The Other Morgan (Parallel Series, Book 5)

by Christine Kersey

  “Good morning,” Nick said with a smile when Amy and I walked into the kitchen.

  “Good morning,” Amy replied, as cheerful as I’d seen her.

  I smiled tightly and slid into a chair at the table.

  “How did you girls sleep?” Nick asked.

  “Great,” Amy said.

  I nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I slept fine.” That was a total and complete lie, but the truth would be dangerous to share.

  “Good, good.” Nick placed a plate of fresh fruit on the table, along with whole wheat toast, poached eggs, and orange juice. “Eat up. We have a busy morning planned.”

  My gaze shot to his face. “I thought we were done with the interviews.”

  His smile never wavered. “We are, but there are some other things I need to discuss with you.”

  Not sure if I wanted to hear whatever it was he wanted to discuss, I said, “What about Amy?”

  “For now this will be between you and me.”

  I glanced at Amy, who seemed focused on eating her breakfast, then looked at Nick. “Okay.” If he was going to talk to me privately, maybe that meant he still considered me an asset rather than a liability.

  After we finished eating, I offered to clean up the breakfast dishes, and Amy helped me while Nick went into his office.

  “I like it here,” Amy said as she loaded dishes into the dishwasher.

  “You haven’t been here very long.” How willing would she be to leave if she was already feeling comfortable? Would she believe me if I told her she was in danger? Would she even trust me to take care of her? Could I take care of her? I had serious doubts that I could take care of myself, let alone anyone else.

  “I know,” she said. “But I feel safe here.” She gazed at me. “Don’t you? I mean, you seem to trust Nick.”

  “Uh . . .” Was this the right time to tell her that I wanted to leave? How much time did I have before we were in real danger? How much time would I have to gather supplies? Where would I get the supplies?

  I looked at my sister. She was the only person I could trust. I knew that. I had to tell her my concerns.

  “About done?” Nick said as he walked into the kitchen.

  I jerked around. I hadn’t heard him approach.

  “Yep,” Amy said. “Can I read while you and Morgan talk?”

  “Sure.” He smiled at Amy. “Can you finish up in here while Morgan and I get started?”

  Sudden panic flooded me. Was he trying to separate us so that Mills could grab Amy and take her to Holly? “I think Amy should come with us,” I blurted.

  Nick looked at me with narrowed eyes. “I need to talk to you privately.”

  “It’s okay,” Amy said, her face open and trusting. “I want to read anyway.”

  Adrenaline thrummed through my veins. How could I argue with them without giving away my concerns? The Morgan of yesterday would be more than happy to let Amy sit by herself and read. Fearful, yet trying to convince myself I was overreacting, I nodded.

  “Great,” Nick said, then motioned with his hand. “Let’s meet in my office.”

  “I’ll be right there,” I said to Nick, wanting a chance to give Amy some kind of warning.

  Nick nodded, then left the kitchen.

  The moment he cleared the room, I turned to Amy, and in a frantic whisper, I said, “If you see anyone—anyone at all—call out to me, okay?”

  She must have seen the terror in my face, because her eyes widened in fright. “What’s going on, Morgan?”

  I didn’t want her to panic, I just wanted her to be aware. “I’m not completely sure yet, but we have to be careful.”

  “You know something. I can tell.”

  “After I meet with Nick, we’ll talk.”

  Her expression became serious in a way I’d never seen before, and I knew it was due to her time in Camp Willowmoss. “Okay.”

  “Remember, call out to me if you see anyone.”

  She nodded, but all appearance of happiness had fled.

  I found Nick in his office sitting in front of his computer monitor. When he saw me, he motioned for me to sit across from him.

  “Are very many people watching the interviews we did?” When I’d overheard him he’d said the magic number of views was fifty thousand.

  “The original video Morgan did has hit over a million views, but the interviews are just getting started. They’re all around five thousand this morning.” Optimism lit his face. “But I’ll bet within a few days they’ll go viral too.”

  So I had a couple of days at the most. “What did you want to talk to me about?”

  “First of all, I wanted to ask you if you’ve discussed Mills with Amy.”

  I calculated my answer. If I told him yes, would that protect Amy, or would that make both of us liabilities as Mills had said? If I told him no, then Amy would truly be expendable. “I can’t remember. I may have said something. Why?” Let’s see what he does with that.

  Irritation clouded his eyes. “Please remember, Morgan, that knowing about Mills is very sensitive information. It’s critical that you keep that to yourself. Understand?”

  I nodded. “Yes.” I had no idea if I’d helped or hurt Amy and myself, but it was the best I’d been able to come up with.

  “Now,” Nick said as he leaned back in his chair, “let’s talk about the future.”

  This is why I’d come into his office. Maybe he’d tell me about Phase Two, whatever that was. Maybe I’d even like his plan. Deep inside—okay, maybe not that deep—I wanted nothing more than to stay at Nick’s where I wouldn’t have to figure out how to survive. He would take care of everything, he would keep Amy and me safe, and I wouldn’t have to worry about a thing.

  Realistically I knew that was a fantasy, but it was a fantasy I clung to nevertheless.

  “I want to emphasize again, Morgan, that whatever we discuss needs to remain between the two of us.” His eyes narrowed. “To be safe, don’t even talk about this with your sister.”

  “What do you mean, ‘to be safe’?”

  His face relaxed. “I mean, you never know what is or isn’t okay to share, so it’s best not to share anything. That way you won’t tell her something she shouldn’t know.”

  That made sense, although if he was so worried about me spilling secrets, why would he tell them to me in the first place?

  “Very soon I have something that I’m going to need your help with,” he said.

  This is it. Phase Two. My stomach roiled as I waited to hear what he had in mind.

  Chapter Ten

  “I’ll need you to create a distraction.” He smiled. “A distraction that uses Enforcer resources.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “The idea is to get the attention of a large number of Enforcers on you and keep them focused on you for a certain period of time.”

  I didn’t like the sound of that. I didn’t want any Enforcers’ attention on me. Ever. When an image of dozens—maybe even hundreds—of Enforcers closing in on me flooded my mind, nausea climbed my throat and I thought I would vomit. Swallowing convulsively, I got the nausea under control, but then my head swam as a bout of dizziness overcame me. I wanted to appear strong, but I bent my head and closed my eyes until the wave of dizziness passed.

  “Are you okay, Morgan?” Nick asked

  No! I wanted to scream. How can I be okay when you’re asking me to expose myself to capture? “Just give me a minute,” I said.

  “Of course.” He waited while I gathered myself, and when I sat up and faced him, he said, “I know this is scary, but we’ll do everything we can to keep you out of the hands of the Enforcers.”

  Yeah, right. You’re not the one whose head they want on a platter for murdering an Enforcer. As the magnitude of my circumstances battered against my brain, a fresh wave of nausea hit me, and this time I couldn’t stop my breakfast from coming up. I rushed out of Nick’s office and made it to the bathroom just in time.

  “Are you okay?” Amy ask
ed from the other side of the door a few minutes later.

  Ignoring her, I retched until there was nothing left, then I went to the sink, rinsed out my mouth, and stared at myself in the mirror. The blood had drained from my face—even my lips were pale. I splashed several handfuls of cold water over my cheeks, then pat my face dry with the soft towel.

  “Morgan?” Amy asked.

  I opened the door and met the gaze of my younger sister.

  “I heard you run down the hall,” she said. “And then it sounded like you were throwing up. Are you okay?”

  Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and shook my head.

  “What’s wrong?”

  I opened my eyes and felt tears forming. This was too much. It was all just too much. The parallel world, Duplicate Morgan, everyone believing I’d been the one locked up, Enforcers after me for murder, and now Nick wanted me to cause a distraction that would make lots of Enforcers take notice of me. No, I was definitely not all right.

  “Tell me,” Amy pressed.

  I wanted to tell her everything, but I had to get more information first. There was no reason to frighten her before I had all the facts. “I will,” I said as I got my tears under control. “I promise. But I need to finish talking to Nick first.” I gazed at her. “What about you? Are you okay?”

  She smiled. “Yeah. I’m fine.” Leaning towards me, she whispered, “You’d better tell me what’s going on.”

  “I will,” I murmured.

  She turned and walked to the living room, and I went to Nick’s office and sat in the chair I’d been in before.

  He stopped typing on his keyboard and smiled at me. “I hope you’re feeling better. I’m sure this is difficult for you.”

  That was an understatement, but I nodded.

  “As I was about to tell you, several members of our team will be near you at all times, ready to come to your defense if necessary.”

  That was something at least. “What would I be doing exactly?”

  He leaned back in his chair. “We’re going to call a news conference where you’ll answer questions directly from the media. We’ll make a big deal about the fact that you’ll be answering questions live.” He smiled. “But you’re not actually going to show up at that location in person.” He chuckled. “No one will know that until the time of the news conference, and by then everyone will be assembled so they’ll still want to talk to you.”

  I sat up straighter. That didn’t sound quite so terrifying. “Where will I be?”

  “At a location a few miles away. We’ll use a remote system for you to talk to the media. That way they can still talk to you live, but you’ll be out of the reach of the Enforcers.”

  His plan didn’t actually sound so bad.

  “There’s a catch though,” he said.

  Of course there was a catch. “What is it?”

  “Because of the signal we’ll be using to broadcast your remarks, eventually the Enforcers will be able to pinpoint your location.”

  Now that sounded terrifying. “How long will it take them?”

  “That’s the unknown variable in this equation. We believe we’ll have fifteen minutes, but we can’t be sure.” He cleared his throat. “We’re not certain what technology they have at this point.”

  That wasn’t good enough for me. It still felt too risky. “The point of all this is still kind of fuzzy to me. If you want the media to talk to me, why not just do it over the phone or something? Wouldn’t that be safer?”

  “Like I said in the beginning, you would be a distraction.”

  “From what?”

  “From other goals that we have.”

  Why would I agree to something so risky without knowing the real reason? I was sure DM would never do that. Knowing that bolstered my insistence. “I want to know more. I want to know the whole plan.”

  With a look of indulgence, he said, “That part of the plan is strictly on a need-to-know basis, Morgan. I’ve told you the part you would play. That’s all you need to know.”

  I’m not going to do it. The statement came into my mind so strongly that I didn’t question it, but somehow I knew I shouldn’t share it with Nick. Not after overhearing his conversation the night before.

  I decided to push for more information. Besides wanting to know what I was being asked to risk myself for, I was curious what he and Mills had planned. “If you trust me enough to play this game, then you should trust me enough to tell me the whole plan.”

  He gazed at me, and for a moment I thought he might actually tell me. Then he shook his head. “I’m sorry. I’m not at liberty to divulge that part of the plan.”

  Holding back a frown, I nodded. “Okay.” If he wouldn’t tell me the whole plan, he could at least tell me more about my part. “How will you know when the Enforcers have figured out where I am?”

  “We’ll confiscate a radio and listen to their chatter.”

  That didn’t reassure me, and I pretended to be DM while I looked for all the holes in his plan. “So if you don’t get your hands on a radio, then you won’t have a way to know?”

  “We’re confident we’ll be able to get a radio, but in the small chance that we don’t, we’ll have people stationed among the media keeping an eye on the Enforcers. I think it will be pretty clear when they’ve triangulated your location.”

  “What if Enforcers happen to be near my location when they figure out where I am? I won’t have time to get away.” I surprised myself with my clarity of thought, but knowing I had no intention of actually doing what Nick was asking helped to calm me.

  “That’s why we’ll have people around you to protect you. It’s highly unlikely that more than a couple of Enforcers would be in the area that soon. If they show up, we’ll dispatch them and get you out of there.”

  I wasn’t sure what he meant by dispatch them, but it didn’t sound like it would endear me to the Enforcers.

  “What do you think?” Nick asked.

  I had to make him believe I was considering it. How else to sneak away without giving him a clue. “I guess it could work.”

  He smiled. “So you’re willing to participate? To be the star, actually.”

  “When will this be?” I didn’t want to agree to something that could happen in the next couple of days. I needed time to gather supplies first.

  “We’ll want to talk it up for a few days, so probably late next week.”

  “What about you? Will you be there with me? I mean, in case someone asks a question I don’t know the answer to.”

  “We’ll practice ahead of time so that you’ll be ready for any question.”

  “But will you be there?”

  “No. I have a different part to play.”

  Why didn’t that surprise me?

  “Does that matter to you?” he asked.

  If I was actually going to do it I would want to know he was risking just as much as me. “Kind of, yeah.”

  “I’ll see what I can do, but no promises.” He smiled, like he was trying to reassure me, but I didn’t buy it.

  “What about Amy?” I asked. “Where will she be during the news conference?”

  “She would be here. Safe.”

  After hearing Mills’ eagerness to toss Amy into Holly’s hands, I wasn’t sure how safe she would be here, especially if I wasn’t here with her. It doesn’t matter. Amy and I will be gone by then. “Okay.”

  “Can I count on you, Morgan?”

  Putting a look of confidence on my face, I nodded. “Yes.”

  His smile grew. “I knew you were just like her.”

  Did that mean DM would have agreed to do it? Did that mean I should do it?

  Chapter Eleven

  “Are you going to tell me what’s going on now?” Amy asked as I pulled her into our bedroom.

  “Yes.” I shut the door, then tugged her down to sit beside me on the bed. Wishing we were back in the room we shared in Timber Hills, I sighed, then told her everything—what I’d overheard the night bef
ore, what Nick wanted me to do, and what Mills’ part was in all of this. I didn’t say a word about DM.

  “I don’t want them to take me to Holly,” she said, her voice frantic with worry. “I saw the video, Morgan. I can’t do what you did, okay? I just can’t.” Tears sprang into her eyes. “You know how awful it was at Camp Willowmoss, the way everyone treated me like I had a disease or something. I can’t do that again. And I know I couldn’t stand the torture you did. I could never be like you.”

  I shifted uncomfortably under the adulation I read in her face. I could never be like DM either—I would crack at the mere suggestion of torture. Hating that I couldn’t tell Amy the truth, I tried to brush aside her worries. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you.” I felt like I was playing a part—the part of DM, a girl who had courage. In all reality, I had no idea how to keep my sister safe.

  Amy slid an arm around my waist and put her head on my shoulder. “Thank you.”

  Not wanting to consider all the ways I would most certainly fail Amy, I focused on what we could do now. “We need to get supplies.”

  She looked at me, her eyebrows pulled together. “Supplies? For what?” Her eyes widened. “Are we leaving?”

  “Don’t you think we should?” Was I wrong to think that was the way to proceed? Amy had more experience than I did and I would listen to her advice.

  “What about going back to Mom and Dad?”

  “I thought about that, but Nick would find us there.”

  “Where can we go then?” she asked, then looked thoughtful. “Where were you all that time after you escaped Camp Willowmoss? Before you came back as Hannah?”

  I am so out of my league. DM hadn’t said anything in her letter about that, and Billy was gone. I had no one to help me fill in the blanks. I knew from Duplicate Morgan’s interrogation that she’d been with people named Jack and Dani, and that a girl named Brynn had helped her, but I didn’t have the first clue about how to find those people. “Uh, we can’t go there,” I said, avoiding Amy’s question. “We’ll have to figure something else out.”

  “Okay.”