by Sara Schoen
I took that as my cue to leave while she was distracted. I didn’t want to be on the receiving end of her anger, and with how fired up she got, it would be a while before she calmed down. My best bet was to stay quiet, pray Shadow didn’t come back and set Spit Fire off, and help her go through the information. I didn’t make it far before Spit Fire grabbed me and held me in place.
“Yeah, she’s right here,” Spit fire said, glancing up to look at me. Her grip loosened slightly as she nodded to whatever she heard over the phone. “Yeah, she knows.” She paused again then said, “Sure, here you go.” She passed me the phone and mouthed “It’s Camo” before I took it.
“Hello?” I asked, watching Spit Fire return to flipping through the mountains of paper we had. With any luck, something would be useful to us. Maybe something to tell us who exactly is the mole.
“There you are! I’ve been trying to reach you since I got back. Spit Fire says you already know Shadow managed to slip away again. I really thought I’d be able to keep track of her. I mean, I found you in the Cardoza compound. She shouldn’t be that much harder, but my god, she’s crafty.”
“Yeah, when Maverick came he even offered to try to take her back again, but I decided to keep her. It’s not worth giving anyone else more trouble with her. I’ll watch her. If she gets away from me then we have a problem.”
“How’s that working out?” Camo asked. There was a moment of hesitation in her voice. She’s holding something back. What does she really want to ask?
“I don’t know yet. Ask me when I get back to CIRA. If she slips away from me, we may just lose a recruit. I don’t have time to deal with her if she can’t listen to me now.”
“You’re coming back? Did you find something?” I glanced at Spit Fire, her head still buried in the paperwork. We had gone through everything, discovered what we could. Was I really needed here anymore? I could go home. Be there in case the mole tries something. That would ease me and probably help.
“Spit Fire might have. I also want to get home just in case we’re needed. I don’t like leaving CIRA this open.” Spit Fire glanced up at me, shocked to hear that I was going home. I never left anything half done. Leaving now, left everything to her, but I had to get back. CIRA needed me.
“I know what you mean. It’s a ghost town here. There are more agents walking around, but you can see it’s going to take time for them to get back on their feet. I’m running around all the time trying to help them and Sharp Shooter.” Pause while she talked to someone else. I could hear her muttering, but not exactly what she was saying. “Speaking of Sharp Shooter, he wanted me to ask you if you’ve heard from Sandstorm or Renegade. He couldn’t get a hold of them earlier.”
“No, I haven’t heard from either of them since they left. They should be checking in soon though. If we don’t hear then we can worry, but they are focused now. They may have forgotten to check in until their mission is over.”
“I’ll let him know. He’s been worrying about them, well, all of you really. He won’t stop asking about you guys and what I think you’re doing. He didn’t use to have a problem just calling to check in on agents. I don’t know why now is different, but I keep telling him that no news is good news, right?”
“I don’t know about that.” Sometimes no news is bad news. We didn’t hear news on the Cardoza Cartel and look what happened there. How many people died? “Could you do me a favor, Camo?”
“Sure, anything. What’s up?”
I glanced at Spit Fire, who placed another paper into the box I had on the floor to look further into later. Would we have time to look into any of these? “I need you to keep an eye on the team members we still have there, that includes extended team members like Rum, Seeker, and Siren.”
“Why? What did you find out?” Something in her tone made me think she was on the same page. Maybe it was the accepting tone or the sigh echoing relief. Did she have the same inkling on who was behind this?
“Nothing definitive yet. Just be you’re usually friendly self and start checking in on them any time you can. I just need to know that someone has eyes on them until I get back to CIRA.”
“I can’t keep an eye on everyone, Night Stripe. I’ve been here for days and not noticed anything out of the ordinary.”
“I know you can’t, just please, keep an eye out until I get back. I’m taking the next plane back home. I don’t care who’s flying. Spit Fire can look through information on her own.” I glanced at her, to make sure she was okay with being left on her own. She didn’t react right away, and I wasn’t even sure she heard me.
She glanced at me, as if to check that I was waiting for a sign from her. She nodded and waved her hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about me. I do my best work when I’m alone. You get home and look through what we have in that box, I’ll stay here and keep looking.”
I shook my head to let her know I heard her then went back to Camo. “Just hold down CIRA until I get back. Maverick said a plane came by every day. So, I’ll be home by tomorrow. In the meantime—”
“Is Shadow coming with you?”
“Yes, whether she likes it or not she’s coming back with me. Though, since she was escaping to join me, I don’t think she’ll run away from me.” Camo scoffed and muttered something that sounded like “good luck with that” before I continued. “In the meantime, can you try to get in touch with Renegade? He promised to check in. If no one has heard from him then I want to know why.
“I can do that. I’ll see what I can find out before you get here.” She paused for a moment, I assume to talk to Sharp Shooter again, but couldn’t be sure. I didn’t hear muttering or anyone talking, but she came back before I checked to see if the call had dropped. “I’ll keep an eye open for anyone suspicious until you get back. Just be safe on the way back, I think KC is the one flying out tomorrow. Buckle your seatbelt and all that.” Her voice had a soft tingle of laughter. I’m glad someone is enjoying this…
“Thank you,” I said just before hanging up and turning back to Spit Fire. “I’ll take as much of this stuff back home as I can and hopefully find something useful. If I find something, I’ll call you and we can talk about what we have, if anything.”
She nodded and then quickly turned to the corner of the desk and latched onto a small stack of papers. “Look through these first, if you can.” She handed me the stack so I could look at the top paper. It was just a list of numbers; rows and rows of numbers. “Sandstorm would know what they mean, but maybe Camo will as well since she used to be in the Cardoza Cartel. Something about the numbers really jumps out at me, but I don’t know what it could be.”
“I’ll see what I can do.” I glanced over the numbers, hoping something would jump out at me, but none of it made sense to me. At least not yet anyway, but I’d figure it out eventually if it meant finding out who killed so many agents. The mole won’t get away… I won’t let them.
Chapter 23
Loose papers filled every square inch of my bed. It wasn’t organized, it wasn’t neat, and it certainly wasn’t easy going through everything I had brought back. I tried to look through some of the papers on the plane ride back, but unfortunately, Camo had been right. KC had taken us back earlier today and while he took it easy for the wounded agents we were bringing back with us, it still wasn’t smooth sailing. Though thankfully he didn’t try any of his fancy-ass moves while flying. I don’t think anyone would have survived the trip if he had.
No wonder the nurses doped up the patients before putting them on a plane. They learned after seeing KC fly. I rubbed my temples, feeling a residual headache returning from trying to read anything on the flight home. I told Shadow I had to stop because I didn’t feel well and I wouldn’t have the space to spread out. The real reason was, beside the motion sickness KC always gave me when flying, because it was impossible to keep the agents out of the files.
Keeping this a secret from them was the hardest part. They’d hate to hear we had a mole and that they couldn’t
do anything about it. It was for the best to keep them in the dark. For now. Though, they didn’t make it easy. They were restless from being bed ridden so long, they wanted to leap into a mission. This wasn’t the one for them though. So, to avoid them from getting into it, I was hidden away in my room, researching alone while Camo tried to keep an eye on everyone. It wasn’t a great system, but it was working.
I kept Spit Fire updated every time I thought I had something. We compared notes and ideas as often as we could. I honestly felt like we were getting close, but something was missing. Something that would corner the mole. The evidence we needed to confront them and end them once and for all. Without it, we were sitting ducks.
“We’ve over looked something,” Spit Fire chimed repeatedly on our last phone call. “What about the numbers? Have you figured out what they mean yet?” I hadn’t, and was still staring at them hours later. The numbers from the sheet she gave me had some kind of meaning, but I needed the key to break the code. Which I still hadn’t found.
Between calling Spit Fire and looking through everything for the ninety-ninth time in hopes something would suddenly make sense, I made sure to keep the phone close by for when Camo checked in. Nothing was ever out of the ordinary, but it made me feel better. Something in my gut told me to be ready. For what? I’m not sure, but something was coming. And if I had learned anything from being in CIRA it’s to always trust my gut.
Shifting through papers again, I managed to find something. Something I must have thought was meaningless before, but now, it all came together. In the margins of one of Mark’s handwritten notes Spit Fire had found on his desk was two times and a date. When I looked at the same information before I didn’t see that it related, but now that we were focused on them, I saw it. The numbers! They’re the same.
Suddenly it made sense as I scrambled to find the sheet of numbers on my bed. The numbers Spit Fire had found didn’t have a meaning because they weren’t separated as dates, times, and the phone number. It was a long string of numbers. If this is right...I placed dashes between the first six numbers; representing month, day, and year. That left military time for the next four numbers and the last ten would be the phone number.
I’ve got you now, you son of a bitch, I thought as I started separating the numbers. A full sheet of paper of jumbled digits quickly came to light in a matter of minutes. There were easily one hundred listed calls, but thankfully, I only needed one specific date to see if any of the calls were made the day of the raid. Skimming the list, I found the date I needed and I didn’t like what I saw.
If these times were correct, someone had called Mark just before the raid. I glanced over at the phone number and recognized it as one of CIRA’s numbers for agents in the field. I shook my head, both confused and disbelieving. How had someone called him? I had the phone...didn’t I?
I tried to think back, but it was clouded. I wasn’t sure who had the phone. I knew I had it at one point, but I didn’t have it after the raid. What happened to it? Did I lose it during the fight? Had I handed it off beforehand? If so, who had it? My only thought was that someone must have had a spare, but then why would it be from the phone number CIRA owned? Was it a different phone? Did someone bring one to help Mark? Either way, it was a CIRA phone. Someone who had been with us at the start of the raid called and warned Mark.
Angrily, I picked up the phone and dialed Spit Fire. She’s going to be furious when she hears this, I thought as the phone started to ring. I didn’t worry that she wouldn’t answer. I just didn’t know she’d be expecting me. “I had a feeling you’d be calling soon,” she said, answering the phone before the third ring. “I just found something so you have good timing.”
“I found something too.” I skipped over the pleasantries of our conversation. If time was limited, then I didn’t want to waste a second of it. “You go first. What did you find?”
“I found another list of agents.” She jumped right to the point. This is why I liked her. There wasn’t forced conversation or beating around the bush. She said what she had to and moved on. Just how I like it. “This one is from a few years ago judging by the names I recognize, but they aren’t the agent names so most of them I have no clue who they are. I think this is the only time it sucks not knowing everyone’s real names.”
“The ones you do know?” I asked, trying to keep her on track.
“Yeah, from what I can see, no one overlaps, but a few have deceased written next to them. I can’t tell if it’s a hit list or if they are listing the ones who helped them. There’s no clear indicator, but it could mean someone has been working with him for a while.”
“Could there be someone on that list still in CIRA today?”
“Agents are in CIRA until they die,” she commented in a matter of fact tone. “But I don’t know their past names to give you that answer. I can triple check to make sure no names line up, but I didn’t see any. I figured it would have to be the same person over the years. There’s got to be at least one matching name, but without knowing who it is, it won’t be much help. That’s a question for Sharp Shooter. He knows everyone’s past name or it’s in a file somewhere. Either way, he’s our answer to this problem. I’ll see if I can’t catch a flight home and meet with him today. I think we’ve collected everything here.” She fell silent for a few moments. Knowing her she was glancing around the room, her thoughts impossible to read, but pain evident on her features. It’s almost like it was her against the world. She hated giving up and loathed letting people down, but she was right. What more could we find there? “I’m ready to leave this building behind for good.”
“I don’t blame you.” I hesitated, unsure of how to explain this to her. There wasn’t an easy way or even a clear way. Even if there was, I knew she wouldn’t take it well. “I do think you should come home though. I’m going to need help.” My voice shook slightly, anger resonating through my words, but also choking up knowing how hard it would be to finally come face to face with this person.
“What did you find? You sound scared. I don’t hear that very often from agents, much less from you. I can’t say I’m a fan of it either.”
I sighed, fighting to control my emotions. “That list of numbers you gave me, I finally made sense of it. It’s organized by date, time, and then phone number. There’s an incoming phone call going to the cartel right before the raid. Someone called to warn him. He knew we were coming.”
“That’s how he knew to get out!” A loud thump echoed on the other end of the line, probably from her hitting the desk. “I had to chase him because someone warned him! They almost let him get away! I barely caught up to him. We could have lost him!”
“Yeah, and to make matters worse, it was from a CIRA number. It’s the phone that we had for the mission, the same one I slipped into your bag before you left. Someone on our team called to warn him.” Spit Fire fell silent. “So, we have you, me, Renegade, Camo, Siren, Rum, Demon, Seeker, Sharp Shooter, and not many more. Someone we know is definitely behind this.”
“Did it go in after you called Sharp Shooter for back up? Would the other agents have had time to call him?”
“No way to know for sure. I don’t remember exactly when I called.” We fell silent again, and once again I was forced to break the silence. “Just come home. I have a feeling I’m going to need some help soon. Camo is watching as many people as she can, but something is going on. I feel it.”
“I’ll make my way to the field hospital. If the planes stay on schedule I’ll make it in time to be back at CIRA tonight. I’ll see you then.” She hung up without another word.
I hope you make it in time. The phone rang again, I glanced at the number and sighed with relief that it was Camo checking in. Maybe she found something this time. “Hey Camo, did you see anything or is it the same report as last time?”
“It’s not Camo, it’s Shadow. We have a problem.” The urgency in her voice shocked me more than her stealing Camo’s phone. But that didn’t answer why she
did it. How did she know I’d answer?
“Shadow, how did you get this number? Did you steal the phone from Camo?”
“We don’t have time to talk about this, you can yell at me later. We have a problem. I’m following Demon, he’s been acting weird all day. I saw him take a weapon with him and he’s leaving CIRA as we speak.”
“Stop following him,” I said as I got up and started putting on my shoes to follow her. “Wait for me to get there before you go any further. You aren’t trained for this. Just stop where you are and wait. Do you understand, Shadow?”
“Yes, I can—Hey!” Shadow yelled. The sound of skin to skin contact from blows met my ears. I rushed as fast as I could as the sounds of a struggle carried over the phone. I called for Shadow, but she didn’t answer. Instead it sounded as if the phone fell from her hold and clattered onto the ground. I could hear her grunting and putting up a fight. I didn’t hear any other voice, but if Demon found out he was being followed. He had years of experience and was more skilled as a fighter. If he’s the mole, he could kill her.
“Shit.” The phone went dead just after I heard it drop onto what sounded like gravel. Or someone stomping on it. I shot up, leaving everything behind and rushing toward the exit. Why did you have to get involved Shadow?
Chapter 24
I raced through the halls, attracting a lot of attention as I darted past other agents. A few called out to me, “What’s wrong? Do you need help? Is everything okay?” but I didn’t stop to reply. I would have felt bad for not even bothering to answer, but it’s not like they could catch me in their states. I may have to explain my panic later, but right now I had to get to Shadow. There wasn’t time to stop and chat with agents who should be worried about healing. I know they wanted to help, but they’d be lucky to wobble outside by the time I got done with Demon if he hurt Shadow.