It felt like someone had just jammed a broom handle directly in between two of my rib bones and then rattled it around for good measure. I grunted and rolled to the floor, writhing in pain. It hurt even more to do that, so instead I just tried to lie still for a moment. The pain was so sharp it sucked all the breath from my lungs. Which was just fine since it hurt to even breathe.
Junior had gotten to his feet and was running toward the pale green exit sign at the other side of the stage. But I couldn’t run after him. I couldn’t even move. I thought for a moment that he might have broken one of my ribs. That I might never be able to move again. But then, slowly, the pain began to subside. Kind of. Enough for me to move again, at least.
I rolled over to my hands and knees; the pain was still immense, but not nearly as bad as it had been just a few seconds before, and it was fading more with each second. I took a deep breath and then stood up.
The faint glow of my cell phone caught my eye a few feet away. I picked it up and shoved it into my pocket before jogging out the same exit Junior had used, down a short flight of stairs, through another door, and out into the school hallway. It was fully packed with kids now. The buses had just arrived, which meant homeroom started in a matter of minutes. Junior had gotten away.
But, given everything he’d said, I was starting to wonder if he was really the guy I was after anyway.
CHAPTER 29
DOES “TAKING CARE” OF GRANDMA MEAN WE HAVE TO KILL HER?
AT LUNCH THAT DAY, I GRABBED DANIELLE AND WE RAN DOWN to the shed by the swallow nest hill. I wished I could have told someone sooner about my encounter with Junior, but I hadn’t had a chance. I was already on thin ice with Ms. Pullman after this morning; ditching class would likely earn me a suspension at the very least.
We didn’t even bother trying to make up a story for Dillon. He was going to be curious about our no-show at the lunch table, especially after me ditching on him earlier that morning, but we could worry about that later. We had an enemy spy to deal with.
A few minutes later, Agent Smiley arrived. She didn’t invite us down; she merely crossed her arms and waited for our status report with that same grim expression that she always had on her face.
I told both her and Danielle about everything that had happened to me that morning. Investigating the dig site and almost getting killed. Seeing Junior trying to plant booze in Agent Blue’s desk. Catching him and getting him to admit that he was paid to do it, but he wouldn’t tell me by who. I even included the odd comment he’d made about how I should know, of all people.
Agent Smiley’s face never changed. She merely listened, and blinked every once in a while. Then, at the end, she uncrossed her arms and gave a nod, which I’d come to realize was as close to a smile or compliment that Agent Smiley would ever give me.
“It seems our suspicions were right about the parking lot project,” she said. “You two keep a low profile for now. We’ll take care of Junior. Check back here after school—Director Isadoris has another special assignment for you both.”
“What do you mean you’ll take care of Junior?” I asked, remembering from several movies that that was often slang for whacking somebody. “You’re not going to . . .” I couldn’t bring myself to finish.
“We’ll handle the situation,” Agent Smiley said. “It’s no longer any of your concern.”
“Yeah, but—” I started, but Danielle stopped me.
“She said she’d take care of it, Carson,” she said, pulling at my sleeve.
I glanced at my friend. I knew her well enough to know that look she was giving me.
Drop it.
And so I did. I nodded at Agent Smiley. She said nothing else and simply turned and disappeared into the darkness of the shed, leaving behind just her last exhale swirling in the cold air. Danielle and I trudged over the frozen ground back up toward the school.
“What was that all about?” I asked.
“I’m with you, Carson,” Danielle explained. “I didn’t like the sound of that either. But I think we need to let them handle this. The whole thing is starting to make me uneasy.”
“Starting to?” I said.
She laughed, and then we both fell silent for a few moments. I shivered. It was a little warmer than it was this morning, but it was still stupidly cold outside that day.
“What do you think our special assignment will be?” she asked.
“I have no idea. I just hope it doesn’t involve me sneaking around the school and breaking into classrooms again. I have a feeling that if I get caught one more time, I’m never going to be allowed back in school again.”
“Don’t get your hopes up,” Danielle said.
“Right?” I said, smirking.
Except that I definitely wouldn’t have been smirking had I known just how accurate her words (and my suspicions) actually were.
CHAPTER 30
THE AGENCY IS ALL
“WE NEED YOU TO INFILTRATE THE DIG SITE AGAIN,” DIRECTOR Isadoris said down in his office after school that day. “We’re running short on leads and we need to find something, anything, relating to the parking lot construction project. Preferably getting those blueprints you mentioned. Also, our intel suggests they keep a project laptop on site. Pullman is not going to get away with whatever she’s got planned.”
“I really don’t think she’s involved,” I said. “I mean, it just doesn’t seem possible.”
Director Isadoris shook his head, shook away my comments. Dismissed them as if they couldn’t possibly have been right.
“She is involved,” he said. “I know she is.”
“But how?” I asked. “What evidence do you have? You haven’t even met her. I have!”
“I don’t need evidence,” he said, remaining calm in spite of my escalating voice. “Trust me, Agent Zero, I just know.”
“Can’t you just hack into the construction company’s computer system at their office or something?” I suggested. “I mean, the news is always talking about the NSA and CIA spying on the public by hacking their computers. Surely you guys have the same power?”
“We do,” Director Isadoris admitted. “And our capabilities should get even better really soon, but that’s beside the point. The real problem is that the W Construction company is so small, so relatively new that they don’t even seem to have physical offices nearby, or any sort of web presence. All they have are a phone number and PO box listed in the Yellow Pages. Frankly, there is no company network that we can even hack into, so to speak. Which obviously only arouses more suspicion. After all, what sort of company operates in the modern era without some kind of web presence or internet fingerprint? So it’d be better for you guys to simply retrieve those plans manually. And you’re the best for the job since you’ve been there before. Besides, our other agents are unavailable, since the rest of us will be working on the new initiative.”
I nodded, knowing there was no use arguing further. He was the boss, after all. And he had been doing this a lot longer than I had. So it was hard for me to sit there and continue to argue that my instincts were better than his. Even if I really did believe I was still right about Pullman, in spite of his rather convincing argument surrounding the W Company.
“When are we supposed to do it?” Danielle asked.
“Tomorrow night,” Director Isadoris said.
“And you think they’re just going to keep secret plans stashed right at the dig site?” I asked.
Director Isadoris leaned back, his chair groaning under his massive frame. He raised his shoulders and eyebrows in sync in a rare moment of naked uncertainty.
“Maybe, maybe not,” he said. “We don’t have any choice but to try at this point. Plus, we have a device we can give you that will greatly assist in searching the on-site laptop for hidden or encrypted files.” He slid a small plastic case across the counter. “There’s a USB device in there for the computer, and also another device that should help you with any locks you might encounter, getting into the f
iles or any of the construction equipment.”
I put the case into my pocket and nodded.
“Why tomorrow night?” Danielle asked. “Why not tonight, why not as soon as possible?”
“There are school board meetings tonight,” Director Isadoris said. “Which means Ms. Pullman and several school board members will be at the school this evening and may stay to work late. My guess is that the meetings are related to the parking lot construction project. Tomorrow night, the coast should be clear.”
I nodded. The coast probably would be clear—not many people hung around schools most nights. Still, I hated the idea of pushing my luck any further with Ms. Pullman if I were to get caught trespassing on school grounds. But if Director Isadoris was right about her, then I supposed it didn’t matter either way.
“What about Junior?” I asked.
“What about him?” Director Isadoris said.
“What are you going to do to him?”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “We’ll take care of it.”
“I’m the one who found him!” I said, trying my best not to shout. “Don’t you think I have the right to know what you’re planning to do?”
Director Isadoris stared at me evenly. His eyes looked dead, as if they never had or never could care about what I thought or said or did.
“No,” he said.
“For as many times as I’ve saved this place, for all that I’ve done for the Agency,” I said, “for being one of your last trusted agents left, I get nothing?”
He didn’t answer and so I kept going. The way he was handling this was nothing new, so I shouldn’t have been getting so upset. But at the same time, he was now saying cryptic things about “taking care” of a witness I had handed them. And something about that, whether Junior was innocent or not, made me feel like I had a right to know what would happen to him. I knew the Agency sometimes had to do ugly things, but I had never been directly or indirectly involved in a murder or interrogation before. And the prospect of that changing was doing things to me. It gave me confidence. It fueled my frustration.
“I’m all you have left, practically,” I said, knowing that wasn’t entirely true.
Deep down I knew the Agency had a wealth of resources that I didn’t even completely understand. They were just short on manpower at the moment due to the Medlock breach. Likely most of their agents were clean anyway; they were just playing it safe. But in spite of knowing all of that, his next sentence still shocked me.
“Maybe that’s true,” Director Isadoris said calmly. “But we are also all you have left.”
I sat there, dumbfounded. What did he mean by that? I realized slowly, however, that he was right. I’d come to live for the Agency, in terms of what mattered in my life, to have that sense of making a difference every day. But even more than that were the greater implications of what he was saying. Our way of life, our very existence might be threatened if Medlock succeeded with his plans, whatever they were. And who would I be to simply turn my back on that when I know I could have helped prevent it? The thought of somehow playing a part in the end of the world, so to speak, was too painful to think about.
This was my life now. I was a secret agent, codename: Zero. He was right: It was basically all I had left.
CHAPTER 31
THE UGLY TRUTH
“PRETTY NEAT, HUH?” AGENT BLUE SAID.
I just stared at him in shock. Maybe I should have cut my own leg off earlier that day after all.
After my meeting with Director Isadoris, I had asked if I could visit Agents Blue and Nineteen in the medical bay again. Turns out, Agent Nineteen had been sent to another nearby facility for some more specialized care. But Agent Blue was in the rehab center, working out his new bionic prosthetic.
He’d just leg pressed over a thousand pounds with it right in front of my eyes. Twenty reps without even breaking a sweat.
“The hard part is learning to control all of its power,” he said, chuckling. “When I walk, I keep making cracks in the floor. But as soon as I get comfortable with it, I can get back to work.”
“Wow,” Danielle finally managed to say, while I continued to stand there, speechless.
We chatted about our new missions and the recent developments for a few minutes while Agent Blue took a short break from his rehab. I finally asked what I’d really wanted to from the start.
“How much do you trust Director Isadoris?”
Agent Blue furrowed his brow and stared at me for a few seconds. “What happened?”
“Nothing,” I said. “I mean, nothing significant. . . . I’m just wondering how much do you trust his judgment. His instincts.”
“Carson,” Danielle interjected, “maybe it would help if we explained why you’re asking about this.”
I nodded. I proceeded to explain the Ms. Pullman dilemma to Agent Blue. How everything about her told me she was clean, that she was nothing more than a really good principal brought in to replace a mostly bad one. But Director Isadoris was convinced she was an enemy agent, in spite of everything I’d told him about her.
Agent Blue nodded while I spoke, almost as if he were agreeing with everything I was telling him. But then, at the end, he smiled at me the way teachers sometimes smile at a student who just tried their absolute hardest at a test but still got a D minus.
“Maybe I can help best by telling you both a story,” Agent Blue said, “something I witnessed way back when I was just a rookie field agent. When I say rookie, I mean rookie. I think it was just my second week on the job.”
He was still seated at the leg press machine. He leaned back and grabbed the side handles as if he needed to brace himself to tell the story. Danielle and I leaned against the bench press next to it. It was rare for Agent Blue to tell a personal story, and I had no intentions of interrupting him now.
“Agent Nineteen was also in his first year on the job,” Agent Blue said. “We weren’t partners back then. In fact, I barely knew Agent Nineteen at that time. He’d just gotten a new partner, Agent Neptune, who you both now know as Mule Medlock.
“It didn’t take long for most of us here to recognize that Director Isadoris had some strange suspicions about Agent Neptune. Even though Neptune had a flawless background check and exemplary academy record, the director never let him handle any cases with the highest security rating. Agent Nineteen and I knew that there was something going on. However, Agent Neptune never once complained, and did all his work dutifully.
“Still, the director’s misgivings surrounding Agent Neptune grew. Before long, Director Isadoris was removing Neptune from almost all fieldwork, and Neptune finally broke. He spoke out openly against the Agency’s secrecy, its security policies. He demanded that we declassify the Agency and our operations, claiming that it would only help us do our jobs better. Nobody did that; nobody openly challenged Director Isadoris’s policies. The director had every reason to terminate Neptune’s agent status on the spot.”
“Why didn’t he?” Danielle asked, breaking our rapt silence.
“Agent Nineteen,” Agent Blue said. “Nineteen vouched for Neptune, and managed to convince Director Isadoris to let him stay on as his partner. Agent Nineteen was convinced that Agent Neptune was trustworthy, that he only had the country’s best interests at heart, even in those moments. Nineteen basically put his whole career, and even his life, on the line to back up those convictions.”
I swallowed. Today wasn’t the first time that I’d challenged Director Isadoris in a meeting. I was also getting fed up with all the secrecy. It scared me just how much Agent Neptune and I had in common.
“But don’t you think it was maybe Director Isadoris’s suspicions that caused Agent Neptune to lose his faith in the Agency?” I asked. “I mean, how could he trust Isadoris, if Isadoris didn’t trust him?”
“That might sound plausible,” Agent Blue said. “But it’s completely wrong.”
“How do you know that?” I asked.
“Because Director
Isadoris had every right to be suspicious from the beginning,” he said. “You probably won’t like hearing what I’m about to tell you. But I think it’s important you know the whole story.”
There was no way I was going to interrupt him now. We both sat in silence and let him talk.
“Agent Neptune was hiding something from the Agency all along,” Agent Blue said. “Not just from Director Isadoris but even from his own partner, Agent Nineteen, the one guy who trusted him. Of course, none of us knew what he was hiding then; we didn’t know everything until recently, after the events at Mount Rushmore. He was hiding the fact that he had a son. Jake.”
It blew my mind that an agent would have to hide having a family. It had never occurred to me before, the impact that this life might have on an agent with a family of their own.
“Agent Nineteen has told us that this explains much of Neptune’s behavior in the time before he was presumed killed,” Agent Blue continued. “The secrecy was wearing on him. He didn’t want to have to lie to Jake for his entire life, the way that Agent Nineteen lied to his children, the way that we all keep secrets from the people we care about. It’s the toll this job takes, and Agent Neptune was apparently unwilling to pay it.
“And so that’s why he began acting out more and more. That’s why he challenged Director Isadoris constantly. That’s why the nature of this business, the secrecy of it all, got to him so much. Eventually, it got so bad that Isadoris had to transfer him. He recommended that Agent Neptune be dismissed, but the board transferred him to Chicago instead. Which inadvertently made Medlock even angrier—it separated him from both his son and partner, the only two people he cared about. And that’s when he officially turned. He started selling secrets to various enemies of the Agency.”
“But it’s not all Medlock’s fault,” I found myself saying. “He just wanted to be honest with his son. Is that too much to ask?”
Crisis Zero Page 10
