I checked my backpack to make sure my sketch pad and the box from Mr. K were still there. I'd kept the cash I'd earned from assignments in Mr. K's secret compartment. That would come in handy if we found a way to escape.
Lucy's tears finally fell. Even Luke's eyes watered. From the time we were little, we'd only been apart during assignments. Now we might never see each other again.
I hugged them both, then threw on my jean jacket and backpack, and walked out of my room for what would likely be the last time.
Gar closed the door behind us, leaving Luke and Lucy in the room alone.
I turned to him as we walked down the hall. "Don't I even get a chance to change my clothes?" I wiped my eyes carefully to avoid the makeup raccoon look.
"You can change when you get to your new home. Your flight was changed. We leave now."
Could Gar know what fate he was leading me to? I slipped into his mind.
'She'll be safe in New York... will make sure she's looked after... finally out of here....'
He had no idea. At least my own guard hadn't betrayed me on purpose.
No one from the school administration came to give me a final farewell. Strange. Usually they made a big showing, but I guess at 3 AM it didn't matter. And I suspected no one wanted me that close to their thoughts right now, even if they didn't know the whole truth.
"Drake?"
'I'm here,' he said in a gentle voice.
"I'm scared. What if they don't put us in the same hospital? What if we can't escape?"
Even my mental voice wavered from unshed tears. We risked so much, banking all our hopes on an untested possibility. We could be wrong. So very wrong.
'I'm scared too, but we have to believe this will work out. What choice do we have?'
He was right. Even if this plan—hell, it wasn't even a plan, really, more like a pipe dream inspired by desperation—but even if we knew for a fact that it wouldn't work, what else could I do? We had no way to escape, nowhere to go, no one to call. This had to work.
Gar loaded my luggage into the limo, ushered me into the back seat, and hopped into the driver's seat. As usual, we headed to our private airstrip.
'Sam, he doesn't know what's going to happen to you. You have to tell him. He might be able to help you escape.'
"But I need to find you first. I can't go now."
'You must take this opportunity. There might not be another one. Once you and the baby are safe, I'll find a way to get to you. Please, Sam, you have to try.'
"He has a little girl. What if we get caught? It could ruin his career."
'Let him decide what he's willing to do. Don't make him complicit in your fate without giving him a choice.'
My hands shook in fear. He had a point. If Gar really was trying to keep me safe, shouldn't he know the truth, even if that knowledge placed a heavy burden on his soul? More than my life was at stake.
We had maybe ten minutes before we'd reach the plane. Once there, I'd lose my chance.
"Gar, I need to tell you something."
Chapter 17 – Sam
The car slowed to a stop by the side of the road. Gar hadn't said a word while I told him everything—about Mr. K, Higgins's lies, the evil doctor... my pregnancy.
As hard as it had been to talk to Luke, Lucy and Drake about the baby, telling Gar had been one hundred times harder. He could report me, turn me in, betray me. But then, would I really be any worse off?
No.
So I waited for him to speak.
"Gar?"
He turned to face me, his hazel eyes and hard face revealing nothing. "What do you want to do?"
What did that mean? "Do you believe me? Did you already know?"
I knew the answer, but I wanted him to tell me he had nothing to do with this mess.
"I've known for a few months that something wasn't right. I've been keeping an eye on you ever since we returned from your last assignment. When I found out about the art studio fire, I looked into it, and some things didn't make sense, but it doesn't pay to get too curious about the people we work for. I have a family to consider, but I also knew I had to keep you safe. I thought getting you off campus and to New York would be enough."
"So now you know. I'm not going to New York." Saying it out loud made it feel much too real. I wanted to swallow the words back into my throat and pretend it wasn't true, that none of this was really happening, but feigned ignorance would not save me.
My mind flashed to an old Calvin and Hobbes cartoon I'd seen years ago. They were sliding down a mountain on a sled as Calvin spouted that the value of ignorance is bliss. Once we know something, he argued, we are forced to consider personal change in order to fix the problems that we see. If we persist in ignorance, we can stay cocooned in our beliefs—we can remain happy. At the end, when they fly off a cliff and crash, Hobbes remarks that he can't handle this much bliss.