Strings and Schemes

Chapter 38

I grit my teeth. "Miriam."

"Zayn," she mocks my tone back at me.

I squeeze my eyes shut. "I need to be in New York."

She exhales sharply. "Why? What the hell is so important that you're suddenly so invested in being seen?"

I'm not about to let anyone know that my girlfriend is missing and I think her diplomat father has something to do with it. So instead, I lean into the character everyone expects from me. I let my voice go flat, bored, detached.

"It's personal."

Miriam is silent for a moment, probably trying to read between the lines.

Then she sighs. "Jesus, Zayn. Fine. Do what you want. I'll see what I can do."

I hang up before she can say anything else. I press the phone against my forehead, inhaling deeply through my nose.

Louis watches me from across the aisle, arms folded. "That bad?"

I nod stiffly. "We don't have a cover."

Niall curses under his breath. "So what the hell do we do now?"

Liam, always the practical one, leans forward. "We find another excuse."

Harry tilts his head. "What if we make one?"

Louis frowns. "What do you mean?"

Harry smirks. "I mean, if we can't book a show, we make it look like we're planning something big. We do press appearances, get seen. We make it look like Zayn has a reason to be in the city that's completely unrelated to Raina."

I glance at him, considering. He's got a point. The more public we are, the harder it'll be for anyone - any actual threats to the operation - to question why we're in New York.

Liam nods. "It's risky. But it could work. What about those songs you wrote? That new EP?"

I shake my head, "It's not ready yet to release."

Liam grimaces slightly, "it's going to have to be. We need to buy a week, we need a week of press, we need a week to find Olivia, and we need to get you on a stage so people don't think you're freshly single and sad about it or on some sort of covert ops." 

"Which you are." Says Harry. 

Thanks Captain Obvious. 

I exhale. "Fine. Set it up."

Louis snorts. "And here I thought you hated being famous."

I shoot him a look. "I hate a lot of things. Right now, that includes anything keeping me from Raina. I hate the idea of not finding her more than I hate being famous."

Silence.

Then Louis grins, clapping me on the shoulder. "Good. Keep that energy. We're gonna need it."

We arrive in NYC and to my shock, nobody notices. With a city that never sleeps and countless more famous, less asshole-ish celebrities to focus on, it works out in my favour. Buying us time until we can figure out the next plan of attack.

We rent a suite in midtown, and as we settle in for the night all I feel is panic. What if Raina goes home and nobodies there? What if she thinks we abandoned her? What if she's alone and scared right now? I can't stop my spiralling thoughts and all I can do is come up with things to text her, but I know it's going to do no good. Nothing I send through her phone will do anything but give somebody else a direct route to finding my plan.

But, I could... call Raina's dad... play it cool... make him think I haven't heard from her and am worried... I stop myself before dialling the US embassy. I can't go rogue, even if she is my Jaan to find, these guys have been through it with me the past 18 hours and I cannot risk our whole "covert ops" because I'm in my feelings.