CARSON CONTINUES HIS OLD HABITS. BUT I DO SENSE A STRUGGLE. IT’S ALMOST AS IF HE DOESN’T WANT TO CAUSE TROUBLE BUT CAN’T HELP HIMSELF SOMEHOW. AS IF AN EXTERNAL FORCE IS MAKING HIM ACT OUT IN SOME STRANGE WAY. HE IS MOST CERTAINLY VERY SPECIAL, THE TYPE OF KID WHO COULD GO ON TO ACCOMPLISH SOMETHING GREAT. HE HAS THE SELF-AWARENESS AND SHARP EYE FOR DETAIL OF SOMEONE TWICE HIS AGE. NOT ONLY THAT, BUT HE HAS A STRONG SENSE OF MORAL JUSTICE AND AN IMPECCABLE CODE OF ETHICS AS WELL. IT SEEMS COUNTERINTUITIVE, GIVEN HIS BEHAVIOR, BUT I KNOW WHAT I’VE SEEN. HE REMINDS ME A BIT OF MYSELF. HE KNOWS WHAT RULES DO AND DON’T MATTER. HE IS DRAWN TO ALWAYS DO THE RIGHT THING, REGARDLESS OF CONSEQUENCES. I DO NOT WANT TO GIVE UP ON HIM; HE IS A COMPASSIONATE, THOUGHTFUL INDIVIDUAL. I FEAR THAT EXPELLING HIM COULD NEGATIVELY ALTER HIS TRAJECTORY, BUT IT’S UNFORTUNATELY SOMETHING I WILL NEED TO DO IF HIS BEHAVIOR DOESN’T CHANGE.
I was speechless. I picked up another note.
I ALSO GET THE SENSE THAT HE HAS A SECRET. THAT HE IS HIDING SOMETHING, FROM EVEN HIS FRIENDS AND FAMILY. HE SEEMS CONSTANTLY DISTRACTED BY SOMETHING THAT HE PERCEIVES TO BE FAR MORE IMPORTANT THAN ANYTHING SCHOOL RELATED. PERHAPS HE IS STRUGGLING WITH AN ISSUE AT HOME OR WITH AN UNIDENTIFIED EVENT FROM HIS PAST? WHATEVER IT IS, I HOPE I CAN GET TO THE BOTTOM OF IT BEFORE LONG. I WILL CONTINUE TO MONITOR HIS ACTIVITIES AND GIVE HIM AS MUCH ATTENTION AS I CAN WITHOUT SEEMING TOO OVERBEARING. CARSON IS LIKE NO OTHER STUDENT I’VE EVER ENCOUNTERED AND IT WOULD BREAK MY HEART, PERSONALLY AND PROFESSIONALLY, TO LOSE HIM AS A STUDENT.
It was here that I had to stop reading. Partially because I was feeling too guilty and embarrassed to continue, and partially because the computer behind me had just beeped.
I never should have looked in the file.
Something about reading her personal notes about me had felt like the worst thing I’d ever done. Worse than lying or cheating or any of the pranks I’d pulled. It had been an invasion of Ms. Pullman’s privacy. And, beyond that, she really seemed to care. She was invested in me as a person. I was used to having a principal whose sole professional purpose was to see me expelled.
I knew then that I didn’t even need to turn around and see what the results of the computer scan would be. There was no possible way she was connected to Medlock. It wouldn’t make sense. I knew that everyone believed Director Isadoris to be some kind of psychic superspy, but he’s still human. He can’t always be right. And he wasn’t right now.
After quickly putting my file back into place, I spun around and moved back to the computer. A small pop-up box sat in the center of the screen:
Scan completed. Results:
3 suspect files located
All files successfully downloaded and decoded
Click file name to view suspect files
Click Save to exit
I looked at the list of files. Two of them had mostly indecipherable names, like 43GHYE22.exe. One of them, however, was labeled Project Deep Star 7. I clicked the file name to open it.
What appeared on the screen in front of me sucked all the air from the room. It gutted me like a fish on a filleting table, complete with greedy, squawking seagulls to mop up the extra bits.
Much of what I was seeing was too complicated for me to fully comprehend. There was a lot I didn’t understand or that seemed completely foreign. But the purpose of Project Deep Star 7 was still quite obvious. The endgame was as clear as a glass of filtered water.
The project was to drill down into the ground, right down to Agency headquarters, which was labeled on the plans, and destroy it.
And the lead Project Manager was also very clearly labeled within the documents.
Jayne Pullman.
CHAPTER 35
SENTIENT TIRES THAT EXPLODE HEADS
“WHAT DID YOU FIND?” DANIELLE ASKED AS I STUMBLED OUT of the office window.
I was so disturbed that I was literally shaking. Which is why I lost my footing and went sprawling to the ground. Danielle gave me a worried look before turning to close and relock the window from the outside. Then she helped me to my feet.
“Seriously, Carson, what’s wrong?”
“It’s her,” I managed to spit out. “Isadoris was right.”
“What?” Danielle asked, but she’d heard what I’d said. I was silent, still very much in shock. And I was embarrassed. To have been fooled so easily into trusting someone. It was like what happened with Jake all over again.
“Come on,” I finally managed to say, slinging my backpack over my shoulder. “Let’s get down to the shed.”
Danielle didn’t ask any more questions. She just kept walking. I followed on legs that were still sort of wobbly and gooey from the adrenaline of the discovery.
We got to the shed and stood outside, knowing we likely wouldn’t have to wait long. The Agency was expecting us, after all. What surprised me, though, was who eventually opened the door.
“Agent Nineteen!” I practically shouted.
He put his finger to his lips and then beckoned for us to step inside the small maintenance shed that doubled as the secret entrance into the Agency headquarters.
“Nice to see you both,” he said with a thin smile once we were inside the privacy of the shed. “Did you find anything?”
“You could say that,” I said.
“Nice work. You can fill me in once we’re inside.” He stepped onto the waiting elevator platform. “I’ve never seen Director Isadoris so anxious. He’s basically chewed through a dozen boxes of pens.”
A pop song from a recent animated Disney movie suddenly filled the space and interrupted our conversation. The shed had surprisingly good acoustics.
“Sorry!” Danielle said, pulling out her phone. “I better take this?”
She said it more like a question than a statement as she looked at Agent Nineteen. He nodded and drew his hand back away from the elevator switch.
It was Dillon. From the sound of it, their mom was not happy that she had snuck out that night. It also sounded like Dillon was in full-on conspiracy mode.
“No,” Danielle said into the phone with a scoff, “I did not sneak out to do that. And I don’t know where you even came up with the idea of an army of sentient tires that can explode people’s heads telepathically. Do you know how ridiculous that sounds?”
Agent Nineteen and I exchanged a look and he couldn’t suppress a grin.
“I didn’t tell you where I was going because I knew you’d act like this!” she said. “Plus, I really didn’t think you’d want to come with me on a study date with Eloise.” There was a pause and Danielle’s eyes widened. “Oh, you did?”
She sighed and shook her head.
“He must have already called Eloise,” I whispered to Agent Nineteen. “Classic Dillon move.”
Finally she hung up the phone and confirmed my suspicions.
“Well, he knows I’m lying,” she said. “So I gotta get home and try to talk my way out of this before it gets out of hand.”
“Carson can fill you in tomorrow,” Agent Nineteen said as he walked over to open the secure shed door for her.
But there was something in his tone that seemed off to me. Like there was more he wanted to say but couldn’t. Or maybe Dillon was starting to rub off on me in the wrong ways.
Danielle shook her head and waved as she stepped outside. “Sorry, Carson.”
“No,” I said, “I’m sorry that you have to take on most of the work of keeping Dillon in the dark about all this.”
She shrugged. “I’m his twin. It comes with the territory.”
We finished our good-byes and then a short time later, Agent Nineteen and I were zooming down into the earth toward Agency HQ. Just like old times.
CHAPTER 36
THINGS BETTER LEFT UNSAID
LUCKILY FOR ME, DIRECTOR ISADORIS WAS A GRACIOUS WINNER. He didn’t gloat or say I told you so or even reprimand me for doubting him when he’d been right all along. Instead, he merely nodded occasionally while I told him what was on the USB drive in the backpack I’d just handed over. I’d left ou
t the part about what I’d found in Ms. Pullman’s files about me, but that didn’t mean I’d been able to stop thinking about it.
“Nice work, Agent Zero,” he said at the end and then handed my backpack containing the USB drive and the construction laptop, and the tube of blueprints to an agent standing behind him.
The agent went back over to the small table behind Director Isadoris, where he and Agent Smiley were clacking away steadily at their laptops. Agent Nineteen sat next to me across from Director Isadoris.
“I’m still not sure whether to reprimand or reward you for going outside mission parameters to get this information,” Director Isadoris said. “Infiltrating Ms. Pullman’s office could have been dangerous. A necessary risk perhaps, but that wasn’t for you to determine.”
“I can still hardly believe it’s true,” I said, not really caring about a punishment or reward either way. I was in shock.
“Well, if spotting the bad guys were easy,” Director Isadoris said, “there’d be little need for an Agency like ours.”
I knew he was trying to make me feel better, but it didn’t work. Because I wasn’t upset about being wrong. I was upset about Ms. Pullman.
“So, the plan is to blow this place up,” I said quietly. “Shouldn’t we, like, be evacuating now or something?”
“We can’t do that,” Director Isadoris said. “I’m not running away. We are going to face this head on and stop Medlock once and for all. If we evacuate now, it might tip him off.”
“We can still face him head on without sitting around here waiting to get blown up,” I said.
“Agent Zero, I’m telling you we can’t evacuate,” Director Isadoris said.
“Why not? Wait, let me guess, it’s classified?”
Director Isadoris actually smiled at me. It was entirely humorless, but it was still a smile.
“You’re right, it is classified,” he said. “But I’ll tell you anyway. It’s because this base houses the main standby backup system for the nation’s entire defense network. We can’t evacuate without presidential approval. So for the time being, we stay put. Besides, their little hole up there is still a long way from being deep enough. I don’t even need to see those plans to know that. Trust me, when the time comes that it’s necessary, we will evacuate. But only then.”
I nodded, not finding a reason to argue the point any further. Especially since I needed something from them. I didn’t want to waste my energy arguing over protocol semantics.
“So, I did this for you,” I said. “Now you need to do something for me.”
Agent Nineteen shifted in his seat beside me.
“Agent Zero, I hardly think—” Director Isadoris began, but I didn’t let him finish.
“Listen to what I have to say before you automatically say no,” I said. “You owe me at least that much.”
Director Isadoris tilted his head and then leaned back in his chair and said nothing. I took that as my cue.
“I need to know what you did with Junior,” I said. “I do pretty much everything you ask me, mostly without question and with very little information. And now one of my missions has resulted in his disappearance. I want to know why.”
I waited for an answer. Neither Director Isadoris nor Agent Nineteen spoke.
“What?” I continued. “Are you afraid to tell me? Do you even know if he’s working with Medlock? Or did you kidnap some innocent kid?”
“Carson, that’s enough,” Agent Nineteen said.
“I’m afraid these are details we’re just not free to discuss with you,” Director Isadoris said. “But I assure you that we’re treating Junior as the situation demands.”
“Stop giving those vague answers,” I said. “I need to know.”
Something changed in Director Isadoris just then. That blank stare left his face and it seemed like he was really looking at me as a person instead of merely another agent for the first time that night.
“Carson,” he said, “I am being completely honest with you when I say this: It’s truly better that you don’t know the details surrounding the investigation. It’s for your own protection. You will be involved soon, I assure you; in fact, we need your help with the next phase of this mission. But as to how we got there . . . it’s better left unsaid.”
Agent Nineteen nodded beside me.
That’s when I lost it.
I knew it was unprofessional. I knew I would be in danger of getting dismissed. I knew it was foolish to lose my cool in front of my boss, especially when your boss is a seven-foot-tall grizzly bear of a man. But I simply couldn’t help it. The months of frustration that had built up inside me finally erupted out of my mouth in a scream. I screamed so loud that my throat stung like I had just poured acid down my esophagus.
I must have stood up, because I remember Agent Nineteen pulled me back into my chair while I tried to catch my breath so I could yell some more. But I didn’t have it in me. So when I spoke again next, it came out in more of a hoarse whisper.
“You tell me what’s going on or I’m walking,” I said. “I mean it, I’m out. You can’t just ask people to do things for you, and then make kids disappear and expect everyone to be cool with that. Because I’m not cool with it. And I won’t let you do this. Even if that means going to the local police or the FBI or the NSB. They’ll listen to me. Someone will, eventually. You know it and so do I. Now tell me what is going on.”
Director Isadoris was quiet for a long time. He just sat there, staring at me, unblinking, unflinching. His eyes burned and they almost seemed superhuman in that moment. They glowed with intensity. He was upset, and why shouldn’t he be? He was working to save the world.
But so was I. And in order to do that, I needed to know what had happened to Junior.
Finally, he nodded.
“Okay, fine, we’ll tell you everything,” he said softly. “But just remember—this was your choice.”
CHAPTER 37
WHAT COULD BE WORSE THAN TORTURE AND DEATH? JUNIOR WILL TELL YOU
DIRECTOR ISADORIS AND AGENT NINETEEN SILENTLY LED ME TO a nearby room. At first, I was worried they were taking me to some kind of morgue. Or maybe a torture chamber. But it ended up just being a small, concrete room with a single plastic table in the center.
It looked like a police interrogation room from the movies, except this one didn’t have a mirror or any one-way glass. Instead, it was just plain concrete from floor to ceiling.
“Have a seat.” Director Isadoris motioned to one of the four chairs at the table.
I sat down. He and Agent Nineteen sat down across from me. Agent Nineteen set a thin laptop computer on the table between us and then opened it. He spun it toward me so I could see the screen.
“Are you sure you want to see this?” he asked me.
I remembered being present in the room while Mule’s psycho little henchman Packard tortured my friend Olek just a few months ago. If I could witness that, I was sure I could handle this.
“Show me,” I said.
Agent Nineteen glanced at Director Isadoris. Director Isadoris merely gave a single nod back. Agent Nineteen pressed a button and then a video filled the computer screen.
It was Junior. He was sitting at a table in a room not unlike this one. In fact, it might even have been the same room. And he wasn’t being tortured and hadn’t been drugged or anything like that. In fact, he had a soda and chips in front of him and was calmly answering questions like everything in the world was okay.
And at first I didn’t get it. Why had they been so scared to show me this? It didn’t make sense. This was, like, best-case scenario. Junior was unharmed and cooperative. And apparently being fed just fine.
“Junior, look at me,” an offscreen voice in the video said.
Junior redirected his gaze from his bag of chips toward the voice.
“We’re going to ask you some control questions first,” the interrogator said.
“Control?” Junior said.
“Yeah, just a few basi
c questions to show you’re in the right state of mind and in good health.”
“Okay, sure,” Junior said.
They first asked him where he lived and what his name was and his parents’ names and ages and a whole bunch of questions that they already knew the answers to, no doubt. Junior responded to each one calmly and easily. He seemed a bit nervous but otherwise okay.
Then came the real questioning. The questioning surrounding his involvement with Medlock and the events of the past few days. And they basically didn’t even need to ask many questions. Junior seemed more than happy to give up everything he knew.
And that’s when he dropped the bombshell that basically blew up my little personal universe:
“I’ve only worked with one person, really,” Junior said, “I even have another meeting with him tomorrow for a new job. It was this kid at my school named Dillon. He’s got a twin sister named Danielle, too. But it was Dillon who paid me to do all those things.”
CHAPTER 38
WHO IS BETRAYING WHO ANYMORE?
AFTER THE VIDEO, I JUST SAT THERE AND STARED AT THE blank screen for a long time in silence. To their credit, Agent Nineteen and Director Isadoris gave me the time to do so. They sat across from me and waited patiently.
“It can’t be true,” I finally said. “It’s not, is it?”
They looked at each other and then back at me. Clearly, this wasn’t some practical joke or master prank.
“We’re investigating the matter,” Agent Nineteen said.
“Maybe it’s some kind of innocent prank Dillon is pulling,” I suggested, knowing how unlikely that was even as I said it.
“Of course, nothing is outside the realm of possibility,” Director Isadoris said. “But you have to admit it would be a reach to assume anything but direct involvement by Medlock. For Gomez and both Mr. Jensens to be targets, as well as the new evidence surrounding Ms. Pullman, it would be a pretty remarkable and unlikely coincidence for it all to be an innocent prank.”
It couldn’t be true. There was no way. I knew I just needed to talk to Dillon first; I could straighten this all out. Figure out what he was thinking, if he even knew who Medlock was. If I could only talk to him, tell him the truth like I should have from the very start, then it would undo the damage.
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