Vortex

by Julie Cross

  MAY 10, 2009

  LOCATION: HONG KONG

  Most Important Tempest Lesson thus far: every aspect of training is on a need-to-know basis. We can’t talk about what happens in our specialty groups to members outside of it. But Advanced Defense yields no big secrets. Not like Futuristic Technology, which I’m dying to learn about. It sucks. We all have access to each other’s agent profiles, but I know what mine says and more importantly what it doesn’t say (Axelle experiment Product B, known time traveler), so I can’t really trust anyone’s profile in the database. Maybe we’re all time travelers and just not telling each other. That would be hilarious. Maybe Eileen gave birth to 13 babies and we’re all different versions of the Axelle experiment. Maybe we are the EOTs and we’re battling our future selves? Oh, my God, I need a drink.

  MAY 11, 2009

  LOCATION: BANGKOK

  There’s one secret, only one, that I’ve kept from Dad. Emily. Something about that little girl showing up in the storm, following orders from a future version of me, seemed too important to hand over to Dad, knowing he’d do whatever he had to in order to protect me. He would have killed Thomas if he’d had the chance. The fact that a mysterious little girl might cease to exist if he had killed Thomas wouldn’t be enough to stop him. But I don’t feel the same way. I picked her up, I saw her cry, saw her regretfully leave me and head to somewhere that didn’t seem pleasant. She is something important to me. I just haven’t gotten to that point in my life yet. Whatever point where she first meets me. Do I have a child in the future? She has my eyes. Or is it like I first thought, on that rooftop with Thomas, some kind of version of Axelle but different? Like maybe instead of a half-breed, she’s a ¾ breed?

  MAY 15, 2009

  LOCATION: IN FLIGHT, HEADING WEST

  We are going to Europe! France, more specifically. I can’t think of anywhere in France that could possibly be as bad as the desert or rainy part of China with nothing but sea creatures to eat. Apparently, Tempest has headquarters in France now, near the Alps. I heard Parker say it’s all underground.

  Languages I’ve mastered and passed exams on: French, Spanish, Farsi, Mandarin, Turkish, Russian, and German. Stewart just passed the Gaelic exam. Seriously. Gaelic. I’m totally doing that next.

  MAY 17, 2009

  So, I’m not the new kid anymore. The day we got to France, Agent Lily Kendrick showed up. Yes, that’s right, another female added to the group. So far Kendrick is kinda squirrelly and nervous. Not sure if she’ll hold up with this group. Stewart’s not too fond of her, which doesn’t mean much because Stewart really only gets along with Mason.

  Lily Kendrick’s profile from the CIA database:

  Gender: Female

  Age: 21

  Height: 5' 8"

  Weight: 125 lbs

  PT Exams: all passed

  Basic CIA training: Complete

  Specialty Field: Biological Advancement

  Language exams passed: Farsi, French, Italian, German, Russian, Dutch, Flemish, Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, Turkish, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean

  And the past several days, I got the feeling that I would end up with Lily Kendrick as my partner. I was totally right. Marshall and Freeman both had paired us up for a couple of competitions. Which is something we do a TON of here in France.

  I don’t really know what to think about having Kendrick for a partner. She’s sort of nice, but in a way that makes me suspicious. I already know Stewart is out to get me, and that comes with its own built-in security. I don’t know anything about Kendrick other than the fact that when she’s not nervous she’s pretty good at almost everything.

  MAY 27, 2009

  Adam, I realized today that I haven’t done a good job of explaining the different areas Tempest agents specialize in and you are seriously going to find this fascinating. I would love to know where Marshall would have placed you. I could see you in several different specialties. Anyway, here’s the 411 on this area of the division:

  All Tempest agents specialize in an area where they show unusual aptitude, and it’s not just to have experts in different subject matters, it’s also to keep any one of us from knowing all the department’s secrets. For example, Kendrick studies her specialty with Dr. Melvin—Biological Advancements. Mason specializes in Futuristic Technology (I may have mentioned this in a previous entry). From what I’ve heard, he can disable bombs with materials that won’t even be used by the military for another fifty years. How they get these materials and the information about the future is one of those secrets that only Mason’s specialty group is allowed to know. Like I said before, it sucks big time.

  Apply this to an actual mission and here’s how it would go down: let’s say … me, Mason, and Kendrick were all in the field on a mission and someone needed to disable a bomb and someone else needed to chase after a potential attacker and possibly fire a shot at him or her. I’d be the man running and Mason would be the man (kid) on the ground, snipping wires and deactivating shit. And Kendrick would be the man (woman) injecting the attacker with anti-time-travel drugs (yes, they actually have those), assuming it was an EOT attacking. Otherwise, she’d dose him or her with something else to knock him or her out.

  See why I can’t figure out which role you’d play? You could do Kendrick’s or Mason’s jobs just as well as they can.

  MAY 30, 2009

  Kendrick and I had a really great competition today. We nearly won. Then, after dinner, she sat by me in the library and tried to start a casual conversation. It was really weird. I just kept picking apart every word she said and trying to figure out her real motives. I’ve learned too many ways to dissect lies and deception in these past couple months. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to have a normal conversation with someone again.

  CHAPTER ONE

  JUNE 8, 2009, 6:30 A.M.

  I could hear my heart pounding, even over the volume of the helicopter. Judging distance and memorizing images of our surroundings were skills I’d learned to use to my advantage during the past two and a half months of Tempest training. But today they had taken away my sight. And by “they,” I mean Chief Marshall.

  After an hour of their obvious diversions and turning the helicopter in circles to confuse us, I was seriously ready for a time jump … somewhere calm and on the ground.

  “In about sixty seconds,” Freeman barked over the noise of the helicopter, “I’ll give you the coordinates of our location, the door will open, and both of you will be dangling by those ropes we’ve attached you to. Your chance of survival will increase greatly if you have an idea of what your feet might land on.”

  Awesome.

  I fought the urge to rip off my blindfold and look down. Without seeing the journey we’d taken, I’d never be able to figure out where they were about to dump us. Agent Kendrick was already shaking beside me. I couldn’t see her, but I felt her shoulder trembling as it pressed against mine.

  “Calm down,” I whispered into her ear. “Or it’ll only get worse.”

  My heart slowed instantly as I used my own advice for Kendrick on myself. Never let anyone see you sweat. Never let them in your head … not Chief Marshall, not my partner or any of the Tempest trainees, and especially not the EOTs. This was one of the three most important lessons I’d learned in training. The other two:

  Everything is a test.

  Everyone is alone.

  The sound of the helicopter door being wrenched open caused my stomach to drop. Calm … stay calm. Noise from the rotors and wind burst in, cold air smacking me in the face.

  I barely heard Freeman shout the coordinates, and then I heard Kendrick yell into my ear, “The east side of the French Alps … rough surface … loose rocks … but people climb it.”

  I swallowed hard. “Great.”

  And they literally had turned us in circles since we’d left this morning, considering Tempest headquarters were at the base of the French Alps.

  Ten seconds later, Kendrick and I were being pushed through t
he open door, each secured to our own rope as we swung back and forth in the wind.

  “Jackson!” Kendrick shouted. “Take off your blindfold.”

  Oh … right. But that would require peeling my fingers from the rope. Instead of releasing a hand, I used my forearm to nudge the cloth from my eyes. The sun blinded me at first and then I looked down as the mountain swung in and out of focus. “Holy shit!”

  Kendrick’s long dark hair whipped in the wind as her eyes scanned the mountainside. She didn’t look nearly as petrified as I felt. I had a feeling her genius mind was spinning too fast to let fear distract her. “There’s a ledge … we’re gonna have to jump a little … doesn’t quite reach the end of the rope … but I don’t know how long before they cut us off from above.”

  I glanced up at the helicopter, still hovering ten feet over us, Freeman ready to untie us and slam the door shut any second now. “Okay, ready when you are.”

  We quickly worked our way down the forty-foot ropes, but even Kendrick hesitated at the end, our feet dangling, trying to reach the small ledge, but coming up short by about five feet. We’d have to unhook the clips securing us to the ropes in order to land on the ledge.

  Today’s test, in terms of explaining the rules to the trainees, was the most simple we’d had so far—blindfolded journey where we’d be left alone with our partners, and all we had to do was find our way back to headquarters. It was a timed test, of course, but the rules were simple. The execution, however … not so simple.

  “On the count of three,” Kendrick said, her eyes meeting mine.

  And for a second I had to wonder if this was a different test. Like maybe I was supposed to con her into going first. Or I’d release myself from the rope and she wouldn’t, and then they’d pull her back up to safety and take off without me.

  Only one way to find out.

  “One, two,” I said, gripping the release button on the clip between my fingers. “Three!”

  The blur of Kendrick falling beside me obscured my vision, and the surface of the mountain appeared before I was ready for it. The side of my face smacked into a jagged rock, immediately followed by the warm trickle of blood dripping down my cheek. My feet found the flat surface and both Kendrick and I pressed our hips into the mountain, toes turned out.

  “We’ve got pitons … in our bags, right?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” Kendrick said between breaths. “Jackson … you’re bleeding.”

  As she reached for my forehead, I shrank away from her hand and quickly wiped the blood with the sleeve of my T-shirt. “It’s fine. Forget it.”

  She pulled her hand back and looked at the large rock in front of us. “Can you reach in your bag and hand me a piton?”

  “Don’t you have your own?”

  She held up the end of a rope, which I hadn’t even noticed had been thrown from the helicopter. “They only gave us one rope. We’re gonna have to share it.”

  The challenge in her eyes was too obvious to miss. “Then hand it to me and I’ll tie it for both of us.”

  “On what? You’ve got nothing but loose rocks in front of you.”

  I remained silent as I handed her a piton and watched her pound it into the mountain. She tugged hard on the rope and then reached for my harness, clipping me to the rope before I could object.

  “This should hold both of us,” she said.

  My fingers held tightly to the edge of a rock. “You first.”

  Kendrick shrugged and then started her descent. My eyes dropped to the ground again without permission and Kendrick’s face dissolved. A flash of Holly’s blond hair flying toward the ground materialized in front of me. Blood pumped in my ears and the air in my lungs seemed to vanish. Not this. Not now. Focus!

  “Jackson?” Kendrick said from a few feet below me. “You okay?”

  No. “I’m fine.”

  I turned around quickly and stared straight at the slab of rock in front of me, then started to climb down. Kendrick moved in silence below me for the next hour. The effort of securing pitons and retying the rope every twenty feet was exhausting and made conversation difficult.

  The valleys below us were still distant green blobs when Kendrick finally spoke again. “I love how you’re still trying to hide the fact that you’re an acrophobe.”

  “So it seems,” I said, looking down at her. I almost laughed when I saw her eyes roll.

  “Anyway, I was just thinking … since I don’t really have an issue with heights … it’s good that we’ve been paired together.”

  “All right, you got me,” I said, keeping my focus straight ahead. “I’m scared of falling off this mountain … and it’s not like you weren’t shaking up there in the helicopter.”

  “I wasn’t worried about the height. I was afraid I wouldn’t have the answer, wouldn’t have a clue where we were. Being lost freaks me out.”

  Okay … so what? We’re gonna get personal now? Talk about our hopes and dreams … great fears? Yeah, right.

  * * *

  Finally, after hours of climbing, we reached less vertical terrain. Agent Kendrick and I unhooked our rope and stuffed everything into our backpacks. When I looked around at our surroundings, I could hardly believe my eyes. “This is right near headquarters.”

  Kendrick nodded, smiling a little.

  “Did you know where we’d end up when you picked our landing spot?” I couldn’t help asking, and sounding slightly impressed, which I was.

  “Yeah,” she admitted. “But not right away. It was a good guess. And now maybe we can pass the test and record the fastest return time. I’d love to win a day off.”

  “Impressive,” I said. “You’re not just trying to live through this, but also attempting to win. Did you see anyone else?”

  She swept the area with her eyes, then sighed. “We’re either way ahead or way behind … Damn, this place is beautiful. This is where I want to go for my honeymoon. In one of those little villas right at the base of the Alps.”

  I nodded in the direction of the underground pathway. “Let’s win Marshall’s contest first and plan honeymoons later.”

  Honeymoon? Seriously?

  We raced toward the secret entrance and shifted the giant stacks of hay to the side. Both of us grinned, knowing we were most likely the first to come through. It would have been impossible to push the hay back after crawling into the hole.

  “I already know what I’m going to do with my day off,” Kendrick said. “Eat … and eat … pastries … lots of pastries.”

  My foot was already feeling around for the ladder, excitement and adrenaline rushing through my veins.

  I lifted my eyes to look at my partner and nearly shouted as several figures, blurred by the sun’s glare, appeared around us. Kendrick’s shout was muffled instantly. A strange, almost metallic-smelling gas filled my nostrils, and then a foot made contact with the side of my head and my vision completely dissolved.

  The thud of my head smacking the ground echoed through my ears and all I could think was—he found me.

  Thomas.

  After my months of obsessing over every ounce of data on this man, we’d finally get to face off again.

  CHAPTER TWO

  JUNE 8, 2009, 11:30 A.M.

  Luckily, the blackout was restricted to my vision only and I remained conscious.

  “Don’t let them touch you!” I shouted to Kendrick as strong arms wrapped around me.

  I tossed the attacker to the ground, then squinted into the sun. My vision started to return, but fused with large blind spots. I counted the enemies in half a second: six blurred bodies, against two. I could make out Kendrick’s slim body and long hair. She scrambled to get up from the ground. One of the thicker bodies dove at her. Instinctively, I jumped between them and slammed my foot into the attacker’s chest, sending him backward. The groan of a male voice followed my counterattack.

  And that smell … like rusty metal and copper, so strong I could taste it.

  The next thirty seconds consisted
of flying elbows and fists. Fast silent hits to various body parts. Luckily, only one of those hits got me. I could already feel a bump forming on my cheekbone.

  Kendrick spun around, taking in the surroundings, not sure exactly what to do next, now that we had gotten a few of them down. I grabbed the back of her shirt and pushed her toward the only opening in the fuzz of bodies around us.

  “Run!” The word had barely left my mouth when I felt a gun press into the center of my back. The spots in my vision vanished and I took in the man lying on the ground and the other four getting to their feet with reluctant movements.

  I recognized every single one of them. All EOTs, but not all men. And their faces had been etched into my mind, but only one mattered right now. Thomas. I could feel him behind me.

  “Hands up, kid, you’re outnumbered,” one of the men beside me said. His red hair caught my attention, even with my current vision issues. Raymond … shoe-print guy? It looked like him, but wasn’t he supposed to be dead?

  Slowly, I raised my arms in the air. Kendrick turned back around and lifted her eyebrows for a split second. I shook my head, but it didn’t do any good. She whipped out her own gun from the back of her pants, pointing it at the man holding me hostage.