me!”

  “I saw.” He was fairly calm, given the situation. “And you did nothing to stop her. So, why not?”

  I glanced up at him. It was getting easier to tell him the truth. “Because I’ve hurt her enough.”

  His face softened. “You’ve never taken any of her shit before.”

  “If she says something to me, I’ll say something back,” I said. “But this was different.”

  I leaned against the table in the room and Travis came next to me. “You were in an impossible situation.”

  “I know,” I said, nodding. “I wouldn’t do things any differently. I did what I had to do. But that doesn’t make it okay.”

  “Have you tried apologizing?” he asked.

  I snorted. “How is an apology from me going to mean anything?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know. But Rachel doesn’t forget easily.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “I figured that out.”

  “Look,” he said. “I know this is none of my business, but have you ever talked to someone about—everything that’s happened to you?”

  I tilted my head, confused. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean someone who can help you work through all of this.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t want to work through it.”

  “Joss—”

  “No.” I was firm. “I don’t want to get past any of this. Not while I can still end up back there.”

  “You won’t.” His face was sympathetic.

  “I could.” I looked right into his eyes, trying to make him understand. “I need to remember what they can do. I need to remember what’s at stake and I need to use all of it to hurt them. I won’t be able to do any of that if I get past it. I need to hold on to it for a little while longer.”

  He held my gaze, but his face didn’t change. Then I pushed myself away from the table. “We have bigger things to worry about for now,” I said.

  “Right.” He straightened up and gestured to the row of four computers along the back wall. “These are what we came here for. They have access to every file the IDA has. You need a level-six clearance to access the least secure files, which because of my special research project, I have.” He logged on to a computer. “I got Simmonds to give you access too.”

  “Okay,” I said, taking a seat next to him. “You look for anything science related. I’ll go back through everything on KATO and see if I can pick out a connection you might have overlooked.”

  “Good plan.” He started typing. “You want to look for the Cole database.”

  I pulled up the database while I told him everything I knew about KATO’s scientific interests. It wasn’t much, but neither of us knew what would be relevant. We’d gotten into a pattern of a few frantic keystrokes, followed by a minute of silence, then more typing. About an hour in, I noticed Travis had been quiet for five minutes. I glanced over and saw he was completely engrossed in something.

  “What did you find?” I asked.

  He jumped and turned to me, startled. Like he had forgotten about me. “Joss—did your—” He broke off, swallowed, then tried again. “Did your mom develop anything KATO would have an interest in?”

  My head snapped in his direction. “What are you looking at?”

  “I tried the scientific angle, like you said.” He leaned back so I could get a better look. “And your mom came up.”

  After what Sam had given me I wasn’t surprised that her name popped up, but I didn’t expect to see it tied to science. I filled in Travis on everything I knew about my mom. It didn’t seem directly relevant until now.

  “So you think they killed her because—”

  “They were done with her.” I swallowed. “I’ve been trying to figure out what weapon KATO made her build, but now it seems like I should be wondering how many she had a hand in.” I rubbed the back of my neck.

  “Stop,” Travis said, sliding a hair closer. “We don�
�t know enough about her work to try and guess. And as far as our records go, there wasn’t any kind of advanced weapon development during your first five years at KATO.”

  I exhaled heavily. “But that doesn’t make any sense,” I said. “If she was good enough to hold on to for three years, she must have been useful to them. They wouldn’t have gotten rid of her until she gave them what they wanted.”

  “We’ll figure out how this all fits together,” he said. “If her job was science related, it may even help us. Whatever your mom was working on is probably very different from what Dr. Foster’s doing, but the one thing they both have in common is that neither of them wanted to be doing the work. Which means they were both likely to draw the process out as much as possible. If we can find out what your mom was doing and how much work she had done coming in, we might have a little bit of a better idea how patient KATO is willing to be.”

  I nodded. “And from there, we can figure out what kind of a timetable we’re looking at for Dr. Foster.”

  “Exactly,” he said. “We need to find out what your mom’s job was at the IDA. Then we can see exactly how different or similar it is to Foster’s.”

  “Sam seemed close to finding something out,” I said, wheeling back over to my computer. “But for now let’s see what else we can come up with on our own.”

  • • •

  Travis and I hadn’t found anything else helpful, but I didn’t feel defeated. While we were researching, Simmonds had the tech team working on decrypting the drive with the new tech we’d brought back from Germany. Hopefully between the three of us we would end up with a more solid idea of where we should be looking.

  I was so lost in thought, I hadn’t realized Sam had shown up surprisingly early to Lee’s class until he’d waved his hand in front of my face. I blinked a few times. “Oh,” I said. “Hi.”

  He smirked. “Those deep thoughts wouldn’t have to do with an interesting article you found yesterday, would they?”

  The article. I quirked an eyebrow at him. “Seriously, how do you know these things?”

  Sam smiled. “Trade secrets.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Of course. Do you need me to give you any kind of background?”

  He waved me off. “I think I’ve pretty much got it figured out.”

  “How close are you to getting access to her job description?” I asked.

  “I’m still couple clearance levels away, but I’m getting there.”

  “Is there any way you could put a rush on it?”

  “Consider it done,” he said. Then he got quiet for a moment. I could tell there was something else he wanted to say, but it took him a moment to work up the courage. “I know you didn’t ask about this, but I’ve been looking into your father on the side. The search team isn’t moving as fast as they’d like.”

  “That’s fine,” I said, my tone harsh.

  “If you wanted I could get into it. See if I can find something—”

  “Sam.” I kept the anger out of my voice. He was only trying to help. “I need you to focus on my mom, okay? That’s it.”

  He studied me, debating something, then shrugged. “Okay. Let me know if you change your mind.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Don’t mention it,” he said, pulling out his phone as Agent Lee took her place at the front of the room.

  She looked at our corner and seemed startled. “Sam?” Astonished was actually a better word. “Samuel Lewis? Is it really you? You’re early?”

  Sam smirked. “Don’t get too used to it, Agent Lee.”

  But Lee beamed. “Sam, this is the best day of my teaching career. If it never happens again, I can be satisfied knowing that, just once, Samuel Michael Lewis was on time for my class.”

  Sam smiled wider. “I’m so glad I could make you happy.”

  Lee laughed lightly. “You have no idea how much.”

  Agent Lee started her lesson and Sam turned back to his game.

  “Why are you early, anyway?” I asked.

  “The prep lab was booked a half hour before our class started, so I had to be out.” He hadn’t even looked up from his phone.

  I tried to pay attention when Lee started teaching but my thoughts stayed with Sam and my mom. If anyone could find specifics about my mom it was him. And if we could do that, then just maybe we stood a real chance of getting to Eliza in time.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  FIELD TRIP

  I hadn’t heard anything new from Simmonds the rest of the week, and it was taking everything I had not to check in with him regularly. Travis and I kept busy trying to find information on anything that would lead us to Eliza—including details about what my mom may have done for KATO. She was the only other person we knew of who had been taken like Dr. Foster had. Learning about her work could give us some idea of how much time we had to get to Eliza before KATO did anything with Foster’s research. But we weren’t having any success. At least, we weren’t until Sam joined Travis, Nikki, and me at lunch on Monday.

  “I was hoping I’d find you guys here,” he said, making himself comfortable. He clearly had an agenda, not even bothering with hello. “I did some more digging into your mom’s background.” He spoke only to me as he spread out the folder he’d brought with him. “I tried looking off campus, through some more public records.” He pulled out a tax return from twenty-three years ago. “It turns out she worked at Spencer Industries.”

  He gave me this pointed look, like this was supposed to be some big revelation. “I don’t know what that means,” I said.

  Nikki stepped in to explain. “Spencer is one of the biggest scientific and industrial development companies in the country.”

  “I tried to hack their servers,” Sam said, “but it looks like your mom’s files are too old to be stored digitally.”

  “They’re based in Wilmington,” Nikki said, glancing from me to Travis.

  I was starting to get it. “So we can go there and find out what she did for them?”

  Travis nodded. “Yeah, we can.”

  I stuck a fork in my chicken. “I’ll go to Simmonds.”

  “We’ll come up with a plan and meet you in the atrium of the Operations Building,” Nikki said. There was no question that they were coming with me.

  I took the file from Sam and thanked him as I hurried out of the cafeteria.

  I had to wait only a few minutes when I got to Simmonds’s door. Once I was inside, I spelled out everything we had on my mom and what Travis and I were trying to do with the information.

  Simmonds sighed when I finished. “I don’t know anything for sure,” he said. “But knowing what your mother did for us, I can guess what she did for KATO. And if I’m right, she started the entire project after she was taken.”

  I met his eyes evenly. “You know I need more than that.”

  “I do,” he said. “But, if it’s what I think it is, you’re not going to like what you learn.”

  I forced my expression to stay neutral, ignoring the new weight that settled into my stomach. “I don’t care.” I was too close to walk away.

  “Be that as it may, I’ve given you the relevant information, and your other motives for this are purely personal. This isn’t a mission I can authorize.” I felt a knot twisting in my chest, but Simmonds continued before I could snap. “However, I think you’re forgetting that you are not a prisoner here. You’re an eighteen-year-old agent who has earned the right to leave campus if she wants to.” He gave me a pointed look.

  “Right,” I said, understanding what he was getting at. “Thank you, sir.” I ducked out of his office without another word.

  “Did he sign off?” Travis asked when he saw me round the corner into the atrium.

  “Unofficially, but yeah,” I said. “Do we have a plan?”

  “Not only do we have a plan, but we have everyt
hing we need to pull it off,” Nikki said. According to Sam’s file, we’d need to meet with a Dr. Rollins, who was my mom’s supervisor at the time. We would pretend to be scientists interested in her work. It would give us the in we needed and a reason to ask specific questions about my mom. Travis and Nikki had already changed and Nikki had a shirt and blazer for me to throw on.

  “I’m driving,” Travis said, leading the way out. When we reached the parking lot behind the Operations Building, we found a surprise waiting for us. Sam was sitting in the backseat of Travis’s locked car.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked once Travis had gotten the door open.

  “How did you even get in there?” Travis asked. His voice was laced with amazed indignation. “Did you hack my car?”

  Sam smiled and twirled his phone in his hand. “Absolutely not, Agent Elton. I would never do something like that.”

  Nikki snorted and Travis’s jaw tensed in agitation. I didn’t try to hide my laugh.

  “You’re not coming with us,” he said to Sam.

  Sam turned to face him fully. “After all the work I put into this, do you think I’m going to stay here while you guys get the big reveal?”

  Nikki gave him a one-shouldered shrug. “You do have classes.”

  “So does she,” he said, pointing at me.

  “She’s already an agent,” Travis said, crossing his arms. “She can get away with it.”

  “Just let him come,” I said. “It’s not like he’d pay attention in class anyway.”

  “And I can help you,” Sam said. “I can get you in the building.”

  Travis arched his eyebrows. “We can get ourselves in.”

  “Anything you do without me is going to come with questions.” He looked at each of us. “I can get you on Dr. Rollins’s schedule and the building’s security guest list.”

  I glanced at Nikki and Travis. “It would make things easier.”

  Travis eyed Sam, considering. “Fine,” he said after a moment. “But if you get in trouble, none of us were involved.”