Liar
Page 13
“Hello?” she panted.
There was a click.
“Hello? Hello?”
No answer. The line was dead.
Gaia pursed her lips. She dropped the phone on the hook.
Then she noticed something. By bumping Sam’s desk, she’d knocked his computer out of sleep mode. And there, on the screen, was an open file labeled Unsent Messages.
Her breath stopped short. Her eyes flashed down the list.
Oh my God.
Every single unsent message was addressed to her.
Faking It
SHE WASN’T IN SCHOOL.
After searching the entire building, scouring every goddamn classroom—not to mention the gym, the cafeteria, and the computer center—he’d finally come to the inevitable conclusion: Gaia wasn’t here. Even worse, nobody seemed to know where she was. Not Heather. Not Ed. Not even members of the faculty. This was just perfect. On the one day he’d decided to track her down at school, where she was pretty much required by law to be, she’d ditched.
He stood just inside the front doors, shaking his head. He didn’t exactly relish the thought of going back outside into the freezing cold.
Gaia could be sick, of course. But somehow the thought of Gaia’s being bedridden with the flu just didn’t seem plausible. Gaia was too strong to get sick. On the other hand, she might be faking it. Maybe she’d decided to feign an illness so she could stay in bed all day. That wasn’t so farfetched. Sam wanted to do the exact same thing himself.
He flung open the door and flew down the steps of the school building, searching the block for a pay phone. There. On the corner. He dashed across the street, fumbling for a quarter as he dodged a couple of cars and a bike messenger. Horns blared; he didn’t notice. He snatched up the phone, dropped the coin into the slot, and punched in her number.
After two rings somebody picked up.
“Niven residence.”
It was her foster father. Sam hesitated for a moment. “Um, yes, hello,” he said nervously. “I was just wondering … is Gaia there, please?”
“No, she’s at school.” His voice took on a harsher edge. “Who is this?”
“It’s … a friend,” he replied lamely. Panicking, he hung up the phone. Gaia was at large. As far as he knew, she wasn’t the type to skip school. So maybe she had a good reason. Maybe she was very upset.
Maybe Ella had upset her.
He took a deep breath of frozen air. There was nothing more he could do. It was out of his hands. He should just go home.
You’re a Hypocrite
GAIA WAS NOT A SNOOP. SHE HATED snoops. Her father (may he rot in hell) had made a living out of snooping. He’d devoted his whole miserable life to invading privacy and tearing people’s lives apart. The very thought of following in his footsteps made Gaia’s stomach turn. Not only was going through somebody’s private e-mail unethical, immoral, and slimy—it was against the law. Or at least she thought it was.
On the other hand, Gaia had never given much thought to the law. The only rules that had ever applied were her own. She lived her life by her own code of honor. It was inviolate, unbreakable.
You’re a hypocrite. And you know it.
Her gaze roved over the computer screen. She couldn’t stop staring at the list. It was so long. There must be at least ten messages. And they were all addressed to gaia13@alloymail.com. They were intended for her eyes. Well, they had been at one point. Right. So in a way, she wasn’t snooping. She was simply catching up on what should have been hers in the first place.
You’re a hypocrite. And you know it.
She wished she could shut up that stupid voice in her head. Everybody rationalized something every once in a while, didn’t they?
Clenching her jaw, she grabbed the mouse and clicked on the first message.
From: smoon@alloymail.com
To: gaia13@alloymail.com
Time: 5:32 P.M.
Re: Why I took off
Gaia,
You’re probably wondering what happened to me and why I just dumped you on your stoop like that. I never would have left you alone
«UNSENT»
Okay. This wasn’t so bad. She relaxed a little. Sam wasn’t confessing any deep, dark secrets. There were no major revelations here. And while he wasn’t exactly apologizing, he did feel the need to explain himself. That was something. A start. His heart was in the right place—or at least heading there.
She clicked the next message.
From: smoon@alloymail.com
To: gaia13@alloymail.com
Time: 5:33 P.M.
Re: Why I took off
Gaia,
I’m sorry about what happened Friday night. But there’s something you have to know. It involves
«UNSENT»
Hmmm. He was holding back. She could see that a pattern was forming. These were the beginnings of abandoned thoughts. Fragments. She could definitely relate. She had her own Stash of unsent mail to Sam sitting in her hard drive.
That’s why you’re a hypocrite.
Screw it. She shook her head and scrolled forward.
A Target for the Plucking
VISIT NUMBER FIVE. IN FORTY-EIGHT hours. Only this one was lasting a lot longer than usual.
Tom eyed the apartment entrance from his convenient perch in the coffee shop window. Ella had disappeared under the awning nearly an hour ago. She seemed to have developed a rapport with the doorman as well.
The longer she stayed inside, the more certain he became that she was not an operative for the agency.
He knew for a fact that the agency wouldn’t tolerate such a lax attitude. Her job as a photographer seemed to end sometime in the midmorning. Very poor form. As soon as she’d departed the camera store, she’d headed straight for the subway and proceeded directly uptown on the number-nine train. She didn’t even make an attempt at losing a potential shadow.
Now that he thought about it, no government would tolerate such indiscretion.
That left terrorists. Criminals.
Loki.
A muffled beep rang inside his coat pocket. Tom felt a brief twitter of nervousness. This very well could be the agency, calling to check up on him, to demand why he hadn’t been doing his job. He pulled out his cell phone and flipped it open.
“Yes?”
“Gaia’s disappeared.”
George. Tom’s heart lurched in his chest. “Are you sure?” he whispered.
“Some boy just called looking for her,” George answered briskly. “I called the school, and they said she was absent.”
Tom clutched the phone, fighting back panic. “Okay,” he said. “She doesn’t usually skip school, does she?”
“To be honest, I have no idea. Like I said before, you trained her well.”
“It could be nothing,” Tom said, mostly to himself. “All teenagers pull these kinds of stunts at some time or another. And if things aren’t great at home …” He stopped. He shouldn’t have said that last part, but he couldn’t help it. Besides, it was the truth. Things were bad at home. His thoughts raced. He was having a hard time breathing.
“I just thought you should know,” George remarked. If he was offended, he let it slide. “I’m sorry.”
“No … thank you.” Tom swallowed.
“I’ll keep you posted,” George said.
Tom snapped the cell phone shut, staring at the apartment entrance. Suddenly a thought occurred to him. Ella might have known that he was trailing her all along. She might have deliberately dragged him up here—leading him on the proverbial wild-goose chase. And all the while he’d left Gaia vulnerable: a target for the plucking.
Loki’s target.
Surrender
From: smoon@alloymail.com
To: gaia13@alloymail.com
Time: 5:34 P.M.
Re: Why I took off
Gaia,
I’ve done something terrible. I know this is no excuse, but I had no idea she was
«UNSENT»
<
br /> If Gaia had been able to feel fear, this message definitely would have frightened her. That’s because Sam was clearly afraid. His tone had shifted. He was no longer abject; he was rushed, desperate. What was he scared of, though? And what terrible thing could he have possibly done? But the most troubling part was that one little three-letter word: she.
Gaia leaned back in his swivel chair.
She glanced out into the empty common room again. Maybe she’d seen enough. Maybe she should just get the hell out of here. She wasn’t solving any mysteries; she was just uncovering new ones. This stupid exercise merely proved what she’d known all along: that snooping never resulted in anything positive. She didn’t have to look any further than her own screwed-up family to remember that.
The computer hummed for a second.
All of a sudden, a 3-D envelope cascaded to the forefront of the screen.
“You have e-mail,” a computerized voice announced.
Gaia tensed. “You” doesn’t mean “me,” she furiously reminded herself. It means Sam. Still, she was right here … and she’d already answered his phone. She’d already broken into his room. Her “code” was clearly a thing of the past—at least when it came to Sam. She’d thrown her scruples out the window. That was no justification, though. It wasn’t even an excuse. It was simply a surrender.
She couldn’t help herself. Her hand was already darting toward the mouse, like a snake going after its prey. She double clicked the icon, fighting to ignore the shame and self-loathing that threatened to stop her. The envelope unfolded.
Her eyes flicked to the top of the letter. To: smoon. From: ELJ
Darling …
Heather, Gaia thought dismally.
It had to be. In spite of the random initials, it had to be Heather. Gaia had no idea that Heather could be so corny, though. She almost felt like printing this thing out and showing it to Ed. If he saw this, he probably wouldn’t be so eager to pal around with Heather so much.
I don’t have much time. If the owner of this computer knew what I was doing … I know you’re trying to avoid me, but if you look deep within your soul, you’ll see that you can’t deny your attraction to me.
Gaia snickered. Christ. This wasn’t corny; it was pitiful. Heather should consider a career as a teen romance novelist. Reading this thing was like watching some horrible accident. Gaia was revolted, but she couldn’t turn her eyes away.
Forgive me for the way I acted on the street on Saturday I’m under so much stress. But I must see you again. Name the time and place. I’ll be there.
Gaia’s eyes reached the sign-off.
At first the name didn’t seem to register. It was as if some mechanism in her brain had shut down; she couldn’t process the visual information. There was no way that this name could be here. It was simply impossible. Some glitch in the server. A malfunction. Gaia blinked. She rubbed her eyes.
But the name didn’t disappear, or shift, or morph into Heather’s name. It remained there on the screen. Mocking her. Tearing what little remained of her self-esteem to shreds.
She began to hyperventilate.
She was practically gagging.
But at least she was skipping right over the denial stage this time. Right over it. Straight into anger. Into fury. Because at that moment the pieces of a terrible puzzle she hadn’t even known existed began to slide into place. Sam’s behavior now made perfect sense. And the world was that much crueler for it.
Love, Ella
A Million Complex Chemical Reactions
THE GIRL SPRINTING OUT OF HIS dorm was not Gaia. That girl—the one in the cargo pants and wool hat and overcoat, the one running in the opposite direction down Eleventh Street … she was not Gaia. She just looked like Gaia.
This had happened to Sam once before. At a party. He’d been drunk. Actually, that was putting it mildly. He’d been plastered. And pissed off. And his thoughts had been so focused oh Gaia, so intent on her, that when he’d seen a wild mane of long blond hair, he’d just naturally assumed …
Obviously the same thing was happening to him now.
As a biochemistry major, he knew that the brain could play tricks on a person. A million complex chemical and electrical reactions went into forming one simple thought. So if the synapses had been saturated with alcohol, or deprived of sleep, or subject to undue stress … well, then, a million things could potentially go wrong.
Because there was no way that person was Gaia. None at all.
He was too tired to chase her, anyway.
LOKI
She grows more beautiful with each passing day.
Sitting across from her in that frozen park was the closest I’ve come to magic in a long while. I was a little boy again. The horrors that have consumed me for so long suddenly ceased to exist. For that brief period, I was completely entranced. She had power over me. It was intoxicating. And terrifying.
She truly is more dangerous than I’d suspected.
And so much like Katia. So much like my love.
I hadn’t noticed the resemblance before. I was only able to see my face in her own. And Tom’s, too, of course. But Katia is there as well: in the curve of her cheek, in her smooth, ruby lips. In her strength.
I lost you, Katia—but you and I were never meant to be. This is my destiny. I’ve sacrificed everything for it. I’ve worn a hundred faces, more than any man should wear in a lifetime. But soon I’ll only have to wear one.
Soon my life will change. Soon I’ll rid myself of all the foul sycophants who use me for their own purposes.
Soon Gaia and I will be together. Forever.
here is a sneak peek of Fearless™ #11: TRUST
GAIA
Sam and Ella.
Sam Moon: The only guy I’ve ever desired.
Ella Niven: The evil witch who poses as my guardian.
The two of them … together.
A part of me still refuses to believe it. True, I always knew that Ella was twisted. I always knew that behind the designer clothes and stupid facade lurked a schemer who was playing her husband for a chump. I even suspected that she was having an affair. Or something bad. Nobody’s that vacant.
But never could I have possibly imagined that she was cheating on George with Sam.
And you know what the real kicker is? I actually feel sorry for Heather Gannis. I do. After all, Sam is still supposedly going out with Heather. I used to hate her for that. Okay, I hated her for a bunch of other stuff, too. But I remember thinking about Sam and Heather together—no, scratch that—seeing Sam and Heather together, in bed … actually, forget it. No point in rehashing the past. Even now it turns my stomach. But at least it makes sense. At least I can understand it. Sam and Heather are pretty much the same age. They hang out in the same social scene. They’re both smart, attractive, whatever … blah, blah, blah. People wouldn’t give them a second glance, even if they were making out in the middle of Broadway.
On the other hand, somebody would probably look twice at a college kid who was tongue wrestling with a thirty-something bimbo. Especially if said bimbo dresses like a teenage hooker.
I guess the biggest question is this: How the hell did it even happen? How did they meet? Where? When? I’ve been through a thousand scenarios, over and over again, and the only one that seems even remotely plausible is that Sam sought out Ella on purpose. Or vice versa. Either way, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that it was a deliberate act. Somehow, for some reason, Sam and Ella got it into their heads that they had to humiliate me, that they had to drive the final nail into the coffin of my already miserable life.
And they succeeded.
I will say this, though: sneaking into Sam’s room and reading the e-mail Ella sent him was strangely liberating. If you truly have nothing to lose, then you are truly free—in the most real sense of the word.
Yes, on one level, they destroyed me. But they also opened a new door. They changed me. Because now I don’t care about using my special gifts (being fear
less, expertise in a variety of martial arts, and near-perfect marksmanship) just to kick the asses of scumbags who prey on the weak and innocent.
No. Now I’m going to use those gifts for revenge.
And I’m looking forward to it.
… A GIRL BORN WITHDUT THE FEAR GENE
FEARLESS™
A SERIES BY
FRANCINE PASCAL
PUBLISHED BY SIMON & SCHUSTER
3029-01
Trust.
It’s not really my thing.
I can count the people I trust on one hand.
On one finger, in fact.
So what happens if that one person betrays me?
… a girl born without the fear gene.
DON’T MISS
FEARLESS # 11
TRUST