“I don’t either,” Laura said. “But it doesn’t seem to fit anything we’ve heard about them. They don’t do suicide attacks, and they act in small groups.”
“But if it’s a rebellion, so what?”
Laura shook her head. “I don’t know. I just think it’s interesting.”
“I don’t think I’d want to be part of a rebellion that was killing American soldiers.”
“Even if the American soldiers are locking up American kids? Forcing them to kill?”
“Maybe I’ll think about it differently when they force me to kill,” Aubrey said, laughing a little and trying to pass it off as a joke.
“It’s not funny,” Laura said, suddenly more serious. “What do you think my job is? You’re the spy, but I’m the bodyguard. You spent the last week training how to sneak around and pick locks; I spent it learning how to fight.”
“Are you saying you’re going to join the rebellion?” Aubrey asked. She didn’t know what to make of Laura. She made Aubrey uneasy.
“No,” Laura said, with a wave of her spoon. “I just don’t know what to think about this.”
“Neither do I.”
They met upstairs in a suite that had been turned into a command room. Jack was already there, dressed in casual civilian clothes. It made Aubrey think about something she’d heard in history class, about combatants needing to be in uniforms or else they’d be called spies. That probably only mattered when you were fighting in another country, not against terrorists.
“Good morning,” Rowley said a little sharply. Aubrey thought they’d come on time, but he didn’t seem happy with them.
“Sergeant Eschler has our briefing this morning.” The captain gestured to the other man.
“Thanks,” Eschler said, and rolled out a map on the table. Everyone moved in a few steps.
“We have received intel that a terrorist cell in the area is planning on hitting the Space Needle today.”
“The Space Needle?” Jack asked. “Isn’t that just a restaurant?”
“It’s a landmark,” Eschler said. “A few landmarks were hit yesterday: the St. Louis Arch, Old Faithful, a couple others. It seems like they hit similar targets all at the same time, or within a couple days of each other.”
“It’s more than just a landmark,” Captain Rowley added crossly. “It’s six hundred feet of concrete and steel that could collapse in the center of Seattle.”
Eschler nodded. “We don’t know where the attack is going to come from. There is a terrorist cell working in Seattle that has some kind of superheated power that can be used to melt steel. Or there’s another group that has a kind of jackhammer effect. We’re not sure how that one works. It could be them, or it could be something else entirely. Or it could be all of them working together.
“The plan that we’ve worked up is simple, but it ought to be effective. We’ll have snipers in place in three areas—on the Children’s Museum, the Pacific Science Center, and this business complex on Broad Street. The remaining three of us will be an assault and command team located in the music museum. Our Lambdas will be filling similar roles to what they trained for. Parsons, you’ll go dark up by the Needle and watch for anything and everything. Cooper, we’ll have you near the music museum with us. We’ll have eyes on target, but I want you listening in on every conversation and every creak that thing makes when it sways in the wind.”
“What about me?” Laura said.
“You’ll be bodyguard,” Rowley answered. “And you’re backup to pass information to and from the primaries.”
“Now,” Captain Rowley said, staring at the Lambdas. “You have your genuine I-Don’t-Have-the-Virus bracelets so that no one will question you out there. But if you think those are your tickets to run away or betray us, remember that I have this.” He pulled the ankle-bomb detonator from his pocket and held it up. “I’m sure I won’t need it. But you can never be too careful.”
FORTY-FIVE
“I’M SURE I WON’T NEED it,” Aubrey said, mimicking the captain’s voice. “But you can never be too careful.”
She sat on a bench, eating her lunch—a Subway sandwich she’d bought at the only open shop in sight.
“You can probably hear me chewing,” she said to Jack. “That’s got to be disgusting. Sorry.”
She was bored out of her mind. She’d been sitting in the park for hours, patrolling while invisible and sitting visible while resting, and she hadn’t seen a thing. Maybe the Green Berets had spooked the terrorists. Maybe they’d seen the snipers. Maybe they wondered why one teenage girl was wandering around the Seattle Center in the middle of a war, when everyone should have been too paranoid to be outside.
She took a bite of her sandwich. She felt ravenous—eating always seemed to renew her energy after being invisible—but she was trying to make it last. At least chewing on a sandwich made it look like she was doing something.
Aubrey glanced up toward the Children’s Museum, but didn’t see any sign of the Green Beret snipers. They were good at what they did, even if they treated her like crap.
Well, she’d saved their butts at the school. They were good at what they did, but she was good at what she did, too.
“Hey Jack,” she said, clearing her mouth with a sip of soda. “About yesterday. Well, a lot happened yesterday, but I’m talking about the beginning—about the morning. I’m talking about the kiss—I’m talking about our kiss.”
She paused. She suddenly didn’t know why she’d brought it up. This was stupid. He had better things to be doing right now.
She took another bite of sandwich and wiped a glob of mayo from the corner of her mouth. She tried to think how long it had been since she’d seen someone—anyone—out by the Space Needle.
“Wait,” she said quickly. “Jack. I just realized I’m totally leaving you hanging. I don’t want you to think that anything I have to say about the . . . about the kiss is bad. I’m glad we kissed. I’m not saying, ‘It was a moment of foolishness and we need to pretend it never happened.’ That’s not what I’m saying at all. I’m definitely pro- kiss.”
She wondered if anyone was watching her. If the terrorists had someone on a roof nearby, they’d see her. Then again, if someone was up on a roof, then they’d see the snipers before they’d see her.
“The thing is,” Aubrey said, “I’m sorry about everything back home. I probably should be saying this to your face—and I’ve wanted to. You don’t know how much I’ve wanted to. But I’m just so sorry that I ditched you for Nicole. It wasn’t right, and it only led to trouble. Every time I tried to do something good I screwed things up even more. I treated you horribly, and I did horrible things. Nicole wasn’t buying stuff for me all the time. I was stealing it. I was stealing just because I could and because I wanted to be pretty like Nicole. Maybe you already guessed that, but I wanted you to hear it from me. Assuming you’re even listening, which I don’t know if you are.”
She walked to the Space Needle for the tenth time and looked up at the structure. No one was there, doing whatever a terrorist would do.
“You were always there for me,” she continued. “And I turned my back on you. I betrayed a lifetime of friendship for—”
There was a pop, and then three more pops. She knew the sound the instant she heard it. Gunshots. She spun in place, trying to look for the shooter, but it was too much of a bowl—the shots echoed off every building.
“Jack?” she said. “Jack!” She started running for the music museum. Before she got far, she saw Jack running toward her, blood streaming from his head and down his shirt.
She reappeared as she ran, and Jack altered his course to meet her. He seemed to be running fine, but there was blood everywhere.
Aubrey threw out her arms to hug him, but when he reached her, he just grabbed her and kept running.
