Dropping Like Spies - A Gallagher Girls Story

Chapter Twenty-Six

All my life it had always been that Mom and Dad knew best.  Don’t talk to strangers, don’t run with scissors, and don’t touch the computers that Mom brings home from work.  Don’t play with Grandpa Joe’s knives and don’t shoot your arrows at your brother.  Don’t do these things and you won’t get hurt.  You won’t get in trouble.  Just sit there, Morgan, and try not to let the world fall around you.

But Mom was dead.  Dad was running an op.  It was me.  I was the one who had to make this decision.  All my life, my parents had been making the calls and now my parents weren’t here.  Maybe it was time for me to start making my own calls, and this was one of them.

I caught myself fiddling with Mom’s necklace, wondering if she would do the same—if she would make the call to bring in backup for a friend.  Would Mom want me to help Will, or would she be on Dad’s side?  Probably the latter.  Mom was always on Dad’s side.

I couldn’t let go of the pendant, letting it roll in my fingers until Alice turned into a parking lot.  Widewater State Park the sign read.  This was it.  This was the call that I had made and whether or not my mother would have done the same was completely irrelevant at this point.

But I still didn’t know the risks—still wasn’t sure who was waiting for us on the other side of that door and so I told Alice, “Stay in the car.”  Taking chances with my own life was one thing, but taking chances with hers was another.

Alice, however, had no such concerns about her safety.  “Like hell,” she spat.  “Stay in the car?  Who do you thing you’re talking to? Faith?”

“Alice—”

“You asked me for backup,” she told me, fire in her eyes.  “That’s how this happened.  That’s why I’m here.  Not to be your chauffeur, but to be your partner.”  She unbuckled her seatbelt.  “I’m with you.  That’s the rule.”

That’s the thing about Alice.  Just when you think she’s in if for the extra practice or the adrenalin rush, she turns around and reminds you that she’s on your team.  Nothing Alice Anderson does is for herself.  It’s always for the team.

“Fine,” I said, half of me glad for the help and half of me acknowledging that Alice and I are equally stubborn.  “Okay, yeah—but stay in the tree line.  No one knows you’re here.  Not even Will.”  For just a second I remembered the boy in Sublevel One.  The way his hand tore from mine has he stood up against my father.  “I think we should try and keep it that way.”

Alice nodded, already pushing open her door and taking off into the trees.  As she did, I thought about the forest behind Blackthorne that the Gathering played Running Rats in.  It almost felt the same, there by that river.  Some part of me felt like it was just another game—another round that Will was sure to beat me at.  I suddenly felt too exposed in that clearing, remembering what had happened last time I’d left the trees.  Remembering the fear.  The anxiety.  The way I’d been spotted in seconds and taken out in one swift motion.  I could shake the feeling in my gut that this scene was far too familiar.  That sooner or later, I’d be taken out again.

There was a boy standing out at the end of the dock.  He was the only one out so early, not even the sun willing to wake up yet.  I could only make out his silhouette, but still, I knew who it was.  Will, shaking on the end of dock twelve.  Dad had put him out as bait—bait! I wanted to find my father and scream at him, but then I realized that I probably would have done the same thing. 

Will really did look like bait, to be honest with you, checking over his shoulder and trembling at the knees.  He didn’t look like the leader he was supposed to be.  He didn’t even look like the spy.  He looked like a fish out of water, expecting some hawk to come snatch him up at any second.  He was terrified.  He needed Bill.