by Linda Gerber
I touched his arm. “You can trust me.”
“That’s what they said.”
“Look around, Seth. Who am I going to tell your secrets to?”
He regarded me for a moment, and then dropped his gaze. When he looked up again, I could tell he had made up his mind to confide in me, but I wasn’t sure if the decision was born of assurance or defeat. “I don’t know all the details.” He drew in a deep breath, like this story was going to take some effort to tell. “I didn’t know anything, as a matter of fact, until I was thirteen. My name was Dylan then.”
He didn’t look like a Dylan to me, but I didn’t want to say anything to stop the flow. I just nodded.
“They pulled me out of school one afternoon. Said we were going on an early vacation and headed straight for the airport. We ended up in Michigan. That’s where I found out my whole life was a lie.” He ran a hand through his hair, looking at once bewildered and lost. It was all I could do to keep from reaching up and smoothing the hair back down again.
“My real name wasn’t Dylan,” he said softly. “That was the name they gave me when they moved us the first time. I don’t remember that. They said I used to be Mikhael.”
“That’s a nice name.” Stupid, but I didn’t know what else to say.
His face clouded. “They recruited my parents, you know. And now it’s like they want to get them killed.”
“Who?”
“The government.”
I realized my mouth was hanging wide open and closed it. “Wait. Our government? Why?”
He shook his head and looked away. He didn’t say anything for a long time. I laid a tentative hand on his arm. He looked into my eyes then, as if trying to see if I was really worthy of his trust.
Finally, he spoke. “You know what sleeper cells are, right?”
“Of course.”
“My mom and dad used to be part of one.”
My mouth dropped open again. “No way.”
“Yeah. They don’t talk much about it, but from what I understand, when they first came over, they weren’t even married. It was just a cover. To be together, you know? And then . . .”
“They fell in love,” I breathed. You have to admit that was romantic.
“And then I came along.” He picked up a rock and ran his thumb along the rough edges. “They knew they had to do something.” He glanced up at me. “Having a kid changed everything for them. They wanted out, but they knew they would never be allowed to just walk away from the program. And then they found out they wouldn’t be able to keep me, either. That’s when they defected.”
I sucked in a breath. “And they went to the government. ”
He nodded. “They agreed to give the U.S. government information in exchange for protection. That’s when they entered the Witness Protection Program the first time . . . but not before my mom fingered one of the cell leaders. He was a big catch for the government because his minions had infiltrated about every level of intelligence there was. They called him ‘The Mole.’
“It wasn’t long before the CIA came knocking. Mom and Dad knew a lot of people and a lot of secrets, and the government wanted in. The whole time we were living in California, I thought my dad was in exotic-car sales. He was really working for the CIA.”
“Then what happened?”
“The Mole escaped.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. That’s when my mom and dad knew the CIA could no longer protect them. So they left. We moved to Michigan, and I became Seth.”
“And now?”
He gave me a look like I was as dumb as the rock he held in his hand. “The Mole found us.”
I had to take a minute to let it all sink in. “But what does that have to do with Hisako?”
Seth shrugged. “I’m sure this guy doesn’t do his own dirty work.”
“So she’s his hit man.”
“That would be my guess.”
“Can’t you go back to the CIA and ask for protection again?”
“My dad thinks it was someone in the agency who gave us up.”
I could only shake my head. “But . . . why?”
Seth shrugged. “All I know is what my dad said. That if they didn’t think we were already dead, they’d kill us themselves.”
I sat still for a moment, digesting what he had told me and wondering how my mom figured into the equation. “Is my mom with the CIA?”
He didn’t answer me.
“Is that how you came to us? Did she send you?”
His hand closed over mine. “You can never say I told you. Promise?”
I didn’t dare breathe. “I promise.”
“She was our contact in the CIA. I never knew that until I was older; I just thought she was a family friend. And she was a friend. She kept in touch even after she had been reassigned, which I guess is strictly forbidden. She was the one who came and got us when The Mole escaped.” He looked into my eyes. “Four years ago.”
I swear, my heart stopped beating. Four years. That was when we came to the island.
“That’s all I know.”
I murmured my thanks. There were still a lot of questions, but his story explained a lot. My mom hadn’t left to find herself; she had gone to save a family. I only hoped it wasn’t too late to save ours.
I stared down at his large hand folded over my smaller one and blinked away the tears. “One last question. With all those identities . . . which name do you prefer?”
He thought for a moment. “Seth, I guess. It’s been too long since I’ve answered to anything else.”
“Okay . . . Seth.”
He squeezed my fingers, and the edge of his garnet ring bit into my skin. “You know, I have to tell you”—I tried to make my voice bright to lighten the mood—“this ring of yours has got to be the ugliest thing I have ever seen.”
“I’m insulted.” He held his hand up to the moonlight and straightened the monstrosity on his finger. “My dad gave this to me when we moved to Michigan. ‘To remember the old life,’ he said. I’ve never taken it off. I look at it and see California.”
“Remind me never to visit California.”
He slugged me. Softly, though. “We should go.”
Seth still had to take a break between every ledge, but bit by bit we worked our way down the rocks. It was never easy, and once we got below the tree line it got even scarier. We could see the clearing then, well lit in the moonlight. I only hoped that if Hisako was down there she wouldn’t look up, because if she did, she’d be sure to see us.
Every time I went over the side, I felt like I had a huge bull’s-eye painted on my back. I was an open target for Hisako, wherever she was.
Finally, we made it to the ground. It wasn’t pretty, but we did it.
After we rested again, Seth took my hand once more, and we crept through the shadows. I tried not to read too much into the hand-holding, but it made me happy just the same. Moonlight shone in patches through the trees, shifting as the branches moved with the lingering wind. Dodging those patches, we wove our way through the soggy undergrowth toward the clearing.
Something dull and white lay on the ground ahead. I squinted through the shadows. My vial of pepper spray! It seemed like a lifetime ago I had lost it. Could it have only been earlier that afternoon? The vial rested on its side. When we got closer, I could see that the top had broken off and most of the contents had spilled out. It lay nestled among the leaves of a Star of Bethlehem plant. Hisako’s favorite, I thought grimly. Then I stopped.
“Wait a minute.” I stooped down and grabbed the vial.
“What are you doing?” Seth asked.
“Hold on.”
I crawled down to the water’s edge and filled the broken vial with water, careful not to lose the small remains of the pepper spray. When I returned to the plant, I broke off a stem and stuck the torn end into the vial. I made sure not to get any of the milky sap on my skin.
“I don’t get it,” Seth whispered.
“You
will. I’m trying to—”
"Do not move.” Hisako’s voice sent creepie-crawlies down my spine.
CHAPTER 16
Seth moved protectively in front of me. It made me feel warm inside—or it would have, if I hadn’t been staring down the barrel of a particularly nasty-looking pistol.
I tucked the vial behind the plant and raised my hands in surrender. “Konbanwa, Hisako.”
Confusion passed over her face for a moment. She squinted through the shadows. “Aphra-chan?”
I nodded.
“So. It appears you have tricked me.” She shifted the gun in her hand. “You were never the target, Aphra-chan. ” She had the grace to look sorry as she added, “You have now made yourself such.”
Seth tensed, his muscles taut like a coil ready to spring. I touched his arm, hoping he would get my message. Not yet. If I was going to catch her off guard, I had to stall, to wait for the moment. I only hoped she’d keep talking.
“What about my dad? What did he ever do to you?”
“That could not be helped.” She turned to Seth. “If your father had tried to help the girl, Jack-sama’s demise would not have been necessary.”
“What are you talking about?”
Hisako shook her head, as if she were surprised by our stupidity. “I was quite certain I could draw your father out of hiding if he could see that his doctoring skills were needed. But I underestimated him. He allowed the girl to die.”
Seth tensed. “No. You’re wrong.”
Hisako shot him a contemptuous look and continued. “Surely if his host became ill, I thought, he would risk exposure to help him . . .”
“But how?” Understanding dawned before I finished the question. “The plants. You drugged him.”
The triumphant look on her face told me I was right.
“You’re sick!”
She blinked. “Did you not employ the same methods to dispose of Watts-sama?”
Now Seth shot me a look, and he shifted slightly. Away from me.
“No! The plants I used were to put him to sleep. Not permanently. Just . . . until . . .”
“Aphra-chan. Didn’t you wonder at his illness when he arrived? I had already arranged for him to receive a small . . . token of my esteem, shall we say, before he boarded the helicopter to come to the island. Combined with your creation . . .”
I felt the blood drain from my face. She’d used me. Again. But I wasn’t going to sit there and take it like the meek little eager-to-please Aphra I had once been. Not after the weekend I’d had.
I felt behind me with one hand until my fingers wrapped around the vial. “Hisako?” She turned her attention to me. I sprang to my feet and threw the plant-sap-firewater in her face.
She screeched and clawed at her eyes, inadvertantly dropping the gun.
“Grab it! Grab it!” I ran at Hisako, knocking her to the ground. Straddling her chest, I smacked her hard on one side of the face and then the other, all my anger welling up inside and coming out through my fists.
Seth pulled me off her. “What are you doing? Come on! Let’s go!”
I glanced back over my shoulder as he dragged me into the woods. Hisako howled like a she-wolf and groped about, unable to open her eyes. There was still fight left in her. Plenty of fight. Maybe we should have finished her off. The thought made me sick to my stomach.
We hadn’t gone far before Seth had to slow to a walk to catch his breath.
“You . . . have security . . . at the resort?”
“Just a night watchman. Our head of security got stuck in the city last night.”
“Is the watchman armed?”
I looked at the gun in Seth’s hand. “He is now.”
“She might have more weapons.” His voice was grim.
I hoped he was wrong.
It didn’t take long to reach the edge of the taro patch. Seth jumped down into the muck first and reached back to help me down. This time, I accepted his chivalry.
“Wow, such a gentleman.”
He raised a brow. “You say that as if you’re surprised.”
“Only a little.”
I couldn’t help but notice that he hadn’t let go of my hand. I smiled up at him. He smiled back.
The sound of a gunshot tore through our peaceful cocoon. Hisako stood on the bank, a miniature revolver leveled at me. So Seth was right about the other weapon.
He raised his gun, but she fired at him, knocking it from his hand. It hit the water with a splash. She turned her glare on me, eyes swollen, tears flowing freely down her cheeks. My heart dropped. The plant juice had not blinded her after all.
Seth and I exchanged a quick look. Hisako would not waste her breath monologuing this time; we were in trouble. I glanced pointedly at the water, and he inclined his head. Hisako directed her aim at me. I took a deep breath and dropped beneath the surface before she had time to fire. The bullet ploinked into the sludge above me. One one-thousand, two-one-thousand . . . I slid under the muck toward her, praying that she would play her part. I could feel Seth somewhere nearby. The knowledge soothed my nerves and gave me the strength for what I had to do next.
The human brain is a funny thing. It’s conditioned to base expectancy on experience. Above me on the shore, I imagined that Hisako would be scanning the taro field, waiting for us to surface. Reason would tell her we couldn’t stay under much longer. Of course, up at the cove she had seen us disappear into the pool, but she probably figured we had found someplace to hide. This time there were no hiding places except the leaves of the taro plants. The direction we would reasonably go would be far away from her. With luck, when she didn’t see us come up for air, she would take the bait and hunt us down.
As I had hoped, I felt the water slosh as she jumped into the bog. She would be ahead of me now. I zeroed in on her location, then sprang up from the water to tackle her from behind.
She must have sensed me coming. At the last moment, she spun, foot sloshing through the rancid water as she kicked up and hit me square in the chest. I stumbled backward and landed on the row of taro plants, gripping the stems to keep from falling under. I wheezed for breath and tried to stand. She steadied her stance to take aim at me once more. At that moment, Seth jumped at her from the other side. He wrestled away the pistol, but not without a fight. She slugged him on the chin and followed through with an elbow. Seth fell into the water. She lunged at him.
I reacted by instinct. Yanking on the stem in my hands, I pulled out a taro root and swung the football-size corm at Hisako’s head. It knocked her sideways long enough for Seth to regain his balance. He used the momentum to push her off her feet. She landed facedown in the water. He grabbed the back of her head in his one good hand, holding it under.
Heart jumping crazily, I sloshed to where he was and helped to keep her down. She thrashed and bucked, much stronger than I had expected. A sick feeling curled around me. Could we really do this?
Eventually her struggles weakened. She went limp. I backed away, but Seth continued to hold her under.
“That’s enough, Seth.”
He didn’t move.
“Seth!”
He blinked and let go. Hisako floated facedown in the water.
We dragged her body through the taro patch. My insides knotted tighter with every step. I’d never hurt anyone before.
“Hurry,” I urged. “Help me get her on land.”
We rolled Hisako’s body out of the taro bog and climbed out after it. Seth bent over her.
“Is she breathing?” I asked.
He ran a worried hand over his face. “I don’t think so.” “Help me lift her up.” Trembling, I knelt behind her and grasped her around the ribs, driving my hand and fist upward into her abdomen in a Heimlich maneuver to make sure she didn’t have any water or gunk in her lungs before I began CPR.
After about four good tries, Hisako coughed and sputtered. We laid her back down, listening to make sure she was breathing on her own. I lifted one eyelid. Her eyes were ro
lled back so that only the whites were showing.
“One of us should stand guard while the other goes for help,” I said. “I’m the certified lifeguard, so I can stay with her.”
“If you think I’m leaving you alone with a killer, you’re crazy.”
“She can’t do anything while she’s unconscious. Go. Hurry back before she wakes up.”
He shook his head. “No way.”
“Well, then, just what do you propose we do?” Without a word, Seth grabbed her by the arms and pulled her into a sitting position. Bending down, he hoisted her onto his one good shoulder. Of course, then he didn’t have enough strength to stand.
“What are you doing?” I pulled her limp body away from him. “You’re not thinking of taking her with us.”
“Why not?”
“This entire night was about keeping her away from the Plantation House. Why would we want to take her there now?”
“Well, we can’t leave her here. And like you said, she can’t do anything while she’s unconscious. We’ll just have to make sure she stays that way.”
He was right, but I still didn’t like it. I grumbled as much under my breath as we lashed together a kind of stretcher out of palm fronds and sticks and Madeira vines. We rolled Hisako onto the stretcher, and I wrapped a few extra vines around her hands and feet, just to be safe. Seth raised a brow at that and looked as if he were holding back a smile.
I huffed. “She wakes up, I’m letting her get you first.”
Hisako may have been small, but she felt heavier with every step. The sticks we had used for the frame of her stretcher bit into my hands, and my fingers grew numb from gripping them. The muscles in my arms and across my shoulders strained and ached. Not that I was going to complain—Seth was carrying the same load with an injured shoulder. And I’m sure he longed for the same thing I did—for us to get down the hill and then to get as far away from Hisako as the island would allow.
Unfortunately, I had forgotten about the ravine. Seth had been leading the way, and so I hadn’t even been thinking about the route; I just followed behind. When his step slowed, I peered around him and immediately recognized the void ahead.
My stomach sank. “Great,” I mumbled.