“I need a computer, but they’re all along the front wall of the library.”
“There’s one back here, but it only takes you to the catalog system.”
“Not if you’re me.” Finally, something I can do better than Marchuk and his team, including his black hat. “Go up front, let Larabee see you so she won’t stress out, then see if you can sneak back here again in a few minutes.”
“Won’t have to. I have these,” Bunker says, pulling two ancient flip phones from his backpack. They probably weigh a pound each.
“You know they’ve blocked cell reception, right?” I ask, but I’m not so certain they’d work even if we had reception. They look like something out of one of those old movies Bunker watched a thousand times in his father’s fallout shelter.
“That’s what convinced everyone you were probably telling the truth. They all pulled out their phones and no one could get a signal,” Bunker says. “These may look like phones, but don’t really work like phones. More like walkie-talkies. Two-way radios. My dad invented them.”
I take one from him and look it over, skeptical. They don’t look much like phones to me. “And they actually work?”
“Hellz yeah, they work,” Bunker says, sounding like the same place these phones must have come from—the 1990s. “And on an ultra-high frequency band so we can communicate from anywhere in the building, even through steel walls. No Wi-Fi means they’re unhackable. We just have to hope the bad guys aren’t also using two-way radios and we inadvertently use the same channel. Seems highly unlikely, though.”
“And you carry these around in your backpack because…”
“Because I always knew you were an undercover agent and I always hoped something like this would happen,” Bunker says, looking immediately apologetic. “I mean, not like this, with people trying to kill you and all. You know what I mean.”
“I know, Bunk. And no one’s getting killed. I was able to tell the police what happened. Well, sort of. The main thing is, they know we’re in trouble, but they might be a minute getting here unless I can get that computer to work. We just have to keep me and everyone else safe until the cavalry comes. You’d better get going. I’ll see what I can do with that catalog system and call you in a few minutes with my status.”
“I’ll set the phone to vibrate, and I may have to whisper, depending on who’s around. You can also leave a message, in case I can’t answer,” Bunker says, his voice full of nerves, as he jams the last of his stuff into his backpack. He turns toward the stacks, but stops. “Hey, what’s your real name? I promise I won’t tell anyone.”
“I trust you, Bunk. You’re the only person in this building I trust. It’s Jake Morrow.”
“Jake. Jake,” he says, like he’s trying it on for size. “I just wanted to know because, well, in case—”
I cut him off because I won’t be able to stop the bad guys if I’m thinking I’ll never take Bunker to his first NBA game, or eat another plate of Mrs. Morrison’s chicken and dumplings, or the million other things I want to do in the next eighty years.
“In case nothing. Don’t even think about it.”
“All right. From now on, you’re Jake Morrow to me. I mean, as long as no one else is around. I’m not going to blow your cover. I don’t want to be the reason you get killed.”
“I’m not getting killed. We’re getting out of this, Bunker. Both of us. All of us.”
Bunker smiles and then heads for the front of the library, probably a lot more confident in my words than I am.
CHAPTER 12
The catalog computer is in the perfect location. It’s near the emergency door. I can see anyone coming, and it’s in the very back of the library so no one can hear me, as long as they all stay up front. Assuming he’s still logged into the school’s system, I only need a few minutes to figure out how the hacker, how Katie—ugh, I can barely form the thought—is connected to the outside world, and piggyback onto whatever pipe she’s using.
I haven’t been working two minutes when I feel the phone vibrate.
“So how’s it going?” Bunker whispers.
“You’ve only been gone a second. There hasn’t been enough time for me to do anything yet. Can you give me a couple more minutes and call me back?”
“Oh,” he says, and then nothing else.
“Bunker, you still there?” I ask, worried he’s been caught using the phone.
“Yeah. It’s just…”
“Spit it out, man. I’m kinda busy over here,” I tell him, searching the school’s system for the hard drive the hacker’s using to control the building’s operations.
“Well, I was thinking … all those years I spent in a hole. I finally come out and discover the awesomeness of ice cream and fireworks and girls. Especially girls.” He pauses for a second, then adds, “Actually, I kinda met one already.”
“And I’m just now hearing about it?”
“At first, I thought she only talked to me to ask about you. I mean, that’s usually how it goes.”
“You make it sound like girls are just lining up to get information on me, and yet I’ve never heard about it.”
“Okay, it only happened a couple of times. Maybe three times. But I figured between Katie and Darlene, you had your hands full, so I forgot to mention it. They all seemed nice, but one of the girls … well, it turned out she was really interested in me.”
I stop entering DOS commands long enough to finally get what he’s not saying. “Instead of me, you mean. Bunker, I’d never block you, man. Never. Tell me about her.”
“Not much to tell. We only talked a couple of times. But I’m telling you now because, well, who knows…”
Bunker’s voice trails off at the end and goes quiet, and now I get it. He’s as afraid as I am.
“When we get out of here, we’ll find me a girl since you’re already covered, ask them out for ice cream, and take them to a fireworks show. We might have to wait a few months until New Year’s for that last thing, though.”
Bunker laughs a little at that, and I realize I can work and talk at the same time. It isn’t a big deal for Bunk to stay on the line with me. Actually, it makes me feel a bit calmer, doing something normal, when right now life is anything but.
“You already have a girl—two if you count Darlene,” Bunker says, unknowingly crushing me. “Wait. Darlene in Texas isn’t real, is she?”
“Nope.”
“I knew it.”
“You figured out a lot of things, Bunk.” He’s probably grinning at that.
“Like how I know you aren’t really over Katie. What if someone tells the bad guys how you feel about her? People are afraid. They do stupid stuff when they’re afraid. That would put her in a dangerous spot.”
“Katie … well, we may have both gotten that one wrong. Waaay wrong,” I say, not wanting to say the words out loud, but needing to, so I can make them real. “Look, Bunker, the whole reason I’m at Carlisle is because I tracked a hacker to the school. I thought this person was looking to steal defense intelligence from the local fed agencies, but now I know my target is helping these guys take revenge on me for something I didn’t even do.”
“And you think this person might be Katie? No way.”
“I don’t want to believe it, either, but I have some information that—” I stop mid-sentence, unable to tell him what I overheard about Katie because it’s still too much. “Anyway, the local cops will never believe a seventeen-year-old was sent by the CIA to hunt another kid looking to harm the US government, especially since that isn’t exactly accurate. My boss sent me to Carlisle to grow up, but now I need to reach her ASAP and tell her I was right, the terrorist hacker really is at Carlisle, but my cover and the mission have been compromised.”
Bunker is silent for a second and I’m worried he’s been caught talking on the phone, but then he says, “Wow. I’m torn between being piss-myself scared right now and truly in awe.”