A deer. It was just wandering between the targets, munching on some of the longer grassy areas, without a care in the world. “It was a deer, you idiot,” I said to myself. “Stop being so freaking jumpy.”
By the time I got back to the cabin, exhaustion had a pretty good hold of me. I ignored the comments and questions from my teammates about what had taken me so long. I just collapsed face first onto my bed and fell instantly to sleep.
Chapter 24
“Wake up.”
I groaned and rolled onto my back.
“C’mon,” Juno said, shaking me again, “let’s go.”
“W-what?” I propped myself up on an elbow. The cabin was still mostly dark, except for some dull light seeping in through the partially opened windows. I spotted Amara, Rylee, and Angie still sleeping. Yaakov sat on the edge of his bed, tying the laces of his shoes. I fell back and groaned again. “Go where?”
Juno held up his fists and jabbed out a couple punches, then gestured to the door again.
I’d totally forgotten he’d offered to teach me how to fight. I sucked in a lungful of air and swung my legs over the bed. That’s when I realized just how sore I was. My legs felt like they’d been trampled by sumo wrestlers riding elephants. I sat there for a minute while he rolled his eyes at me and tapped his wrist. I shifted my weight, pushed myself to my feet, and sighed, relieved I’d had the good sense to fall asleep wearing jeans. There was no way I would’ve been able to get a pair of pants on otherwise. I slipped into my shoes and headed, mostly stumbling, outside.
“How are you guys walking?” I asked when I’d caught up a dozen yards from the cabin. “My legs feel like they’re going to fall off.”
“Just my feet hurt,” Yaakov said. “My legs don’t.”
A bandage poked up from the back of his shoe, which must’ve helped since he wasn’t limping half as badly as he had been the previous night.
Juno led us into the woods behind the cabin. We clambered over fallen trees and pushed through patches of thick undergrowth; fortunately, the little walk helped loosen the muscles in my legs somewhat. We finally stepped out into a small clearing about the size of my bedroom back home.
Juno looked around and nodded. “This’ll work.”
“Here?” Yaakov asked. “This is where you’re teaching us?” He kicked at roots that jutted up through the earth and then wandered around the perimeter, seemingly disappointed.
“Where did you think I was going to teach you?” Juno asked. “Out in the open?” He pointed back the way we’d come. “We can go back if you want. Maybe practice in Team Squirrel’s section of the camp. At least you’d get lots of experience in getting your face punched.”
I winced and turned to Yaakov, who was now just a couple feet to my right.
“Yeah,” Juno said, “that’s what I thought.” He drew in a breath, let it out slowly, and then strolled up until he was right in front of me and Yaakov. Then he lunged out and slapped us both in the faces. Hard.
“Hey!” My face stung, and it had happened so fast I wasn’t even sure which of us had been hit first. I rubbed my cheek. “What was that for?”
“If you’re fighting someone,” Juno began, “you’re not going to block anything if you don’t have your hands up. So that’s lesson one.”
He stepped up again and swung at my face. This time I raised my hand, and he hit my arm. Yaakov gave a frightened yelp and stepped back when Juno went for him next. He avoided the smack but tripped over a root and landed with a thud.
“Keep your hands up,” Juno said, “but keep your eyes open too. Look around. Falling down during a fight isn’t going to do you any favors.” He tapped his chin. “We can call that lesson two.”
Yaakov groaned as he pushed himself to his feet and cursed. “I didn’t come all the way out here just to be—”
Slap!
Yaakov staggered to the side, his hand pressed against his reddening cheek. I laughed.
Slap!
I stumbled back, clutching my face.
Juno’s strikes happened so quickly I could hardly track them, and they were starting to feel a lot like punches. He tilted his head and raised his arms again. My hands shot up to protect my head, and Yaakov did the same.
“Better,” Juno said.
Yaakov rubbed the side of his face and whimpered.
“When are you gonna teach us how to hit back?” I asked.
Juno raised an eyebrow and looked both of us up and down. “I’ve seen you both fight. Let’s focus on blocking for now.”
For over an hour we did nothing but block Juno’s punches. He showed us inside blocks and outside blocks. He showed us high blocks and low blocks. But most of the time, our blocks were as simple as putting our hands up to cover our faces. I tried to count how many times he slapped us and gave up when I got to forty-seven.
When our lesson ended, I had a bloody lip, and Yaakov had the start of a black eye. My face was so numb a dentist could have probably done a root canal and I wouldn’t have felt anything. The only plus was I felt a bit more confident about my ability to block a punch, and all the ducking and dodging had really loosened me up, so my legs weren’t sore at all anymore.
We got breakfast, and I checked my schedule. I couldn’t help but laugh.
Arts and Crafts.
Chapter 25
Arts and Crafts was in the main building near the parking lot. I entered and made my way toward the room hesitantly. If I’d learned anything from “Archery” and “Basic Self-Defense,” it was that “Arts and Crafts” was going to be anything but artsy and craftsy.
I turned the handle and stepped inside. Campers sat across from each other along rectangular tables, chattering away while they made leather key chains and bookmarks. They had stampers that pressed shapes into the leather and little tools to cut designs. I smiled, instantly reminded of how Jason had called me a belt-making camp loser. Here I was looking at a room full of them.
Alexander Bratersky shoved past, glaring at me over his shoulder as he walked across the room. A second later Becca Plain did the same. She was on crutches now, which I guess was better than a wheelchair, though she still looked like she’d been attacked by a pack of hyenas—which would have been pretty ironic. Delta for Team Hyena attacked by a pack of hyenas. I nearly smiled at that thought. Nearly.
“What are you looking at?” she snapped.
“Nothing,” I said, drawing back a step. “Just glad to see you’re healing.”
“Sure you are,” she said with a sneer. “Make one more comment like that, and I’ll beat you with this.” She held up her crutch.
I felt my eyes widen. “You’ll beat me for saying I’m glad you’re healing?”
Her eyes became slits. “Yeah. I will.” She turned back and crutched her way across the room and through a door at the far side. While I stood there wondering who was crazier, Becca or Angie, a dozen other campers trickled past me and disappeared through the same door. Becca, I thought as I crossed the room; Becca’s clearly the craziest.
The door led to a small staircase that descended into a cool basement with exposed pipes and a concrete floor. On one of the conduits I spotted a careful etching of the letters PCIA, and it made me smile. It felt like a reminder about what we were doing here, and I wondered if that had been the reason campers did it in the first place.
I followed the other campers down a corridor that probably stretched the length of the main building, then up a set of stairs, and then through another door. When I stepped through, I was looking at basically the same room as before, only the campers sitting across from each other in this room appeared deadly serious, and the woman at the front of the room stuck me with an evil stare that felt like a warning to sit down.
I plunked myself into the first free seat I spotted, and only realized after the fact that I was sitting across from Becca. I cursed, and she glared at me like she was trying to develop heat-vision to cook the skin off my face. Before I could change tables, the counselor mar
ched over to the door and set the lock.
“Getting out of a tough situation can be as simple as having the right identity,” the woman said. “Today the focus is on creating authentic birth certificates.”
“What?” I said under my breath.
The counselor glared at me and then continued, indicating the list on the blackboard behind her. “Gather your supplies, and let’s get started.”
*****
Three hours later, I was officially a fourteen-year-old Swedish boy named Gunnar Konstantan. At least, that’s what my birth certificate said. I smiled at the document. I wasn’t entirely sure if I’d ever have a need to pretend to be Swedish, but the possibility of missions that might require it was intoxicating. I imagined being on some super-secret spy assignment in Europe and the only way I could get out of a country was to convince officials I was from Sweden. It was right out of a movie, and here I was getting trained.
“That’s it,” the counselor said. “Shred the documents before you leave.”
I clutched the certificate to my chest. Shred it?
As the campers got up and headed for the industrial shredder at the end of the room, Becca leaned across the table and grabbed my wrist.
“If you sit at this table or anywhere near me ever again—”
“Yeah, yeah, you’ll beat me with your crutches,” I said, twisting my hand out of her grip. “Cool.” I pushed myself up and added, “Can’t wait.”
I gathered up the scraps from my work and headed across the room, leaving Becca muttering curses and hurling imaginary ice picks at me through her eyes. It felt good to stand toe-to-toe with another Delta, even if that other Delta was a crippled little girl who couldn’t really stand right now. It made me feel like I belonged at the camp.
While I waited in line for the shredder, I carefully folded the birth certificate and stuffed it in my pocket. I wasn’t going to shred my first attempt at a fake ID. Next lesson, if I did better, I’d shred the old one, but until then, I was keeping it. Jason would totally be jealous when he saw it, and maybe by the end of the summer I’d have a full set of fake IDs for Gunnar Konstantan. I wasn’t sure what I’d do with it yet. But having an alter ego sounded fun.
*****
Archery was after lunch, but after nearly having sliced my thumb off in the previous lesson, I didn’t hold much hope that Range Master Fargas would welcome me back.
I was right.
“Cambridge!” Fargas barked as the other campers collected their weapons. The man stalked forward and stopped just a few paces away and glared down at me.
“Sir?”
“Got a surprise for you, Cambridge,” Fargas continued. The other campers hesitated on their way to the range and faced me. “Do you like surprises?”
“Um, I suppose, sir.” I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like this one.
He reached behind his back and pulled out a water gun. It was pink and had yellow daisies painted on the grip. The campers burst out laughing. Even Juno didn’t hold back. I guess I would’ve laughed too if it hadn’t been me getting the gun.
“This is your new weapon, son.” He shot a blast of water that hit me in the side of the face and then thrust the plastic weapon toward me. “You’ll be using this until I see that you know proper holding and handling techniques.” He indicated the door to the shooting range. “Get going.”
I made it a few steps before Fargas called after me, “And remember, Cambridge, it’s loaded.”
It probably wouldn’t have been so bad except the rest of the campers in the shooting range kept calling me Squirt—a nickname I’m pretty sure Juno started.
I was learning, I told myself. And if being a spy meant getting teased for a few weeks, I could take it. As dorky as I felt holding a water gun designed for three-year-old girls, I did exactly as Fargas told me, and by the end of the lesson, after being yelled at only a half dozen times, Fargas seemed to notice.
“Not bad, Cambridge,” he said. “That’s the proper way to hold a gun. Next lesson, maybe I’ll bring you one of those guns that shoots marshmallows.”
Goody.
*****
That evening I went for another “walk” and, as soon as it was dark enough, ducked into the woods near the archery range. I found the same spot I’d used before and quickly dialed Jason’s number.
“Dude,” Jason said, “you don’t tell a guy that ‘someone’s coming’ and then hang up and not call back for a full twenty-four hours. I thought you were dead, bro.”
“Sorry,” I said, recalling how I’d ended the last conversation I had with Jason. “It was a deer.”
“What was?”
“The person I thought was coming. Last night when I hung up on you.”
“The deer was a person? What are you talking about, Cambridge?”
I groaned. “It doesn’t matter. What did you find out?”
“Nothing, man. I even went to see your dad and asked him if I could see the brochure on the camp. I told him my dad was thinking of sending me there next year. He told me he didn’t have one, and that it probably wasn’t the best fit for me anyway.” He laughed. “I don’t think your dad likes me very much.”
“Well, you are a terrible influence.”
“That’s true,” Jason said, “but listen, I have another idea. A CIA camp isn’t going to advertise itself. But there might be some information on the people running it. That might be helpful for you, right?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Of course it would.”
“Thought so,” Jason said. “So I was thinking, you know how there’s that program online where you click on a picture and it finds the same face anywhere else online?”
“Um, I remember you showing that to me last summer. But I also remember that you tried to find pictures of yourself and ended up getting a dozen pictures of Harry Styles back.”
“Can I help it if I’m a heartthrob?” Jason laughed and then stopped abruptly. “Seriously, though, it’s gotten a lot better.”
“So you want me to … what?”
“Send me pictures,” Jason said. “Send me pictures of the leaders, of the campers, of anyone you can get a picture of, and I’ll check it out on the web. Maybe I’ll find something.”
“Yeah, right.” I said, “I’m not supposed to have a phone at all. If I start walking around snapping pictures, someone’s probably going to notice, and I’ll just get kicked out.”
“So do it at night or something. If you want me to figure anything out, we need to start somewhere.”
“I’ll think about it.”
Jason asked a dozen other questions about the camp and laughed at me for almost slicing my finger off. “Who doesn’t know how to hold a gun?” he’d asked, as if he knew exactly how to hold and shoot one. I could hear the jealousy in his voice though, so I didn’t bother calling him on that comment. When I hung up, I sat down on a log and just listened to the forest. With the exception of the wind whipping through a few of the branches, there wasn’t a single noise.
As much as I’d love to see what Jason could dig up about some of my fellow campers, I didn’t want to risk getting kicked out.
A bit longer, I decided. I’d just keep going the way I was going and see if I could figure it out on my own. That, or figure out another way to get Jason some images.
Chapter 26
Between self-defense, making fake IDs, and the shooting range (where I had worked my way up to a BB gun), the days came and went at a crazy pace. I didn’t realize it was Friday until I woke up to Juno talking about how fun it was going to be to destroy everyone in Capture the Flag.
“That’s today?” I asked.
“As if you could forget,” Juno said.
I rubbed my eyes. “Of course not.”
“You better not have forgotten,” Rylee piped up. “We need to go over strategy.”
“Strategy … right. Um, yeah …”
“I have some thoughts, if you want,” Rylee said. She turned to Yaakov. “Can you get an image of
where we’re playing?”
Yaakov tsked. “Of course.” His fingers blurred across his keyboard.
“Have you done this before?” I asked. “Played Capture the Flag at one of these camps, I mean.”
“I have,” Amara said.
“So have I,” Rylee added.
Yaakov shook his head. “Never at one of the camps. If you’re not on the Delta team, it’s all about luck to get picked up as an extra.”
“Do you have anyone in mind for the extras?” Juno asked. “Because I’ve seen a couple kids on our team who look like they can probably handle themselves.”
I remembered Rob, Alexis, and Duncan. I owed them for nabbing Chase’s phone for me. Besides, the way they always snuck up on me and disappeared whenever anyone wandered by probably meant they were pretty good at sneaking around. “I have an idea for three of them,” I said. “How many extras do we get?”
The door to the cabin swung open and Counselor Clakk entered. She hadn’t bothered with us much since we’d fought Chase’s team on the path, except once or twice when she warned me to stay clear of Mr. Smith. I got the impression she had gone to bat for us, to make it so that one incident didn’t result in any expulsions. Occasionally, during meals mostly, she’d catch my gaze and toss out a warning look, but for the most part, she hadn’t been around. That was probably the reason most of us jumped when she marched in.
“You’ll get an additional twenty teammates.” She spoke as if she’d been part of the conversation from the start, and I immediately wondered if the room was bugged or if she’d been lurking outside listening in to the conversation through the door. Either way, I made a mental note to be careful about what I said from then on and to ask Yaakov to do another search of the room for listening devices.
Ms. Clakk strolled around the room, looking at each of us with an expectant expression. “Well?” Her gaze locked on me like a missile. “What’s the plan? Have you worked out a strategy?”
Sure, I wanted to say, we get the flags off everyone else before they get ours. But being snarky would probably get me in trouble, and besides, there was something about Ms. Clakk that made me squirm.
Disruption Page 13
