Agent 1 (Book 3)

Chapter 10

Thirteen's POV

"That's enough!" I shout at Lydia as she twists Chase's arm painfully behind his back. It wouldn't be problem if she wasn't still applying pressure, causing his wrist and possibly whole arm to break in the next few seconds unless she lets up.

Knowing Lydia...she won't, not until she's broken at least one bone.

I shove Lydia away from Chase, causing her to release him. Chase glares at her while rubbing at his wrist.

"You alright?" I ask him, standing between him and Lydia. Mostly because I believe he's stupid enough to try and charge her...and she'd win.

"Fine." He replies curtly and I focus my attention back on Lydia.

"You're supposed to be training them. Not injuring them to the point they'd be useless in a fight." I turn towards the boys. "No offense."

"I was training him." Lydia says in her snarky tone. "He needs to learn how to win even if he's got a broken bone."

"That's not going to help us now." I growl at her. "We need everyone to be at their best, both physically and mentally. Broken bones are only going to cause us problems."

She shrugs and crosses her arms over her chest. "Well then they should at least be shown how to fight with a broken wrist. Garrett's not going to give them love taps."

"Brilliant idea. How about I break your wrist and then they can fight you." I suggest with a sweet smile. "Then they'll see how you do it."

She just raises her eyebrows at me and shrugs. "I have a much better idea."

She moves quickly and the next thing I know she's grabbed hold of my wrist and twists it painfully behind me. My leg swings back and I catch her in the shins but it does nothing to get her to release me.

There's a sickening c***k followed closely by a shooting pain in my wrist. She shoves me away from her and I stumble slightly as I keep my arm pressed into my torso, clenching my teeth against the pain and trying to keep myself from allowing Lily to skin her alive.

I turn around to glare at Lydia who looks rather smug with herself.

"Oh please it's not that bad of a break-" Whatever she planned on saying next is cut off by a gunshot and her cry of pain as she grabs hold of her shoulder, blood beginning to seep through her fingers.

I whirl around to glare at Lily. Even though Lydia no doubt deserved it, we need her to help us train and it's a little hard for her to do that with a bullet hole in her shoulder.

Lily holds up her hands in surrender before pointing at Olivia. "She took my gun, remember?"

My gaze immediately settles on Devin. He holds his hands up just like Lily did and his eyes widen. "Ok I was thinking about it...a lot, but it seriously wasn't me this time."

I look at him in a confusion and notice moment out of the corner of my eye. I turn to look at Sam just as he slides his gun back into its holster. I shoot him a glare and he gives me a blank look. He's not going apologize.

"You should be thanking me for not putting the bullet in her head." He says simply as he leans back against the wall and crosses his arms over his chest.

I give him a deadpanned look before walking over. "Take a break!" I shout to everyone else as I lean against the wall next to him. Neither one of us say anything and my mind drifts to the phone call with Garrett.

"Do you need to leave?" I ask. I see him shake his head out of the corner of my eye. He tosses me an icepack.

"As far Garrett's concerned, I'm still at that bunker he assigned me to four days ago."

"So you don't need to leave yet." I clarify.

"Nope."

It's silent for a while and we both just stare off in front of us. Each of us off in our own little world. The silence between us is not all awkward, it's just nice.

"I get to play secret agent and spy." He says, breaking the silence, trying and failing to find humor in this situation.

I groan. "That's not funny, and those are the same thing."

"No they aren't."

"Yes they are."

He pulls his phone out of his pocket. "Definition of spy according to Google; a person who secretly collects and reports information on activities, movements, and plans of an enemy or competitor. Definition of a secret agent according to Google..." He trails off and doesn't finish, instead he just powers off his phone and stuffs it in his pocket.

"A spy acting for a country." I say and he snaps his gaze to me. I give him a smug smile. "That is the correct definition isn't it?" I ask innocently.

"I hate you." He grumbles, running his hands through his hair.

"Oh come on you shouldn't have even looked it up. You set yourself up on this one."

"I'm going to turn off my hearing aids." He threatens.

I laugh lightly before shaking my head once I remember what the conversation was actually about. "It's still not funny." I mutter.

"Fine then I'll change the title to undercover spy." He shrugs. "How does that sound?"

"Worse." I grumble. "You should just get out of there."

He lets out a sigh. "I want to. More than anything I want to." He shakes his head. "But you know I can't, not yet anyway. I'm so close and then this will all be over."

"Not if you end up getting yourself killed." I turn to face him but he keeps his gaze focused off into the distance in front of him. "If anyone suspects anything-"

"But they don't."

"-you'll be killed."

"Would that be such a bad thing?"

I glare at him. "Yes." I say firmly. "This is never going to be over Sam. None of this is ever going to stop."

"If I figure it out Zero promised-"

"Do you really think Zero's going to keep that promise?" I question him, moving to stand directly in front of him. He stares off over my head and doesn't look at me. "You already know he's setting you up to take the fall for everything."

"I know." He finally says with a resigned air. "But what else do expect me to do? Give up?"

I shake my head. "I expect you to get out of it before you get killed."

He scoffs. "Don't worry about me Daggers. None of them suspect a thing. As far as any of them are concerned, I'm just Garrett's right-hand man."

He gives me a look that says 'this conversation is over' and pushes off from the wall and begins to walk away. "You should put a brace on your wrist." He calls over his shoulder as he leaves.

***

"You know, I'm liking him a little bit more since he shot Lydia." Cody says as he looks over at Sam who's sitting on the couch with a book in his hands.

"Just a little bit more?" I tease and he gives me a droll look. "You get a chance to speak with your brother?" I ask, switching the subject away from Sam. "Or did you just resort to blows? Cause I noticed a nice bruise forming on his face."

Cody's lips twitch but otherwise he keeps a straight face. "Yeah we talked...after I decked him. He still deserved it, no matter how dignified his reasons."

"Well at least you didn't shoot him." I mutter. "Though now, because of you, I've lost a bet to Devin."

"You were betting on me?"

"I was." I nod. "I was practically a hundred percent certain you'd shoot him. So now thanks to you I'm fifty dollars poorer."

Cody rolls his eyes playfully, "Wow you're practically at the poverty level." He says sarcastically. "Whatever will you do?"

"Hey don't joke about it. Between Ryder, Devin and Lily I'm not going to have any money left." I shake my head with a smile. "Though Ryder does owe me a thousand dollars next time I see him, but he's conveniently been avoiding my calls."

Cody gestures with his head to Sam, who's completely oblivious and off in his own little world. That really isn't uncommon. He's been that way since he lost his hearing.

"Don't take this the wrong way-"

"Well when you start off like that now I can't not take it the wrong way." I interrupt and Coy just gives me a blank look. "Sorry, continue."

"What's his problem?"

I frown. "One, I definitely took that the wrong way, and two, what do you mean?"

"It's just that, he seems to follow you around." Cody says, taking his eyes off Sam to look at me. "When you leave the room, he follows, and he tends to stand really close to you."

I shrug. "Sam doesn't grasp the concept of personal space. Plus, he's really and I mean really, not the trusting type. I'm the only person in the world he trusts fully."

"Why is that?" Cody hold his hands up in surrender. "You don't have to answer. I'm just curious." He adds in. He must have seen some look on my face.

"You know how there was only one team formed when all the agents were eleven years old?"

"Yeah. That was your team right?"

I nod. "Well that's not entirely true. Delta 1-my team-wasn't the only team formed with younger agents. There was also Beta team 1." Cody nods along as I talk, letting me know he's listening. "Beta 1 was Sam's team."

"So he's an agent."

I shake my head. "He was an agent. Not anymore." I tell him before continuing on. "Sam knew that several agents were going to flip sides months before it actually happened. He knew this because out of the six people-including him-on his team, three of them turned on the rest."

Cody looks surprised when I say this, but doesn't interject or ask any questions, so I continue on.

"They turned on them months before they were supposed to, and instead of getting away with it...Sam killed them. Unfortunately that wasn't the end of it. Other agents that had turned bad knew Sam would warn Zero, so they put out a contract on him. Sam had been overseas when all this happened and he couldn't get back to the agency or contact them. He was caught, tortured, and right before they could kill him he was rescued."

"Zero sent a team to get him? Good." I shake my head. "What?" He presses further. "Is it a bad thing he sent a team?"

"No." I reply. "But he sent the wrong team. I just didn't realize it till later."

"What do you mean?"

I let out a resigned sigh. "He sent my team." Understanding dawns on Cody. "There was a much easier way to get him out safely...but Garrett convinced all of us that way would take too long and instead we went a much more...risky and dangerous plan. I didn't realize it at the time but Garrett was hoping Sam would get killed by the explosion we set up outside the room he was being kept in."

"That couldn't have gone well."

I shake my head again. "It didn't. The blast didn't kill him but it put him in the hospital for several weeks, and took away his hearing. Luckily since he was in the hospital he was being closely watched by Zero and several other agents."

"So he can't hear at all?"

"He can hear...but you'd have to be right next to him screaming as loud as you can in his ear." I shake my head and smile. "Better just to use the hearing aids."

I look over at Sam who's still flipping through the book in his hands. It's hard to tell how much of it he's actually reading. He senses me looking at him and looks up at. He places the book in his lap and turns his hearing aids back on. He always turns them off when reading.

"You need something?" He asks and I shake my head. He glances over at Cody. "You want me to leave don't you?"

"No, you can stay." I tell him. Sam shakes his head me and points to Cody.

"I was asking him, and I don't really need an answer. The look on his face practically screams yes."

I turn and glare at Cody before turning back to Sam. "You're fine here."

"That's not what lover boy thinks." He turns his attention to Cody. "Seriously man, I can go if you want me to."

I pinch Cody's arm. "No it's cool you can stay." Cody says, shooting me a look out of the corner of his eyes. I pretend not to see it.

"Alright." Sam picks up his book, gets to his feet and begins to walk out of the room.

"Where are you going?" I ask him.

He shrugs. "Probably just going to shower then read in my room before going to bed." He says simply.

"Cody said it was fine for you to stay." I tell him. He looks at me in confusion.

"Huh. Must've had my hearing aids off." He gives me a small smile and winks before leaving the room.