CHAPTER 24
I’m about to go off on Berg for the second time, but Katie jumps in front of me. I guess she knows me well enough to see what was about to go down, even if Berg didn’t. He’s too smug, too certain I’m a boy playing a man’s game, to think I could ever be a threat to him. Katie gives me a look that says, You won’t win this way, and I stand down. I let her lead me away from Berg and over to the spot where I’d left my best friend to guard a terrorist.
“We need to convince Berg about Bunker,” I say.
“He thinks the hacker is some knight in shining armor. There’s no way he’s going to believe us about Bunker. We’ll have to find them ourselves.”
Now that the adrenaline rush of wanting to do serious damage to Berg’s face has subsided, I’m beginning to wonder if his assessment of me isn’t too far off the mark.
“How am I going to do that, Katie? I should never have left him alone with her in the first place. I should never have—”
“Chosen me over him?” Katie says, finishing my thought. “You didn’t choose. You did what we do. Analyzed the situation, ran a quick risk assessment, figured out which situation most required your action. At the time, you didn’t know I was an operative who could take care of herself. You left Bunker to guard a seven-stone girl who you’d already contained. You made the same call I or any operative would have.”
I feel the walkie-phone buzzing again.
“It’s Bunker!” I say, pulling it from my backpack.
Again we hear a series of beeps.
“Okay, that was Morse code, and it was the best thing I’ve heard all day,” I say. “You heard what I heard, didn’t you?”
“Sorry, Peter, but she got away,” Katie says. “Though I’m not sure why this news has you smiling like that.”
“Because Bunker is okay!” Capturing the hacker is all I’ve wanted for months, right up until the moment I thought my best friend was dead.
“Why didn’t he just call you?” Katie asks.
“When he first gave me the radio, he was worried Marchuk’s people might use the same channel.”
“I guess we have to hope they don’t know Morse code. Come to think of it, why does Bunker?”
“If you knew his father, you’d understand.”
She doesn’t look nearly as relieved as I am about the message, but then she hardly knows Bunker. Also, I’ve never seen an operative with such singular focus as Katie.
“Now that Bunker’s safe, I really need to get back inside to check on something.”
“So … we’re still working together, then?”
She hesitates before offering me her hand. Instead of shaking it, I grab Katie and hug her. Maybe it’s knowing Bunker’s okay, but I’m caught up in my feelings. I mean really caught up, because I don’t let go for a few seconds.
“Whoa, Smith. Berg will probably consider that conduct unbecoming to an operative,” she says before I let her go.
I don’t think she really minded the contact, but Katie reminds me I have other problems. I watch all the activity around me. Berg giving orders to his team leaders as they review Carlisle’s blueprints. Officers checking their gear and waiting for directives. Still more SWAT officers arriving over the roof’s edge.
“Your package. Who is it really?”
Katie is about to say something, but stops. We’re both quiet a moment and then she leads me to the edge of the roof. “Look. It’s begun.”
And it has. The first wave of kids is being led out of the building, which means the hacker has released Carlisle’s security system, though Berg and my boss don’t know—and will probably never believe—that she was the one who hijacked it in the first place. Still, seeing the first of my schoolmates getting out safely makes me think it’ll all work out.
“I’ll show you who the package is. At least, I hope he’s still there and that Koval hasn’t escaped with him. But that’s my mission. I won’t bring the CIA in on it unless I absolutely have to. I’ll tell only you because I could use your help.”
“Whatever you need, Katie.”
“First, we have to get back inside the school. And if the person I’m protecting isn’t where I left him, we’ll need to find the hacker and question her before Berg gets a chance. She may know something.”
She nods in the direction behind me.
“Look. That cop posted at the door just walked away to talk to Berg. Their backs are to us.”
We quickly head for the unguarded door, and with Katie beside me I feel like we can do this. So of course, in keeping with the rest of this suck-fest of a day, someone tries to stop us. We’re just a yard away from freedom when Berg turns around and spots us.
“Where do you two think you’re going?” he asks, blocking our way.
Katie offers an explanation before I can. “We’re going—”
“That was a rhetorical question. I know exactly where you’re both going. You’ll be evacuating with the rest of the school,” Berg says, pointing at Katie. “The media has just caught on to this and will be here any minute. The parents will be next to arrive, and you’ll be going home with yours. So say goodbye to your boyfriend.”
“Say goodbye?” Katie asks.
“He’s leaving town with us,” Berg announces, which is news to me.
“Wait a minute, Berg. You can’t just run me out of town.”
“Your boss says I can. She wants you on the next plane to Virginia the minute I finish debriefing you.”
I have reached my breaking point with Berg. “I don’t give a damn what she said. I ain’t getting on nobody’s plane until—”
Katie grabs my arm. “What do you mean, officer? Shouldn’t we both be evacuating with the school? Where are you taking him?”
Berg looks at Katie like he might actually have a heart, but must change his mind because he snaps his fingers in the direction of an officer and orders him to take Katie away.
“But I don’t understand,” Katie wails, turning on the waterworks instantly. “Where are you taking him?”
It’s a wonder she didn’t go out for drama club. Only a girl as smart as Katie can be this brilliant at playing dumb. But I’m the only who knows, just like I’m the only one who can decipher the look she gives me before she disappears behind the door to the stairwell with the officer: Don’t worry. I’m not going anywhere.
“She’s a bit dramatic. You sure know how to pick ’em. At least she’s hot. I guess I shouldn’t say that unless she’s eighteen.” Berg looks at me like he’s thinking about what he just said—I hope he’s regretting it. But no. “Wait, is she eighteen?”
Dude is about to get the beatdown I never got the chance to give Marchuk or Koval, but I try to stay on point, no matter how difficult Berg tries to make that.
“I can’t go anywhere until I find out … find my friend.” I almost said find out who the package is, but catch myself.
“That’s your problem right there. Operatives don’t have friends. And the local PD will find him. Or is that one a girl, too?” Berg winks at me, but doesn’t wait for an answer. He gestures toward the edge of the roof. “Go take a look. Lots more of them should be rolling up right now.”
“You can’t trust the local cops. Or at least not one of them—Officer Andrews. She’s in on it with Marchuk.”
Berg stares at me for a second before he laughs.
“I’ll give you one thing, kid—you’re more paranoid than any spy I know, which is saying something. I never like the locals either, but calling them dirty? That’s just clichéd.”
“This isn’t paranoia. This is truth. Soon as you talk to Headmistress Dodson, she’ll confirm—”
“Operation Early Bird,” he says, shaking his head and waving over someone behind me. “How the hell did Rogers ever think that was a good idea?”
I start to protest, but he whistles—drowning out my words—and signals another uniform to come over.
Berg instructs, “Put him in your squad car and make sure he can’t get out.”
The local starts handcuffing me but Berg stops her.