Find: Project Xol

by Amabel Daniels

  Luke’s chest heaved at my back as he hugged me off the floor. “What the hell are you—”

  I felt more than heard his gasp of breath. He set me down, keeping me within the circle of his arms. His face was turned toward the TV. He stared at my face on the screen. “Fuck.”

  “What in God’s name is goin’ on down here?” Sue hollered as she waddled into the room. Wyatt rushed to pull her away from me and Luke. Blood dripped from his nose. “Get back.”

  “What in the—”

  Wyatt grabbed her arm. “She’s a murderer. Mom, the cops after her. They’re on their way now.

  She grimaced and smacked his hand away as she eyed the TV. “Say what?”

  “I called 911.” Wyatt hadn’t taken his glare from us as he wedged into the space between us and his mom.

  “You what?” She smacked at his head.

  “Mom! She killed cops!”

  “You stupid sumbitch. You believe everything the TV says now?” She shook her head at him. “’Member when your father said I’d done all wrong? Huh? You can’t trust somebody just ’cuz they’re supposed to be on the good side.”

  She slashed her hand at her son opening his mouth to speak. “We gave this girl our word. And I raised you better than a coward, letting you go back on your word like this.” With one more somber glance at the TV, she shook her head. Then she faced me, her lips set in a firm line. “Go. Go on, y’all. If’n you can have a headstart. Go. ‘Fore they get here for y’all.”

  Luke had already inched back toward the door. He jogged, his gait lopsided and I ran past him. I collected our stuff, cramming it into the backpack. Luke grunted as he fitted his jacket on. It took us mere seconds to gather our things. Without a look back, we left, Luke using me as a crutch as we scrambled into the SUV.

  “Where should we go?” I asked. Away, I knew that much. But we had no destination. No safe haven within reach.

  “Zero can help us decide that. Let’s hope he’s found Rosa. Or has an idea where she is.”

  I couldn’t fault Luke for the logical idea. But the gnawing worry escalated at hearing him say those words out loud. I thought back to my concerns about giving Rosa this data. The last thing I wanted was to bring danger to her.

  “Then we need new phones.”

  He shifted in his seat, rubbing at his thigh. “And more clothes. Ice packs. Painkillers.”

  I nodded, already inventorying our necessities. “Maybe you should run in and buy it all?” I’d given Sue and Wyatt all my cash but that wasn’t why I was suggesting him to shop for us.

  He frowned at me. “We need to stick together.”

  “You weren’t on TV. There’s no news of any agency blaming you for those guards—cops.” I smacked my hand to the steering wheel. “Shit. They were cops.” I’d already stomached the mind-fucking dread of realizing the consequences of killing an officer—back when I thought I’d killed Michael with the pan to his head and when I’d assumed he was a cop. Hell, maybe he was but he was more of a shady monster than someone of the law. Driving away from Gorgen, I revisited that nightmare. Regardless of the fact it wasn’t true, I was wanted for killing cops.

  “That’s a felony.”

  Luke shook his head. “Then we’ll just do as Zero says and stay way the hell under the radar.”

  I hoped it wasn’t a case of easier said than done.

  Silence claimed our car ride. The tension we both brewed was too thick for a conversation to carry on. I was too overwhelmed with a tornado of emotions. Anger at Wyatt for betraying us. Gratitude, still, for Sue for taking us in for at least one night. Worry. Fear. Panic. Exhaustion. It was a cocktail of stress that distracted me from even trying to talk any of it out with Luke.

  While I was preoccupied mentally, I remained alert in the driver’s seat. Eyes peeled for cops driving by. I didn’t know if Wyatt had noticed the SUV’s plates so I erred on the safe side and behaved as though it was public news. I stayed under or at the speed limit, braked for full stops at signs and lights. Like a grandma, I drove carefully to who knew where. Damn, was I helpless without GPS. It was depressing how much we relied on computers to guide our lives.

  “Hey.” Luke finally spoke up. He pointed at a sign ahead. A superstore. Perfect.

  I steered us toward it and Luke said, “You need to keep the gun on you in here while you wait. Don’t park. Drive back and forth from that restaurant and the store.”

  I nodded, chewing on my lip.

  “What else do we need?”

  I listed the bare minimum of what we needed as I pulled up closer to the store’s entrance. This early in the morning, traffic was light. One small saving grace. Not so many people to spot us.

  “Okay. I’ll grab it all as fast as I can.”

  “Be careful.” Luke hurrying to shop? On his leg? It wasn’t the ideal scenario but I couldn’t be seen. “Lean on the shopping cart, okay? Don’t hurt yourself.”

  “I don’t plan to.”

  I pressed the brakes, stalling the car at the store’s doors but not putting the car in park. Luke wrenched the handle to his door open but paused. Still-cool morning air slipped in from outside and he reached toward me. One roughened hand grabbed the back of my head and he pulled me close. I barely had time to blink with his lips on mine.

  The embers of desire sparked to life at his farewell gesture and I reached blindly for his shirt to hold him close. No. Not now. Just as suddenly, he retreated and I closed my fingers to fist air. This wasn’t a goodbye. I wasn’t sure what the hell his kiss was exactly, just like how we’d locked lips yesterday. All I was confident of was the fact I liked his mouth on me.

  “I’ll see you in a few.” With that, he scooted out of the car and shut the door. I waited for a moment to watch him limp into the store. Through the all-glass doors, I could see him take the closest shopping cart to him. He immediately hunched over it and took off.

  Following his plan, I ferried back and forth between the store and the restaurant, switching it up too to drive by another eatery’s parking lot as well. I didn’t want anyone to get suspicious of a vehicle casing businesses but I refused to sit parked somewhere.

  Restlessness buoyed me and I let out a record-breaking amount of sighs. Every minute that passed ticked by anxiously. As soon as I saw Luke pushing a cart from the same doors I’d dropped him off at, I maintained my current speed but eagerly met up with him. He opened the backdoors and stowed bags. Then he got into the passenger seat and exhaled a heavy breath.

  “You okay?”

  I nodded, scanning him for any signs of pain or discomfort. Or any more hints of nervous energy. “You?”

  His answer was a grunt as he twisted to the backseat. “Good as we’ll get. I’ll set up a phone.”

  “The number he said to call is in the front pocket of the bag.”

  With eagle eyes to my surroundings and my pace at granny-speed, I drove us away. Again, I had no idea which way to go but further from businesses seemed wise.

  Once Luke opened up and activated the phone, he dialed the number Zero had given me. The first attempt went unanswered. I rolled my shoulders, trying not to think too much of it. Anything was possible. Maybe he was in the bathroom taking a dump. His lack of answering didn’t have to mean something bad.

  “Try again,” I said.

  He dialed again and silence greeted us.

  “Zero,” Luke said.

  His gust of a breath spelled his relief. “Luke, man. Where the hell are you?”

  “Driving. We went to a vet to get patched up like you said and just now got the phones.”

  “You see the news?”

  I smirked. “Why do you think we’re on the road.”

  “This is hell in a handbasket, girlie. Keep driving in the direction you’re in. No turns. I need a moment to ping your call and get your location.”

  I trusted his expertise. Him pinpointing where we were should be fine. We were all using burner phones.

  “They’ve pinned those two guys
on you,” he reported.

  “What about the woman?” I asked. There hadn’t been anything mentioned about her.

  “She’s alive. Lived to frame you, basically.” Zero paused for a long moment then said, “I’ve been following this news since it broke. They didn’t name any suspects at first. The press conference was a big ‘pending investigation’ line. Then they released it this morning that the woman had seen you guys.”

  “You gave her your ID,” Luke said to me.

  I winced, remembering the moment.

  “Even if you hadn’t, I’m sure Michael would have fabricated this to shine on you anyway. He wants something you have, so why not put more pressure on you to bring him to you?”

  Such lovely thoughts. My stomach churned with acid and I swallowed hard.

  “And there’s no mention of Michael. Or this Ryan guy. You too, Luke. They don’t even mention you.”

  That was a strange anomaly. Luke had been at my side as soon as I’d “met” Michael. Weird that they didn’t lump him in to the manhunt. Or maybe the reason they excluded him meant something worse. I couldn’t waste the brain space on entertaining what-ifs.

  “Have you found anything on Ryan?” Luke asked.

  Zero groaned. “No. Sorry. I am only to multitask so much.”

  “He wasn’t complaining—” I shot back.

  “I know, girlie. All I got on him was what you’d said. His rap sheet and sentencing. And the mention in his prison record that he’s now dead.”

  “Is there a death certificate?” I asked. Because he was so alive. Who exactly claimed him otherwise?

  “No. Just the line explaining his updated placement on death row. I had to step back from that line of snooping. You know, because I was sidetracked by your news and the fact you’re being framed. I’ll get back to him. There’s so much to look at here. This is way beyond anything I’ve worked with before.”

  I didn’t take his comment as a sign of doubt. Rather, it made me curious about what he had worked on in the past in his hacker adventures.

  “I haven’t tried to pick through this much of a layered cover-up since… Well, it’s been a while.”

  Luke drummed his fingers on his uninjured thigh, his dark gaze roving the scenery we sped past. “Cover-up for what, though?”

  “Whatever the shit Project Xol does. Somebody wants that data,” Zero quipped.

  “Besides Rosa,” I added.

  “Who I still can’t find.” He sighed. “If it weren’t for her two letters, she could have fallen off the earth.”

  Actually, those letters didn’t promise anything. Someone else could have sent them. Don’t be so negative. I licked my lips, worried at my mom’s absence. Negative? This is being realistic.

  “As far as everyone’s reporting, she’s still ‘dead’ from the explosion of her apartment. They’ve been replaying that clip with news of you being wanted.”

  “And a cover-up by who, exactly?” Luke postured.

  “Agencies all over. An Ohio PD. An Arizona branch of FBI. Now Texas authorities. This has to be a federal level of corruption. Maybe international. Which is why I need the info on those zip drives, like, now. The faster we can figure out what they are after, maybe we can guess who it belongs to.”

  “It’s Scott’s.” My father. I couldn’t even touch the enormity of that shock still. Later.

  Zero huffed at my reply. “At first. But his lab was shut down. Someone else clearly took over. Not Rosa, but someone.”

  What a bizarro mad scientist war we’ve fallen in.

  “Which is why I need your location. To set up a safe place to download those files.”

  I understood the need for answers and Zero’s hope the zip drives would provide some. But for figuring out who was behind this… I had a hunch looking into Ryan’s fake death might yield a better picture. If he was supposed to be dead, a document signed by someone would be a starting point. Yet, who was I to suggest Zero to modify his strategy? I’d never had to solve a cover-up. He was the expert here. My role was to stay alive and ride it out.

  I checked the gas gauge. Still lots of fuel. “Like in New York?”

  “Exactly. I’ll search for a café. Hack into a few computers and set up an email for you to send it all to.”

  “Could we get rid of the drives once you have the copies?” Luke asked. He slumped his forearm on the ledge of the passenger now, his gaze on the phone in the cupholder. He rubbed at his stubble, a rasping sound filling the quiet before Zero replied.

  “Please. That way they won’t be able to take it. Cassie, I’m going to text this phone an address in a few more minutes. Did you get more than one phone?”

  Luke said, “I got seven. All they had.”

  “Mmm. I like a man who can think ahead. Not only a fine-looking stud but smart too.”

  I rolled my eyes at my friend’s comment. He’d gleaned how hot Luke was from a likely grainy feed through the library’s surveillance camera? You should see him in the flesh, buddy.

  “After you get the address to the café, destroy the phone. Tell me the number of another phone and I’ll send you an email address to that one from this number.” He read off another number. “Follow?”

  Luke scribbled the info on a napkin from the console. “Got it.”

  “And in the meantime, you need to disappear.”

  I cracked a bitter laugh. “Gladly.”

  “Seriously, Cassie. We’re talking a nationwide APB. Bulletins for arrest. Local, state, federal. They’ve sent every possible law enforcement agency after you.”

  I let the words sink in. I knew this. Seeing my face on the TV screen little more than an hour ago proved it. I was a wanted woman. My life was no longer my own. Everything that used to be normal wouldn’t fit in this existence. No point to whimper about it. It just…was.

  I remained quiet as Zero listed more steps to accomplish. Dye my hair—again—and cut it. Hoodies. Hats. Glasses. Seek out and avoid cameras. He was going to send cash somehow. I tuned out the Going Incognito crash course because Luke was getting it all down. He scribbled on that napkin and I paid attention to the road.

  After we hung up, Luke tapped the phone to his knee.

  “Here.” I held out my hand as I slowed to a stop. We’d been traveling on another country-ish highway with little to no traffic. A semi blared by in the oncoming lane as I opened the door and took the cell phone. Same as before, I crushed it beneath the tire. This time, I wrapped it in some gauze and set fire to it on the berm as well.

  True to his word, Zero texted an address to another burner phone. With it were directions from the road we were currently on, a message I was more than grateful for since we had no navigation system to tell us how to get to the café.

  According to the highway sign forecasting the distance to cities and the steps Zero mapped out, we were looking at another hour’s drive north. More time. I was beginning to dread these spells of quiet. Too much time to think and worry. I gnawed my lip, checking the mirrors obsessively.

  “Breathe, Cass.”

  Luke shifted over to reach for my hand. He gripped it and I grounded myself in the warmth of his fingers. I shouldn’t be surprised he was attuned to my moods and ticks. He’d been around me through enough hardships to read me. And I’d only known him for a week. How crazy.

  “We’ll find a way out of this mess,” he vowed.

  “Don’t jinx us.”

  Because this all seems…easier said than done.

  Chapter Six

  Luke

  Cassidy was too quiet on the way to the internet café. My experience with women was limited. This kind of experience, at least. But I knew enough to know this silence was a bad sign.

  The last time she’d given me the silent treatment for this long was on a different ride. When we’d taken Jonah’s old truck from Cincy down here to Texas, we’d had a verbal stalemate. That time, I’d mutually shut my lips. We’d butted heads, being stupid enough to talk about something like sex. Now, I mis
sed that stupid little fight, if it could be called that. For her to be pissed at me for hinting she was a prude—or whatever the hell it was that got her miffed. And for me to get hung up on how she was pushing my buttons, reminding me I wasn’t good enough. Such pointless crap to worry about.

  This time, she was too somber. Like a shell of who I knew she was. I hadn’t known her for long, but the dull gaze in her eyes and the slump in her shoulders… That wasn’t her.

  She’s been to hell and back. And she couldn’t be taking it well at all.

  She was too…disconnected. Something I had no clue how to mend. It didn’t matter if it wasn’t my problem to solve. She mattered too much to ignore her mood.

  Holding her hand seemed so small of a move but a monumental gesture. I’d shifted in my seat, trying to get comfortable. I didn’t have any intention of releasing her, but she’d tightened her grip and I could tell how much it helped her.

  “Maybe we should pull over?” I suggested.

  For the last twenty minutes, we were slowed down and crawling along in backed-up traffic. Orange barrels lined the median and it had to be the construction that hindered us. For every few feet we trudged along in the SUV, right next to another driver in the lane to our left, we were stuck near a stranger. A person who might see her and report her whereabouts.

  “You think?” she asked. Even her tone was off. No fear, no argument. Just going with the flow. Too…detached.

  “Yeah.” Long enough for me to try to snap you out of this. Maybe it’s shock that’s catching up. I thought she’d cried it all out last night but that was before she learned she was wanted for crimes she didn’t commit. Hell, I’d been wanted for crimes I had committed and that was a cruel disaster to accept. But to be hunted unjustly for something she hadn’t done? Had to be screwing with her need to please people.

  I watched the cars as the next lane picked up speed slightly. “Yeah,” I repeated. “We’re too exposed like this. We can stop at that rest stop up there. Dye your hair again and cut it. Change, while we’re at it.”