The grimness returned to Healy’s face, but even worse than a minute ago. “He was offered a cure … something that hasn’t been discovered yet…”
“Cure?” I asked, feeling utterly confused.
Stewart glanced at me, holding my gaze for a second before whispering, “For cancer, right?”
Healy nodded slowly, confirming her theory. “Most likely he’s been taken to the future … to help Eyewall…”
I felt like the wind had been knocked out of me. He wouldn’t do that. He wouldn’t leave me alone just to chase some idea that most likely was a trap.
“Wait … is that even possible?” Stewart demanded. “Wouldn’t it kill him?”
“One jump won’t kill him. And he isn’t the first to accept a bribe,” Healy said. “Treason is a threat our agency has to deal with constantly.”
My head spun. This was too much to handle. What did I have left to keep me grounded to this timeline, or any, for that matter?
“Unfortunately, we can’t discuss this further at the moment,” Healy said. “The reason I sent the two of you here is because I knew you’d be tailed and we’d have a chance to counterattack the opposition.”
“Eyewall,” Stewart said. “Who’s tailing us?”
“I’m not sure specifically which agents. However, our entire mission team is already chasing agents on foot. We knew Dr. Melvin’s death was the kickoff event,” Healy said. “The two of you are going to walk out of this building and go separate ways. Agent Parker is placed across the street, giving me updates.”
“What’s the exact assignment?” Stewart asked.
“Catch them,” Healy said simply. “If you can keep them alive for questioning, that’s preferred, but keep in mind, they may have the same plan. However, I can guarantee it won’t be for very long.”
My whole body was numb from shock … from the overwhelming sense that everything was way too big for me to handle. But the second we stepped out into the very early morning air, I saw the small, blond-haired agent hiding out behind Parker, waiting to follow him.
And I knew I’d have to be the one to chase Holly.
Stewart turned her back on me immediately and headed toward the street corner. I made brief eye contact with Parker and turned on my coms unit.
“Let me take Blondie … I’ve got her profile memorized already.”
“Copy that.”
Relief washed over me as Parker turned his attention and his gun to another agent. Holly’s figure dissolved behind a bus and I took off on foot after her.
Her pace picked up and I almost didn’t see her head for the subway steps. She froze in front of the turnstile and glanced over her shoulder, getting a full view of me. Her eyes bugged out and then she pushed the man in front of her through the gate, leaping over the turnstile in the process.
Okay … obviously she isn’t going to surrender quietly.
I flashed a fake FBI badge to the operator and jumped the turnstile, following her. Several people screamed as Holly tore through the crowd, shoving aside bystanders, who then ended up blocking my path. But the loudest screams of all came when she jumped down onto the tracks.
“Damn it, Holly!” This is not what I had planned. She’s supposed to get scared and give up without a fight. The last thing I wanted was for her to risk her life just to run from me.
She was safely on the other side before I had even jumped down. I hated getting on the tracks, but I did it anyway. The second my feet hit level ground again, the next train came barreling through.
I could see her about twenty feet in front of me and figured she’d get on the subway, make a plan knowing I wouldn’t do anything too drastic on a crowded train. The doors opened, but she didn’t get on. She ran farther through the tunnel, where there was only a few inches between her and the train. I reluctantly followed.
She moved across the narrow space with such ease, it was clear all those years of walking on balance beams came in handy. The people boarding the train had become a distant blur. The dark swallowed us both, but I could see her small frame moving forward. Then she just vanished. It took me another twenty seconds to reach the opening in the tunnel that she had dived into.
A large brown door and another staircase … going down. The stairs led to a dark hallway that smelled like sewage and moldy water. Her hair flew behind her and I focused my eyes on it.
At least I tried to, until a shoe made contact with the side of my face, throwing me against the wall. I recognized the Eyewall agent from our list of suspects. The dude reached his hands for my throat and I sprang into action, tossing him onto the hard tile floor.
I used the technique the martial arts experts had taught us in China, squeezing his neck just enough to make him pass out. I swiped his gun and ID before sprinting to catch up with Holly. My eyes still hadn’t adjusted to the dark, so I was really surprised to hear the sound of her breathing, like she was close by, very close.
“Dead end,” a male voice said from my right side.
Sure enough, Holly was pressed against the wall, running her hands along the surface, like she might find a door. The dude to my right lunged toward me and I knocked him out easily with a hard blow to the temple using my elbow. He stumbled back toward the wall and slumped down.
“Flynn!” the first injured man, having regained consciousness, managed to shout, but it sounded more like a dying croak. “Do it! Now.”
The whites of Holly’s eyes shone through the dark and she dove sideways into a door I hadn’t even noticed. I leaped in after her and both of us jumped when the door slammed behind us. A loud click echoed through the near-silence. I could hear Holly breathing hard and could feel the smallness of the space. Like a tiny room.
The light from my cell phone was enough to see her face illuminated with fear. I bounced the small light around the walls and realized she had most likely led me right into this trap. That was the plan all along. Eyewall knew we’d follow … knew we’d go man-to-man. A sick feeling rose in my stomach. Had Stewart and Kendrick already chased their targets down? Were they trapped like me? And where were all the others … Parker and Freeman?
The rustle of movement forced me to shine the light on Holly again.
“Back up!” She pointed her gun at me, like she had in my apartment two nights ago, except she didn’t look nearly as shaky this time.
I lifted my hands in the air and found my way to the corner farthest from her. “Guess you tricked me. Nice job.”
She walked toward the door and kept one hand on the gun and one fumbling with the weird bar across the center of the door. This room was about the size of a very large walk-in closet and didn’t appear to have any other exit except the one door we’d come in.
I watched as she pressed harder and harder against the bar, swearing under her breath.
“I think it’s locked,” I finally said, resting my back against the wall.
“No … no way. They’d never lock me in here with…” She snapped around swiftly to face me, putting her second hand back on the gun.
“Obviously, they did. For all we know, it might be a long wait. Are you seriously going to keep that gun pointed at me for hours? My arms are gonna get really tired up in the air like this.”
“Yes,” she said through her teeth. “I’m going to keep my gun pointed at you until I either decide to shoot you or I pass out or die.”
“Okay, then,” I said with a groan. “This should be a blast. Maybe you can just shoot me in the leg or something. Then we can both sit down. I’m pretty tired from that run you just took me on.”
“You’d rather be shot in the leg than have your arms get a little tired?”
“You won’t shoot me.” I shone the light on her face again to get a good view of her expression—pissed off, as I predicted.
“Try me.”
I aimed the light around every wall, one at a time, though I had already memorized the dimensions. “Well … based on the size of this little jail cell, if you missed the shot
—”
“Oh, I won’t miss.”
I knew I shouldn’t have been turned on by that, but I sort of was. Commando Holly … a new nickname. “Anyway … if you did miss … the bullet would bounce off these walls and there’s a very good chance it would be headed your way.”
She had her cell phone out now, punching in a text message that I knew for a fact couldn’t be sent from underground. I waited until she glanced at me again, then I quickly whipped out my gun and the one I’d swiped from the other agent.
Her gasp was completely involuntary, as was the arm that instantly lifted to cover her head.
“See? You still haven’t pulled the trigger,” I said, and then I opened both pistols with my thumbs. I tucked one gun under my arm and from the other removed each bullet, one at a time. They clanked against the tile floor. Once the bullets from both guns were all on the floor, I set the guns on the floor and slid them across with enough force that they collided with Holly’s tennis shoes. “Holly—”
“Agent Flynn,” she snapped, still pointing her gun at me.
“Right, Agent Flynn. Now that I’m unarmed, I’m gonna sit down until someone comes looking for us.”
She walked across the room, only a couple feet away from me now. “Take off your clothes.”
Again … kind of a turn-on. But I forced the thought from my head, knowing this could be the setup they had intended. Holly would no doubt be able to distract me, as she had proven at Healy’s ball. I kicked off my shoes and handed them to her.
“And your shorts,” she said, but this time her confidence wavered just a bit.
“Seriously?”
“Yep.” She tossed my shoes in a corner.
I sighed heavily and unbuckled my belt, then slipped out of my shorts, standing barefoot in boxers and a polo shirt. “This is when the door opens, right?”
I could see her roll her eyes. “Hand me your shirt, too.”
“I’m totally having a middle school flashback right now.” I pulled off my shirt and tossed it at her.
She waved it in the air like a flag, then picked up my shorts from the floor. Those were turned upside down until my wallet, keys, and phone tumbled to the floor. She threw the shorts at me after yanking out my belt. “You can put them back on now.”
“Thanks so much, Agent Flynn.” After my clothes were back on, I sat on the floor, in my corner.
Finally, she sat on the floor in the corner diagonal from me, relaxing a little. The gun stayed resting in her lap along with her cell phone.
“You look tired,” I said. Now that my eyes had adjusted to the minimal light I could see her better.
“Sleep-deprivation training,” she admitted with a heavy sigh.
“What is that, exactly?” I lifted the bottom of my shirt up to my face, wiping the sweat from my forehead.
“Regulated and monitored sleep decreasing over the course of six weeks. I’m on a strict three-hours-a-day maximum. We also take daily mental competency tests to see how we handle less sleep.” She glanced wistfully at the door. “God … I don’t get why they locked me in here with you. That was not the plan. There was supposed to be another door … an exit.”
The fact that she trusted them and not me pissed me off, even though I understood why. “Do you think Agent Collins really cares what happens to you? You’re not even a full agent yet. They can erase every shred of evidence. Make it look like your secretive behavior these past few months was the result of … I don’t know … a crack addiction … and you died from a drug overdose.”
“Oh, great. So, we put the guns down and you jump right to the mental games.” She glared at me, then her expression turned smug. “That’s preferred, actually. I’m better at reading people’s real intentions than everyone else in my division.”
I couldn’t help laughing. “You need some better competition. I think you suck at guessing people’s real intentions, otherwise you wouldn’t be holding me at gunpoint. I already told you I wasn’t going to hurt you, remember?”
A flicker of emotion crossed her face at the mention of that night I had caught her in my apartment. The glare returned quickly. “Yeah, because you want to recruit me. Drop the Eyewall numbers down a little bit.”
“They’re lying to you, Holly … about everything,” I said, realizing my voice had suddenly become a lot more intense. “I’m not the bad guy.”
“I’m not, either. How great is that? Let’s make friendship bracelets and have a sleepover.” She laughed, but there was no humor in it.
I took a chance and scooted across the floor until I was sitting right in front of her. She held her breath, gripping her gun tighter. “I can take you away from them. We can go anywhere you want. What happened to Adam … that wasn’t an accident and it wasn’t us, I swear.”
Her eyes locked with mine, holding my gaze. “What happened to your shoulder? I saw the scar.”
My fingers absentmindedly lifted to touch my right shoulder. “A bullet hit me, but it didn’t go all the way through.”
“I’ve never been shot,” she said flatly. “Yet…”
I flinched, seeing that horrible day in her dorm room all over again. I’d never get rid of that image. “About what I said…?” I pressed, because she had changed the subject so quickly on me.
She turned her head to the side, looking away from me. Obviously she wasn’t going to respond to my offer. In this situation, Holly had the mental advantage over me because I was just another guy to her.
An hour ticked by without her saying a single word or even making eye contact. But I think her fight to stay awake won and she had to keep talking.
“How long have you been an agent?” she drilled.
I jolted up from my now-lying-down position as the sound of her voice cut through the silence. “Just a few months. How about you?”
Another long pause, her eyes half closed. “I started about a year ago. Adam had done some serious hacking job and got caught. He totally freaked out and told me about it because he didn’t know what to do. Anyway, instead of putting him in jail, the CIA recruited him.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard they do that.”
“All they wanted him to do was basic field training and computer stuff. Nothing like what I’m doing now. He had this one training assignment, just beginner stuff, convincing a receptionist to hand over medical records. He took me along and then totally blanked and I jumped in to rescue his ass and completed the assignment for him … but of course—”
“They were watching?” I guessed.
She nodded, and when she spoke again her voice started to shake. “But I didn’t even think about that at the time, and a few days later a man was in my kitchen, talking to my mother about a very special honors program he wanted to put me in. Complete bullshit, obviously, and I knew right then. At first I really loved the training, the assignments … and Agent Collins was totally cool to work for.” She drew in a deep, shaky breath.
“Hol, Adam knew Tempest isn’t bad … I saw him just before—” I froze, knowing I had just said too much.
Her face twisted with anger and I thought she might shove me away from her. “Don’t talk to me like you knew him! You don’t care about Adam and you don’t care about me! I know exactly how this game works, probably better than you.”
“I’m the one who found Dr. Melvin dead. I wonder who made that mess. Not Eyewall, right?” My voice had gotten louder and she shrank back a little. I ran my fingers through my hair, trying to calm down. Nothing was going how it was supposed to. “I didn’t mean to yell. I’m sorry.”
An eerie calm had taken over her expression and she whispered, “I found him, too … Adam. It was the single most terrifying moment of my entire life.”
“You couldn’t have been there,” I said. “I would have known.”
“Believe me. I was there.”
My stomach sank. It must have been after … way after. “Tell me what happened.”
Her eyes focused on the wall behind me. “Another age
nt came to pick me up that day and we went to go get Adam. The second we walked into his house, we found him … He was covered in blood, I couldn’t even see his face. He wasn’t breathing, but his eyes were wide open, staring right at me, like he was begging me to help him, but it was too late.”
I squeezed my eyes shut for a second as the pictures, the memory of seeing him, flooded my brain. Pain rolled in giant waves over me. Holly’s hands had neglected her gun and were now lifting to cover her face. Her reaction startled me, but maybe this was the first time she had really talked about Adam.
Her voice was thick with tears when she started speaking again. “The guy I was with, Carter, dragged me out of there before I could do anything. He said it was protocol. I don’t even remember getting in the car. We just left him there like we never saw it. And later that day, I had to sit across from his mother in the police station, while a detective questioned me. I had to lie to her face … say I hadn’t seen him all day.” She uncovered her face, revealing her tear-stained cheeks. “Do you know what the police told her?”
“What?” I whispered, even though I had already read the report a dozen times.
“They told her he fell or tripped on something.” She sucked in a breath, trying to smooth her voice, but it only got more unstable. “He was murdered, and his own mother thinks it’s her fault for not wrapping up the damn vacuum cord or something. I can’t say a word … nothing. I have to keep letting her think, day after day, that she could have prevented her son’s death. That maybe she even caused it … and I don’t want to do it anymore. I don’t want to do any of this. But there’s no way out. I’m just going to be this person whose sole motivation for following orders is to be able to walk into my house and not see my mother bloody and lying on the floor like Adam.” Her hands lifted to her face again and tears came out harder and faster.
I felt like a truck had just run over me. I reached for Holly and my arms went around her, pulling her close. It was stupid to touch her, get this close, because she didn’t trust me, but none of that even crossed my mind. This was Holly, crying … I couldn’t really think about all the invisible barriers between us now.