Break the Code

by Megan Atwood

  Maiv set her jaw. The Benefactor intended to end the Contest—and probably their lives—tonight.

  I agree that we have to play along until the last possible minute, Colin’s note went on. But once we’re all together in the van, I think we should go rogue. Drive somewhere far away from the river, give the Benefactor the slip, and then come up with a plan to take them down.

  Maiv couldn’t have agreed more. They couldn’t just escape the Benefactor. Not without leaving their families behind for real, and probably putting them in danger. So they would have to fight back—make sure that the Benefactor couldn’t hurt them or anyone else.

  Somehow.

  A fragment of an idea formed in Maiv’s mind.

  “Adam,” she said, “you know how you offered to help? Well—for starters, I could really use a loan.”

  CHAPTER 16

  Poor Adam. She’d used him and kept him in the dark. But yet again, he came through. He loaned her more than enough money to buy both bus fare and a cheap phone.

  Maiv bought a burner phone with thirty minutes of call time. She hoped that would be enough. Anyway, she only had about thirty dollars left now. The imaginary $10 million would come in handy at this point. She had to admit, even with everything else that had happened, the longing for that money hadn’t gone away.

  She took the bus to downtown Minneapolis, plotting the whole way. SolarStar was their target. She needed to warn them. But she couldn’t risk calling their offices, in case they were bugged. For the same reason, she couldn’t go into the offices in person. She’d have to send a messenger.

  At Government Plaza, a few blocks away from the SolarStar building, Maiv sat in front of a fountain, took out one of her reporter’s notebooks, and wrote out a message to Len Steinberg.

  You are being sabotaged. Someone connected to your partner, Huffmann Industries, is trying to ruin your breakthrough. Call this number so that we can explain.

  She wrote down the number for her burner phone.

  Do not tell anyone about this note. Your life may be in danger if you do. This is extremely important. We want to help.

  She folded up the note. On the back, she wrote SolarStar’s address and Len Steinberg’s name. Now she just needed to get this delivered . . .

  A few kids around Cai’s age walked past her. She caught up to them and stood in front of them. “Hey, do you want to make twenty bucks?”

  The kid scowled at her but then shrugged. “Sure. But how do you know I just won’t take the money?”

  Maiv looked him in the eyes. “Because I trust you.”

  The boy’s face turned red. The other two kids snickered and knocked him in the shoulders. But the kid in front of her said, “Depends on what I have to do.”

  Maiv put the note in his hands. “Deliver this. Right now. Only give it to Len Steinberg—don’t let anyone else try to take it, understand?”

  The kid nodded. Maiv took out twenty dollars and put that in his hand. She said softly, “My life may depend on this. Don’t let me down.” The kids walked away, and Maiv hoped this wasn’t her dumbest idea yet.

  CHAPTER 17

  Back home, Maiv waited for Len Steinberg to call her. After a few hours, she stopped holding the burner phone in her hand like a good-luck charm. He might not have gotten the message. He might not have believed what she was saying. Or he might think she was the enemy. But she had to keep hoping he would call at some point.

  Meanwhile, she got her bedroom to herself with talk of a killer physics test she needed to study for.

  Even though Maiv was wasn’t really running away, she knew the pain she would cause her parents was real. So the note she wrote was blotted with real tears. I love you. I’m sorry for any inconvenience this causes. I have decided that you would be better off without having to worry about me. I’ll be fine. Just know that. I’m figuring things out.

  At the bottom of the letter she added, Talk to Father Michael. He’ll understand and can help you.

  To the Benefactor, that would sound innocent. Just a way to comfort her parents. But once her parents talked to Father Michael, they’d know that she was in trouble. That she wasn’t just leaving on a whim.

  And then she’d find a way to contact them later. After this Contest was finally over.

  Maiv wiped her eyes and then grabbed her backpack. She shoved in what she thought she might need: clothes, toiletries, phone charger, paper and pens. She had no idea how long she’d be gone, but she didn’t want to make the bag too full. If she had to run, she wouldn’t want the weight slowing her down.

  As she was packing, she found the scrap of paper balled up in one of her jeans pockets. The jeans had been washed, and the paper was a stuck together. She opened it up gingerly, recognizing the piece of paper she’d crammed in her jeans the night of the flood.

  Ana’s new email address.

  She’d completely forgotten about it.

  It was only 7:30. If she could get downtown and to a computer, she could let Ana know they were on the same team.

  She took a long look around her room and hoped she’d see it again soon.

  But she knew she couldn’t come back until she’d solved the problem.

  Maiv opened her window and climbed out into the night.

  CHAPTER 18

  By 12:45, Maiv had gotten downtown, written to Ana, and sat at a coffee shop for hours. Steinberg still hadn’t called.

  And now it was too late to talk to him. It was time to head to the meeting spot.

  Maiv walked briskly down Jefferson toward Nicollet. The street was eerily empty. She passed a guy getting up from a bench and tossing something into the trash, and across the street she thought she saw a figure lurking in a doorway. Otherwise, nobody.

  The van was at the corner, as promised. When she opened the door, Colin gave a little shriek of surprise. She stifled a laugh. His nerves must be completely shot at this point—which shouldn’t be funny. But he had a very high-pitched scream for such a big guy.

  Still, they couldn’t be too careful. Maiv was ninety-nine percent sure the van was bugged. Which meant she and Colin couldn’t act as if they knew each other. Or the Benefactor would know they’d secretly been in touch.

  “I’m Maiv Moua,” she said pointedly. “We’ve never met.”

  “Uh, Colin.” He got it. Maiv smiled again. They were practically strangers, but they were in sync. That had to count for something. It was just about the only advantage they had.

  *****

  Five minutes later, Maiv stood outside the van with Colin and Ana. “So you know who the Benefactor is?” Ana said to Maiv.

  Colin stopped fidgeting and stared at Maiv. “Wait, what? You figured it out?”

  “I suspect I know,” said Maiv. “But I need to see how everything plays out tonight. And then we have to find proof.”

  “Yeah,” said Ana. “Do either of you know what James is doing in there?”

  “Stealing some sort of file—a project proposal,” Colin told her.

  “And I’m guessing that file contains a physical copy of the schematics for that project,” said Maiv. “The electronic copies are probably ruined by now.”

  Colin cut in. “Now you’ve lost me. What schematics?”

  Before Maiv could respond, Ana asked her, “You mean they only have one hard copy and one electronic file? That seems weird.”

  Maiv shrugged. “This technology is all pretty brand-new and super secret, so I don’t think they’re sharing it with anyone. Not even over email. Too many security risks.”

  “Will someone please tell me what’s going on?” Colin asked, his voice going up a little.

  Ana said, “All we know for sure is that James just walked into SolarStar with a gun and instructions to steal something.”

  “He has a gun?” said Maiv in surprise. Hadn’t Colin said he’d sent a gun to Ana? Was this the same gun, or another one?

  Before anyone could respond, they all heard it: sirens in the distance.

  “That’
s probably the police.”

  Maiv was about to say “Obviously,” but suddenly Ana was running down the street.

  “Ana, wait!” Maiv shouted, but Ana didn’t slow down.

  “Start the van!” Ana called over her shoulder.

  “Should we go after her?” Colin asked.

  Maiv’s mind felt surprisingly clear. She calculated the risks. “No, then we’ll all get arrested if the police show up before we can get away. Let’s just do what Ana asked—get in the van and wait for them to come back.”

  “If they come back,” said Colin.

  Maiv didn’t want to think about that. She started back toward the van. If only they’d managed to make contact with James earlier. He might not have any idea what he was walking into. She remembered the person she’d walked past on the way to the van: the guy by the bench, throwing something into a garbage can. That was probably him. Throwing away—something . . .

  “So who is it? Who’s the Benefactor?” Colin pressed.

  “I’ll tell you my theory when we’re all together,” Maiv said, reaching for the door handle on her side of the van. What had James thrown away?

  “And what about this EarthWatch project thing? Is this the thing that SolarStar and Huffmann Industries are working on together?”

  Maiv hardly heard him. What had James thrown away? “Wait here,” she said, turning on her heel.

  “What?! You said we should stay with the van—”

  “I just thought of something! Give me two seconds.”

  Maiv gestured for him to get into the van. He groaned in frustration as she ran off.

  CHAPTER 19

  Maiv sprinted to the garbage can, hoping no cameras were watching her. Or that if there were cameras, whoever was monitoring them was distracted by something else right now.

  She reached the garbage can and looked in.

  Right on top: a handgun.

  Well done, James, Maiv thought. At least he hadn’t broken into a building while carrying a weapon.

  But that weapon must have his fingerprints on it now. And if this was the gun Colin had sent to Ana, and Ana had sent it on to James, their prints would be on it too. They couldn’t just leave it here.

  Carefully, she picked it out of the receptacle and held it in her hands. She’d never held a gun before. She didn’t like it. But then again, she didn’t like a lot of things about this Contest.

  *****

  A moment after she and Colin got in the van, Ana and James appeared, both out of breath. James’s eyes were wide and he shook like a leaf. Maiv’s heart went out to him.

  Once they were all back in the van, Colin drove through the empty downtown, away from the sound of the sirens. He stuck to the speed limit. Smart, Maiv thought. If they passed any cop cars patrolling the area, no one would have a reason to stop them.

  No one spoke.

  Colin was taking them south—away from the river. Once the sirens had faded, Maiv gestured for him to pull over. Colin shot her a confused look, but she made the hand motions again and he nodded. Once he’d found a spot, Maiv got out of the van, and the others followed.

  “I thought we were going to make a break for it,” said Colin, sounding a little frustrated.

  Maiv said, “They probably have a tracker on the van. We won’t get far before they realize we’re not following instructions. And then they’ll come after us. So we need to make some decisions fast.”

  She glanced from face to face. Ana looked grim. Colin was clenching and unclenching his fists—a sure sign of nerves. And James looked totally confused and just plain terrified.

  Maiv spoke as calmly as she could. “They’re going to try to kill us tonight. That’s their only move now. And if we call the police, we’ll just get arrested. No one will believe the Contest is real. So we have to make a choice. Do we try to get away somehow? Or do we go and meet the Benefactor now, on our own terms?”

  “What do you mean by on our own terms?” asked James.

  “I mean we go after him.”

  “How?” Colin demanded. Maiv could tell he was getting fed up with being left out of the loop, and she felt bad that she hadn’t had time to explain more to him.

  “Well, I have an idea,” she said. “Look, the Benefactor is dangerous. We know that. You don’t mastermind something as complicated as this unless you have some real evil in your heart, some need for control. But I think we can take advantage of that. If you guys will trust me, I think we can find a way to prove that he’s behind this—and stop him from hurting anyone else. What do you say?”

  Ana, Colin, and James all looked at each other. Then Ana said, “I don’t know you at all. I don’t know what you have in mind. But no way am I letting this Benefactor get the best of me. No way.”

  Colin nodded. “Same with me.”

  James took a deep breath. “After the night I’ve had—the week I’ve had—yeah, I’m open to anything.”

  Maiv looked at all three of them and nodded. “Then let’s take this guy down.”

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Megan Atwood lives and works in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she teaches creative writing at a local college and the Loft Literary Center. She has an MFA in writing for children and young adults and was a 2009 Artist Initiative grant recipient through the Minnesota State Arts Board. She has been published in literary and academic journals and has the best cat that has ever lived.