I decided not to push with the questions.
“Well … good,” I managed. “That’s good to hear.” I nodded at the path. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to get these laps over with.” I turned and started jogging again. Everyone kept up for a while, almost a whole lap actually, but then Yaakov dropped back, and Angie did too. Juno decided I was going a bit slower than he liked, and he bolted forward. Amara tried to keep up with him, and when the two of them disappeared around a corner, it looked like he was doing a pretty good job of it.
Then it was just Rylee and me. I knew she was beside me, but neither of us spoke, and I welcomed the silence. The thump thump thump of my shoes on the paved pathway relaxed me, and soon I was in a rhythm that forced my mind out of the panic associated with having decked Mr. Smith.
I started wondering about how I’d ended up in this camp. My dad had somehow put my name onto a roster that was supposed to be for a company camp. Did that mean Sledge Industries was a CIA front? Was my dad part of the CIA? Had he known the kind of camp he was sending me to? The more I thought about it, the more I decided that Dad didn’t have a clue. He couldn’t have. He was legitimately worried that someone would find out what he’d done. He’d dropped me off in an alley and warned me that he could lose his job if I was discovered. He wouldn’t have done that if he’d known.
Get it together, Matt. Focus. This is a dream come true. Every kid wants to be a spy. But it’s not like any kids really get to become one.
“Hey.”
Rylee’s voice startled me so much that I jerked my head around and tripped over my feet. I’d been so lost in my thoughts I’d almost forgotten she was beside me.
“Don’t do that!” I blew out a breath and tried to find my pace again. Rylee kept up.
Rylee cleared her throat as if to offer a warning she was about to speak. “Do you really not know anything about this camp? One minute you seem oblivious, and the next you seem like you know exactly what’s going on.” Her breath was labored, and I got the feeling that, if I wanted to, I could pour on the speed a bit and leave her behind. If her questions got too intense, I’d do just that.
“I know what’s going on,” I said. “It’s a training camp. We’ll all be very dangerous after we finish here.” I couldn’t help but smile at that thought. I’d always wanted to be dangerous. I was suddenly very anxious for tomorrow’s events.
“It is all about training,” Rylee agreed. “But all the camps are about training. I was mostly wondering if, maybe … it’s just that you don’t seem to be too concerned about the competitions, or you’re not really sure about what’s expected of you. Because that would be bad, you know, if you weren’t.”
“It’s all part of our training, Rylee.” I tried to sound stern and confident, but I wasn’t sure I pulled off either. I increased my speed just a bit, hoping it would convey the message that I didn’t want to talk about this anymore, but as I did, I pulled a muscle in my leg and had to drop back to a walk to try to loosen it up. So much for that. Rylee probably thought I wanted to talk now, and she might as well have had me in a headlock. I wasn’t going anywhere.
“Why are you being like this?” she asked. “I told you I read people. It’s what I’m good at. I know you’re hiding something.”
“Right, you and your sixth sense,” I said mockingly. “I nearly forgot.”
My jibe didn’t seem to faze her. “I’ll figure it out, Matt. Eventually I will. I’ll admit that you’re tough to read. On the one hand, you come across as a total newbie. But then you pull that gutsy move on the soccer field and put us in the lead in the preliminary challenges.”
Gutsy. I liked that.
“Of course, the very next day you go and mess up something as simple as holding a gun properly and get an injury I wouldn’t expect an eight-year-old to get.”
“I was distracted,” I said, practically shouting.
She shrugged. “I don’t really care if you’re trying to quell expectations, Matt. Maybe it’s a strategy that has worked for you in the past, and maybe it’ll work here. I just don’t get why you’re not being up-front about it to the rest of us. At the very least, I don’t get why you’re not just admitting it to me. Where were your other camps? What did they do there? Why haven’t I ever heard of you?”
“You ask a lot of questions, Rylee.”
“I’m just trying to help, Matt.”
“Well, I don’t remember asking for help.”
I tried to jog again, but my leg tightened. I swore under my breath and walked, trying to stretch the muscle a bit as I moved.
“It’s just … this is our shot,” she said. “We really can win this thing. We can be free of these stupid camps and get real missions.” She sighed. “I just want to know that you want this as badly as the rest of us.”
So that was it, then. Finally some information I could use. If we won the camp competitions, we’d be full-fledged CIA. We’d get real missions. I could actually call myself a spy.
Easy, Matt. Don’t let her see you excited.
“Rest assured, Rylee, I want to win way more than any of you guys want to win.” That had to be true. If I could pull off a win before Smith or Dalson figured out I wasn’t supposed to be here, I’d probably be able to convince them to let me be a real CIA operative. At the very least, maybe they’d let me come to other camps to get more training. Maybe they’d even let me bring Jason.
Okay, that might be pushing it.
“Good,” she said, “that’s all I wanted to know. That’s what I needed to hear. I know you think our team sucks, but—”
“I don’t think that,” I said quickly. “Have you seen Juno fight? It’s insane. And Yaakov, that kid clearly knows his way around a computer better than anyone else. Amara recognized the bombs I’d nearly been killed by on the soccer field just by looking at my injuries and sniffing my shirt.” I wiped sweat from my forehead and added, “I’m not sure about Angie. She’s clearly nuts, but I’m not sure how that helps.”
“It’ll help,” Rylee said.
“If you say so.” The muscle in my leg finally felt all right, and we started jogging again. “You put this team together, Rylee, so I know you know what you’re talking about. I value your opinion.” She smiled. Flattery seemed to have some effect on her. I decided to try humor again. “Plus, there is that supernatural sixth sense of yours. Never know when that’ll come in handy.”
Her smile widened. “That’s true. Plus, I can read palms and tea leaves.”
“Awesome,” I said. “We’ll have some tea when we’re done with our little jog, and you can tell me how sore I’ll be in the morning.”
“This is a better side of you, Matt. You seem real right now. I like you better when you’re unguarded.”
“And I like you better when you’re not doing so much prying,” I countered.
She smiled. “Point taken. I’ll ease up. And I’ll be sure to tell the rest of the team that you’re going for the win this session.”
“Do that,” I said.
We settled into a good pace after that, and before long, I felt the comfortable rhythm of the jog. I’ll admit, also, that once Rylee stopped hassling me for answers, and we were just running beside each other, it was kind of nice.
Chapter 23
It was nearly eight o’clock when Rylee and I finished our last lap. We both grabbed fresh clothes from the cabin, ignored the jeers from Juno about how slow we’d been, and headed to the showers. I don’t know how long I was in there. My muscles started aching as soon as I stopped walking, and I wanted to let the hot water loosen me up. When I finally came out, it was really dark, and I ran straight into Alexis, Duncan, and Rob.
“Jeez, guys,” I said to the young campers, “do you just hover around showers, waiting for me to come out? You can come to the cabin, you know.”
Alexis and Duncan remained stone-faced and kept their eyes trained on the area around us. Rob, on the other hand, smiled, thrust his hand out, and pressed something
against my chest.
The phone was black, with a large screen. Not as nice as the one Jason had given me, but still sleek and modern. I dropped my voice to a whisper. “Is this—?”
Rob nodded. “It’s Chase’s. We got it while he was running laps.”
Alexis pointed at the phone. “I hope that shows how serious we are.”
I laughed and shoved it into my pocket. “I can’t believe you got his cell phone.” It was the tiniest of victories, and I knew that, but for some reason, it felt like something more. I sighed. Having a working phone also meant I could call Jason and tell him what was going on. Maybe he could swing by my place and see if he could get some information out of my dad. “This is really great, guys. Well done.”
I turned to leave but stopped when Rob grabbed my arm. I spun back around.
“Sir,” he said, “I mean, Matt. We did like you asked, right?”
I nodded. “You did.”
We stared at each other for several awkward seconds.
“We just want to know if you’re going to use us for real stuff now,” Alexis whispered. “Did we pass your test? Can we be used for actual events?”
I nodded. “Yeah, sure.” I scratched the back of my head. “How about you go and find out what the first team event is going to be?”
“Um, sir,” Alexis began, “it’s a paintball version of Capture the Flag, sir. It’s always Capture the Flag.”
“Right, sorry,” I said. “Of course it is.” That actually put my mind at ease a bit. I used to play Capture the Flag with my friends. “And we’re having the first team event pretty soon, right? I mean it’s just … um …”
“At the end of the week,” Rob said. He spoke slowly like he wasn’t sure if he was saying what I wanted to hear. “They’re all at the end of the week. Three-week camp, three events. So, you’ll use us this Friday?’
“You bet,” I said.
Rob and Alexis nodded to each other. If I hadn’t been there, I bet they’d be tossing up high fives.
“Anything you need,” Rob began, “just let us—”
Duncan held up his hand, cutting Rob’s words short. Voices drew nearer from down the path, and a moment later, Angie and Yaakov came into view. I turned back to Rob and his teammates, but they were gone.
I’m really not going to get used to all this cloak-and-dagger stuff, I thought as I shoved my new phone into my pocket.
“Hey, Captain,” Angie said as they neared me. She sounded remarkably happy, considering she’d just walked a dozen miles. Yaakov, on the other hand, ambled along with a limp and grunted with each step.
“I have a blister the size of a fist,” Yaakov said.
I winced. “Gross.”
Angie asked, “Why are you just standing outside the showers?”
I sighed. “I was talking to some campers from our team. They want me to include them in the challenge this week.”
Angie cringed. “Really? They want to be used? How?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I told them I’d think of something.”
“They can have my spot,” Yaakov said. “I’m not going to be running through the woods with a foot like this.”
“You’re such a wimp, wire-head.” Angie gave him a shove, and he stumbled against the door to the guys’ shower. “We’re all tired and hungry.” She suddenly smiled. “But you can’t say that fight wasn’t fun.” She looked off, I assume into the memory of her pounding on that Team Squirrel kid. “We should do that again sometime.”
“Yeah,” I muttered, “I’ll be sure to schedule it for next week.” I glanced at Yaakov, and he gave me a pained please don’t look.
Angie’s smile widened as she headed to the girls’ shower. Yaakov blew out a breath and shook his head, and then he pushed through the doors to the showers, and once again, I was alone. The only silver lining to all this was that none of the counselors had come to get me. Maybe in the world of the CIA, hitting a camp counselor wasn’t really that bad.
Yeah, right.
Despite my exhaustion, the closer I got to the cabin, the more I wanted to use the phone and call Jason. He’d go nuts when I told him what was going on. I waited until the coast was clear and then ducked into the woods about a hundred yards from my Delta cabin. I crept through the blackness until I was sure my voice wouldn’t carry far enough for anyone to overhear me.
Jason picked up on the fourth ring.
“Yeah?”
“Jason, it’s me.”
“Cambridge? Are you back? Whose number is this?”
“I’m not back,” I whispered. “I’m still at camp.”
“Too bad, bro,” Jason said. “Daren and Mark and I are headed to the quarry tomorrow to shoot off some fireworks. You’re missing out.”
“Don’t tell me you’re still buying stuff from that guy who sold us the smoke for the talent show.”
“Um, okay, I won’t tell you that if you don’t want me to,” Jason said with a laugh.
“I can’t believe you’d still deal with him,” I said.
Jason laughed again. “I still deal with him because of that crazy smoke stuff. I mean that stuff worked better than advertised. It worked like a freaking charm.”
I blew out a frustrated breath. At least Jason was consistent. “Listen,” I said. “This camp is not what I thought it would be.”
“Oh, no!” Jason said. “They got to you, didn’t they? You actually like it there, don’t you? They’ve turned you into one of those leather-belt-making camp losers, haven’t they? Resist the programming, Matt. Resist it!”
“Jason!” I said his name louder than I’d intended, and I knew my voice had carried. I lowered my voice to a whisper and crouched a bit lower, even though I was pretty sure someone could be a few yards away and not spot me. “Shut up. Listen, man, this isn’t a joke.”
“You sound serious,” Jason said.
“I am,” I whispered. “You’re not going to believe this, but …” I told Jason all about camp and the campers. I told him about the shooting range and the martial arts. I told him about being a Delta and what that seemed to mean. I even told him about Chase, though I decided not to mention the fact that he’d beaten me up twice. Jason argued at first, called me a liar, and said I was crazy to think he’d believe all that. But eventually he must’ve heard something in my voice—panic, probably—because he started to believe me.
“Dude,” he started after a lengthy pause, “if you’re making this stuff up, I’m going to be choked.”
“C’mon, man. I told you I’m not. Somehow my dad got me into a CIA training camp for kids, bro. It’s crazy.”
There was another pause, and then Jason said, “You lucky dog!”
I smiled in spite of myself. I knew he’d be jealous, and hearing that did make me feel better about being there.
“You can’t get kicked out, man. Learn everything and then get back here and teach me. Or, if you can recommend someone else for the camp, give them my name! Wait, do you think my dad could pull some strings and get me in there?”
“Don’t even try!” I said. “It would be cool to have you in here, man, but if your dad starts asking questions about getting you into the camp, they’re going to realize our connection, and then the spotlight’s going to be even more on me.”
“You’re right.” Jason took a deep breath and let it out in a single burst. “So what do you need, Matt?”
“I’m totally lost here,” I said. “Everyone knows what’s going on, and I don’t have a clue. I need you to find out as much about this place as you can. There has to be some information out there. Just be smart about it. Okay?”
Trees rustled behind me, and I heard a snap. “Someone’s coming,” I whispered, then quickly ended the call and shoved the phone back in my pocket so that the illuminated screen wouldn’t give me away. I flattened myself against the dirt and held my breath.
More rustling, this time on my right. It was probably just a raccoon or something. It would be crazy if the camp ha
d people trolling the woods, searching for stray campers, but then another thought suddenly rolled through my head. The doctor had said there were people out in the woods. People who wanted to get their hands on the kids in this camp. I shook my head.
C’mon, Matt, keep it together. Juno said it was just an urban legend.
Several long seconds passed while my pulse pounded in my neck. Then I heard another snap, this time from my left, and it sounded very close. The doctor’s urban legend took hold of my mind with an iron grip. He was older and smarter than Juno. He’d been trying to warn me, not scare me. In my head, I swore a dozen times.
I told myself it was dark, and if I could move fast enough, they’d never see my face. I forced my brain to stop freaking out and counted.
One. I carefully moved back into a crouched position, keeping low, and shifting my weight onto the balls of my feet.
Two. I took a breath, held it, and peered through the darkness, mapping, as best I could, my way out.
Three! Trees rustled behind me, and I imagined the sound to be a blast from a starter’s pistol.
I charged forward, ducking under branches and leaping over logs. When I burst out of the woods, I ran in the opposite direction from my cabin. If they spotted me, whoever they were, I didn’t want them to see me run toward Team Grizzly’s Delta cabin. Instead, I sprinted back to the parking lot, crisscrossed very carefully through at least three other sections—but not Team Squirrel’s section; I wasn’t interested in another fight—and then ducked behind a cabin close to the perimeter walkway. I waited there for a solid minute before I drew a breath and forced my pulse to slow to a regular beat. Then I stepped casually out of the shadows, strolled to the main path, and headed back to my cabin. When I passed the archery range, something stepped out of the woods. I froze and stared into the shadows. It took me a moment to realize what I was seeing, but when I did, I laughed.
Disruption Page 12
