by Sara Schoen
“He better not hurt her,” I panted, sprinting through the main lobby of CIRA and out toward the back doors. Demon shouldn’t hurt her, but if she’s onto something then Demon might have nothing to lose. With that thought, I put a little more power into my strides. My legs ached, begging me to stop, but I was too worried about Shadow to even slow down. I’ll kill him if he touches her, I thought as I passed a few more concerned agents. They didn’t try to stop me and I didn’t bother asking for help. I had one thing on my mind and nothing would deviate me from getting to her. Please be okay Shadow! I know I’m hard on you, but please just be okay!
Exiting the building, I expected to see Demon beating Shadow to a pulp. The struggle on the phone made it seem like he lost his cool, but instead I found him berating her. He had his hand wrapped around her bicep to hold her in place as she fought to get out. I could hear the anger in his tone, but it sounded more like a parent reprimanding their kid rather than a mole about to kill the one person who knew it was them.
Shadow leaned away from Demon as he interrogated her, desperately trying to get away. It was clear Shadow still thought he could kill her at any moment, but I knew him better than that. He even when he was mad, he was a lenient with recruits. If he hadn’t hurt her by now then he wasn’t going to. Not with me out here to see it.
“What are you doing?” I screamed, gaining both of their attention. To my surprise, both seemed relieved to see me. Demon’s tense posture relaxed once he saw me and Shadow immediately tried to run to me for protection, but Demon held her tightly.
“Thank god you’re here.” He sighed with relief as he was practically dragged by Shadow. “Your recruit is acting suspicious. She’s been following people around CIRA since you got back, eavesdropping on conversations, and apparently stole one of the active agent’s phone.” He held up Camo’s sliding phone, now with a few more dents in it before. I see why we weren’t trusted with smartphone. Even old phones barely stood up to the abuse we put them through. “I thought she was doing some odd training regimen you told her to, but she followed me out here. She won’t tell me what she’s doing and with all the other weird stuff going on around here, I don’t trust her.”
“I told you, I’m just practicing sneaking around and following people. Night Stripe always knows when I’m around. I wanted to try to get better before I tried to sneak up on her again.”
“Then why were you on the phone? Who were you talking to?” Demon glared at Shadow, who flinched under his bark. “And don’t lie to me again!”
I hesitated for a moment, unsure of what to say. This hadn’t been what I expected to walk in on when I heard the struggle on the phone. How was I supposed to play this? Come out and say why she was following him or let him think it’s training?
“Well?”
“She was talking to me, Demon,” I said, standing up for Shadow. “She called me, terrified, because she saw you leaving and taking a weapon with you. She’s training because she sucks at stealth, but she’s following you because you’re acting peculiar. You have been since we got back from the raid,” I asserted, glancing at him. His features were expressionless, but his eyes twitched in annoyance. How had I not seen how differently he had been acting since the raid? I assumed it had something to do with the mole, but if it wasn’t, then what was it? “What are you doing out here anyway? You know we’re not supposed to be out here unless we have to be. You’re making yourself look suspicious and you won’t talk to us about it. What do you expect us to think?”
“I expect you to trust me!” he screamed back. “I can’t believe you sent your recruit after me. What the hell is that?”
“How can I trust you when you’re clearly keeping secrets from me? What do you want me to think, Demon?”
“You’ve known me for how long, Sara?” He spat my name like an insult, letting the venom drip off his words. “I think it’s fair that I have a few secrets considering the job we have now. We have to protect ourselves and our team. This isn’t high school anymore. There’s no rumors, drama, or anything normal about this. Why are you looking for something to be wrong? Why can’t I have secrets when you can?”
“I didn’t say it was high school, but there are rumors.” He lifted his eyebrow curiously, but I refused to elaborate until I got some answers. I’m tired of these games. “But you’ve said before that there’s no secrets between team members. Yet, here we are.” I paused so he could let that sink in, but continued before he could interrupt me. I realized the hypocrisy of this whole thing. I was keeping a secret and not telling him. I did mine under orders, but still, I never told him. “Protecting your secret has pushed your team away from you. Now we’re all keeping secrets. So how about we end it right now? What are you doing out here? Why have you been acting so strange?”
Demon scoffed out a laugh. “This is ridiculous. Our team isn’t broken because I’ve been keeping a secret. I lost a teammate, so did you. How are you not the slightest bit effected by that?” Now that one hurt.
“Who says I’m not?” I intervened, knowing he would continue if I let him. “I don’t like that Whip Lash died, but I can’t change it. What I can do is stop more agents from dying. If you get in the way of that, then I’d be suspicious too!”
“What are you even talking about?” he asked. He opened his mouth again, but stopped when he turned back to Shadow. “Stay here, and don’t move or I will shoot you.” Shadow nodded ferociously and took a step back once he released her. She caressed her arm, rubbing it lightly as if to brush the pain away. “You come with me,” he growled as he grabbed me by the arm and pulled me just out of earshot from Shadow. We made it a few paces before he turned around to look back at Shadow. She was frozen in place, petrified to move.
“What’s going on, Demon? Just talk to me. Why are you acting like this?” The urgency in my voice shocked him as much as it did me. If he didn’t think I was serious about secrets being a problem before, he did now.
He groaned as he slapped his hand on to his and pull down. I could see the frustration in his eyes, trying to see if he should explain, but also the unwillingness. What could be so bad that he didn’t want to tell me? “I came out here to talk to Katya, alone, okay? That’s all. I’m out here to talk to Katya.”
That’s not at all what I expected… “Why?” I mentally slapped myself. If I had taken the time to think before speaking, then maybe I could have thought of something more eloquent to get more information.
“I can’t talk to her in the building because I don’t want anyone to overhear me.”
“Why?” I repeated without being able to stop myself.
Demon groaned again, shaking his head at me. “Isn’t that enough? That’s what you wanted. Can we be done now?”
“No. It doesn’t explain why you brought a weapon out here. It doesn’t tell me why you have to talk to her alone. It doesn’t tell me anything! Just tell me why, the whole reason, and I’ll leave you alone. You want me to believe you’re not acting strange, but what about when you went to see Mark? Why would you go where we have him held? Why did you try to get me to leave?”
Demon scoffed, his face contorting into bewilderment. “Are you kidding me?” When I didn’t reply, he shook his head and told me how much he couldn’t believe this was happening. “I’m trying to get transferred to Russia to be Katya’s permanent bodyguard, okay? I don’t want people knowing until it’s official because I didn’t want to upset the team if it doesn’t get approved. Then I’d have to have this discussion with everyone beforehand. At least if it’s set up then it would be easier to explain to people.” He threw his hands up in the air, completely exasperated that I had forced him to come out and say this. “And as for Mark, I went to kill the son of a bitch if you really want to know! He killed my partner, he was a threat to Katya if he got word out that she worked with us, and I didn’t want him getting out and killing anyone else. I shouldn’t have gone. I know that, but I did, and nothing happened because you wouldn’t leave your post!” I
flinched at he screamed the last part mere inches from my face. “So, tell me, why are you so interested in what’s going on with me all of a sudden?”
The words stuck in my throat, not only because I knew what he’d say when I told him what I was keeping secret, but also because I felt terrible for thinking he was the mole. It’s best to bite the bullet… “You were acting so unusual and sneaking around that I thought you were the mole who was in contact with Mark. I thought you were trying to free him the night you came. I had hoped it was for Katya, but I couldn’t’ be sure…”
Demon looked confused at first, but that quickly shifted to angry right before my eyes. “There’s a mole in CIRA? And you didn’t tell me? You’re standing here, giving me shit for keeping secrets and you’re holding this one out on me. Why? I’ve been your friend for six years! How could you not trust me with this kind of information?” The betrayal in his voice stung me, but I knew it hurt him worse to know I thought he could be the mole.
“Just like you didn’t trust me to tell me that you’re possibly leaving CIRA,” I interjected quickly much to his displeasure
Demon frowned, glaring me down in an ‘I’m disappointed’ manner. “That’s different, and you know it! I wasn’t hiding something every agent should know about here. I was trying to keep it low profile until a decision was made, not hiding it and vetting people as I went along! You’ve been lying to me this whole time about what’s been going on. I just haven’t shared it with you.”
“It’s not different! One is life or death if word gets out, the other is you don’t want to tell me that you’re breaking up the team! I didn’t lie, as you just said, I didn’t share the whole story. If I told everyone about the mole then they would know we are on to them. The mole could get away. I was ordered to keep quiet about it. Sharp Shooter didn’t want it getting out while we figured out who it was. You weren’t on the list, I’m sorry for that, but your behavior didn’t help.”
“The team is already broken, Night Stripe! We lost one of the leaders, there’s no going back from that!” He placed his hand over his eyes as he lowered his face toward the ground as he typically did when he was flabbergasted about a sudden change on a mission. Only this time, waves of disappointment came with it. “I didn’t tell you the whole story and you automatically assumed I was a mole for Mark Avery, for the Cardoza Cartel. What’s wrong with you?”
My phone rang, interrupting me before I could instigate another fight with Demon. My blood boiled, ready to argue with him on the matter, but knowing it wouldn’t do any good. I held up one finger to tell him to wait, but didn’t bother to look at the caller ID before answering. “What is it? Now isn’t a good time.”
“It’s Sandstorm, we have a major problem!” The panic in his voice stopped me dead. The anger that had been just about to boil over was put out with a bucket of cold water. “It’s Renegade.”
A chill raced down my spine, freezing me in place. I felt my face blanch with worry and my heart almost stop in my chest. “What happened to Renegade?”
Chapter 25
“What happened to Renegade?” I repeated, interrupting Sandstorm’s panicked speech. I wasn’t even sure what he was talking about it. It sounded like filler when I asked for a simple explanation.
What happened to Renegade? Why was he not with Sandstorm? Why did he have to put me through this? I told them both to be careful and then one ends up getting caught. What’s going to happen to him? I asked myself as I silently pleaded for Sandstorm to start explaining. It’s not like I blamed him for not telling me right away. Panicking had a way of making it impossible to have a continuous though, but I needed to know what happened.
“Just tell me what happened already!”
Sandstorm sputtered for a few moments before he managed to spit it out. “Renegade has been captured! I don’t know how it happened. I thought we got away…” He hesitated for a moment. I could picture him running his fingers through his hair and pulling the strands loose. His voice shook with uncertainty and fear. “It’s like they knew we were coming. They were ready for us.” He paused again, I couldn’t be sure why. He took a sharp breath and pleaded with me, to understand and forgive him. “They set a trap, Night Stripe. We made it in without a problem, or at least I thought we did. I thought we were ahead of them. We found Don, killed him, and were on our way out, but we didn’t get far after that. It’s like they waited for us to kill him and then ambushed us. I don’t even know what happened after that…it’s all a blur.”
“Sandstorm, it’s okay. Just—”
“We were surrounded without warning. They just popped up out of nowhere,” he continued, completely ignoring my comment. “We fought and I thought we broke through, but he must have gotten caught in the struggle. I looked back to check on him and he was gone. I could hear him calling for me, but the cartel had him. There was nothing I could do without getting us both caught.”
“I know, but—”
“I should have gone back for him… I could have done something, anything. I know we needed to call, but we were too busy. We thought we had it made.” He sighed and the phone crackled with static as he breathed into the receiver. “I don’t know how this happened. Could the mole somehow have known we were going and warned them?”
A new wave of terror shot through me. Could the mole have known? Who would know? We kept it as close to the chest as possible. No one should outside of the small team who knew about the mole knew, did they? I didn’t have time for this headache. I needed Renegade back. “Where is he, Sandstorm?” I screamed, breaking him out of his rant once again.
Clearly, trying to make him feel better wasn’t going to give me what I wanted. I needed to know where Renegade was. I’d go anywhere to get him back, but I need to know where that is first. He may have left me in Mexico, but we moved past that and agreed to have the other’s back no matter what. We didn’t leave anyone behind, and I wouldn’t let him rot somewhere. I’d kill whoever I had to so I could find him again. Would Maverick even take me? I wondered. They were flying out every day, maybe they’d take me. Maybe Spit Fire would be the better choice. She’d have the better chance of convincing Maverick or KC to fly her wherever she needed or would they refuse her because of the patients they were transporting? What am I going to do?
“I don’t know where he is! I ran out. I thought he was right behind me! I didn’t mean to leave him there—”
I pulled the phone away from my ear only to look over and see Demon on the phone as well. This is going nowhere fast. I put the phone back to my ear, but Sandstorm was still ranting. I get that you’re sorry, now shut up so I can talk. I tried not to let my annoyance come through over the phone, but if Sandstorm said, ‘I thought’ or ‘we thought’ one more time I was going to lose it.
Demon tapped my shoulder, interrupting Sandstorm for a moment. I didn’t even have time to let him know I was paying attention before he added to the issue. “We have a problem.”
“Another one?” I hissed quietly as to not alert Sandstorm to the growing issue. “I don’t have time for another problem. Renegade was taken hostage. Sandstorm has no idea where he is, and I have no idea how to get to him. Can you handle that one on your own?”
“Sharp Shooter is dead,” Demon said bluntly and without any warning.
“I’m sorry?” My mouth dropped open and eyes widened in horror. I heard that wrong. I had to. I covered the phone with my hand and pushed it away from me while Sandstorm still blabbered on. “He’s what?”
“He’s dead. Camo just called me from his office since she couldn’t get ahold of you. CIRA is in a massive panic. We have to get back now. She’s instigating lockdown procedures and if we’re not inside then we’re locked out for who knows how long.”
“What do I do about them?” I pointed to the phone. “Renegade’s been captured and Sandstorm is stuck. We can’t leave them out there! We have no idea what they are up against.”
“We can’t go, Night Stripe! The agents in CIRA have no
idea who killed Sharp Shooter and agents are turning on each other. We don’t have time to go get Sandstorm and Renegade. We have to get back before the building is locked down before we are locked out for good or his killer gets away. If we don’t, then we will be useless to everyone.” He grabbed me by the arm and pulled me with him. I ordered Shadow to come with us as we broke into a sprint toward the door and for once, she followed without hesitation.
Once we were safe inside, Demon pressed his phone to his ear to tell Camo we were inside and lock down could initiate. “We’ll see you soon, Camo.” He hung up the phone, but then quickly redialed. “I’ll call Spit Fire, she can go save her boyfriend and yours, but we stay here.” His voice dripped with sarcasm and annoyance. I couldn’t tell which was more prevalent, but Sandstorm’s worried tone entered my ears again as the siren to lock down CIRA sounded overhead. Metal doors suddenly slammed to the ground with enough force to crush anyone under them at the wrong time and locked us in. I didn’t even know we had those. A shocked gasp echoed from the main lobby from the other agents just before screaming and punching took its place.
“Night Stripe, what’s going on?” Sandstorm questioned, yelling to get my attention over the sirens.
“I have to go, Sandstorm. We are sending Spit Fire to you as we speak. So, for now I need you to get somewhere safe and lay low. If you can’t find Renegade, then tell Spit Fire where you last saw him and everything that happened. She’ll help you when she gets there. If you still can’t find him then I’ll join you as soon as I can. I have to go now.”
