Crossing the Line

by Meghan Rogers

  “Right.” I nodded. “You’re right.”

  He smiled. “I know.”

  “But there’s something I need from you,” I said.

  “Name it.”

  “I know you’re leading the team, but I need to be in charge until they take me.” I bit my lip. “I need to make sure you know everything I need you to know, and I need everyone else to listen to me.”

  “Done,” he said. “And they will.”

  I breathed through my nose, gathering my strength, then nodded. “Okay,” I said. “We should get to work.”

  • • •

  Sam was already in the mission prep room by the time we got there, bouncing around wide-eyed. He didn’t look at all like he had just been dragged out of bed. “What did you do to get me this gig?” he asked. I moved from computer to computer, starting them up. Sam was right behind me every step. “No one at my level has ever had point on something like this!”

  “You don’t have point,” I said. “You’re just the person I’d rather talk to.”

  He gave me a self-assured look. “If I’ve got the comm, I’ve got point.”

  I smiled. “But you’re not really in charge. You have to run everything through the tech team.”

  Sam rolled his eyes. “How did you get me in on this?”

  I turned to face him. “I asked for you. You’ve never questioned me. And the last time I had operational support on a mission I didn’t completely trust the information I was getting. I can’t afford to second-guess anything here.”

  “Because it’s KATO?” he asked; his eyes got just a little bit bigger.

  I tensed and held his gaze for a moment. “I need to trust the person I’m talking to.”

  He nodded, his expression serious. “I’ll get you what you need.” He spoke with more confidence than someone in his position should. I had a feeling he would take out anyone who tried to get in his way. “What do you need from me now?”

  “Get together any kind of satellite footage you can. I need to see a current view of North Korea before we land.”

  He opened his laptop. “I’m on it.”

  We were waiting for the others to arrive. Simmonds was supposed to meet with the three of them when they got in, then send them to us. I took the time to get in touch with KATO, telling them they’d have the perfect opportunity to get me in Russia.

  It was another fifteen minutes before the prep room door opened, and Nikki, Rachel, and Cody came in.

  “Shh,” Cody said. “I’m not awake enough for the two of you.”

  Rachel rolled her eyes. “Now who’s being a noodle?”

  “Hey, I am not a noodle.” He glared at her. “I made it up. I get to determine if I’m a noodle, so I’m not.”

  “Of course,” Rachel said. “You always change the rules so they work for you.”

  “I’m not changing the rules.” He was bordering on whining. “These are the rules.”

  “Have you guys been briefed?” Travis asked, interrupting them.

  “Yes,” Cody said, jumping at the chance to change the subject. “We’ve got a fake mission to Russia to cover our real mission in North Korea.” Then he turned to me. “Where do we start?”

  I was almost startled by how direct and pointed he was with me, but I got over it quickly. “How much do you already know about KATO?” I asked.

  Travis crossed the room and started typing on a computer. “Here’s everything we have on their facilities,” he said, sending a map of North Korea to one of the three monitors that hung on the wall in front of us. “According to our intel, this”—he pointed the cursor to a spot outside of Pyongyang—“is their headquarters.”

  I took the mouse from him and zoomed in on the capital and the area surrounding it. “Most of the facility is underground.” I studied the map for a moment. “I can’t get a good shot of the entrances from this.”

  Travis’s eyes flicked up to me. “Is this where they kept you?”

  I nodded. “Yeah. They wanted my division as far underground as they could get us.”

  “Sam.” Travis kept his attention on me even while he talked to Sam. “Can you get images of the suburbs to the west of Pyongyang and send them to Cody’s computer?”

  Cody nodded and sat down at a computer right behind him.

  “Sure.” Sam’s fingers were already moving across the keyboard. “Give me a second.”

  I fidgeted with a pencil on the table.

  “They’re on your screen,” Sam said.

  Cody sent the picture to the second monitor. “So, how do we get in?”

  “There are four different secured entrances.” I took over at Cody’s computer and pointed out the four houses staggered about a quarter mile away from the edge of the field.

  “Underground tunnel?” Nikki guessed.

  “Exactly,” I said. “But I know another way in.” I panned out again. “There are three ventilation shafts at different points on the edge of the field. They’re designed for an emergency evacuation of essential personnel. I know where two of them are.”

  Nikki raised an eyebrow. “How did you find them?”

  I didn’t look at her. “I did some snooping. Overheard a few conversations.”

  “You got away with that?” Rachel asked. It was the first time she had ever said something to me that wasn’t meant to be cruel. But I could still hear an edge to her voice.

  I kept my eyes on the map. “No.” I felt all of them look at me and forced a smirk. “But they didn’t realize how much I heard.”

  Travis shifted so he was in my range of vision. He shot me a harsh look, and his mouth formed a thin line.

  “What else do we need to know?” Nikki asked, pushing things along before anyone could ask questions.

  “Are there blueprints of the interior?” I asked. Travis, still tense, went back to his computer and pulled up schematics for both levels of the complex within seconds. I was pretty sure these were the plans I had given Simmonds when I arrived. “There are two floors,” I said. “The upper level is operations and the lower is training.”

  They listened intently, taking in my direction.

  “There’s a main entry hall here,” I said. There were five hallways that branched off. I pulled the cursor toward one of the halls. “This is the biggest room they have. I’m sure that’s where the hovercrafts will be, and if the missile is still in production, it’ll probably be there too.”

  I dragged the mouse back through the main entry hall, and down one of the opposite corridors. At the end, the hall widened into a second smaller atrium. I pointed to the room along the back wall. “That’s the control room. If we need to shut anything down, it’ll have to come from here.”

  “Where will you be?” Travis asked.

  I met his eyes for half a second, then pointed at the second floor. “They keep recruits and agents in these wings,” I said, running the cursor down three of the lower halls. “And prisoners here.” I moved the mouse in circles over the two remaining halls.

  “Why would we find you there?” Rachel asked.

  I looked up at her sharply, expecting to see some kind of smug or cocky look on her face, but instead there was a genuine question. I stared at her for a moment. Then Cody leaned in and whispered something in her ear. Her eyes widened, and I knew she understood.

  “We still have a few things to go over,” I said, and I started handing out other tips and tricks on navigating KATO. After three hours, I couldn’t think of anything else to say. Sam had disappeared halfway through to get familiar with the operations center.

  “Is that everything?” Cody asked. He’d taken in every word I’d said. I was expecting some kind of resistance from him and Rachel, but I never got it. Rachel still clearly hated me, but she was completely on board.

  I sat at the monitors in front of us, double-checking
everything. “I think so.”

  Cody turned to Travis. “We should plan for our part.”

  Travis nodded. “We will. We’ll have a day to prep in Russia.”

  I felt a strange peace come over me when he said that. I knew what I would be doing while they were prepping and I felt—calm. I could do this. I could handle being inside KATO. I just had to be the old me.

  Chapter Thirty

  KIDNAPPED

  The plane we took to Russia was a small one—only big enough to fit twelve people. I sat alone with my eyes closed, putting myself in the right frame of mind. I shut out every other sound—the engine, the chatter—and tried to focus. I was so caught up in my own world I didn’t realize Travis had sat down next to me until he touched my shoulder. I opened my eyes and blinked a few times, focusing on him. A slim smile spread across his lips.

  “What?” I asked.

  He shook his head, and his smile got a little bit wider. “A couple months ago, you never would have let your guard down enough for someone to sit down next to you without you knowing.”

  “Well,” I said, trying to meet his smile but coming up short, “I guess I’ve got other things on my mind.”

  He got more serious. “You doing okay?”

  I nodded slowly. “Yeah, I think I am.”

  He tilted his head to the side, surprised. “What changed from earlier?”

  I shrugged. “I realized that I’ve been doing this for years. Like you said, I’ve never been the brainwashed agent they thought I was. I’ve been playing this spy-double-agent game since I found out my parents were IDA, and I’ve spent the past year actively trying to get away from them. I’ve been a traitor and they had no idea. The only difference is now I have another agency—I have an out. It’ll be worse if they catch me, but they haven’t caught me so far. I just have to keep it up.”

  Travis nodded. “And you only need to keep it up for twenty-three hours.”

  “Right.” That’s what I had to remember.

  “And listen.” He tipped his head closer to me. “I know you’re planning on taking care of most of this before we get in there, but keep in mind that we need to be able to find you. Don’t do anything that’s going to make our job harder. If you need to wait for us to do any real damage, then that’s what we need you to do.”

  I inhaled through my nose, and agreed. I believed him when he said he wouldn’t leave me in there, and the last thing I wanted was for him to get caught trying to find me.

  “Try and keep my cover,” I said, even though I didn’t need to.

  “Don’t worry,” Travis said. “We’ll do everything we can. If it goes well, they’ll think you’re doing a really good job and that we believe you’re one of our own. Once we’re in we can pretend we’ve just stumbled on to their bigger operation.”

  I nodded and leaned back, closing my eyes again. He lingered for another moment, then gave my knee a squeeze and left me alone.

  I had the bench to myself for about an hour before I felt someone else sit down. I wasn’t looking for company, so I kept my eyes shut, hoping whoever it was would think I was sleeping.

  “Oh, knock it off,” Nikki said. “I know you’re awake.”

  I smirked and opened my eyes. “Did Travis send you over here to check on me?”

  “No,” she said. “I sent myself over.”

  “I don’t need to be checked on,” I said.

  She shrugged. “Maybe not. But I’m bored and you’re my friend.”

  I smiled. “So I’m supposed to entertain you now?”

  “Not quite.” She reached into the pocket of the chair in front of her and came out with a stack of cards. “Ever play Uno?”

  I squinted at the cards. “Not since I was really little,” I said.

  She gleefully launched into an overview of the game, giving me enough to refresh my memory. It was exactly what I needed to keep my mind off things. We played for hours, until I felt my eyes start to get heavy. Nikki noticed and collected the cards. “You should sleep,” she said.

  I shook my head. “I’m fine.”

  “You’ve got a long day ahead of you,” she said. “You should sleep while you can.”

  I wanted to argue with her. Despite what Travis seemed to think, I still wasn’t sure I was comfortable enough to sleep on a plane with other people. But Nikki made a good point, and I figured it couldn’t hurt to try. I leaned my head against the window and let my eyes drop shut.

  • • •

  A hand on my shoulder startled me awake.

  “Whoa.” It was Travis. “Sorry,” he said. “I said your name a few times, but you were out.”

  “It’s okay,” I said. “Are we there?”

  “Just landed. The others are pulling the equipment out of the lower level. We’ve got an old hotel we’re using as our home base here, and the IDA is getting a location for a safe house in Pyongyang,” he said.

  I rubbed my eyes and sat up straighter. “I have to get in touch with KATO. Is there anyplace we can say we’re going to be? Someplace they can get to me without giving up your base?”

  He nodded. “We’ll find something and come up with a reason why on the way.”

  The IDA had a car waiting for us. We passed what looked like an abandoned warehouse on the way to the hotel. I could tell KATO I was checking it out as a possible location to set up a mark. The details wouldn’t matter too much. Their plans were big enough for them to ask me back here, which could, as far as they knew, blow my IDA cover. They had bigger concerns than my trivial IDA mission.

  I contacted KATO once we agreed on the time and location. We’d given ourselves an hour in Russia before the meet. I was ready, but I still felt like I was about to walk into an explosion.

  “Okay,” Travis said once we were all settled in the hotel lobby. “In an hour, Joss and I are going to go back to that warehouse, then the rest of us have to prep a rescue mission.”

  “Hold on,” I said, raising my hand to get his attention. “You’re not going to the warehouse. Who knows what they’d do to you.”

  “I told you we’re going to do everything we can to keep from blowing your cover,” he said. “That starts now. If this were a real IDA assignment, you wouldn’t be sent to scout a location by yourself, and there’s a really good chance they know that.”

  I opened my mouth to argue, but Nikki’s voice overpowered mine. “But she’s right. It can’t be you.” Travis’s eyes narrowed, but Nikki pushed on. “We don’t know what they’ll do to the other person. You’re point on the rescue mission because you know more about KATO than any of us. If you get taken, we don’t have enough information to get you both.”

  Travis drew a tight breath, visibly torn between wanting to fight her and seeing her point. “She can’t go by herself.”

  “I’ll go.” I turned around. It was Cody, leaning against a pillar behind me. He laughed at me. “Don’t look so surprised, Secret Spy. I’m on your side.”

  “I didn’t mean—” I stumbled. “I just didn’t expect—”

  He smirked. “I know. I get you.”

  Travis still looked uneasy, but after a moment he nodded. “Okay. Let’s start getting a plan together.”

  • • •

  I separated myself for most of the hour, and this time, no one tried to bother me. Cody and I set out when the time came. The warehouse was only five blocks away, but it felt like so much farther. Cody didn’t say anything, content to give me my quiet time, but I found now that I was so close to KATO, my nervous energy was too much to silently contain.

  “Why did you agree to this?” I asked.

  He looked down at me, curious. Probably more surprised that I had said anything than he was about the question itself. “Because I get it now,” he said. “I get that you really didn’t have a choice and what it meant for you to pick the IDA.”

&nbs
p; “That doesn’t seem like it’s enough for everyone.” I grimaced thinking of Rachel. She’d barely spoken to me.

  Cody shook his head. “Don’t let Rachel get to you. It’s just how she is.”

  I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye. “She has a right to be like that. I hurt her.”

  “Yeah,” he said. “You did. But you were working for KATO.”

  I shook my head. “That shouldn’t matter. I still chose to listen to them.”

  “Maybe it shouldn’t,” he said with a shrug. “But to some people it does. To me it does. You were keeping yourself alive.” He shook his head, seeming annoyed with himself. “I should have trusted Travis. He had more encounters with you than any of us. If he could trust you, that should have been enough. I shouldn’t have treated you the way I did. I owe you.”

  Now I had to laugh. “After everything I’ve done, you think you owe me?” I shook my head. “Why don’t we call it even?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, I think I can live with that.”

  We walked for a few more seconds in what seemed to be an oddly comfortable silence.

  “They’ll probably only knock you out,” I said. “They’ve got too much going on at the headquarters. The last thing they’re interested in is dealing with an extra body.”

  “Don’t worry about me.” Cody flashed his charming smile. “We’ve got a plan in place.”

  My nerves intensified as we got closer, but I was resigned. When we were a block away, we flipped the switch and just like that we were acting, playing the parts of two IDA agents scouting a building. We’d entered the warehouse, and after a meaningful look, Cody said, “We should split up. Cover more ground.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Good idea.”

  My heart was pounding with so much force I could feel it in my hands. Then out of nowhere something heavy hit my head, and my world went black.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  INSIDE

  I woke up groggy and it took me a moment to remember what was going on. Once I did, I fought the urge to jump up. I had to want to be here. I pretended to sleep for an extra beat. This was it.