Chapter Sixteen - James
I light a cigarette in the ALCO parking lot in Burlington, take a drag, and blow it out as I wait for Sasha to change in the bathroom. For a tiny town in the middle of absolutely nowhere, it’s got everything you need. Good thing, because the Smurfette looked a little too much like a crack addict to take on a private jet.
I slide my shades down my face to lessen the morning glare from the sun as she exits the store, all cleaned up. Her hair is back in a ponytail—most of the leaves and shit are gone, but a few stragglers remain. I swat them off her head as she passes and she turns and punches me in the arm.
I laugh and push her off. “Lighten up, Smurf. I’m just trying to make you look presentable.” I take one more drag on the cigarette and toss it, then get in the truck. She takes her time getting in and pulling the seatbelt across her chest. I take a moment to study her. She looks better with her new shorts and t-shirt, but she’s still a complete mess. I turn the ignition and rev the engine. “Well, it will have to do,” I sigh. “You looked like you were living out there in the scrub for months instead of days. You lose your mind or something?” Her head turns towards me slowly and she’s got a… look. Yeah. I’m not sure about that look. “What?”
“Days?” she snarls at me.
“Fine,” I say as I pull forward and make my way to the street, then turn left towards the airport. “I admit, I was a little late. But hey, I was busy with a girl back in Cali. She’s my key, and a job is more important than a package.”
“Package?” she growls this time.
“Kid, I’m just repeating what Merc said when he told me to pick you up, OK? That’s not what I’d call you. Pest maybe. Shitty archer, pain in the ass—take your pick. But if I had known he was talking about a kid, I’d have made an effort.” I cross through the intersection and head south. The airport is small and so is the jet, just a five-seater, but it will get us to where we need to go with one planned stop near Vegas for cheap fuel. It’s only a couple miles south of town and it looks more like a cornfield than an airstrip. But I’ve flown out of here lots of times, so I know it’s legit. My pilot is a local guy I use when I’m avoiding. He keeps his mouth shut and takes my cash. And that’s all you can ask for.
I park the truck in the small lot and open the door. Sasha makes no move to get out and I shake my head and sigh. “Look, none of your problems are my fault, OK? I’m your knight, kid. Me. So get your little ass out of the truck and do what I say.”
That look again. It’s just a flash but it has me worried. She’s got something to say but she’s holding it in. I let her keep her silence for now because Harrison is coming out of the small building and pointing to the jet off to the left. We meet up halfway to the plane and shoot the shit while Sasha looks off in the distance. His jet is nice, not big, but nice. He uses it to shuttle people from Denver over to some famous golf course up north a little ways.
We all climb the steps and then he closes things up and starts his pre-flight stuff. Sasha settles in the bucket seat across from me and stares out the window again. A few minutes later we take off and then I get up to grab some drinks from the cooler. I hand her an OJ and she takes it, shakes it, twists open the cap and swigs it down like she’s starving.
“Hungry?” I ask her.
“What do you think?” she sneers.
I shrug and drink my own OJ for a few seconds. “You had a pile of pheasant feathers on the ground. So I assumed you were eating well.”
She shakes her head and huffs out some air through her nose.
“What?” I feel like I’m missing something. “What’s got you so disgusted?”
She shoots me a deadly look and I raise my eyebrows at her, a warning she either misses or could care less about. “So Merc called you, huh?”
I squint at her. “Yeah.”
“You sure about that?”
“Yeah.”
“OK,” she says as she turns her head away.
“Why?” She knows something. I’m sure of it now.
“How’d he sound?” She looks back at me. “Merc?”
Yeah, she’s trying to trap me. “It was a text.”
“So how’d you know it was him?”
“Because we got a system, kid. That’s how.”
“You sure about that system?”
I smile at her and nod. “School me, midget.”
“Funny,” she says. But she’s the one who’s smiling now and it’s making me nervous. “Your cute nicknames for me. It almost makes me feel like you care.”
“Don’t jump the gun there. I’m just the delivery man.”
“Well, I find that hard to believe, since you don’t even know who sent you to pick me up.”
“It was Merc,” I say through clenched teeth.
“Sure, if you say so. But the last time I talked to Merc was in March. He’s my emergency contact, you know. You’re no one special. So I called him to tell him my grandparents were dead and since Ford put him in charge of me because he got my dad killed on Christmas Eve, it was his job to help me out. And you wanna know what he said to me?” Her eyes are tearing up so my answer to that question is no. Not really. But she doesn’t wait for an answer. “He said, ‘Suck it up, crybaby. I’m busy. If you can’t manage on your own, there’s a school for Company orphans up in Montana. I’ll let them know you’re coming.’”
She stares at me. Hard. And I get a sick feeling in my stomach. “Who sent me?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know.”
We unbuckle our seatbelts at the same time and she’s standing in the aisle before I’m done. She’s a quick little fucker. I get up slowly and take a step towards her. It’s a stalk, complete with narrowed eyes, like she’s my prey and I’m about to take care of business.
She holds her ground. “You wanna know how long I was really out there, Six? Or do you want to keep walking through life pretending you’re a good guy and all the evil you represent is normal?”
I stop a few feet away and clench my jaw. I hate this fucking kid right now and I don’t think I gave her my number, but she sure the fuck knows who I am. “Whatever happened to you, that has nothing to do with me.”
“No?” She swallows down her fear. And I know that’s fear. I specialize in fear. And everything about her body—from her face, to her tense muscles, to her stance—all of it says fear. “And yet here you are. With me. In a plane. Going to the wrong place. Working for the wrong man. You’ve been set up. This is a big joke and everyone but you is laughing.”
I grab her by the throat and push her to the floor.
“Hey!” Harrison calls. “Not here, Tet. No kids get hurt on my ride.”
I let her go, walk back to my seat, and pick up my orange juice. “How long then?” She’ll answer this question. She wants me to ask. It’s a long time, I realize now. That’s why she’s so wild. It was a long time and she’s dying for someone to know how long she’s been out there living like a savage.
Sasha picks herself up from the floor and takes her seat across from me again. “Three months.”
I make no move. I make no sound. I do not acknowledge her in any way. She wants accolades for surviving. And I’m not gonna hand them out for a few months of camping.
She holds my stare and then looks away. I wonder if Harper is wild like this? I’ve been able to control Harper, but she’s mine. I’m using sex to rein her in and make her submit.
This one is not mine. Plus she’s way too young. She doesn’t think I’ll beat her. Kill her, maybe. But beat her, no. Kids who come from loving families are dumb like that. She’s got no fear of my fists because from what I know of her father, she was well-loved before they killed him. I’m not interested in changing that. So I won’t be hitting her. And now I can’t kill her. Because Merc was not the sender of that text. She’s not lying about that. She knows who sent me and she’s not gonna tell me if she’s dead.
“I got a message too, James.”
Did I tell her my name? “What’d it say?”
She stares at me for a few seconds. I hold her stare. “GPS coordinates.”
“Yeah, and?” I wave her on with my hand.
“When I got there, there was a bunch of gear waiting. And a new phone with a text message.”
She stares at me again, waiting. And I swear to God, if this kid was a man, I’d punch his face in right now. I’d break a finger for every second he made me wait. I take a deep breath. “And the message said?”
“It said, I’ll send him soon. That’s it.”
She’s lying. She is fucking lying. I know it. But I nod at her. Because she’s not gonna tell me shit right now. She hates my guts. “Then how’d you know I’m being set up?”
“Because I got another text last night. And that one said, Tell Six she left.”
The blood rushes out of my face. I get up and walk to the cockpit. “Harrison, I’m using my phone.”
“I got a satellite phone right there,” he says, pointing to the bag of gear on the seat next to him.
“Sorry,” I tell him as I go back to the cabin. “I need a secure line.” I punch in Harper’s number.
It rings. And rings.
“Hello?”
God, my whole body fills up with relief. “Harp, baby, where are you?” Silence. “Harper? Can you hear me?” I get the disconnect beeps and lose the call. Shit. I redial and she picks up on the first ring. “Harper, where are you?”
“Why?” she growls.
Fucking girls. I change tactics, because clearly she is not happy with me. “I’m on my way back. I just want to make sure you’re OK. Safe at home.”
Silence.
“Harper. Tell me you’re at home.”
“I’m at someone’s home. But not mine.”
Fuck. I look over at Sasha and she’s smiling. Enjoying the show. “Just tell me where you are. I’ll be there soon to pick you up.”
Harper hesitates and then gives in. “I’m in the desert. In front of a green house. Is that your house? The address that was sent to your phone the other night. You know, that night you left me.”
“Calm down, soldier.” I’m the one smiling at Sasha now. Brat. “Fuck, I’m so relieved. You’re sneaky and I’m not happy that you didn’t stay put. But I’m glad you’re there because at least you’re safe.”
“I’m not there and I’m not safe,” she snaps. “I’m lying under a bush across the street, watching for people. I’m so paranoid, my heart feels like it’s beating out of my chest.” She takes a breath and I realize she’s scared. “And I went for my pills and do you know what I found?”
Fuck.
“Candy!” she screams. “You changed my pills out with candy! You asshole!”
I hold the phone away from my ear and look over at Sasha. She’s back to being the smiling one now. “Harper,” I say calmly. “No one is coming to that house, OK? It’s a safe place and I want you inside. So get up off the ground.” I wait but I don’t hear movement. “Are you getting up?”
There’s some shuffling and then she says, “I’m up.”
“OK, now walk across the street, open the gate, and go into the garage.” I give her a few minutes to walk up the long driveaway. The gate closes, then the side door to the garage squeaks as she opens it.
“OK.”
“There’s a key in the tailpipe of the car. A small silver one. Use it to go inside the house and wait for me. If you’re scared or you have trouble there’s guns in the trunk. They’re all loaded with a cartridge in the chamber. So be mindful.”
Silence.
“Harper?”
“Got the key,” she says with a trembling voice. “How soon will you be here?”
Oh, she’s so scared. I feel terrible but I do not want her getting any ideas about taking those pills again. “Soon, OK? I’m only a few hours away. So very soon. You gonna be OK?”
She sniffs. “Yes.”
“I miss you,” I say, turning away from Sasha’s sneer. “I can’t wait to see you again. And I’m glad you’re not back at the beach. You’re fine right where you are, it’s no big deal.”
She’s silent on the other end.
“You sure you’re OK?” I prod her. It’s weird to think of her as vulnerable. The Company has done nothing but talk up how dangerous she is. And yeah, if she really applied herself, she’d give me a good fight. But she doesn’t seem all that interested in fighting. I glance over at a smirking Sasha. Unlike that wild thing. She’s out looking for an excuse to brawl. “Just take a few deep breaths. Were you followed?”
“I don’t see how. There is no one out here for miles and I walked here from town. But—I’m so afraid they can see me. It’s so open out here.”
“You walked?”
“You’re breaking up, I’ll—”
And then the line cuts us off. Fucking airplanes.
I go back to the cockpit. “We’re getting off in Vegas.” Harrison grunts, so I just walk back to Sasha and take my seat.
“You owe me now, James.”
“I don’t owe you shit.”
She smiles her I win smile and crosses her arms. “I could’ve let you go all the way back to California only to find her missing. But I didn’t. I helped you. And that means when I need it, you have to help me.”
I glare at her. “Who sent me?”
“I’ll give you one guess.”
I don’t need one guess, because I already know. And that means he’s been watching me this whole time. But she’s wrong about one thing. I have not been set up. I made a deal and I’m seeing it through.
“I’ve been set up too,” Sasha says like we’re in this together. “I’m not a player, I’m just a pawn.”
“Do you know for sure who sent you out there?”
“I don’t need to know who, Six. The only thing that matters is why.”
“Why then?”
“You,” she says. “I was sent out there for you. And where did you just come from?”
I wait for it.
“How likely is it that you showed up in Huntington Beach and found her waiting for you?”
Jesus, this kid knows more about my job than I do. “But you’re OK with this setup.” I watch her face, but she’s good. Or she’s psycho like the rest of us and the lies pour out second nature.
“I’m as OK with it as you are. Unless, of course, you haven’t figured it out yet and I’m telling you something you don’t know.”
“Then what’s your plan?” I ask, ignoring her dig, because I don’t know. I’m off balance a little. After my last job I was not… all there. I failed the debrief psych evaluation. I lost a little bit of time. I lost… a little bit of me, maybe.
“Wait it out and see what happens. Just like you.” She smiles and her perfect white teeth gleam in a stray beam of sunlight. She looks harmless like that. If you disregard her ratty hair and mismatched ALCO clothes.
“I know who set you up,” I say through a curled lip. “So let’s not pretend.” God, this girl. I’m starting to feel some serious hate for her.
“You only know what they tell you.”
“And you know more?”
“Yeah. Because I’m a kid. And you know what? All you guys have ignored me for so long, I don’t exist. I bet you don’t even remember meeting me, do you? You only saw my father’s guns that day.”
I search my memory. “I was never in Cheyenne. Sorry, Smurf.”
“No, but you were in Boise that year I turned nine. You bought four FN Five-SeveNs and two thousand rounds of cartridges. That was a nice paycheck for us. We bought that cabin. You know, the one where my father was killed?”
I just stare at her.
“I remember all the hunters, James. All of them. And you can tell yourself that Ford is just like you. But you’re wrong. He’s not.”
My whole body heats up with anger now. Fuck this kid. “He made me kill my brother. Did you know that? He cashed in a debt Merc owed him. For you, Sasha. Everything that’s happened to me this year, all that shit that made me unstable in the eyes of the Company? That’s all your fault.”
She swallows hard because I’m not James right now, I’m Tet. Number Six.
“So if I were you, I’d shut my fucking trap and become invisible. Because you don’t want this kind of attention from me.”