by Hart, Stella
The fact that they were warning me against looking into them right now made one thing fairly obvious to me: they were involved with this set-up against my mother and Jamie Torrance, and they didn’t want anyone to find out.
It made me wonder yet again—why the hell did the Order even invite me to be a member in the first place? Was it just to use me in whatever way they could, like Logan told me all those months ago, or was there something more nefarious at play that I simply hadn’t grasped yet?
My shoulders slumped, and I sighed. All around me, I heard the voices of Secret Service agents and my mom, but they sounded faint and slightly warbled, like I was listening to them through water.
“I don’t know how to tell you this, Madam President, but we can’t find him.”
“What do you mean you can’t find him? He was right there.”
“I know, ma’am, but he’s gone.”
“He can’t just be gone!”
“He might’ve gotten lost in the crowd somehow. We really need to get you out of here, though, so we can’t wait any longer. I’ll send you back to the White House now, and I’ll have my team continue their search. When we locate him, we’ll send him back in another vehicle.”
“Fine. Willow, have you seen your father? Hello? Willow, are you even listening?”
I snapped out of my reverie at the mention of my name. “Sorry, what?”
Mom glared impatiently at me. “Where’s your father?” she asked. “We need to get the hell out of here, but the agents haven’t been able to find him.”
My eyes widened. “He was right next to me on the float. I assumed he was right behind me when the agents started pulling me over to the car.”
“Well, apparently he wasn’t.” She cursed softly under her breath and waved her hand at the agent-in-charge leaning into the car. “Let me know when you’ve found him, okay?”
“Of course, ma’am.”
My stomach knotted as we pulled away and slowly headed down Pennsylvania Avenue. I couldn’t hear anything from outside, but when I looked through the window, I saw hundreds of panicked parade attendees running around like headless chickens, trying to flee the area as quickly as possible. I couldn’t blame them. I wanted to get the hell out of here as fast as possible too.
“What happened back there, Mom?” Jared asked.
She shook her head. “I don’t know,” she said in a low voice. She glanced up at me again and slid her hands over Jared’s ears. “Willow, you saw that… thing. What exactly was it?”
I leaned forward. “It looked like a body from a morgue. Old and male. He was pale and blue, and there was no blood, even after he fell all that way.”
“So he was already dead.”
I nodded. “Yes. So that’s a silver lining, I guess.”
“God,” she muttered, releasing Jared from her grip so she could rub her temples. “You were right after all.”
“Huh?”
Her eyes narrowed. “About today’s parade being a terrible idea. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I looked down at my lap and stayed quiet.
When we arrived at the White House, we were marched into a ground floor sitting room by the Secret Service agents and told to stay there while the others in the field searched for my father and tried to figure out what the hell happened.
I slumped in my seat, closing my eyes as a sudden wave of exhausted melancholy overcame me. I couldn’t stop thinking about the threatening note, to the point where it felt like it was burning a hole in my pocket.
I wanted to pull it out and tell everyone that today’s terrifying incident was my fault, but I couldn’t. I’d have to tell them about the Order to explain it all, and then I’d get myself into even deeper trouble with the society.
“Willow. You’re buzzing.”
I looked up to see my mother staring at me from her brocade seat. “Hm?”
“Your cell,” she said sharply.
I glanced at the small table on my left. I’d put my new phone on it when we walked into the room, and now it was vibrating all over the place. I’d been so caught up in my own head that I hadn’t even noticed until Mom pointed it out.
“Oh. Sorry.” I picked it up and answered the call, already knowing who it was. “Hi.”
“Hey. I heard about the parade. Are you okay?” Logan asked.
“I’m pretty shaken up, but I’m not hurt,” I replied. I stood and headed over to the white Palladian window on the far side of the room. “Did you actually see what happened?”
“Yeah, it’s all over the news. Someone dropped a fucking body from a helicopter, right?”
“Yup. It almost fell right on me and my dad.”
“Jesus. Someone really hates your mom.”
I bit my bottom lip. “Actually… I don’t think the threat was aimed at her,” I said softly, glancing over my shoulder to make sure no one was listening. “I can’t talk about it on the phone, though, just in case. I’ll tell you in person.”
“Okay. I’m leaving the office now. It’s not that far away, but it’ll probably take me a hundred years to get to the White House. Half the roads in the city are blocked off.”
“Yeah, I know. I’ll see you when you get here.”
I went back over to my mother and Jared. “Was that Logan?” Mom asked, eyeing me.
I nodded. “He’s on his way to be with us.”
She smiled tightly. “How sweet.”
We sat in somber silence until Jamie Torrance stepped into the room with two unfamiliar men. They were holding papers and laptops.
“Madam President,” Jamie said with a deferential nod. “We’ve just confirmed that the helicopter used to drop the corpse wasn’t from the military. It was just painted to look like one of the military choppers so no one would be suspicious when it flew into the airspace above the parade.”
Mom gave him a withering look before turning to Jared. “Cover your ears, honey,” she said. When Jared did as he was told, she looked at Jamie again, eyes narrowed. “What kind of colossal fuck-up is that? Isn’t the military supposed to monitor the airspace, so this kind of shit doesn’t happen?”
Jamie nodded. “We’ll be launching a full investigation into how it happened. I’m just telling you what we know so far.”
“Is there anything else?”
Another nod. “We’ve identified the corpse. He actually had a tag around one of his toes, so that made it easy.”
“So he was taken from a morgue?” she asked, darting her eyes over to me before turning her attention back to Jamie.
“Yes. A funeral home in Bethesda reported a break-in two nights ago. A body was taken from one of the drawers. It was a man by the name of Thomas Halloran. Seventy-two, died of a brain tumor. No relevant links to you or this administration; at least none we can see yet. Seems like whoever arranged today’s incident stole a corpse at random.”
“But why?” Mom said, eyes widening. “It’s absurd.”
Jamie’s lips tightened. “We can only assume it’s someone—or an organization—who’s angry enough about the Rutherford situation to want to send a message to you. To us.”
“What message? That they’re good at stealing bodies and dropping them from the sky?”
Jamie shifted uncomfortably in his spot, twisting his hands together. “I’d say it was a threat.”
“I know. I was being facetious, you idiot,” she snapped.
“Oh. Of course. Sorry, ma’am.”
Mom sighed and rolled her eyes. “Christ, couldn’t they just email me death threats like everyone else does these days?” She leaned forward, rubbing her forehead again. “This is terrorism.”
“I know, ma’am. Believe me, I’ve already got our best people working on it. We’ll get to the bottom of it.”
“Any word from my husband?”
Jamie shook his head. “He’s still missing.”
Mom let out a deep sigh. “Of course he is,” she muttered. “God, tod
ay couldn’t possibly get any worse.”
“At least no one was harmed in the incident at the parade, Madam President,” one of the other men with Jamie interjected.
My mother shot him a look so contemptuous that he shrank back and mumbled an apology without her having to say a word.
“We’ll be back later with an update,” Jamie said. “For now, I suggest you stay here.”
When he and his colleagues were gone, Mom, Jared and I returned to our subdued silence, too shocked and scared to talk. Jared eventually came to sit on the sofa next to me, and I squeezed his hand before giving him my new phone so he could distract himself with a game about flying cats. I amused myself by staring into space, losing myself in my thoughts again.
Jamie came back about an hour later. “I’ve got news on Stephen,” he announced, holding up a laptop.
Mom’s brows shot up. “You found him?”
“Er… no.”
“Well, what is it, then?”
He grabbed a cable from a nearby desk and plugged it into the laptop. A moment later, a large screen on the left wall lit up.
“We’ve been searching through parade videos posted on Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram,” he explained. “A lot of people managed to get footage of the incident.”
“Thank god for the internet and everyone’s relentless obsession with documenting every moment of their lives,” Mom muttered, brows pulling into a frown.
“This is probably the best angle we’ve managed to find so far,” Jamie said, clicking into a video. He fast-forwarded a few seconds and hit play. “There’s Willow and Stephen at the back of the float,” he said, pausing the video and pointing to the right side of the screen.
“Uh-huh.”
He changed a setting so that the video went in slow motion. “You can see him look up at the 1:21 mark, and he obviously notices the body being pushed out of the helicopter because he shoves Willow forward before dodging out of the way himself.”
Mom winced as the body dropped onscreen, hitting the float with a resounding thump.
“Now we can see Willow crouching down, right next to the body,” Jamie went on. He paused the video again and turned to glance at me. “You’re lucky your father pushed you. It almost landed right on you.”
I swallowed thickly. “I know.”
“This is where it gets tricky. He’s still next to Willow, standing right there behind her,” Jamie said, directing his attention to Mom again. “Then a Secret Service agent grabs him while another grabs Willow. Here we can see them being pulled off the float and ushered through the crowd toward the car.”
Mom frowned. “And that’s when he vanished?”
“Yes. See here?” Jamie paused the video and tapped on the screen before restarting it. “He got separated from the agent in the crowd. We can see a group of civilians frantically pushing through and accidentally shoving Stephen, causing the agent to lose his grip on his shoulder. The agent turns around to look for him right away, but as you can see, Stephen is already gone by then.”
“How is that even possible?”
“Well, it’s not like he dropped off the face of the earth,” Jamie said. “We just lost sight of him at this exact moment, that’s all.”
“So there’s no other angles from any other videos that show where he went?”
“Not yet, but we’re still combing through social media sites. Hopefully we’ll find more soon.”
“Why would Dad leave us?” Jared blurted out. His head was turned to the big screen on the wall.
“I think he’s just lost, honey,” Mom said in a soothing tone. “He wouldn’t leave you.”
Maybe not, but he might sell you, I thought bitterly.
Before anyone could say anything else, the Secret Service agents at the door stepped aside to let Logan enter. He headed straight for my sofa and dropped down beside me, one hand resting on my shoulder. “Sorry it took so long to get here.”
“Not your fault,” I mumbled.
“You okay?”
I shook my head. “My dad’s gone missing,” I said. “We think he got lost in all the panic when our security details were trying to get us in the car.”
Logan looked over at Jamie. “I assume you tried tracking his phone.”
“Yes. We found it on the float. He must’ve accidentally dropped it.”
“Damn.” Logan turned back to me and rubbed my knee. “Today’s been crazy, huh?”
“I think horrifying is a more apt description than ‘crazy’,” Mom said, nose wrinkling as she stared over at us.
Logan gave her a tight smile. “Yes. I’m sorry, Madam President. I hope you’re okay.”
“I’m fine,” she said curtly. “Thank you for coming to get Willow.”
Jared spoke up. “Mom, can they stay here tonight?” he asked, eyes wide.
I looked at Logan, fully expecting him to say no. He nodded instead. “I think we could manage that,” he said.
I mouthed a silent ‘thank you’ at him as Jared clapped his hands together. “We can go to the bowling alley and have ice cream!” he said.
“No,” Mom said with a frown. “Sorry, honey, but I’m going to send you to stay at your aunt’s place in Alexandria for a few days.”
Jared’s shoulders sagged. “But I don’t want to do that.”
“I know, but I don’t want you in the middle of the city right now. It’s not safe. Besides, you love your aunt’s place. You’ll be able to play with all her dogs and cats.”
“Okay,” he replied, still looking dejected.
I squeezed his hand. “We’ll have a sleepover when you get back, okay?”
“Okay.”
Mom turned her attention to Logan again. “You might as well take Willow home now,” she said. “Someone can call you with updates.”
“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather have us stay here tonight?” he asked. “For safety reasons, I mean.”
“Honestly, at this point, I think you’re probably safer at your place. For all I know, these terrorists are going to drop more bodies on the White House in the middle of the night,” she said, nervously scraping one hand through her hair.
“Fair enough.”
Mom turned and snapped her fingers at the nearest Secret Service agent. “Go and find Malcolm Roberts and Adam Thayer, please,” she said. “My daughter is ready to go home, and they need to accompany her.”
Half an hour later, we were on the road, winding our way through all the blocked-off streets in D.C.
Logan glanced over at me in the car. “What was that thing you wanted to talk about?” he asked in a low voice.
He’d insisted on riding in the back with me, so Mal was in the driver’s seat and Adam was in the front passenger seat. I looked at them with furrowed brows, wondering if I should say anything in front of them.
I settled on staying quiet while they were around. I didn’t trust them one bit.
“Oh, you mean the bracelet I wanted to show you?” I said in an airy tone, pulling out my phone. I started tapping out a message in a basic notes app. “I’ll just Google it for you.”
Logan looked confused until I held the phone out and showed him the message I’d written. Not here. Talk in private.
He nodded briefly and handed the phone back to me. “Yeah, that is nice,” he said, playing along. “If you’re lucky, I might buy it for you for Christmas.”
We rode the rest of the way in silence. When we finally reached the extravagant golden gates of Wonderland, I felt a strange rush of relief, as if I were arriving home.
That was ridiculous. This place wasn’t a home for anyone, least of all me.
Clearly, these new thoughts and feelings were the first insidious whisperings of Stockholm syndrome. I had to violently shove them aside before they crept all the way in and took hold of my mind.
After Mal and Adam escorted us to our suite on the top floor, I put a finger over my lips to warn Logan to remain silent. His forehead wrinkled with confusion until I showed him
another note on the phone. Do you have one of those apps on your phone that can detect hidden cameras or microphones?
He nodded. “Why?” he mouthed.
We need to look for one in here, I wrote.
Still frowning, he grabbed his phone and opened an application called ‘Hidden Device Detector’. He showed me a note on the app which explained how it worked—we had to walk around and hold the phone out to manually inspect every part of the room for unusual activity. Apparently, hidden devices used electromagnetic waves to transmit the information they captured and stored, and these wave signals could be detected by modern cell phone sensors.
We spent the next twenty minutes walking around our suite, searching slowly and methodically. The phone screen remained green until we reached a framed painting on the wall above our bed. It turned orange right away, and a notification popped up informing us that a hidden device could be close.
Logan reached up to the painting and fumbled behind it. Grimacing, he yanked out a tiny black object and held it out to show me. My eyes widened.
I was right. The room was bugged.
13
Willow
Logan dropped the miniscule device to the ground and stomped on it. It immediately shattered into black and silver fragments. “How did you know this thing was in here?” he asked, staring at me with wide eyes.
“I had a feeling there might be a bug in the room after I found this on the body today,” I said. I pulled out the threatening note and showed it to him.
He turned it over in his hand. “Holy shit. This is from the Order.”
“Yeah. They found out I tried to get you to investigate them, and they found out pretty damn fast,” I said. “They’re obviously warning me to stop asking questions, right?”
He nodded, a grimace stretching his lips. “This is my fault. I should’ve known,” he muttered.