Seven-Sided Spy

by Hannah Carmack

  “Just another minute,” Da Vinci said softly, staring through Diana rather than at her.

  Diana scooped her hands under Da Vinci’s shoulders and Tim joined her as they lifted him back to a seated position. “Come on, Da Vinci,” she stressed. “If Rigan is alive out there somewhere, you’re not going to help him from here.” She smoothed his hair back, mindful of his still tightly wrapped bandages. She spoke soothingly as she and Tim helped bring him to a stand. Once Da Vinci got to his feet, the race against daylight was on.

  They moved like shadows in the god-sized mountains. Diana and Tim cleared the terrain like it was their second nature, animals running through familiar territory. Da Vinci mimicked their steps, slower and less graceful in his execution. The sound of crickets died in the distance, and his nerves ate him alive. He couldn’t fail them. It was up to him to get out of the mountains and get help. He was the only one who could. His malady was hideable.

  But, as they came to the point in their journey where he was supposed to escape into the real world via a remote road at the back of the park, he hesitated. He couldn’t imagine leaving them and going to get Adams, not with all the possible risks, not with all the possible futures.

  “Are you sure about this?” Da Vinci gave Tim and Diana his full attention, watching their every move for some kind of doubt.

  Diana didn’t give him an answer. Instead, she asked, “What’s wrong?” She cut through the casual atmosphere and raised the stakes. She ran missions all the time. It was no surprise that she knew cold feet when she saw them.

  “What if they capture me?” Although all three of the spies had faced looming-death on assignments, this was different. On missions, there were teams, plans, controlled environments, and an entire intelligence agency to back them up if they needed help. It was rare for an agent to go in without their team. It was even rarer for Da Vinci to be without a team, given his small size and age. It wasn’t the first time any of them had done something dangerous, but it was the first time in a very long time that they’d been this close to death. Diana softly parted her lips, but before she could whisper any sweet nothings, Tim cut in.

  “Da Vinci, if you’re worried, then just tell us how we escape. You can see the goddamn future, see how we get out of here. It will save us all a lot of time,” Tim snapped.

  “It doesn’t work like that.” Da Vinci prepared to defend himself, but Tim carried on.

  “Here’s what I’m worried about.” Tim turned his attention to Diana. “What if they capture him and they use Rigan against him? That’s what’s really bothering you, isn’t it, Da Vinci?” Tim swung back around to Da Vinci.

  Da Vinci’s anxiety was undisguised. “I can’t watch that kid die, Diana.” He feared the conversations inevitable lapse into silence, the judgmental stares from his partners, and the verbal lashing guaranteed to follow.

  However, Diana proved to be more of a saint today than anticipated. “You won’t have to.” She swooped in to save him. “We’ll be there. Why don’t we follow you to the edge of the park? It’ll be risky, but Tim’s the stealthiest agent in the US. He’ll be able to hide us. Once you’re out of the park, you’re scot-free, right?”

  Despite Tim’s condescending sneer, he didn’t seem to object.

  There was a bolster of warmness rushing over Da Vinci as he started to calm. “If I get jumped, you two have my back? I mean, we don’t know where the KGB are. They may have the border surrounded.”

  Diana was quick to assure him yes, but Da Vinci waited until Tim gave a nod in confirmation.

  “All right, let’s—”

  “Hello?” a voice that no one seemed to recognize cut through their conversation and all a sudden Da Vinci found himself spun around and shoved while Diana and Tim bolted. It was a girl coming over the hill. She wore a thick layered dress and lugged a backpack with her. Initially, Da Vinci ignored her and pressed on, keeping his eyes on the ground as he walked past the girl, heading for the trail, but before he could get away, she spoke to him.

  “Man, you shouldn’t be out here this late. It’s super dangerous around here.” She had a light voice that was surprisingly soothing despite its low pitch. Her eyes were wide, youthful, and a deep brown. Da Vinci had seen her before in night terrors and seizures of sentience. Starting there, he knew exactly how this night was going to go. Her name was Ruby Starr, and if Da Vinci wanted to stay alive, he’d have to kill her.

  “Uh, what?” Da Vinci pretended not to have heard her.

  “Are you okay?” Ruby gestured to her own forehead, then to Da Vinci’s. Her right hand was firmly stuffed in her pocket. Da Vinci could only guess what weapons could lurk there.

  “Oh! Yes! Certainly! I just took a fall a few days ago while hiking a trail up a ways. Just got done with a very long camping trip. I was completely immersed in nature, no gear, nothing waterproof, just me and the elements, you know? Just like Thoreau. Heading down now.” Da Vinci’s anxieties and panic were flushed away by a wave of falseness and professionalism. “It’s pretty dark and the bear activity here is pretty awful. It may be best that you turn back around.”

  Ruby looked Da Vinci up and down. “The view’s worth it. There’ll be hundreds of comets passing over the foothills tonight. It’s religious really.” She politely pushed past him. “Thanks for the heads-up, though, daddy-o.”

  Da Vinci’s heart rate calmed down for the whole five seconds between when Ruby left and his partners descended from the shadows.

  “What the hell, Da Vinci? You just let her walk off?” Diana scolded. “In no mission environment is that how we handle outliers.” She crossed her arms over her chest and her gaze drove bullets into Da Vinci.

  “Come on. That was a kid. Probably a local. She’s going to go watch some stupid meteor shower and probably drop acid. She’s not worth our time. She probably won’t even remember seeing me. Let’s keep going,” Da Vinci urged.

  “Seeing us,” Tim corrected. “She clearly saw all three of us.”

  “She did not.” Da Vinci tried being patient. “You think she would have kept walking if she’d seen you two? Anyone in their right mind would have turned tail.”

  “Whether she saw all three of us or not, can you imagine the conversation she’ll have back at home with her friends?” Diana paused before speaking again in a significantly more nasally tone. “You’re not going to believe the cat I met out in the woods yesterday, hidden between leaves and trees like a freak of nature. He seriously needed a shave. And weirdest of all, he was all bandaged up to like he’d fought a bear or somethin’. It was totally groovy, but he was like, such a weirdo.”

  The worst part was it sounded believable. Da Vinci could feel his stomach tying into knots. “She’s just a kid and a waste of time, guys.”

  “This isn’t just about us,” Diana reminded him. “If word gets out, the KGB is guaranteed to find us. Then we’ve handed two super agents and a man that can see the future to the ruskies. How is that for a setup for World War III?”

  “Whether you want the blood of a kid or a war on your hands is up to you.” Tim spoke rhetorically, of course. Da Vinci slumped his shoulders. He knew what had to be done.

  “At least let me do it,” Da Vinci groaned. “Kid sees either one of you two coming at her, she’ll die screaming and scared.” He shoved his hands deep into the pockets of his pants. “I’m good for it.” He was unwavering.

  “You’ll find her and take care of it?” Diana asked.

  She knew every sly sign of deceit and then some. There was no point in Da Vinci lying. “Yes.”

  Tim and Diana did the same mental acrobatics they always did, exchanging a few subtle expressions and then obviously coming to a conclusion all without including Da Vinci.

  “All right,” Diana said.

  “I’ll be back soon.” Da Vinci turned and then bounded up the trail. He knew exactly where Ruby was. He’d seen it all before, but this time around, in reality, he could not afford to make the same mistakes he’d seen in his
prophetic fits.

  When he found her, she was standing in the middle of a marsh, off the trail about half a mile. Her eyes were closed and her face was to the sky. She looked peaceful. Something about her seemed otherworldly, so in tune with the galaxies spinning around her.

  Da Vinci observed her, knowing that right then was his chance to prove that the futures he saw could be changed. He could imagine killing her so easily. He’d come from behind and smother her, hand pressing over her mouth and nose till she faded away, rendering everything Da Vinci had seen moot. But as he snuck up from behind, ready to grab her, she snapped around and maced him.

  Toxic, nauseous fumes stung Da Vinci’s eyes to tears. He knew it was coming. He knew she was going to snap around. He’d seen it dozens of times and still, his reaction wasn’t fast enough. It was as if he was stuck, damned to destiny.

  “Ruby, wait,” he gasped, then hacked up phlegm and spit as he panted for fresh air.

  Ruby kept her arm extended out in front of her, mace in her grip. She cupped her free hand around her mouth and nose. Her expression shifted from anger to confusion to minor suspicion all very fast.

  “You know my name, but I sure as hell don’t know yours.” She leaned her body back, clearly ready to run if the time came.

  “Da Vinci, I’m Da Vinci.” His chest rattled from the coughing. “I’m a friend of Marco’s. He—” Da Vinci hacked loudly. “He told me about you.” Da Vinci didn’t have many pieces of the past and the future, but he knew for certain that her path and Rigan’s had already crossed once.

  It took a while for his name to register with her. Had she forgotten him so soon? “What were you doing just now?”

  She was strong, but Da Vinci’s trained eye could tell she was frightened. “They want me to kill you, but I’m not going to. I can’t guarantee they won’t. You’ve got to let me get you out of here while you can still go. You can’t tell anyone about them.”

  “Saw who?”

  “Don’t pretend, Ruby. I’m letting you go.”

  “Man, you’re not making any sense.”

  "The longer we bicker, the…” Da Vinci heaved his way through a few mumbled words, his eyes running with water and his entire face burning from the sting of the sticky spray. The air still buzzed with the noxious toxins.

  Ruby relinquished. She sighed heavily, a laugh sprinkling her groan of acceptance. “What did you take? And be real with me. If you don’t tell me, I can’t help you come down.”

  “Nothing. I didn’t take anything, Ruby.” Da Vinci let out a distressed squawk. “Promise me you didn’t see them.” He struggled to stop the coughing. “Then again, I guess, why would you still have come up here if you saw them? You would have run.” Da Vinci made the conversation one-sided as he finally broke through his muddled thoughts. “Oh my god, I’m saying it.” He let out a cynical, distressed cackle. “Just like I saw. Shit! And I’m going to do it. Oh, Christ. I am falling to pieces.” Da Vinci shook his head, his eyes finally starting to cease their watering. “God. I wish I knew more.” He paused and looked at her sincerely, hopelessness in his heart. “Do I tell you the truth?”

  “You know the Bryson City Hospital isn’t too far out from here if you need a lift.” Ruby was still firmly holding her can of mace, but his spiral was soliciting a decent amount of sympathy.

  He kept rambling about rights and wrongs and fate. It was dragging on and moments stretched into minutes, but eventually, he turned to her and spoke very clearly. “Ruby, if I let you leave here alive, you have to promise never to come back.”

  “You’ve got to stop talking like you’re gonna kill me. This mace is meant for bears, and I’m afraid if I spray you one more time you’re going to go blind for life, but it is not below me if you keep acting like a damn creep!”

  “There were two other people with me.” Da Vinci felt lucid for the first time since he had wandered upon Ruby. “They are dangerous people, and they will kill you if they see you here again.”

  “Let me guess. They’re hillbillies or commies. No, better yet, communist hillbillies who live in the mountains and eat human flesh, a Serling special.” She sucked air in through her teeth and tsk’d. “Man, I knew Marco was with a commune.” She rolled her eyes. “Come on. Let’s get you to a hospital, so we can bring you back down to earth.”

  “Okay, okay, Ruby.” Da Vinci flinched away from her as she offered her hand to him. “I’m going to show you something and you’re going to want to scream. Like you’re going to want to scream bloody fucking murder like it’s the scariest thing you’ve ever seen, but I am telling you, do not scream or they will find us.” Da Vinci didn’t wait for her to respond. He instantly went to work untying the bandages around his forehead. “Don’t scream.”

  When the bandages fell away, Ruby didn’t scream, but she did panic. Beneath those ratty old bandages was a third eye, smack in the middle of Da Vinci’s forehead.

  “Ooooh, god,” Her mace can dropped to the ground, and she buried her hands in her massive curls. “What did I take?” The panic in her eyes was clear as she looked frantically around the forest. “Ooooh, god.” Her knees began to buckle.

  “This isn’t a bad trip, Ruby. I’m real. It’s all real. If you can believe in aliens, you can believe in something standing directly in front of you.” Da Vinci tenderly took one of her hands and guided it to his forehead. She didn’t pull back. Instead, she watched in awe as she felt the wrinkles and crease of his third eye.

  “No latex, no spirit gum, no nothing,” she mused. “It moves like the other ones, too.”

  “That’s because it’s real.”

  “I believe you.”

  “What is it? What does it do? Does that mess with your line of sight?” She touched around his forehead delicately.

  “It’s a third eye.” Da Vinci swallowed hard. Here was his big moment. “And with it, I can see the future.”

  “A triclopes,” she whispered. Eventually, she pulled her hand away from him. “I know humans and I know aliens, but you are something in between, my friend.” She stared at him with a newfound interest and curiosity. “Why are you here?”

  “That’s insignificant, Ruby. Insignificance we don’t have time for. I need you to listen. We don’t have much time.” Da Vinci grabbed one of her shoulders as his gaze barreled through hers.

  She stood at attention, seemingly ready to absorb every word he said.

  “You cannot come back here, Ruby, ever. If you do, you will be found, and it will cause many deaths.”

  Her eyes grew wide as she looked at Da Vinci in shock, clearly believing every word he said. “What? I would never kill someone.” She pulled her arm away from him and backed up.

  “You wouldn’t,” Da Vinci cooed. “But there are many who would. You can never come back to the mountains, and you can never talk about what happened here tonight. Tell no one, no matter how much you trust them.” That was all it took. The future’s seam was pulled. He told her exactly what he saw, and he let her know exactly how she played into it. Then all she had to do was stay away and the future would be changed.

  The gravity of his words came crashing down on Ruby. “I can’t. You don’t get it. These woods are all I have now. I… This is the only place where I feel right.”

  Da Vinci considered her thoughtfully. He had his arms out to catch her in case she collapsed. “Ruby,” he said coolly, “there are more powers here at play than you can imagine. You can’t come back, or they will find you. We all will.”

  “All the mountains, or just this one?”

  “They find you alone on a trail. You’re wearing something baggy and puce. The rest is fuzzy.” He laughed sadly. “The future has many mysteries, even to me.”

  “These mountains are a part of who I am.” She then shakily added, “I…I feel like meeting you has finally given me answers, like answers I’ve spent years searching for. I’ve waited so long for this kind of breakthrough, and I’m just supposed to walk away?”

  “People w
ill die if you come back, good people. You can’t just think of yourself here.”

  She parted her lips and shook her head even if she didn’t intend to. “When you put it that way, I guess there’s nothing else to say but okay.”

  There was a lightness in Da Vinci, which he hadn’t felt since escaping the facility. The future could be changed. He’d just proven it. So, perhaps he could save his friends before it was too late.

  He smiled and, without thinking, wrapped the girl in a hug of gratitude. “You have to find your way down one last time. Can you do that?”

  She managed a nod. “I’ll get there, no trail required.” She hesitated before asking, “You can see the future, so I have to ask, are you the last extraordinary thing I’ll meet?”

  He knew little of this girl’s future, only that it had previously intertwined with his own. “Perhaps not.” He shrugged. “Goodbye, Ruby.”

  She let out a loud, cathartic sigh. Her entire body loosened as she pulled away from him. “Goodbye.” She began to walk away, only to stop and turn back to him. “Da Vinci, if you’re going to be hanging out in the woods, don’t eat anything poisonous, okay? A lot of stuff up here looks edible, but it’s not.”

  She was grasping at straws to stay. He’d have none of it. “Thanks, Ruby.”

  She vanished into the woods, and he should have been relieved. She lived. She wouldn’t come back. They would all live. He’d changed his actions and saved his partners in the process, but the idea that perhaps the future was written in stone still plagued him. He could only pray that when he went to sleep that night, he’d find a new vision of what tomorrow would be.

  Coup

  SEPTEMBER 12, 1963

  Deformed and beautiful, Diana sat beside Da Vinci, her cool shell-like skin brushing against his flesh. The air was warm, above them the sun shone, and in front of them, Tim lay asleep in the dirt. For the last hour, Da Vinci and Diana were silent, enjoying one another’s company. But eventually, as always, Diana needed to pry.

  “Sometimes,” she started. “The way you act is reason for concern. You seem afraid and I don’t see you afraid often. It’s worrying me.”