3 The Spy Who Totally Had a Crush on Me

by Michael P. Spradlin

  “ I know, I know. But I had to go to the bathroom and I thought there might be one in here and I thought as long as I’ m here I might as well check out the van, so don’ t you want to see what’ s inside?”

  Mr. Kim sighed. He bowed his head for a moment.

  “ How did you get out of the van?” he asked.

  “ What?” Another good tactic with Mr. Kim is to feign ignorance or hearing loss.

  “ The car, how did you get out of the car? Alex tells me you were able to override the lock on the van and escape. How did you do that?”

  “ Do you realize we could be standing next to an entire van full of Mithrians, and here we are concerned with me and my little problems?” I asked him.

  “ I don’ t think the van is full of Mithrians. They are long gone. They’ ve escaped. Now answer my question,” he said.

  “ What was the question again?” For some reason I didn’ t want to get into the whole hand lighting up again thing.

  “ Rachel!”

  It was a close as Mr. Kim had ever come to raising his voice to me since I’ d been at Blackthorn. I have to admit it didn’ t sound pleasant.

  “ Okay! Geez. Don’ t be so sensitive. My hand went all tingly again, like with an electrical charge and I to pushed the button and the lock popped open. Like in Hawaii with the flashlight. That’ s all I know.”

  “ Are you sure? Are you hurt at all, did you feel any kind of pain?” He asked.

  “ No. Just a tingly sensation in my fingers then a feeling like pressure on the palm of my hand and then zap. Up goes the lock.”

  Mr. Kim frowned. He thought a moment then looked at me.

  “ Well, we can discuss this later. And we will. I simply cannot have you behaving this way. You could have put all of our lives in danger.”

  He was about to say more, but he was interrupted by the sound of a helicopter overhead. It was landing in the street outside the warehouse. The tactical team had arrived.

  A few minutes later, a team of FBI commandos came storming into the warehouse. Mr. Kim spoke to the team leader and several of the men approached the van. One of them took a device out of his pocket and began sweeping it back and forth over the van’ s hood.

  “ What are they doing?” I asked Mr. Kim.

  “ Checking for explosives and booby traps,” he said.

  I felt my stomach sink. I hadn’ t even thought about the possibility the van might be booby trapped. I could have opened the door and gone kablooey. Whew.

  The team leader reported that the van was ‘ clear’ and two of the agents approached the back of the van and stood on either side of the doors, machine guns at the ready. The team leader stepped up to the van door and pulled it open.

  It was empty.

  What the heck?

  One of the team members hollered from where he was standing over by the pile of boxes along the wall. The boxes were fake and attached to a sliding motorized panel. He flipped a switch, the panel swung out of the way, revealing a metal door built into the floor of the warehouse. Two other agents took up a tactical position on either side of it. One of them pulled it open revealing an underground stairway. Three of the agents hustled down the stairway and were gone for several minutes. Finally, word came back on the radio, the stairway led to a tunnel that led to another warehouse a one quarter of a mile away. The tunnel and the other warehouse were all empty.

  Mithras had escaped.

  Man I hate that guy.

  Chapter 24--Resignation

  He was one step ahead of us again, with a back up plan to the back up plan to the escape plan and thinking if we found out about them and were able to track them this far, they’ d still have a way to escape. Mr. Kim did some checking through FBI headquarters and it turns out that both of the warehouses were owned by the I.T. Harms Company. Of course it took Pilar two seconds to figure out that I.T. Harms was an anagram for Mithras. Has it come up before how much I hate him?

  There was no way for us to track them. Brent explained he’ d been able to follow the van because it was on a single road by the school and they hadn’ t been able to get out of the coverage zone by the time he started tracking them. He pulled up satellite footage and about fifteen minutes after the van had pulled into the warehouse, eight black SUV’ s had left the other warehouse, all headed in different directions. They couldn’ t be tracked like a single vehicle. Once they left the other warehouse they could have gone in a million directions and he wouldn’ t even know which satellite to track them on. They could easily disappear. And it looked like they had

  Part of me swore Simon must have known we were onto him. If he did, then what happened to Rinteau? Where had he gone? That was what was bugging me. Rinteau could have known I’ d followed him out of the school I suppose, but I doubted it. I had been pretty careful. He had to have been tipped off somehow. And it led me back to our mole. Someone in our midst was giving our enemy information. It was bad enough that Mithras sent someone right into our kitchen. Now I was really mad.

  The trouble was I was back to our original list of suspects. Only a handful of people knew what had happened this evening. Mr. Kim, the four of us, the FBI team and Mr. Quinn who had verified the fact our Firehorn was a fake. Somehow one of those people was tipping Mithras off.

  I couldn’ t worry about that now though. I wanted to find Rinteau and take some payback out of his hide. We needed to know anything and everything that Simon had told him about the Firehorn and where he was going. And furthermore how in the heck he had managed to pull this off. He was going to talk all right. If we could find him.

  Mr. Kim wanted to stay with the team at the warehouse and see if they could find any other physical evidence in either of the warehouses. He ordered us back to Blackthorn and we loaded up in the van and Alex started driving back.

  I was really burning. Rinteau had made a fool of me, of all of us really, except Alex I guess. I so wanted to find him.

  “ Alex,” I said.

  “ No,” he replied. Rather curtly I might add. How did you know what I was even going to ask?

  “ How did you even...”

  “ The answer is no. It doesn’ t matter what the question was going to be,” he said.

  Well la di da.

  “ Listen, I just have an idea,” I said. “ What if we track down the Booker gangsta from the mall? This whole thing with Rinteau started there. If we can find Booker, maybe we can find Rinteau,” I said.

  “ Did you just say gangsta?” He asked. “ Oh dear.”

  Pilar instantly knew what I was after though.

  “ I don’ t know Rachel. That could be dangerous. He has a lot of guys with him and they have knifes,” Pilar said. “ And probably guns.”

  “ Yeah, but maybe if we go looking for him, we can find him when we’ re not outnumbered. We corner him somewhere and have a little chat with him, find out what we can and then we’ re on the road again. Easy as pie,” I said.

  “ Yeah, right. Did you ever notice that nothing with you is easy as pie? It’ s the polar opposite of easy as pie. More like concrete cake or something. This is a bad idea and dangerous and we’ re not going to do it,” Alex said.

  Time to try other avenues.

  “ Brent, remember Rinteau said that Booker ran a gang called the Fourth Street Bully’ s?” I said.

  “ Yes,” Brent answered.

  “ Can you pull up a map of Fourth Street in Philly on the computer?”

  “ Already have,” he said.

  “ Is it far from here?” I said.

  “ About fifteen minutes away, but listen, you know on map sites how you pull up the map and then it tells you about hotels and restaurants and other attractions in the area?”

  “ Yes,” I said.

  “ Well when I pull it Fourth Street, it just says, don’ t go there,” Brent said.

  Oh.

  “ Well, I’ m sure it can’ t be that bad,” I said.

  Brent nodded his head that yes it could be that bad.

/>   “ Okay, look, we’ ll just stay in the van. We’ ll cruise around a little bit and see if we spot Booker. If we do we’ ll figure out what do then. If we don’ t see him, no harm done, we head back to school,” I said.

  “ And I said no,” Alex wasn’ t willing to budge.

  I looked at Pilar. Time to bring in the heavy artillery.

  “ Alex. It can’ t really hurt to cruise through the neighborhood, can it? I mean Rachel has a point, maybe we can find out something that will help us get the Firehorn back,” Pilar said.

  I almost wanted to do the Cabbage Patch. Go Pilar.

  He stared at her in utter disbelief.

  “ You can’ t be serious!” Alex was about to turn purple.

  “ I most certainly can,” she said, and Alex immediately realized he’ d just entered Pilar’ s doghouse. “ Listen Alex, we’ re supposed to be a team here. I think Rachel’ s idea makes a lot of sense. We don’ t need to do anything too dangerous. Besides we might not even be able to find him. But we won’ t know unless we try,” Pilar said.

  “ I don’ t believe this. She’ s worn you down. Stop the madness, Pilar,” Alex said.

  “ Come on Alex. Just a look that’ s all,” she said.

  Alex kept driving and stewing for a few minutes.

  “ All right, we try to find this Booker kid. If he’ s not around, we’ re bugging out. Is that clear?” he asked.

  I had to bite back a ‘ who made you the boss of us’ reply but didn’ t want to tick him off and have him change his mind.

  Brent called out directions to Alex as he drove. We rolled back into the city and soon the neighborhoods began to change from normal big city strip centers and retail stores, to urban decay. We turned on to Fourth Street and it was like we entered a war zone. Old Brownstone buildings lined the street on both sides. Many were missing doors and what doors there were stood covered in graffiti. Trash covered the sidewalks. An abandoned car sat on the side of the street, missing its doors, tires and seats. Rachel, you’ re not in Beverly Hills anymore.

  There were people around. Small groups of young kids gathered on the street corners. Fires flickered in trash barrels giving the street an eerie feeling as the shadows darted and danced on the building walls. We cruised slowly down the street, keeping a sharp eye out for Booker, but so far, no luck.

  “ I don’ t think we’ re going to find him. Anyone who sees this van is going to think we’ re either trying to score drugs or we’ re the cops. I think we need to get out of here,” Alex said.

  No one answered as we kept our eyes peeled for Booker. We drove up the street until it dead ended and turned the van around. I felt like this was our only chance to find out what had happened to Rinteau. If we didn’ t find Booker, then Simon was going to get away clean and I just couldn’ t stomach the thought of it.

  I asked Alex and Brent to trade spots in case we did find Booker and needed to convince him to talk to us. Alex would be the one we needed for that. We drove back up the street and after cruising slowly a few blocks I spotted someone I recognized. Not Booker, but one of the guys who had been with him at the mall the day we gotten into the scrap. He was a tall kid wearing a dark coat and stocking cap. He crossed the street a ways in front of us under the glare of one of the few working streetlights and I caught a glimpse of his face. He’ d been in Booker’ s posse for sure and he was walking along the street like he had somewhere to be in a hurry. Bingo.

  Ever since the first time we’ d run into Mithras in Washington DC a few months ago, I’ d developed the habit of always carrying a small bit of cash with me at all times. Since it seems like we’ re always running off somewhere to foil villainy it came in handy. Like now.

  I told Brent to slow down on the street beside the kid. I pulled a $20 bill out of my pocket and rolled down the window.

  “ Hey you,” I said.

  The kid stopped briefly, glanced at me and kept walking. Brent slowly drove along beside him.

  “ I said wait a minute.”

  “ I don’ t know you. You best be getting out of here for you gets in trouble,” he said. He tried to sneer when he said it, but it didn’ t come of to well. For some reason he looked scared. I had a feeling it wasn’ t of us.

  “ I’ m looking for Booker,” I said.

  “ I don’ t know any Booker,” he answered.

  “ Sure you do. I think Mr. Hamilton here,” I waved the $20 bill at him, “ thinks you know him too.”

  “ What do you want Missy?” He asked. His natural aggressiveness was coming back.

  “ I want you tell Booker that Mr. Blankenship has another job for him. He’ s got ten minutes to meet me here or Mr. B is going to be very upset. Trust me. You don’ t want that.” I reached through the window and handed him the money. He took it, but the look on his face told me I’ d scored a direct hit. His face was a mask of sheer terror.

  “ Ten minutes. Tick tock,” I said.

  He didn’ t say anything, just turned and ran down the street, disappearing into one of the buildings.

  “ I hope you know what you’ re doing,” Alex said from the front street.

  “ It has to be. It’ s the only thing that makes sense. You were right all along Alex. It was a set up from the beginning. Simon wanted to get someone inside. I think he used Booker to make it all happen,” I said.

  The realization slowly sunk into all of us. We’ d been played. Well Rachel Buchanan doesn’ t like to be played. Someone was going to pay.

  Starting with Booker, who exited the building and made his way up the street toward the van.

  Chapter 25--You Won’ t Like Me When I’ m Angry

  Booker came out of the same building the other kid had entered a few minutes earlier. His arm was still in a sling. Here he didn’ t seem like the same kid I’ d seen in the mall. There he’ d been arrogant and walked with purpose. Now his shoulders slumped and he shuffled along like he’ d rather be anywhere else than where he was. He walked toward the van, squinting to see who might be in it, but also furtively looking about like he was afraid someone might spot him.

  He was only a few feet away when Alex and I stepped out of the van. He stopped and his eyes went wide as he slowly recognized us.

  “ You!” he said.

  “ Good to know you haven’ t forgotten us,” I said.

  He tried running back to the safety of the building. He hadn’ t gotten very far when Alex grabbed him by the collar. He reached into Booker’ s pocket and removed his switchblade. Booker flailed at Alex with his good arm, but with his other arm in a sling he was out matched. Alex turned him around and hustled him through the side door of the van.

  He landed roughly in the middle seat. Alex jumped in the van beside him and slammed the door. This was the great thing about Alex. He had to be dragged into a plan kicking and screaming, but once he was in, he was all business. I took Alex’ s seat in the front and turned to face Booker. He was trying to look tough, but not pulling it off. He was scared.

  “ So long time no see,” I said.

  He called me a very bad name.

  Alex gave him a smack on his cheek to remind him of his manners.

  “ How’ s the arm,” I taunted him. Just a little. But I couldn’ t resist. He had pulled a knife on us.

  He sat there saying nothing and looking sullen.

  “ Here is how it’ s going to go. You’ re going to tell us everything you know about Blankenship and Rinteau. We know the whole purse snatching thing at the mall was a set-up. Don’ t try to lie. When people lie to me, I get angry. You won’ t like me when I’ m angry. Right Alex,” I said.

  “ It’ s ugly,” he said.

  Booker sat there, not looking at any of us, doing his best to be defiant.

  “ Listen, you talk to us, you tell us what we want to know you walk away from here. You don’ t we’ ll take you back to our headmaster, you remember him? He’ s the one who broke your arm. I think you’ ll want to talk to him, if you don’ t well, I can’ t imagine how he
might feel about that. He’ s been known to get a little upset when people hold out on him.

  “ I ain’ t saying nothing to you prep school freaks. You let me go and my boys won’ t come down here and bust you up.”

  “ No, I don’ t think so,” I said. “ I don’ t think you’ re doing much busting up of anything these days. In fact I bet most of your ‘ boys’ have split. I think Blankenship has you on the hook now and you’ re no longer calling the shots. So you better tell us what we want to know. You know why? Because if Mr. Kim doesn’ t scare you we’ ll find a way to let Blankenship know you’ ve been talking to us. I don’ t think you want that.”

  His eyes went wide then. His head spun around, looking like a trapped rat, desperate to get out of the van. I didn’ t know then if he was going to say anything or not, for sure he was more afraid of Blankenship than he was of us. But finally, everything seemed to catch up with him and he went slack and sat back in the seat.

  “ Are you ready to talk?” I asked.

  He nodded.

  “ He grabbed me off the street one night,” he said. “ Not him. A couple of his thugs in them black jumpsuits. Look like they been on the juice?” I nodded. I’ d seen similar creeps in Hawaii. Blankenship kept his muscle on steroids and who knew what else he put in their injections.

  “ They take me to him. Dude is scary. I growed up here,” he said gesturing toward the street. “ Ain’ t much I ain’ t seen. But Blankenship, he ain’ t right. All I had to do was get Rinteau inside this rival gang. That’ s how he put it. Some rival gang. I was supposed to lure y’ all into a fight and Rinteau would should up and save the day. He wanted it real, cut up Rinteau, make it look like we was badasses and Rinteau saved you. He wasn’ t happy when it didn’ t go right the first time. Made us do it again. Just like it went down.”

  “ How did you know we were going to be at the mall that specific day?” Alex asked.

  Booker shrugged.

  “ I don’ t know. He gave me a cell-phone. Said to keep it charged and on all the time. When the call came I was to move me and my boys into position and wait for Rinteau’ s signal,” he said.

  Now my brain was burning. Alex had asked an excellent question. How did he know we were going to be there? Only the four of us and Mr. Kim had known we were going. Unless.