Reaper

by Lena North

  “I miss Bee,” he murmured.

  “I know.”

  “I’m not good with words, and I’m definitely not good with tears. Only dated one woman in my life and she wasn’t big on crying. Olly isn’t either.”

  “Oka –”

  “So, yeah. Don’t know what to do, or what to say. Could tell you I think my son behaved like an ass but somehow I don’t think that’s gonna help much.”

  I took his hand and squeezed it briefly.

  “It does help. I think he’s an ass too.”

  “Yeah,” he sighed.

  “Is it okay if I stay here? It'll just be a couple of days until I've organized a few things.”

  “What things?”

  “I’ll go abroad for a while, and I need to make sure it’s safe. Need to find hidden places where no one will find me.”

  “Where no one will find you?” he echoed and frowned.

  “I’m good at hiding,” I told him. “I just need to stay here a few days to set it up, if that’s okay?”

  “Absolutely,” he said and turned toward the field behind the house. “Not sure how you are with cash, but if you need a job, I'm sure we can find something. The school would love to have you, even if it's just a shorter time or a couple of hours here and there.”

  That was very sweet, but I nudged him with my elbow to get him to look at me.

  “I don’t have to work.”

  “Huh. Guess Gideon helps –”

  “I’m clever,” I interrupted.

  “I know.”

  “You know I’m good with computers?”

  “I got that.”

  “Really good.”

  “Annie, what are you unsuccessfully trying to tell me?”

  “I created a computer game.”

  “A computer game,” he said slowly.

  “Well, three games actually. War games. They're selling like crazy, and I get a percentage.”

  “Huh. War games?”

  “Seemed like something that would sell,” I replied calmly.

  “What are they called?”

  I told him and watched his eyes widen.

  “Shit, Annie. Even an old geezer like me have heard about those.”

  I shrugged, but pleasure warmed my belly.

  “If you need someone to talk to the kids about programming for a few hours, then I'd be happy to come for a visit, though.”

  “I’ll be a hero if I bring you, so yeah, it’d be great. We’ve agreed that I’ll start working a few hours each day, see how I feel about it. I’ll schedule something.”

  “Okay,” I said. “I’ll spend some time trying to figure out this whole mess Hawker and the others are in. I’ll probably do some work with Jinx too, but I can do that from wherever I am.”

  “Okay,” he echoed.

  Toby came strolling along the porch, glanced at me and sank down on top of Sven’s feet, tilting his head back in an impossible angle to look adoringly up at the man. Sven leaned forward to rub his skinny frame and murmured something softly.

  “We should talk about Olly,” I whispered.

  Sven didn’t stop petting his dog, but his eyes met mine.

  “What about Olly?” he asked.

  “He might come here, and he won’t be happy to find me –”

  “Talked to him this morning,” Sven interrupted. “He’s on his way somewhere. Wouldn’t tell where, or probably couldn’t. Hawker had sent him off on something.”

  Hawker had sent him off on something? After the evening we’d had, Hawker had thought it was a good idea to send Olly off on one of their missions?

  “Is he okay?” I heard myself ask, and tried to backtrack immediately, “It doesn’t matter. I’m sure he –”

  “He's okay to go. Hawk wouldn't send him off if he weren't,” Sven said calmly.

  It wasn't exactly what I had asked, but since I regretted my question anyway, I didn't repeat it or clarify. I decided to spend some time checking what they were up to, though.

  “I’ll make an omelet,” Sven stated and got up. “If you take Toby for a short walk, we’ll have lunch when you’re back.”

  It wasn't a question, and I was hungry, so I didn't protest. Toby minded in a big way, however, so our walk ended up being a lot of goofing around close to the house where he could see Sven through the window. When we walked inside, there were two omelets on the table and a small one on a plate on the floor.

  “Sven…” I said, barely able to hold laughter back.

  “If you tell anyone I’ll deny it,” he muttered. “Nobody will believe you anyway.”

  I laughed and squeezed his shoulder as I passed him.

  “I won’t tell,” I said.

  Later, I went online, and it seemed like Olly was on the Islands, which I assumed meant they needed to discuss something with Nick's cousin who was the sheriff there. I could dig around some more, but lurking around in the background didn't seem okay anymore, so I didn't. Before shutting down the computer, I accessed my mainframe at home and kicked off a program I’d designed to search the net for anything it judged was related to Cameron. Then I spent the evening watching TV with Sven.

  The next days I refused to let myself think about Olly and pretended I was okay. I caught Sven watching me with a concerned look on his face, but I smiled and told him repeatedly that I was fine.

  The nights weren’t as easy, and I couldn’t hold my thoughts back as I lay in a bed where Olly had kissed me goodnight just a few days earlier. I missed him and spent hours going over everything that had happened, cursing myself for being such a coward. If I’d told him gradually, it wouldn’t have been such a massive surprise, and we might have talked about it. Whichever way I turned it around in my head, I still came to the same conclusion, though. I needed to leave Norton, and find a way to move on with my life.

  I cried a little as I organized plane tickets in four different names to three different locations, and sent a sloppily encrypted email to my family, letting them know I’d be in either of these locations. Then I sent my grandfather an email with the location I really planned to go to, told him I’d stop by my home for a day or two before I left, and routed it via several servers, encrypted in a way I knew Cam wouldn’t get through.

  “Right, Annie. Time to leave,” I whispered, dried my tears, and went to bed.

  The next morning my program alerted me that I had a hit on Cameron. He owned a company which owned a condo in Prosper. It was sublet, and I'd checked the tenant carefully, but apart from finding out that the woman had the intelligence level of an amoeba, it had seemed like a dead end. Now my program had discovered the tenant’s half-brother’s cousin owned a house in one of the tourist areas by the sea. That house was rented out on a weekly basis, and the last ten occupants had different names, but they had paid from the same bank account. I dug around some and traced the account back to one of the guys who had been part of Snow’s group of friends. He was dead. And he had been Cameron’s friend.

  I’d been finalizing my plans to leave, but this was too important, so I summarized my findings in an email, routed it via a set of servers, and sent it to Olly. Then I opened the chat program.

  “You have mail,” I wrote.

  He was online, and I watched the little blue dot indicate that he'd read it. I went to my settings immediately and deactivated my user. I couldn’t be Bree anymore, hiding in the shadows surrounding the chat-groups on the net. A few silent tears burned in my eyes, but I forced myself to calm down, dried off my cheeks and called Wilder.

  “Annie!” she shouted.

  I stared at the phone.

  “Uh, hey?” I said, stunned by her loud greeting.

  “Yeah, hey, we’ve been trying to find you,” she said.

  “Why?”

  “Why?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “We wanted to make sure you were okay, see if there was anything we could do,” she said.

  “W
e?”

  “You know. Me, Mac, Nicky, Jinx, Mary, Da… everyone.”

  Everyone? I had a group of everyones who wanted to make sure I was okay?

  “I’m good,” I said, trying hard to make my voice sound normal because I didn’t want her to think I was a pathetic loser who didn’t have any friends.

  I had friends. Just not this kind of friends.

  “Good. Where do you want me to send the binder full of stuff in weird scribbles?”

  It was a not so veiled attempt to find out where I was, and I decided to tell her.

  “Well, I’m kind of… You know?” I said, stalling for time because I wasn’t sure how she’d react to my current whereabouts.

  “No, I don’t know,” she said.

  “I meant to leave.”

  “Annie, what have you been smoking?”

  God. I hadn’t been smoking anything in my life, but I could see why she thought so.

  “I’m in Norton,” I blurted out.

  “In what?”

  “Yeah, well I’m just staying with, you know. Sven.”

  There was a long silence

  “Does Olly know?”

  “I don't know, I don't talk to him. That's why I'm calling. I sent him some information, but I need to know where you want me to send things in the future. Hawker or Jinx?”

  “Sven didn’t tell him?” she asked, ignoring my request.

  “I don't know,” I said, which was pretty much a lie because I was reasonably sure Sven hadn't told his son I was visiting.

  She started laughing and choked out something about a sneaky old bastard. I opened my mouth to protest but closed it again because she was right. It was kind of sneaky of him.

  “Walk up to the main road, turn right and keep going for ten minutes. There's a coffee shop; I'll meet you there in twenty.”

  Then she hung up, and I stared at my phone again. Wilder was apparently also in Norton.

  Sven was playing catch with Toby, but he smiled when I told him where I was going, and handed me a jacket.

  “Take your time, Annie,” he said and gave my cheek a soft caress with the back of his hand.

  His smile was so much like his son’s that I felt my bottom lip quiver.

  “See you later,” I chirped happily but it was all for show, and he knew it, so I walked off before he could voice any of the concern that was written all over his face.

  I decided to meet Wilder, get communications with their group organized, and then leave. It had been a supremely stupid idea to stay with Olly's father, and as I walked the short distance into Norton, I made myself calm down, yet again.

  I hadn’t left the farm since I arrived and the village looked idyllic with well-kept houses sprawling out on one side, and shops and restaurants lining Main street. The mountains rose sharply against a clear blue autumn sky. It was chilly, but the thick flannel jacket Sven had handed me was warm and a little too big, so it covered my hands. The people I met all said hello, beaming at me curiously, and excessively friendly in a way that seemed a bit over the top. I chalked it up to them not having many strangers strolling around, and assumed they were mostly surprised.

  The coffee shop was called Jack's, and it was apparently also a bookstore which sold really cool t-shirts. The little bell above the door jingled loudly, and the man behind the counter at the back turned. I figured this was Jack himself and since the place was empty I smiled and walked over to him.

  “Well, hello there,” he said and gave me the same strange smile everyone else seemed to have in Norton.

  “Hey,” I said. “Can I have –”

  “And who might you be?” he interrupted.

  “I’m Annie,” I said. “Can I –”

  “Annie,” he drawled. “I’m Jack.”

  “Hey, Jack,” I said. “Can –”

  “I like your jacket,” he said.

  That’s when I realized why they were all grinning. Sven had handed me the jacket, and I hadn’t thought much about it, which was stupid. Of course, it was Olly’s, and they’d all know it.

  Crap.

  “So do I,” I said calmly, hoping he’d leave it like that. “Can I –”

  “You’re visiting?”

  “I’m trying to order a double espresso,” I said, slightly irritated that he wouldn’t let me.

  “Of course,” he chuckled, and turned to finally make me my damned coffee. He put a scone on a plate, and waved his hand toward a jar of jam. “Help yourself.”

  I pulled out my wallet, but he waved his hand again, this time indicating I should put it away.

  “I was just teasing before. I know who you are,” he said calmly.

  “You do?”

  “If you’re the Annie who snapped Sven out of his depression, got him a dog and shocked the shit out of everyone at Johns, making the Harpers laugh for the first time since we lost Bee; then yeah. I know who you are.”

  He pronounced it dee-pression, and I could have sworn it was the first time the big man used the word.

  “Um,” I mumbled and put jam on the scone I hadn’t ordered.

  “If you don’t want people to know who you are you should probably not walk around in Olly’s old jacket.”

  He had a point, and I felt like an idiot. When the bell jingled again, I turned toward the door where Wilder walked in backward, trying unsuccessfully to get a couple of men to not come with her.

  “Annie!” Mac called out and walked around his girlfriend.

  He started laughing immediately, which made Wilder turn, and grin.

  “Sweet jacket,” she called out as she came toward us. “The idiots are not sitting with us. They are getting their coffee to go,” she speared Mac with a glare, “after which they are leaving.”

  “We’ll be over there, you know what we want, Jack,” Mac said, pointing toward a group of big comfy chairs in a corner. “Come on, Annie.”

  Then he shuffled me away from the counter and a frowning Wilder.

  “I'm Kit,” the other man said calmly, clearly familiar with their antics.

  “I know,” I said because I’d recognized Kit Keeghan, Miller’s nephew and another member of Hawker Johns’ group.

  “Of course,” he said.

  Wilder helped Jack carry their mugs, and then she sat down, still frowning.

  “I wanted to hear the juicy bits,” she grumbled. “No way Annie will talk about any of those with the two of you staring at her.”

  “No way Annie would have talked about them at all,” I said calmly and took a bite of the scone. “Can we talk about communication channels instead?”

  “Not as fun,” Wilder muttered.

  “But useful,” Kit stated.

  It took five minutes to agree that I would send whatever information I could find to Jinx and Kit. Olly's mother had coordinated their intelligence, but Kit had worked with her and was going through her files to make sure he had a good grip on her system. We ended up having a lengthy discussion about the details of the encryption she’d set up, and the various sources she’d used to get intel. It was clear that Kit had admired her and was as unhappy as everyone else about what had happened.

  “I’m so sorry you lost her,” I said quietly. “I wish I’d done more. I could have –”

  “Not you too,” Wilder interrupted.

  “What?”

  “Everyone I talk to is on a guilt trip the size of Jinx’ butt, thinking they should have done something differently. Bee was a grown-up. We all knew there were risks and that we walked into a place which wasn’t secure. Don’t insult her by pretending she was a weak idiot who stumbled along when she was a former army general who had been working alongside Da for years. She knew what we were up against better than the rest of us. I hate that we lost her, but she knew.”

  Wilder was right, and I realized that like the others, I'd taken on a responsibility Byrd Harper wouldn't have wanted us to take. Then I raised my brows.

 
; “You do realize you just called your friend’s behind big?”

  “It ain’t small,” she quipped.

  She was right again, but I still opened my mouth to protest.

  “How do you like Norton?” Mac said quickly, deflecting an argument which would have been silly, and probably loud and messy.

  “I haven’t seen much of Norton,” I said. “I love the farm, though, and Sven is fantastic.”

  “Huh,” Kit said.

  “Huh, what?” I snapped.

  I’d let them get away with the small insult to Jinx, but no way I’d allow him to badmouth my host.

  “I used to be scared shitless of him,” Kit said with a small grin. “He was our teacher.”

  Oh. Well, that was better.

  “I bet he’s a great teacher,” I said.

  “The best,” Mac agreed. “Not one you disobeyed, though.”

  “Guess his class won’t give me any problems,” I said.

  “You’re helping him?”

  “Not really. I promised I’d visit for a couple of hours before I leave, like a guest teacher or something. Don’t think I’ll have time for it, though.”

  “Really,” Kit said. “What will you talk about?”

  “I created some computer games, so I guess I'll talk about them. Or about how I started it up, see if I can get them interested in doing some simple programs. Something like that.”

  “Games?

  I told them the names and both Kit and Mac immediately started grinning and shared that they owned all three games. It led to a long discussion about the details I’d come up with, how to best defeat some of the enemies, and which weapons to use. It was an enjoyable way to spend a few hours, and I found myself wishing I hadn’t made my mind up to leave Norton. I sighed and started to gather up my things.

  “If I’d met you first, I bet we would have hit it off,” Kit said with a wink.

  I scrunched up my nose at him, knowing well that he wasn’t serious but liking how sweet he was.

  “That wouldn’t have been good,” I stated.

  “If Kit wanted to die, it would have been excellent,” Mac snorted.

  I ignored him and turned to Wilder who was busy tapping away on her phone. “I’ll leave later today or tomorrow, but I’ll stay in touch.”

  She jumped up and moved us toward the door so fast I had to call out my goodbyes to a laughing Mac and stunned Kit.