The Eighth Guardian

CHAPTER 27

We don’t even get the chance to pull out the watches.

POP!

POP!

POP!

“No!” Yellow screams. We bump into each other as we run. Run away from Orange and Green and Violet.

POP!

POP!

POP!

Three more forms appear in front of us. Blue. Indigo. And who’s that? A male form is crouched on the ground, his hands over his ears and his head ducked. It’s someone new? They added a new member? And then I stop running.

I know who it is. My heart leaps up into the clouds and dances on air because I didn’t destroy his future. He’s here. Alive. But then it falls crashing back to earth because now I know they’ve got him.

Before I can make a move, we’re surrounded.

Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click!

Six gun barrels being locked. Not tasers. Not paintball guns. Real guns.

“Oh, what, you’re going to shoot us?” Yellow screams as she throws her hands in the air. “You’re all being lied to! Every one of you!”

I’m looking at Orange, but I pivot around on my heel to find Abe. His eyes are waiting for mine; and the moment they meet, he lowers his weapon, and my heart soars.

“Abe!” My feet leap forward, and before I know it, I’m running to him.

Abe raises the gun again. “Iris, stop!”

I skid to a halt. He called me Iris. And his eyes are distant. As if they see through me, not at me. Alpha’s got him. I blow out a breath, blow out my shock. Somehow Alpha got to Abe. Did he threaten him? With what?

“Abe, talk to me! Say something!”

He doesn’t look at me. He’s still looking through me.

“Abraham!” I yell. “I know you. I know about Ariel.”

I start toward him again, but he raises the gun higher with his right hand, so I stop.

“I didn’t,” he says in barely more than a whisper. There’s hurt and bitterness emanating from those two simple, hushed words, and my heart aches. I want to hold him, kiss him, tell him that we’ll figure it out together. But then Abe’s face changes. It contorts into anger. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I didn’t know either!” I yell. “Abe, why are you here?” I hold up my hands and take short, easy steps toward him.

“Iris, what are you doing?” Yellow shouts. “You’re going to blow this.”

I turn around. Yellow’s panting and sweating and staring at me with big, scared eyes. She runs toward me, and then a million little things happen at once, and I don’t know how to process it all. Yellow opens her watch face as she runs. She turns the dials. Orange leaps at her. Everyone else runs. Green grabs my arm and yanks it back. But then.

But then.

A deafening blast fills the air. A gunshot. Just one.

And a scream.

“Yellow!” I shout. Green lets go of my arm and gasps. There’s chaos. Everywhere. I can disappear now. I can close the watch face lid and disappear.

Except Yellow is lying on the ground, bleeding from her abdomen, and my boyfriend is standing there watching it all.

I’m not going anywhere.

Indigo pushes past me. “Oh my God!” He drops to her side. “Elizabeth! Oh my God! No! Who did this?”

For a second we all forget that we’re no longer allies. We glance around. And all our eyes lock on Blue—on Tyler Fertig—who still has the gun raised and both hands gripping the handle.

But then he drops his hands. Only for a second. He lifts his right again and brings the gun to his temple.

“No!” I shout. I don’t think. I leap at him and pull the gun down and away before he can do it. But he squeezes the trigger as we fall, and another shot rings out over the trees.

Blue and I thud to the ground. He looks at me, and I look at him, and then his head ducks into his chin and rises and falls as he lets it out. All of it. His failed hopes of escaping his fate. His mother. I reach and touch his shoulder, but he bats my hand away and sinks lower into the ground as if he’s willing it to open up and swallow him whole.

“Elizabeth!” Indigo screams again. “We need to help her.”

No one moves. “The mission was to kill or capture,” Orange says. His voice is empty, methodical. What the hell did Alpha do to everyone?

“She’s my sister,” Indigo yells. “Our teammate. She needs help!”

Two shots have gone off on Peel’s campus now, and the doors to the dining hall swing open. Teachers run out first, but students are right behind. I don’t try to look for my dad.

Chaos erupts again. I jump up and back as Violet scrambles toward Blue and everyone else rushes to Yellow. Abe doesn’t move. His eyes lock on mine.

“Back to the present!” Orange yells. “Everyone!”

But I’ve already set my watch. And I have no intention of going back to the present. I know what I have to do. I doubt anyone is manning the trackers back at Annum Hall right now. I take a running start and slam my watch face shut. But as I do, I jump at Abe and grab his wrist.

And then the two of us are torn through space and time, and I’m taking the pain for both of us. High-pitched shrieking invades my ears and burns my head. I scream as I’m shot up. All of my weight pushes to my heart. The pressure. I can’t take the—

I land on the ground in a heap. I’m shaking and crying, and I think I might be dead.

“What the hell?” Abe yells. “How did I get here?”

I open my eyes and make myself breathe.

“You brought me here?” There’s astonished awe in his voice as he whips around, looking everywhere. “How did you do that?”

I push up and suck in my breath. This isn’t the present. This is the date I set on my watch. There’s a rickety wooden tower in the corner of campus, overlooking a plywood maze that was slapped together just last night. I can’t see it, but I know there’s a dropping device set up over the pool. And inside the government building there’s a fake detention room with a faulty sprinkler system.

“This is Testing Day,” Abe says. “You brought me to our Testing Day.”

“I know.” I stare at the gun still in his hand.

“My watch is set to present day.”

“Abe, I brought you with me for a reason.”

“My name isn’t Abe anymore, Iris.” He emphasizes the last word, making his point.

“My name is Amanda,” I spit. “Look around. My name is Amanda. Your name is Abe. Right now, you and I are lying with our arms wrapped around each other in a corner of the dining hall. I’m telling you that I have an awful, sinking feeling about tonight. You’re telling me not to sweat it. But I’m freaking out because deep down I know that this might be the last time I lie in your arms for a while. Maybe even forever. Because I know. I know. I’m being drafted tonight.”

Abe doesn’t say anything. He looks straight ahead, and in this moment he’s a stranger to me.

“Abe, talk to me. Tell me why you’re here.”

He keeps his head trained on the maze, but his mouth opens.

“To get you back.”

“Why? Why you? Why are you here, Abe? Why aren’t you—” I wave my hand in the direction of the dorms—“there? Sleeping. Right now in the present.”

“They took me.” He wrings his hands in front of his body. “They showed up at Peel and took me. They told me you were committing treason and were hatching a plan to bring down the entire government. They knocked me out, then told me a bunch of crap about how my grandfather—Ariel—could time travel, which meant my dad could do it, which means I can do it, too, and then they threw me back here and told me to go get you.”

I shake my head. No. There’s more. There has to be more. “Have you talked to Ariel?”

“I haven’t seen anyone! I haven’t talked to anyone! I just have to bring you back. I have to bring you back, Iris. I have to.”

I think Abe might cry. His voice is shaking, and his hands are trembling. What did they do to him?

“My name is Amanda,” I tell him. “Stop calling me Iris.”

“Please, it makes it easier.” He squeezes his eyes shut for one brief second, but it’s enough to tell me that he’s completely lost focus.

“I don’t know what they told you, but they’re lying to you, Abey Baby,” I whisper.

Abe lets out a little choke and raises the gun. His face is twisted. Pained. “Please don’t call me that. I have to take you back. Iris.”

They’ve gotten to him. I know they have now. Alpha must have something in his back pocket, but what?

“Please talk to me,” I say. Behind us, a gong sounds. Someone has just finished the maze. “What did they do to make you hold a gun in my face? The Abe I knew would never do that. The Abe I knew would throw himself in front of a gun barrel if he knew I was in danger.”

“I’ve changed.” His voice wavers, just a bit, but enough.

“Bullshit! What did they tell you, Abe? What did they do to you?”

“They took her, okay?” he yells. The gun falls to his side. “They took her, and she’s sick, and she needs to be at home, and they won’t give her back until you’re caught.”

I shake my head. “Took who?” I have no idea what Abe’s talking about. The only female in his family is his mother, and she’s fine. Perfect health. Unless something changed while I was gone. “Are you talking about your mom?”

“Not my mother, my grandmother!”

I shake my head again. “What? Your mom’s mom? But you barely know her. She lives in Israel. How would Alpha have gotten—”

“No!” Abe shouts. “Mona! They took Mona!”

I feel as if I’ve been punched in the gut again. Mona’s dead. She died from lung cancer several years ago, before Abe and I met. But—I suck in my breath—

And then I blink.

I blink again.

I grabbed a cigarette out of Mona’s hand in 1962. Me. I did it. I threw it on the ground. I told her Ariel would never go for her if she smoked. Did she stop after that day? Because of me?

“Abe, does Mona smoke?” I ask.

“What?” His body shakes. “Why are you asking me this? Of course she doesn’t. You know she doesn’t.”

“Did she ever?”

“No! I don’t know! As long as I’ve been alive, I’ve never once seen her with a cigarette.”

I changed the past. I went back and saved Mona’s life. The weight of this realization sinks in, and I feel dizzy.

“She’s sick now?” I ask.

Abe gets a disgusted look on his face. “Really? What, you conveniently forgot that she was diagnosed with Stage IV lymphoma a week before Testing Day? A week before this?” He waves his hand at the maze.

I crane my neck toward the buildings on the other side of campus. Somewhere over there, there’s another version of me. A version of me who knows Mona. Who was heartbroken by the diagnosis. Who’s loving and comforting Abe as best she can.

And somewhere, Alpha is walking around this campus, pretending to evaluate all the students while really just foaming at the mouth because he’s so close to taking me. To using me.

“Abe, we have to talk,” I say. “They’re lying to you.” I look around for Alpha. I don’t see him.

“How do you know?”

“Because they lied to me, too!”

“Why would they lie about my grandmother? That doesn’t make any sense!”

“Because they’re using you! Will you shut up and listen to me? Tell me, who told you about your grandmother?”

“Alpha.”

“Only Alpha? Did anyone else actually confirm that she was taken? Ariel? Your dad? Your mom? Anyone?”

Abe’s face betrays the answer. No. No one. He violated one of the cardinal rules of information, which is to always confirm when the source is shady. He knows better. Dammit, he knows better!

“Abe, Alpha’s corrupt, and he’s using the entire organization to make a quick fortune; and you know who his biggest investor is? Headmaster Vaughn. They’re both the reason my father is dead. I ran because I found out the truth, and the truth is that—”

But then a tree branch cracks behind us. I whip around. Oh God! Please don’t let it be Alpha!

It’s not. It’s Katia Britanova. The sophomore who lives in my dorm. The girl who escorted me to the dining hall after all my testing was completed and who overheard Alpha talking about me.

Katia’s eyes shoot up, then she looks me up and down. “Amanda! What the hell are you wearing? And what are you doing here? I just dropped you off at the dining hall like ten minutes ago.” And then her eyes zero in on the gun Abe’s holding. Abe sees her staring and tucks the gun behind his back. “Why do you have a gun?”

“We were just practicing,” he says. “In case there’s another secret test. They didn’t really emphasize gun work in this one—”

“So you’re cheating.” Katia jerks her neck back and juts her chin in the air.

I raise my hands and take a step forward. “I know this probably looks bad, but I promise you we’re not cheating. At anything. And right now, I need you to turn around and walk back to campus. I need you to pretend you never saw Abe and me here. You don’t understand.”

“You’re cheating,” Katia says. “And you know the honor code. Both of you do. I have to turn you in for this. I have to take you to the headmaster.”

Shit!

Abe whips the gun up and points it at Katia.

Double shit! What is he doing?

And then Katia swoops down and grabs a knife from the holster she always has strapped to her ankle.

Triple shit! Oh, this is not good. This is not good at all.

Katia stares Abe right in the eye. “Go ahead and try.” She tips the knife at him. “I guarantee you I’m faster.”

I step in between Abe and Katia and hold out my hands, one at each of them. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do.” I turn my head to Katia. “You’re going to drop that knife”—then I look at Abe and give him my best pleading stare—“and you’re going to drop that gun. Now, on the count of three. One. Two. Three.”

No one moves. No one drops anything.

“I told you,” Katia said. “I’m bound by the honor code to take you to the headmaster. And I’m going to do that.”

“Abe, drop the gun,” I say. “Katia, the knife. Come on, guys; it doesn’t have to come to this.”

Katia jumps. She kicks the gun out of Abe’s hand. He screams and clenches his fingers, but she’s already grabbed it.

“Headmaster,” she growls. “Walk.”

I have a choice. I could fiddle with my watch and get out of here. I’m no one’s captive. But where am I going to go? How long am I going to run? I don’t have a plan, and Abe has no idea what’s going on, and dammit all, I start walking.

“I never knew you were such a bitch, Katia,” I mumble. It’s a cheap shot, but I’m pissed. Mostly at myself. Katia’s doing the right thing. The thing she has to do. Peel’s honor code is strict. If you catch someone cheating, you turn them in. If you don’t and it’s discovered later, you’re out on your ass, too. No second chances.

Katia ignores me. She marches Abe and me toward the administration building.

“You know we’re screwed, right?” I whisper to Abe. “Completely and totally screwed. Even more so if Alpha sees us right now.”

“Stop talking,” Katia says.

“Oh, shut up, Katia,” Abe tosses over his shoulder. “It’s not like you’re going to bury that knife in my back if I don’t.”

“Abey, you have to listen to me,” I whisper. “You really, really didn’t know Ariel had anything to do with Annum Guard?”

Abe looks at me and shakes his head.

I crane my neck around toward Katia. She’s staring me down, so I turn back around. “I didn’t know about Ariel either. Or my own family. Was your dad a part of it?”

“My dad’s a corporate attorney. You know that.”

“But is he really?”

“Yes,” Abe practically growls. “Unless the boxes of contracts and licensing agreements he pours over each night are a part of the world’s most document-intensive cover.”

Suddenly it all makes sense to me. Ariel broke the chain. He didn’t want his son—his only son—to join Annum Guard. He must have known the havoc Chronometric Augmentation would wreak on his body, which is why he almost never projected himself. That’s why he’s the only survivor, and that’s why Abe’s dad never joined. And why Abe never knew about it. I gasp. And why Alpha was brought on during the second generation. The numbers were down to six.

I whisper my theory to Abe, leaning in close to make sure Katia doesn’t hear.

“No whispering!” Katia says.

Abe ignores her. “How do I know you aren’t lying?”

I feel as if I’ve been slapped. “When have I ever lied to you?”

Abe sighs. It’s long and sad, the kind of sigh I’ve heard from him before. “I’m sorry. I’m just . . . I’m so confused. I don’t know who to trust. Who to believe.”

“Yes, you do.” I reach over and squeeze his hand.

“No touching!” Katia snaps.

Abe drops my hand. “Hey, remember that Practical Studies class with Missy Garvin?” he whispers.

I nod my head. Of course I do. Freshman year. Missy Garvin was assigned to tail me. And when I say she tailed me, I mean she tailed me. She never got more than three feet from me. It was annoying as hell. So I took care of it. It’s one of those moments I’ll never forget. One of those moments I’m going to relive now.

I whip around and fly at Katia. My elbow connects with her ear, and my other hand grabs her wrist. I twist the knife out of her hand, and it falls to the ground.

“I’m sorry!” I yell as she groans.

Katia jumps up and raises her fist to punch me, but Abe grabs it, then grabs her other one and holds her hands over her head.

I fiddle with my watch. “Where do we go?”

“The present,” Abe says. “We end this right now.”

I nod my head. I don’t like projecting without a plan, but this is the best chance we’ve got. We’re two now. We’re two again. We can do this.

Abe spins Katia around and pushes her away, then grabs my arm. I close the watch face, and Abe and I tear through time.

We land back in the present day. I gasp and open my eyes. And then I gasp again. Alpha is standing right there in front of me, dressed in a tailored suit that must have cost thousands. Wonder where he got the money. Red is behind him, wearing a button-down with the sleeves rolled up. I take a second to note the large tattoo on his forearm. The good old stars and stripes intertwined with another flag, this one made up of three blue stripes, two white stripes, and a white star centered in a red triangle at the hoist.

I look beyond Red, but no one else is here.

And then Abe grabs both of my wrists. I let him.

“I got her!” he yells. “I did what you asked. Now let my grandmother go.”

Alpha laughs. “Not quite yet.” He nods his head at Abe. “Let go of her and step away.”

I feel Abe squeeze my wrists. And then he lets them free.

“The traitor returns,” Alpha says. His hard face is relaxed and even. Real. It’s as if he’s convinced himself that I really am a traitor. Maybe he’s a psychopath.

“I figured out your little notebook,” I tell him.

“Did you now?” His voice is calm, but I see a flash of panic in his eyes.

“Yep. I know the truth. I know who CE is.” I jerk my head to the administration building, then I turn my attention to Red. “My father was Delta, you know. I’m one of you. I was born into this. There is no experiment. Or did you know that already, too?”

“Lies!” Alpha seethes. But his hands tremble. I catch sight of them before he shoves them behind his back.

“Did you also know that Alpha is taking kickbacks on every mission he can sell?” I ask Red.

And then for a second—one short but important split second—Red’s training fails him, and his eyebrows creep up a few hairs. That tells me everything. Red doesn’t know.

And then I look at Alpha. I trusted him. I thought he was on my side. But he never was. Ever. He lied to me; he lied to Abe; he lies every time he opens his mouth.

“You’re going to prison,” I tell him. “And I can’t wait until I get to testify against you.”

Alpha laughs, and I can hear his nervousness, can see him struggle to compose himself. “Oh, Iris. My dear, sweet, powerless little Iris. You know why I gave you that name, don’t you? Iris, the mythical goddess of the rainbow. I saw in you the potential to be a leader, to take charge of all of Annum Guard.” Red stiffens. “But now I see that you take after another Iris. A dainty, delicate flower that can be crushed in the palm of my hand.”

“You don’t give me enough credit.”

“No, I give you too much credit. I thought you were strong. I thought you were like your father.” Red stiffens again. “I was mistaken. You’re not your father’s daughter. You’re your mother’s daughter. Weak. Unstable. Completely detached from reality.”

His words are worse than a slap to the face. My head reels back, and I want to pounce. I don’t. But Abe does. He lunges at Alpha. But Alpha grabs something from his waist and points it at Abe. I scream as Alpha’s wrist flicks, and Abe crumples to the ground. NO!

I drop beside him and grab his hand. My head spins, and I look for his wound. I need to stop it. I pat my hands all up and down his chest. Abe groans. I need to find it. I need to apply pressure. I need . . . wires. There are wires. There wasn’t a shot. Alpha didn’t shoot him. He stunned him.

“Red,” Alpha says, “take her.”

Red doesn’t move.

“I said take her!”

“Was her father a part of the Guard?” Red demands. “I need to know if there’s any truth in what she’s saying.”

“No, what you need to do is to follow orders when I give them. Now take her.”

“He was!” I shriek as Abe writhes on the ground next to me. “My father was Delta. He met Alpha here at Peel, and together the two of them hatched a plan to start making money off all the missions. It’s been going on since before I was born. Probably since before you were born, Red.”

“Where’s your proof?” Red shouts, his chin jerking up in the air.

“She doesn’t have any,” Alpha says. He takes a step over to me, then yanks me up and pushes me toward Red. His hands tremble. “Because there isn’t any.”

“I’ve seen it. Yellow has, too.” Oh God, Yellow. Please let Yellow be okay.

Red draws in a breath through his nose. He’s trying to take it all in; I can see it. He looks from me to Alpha, then back to me. And then he reaches a hand to his earpiece and mutters, “Whiskey Oscar Lima Foxtrot.”

I don’t know what that means, but judging from Alpha’s reaction, Red believes me.

“No!” Alpha shouts. He lunges forward, and Red pushes me behind his shoulder. Alpha raises the taser again, and Red brings up his hand to block it. But the sputtering sound rings out again, and Red screams as he drops to the ground.

I jump back. My heart thumps in my chest. And then Alpha turns to me.

He’s straining to keep it together. His eyes dart from Red to Abe to me. He drops the taser to the ground, and for one brief second my heart leaps as I think Alpha’s going to surrender to me.

The second is short-lived.

Alpha unhooks a gun from his holster and raises it. I don’t flinch.

But Alpha does. Because just then there’s a distant sound in the air. Whup whup whup whup. I know that sound. I don’t have to look up. It’s a helicopter.

Alpha’s head snaps up toward the sky, then down and over at Abe. “Red!” he yells.

The Black Hawk is getting closer. I can see men dressed in black hanging out of the doors. And they can see me. And Alpha. And the gun he’s pointing at me.

Alpha lowers the gun and takes off running across campus. I scream and stare up at the helicopter. It’s still too far away. They won’t be on the ground for at least a minute. That’s giving Alpha too much of a head start, so I take off running. It’s stupid. He’s armed; I’m not. But I can’t let him get away.

Alpha darts through the quad just as class is letting out. Kids spill out onto the sidewalks. I don’t look at them as I run past.

“What the—?” someone shouts. “Is that Amanda Obermann?”

I ignore it. Alpha zips into the science building. I’m only a few steps behind. I rip open the metal door with such force that it bangs against the brick exterior. I don’t see Alpha. I stop. Listen. Footsteps above me. Hard, heavy footsteps clomping up the stairs.

“Stop running!” I race up the stairs. In the landing, I see him. He’s thundering down the hall, heading toward one of the chem labs. He ducks in and slams the door, and I go barreling in after him.

“When are you going to give up?” I shout as I fling open the door. “You’re—” I stop. He’s standing right in front of me, and there’s a gun pressed into my forehead. I blow out the rest of my breath.

“Hands up, please,” he says. “And don’t try to grab the gun. I’m anticipating it.”

I raise both hands slowly. The gun in Alpha’s hand doesn’t waver as he stares at me, and my mouth goes bone-dry. People have pressed guns into my head before, but always in training. Never for real. I swallow.

“Don’t do anything stupid,” I whisper.

“I’d give you the same warning,” he says, “but it seems we’re a bit late for that. Take off the watch.”

Not good. That watch is my only means of escape.

“Now.” He punctuates the word. I keep one hand raised as I lower the other one and slip the chain over my head to hand the watch to him. “Thank you,” Alpha says, then he waves the gun back, ordering me into the room.

Alpha shuts the door and points the gun toward the nearest stool. I keep my hands up as I lower myself onto it. I scan the room even though I know it. I had a class in here. There are three rows of long tables, each with six stools behind them. There’s a whiteboard at the front of the room and cabinets at the back.

“Where’s the notebook?” Alpha demands.

“In a safe place.” I try to keep my voice as calm and flat as I can. Because the truth of the matter is that I have that notebook tucked into the back of my jeans, and I can’t believe in this moment that I have it with me. So stupid.

“You’re going to need to get it.”

“No problem.” I smile. “Just let me go, and I’ll fetch it for you right away.”

Alpha doesn’t blink. “Nice try,” he says, but I know that he’s at a crossroads, same as I am. He needs that notebook back so he can destroy it. And I need to keep holding on to it.

Alpha walks over to a Bunsen burner set on the first row of tables. He switches it on, and it sputters a second before the smell of propane wafts toward me and a blue flame flickers up and sends my stomach plunging into a frigid ocean of fear.

“Do you want to do this the easy way or the hard way?” Alpha asks. His voice is changing. There’s desperation in it.

I don’t answer. I stare at the flame.

“Where is the notebook?” Alpha barks.

“I don’t have it!”

And then before I know what’s happening, Alpha grabs me and yanks me to the first row. His fist clenches around my wrist, and I turn and scream and kick; but he has me pressed against the table, and I can’t move. My hand lowers toward the flame, and the heat pricks my palm. Tears roll down my face and I choke.

“Why?” I sputter. “Why are you doing this to me?”

And then the flame goes out, and the Bunsen burner goes crashing to the floor. It clatters against the linoleum. He unhands me, and I stumble back, gasping and panting and shaking.

Alpha raises the gun and points it at me, and I flinch. But only for a second. Because then I look at his eyes. Something’s changed. They’re still dangerous, but now there’s fear and resignation lurking behind them. I need to act.

I raise my hands so that they’re chin level and slowly extend my right. “Give me the gun.”

Alpha doesn’t lower the gun, but he also doesn’t put his finger on the trigger.

“Please give me the gun,” I say. “My dad wouldn’t want this.”

Alpha blinks but doesn’t say anything.

“You and my dad were friends,” I say. Right up until the point you had him killed.

I stare at Alpha’s hand. The one holding the gun. Waiting for any sign, any moment of hesitation or relaxation.

“I never meant . . .” Alpha’s eyes shift from me to the side, and I take my chance. I leap at the gun. I grab on to it and try to force it down, but then Alpha snaps back to attention and twists away from me. He raises it to my forehead, and I suck in my breath.

“Stop it!” he yells. “I told you I was anticipating that!”

“You don’t want to hurt me,” I whisper. “I know you don’t.”

He doesn’t respond, but I know I’m right.

I think of the hostage negotiation training I had right here on this campus and choose my words carefully. “Tell me what happened. Why you got mixed up with this in the first place. I’m sure it’s not your fault.” It’s a lie. He’s totally to blame. But I need him on my side.

“I can’t fight them,” Alpha says. “They’re too dangerous.”

Yes!

“Who? Who’s too dangerous?”

“XP.”

Chills race up my arms. “Who is XP?”

Alpha shakes his head, as if he’s trying to snap himself back to being the collected, professional, authoritative figure I’ve always known, not this man who’s on the verge of breaking.

“I’m not dragging you into it.”

“I’m already in it!”

“Not like this.” And then he lowers the gun. He’s still staring at me, and for once I see the glimpse of a different man. A man who’s regretful. A man who knows he’s defeated. I hold out my hand for the gun. He waits—staring, reflecting—and then he starts to hand it to me.

“What the hell are you doing, Julian?”

The door opens behind me, and Alpha retracts his hand and jumps back. I whip my head around to see Headmaster Vaughn walk in. His silver eyebrows rise when he sees me. “Hello, Amanda.”

He’s a man I used to admire, someone I used to want to emulate. He fought in Korea. He was a spy during the Cold War (well, this is unconfirmed but highly rumored). He was a close adviser to two presidents. He treated his students with dignity and respect. He listened to us. Counseled us.

But all along he was buying the past, and now he’s standing here before me, not even trying to deny it.

“Hello, Cresty,” I say.

Vaughn’s mouth creeps up into an amused smile. “Amanda, dear, I know we’ve trained you better than that. I’ve seen your transcript.”

“What, don’t antagonize the enemy?”

“No, don’t be stupid in captivity. It could get you killed.”

With those words, everything fades away. The truth floats through the air and settles in my lungs. Vaughn is a bad man. A very bad man, and this situation is very real and very dangerous.

“Sit down,” Vaughn tells me.

“Don’t sit down,” Alpha says, the gun hanging to his side. He turns to Vaughn. “It’s over. Can’t you see that?”

“Nothing is over,” Vaughn says coolly. “You’re in this until the end. You knew the terms when you took the deal.”

“I want out,” Alpha says.

“Do you now?”

The two men stare at each other with such ferocity that I forget to breathe. This is a standoff to see who’s going to blink first. Vaughn does.

“Very well. Have it your way.”

And then I know what’s going to happen. I open my mouth to scream, but before a sound can form on my lips, Vaughn has reached into his shoulder holster, and there’s a Glock and a shot and Alpha crumples to the floor. Vaughn kicks Alpha’s gun out of his hand and sends it spiraling across the floor. It bangs against a trash can.

A scream is out of my lips before I can think. He was going to surrender; I know he was! I sway to the side and slam into the table. Vaughn grips his gun with his right hand and yanks my shoulder with his left.

“Shut up!” he says as he pushes me into a stool. “I told you to sit down.”

I lower onto the seat and look at the table. Not at the floor. But I can still see Alpha lying there in a puddle of red out of the corner of my eyes, so I close them.

“Start talking,” Vaughn orders. “I want to know everything you know. And please don’t insult me by lying. I spent thirty years training intelligence officers and then students to lie. I’m going to know.”

He’s right. I’m so dead.

Vaughn gives me a pointed look. “Talk!”

“I found Alpha’s mission ledger. I figured out how to decode it.”

He nods. “Mmm-hmm, very good. Now where is it?”

“It’s in a safe place.” That’s not exactly a lie.

“We’re not playing games right now,” Vaughn says. “You are going to tell me where that ledger is, and I am going to go get it.”

“And then what?”

“One step at a time.” Vaughn sets down the gun and places both hands flat on the table.

I slide my hands into my lap and then up on the underside of the table. I’m feeling for anything I can use as a weapon. A metal joint. A loose screw. Hell, even a sharpened pencil would be better than nothing. My hands feel something. A valve. And a tube. This is the advanced chemistry lab. And I mean advanced. So that means—

“Hands on the table,” Vaughn says. Dammit. Of course he would notice. I yank out the tube without moving more than a millimeter, then I place my hands flat on the table and touch the valve with my knee. I shift in my seat a tiny bit to see if it will turn. It does.

“Where is the ledger?” Vaughn repeats. “You have thirty seconds to tell me.”

I don’t ask “or what?”; I shift again and turn the valve on full blast. This is either the most genius idea I’ve ever had or the decision that is sure to send me to an early grave.

“I’ll tell you where the ledger is if you tell me one thing.” My voice shakes. Dammit. I take a quick breath.

Vaughn raises an eyebrow but doesn’t respond.

“Why did you have Kennedy killed?”

Vaughn’s mouth creeps into a smile. “Not the question I thought you were going to ask. I thought you were going to ask if I ordered that your dad be killed on the mission, and for the record, the answer to that question is yes.” I don’t blink. He’s trying to throw me off guard. He is. My insides collapse into a puddle of anguish, and I feel vomit rise in my throat.

“Answer the question!”

Vaughn clucks. “You’re in no position to be making demands, Amanda.”

“I think I am. You want to know where the ledger is, and I’m willing to tell you. You just need to—”

“Because!” Vaughn yells. “Because Kennedy needed to be taken out if we were going to go into Vietnam. Kennedy negotiated a withdrawal in 1964. We needed Johnson to rush us into the Gulf of Tonkin and escalate the conflict. I knew Eagle could make a fortune off a war, so I studied the conflict, read the necessary classified documents, and made an educated guess.”

I blow out a breath. “You killed a president on a guess?”

“An educated guess,” Vaughn says. “Which turned out to be correct.”

I’m dizzy. I sway to the side and fall off the stool. My hands are on the floor, just inches from where a pool of blood begins. Vaughn just told me everything. He has no intention of letting me escape here alive.

But then a loud roar of voices erupts in the courtyard below. Vaughn is over at the window in a flash. I know that he sees them. The backups. The men from the helicopter. They must be storming the building as we speak. But I don’t have time to wait for them. Vaughn aims his gun at me and cocks the trigger.

“I wouldn’t do that if I was you,” I say as I push up. “You see, I turned on the hydrogen valve, so the gas is slowly seeping into the room. You do remember what happens if you mix hydrogen, oxygen, and fire, right?”

Vaughn looks at me with disbelieving eyes, and he’s at my side in a second. He bends under the desk to check, and I don’t think. I raise my elbow and bring it back down onto his neck.

Vaughn falls to the floor, and my training tells me to make sure he stays down, but my instinct has me scrambling to the door. Vaughn hops up and yanks me back. I swing. I connect with flesh. My hands and knees hit the ground. The ledger falls out of my back pocket. I gasp. Vaughn gasps. He pushes me out of the way and lunges for it. I grab on to his head and push him back. But his arms are longer. His fingers close around it. And then he pushes me to the ground as he rises.

I fly across the room to the trash can. Alpha’s gun is sitting on the floor next to it. I grab it, cock it, and aim it at the hydrogen valve.

“Drop it!” I order.

“You shoot that, you kill us both.”

“Don’t think I won’t do it.”

“That’s exactly what I think.”

A door bangs open down the hall. The backups! Vaughn rushes to the window. He’s going to jump! He’s going to escape.

I don’t think. I squeeze the trigger, and the room erupts in a burst of flames. My body is picked up and hurled back. I slam into the door, which opens, and I drop to the ground in the hallway. Black boots rush toward me. The world spins overhead. A voice I recognize. Abe. Abe is here. He’s over me, screaming and touching my face, and that’s the last thing I remember.