We took turns walking them through our assignment.
“She knew you were off the Gerex?” Simmonds asked, his eyebrows raised.
“Yes,” I said, “but I suspect she’s the only agent who knows. If the wrong agent found out, they could make a break for it. As far as they were concerned, Centipede could be trusted because they were also holding her family over her.”
“Which you took away from them,” my dad said. “So it more or less went according to plan.”
I shrugged. “As much as could be expected, anyway. She still walked away without a hard yes, but the fact that she let me walk away at all means she won’t go back to KATO with any of this. She can’t spill our secrets without getting herself in trouble. I gave her a twenty-four-hour window to contact me, so we won’t know anything more until that time’s up.”
Simmonds nodded, taking this in. “All right, then. We’ll keep this in motion for now.” I relaxed slightly, relieved to still have a shot at this. “I’ll have an analyst go over the file you brought back and page the both of you when we have details to discuss.” It was a clear dismissal, and Travis and I didn’t need to be told twice.
Chapter Thirteen
NEW ALLY
I was exhausted but couldn’t sleep. I knew I wouldn’t be able to until time ran out on Centipede’s clock. Despite her answer, I still hoped she would come around. Instead I laid in my bed, studying the ceiling and thinking back on the interactions I’d had with Centipede over the years. I had learned my lesson after she ratted me out to the handlers. No one at KATO could be trusted. That was the instant that life in KATO became about protecting myself, even at the expense of the others.
It had been sixteen hours since we’d left Austria, and I had all but written her off, when the satellite phone lit up. I stared at it for a moment, not daring to believe that she could truly be reaching out.
“Hello?” I held my breath as I waited for an answer, praying this wasn’t a trap and that I wouldn’t hear a KATO handler on the other end.
There was a long pause and my heartbeat filled the silence. I’d lost track of how long I’d been waiting when a voice finally spoke. “I’m not agreeing to anything, but I want to hear your offer.” It was Centipede.
She had called. There was still a long way to go, but this was the first step I needed. “Did you open the envelope?”
“You wouldn’t be talking to me if I didn’t.” Her voice was harsh, and I suspected it was to mask the pain. My stomach churned. I knew what it was like to find out someone had killed your family, but I didn’t have to live with the visual evidence.
“Do you know how long they lied to you?” I asked. I’d imagine she could guess ages based on photos. It’s what I would have done once I got past the initial shock. I’d study every angle.
“What difference does it make?” Centipede snapped.
“It doesn’t.” I knew better than to push her. It was big enough that she called.
Again there was silence, so much of it that I thought she may have hung up on me. Then I heard her breath. It was rattled and coming in sharp bursts. She wasn’t crying. She was having trouble breathing. It wasn’t the first time I’d heard her breathe like that.
Centipede and I stood facing each other on opposite sides of the training room, preparing ourselves for an exercise. We were twelve. In the center of the floor was a gun. The goal was to beat your opponent to the gun and put a bullet in her. We were to shoot to injure, not kill. There was one bullet in the gun. Successfully complete the training exercise and you got an extra quarter dose of Gerex. Shoot and miss, and both agents lost Gerex for twenty-four hours. Get shot, and lose a day’s worth of Gerex, plus additional punishments.
Chin Ho blew the whistle and set us both in motion. Centipede made a mistake from the start. She went for the gun. I, however, went for her. I grabbed her arm as she reached for the weapon and flipped her onto the ground. Then in one motion I swept the gun off the ground, pivoted, and fired a bullet into her leg.
My aim was perfect.
She cried out in pain as I tossed the gun aside. Centipede was dragged out of the room almost immediately, but I wasn’t thinking about her anymore. I was paying attention to my handler, who had pulled a needle and a vial out of his pocket.
I didn’t see Centipede again until much later. The other agents and I were already stretched out on the floor for the night when she was brought back to us. I watched her struggle across the room in the dark. She settled herself in the corner, and I lay awake, listening to her ragged breathing.
“They hurt you, didn’t they?” I asked into the phone.
Her breath rattled again. “It was the second time I came back without you.” She sounded tired now. I could understand why. Existing in KATO was exhausting on its own. On top of that, Centipede had spent years thinking she was fighting for her family, only to find out she was fighting for nothing.
“You said in Austria you had intel that would affect every KATO agent,” she said, seeming suddenly more assertive—as if she realized she had exposed her weakness. “What is it?”
“I’m not sharing the details until you give me information on KATO that I can verify,” I said. She started to talk over me. I raised my voice so it was louder. “For now, I’ll tell you this much.” She quieted long enough to listen. “Our intel suggests that they are looking to add to the power they have over their agents.”
Another long pause. “How do they plan to do this?” There was a hard angry edge to her voice. She had plenty to be angry about where KATO was concerned, and I intended to use it to my advantage.
“I’ve told you enough,” I said. “Now I need to be sure that you’re not playing us.”
There was more silence on her end. I was sure she was considering backing out. But then she spoke. “KATO knows your location. I tracked you from Korea five weeks ago.”
Now I was the one breathing hard. I wanted her to be lying, but in my gut I knew she wasn’t. It made too much sense. “That’s how you’ve been able to find me in the field,” I said. “You’ve been tracking me from headquarters.”
“We haven’t cracked your security yet. That’s why we’re still on the outside,” she said, continuing as if she hadn’t just dropped a massive bomb. “We know the signs for when a perimeter check is about to occur and how to avoid it. One agent is permanently outside the IDA. I’m there when you are, and I leave when you do. I report directly back to KATO each time I leave to follow you. They restock my Gerex every time I come back.”
It explained everything. Since KATO had another agent stationed at the IDA, they would be aware when Centipede left to tail me. Like a typical KATO mission, she had to keep up with me on her own, without any help from them. She reported back to KATO each time she left the base because if she failed, they would want to know why. For us, this was a gift. It explained how, despite being followed, we were able to get to Eliza. KATO didn’t know where we were headed until it was too late.
My mind was spinning. I had to get to Simmonds. He needed to know. “Where are you right now?”
“On a plane coming to you.”
“Okay, we’ll look into all of this and get back to you,” I said. “For now, keep that phone on you. I have it silenced so it won’t call attention. Check it often and call me back ASAP if you see that I called.”
“Don’t expect me to wait for too long,” she said. Then she hung up.
I hurried across campus to the operations building. We had gotten back from Austria early in the afternoon. It was evening now, but Simmonds would still be in his office. The door was locked, which was a sign that Simmonds was in the middle of something. Normally I would have waited for him to finish, but this was too important. I pushed the button next to the door, buzzing repeatedly. The door unlocked with a click. There were about ten people stationed at various points around the office. Simmonds took one
look at my face and cleared the room with the exception of my father, who had also been in on the meeting.
I quickly relayed the conversation I had just had, keeping Centipede’s punishment to myself.
“They know how to detect our perimeter checks?” my dad asked when I had finished.
I nodded. “According to Centipede. She’s on her way back here now. She also said there’s an agent permanently stationed outside the IDA.”
“KATO agents don’t work together,” Simmonds said, looking to me for an explanation.
“They’re not working together,” I said. “They were each given a separate assignment. One to watch me and one to watch the IDA. They’re aware of each other, but that’s it.”
“We’ll investigate this,” Simmonds said, standing and heading to the back door of his office, which I believed led to the command rooms. “Stay by your pager. I’ll want to speak to you when we know more.”
He left me to see myself out.
• • •
I killed time in the cafeteria, getting some food. I wasn’t all that hungry, but I hadn’t eaten since we’d gotten back and I needed something to do. I sat at a table by myself, stirring my soup as my mind ran through the events of the last hour.
KATO was here. That was the only thing I had been able to think about since I left Simmonds’s office.
I was so completely lost in thought that I hadn’t noticed Travis until he took the seat across from me. Unlike me, however, he didn’t have any food. He looked a little irritated, but I had no idea why.
“Simmonds just briefed me,” he said. “How could you not tell me Centipede contacted you?”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. I didn’t call him. It didn’t even occur to me. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I wasn’t thinking—at all.” I was frustrated with myself. “Did Simmonds—tell you what she said?”
His face softened. “They are not as close as you think they are.”
“They’re here.” I tried not to sound rattled, but my voice dipped enough for Travis to notice. I swallowed hard. “I knew I wasn’t safe from KATO, but I wasn’t prepared for them to be this close.”
He squeezed my hand. “They’re locked outside. And we don’t know anything for sure.”
I shook my head hard. “I should have known. Especially once Centipede started showing up. I let my guard down too much.”
“You didn’t.” He was intense and insistent. “You were injured. You—”
“She’s been across the fucking street!” I hissed at him, my voice soft enough that only he could hear. “She’s been right outside my window for over a month.”
I tried to pull my hand out of his grasp but he held on tighter. Travis leaned over the table, meeting my eyes and ensuring I couldn’t look anywhere else. “If this does check out, we’re in a position to handle it. The IDA has plans in place.”
I exhaled heavily. “You’re right. I know you’re right, but—”
“It’s KATO,” he finished for me. “I get it. But for now, we’re ahead of them again.”
• • •
Both my and Travis’s pagers went off as we left the cafeteria. “This isn’t good news,” I said.
Travis tilted his head to the side. “You don’t know that.”
“We’ve only known about this threat for a few hours,” I said. “It would take days to confirm no suspicious activity. The fact that we’re getting paged now means they found something.”
Simmonds and my father were ready for us, their expressions serious. It was enough of a confirmation to turn my stomach.
“They’ve got someone watching us, don’t they?” I asked, lowering myself into a chair.
“They do,” Simmonds said, spreading a series of surveillance photos across the desk for both of us to see.
It was the sidewalk across from the IDA’s campus. I scanned the images, looking for something that stood out. I found it in seconds. There was one person in each image who had her face covered, but in a different way each time. Sometimes it was with a hat, or a hood. Other times with a book or a map. The stance was the same in each photo, though, so I was sure it was the same person. There was one close-up profile image that gave a clear view of the girl’s neck. A burn scar. She was most definitely KATO. According to Centipede, they knew how to pick up on our security checks, so I suspected the different disguises were to keep from alerting the guards monitoring the exterior cameras.
“They’ve also got a camera here,” my dad said, pointing to a telephone pole on the corner. “I found something similar across from each entrance.”
“How did we get the pictures without tipping them off?” I asked.
My dad shrugged. “We knew they had to be ground level since they seemed to be able to monitor only our comings and goings. So instead of doing a formal security check, I went scouting.”
I raised an eyebrow at him. “You?”
Despite the situation, he cracked a smile. “I actually used to be a pretty good spy.”
“Right,” I said. “Of course.” Even with everything I knew about my father’s history, I had a hard time picturing this version of him doing fieldwork. Even if it was just outside the IDA’s walls.
Next to me, Travis studied the photos. “So, Centipede was telling the truth.” He looked up at me. “At least you have a reason to trust her.”
“Yeah,” I said, “though I think I’d rather she’d have been lying.”
“Centipede’s story will, of course, require more investigating,” Simmonds said, moving us along. “But I’m prepared to trust it for the time being. KATO is not patient enough to sit on our location if they have the option to make a move. The fact that they’re across the street tells me they don’t have the intel to invade.”
“They also can’t blow us up or do anything destructive without running the risk of killing me or Eliza,” I said. “As long as one of us is in the building, everyone should be more or less safe.”
“I’m inclined to agree,” Simmonds said.
“You know Centipede better than anyone,” my dad said. “Do you truly believe this intel can be trusted?”
I nodded. “I do. It makes too much sense, and there is no way that KATO would ever be okay with this information getting out. She would be in a lot of trouble if it got back to them that she gave us a heads-up. I still don’t know yet if we can trust her to stick with us in the long run, but she’s pretty angry KATO lied about her family. So for now I believe she’s on our side.”
“Very well, then,” Simmonds said.
Travis shifted forward. “Are we initiating relocation?”
Simmonds nodded. “I already have the student supervisors on standby.”
“How many phases are we talking?” my dad asked.
Simmonds ran a hand along his chin, considering. “We’ll start with three for now, with a contingency plan to expedite if needed.”
I glanced between the three of them, trying to keep up. “What exactly is happening now?”
“We have several plans in place to relocate the IDA if the situation calls for it,” Simmonds said. “Each plan has a number of phases, depending on the severity of the threat. The first phase is always the relocation of the students to a temporary secure site until we can establish a new permanent base. I’ll be initiating that right away. In this case, our next phase will be relocation of our intel, followed by relocation of active personnel.”
“And our watchdogs won’t notice any of this?” I asked.
“The point is to carry on as if we don’t know they’re watching,” my dad said. “There are underground tunnels that can get the students, and eventually us, to the airport undetected. As long as they’re just sitting there, we proceed as normal. Then we disappear before they even realize the campus is deserted. In the meantime, we’ll have people monitoring the situation now that we kn
ow what we’re looking at. If anything changes in their patterns, we’ll speed up our process.”
“I have to call Centipede back and let her know this checked out,” I said, standing. “And she’s going to want some intel if she’s going to stay with us.”
“That’s understandable,” Simmonds said. “But give her as little as possible, and see what else you can get out of her while you’re at it. Specifically if any of the other agents know you’re off the Gerex.”
I nodded. “Absolutely.”
“Do you need anything from us?” Travis asked.
Simmonds shook his head. “Not right now. But we should have analysis on the audio the two of you recovered on your last assignment very soon. I’ll page you when I hear something.”
• • •
I called Centipede when I got back to my room. She picked up right away. “Did you get confirmation?” she asked.
“We did,” I said. “And I have a couple more questions for you.” She stayed quiet and I took that as a sign to continue. “You know I’m off the Gerex. Does every KATO agent know? Or just you?”
She snorted. “Do you really think they’d want everyone to know something like that?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “I was the one tasked with tracking you, so I was the only one they told. I was ordered to secrecy.”
I relaxed, relieved to have been right. “Do you know if I’m the only agent KATO sent out for an extended assignment?”
“What?” she asked. “How would I know that?” I started to change the subject, but she cut me off. “I think it’s time for you to give me something. How is KATO going to add to the power they have over us?”
I bit my lip before I spoke, debating how to keep her satisfied without sharing too much. “I was in Russia to retrieve a KATO operative based on intel we had that suggested she was the key to the future of KATO’s training and control.” She already knew where I was and that an agent was taken. I was trying to expand on intel she already had. “We don’t know too much more than that right now, but I’ve seen enough of the situation to know the threat is real.”
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