Prettyboy Must Die

by Kimberly Reid

  “If you’re English, I’m guessing you work for MI5?”

  “That’s our version of the FBI,” she explains without missing a beat. “I work for the Secret Intelligence Service. MI6.”

  “I always get those two mixed up. You guys could stand to add a little creativity to your agency naming. No one’s mixing up CIA and FBI,” I say, but in truth, I know the difference.

  I’m just glad she does, too.

  “So, what’s an MI6 operative doing at Carlisle?”

  “You know how it works, Peter. Tit for tat. You told me who you work for, I told you, and that’s all you get. Unless…”

  “No way am I telling you why I’m here. For all I know, you still haven’t told me the truth about which government you’re from,” I say as we reach the chem lab.

  I knock lightly on the door and look through the window. For the second time today, or the second time ever, Duncan looks relieved to see me. When he comes over to unlock the door, his look of relief turns to surprise.

  “Why is she with you?” he asks when he lets us in. Even under these circumstances, I can tell Duncan is miffed. He, like practically every other guy at Carlisle, has a crush on Katie. Unlike every other guy at Carlisle, he actually had the nerve to ask her out and got rejected. It was probably the funniest of the many funny stories Katie told me on our one date. Now it makes me wonder if she’s funny for real, or just as a cover.

  “Oh, Peter rescued me,” she says before I can respond.

  She wants to keep her cover, so that was probably the hardest lie she had to tell. I’m pretty sure Katie doesn’t need any rescuing, and would hate admitting it if she ever did.

  “He didn’t do the greatest job of it. What happened to your face?”

  “Oh, but he did, and it’s an amazing story. I’ll have to tell everyone about it one day when we have more time, but that isn’t today. Right, Peter? Tell Duke how we have to go, now that we know everything is okay in here.”

  “Go? Go where?” Duncan asks. “The whole time I’ve been terrif—terrifically concerned that these guys would wake up any minute.”

  “The way Bunk and I tied them up, they’re no threat even if they come to,” I tell him, but I see it’s no help. Though he didn’t quite admit it, I can see in his face that he really is terrified. I try to boost his confidence. “Great job on the New York accent, by the way. I was actually worried it was the hostile.”

  Duncan still looks “concerned.” Rather than try to convince him otherwise, I kneel down next to the hostile who’d gotten the choke hold earlier and land a hard blow to his head. That gets a gasp out of Katie, who is really selling the damsel-in-distress bit. It’s quite the performance, which means I shouldn’t trust her farther than I can throw her. That will be hard to do when every night she’s been the last thing I think about before I fall asleep, ever since the day I met her.

  She hears a sound in the corner and turns to find Maitland, still tied up but conscious.

  “Our World Geo teacher is one of them?” she asks.

  “No, he’s just collateral damage,” Duncan says, mimicking what I told him earlier, I guess in an attempt to impress Katie. “But just in case, I taped his mouth when he came to. I wasn’t sure if I should knock him out like Peter just did to that guy. I mean, he is our teacher, as far as we know.” This last sentence sounds more like a question than a statement.

  “That’s right, Duncan. As far as we know,” I assure him.

  Though I didn’t confirm it when he asked who I really am, Duncan is by now convinced I’m not just the nerd-boy he got a kick out of tormenting for the last eight weeks, and he’s acting like we’re now on the same team. And I guess we are. We all are, really. Everyone in the school.

  “But now we have to go,” Katie says, a little too urgently. Apparently she’s forgotten the role she’s been playing.

  “Go where? You can’t stay, Smith?” Duncan says, also forgetting his big-man act and sounding a little scared.

  “We’ve—I took down two other hostiles, which I think leaves two more,” I explain. “I need to find and neutralize them before we can figure out how to get out of here.”

  “Shouldn’t Katie stay here, where it’s safer?” Duncan says, turning to Katie. “Don’t worry. I’ll protect you.”

  Uh oh. He probably shouldn’t have said that. I step in before Katie can go ballistic.

  “Duncan, I think she’ll just feel more comfortable staying with me. Isn’t that right, Katie?”

  Fortunately for Duncan, I’m able to keep her response limited to a serious eye-roll.

  As we head for the door, Duncan says, “Wait. What about the other one? Aren’t you going to punch him, too?”

  “The first hit I gave that guy will keep him out for hours. Another one might kill him.”

  Duncan looks satisfied, or as satisfied as a kid can be whose biggest worry this morning was not failing the German midterm. He wishes us luck before he locks the door behind us.

  CHAPTER 21

  The second she steps into the hall, we hear a voice I recognize.

  “Hey! What are you doing down there?”

  “That’ll be Koval,” I whisper, maintaining my position in the alcove, out of sight. “When he reaches you, I’ll flank him and we’ll take him down.”

  “No,” she whispers back.

  “No? That’s definitely him and he’s getting closer,” I say as his jangling keys grow louder.

  “Trust me on this. I can’t blow my cover yet.”

  “But your clothes—”

  “Stay hidden. Please, Peter.”

  Even though she’s been looking down the hall toward Koval this whole time, I’m watching her, trying to decide whether to trust my instincts or hers.

  At the last second, I duck into the bathroom, leaving the door open a crack so I can hear whatever’s about to go down. This would be the perfect opportunity to take Koval, even if he’s armed. He won’t expect two of us. But her last request was more like a plea, and by now I know Katie isn’t the kind of girl who begs for anything.

  There’s something going on between her and Koval, though she claims to know nothing about him. I don’t know what Katie is playing at, or whether I should trust her as she asked, but I stay back.

  “I was in the girls’ room when that announcement came on, and I’ve been afraid to come out. So … is everything still horrible out here?”

  “Afraid so. We’re still on lockdown.”

  “So why aren’t you hiding somewhere?” Katie asks.

  “Well, I’m not just a janitor.”

  Uh oh.

  “Carlisle hired me as undercover security.”

  I knew it. Not that it matters now.

  “So what are you going to do about all of this?” Katie asks accusatorily, apparently forgetting she’s supposed to be playing a scared student.

  “Not much I can do against a team of bank robbers, except walk the halls looking for kids like you who shouldn’t be out here. Hey, why are you dressed like that?”

  “I’m supposed to be in drama right now. We’re doing Evita. I play a soldier.”

  Koval is quiet for a few seconds before I hear him say, “You should probably come with me.”

  “I’ll just go back to my class now, but thanks.”

  “I don’t think that’s best,” Koval says, sounding a lot sterner than he has up until now.

  “Let go of me,” Katie says, the last word muffled by what I suspect is Koval’s hand over her mouth.

  All I can hear is the sound of their feet moving down the hall, and then no sound at all.

  I play all the scenarios: Koval is putting on a great act as the loyal school employee trying to protect her; he thinks she’s just a student, and therefore leverage to negotiate his way out of here; Marchuk has told him what Katie really means to me, and he’s going to hurt her.

  Since I’m trained to assume the worst, I choose the last scenario. With Katie so reluctant to blow her cover, she won’t
fight him until the situation becomes do-or-die. She’ll be on the defensive, never a good position. And if she does fight, it will have to be hand-to-hand because she’s left her bag here.

  Katie is pretty kickass, but I don’t like her odds in that situation. Koval’s a big dude.

  Just as I step out of the restroom, a girl comes out of the one opposite. She lets out the beginning of a scream before I can grab her and cover her mouth. It takes me asking her three times whether she can calm down before I free her.

  “Oh my God, I’ve been looking for you and here you are!” she scream-whispers.

  Even at a loud whisper, I recognize her voice. It’s the way-too-perky girl who ran into Koval outside the office earlier.

  “Shhh,” I say, hustling her back into the girls’ bathroom, which she takes the wrong way. Very wrong.

  “Oooh, you want a little privacy, huh? That’s fine by me, Prettyboy.”

  “Why are you just roaming the halls?” I ask, holding her at arm’s length. Or at least trying to, since she’s squirming around attempting to, I don’t know, kiss me, I think. “You do understand there are terrorists running around, right?”

  “Honestly, I haven’t seen a single one. I think maybe you’re just putting us on. Oh my God, is this a prank? That’s what it is, isn’t it? I knew it!”

  My fan makes me think of the movie Katie and I saw during our one and only date. After we left the theater, she spent ten minutes analyzing why there always has to be one in every scary movie ever made. You know the character—her silliness draws the ax murderer toward the group just as they’re about to get away, and she’s about to get everyone killed until someone slaps the stupid out of her? Katie insisted no one like that exists in real life, and if she did, her girl-card should be revoked.

  I’ll have to tell Katie I found one.

  “This is not a prank, and I really don’t have time for this. I have to find—”

  “Promise me you’ll take me to the winter dance, and maybe I’ll believe you.”

  “Look, uh, what’s your name?”

  “Rachel.”

  “Rachel—do you really think Dodson, the woman who has zero sense of humor, would be in on it with me? You heard her announcement, right?”

  This seems to make the girl think for a second.

  “If you’ve been running around the school looking for me, you know everything’s been locked down. Do you really think I could manage to take over the security system, like I’m some kind of genius hacker or something?”

  “I suppose not.”

  Time to land the kill shot. “And I just watched Katie Carmichael get taken away by one of the bad guys.”

  “So this is for real?” says the girl, finally getting it. Only problem is, I think she may have gotten it too much. Her eyes go wide and she drops her phone. “Oh my God. What are we going to do? We’re going to die, aren’t we? We’re all going to die!”

  “Well, we are not going to freak out,” I say, though it may already be too late. “We’re going to stay calm and make a plan to save our homecoming queen.”

  Rachel is silent, just staring at me like she may have gone catatonic, but at least she isn’t screaming.

  “Are you still with me, Rachel?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay, good. We need to create a diversion. I have a lighter; we could set some paper towels on fire, maybe set off the sprinkler system. Unless she’s disabled that system, too,” I say, talking more to myself than to Rachel as I think through a plan, “and even if she didn’t, the alarm might scare everyone into leaving their classrooms.”

  “Where is Katie?” Rachel asks, suddenly coming to life.

  “I think she’s in the janitor’s office. Why?”

  “Give me three minutes,” she says, heading for the door, “and I’ll give you one big fat distraction outside the janitor’s office.”

  “What are you gonna do?”

  “You’ll see! Just get ready.”

  I’m scared to know what she’s planning, but I need to be focused on Koval when it happens, so I don’t press her for details. But I do ask her one last question before I leave.

  “Which class should you be in right now?”

  “Sixth-period World Geo, but don’t worry, because my teacher—”

  “Isn’t there. I know. He’s kind of tied up right now,” I say, before she takes off running like she stole something.

  What I don’t know is why Maitland wasn’t in his class when the lockdown happened, and I’m starting to think it wasn’t a coincidence. But I got ninety-nine problems and Maitland is like, ninety-eight on the list.

  When I reach Koval’s office, I was right in guessing he’d bring Katie here. I hear her voice but I don’t dare sneak a look inside, in case Koval is watching the door. Instead, I stand just outside of it, waiting for Rachel’s distraction to arrive.

  “Please, sir … please,” Katie is pleading, “I don’t know what you’ve been told, but you have it all wrong.”

  I hear a murmur of voices at the end of the hall, and turn around to see Rachel and about fifteen girls, presumably from Maitland’s class. She gives the thumbs-up sign and I return it, sick to my stomach.

  But I don’t have much time to think about it because suddenly the hall is filled with screams and squeals of what seems like a whole lot more than fifteen girls. And they’re all yelling “Prettyboy.” I feel the way I do every time I board a roller coaster, a jumble of fear and happy anticipation of what’s to come. But I need to be all business now, so I get my head right, act like a CIA-trained operative, and feel what I need to feel to get through this moment: nothing.

  The minute Koval steps out of his office, I land my fist against the side of his head. It stuns him long enough for Katie to get out of the room, but it doesn’t bring him down. It probably hurt me more than it hurt him. It feels like I’ve broken a phalange or two. If ever there was a candidate for horse tranquilizer, this is the one, but Katie’s bag of tricks is still on the alcove floor.

  It’s something I never want to do to a guy, but I have to resort to Katie’s and Dodson’s tactic and kick him in the jewels. That brings him to his knees, but I know it won’t be for long. I’m about to finish him off by landing a kick somewhere more lethal, but Katie stops me.

  “Don’t kill him, Peter.”

  That request only confirms my suspicions—Katie is working with Koval—but I don’t want Katie to know I know. Besides, I’m mostly concerned about the safety of sixth-period World Geo’s female population right now.

  So while Koval is still down, I get behind him and apply a sleeper hold while shouting at the girls to get back to class. But of course they don’t move, other than to shuffle back a few feet, and worse, Koval won’t lose consciousness. I brace against the lockers for leverage, but the guy is so strong, he’s able to fight the hold. All I seem to be able to do is make him groggy. I pull the folding knife from my pocket.

  “No!”

  “He won’t go down, Katie. I have to—”

  “You have to leave him alive. If you kill him before … before I have confirmed something…”

  “What are you talking about? You have to give me more than that,” I say, still holding on to Koval’s neck. Now I feel his body going slack. The sleeper hold is finally taking effect on him, but I probably won’t be able to put him under for very long. My arm is running out of strength.

  Katie looks at me. No arms crossing her chest, no eye-rolling, no hands on hips. Just looks at me.

  “Someone in this building—who I hope is still in this building—could endanger your country’s security.”

  She’d never admit it, but her eyes have watered up a little. Looking in them, I know with certainty that she believes what she’s saying. But I still don’t close the blade. Just because she believes it doesn’t mean I have to.

  “Does this have something to do with the packages you claim to know nothing about?”

  “Whether the rest of us like it o
r not, your country’s vulnerability means ours as well, your enemies and allies alike. You’re worried about five hundred people? I’m worried about seven billion. Please, Peter, don’t do it. Please.”

  At first, I can’t even process what she’s saying to me, except the part about how the security of the planet rests with someone in this building. But then I hear the desperation in her voice. Just a second ago, she was pleading with Koval the same way. Was she being truthful with him then or me now? Or has she been lying to us both? But the way she’s looking at me, I believe her. Just hope I don’t regret it.

  I loosen my grip around Koval’s neck, but stay in position in case I need to put him under again. Or slit his throat.

  Katie stands over Koval and pats him down. “Told you. No weapons.”

  “He’ll come to in a couple of minutes. Ask him what you need to, but you’re going to have to do it with me right here.”

  “Those girls—”

  “Are at the end of the hall. They won’t hear you.”

  Katie shakes her head. “Peter, it’s classified, and I—”

  “Nope. There is no way in hell I’m leaving you and this guy alone.” I look dead into her eyes so she knows there will be no negotiating on this point.

  Katie throws her hands in the air like she’s just about done. “Because you still don’t trust me?”

  “Why should I? You still haven’t told me anything—not enough, anyway,” I say, feeling that jumble of roller-coaster nerves coming back. Katie can throw me off my game like no one else. “It’s because I don’t trust either of you, but also because if we really are on the same side, even without a weapon, this guy might kill you.”

  No sooner do I say it than Koval comes to life—about a minute earlier than I expected—and grabs the knife from my hand. My position for the sleeper hold means I’m now pinned beneath two hundred and fifty pounds of muscle. With a knife.

  “Run, Katie!”

  If I’m going out, at least I can provide a distraction until Katie can get Rachel and her crew safely back to a locked classroom.

  But Rachel has other plans. Like Bunker, she has apparently watched too many movies, because from down the hall I hear her yell, “He can’t take us all. Let’s save Prettyboy!”