Madison
The door eased open under her touch at first, before suddenly opening all the way. A tall man with serious eyes stood in the archway, waving his hand for her to come in.
Maddy jumped back in surprise, her hand slipping to the knife she had hidden near the small of her back. Connor had given it to her, making her promise to carry it. She had protested, but his arguments had been persuasive. In the end, she had caved. Just then, she was glad she had.
“Whoa,” the man said, throwing up his hands. “I’m no threat.”
She looked him up and down, evaluating that promise. He was taller than her, and had an athletic build to him. He stepped back from the doorway as she looked at him, motioning once more for her to come in.
Maddy glanced over her shoulder, looking up and down the street. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for. It wasn’t like there would be a big sign saying It’s a trap! With that in mind, she made her decision.
“Did Flint tell you I was coming?” she asked, nervously stepping inside and looking around.
The drab gray walls were the first thing that caught her eye. They were so…plain. Normally plain walls didn’t stand out, but there was something about the material or color that just screamed at her. She still couldn’t shake the feeling of how military-esque the whole place looked.
The man nodded slowly. “Yes, Flint informed me that you would be stopping by.”
She eyed his clean-shaven face, short hair, and lack of beer gut. While Maddy would be the first to admit that she didn’t know any fishermen, the man in front of her did not fit any stereotype she knew of fishermen.
“And you’re a fisherman?” she asked skeptically.
“Sure am,” he said boastfully.
Too boastfully. Why was he so enthusiastic to agree? Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. They walked along the hallway until they reached a door at the end. The man opened it and gestured for Maddy to go through first. Not seeing how she had much of a choice, she walked out of the building into the dark.
The first thing that struck her was the lack of lights. She would have expected it to be busier, with a few people moving about perhaps, or spotlights illuminating ships, or the shipyard itself. There was none of that, however. Simply darkness, with the faint glow far in the distance that was the opposite side of the harbor. In the distance she could hear the low roar of the waves as they crashed into the pier.
Maddy looked around until the man stepped up to her side. Still feeling nervous, she looked up at him. “Where’s your boat?” she asked, carefully phrasing the question.
“Over this way,” he said, pointing into the darkness.
Maddy couldn’t see any lights where he pointed. For all she knew, there could have been a fleet of trawlers docked here. But that wasn’t what bothered her the most. She had asked him where his boat was. The man should have corrected her, told her that it was a ship. She knew that from watching far too much TV. But he hadn’t even flinched at her wording.
Something was very, very wrong. She was convinced of that now. This man wasn’t a fisherman. Flint hadn’t said that she was being evacuated by fishermen, she thought. All he had told her was that a fishing trawler was going to take her away. Madison had filled in the blanks herself, assuming that it would be manned by fishermen. Perhaps this was just a cover then, for a team of mercenaries.
The pair walked into the darkness. The farther they walked, the more she became convinced that somehow, something had gone sideways. How? And who was this man next to her, if not the man Flint had arranged for her to meet? The only possibility she could come up with was that he was part of this mysterious Agency that had been so stubbornly after her and Connor.
She had talked about that with him. Maddy wasn’t a shifter; she wasn’t valuable to them in the same sense that he was. Connor had just laughed and explained it to her. The Agency was headed up by a man named J. They didn’t know his full name. What he and his team had found out, however, was that he was extremely vain.
It was simple. Maddy had escaped him not once, but twice now. J couldn’t allow her to escape the city completely. It wouldn’t be good for his ego, so he would move heaven and hell to capture her.
Part of her was flattered that she could upset such a powerful man. Most of all though, she was terrified that she had just walked into a trap. Somehow the Agency had found out the plan, and done something to the team that was supposed to help her.
“So, what kind of fish do you normally catch?” she asked, trying to be as nonchalant as possible.
There was a hesitation. It was slight, and he covered it up well, but she had been looking right at him when she asked the question.
“Salmon, mostly,” he replied, his voice gruff and disinterested.
Maddy unfortunately didn’t know enough about fishing to know if salmon were found in the waters near King City. What she did know was that this man wasn’t telling her the truth. He was lying to her.
The same question kept repeating itself in her brain.
How had the Agency found out?
They had to have a mole on the inside. Connor had mentioned that he suspected the Agency had managed to infiltrate the Underground. Whoever this person was, they had information on her evacuation plan.
How was that possible though?
Connor had told her that Flint was the only one who was involved with this attempt. If that were the case, then how had the Agency found out?
Another thought entered her mind, unsettling her even more.
There had been less than an hour between Flint giving her the final note and her leaving the club. In that short period of time, the Agency had managed to get men in place and prepare for her?
That was impossible. Okay, perhaps not impossible, but extremely unlikely. Maddy had always subscribed to the theory that the simplest explanation was often the correct one.
The only way the Agency could have been ready was if they had known from the start where to expect her. Which meant that the information they received could only have come from one place: Flint. He was the traitor in the Underground. It seemed ridiculous; he was the leader, the founder of it! But the more she ran through the facts, the more Maddy became convinced she was right.
They were well into the shipyard now, probably halfway between the building and the ocean, though it was hard to tell in the inky blackness. Without thinking about it any further, Maddy made her move. She bolted from the big man’s side, darting forward into the darkness as fast as she could, hoping to lose him amongst all the containers and other objects.
“Hey! Get back here!” The man cursed and big-booted feet began to fall on the concrete behind her as he sought to catch up.
Maddy gritted her teeth, pushing her legs harder, faster, trying to outdistance her pursuer. The pavement flew by under her feet. She dodged obstacles that she didn’t even know were there until she was almost on top of them. Wind began to flap at her hair, whipping it back behind her as her feet slapped against the ground with a frequency that sounded too fast to be coming from her.
As she watched, her eyes began to pick out the huge containers and other items piled around the shipyard before she was closer.
What was happening?
Maddy cried out as a big black object loomed up out of the darkness. She broke to her left, but her feet couldn’t keep up with her mind all of a sudden, and she went down in a sprawling heap. Bouncing, she cursed as she slid across the ground, rough pavement taking its toll as her skin scraped off.
“I’ve got you now,” the man said as he approached.
She could just make out his sneering face as he appeared out of the gloom.
“Thought you could run from me, did you?” he snorted.
Pain shot through her scraped and bleeding hands as she scuttled backward across the pavement, trying desperately to stay away from him.
Her shoulder blades suddenly pressed up against something cold. Glancing up, Maddy saw that she had encountered yet another shipping container. The hollow bong that sounded when she hit it told her it was empty. It was the end of the line.
The man reached down and lifted her to her feet by her collar.
Maddy spat in his face.
“You’re going to pay for that,” he promised, wiping his face clean with the back of his hand.
She spat again and kicked at his groin.
“Enough!” he commanded, and drew back his hand to strike her across the face.
Maddy threw up her arm in a last-ditch attempt to block him, knowing that it would never work. She wasn’t strong enough.
I’m just a liability.