Zira’s mood seemed to improve as soon as they arrived. She started loading bullets into a magazine, and her expression softened as she stared out across the dry, open plain. “I love this place,” she said. “I used to spend entire days out here.”
Jared nodded. “I remember seeing you here sometimes.” He set up the target interface on his CyberLink as Zira slid her magazine into a semi-automatic rifle and chambered a round. As soon as the targets popped up, she sent bullets flying through them in rapid succession. Jared looked at the data on his CL. She’d hit almost dead center with every single shot. He showed her the numbers. “Apparently, all the practice paid off.”
She said nothing and traded the rifle for a handgun, this time firing on the closer targets. Again, she didn’t miss a single one. Jared raised his eyebrows. “I’ve got to admit, that was impressive.”
Zira turned to him and shrugged. “I’ll never be as strong as you or probably anyone else in our unit, but this—” She gestured to the targets behind her. “This, I can do.”
Jared took his own turn with the rifle. He hit every target, though not with quite the same precision as Zira had, and it took him a few seconds longer to finish them all. Now it was her turn to give him advice, which he paid close attention to and applied with some success. They spent most of the afternoon there. After returning to the compound and taking the guns back to the training facility, they agreed to meet again the next morning.
This routine continued each day for the next two weeks. Sometimes they used the simulation rooms as well. Jared began to see a moderate improvement in Zira’s hand-to-hand combat skills, and according to the feedback from the target system at the shooting range, his accuracy with various firearms also improved slightly. He wasn’t sure how well the numbers would hold up in an actual firefight, but the extra practice couldn’t hurt anything.
They were cleaning their weapons at the shooting range one day in the middle of that second week. The sun was a burning orange circle poised just above the horizon. Zira sat on the hood of the car, her jaw slack as she pushed a blackened cloth through the barrel of a rifle. Jared leaned against the car on the other side. Neither of them had spoken for a long time, but the silence wasn’t uncomfortable. He’d learned early on that Zira wasn’t a very talkative person; even if they’d known each other better, Jared didn’t think he would have gotten much more conversation out of her. That was fine by him. After all the time he’d spent working alone, he didn’t think he could have handled a partner who jabbered all the time.
Zira stopped what she was doing and turned to him. “Why haven’t you had a partner for two years?” she asked. The way she blurted it out made him think that it was something she’d been wanting to ask for a while now.
His throat became gummy and tight. He focused his attention on the handgun he was reassembling and took a moment to collect his thoughts. He couldn’t blame her for asking, but he still wasn’t ready to talk about that just yet. “Pass,” he said.
“Pass?”
“I just don’t know you well enough to answer that.”
Zira’s eyebrows drew together and she glanced down at the car beneath her. “Oh. Sorry.”
“No, it’s fine. I get why you’d want to know. It’s just—it’s a bad memory.”
They both went back to their work, but now the silence felt stiff and heavy. Jared tried to break the tension with a different line of conversation. “How many assignments will this make for you?”
“Four,” said Zira. “Honestly, I was getting so used to doing things on my own that I didn’t think Ryku would ever give me a partner.”
Jared raised an eyebrow. “Wishful thinking?”
She hopped off the hood of the car and shrugged. “Maybe a little. I’m not much of a people person.”
“That’s a shock,” Jared muttered.
Zira rolled her eyes at him as she carried her weapons to the trunk of the car. “Watch it with sarcasm,” she said. “My best friend thinks I’m confrontational. I’d hate to prove her right.”
“Nothing wrong with a little confrontation,” said Jared. He loaded his own weapons into the trunk and slammed it shut. “Just try to save it for Collins.”
They got in the car and it drove them back towards the compound. “Do you think we’re ready?” Zira asked. Jared thought he caught a hint of worry in her voice. “We only have a couple more days.”
“We’re ready,” he said. He’d had his doubts about this in the beginning, but his interactions with Zira over these past days had gone a long way to put them to rest. She still had a lot to learn, but that was natural and would come with time and experience. She was far more capable than he’d originally given her credit for. “We make a good team.”
Zira gave him a small smile. “Yeah,” she said. “I think we do.”
CHAPTER THREE
When the morning of the assignment arrived, Zira found Jared waiting for her at the compound gate. “All set?” he asked.
She nodded. “Let’s go.”
Jared slung his backpack over one shoulder and Zira did the same with her own. It was heavy. Buried beneath the clothes and other basic necessities were two handguns, a disassembled rifle, and suppressors and ammunition for all three weapons. Jared was sure to have a similar arsenal in his own bag.
They checked out with the guard at the front gate and went to a small, black car at the far end of the parking lot. Jared gave the override command to the autopilot before it could tell them they were in a restricted area. He input the airport’s address, put on some music, and leaned back in his seat as the car pulled away from the compound.
Zira watched the walls disappear through the window. Up until a few months ago, she’d never been away from home for more than a few hours at a time. In fact, the idea of spending the night so far from the compound still unsettled her a bit. She was eager to see more of the outside world, but she’d be lying to herself if she didn’t admit she was a little apprehensive, too. Everything in the compound was safe and predictable; out here, there was no telling what she might run into.
Jared interrupted her thoughts. “Nervous?”
“No,” she lied.
He smirked as if he didn’t entirely believe her. “Good.”
They didn’t say anything else to each other all the way to the airport. Once there, security bots scanned their CyberLinks to check their credentials and allowed them to pass without checking their bags. They boarded and found their seats, and aside from the elderly man who snored in Zira’s ear for the duration of the flight, they arrived in Seattle without incident.
From the airport, Zira and Jared took a bus to the hotel they’d be staying at until their mission was complete. Seattle was the first city Zira had seen that had been impacted so severely by the war. Even though the conflict had ended almost three decades ago, the signs of its devastation surrounded her. The rubble of once-proud skyscrapers littered the sides of the streets, and many of the buildings still standing were in shambles. Twice, she saw the corpses of old combat robots, stripped of every useful component and left slumped in the street to corrode with everything else. The city’s inhabitants were like rats, crawling in and out of the wreckage with grim determination. Still, it wasn’t all gray and somber. The people had repaired what they could, creating a unique patchwork of architecture from pieces of fallen structures. Here and there, splashes of color brightened the bleak environment. Flowers grew along a patch of sidewalk, a mural decorated one long wall lining the street, and a little girl in a pink coat and blue rain boots skipped through a puddle.
They got off the bus and walked a few blocks to a hotel that might have been one of the best in the city before the war. Using false names, they checked in to two separate rooms. Zira dropped her bag off in her room, made sure the door was locked, and met Jared back in the lobby. “Do you have it?” he asked, referring to the tracking and recording device they planned to plant on Collins.
Zira patted her pocket. “Of course.”
They walked back outside and around to the back of the hotel where a few vehicles were parked. Jared stopped next to the most pathetic-looking van Zira had ever seen. It was old, the kind of pre-war automobile that had a steering wheel and manual controls instead of an autopilot system. White paint peeled from the hood in large patches, revealing the gray body underneath. At first, Zira couldn’t believe this was what they’d be using to carry out their surveillance on Collins, but when Jared began digging in his pockets for the keys, she knew. “This is it?”
“It’s perfect,” said Jared. “Nobody will look twice. They’ll assume it’s just another abandoned vehicle from before the war.”
“It’s a heap of junk.”
“Be nice,” said Jared. “This isn’t junk—it’s a classic.” He kept his tone even, and Zira was unsure whether or not he was joking until he glanced at her with one eyebrow raised.
She rolled her eyes but couldn’t help smiling back at him. “Let’s go.”
They got inside and Jared put the key in the ignition. The van emitted a grinding metallic screech as he tried to start it. “You sure this even runs?” Zira asked.
“No.”
He tried the engine again with no success, but on the third attempt, it wheezed to life. They drove to the diner listed in Collins’ file. Few people in America’s cities owned cars, so most of the other working vehicles on the road were public transportation, buses and taxis which could be used by anyone who fulfilled their required work or educational duties and presented a valid ID. It was midday and most people were still working, so traffic was minimal; they reached the diner in just a few minutes. Jared parked the van across the street, keeping it partially hidden behind the remaining half of a ruined movie theater.
The diner’s large glass windows allowed them a clear view of its interior. One waitress wiped tables while another chatted up the lone customer sitting at the counter. It was not Collins. Zira sighed and settled back in her seat. She’d known they would have to wait for Collins to show up, possibly for several days, but a part of her had hoped he might just happen to be here already when they arrived. This was the part of the plan she liked least—waiting, watching, sitting on her hands and doing absolutely nothing.
In the driver’s seat, Jared seemed unperturbed by the prospect of spending hours or even days waiting. He sat stone still with his head turned, gaze fixed on the diner. Zira tried to follow his example. She scanned the surrounding streets, searching for Collins. Time dragged on and her mind drifted. Her eyelids began to droop. She closed them for a second, then snapped awake again to see that the customer inside the diner had left, though she couldn’t remember watching him go.
She yawned and stretched her arms and legs out in front of her. “I can’t do this all day.”
“Do what?” Jared asked, still staring across the street.
“Just sit here, not doing anything, not saying anything. Aren’t you bored?”
“We need to focus.”
“We can have a conversation and still focus.”
After what felt like a very long silence, Jared said, “Okay. What do you want to talk about?”
“I don’t know. Anything.” She thought for a moment, recalling the conversation they’d had just a few days earlier. “You never told me how many assignments you’ve been on.”
“Forty-nine.”
Zira let out a low whistle. It was more than she’d expected, especially since he didn’t seem that much older than she was. “How old are you?”
“Twenty. But I’ve been doing this since I was sixteen.”
“Why did you get promoted so early?”
He looked over at her and shrugged. “Partly because Chairman Ryku thought I was ready. Partly just because the unit needed more active operatives at the time. Either way, I wasn’t ready. No one is—not that young. I’m lucky I didn’t get myself killed.”
Eighteen wasn’t that much older than sixteen, but when Zira thought about herself at that age, she couldn’t imagine being asked to complete an assignment with any semblance of competence. The fact that Jared had managed to accomplish so much was impressive, if a bit lamentable. He’d been forced to grow up too soon. So had she, and just about everyone else in the Project, but it seemed especially true for Jared.
“How did you do it?” Zira asked.
“Do what?”
“Stay alive. Become so good at what you do.” She shrugged. “I just think I could learn something.”
“I work hard,” said Jared. “And I always think before I act.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it. Were you expecting some kind of big secret or special technique?”
“No, I guess not.”
The streets began to fill as more and more people finished their daily work duties and went home for the evening. Some of them entered the diner, exchanging their ration coupons for a hot meal. The waitresses hurried from table to table, taking orders and delivering food. As they watched for any sign of their target, Zira and Jared continued to talk, trading stories about past assignments and their days as recruits. Collins never showed, and when night fell over the city and the diner’s lights went out, they called it quits and drove back to the hotel.
Collins didn’t appear at the diner the next day, nor the day after. Zira and Jared filled the time as best as they could with conversation, food, and music from the van’s old radio, but the hours still dragged on. Zira was beginning to regret having agreed to this plan and thought they might have been better off trying to track Collins down at the university. As Jared parked the van for the fourth day of their stake-out, she thought about how she might be able to make that suggestion to him without it coming across as a complaint. She was still mulling it over when a man with a black umbrella walked into the diner. He unzipped his jacket and collapsed the umbrella, turning to the window as he did so, and Zira caught a glimpse of his face.
“It’s him,” she said, hardly able to believe she was finally seeing their target in the flesh.
“You’re up.” Jared handed her a small earpiece that was linked to her CL so he could communicate with her privately as needed. Zira put the earpiece in, slipped her arms inside her jacket, and got out of the car. Heavy raindrops pelted her back as she ran across the street. She checked her pocket to make sure the device was still there. It was no bigger than her thumbnail and as thick as a coin, so she was careful not to accidently drop it when she removed her hand. She pushed the door of the diner open and nodded to the waitress who smiled at her.
Collins had taken a corner booth next to the window. Zira chose a place at the counter and the waitress came to take her order. She selected a muffin and a cup of orange juice from the menu and tried to determine what might be the best way to slip the device to Collins without arousing his suspicion.
Her CL beeped and lit up. Jared. She answered the call. “Yes?”
“There’s a man coming your way.” Jared’s words came through the earpiece in a rush. “Asian. Average height, dark hair, mid-fifties. Give him the device instead.”
Zira glanced out the window to her right. She thought she could see the man Jared was talking about, though it was hard to see anything clearly through the rain. Why was he changing their plan all of the sudden? Collins was their target, not this random stranger. “That’s not what we talked about before,” she said, keeping her tone as pleasant as possible in case Collins was paying attention to her conversation.
“Just do it, Zira!”
The line went dead. Zira resisted the urge to turn around and glare at the van through the window. “All right,” she said, continuing the conversation in order to keep up appearances. “I’ll be right there.” She called to the waitress in the kitchen. “I’m sorry, but can I have that to go, please?”
“Sure, honey.” Moments later, she brought out a paper sack and cup. Zira took them, paid, and turned to leave. The Asian man was reaching for the door. Zira held her food in one hand and stuffed the o
ther in her pocket. Her fingers found the device, and she pinched it tight between her thumb and forefinger.
The man opened the door and entered. Pretending to look at something on her CL, Zira bumped into him hard on her way past. He stumbled a step back and she slipped the device into the pocket of his jacket. “I’m so sorry,” she said in a voice as sweet as syrup. She put on her most apologetic smile. “I wasn’t paying attention. Are you all right?”
The man’s expression shifted from annoyance to understanding. “That’s okay, dear. No harm done.”
It was the dear that assured Zira she didn’t need to worry about the man becoming suspicious. She smiled at him again and walked back to the van.
“Did you do it?” Jared asked once she was inside.
“Yes,” Zira snapped. “You want to tell me what that was all about now?”
“That guy is one of the Red Flag Brotherhood’s top-ranking members.”
“How do you know that?”
Jared ignored her question. “Tracking him could give us a better idea of what the Brotherhood is up to.”
“He’s not our target.” Zira’s patience was fraying rapidly. “And what about Collins? We still don’t know where he really lives.”
Inside the diner, Collins and the Asian man seemed to have already concluded their business. Both of them stood up to leave.
Jared shrugged his jacket on and pulled the hood over his head. “I’ll follow Collins. You go back to the hotel and start pulling the recordings from that device.” He got out of the car and shut the door without giving Zira a chance to protest. She watched him walk into the rain, confused, irritated, and once again wondering if this partnership was going to be an abysmal failure after all.
CHAPTER FOUR
Secrets of PEACE Page 3