Chase

by Francine Pascal

  “What was she doing here?” she asked.

  A slow, knowing smile spread over Megan’s lips and she turned to the mirror, leaning in and turning her face from side to side, scrutinizing her perfect makeup.

  “I promised her I wouldn’t tell,” she said, smirking.

  Her eyes were dancing with the knowledge that she had information Gaia wanted. And Gaia was sure she was going to let it out. A person like Megan lived to let others know exactly how in the know she was. Gaia crossed her arms over her stomach and waited, eyebrows arched. This was the moment she’d been waiting for—the moment that one of Tatiana’s so-called friends would slip up and expose her. But Gaia wouldn’t give the twerp the satisfaction of begging for gossip.

  Megan looked at Gaia out of the corner of her eye, then swung her blond hair behind her shoulders and turned to face her.

  “All right, if you must know,” she said, as if Gaia had been interrogating her, “she was leaving a note for Jake Montone.”

  She smiled and watched Gaia carefully, waiting for some kind of reaction. But Gaia was nothing if not good at masking her emotions—in this case shock, glee, and disappointment all rolled into one. A note for Jake. So he did know something. It seemed Gaia had chosen the right person to get dose to in order to find Tatiana. A small victory.

  Still, part of Gaia couldn’t help wishing that Jake wasn’t, in fact, involved. Part of Gaia just wanted him to be her friend. No espionage attached.

  But there was no point in wishing for that now. Jake was involved, thanks to Tatiana. And Gaia knew what she had to do.

  “Oh, don’t feel bad, Gaia,” Megan said with false sweetness. “You didn’t really think that a guy like Jake would go for a hygienically challenged person like yourself, did you?”

  But Gaia didn’t even register the insult. She was too busy scanning her brain to see if she knew what class Jake had next. She brushed by Megan and out the door into the thinning crowd in the hallway. Damn. The bell was about to ring. It would have to wait.

  But luckily, thanks to Jake himself, she would have plenty of time to pick his brain that afternoon at the karate match. Gaia smiled. Her fingers and toes were tingling with excitement over this latest lead, but she could squelch it for a couple of hours. This afternoon Jake was all hers. Maybe being a joiner wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

  Too Easy

  “POINT! BLUE!” THE REF SHOUTED, thrusting his arm in Gaia’s direction from the edge of the mat. The crowd in the bleachers cheered and applauded, and Gaia heard Jake’s voice above the rest, shouting, “Yeah! That’s it! Finish him off!”

  The rest of the team was sitting on the bottom riser, but Gaia could see Jake from the corner of her eye, standing in front of the others, completely focused.

  Gaia waited in a fighting stance, feet spread apart, knees bent, hands fisted. She watched her opponent drag himself up off the ground. He was sweating, he was bleeding from the lip, he was gasping for breath. Gaia coolly blew a shock of hair away from her eyes. This really was too easy.

  Most of the people Gaia fought had a lot more heart than this guy. Or a lot more desperation, more likely. Or just a lot more evil in their blood. Whatever the case, the difference between the street thugs and drug dealers and Loki operatives she’d fought in the past and this guy with his cropped hair and square jaw was dear. All those other people were fighting for a real reason—survival, revenge, loyalty. This guy was probably fighting because his girlfriend was in the stands somewhere, waiting for him to prove his manhood. Wasn’t gonna happen.

  “Finish him off!” Jake shouted again.

  That was another new thing for Gaia. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a cheering section for a fight. Her opponent approached her tentatively, his brown eyes begging her to just finish this already. Pathetic. But she could oblige. She was deathly bored.

  He made a move to punch, and Gaia lifted her leg and kicked him clean in the jaw, not very hard. He fell on his ass, and the crowd went crazy.

  “Point, blue! Match, blue!” the ref shouted, lifting Gaia’s arm in the air.

  Gaia grinned as her gaze fell on Megan and her pep squad, who cheered her victory, although with less enthusiasm than they had for Jake’s win. Then her eyes traveled left and she saw Ed sitting there, clapping grimly. A cute Asian girl sat to his right, cheering and nudging him with her shoulder, trying to get his attention. But Ed didn’t even flinch. His eyes were fixed on Gaia.

  Her heart twisted painfully, and the smile fell from her face. The girl clearly had a crush on Ed, but he probably had no idea. Ed was clueless when it came to his own attractiveness. And the way he was looking at her . . . She couldn’t tell if he hated her or was dying for her to acknowledge him. But it didn’t matter. Ed was not going to be in her life. Not anymore.

  She tore her eyes away and watched her teammates as they streamed over to her, gleefully whooping and clapping. Her win had also won them the meet, a meet that had been back and forth all afternoon. All she wanted in the world at that moment was to see Ed smile again—to see him happy—but there was nothing she could do about that at this very moment. She wasn’t sure there was anything she could do about that at all. She had never made anyone happy in her life.

  “That was amazing!” Jake shouted as he rushed over to her.

  Gaia’s eyes widened in surprise as he grabbed her up in his arms and spun her around in a victory hug. The contact itself was unexpected, but so was the sudden flip her heart executed when Jake tightened his grasp on her. She laughed against her own will, looking down at the smiling faces of her new teammates. For once she was a true celebrated hero. Maybe the victory was a silly one, but it felt good nonetheless.

  Jake replaced her on the ground, and his smiling face was just inches from her own. But the second she looked into his eyes again, she remembered. This guy was getting secret notes from Tatiana. He might even know where the girl was hiding. This was no time to dwell on heart flips or on the thrill of victory or on the fact that Ed was stalking out of the gym right now, Asian girl in tow.

  “We should go out and celebrate,” Jake said.

  “I’m in,” Gaia replied, not missing a beat.

  If Jake knew anything, she was going to find out what it was. And she was going to find out today.

  Internal Warning System

  “SO . . . SOLID FIGHT,” JAKE SAID, taking two ice-cream cones from the guy inside the Tastee-Freez truck and handing one to Gaia.

  She took off half the ice cream from the top in one bite, shedding sprinkles all over the ground as she turned away from the truck. They strolled into the south entrance to Washington Square Park. It had turned into a seriously warm afternoon, and Jake had his jacket slung over the top of his duffel bag at his side. Gaia had slipped on a thin white T-shirt after her postfight shower, and she was still flushed from the heat of the water. Jake had to concentrate to keep from staring at her.

  “Solid fight?” she said, her mouth full. “What happened to ‘That was amazing’?”

  “I was in the moment,” Jake said, shrugging one shoulder as he approached an empty bench. Her fighting had been amazing, but there was no reason to let her know exactly how much he admired her. There was something to be said for playing one’s cards close to the vest.

  “So . . . what? You have criticisms?” Gaia asked as she sat down.

  “A couple, maybe,” he said nonchalantly. “But we don’t have to talk about that now. We should be celebrating.”

  “We are,” Gaia replied with a smile, lifting her cone slightly, as if in a toast.

  Jake smiled back, then looked out across the park. Was it his imagination, or was Gaia a bit easier to be with this afternoon? She seemed friendlier somehow—less closed off. Was it even remotely possible that the connection he’d felt the day before hadn’t been one-sided?

  Usually Jake would be up front about his feelings and just say something direct, like, “So, do you want to go out with me or what?” But somehow he d
idn’t think it was time for that yet. He wasn’t sure it would go over with Gaia the way it had gone over with girls in the past. There was something about her that made him . . . nervous. He wasn’t used to that feeling, and he wasn’t sure what to do with it yet.

  But there was something else he wanted to talk to her about, anyway, and this good-mood thing might prove to be beneficial. He was just turning to her to ask her what was up with Tatiana when she cut him off.

  “So . . . have you seen Tatiana lately?” she asked.

  Jake’s internal warning system went off and he looked away again. That question was just a little too out of the blue to mean nothing.

  “Why?” he asked the park, before taking another bite of his ice cream.

  “Just curious,” she replied lightly.

  Jake shook his head. “What the hell is going on with you two?” he asked. “What are you doing, playing some elaborate game of Charlie’s Angels?”

  Gaia turned her intense blue eyes on him. “So you have seen her,” she stated.

  “Yeah, I’ve seen her,” Jake replied, growing angry. “And she told me that she wanted to see you. Said it was a matter of life or death.”

  Gaia’s face flushed from hairline to jaw and she crunched into her cone.

  “What is up with you guys? I thought you were friends! You were living together, for Christ’s sake!” Jake blurted, as miffed that the light, happy vibe was ruined as he was over the fact that no one was telling him anything. He chucked the rest of his cone into a nearby garbage can and ran his hands through his short, dark hair.

  “Come on, Gaia,” he said, clenching his jaw. “Tell me what’s going on here.”

  Gaia took a long, deep breath and let it out slowly. Jake could practically see the gears in her head turning. She was deciding what to say to him. Deciding whether to trust him or not. Why was she so afraid? He hadn’t known her for long, but he’d never done anything to earn her mistrust.

  She turned toward him again, and for one moment Jake thought she was going to talk to him. Really talk to him. Tell him what was going on and ask him for his help. It was pretty clear to him by now that one of the two girls in this situation really needed it.

  Come on, Gaia, he thought. Trust me.

  “Just . . . tell me where she is,” Gaia said.

  Jake deflated.

  “I don’t know where the hell she is!” Jake blurted. “This is ridiculous,” he said, standing and grabbing up his bag. “I’m not going to get in the middle of whatever it is you two have going on. I’ve got my own crap to deal with.”

  Gaia narrowed her eyes. She stood up and squared off with him, toe to toe, as if she were going to challenge him to a fight.

  “One word of advice,” she said tersely. “Don’t trust Tatiana.”

  Jake threw his arms up and took a step back from her, laughing sarcastically. “How am I supposed to know which one of you I can trust when neither one of you is telling me shit?” he said.

  His heart was thumping painfully, and he realized with a start that he was actually hurt. Hurt that she wouldn’t trust him. The knowledge only pissed him off even more. He barely knew this girl. How had he managed to let himself get so involved?

  Gaia picked up her bag, slung it over her head, and threw back her shoulders. “You’re just going to have to figure that one out on your own,” she said. “It’s up to you.”

  Then she turned on her heel and walked away.

  GAIA

  Damn. Damndamndamndamndamn.

  I’m doing it again. I’m doing it again, even though I know I shouldn’t be.

  I think Jake’s telling me the truth. I think he really doesn’t know where Tatiana is and I think he did just tell me basically everything that mattered from their conversation, whenever it took place, wherever it took place. (She wants to see me–a matter of life and death.) There is nothing about this guy that isn’t earnest and honest, even if he is the cockiest asshole ever to walk the earth. But at least he doesn’t try to hide it. He is who he is. No apologies. How can you not admire a person like that? How can you not trust a person like that?

  And there it is. I trust him. I’m doing it again. I’m trusting someone again, even though I know I shouldn’t be.

  Damn.

  From: 322

  To: L

  Subject: Re: Total Recall

  Agent 322 active. I await your directive.

  hatred

  saw herself running down the sidewalk and launching herself at Gaia, saw the look of surprise in those always-in-control, ever-superior eyes

  Nerves of Steel

  OLIVER STARED AT THE COMPUTER screen, trembling with excitement and nerves. A response. He’d finally received a response. So Loki’s agents were still out there. Some of them, anyway. Part of him wasn’t sure whether to be elated or disturbed. Here was an agent of his own alter ego’s evil at his disposal, ready and waiting.

  Oliver reached for the mouse but then drew back his hand. After two full days of sending messages and trying to hack into Loki’s unhackable system, this small triumph was something he’d begun to take for granted as an impossibility. Now that someone had answered his call, he wasn’t sure he was ready to deal with it. Was he really capable of being an evil mastermind?

  The answer, he knew, was yes. That ability was somewhere inside him. And the last thing he wanted to do was light that particular powder keg.

  But Loki isn’t you. You are not him, Oliver told himself. He can’t come to the surface if you don’t let him.

  Oliver took a sip from the water bottle Gaia had left with him that morning and tried to focus on the task at hand.

  He was going to have to play this just right. This could be the most important mission of Oliver’s life. And agent 322 was his only hope of completing that mission—of helping Gaia and finding Tom.

  But what if he couldn’t do it? What if he couldn’t pass himself off as Loki?

  Oliver leaned back and pressed his fingertips into his skull just above his eyes, cursing his own weakness. He was petrified of failing. Petrified of losing the only family he had left. He hated it, but there it was. If only he could have just an ounce of Gaia’s fearlessness right now, it would certainly help him through this.

  What had happened to the nerves of steel he’d developed during his years in the CIA? What had happened to his confidence—his ego? Had Loki appropriated all of that and left Oliver lacking? Was the real Oliver Moore now this broken shell of a man?

  His hands shook as he drew himself up straight and cleared his throat.

  “Pull yourself together,” he whispered firmly, jumping his chair closer to the keyboard. Saying the words aloud bolstered his spirits somehow. When a person needed a pep talk and there was no one else around, he had to create his own pep. He clicked the reply button. “They’re counting on you.”

  His fingertips hovered briefly over the keys, and then he began to type.

  Status: Urgent, immediate attention imperative.

  Mission: Locate Tom Moore, alias Enigma.

  Current intel: Last seen Lenox Hill Hospital ICU, may have been taken overseas. Was unconscious at time of extraction.

  Response: Critical. Meet for exchange at location 23F, tomorrow noon. Deadline is nonnegotiable.

  Oliver read these few words over a dozen times before holding his breath and clicking the send button.

  It’s fine, he told himself as the message was shot irretrievably into the ether. No frills. No pleas. No signs of any weakness. Direct orders were definitely Loki’s MO.

  His breath caught in his throat when, one second after the order was sent, the computer bleeped, indicating that a message had been received. Operative 322 was sitting at his computer this very second, awaiting Loki’s command. Praying that 322 hadn’t figured him out the second he read his directive, Oliver opened the new mail.

  Mission accepted.

  A laugh bubbled up in Oliver’s throat, and he let himself give in to his triumphant mirth. He folded
his arms on the desk and rested his forehead on top of them, suddenly exhausted, relief flowing out of him with every body-racking guffaw. He’d done it. He’d finally done it. Mission accomplished. He could finally, finally relax. He felt his bones settle and crack as he let his posture sag and his muscles uncoil. It had been so long since he’d slept . . . .

  A loud ringing suddenly pierced the air, and Oliver jumped back, startled. Other than muffled street noise, there had been no other sound in the brownstone since Gaia had left that morning. Heart in his throat, he grabbed the receiver to the desk phone and fumbled with it before bringing it to his face.

  “What?” he barked.

  A pause. Oliver saw his life flash before his eyes. They’d found him. They were coming for him. He was going to pay for all of Loki’s sins.

  “I’m sorry, is this Roger Simms?” a male voice asked on the other end of the line.

  Roger Simms. That sounded so familiar. Why did he know that name . . . ?

  “Mr. Simms?”

  It hit Oliver like a brick to the head. Of course! Roger Simms. The name he’d used when calling locksmiths earlier that day. He was really going to have to get some food in him right away. There was no room for brainlessness in this game.

  “Yes, yes,” Oliver said, gripping the phone. “I’m sorry. And this is?”

  “Reginald Toth, sir, of Chelsea Antiques,” the man replied, taking on a clipped tone. “I believe I have some information for you on that key of yours.”

  Oliver grinned and pulled a pen and pad toward him. First 322 and now this. He was definitely on a roll, and each rotation brought him that much closer to earning Gaia’s trust.

  If he could just have that, there was nothing else he would ever need.

  All Business

  GAIA DRAGGED HER TIRED FEET UP the cement steps to Oliver’s brownstone and pushed open the front door. Since leaving Jake in Washington Square Park, she’d spent the bulk of the afternoon wandering Alphabet City with her eyes peeled, and she was definitely ready to crash.