by James Ponti
“It’s my pleasure. We’re delighted to have you.”
Monty left the room, closing the door behind her, and for the first time in as long as Sara could remember, she enjoyed a feeling of total peace and privacy. It felt like … home.
She opened the window, and a blast of cool salt air filled the room. The view was unlike any she’d ever seen. The overcast sky blended into the dark choppy water, so there was no way to tell where one ended and the other began.
“It’s perfect,” she said to herself.
Sitting at the foot of her bed, she unzipped her backpack and pulled out the shoebox she’d saved from her old house. The box contained photographs, a few small objects, and a snow globe from the Coney Island lighthouse.
The globe no longer held water, and its plastic shell had been broken and pieced back together with tape now yellowed with age. It had been a present from her abuela, who passed away when Sara was seven, and it was Sara’s most prized possession. She momentarily lifted it out of the box, as if to show it their new home, then carefully put it back before placing the box on the top shelf of the closet.
Next, she sat at the desk and looked through the drawers. In one there was a small pad of paper and a stray computer flash drive. In another she found a pencil, along with some paper clips, rubber bands, and a tube of strawberry-scented lip gloss. She took the paper and pencil and wrote a note. When she finished, she folded it twice and laid it on the desk.
Content, she sucked in another lungful of sea air and moved over to the bed, where she lay down and fell into a deep and wonderful sleep.
10. The Dinner
DINNER WAS DOOMED BEFORE THE roast beef even made it out of the oven.
While Sara slept in her new room, Paris, Kat, and Rio were on the train from Edinburgh plotting ways to keep her off the team.
“First thing we do when we walk in the door is tell Mother the truth,” said Rio. “We can’t go on a mission with someone we can’t trust.”
“What if he wants to give her a second chance?” asked Paris.
“Coming here was her second chance,” Rio replied. “I heard Mother tell Sydney they had to get her out of jail. Who knows what kind of trouble she was in back in the States. She’s a thief, not a spy.”
When they reached the FARM, Sydney was looking at a Stevenson screen, a wooden box with slats that sat on a pole like an oversize birdhouse and held weather instruments. She was recording data in a notebook when she saw them.
“I thought you were going to take these readings for me while I was gone,” she said, glaring at Rio.
He mumbled some excuse, and Sydney let it drop.
Paris noticed the car was gone. “Where’s Mother?”
“He went to see a cobbler,” she answered.
This caught the others off guard.
“Why?” asked Rio.
“Paperwork for Sara,” she said. “The new girl from New York.”
“Already?”
“The mission’s in a few weeks,” replied Sydney. “There’s no time to wait.”
Cobblers were spies who specialized in making false documents, like birth certificates and passports, necessary to create a cover identity. If Mother was having those made, that meant he already considered Sara part of the team.
“Did she go with him?” asked Paris.
“No,” said Sydney. “She’s taking a nap.”
“She’s in the dormitory by herself?” Rio asked, dismayed.
“That’s generally how people sleep,” said Sydney.
“Good thing I padlocked my door,” Kat said under her breath.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” snapped Sydney.
“Nothing,” Kat said. “Just a joke.”
They’d already decided not to say anything to Sydney or Monty until they’d spoken to Mother. Unfortunately, he still hadn’t returned by the time they were helping with dinner. That’s when Sara came into the kitchen, still a bit groggy and wearing a dark blue hoodie that Monty had bought for her.
“That smells incredible,” she said.
“Ah, Sara,” said Sydney. “I was just about to come get you.”
Sydney handled some quick introductions, and when Sara asked what she could do to help, Monty told her, “You can help tomorrow, but tonight you’re the guest of honor. Just go have a seat at the table.”
The dining room was large, and Sara assumed the paintings on the wall were portraits of the various barons and baronesses of Aisling. Thirty seconds after she sat down, Kat entered the room to set out plates.
“You’re in my chair,” she said.
“I didn’t realize certain chairs belonged to specific people,” said Sara.
“They do,” said Kat. “And that one’s mine.”
“Sorry.” She pointed at the seat next to her. “How about here?”
“No,” said Kat. “That’s Rio’s.”
Living in six different foster homes had taught Sara the importance of standing up for herself, but also the significance of not making waves on the first day. “What about there?” she asked, pointing at the seat directly across the table from her.
“That’d be fine if you were Sydney, but you’re not Sydney, so no,” said Kat.
Sara’s patience was running out. “Fine. Then where should I sit?”
Reluctantly Kat pointed at the seat next to Sydney’s. “That’ll do, I guess.”
Sara got up and moved to the new seat. “Nice to meet you too,” she said, her snark totally lost on Kat.
From here, things only got worse.
Mother got home just before the food reached the table, so Paris never got a chance to talk to him alone. He didn’t know what to do. It wasn’t like he could say, Please pass the mushy peas, and oh, by the way, Sara’s a thief. So he and the others just sat quietly and waited.
“Sunday roast on a Friday, what a treat this is,” Mother said as he went to take a bite. “I don’t know about you, but I’m Hank Marvin.”
Sara had a perplexed look and turned to Monty. “Who’s Hank Marvin?” she whispered.
“It’s not a ‘who,’ ” said Monty. “It just means he’s hungry.”
Sara looked even more confused until Mother explained. “Rhyming slang,” he said. “Hank Marvin rhymes with starvin’, so it means ‘hungry.’ ”
“How is it we speak the same language, yet I don’t understand about a third of what anyone’s saying?” asked Sara.
There were some snickers across the table, and Sara instantly felt self-conscious. An awkward silence was filled with the sounds of forks and knives clinking on plates, so Monty tried to break the ice. “Sara, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself?”
“Um, okay,” she said as she gave her chin a nervous wipe with her napkin. “I was born in Puerto Rico but spent most of my life in Brooklyn. I enjoy reading and play a little soccer, but my true love is computers.”
“Football,” Rio said curtly.
“What’s that?” asked Sara.
“It’s another one of those words you don’t seem to know,” he said. “Its proper name is football, not soccer.”
There was a meanness to his tone that caught Mother off guard. He shot Rio an angry look, and Monty tried to salvage the conversation.
“I love computers too,” she said. “That’s why I joined the SIS. They have all the best ones.”
“They do?” asked Sara.
“After university I went straight to work as a crypto math researcher at the Doughnut,” she said. “That’s a building in Cheltenham that looks like a massive doughnut and houses the Government Communications Headquarters. The computers there were mind-blowing.”
“Then why’d you leave?” asked Sara.
“I loved the work but hated the boys’ club.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“GCHQ is mostly staffed by men,” said Mother. “And a lot of them are intimidated by women who are significantly smarter than they are.”
“And M
onty’s pretty much smarter than everybody on the planet,” said Sydney.
Monty ignored the compliment and continued. “When MI6 converted this into a cryptography station, I jumped at the chance to run it. I grew up in Edinburgh, so it was close to home and far from office politics. The best of both worlds.”
There was another lull in the conversation, and at this point Mother had had enough. He looked at Kat, Rio, and Paris all on one side of the table. “Is there something going on that I should know about?”
Paris shook his head. “No.”
“I find that hard to believe,” said Mother. “Because we’ve got a new team member who just flew across an ocean, and you’re treating her like day-old fish.”
Kat and Rio both looked at Paris, who nodded reluctantly. “Okay, there is something.”
Everyone waited, but he stopped there.
“We’re on pins and needles, mate,” said Mother.
“Go ahead,” Paris said as he nudged Rio. “Tell them.”
“Why me?”
“You’re the one who told us,” he replied.
“I really want to apologize,” Mother said to Sara, trying to keep his temper. “This behavior defies expectation. It’s like aliens have taken over their bodies.”
“She’s a thief!” Rio blurted out.
“What?” asked Mother.
“Sara nicked a watch today in Edinburgh,” answered Rio. “From the jewelry counter at Jenners.”
“That’s not possible!” exclaimed Sydney. “She was with us.”
“Was she?” asked Paris. “You saying she didn’t leave the airport by herself and meet you at an RV?”
“Well, yes,” said Sydney. “But she wasn’t alone long enough to go to Jenners and steal a watch.”
“Yes, she was,” said Rio.
“What makes you say that?” asked Mother.
“I saw her do it,” he said.
“Some trick,” said Monty. “Considering you were at school.”
There was a pause before Rio answered, “Paris, Kat, and I skipped school and went to Edinburgh so we could get our own first impressions.”
“Okay,” Monty said. “The three of you just earned a significant addition to your chores list. But we’ll deal with that later.”
“Why would you do that?” asked Mother. “Why would you go into Edinburgh to spy on her?”
“Because dinners like this are so awkward,” Rio said. “We wanted to have an unfiltered view of her, and we got one. I saw her try on watches and then when the saleswoman looked the other way, she put one in her backpack.” He looked directly at Sara. “Go ahead. Tell them I’m lying.”
“Do it,” said Sydney. “Tell them it’s all rubbish.”
Sara looked across the table at them and took a deep breath. Then she looked at Mother, and it seemed like she was on the verge of tears.
“Sara?” he asked, not wanting to believe it.
She dug into the kangaroo pocket of her hoodie and pulled out the box from Jenners, which she placed on the table in front of Mother.
“Here,” she said. “I wanted to get you a present. For helping me so much.”
Mother was dumbfounded. “I’m sorry. I don’t understand.”
“Open it,” she replied. “I think you’ll like it.”
That’s when he remembered the watch in the courtroom. They’d talked about him getting a new one, a posh one. “Sara, you have seriously misinterpreted what we’re all about,” he said. “You shouldn’t have stolen a watch for me. We don’t break the law like that.”
She closed her eyes for a second and said, “Please, just open it.”
Everyone was quiet as Mother picked up the box and opened it. Instead of a watch, he found a folded piece of paper.
“Read the note,” Sara said. “Out loud, to everyone.”
Utterly confused, Mother unfolded the paper and began reading. “ ‘I’m sorry to have done this, but I had to prove to the others that I was up to the challenge. No matter what you and Sydney told them, they would’ve had their doubts about me. I needed to show them without your help what I could do. This is the reason I was twelve minutes late. By the way, you still need a new watch.’ ”
He looked up at her. “I’m sorry, but I’m baffled.”
Monty started to laugh. “That’s bloody brilliant,” she said. “I love it!”
Her reaction only confused the others more.
“Where’s the watch?” asked Rio. “What’d you do with it?”
“I didn’t steal a watch,” Sara answered, flashing him a look. “I’m no thief.”
“I saw it with my own eyes,” he said.
“No,” she said. “You saw what I wanted you to see. You saw me steal an empty box.”
Now Mother started to smile. “That’s impressive,” he said, piecing it together, his voice barely able to contain his glee.
“What’s impressive?” asked Paris.
“You fell for the nugget,” Mother said. “In the middle of an RV test, fresh off the plane with absolutely no training, she set out a nugget, and you fell for it. Go ahead, Sara, tell them.”
“Okay, at first I just thought they were part of the test,” she said. “I thought they were there to make sure I didn’t mess up.” She looked right at Paris. “Sydney showed me some pictures of you all when we were on the plane, so I recognized you when I saw you at the airport. You were trying to blend in with that school group, except they all had matching sweatshirts and you didn’t.”
“What?” he asked.
“Let me show you.”
She pulled out her phone and showed everyone a picture she’d snapped of Paris when she was pretending to read directions. “Look at their sweatshirts,” she said. “They’re blue with that logo, but you’re in an overcoat. That’s how I first noticed you. Then you followed me out toward the bus.”
“You let her take your picture?” Rio said in disbelief.
“I got yours, too,” she said. She flipped through the images on her phone. “Here you are on Princes Street. I spotted you in the reflection of the shop window.” She flipped to another picture. “And here you are in Jenners.”
Rio slumped in his chair.
“That’s when I had the idea about shoplifting. I knew you couldn’t follow me into the women’s department without standing out, so I went there to buy myself a little time. When I saw the jewelry display case, I knew what I had to do. I told the saleswoman that I needed a box to wrap my mother’s birthday present. I even offered to pay for it, because, despite what you think, I don’t steal things. She said she had plenty and gave me one. I put it in my backpack when she was looking the other way so you’d think I’d stolen it.”
Kat looked at Rio and then Paris, shaking her head with disappointment. “I would like to point out that I’m the only one she didn’t get a picture of.”
“No,” said Sara. “But I saw you in the coffee shop in the airport.”
“You lot are pathetic,” Sydney said to them. “First you’re pathetic because you spied on her. Then you’re pathetic because she saw you spy on her. Who was the alpha of this little catastrophe?”
Kat and Paris both looked at Rio, who reluctantly raised a finger.
“Me.”
“Should’ve guessed,” Sydney said. “You’re always asking, ‘How come I never get to call the shots?’ Well, here’s your answer. Good thing Sara’s not Umbra or the three of you’d be dead.”
There was quiet around the table as everyone considered what had happened. Paris and Kat looked embarrassed, but Rio was devastated. He knew that he’d take the brunt of the blame because he’d been in charge.
“I wasn’t trying to embarrass anyone,” Sara said. “I was just trying to prove something.”
“What was that?” asked Mother.
“That I can do this,” she said. “There’s a mission coming up in three weeks. I don’t know what it is, but I know I want to be a part of it. I want to fill in for Charlotte.”
/> This caught everyone by surprise.
“You told her about Charlotte?” Rio asked Sydney. “On a plane where someone could overhear you?”
“I know better than that,” said Sydney. “I didn’t say a word.”
“Nobody told me anything,” said Sara. “I figured it out.”
“How could you?” asked Mother.
Sara reached into her pocket again and pulled out two items: the lip gloss and the flash drive. “I found these in my room,” she said. “The lip gloss is new, so it seems like a solid guess that a girl’s been living there recently.”
Mother and Monty shared a look, impressed by her reasoning.
“Before I came down here, I checked our bathroom—sorry, I mean loo,” Sara continued, with a glance at Rio. “And there were three different shampoos on the shelf, which seemed odd considering there were only two different girls using that bathroom. Someone had used a marker to label one of the shampoos ‘C-H-A-R-period.’ That could be short for Charlene, but that doesn’t make sense because everyone takes a city as their name, and to my knowledge there is no city called Charlene. There is, however, a city in the United States called Charlotte.”
By now, she had the rapt attention of everyone at the table.
“Which brings me to this.” She held up the drive. “It looks like a normal flash drive, but it’s not. It’s actually a nasty little device called a keylogger. It copies everything someone types on a computer. It’s basic gear for a hacker.”
She put it back on the table.
“So this is what I know. Very recently an American girl who’s a hacker was living here, while you were planning a big mission that’s taking place in three weeks. But now she’s gone, and you came and got me, an American girl who’s also a hacker. I figure you planned the mission with her in mind, and, now that she’s out of the picture, you need me to take her place.”
Sara looked at the others, trying to read their expressions.
“Or am I wrong?”
“No,” said Mother. “You’re not wrong … not at all.”
Sara smiled. “And if there are only three weeks left, that doesn’t leave me a lot of time to get up to speed. So, I did all this to show you that I can do all this. I can learn fast. I can be a valuable part of the team.”