“ Where is Rinteau now?” I asked
“ Lady I don’ t know and I don’ t care. That guy is freaky. Blankenship has got some kind of hold over him. They’ s both crazy. Man, you got to let me go now. I done told you everything,” he said. His voice was nearly at a whine now. “ Blankenship, he’ s gonna find out I talked, man, he’ s gonna… ” his voice quaked in fear as it tailed off.
“ I think you’ re holding out,” I said. Then I had an idea.
“ Do you have the cell phone Blankenship gave you?”
Booker shook his head. But his eyes told me a different story.
“ Alex,” I said.
Alex patted Booker down. He found the cell phone in his inside coat pocket. It looked to be way advanced. Brent’ s eyes kind of went wide and he reached out and took the phone from Alex.
“ Never seen one like this before,” he said. He flipped it open and studying the screen.
“ Brent, see if you can find a call log in there,” I said.
Booker’ s eyes went wide again.
“ Here it is,” Brent said. “ Only calls received. No calls out.”
I took the phone from Brent and looked at the screen. I didn’ t recognize the number, but I would bet Charles’ entire fortune Blankenship would be on the other end.
I pushed the call button and watched the screen light up as the call went through.
“ Man you gotta let me out of here,” Booker said.
“ Hush,” I said.
The call connected. Someone answered, the connection was excellent. I could hear them on the line but they did not speak.
“ Simon, it’ s me again. Just wanted to tell you that we know everything. We know how you did it and we know where you are. Watch your back, because we’ re coming for you.”
Still no response.
The line clicked and the call disconnected. I stared at the phone screen, thinking briefly about redialing.
Then there was a commotion in the back seat. Booker crawled over Alex and grabbed at the door of the van. He managed to get it open and fell out into the street. He scrambled to his feet and started running.
“ Should I go after him?” Alex asked.
“ No it’ s fine. There’ s nothing left he can tell us,” I said.
I gazed at my friends. They all understood what we had just discovered. There was definitely a traitor among us. We had been set up that day in the mall. Set up right from the very beginning. I still didn’ t know by whom yet, but I was beginning to get a good idea. There was proof. And I knew where and how to get it.
Brent turned the van around and we left Fourth Street behind, driving through the night until we reached the school.
Home. For now.
Chapter 26--The Big Bang Theory
It was late when we finally reached the school. We parked the van in the Situation Room and climbed the long stairs to Mr. Kim’ s office. Pilar and I bid the guys good night at the boy’ s wing and went to our room. She fell immediately into bed and was instantly asleep. It amazed me how she was always able to do that. I was too nervous and jittery to sleep. I needed a shower. Anytime I was anywhere close to Blankenship even if it was just a phone call, I felt like I’ d been dipped in oil. I changed into my robe and staggered down the hall to the shower room.
The shower rooms were one of my favorite things about Blackthorn. There was always plenty of warm water, and the towels were kept in a heated cupboard so they were warm and fluffy when you dried off. It was really a pretty heavenly place and I found myself finally relaxing a little bit as the warm water pounded into my skin.
After shampooing and rinsing and blow drying and examining my split ends in the mirror, I walked down to the room and got dressed in shorts and a t-shirt for bed. Pilar was out for the count, but I still felt restless. The whole Rinteau thing bothered me. The whole fact that someone had somehow set us up bothered me and I wasn’ t sure how I was going to sleep at all. I had to figure this out.
I sat at my desk trying to study. There was a big quiz coming up in Languages. I was behind as usual and thought maybe if I could get lost in my homework, I might be able to forget about Rinteau and Blankenship and the Firehorn and all the rest of it, at least for a while.
My book was open on the desk and I went over my notes from the last class. It wasn’ t working. I couldn’ t concentrate. I was about to get up and try some yoga to see I could relax that way, when my watch, which was setting on the desk next to my notes started buzzing.
I picked it up. The text message said: Sit Rm 15. Huh. Mr. Kim must be back from the crime scene and must have found something important for him to be calling us this late. I strapped on the watch and slipped on a pair of sweats and sneakers.
Pilar was sprawled out on the bed and her watch was on her arm, but the screen was blank. Maybe Mr. Kim just wanted to see me. Oh well. No need to wake her.
The school was eerily quiet at night. It was always a little unsettling to be walking around it when it was so empty. I always thought it would make a good setting for a horror slasher movie. It was hard to walk down the hallways and resist the urge to look over your shoulder every few yards.
I made it to Mr. Kim’ s office quickly, opened the bookcase and started down the stairs trying to guess what Mr. Kim might have found. Hopefully something that would lead us straight to Blankenship so we could catch Freakenstein.
I pushed open the door to the room and stepped inside. It was empty and quiet, none of the machines or computers running.
“ Mr. K....” I started to say but felt an arm grab me from behind and a cloth went over my nose and mouth. A chemical stung my eyes and tears formed, running down my cheeks. I shut my eyes and mouth trying not to breath and kicked back with my right leg. I hit a shin and heard someone yelp. With my hands I clawed at the hand holding the rag, I raked my nails across the back of it and whoever had me yelled and dropped the rag. I struck an elbow into the ribs of my attacker and heard a whoosh of breath leave his lungs.
I staggered forward and whirled around in a fighting stance. It was Rinteau. His hand was bleeding and he was slightly doubled over. My eyes stung and my mouth tasted like almonds. I had no idea what he was trying to knock me out with, but I felt woozy. I tried to take in deep breaths to clear my head.
“ You’ re a little friskier than I thought,” he said.
“ You’ ve got some nerve coming back here. I ought to kill you!” I said.
“ Really! And tonight in the do jang I felt us growing closer,” he smilirked at me.
“ Creep,” I stepped forward and launched a front kick at his head but I was starting to feel the effects of the chemical and my balance was a little off and he easily stepped out of the way.
“ Feeling a little woozy are we?” he said.
I took a swing and he easily dodged out of the way. My momentum and lack of balance spun me around so my back was to him momentarily. He lunged forward, grabbing me with both arms. lifting me off my feet.
“ You need to settle down,” he said. His voice was right in my ear. Good.
Instead of taking his ‘ settling down’ advice, I cocked my head forward and snapped it back as hard as I could and it sounded like I got him good. He yelled and dropped me and I staggered into the conference table and spun around to see him with blood dripping from his nose. Score one for Rachel Buchanan.
I tried to stand up but my legs were starting to feel rubbery. This wasn’ t going well. I reached for the button on my watch and pushed in what Brent called the “ Rachel 911” button. It sent a signal to everyone’ s device and would tell them where I was located. I needed help fast. I knew Pilar had been wearing her watch. She would find Brent and Alex and get here as fast as she could. Who knew where Mr. Kim was?
“ Man. You are a pistol,” said Rinteau, dabbing at the blood on his nose.
“ Why did you come back here?”
“ I had some unfinished business and guess I just couldn’ t leave without saying good bye,” he sa
id. He was trying to move toward me and I circled away and around trying to keep the table between us.
“ You work for that creep Blankenship,” I said. The disgust dripped from my voice.
“ Yep. Too bad you followed me out of the school tonight, I might have gotten to stay a lot longer and keep an eye on you,” he said. I angled to my left and he circled the other way, around the table.
“ So it was all a set up from the beginning,” I said. I had to keep him talking. I was feeling weaker. Whatever I breathed in was making me nauseous. Hang Rachel. Help is on the way,” I told myself.
“ Yeah. Pretty much. Brilliant don’ t you think. It’ s kind of funny you think a bunch of high school losers can compete with Simon. Guy’ s a genius. You run around here with all your fancy little gadgets and gizmos like you’ re playing Cowboys and Indians. Meanwhile he’ s miles ahead of you. It’ s almost comical,” he said.
“ It’ s hilarious. If you find murderous, thieving villains funny,” I said.
Rinteau shrugged his shoulders.
“ Whatever. He pays me. It’ s all I care about. I’ m not much into the politics,” he said still circling toward me. My legs were feeling heavier and in my stupor I realized he was getting closer. I darted further away. It felt like I was walking in wet cement.
“ This is about money? You’ ve got to be kidding me,” I said.
“ Spoken like someone who’ s never had to worry about money, rich girl,” he said.
This time he made up the distance between us more quickly, and he reached for me but I blocked his arms and managed to score a kick to his right knee. The kick was poor and not very good technique considering my wobbly state but it slowed him down. I tried to move toward the weapon wall where Mr. Kim kept a bunch of martial arts weapons but he recovered in time to cut me off and I dodged behind the table again.
“ I may come from money, but I also know how much things cost,” I said. Where were Alex and the others? I wasn’ t going to last much longer.
“ Oh please! Let’ s not get into the little platitudes. I don’ t have the stomach for it. I came back here to leave your buddies a little present. Simon said if there was a way I could bring you along, I’ d get a nice little bonus,” he said.
He was getting angry now. He’ d thought at first that it would be easy to take me down, but it hadn’ t gone according to plan. Time for me to step up.
“ You’ re not going anywhere,” I said.
I stepped out from behind the table until we were in an open space between the bank of computers and the conference table. Rinteau launched a kick at my head, and I ducked out of the way. He must have been faking it in Tae Kwon Do class. Just like Leikala in Hawaii, it looked like he had martial arts training. Great.
I advanced toward him with my fists up, reading his movements. He feinted with a punch, ducked my counter punch then rushed at me tackling me around the waist. We tumbled to the ground, sliding across the floor of the room crashing into the chairs in front of the computer consoles. I struggled free of Rinteau’ s grip and got to my hands and knees. Then I saw it.
Underneath the consoles was a giant brick of something that looked like Silly Putty. It had a bunch of metal and wires running stuck in it. My eyes followed the wires and to my horror discovered they were connected to other bricks of explosives every few feet. I saw a box with a digital clock on the side of it. It blinked 5:00, then started counting down. 4:59, 4:58, 4:57. It took a second for me to process what I was seeing. It was a bomb.
I stood looking at Rinteau who now held a little remote control in his hand.
He smiled.
“ That’ s right Peaches,” he said. “ A little surprise for you and your friends! What do you say? How about we get out of here before it gets real loud and dusty,” I said.
“ Are you crazy? There’ s a whole school full of innocent people sitting right on top of us!”
Rinteau shrugged.
“ They’ ll never know what hit them, in fact...”
Rinteau crumpled to the ground. Alex stood behind him holding one of Mr. Kim’ s stun guns. Pilar and Brent came skidding to a stop next to him.
“ Man I hate that guy,” Alex said. “ He just never shuts up.”
“ Guys, thank god you’ re here, we’ ve got to get out of here, he’ s got the whole place rigged to blow,” I said, pointing at the explosives all around the room.
Brent rushed to the timer dropping to his knees.
Pilar, thinking quickly ran to the wall and pulled a fire alarm switch. It would sound throughout the entire school. Everyone would start evacuating.
Alex slung Rinteau over his shoulders.
“ Be careful with him,” I said. “ He’ s got some kind of drug or something. I almost passed out.”
Pilar and Alex headed for the stairs. I intended to be right behind them. I looked at the timer, it now read less than two minutes.
“ Come on Brent,” I said.
Brent was peering at the timer, staring at the wires like he was studying the Sunday crossword puzzle.
“ Brent, come on. We need to get out of here,” I pleaded.
“ You go, I think I can disarm this,” he said.
“ No! Are you crazy, we are leaving!”
“ Rachel. Everything we know, all we’ ve learned about Mithras is stored down here, if we let it get destroyed we’ re back to square one,” he said.
“ That can’ t be! Mr. Kim must have copies of everything at FBI headquarters. No! Come on!” I shouted.
“ But, he doesn’ t. The idol is there, but all the records, everything else is here. He told me, he doesn’ t want anyone to have access to it without his knowledge. The back ups are all encoded in the safe. If this blows everything will be destroyed. Don’ t worry I can do this,” he said.
“ Brent,” I pleaded, tears in my eyes.
“ Go. Now! If I get to thirty seconds and can’ t stop it, I’ ll race up the stairs. The steel door on the stair well will shield me from the blast,” he said.
“ I’ m not leaving you,” I said.
Brent grabbed me by the arms and stood me up. He kissed me hard on the mouth and pushed me toward the door.
“ I have to do this and can’ t do it with you here. Go,” he said and pushed me toward the stairway.
With tears running down my face, I ran through the door and up the stairs. I didn’ t want to leave him and I was scared and crying. But Brent was smart about this stuff. Maybe he would know what to do. Please Brent. Please don’ t die.
I was concentrating on not falling, running as hard as I could. I tried not to count down the seconds in my head. My head was still cloudy from the chemical and I felt woozy and couldn’ t think straight. I heard something on the steps above and looked up in time to see Rinteau barreling down on me. He crashed into me and we fell down a few steps, then he righted himself and kept running until he entered the door to the Situation Room.
“ Brent!” I screamed.
Time seemed to stand still. I tried to rise but my legs didn’ t work any longer. I remembered trying to count down the seconds in my head, but couldn’ t keep track anymore.
Suddenly Pilar was there, chasing after Rinteau. She was almost to the door. I looked up from where I lay on the steps and shouted.
“ Pilar no!” I screamed. But it was too late. There was a low thumping sound. I thought it strange Pilar had somehow learned to fly. Then came the loudest noise I’ d ever heard. I remember screaming. I remember a hot rush of air blowing over me and driving me to the ground.
After that, all I can remember is the darkness.
The End.
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3 The Spy Who Totally Had a Crush on Me Page 15