Fake

  “It’ll be a long wait,” she said.

  I hopped off my chair, sliding slightly against the tile in my flip-flops. “Who are you?” I asked.

  She clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth a few times. “No, no. That would ruin the game, and we’ve just gotten started.”

  My heart dropped in my chest, and the smug look of satisfaction once again locked into her blue eyes as she stared back.

  I knew I was in trouble.

  ALICE

  What do you want with me?” I asked the woman.

  “Oh, nothing,” she said. “Although you seem to have a very interesting set of friends. Way more useful than the Germans I’ve been watching. And way more attractive, I might add.”

  I clenched my fists. How long exactly had she been following us around? How much did she really know? “Leave them alone.”

  “Thanks for the opportunity to talk to them in person,” she said. She reached into the tank with the turtles, flicking the water with her fingers. She brought her hand back out and sliding her wet fingertips together. “Warm water for sick turtles. I hope someone will check on them while your Axel is busy.”

  Anger swept through me in a wave and I lurched forward, raising a fist at her face. Something about her, maybe her cool exterior and her superior way of looking and talking at me, made me furious. Curses exploded out of my mouth, threats and name calling alike. I was tired and on the edge. I would rip her eyes out to make sure Axel and everyone else got out of this untouched.

  “Don’t,” she said sharply, stepping aside to keep the turtle tank between us. When I moved one way, she dodged the opposite, staying out of reach. “Stop your flailing and listen for a moment.”

  “So was it you who killed this Randall guy?” I asked. “Or was it the Germans?”

  “The Germans wouldn’t have the guts to commit murder. They’re a bunch of computer nerds who stumbled across a toy they don’t understand.” The corner of her mouth lifted. “And do I look like I’m capable of killing anyone?”

  Yes. Instead of answering though, I glared at her, waiting her out. On the surface, perhaps she appeared innocent, but her eyes were cold, proud and devilish. Perhaps men would look at her pretty face and not suspect her, but there was something completely wrong inside her, sociopathic maybe. It was hard to put my finger on it. I simply knew evil when I saw it.

  Her smirk deepened and then she leaned forward, using the edge of the turtle tank for support. “I’ve got a secret for you.”

  “Don’t want to know, and I don’t care,” I said. “If you want your core, I don’t care about that either.”

  She took on a sorrowful look and made a pout with her small mouth. “Shouldn’t we be friends? After all, there’s a killer out there. You want your precious boyfriend back. All I want is something you’ve already said you don’t want. We could work together. Can’t we compromise?”

  I pulled back, standing up straight, and tried not to grit my teeth. “What do you want from me?”

  “Get your fake boyfriend back,” she said. “The one the Germans have. Convince him to break this code on the core, and I’ll return Axel to you. And the other one. The cute one. Although I do kind of like him. He’s really pretty.”

  I didn’t believe for a moment that she’d simply let Axel and Marc go if I got her access to the core. “So you can just kill us all in the end?”

  “I would never,” she said, putting her palm to her chest and feigning a look of disappointment. “But these Germans are very sloppy, and the FBI will be here as quickly as they can to try to save them...that is if you cooperate with me. How well you work will be how quickly I make that call.”

  “You’ll call them on yourself?”

  “Not quite,” she said. “But someone has to take the blame.”

  I narrowed my eyes at her. “You’re going to throw the Germans under the bus?”

  “They’ll go down for two murders, and you and your friends can go back to saving turtles and...well...whatever it is you do,” she said. “Although I’d tell Corey to stop trying to build security codes. Every code you try to build stronger, someone else will do anything to break through. It’s a dangerous and futile effort.”

  “What are you going to do with the core?” I asked.

  She shook her head and held up a slender finger to her lips. “Shh…A good girl never tells,” she said.

  “What’s going to stop me from taking you out right now and then just calling the police on whoever you’ve got working for you?”

  She backed up a step away from the turtle tank and reached into her pocket. She lifted out a small vial and held it up. “Because your precious boys have already been injected with a poison, and unless you get me what I want, this sweet little liquid will eat away at their insides, until their organs melt and all you have left is soup.”

  My mouth popped open, my eyes widened. In a flash, I was lunging around the turtle tank to get at her. I’d stuff it down her throat and make whoever worked with her bring back Axel and Marc.

  She held out her hand in a stop motion, warding me off and holding out the vial. “I don’t have a cure on me. The cure is rare, and no hospital within a hundred miles of here will carry it. Not to mention, it would require an autopsy to discover exactly what the poison was.”

  She said it in a past tense, like it already happened. Had she done it before? I stopped again, fighting against my instinct to take that chance. There was a possibility she was lying. She almost… sort of… admitted to murder. She was telling me now she could murder Axel and Marc if I didn’t act quickly. “Who are you?” I asked.

  “My name is Alice,” she said. She bowed her head slightly, lowering her hand and putting the vial back into her pocket. “And I understand your name is Kayli. You don’t look it, but I’ve been told you’re intelligent. Let’s hope you prove that to be true.”

  I was willing to ignore the obvious insult for now. She could have called me whatever she wanted, but I was only looking for a way around her poison, trying to shake out the lies from the truth and how far her and the team she had was willing to go to get this core. “You promise if I can get this stupid phone thing for you, you’ll let Axel and Marc go?”

  “As healthy as possible. The poison is slow, but after about twenty four hours, it’s very effective.” She winked and started to walk backward. Without looking, her back was already at the door, like she was well aware of the layout and knew precisely where she was. “Your Corey should know what to do.”

  “How am I supposed to find you to make the exchange?”

  “Oh you won’t have to find me,” she said, her contemptuous smile broadening. “Simply get the core to stop using the Guard Dog security protocols. I’ll know when it’s free. The moment I do, Axel and Marc can be yours again. Hopefully in time.” She winked and pushed back on the door before disappearing behind it.

  RELEASED

  I listened for Alice walking away from the door, and the silence that followed. For a moment, I wondered if I had passed out and then dreamed it all, because it seemed completely ridiculous. Axel hadn’t been gone long. Could she really have taken him and Marc by now? I took a few steps toward the door she disappeared behind, trying to figure out if I should follow her or not. I decided it was better to go looking for Axel instead.

  I pushed through the opposite door, finding a hallway: dingy tile, closed doors with frosted windows. Administration. There was some office-like activity behind some of them clicking on keyboards, the small murmur of telephone conversations, a low radio playing soft pop.

  No Axel. I wanted to find him and prove to myself it was all a lie. Without seeing him and Marc, there was no way to know if Alice had been telling me the truth. Shouldn’t she have given me some proof? Like a photo of Axel holding up today’s paper?

  I got an idea and started walking up the hallway. This was a public place with security, which more than likely meant cameras everywhere and a security office with video screens.
I could use that to find them, find out who Alice was working with, and at least see which direction they went.

  I followed the hallway and a couple of corridors that seemed to still be administrative offices before I spotted a door marked “Security”.

  Bingo. I combed my hair with my fingers and forced a quick smile, trying not to betray how scared I really was. I took in a long breath and held it as I opened the door and walked in.

  The security room was a wall of TV screens, each one showing entrances, registers at the gift shop, doors to the bathrooms, and certain hallways. I studied them, searching for identifiable faces.

  “Excuse me,” a male voice said.

  My head snapped toward the voice, spotting a pudgy male sitting behind a desk. His security uniform’s shirt was tight and gaping between the buttons around his middle, making me wonder if he ever lost any and had to sew them back on. He stared at me with bored eyes, his cell phone planted in front of him on the desk, the screen filled with a game.

  “You shouldn’t be in here,” he said.

  “Oh, sorry,” I said, trying to use a high- pitched, friendly voice. I touched my cheek with a fingertip. “I was told you could help me with an announcement. I need to find my little brothers. They ran off and now they’re missing.”

  “What’s their names?” he asked, still appearing bored.

  “Axel and Marc,” I said. “They’re...” I wasn’t sure this was a good idea but I was going for it. “Twelve. They should know better. I thought they might try to stick their hands in the turtle tanks again but...”

  He held up his hand and then pressed a button on the desk, and then another and leaned forward. “Axel and Marc, your sister is waiting for you at the security office. Axel and Marc, your sister is at the security office.”

  “Thank you,” I said once he’d stopped pressing the button. My eyes went the TV screens again. “So I should just wait here?”

  “Yeah,” he said. “Attendants should be looking for them now, too. They’ll direct them here.”

  I nodded, not caring what he’d think if Axel or Marc did happen to show up and they weren’t exactly kids.

  Time passed, with me looking at the screens. One by one, I scanned them, waiting to see their faces, or anyone I might recognize. I spotted a few people at first who appeared to look like them, but then was disappointed when they turned and weren’t them.

  Alice had said she had them, but I wondered what would happen if security was on the lookout, and would it stall Alice and her team, or the Germans. I hoped I wasn’t wasting time, but I didn’t want to run into trouble if Alice or anyone else was waiting to ambush me. At the very least, I needed to get out of here without getting kidnapped again.

  I focused on the exits, including any windows I could spot. I checked hallways, and even some cameras that were focused on the parking lots.

  Nothing. Tourists came and went, but no one looked like Axel or Marc. If Alice got rid of them, she did it while she was talking to me.

  My heart pounded as I started to panic. I checked the screens again and again. I was anxious to leave, but worried if I did, I would miss a clue, or seeing Axel and Marc somewhere. As time passed, standing still became too much. If Alice was telling the truth, I had a day to get her access to the core in exchange for the guys. I was willing to sacrifice the German group to go to jail. Maybe it was wrong, but they dragged us into the middle of this in the first place.

  I studied the exits, trying to figure out the best way to leave without getting caught. Would a quiet employee exit be better? Or should I leave through the public way? Public might be the better choice. If I was grabbed, I could scream bloody murder and get other people’s attention. I needed to get to Corey and Raven. They were the only ones left now. They were the only ones I really trusted to help, and yet I wasn’t even sure how to get to them without Alice or the others following. What happened to those Academy teams chasing us? Were they in trouble, too? Did they spot Alice? I didn’t have a way to contact them.

  This was my fault. I told Axel to hurry along with a new plan to chase the Germans out, not realizing there was another team ready to swoop in. He had said we weren’t really sure what to expect, and we needed to be careful. Why didn’t I listen?

  I stood for as long as I could to be sure I wasn’t going to miss Axel or Marc by leaving. “Oh,” I told the security guard, pointing at a random screen. “I see them. By the turtle tanks. Just like I thought. Thanks!”

  The man coughed and nodded, but he was still focused on his phone. Not caring and having no idea that two grown men could have been kidnapped under his nose.

  And he’d never know.

  I rushed out of the security office and stopped, checking the hallway and trying to figure out my plan. Even if I got outside, I didn’t have keys to the car.

  I reached into my pocket and felt for Avery’s business card. I didn’t know anyone else’s number anyway. I wasn’t even sure if I should call him. It was risky. There was a lot of danger out there and I was calling him back into it.

  It was either this, or I took my chances alone at this point. As tempting as it was, walking the streets of downtown Charleston was making me a target, considering there were two teams keeping an eye on me. I needed a quick getaway for now.

  I found an office that was empty, and helped myself to the telephone. I pulled out Avery’s business card and dialed.

  A mumbled yawn greeted me at first. “Yo.”

  I hesitated. Hearing his voice made me second guess calling him in. “Avery?”

  There was a pause and fumbling and a crash on his end of the line. Heavy breaths muffled the phone. “Kayli?”

  Did he fall out of bed? “Are...you okay?”

  “Fine! Fine. What’s up? Need a ride?”

  Good question. Where was I going? I had to forget the hospital. If they found the real Corey, then Brandon would be in trouble.

  While I was considering, he continued, “Is this about your kidnapping? You know, I’ve been thinking. Maybe you really should call the police.”

  “Not really an option right now,” I said. “If you aren’t busy, could you give me a ride?”

  He shuffled on his end of the phone. “In trouble?”

  Yes. “Maybe.”

  “Where are you?”

  “The aquarium.”

  He laughed and then stopped. “Oh wait, you weren’t kidding?”

  I bit my tongue, wanting to get him to hurry up, but not wanting to make him panic bad enough to call the police himself. Every minute I wasted, I wasn’t getting this core, and Axel and Marc could be dying. “Avery... I don’t have a lot of time.”

  “Okay, I get you. Let me get there.”

  There was movement and shuffling, and I heard the clank of keys. I thought I was supposed to hang up.

  “You still with me?” he asked.

  “You don’t have to keep me on the line.”

  “Probably better if you are,” he said. “If I hang up, I might not be able to call you back if something goes wrong. And if you get kidnapped, I probably want to hear for clues, right?”

  True enough. “Just hurry.”

  “Got you, got you, okay.”

  I was quiet as I heard him walking, getting in the car, shuffling, starting the car, grunting, sneezing, driving, cursing at other drivers.

  I shifted my weight from one foot to another, trying to settle my heart. Every moment lost, and Axel and Marc might be dying from poison. I was considering my options as to how I would get Axel and Marc back, and I still didn’t know where Brandon was. Getting to the core meant using Corey. All roads seemed impossible.

  There was a gentle knock at the door. I jumped, and considered if it was another employee. Getting caught by security and thrown out for invading someone’s office would suck. I pulled the phone away from my ear, and ducked under the desk. I held the phone to my chest and waited.

  There was a long silence, outside of Avery on the phone calling my name.
/>
  I smothered the phone deeper between my breasts, trying to drown him out and listen.

  There was an outline of more light as the door opened. Then the door closed again. It was quiet. I waited, listening.

  But I still felt it. A presence. It was like when my father would sneak into the hotel room, right before he started beating on my brother and I. Was it someone who owned this office? Or that security guard? Or...

  I didn’t have much of a weapon outside of the phone in my hand, but I’d use it if I needed to. I prepped myself, getting up on my hands and knees, ready to dive and bite to get out of here.

  Pant-covered legs appeared. Male, for sure, just from the style and shape and the shoes. I held my breath.

  Whoever it was started to bend over.

  Panic seized me. If it was Alice or her goons, I was cornered and only had one shot. I put the phone down quietly and then lashed out, ready to take down whoever it was and then run for the door.

  I connected with knees. A dead weight dropped on top of me, crushing me underneath. A hand reached around my mouth, grabbing before I could call bloody murder.

  Still I fought, I bit at the hand, I bashed at a hip with the end of the phone. Like hell I was going to be kidnapped again.

  Up until I realized whoever it was wasn’t really fighting back. He wasn’t doing anything except trying to still me.

  I dared a look back, trying to figure out my attacker, and finding a pair of cerulean eyes.

  For a moment, my heart lifted. Corey? He was here? How...

  But I was wrong, because there was a bit of light and the eyes were ones I’d seen a thousand times behind my eyelids since the night before, haunting me because I wasn’t sure I’d ever see them again. There was that constant gaze, an underlying sadness and depth of emotion that threatened to swallow everything around him up.

  Unmistakable.

  Brandon.

  ESCAPE

  The moment I stilled, Brandon lifted me off the ground until I was standing.