The End of Tomorrow

by Tara Brown

  Luce shook her head. “There might be things about her we can’t find online. Scientists are cagey people. They don't want other people to steal their work. She might do things by hand until she knows for sure she has something worthy of bringing out into the world.”

  “That is a fact.” Jack pointed. “It’s all about being the first to write about it. Once you’re published you’re golden, but until then, anyone could take your idea and make it theirs, if they can fudge or steal the experimentation or documentation. The scientific community has a research theft every couple of years.”

  Crickets might as well have started singing right after that as all three of us stared at him, not sure what to say.

  “It’s a very big deal.” He rolled his eyes.

  “Anyway, let’s keep looking into her.” Coop nodded and walked for the door.

  I jumped up and followed him out, grabbing his sleeve. “Wait, we should probably send at least one of us to check her out in the real world, not just on the Internet.”

  “Evie, I have this. I don't need you backseat driving.” He walked off, clearly still annoyed about the awkwardness of earlier.

  “Whatever.” I sighed and walked back into the room to start helping organize and analyze the information we had.

  After about an hour of it I noticed my phone ringing again. I lifted it to my face but didn't speak, in case it was another recording.

  There was no one on the other line. It was dead silence. I coughed and turned my head so the other two wouldn't see me holding the phone.

  “Evie?” Servario muttered into the line. “Are you safe?”

  “Yeah,” I whispered as I stood and left the room.

  “Why are you whispering?”

  “Because you aren’t supposed to be calling me.” I didn't know what to say. The last mission we had been on, he erased my memory and the one before that he had sold me down the river several times, and once for a phone I still didn't know the truth about.

  He sighed. “Are you going to the place I mentioned?”

  “No. Coop thinks it’s you setting us up or setting a trap.”

  “Are you kidding me right now?” He was no longer whispering. “Is he disobeying a direct order from the very people he works for?”

  “He’s being cautious. He wants to know everything before we go in and you never tell anyone anything. It’s always strip and pretend to be a hooker, and then as I’m running and shooting, you explain why we’re there.”

  “Let’s not discuss this again.” He chuckled. “I need you there—needed you there yesterday.”

  “He won’t.” I felt like a traitor even talking to Servario, especially after the text I had sent. “Call him if you want to talk to him about this. I am not in charge.”

  He sat silent, maybe thinking. I couldn't even guess what he did while on the other end. When we were together he would try to do sexual things while he was on the phone. I didn't want to know if he was doing that.

  “I am going to call upstairs in the bathroom, the one in your bedroom. Go there now and turn this phone off,” he demanded and hung up. I hurried up the stairs, slipping into the bedroom and closing the door just as something started to ring in my bathroom as promised.

  When I walked in, my eyes drew to the cupboard. I opened it and crouched, looking up at the bottom side of the bathroom sink. Taped to the basin was a phone, an obvious burner. It was a flip phone.

  “Hello?”

  “Clearly it’s me, Evie. Don't sound so surprised.” He was annoyed, that much was obvious. “Run the tap and listen to me.”

  I turned on the tap as he barked into the phone, his accent thickening with his spicy mood, “You and that little shit better have your asses on the next flight to London or I am going to come there and kill him myself. Which, by the by, would be annoying and a real hardship on me, because I’m nowhere near Canada. The girl—the Aussie—has worked out a plan to build something we don't have the technology to counter. Do you understand that?”

  “No.” It was true, I didn't understand how a girl could make up a weapon from Oxford University and no one in the world knew about it.

  “She specialized at MIT in robotics, Evie. She is working on nanotechnology. Do you understand what that is?”

  I patted my lips about to say no, but I did. It had been on a list I read once of the possible things that could destroy the world. Nanorobots could ruin the world. It would appear like a zombie apocalypse, according to the article. The tiny robots would use a human host and transfer from one human to the next through a bite, spreading themselves into all the humans. I had laughed, confident that it was bullshit.

  “Evie?”

  “Yeah, I know there are tiny robots that make you look like a zombie.” It sounded worse coming out than it had in my head, which was already bad.

  “Don't be daft. They are meant to work like a surgical drone, traveling through the body to repair organs and clean blockages and destroy cancer. It’s meant to work like a remote control car, only helping doctors save the very sick or those unable to be operated on.

  “Oh.” That clearly wasn't the article I had read.

  “Zombies, Jesus.” He sighed. “Anyway, the girl has done it. She has created the prototypes and they work. Her professor is in the Organization. He’s called her in. She is being picked up the day after tomorrow, in the evening. She’s scheduled to be going on a research expedition, some trial runs on prison inmates. They believe she will have the research with her; it's the only reason she hasn't been picked up yet. She will disappear after that, the research will too. She’s cagey. She hides everything and trusts no one. They can’t find her work, and she has insisted on doing everything like she might already work for the CIA. She trusts no one. The professor has clued in because he is a smart man and she has worked with him on things.”

  “Why can’t you pick her up?”

  “I am on the team of men being sent to retrieve her. I think I am being tested so I will be there in two days and trying my hardest to get her. Do you understand me?”

  “That you will kill me if need be.” I gulped, realizing exactly what he meant. He was always all about the job and his cover.

  “I did warn you not to make me love you, remember that. Burn the phone.” He hung up and I hated the ache in my chest.

  I clutched it to my chest and carried it from the bathroom after turning the tap off. When I got downstairs I put it in the burn box and closed it. I pressed the button and gave Jack a look. “What if her research is nanorobots that might help a doctor do surgery like a remote control car, going in and repairing without surgery?”

  His eyes widened. “That would be fairly spectacular. Tell me that’s her jam.”

  “No. You tell me why would the Organization want that? I don't understand.”

  “Fairly obvious I would think.” He scoffed. “In practical application one would treat cancer and save lives. The nanorobot swims through the bloodstream to the sick area and leaves the body through the urethra. This is a very basic example of medical treatment. In biological warfare one could take a perfectly healthy individual with nanorobots filled with illness inside them, send them to the country of choice and unleash a drug-resistant form of any given disease or virus, killing an entire population. What I would do is go directly to Saudi Arabia and cripple their economy with a sickness no one there can treat fast enough, but one I have the vaccine to, and then go in and take over. What can they do? Mid pandemic a country is weak. Then all the oil is mine.”

  “Shit!”

  Luce lifted her brows. “Is this a thing, Evie?”

  “Yeah.” I nodded. “This Aussie has created this. She was at MIT like you said. She was a robotics engineer and now she is a neuroscientist.” I looked at Jack. “Don't even. I don't know the proper terminology. Anyway, she wants to save the sick and weak and make this a proper way to treat people. Not kill off whole countries.”

  Jack swallowed hard. “So she has it?”

&
nbsp; “She has it. Servario and the Organization are being sent in two days from now. He gave us the heads up so we would save her before he has to kidnap her and force her to give them her work.”

  “So S is kidnapping her?” Luce asked.

  “Yeah. He thinks he’s being tested. He’s being sent in to take her from a test site she is running.”

  “We need to tell Coop—”

  “Tell me what?” Coop cut Jack off.

  “That the girl checks out. She has something the Organization wants. Servario is going to retrieve her and her work in two days, for the Organization. She is the real deal.”

  His steely gray eyes narrowed. “How do you know this?”

  “He called me on a burner he had taped under my sink.”

  His eyes darted to me. “He planted a phone and told you this, and we are meant to run off after him and do as he has told us to and not question it or defy him in any way?”

  When he put it like that it sounded bad, but I trusted Servario. And not because my vagina told me to. In fact, she wasn't on his side.

  Coop lifted his hands and rubbed them through his hair. “Okay, let’s see if we can figure out what her MIT years looked like so we can at least somewhat confirm this before we go too far.”

  I gave a long sigh, the kind that lets the other person know they have displeased you. He chose to ignore it, and I chose to walk out of the room and book flights.

  I finished booking with the Visa debit card Canadians used for banking. It was like a Visa but not. It used cash from your bank account. Our dummy account had one and I wished the US had them. One day if I ever had a life back, I would totally use it.

  Coop walked in, knocking weirdly. “Hey.” He looked funny. The look that had been in his eyes earlier was there again.

  “Hey.” How did I tell him I was leaving with Luce and disobeying his orders?

  “I wanted to tell you my sister is missing.”

  My jaw dropped. “What? Which one?”

  “Rachel.” He nodded. “It’s what my mom wanted to tell me earlier. It’s why I’ve been so distant. I can’t leave here and go find her and my family is pissed.”

  It was perfect. “You have to go. Go and find her. She’s your sister. This could be because someone knows who we are. We need to know why Rachel would go missing. We can cover this. It’s a typical run for us. Get an asset and take her to Japan. No biggie.”

  He looked wounded. “You are just so desperate to get back to him, aren’t you?”

  “Who?” I said it before I had really thought about it.

  “You know who.” He looked about ready to burst. “You just want to go and be with him and forget about me and where we are at.”

  “Are you kidding me right now? I just told you I like you. I like being with you.” I got up from my bed and stepped closer to him. “I am not even thinking about that at all. He’s acted like a dick and hung me out to dry. Remember the phone he wanted so desperately that he left me with James? I won’t ever forget that. He left me. I texted him a while ago saying that we were over, forever. I meant it. I have kids and things I need to worry about, and I don't need Gustavo Servario ruining my life more than he already has.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “And now I am being accosted by you because I think we should do our jobs, and I think you are not doing yours because you hate Servario.”

  His lips quivered like he might scream at me but he didn't. He reached forward, dragging me to him and planting a hard kiss on my lips. We remained there, frozen and not enjoying the kiss, for a moment before he shoved me back and walked from the room. “Stay here. When I have Rachel I will call.”

  He walked away, obviously angry, and all I could think about was that I was going to have to avoid dying by Servario so Coop wouldn't know I had disobeyed his orders.

  Chapter Twelve

  Midwestern, oh my!

  “Evie!” Jack whispered harshly into my ear, waking me up from a dead sleep. I hadn’t meant to nap, but I was fully into it. “You awake?”

  I moaned and rubbed my eyes. “No. Leave me alone.”

  “Saudi Arabia just got bombed, apparently by Yemen, but they say they never did it. And Yemen is known for being fairly upfront about their bombings. They like it when people know it was them. The weird part is the bombs took out major hospitals.”

  I opened my eyes and darted them to his face. “Shit.”

  “Right!” He nodded. “This might become a thing. They attacked in Riyadh and only hit hospitals. And the Yemeni are flipping out, making public statements claiming it was not them.”

  “The Organization is going to strike. They are preparing. Holy shit, you were right. I mean Saudi Arabia is a hot target but you nailed that. We have to go. I have flights booked for me and Luce for tonight.”

  Jack’s lips curled. “You are going to disobey Coop?”

  “Yeah. He’s being insane. He thinks I want to see Servario, which I don't. And he seems to be forgetting Servario is on the bad guys’ team and he’s going to be trying to kill us.” I rubbed my eyes again. “Did you try telling him this information?”

  “Yup and he’s still not listening. I think the whole sister thing is stressing him out. Rachel is super weird.”

  My gaze narrowed. “She’s a spook, for sure.”

  He pulled back. “I said the same thing. I met her a couple of years ago and totally thought she was one of us.”

  Somehow our discussion about this was familiar to me, but I couldn't place it.

  We didn't focus on anything but getting out of Canada and getting to England. Flying the way normal people do isn’t glamorous and it takes forever. One side of Canada to the next is a whole day affair.

  We landed in Halifax, the eastern coast of Canada, and caught our direct flight to London, taking the red eye.

  “I can’t believe Coop is being such a douche,” Luce whispered as we buckled in and prepared for takeoff. Jack leaned across her. “He’s stressed out. He’s reckless and his weird sister is missing.”

  “She’s shifty.”

  “She is.” I nodded at Luce, surprised everyone else saw what Coop had missed; his sister was shifty. “So what’s the plan?”

  Jack winced. “We didn't even really have time to come up with one. We have a safe house no one uses that is essentially forgotten about in London, over in the Portobello Market area. I can guarantee it’s still being watched, at least by video. I brought some of those devices S gave us that are the limited-range EMP that only target transmitting devices and recordings. I will work on the house so we can at least get supplies while you girls ride the train to Oxford and find the girl.”

  Luce shrugged. “How hard can it be?”

  “Hard. If the Organization is seeking her, they may already have her under surveillance. She is running some testing tomorrow on inmates and they plan on taking her and her research then.”

  Jack’s look turned grave. “And S isn’t on our side this time. He won’t blow his cover to protect any of us.”

  “Nope.” My insides tightened as I gave that a bit of thought and added, “We won’t have Coop either.”

  Our three faces all looked the same.

  Heathrow Airport as a spy was one thing—as a peasant from Canada who had to clear customs was a whole other story. We waited like cattle in the lineup as it progressed slowly, moving us along. We entered customs separately and pretended not to know one another.

  Luce cleared first, taking her bags and leaving the airport. I knew she would wait around the train station for me to catch up, while Jack would head for the safe house so he could make it secure.

  The humidity of the airport was intense, but I imagined outside would be worse.

  A man in front of me turned, giving me a grin. “First time?” He was American.

  “Yes,” I answered before I thought. It wasn't my first time, but I was surprised at how much the airport had changed since I had been here many years before. “You?”

  “No.” He sh
ook his head. “I live here now. It’s home.”

  “Lucky you.” I tried to sound enthusiastic, but it was nearing midnight, and I had been flying commercially for nearly twenty hours.

  “It’s pretty fantastic. I have a company house in Grosvenor Square and it overlooks the Marble Arch. Lovely neighborhood. Even Hyde Park isn’t seedy for a city park.”

  It was too much information and too much naming of places. Was he a spook? Was he trying to tell me something? I smiled wide. “I have always wanted to see Grosvenor Square.”

  He reached in and slipped a business card from his trousers. “My name is Orson, if you feel like stopping in for a drink.”

  I took the card and shook his hand, confident he was someone trying to follow me or tell me something. “Janice.” I used the asset’s real name to see if he even flinched at it, but he was cool as a cucumber. His honey-brown eyes didn't even twitch when he said her name. “Janice? Such an unusual name. You never hear it.”

  “No. Never. It’s plain and has never really been popular.”

  “I had an aunt Janice when I was a boy. I love the name.” He was my age—ish and handsome with dark hair and eyes but a very golden coloring to his skin, and a very Midwestern sort of look. He even had a dimple in his right cheek to go with the rest of his cute appearance.

  “You must get that a lot with Orson though?”

  “I do.” He laughed. “I get Orson Welles or Indiana. But it was actually my grandfather’s name. My mother loved her father.”

  We both dragged our carry-on bags up as the line got closer to the front.

  “My name is after a famous scientist my mom adored. Some Janice lady who invented things.”

  He wrinkled his nose. “A female scientist and inventor? How forward for the time.”

  I nearly shoved him but realized he was teasing when his eyes sparkled. There was a wholesome charm going on with him. He winked. “Got you.”

  “You did.” I bit my lip, realizing what I was doing and stopped myself before I let it get too far. I was flirting—with the enemy. He was obviously a spy. So obvious it hurt. Regular men didn't flirt with me. They didn't even see me.