Chapter 38:
I cheered, then quickly slapped a hand over my mouth. Audrey and Julian! They were free. They'd finally escaped, without Ian or I. But where were Dale and Kyle, and why would Shay ever want to escape? He was as robot as they came.
The fact that the Compound had sent their pictures to an organization like this meant that they were desperate to get them back. They'd done it, they'd really done it. Much to my surprise, their last known location was reported to be New York. I had to tell Sophia. We needed to go back and find them.
Before I left the building that night, I scraped the word 'liars' into the wall, using my knife. They needed to see what happened when they crossed me. Sophia and I took the redeye home that night. The entire flight I was preoccupied, trying to figure out how to contact my friends. My mother's FBI resources wouldn't help. They were hiding from the Compound after all. Though, maybe obvious was better.
As soon as I could convince Sophia to let me try, I bought a can of spray paint, and went to work. I had to make it as big as possible, and facing a main street to make it more likely that they saw it. After considering a variety of codes I decided that it was better to cut right to the chase. In huge, red, letters I wrote: “Jayls is free and in New York.” After all, who else in the world had the nickname Jayls? There was also no way this was a trick on the Compound's part. They were never this blunt.
A week later I found another piece of graffiti with both Audrey and Julian's names and an arrow. Naturally, I went in the opposite direction than what was indicated. They might have been playing the obvious game, but they weren't stupid. The backwards arrow lead me right to an alley where they were camping out. I introduced them to Sophia and we began our search for Ian.
Audrey explained to me that they had been transferred to another facility called Operations. Security had been much more lax, since the Compound officials seemed to expected that we would want to help. I didn't fully understand, but I hadn't been there. Audrey, Julian, and Audrey's new roommate attempted the escape. Dale and Kyle had been brought over in an earlier transfer. Emme had been caught in the escape attempt. Audrey was distressed at the loss of her new friend. She'd be shipped off to psy-ops, just as had been threatened.
If I believed in god, I would have thought he was on our side, because Ian found his way to us. In a late season blizzard his car swerved off the road, falling into a ditch. In the adrenaline rush that ensued his memories returned. Since he had no living family, he did exactly what I did; our thought processes forever identical. He flew to New York, searching for Sophia. I could only imagine his surprise and delight when he realized that three of us were already there.
Working with Chris and Sophia, the four of us devised a plan. The annual military and intelligence conference was just around the corner. Sophia was going to get us in, and we would attempt to find familiar faces. Then, at least, we would have names; targets. It would be like walking right into the belly of the beast, but we weren't scared. All our life, we'd tried to run away, now it was time to turn and fight.
Things went downhill quickly.
“See him?” Ian pointed to the center of the crowded room. “He look familiar?”
I followed his gaze, focusing in on the grey haired, suit clad man.
“Yes, of course.”
How could I have forgotten? He visited twice during my six years at the Compound. Both times the place was on lock down, his tour top priority. Ian and I always made sure to get a good look. Even as children we understood that if we wanted to burn our jail to the ground we were going to have to start at the top.
Leaving Ian to tail the mystery man, I went to find my mother and her partner. They couldn't get access to guest lists, but if this man was as important as he seemed, they'd know. What I saw stopped me dead in my tracks. Sophia was being restrained by three men dressed in black. Chris stood by her side, helpless. Pressing my back against the wall, I moved closer. This was a spy convention after all, they must be used to these kind of things.
Another suit clad man approached my mother. “So... you must be Sophia Rechard,” he drawled.
“That's agent Rechard to you!” She used the voice she used to scold me with, when I was a child. “And I don't care what part of the military you run, you'll tell your goons to get the hell off of me.”
“Alright agent Rechard.” The man motioned for his men to let her go. “I just want to talk to you.”
“About what?” Chris's voice was defensive, and he moved closer to his partner.
“About her daughter who disappeared seven years ago.” The man turned back to Sophia. “You don't look that shocked that this subject would be brought up. Have you had any luck in finding her?”
“Excuse me?” My mother was not one to lose control. “I am at a loss for words... Whatever the fuck you're trying to pull, I should have you sued for harassment!” A crowd was beginning to gather. “To bring up my daughter like that-”
She was cut off as Julian vaulted over the second floor balcony, landing on one of the guards.
“Jaylee!” he screamed, “get down!”
I hit the floor at the exact same second a spray of bullets exploded over the third floor banister. So much for no one knowing my whereabouts. But it didn't really matter now. We had much bigger things to worry about.
“Julian!” I yelled, peering around the wall the best I could without getting shot.
Everyone was screaming and running, and I knew that at a conference like this it wouldn't take long for the shooter to be located. Even so, we couldn't be around when people started asking questions. The rain of machine gun fire came to a close and I used the chaos to run across the floor to Julian. The burly man, who I assumed was ex-military had him pinned to the floor. Before he had a chance to see me, I kicked him in the head. His neck snapped to the side and I winced. He looked like a strong man. He'd be fine.
“Come one.” I grabbed the hand of a breathless Julian and dragged him to his feet.
Across the lobby a young man in a suit was trying to take control. Panicked, I scanned the crowd for my mother. Where was she? She'd been standing here two seconds ago. At least there was no bleeding body on the floor. That had to be a good sign.
“Come on.” I repeated, dragging Julian back down the hallway where I'd left Ian.
I had to find him first. Sophia was probably with Chris. She'd be fine.
The big room with the stage was almost empty. One of the food tables had been overturned, soaking the carpet in a mixture of alcohol and shrimp cocktail.
“What the hell is going on?” Ian came to a panting halt in front of us.
He must have run from somewhere.
Julian winced. “Me and Audrey where looking around and we saw this guy with a machine gun. He was set up on the third floor, where no one was allowed to go. Then, I saw Sophia, and Jaylee around the corner. I had to do something. He would have killed them.” He said it all without taking a breath.
“Thank you.” I tried to smile, but suddenly something occurred to me. “Where's Audrey?”
In the panic I forgot all about Sophia. When we finally made it back to Sophia's condo, tired and sore, it was after dark.
Inside, Chris sat on the sofa, his head in his hands. A splatter of blood ran down the side of his white, dress shirt.
He didn't answer my immediate question. He didn't even look up to acknowledge our presence.
“Where's my mom?” My panic manifested itself as anger, and I grabbed Chris's collar.
Maybe I shook him a little to hard because before I knew it he was holding me by the throat.
“You ungrateful little bitch.” He was strong, stronger than I'd expected. “She gave birth to you. She ran herself into the ground trying to find you. Then you come back and make her feel guilty. She lied for you...” Tears began to stream down his face. “She died for you.”
“What?” I gasped out, not taking in enough air to make a sound.
He dropped me then, and Ian pulled his arms behind his back. He didn't struggle.
“Is-is she really dead?” I could feel the tears, collecting in the pools behind my eyes.
He nodded, falling limp in Ian's grasp. “Shot three times in the chest.”
It took all three of my friends to hold me down. My personal vendetta against some nameless spy had no point. My mother was gone and, no matter what the others said, it was my fault. Chris was right, I could see it in Ian's eyes that he agreed with him. Despite our falling out, Chris agreed to do me one last favor.
He let me into the morgue so I could see her one more time. When I left that night, I was different. All my life, Sophia had been my light at the end of the tunnel. My mother would come and save me, put all the bad men in jail. It was a childish fantasy, but with all the monsters I'd managed to collect it was one I needed. With her death I lost that. I was just a girl in a world full of Lukass, where everyone she loved eventually died, where inner demons did all the fighting.
That night Ian and I got no sleep. We just sat side by side on Sophia's balcony, in silence, never touching. We watched the moon and eventually our breathing synced up so that our chests shuddered in unison. We both held the kind of tears that never fell, that stayed behind the eyes and never allowed the pain to escape. He made me a promise that night; that we would endanger no more innocent lives in our quest for justice. There would never be another Sophia, never another good Samaritan to get in over their head.
In the morning, we had to leave the comforts of my childhood home. Some group of people must be looking for us. Who even knew anymore? Sophia had given me the PI for her debit card, so we would be okay for a while. The first place we stayed was an abandoned warehouse down by the docks, and that's where Shay found us.
He tried to explain his friendship with Emme, and how he was worried for her safety, but Ian and I had never been very good listeners. His blood was on my fist already before I realized that he might be telling the truth, that we might have a new ally.
The others did not trust him at first, but there as something in me that wanted to believe him. We set up a program, using our small amount of collective computer skills. We didn't make much progress. The Compound hid its tracks well. Finally Shay decided to strike out on his own, to a facility he remembered visiting at a child. I didn't understand how he could possible know where it was, but he didn't seem very inclined to tell us. Julian and Audrey condemned him as a spy, leaving us to report back to his superiors, but I still felt like I was waiting with fingers crossed.
Much to everyone's surprise, he was successful. And when he returned he brought back a lot more than Audrey's new roommate. He brought information. Some of the Compound's newest operatives had been assigned their first major mission. They would be guards at a very important event, one that decided how much of the government’s black budget went to the Compound. Emme had been keeping her ear to the ground, and she'd even gotten a location; Fresno California.
We flew there right away and began to plan. The conference would be held in a chalet, built near the top of a mountain and only accessible by a single gondola. After going through plans ranging from absurd amounts of C4 to stolen helicopters, we decided it would be easiest to just steal an identity that would allow us into the conference through the front door.
It was long and complicated with a little too much politics for my liking, but we managed to blackmail a very influential politician into letting us into the conference, on the pretense that we were going on his behalf. I hated him right away, and I found myself hoping the Compound would kill him for this. He was a short, balding man with a beer gut, and a strange taste in women. Because of this, we decided that the in-person negotiation would be conducted by Audrey and I.
While resisting the urge to slit his throat, we deflected his advances towards Audrey, and turned the topic onto other women he'd slept with in the past; specifically the ones we had pictures of. On mention of his wife, he quickly agreed to manufacture two fake identities: Nadia Florence, and Desmen Kana.
Dressing up like Nadia hadn't been some master plan. I'd just woken up one morning and known I had to do it. It was a wordless answer to the question why; why I wouldn't use my talents in service of the government, why I wouldn't just disappear and live a normal life. Nadia hadn't had a chance to reach her full potential, so I was going to do it for her.
They gave me a proper makeover; clothes, nails, hair. Audrey covered the mirror so I wouldn't see myself until it was done. When I was finally brought to one I'd been dressed, and painted. When Audrey spun it around to face me I didn't know what I was looking at. Nadia, an older Nadia. She was alive after all. I raised my hand, touching the cold glass instead of fingers. Yes... they'd definitely done a good job.